The Progressive Summit
The Summit was held in Greensboro, NC the first weekend in June 2006. Progressive Democrats of NC Political Action Committee and the Progressive Democrats of North Carolina sponsored this summit. This summit was based on Open Space Technology, which is a process where people who want to have a discussion will propose (or host) a topic and then people who want to join in that discussion will go and join them and work on issues and develop an action plan. Most of the proposed subjects were state issues, but I proposed talking about the Iraq war. Other sessions were on alternative energy, energy independence, organizing campaigns, supporting and building a progressive movement in NC, torture and human rights issues, controlling urban sprawl, inspiring more energy in the progressive movement, economic issues, immigration issues, Iraq war, and impeachment. There was also a lot of discuss on what exactly makes a persons a “progressive” and what makes a candidate or politician a “progressive” one.
The first session I went to on Saturday was on Impeachment. I met Burt and Syndi and David at this meeting. This connection with others who are working or interested on this subject was valuable. We discussed ways to make impeachment possible, and the first idea is to get more Democrats elected to the US House of Representatives and US Senate. Other ideas were to ask Rep. Peloski to start on impeachment, pushing impeachment in the media, and continue grassroots issues. We all felt that we have a moral commitment to the world to demonstrate our decency as human beings by impeaching Bush and Cheney (We should do more than that! They should be tried in The Hague!) We discussed how California, Illinois and Vermont have voted to start impeachment issues from their state house. [I heard a talk from the women in California who helped pass this resolution, and she agreed with me that if we got this passed in NC, and then the legislators did it, it would be HUGE.] Some of the high crimes and misdemeanors include starting a war for totally bogus reasons, detaining people without charges or due process or years and years, kidnapping people, torture, secret prisons and outright murder. It also includes domestic violations, like spying on Americans without judicial oversight, suppression of free speech and suppression of the press. (I would have to say that I don’t believe they did this. Rather, they ‘own’ the press and push their own propaganda on the press.) The Iraq war was a violation of the Nuremberg principles, which is a treaty the US signed on to, and the fact that they have violated this treaty means they have violated the US Constitution.
[Here is some information on the Nuremberg Trial:
Reading the transcript of the first Nuremberg trial, we see that all who committed war crimes, from the foot soldiers to the highest leaders, were to be held responsible for their crimes. We also see, however, that the leaders who initiated the aggression were assigned primary criminal responsibility by the prosecutors and by the Tribunal, since none of the subsequent crimes would have been committed had the aggression not occurred. This principle was absolutely central to the Nuremberg Charter and Trials.
Moreover, we see that the intent of the authors of the Charter was not to limit the principles involved in this body of law to prosecution of Germans in 1946 but rather to set a precedent for all times and for all countries, including the United States.
From the Nuremberg Charter:
Article 6 of the Charter states: “The following acts, or any of them, are crimes coming within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal for which there shall be individual responsibility: (a) CRIMES AGAINST PEACE: namely, planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing; ...Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such plan.”
And from Article 7: “The official position of defendants, whether as Heads of State or responsible officials in Government Departments, shall not be considered as freeing them from responsibility or mitigating punishment.”
On Aug. 12, 1945, three months before the trial began, Justice Jackson made the intent of the American prosecution and of the law clear in a statement on the War Trials Agreement: “If we can cultivate in the world the idea that aggressive war-making is the way to the prisoner's dock rather than the way to honors, we will have accomplished something toward making the peace more secure. ...We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it.”]
The Bush administration has thrown away the Geneva Conventions also.
Back to The Summit:
I signed up to run a meeting on the Iraq War. Funny thing, just a Freudian slip, but I wrote “IRAN WAR” on my meeting report form. We had Judy, Ed, Syndi and David at this meeting, and we all agreed we need to get out now. This meeting went into an Impeachment discussion. We don’t know if this is the best political strategy, but Syndi pointed out that Bush/Cheney are violating the constitution, they are criminals and need to be held accountable. We need to do this to show the world that we care and are still decent people. We felt the next steps in Iraq are: *call for an immediate ceasefire and truce, *call all viable players to come to term because the USA is leaving, so start a plan, *use Islamic coalition to stabilize Iraq, *USA funds reconstruction because it is our moral duty, one way of doing this is to pay off all of Iraq’s debts so other countries will have some money to invest in Iraq, *a study on DU and it’s effects needs to be done and reported to Iraq and the rest of the world.
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From our meetings at The Summit, we formed a group to promote Impeachment resolutions at the NC Democratic Party meeting later this month. We spend some time emailing, and decided to ask for impeachment (which should be one of the resolutions to be presented at the convention) and to ask for one other resolution. The second resolution would be to ask the NC House and Senate to start up Impeachment proceedings against the Bush administration like California has done.
Here is our resolution:
RESOLUTION ASKING NC LEGISLATORS TO FILE IMPEACHMENT ARTICLES
Whereas Section 603 of section LIII of Jefferson’s Rules of the US House rules for the 109th Congress permits the inception of impeachment proceedings by charges transmitted from the legislature of a state; and
Whereas George W. Bush, President of the United States, has so conducted himself and his administration as to cause the people of the State of North Carolina to doubt his integrity and to believe that his official actions as president are subject to corrupt influences; and
Whereas the North Carolina Democratic Party has passed a resolution calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush; and
Whereas the North Carolina State Executive Committee also voted for the impeachment of George W. Bush, Richard Cheney and Alberto Gonzales in January 2006; therefore,
Be it resolved that this North Carolina Democratic Party convention asks our Representatives in the State of North Carolina (the senate concurring) to petition the US House of Representatives to start investigations of George W. Bush and his administration to the end that George W. Bush may be impeached and removed from office, and in doing so to follow the example set by California Assemblyman Paul Koretz in his submission of impeachment resolutions; and
Be it further resolved that the Secretary of State for North Carolina give, and is hereby instructed to certify, to each Senator and Representative in the Congress of the United States, under the great seal of the State of North Carolina, a copy of this resolution and the prior impeachment resolution, and notification of its adoption by the Democratic Party of the State of North Carolina at their convention in June 2006.
And here is our explanation for the resolutions and what steps need to be taken by the convention delegates:
BUSH AND CHENEY NEED TO BE IMPEACHED!
One of the resolutions that we will be (hopefully) voting on today is the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. This resolution passed at the North Carolina State Executive Committee meeting in January (and included Gonzales, too). Many Democrats in North Carolina feel strongly that Bush and Cheney have violated our US Constitution repeatedly, and that we need to defend our constitution! The US Congress is failing to act in this matter. Jefferson House Rules for the 109th Congress has a provision that enables state legislators to start up impeachment proceedings. A resolution asking state legislators to do exactly this has passed at the California, Vermont and Illinois at Democratic Party conventions, and is currently being initiated in the California State House. We are going to try to have a resolution passed at the North Carolina Democratic Party convention today asking for impeachment. Then, we are proposing a resolution to ask the NC House to file for impeachment, and this proposal is printed on the back of this page. In order to consider impeachment resolutions, we have to vote to suspend the rules and consider resolutions from the floor. The vote for the suspension of the rules must pass by a 2/3rds majority vote. We are hopeful that you will vote to suspend the rules and vote for impeachment and then vote to ask our NC Legislators to start up impeachment proceedings, following the example of the Democrats in California. (And please see our table “Grassroots Impeachment Movement” for more information.) Impeachment proceedings against Bush will also cover Cheney and the entire Bush administration.
THANK YOU FOR READING THIS!
If we are silent witnesses to crimes, we become complicit in these crimes. We must take action.
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As I finish writing up this report, it is the eve of the NC Democratic Party Convention. I will let you know how it goes!
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