Daily Archives: April 21, 2007

The Ramparts are Crumbling

(A word from our fearless leader: Subcommandante DeWalt! – promoted by Brattlerouser)

The people of Vermont have just taken another giant step towards the day of reckoning for the G.W. Bush administration. When we were told by the Democratic leadership in the Vermont legislature that there was no chance of impeachment action being taken by them, we refused to acquiesce and instead flooded the Statehouse demanding that they listen to their constituents and honor the Constitution. We also presented our case through letters to the editor and by calling in to radio shows across the state. Our arguments convinced many prominent commentators and editors to echo our calls, and when the heat had sufficiently turned up the pressure, the Vermont Senate changed course, introduced and voted quickly for an impeachment resolution demanding that the national Congress do their job and bring charges against Bush and Cheney.

Just last week, Peter Shumlin, the Senate president pro-temp said that getting such a resolution done in a day, as I had advocated, was like saying that you were going to Mars for the weekend, and that if I could get it done, I could have his job. Of course it took a skilled politician like Mr. Shumlin to know how to do such a thing and it is to his credit that he recognized the necessity to take action. He should keep his job and remember this lesson.

There’s more…

Gaye Symington, the Speaker of the House, is still firmly stuck in the mud and refuses to reconsider her opposition to action in the House, but she has yet to feel the full force of the slings and arrows of outraged Vermonters.

It is not that we have spoken. It is that we have just begun to speak. We gain new volunteers to our movement literally every day and the legislature will soon find itself unable to consider anything but taking up an impeachment resolution as we make ourselves at home in their chambers.

I just spent a few days in western Pennsylvania, in an area where Democrats are afraid to raise their heads. And even there I saw many signs that support for this administration’s flailing and disastrous attempts to bully the world is crumbling.

Vermont is showing the nation that, even in our present system, where politicians and the media are influenced and controlled by their corporate masters, where money matters above all else, and when the American attention span has dropped to a matter of seconds, it is possible for a grass-roots peoples’ movement to change the designated course that our leaders think that they should be following, and to instead shame them to live up to their oaths of office and to do what is right and necessary.

Every American who is willing to pull his or her head out of the sand understands that we can no longer sit idly by while our “leaders” destroy the very foundations upon which this nation stands.

All of New England is beginning to unite and work together to force impeachment upon the Congress. Citizens in close to a dozen other states are doing the same. We will not cease and we will not be stopped. When the truth is on your side and the fate of the Republic hangs in the balance, all that remains is for those who understand to be willing to take a stand. That is what is happening today. While a Senate resolution from tiny Vermont will not be the stone that brings down this Goliath and its monstrous war, but we have just witnessed the first revolution of the sling.

Dan DeWalt

Locally Impeach

cross posted on Evolving Peace
(http://evolvingworld…)

As I have written in my last post we as society need to give thanks and praise to our elected officials when they follow the path of consciousness and do the right thing. To those outside of Vermont, Friday April 20, 2007 the Vermont State Senate voted to recommend that President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney both deserve to be impeached. Contrary, to what the Vermont’s congressional delegation, Vermont’s Senate has determined that this Presidential administration has committed crimes and atrocities that are going to affect all of us for years to come and that politics whether it be within the halls of Congress or our small town halls all issues are deeply affected. All politics is local and until we as a society make amends with what has occurred at the national level, we as a democracy can not move forward.

It is a crime that we as a society have to debate for sources of funding for education and health care while there are unlimited resources for global wars based on lies. Once we stop the false needs for wars maybe just by chance we can have all the money for human needs and not just for the destruction of the planet. So when one governmental body makes a bold move and recommendations impeachment of a standing president we as a society should reflect on what has transpired.

I thank Senate President Pro-Tem Peter Shumlin for allowing this historic vote to move forward and foreshadowing the general mood of the population. We the people of Vermont have asked for it and we the people of Vermont have received it, the next step is now for the Vermont House of Representatives to pass the same legislation and while there meets resistance from speaker Gaye Symington, I remind the populace that the Vermont legislature represents us and if the speaker is so inclined to fail to respond to the people’s wishes we the population have the right to not support her.

At this present juncture in time I am inclined to support Senator Shumlin since he valiantly proved to act to the best of his ability and with that resolve I refuse to stand behind Speaker Symington. Speaker Symington is obstructing justice and to me that is just guilty as those who have perpetrated the crimes against our constitution. Speaker Symington, ignoring of the impeachment issue is inexcusable, for the people have asked for it. Impeachment is local and in case you have not noticed almost forty local towns overwhelming voted for impeachment. Let’s impeach and move forward towards seeking answers for education, health care and funding for renewable energy. America has been plagued by a cancer like administration and as any treatment prescribes eradication we must do the same within the government. First comes impeachment and then comes the healing.

So while the Vermont State Senate choose to act and the US Congress  and the Vermont House continues to dillydally in the process of impeachment the country’s safety and security rests in the hands of a man who has lied, tortured and is responsible for the deaths of countless individuals. I thank the Vermont Senate and I urge the rest of elected officials to follow their lead.  It is important that American begins to heal but until we fully analyze the inner valleys of our democracy and punish those who led us astray we will be stuck in a perpetual cycle of cronyism and opportunism. Those who have led the country astray must pay, and thank you Vermont State Senate for answering our pleas. 
Peace
Robb
Kidd

“Impeachment is not a remedy for private wrongs; it’s a method of removing someone whose continued presence in office would cause grave danger to the nation.” Counsel for President Bill Clinton