Impeachment

By David Swanson

I just interviewed Tracy Barker for an hour.

You can find the clip at http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net/audio/2008/#february

She is one in a string of sexual assault and harrassment victims who suffered what they did while employed by Halliburton in Iraq.

Her particular story is the worst I’ve heard and far worse than I had thought before conducting the interview. She was initially harassed sexually in the Green Zone in Baghdad. When she reported on her supervisor to a Halliburton read more

Why Indict?
A Forum on Brattleboro’s Indictment Resolution

An information session and discussion about the Brattleboro Town Meeting Ballot Article calling for the Indictment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney will be held on March 2nd from 3 to 5 p.m. at the River Garden, at Main and High St., in Brattleboro, Vt. Scheduled speakers include David Swanson, Laurie Dobson, Dan DeWalt, and John Nirenberg.

The Indictment Resolution was drafted by Kurt Daims and then placed on the Brattleboro read more

By David Swanson

If you’ve lost your house to a predatory lender and you ask your congress member to impeach Bush and Cheney for your loss, will they look at you like you’re crazy? That depends entirely on how many of you are asking.

If there are not enough of you, they’ll look at you like you’re crazy for suggesting impeachment as a response to illegal wars, lies to Congress, misappropriation of funds, rewriting bills with “signing statements,” warrantless spying, read more

By David Swanson

George W. Bush has set a record for unpopularity that may stand for all time: He now has a 19 percent approval rating. And, remember that Cheney has always polled LOWER than Bush. Imagine if the Democrats were to do something we care about (preserving the Constitution) by doing something they care about (winning elections) by forcing John McCain to choose between supporting impeachment and supporting these characters who may soon be less popular than the flu. Remember, Congress read more

By David Swanson

We the people of the Homeland, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, kill the terrorists, lock up the immigrants, and honor our Commander in Chief, do promise to vote, and shop, and watch the television news sometimes, and definitely to vote. Details follow.

Article I

Section 1. All legislative powers herein read more

By David Swanson

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren wants Cheney and Bush impeached, removed from office, prosecuted, and incarcerated, and she won’t admit it. Nine members of the House Judiciary Committee on which she serves want Cheney impeached, or at least want to begin impeachment hearings (which everyone knows comes to the same thing). And once you impeach Cheney, the crimes will be on the table and the rest will almost certainly follow.

Lofgren has always seemed to be on the fence. Two years read more

By David Swanson

Congressman Leonard Boswell, right-wing Democrat from Iowa’a third district, would apparently like to avoid the fate of Congressman Al Wynn in Maryland. Al Wynn nearly lost a primary in 2006 to a challenger from his left, Donna Edwards. He transformed himself from one of the most corporate and militaristic members of Congress into one of the most responsive to his constituents, reversing his position on the occupation of Iraq and signing onto articles of impeachment against read more

The Corpse Wiggles: Live Blogging Congress (Six Months Late) Voting on Contempt for Two of the Many
By David Swanson

I know a lot of you may hold Congress in contempt, but on Thursday Congress voted to hold someone else in contempt. Here’s what happened:

PRELUDE

10:01 They are praying to their lord.

10:04 They are pledging to their flag under God.

10:04 Rep. Grijalva is lauding the guy who led the prayer and the late Congressman Lantos.

Get your pro-contempt phone calls in ASAP.

10:06 Rep. Marsha read more

By David Swanson

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D., Calif.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, has written a letter to Committee Chairman John Conyers (D., Mich.) on the topic of impeachment. Lofgren refers to the possibility of opening impeachment hearings on Vice President Cheney, President Bush, or a federal judge. She suggests that the impeachment of a federal judge may soon be on the agenda for the committee.

Lofgren says that she is aware of the efforts of some of her committee colleagues read more

One of the reasons it’s hard to convince Congress Members to support opening Cheney impeachment hearings is that they are not fully aware of the level of support among the public for impeaching the least popular vice president in history. There have been very few mainstream national polls done on the topic, primarily because polling companies have not done them on their own (or not published the results) and have refused to do them for money. The few polls that have been published are posted read more

By David Swanson

There’s a new rule on Capitol Hill: the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee can remove impeachment from the Constitution, but cannot also use telephones, Email, or fax machines, because the flood of pro-impeachment communications from outraged citizens is overwhelming each of those devices. Don’t believe me? Try phoning, Emailing, or faxing John Conyers’ office.

Congressman John Conyers’ telephone, by many reports, rang endlessly on Monday, approximately read more

Is House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers seriously considering upholding the Constitution and initiating impeachment hearings on the Vice President, or does he just like meeting with young women and treating our democracy as a joke to tease the citizenry with? Ellen Taylor met with Conyers on Thursday, and Leslie Angeline is scheduled to meet with him late this afternoon. Tonight from 8 to 9 p.m. ET I’ll interview these brave activists who are fasting for impeachment. You can read more

By David Swanson

On Thursday, Chairman John Conyers’ House Judiciary Committee held a hearing at which Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that he would not investigate torture (video) or warrantless spying (video), he would not enforce contempt citations (video), and he would treat Justice Department opinions as providing immunity for crimes (report).

None of this was new, but perhaps it touched something in Conyers that had not been touched before. Following the hearing, he and two staffers read more

Virginians created and may end the right of impeachment
By David Swanson, Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star

CHARLOTTESVILLE– A recent national poll on impeachment, conducted by the American Research Group last November, found that 52 percent of Americans believed Vice President Dick Cheney had committed impeachable offenses.

The numbers for President George W. Bush were only slightly lower.

read more

Leslie Angeline began a fast yesterday, Rosa Park’s birthday. She had been trying for some time to get an appointment with Congressman John Conyers to ask him to begin impeachment hearings. She began a sit-in in his office yesterday, and within 5 minutes he agreed to an appointment with her on Thursday at 3 p.m. But she is going to continue fasting, because he has not agreed to open impeachment hearings, and can of course be expected to tell her than yet more non-impeachment hearings on read more