Brattleboro resident (Vermont) to vote on arresting Bush, Cheney

[Danny Tran]

Brattleboro to vote on arresting Bush, Cheney

January 26, 2008

By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff

BRATTLEBORO — Brattleboro residents will vote at town meeting on whether President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be indicted and arrested for war crimes, perjury or obstruction of justice if they ever step foot in Vermont.

The Brattleboro Select Board voted 3-2 Friday to put the controversial item on the Town Meeting Day warning.

According to Town Clerk Annette Cappy, organizers of the Bush-Cheney issue gathered enough signatures, and it was up to the Select Board whether Brattleboro voters would consider the issue in March.

Cappy said residents will get to vote on the matter by paper balloting March 4.

Kurt Daims, 54, of Brattleboro, the organizer of the petition drive, said Friday the debate to get the issue on the ballot was a good one. Opposition to the vote focused on whether the town had any power to endorse the matter.

"It is an advisory thing," said Daims, a retired prototype machinist and stay-at-home dad of three daughters.

So far, Vermont is the only state Bush hasn't visited since he became president in 2001.

Daims said the most grievous crime committed by Bush and Cheney was perjury — lying to Congress and U.S. citizens about the basis of a war in Iraq.

He said the latest count showed a total of 600,000 people have died in the war.

Daims also said he believed Bush and Cheney were also guilty of espionage for spying on American people and obstruction of justice, for the politically generated firings of U.S. attorneys.

Voting to put the matter on the town ballot were Chairwoman Audrey Garfield and board members Richard Garrant and Dora Boubalis.

Voting against the idea were board members Richard DeGray and Stephen Steidle.

Daims said the names submitted to the town clerk's office were the second wave of signatures the petition drive had to collect, because he had to rewrite the wording of the petition.

He said he gathered nearly 500 signatures in about three weeks, and he said most people he encountered were eager to sign it. He started the petition drive about three months ago.

"Everybody I talked to wanted Bush to go," he said, noting that even members of the local police department supported the drive.

"This is exactly what the charter envisioned as a citizen initiative," Daims said. "People want to express themselves and they want to say how they feel."

He said the idea is spreading: Activists in Louisville, Ky., are spearheading a similar drive, and he said activists were also working in Montague, Mass., a Berkshires town.

The article asked the town attorney to "draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities."

The article goes on to say the indictments would be the "law of the town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro police ... arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro, if they are not duly impeached ..."

Daims said people in Brattleboro were willing to "think outside the box" and consider the issue.

Daims had no compunction in comparing Bush and Cheney with one of the most notorious people in history.

"If Hitler were still alive and walked through Brattleboro, I think the local police would arrest him for war crimes," Daims said.

Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pb...59/1003/NEWS02

[BlaRo]

Glad they've got their priorities down pretty well.

"If the President of the United States ever happens to come across this tiny mountain village of 12,000...oh, we'll show him alright. *shakes fist*"

[anti-net]

At least someone cares to stop this guy, I'm still shocked every time I see him talk about foreign policy. I heard on 9/11 Bush and his merry men...and Condoleezza had to get a map out to find out where Afghanistan was.

[jayhawk]

Have they nothing better to do? Isn't the purpose of town meetings to get priorities done, like...you know, getting the roads paved and plowed, improvement of parks and the sewer system...must be nice to live in such an insulated town.

Are they that ignorant they forgot about this guy?

Christ, I can't wait for this administration to end, not because I hate the guy, but because it will shut the lunatics up.

Originally Posted by some ignorant moron

Daims had no compunction in comparing Bush and Cheney with one of the most notorious people in history.

"If Hitler were still alive and walked through Brattleboro, I think the local police would arrest him for war crimes," Daims said.

Funny how the people who spout the "Bush is Hitler" rhetoric conveniently forget about that champion of communism, who under his leadership killed millions of people, Joseph Stalin.

[FATMOUSE]

Originally Posted by jayhawk

Funny how the people who spout the "Bush is Hitler" rhetoric conveniently forget about that champion of communism, who under his leadership killed millions of people, Joseph Stalin.

I'm sure there's people who dislike Hitler, Stalin and Bush.

[Lupin_IV]

No, Stalin was the complete idealistic opposite of Bush, which proves that politicians are all the same.

[tigger]

Originally Posted by jayhawk

Christ, I can't wait for this administration to end, not because I hate the guy, but because it will shut the lunatics up.

Well, it will shut these lunatics up. Then we'll just get new ones, and things will just go on like the have been for God knows how long.

Originally Posted by Lupin_IV

No, Stalin was the complete idealistic opposite of Bush, which proves that politicians are all the same.

Homicidal douchebags?

[Momentum57]

The problem that I have with the Anti-Bush League of Dumb is that they rarely understand politics or have a clear political goal. I was at a protest and met a girl that claimed to be a communist and asked if she wrote her congressman. Yet she did not know who her congressman was. I was not even in her district but knew the man that she would be writing too. Further more than that she had no idea how communism worked as a political entity.

The more I met with the Anti-Bush the more I grew afraid of who they would be doped into voting for. I say doped because I smoked with these idiots and they showed what they truly valued, anything thats free. They liked that car but said that the financial services industries deprived the poor. I should have told them to get out of the car.

[gtrietsc]

I think this is just a plea for attention, really.

Vermont is the only state Bush hasnt visited since becoming President. Maybe they feel left out?

Also, cities don't even have the power to enforce federeal immigration law, our courts have held - so why do they think they will be able to start prosecuting for war crimes in another country? LOL.

[tigger]

Originally Posted by gtrietsc

Also, cities don't even have the power to enforce federeal immigration law, our courts have held - so why do they think they will be able to start prosecuting for war crimes in another country? LOL.

Maybe they want to secede from the Union and then try him for war crimes?

[Hidden_Hunter]

Isn't he immune from prosecution anyway?

[Crazyjeeper]

I suppose if he gets arrested, he will just pardon himself.