Brad Newsham's latest newsletter: A slim hope for impeachment

Homies,

So what do I know?

I don't know jack.

Back in November 2006, when the Democrats took Congress, I thought it
a slam-dunk that we'd soon see Pelosi and the Democrats initiate SOME
sort of action to hold the Bush administration accountable for their
crimes. But reality has turned me into a borderline cynic, maybe even
a raging cynic.

Over the past couple of days, during which the Bay Area was covered
by a blanket of clouds so low that I felt I might just reach up, grab
them, pull them over my head and go back to sleep, I wrote an email to
this list in which I talked, in general, about how disgusted I've
become with our whole unsustainable way of life and our unsustainable
way of governing ourselves, and, in specific, about how little hope I
have for the two-hour impeachment hearing
<http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/34970> that is, believe it or
not, scheduled to happen this Friday in front of the House Judiciary
Committee. I am braced for this hearing to turn out to be a complete
sham -- the same old sham. My gut tells me that it's been designed to
fail, designed simply to allow Nancy Pelosi to be able to say, "See --
we HAD an impeachment hearing -- and it didn't even get out of
committee -- no one wants impeachment except a few kooks!" I have come
to view Nancy Pelosi as being almost as big a criminal
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/08/ar2007120801664_pf.html>as
George Bush and Dick Cheney. And this change of heart does not make me
happy at all.

But just before dawn this (Wednesday) morning, when I took our dog
out for a run, the Bay Area sky was absolutely clear, like a bolt of
blue silk, and the air was tender and moist on my cheeks and forearms,
and I felt happy just to be alive and able to take one more breath and
then another and another. And I felt bad about having written, and
being on the verge of sending, the downbeat email I'd composed. But it
was all the truth, and whatever I've shared with you people on this
list has always been my truth, and I felt I had to send it -- to tell
you about the hearing (in case you hadn't heard), to invite you to
please make calls to Congress (as I have been and will continue to be
doing), because, really, even though I think the whole thing is
hopeless and a charade (I'm SO willing to be wrong on that), we still
gotta take SOME action, don't we? Even though I've been a slacker the
last few months, there have been a lot of people in the impeachment
movement doing some heavy, heavy lifting
<http://www.democrats.com/node/17173 > (their persistence HAS to have
played a role in Pelosi's small, slick change of strategy), and I
think we've got to support them. Even though I don't necessarily agree
with them, these heavy lifters http://nationalimpeachment.org/ believe
this hearing can mean something.

I came home after sunrise, full of hope (and full of coffee, too),
and -- What's this! -- found that my computer had crashed and the
email I'd composed -- completely unsaved! -- was completely, and
perhaps mercifully, gone.

So here we are.

WHAT TO DO?

Even though this hearing on Friday strikes me as complete bullshit,
what do I know, really? This just might be The Thing. And I invite you
to make a few calls -- to your representative (202-224-3121) or to the
Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee
<http://www.causecaller.com/causes.php?c=house_judiciary_democrats_impeachment
> who will be participating in the hearing.

And if you want to do something to help Cindy Sheehan take Nancy
Pelosi's seat in Congress (maybe the best thing we can do to bring
impeachment/accountability into reality), please make a donation here
<http://www.cindyforcongress.org/ >. I parked my cab in front of
Cindy's campaign headquarters
<http://www.cindyforcongress.org/article.php?list=type&type=1> on
Sunday (Cindy works weekends, too -- ever since her son was murdered,
this remarkable woman has rarely taken a day off) and gave her the
$100 I'd earned that day. She thanked me, of course, and said she was
closing in on getting the number of signatures we need to have her
name on the ballot. Money will help get the rest of the signatures,
and also help get out Cindy's message
<http://www.cindyforcongress.org/article.php?list=type&type=13>.

And if you want to thank Dennis Kucinich for being The Guy in
Congress behind the impeachment movement, or if you want to ask
Barbara Lee to please lift her voice above the merest hint of a
whisper to support impeachment, you can find them both together in
Berkeley this Sunday, at a fundraiser Lee is hosting for Kucinich. For
details: 510-839-3100 or http://events@earpevents.com

Onward! You never know...

Brad
http://newsham@mac.com