Impeach
Accountability is fundamental to a functioning democracy. The Bush Administration has showed complete disregard for being held accountable for its actions. If they will not allow normal government processes to resolve the situation then they will leave impeachment as the only option to reaffirm the rule of law.
With the opposition party now holding a majority in Congress, it is time for the American people to show that the will for impeachment exists.
More info available at:
Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) Formally Calls for Impeachment Hearings
It's a great speech. After the jump, excerpts from an op-ed he co-published last month with two other members of the House Judiciary Committee, Reps Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).
The Need for Resistance
It has become clear to me that simple protest and other purely expressive activity is not enough to beneficially alter the course of this country. Hundreds of thousands marched in the streets prior to the invasion of Iraq, yet the war occurred anyway. Since then, a number of major protests have occurred in DC and in other cities, but the war continues despite these efforts.
The events of September 15th and the coverage thereof have convinced me that even hundreds of thousands of people marching in the street are just an easily ignored nuisance to those who control this country.
Police Brutality (or, Sometimes the World Makes Me Want to Purge)
So this is probably getting around by now, but I want to post this anyways.
Very recently, a UF student-Andrew Meyer, was arrested and tasered by UF police at a John Kerry speech in Gainesville, FLorida. After having his mic cut, Meyer was dragged from the mic by the police, while yelling "why am I being arrested?!" and "help me!". As the police dragged him from the auditorium, he began to resist the officers (All 5 of them) and so they threw him to the ground and tasered him. I linked two videos below, and you can hear the taser go off, as well as Meyer's screams of pain.
Bush, Torture, Guantanamo
This is a very long post, but if you want to get the main point just read the bolded excerpt below the fold.
I started writing this in response to a response President Bush gave to a question at a press conference this morning.
Email story getting more mysterious
So where does everyone think this whole email issue is going to lead? It seems to be showing that White House officials used the RNC email to conduct government work, which is supposed to be retained. The RNC is claiming that the emails have been deleted while the Bush Administration continues to stress executive privilege to withhold the emails it may have.
Executive privilege does not cover the RNC though, so they would be expected to produce the emails, however, they are conveniently missing. As Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy (St. Mike's alum) said, "they've gone through too many servers. Those e-mails are there -- they just don't want to produce them. It's like the infamous 18-minute gap in the Nixon White House tapes."
Impeachment: What you can do now
Here are some things we can do to press impeachment.
Sign these petitions:
Contact these people:
- Your elected representatives
- The house Judiciary Committee
- Phone or email Bush and tell him to resign
Write to the media and share your opinion:
- National media outlets
- Write letters to your local papers as well
Vermont's rank-and-file Democrats demand impeachment
From today's Burlington Free Press.
I don't have too much to comment on this, just an interesting read. Vermont, along with other states, is trying to force the issue onto the national stage. In Vermont this actually began with towns voting for resolutions backing impeachment (39 this year). My adopted state may be small and largely irrelevent to the rest of the country, but pay attention to Vermont. Its tradition of local political involvement may mean it's an indicator to where other parts of the country will be heading. Who knows, maybe your state will have a socialist Senator soon too, probably not, but we love Bernie anyway.
Articles of Impeachment
of
President George W. Bush
and
Vice President Richard B. Cheney,
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
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. - - ARTICLE II, SECTION 4 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have committed violations and subversions of the Constitution of the United States of America in an attempt to carry out with impunity crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes and deprivations of the civil rights of the people of the United States and other nations, by assuming powers of an imperial executive unaccountable to law and usurping powers of the Congress, the Judiciary and those reserved to the people of the United States, by the following acts: