We Will Sit In for Impeachment

On July 23rd phone John Conyers at 202-225-5126 or send him a fax with one click.

Cindy Sheehan to Lead March for Impeachment, Arlington to Capitol Hill, July 23rd

WHAT: March from Arlington National Cemetery to the Capitol Hill Office of Congressman John Conyers to ask him to begin impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney or President George W. Bush or both. Participants hope to meet with Congressman Conyers and receive his assurance that impeachment proceedings will begin at once in the House Judiciary Committee, which he chairs. Many of those participating have committed to only leave if Conyers agrees to begin impeachment or they are arrested.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been the driving force against impeachment in Congress. If there is no agreement to begin impeachment proceedings by Monday, Sheehan will announce her candidacy challenging Pelosi for election in California's 8th Congressional District.

WHO: Cindy Sheehan, mother of Casey Sheehan, KIA in Iraq 2004, founder of Gold Star Families for Peace and of the Camp Casey Peace Institute; Ray McGovern, 27-year veteran of the CIA and cofounder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity; Rev. Lennox Yearwood, President of the Hip Hop Caucus; Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army Colonel and diplomat who resigned in protest the day the U.S. invaded Iraq; Debra Sweet, national coordinator of the World Can't Wait; Dave Lindorff, author of "The Case for Impeachment," David Swanson, cofounder of AfterDowningStreet.org; Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin, both cofounders of Code Pink; Kevin Zeese, director of Democracy Rising; Tina Richards, military mother and creator of GrassRootsAmerica4Us; and many many others.

WHEN AND WHERE:

10:00 a.m. gathering outside the Arlington National Cemetery metro stop. Cindy Sheehan will make remarks.

10:30 a.m. beginning march to Capitol Hill, to 2426 Rayburn House Office Building, office of Chairman John Conyers.

12:00 p.m. noon – approximate arrival time.

"We have the deepest respect for Chairman John Conyers," Sheehan said, "and I'm glad he's the one who will lead the impeachment hearings. But time is wasting and people are dying every day that he holds off. The majority of Americans want Dick Cheney impeached. We are bringing that message to the chairman of the judiciary committee of our house of representatives. It is our house, the house of American citizens, and any representatives currently serving there who disagree should be challenged in the next election."

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Join Cindy Sheehan, Ray McGovern, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Ann Wright, Debra Sweet, Dave Lindorff, David Swanson, Jodie Evans, Medea Benjamin, Kevin Zeese, Tina Richards, Barbara Cummings, ...

Meet at 10 a.m. on July 23rd outside the Arlington National Cemetery Metro Stop.
(we're marching, and those unable to can take the Metro from Arlington to Capitol South and meet us)

Wear Orange.

Bring a copy of the US Constitution.

About getting arrested:

This action is strictly nonviolent. We hope to speak with Congressman Conyers and reach an agreement to begin the impeachment process. We hope that no one will be arrested.

Those not wishing to risk arrest can expect to be able to leave following a warning.

Those willing to risk arrest if needed must be disciplined and nonviolent. Bring an ID (with a street address, not a PO Box) and money (cash, check). Give everything else to a support person. Be prepared for the possibility of being held for as long as 24 hours.

If you have a car, you can park it at the Union Station or National Airport parking garage and leave it there as long as you need to.

If money is needed to release people more quickly than 24 hours, the Camp Casey Peace Institute will attempt to cover it for everyone. Those wishing to contribute funds to this effort can do so here: http://www.thecampcaseypeaceinstitute.org

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Why Would Anyone Protest John Conyers?
By David Swanson

John Conyers has a great quote in John Nichols' book "The Genius of Impeachment" (pointed out by attentive reader Gordon Bennett):

"I have a choice. I can either stand by and lead my constituents to believe I do not care that the president apparently no longer believes he is bound by any law or code of decency. Or I can act."

On the 5th Anniversary of the Downing Street Meeting and the same day as a Dem Prez candidates debate in the evening on CNN, Youtube, and Google, July 23, 2007, Cindy Sheehan plans to lead a delegation to Congressman John Conyers' office in DC to demand impeachment. Ray McGovern will be among those marching to Conyers' office from Arlington National Cemetery (meeting there just outside the Metro stop at 10 a.m.). Cindy and Ray were two of the four witnesses in Conyers' basement hearing on the Downing Street Minutes in June 2005.

This time, we've not been invited. We plan to sit and read the Constitution aloud. If necessary, we will face arrest.

This is part of a march that Cindy and others are making from Texas to New York. The march may make stops at the district offices of other House Judiciary Committee Members, such as Rick Boucher, Mel Watt, and Bobby Scott.

You can organize a meeting, protest, honk-a-thon, or sit-in at your Congress Member's office. One way to get organized is with this system. You can find events and create them here. And you can meet people in Facebook.

HERE'S A NATIONAL MAP OF SIT-INS YOU CAN ADD TO

HERE'S A WAY TO CREATE A SIT-IN NEAR YOU BY COMMITTING TO DO IT ONLY IF 20 PEOPLE COMMIT TO DO IT TOGETHER

We need a nonviolent revolution to compel our Congress Members to revive our Constitution. Sitting in their offices and reading the Constitution out loud, if enough of us do it, may save our democracy.

Citizens are planning sit-ins the same day in several Congress Members' district offices, including Congressman Conyers' offices in Michigan.

Why Conyers?

Because he controls impeachment. We wouldn't want anyone else. He has the knowledge and skill to lead the way, and we hope his better half wins out. And we hope he doesn't arrest us for asking him to fulfill his oath of office.

Clearly at least half of Congressman Conyers wants to move on impeachment and wants public pressure to allow / compel him to do so. He wrote the best report on Bush and Cheney's crimes a year and a half ago. He has encouraged the movement for impeachment. But half of him, for whatever reason, is intent on blocking it.

A Tale of Two Conyers
By Congressman John Conyers

WHY did all manly gifts in Webster fail?
He wrote on Nature's grandest brow, For Sale.
--Emerson

PART I

In brief, we have found that there is substantial evidence the President, the Vice President and other high ranking members of the Bush Administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war with Iraq; misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for such war; countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and other legal violations in Iraq; and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of their Administration.

There is a prima facie case that these actions by the President, Vice-President and other members of the Bush Administration violated a number of federal laws, including (1) Committing a Fraud against the United States; (2) Making False Statements to Congress; (3) The War Powers Resolution; (4) Misuse of Government Funds; (5) federal laws and international treaties prohibiting torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment; (6) federal laws concerning retaliating against witnesses and other individuals; and (7) federal laws and regulations concerning leaking and other misuse of intelligence.

While these charges clearly rise to the level of impeachable misconduct, because the Bush Administration and the Republican-controlled Congress have blocked the ability of Members to obtain information directly from the Administration concerning these matters, more investigatory authority is needed before recommendations can be made regarding specific Articles of Impeachment. As a result, we recommend that Congress establish a select committee with subpoena authority to investigate the misconduct of the Bush Administration with regard to the Iraq war detailed in this Report and report to the Committee on the Judiciary on possible impeachable offenses.

-- Congressman John Conyers, "The Constitution in Crisis", December 2005

PART II

As many of you also know, I have agreed with Speaker-to-be Pelosi that impeachment is off the table. Instead, we agree that oversight, accountability and checks and balances – which have been sorely lacking for the last six years – must occur. I have nothing but respect for those who might disagree, but that is where I come out.

Having devoted a considerable amount of time and attention to detailing the many abuses of the Bush Administration, I firmly believe that we have brought these matters to the attention of the American people and the mainstream media, and that their verdict was reflected in the elections on November 7. I consider the now famous "basement hearings" and the issuance of my "Constitution in Crisis" Report to be among the watershed achievements of my more than forty years in Congress.

-- Congressman John Conyers, November 2006

We need the first John Conyers. There is no Republican majority blocking inquiries. There hasn't been for over half a year. Instead, Conyers is issuing subpoenas, and the White House is refusing to comply with them. The third article of impeachment passed by the Judiciary Committee against Richard Nixon was for refusal to comply with subpoenas. Conyers served on that committee. He knows that publishing a report on Nixon would not have done the job.

Conyers knows that when he and his colleagues held Nixon accountable, the Democrats won the biggest victories in a generation at the next elections. Conyers knows that when they let Reagan go in order to focus on elections they proceeded to lose and create the Bush dynasty. Conyers knows where Congress' approval rating has gone these past six months. He knows what another year and a half of building the already overwhelming case for impeachment but not acting on it would do to the Democrats. He knows that pursuing impeachment and having it blocked in the Senate by Republicans would guarantee Democratic landslides. And he knows that it is morally disgusting to put partisan elections concerns ahead of saving our Constitution and reinstating the rule of law for the executive branch.

Why divide the Democrats? 80% of Democrats want Cheney impeached. What kind of divide is that? It would be 90% the day after Conyers began impeachment. Conyers knows there is no downside to impeachment. We need to provide the public pressure to allow him to act.

WEAR ORANGE: