It was chilly out today, so about 1200 people snuggled up and incidentally spelled out IMPEACH!
Yeah, kinda silly, but sometimes the point of a protest action is to have a massive lie-in on the beach, complete, I couldn't help but notice, with 12-string guitars (I think that's a Fender, poor soul).
Also: saw Night at the Museum today, and it was a lot of fun. Ben was on a tight enough leash most of the time, which always helps. Good special effects, underdone, sorta warm-rare, if you dig that.
4 comments:
Actually, based on the head-stock, I think that's a Yamaha. The Fender 12 tends to have a scroll-y-er head stock.
Well, our chance to convince Nancy Pelosi to Impeach Bush/Cheney is this Monday Jan. 15th..
Pelosi most likely said impeachment was "off the table" to remove any appearance of conflict-of-interest that would arise if she were thrust into the presidency as a result of the coming impeachment.
What we need to do is to pressure Pelosi not to interfere with impeachment maneuverings within her party. Sending her Do-It-Yourself impeachments legitimizes her when she is forced to join the impeachment movement in the future.
Sacks and sacks of mail are about to arrive in Nancy Pelosi's office initiating impeachment via the House of Representative's own rules this Monday January 15th. This legal document is as binding as if a State or if the House itself passed the impeachment resolution (H.R. 635).
There's a little known and rarely used clause of the "Jefferson Manual" in the rules for the House of Representatives which sets forth the various ways in which a president can be impeached. Only the House Judiciary Committee puts together the Articles of Impeachment, but before that happens, someone has to initiate the process.That's where we come in. In addition to a House Resolution (635), or the State-by-State method, one of the ways to get impeachment going is for individual citizens like you and me to submit a memorial. ImpeachforPeace.org has created a new memorial based on one which was successful in impeaching a federal official in the past. You can find it on their website as a PDF.
You can initiate the impeachment process and simultaneously help to convince Pelosi to follow through with the process. Do-It-Yourself by downloading the memorial, filling in the relevant information (your name, state, etc.), and sending it in. Be a part of history.
http://ImpeachForPeace.org/ImpeachNow.html
Is it any wonder that wing-nut bloviators refer to liberals as moonbats? The left somehow has to break the habit of resorting to ridiculous street theater (or, in this case, beach theater) and bizarre publicity stunts (like DIY Impeachment) in order to draw attention to themselves and, oh, yeah, their cause as well. I think the height of absurdity was when I saw news footage of an anti-war protest where someone paraded in front of the camera with a sign that read: "Sonar Kills Dolphins." Come on people! Grow the hell up! Find a more serious voice, and more serious ways of speaking! Become relevant, for a change!
I think the reason people resort to street theater is strategic. People in power don't have to listen to rational arguments, and media (which for good or ill - okay, for ill - is the primary forum for posing alternatives) ignores what isn't theatrical.
I suppose I'm suggesting that these movements aren't just attempts to articulate a particular position in a rational debate. Judged by that standard, they certainly do fail to make the mark. But I think the most appropriate standard for judging their effectiveness or articulateness has to do with power and media attention.
I'm not saying there isn't a certain level of ridiculousness involved, nor that the message's content can be obscured by the theater. It helps a great deal to be well-organized, disciplined, to get people to stick to the point, and so on.
(I'm making these remarks based largely on experience that may not be analogous: protesting outside the CSU Board of Trustees meeting and around the capitol in Sacramento. Media attention to the latter protest was probably helpful in winning the special election fight against the governor's union-busting agenda. As for protesting the Board of Trustees meeting, we'll see.)
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