(Note: this diary’s literary style has in some part been inspired by Maryscott O’Connor. Mad props to her, and before you ask, I would SO hit that.)
Ales all around!
Tapping foam below the fold.
Ales on my tab:
For residents of NEWFANE, MARLBORO, PUTNEY, DUMMERSTON, and BROOKFIELD! At Town meetings last night, FIVE Vermont towns passed resolutions calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Whether or not this is a PRACTICAL action is of minimal relevance. What is relevant is the statement made – and the news coverage it is generating.
The lackluster, fumbling responses from the podpeople are also quite entertaining:
Jim Barnett, chairman of the Vermont Republican Party, said, “We should not be impeaching presidents just because we disagree with them.”
Right on! You go, Jim!
We should not impeach presidents because we disagree with them. We impeach presidents because they BREAK THE LAW.
Is there anyone out there, besides John Yoo and Alberto Gonzales, who can look me in the eye with a straight face and tell me this President has not broken the law?
If there is, it would undoubtedly sound like this” “Geoj Dubah Buth hath naw boken duh waw.”
Why so muffled?
Because while making that statement, they would undoubtedly be otherwise occupied, giving Dubya a prostate massage with their tongues.
Courtesy of a Kagro X diary on dKos, here’s Maplefrost’s RUTLAND RESOLUTION, which hopefully one day will be engraved in stone on a marker somewhere in the Rutland Courthouse Historic District:
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Section 603 of the Manual of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives provides for impeachments to be initiated on a motion based on charges transmitted from a state legislature, and
WHEREAS, George W. Bush has committed high crimes and misdemeanors as he has repeatedly and intentionally violated the United States Constitution and other laws of the United States, particularly the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Torture Convention, which under Article VI of the Constitution is a treaty as part of the “supreme law of the land”,
WHEREAS, George W. Bush has acted to strip Americans of their constitutional rights by ordering indefinite detention of citizens, without access to legal counsel, without charge and without opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the President of a U.S. citizen as an “enemy combatant”, all in subversion of law, and
WHEREAS, George W. Bush has ordered and authorized the Attorney General to override judicial orders for the release of detainees under U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly INS) jurisdiction, even though the judicial officer after full hearing has determined that a detainee is held wrongfully by the Government, and
WHEREAS, George W. Bush has ordered at least thirty times the National Security Agency to intercept and otherwise record international telephone and other signals and communications by American citizens without warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, duly constituted by Congress in 1978, and designated certain U.S. citizens as “enemy combatants”, all in violation of constitutional guarantees of due process, and
WHEREAS George W. Bush has admitted that he willfully and repeatedly violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and boasted that he would continue to do so, each violation constituting a felony,
NOW THEREFORE the Rutland County Democratic Committee submits that his actions and admissions constitute ample grounds for his impeachment, and that the General Assembly of the State of Vermont has good cause for submitting charges to the U.S. House of Representatives under Section 603 as grounds for George W. Bush’s impeachment.
The County Committee further submits that Articles of Impeachment should charge that George W. Bush has violated his constitutional oath to execute faithfully the office of President and to the best of his ability to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
In all of this George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President, subversive of constitutional government to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the State of Vermont and of the United States.
WHEREFORE, George W. Bush, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any offices of honor, trust or profit under the United States.
February 28, 2006
Adopted: February 28, 2006
Just the existence of this, along with the five resolutions passed at Town Meetings last night, is cause for celebration in itself.
Vermont is LEADING THE WAY.
Hopefully, other states in New England – the birthplace of the nation – will follow. Perhaps we are the best suited to remind the country of the impetus for forming this nation in the first goddamned place:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness……..And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Therefore, the arguments that this movement is “futile”; “cannot succeed”; “will hurt Democrats” are respectively untrue, irrelevant, and straight-ahead bullshit.
Those saying that are politicians. The PEOPLE are not career politicians. The people can make this sort of statement without fear of political repercussions. The people are not running a campaign for Senate against a monied carpetbagger who wants to make his mark in Vermont so he can retire to Florida.
The people have nothing to lose – except through inaction, timidity, and fealty to the influence of politicians.
But even politicians get it right sometimes.
Here, then, is a compelling argument for the impeachment of George W. Bush, framed around the argument that he has abrogated his oath of office:
That oath constituted a compact between the President and the American people. That compact has been broken. The people’s trust has been betrayed. The nation’s chief executive has shown himself unwilling or incapable of enforcing its laws, for he has corrupted the rule of law.
Well, yeah. Pardon you for stating the obvious…..wait. That’s…oh, wow, man, did I ever screw up! That’s….uh…..Henry Hyde, talking about the overwhelming importance to the health of the Republic of impeaching Bill Clinton!
Whooooops.
Okay, wait a minute, dammit…I’ll find you a better one………
I believe that this nation sits at a crossroads. One direction points to the higher road of the rule of law. Sometimes hard, sometimes unpleasant, this path relies on truth, justice and the rigorous application of the principle that no man is above the law.
Now, the other road is the path of least resistance. This is where we start making exceptions to our laws……This is when we pitch the law completely overboard when the mood fits us, when we ignore the facts in order to cover up the truth.
Shall we follow the rule of law and do our constitutional duty no matter unpleasant, or shall we follow the path of least resistance, close our eyes to the potential lawbreaking, forgive and forget, move on and tear an unfixable hole in our legal system? No man is above the law, and no man is below the law. That’s the principle that we all hold very dear in this country.
No man is above the law! I’m down with that….what? That’s WHO? HAMMER TIME? You mean that’s the Bugman? Tom DeLay, talking about……impeaching Clinton……..shitshitshitshitshit.
Okay….how ’bout this:
Because of the unwillingness of members of Congress to stop the usurpation of power by the President, they are acquiescing in it and they are part of that overall problem. But I think the greater problem is that the members of Congress don’t understand what impeachment is and don’t really understand what abuse of power is. Just as many average citizens have no real concept of what impeachment is, I’m finding out through having worked on this issue and studied it over the last few months that there is a surprising lack of understanding among the members of Congress about it. There is also a lack of understanding of what our government ought to be and what it was intended to be. It’s difficult enough to get members of Congress to focus on some of the specific concrete examples that are readily understandable…….as a practical matter, *it may be impossible to get them to focus on some of these more fundamental, yet more difficult to understand, concepts. That they are difficult to understand, of course, is an indication of how far we’ve drifted from basic constitutional principles.*
Oh, that’s that greasy little man: former Congressman Bob Barr, once again arguing for the neutering of the Big Dawg.
Although something’s happened to Bob – he found God, or started seriously losing sleep over his karma lately, or something. But never mind that.
Would someone care to explain to me what, in the here and now, is so fucking DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND?
My point, and I hope I made it, is that a statement from the PEOPLE is, necessarily, free of political taint or restraint. Read the foregoing quotations again – and remember that most of this was over a BLOWJOB.
Tell you what:
Getting back to Bush for a moment, if you don’t mind terribly…….if it’ll get this fucker impeached, I’ll PERSONALLY blow him. I gotsa rotsa risterine, and I’m sure SOMEBODY’ll step forward to help me pay for the years and years of psychotherapy I’ll require.
Free it from the politicians. Make it a POPULAR MOVEMENT. It has BEGUN, and let no one stop it. No one. No political agenda may stand in the way of this statement being made by the people to whom George Walker Bush swore an oath that he has repeatedly abrogated.
There’s been so many things thats held us down.
But now it looks like things are finally comin’ around.
I know we’ve got, a long long way to go,
and where we’ll end up, I don’t know.
But we won’t let nothin’ hold us back,
we’re putting our selves together,
we’re polishing up our act!
If you felt we’ve been held down before,
I know you’ll refuse to be held down anymore!
Don’t you let nothing, nothing,
Stand in your way!
I want ya’ll to listen, listen,
to every word I say, every word I say!
Ain’t No Stoppin Us Now!
We’re on the move!
Ain’t No Stoppin Us Now!
We’ve got the groove!
I know you know someone that has a negative vibe,
and if you’re trying to make it they only push you aside.
They really don’t have, no where to go.
Ask them where they’re going, they don’t know.
But we won’t let nothin’ hold us back,
we’re gonna put our selves together,
we’re gonna polish up our act!
And if you’ve ever been held down before,
I know you’ll refuse to be held down anymore!
Don’t you let nothing, nothing,
Stand in your way!
I want ya’ll to listen, listen,
to every word I say, every word I say!
Ain’t No Stoppin Us Now!
We’re on the move!
Ain’t No Stoppin Us Now!
We’ve got the groove!
-McFadden and Whitehead
For mankind to hate truth as it may bring their evil deeds to light and punishment, is very easy and common, but to hate truth as truth, or God as God, which is the same as to hate goodness for its own sake, unconnected with any other consequences, is impossible even to a (premised) diabolical nature itself.
-Ethan Allen
It’s the last call for alcohol. You ain’t got to go home but you got to get the hell outa here.
Unless, of course, you care to comment on my sincere attempts at sedition.
Freedom and Unity.