Author Topic: Impeachment  (Read 272853 times)

Dos Equis

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #50 on: May 16, 2013, 05:34:40 PM »
Interesting discussion of "high crimes and misdemeanors."  We impeached a judge for "chronic intoxication" in 1804.  I doubt any judge or president would be impeached today for being an alcoholic.

High crimes and misdemeanors is a phrase from Section 4 of Article Two 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."

"High" in the legal and common parlance of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of "high crimes" signifies activity by or against those who have special duties acquired by taking an oath of office that are not shared with common persons.[1] A high crime is one that can only be done by someone in a unique position of authority, which is political in character, who does things to circumvent justice. The phrase "high crimes and misdemeanors" when used together was a common phrase at the time the U.S. Constitution was written and did not mean any stringent or difficult criteria for determining guilt. It meant the opposite. The phrase was historically used to cover a very broad range of crimes.

In the Washington Post reprinting of the Judiciary Committee's review of Impeachment in 1974, the review states, ""High Crimes and Misdemeanors" has traditionally been considered a "term of art", like such other constitutional phrases as "levying war" and "due process." The Supreme Court has held that such phrases must be construed, not according to modern usage, but according to what the framers meant when they adopted them. Chief Justice Marshall wrote of another such phrase:

"It is a technical term. It is used in a very old statute of that country whose language is our language, and whose laws form the substratum of our laws. It is scarcely conceivable that the term was not employed by the framers of our constitution in the sense which had been affixed to it by those from whom we borrowed it."[citation needed]

The constitutional convention adopted “high crimes and misdemeanors” with little discussion. Most of the framers knew the phrase well.[citation needed] Since 1386, the English parliament had used the term “high crimes and misdemeanors” to describe one of the grounds to impeach officials of the crown. Officials accused of “high crimes and misdemeanors” were accused of offenses as varied as misappropriating government funds, appointing unfit subordinates, not prosecuting cases, not spending money allocated by Parliament, promoting themselves ahead of more deserving candidates, threatening a grand jury, disobeying an order from Parliament, arresting a man to keep him from running for Parliament, losing a ship by neglecting to moor it, helping “suppress petitions to the King to call a Parliament,” granting warrants without cause, and bribery.[citation needed] Some of these charges were crimes. Others were not. The one common denominator in all these accusations was that the official had somehow abused the power of his office and was unfit to serve.[citation needed]

As can be found in[2] historical references of the period, the phrase in its original meaning is interpreted as "for whatever reason whatsoever". High indicates a type of very serious crime, and misdemeanors indicates crimes that are minor. Therefore this phrase covers all or any crime that abuses office. Benjamin Franklin asserted that the power of impeachment and removal was necessary for those times when the Executive "rendered himself obnoxious," and the Constitution should provide for the "regular punishment of the Executive when his conduct should deserve it, and for his honorable acquittal when he should be unjustly accused." James Madison said, "...impeachment... was indispensable" to defend the community against "the incapacity, negligence or perfidy of the chief Magistrate." With a single executive, Madison argued, unlike a legislature whose collective nature provided security, "loss of capacity or corruption was more within the compass of probable events, and either of them might be fatal to the Republic."[3]

According to the Constitutional Rights Foundation, "Prior to the Clinton investigation, the House had begun impeachment proceedings against only 17 officials — one U.S. senator, two presidents, one cabinet member, and 13 federal judges."[4]

The very difficult case of impeaching someone in the House of Representatives and removing that person in the Senate by a vote of two-thirds majority in the Senate was meant to be the check to balance against efforts to easily remove people from office for minor reasons that could easily be determined by the standard of "high crimes and misdemeanors". It was George Mason who offered up the term "high crimes and misdemeanors" as one of the criteria to remove public officials who abuse their office. Their original intentions can be gleaned by the phrases and words that were proposed before, such as "high misdemeanor", "maladministration", or "other crime". Edmund Randolf said impeachment should be reserved for those who "misbehave". Cotesworth Pinkney said, It should be reserved "...for those who behave amiss, or betray their public trust." As can be seen from all these references to the term "high crimes and misdemeanors", there is no concrete definition for the term, except to allow people to remove an official for office for subjective reasons entirely.

Alexander Hamilton said, "...those offences which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated POLITICAL, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself."[2]

The first impeachment conviction by the United States Senate was in 1804 of John Pickering, a judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, for chronic intoxication. Federal judges have been impeached and removed from office for tax evasion, conspiracy to solicit a bribe, and making false statements to a grand jury.[citation needed]

In the impeachment of Bill Clinton in the late 1990s for perjury, the exact meaning of the term high crimes and misdemeanors became the subject of debate. A particular subject of debate is exactly what rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. Some felt[who?] that the act of perjury, a federal crime, rose to that level. Others felt[who?] that this particular act of perjury, while illegal, did not reach that level because the lie was specifically in regard to a matter of personal infidelity and that the questioning that led to it was allegedly politically motivated.

The legacy of high crimes and misdemeanors persists in military justice, where those having contractual obligations under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) may be punished for offenses that would not be crimes if committed by civilians.[citation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_crimes_and_misdemeanours

Straw Man

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #51 on: May 16, 2013, 05:38:00 PM »
still waiting for someone (anyone) to tell us what the "high crime and misdemeanor" is

As far as I can tell it's Darrell Issa's personal interpretation of "act of terror” vs. “terrorist attack.”

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #52 on: May 16, 2013, 06:18:09 PM »
I love it when people talk about impeachment, say "this is what people are saying", quote past impeachments...

but don't have the balls to say we should be impeaching obama.


stop sitting on the fence.  own it.  say it.

Shockwave

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #53 on: May 16, 2013, 06:19:23 PM »
I don't believe we'll ever see another President face impeachment. Far too many politics involved.

Dos Equis

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #54 on: May 16, 2013, 07:25:48 PM »
I don't believe we'll ever see another President face impeachment. Far too many politics involved.

Probably not.

Dos Equis

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #55 on: May 21, 2013, 05:42:11 PM »
Portion of Nixon's resignation speech.


Straw Man

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #56 on: May 21, 2013, 05:43:48 PM »
Still not a single person on this board who can articulate a valid reason for impeachment

All they can seem to do is fantasize about it

Soul Crusher

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #57 on: May 21, 2013, 06:07:58 PM »
Still not a single person on this board who can articulate a valid reason for impeachment

All they can seem to do is fantasize about it

Obama is a twink and is black.   How about that?   :D

Dos Equis

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #58 on: October 21, 2013, 01:34:45 PM »
Glenn Beck Has Had Enough: ‘I, Personally, Am Calling To Impeach The President’
By Brian Carey on September 18, 2013 S
Subscribe to Brian Carey's Feed@brianmcarey 

Glenn Beck is fed up with this President, and he wants him out of office. In fact, he wants President Obama out of office well before January of 2017, when he is scheduled to leave office.

Just yesterday on his own television network, BlazeTV, Beck personally called for the impeachment of President Obama. This is the first time that he has done that.

“I called today for the very first time in my career,” Beck said, “on this President. I, personally, I have said before, ‘That’s impeachable.’ I, personally, am calling to impeach the President of the United States. This is impeachable.”

And what, exactly, does Beck mean by “this”? What is it that President Obama is doing that rises to the constitutionally defined level of “high crimes” and/or “misdemeanors”?

Beck believes that the President should be impeached because he is willing to arm the Syrian rebels. “He is arming known terrorists,” Beck said, “and people like John McCain should be impeached as well.”

John McCain should be impeached? We didn’t see that one coming.

“If you don’t want your vote back,” Beck continued, “what will it take? If you in Arizona said, ‘I voted for John McCain because I thought John McCain was strong on defense and better than the other guy.’ Whatever the deal is, if them saying, ‘We’re going to arm al-Qaeda’ and yes, we know that some of the arms are going to fall into the hands of al-Qaeda… if that’s not an impeachable offense for Lindsey Graham, for John McCain, for John Boehner, for the President of the United States, I don’t know what an impeachable offense is.”

Have a look at the video below.




http://downtrend.com/brian-carey/glenn-beck-has-had-enough-i-personally-am-calling-to-impeach-the-president/

Straw Man

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #59 on: October 21, 2013, 01:37:37 PM »
Obama is a twink and is black.   How about that?   :D

Being black is most definitely one of the reasons that Repubs would like to impeach him


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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #60 on: October 21, 2013, 01:38:21 PM »
He should be deported to Kenya via a wooden ship and put in steerage

Roger Bacon

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #61 on: October 21, 2013, 01:39:20 PM »
We didn't impeach our former President unfortunately, I have a feeling we won't be impeaching Obama either.  :-\

Roger Bacon

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #62 on: October 21, 2013, 01:39:58 PM »
He should be deported to Kenya via a wooden ship and put in steerage

ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Straw Man

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #63 on: October 21, 2013, 01:47:26 PM »
Glenn Beck Has Had Enough: ‘I, Personally, Am Calling To Impeach The President’
By Brian Carey on September 18, 2013 S
Subscribe to Brian Carey's Feed@brianmcarey 

Glenn Beck is fed up with this President, and he wants him out of office. In fact, he wants President Obama out of office well before January of 2017, when he is scheduled to leave office.

Just yesterday on his own television network, BlazeTV, Beck personally called for the impeachment of President Obama. This is the first time that he has done that.

“I called today for the very first time in my career,” Beck said, “on this President. I, personally, I have said before, ‘That’s impeachable.’ I, personally, am calling to impeach the President of the United States. This is impeachable.”

And what, exactly, does Beck mean by “this”? What is it that President Obama is doing that rises to the constitutionally defined level of “high crimes” and/or “misdemeanors”?

Beck believes that the President should be impeached because he is willing to arm the Syrian rebels. “He is arming known terrorists,” Beck said, “and people like John McCain should be impeached as well.”

John McCain should be impeached? We didn’t see that one coming.

“If you don’t want your vote back,” Beck continued, “what will it take? If you in Arizona said, ‘I voted for John McCain because I thought John McCain was strong on defense and better than the other guy.’ Whatever the deal is, if them saying, ‘We’re going to arm al-Qaeda’ and yes, we know that some of the arms are going to fall into the hands of al-Qaeda… if that’s not an impeachable offense for Lindsey Graham, for John McCain, for John Boehner, for the President of the United States, I don’t know what an impeachable offense is.”

Have a look at the video below.




http://downtrend.com/brian-carey/glenn-beck-has-had-enough-i-personally-am-calling-to-impeach-the-president/

since when does anyone gives a shit what Glenn Beck thinks?

Straw Man

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #64 on: October 21, 2013, 01:48:10 PM »
We didn't impeach our former President unfortunately, I have a feeling we won't be impeaching Obama either.  :-\

no shit Sherlock


Roger Bacon

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #65 on: October 21, 2013, 01:48:49 PM »
since when does anyone gives a shit what Glenn Beck thinks?

I like him...  


Straw Man

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #66 on: October 21, 2013, 01:49:00 PM »
He should be deported to Kenya via a wooden ship and put in steerage

why didn't you share any of your racist hatred of Obama when you had your 10 seconds of national infamy and humiliation


Roger Bacon

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #67 on: October 21, 2013, 01:50:34 PM »
no shit Sherlock

On the other hand, Obama has hurt Americans much worse than George W ever did so maybe there is still hope?


Straw Man

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #68 on: October 21, 2013, 01:51:28 PM »
I like him...  



sorry, I should have said since when does anyone other than mental patients and morons give a shit what Glenn Beck thinks


Straw Man

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #69 on: October 21, 2013, 01:51:59 PM »
On the other hand, Obama has hurt Americans much worse than George W ever did so maybe there is still hope?

for example

Soul Crusher

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #70 on: October 21, 2013, 01:54:52 PM »
for example

ObamaCare
IRS scandals
NSA scandals
Fast n Furious and Grenade Walking
Crushing small business people w his communism

and on and on and on and on. 

Straw Man

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #71 on: October 21, 2013, 01:57:01 PM »
ObamaCare
IRS scandals
NSA scandals
Fast n Furious and Grenade Walking
Crushing small business people w his communism

and on and on and on and on. 

so basically you got nothing except for imaginary shit you and Repubs like to tell each other


Roger Bacon

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #72 on: October 21, 2013, 01:58:20 PM »
sorry, I should have said since when does anyone other than mental patients and morons give a shit what Glenn Beck thinks

I can't wait until a Republican president is raping us so you and I can agree with each other again. 


Roger Bacon

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #73 on: October 21, 2013, 02:01:42 PM »
ObamaCare
IRS scandals
NSA scandals
Fast n Furious and Grenade Walking
Crushing small business people w his communism

and on and on and on and on.  

If George W. was responsible for all this corruption, scandals, and outright treason Straw Man would be going nuts.  He's truly worse than Coach even, the most partisan mother fucker on this board.  :-\

Straw Man

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Re: Impeachment
« Reply #74 on: October 21, 2013, 02:05:06 PM »
I can't wait until a Republican president is raping us so you and I can agree with each other again. 

weird that you are desiring to be raped

I actually remember the last few months of the Bush Administration and it was pretty fucking horrible

Millions of jobs being lost, stock market crashing, housing market crashing.....almost every American being harmed in some way or another, some quite profoundly

Let's not forget the thousand that died based on a bunch of lies and the many thousands who are maimed or had their lives altered forever

You want all that again just so that you can agree with me that it sucks?