Yesterday, Saturday, March 13, 2006, Dave was officially nominated by the Colorado Green Party to be its candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 7th Congressional District.
Photos from the convention and the full list of nominated candidates can be found at: www.MetroDenverGreens.org.
Here is Dave's speech to the gathered delegates and guests at the meeting held at the University Methodist Church in Denver:
This is what George Bush told a German newspaper was his best moment in his five years in the White House:"You know, I've experienced many great moments and it's hard to name the best. I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7 and a half pound perch in my lake."
The tragic thing for us, is that in this case Bush was right -- that -- was his best moment.
That is a very sad commentary on what has happened to our country since Bush and Cheney were selected by the Supreme Court to occupy this land’s highest offices.
Four years ago, I stood before this convention, seeking our party’s nomination to run for the U.S. House of Representatives for the 7th Congressional District.
You accorded me that honor because we all here believe that Americans should have a genuine choice in whom they vote for. Both of the establishment party candidates in my race four years ago expressed their solidarity with George W. Bush’s determination to attack, invade and occupy Iraq.
By nominating me then to be an advocate for peace, you did a commendable thing in offering the voters of the 7th Congressional District a unique opportunity to vote their conscience -- to vote for peace and justice -- to vote for truth.
It is almost with a certain sense of regret that I stand before you again to ask for the nomination of the Green Party of Colorado for the same office. I feel compelled to do this because again there is little authentic difference in what the probable Democratic and Republican candidates offer the voters in the 7th District.
Today, to you and the voters in my District, I want to make the case for why it is important that there be in the U.S. House of Representatives a voice for peace, a voice to stop the war, and a voice for justice, for accountability, for renewing our Republic --- a voice for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney.
Speech by Dave Chandler
Candidate
U.S. House of Representative, 7th Congressional District of Colorado
Green Party of Colorado
State Convention - Saturday, May 13, 2006
Denver, Colorado
This is what George Bush told a German newspaper was his best moment in his five years in the White House:
"You know, I've experienced many great moments and it's hard to name the best. I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7 and a half pound perch in my lake."
The tragic thing for us, is that in this case Bush was right -- that -- was his best moment.
That is a very sad commentary on what has happened to our country since Bush and Cheney were selected by the Supreme Court to occupy this land’s highest offices.
Four years ago, I stood before this convention, seeking our party’s nomination to run for the U.S. House of Representatives for the 7th Congressional District.
You accorded me that honor because we all here believe that Americans should have a genuine choice in whom they vote for. Both of the establishment party candidates in my race four years ago expressed their solidarity with George W. Bush’s determination to attack, invade and occupy Iraq.
By nominating me then to be an advocate for peace, you did a commendable thing in offering the voters of the 7th Congressional District a unique opportunity to vote their conscience -- to vote for peace and justice -- to vote for truth.
It is almost with a certain sense of regret that I stand before you again to ask for the nomination of the Green Party of Colorado for the same office. I feel compelled to do this because again there is little authentic difference in what the probable Democratic and Republican candidates offer the voters in the 7th District.
Today, to you and the voters in my District, I want to make the case for why it is important that there be in the U.S. House of Representatives a voice for peace, a voice to stop the war, and a voice for justice, for accountability, for renewing our Republic --- a voice for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney.
The horrible mass murder attacks of September 11, 2001, have been cynically manipulated into the political propaganda of war, of fear, of vengeful nationalism by Bush and Cheney and Karl Rove. Their ultimate aim, it now appears, was to make an unprecedented power grab for the Executive Branch of the federal government.
James Madison, ‘godfather’ of our Constitution and fourth President of the United States warned us:
"Of all the enemies to public liberty -- war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.” He wrote: "No nation, could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
What Madison said has now manifested itself in this nation. Under the rationale of a never-ending ‘war on terror’ and the war in Iraq, Bush and Cheney and their rubber stamp defenders in the U.S. Senate and House have degraded our freedoms and taken for themselves powers that were never intended for a single leader and his party by the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the authors of the Constitution.
When a person like Bush, in a position of power uses the cover of horror and fear as we experienced on September 11, to lie and deceive the American people and the world into an unprovoked war, and when he uses that tragedy to perpetrate upon us a vast array of unconstitutional, illegal, unethical and immoral policies, orders, regulations, and laws -- then it is our duty as Americans to remove that person from office. The Constitution of the United States provides us with the means to accomplish that necessary task ... peacefully and civilly.
I run for Congress because this proposition must be presented unambiguously to the voters: That the survival of this nation as a free, democratic republic may very well depend upon the people of this country reasserting themselves as the ultimate sovereign authority over our government.
Of course, there would be a formal impeachment inquiry of the possible “high crimes and misdemeanors” committed by Bush and Cheney. But we know enough now that I would postulate what Articles of Impeachment might look like.
Modeled after a resolution passed by the Town Council of Rockingham, Vermont, here are my charges against Bush and Cheney:
One -- George W. Bush with Richard Cheney have violated the United Nations Charter and other treaties prohibiting aggressive war by invading Iraq without just cause or provocation, and have misled the U.S. Congress with deliberate and wanton falsehoods so as to obtain the resolution for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq.
And let me just highlight here the latest damning revelation that by itself provides enough reasonable cause to launch an impeachment inquiry. Tyler Drumheller, the former chief of the CIA’s Europe division, revealed just two weeks ago that in the fall of 2002, Bush, Cheney, and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice were told by CIA Director George Tenet that Iraq’s foreign minister — who agreed to act as a spy for the United States — had reported that Iraq had no active weapons of mass destruction program.
Bush and his gang knew the truth -- they knew were lying to us ... and now thousands and thousands of American troops and Iraqi citizens are dead ... because of their lies.
Two -- George W. Bush with the assent and collaboration of Richard Cheney have committed high crimes and misdemeanors as they have repeatedly and intentionally violated the United States Constitution and other laws of the United States, particularly the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Torture Convention, which under Article VI of the Constitution as a treaty is part of the “supreme law of the land.”
Three -- George W. Bush with Richard Cheney have 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.
Four -- George W. Bush with Richard Cheney have ordered the National Security Agency to intercept and otherwise record international telephone communications by American citizens without warrants from the FISA Court of Review, in violation of constitutional guarantees of due process.
By ordering the collection of tens of millions of telephone records of U.S. citizens, they have violated the FISA Act which requires a court order to gather a person's current phone records and they have caused to be violated a 1934 law requiring phone companies to protect customers' privacy.
Five -- George W. Bush with Richard Cheney have admitted that they willfully and repeatedly violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and boasted that they would continue to do so, each violation constituting a felony. Furthermore, they have obstructed justice by refusing security clearances to Justice Department agents seeking to investigate possible violations of law at the National Security Agency.
Therefore, let it be submitted that Bush’s and Cheney’s actions and admissions constitute ample grounds for impeachment.
Let it further be submitted that Articles of Impeachment introduced into the House of Representatives should charge that George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have violated their constitutional oaths to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”.
In all of this George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President, subversive of constitutional government to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
This is a compelling and solemn indictment of the malfeasance of the Bush administration.
Sadly, the radical Republicans have continued to put party politics before the good of the nation and have not started any serious investigations of Bush’s transgressions of law. Even more disappointing is the near complete lack of dissent or patriotic outrage from the Democratic Party leadership, who indeed, can hardly even be called a “loyal opposition’ ... because they have not vigorously opposed the radical Bush agenda at all.
As we have seen, when it comes to impeachment, Democratic party leaders become embarrassingly squeamish and ill-at-ease. In point of fact, just this past Sunday on ABC’s ‘This Week’ program, the chairman of the national Democratic Party, Howard Dean, “dismissed the idea that Democrats would seek to impeach Bush if they won back control of Congress.”
Why are they so timid? Is it because they are not thinking about the best interests of the country, but instead are seduced by political consultants and are more concerned with where the next big special interest campaign contribution is coming from?
So at this particular time in our nation’s history, impeachment represents the ultimate in citizen action. We, the people, have the right and indeed, the duty to seek impeachment when that is what is necessary to preserve the future of our republic.
It is something we must do -- not based on the odds of success -- but based on doing what is right.
Now, for sure this year once again, we will hear that if we Greens really want to change things in Washington, we should sacrifice our principles, grit our teeth and just vote for the Democrats.
But especially over the past five years, the Democrats have shown us repeatedly that they lack the determination and courage to defend freedom and the Constitution. They have shown time and again by their actions that if you vote for a Democrat ... you might as well elect a Republican.
The most recent example of this was the deafening silence of the establishment Democrats towards Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold’s censure of Bush resolution for the unlawful NSA spying on American citizens. To this day, only two other Senators have joined Feingold in his effort.
I call attention to just a couple of the non-distinguishing votes made by Colorado Democrats ... reasons why voting for candidates of that party is just asking for more frustration, disappointment and failure for the nation.
Last month, Colorado's entire Congressional delegation -- all the Republicans (except for the absent “Both Ways” Bob Beauprez) and ALL the Democrats -- voted for the so-called “Iran Freedom Support Act”, a resolution that could easily be seen as Congressional assent for Bush and Rumsfeld to continue planning an attack on Iran. Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, one of only fifteen Democrats and six Republicans in the House to vote NO, argued that it was indeed a step in the direction of military action.
In early March of this year, with 80 percent of Democrats on board, the U.S. Senate -- including Colorado’s Ken Salazar-- voted to renew the Patriot Act. The House went along voting 280 to 138 to renew -- with Mark Udall and John Salazar both voting YES.
So, to those Democrat politicians in the 7th Congressional District who arrogantly argue that all voters who value peace and social justice must vote for their candidate or waste their votes, I have this to say:
If your candidate turns out to be brave, courageous, plain spoken and honest, then you have nothing to fear from my candidacy.
But if your standard bearer and your party is afraid ...
• to call for an impeachment inquiry of Bush and Cheney;
• if he or she will not call for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq;
• if your party refuses to say absolutely no to a “preemptive attack” on Iran;
• if she or he will not support universal health insurance for all Americans;
• if your party will not advocate for our country signing the Kyoto Accords on global warming;
• if he or she will not commit to the repeal of the misnamed and counterproductive Patriot Act and the so-called No Child Left Behind Act...
...Then that candidate and that party will not have earned the votes of progressives and peace advocates and fighters for equality and social justice. It will then be evident to all that the nominee of the Democrats is beholden to the corrupt campaign finance system -- is cynical and calculating -- and does not deserve to win.
A real choice for voters --- that is what the Green Party gives the citizens of this state and nation. The voters of the 7th Congressional District in November 2006, will have the opportunity to reject the scornful tactic of voting for the “lesser of two evils” -- this year they can vote for Principle Before Politics.
The future of politics and, indeed, perhaps the very future of our nation is to be found in the Ten Key Values of the Green Party -- that is what I run on, and that is what every candidate nominated here today runs upon. Those Values are what makes us a new force in American politics.
With those Values as our guiding principles, when we win, the renewal of our Republic can begin ... and peace and liberty and justice will truly then be had by all.
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