Bush Impeachment - The Illinois State Legislature is Preparing to Drop a Bombshell
Bush Impeachment - The Illinois State Legislature is Preparing to Drop a BombshellUtilizing a little known rule of the US House to bring Impeachment charges
by Steven Leser
http://www.opednews.com
The Illinois General Assembly is about to rock the nation. Members of state legislatures are normally not considered as having the ability to decide issues with a massive impact to the nation as a whole. Representative Karen A. Yarbrough of Illinois' 7th District is about to shatter that perception forever. Representative Yarbrough stumbled on a little known and never utlitized rule of the US House of Representatives, Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature. From there, Illinois House Joint Resolution 125 (hereafter to be referred to as HJR0125) was born.
Detailing five specific charges against President Bush including one that is specified to be a felony, the complete text of HJR0125 is copied below at the end of this article. One of the interesting points is that one of the items, the one specified as a felony, that the NSA was directed by the President to spy on American citizens without warrant, is not in dispute. That fact should prove an interesting dilemma for a Republican controlled US House that clearly is not only loathe to initiate impeachment proceedings, but does not even want to thoroughly investigate any of the five items brought up by the Illinois Assembly as high crimes and/or misdemeanors. Should HJR0125 be passed by the Illinois General Assembly, the US House will be forced by House Rules to take up the issue of impeachment as a privileged bill, meaning it will take precedence over other House business.
The Illinois General Assembly joins a growing chorus of voices calling for censure or impeachment of President Bush including Democratic state committees in Vermont, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Nevada and North Carolina as well as the residents themselves of seven towns in Vermont, seventy Vermont state legislators and Congressman John Conyers. The call for impeachment is starting to grow well beyond what could be considered a fringe movement. An ABC News/Washington Post Poll Conducted April 6-9 showed that 33% of Americans currently support Impeaching President Bush, coincidentally, only a similar amount supported impeaching Nixon at the start of the Watergate investigation. If and when Illinois HJR0125 hits the capitol and the individual charges are publicly investigated, that number is likely to grow rapidly. Combined with the very real likelihood that Rove is about to be indicted in the LeakGate investigation, and Bush is in real trouble beyond his plummeting poll numbers. His cronies in the Republican dominated congress will probably save him from the embarassment of an impeachment conviction, for now, but his Presidency will be all but finished.
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HJ0125 LRB094 20306 RLC 58347 r
1 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of3 the United States House of Representatives allows federal4 impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of5 a state legislature; and
6 WHEREAS, President Bush has publicly admitted to ordering7 the National Security Agency to violate provisions of the 19788 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a felony, specifically9 authorizing the Agency to spy on American citizens without10 warrant; and
11 WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that President Bush authorized12 violation of the Torture Convention of the Geneva Conventions,13 a treaty regarded a supreme law by the United States14 Constitution; and
15 WHEREAS, The Bush Administration has held American16 citizens and citizens of other nations as prisoners of war17 without charge or trial; and
18 WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that the Bush Administration19 has manipulated intelligence for the purpose of initiating a20 war against the sovereign nation of Iraq, resulting in the21 deaths of large numbers of Iraqi civilians and causing the22 United States to incur loss of life, diminished security and23 billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses; and
24 WHEREAS, The Bush Administration leaked classified25 national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an26 unknown number of covert U. S. intelligence agents to potential27 harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to28 investigate the matter; and
29 WHEREAS, The Republican-controlled Congress has declined
HJ0125 - 2 - LRB094 20306 RLC 58347 r
1 to fully investigate these charges to date; therefore, be it
2 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE3 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE4 SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly of the5 State of Illinois has good cause to submit charges to the U. S.6 House of Representatives under Section 603 that the President7 of the United States has willfully violated his Oath of Office8 to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United9 States; and be it further
10 RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, if found guilty of the11 charges contained herein, should be removed from office and12 disqualified to hold any other office in the United States.
posted by Name Held by Request | 10:28 AM
3 Comments:
You forgot to highlight "or from a grand jury"--which comes right
after "by charges transmitted from the legislature of a State."
Patrick Fitgerald just brought his new Grand Jury together for a hearing of new evidence. The surmise is that he's about to indict Karl Rove in Treasongate--probably for perjury and obstruction. It looks like Libby and Rove may be taking the fall for their bosses (Libby-for Cheney; Rove-for Bush), and are blockading the investigation. If so, the question is, can they take the heat? Will they tell what they know, or do jail time? (And if they think Bush will pardon them, WILL Bush be able to, with his quickly deteriorating political fortunes?) But there is also the possbility that Fitzgerald already has the goods on at least Cheney, from other sources. Will Cheney rat on Bush to save himself? Cheney and Bush probably have so much blackmail material on each other, it's hard to imagine what might come of a Bush vs. Cheney dogfight. But if Fitzgerald were to name either one in the Treasongate crimes, it would have to be as "unindicted co-conspirator" and be reported to the House of Represenatives for impeachment proceedings. Fitzgerald cannot prosecute Cheney or Bush himself. Upshot: The Grand Jury provision of Jefferson's rules is also relevant to the current situation, along with the Illinois bill of impeachment.
Bless you, Thomas Jefferson!
I remember an April evening 33 years ago ...
Nixon spoke to the nation and announced that Haldeman and Ehrlichman (two of the finest public servants he had ever known), and Attorney General Kleindienst had resigned, and that he had asked for and received the resignation of John Dean, Counsel to the President.
In the analysis that followed that night, by reporters and politicians, I first heard someone ask, "Could this lead to impeachment?" Can't remember who said it, but the question was somewhat scoffed at by the others. Someone said that merely mentioning such a thing was harmful to the administration, but that it certainly wasn't likely to happen. Sixteen months later Nixon resigned after the House Judiciary Committee voted to recommend bills of impeachment.
The difference between then and now is that several principled Republican leaders, e.g., Senator Hugh Scott, were outraged by the behaviour of the White House officials and said so. Even called for a special prosecutor -- and Hugh Scott was the Republican leader in the Senate. Of course, the syncophants were outraged that Nixon would be linked to the Watergate crimes by "the liberal media". This camp included Bob Dole, George Bush and Gerald Ford.
Memories ...
restore our republic: jail BushCo and rescind the unPATRIOTic Act
-- End the so-called War on Terror
-- End the so-called War on Drugs
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