The Impeachment Hearing Room

Democrats Walk Down The Road To Making Complete Asses Of Themselves and I Don’t Mean Thomas Nast Jackasses (Donkey). This is ASSinine!

People just don’t seem to want to understand that law by law, in the guise of serving the need to combat “potential terrorism”; the Constitution is being disassembled line by line, right by right!

House panel votes to cite Rove for contempt

By LAURIE KELLMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — A House panel voted Wednesday to cite Karl Rove, formerly President Bush's top aide, for contempt of Congress as its Senate counterpart explored punishment for alleged misdeeds by other administration officials.

But it was not clear that the Democrats controlling a lame-duck Congress will push their case for abuse of power against a lame-duck president beyond televised talk and vague threats just a few weeks shy of final adjournment. As a practical matter, lawmakers have little time and less willingness to follow through on most charges, let alone punishments, before Bush leaves office.

They're finding plenty of time and political purpose, however, for public reviews of what Democrats say is the abuse of power and politicization across the Bush administration. Rove and the Justice Department starred in Wednesday's proceedings.

Voting 20-14 along party lines, the House Judiciary Committee cited Rove with contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to testify July 10 on allegations of improper White House influence over the Justice Department. For his part, Rove has denied any involvement with Justice decisions. The White House has said Congress has no authority to compel testimony from current and former advisers.

The committee decision is only a recommendation; a spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she would not decide until September whether to bring it to a vote by the full House. If she does and Democrats prevail, Pelosi could then refer the contempt citation to the Justice Department for prosecution. She also could direct the House to file a federal lawsuit against Rove, as she has done with two other Bush confidants who similarly sidestepped their subpoenas: White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former presidential legal counselor Harriet Miers.

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, called the contempt citation "gratuitously punitive" action that would serve no purpose because the question of executive privilege is already pending in federal court.

Indeed, the fate of that suit illustrates the conundrum of lame-duck oversight. Even if a judge rules that the Miers and Bolten case should proceed, it would be resolved long after Bush leaves office.

Across the Capitol, some senators skipped right to what might be done next year by a newly elected Congress likely controlled by a bigger Democratic majority.

The Senate Judiciary Committee heard Wednesday from Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, who reported earlier in the week that former department officials broke the law by letting administration politics dictate the hiring of prosecutors, immigration judges and career government lawyers.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., pressed Fine to say whether making such a disregard of civil service rules a crime would deter the kind of conduct his investigation uncovered. Fine essentially said no. The Justice Department officials involved, he said, were punished plenty. They were exposed and will probably will never work in federal law enforcement again, he said.

Similar legislation will be considered in the House, but not likely this year.

"I will be asking Chairman Conyers to consider legislation to ensure that the politicization of hiring of career employees at the Justice Department never happens again," Pelosi said in a statement.

Whatever their plans for substantive follow up, Democrats have been busy reviewing what they say are Bush administration misdeeds on serious matters — from Bush's flawed argument for war to the alleged mismanagement of various agencies.

Pelosi threw a bone to members of her caucus who want Bush thrown out of office — even this late in his administration — because they say he misled the nation into the Iraq war.

Long after she declared that impeachment proceedings were "off the table," Pelosi nonetheless agreed to let the Judiciary Committee convene "abuse of power" hearings on Friday. The author of the impeachment resolution, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, testified. But Pelosi made clear there would be no vote.

This week, four Democratic senators demanded that Bush's Environmental Protection Agency chief, Stephen Johnson, resign over whether he had allowed politics to dictate decisions vital to protecting health and the environment. Led by Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., they demanded a Justice Department probe into whether Johnson lied to a Senate committee. Through a spokesman, Johnson denied the accusation.

The administrator will "continue to lead this agency undistracted by the Boxer and Whitehouse show," the spokesman said.

"This is simply more election year politicking," sniffed Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. "Nothing more need be said."

Associated Press writer Ben Evans contributed to this report.

Federal judge rules against Miers, White House on subpoenas
By Ed. Dickau(Ed. Dickau)
Federal judge rules against Miers, White House on subpoenas. A federal judge ruled Thursday that top advisers to President Bush are not immune from congressional subpoenas, striking a blow to former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, ...
The Impeachment Hearing Room - http://theimpeachmenthearingroom.blogspot.com/

"Federal Judge: WH Aides Must Testify; Pelosi: What Bush Crimes?"
Brad Blog - USA
Impeachment shouldn't be done, she continued, with two feet firmly planted in her Bizarro World, "unless you have the goods that this President committed a ...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/31/104018/965/424/559953

Demand Local Law Enforcement Uphold Their Oath to Defend the ...
OpEdNews - Newtown,PA,USA
I asked him if there was any way the American people can force Congress to perform their constitutional duties to impeach Bush and Cheney. ...See all stories on this topic

I spoke with one of the leading constitutional scholars in the United States (he teaches at one of top law schools, and has literally "written the book" on constitutional law).

I asked him if there was any way the American people can force Congress to perform their constitutional duties to impeach Bush and Cheney.

He said no.

I persisted, by arguing that the founding fathers could never have envisioned Congress being so complicit with a rogue White House that they refuse to impeach, and instead cover up their crimes. I said there's got to be a way to force them to follow their duties, or to impeach or remove the congress people who are obstructing the rule of law.

He responded no. His last words to me were: "That's the way the constitutional cookie crumbles".

I was very disappointed, to say the least.

Is All Lost?

Renowned prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi says that local district attorneys, state attorney generals and the United States attorney general each have the power and jurisdiction to prosecute Bush and Cheney for murder:

Nancy Pelosi Hasn’t Been Paying Attention
RINF.COM - Lancaster,UK
The evidence on impeachment, as Dennis Kucinich has courageously and thoroughly demonstrated, is overwhelming. On Democracy Now, Kucinich responded to ...

The Progressive | There she was on The View on Monday, and Joy Behar, a good progressive, actually asked her a decent question on why she wasn’t pursuing impeachment.

Pelosi’s response was unbelievable: “If somebody had a crime that the president had committed, that would be a different story.”

You’ve got to be kidding me!

For starters, Bush himself admitted that he wasn’t obeying the FISA law when he was spying on people without first getting a warrant from the FISA court as required explicitly in the statute.

Then there is the torture and kidnapping that he has countenanced. That violates U.S. statutes and treaties.

And what about the wholesale corrupting of the Justice Department, which pursued political prosecutions and illegally discriminated against prospective employees on the basis of their personal views?

Then there’s the outing of Valerie Plame, and the cover up of that outing.

And what greater crime can you commit than waging a war of aggression and lying a country into war?

The evidence on impeachment, as Dennis Kucinich has courageously and thoroughly demonstrated, is overwhelming. On Democracy Now, Kucinich responded to Pelosi’s claim.

And for a breakdown of the statutes, Constitutional articles, and treaties that Bush has violated, go to AfterDowningStreet.org, and in particular, to http://www.pubrecord.org/docs/vega/kucinich-bush-articles-of-impeachment-violations.pdf.

How much more does Nancy Pelosi need?

This is not a case of political tag or gotcha.

This is about the Constitution and the rule of law.

That Nancy Pelosi can fob it off so facilely just shows how derelict she is in her duties.

WOW: Domestic Spies, Abramoff & The Great Philly Puppet Raid Of 2000...

GET READY; HERE GOES FREE SPEECH….

S. 1959: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention ...

A bill in the US Congress: A bill to establish the National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism, and for other ...
www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-1959 - 26k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

GovTrack: S. 1959: Text of Legislation

S. 1959: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 ... S. 1959. To establish the National Commission on the Prevention of ...
www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-1959 - 34k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
More results from www.govtrack.us »

Senate Bill 1959 to Criminalize Thoughts, Blogs, Books and Free ...

This S.1959 legislation, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, represents one of the ten steps to achieve a fascist state! ...
www.naturalnews.com/022308.html - 42k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

S 1959 "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention ...

S 1959 EVISCERATES FREE SPEECH, and empowers the govt. to declare ANYTHING they deem an "extremist belief system", instantly make you a terrorist, ...
www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/28941 - 81k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Today Is Critical, And We Must Join-in To Kill S 1959 ...

To state that today is critical would be a gross understatement; the Internet is buzzing about the upcoming passage of the Violent Radicalization and ...
justanothercoverup.com/?p=334 - 79k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

S 1959

thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.01959: - Similar pages - Note this

OpenCongress - S.1959 Violent Radicalization and Homegrown ...

S.1959 Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 on OpenCongress.
www.opencongress.org/bill/110-s1959/show - 91k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

S.1959 - Homegrown 'Terror Prevention' Bill Now In Senate

2, she hoppered the bill we're concerned with (S 1959) as a joint effort with Harman in the House. (Coleman is listed as the only co-sponsor). ...
www.rense.com/general79/bill.htm - 36k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress)

S.1959 Title: An original bill making appropriations for energy and water development for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1997, and for other purposes. ...
www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d104:s.01959: - 4k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Stop S. 1959 or lose Internet free speech : Indybay

Stop S. 1959 or lose Internet free speech. by truther Wednesday Nov 21st, 2007 6:05 PM. S. 1959 is the Senate version of HR 1955. Call your senators Friday, ...
www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/11/21/18462691.php - 35k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

This is Your Congressman (4)
By Iowa Guy(Iowa Guy)
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have waited a long time to question Doug Feith. Mr. Feith is the former Number 3 man at the Pentagon and was the brains behind the false claims of Iraq's WMDs, torture policy and other ...
Iowa Guy 2.0 - http://swiowaguy.blogspot.com

Bush signs new rules, roles for spy agencies

The new order gives the national intelligence director, a position created in 2005, new authority over any intelligence information collected that pertains to more than one agency — an attempt to force greater information exchange among agencies traditionally reluctant to share their most prized intelligence. The order directs the attorney general to develop guidelines to allow agencies access to information held by other agencies. That could potentially include the sharing of sensitive information about Americans.

"Today's actions will help create a more effective intelligence community capable of providing the president and his advisers with information necessary to defend our national and homeland security," Perino said.

The order has been under revision for more than a year, an attempt to update a nearly 30-year-old presidential order to reflect organizational changes made in the intelligence agencies after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

It was carried on in secret in the midst of pitched national debate about the appropriate balance between civil liberties and security, spurred by the president's warrantless wiretapping program.

The briefing charts assert that the new order maintains or improves civil liberties protections for Americans.

Interest in the rewrite inside the 16 agencies has been high because it establishes what agencies' powers and limitations will be.

The order, which has not yet been publicly released, is expected to cut into one of the CIA's traditional roles. The CIA has for 50 years set the policy and largely called the shots on relationships between U.S. intelligence agencies and their foreign counterparts. According to the briefing charts, the national intelligence director will now set the rules for engaging with foreign intelligence and security services. The CIA will now just "coordinate implementation," according to the briefing charts.

The order also gives the national intelligence director's office the power of the purse: It was granted the authority to make acquisition decisions on certain national intelligence programs. It is also updated to include the national intelligence director and two major defense spy agencies — the National Reconnaissance Office, which operates spy satellites, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which analyzes imagery. It did not explain the FBI's domestic intelligence mission, which has gotten increasing attention since 9/11.

http://www.groundsforimpeachment.com

A Victory and a Challenge
Kucinich's proposed articles of impeachment specifically charge the president with lying to Congress and the American People, this made for some comic moments, with witness Bruce Fein, a former assistant attorney general under former ...Populist Party of America - http://www.populistamerica.com

A Victory and a Challenge
By ed.dickau
Pro-Liberty, and Anti-Centralization, the Populist Party highlights articles that our editors find important or simply interesting. The views we publish are unapologetically presented for you to read, analyze, and develop your own ...
The latest Widgetbox widgets... - http://www.widgetbox.com/tag/blidgets

State Secrets Protection Act Hearing

Earlier today, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties held a hearing on the State Secrets Protection Act of 2008 (H.R. 5607), legislation introduced by the Subcommittee's Chair, Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). The Constitution Project submitted a statement to the Subcommittee urging support for the legislation, as did William S. Sessions, member of our Liberty and Security Committee and Coalition to Defend Checks and Balances and former federal judge and FBI Director. In his statement, Judge Sessions told members of the Subcommittee that "granting executive branch officials unchecked discretion to determine whether evidence should be subject to the state secrets privilege provides too great a temptation for abuse." Witnesses at the hearing included Bruce Fein, former Associate Deputy Attorney General and member of our Coalition to Defend Checks and Balances, and Steven Shapiro, Legal Director at the American Civil Liberties Union. Last year, the Constitution Project's Liberty and Security Committee and Coalition to Defend Checks and Balances issued "Reforming the State Secrets Privilege," a statement calling for legislation to reform the privilege.

In the Courts

Habeas Cases Move Forward in DC District Court

In response to Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan's order, on Friday, July 25, counsel for the Guantanamo detainees and for the government filed briefs in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia proposing procedures that the court should follow when hearing the habeas petitions of these detainees. The briefs attempt to define the contours of the constitutional right to habeas review as recognized by the Supreme Court in Boumediene v. Bush, and, not surprisingly, the parties have dramatically different visions of what process is due the detainees.

Counsel for the detainee petitioners described procedures that would enable a detainee to conduct a "searching, independent inquiry into the lawfulness of his detention" sufficient to enable the Court to determine if the government has the lawful authority to detain the prisoner. Counsel for the detainees also argued that the majority of procedural issues should be decided on a case by case basis. Counsel for the government, on the other hand, proposed a far more limited process that would apply uniformly to all of the detainee cases.

The issues briefed included: discovery requirements, including the rights of prisoners to demand information from the government; the basis for seeking a court hearing on the evidence presented; the basis for allowing out-of-court statements, including hearsay evidence; the right to confront or subpoena witnesses to appear; and the standards of proof, including who bears the burden of proof. Judge Hogan is coordinating the vast majority of the approximately 200 cases filed in federal District Court; he may decide to establish procedures that would govern all these cases or he may determine that these decisions must be made on a case by case basis. Although there is no deadline for Judge Hogan to rule on the proposed procedures for these cases, he has repeatedly emphasized that these cases are on a "fast track" and a ruling is expected shortly.

Above the Fold

ACSblog: National Security Courts

On July 18, ACSblog featured a guest column by Rule of Law Policy Counsel Becky Monroe discussing the recent report of our Liberty and Security Committee and Coalition to Defend Checks and Balances condemning national security courts. Becky wrote that "As we confront enemies and threats unlike any we have ever known before, our military tactics must change, but our constitutional obligations do not."

The Capital Times: War Powers Should be Shared

On July 25, an op-ed by Benson Scotch, former executive director of the Vermont Civil Liberties Union and staff counsel to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT), appeared in the Madison, WI, Capital Times. In the commentary, which originally appeared in the Burlington, VT, Free Press, Scotch criticized a recent report on war powers released by the National War Powers Commission of the Miller Center, and urged readers to "look instead to the work of the Constitution Project, an independent Washington think tank that in 2005 published a comprehensive and balanced report, also authored by a distinguished panel, titled 'Deciding to Use Force Abroad: War Powers in a System of Checks and Balances

Verbatim

"If we can apply the policy of cruelty to detainees, it is only because our Founders were wrong about the scope of inalienable rights. With the adoption of this policy our founding values necessarily begin to be redefined and our constitutional structure and the fabric of our legal system start to erode." ~ Alberto Mora, member of the Constitution Project's Coalition to Defend Checks and Balances and former General Counsel to the United States Navy, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, June 17, 2008.

Feel free to forward this newsletter along to other interested parties and, as always, thanks for your interest in the Constitution Project. Please visit our website, www.constitutionproject.org, for more information about our work, publications, and events. The Constitution Project now accepts online donations! To contribute, click here. More in two weeks!

Judiciary Backpedals on Reports and Transcripts from "Non ...
OpEdNews - Newtown,PA,USA
It might prove helpful for those pressing for impeachment to independently call the Judiciary and ask the same simple questions: 1) When will the committee ...

THOSE WERE THE DAYS NOW…………The Bushes Are House Hunting In Dallas!
Wonkette (satire) - Washington,DC,USA
But now that Dick Cheney has tired of operating the chip in his brain, George Bush needs a new place to live, so he has dispatched his wife to investigate ...