Groups Request Special Prosecutor For Bush, Cheney, Et Alia

Statement on Prosecution of Former High Officials

We urge Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a non-partisan independent Special Counsel to immediately commence a prosecutorial investigation into the most serious alleged crimes of former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Richard B. Cheney, the attorneys formerly employed by the Department of Justice whose memos sought to justify torture, and other former top officials of the Bush Administration.

Our laws, and treaties that under Article VI of our Constitution are the supreme law of the land, require the prosecution of crimes that strong evidence suggests these individuals have committed. Both the former president and the former vice president have confessed to authorizing a torture procedure that is illegal under our law and treaty obligations. The former president has confessed to violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

We see no need for these prosecutions to be extraordinarily lengthy or costly, and no need to wait for the recommendations of a panel or “truth” commission when substantial evidence of the crimes is already in the public domain. We believe the most effective investigation can be conducted by a prosecutor, and we believe such an investigation should begin immediately.

Drafted by The Robert Jackson Steering Committee
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/robertjackson

Signed By many organizations, including:

Progressive Democrats of America
http://www.pdamerica.org

Contact: David Swanson david@davidswanson.org

I Met The Walrus - a John Lenon audio with awsome animation - Peace!

Our Priorities for the 111th Congress

December 23, 2008
The Honorable James P McGovern
34 Mechanic Street
Worcester, MA 01608

Dear Congressman,

The Progressive Democrats of America have formed as chapter in your district. We hope to sustain an ongoing dialog with you throughout your term with the 111th Congress and provide grass roots support for the Progressive agenda of the Democratic Party. Our priorities are as follows:

Bailout Main-street, Not Wall-street

• Immediate economic relief from the financial crisis and ongoing recession through job creation and assistance
• We support President Barak Obama's plans for infrastructure investment
• Stop the foreclosures - keep people in their homes
• "Small is Beautiful," "Too Big to Fail" is not - no more taxpayer dollars for the big banks - there are other more effective solutions

Restore Trust in our Banking & Securities Sector

• Restore a sound banking and securities system - bring back regulations and a Securities and Exchange Commission willing to enforce them
• Bring back the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 that separated investment, commercial and consumer banks and set limits on bank leverage
• Krugman's simple rule -- "anything that does what a bank does, anything that has to be rescued in crises the way banks are, should be regulated like a bank" -- no shadow banking system
• Dismantle complex Mortgage Backed Securities (MBO's) and return mortgages where they belong - consumer banks and the original secondary market of GSE's - Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Federal Home Loan Banks
• Insure that Credit Default Swaps (CDS's) and other complex interbank derivatives and auction rate securities have regulatory oversight - heed Buffet's Maxim that "derivatives are weapons of financial mass destruction" and treat accordingly

A Green New Deal

• Build a "green collar economy" through investment in America's energy infrastructure, including large and small scale renewable energy, offshore wind, and an on&off-shore high voltage DC transmission network, all connected to a smart grid
• Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants - EECBG to our Cities, a full budget appropriation to the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007
• Invest in reviving the nation's rail system, but a modern version, energy efficient, high speed, electric and ultra-light weight
• Progressively higher CAFE standards for all classes of vehicle; allow preemptive state standards (e.g., California)
• Whatever we do, it must be economically and environmentally sustainable, and cut reliance on fossil-fuels as quickly as realistically feasible

Environmental Health and Climate Protection

• Enter into International Treaty for Climate Protection
• Implement a national carbon tax or carbon cap & trade system (like RGGI)
• Restore rules & regulations protecting the environment and consumers, with an effective Environmental Protection Agency; consider an immediate injunction on recent EPA rules changes
• Make Environmental Health a real priority, controlling and reducing the toxins polluting us, our water, air and land
• Stop mountain top removal for the excavation of coal, the mining of oil shale and tar sands, offshore drilling and other climate/environmentally destructive practices; stop the subsidies big oil/coal

Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security

• Cut the dependence of our farms on fossil-fuels and high-energy agriculture and move towards local production, farmer markets and direct marketing
• Preserve family farms and make sure our farmers have a living wage
• Protect the biodiversity and health of farm soil - organic should be the law
• Stop the subsidy of corn based ethanol and biofuels that compete with food crops

End the War, Redirect Funding

• Withdraw our troops from Iraq and redirect war funds toward social needs at home and humanitarian aid in Iraq; we support Rep. Barney Frank's call for a 25 percent cut in military spending
• Fully investigate false White House claims justifying the invasion and occupation of Iraq ; hold criminal prosecutions of all those who violated our international treaties, which are the law of the land and binding obligations
• Shut down the permanent military bases established in Iraq during our illegal occupation of that country
• Use multilateralism and international law in all our foreign relations without exception
• No invasion of Iran has ever been justified to the American people; Iran's nuclear enrichment activities are permissible under the international Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty; a peaceful resolution of tensions and detente are our ONLY recourse
• Negotiate an end to the war in Afghanistan and a reduction of US forces from the Mideast; the problem of Al-Qaeda is a police problem, not a military one
• Insure that the US honors international treaties we are signatory to regarding nuclear and biological weapons manufacture and reduction of stockpiles

Single Payer Health Care for All

• We support Rep. John Conyer's bill, H.R. 676, which establishes a streamlined, nonprofit national health insurance program -- enhanced Medicare for All - and which would negotiate drug and treatment costs

Economic Justice

• We call on Congress to roll back Bush tax breaks for the wealthy, so that the richest 1 percent of Americans (with yearly incomes averaging $1.3 million) will not pocket $300 billion over the next four years
• We support fair trade that protects workers' rights and the environment, while opposing wage-reducing "free trade" agreements that protect only corporate rights to globally exploit unprotected labor
• We endorse the Employee Free Choice Act, which establishes unions in any workplace where a majority of workers sign up
• Minimum wage and a safety net above the poverty level, and adjusted for inflation in the actual cost of living

Clean, Fair, Transparent Elections

• Comprehensive campaign finance reform at the state and national level, including Clean Money public financing of elections, plus free TV/media time for candidates "Instant Runoff"/proportional voting, and paper ballots which assure more accurate and broader representation than winner-take-all elections

Social Security

• Make the necessary adjustments which will insure the financial solvency of Social Security and an income for our elderly above poverty levels, accounting for the soon-to-be-retired baby boom generation and other demographic trends

Restore the Rule of Law

• Investigate and prosecute the crimes of the Bush/Cheney Administration, because our laws require it: Our government authorized the use of torture and rendition, approved secret electronic surveillance against American citizens, secretly detained American citizens without due process of law, denied the writ of habeas corpus to hundreds of accused enemy combatants and authorized the use of procedures that violate both international law and the United States Constitution, among other numerable war crimes
• Restore our constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties

Thank you for your consideration, and thank you for your continued excellent representation of our interests in Congress.

The members of the Progressive Democrats of Worcester

Born in America

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