"The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush"Bush Impeachment Forum in Sacramento, CA Filled to Capacity
4/30/06
On Saturday night, April 29th, at the California State Democratic Convention, the hot ticket was to the Bush Impeachment Forum in the Crest Theater. The 900 seats were filled and folks were turned away at the door. The crowd was very enthusiastic and often interrupted the proceedings with cheers and standing ovations. Mike Malloy of Air America Radio was the moderator and clearly popular with the crowd. He gave some background on the history and process of impeachment and then led a forum discussion.
Joye Swan from the Progressive Caucus of the Democratic Party, and one of the chief organizers of the event, spoke first. She described the reluctance of moderate democrats to take a stand on impeachment but that may be changing. [The party adopted this impeachment proclamation by unanimous consent at the convention.]
Tim Goodrich from Iraq Veterans Against the War then described how he joined the US Air Force for patriotic purposes, not understanding the foreign policy behind his deployment. But he began to have doubts about Bush's leadership when he learned that the Air Force had been conducting intensive and secret bombing of Iraq since September of 2002. At the same time Bush claimed to be pursuing a diplomatic settlement in order to avoid war.
Elizabeth de la Vega, a former federal prosecutor, then affirmed that the charges of defrauding Congress about Iraq, torturing prisoners, and wiretapping were all definitely impeachable offenses. The only difference between the fraud that Bush and his team have perpetrated, and the fraud that is prosecuted in courts every day across America, is that Bush's fraud far exceeds the typical fraud case in its extent and the severity of its consequences.
Bob Fertik, President of Democrats.com and co-founder afterdowningstreet.org, described the current work of the impeachment movement, the city and state resolutions being passed, and the significance of the Section 603 of the Jefferson's Manual which says that impeachment may be initiated by charges transmitted by a state legislature. The crowd cheered when told that Ellen Tenney plans to personally submit an impeachment resolution from Vermont to the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, on Monday May 1st.
Representative Maxine Waters, member of the House Judiciary Committee, spoke of the need for Democrats to do what is right and to stand up against Bush. She gave the crowd hope that the perception in Washington is changing and that the time has come to speak out. perhaps we will see some more concrete action in Congress.
California Assemblyman Paul Koretz was warmly received after just introducing impeachment legislation in the CA State Assembly (AJR39). He said he was influenced strongly by two events. The first was a conversation with a ghost-writer who had prepared George W Bush's auto-biography. The book was not released because it was not very flattering to George, even though it was in his own words. One particular interview stood out. When questioned about war Bush said he planned to start a small winnable war because it would make him a great President. Koretz suggests that this was Bush's motivation for the Iraq war.
Assemblyman Koretz then recalled hearing reports from the weapons inspectors on the eve of the Iraq war saying that the few weapons of mass destruction that Saddam had were decayed and useless and that they could find no functioning WMD. But the next day Bush invaded Iraq on what were apparently false pretenses. He then recalls becoming increasingly convinced of the need for Impeachment and waiting for it to begin. Then one day he had a revelation that HE could be the one who started in in California and asked his staff to prepare a resolution. They advised against it at first but rose to the occasion and prepared the text for the legislation submitted on April 21st.
Shayana Kadidal is a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights and co-author of “Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush”. He outlined the case on wiretapping which is a clear violation of the law. But to be impeachable it must be proven that the crime was not committed for the good of the nation. Nixon's wiretapping of political rivals and activists, for example, was clearly for personal gain. But Bush claims the wiretaps are for national security. The claim is bogus because wiretaps for national security reasons are routinely granted by the FISA court. But Bush at least has something to say in his defense. Kadidal speculated that Bush's real reasons for bypassing the FISA court are to build a vast infrastructure for monitoring any and all phone calls. On the other hand, the charges of fraud relating to the war on Iraq, which posed no threat to the United States, was clearly very damaging to our nation and is the most easily impeachable offense.
There was no time for questions from the audience. But there was a clear feeling in the air that this was an important step forward in the impeachment movement for California.
