On last night's Bill Moyers: America Has Lost Its Democracy, & Impeachment is for THIS MOMENT

[The Cleaner]

An excellent program last night! I hope alot of you got a chance to see it. I really think it bolstered the argument for impeachment. In fact if anyone was on the fence, after this program I cannot imagine them still being against impeachment.

Anyway the panelists were great, and I found Bill Moyers being very fair and balanced about the whole thing. He had a very good commentary at the end.

Basically they said that impeachment was created for such a time as this. Also that Congress needs to get a spine and consider the precedent we are setting - that future Presidents will have this power too, a "toolbox" of new powers that no president has had before, representing a threat to our democracy and our Constitution if we don't do something about it NOW, impeach Bush and Cheney.

This is our country people - impeachment SHOULD be a priority. Otherwise we are rolling over on our backs and asking for the final stab through the heart.

[librechik]

1. Impeachment takes too long?

if we would quit standing around talking about it and just do it, it would go quickly. The actual court process with Clinton took about 2 months. And as far as investigations go, we've been doing that all along-except for what they won't give up anyway. Even without subpoenas we have enough to impeach.

They say that we can't because it would preoccupy the congress and nothing would get done. We have to face the fact that we are really fucked--we aren't going to get ANYHTING done in this congress anyway, since the Senate has been broken by the pukkkes. Impeachment happens in the House, and we have the House!

We will lose it all--our entire democratic experiement, our Constitution FOR the People-- if we don't do something and quickly.

Sigh. Won't happen.

[pocoloco]

2. The really amazing thing is that there are so many people

here who do not understand this and oppose impeachment.

[rodeodance]

3. repost-for morning crowd:----toll free numbers to call Pelosi/congresscritters

Forum Name General Discussion: Politics
Topic subject I just watched many on DU get passionately excited about Bill Moyers show
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3376163#3376163
3376163, I just watched many on DU get passionately excited about Bill Moyers show
Posted by rodeodance on Fri Jul-13-07 10:28 PM

on PBS tonight (see a few threads below).
John Nichols and Bruce Fein were guests-----It was all about impeachment.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2007/07/poll_civil_liberties_and_natio_1.html


While we are excited (well, at least some of us)----lets flood her office and phones.

"impeachment is not a constitutional crisis like many believe but a Cure for a constitutional crisis" (paraphrasing from the show tonight)



AND: from http://pelosiwatch.us/content/view/163/139 /
A clip of: John Nichols - The Genius of Impeachment

Also see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdilpQkZ-e8
YouTube - John Nichols - The Genius of Impeachment

AND:
Cheney's Actions Put Impeachment on the Table
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/?pid=213909
.........

That's an increasingly popular sentiment among Congressional Democrats, who are breaking with Pelosi to speak the "i" word.

It is an even more popular sentiment among the American people.

According to recent polling by the American Research Group, 54 percent of Americans want Cheney impeached. Among Democrats, that number rises to 76 percent. A majority of self-described independents back action to hold the vice president to account, as do a striking 17 percent of Republicans. With conservatives such as former Reagan administration lawyer Bruce Fein coming out strongly for Cheney's impeachment, the numbers of Republicans who are pulling for accountability is likely to grow.

........Conyers, who has made little secret of his belief that the president and vice president have taken actions that are in conflict with the Constitution, has yet to endorse H. Res. 333. But he is feeling pressure to do so. In May, the Detroit City Council voted to support impeachment of Bush and Cheney for misleading Congress and the public regarding the threat from Iraq, approving spying on the American people, conspiring to encourage the use of torture and acting to strip American citizens of their constitutional rights by ordering indefinite detention without access to legal counsel..........

The arguments for impeachment are varied, to be sure.

But at the heart of the growing enthusiasm for putting the process in motion is a sense that Congress can no longer neglect abuses of power by a lawless executive branch.

"The Founders intended impeachment to be used when those running the government forgot that they worked for the people, and the Founders intended impeachment to be used when those running the government acted as though they were above the law," explains Congressman McDermott, who argues that, "The vice president holds himself above the law, and it is time for the Congress to enforce the law.".............
Contact Pelosi: http://speaker.gov / (Speaker Website)

Send and email to the Speaker at: http://speaker.gov/contact /

OR send a letter or call her at:

Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
[phone]

AND call your Congress-critters Dem and Repug alike-

--From a previous DU post:

call your critters and let them know you're upset.

If you don't, then how will they actually know? They need some input from us!

Tut-tut

edited to add this (H/T calmari):

1 (800) 828 - 0498

1 (800) 459 - 1887

1 (800) 614 - 2803

1 (866) 340 - 9281

1 (866) 338 - 1015

1 (866) 220 - 0044

1 (877) 851 - 6437

ANY ONE of these will connect you to the Capitol Hill switchboard which, in turn, will transfer you to anyone's office in the House and/or Senate. Just for the asking!

Forum Name General Discussion
Topic subject For All Those Who Should Think Impeachment Should Be Off Of The
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1330471#1330471
1330471, For All Those Who Should Think Impeachment Should Be Off Of The
Posted by malaise on Fri Jul-13-07 08:48 PM

Table!!

Nancy Pelosi et al are you listening to Bill Moyers?
Are you listening to Bruce Fein and John Nichols

Impeachment is the cure for a Constitutional Crisis.

What a fabulous discussion.

The Constitution is more important than Bush and Cheney. Hold them to account. IMPEACH!!IMPEACH!!

This is the best program I've watched in years.

Edit headline, text.



Forum Name General Discussion
Topic subject Tough Talk On Impeachement on Bill Moyer's Journal this evening.
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1330902#1330902
1330902, Tough Talk On Impeachement on Bill Moyer's Journal this evening.
Posted by Cleita on Fri Jul-13-07 09:33 PM

This was a terrific show and all participating in this discussion agree that Nancy Pelosi needs to put impeachment back on the table or a terrible prescident in unbridled executive power is being set for future Presidents.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07132007/profile.html

Amazing that the conservative Bruce Fein was the loudest proponent of impeaching both Bush and Cheney. It was an interesting show. Catch it if you can.

Forum Name General Discussion
Topic subject Impeach Cheney--The vice president must be stopped-by Bruce Fein
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1330754#1330754
1330754, Impeach Cheney--The vice president must be stopped-by Bruce Fein
Posted by RedEarth on Fri Jul-13-07 09:15 PM

Bruce Fein was on Bill Moyers tonight

Impeach Cheney
The vice president has run utterly amok and must be stopped.
By Bruce Fein
Posted Wednesday, June 27, 2007, at 5:06 PM ET

Under Dick Cheney, the office of the vice president has been transformed from a tiny acorn into an unprecedented giant oak. In grasping and exercising presidential powers, Cheney has dulled political accountability and concocted theories for evading the law and Constitution that would have embarrassed King George III. The most recent invention we know of is the vice president's insistence that an executive order governing the handling of classified information in the executive branch does not reach his office because he also serves as president of the Senate. In other words, the vice president is a unique legislative-executive creature standing above and beyond the Constitution. The House judiciary committee should commence an impeachment inquiry. As Alexander Hamilton advised in the Federalist Papers, an impeachable offense is a political crime against the nation. Cheney's multiple crimes against the Constitution clearly qualify.

Take the vice president's preposterous theory that his office is outside the executive branch because it also exercises a legislative function. The same can be said of the president, who also exercises a legislative function in signing or vetoing bills passed by Congress. Under Cheney's bizarre reasoning, President Bush is not part of his own administration: The executive branch becomes acephalous. Today Cheney Chief of Staff David Addington refused to renounce that reasoning, instead laughably trying to diminish the importance of the legal question at issue.

The nation's first vice president, John Adams, bemoaned: "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived; and as I can do neither good nor evil, I must be borne away by others and meet common fate." Vice President John Nance Garner, serving under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, lamented: "The vice presidency isn't worth a pitcher of warm piss." In modern times, vice presidents have generally been confined to attending state funerals or to distributing blankets after earthquakes.

Then President George W. Bush outsourced the lion's share of his presidency to Vice President Cheney, and Mr. Cheney has made the most of it. Since 9/11, he has proclaimed that all checks and balances and individual liberties are subservient to the president's commander in chief powers in confronting international terrorism. Let's review the record of his abuses and excesses:

http://slate.com/id/2169292 /

[The Cleaner]

5. Thanks for those toll free #s...

I was actually going to ask for them since I lost them. I'll be using those numbers alot the next few weeks.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

6. Thank you for the links rodeodance! I forwared Moyers' show and transcript to

my Congressman, Pelosi and the House Judiciary Committee. I also forwarded it to Keith Olbermann.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

4. Video Link Here!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1332753