Kristin Michele Cricket Schneider Blog

2005-10-20T23:21:00.000-07:00

Impeach Bush!

2005-10-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

The following is the speech Kristin Schneider gave in Oct. 2005 for her Professional Communiations course at the Graduate School of International Studies:

High crimes and misdemeanors have been conducted by the two most powerful people in our nation’s executive branch.

In a moment I will provide you evidence of illegal not to mention unethical behavior conducted by Pres B and VP Cheney. I will first discuss the Bush Admin’s War in Iraq, the Downing Street Memo and a few of the main reasons I feel he deserves to be indicted and impeached.
I will then discuss the Cheney-Halliburton conflict of interest

By the end I this presentation I hope to convince you that:
By lying to the American public and Congress about Iraq in the lead-up to the invasion, and
By virtue of the Halliburton conflict of interest, the Pres and VP have committed high crimes and should be held accountable for such crimes.
We as citizens must openly debate whether or not we should impeach a President for taking the nation to illegal war. I will conclude with a Call to Action – as citizens we must demand a through investigation be conducted to ensure that justice is served.

I will now begin my first point of discussion: The Bush Admin’s War in Iraq

My outrage against this war on Iraq, shared with millions of people here in the US and abroad, is based on the following:

1. The Bush administration’s lies leading up to the war,
2. Its violation of the UN Charter and contempt for world opinion,
3. Its legitimizing of the torture of prisoners and immense harm inflicted on civilians.

This outrage brings many of us to the struggle for impeachment.
If we're going to impeach a president for alleged perjury and obstruction of justice,
surely we ought to debate whether or not we should impeach a President for taking the nation to illegal war.

No one died in the Monica Lewinsky Affair.
But this President has taken this nation to war resulting in the deaths of thousands of US soldiers and thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians; thousands of Iraqi civilians are permanently injured as well as soldiers on our side.
This President should be held accountable for all that. He should be held accountable for taking this nation into this war that continues to spiral out of control.

According to attorney John C. Bonifaz :
"The recent release of the Downing Street Memo provides new and compelling evidence that the President of the United States has been actively engaged in a conspiracy to deceive and mislead the United States Congress and the American people about the basis for going to war against Iraq," "If true, such conduct constitutes a High Crime under Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution: 'The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.'"

Which brings me to my second argument for indictment and impeachment:
Conflict of interest

Harry Truman, the buck-stops-here president, had a word for war profiteering;
the word was “Treason”
He had another word that defined leaders in business and politics who condone
“waste, inefficiency, mismanagement and profiteering” during a time of war:
The word was “Unpatriotic”

As an Oct.18, 2004 article in The Nation so elegantly stated,
“Cheney has a great conflict of interest, and pounding away on it will go a long way toward exposing the crony capitalism that has been a hallmark of the Bush Admin.” He has served as Bush’s Scaremonger in Chief—evoking images of thousands of Americans killed by terrorists with nuclear weapons and seeking to justify the invasion of Iraq by repeating thoroughly discredited claims that Saddam Hussein’s regime was working with Al Qaeda.

Let’s pause for a moment here to consider HALLIBURTON, Their No-Bid Contract in Iraq and Post-Katrina Contracts

Halliburton continues to be a source of income for Cheney, who served as its CEO from 1995-2000 when he joined the Repub ticket for the white house.

Cheney, Halliburton’s largest individual shareholder, holds 433,333 shares of unexercised stock options in the company

According to tax filings released in April, Cheney’s income included $194, 852 in deferred pay from the company, which won billion-dollar government contracts in Iraq.

Cheney had direct involvement in awarding the no-bid contract to Halliburton

Pentagon audits released by Democrats in June showed $1.03 billion in “questioned” costs and $422 million in “unsupported” costs for Halliburton’s work in Iraq.

The tangled web of Bush Admin connections is attracting renewed attention from
watchdog groups in the post-Katrina reconstruction rush.

Halliburton has already earned more than $9 billion in contracts in the wake of hurricane Katrina.

In summation, Cheney has a vested interest in seeing to it that Halliburton’s successes continue.

This conflict of interest is unethical and unpatriotic and the Bush Admin therefore
must be held accountable.

This brings us to my concluding statements.

Throughout this speech I provided many facts supporting my argument that:
By lying to the American public and Congress about Iraq in the lead-up to the invasion,&
By virtue of the Halliburton conflict of interest, the Pres and VP have committed high crimes and should be held accountable for such crimes.

Just because Bush survived through the 2004 election doesn’t mean challenges to his authority are futile. He is not untouchable simply by virtue of being a WarTimePresident.
Nixon survived through the 1972 election only to face impeachment charges in 1973-74.
This inquiry is long overdue.

The people of this country ought to have this debate placed before them as to whether or not these are indictable and impeachable offenses. This is a debate that needs to begin with a sense of urgency. This is a call to action.
We the people can determine the size and scope of this debate. There are two websites, www. impeachcentral.com and www.impeachnow.org in which people can weigh in on this question. I urge you to visits these sites.
We the people need to pressure our members of Congress to demand that this investigation begin now. ¨ I urge you to Call your members of Congress – Convince them to introduce Articles of Impeachment or at least a Resolution of Inquiry that begins the investigation process.
It really only takes one brave member of congress to begin this debate in the halls of Congress. One member of Congress can step up and demand that we have an investigation into whether or not these are impeachable or indictable offenses.
Indictments would mean that the Bush administration will be SEVERLY politically damaged, thus the Democrats could take over both the House and the Senate in 2006.
Then in 2006 we should go for impeachment.

While we may not be able to remove them from office in the near future, we can begin organizing to disable their policies now and succeed in the foreseeable future, even within a year. Although this too will take time and an immense effort on the part of citizens, it is doable.

I’d like to leave you with one final thought:
In the words of – Sir Peter Ustinov

“Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.”

Thank you very much for your time and attention.

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Impeach Bush!