Monthly Archive for July, 2008

Hand’s Up Bush Regime: Ohio Has Citizen’s Arrest Rights

08/06 UPDATE: Okay Ohio, this week is your chance! Obama’s in Berea today for a 2pm town-hall meeting at Baldwin-Wallace College. McCain will host a Town Hall meeting in Lima, Ohio on Thursday, August 7th at The Veterans Memorial Civic & Convention Center. The doors will open at 9:30 am.

07/30 UPDATE: Looks like we just missed Bush in Cleveland yesterday! Dang. Maybe next time. I’ve set up a Google News RSS feed so I’ll be on top of things next time.

Very intrigued by the recent story of 4 people being arrested in Iowa for trying to make a citizen’s arrest of Karl Rove, I decided to look in the Ohio Revised Code to see what our local laws say about the subject. Indeed we are entitled to make citizen arrests:

2935.04 When any person may arrest

When a felony has been committed, or there is reasonable ground to believe that a felony has been committed, any person without a warrant may arrest another whom he has reasonable cause to believe is guilty of the offense, and detain him until a warrant can be obtained.

2935.06 Private person making arrest

A private person who has made an arrest pursuant to section 2935.04 [see above] of the Revised Code or detention pursuant to section 2935.041 of the Revised Code shall forthwith take the person arrested before the most convenient judge or clerk of a court of record or before a magistrate, or deliver such person to an officer authorized to execute criminal warrants who shall, without unnecessary delay, take such person before the court or magistrate having jurisdiction of the offense. The officer may, but if he does not, the private person shall file or cause to be filed in such court or before such magistrate an affidavit stating the offense for which the person was arrested.

Ohio is going to be very active in the next few months as the election gets closer. I say it’s time we start exercising our citizen’s arrest rights, what a powerful tool we have that we aren’t using!

That means if any member of the Bush Administration (war crimes, 9/11, etc.), John McCain (FEC violations), or Obama (violating the Logan Act with his Bilderberg attendance) etc. even steps foot in Ohio — we can get them.

Here are a few felonies to start with (and this is only Bush):

  1. ILLEGAL WAR
    George W. Bush has intentionally misled the Congress and the public regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war against Iraq, intentionally conspired with others to defraud the United States in connection with the war against Iraq in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Section 371; [Evidence]
  2. ILLEGAL SPYING
    George W. Bush has admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance of American civilians without seeking warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, duly constituted by Congress in 1978, in violation of Title 50 United States Code, Section 1805; [Evidence]
  3. GENEVA CONVENTION VIOLATIONS
    George W. Bush has conspired to commit the torture of prisoners in violation of the “Federal Torture Act” Title 18 United States Code, Section 113C, the UN Torture convention and the Geneva Convention, which under Article VI of the Constitution are part of the “supreme Law of the Land;”

    George W. Bush has conspired to deny due process to prisoners of war, indiscriminantly bomb cities, transfer prisoners of war from an occupied territory, and planned, prepared, initiated and waged of a war of aggression in violation of U.S. Military Code section 2441, Geneva convention (I Art 3, II Art 18, Art 19, III Art 13, Art 17, Art 33, Art 34, Art 49, IV Art 3), and the 1945 Nuremberg Principles articles 6(a) and (b); [Evidence]

  4. ILLEGAL DETENTION
    George W. Bush has acted to strip Americans of their constitutional rights by ordering indefinite detention of citizens, without access to legal counsel, without charge and without opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the President of a U.S. citizen as an “enemy combatant”, all in subversion of law; [Evidence]
  5. ILLEGAL RELEASE OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION
    George W. Bush authorized the leaking classified national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an unknown number of covert U. S. intelligence agents to potential harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to investigate the matter; [Evidence]
  6. ILLEGAL FREEZING OF ACCOUNTS AND RESTRICTION TO FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY
    George W. Bush ordered the freezing of financial accounts without limit to how groups were chosen to be on such a list, and further sets forth that he ordered himself the power to create blacklists of any individual he felt was associated with the aforementioned groups. Thereby creating a system of “guilt by association.” [Evidence]
  7. ILLEGAL USE OF SIGNING STATEMENTS
    George W. Bush has attached signing statements to more than one hundred bills before signing them, within which he has made over eleven hundred challenges to provisions of laws passed by Congress, a figure that exceeds the total number of such challenges by all previous presidents combined, and has used this practice to exempt himself, as President of the United States, from enforcing or from being held accountable to provisions of the said laws. By declining to veto bills, and instead attaching signing statements challenging hundreds of laws passed by Congress, he has sought to exempt the executive branch from accountability to said laws, thereby violating Article 1, Section 7 and Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. These articles of the Constitution dictate that the president has the option of signing or vetoing a bill, and upon signing the bill to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” [Evidence]

It’s time to take matters into our own hands. It’s obvious Congress (with a few notable exceptions) has NO intention of holding the Bush Regime accountable for any of their crimes.

So what say ye, my fellow Ohioans, ready to roll up your sleeves and fill up our prisons?

“At the end of the day, it is the responsibility of the people to govern themselves. We must be willing to hold our civil magistrates accountable to the contract they made with us, which is to uphold constitutional government. It is our duty to “throw off” any system of government that does not secure our liberties and protect our Constitution. And this we have not done.”
- Chuck Baldwin, 2008 Constitution Party Presidential Candidate

Congressional Hearing Today on the Imperial Presidency of George W. Bush

“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
- Article II, Section IV of the U.S. Constitution

Today at 10am, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich (the only good Democrat in Congress) will be presenting his case for the impeachment of George W. Bush to the Judiciary Committee. (NO THANKS to Chairman John Conyers Jr., who has stonewalled impeachment efforts for YEARS.)

The six areas to be explored by the hearing are:

  1. improper politicization of the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorneys offices, including potential misuse of authority with regard to election and voting controversies;
  2. misuse of executive branch authority and the adoption and implementation of the so-called unitary executive theory, including in the areas of presidential signing statements and regulatory authority;
  3. misuse of investigatory and detention authority with regard to U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, including questions regarding the legality of the administration’s surveillance, detention, interrogation, and rendition programs;
  4. manipulation of intelligence and misuse of war powers, including possible misrepresentations to Congress related thereto;
  5. improper retaliation against administration critics, including disclosing information concerning CIA operative Valerie Plame, and obstruction of justice related thereto; and
  6. misuse of authority in denying Congress and the American people the ability to oversee and scrutinize conduct within the administration, including through the use of various asserted privileges and immunities.

Pretty easy points to argue! GO KUCINICH — you make me proud to be from Ohio!

Tune in to C-SPAN at 10am and watch it live.

Check out this video from Congressman Kucinich, thanking WE THE PEOPLE for supporting him in his efforts. Seriously– a Congressman thanking the people, what a concept!

We’ll Miss You Katie.

07/24 UPDATE: The NY Times has written a great story about Katie’s life, it’s an excellent article very much worth reading.

Also, a memorial service for Katie Reider will be held at 11am this Saturday (July 26th) at Crossroads Church, 3500 Madison Road, Cincinnati, Ohio. Hope to see you there.

Katie Reider
1978-2008

A friend and favorite musician of mine (and many of my friends) passed away this morning after a courageous two-year battle with a mysterious illness called a Myofibroblastic Inflammatory Tumor.

It’s about the saddest ending one could conceive of for one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever met. Everyone knew Katie. She made us all feel like her close friends. Everyone would swear when she was singing, she was looking right at them and nobody else.

But it’s not her ending we must remember, it’s her life and her spirit. She touched sooooo many people’s lives. So many friends from different parts of my life were connected through her music. It’s amazing what one person can do.

There will be a candlelight vigil for her tonight at 9pm at the Goodale Park Gazebo. I hope some of you read this in time and can join us.

Most importantly— Please help her music live on. Listen to it yourself and pass it on to a friend.

We love you Katie, and will miss you. Your family will be in our thoughts.

News Overload!

WHEW!

I just got in from D.C., back from the Ron Paul Revolution March. My inbox is overflowing and the RSS updates are in the thousands. But PeaceChicken.com comes first!

Before I forget, I want to share a video of my recent confrontation with Ohio Congressman Pat Tiberi.

I saw him at the Delaware County Parade (I was marching with The Liberty Voice) and decided to ask him about the unconstitutional FISA bill which recently passed through the Senate (FYI, Obama voted YES to spy on Americans.) Tiberi’s response? He turned around and started talking to someone else. The Fourth Amendment obviously not a big concern to him. Fortunately I had my Bill of Rights with me and kindly reminded him what it said.

This is Congress. This is who we’re relying on to save this country. They wear flag pins on their suit lapels and march in Fourth of July Parades, but when it comes time to actually stand up and defend the U.S. Constitution — they turn their back.

The good news that THEY are on their way out and WE’RE on our way in. This weekend at the D.C. Revolution March there were thousands of REAL PATRIOTS from across the country who took over Constitution Avenue and spent the day listening to amazing speakers like G. Edward Griffin, Naomi Wolf, Chuck Baldwin, and Ron Paul.

Together we marched against FISA, against the IRS, against the Federal Reserve, against REAL I.D., against the North American Union, against the war, against attacking Iran, against McCain, against Obama, against the false and dividing left/right paradigm, against everything that’s taking our country down. We marched FOR freedom, FOR liberty, FOR the Constitution, FOR the Bill of Rights, FOR limited government, FOR our Founding Fathers, FOR PEACE!

Aside from the obvious highlights, I also easily handed out a few hundred copies of The Liberty Voice and was interviewed by the National Journal Online (hopefully I’ll have a link for that to post soon, as well as my photos.) If you want to see some of the fun, there are lots of videos already uploaded here from fellow-marchers.

Also this weekend, another Patriot, someone I’m very proud to call my friend (and member of We Are Change Ohio) got the chance to ask McCain a very important question, live on CNN, at a recent town hall event in Portsmouth, Ohio.

He said to McCain:

“Can you tell us about your role as president of the ‘New Citizen Project,’ founded in 1994, which served as a chief fund-raising and parent organization to PNAC? And is this one of the factors that has made you so reluctant to support the victims’ family members and first responders who are begging for a new investigation into 9/11?”

Can you guess what McCain’s response was? YOU GOT IT! Once again, another member of Congress responded by not answering the question. He just rambled on about how he was a co-sponsor of the legislation that formed the 9/11 Commission and how great that Commission was (what a joke!!) Are we seeing a trend here?

Meanwhile… the U.S. banking crisis got some fresh momentum on Friday when there was a run on California-based IndyMac bank, resulting in their seizure by the Federal Reserve. That marked the second largest bank failure in U.S. history.

Short on its tails, ready to fail, are federally-chartered and now privately-owned Fanny Mae (AKA Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddy Mac (AKA Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation), which together guarantee half the mortgages in the country. Of course the Federal Government, Congress, and the Federal Reserve are vehemently denying any problem, but still stand ready and eager to bail them out with OUR TAX DOLLARS (last time I checked, the Constitution said nothing of spending We the People’s tax dollars to save failing businesses.) Which of course won’t work. It’s a band-aid on a blown-off leg. The dollar crash is starting, my friends. Buy some gold and silver (here’s why) then hold on.

Yeah, I know, I have a lot of bad news in this post, sorry. I’m also sorry that I’m not done yet, because Bush has given Israel the thumbs up to attack Iran.

Given our unwavering support of Israel ($6.8 million a DAY, to be precise), of course the U.S. will be by their side in no time. Another attack on a sovereign country that poses no threat is ready to be launched. A third front for our poor soldiers in the Middle East and millions more dead civilians. Another yawn comes from the mouth of mainstream media.

It’s another day in the neighborhood, folks. One by one, the dominoes are falling as predicted. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

How many of these news stories does it take to wake people up and move them to action?

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
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