"In light of these new facts of which I now realize I was largely aware, I must take action!"

During my last semester at Purdue, Cindy Sheehan visited and gave a speech, during which she apparently called for the impeachment of President Bush. This was reported by the school newspaper. The next day or later I was in a store and the cashiers were discussing the article, with one of them expressing incredulity that anyone would call for the impeachment of Bush.

Him (paraphrased): Why impeach him? He hasn't broken any laws!
Me (more or less verbatim): Well, you know, except for breaking FISA.

That shut him up for a while, but as I was leaving I heard him repeat his claim that Bush hadn't done anything wrong.

Yeah, right.

[Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey] made clear that he and Ashcroft met, determined that the NSA program lacked legal authority, and agreed "on a course of action," one whereby the DOJ would refuse to certify the legality of the NSA program. Yet even once Ashcroft and Comey made clear that the program had no legal basis (i.e., was against the law), the President ordered it to continue anyway. As Comey said: "The program was reauthorized without us and without a signature from the Department of Justice attesting as to its legality."

Amazingly, the President's own political appointees -- the two top Justice Department officials, including one (Ashcroft) who was known for his "aggressive" use of law enforcement powers in the name of fighting terrorism and at the expense of civil liberties -- were so convinced of its illegality that they refused to certify it and were preparing, along with numerous other top DOJ officials, to resign en masse once they learned that the program would continue notwithstanding the President's knowledge that it was illegal.

The overarching point here, as always, is that it is simply crystal clear that the President consciously and deliberately violated the law and committed multiple felonies by eavesdropping on Americans in violation of the law.

Recall that the only federal court to rule on this matter has concluded that the NSA program violated both federal law and the U.S. Constitution, and although that decision is being appealed by the Bush administration, they are relying largely on technical arguments to have it reversed (i.e., standing and "state secrets" arguments) and -- as has been true for the entire case -- are devoting very little efforts to arguing that the program was actually legal or constitutional.

...

What more glaring and clear evidence do we need that the President of the United States deliberately committed felonies, knowing that his conduct lacked any legal authority? And what justifies simply walking away from these serial acts of deliberate criminality? At this point, how can anyone justify the lack of criminal investigations or the appointment of a Special Counsel? The President engaged in extremely serious conduct that the law expressly criminalizes and which his own DOJ made clear was illegal.

I have no idea if it will ever get through to people that Bush believes that he is simply above the law. You'd think after everything he's done--including the hundreds of signing statements that amount to him saying "I will ignore the laws I signed whenever I find it convenient"--if someone hadn't already come to that conclusion, they never would. But hey, this latest incident has gotten through to some die-hard Bush supporters.