Should the Trumansburg Village Board of Trustees Pass a Pro-Impeachment Resolution? (Part 2)
Yes, definitely, passing an impeachment resolution in Trumansburg, would be the right thing to do. Here’s what my question was:
“Thomas Jefferson wrote rules for parliamentary procedure known as Jefferson’s Manual and they have been used by the US House of Representatives since 1837. Jefferson’s Manual stipulates that a state legislature may initiate impeachment procedures against federal office holders. State Legislatures in CA,IL,NM.VT,WA AND NJ are trying to pass these resolutions.
Hundreds of villages, and towns, and cities have passed similar resolutions, which encourage the state legislatures to act. There seems to be a reluctance at the local level to deal with National Issues, but if Trumansburg were to pass such a resolution, we could be proud to be a part of a growing movement to impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney.
Local issues are important, and I appreciate your willingness to serve our community, but to me there is no more important issue, than doing everything we can to end the criminal behavior of the Bush Crime Family. If elected, would you be willing to debate this issue at meetings of the village board, and how would you vote?”
Rordan Hart and Chris Thomas got it wrong. David Filberto said that he would be willing to accept a petition and I believe he would encourage his fellow board members to consider it and vote on it. I’m going to get to work on the petition and the resolution is ready.
Chris Thomas objected, if I’m remembering correctly, because he felt that impeachment would fail, and therefore not be a wise use of time. I’m not in favor of wasting time, and I realize that this would take time away from other important issues. There is no more important issue than this, however, and it has a huge impact right here on a local level. Our tax dollars are being sent to Iraq to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, many of them children. Army recruiting officers are coming to Trumansburg High School and convincing some of our young people to go to Iraq to partake in the massacre and risk losing their lives or face coming back disabled. Money that is being wasted in Iraq, could be spent instead, to hire more teachers at our Trumansburg schools, or give college scholarships to our kids, or cover our uninsured residents with health insurance. As long as the Bush Crime Family remains in power, the occupation of Iraq will not end, and another war is likely to start soon against Iran. Impeachment is the only remedy. A successful impeachment starts at the grassroots. These resolutions from towns and villages are an important part of the process. Even if the village board votes against it, it is not wasted time. It brings the issue to the forefront, and gets people thinking about it, and calling our congress-critters.
There are many investigations ongoing in congress right now. More and more crimes are coming to light. This, combined with a growing grassroots movement that we can be a part of, will result in impeachment hearings. It will become obvious to Bush and Cheney that they have no chance, and they will resign just as Nixon did. I don’t think it will take as long as some people say.
At the Trumansburg Village Board level, it need not take a lot of time either. They don’t have to write the resolution. I will present them with a resolution and a petition and all they need to do is give Jonathan, and Howard, and myself and whoever else wants to come, 15 minutes to argue our case. Then vote. How hard is that?
Village of Trumansburg
Resolution to Impeach President George W. Bush
and Vice President Richard B. Cheney
WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney conspired with others to defraud the United States of America by intentionally misleading Congress and the public regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Section 371; and
WHEREAS, George W. Bush has admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance of American civilians without seeking warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, duly constituted by Congress in 1978, in violation of Title 50 United States Code, Section 1805; and
WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney conspired to commit the torture of prisoners in violation of the “Federal Torture Act” Title 18 United States Code, Section 113C, the UN Torture Convention and the Geneva Convention, which under Article VI of the Constitution are part of the “supreme Law of the Land”; and
WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney acted to strip American citizens of their constitutional rights by ordering indefinite detention without access to legal counsel, without charge and without the opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the President of a U.S. citizen as an “enemy combatant”, all in subversion of law; and
WHEREAS, In all of this George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have acted in a manner contrary to their trust as President and Vice President, subversive of constitutional government to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of Trumansburg and of the United States of America; and
WHEREAS, Petitions from the country at large may be presented by the Speaker of the House according to Clause 3 of House Rule XII;
Be it resolved that George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, warrant impeachment and trial, and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States;
Be it resolved further by the Village of Trumansburg , That our senators and representatives in the United States Congress be, and they are hereby, requested to cause to be instituted in the Congress of the United States proper proceedings for the investigation of the activities of the George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, to the end that they may be impeached and removed from such office.
Be it resolved further, That the Clerk of the Village of Trumansburg be, and is hereby, instructed to certify to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, under the seal of the Village of Trumansburg, a copy of this resolution and its adoption by the Village of Trumansburg, as a petition, and request that this petition be delivered to the Office of the Clerk and entered in the United States Congressional Journal. The copies shall be marked with the word “Petition” at the top of the document and contain the original authorizing signature of the Village Clerk.
Be it resolved further, that a copy of this resolution be sent to the our New York State Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, and that we hereby request that she initiate a similar resolution in the New York State Assembly.
The Bush Crime Family is out of control. They are ruining our country. Please spend some time at afterdowningstreet.org/ if you have any doubt. If we continue to do nothing about it, we are complicit in their crimes. We The People, are the only force capable of saving this country. If we limit ourselves to conventional channels such as writing to our congressional representatives, that may not be enough, because congress has become almost completely subservient to the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about. Our local village board is not subservient. We can begin a grassroots movement here, that might help end the nightmare.
Allen: This is brief and well put; you must have spent much time to get to this level of focus upon the topic at hand. And as the sayings go:
If not now, when?
If not us, who?
David Kauber, Aurora,
village of takeover by
Moneybags Rowland.
[...] Last week, the idea of a local resolution in support of the impeachment of President George W. Bush was introduced at a meeting at which village residents listened to three candidates who are running for election to the Trumansburg Board of Trustees. A few days later, Allen Carstensen issued a draft resolution in favor of impeachment on a Trumansburg blog. [...]
To correct Allen slightly, what I said was that impeachment was no big feat because we have the votes in the House to accomplish that, but that we do not have the votes in the Senate to remove Bush from office, and, therefore, it would be a distraction in focus and resources to turn to impeachment when we can’t remove Bush from office and when we should be spending our time and energy ending the war in Iraq.
Chris,
I think it’s a mistake to presume that ending the Iraq War and impeaching President Bush are mutually exclusive.
Also, as Richard Nixon’s example shows, it’s not safe to assume that an actual impeachment is necessary to remove a President. If the Congress back then had done what the current has done, however, and said that impeachment is “off the table”, I doubt Nixon would have resigned.
Congress needs to press the Bush Administration harder, and a movement to push impeachment from the local level can help to give them the resolve necessary to do so. That effort can be part of the larger campaign to end the war in Iraq and end the many other Bush White House abuses of power.
Would you, Chris, at least be willing to listen to a resolution for impeachment, or to discuss the matter further with village residents? I think that it would make a fascinating Back to Democracy meeting, or even just a sort of late afternoon salon at Gimme Coffee.
Chris said – “it would be a distraction in focus and resources to turn to impeachment when we can’t remove Bush from office and when we should be spending our time and energy ending the war in Iraq.”
The war will not end while Bush is in office. If there is any hope of ending this war before January 09, it hinges on impeachment of Bush and Cheney. We don’t have the votes in the Senate now, but that will change as more and more people demand it, and more and more crimes are revealed by the many investigations now ongoing in Congress.
My belief, based on years of watching politics, is that a Bush impeachment will not remove him from office and it will force more moderate republicans to come to the defense of the indefensible. The fact is the country shouldn’t even be at this point in history now. Democrats would have taken the White House in the last presidential election if at the inception of the invasion of Iraq they had done something like–oh, I don’t know–vote against the war. But they didn’t. Not a single Senator as I recall, and not more than one or two voted against the funding of it. Why? Because they didn’t want to take the chance of political suicide had the war gone quickly and cleanly (something almost unheard of in any battle, one-sided or not). What we needed, what we as U.S. citizens deserved 5 years ago were politicians with the courage of their current convictions… Is that too much to ask? Is it too much to expect that the right decision can be made before the big mistake or will we always be trying to clean up the aftermath.
But the aftermath is where we are. I am against the war first and foremost, and have been since the beginning. We never should have stepped foot in Iraq. As for what to do now–it’s a quandry, certainly.
This said, I sit here this morning a newly elected trustee for the Village and that means, as I stated during my campaign, that I am a conduit for resident interest. If there is enough resident interest to be representative of the Village (as judged during a public meeting which I would be happy to attend and to support) then I would absolutely support a resolution for the Village of Trumansburg which calls for the impeachment of Bush. I assure you no one would be happier than I if he were removed from office.
Let the proceedings begin!
Chris, just for the record, it is absolutely untrue that not a single Senator voted against the war. Many Democratic senators did. Take Russ Feingold, for example, or Robert Byrd. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Chuck Schumer did, though. That’s why it’s especially important that we New Yorkers speak out strongly against the war.
I’m glad to see that you recognize that your beliefs about what will and won’t happen are less important than what the residents of Trumansburg want to happen. I look forward to seeing you at work on the Village Board of Trustees.
I stand corrected, Oct. 11, 2002–77 for-23 against– There is another key vote that was unanimous, or nearly so regarding the war that I am remembering but I will have to research it further…
Thanks, Jonathan. Yes, my opinions are just that, my opinions, but they do not guide my judgment on matters concerning the Village; nor should they.
[...] Last week, the idea of a local resolution in support of the impeachment of President George W. Bush was introduced at a meeting at which village residents listened to three candidates who are running for election to the Trumansburg Board of Trustees. A few days later, Allen Carstensen issued a draft resolution in favor of impeachment on a Trumansburg blog. [...]
You have to be a very sick and egotistical little village to think your attempt at that phony resolution could mean anything but a black eye to your village. Now that I have read what you fools are trying, I think of Trumansburg as real low level ignorant bunch of farmhands. Good work losers. Any Google search will show why people and businesses will stay away from your little hippy commune.
Grow up! 3,000 Americans at their place of business were killed on 9/11 and the ONLY person to attempt to stop it from happening again is George Bush. I do not care if an al qeada terrorist is forced to listen to AC/DC with the lights on all day. I do care that many people I knew were murdered and your little village is offering aid and support to those that killed my friends.
I’m confused, Hector. How can we in Trumansburg be both an ignorant bunch of farmhands and a hippy commune?
Wrong on both counts.
Surely, you did hear about the report a couple days ago showing that terrorism has increased under George W. Bush’s war on terror? The argument that opposing Bush is supporting terrorism just doesn’t hold water any more.