Tell Pelosi: Put Impeachment back on the Table  
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

UPDATE:  New ARG Poll:  Majority think Bush and Cheney have committed impeachable offenses.  "A total of 64% of American voters say that President George W. Bush has abused his powers as president. Of the 64%, 14% (9% of all voters) say the abuses are not serious enough to warrant impeachment, 33% (21% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses, but he should not be impeached, and 53% (34% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses and Mr. Bush should be impeached and removed from office.

A total of 70% of American voters say that Vice President Dick Cheney has abused his powers as vice president. Of the 70%, 26% (18% of all voters) say the abuses are not serious enough to warrant impeachment, 13% (9% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses, but he should not be impeached, and 61% (43% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses and Mr. Cheney should be impeached and removed from office." -American Research Group

Congressman and Democratic Party Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich introduced House Resolution 333 for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney.  Unsatisfied with Nancy Pelosi's efforts to consider the crimes that justify impeachment, on November 9th, he sent a letter to the head of the U.S. Judiciary Committee, stating:

"Recent reports indicate that the Vice President is attempting to shape the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran to conform to his misperceptions about the threat Iran actually poses.  Much like his deceptive efforts in the lead up to the Iraq War, the Vice President appears to be manipulating intelligence to conform to his beliefs."

In an attempt to stop another war without the declaration of war from Congress, Kucinich concludes the letter, "Impeachment remains the only tool Congress has to prevent a war in Iran."

Nancy Pelosi has received a whole lot of criticism for continually repeating that impeachment is "off the table."  Now, House Resolution 333 for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney is off of the House floor, and has been sent instead to the Judiciary Committee for "further study."

This action, consistent with Pelosi's mantra that impeachment is "off the table," has many people angry.  Pelosi did, however, provide us a small window:  in reply to a question of impeachment, she stated that if she received 10,000 handwritten letters, she would proceed with it.

So, in this high-tech world, where we do everything possible to avoid manually writing out our correspondence - we shoot off e-mails, sign up for electronic banking, pay our bills through the computer, send in rebates electronically, write blogs instead of diaries - I'm asking you to do something a little old-fashioned.

Sit down with a pen and paper, and a stamped envelope, and write.

It is important, however, not to send the letter straight to Nancy Pelosi.  In order to get an official count of how many letters are actually written, famous war protestor Cindy Sheehan has offered her services in receiving and hand-delivering our letters.

Instead of sending them to Pelosi's office, send them to:

Cindy for Congress
RE: Impeach Dick Cheney
1260 Mission Blvd.
San Francisco, CA 94103

And don't put it off - the letters will be hand delivered to Pelosi's office in San Francisco before Thanksgiving, so have your letter mailed by Friday, November 16th.

I'm writing mine today.  And I am not writing it only to request the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney - I'm writing mine to include the request for impeachment of President George W. Bush, as well.  If you are not sure what you would like to say, I am publishing the letter I'm handwriting below, and you may copy it word for word if you like:

Nancy Pelosi c/o Cindy for Congress RE: Impeach Dick Cheney 1260 Mission Blvd. San Francisco, CA 94103 Dear Nancy Pelosi: I am writing you to request that you move forward with House Resolution 333 to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney, as well as initiate resolution to impeach President George W. Bush. "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." - Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution. President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney have committed violations and subversions of the Constitution of the United States of America in an attempt to carry out with impunity crimes against humanity, and war crimes and deprivations of the civil rights of the people of the United States and other nations, by assuming powers of an imperial executive unaccountable to law and usurping powers of the Congress, the Judiciary and those reserved to the peopel of the United States, through but not limited to, the following acts: 1)  Waging war a war of aggression with Iraq without a declaration of war form Congress, in defiance of the U.S. Constitution, the U.N. Charter and the rule of law, resulting in the deaths and maiming of thousands of Iraqi and American citizens. 2)  Providing false and deceptive rationales for war. 3)  Authorizing, ordering and condoning direct attacks on civilians, civilian facilities and locations where civilian casualties were unavoidable. 4)  Instituting an illegal wiretapping and spying operation against the people of the United States through the National Security Agency.  Article II of the impeachment charges against President Nixon was warrantless wiretapping, which Nixon also said was "necessary" for national security.  The domestic eavesdropping program authorized by President Bush following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 bypassed a special federal court whose approval is requred under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. 5)  Authorizing, ordering and condoning assassinations, torture, executions, kidnappings, secret and other illegal detentions of individuals, physical and psychological coercion of prisoners, as well as authorizing U.S. forces and agents to violate the rights of individuals under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. I find it deplorable that you are requesting 10,000 handwritten letters in order to move forward with the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney alone, when nearly 1 million (979,914 at the date of this letter) individuals have cast a vote at votetoimpeach.org, requesting the impeachment of both the President and Vice President. I demand that you remember who you are there to represent, and the people have spoken:  we want Bush and Cheney out.  They are representing our country, and they are not representative of us or what we stand for. Sincerely, [Your Name]

   

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