In service to the Constitution.

Impeach George Bush

I need to send my copy of the Memorial in, and since I'm thinking about it, I figured I'd think aloud and squeeze a post out of it.

I'm having difficulty with the pdf files linked at Impeach for Peace; they do not seem to be willing to be downloaded. It looks like I will have to use the html versions of the generic forms. Simply copy and paste them into any good word processor.

For extra credit, after filling out the form, saving it in the usual format and printing your primary copies, save it as a PDF file after filling in the blanks, then export it to a pdf-aware graphics program, such as Photoshop and save it as a high-resolution, tabloid sized (11"x17") document. In small print, add the following at the bottom: "this is an enlarged facsimile of my official memorial, dated (fill in the blank.)" This gives your representative something big enough to wave around on C-Span.

There are many services that will print this out for you, if you are not conveniently local to a Staples or Quick-Print shop of some sort. Zazzle will do a nice job.

Select a MATTE output - otherwise, it will catch reflections from TV lighting and be unreadable.

If you prefer - you can also save the large, scaled pdf along with a photo of yourself holding your original memorial to a CD. Label it nicely and include it with the signed document. You may also wish to include a personal statement as to why you think it important to initiate impeachment.

Here are the thoughts I have in the matter; and as you might expect, the thrust of the argument goes to ethics and duties. In essence, this call to impeach the president is a call to Congress to examine it's own conscience and return to it's constitutional and ethical duties of oversight and constraint.

Until the issues raised in charges cited in this memorial are investigated by the House and adjuged by the Senate, it is impossible for Government to act with credibility or be accorded due respect for the inherent worth of it's deliberations.

These proceedings will of necessity involve a searching examination of the role of Congress in these matters; a period of self-examination that is long overdue, regardless of the final outcome. It is worth remembering that the call to impeach the president is not a call to convict; that is a matter of fact and of law to be resolved by due and established process.

We must realize that if those who govern are seen to be above the law and immune to question, no Citizen can be expected to respect the laws Congress passes, the President enforces or the Courts uphold. If matters this grave are treated as purely political, how will the we, the citizens see other laws regarding matters that affect their lives and purses?

This is an extraordinary moment in the history of the United States, as pivotal as the Civil War and as fraught with peril as the times of our founders. Either the values they established will be upheld, or this nation will change into something rather more ordinary, and much the worse.

The facts in the matter center around the President's assertion of the power of the "Unitary Executive" and a further assertion that in war, his powers are of necessity greater than during peace. But the further implication of this concept is that he may determine when to go to war, and indeed, define "war" to extend to conditions of international lawlessness that are consistent and expected challenges for any nation.

This has the effect of subverting the Constitutionally-mandated checks and balances upon Presidential Power, as well as depriving the Executive Branch of the benefit of due deliberation and a legitimate mandate.

The charges against this President go far beyond the technical, they are matters that go to the very heart of our Constitutional Republic. They cannot be treated as issues to be dismissed in a "new spirit of bipartisanship;" they trancend the partisan. If they are so treated it will be seen as assent to this most unwholesome direction, exposing Congress in turn to disrepute and increased scorn from an impatient and angry Citizenry who is already suspicious that their govenrment is devoid of any principle save self-preservation and personal advancement.

tag: Impeach George Bush, Jefferson's Memorial, Impeach for Peace, High Crimes and Misdemeanors, Congressional Oversight, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Democrats, Republicans, George W. Bush, Constitutional Republic, congressional leadership, Duty, Honor, bipartisanship.