I offer the following resolution
to the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council and to citizens
everywhere:
Be it resolved, that We the People of
Vashon-Maury Island in the State of Washington, do hereby
demand the Impeachment of the President of the United States
and others in his administration. We take this
action with great sorrow, but with steadfast resolve, for we no longer recognize our own government as one whose policies are consistent with the basic principles for which
We stand... which is to say, We, The People of Vashon-Maury
Island.
Our loyalty is to justice, honor, courage, compassion and long standing principles of national and international law.
We believe that the President and others in his Administration have betrayed
our values, our Constitution, and many of its embodied
principles. We therefore demand that he, and all who are
complicit, be removed from office
and immediately thereafter, be prosecuted for any and all High Crimes
and Misdemeanors they are found to have committed.
We offer the following reasons for taking this action:
1. This administration started a war illegally... illegal with respect to both national and international law, offering in its place, lies, fabrications, and deceit.
2. The war in Afghanistan and Iraq which this administration undertook unnecessarily, sacrificed the lives of innocent
citizens, including those of future generations... and this
includes the citizens of the US, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other
nations— through gross negligence, malfeasance, and cowardice. We did not take appropriate measures to insure the safety of innocent men, women, and children, and we did not offer them reasonable measures of food, water, medical care, comfort and support when we
destroyed their homes, their
economy and its infrastructure, their institutions, and killed and injured their family members and fellow
citizens.
3. We illegally detained and continue to detain innocent people, denying them the most fundamental of basic rights and freedoms... rights that are guaranteed
them under national and international law and long standing standards of civilized behavior. This administration has even ignored instructions from our own Supreme Court to adhere to basic standards of decency;
and in its contempt for the rule of law, fails to this day to adhere
to these standards .
4. In addition to denying people basic fundamental rights under our own Constitution and international law, (including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and various conventions to which the United States has been a party for decades), we systematically engaged in policies that fall well outside the limits of civilized behavior, including many forms of torture and intimidation, so grievous that some are unable to be mentioned in the mainstream media and are
even deemed now by our government to be national secrets, unable to stand the light of day, even in our so-called open and free society.
5. In order to circumvent the law, this administration illegally arranges
for "outsourced" contractors to take our prisoners to despotic governments that are known to systematically torture their own people so that they can do the same to our
own uncharged and un-represented prisoners.
6. This administration engaged in criminal summary executions of suspected terrorists often killing innocent bystanders in the process.
All of these people and their families are left without recourse of any kind... This
is our poor example to the rest of the world of how America
administers justice.
7. George Bush in his official capacity as President of the United States has toured the country to give speeches and hold rallies, allowing the organizers of these rallies to exclude any citizen who might be known to disagree with his policies. This is un-American by any measure of reason,
tradition, or logic and it is a direct attack on our
Constitution.
8. When the president has traveled, he has arranged for
protestors to be excluded from audiences, forcing them to stand far away from his events where they can't be seen by TV cameras in violation of long standing traditions of allowed free
speech, undermining our first amendment rights.
9. This administration has sought and passed legislation that removes long standing rights and freedoms that
are the hallmark of any open and free society and in doing so endangers all of our rights and freedoms under the guise of saving us from terrorists.
10. George Bush has arranged to keep from public scrutiny, the Presidential papers of prior administrations in order to keep
hidden, information about the prior illegal and/or criminal acts of previous presidents. These
records, which belong to us... which is to say, We, The People, have now been converted to government secrets for decades to come. This administration
conducts less of its business in the light of day, than
other administrations, despite grandiose words to the contrary that Bush and others
in his administration offer in speeches here and abroad.
11. George Bush has ignored the Constitutional requirement to
keep separate, church and state, and has reneged on his own oath of
office by, (in addition to the nefarious acts heretofore
mentioned), replacing his loyalty to our Constitution with loyalty to his own interpretation of his own religious sect.
12. Many tens of thousands of innocent people have lost their lives, their livelihood, their health, and their well-being because of the infidelity, criminal
behavior, negligence, and arrogance of this president and his administration. The acts of this administration have been detrimental to our country, its people, and
potentially, to human beings
everywhere.
13. George Bush, and his accomplices have engaged in these
nefarious and criminal acts, which include unconscionable
atrocities... and under national and international law should be brought to justice. Only by an accurate accounting and recording of
crimes and atrocities committed, and the pursuit of justice in the names of those who were grievously harmed by them, can we begin to return dignity to our flag and to the people
and the republic it represents.
14. These few enumerated items are but a fraction of those that might be offered... but the pain and suffering
that they allude to is enough to warrant the action that we now take. We invite our fellow citizens all across this country to join with us to protest
the illegitimate practices of the President and his
Administration, and demand the removal from office of those who
practice them. We do this so that in time justice might prevail and our
government and our flag might once again be worthy of our
allegiance and support.
15. Furthermore, we take
this action because we see it as our duty and sacred
obligation to do so, lest we as
citizens, through cowardice or neglect, fail to do everything
within our power to prevent our government from committing
further war crimes and/or crimes against humanity; or lest we fail
in our duty to
bring those who have committed such crimes to justice.
Respectfully submitted,
Mark A. Goldman
Related statement/documents
(not submitted to VMICC):
On
Citizenship
Read
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Read
a Draft Impeachment Resolution Against President George W.
Bush
by Francis A. Boyle, Professor of Law, University of Illinois
School of Law
Read
a Draft Impeachment Resolution Against President George W.
Bush
by Ramsey Clark, Former Attorney General of the United States
International
Criminal Tribunal For Afghanistan at Tokyo
Additional
references:
A Coup Against the American Constitution
An Interview with
Francis A. Boyle
On Detentions
Annotation
for Master Plan
Accidents?
Shots
to the Heart of Iraq
John
Roberts and the Federalist Society
The
Federalist Society and the Challenge to a Democratic
Jurisprudence
Declaration
of the Jury of Conscience-World Tribunal on Iraq - Istanbul
Conspiracy
My
Response (to the VMICC)
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