Friday, December 08, 2006

Illinois Resolution: HJ0125 To Impeach the President of the United States














Although the question of impeacing President Bush has only been discussed on the national level since Democrats won control of Congress on Nov. 7 the Illinois General Assembly has been debating the issue for some time. The ILGA recently passed a resolution attempting to submit charges of alleged wrongdoing by President Bush to Congress. The legal arguement for the bill comes from section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives which permits federal impeachment proceeding to be initiated by a joint resolution of a state's legislature.
Although it is unlikely that Bush will be impeached i will certainly be very interesting to see what happpens with this resolution.

Below is the text of HJ0125:

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

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

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

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

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

WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that the Bush Administration
has manipulated intelligence for the purpose of initiating a
war against the sovereign nation of Iraq, resulting in the
deaths of large numbers of Iraqi civilians and causing the
billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses; and

WHEREAS, The Bush Administration leaked classified
national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an
unknown number of covert U. S. intelligence agents to potential
harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to
investigate the matter; and

WHEREAS, The Republican-controlled Congress has declined
to fully investigate these charges to date; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly of the
State of Illinois has good cause to submit charges to the U. S.
House of Representatives under Section 603 that the President
of the United States has willfully violated his Oath of Office
to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States; and be it further

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

1 comment:

Progressive Pinhead said...

You seem to only want to impeach the President for politcal and nom legal reasons and as much as I detest the policies of the Bush administration I oppose impeachment on the basis of politics.