Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, On Foot
To many, it seemed quixotic, in a season where so much attention is showered on prospective presidents-to-be, to raise flags about a lame duck.
But John Nirenberg, who has called for hearings into the conduct of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, with the possibility of impeachment, says rescuing America’s standing in the world demands it.
The 60-year-old professor from Brattleboro, Vt. argues that, with a year left in Mr. Bush’s term, there is still time to investigate his conduct of the Iraq war, as well as other issues which have brought criticism against his administration - the outing of a CIA agent, the surveillance of Americans without warrants, and the abuse of detainees.
He said he shudders with anger and fear in response to actions and statements, such as a willingness to redefine what is torture and when it can be used, made by Mr. Bush and Cheney: “Anger because we have stooped so low, fear because all of what we have cherished as a nation - indeed, all of the great things about the United States that we have shown the world - are being destroyed by the current administration.”
With the White House refusing to turn over documents or testimony in response to Congressional subpoenas, the only weapon in the arsenal of lawmakers seeking accountability, critics say, is impeachment. Yet even before the Democrats officially took back control of Congress and she was elevated to House Speaker in January 2007, Rep. Nancy Pelosi announced that impeachment was “off the table.”
And so Nirenberg, an Air Force veteran who built a career as a social studies teacher, college professor and organizational consultant, and is a former dean of the School for International Training, decided to take action.
Although he did not consider himself an activist, Nirenberg decided to test his mettle in a way to attract attention to his cause: walking the 480 miles from Boston to Washington, D.C. His goal was to meet with Pelosi and hand-deliver petitions and letters from citizens pleading for the Speaker put impeachment back on the table, if only to shed light on the administration’s behavior.
“I can’t sit back any longer satisfied with my outrage,” he wrote on his Web site, Marchinmyname.org. “It isn’t enough.”
Putting Rubber (Soles) To The Road
Nirenberg set out on foot on December 2, from Faneuil Hall in Boston, walking primarily along Route 1. Averaging 12 miles a day, he carried his posters reading “Save the Constituion: Impeach Bush/Cheney” through good weather and bad, being joined along the way by supporters, and often stopped to give talks.
Nirenberg blogged about his experience on the Web site, telling of the hazards of walking along a highly-traveled route - ideal for visibility but less so for comfort and personal safety. And he writes of the reactions from and connections made with people along the way, such as the father and son who approached him in Princeton, and addressed him by name. It turned out the man’s brother in Japan had read of Nirenberg’s trip, and the father sought him out.
What got the man interested in impeachment, Nirenberg asked?
He told Nirenberg, “There has just been too much blood spilled. Too much. Over 600,000 people have died in Iraq since we’ve been there.”
In cities and at universities along his route, he attended rallies and vigils organized by anti-war groups, students and other activists.
Such demonstrations also attracted counter-demonstrators, who displayed signs proclaiming “Protestors strengthen the enemy and kill our troops” and “The surge is working.”
“The public’s reaction was fabulous. Ninety percent of those people who chose to express themselves - we’re talking in terms of horn sounds on the roads, thumbs-up, a few fingers thrown in - were positive. Incredibly, people know what’s going on, even without it being a major topic of concern in the press.”
It may not be surprising given recent polls: In November American Research Group said that 64% of American voters believed Mr. Bush had abused his powers of office, and 34% said such actions warranted his removal from office. Seventy percent said Cheney had abused his office, with 43% calling for his removal.
But impeachment is rarely a topic of conversation when so many other issues - Iraq, recession, the subprime mortgage crisis, health care, Britney Spears - are at the forefront. The challenge for impeachment advocates like Nirenberg is to make the case that most every issue affecting Americans today can be linked to the question of whether high crimes and misdemeanors in the executive branch occurred and are provable and, if so, prosecutable.
And the hardest ones to convince are the very ones with the power to do something about it.
A Capra-Esque Journey
In the classic 1939 film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” Jimmy Stewart plays a political appointee sent to the Senate to keep a seat warm and not make waves. But the Junior Senator finds himself caught in a one-man fight against corruption which ties the chamber in knots - a filibuster! - until right triumphs amidst a flood of telegrams.
But this is 2008, and life is not a Frank Capra film. At least that’s what Nirenberg saw when he arrived in the capital to spread his message.
An early experience should have been a portent of things to come: Visiting the National Archives building, which houses the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, he and a group of like-minded supporters were blocked from entering by security guards, who demanded they remove articles of clothing - hats, T-shirts, ponchos - carrying impeachment messages.
While trying to arrange a meeting with Pelosi, whose office repeatedly said she was unavailable, Nirenberg held a press conference, gave interviews, and visited other Congressional offices to bend the ears of lawmakers (or at least their staffers) about their positions on impeachment.
He got up to a speed of visiting 15 offices per hour. In most every case, Congress members were not available. Nirenberg delivered his talking points, and perhaps the names of constituents who wanted their views passed on; staff members noted his interest, and that was that.
At the office of Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif., he asked the young staffers, “The Congressman does defend the Constitution, doesn’t he?”
“Well, yes, I suppose,” was the response.
Republican staffers seemed particularly surprised at his entreaties, as if they thought Nirenberg was lost and was aiming for the Democrat next door.
But it is hard to convince many that impeachment is a non-partisan issue.
“Maybe I’m crazy, I’ve been spending time now in Washington, and everyone is going about their business like nothing’s happened, there is no threat to the Constitution.”
The fact that impeachment was not apparently on staffers’ radar is not for lack of trying on the part of advocates. An op-ed co-authored by three members of the House Judiciary Committee published in the Philadelphia Inquirer last month called for hearings. Former Sen. George McGovern wrote a Washington Post op-ed calling for impeachment; and last week a committee in the Washington State Senate approved an impeachment resolution (though it is unclear when or if it will be brought to the full chamber).
There was also a great deal of media attention last week for a study released by the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism, which enumerated 935 false statements made by Mr. Bush, Cheney and other high government officials over two years about Iraq’s weapons capabilities and alleged ties to al Qaeda, leading up to the 2003 invasion.
But Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have offered the rationale that, were Congress to delve into hearings, it would divert time and resources away from other pressing matters which they believe voters hold more dear; and by raising the specter of impeachment, they would be painted (they fear) as obstructionists, or as merely seeking payback for the 1998 impeachment and near-removal from office of President Bill Clinton.
Nirenberg thinks that view is misguided, especially given that in the past parties that pursued impeachment hearings improved their public approval ratings and scored in subsequent elections, because “People want the truth.
Nirenberg finally got a call from Pelosi’s office arranging for him to see not the Speaker but two senior staffers. So on Wednesday Nirenberg went to the Cannon House Office Building to meet with Joe Odek, Pelosi’s senior counsel (whose areas include civil liberties and constitutional law), and Michael Techlenburg, the Speaker’s legislative assistant (who in addition to being a Columbia University Law graduate also happens to be deaf).
Nirenberg did not miss the terrible, poetic irony that, while failing to meet Pelosi in person, he was invited to deliver his message of impeachment to a deaf man. “Unbelievable, it was just amazing, actually.”
Nirenberg did come away with hints of what can be expected from Congress in the coming months: a vote on contempt citations for Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolton, probable hearings in February on the President’s signing statements (in which he declares his intent not to enforce certain laws enacted by Congress), and ongoing investigations into no-bid contracts, CIA tapes, FISA spying, and possibly the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.
But on impeachment, views were unchanged on both sides, with the staffers speaking to the importance of “unity,” a quality in scarce supply in Washington.
“It’s because they still think politically and not historically, and they’re not willing to lose a battle,” Nirenberg said of the majority party. “So the question I have for Pelosi if I should ever in the future get in to talk to her is: If this isn’t important enough to fight for, and possibly lose your own seat for, what issue would be important enough?”
Rep. Dennis Kucinich met with considerable resistance from leaders of his own party when he introduced a resolution calling for impeachment hearings on Cheney last November. Democrats wanted to table the resolution, fearing a backlash; Republicans called their bluff, voting to keep it alive, if only to embarrass Democrats. The spectacle put the lie to President Bush’s quip, ironically spoken that very day, that C-Span was a boring channel.
The resolution was sent to the Judiciary Committee, where it has lain dormant. [Kucinich has vowed to introduce a similar resolution aimed at the president on Monday, the day of his State of the Union address.]
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., had even written a book calling for impeachment of the president. But that was before the 2006 election, when he was in the minority; now he is the Judiciary Committee Chairman, and he has squelched talk of moving ahead on the issue, including Kucinich’s resolution.
“Frankly, he can draw a line in the sand and say, ‘The public is demanding this and we need to start,’” said Nirenberg. “He’s getting a lot of pressure that might push him that he could allow a subcommittee to open hearings.”
On January 15, Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., spoke on the House floor, where he delivered a petition with more than 189,000 signatures calling for hearings. “A growing chorus of American citizens are calling for this Administration and this Vice President to be held accountable. The response from Congress thus far has been silence and denial.”
“[Wexler] was a doubter for a long time and he bought the party line, and I have yet to find out what it was that switched him,” Nirenberg said. “But now he is a very strong advocate for impeachment.
“I think what he’s found - and this is what I’m trying to get through to Pelosi - is that once you take a forceful position on this and illuminate the truth, then good things come to you. In this case he’s got a bump; his home district seems to be more favorable to him now. He is the darling now of the impeachment movement.”
Not that there are THAT many darlings to go around. Kucinich’s Cheney resolution has 24 co-sponsors (out of 435 representatives). There were twice as many co-sponsors on a resolution honoring the late winemaker Ernest Gallo.
But impeachment proceedings could actually curtail obstructionist behavior on the part of the Bush administration. Although the White House has repeatedly refused to answer subpoenas for documents or allow testimony by officials in a number of high-profile cases, claiming executive privilege, such privilege cannot be used in matters of impeachment.
So House and Senate Committees that have been refused access to documents about the U.S. attorneys firings, the Valerie Plame outing, the destruction of CIA torture tapes, the loss of millions of White House e-mails, Cheney’s secret energy meetings, the EPA’s rejection of California’s greenhouse gas emissions law, or other topics of more than academic interest, have a means to finally get them: call an impeachment hearing.
But Nirenberg says even that objective isn’t likely to occur. He thinks the Democrats dread any possibility of opening up the topic with Republicans: “They think that would add to the divisiveness and they would be the ones responsible for it - not the criminals, but the prosecutors. It’s laughable how I think they’ve miscalculated, because people see them as spineless.”
And if you think Democrats’ ears burn when Nirenberg speaks, you can imagine what he has to say about Republicans.
“Obviously I’ve got my biases, but [lawmakers] are so ideological they don’t even see the point of the Constitution - it’s all a matter of whose party is winning and got the power?
“I think they could feel that way only as long as they believe that the public doesn’t really care that much. They believe the public would see it as distracting or as political, and I think they’re wrong. I think the crimes are so egregious the public would instantly appreciate the fact that nobody is above the law and that something is done about it.
“And Congress is the only body that can do anything.”
So what did he learn about himself from his journey?
“I shouldn’t have delegated my citizenship to special interests, let’s say, or even the usual activists,” he said. “Everybody’s got to get involved here, and that’s what makes the difference.”
“So it’s been an interesting experience, from my complacency (which I really am ashamed of) to doing something this extraordinary - to be walking 500 miles to see somebody who has an extraordinary power of denial, claiming to be holding this administration accountable.
“And the other thing is, that even if you are in a minority, when it comes to sensitivity about human rights and constitutional issues, you can’t be too sensitive.
“With a name like Nirenberg it’s not a great leap of imagination to see how I’m also very conscious about what happened at the Nuremberg trials, and what it meant for Americans - so proud of having fought back tyranny and having established principles that Americans don’t torture, even in the most horrifying war then known to Man. And now the president talks about it openly, basically saying he has the right to decide. So if we’re not sensitive now to such things, then when it’s time it touches us directly, it’s much too late.
“So I guess I learned that I have a lot more courage than I imagine.”
© 2008 CBS News
“Visiting the National Archives building, which houses the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, he and a group of like-minded supporters were blocked from entering by security guards, who demanded they remove articles of clothing - hats, T-shirts, ponchos - carrying impeachment messages.”
ACLU, are you reading this? Lawsuit, anyone?
“But impeachment is rarely a topic of conversation when so many other issues - Iraq, recession, the subprime mortgage crisis, health care, Britney Spears - are at the forefront.”
And who exactly is demanding by-the-moment coverage of Britney Spears?
““The Congressman does defend the Constitution, doesn’t he?” “Well, yes, I suppose,” was the response.”
Looks like the Constitution is fading out to the irrelevancy of the UN Charter.
Yup, sounds like the most hideous and surreal violation of First Amendment freedom of speech rights for guards at National Archives to ban citizens from entering and looking at the Constitution because they wore impeachment hats, t-shirts - how utterly ironic and crypto-fascist! I don’t think we live in a democracy anymore - just a pale, vanilla flavored imitiation of a democracy. Until Habeus Corpus has been reinstated and Bush is impeached, we are all in jail, just some of us don’t know it yet.
Keep Hope Alive!
VOTE!
And another thought: didn’t the guards see the irony of denying people their First Amendment rights in the presence of THE First Amendment?
grailmaiden January 27th, 2008 4:44 pm ….Vote?…And which of the POSSIBLE final candidates will re-instate our rights, abandon torture, leave Iraq, abolish the Federal Reserve, do something about DU, find out the truth about 9/11 and demand this present administration be held to justice and accountability? And that’s the short list! Who?
Congratulations Prof. Nirenberg on you completion of you walk to the Capitol.
The constituants of the Reps and Sens now sitting must remember what they voted for. Unfortunately the MSM will not print the true stories and the country will remain in the power of the vested interests.
Impeachment must be on the agenda! It is the only way the Dems will not be implicated, by the retiring administration, of being involved in the Iraq blunder.
Willybill asks (rhetorically, I presume):
Vote?…And which of the POSSIBLE final candidates will re-instate our rights, abandon torture, leave Iraq, abolish the Federal Reserve, do something about DU, find out the truth about 9/11 and demand this present administration be held to justice and accountability? And that’s the short list! Who?
>>>>>>>>>>>>
Anybody who even mentions these issues risks his political life. The media will see to it that such a candidate will be ridiculed and marginalized (and his positions trivialized), so as not to upset the smooth functioning of the corporate government.
Just ask Dennis Kucinich, who represented the Will of the majority of Americans on almost all of these issues.
Thank you Mr. Nirenberg. Your walk speaks for me and millions of others. As a writer, I pay attention to the names I select for fictional characters; but happen to believe there IS much to a name, often it speaks to the mission we will be called to… like Tom to DELAY and old Jessie too long at the HELM and Bush always burning, etc. Be imaginative! You can find LOTS of this kind of synchronicity at play, even if it does not as sweet as a rose smell.
Would I be barred from viewing the Constitution if I wore a t-shirt that said, “Support the Constitution”?
i think mr. nirenberg should be included in the ‘guiness book of records’ as the first person to walk 500 miles to seek justice for the thousands of iraqis killed in the illegal invasion of their country. mr. nirenberg and his town of brattleboro should be an example to the rest of the millions of ‘inactive’ americans……………..
I emailed John along his walk for the Citizens, the Constitution and our Country to be given back to We the People, he answered every damn email. I offered him a hot and a cot when he arrived at Independence Hall, sadly for myself, I was in Europe looking for another country to call home, decided I was not going to give up here just yet for my 2 daughters well being. When I apologized to John For not being able to be there due to the preceding reason, he wrote back, ” Rhoda, when the stars align we will have the chance.” I donated money when I first learned of his mission.
John, I commend and thank you for what you did for all of us.
Over 900 lies were told by Bush and his administration about reasons to justify attacking Iraq. Nothing is done about it. This is such an enormous war crime and crimes against humanity. But it’s business as usual; there’s hardly a word spoken about it since the report came out a few days ago. What’s wrong with this country?? Obviously the USA is run by a bunch of criminals.
I act for the anti bush hordes in the UK on here tonight (unofficially_) and what you “hear” is a rising cresendo of applause for this Knight of your Constitution.
God Bless him and God Bless America
Roger
This story is quixotic but basically sympathetic.
CBS is MAIN STREAM MEDIA. This means that MSM has mentioned, not only John and his heroic march, but the Kucinich bill and Wexler’s outcry. It disparages Pelosi and the other representatives who refused to meet John.
As much as I would like to see it, IMHO impeachment is still a long shot but this story is real progess.
Bill
LILLULU
‘obviously the u.s.a is run by a bunch of criminals’ yes, and supported by a bunch of ‘inactive’ slobs. (present c.d. company excepted) (and of course mr. nirenberg.)
I had the pleasure of meeting John Nirenberg during his stop in Philadelphia, Pa. http://www.flickr.com/photos/10917615@N08/sets/72157603669394148/
John is a humble man and a true Patriot who cares deeply about this fascist direction our county has taken, unlike our so called “elected officials” in Washington, who wouldn’t know treason even if it came up and bit them on their a**!
The Doormat-ocrat arguments against impeaching are bs.
‘Takes too long’ ‘It’ll hurt us in November’
In 1868 the President was impeached in 3 days.
“…in the past parties that pursued impeachment hearings improved their public approval ratings and scored in subsequent elections…”
Yes, indeed. Every Presidential impeachment has led to winning the next Presidential election for the opposing party.
The Dems are making a big mistake if they think people are not going to be really angry with them 10 months from now, after things get even worse than they are.
But then, the Dems are STILL bragging about ending unfunded spending, and cleaning up Congress, and making our economy fairer.
They’re just tired, that’s all, after doing soooo much for us.
http://www.dccc.org/100hours/
Not many of us will be able or willing to duplicate Prof. Nirenberg’s noble trek, but all of us can and should inundate our Senators’ and Representatives’ mailboxes and phone lines with expressions of support for his goal.
If you can contribute your thoughts to a blog, will you turn your efforts to where they could possibly do some good?
At the very least, copy this article and mail it to somebody who needs to know how the public really feels.
As a retiree I watch a enough C-SPAN coverage of committee hearings to know how questioner and questioned spar evasively or slow talk their perceived advantagee. My conclusion is that any hearing’s best product is publicity, good or bad. Committee chairpersons, as Senator Boxer’s Clean Air hearings prove, do have consderable power.
My frustrated view is that two courses are necessary: 1) Personalize the issue, i.e. target Pelosi and Conyers as blockers of the public will and threaten their tenure at home districts. I don’t know when their next election is to be held, but I think both of them need to fear recall as a result of their inaction and realize that their vulnerablity will not die just because they’ve run out Bush’s election clock. 2) Ask all impeachment voices to recite endlessly the list of impeachable offences so that it becomes a national cry. The list of “high crimes” is long and needs to be characterized as an international disgrace. Use the internet fora (forget corrupt main stream media MSM).
I’m not a political strategist just an angry oldster fearing for his grandchildren
Well impeachment’s effectively been cut from the Constitution, so its no surprise that free speech mentioning it are excluded from the edifice housing the crippled document. No thanks to Nancy and Harry.
I had been wondering what they were doing to the old parchment during the time that the place was under renovation around 2004-6. Some kind of unspeakable torture, it turns out…
Perhaps the Hollywood activists could start to suggest to their stellar colleagues that it would be a service to their country to step out of the limelight, or agree to appear only arm in arm with Prof. Nirenberg, Cindy Sheean, Denis Kucinich and the broad cast of others attempting to call attention to the constitution.
Bring back the equal-time clause.
I too am disgusted with our House Speaker Pelosi.
How many people have to die in Iraq before she is outraged?
My question is how do WE THE PEOPLE proceed with our impeachment proceedings, since the congress is inept and spineless. All we’re doing is spinning our wheels and repeating the same thing. We need an independent citizen’s committee to impeach these two. How do we get it started?
First off, congratulations John. Got there! That weather was pretty icy much of the way through Connecticut, with many unshoveled sidewalks forcing you into traffic. Hope your feet are ok. Pelosi doesn’t know who she missed!
John marched in my name too.
Put the political fluff down and give B.C. an honest trial.
“Tell Me Not In Mournful Numbers, Life Is But An Empty Dream. For The Soul Is Dead That Slumbers And Things Are Not What They Seem”
The complacency demonstrated by the Peoples in America is astounding. What has caused this seeming disconcern for Truth?
John has walked more than 500 miles to re-ignite the Spirit of the masses. Surprisingly he finds himself alone in a massive crater attempting to pull a locomotive up a steep hill.
We must Impeach the President and Vice President to teach our children the importance of living by Truth. Everyone in America must adhere to Accountability. Why does this law not apply to this Administration?
The Preamble to the Constitution gives us an alternative if our elected officials don’t comply with the directives of the People. THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES WISH TO IMPEACH THIS ADMINISTRATION.
John, you are not alone.
Thank you David Morgan and CBS News for finally covering John’s journey, something most all of the media (the Village Voice had a story) has avoided up to now.
You have to ask how much collusion there has been by Pelosi and Reid in the crimes of this most corrupt administration in our nation’s history. Conyers and gang must have either been threatened with something or promised something to become such a menagery of spineless sycophants. No one believes the argument that they can’t walk and chew gum at the same time,
that impeachment hearings would distract from the “important business” of Congress. It would be laughable if it weren’t so contemptible.
We passed a local resolution this summer asking the House to begin an investigation of impeachable offenses by Bush and Cheney, because even on our City Council we take an oath to uphold the Constitution. Those in Congress are even more responsible because their oath, and their constitutional mandate, is to directly defend the Constitution.
As Kucinich says, if truth is off the table then Congress is living a lie.
We remember Mr. Cheney’s response to “unity” was “go f___ yourself.” At this time the most reprehensible person in these United States is Nancy Pelosi, and one of the most important things we should all do is support the Congressional campaign of Cindy Sheehan (www.cindyforcongress.org)
The other action everyone should take is to sign up with Congressman Wexler on his website (www.wexlerwantshearings.com). Keep writing and calling and speaking out. As Martin Luther King said at Riverside Church in 1967, “there comes a time when silence is betrayal.” This gang of thugs and racketeers must be held accountable, and elections are not the way to right these wrongs. We have to convince this current crop of craven cowards that make up the House of Representatives that they will all be remembered as nothing more than a bunch of “poltroons,” in H L Menken’s words.
Perhaps we can remind them they have failed at most everything they have tried, and that a failed strategy is not a rational argument against impeachment. Thanks John Nirenberg for carrying the message through some of the coldest, most miserable days of the year. Let’s hope that this article will help that message to break through the wall of silence and staged ignorance and indifference.
If Congress refuses to do its constitutional duty and impeach then WE THE PEOPLE MUST IMPEACH BY SETTING UP AN IMPEACHMENT TRIBUNAL.
John has courage indeed. And as for you Speaker Pelosi.. delving into the ‘Impeachment’ of President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be at the TOP of your so-called ‘pressing matters’. Are you listening Nancy? Are you REALLY listening? Wake her up John.. I think she might of fell asleep.
I agree however impeachment is too good for these vile slimy Nazi war profiteers. These debase repugnant war profiteers should be tried for the millions of murders and tens of millions of lives they have destroyed. However, in bushes Amerika IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN.
I heard the other day they told 935 of lies (on one subject) leading up to the war on the innocent Iraqi people and the WMD’s or War Mongering Dirtbags aka., MSM; told them over and over again so the American people heard them thousands of more times. Who are the real liars?
All I want to say is best of luck and I’m sure you realize these vicious murdering torturing pigs of the bush administration will stop at nothing to conceal the truth. It is honest, fearless, liberty loving, freedom loving people like you that make me proud to be an America.
I would love to see a mock marriage on the Capitol steps between a Bush and a Pelosi look alike with Dick Cheney as the flower boy.
Words and petitions have failed to communicate with Pelosi. I think that maybe she was one of those students who looked at the pictures instead of the words. So lets minimize words and begin to deliver graphics and theater.
Add some humor and the bite may get to hard to ignore. Pictures communicate one thousand times faster than text. Humorous pictures communicate at the speed of light. Perhaps she deserves to be a laughing stock.
Instead of spectacle and theater, perhaps we should encourage a serious and realistic effort to hold the Bush administration accountable for its crimes, its assault on the Constitution, and its flouting of international conventions.
If the current Congress really needs to concentrate on its legislative responsibilities, then fine, no harm, they should do so for the next several months. After the November election, though, there should be no more excuses. From November 5 through the remainder of Bush’s lame duck presidency, we should impeach him and Cheney unrelentingly. Make it a matter of historical record, and, if and where appropriate, prosecute to the full extent of the law.
That should be a workable approach. We should be encouraging our representatives for such due process — immediately following the elections, if that is their main political concern.
We can dance in the streets later. Not out of mockery, but for the prevailing of truth, justice and democracy. As an aside, though, I’m tired of these “free speech zones” at protests, etc. I thought the whole country was a free speech zone, and that we had the right to peaceably assemble.
If Bush and Cheney are ever indicted and convicted for war crimes, spying, etc. Pelosi and Conyers should be jailed for aiding and abetting. They are complicit partners in crime. Furthermore, they should be charged with obstruction of justice for denying impeachment charges to proceed. The rationale that impeachment “would divert time and resources away from other pressing matters which they believe voters hold more dear;” is unconvincing simply because the “stimulus package” they’re working on will only exacerbate the recession. Is this the “pressing matters” that voters hold more dear?
Forcing the use of representatives is one of the most basic tools used to prevent true democracy.
We have a major breakdown of the rule of law leading to war without end, genocide, permanent police/surveillance state, nuclear arms race, mass slavery, flooding, famine, mass extinction, nuclear holocaust…
IMPEACH NOW!
As long as there are people like John Nirenberg in this nation there will be hope.
From all acrosss the nation, people need to march on Washington along with this man. If the beltway democrats won’t grab the bums and throw them in prison-the American people should! It is their actual duty to do so.
In America you read criminals their rights(or under the Bush White House what used to be their rights)you put handcuffs on them, and escort them to a waiting police car.
Have people forgotten how to do this? The people in the White House are criminals. Read em’ their rights and book em’!
We are talking about an America that doesn’t exist and never did. Only now are a very few people come to realize this government exists as a get rich career track for politicians and for the benefit of the RICHFILTH who own them. We are irrelevant. We don’t exist.
If you don’t SCARE them, they won’t act. If you SCARE them with structural change - they will KILL YOU. You know it. So do I. So what are we talking about?
It is so difficult to believe that less than ten years ago, congress was willing to impeach Bill Clinton for sex, yet these guys have murdered thousands! Why are we not more enraged?
You all know what’s coming don’t you. John Nirenburg will be outed for something (Athiest for example). Media will swallow everything Bushco dreams up and he will then be marginalzed as a kook. After which, Pelosi, Reid et al will then retroactively pardon everyone in Bushco and seal (or destroy) all records.
This great story proves that we don’t need masses in the streets to get the media to pay attention.
If you want to do something, you can do it just as well or maybe better on your own or with a few joining you than waiting for some large national activist group to organize for you.
Someone, has a great idea to call on the few House impeachment supporters to really kick in right after the Nov elections when none will have the “Coming Election Excuse”.
Don’t re elect congress people like Pelosi and Reed and any who are ignoring it… time for protest votes for Congress… maybe for Prez also…. well see…. Remember if you don’t vote you can’t cast any protest votes or have a say in your local politics as well.
Even if it never gets tried in the Senate, no future president will be able to pardon the creeps.
Please
Keep asking all candidates for congress if they are for impeachment…. make it a question test for Election.
This was not done in the past election .. it was all about the war in Iraq.
Impeach for American Pride!
It isn’t rocket surgery. Impeach, try, convict and hang. Yes, you _must_ do it in that order. Or else we’re just another (bigger) banana republic. The Bush and Clinton clique (and a few others before them, the name Roosevelt comes to mind) tried to establish that system. Let’s not let them get their way. If that doesn’t work, we vote from the rooftops. But that’s an emergency measure. Trying that too soon gets too many uninvolved bystanders killed. I can’t do that because the Zero Aggression Principle is more important to me than my own survival. (If a cop in my neighborhood shoots first, I’m in heaven because those fucks couldn’t hit a garage wall if they were parked inside).