An Inspiration

Granny D (Doris Haddock) died today at 100 years of age. Her presence on this planet was a reminder of what  engaged citizenship means. I drew inspiration from her quiet but courageous life. Her encouragement of  my own trek for justice was spiritual nourishment. Her tenaciousness, patience, and sensibleness for a cause worth fighting for was a reminder to me that one person can make a difference. I will miss you Granny D.

It looked so promising only a few short months ago. And yes, there is a new fresher tone coming from the administration. And yes, health care reform is almost positioned to take its first serious step forward. But on balance, the special interests whether promoting various corporations or permanent war, are back in business and Obama seems helpless to alter the course of their inevitable self-serving and destructive agendas. Now, we must speak up and say no more war. Please read the following. It is a letter from former Maine Senatorial candidate Laurie Dobson to Barack Obama urging him to end the wars and create a Marshall Plan type program instead. Please sign it and send it to the White House. Please also forward it to your friends. Now is the time – before Obama gets dragged into an escalation.

Dear Peace Activists,
Perform an act of courage today, Veteran’s Day.
Today, we Americans honor the spirit of intent which was established in the founding of the original Veteran’s Day: that people everywhere should deplete the ranks of veterans, and honor their spirit, by ending the practices of war. In that same spirit, please rekindle the patriotic impulse which led
those brave people to become ardent pacifists.

Please, rekindle this fervor in a small act of courage, by sending this letter to all your lists and email contacts. We are people who must oppose war by acts of courage, including sending mail to those perhaps not eager to receive letters of exhortation, whether to Obama on this matter of war escalation, or letters in general.
Please raise this letter to the level of priority which is due on the brink of an announcement of threatened troop escalation. What do we stand for on this venerable day if not this? Do your part to honor those who have shown us their courage: mail this letter to the people you know.

Please endorse, post and forward to your lists.
Thank you,
Laurie Dobson

OPEN LETTER FROM THE PEACE MOVEMENT TO PRESIDENT OBAMA
ON HIS UPCOMING DECISION REGARDING THE AFGHAN WAR

Dear Mr. President:

According to press reports, you intend to decide, sometime in November, whether or not to send tens of thousands of American soldiers to Afghanistan. We are writing in advance of that decision to add our voice to those of Sen. Feingold, many House Democrats, and of a clear majority of Americans in urging you not to escalate this war, but rather to announce an immediate cease-fire followed by a withdrawal of all US troops in the fastest way consistent with the safety of our forces. We urge you to end the policy of using Predator drones to assassinate Pakistani civilians on the territory of their own country, in defiance of all concepts of international law.
We also call upon you to cease all covert CIA and Pentagon operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran.

No vital American interest is at stake in Afghanistan. Former Marine and State Department official Matthew Hoh is right: the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan have come to be viewed as invaders and occupiers, and the resistance they encounter has nothing to do withinternational terrorism. This war is futile, and now doomed to failure. There is no military solution to the problems that beset Afghanistan. Afghanistan and the rest of this tragically war-torn
region need a Marshall Plan of peaceful economic development, through which some of the 15 million unemployed workers in our own country could find productive jobs. We have no confidence in the advice being given to you by military leaders like Gen. McChrystal, who has been implicated in torture in Iraq.

Many of us supported your candidacy because we viewed you as the best chance for ending the wars of the Bush era. We applauded your rejection of the rhetoric of fear and division that was the stock in trade of Bush and Cheney. We are alarmed by the way that rhetoric has crept into your public pronouncements since your August address in Phoenix. Your decision on Afghanistan will represent the decisive turning point of your presidency. If you turn away from war, you will provide a profile in courage that will solidify your support and open up a new perspective for progressive reforms in our
country. You will honor the spirit of John F. Kennedy, who was searching for an exit strategy from the Vietnam war. If you opt for a wider war, the resulting heavy casualties will destroy confidence in your leadership among your own most devoted advocates. Hundreds of billions of dollars will be poured down a rat hole, and will no longer be available for any reform and renovation of American society, which will increasingly fall behind the economic strength of other countries. Your domestic agenda will be halted, in the same way your predecessor Lyndon B. Johnson was crippled by the Vietnam war. Escalation of the Afghan war, in short, would be an act of political suicide for you, and of national suicide for our country.

We are keenly aware of the difficulties and animosities you face, and we have long done everything possible to give your administration the benefit of
the doubt, even in the face of repeated disappointments. But we now approach the moment of truth: will you be a great progressive president, or will you prove too weak to turn away from the bankrupt policies institutionalized and entrenched under Bush and Cheney.
Therefore, we want you to know our attitude before you decide on the proposed Afghan escalation. If you choose to escalate, we will oppose this policy with all the energy we possess. We will act to mobilize the largest possible anti-war demonstration in Washington DC and other cities before the end of
2009, and continuously thereafter. We will support anti-war candidates of any party in the 2010 elections. If you are still waging the Afghan war in 2011, we will be forced to seriously consider backing an explicitly anti-war primary candidate to challenge you during the Democratic primaries.

We therefore respectfully urge you to act in the spirit of your 2008 campaign – the spirit of hope and change, neither of which can survive the continuation or expansion of the hopeless Afghan war.
Signed by the following anti-war organizations and peace activists:

Laurie Dobson, Maine Independent U.S. Senate Candidate 2008, Camp Alex for Peace, Maine

Cynthia McKinney, DIGNITY

Herb Hoffman, Maine Independent U.S. Senate Candidate 2008, Veterans for Peace, Maine

Bruce Marshall, Act Independent, Peace Candidate, Vermont

Sue Serpa, Jobs for Afghans, Massachusetts

A great letter, in my opinion. If appropriate please disseminate.
Harold Trainer

I would like to endorse Laurie’s letter.
Prof. William R. Woodward
Cynthia Papermaster, Former Candidate for U.S. Congress, CA-13

Carol Wolman, MD 2008 Green Candidate for Congress, CA District 1

I would gladly sign this letter. Thanks,
Amy Harlib

I heartily endorse!
Kevin Barrett, 2008 Libertarian Candidate for Congress, WI-3, Wisconsin

Pat Westwater-Jong, Massachusetts

gala.travel @comcast.net
an awesome letter
Barry Aleshnick Bush Indictment Council, Vermont

a beautiful letter
Denise Pentilla, Maine

I will gladly sign your letter
Leslie Bell, Hillary Voters for McCain

Captain Ron Fisher US Navy (retired), WeThePeopleNow.org, Virginia

Emily Peyton, Brattleboro Indictment Initiative, Vermont

Jerry Call One of the Baucus 13, Maine Healthcare Reform

Helmut Becker, Canada

Ellen Brown, California

Michele Thomas

Great job! Thanks, Marian Galbraith, California
Please…urge him to live up to his Nobel prize, including NOT sending more troops to Afghanistan… Thank you,
Pamela Allee, Oregon

Sean Mulligan, Georgia

Lynne Williams, current Green Independent Party Candidate for Maine’s Governor, Maine

Jamilla El-Shafei Save Our Water, Maine/Washington D.C. Protest Organizer, Maine

Mike Hammer, Texas
John Hazard, Minnesota

Bob Smith(Big Tree) New Broom Coalition

Leslee Goodman, Washington

Ellen Brown, Economist, California

Charles Feldman, Rhode Island

Alan McConnell, Maryland

It’s great! Lee Loe, Texas
Laurie’s Letter is indeed the opening shot to making War Itself Obsolete and to Pursue the Rightful Interests of Humanity and the
Planet as a Whole — The Women of The Spiritual UN /http://www.thespiritualun.org, Amber in Virginia
Suzanne Hedrick, Maine

Martha’s Vineyard Peace Council, Massachusetts

Chris Fried, Massachusetts
I, too, agree that we, the people, should strongly urge the President to follow the path of peace and not continue the old Bush policies of aggression
against the Afghan people.
Beverly Harris, Texas

Gail Mitchell Barrington NH Activist
Thank you for this letter Laurie! President Obama….please read our heartfelt statement here.
Nancy J M White, white, active & voting female from New Hampshire/Northeast Impeachment Coalition/Women Making a Difference

Thanks, everyone, for your support, your encouragement and for your idealistic optimism.

This is my last post. I have run out of words. And, let’s face it, words have proven completely ineffective in moving the media or the government to restore the Constitution and to hold our political criminals accountable for their extraordinary crimes. Bush Cheney have been allowed to walk and have a free pass to continue violating the law and the spirit of the law until they leave office. The evidence of monumental corruption is obvious and widespread. No more words are needed to prove the case that Bush Cheney have long ago violated laws that would under normal circumstances result in impeachment, conviction and jail terms. So…to hell with them all.

Vote Nader.

Over and out.

Hint: It’s not a Republican. I have concluded that the reason the Democrats are avoiding an impeachment is simply because, like Toto pulling back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz, what we would see would be so much worse than merely the evidence of already voluminous crimes committed by this administration. We would see that the entire system has been infested with a fatal case of rot requiring the demolition of the house itself.

Our federal level democracy would be shown to be a shallow shell of its former self, lost somewhere between Ford’s pardon of Nixon (or Reagan’s swearing in) and the advice given John McCain by erstwhile Democrat and former Vice Presidential Candidate Joe Lieberman. Lieberman, the first admitted Republicrat actually told McCain to simply ignore Congress in pursuit of his Iraq policy, domestic spying, and relations with the Middle East.

The single most salient take-away from the last eight years is that there is now a new tool in the already extra-Constitutional toolbox of the imperial Presidency. A President need not worry about a legislative censure when he does what he pleases. Simply ignoring the Congress and doing what he wants, regardless of its legality, as if to say, “I dare you to stop me” to Congress, is the new norm. But now, he need not even dare Congress. Congress’s insistent and steadfast inaction has already proven to be consent. There is no longer even the slightest pretense of using the obligatory checks and balances to restrain the abuses of executive power. There isn’t even the pretense of playing by the rules. HELLO? ANYBODY OUT THERE?

Opening impeachment hearings would force us to deal with the alcoholic in the family – the punch drunk, power crazy, bully we call the President. But to do so wouldn’t just limit the inquiry to documented abuses and crimes, it would unleash a flood of enabling henchmen who have handsomely profited from the shameless, even proud dereliction of duty of this administration. They would so disrupt the proceedings and the public discussion that Washington and the media would be buried in trash-talk. The resultant chaos would make unbelievers out of the most patriotic Americans.

The best case scenario, if impeachment proceedings did bog down, there would be a rise in cynicism to the point of mass alienation from the system. The worst case scenario if impeachment failed would be that the definitive end of America as we know it would be written for eternity in the transcripts.

However, if the Democrats could somehow develop the intestinal fortitude to shut down the obfuscaters, the detractors, and sideshow barkers, the sociopaths now defending those in power, to complete the impeachment process and actually hold the President and Vice President accountable, the relief of the people, after the restoration of our guiding principles, would be a sigh heard ’round the world. But the Dems have no spine and not the slightest inclination to move on impeachment, soooooo…..

www.Wethepeopleimpeach.org placed this ad in Roll Call, the newspaper of the pols in Washington, D.C. Put it in your hometown newspaper. Send copies to your Representatives.

If you can’t download this in a usable fashion, visit their website. www.wethepeopleimpeach.org. It’s on their homepage, but you need to scroll down.

Congressman Kucinich has laid out an extensive indictment of the president. Here is the index of proposed articles of impeachment:

Article I
Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq

Article II
Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of
Aggression

Article III
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War

Article IV
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States

Article V
Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression

Article VI
Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes114

Article VII
Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.

Article VIII
Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter

Article IX
Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor

Article X
Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes

Article XI
Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq

Article XII
Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation’s Natural Resources

Article XIIII
Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries

Article XIV
Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency

Article XV
Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq

Article XVI
Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors

Article XVII
Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives

Article XVIII
Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy

Article XIX
Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to “Black Sites” Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture

Article XX
Imprisoning Children

Article XXI
Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government

Article XXII
Creating Secret Laws

Article XXIII
Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act

Article XXIV
Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment

Article XXV
Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens

Article XXVI
Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements

Article XXVII
Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply

Article XXVIII
Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice

Article XXIX
Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Article XXX
Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare

Article XXXI
Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency

Article XXXII
Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change

Article XXXIII
Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.

Article XXXIV
Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001

Article XXXV
Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders

The full text of the articles is available at:

http://chun.afterdowningstreet.org/amomentoftruth.pdf

Congressman Wexler has announced today, that Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers officially invited Mr. McClellan to testify under oath on Friday, June 20th at 10AM.

Mr. McClellan was a major figure in the Valerie Plame/CIA scandal, as well as a leading propagandist for the Bush White House’s deliberate attempts to hide the true costs of this war from the American public.   As such, Mr. McClellan will testify under oath (and be subject to perjury charges should he lie) and be asked about the following matters:

1. What role did President Bush, Vice President Cheney , and key administration officials take in the effort to reveal the identity of covert CIA agent Valeria Plame Wilson – thus destroying her network and putting lives in jeopardy?
2. What role did President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and key administration officials take regarding the firing of U.S. Attorneys or political reasons?
3. What role did President Bush, Vice President Cheney, key administration officials take in conspiring to blatantly break U.S. and International laws prohibiting the use of torture?

Nor should it stop there:  Karl Rove has thumbed his nose to the Judiciary Committee’s subpoena – joining Harriet Miers, Joshua Bolten and Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff David Addington as the only Administration officials in history to claim Congress has no power to even bring them before a committee to be questioned.

Wexler has called for Karl Rove to be held in inherent contempt and for the other renegade officials to appear as required by their subpoenas, or be forced to do so by the House Sergeant of Arms.

Our nation’s self-respect demands impeachment

By LINDA BOYD
GUEST COLUMNIST

I wept to see Sami al Haj embrace his young son for the first time after six years in Guantanamo prison. Sami al Haj, a Sudanese news cameraman, was seized in Pakistan while working for al Jazeera News. He was imprisoned, tortured and brutalized by Americans while there. Like most prisoners held at Guantanamo, al Haj was never tried or charged.

After his release, Sami al Haj arrived in Sudan and was immediately rushed to a hospital by ambulance, weakened by his 438-day hunger strike in Guantanamo. His message to our government: “Torture does not stop terrorism, torture is terrorism.”

The U.S. government evidence against him says, “He was trained in the use of cameras by al Jazeera News.”

The American people have a choice ahead of them. They can continue to be shamed as a nation of torturers, or they can put a stop to this administration’s ongoing crimes against humanity.

Abusing and terrorizing innocent people doesn’t make us safer. Imprisoning people without due process doesn’t make us safer. Violating our laws, treaties and values doesn’t make us safer.

U.S. military and FBI interrogation experts affirm that testimony obtained under torture is inaccurate and unreliable. In May, the FBI issued a scathing 371-page report on torture and war crimes compiled from observations at Guantanamo. Even the CIA concluded in a 1963 study that coercion is “not very helpful outside the context of producing false propaganda.”

George W. Bush said, “We do not condone torture. I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture.”

Recently, Bush admitted that he knew top administration officials met repeatedly in the White House to discuss coercive interrogation techniques, including torture, and that he “approved them.”

President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and top administration officials have in fact condoned torture, and violated domestic and international laws that ban cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of human beings.

These laws include the Geneva Conventions, the 1984 U.N. Convention Against Torture and the U.S. Constitution. These laws are not invalidated, as the Bush team alleges, if prisoners are not on U.S. soil.

Torture laws are jus cogens, meaning “compelling law,” said constitutional law Professor Marjorie Cohn, in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. “There can be no immunity from criminal liability for violation of a jus cogens prohibition.”

Being a rogue nation is not in our best interest and exposes our soldiers and citizens to grave danger. Why hasn’t Congress stopped torture?

It is unconscionable to simply wait for the torture team to leave office while hapless individuals are imprisoned without due process and tortured. Sami al Haj spoke of the many prisoners languishing in Guantanamo. In despair, many have tried to commit suicide.

Taking impeachment off the table means there is no limit to the Bush team’s depravity, and that torture will continue in our name.

The administration is already expanding prisons around the world, where the abuse of human rights will continue. A new 40-acre prison is under construction in Afghanistan.

While Guantanamo’s prison population is shrinking, prisoners from around the world are being redirected to U.S. prisons in Iraq, where they’ll be more hidden from the public eye. Particularly disturbing are reports of children imprisoned by the U.S. in the Middle East and Guantanamo.

Eventually, some of our highest officials will be tried for war crimes in a court of international law.

Already, charges of condoning torture are advancing against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in France. Author Philippe Sands quotes a judge with experience in international criminal cases who says “It’s a matter of time” before members of the Bush administration are arrested for war crimes while traveling abroad.

Why bother with impeachment if charges for war crimes will eventually catch up with the torture team?

Criminal charges can punish individuals for their crimes, but impeachment has the power to restore the rule of law, and redeem the office of the executive. Impeachment hearings will put the truth on the congressional record. Unlike other subpoenas, impeachment subpoenas cannot be denied.

Impeachment establishes legal precedent, so that future public officials will not be able to abuse power in the same way. The American people can signal to the world that they have taken responsibility for their own government, and ensure that torture will never again be this nation’s policy.

We must demand that Congress make ending torture the top priority. They know about torture, and their silence makes them complicit.

The eyes of the world are upon us. There’s plenty of time to impeach. Our self-respect as a nation demands it.

Linda Boyd is director of Washington for impeachment; washingtonforimpeachment.org

I remember the exact year I learned that mom was Santa Klaus. My older brother shattered my Santa fantasy with a level of glee that devastated me. I was seven. Some believe I held that idea too long, anyway. Still, he just blurted it out like he couldn’t help himself any longer. He sure didn’t want to play along for one more year. He was a big shot getting ready to move into junior high school. He picked Christmas Eve to break the news.

“Really, mom?” I asked him.

“Do you see a chimney anywhere?”

“No of course not, he comes down the fire escape, not the fireplace, stupid.”

“Ha. Well how fast would he have to be to reach every apartment in the world? And how long would THAT take? You’re the stupid one, you little creep. Come here,” he said, beckoning me to follow him the few steps to the hall closet. At seven years of age I was introduced to the idea of empirical evidence. He opened the closet, moved away some clothes, and lifted a fallen coat to reveal beautifully wrapped red boxes with green and gold bows.

“So, maybe he came early. He’s got a lot of stops you know,” I said desperately holding on to my illusion.

“Look idiot, no old man in any red suit is going to be flying through the sky behind reindeer. Have you ever even seen a reindeer? Besides, what’s he gonna do? Park his sleigh on the roof, crawl down that rickety old fire escape, and break through all the locked windows without anyone seeing him?”

At least he hadn’t slapped me around yet or called me a moron. “But mom wouldn’t lie…” I yelled.

“She has to. All old people do, everyone does,” he blurted out disappointed that his truth telling was taking so long to get through to me.

I was clearly shaken. First it was the Tooth Fairy, then the Easter Bunny, now Santa. My world was crumbling much too fast. I had this foreboding that Peter Pan and Tinkerbell wouldn’t be far behind.

“Prove it!” I demanded. “So what if there were wrapped boxes in the closet.”

“Okay, moron, tonight we stay up and watch the fire escape.”

Uh oh, he called me a moron. “I’m not a moron. You are.” I said in utter frustration, knowing he was probably right but not wanting him to be. “You’ll see.”

I’d fallen asleep but he wouldn’t let me off the hook. He wakened me at 11:30 whipping my covers off and in a loud whisper while shaking me, he said, “Okay, moron, now we’ll see.”

I couldn’t refuse. I sat up and looked at the fire escape. A moment later I said, “What if he doesn’t come tonight because you’ve been so bad to me?”

“Yeah, well if that’s the case, I won’t get a present tomorrow, right?

“Right.”

“Wanna bet I do?”

“Well, um…” I was trapped. I knew it. He knew it. “Yeah, how much?”

Let’s just say I lost the bet, was miserable through New Year’s, and grew up much too quickly.

Today, I realize the Constitution, much like Santa, is a figment of our collective mythology. We hail the document for establishing a system of law not of men, of creating the checks and balances and the separation of powers that have defined our governance system as a bold experiment in representative democracy. But, alas, the Constitution has been rendered a mere piece of paper to be read on Constitution Day. Our rogue President, enabling Congress, disinterested media, and complacent public have proven the Constitution no longer matters; it really is just a piece of paper. That suits the politicians just fine. As we have seen, there are more important reasons for using impeachment than sending troops to die in a war of choice, torture, spying etc etc. Extra marital affairs and hiring hookers and extramarital affairs and hiring hookers and oh, DUIs are now the only generally accepted uses for the impeachment provision of the Constitution.

No matter how old I get, it is good to know I still have much to learn. I feel a deep melancholy but will get over it. I have accepted the fact that the world is round and there is no Santa. So, I’ll just have to accept that we do not have a functioning Constitution any longer – at least not one that Presidents need follow.

Just when I was wondering what happened to him, he must have been re-awakened – as many of us were – by the Scott McClellan bombshell. Well, not so much a bombshell, we knew what he reports, but coming from him it carries a huge amount of weight. Maybe now Congress will stop playing out the clock. I’m glad to see Wexler’s not wasting any time. Read, support him, and pass it on.

A Message From Congressman Wexler (abridged):

Last night, significant news broke that directly impacts our push for Impeachment Hearings and a possible Inherent Contempt charge for Bush Administration officials such as Karl Rove:

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has revealed in his upcoming book that:

• Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and Vice President Cheney lied about their role in revealing the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson – actions easily amounting to obstruction of Justice.

McClellan also admitted that:

• There was a coordinated effort within the Bush Administration to use propaganda to pump up the case for the Iraq war and hide the projected costs of the war from the public.

Scott McClellan must be called to testify under oath before the House Judiciary Committee to tell Congress and the American people everything he knows about this massive effort by the White House to deceive this nation into war.

Last week, a subpoena was issued for Karl Rove to testify before the Judiciary Committee. It appears he will take every legal action to block this subpoena. The truth is that Congress has the right – and obligation – to hold him accountable now – not months or years from now. It is long past time to pass Inherent Contempt and bring Rove, Libby and others before Congress.

We simply cannot ignore these recent developments, nor should we postpone serious inquiry until after the next election.…..

Many of you have written me, asking for an update on where we stand with regards to impeachment hearings. I know most of you believe – as I do – that impeachment hearings for Vice President Cheney – are not only justified, but that it is our constitutional obligation to look into the serious allegations of wrongdoing that have been raised. This is especially true based on the newest revelations from Scott McClellan….

I understand the challenges that we are up against, and I recognize the odds that we face. Nevertheless, I remain unfazed and unyielding.

This new evidence from Scott McClellan could be the tipping point – but we must move quickly. I will use the McClellan admissions to help convince my colleagues that we must hold impeachment hearings.

Sincerely,

Congressman Robert Wexler

Let’s help him out. Call your Congressperson, Pelosi’s office and Conyers’ office. Yes, they are tired of hearing from you. Tell them to act on the new evidence and to support the issuance of an inherent contempt citation. Impeach Cheney. Arrest Rove. Subpoena McClellan.