BEACH IMPEACH and BRAD NEWSHAM FOR CONGRESS!

BEACH IMPEACH 5, OCEAN BEACH, SAN FRANCISCO, SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 10
a.m. SIGNUP

Dear Everyone,

BOTTOM LINE: On Wednesday I filed the paperwork necessary to have
myself certified as a write-in candidate in California's June 3
Democratic primary election. This primary will decide who will be the
Democratic Party's candidate from my home district (California's Ninth District) n November's election for the US House of Representatives.

That seat is currently held by Representative Barbara Lee, for whom I
have voted for in every election since I moved to Oakland from San
Francisco in 1994. Back in 2001, Representative Lee was the ONLY
member of either the House or the Senate to vote against giving Bush
permission to do any old unimaginable thing at all. Lee's lone-wolf
vote was gutsy and historic and no one appreciated it more than I did.

In the years since, I can not remember ever disagreeing with
Representative Lee's position on any issue -- except one, but it's a
fundamental issue for me, and perhaps for you: the impeachment
of Bush and Cheney. For me, this issue is so important that it eclipses all others. And after three years of discussions with Representative Lee's staff (mostly) and with Representative Lee herself (occasionally), I have concluded that Lee's ideas and my ideas about the need to hold our leaders accountable for a long list of crimes -- crimes that have been committed in my name and yours -- are irreconcilable worlds apart.

I saw two viable choices: I could keep trying to plead the merits of
the case; or, this being a democracy, I could run for the office
myself. Eighteen months ago, I faced a similar dilemma: Keep whining
about what the leaders of the impeachment movement should be doing, or start something myself. In the coming weeks I'll be posting more information about my candidacy. But for tonight all I'm going to say is:

-- I am humbly and sincerely asking for your vote.

-- I am not asking, nor will I accept, any money for this campaign
(if I win the primary, or if I choose to run again in the general
election, that may change).

-- In order to complete the Secretary of State's certification of my
candidacy I need the signatures of 39 more registered Democrats who live in California's Ninth Congressional District (map).

If you'd like to sign -- and I hope that you will -- I'll have my
candidate petition with me when I attend tomorrow night's sure-to-be
fabulous...

IMPEACHMENT TOWN HALL MEETING, GRAND LAKE THEATRE, OAKLAND, THURSDAY,
APRIL 24, 7-9 PM

I hope you can join me and David Swanson (founder of afterdowningstreet.org) and a full roster of impeachment
movement leaders (Ellsberg, Sheehan, Golub, Sweet, Benjamin, and
others). This special event -- "Are Peace and Impeachment Possible?" -- is at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. If I don't get all the signatures I need Thursday night, I'll have my petitions with me again on Saturday morning when I show up at dawn to get ready for the sure-to-be fabulous...

BEACH IMPEACH 5, OCEAN BEACH,
SAN FRANCISCO,
SATURDAY, APRIL 26,
10 a.m. SIGNUP

I hope you can join me and (we're hoping) thousands of other
impeachment activists for Beach Impeach 5. If you want to see
what Beach Impeach 1, 2, 3, and 4 looked like, go here. If you can come, please register, but either way, please come, and please spread the word if you will.

MY FRIEND ANDREW BOYD

I can't stop myself from sharing this little bit of fun with you.
Yesterday afternoon I opened my copy of The Sun magazine, and the first thing I noticed was an article by my friend Andrew Boyd. I met Andrew several years ago when Andrew was an inspiring political activist, the founder of the hysterical Billionaires for Bush, and I was in my travel-writer incarnation. Now here I am up to my eyeballs in political activism, and there Andrew is in The Sun (a monthly addiction of mine -- no matter that I received a form letter rejection from them just last week) with a piece of top-notch travel literature -- "Pilgrimage to Nowhere." I read it through without stopping -- if you get The Sun, don't miss it.

And then last night, as I was scrolling through and voting on
MoveOn.org's collection of 30-second Obama ads, I came upon this one, which gave me goose bumps in 30 seconds, and which was created, I noticed, by none other than Andrew Boyd and friends! Check it out. Please.

Hope to see you very soon,

Brad ("Way, way, way behind on my emails") Newsham
newsham [at] mac.com
415-305-8294