Mobilization is going forward for the March on the Pentagon in Washington, DC on March 17. The action is part of worldwide demonstrations demanding an immediate end to the war in Iraq and opposing all aggressive wars. Busloads, car caravans, trains and planes are bringing many thousands to the march on the Pentagon. The action is targeting the Pentagon and its massive war budget of almost $500 billion. An encampment is also being organized in front of the Capitol to target Congress and demand, No War Funding! Youth, veterans, religious and community groups and activists of all kinds are joining together to confront Congress, aiming right at the Democrats. The demand is for them to deliver on their promise to end the war now and take every action to bring this about, including cutting all war funding.
The timing of the demonstration coincides with the anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. It also coincides with votes in Congress on President George W. Bush’s demand for yet more supplemental funding, in addition to the Pentagon’s wartime budget. Bush has called for almost $100 billion more. Congress is getting ready to provide it and possibly more. The actions, both the encampment and march, are serving to make clear the demand and insistence of the people to end the war now, specifically by cutting off all funding. We urge all concerned to go all out to participate in the actions and put Congress on notice: the only acceptable solution is to cut war funding and bring all the troops home now.
Instead, the Democrats are trying to find a way to maintain U.S. empire while escaping an outright loss in Iraq. Far from submitting to the demands of the peoples here, in Iraq and worldwide, the Democrats are refusing to cut funding and withdraw troops now. They have introduced a supplemental spending bill that sanctions the crime of interference in Iraq’s affairs, requiring Bush to “certify” whether Iraq has met U.S. demands for Iraq’s governance, security and distribution of funds from its oil. The bill calls for increasing aggression against Afghanistan, branded the “right war” by the Democratic leadership. And while appearing to support the troops by setting requirements for rest, equipment and training, it also gives President George W. Bush the ability to waive such requirements “in the interests of national security.”
This is a bill designed to pacify the growing resistance among the people, as reflected in the fact that yet another national demonstration is being organized targeting Congress and the Pentagon war machine. Let all join in telling Congress: Cut war funding now! Bring all U.S. troops home now!
There is also nothing in the bill to indicate what will occur if it becomes law and Bush simply ignores what is legal and required by the law, as he has been doing all along. This reality is also why the anti-war movement is persisting in its demand to end funding for the war and support war resisters as vital measures contributing to ending the war. As one the movement is relying on its own efforts and putting its power into increasing the level and scope of its organization and its ability to go forward in the face of the refusal by Congress to act — forward to development of an anti-war government that represents the people.[TOP]
March 12-19+
Encampment to Stop the War & End War Funding!
Congress is about to vote to continue the war. We must not let them get away with it!
On March 14, it is expected that Congress will vote on President George W. Bush’s request for another $245 billion for the war in Iraq. This will be, in effect, a vote to continue the war. The current Congress was elected with a mandate to stop the war, and the antiwar movement must be in D.C. to hold them accountable for their actions.
Let there be no mistake, this vote is no mere routine matter. It has nothing to do with “supporting the troops.” It is a vote to continue the war...Congress must understand that the people will not accept any excuses for its vote to continue the war by approving funding for it. The people are not fooled by symbolic, non-binding resolutions that only oppose the “surge.” It is a betrayal of the people for Congress to fool around with proposals to merely limit the scope of the war by placing restrictions on the funding, or to “re-authorize” a more limited war.
Last November the people voted to change the leadership of Congress so that it could do what the president is unwilling to do — to end the war now. As Senator Russ Feingold said recently at a Senate hearing on Congress’s war powers, “Congress has the power to stop the war if it wants to.”
There is only one congressional vote that the people, the solders, the families of solders, the Iraqi people, and the people of the world want to read about, and that is a vote against any more war funding. Such a vote is a vote to end the war and bring all the troops home now. Join us at the Encampment to Stop the War beginning Monday, March 12 on the Mall in Washington, DC to demand Congress end the war now.
Over the past few days, response to the call for an Encampment to Stop the War has been overwhelming. Students, antiwar activists, veterans, military families, community organizers, and trade unionists are coming from all over the U.S. to join the Encampment.
Here is how you can help:
Get the word out — forward messages to your email lists, list serves, etc. Download leaflets from http://www.TroopsOutNow.org and take them to your school, workplace, union hall, community center, or your church, mosque, or other place or worship.
Volunteer at the Encampment — If you are not able to come to the Encampment, help send a youth activist to the Encampment for the week, donate for transportation and housing costs.
Join in! Volunteer form at http://troopsoutnow.org/march12volunteer.shtml.
Schedule of Events at the Encampment:
Monday, March 12
12 Noon - Encampment Begins
5 pm - Kick-off rally, featuring Pam Parker, Anne Feeney, and others
7pm - Protest at AIPAC Conference organized by DAWN
Tuesday, March 13
10 am - Morning meeting
Time TBA - Women’s delegation to Iraqi embassy to protest the pending execution of three women in Iraq.
Wednesday, March 14
10 am - Morning meeting
The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on funding for the Iraq war. Groups are planning Direct Action and protest at the Capitol.
7 pm - A Forum: Target Iran. the Bush administration’s plan for more war - All Souls Unitarian Church - 1500 Harvard St. NW Washington, DC
Thursday, March 15
10 am - Morning meeting
12 noon - May 1 Immigrant Rights Conference
3 pm - Veterans, Military Families Car Caravan and Protest at Walter Reed
Friday, March 16
10 am - Morning meeting
TBA - Youth action
Saturday, March 17
10 am - 11:30 “Cut war funding” kick-off rally at Encampment in front of Congress at 3rd St & the Mall. At 11:30 we will begin a 20-30 minute march along Constitution Ave to ANSWER rally at 22nd & Constitution.
Encampment will continue March 18 and beyond.[TOP]
Latin American Contingent at March 17
A Latin American contingent is being organized for the march on the Pentagon on Saturday, March 17. Anyone who wants to march with the contingent should gather at 23rd and Constitution, NW between noon and 1pm on March 17. Bring flyers, signs, and banners.
Thousands of Latin American residents of the U.S., and Latin America solidarity activists will be marching on the Pentagon to demand an immediate end to the war in Iraq and an end to U.S. militarization of Latin America including demanding the closure of the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ending the occupation of Haiti, and closing the Army School of the Americas (School of Assassins, SOA) at Ft. Benning, Georgia. We will additionally demand to free the Cuban Five, end hostility toward Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia, and freedom for Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican political prisoners.
Latin Americans and solidarity activists will join in the March on the Pentagon with the ANSWER Coalition, The World Can’t Wait, Cindy Sheehan and Gold Star Mothers, Military Families Speak Out, the April 7 Hands Off Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia Coalition, veterans groups, active duty soldiers, students from more than 75 colleges and universities, people of faith, and tens of thousands of ordinary residents against the war on March 17. Visit www.marchonthepentagon.org for details of the day.
The free speech battle against the Virginia Department of Transportation has been won. Rally and march permits are in place. Legal and security issues have been dealt with to insure a safe and secure march for the whole family. There is nothing standing in the way to make March 17 the biggest March on the Pentagon since 110,000 Central America solidarity activists marched against Reagan’s Central America wars in 1981.
[TOP]
Demand Congress Vote No to War Funding
Call Congress on Monday, March 12 and Tuesday, March 13 to Vote No on the Iraq War “Supplemental.” The House Appropriations Committee is about to vote on whether to give Bush and Cheney $93 billion more for the Iraq War, on top of the $363 billion they have already spent to create an historic catastrophe based entirely on lies that has increased global terrorism by 700 percent.
This will bring total war spending to $456 billion — every penny of which has been borrowed so our children and grandchildren will have to pay for the Bush-Cheney War. It has also cost the lives of 3,171 U.S. troops and an estimated 655,000 Iraqi civilians, many tortured to death by militia trained by the U.S. This is not what we elected a Democratic majority to do.
1. On Monday, March 5, Call Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee
If your Congress Member is a Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, please phone their office as soon as you can and tell him/her to vote against the supplemental spending bill in committee.
We are not interested in excuses or fancy strategies. Voting No when the Supplemental reaches the full House is not enough; nor is voting for amendments to “improve” the bill. Every Democrat must Vote No on the Supplemental in the Appropriations Committee.
Democratic Members of the House Appropriations Committee: David R. Obey (Chair), John P. Murtha, Norman D. Dicks, Alan B. Mollohan, Marcy Kaptur, Peter J. Visclosky, Nita M. Lowey, José E. Serrano, Rosa L. DeLauro, James P. Moran, John W. Olver, Ed Pastor, David E. Price, Chet Edwards, Robert E. “Bud” Cramer, Jr., Patrick J. Kennedy, Maurice D. Hinchey, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Sam Farr, Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Carolyn C. Kilpatrick, Allen Boyd, Chaka Fattah, Steven R. Rothman, Sanford Bishop, Marion Berry, Barbara Lee, Tom Udall, Adam Schiff, Michael Honda, Betty McCollum, Steve Israel, Tim Ryan, C.A “Dutch” Ruppersberger, Ben Chandler, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Ciro Rodriguez.
Call 202-224-3121 and ask for your Representative’s office. Or find their number at http://www.democrats.com/congress
2. On Tuesday, March 6 and 14 Call All 435 House Members.
Tuesday is the day afterdowningstreet.org and others are in charge of trying to shut down the Congressional switchboard with citizen calls urging Representatives to vote No on the Iraq War Supplemental. Once again, voting for amendments to “improve” the bill is not good enough for us.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the White House will ignore restrictions placed on the war by Congress. That is why cutting off the funds is the only way to end the war.
Americans are now solidly (71 percent to 23 percent) against the Bush-Cheney war. A majority (51percent to 46 percent) support funding restrictions. Of course the views of the majority of Americans are never heard on TV, so that is why calling Congress directly is essential.
Your calls on Tuesday are part of a rolling series of call-in days with the same message coming from numerous organizations:
From 3/5 to 3/15 the following groups are working together to organize call-in days: Voters for Peace; Democrats.com, Afterdowningstreet.org, US Labor Against the War; Code Pink, Global Exchange; Gold Star Families for Peace, Democracy Rising; Peace Action; United for Peace and Justice.
[TOP]
The War Money Can Be Stopped
If the Republicans in the House vote against the Supplemental spending bill to throw another $100 billion at this war because the bill requires that troops be trained and rested, provides for veterans healthcare, gives money to Katrina relief and avocado growers, and threatens to move the war to Afghanistan if Bush does not make various claims about “progress” in Iraq in the coming months…
And if the Progressive Democrats vote against it because it funds an illegal and aggressive war…
The bill could be defeated. Then the Democratic leadership would have to choose between the Republicans on the one hand and the Progressive Democrats and the American public on the other.
The Democrats held two press conferences Thursday morning, March 8. The first was held by the Progressive Caucus, announcing their plan to amend the Supplemental to require that every dollar go to funding a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. They also sent a letter to their colleagues (see amendment p. 7).
I caught a bit of the press conference on CNN’s website, and the pressure that the Washington Post claimed was being put on Representative Maxine Waters to go along with the Supplemental was clearly not working. Waters criticized the Democratic leadership’s bill and stood strong for ending the war.
The Washington Post considers votes in Congress more important than wars outside it and claims Pelosi would be embarrassed if her lame, sell-out oil-stealing micro-managing genocide-funding debt-increasing [my characterizations, not the Post’s] measure fails in a vote. Pelosi should be embarrassed now, there is no need to wait.
The second press conference was quite disturbing. Here is the announcement.
Here are the notes I took:
10:24 Speaker Nancy Pelosi and gang are doing their show, with Veterans benefits thrown in (good) but readiness nonsense, benchmark oil-theft criminal nonsense, and a goal of hoping to end the war sometime in 2008.
10:25 Now David Obey (head of the House Appropriations Committee) is talking about shifting the war from Iraq to Afghanistan where we can attack “the people who attacked us.” (The people of Afghanistan? Want to blow up some more houses?) Obey’s throwing in Katrina and everything else. No mention of avocado growers yet.
10:29 Now Ike Skelton (head of House Armed Services Committee) is talking about military readiness and Afghanistan. “What the Speaker said is absolutely right. Afghanistan is the correct war.” (Are these people speaking to weapons makers or to the American public?)
10:32 Now John Murtha (Chair of Defense Appropriations subcommittee) is talking about “redeployment” and “readiness.” You can barely hear him through the cameras clicking. He is listing all the weapons and other equipment they are funding. He is also talking about veterans’ health care and how much money is included for various types of injuries (this needs to be done separately from funding the creation of more injuries!) Murtha says: “We put no torture in the bill.” (Does Murtha know that torture was already illegal, that Congress banned it again and Bush threw that bill out with a signing statement? How many times will Congress try to get credit for banning torture while ignoring the ongoing torture?)
10:39 Pelosi is blathering about supporting the troops (by sending them to die for lies and oil). She wants to move the “war on terror” to Afghanistan.
10:40 Q and A has begun with a question about requirements that the President “certify” that “benchmarks” are met.
Now they are asking about a Presidential waiver. It is in there. Pelosi is reassuring the media that Bush can use a waiver and send troops who are not rested, trained, and equipped if he wants to. But she says that by July 1 2007, if progress is not made, troops will begin redeploying, and again by October 1 2007 if “progress is not complete” we begin redeployment.
The media is making Pelosi repeat this nonsense three times to get all the dates and schedules clear.
10:47 A reporter just said the Out of Iraq Caucus (OOIC) wants the war over by the end of 2007 and asked: does Pelosi have the votes? Pelosi replied that many members of OOIC are on board with her. (How many, and should they not then join the Stay In Iraq Caucus?)
10:48 A reporter asked whether it was true as the Progressive Caucus said this morning that Pelosi was adding something else to meet their concerns. She said no. She claimed that if Bush does not make “progress” on “benchmarks” by July, troops will “redeploy” by the end of ‘07. (The redeployment is over a period of 180 days from whenever it starts.)
10:52 A reporter just asked if there was any mechanism for determining whether Bush’s claims on benchmarks were actually true. (An amazingly astute question; will this guy keep his job?) Pelosi replied that she was sure Bush would be honest, that it was a “subjective call” but that the American public would know if he was telling the truth. (But we can tell you that now, Nancy!)
10:55 A reporter asked whether Pelosi would rewrite the bill to better “support the troops” if Bush vetoed it. She replied that she was sure he would not veto something requiring that the troops be ready. Of course, in the past that has been true. He has not vetoed those restrictions; he’s signing statemented them.[TOP]
Appropriations Committee Expected to Vote March 14
House Democrats Introduce
Legislation to Fund War
Democratic leader of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi introduced legislation to fund the Iraq war on March 8. The legislation is very similar to that introduced by Hillary Clinton in the Senate. That a woman was used to introduce war funding on International Women’s Day, a day that salutes the stand of women against war and for rights, was not missed.
President George W. Bush has already said he is the “decider” on all military matters, in Iraq, Afghanistan and potentially Iran and he will decide regardless of what Congress does. He has indicated he will veto the current bill if it does pass, insisting on presidential authority for war issues and opposing any timeline.
The House legislation introduced is specifically a supplemental appropriations bill, responding to the Bush request for an additional $100 billion for war against Iraq and Afghanistan. It is in addition to the Pentagon’s war budget of almost $500 billion for 2007-08, which will be debated later.
The supplemental bill reportedly calls for “redeployment” of U.S. troops from Iraq by September 1, 2008, just in time to push Iraq off the election agenda. “Redeployment” specifically leaves open the issue of where troops will be deployed. The legislation also calls for increasing aggression against Afghanistan, which the Democratic leadership has termed the “right war.” This includes $1.2 billion more for war against the people of Afghanistan. At the same time, it includes language to oppose an attack on Iran without Congressional authorization.
The legislation also follows the Clinton plan to codify, in U.S. law, interference in the affairs of another country. The Iraqis are required to meet certain “benchmarks,” concerning their governance, how they distribute their oil revenues, and conduct their “internal security”— meaning repression of resistance to U.S. satisfaction. President George W. Bush is to “certify” this progress. Failure to meet the “benchmarks” is supposed to trigger a more rapid “redeployment.”
In their effort to appear to support troops while refusing to bring them home now, it also includes additional funds for veterans contending with brain injuries and post traumatic stress syndrome. It includes requirements for troop training, equipment and rest, although President George W. Bush can waive these. The bill also has a variety of other measures designed to secure votes among those Democrats remaining opposed to more war funding, such as Maxine Waters and Barbara Lee, both of California. It includes funds for Gulf Coast recovery efforts, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, agriculture disaster programs, low-income assistance and “homeland security.”
Lee and others, on the same day, introduced an amendment to the bill requiring all funding to be used for an immediate withdrawal of troops.
The bill has to go before the House Appropriations Committee first, which is expected to vote on it March 14. It would then go before the full House later in the month or perhaps in April. The Senate has not yet submitted its specific supplemental appropriations bill.[TOP]
Representative Barbara Lee’s Amendment on Funding Withdrawal of Troops
Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), accompanied by colleagues from the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Out of Iraq Caucus, issued the following statement at a press conference on Capitol Hill March 8 to announce a plan to fully fund the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year:
“We are here today to discuss our proposal for Congress to fully fund the safe withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by December 31, 2007.
“The American people sent a clear message in November — they called on Congress to bring a responsible end to the Bush administration’s failed policy in Iraq, and that is what the Lee Amendment is designed to do.
“Let me briefly explain what the Lee Amendment would do.
“It would require that all funds appropriated for Iraq could be used only for the following purposes:
“First, to complete the withdrawal of all U.S. Armed Forces and military contractors from Iraq by December 31, 2007.
“And second, to provide for the protection of those forces and contractors during the course of that withdrawal.
“We also clarify that while this would effectively end our military occupation of Iraq, it does not prohibit or restrict funds from being used for diplomatic efforts or reconstruction.
“According to a Gallup poll out this week, 6 in 10 Americans (58 percent) want U.S. troops to be withdrawn within 12 months.
“This very simple proposal represents where the majority of Americans are with regard to Iraq, and we are in discussion with our leadership to consider this proposal in formulating the supplemental.”
Text of the Lee Amendment
Amendment To H.R. _____, As Reported, (Supplemental Appropriations, 2007), Offered By Ms. Lee Of California
At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following:
SEC. ___. (a) Funds appropriated for Operation Iraqi Freedom or otherwise made available to the Department of Defense under any provision of law may be obligated and expended within the Republic of Iraq only for the purpose of providing for—
(1) the continued protection of members of the Armed Forces who are in Iraq participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Department of Defense contractor personnel who are in Iraq performing contracts related to such Operation, pending and during the withdrawal of such members of the Armed Forces and such contractor personnel; and
(2) the safe and complete withdrawal from Iraq of all members of the Armed Forces and contractor personnel described in paragraph (1) pursuant to a plan that provides for completion of the withdrawal not later than December 31, 2007.
(b) Nothing in subsection (a) shall be construed to prohibit or otherwise restrict the use of funds available to any department or agency of the United States to carry out diplomatic efforts or social and economic reconstruction activities in Iraq.[TOP]
Impeach 2007 Campaign Launched
The impeachment movement is uniting and expanding. Democrats.com is joining with many other organizations to launch Impeach07, a coordinated series of nationwide actions aimed at impeaching Bush and Cheney through widespread public protest, creative dissent, media activism, education, and lobbying: http://www.impeach07.org
Bush and Cheney have misled this nation into an aggressive war, spied in open violation of the law, and sanctioned the use of torture among numerous other offenses. Newsweek reported in October that a majority of Americans favor impeachment, and in January that 58 percent said they wished the Bush administration were over. “Only a great popular upheaval,” historian Howard Zinn said recently, “can push both Republicans and Democrats into compliance with the national will.”
We need to end the Iraq War and prevent an Iran War, and impeachment is the way we will do it.
On March 17, the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war (and the 40th anniversary of the famous 1967 March on the Pentagon), Impeach07 will mobilize for a March on the Pentagon to demand peace and impeachment: www.marchonpentagon.org
On March 18-20, Impeach07 will organize local events for peace and impeachment around the country: www.afterdowningstreet.org/event
Impeach07 is also planning:
A “Make Hip Hop, Not War” bus tour promoting peace and impeachment on March 19 - April 21: www.hiphopcaucus.org
A boycott of major corporations that are profiting from the Bush administration’s policies, making a killing off of killing, on April 15- 22: www.wearenotbuyingit.org
And a nationwide day of protest: Impeachment Day, April 28, 2007: www.a28.org
Initial participating organizations represent hundreds of thousands of antiwar, military family, peace, youth and women activists and lawyers.
[TOP]
National Impeachment Push Announced
Impeach the president now, before a new war is started was the message underlining a meeting of 18 national peace and impeachment groups in New York on Feb. 17, according to organizers and participants.
The next two months will see a flurry of impeachment actions nationwide. The groups who took part in the meeting endorsed initiatives ranging from town meeting resolutions to holding mass demonstrations.
Represented at the meeting were The World Can’t Wait, organizers of the Vermont Town Meeting Day impeachment resolutions, Cindy Sheehan – Camp Casey, Gold Star Families for Peace, After Downing Street, United Methodist Church, Hip Hop Caucus, Progressive Democrats of America, ImpeachBush.org, ANSWER, Code Pink, Democrats.com, Climate Crisis Coalition, Green Party, Traprock Peace Center, Consumers for Peace, Just Foreign Policy, and A 28 (organizers for a national impeachment demonstration April 28), as well as individual writers, producers and activists. [Others joining the campaign include Backbone Campaign, Center for Constitutional Rights, Citizens Impeachment Commission, Democracy Rising, Impeach the President, Military Free Zone, National Lawyers Guild, Patriotic Response to Renegade Government, Independent Progressive Politics Network and Velvet Revolution.]
A march on the Pentagon is scheduled for March 17, calling for an end to the war and impeachment. Last week, representatives from 60 college campuses conferred to organize students to come out in large numbers. On April 28, additional impeachment demonstrations and actions will take place across the country.
This follows on the heels of protests and walkouts on several college campuses last week, one involving 400 University of California at Santa Barbara students blocking a freeway ramp. In Washington state and Vermont, impeachment resolutions were introduced in the state legislatures. In New Mexico, an impeachment resolution passed in the first of three committees on its way to the House floor.
The Vermont Town Meeting impeachment resolution campaign was recognized and efforts are underway to bring Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire towns on board.
The groups also endorsed a series of impeachment town meetings to occur across the country. These will range from debates and discussions to actual citizen hearings with witnesses, testimony and voting for (or against if they so decide) articles of impeachment. These articles would then be sent to Congress.
The Hip Hop Caucus, Books Not Bombs, and Iraq Veterans Against the War announced a national tour of rallies and events, targeting younger citizens in urban communities and on college campuses to take action against war. The tour is currently scheduled for 12 cities between March 19 and April 21 and is still adding dates to the schedule.
Saturday’s meeting was part of The World Can’t Wait’s emergency conference to impeach Bush for war crimes that was held in several locations in New York.
[TOP]
New Mexico Senate Joint Resolution
Petitioning Congress to Start Impeachment Proceedings Against Bush and Cheney
The New Mexico Senate Joint resolution has so far received a majority vote in two committees and is now facing a vote in the third, after which it is expected to be debated on the floor of the New Mexico Senate. As brought out in the resolution, the significance of resolutions passed at the state level is that they can serve to start impeachment proceedings at the federal level, according to rules of the U.S. House of Representatives. The House is responsible for initiating impeachment proceedings.
* * *
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 regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Section 371; and
WHEREAS, George W. Bush has admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance of American civilians without seeking warrants from the foreign intelligence surveillance court of review, duly constituted by Congress in 1978, in violation of Title 50 United States Code, Section 1805; and
WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney conspired to commit the torture of prisoners in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Chapter 113C, the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Geneva Conventions, which under Article VI of the United States Constitution are part of the “supreme Law of the Land”; and
WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney acted to strip American citizens of their constitutional rights by ordering indefinite detention without access to legal counsel, without charge and without the opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the president of a United States citizen as an “enemy combatant”, all in subversion of law; and
WHEREAS, in all of this, George W. Bush and Richard B.Cheney have acted in a manner contrary to their trust as president and vice president, subverting constitutional government to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of New Mexico and of the United States of America; and
WHEREAS, petitions from the country at large may be presented by the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, according to Clause 3 of House Rule XII; and
WHEREAS, Section 603 of Thomas Jefferson’s Manual on Parliamentary Practice and of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives states that impeachment may be set in motion by charges transmitted from the legislature of a state;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, warrant impeachment and trial and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the New Mexico congressional delegation be requested to cause to be instituted in the congress of the United States proper proceedings for the investigation of the activities of George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, to the end that they may be impeached and removed from their offices; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the secretary of state be instructed to certify and transmit to the speaker of the United States house of representatives and the clerk of the United States house of representatives, under the great seal of the state of New Mexico, a copy of this resolution and its adoption by the legislature of the state of New Mexico. The copies shall be marked with the word “Petition” at the top of the document and contain the original authorizing signature of the secretary of state.[TOP]