(Go to our Main Page:ImpeachForPeace.org)

REALTIME NEWS
Department of Peace Bill Has Bipartisan Support in Congress

Maryland’s Representative Wayne Gilchrest is First Republican to Support the Bill

HR 808, the proposed legislation to create a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence, now has bipartisan support in the U.S. House of Representatives. Republican Congressman Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland joined 69 Democrats to support HR 808. He is currently the second Maryland Congressman cosponsoring the legislation, joining Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings.
“We applaud Congressman Gilchrest for reminding everyone that peace is not a partisan issue,” said Wendy Greene, Managing Director of The Peace Alliance, the national, nonpartisan organization active in all 50 states that leads the growing grassroots movement to enact HR 808. “Local Maryland Department of Peace supporters made their voices known to Congressman Gilchrest, who then showed courage and vision with his decision to support this legislation.”

Gilchrest, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, is regarded as a centrist Republican and recently urged the White House to re-engage diplomatic talks to resolve the Middle East crisis. “We are grateful for the leadership Representative Gilchrest has shown,” Greene said. “And we are saddened to learn he will not be returning to Congress next year. We need more leaders like him.”

If created, the Department will be headed by a Cabinet-level Secretary of Peace appointed by the President (with the advice and consent of the Senate), and will focus on expanding the nation’s capacity to resolve conflict nonviolently, prevent violence by addressing its root causes, and promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights.

Domestically, the Department will research, propose and facilitate practical, field-tested solutions to reduce and prevent violence. It will provide additional financial and institutional heft to strengthen and complement our current approach to violence, focusing on prevention through multi-layered strategies. These strategies include increased funding for local programs already proven effective at reducing and preventing violence. A Peace Academy, on par with the military service academies, will provide a four-year course of instruction in peace education after which graduates will be required to serve five years in public service in programs dedicated to domestic or international nonviolent conflict resolution.

Internationally, the Department will research and analyze foreign policy and recommend to the President ways to address the root causes of war. The Department will also provide expert advice to the President on nonviolent means of diffusing or dealing with international crises.

About The Peace Alliance:
The Peace Alliance is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization leading a growing grassroots movement active in all 50 states to pass legislation to create a U.S. Department of Peace. The bill, HR 808, is currently co-sponsored by 70 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including the original sponsor.

For more information on HR 808 and the campaign to create a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence, please visit www.thepeacealliance.org.
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ImpeachPac – Congressman Wexler urges support for Cheney Impeachment Hearings

The following members of Congress have joined as signatories to my letter to Chairman Conyers in support of Cheney Impeachment Hearings:

(*= member of the Judiciary Committee)

Baldwin, Tammy, WI, 2nd *
Capuano, Michael E., MA, 8th
Clarke, Yvette D., NY, 11th
Clay, Wm. Lacy, MO, 1st
Cohen, Steve, TN, 9th *
Farr, Sam, CA, 17th
Grijalva, Raúl M., AZ, 7th
Gutierrez, Luis V., IL, 4th *
Kucinich, Dennis J., OH, 10th
Lee, Barbara, CA, 9th
Moore, Gwen, WI, 4th
Moran, James P., VA, 8th
Thompson, Mike, CA, 1st
Towns, Edolphus, NY, 10th
Woosley, Lynn, CA, 6th
Wexler, Robert, FL, 19th *
Wynn, Albert Russell, MD, 4th

Baltimore Chronicle & Sentinel
Power of the People Moves Corporate Media to Do the Right Thing
by Dave Lindorff

A massive outpouring of angry mail and phone calls to the nation’s leading newspapers led to editors calling Congress members Robert Wexler (D-FL), Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), after having turned down an op-ed by the three calling for immediate hearings on the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney.
At least one of those papers, the Miami Herald, which is in Rep. Wexler’s congressional district, reversed itself and decided to run an edited version of the editorial it had rejected only days earlier.

Wexler, speaking on Florida Progressive Radio Thursday night, said it was clearly grassroots pressure and reporting on the Internet (inclulding by this site!) that forced editors at the Miami Herald to change their position on the editorial. (To hear Wexler’s interview, go to: Wexler on FPR)
He is calling on Americans who want to see Congress begin impeachment hearings to put even more pressure on Congress to also change its position.

“I think it’s obvious that Congress is way behind the people on this,” he said, “and it’s quite obvious that in this case the people have gotten it right.”

Wexler said, “If the people in Congress could come up with reasons why the abuses of this administratiion are not serious to impeach, then I’d say Congress should not listen to the grassroots, but I don’t think anyone in Congress could say that with a straight face. In fact, it’s the opposite. They’re saying, `Even though this administration has committed these crimes against the constitution, we can’t do anything about it.’”

Wexler said that he thought Democratic leaders in Congress, who have been aggressively blocking any effort to begin impeachment hearings, even to the point of pressuring state and local party activists into not passing impeachment resolutions, are risking alienating progressive voters–both Democrats and independents–next November by failing to act on impeachment.

“If Congress were really popular, with say 58 percent favorable ratings, then maybe they could do that,” he says, “but the fact is that this Congress is very, very unpopular.”

Wexler urged activists in favor of impeachment to put increasing pressure on their own congressional representatives, on their local news outlets, and on other members of the Judiciary Committee to support hearings on Cheney’s impeachable actions, and vowed to bring a petition he has set up on line, which has garnered over 120,000 signatures in less than a week’s time, to show every Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. “I will be asking every Democrat on that committee to support immediate hearings,” said the six-term Congressman.

Wexler praised his colleague, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, for pressing forward with the impeachment issue, and for submitting a bill (H Res 799) for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney.

In another example of the effect of people power is that Rep. Anthony Wiener (D-NY), yet another member of the House Judiciary Committee, has signed onto Wexler’s call for immediate hearings. Of the four, only Baldwin is a co-signer of Kucinich’s impeachment bill. Since she is one of six members of the Judiciary Committee who are co-signers, that makes a total of nine Judiciary Committee members now who are in favor of Cheney impeachment hearings. That leaves 13 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, including Chairman John Conyers, who have not expressed any support. But of those 13, five–Conyers and Reps. Brad Sherman, Mel Watt, Bobby Scott, and Artur Davis, voted against a Democratic leadership move to table (and thus kill) Kucinich’s bill last Nov. 7, thus suggesting that they are in favor of hearings on the measure. If those five sign on to Wexler’s call, that would mean a clear majority–13-8–of Democrats on the Judiciary Committee in favor of hearings on Cheney’s impeachment.

In another development, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) added her name to the Kucinich Cheney impeachment bill, bringing the total number of co-sponsors, plus Kucinich himself, to 25–the number who initially signed on to impeachment hearings on Richard Nixon in 1974.

Things are definitely moving in the right direction. The bankrupt and cynical effort by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic Party leaders to snuff out the impeachment demands of a majority of Americans and of the vast majority of Democrats is crumbling. If you haven’t signed onto Wexler’s petition, to to www.wexlerwantshearings.com and help build the momentum.

(Original Article)

Impeach for Peace just got word of a town (Garrett Park, MD) which is being threatened by a lawsuit if their Council even discusses Impeachment of Bush/Cheney. While Impeach for Peace has a digital copy of the lawyers letter threatening the council, we’ve been asked to keep it out of the public record for the time being as options are being explored. Read the email below sent to Impeach for Peace. IfP has forwarded this town’s issue to the National Lawyers Guild, and other impeachment organizations which may be able to assist.
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Our town council has been paralyzed by the threat of a lawsuit and has been advised by the town’s attorney to avoid any approach or even discussion of the impeachment issue–resolution, referendum or whatever. And the council members individually have been instructed that they are individually liable if the do not heed these instructions. Maryland law and the town charter, they have been told, would make any such adventure beyond their legitimate powers and thereby actionable. Can you tell me, or tell me whom to ask, what legal basis was there for the Takoma Park impeachment resolution? The two communities operate under the same state law; does the charter specifically empower the Town Council to take such action? Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.
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Impeach for Peace has also sent them the following information found on ImpeachBush.tv’s website:
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Argument: Is Impeachment a City Council’s Job?
Most City Council members take an oath of office promising to “protect and defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic. They don’t take an oath to fix potholes. If the Constitution is in danger then their primary duty is to defend it. If it is safe, and they have time on their hands, then they can fix potholes. (You might be able to state this more diplomatically.)

Cities and towns routinely send petitions to Congress for all kinds of requests. This is allowed under Clause 3, Rule XII, Section 819, of the Rules of the House of Representatives. This clause is routinely used to accept petitions from cities, and memorials from states, all across America.

Argument: “This is not a local issue!”
1 If a federal action has a significant negative impact on this city, then it is appropriate for this city to defend itself.
2 Citizens from this city may be sent, or have been sent, to Iraq to fight in an illegal and unjustified war.
3 Tax funds from this city that could have been spent locally have been spent in Iraq for war. Tax money from this city has been wasted in no-bid contracts with companies like Halliburton with deep ties to the Bush administration. Yet this city can barely afford the emergency services, libraries, and schools that we need. [CostOfWar.com website has more details. ]
4 The state National Guard should be available to protect this city from floods, hurricanes, earthquakes or other disasters. But instead they have been sent to Iraq by President Bush.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 12, 2007
Contacts:
Garrett Park Town Hall: Mayor Carolyn Shawaker (301) 942-0766
MD8Impeach: Lisa Moscatiello (202) 256-1764

Garrett Park, MD City Council Votes to Hold Impeachment Referendum

On Monday, September 10th, the City Council of Garrett Park, Maryland voted to hold a referendum on a resolution to call on the Maryland Congressional delegation to begin impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney. Approximately seventy-five residents attended the meeting with ten speakers addressing the Council, all expressing views in favor of impeachment.

The referendum would replace a resolution that was on the agenda Monday night that would have allowed only the Council members to vote on impeachment. Mayor Carolyn Shawaker said today that the decision was based on the Council’s judgment that a referendum with a secret ballot would encourage wider community participation by including those who might be reluctant to sign a petition. She said that the Council will set a date for the referendum once the city’s legal counsel can determine the amount of lead time that is required by law.

Garrett Park is in Representative Chris Van Hollen’s Congressional District (MD-8). On July 23rd, the City Council of Takoma Park, Maryland, which is also in Congressman Van Hollen’s district, voted unanimously to pass a resolution similar to the one Garrett Park is now considering. Next week a delegation of elected officials and other members of his constituency will be meeting with the Congressman to ask him to consider cosponsoring an existing bill to impeach the Vice President (H Res 333) or to introduce an impeachment bill himself.

Video: Takoma Park, MD citizens organize to Impeach Them!