I arrived at sunset as the downpour ended.
Melanie is moving through the community as if it were her living room.
She has made friends and allies and nurtured relationships of mutual support.
And of course her headquarters is the Wiki-Leaks truck!

As she departs for a good night sleep and some dry clothes my son shows up with dinner just after I got my 30 seconds on the live feed.  We both agree it is shades of burning man.  Mostly because we feel that yummy sense of aliveness, community, support and love.

He offers himself fully to the task of call and response of the general assembly but after an hour wonders how everyone has the stamina.  Yet he comes up with a great idea to organize an early morning action to circle wall street with 5,000 people and is curious if we can make that happen.  He is insistant that Wall Street feel the effects of our presence.  What will their tweets read he wonders?  This is followed by an arrest of a young woman on her bike.   It is awesome to watch as those who are responsible shift from GA to monitoring the event at hand.  Cameras out, people up and like a dance the cameras move forward and those without withdraw.  The police are surrounded by those who are sharing the story in multiple forms globally.  Many in the crowd are telling stories of their recent arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge and the dry night of sleep they got in jail.  No one here is exercising power, instead they are taking responsibility and following through on it.  Beautiful to behold.

The night is full of long conversations about what this is, where it can go, what can be done as the cold moves in, how to be most effective and how to encourage others to join.  All bathed in the richness of the general assembly on one end and the non stop music and dancing on the other.  The General Assembly greeting table has a collection of our pink peace cranes as decorations and the guy from the music side came to complain that we are playing favorites and he wants his own.

The vinyl banners Kristen mothered into being were a big hit tonight, multiple requests to hold them for the cameras as they did their night stories and lots of opportunities to do photos with them.  I did meet a female corporal in the army who had come in solidarity but couldn’t hold the sign because she was in uniform.  But she likes all the messages.

The wiki-leaks truck leaves in the morning to join us in Washington on Thursday.  There is excitement in the square at the news of a push in DC.  Love and curiosity were the threads of my night.  Tomorrow more crane folding to make the welcoming table on Trinity Street feel supported.

Please join us in NYC or whereever you are.

His speech has gotten attention from across the media spectrum. According to Rachel Maddow, the mainstream press unfairly focused on the critical points in his speech. Black commentators have had mixed reactions to his demand to “stop complainin’.” ColorLines points out that the CBC has been working on job creation longer than the American Jobs Act has been in existence. African-American author Karen Hunter claims the AP’s transcription of the speech is “inherently racist” because it was published as spoken, with dropped g’s. Tavis Smiley was particularly incensed, asking Representative Sheila Jackson Lee if Obama would dare to tell Jews, Latinos, or any other constituency to stop complaining.

Personally, I agree with Smiley’s criticism. And as a fan of Zora Neale Hurston, I reject the idea that transcribing speech as it is said is “inherently racist.” I agree that we need to get moving.

But here’s the thing – until the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are ended, until all troops and war profiteers come home, until all people have the right to marry and all gender identities are accepted, until everyone has food to eat, a home to live in, free education, universal, single-payer healthcare, until nuclear power and nuclear weapons are abolished, until our infrastructure is rebuilt and the water and power industries are fully regulated, until significant money is spent on research in renewable, sustainable energy, I will march on. And I wont waste a minute of my time or a dime of money on political campaigns. We need to continue occupying Wall Street, challenging Obama at every public appearance he makes, and gathering in Freedom Plaza. Politicians wont hand us change. Just as the New Deal was forged because of the demands of people in the streets, just as Civil Rights laws were enacted because people refused to condone racism, we must continue to challenge the empire. Will you join me in telling Obama to Make Jobs, Not War?

So one of our goals in promoting the mayoral campaign has been achieved: the House of Representatives has heard our voice! While we’re incredibly pleased at Representative Lee’s swift introduction of the text of the resolution into the Congressional record, we must continue on our journey. We must gather more citizens to demand and immediate withdrawal of all troops and contractors from Iraq and Afghanistan.

There is no debt crisis in this country. (Republicans are using this moment to demand cuts to government spending, but had no problems raising the debt ceiling throughout the Bush administration.)

We are not broke. (The U.S. still has the largest Gross Domestic Product in the world, meaning we’re still the richest country in the world.)

We are wasting trillions of dollars on pointless wars abroad and we are giving money away to the richest people and corporations in the world.

Want a new contract for the American Dream? Want to rebuild America? Start by completely ending the wars abroad. Then tax the rich. Then you’ll have the money to fully fund vital programs like food for pregnant mothers, housing for the homeless, and job creation. It’s simple really. And it all starts by cutting military spending.

You can start by calling your Representative at 202-224-3121 and asking your Representative to vote no on the entire military spending bill (aka H.R. 2219, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2012).

And be sure you’ve emailed a copy of the mayoral resolution to President Obama, your Senators, and your Representative.

Sebastian Doggart is an independent filmmaker and director of the documentary American Faust: From Condi to Neo-Condi

Why is it important to hold our elected officials accountable?

We have a rule of law for our society and when our elected leaders disobey the law, the fabric of our society is undermined. From torture to the destruction of video evidence of that torture, from kidnappings to lying to the world about the reasons for war, the top levels of the Bush administration desecrated the rule of law, but have still to be held accountable.

Condoleezza Rice was a principal agent in the Bush Administration. It is thus grotesque to see her walking free, playing on NBC’s “30 Rock”, a comedy. She is a war criminal and torturer. She has desecrated many of the values that America stands for in the world, and severely damaged the country’s reputation abroad, endangering our troops and civilians in the process. As General David Petraeus, Republican hero and the former leader of U.S. Central Command, put it: “We end up paying a price for [torture and other war crimes]. Situations like that are non biodegradable. They don’t go away. The enemy continues to beat you with them like a stick.”

Sadly, President Obama is continuing the practices of the Bush administration. He made a promise to scale back our military involvement, and our abuse of the rule of law. He has failed to keep that promise. He has escalated the military presence in Afghanistan. With no congressional approval our military is now engaged in two new countries — Libya and Yemen. The pull-out from Afghanistan that he promised is happening far more slowly than he promised, and the expectation of most military experts is that US troops will never leave either Afghanistan or Iraq. He uses drones to carry out extra-judicial killings in Pakistan, a country we’re not even at war with. Jane Mayer’s New Yorker piece “The Predator War” shows that Obama makes the ultimate decision. We are now seeing that his unveiled contempt for the Pakistani security forces, is straining the key US-Pakistan relationship to breaking point. Jane Mayer and Seymour Hersch are two journalists holding politicians accountable. Not Congress and not the American people. Why is it that CODEPINK and World Can’t Wait are the only groups publicly demonstrating to hold politicians accountable? Where are the 21st century Kent State students who inspired the world in the 1970s? Where is the American Tahrir Square, demanding that our leaders be held accountable when they commit crimes?

What do you think President Obama should do about Guantanamo?

He reneged on a very explicit promise, made during his campaign and repeated when he first took office, to close Guantanamo by February 2009. He has tried to whitewash crimes with his mantra that “we need to look forward and not backwards’. You can’t turn the page of history until you’ve read it. That’s why he should have ordered his Attorney General, Eric Holder, to conduct a thorough investigation into human rights abuses about which the entire world was aware. Guantanamo is a massive mess and Obama shouldn’t have made the promise to close it. He’s a lawyer so was aware of the legal problems of guaranteeing the inmates a fair trial after many of them had been tortured. So his plea of naivety that he couldn’t have foreseen the legal hurdles does not hold water. He clearly exploited the American people’s desire for hope and change, and misled us in the process.

There now clearly needs to be speedy trials with detainees either moved to prisons on U.S. soil, or released.

Let’s talk about Condoleezza Rice, what do think she has up her sleeve?

First, I think Jon Stewart of the Daily Show gave her a deliberate pass, but I spoke to one of the writers on the show who said he did that on purpose because next time she’s on as a guest, speaking about her forthcoming book about her time in office, he’s going to ask her the tough questions.

Rice is a strategic planner. Since leaving office, she has kept a deliberately low profile. She teaches at Stanford University in California where the student group Stanford Says Not To War is circulating a petition asking to expel her.

Her ambition is boundless. I believe her plan may be to rebrand herself as a vice presidential candidate for 2016. She’s making a lot of money, bringing in six figures from each speaking engagement. She’s hoping that we’re the United States of Amnesia, and that we’re going to forget. I spent 4 years investigating her and feel a responsibility to ensure that the facts about her war crimes, especially her complicity in torture, remain in the public domain. We all have to work to hold her accountable for her crimes.

What’s next for you?

I’ve directed a romantic comedy called True Bromance and work as a cameraman on documentaries, and a journalist for The Telegraph. I continue work on the Condoleezza Rice accountability project through American Faust: From Condi to Neo-Condi.

What would be your suggestion to activists reading this blog who would like to take action?

Whenever Condoleezza Rice has a speaking engagement, call up the organizers directly and say they’re complicit in aiding a war criminal. Also, organize peaceful protests outside her events and make a citizens’ arrest. Make contact with foreign human rights organizations when she travels abroad so that, like Kissinger and Rumsfeld, she is discouraged from traveling abroad. Start that process by peacefully disrupting her upcoming trip to London to commemorate the Reagan centenary.

Support CODEPINK, World Can’t Wait, Condi Action and Stanford Says No To War!

From 1 p.m. May 9 through 1 p.m. March 10 in D.C.’s Lafayette Park, CODEPINK and others will host a full schedule of events, including a children’s fair, a “Mothers Say No to War” march around the White House, presentations from women of war-torn countries, teach-ins and workshops Saturday afternoon and a concert by independent rocker Melissa Ivey that evening. On Sunday, CODEPINK will host a powerful interfaith service, creative actions and more. Invited speakers include feminist leader Gloria Steinem, Nobel-winning Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi and retired state official Col. Ann Wright.

“We are witness to the expanding violence around the world, women’s voices are missing, yet they pay the biggest prices,” said Jodie Evans, CODEPINK co-founder. “They lose their children, their home, their family, are abused and left to put it all back together. Still they are not in the decision making, they are not at the negotiating table. We must shed light on this and change it, beginning with this incredibly powerful vigil to honor the call of Mother’s Day.”

The vigil, with co-sponsors including The National Organization of Women (NOW), MADRE, and the Feminist Peace Network, will also include a radical act of knitting, or “knittivism.” Women all over the country submitting knitted squares to be stitched into a banner to stretch over the White House fence that will read, “We will not raise our children to kill another mother’s child.” (See more events in the calendar listed below).

“I truly believe women, organized and mobilized, can be a formidable, powerful force in the movement toward a world free of war,” said Cynthia Benjamin of New York, whose son is serving in Iraq. “To speak truth to power, I’ll join CODEPINK for Mother’s Day to work toward a more just and peaceful planet.”

All festival events are inspired by the original purpose of Mother’s Day, born in 1870 out of abolitionist Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Peace Proclamation. Howe, horrified by the devastation of the Civil War and the death of America’s men, wrote the Proclamation to call on America’s women to gather together to “promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.” Some events will address the affect of war and occupation on women, specifically that of women in Iraq and Afghanistan, due to U.S. war.

The event will be filmed and broadcast live by The Real News network. Many CODEPINK groups nationwide will host solidarity Mother’s Day events to honor women living within occupation worldwide.

24-hour vigil schedule (tentative, more details to come)

Saturday, May 9
1 to 2:30 pm: Event Kick-off and Scavenger Hunt!

2:30  to 5 pm : Quilting Bee/Radical Knitting, Singing and Circling the White House in Pink
We’ll bind knitted squares, knitted by women across the country, to form a quilt with the message “We will not raise our children to kill another mother’s child” to string on the White House fence. Then we’ll circle the White House in a children’s march for peace!

5 to 6:30 p.m. : Learning Circles and Story-telling
Women are invited to participate in teach-ins that will educate and inspire us to create the world we want to live in. Meanwhile, kids can enjoy story-telling sessions.

7:30 pm to 10 pm : “Women’s Voices From War Zones” and Singer-Songwriter Melissa Ivey
Afghan, Iraqi and Pakistani women will share their perspective as women living under occupation and offer ideas for change. Indie singer-songrwriter Melissa Ivey will then take the stage to rev up the crowd.

Sunday, May 10
2  to 4 a.m. – Activist Training Workshops and Hula-Hooping with Co-founder Medea Benjamin
Guests will learn valuable skills for creative protest, media outreach, local group coordinating, strategizing to end war, and more. Renowned clown Patch Adams will lead “What     is your love strategy?” and co-founder Medea Benjamin will host a hula-hooping session.

4 to 7 a.m. : Pink Pajama Party!
All are invited to stay energized (and awake) with a pink scavenger hunt, hula-hooping, yoga, singing, and more!

7 a.m. to 8 a.m. : Walter Reed Peace Delegation flower delivery
A delegation of women will deliver hundreds of roses to mothers at Walter Reed Hospital visiting their children, demonstrating their support.

9  to 10 a.m. : Interfaith Service
To honor all the mothers that have been victimized by the war in Iraq, we will sing, chant, dance and listen to women from Goddess, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Unitarian traditions.

10  to 11:30 a.m. : Children Peace Wishes
Little Friends for Peace, a non-profit peace education program for children, will lead the children in sharing their wishes for peace.

12:30 to 1 p.m. : Closing Ceremony of Roses to the White House
All participants will deliver roses to the White House.

For more information, please call Jean Stevens, national media coordinator, at 508-769-2138 or email at jean@codepinkalert.org, or Jodie Evans, at 310-621-5635 or Jodie@codepinkalert.org

Calls for reallocation of war funds into American needs, rapid withdrawal, diplomacy

WASHINGTON
– At a time of sky-high unemployment, rising cost of living and lower
wages, and outrageous corporate bail-outs and bonuses, CODEPINK Women
for Peace condemns President Obama’s announced plan today on
Afghanistan, which will continue to drain
billions from on our economy,
further destabilize the Middle East and Central Asia, and threaten
worldwide security. CODEPINK calls for a reallocation of war funds into
the needs of the American people: health care, education and
infrastructure, a rapid withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan,
the closing of bases, and tireless diplomatic engagement with Afghan
and Pakistan governments.

The strategy, which calls for an increase of 4,000 combat troops
and spending 60 percent more than current levels of $2 billion per
month,
will fuel the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, increasing their numbers. It will
also lead to more civilian deaths — in 2008, amid U.S. military
operations, civilian casualties climbed 40 percent. In addition, the
planned American civilian official and corporate private contractor
“surge” of more than 900 will further alienate Afghans, who
increasingly view the U.S. as an occupying force, lead to greater
insurgent activity and decrease security, while boosting American
corporate profits.

“Sending more Americans to kill and die in a quagmire in
Afghanistan is a tragic mistake,” said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of
CODEPINK. “Obama needs to live up to his promise of change by reversing
course — focusing on negotiations and bringing our troops home.”

Americans do no want, nor can they afford, another war without end.
A USA Today/Gallup Poll earlier this month found 42 percent of
Americans felt the Afghanistan war was “a mistake,” an increase of 30
percent earlier this year and 34 percent in August 2008. The six-year Iraq War has cost the U.S. $600 billion.

Anger and resistance to escalated occupation in Afghanistan has
begun to brew in Congress, as last week, 14 House Republicans and
Democrats sent Obama a letter urging him to “reconsider” his order
deploying 17,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan, and that “any
perceived military success in Afghanistan might create pressure to
increase military activity in Pakistan. This could very well lead to
dangerous destabilization in the region and would increase hostility
toward the United States.”

For interviews and more information, please call Jean Stevens,
national media coordinator, at 508-769-2138 or Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK
co-founder, at 415-235-6517.