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Friends of Impeach for Peace

Today I am writing with sad news about Mikael Rudolph, co-founder of ImpeachforPeace. Mikael had been struggling with cancer for some time and passed away last Friday.

Mikael was a talented mime, vaudevillian, and dance teacher. But the side of Mikael that those with Impeach for Peace saw, was that of a political activist. Mikael put great effort into opposing war crimes, resisting our country’s torture policies, advocating for the end of the war in Iraq, and more. Through his efforts at Impeach for Peace, he not only found meaning for his life but also helped others to organize towards a better world. And, if Mikael had done nothing else, this would represent a worthy legacy.

Mikael was a good friend of mine, and I’ll miss him dearly. My favorite memories are of  his involvement in Patriots for Corporate Rights. He and several of our common friends satirized the corporate interests of our country in street protests and on radio. This brought Mikael the performer and Mikael the protester together. If you are interested in seeing or hearing some of those moments, you can find them at CorporateRights.org

Mikael’s main political efforts went into Impeach for Peace (ImpeachForPeace.org) and World Can’t Wait (http://WorldCantWait.org) where he held meetings, marched in the street, called radio programs, blogged furiously, organized protests, met with congressional leaders, handed out leaflets and anything else he felt might stir the pot. Mikael spoke of how his activist inspiration was due in part to his mother’s legacy. She had fought for the rights of Japanese Americans interned during WW II.

Details of services being held for Mikael can be found at MikaelTheMime.com. I have included his obituary below.

I know that Mikael would have approved of my making following suggestion. If, in the coming days, the current political state of affairs frustrates you, or inspires you, take the time to act on it. Call or write a congress person, refuse to spend your money with big corporations, join a march–or start one! That’s how I’ll chose to remember and honor Mikael.

Jodin Morey
Cofounder, Impeach for Peace

MIKAEL JONATHAN RUDOLPH, 51, of Minneapolis (native to Bainbridge Island, WA) died peacefully in his home on February 26th following a courageous six-month battle with Therapy Related Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. Mikael was a beloved mime and vaudeville performer well-known to audiences at renaissance and fringe festivals, churches and schools nationwide. He taught swing, salsa and ballroom dance in the Twin Cities and was a political activist who co-founded Impeach For Peace and worked tirelessly with others toward political reform. He is preceded in death by cat Louie, sister Kristi, and parents John and Natalie.  He is survived by brother James, nephew Zephyr, nieces Jamila, Rio and Trinity, great-niece Aliyah, cats Ash, Moxie and Jabo, and many friends who love him. Memorials preferred to Visitation Monastery of Minneapolis or RESCU Foundation. Memorial service details to follow at www.mikaelthemime.com <http://www.mikaelthemime.com>.

therawstory
David Edwards

Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman talked to Luce Guillen-Givins who is one of the first people ever to be charged under the 2002 Minnesota version of the federal PATRIOT Act. Guillen-Givins and 7 other members of the group RNC Welcoming Committee — also known as the “RNC 8″ — were formally charged with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism.

However, criminal complaints filed reportedly do not allege that members of the RNC 8 personally engaged in any act of violence or damage to property. “Instead, authorities are seeking to hold the eight defendants responsible for acts committed by other individuals during the opening days of the Republican National Convention,” reports Democracy Now.

“I think the significance is that this is one more step in the process of criminalizing dissent,” Guillen-Givins. “It’s the fact that we do have a right to protest. Any prosecution under a PATRIOT Act or any similar legislation infringes on those rights.”

A full transcript of Amy Goodman’s interview with Luce Guillen-Givins is available here.

This video is from Link TV’s Democracy Now, broadcast Feb. 18, 2009.

(Source)

By Kari Lydersen and Peter Slevin, Washington Post, SPRINGFIELD, Ill. Jan. 29 – The state senators stood up one by one in a hushed chamber on Thursday to call Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) a liar and a hypocrite who put his ego and his pocketbook ahead of the interests of Illinois.

One called him “devious, cynical, crass and corrupt.” Another said the evidence of abuse of power was “overwhelming.” A third said he was “without a doubt unfit to govern.”

Together, they voted 59 to 0 to reject Blagojevich’s theatrical last-minute pleas and remove him from office, ending a stormy tenure that left the nation’s fifth-largest state paralyzed by its governor’s alleged misdeeds and nationally ridiculed for its latest bout of corruption.

“I believe our state must enter rehab,” Sen. Randall Hultgren (R) told his colleagues before the vote. “Moral rehabilitation.”

Blagojevich’s repudiation in a state where he was elected twice to the governorship and three times to Congress could mark a dramatic exit from the national stage, which he commanded briefly but memorably. His next battle is expected to come in federal court in Chicago, where he risks losing his freedom over allegations that he schemed to trade official actions for political contributions and other favors.

Blagojevich, charged with wire fraud and bribery, is free on $4,500 bond.

Before Thursday’s speechmaking was over, and a pair of unanimous votes were cast to oust Blagojevich and bar him from Illinois public office for life, the governor had already taken his final flight home to Chicago aboard a state airplane. After he arrived, on a darkening winter afternoon, as his fate was about to be sealed, he went for a jog.
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Talking with reporters later, he called the verdict “un-American.”

“The fix was in from the beginning,” Blagojevich said, insisting that he wants no pity.

“There are tens of thousands of people across America just like me who are losing their jobs, or who have lost their jobs,” Blagojevich said. “To the people of Illinois, God bless all of you. I want you to know that I haven’t let you down.”

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn became the state’s 41st governor and said he would move right away into the Italianate red-brick governor’s mansion that Blagojevich disdained. Quinn supported Blagojevich during their reelection on the Democratic ticket in 2006, but the men have not spoken since August 2007.

“The rule of law prevailed in Illinois. We are ready to move forward,” Quinn said after the vote. “Something I’m going to work on night and day is to ask folks to put aside differences of the past and really focus on the common good. We’re going to make this a year of reform in Illinois.”

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International Herald Tribune – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will leave Chicago as a governor Thursday morning. He may come home just an average citizen.

Blagojevich plans to fly to Springfield and address the Senate before the final vote in his impeachment trial. Even Blagojevich predicts he’ll be convicted, costing him his job and all the perks of being governor.

“I hope he has a ride home because I don’t think he’ll have the state police to take him,” joked Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont.

A buzz swept through the Senate chambers Wednesday when Senate President John Cullerton announced that Blagojevich wanted to speak at the trial, which he has boycotted so far.

“It’s my understanding that the governor wishes to file an appearance to give a closing argument, not to testify or to submit himself to cross-examination,” Cullerton, D-Chicago, announced. “Just to give a closing argument.”
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Illinois governor asks to speak at impeachment trial

The prosecution rested its case Wednesday, the third day of an unprecedented trial on whether Blagojevich has abused his power.

A conviction is all but certain. Blagojevich presented no defense, and virtually the entire Illinois political establishment has turned against him. The House voted 117-1 to impeach him, and the lone “no” vote came from his sister-in-law.

Despite the slim odds Blagojevich faces, one of his few friends in the Senate scoffed at the idea of the governor using the statement to announce his resignation. It’s just as likely senators will see the Easter Bunny hopping through the Capitol, said Sen. James DeLeo, D-Chicago.

“I think he wants to be heard,” DeLeo said.

A Blagojevich spokesman agreed.

“I don’t think he’s going down there to resign, I think he’s going down to make his appeal to the senators,” Lucio Guerrero said.

Blagojevich repeatedly has said he won’t resign. But he also said he wouldn’t take part in the trial.

While the Senate has considered accusations that Blagojevich is corrupt, the governor appeared on one news show after another to proclaim his innocence and declare the trial rigged against him.

“It’s a kangaroo court,” Blagojevich said Tuesday on Fox News Channel. “My lawyers and I believe that to be part of a process like that is to dignify a fraudulent impeachment process that sets a dangerous precedent for governors in Illinois and governors across America.”

But Wednesday afternoon, Blagojevich’s acting chief of staff contacted Cullerton’s chief of staff to ask that the governor be allowed to make a statement before the trial concludes.

The impeachment prosecutor called his last witness Wednesday and is scheduled to make his closing arguments Thursday morning. Blagojevich could be ousted from office by afternoon.

By making his own closing statement instead of testifying under oath, Blagojevich avoids taking questions from senators and the impeachment prosecutor.

Sen. Dan Cronin, R-Elmhurst, called it “cowardly, but consistent with the way he has governed.”

Cullerton, joined by the Senate’s top Republican, recommended Blagojevich’s unusual request be granted. He said the governor would be given 90 minutes to make a closing statement — in effect, acting as his own attorney.

Ironically, Blagojevich often has talked about how poorly he did in law school, joking that he barely knew where the law library was.

The two-term governor has denied any wrongdoing since being arrested last month on a variety of corruption charges, including scheming to benefit from appointing President Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate replacement and demanding campaign contributions in exchange for state services.

No other Illinois governor has been impeached, let alone convicted in a Senate trial.

If Blagojevich is convicted, he will be removed from office and replaced by Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn, a fellow Democrat.

Earlier Wednesday, Cullerton challenged Blagojevich to show up and explain himself and objected to the governor’s tour of national media. Blagojevich insists the wiretapped conversations released when he was arrested on federal corruption charges are being taken out of context.

“If he wants to come down here instead of hiding out in New York and having Larry King asking questions instead of the senators, I think he’s making a mistake,” Cullerton said. “He should come here and answer the questions and provide the context he claims that these statements are being taken out of.”

The case against Blagojevich, presented by House-appointed prosecutor David Ellis, included audio of secretly recorded conversations in which the governor appears to discuss demanding a campaign contribution in exchange for signing legislation. Senators also heard from an FBI agent who vouched for the accuracy of eye-popping Blagojevich quotes that were included in the criminal complaint against him.

And on Wednesday, senators heard testimony that Blagojevich and his aides agreed to pay $2.6 million for doses of a flu vaccine that they knew couldn’t be brought into the country. Auditor General William Holland also testified to a long list of management irregularities under Blagojevich — such as giving a lucrative contract to a company that didn’t officially exist.

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RAWSTORY — A group calling itself “Arrest Bush 2009″ has announced its intention to hold a “Yes We Can Arrest Bush” event in front of the FBI Building in Washington, DC during the Inaugural Parade.

However, coordinator Jose Rodriguez insists, “It’s not a protest; it’s a celebratory event.”

Arrest Bush 2009, which is sponsored by the Washington Peace Center, After Downing Street, and Shoes For Bush, is demanding that Bush be arrested for war crimes and for lying to the American people.

Calls for Bush’s arrest began last March, when two Vermont towns approved a measure “that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for ‘crimes against our Constitution.’” In September, a large “Arrest Bush/Cheney” banner was hung on a ledge at the National Archives by members of Veterans for Peace.

According to the press release from Arrest Bush 2009, “We call for the arrest of George W. Bush for instigating war against a sovereign nation that posed no threat, wanton attacks on civilian populations, use of torture, and violations of the U.N. Charter. We call for the arrest of George W. Bush for lying to Congress and the American people about the reasons for invading Iraq, for the deaths of US service members and Iraqi civilians, and for the abuse of the United States Constitution.”

Shoes for Bush also plans a separate “shoe hurling action” on January 19 to protest what they anticipate will be Bush’s “unprecedented pardoning of crimes he authorized.” Veterans are encouraged to bring their combat boots to hurl.

During Bush’s second inauguration in January 2005, an estimated 10,000 antiwar protesters showed up in Washington, and there were protests in other cities as well. However, it is not clear how much attention anti-Bush protests will garner on a day when most Americans may simply be glad to see him leaving town.

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