Peace Movement Archives

The Pentagon's Ray Gun meets 60 Minutes' stooge, David Martin

Tonight's 60 Minutes on CBS News had a segment from David Martin (cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3897986n) discussing a "ray gun" - some sort of directed energy beam - that the Pentagon is testing for possible use as a non-lethal weapon. I had previously seen a clip on Youtube (link), which only features the part where Martin is being subjected to its effects.

The full segment mostly concentrated - and in effect sold - its use as a weapon against protesters in foreign environments, mainly Iraq. It did discuss possible domestic use, but it didn't discuss any of the ramifications of that and whether domestic use of a weapon designed for the military is a threat to our civil liberties.

And, the full segment features something quite interesting that, had I been there, would have at least caused me to do a bit of a double-take. The part that shows the beam being tested on several "demonstrators" (presumably soldiers dressed as civilians) featured some interesting signs, such as "Love for All" and "World Peace".

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but "world peace" is probably not on too many "Rage Boy" signs, nor on those in Iraq, nor on those in other hot spots around the globe. In fact, about the only place you'd see a sign like that is in the U.S, Canada, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand. Those are generally the places where the protesters are the most peaceful and least likely to, for instance, use IEDs.

The idea for the signs had to have come from somewhere, indicating that using the "ray gun" against relatively peaceful domestic protesters or in other domestic situations is one of the goals, rather than simply using it in highly dangerous foreign situations. Obviously we're going to need someone besides a stooge like David Martin to look into that side of things.

Posted at 08:24 PM

Don't leave! Stay and watch this Academy Award-winning documentary

If you're like me, a production house that lists among it supporters Jackson Browne, Stan Goff, "Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains" (?), "Palisadians for Peace" (?), United for Peace and Justice, Michael Moore, and the like might cause you to sprint for the exit. However, you might want to try to ignore those folks as best you can and watch one or more segments of the Panama Deception from the Empowerment Project. Someone has uploaded a copy to Youtube, and it was the winner of the 1993 Academy Award for Best Documentary and was produced by, among others, the inimitable Barbara Trent:

Click the user's name to see the other segments, and, yes, that is an interesting profile page he has.

Posted at 08:34 PM

Singin' with ANSWER (DC Iraq protest video)

Here's a video from the DC Iraq protest: link. It appears to have featured even more of a (if I may use the phrase) wacko contingent than the protest that I attended, and those were in Los Angeles. Includes a dirty hippie on a pogo stick, another one with an accordion, an older dirty hippie making unintelligible sounds, a group called HIPS (link) leading a chant, and... folk songs!

Another one is here. There are pictures here.

Posted at 05:59 PM

"Peace" protest, Washington DC, January 27, 2007

On Saturday, thousands of "peace" protesters clogged the Capitol to protest the Iraq war. Everyone who's everyone was there: Jane Fonda, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Code Pink, and so forth. Without checking, I'm going to guess it was largely organized by ANSWER (Stalinists are great with set-up and break-down) and was attended by the CPUSA, World Can't Wait, the Revolutionary Communist Party, and representatives of the Democrat Party as well.

The festivities continued to today, with members of Code Pink - including the ubiquitous Susan "Medea" Benjamin - protesting Hillary Clinton's war stance in front of her office. Several members of the group were arrested.

There are various pictures of the big protest here, including the following charming person. Check out the other posts in this category for my 2003 reports from various L.A. "peace" protests.

Posted at 09:14 PM | Comments (2)

Loony Lefties call for impeachment... with own bodies!

Those wacky, loony lefties are at it again, with 1000 fellow travelers spelling out "IMPEACH!" in the San Francisco ("Frisco") sand:

Thankfully - unlike past incidents in the same area - they appear clothed. There's a larger version of that picture here, and here's some video.

Posted at 12:20 PM | Comments (4)

Think Progress pimps Susan "Medea" Benjamin

Susan "Medea" Benjamin is a very well known, far-left protester who's famous for getting arrested at anti-war and similar rallies, flying to Cuba with her organization Code Pink, and on and on.

Yet, to read this Think Progress post you'd think they'd never heard of her before. Either that, or they're trying to pawn her off as just a normal mainstream Democrat. Come to think of it...

The question now is: who gave her the pass that she used to get in to the event.

Previously: Think Progress, Ezra Klein, AP downplay organizers of illegal immigration marches

Posted at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

Juan Jose Gutierrez + ANSWER = revolution!

A blogger went undercover at an ANSWER meeting and has a report. The meeting mostly concerned ANSWER's upcoming Monday April 10 rally for illegal aliens in Washington DC and their NYC rally on the 29th. A featured guest was Juan Jose Gutierrez (also featured here in "AVWatch: Villaraigosa's under-reported associations" and "The Trojan Horses of Sacramento").

At the meeting, National Coordinator of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Brian Becker reportedly said the following:

"The Sensenbrenner bill is so odious, such a threat, so far reaching in its efforts to criminalize, make felons out of the 12 million people who are doing nothing except trying to feed their families, and make felons out of all those immigrant communities that assist those people, that the lash of the oppression, of that repression, of that counterrevolution, that it provoked the beginning of what could be a new revolutionary movement. Maybe it won't be the ultimate revolution, but certainly it has the ingredients and elementary factors that make up all revolutionary movements. If you think about it, this is the way that all great movements start, including the American Revolution."

Don't think they're so fringe; as the Villaraigosa link shows, the current mayor of L.A. spoke at one of Gutierrez' rallies. And, the Los Angeles Times refered to ANSWER's LA chapter as an "antiwar and anti-racism group".

Posted at 11:09 PM | Comments (7)

Charlie Sheen demands 9/11 investigation

Actor Charlie Sheen has joined a growing army of other highly credible public figures in questioning the official story of 9/11 and calling for a new independent investigation of the attack and the circumstances surrounding it... Speaking to The Alex Jones Show on the GCN Radio Network, the star of current hit comedy show Two and a Half Men and dozens of movies including Platoon and Young Guns, Sheen elaborated on why he had problems believing the government's version of events...

Posted at 01:17 AM | Comments (2)

Cartoon from 3/22/03 "peace" protest

With all the talk of "jyllands-posten mohammed" "muslim cartoon" it's slightly worth observing the above poster which was a proud part of a 3/22/03 "peace" protest in Hollywood.

Posted at 03:48 PM | Comments (3)

Cindy Sheehan's arrest, sloganeering, the SOTU, and purple fingers

Cindy Sheehan's much-prized First Amendment rights might not have been violated (nofollowpolicy) when she was arrested at last night's State of the Union. It's apparently a misdemeanor to engage in sloganeering and the like inside the Capitol building.

In fact:

The wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, told a newspaper that she was ejected during the State of the Union address for wearing a T-shirt that says, "Support the Troops Defending Our Freedom."

And:

In the early days of the Senate's impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in January 1999, a Pennsylvania man named Dave Delp was removed by the Capitol police from the Senate gallery for wearing a t-shirt that said, "Clinton doesn't inhale, he sucks."

However, it doesn't take much to recall a similar case in which people should have been ejected but obviously were not. From a 2005 SOTU live-blogging:

Just saw the first purple fingers being raised; all were on their feet applauding.

Sounds a bit like sloganeering to me.

UPDATE: It looks like the Capitol Police arrested her on what might end up being a specious charge:

Capitol Police charged her with a misdemeanor for violating the District of Columbia's code against unlawful or disruptive conduct on any part of the Capitol grounds, a law enforcement official said.

In fact, while she might have intended to disrupt the proceedings, it doesn't appear at this time that she did. And, they dropped the charges and released her. And, of course:

Sheehan said she had one arm out of her coat when an officer yelled, "Protester." She said she intended to file a First Amendment lawsuit over the episode.

Posted at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)

Free Cindy Sheehan! Free Cindy Sheehan!

...Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider told the Associated Press that Sheehan kept the anti-war slogan covered until she took her seat. When they noticed her politically charged attire, police warned Sheehan that such displays were not allowed...

Sheehan had received a House gallery pass to attend the speech as a guest of San Francisco Democrat Lynn Woolsey, whose spokesman told reporters that protesting Peace Mom had promised to remain respectful and not cause any disruptions while the president spoke.

Posted at 01:31 AM | Comments (2)

Cindy Sheehan plants a wet one on Hugo Chavez

CARACAS, Jan 29 (IPS) - An informal International Women's Tribunal, meeting at the sixth World Social Forum in the Venezuelan capital, found "imperialism" and U.S. President George W. Bush guilty of violating the human rights of people in countries like Iraq and Cuba...

Among the many events at this year’s World Social Forum in Caracas was the WOMEN SAY NO TO WAR gathering featuring Cindy Sheehan. Venezuela president Hugo Chavez called Sheehan "Ms. Hope."

CARACAS, Venezuela - Cindy Sheehan, the peace activist who just announced that she is weighing a run for Senate, plans to protest again outside President Bush's Texas ranch, Venezuela's president said Sunday with Sheehan by his side.

"She invited me to put up a tent. Maybe I'll put up my tent also," Chavez said, to applause from activists invited to his weekly broadcast on the final day of the leftist World Social Forum...

Posted at 09:06 PM | Comments (3)

Bring on the noise, bring on the Commies

"World Can't Wait" - a Revolutionary Communist Party-linked group - will be conducting nationwide protests on Jan. 31 to coincide with Bush's State of the Union address. The protests will be in one of the only forms that the far-left understands:

At 9:00 PM EST, just as Bush starts to speak, everywhere we will BRING THE NOISE. In a cacophony of sound, we will drown out his address with music: from drums to violins, from hip hop and classical; and with noise: banging pots and ringing church bells, sound car horns and lifting our voices.

How very therapeutic.

Posted at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)

George W Bush indicted for crimes against humanity

The "International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration of the United States" has indicted U.S. president George W. Bush for his crimes.

Although the indictments have no legal effect, they will make those on the very far-left feel better. The "International Commission" is sponsored by the "Not in our Name" group, and a partial list of supporters is here.

Without looking, can you guess some of the names?

Here's a partial list:

* Edward Asner
* Michael Avery, president of the National Lawyers Guild and professor, Suffolk Law School
* Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies
* Michael S. Berg, grieving father of Nick Berg killed in Iraq May 7, 2004, and one man for Peace
* Center for Constitutional Rights
* Marjorie Cohn, professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and executive vice president of National Lawyers Guild
* Eve Ensler, playwrite
* C. Clark Kissinger, contributing writer for Revolution and initiator of the Not In Our Name statement of conscience (and a proud member of the Revolutionary Communist Party)
* Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine and author of The Left Hand of God: Taking Back America from the Religious Right
* Barbara Olshansky, deputy legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and author of Secret Trials and Executions
* National Lawyers Guild
* National Lawyers Guild, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
* Not In Our Name Project
* Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and author with Ellen Ray of Guantanamo: What the World Should Know
* Stephen F. Rohde, civil liberties lawyer and co-founder of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace
* Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics, Princeton University (because some people really love their animals)
* Gore Vidal
* Cornel West
* Howard Zinn, historian

Get your tickets for the January 20,21,and 22 performances hearings now.

Posted at 02:20 PM | Comments (1)

NYT: New York PD infiltrated protests, agitated

...The officers hoist protest signs. They hold flowers with mourners. They ride in bicycle events. At the vigil for the cyclist, an officer in biking gear wore a button that said, "I am a shameless agitator." She also carried a camera and videotaped the roughly 15 people present.

Beyond collecting information, some of the undercover officers or their associates are seen on the tape having influence on events. At a demonstration last year during the Republican National Convention, the sham arrest of a man secretly working with the police led to a bruising confrontation between officers in riot gear and bystanders...

Posted at 05:24 AM | Comments (1)

S.F. Chronicle unwittingly exposes left's lack of moral compass

The S.F. Chronicle story "Tears, anger, silence at protesters' candlelight vigil" ("Speakers read from Williams' anti-gang children's books") unwittingly exposes just how far gone the left has gone. It would be one thing if those they describe were just anti-death penalty. But, it's more than that: many of them were pro-Tookie.

Like this:

"If he doesn't rise to the level of clemency, then what does?" [crying protester Carolyn King of San Jose] said.

Could many of these protesters have been, in fact, COINTELPRO operatives?

Why didn't the reporter point out that "shock jocks" John & Ken kept asking the crowd and celebrities to name Tookie's victims, and only one person could come up with the name of one of them?

More on this report here.

Posted at 04:35 AM | Comments (0)

Face America: MoveOn's latest stunt

Dear MoveOn member,

Top Republicans in the House of Representatives are now vowing to vote on their reverse Robin Hood budget proposal within 48 hours. Your work has helped erode their support, and the vote is too close to call. That's why today we're launching our "Face America" photo petition—calling on Congress to literally look us in the eye and do the right thing.

We're aiming to collect thousands of photos of ordinary Americans with homemade signs, asking Congress to oppose the Republican plan to cut services for poor while handing tax breaks to the rich. To make sure you're heard, we'll deliver every photo to every member of Congress before the final vote and run some as online ads in the newspapers Congress reads...

Posted at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Moore owned Halliburton stock

Ah, "liberal" hypocrisy.

A new book reports on the extensive stock holdings of "liberal" favorite Michael Moore. Here are just some of the companies a trust he controls has owned stock in:

Pfizer, Merck, Genzyme, Elan PLC, Eli Lilly, Becton Dickinson, Boston Scientific, Sunoco, Noble Energy, Schlumberger, Williams Companies, Transocean Sedco Forex, Anadarko, Ford, General Electric, AOL Time Warner, Honeywell, Boeing Loral

He also owned stock in McDonald's. No surprise there.

And, of course, he also owned part of Halliburton, and he even made a 15% profit on that holding.

All these facts and much more are revealed in the Amazon best-seller "Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy" from Hoover Fellow Peter Schweizer.

It has more on Moore, Al Franken, Barbra Streisand, and other limo libs, so buy your copy today for the complete story on our favorite entertainers and politicians.

Posted at 07:05 AM | Comments (23)

Xinhua: "Protests against Bush held across US"

...They used the anniversary of Bush's re-election to express their discontent with his policies including the war in Iraq and response to Hurricane Katrina and call for his resignation...

Hundreds of high school students in New York City on Wednesday staged a walkout in Union Square, midtown Manhattan, as part of a national day of resistance against the policy of the Bush administration...

Protests were also held in other major US cities. In Chicago, some 500 people attended a downtown rally as a few protesters waved Iraqi flags and vandalized American flags...

Posted at 01:02 AM | Comments (1)

The Girls of CodePink

Shown here (direct link), Tiffany out of CodePink has a nice smile and a definitely nice pose. Her turn-ons include protesting, tofu, and Caribbean dictators. Turn-offs include the Bush administration, the Bush Crime Family, and traffic. She's got some mean hips. For those with "speciality" interests, another member of the organization is shown here.

UPDATE: I meant to include this before, but it's never too late for more sweetness and light. Another Code Pink babe's turnons include George Soros, gas-guzzling SUVs, and shopping. Turnoffs include accent reduction lessons, gas-guzzling SUVs, mean people, and unstylish clothing.

Posted at 06:42 AM | Comments (3)

Somos Useful Idiots: CodePink to defend constitution by visiting Cuba

CodePink is organizing a sex tour peace and freedom tour of Cuba, and you're invited:

This New Year's CODEPINK will be organizing a large group of fun-loving and freedom-loving Americans to break George Bush's ban on travel to Cuba. Join co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, together with Academy Award winning producer Paul Haggis, as we visit with farmers at their co-ops, doctors at their family clinics, dancers at the National Folklore Group, and young people at the ballpark. Don't miss this historic chance to dance salsa, drink mojitos, and visit beautiful beaches—all while defending our constitutional rights!!!

Yes, but what about the sex tour sugar beet collective farm tours? What about the visit to brothels the People's Museo of the Collective Struggle Against Oppression in Angola People's 1976 Brigade Counter-Reactionary Action Museum? Will those be included?

...The Bush administration says we can only travel to Cuba if we have immediate family there. Well, we do. Cubans ARE family - Somos Familia. And while we're there, we'll be holding a mutual adoption ceremony in order to demonstrate that family transcends political boundaries. In the ceremony, each participant will be paired with a Cuban brother or sister. After all, we are all part of one human family and there should be no artificial barriers dividing us...

Note also that while you probably thought the ban on travel to Cuba pre-dated Our Lider by a few years, you were obviously wrong.

To sign up, you need to agree to this:

Signing the waiver will confirm your understanding that CODEPINK neither seeks nor accepts a license from the U.S. Government to travel to Cuba. This trip will explicitly challenge the United States restrictions on travel to Cuba, including press releases and conferences and acknowledging to government officials that we are traveling to and from Cuba

In other words, you're useful idiot pawns in yet another Medea Benjamin attempt to grab attention. I'll let someone else weigh in on the legal issues, but there isn't much more in their "waiver". They don't explicitly state all the bad things that could happen, perhaps leading someone who has problems to try to sue them or something...

Also, I wonder whether CP will vet their participants to make sure they aren't on the other side. Of course, there's probably only an extremely small chance that some spook or other would join up to spy on the "liberals" or the Cubans. Don't even think about that possibility! No one would ever do that.

Posted at 12:17 AM | Comments (0)

Did BushCo test bioweapon (Tularemia) on peace protesters on Sept. 24?

DHS sensors have detected the presence of airborne Tularemia in Washington on September 24 and 25, the dates of the big peace protest.

Tularemia is a disease normally spread by people handling dead rabbits and other rodents or by ticks bites, and about 200 people catch it each year. It appears to be treatable with antibiotics, and we're currently in tail end of the incubation period, which could extend up to the 9th of this month.

The WaPo's "Biohazard Sensors Triggered: Mall Germ Levels Likely Not a Threat" has more:

Health authorities in the Washington area were notified yesterday that the bacteria were found in and near the area between the U.S. Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, where crowds gathered Saturday for an antiwar rally and a book festival...

Remember that last bit, as it will become important below...

"We pretty much feel there is no public health threat here," said Von Roebuck, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noting that there have been no reports of tularemia, the disease that is caused by the bacteria. "We just wanted to alert the medical community to watch out for cases."

The "the working hypothesis": something or other got "stirred up".

But [D.C. Public Health Director Gregg A. Pane] said it was puzzling that the finding was from a day when the Mall was packed with people. "Why that day? That's what is not explained," Pane said. "It was just this 24-hour period and none since."

It's not that puzzling to those who know where to look. Remember that book festival mentioned above? It was promoted by First Lady Laura Bush, and it featured several prominent left-wing authors.

However, the First Lady did not appear at the event she promoted.

And, as previously discussed, other officials - including Bush, Cheney, and others - were out of town that day.

While the link before last points out that there were false positives before, this current outbreak could be an attempt to take advantage of those past occurences.

As kestrel, who claims to be a DVM, says:

I am sticking my neck out on this to say, IMHO, this administration tried to kill protestors. I refuse to apologize to anyone for my stand. I refuse to back down. I know my germs.

Moreover, our first victim of the attack has been located: "Anyone else sick a week after the protests?" More in "Did the Miltary Use DC Protest to Test Bio-weaponTularemia?", "Rare Germ Found in D.C., but No Terror Fears", and this JAMA backgrounder,

Posted at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)

Petula Dvorak of Washington Post whitewashed ANSWER

...Dvorak's story didn't get to the unifying message of the rally -- pure Bush hatred -- until paragraph 23, and she only managed to relate that "Bush and Cheney were depicted on posters, T-shirts and makeshift costumes. Several demonstrators wore masks of Bush's likeness and prison jumpsuits. They were often asked to pose for photographs."

There was one story on counter-protesters at the bottom of this big spread. But on the next page, there was another story on grumpy peaceniks who were stranded at a New York train station over an electrical outage. "This has Rove's fingerprints all over it," said one protester, and the Post considered that credible enough to use.

Once again -- and this is nerve-wracking because it's the standard MO for the liberal press -- nowhere in this storyline was any focus on who the protest organizers are. International ANSWER is a project of the Stalinist Workers' World Party. United for Peace and Justice believes it's opposing an America that is perpetually at war in pursuit of a world empire. Kooky? No doubt. Radical? Unquestionably. Anti-American? You bet. Is this important to the Washington Post? Nah...

In fact, the Washington Post's reporter Petula Dvorak took the whitewash to a whole new level before the march. She profiled "novice protester" Patrice Cuddy of Olathe, Kan., who "said she had to pull off her gardening gloves each time a neighbor interrupted her yardwork" to sign up for her protest bus to Washington.

There was a big problem. Cuddy is no novice. A quick Google search for the NewsBusters blog found that the Kansas City Star reported on Cuddy protesting the Iraq war before it even began, in a Jan. 16, 2003 news report. She was quoted as warning Iraqi children were about to be crushed by American bombs. One blogger joked she was a "lifelong novice," since he found Cuddy touting herself on the Internet as a "Life long Labor Democrat, arms-control, peace, environmental activist since the mid-1970s."

A Sept. 23 Metro article about people coming to Washington for the Sept. 24 demonstration against the war in Iraq described ^ (don't want to say "incorrectly" in this case) Patrice Cuddy, 56, of Olathe, Kan., as a novice protester. Cuddy had participated in three other large rallies against the war, two in Washington and one in New York.

Posted at 12:56 AM | Comments (2)

Pete Seeger, "America's Most Successful Communist"

The politicization of American pop dates from the 1960s, but it grew out of a patient leftist political strategy that began in the mid-1930s with the Communist Party's "Popular Front" effort to use popular culture to advance its cause.

One figure stands out in this enterprise: the now-86-year-old singer, songwriter, "folk music legend," and onetime party stalwart, Pete Seeger. Given his decisive influence on the political direction of popular music, Seeger may have been the most effective American communist ever...

...The Popular Front Left saw such homespun music of poor rural Southerners - eventually labeled American "folk" music - as perfect for molding into a new Marxist cultural vernacular. "[W]hen the Communist Left and its intellectuals . . . tried to sink roots in American tradition, radicals turned a new ear to traditional folk tunes," notes Dunaway. They could cast folk music as the politically pure art of America's noble rural proletariat-plus, because this non-commercial music wasn't copyrighted, they could adapt it freely.

Pete Seeger and Alan Lomax took on this project with gusto. Lacking a real tradition of social protest in American folk music, the pair set out to create one. The music served as the crucible of Seeger's own style: "Folk songs, radicalism and patriotism blended in his mind," Dunaway observes. Through Lomax, Seeger met Woody Guthrie at a March 1940 New York benefit concert for California migrant workers... Made to order for the Popular Front, Guthrie was a middle-class Oklahoman with a calculated aw-shucks cowboy manner, who just happened to be a Communist Party sympathizer and had written for communist newspapers. As Lomax later put it: "Go back to that night when Pete first met Woody Guthrie. You can date the renaissance of American folk song from that night."

The Almanacs/Weavers also dressed the part of authentic jes' plain folks, sporting farmer's overalls on stage. Anticipating the fashion affectations of later pop stars, in which studiedly grungy clothing often serves as both costume and political statement, they suffered from what biographer Dunaway calls "a bad case of proletarian chic."

Seeger-whom critics dubbed "Khrushchev's songbird"-made ends meet largely by playing children's concerts at such venues as the Little Red Schoolhouse in Greenwich Village and its upper school, Elisabeth Irwin High, which, as historian Ronald Radosh recounts, was known for hiring former New York City public school teachers unwilling to sign a loyalty oath...

Posted at 11:34 PM | Comments (0)

Conyers, McKinley attending September 24 Washington DC Cindy Sheehan protest

Knight-Ridder informs us that "Top Democrats won't attend anti-war rally in Washington". (For the backstory, see "ANSWER, UPJ, Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink, MoveOn to protest at White House September 24".)

However, two lesser lights will be attending: Reps. Cynthia McKinney (D-Saturn) and John Conyers (D-Neptune).

Those staying away include: Howard Dean, Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-Pantsuiton), Russell Feingold (D-Dairyland), and John Kerry (D-Martha's Vineyard, Aspen, and Vail).

It's surprising that they won't be showing up:

Today's leading Democrats head a party divided over the war, and many leaders are wary of standing with anti-war activists, who represent much of the party's base...

Even I won't go so far as to say that A.N.S.W.E.R. represents much of the party's base. Maybe 30% or even 40%, but in all likelihood not that much more than half. Although, three-quarters might be a possibility.

"The Democratic Party has an identity crisis on this issue. We need voices. We need leadership," [Tom Andrews, a former Democratic House member from Maine who's now the national director of Win Without War] said. "But fear is driving them."

Yes, it's called not wanting to be associated with North Korea supporters.

"[Howard 'The Scream' Dean's] views on the president's handling of the war in Iraq are well documented," [spokesman Josh Earnest] said. The anti-war rally, he said, is "not something the party was involved with."

Posted at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

ANSWER, UPJ, Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink, MoveOn to protest at White House September 24

The groups gathering in Washington this weekend to protest President Bush and the war in Iraq have ties to radical left-wing groups and communist organizations and have enjoyed the support of the left's biggest financial supporter, George Soros.

United for Peace and Justice (UPJ) and International Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) are the two main organizers of the weekend of events -- the first major public protest allowed to surround the White House in more than 10 years -- and expect 100,000 people from dozens of smaller left-wing and liberal organizations.

A highlight of Saturday, the first day of protests, is an appearance and speech by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan...

The leaders of ANSWER, founded three days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, are connected to the Workers World Party, a Marxist group that has expressed support for such dictators as North Korea's Kim Jong-il, Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic and Iraq's Saddam Hussein...

Other groups associated with ANSWER are the Free Palestine Alliance, U.S.-Mexico Solidarity Foundation and the Muslim Student Association of the U.S. and Canada.

UPJ, founded by liberals who say they were concerned about the radical tactics and smorgasbord of issues trumpeted by ANSWER, says it organized the "S24," or Saturday (Sept. 24) protest first, but Mr. Dobbs said there's "a big overlap" between the protests and "the major point is that we're in D.C. to stop the war in Iraq."

Among the nearly 1,000 groups in the UPJ coalition are Punks for Peace, Queer to the Left, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and Historians Against the War.

California-based Code Pink, which has established a reputation for aggressive protesting, and MoveOn.org will also be out in force this weekend...

Posted at 07:45 AM | Comments (2)

When peace-lovin' Cindy Sheehan supporters attack

I asked Mark Matthews of KGO about the alleged assault, "I'm not happy about it. We're happy to abide by the rules when we know what the rules are. But there was no message communicated to us to stay out of the crosses. And last night, photographers, supporters of Cindy Sheehan, people praying, clapping and singing were here amongst the crosses. 13 hours later, it's off limits without any notification to us."

I asked one of Sheehan’s spokeswoman if she condoned Key's assault of the cameraman. She would not answer my question directly, instead saying, "I think if we all do our fair share, we'll work to keep everybody out of the way... That's all we need is to have people stay out of the crosses... I think that's all being worked out privately. I think the cameraman and the Iraq veteran was doing his best to honor the fallen will work it out."

Posted at 12:49 AM | Comments (1)

Infiltrators at Code Pink Walter Reed Army Medical Center protests?

...In recent weeks, the vigil has attracted some people who have tried to change the tone and message of the vigil, including yelling and holding up inappropriate signs. The organizers have asked the newcomers to be respectful and wonder if they might indeed be infiltrators whose aim is to disrupt the vigil.

The organizers also suspect that the sudden attention to the vigil on the part of the conservative media is part of a well-orchestrated smear campaign against the peace movement...

Posted at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)

Los Angeles Impeach Bush protest falls flat

Earlier today I made the mistake of attending the impeach Bush Downing Street Memo day in Hollywood. I've been to several "peace" protests, and this one earned a "2", with a "10" involving the Pope pledging to work with Bono and the Rockefellers to build World Communism, and a "1" being one guy on a street corner with a crudely-lettered sign.

At its peak, there were approximately a dozen people at the corner of Van Ness and Sunset in front of the Tribune Company's KTLA building. I had expected many more. Reinforcements were supposed to arrive from an earlier confab at Maxine Waters' office in Inglewood. That event ended at 3:30, but, after standing around in the sauna for over an hour, I finally left at 4:45. If a large contingent arrived after that I'd be very surprised.

There were no papier mache figurines, no handing out of the leaflets, very few passersby, and, aside from (more or less) your blogger, no reporters. While there were a large number of supportive honks, at least two newsvans drove by without stopping. A police cruiser parked across the street and turned its watchful eyes to the protest, but it wasn't necessary either for the safety of the protesters or the local shopkeeps. It is highly doubtful if they decided to storm KTLA after I left.

While it's not visible in either photo, one of the protesters was wearing an Iraqi flag as a skirt, and, of course, there's the hippieized upside-down American flag. But, in comparison to some of the things I've seen at past protests, this was nothing.

Posted at 05:56 PM | Comments (2)

Codepink / Downing Street memo Los Angeles DSM Day protest July 23

[UPDATE: I wasted an hour at this event. See "Los Angeles Impeach Bush protest falls flat" for my report.]

On Saturday, July 23 protests will be held in cities across the U.S. to try to bring attention to the Downing Street memo.

This is called "DSM Day" and it's been organized by Rep. John Conyers and several other people and organizations. Air America's Randi Rhodes is involved as well.

In Los Angeles, festivities will kick off at Maxine Waters' office in Inglewood from noon to 3pm at the Covenant Worship Center Legacy Hall (425 South La Brea Ave., two blocks south of Manchester Blvd.)

Then, the protest will move to Hollywood. From 3:30pm to 6pm, protesters will march from KTLA (5800 Sunset) to KCBS (6121 Sunset). Codepink (Susan Medea Benjamin's group) and something called Impeach Central are involved.

I will not be going to these events. I repeat: I will NOT be going. No, really, I have no intention of going.

Posted at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)

All about Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights

FPM has a nice profile of one of our favorite "liberals", Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City: "The Man Behind the Attack on Guantanamo".

Posted at 05:54 PM | Comments (0)

That isn't the "peace" movement I know

Harold Meyerson discusses the "peace" movement in the WaPo's "No One to Demonize". I'm only going to discuss this bit:

...Confronted with a choice between U.S. occupation and chaos, millions of Americans -- chiefly liberals and Democrats -- who'd been against the war decided to give occupation a chance...

Actually, they thought we were going to be spectacularly successful, and they decided to back away slowly. Of course, the Communists far-lefties continued their protests no matter what.

Posted at 05:56 AM | Comments (0)

1000 anti-Japan demonstrators. In Los Angeles?

Yes, indeed. Apparently I missed the announcement, but yesterday around 1000 anti-Japan demonstrators marched from City Hall to the Japanese consulate nearby:

The demonstrators held signs demanding that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi stop visiting Yasukuni Shrine, where Class-A war criminals are enshrined along with Japan's war dead, and calling on Japan to mention its war crimes in school textbooks. They also called for a boycott of Japanese goods.

AP news brief here.

In absolutely, completely, utterly unrelated news, the flag of Communist China is now flying high above Chinatown. It was raised on the same day as the protest. The L.A. Times reports in "China's Flag Rises Without a Flap":

Peter Lau, who heads the group that organized the flag-raising, the China Unity Assn. of Greater Los Angeles, and who also marched in the anti-Japan rally, said it was coincidence that the two events took place on the same day. Still, he said, it was a sign of growing Chinese nationalism...

I might visit Chinatown tomorrow and report, so stay tuned...

Posted at 11:52 AM | Comments (1)

Peaceful liberals climb onto Gen. Tommy Franks' SUV

This report describes an incident on April 19 in L.A.'s Echo Park:

A small but militant group of anti-war protesters confronted retired Iraqi war general Tommy Franks this morning as he left a student assembly at Logan Street Elementery School in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. General Franks, attempting to leave the school in an SUV with tinted windows, was totally blocked by protesters who climbed onto the hood and body of the car and blocked his departure with banners, signs and their own bodies. "War criminal! Murderer of the Iraqi People!" and other chants were directed at the car as it remained immobilized in the middle of the street. Parents and community people, outraged by the appearance of the general, joined in the direct confrontation which came as the vehicle was leaving campus.

There was apparently a legal observer from the National Lawyer's Guild on hand, and it appears to have been organized by CISPES, the Committee In Solidarity With The People of El Salvador.

From www.la.indymedia.org/news/2005/04/125382.php

Posted at 11:41 AM | Comments (1)

Drat! I missed a "peace" protest?

There was an A.N.S.W.E.R.-organized "peace" protest in Hollywood on Saturday. I didn't cover it because a) I had more pressing matters, and b) I usually park several blocks away from such events and then bike in but my bike is in need of adjustments before I can ride it. Riding in works pretty well: no parking problems, and it's easy to get around to various parts of the event. It's not so good trying to get a bike through a dense crowd or locking it up and then worrying about it, but that's a relatively minor point.

If you need a fix, there are some poorly-taken pictures here. The ones here are slightly better-taken. Neither sets are captioned. A.N.S.W.E.R.-apologist Polizeros has a couple pictures and a Ron Kovic podcast interview here. He drove the lead truck! Comrade "activism" has a critique of the protest here. I find his comments negative, hateful, and bourgeoises. There's a roundup of media coverage of the Hollywood protest and those elsewhere here.

UPDATE: "No Blood for Oil"??? That's so 2003! But, then again, courtesty of our friends the DUmmies, it is San Diego. The pictures from the Boston protest include a sign with the message: "Wake Up Amerika". Hmmm... were the Protest Warriors in Boston?

Other DUmmies seem to be afflicted with a bit of an inflated opinion of their own influence: "we're making an impact on the MSM....as tired MSM reporters search around DU for Monday mornings News....KEEP kicking up the Pro-Peace stories and photos...thanks..."

And, in a completely-unaware-of-irony move, they post a picture of a peace sign in Budapest.

Posted at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)

"US anti-war movement looking for second wind"

AFP:

The US anti-war movement is looking for ways to revive itself, following President George W. Bush's reelection and in the face of divided public opinion, to see US troops out of Iraq.

Some 500 representatives of pacifist organizations, former combatants, soldiers' families, as well as actor and activist Danny Glover, met last weekend in Saint Louis, Missouri, for the first time since the start of Bush's second term, seeking a united strategy for their efforts.

"United For Peace and Justice" the name of the coalition seeking to set its strategy in the coming months, organized the big February 2003 and August 2004 marches in New York, and said demos will be held on March 19 -- the second anniversary of the launch of the US war in Iraq...

Posted at 01:18 PM | Comments (5)

Patriarchical police state imprisons peace protester

America's favorite peace protester, Susan "Medea" Benjamin, is safely behind bars. Again:

WOMEN PEACE ACTIVISTS DRAGGED OUT OF INAUGURATION CEREMONY BY THE POLICE

MEMBERS OF CODEPINK: WOMEN FOR PEACE UNFURL BANNERS AND SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE IRAQ WAR DURING GEORGE BUSH’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS

Washington, DC – As George W. Bush gave his inaugural address in front of the U.S. Capitol, six women peace activists stood up on their chairs in the VIP section and shouted “bring the troops home!” The women also held up banners reading “No War,” “Out of Iraq Now,” and “Bush Mandate: Troops Home Now.” They were dragged out of the inaugural ceremony by the police, and two of the women are still in police custody.

“The killing in Iraq doesn’t stop because the inauguration is happening, so our efforts to end the war and occupation can’t stop either,” said Jodie Evans, one of the women who spoke out during Bush’s inaugural address.

“Bush’s occupation of Iraq has led to needless suffering of US soldiers and Iraqis, increased anti-American sentiment globally, and has made us less safe at home. We spoke out because the Bush administration needs end the occupation of Iraq and its bellicose policy towards Iran and other nations, and instead commit the United States to the rule of law—including the US constitution and bill of rights, the UN charter and the Geneva conventions,” said Medea Benjamin, who also spoke out during the inaugural address and is still in police custody...

Posted at 10:37 AM | Comments (0)

What if "liberals" held a protest, and...

There was no discernible anti-U.S. or anti-Bush component?

In what might one of the most shocking protests in recent memory, liberals will soon be protesting against the genocide in Darfur. And, they'll be protesting against the government of Sudan and the United Nations, not the U.S.:

Diverse groups will join in a candlelight vigil on Monday, Dec. 13, at the Fountain Plaza in Washington Square Park in New York City at 6:30 pm EST.

Slavery survivor Simon Deng will be a keynote speaker at the event.

The first genocide of the 21st century continues in Sudan, and despite the death toll of 70,000 and counting, the international community and the UN have largely refused to come to the aid of the 2 million Sudanese who have been forced into the desert, and the thousands more who have been raped and enslaved. The United Nations still refuses to acknowledge that these events constitute genocide. This candlelight vigil is sponsored by the Columbia Coalition for Sudan, NYU Law Students for Human Rights, Judson Memorial Church, the Massaleit Community in Exile, Brooklyn Parents for Peace, the Church of St. Francis Xavier, the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, the Darfur Rehabilitation Project, Jews Against Genocide, the New York Board of Rabbis, the students of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and the American Anti-Slavery Group.

The movement to stop the genocide in Sudan is growing stronger every day. Through rallies, candlelight vigils, petitions, divestment campaigns, and fundraisers, activists are making a difference. Individuals and communities across the country are demanding immediate action to stop the genocide perpetrated by the Sudanese regime.

I read that press release over and over. I looked at a couple pages at the Sudan grassroots activism center. I even read through TalkLeft's post about this. And, I just can't find the expected anti-American component.

So, does that mean this is a U.S. front, or are "liberals" starting to grow up?

Posted at 11:50 AM | Comments (0)

I would have driven to the westside for this

TANKS APPEAR AT ANTI-WAR PROTEST IN WESTWOOD:

LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2004 - At 7:50 PM armored tanks showed up at an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in Westwood.

The tanks circled the block twice, the second time parking themselves in the street and directly in front of the area where most of the protesters were gathered.

Enraged, some of the people attempted to block the tanks, but police quickly cleared the street.

The people continued to protest the presence of the tanks, but after about ten minutes the tanks drove off. It is unclear as to why the tanks were deployed to this location.

A National Guard base is just down the street, so perhaps they were just passing through.

But, seriously, tanks?

Note that that link includes a video and a screengrab. So, I'm pretty sure this report is accurate.

Since the L.A. Times doesn't appear to be covering this: Readers.Rep@latimes.com

UPDATE: Did loony libs leave Lonewacko looking loopy? See the comments here. Someone offers a partially satisfactory explanation for this incident. In fact, my joke above might have turned out to have been prophetic. The explanation is these "tanks" were lost. The protest was Tuesday evening, and on Wednesday morning a Veteran's Day memorial was held nearby. The "tanks" apparently took the "Wilshire east" exit when they wanted the "Wilshire west" exit of the 405.

What were (tracked) "tanks" doing on the freeway? Apparently, as the larger photos show, these were not tanks but "Light Armored Vehicles" with tires and thus (apparently) suitable for freeway travel. Although I can't recall having seen any military vehicles travelling on freeways other than military trucks. And, as pointed out on the thread above, they might have been lost or it might just be a useful explanation.

Once again, the Big Media needs to get on this story.

UPDATE 2: For your tin foil collection:

The LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) is claiming, but only after being hounded by journalists, that the tanks were coming back from an "exercise" -- now here's the thing-- I live one mile from the tank(s) appearance at Westwood and was there at the protest last night -- I have never seen a tank nor have I seen a National Guard unit nor anything resembling an armory in this area and again I have lived here for decades. This is the Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood (where Ah-nuld lives) area -- i.e., an extremely wealthy area of LA, tanks don't come down our streets lightly (pun intended). This was a deliberate attempt by my neighbor Ah-nuld and Our Crowned Prince George Jr., to put California in its place. And it was like Tiannamen (sp?) Square in a very creepy way. The police and the National Guard should not be working together to suppress dissent, but it appears tanks on the streets of Los Angeles is the first salvo in the new Bush war on our Bill of Rights. So spread the video far and wide because first the Bush Reich will come for the Kali-fornians and then they will come for...you! I was there, I have jpgs -- get the tank video out to everyone NOW before it's too late, and we all have tanks on our streets.

Despite my visceral disgust with the area, even I know the Federal Building is right across from the Veteran's Cemetary, less than a mile from a VA hospital, and less than a mile from a National Guard Armory. There's also some sort of former military base up Veteran or something. That said, as pointed out on these other threads, these LAVs are used by the Marines, but the closest Marine base is at Camp Pendleton, which is 100 miles south of Westwood.

Posted at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)

It's always best when your opponents go insane

From "Feminists Compare Bush's 2000 Election Victory to 'Savage Rape'":

...Poet Molly Birnbaum read aloud to a crowd of feminists gathered in New York's Central Park on Wednesday night, as part of a NOW event dubbed "Code Red: Stop the Bush Agenda Rally."

"Imagine a way to erase that night four years ago when you (President Bush) savagely raped every pandemic woman over and over with each vote you got, a thrust with each state you stole," Birnbaum said from the podium. (If something is pandemic, it affects many people or a number of countries.) [Her usage of it might refer to AIDS, or it just might be poetic license --LW]

"A smack with each bill you passed, a tear with each right you took until you left me disenfranchised with hands shackled and voice restrained. Thanks for that night, Mr. President, I can barely remember my tomorrows," Birnbaum said to applause...

"I want to be that voice that makes George Bush so scared he hires two butch black bodyguards. I want to write the poem that the New York Times will not print because it might start some kind of black or lesbian or even a white revolution," [alleged poet Stacey Ann] Chin said...

The crowd carried signs reading, "Keep your politics out of my vagina," "The religious right is neither," "I don't want a president who believes that I am going to hell," "Keep your God out of my government, keep your laws off my body," and "War is not pro-life."

Earlier in the rally, U.S. Rep. Major Owens, a New York Democrat, warned a crowd of feminist protesters that the Bush administration is taking America "into a snake pit of fascism."

Owens also said the Bush administration "spits on democracy" and is leading the country down a path reminiscent of "Nazi Germany."

Last year, Major Owens caused a "rap poem" to be entered in the Congressional Record.

And, pre-protest, TalkLeft provided us with the text of their flyer, so I guess we could have seen this coming:

PROTEST The Bush Administration'sWAR on WOMEN
WORKERS and PEOPLE of COLOR, LGBT, DISABLED, POOR and IMMIGRANT
PEOPLES
The ENVIRONMENT and OUR BILL OF RIGHTS

Posted at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)

It wouldn't be a protest without Susan "Medea" Benjamin getting arrested

Yep, she did it again.

Since there are no permalinks at this site, let's try this play-by-play account:

Tuesday 31 August 2004

4:10PM: Medea Benjamin has just been arrested, and the crowd is turning very ugly...

4:20PM: Medea Benjamin has been taken away, and the crowd is swelling. The buzz of violence seems to have dissipated for the moment...

4:50PM: Medea Benjamin has been released, is shaken up, but is OK.

Whew! As a special bonus, they have a video interview with Medea.

Previous Medea coverage starts here.

(Via TalkLeft)

Posted at 05:18 PM | Comments (1)

Susan "Medea" Benjamin is (partially) right (for once)

Susan "Medea" Benjamin on the "free speech zones" at the DNCC:

"We don't deserve to be put in a detention center, a concentration camp," said Medea Benjamin of San Francisco. "It's tragic that here in Boston, the birthplace of democracy, our First Amendment rights are being trampled on."

Two fellow protesters from the anti-war group Code Pink, who dressed in pink Statue of Liberty garb, taped their mouths shut. Some activists said while they understand the need for security, organizers went overboard.

"We are on high, high red alert for the protection of our civil liberties," said Claryce Evans, national coordinator for United Peace and Justice. American Civil Liberties Union and National Lawyers Guild attorneys asked a federal judge to open up or move the zone...

The ACLU? The NLG? The guy on my left shoulder says they should go back to Russia. The guy on my right shoulder says they should be allowed to protest in such a way that both safety and their First Amendment rights are protected. Right-shoulder-guy wins. I just wouldn't call it "a concentration camp."

Posted at 12:22 PM | Comments (1)

What year is this again?

Several readers have emailed me this story:

San Francisco voters will have more than one chance to express their views on the U.S.-led war in Iraq this presidential election year after four local officials submitted a ballot measure Tuesday calling on the federal government to end the conflict...

Heh? I mean, huh? At first I thought this article might be from last year, but it's from today.

Indeedily.

Posted at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)

"Iraq Spy's Dem Ties Obscured in Press Reports"

There's more on media coverage of Susan Lindauer here:

Of the 120 main press reports so far on Lindauer's arrest yesterday, only 12 expressly identified her former employers as Democrats...

Posted at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)

"Accused spy is cousin of Bush staffer"

This is just laugh-out-loud funny. The headline of an AP report on this matter is "Accused spy is cousin of Bush staffer." Now, of course, the way this works is many people will just see the headline, or their view of this matter will be greatly influenced by it. They won't bother to note that all of her public employers have been Democrats and she's been active in the "peace" movement.

And, note that this headline is direct from the AP. Only the website for the TV station KGW changed the headline (to 'Woman accused in spy case worked as journalist, congressional aide').

The papers that ran this story with the AP headline are the following. I've tried to determine the correct contact person for each paper.

AJC (insideajc@ajc.com)

phillyburbs.com (ksmith@phillyburbs.com)

al Guardian (editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk)

Newsday (foreign@newsday.com)

Mlive.com (form)

The Ledger (lenore.devore@theledger.com)

Wilmington Morning Star (tim.griggs@starnewsonline.com)

AL Times Daily (mike.goens@timesdaily.com)

Worcester [MA] Telegram (llamson@telegram.com)

Tuscaloosa News (danny.dejarnette@tuscaloosanews.com)

Contact them by clicking on or copying this link. Bear in mind that the article's author, Matthew Daly, may or may not have written the headline. And, bear in mind that the papers that ran it as-is may have some kind of an automated system or something.

(Via Slings and Arrows)

Posted at 09:26 PM | Comments (0)

The tale of the delusional peacenik

Coverage of Susan Lindauer is in 'U.S. woman charged with spying for Iraq', 'How Susan Lindauer Was Caught', this, this, and this. The indictment is here. An email that appears to be from her is here.

From this article:

"I'm an anti-war activist and I'm innocent," Lindauer told WBAL-TV as she was led to a car outside the Baltimore FBI office. "I did more to stop terrorism in this country than anybody else. I have done good things for this country. I worked to get weapons inspectors back to Iraq when everyone else said it was impossible. I'm very proud and I'll stand by my achievements."

Apparently the person she tried to tell about her Iraq connections was Andrew Card.

The preliminary position of The Lonewacko Blog is that she is a delusional peacenik who thought she was going to broker a peace deal. If all she got was $10,000 it can't have been for the money, especially because that appears to have been for expenses. The fact that she approached someone about her links to Iraq indicates that she thought what she was doing was OK or would be seen as OK. If it's true that she turned over the names of Iraqi dissidents to the Iraqis that would tend to work strongly against the delusional dupe thesis.

UPDATE: For a laugh-out-loud report on this case, see the next post.

UPDATE 2: The NYT's report is entitled 'An Antiwar Activist Known for Being Committed Yet Erratic':

Susan P. Lindauer wore her liberal politics on her sleeve, as well as on her aging Mazda, where bumper stickers proclaimed her unabashed opposition to the Iraq conflict...

Joe Copeland, who supervised Ms. Lindauer in 1989 when she wrote editorials for The Everett Herald in Everett, Wash., said she was "the most liberal member of the editorial board at the time." Although he found Ms. Lindauer bright and pleasant, Mr. Copeland said, she also could be erratic, disappearing for long unexplained periods of the day.

"I certainly saw some signs of flakiness," he said...

UPDATE 3: There's much more than you ever wanted to know about Ms. Lindauer in this "she was the quiet type" type of article from one of the papers where she used to work.

Posted at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)

Another day, another "peace" organization

Susan Medea Benjamin and friends are busy again, starting OccupationWatch.org, whose goals include:

* Research the dynamics, programs, and composition of the Iraqi movement to resist occupation in order to provide a more comprehensive picture to the international community;

* Support the creation of independent Iraqi organizations, such as media and environmental groups;

As if that weren't enough, they're going one step further:

"When the Green Party says, ‘Bring them home,’ the troops are right on with us,” Benjamin said.
She told MSNBC.com that the anti-war coalition United for Peace and Justice is consulting with Quaker groups and with an organization called Veterans for Peace to see what the options are for “counseling the troops.”
Benjamin said the Occupation Watch Baghdad office — currently with a staff of four — will “provide information and access to allow (U.S. troops) to make decisions for themselves.”
The idea of counseling soldiers on how to claim conscientious objector (CO) status is something that only occurred to her delegation after it had returned from its tour of Iraq on July 14, she said.
“It became obvious that it was something we had to look into because of the low morale,” Benjamin told MSNBC.com Sunday.
“If we decide it is important to do, we will test it out on the ground,” she added. “How the military reacts to it is something we don’t know.”

However, this quote from the above article is quite appropriate:

“I’m wondering where they were when they could have been monitoring Saddam Hussein’s human rights violations,” said Harald Stavenas, a spokesman for the House Armed Services Committee. “Mass graves continue to be unearthed in Iraq and it is estimated that up to one million corpses will be found. Millions of people have been liberated from that threat. In contrast, this group’s efforts seem ludicrous.”

Perhaps their actions might prove to be a bit more than just ludicrous. If they end up actually supporting the "resistance" directly or indirectly through a front organization, (not that they're planning to do that, but you never know) wouldn't they then become quite obviously just on the other side?

Previous Susan Medea Benjamin posts here and here.

(Via TalkLeft)

Posted at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)

Beverly Hills hair stylist Jose Eber captured by French police

From this:

The leader of France's anti-globalisation movement... was snatched from his bed at dawn yesterday and taken to prison by helicopter...

...[He] was inspired to political activism when America imposed tariffs on French cheeses and paté de foie gras as revenge for the European Union's ban on American hormone-treated beef.

In 1999, he led an attack on a McDonald's restaurant being built near his home in Larzac, south-western France, driving his tractor over the site and causing £80,000 of damage...

His latest conviction was for destroying genetically modified rice and maize samples, for which he must now serve two consecutive sentences of six and four months.

M Perben said President Jacques Chirac might include Bové in his annual Bastille Day pardons on July 14.

UPDATE: I just realized, this isn't about Beverly Hills hairstylist Jose Eber, it's about Jose Bove, the CESM guy who drives tractors into McDonalds's. Please forgive the error.

Posted at 10:37 PM | Comments (5)

A real peoples' constitution, A.N.S.W.E.R.-style

Here's a transcript of a video secretly shot at a recent A.N.S.W.E.R. meeting by ProtestWarrior:

MODERATOR:
So let's get started on the portion of the agenda where we all get a chance to talk, and I would like to appeal to my fellow European American males to not be the first ones to shoot your hands up or to get up on the floor, but to give everyone else a chance to speak first and try not to dominate the discussion...

...OLD MAN:
I hate to point out that the Constitution itself sucks; there's a lot wrong with it. There's no right to healthcare, no right to education, no right to jobs, none of that is in there. Racism, anti-gay bigotry, none of that is outlawed by the Constitution. Those are the things that need to be in a real peoples' constitution. It's important to point out because we keep defending the Constitution, but it's a Constitution that's extremely weak and does not represent what people need. And when we defend the Constitution we have to go one step further and say "this is what a real constitution should look like..."

...BRIAN:
And Cuba, Cuba is an occupied country, even though they had the revolution in '59, the naval base, the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo occupies a huge section of Cuba and the U.S. won't leave and that's where they built all the prisons.

Click the category link below for my "peace" movement coverage.

(Via Balloon Juice.)

Posted at 10:34 AM | Comments (1)

Next protest, ahoy!

A.N.S.W.E.R. is planning a big protest on Friday, June 27 at 6pm in front of the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City. Despite the rush hour traffic, I just might cover it.

Here's the text of their flyer. Fisk at will:

Un-elected President George W Bush has carried out a war to
takeover Iraq for oil profits. That war has killed thousands of
innocent Iraqis. U.S. troops now occupy Iraq in colonial style in spite of mounting anger and resistance from the Iraqi people.
Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Cuba are being threatened. At home, affirmative action, civil liberties and immigrant rights are under assault, joblessness is rising, and Bush is handing over
hundreds of billions of dollars to the already super-rich in the
form of a tax cut.
On June 27th, Bush will breeze into town and rub elbows with a group of hand-picked politicians, and local millionaires so he can rake in millions of dollars for the Republican Party. The thousands of people in Los Angeles who protested the war
against Iraq, will be out there in the streets to say no to the Bush program of war, occupation, racism and tax give-aways to the rich!

OCCUPATION IS NOT LIBERATION!
NO WAR FOR EMPIRE!
End colonial occupation from Iraq to Palestine! U.S. troops out of Korea, the Philippines, Colombia, and Afghanistan! U.S. hands off Cuba, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Syria & Iran! Money for jobs, housing, education, & healthcare - not for war! Defend Civil Liberties - no to Patriot Acts I & II! Stop the attacks on immigrant communities! No to racism and oppression at home!

Where does one start? Well, one doesn't start. One just laughs.

Links to my past coverage of "peace" protests are here.

Posted at 02:32 PM | Comments (0)

"American Woman Travels Door to Door to Count Iraqi Casualties"

From this ABC Nightline piece:

Marla Ruzicka, 26, from the San Francisco Bay Area, has been in Baghdad since the day Saddam's statue fell in the city center. She has been doing a headcount of the Iraqi injured and the dead. She's found more than she expected.

She has formed her own nonprofit organization, called the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, or CIVIC. She has organized 150 surveyors to fan out across Iraq. So far, they say they have documented 620 civilian deaths in Baghdad, 256 in Najaf, 425 in Karbala and as many as 1,100 in Nasiriyah. It is only a preliminary count.

"Somewhere between 5,000 to 10,000 people died in this conflict," Ruzicka said...

Ruzicka does not represent the U.S. government. She's not affiliated with any big relief agency. She is a lone peace activist who has taken it upon herself to help the civilian victims of war...

The article goes on and on, heaping praise by the wheelbarrowful, finally ending with:

But while other aid agencies are still getting organized in Iraq, still tentatively working out the difficult security situation, Ruzicka is already out there, trying as much as one person can to help.

By the end, if you aren't willing to give her the Nobel Peace Prize, perhaps it's because her name sounds a bit familiar.

In fact, Marla Ruzicka was one of the NY Times' sources for civilian death statistics in Afghanistan:

When The New York Times ran a front-page report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan ("Flaws in U.S. Air War Left Hundreds of Civilians Dead"), bloggers descended on the article like ants on a picnic...

On his site, The Politburo [*], blogger Michael Moynihan noted that the Times' source for the toll of 812 dead was Marla Ruzicka, identified as a field worker in Afghanistan for Global Exchange, "an American organization." What the Times didn't say, Moynihan wrote, is that Global Exchange is a "far-left" group that opposes globalization and the U.S. military. Ruzicka, he said, is a fan of Fidel Castro's Cuba and the winner of an award from "the Marxist group Refuse and Resist..."

Marla may no longer be working for or with Global Exchange, but I'd think her past history and affiliations might be of interest to most of Nightline's readers. If you want to suggest something like that to Nightline, you can contact them from this page, and the article linked above contains the email addresses for the story's author and for Ruzicka.

Posted at 12:00 AM | Comments (14)

Is MRAP like A.N.S.W.E.R.?

Brigitte Bardot is taking heat for various comments in her recent book. For instance:

"I am against the Islamisation of France. For centuries . . . our fathers gave their lives to chase all successive invaders from France."

I consider that not just historically accurate (more or less, in the larger Europeans against Invaders from the East sense...), but a perfect valid opinion, and one with which I agree.

So, who's doing the complaining? "The antiracist group MRAP and the Human Rights League," presumably among others.

MRAP's home page is here. They say they work with the Human Rights League. Much like A.N.S.W.E.R. works with NION. They want to Free Mumia! as well. They are (or were) against the Iraq war.

This page says: "[MRAP,] close to the Communist Party, is led by Mouloud Aounit..." They've even got a creepy kid's magazine. ("The Little Red Non-Royal Proletariat Prince?" --ed.)

They tried to ban an Oriana Fallaci book that said similar things as the Bardot book.

According to this backgrounder on Muslim politics in France, Aouni is an Algerian.

Here's MRAP's condemnation of her book. They compare it to Third Reich propaganda, say "Because racism is not an opinion but a crime," suggest a boycott by booksellers, etc.

MRAP and Aounit are mentioned in the Weekly Standard here and here, and not in a good light.

Perhaps someone who's either read the book or who knows more about MRAP's deeper connections might want to comment, but for now I'm going to assume that MRAP and A.N.S.W.E.R. are fellow travelers.

UPDATE: In answer to the first comment, apparently MRAP was not a plaintiff in the suit against French author Michel Houellebecq. In fact, MRAP's friend organization the Human Rights League, while originally backing the suit, backed off "when the plaintiffs cited nasty comments about Muslims by characters in Houellebecq's most recent novel, "Platform," as evidence of his criminal intent..."

Also, this page is a bit out-of-date, but it has a lot of information on the "new and improved" France.

Posted at 01:16 PM | Comments (1)

William Morris Agency watch

Other than a few right-wing blogs and this one news report, I haven't seen much about the William Morris Agency's shutting down of boycott-hollywood.us. I'll keep waiting for the leftie blogs and online news sites to catch up... (foley in some crickets here)

Posted at 09:56 PM | Comments (0)

Let's boycott Dotster too

The site boycott-hollywood.us is being shut down due to a threatening letter their registrar (/host?) received from William Morris Agency lawyers. The three parts of the letter are here, here, and here. (If none of the BH addresses work, here's a copy of the post and the letter).

Their registrar is NamesDirect (subsidiary of Dotster), and according to NamesDirect's TOS:

The Applicant warrants to NamesDirect.com that the details submitted by the Applicant to NamesDirect.com are true and correct, and that future additions or alterations to those details will be true and correct...

The following violations of "netiquette" are grounds for immediate suspension of service pending investigation by NamesDirect.com and will result in termination of the Customer's account(s) if an investigation determines that the customer has originated or is any way responsible for such violations:

...4. Harassment of other individuals utilizing the Internet after being asked to stop by those individuals, a court, a law-enforcement agency and/or NamesDirect.com.

Boycott-hollywood.us provided fake WHOIS information. As pointed out elsewhere, this is a no-no.

However, according to this ICANN advisory of April 3, 2003, it would seem that at the very least NamesDirect should have given boycott-hollywood.us 15 days in which to correct their inaccurate contact information. See also this.

Further, I'd imagine that BH's admin address works. Almost all hosting companies send all mail sent to a domain to the same mailbox, unless the client has set up additional mailboxes for specific names. Perhaps BH never got a warning email from William Morris as claimed, or perhaps they did. If they pursue this, I'd imagine that electronic evidence would be gathered to show whether such a letter was sent and/or received.

I also question the letter from William Morris' attorneys. It states: "David J. Kekst, a Vice President of William Morris, sent an e-mail to admin@boycott-hollywood.us to apprise the site of the harm it was causing and the inaccuracy of its representations. Because the claims made on the subject site are potentially libelous..."

However, one would expect at least one or two examples of such "inaccuracies" or "potentially libelous" statements, no?

At least one of those William Morris email addresses are available elsewhere on the web.

BH also failed to correct the Janeane Garofalo "flag burning" quote.

In any case, in my opinion, William Morris went looking for any technicality it could find, and BH gave them one. Hopefully, this attempt will result in a backlash against William Morris and their clients greater than any BH could have hoped for.

Further, in my opinion, NamesDirect caved in to William Morris' pressure in an extremely cowardly way that makes them look very bad.

NamesDirect and other Dotster companies are not my registrars, nor will they ever be. (I use NameBargain and Enameco.)

Perhaps current NamesDirect/Dotster customers should consider a switch of registrars.

So, let's make the current list:

- all celebrities represented by the William Morris Agency
- NamesDirect/Dotster
- France

Posted at 11:34 AM | Comments (1)

Robert Scheer: Both dumb and numb

The embarrassingly secular nature of the government was summarized in another Los Angeles Times story on the status of women: "For decades, Iraqi women � at least those living in Baghdad and some other big cities � have enjoyed a degree of personal liberty undreamed of by women in neighboring nations such as Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf emirates."

Those freedoms - to drive, study in coeducational colleges and to advance in the professions - are now threatened by the fundamentalist forces unleashed by the invasion. The former U.S. general now governing Iraq has stated that he will not accept a reversal of those freedoms, but our long history of cozy relationships with the oppressive Gulf regimes can't be reassuring to Iraq's women.

Posted at 01:10 PM | Comments (0)

Martin Sheen is "not talking to anybody right now."

This article checks in with various anti-war celebs to find out what they're doing since they recently disappeared from sight.

It's all pretty good, but:

But Mike Farrell, star of television's "MASH" and organizer of "Artists United to Win Without War," told Reuters that those who joined the loyal opposition in Hollywood had not been silenced and certainly were not backing down.

Instead, he said, the "huge coalition" of those opposed to the war were gathering strength and preparing to fight another day -- over post-war Iraq, domestic issues and future "preemptive strikes" by the Bush administration...

Garofalo, working hard on her upcoming ABC sitcom, did not respond to interview requests for this story. But she told the Washington Post last week that her anti-war stance had been a "positive" experience that had helped her career.

"Before this I was a moderately well-known character actress," she told the paper. "Now, I'm almost famous."

I'd feel a bit better if she'd get on her knees. You know, to apologize to Bush like she said she would.

Posted at 07:15 PM | Comments (1)

Reductioed ad absurdum

What/Where/When?
Peace Protest/Hollywood and La Brea, Hollywood, CA/earlier today.

Pictures?
Right here. (These might be a little too dark for PCs and a little light for Macs.)

Numbers?
Much less than previous protests, maybe 2 or 3 city blocks worth. The word about the cheering Iraqis seems to have gotten out. Maybe the threat of rain had something to do with it, or perhaps the movement has been distilled down into its diehard components. Very few "middle-class" dissenters were on display. Only the first Hollywood protest I went to had fewer people, and that was in December 2002. (See this page for links to all of my previous "peace" protest reports and pics.)

What were they fighting for?
Well, now that the war is just about over, it's time to protest the unjust, illegal, immoral etc. etc. occupation. No sense letting a good tableau featuring the Bush administration as Nazis go to waste.

Peaceful?
Pretty much, although I didn't stay around to see if they tried any civil disobediance. Since the crowd was beginning to disperse towards the end, that didn't seem too likely. The gent with the "Bomb Saddam, Liberate Iraq" sign was hassled a bit and, as can be seen, his sign got several holes put into it by the "peace" protesters. He eventually left the front of the protest.

Wacky Slogans?
There wasn't that much chanting this time, but then again I missed the march to the stage location. During Jackie Goldberg's time at the mike, she kept repeating over and over and over "This is about resistance!", having little else to say. Other statements from lesser-known speakers followed: "Shame on NBC, Fox, etc." "whole neighborhoods are being destroyed" "bring our troops back" etc.

A lady from the Asian-Pacific Islanders something-something began listing all the nations represented by her organization: Bangladesh, China, the Philippines, etc. etc. At her brief pause after the voluminous list of nations, the crowd started to applaud such diversity, before she interrupted them and launched into all the religions her organization represented. "We're familiar with U.S. Imperialism, etc."

Someone read his own poem.

Whence followed a brief celebratory speech about how beneficial it was to sing along.

Then an OG got up to the mike and discussed how he was in it for the long-term, seeing as he'd spent prison time for resisting the Korean draft and he had since been arrested in several states which he listed. "The problem is not in Iraq, the problem is not in Syria, [other fine countries deleted], the problem is in the U.S.!" "They still believe in white supremacy and white domination!" He ended his fine speech with an exhortation to disrupt city life in L.A., such as had been done recently up north.

The final speaker was announced as a supporter of the Revolutionary Communist Party, and the spoken program ended with the reading of a letter from Mumia. Due to the time required to get the letter to his supporters, Mumia indicated that the war might have already started before his words were heard.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it actually seemed like they were sweetening the applause with a bit of the recorded version. Maybe a big giant APPLAUSE sign next time?

Police Brutality?
None seen.

Arrests?
None seen.

Evidence of Capitalism/Swapmeetism?
A vendor or two of the non-protester variety were selling T-Shirts; the A.N.S.W.E.R. people passed through the crowd collecting donations.

Sc!ent*l*gists or Sc!ent*l*gy references?
See the pics for a couple.

Christina Gonzalez?
Not seen.

Transvestites/Transsexuals/Hustlers/Hollywood Freaks and Weirdos?
Not seen.

LaRouche adherents?
Not seen.

Can't we all just get along?
Someone yelled to the cops something about feeding people or something.

Nudity?
Not seen.

Deja vu?
None.

Flag Burning?
None.

Other incidents?
Fugly the Klown provided a welcome suggestion writ small that the Washington Monument should be encondomized.

UPDATE: According to this, the draft protester mentioned above was imprisoned for protesting the Korean, not the Vietnam war as I had in the previous version. He's also black and not white. Which makes his quote above perhaps even more disturbing.

Posted at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)

"Anti-War Leaders Fear US Fast Food Threat to Iraq"

From the give-us-any-straw-to-hold-on Department, comes this:

Many Iraqi citizens have taken to the streets in recent days to celebrate their freedom from dictator Saddam Hussein. But that joy could turn to sorrow, anti-war protesters warn, when the Iraqis begin to see their country adopt western cultural values.

Stephanie Schaudel, co-coordinator for Voices in the Wilderness, an anti-war group in Chicago, said the "richness of culture" in Iraq is going to be subjected to Americanization by U.S. corporations during the post-war rebuilding of the war-torn nation. The result, she indicated, would be difficult for Iraqis to swallow.

Blah, blah. They're Special People with a Special Culture, and it would be shame for them to be destroyed by Western culture, etc. etc.

Posted at 07:29 PM | Comments (0)

We are so not irrelevant!

International A.N.S.W.E.R. is switching gears a bit. Rather than protesting against the war, they're now protesting against the occupation. How long will it be before they call for an intifada?

While they will never admit it, this planned "endless war" is a class war waged by the U.S. government on behalf of corporate and banking elites against all those governments in the formerly colonized world that have dared to maintain nominal independence and control over their natural resources...

...Brute force alone will not reverse the long historical process whose necessary outcome is liberation. The essential element in this struggle is to maintain and build the global movement...

It's all about the oil! Oh, and the class war, don't forget the class war.

See my compilation of "peace" protest links here.

Posted at 05:34 PM | Comments (0)

"Stories the Censors Could Not Sink"

The Village Voice does its best to uncover our secret plot to commit genocide against the Arab and Iraqi peoples, and comes up a bit short in this review of unflattering Iraqi war stories.

Posted at 01:14 PM | Comments (0)

No blood for Whitey's racist genocidal war of empire and oil profits!

The la.indymedia.org's front page currently has a section entitled "PEACE: as bullets fly what do we mean?":

OK, Peace Movement! Lots of folks protesting before the war started. People out protesting right now! Before, "No War" simply meant "don't fire the gun, George." What does "No war" mean now? What do we mean when we call for Peace now that Iraqis and Americans are dying?...

What about after the war? What do we want to see happen in the Middle East region if -as is likely- there is "regime change" in Iraq? Are there ways the antiwar movement can expand to deal with a post-Iraq scenario?

In the spirit of healthy self-criticism, here are some recent "left" critiques of the anti-war movement...
--LA Weekly opinion piece that accepts the inevitability of the war, yet suggests ways of stopping the empire's expansion...

See the page for more links. Some of these proposals actually make a bit of sense and might help the "peace" protesters gain a bit more traction than they currently have.

However, most of the commentators end up calling the messengers names (although, out of a sense of propriety, the H-word isn't used):

What's with all of the white liberal backstepping on the IMC these days? ...When did the white liberal CIA operatives infiltrate the site? Did knowledge of the US military's atrocities in killing babies (bombing civilian hospitals, starved infantry men arbitrairily shooting
women, your tax dollars funding satan's army) scare your little white privileged minds and now you cower and lose your principles...

The white liberal doctrine of non-violence and interventionalism keeps us counterproductive... ...Even white communities...

F#$k middle america. If they ain't listening to us, why to we have to listen to them... The rest of the world is still protesting; why do you shills gotta ack like you're the only ones capable of making change. you white privilege has got the best of you... If I gotta see another cynical, patronizing white liberal on the IMC, I'm starting my own site.

Cooper is a shill, a weasel, a racist...

No, I'm pretty sure these aren't COINTELPRO.

Posted at 09:46 AM | Comments (2)

goose-stepping into Warsaw

This article about Lou Grant/Ed Asner contains this quote: "It's just difficult for me to imagine Hussein goose-stepping into Warsaw."

Someone should explain GW #1 to him.

Posted at 01:05 PM | Comments (0)

Pilger Alert: Britain is America's Lethal Appendage

I think a fun project would be to shoot a video with a sequence of wild-eyed "peace" protesters and street people reading this Pilger article.

Money quote #1: "The killing of some 80 villagers near Baghdad last Thursday, of children in markets, of the "chicks who get in the way'' would be in industrial quantities now were it not for the voices of the millions who filled London and other capitals, and the young people who walked out of their schools; they have saved countless lives."

Money quote #2: "... [the] Time magazine [poll asking] "Which country poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003?'' Readers were asked to tick off one of three possibilities: Iraq, North Korea and the United States. Eight per cent viewed Iraq as the most dangerous; North Korea was chosen by 9 per cent. No fewer than 83 per cent voted for the United States, of which, in the eyes of most of humanity, Britain is now but a lethal appendage."

Also see this heretofore secret Bush plan.

Posted at 03:34 PM | Comments (0)

Stop fucking with my mind, man!

Want to fuck with a "peace" protester's mind? Show them this speech:

Earlier today, I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces. Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors...

The hard fact is that so long as Saddam remains in power, he threatens the well-being of his people, the peace of his region, the security of the world.

The best way to end that threat once and for all is with a new Iraqi government -- a government ready to live in peace with its neighbors, a government that respects the rights of its people. Bringing change in Baghdad will take time and effort. We will strengthen our engagement with the full range of Iraqi opposition forces and work with them effectively and prudently...

Heavy as they are, the costs of action must be weighed against the price of inaction. If Saddam defies the world and we fail to respond, we will face a far greater threat in the future. Saddam will strike again at his neighbors. He will make war on his own people.

And mark my words, he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them, and he will use them.

Because we're acting today, it is less likely that we will face these dangers in the future...

-- President Bill Clinton, December 16, 1998

Of course, some Republicans were against it, or questioned the timing, coming as it did the day before they were going to vote on Bubba's impeachment. And, Clinton might have done it for just that reason. And, Clinton only wanted air strikes. But, he did want regime change, he was willing to commit (some) troops, and the Dems weren't opposed. What happened?

Posted at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)

The "peace" movement cracks up

Glenn links to a few good articles, including one in the LA Weekly.

Posted at 05:18 PM | Comments (1)

"[Kucinich] Calls for End to War in Speech"

From this:

Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich took his anti-war campaign to the House floor Tuesday, calling for an end to the fighting in Iraq to allow weapons inspectors to return.

Kucinich, a congressman from Ohio, repeated the phrase, "Stop this war now," 10 times in his brief speech. He said the U.S.-led military campaign was built on "falsehood."

More: "This war has been advanced on lie upon lie... Iraq was not responsible for 9/11. Iraq was not responsible for any role al-Qaida may have had in 9/11. Iraq was not responsible for the anthrax attacks on this country... Rescue this nation from a war that is wrong, that is unjust, that is immoral."

Posted at 03:34 PM | Comments (0)

Are war protesters social deviants?

Gosh I hope not. As a social deviant myself, I want there to be as much difference between me and the wacky anti-warriors.

This article says otherwise:

COLLEGE STATION, March 26, 2003 - As the price of war continues to mount, both in lives and dollars, so too do the protests, but the act of protesting may say more about the protestors than it does about the subject they are demonstrating against, according to a study by Texas A&M University's Laboratory for Studies of Social Deviance...

For individuals who do not feel alienated, Kaplan notes, engaging in protest activities might actually evoke negative self-judgments, overriding any self-enhancing aspects that might have been associated with participation in the protest.

Whew! I'm normal again.

Posted at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)

My "peace" protest links

Links to my reports, to some of my pictures and to external articles:

External reports, etc.:
David Corn on A.N.S.W.E.R. and NION
'Not In Our Name and the World Wide Terrorism Web'
Background on 'United for Peace and Justice'
Nat Hentoff: 'Why I Didn't March This Time'
Pic: "We support our troops when they shoot their officers"

My pics and reports:
Pic: Bussh
Pic: terrorism
Pic: heilbush
Pic: partners_in_crime.
Pic: U.S. flag as swastika
Pic: little red book
Pic: Bush with swastika as the "s"
Pic: Fourth Reich
Pic: the (Uday-supporting) radical cheerleaders
Pic: Bush with swastika on forehead
Report: 4/13/03 Hollywood protest
Report: 3/22/03 Hollywood protest
Report: 3/20/03 L.A. protest
Report: 2/15/03 Hollywood protest
Report: 1/11/03 L.A. protest
Report: 12/14/02 Hollywood protest

Posted at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)

"I fantasize about being liberated by a European invasion"

Here's a report from a "peace" "teach-in" at Columbia University. All of the profs speaking were against the war; English prof. Bruce Robbins uttered the title quote.

However, the nadir of the "teach-in" were the comments by one Nicholas De Genova, professor of anthropology:

[De Genova] called for the defeat of American forces in Iraq and said he would like to see "a million Mogadishus" -- a reference to the Somali city where American soldiers were ambushed, with 18 killed, in 1993.

"The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military," Nicholas De Genova, assistant professor of anthropology at Columbia University told the audience at Low Library Wednesday night. "I personally would like to see a million Mogadishus."

The crowd was largely silent at the remark. They loudly applauded De Genova later when he said, "If we really believe that this war is criminal ... then we have to believe in the victory of the Iraqi people and the defeat of the U.S. war machine."

He's mentioned here, here, and here he says:

the heritage of the victims of the Holocaust belongs to the Palestinian people. The state of Israel has no claim to the heritage of the Holocaust."

His faculty page is here, with an email of npd18@columbia.edu and a phone of 212-854-0199.

UPDATE: We've got meme: Volokh's comments.

UPDATE 2: There's more information on the "teach-in" and De Genova here, and Insty's got a couple more too. I also deleted a comment that appeared to give De Genova's home address.

UPDATE 3: Even more links.

Posted at 12:14 PM | Comments (16)

Protest like Susan Medea Benjamin

Susan's got her name in the paper again. 'In the trenches: Can the anti-war movement survive the outbreak of war?' is about a week old, but chocka with heartening quotes from Susan and pals.

Posted at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)

"Hundreds of thousands of protestors burn effigies of Bush, Blair in Meerut"

New Delhi, March 26, IRNA -- Hundreds of thousands of protestors in
a demonstration against the US war on Iraq in Meerut on Tuesday
declared that they would boycott products made by American or British
companies and burned effigies of the American president and British
prime minister in protest.

Earlier, the meeting passed a resolution condemning the US war on Iraq...

Maybe they could be our newest sister city.

Posted at 12:15 AM | Comments (0)

Another day, another "peace" protest

To save time, here's my new format:

What/Where/When?
Peace Protest/Hollywood and Vine, Hollywood, CA/earlier today.

Pictures?
Right here.

Numbers?
Around 5000 participants.

What were they fighting for?
This protest was designed to protest against the "biased" war coverage of CNN and other media outlets. It was held in front of CNN's Hollywood headquarters, and several of the signs referred to CNN, cheerleaders for the war, etc. Their choice of CNN indicates, once again, that many of these people are living in the past. Note also that some refer to CNN as the "Communist News Network," so either CNN can't win, or the protesters were practising nuanced misdirection, or both.

Peaceful?
For the most part, with a few problems discussed below.

Wacky Slogans?
"Bush, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide!" (It might have been "you're guilty of genocide" or similar). That was followed by something about Baby Bush being a liar like Dad. Or similar. From the pics, "US-UK: Coalition of the Killing" is at least a little creative. See the pics for more. As the crowd dispersed, it was announced over the megaphones that there would be yet another protest tomorrow, the dispersing protesters should take heart in manana. Resulting in several of them saying, "We'll be back." And, they weren't saying it in an ironic fashion. (See Ken Layne link above).

Police Brutality?
Near the end of the protest, about 50 or so protesters sat down in the middle of the world-famous Hollywood and Vine interesection. The cops announced the protest was over; they slowly started advancing after about a half an hour. Several officers on horseback moseyed through the sit-in; whether anyone was hurt by the horsies is unknown. Asked later, one of the adult organizers said the cops did a few things right, but there were reports of them using batons and shoving a few people. Apparently, however, nothing like the recent Westwood protests.

Arrests?
I guess 50-100 from the sit-in. Due to being herded east on Hollywood by the cops, I couldn't get up close to the sit-in after the horse-back cops advanced, but it didn't look like they were resisting arrest.

Evidence of Capitalism/Swapmeetism?
Hot dogs were available for purchase. A few vendors of the non-protester variety were selling T-Shirts; one of them spoke on his cellular phone with his partner on the other side of the protest, complaining about not selling too many at his current location.

Sc!ent*l*gists or Sc!ent*l*gy references?
None. No free personality tests today.

Christina Gonzalez?
Yes, she was there.

Transvestites/Transsexuals/Hustlers/Hollywood Freaks and Weirdos?
One possible TS sighting amongst the protesters. Didn't get a good look at hands or for Adam's Apple.

LaRouche adherents?
Yes, they made a brief appearance with their megaphone. They were hassled by the crowd, one of whom reached in and turned on their megaphone's siren. They soon left.

Can't we all just get along?
The cops were baited with "Bush doesn't care about you, you aren't middle-class, you're blue-collar." Several references were made to racism, only white people [get the good things of life], blah blah blah.

Nudity?
I could see the panties of one of the powder ladies, but other than that, no.

Deja vu?
I saw a couple people from the other day's downtown L.A. protest, and I recognized one of the LaRouchians from the downtown L.A. protest of a couple months back. Another day, another "peace" protest.

Flag Burning?
One instance thereof.

Other incidents?
A sudden loud explosion turned out to be someone slashing a tire or something. A Fox reporter and his cameraman rushed over to see what was happening, when they were swarmed by the "peace"niks, who got into their faces about Fox's "biased" coverage (OK, even I admit the quotes might not be needed). They asked why they were shooting a tire exploding, when they should be shooting the sit-in. Which, of course, is what they had been doing immediately before and after. A couple of the protesters (including one who was old enough to know better) shoved them a bit, until their adult supervisors arrived and told them not to touch the newsies or their camera. Strangely enough, the news reporter refused both of my attempts to get his name.

UPDATE: KNBC says there were 78 arrests.

UPDATE 2: Skippy has another report here. As he points out, at times the crowd was chanting "The whole world was watching." Perhaps not. There were however, at least a few hundred protesters with still and video cameras, and the cops had a few video cameras of their own. Which helps keep both sides honest.

In any case, for some reason a certain very well-known blogger has not linked to my two latest reports from "peace" protests; maybe he wants more pro-war protests. Unfortunately, I still think it's necessary to get these things out there.

Posted at 06:29 PM | Comments (1)

'Thousands of Furious Arabs Protest War'

According to this:

AMMAN, Jordan - Furious Arabs stormed Middle Eastern streets Friday, screaming "Death to America" and demanding vengeance for the invasion of Iraq...

In Beirut, Lebanon, Grand Ayatollah Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah used his Friday sermon to denounce both the United States and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"We call on the Iraqi people to topple the tyrant who has destroyed Iraq and thrown the Arab and Islamic world into disarray," said Fadlallah, a Shiite.

But, he added, he rejected "Iraq's occupation by the arrogant powers, particularly America..."

In Amman, 4,000 Palestinians jammed into a mosque courtyard to hear Hamza Mansour, a cleric leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, urge them to fight back with car bombs and martyr themselves to Allah...

In his sermon, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the grand sheik of Al-Azhar Mosque, called for jihad - holy war - to support Iraqis...

"This attack is not on Iraq, it is an attack on Islam itself," Syed Ahmed Bukhari told 6,000 followers at Friday prayers in India's largest mosque, in New Delhi.

"The war between right and wrong has begun," he said. "This is a jihad. We have to sacrifice our lives for Islam."

Posted at 11:39 PM | Comments (0)

Special-Ed classes for "peace" protesters?

According to 'Protester picks wrong spot to lock himself': Jody Mason padlocked himself to an entrance of the Washington State Grange building at 924 Capitol Way S., thinking it was a sub-office of the U.S. Department of Energy... He told employees he'd chained himself to the building in civil disobedience Monday night after listening to President Bush's televised ultimatum to Saddam Hussein... Police officers used heavy-duty bolt cutters to free Mason.

"He asked for help because he didn't have the key," Olympia police Cmdr. Steve Nelson said... Mason wasn't arrested and won't face any charges. Officers let him go and didn't take his name, Nelson said.

Posted at 02:13 PM | Comments (0)

'See no evil'

According to this Salon (yes, Salon) article:

And in protest marches, antiwar advertising and local arts events, the evidence leaves one to wonder whether this highly visible bloc of the left has weighed these issues -- weighed life by life the repression of the 24 million Iraqis who live in a ruthless police state, not to mention the thousands or tens of thousands who have been imprisoned without trial, tortured, exiled or killed. Instead, it sometimes seems that the left is so averse to war, especially war waged by America, that it is prepared to turn a blind eye to even the most ghastly realities. Perhaps it is because the left no longer sees these realities that its antiwar arguments tend to justify continuation of the status quo... Today, the explicit anti-totalitarian impulse has been narrowed and diminished in leftist culture. Instead, the fundamental leftist reflex has evolved into something related, and yet quite different: antiwar, anti-America, and anti-American authority...

Posted at 02:06 AM | Comments (0)

"Bush, You Racist, You're The Terrorist"

I went to the peace protest in downtown L.A. earlier today, and the pics are here. Only a few hundred people showed up, and it was a peaceful protest, with the organizers working with the cops, and vice versa. This was in contrast to today's Westwood protest, yesterday's Westwood protest, and last month's Hollywood protest. And, it was the antithesis of the recent S.F. protests. (Going to the Westwood version of the protest would have been a better bet, but I had to go downtown anyway, and until I'm a paid blogger I'm not driving to the Westside during rush hour. I got the feeling that Christina and the L.A. Times photog also wished they'd been at the Westwood protest instead.)

This was held next to Olvera Street, and it had a Hispanic flavor. I spoke briefly with KTTV's Christina Gonzalez, who's even prettier in person than she is on the TV. In other words, she's hot. (The other young lady to whom I gave this blog's URL is also quite attractive, but she's not on the TV.)

Same old speeches. "We know Saddam has WMD because we've got the receipts yuck yuck yuck..." The Bus Rider's Union was there, banging a few drums. Apparently, the Los Angeles Public Library librarians passed their own anti-war resolution. Their representative made it clear that their resolution had preceeded the one from the City Council. Nothing like claiming the moral high ground. One of the slogan-leaders began enumerating a list of special interest groups, asking "are there any Latinos here?" "are there any [fill in the SIG here]." He got to "Are there any gays or lesbians here?" and then he realized that he couldn't think of any other SIGs.

Waving the Mexican flag is more than a bit bothersome, but I guess it's better than waving an Iraqi flag. After an hour of speeches and such, the marchers started their brief march down Los Angeles St., chanting, en Espanol, "Bush, You Racist, You're The Terrorist."

In other words, just another peace protest.

Posted at 08:22 PM | Comments (1)

VRWCSC: The Vast Right-Wing Cloud-Seeding Conspiracy

I was going to go to the peace protest today in downtown L.A. However, since it's been raining heavily all day including lightning, and since my camera isn't compatible with the rain, I think I'll skip it. Gosh, I hope they didn't make their swastikas and Fuck Bush signs using water-soluble paint.

Posted at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)

Latest on the La Habra 9/11 memorial

Via CroooowBlog comes this article:

Police early Wednesday arrested a 19-year-old woman who witnesses said showed up at the memorial late Tuesday, claimed responsibility for burning some of the flags and pushed Chandler while saying the memorial endorsed the looming war in Iraq.

Jennifer Quintana, whom police identified only as an Orange County resident, was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor assault and released.

Quintana, who identified herself as a Fullerton College student, argued over the memorial with a crowd of about 25 people when she showed up at the site.

"It's an American flag, obviously it has everything to do with the war," she told the crowd. "There should be no war, just peace and togetherness."

Witnesses said Quintana grabbed Chandler as they argued.

"I told her to get her ignorant hands off me and she started to poke at me, so we called the police," Chandler said.

Police took Quintana in for questioning, and booked her into jail around midnight, police said. She was cited and released around 6 a.m. police said. They are still investigating whether Quintana was responsible for any of last weekend's vandalism.

He also links to the article 'Iraq Says U.N. Weapons Inspector Dies in Road Accident'. [yes, like the Abu Nidal suicide.] Hopefully someone was keeping track of what this inspector was doing shortly before the accident.

Posted at 03:01 PM | Comments (1)

'Peace activists seek new idiom'

According to this:

"Hell No, We Won't Go!" has morphed into "Peace is Patriotic" in the modern anti-war lexicon, as peace strategists urge their followers to embrace the flag rather than burn it. Aware that screaming denunciations of the United States might alienate mainstream Americans, some leaders of the peace movement are borrowing a tool from the right and using patriotism to sell peace.

"It's an epiphany the left has experienced," said Susan C. Strong, an activist and researcher who studies language...

Strong, a former teacher of rhetoric and argumentation in Berkeley, has a Web site she calls the Metaphor Project. On it, she's collected a raft of catch phrases and clichÈs for peace advocates to weave into their conversations with Middle America...

She cited a sample slogan. "Win without War. It fits another American core value: We like to win!"...

"Speak American," she said. "Strip down to the simple, metaphoric Anglo Saxon. Leave out long words, complex explanations, historical analysis or arguments supported by lots of reasons, facts, statistics."

Wellll, golllyy. I reckon that that thar fancy Berkeley perfesser lady has figgered out how to talk to Middle Ammuuhhrrrruuuhhhkuhhhhh.

Look, at least A.N.S.W.E.R. is semi-upfront about being a Saddam and North Korea-supporting front organization. Now, she's suggesting that "peace" protesters should change their shtick, even if they don't believe it. Just as long as they put on a good show for Middle America and wrap themselves in the flag, it doesn't matter that they're wearing a Bush-with-the-s-as-a-swastika T-Shirt underneath it.

When Strong refers to "historical analysis or arguments supported by lots of reasons, facts, statistics," I believe she might have confused the pro-war side with the strident whiners from her side. While there are a few exceptions, most of the arguments from the anti-war side fall into the Sheryl Crow/Yoko Ono/"Imagine Peace"/"...bad for your karma..." camp or the RESIDENT SHRUB IS A NAZI WHO WANTS TO NAPALM OSAMA DAY CAR CENTERS IN BAGHDAD AND PAVE ALASKA FOR THE CARLYLE GROUP camp. There is no nuanced, fact-based argument for 99% of the "peace" protesters to soft-soap. And "fuck" is a pretty basic Anglo-Saxon word, so they've already got the etymology front covered.

And, if you want to know what Susan Strong agrees with, search for "Susan C. Strong" here. The letter she endorses starts below her name, and continues in the next column at the start of the same (physical, not HTML) page.

One suggestion for Susan: skip the fake metaphors, and move straight into NLP. That's one way to penetrate deep into your target market.

(I note also that being a professor from Berkeley doesn't mean one was a UCB professor, and if she had been one, she would no doubt have identified herself as such.)

Posted at 04:33 PM | Comments (1)

Where the hell did all these anti-Hollywood blogs come from?

www.boycott-hollywood.us, www.hollywoodhalfwits.com, Citizens Against Celebrity Pundits, VikingPhoenix (huh?), DumbCelebs, and all the rest.

Hollywood Halfwits refuses to correct the Janeane Garofalo quote, which I corrected here.

As the comments to this post show, boycott-hollywood doesn't get Garofalo's humor.

DumbCelebs, to his or her credit, does correct the misconception.

Posted at 10:18 PM | Comments (1)

Dazed progressive confesses to La Habra 9/11 Incident

[Newer information will be put in this post.]

I just saw on the TV news confirmation of this post. A kinda dazed or stoned-looking young progressive college student type confessed to putting up the Bob Dylan sign and burning or slashing a couple of the flags. She claims to have done it to express "peace," and, since she put everything back in its place, thinks it's OK.

The police didn't arrest her, because they're waiting for the owner of the RV lot which contains the memorial to press charges.

I'm still waiting for that to happen as well, and until that time I'm still a bit skeptical.

Oh, and by the way, she was wearing pink too.

UPDATE: KABC TV reports that the dazed peacenik might have touched, grabbed, and perhaps even committed assault against one of the memorial's supporters tonight. According to KABC, she and one of her cohorts were questioned by police, but the implication was that they were subsequently released.

UPDATE 2: As pointed out in the comments, the progressive was arrested:

A 19-year-old Orange County woman is free today [Weds.] after La Habra police arrested her for allegedly assaulting a woman who maintains a patriotic display on a fence here...

Jennifer Quintana was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor assault Tuesday after police responded to a call that she had pushed and poked two women [at the memorial]...

Knapp reported that when Quintana came on the scene Tuesday evening she pushed one woman out of the way, then grabbed and poked Tracey Chandler, the Whittier mother of four who has maintained the memorial...

...the incident began Saturday when police witnessed three individuals rearranging signs on the fence. The police came back a second time on Saturday. Sunday afternoon, police were dispatched back to the fence to take a crime report. This time, they said there was substantial damage, which they believe was done early Sunday morning.

"We are hoping to tie together all events and have it to the district attorney by the end of the week,' said Knapp.

Chandler said she was more shocked by Quintana's actions at the fence than by the original destruction of the memorial.

"She walked through the crowd saying 'They can't arrest me, they won't do (expletive) to me,' said Chandler. "To do that, to walk through a crowd of angry people, well she must be one hamburger short of a Happy Meal.'

Posted at 09:54 PM | Comments (3)

Let's get memetical

I just tried to contact the La Habra PD for more information on the 9/11 memorial which was apparently trashed by peace protesters. Only their PR department is giving out information, and there were four other callers ahead of me, so I'll try later.

Lord knows, I'm no big fan of peace protesters, but it's always good to keep an open mind. Did the cops really witness this act of vandalism? Did they just let it go on as described? Did they really make such "interesting" comments as "For this to be vandalism, there had to be an ill-will intent" (La Habra Police Capt. John Rees)?

I tend to believe that he actually said that, since it was printed in the Whittier Daily News. However, is there the possibility that those who put up this memorial would have trashed it themselves to get publicity and sympathy? From what I've heard, it was put up by an OC soccer mom, and that wouldn't seem to fit her M.O. Could gangs or teenagers have done it? Well, then why would they put up a Bob Dylan quote? Was it some fringe group like BAMN? Could it even have been a COINTELPRO type of thing, designed to make peace protesters look bad and get traffic for certain unspecified bloggers? Enquiring bloggers want to know.

UPDATE: The John and Ken Show is trying to raise money for the memorial. Just click on the link to the La Habra RV Center here. HereticalIdeas posts an email from another skeptic. There's a report based on the Whittier Daily News article here.

UPDATE 2: Apparently the owner of the property on which the memorial was constructed is willing to file a complaint. However, the police don't have an idea who the perps were, and are looking for help finding them.

Then there's this:

I just spoke to Debbie Pfeiffer [author of the Whittier Daily News article] on the phone, hoping to clarify what the police actually saw. Apparently officers witnessed relatively minor vandalism on Saturday afternoon, but did not interfere. The major destruction was committed Saturday night, and the police were called back more than once, but made no arrests. Whether they saw anything on those occasions isn't clear. Debbie wouldn't comment on who it was who saw the police watching during the afternoon -- reasonable enough for a reporter to protect her sources -- and wasn't aware of any photos of the events. She did reiterate that "free speech" was in fact the reason given by the police for refusing to protect the display or charge the vandals.

Posted at 04:56 PM | Comments (0)

Six degrees of Medea Benjamin

A new day, a new "peace" group: CodePink4Peace. That was started by, and using a mailing address of, Susan Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange. You might remember Global Exchange as the author of the inflated civilian death statistics in Afghanistan. Oh, and CodePink4Peace is not to be confused with just regular old CodePink, started by the Utne reader. Nina Utne's article about these groups, Medea, fasting, wearing pink, dealing with the glassy-eyed junkies at a crack hotel and the rest makes one wish for the simple, direct Raelian approach: "Whenever everybody undresses, the ego goes away and then we can make decisions."

An interesting project might be to try to draw a graph showing who leads which group. Perhaps it would even turn out there are more groups than leaders.

Posted at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

I missed a war protest?

And this one actually sounds like it was fun:

The federal building in Westwood became a focal point for anti-war demonstrators on Saturday, with a handful of women stripping to their thongs and a separate group led by actor Danny Glover marching down Wilshire Boulevard to protest a possible war with Iraq.

The women who shed their clothes were followers of the Raelian sect, who believe that life on Earth was created by space aliens.

Convert me now!

"Whenever everybody undresses, the ego goes away and then we can make decisions," said protester Nadine Gary. "Imagine President Bush nude addressing the state of the union. Imagine Saddam Hussein nude."

Posted at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)

Another interesting Mark Morford column

'Hippie Crap Saves The World: Can better orgasms and upping your personal vibe really thwart BushCo idiocy?' is yet another thought-provoking column from S.F. Chronicle commentator Mark Morford:

Wanna know what conservatives really hate?

What makes everyone from harmless GOP dittoheads to ultra-right-wing nutjobs full of rage and hiss and homophobia and blind jingoism roll their eyes and throw up their hands and scamper for their Bibles for reassurance that life is still repressed and we're still going to war and Dubya is still smackin' 'round the envurment along with them wimmin and homosekshuls and furriners?

Why, hippie crap, of course. New-age babble about love and peace and godless pagan prayer, organic foods and sustainable trees and chakras, divinity and luscious goddesses and soul paths and upping your personal vibration to counter all the venomous hatred slinging about the culture like some sort of conservative, fearmongering weapon of mass depression. Man, they just hate that.

It's funny because it's true! Mark is right, a lot of us right-wing types (especially partial-WASP types like me) need to relax a bit more, let loose a bit more, and just relax and enjoy life. Mark is not just a talented commentator, he's also quite a bit of a poet. Apparently, he used to be in a band in L.A., and his writing has a musical quality all its own. I highly recommend his columns, and I think any conservative can learn a lot from them.

Posted at 11:06 AM | Comments (3)

Sheryl Crow's instant karma

Sheryl then and now.

Posted at 01:15 PM | Comments (0)

L.A.: Biggest laughingstock in the U.S.

According to this:

Elected leaders of the nation's second-largest city on Friday approved a resolution opposing a unilateral war against Iraq and urging the Bush administration to exhaust all diplomatic options before committing military forces...

"I hope people understand we're not a bunch of crazy politicians trying to dictate federal policy," said Councilman Ed Reyes, who voted for the resolution. "We are echoing the sentiments of people who are hurting. Where do we begin to matter in the priority of our federal dollars?..."

It also said the billions of dollars that would be spent on war would likely cause further cuts in federally funded programs that benefit the city. War would also draw away hundreds of police officers and other city employees who are military reservists, it said.

In other words, NWIMBY: No War In My Back Yard. The L.A. City Council and Mayor Hahn care more about social welfare programs than the (admittedly) suffering people of Iraq.

The fact that this resolution opposes a "unilateral" war against Iraq, and that at the very least we'll have a bilateral war, and that they should have known this, just shows what level of foreign policy knowledge we're dealing with here.

In a way, this issue is local: money spent on a war might take away money that these councilmembers could presumably use to fix a pothole or two. However, that also serves to illustrate the underlying immorality of this resolution and their votes.

If I tell you that if you give me $100 we can go in and clean up Iraq, stop Saddam from oppressing his people, and perhaps propel the Middle East forward a few centuries, you can respond in one of several ways:

1. "I'd give you $100 if I thought that plan would work."
   
2. "I think that plan is immoral."
   
3. "I don't have $100, and if I did I'd use it to buy food."
   
4. "I agree with the plan, and I'd like to help the people of Iraq, and I do have $100, but I'd rather spend that money on some Sheryl Crow CDs."
   

I think #4 is an immoral choice, and is closer to the choice this resolution makes than #1-#3. If they had stated their opposition to the war on non-NIMBY grounds, their moral position would be a bit stronger. I also wonder whether there's a bit of cowardice and appeasement involved here; perhaps deep inside they think that if they come out against the war L.A. won't be the target of terrorist actions.

As far as I know, this is the voting breakdown:

FOR:
Mayor James Hahn - MayorHahn@mayor.lacity.org
Ed Reyes - reyes@council.lacity.org
Jan Perry - perry@council.lacity.org
Nate Holden - holden@council.lacity.org
Nick Pacheco - pacheco@council.lacity.org
Eric Garcetti - garcetti@council.lacity.org
Ruth Galanter - galanter@council.lacity.org
Tom LaBonge - Labonge@council.lacity.org
Cindy Miscikowski - miscikow@council.lacity.org
Janice Hahn - hahn@council.lacity.org

AGAINST:
Jack Weiss - weiss@council.lacity.org
Dennis Zine - zine@council.lacity.org
Wendy Greuel - greuel@council.lacity.org
Alex Padilla - padilla@council.lacity.org
Hal Bernson - bernson@council.lacity.org

I'll post updates of responses to L.A.'s resolution as they come in; here's A.N.S.W.E.R's report on the Baltimore resolution, and here's the Workers World report on the Chicago resolution. I note also that Jersey City, NJ revoked the anti-war resolution that they had passed, so there might be some hope for a bit of sanity.

UPDATE: Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting is reprinting a wire report on the resolution, and la.indymedia.org weighs in with this.

Posted at 07:42 PM | Comments (0)

Get your war on and end California's high unemployment

The article about CA's unexpectedly high unemployment rate here ends with

With Gray Davis and George Bush California gets nothing. Davis is too incompetent to employ effective political tactics of any sort, while George Bush simply doesn’t care.

205,000 jobs lost in one year in the country’s most populous state? Get your war on.

In response, I posted the following comment:

Get your war on indeed.

War would bring a tremendous boost to California's economy. Both Silicon Valley and SoCal's aerospace industry will benefit from huge new defense contracts. The war will increase not only the demand for news but for entertainment as well, and Hollywood, which directly or indirectly employs hundreds of thousands of people, will greatly benefit. The harbors of Los Angeles and Frisco will benefit from shipping materiel to the war. Instead of protesting the war, all those who are concerned about unemployment and California's economy should welcome it with open arms.

Let's see who gets confused.

Posted at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)

Still Not In Our Brain Again

I went to today's peace protest in Hollywood. The pics are here. Got there a bit late. As with the past protest, I was riding my bike, which makes covering open streets easy but isn't so good for pushing through the throng.

There were the same dumb signs as the past protests, although the number of swastikas seemed to be less, countered by a corresponding increase in the number of nazi references.

Getting near the stage, I was surprised to hear that the "acting President of the United States" was here. Now, of course I wasn't expecting Bush, but for a brief moment I thought Al Gore might be making a surprise appearance. To my chagrin, it turned out to be yet another appearance by Martin Sheen. He lead the crowd in a brief but emotional bleat, followed by someone from UCLA. Something about all the money we spend on the military, better spent here, etc. etc.

Look, I never said I was a photojournalist, OK? Next time, I'll take notes or bring a tape recorder. As well, the pics this time seem to be suffering from a lack of irony.

The Radical Teen Cheer group were kinda cute, especially the little one in the middle. Everything was fine except for the part of their cheer where they talked about their support for Uday. Yes, supporting Uday. No, really, I'm serious.

One guy was passing out duct tape; he had "I'm safe" written on the back of his T-Shirt. In duct tape.

OK, the Mon Dieu sign is reasonable, and the beret over the "F" is a nice touch, but I think we can draw the line at the Reichstag Fire sign. Except, he probably got that idea from the Internet.

Biking up Highland to attempt to get some shots of the protesters against the stars, suddenly all hell broke loose. Cop cars swarmed past me down Highland, and I quickly went back to Sunset to see what was going on. Apparently the cops had decided that it was time to stop marching. They slowly advanced east on Sunset, and shortly announced over a bullhorn that the protest was indeed over. At one point, about twenty bike cops sounded their alarms in unison, in an apparent attempt to keep the crowd moving.

A couple people got swarmed and arrested. A second-unit cameraman from KABC was there, maybe something appeared on the news about these incidents, but I doubt it.

It wasn't that bad, certainly not the 2x4 treatment, but the cops seemed to be a lot less, er, mellow than at the downtown protest in January or at the one in the same area in December. It was a little more heavy-handed than necessary considering that most protesters didn't appear to be making trouble. Or maybe I was just suffering from Stockholm syndrome.

UPDATE: Originally, I thought the police action was just a way to clear the streets and make them safe for transsexual prostitutes. However, apparently, they were responding to a "Black Bloc" breakaway protest. I musta missed that, because I thought I was just in a sparse group of people walking east on Sunset. There's more here and here.

3/24/04 UPDATE: While removing comment spam, I noticed that someone claiming to be from Revolutionary Teen Cheer claims they don't support Uday. I must have been hearing things then, because the cheer I heard certainly seemed to imply that.

Posted at 07:25 PM | Comments (1)

Anti-warriors, cartoon-style

Ken Layne links to this funny cartoon about a visit to an anti-war protest.

Posted at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)

L.A. City to consider anti-war resolutions

Via Volokh comes the link to this article about the City of L.A. considering adopting one of two anti-war resolutions. One is from Councilpersons Eric Garcetti and Ruth Galanter, and the other is from Councilman Tom LaBonge.

According to a representative of Garcetti's office, their resolution was created with the cooperation of the Neighbors for Peace and Justice. I previously discussed the problems with the Neighbors' resolution here. You can read the Neighbors' resolution here.

The Garcetti resolution suffers from some of the same problems, but at least it doesn't insert an impossible condition regarding when we can take action (i.e., only when directly and militarily attacked).

However (and don't tell anyone) it does have its own impossible condition: it says "OPPOSES a unilateral war against Iraq." However, at the least we'll have bilateral support because of Britain. So...

The LaBonge resolution seems much more reasonable.

These will be discussed Thursday, Feb. 13, 2003 in ROOM 1050, CITY HALL - 9:30 AM 200 N. SPRING ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012. To see the PDF file concerning this meeting, go here and click the link for 2/13 at 9:30am.

The full text of both resolutions follows:

Text: Garcetti and Galanter

R E S O L U T I O N

WHEREAS, any official position of the City of Los Angeles with respect to legislation, rules, regulations or policies proposed to or pending before a local, state or federal governmental body or agency must have first been adopted in the form of a Resolution by the City Council with the concurrence of the Mayor; and

WHEREAS, the United States is poised on the brink of a war against Iraq; and

WHEREAS, generation after generation has recognized that war brings great suffering to combatants and non-combatants, leaves human, social, and environmental devastation beyond recognition, and must only be seen as a last resort to resolve disputes among nations and people; and

WHEREAS, the Congressional Budget Office estimates a military action against Iraq will cost the taxpayers of the nation between $9 billion and $13 billion a month, likely resulting in further cuts in federally funded projects and programs that benefit our city and its residents at a time when state and local governments are in crisis; and

WHEREAS, that cost would be borne by the people of the city of Los Angeles, who rely on federal funds for anti-poverty programs, for workforce assistance, for housing, for education programs, for infrastructure, and for the increased demands of homeland security; and

WHEREAS, we recognize that Saddam Hussein has perpetuated great human rights abuses and is a despot with aims contrary to peace, and that the United Nations Security Council accordingly approved a program of weapons inspections; and

WHEREAS, a preemptive attack by any nation acting alone sets a dangerous precedent for the international community, and undermines the international law that the United States has helped build since the end of World War II; and

WHEREAS, the "first-strike" use of nuclear weapons in such a war, as proposed by members of the Administration, would create instability and a precedent for destructiveness that has thus far remained outside of the realm of possibility; and

WHEREAS, war in Iraq would take the lives of untold Iraqis, the vast majority of whom would be noncombatants; and

WHEREAS, our unquestionable pride in and support for the men and women of the Armed Services prevents us from supporting their deaths in an unjustified war;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, with the concurrence of the Mayor, that by the adoption of this Resolution, the City of Los Angeles hereby includes in its 2003-2004 Federal Legislative Program SUPPORT for all international diplomatic efforts to resolve the current conflict with Iraq, and OPPOSES a unilateral war against Iraq.

PRESENTED BY: ________________________

SECONDED BY: _________________________

(LaBonge's)

RESOLUTION
REGARDING POSSIBLE U.S. MILITARY ACTION AGAINST IRAQ

WHEREAS, any official position of the City of Los Angeles with respect to legislation, rules, regulations, or policies proposed to or pending before a local, state, or federal governmental body or agency must first have been adopted in the form of a Resolution by the City Council with the concurrence of the Mayor; and

WHEREAS, on October 11, 2002 the United States Senate voted 77-23 to authorize the President to use military force against Iraq if he deems necessary, stating "The President is authorized to use all means that he determines to be appropriate, including force, in order to enforce the United Nations Security Council Resolutions referenced above, defend the national security interests of the United States against the threat posed by Iraq, and restore international peace and security in the region"; and

WHEREAS, the President and the Congress based this decision on their shared belief that Iraq is an untrustworthy nation that threatens the security of the United States and other nations by continuing to build and sustain a chemical and biological weapons programs; and

WHEREAS, members of Congress and the President have access to classified information that is not available to the public or local elected officials regarding Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs; and

WHEREAS, the President on Tuesday, January 28 in his State of the Union address laid out his case to the American people as to why Saddam Hussein should be removed from power; and

WHEREAS, Chief United Nations Weapons Inspector Hans Blix recently released an evaluation that listed numerous examples of Iraq's failure to comply with United Nations mandates to dissolve their chemical and biological weapons program; and

WHEREAS, Secretary of State Colin Powell on February 5 released varied and detailed evidence concerning Iraq's efforts to hide evidence of their weapons programs to the United Nations Security Council; and

WHEREAS, the United States should make every effort to work within the United Nations framework and leave war as an option of last resort; and

WHEREAS, California is home to more veterans than any other state in the nation, and Los Angeles has 597 employees, including 271 LAPD officers, on military reserve who stand to be called to active duty, and as veterans and patriots, these brave men and women know well the consequences of war and the human cost involved.

WHEREAS, we give our unconditional support to U.S. military personnel serving at home and abroad in their tireless battle against global terrorism; and

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, with the concurrence of the Mayor, that by the adoption of this Resolution, the City of Los Angeles urge the President of the United States as well as the U.S. Congress to exhaust all diplomatic options available to them in dealing with the growing crisis in Iraq, before resorting to using military force; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Secretary of State of the United States be strongly encouraged to share as much information as can be safely released when he speaks to the United Nations about evidence that the United States has gathered about Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the California congressional delegation and the President of the United States.

CO-PRESENTED BY:

________________________ _______________________

________________________ _______________________

SECONDED BY ________________________

February 7, 2003

Posted at 02:28 PM | Comments (1)

This is why warblogging is so appealing

According to the piece 'Idiotarians and Traitors of the Right':

There have been many right-wing attempts to cozy up to the Islamofascists. In every case an alliance was proposed against the same enemy: against liberals, against secularists, against the ACLU, against the liberal press, against Hollywood, against atheists and unbelievers, against gays and liberated women, against death-penalty opponents, and so on. And they aren't faking it. On many issues the American right wing is closer to the Taliban and to al Qaeda than to your average American.

It gets worse. A mixture of shoulda-been-satire, misunderstandings of power politics, wacky conspiracy theories, and, most of all, misconstruing situations in the worst possible and most unbelievable ways. I'll leave it to others to fisk, fisk away, but I don't think anyone's going to waste their time.

Some things he might be right to point out, but those are already right-wing conspiracy theories, so they're OK.

Posted at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)

Sheryl Crow's big sister

According to this:

The White House's postponement of a literary symposium it believed was becoming politicized led two former U.S. poets laureate to characterize the decision as an example of the Bush administration's hostility to dissenting or creative voices.

"I think there was a general feeling that the current administration is not really a friend of the poetic community and that its program of attacking Iraq is contrary to the humanitarian position that is at the center of the poetic impulse," Stanley Kunitz, the 2000-2001 poet laureate, said Thursday.

Yes, but:

The Feb. 12 symposium on "Poetry and the American Voice" was to have featured the works of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman...."While Mrs. Bush respects the right of all Americans to express their opinions, she, too, has opinions and believes it would be inappropriate to turn a literary event into a political forum.".

I have to agree. It was supposed to be a literary event; instead, they attempted to turn it into a mamby-pamby anti-Bush political event. Think they just wanted to read some poems? Read their website poetsagainstthewar.org. If you want to protest the war, fine. Just do it on your own time and dime. Perhaps this whole thing was planned from the beginning: they made their intentions clear from the beginning, knowing that the event would be cancelled and they'd get all the resulting publicity.

Even the Sheryl Crow of the Poetry World was going to be there:

Marilyn Nelson... commissioned a fabric artist for a silk scarf with peace signs painted on it," she said. "I thought just by going there and shaking Mrs. Bush's hand and being available for the photo ops, my scarf would make a statement."

Maybe next time Marilyn should join Naked Geriatrics for Peace.

Posted at 01:05 PM | Comments (0)

"The Left betrays the Iraqi people by opposing war"

Here's an interesting editorial:

As Tony Blair yesterday reaffirmed his determination to confront Saddam, the Stop The War coalition was able to present an impressive list of celebrities to add glamour to the fight to save Iraq from Anglo-American terror...

Everyone who is anyone from the soft-headed centre to the anti-democratic Left is there. All are welcome - except the people in whose name the party is being thrown: the Iraqis...

The truth is that the overwhelming majority of Iraqi dissidents are an embarrassment to the Left. After enduring misery few of us can imagine, they have discovered that, without foreign intervention, their country won't be freed from a tyrant who matches Stalin in his success in liquidating domestic opponents. Only America can intervene. Therefore an American invasion offers the possibility of salvation.

In local news, my (anti-warrior) lawyer called my attention to this group: Neighbors for Peace and Justice.

They want the L.A. City Council to, a la Berkeley, pass an anti-war resolution:

WHEREAS, the government has estimated that a war would cost 200 billion dollars, resulting in less federal funding for education, health care, job training, and housing in a time of increasing need for residents of Los Angeles; and

Maybe less federal funding for those things would be a good thing. Perhaps instead we could attack the root causes of, for instance, why there's a health care crisis in L.A. County and why we need to keep building new schools. Perhaps the Neighbors could let everyone know what's the second-largest building in each state capitol. Instead of whining about the loss of their social welfare programs, perhaps the Neighbors could turn for a second to the plight of the Iraqis under Saddam or whatever successor dictator eventually replaces him.

WHEREAS, a war would result in the death of Iraqi civilians, as well as military casualties, including U.S. service men and women. Additionally, a war would result in widespread environmental destruction; and

All wars result in deaths. Hopefully using smarter weapons those deaths and resulting environmental damage could be minimized. If there is a war, there won't be widespread environmental destruction unless either we have to go nuclear, or Saddam is able to launch another one of his scorched earth policies. Hopefully we could eliminate him or get him to surrender or flee before that time.

WHEREAS, a preemptive attack by the U.S. not only sets a dangerous precedent for the international community, but also promises to destabilize the entire Middle East region; and

There might be some truth in this. See my various other comments in the archives.

WHEREAS, the Bush administration has failed to present credible evidence that Iraq poses a military or security threat to the United States.

Ditto.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT the City Council of the City of Los Angeles: supports all international diplomatic efforts to resolve the current conflict with Iraq and opposes any military action against Iraq unless as a response to a direct military attack by that country.

In other words, the Neighbors supports the U.N. and only the U.N., and we can only fight back if we're directly and militarily attacked.

So, the moment that the Iraqi navy comes sailing up the L.A. River to take downtown L.A., the Neighbors will be there, pitchforks in hand. I can't believe someone wrote the last bit unknowingly. More likely, I imagine they had a bit of a smirk on their face as they did so. Perhaps a more honest approach by the Neighbors would be to call this a Pre-emptive Surrender Petition/Resolution.

I'm glad I read the fine print, I wonder if the signatories to this petition did the same.

Posted at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)

Freund oder Feind?

Andrew Sullivan links to the cover of the current Der Spiegel: "Blood for Oil - What it's really all about."

In the next entry, he links to one of my pics from Saturday's peace protest. Vielen Danke.

Posted at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)

Still Not in Our Brain

I went to the anti-war protest in downtown L.A. earlier today, and the pics from the event are here. After having attended this and the previous protest, I only have one question: Can we just nuke Iraq and shut these people up? Now - really - I'm not a warblogger. But, I just think that would be sweet.

Unfortunately, this peace protest wasn't as fun as the last one. No babes in limos trying to show me their tits.

The most interesting moment occurred when a group of Lyndon LaRouche acolytes tried to join/take-over the protest. They stood at the front of the march just as it was starting and, using a bullhorn, began spreading their own particular brand of anti-QE2 nonsense. They even pointed out one of the members of the crowd, claiming he was an FBI agent. I couldn't discern who they were talking about, and neither could someone else I asked.

The "real" anti-war protesters, noticing that the LaRouchian's brand of garbage was threatening to supplant their own brand, tried to get them to leave the parade. Unfortunately, no shoving ensued, although one of the (Iraqi?) protesters, in a brilliant display of peacefulness, shoved a flag against the faces of a few of the LaRouchians, literally trying to muffle their message. "Get your own protest" they shouted.

Eventually, the cops stepped in and told the LaRouchians that they didn't have a permit to march in this particular parade.

Later, while taking pics, I was asked by a little bearded fellow, "Who are you taking photos for?" "Just myself" I replied. Not satisfied with that answer, said bearded fellow thought he could trick me: "Who are you going to sell the photos to?" "Just myself." But, what I really meant was "John Poindexter."

More paranoia ensued, as I was asked by someone else from some "legal" organization, "Are you a policeman? Because, if you are you have to tell me." I received no response to my earnest reply "Who the fuck are you?" Apparently, peaceniks have no problem with lookism. Just because I look like a cop doesn't mean I am one. Next time I'll just say I'm there from the Acme Industrial Corporation.

Paranoia must be fed.

Posted at 06:00 PM | Comments (10)

The Unreasonably Fugly Women of Marin County

A group of Marin County women plan to march naked through San Francisco on Jan. 18 to protest the possibility of war with Iraq.

I already covered these people. Unfortunately, this time, we won't have the luxury of a long shot.

In other news, the killer of three hospital workers in Yemen might have an al Queda connection. It's certainly not been proved, and it might just be propaganda. But, if true, it certainly makes CAIR's recent news items all the more interesting.

Posted at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)

The Tyranny of Reuters

For my very first link to a Steven den Beste novel(la), I'm choosing this post about anti-warriors and "news" reports from Reuters. Which, at 104x768, only takes up 3.5 vertical screens! Thanks Steve.

Posted at 09:11 PM | Comments (0)

Why didn't the anti-war folks think of this?

According to this article:

About a dozen Arab writers and lawyers plan to appeal to the Arab world to put pressure on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to step down to avert a war... The appeal -- made by lawyers and writers fed up with their governments' opposition to U.S. policy on Iraq without presenting an alternative -- also calls for the stationing across Iraq of international human rights monitors to oversee a transition to democratic rule

That's a good idea, as long as it doesn't result in a theocracy or just another anti-US strongman. And, as long as the WMDs don't get passed or transferred to the wrong people.

Bear in mind, Saddam's already prepped himself for something like this by putting $3.5 Billion on deposit in Libya. Of course, a Saddam in exile might cause us trouble down the line, so maybe we have no choice but to "neutralize" him permanently-like.

So, why didn't the anti-war groups like NION or ANSWER think of this first? Perhaps this article might give a clue. It discusses who's behind ANSWER and other groups. Print it out and take it to your next protest.

Posted at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)

"Your koolaid is foul, ignorant and devolved"

I spotted the following extremely funny comment here on a report on the Hollywood peace protest I covered below.

Your commentary is joke! What cheap thrills do you get posting here? I would not be surprised that you concur with Trench Lott's bigoted (in no way revealing) commentary, about race relations in this country. Do you wear your swastika in, or out of your lapel? I wouldn't doubt that you praise racist bigots, like the Bush brothers, Ashcroft, and their bitches Colter and Harris. Your koolaid is foul, ignorant and devolved, you represent the many "Stepford Citizens" that are dumb enough to believe the 2000 election wasn't a Nazi coup.

Unfortunately, the comment wasn't directed at me. And no, I don't think the commentator is kidding or that far from the indymedia mean.