Gold Star Families for Peace, Code Pink, World Can’t Wait, and the After Downing Street Coalition will be in Congress as the new Congress returns on January 3rd and 4th to remind the new and old members that funding war gives approval for war and that we are setting the table when it comes to the agenda for the 110th Congress. But even more important than these days to Walk for Change, we need to bring a massive presence to DC in the spring to enforce OUR words with action!
Long gone are the days when we allow our employees to tell us what they are going to do. We write the job description; we hold the cards; we are the bosses and we want our troop’s home and we want BushCo to be held accountable.
Kayla noted the above from Cindy Sheehan's "Breakfast with Dennis Kucinich" (Common Dreams). As Rebecca noted Wednesday, "cindy sheehan on trial means we're all on trial." Sheehan's latest column is about attempts to cut off funding of the illegal war but Kayla wanted to focus on this section dealing with the trial.
Staying on the trial but turning to the New York Times, this is from the I-don't-know-my-facts-but-let's-pretend-that-I-do Anemona Hartocollis' "Trial Centers on Dispute Over War Protesters' Arrests:"
It started as a tiny act of protest. Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq who had held a vigil near President Bush’s ranch, and a group of women wanted to submit a petition to the United States Mission to the United Nations in Manhattan, demanding an end to the war.
But Ms. Sheehan and three other women were handcuffed, arrested and jailed overnight. Now their misdemeanor trial in Manhattan Criminal Court has turned into a look at the use -- and they say abuse -- of police power, in the face of an antiwar protest.
At the trial, the police and security officers told the jury that the four women had sat down and blocked the entrance to the building, and had resisted arrest by refusing to follow the instructions of arresting officers.
And yesterday, Peggy Kerry, the sister of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts and a liaison at the mission, testified that she was planning to meet with the protesters, but told one of them that she would not meet with the press because that was not her job. After learning that they had a celebrity, Ms. Sheehan, with them, Ms. Kerry turned off her phone and had no further contact with them.
"I was angry that they had not told me Cindy Sheehan would be there," Ms. Kerry, a prosecution witness, said, under questioning by Ms. Sheehan's lawyer, Robert Gottlieb.
Gee, Pegs, it's a long, long way from 1968, eh? Is the entire family all in 'cave down'? Is this some sort of dominant gene in the DNA? Who knows but Peggy Kerry's dined out once too often on her "I'm opposed to the war" song & dance.
So Pegs has a snit fit and the tax payers have to pick up the tab?
Bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter, Peggy Pooh
Bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter, Peggy Pooh
I'm biting my tongue -- oh, am I biting my tongue. (But "Peggy Sue" -- nodded to above -- was written by Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, and Norman Petty.)
And we're going to move on quickly, but let's note this listing from the article: "Ms. Sheehan, 49, who lives in Northern California; the Rev. Patricia Ackerman, 48, an Episcopal priest; Susan Benjamin, 54, known as Medea; and Melissa Beattie, 57, known as Missy . . ." Hey, New York Times, Pegs' first name is Margaret -- maybe you should mention that if you're going to treat "Missy" and "Medea" as 'aliases.'
It's a good thing John Kerry already killed his own prospects for a 2008 run.*
Back to the Times. When did Bitter, Bitter, Peggy Pooh decide to cut off contact? Apparently not quite the way the story in the paper of record makes it out to be. From Samuel Maull's "Nyack woman among defendants in 'Peace Mom' trial" (AP):
Peggy Kerry, the former Democratic presidential candidate's sister, said she went outside and saw about 100 women, including Sheehan, and "a gaggle of press." She said she went back inside the mission.
"I was angry that they had not told me Cindy Sheehan would be there," Kerry said. "It (her presence) explained to me why there was a gaggle of press outside."
So what the Times can't quite tell you is that the women had called to drop off the petition and Bitter Bitter Peggy Pooh had agreed to accept. Bitter Bitter Peggy Pooh had even gone outside to meet them and accept the petition.
But then, OH NO!, she saw Cindy Sheehan.
Spineless cowards and, in their cowardice, they don't just prolong the war, they advance it. From one war promoter to another, the Bully Boy. This is from the transcript of yesterday's press conference (via Washington Post) and it's Bully Boy speaking:
Make no mistake about it: I understand how tough it is, sir.
I talk to the families who die. I understand there's sectarian violence.
I also understand that we're hunting down Al Qaida on a regular basis and we're bringing them to justice. I understand how hard our troops are working. I know how brave the men and women who wear the uniform are.
A) 1300, as noted on Democracy Now!, is the number of al-Qaida the James Baker Circle Jerk estimates are in Iraq. But there's Bully Boy trotting out his scare tactics again. (It actually gets worse after the excerpt.)
B) What is it with Republicans that they want to pretend they talk to ghosts?** "I talk to the families who die." That's what he said. On Tuesday, Jeff Sessions was claiming, of those US troops who had died in Iraq, "I talked to their families. I talked to those who lost their lives."
Now Bully Boy's saying it to.
Micah notes this, on an event happening today, from the New York Observer:
Carolyn Ho, mother of Lt. Ehren Watada, charged with refusing to deploy to Iraq, holds a press conference with peace activists at Church Center in UN Plaza.
Ehren Watada faces a pre-court-martial proceeding next month with the court-martial itself scheduled to being in February. Watada is the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse to serve in the illegal war. Carolyn Ho is raising awareness of her son on the East coast, on the West? Ehren's father Bob Watada is keeping the issue alive.
As Indybay IMC noted, "Friday, December 8th, 7:30pm at the College of Marin in Kentfield, segments of the film 'Ground Truth' will be shown, and Iraq combat veteran-turned-war-resister Darrell Anderson will speak. Also that evening, at 7:30pm at the Buena Vista United Methodist Church in Alameda, the film 'The Ground Truth' will be shown, and there will be a panel with Rev. Michael Yoshii, and Bob Watada and Rosa Sakanishi. That night in San Jose, there will be a reception and fundraiser for Kyle Snyder at 6pm at the San Jose Friends Meeting House. On Saturday December 9th, there will be a peace vigil in support of Lt. Ehren Watada, in front of the MLK, Jr. Library in San Jose from 12-4pm."
War resister Kyle Snyder was interviewed by Nora Barrows Friedman on yesterday's KPFA's Flashpoints. Rebecca covers it here and we noted it in last night's entry. We'll note it later in today's snapshot but Zach asked that we emphasize: Gunner, medic, driver or escort.
Those are the four jobs Kyle Snyder said awaited those signing up with recruiters. He spoke of how the 'excitement' factor the recuriters attempt to sell people on, painting a picture with "things that are like action movies." There were two realities that Snyder wanted to get across when Nora Barrows Friedman asked him what he'd tell a young person who's being targeted by a recruiter. 1) You're more than likely going to Iraq if you sign up, no matter what you're recruiter tells you. 2) "They overglorify it" to make it sound like a videogame. Four jobs: gunner, medic, driver or escort.
Actually, there was a third point, the issue of don't buy into that you're specially qualified and that's why a recruiter's contacting you constantly.
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[Jess note added to C.I.'s entry. *C.I.'s referring to November 1st. You can see the snapshot for that day, Rebecca's "dear john" and Patricia Kennealy Morrison's "Kerry On." 27 visitors are lost and e-mailing so that's your road map. C.I. and Ty are flying back later today (Wally's tagging along for a weekend visit) and we're all hoping to make Darrell Anderson's event, "7:30pm at the College of Marin in Kentfield," so I'm clearing that up since there won't be time for C.I. to do an evening entry tonight. **Kara and Brad suggest that maybe Republicans think they are ghost whisperers.]
