Cindy Sheehan

Pelosi Confesses Knowing the Truth About Bush's War Based on Lies: "I don't know what could have been done..." Tell her!

Chip — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:38:56 -0400

Begins at 4:51.

Q: If you were to go back and change anything from your political career, what would it be?

A: Well, of course, the biggest disappointment for me is that we are still in this war in Iraq, and, ah, I had always thought at the time that, that, ah, people knew the truth they would not vote for this war and, I don't know what else, er, not have been supportive of this, I don't know what else we could have done, ah, but this has been the most damaging to us: loss of life, over 4,000, tens of thousands injured, many thousands of them permanently, cost in dollars, which is small compared to the loss of life and limb but the cost in dollars to the tune of trillions of dollars, the cost of reputation in the world, the cost in our military readiness, our capabi...eroding our...undermining our military capability to protect our interests wherever they are threatened, undermining our ability to fight the real war on terror which is in Afghanistan, uh, I don't know what else could have been done, ah, but I keep revisiting that every step of the way to think what could we have done to stop this President from taking us into a war on the basis of a false premise, without the proper preparation of our troops, without a plan for success, a strategy to leave, ah, that is where we have been for more than 2 years, we're there 2 years longer than we were in World War II.

Friday's House Judiciary Hearing on Impeachment: A Victory and a Challenge

dlindorff — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:34:40 -0400

By Dave Lindorff

The dramatic hearing on presidential crimes and abuses of power
held on Friday by the House Judiciary Committee was both a staged
farce, and at the same time, a powerful demonstration of the power of a
grassroots movement in defense of the Constitution. It was at once both
testimony to the cowardice and self-inflicted impotence of Congress and
of the Democratic Party that technically controls that body, and to the
enormity of the damage that has been wrought to the nation’s democracy
by two aspiring tyrants in the White House.

As Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), chairman of the committee, made clear
more than once during the six-hour session, this was “not an
impeachment hearing, however much many in the audience might wish it to
be” He might well have added that he himself was not the fierce
defender of the Constitution and of the authority of Congress that he
once was before gaining control of the Judiciary Committee, however
much his constituents, his wife, and Americans across the country might
wish him to be.

At the same time, while the hearing was strictly limited to the
most superficial airing of Bush administration crimes and misdemeanors,
the fact that the session—technically an argument in defense of 36
articles of impeachment filed in the House over the past several months
by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)--was nonetheless a major victory for the
impeachment movement. It happened because earlier in the month, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who has sworn since taking control of the
House in November 2006, that impeachment would be “off the table”
during the 110th Congress, called a hasty meeting with Majority Leader
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Rep. Conyers, and Rep. Kucinich, and called
for such a limited hearing.

It was no coincidence that shortly before Pelosi’s backdown, peace
activist and Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan announced that her campaign
had collected well over the 10,000 signatures necessary to qualify for
listing on the ballot as an independent candidate for Congress against
Pelosi in the Speaker’s home district in San Francisco. Sheehan has
been an outspoken advocate of impeaching both Bush and Cheney. “Pelosi
is trying to throw a bone to her constituents by allowing a hearing on
impeachment,” said Sheehan, who came to Washington, DC to attend. “It’s
just like her finally stating publicly that Bush’s presidency is a
failure—something it has taken her two years to come to, but which
we’ve been saying for years.”

So determined were Pelosi and Conyers to limit the scope and
intensity of the hearing that they acceded to a call for Republicans on
the Judiciary Committee to adhere to Thomas Jefferson’s Rules of the
House, which prohibit any derogatory comments about the President,
which was interpreted by Chairman Conyers as meaning no one, including
witnesses or members of the committee, could suggest that Bush had lied
or deceived anyone. Since a number of Rep. Kucinich’s proposed articles
of impeachment specifically charge the president with lying to Congress
and the American People, this made for some comic moments, with witness
Bruce Fein, a former assistant attorney general under former President
Ronald Reagan, to say he would reference his listing of crimes to the
“resident” of the White House.

In the end, the rule imposing a gag on calling the president a
criminal fell by the wayside, with witness Vincent Bugliosi. A former
Los Angeles deputy district attorney, accusing Bush of being guilty of
the murder of over 4000 American soldiers and of hundreds of thousands
of innocent Iraqi civilians because he had “lied” the country into an
illegal and unnecessary war, and with committee member Shiela Jackson
Lee (D-TX) suggesting that the president may have committed treason in
invading Iraq, and that he appeared to be preparing to do it again with
an unprovoked invasion of Iran.

Conyers also acquiesced in a Republican effort to minimize public
monitoring and involvement in the hearing, allowing the minority party
to fill most of the available seats in the hearing room with office
staffers who showed little interest in the proceedings. Only a few
dozen of the hundreds of pro-impeachment activists who had come to the
Rayburn Office Building at 7 am in order to get seats in the Judiciary
Committee hearing room were allowed in, with the rest having to remain
in the hall or go to two remote “overflow” rooms to watch the
proceedings on a TV hookup. Conyers also went along with a call by
Republican members of the committee to have some of those who did make
it into the hearing ejected simply for wearing buttons on their shirts
calling for impeachment (the Republican members referred to these as
“signs”), though such small personal tokens are routinely allowed in
congressional hearing rooms.

It was clear that this was to be a tightly controlled and strictly limited hearing.

It was also clear that it was intended to go nowhere.

At one point, after hearing witnesses like Fein, Bugliosi, former
representative and Nixon impeachment committee member Elizabeth
Holtzman, former Salt Lake City mayor and impeachment activist Rocky
Anderson, former House Clinton impeachment manager Bob Barr, former
Watergate Committee counsel and current senior counsel of the Brennan
Center for Justice Frederick A.O. Schwartz, and Elliott Adams,
president of the board of Veterans for Peace, lay out the
administration’s crimes and abuses of power—which included charges of
usurping the legislative powers of Congress, violating international
treaties, war crimes, lying to Congress, an illegal war, felony
violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Fourth
Amendment, defying Congressional subpoenas, obstruction of justice and
more, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), chair of the Constitution
subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee, appeared convinced that the
abuses were real and serious.

But Nadler, who for two years has been a major obstacle on the
Judiciary Committee to any efforts to move impeachment to a formal
hearing, said, “No president has been removed from office through
impeachment.” He asked the witnesses, “How would you approach
impeachment today so it would be a viable option?”

Former Rep. Holtzman responded, “The real remedy to a president who
believes he is above the law is impeachment. There is no running away
from that.” She said, “An impeachment inquiry, handled fairly, could
work. Maybe I’m a cockeyed optimist, but I believe it could work.”

The basic point, made by Holtzman, by Fein and by many others,
including this writer, is that worrying about the political opposition
to impeachment, both in the House, and in the Senate, not to mention
among the broader public, is completely wrongheaded. Even when
impeachment articles were first filed against Nixon, the public and the
bulk of the Congress were against the idea. It was during the hearings
that the tide turned, as evidence of malfeasance, criminality and abuse
of power became evident through hearing testimony. The same would
happen in the case of President Bush and/or Vice President Cheney. Most
Americans don’t even know that the president made up evidence to
justify the war against Iraq out of whole cloth. They don’t know what
the Geneva Conventions are with regard to torture. They don’t know why
Congress passed the FISA act, which Bush has been feloniously violating
to spy on them (it was passed because Nixon was using the National
Security Agency to spy on Americans without judicial warrants!). They
don’t know the Bush has been refusing to enact laws passed by the
Congress. Public hearings by an impeachment panel would make all these
high crimes and misdemeanors clear on national TV to all sentient
Americans. Moreover, as Holtzman pointed out, the president would not
be able to use the claim of “executive privilege” to withhold testimony
from aides in an impeachment inquiry, the way he has done when they
have been subpoenaed by other House and Senate committees. Impeachment
would be about violations of the very executive actions he would be
claiming privilege on. As well, an impeachment committee, unlike any
other committee of the Congress, is specifically sanctioned and
empowered in the Constitution, meaning that even strict
“constructionist” Federalists on the bench would have a hard time
backing presidential obstruction.

As Holtzman noted, “There is no executive privilege in impeachment,
because refusing to testify is itself an impeachable offense.”

Committee Republicans, aided by two law professors they had brought
in to testify, Stephen Presser of Northwestern University School of Law
and Jeremy Rabkin of George Mason University School of Law, tried to
argue that impeachment was only meant for crimes in which the official,
or the president, was seeking personal gain. This nonsense was knocked
down by most of the speakers, who quoted numerous founders who made it
clear that what high crimes referred to were actions—even taken with
the noblest of intentions—that undermined the Constitution or abused
the powers of the office. As Rep. Nadler said, “Impeachment has nothing
to do with intentions or with good faith. Impeachment has to do with
abuse of power which weakens the balance of power.”

In the end, the hearing petered out, taking no action of any
kind—exactly the result that Pelosi, Hoyer and Conyers cynically
intended.

Now it is up to the public and the impeachment movement to call
their bluff and take impeachment to the next level. Noting that even
Rep. Conyers ended the hearing by saying, “We are not done yet, and we
do not intend to go away until we achieve the accountability that
Congress is entitled to and that the American people deserve,” Rep.
Kucinich and five other co-sponsors of his articles of impeachment
(Robert Wexler, Tammy Baldwin, Keith Ellison, Maurice Hinchey, Sheila
Jackson-Lee, and Hank Johnson) are calling on all Americans to contact
their representatives (202-224-3121) and urge them to join in
co-sponsoring those articles and in calling for a formal impeachment
hearing.

They are also calling on everyone to contact their local and
national media, nearly all of whom have blacked out news of
impeachment. Incredibly, the New York Times, for example, has not even
reported on Friday’s hearing, even as a news “brief.” Those news
organizations, like the Washington Post and the Philadelphia Inquirer,
that did report on the hearings did so only in short, inside articles.
Though the hearing was aired in full on C-Span (and is still available for download), many Americans don’t even know it happened.

Time is short, but even at this late date, it would be a simple
matter to impeach the president on some issues. As several of Friday’s
witnesses pointed out, President Bush has essentially dared Congress to
act, admitting that he openly violated the FISA law—a felony, and
openly admitting that he has refused to enact laws passed by the
Congress, claiming a power—unitary executive authority—not even
mentioned in the Constitution. He has openly admitted to having known
about, and approved, “enhanced interrogation techniques” devised by his
subordinates—techniques like waterboarding which clearly violate the
Geneva Conventions and US law. No hearings would be required to
establish these high crimes and misdemeanors. They could simply be
voted on by an Impeachment Committee and sent to the full House for a
vote.

Even if there were no time for a Senate trial, the simple act of
impeaching the president for one or more abuses of power would serve
notice on future presidents that future such abuses would not be
tolerated. Failure to do so, and allowing this administration to leave
office unimpeached, would send the opposite message: that Congress is
no longer a co-equal branch of government, but is merely a consultative
body, at best, and that a president is in effect a dictator.

That Pelosi buckled and permitted a hearing on impeachable crimes
by the Bush/Cheney administration is a major victory for the
impeachment movement, but it must not be the end of the line.
Impeachment activists need to now redouble their efforts to make
Congress do its Constitutional duty, and initiate a formal impeachment
proceeding.

As former Republican representative Bob Barr, now the Libertarian
candidate for president, told Friday’s hearing, “We had a nuclear clock
during the Cold War. In the ‘90s we had a debt clock. Now we have a
Constitution Clock.”

That clock is getting close to midnight, and it is ticking.
_____________
DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based investigative journalist and
columnist. His latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s
Press, 2006 and now available in paperback edition). His work is
available at www.thiscantbehappening.net

Who Will Take Cindy Sheehan's Place As SPOKESPERSON?

thepen — Wed, 30 May 2007 03:29:52 -0400

To answer the question of who will take Cindy Sheehan's place as spokesperson, first we must ask who CAN take her place. What one person can do all the work of making policy change happen in America? The short answer is that NO one person flying solo can do that. Even Cindy herself could not do that, and notwithstanding her own personal valor she never even had a chance of doing that. Because democracy can only happen when each of us speaks for OURSELVES.

ACTION PAGE:
http://www.usalone.com/cheney_impeachment.php

Where did the people ever get the idea that they NEEDED a spokesperson? It's really the same thing with our members of Congress. We can't just depend on them to automatically represent our interests just because we voted for them, unless we are constantly telling them what we want them to do. And when they dramatically fail to represent the will of the people, as last week in the latest appropriation for the occupation without accountability or end, who is to blame if the people are not continuously pressing their petitions for grievances?

Last week is profound evidence that STILL not enough of us are speaking out yet.

Of course the pathological failure of Congress to press for impeachment, and of Cheney in particular, is diagnostic of all other ills. Until Congress actually confronts a criminally out of control White House there is fundamentally nothing to constrain them from smirking and sneering their way to even greater disasters for America in the next 18 months. Impeachment is the one thing that Congress can do which cannot be vetoed or stalled in the courts they now predominantly control with crony appointments.

Do you want a peace movement to succeed? Understand that until the day they are constitutionally removed from office there can NEVER be even a glimmer of peace. And the best place to start is by removing the least popular, and most guilty, of them all.

So have you, or have you not, voted in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll?

And even if you have, still read on for there is so much more you need to do. We sometimes get emails from people demanding to know from us why this has not happened yet. And when we read such an email the first thing we do is look at the bottom to see if they have added the following THREE LINES to their email signatures, as we have asked everyone to do.

Vote in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll
http://www.usalone.com/blogvoices.php?Cheney%20Impeachment%3F
Add this text to your own email and blog signatures!

If not, there's your answer, folks. Stop asking why OTHER people aren't doing more to make this happen, and ask yourself why YOU are not doing more to make this happen. True democracy is not driven by charismatic celebrity personalities. Democracy only works when each of us does whatever we personally can do, whatever thing, however small, however UN-celebrated, to make it work. At the moment when each of us does that, policy change will happen instantaneously.

When you go to submit the action page above, to cast your vote in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll, you will find a link where you can read the last 25 personal messages added by your fellow constituents. EVERY one of those comments has just as much validity as every other one. Many are astounding in their articulateness, more so than any smug, self-aggrandizing pundit you've ever read. Even those messages with typos and grammatical errors are astounding in their authenticity. The people don't need a spokesperson. The people need to PERSONALLY speak out.

The people's movement does not need a "face". What it needs is a BODY. What it needs is MASSES of us engaged in caring about making policy change happen, each of us doing what we can do to make that a reality. And if you have already voted in the poll yourself (as more than 50,000 already have) there are a million other things you can do to build the momentum of the people's impeachment movement.

Can you write an alert? Draft your own in your own words and send it to everybody you know, and send them to the Action Page above.

Do you have a web site of your own? Add an action button for the impeachment poll as dozens of sites have done already, and you can display a dynamic tally as the votes add up. Here's where you get the code.

ACTION BUTTONS:
http://www.usalone.com/cheney_impeachment2.php

Do you ever post to blogs? Use that activity to encourage everyone you can to vote in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll.

Do you EVER send an email to anybody? Add the three line signature above to all your emails automatically by making it your email signature setting. Do the same thing with your blog posts too.

And then AFTER you have done ALL these things, then check in with us again and see how quickly impeachment becomes a reality. Let us measure the worth of our activism not by the prominence and loudness of our own voices, but by the number of OTHER people we can inspire to speak out.

So again, ask yourself, what have YOU done to make this happen? Get off of your ass. There is nobody else who can carry your piece of democracy on their shoulders. Stop expecting or depending on spokespeople to speak for you or represent you. We can more efficiently and directly transmit your messages, but we don't have to give you the power. You already had it. Now, use it.

Cindy did WAY more than her share. When will you do yours? What's the last thing Cindy said to you?

"It's up to you now."

It's always been up to us alone. Do you get it?

Impeachment Forum Videos

CactusPat — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 19:50:45 -0500

Voices for Impeachment - Powerful set of video clips from last week's Impeachment Forum held at the National Press Club in Washington DC. Sponsored by World Can't Wait.org.

Speakers include Gore Vidal, John Nichols, Cindy Sheehan, Daniel Ellsburg, Michael Ratner of the Ctr. for Constitutional Rights, David Swanson, and Sunsara Taylor. Plus video of the Impeachmentmobile in action and Cindy Sheehan at the opening of Congress... (much more below the fold!)

Gore Vidal Lets Loose:

John Nichols puts current movement for impeachment into historical context:

Cindy Sheehan:

Daniel Ellsberg on How Campaigns to Cut off War Funds and Impeach Criminal Presidents Help Each Other and Can Best Succeed in Tandem (Introduced by David Swanson):

Daniel Ellsberg on Bush and Hitler Seizing Right to Read Anyone's Mail:

Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights:

David Swanson and Sunsara Taylor:

ImpeachMobile Video:

Cindy Sheehan at Opening of Congress 01-04-07:

Full length videos of each speaker's presentations are available on the World Can't Wait website...

Cindy Sheehan Arrested at Smirk's Pig Farm! Plans More Action...

CactusPat — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 15:59:06 -0500

"We're the only people that can stop Bush now..."

Sheehan arrested outside Bush's ranch
Crawford, Texas (AP) -- Peace activist Cindy Sheehan and four other protesters [including Cindy's sister Dede] were arrested Thursday for blocking a road near President Bush's ranch, authorities said, snagging Vice pResident Dick Cheney's motorcade in the backup. Sheehan and the others lay or sat in the road about 20 minutes and didn't heed requests to move..., Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. R.T. King said.

"They weren't going unless they were arrested," King told The Associated Press. He said Cheney's motorcade was among the vehicles delayed by the demonstration.

Sheehan told the Waco Tribune-Herald that she and others were conducting a "peace surge" to address concerns that Bush may increase U.S. troop numbers in Iraq. Protesters said they had expected to be arrested.

Among those at the ranch Thursday were Cheney, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Earlier this month in New York, Sheehan was convicted of trespassing for leading a protest across the street from the United Nations.

A judge sentenced them to conditional discharge. Sheehan's attorney, Robert Gottlieb, said Thursday that meant they will not face any punishment as long as they lead a "law-abiding life" for the next year.

"There is nothing to say that what she was arrested for today means that she is not living a law-abiding life," Gottlieb told the AP. "She may in fact be innocent."

"I hardly doubt that anything that happened today would result in any problems in New York."

Sheehan, 49, of Vacaville, Calif., lost her 24-year-old son Casey in Iraq in April 2004. She has since drawn international attention after camping outside Bush's ranch.

Protesters have been arrested near the ranch in the past for violating a county ordinance forbidding camping out along the side of the road or blocking traffic.

Now she plans more action. PEACE SURGE!

Peace Mom Aims to Ramp Up "Peace Surge" After Arrest Thursday
Waco Tribune-Herald - Crawford - Minutes before the "Peace Mom" was arrested Thursday for blocking a road near President Bush's ranch, Cindy Sheehan said she plans to become more "confrontational" and that it's time to "ramp up" peace efforts.

"We're the only people that can stop Bush now," she said, standing with about 30 other peace protesters at a barricaded Secret Service checkpoint outside the Crawford-area ranch.

Bush was meeting with top advisers to consider strategy in the Iraq war, including a possible surge in troop levels.

About 20 minutes after talking about her new plan, called a "peace surge" as a poke at Bush, Sheehan, 49, and four other protesters lay down in front of Secret Service barricades and refused to move. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers carried each one off the roadway and to a ditch along the side of the road - their hands tied with flexible nylon ties, a gentler handcuff police often use during protests.

It was Sheehan's first arrest at the Bush ranch in McLennan County.

The five protesters, including Dede Miller, Sheehan's sister; Gerry Fonsecca, Sheehan's boyfriend; Carl Rising-Moore; and Jeri Reed, were arrested on misdemeanor charges of obstructing a roadway. The group is expected to be bonded out of the McLennan County Jail today.

Among those at the ranch with Bush were Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney.

The protest briefly delayed state troopers who were to serve in escort motorcades for government officials meeting with Bush, Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. R.T. King said.

Terry Chapman, owner of Chapman Bail Bonds in Waco, said the overnight stay is typical, as justices of the peace often do arraignments once or twice a day; the judge had performed that duty twice Thursday before the group was booked.

Sheehan, who said her "surge" would address concerns that Bush may increase U.S. troop numbers in Iraq, said earlier in the day she expected to be arrested.

"He's a serial murderer," she said, just before being placed in a patrol car with her sister. "We just want the killing to stop."

Sheehan said she plans to camp in Crawford through New Year's Eve, when protesters are planning a vigil to honor the Iraqi citizens slain since the war began nearly four years ago.

Earlier this month in New York, Sheehan was convicted of trespassing for leading a protest across the street from the United Nations. A judge sentenced them to conditional discharge, which means they will not face any punishment as long as they "lead a law-abiding life" for the next year, Sheehan's attorney, Robert Gottlieb, said Thursday.

"There is nothing to say that what she was arrested for today means that she is not living a law-abiding life," he told the Associated Press. He said he doubted "that anything that happened today would result in any problems in New York."

Sheehan, of Vacaville, Calif., lost her 24-year-old son, Casey, in Iraq in April 2004. She has since drawn international attention for camping outside Bush's ranch.

Pentagon STILL spying on antiwar movement.

BushFlash — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 22:40:14 -0500

Click for video

This is one of those things that needs to be taken care of, in the first 100 hours of the new congress.

So much bullshit to clear up, so little time......

Impeachment Proceedings

davidswanson — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 09:44:07 -0500

By Cindy Sheehan

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the General Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

--Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America

There are many important issues facing our nation and the 110th Congress. Minimum wage increases and universal health care are long past due.I certainly appreciate the stirrings about bringing our troops home from Iraq within 3 or 4 months, too! After all, six more troops were killed yesterday while our politicos are playing footsies with each other! We thought that Nov. 7th was a day to celebrate! When the last of our brave young people come limping home to their relieved families that will be a joy-filled and historic day.

I believe, though, that those same troops and others who have fought so bravely, died so needlessly, and have been wounded for life deserve justice for what the Bush regime has put them through.

I believe that this country and the world deserve justice for the raping and pillaging by the pirates who have stolen our liberties and inflicted torture and other pains and hardships upon the world.

I believe that impeachment proceedings are the most important issue that the 110th Congress should put on OUR table.

Since I have written open letters to George and Reps. Pelosi and Conyers, I have had almost overwhelming support for the ideas, but there are also some legitimate concerns that need to be addressed.

First of all, many people believe that impeachment proceedings will be seen as "political" revenge for what the Republicans have done to the Democrats for the last 12 years or revenge for the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Impeachment is not a political tool as used by the Republican Congress, but it is a Constitutional remedy for elected or appointed officials who are abusing their powers. If George has not abused his powers as president and commander in chief, then no president in history has. I will not detail his high crimes and misdemeanor and crimes against peace and humanity, because all of his illicit activities have already been well documented. Justice should not be a partisan issue and if Congress took their oath to the Constitution as seriously as they take their allegiance to the special interests and to partisan politicking, George would have already been impeached.

Secondly, many people are fearful that impeachment proceedings will bog down Congress. Elizabeth Holtzman, a former Representative from New York who sat on the investigative committee that recommended impeachment articles be charged against Richard Nixon, said, last weekend at our impeachment forum in Philadelphia's Constitutional Hall, that this kind of reasoning doesn't give Congress enough credit. Ms. Holtzman said that Congress is able to "walk and chew gum" at the same time. I will have to take her word for it, since she is the reasoned voice of experience.

Lastly, people are concerned that holding George accountable will further divide a country already damaged and split by the "Uniter." This is a legitimate concern, but our country healed completely after the Nixon debacle, and we will heal again. I would like to also give us Americans the credit that we deserve. We have proven over and over again that we are very resilient and strong enough to withstand a quest for accountability.

Recent polls have shown that most Americans want proceedings instituted against BushCo. The newly elected Congressional leadership will not institute these proceedings unless the will of the people is shown. Many members of the Congresses, in both parties, that have been seated since BushCo came to power in an illegal electoral coup in 2000, have been willing co-conspirators in the Bush crimes against everything and it is up to the will of the American people to correct the course that is robbing the Blessings of Liberty from all of us and from our posterity. As the preamble states, it is our Constitution, as well as it is theirs, and we need to reclaim our country and our humanity before it is lost to us forever.

Bringing Articles of Impeachment against BushCo will not only bring resolution and justice to our nation and the world, but if this regime is made to be held accountable for their crimes and abuses of power, then future administrations may be slower to commit such blatant and belligerent crimes and the world will be a safer and more peaceful place. But there is an overriding reason for these proceedings to be instituted as soon as possible: A president is neither above the law, nor is he the law. A president is an elected official who has a duty to obey, carry out and protect the laws of our land, not break them as if he were a dictator of a banana republic, not the leader of a once great nation. We need to restore our greatness and our credibility to a world that despises us for allowing BushCo free rein to commit their aggressions against the world.

By attaining this justice that our world so desperately needs, we people of compassion and courage cannot bring back the hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed already. We cannot put the buildings back together that the war machine's bombs have destroyed. We cannot make whole the people who have been emotionally and physically wounded by these high crimes and misdemeanors. We cannot put back together the families who have been torn apart by illegal wars. No matter how hard we try, we cannot prevent the pain that has already been caused by BushCo, but by bringing them to justice, we can, and will prevent more needless suffering here at home and abroad for the present and for our posterity.

Our dead, our soldiers, and the people of Iraq are voiceless in the debate on accountability and we must be their voices. The Constitution cannot break out of its glass at the National Archives and sit-in in front of the White House or walk the Halls of Congress to demand that BushCo quit desecrating it and what the US used to stand for. It is up to us, the citizens, to protect humanity and the law of our land. As historian Howard Zinn states in the introduction to Impeach the President, the Case against Bush and Cheney, edited by Dennis Loo and Peter Phillips:

We cannot expect either Republicans or Democrats in Congress to initiate any challenge to the existing order of things. In the history of the nation, serious injustices---slavery, racial segregation, the rights of working people, the condition of women, the war in Vietnam---have only been remedied by powerful social movements that have forced the government to change its policies.

Now we have another such time.

Our very existence as a nation of laws and justice depends on it.

Please visit Impeach for Change to learn about the new and powerful people's movement for accountability. Sign up for an impeachment forum in your area on Human Rights day, December 10th, or organize one locally if there is not one near you. I will be speaking with, among other notable Americans, Elizabeth Holtzman, at the forum in NYC that day.

Please visit Gold Star Families for Peace to learn about our Walk for Change campaign in the Halls of Congress on January 3rd and 4th, 2007. You can join Gold Star Family members in our demand for peace and accountability.

2006 was the year of the Awakening and 2007 will be the year of the Change!

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spec. Casey Sheehan who was KIA in the Bush regime's war of terror on 04/04/04. She is the co-founder and president of Gold Star Families for Peace and founder and director of the Camp Casey Peace Institute. Cindy has published three books and the latest is Peace Mom: A Mother's Journey Through Heartache to Activism.

Throwing Stuff Over the White House Fence

davidswanson — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 15:50:16 -0500

By David Swanson

On Wednesday, Cindy Sheehan, Ann Wright, Lennox Yearwood, and about 50 other activists for peace met up on the sidewalk in front of the White House. I brought along a box containing 6,000-some pages of names and comments: about 80,000 names with cities and states, about half of them with comments beside them. These were the names of people who have signed the petition at www.DontAttackIran.org The media gathered around, and Cindy read the petition out loud:

"Dear President Bush and Vice President Cheney,

"We write to you from all over the United States and all over the world to urge you to obey both international and U.S. law, which forbid aggressive attacks on other nations. We oppose your proposal to attack Iran. Iran does not possess nuclear weapons, just as Iraq did not possess nuclear weapons. If Iran had such weapons, that would not justify the use of force, any more than any other nation would be justified in launching a war against the world's greatest possessor of nuclear arms, the United States. The most effective way to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons would be to closely monitor its nuclear energy program, and to improve diplomatic relations -- two tasks made much more difficult by threatening to bomb Iranian territory. We urge you to lead the way to peace, not war, and to begin by making clear that you will not commit the highest international crime by aggressively attacking Iran."

We took the box of petition signatures over to the gate and asked the guard to accept it on behalf of the President. He asked Cindy to read the petition to him, which she did. Then he left and came back a few times, claiming that he was trying to find the proper person to accept it, but more likely waiting for more guards and Park Service police to show up.

Eventually we got tired of waiting. We handed a stack of pages to everyone in the crowd and asked them to stick them through the fence. Pages began piling up all over the White House driveway and front yard. Then a line of police officers stepped in the way and blocked the fence. So we began throwing pages, about 50 double-sided sheets at a time, over their heads and over the fence. This had the effect of scattering them more widely on the other side. I hope whoever had to pick up all those pieces of paper is aware whose administration destroyed the right to overtime pay, and I hope they read some of the comments. I read thousands of them. Many were angry. Many were polite. Most were passionate and pleading. Some were concise: "Iraq was our first mistake; don't let Iran be our last." Others went on for pages. People poured their souls out trying to educate and reform our President and Vice President. Instead they ended up decorating the White House lawn.

Here's what the Associated Press had to say about this event:

"Activist Cindy Sheehan led about 50 protesters to a White House gate Wednesday to deliver anti-war petitions she said were signed by 80,000 Americans. The California woman, whose son was killed in Iraq more than two years ago, joined the protesters in hailing the outcome of Tuesday's elections and chanting 'Stop the War' outside the White House gate.
"'They have to take (the petitions); it's our First Amendment right,' said Sheehan, who waited about 15 minutes at the gate with other protesters before tossing the petitions over the fence. 'It was taking too long for them to decide whether to accept them or not, so we just delivered them.'…
"…Wednesday's protest came as Republicans lost control of the House and the White House announced the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. 'He's being offered as a sacrificial lamb,' said Sheehan, adding that she would not stop protesting until American forces are out of Iraq…
"…Sheehan and other protesters said the outcome of Tuesday's House race - and the gains in the Senate - indicated that Americans are questioning the costs of U.S. military actions in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The petitions tossed over the White House fence were presented as an open letter to Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, opposing use of military force to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.
'Iran does not possess nuclear weapons, just as Iraq did not possess nuclear weapons,' the petitions said. A U.S. Park Police spokesman said officers moved the protesters away from gates near Secret Service guard stations, but there were no arrests."

If you have not yet signed the petition, you still can at
http://www.dontattackiran.org

You can also sign one addressed to Congress (which might even listen to you) at
http://www.peace-action.org/Iranpetition.html

Late Wednesday afternoon Cindy decided to lead a sit-in right in front of the White House, and then – finally -- the Park Service arrested her. The Associated Press changed the lede to its article to read as follows:

"Activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested Wednesday as she led about 50 protesters to a White House gate to deliver anti-war petitions."

Not quite accurate. The petitions had been delivered several hours before the arrest. But what the heck, it probably got more editors to pick up the story. Thanks, again, Cindy!

WeDemocrats.org

wedemocrats — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 13:35:15 -0500

WeDemocrats In order to stimulate an active interest in government affairs, to restore TRUST of our government, to foster and perpetuate the idea of FREEDOM and principles of a Democratic Nation and to provide for our people through administration of the highest degree of justice, FAIRNESS and social welfare, do associate ourselves together as an official progressive grassroots organization, of the Progressives' Democratic Party. Auxilary groups on Democrats.org and BarackObama.com.
What will help Democrats win elections will be a surge in grassroots energy and a reengaged corps of activists who are working to take their party and country back. 6,236 - IN ALL 50 STATES AND DC!!! It’s a Fantastic Start.
Join this group!

Ron McBride

http://www.WeDemocrats.org

ron@wedemocrats.org

Join WeDemocrats at: http://www.wedemocrats.org/dadamail/mail.cgi/list/maillist/

Impeachment

valsmom — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:40:57 -0400

I was horrified to receive an email from democrats.com that actually advocated that if democrats win the House, they will ignore Nancy Pelosi. John Conyers will call for the investigations that will lead to impeachment.

I believe that the president has committed impeachable offenses, however he only has two years left until his term ends. More importantly, Democrats have the chance to do good for the American people and hopefully set themselves up for a win in 2008.

Impeachment would be a huge distraction from all the important work that needs to be done, especially undoing some of the bad legislation.

This same email had a request to sign a petition to stop the war that Cindy Sheehan will take to the White House. I think she is an embarrassment to the Democratic party and should just go quietly away. I have no respect for any American citizen who would stand next to Hugo Chavez. This is why Democrats LOSE!

We have too many members who would rather be progressively correct than
win elections. This is why I don't donate to the party at the national level - not as long as Howard Dean is the party chairman.