The Impeachment Clock

Two years of inaction have now come to pass. The Impeachment Clock has been running for two years under both Republican and Democratic Congresses, and there is no move toward impeachment. If anything, the only movement we see is toward greater protection against impeachment.

This is truly a sad time for democracy in America.

Impeaching the President for violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is the sole province of the House of Representatives. Last weekend, after the Senate voted to re-write FISA to effectively legalize five years of blatant criminality, a majority of our Representatives agreed and really took impeachment off the table.

Here they are, the 227 members of the House of Representatives who voted to cover up the crimes of George W. Bush and give him a "Get Out of Impeachment FREE" card.

If any of these Representatives represents you, fellow American, make sure she or he is not re-elected in 2008. For example, Walsh (NY) is my Congressman, and next year he is HISTORY!

---- YEAS 227 ---

Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Altmire
Bachmann
Bachus
Baker
Barrett (SC)
Barrow
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Bean
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Boren
Boswell
Boustany
Boyd (FL)
Brady (TX)
Broun (GA)
Brown (SC)
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Buyer
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Cantor
Capito
Carney
Carter
Castle
Chabot
Chandler
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Cooper
Costa
Cramer
Cubin
Cuellar
Culberson
Davis (AL)
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Lincoln
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Donnelly
Doolittle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Edwards
Ehlers
Ellsworth
Emerson
English (PA)
Etheridge
Everett
Fallin
Feeney
Ferguson
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Fossella
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Gilchrest
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gordon
Granger
Graves
Hall (TX)
Hastings (WA)
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Herseth Sandlin
Higgins
Hill
Hobson
Hoekstra
Hulshof
Inglis (SC)
Issa
Jordan
Keller
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kuhl (NY)
Lamborn
Lampson
Latham
LaTourette
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Manzullo
Marchant
Marshall
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul (TX)
McCotter
McCrery
McHenry
McHugh
McIntyre
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
Melancon
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mitchell
Moran (KS)
Murphy, Tim
Musgrave
Myrick
Neugebauer
Nunes
Pearce
Pence
Peterson (MN)
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pickering
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Pomeroy
Porter
Price (GA)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Ramstad
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Reynolds
Rodriguez
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Royce
Ryan (WI)
Salazar
Sali
Schmidt
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shadegg
Shays
Shimkus
Shuler
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Snyder
Souder
Space
Stearns
Sullivan
Tanner
Taylor
Terry
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Turner
Upton
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Walz (MN)
Wamp
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (OH)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Young (FL)

I am giving serious consideration to turning off the clock. Up until now I have held out hope that the Congress of the United States of America would finally come to its senses and Impeach George W. Bush for his admitted criminal violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Today, that hope is just about gone.

I just read this, Democrats Feel Pressure on Spy Program, in the New York Times. The fact that the Bush administration is trying to get FISA re-written to cover its prior illegal acts should be the final piece of evidence needed to indict (impeach) him. Bush has been arguing since he admited violating FISA that he always had the authority to do so. If he is asking for the authority now, he didn't have it then. Slam dunk, folks.

Instead, the House of Representatives appears ready to change the law to accommodate the criminal. The unkindest cut of all is that my former Representative and good friend, Louise Slaughter, is quoted as follows:

“They have got us in a vise,” Representative Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat of New York and chairwoman of the Rules Committee, said as she left a Saturday afternoon meeting where senior Democrats were debating how to handle the issue in the final hours before recess.

I don't know Nancy Pelosi and I had just about given up on John Conyers, but Louise was always someone I could count on.

Say it ain't so, Louise!

My friends Troll and Monica in Philadelphia vehemently oppose the current immigration legislation being debated in Congress, legislation that G W Bush supports. I am also opposed to any new immigration laws because we are not adequately enforcing the current law.

Troll and Monica are staunch Republicans, as I am a staunch Democrat. I've been telling my Philly friends for years that the biggest supporters of illegal immigration are their fellow Republicans; business owners who profit from the use of illegal workers and donate some of those profits to Republican candidates. Here's a poster child for my argument: Maureen Torrey.

Maureen lives not far from me on her family farm in Elba, New York. She is a past chairman of the United Fresh Produce Association and is quoted in Big push to revive Senate immigration bill. Maureen and her family donate consistently to Republican candidates - and ONLY Republican candidates. She doesn't like the current immigration law, which is hardly ever enforced by the current administration. When the prior administration tried to enforce the law in western New York, Maureen was there to protect her inalienable right to employ illegal aliens.

We are well into the 110th Congress, and there is still no sign of Impeachment on the horizon.

Phil Worden explained it this way in Monday's Bangor Daily News:

My conclusion: It is the political will to impeach, not the legal grounds, that we lack.

I agree with him, but it's time to Put Impeachment Back on the Table!

I'm not yet ready to let Kurt Vonnegut go in my own words, so I invite you to read Verlyn Klinkenborg's editorial in yesterday's New York Times and this from Harvey Wasserman.

Surprise, surprise, the administration is misusing its intelligence gathering powers.

It's all over the news that the FBI abused its authority under the PATRIOT Act. Lost in all these revelations about our top law enforcers breaking the law was this item of criminal cover-up:

Privacy Board Clears U.S. Spy Programs

Remember when the President of the United States started illegally spying on Americans in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act way back in 2001? Well, this same criminal administration decided it needed to police itself, so it set up a five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Board in 2005. Last week, the board issued its report. Surprise, surprise, the illegal spying program got a clean bill of health.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, called it absurd that the White House board effectively gave the eavesdropping program its stamp of approval even before the administration was forced to backtrack and submit it to court oversight.

"I have no confidence in the current board in its ability to provide meaningful evaluation of important programs such as the no-fly lists, based on its work on the domestic surveillance program," he said. "It is critical that Congress make the civil liberties board independent of the executive branch."

The board does not have subpoena power, and the White House can change its annual reports before they go to Congress. The members serve at the pleasure of Bush, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has final say over whether officials must comply with the board's recommendations.

How does the Emperor continue to get away with whitewashing his impeachable crimes? He appoints his good buddies to investigate him ...

Bush appointed [Carol] Dinkins, a Republican, to chair the board. A longtime friend of the Bush family, she was treasurer of Bush's first campaign for governor of Texas, and she is a longtime partner in the law firm of Vinson & Elkins, where Gonzales was once a partner.

... and, hey presto, no criminal activity here!