OUR FRIENDS HAVE REQUESTS FOR ACTIONS AND MESSAGES THAT AMERICA WOULD DO WELL TO LISTEN TO.
I have come to the conclusion that the crisis facing this nation is at such a point that I need to spend full time investigating and writing about it.
Unfortunately, as I am sure you are all aware, the mainstream media Is not interested in publishing articles that expose the crimes and abuses that are at the heart of the corporate/government conspiracy to undermine Our nation and our Constitution.
The only way to get out the news these days is the internet, which as I'm sure you are aware, also does not offer much of anything in the way of compensation.
To date, I have had to do my work primarily out of my back pocket,earning a living as best I can by freelancing in the mainstream media writing about mostly business topics that have little or no relationship towhat is really happening out there.
If I am to devote my efforts full-time to the task at hand, I needto ask for support from my readers.
Accordingly, I have decided to follow in the well-worn footsteps of larger internet operations like Counterpunch, OpedNews, Truthout,CommonDreams, etc., by asking readers for reader support.
If all my many readers would each send me $50, which works out to$1/week (more if you can afford it to cover for those who cannot), Iwould be able to take this challenge on. If you can make this commitment to underwrite www.thiscantbehappening.net,
please send a check to:
David Lindorff
875 Welsh Rd.
Maple Glen, PA 19002
Thank you.
I have no idea if this approach will work, but even if It fails, rest assured that your support will result in more reporting on This and other sites than would have been possible without it.
In struggle,
Dave Lindorff
Hear Dave playing his "Iraq Rag"
Watch Dave Lindorff and Barbara Olshansky lay out the case for impeaching Bush on Atlantic Free Press (four segments)
Big News! The Case for Impeachment is finally out in paperback! Scroll down on right to buy at Amazon, B&N or Powell's Books.
Country Joe's back with a new anti-war song, Support the Troops.
Also check out an excellent video of Neil Young's Let's Impeach the President. John Prine is back with a still relevant Flag Decal rendition. And don't forget Dylan's Masters of War.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Martial Law Threat is Real
The looming collapse of the US military in Iraq, of which a number of generals and former generals, including former Chief of Staff Colin Powell, have warned, is happening none too soon, as it may be the best hope for preventing military rule here at home.
From the looks of things, the Bush/Cheney regime has been working assiduously to pave the way for a declaration of military rule, such that at this point it really lacks only the pretext to trigger a suspension of Constitutional government. They have done this with the active support of Democrats in Congress, though most of the heavy lifting was done by the last, Republican-led Congress.
The first step, or course, was the first Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed in September 2001, which the president has subsequently used to claim—improperly, but so what? —that the whole world, including the US, is a battlefield in a so-called “War” on Terror, and that he has extra-Constitutional unitary executive powers to ignore laws passed by Congress. As constitutional scholar and former Reagan-era associate deputy attorney general Bruce Fein observes, that one claim, that the US is itself a battlefield, is enough to allow this or some future president to declare martial law, “since you can always declare martial law on a battlefield. All he’d need would be a pretext, like another terrorist attack inside the U.S.”
The 2001 AUMF was followed by the PATRIOT Act, passed in October 2001, which undermined much of the Bill of Rights. Around the same time, the president began a campaign of massive spying on Americans by the National Security Agency, conducted without any warrants or other judicial review. It was and remains a program that is clearly aimed at American dissidents and at the administration’s political opponents, since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court would never have raised no objections to spying on potential terrorists. (And it, and other government spying programs, have resulted in the government’s having a list now of some 325,000 “suspected terrorists”!)
The other thing we saw early on was the establishment of an underground government-within-a-government, though the activation, following 9-11, of the so-called “Continuity of Government” protocol, which saw heads of federal agencies moved secretly to an underground bunker where, working under the direction of Vice President Dick Cheney, the “government” functioned out of sight of Congress and the public for critical months.
It was also during the first year following 9-11 that the Bush/Cheney regime began its programs of arrest and detention without charge—mostly of resident aliens, but also of American citizens—and of kidnapping and torture in a chain of gulag prisons overseas and at the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay.
The following year, Attorney General John Ashcroft began his program to develop a mass network of tens of millions of citizen spies—Operation TIPS. That program, which had considerable support from key Democrats (notably Sen. Joe Lieberman), was curtailed by Congress when key conservatives got wind of the scale of the thing, but the concept survives without a name, and is reportedly being expanded today.
Meanwhile, last October Bush and Cheney, with the help of a compliant Congress, put in place some key elements needed for a military putsch. There was the overturning of the venerable Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which barred the use of active duty military inside the United States for police-type functions, and the revision of the Insurrection Act, so as to empower the president to take control of National Guard units in the 50 states even over the objections of the governors of those states.
Put this together with the wholly secret construction now under way--courtesy of a $385-million grant by the US Army Corps of Engineers to Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc--of detention camps reportedly capable of confining as many as 400,000 people, and a recent report that the Pentagon has a document, dated June 1, 2007, classified Top Secret, which declares there to be a developing “insurgency” within the U.S, and which lays out a whole martial law counterinsurgency campaign against legal dissent, and you have all the ingredients for a military takeover of the United States.
As we go about our daily lives--our shopping, our escapist movie watching, and even our protesting and political organizing—we need to be aware that there is a real risk that it could all blow up, and that we could find ourselves facing armed, uniformed troops at our doors.
Bruce Fein isn’t an alarmist. He says he doesn’t see martial law coming tomorrow. But he is also realistic. He says, “This is all sitting around like a loaded gun waiting to go off. I think the risk of martial law is trivial right now, but the minute there is a terrorist attack, then it is real. And it stays with us after Bush and Cheney are gone, because terrorism stays with us forever.” (It may be significant that Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate for president, has called for the revocation of the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq, but not of the earlier 2001 AUMF which Bush claims makes him commander in chief of a borderless, endless war on terror.)
Indeed, the revised Insurrection Act (10. USC 331-335) approved by Congress and signed into law by Bush last October, specifically says that the president can federalize the National Guard to “suppress public disorder” in the event of “national disorder, epidemic, other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident.” That determination, the act states, is solely the president’s to make. Congress is not involved.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has added an amendment to the upcoming Defense bill, restoring the Insurrection Act to its former version—a move that has the endorsement of all 50 governors--but Fein argues that would not solve the problem, since Bush still claims that the U.S. is a battlefield. Besides, a Leahy aide concedes that Bush could sign the next Defense Appropriations bill and then use a signing statement to invalidate the Insurrection Act rider.
Fein argues that the only real defense against the looming disaster of a martial law declaration would be for Congress to vote for a resolution determining that there is no “War” on terror. “But they are such cowards they will never do that,” he says.
That leaves us with the military.
If ordered to turn their guns and bayonets on their fellow Americans, would our “heroes” in uniform follow their consciences, and their oaths to “uphold and defend” the Constitution of the United States? Or would they follow the orders of their Commander in Chief?
It has to be a plus that National Guard and Reserve units are on their third and sometimes fourth deployments to Iraq, and are fuming at the abuse. It has to be a plus that active duty troops are refusing to re-enlist in droves—especially mid-level officers.
If we are headed for martial law, better that it be with a broken military. Maybe if it’s broken badly enough, the administration will be afraid to test the idea.
******************************************
Sidebar: Why US troops should question orders:
Mounting evidence (1 & 2) that football star Pat Tillman, who famously gave up a high-paying pro career to sign up as an Army Ranger and fight Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, may have been assassinated in a high-level conspiracy to prevent him from returning to the US as a prominent war critic should make even hardened military people question orders from their commander in chief, particularly if those orders involve arresting or shooting American citizens.
Tillman, it is now known, had turned strongly against the war in Iraq as early as late 2003, and was telling his platoon to vote against Bush. There are reports too that he was contacting war critics like Noam Chomsky from Afghanistan about coming out as a war critic in 2004--a prospect which must have terrified the war-mongers in the White House and Pentagon.
Noam Chomsky Voices Support for the Responsibility to Iraqi Refugees Act of 2007
The military initially claimed Tillman had been killed in combat, then later claimed his death was from friendly fire. It is now known that an investigation at the time found no evidence of any enemy fire at all, and Tillman's death came from three close shots from an M-16 to the forehead, execution-style. Memos have been found from Pentagon lawyers congratulating each other for having buried a doctor's report on the possibility of murder.
If this is what the government does to its critics, how can soldiers believe anything they are being told?
Of course, the shabby treatment afforded to insured troops should also be having an effect on morale.
Maybe the way to respond to a declaration of martial law is, like the Israelites on the first Passover, to prominently display a sign on one's front door saying, "Support the troops: Bring them home!"
8:01 am pdt
July 26, 2007 CODEPINK Women for Peace
Dear Ed., Can't you smell them? The impeaches are ripe and ready, sending their sweet fragrance of justice into the air.
Don't you want to take a huge bite and feel that satisfying Constitutional juice drip down your chin? Impeaches are a summer fruit--they're perfectly in season.
Let's dig in while the getting's good--it's up to the people to bring them to the table in all their organic glory.
As political journalist John Nichols said on Bill Moyers' must-see program, Tough Talk on Impeachment (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07132007/profile.html), "Thomas Jefferson and others, the founders, suggested that impeachment was an organic process.
That information would come out. The people would be horrified.
They would tell their representatives in Congress, 'You must act upon this.'
Well, the interesting thing is we are well down the track in the organic process.
The people are saying it's time. We need some accountability." A group of impeachment activists, including many CODEPINKers, marched with Cindy Sheehan to John Conyers' office on Monday, July 23rd to demand such accountability, to demand that Conyers fulfill his promise to start impeachment proceedings. Read Medea Benjamin's account of the event, which led to the arrest of dozens of peacemakers, here (http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/24/2719/).
She ends with this rallying cry: "With the Democratic leadership refusing to rein in an administration run amok, it is crystal clear that we, the people, must uphold the Constitution. People's power, like the kind in evidence today in the normally solemn halls of Congress, is our only hope." The reasons for impeachment continue to mount-the disastrous war in Iraq, the pardoning of Scooter Libby, the abuse of "executive privilege", the warrantless wire tapping, the indefinite detentions in Guantanamo.
If we don't impeach now, the next president will inherit all the expanded powers we have left unchecked.
Here are some organic ways you can demand accountability and strengthen the power of the people today: --Write a letter to the editor. Use our sample letter (http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/codepink/pickMedia.jsp?letter_KEY=778) or write your own.
Please send us your letters and let us know when they're published, at info@codepink.org. We'll post the peachiest letters on our website.
We'll also link to the peachiest blogs, so be sure to blog about impeachment, as well! --Send Dick Cheney a Pink Slip by signing our petition
(http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/codepink/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=651)
and forward the link to all your friends. 54% of Americans believe Cheney should be impeached; Dennis Kucinich has already introduced articles of impeachment against Cheney through HR333. Signing our petition will show your approval of this effort. --Check out CODEPINK impeachment actions around the country:
Bay Area CODEPINK (http://www.codepinkalert.org/userdata_display.php?modin=54&uid=3320)CODEPINK
Portland
(http://www.codepinkalert.org/userdata_display.php?modin=54&uid=3199)CODEPINK
Austin
http://www.codepinkalert.org/userdata_display.php?modin=54&uid=3337) and let us know about your own juicy actions here:http://www.codepinkalert.org/modinput4.php?modin=54
Thanks for helping us bring these ripe impeaches to the table.
Our mouths are watering at the thought of holding the crooks in office accountable for shredding our Constitution.
Who knew justice could be so delicious?
With peace and hope,Dana, Desiree, Ena, Farida, Gael, Gayle, January, Jodie, Karin, Leslie, Laurie, Liz, Medea, Midge, Mila, Nancy, Pamela, Patricia, Rae, Rocio, Samantha, and Vanessa
P.S. Check out our 9 reasons to Impeach Dick Cheney(http://www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?list=type&type=317) and hear our CODEPINKers sing our "Impeachment is On the Table" song.
Sign Cheney's PINK SLIP
Send Cheney a "You're Fired" Postcard!
Nine Reasons to Pink Slip Dick Cheney
1. He purposely manipulated information about the existence weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to make a case for launching a war against that country. THERE WERE NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION IN IRAQ AND HE KNEW IT.
2. He repeatedly lied about a connection between Al Queda and Saddam Hussein in order to make a case for invading Iraq. THERE WAS NO RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AL QUEDA AND SADDAM HUSSEIN AND HE KNEW IT.
3. He has threatened to bomb Iran even though Iran currently has no nuclear weapons, is years from developing them, and has agreed to allow U.N. weapons inspectors into the country. He has gone so far as to propose the use of nuclear weapons against that country. AS IF THE FAILED WAR AND OCCUPATION IN IRAQ ISN’T BAD ENOUGH, HE WANTS TO START ANOTHER WAR.
4. He has sanctioned the use of torture against the invented category of “illegal enemy combatants.” With his approval, people have been kidnapped, flown to secret locations and tortured. IN HIS ENDLESS WAR ON TERROR, CHENEY FEELS HE SHOULDN’T OBEY ANY LAW THAT GETS IN HIS WAY.
5. He has said that the law of the land doesn’t apply to him because he isn’t part of the executive branch (as President of the Senate he is part of the legislative branch) and he has said the law doesn’t apply to him because he is protected by Executive Privilege. CHENEY DOESN’T THINK HE IS SUBJECT TO ANY LAW IN THIS COUNTRY, OR IN THIS UNIVERSE OR ANY OTHER.
6. He is the mastermind behind the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program. In this illegal program, the government spied on American citizens on American soil. CHENEY ARGUES THAT THE PRESIDENT HAS THE RIGHT TO BREAK INTO OUR HOMES, OPEN OUR MAIL, LISTEN TO OUR PHONE CALLS, TORTURE AND ASSASSINATE PEOPLE, IN SHORT DO ANYTHING HE FEELS LIKE DOING UNDER THE COVER OF “THE WAR ON TERROR.”
7. Even if Congress can’t come up with the 218 votes needed to impeach Cheney, the more Congress members who sign onto Kucinich’s articles of impeachment, the less powerful Cheney becomes. IT WILL BE A FORECEFUL MESSAGE OF OPPOSITION AND CENSURE THAT WILL MAKE AN ATTACK ON IRAN HARDER TO SELL.
8. Signing onto the articles of impeachment can be used as a litmus test for progressive Democrats. If you are for the rule of law, if you are against endless war, if you believe in civil liberties, this is your chance to take a principled stand. THIS WILL SHIFT THE POLITICAL CENTER AND GIVE “MODERATE” DEMOCRATS COVER FOR VOTING AGAINST IRAQ WAR FUNDING.
9. There will be little, if any, political blowback. With Cheney’s approval rating hovering in the teens, the vast majority of Americans would be happy to see him impeached. CODEPINK SAYS: PINK SLIP CHENEY!
To date, I have had to do my work primarily out of my back pocket,earning a living as best I can by freelancing in the mainstream media writing about mostly business topics that have little or no relationship towhat is really happening out there.
If I am to devote my efforts full-time to the task at hand, I needto ask for support from my readers.
Accordingly, I have decided to follow in the well-worn footsteps of larger internet operations like Counterpunch, OpedNews, Truthout,CommonDreams, etc., by asking readers for reader support.
If all my many readers would each send me $50, which works out to$1/week (more if you can afford it to cover for those who cannot), Iwould be able to take this challenge on. If you can make this commitment to underwrite www.thiscantbehappening.net,
please send a check to:
David Lindorff
875 Welsh Rd.
Maple Glen, PA 19002
Thank you.
I have no idea if this approach will work, but even if It fails, rest assured that your support will result in more reporting on This and other sites than would have been possible without it.
In struggle,
Dave Lindorff
Hear Dave playing his "Iraq Rag"
Watch Dave Lindorff and Barbara Olshansky lay out the case for impeaching Bush on Atlantic Free Press (four segments)
Big News! The Case for Impeachment is finally out in paperback! Scroll down on right to buy at Amazon, B&N or Powell's Books.
Country Joe's back with a new anti-war song, Support the Troops.
Also check out an excellent video of Neil Young's Let's Impeach the President. John Prine is back with a still relevant Flag Decal rendition. And don't forget Dylan's Masters of War.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Martial Law Threat is Real
The looming collapse of the US military in Iraq, of which a number of generals and former generals, including former Chief of Staff Colin Powell, have warned, is happening none too soon, as it may be the best hope for preventing military rule here at home.
From the looks of things, the Bush/Cheney regime has been working assiduously to pave the way for a declaration of military rule, such that at this point it really lacks only the pretext to trigger a suspension of Constitutional government. They have done this with the active support of Democrats in Congress, though most of the heavy lifting was done by the last, Republican-led Congress.
The first step, or course, was the first Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed in September 2001, which the president has subsequently used to claim—improperly, but so what? —that the whole world, including the US, is a battlefield in a so-called “War” on Terror, and that he has extra-Constitutional unitary executive powers to ignore laws passed by Congress. As constitutional scholar and former Reagan-era associate deputy attorney general Bruce Fein observes, that one claim, that the US is itself a battlefield, is enough to allow this or some future president to declare martial law, “since you can always declare martial law on a battlefield. All he’d need would be a pretext, like another terrorist attack inside the U.S.”
The 2001 AUMF was followed by the PATRIOT Act, passed in October 2001, which undermined much of the Bill of Rights. Around the same time, the president began a campaign of massive spying on Americans by the National Security Agency, conducted without any warrants or other judicial review. It was and remains a program that is clearly aimed at American dissidents and at the administration’s political opponents, since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court would never have raised no objections to spying on potential terrorists. (And it, and other government spying programs, have resulted in the government’s having a list now of some 325,000 “suspected terrorists”!)
The other thing we saw early on was the establishment of an underground government-within-a-government, though the activation, following 9-11, of the so-called “Continuity of Government” protocol, which saw heads of federal agencies moved secretly to an underground bunker where, working under the direction of Vice President Dick Cheney, the “government” functioned out of sight of Congress and the public for critical months.
It was also during the first year following 9-11 that the Bush/Cheney regime began its programs of arrest and detention without charge—mostly of resident aliens, but also of American citizens—and of kidnapping and torture in a chain of gulag prisons overseas and at the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay.
The following year, Attorney General John Ashcroft began his program to develop a mass network of tens of millions of citizen spies—Operation TIPS. That program, which had considerable support from key Democrats (notably Sen. Joe Lieberman), was curtailed by Congress when key conservatives got wind of the scale of the thing, but the concept survives without a name, and is reportedly being expanded today.
Meanwhile, last October Bush and Cheney, with the help of a compliant Congress, put in place some key elements needed for a military putsch. There was the overturning of the venerable Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which barred the use of active duty military inside the United States for police-type functions, and the revision of the Insurrection Act, so as to empower the president to take control of National Guard units in the 50 states even over the objections of the governors of those states.
Put this together with the wholly secret construction now under way--courtesy of a $385-million grant by the US Army Corps of Engineers to Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc--of detention camps reportedly capable of confining as many as 400,000 people, and a recent report that the Pentagon has a document, dated June 1, 2007, classified Top Secret, which declares there to be a developing “insurgency” within the U.S, and which lays out a whole martial law counterinsurgency campaign against legal dissent, and you have all the ingredients for a military takeover of the United States.
As we go about our daily lives--our shopping, our escapist movie watching, and even our protesting and political organizing—we need to be aware that there is a real risk that it could all blow up, and that we could find ourselves facing armed, uniformed troops at our doors.
Bruce Fein isn’t an alarmist. He says he doesn’t see martial law coming tomorrow. But he is also realistic. He says, “This is all sitting around like a loaded gun waiting to go off. I think the risk of martial law is trivial right now, but the minute there is a terrorist attack, then it is real. And it stays with us after Bush and Cheney are gone, because terrorism stays with us forever.” (It may be significant that Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate for president, has called for the revocation of the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq, but not of the earlier 2001 AUMF which Bush claims makes him commander in chief of a borderless, endless war on terror.)
Indeed, the revised Insurrection Act (10. USC 331-335) approved by Congress and signed into law by Bush last October, specifically says that the president can federalize the National Guard to “suppress public disorder” in the event of “national disorder, epidemic, other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident.” That determination, the act states, is solely the president’s to make. Congress is not involved.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has added an amendment to the upcoming Defense bill, restoring the Insurrection Act to its former version—a move that has the endorsement of all 50 governors--but Fein argues that would not solve the problem, since Bush still claims that the U.S. is a battlefield. Besides, a Leahy aide concedes that Bush could sign the next Defense Appropriations bill and then use a signing statement to invalidate the Insurrection Act rider.
Fein argues that the only real defense against the looming disaster of a martial law declaration would be for Congress to vote for a resolution determining that there is no “War” on terror. “But they are such cowards they will never do that,” he says.
That leaves us with the military.
If ordered to turn their guns and bayonets on their fellow Americans, would our “heroes” in uniform follow their consciences, and their oaths to “uphold and defend” the Constitution of the United States? Or would they follow the orders of their Commander in Chief?
It has to be a plus that National Guard and Reserve units are on their third and sometimes fourth deployments to Iraq, and are fuming at the abuse. It has to be a plus that active duty troops are refusing to re-enlist in droves—especially mid-level officers.
If we are headed for martial law, better that it be with a broken military. Maybe if it’s broken badly enough, the administration will be afraid to test the idea.
******************************************
Sidebar: Why US troops should question orders:
Mounting evidence (1 & 2) that football star Pat Tillman, who famously gave up a high-paying pro career to sign up as an Army Ranger and fight Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, may have been assassinated in a high-level conspiracy to prevent him from returning to the US as a prominent war critic should make even hardened military people question orders from their commander in chief, particularly if those orders involve arresting or shooting American citizens.
Tillman, it is now known, had turned strongly against the war in Iraq as early as late 2003, and was telling his platoon to vote against Bush. There are reports too that he was contacting war critics like Noam Chomsky from Afghanistan about coming out as a war critic in 2004--a prospect which must have terrified the war-mongers in the White House and Pentagon.
Noam Chomsky Voices Support for the Responsibility to Iraqi Refugees Act of 2007
The military initially claimed Tillman had been killed in combat, then later claimed his death was from friendly fire. It is now known that an investigation at the time found no evidence of any enemy fire at all, and Tillman's death came from three close shots from an M-16 to the forehead, execution-style. Memos have been found from Pentagon lawyers congratulating each other for having buried a doctor's report on the possibility of murder.
If this is what the government does to its critics, how can soldiers believe anything they are being told?
Of course, the shabby treatment afforded to insured troops should also be having an effect on morale.
Maybe the way to respond to a declaration of martial law is, like the Israelites on the first Passover, to prominently display a sign on one's front door saying, "Support the troops: Bring them home!"
8:01 am pdt
July 26, 2007 CODEPINK Women for Peace
Dear Ed., Can't you smell them? The impeaches are ripe and ready, sending their sweet fragrance of justice into the air.
Don't you want to take a huge bite and feel that satisfying Constitutional juice drip down your chin? Impeaches are a summer fruit--they're perfectly in season.
Let's dig in while the getting's good--it's up to the people to bring them to the table in all their organic glory.
As political journalist John Nichols said on Bill Moyers' must-see program, Tough Talk on Impeachment (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07132007/profile.html), "Thomas Jefferson and others, the founders, suggested that impeachment was an organic process.
That information would come out. The people would be horrified.
They would tell their representatives in Congress, 'You must act upon this.'
Well, the interesting thing is we are well down the track in the organic process.
The people are saying it's time. We need some accountability." A group of impeachment activists, including many CODEPINKers, marched with Cindy Sheehan to John Conyers' office on Monday, July 23rd to demand such accountability, to demand that Conyers fulfill his promise to start impeachment proceedings. Read Medea Benjamin's account of the event, which led to the arrest of dozens of peacemakers, here (http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/24/2719/).
She ends with this rallying cry: "With the Democratic leadership refusing to rein in an administration run amok, it is crystal clear that we, the people, must uphold the Constitution. People's power, like the kind in evidence today in the normally solemn halls of Congress, is our only hope." The reasons for impeachment continue to mount-the disastrous war in Iraq, the pardoning of Scooter Libby, the abuse of "executive privilege", the warrantless wire tapping, the indefinite detentions in Guantanamo.
If we don't impeach now, the next president will inherit all the expanded powers we have left unchecked.
Here are some organic ways you can demand accountability and strengthen the power of the people today: --Write a letter to the editor. Use our sample letter (http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/codepink/pickMedia.jsp?letter_KEY=778) or write your own.
Please send us your letters and let us know when they're published, at info@codepink.org. We'll post the peachiest letters on our website.
We'll also link to the peachiest blogs, so be sure to blog about impeachment, as well! --Send Dick Cheney a Pink Slip by signing our petition
(http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/codepink/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=651)
and forward the link to all your friends. 54% of Americans believe Cheney should be impeached; Dennis Kucinich has already introduced articles of impeachment against Cheney through HR333. Signing our petition will show your approval of this effort. --Check out CODEPINK impeachment actions around the country:
Bay Area CODEPINK (http://www.codepinkalert.org/userdata_display.php?modin=54&uid=3320)CODEPINK
Portland
(http://www.codepinkalert.org/userdata_display.php?modin=54&uid=3199)CODEPINK
Austin
http://www.codepinkalert.org/userdata_display.php?modin=54&uid=3337) and let us know about your own juicy actions here:http://www.codepinkalert.org/modinput4.php?modin=54
Thanks for helping us bring these ripe impeaches to the table.
Our mouths are watering at the thought of holding the crooks in office accountable for shredding our Constitution.
Who knew justice could be so delicious?
With peace and hope,Dana, Desiree, Ena, Farida, Gael, Gayle, January, Jodie, Karin, Leslie, Laurie, Liz, Medea, Midge, Mila, Nancy, Pamela, Patricia, Rae, Rocio, Samantha, and Vanessa
P.S. Check out our 9 reasons to Impeach Dick Cheney(http://www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?list=type&type=317) and hear our CODEPINKers sing our "Impeachment is On the Table" song.
Sign Cheney's PINK SLIP
Send Cheney a "You're Fired" Postcard!
Nine Reasons to Pink Slip Dick Cheney
1. He purposely manipulated information about the existence weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to make a case for launching a war against that country. THERE WERE NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION IN IRAQ AND HE KNEW IT.
2. He repeatedly lied about a connection between Al Queda and Saddam Hussein in order to make a case for invading Iraq. THERE WAS NO RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AL QUEDA AND SADDAM HUSSEIN AND HE KNEW IT.
3. He has threatened to bomb Iran even though Iran currently has no nuclear weapons, is years from developing them, and has agreed to allow U.N. weapons inspectors into the country. He has gone so far as to propose the use of nuclear weapons against that country. AS IF THE FAILED WAR AND OCCUPATION IN IRAQ ISN’T BAD ENOUGH, HE WANTS TO START ANOTHER WAR.
4. He has sanctioned the use of torture against the invented category of “illegal enemy combatants.” With his approval, people have been kidnapped, flown to secret locations and tortured. IN HIS ENDLESS WAR ON TERROR, CHENEY FEELS HE SHOULDN’T OBEY ANY LAW THAT GETS IN HIS WAY.
5. He has said that the law of the land doesn’t apply to him because he isn’t part of the executive branch (as President of the Senate he is part of the legislative branch) and he has said the law doesn’t apply to him because he is protected by Executive Privilege. CHENEY DOESN’T THINK HE IS SUBJECT TO ANY LAW IN THIS COUNTRY, OR IN THIS UNIVERSE OR ANY OTHER.
6. He is the mastermind behind the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program. In this illegal program, the government spied on American citizens on American soil. CHENEY ARGUES THAT THE PRESIDENT HAS THE RIGHT TO BREAK INTO OUR HOMES, OPEN OUR MAIL, LISTEN TO OUR PHONE CALLS, TORTURE AND ASSASSINATE PEOPLE, IN SHORT DO ANYTHING HE FEELS LIKE DOING UNDER THE COVER OF “THE WAR ON TERROR.”
7. Even if Congress can’t come up with the 218 votes needed to impeach Cheney, the more Congress members who sign onto Kucinich’s articles of impeachment, the less powerful Cheney becomes. IT WILL BE A FORECEFUL MESSAGE OF OPPOSITION AND CENSURE THAT WILL MAKE AN ATTACK ON IRAN HARDER TO SELL.
8. Signing onto the articles of impeachment can be used as a litmus test for progressive Democrats. If you are for the rule of law, if you are against endless war, if you believe in civil liberties, this is your chance to take a principled stand. THIS WILL SHIFT THE POLITICAL CENTER AND GIVE “MODERATE” DEMOCRATS COVER FOR VOTING AGAINST IRAQ WAR FUNDING.
9. There will be little, if any, political blowback. With Cheney’s approval rating hovering in the teens, the vast majority of Americans would be happy to see him impeached. CODEPINK SAYS: PINK SLIP CHENEY!
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