Update: Bush Impeachment

Former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, who argued a year ago for "The Impeachment of George W. Bush," has written a follow-up for The Nation, "Impeachment: The Case in Favor."

Approximately a year ago, I wrote in this magazine that President George W. Bush had committed high crimes and misdemeanors and should be impeached and removed from office. His impeachable offenses include using lies and deceptions to drive the country into war in Iraq, deliberately and repeatedly violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on wiretapping in the United States, and facilitating the mistreatment of US detainees in violation of the Geneva Conventions and the War Crimes Act of 1996.

Since then, the case against President Bush has, if anything, been strengthened ...

. . . . .
David Swanson suggests that impeachment may not be so difficult as one would think.

The Jefferson Manual, rules used by the U.S. House, allows for impeachment to be begun in this manner. It only takes one state legislature. No governor is needed. One Congress Member, from the same state or any other, is needed to essentially acknowledge receipt of the state's petition. Then impeachment begins.

Swanson thinks that New Mexico will be that state.
. . . . .
Freshman Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison from Minnesota was elected after taking a firm position on impeachment last October: "There is one way that you can truly hold this president accountable, and it's impeachment." We'll have to wait and see whether walks the talk or not.

We cannot walk alone



"But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone."
--Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

An Ignominious Debut for New UN Secretary General

This from The Times (UK):

The UN has an official stance opposing capital punishment and Ban’s predecessor Kofi Annan reiterated it frequently. The organisation's top envoy in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, restated it again after the former Iraqi dictator was hanged on Saturday.

Mr Ban, however, took a different approach, never mentioning the UN's ban on the death penalty in all its international tribunals, and the right to life enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the General Assembly in 1948.

"Saddam Hussein was responsible for committing heinous crimes and unspeakable atrocities against Iraqi people and we should never forget victims of his crime," Mr Ban said in response to a question about Saddam’s execution. "The issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to decide."

The caption beneath his photo on The Times (UK) reads: "Ban Ki Moon, who had an awkward first day in the top UN job"

Awkward? I'd say disgraceful. Of course, Moon's remarks pall by comparison to some of the outright lies President George Bush has uttered in the last six years. Then again, as the diplomat in chief of the world's preeminent diplomatic body, it doesn't exactly bode well either.