[Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: [Fwd: Senator Gravel calls for Impeaching Cheney & Bush]]

[Fred Duperrault]

Gravel Eloquently Adds His  Support for Impeachment Hearings

Fred

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[Fwd: Senator Gravel calls for Impeaching Cheney & Bush]
Date: 	Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:11:56 -0800
From: 	Fred Duperrault <fredd at freeshell.org>
To: 	Alan <alandupe at yahoo.com>, Jean <jeansbeans03 at aol.com>, David 
<dvd at svlg.com>, Julia <BlueWhiteStar at aol.com>, Michelle 
<lilmzshout at yahoo.com>, Jane <jane.duperrault at stanford.edu>, Graciela 
<gracieladuper at aol.com>, F & L <fredd at freeshell.org>, Cheri 
<cduperrault at sbcglobal.net>



Mike Gravel eloquently reiterates, below, reasons why holding 
impeachment hearings are so critical.

Please sign Congressman Robert Wexler's petition calling for impeachment 
hearings.
The Democrat from Florida has gotten more than 200,000 signatures via 
his web site.

Dad/Grandpa/Fritz


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Senator Gravel calls for Impeaching Cheney & Bush
Date: 	Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:08:25 -0800
From: 	John O Sutter <josutter at juno.com>
To: 	dwfed at dwfed.org



 
 Are American citizens giving up their sovereign authority to require the
executive and legislative branches in Washington, DC to abide by the Rule
of Law and to recommend that their Representatives in Congress impeach
the leaders of the Cheney-Bush regime for violating their civil rights
and the rule of law?  Senator Gravel calls for action, including signing
the petition of Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida to start hearings by
the House Judiciary Committee on the impeachment of Cheney.
Impeachment Statement by Presidential Candidate Senator Mike Gravel
January 25th, 2008 by J. Skyler McKinley 
 While I've been outspoken in favor of the Impeachment of Vice President
Cheney and President Bush since last July, today I'm announcing my very
strong and unqualified support for Impeachment.
I want to very clearly and emphatically affirm the imperative of
Impeachment as the Presidential Campaign begins to move into high gear
and as the media is busy anointing the "front runners."
  
As a Candidate for President, and most importantly as an American, I
firmly believe that our most important and highest priority, both as
individual American citizens and as a whole Nation, is to protect,
defend, and nourish the foundation of American Democracy: the US
Constitution and Bill of Rights. Every other issue is of secondary
importance.

I've chosen to run for President to effect what I consider to be much
needed change. When people go to Internet websites that match them with
the candidates that best reflect their own concerns and priorities, a
very large number of voters find that I am the candidate best advocating
the issues they most care about.

However, today I want to unequivocally state: without Impeachment first, 
what I or any other worthy Presidential candidate wants to accomplish is
very unlikely to happen. Our words will in fact become another empty
campaign promise and another sad political fantasy.

Why am I making such a statement? 

Let's review a few supremely important and disturbing facts:

Without Impeachment before we choose the next Administration, we as a
Nation will be setting a legal precedent. We will be saying yes to the
systematic destruction of the Constitution and Bill of Rights engineered
by Vice President Cheney and President Bush, and will be formally
agreeing to the end of American Democracy. We, as Americans, will be
giving our approval and consent to the idea that the Vice President and
President are indeed above the law, that they are in fact a law unto
themselves. 

Cheney and Bush have openly boasted about their supposed right to break
the law. This administration has claimed that it has the right to spy on
Americans without a warrant. This administration has decided that it has
no obligation to respond to any lawful subpoenas from Congress, and that
it may invoke Presidential signing statements to declare its right to
ignore any Federal Law. This administration thinks it has the authority
to arbitrarily strip any American of his or her citizenship.

This administration has illegally declared that it has supreme overriding
authority. The Vice President and the President have accumulated and
consolidated unprecedented power that has replaced the co-equal system of
checks and balances mandated by the Constitution with a new Imperial
Presidency. This imperialism has given the President far-reaching powers
that our founding fathers would quickly recognize as tyranny.

The illegitimate authority of this newly constructed imperial Presidency
- this Supreme Commander-in-Chief created by Cheney and Bush - has
replaced the Rule-of-Law based on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Our system of co-equal branches of government, the unique and
revolutionary principle of American Democracy, the great leap of faith
that people could actually govern themselves, has been subverted.  It is
now almost dead. 

America, the world's oldest Democracy, is an astonishingly brilliant
system of government based on carefully crafted and refined checks and
balances between co-equal branches of government. The civil liberties
given birth by this revolutionary form of government over 200 years ago
are rapidly ending.

Our political elite, those we have entrusted to be the people's
representatives, have failed.  Their oath of office, to protect and
defend the Constitution, has been disregarded in the light of political
power.

When we have a Vice President and President who openly declare they are
above the law of the land, above the Constitution, how can we as
Americans pretend that we live in a Democracy?

If We The People do not take action to demand accountability in the form
of Impeachment, we become passive accomplices to the silent overthrow of
American Democracy.

It is now time for the People to become leaders. We must teach our
elected representatives to act in accordance with their oath of office
and effect immediate impeachment of those who have committed these crimes
against the Constitution. 

If we do not act now we are all personally endorsing, sanctioning, and
indeed celebrating, the end of the Bill of Rights, Habeas Corpus and all
other fundamental civil liberties and democratic values. Such values have
been the foundation of American Democracy for over 200 years. 

The media-anointed "front-running" Presidential Candidates simply do not
have the courage to tell the American public the truth. 

If we elect any candidate from any party without first impeaching this
outlaw Administration, we endorse and elect a new Imperial President of
the United States. This cements into place a failed Democracy whose
citizens have passively chosen to relinquish the cherished freedoms
millions have fought and died to protect. 

Do we really believe that we can trust the next President to give back
the dramatically expanded power of the Unitary Executive? Once absolute
power has been granted, it is never relinquished voluntarily.

We need to stop kidding ourselves.  Let us summon 1% of the courage that
those who landed on the beaches of Normandy had and recognize what is
painfully obvious to the rest of the World: we are rapidly losing every
fundamental freedom we thought we were fighting the "terrorists" to
protect.

In six short years, the Vice President and the President have actively
conspired to commit the most grievous crimes against our Constitution and
the personal freedoms it guarantees. America has gone from being perhaps
the most admired and respected nation on the planet to becoming the
ultimate rogue state. The world's only remaining superpower is now feared
as the greatest threat to world peace.  

The Constitutional system of checks and balances that are the foundation
of our civil liberties have been gutted.  America has become the only
"civilized" state to declare its right to arbitrarily imprison, torture,
and spy on anyone it chooses to, including its own citizens.  We are also
the only state to officially declare a right to wage lethal preemptive
war on any nation that dares to threaten its exclusive superpower status.
Every democratic nation has the government that is created by active
participation of its citizens.  Impeachment is the only option for us, as
Americans, to effectively wake ourselves up from this collective
nightmare.  It is the only way for us to demonstrate to ourselves and the
rest of the world that we are the Americans we like to believe we are. We
need to demonstrate that we actually can summon the courage to live up to
our self-proclaimed ideals.   

Enough is enough. This is NOT allowed.

There is a lot of very good news that makes me tremendously hopeful that
we as a nation are starting to wake up and insist our Congressional
representatives act to make Impeachment happen now.

Our corporate controlled media works very hard to portray impeachment as
a fringe issue not worthy of serious consideration, even though polls
show the negative approval ratings  of this administration have surpassed
all historic records. Reputable national polling shows that 54% want the
Vice President impeached and 45% of voters favor Impeachment for the
President. 

We The People are indeed waking up - we have learned not to rely on the
old top-down corporate media dinosaurs to tell us what they have decided
is "the news."  Fortunately, We The People have an amazing network of
online alternative information sources. These rapidly evolving
reality-based, user-driven, independent media sites have made us our own
news editors. 

We The People are now realizing that we must act now to take the
initiative to demand that our elected representatives in Congress
initiate immediate Impeachment hearings. From the bottom-up, we have
begun the process to restore the Rule-of-Law in America.

Here's what we can all do now to take effective action:
Join your fellow Americans and Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL), a member
of the House Judiciary committee, by signing his petition that asks all
other members of the Judiciary Committee to join his call for immediate
hearings on the Impeachment of the Vice President.
Support and donate to these Impeachment Groups:
Impeach Bush
The World Can't Wait
Code Pink
Support and donate to my campaign and tell your friends.
Support and donate to the other Presidential candidates who are also
publicly and courageously calling for Impeachment.
Let the other Presidential Candidates know why you are not willing to
support or contribute to their campaign: that you refuse to support
anyone who isn't willing to tell the truth to the American people about
what has happened to their Democracy. 
Join together to organize and petition your Congressperson to be true to
their oath office: to uphold their most fundamental and sacred duty to
protect and defend the Constitution by Impeaching the Vice President and
President.  Together we will restore the Rule-of-Law in America.
Senator Mike Gravel
Candidate for President



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