South by Southwest: What are citizen activists up to with impeachment?

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

What are citizen activists up to with impeachment?

The buzz we do not hear much about . . .

Harper's Magazine recently held a forum on the case for impeachment that I watched on C-SPAN. It got me to wondering what is going on amongst citizen activists regarding the possible impeachment of our current president.

C-SPAN's video is linked here:
Harper's Magazine Panel on Case Bush Impeachment

Harper's Magazine hosts a panel “Is There a Case for Impeachment?”, discussing President Bush and his policies. Forum speakers include Lewis H. Lapham, Editor of Harper’s Magazine; Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Ranking Member of U.S. House Judiciary Committee; and Michael Ratner, President of Center for Constitutional Rights. 3/2/2006: WASHINGTON, DC: 2 hr.

Writer buzzes - One of the panelists, Lewis Lapham, wrote an article for Harper's Magazine entitled, "The Case for Impeachment-Why we can no longer afford George W. Bush" by Lewis H. Lapham.

Bloggers buzz - An "impeach" search of DailyKos just for the last two weeks resulted in 137 results. Several DailyKos diarists saw the forum and wrote posts about it, including these recent examples:

Edgery: "Harper's Impeachment Panel on CSPAN2 tonight"
tr4nqued: "IMPEACHment forum on C-SPAN 2 in 30 minutes,"garnering 134 comments
rktect: "A KOS Petition for Impeachment"

Vermont town halls buzzed - USA Today reports on citizen activism in Vermont. In the (3-7-06) story,

In a white-clapboard town hall, circa 1832, voters gathered Tuesday to conduct their community's business and to call for the impeachment of President Bush. The article, approved 121-29 in balloting by paper, calls on Vermont's lone member of the House, independent Rep. Bernie Sanders, to file articles of impeachment against the president, alleging that Bush misled the nation into the Iraq war and engaged in illegal domestic spying.
The impeachment item came at the end of a roughly four-hour meeting that was devoted mostly to the local affairs of the town of 1,600. Among the other items discussed was whether the town should fix some of the 100-year-old sidewalks in the village.

Other cities buzz - Here is another version of the same story that continues with news about other impeachment discussions. According to an AP story at MyWay,

Other cities nationwide have taken up resolutions calling for Bush's impeachment, notably San Francisco. But the sentiment has rarely spread to rural America - unless you're talking about Vermont, known for bucking politics as usual.
At least three other southern Vermont towns, spurred by publicity about Newfane's resolution, endorsed similar resolutions during Tuesday's meetings: Dummerston, Marlboro and Putney.

Congress buzzes - A few people in the House and Senate say the word "impeachment" out loud. They include Representative John Conyers, D-Michigan; Representative Ron Paul, R-Texas; Representative John Lewis, D-Georgia, and Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin.
Citizens buzz - A Zogby poll shows a majority of Americans support impeaching Bush for wiretapping. Zogby poll results show that,

By a margin of 52% to 43%, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional invistigation of president Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
The poll was conducted by Zogby International, the highly regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,216 U.S. adults from January 9-12.

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