What I Do

by Linda Milazzo

The above video, courtesy of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and videographer, Jeffrey Thompson, is one of the first behind-the-scenes views of the extreme dedication and depth of organization of CODEPINK, which like most PEACE and social justice groups, is comprised mainly of volunteers who work ceaselessly and selflessly to restore this nation to the rule of law and principles of freedom upon which it was built.

by Linda Milazzo

IS THIS REALLY WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE?!

by Janet Weil

More than seventy CODEPINKers converged on Denver from at least 26 states around the country yesterday, Sunday, August 24, to bring our joyous, intense woman spirit and our peace and "war is not green" messages to the DNC. Nine of us took the Peace Train from the Bay Area; see here for photos.

Deidra Lynch of Orlando, FL, Dana Balicki of New York City, Rae Abileah of San Francisco, and Gael Murphy greeted women (and a few men) with an activist orientation and pink fabric activist goodie bags with our "War Is Not Green" message at the Mercury Café, a phenomenal cafe that is providing us with hospitality, healthy organic food, and endless self-serve coffee.

In 2005, more than 12,000 people trekked to Crawford TX to support Cindy Sheehan and to gain energy and strength from one another. Many of them went back to their own communities and have worked for peace ever since. Here is an essay from one of those original people.

Barbara Cummings

We wouldn't be in this mess if our Congress had once stood up for the people in the past eight years. The only thing Congress is interested in these days is covering their rear-ends, and passing legislation to protect the Government from The People. One has to ask why they are so afraid of their own constituencies. Perhaps it is because they know more than we do about what they are actually up to, and how they have betrayed us?

Here are the words of Barack Obama's advisor, Cass Sunstein, at the netroots convention and an outstanding reply from Mikal Hutto

an adviser to Barack Obama from the University of Chicago Law School, cautioned against prosecuting criminal conduct from the current Administration. Prosecuting government officials risks a "cycle" of criminalizing public service, he argued, and Democrats should avoid replicating retributive efforts like the impeachment of President Clinton--or even the "slight appearance" of it.

Maybe someone can explain how the public and Government would be criminalizing public service by prosecuting criminals who have blatantly used their offices to prosecute, persecute, and murder millions of people in the world against the will of the people who pay their salaries and put them in office?

By Dave Lindorff

I’m certainly no hero, but since some readers of my last post have reacted by attacking my courage and integrity on the grounds that I “never served,” I want to at least set the record straight on my youthful response to war.

By Jim Ramelis

Are we there yet? As the never ending rising price of gas and food surges onward are we starting to get it? As the oil companies suck us dry of our blood like big fat wood ticks that won’t let go until they are gorged with our blood, are we starting to feel the pain? Are we finally starting to understand that something is terribly wrong with the way we are doing things? Is the failed notion that if we let the corporations do whatever they like, somehow everybody benefits from the “trickle down” effect, starting to sink in as a lie?

[cross-posted from the Democracy Cell Project]

When did we know we had to leave?

Certainly the first indication was right before the 2004 election, after a year-plus of working hard, 24X7, to elect a smart, good, thoughtful, honest man to the White House. Richard (Blogmaster for johnkerry.com, initiator of the first national party website and first online political community sponsored by a political party) and I were sitting in the car on the Sunday prior to election day. He hesitated before turning on the car. "I have a bad feeling," he said. "I have a sense that in churches all over America, people are being told to vote for Bush."

For my entire life - years before Hurricane Katrina - I've fantasized about New Orleans. I dreamed of being decadent in the French Quarter in clubs where my music heroes played. I dreamed of tasting the food, studying the architecture, hearing the accents, and being cradled in the arms of the city – in the cream, black, brown and white blended arms of the city. I wanted to earn my beads at Mardi Gras, search the bayous for magic, and be transformed beyond the boundaries of my physical world. But the rigors of my life quashed my momentum and I didn’t visit the one American city I'd always longed to see -- until just last weekend -- nearly three years AFTER Katrina.

Code Pink Fasts for Cheney's Impeachment
Monisha Bansal | Crosswalk.com

Hundreds of anti-war protesters are on a hunger strike, trying to urge House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) to begin impeachment hearings against Vice President Dick Cheney.

"I'm really concerned that the Bush and Cheney administration have committed so many impeachable offenses," Leslie Angeline, a member of Code Pink told Cybercast News Service.

Angeline and her followers are urging the Judiciary Committee to take up articles of impeachment introduced by former presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) in April. In November, Kucinich introduced a similar bill, but the Democratic leadership tabled the motion.

"The only way to move forward is to start impeachment hearings against Vice President Dick Cheney to hold him accountable, for the sake of the United States and for the sake of the world," Angeline said.

The Doo Dah Parade

Three weeks ago, on January 1, 2008, the White Rose Coalition (WRC), a diverse consortium of pro-peace/pro-impeachment patriots, challenged the simplistic Happy New Year message of the 119th Pasadena Rose Parade by penetrating the festivities and infusing it with critical issues of war, war criminals, and Constitutional accountability. Three to four hundred patriots brazenly appeared on the scene to infiltrate one of Southern California's most conservative communities for one of America's most conservative events. The WRC wore Revolutionary era clothing, displayed signs reading "Impeach Bush & Cheney," and held as prisoners bobbleheaded semblances of war criminals George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld, dressed in prison stripes with requisite balls and chains.

The instant it was reported that John Edwards placed second in the Iowa caucus, I ran to my purse, grabbed my wallet, pulled out my credit card, and donated to the Edwards campaign. Not for the first time. And likely for not the last. I don't have much money to give, but with this nation in peril, it's necessary. There's too much to lose if I don't ante up. America NEEDS John Edwards!!

After my little donation, this is the message I got:

In my article on New Years Eve (http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/29684), the night before the Pasadena Rose Parade and our White Rose Coalition's (WRC) unauthorized PEOPLE'S PARADE FOR DEMOCRACY, I questioned whether media would step up patriotically to broadcast our message to IMPEACH Bush & Cheney and END THE WAR. We were well aware that media would already be present in huge numbers, since it capitalizes handsomely on Rose Parade revenues every year. But we also knew, through previous disappointments, the difficulty in getting corporate press to broadcast negative public sentiment toward Bush, Cheney, and War.

With our Democracy in decline, an immoral war raging on, criminals and cowards controlling our government, and H.R. 1955 and S. 1959 threatening our First Amendment freedoms, our White Rose Coalition believed it had a duty to begin 2008 with the clarion call to Americans that this is the year to RISE UP. After weeks of strategizing under the inspired and frenetic leadership of Los Angeles National Impeachment Center (LANIC) Director, Peter Thottam, we ventured forward with our action. With visuals in tow, our group of 350 to 400 patriots from a dozen pro-peace/pro-impeachment organizations, embarked on our mission to usher in 2008 with THE WHOLE WORLD WATCHING.

Much to the delight of our 2008 White Rose Coalition, a substantial number of media actually did turn out. While the coverage was no where near what we would have liked, it exceeded our expectations.

Here's the follow-up report to my article: "Will Media Broadcast THE PEOPLE'S PARADE At The Rose Parade New Year's Day?":

By Barbara Cummings

We left San Diego at 1:30 AM and got to Pasadena at around 4 AM. The metro runs all night long so that was easy enough to find our way to the parade venue. We were told to look for ORANGE. At first we were so excited because there was ORANGE everywhere! After being rebuffed by the first group I approached, we understood that one of the teams playing in the Bowl was orange so it would not be so easy to find others. Wrong again. People were very helpful and mostly positive in these predawn, cold hours.

When they saw ARREST BUSH and IMPEACH they were only too happy to direct us to the area where others had camped out all night long. The IMPEACH group was much smaller than we had hoped but that did not dampen their spirits. Ours either! We each got a sign and began walking the streets. It was too cold to be still. As the sun came up, the crowds kept getting bigger, constant traffic past where we stood. We were directly across form the press area. For an hour or so we were photographed continuously. I decided then to break out the www.afterdowningstreet banner and display it while we had the chance. Some of the remarks we have all heard but on this day they seemed downright comical.

COMMIES, no that would be our biggest trading partners.

GET A JOB, hello! it's a holiday.

LOSER, not really, I'm retired and doing okay.

YOU LOVE HILARY? um, no, in fact I don't know anyone who does.

So it went until they closed the street. By then the crowd was so big that we had nowhere to go but scuttle off to a side street. We were heartened to see that IMPEACH signs were everywhere and what a cheer for the CHAIN GANG! We passed the next 2 hours walking and talking and getting our photos taken. When the parade ended, we fell in behind the Jesus crowd which had some how gotten to the head of the line first. The CHAIN GANG was great and the giant CONSTITUTION incredible. The speeches by Cindy Sheehan, and others were short and to the point of why we had all come so far today. IMPEACHMENT, RESTORE THE CONSTITUTION, JUSTICE FOR AMERICA.

By Leslie Harris

We met up at Ferris Plaza for a rally, before heading over to the Hyatt Regency, where Cheney was to speak at the World Affairs Council.

Several people got tickets to the luncheon, including Fort Worth Code Pinker Doreen Geiger, who interrupted and was escorted out, wearing her Texans for Peace "Out of Iraq" t-shirt.

This article was AP, so it should go out to lots of other venues.

The media is focused on the peace movement after Desiree Fairooz of CODEPINK confronted Condoleeza Rice in the Senate on Wednesday. Desiree, her hands stained red with faux "blood," accused Rice of having the blood of thousands of Iraqis on her hands.

The Bush administration has murdered and maimed hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our name. We've all been bloodied by it!!

Tomorrow, on October 27th, I'm marching for peace with red "blood-stained" hands. Until this war is over and these murders are stopped, I, as an American, am culpable, too.

Yesterday, being the 3rd Friday of the month,was Iraq moratorium. Of course, World Can't Wait has their wear ORANGE every Friday. I hope that all reading did something yesterday!

We went to stand in a very busy intersection during afternoon "drive time." Not just any intersection, this one is in a very heavily populated military area. To be fair, it is also a beachy, trendy, ecclectic area as well.

Several months ago, it was learned that Congressman Duncan Hunter had pulled strings and prevailed upon the County Board of Supervisors to consider a mercenary training camp in San Diego's pristine east county area. This was done without any public scrutiny. Objectioins were raised and it was discovered that the area in question was not in Hunter's district at all, but in Congressman Bob Filner's.

On Thursday, the corporate media turned out in impressive numbers to cover the pro-justice march in Jena, Louisiana. But last Saturday, just five days before, that same corporate media barely addressed the anti-war march in Washington DC.

Personally, I'm thrilled the mainstream corporate media covered Jena, but I'm not delusional as to WHY:

For the Bush-crony corporate media, which owns profitable "defense" industry businesses and serves the military industrial complex in myriad ways, the march in Jena was viable to promote. It served the interests of both the Bush administration and American media corporations by providing a global view of Bush's exportable democracy. Unlike the anti-war movement that directly targets George Bush and Dick Cheney, the Jena march targeted local officials and local injustice. It never mentioned George W. Bush or his administration. Thus, the Jena march was covered and the anti-war march was not.

Furthermore, if Bush put a media kibosh on the Jena march the way he does on anti-war marches, he would ensure an even greater divide between Black Americans, the Republican party and his administration. Activists know the success of public demonstration is judged by the attention it gets. If the Jena march generates media attention, the march is deemed a success. If the Republicans and George Bush want to keep any faith with Black Americans, they had better let the media do its work.