Articles of Impeachment being read against Chief Executive Bush

[solarbird]

Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is reading articles of impeachment against Chief Executive Bush right now on C-SPAN. We've missed the first 10 articles, because we've just heard about it; 11 was spending of moneys for permanent military basis in Iraq in violation of Congressional budget law. 12 is the invasion of Iraq for the purposes of seizing oil assets. He's previously read articles out against Mr. Cheney. I presume it will go nowhere, of course, but it's interesting as a spectacle. There's a petition you can sign to support impeachment; the site has been having problems, so it may take a few tries.

ETA: Apparently Scott McClellan is willing to testify in at least the Plame leak case.

ETA next day: Found it in the Congressional Record; third column, page H5508 of 2008. Filling in missing articles below from the Congressional Record.

ETA: Raw Story has a starting transcript here (first 10 minutes only). C-SPAN's video is not behaving well, but is archived here, and is at least long enough to be the entire thing.

Article 1: Illegal secret domestic propaganda campaign (discussed previously here) for the purposes of fomenting war against Iraq.

Article 2: Through the use of proxies, intentional conflation of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks with the government of Iraq in order to promote a war of aggression against Iraq. Campaign under his direction and control, executed through the the Office of the Vice-President and agencies of the Vice-President.

Article 3: Lying to Congress and the American people about the state of Iraq's capabilities for production and utilisation of weapons of mass destruction.

Article 4: Knowingly making a false case to Congress and the American people about the level of threat to the United States posed by Iraq in order to justify a war of aggression against Iraq.

Article 5: Illegal spending of funds (US$2B) to build support for and initiate a war against Iraq, including the building of unauthorised military bases in Qatar.

Article 6: Invasion of Iraq in violation of the terms of HJR 114 (authorisation of utilisation of force against Al Qaeda); providing false statements to Congress about Al Qaeda in Iraq; key here seems to be the fact that Al Qaeda wasn't operating in Iraq, therefore the use of HJR 114 to justify an invasion of Iraq was illegal.

Article 7: Invading Iraq without a Congressional declaration of war.

Article 8: Illegal invasion of Iraq as an act of aggressive war in violation of US treaty (via the UN charter).

Article 9: Inadequate provisioning of troops - body armor, vehicle armor, all that. No meat here.

Article 10: Falsification of reports to Congress and the American people about troop deaths and injuries for political purposes - in short, more illegal domestic propaganda. Tillman, Lynch highlighted.

Article 11: Establishment of permanent military bases in Iraq in direct violation of Congressional law, including congressional spending law, specifically HR 4986, Section 1222, which prohibits any expenditures for the purpose of establishing permanent military bases in Iraq.

Article 12: Illegal instigation of war against Iraq for the purpose of seizing control of Iraqi natural resources, specifically oil.

Article 13: Cheney's Energy Task Force - holding of a secret policy group (NEPDG, National Energy Policy Development Group) to formulate energy and military policies.

ETA: Article 14: Obstruction of justice in the matter of Valerie Plame.

ETA: Article 15: Immunity from prosecution for contractors in Iraq; including all employees; immunisations from all forms of law.

ETA: Article 16: Croneyism in Iraq, national security, and border-control contracts, amoungst others; fraud in spending.

ETA: Article 17: Illegal detention of individuals, including US citizens, indefinitely, without charge or writ of habeas corpus; abuse of prisoners; secret detention of individuals. Violation of the Geneva Conventions and treaties; operation of secret prisons.

ETA: Article 18: Torture, authorisation and encouragement thereof, against captives in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places, as a matter of official policy, together with his vice-president and agents. Specifically, of torture as official policy. Separately, failure to punish those responsible or halt the policies once exposed. Illegal elimination of criminal liability for torture.

ETA: Article 19: Extraordinary rendition; kidnapping of individuals and transport of them to secret facilities and other countries for torture. Refusal to assign status to individuals captured (combatant or noncombatant) for the purposes of excluding them from protection of any law.

ETA: Article 20: Imprisonment of children. Personally and through agents authorised or permitted the arrest and detention of 2500 people between the ages of 14 and 18 as enemy combatants, and acting against children aged 10 as enemy combatants, a war crime. (Kucinich's words: war crime.)

ETA: Article 21: Misleading of Congress and the American people regarding Iran, particularly regarding a nuclear threat from Iran against the United States, and the launching of a low-level illegal secret proxy war against Iran. Notes again that this is an act against Constitutional government.

ETA: Article 22: Creating secret laws through agents and subordinates, including the Vice President, through opinions issued by the Office of Legal Council, including the Yoo memo justifying torture, and the unjustifiable classification of these laws in the form of legal opinions, and the memo declaring the 4th Amendment void, domestically, for military operations of any form. Other such secret laws remain secret; many are unknown. Rep. Kucinich indicates at least eight additional secret office of legal council opinions being acted upon by the executive as law. Brings up blatant violations of FISA (domestic spying) law that you've read about here and the warrantless domestic spying; discusses declared ability of the Chief Executive to modify law by not following it.

ETA: Article 23: Violation of posse comitatus act. Establishment of programmes to appropriate power of the military for use in law enforcement. Includes use of military surveillance for the purpose of domestic law enforcement. Also brings up classified "continuity of government" annexes to executive orders which have been refused to Congress.

ETA: Article 24: Spying on American citizens in the United States without warrant in violation of law and 4th Amendment, including communications between private US citizens both within US borders. (Note that some of this comes depositions from the EFF's lawsuits against the illegal FISA violations - the only functioning route of investigation that retroactive immunity is designed to shut down.)

ETA: Article 25: Directing telecommunications company to create database of private telephone numbers and email records of American citizens in direct violation of Federal law. Records collected illegally of tens of millions of Americans. Specific intent to create a database of all calls made and email messages sent within the US.

ETA: Article 26: Announcing intent to violate laws via signing statements, and then proceeding to violate those laws. "Subversive of Constitutional government."

ETA: Meanwhile, here's the fundamentalist headline graphic:

(courtesy cow)

ETA: Article 27: Failing to comply with Congressional subpoenas and instructing former employees not to comply with those same subpoenas. Includes Judiciary Committee subpoena for papers; House Oversight and Government Reform subpoena to the Secretary of State; Judiciary Committee subpoena to Harriet Myers; Senate Judiciary Committee subpoena of Joshua Bolton; Senate Judiciary Committee for documents and testimony of White House Political Direct Sarah Taylor (appeared but refused to answer questions); Senate Judiciary Committee Subpoena to Karl Rove; Senate Judiciary Committee Subpoena to J. Scott Jennings (and papers) (Jennings appeared but refused to answer questions); Senate Judiciary Committee for legal and other documents on warrantless wiretapping; if documents not produced Bolton, Philip Lego, others must testify, ignored; House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoena for Lt. General Kensinger.

ETA: Article 28: Conspiracy to undermine conduct of free and fair elections. Corruption of the administration of justice. Manufacturing of false allegations of voting fraud in heavily-Democratic districts. Firing of US attourneys for failing to comply with orders to engage in frivolous and biased investigations into Democratic officeholders and candidates. Obstruction of justice in the investigation of these issues. Ordering of subpoenaed witnesses not to appear.

ETA: Article 29: Conspiracy to violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in 2004 election. Aiding and abetting scheme to use computerised phone calls to jam phone lines of opposition party groups (2002). Widespread intimidation and abuse in Ohio (2004) in violation of several laws. 2004: John Kenneth Blackwell (Sec. State, Ohio) and co-chair Committee to Re-elect George W. Bush committed unlawful acts in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by failing to protect the voting rights of American-American voters in Ohio, including disenfrancising of African-American voters by willfully denying neighbourhoods an adequate number of voting machines and provisional ballots. Partisan purges of voter registration lists. Obstruction of Justice, as alleged by members of the Justice Department.

ETA: Article 30: "Misleading Congress and the American people in his attempt to destroy Medicare." Designing benefits without cost controls creating a financially unstable programme for the purpose of enriching drug programmers. Publishing false data about the cost of the programme, at US$400B. Medicare administrator ordered denials of requests for true costs of programme, including threat of sanctions against a specific actuary who had the correct data. Impeding of investigation into these matters.

ETA: Article 31: Katrina; failure to respond to civil emergency. Failure to take action to protect life and property either in advance or during the approach of the hurricane. Failure to aid in rebuilding afterwards. Restricting of data and interference with publication of science; interference of and restriction of data regarding global warming and intensifying average hurricane strength. Gross negligence.

ETA: Article 32: Global climate change. "Deception of Congress and the American people" in the suppression of information about global climate change. Suppression of reports by DARPA, others, on security implications, including replacement of scientists with politically-chosen appointees, and warnings of "dire consequences" for Federally-employed scientists who reported their findings on global climate change; political monitoring of all science related to global climate change reporting; political editing of scientific reports; in all, "a systematic effort to manipulate climate chance science and to mislead legislators and the public" about global climate change.

ETA: Article 33: Incompetence in failing to respond to high-level warnings of terrorist attacks before September 11, 2001.

ETA: Article 34: Obstruction of investigation into investigation of September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, including failure to hand over documents by the CIA and other Executive branch offices.

ETA: Article 35: Endangering the health of 9/11 first responders near the former World Trade Center by ordering the EPA to issue false reassuring statements about health impacts from the attack in the immediate aftermath and suppressing EPA cautions from other materials. Political control (through National Security Council) of EPA updates and news/press releases.

[House adjourns for the evening]

As of 20:57 PDT, this story is not on the front pages of CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CBS News, and so on. There are some very short articles on the wire services, and in some local websites. I'm still seeing nothing about the articles I missed; help me out here?

ETA 11:49 PDT 10 June 2008: The filing has just gained a cosponsour. (13:11 PDT) Also, reported in email, Congressman Robert Wexler has signed on today as well.


Articles of Impeachment being read against Chief Executive Bush by Dara Korra'ti
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at frwebgate.access.gpo.gov.

Comments

[rmd.livejournal.com]

hm. nothing on cnn. HELLO, PEOPLE, ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION?

[archanglrobriel.livejournal.com]

Tonight, as I was cooking dinner, I had the national evening news on. There was not one peep about this. Not even a murmur.
How is this possible? It's really mind boggling.

[solarbird]

I know. There's almost nothing on it yet. (I am, of course, liveblogging this.)

[solarbird]

I know. There's almost nothing on it yet. Still.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i assume part of the timing is letting kucinich off the leash to remind people how much the bush administration sucks since people have been distracted from that by democratic in-fighting during the primary.

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, Kucinich actually has the balls to bring this up? Or rather, is bringing this up as we speak? Whoosh, forgotten how many violations there have been on the b-watch. Crumbs.

Didn't he try this last year? Good of him not to give up! Though I don't see how this will go through, or get much notice on the media-subspace-discombobulator, short of a randomly generated boo-yah from the unconscious.

Still, go K-man, go.

- paul

RE: Illegal secret domestic propaganda campaign

[dustin-00.livejournal.com]

This is referring to the use of selected military officials sent to the press with talking points. People have put together collections of different "personal opinion" interviews where many "independent" officials all use the exact same phrase when drumming up support to attack Iraq.

[maellenkleth]

holy crap. and yes, concur with dustin_00 re domestic CA campaign being the big one. thought to mention to you friday then, predictably, forgot ^_^

[solarbird]

That was for Mr. Cheney.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

Could I say here how proud I am to be from Ohio right now?

[denelian.livejournal.com]

oh gods...

i am praying and praying

and for once, NOT mad at a person i voted for!

where IS THIS BEING REPORTED?

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

Wow, there is STILL nothing about this on CNN. Not on the front page, and not even when you start drilling down on the politics page and so forth. Unbelievable -- even if it's not going anywhere, how can they treat this as a non-story?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

For two very simple reasons: First, Kucinich hasn't got the votes needed to make this stick. Any senator can read anything he likes on the floor of the senate. This is grandstanding. It makes you all go squee, but absolutely zero will come of it. With Tim Johnson and Ted Kennedy unavailable, and no Republican (or Joe Lieberman) willing to back it, it will die. It's not worth the news cycles.

Secondly, and less importantly, because it's not going to make it out of committee, it's not going to impact the election cycles; it's not going to help the citizens of Burma or Darfur; it's not going to change the price of oil; it's not going to help us ride out the credit crisis.

[solarbird]

And certainly the political class doesn't want to see it happen - they're rather happy with things as they are now - so by avoiding any and all coverage, you can help keep the lid on it.

There was lots of excitement - for it excitement - on the main (and very conservative) econ forum I read, as of last night. I think the population would go it in a second, but, well, all you have to do is keep them from hearing about it, eh?

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

I'm told this is a link to the full articles:

http://kucinich.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2257&Itemid=1

However, it appears to be slashdotted right now.

[solarbird]

I've got a link to the Congressional Record, above, with page number you need to give it to start. Also, a link to the video.

[solarbird]

Almost nowhere. A few places are carrying a short wire story. That's it.

[solarbird]

Also, I've got the complete list of articles updated now. So if you want to link people here, you might as well, because this is just about the only damn place in the world with them this morning. Gods.

[ilyena_sylph]

thank you very much.

Re: Illegal secret domestic propaganda campaign

[rosepurr.livejournal.com]

When NPR reported on this a few weeks ago, they actually said that the supposed "retired" military person is still on the Pentagon payroll.

[solarbird]

You're welcome. Please post a link back. I'm doing what I can against the comprehensive media blackout of this story.

[ilyena_sylph]

Did it.

And yelled at my flist to get off their hind ends.

[ilyena_sylph]

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Impeachment_resolution_gains_cosponsor_0610.html

!!!!!!

[pondside.livejournal.com]

I'm confused... nice list -- is that Mr Shrubs job description? I figure it must be, he's followed all the steps to the letter.

[solarbird]

Elevated to top level, thanks.

[solarbird]

The officeholder of the Office of President is also the Chief Executive, head of the Executive Branch. Mr. Bush prefers the militaristic title of "Commander in Chief," which is also a title of the holder of the office of the Presidency; my use of Chief Executive is a reminder that this is a civilian position, Mr. Bush's efforts towards imperial rule to the contrary.

I decline to use the term "President" to refer to Mr. Bush because Presidents, in the traditional and correct American form, are subject to rule of law, both legislative and Constitutional. Mr. Bush has declared himself above these constraints on several occasions; accordingly, he is not a President.

[ilyena_sylph]

You're most welcome.

Article 9: Inadequate provisioning of troops - body armor, vehicle armor, all that. No meat here.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

With the greatest possible respect,given the context of the above,and other considerations political,this is the hammer you beat the neo-cons to death with.
"You engineered, orchestrated ,and connived to produce, a war,and them you send men and women into harms way badly equipped to go there."
Don't let them bury it,don't except any excuses,and return to it again and again,until it is uppermost in the mind of every citizen.

Re: Article 9: Inadequate provisioning of troops - body armor, vehicle armor, all that. No meat here

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

*and then you send

[mspurplepearl.livejournal.com]

It's on Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSN09301988

[solarbird]

The fact that it's findable in an active search for it does not imply that the story is not buried. There's a seven-sentence version on UPI (and Reuters), and a five-sentence version on the AP wire, that can be found if you go digging through google news or the wire feeds. That's not the same as actual coverage, and nobody, as of this morning, had bothered to do basic things like actually list the articles of impeachment.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

I linked to this in My LJ and flemcomics. Here's hoping.

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

I understand that. I was just expressing indignation that one of the major popular news outlets is ignoring this, while articles about sleeping at work and about a $2M frickin' handbag are on their front page today.

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Nothing will come of it.
Kucinich has been trying for several years, but has been blocked by his own party.Unfortunate, but true.

[hubbit.livejournal.com]

Of all places, Slashdot is carrying this. (http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/06/10/2322237.shtml) In the High-Crimes-And-Misdemeanors department, natch. The intro to the Slashdot article also mentions the very briefest of coverage appearing on USAToday, CBS News, UPI, AP, and Reuters. (Links are in the article.)

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I was sort of liveblogging it last night on livejournal and insanejournal, but didn't get any responses until the following morning.

[emilygrrl.livejournal.com]

Did anyone else notice the fundies blacked out New York instead of Massachusetts in the anti-equal marriage graphic?

I'm usually not one to make an ad hominem attack, but let's face it - if you're not educated enough on the matter to know which STATE legalized it, how can you make a cogent argument for banning it?!??

[solarbird]

What they're referring to there is not legal marriage, but same-sex civil unions, but more specifically, a recent ruling in a custody decision. A New York lesbian couple split up when one converted to fundamentalist Christianity. A custody decision was made which included visitation rights for both parents. The newly-minted fundamentalist took off to Virginia and tried to deny the other woman visitation rights by appealing to Virginia's particularly draconian anti-gay laws, which ban even things like private health insurance benefits. This failed, despite DOMA, because of a separate Federal law some years ago intended to specifically prevent this sort of moving-across-state-lines-to-screw-other-custodial-parent bullshit, which held that a custody decision in one state couldn't be carte blanche revoked by moving to another state.

The fundamentalists, of course, hate this passionately, as they hate all recognition of any of us in any form other than as native criminals, and so you get maps like that. But that's what they're talking about.

It is passing strange, however, that Massachusetts isn't also black. Perhaps the designer forgot. Or perhaps having lost so badly in their attempt to ban marriage rights, they've decided to pretend it doesn't exist.

[solarbird]

I get about 350 unique hits per entry, last I checked, so the scale helps a bit. Plus I went around telling people even as I was doing it.

[julieisfree.livejournal.com]

Dennis Kucinich is an unabashed liberal, and a bit of a Don Quixote figure, and I have to say, I tend to see his antics as more amusing than effective. The older I get though, I've started to realize, that what he does truly comes from his heart, and I've grown to admire him. As for his actions against Bush, it's a bit too little too late. I honetly don't see Bush as a nefarious person though. "Hapless" seems to be a word that comes to mind when I think of the "Chief Executive." I just thank GOD we have less than a year left of the idiot, and what appears to be the next president, is one who will lead us in a new, and positive direction. The Arab world actually likes him. How F*cking novel! It's about time.

I saw on the "Drudgereport" that Bush was quoted as saying "I was misunderstood"... the article quoted him as saying "Phrases such as “bring them on” or “dead or alive”, he said, “indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace”. No sh*t George..... {moron}

[solarbird]

I honetly don't see Bush as a nefarious person though.
Then what's it fucking take? The man has repeatedly declared himself above the law and had, and I am not making this up, his attourney general, Alberto Gonzalez, testify, in public, before Congress, defending Mr. Bush's claimed and perceived right to TORTURE. CHILDREN. if he, in his sole and unchallengeable discretion, decided it was relevant to national security.

If that's not nefarious, then what the fuck is?

[ysabel.livejournal.com]

IAWTC

[julieisfree.livejournal.com]

The definition of Nefarious is "extremely wicked," which I honestly don't think he is. I think he's extremely incompetent, and an extremely poor leader. I think he's extremely over his head. Although I don't like him as a president, I don't think he's intentionally evil. Saddam's sons Uday and Kusay.. now they were Nefarious.

Does he fancy himself above the law? Maybe yes, maybe no. I don't think he holds himself above the law any more than any other sitting president I've seen.

[solarbird]

The definition of Nefarious is "extremely wicked,"
How is torturing children not extremely wicked? Where below that do you need to go? Seriously, I'm asking again. Torture of children apparently isn't "extremely wicked" for you. Okay, that's disturbing, but: what is? I want to know.

Does he fancy himself above the law? Maybe yes, maybe no.
There is no maybe here. It's not a rumour, or an accusation; it's their argument. It has been stated many times by the administration, directly. It's the entire point of the "unitary executive" canard-slash-theory. I'm not extrapolating this; it's their platform, as represented by their legal opinions, as written by them, in the form of the Office of Special Council and (also) Alberto Gonzalez, Mr. Bush's first and most important Attourney General. There is no maybe here.