Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Meeting Tuesday (today)

We decided to call for a meeting today (Tuesday, the 31st) at 4pm at Weaver Street Market to prepare a press release on the meeting with Price and a plan for activities in February, leading up to the Chapel Hill Town Hall meeting on February 28th and the filing deadline for the House election. I suggested that future meetings be outside of Carrboro and later in the evenings.

The Price meeting went well and we were given over an hour to speak. There were 12 of us, including at least one person each from Raleigh and Durham, the rest being Orange County residents. Office director David Russell and District Director Rose Auman were also at the meeting. Price is especially concerned about domestic surveillance I think, and he supports Al Gore's recent proposals. Price committed to supporting or leading efforts for a special prosecutor or independent committee to gather evidence, but he is unlikely to support Rep. Conyer's legislation to create a select committee on impeachable offenses. He also is reluctant to publicly support impeachment, and says that it is our job to mobilize the grassroots by ourselves, it seemed. There is more to say about the Price meeting, but I'll wait to see what comes up at the meeting to highlight.

Also, right now on CSPAN (channel 60 where I am) there is (or just was) a good panel discussion or conference, "Iraq, Impeachment, and the Bush Administration," with David Swanson (After Downing Street Coalition), Kevin Zeese (Democracy Rising), Ramsey Clark (Vote to Impeach), and a woman panelist I didn't recognize. The panel was held on the 30th, so hopefully it will be rebroadcast at a better time.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Price meeting time changed and updates

The meeting with Representative Price Monday about impeaching Bush and the War was moved from 3:30 to1:30 pm because of a change in Price's schedule. Itwill be at the Chapel Hill office off Weaver Dairy Road in northern Chapel Hill.

We were planning to meet outside before hand, but now there will be a meeting at 11:45am at Weaver Street Market in downtown Carrboro. The meeting will be to plan our presentation and to form a steering committee for post-meeting organizing. We coud still meet outside before hand and I will try to be early in case people don't see this update.

One estimate I heard of the number of people at the impeachment town meeting in Carrboro last Friday was 140, overflowing the 70-75 person room we used. I think Raleigh News & Observer wrote about it Friday and it was in the Chapel Hill Herald. Community radio was there. Price's Chapel Hill office director and District Director Rose Auman were there (and saw the strong support for running a candidate opposing Price on impeachment and the Iraq War). Lots of signatures were collected on a petition for support of Rep. John Conyers' Resolutions, but I didn't circulate our petition much. There will be another meeting Saturday, February 28th at the Chapel Hill Town Hall.

Anyone else have comments about the meeting?

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Town hall meeting and the meeting with Price coming up

The petition for investigation of impeachable offenses (especially what is in the 8 Downing Street memos) will be presented to Rep. David Price on the 30th. Thursday, the 26th, at 7pm there will be a meeting at Internationalist Books (405 W Franklin St. in Chapel Hill) to plan the meeting with Price and our strategy for an ongoing and broader grassroots effort for impeachment. There's lots of pay parking and free parking at UNC or probably in a lot on Rosemary St. near the Internationalist. The petition is online at www.petitiononline.com/dsmnc/petition.html and paper copy locations are mentioned on this blog.

On the limited demand for Price to support investigation of the Downing Street memos he has already shown some support, though he failed to co-sponsor an actual Resolution in committee (the Barbara Lee Resolution of Inquiry). This issue appeals most to the left, but some on the right are talking about impeachment, especially after the revelation of the NSA's most likely illegal domestic surveillance. Price signed on to a letter asking for answers about the NSA spying. I think this is also an election year for Price, so he should be paying more attention to his constitutents and the door is open for someone to run against him if he isn't. Recent polls show that about half of Americans are open to impeaching Bush over lying for the Iraq War (50%) or the domestic spying scandal (52%), this just has to be translated into action in Congress or mass protests that force Bush to resign. If Congress can't impeach Bush it could at least censure him (there is a Resolution to do thatover the NSA spying currently) and be more critical about supporting the Administration.

Friday at 7pm is the Triangle town meeting on Bush impeachment at the Carrboro City Hall (301 W. Main St.), organized by the Orange County Peace Committee and Downing Street Action NC (our group). It will explain impeachment and plan a grassroots strategy. Featured guests and speakers are former Carrboro Alderman Diana McDuffee, UNC Law Professor Emeritus Dan Pollitt, civil rights attorney Al McSurely, Carrboro community activist Lucy Lewis, and NCCU's Bel Canto Singers.

The Price meeting is Monday, January 30th, 3:30 to probably 4 at the Chapel Hill office, 88 VilcomCenter, Suite 140, which is in north Chapel Hill off of Weaver Dairy Road near the MLK/Airport Rd.intersection (on the north side of Weaver Dairy Rd.) by the Timberlyne shopping center. Suite 140 is on the west side of the complex and there is free parking. We could meet at 3 or 3:10 outside so people who can't go to the Thursday meeting can hear the meeting plan and share information.

Note about petition circulation: The petition should be available at Internationalist Books and The People's Channel (on the wall) in Chapel Hill and at The Regulator Bookstore (free literature section) and Durham Food Co-op (posted) in Durham. There is not one at The Know Bookstore currently. It is also sometimes available at the Friday peace vigil in Chapel Hill.

Friday, January 06, 2006

No meeting with Price today and update

No one seems dead set on meeting with Rep. Price today and we need more time to prepare, so we won't meet today. This was probably the only chance this month, but hopefully it won't be too long before there is another chance (at the same time, more time means more signatures). Do we need to meet again to discuss strategy, since the situation has changed since October and more people have joined the steering committee? The meeting yesterday evening focused on the Triangle town meeting. I found a summary of the DSM we might want to give to Price.

The meeting set the impeachment town meeting for Friday, January 27th, at the Carrboro Town Hall. It will focus on the process of impeachment and what we should do. It might be part of a series of events or actions. The Orange County Peace Coalition is working on this also.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Planning Meeting January 5

There will be a meeting today to plan a Triangle town meeting and a possible Friday meeting with Price at 7pm at Weaver Street Market (I think the address is 101 East Weaver Street) in downtown Carrboro. Meet at the end of the Market in the direction of Chapel Hill. There is lots of free parking and I think several bus routes go by Weaver Street.

Someone reserved the Carrboro Town Hall for the event on the evening of the 27th. Dan Pollitt, Emeritus of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law, is a confirmed speaker. We have been discussing having a panel format covering the various potentially impeachable offenses of the Bush Administration. The panel could include expert speakers on different issues and local politicians, such as Price, like the format of the town meeting about the Iraq War in Chapel Hill late last year.

This Friday at 2pm Price has time to meet with us in Chapel Hill, so we also need to decide about that.