Happy 4th of July. Impeach Bush.

Look. It's the 4th of July. This is a great time to love your country, and celebrate the noble words of the noble documents that started the whole thing. But it's an even better time to talk about how, as people who care what the hell is happening in this country, we have work to do. The gap between the lovely words and the violent and unethical actions should be our concern today. (All links below go to the relevant outrage.)


The history of the present [President of the United States] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:
--
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
--
He has called together [judicial] bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
--
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected.
--
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
--

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
--

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States.
--
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
--

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
--
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
--
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.


Here's how we do it.
1. Call your Representative. The House needs a simple majority to pass articles of impeachment, and there's a Democratic majority right now. Call your Republican Representative too. Tell your Representative that by not calling for impeachment, he or she is failing to represent you and failing to support and defend the US Constitution, which they swear to do when they take the Oath of Office. Contact information is at http://www.house.gov/writerep/.

2. Call your Senator. Contact information is at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm. The Senate would have to convict, but you're mostly calling to encourage your Senator to support articles of impeachment.

3. Still got energy? Write your local newspaper. Tips for getting in: make it short, find an angle other people aren't using (e.g. a specific reason for Bush to be impeached, not an overview of his crimes).

4. Send this to everyone you know. Better yet, write something to send to everyone you know. Your parents, your friends, your relatives you haven't seen in five years, everyone.

5. Go eat some sweet corn.

Happy 4th of July. Impeach Bush.