From The Vermont Guardian:
Vermont: 36 Towns Call for Impeachment Probe of President
Voters in three dozen Vermont towns want Congress to begin an impeachment probe of Pres. George W. Bush and Vice Pres. Dick Cheney.
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There are 251 towns in Vermont, but not all hold town meetings.
More than a dozen towns passed measures calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, and to care for them when they were back on U.S. soil. Dover also rejected the troop measure. About 20 towns had one of the items warned on their town meeting ballot, while many others took up the issue during “other business” at the end of the meeting.
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Here is the text of each of the two resolutions:IMPEACHMENT RESOLUTION
Whereas George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have:
- deliberately misled the nation about the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war,
- condoned the torture of prisoners in violation of the Geneva Convention and US law,
- approved illegal electronic surveillance of American citizens without a warrant, and,
Whereas these actions have undermined our Constitutional system of government, damaged the reputation of America, and threatened our national security,
Therefore, the voters of the town of ___________________ call upon the U.S. House of Representatives to investigate these charges, and if the investigation supports the charges, vote to impeach George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney as provided in the Constitution of the United States of America. This resolution shall be signed by the Town Clerk and forwarded to both the Speaker and the Clerk of the US House of Representatives, and Representative John Conyers of the House Judiciary Committee.
SOLDIERS HOME NOW RESOLUTION
“Shall the voters of the town of __________________ advise the President, Congress and Vermont’s state and federal office holders that ___________________ and its citizens strongly support the men and women serving in all branches of the United States Armed Forces in Iraq and believe that the best way to support them is to bring each and every one of them home now and take good care of them when they get home.”
The towns that did pass the resolution included Bristol, Burke, Calais, Craftsbury, Dummerston, East Montpelier, Greensboro, Guilford, Grafton, Hartland, Jamaica, Jericho, Johnson, Marlboro, Middlebury, Montgomery, Morristown, Newbury, Newfane, Peru, Plainfield, Putney, Richmond, Rochester, Roxbury, St. Johnsbury, Springfield, Stannard, Sunderland, Townshend, Tunbridge, Vershire, Warren, Westminster, Wilmington, and Woodbury. Unfortunately, Waitsfield (which neighbors Warren) was not among them, but I was pleased to see that Vershire, where I spent some happy summers when The Walden School was located there back in the 80’s, was one of the towns who did.
For those people who say that the problem with impeaching Bush is that you end up with Cheney as President, pay close attention to the fact that both men are named in the resolution. I also like the fact that they added the part about taking care of the troops when the got home. These days, with Bush and his cronies doing ‘business as usual’ with Health Care for war veterans, just as they did with the rebuilding of Iraq or New Orleans, which is handing out favours to private contractors and then walking away as it proceeded to turn into a disaster, one has to spell out what should be obvious responsibilities, like human decency and proper oversight.
Nicely done, Vermont. If we weren’t in Canada, we’d be in that Town Hall, voting to Impeach with you. Even as ashamed as I usually am of the US these days, I can always look to Vermont for signs of the country I used to know.
“You Go, Vermont!!”
Well done Vermont. You have started the ball rolling. Now let’s all get the chance to vote. Bush and Cheney need to be impeached immediately.