Illinois General Assembly has Impeachment Resolution introduced | ImpeachPAC

State Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) introduces HJR0125 in the Illinois General Assembly, utilizing the Sec. 603 procedure and calling for the impeachment of 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.

It may be a pipe dream. It may not pass both houses of the Illinois legislature. It’ll die in committee when it’s sent to Congress. But California is sending one, too. And they’ll be on the books.

It seems one of the greatest Founding Fathers of them all, Thomas Jefferson, provided for a way to initiate impeachment proceedings from a State legislature, enabling local awmakers to bypass a hostile Congress if necessary.

Excuse me, I have to go write my local legislators now – and urge them to pass Illinois HJR0125.

(10 minutes later)

Okay, here’s what I emailed just now to the state senator and state representative for my area. Both are Republicans, both are probably a little shaky for their next election, because my area is skewing more and more to the Democratic side.

I am a registered Democrat, resident in Hoffman Estates. As such, you probably aren’t interested in my point of view. However, I ask you to vote in favor of HJR0125, the joint resolution to impeach President George W. Bush.

I firmly believe that this country will be bankrupted by his policies, and I believe that he and his administration have lied or misled this country into war with Iraq, and they’re about to lie and mislead us into war with Iran, possibly with the use of nuclear weapons. I believe that his policies are encouraging a small minority of religious extremists to remake this country into one more to their liking, with reduced rights and freedoms in the name of security.

You may not agree with me, [IL legislator], but I ask you as a constituent to consider voting for this resolution. The incompetence and greed of the Administration and their corporate allies will ruin this country’s image, infrastructure, and economy for years to come.

Well, I guess that makes me a net-rooter now. Or perhaps I should describe myself as a netrootlet.

Via this useful website, I’ve just submitted a letter to the editor and emails to my congresspeople in one swell foop. Here’s what I ended up writing (tried for short and snappy, since it’s supposedly for publication in “my nearest newspaper:”

Thomas Jefferson himself provided a way for state legislatures to initiate articles of impeachment, and now our Illinois General Assembly is readying HJR0125, a joint resolution calling for impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush.

My only regret is that Jefferson left us no provision for making it a package deal.