IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS-- SERIOUS ONES-- AGAINST BUSH ARE STARTING IN ILLINOIS

I bet you didn't know that impeachment proceedings against a president can be initiated by joint resoution of a state legislature. Not many people did. But with craven and cowardly (and comfy) Inside-the-Beltway Democratic non-leaders afraid of their own shadows and not even willing to back Russ Feingold's moderate censure resolution against the madman and tyrant, Illinois State Representative Karen Yarbrough got movin' on the never before utilized Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives.

According to an article in OpEdNews.com this morning, Yarbrough's HJR0125 details "five specific charges against President Bush including one that is specified to be a felony... that the NSA was directed by the President to spy on American citizens without warrant." This puts Bush's rubber-stamp Republican Congress, which has adamantly refused to even investigate any of the charges against Bush that have been making more and more Americans disgrunted, in a very awkward position. "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."

Impeachment demands have been growing around the country on a grassroots level. "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."

Below is the full resolution:

1 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

2 WHEREAS, Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of
3 the United States House of Representatives allows federal
4 impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of
5 a state legislature; and

6 WHEREAS, President Bush has publicly admitted to ordering
7 the National Security Agency to violate provisions of the 1978
8 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a felony, specifically
9 authorizing the Agency to spy on American citizens without
10 warrant; and

11 WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that President Bush authorized
12 violation of the Torture Convention of the Geneva Conventions,
13 a treaty regarded a supreme law by the United States
14 Constitution; and

15 WHEREAS, The Bush Administration has held American
16 citizens and citizens of other nations as prisoners of war
17 without charge or trial; and

18 WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that the Bush Administration
19 has manipulated intelligence for the purpose of initiating a
20 war against the sovereign nation of Iraq, resulting in the
21 deaths of large numbers of Iraqi civilians and causing the
22 United States to incur loss of life, diminished security and
23 billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses; and
24 WHEREAS, The Bush Administration leaked classified
25 national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an
26 unknown number of covert U. S. intelligence agents to potential
27 harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to
28 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 THE
3 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
4 SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly of the
5 State of Illinois has good cause to submit charges to the U. S.
6 House of Representatives under Section 603 that the President
7 of the United States has willfully violated his Oath of Office
8 to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
9 States; and be it further

10 RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, if found guilty of the
11 charges contained herein, should be removed from office and
12 disqualified to hold any other office in the United States.

AFTERNOON DELIGHT UPDATE: CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE GETS IMPEACHMENT BILL TOO-- FOR BUSH AND HIS CROOKED, HATED VICE-PRESIDENT

We're #2, we're #2! L.A. Assemblyman Paul Koretz has submitted amendments to Assembly Joint Resolution No. 39, calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. Koretz says his resolution "bases the call for impeachment upon the Bush Administration intentionally misleading the Congress and the American people regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify an unnecessary war that has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives and casualties; exceeding constitutional authority to wage war by invading Iraq; exceeding constitutional authority by Federalizing the National Guard; conspiring to torture prisoners in violation of the 'Federal Torture Act' and indicating intent to continue such actions; spying on American citizens in violation of the 1978 Foreign Agency Surveillance Act; leaking and covering up the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, and holding American citizens without charge or trial."