If you can, please act before 7 p.m. to counteract a crowd of Fox News viewers
who are mobilizing at this very moment.
I'm writing to you from the back seat of a limousine returning me from the Fox
News Channel studio in San Francisco, where I was just interviewed live on The
Big Story with John Gibson.
The subject of my interview was a vote coming up TONIGHT at the Berkeley,
California City Council on whether to put a referendum on the ballot calling for
impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney. Within minutes of air-time, the
right-wing Fox audience began dumping pressure on Berkeley's Council to ditch
the measure.
Berkeley is the first of more than 40 cities to take up the measure, promoted by
a nationwide group called Constitution Summer. The goal is to spark a national
grassroots discussion about the checks and balances and the rights contained
within the U.S. Constitution; why they are so important; and how the Bush
Administration has exceeded them. In the interest of time, I won't go into all
the arguments here. You can view the text of the proposed referendum in Adobe
Acrobat (pdf) format (72K) at:
<Web Link
As Gibson noted in interviewing me, national Democratic leaders are backing away
from this movement out of fear that Karl Rove and company will use it to raise
money for Republican candidates in the fall. They will -- but the only way to
prevent that from happening is for the Democrats to say nothing about anything.
Rove will always find plenty of ways to reach into the pockets of his extremist
donors.
Our most basic Constitutional principles and freedoms are at risk, as the Bush
Administration tramples on even the limits imposed on it by the Republican
Congress. This is not a time for timidity. We can't count on the Democratic
leadership to lead the charge to restore the Constitution, which is why
Constitution Summer is going the grassroots route, calling for citizen referenda
on the November ballot in cities throughout the U.S.
Whether an impeachment process begins or not, it is clear that most U.S.
citizens are woefully ignorant of the Constitution's limits on executive powers,
of our Constitutional rights, of how these are being eroded, and of the
consequences of that erosion. It's vital to get the public conversation started,
and I know of no better way than to put these issues before the voters.
The Fox News crowd throughout the U.S. is bearing down on Berkeley right now,
and it's possible some of our Council members will get weak-kneed before
tonight's vote if they don't get countervailing messages from progressives.
Please take a moment and write to the mayor of Berkeley immediately, calling on
him to vote "yes" to put the impeachment referendum on the November ballot. If
you get a chance, send a separate message to each of the Council members listed
below.
If the Foxies kill this measure tonight, it will be a big setback. If Berkeley
puts the item on November's ballot, the national conversation about the
Constitution will move forward.
I will let you know what has happened, and how you can help bring this movement
to other communities throughout the U.S.
---------------------------------------------------
Contact the Mayor of Berkeley, and others (listed in order of importance) if you
have time, to urge them to put the impeachment referendum on the November
ballot:
Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates
e-mail: mayor@ci.berkeley.ca.us
phone: (510) 981-7100
fax: (510) 981-7199
TDD: (510) 981-6903
Council Member Linda Maio
e-mail: lmaio@ci.berkeley.ca.us
phone: (510) 981-7110
fax: (510) 981-7111
Council Member Darryl Moore
e-mail: dmoore@ci.berkeley.ca.us
phone: (510) 981-7120
Council Member Gordon Wozniak
e-mail: gwozniak@ci.berkeley.ca.us
phone: (510) 981-7180
