George W. Bush will be speaking at the Miami-Dade Community College graduation at the Kendall Campus on April 28th at 3pm. Ironically, April 28th has been designated National Impeachment Day and thousands of Floridians from across the state will be staging an "unwelcoming party"—see: rejectbushmiami.com to declare: "we the people, reject the Bush agenda of endless wars: IMPEACH Bush and Cheney NOW!!!"
Unfortunately, the progressive/peace groups planning to protest Bush's April 28 Miami Commencement Address have run into difficulty...
From the yahoo list-serve: antiwarbroward
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: April 24, 2007
Contact: Ray Del Papa at (754) 423-0051
Jack Lieberman at (305) 582-4846
Progressive Groups File Federal Lawsuit against Miami-Dade County to Gain the Right to Demonstrate During Presidential Visit This Weekend
Three progressive organizations headquartered in South Florida, Miami for Peace (Miami), South Florida Peace & Justice Network (Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties), and Haiti Solidarity (Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties) filed a civil lawsuit in federal court in Miami today, seeking an injunction to prevent Miami-Dade County from derailing a demonstration planned for this Saturday’s visit by President George W. Bush to Miami-Dade College.
The planned demonstration, consisting of a parade and rally on Saturday afternoon, is important to these groups because "the Bush Administration is violating the democratic principles that a majority of Americans are demanding, both in Iraq and in the United States," according to South Florida Peace & Justice Network spokesperson Ray Del Papa.
The lawsuit was filed today by National Lawyers Guild attorneys Robert Ross (Lake Worth – (561)251 – 4896) and Mara Shlackman (Fort Lauderdale). The case is scheduled for an emergency hearing on Wednesday, April 25th, in front of U.S. District Court Judge Cecelia Altonaga, at 1:00 p.m.
I will update this diary as soon as I learn more about the decision handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Cecelia Altonaga. Protests against Bush or Cheney (see the diary: DAILY KOS SAVES MORMON CHENEY PROTESTERS ) face overwhelming odds against succeeding, yet many of us persist; it is after all our duty, for to quote Howard Zinn: "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism".
With Neil Young’s inspirational words resounding in our soul: ‘let’s impeach the president ...’ (video), we could "Contact the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and Ask for Impeachment of Cheney and Bush", urge our community leaders to introduce resolutions supporting impeachment, and go to:
Impeach for Peace. Org
Impeach for Peace, a Minnesota-based impeachment group, has researched a method for impeaching the president using a little known and rarely used part of the Rules of the House of Representatives ("Jefferson's Manual"). This document actually empowers individual citizens to initiate the impeachment process themselves...
Towards the middle of the page there are links to download forms (PDF format) where one can fill in relevant information (name, State, notary is optional) and DIRECTLY initiate the impeachment of Bush.
UPDATE: Victory for first amendment rights: the anti-Bush protest will proceed as scheduled near the main entrance of the Miami Dade College Kendall Campus, 11011 SW 104th St. and run from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The Feds, Miami Dade police and Miami Dade Community College tried their best to restrict protesters for Saturdays action on the George W. Bush visit to MDC in Kendall, to a "free speech zone". A location that was so far removed from his visit that it was both out of sight as well as sound of not only GWB but anyone going to the event and not visible to motorist on any of the major roads around the college.
This victory could not have happen except for the very hard work of three very dedicated people, Mara Shlakman, Jennifer Keesler and Rob Ross. They worked well over 100 hours to prepare, file, serve, and argue the complaint in court. We are really blessed to have such dedicated people working on our side. Once again many thanks to Rob, Jennifer and Mara for a job very well done.
Ray