OP/ED: Impeach Bush Now!

I'm afraid if the House impeaches and the Senate has a trial Bush could be convicted. What a disgrace but necessary, as I see possible offences. We need civil discussion like this, get more ideas, opinions and facts not less. Let us remember to take voting seriously and a citizen's duty. No vote, no voice. Also, maybe now people will say no to being used to get votes and then their voice discarded.

Maybe this would have mattered a couple of years ago, but at this point his 8 years is almost up. I think maybe everyone should start worrying about who is going to be the next president, as this is probably what is importaint now.

There have been many critics of Bush that speak true to their word. Not that I should be making these comments, but we should have pulled our troops out of Iraq by now. This is because of all of those suicide bombers they won't until we pack out of there. If Bush wants to keep America happy and not ditch Iraq, he should put a bigger effort to making a new government thre or getting mor Iraqis to join law enforcement. Our troops can't stay there forever!

[edit on 20-4-2006 by Shooter_99]

Originally posted by Astronomer68
This is country is far more polarized right now than I have seen it since President Truman was in office. I personally believe impeachment proceeding would do serious harm to this country and drive people further apart at a time when we should be trying to come together.

When you have two divergent political parties with nearly polar opposite opinions on the way to manage:

The Global Economy
The Domestic Economy
International Policy
Domestic Policy
The Scope of Government Powers and Access

you have a polarized country. By not impeaching an Administration which seeks to satisfy fringe elements of our nation instead of the entire population, you are implicitly accepting this polarization and furthering it. In this case impeachment is meant as a signal to our leaders that we prefer a more centrist position as a basis of our Government. From there, folks are entirely within their rights to lean left or right, but once we turn the corner away from center, it becomes quite difficult to see the central path from which we have diverged. It is, in fact, the very goal of this Administration to polarize the American people. While we are all fighting amongst ourselves as to which polarity we prefer, we miss out on the fact that our Government is spinning out of control (Come on, Republicans blowing money on discretionary spending and Democrats seeking to balance budgets...is this Bizzarro-land or what?).

Please do not mistake the efforts of a concerted few to bring this country back to a centrist base through impeachment of an increasingly self-serving far right element for an exercise in furthering polarity. If anything the effort seeks to do the opposite. Sure, folks will have differering opinions on the matter generating an Impeach/Don't Impeach dividing line, but if the long-term-goal is to re-centralize the nation, we can handle a little blip in public opinion polarization in the short-term.

I'm involved in trying to get Congress to impeach and remove this President. This isn't only about lying his way into the Iraq war; it goes much further than that. Spying on American citizens is against the law and against the Constitution. His reasons for doing so and his "supposed" power to do so is a flimsy lie. He also LIED during a federal investigation (the outing of Valarie Plame). It is highly against the law to lie to a federal investigator in or out of a court of law...you need not be under oath in other words. His leaking of classified information for political revenge is another issue that is highly dubious. Clinton was impeached for lying...and Bush should be held to the same standards. The only reason this has not been taken seriously yet, is because the GOP leads the House. Once the Nov elections are over, and if the Dems regain control, I will be part of the push to see this happen.
The Republican party is filled - literally - with criminal behavior, and it is way past time to hold them accountable for their actions.
Also, if you would like to throw in the issue of preemptive nuclear attacks (which are now OFFICIAL policy) this becomes another issue that needs to be addressed. Attacking ANY country (although Iran is now in our crosshairs, and I believe we WILL attack them) with a nuclear weapon as a preemptive strategy is, quite frankly, insane and criminal to put it lightly. There can be NO situation that calls for such an action.

Let's say hypothetically that impeachment proceedings are started against Bush. How soon would it be before a situation occured (like rioting by illegal aliens, terrorism, etc) that would give Mr. Bush an opportunity to declare martial law and shut down the normal functions of the government?

How are we supposed to keep our focus on our government while the media spends all of it's time reporting on such important issues as the Duke rape allegations, illegal imigration, and Natalie Holloway?

That's also a concern of mine darkelf. The condition and situation in which we find ourselves (between a rock and a hard place) is no accident, I'm convinced. This has all been set up like a chess game such that any move by the people to take this administration down will be met with a strong defensive move such as martial law, a 'terrorist attack' or some other event to keep us from being able to move further. They thought of that.

Even in the best case, if Bush is impeached, Cheney takes his place. That's worse.

However, the only way we're going to get through this with our country intact is to brave the threat of these counter-moves and go for it. In my opinion, this administration is counting on us bending over and taking it because we don't want things to get worse. They're counting on our 'fear', our vulnerability to be able to manipulate us as they wish. And we can either continue on the obvious path and cross our fingers and hope to come out with some semblance of the country we love or we can go after these criminals.

If we let the fear of recriminations hold us back, we're not doing our duty to our country.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
If we let the fear of recriminations hold us back, we're not doing our duty to our country.

Hear, hear. I couldn't have said it better. Let's hope our elected officials get the hint and get cracking...

I believe the time for accountability is Now .

We have to understand that the reason that nothing has been done to bring Bush doings to the table and in front of the American people to held him accountable for his actions and to answer to The American people is been brushed out is due to the fact that the congress is rule by the same party as the president.

Is never too late to answer to the American public that elected him.

And this has to be done Now before he gets our country into another war perhaps more dangerous than his forced war in Iraq.

We can not allowe this war happy president to take our country into another conflict Perhaps nuclear or with involvement in nuclear power when he still has our nation to the neck in Iraq and still have not answered yet to the reasons why we are in that country and with not end.

He most be stopped and he must be forced to tell what kind of plans he has in his mind when it comes to another war Bush is a lose cannon when it comes to wagging wars.

Another war will may give him unlimited presidential powers over the ones that he already has given himself to do as he wishes.

Then let the American people decide if we are willing to risk our love ones into another pre empty war or if whatever he is planning is justified.


[edit on 20-4-2006 by marg6043]

lets face it, bush wont be impeached. He hasn't truely commited any solid crimes. Not that i don't believe he isn't purposely screwing us in multiple ways, but he probably hasn't commited much of any crimes. He doesn't need to when he can get no name people to do it for him. All of them, chenney, rumsfield, wolfowitz, any of the name people in government. you think they will personally go ahead commiting a crime? no they will talk to their advisors and people, who will get in contact with other people who can influence intelligence flow and such.

To believe any of them will be caught commiting a crime is only wishful thinking unfortunately. Regardless of how much everyone will hate him, we won't be able to pin anything to him.

As for the media comment by shots. there is a reason they do the negative media. 1) it sells 2) they never give any solution or spark any real questioning. this means people get angry, but the media never fed them the information of what to do after that so they don't do anything. 3) They have their own agenda. You know this, i mean, you ever seen Fox bashing bush? They will call a civil war in iraq positive if bush made the decision. Meanwhile CNN will drive a stake through his heart if he slips up on a speech.

You are right to say if all the media started playing positive images then the public opinion would change relatively quick, but that doesn't make it anymore true then the negative images. The media isn't going to present anybody with any solutions, they just say what most want to hear because if they didn't then the tension would build.

Originally posted by darkelf
Let's say hypothetically that impeachment proceedings are started against Bush. How soon would it be before a situation occured (like rioting by illegal aliens, terrorism, etc) that would give Mr. Bush an opportunity to declare martial law and shut down the normal functions of the government?

Well said, but we have to remember that Bush would pose a threat with calling for martial law anyway (especially if he sticks to the agenda I think he's following; ie. trying to hang around a bit longer by calling martial law), and we cannot be motivated by that fear. We must act decisively. If we can prove that impeachment is acceptable, then my prediction is that this will cause a chain-reaction causing a lot of their chess pieces to fall almost simultaneously. They've grown far to full of themselves and that's when mistakes are going to be made.

to the last couple of posts...

Originally posted by marg6043
I believe the time for accountability is Now .

Marge if that is what you want, kindly tell us what crimes we are going to impeach him on/for and cite the exact law/laws by statue that he has broken.


Before answering Keep in mind some of the foremost legal experts in the country have stated he has not broken any laws.

I am not in favor of impeaching Bush UNLESS we can remove his entire administration....does anybody want Cheney as president, even over a weakened presidenecy with a tad more than 2 years to go? I know I don't. Personally i would rather see him criminally prosocuted and thrown in jail, ssimple removal from office is too light a punishment. At the same time it cannot be a one sided democrats against republicans aka the clinton impeachment deal...this, if done would have to be done for the good of the entire country, not just one party or the other.

Originally posted by shots
kindly tell us what crimes we are going to impeach him on/for and cite the exact law/laws by statue that he has broken.

High Crimes and Misdemeanors. What is High Crimes and Misdemeanors?

The framers of the Constitution deliberately borrowed this phrase from English parliamentary law.
...
The definition of "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" was left intentionally vague by the founders but is generally considered to refer to misconduct or a violation of the public trust that is injurious to society. They are not limited to statutory violations (breaking regular laws).
...
First the particular allegations of misconduct alleged damage to the state in such forms as misapplication of funds, abuse of official power, neglect of duty, encroachment on Parliament¹s prerogatives, corruption, and betrayal of trust. Second, the phrase "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" was confined to parliamentary impeachments; it had no roots in the ordinary criminal law, and the particular allegations of misconduct under that heading were not necessarily limited to common law or statutory derelictions or crimes.'

So can we get over the idea that Bush has to rob a liquor store or commit a murder to be impeached? Please?

[edit on 20-4-2006 by Benevolent Heretic]

Originally posted by grover
I am not in favor of impeaching Bush UNLESS we can remove his entire administration....does anybody want Cheney as president,

Cheney is included in the Articles of Impeachment

A lot of information on that site.

Whoever leads the charge for Impeachment now will win the Democratic nomination in 2008.

I think it's going to be Feingold or Murtha that introduces the bill.

Now is the time for real men and women to stand up and talk about accountability.

Worst.
President.
Ever.

Yawn... I can't see this sour-grapes campaign to remove Bush as ever coming to fruition, for a couple of reasons: 1) Bush hasn't committed any Clinton-level crimes, and 2) This strictly Democrat movement will be perceived and correctly portrayed in the media as pure partisan vengeance. Which it is. And the last thing the Democrats need in this Congressional election is another exposé of their partisan obstructionism.

Just to refresh your memory, Bill Clinton was impeached for breaking the law in a BIG way. No, it wasn't about a stupid sex act with a White House intern. Clinton was impeached for conspiring to circumvent the rights of another American citizen in order to prevent a fair hearing of her grievances in federal court. Federal Judge Susan Wright found Clinton guilty of this felony charge and fined him $900,000, which he paid immediately. So, yes, in every sense, President Clinton committed high crimes against the American People, and he very much deserved to be impeached.

Now, as conspiracy theorists, I'm sure you can conjure up all sorts of anecdotal evidence that President Bush has committed crimes; but an important fact remains...You have no proof, never had any proof, never will have any proof. Michael Moore's best efforts are still just fiction, and not terribly entertaining fiction, at that. And there is no federal judge seriously considering a serious charge against this president. You'd have to convince the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings, and that ain't happening either.

Any Democrat dreams of taking back the House on an Impeach the President platform are delusional, at best, and will only result in their losing more seats in Congress. Mark my words, it'll be a dark day for Democrats if they try to substitute a solid campaign platform with partisan vengeance.





[edit on 20-4-2006 by Saint Michael]

Originally posted by Shots]
Virtually all of the above is because of all the negative news coverage by the media.

Now if they would print more positive stories that could change in an instant, but wait the media will not do that they are on a roll and get their jollies by printing only the negative news.

Negative news coverage of the media is a weak argument. If you give it some thought, the media has nothing to do with this issue at all.

They are a source of information--biased or not it is mostly factual, and given the opportunity to choose what kind of media you watch you can't blame them for giving the Bush administration a bad name.

Instead of shoving the blame on the media, take a wide open look at the source of the problem. As was mentioned earlier, impeachment is a serious allegation and should be closely investigated.

After all...would you support illegal acts based on party afilliation? Didn't think so.

[edit on 20-4-2006 by Liquidus]

[edit on 20-4-2006 by Liquidus]

I think this entire admin needs to be investigated.

Will it happen? Lets see, the Republicans control the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court.......I dont see it happening.

I think Bush and his Admin will go down in history as the most incompetent, corrupt admin since President Grants.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic

Originally posted by shots
kindly tell us what crimes we are going to impeach him on/for and cite the exact law/laws by statue that he has broken.

High Crimes and Misdemeanors. What is High Crimes and Misdemeanors?
Benevolent Heretic]

Nice try but I did not ask for a definition between types of crimes. I asked for the exact statute/statues he has violated, what are they?

Just for clarification this time I bolded by previous comments.