From the Jack Rabbit News Service
Dated Tuesday September 11, 2007
President Pelosi sworn in as Senate convicts Bush and Cheney
by Jack Rabbit
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States today minutes after the United States Senate convicted both former President George W. Bush and and former Vice President Richard B. Cheney on all five impeachment articles referred to the body by the House of Representatives in July.
The two most serious articles of impeachment concerned providing false or misleading information about the threat posed by Iraq prior to the invasion and violating the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture. The vote on leading the nation into war based on lies was 90-10 for conviction and the vote on violating the human rights of detained persons in violation of international treaties and conventions of which the US is party was 79-21.
Ironically, the convictions come on the sixth anniversary of the destruction the World Trade Center and the attack on the Pentagon by jihadist terrorists on the United States. Many critics of the former administration accused both the former President and Vice President of cynically using the attack to commit the acts of which they were removed from office today, many of which amount to war crimes, according to several critics.
A vote of two-thirds of the Senate, 67 members if all are present and voting as they were, is required for removal of the President and Vice President in an impeachment trial. When impeachment was first proposed in March by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), the possibility of obtaining a two-thirds vote in the Senate seemed problematic, but overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing persuaded a majority of Republican Senators to support three of the five articles against each defendant and a near majority on the other two.
On counts faced by by one defendant and not the other, former President Bush was convicted of ordering the NSA warrantless wiretapping program in violation of the Fourth Amendment by 75-25 and former Vice President Cheney was convicted of conflict of interest for shepherding post-war Iraq reconstruction contracts for the Halliburton Corporation, of which Cheney once served as CEO, through the government procurement system on a no-bid basis by a vote of 87-13.
President Pelosi's first act was to accept the resignations of Mr. Bush's cabinet and senior White House staff and she must now put together an administration of her own, including the appointment of a new Vice President. She said she will announce plans in an address to the nation to be carried on all networks this evening.
President Pelosi ands her new Attorney General will also have to decide what, if any, criminal charges to prefer against the former President and Vice President and other members of the past administration.
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