Santa Cruz may follow Berkeley with ballot measure calling for impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney

Council votes tonight

By Anna Molin, Bay City News Service

July 25, 2006

SANTA CRUZ (BCN) - The Santa Cruz City Council today is expected to vote on a resolution that if passed would place an advisory measure to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on the Nov. 7 election ballot.

If approved, the city of Santa Cruz would join the City of Berkeley and a growing list of cities calling for impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney.

Voters would be asked to decide whether they want to call on Congress to "initiate proceedings for the impeachment and removal from office of" Bush and Cheney as well as calling upon the state legislature to adopt a similar resolution.

City Councilman Mike Rotkin submitted the proposal to the council, arguing that Bush and Cheney committed a number of "high crimes" when they authorized electronic surveillance of American citizens without obtaining judicial approval, permitted the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay with little or no access to legal counsel or courts and mislead Congress and the American people about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The resolution also accuses Bush and Cheney of leaking the identity of CIA covert agent Valerie Plame Wilson in retaliation for her husband publishing a newspaper article criticizing the administration's nuclear weapons rationale for war in Iraq. Furthermore, the resolution states that Bush and Cheney sanctioned the torture of detainees and ignored congressional acts that protect against cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners.

Bush and Cheney "have violated the constitutional rights of citizens, impaired the due and proper administration of justice and the conduct of lawful inquiries, violated laws governing agencies of the Executive Branch, and failed to take care that the laws were faithfully executed, in contravention of their constitutionally prescribed duties and their oaths of office," the resolution states.

The City Council meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month in the Council Chambers. Sessions open to the public start at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

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