Dec 22 2008

Promoting the Petition ….Digg update

We have built it….will they come?

They will if they know about it! If you want to get involved or stay involved in the Citizens Petition: Special Prosecutor for Bush War Crimes, the work that needs to be done now is getting the petition in front of as many eyes as possible.

Here is a link to a text file of the petition https://www.docudharma.com/uplo… All you have to do is Copy and Paste it into an e-mail.

Below the fold is the promotional e-mail I have been sending out. You can also e-mail me and I will send you the HTML for either the petition or the promo mail.

First please mail it to your Senators and Representatives. And don’t forget to ask them to sign it!

Next, we can mail it to the media, here is FAIR’s Media Contact List

And then the blogs, here is Technorati’s list of the Top 100 Blogs. But please mail it especially to the blogs that YOU read and like. Most blogs have a Contact Us link somewhere on their site. Don’t worry about repetition, the more mails that blogs get, the more it will become apparent that this is a ‘hot issue’ and will cover it.

Social Networking sites, such as Facebook, My Space….as well as Digg and Reddit etc. I have a big hole in my knowledge about these sites, so any help and suggestions as to using them to get the petition out is very welcome!

Update! Google produces a Digg link….go Digg!

Finally, your personal e-mail contacts…send it to everyone you know!

Thanks for the effort, in just two days the petition is up to 2343 signers! Just about anyone who sees it and has the two minutes to sign it…..probably will! So every mail you send out is important. Thank You all for your efforts towards bring these War Criminals to Justice!

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Docudharma and Democrats.com have teamed up to create, host, and distribute the following petition. The petition calls for Attorney General Designate Holder to, immediately upon being confirmed, appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all officials of the Bush Administration for Torture and War Crimes.

The petition:

Dear Attorney General Designate Holder,

We the undersigned citizens of the United States hereby formally petition you to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in War Crimes.

These crimes  are being euphemistically referred to as “abusive interrogation techniques” by such respected figures as Senator John McCain. These are euphemisms for torture. Torture is a War Crime. Waterboarding is a War Crime. The CIA has admitted waterboarding detainees. Recently, Vice President Cheney has brazenly admitted authorizing the program that lead to waterboarding, other forms of torture too numerous to list, and ultimately, the deaths by homicide of detainees.

As Major General Antonio Taguba, the Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison has stated:

“After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”

The Washington Post recently summarized the Senate Armed Services Committee Report on detainee treatment thusly:

A bipartisan panel of senators has concluded that former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials bear direct responsibility for the harsh treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and that their decisions led to more serious abuses in Iraq and elsewhere.

We the undersigned citizens demand a full and thorough investigation immediately upon your taking office. This investigation should be pursued no matter where it may lead and no matter what the political implications may be. To this end, we remind you that you work not on behalf of or for the President or the Congress, but for the People of the United States of America and for Justice itself.

The United States is a representative democracy. The actions of our government officials are done in the name of its citizens. War Crimes have been committed in our name. Torture has been done in our name. The only way to clear our name of War Crimes is to repudiate them through the aggressive prosecution of each and every person involved to the full extent of the law through the appointment of a Special Prosecutor.

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We are urging everyone in the Blogosphere and beyond to get involved in this project…not just to sign the petition, but also to write diaries and blog posts in support of the effort. And also to display the linked badge (created by Edger) in your posts or on your sites. The easy to embed code for posting the badge can be found here.

Please feel free to contact us at [email protected] for more information or any technical assistance you may need.

If you wish to post this essay, or just the petition, on any site or your own blog, please mail us at [email protected] and we will send you the entire essay, complete with HTML code, to post wherever you wish. Please feel free to edit, within the parameters of keeping the original spirit and intent. We enthusiastically give full permission for such use!

And of course……Please go to Democrats.com and sign the petition!

26 comments

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  1. Photobucket

    • Edger on December 22, 2008 at 21:29
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    copy of the promotional email. Right click and save, or just click to open. This is an MSWord document that you can copy and paste into an email.

    • Edger on December 22, 2008 at 22:08
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    Pardon Me, Congress?

    by David Swanson, October 23, 2008

    …Congress should hold hearings, and hold them as soon as possible, but not just to speechify, rather to take serious steps to prevent something brand new in American government: a president pardoning himself and/or pardoning his subordinates for crimes he instructed them to commit, crimes for which they have, in most cases, not yet even been charged, much less convicted and sentenced.

    The unconstitutionality of self pardons is discussed at length in “Pardon Me? The Constitutional Case Against Presidential Self-Pardons,” by Brian C. Kalt in the Yale Law Journal, December 1, 1996: http://www.jstor.org/pss/797310 Kalt gives an argument based on original intent and the English history that informs it, text and structure, case law, and the broader precedential principles of self-judging and the rule of law.

    …

    The belief has taken hold in Washington, D.C., that the presidential pardon power cannot be restricted other than through amendment of the Constitution. But part of the reason for that belief is that few people heretofore have considered the outrageous possibility of a president pardoning himself. A careful analysis, I believe, would lead to the conclusion that Congress is completely within its rights to legislate a ban preventing the presidential pardon power from being distorted to include the power to self-pardon the president, or to pardon any staff or contractors of the executive branch, including the vice president, for crimes authorized by the president.

    Of course, such legislation would be vetoed by Bush, but it could be passed during the next Congress, and it could be written to retroactively revoke Bush’s illegal pardons. After all, we recently retroactively legalized massive violations of the Fourth Amendment and statutory law by telecommunications companies. Surely, we can retroactively revoke pardons. In fact, according to press accounts in 2001, President George W. Bush seriously considered, himself, revoking former President Bill Clinton’s controversial pardon of Marc Rich, but ultimately chose not to do so despite the advice from his lawyers in the Justice Department, advice that Congress could subpoena next year if it hasn’t all been shredded. Of course, this suggests the possibility of lobbying President Barack Obama to revoke invalid pardons made by Bush.

    Another course that Congress could take right now would be to introduce and support legislation creating a Constitutional Amendment to restrict self-pardons and pardons of subordinates for crimes ordered by the president. Such an amendment would not be ratified quickly, but it would raise the level of potentially bipartisan opposition to Bush pardons, which might discourage them. At some point, surely, the Republican Party is going to decide that one more nail in its coffin is too many.

    The best approach of all, however, would be one that Bob Fertik has proposed, although I guess the framers of the Constitution beat him to it. The House could impeach each top official likely to receive a preemptive pardon from Bush, or impeach them once they receive the pardons, whether or not they are still in office, and whether or not President Obama has tapped them to stay on. First on the list would be I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby whose sentence Bush has already commuted.

    • pfiore8 on December 22, 2008 at 22:18
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    and i thought it was great because my Docudharma ID is 27.

    and yes. absolutely. e-mailed everyone in my address list, dem or not.

    ACCOUNTABILITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  5. Seriously!

    I e-mailed a bunch of people the other day, have the badge up at JohnConyers.com (current thread) urging those (few left) to click on the badge and sign the petition.

    I will, within the next couple of days (stressed for time) get out some e-mails, as well!

    Where there’s a will . . . . . .!

    • robodd on December 22, 2008 at 23:43
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    Did you see the postings by Armando at Talk Left and by Glenn at Salon?  More on Cheney admitting and implicating democrats.

    • sharon on December 23, 2008 at 00:53
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    i have not abandoned the effort, just found myself face to face with work that has been neglected over the last few weeks as i struggled to finish the semester.  and damn, it’s christmas this week and i have to travel tomorrow and help my mum get ready to entertain all of us on christmas eve and then it’s off to my dad’s on thursday wash, rinse, repeat.  so last night and today i had to do the work thing.  however, i did send it to three lists and will do more before i go to bed tonight and while at my mum’s.  last i looked the signature count was about 3545 which is not too shabby.  if rick warren would just back out of the inaugural blessing already we might be able to get people’s undivided attention.

    interesting on the cheney front.  i agree with michael ratner that he was begging for a pardon when he admitted guiltn on torture. and he’s now trying to avoid prosecution by implicating dems.  i wonder what nadler and conyers, and their sternly worded letters, have to say about this, if it is a surprise about reid, rockefeller, harman, and pelosi were involved.  victoria2dc filed an ethics violation against pelosi, i wonder if she ever heard anything back on it.

  8. we’re 55 short of 4,000 (or in other words 3,945)!!!!!!!!!!!

    Keep up the great work everybody!!!!!!!

    • sharon on December 23, 2008 at 02:36
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    as it just arrived in my mailbox:

    Will Bush Pardon Cheney on Christmas Eve?

    On Christmas Eve 1992, defeated President George H.W. Bush pardoned Caspar Weinberger, Elliott Abrams, Duane Clarridge, Alan Fiers, Clair George, and Robert McFarlane for their Iran-Contra crimes. Not one served a single day in jail; Weinberger was about to go on trial and would have tied Bush himself to the scandal.

    Will George W. Bush follow his father’s precedent and pardon Dick Cheney and his other criminal co-conspirators this Wednesday on Christmas Eve?

    Last week, Cheney was all over TV setting the stage for pardons. He admitted he personally approved torture, but insisted it destroyed Al Qaeda and saved American lives.

    According to a powerful article by David Rose in Vanity Fair, the Bush-Cheney torture regime accomplished exactly the opposite. The torture photos from Abu Ghraib helped Al Qaeda’s recruitment soar. U.S. officers in Iraq say torture-inspired attacks on U.S. soldiers were the #1 and #2 cause of soldiers’ deaths. CIA analysts say the “intelligence” produced by torture was worthless.

    On November 20, Rep. Jerrold Nadler introduced H.Res. 1531 to urge Bush not to pardon his criminal co-conspirators. Nadler’s bill has 9 co-sponsors but we need every Representative (and Senator) to speak out against corrupt self-pardons.

    If you haven’t signed our petition to Congress, please join over 48,000 who have:

    http://democrats.com/nadler-pa…

    Discuss this here:

    http://www.democrats.com/will-…

    _____________________

    Urge Eric Holder to Appoint a Special Prosecutor for Bush War Crimes

    Last week three important Democrats – Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Sen. Carl Levin, and VP-elect Joe Biden – independently urged the Attorney General to investigate Dick Cheney’s torture confession. A growing chorus of newspapers (NY Times) and legal scholars (John Dean, Glenn Greenwald) agrees.

    Prosecution of those responsible for torture is not optional – it is required by our obligations under the Geneva Conventions.

    So we’ve joined forces with buhdydharma and the Docudharma community to petition Obama’s AG nominee, Eric Holder, to appoint a Special Prosecutor.

    Holder replied after receiving a few hundred emails: “Enough folks. I hear you.” That’s a start, but we’ve asked for a formal statement. And we’re collecting additional signatures to deliver when Holder goes before the Senate for confirmation hearings in January.

    Please sign and spread the word!

    http://democrats.com/special-p…

    #####

  10. I’m doing my small part by posting the badge in my right column.  I, of course, signed the petition, and I sent it around to others, who say they’ve signed.

    This just needs a hundred little pushes to grow to tens of thousands of names.  You know what to do.    

     

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