Met Mike Malloy Last Night At The Forum On Impeachment In Sacramento !!!

[WillyT]

It was a block or two away from the California Democratic Convention happening here this weekend.

Here are the people who were on the forum:

Representative Maxine Waters

Assemblyman Paul Koretz who just introduced AJR 39 calling for state initiated impeachment against George Bush and Dick Cheney

Shayana Kadidal, lead attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights, and co-author, Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush

Elizabeth de la Vega, former lead prosecutor, San Jose and author of an upcoming book on impeachment

Bob Fertik, President, Democrats.com & co-founder afterdowningstreet.org

Mike Malloy, syndicated host of AirAmerica Radio, will moderate

Opening statement by Tim Goodrich, founder, Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Now people were lined up down the street way before the doors opened, and the place filled up completely shortly there after. There were delegates from the convention, members of the California Progressive Caucus, Green Party members, and hundreds of pissed off Americans.

Got to meet Mike shortly before the forum started, and he's a real great guy. Told me, "I hope I don't screw this thing up, LOL" And... apparently here on the west coast, where his show starts at 10:00 pm local time, he has amassed thousands of fans since he's been on AAR. When he ENTERED the room he was applauded and cheered. When he walked up to the podium, he received about a 4 minute standing ovation. Somebody asked him if he had his icepick with him, and he smiled and fake stabbed himself in the thigh to rounds of laughter and applause.

He was a real pro, and made the forum about the guests, and the possibilities and problems with going forward with Impeachment. He also kept the crowd (with which you could feel the anger out there) from overrunning the thing, with both humor and aplomb. His first words were, "It starts here, in places like this, with people like you. It always has." Brought the place to its feet once again.

All the guests were fantastic, and very informative. The place was pretty rowdy, but good natured-ly so, and the guests and Malloy couldn't help but smile and laugh evey now and again from the 'help' they were receiving from members of the audience. The Iraqi Vet, Tim Goodrich, was very impressive with his stories of turning from a guy who was 3 tours in the ME and a Bush supporter, to an anti-war activist who went back to Iraq to see what damage we had really done there, to a guy working on a progressive Democrat's campaign, co-founding the group Iraq Veterans Against the War, and supporting Impeachment and removal of the very President he had voted for.

And one of the leaders of the California Democratic Party Progressive Caucus, a woman named Joye Swan, was equally awesome. And when I say leader, keep this person's name somewhere in the back of your head, because this lady could run for office and win in a heartbeat. Smart, beautiful, articulate, funny, PhD... can't sing her praises enough here. She told how she was granted time with Senator Feinstein recently, and was allowed to be frank. She asked some very uncomfortable questions of DiFi, and said that when she did, the 7 or 8 suits in the room started nervously jumping in to justify their Senator's responses as necessarily strategic in nature. Supposedly DiFi agreed with everything Dr. Swan was saying, but had taken counsel of caution from her advisers. Dr. Swan reminded the Senator, "...that if you do the right thing, you can never be wrong."

Well... that's about it for now, if I remember any other great stories from last night, I'll add them here, and if ya got any questions, put 'em here too, and I'll do my best ta fill ya in!

Ciao...

WillyT

:hi:

Onedit:spulling :silly: