Tell Barbara Lee to Impeach!

BARBARA LEE ASKS: "TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK?" -- PLEASE TELL HER!

MY CAMPAIGN FOR CONGRESS

MEMORIAL DAY BANNER DROP

TWO CAB FARES

Hello Everyone,

A SHIFT IN PERSPECTIVE: Yesterday morning, starting about 6am, my
11-year-old daughter and I had Yosemite Falls completely to ourselves
for half an hour. The falls are 3,000 feet high, and yesterday they
were bursting with the spring runoff. We stood in the jet-powered mist
shooting from the base of the thundering tower, until we were just a
little too damp. We walked a quarter-mile away to a bench the Park
Service has positioned so that, when one is seated, one sees the falls
framed perfectly between two rows of 100-foot tall Ponderosa pines. We
snuggled together on our bench -- all alone, just the two of us --
while the rest of the valley was still sleeping. My daughter observed
that this scenery was spectacular beyond belief, and that if you go a
couple of years without seeing it, you can forget how magical Yosemite
is. I told her that the world is full of stupefying sceneries, and I
mentioned a couple I've been lucky enough to see. She said she hopes
to visit her fair share of them, too, in her lifetime. For half an
hour -- for the entire day, in fact -- war and politics did not exist.

BARBARA LEE ASKS: "TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK?" -- PLEASE TELL HER!

In her newsletter today, Barbara Lee asks her subscribers what sort
of town hall meeting they'd like to see her host. I told her an
IMPEACHMENT town hall meeting. Won't you please take 30 seconds and
tell her what you think
?

MY CAMPAIGN FOR CONGRESS

Oddly enough, I feel like I'm "winning" my write-in campaign for
Congress. I'm very aware, very clear, that I will NOT be the top
vote-getter in this primary election on June 3 -- Barbara Lee, the
only person on the ballot, most certainly will be the winner. Since I
already know I can't win, it feels to me as though I also can't lose.
And since I have nothing to lose, hey, you know what? -- it really
does feel to me like I'm winning! And I like that feeling.

I'm turning in my petitions tomorrow, Tuesday, the deadline, and am
fully expecting to have my write-in candidacy certified by the
California Secretary of State very shortly.

Beach Impeach veteran Deb Lagutaris has stepped forward to create a
website for the California Impeachment Slate, which we'll probably
have ready to launch within a couple of days. We're still shooting for
a press conference soon, and have moved the date back to -- probably
-- Monday or Tuesday of next week.

MEMORIAL DAY BANNER DROP

Codepink and other impeachment-focused groups are planning a
nationwide freeway "banner drop
" for
Memorial Day weekend. Should be fun...

TWO CAB FARES

Last Thursday, California's Supreme Court ruled that same-sex
marriages were actually legal in California. The next morning I swung
my cab through San Francisco's gayest district, the Castro District,
hoping to catch a little of the excitement. At the corner of 18th and
Castro I immediately picked up a woman running late to her job as a
baby-sitter for an 19th-month old girl. We talked about what a sweet
stage 19 months is. I told her I'd been the at-home parent during my
daughter's infancy and toddler years -- the first word she said was
"Da-da." My fare said that it was such a great thing for young kids to
get a good strong sense of their fathers -- kids are almost guaranteed
to get a good sense of their mothers, but not necessarily of their
fathers. Had my fare gotten a good sense of her father? "Oh, yes," she
said. "He even coached me how to walk in high heels!" Had he actually
modeled them for her, or had he just given verbal advice? "Verbal,"
she said. "My mom was out, and I started asking questions about high
heels -- so he got a pair out of her closet and he held my hands and
coached me while I walked in them."

Was she still pals with her dad? "Well, we're ok," she said. "But
we're different. When (San Francisco mayor) Gavin (Newsom) first said
same-sex couples could be married at City Hall, my dad called me. He
was really upset. I thought it was great, of course, that any two
consenting adults who love each other should have the same rights as
everyone else. But he said, 'Some adults love their animals -- should
we let adults marry animals?' I didn't try to argue with him. With
some people there's just no point. We get along still -- but it's not
as much fun as when he was teaching me how to walk in high heels!"

My last fare: An elderly man and woman waiting in front of Saks Fifth
Avenue at Union Square. We talked about the weather -- a phenomenal
99-degree day in San Francisco. I told them that on the day in 1995
when my wife and I got married -- outdoors near Pt. Reyes National
Park -- the temperature hit 106! The woman said to her husband,
"That's like that day you did the wedding up near Stinson Beach..."

"That WAS hot!" he said.

I asked him, "You marry people?"

"I'm a judge," he said. "Retired now. But I still conduct a few
marriage ceremonies."

"What kind of judge were you?"

"I was a California Supreme Court justice."

Whoa, Nellie! What's a guy like me gonna do here?

"May I ask what you think of the impeachment movement?"

"All for it," he said immediately, all business.

His wife said, "IS there really an impeachment movement? I've not
heard about it."

"There is," I said. "I've been part of it for three years now."

The woman: "Three years! But..." And then she faltered. "Oh, THAT! We
thought..."

"Oh, yes," said her husband. "I wasn't talking about national..."

"Ooops!" I said. "I was talking about Cheney and Bush. So that
changes everything?"

"I'm afraid it does," said the judge.

His wife: "I thought you meant you were trying to impeach the
California Court for what they did yesterday! And we're all for THAT!"

We exited the topic as gracefully as we could, and moved on to other
less-important things....

And life rolls on...

Brad Newsham
newsham [at] mac.com

"Tired of the old sham? Write in Newsham!"
(Newsham for US Congress, in the June 3 Democratic primary,
California District 9. Please.)