"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Jesus (Matt. 5:6)
"Righteousness" is one of those words we don't use much today. It suggests leading a life that is pleasing to God, doing right, putting right, and being right. Not only does it contain a component for us to reflect on our actions of the moment, but it also urges fixing past mistakes.
President Bush and Vice President Cheney:
- Repeatedly violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires court approval for presidential wiretaps. FISA was enacted precisely to avoid abuses by presidents. Former President Richard Nixon's illegal wiretapping was one of the offenses that led to his impeachment.
- Were involved in detainee abuse. They defied the War Crimes Act of 1996 and the anti-torture Act, both being federal criminal statutes, as well as the Geneva Conventions.
- Used deception to drive us into the Iraq war. "President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials ... made at least 935 false statements ... about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. ... [T]he statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses." http://www.publicintegrity.org/WarCard/
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." Jesus (Matt. 5:17)
The Constitution requires the president to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Impeachment is warranted when a president puts himself above the law and gravely abuses power. The Constitution of the United States specifies the grounds for impeachment as treason, bribery, or "high crimes and misdemeanors," a term that means "great and dangerous offenses that subvert the Constitution."
Impeachment proceedings are the righteous thing to do. They'll curb the serious abuses of this administration and send a strong message to future administrations that no president or vice president is above the law.
Feed my sheep.
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