

[IFP received this email update from Brad Newsham – founder of the ‘Beach Impeach’ projects]



A Short Sweet Impeachment Story



Every day I try to do one thing, usually small, to forward

impeachment. Here’s the story of yesterday:



My friend Cynthia Papermaster sent me an email with the names and

phone numbers (below) of the six Democratic members of the House

Judiciary subcommittee who have waffled on Kucinich’s “Impeach Cheney”

bill. It’s been sitting in their subcommittee since last April. So I

started dialing. Each time a staffer answered I would say something

like this: “I’m calling to ask (the congressperson) to please move

forward on the Impeach Cheney bill. You do know the one I’m talking

about?”

All six staffers had near-identical responses: “I certainly do!”

Me: “You’ve been getting a lot of calls on this?”

Them: “Oh, I think it’s plenty safe to say that, Yes, we have indeed

been getting a LOT of calls on this.”

Me: “Is (the congressperson) going to move on it?”

Them: “Well, s/he’s certainly listening to all the input.”

The sixth call, to the Honorable Melvin Watt of North Carolina, had a

surprise ending. When I asked the staffer if he’d been getting a lot

of calls, he said:

“In all the time I’ve been here, we have never gotten as many calls

on any subject as we’re getting on this one. It is nonstop!”

“Really!”

“Oh, I can’t tell you…”

Me: “So, is there any hope?”

“You know,” he said, “I wish I had something to tell you. But I’m

really just a cog in the wheel.”

“Oh, I’m a cog in the wheel, too,” I said. And then, since we were

now just two humans talking, I just threw this out there: “You know, I

live out in the San Francisco Bay Area, and last year I organized four

‘Beach Impeach’ events where…”

“You’re kidding!” he said. “I’m sitting here right this minute

looking at a picture of one of them!”

“Really!” You spend as much time and energy and money as I did, as we

all did, on making those events happen, and in the end it’s easy to

think they made no difference at all. And then this! My whole body was

instantly tingling. “Oh, that’s fantastic!”

He says, “Oh, yeah — this is great, man! That’s a lot of people —

you organized that?”

“I did. How’d you get the picture?”

“Well, I first saw it in the news way back when. And now people send

us the postcards all the time. I’ve got a couple more here on my desk

somewhere. People send them with their emails, too. Someone sent us a

blowup photo, and that’s what I’m looking at right now.”

Our conversation went on for a while, but that was the important

part: You never know. You never know what sort of ripples, what sort

of difference all our little (and big) acts will create. Although it

can often seem that we’re nothing but a bunch of crazy dreamers, and

although it seems that the media has been aggressively ignoring us for

years now, there are a LOT of us out here, and if we just keep it

up… Less than two years before I watched Nixon’s helicopter fly away

from the White House for the very last time, he was reelected in a

historic landslide. You just simply never know. (If you’ve got a few

minutes to make calls, or even a single call, the numbers are below.)

Keep the faith.

Beach Impeach 5 is happening on April 26, at Ocean Beach in San

Francisco. Helicopter(s) overhead at 11 a.m. sharp. Details being

arranged. Stay tuned.

Brad Newsham

4096 Piedmont Av #723

Oakland, CA 94611

[email protected]

415-305-8294

Six waffling Democrats on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the

Constitution:

John Conyers (Michigan) — 202-225-5126

Jerrold Nadler (New York)– 202-225-5635

Artur Davis (Alabama) — 202-225-2665

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Florida) — 202-225-7931

Robert Scott (Virginia) — 202-225-8351

Melvin Watt (North Carolina) — 202-225-1510

PS — While I was typing the above, an email arrived from World Can’t

Wait. Bush is sneaking into the Bay Area tonight to attend a

fundraiser in Hillsborough at which 105 Republicans will donate $1.5

million dollars ($140,00 per plate?). The exact address is not known,

but World Can’t Wait’s best guess is that it will be at a mansion at

565 Remillard Dr, Hillsborough, CA 94010-6739. Mapquest says it’s a

40-minute drive from my house. I may try to rearrange my schedule to

go over and find a spot to stand with an “IMPEACH AND IMPRISON”

placard. Sounds pointless, but you never know. See you there?