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RAWSTORY – A Detroit Free Press columnist argues that Congress shouldn’t let President Bush’s last two months in office go by without pressing for impeachment.

Rochelle Riley argues that immediate impeachment hearings would prevent Bush from issuing preemptive pardons for government officials accused of crimes and would prevent the president from further pursuing economy-wrecking deregulatory policies.

If Congress moves quickly and forces the president to focus on impeachment, then he won’t have so much time to push through last-minute regulatory changes that will continue to hurt our country and our ideals. He already has pushed deregulation that would allow employers to talk directly with employees’ doctors and allow power companies to build polluting facilities close to national parks.

Anyone worried that our congressional representatives can’t tie their shoes and chew gum at the same time, or cannot focus on the economic crisis and impeachment hearings at the same time, will find that many answers to our economic and global defense problems will come from those hearings.

It’s unclear precisely how those two ideas can co-exist. Riley doesn’t explain how impeachment will prevent Bush from enacting his bad economic policies, while simultaneously not distracting Congress from developing its own economic policies.

It almost certainly doesn’t matter, though. Although Riley urges Congress to follow through with impeachment articles introduced earlier this year by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has maintained a strict opposition to beginning impeachment hearings.

So Bush can rest assured. In January, he will leave office, as scheduled, with simply the disapproval of more than two-thirds of the country, not the formal condemnation an impeachment trial would bring.

Original Article

“There are many regrets that I’m not a citizen of New Hampshire and a member of its Legislature, but my chief regret tonight is that I’m not allowed to vote for Betty Hall’s House Resolution 24 to commence impeachment procedures in the U.S. Congress. At our founding, New Hampshire was essential. At our preservation, it is even more so. Vote to impeach to restore our unique democracy.”
- Edward Asner

By Lauren R. Dorgan / Concord Monitor – Activists from as far away as Michigan and as close as Warner clutched their pocket-sized U.S. Constitutions and crowded into a State House hearing yesterday on a proposed resolution that would request Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Even Hollywood chimed in: An organizer read a statement he said was from Ed Asner, the liberal actor best known as Mr. Grant on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Asner conveyed regrets “that I am not a citizen of New Hampshire,” according to a statement read by Stuart Hutchison, who leads a New Jersey-based anti-impeachment group. “At our founding, New Hampshire is essential,” Hutchison read. “At our preservation, New Hampshire is even more so.”

The resolution was proposed by Rep. Betty Hall, a Brookline Democrat. It lays out a case that Bush and Cheney violated treaties “by invading Iraq without just cause or provocation” and misled American lawmakers to make their case. It claims that the federal government’s warrantless wiretapping, detentions of “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo and use of torture on terrorism suspects are due cause to impeach Bush.

Hall argued that the nation’s founders intended impeachment as a tool when other checks and balances failed.

“They didn’t know there could be such a thing as shock and awe, used to start an illegal war, but they knew there would be illegal wars,” Hall said.

About 100 people crammed into a State House hearing yesterday, many of them gray-headed, most of them appearing in favor in the bill. There were a few opponents. Rep. David Hess, a Hooksett Republican, said he spoke for his party’s leadership in opposition to the bill.

“I have never seen a document more vitriolic and more inflammatory,” Hess said.

He said he didn’t see evidence – and “I’m not talking about a statement anybody could write in Vermont or San Francisco.” Hess specifically challenged several portions, including the paragraph about Bush’s use of “signing statements,” documents with which Bush claims the right to disobey laws he’s signed because he thinks they’re unconstitutional.

“I don’t know what signing statements are,” Hess said, prompting clucking and laughter from the audience.

Meanwhile, a man in the corner intently planned his testimony, penciling in all-caps phrases FREE ELECTIONS and SECRET COURT. Several people testified about their efforts to support a pro-impeachment movement in Vermont; one woman said she was now working for an effort that hoped to bring “the (Dennis) Kucinich camp and the Ron Pauls together.”

The hearing quickly became a discussion of national malaise, with many telling the committee that the country isn’t the same as it was when were young, with speakers cited everything from confidence in foreign policy to toy safety.

“I’ve watched my country change in the last years for the worse,” said Gail Mitchell of Barrington. Later, she listed off some changes that worry her: “Food, homes, jobs, safety, health care.”

For others, the hearing was about history. Various speakers brought up the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I and World War II to argue either that Bush’s actions have historical precedent or that he is beyond all precedent.

Nan Stearns of Amherst said she came with a group she founded, Women Making a Difference, or WMD.

“The war is wrong. Torture is wrong,” Stearns said. “I can’t think of anything the Bush administration has done right except bring those of us who are here today together.”

The committee is scheduled to vote on the bill today.

AfterDowningStreet.org
by David Swanson

Congressman Conyers Is Waiting for a Push to Start Impeachment Hearings Call: 202-225-5126. Email him from Democrats.com.

On Thursday, Chairman John Conyers’ House Judiciary Committee held a hearing at which Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that he would not investigate torture or warrantless spying, he would not enforce contempt citations, and he would treat Justice Department opinions as providing immunity for crimes.

None of this was new, but perhaps it touched something in Conyers that had not been touched before. Following the hearing, he and two staffers met for over an hour with two members of Code Pink and discussed activism and impeachment, including Congressman Robert Wexler’s proposal to begin impeachment hearings on Cheney.

Conyers expressed his concerns about what might happen following an impeachment, the danger of installing a Bush replacement or losing an election. He cited potential ramifications that have not yet been examined that could have the opposite effect. Conyers told Ellen Taylor and Manijeh Saba that you need to be more than brave and courageous, you need to be smart.

Help us let Conyers know that the smart thing right now would be bravery and courage.

The Chairman told Taylor and Saba that he has been listening to several advocates for impeachment, including Liz Holtzman and David Swanson. He hinted he could be swayed by a convincing argument, leaning out of his chair for dramatic effect.

We want to continue the dialogue with Congressman Conyers. On Rosa Parks’ birthday last week, Leslie Angeline began a fast for impeachment. Taylor and over 20 other activists have joined the fast [http://afterdowningstreet.org/fast ]. Conyers has agreed to meet with Leslie to discuss impeachment on Tuesday.

Lend your voices to the conversation and make phone calls, send faxes and Email Congressman Conyers on Monday and Tuesday. Let the Chairman know that only impeachment hearings:

1-will reach a broad TV audience
2-will force compliance with subpoenas by eliminating “executive privilege”
3-will hold brazen criminals accountable
4-will convince citizens that Congress cares about upholding the Constitution.

Call: 202-225-5126
Fax: 202-225-0072
Email: john.conyers@mail.house.gov

(Source)

OpEdNews Editor-in-Chief Rob Kall presses the point with House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr.:

By Christy Strawser / Daily Tribune

FERNDALE, MI — If police hoped to quiet Monday afternoons at Nine Mile and Woodward by arresting war protester Victor Kittila last week and charging him with disorderly conduct — they failed.

Several hundred people clustered there Monday and filled every side of the intersection holding signs and banners protesting George W. Bush and the Iraq War.

Before the arrest, 20-30 protesters usually showed up.

"We’re in support of fighting that arrest," said Phyllis Livermore of Birmingham. "It was outrageous."
Many said it was their first time at the anti-war event, which started four years ago and happens around 4:45-5:45 p.m. every Monday.

"In a way, this was a good thing," Livermore said. "This many people are never here."

Last Monday Kittila, 55, was arrested in front of his wife and their 13-year-old daughter and threatened with a Taser if he resisted. Police Chief Michael Kitchen said he was arrested for holding a sign that inspired drivers to honk their horns.

Ferndale city code says it’s illegal to "incite people to sound their horn when not reasonably necessary."

Police said they had warned protesters about the signs several weeks ago because it disturbed other drivers on the busy thoroughfare. Nine Mile and Woodward is the hub of downtown Ferndale, an area with no homes, but many restaurants, bars and retail shops.

"They were warned a couple of weeks ago, they decided to test it, evidently," Kitchen said last week.

Protesters took a different view.

"I had to ask ‘Is this America?’" said Mary Johnston of Farmington Hills.

Kittila said he had changed his sign to say ‘Ferndale police say don’t honk if you want Bush out’" after the warning, but people still responded by honking. Kittila’s wife had to pay $500 bail to get him out of jail after his arrest; a court date has not been set.

But his arrest failed to deter a group of teens from Grosse Pointe who held up signs urging drivers to honk against the war.

"I’m not afraid," said Michael Fenton, 18, of Grosse Pointe. "No one told me specifically I could not hold this sign."

Kittila walked through the crowd, accepting pats on the back and meeting old friends, and he said that he was afraid for the people thumbing their noses at the law.

"I’m happy and surprised that this many people are here," he said while holding a sign that said ‘no blood for oil’. "But we don’t want to cause trouble. I think Ferndale supports us, they know what we’re doing out here."

His words were born out by the number of thumbs-up signs, peace signs — and honks — drivers bestowed on protesters.