Heckling Mr. Cheney: Remember the guy who, last fall in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, told Vice President Dick Cheney to perform an impossible sexual act on himself during a live television interview? He actually said it twice, if you recall. More recently, the same guy appeared on Chris Matthews’ “Hardball” show to “debate” Rockey Vaccarella, the Republican operative who hauled his FEMA trailer to Washington and told George Bush that if he could have another term of office, he’d solve all our nation’s problems (video here).

The guy is Ben Marble, M.D., emergency room physician, husband, father of three, front man for the rock band dR.O, Katrina recovery activist and shameless self-promoter. On Sept. 8, exactly a year after he hollered at Dick Cheney in Gulfport, Miss. (see the video here), Marble set out on his “Mission Not Accomplished Tour,” headed for Camp Democracy in Washington, D.C., and for what has become an annual gig with his band — playing in New York City on the anniversary of Sept. 11.

Pensito Review caught up with Ben Marble via e-mail after he returned from his trip.

Pensito Review: What was the goal of your trip and can you give us a recap of your weekend in Washington and New York?

Ben Marble: Basically, the primary goal of the trip was to film the “Mission NOT Accomplished” documentary so that is a goal that we did accomplish … here is a rough draft of what we did:

Friday 090806, i.e., the 1-year anniversary of the day I said ‘Go F Yourself, Mr. Cheney’

We first went to Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House where we called for Dubya Gump to resign and/or for people to only vote for candidates in Nov. who have vowed to IMPEACH DUBYA GUMP! Afterwards we went to “Camp Democracy” where I spoke briefly calling on everyone to vote only for candidates who have vowed to IMPEACH DUBYA GUMP! While there we met the “Iraq Veterans Against the War” and went and had some food/drinks with them.

Saturday 090906
What we thought would be a 2 hour drive took 4 and a half hours as we drove to Phoenixville, Pa. We missed the governor due to the long drive but we met several local people who took us back to their house for a jam session/Mission NOT Accomplished party! dR. O played an impromptu concert for a bunch of small children which meant we had to cut half of our set list of songs to play only ‘kid friendly’ stuff. The grandmother cooked us some great food. We also visited a cemetery where a man who took part in the ‘Charge of the light brigade’ was buried. We had a great time with them but eventually had to leave. Later we went to Philadelphia where we visited the museum of art where I recruited 2 people to run up the stairs with me and we all raised our fists in the air at the end. Finally we went to “Jim’s” downtown for some Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches.

arrived in NYC @ 2am Sunday 091006
I did an interview in the afternoon with the mediabloodhound (see www.mediabloodhound.com ) and near the end of that we heard Dubya Gump was at ground zero so we went down there to protest. I met the ‘granny peace brigade’ and we protested Dubya Gump shouting “VOTE TO IMPEACH” and “STOP EXPLOITING 911″ among other things. Later we had dinner in little Italy.

Monday 091106
Traffic was insane causing me to miss my interview with Alex Bennett [of SIRIUS satellite radio]. Will hopefully get that rescheduled. We later went to ground zero again where we inadvertently ran into Alex Jones and his “911 truth” protesters. They believe “911 was an inside job’. I don’t personally believe that but I was standing in the middle of them holding up my 2-sided ‘VOTE TO IMPEACH’/“NEVER 4GET KATRINA” sign. What a strange day! That night my band, dR. O, played a concert at CBGB’s wrapping up the “Mission NOT Accomplished” tour!

PR: On a couple of Web sites that contain information about the Cheney incident a year ago, there appears to be some confusion about where that happened. One or two sites have it near your home in New Orleans, but you live in Mississippi. Can you give us a short description of what happened that day and where it happened?

BM: It happened 1 block off the beach on 2nd street in Gulfport, Ms. on Sept. 8, 2005

PR: Why did you call Dick “Mr. Cheney” when you told him to commit an impossible physical act?

BM: I thought it would be a bit more ironic if I called him “Mr.”

PR: Is it a Southern thing?

BM: probably so

PR: What is the status of post-Katrina rebuilding around where you live?

BM: In Mississippi the rebuilding is going fairly well as opposed to New Orleans where there is very little rebuilding happening.

PR: Has Mississippi recovered faster because the White House was more helpful to Gov. Haley Barbour because he is their GOP buddy than they were to folks in Louisiana?

BM: If there were ever a good time to have a Washington fat cat lobbyist as your governor it is NOW! So yes I am absolutely convinced of that fact. That said Barbour has done a great job. Can’t say I like him but still he has had all the tools to make sure he has been able to do a good job.

PR: How has Katrina changed the political landscape in coastal Mississippi and Alabama, if at all?

BM: Well a lot of people won’t be voting like BUSHEEP in the next election.

PR: Do you feel like the media’s heavy focus on New Orleans has hindered rebuilding efforts elsewhere along the Gulf coast?

BM: The media focus on New Orleans pisses a lot of people off bc the Mississippi coast took the worst part of Katrina but since Mississippi is obviously recovering much better I would think it hard to argue that point. In fact perhaps the media focus on New Orleans has somehow made the N.O. recovery slower.

PR: According to your hurricanekatrinasucked Web site, your daughter was born the day after you returned home following your evacuation, and your wife gave a CNN interview the next day. How did that come about?

BM: Well my wife was having contractions every 15-20 minutes on Sunday as we drove away from Mississippi through Alabama and Florida eventually winding up in Lake Park, Georgia. Our son also had a 104 fever that same night. On Tuesday, we made it back to see our home was destroyed then on Wednesday she went into labor.

We were basically living under martial law at the time and it was illegal to be out after dark. Basically, the police could shoot you for being out after dark. So the military guys kept pulling us over with their machine guns pointed at us asking us what we were doing. Then we would explain we were on the way to the hospital to have a baby and they would let us pass. We would go another half mile or so and repeat the same process over again.

We made it to the first hospital (Garden Park) in Gulfport and they didn’t have an OB-GYN. They said they could deliver the baby outside in a tent if they ‘had to’. We said, ‘No Thanks’ and instead went to Gulfport Memorial hospital. They had a nurse mid-wife whom we had never met. She gave my wife 1 shot of nubain and phenergan for pain and the next few hours were like “The Exorcist” with my wife’s head spinning in circles.

Luckily the baby was in great health and we named her Sofia Grace Marble. The next morning I had gone to our old house to dig through the rubble when CNN’s Gary Tuchman showed up and interviewed Lisa (I need to reupload that video).

PR: What is the message you were trying to communicate on your “Mission NOT Accomplished Tour” press conference in Washington?

BM: In November, good Americans will only vote for candidates who openly say they will VOTE TO IMPEACH DUBYA GUMP.

PR: Describe your political philosophy.

BM: The problem as I see it with the current political system in our country is the ‘2 party system’ has proven itself to be a miserable FAILURE. Here is why: MINORITIES control both parties. On the left, we have what I call the “pc utopian fascist” MINORITY controlling the democratic party agenda and on the right we have the “pseudo-Christian busheep” MINORITY controlling the republican party agenda. This basically leaves the MAJORITY of Americans having to vote for the “lesser of two evils” which leads to the re-election of the single worst president in the history of our nation, i.e., de facto proof that the 2 party system is CRAP! We are supposed to be the land of diversity and opportunity so why is it that we have a 2 party system?

PR: You’re raising three children in an America whose future has been largely shaped by the policies of the Bush adminsitration. What are your greatest concerns for them over the next 20-30 years?

BM: If the busheep maintain control of congress after the November election then Dubya Gump will start a war with Iran which will escalate into a war with Russia AND China bc Iran is their primary supplier of oil. So basically when people vote in November they have a very clear choice to either vote for or against a war with Russia and China. I say the average American is far more likely to die in a war with Russia and China than from a random terrorist act.