Voting to Impeach!

Here in North Carolina, we had our state executive meeting for the Democratic Party today. We started the day with a meeting of the Progressive Caucus. We had presentations and introductions of the people associated with the caucus, other various groups, and the NC Progressive Democrats PAC. We discussed what we have done and accomplished in the last year or so.

From our county, Bryan, Isaac, Harold, Susan, Ellie, Anne, Doug, Betty and Rhett were among the 20 people who were elected to represent the local Democratic party at the state executive committee. All those names are of people who are progressive. A couple of other elected representatives (who were not progressives) also came to our early Progressive Caucus meeting to see what we were about.

The Progressive Caucus and PAC had come up with seven resolutions that they wished to present to the assembly. That meant, first of all, that we had to get the majority to agree to suspend the rules so we could present them and vote on them. Every progressive left that early morning meeting with a handout that had these seven resolutions on them, and about 70 of us went to the floor of the state executive meeting and started handing them out and asking people to vote to suspend the rules so we could present them.

Well, they did agree to vote to suspend the rules, then we voted on all seven resolutions, and they ALL PASSED. We are asking our state legislators to consider all the resolutions in the upcoming short session.

Here they are:
1. Resolution in support of strong state ethics legislation
2. Resolution in favor of a living minimum wage
3. Resolution in support of the "same-day voter registration" in NC
4. Resolution in favor of state funding the state energy office (oil companies are trying to disband this office)
5. Resolution to support clean cars legislation
6. Resolution in support of increased funding for the NC Housing Trust Fund
7. Resolution reaffirming the NC Democratic Party's support for a death penalty moratorium

EVEN BETTER, in my opinion, is the resolution the came from the floor of this meeting, which was only possible due to the suspension of the rules. Someone proposed that we ask our elected Democratic Representatives to Congress to sign on to legislation to IMPEACH Bush, Cheney and Gonzales.

AND IT PASSED.

We have come such a long way in one year. Today, I handed out flyers on the Progressive Democrats of America, and everyone was happy to take them. Today, I handed out over 200 stickers from the Progressive Democrats that say "Out of Iraq" and nearly everyone was happy to wear them. This was a group of people who a year ago thought we should stay and "finish the job" in Iraq. This is a group of people who now have a much better understanding of what Bush and Cheney and their group is doing to our country.

We also covered some technical housekeeping details at this meeting, like one always has to do. One disappointment was the failure of the resolution to censure our NC House speaker who is under a cloud of suspicion concerning fraud and lobbying abuse. He is like our own little state version of the DeLay scandal, except this guy is a small potatoes and, unfortunately, a Democrat.

It was a great day, but a long way to go, both in distance and politically.