Well, it doesn’t look like President Bush or Vice President Cheney will be visiting Brattleboro, Vermont, after they leave office. The residents of Brattleboro directed town officials to draft indictments against both Bush and Cheney for violating their oaths of office. A vote was then held, with 2012 citizens supporting the indictment and 1795 voting against it.
The draft read…
“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 indictments for consideration by other authorities and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro Police, pursuant to the above-mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecute or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them?”
In short, both the President and the Vice President would face arrest and detention in the town of Brattleboro after leaving office.
While many might scoff at the legal validity of the indictment, it sets a very important precedent with regards to holding both men accountable for their roles in breeching various tenets of the Constitution. While Congress has refused to act, even though grounds exist, this proactive stance taken by a single town echoes the sentiments of many Americans with regards to their outrage at the debasement of the Constitution by this administration.
And they should be applauded for it.
Of course, there are those that view such undertakings as wholly unpatriotic, commonly leaning on the ridiculous logic that to imperil the sanctity of the offices of the President and Vice President is to ‘embolden’ America’s enemies. In truth, the continued debasement of those offices by those currently holding them has imperiled America far more, providing victory after victory to those that are deemed its enemies. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that if the governing administration of a nation that has sworn to uphold the tenets one of the most forward thinking documents in human history can abuse it without being challenged, that the emboldening of its enemies is a foregone conclusion.
Many labour under the misconception that the goal of 9/11 was to simply take lives and traumatize the American people. Ironically, the effects of that event on the American government and its various institutions is rarely ever examined, nor are those that planned it ever viewed as being intelligent enough to have figured that aspect into the purpose of their plan. Unfortunately, the popular belief of what the attacks of September 11th were aimed at accomplishing has only helped overshadow the unconstitutional actions of the administration and provided it with one of the biggest blank cheques in American history. And in doing so has only helped amplify one of the most significant goals of the attack itself.
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It still amazes me when people try to hold the office accountable that they can simply say “sorry, you can’t have that information because it may jeopardize national security.” And they just give up. I hope the next administration investigates the actions of this one and holds them accountable, although I somehow doubt it.
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It’s like a dream come true… only on a much smaller scale.
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Would it solve anything though? It would look cool on TMZ.The story would be right after Paris Hilton.
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That’s brilliant. Wish someone had done the same for Blair over here. The tragedy of the current democrat race is that niether of them will be in power until November, leaving almost another whole YEAR before the current corrupt scum running the nation are relieved at long last of their failed duties.
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Well, if former president Clinton can be impeached for lying about getting a hummer while in office, I certainly think that there are more than enough grounds to impeach Bush and Cheney and make them accountable for their actions! To bad more attention and action was thrown on Clinton’s “scandal” than the whole 4 years of scandal since Bush has been president.
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Cool
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Good for Brattleboro. They might be a small town, but they’ve got big… well, you know. I wonder if you’ll see other towns and cities following their lead?
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It is nice to finally see dissent on a large scale in the United States. Especially since 9/11, most forms of dissent in America seem to have been labeled as either un-American, or as helping terrorism. It is high time that the American government realizes that allowing dissent is a fundamental part of democracy, and integral to keeping the government accountable.
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Indeed, applause.
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baby steps are still steps in the right direction…
I’m sending that town a Thank You note.
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correction on my previous post-that should read 8 years of scandal not 4…
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About time…
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“Ain’t gonna visit BrattleburrAH, don’t like us there, eh Dick?”
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Hopefully it starts a chain reaction as others catch on and realize that they CAN do something, even if in small numbers. Bravo.
And I was just re-reading an old McLeans article that I’d left at work that featured an interview that summed things up nicely:
“Disasters are moments where people are blasted out of the way, where they are in a state of shock, whether they’re scattered-as after a hurricane hits in New Orleans-or just picking up the pieces after having been bombed, or their entire world view has just been shattered-as after Sept. 11. These are just malleable political moments. And there is an awareness that disasters create these opportunities, so you have a whole movement-much of it standing at the ready within the think-tank infrastructure. I think of these think tanks as sort of idea-warmers-they keep the ideas ready for when the disaster hits. Milton Friedman said that only a crisis, real or perceived, produces real change, and when that crisis hits, the change that occurs depends on the ideas that are lying around.”
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“Hey Dick, bet those brattles got a burrAHP their butts. Probly why they don’t like us much…teehee. Did you hear that one Dick, I made a funny?”
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Bravo indeed.
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Good!
Hopefully this starts a trend that sweeps across the country ( Good god! There’s that idealism again:P)!!!!
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Quoting deb:
“RAAAAAAGH.”
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Good on them!
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It’s actually not even the first time it’s happened.
Keenebunkport, ME
Fairfax, CA
Boulder, CO
Wendell, MA
And I’m sure there are more. You’re absolutely right; even if these resolutions hold no real power (or even if they don’t have the full support of the various city councils to even be passed), I think it’s still important that they’re made. It shows up in the news. It lets the larger population see that not everyone is okay with what has been happening.
(And, truthfully, you hope that Bush and Cheney see a news blurb on it and realize that their citizens find them reprehensible.)
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holy cow….kudos to these people…very impressive. Hopefully it will go somewhere. Funny, Congress won’t even look at it, however they’ll spend millions on finding out if Roger Clemens really did take performance enhancing drugs….What’s the world coming to….?
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Hats off to them. Let us hope that others follow their lead.
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Quoting pyemaster:
Yes and no; Clinton and Obama are both senators, so they have considerable constitutional power (freezing money bills, launching public inquiries, viewing secret information). The reason they don’t is that they are a product of the same establishment as Bush. They don’t want to end the profiteering, secrecy, and expansion of Presidential powers; they want it for themselves.
Incidentally, the election is Nov 2 but the transfer of power is not until January.
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Sadly, this story will just be brushed under the rug or take a back seat to whatever Britney’s thinking. When you take an overview of the constitutional rights that have been swept away by the regime we call government these days, the conspiracy theorists that suggest that our government was behind 9/11 don’t sound so crazy after all.
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Baron, my mistake on the transfer date. However Id like to think Obama would be less inclined to fall in line with the skewed establishment that Clinton has been such a part of for all her ‘experience’, and shake up a few things, both above and below the table.
Maybe its just wishful thinking.
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LMFAO @ Dale
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Odd timing. I’m going to Montreal tomorrow via Hartford, CT and the person picking me up lives in Brattleboro, VT…
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Quoting Dale Mugford:
Hahahahaha………………on the web!
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Ya, and that right there is how they got away with it. Your Constitution thanks you.
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Quoting Matthew Good:
Aye, a touch rude that. If you arent interested by the article, dont join in.
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Quoting jclark:
You misspelled “drinking.”
- happy to help