Have you ever awakened to the aroma of pancakes for breakfast? That is just what the below article conjured up for me. So come on over everyone, I'm preparing a BIG bowl of pancake batter to be served with Vermont SWEET MAPLE SYRUP.
John Nichols
"The Nation"
Wed Mar. 7
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/1172344
When Vermont Governor Jim Douglas, a Republican with reasonably close ties to President Bush, asked if there was any aditional business to be considered at the town meeting he was running in Middlebury, Ellen McKay popped up and proposed the impeachment of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
The governor was not amused. As moderator of the annual meeting, he tried to suggest that the proposal to impeach-along with another proposal to withdraw U,S. troops from Iraq could not be voted on.
But McKay, a program coordinator at Middlebury College, pressed her case. And it soon became evident that the crowd at the annual meeting shared her desire to hold the president to account.
So Douglas backed down.
"It became clear that no one was going home until they had the chance to discuss the resolutions and vote on them," explained David Rosenburg, a political science professor at Middlebuty College. "And being a good politician, he allowed the vote to happen".
By an overwhelming voice vote, Middlebury called for impeachment.
So it has gone this week at town meetings across Vermont, most of which were held Tuesday.
Last Tuesday night, there were confirmed reports that 36 towns has backed impeachment resolutions, and the number was expected to rise.
In one town, Pulney, the vote for impeachment was unanimous.
In addition to Governor Douglas's Middlebuty, the town of Hartland, which is home to Congressman Peter Welsh, backed impeachment. So, too, did Jericho, the home of Gaye Symington, the speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives.
Organizers of the grassroots drive to get town meetings to back impeachment resolutions hope that the overwhelming support the initiative has received will convince Welch to introduce articles of impeachment against Bush and Cheney. That's something the Democratic congressman is resisting, even though his predecessor, Bernie Sanders, signed on last year to a proposal by Michigan Congressman John Conyers to set up a House committee to look into impeachment.
Vermont activists also want their legislature to approve articles of impeachment and forward them to Congress. But Symington, also a Democrat, has discouraged the initiative, despite the fact that more than 20 representatives have cosponsored an impeachment resolution.
"It's going to be hard for Peter Welsh and Gaye Symington to say there's no sentiment for impeachment, now that their towns have voted for it", says Dan DeWalt, a Newfane, Vermont, town selectman who started the impeachment initiative last year in his town, and who now pans to launch a campaign to pressure Welsh and Symington to respect and reflect the will of the people.
It is going to be even harder for Governor Douglas, who just this month spent two nights at the Bush White House, to face his president.
After all, Douglas now lives in a town that is on record in support of Bush's impeachment and trial for high crimes and misdemeanors.
For the record, Middlebury says:
We the people have the power-and the responsibility-to remove executives who transgress not just the law, but the rule of law.
The oaths that the President and Vice President take binds them to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." The failure t do so forms a sound bases for articles of impeachment.
The President and the Vice President have failed to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution in the following ways:
1. They have manipulated intelligence and misled the country to justify an immoral,,
unjust and unnecessary preemptive war in Iraq.
2. They have directed the government to engage in domestic spying without
warrants, in direct contravention of U.S. law.
3. They have conspired to commit the torture of prisoners, in violation of the Federal
Torture Act and the Geneva Convention.
4. They have ordered the indefinite detention without legal counsel, without
charges and without the opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to ch
challenge the detention-all in violation of U.S. law and the Bill of Rights
When strong evidence exists of the most serious crimes, we must use impeachment-
or lose the ability of the legislative branch to compel the executive branch to obey the law.
This has led our country to a Constitutional crisis, and it is our responsibility to remove him from office.
Ah, the aroma of pancakes and SWEET Vermont maple syrup!!!!
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