Tag: impeachment

I just received this e-mail from a friend.  It started with a disclaimer about not knowing its validity, but I did a google and the legal firm Rohde & Victoroff looks good.

PLEASE DO THIS NOW. IT’S WORTH A SHOT!

House Resolution 333 for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney is off the House floor, and has instead been sent to the Judiciary Committee for “further study.” This maneuver, organized by Pelosi and the Democratic leadership, is consistent with their mantra that impeachment is “off the table.” But, we are told Nancy Pelosi is reported to have replied to the question of impeachment that if she received 10,000 hand written letters she would proceed with it.

What are we waiting for?

Take out a sheet of paper RIGHT NOW and write:

PLEASE HOLD IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS IMMEDIATELY

Sign it with your address and mail it TODAY to:

Rep Nancy Pelosi

Speaker of the House

235 Cannon HOB

Washington, DC 20515

AND CIRCULATE THIS MESSAGE FAR AND WIDE

Best, Steve

Stephen F. Rohde

Rohde & Victoroff

Suite 411

1880 Century Park East

Los Angeles, CA 90067

310-277-1482

310-277-1485

Not much more to say, onward to the General strike!

I simply can’t wait to try to write something smart, engaging, even very coherent.  Something needs to be done…and soon!  

Yes. Buhdy, we must come together behind a “unified field theory & action” to take back our country, to take back the soul of our country.

Impeachment is a good one.  A high percentage of people are for this.  There is an even higher percentage of people who think we should get out of Iraq.  

The issue is not “finding” an issue.  The issue is how to empower and persuade people to do something, to “yell louder,” to get up, go out and make their opinions heard.  This is what appeals to me about the IRAQ MORATORIUM.  I am also greatly in favor of a General Strike.  

So, I think we can unify and act behind these three ideas:

         IMPEACH

         IRAQ MORATORIUM

         GENERAL STRIKE

The Iraq Moratorium was conceived as a platform to bring out massive numbers of people.

Although between 2/3 and 3/4 of people surveyed are now in opposition to the Iraq war, they don’t come out to express their feelings.  The population of the United States is 300 million.  The last major, national demonstration, October 27th, had been planned and organized for months in advance; but only about 80K to 150K people came out to protest.  

While 67% to 75% of the U.S. population opposes the war, only about 5/100s of 1% came out to protest.  The apathy, distraction, or feeling of hopelessness expressed by these numbers should be taken into account.

The Iraq Moratorium takes account of these dismall numbers and has developed an idea to help the voiceless speak out through the simplicity, regularity, and non-competitive umbrella nature of the action.  All P & J groups can join in under the umbrella of Iraq Moratorium.  Power in numbers.  “Solidarity Forever!”  

Hopefully, the Iraq Moratorium can turn into a General Strike!  The Iraq Moratorium (IM)is scheduled for the Third Friday of Every Month.  People who participate in IM take a pledge to do something for peace on the 3rd Friday of each month.  The commitment is easy as there is a broad range of actions to be taken, ranging from wearing a black ribbon or arm band, to buying no gas on that day, to vigils, to informational forums, to civil disobedience.  The main thing is to sign the pledge (numbers are important)

and to

         do something!

The Iraq Moratorium could be combined easily with The General Strike.  Garrett Keizer, a contributing editor to “Harper’s Magazine” had an excellent essay on this in the October ’07 issue “Notebook” section:

       “Specific Suggestion: General Strike”

Most thoughtful people would agree that we have an obligation to advance the cause of civilization.  We owe it to our children, our grandchildren, and to posterity.  We are not only stewards of the earth, as are all human beings, but we Americans are also stewards of the original American vision as established in 1776.  Remember the cause of liberty?

There is simply no other word that is sufficient, no other theme that is effective.  No other cry that will be heard…..Heard by both the populace and the politicians. After long months of thought,I can simply think of no other way to say it.

In a world that has been reduced to soundbites and slogans, in a political world that is based on lies and spin and propaganda, in a world where reason is  scoffed at and complexity ignored, where all thought and ideas must be reduced to the lowest common denominator…it is what we have.

Even ‘Throw the Bums Out!’ is too long and confusing for these times.

Nothing else comes close to expressing the anger and frustration that I…and millions of others apparently, feel at this time.

Nothing else expresses the deep level of change that ALL of us can feel in our bones that we need.

OK, folks, I need some help here — a potentially major item requiring immediate investigation has come to light. From this comment in my recent diary over on DailyKos, dove12348 relates a particularly chilling tidbit:

Unfortunately there are things that…
…can’t be tracked.

http://slate.com/…

Pelosi has threatened the removal of Michigan Rep. John Conyers from his chairmanship of the House judiciary committee if an impeachment inquiry were even opened, according to reliable congressional chatter.

OK, folks — who can help pull together some additional detail around this?

Please post what you can find here, or — preferably, to keep it all in one place, post it here and over here on ePluribus Media, where I’ll be trying to coordinate more information on this.

Here’s the question I want to try and answer: The article from Slate is from August 21, so how does the current state of affairs affect any potential investigation by Conyers?

We have all heard the arguments on impeachment, pro and con.  We have all heard about whether or not we “have the votes.”  Whether or not this will ruin our chances in 2008 for a Democratic victory.  We have all discussed every possible permutation, and we have no consensus.  Ok.  I accept that.  My decision is to support anyone who is for impeachment, and that includes Kucinich, who I think is doing a great job getting this issue in the spotlight.

This diary isn’t just about impeachment.  It’s also about what can happen if we don’t impeach this crew, and asks the question of what we will do if any of these things come to pass.  As much as I’m pro-impeachment, if it doesn’t happen I’m not going to lay down and die — I want to know the consequences and take action.

One of the consequences has to do with the 2008 Presidential election.

None of this may come to pass, and I hope that is the case.  I am claiming no precognitive abilities here.

But I do think Naomi Wolf has some interesting things to say as far as these consequences, in her post over at Firedoglake, A “Presidential Coup,” The Continuity of Government, And Blackwater Watching Midtown Manhattan

I have argued that in the closing stages of a `fascist shift’, events cascade. I am hearing about them, even across the globe. Here in Australia I hear from the nation’s best-know feminist activist, and former adviser to Paul Keating, Anne Summers, who was also at the time this took place Chair of the Board of Greenpeace International. Summers was detained by armed agents for FIVE HOURS each way in LAX on her way to and from the annual meeting of the board of Greenpeace International in Mexico, and her green card was taken away from her. `I want to call a lawyer’, she told TSA agents. `Ma’am, you do not have a right to call an attorney,’ they replied. `You have not entered the United States.’

…

Increasingly, reputable figures are starting to talk about `a coup.’ Jim Hightower notes in an important essay, “Is a Presidential Coup Under Way?,” that a coup is defined in the dictionary as a sudden forced change in the form of government. (He also spells out the basis for a rigorously modeled impeachment and criminal prosecution.) Daniel Ellsberg’s much-emailed speech on recent events notes that, in his view, a `coup’ has already taken place. Ron Rosenbaum speculates in an essay on Slate about the reasons the Bush administration is withholding even from members of Congress its plans for Continuity of Government in an emergency – noting that those worrying about a coup are no longer so marginal. Frank Rich notes the parallels between ourselves and the Good Germans. And Congress belatedly realizes as if waking from a drugged sleep that it might not be okay for the Attorney General to say the President need not obey the law. Congress may realize why Mukasey CAN’T say that `waterboarding is torture’ – the minute he does so he has laid the grounds for Bush, Cheney and any number of CIA and Blackwater interrogators to be tried and convicted for war crimes. They are so keenly aware that what they have been doing is criminal that laws such as the Military Commissions Act of 2006 have been drafted specifically to protect them and the torturers and murderers they have directed from criminal prosecution. That is why insisting that Mukasey say that waterboarding is torture is, in spite of the alarming apparent defection of Feinstein and Schumer, an important tactic and even the perfect opening for the impeachment bid that Kucinich is bringing on November 6th to be followed by Congressional investigations into possible criminality.

Dennis, riding high from his movement on impeachment and also for the Democracy for America Pulse Poll victory, appeared on Democracy Now this morning with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.

The election results coming out of places like Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Virginia this week should be a wakeup call for Congressional Democrats.

Wow. Ernie Fletcher – Republic governor of the same state that has sent Mitch McConnell to the United States Senate without fail since Ronald Reagan sat in the Oval Office, the same state that gave George Bush 57% and 60%, respectively, in the last two presidential elections – gets tossed out on his ear in a huge landslide.

Oh – did I say, “Republic governor”? Excuse me, I meant, “corrupt Republic governor” – which might be a tautology; I’m not sure.

Yeah – the voters of Kentucky – not exactly the most rabid tree-huggin’, latte-sippin’, windsurfin’, gun-takin’, terrist-lovin’ bunch of folks you could find – overwhelmingly told the Republic governor to stuff it.

Via Bradblog.com, Rep. Wexler has sent out a letter to call the HJC to hold hearings on impeachment:

In a party desprately in need of a hero, we now know who that hero is.  Of course, some of us knew who that hero was all along.  Some of us have paid attention to what the man has been saying, what he has stood for and what he means to do in the future.

Tomorrow’s the day!  YAY!  We get to see which House members are willing to stand up for the Constituion, and which ones we should primary!

In a Press Release dated Nov. 2, Dennis Kucinich announces…

that he will offer a privileged resolution on the House floor next week that will bring articles of impeachment against Vice President, Richard B. Cheney.

Check it out at Kucinich’s government web site. 
Call Speaker Pelosi and thank her in advance for allowing it to come to the floor.
Call your local Congressperson.
And call or email your friends and family to do the same.

Toll free lines to Congress:  1-800-828-0498
  1-800-614-2803
  1-866-340-9281