National Coalition to Impeach Bush & Cheney

by Tom Paine Wednesday, May. 05, 2004 at 12:12 AM

The National Coalition to Impeach Bush & Cheney is committed to mobilizing public pressure on Congress to impeach the President and Vice President of the United States. The core group of NCIBC is composed of San Francisco Bay Area activists from different organizations that have been drawn together by the cause of impeachment and have been lobbying members of Congress as well as local officials to get a bill of impeachment initiated. We regard our function as both local citizen-lobbyists and facilitators of this movement.



http://www.impeachnow.org

Endorsers: Medea Benjamin, Francis Boyle, John C. Bonifaz, Douglas Dowd, Van Jones, Barbara Lubin, Cynthia McKinney, Gus Newport, Howard Zinn

The Grounds for Impeachment:

http://impeachnow.org/pages/grounds.html

From the National Coalition website:

"1. Why not work only on the election in November to remove Bush and Cheney rather than spend additional energy on impeachment?

We dare not wait because of the harm that Bush and Cheney can do between now and then. There is the on-going occupation by US and other foreign troops of Iraq, which will continue after the scheduled turn-over of partial sovereignty to the Iraqis at the end of June. The attacks of the insurgents can be expected to continue as long as foreign troops continue on Iraqi soil. Moreover, the US overthrow of the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti demonstrates the readiness of the Bush administration to pursue illegal and deadly policies. Venezuela and Cuba may be the next targets. If Bush finds himself in a close race with the Democratic candidate, there is no telling what desperate act he may try. He needs to be removed from office as soon as possible.

In addition, elections are not the way that the American system of justice deals with criminal suspects. They must be properly charged and the evidence carefully examined in an orderly and scrupulous way to protect both the accused and the public. Elections are driven by partisanship and hoopla. Irresponsible charges are often made, and unsubstantiated defenses presented. Elections do not permit the careful examination of evidence that is necessary in so serious a matter.

Even if the impeachment effort is voted down by the Republicans at some point, whatever evidence of the malfeasance of Bush and Cheney were exposed in an official investigation would have an impact. The public would understand why the Republicans cut short the process, and the exposure of misconduct would strengthen the campaign against Bush and Cheney’s re-election.

There must not be impunity when malfeasance of such gravity has been committed. It is not sufficient to simply vote the malefactors out of office. Their "high crimes" must be officially exposed and punished. Otherwise a precedent is set for comparable malfeasance in the future. Impeachment is the appropriate remedy."

Medea Benjamin

Co-founder, Global Exchange

Francis Boyle

Professor of Law, University of Illinois, Drafter of Impeachment Resolution & author of Destroying World Order, US Imperialism in the Middle East before & after Sept. 11

John C. Bonifaz

Lead counsel for plaintiffs Reps. Conyers, Kucinich, Woolsey and others to halt the war in 2003. Visit ireadnet.com.

Douglas Dowd

Professor of Economics, San Jose State and Johns Hopkins Universities, author of US Capitalist Development Since 1776; Capitalism & Its Economics and other books

Van Jones

Director, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

Barbara Lubin

Founding director, Middle East Children’s Alliance

Cynthia McKinney

Former five-term congresswoman, D-Georgia

Gus Newport

Former Mayor of Berkeley, CA and former Station Manager, KPFA, Pacifica Radio Network

Howard Zinn

Author of A People's History of the United States, Terrorism and War and other books

http://www.impeachnow.org

Original: National Coalition to Impeach Bush & Cheney