Some suggest Impeach Bush, and while you’re at it Dick Cheney too.  We went to war in Iraq because George Bush and Dick Cheney wanted to. There were no weapons of mass destruction, there was no immediate threat of terrorism, and there was no real reason other than a bad feeling George Bush had about Saddam Hussein. The latest, and what should be the final, salvo in this war of words came from the bush administrations own spinmeister, Scott McClellan in his book, “What Happened.” What happened? We have been asking that for the last seven years. The George W. Bush  Impeachment Dossier; a catalog of the many failings of the current administration.  Politics and Perspectives by Del Walters 
   
       Here’s what happened in one sentence:  The President of the United States lied about the nation needing to go to war, and he told the lie long enough that there are those who now believe him. Id.
      
        I realize there are purists who argue there isn’t enough time left to impeach Bush, but isn’t this one of those occasions where we, as a nation, have to make time?  Let’s face it, the last time Congress sought to impeach a president was over sex in the oval office.  Sex vs. War! Is not the death of 4000 plus U.S. troops, for no reason at all, more important than that?  Id.
    
        We now spend more money on this war than we spend on fixing the nation’s roads, bridges, schools, federal buildings, airport security and everything else combined.  Id. Our children’s future, their children, and their children’s children’s futures have all been mortgaged. Id.  The question is, if not now, when?  If not this president, will there ever be a better reason to impeach someone so sinister that it is impossible to examine his administration and find something that went right!  Id. If we don’t even try to impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney, what does that say about us?  Shouldn’t we at least go through the motions?
 
        Here are my top ten reasons for beginning impeachment proceedings against George Bush and Dick Cheney. Immediately:

1.) Bush broke the law, by acting as if he is above the law. Bush took the nation to war against a sovereign nation based on manufactured evidence and lies.  Id. The administration was so successful in its campaign of lies and deception few remember why we went to war.  Id. We went to war because Bush couldn’t wait to pull the trigger.  Id. UN Weapons Inspectors wanted until September.  Id. Bush launched ‘Shock and Awe’ in March. Id. Had we waited we would have known that there weren’t any WMD’s but then again, the administration already knew that. Id.  It took months and tens of millions of dollars to clean up from the DC and New York anthrax attacks, the result of a few mailed envelops.  Id. No trace of anthrax or any other weapons were found in Iraq, and few made the connection. Id.2.)  When faced with overwhelming evidence that the foundation for the war was crumbling around them, the Bush White House covered up the lie and engaged in a vicious campaign to undermine anyone who questioned their authority.  (Remember the Dixie Chicks?) To sell the war the administration manufactured heroes and destroyed real ones.  Remember Jessica Lynch the little girl form West Virginia that kept shooting as the enemy kept advancing. The biggest problem with her story was that the heroic actions attributed to her never happened.

3.)  Pat Tillman, the NFL star who marched off to war to defend the country against terrorism only to be shot by friendly fire.  Accidents happen in the fog of war, but remember which administration it was that covered up the incident and used it to the advantage of ‘the permanent campaign,’ as Scott McClellan wrote about.

4.) The orchestrated and sinister campaign to out Valeria Plame, a CIA Operative, even though the administration publicly said the penalty for such outings was firing. The bottom line is the administration lied again. This time it ruined a persons career, jeopardized her life, and then pardoned the man who did the deed.  Remember Scooter Libby? Crime pays in the Bush administration.  He did the crime and served no time.

5.) Mission accomplished.  Five years later, four thousand U.S. troops are dead and no one can explain why American blood was spilled in Iraq. Those GI’s returned home to shoddy medical care and military hospitals with falling ceilings and leaking pipes.
6.) No child left behind.  Under this administration, every child has been left behind.  Any parent who spends hours with their children on homework assignments that don’t make sense knows the Bush education policy failed.
7.) Abu Gharib.  We stooped to torture and unlike the TV version we weren’t even smart enough to hire Jack Bower. No, we did it in plain sight, with digital cameras snapping away.

8.) Divide and conquer.  No administration in recent history has spent more time dividing the country than the Bush administration. They have pitted blacks against whites, rich against poor, and religion against religion.

9.) Katrina, Katrina, Katrina.  Facing tens of thousands of deaths…Bush went biking.  To answer critics he performed a flyover in Air Force One, as if he could suddenly land the plane and lend assistance to the people starving in the New Orleans Superdome. Bush then sent an unqualified lackey and blamed him for emails where he asked which shirt to wear.    Blacks and whites perished as the world watched and no one has been held accountable.  It is perhaps the greatest crime of the 21st century (hard to compete with Iraq though) and no one has been held accountable.  To compound matters, the homeless were bussed from city to city and housed in formaldehyde laced trailers where they continue to suffer today.

10.) Condoleezza Rice! Donald Rumsfeld!  Dick Cheney! Scooter Libby! Could a single administration produce so many people so polarizing at a time when the world, and indeed this country needed the U.S. to act as if it deserved the title, the only ‘Superpower?’ Cheney shot his best friend for God’s sake!
11.)  Only an oilman could produce the rape of a country by the oil industry.  It would be different if George Bush came into office as a wheat farmer.  Can you imagine paying $10 dollars for a loaf of bread?  That is how bad things would have to be to compare to the constant pillaging of American pocketbooks by the oil industry.
12.) Hanging chads. He stole the election and with it, the most precious of America’s freedoms — democracy.  The fix was in and the world watched it all unfold.  Al Gore may have won the Nobel Prize, but the Bush administration pulled off the great train robbery.  When George Bush took the oath of office gas was just over a dollar a gallon, oil sold for ten dollars a barrel and the economy was roaring along.  People actually had jobs, houses, cars and happiness.  Seven years later we are losing our houses, can’t put gas in the cars we brought, shipping jobs overseas, an embarrassment to the world. The George W. Bush Impeachment Dossier; Politics and Perspective by Del Walters (June 16, 2008).

Okay, that’s twelve but who can stop when it’s so much fun?

According to “Lead Exposure in Childhood Linked to Criminal Behavior Later” by Amanda Gardner, U.S. News and World Report, May 28, 2008, a 30 year study has found that exposure to lead as a child can lead to health problems that create a greater likelihood for criminal behavior in adulthood.  The article references a study co-authored by Kim Dietrich, a professor of environmental health at the University of Cincinnati, which found “Arrest rates were higher as blood lead concentrations went up. The association between high blood lead levels and violent crimes was even stronger. Any 5 micrograms per deciliter elevation in blood lead levels increased the rate of arrest for violent offenses by more than 25 percent, Dietrich said.” id  The artilce also indicated that exposure to lead may cause or contribute to “anti-social behavior, lower IQ, attention deficits, hyperactivity and weak executive control functions, all of which are risk factors for future delinquent behavior”. id   The article indicated that another report, published simultaneously in the same journal, co-authored by Kim Cecil, an associate professor of radiology, pediatrics and neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, indicated that exposute to lead caused reductions in volume in certain areas of the brain.  These lead caused reductions “were related to specific regions, including those responsible for executive function, mood regulation and decision-making.” id   According to Ms. Gardner’s article, Dr. Cecil also stated, “This is shedding new light that no dose is safe for lead.” id  

The article may be found at the following site: http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/05/28/lead-exposure-in-childhood-linked-to-criminal.html?PageNr=1