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Proviso Probe

Thursday, April 20, 2006

HC & M, Yarbrough introduces impeachment resolution

Today, Thursday, April 20, 2006, Rep. Karen Yarbrough introduced into the Illinois General Assembly House Joint Resolution 125, which calls for the impeachment of President George W. Bush.
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 United States to incur loss of life, diminished security and 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 decline 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.

On Friday, March 24, 2006--three days after Yarbrough's dominant victory in the Democratic primary--I sent her an email asking her to introduce an impeachment resolution.

I'd like to thank Kagro X of The Next Hurrah for giving me advice and support.

UPDATE: Sources that have written about the Yarbrough resolution include: The Nation, Daily Kos, Dusty Doggie, Suburban Guerrilla and Green Mountain Daily.

posted by Carl Nyberg at 10:24 PM

20 Comments:

  • Good For her

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:11 PM, April 20, 2006  

  • Whereas, the General Assembly of Illinois has no business getting involved in the US House of Representatives business than they do telling us whether the General Assembly should impeach Governor Blagojevich.

    This is completely silly. If you want to get Bush censured or impeached (which I personally would love to see), then call your Congressman, not your state senator.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:22 PM, April 20, 2006  

  • I think it's great! The more press the call for impeachment or investigations into the Iraq war scandal that gets out there the better. And if city, county, state governments start doing it, maybe it'll catch on in D.C.

    Of course call your Rep in Congress, but if your Rep is a Bush republican like mine - Jerry "El Geraldo" Weller - I might as well go bang my head against the wall one more time.

    By Blogger K3KVE, at 11:36 PM, April 20, 2006  

  • Because the House rules identify state legislatures as a specific avenue to begin impeachment, this carries considerably more weight than municipal government voting on the issue.

    By Blogger Carl Nyberg, at 11:45 PM, April 20, 2006  

  • Weller is useless

    Actually I moderated the debate the first time when he ran aginst Frank Giglio

    and I thought he was Worthless and Wierd then :)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:01 AM, April 21, 2006  

  • Good for all involved. I didn't know this method to initiat impeachment existed, but I'm glad it does.

    By Blogger RetiredPastorNancy, at 3:26 AM, April 21, 2006  

  • As I told Carl and the others who came to our Democracy for America meeting in Oak Park earlier this month, you can thank Thomas Jefferson, who wrote rules, originally for the Senate and later adopted by the House as the "Jefferson Rules" - that's the Section she cites in the HJR. Jefferson was concerned about exactly these kinds of abuses by too-powerful Executives and left us this trap door for States, when Congress isn't doing its oversight job, as part of his glorious legacy. The IL Governor can't veto it, by the way, if it passes - by US House rules it goes straight to the floor in DC where also by their rules they must cease all other activity and take up the question. Whether Denny Hastert wants to or not.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:07 AM, April 21, 2006  

  • Reps. Eddie Washington and Sara Feigenholz have joined as co-sponsors.

    Please call your state reps and state senators and ask them to co-sponsor the resolution. Let me know what each legislator says.

    By Blogger Carl Nyberg, at 11:34 AM, April 21, 2006  

  • forgot to add - kudos to Carl for urging Rep. Yarborough to do this. Fan. Freakin. Tastic.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:04 PM, April 21, 2006  

  • Carl, this is fantastic! Very nice work!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:34 PM, April 21, 2006  

  • shoudn't somebody introduce a resolution to impeach Cheney first?

    If you successfully impeached Bush, who would be president?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:42 PM, April 21, 2006  

  • If this administration is not capable of upholding the U.S Constitution, we, the people of California suggest new leadership is needed. We move for a "vote of no confidence"...over President Bush’s leadership.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:31 PM, April 23, 2006  

  • If this administration is not capable of upholding the U.S Constitution, we, the people of California suggest new leadership is needed. We move for a "vote of no confidence"...over President Bush’s leadership.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:47 PM, April 23, 2006  

  • I thought you might like to see the accompanying press release describing the impeachment resolution submitted to the California state legislature by Assemblymember Paul Koretz this past Friday, April 21. I do apologize in advance if the press release doesn't format well into this comment box. The resolution itself is 3 pages long and will be posted if doing so is requested (though doing so Monday would be easier at my end):

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Paul Michael Neuman
    April 22, 2006 District Office: (310) 285-5490
    paul.neuman@asm.ca.gov

    California Assemblyman Paul Koretz Submits Impeachment Resolution

    California State Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-Los Angeles) submitted amendments on Friday, April 21, to Assembly Joint Resolution No. 39, calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney. The resolution references Section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature.

    The resolution bases the call for impeachment upon the Bush Administration intentionally misleading the Congress and the American people regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify an unnecessary war that has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives and casualties; exceeding constitutional authority to wage war by invading Iraq; exceeding constitutional authority by Federalizing the National Guard; conspiring to torture prisoners in violation of the “Federal Torture Act” and indicating intent to continue such actions; spying on American citizens in violation of the 1978 Foreign Agency Surveillance Act; leaking and covering up the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, and holding American citizens without charge or trial.

    Koretz submitted amendments gutting AJR No. 39, a resolution unrelated to impeachment, to the Assembly Rules Committee. The Rules Committee may take up the bill next week for referral, allowing him to formally introduce the amended resolution.

    The Assemblyman hopes his resolution will help promote a public dialogue about the questionable activities and errant judgment of the President and Vice President: “At both the state and national levels, we will be paying for the Bush Administration’s illegal actions and terrible lack of judgment and competence for decades—not only in the billions of dollars wasted on the war and welfare for the rich, but in the worldwide loss of respect for America and Americans. Bush and Cheney must be impeached and removed from office before they undertake even deadlier misdeeds, such as the use of nuclear weapons. There are no bounds to their willingness to ignore the Constitution and world opinion—we can’t afford to wait for the next disaster and hope that we can survive it.”
    ###

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:56 PM, April 23, 2006  

  • Just Wondering said,
    I'm not a Bush admirer but what is yarbrough attempting to accomplish by impeaching him on the state level. I think is just poor publiy at Illinois tax payers expense.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:16 PM, April 23, 2006  

  • Ramndi Rhodes on Tuesday afternoon (April 25)is discussing this on Air America.
    I think there's something terribly fitting about GWB getting snared by better students.

    By Blogger RetiredPastorNancy, at 3:15 PM, April 25, 2006  

  • Remnants of former undersheriff James Dvorak's political operation are
    re-surfacing in Cook County these days and threaten to wreck havoc on
    hard-fought gains made the past two years against the entrenched Democratic
    establishment. In 1988, Dvorak unseated Cook County Chairman Don Totten in a
    surprising reversal. Totten, you may recall, was Ronald Reagan's presidential
    campaign manager for Illinois.

    Not long after his victory over Totten, Dvorak was forced to step down as
    undersheriff on charges that he was accepting bribes from mob sources. Later
    Dvorak pled guilty-from jail-to hiring ghost payrollers.Don Sloan and Jim Parrilli, Former
    Proviso Township Republican Committeeman and one of James Dvorak's chief allies
    during the late 1980's and early '90's appears intent on bringing back James
    Dvorak's glory days of political mischief and questionable practices.

    In the 1980's, Parrilli and Sloan admitted to wrongly using public resources to solicit
    political contributions, as reported in the Chicago Tribune (4/2/1985). Judy
    Baar Topinka, a sitting State Senator during the scandal-plagued Dvorak days, at
    that time opposed Parrilli's re-election as Proviso Township Republican
    Committeeman,but Sloan backed him and between both of them they beat Topinka's slate (Chicago Tribune, 12/10/1989). Despite their questionable
    association with Dvorak and checkered past, Parrilli managed to win the 19th
    Ward Republican Committeeman's race on Chicago's Southwest side in 2004 with Don Sloan backing him and winning by only 11 vote margin.
    On Wednesday night (April 19, 2006), Parrilli was running for an Illinois
    Republican Party State Central Committeeman's seat at the Cook County organizing
    convention, and he initially lost to incumbent George Preski. Cook County
    Chairman Gary Skoien ruled twice that a proxy Parrilli attempted to submit was
    not valid and was not timely cast. After continued pressure from Parrilli and Sloan
    the late arrival (in person) of the proxy grantor (Committeeman Helen Cashman
    from Mike Madigan's 13th Ward), Skoien resuscitated Parrilli's bid by allowing
    Cashman to confirm her votes for Parrilli, and Skoien then accepted the disputed
    proxy, which had been altered. Skoien's ruling erased Preski's lead and
    tentatively gives the spot to Parrilli, subject to review by the State
    Republican Party. Commissioner Tony Peraica and State Treasurer Judy Baar
    Topinka cast their weighted votes against Parrilli and Sloan.

    Parrilli and Sloan are also at the center of a challenge to Clark Pellett as the sitting
    Republican Chicago Chairman. An ally of Topinka, Pellett was in his own battle
    on that Wednesday night, but he was eventually supported by a unanimous vote.
    Pellett who is a Life Member of the Republican Party (Eisenhower Commission) and
    a Sustaining Member of the Republican National Committee is also a Presidential
    Roundtable member. He gives generously to state and local Republican
    candidates, according to State Board of Election records, and is a member of the
    NRSC's Inner Circle.

    By contrast, Jim Parrilli's State Board of Election contribution records show
    that he has apparently never given money to any Republican candidate. More
    shocking is that just 8 months ago, in August of 2005, Parrilli was a
    contributor to Democratic State Representative Kevin Joyce (D. - 35th District)and Eugene Moore and Chris Welch.Don Sloan also has given money to Democrats,such as Chris Welch,Eugene Moore,David Irleand, and others,but has given only token amounts of $25 to $75 dollars.
    -even though Parrilli was a sitting Republican Ward committeeman and Don Sloan is the self proclaimed Head of the Republicans in Proviso!

    "It appears that our Democratic "friends" have found new ways to snarl the
    Republican Party-with scurrilous attempts to thin our ranks and reverse our
    progress," said Pellett. These conflicts, stoked by the likes of Parrilli and Sloan,
    simply waste our Republican time, energy and resources-much to the benefit of
    Rod Blagojevich and his Democratic cronies. We need to guard against more
    challenges coming from these people or we will see our hopes dim for Republican
    victories in November.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:52 PM, April 25, 2006  

  • I have to tell you Carl this was a great idea. I have been a republican for many years, however I do not agree with the current administration. There have been too many facts and examples that indicate a lack of understanding on the Administration's part. I for one would like to hear we screwed up, there were no missiles, we were too quick to lead our people into war. I am tired of the airs people display for show, we need true honest government. The ones that say hey I screwed up what does it take to fix this. What is so wrong with that?

    I have served under the Regan administration in the military, and now have a son who will be joining the Marines (his choice). I want to know that they are given the best strategy possible if we are to continue to stay in this war. I doubt this is possible as other retired admirals have stated, there is no strategy for maintaing democracy in Iraq or for protecting our soldiers.

    BTW, I was not for the war. I don't think the two parties Dems and Republicans are a factor as whether or not someone is for or against the war. I believe people can conclude their own opinions based on information of facts. My opinion of the Iraq war has nothing to do with party affilliation. There are Republicans who also feel that this war should have never started.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:54 AM, April 27, 2006  

  • Ah . . . hmm . . . Liberals are babies and don't understand the law. Put down the latte, pull the Volvo to the side of the road and think before you type. Give the people a plan instead of complaining all the time.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:32 AM, August 25, 2006  

  • I urge you and your readers to take a few minutes to examine:

    http://www.usalone.com/cgi-bin/transparency.cgi?paper=1&qnum=pet45

    It's a list of the 25 most recent comments made by real Americans participating in an online poll/letter-writing campaign concerning the impeachment charges recently filed against Vice President Cheney, which are now being evaluated by the House Judiciary Committee. Comments can be sent to elected representatives and local newspapers at your option. The participation page is at:

    http://www.usalone.com/cheney_impeachment.php

    Since this campaign began, three members of Congress have signed on as co-sponsors, in part due to hearing from their constituents. Make your voice heard, and let others know!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:35 PM, May 15, 2007  

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