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League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
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Proposition J Adopting a Policy Calling for the Impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney City of San Francisco Majority Approval Required Pass: 133,042 / 58.53% Yes votes ...... 94,282 / 41.47% No votes
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Index of all Measures |
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Information shown below: Summary | Fiscal Impact | Yes/No Meaning | Arguments | Full Text | ||||||
Shall it be City policy to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney?
THE PROPOSAL: Proposition J is a Declaration of Policy that would call for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney for violating the public trust and for knowingly harming the United States of America, California, and San Francisco. The policy would call on elected federal and state representatives to use every available legal mechanism to effect the impeachment and removal from office of President Bush and Vice President Cheney for committing High Crimes and Misdemeanors in violation of the United States Constitution. A "YES" VOTE MEANS: If you vote "yes," you want it to be City policy to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. A "NO" VOTE MEANS: If you vote "no," you do not want it to be City policy to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
Should the proposed policy statement be approved by the voters, in my opinion, it would not increase the cost of government.
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Arguments For Proposition J | Arguments Against Proposition J | ||
VOTE YES ON J
CALL ON CONGRESS TO IMPEACH PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH AND VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY. The Bush Administration has shown blatant disregard for the United States' Democracy and Constitution. It has undermined civil liberties and human rights, ignored domestic needs, soured international relations and initiated an illegal war that has led to thousands of deaths of U.S. soldiers. During their first term, President Bush and Vice President Cheney lied to Congress and the American people to start a preemptive war with Iraq, which after three years has brought international regard for the United States to an all time low and Iraq to the brink of civil war. In carrying out this war, Bush's Department of Defense has broken U.S. and international law by detaining citizens and non citizens inside and outside the U.S. without charges and without due process or legal counsel. Earlier this year, the Bush Administration's National Security Agency circumvented U.S. law to order the secret surveillance of American citizens without court warrant. After the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the Gulf Coast Region, President Bush and his appointed head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) showed gross incompetence and reckless indifference to their obligations to serve the victims of the disaster. FEMA's lack of disaster preparedness and incompetent response led to the needless deaths and prolonged displacement of thousands of people in the Gulf Region. The Bush Administration's actions constitute high crimes and misdemeanors, impeachable offenses under Article II, Section 4 of the United State Constitution. IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY! VOTE YES ON J!
Supervisor Aaron Peskin, President, Board of Supervisors
To their credit, the Fairfax City Council at least saved the voters of their town the expense of balloting on this "garbage can" resolution. They just passed a misguided resolution against President Bush and Vice-President Cheney + They didn't run up unnecessary election costs. At least they saved their City several thousand dollars of balloting tax waste... San Francisco is less lucky. On the merits, this impeachment resolution is unjustified. An impeachment resolution against Democrat James Buchanin - generally rated as our worst U.S. President (1857 to 1861) - would have been more justified... Far more. Buchanin's mistakes helped bring about the American Civil War. His ardently pro-slavery Vice-President - John C. Breckenridge - later became a Confederate General. Next to Buchanin and Breckenridge, Bush and Cheney are innocent lambs.
Dr. Terence Faulkner, J.D.
Roger E. Schulke, M.B.A.
| ISLAMIC TERRORISTS WILL BE AMUSED AND ENCOURAGED IF THIS IMPEACHMENT RESOLUTION PASSES:
Islamic terrorists know "WEAKNESS" and "APPEASEMENT" when they see them.
With some reason, they consider our "INFIDEL WEST" to be "WEAK" and "COWARDLY". Bush is not the first wartime President to be insulted and mocked. Lincoln got worse, admits Shelby Foote in The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume One: The "inadequate, inept...bumpkin" Abraham Lincoln "was called... not only... a fool but a coward." Cartoonists had fun with Honest Abe during the Civil War. They drew "fugitive sketches" of "Lincoln with his hair on end, the elongated figure surrounded by squiggles to show how he quaked as he ran from the threats" of the (eventually successful) pro-Confederate assassins. "In the North there was shame behind the laughter and the sighs. Elation was high in the South, where people found themselves confirmed in their decision to leave a Union which...would have such a coward for its leader. Certainly no one could picture Jefferson Davis [Confederate States of America President] fleeing from threats to his safety..." Feminist authoress Phyllis Chesler wrote the article "Gender Apartheid" [November 2005 Playboy] about the bitter cultural war between Islamic terrorists and our "infidel West": "A knee-jerk hatred for President Bush has all but blinded many feminists and progressives to the greater danger of Wahhabism, Salafist Islamism and terrorism. Because feminist academics and journalists are now so heavily influenced by leftist ways of thinking, many now believe that speaking out against head scarves, veils, chadors, arranged marriages, polygamy, forced pregnancies or female genital mutilation is either imperialist or Crusade-ist." Vote "AGAINST" this misguided impeachment resolution.
Dr. Terence Faulkner, J.D.
Honest Abe is rolling over in his grave to see himself compared to President Bush. By voting yes on Prop J and calling for impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, San Francisco voters will be on the right side of history. The Bush Administration has not only shown such callous disregard for the nation's laws + deliberately misrepresenting intelligence and lying to Congress and the American people, conducting illegal wire taps, and circumventing national and international law to authorize torture + it has heightened international tensions, making U.S. citizens unsafe at home and abroad and making terror against the U.S. much more likely. All that stands in the way of impeachment is the will of Congress. San Francisco can and should take leadership on ending this criminal administration. While former President Clinton was impeached by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives for lying under oath about a simple personal infidelity, his indiscretion, unlike the crimes of President Bush and Dick Cheney, did not undermine world security, amount to tens of thousands of deaths, bring a country like Iraq to the brink of civil war, cause a soaring national debt nor foment the U.S.'s loss of stature and regard in the world community. The crimes of the Bush Administration demand a commensurate response from Congress. VOTE YES ON PROP J AND PUT SAN FRANCISCO ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY.
Supervisor Chris Daly |
Full Text of Proposition J |
It is the Policy of the people of the City and County of San Francisco to call for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney for violating the public trust and for knowingly harming the United States of America, the State of California, and the City and County of San Francisco.
On November 2, 2004, the people of San Francisco passed Proposition N, asking the Federal government to "take immediate steps to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq and bring our troops safely home now," citing President Bush's lies to the American people in making the case for war in Iraq. President George W. Bush abused his power by authorizing the National Security Agency and various other agencies within the intelligence community to conduct electronic surveillance outside of the statutes Congress prescribed as the exclusive means for such surveillance and concealed the existence of this unlawful program from Congress, the press, and the public. President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney abused their power by arbitrarily detaining citizens and non-citizens indefinitely inside and outside of the United States, without due process, without charges and with limited - if any - access to counsel or courts. They have failed to faithfully execute the laws of the United States by allowing torture and failing to investigate and prosecute high-level officials responsible for torture. President George W. Bush disregarded his Presidential duty when he and his appointed head of Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to quickly and adequately respond to a major disaster on United States soil, Hurricane Katrina, which killed at least 1,383 people in the Gulf Coast Region and left over 78,000 people homeless, and is guilty of gross incompetence or reckless indifference to his obligation to execute the laws faithfully. President George W. Bush arrogated excessive power to the executive branch in violation of the basic constitutional principle of the separation of powers. On February 28, 2006, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution calling for a "full investigation, impeachment or resignation of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney." We call upon the United States House of Representatives to initiate an investigation into High Crimes and Misdemeanors committed by President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney and to submit Articles of Impeachment to the United States Senate. We call on the United States Senate, after trying any Impeachment, to remove President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney from office. We call upon the Legislature of the State of California to transmit charges supporting impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney to the United States House of Representatives. We generally call on our elected federal and state representatives to immediately invoke every available legal mechanism to effect the impeachment and removal from office of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney for High Crimes and Misdemeanors under Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution of the United States of America. |