Takoma Park City Council Strongly Backs Bid to Impeach Bush, Cheney
Over the years, Takoma Park has declared itself a nuclear-free zone, established an immigrant sanctuary law and written a 5,000-word manual for its trash and award-winning recycling programs.
Last night, its City Council voted to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
“Takoma Park has passed many resolutions over the years, and I’ve been proud of most of them,” council member Reuben Snipper told a crowd of about 100. “I personally am as appalled as many of you are at the actions of Bush and Cheney.”
The council approved the resolution 5 to 0, with two members absent.
Earlier, during a public comment period, all 19 people who spoke on the measure expressed their support.
“I come before the council because America is under threat,” said Jay Levy, a 32-year resident and a retired Montgomery County schoolteacher. He said Bush and Cheney are “shredding” the U.S. Constitution.
“This is the finest thing you’ll ever do,” resident Thomas Nephew told the council. After he finished, he walked to the side of the room, and his 9-year-old daughter ran up and hugged him.
Before the vote, council member Terry Seamens added two amendments, including one aimed at other Maryland politicians. It calls for the city of Takoma Park to write letters to the Montgomery County Council, the county executive, the Maryland legislature and the governor asking them to consider adopting similar resolutions.
At times during the meeting, the crowd cheered. Along a wall, someone held an American flag. Another had a banner that said simply “ENOUGH.”
Wearing an impeachment T-shirt, Takoma Park resident Lisa Moscatiello stepped to the microphone and talked about an intrusive government that too many people seem to fear.
“The message that we’ve been getting from our president and our government is, ‘We are watching you,’ ” she said, adding that she and others are trying to turn the tables. “We are saying, ‘ We are watching you.’ ”
It was Moscatiello, 41, who helped spearhead the resolution. Beginning in March, the singer and guitarist, along with a few others, met regularly at the Savory Cafe, a Takoma Park coffeehouse, to discuss ways to impeach the president and vice president.
She helped organize a meeting with state Sen. Jamie B. Raskin, a professor at American University who represents Montgomery County. The Democratic lawmaker told the group of about 40 people not to worry about convincing Congress, but instead to move large groups of people and Congress would follow, Moscatiello said.
Moscatiello, who has lived in Takoma Park since 1988, collected petition signatures outside the Takoma Metro station and at the town’s farmers market, and she went door-to-door.
As she talked to people, one thing frustrated her: While some said they strongly disapproved of Bush’s actions, they questioned Moscatiello’s strategy. These people wanted to avoid doing anything that Republicans could take advantage of in 2008.
“This is not very politically sophisticated,” a gray-haired man told her at the farmers market.
In Vermont, Moscatiello said to herself, people probably have an easier time making decisions based simply on what they think is right or wrong.
For all of Takoma Park’s liberal bona fides, the city is somewhat late to the locally based impeachment-drive movement. As of yesterday, 81 towns, cities or counties had passed an impeachment resolution, according to the Web site impeachpac.org.
It’s a list heavily represented by locales in Vermont. Also on the list: San Francisco, Detroit and Berkeley, Calif. Asked to look through the list, Moscatiello saw real progress.
There are entries “not among the usual suspects,” she noted. “Chapel Hill [N.C.]. It’s in the South. Whatley, Massachusetts, that’s a rural town in the middle of Massachusetts, far from Cambridge. Telluride, Colorado, a lot of Republicans vacation there.”
The Takoma Park resolution isn’t timid. A small portion of it:
“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 . . .
“Our senators and representatives in the United States Congress be, and they are hereby, requested to cause to be instituted in the Congress for the investigation . . . that they may be impeached and removed from office.”
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
Raskin gave great advice. Congress, in bed with corporate interests, aren’t motivated until they are threatened with punishment outside of the generally worthless emails or phone calls from the mass of so-called constituency. It’s a compromise, Van Hollen - D,MD 8 - is much better then a pure fascist bastard and many voters are thankful for that alone, but expectations are small.
Yes, I second the comment about worthless e-mails.
AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov is supposedly our contact with Speaker Pelosi, however, my e-mail tracking shows that e-mails to this site are never even opened.
Face it…Congress holds us ordinary citizens (neither rich, nor corporate, nor part of an influential special interest) in contempt. I heard it in the voices even of their staff people when I called about impeachment of Bush and Cheney yesterday. We are in enormous trouble in this country. The government has gotten away from the people and does the business only of the powerful. They laugh at us and our concerns.
GREAT! If we are recognized as TROUBLE then let’s give them more than they can handle.
Congress knows they have given away so much power to the Executive that they realize [OR SHOULD] they HAVE NO EFFECT against the current occupant’s signing statements. Whatever GWB INC. wants, he creates it through his own silent [under reported] Executive Orders or even less reported signing statements. Congress essentially has NO POWER!
THE ONLY thing our ‘representatives’ can effectively do is subpoena, hold in contempt, impeach, convict and hope the current occupant does not create or ‘allow’ another 9/11 to change the apathy in the citizens of this ‘great nation’ into fear once AGAIN.
They are part of the previledge class and are not willing to take risks which could jepordize this life style. Its apitty put with the law providing for the ability of groups to establish corporate structures it tends to centralize power and hench the current power structure. If we only had sole proprietary and partnerships and limit the num,ber of persons able to partake in the assets of business it would prevent so much centralization, other then gov.!!!!
They are not reading our mail! Why am I not surprised.
Think we could get a few hundred thousand Post-Cards, mailed? They don’t get held up going thru radiation, like letters. There’s a physical object in their hands. Unlike a phone call, or an e-mail!
Get a simple statement, to head all of them, then allow room for individual comment. Example: Enough is Enough, Impeach Cheney/Bush/Gonzales, The ONLY accountablity that Counts!
or
Executive Orders & Signing Statements have NO Legal Standing, unless Ratified by Congress! Make it LAW!
or
We Want our Constitution Back! NOW
Just an idea, it would have to be done in mass to be effective.
AndieG has a great idea, something concrete instead of mere wringing of hands.
If you or anyone out there will start this up and continue drawing in post cards, I will participate. I am too old (78) and beat-up to do more than my share of sending e-mails and talking the idea up, but we need a central address to which we can direct the post-cards and lots of people to contact and their contacts, and their contacts, until we can get 3 or 4 million of these post-cards sent to our Congressmen. Give them no quarter. They either begin the process or they get our vote no more - ever.
What do you think, AndieG?
Anyone want to volunteer?