Impeachment

By David Swanson

Charlottesville Daily Progress columnist Bryan McKenzie reported on our recent protest of Bush at Monticello that we had made our point of diminishing a citizen naturalization ceremony? We did? McKenzie had plenty of communication from protesters before and after the event, all of which made perfectly clear that we wanted to NOT do that, that we wanted in fact to counter Bush's diminishment of the day and to communicate to the world that Americans oppose our president's crimes at home and abroad. McKenzie can claim that diminishing someone's day was what we in fact did and that having done so is more significant than all the days for the rest of their lives that Bush has ruined of the relatives of the people he's killed and is going to continue to kill as long as we allow him, but McKenzie can't claim that that's what we intended to do.

NOTE: THIS COALITION DOES NOT INCLUDE CCPJ

Update: RVA for Peace, a group from Richmond, is part of this effort.

A growing coalition of groups and individuals plans to protest President George W. Bush's Fourth of July visit to Charlottesville on Friday. Participating organizations include the Augusta Center for Peace and Justice, CODE PINK Women for Peace both National and Charlottesville, AfterDowningStreet, Democrats.com, and Charlottesville MoveOn.org. Many other people expected to participate are not members of any of these groups.

The protest will take place at Route 20, outside and a ways removed from the grounds of Monticello. Participants will gather at 7 a.m. at Quarry Park, the entrance to which is on the west side of Rt. 20 just north of Interstate 64.

The full remarks as provided by the White House:

THE PRESIDENT: Distinguished guests, fellow citizens, and future citizens: the grounds of this house, which saw so many changes during President Thomas Jefferson's lifetime provide an ideal setting to reflect on the history of our nation. We have progressed so far in so many ways since that day on which the Declaration of Independence was signed, in that distant time when slaves inhabited this place.

Charlottesville Municipal Ban Ready To Play For President.

I read that and hoped for this.

While George Dubya will desecrate Monticello with some dishonest remarks from a podium on Friday as new citizens swear to defend the Constitution he has destroyed, this AP story has the plans of the man in charge. Dick Cheney will make his remarks on a ship named the Constitution and talk about fighting pirates rather than being one:

By David Swanson

The number and variety of the excuses for failing, in various ways, to resist the transition we are in from democratic republic to dictatorship never ceases to amaze me. A lot of the time I imagine that Congress members hold all the prizes in this regard, with perhaps some dishonorable mentions for party leaders and directors of national activist organizations. But I've been repeatedly jolted out of that notion by being involved in specific plans to organize protests, most recently protests being planned for Bush's Fourth of July visit to my town of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Hi, I am new and uneducated on these matters. I read over the Impeachment blog section but could couldn't find any purposed reasons for the impeachment.
Can someone clue me in, give me something to work on? Some real honest facts and points I can dig my teeth into.

From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all.
By Naomi Wolf, The Guardian, Tuesday April 24, 2007

Last autumn, there was a military coup in Thailand. The leaders of the coup took a number of steps, rather systematically, as if they had a shopping list. In a sense, they did. Within a matter of days, democracy had been closed down: the coup leaders declared martial law, sent armed soldiers into residential areas, took over radio and TV stations, issued restrictions on the press, tightened some limits on travel, and took certain activists into custody.

They were not figuring these things out as they went along. If you look at history, you can see that there is essentially a blueprint for turning an open society into a dictatorship. That blueprint has been used again and again in more and less bloody, more and less terrifying ways. But it is always effective. It is very difficult and arduous to create and sustain a democracy - but history shows that closing one down is much simpler. You simply have to be willing to take the 10 steps.

READ THE REST.

By Medea Benjamin, July 3, 2005 -- updated July 3, 2007

This Fourth of July, while Americans are marching in parades and oohing and aahing at the fireworks, it would be a patriotic gesture to also spend some time thinking about what independence means today.

Our nation was founded on a determination to be free of domination by the British empire. The US Declaration of Independence proclaimed the need to fight the War of Independence against Britain because King George III had 'kept among us standing armies' that committed intolerable 'abuses and usurpations.' Today it is our government whose standing army is committing abuses and usurpations in foreign lands. Today it is our government that is in the business of empire-building. Even before 9/11, the US military maintained over 700 foreign military bases and installations and almost 250,000 troops in 130 countries.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison all warned that the invasion and occupation of other lands would turn America into precisely the sort of empire against which they had so recently rebelled. "We should have nothing to do with conquest," asserted Jefferson in 1791.

READ THE REST.

Issued by Veterans for Peace for July 4

Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are instituted to secure the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But

Read the letters HERE.

Add a comment underneath if you are so inclined.

By Laurie Dobson

Generally Bush tries to come to Kennebunkport on July 4th. It's Bush family tradition. This year, however, we have a large assemblage coming to Kennebunkport with keynote speaker Bob Bowman. Also speaking will be Harold Burbank, Kurt Daims, and myself, Laurie Dobson, with open discussions planned regarding the current state of the world and including updates on the Bush Indictment Resolution going forward in Kennebunkport. So I don't think he wants to be here this year...

Laurie Dobson is Maine's Independent for US Senate
http://www.dobsonforsenate.com

Sponsored by Augusta Center for Peace and Justice (ACPJ), Code-Pink Charlottesville, After Downing Street, and independent concerned citizens.

To get in you must pick up free tickets at 7 a.m. on Wednesday at the Monticello Visitors Center. Bring as many people as you can, and each request the maximum of four tickets. Go early!

To protest outside meet at 8 a.m. on Friday at Quarry Park. Please bring posters, signs, costumes, banners, props.

Here's a map that includes Monticello, the visitors center, and Quarry Park: Map.

Here's a new flyer: PDF Flyer.

Keep phoning Monticello! The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, a private nonprofit, owns and operates Monticello with a professed mission of preservation and education. Call Monticello right now and ask them to uninvite Bush: (434) 984-9822. Then let the Daily Progress newspaper in Charlottesville know that you've done that: enewstips@dailyprogress.com

The Unitary Executive is scheduled to disgrace the grounds of Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Va. During a July 4 naturalization ceremony, immigrants will swear to "support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic" at an event besmirched by the presence of the Constitution's leading domestic enemy. Jefferson's Declaration of Independence from King George faulted him for harassment by his troops, elevating the military above civilian power, denying people a fair trial by jury by transporting them overseas to be tried on false accusations, and other abuses that have been matched by our current King George. He has claimed the power to ignore laws, to rewrite laws, to adhere to secret laws, to discard habeas corpus, to spy without warrant, to detain without charge, to torture, to murder, and to lie the nation into wars of conquest. All citizens, old and new, have a duty to support and defend the Constitution, a document that requires the impeachment of a president as criminal and abusive as the current one.

Learn more about impeaching Bush: http://afterdowningstreet.org/bush

From the Monticello Website:

Free tickets to Monticello's July 4 event will be distributed Wednesday

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. – Free tickets to the July 4 event at Monticello that will feature the participation of President Bush will be made available to the public Wednesday (July 2).

A Letter to the Charlottesville Daily Progress
By Ray McGovern, http://afterdowningstreet.org

I write as a Virginian, the father of four graduates of Mr. Jefferson's university and of another who is an alumnus of the university Mr. Jefferson himself attended.

I have just spoken with Emily of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation to register our family's dismay that President George W. Bush has been invited to speak at Monticello on July 4th. I cannot imagine a greater insult to Mr. Jefferson, who played such a huge role in securing for us the freedoms we enjoy as citizens of this great Commonwealth and country. George W. Bush at Monticello? Desecration of what until now has been hallowed ground.

Sponsored by Augusta Center for Peace and Justice (ACPJ), Code-Pink Charlottesville, After Downing Street, and independent concerned citizens.

Should a war criminal be permitted to speak on the Fourth of July at Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello?

Right Now, Wherever You Are: The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, a private nonprofit, owns and operates Monticello with a professed mission of preservation and education. Call Monticello right now and ask them to uninvite Bush: (434) 984-9822. Then let the Daily Progress newspaper in Charlottesville know that you've done that: enewstips@dailyprogress.com

In Charlottesville on July 4th: Join us for a colorful nonviolent exercise of our First Amendment rights at 8:30 a.m. at the first parking lot on the right on Rt. 53 just east of Rt. 20. Or attend the event at Monticello, open to the public.

PRINT FLYER.

The Unitary Executive is scheduled to disgrace the grounds of Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Va. During a July 4 naturalization ceremony, immigrants will swear to "support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic" at an event besmirched by the presence of the Constitution's leading domestic enemy. Jefferson's Declaration of Independence from King George faulted him for harassment by his troops, elevating the military above civilian power, denying people a fair trial by jury by transporting them overseas to be tried on false accusations, and other abuses that have been matched by our current King George. He has claimed the power to ignore laws, to rewrite laws, to adhere to secret laws, to discard habeas corpus, to spy without warrant, to detain without charge, to torture, to murder, and to lie the nation into wars of conquest. All citizens, old and new, have a duty to support and defend the Constitution, a document that requires the impeachment of a president as criminal and abusive as the current one.

Learn more about impeaching Bush: http://afterdowningstreet.org/bush

For information on the protest, including housing if coming from out of town, call 434-961-6278.

Please bring posters, signs, costumes, banners, props.

By David Swanson

The House is stalling, but don't be fooled. Don't let your guard down. Don't relax. They still intend, possibly next week, to dump the hard earned pay of your as yet unborn descendants into funding another full year or more of occupying Iraq, paying for the occupation well into the next Congress and presidency, plus enough in interest payments to China that we could have, with the same amount of money, provided clean water and basic nutrition to everyone on the planet.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich Introduced 35 Articles of Impeachment Against President Bush on Monday Night

The full text of the articles is available at:
http://chun.afterdowningstreet.org/amomentoftruth.pdf

Extensive documentation to accompany each article will be posted later today. Watch these websites:
http://kucinich.us

http://democrats.com

http://afterdowningstreet.org

Congressman Kucinich has laid out an extensive indictment of the president. Here is the index of article titles:

By David Swanson

The Declaration of Independence is frequently cited but rarely read, and even more rarely updated. Remarkably, it needs very little updating to apply to the latest King George III. A couple of years ago, in preparation for July 4th events, Veterans for Peace (VFP) came up with the Declaration of Impeachment, which changes very few words from the original Declaration of Independence: http://afterdowningstreet.org/declarationofimpeachment

By David Swanson

Remarks made on May 24, 2008, in Radford, Va., at the Building a New World Conference: http://www.wpaconference.org

Our First Amendment has been locked up in a chain-link Free Speech Zone.

The Fourth Amendment is under warrantless surveillance and scared for its life.

The Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Amendments have been detained without charge.

And the Eighth Amendment is presently undergoing waterboarding.

By David Swanson

Remarks made on May 24, 2008, in Radford, Va., at the Building a New World Conference: http://www.wpaconference.org

Martin Luther King Jr. said:

"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered....

And he added:

By David Swanson

Remarks made on May 24, 2008, in Radford, Va., at the Building a New World Conference: http://www.wpaconference.org

In a December 31, 2007, editorial, the New York Times faulted the current president and vice president of the United States for kidnapping innocent people, denying justice to prisoners, torturing, murdering, circumventing U.S. and international law, spying in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and basing their actions on "imperial fantasies." If the editorial had been about Bush and Cheney robbing a liquor store or killing a small number of people or robbing a small amount of money or torturing a single child, then the writers at the New York Times would have demanded immediate prosecution and incarceration. Can you guess what they actually demanded? They demanded that we sit back and hope the next president and vice president will be better.