Will Thomas Online.net – 2007-11-07 20:58:02
http://www.willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Impeachment_Page.html
IMPEACHMENT UPDATE: KUCINICH IS BACK!
(November 7, 2007) — Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced H.Res. 333 on April 24th to impeach Vice President Cheney for his pre-war lies about Iraq and for threatening an invasion of Iran. Though Speaker Pelosi blocked Judiciary Committee hearings on the bill, Rep. Kucinich is forcing a floor vote using his right of personal privilege. Representative Kucinich’s courageous act will put members of the House on record. Are they going to fulfill their oath of office to “defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic”?
Or will they support a Vice President whose lies about Iraq cost the lives of nearly 1 million innocent Iraqi people (mostly children), 4,000 duped American soldiers and mercenaries, and possibly $2.4 trillion in our tax dollars – and whose lies about Iran threaten to start World War III?
Call your Representative (not Senators) and tell them to support Kucinich’s resolution to impeach Dick Cheney by supporting H.Res. 333. Ask for your congressional rep at : 800-828-0498 800-862-5530 800-833-6354
See/hear Kucinich explain November impeachment vote here
_
PELOSI IS A PROBLEM
Can Nancy Pelosi single-handedly take impeachment off the table?
By Bruce Fein
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is proving to be the surprise O. Henry ending to last November’s elections. The American voters gave Democrats clear control of Congress, rebuked President George W. Bush, and voiced an unequivocal public craving to trade in customary narrow-minded politics for something more inspiring. Yet motivated by partisan concerns over the 2008 elections, the new speaker is following President Bush around like a sheep while he solidifies an imperial presidency and diminishes the Congress into irrelevancy.
Just look at the latest ACLU advertisement targeting Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The only thing Pelosi has retained for the Congress is small-minded earmarks to attract political contributions.
If Pelosi persists in her imperious, mean-spirited, and myopic thinking in disregard of her oath to support and defend the Constitution, members of the House should replace her with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
According to public opinion polling, the percentage of voters supporting the impeachments of both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney — [on August 27, 2007] — are now approximately 45 and 54 percent, respectively.
Most Americans instinctively feel the president is an untrustworthy steward of the Constitution’s checks and balances because, among other things, he flouts laws, prohibits White House aides from testifying before Congress, consistently defends an attorney general who is an inveterate liar, and detains citizens and noncitizens indefinitely as enemy combatants on his say-so alone.
The prevailing barometer of acute public dissatisfaction with the White House surpasses the corresponding disaffection with President Richard M. Nixon when the Senate Watergate hearings began in May 1973. And Mr. Nixon had recently trounced Sen. George McGovern in the 1972 elections, winning 49 states. [www.slate.com]
• Please send an impeachment email and specific call to endorse H Res 333 to House Speaker NANCY PELOSI:
Attn: Nancy Pelosi, House Representative/Speaker of the House, 235 Cannon H.O.B., Washington, DC 20515
Pelosi’s Fax # 202 225-4188 (main fax) or 202-225-8259 (secondary fax) Pelosi’s e-mail address: Americanvoices@mail.house.gov
CC her at: sf.nancy@mail.house.gov
On Saturdays/Sundays, Pelosi’s office has a comment line at which you can leave a voicemail. Your message will be transcribed and relayed to her. Call 202-225-0100 [www.imprisonbush.com]
HOW THE HECK DOES CONGRESS IMPEACH THE BUMS?
• 1. Whether the charges come from a Member of Congress, or from a city, county or state, they will eventually end up in the Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives.
• 2. The House Judiciary Committee considers the charges and adopts a resolution to conduct an inquiry.
• 3. The resolution is sent from the Judiciary Committee to the House floor for a vote as a “question of privilege”. House of Representatives votes and passes the resolution by a majority vote.
• 4. The House Judiciary Committee conducts the inquiry or investigation into the crimes. The House Judiciary Committee approves Articles of Impeachment by a majority vote.
• 5. The House of Representative debates each article and passes at least one with a 50.5% majority vote. Bush is now officially “impeached”.
• 6. The Senate conducts a trial and convicts with a 2/3 majority of those Senators present.
• 7. The President, and hopefully also his VP and others, are removed from office.
• 8. According to the Jefferson Manual LIII, Section 604, resolutions that call for impeachment, or call for an investigations that suggests impeachment may be an end, are considered “privileged” and must be addressed before other business. [www.impeachbush.tv]
CONGRESSIONAL SNAPSHOT OF HOUSE
JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
STRATEGIC OUTLOOK
House Judiciary Committee = 40 Members
Dems = 22 Dems (1 chairperson)
Reps = 16 Reps (1 ranking member)
Six Dems from HJC have signed on impeachment train.
1. Tammy Baldwin
2. Steve Cohen (on subcommittee)
3. Maxine Waters
4. Keith Ellison (on subcommittee)
5. Hank Johnson
6. Sheila Lee-Jackson
Dems on HJC who have not signed on yet (all aboard!)
1. Lofgren, Zoe
2. Nadler, Jerrold
HJC members supporting Bush/Cheney
Gutierrez, Luis
2. Nadler, Jerrold (Chair of the subcommittee)
3. Sanchez, Linda T.
4. Watt, Melvin (on subcommittee)
[www.imprisonbush.com]_
It’s a whole lot quicker to slap the cuffs on Bush/Cheney/Rice right now!
ANOTHER COURAGEOUS CONGRESSWOMAN
VOTES TO IMPEACH CHENEY
In response to a request made during a Los Angeles Town Hall Q&A session — building on over 10,200 handwritten signatures gathered by Victor Oquendo, Lyn Jensen and numerous other LANIC impeachment activists and volunteers living in and near Congresswoman Diane Watson’s district — Congresswoman Diane Watson agreed on October 13, 2007 to immediately endorse the impeachment of both President Bush and Vice President Cheney and stated that she will sign on as an official co-sponsor for HRes 333.
The endorsement of H Res 333 was confirmed three times at the Iraq War Town Hall sponsored by CA Assembly Majority Leader, Karen Bass.
Congresswoman Diane E. Watson is the 22nd member of Congress to endorse H Res 333. The endorsement is effective immediately and will be formalized this coming week by her staff. House Resolution 333 is a resolution submitted to the House of Representatives on April 24, 2007 by Representative Dennis Kucinich during the 110th United States Congress that, if passed, would impeach Vice President Dick Cheney on three charges. [www.imprisonbush.com]
• SUPPORT TWO MORE COURAGEOUS CONGRESSWOMEN NOW
Call CA Senator Diane Feinstein 202-224-3841
Call CA Senator Barbara Boxer 202-224-3553
“It’s a funny thing, how close the words peace and impeach are to each other.”_[www.imprisonbush.com]
DON’T WAIT TO BITE THE ‘PEACH – RESIGN NOW!
Dubya & Dick, Resign Now And Avoid The Rush!
26% “support” and plummeting
It doesn’t get any more plain than this: Only 26% of Americans support the job that George W. Bush is doing as presidential pretender and Commander-In-Thief of the United States. He is accused of grave crimes against America, the Constitution, and international law. Everything that George W. Bush could have possibly failed at, he has!.
Wlecome to Restorative Justice: It is time for George W. Bush to resign, and for his handler Dick Cheney to join him comforting children and their mothers, and cleaning up Depleted Uranium in Iraq. (excerpted from www.imprisonbush.com)
WHO CAN I VOTE FOR?
Those who signed Congressional bill to impeach Dick Cheney for “high crimes and misdemeanors”
• Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OHIO] (introduced bill 4/24/2007)
• Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy [MISSOURI]
• Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. [ILLINOIS]
• Rep Wynn, Albert Russell [MARYLAND]
• Rep Clarke, Yvette D. [NEW YORK]
• Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [CALIFORNIA]
• Rep Lee, Barbara [CALIFORNIA]
• Rep Waters, Maxine [CALIFORNIA]
• Rep Ellison, Keith [MINNESOTA]
• Rep Johnson, Henry C. “Hank,” Jr. [GEORGIA]
• Rep McDermott, Jim [WASHINGTON]
• Rep Moran, James P. [VIRGINIA]
• Rep Farr, Sam [CALIFORNIA]
• Rep Filner, Bob [CALIFORNIA]
• Rep Brady, Robert A. [PENSSYLVANIA]
• Rep Baldwin, Tammy [WISCONSIN]
• Rep Payne, Donald M. [NEW JERSEY]
• Rep Cohen, Steve [TENNESSEE]
• Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TEXAS]
• Rep Kilpatrick, Carolyn C. [MICHIGAN]
• Rep Towns, Edolphus [NEW YORK]
• Rep Watson, Diane E. [CALIFORNIA]
[www.impeachpac.org]
STATE LEGISLATURES WHERE BUSH IMPEACHMENT
RESOLUTIONS HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED
• California
• Hawaii
• Illinois
• Maine State Legislature
• Minnesota
• Missouri
• New Hampshire
• New Mexico
• Texas
• Washington
• Wisconsin
MEDIA BLACKS OUT THE NEWS AS IMPEACHMENT TRAIN GATHERS STEAMED AMERICANS
By Dave Lindorff
The corporate media are disgracing themselves even further, if that is possible, on the impeachment story.
Three more members of Congress [have] signed on to Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s bill to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney (H Res 333), bringing the total number of co-sponsors of the bill to 10. That in itself would be national news, but there is more to it than simple numbers.
The new sponsors include two freshman, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, who ran for office calling for impeachment, and Hank Johnson, who took over the seat of pro-impeachment Rep. Cynthia McKinney (McKinney filed her own bill of impeachment against President Bush in the waning days of the last Congress), but the group also includes Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA).
What makes McDermott significant is that he is a senior member of the Washington state delegation to Congress, a 9th-term legislator with considerable clout in Congress who sits on the House Ways and Means and Judiciary Committees, who chairs the subcommittee on income security and family support, and who has, in the past, said he was opposed to impeachment.
While most of the other nine co-sponsors of H Res 333 were also among the group of 39 representatives who last year had signed on to Rep. John Conyers’ bill in the last Congress calling for creation of a special committee to investigate possible impeachable crimes by the administration, McDermott was never a backer.
In a related development, Kucinich’s bill, which was filed back on April 24, amid an almost complete news blackout, and which has languished for over two months, with the House Judiciary Committee, headed by Conyers (D-MI) taking no action on it, suddenly was referred this week to a Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, chaired by US Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) — a sign that it will be taken up by the full Judiciary Committee.
Despite all these breaking developments in the impeachment story, Friday’s and Saturday’s news reports around the nation had little or nothing on impeachment.
The New York Times, whose front pages and national pages influence the news decisions of editors across the country, has ignored the story completely, as has the Washington Post, which is supposed to be covering Washington-both astonishing examples of corporate media censorship. Even in Washington, Minnesota and Georgia, the main local papers only ran short briefs on the actions of their local Congress members.
But despite this journalistic lockdown, it is clear that the national grassroots impeachment is gaining power and momentum by the day.
Washington impeachment activists had long been pressing McDermott to join the impeachment campaign, but had been unsuccessful until this week.
His switch on the issue seems to have been the result of that pressure from his constituents, as well as from the latest actions of and revelations about the vice president.
A powerful series of news articles that ran in late June in the Washington Post has disclosed that the vice president was the driving force behind President Bush’s decision to violate the Geneva Conventions and to illegally deny international protections to captives in what he has called the War on Terror, including captives from Afghanistan and Iraq, and to establish a program of torture of captives.
Cheney also made the ludicrous assertion this week that he did not have to respond to Congressional subpoenas and requests for information about the activities of his office because as vice president, he is president of the Senate, and thus is not a part of the executive branch, (It is a claim that is contradicted by his own earlier assertions of “executive authority” in refusing to respond to Congressional requests for information.)
The Post’s silence about McDermott and about impeachment developments is particularly peculiar, given that the latest developments are in part due to the paper’s articles on Cheney’s actions. Normally, newspapers are quick to point to or even grab credit for the results of their scoops and investigative reports.
While other representatives who have signed on the H Res 333 have done so relatively quietly, or in Rep. Maxine Waters’ case, in a press conference, McDermott made his move with a public speech in the House.
In that Thursday evening address, he said the vice president should “resign or face impeachment,” saying, “The vice president holds himself above the law, and it is time for the Congress to enforce the law,”
In addition to citing Cheney’s role in deceiving Americans and Congress into supporting an invasion of Iraq, and threatening war with Iran, which are the charges in Kucinich’s impeachment bill, McDermott cited Cheney’s claim to be exempt from Congressional investigation and his refusal to comply with rules for the handling of classified information as grounds for his impeachment. It is not clear whether he intends to file his own impeachment bill on those issues, or to have them added to Kucinich’s bill.
Johnson also cited the vice president’s refusal to submit materials in his office to control by the Information Oversight Security Office as a reason for his decision to back impeachment.
So far, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), has not changed her position that “impeachment is off the table.” Rep. Conyers, for his part, has not spoken in favor of the Kucinich bill either.
But with seven members of Congress signing on to the Cheney impeachment bill over the past month, and more likely to do so in coming days and weeks, and with polls showing that the public both wants impeachment and is losing patience with the timidity and inaction of the Democratic Congress, it seems increasingly likely that their hands will be forced.
An interesting question will be when the corporate media will finally begin to honestly report on the impeachment story, and how news organizations will explain its seemingly magical appearance as a full-blown campaign in Congress.
Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-based investigative journalist and columnist, whose work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net. His latest book, “The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006 and available now in paperback), was co-authored by Barbara Olshansky. [www.democrats.com]
GET YOUR IMPEACHMENT KIT HERE
LINK TO LIST OF RESOLUTIONS PASSED AND INTRODUCED AROUND THE USA_Two-page citizen’s guide to impeachment._10-page PDF booklet called A Guide to the Impeachment of George W Bush and Richard Cheney_Model Impeachment Resolution for City, Town, County, or State_Sample letter to city or town council
Talking Points Flyer.
Get organized locally here. Sample Petition: HTML, Word, PDF
To collect signatures on your petition online, post it here and link to it from your website. Then use flyers, posters, events, earned media, and advertising to drive people to your site to sign the petition.
• Sample Media Advisory, General Media Tips_Media Coverage Thus Far
Sample advertisement for local newspapers. How to Lobby.
More Resources
DON’T SHOP ‘TIL THEY DROP! “Stop Shopping” Campaign
Reduce your purchases of all non-essential U.S. goods by 50% – until Congress impeaches Bush & Cheney. Bush told us to ‘go shopping’. Don’t!(Impeachment educaitonal materials exempted) [www.bcimpeach.com]
IMPEACHMENT WILL HAPPEN – BELIEVE IT!
While we are spreading the word that impeachment is absolutely what the country needs to start the recovery process from the damage inflicted on us by Bush & Cheney, we are constantly hearing, “It’s too late”, “there’s not enough time”, and “they’ll be out of office soon enough anyway”-wrong, wrong, and wrong!!!
Folks, here’s how it’s gonna go down: Because of our constant and relentless prodding, Congress will start impeachment proceedings. Impeachment investigations will ‘trump’ the Administration’s shield of Executive Privilege. The real reasons for their unprecedented veil of secrecy will surface-self preservation-hiding their lies. [www.impeachbushcheney.net]
SEE VIDEOS HERE
Lies! Lies! Lies!
Neil Young: Let’s Impeach The President Now
Ralph Nader – Bush Unsafe At Any Speed
Keith Obermann Is Choked
IMPEACH BUSHCHENEY WEBSITES
www.impeachbush.org
www.ImpeachCheney.org
www.afterdowningstreet.org
www.impeachpac.org
www.bcimpeach.com
