NOW, IT IS UP TO US TO FORCE OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS TO PROCEED ON THIS MATTER AND BRING THIS BUNCH TO JUSTICE

Finally, the good stuff. The Articles of Impeachment and my comments to follow.

Article I
Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.

Article II
Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.

Article III
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.

Article IV
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States.

Article V
Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression.

To their credit, Americans are basically a trusting lot. Unfortunately, this trust gets us into trouble again and again. Hopefully, after the events of the past seven years we have learned to maintain a healthy skepticism when any President makes a case for war with another sovereign nation. In most instances, there is a reason other than the stated one. In this case that reason was oil, billions of barrels of the stuff, and the trillions of dollars, euros and pounds to be earned pumping, refining and selling the resulting product to a waiting world.

In hindsight, it would have been wise to distrust everything coming out of George Bush and Dick Cheney’s mouth, particularly after the debacle of the 2000 Presidential election. But as I said, Americans are a trusting people. For this reason they were willing to accept - largely without question - the Republican sales pitch: that George Bush was a good Christian man and only had the best interests of all of the American people at heart. Had we paused long enough to look closely at this statement, more than likely we would have seen the truth and been wary. After all, this guy claimed to be in direct one -to -one communication with the man upstairs. This sort of behavior is ok for the homeless guy selling oranges at the freeway exit, or for Barrack Obama’s former preacher, but not for the leader of the most powerful nation on earth. But as I said, Americans are a trusting, if somewhat naive people.

When the history of this time is written, hopefully we will recognize our debt as a nation to the British. Had it not been for their courageous Downing Street Memorandum, we may never have know the extent to which the Bush administration manipulated the intelligence of the day to justify their case for war. Or the fact that the plans for the invasion were in place far in advance of September 11, 2001, and that the events of that day merely provided a convenient excuse to put the administrations plans into play.

For these acts alone, the Bushies should be forced out of office and tried like the common criminals that they are.

Article VI
Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of H. J. Res114.

Article VII
Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.

When your stated policy is that the constitution is merely a set of recommendations and not the law of the land, what does it matter if the letter of the law is adhered to or not? Or at least, this is how the Bushies saw matters.

Article VIII
Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter.

Feeling as they do about the Constitution of the United States, can you really expect the Bushies to have much respect for the UN Charter? The first clue that something was amiss should have been the selection to head our UN delegation of John Bolton, a man who has campaigned for most of his adult life against the existence of the United Nations. But in our trashy, sex-powered media bubble; I guess this little detail just slipped on by. Damn that liberal controlled media!

Article IX
Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor.

If this were the Democracy that our forefathers envisioned, Bush and the Shitpublicans would be charged with murder for each American military man or woman who died as a result of faulty or substandard military equipment. A similar fate would and should befall the manufacturers of that sub-standard gear. But oop’s, my bad! I forgot that the men and women in question are not the children of the financial elite and to the Shitpublicans orchestrating this war, whether they live or die is simply not relevant as long as the oil reserves are safe.

Article X
Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes.

Screwing with the families of those killed or wounded in battle is unforgivable.

Article XI
Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq.

Now you know that this would not be happening if Iraq did not have one of the world’s largest oil reserves. I guess a permanent American military presence in this area will insure that the oil keeps flowing and Exxon Mobil, Shell and BP guys will not have to tolerate any interruptions from those pesky insurgents.

Article XII
Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation’s Natural Resources.

Had we not been there to facilitate stealing the oil, we could merely have toppled Saddam and left the reconstruction to the Iraqi’s. It is their country after all. But no! The Bush plan called for replacing Iraqi’s government with a neo-conservative model of democracy complete with outsourced services and rife with corruption.

Article XIIII
Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries.

Ah the map! Who can forget the way the major oil companies carved up Iraq’s oil reserves more than a year before the first shot was fired? I guess Big Oil knew the administration’s plans long before we did?

Article XIV
Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson are two American heroes who had their lives trashed by the Bush bunch, merely because Ambassador Wilson had the stones to speak truth to power and refuse to go along with the sham that led us to war. It will be interesting to hear what former Bush mouthpiece; Scotty McClellan has to say about this shameful event when he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee. Go Scotty, go!

Article XV
Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq.

Here’s the rub. American fighting men and women can be held to answer for their actions in Iraq, but not the contractors, who are essentially mercenaries. If a soldier kills or maims the wrong person, there is a trial. If a contractor kills half a dozen people merely because they did not vacate an area fast enough, what the hell. They were just doing their job. Adding insult to injury, the mercenaries earn at least five times as much as the troops and have better equipment. Tell me what is wrong with this picture?

Article XVI
Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors.

The first issue, which needs to be investigated by a future war crimes tribunal, is the no-bid contracts to friends of the administration (Think: Halliburton, KRB and Blackwater, to name a few). But more insidious than the way that these contracts were doled out is that few, if any, contained penalties for missed deadlines, cost overruns and sub-standard work. Nor were the contractors required to perform the work themselves and many served as little more then exorbitantly compensated middlemen cashing the checks and farming out a small portion of the cash to local subcontractors.

But worst of all is the fraud, ballpark estimated to be in the billions, though it is unlikely that we will ever know the full extent of this as the administration has provided the contractors doing business in the area with immunity from audits and/or criminal prosecution.

Article XVII
Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives.

Mr. Bush’s enemy combatant argument. Thankfully the Supreme Court finally brought an end to that.

Article XVIII
Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy.

It has long been the policy of this nation that we do not torture. For this reason, our troops were respected around the world. Sadly, this is no longer the case.

Article XIX
Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to “Black Sites” Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture.

The thought that our government is sanctioning the kidnapping of alleged terrorists from sovereign nations, without that nation’s knowledge or consent, and then transporting them to countries where there are no limits to torture goes against everything this country stands for.

Article XX
Imprisoning Children.

Sadly, the Geneva Convention means as little to this bunch as the US Constitution or the UN Charter.

Article XXI
Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government.

The best argument for immediately commencing impeachment proceedings is to prevent another Iraq, which if the Shitpublicans have their way will almost certainly happen between now and the election.

Article XXII
Creating Secret Laws.

Who the fuck are we, the Soviet Union in the 1960’s? How can we continue to allow this fool to take our country down to the point where we have lost all respect in the world community? Impeach Now!

Article XXIII
Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.

Article XXIV
Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment.

And then to have the balls to demand immunity for administration friends in the communications industry who made it technologically possible for the administration to do this. No way!

Article XXV
Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens.

Article XXVI
Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements.

Arrogance, pure and simple! The fact that any man thinks that he has the right to invalidate a law as passed by Congress just because it disagrees with his policies or the business plans of those who elected him, should by itself be enough to impeach this man. Now if congress can only find the courage to do so.

Article XXVII
Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply.

The first thing that we need to do is to get rid of Executive Privilege, once and for all. Second, all branches of our government all the way up to and including the Executive Branch need to become transparent to the point where Congress or those appointed by them, can request and obtain access to any transcript, phone call, e-mail or other communication between those that we elevate to high office and their staffs.

When your discussions and communications are open to scrutiny, there will be fewer tendencies to violate laws and the will of the American people.

Article XXVIII
Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice.

Voter cadging and all the other dirty tricks should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law by both the states and the federal government. Maybe if we make an example of a few of these offenders, our elections will become more representative of the will of the people, the way it was intended to be.

Article XXIX
Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Hey, black people vote democratic, which in the twisted mind of the Shitpublicans makes them fair game.

Article XXX
Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare.

This way only the wealthy will have the medical care required to live a long and healthy life. Additionally, it would be a way to eliminate America’s largest special interest group, AARP, an organization usually at odds with Shitpublican administrations and policies.

Article XXXI
Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency.

Now if the majority of the people in New Orleans and the surrounding areas had been white middle class Shitpublicans, it’s a pretty safe bet that the administration’s response would have been different.

Article XXXII
Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change.

Big Oil does not want the environment prioritized. Hence, the criminals in the White House dare not acknowledge the toll that their and their supporter’s actions take on the environment. This is like Dallas but with real people and situations.

Article XXXIII
Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.

Sadly, the attack was seen as a way to justify their move against Iraq and other oil producing nations in the Middle East.

Article XXXIV
Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001.

Proper investigation would have proven, without a doubt, that the administration knew in advance of plans to attack the territorial United States.

Article XXXV
Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders.

Numerous first responders, construction personnel and area residents became sick and died after spending time at the Ground Zero site. I would like to see those who had a hand in spreading the falsehood that the area was safe held to answer both in both civil and criminal court for their actions. We owe it to those who died trying to help their fellow man.

-LIB