Op-Ed: Bush and Cheney Should Be in Handcuffs

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. often says that “we need to impeach President Bush as a civics lesson.” Apparently, our Congress does not agree. So if impeachment is “off the table,” what can We The People do to bring these two criminals to justice?

Guest Blogger Jack Mosel suggests in this original Op-Ed piece that it is time to take action at the local level, highlighting the case of one Vermont town which is setting an example as to how it can be done – and calls for other cities around the world to follow suit.

It stands to reason, after all, that if upon leaving office, Bush and Cheney have nowhere to run, they will have nowhere to hide. 

OP-ED: GEORGE W. BUSH AND DICK CHENEY SHOULD BE IN HANDCUFFS, NOT IN THE WHITE HOUSE

By Jack Mosel

Guest Blogger

“Bush and Cheney: Arrested for Gross Violations of International and U.S. Law!”

A new proposal in the township of Brattleboro, Vermont — authorizing local law enforcement to arrest Bush and Cheney — would make this headline a reality, should either of them step inside the town’s jurisdiction.

The Brattleboro proposal is to be voted on in the coming weeks at a town hall meeting. This innovative solution is up for discussion thanks to the hard work of community activists, who petitioned citywide to have the motion put to a vote.

The petition — with more than 436 signatures, or at least the 5 percent of voters necessary to be considered — was duly submitted and the town Select Board voted 3-2 to put it on the ballot. It goes to a town-wide vote March 4.

“This petition is as radical as the Declaration of Independence, and it draws on that tradition in claiming a universal jurisdiction when governments fail to do what they’re supposed to do,” said Kurt Daims, 54, a retired machinist leading the drive.

Daims has been circulating documents that claim the community acquires a “universal jurisdiction” to take such steps “when governments breach their highest duties.”

“We have the full power to issue indictments, conduct trials, incarcerate offenders and do all other acts which Independent jurisdictions may of right do,” the statement says.

The measure asks: “Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictment for consideration by other municipalities?”

Fearful of the indictment, Bush and Cheney are mounting a counteroffensive. But in town after town in Vermont, the people have voted to support impeachment recognizing that Bush and Cheney have committed high crimes and misdemeanors.

After a concerned citizen’s call to 911, the Tyranny Response Team does their patriotic duty.

JAIL TO THE CHIEF

The Brattleboro indictment of Bush and Cheney is reflective of the tide of opposition to the current administration. The people of this country are refusing to let Bush leave office without facing charges for his criminal deeds.

Just this week, the New Hampshire State House held an impeachment hearing, which was flooded by activists and community members insisting that the state legislature take action.

Hollywood actor Ed Asner wrote a letter for the hearing expressing his support for the resolution, which indicts Bush for “invading Iraq without just cause or provocation.”

This, I submit, is the call for citizen activism for our voices to be heard on the subject of whether High Crimes and Misdemeanors are actually relevant as defined by the Constitution of the United States. 

What I mean by that is simply put: Does the activity of a collection of townships and state legislatures (as of late Westchester County, NY included) taking proactive legal steps towards indictments of our President and Vice President seem over-reactive? Or are they simply stepping up to the plate and doing the one thing Congress lacks the courage to do?

This isn’t a question of a few isolated communities anymore. City, County, and State governments are getting more done at the local level on this matter than the members of the actual House of Representatives, whose task it is to introduce Articles of Impeachment.

The ‘Pyramid’ is upside down… Those folks in Washington work for us, not the other way around.

The elected officials in Washington, D.C. are going to have to take a stand and be accountable for either their ability to represent the best interest of their constituents and their country — or not.

On his perp walk down the runway, the Veep demonstrates the latest fall colors; orange jumpsuits are all the rage this year.

THE CONSTITUTION IS A WAR CASUALTY

A small town in Vermont’s resolution instructing their local police to arrest the President of the United States and the Vice President of the United States for Acts of Treason is awe inspiring… Awe inspiring to the extent that it is embarrassing to our elected representatives in Washington who failed us. Again. 

Don’t get me wrong. I am proud of every local government which feels that they have no other choice but to do this. I’m quite sure that they would not pursue these activities if they did not have the legal authority to do so. They have taken a bold stand for the rule of law and are sending a strong message to those in Congress, in cities around the country, and indeed around the world.  

There is something burning foks…It’s the smell of a nearly 220 year-old parchment (which our president calls “just a goddamn piece of paper!”), printed from the actual blood of people like you and me. The movement for a free Republic, the Revolutionary war we fought to win that freedom, and the signing of our Constitution in Philadelphia all those years ago is not so different from the activities which are currently going on in Brattleboro, Vermont, Concord, New Hampshire, or Westchester, New York. (Home to both Sen. Hillary Clinton and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.).

The Constitution is a War Casualty… This is from the desk of ‘The Decider’. Our voices not being heard and the relentless refusal to not entertain the motions of Articles of Impeachment, is simply un-Patriotic, un-American and un-fair!

Why should we take a stand? Because it isn’t always about us, folks. The rest of the world is watching and waiting to see what we are going to do about our situation. They know that there are huge discrepancies afoot in our country’s actions over the last 8 years…that our deeds don’t live up to our words.

How are we going to save our face and continue to live up to the world’s expectations of America being a great, successful, democratic power if we handicap ourselves by taking the word of a handful of people who unilaterally claim to know best for all of us? Whatever happened to the “consent of the governed?”

When asked to testify for the 9/11 Commission about their prior knowledge of the attack on America, or about their activities on that day, both our president and our vice president balked, delayed, refused, and then finally (sort of) complied. But only with conditions — such as no record of the discussion, no paper allowed in the room, no sworn statements in testimony and no public participation…and we let this happen.

I have serious questions…and to this day, they remain unanswered. Obviously. I am not a nut. I am a father, a husband, an active community volunteer, an environmentalist by profession. I am a New Yorker born and raised, and I am still outraged that this heinous crime was committed in my state. I care about my country and the people I call Americans who live this dream with me, and above all, I am a realist.

The facts we’ve been given about what happened on September 11th and why we went to war just don’t add up.  The ones that do point to politicians at the highest levels of our own government needing to answer these questions, even if we have to arrest them in order to get to the truth. The record needs to be straightened out for the sake of history, the true perpetrators must be brought to justice once and for all.  So that your children and mine can have the same great American dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness our forefathers gave us.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Jack Mosel is an an environmental activist and owner of Aquatic Restoration, LLC. He can be contacted at: moseljack@yahoo.com.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions in the above editorial are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. or the owners of this website.

“We Need to Impeach Bush as a Civics Lesson” Says RFK Jr.

“It’s important to impeach Bush as a civics lesson — to say to the American people that America doesn’t torture people. We do not intercept the telephone conversations of hundreds of thousands of American citizens illegally.

You can’t just tear up the Bill of Rights. 

He has to be impeached. The American people have to remember how sacred the Constitution of the United States is.”

   
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to send a message

Author lists mountaintop removal among ‘Crimes Against Nature’
   
By Ken Ward Jr.
   
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. flew over the West Virginia coalfields this week to get a better view of mountaintop removal mines.

Kennedy lunched with West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney, and listened to coalfield residents during a staged town meeting at a Raleigh County church.

The three-day tour was all part of Kennedy’s effort to get a wider audience to hear his message about the “Crimes Against Nature” — the title of his 2004 book — that he says companies commit and governments ignore.

Filmmaker Angus Yates and writer Clara Bingham are turning Kennedy’s book into a movie, a move that has drawn comparisons to the Oscar-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” about Al Gore’s famous global warming slide show. And as it did in the book, mountaintop removal in West Virginia is expected to be among Kennedy’s examples of environmental outrages. Parts of the film, for example, will focus on the battle over a huge coal processing plant and waste impoundment near Marsh Fork Elementary School near Sundial.

“It’s more than a sound bite,” Kennedy said during an interview Wednesday in Charleston. “It’s the destruction of a resource.”

Kennedy had seen mountaintop removal from the air before. After a May 2002 flight, he recounted the view in his book as “a sight that would sicken most Americans.” After this week’s flyover, Kennedy said the damage had only gotten worse.

“Even if they stop today, they’ve done so much damage,” Kennedy said, his voice trailing off. “This is the worst stuff  I’ve seen anywhere.”

Kennedy is an environmental lawyer and the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and a nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy. Even before his book was published, Kennedy was speaking out about mountaintop removal. During an October 2001 speech at the University of Charleston, he called the practice “the worst example of what human beings can do to their environment when they behave irresponsibly.”

And in Kennedy’s view, it is pollution — not environmental regulations that restrict pollution — that amounts to a legal “taking” or a crime against society. “If you pollute a creek and a child gets sick, that’s child abuse,” Kennedy said. “If you pollute air and a child has an asthma attack, that’s assault and battery.”

Above all, Kennedy says that blowing up mountains and burying streams is taking precious resources that rightly belong to the public and to future generations. “They are stealing historic landscapes,” Kennedy said. “They are stealing an entire state.”

And like Gore, Kennedy also connects environmental problems to large issues in society. He favors campaign finance reform, thinks newspapers and other media need to do more investigative reporting, and wants to impeach President Bush.

“It’s important to impeach Bush as a civics lesson — to say to the American people that America doesn’t torture people,” Kennedy said. “We do not intercept the telephone conversations of hundreds of thousands of American citizens illegally.

“You can’t just tear up the Bill of Rights,” he said. “He has to be impeached. The American people have to remember how sacred the Constitution of the United States is.”
   

Story from the Charleston Gazette.