Impeachment

Peace Activists Go To Trial in DC for "Ghosts of War" Action in Senate Gallery By Joy First

Ten activists will be tried at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in Washington, DC beginning September 29, 2008. They are being charged with “Unlawful Conduct” and face a possible sentence of up to six months in jail if they are found guilty.

On March 12, 2008, the defendants went to the Senate gallery, put a piece of cloth over their heads to dramatize the suffering and death resulting from the war and occupation of Iraq, and called on the Senators to end the funding for the war. “The right to peacefully and nonviolently petition the government is a cornerstone of democracy,” said Eve Tetaz, a 77-year-old activist who is a former teacher and was arrested during the action. All of the activists participating have had training in nonviolent civil resistance, and have participated in actions calling for an end to the war since 2003. This action was organized by the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance.

Financial Terrorism
By Darrell Koerner

George Bush should be immediately impeached for practicing Financial Terrorism. His rape of the American people and the US Treasury proves that we are now living in a fascist nation. Over the last eight years We the People have been repeatedly lied to, our Constitution ignored and trampled on, and our treasure squandered in the protection and pursuit of corporate profits. Bush and his team of war criminals and terrorists in the White House should be impeached by Congress and then tried in The Hague for war crimes.

Obama's Main Issue: The Economy Stolen By Bush. Obama Must Call For Impeachment!
By Buzz Davis, Chair, WI Impeachment/Bring Our Troops Home Coalition and member, Veterans for Peace Impeachment Committee, Chapter 25 and the National VFP Impeachment Committee

Obama was going to use the economy to cruise to victory. He has set aside the issues of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, never picked up the issue of impeachment and now Mr. Bush (and probably Karl Rove) have take the issue of the bad economy away from him - just like an adult taking a ball away from a young child.

Bush says we are in crisis and instant action must be taken, he (the decider) has decided and Congress must follow or be blamed for a worsening economic crisis by both Bush and McCain.

Congress Has 43,457,362 Reasons to Help Goldman Sachs
Embattled Firm and Its Employees Spread Millions Around Washington in Donations and Lobbying Expenses
By AVNI PATEL and BRIAN ROSS | ABCNews.com

Not all their money has gone for mansions and Ferraris.

The embattled Goldman Sachs investment banking firm and its employees have spent more than $43 million dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions to cultivate friends and buy influence in Washington, D.C. since 1989, according to an ABC News analysis of campaign finance records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

As a group, Goldman Sachs bankers have been the country's top political campaign contributors this year and have given $29.5 million in contributions since 1989, according to the Center.

LINK.

Preamble:

“It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system for, if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” — Henry Ford

"Capital must protect itself in every possible manner by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages must be foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through a process of law, the common people lose their homes they will become more docile and more easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of government, applied by a central power of wealth under control of leading financiers. This truth is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of Capital to govern the world. By dividing the voters through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance. Thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves what has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished." USA Banker's Magazine, August 25 1924

Welcome to the United Socialist States of America | Free Market Fairy Tales

It is said that the events of 9-11 will define American foreign policy for a generation. Well why not put your feet you, pour yourself a gentleman’s measure of single malt, spark up a smoko & consider this; the events of 9-15 will define American domestic policy & how it relates to a formerly free market for a generation & possibly forever.

Paulson Plan Aimed at Helping `Poorly Run' Banks, Allison Says
By David Mildenberg | Bloomberg.com

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's proposed $700 billion bank rescue aims to help ``poorly run'' companies and the primary beneficiaries would be Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, said BB&T Corp. Chief Executive Officer John Allison in a critique of the plan.

Treasury ``is totally dominated by Wall Street investment bankers'' and ``cannot be relied on to objectively assess'' the impact of government policy on the financial industry, Allison wrote in a Sept. 23 letter to Congress. The letter was verified by Bob Denham, a spokesman for BB&T, North Carolina's third- largest bank.

China's Banks Limit Interest-Rate Swaps With Overseas (Update1)
By Belinda Cao | Bloomberg.com

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese banks said they've cut approvals for traders to enter into interest-rate swap agreements with international finance companies to avoid losses as credit markets collapse.

China Citic Bank Corp. introduced tighter limits for swaps with overseas banks after the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., according to Guan Jiaying, the bank's interest-rate swap analyst in Beijing. Traders are favoring domestic counterparties for the contracts, which involve swapping fixed for floating rates, said Ye Yuzhang at Industrial Bank Co. in Shanghai.

Gates defends operations inside Pakistan
By Demetri Sevastopulo | Financial Times

Robert Gates, US defence secretary, yesterday suggested the US was justified under international law in conducting unilateral military operations inside Pakistan to protect American troops. The US has recently stepped up drone-fired missile attacks in Pakistan and US commandos have conducted a covert operation inside Pakistan to combat extremists' attacks against US forces inside Afghanistan.

Mr Gates said Pakistan probably did not agree that international law permitted unilateral action, but he said the Pentagon had an obligation to protect US troops.

Ask tough questions about the bailout
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON | Poynter.org

(Johnson is the NYTimes reporter who has exposed many financial scandals)

In covering the proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street don't repeat the failed lapdog practices that so damaged our reputations in the rush to war in Iraq and the adoption of the Patriot Act. Don't assume that Congress must act instantly, as so many news stories state as if it was an immutable fact. Don't assume there is a case just because officials say there is.

The coverage of the Paulson plan focuses on the edges, on the details. The focus should be on the premise. And be skeptical of what gullible Congressional leaders, most of them up before the voters in a few weeks, say after being given a closed-door meeting on supposed horrors.

WARNING: CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES

US Military Combat & Non-Combat Casualty Report for Week Ending Sept. 23, 2008
Compiled by Michael Munk | www.michaelmunk.com

US military occupation forces in Iraq suffered 20 combat casualties casualties in the week ending September 23 as the official casualty total climbed to at least 68,363. It includes 34,039 dead and wounded by what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and more than 34,324 dead and medically evacuated (as of August 2) from "non-hostile" causes.

The actual total is over 88,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as "Iraq casualties" the more than 20,000 veterans whose injuries-mainly brain trauma from explosions--were diagnosed only after they had left Iraq.

Prosecuting High-level Americans for War Crimes

JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin Davis of the University of Toledo College of Law says "the whole world is watching" efforts in the United States - highlighted at a recent conference at Andover - to bring U.S. high-level civilians and/or generals to justice for crimes committed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars....

On September 13-14, 2008, over two hundred people from the United States and abroad gathered in Andover. Massachusetts for the Justice Robert Jackson Conference on the Planning for Prosecution of High Level American War Criminals sponsored by the Massachusetts School of Law. Video of the two day conference and the program are available here. As a participant, I'm providing this note to JURIST as an aide-memoire for those concerned about war crimes perpetrated by US officials that have gone unpunished over the past eight years.

Impeachment of Bush-Cheney

Notwithstanding Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's statement that impeachment of the most senior member of the Administration is off the table, the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney was very much on the table at the conference. In particular, it was noted that the time remaining for the Bush-Cheney administration is about the same time as it took for the impeachment of President Clinton.

Ron Paul Commentary: Bailouts will lead to rough economic ride

Many Americans today are asking themselves how the economy got to be in such a bad spot.

For years they thought the economy was booming, growth was up, job numbers and productivity were increasing. Yet now we find ourselves in what is shaping up to be one of the most severe economic downturns since the Great Depression.

Unfortunately, the government's preferred solution to the crisis is the very thing that got us into this mess in the first place: government intervention.

Ever since the 1930s, the federal government has involved itself deeply in housing policy and developed numerous programs to encourage homebuilding and homeownership.

PRESS RELEASE

On Tuesday morning, September 23, 7:30am, at the front of the National Archives Building on Constitution Ave. in Washington, D.C., five military veterans will risk arrest as they climb a 9-foot retaining fence and occupy a 35-foot high ledge to raise a 22x8 foot banner stating, "DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION. ARREST BUSH AND CHENEY: WAR CRIMINALS!"

The group has declared its intention to stay on the ledge, fasting for 24 hours "in remembrance of those who have perished and those still suffering from the crimes of the Bush administration," according to a written statement. With a portable PA system, they will broadcast recorded statements from prominent Americans for the impeachment and/or arrest of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. "Citizens Arrest Warrants" will be distributed to people waiting in line to enter the National Archives.

The veterans emphasized they are taking this action because "Bush and Cheney's serial abuse of the Law of the Land clearly marks them as domestic enemies of the Constitution, they have illegally invaded and occupied Iraq, deliberately destroyed civilian infrastructure, authorized torture, and unlawfully detained prisoners. These actions clearly mark them as war criminals, accountability extends beyond impeachment to prosecution for war crimes even after their terms of office expire."

"If it is too big to fail, it is too big to exist." A MUST watch Bernie Sanders video.

Ten Reasons Why Bush's Proposed Bailout is Larceny

Tell Congress NO BAILOUT here.

Please do it NOW! Go ahead and be cynical about it if you must, but DO it.

Brushing it off with the standard "oh jeez, they're not going to do anything about it, why even bother" makes you part of the problem. It means you're willing to do nothing while your country burns. These people pretending to serve us need to know that you're on to their scam. If more people thought about it this way and actually took action to hold their representatives accountable on a regular basis, maybe we would actually have a Congress that truly served the best interests of the people. Just like the child without an adult around, they will keep their hands in the cookie jar until they know someone is watching.

By Bruce Fein, Washington Times

Have President Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney committed impeachable offenses for which the duumvirate should be convicted and removed from office by duping then-House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey into supporting legislation authorizing war against Iraq with twin lies -- that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had personal ties to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network; and that Saddam had miniaturized nuclear weapons, which could be unleashed by employing al Qaeda as a delivery system?

The facts - uncontradicted by either Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney - are chronicled in Barton Gellman's new book "Angler."

Philippe Sands, the author of Torture Team, will be in conversation with Olenka Frenkiel, an investigative journalist with the BBC, at the Frontline Club in London tonight. We start at 7.30pm UK time (19:30:00 Tuesday September 23, 2008 in Europe/London converts to 14:30:00 Tuesday September 23, 2008 in America/New_York) Tues 23 Sept and we'll be streaming it live:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/frontline-club

The background

On December 2, 2002 the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, signed his name at the bottom of a document that listed eighteen techniques of interrogation - techniques that defied international definitions of torture. The Rumsfeld Memo authorized the controversial interrogation practices that later migrated to Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, as part of the policy of extraordinary rendition.

Abu Ghraib Photos Must Finally Be Released

After nearly five years of fighting between the federal government and the American Civil Liberties Union over images of torture at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, a federal appeals court ruled today that the photos must be made available to the public.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan (2nd Cir.) affirmed a 2006 district court order that dismissed the government's arguments that privacy rights of the soldiers and detainees in the images would be violated -- noting the redactions in the form of black bars over the subjects' faces -- and agreed that any potential damage caused by the release of the photos was "far too speculative" to justify their withholding.

Keith Ellison, Bob Filner, and Sheila Jackson-Lee have joined the cosponsors of Kucinich's articles of impeachment against Bush.

When Hunting Tigers Don’t Beat a Drum
John S. Phillips | White Buffalo Productions.org

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the Government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.~~Thomas Jefferson

As we watched the Walls of Babylon come tumbling down last week on Wall Street, one financial analyst of the Corporately Controlled Ministry of Dis-Information was brave enough to mutter the words “Financial Terrorism”. By the end of the week one servant of the King suggested that the people would pay for the costs of this controlled demolition. A mere $700 Billion to be handed out by those that would sit in the service of the king, and who originally helped engineer the crisis.

Congressman Tom Allen recently sent this email to his constituents describing his sponsorship of legislation to curb contractor financial exploitation of the government. Rep. Allen is running for Senate against Senator Susan Collins. Rep. Allen wrote:

Last year, I sponsored a provision in the Defense Authorization bill for Fiscal Year 2008 to establish a commission to investigate waste, fraud and abuse in wartime contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The commission, which had bipartisan support in Congress, is modeled on the Truman Commission, an investigation of defense industry profiteering during WWII.

Solution: Declare All Credit Default Swaps Null And Void
Estimates on the productivity advantage of granite countertops and CDS' were too optimistic.
by Bernhard | MoonOfAlabama.com

The Paulson plan is useless as it only tries to address the degraded value of Asset Backed Securities.

These are neither the source nor the reason for the very real threat of a total financial crash.

September 17, 2008

Dear Congressman Nadler,

We are sure this will come as no surprise, but your inexplicable refusal to uphold your oath of office or wield the power entrusted to you as a member of the House Judiciary Committee and the chair of the its Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties subcommittee to bring about impeachment hearings has gravely disappointed thousands of your constituents.

You did not challenge Nancy Pelosi when she took impeachment off the table. You did not call upon John Conyers to initiate hearings, and you did not stand with your courageous colleagues who put principle before Party by calling for impeachment hearings.

Treasury Seeks Authority to Buy $700 Billion Assets (Update1)
By Alison Fitzgerald and John Brinsley | Bloomberg.com

The Bush administration asked Congress for unchecked power to buy $700 billion in bad mortgage investments from U.S. financial companies in what would be an unprecedented government intrusion into the markets.

The plan, designed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, is aimed at averting a credit freeze that would bring the financial system and economic growth to a standstill. The bill would bar courts from reviewing actions taken under its authority.

``It sounds like Paulson is asking to be a financial dictator, for a limited period of time,'' said historian John Steele Gordon, author of ``Hamilton's Blessing,'' a chronicle of the national debt. ``This is a much-needed declaration of power for the Treasury secretary. We can't wait until the next administration in January.''

By David Swanson

By David Swanson

If you want Bush and Cheney prosecuted and/or impeached there are two very useful things you can do.

Charlotte Dennett is a candidate for Attorney General of Vermont who has committed to appointing Vincent Bugliosi special prosecutor to charge Bush et alia with murder. She now has a website that accepts donations. Give everything you can:
http://dennettforag.com/donate.htm

Read more about this effort and other efforts to prosecute:
http://convictbushcheney.org

Cindy Sheehan is a candidate for the Congressional seat currently held by the woman who stripped impeachment out of our Constitution, Nancy Pelosi. Give Cindy every dime you can spare:
http://cindyforcongress.org

Read more about this effort and other efforts to impeach:
http://afterdowningstreet.org