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~ Impeach For Peace
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~ • DIY Impeachments: Send on Thursday, Tell your friends today...
~ • National Action Steps
~ • Minnesota Action Steps (See video of our Oct. 5th Protest!)
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• DIY Impeachments: Send on Thursday, Tell your friends...
CRITICAL: Email the following announcement to your contact lists...
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This Thursday, hundreds of thousands of citizens will mail legal documents
to the houses of Congress to initiate formally the impeachment of President
George W. Bush.
To do this, citizens will use a little known and rarely used part of the
Rules of the House of Representatives. This procedure empowers individual
citizens to initiate the impeachment process themselves. Although not well
publicized prior to 2006, the method was discovered by Jodin Morey, an
organizer for the Minneapolis-based group Impeach for Peace.
While researching the “Jefferson’s Manual,” an interpretive guide to
parliamentary procedure included (along with the Constitution) in the bound
volumes of the Rules of the House of Representatives, Morey learned that
there are multiple acceptable methods of bringing impeachment motions to
the floor of the House. An impeachment Memorial, or “Do-It-Yourself
Impeachment,” is one of these. The process is ratified by each Congress —
including the current one — and has been updated continuously through the
history of our democracy.
DIY Impeachment has been used successfully before. An 1830 Memorial by Luke
Edward Lawless was successful in initiating the impeachment of Federal
Judge James H. Peck. This Memorial became the template for DIY Impeachment.
After considerable research, Impeach for Peace is now certain that it has a
legal document that U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert must recognize.
Any citizen can download the DIY Impeachment Memorial and submit it, making
it possible for Americans to do what our representatives have been
unwilling to do. The idea is for so many people to submit the Memorial that
it cannot be ignored.
DIY Impeachment is part of the law, and legally, Hastert must recognize it.
Another organizer for the group, Mikael Rudolph, explains: “He might still
toss them all in the trash, but with House Minority Leader John Conyers
also receiving copies, Hastert can be held accountable by Conyers."
Impeach for Peace is asking everyone to send in the memorials on a single
date, October 12th. Rudolph continues, "Imagine dozens of extra trucks
called into service to deliver tons of mail to Speaker Hastert and
Congressman Conyers in mid to late October. The DIY Impeachment has been
downloaded over 180,000 times.”
The expected media attention surrounding the delivery of these memorials is
being timed strategically to influence the November elections. Rudolph
reasons, “It’s like a legal method for voting outside of the scheduled
polling dates. It is incredibly empowering and awakening for individuals to
learn that they can do this.” The constitution provides for both the
electoral process and the impeachment process — the latter being necessary
when the elected officials do not honor their oath of office.
According to Rudolph, “Impeachment would lead to the ouster of Cheney,
Rice, Rumsfeld and many others, as they are all equally guilty of war
crimes. In an open impeachment trial, the evidence would come out. It isn’t
the only way we’ll succeed in impeaching Bush and restoring democracy, but
it is an important avenue.”
Be a part of history:
http://impeachforpeace.org/ImpeachNow.html