Cindy Sheehan Occupies John Conyers' Office - NEW with photos
Cindy Sheehan led 2-300 impeachment activists on a march from Arlington Cemetary to the Congressional office of Rep. John Conyers, whose job as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee puts him in charge of impeachment. AP reports:
"Impeachment is not a fringe movement, it is mandated in our Constitution; Nancy Pelosi had no authority to take it off the table," Sheehan told her group of orange-clad activists Monday. "If Nancy Pelosi doesn't do her constitutionally mandated job by midnight ... I will announce that I'm going to run against her."
I just got a live report from David Swanson, who says Conyers is nowhere to be found - but Sheehan, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, and former CIA presidential briefer Ray McGovern are inside his office holding a press conference!
In fact, there are so many reporters with Cindy that they are taking turns going into the packed office to ask questions.
At least 300 activists are lining the halls outside the office, both the marchers and those who went directly to the Capitol.
Update 1:30: Conyers staff is negotiating with activists to move the protest to a larger room.
In Detroit, 50 people went to Conyers' district office, but they only let 5 people in and wouldn't let them keep their cellphones so we're not getting any reports.
Update 1:35: Conyers just arrived!! As he walked down the hall, activists shouted IMPEACH so loud the whole floor echoed. Conyers and his staff took Cindy, Rev., and Ray into a private office without the media. Stay tuned!
Update 2:55: After an 80-minute meeting, Cindy emerged and told the activists that Conyers said "our only recourse is elections," and the activists groaned. Cindy announced she will run against Pelosi because she and Conyers haven't "stepped up," and the activists cheered. Rev. Yearwood is giving a fired-up speech and activists are crowding in to Conyers' office for the sit-in.
Update 3:43: Capitol Police arrested Cindy Sheehan, Ray McGovern, Rev. Yearwood, David Swanson, and 20 other activists and put them on a police bus. But all is not grim - Cindy is calling it her "campaign bus."
Update 7:55 PM CST:Sheehan arrested while calling for Bush, Cheney impeachment
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested Monday at the Capitol for disorderly conduct, shortly after saying she would run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the California Democrat's refusal to try to impeach President Bush.
art.sheehan.ap.jpg
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan says "Impeachment is not a fringe movement."
Sheehan was taken into custody inside Rep. John Conyers' office, where she had spent an hour imploring him to launch impeachment proceedings against Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Conyers, D-Michigan, chairs the House Judiciary Committee, where any impeachment effort would have to begin.
"The Democrats will not hold this administration accountable, so we have to hold the Democrats accountable," Sheehan said outside Conyers' office after the meeting. "And I for one am going to step up to the plate and run against Nancy Pelosi."
Sheehan and about 200 other protesters had walked to Conyers' office from Arlington National Cemetery. She said Conyers told her there weren't enough votes for impeachment to move forward on the issue.
Forty-five of Sheehan's fellow protesters also were arrested. Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said that after they are processed, the arrested activists could each pay a $50 fine to be released.
"Impeachment is not a fringe movement, it is mandated in our Constitution. Nancy Pelosi had no authority to take it off the table," Sheehan told her group of orange-clad activists before they began their march from the national cemetery.
Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq, has been saying for two weeks that she would seek to oust Pelosi from office by running against her as an independent in her San Francisco district if Pelosi didn't change her mind by July 23 on trying to impeach Bush.
Conyers introduced a bill last term calling on Congress to determine whether there are grounds for impeaching Bush. Pelosi has steadfastly dismissed any talk of impeachment, saying Democrats should focus their efforts on ending the war in Iraq.
Update 10:35 PM CST:Democracy Cell Project has the photos
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Thanks Cindy
Thank you Cindy!!!
Open letter to Speaker Pelosi:
I just watched Reid say that we have 17 months left for the administration…17 months for the constitution to be locked up…
not free on bail…pending appeal…but locked up…why not commute
the sentence? How about a full pardon for our constitution?
Isn’t one day of unconstitutional life excessive? 17 months?
Good lord!!! He also said that you will continue to try to get the president to change course…what was that difinition of insanity?…doing the same thing over and over expecting different
results? Yes that was it. Or as the king has said…fool me…um…whatever. Perhaps he would change course and listen a bit
more (or even listen at all) if you would just put impeachment back where it belongs…as the just and peaceful process our founding fathers gave us to insure our liberty against a tyrant.
I want to echo the sentiment of many
of my fellow Americans. We are not as concerned about
left and right politics as we are about doing the
right thing for our country and our constitution on
which it rests. You have every legitimate reason to
change your course and put impeachment on the
table…as a centerpiece of justice and democracy in
action. What shall I tell the children of this country
when asked why the president can admit to violating
federal laws
(warentless wiretaping) and nobody puts an end to it?
Do we really think he should be able to? What
justification is there to let anyone commit crimes on
such a massive scale? I understand you may have a
conflict of interest if by chance both Cheney and Bush
were removed….so recuse yourself. Lots of Americans
have been forced out of work for far less compelling
reasons and yet never given any credit for it…you
would be celebrated and loved by millions of people
loyal
to our rule of law and our sense of fairness. Is it
really too much to ask to protect us from a further
decline into a neo-con nightmare? They have given you
the last straw on a platter…by refusing to comply or
enforce contempt charges…they have rendered
oversight where they are involved, meaningless and
futile. They have given you a golden moment….you
have no choice! We do not and will not obey a
king…even if he wants to call himself the president.
We the people will start issuing signing statements
that his executive orders don’t apply to us and are
unconstitutional. I plead with you again to educate
the public on this issue and consider this matter to
be of grave importance as do so many good Americans.
We the People are waiting…on the left and on the right and
in the middle of the road. Don’t let the constitution get run over.
Impeachment
Why must the American People keep telling you how to do your jobs? Ms. Pelosi, you know what is going on, yet you will allow this Presidency to break the laws of our country and spit upon our Constitution? Mr. Conyers, you know your job is to protect our Constitution, why the hell aren't you doing your job? Do we need to tell you how to do your job too? I was under the impression that the two of you were intelligent human beings, yet I look at what you have allowed to happen and wonder if perhaps I thought wrong. How many more times must the American People write to you, call you and protest your inability to do the jobs you were hired to do? How loud must we scream until you will hear us? Tell us what it is going to take for you to do your jobs? Tell us. Is it courage you lack, the entire American public is behind you. If it is ethics you lack, then I suggest you remove yourselves from office. The more you both drag your feet on this the louder the American public will become. This will not go away. We will not go away. Something must be done. You must start Impeachment proceedings immediately. What kind of Americans are you? When the Constitution is being spit upon right in front of you and you do nothing. What kind of Americans are you? We are tired of all the partisan crap that is going on at Capitol Hill. This is not partisan, this is our Constitution, its neither Republican or Democrat, so why has nothing been done? We are tired of watching those who are friends of the President being pardoned because the President thought the penalty was too harsh. That was not his call was it? He was given a sentence by a jury of his peers. None of us has ever been afforded special treatment. Why is it that you people are above the law? Finally we are just plain disappointed at the way you are pretending to do you jobs. This should have been handled long ago. This isn't about friendships, this is about the laws that are being broken and you both turning a blind eye. DO THE JOB YOU WERE HIRED TO DO. IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY NOW. WE WILL NOT STOP UNTIL OUR VOICES ARE HEARD AND JUSTICE IS FINALLY PRESENT ON CAPITOL HILL ONCE AGAIN.
Conyer's Reversal
What's with Conyer's statement that "elections are our only recourse". Just last week he said that if he got 3 more members to sign onto his resolution, he'd start acting on it. Why, all of a sudden, is he backing down? Are they all afraid of Bush. Does Bush have 8 x 10 glossies of the entire Congress doing naughty things? We can't wait for elections to rid this country of the criminals who are running the show. The only answer is impeachment!!!
War Crimes not impeachment
As a retired disabled American Veteran of Vietnam and Gulf War number one I know the civilian death counts are not being reported at higher than one third of the actual numbers, they never have been.
That means roughly 100,000 civilians have been killed in the illegal Bush/Cheney war.
If this were any other country in the World we would be screaming for the UN to charge these men with war crimes.
These two criminals says they want to bring democracy to the other countries of the World and yet, they have done more to remove our democratic freedoms than at any other time in our countries history. Mr Bush has made himself a dictator who is far worse than Saddam was, he is supporting death squads in Iraq now too, he has now caused the deaths of more Americans in Iraq alone than died in 9/11.
Why is the democratic leadership not doing their jobs? Why didn't any of them do their jobs back when all of this was happening to begin with? Why have we been under Martial Law for over one year in this country and almost no American has spoken out? The suspension of habius corpus is the definition of Martial Law, and no American in this country has had that Constitutional protection for a little over one year.
Yet we have not heard about this on the news, only the ACLU is even talking about it? Why isn't the Democratic members screaming about this? This does nothing to protect any of us from terrorists. The biggest terrorists we have to worry about are in the White House, that is the reason we have not been attacked here, they have no reason to attack the US now, Bush and Cheney are doing their job for them!
Hody, you make some good points, many of them that...
our membership here is in full agreement. The civilian death toll however is above 600,000 and still climbing.
Today would be a good day for everyone to read bartcop...
http://www.bartcop.com
It is only our Dem leadership who is afraid of having their assets blocked and their asses sent off to the new and improved internment camps.
A mind once expanded can never return to its original dimensions.
Anne Hathaway: 1556-1623
The greatest derangement of the mind is to believe in something because one wishes it to be so.
Why should anyone again sacrifice for them?
Removal from office is not the only constitutional consequence of impeachment. The President’s ability to pardon is conditioned on the offenses not being cases of impeachment.
The Constitution says “except in Cases of Impeachment.” It says nothing regarding conviction.
This administration has shown that there are no limits to the laws that they will violate for their own political gain. Their list of crimes is too lengthy to recite; most of them are listed in the Declaration of Independence.
What this non-action, endorsed by John Conyers, has accomplished is to allow the President to grant pardons to all of his accomplices. Whatever they have done or will do, it doesn’t matter. Unless this President and Vice President are impeached these criminals will walk away free.
I have had two members of congress tell me directly that this administration is criminal. And now they are say that those calling for redress through impeachment are divisive?
They have said that there are no statutes of limitations on their crimes. And now they say the perpetrators of these acts are free of consequences?
In nine short months this non-leadership of the demo-cRAT party has demolished the coalition that brought them to power for the first time in 12 years. They have destroyed the work of six years, by not exercising the power they were given. They have refused to demand their place in power after the 2000 and 2004 elections. And now they have refused to exercise the power that they were unable to run from. Why should anyone again sacrifice for them?