From the Capital Press Bureau:   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.

Ok folks: time for the Democrats to become “rubber stamps” in the name of law & order and to uphold their constitutional oath and function.  If the Republican Congress could do it for kleptocracy, the Democrats can do it for the national interest.

The Libby trial was the functional equivalent of an impeachment. 

It outlined the espionage and treason condoned and conspired to by Mister Bush and Mister Cheney. It is therefore time for the House to “rubber stamp” the trial record and send articles of impeachment to the Senate.  The House of Representatives could effectively conclude impeachment proceedings in less time than a typical 6 hour GOP House controlled work week.

It is no longer useful for Congress to bother with discussion of Libby’s deceitful felonies.  Time to call for resignations, impeachments, demand necessary criminal trials (perhaps some deportations/extraditions) and conduct real EXPOSURE HEARINGS (no need for much Congressional investigation – kinda’ missed the boat on that one) into the administration’s espionage, which the media still refers to dismissively as a mere “leak.”

After the full General Assembly takes up the impeachment measure, I hope it does not need to re-send the uncontroverted evidence of espionage and treason to the House as well. 

Rubber stamping is one thing, spoon feeding the distinguished constitutional servants is another.

slainte,
cl

WCAX is reporting that voters in 32 cities and towns passed resolutions calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, and 9 towns voted to withdraw from Iraq. While we didn’t get enough signatures to get on the ballot in Montpelier, maybe this will get Leahy, Sanders, and Welch to listen to what their constituents are saying.

crossposted on Evolving Peace (http://evolvingworld…)

Birds of a feather flock togther: I hope that now Scooter Libby has been tried and convicted in the Valerie Plame-CIA leak case we can visualize the convictions of Vice-President Dick Cheney, Presidential Chief of Staff Karl Rove and President George Bush. While one man (and more) has willfully aspired to defraud the people of the United States by discrediting a critic of the administration’s faulty evidence to invoke war, the nation of Iraq burns in turmoil from the occupation by a foreign power, and thousands of American soldiers have died.

To the critics of this judgment, this is more evidence to on how the Presidential administration purposely manipulated evidence to wage war on Iraq. While, there is so much debate about the recent troop surge in Iraq very little attention has been given to the initial claims and justifications for the war. The administration claimed that “Saddam Hussein” was attempting to purchase aluminum tubes and yellow cake uranium from Niger, which is no known to be a lie.

Ambassador Joseph Wilson (Valerie Plame’s husband) fully disputed that claim and the administration was on a full attack mission like a pack of raging pit bulls. No one could dare and stop them. So while they pursued their full attentions to war, anyone who crossed their paths was deemed an enemy. Presidential logic, “that you are either with us or against” is demonstrated by the administrations full scale policy of discrediting its opponents. I suppose that was the same rational that allowed the spying on innocent Americans, and keeping close watches on peace groups such as the Quakers in Pennsylvania.

While many Americans repeatedly saw fabricated evidence that supported the administrations claims for war, a movement of individuals was silenced from debate and discredited by proponents of war. The purposeful and willful policy to discredit war’s critics is a dangerous precedent that shall never be allowed to take place again. Senator Leahy, Senator Sanders and Congressman Welch all need to step it up a notch and press harder on the Presidential Administration.

Yes, all three have been a strong force countering the Presidents resolve, however there needs to be more. Failure to act upon this administration’s crimes is a dereliction of duty by failing to protect the Constitution. As for the Constitution states:

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Around the world, America claims to be spreading democracy, but unfortunately there has been a doctrine propagated by this Presidential administration that places itself higher than the laws they have been sworn to protect. The duty of our members in Congress is to call for the impeachment of the President and Vice-President, anything else is not democracy.

Peace
Robb Kidd

“That said, if we allow ourselves to be intimidated and silenced by the liars, our democracy will not survive. We have to continue to confront them.” Joseph Wilson, Ambassador

( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

The big blogger summit happened Saturday night at the Euro Cafe on Main Street in Burlington. It was great to meet many of the writers, some of them colleagues here at GMD, whom I had only encountered electronically. Conversation ranged pretty widely, from the expected: Clinton, Obama, and the 2008 Democratic ticket; to the mundane: TV shows, vasectomies, and how to resolve husband-wife disagreements; to the mind-numbingly technical: peer-to-peer bit torrent technology, for instance.

Some of Vermont’s alt-media stars were there: Philip Baruth, Peter Freyne, Cathy Resmer, along with a gaggle of lesser-known but committed bloggers.

Philip writes a better story about what happened than I could, but I’ll share some of the pictures I took.

This just in: Scooter Libby has been convicted of four of the five counts against him. Two counts of perjury, one count of lying to a federal officer, and one count of obstruction of justice for lying to the grand jury.

UPDATE:  A jury speaking to the press says that frequently during their deliberations the jury members were asking each other, “What are we doing to this guy? Where’s Rove?” He specifically says that they thought Libby was the fall guy.

I’ve been following this story with increasing interest since Josh started running it a few weeks ago. Today is one of the chances for this story to come to a head, with the purged U.S. Attorneys testifying at the Senate Judiciary Committee. You can watch it streaming here: http://www.cspan.org…

One thing that I was struck by, based on what I’ve seen so far, is that Spector seems to be trying to limit the import of the testimony, constantly trying to pin the witnesses down to say that they don’t know for a fact that they were fired for political reasons. Since he was supposedly miffed at the insertion of language that allows the president to appoint U.S. Attorneys without Senate confirmation, you might think he would be a little better on this issue.

Imagine my deep disappointment yesterday morning when, as I do every morning during my 40 minute commute, I tuned into WTWK 1070 AM to listen to the latest progressive news on the Young Turks. And instead of Cenk, Ben and that vacuous what’s her name, I find that the entire Air America schedule had been replaced by the radio version of the We channel.

Yes, it’s true. Air America has been replaced with Eve 1070: Talk Radio Evolved. So, instead of the Young Turks, I got the Radio Ritas. And on my way home, there’s Women Aloud instead of my girl Randi Rhodes — a loud woman to be sure, but still not the same thing.

Not that there’s anything wrong with women’s programming. And it’s probably a good thing that the old 1070 was put out of its misery. Not only was virtually every transition botched, but I started coming up with my own lyrics for the extended pop song instrumentals that took the place of what should have been local advertising.

But, I’m a political junkie, dammit! And I need my fix! For there to be an Air America station in Brattleboro, and not in Burlington, is wrong man. Just plain wrong.

I don’t believe there’s not a market for progressive radio programming in northern Vermont. It just needs to have a good business strategy. Anybody want to line up some investors? I’ll pitch in 5 bucks as some seed capital. Who else is with me?

Today’s Town Meeting Day, so go to Exit Voices and join in the discussion.

And from Candleblog‘s Bill Simmon, here’s what it’s all about…

Welcome to Exit Voices! Town Meeting Day is here! Please use the comments section of this post to discuss what’s happening in your town. Are you attending a town meeting? Are you going to the polls to vote? What are the issues that concern you?

If you are new to Exit Voices, be sure to look around and read some of our guest posts and watch some video posts. Let us know what you think in the comments sections. We will be continuing to put up new content through Wednesday, so keep checking in.

This post will remain at the top of the page, even as new content is added, so make sure you look below this post for new additions.

Now go get your democracy on!

The word from a friend in Rochester, VT:

Rochester’s town meeting voted 57-53 in favor of impeachment.  A motion to pass over the article had been made and rejected, followed by short discussion and then the vote.

Also, Westminster passed it, 107-29.
It was tabled in Stamford, and wasn’t brought up for a vote in Rupert. More to follow…