January 2007 Archives

This video montage featuring images from the past weekend's big peace march in Washington was made by GlobalVillage using music by McWorm and photos that she and her co-activist Island Blue took in D.C.

The "Set A Deadline" initiative that GV ended her montage with was launched by a certain senator from Massachusetts. This entry on his blog asks for input and suggestions on how that goal can best be met.

This is your chance to add your two cents to the discussion. I hope you take advantage of the opportunity, because all of us are pulling on the same end of the rope and all of us have good ideas to contribute. There are a number of suggestions posted on that site already, including the following -- but please feel free to add your own suggestions here, and we'll make sure they get passed on to the right people as well.

photo credit: J Wooten

Today we need to be ringing the phones off the hook at Congress. Today we need to be messaging in like we've never messaged in before. Today is the day to remind the inside-the-beltway folks that we are NOT going to sit idly by while they destroy this country and half the middle east as well.

We need to be doing this on behalf of:

Lt. Ehren Watada
Helga and Augustin Aguayo and their daughters
Pat Tillman
Juan Torres, Cindy Sheehan, Carlos Arredondo and the thousands of other grieving parents
Riverbend
Riverbend's neighbors who were dragged off to Abu Ghraib for no reason
The Tipton Three
Amnesty International and the floating flotilla at GITMO
The Iraqi Women who came to the US (Code Pink just produced a new film, Iraqi Women Speak Out, co-produced with Deep Dish TV, featuring interviews with the Iraqi women's delegation)
Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Russ Feingold
HR 508 and the Out of Iraq Caucus in the House
The 3090 American soldiers (as of today) who have died in Iraq
The 600,000 plus Iraqis who have been killed
The detainees in Guantanamo, 95% of whom are innocent victims
The thousands of folks lobbying at the Senate and House today
All of you
Our children
Our future
PEACE.

Call Congress TODAY. Find your Representative. CALL 202-224-3121.

photo credit: J Wooten

Today hundreds of thousands marched on Washington DC to protest the war. In Seattle, it wasn't so much about the crowd but about confronting the recruiting process. I had forgotten the exact times and routes and realized that as I set off late in my car. I've lived here long enough (28 years) that I was able to kind of intuit where the people were.

To my horror, I realized that there is an Army Recruiting station, there is a Navy Recruiting station and there is a Marine Recruiting station - all in close proximity, in a mostly minority neighborhood. This is where those aggressive recruiters can hope to find those with dim prospects of higher education, with dead-end jobs.

The focus was also on local resisters who question the war on moral and/or legal grounds, such as Lieutenant Ehren Watada. Signs and slogans were attached to the doors of the recruiting centers. As I walked back to my car, I spotted the boy with the giant Condi head. I heard the voice of another little boy, saying "War is Terrorism."

Preparations

The oatmeal and coffee are cooking, Eva Cassidy is singing "An American Tune", and we are getting ready for The March.

The lineup of speakers promises to be significant and inspiring. We will, at least, call in some comments to our DCP compadres, but we will also try to blog a little throughout the day as we can.

Richard:

After weeks of global warming grace, winter has finally come to Washington to greet the first major peace march since Bush announced his intention to escalate the war in Iraq. And with two aircraft carrier groups circling menacingly in the Persian Gulf, and Bush's increasingly Iraq-like rhetoric about Iran, marchers have a double-duty. Anyone who comes to town thinking that Iraq is the primary issues should start listening harder. Unbelievable though it might seem with the Democrats having just seized control of the legislative branch on a wave of anti-Iraq war sentiment, close observers of U.S troop movements are increasingly convinced that Bush intends to strike Iran, the Congress, the American people and the rest of the civilized world be damned.

If you can't be here, be sure to sign up for Monday's call-in day. CALL.

Juan Torres:

Juan and Cindy at last month's event at the White House

"I feel excited and nervous and happy because we have a different energy than two years ago. Now, after November, we feel supported as parents who have lost children. I have a lot of energy and I think I could run the march!"

Sean Penn

Jane Fonda

Larry making signs for setadeadline.com

Dennis Kucinich pounds the podium for peace!

The Code Pink Crowd this morning

The crowd from my height (5 ft. 1"!)

The DU/JK gals at our house

JR and globalvillage viewing photos

Geoff Millard is here...

Hello from the Alfishawy Care: the People's Media Center in D.C. where Jodie Evans is greeting us with the news that Sean Penn may stop by...

There is a BUZZ in DC, as buses arrive and folks wander around, ready to speak truth to power.

We have folks in this room from Minnesota, Philadelphia, Chicago, Phoenix, Sonoma CA. Downstairs The World Can't Wait folks are putting together signs. We have food, music, warmth, and MEDIA.

Ryme, who runs the People's Media Center, says she wants a mike in everyone's hands. People need to BE THE MEDIA, as we say.

Today Code Pink ran a press conference in which they put the names of many of the 650,000 Iraqi people on pairs of shoes in a 6 by 6 foot plexiglass box. The sight was awesome. (no photos yet, but here is an example)

There are, purportedly, people here representing almost all the 435 Congressional districts. The room is filling up and there are no chairs left.

I cannot tell you all how hopeful it is in here. We are seeing energy and focus in ways that we have not seen in...

YEARS.

Welcome to the first in my series about the health insurance industry in the United States of America.

As I write throughout this series, I hope to hear about your experiences too.

I've been on a quest to re-insure my daughter and as a result I have seen the state of our health insurance industry from a new and enlightened view. It's not a pretty sight. In fact, it's damn scary and absolutely disgusting! I now understand better than I did before why America has a health care crisis and why we must demand better from our government!

I'll give you the reader's digest version of my story...

So that was it, then: President Bush giving his sixth annual pep talk to the Congress, his minions, and the American people. And yes, this time it really was addressed to the people, not to the sheeple. He might not have wanted it that way, but that's how it turned out.

Even when he started going into his too-familiar stock talking points in the latter parts of the speech, it was clear to everyone in the room and at home that he wasn't able to pull the tired and tattered wool over the nation's collective eyes again this time.

Mr. Bush's poll ratings are in the tank and still sinking. His credibility at home and abroad is at an all-time low. Even key members of his own party are turning against him now, and he still has two long years left to go before he's off the hook.

The self-styled Decider might still somehow believe that his failure-plagued presidency leadership will not falter and it will not fail; but it was clear from the tepid reaction his remarks received that an awakened America is no longer willing to listen to his same old spiel.

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My husband just brought me an article by Danny Westneat, a Seattle Times columnist, wherein he writes about something that we are very familiar with, because it happens every Sunday a few blocks from our house. We have been involved from time to time, but have sometimes slacked off, though if we drive by we will honk sympathetically, like most of the other cars.

The reporter interviewed one of the protesters who has shown up every Sunday at Green Lake, Seattle, with a protest sign, with no exceptions. Once, before the invasion, so many people turned up that they ringed the lake, which is almost three miles around. Then it dwindled to 50, then 20, then finally a dozen or so. Then finally it was only the one man. This went on for a month.

Some thought the numbers would increase after the 2006 election, with numbed people newly energized. The polls have been showing that the Iraq war has become as unpopular as the war in Vietnam was. Nearly 70 percent of Americans oppose this war, and more than that in this city. The concensus is that the entry into and conduct of this war exceeds all previous foreign policy blunders and is unthinkably ill-conceived and tragic.

So where are the people? Why aren't they taking to the streets? Why aren't people talking about the war more? "I'm as puzzled as I've ever been," a vet tells the reporter. "Are people in a state of shock? I don't know. Sometimes i think we're spoiled in this country, that we don't understand suffering or sacrifice any more." This Vet's son was killed by a bomb in Baghdad in 2003.

Others tell the reporter the turning point is now. Organizers say that a peace march in Washington DC next week will be the largest since the war began. The lone protester fears that the press wouldn't report it if it's the biggest protest in the history of the world.

I wanted to start with a tribute to some of those who have dared to exercise their freedom of speech in my community. I am often moved to tears by them but I suspect it is also frustration that there aren't more of us and that we have not had more influence. Reading the article about the lone protester, and strolling through memory lane with photos of fellow citizens, I think that we should go out this afternoon and join those stalwarts at Green lake.

Perhaps in some sense, the voting in 2006 was a referendum on the war, especially since independents and more moderate and conservative Democrats voted their conscience. Maybe it is encouraging that a few Republicans in Congress are listening to people at home, or questioning at all. Let's try to grab on to that momentum by being relentless and not giving up.

(The article referenced is at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003534202_danny21.html) (Photos taken over the last four years by D Grieser)

That's me .. in 2003

From our friend John Pike's website, globalsecurity.org

The year 2007 begins to mark the closing of the window of opportunity for military strikes against Iran.

CBS News reported on 18 December 2006 that the Bush administration has decided to ramp up the naval presence in the Persian Gulf to send a message to Tehran. CBS reported that an additional aircraft carrier would be added to the Gulf contingent in January 2007, arriving on station around 01 February 2007. The New York Times reported 20 December 2006 that the Bremerton-based aircraft carrier CVN-74 John C. Stennis and its strike group could leave weeks earlier than planned as part of a move to increase the U.S. military presence in and around the Middle East. Moving up the Stennis’ departure date in January 2006 allows a longer overlap with USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the carrier currently in the Persian Gulf. Eisenhower deployed 01 October 2006, and could remain on station into March 2007. It is difficult for one Carrier Air Wing [CVW] to conduct flight operations for much more than about 12 hours before having to stop. However, with the combined striking power of two CVWs, the Carrier Task Force (CTF) is able to conduct air operations over a continuous 24-hour cycle.

If the White House is politically risk averse with reference to striking Iran, striking Iran in early February 2007 would allow the maximum time between the strikes and the 2008 Presidential election.

OK, deep breath here. As the 2008 bandwagon piles up, is anyone concerned about the devastating effects of such an action? Or are we so deeply involved with the cult of personality that we can fail to act in regard to the next unfolding horror?

We received a call last week from the folks at Velvet Revolution about a campaign they have begun to assure a paper ballot for every vote in America.

Here is the letter they would like to see flood Members' offices:

Open Letter to all Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives:

We, the undersigned non-partisan election integrity organizations, strongly urge you, as a first order of business in the 110th Congress, to enact new federal legislation to protect the integrity of our elections. While there are many areas of concern for any such legislation, none is more essential to the accuracy of our elections and the confidence among our electorate than for there to be a paper ballot for every vote cast. Not a paper "trail" or a paper "record," but a paper ballot.

In light of lessons learned during the 2006 primary and general elections -- with myriad contests resulting in uncertainty and thousands of voters in state after state turned away from the polls unable to cast a vote on DRE systems which failed throughout the day -- we now hold that a paper ballot, whether counted by optical-scan system or hand, is the minimum requirement for any Election Reform legislation in which voters may have confidence. Such a requirement is needed to help ensure Americans that every legally registered voter can vote, that every vote is recorded precisely as the voter intends, and that every vote is counted and, if necessary, re-counted accurately.

NonnyO let us know that mainstream media took some notice of actions by concerned citizens in the Twin Cities area on Jan. 11. My friend Bert participated in and photographed both events -- in the morning, in front of Senator Norm Coleman’s office -- to demand an end to the US occupation of Iraq; in the evening, the marking of 5 years of incarceration of prisoners at Gitmo.

...the more they stay insane.

As we start off this week, the shadows of an immoral, illegal war being escalated by an unethical, untrustworthy administration loom long over our souls.

As we start off this week, celebrations and retrospective honorifics once again mark the passing of one of America's most charismatic leaders, one of America's boldest and brightest voices for change -- a man who won the Nobel Peace Prize but was still cut down in cold blood by those who would choose hatred over love, war over peace, polarization over inclusiveness.

As we start off this week, we can hardly avoid hearing echoes and recollections of two of this man's greatest speeches. We hear once again how he had a dream, that he had been to the mountaintop, and we remember once more how very different things were in his day than they are in ours.

But are they, really?

Sixteen months have passed since Katrina came ashore in New Orleans, since the insufficiently constructed levees failed to hold back the storm surge (as predicted), and since the lives of over a million New Orleanians changed overnight.

Sixteen months have passed since we watched in horror and saw that our government had failed and was failing at all levels to protect one of our most beautiful American cities from a disaster that had been predicted and could have been prevented.

Sixteen months -– and many, many square miles of that city still bear the open wounds of that day. Collapsed houses still sit where they landed. Flooded-out neighborhoods still sit –- mostly empty –- with houses full of mold and rot.

We are entering a dangerous world of military speculation.

What is the meaning of this attack? Why now?

Then there's this:

FROM JUAN COLE AT "INFORMED COMMENT":

US Forces Storm Iranian Consulate in Irbil

The US military stormed the Iranian consulate in the northern Iraq Kurdistan city of Irbil (Erbil) on Thursday.

Irbil is the fief of Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani. The Kurdistan Regional Government, which he leads, is semi-autonomous and maintains a regional army, the Peshmerga, of 60,000 men. Kurdistan authorities say that no federal Iraqi army troops may set foot in Kurdistan.

Kurdistan is eager to retain its semi-autonomy, and hopes ultimately for independence. It cannot expect the Baghdad government to fund its military. Sunni guerrillas have sabotaged oil exports from Kirkuk.

[snip]

Although Bush keeps implying that Iran is supplying weapons and aid to US enemies in Iraq, the circumstantial evidence is that it was helping the two main US allies in Iraq with their paramilitary capabilities-- Kurdistan and SCIRI. But it is likely that the money and weapons do bleed over into insurgent groups and have a destabilizing effect.

For the complete article, read here.

This Way Lies Madness: A Movement Analysis of GWB's "Speech"

Last night George Bush stilled his usual side-to-side rocking, reduced his smirk to an almost-unchanging grimace, read his speech as a recitation of mere facts, and frightened the world.

What could possibly lie behind that blank stare that opened the speech? Was he nervous? Anxious? Was it guilt overridden by anger? As he read the monitor, only the merest of shifts took place; it was as if he was running a marathon and he needed to preserve all his energy for the long haul; no point in conveying any expression or communicating any real information.

What he said mattered little for his case; he ran through the homilies and platitudes without belief. This speech was all about conveying intention without serious rationale.

A.J. Liebling once said that "Freedom of the Press belongs to those who own one." If so, then the concept of freedom of the press in our society is more endangered now than it has ever been before.

It's no secret that big corporations have been taking over the mainstream media. Fewer and fewer people now control more and more sources of news and information, and that means they now control more and more of what you see and hear.

The current administration's policies have made it possible for big money and big corporations to take over the print media, the cable broadcast media, and even the radio and television broadcast media. That last part is the most important part, because while print and cable media rely on privately-owned presses and distribution systems, the broadcast airwaves are public property.

Just as the week begins, my sister sent me this quote:

“Either we have hope within us or we don’t, it is a dimension of the soul, and it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation... Hope in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed... Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense no matter how it turns out.” - Václav Havel

I had been thinking about Havel anyway, especially since my trip to Prague, where I was struck by the easy access to and useability of the beautiful churches. The Velvet Revolution was planned and executed in those open churches, with music floating out onto the street, and it was planned and executed by shopkeepers, artists, mechanics...

Everyday people. Just like us.

As I wrote in a comment earlier, I am full of hope and despair, as many of us are as well. But as Havel says, we must do what makes sense and that brings hope.

What will you be doing this week to end torture, the war, and prevent the next debacle (Iran)?

Lebanon is a very small country.

Lebanon is only 4,035 square miles in area, while Connecticut covers 5,349 square miles. So that means Lebanon is smaller in size than all but one American state (poor little Rhode Island has only 1,214 square miles to its name).

Small in size, yes. But tiny Lebanon is a smoldering tinderbox that could set the whole Middle East aflame if its crisis condition continues to be ignored by us here in the United States.

I laugh as I hear the punditocracy, particularly the more conservative, bemoan the onslaught of "San Francisco Values" taking over Congress in the form of the new Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi. They talk about how she seems to be running from the right-wing inspired moniker used to describe her: "San Francisco Liberal".

As if San Francisco is so bad.

First of all, let's get down to the basics of what San Francisco truly is versus what some THINK it is.

#1. San Francisco likes children. Evidence the number of programs for families and children. Evidence the passage, by an overwhelming percentage of 75% of the voter turnout, of a half-billion dollar school improvement bond to fix its public schools. About the parents of children in public schools who attend Board of Ed meetings, volunteer hours of their time to their PTAs, or call and bug their local Supervisor to get things done to their local park, library or street.

#2. San Francisco likes a clean environment. Evidence the historic city's Clean Water Program which twenty-years later is still a national model of how a city can manage its wastewater so that its pristine beaches and bay can stay that way. Or the city's own department of environment, which monitors the city's air quality, and mitigates hazardous substances from our public buildings.

#3. San Francisco likes to take a good risk now and then. More artists start here and are nurtured here before they go on to their chosen destiny: Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Irwin, Robin Williams, to name a few. That's because we like cutting edge things. Like venture capitalism to develop start-up internet businesses--of which the strongest survived and are thriving to this day. Like supporting stem-cell research in our THREE major, world-class universities and hospital research labs. Like the biotech industry now 10 miles across the bridge in Emeryville. We like creating jobs for the future. These are risks worth taking for our citizens for the benefit of the world.

#4. San Franciscans learned to thrive through survival. This city was officially gone 100 years ago after the 1906 Earthquake and fire. But since that time, the spirit, commitment and dedication to re-build this place from the ground up has been a theme inspiring leadership in all political circles of this city. That leadership includes the new Speaker of the House.

Finally, think about the passengers of United Flight 93 on September 11. Many of those passengers who fought the hijackers on that plane were on their way home--to San Francisco.

Now I know here at DCP we represent all cities across the country that have a similar sense of commitment, compassion and vision as described above. But since it is my town, and I've lived here and worked for its public sector for a long time, I thought it was important to get this right before something or someone else tries to paint this town as something wrong and untrue. Especially now that there is new leadership at Congress' helm. I happen to know these things about this town because I live here and have been part of it in a very real way.

So before you let the drip drip drip of right-wing propaganda creep in and meme San Francisco as the crazy end of American culture wars, remember, there are longer-lasting values listed above that this city stands tall on and continues to this day. Those are values that are eternal to this town. And I for one, am glad its being brought in spirit to this nation.

Its about time.

Photos from yesterday's actions:

Cindy Sheehan listening to the names of young people killed in Iraq

Candy, a music educator from Sacramento CA, reading names

Cindy Sheehan and Jose Torres support each other; both Gold Stars parents

Juan Torres was a CPA who was dealing with financial matters at the Bagram base in Afghanistan when he was shot in the shower one night. The Army called it a suicide but his father believes he was murdered because of activities he discovered at the base.

Casey Sheehan, killed in Baghdad on April 4, 2004, Age 24

Alex Arredondo, whose father Carlos was so overcome with grief when he heard of hhis son's death he tried to set himself on fire, killed at age 20. Carlos, Alex's father, now goes around the country with an exhibit about his son's life and those of several others killed in order to prevent other parents from experiencing that kind of grief.

Photos, dates of death, ages of young people killed in Iraq across the front of the White House, where the new Democratic leadership is meeting with President Bush to develop the next phase of the invasion. We hope that they have heard us, but perhaps we need to do and say more yet.

The scene in front of the White House, circa 6 pm last night.

Nonny and Truth have indicated that they have already sent their messages in to Congress. As members of a (nominal) democracy, what can citizens do to make sure the leaders of this country understand the will of the people? What IS the will of the people? Do we have the will to do what needs to be done? What will you do today?

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New photos:

The opening of the protest earlier today in Upper Senate Park

Marietta holding a white rose; one was delivered to new Members today, in memory of the White Rose Society and with hope for peace.

David Swanson speaking about the dea that the Dems ought to hire the peace movement to run its press conferences...Rahm didn't get the memo however ;)

John Nicholls waiting to speak at the National Press Club

Gore Vidal speaks

On Thursday, January 4, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California will take the gavel as the first woman speaker in the history of the House and immediately launch her promised 100-hour campaign to change the way Congress does business in America.

According to Rep. Pelosi, "Democrats are prepared to govern and ready to lead." And the new Speaker is certainly ready to lead her House colleagues in an ambitious program to put a new Democratic stamp on what she insists will no longer be the same old Congress.

Here's a quick refresher on what constitutes Rep. Pelosi's agenda for The First 100 Hours, courtesy of Scott Shepard from Cox News' Washington bureau:

Date Iraq War Began: March 19, 2003
Date of 1000 Deaths in Iraq: Sept. 9, 2004 (18 months from start)
Date of 2000 Deaths in Iraq: October 25, 2005 (13 months from 1000th death)
Date of 2500 Deaths in Iraq: June 15, 2006 (8 months from 2000th death)
Date of 3000 Deaths in Iraq: December 31, 2006 (6 months from 2500th death)

3,000+ US + 655,000 Iraqi Deaths = 658,000 TOO MANY DEATHS!

In Seattle, we lined Westlake Mall downtown with candles, then circled part of Green Lake.

In Minneapolis, they lined both sides of the street along the Lake Street Bridge.

Both vigils were to remember persons killed and injured in Iraq. The impetus was the crossing of the milestone of 3000 US killed in Iraq, but the participants of the vigil also grieved for Iraqis. Iraqis have suffered disproportionately more than US citizens in the war and occupation. A study published in the respected journal Lancet estimates that 650,000 Iraqis have died in the conflict.

In addition, many more wounded military are saved via current medical technology than would have been in previous wars. Many of them will need to relearn to walk if they are physically injured, need to relearn to read if they are brain injured, and so on. Thus, the reported milestone, though sobering, underestimates the true cost in human misery.

Lake Street, Minneapolis: (photo Robert Schlaugh, Minneapolis Vets for Peace)

Westlake Mall, Seattle: (photo DiAnne Grieser, Seattle SNOW)

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(more photos below the fold)