Veterans for Peace protest RNC and DNC

We're doing three PSAs this morning before I start the morning entries.  Why?  Because the snapshot threw the site off balance -- it's too wide, when that happens, the links on the side 'disapper' (if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, that's where they start when this happens).  A) I don't feel like going in and trying to figure out which section is too wide and then correcting it which requires publishing it a minimum of three more times (don't ask, things run together when you re-publish the snapshot).  B) There actually three things that can stand alone and should this morning (which will help send the snapshot further down the 'page' and then off when the morning entries go up).  We've noted Jill Stein and Roseanne Barr's campaigns and the third thing is this press release from  Veterans For Peace (which we included in yesterday's snapshot):

 

 

Veterans For Peace216 South Meramec Ave
St. Louis MO 63105http://veteransforpeace.org
(314) 725-6005(office)(314) 725-7103 (fax)
For Immediate Release - August 23, 2012

Contact: Leah Bolger, leahbolger@comcast.net 541-207-7761; Shelly Rockett, shelly@veteransforpeace.org 314-504-8757; David Swanson david@davidswanson.com 202-329-7847.

 

Why Veterans For Peace will protest the RNC and the DNC

Veterans For Peace will have members protesting at both the Republican National Convention in Tampa and the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. VFP President Leah Bolger explained why:

"Social change, including the abolition of war, does not come from supporting one political party over another, but from changing the culture and influencing all major parties. Women did not vote themselves the right to vote. The civil rights movement did not trade in nonviolent action, education, and mobilization for electoral campaigns. The labor movement was not built by what the labor movement spends its money on today. And when our grandparents passed the Kellogg-Briand Pact banning war, they did so by placing the criminalization of war in the platforms of the four largest parties in the country.

"A peace movement that only opposes wars when the president belongs to one party is not a peace movement. It's a partisan campaign that uses the pretended desire for peace as bait and activists as props. What we need far more than campaigning is movement building. We need to organize people to bring our popular demands to the government as a whole. The government is no longer divided into the three traditional branches. The two branches are the two major parties. Congress members and even Supreme Court Justices are loyal to their parties. We must demand that both parties adopt platforms for peace. Our economy cannot withstand further war preparation any more than our consciences can bear the consequences.

"We also need to help the public abandon the pretense that one of the parties is already peaceful. President Obama in the past three-and-a-half years has escalated war in Afghanistan and continued it in the face of overwhelming public opposition. He's invented a new kind of war using drones and launched such wars in numerous nations, building intense hostility toward the United States. He keeps a list of "nominees" for murder. On the list are adults and children, Americans and non-Americans. He holds meetings with his staff on Tuesdays to decide whom to kill next, and then kills them.

"President Obama launched a war on Libya against the will of Congress. The military is larger and more expensive now than it ever was under President Bush. It's more secretive, with the CIA fighting some of the wars. It's more privatized. It's more profitable. It's in more nations. And it's swallowing a greater share of government spending. President Obama has forbidden the prosecution of CIA torturers. He has created a legal and bipartisan acceptance of what we recently protested as scandalous outrages, including imprisonment without trial. And now he has announced that the United States, without Congressional authorization or public approval, is engaged in assisting one side in a civil war in Syria -- even while continuing to threaten war on Iran.

"Veterans For Peace knows that both parties are responsible for the deaths of millions of people. Military spending is the sacred cow that neither party will touch. It matters little which party is in power. The Congressional-Military-Industrial-Media Machine just keeps humming along.

"Veterans For Peace will be in Tampa not to protest the Republican Party, but to protest our government's grotesque military spending. We will be in Charlotte not to protest the Democratic Party, but to protest the abominable killing and destruction being done in our name. VFP will continue to point an accusing finger at the military monster that is our government, and to protest its illegal actions and misplaced priorities in every way we can."

Veterans For Peace was founded in 1985 and has approximately 5,000 members in 150 chapters located in every U.S. state and several countries. It is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization recognized as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) by the United Nations, and is the only national veterans' organization calling for the abolishment of war.

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Roseanne and Cindy need volunteers in 8 states

That's the new banner for Roseanne's campaign for president.   Roseanne Barr has the nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party and her running mate is Cindy Sheehan.   And this is the latest from Roseanne and Cindy's campaign:



 

 Statement on Marikana massacre in South Africa

On Thursday, August 16, police opened fire on striking mineworkers at the British-owned Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, South Africa. Forty-five mineworkers were killed in what the South African press called a "bloodbath that recalls the worst massacres of the apartheid epoch" (Business Day). The mineworkers, together with their independent trade union, had been demanding a substantial monthly wage increase and improved working conditions. "We live like animals," asserted one of the strikers who, like thousands of others, lives in a hut without running water.
Singing the songs of the struggle against the apartheid regime, the wives of the miners also came out into the streets, demanding that the South African government, led by the African National Congress "stop shooting our husbands and sons!" On August 18, Julius Malema, former leader of the Youth League of the ANC, declared, "Even under apartheid there never was such carnage."
Trade unionists and human rights activists are mobilizing at South African embassies worldwide to demand an immediate halt to the repression of the strikers and the return of management to the negotiating table to meet the strikers' pressing demands.

State Volunteers Needed NOW

Volunteers Needed NOW

• Hawaii! We need volunteers on the ground to get Barr Sheehan on the Ballot
• Kansas! We need volunteers on the ground to get Barr Sheehan on the ballot.
• Louisiana! We need volunteers on the ground to get Barr Sheehan on the ballot.
• Michigan! We need volunteers on the ground to get Barr Sheehan on the ballot.
• Montana! We need volunteers on the ground to get Barr Sheehan on the ballot.
• Nebraska! We need volunteers on the ground to get Barr Sheehan on the ballot.
• South Dakota! We need volunteers on the ground to get Barr Sheehan on the ballot.
• Wyoming! We need volunteers on the ground to get Barr Sheehan on the ballot.

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Tell Gallup to include Jill Stein in their polling!

 


Jill Stein (above) is the Green Party's presidential candidate.  She's being shut out by the media.  Click here to sign a petition calling on Ms. magazine and Women's Media Center to cover her campaign and the other female candidate for president Roseanne Barr's  campaign. Both women are running campaigns highlighting important issues and both are strong women.  Coverage by Ms. and WMC should be automatic.  But it isn't. And this is from Dr. Stein's campaign:

Tell Gallup to include Jill Stein in their polling!

Posted by Janelle Sorensen 79pc on August 23, 2012 · Flag

Perhaps you’ve noticed that not only is much of the corporate media failing the public by ignoring independent party candidates, but the major
polling organizations are too.

Unfortunately, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) - created and controlled by the Republicans and Democrats - requires 15% support among five public opinion polls in order for a candidate to be included in the debates. But, they don’t name which polls or even when they’ll gather such evidence.
One thing we do know is that the Gallup Organization is the only official advisor on polling to the CPD.

So, let’s make some noise and tell Gallup to take 3 important actions:

• Include Jill Stein in ALL Gallup polling. (The last mention of her was waaay back on July 6th.)
• Encourage other polling organizations to include Jill Stein. (They are an industry leader and should be promoting responsible polling and reporting.)
• Advise the CPD to only consider polls that have included all legitimate candidates. (The Stein campaign made history and secured Federal matching funds! Doesn’t that demonstrate significant public support?)

Here’s how you can contact them - and we strongly encourage you contact them repeatedly.

• Write a good, old-fashioned letter or postcard and mail to: The Gallup Organization, 502 Carnegie Center, Suite 300, Princeton , NJ 08450
• Contact: Alyssa Brown at 1.202.715.3104, alyssa_brown@gallup.com
• Contact: Zach Bikus at 1.202.715.3100, zach_bikus@gallup.com
• Post on their Facebook wall: https://www.facebook.com/gallup
• Tweet them: Hey @gallupnews! Don’t be so biased! Include @JillStein2012 in your #Election2012 polling!

Thanks for helping us fight the media blackout! We will not be silent.