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Our June 23rd Town Hall Grassroots Panel Discussion, Should Impeachment be on the Table? |
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A link to just the opening remarks of the speakers here. A press release of the event is available here. And a summary of the Keynote Speech detailing a "Long List of Lawlessness" is here. On June 23rd at George Mason University's Mason Hall the Virginians for Peace and Accountability sponsored a town hall forum entitled, Should impeachment be on the table?. The guest speakers were as follows: Lawrence Wilkerson, Chief of Staff for Secretary of State, Colin Powell; Visiting Professor, College of William & Mary; former Director, USMC War College, Quantico, VA; Colonel, US Army, retired. Marcus Raskin, Co-Founder, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, DC; Professor, the George Washington University; author "Four Freedoms Under Siege," and "In Democracy's Shadow." Barbara Olshansky, Professor, Stanford Law School; former Deputy Director, Center for Constitutional Rights; Co-Author "The Case for Impeachment." Gil Davis - attorney for Paula Jones in the case against Bill Clinton. Mark Levine, Host "Inside Scoop" radio, internet and TV talk show; former U.S. Congressional staff attorney. Dennis Loo, Professor, Cal Poly Pomona, Co-Editor "Impeach the President: the Case Against Bush & Cheney." Barbara Bowley, Associate Professor & Director Education Services, Woodbury University; contributor "Impeach the President: the Case Against Bush & Cheney." Ron Pinchback (Moderator), General Manager, WPFW (89.3 FM), Pacifica Radio, Washington, D.C. We had a rather energetic start from Mark Levine, who got us motivated for impeachment. Ron Pinchback introduced the speakers who were given seven minutes each for opening remarks. Col. Wilkerson has a tremendous grasp of the workings of government. He also has a historian's perspective. Col. Wilkerson discussed the history of impeachment as part of our constitution. He also reminded us who has the money in government - the national security interests. When a four-star General visits a foreign country, he has far more clout than a diplomat. Col. Wilkerson believes that the founding fathers would be appalled at how little we have actually used impeachment. He believes impeachment would be cathartic for us, and a potent weapon, but if you're going to impeach, you had better do Cheney first, because he would institute Marshal Law if you didn't. Marcus Raskin spoke next. Mr. Raskin spoke of checks and balances. He brings up the suggestion of the Bill of Rights should be part of the Constitution. He also discussed what putting forth Impeachment will do for us now and in the future. How do we confront the situation we are in? We are now in a permanent war in Iraq and Afghanistan and perhaps Iran as well. So how do we look at our changing government? These are questions we will be asking for years to come. Barbara Olshansky spoke next. She is an attorney who speaks for the detainees at Guantamano Bay. Ms. Olshansky says, the world is watching and there are legitimate reason for impeachment. Our government uses disappearance as a form of terror. It grabs people in the middle of the night and they are never heard from again. Some of the detainees were kept for two years, while they were cleared of any crime. Not one was ever charged. The detainees want to be cleared, declared innocent. Children were detained, some treated as adults. The President and our Congress have shredded the writ of Habeas Corpus, a right we've had for over 800 years. All the detainees asked for was their day in court. Gil Davis represents the anti-Impeachment viewpoint regarding Bush. While he believes as Col. Wilkerson said, impeachment is always on the table, he does not believe that Bush has done any impeachable offense. Interestingly, Mr. Davis had prosecuted the first person in the Nixon administration during the investigation of Watergate. Mr. Davis thinks we should consider very seriously before making the move toward impeachment, and that what Bush has done could not be called high crimes and misdemeanors. Once Davis had made his statements, the other speakers wanted to make rebuttals to remarks he made. And then he spoke again as well. We were running very late and opened the floor for questions. Thanks to our audience we had many compelling viewpoints and questions. After an additional hour we broke into groups. Dennis Loo and Barbara Bowley headed the largest group and discussed Presidential Accountability. |