Nancy Pelosi has wrongly characterized impeachment of Bush/Cheney as "get even", revenge. Impeachment is necessary because it's the law. The numerous unconstitutional acts and the drive toward dictatorship and more war must not go unpunished. An open door for such behaviour must be shut once and for all. Lenience is not what the American people want. Criminal acts must be prosecuted. To ignore this is to condone breaking the law.

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The investigations need to be thorough, truly independent and undertaken in full public view. These investigations should start with:

1) The 2000 election, especially what happened in Florida.

2) A complete set of investigations into the events of 9/11,

3) Warrantless wiretapping by the NSA and others,

4) Military operations in Afghanistan and the failure to capture or kill OBL,

5) The intelligence "failures" regarding WMD's in Iraq,

6) The planning and execution of the invasion of Iraq,

7) The 2004 election, focusing on Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio,

8) War crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, including torture, use of white phosphorus and depleted Uranium weapons,

9) Extraordinary renditions, secret prisons and Guantanamo,

10) All war related and homeland security related contracts, especially the use of private security contractors (like Blackwater).

While these investigations are being undertaken the executive office's ability to use nuclear weapons should be made conditional on Congressional approval, the "football" should be taken away from the President and VP.

These investigations should be structured and staffed in such a way that the normal business of government can continue to move forward.

Democracy is not a spectator sport, Americans must remain involved in these investigations on a daily basis. Each investigation should be televised live on its own channel and have well maintained web sites publishing all the video, documents and transcripts. Any claims of national security secrets must be reviewed by an independent body and specific reasons must be given to keep documents or testimony out of the public forum.

The consequences of these and other investigations will finally reveal the true nature of American "democracy" and thus force the public to undertake the many needed changes to restore the viability of their country.

The truth shall set us free. Love is the only way forward.

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Democracy is government for by the people, for the people. It is dependent upon the right and the responsibility of every citizen to make his or her position known. It requires us, for the common good, to step up and take action.

For the past twelve years, we have been subjected to a congress that would not do what is required by the will of the people. This congress not only turned a blind eye to the criminal acts of the acknowledged chief of the armed forces, but participated in the lies and corruption, sometimes directly, but always through inaction.

Here we are with a Democratically controlled congress. It's a start. Now, we must remind our newly elected officials what Democracy means. We must instruct members of the House to fulfill their obligation to those who have effectively employed them in their current positions.

We cannot do this by sitting comfortably in our homes hoping for impeachment. We must give members of Congress, our employees, clear instructions. There can be no room for politics in this. We must all make our intentions clear, not through wishing, not through violence or whispering among ourselves, but through a mass statement of what we require, for the good of not only the nation but every citizen of this country.

We must contact our elected Congress by telephone, by email, through personal contact, by whatever legal means we have at our disposal. And we must do this now, for the good of our nation, and every citizen of this land.

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Form reply because I got tired of typing it over and over again.

Here's how the process of impeachment works in the US, since the plethora of comments surrounding it indicates that the vast majority of posters here don't know how it works (not an accusation, just an observation)..

Impeachment does NOT mean removal from office. An impeachment is simply the legal statment of charges against a government official, akin to an indictment in a criminal case. In order to actually remove the official from office, there must not only be an impeachment but also a conviction on said impeachment (rember the Clinton impeachment?).

The House of Representatives first votes on the Articles of Impeachment. A simple majority is needed to pass the Articles; upon this, the official is officially "impeached". Democrats have the majority, no problem "indicting".
The case then proceeds to trial in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority of those present have to vote to convict in order for the impeached official to be convicted and removed from office. 67 votes, assuming all 100 Senators are present. Democrats hold 51 seats. Simple arithmetic - if you really think that you can get 16 Republican senators to vote to remove Bush (and Cheney), you're much more of an optimist than I.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment#United_States

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I will grant that it will be difficult to get the 16 or so Republicans in the Senate needed for an impeachment conviction. However, just the act of impeachment would be so debilitating to the administration that their reckless adventurism and slide toward dictatorship would be halted. Furthermore, if the public were sufficiently energized, as they might be if the unthinkable happened and Bush and Cheney were actually impeached, those 16 Republicans might just realize that they would be committing political suicide by NOT voting to convict.

Impeachment would at least compel the release and exposure of all the evidence surrounding the criminal acts by this administration. Once The People (and Congress) could no longer ignore the full extent of the crimes committed by Bush and Cheney, I believe the floodgates of disgust would open and the population, Reps and Dems alike, would DEMAND their removal. I may be an optimist, but I believe the public has not responded because it has not been told the truth. With impeachment, there is a greater chance that the truth, all of the truth, will be revealed.

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I say get rid of this woman (uh, you know, somehow, in a civil way) before she establishes herself as a perpetual block against justice. What's with these useless robot Manchurians? I'll swear there's some kind of chip shot into the neck of these compromisng sleazeballs when they take the reins.

And what's up with Conyers, for that matter?! Believe me, I never had "faith" in the Democrats with any of this, but the last few years have been beyond pathetic.

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I want it. Let's do it.

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I doubt actually getting the 67 Senators to oust Nixon was possible at the time, but it became politically untennable for him to remain in office. If we were able to just get Cheney to resign and hold impeachment over Bush's head to stop him from important vetoes, we would accomplish a lot. After he does leave office we could go after him for any number of things. I'd like to see him handcuffed and delivered to a war crimes tribunal as a deterant to future power grabs. The very first thing we need to do is send Rove to a rendition camp somewhere in Eastern Europe for a long vacation.

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By Congressman Kucinich

“Even now there are people who were urging President Bush to go to war who are staying that wrongful course. And people have to be held accountable. You can’t lead this country into a war that has lost thousands of U.S. troops and perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, [and that has] cost the American taxpayers $400 billion–and maybe up to $2 trillion–and leave it with some kind of blithe apology. There has to be accountability. When the people elected Democrats, they also voted for accountability.

The American people are relying on us–not just to take a new direction, which I believe is out of Iraq, but they’re insisting on accountability for those who led us wrongly into Iraq.”

Send 500,000 impeachment letters to Pelosi by her first day as speaker Jan. 3

We already have more support than that. When John Conyers took Bush his petition demanding he answer questions about the DSM, it had 540,000 singnatures, over ten times as many as wrote about Nixon. I would bet most of those people would write to demand impeachment of Bush, probably more.

The great thing is, now we have someone to focus this demand on who can and possibly will act (in spite of her protests to the contrary): Nancy Pelosi.

She should have a half million signatures waiting for her her first day as Speaker of the House.

I think she and the many of the Democrats want to do this, but to overcome the reluctance of the DC etablishment and big money interests who are afraid their ox will be gored along with Bush & Cheney, she needs constant overwhelming evidence of public DEMAND not just support for impeachment.


email sf.nancy@mail.house.gov
FAX: 202-225-8259

Nancy Pelosi
2371 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515

District Office:
450 Golden Gate Ave.
14th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102


Write Your Congressperson
http://www.house.gov/writerep

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By Ari Levy and Jesse Westbrook

Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- For Silicon Valley venture capitalists eager to weaken the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate- governance law, it may pay to have friends in high places. The speaker's rostrum of the U.S. House of Representatives, for instance.

Nancy Pelosi, the leader of newly empowered House Democrats, received more campaign money this year from partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital firm that helped launch Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., than she got from Democrats' traditional friend, the AFL-CIO labor federation. She in turn has already identified revising the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law as a top priority when she becomes House speaker in January. . .

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Nixon wasn’t impeached for real crimes he committed – crimes against humanity. He was impeached because he went after other people with power; and the actual crimes alleged were trivial, such as "breaking and entering." If the concept of human rights had any meaning re: our leaders everyone of them (including Nobel recipient Jimmy Carter) would have been executed in accordance with the Nuremburg laws. In fact, none have. The fact is, as long as you go after the powerless you are (effectively) above the law. Not only should Bush be impeached and removed from office, he should stand trial in the Hague (and, incidentally, so should Clinton et al).

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THESE TWO WEIRDOES ARE FIRST CLASS SCUM. THEY HAVE ORDERED TORTURE, MAIMING, AND MURDER AND DELIGHTED IN RUMSFELD'S 'SHOCK AND AWE' ASSAULT ON INNOCENT IRAQIS! REPEATEDLY, THEY HAVE SAID THAT WE HAVE A WAR ON TERROR AND THEY ARE RIGHT WITH THEM BEING THE TOP TERRORISTS. RUMSFELD HAS ALREADY JUMPED SHIP BECAUSE HE KNOWS THAT HE AND THE REST OF THEIR ILK ARE TRAITORS TO THE HUMAN RACE.

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I had a sense that the Dems would pull back on impeaching Bush and co. It is true that power corrupts, but aboslute power renders people blind and indifferent to what is just. Bush & Co. should be impeached, as they have a case to answer on everything they have done. The American people have spoken on Nov. 7, the Dems need to be mindful of that, otherwise they will learn the hard way once more what being in the political wilderness really means. The Reps are not going to make the same mistake twice! The PEOPLE want impeachment beacuse, the PEOPLE want to make sure that the scale of abuse of power as seen during Bush and Co's tenure NEVER happens again, the people want to be INCLUDED in & OWN the process of governance in this country again, the PEOPLE want a government that is both responsive and sensitive to their needs and appeals, the PEOPLE want it remembered and never forgotten that THEY are the object of the politics in their country not a select target few, the PEOPLE want politicians to realise that they are in power because of them and not because they are part of an exclusive members only country club type scenario, the PEOPLE want a government that is FEELING and in touch with those of the SALT OF THE EARTH upon whom & which they amass their fortunes...I can go on and on; it is a pity that we have to remind ourselves of these values. When are we going to finally inculcate and have these values as our day to day way of life? This has been a nightmare 8 yr period for the US, to ensure it never happens again, impeachment is necessary for future reference; it should NEVER happen AGAIN.

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Let's hit him where it hurts!

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Please start impeachment procedures as soon as possible. It is the only serious way, the United States will regain their stature in the world. Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney have done
enough damage to last for decades. They will be necessary to build confidence again.

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Of course the last sentence should read: it will take years for the United States to regain their stature and our trust.

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If you want to take part in the grassroots movement to impeach Bush/Cheney, visit ImpeachForChange....

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