VERMONT VOTES TO BOOT BUSH
When Vermont Governor Jim Douglas, a Republican with reasonably close ties to President Bush, asked if there was any additional business to be considered at the town meeting he was running in Middlebury on July 3, 2007, Ellen McKay popped up and proposed the impeachment of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The governor was not amused. As moderator of the annual meeting, he tried to suggest that the proposal to impeach - along with another proposal to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq - could not be voted on.
But McKay, a program coordinator at Middlebury College, pressed her case. And it soon became evident that the crowd at the annual meeting shared her desire to hold the president to account. So Douglas backed down.
"It became clear that no one was going home until they had the chance to discuss the resolutions and vote on them," explained David Rosenberg, a political science professor at Middlebury College. "And being a good politician, he allowed the vote to happen."
By an overwhelming voice vote, Middlebury called for impeachment.
And so it went that week at town meetings across Vermont, where 36 towns initially backed impeachment resolutions. That number is expected to rise. In Putney, the vote for impeachment was unanimous.
Vermont activists want their legislature to approve articles of impeachment and forward them to Congress. More than 20 congressional representatives have cosponsored an impeachment resolution.
"It's going to be hard for Peter Welch and Gaye Symington to say there's no sentiment for impeachment, now that their own towns have voted for it," says Dan DeWalt, a Newfane town selectman who started the impeachment initiative last year in his town.
It is going to be even harder for Governor Douglas, who just this month spent two nights at the Bush White House, to face his president. Douglas now lives in a town that is on record in support of Bush's impeachment and trial for high crimes and misdemeanors.
The Middlebury, Vermont resolution reads:
We the people have the power - and the responsibility - to remove executives who transgress not just the law, but the rule of law. The oaths that the President and Vice President take binds them to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” The failure to do so forms a sound basis for articles of impeachment.
The President and Vice President have failed to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution" in the following ways:
1. They have manipulated intelligence and misled the country to justify an immoral, unjust, and unnecessary preemptive war in Iraq.
2. They have directed the government to engage in domestic spying without warrants, in direct contravention of U.S. law.
3. They have conspired to commit the torture of prisoners, in violation of the Federal Torture Act and the Geneva Convention.
4. They have ordered the indefinite detention without legal counsel, without charges and without the opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention -- all in violation of U.S. law and the Bill of Rights.
When strong evidence exists of the most serious crimes, we must use impeachment -- or lose the ability of the legislative branch to compel the executive branch to obey the law.
George Bush has led our country to a constitutional crisis, and it is our responsibility to remove him from office. [www.thenation.com]
Resolution to Impeach
President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney
Village of Trumansburg NY
WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney conspired with others to defraud the United States of America by intentionally misleading Congress and the public regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Section 371; and
WHEREAS, George W. Bush has admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance of American civilians without seeking warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, duly constituted by Congress in 1978, in violation of Title 50 United States Code, Section 1805; and
WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney conspired to commit the torture of prisoners in violation of the “Federal Torture Act” Title 18 United States Code, Section 113C, the UN Torture Convention and the Geneva Convention, which under Article VI of the Constitution are part of the “supreme Law of the Land”; and
WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney acted to strip American citizens of their constitutional rights by ordering indefinite detention without access to legal counsel, without charge and without the 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, In all of this George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have acted in a manner contrary to their trust as President and Vice 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 Trumansburg and of the United States of America; and
WHEREAS, Petitions from the country at large may be presented by the Speaker of the House according to Clause 3 of House Rule XII;
Be it resolved that George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, warrant impeachment and trial, and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States;
Be it resolved further by the Village of Trumansburg , That our senators and representatives in the United States Congress be, and they are hereby, requested to cause to be instituted in the Congress of the United States proper proceedings for the investigation of the activities of the George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, to the end that they may be impeached and removed from such office.
Be it resolved further, That the Clerk of the Village of Trumansburg be, and is hereby, instructed to certify to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, under the seal of the Village of Trumansburg, a copy of this resolution and its adoption by the Village of Trumansburg, as a petition, and request that this petition be delivered to the Office of the Clerk and entered in the United States Congressional Journal. The copies shall be marked with the word “Petition” at the top of the document and contain the original authorizing signature of the Village Clerk.
Be it resolved further, that a copy of this resolution be sent to the our New York State Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, and that we hereby request that she initiate a similar resolution in the New York State Assembly.
