The national antiwar-impeachment group, World Can-t Wait, drew 150 people, representing the range of the city’s cultural milieu, to the San Francisco Main Library’s Koret Auditorium Sunday to “drive out the Bush Regime” and reverse its slide toward what many see as an imperial presidency.

The meeting was one of at least 11 such events around the country this month and last, from New York to Los Angeles, mobilizing public sentiment for impeachment, despite the repeated insistence by Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party leadership that the issue is “off the table.” An American Research Group poll last week found half of all voters wanted Cheney impeached with slightly fewer favoring the same for Bush.

Hip Hop activist Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., journalist and World Can-t Wait board member Sunsara Taylor and KPFA producer and co-host of the investigative news show Flashpoints Dennis Bernstein variously denounced what they called “war crimes,” “treason” and “crimes against humanity” by the Bush administration and warned of further damage should they remain in office for the rest of their terms.

“If Bush is not impeached,” Taylor said, “everything he’s done becomes codified,” referring to such Bush doctrine elements as pre-emptive war, the use of torture and denial of habeas corpus, the use of signing statements to circumvent laws and domestic spying. “Everything stays with us, no matter who becomes president.”

Moreover, they warned that Bush and Cheney continue to actively hatch plans for attacking Iran and even imposing martial law in this country.

Yearwood, the “Hip Hop Rev,” opened with a stemwinder of a speech that echoed the dramatic cadence and recurring phrases of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Sporting a clerical collar and a New York Yankees ball cap, he compared Bush to the host of the television game show “Deal or No Deal.” Rising to a crescendo, Yearwood demanded over and over that people refuse to make deals with torture and spying. “I-m not gonna allow torture and spying! No deal!” he cried.