The immediate impeachment of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney should be the first order of business for the new Democratic Congress.

However, impeachment alone will not provide appropriate punishment for the crimes that Bush, Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Dennis Hastert, and Karl Rove have committed in the name of the Executive Branch of the United States. These people are pseudo-stewards of our U.S. Constitution. They MUST be arrested, as any U.S. citizen would be, for committing high crimes against the U.S., the international community, and the planet.

Their crimes only begin with the lie of the Iraq war. And so, we must begin by asking the newly elected U.S. Congress to rescind the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) sanctioned by the Republican-led U.S. Congress in 2001.

Why?

Because in their effort to obtain this congressional sanction, the Bush administration lied about intelligence information in order to justify a pre-emptive strike against Iraq, without further oversight by Congress.

The fallout since has been devastating. It has been devastating for all directly involved in the Iraq war, for those who believed Bush's lies, and for all who protested the masquerade from the very beginning. The illegal wiretapping of innocent U.S. citizens, the torture and detention of prisoners that overtly break rules set forth via the Geneva Convention, and the defiance of federal courts and acts of Congress simply begin the long list of crimes that Bush and his administration have committed since the war against Iraq.

Petition:

I call for the U.S. Congress and American citizens to immediately begin to work to:

1.) Impeach George W. Bush and Richard Cheney.
2.) Rescind the 2001 AUMF.
3.) Force the resignation of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney.
4.) Call for the indictments and arrests, under the laws of the U.S. Constitution, of George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, Dennis Hastert, and Karl Rove.

A majority of U.S. voters have already taken the first step by voting in a new Democratic Congress, placing our trust in them to honestly and forthrightly represent our values, protect our rights, and honor our hard work and diligent attention to the laws of our country. As one of that majority, I ask them to assist us in taking back the integrity of our country by cleaning out the current corrupt Executive Branch of our government. In doing so, we will preserve the right to freedom and honor that is due each and every citizen of this great country, and of the world.

I respectfully request this in the name of common decency, the decency that demands that as citizens of the world, we do no harm, the decency that requires those of us who know of any falsity, any injustice, or any harm being perpetrated against humanity in the name of the United States to stand up and say, "No more! You will be punished."

Nan