More than two-thirds of those who responded to an Argus-Courier online poll May 22, 2008 agree with the City Council’s decision not to agendize a discussion about impeaching President George W. Bush and Vice president Dick Cheney.
Nearly as many (62.3 percent) said it is not appropriate for the council to weigh in on the topic of impeachment and 70.5 percent said a council resolution would have no effect.
Here are some of the comments by those who responded to the poll:
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“Bush is not popular at all and will go away soon. Let’s move on.”
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“George W. Bush is the worst president ever. How-ever, it is a complete waste of time for our City Council to be talking about impeachment. They should focus their time and energy on issues in Petaluma, where they can make a difference. Are they trying to create a distraction and avoid dealing with the problems in our city?”
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“Petaluma must be in perfect shape if the council has enough time to waste on this subject. Guess there are no more crime or development issues to talk about!”
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“The City Council took an oath to uphold the Constitu-tion. It is time to honor that oath.”
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“Stop wasting time on issues that cannot be resolved at the city level. We have many more pressing issues facing Petaluma than debating over impeachment of a lame-duck president.”
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“Bush and Cheney have got to go. They are an embarrassment. No wonder the other four don’t want to impeach … anybody working for McCain?”
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“Bottom line: Somebody has to do something. It’s all just too much.”
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“We pretty much all agree that the current administration is terrible, but they will be out soon and we should not waste our time with them anymore.”
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“I agree with their decision, although I’d love to see Bush and Cheney impeached.”
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“Thank you, Mayor Pam Torliatt and Councilmember Teresa Barrett, for your vote of confidence in this matter. You two are the patriotic leaders this city is proud to have serve us. The others, well … the others do not share the values of patriotism, and the rule of law. They are cowards. You two are brave leaders.”
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“This is feel-good activity of no consequence. The council has enough hard work to do without taking members’ time on issues like this that have no real impact. Pick your battles carefully. Fight where it matters.”
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“People of conscience need to use their voices in a democracy.”
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“It is a perfect waste of time. City Council members have city matters to attend to and should have not have to be bothered with outside issues not pertaining to their job on the Council.”
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“The responsibility to police all public officials, be it local, county, state or federal, starts with individuals. The individuals make a city, county, state and country. For our city of Petaluma to not speak out ” and they are our elected representatives ” when it is only a request to urge the investigation of our federal leader, has made me lose all respect for those in our city government. I can’t wait for our next election. Seems we need people that have more of a spine.”
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“The Petaluma City Council is supposed to serve the people. They were presented with a petition signed by a great many people asking them to do something. Four of the council present that night ignored those people. Sadly, it’s not the first time that the council majority has ignored the desires of the people.”
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“I’m not a fan of Bush or Cheney, but this is a waste of time and energy. I’d like council members to stick to city business. If they want the president or vice president impeached, do it on their own time. If these people are serious about impeachment, why wait until so late in the Bush presidency?”
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“Waste of time.”
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“The business of the people of Petaluma shall be the City Council’s only sphere of influence.”
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“Too little, too late. Less than a year left in this presidency. The moneys spent here need to be spent in other ways.”
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“If I wanted to live in either Berkeley, Fairfax or Sebastopol, I would. We voted for our City Council to run Petaluma, not the county. Apparently they don’t have enough work to do.”
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“Once again we have a minority group coming into town in an attempt to have the tail wag the dog. The vote was totally predictable and was a waste of time. If you want to waste the time of your own council members, fine, but stay out of Petaluma. Our city has actual city business to conduct.”
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“See Vincent Bugliosi’s book about how the Supreme Court betrayed America. Congress owes its citizens a huge investigation of that and the ensuing Bush years. America needs to recover. “
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“Stick to the Petaluma concerns, not your personal views on federal government. Get over it and do what is needed in Petaluma.”
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“Why not let our City Council worry about our roads and school?”
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“I think it is a waste of taxpayer money and time for them to be discussing this issue. Fix our streets! Bush and Cheney will be out in less than 8 months. Let it go, start worrying about our town.”
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“Glad to see Pamela Torliatt and Teresa Barrett, the most liberal members, lose this battle. Will they try to approve marijuana sales now?”
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“The Petaluma City Council should be finding ways to speed up the Rainer overpass make driving in Petaluma more tolerable, not wasting time on things that Petaluma only has a small (if any) voice in. “
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“Democracy needs supporters, and Torliatt and Barrett are obviously the only patriots on the council. The other five (four of whom were present) don’t care about democracy of, for, or by the people. They represent special interests that disdain the democratic process.”
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“Are you kidding? Don’t we have enough problems right here in Petaluma? The council is elected to take care of these things.”
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“They need to get on with the issues of our city and not the nation. Start with the budget.”
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“Please take care of Petaluma’s issues first!”
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“I wish the discussion had been scheduled on a different night or at least managed a little more tightly. The discussion was way too long. Personally, I wanted to be present for the General Plan discussion and passage — having attended all but one of the public meetings in the last seven years on that issue. It was so late when they got around to that item, I had to leave due to responsibilities at home, so that was disappointing to me.”
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“Are you kidding me?! Come on! We’ve got bigger fish to fry than trying to get involved in the Big Freak Show called ‘Washington.’ The City Council of our little town of Petaluma needs to stop wasting time on baby boomer emotions and get this city in shape. There are so many more important issues we should be discussing. Forget about Bush and Cheney, forget about having honest leaders. Think locally, act locally.”
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“This is local government and with all our problems, they should be concentrating on those issues that THEY can control. We did not elect them to be our voice in other matters.”
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“The council members were elected to pay attention to city issues.”
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“Why are you wasting the time on this?”
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“This would be a complete waste of time and money, and accomplish nothing except make Petaluma into some kind of hippie freak show … like Berkeley. But it surprises me that the council didn’t get involved, considering their history of screwing things up around here (road diets). I’d like to know which two members voted for it, and organize a posse to run them out of town.”