On Saturday night, April 29th, at the California State Democratic Convention, the hot ticket was to the Bush Impeachment Forum in the Crest Theater. The 900 seats were filled and folks were turned away at the door. The crowd was very enthusiastic and often interrupted the proceedings with cheers and standing ovations. Mike Malloy of Air America Radio was the moderator and clearly popular with the crowd. He gave some background on the history and process of impeachment and then led a forum discussion.

Joye Swan from the Progressive Caucus of the Democratic Party, and one of the chief organizers of the event, spoke first. She described the reluctance of moderate democrats to take a stand on impeachment but that may be changing. [The party adopted this impeachment proclamation by unanimous consent at the convention.]

Tim Goodrich from Iraq Veterans Against the War then described how he joined the US Air Force for patriotic purposes, not understanding the foreign policy behind his deployment. But he began to have doubts about Bush's leadership when he learned that the Air Force had been conducting intensive and secret bombing of Iraq since September of 2002. At the same time Bush claimed to be pursuing a diplomatic settlement in order to avoid war.

Elizabeth de la Vega, a former federal prosecutor, then affirmed that the charges of defrauding Congress about Iraq, torturing prisoners, and wiretapping were all definitely impeachable offenses. The only difference between the fraud that Bush and his team have perpetrated, and the fraud that is prosecuted in courts every day across America, is that Bush's fraud far exceeds the typical fraud case in its extent and the severity of its consequences.

Bob Fertik, President of Democrats.com and co-founder afterdowningstreet.org, described the current work of the impeachment movement, the city and state resolutions being passed, and the significance of the Section 603 of the Jefferson's Manual which says that impeachment may be initiated by charges transmitted by a state legislature. The crowd cheered when told that Ellen Tenney plans to personally submit an impeachment resolution from Vermont to the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, on Monday May 1st.