Below is a post from Allyson Villars, wife of impeachment marcher John Nirenberg. This is not just a coutionary tale. This is a new and stark reality. Thank God Peter Welch is protecting the major league home record from steroid fueled batsmen.

Dan

Yesterday, I was ecstatic to be able to surprise John by being at the end of his march from Boston to Washington. But my excitement suddenly turned to shock when we went with a few rally participants to view the actual Constitution. Upon entering the National Archives building I was stopped and told that I could not enter wearing my yellow rain poncho. When I asked “Why,” I was told that they don’t allow anyone in the building wearing a protest slogan on their clothing. My poncho read “Save the Constitution” and continued with “Impeach Bush/Cheney…Tell Speaker Pelosi (202) 225-0100.” Finally it listed the web address: www.marchinmyname.org.

I was pulled from the security line. The guard said, “Step over here,” and unhooked the cordoning rope so I could move aside. The man behind me, Larry, was wearing a light jacket over a green t-shirt that said “Impeach Bush.” He made Larry move out of line as well.

I tried to talk to the guard about my goal in being in the building – simply to see the Constitution of the United States. He wasn’t convinced and kept repeating his mantra, “Just take off the poncho and you can go in.” I asked him what was wrong with my poncho. He replied that they do not allow protests inside the building. I said that I was not protesting, that I was just an American citizen visiting the most important document of our country.

He kept talking over me. I said I wanted to speak to his supervisor and asked a friend in line to call the press and tell them that I was being barred from visiting our Constitution because of a message on my clothing.

Captain Judd and C. Bethea arrived quickly and identified themselves as supervisors and made an effort to explain to me why I could not wear my poncho. I calmly but forcefully asked them, “How it is that I was denied my freedom of expression if I was not actively protesting, or carried a sign, or in any way disturbed others?” I also mentioned that other people went into the archives with protest t-shirts and baseball caps saying, for example: “Stop the War for Oil,” and “Vote for Hillary.” Apparently those people were allowed in by mistake and officer C. Bethea said he would make certain they would be found and escorted out. But Captain Judd corrected Bethea and said that those wearing election campaign garments like “Elect Edwards” or “pro solar power” t-shirts were okay since they were “for” something. I responded, “Well I am for Saving the Constitution.” That did not convince him. He was now in mantra mode and simply repeated his command, “Just take off the poncho and you can go in or leave.”

Larry, with the green “Impeach Bush” t-shirt, buttoned his thin jacket, moved back into line and proceeded through the security checkpoint. I asked for the guards’ names. They wrote them down and when asked to tell me who their boss was so I could call him or her on Monday, “I was told to look it up on the Archives website.”

Then, I asked for a copy of the policy that mandated I remove my objectionable clothing in order to see the Constitution. They would provide nothing. They were unmoved. I asked them to tell me what they would have done if Larry didn’t have a jacket. Would they require him to take off his shirt and then go into the building half naked? They basically said they wouldn’t respond. Larry’s shirt was not an issue anymore…I asked them how the policy is practiced – that knowing how they interpret and implement the policy might help me understand the policy or law I was violating. They simply and finally said, “You will have to leave if you do not remove your garment.”

I chose to leave. I chose to leave because I refused to give up my rights to see the very document that provided those rights. I told Captain Judd that he might want to consider the good Germans who were part of the 3rd Reich machinery that took away the freedoms of Jews, and ultimately their lives. And, as I was turning to leave, I told him he was part and parcel of the reason that I found it necessary to articulate my point of view to “Save the Constitution,” on my clothing. “You might want to read the Constitution before you leave work today to find out what this is all about.” I said as I left.

I stood outside in my poncho in a silent protest until my friends returned.

I learned that a woman who cleared security wore a t-shirt that said “Impeach Bush.” Security guard C. Bethea later found her and made her borrow a jacket or leave the building. He also found my husband who was wearing a baseball cap that said “Impeach Cheney?” and made him take it off.

My thoughts go to those of you who see this as a small thing…perhaps even trivial. To those who believe this was just a ridiculous over-escalation in response to a security guard doing his job, let me tell you that our Constitutional rights are being stripped away one at a time and that it seems that most Americans who take these protections for granted will not “get it” until they, too, have their rights denied. Our being denied our rights is happening with more mind-numbing frequency than ever, and gets worse with each one of these new “trivial” moves.

I suppose I shouldn’t expect people to be upset about this is they are not upset about having lost their right to know what they are being charged with when they are arrested, possibly tortured and denied a speedy trial.

It may be just one more, sad instance of our rights being denied us, but remember, as it says on the outside wall of the National Archives, “Eternal vigilance in the price of liberty.” I hope you will take this seriously and decide where you will draw the line, what you will stand up for, what you will stand up for.

Brattleboro Vermont resident Kurt Daims has drafted a ballot question petition calling for the town to indict George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for crimes against the Constitution, and making it the law that if either man comes to town, he would be liable to arrest.

Some will say that this is just another unenforceable ordinance at best, and an absurdity at worst. Others worry that it will detract from the gravity of the impeachment movement as it stands today, on the cusp of forcing hearings in the House Judiciary committee. The argument will be made that such “extreme” rhetorical proclamations only serve to divide us further from each other, marginalizing the demand for accountability, rather than promoting it.

Upon reflection these arguments can be answered and laid to rest.

To date, the most persuasive and productive arguments for impeachment have been based upon the Constitution, which is suffering most egregiously under this administration and Congress, and which expressly proscribes the remedy to be taken should these circumstances arise. And while these arguments are making headway in the halls of Congress, where impeachment must happen, the politicians who are supposed to represent us do not yet understand the depth and breadth of our disgust and dismay with their dereliction of duty. While a growing number have joined the call for impeachment, far too many are towing the identical Republican/Democratic party line of ignoring the Bush/Cheney administration’s repeated constitutional violations.

When we last faced a King George who labored to: “subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution” by: “depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury: For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses”, when we last found that “our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury”, we knew what conclusion to draw: “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.” These of course are quotes from the Declaration of Independence. And when this document was solemnly signed and made public, it had no legal standing whatsoever. It had no chance of succeeding against the world’s greatest empire. It alienated the colonists still friendly to England. It drew a line that clearly demarcated the divide that already existed in colonial society. Those who signed it were branded as radicals and, in fact, made outlaws by virtue of their signatures.

Independence was declared because the laws and actions of the government were violating the laws of nature and common morality. As members of a commonweal, colonists understood that it was their inherent right, if not duty, to rise in defense of societal standards of humanity, decency and fairness. Mr. Daims and others who drafted the Brattleboro Bush/Cheney Indictment are acting in the same spirit, and with the same moral authority as our founders did in 1776.

Prosecutors in France, Spain and many other countries have issued indictments for crimes against humanity committed outside of their borders, without regard to the nationality of the perpetrator. In some cases, prosecutors have won arrests, extraditions and prosecutions. Why shouldn’t Brattleboro give precedence to Constitutional, American and International law, rather than bow to political expediency and a misplaced desire to not rock the boat? The boat has already foundered. The nation is already divided. Our political leaders have debased themselves and rendered our Republic dysfunctional.

Let us support this call for an indictment. Let Brattleboro show the nation that in the current course of events, it has become necessary for Americans to take action. The current government respects neither the Constitution nor the people. Let us represent ourselves.

Dan DeWalt

                                                   

by Dan DeWalt

John Nirenberg, www.marchinmyname.org is walking from Boston to Nancy Pelosi’s Washington D.C. office, gathering support from Americans along the way to tell her to put impeachment back on the table.

I had the pleasure of joining him on December 15, in Westport and Norwalk Connecticut where, along with covering a few miles of Route 1, we joined vigils in each town. Westport has a long tradition of citizens holding vigils on the route’s bridge over the Saugatuck River. With a few notable exceptions, most of the folks braving the wind and cold that day were senior citizens, many having obvious difficulty navigating the uneven surface of frozen snow that covered the bridge’s sidewalks. Some of the women there were the very same who had laid down in their fur coats to shut down that bridge back in 1971, in reaction to Nixon’s mining of North Vietnam’s harbors. How many wearers of fur today would be willing to lie down in the street for a principle, bringing business as usual to a screeching halt?

Lately, the typical turnout for a Saturday has been hovering at around ten. Because some local folks had spread the word, and the local newspapers had given John’s march some coverage, the turnout on the 15th was closer to 50.  People were glad to hear about his march and inspired by his dedication and clarity of purpose.

All along the route folks who have been moved to join him, briefly giving themselves a chance to act, have greeted John. Large events are spontaneously springing up in his path. On Wednesday, December 19th, from 4:30-6:30, John will be joined by Elizabeth Holtzman and Clarice Torrence at St. Mark’s church in NYC. Scores of volunteers have been spreading the word, trying to reach activists, everyday citizens and media outlets. These efforts are just as important as the support being offered along the road itself.

Time and time again news editors and producers have told us that impeachment is a dead issue and a non-story. In fact, when we try to make the case that the American peoples’ call for impeachment is growing ever louder in spite of being out of range of the media radar screen, we are told that we are self-centered and even “nasty” for having the temerity to not meekly disappear when ignored. They are not willing to acknowledge the power that their news coverage has to manipulate public opinion.

By consistently ignoring or downplaying the peace movement and marches, the Iraq veterans who are speaking out against the war, the true cost and casualties of the war, and grass roots movements like those that have been keeping the call for impeachment very much alive and growing, mainstream media (including NPR) has helped convince a majority of Americans that it is no longer worth their time or effort to even cast a vote at the ballot box.

This of course is right where they want us, safely removed from the equation that leads to prosperity for the very few who now hold the power. And while an extra forty or so protesters on a bridge in Westport CT do not pose a threat to this status quo, hundreds and thousands of citizens joining John along his route would begin to send a different message.

Let’s swell the numbers of those who are reaching out to local and national media outlets of all kinds, demanding that they start covering the stories that represent what the people of this nation are about, the stories that represent what this nation could become with an informed and demanding populace, stories like John’s that not only tell about an American of conscience, but about a Constitution in crisis as well.

Congress has been bought and is almost hopelessly controlled by corporate interests. Media companies also have been largely brought under corporate control. But there are many journalists who operate within this dreary atmosphere who still have an interest in telling compelling stories. But they rarely stick their necks out to report on stories that have been deemed “dead” (like impeachment) unless there is a repeated drumbeat of requests and reminders coming their way from many different sources.

This is what we need to do as citizens, and we need to do it now. Just days ago, three members of the House Judiciary Committee wrote an op-ed explaining why Cheney impeachment hearings should be started at once in the House. It is a clear and unequivocal document. It also has the distinction of not being able to find a significant American newspaper willing to publish it. Congressman Wexler had to publish it on his impeachment website. The government does not need to enact censorship when the media does it for them without prompting. We citizens must take it upon ourselves to harangue, browbeat and boycott the advertisers of media outlets that follow only the conventional wisdom of what constitutes news.

We need to force the media to report on the stories that reflect the rest of us, the vast majority of this country that have been left out of the decision making, and who do not endorse the current policies of criminal war, corporate power and a runaway executive branch of government. For when we start to hear about all the others like John Nirenberg, who are working for change and saying no to the corrupt system that is strangling our society, we start to believe again that there could be hope for America. We need to raise the stakes for ourselves and move from the passive vigil on the sidelines to being an active participant in the trenches. And the trenches have to range beyond the landscape of the Internet. We all need to invest time and effort in the tangible world of newspapers, television, radio, and human interaction in the streets and town halls in order to bring people back to the commonweal that they have abandoned out of lassisitude and despair. The majority of Americans are not with the Republicans or the Democrats. The majority has decided that voting is a farce and they won’t participate. We need to give them something to believe in again. And that does not come in the shape of a new politician to lead us out of the night. We need to believe in ourselves once again. To believe and understand that like John Nirenberg, we can make a difference simply by deciding to act.

P.S. I think that Vermont progressive Dems and others should pat themselves on the back for helping our D.C. delegation to finally say no to Iraq war funding. Let’s keep the pressure on.

Once again, a solitary citizen has acted on his conscience and taken an action that should inspire us all to step up and pitch in.

John Nirenberg, a 60 year old retired academic, a man who had never considered himself an activist, realized that he could no longer abide the general state of depression and shame that he felt as an American being “represented” by the Bush administration’s policies of torture, aggressive war and trampling on civil liberties.

Realizing that impeachment is the only way that this cabal can be stopped, and understanding that the Constitution requires impeachment in such times, Nirenberg has embarked on a walk from Boston to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office in Washington D.C., where he will tell the Speaker to put impeachment back on the table.

In fact, Pelosi has abused her office by thinking that she had the prerogative to take it off of the table in the first place. While she and her Democratic cohorts have proven themselves submissive and subservient to Bush/Cheney, whom they were elected to oppose, they have shown themselves remarkably cavalier about ignoring the Constitution, to which they took an oath of office to uphold and defend.

John decided to take this walk entirely on his own, with no organization or infrastructure supporting the journey or helping to publicize it. But within days, activists, citizens and organizations came on board and have helped him to connect with a network of Americans who will be joining him in their towns when he comes through.

And this is where you can help out. Go to John’s website www.marchinmyname.org and add your name to the thousands calling for impeachment that he hopes to dump on Pelosi’s desk when he arrives in early January. In addition to your name, John wants photos and testimonials that he can deliver – items that can’t be discarded with the touch of a delete button. You can mail them to PO Box 17, South Newfane VT 05351, and I will get them to him before he reaches D.C.

John is walking along U.S. highway 1 following the coast until he heads inland to D.C. Check out his itinerary and spread the word to anyone you know who lives along the east coast. If people can shake off some of their lethargy and hopelessness, we could make this into a major peoples’ march that our sniveling and cowardly politicians won’t be able to ignore.

Reactions posted on his website show that, although the vast majority of Americans who know about this are excited and appreciative, there are those who see him as a traitor and would like to see his project come to a bad end. We must mobilize ourselves to stand with John, and show him that those who have the courage to oppose illegal and immoral government will enjoy the support and assistance of the American people. Only if we pitch in and add our voices, will John be able to realize his goal of making a difference in changing the course of this failing democracy.

           Preparatory to General Petraeus’ testimony today, some Congress members, incensed by a Move-On.org full page ad in the NY Times referring to him as General Betray us, lashed out at that organization and the “Left” in general for daring to utter a doubting word about the General. Then they extolled grandiloquently about his virtue, honor, patriotism, truthfulness, and their utter faith in his every word. The military code of honor would forever hold its finest.

            There was a time not long ago when these overwrought protestations would have at least been grounded in truth. There was a recent time when our nation looked to such a General, a man whom we could trust without reservation. In fact, without this fine General, the very embodiment of military honor, George W. Bush would not have been able to convince the Congress and the public to let him start his criminal and murderous war.

            But General Colin Powell let us down. He stood before the United Nations and the world, and when he pointed at the little maps and smudgy photos, he presented “facts” that were no such thing, made sweeping conclusions that were dead wrong, and when he was finished, America lined up behind the administration and smartly saluted.

Years later, when it was too late to do any good, Powell owned up somewhat to his failure. But in the meantime a country has been turned into a nightmare, millions of people have had to flee their homeland, and upwards of a million have been killed outright as a result of the policies which he helped scam into place.

            When Colin Powell enabled Bush/Cheney to launch their crooked war, he had the same credibility and was accorded the same honor as General Petraeus today. It is not any slur against Petraeus if people are skeptical about his testimony. This administration has politicized the military to an alarming degree. They have plowed through Generals at a steady pace during this war and hope that finally Petraeus will be the one to achieve their impossible dreams.

            General Petraeus assures us that he wrote his own speech, and he probably penned the words. But what exactly was the purpose of all of the work being done at the White House to help prepare the report?  This General’s job is to do the bidding of the Commander in Chief. This report was about justification and cheer leading and there is no way that it can be seen as anything other than the military leadership’s attempt to spin the war on the administration’s behalf.

            Whatever you think of Move-On.org, they have every right to question this General’s testimony. The Bush/Cheney administration has shown us that they will lie and lie and lie again. The fact that anyone is willing to give them any credibility at all is astounding, let alone to presume that we should automatically trust anyone who is associated with them not to misrepresent reality when convenient.

            Increasingly lost in this swirl of debate over the quality of the surge’s “successes” is the fact that the surge was not to prove that thousands of American troops could control isolated areas of a small nation that has been crippled by years of war. No, it was to create breathing room for the politicians to organize their democracy. But since that hasn’t even begun to happen, they’ve just changed the debate, as they always do, and now they’re all talking tactics and strategies and we’ll soon see if the politicians are all corrupted enough, and we’re all numb enough to follow them once again down the yellow brick road. Peace is War. Lies are Truth. Go Shopping.

         By  Dan DeWalt

        “President” Bush may not be willing to visit Vermont, but one of Vermont’s finest, ex-marine Matt Howard, was in Australia today delivering the message to Bush and the world that we have seen through his lies, calling him and his sycophants out for their criminal Iraq adventure.

            The three mile steel barrier that the city erected to keep the Decider from being exposed to the multitudes who disagree with and despise him may have prevented him from hearing the words of Mr. Howard, but listeners to the BBC/WBUR program The World, distributed across the U.S. by Public Radio International were treated to a short but articulate condemnation of the Bush Iraq war policy by Mr. Howard.

            It is good and remarkable that we were able to hear this bit of dissension, but it is too bad that we only seem to hear about it when it happens on the other side of the globe.

            While the Bush administration is clearly the main culprit to be blamed for our current pariah status in the world, we must now be targeting the Democratic leadership that is enabling these crimes to continue and the media that reports selectively on the subject.

            It is a difficult pill to swallow that the Democrats are ultimately proving themselves to be merely another branch of the national security state, continually funding Bush’s war and giving him even more draconian powers to spy on Americans than he had hoped for, but that is the reality that we face.

            It is also difficult to accept that the supposed liberal media, exemplified by National Public Radio, spend most of their time merely parroting the war machine publicists’ talking points and framing the debate just as the Bush/Cheney orchestrators would have them do, but that is also today’s reality.

            As grim as our world has been for the past few years, it is only darker and more serious today. Bush is very likely to launch a military strike against Iran in the near future. Sources in the military have been leaking opinions that it may well be a massive strike, designed to cripple Iran’s military capabilities by bombing targets throughout the country. This would have catastrophic consequences and we must not let it happen.

            We cannot rely on the Democrats to do anything but wring their hands and fund such  actions. We cannot rely upon the media to inform us about impending actions. They will only earnestly regurgitate the spin fed to them by the administration and scramble to make sure that they won’t be perceived as not being patriotic enough.

            It is time for every one of us to stand as Matt Howard did today. It is time for every one of us to accost the Republicans, the Democrats and the news outlets that serve us, both nationally and locally.

            We must put them all on notice that the continuation of lawless, immoral and reprehensible policies by our government will be met by strikes, protests and disruption of business as usual by every one of us. We must shake them from their complacency and put them in fear for their very own livelihoods and futures.

            September marks the beginning of many organized efforts in the peace community to raise awareness and to get people onto the streets and into the halls of Congress.

            Bush famously stated that we are either with him or with the terrorists. The death and destruction resulting from his actions have now far eclipsed anything that the terrorists have done.

It is time that we repudiate them both and stop equivocating.

(NOTE: The statement I have blockquoted in the diary text demanded that I, as is my responsibility as a site administrator, demote this diary from the front page on the basis that it is in conflict with GMD’s stated identity as a Democratic blog. This action on my part should not be construed as agreement or disagreement with the statement itself, but rather as an enforcement action taken in the interest of GMD’s mission. Pure meta. -kestrel9000)

This past Sunday, July 29, over 50 impeachment activists from seven northeastern states met in Worcester MA to spearhead a united push for impeachment across the region.

Below is our Statement of Purpoose and a regional call for actions in the next two months.

Dan DeWalt

Northeast Impeachment Coalition Statement of Purpose

Our nation is in crisis. The executive branch of the Bush administration has breached constitutional rule in our Republic. They have shown contempt for our nation, the Constitution and the principle of the separation of powers by asserting a self-professed authority to block oversight of the executive branch by Congress and the courts.

If this assault on the separation of powers goes unchecked, it will set a dangerous precedent, encouraging future presidents to act contrary to the interests of the nation with impunity.

Impeachment of the President and Vice President is the only constitutional remedy available to the Congress that addresses executive abuse of power. Yet Congress has refused to act.

Every member of Congress takes an oath of office to preserve and defend the Constitution. They have an ethical obligation to act in its defense without exceptions for political expediency. Every member acknowledged this professional obligation when they swore their personal solemn and sacred oath.

Failure by Congress to impeach puts the Constitution, the rule of law, civil liberties and our democratic form of government at severe risk.

MORE BELOW THE FOLD. 

Whereas George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have:

1. Doctored intelligence, as described in the Downing Street minutes and deliberately misled the nation about the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war of aggression and an occupation of Iraq,

2. Committed crimes against peace by initiating war against Iraq in violation of the UN Charter,

3. Committed crimes against humanity in their conduct of the occupation of Iraq in which hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed and millions have been made refugees while over 3600 American servicemen and women have been killed and many thousands wounded,

4. Detained thousands of prisoners without charges and without providing the ability to confront their accusers at a fair trial,

5. Condoned the torture of prisoners in violation of the Geneva Conventions and US law,

6. Approved illegal electronic surveillance of American citizens without a warrant in violation of the fourth amendment,

 7. Attacked basic human rights protections in the Constitution including habeas corpus, Fifth Amendment freedom from loss of life, liberty and property without due process of law, eighth amendment freedom from cruel and unusual punishment, and Fourth Amendment freedom from unreasonable search and seizure,

8. Attacked the separation of powers in an effort to consolidate power in the executive,

 9. Failed “to take care that the laws be faithfully executed” by issuing signing statements that claim the authority to disobey laws based on Presidential fiat and then acted in violation of these laws, including the US law making torture a crime, laws requiring the executive branch to provide oversight information to the Congress, laws regarding domestic spying, laws regarding civil liberties, and laws strengthening whistle blower protection, thereby expanding the president's own power at the expense of Congress and the courts, upsetting the balance among the three branches of government, and moving us away from the rule of law toward vastly increased executive power;

10. Condoned criminal conduct and obstructed justice by commuting the sentence of convicted perjurer Scooter Libby, demonstrating that Bush and Cheney will not allow high officials in the administration to be held accountable for their criminal acts; and

11. Obstructed congressional investigations of these and other acts of the administration by disregarding subpoenas from Senate and House committees seeking documents and testimony under oath by administration officials and former administration officials.

The Constitution mandates that “the President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors”.  Only one such act is needed for impeachment. But each and every one of the above listed acts of Bush and Cheney meet this standard.

Therefore, the Northeast Impeachment Movement calls upon the U.S. House of Representatives to initiate immediately the impeachment of George W. Bush and  Richard Cheney, as provided for in the Constitution of the United States of America. In particular, we call on the House to begin the process by adopting H. Res. 333 calling for the impeachment of the Vice President.

Recognizing that our power is in the number of people who participate, the Northeast Impeachment Movement will organize and coordinate actions throughout the Northeast to build public participation in the campaign to initiate the investigation, impeachment, and removal of Bush and Cheney from office without further delay.

Action Plan for the Northeast

Our nation can no longer bear silent witness as our constitutional Republic disintegrates before our eyes.

It has become clear that the U.S. Congress is not willing to act to defend the Constitution by holding the President and Vice President accountable through impeachment.

The Northeast Impeachment Coalition recognizes that only a peaceful, popular uprising by the general populace can force our “leaders” to lead.

To this end, we are initiating a number of actions gauged to pressure Congress and to spark the public into action.

Dozens of towns and cities across the Northeast will join in the national Honk to Impeach actions being held weekly at high visibility locations, to help those who are entrenched in business and politics as usual to understand just how many Americans want impeachment and the return to constitutional law.

A citizens’ action impeachment tour will travel the region in late September, featuring local, regional and national speakers who will inspire citizens to take action in the streets and in the halls of power.

Troops of cell phone brigades will be spreading out through the country with Congress members’ phone numbers preprogrammed and available for instant calling of the public to their representative.

A delegation representing organizations from throughout the region will be traveling to Washington D.C. to meet with Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and others to make them understand that this is a nationwide movement that will not go gently into the shadows of an impending election.

Coordinated lobbying for defense of the Constitution through impeachment will be targeted at several New England Congress members, culminating in office occupations of recalcitrant members by late September.

We will work in coordination with the National Pledge to Impeach, enlisting thousands of Americans to promise to strike if Congress refuses to act on impeachment.

Congress members who can’t find it within themselves to defend the Constitution will be faced with opponents both in their party primaries

and in the general election. Nancy Pelosi (CA) and Peter Welch (VT) have already been targeted for defeat in the next election.

We will support and strengthen other organizations and planned mobilizations such as the upcoming Peace encampment confronting George W. Bush in Kennebunkport Maine on August 25, and actions which will greet Presidential candidates in Dartmouth N.H. on September 26.

The Northeast Impeachment Coalition recognizes and supports the patriotic actions that are being taken by Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Veterans for Peace and will work with them and other groups to spread their message.

The many grievances of our nation’s founders were ignored until they declared themselves independent by force of arms. The people of this nation are united in their distress and disgust with the willingness of our leaders to ignore the Constitution and the rule of law. We will not drop our constitutional demands. We will continue to escalate our actions until we see results. If those who govern wish to be able to continue doing so, they would do well to adhere to their oaths of office and return our country to constitutional government.

We will not remain silent.

When people hear that we are running a candidate to oppose Vermont Democratic Congressman Peter Welch in next year’s election, they are often quick to mention that next term will be too late to impeach Bush or Cheney. This is an indication that they either miss the point, or that they are dedicated Democrats who can’t bear to see erstwhile allies bearing down on their compatriots.

Allow me to explain our reasons for running. During the last election cycle, the American people made it abundantly clear that we wanted serious change. The Democratic victory, which was larger that anything that even the Democrats had dared to hoped for, was a mandate to bring the occupation of Iraq to an end, and to stop Bush from further damaging the country, if not to hold him accountable.

Instead, we see the Democratic Congressional leadership shying away from meaningful confrontation with the President or Vice-President, and being unable and unwilling to take a single significant step in ending or even slowing the occupation. John Conyers, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, the man who, while serving in the Republican controlled House during the last Congress, wrote the book on the impeachment of Bush, now not only doesn’t believe in it, but is fighting tooth and nail to keep it from being considered in his committee.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has declared impeachment “off the table”. She prefers to watch Bush and Cheney twist in the wind for the next 18 months in the hopes that the Democrats will thus inherit the White House. What she and Conyers fail to include in their political calculations are the numbers of lives to be lost while those 18 months creep by and Bush continues to act out on his policy whims. What she and Conyers, and Peter Welch and the vast majority of Democratic lawmakers who are going along with this masquerade are conveniently forgetting to put into their calculus is that they have taken a professional and moral oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

We will run a candidate who knows that their first loyalty is to the Constitution and their second is to their constituents. We don’t care who the next President is. We do not want to give her or him anything near the amount of power that George Bush has amassed for the current executive branch. The Democrats say “trust us, we’re on your side, it will all come out in the wash with the next election.” We say what have you done to deserve our trust? Where is your defense of the Constitution?

Where is your moral outrage? Where is an investigation that is really focusing on the crimes of the President or the Vice-President and not just concentrating on their underlings? Where are the results of all this important work that you claim to be doing which is precluding you from taking any action on impeachment? Since when is some future judgment of history an adequate substitute for justice served in response to constitutional breaches and criminality?

If you want to know what a determined opposition can do to a President from the other side of the aisle, take a glance at Newt Gingrich’s Congress and how they went after Bill Clinton, yielding no ground and effectively bottling him up and neutralizing him. The best that these current Democrats can do is to waste money rolling out the cots so they can stay up all night with a pajama party talkfest about how bad they think the war is. There is a reason that the only body in this nation with a lower approval rating than the President is the Congress. It is because they have betrayed the American people. If we wanted discredited Republican policies to continue, we would have voted the Republicans back in.

The hubris and condescension that emanates from lawmakers who tell us that in spite of the majority of their constituents demanding impeachment and accountability, they know better and are ignoring our demands for our own good are infuriating and nauseating. They, like the President, are putting themselves above the constrictions of the Constitution and think that they are wise Pooh-Bahs, when they are nothing more than puppets for the corporate oligarchy for whom most of our government functions.

We are running to take back our country from the political parties who have squandered and misdirected our resources, destroyed any veneer of respectability that might have survived the Reagan/Bush/Clinton years and have cast us into the darkness of endless war against an ethereal enemy.

We have reached the end of our rope. 

As his Iraq adventure disintegrates before his eyes, and as more and more Americans are unwilling to give him any benefit of the doubt, George W. Bush is once again pulling out the let’s scare’em with terrorism card.

            And while there is no doubt that this despicable ploy is just that, we should not fall into the trap of only accusing him of crying wolf. Because, putting aside the lies that our government dishes out everyday, there is no question that at this point, there are indeed terrorists who would love nothing more than to launch an attack in The United States.

            If a successful attack should happen, and all we’ve been doing is accusing Bush of raising the level of fear, then we’ll immediately find ourselves on the defensive with many Americans rallying around the President once again as the only one to “keep us safe”.

            Instead, our message should be unequivocal and clear. There WILL undoubtedly be another terrorist attack, and if it is successful, it will be because this President has ignored crucial border security in order to provide for his military adventure in Iraq.

            The Democrats’ message is stuck in reaction mode. Bush makes a grandly idiotic policy decision, or makes some statement framing the debate just as Karl Rove has instructed him, and all the Democrats simply respond by disagreeing in vague and tentative tones, making sure that they never stray from the very framework that Bush has articulated.

            We need to go after this criminal administration in the same way that we would go after any public enemy or scourge. We need to be pointing out relentlessly that Bush is not keeping America safe; he’s creating enemies faster than we can possibly apprehend them, and he has neglected this vaunted “Homeland” that he has suddenly thrust into our lexicon. The only action that this administration can take to improve our security is to get out of Iraq and change their approach to diplomacy in the region. Bush is creating the conditions for another terror attack by his policies. This should be our outcry.

            If we simply express skepticism about his fear mongering, we will be rewarded with another terror event, either through the administration’s incompetence or complicity. Either way, we will once again find ourselves watching in amazement as Americans decide that they can’t risk going against the President in a time a crisis. 

            And the next attack will doubtlessly usher in the new era of facism for which Bush and Company have been patiently been laying the groundwork. It must be the citizens of this nation who say “I told you so” in the event of anther attack. If George Bush is saying it instead, then it will be too late for Democracy in America.

by Dan DeWalt, from The Commons (Windham County Monthly)

Howard Dean’s famous scream may have capped the unraveling of his presidential campaign, but it was also the unwitting herald for a grass roots movement that six years later played a major role in overturning the Republican stranglehold on power, not only nationally, but across the river in New Hampshire as well.

Now those same grass roots groups are calling for impeachment, taking the challenge directly to Dr. Dean’s own Democratic Party hierarchy.

If 86 year old Brookline New Hampshire resident Betty Hall has her way, the New Hampshire legislature will be the first in the nation to invoke Jefferson’s manual and send a call for impeachment to Washington D.C.  

“Impeachment is huge for us because Bush is going to kill our elections. The right to vote is the most important right of all and he’s stolen the last two elections,” she said to The Commons.   

It was this perceived threat to the nation that led her and others to bring an impeachment resolution to the floor of last summer’s N.H. Democratic Party Convention. Hall said “we passed impeachment in June of ’06 over the objection of the top brass of the party. We took the battle to the floor and won.”             

Hall said that the defeated Party leadership went so far as to not include the impeachment vote on their website’s convention coverage.

The Party establishment took another hit in last year’s Democratic primary when Carol Shea-Porter was able to muster enough volunteers to out-hustle the Party’s favored candidate and take the nomination for U.S. Congress.

Porter benefited from the work of Democracy For N.H., the New Hampshire version of Democracy For America, a grass roots organization that Dean created to give new purpose to the volunteers who had worked for his campaign.

After last November’s election, some of these volunteers found themselves in the legislature as well.

More below the fold…

“As a group the Democratic Party would be much stronger if the leadership listens, leading the people in the direction they want to go”  he said.

Indeed, N.H. Democratic Party chairman Ray Buckley has tapped two long time state activists to create a grass roots committee for the party. According to committee co-chair Howard Morse, the party is aiding and abetting grass roots groups and is working to bring the various groups together under the Democratic Party umbrella. His co-chair Chas Pru describes it as a sea change. He is encouraged that the Democrats are taking the grass roots interests to heart.

Robert Perry of Strafford, who is one of the leaders of the House legislative impeachment effort, said “the success of the grass roots movement in N.H. has caused the leadership to pause and assess what it all means.” He said that state party recognizes what the grass roots are doing and are making space for them in the party structures. He said, “The leadership has us on board.”

There is no indication that the leadership has gotten aboard the impeachment train however. In spite of the vote for impeachment at the ’06 convention, Howard Morse remembers “no clear call of any kind for impeachment. There might have been a vote, it might have even passed, but in all the reporting that I saw, it did not come up. Its much ado about what I think is nothing.”

Betty Hall has a somewhat different take. I think that establishment Democrats don’t understand what’s out there. The dumb bunnies don’t understand how angry people are.”

Tim Butterworth: “I’ve always assumed that most organizations have pyramidal structures. Generally the ones on top have worked their way up. They tend to become conservative trying to stay on top.

D.F.N.H. founder Alex Lee sees it the same way. 

“Bad habits make the Democrats hold onto their bad political calculus. There is more interest in holding power than in making positive changes. The election wave came in but they’re just worried about the undertow.”

Robert Perry says that it is essential to move forward with impeachment. He also has a different assessment of the prospects.  

He said, “An impeachment resolution presented this fall and voted on in January has a good chance of passing the House and a better than even chance in the Senate.”

A legislative House with 400 members makes for an unwieldy body. Party leadership can assert itself, but House votes tend to be more of a reflection of the individual districts and representatives according to Marjorie Smith, 11 year House veteran and Finance Committee chair.

Hall, Perry and their allies will give these legislators a chance to weigh in on impeachment in the next session. Howard Morse predicts that “it would not be well received and it would not be accepted.” Hall accuses the party of being overly cautious. She and Perry see a real urgency. Perry cites U.S. military threats against Iran. Hall is worried about voting and constitutional rights. She has her own first hand account of when she discovered her right to free speech to be missing. 

“I was arrested and put in jail for carrying a sign that said Bush is bad for America in Nashua where Bush was speaking across the street. The secret service wanted to put us in a cage far from Bush, I refused to go and they arrested me, I had a trial and was acquitted.” 

That judge agreed that her constitutional rights had been violated and the police lost the case. Hall doesn’t want to have to worry about what the next judge will say. She wants Constitutional redress now, in the form of impeachment.

“I want to raise the level of noise” she said. Her impeachment efforts are meant to do just that.