Dan Barlow Vermont Press Bureau-Town Meeting 2007
Gov. James Douglas, acting as Middlebury’s moderator, tried to stop a vote on a resolution calling for President Bush’s impeachment and withdrawal of troops from Iraq at the town’s annual meeting Monday night, according to several residents who attended.
Douglas argued that the two resolutions, which were brought up under the “new business” portion of Middlebury’s town meeting, were not warned and therefore only a discussion, but not a vote, could occur, according to witnesses.
But the governor, who has been the town’s moderator for two decades, later (Read More)
Here is an insider’s view of what really went on regarding Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame-Wilson, Cheney and Libby, et al from Ray McGovern that was first published today:
Why Cheney Lost It When Joe Wilson Spoke Out
By Ray McGovern
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor
McGovern’s resume: Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. He was a CIA analyst for 27 years and is on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
That doesn’t do it justice because Mr. McGovern is a very genuinely decent, civilized and humble man – McGovern was THE CIA contact to the White House through three consecutive Administrations (I believe Reagan, Bush, Clinton).
Bill & others who claim that the Senate and House got the same evidence as the Bush Administration – this is untrue.
The evidence spoken and otherwise introduced into evidence during the Libby trial made very clear that the Bush Administration squelched a conclusive report from Joseph Wilson that made clear that there was no sale of uranium from Niger to Iraq and that the Administration had manufactured evidence saying that Iraq posed an imminent nuclear threat against us.
Because the Bush Administration was keeping Wilson’s findings in Niger quiet despite sending him there, Wilson pushed the evidence into record in the best interests of the country by posting an article in the New York Times telling the truth to the American people. His reward was to have his wife, a CIA operative, exposed at great risk to her contacts and associates overseas.
Remember “the next smoking gun being a mushroom cloud”? That was a bald-faced lie to the American people about nuclear capabilities that the Bush Administration knew was patently untrue. This was based upon “evidence” that Wilson was sent on a “junket” to Niger to prove but came back saying exactly the opposite of what they wanted to hear.
Remember the words: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa”? Those words were known to be a lie by the President and his Administration long before he spoke them to the American people in his State of the Union address in January of 2003.
This is why Congress will almost certainly be opening hearings into the pre-war lies such as these that were documented into evidence during the Libby trial. This is why Libby Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald will likely be immediately subpoened to speak this evidence into the Congressional Record.
Republicans and other Conservatives, we respect your party, your point of view and your right to your opinions. We challenge you, however, to take a long, hard look at what this Neo-Con group has done to your party, our nation and the world through their lies, crimes and greed. These are not Conservatives, nor are some of the most influential among them patriots or even loyal to America at heart.
In the best interests of those Republican presidential candidates for President in 2008 as well as all GOP Senators whose terms are up and all GOP Representatives who are inextricably tied to this horrible President and his Administration…
…join us in seeing that justice is served and that they are impeached, convicted and removed in a timely manner so that we can return our great nation to the core debate of progressive values versus conservative values and negotiate decently to the middle in the best interests of everyone.
Bill: The Senate and House did not get the same intel as illustrated by our evidence page.
And to the other naysayers, this is about accountability to the law. Vermonters shouldn’t be run off to Canada because they wish for the law to be obeyed. This isn’t about politics, it’s about maintaining a democracy.
The Senate and House Intelligence committees got the same info (by law) that the President got in making his decision. Further, the House and Senate(Kerry,Clinton and others) voted overwhelmingly to use force against Iraq. Saddam had thumbed his nose at inspections for weapons of mass destruction for years on end and other world leaders like Chirac, Putin, etc. were convinced he had them. In the wake of 9/11, could we wait for (potential)disaster or proactively snuff it out. Also, remember economic sanctions did not work. The additional dynamic was that North Korea, who has nuclear capability, long range missile technology, and most scary an unstable leader in Kim Jong Il, could be sent a message that we meant business where our security was concerned. It blows my mind that idiots out there in the US believe that if we are nice to insane dictators and irrational fanatic terrorists that those people will leave us alone.Start using your brains America.
Fay wrote: “They can talk until they are blue in the face about impeachment. They don’t have the votes to impeach Bush”
Votes change over time. Just as Bush’s approval rating soared to 90% from that photo-op on top of a pile of Manhattan rubble in 2001 but have spiraled down to exactly 1/3rd of that today at 30%, more and more prominent Conservatives are speaking out in opposition to this President along with the ever growing numbers of Moderates, Liberals and Progressives. The Neo-Conservatives care not a whim about legality so we don’t ever expect them to be redeemed.
Once the evidence we and many others have researched and published comes to light in preliminary hearings as are happening right now and is spoken into the Congressional Record, the decision to commence Impeachment Hearings will become unavoidable. Just today, news is out that the House Judiciary is considering opening an investigation into the outing of Valerie Plame with all the new evidence that has come to light in the process leading up to the conviction of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald, who famously noted in his closing arguments that a cloud is hanging over Vice President Cheney, would be subpoened to reveal all the evidence that he unearthed over the course of his investigation of Libby’s lying to the FBI and to a Grand Jury. Libby lied to cover for his bosses. As the top aide to the Vice President, Libby only had two people over him, Cheney and Bush.
Consider this scenario:
Senate Republicans, when handed a recommendation to impeach by the House, will be faced with a very tough choice as the world watches them confront President Bush and his Mephistophelian inner circle:
1) Fight impeachment and continue to be revealed as rubber-stamping enablers of the multiple crimes now being revealed.
2) Play the “I had no idea all of this was going on” card to desperately distance themselves from Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Ashcroft, Abramoff, Ney, DeLay, et al. Vote “Yes” and possibly hang onto their cushy position of power through the next election cycle.
Would you go down with this soaring ‘Hindenburg?
Marjorie Keller and the rest of you who oppose impeachment,
We at IFP have heard through the grapevine that now 46 towns in Vermont have passed resolutions to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney – not because they disagree with them as you state, rather the articles of impeachment in their resoltions specifically list multiple crimes and misdemeanors rising to the level of impeachable offenses closely paralleling our own as seen here:
Charges and Evidence: Impeachment of George W. Bush
The grassroots impeachment movement is growing rapidly across the nation as more and more citizens are becoming aware of how pervasive the criminality of the Bush Regime has been and how dangerous allowing them to remain in office is to our nation and the rest of the world. In the impeachment movement parlance, more and more people are moving from the “Why?” to the “How?”.
I would encourage those of you who disagree with us to post a reasonable refutation of each of these charges to discuss rather than simply throwing out your opinion without any intellectual contribution. This is intended to be an open discussion forum on the topic of impeachment. If you disagree with impeachment then please take some time to offer some reasoning behind your opinions. We aren’t deleting your posts nor altering them in any way. This is a free speech zone (as long as there are no personal threats or nonsensical journeys into vulgarity).
Remember as you do, however, that we offer a multitude of impeachable offenses – all of which are backed up by solid evidence by our researchers. In order for impeachment to proceed, only one of our charges needs to be proven.
In order for you to prove your position against impeachment, you would need to prove us wrong on every charge because, just as in a criminal trial in which only one of multiple charges by a prosecutor can lead to jail time, in an impeachment, it only takes one conviction on one count to remove a public official from office.
Mikael Rudolph
Organizer – ImpeachforPeace.org
They can talk until they are blue in the face about impeachment. They don’t have the votes to impeach Bush
I am so glad my father is no longer a resident of VT.
Still grieve that I have family in MA and RI.
You people in Vermont are idiots. Just because you have a polical axe to grind doesn’t mean you can impeach someone because they disagree with you. I was planning a trip to Vermont this summer to do genealogy. I will not be going now.
Not one cent of my hard-earned money will be spent in Vermont
this year or next year and maybe never again. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
J. Freitas,
Actually, according to Jefferson’s Manual, which was a part of the rules of order ratified at the commencement of the 110th Congress, individual states do have the right to pass a Resolution to impeach that should put the topic of impeachment on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Whether or not the House acts upon those Rules as they voted to ratify is another question, but it is most certainly more than simply a symbolic act.
Vermont and its citizens may be interested to know that they have no authority whatsoever in the decision to impeach a President. This is at best a symbolic act by a symbolic state.
Laughable.
where can the rest of us vote on impeachment of the worst president in the history of the united states, i want to see bush and cheney punished for all their lies that have cost the country trillions of dollars and more importantly thousands of innocent lives of our troops who were misled by the administration. good for you vermont, now lets spread it to the rest of the country.
but they cant pass jessicas law
Where can the rest of us vote on a constitutional amendment to remove Vermont from the Union?
YOUR ARE JUST ANOTHER LEFT WING STATE, THAT WON’T EVEN STAND UP and do the right thing to protect your own children, and fight to get jessica’s law pass. congress had the same intelligance as president bush, and they voted to go to war, you are all so blinded by your HATE FOR OUR GOOD PRESIDENT, YOU CAN’T SEE PAST YOU NOSE. I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU, BECAUSE OF YOUR HATE, IT WILL END UP DESTORYING YOUR OWN SOULS.
I live in NH, not too far from the VT border. I never thought that people from New England had in them to question the government, with the exception of The American Revolution. I support this cause. I am opposed to the war, but not the troops. How many more people have to die, before we as Americans realize that our President is doing something wrong. We need to stop shielding ourselves from the truth, and open our eyes. The possibility of Iraqis following us is high enough as it is, what difference is pulling out going to make?
As to the comment above mine, I would like to point out that post 9/11, we were going to Afghanistan, where Al Qaeda is, not Iraq. Iraq is Bush’s own personal agenda. And now that he has successfully eliminated Hussein, he is foraging on for Bin Laden. Never support an idiot, because they never lead to greatness, only frustration, and inevitable doom.
This is a meaningless exercise. These people are only looking for publicity. I wish we could relocate these malcontents to Canada…where they belong. Illegal immigrants are more patriotic during this tiime of war than these losers. My gosh, what a pointless waste of time!!
I GUESS THEY DID NOT SEE ALLL THE GOOD THIS PRESIDENT HAS DONE. HE HAS DONE MUCH INN A VERY SHORT TIME. TO TAKE ON WHAT HE DID TOOK BALL, GUTS AND DETERMINATION. THE MIDDLE EAST WILL RETHINK WHAT THEY DO IN THE US FROM RESPONCE TO 911. I KNOW OF NO OTHER PERSON WHPO COULD HAVE DONE BETTER
March 7th 2007 Vermont, USA – A total of 49 Green Mountain State towns have passed VT Town Meeting Resolutions supporting US troops, supporting their immediate redeployment and adequate care, and supporting immediate Impeachment.