Some bad news, some possible good news that depends on you

First the bad news. The Senate is expected to vote for telecom amnesty and warrantless eavesdropping today. Glenn Greenwald, who blogs at Salon.com comments on this ignominious erosion of democracy, "Amnesty for Bush and lawbreaking telecoms." Read it and grieve for our country.

Now the good news. According to Democrats.com, House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers appears to be open to calling for the impeachment of Cheney. What will it take? Last Thursday, Conyers met with two members of Code Pink. At that meeting, Conyers expressed his concerns about what might happen following an impeachment, the danger of installing a Bush replacement or losing an election. But he said he's listening to several advocates for impeachment, including former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman and David Swanson of Democrats.com. He hinted he could be swayed by a convincing argument, leaning out of his chair for dramatic effect.

So it’s up to us. Democrats.com provides a plan of action: So let's help Chairman John Conyers decide! We know Conyers agrees with all of us on the legal grounds for impeachment because he made this case himself in his 2006 book, "The Constitution in Crisis." Where Conyers needs persuasion is on the politics of impeachment, so we have addressed his concerns here.

We'd like you to email Conyers (and other Judiciary Committee Democrats) with the link above, but please don't stop there. Contact information is available here (scroll down).

1. Call his office at 202-225-5126, or use the toll free capital switchboard, 800-828-0498, and say you would like him to begin Cheney impeachment hearings immediately. Tell him the hearings must be on impeachment because that's the only way to force the White House to comply with Congressional subpoenas. The phone in his office was reportedly ringing once every second, 60 times per minute, all day long on Monday. Let's ring it faster on Tuesday.

2. Print our petition and fax it to Conyers at 202-225-0072 with your name and address at the end. Or you can send two free faxes per day by going to FaxZero.

3. Urge your Representative and Senators to sign onto Congressman Robert Wexler's letter to Conyers (which he plans to deliver on Friday) here.

We know we're asking a lot, but we're not alone - our friends from Code Pink are fasting for impeachment and meeting with Conyers on Tuesday to discuss opening Cheney impeachment hearings.

Want to do more? Start planning now to visit your congress member's office when they're back in their district between February 16th and 24th. Find ideas here.

Join (or create) your Congressional District Impeachment Committee here.

(exclamation points: Behance)

Impeach Cheney movement gains momentum

Updated below.

This afternoon I wore my “Impeach Cheney?” cap to do my errands on foot in my hometown, Healdsburg. I’ve lived here for forty years, am 67 years old, and have decided that I can wear or do anything I want. *

I was pleasantly surprised by the positive responses from other walkers. I got into quite a conversation with a 30-ish brother and sister, whom I had never met before, who saw my cap and told me they, too, want to see Cheney impeached.

This feedback came at a good time because many of the people I’ve worked with on impeachment became very discouraged this past week when we learned that key Democrats knew that the CIA planned to destroy the torture tapes and did nothing about it. No wonder the Democrats aren’t interested pursuing impeachment against Cheney or Bush; that they are complicit in the illegal destruction of the tapes would inevitably come out.

However, all is not lost. Three Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee, Wexler, Gutierrez, and Baldwin, are calling for impeach Cheney hearings, well described by Bob Fertik of Democrats.com in an e-mail alert I received yesterday. If you haven’t done so already, I recommend that you read Fertik’s alert, then go to Join Congressman Wexler's Call for Cheney Impeachment Hearings and sign the petition.

It’s up to us to put pressure on the House Judiciary Committee to stop sitting on H. Res. 799, the impeach Cheney resolution introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich. It’s never too late to let the Vice President know that he is not above the law.

Update: 36,000 people have signed Wexler's petition in less than 24 hours. Sign here.

*I have the well-known book, When I Am an Old Woman, I Shall Wear Purple. What I say is, “When I grow old, I’ll wear any color I want and tell the truth about what I believe!”

Impeaching Vice President Cheney may end up on the table after all! It depends on you.

For those of us who are trying to hard to convince Congress to put impeachment back on the table, blogger Chris Borland's November 29th post, Only a few House Judiciary Committee Democrats blocking impeachment, raises our hopes considerably that Cheney, for starters, will indeed face impeachment.

Bottom line: Those calls we’ve been making to the House Judiciary Committee Democrats who just wanted Rep. Kucinich’s impeachment of Cheney resolution to go away are making a difference.

Check out Chris’s post and by following his suggestions, you’ll be moving from hope to action.

"The Suddenly Impeachable Mr. Cheney"

This is my third post featuring an article by Jon Spitz, who has written a column for The Mendocino County Observer for a couple of years. Jon consistently rights well on a variety of subjects, as is evident here and here.

”The Suddenly Impeachable Mr. Cheney,” published today in The Mendocino County Observer, is the best description I’ve seen of what happened in the House of Representatives on November 6th when Representative Dennis Kucinich introduced H. R. 333, calling for the impeachment of Vice President Richard Cheney. The resolution is now H. Res. 799.

Jon clarifies the confusing trail of votes resulting from the maneuvering by both Republicans and Democrats. The end result is that the House voted to refer the resolution to the House Judiciary Committee. The resolution had already been submitted to the committee by Rep. Kucinich last April, but Rep. John Conyers, chair of the committee, did not act on it by initiating an investigation.

Jon also describes the three articles of impeachment in H. Res. 799, compares them to the articles on impeachment against Nixon, and suggests additional articles that the House Judiciary Committee should add to H. Res. 799. In Jon’s opinion, these articles would have a better chance of being accepted by the House than the ones Rep. Kucinich came up with.

Because there’s no deadline for the Judiciary Committee to act on H. Res. 799, Jon ends his article with a call to action. Otherwise, he, along with many others including myself, believes that H. Res. 799 will never get to the House floor.

I urge you to read the full article.

(photo of Jon in front of his home)

Want to see Cheney impeached? Send a hand-written letter to Nancy Pelosi!

The following alert was in my e-mail this morning from Emily West.* I haven’t verified the information, but decided it’s a good idea no matter what:

Emily's message: Speaker of the House 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? Letters should go to her San Francisco office.

Nancy Pelosi 450 Golden Gate Avenue, 14th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102

Phone: (415) 556-4862

My suggestion: Tell Pelosi you support H. Res. 799 and urge her to support swiftly moving it out of the House Judiciary Committee and on to full debate and consideration by the entire House.

* I checked for previous e-mails from Emily, and see that she supports progressive causes. (photo: Greenpeace)

If not now, when? Take 30 minutes or less to show your support for impeaching Cheney

1. Want to know what to do? Go to Action Plan: Cheney Impeachment Resolution.

2. Do you need to know that what you will do will make a difference? Go to Janie on impeachment, a three-minute radio interview of Janie Sheppard, which aired last night on KZYX, 91.5 FM in Ukiah, California.

3. Are you ready to take action?

A. Call the Capitol Switchboard number (202-225- 3121) and ask to be put through to the offices of John Conyers, Chairman, and the nine Democratic representatives on the House Judiciary Committee who are opposed to allowing a vote on the resolution to impeach Cheney: Howard Berman, Frederick Boucher, Artur Davis, William Delahunt, Zoe Lofgren, Jerrold Nadler, Linda Sanchez, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Adam B. Schiff.

B. Go here if you want to fax or mail a letter.

4. The message: Express your support for Cheney impeachment resolution H. Res. 799 and urge the House Judiciary Committee to make passing this resolution its top priority, hold a hearing on the resolution as quickly as possible, and work hard to swiftly move the resolution out of committee and on to full debate and consideration by the entire House.

If you're uncertain whether or not Cheney deserves to be impeached, find a comfortable chair, put your feet up, and read Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency. This may take longer than 30 minutes, but this four-part description of Cheney's use and abuse of power, published in the Washington Post last June, is worth every minute.

(picture of Cheney: Worth1000.com)

A new blog, The Democratic Activist, has a terrific action plan for impeaching Cheney + John Nichols speaking on impeachment in SF this Sunday

I'm closing in on 300 posts, which I expect to hit next week. I started last January after I organized and moderated an impeachment forum in my town, Healdsburg. It was well attended, and there’s been a lot of local impeachment actions, including Janie Sheppard’s* effort to get the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors to pass a resolution in support of impeaching Cheney.

Despite the efforts of many people to hold our leaders accountable, until this past week I wasn’t optimistic. Then on Tuesday, Representative Dennis Kucinich’s resolution to impeach Cheney, H. Res. 799, was referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

Now it’s up to us, folks. And just in time**, Chris Borland created the best plan of action for impeaching Cheney that I’ve seen so far.

Here’s Chris’s introduction to his new blog:

People,

For the past two days, it's been nearly impossible to get through on the phone to the office House Judiciary (HJC) Committee Chairman John Conyers. Nothing but busy signals. He and other HJC committee members have been deluged with calls from citizens demanding their support of the Cheney impeachment resolution now before the committee.

This is it. We actually have a real chance to impeach Dick Cheney!It's likely now, or never. It's time to move. It will take work. But we can do it.

How can you make it happen? All it takes is about half an hour. Get the details here.

My recommendation: Put The Democratic Activist icon on our desktop and check it frequently.

*Janie is my friend, political ally, and frequent guest blogger. My posts by or about her are all linked here. Thanks to Janie for keeping the impeachment issue alive here in northern California.

**I’m pretty worn out. I want to pace myself to last through the 2008 election.

Update: John Nichols, the person who convinced me last November to support impeachment, is appearing in San Francisco this Sunday:

The Nation's John Nichols on Impeachment

San Francisco Green Fest

Noon Sunday, Nov. 11

Main Stage Giftcenter Pavillion Theater

888 Brannan Street

San Francisco, CA 94103

Update: Thanks to Janie Sheppard, here is the contact information for the 9 Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee who voted to table H. Res. 799 (meaning they are not willing to vote on it.) In addition to John Conyers,* Chair of the House Judiciary Committe, Chris Borland recommends we contact:

1. Howard Berman, CA-28 2

221 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

Phone: (202) 225-4695

Fax: (202) 225-3196

14546 Hamlin Street, Suite 202

Van Nuys, CA 91411

Phone: (818) 994-7200

Fax: (818) 994-10502

2. Frederick Boucher, VA-92187

Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

202-225-3861

202-225-0442(fax)

1 Cloverleaf Square, Suite C-1

Big Stone Gap, Virginia 24219

276-523-54503

3. Artur Davis, AL-7

208 Cannon H.O.B.

Washington, D.C. 20515

(202) 225-2665 (phone)

(202) 226-9567 (fax)

20th Street North Suite #1130

Birmingham, AL 35203

(205) 254-1960 (phone)

(205) 254-1974 (fax)

4. William Delahunt, MA-10

2454 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

202-225-3111

Fax: 202-225-5658

146 Main Street

Hyannis, MA 02601

508-771-0666

Toll-Free: 800-870-2626

Fax: 508-790-19595

5. Zoe Lofgren, CA 16

102 Cannon House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

Phone: (202) 225-3072

Fax: (202) 225-3336

635 N. First Street, Suite B San Jose, CA 95112

Phone: (408) 271-8700

Fax: (408) 271-8713

6. Jerrold Nadler, NY-8

2334 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

Tel. 202-225-5635

445 Neptune Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11224

Tel. 718-373-31987

7. Linda Sanchez, CA-39

1222 Longworth Building

Washington, DC 20515

202-225-6676

17906 Crusader Ave. Suite 100

Cerritos, CA 90703

562-860-50508

8. Debbie Wasserman Schultz - Florida, 20th

118 Cannon H.O.B

Washington, DC 20515

Phone: 202-225-7931

Fax: 202-226-2052

10100 Pines Blvd.

Pembroke Pines, FL 33026

Phone: 954-437-3936

Fax: 954-437-47769

9. Adam B. Schiff - CA, 29th

326 Cannon House Office Building

Washington D.C. 20515

Phone: (202) 225-4176

Facsimile: (202) 225-5828

87 N. Raymond Ave. #800

Pasadena, California 91103

Phone: (626) 304-2727

Facsimile: (626) 304-0572

*Rep. John Conyers:

2426 Rayburn Building

Washington, DC 20515

phone: 202.225.5126,

fax: 202.225.0072

Michigan phone numbers:

734.675.4084

313.961.5670

(photo: CultureKitchen.com)

Former Congressman Dan Hamburg rips into Mendocino County Board of Supervisors at August 14 impeachment hearing

On August 16, I posted County supervisors duck bobble and weave to avoid taking a stand on impeaching Cheney. Before the hearing, I interviewed former Congressman Dan Hamburg, which is available here.

I just received an audio clip of Dan’s presentation to the board, a thundering speech that was described to me by a Mendocino County resident as one of Dan’s best speeches. It starts a little before halfway through the clip. However, you might want to listen to the full clip because Allen and Els Cooperrider, active citizens in Mendocino County, also make important points to the board.

(photo of Dan Hamburg from the hearing)

County supervisors duck, bobble, and weave to avoid taking a stand on impeaching Cheney

Last Tuesday, August 14, I cut short my two-week road trip to attend a hearing before the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors on a resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney.

In February, my friend and political ally, Janie Sheppard, decided to focus on impeaching Cheney. Janie and many others gathered hundreds of signatures on petitions to present along with the resolution. Janie’s posted about her petition gathering
here. The resolution was drafted and submitted by Supervisor J. David Colfax.

Before the hearing started, I interviewed former CA 1st District Congressman Dan Hamburg. On August 9, the New York Times published a half-page ad created by Dan, "Let's put Bush and Cheney where they belong..."

Here’s Dan:

What happened at the hearing? Janie describes it best: “The Constitution lost today as the Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 1 to table the motion to consider the resolution in favor of impeaching Vice President Cheney. We have one courageous Supervisor, Colfax, who understands the connection between Cheney’s impeachable acts and the unmet needs of the county. We have four supervisors who care not a wit for the Constitution, their oaths of office to defend the Constitution, or the expressed wishes of their constituents. Those supervisors are Wattenburger, Pinches, Smith and Delbar.

“All the speakers were passionate. Dan Hamburg held up the printed oath of office that included defending the Constitution, reminding the Supervisors that they had solemnly promised to do just that. He referred to his experiences as both a Supervisor and Congressman. Els Cooperrider, an immigrant, spoke of the importance of the US Constitution to the immigrants of this country. I spoke of history: the failure of Congress to impeach Nixon and the consequent licensing of the idea of the Imperial Presidency as well as the role resolutions could play in influencing the positions of our representatives on a national level. [Read Janie's testimony.] Mike Thompson, our Congressman, so far has refused the requests of his constituents to sign on as a co-sponsor to H.R. 333, a resolution to impeach Dick Cheney.

“By tabling the motion to consider the resolution, the County decided to stick its head in the sand. Supervisor Pinches went so far as to say that he did not follow national politics and didn’t care. Supervisor Delbar did not say one word. Supervisor Wattenburger slumped in chair, trying to make the whole episode vanish via his motion to table. Supervisor Smith would tend to local issues, which in her view, do not include taking a position on impeachment. The Supervisors, however, do not speak for us, the impassioned citizens who understand what is happening in our country and want to change it.”

Here’s Janie after the hearing:

On August 15, the Ukiah Daily Journal reported on the hearing, “No action taken on Cheney resolution.”

What isn’t being reported is that those of us who are committed to the impeachment of Cheney and Bush are regrouping and aren’t giving up.

(Photo of Janie Sheppard and Jim Houle with the sign he waved in the hearing while the supervisors "ducked.")

Impeaching Cheney

In yesterday’s post, I urged readers to support the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney because he is the most likely person to:

1. Convince Bush that an attack on Iran is justified, or
2. Do an “end run” around Bush in order to provoke Iran into attacking our military forces off the coast of Iran, narrowing Bush’s option to counterattacking.

We all know that you can’t impeach based on the possibility of future “high crimes or misdemeanors.”

In case you are wondering what impeachable offenses Cheney has committed, I recommend you check out the following:

1. Impeach Cheney Now!
2. Dennis Kucinich's Resolution and supporting documents
3. Elizabeth de la Vega’s best-selling U.S. v. Bush, et al. (the “et al. includes Cheney)
4. Contact Janie Sheppard, jsheppard@pacific.net, whose effort to impeach Cheney was launched in February (see To Dick Cheney: Watch out! Janie Sheppard is after you!). Janie and others will be presenting petitions with hundreds of signatures to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors asking it to pass a resolution supporting impeachment of Cheney.

Experts predict more chaos in Middle East if Iran is attacked

Yesterday my post picked up on the opinion circulating in the blogosphere that Cheney is the cheerleader-in-chief for attacking Iran.

So what will happen if Cheney convinces Bush that an attack on Iran is justified?

Coincidentally, I’ve arrived at this question at the same time the Washington Post article, Analysts' Warnings of Iraq Chaos Detailed, described the recently released Senate Panel assessments from 2003.

The lead paragraphs: “Months before the invasion of Iraq, U.S. intelligence agencies predicted that it would be likely to spark violent sectarian divides and provide al-Qaeda with new opportunities in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report released yesterday by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Analysts warned that war in Iraq also could provoke Iran to assert its regional influence and 'probably would result in a surge of political Islam and increased funding for terrorist groups' in the Muslim world.

"The intelligence assessments, made in January 2003 and widely circulated within the Bush administration before the war, said that establishing democracy in Iraq would be "a long, difficult and probably turbulent challenge." The assessments noted that Iraqi political culture was ‘largely bereft of the social underpinnings’ to support democratic development.”

This morning’s New York Times article, Senate Democrats Say Bush Ignored Spy Agencies' Prewar Warnngs of Iraq Perils, included this comment by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, “Sadly, the administration’s refusal to heed these dire warnings, and worse, to plan for them, has led to tragic consequences for which our nation is paying a terrible price.”

I don’t have access to a CIA assessment of what could happen if Iran is attacked, but fortunately I know about the reports issued by the Oxford Research Group, which is an independent non-governmental organization promoting a “more sustainable approach to security.” In existence since 1982, in April 2005, it was named one of the top 20 think tanks in the UK by The Independent newspaper.

At its website, these reports are available:
1. Iran: Consequences of Engaging in a War, which states in its summary: “An attack on Iranian nuclear infrastructure would signal the start of a protracted military confrontation that would probably grow to involve Iraq, Israel and Lebanon, as well as the USA and Iran." The report concludes "that a military response to the current crisis in relations with Iran is a particularly dangerous option and should not be considered further.”

2. Would air strikes work? The full title of this report, released in March of 2007, is “Would Air Strikes Work? Understanding Iran's Nuclear Programme and the Possible Consequences of a Military Strike.” Dr. Hans Blix has written the forward, and its author, Dr. Frank Barnaby, concluded that “that far from stopping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, military attacks would probably accelerate Iran’s nuclear programme.”

This is my fourth article in four days about the run-up to an attack on Iran. What I’ve come to understand is:

1. The current administration doesn’t listen to experts.
2. Vice-President Cheney is the key person in the administration who is promoting a war on Iran.

Therefore, those of us who don’t want a repeat of the post-attack chaos in Iraq to happen in Iran should be working very, very hard to impeach Cheney. You can join this effort by going to Impeach Cheney Now!

(photo from AfterDowningStreet.org website)