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Peace Movement Makes Plans for 5th Anniversary of Iraq Occupation

By David Swanson, CCPJ

The peace movement in the United States and in Virginia is making plans for a week and a half of activities, March 10-19, 2008, to resist the U.S. occupation of Iraq, to oppose new wars, and to demand the impeachment of Vice President Cheney and President Bush. Details of the national plans are posted at http://resistinmarch.org

The Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice (CCPJ) is asking people in Central Virginia to indicate which activities most interest them at http://charlottesvillepeace.org/march2008

Here's a quick overview:

MARCH 10 to 12, 2008 (Monday to Wednesday) in Washington, D.C.: Stop-Loss Congress

This March, while tens of thousands of Americans in Washington, D.C., and all over the United States will be participating in acts of nonviolent civil resistance to protest the ongoing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and involuntarily deployed U.S. soldiers and innocent civilian victims will begin another year of occupation, torture, and murder, U.S. congress members will be on vacation (from the 15th to 30th, technically a "district work period"), ignoring the killing and suffering they have enabled, supported, and financed.

To intensify the irony, Congress has condoned a widespread stop-loss policy in the military which requires soldiers to involuntarily extend their tours and prolong the killing. It is time to Stop-Loss Congress!

On Monday March 10, and Tuesday March 11, we will deliver "official" stop-loss notices to all members of Congress in their Capitol Hill offices. These will notify them that all of their LEAVES, VACATIONS and HOME VISITS HAVE BEEN CANCELLED until further notice. Just as they require that active-duty personnel endure involuntary extensions of their tours of duty, we, the people for whom they work, are notifying them that they, too, will have their tours of duty INVOLUNTARILY EXTENDED until every foreign soldier and mercenary is out of Iraq, and home. When all the troops and contractors get home, then Congress can go home, and no sooner.

Monday evening March 10, there will be a party at George Washington University with political HIP HOP performers SON of NUN and HEAD ROC along with a great DJ from B'more for dancing. Admission is by donation.

Tuesday evening March 11: Premiere of the documentary short "DAD ON FIRE BLUES" by filmmaker Scott Haman at BUSBOYS & POETS in Washington, D.C. Carlos Arredondo will speak. Rick Burnley will recite poetry. There will be flamenco music. Afterward, there will be folk music at Saint Stephens Church.

On Wednesday March 12, we will take nonviolent action on Capitol Hill, to ensure that, while thousands of Iraqis, Afghanis, and foreign invaders die and are injured for life, the members of Congress and their staffs do not go home but remain to DO THEIR DUTY, and immediately end the funding of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. No members of Congress goes home until THE TROOPS COME HOME.

Also on Wednesday March 12 nonviolent activists in DC will engage in an action called "Ghosts of War." To learn more (and see the full list of participating groups), get involved at http://resistinmarch.org

Also on Wednesday March 12 for those not in DC: A congressional call-in day is being organized around the theme of "No to War, No to Africom." Africom is the US military's proposed new Africa Command center.

To participate in planning these events, to learn meeting times and places, to help distribute flyers and organize travel, training, and other preparation, join this listserve: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/12march2008

CCPJ plans to organize carpools, vans, or buses to go to DC for the 10th to 12th or just the 12th. There will be plenty of roles on the 12th for those who do not want to risk arrest and for those who do. Please help CCPJ gauge interest in going at http://charlottesvillepeace.org/march2008

MARCH 13-16, 2008 (Thursday-Sunday) in Silver Spring, Maryland: Winter Soldier

Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW)'s Winter Soldier Testimony is a truth-telling event inspired by an event of the same name held by Vietnam War veterans during that conflict. Winter Soldier will be held at the National Labor College, 10000 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20903. Audio and video of panels will be available live online, and if possible over cable TV and on Pacifica radio. See http://www.ivaw.org/wintersoldier

There is no role for citizens who are not members of IVAW to play at the Winter Soldier event in Maryland. At IVAW's request, the peace movement is not doing anything in DC on March 13th to 16th.

MARCH 13-16, 2008 (Thursday-Sunday) Antiwar Film Festival in Charlottesville, Virginia

CCPJ is planning a series of four films and discussions, in at least some cases including the filmmakers or stars. Please help CCPJ gauge interest in this and express your preferences at http://charlottesvillepeace.org/march2008

MARCH 17 and 18, 2008 (Monday and Tuesday) in Washington, D.C.: Training, Lobbying, Restoring the Constitution

On these days there will be training sessions in nonviolence in Washington, D.C., in preparation for March 19, and on the 18th in Washington will be "Take Back the Constitution Day."

March 18th, Tuesday: CODEPINK Action Day to Take Back the Constitution

Join us for a spirited day in the Halls of Power in Washington, D.C., from Congress to the Justice Department to the Parties' Headquarters to the White House, and an evening event with Constitutional scholars and writers. This is a call for impeachment, an end to the occupation, an end to torture.

9 am Meet Up: Meet at the CODEPINK House (712 5th Street NE, between G and H) for a day-long Restore the Constitution Tour/March that will be marked with actions at key points throughout Capitol Hill. The schedule is as follows...

10- 10:30 am Press Conference: Newseum Museum (555 Pennsylvania Ave, NW at 6th St.), a brand-new interactive media museum that has the 1st Amendment etched into the front of the building's stone structure!

10:30-11 am Restore the Constitution with Liz Holtzman: National Archives (700 Pennsylvania Avenue and Constitution, NW between 7th and 9th)

11-11:30 am Action at the Justice Department: Clean up your act! We will create a laundry line of all the investigations, airing out the Administration's dirty laundry and more!

11:30-12 noon: Don't Buy Bush's War Action with Ben Cohen: IRS building (Constitution between 10th and 12th). We'll unfurl our "Don't Buy Bush's War" banners and declare our resistance to being taxed for an unjust, illegal war.

Noon-12:30 pm MOST WANTED Action: FBI at the J Edgar Hoover building (Pennsylvania between 9th and 10th). We will target CODEPINK's MOST WANTED Terrorists in DC: Bush, Cheney and others. This action will continue on to the Reflecting Pool.

Special Cleansing at the Reflecting Pool with Visionary Activist Caroline Casey: We will make a brew from all the stops in our "Peace and Justice Cauldron".

12:30-2 pm March on Congress & lunch: Location TBA

2-5 pm Tour the Halls of Shame: We will be calling for Impeachment in Congress, marchers to visit their Members of Congress' offices on Senate and House side.

8:00 pm Evening event with Constitutional scholars and writers: Location TBA
Speakers will include: Bill Moyers, Larry Sabato, Liz Holtzman, Melanie Sloan, Jamie Raskin, John Nichols, Michael Ratner and others!

MARCH 19, 2008 (Wednesday) Everywhere and in Washington, D.C.: Nonviolent Resistance

Nonviolent civil resistance and/or disobedience is being planned in all 435 congressional districts and in the nation's capital on the fifth anniversary of the occupation of Iraq

Locations in each congressional district, to be determined locally, can include congressional offices (Congress Members and Senators will be in their districts on this day), federal buildings, military recruiters, weapons makers, war profiteers, or corporate media outlets. In Washington, with Congress out of town, the focus will be on war profiteers in the military industrial disaster-capitalism complex. Where possible, events will include a place for people not willing to risk arrest. Evening town hall forums can also include a larger audience.

CCPJ is planning a nonviolent action in Charlottesville, and is also planning to organize carpools, vans, or buses to go to DC for the 17th to 19th or just the 18th or 19th. There will be plenty of roles on the 19th for those who do not want to risk arrest and for those who do. Please help CCPJ gauge interest in going at http://charlottesvillepeace.org/march2008

Posted on 2/11/08 by

Impeach Dick Cheney, If You Will

http://charlottesvillepeace.org/node/1240
Virginians created and may end the right of impeachment
By David Swanson, Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star

CHARLOTTESVILLE-- A recent national poll on impeachment, conducted by the American Research Group last November, found that 52 percent of Americans believed Vice President Dick Cheney had committed impeachable offenses.

The numbers for President George W. Bush were only slightly lower.

The governor of Virginia has spoken up for impeachment, saying "Guilt wherever found ought to be punished."

Sadly, that was Gov. Edmund Randolph in 1787, arguing for making impeachment central to the system of checks and balances in the new U.S. Constitution. Our current governor has not said a word about impeaching our current president.

Two other Virginians, George Mason and James Madison, worked out the language for what would constitute an impeachable offense: "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

"No point is of more importance," Mason said of the Constitution, "than that the right of impeachment should be continued."

Jefferson's fear was of "elected despotism." Leaving an impeachable president in place for months or years because eventually there would be another election (the plan openly advocated by some members of Congress today) would have seemed to Jefferson to mean the end of the republic.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has published a book on Bush and Cheney's alleged impeachable offenses, but refuses to hold impeachment hearings.

The Richmond City Democratic Committee, the Virginia Antiwar Network, and activist groups all over the state have been holding rallies for impeachment for years now. Planes have flown impeachment banners back and forth over Virginia Beach. Larry Wilkerson, a William & Mary professor and former chief of staff to Colin Powell, has spoken up for impeachment at events in Virginia. Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul spoke in support of impeaching Bush up until he became a candidate, and many of his supporters believe he would support impeachment if Democrats led the way.

Paul's campaign advisor and former Justice Department official under President Reagan, Bruce Fein, has been a leading advocate for impeachment. Dennis Kucinich, at the time a Democratic presidential candidate, packed a large hall in Charlottesville in December to speak on the need for impeachment. And candidates for Congress across the commonwealth this year are using the failure of the Congress to impeach as a talking point in their campaigns, including Andrea Miller in the 4th District, Sam Rasoul (6th), and Matthew Famiglietti and Ron Fisher (both in the 8th).

The movement to impeach Cheney and Bush has almost no support from Virginians now in Congress. Since Rep. Kucinich, D-Ohio, introduced a resolution to impeach Cheney in April 2007, 24 members of Congress have signed on, only one from Virginia: Jim Moran, D-8th.

Since Judiciary Committee member Robert Wexler, D-Fla., drafted a letter to Conyers last month urging him to begin impeachment hearings; 14 members of Congress have signed on, with only Moran from Virginia. Of the 35 members of Congress either co-sponsoring articles of impeachment or expressing support for impeachment hearings, Moran is the only one from Virginia.

Within the House Judiciary Committee, nine members led by Wexler are urging the initiation of hearings on the possible impeachment of Cheney. Among the alleged offenses mentioned are: misleading the public and Congress about Iraq and Iran, outing a CIA agent, torture, spying programs that violate the Fourth Amendment, refusing to comply with subpoenas, and promoting the use of signing statements to unconstitutionally claim the right to violate laws.

Virginia's four members of the Judiciary Committee, including two Democrats, all oppose impeachment hearings. The two Democrats, Bobby Scott (3rd) and Rick Boucher (9th), support non-impeachment hearings into some of the same abuses.

One drawback to that approach is that witnesses now routinely refuse to comply with subpoenas. Another is that several of these hearings have been conducted over the past 12 months, with no consequences. If Scott, Boucher, and one more were to join their nine colleagues, there would then be a majority of Democrats on the committee in favor of impeachment hearings.

Hours before delivering his State of the Union address, the president published a "signing statement" announcing his right to violate measures in the new Defense Authorization Act, including: the establishment of a commission to investigate U.S. contractor fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, the expansion of whistle-blower protections, a requirement that U.S. intelligence agencies respond to congressional requests for documents, a ban on funding permanent bases in Iraq, and a ban on funding any actions that exercise U.S. control over Iraq's oil money.

Sen. Jim Webb responded by defending the merits of a fraud investigation. No elected officials from Virginia reacted as our Founding Fathers would have, or even as our schoolchildren would have. They are still taught that Congress makes laws, which the president can sign and enforce, or veto, but not rewrite.

Is it too late for impeachment? The movements to impeach Truman and Hoover came later than the current one and served to restore our Constitution even without achieving impeachment. If we do not use the impeachment process this year, it may be too late to preserve the system of government Virginians gave to the world.

David Swanson is a writer and creator of impeachcheney.org.

Copyright 2008 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company.

Posted on 2/11/08 by

Peace Movement: Bush's Latest Signing Statement Is Grounds for Impeachment

http://www.charlottesvillepeace.org/node/1232
United for Peace and Justice
www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
P.O. Box 607, Times Square Station; New York, NY 10108

New York, NY -- United for Peace and Justice, the country's largest anti-war coalition with over 1400 member groups, condemns President Bush's continued arrogant and unconstitutional use of signing statements.

On Monday, Jan. 25, 2008, President Bush released a signing statement claiming the right to violate four sections of H.R. 4986, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, which he had just signed into law. These four sections: 841, 846, 1079, and 1222, Bush announced, would be "construed" in a manner "consistent with the constitutional authority of the President."

Among the measures Bush's latest signing statement declares the right to violate are: the establishment of a commission to investigate U.S. contractor fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, the expansion of whistleblower protections, a requirement that U.S. intelligence agencies respond to congressional requests for documents, a ban on funding permanent bases in Iraq, and a ban on funding any actions that exercise U.S. control over Iraq's oil money.

Over the past seven years, the same language used by Bush on Monday, usually attributed to Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff David Addington, has been the precursor to numerous violations of law by his administration, including sections of law banning the use of torture and banning the use of funds to construct permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. The president has signed laws blocking funding for the construction of permanent bases in Iraq six times, but never stopped the construction.

In January 2007, the House Judiciary Committee held hearings on Bush's use of signing statements at which Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Elwood claimed that the president is free to violate any laws until the Supreme Court rules otherwise. Following this hearing, the Government Accountability Office studied a small sample of Bush's signing statements and found that in a significant percentage of cases his administration was, in fact, violating the sections of law he had claimed the right to "interpret."

The U.S. Constitution requires that the president "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Article I, Section 7, says that:

"every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a law."

"The rule of law established by the Constitution has been undermined in an almost unnoticed revolution," said Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator of United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). "The Constitution allows the president to veto bills or sign and enforce them, not to rewrite them or to disobey them. The same document that gives the Congress the power to make every law, gives it the sole power to raise and spend money, and the sole power to declare war. The people's representatives in Congress are losing all of these powers through their failure to act on the remedy provided for precisely this situation: impeachment."

According to the U.S. State Department, 65% of Iraqis favor a withdrawal of U.S. troops. In fact, neither the Iraqi people nor the people of this country have ever supported a permanent U.S. presence in Iraq, and the U.S. Congress has never approved one.

"The sooner all the troops and military contractors are home," said Cagan, "the sooner rebuilding can begin for the Iraqi nation and for our democracy."

UFPJ is urging its members to speak with the media about this matter and to phone the House Judiciary Committee at 202-225-3951 to request that it begin impeachment hearings.

President Bush's latest signing statement:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/01/20080128-10.html

Government Accountability Office Report:
http://www.gao.gov/decisions/appro/308603.pdf

Database of Bush Signing Statements:
http://acslaw.org/node/5309

Report on January House Judiciary Committee Hearings:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/signing

State Department Iraq Poll:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR200609...

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UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
To subscribe, visit www.unitedforpeace.org/email

Posted on 2/11/08 by