Call for National Action for Peace in Afghanistan

Today, President Barack Obama announced his plans to send another 21,000 troops to Afghanistan: he is girding the nation for a long and costly military occupation there. While he also made some good statements on increasing diplomacy and economic aid to Afghanistan and Pakistan, the emphasis is clearly on military operations. Predictably, the Pakistan and Afghan factions of the Taliban are already uniting to oppose our escalation of troops. As the spring fighting season approaches, only one thing is certain -- more death, destruction, and misery in a desperately poor country that has had little respite from war for decades.

Here in the U.S., Obama's escalation in Afghanistan and the continuing occupation of Iraq threaten our nation's urgent economic and domestic agenda. Now is the time for more diplomacy, not more war!

United For Peace and Justice calls for immediate action for peace in Afghanistan. Here are three things you can do:

1) Call the White House today ? 202-456-1414

Make sure President Obama knows that you disagree with his plans to send more troops to Afghanistan. Call the White House comment line at 202-456-1414 between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM ET.

2) March with UFPJ on April 4!
www.unitedforpeace.org/april4
Building on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we are marching on the anniversary of his historic speech against the war in Vietnam and the anniversary of his assassination. On Saturday, April 4, we are taking our message to Wall Street in NYC: addressing this country's economic crisis must include drastic cuts in military spending and that means ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The last thing our country needs is a new quagmire in Afghanistan ? it is time to bring the troops home, not send more...

More than 10,000 march on Pentagon

Scenes from the "March on the Pentagon" Rally

More videos on the flip...

Peace Grannies Arrested in Times Square Wednesday, March 18th by Joan Wile

Relax, everyone! The New York City police are really on the job these days. With rapists, murderers, bank robbers and dope peddlers, not to mention corporate thieves, rampant throughout the City, they made a significant dent in the crime statistics yesterday, March 18, when they arrested seven grandmothers aged 67 to 90 in Times Square.

The grannies, all members of the Granny Peace Brigade, were sent to jail while protesting at the Times Square recruiting station. Their arrest occurred during what is believed to be the first antiwar protest of the Obama Administration, in an attempt to urge the President to reconsider his decision to retain 50,000 troops in Iraq after the official withdrawal scheduled to be completed in the next 18 months and his order for 17,000 more troops sent to Afghanistan. The women feel strongly that these measures will only result in increased death and destruction for Americans, Iraqis and Afghanis and further solidify anti-American feeling throughout the world.

Said 94-year-old Brigadier Marie Runyon, "Peace can only be achieved through diplomacy and humanitarian aid." The Granny Peace Brigade women are mostly strong supporters of Barack Obama but were responding to his request that his constituency pressure him to do the right thing when they feel he is on the wrong path...

Dog The (Blue) Dogs

President Obama’s budget proposes bold reforms that will pave the way for quality, affordable health care for all, and a clean energy economy. Republicans in Congress have already vowed to say “no” to these plans. But some Democrats—in the House, they call themselves “Blue Dogs”—are indicating that they want to nuzzle up to the conservative obstructionists to block Obama’s proposals, regardless of the mandate the voters gave Obama to move forward.

It is time for progressives to “dog the dogs” — to call conservative Democrats in the House and Senate and tell them to not be lapdogs for the “Dr. No’s” on the right who want to obstruct the administration’s common-sense agenda.

The members listed on this page are self-identified “Blue Dog” or right-leaning Democrats who will make the difference between a budget that moves us toward health care for all and a clean energy economy and a budget that mires us in an unsustainable status quo. Many of the House members have already voted against the economic recovery bill or against mortgage relief. More recently, seven Democratic senators joined with conservative obstructionists in an attempt to block the president’s clean energy strategy, which would limit carbon pollution, make private companies pay for polluting public sky, and put the proceeds into consumers’ pockets and into clean energy investments.

Pick one of more Blue Dogs and say, “Don’t let the right-wing Dr. No’s in Congress pull your leash. I support President Obama’s budget proposals and so should you.”

Take action! http://www.ourfuture.org/node/36490

A Progressive Response to MoveOn - From the Maryland Green Party

News that the Obama Administration will enlist its massive campaign "army" of grassroots activists to push the budget through Congress has raised the stakes in this already high stakes battle, and reactions to President Obama's program are hitting the extremes. Republicans raise the specter of socialism while Democrats expect a new FDR, rescuing us from all the problems that have festered for the last thirty years.

While few in the public are buying the reactionary hysteria of Republicans, though, too many progressive organizations are uncritically accepting the hype surrounding President Obama's plans - a recent MoveOn email message, b10 things you should know about Obama's plan (but probably don't)," is a typical example.

We give President Obama credit for the scope of his proposals, and acknowledge that many of his policies are dramatically better than President Bush's. At the same time, his policies are often less ambitious than the rhetoric would suggest, and fall short of what is needed. At other times, his solutions to problems are constrained by corporate interests that will render them ineffective. And while truly prodigious amounts of money are being spent in the effort - money that must be repaid by us and our children, let us not forget b what is often required is not more money, but deeper systemic changes.

Simply being better than Bush is not a sufficient standard to meet the immense challenges we face today. If we are to solve these problems, we will need to face them critically. Mere cheerleading will not be enough; an honest look at the Obama proposals is required.

Below is a progressive response to the MoveOn email message of March 1st, one which we hope will stimulate a more serious discussion...

170 Organizations Request Special Prosecutor for Bush-Cheney

A movement is building around a simple statement at http://prosecutebushcheney.org

Organizations and individuals are signing on, and 170 organizations have already taken the lead.

Next week United for Peace and Justice will ask its 1,400 member groups to consider signing on.

Most of the 170 national and local groups signed onto this movement before the release of seven Justice Department memos from 2001-2002 in which top officials claimed the right to disregard the Fourth Amendment, Habeas Corpus, and Posse Comitatus:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/40420

Most of these groups signed on before learning that the CIA had destroyed 92, not 2, "interrogation" tapes:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/40360

Most of these groups signed on before the release of Emails in which we discover that British intelligence thought the Iraq weapons claims were laughably dishonest: http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/40684

Most signed on prior to the United Nations declaring rendition illegal:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/40627

Would you or your organization like to be cutting edge?
You can sign on at http://prosecutebushcheney.org

Global GENERAL STRIKE NOW

http://www.votestrike.com

You can make a difference in building the March 21st March on the Pentagon without leaving your computer!::::::::

Help Spread the Word Online about the March 21st March on the Pentagon

You can make a difference in building the March 21st March on the Pentagon without leaving your computer!

We are asking everyone to spread the word about the new website http://www.PentagonMarch.org by posting a simple message about the demonstration with a link to the website all over the internet.

You can post the message and link on your own website or blog, or on your Facebook or Myspace page. You can also post the message on any blog where you think people would be interested, in online chat rooms and discussion groups, on message boards and listserves, and on the Facebook and Myspace profiles of your friends.

Basically, anywhere you can post a message and link on the internet, you should post about the March 21st March on the Pentagon and the new website http://www.PentagonMarch.org...

ProsecuteBushCheney.org
WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Federal:
Add your organization or individual name to joint statement requesting a Special Prosecutor. Ask organizations you're in touch with to sign on. The demand for prosecution has been supported by many members of Congress.


Sign a petition asking Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in war crimes. Sign now.


Collect signatures in the real world by printing out this PDF. Please enter the data you collect on the petition online and/or mail the completed (or partially completed) forms to JDS, 4407 Garrison Street NW, Washington DC 20016.


Phone and Email and fax the Office of the Attorney General at 202-514-2001 AskDOJ@usdoj.gov fax:202-307-6777 to request a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in war crimes.


In June 2008, 56 Democratic Congress members, led by Congressman John Conyers, wrote to Attorney General Mukasey asking for a Special Prosecutor. Conyers and Congressman Jerrold Nadler wrote to Mukasey again in December 2008. Please ask them to re-send these letters to the new Attorney General, Eric Holder. Conyers 202-225-5126, Nadler 202-225-5635. Nadler says he's drafting a new letter.


Congressman John Conyers has proposed extending statutes of limitations on Bush-Cheney crimes. Help make this happen.


Contact the State Department's Office of War Crimes Issues and urge them to ask Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in war crimes.


Here are tips and info. on contacting Congress.


State and Local:
Bush and others can be indicted at the state or district level for murder. Please take these steps. They have also violated state laws against warrantless spying and various other crimes. Persuade or elect a decent prosecutor!

My Story -

I joined the Army in the early months of 2001; my patriotism led me to the recruiter’s office. I had grown up in awe of my grandfathers and their stories of World War II, and their reminiscing became my dreams. When I got to basic training I did not talk about missing home like the other recruits around me, I felt at home in ways I never had before.

In 2003 I was rolling across the desert in the back of a Bradley fighting vehicle, part of the spearhead into Iraq. Other than those first three weeks of “Shock and Awe” what I remember most about Iraq was the people. Crowds of kids wanting to know about Michael Jackson and Britney Spears, open-minded adults wanted to know about our social freedoms, and Iraqis who just wanted to raise their families in peace and did not hesitate to tell us. I really fell in love with the Iraqi people. My platoon and I played soccer with some of those crowds of kids, we had dinner and shared food with families in their homes, we even went to a few house parties, and my lieutenant and I spent one very memorable afternoon swimming in an irrigation ditch with five young women. It is all of them I think of when anyone tells me we need to turn the Middle East into a sheet of glass or that all Muslims are our enemies.

Denver officials weren't planning to reveal details about where activists would be detained in the event of mass arrests during the Democratic National Convention until after the event had started, but those plans were quickly dashed this week when CBS 4News reporter Rick Sallinger not only revealed that protesters would be locked up in a city-owned warehouse, but he also obtained clear video footage inside the facility, a building that includes barbed wire-topped cages and signs warning of stun-gun use.

Stalinism Inside The DCCC-- Beware The Red To Blue Program
Howie Klein - DownWithTyranny August 10, 2008
The DCCC's hopelessly corrupt and widely discredited Red to Blue Program, co-chaired by the ambitious and venal Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL), who is working vigorously for the re-election of far right Republican fanatics in South Florida, has declared for 45 candidates so far in this cycle. Very few grassroots donors give to this project but it is a veritable stamp of approval for wealthy and institutional Democrats who don't pay much attention. Savvy activists learned long ago that the DCCC is entirely untrustworthy and that many of their hand-picked candidates are the mirror image of brainwashed or brain-dead Republican rubber stamps and that, in fact, way too many support Republican principles and values.

Typically, the DCCC advises Democratic candidates to disguise their stances on controversial issues that separate the two parties. With ABC News reporting today that the lines are starting to blur between which party is pro-choice and which party is anti-choice, socially conservative candidates are meticulous in hiding their anti-choice and their homophobic manias from voters. There will always be one or two like Chris Carney (PA) who will actually lie about it when asked, but most just refuse to discuss it. Take a look at "courageous" Ohio Democrat John Boccieri tap dancing around these two issues.

Last year many of the Red to Blue candidates got into Congress and immediately started voting like Republicans-- but just on crucial issues like the war in Iraq, warrantless wiretaps, immigration reform, trade policies...

The clear differences between Barack Obama and Cynthia McKinney!
Posted by: "Anita Stewart"
Date: Tue Aug 5, 2008 10:51 am ((PDT))

Cynthia supports IMPEACHMENT, Obama does not!

Cynthia will end the war and Obama will not!

Cynthia wants to end the War on Drugs, Obama will not.

Cynthia does not pander to the Christian right, Obama does.

Cynthia is not a supporter of faith based initiatives, Obama is.

Cynthia is not aligned with the big lobbies such as AIPAC, Obama is!

Cynthia supports the environment, Obama does not.

Cynthia does not support domestic spying on American citizens, Obama does!

Cynthia is open to foreign policy issues, Obama has employed the same old cronies.

Cynthia supports the rebuilding of New Orleans and bring the original residents back home, Obama has been silent on this issue.

Cynthia will support single payer, not for profit health care and Obama will not.....

Short doc on first time voters and the youth vote. Click on image to view... if you know any first time voters, send them a link!

Preparing the Battlefield
Monday 07 July 2008 by: Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker
The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.

Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country's religious leadership.

The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons program.