Posted on 03/07/2007 5:32:56 AM PST by Mr. Brightside
Vermont Votes to Impeach Bush/Cheney
John Nichols
Wed Mar 7, 12:36 AM ET
The Nation -- When Vermont Governor Jim Douglas, a Republican with reasonably close ties to President Bush, asked if there was any additional business to be considered at the town meeting he was running in Middlebury, Ellen McKay popped up and proposed the impeachment of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
The governor was not amused. As moderator of the annual meeting, he tried to suggest that the proposal to impeach -- along with another proposal to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq -- could not be voted on.
But McKay, a program coordinator at Middlebury College, pressed her case. And it soon became evident that the crowd at the annual meeting shared her desire to hold the president to account.
So Douglas backed down.
"It became clear that no one was going home until they had the chance to discuss the resolutions and vote on them," explained David Rosenberg, a political science professor at Middlebury College. "And being a good politician, he allowed the vote to happen."
By an overwhelming voice vote, Middlebury called for impeachment.
So it has gone this week at town meetings across Vermont, most of which were held Tuesday.
Late Tuesday night, there were confirmed reports that 35 towns had backed impeachment resolutions, and the number was expected to rise.
In one town, Putney, the vote for impeachment was unanimous.
In addition to Governor Douglas's Middlebury, the town of Hartland, which is home to Congressman Peter Welch (news, bio, voting record), backed impeachment. So, too, did Jericho, the home of Gaye Symington, the speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives.
Organizers of the grassroots drive to get town meetings to back impeachment resolutions hope that the overwhelming support the initiative has received will convince Welch to introduce articles of impeachment against Bush and Cheney. That's something the Democratic congressman is resisting, even though his predecessor, Bernie Sanders, signed on last year to a proposal by Michigan Congressman John Conyers (news, bio, voting record) to set up a House committee to look into impeachment.
Vermont activists also want their legislature to approve articles of impeachment and forward them to Congress. But Symington, also a Democrat, has discouraged the initiative, despite the fact that more than 20 representatives have cosponsored an impeachment resolution.
"It's going to be hard for Peter Welch and Gaye Symington to say there's no sentiment for impeachment, now that their own towns have voted for it," says Dan DeWalt, a Newfane, Vermont, town selectman who started the impeachment initiative last year in his town, and who now plans to launch a campaign to pressure Welch and Symington to respect and reflect the will of the people.
It is going to be even harder for Governor Douglas, who just this month spent two nights at the Bush White House, to face his president.
After all, Douglas now lives in a town that is on record in support of Bush's impeachment and trial for high crimes and misdemeanors.
For the record, Middlebury says:
We the people have the power -- and the responsibility -- to remove executives who transgress not just the law, but the rule of law.
The oaths that the President and Vice President take binds them to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." The failure to do so forms a sound basis for articles of impeachment.
The President and Vice President have failed to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution" in the following ways:
1. They have manipulated intelligence and misled the country to justify an immoral, unjust, and unnecessary preemptive war in Iraq.
2. They have directed the government to engage in domestic spying without warrants, in direct contravention of U.S. law.
3. They have conspired to commit the torture of prisoners, in violation of the Federal Torture Act and the Geneva Convention.
4. They have ordered the indefinite detention without legal counsel, without charges and without the opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention -- all in violation of U.S. law and the Bill of Rights.
When strong evidence exists of the most serious crimes, we must use impeachment -- or lose the ability of the legislative branch to compel the executive branch to obey the law.
George Bush has led our country to a constitutional crisis, and it is our responsibility to remove him from office.
After expulsion 100% tariff on cheese and maple syrup on the "Queen mount'in boys" state. (Miss Annie got in trouble for this. I suppose I should be careful!)
In other news, a cloud has been spotted in the sky and a bunny rabbit ran across my yard.
So, what else is new?
I was required to attend some of these meetings when I was in college out there. Not much fun.
I vote to raze Vermont and start over!
I vote to raze Vermont and start over!
Or maybe just cede the lousy place to Quebec as a freebie? Sounds like it would improve the collective IQ of both places.
Americans are insane.
I like the idea of renditions. We can deport them all to Niger where they can drink mint tea and make organic goat's milk chunky monkey ice cream or whatever else it is people from Vermont do in lieu of thinking.
Ha ha.
I know a guy who lives in Putney. Burnt-out ex-hippieville still smokin' pot and drivin' my Volvo Putney. Neer-do-well organic feminist momma still selling ugly ceramic "artwork" to supplement her dwindling Boston investment banker grandfather's trust fund.
Putney, where a rainbow flag is on the porch of the restored farmhouse, a 1985 Volvo wagon looks good in the driveway, and the kids are being prepped for interviews at Philips Academy, Dana Hall, Berkshire Academy and (natch) The Putney School.
It's a strange place where leftie liberalism, social climbing, anti-capitalistic materialism, and a snide air of smug superiority combine to create the comical end-result of trust-fund hippieism.
It was 100% in Aye... and matters as much as theirs!
Steal their ski resorts and annex them to New Hampshire!!
Well, what the hell do you want from a state that is located that close to quebec? The general stupidity leaks down and has been doing so for years. It is the same baseless and overinflated sense of their own importance that permeates quebec. Same deal.
And you could say it just as well, maybe better, without mentioning Jesus.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Frankly, I would prefer that our rulers spend their time on symbolic nonsense. And when the need a change of pace they can go to the beach.
Wrong - the IQ in quebec is low enough that a person would be hard pressed to do anything to raise it. And Vermont is not looking any better. But at least if they joined quebec we would be rid of them.
I never liked the "Barf Alert" thing. It always seemed redundant or stating the obvious.
It's almost like saying, "This is a joke. Did you hear the one about...."
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The left pines for their mass murdering dictator to still be shoving slaves into his shredder.
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
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