Author: Ruby Sinreich

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Get Yr Protest On

Tomorrrow’s the day many many thousands of people will converge on our nation’s capital to be counted among the majority calling for peace. Will YOU be counted?


Get on the bus:
International A.N.S.W.E.R.

If you can’t get to DC:

Can’t march in DC this Saturday? Then how about opposing the impending US
war against Iraq right here in Durham.
Please join those of those of us who are unable to travel to the Washington
DC march against the war in Iraq for a:
BYOS (Bring Your Own Sign) Vigil:
Noon – 1 pm, this Saturday, October 26
Corner of Gregson and Main Street, Durham
(diagonally across from Brightleaf Square)
We will line up on the sidewalks along Main and Gregson Streets. You can
park in the free lot at that corner (directly across Gregson Street from
AnotherThyme and next to Fishmongers). Click here for directions and a map.
This spontaneous event is being organized so quickly that no particular group
is sponsoring it.

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This sir, is an ex-parrot!


Paul Krugman points out the obvious, uncomfortable truth: the President lies, repeatedly and egregiously.

The Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank wrote an article explaining that for George W. Bush, “facts are malleable.” Documenting “dubious, if not wrong” statements on a variety of subjects, from Iraq’s military capability to the federal budget, the White House correspondent declared that Mr. Bush’s “rhetoric has taken some flights of fancy.”

Also in the last few days, The Wall Street Journal reported that “senior officials have referred repeatedly to intelligence . . . that remains largely unverified.” The C.I.A.’s former head of counterterrorism was blunter: “Basically, cooked information is working its way into high-level pronouncements.” USA Today reports that “pressure has been building on the intelligence agencies to deliberately slant estimates to fit a political agenda.”

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Says it all
This quotation compliments of my dad:

“It takes many years of political, social, economic and human degradation to create a terrorist,” notes Jordanian columnist Rami Khouri. “So fighting
terror can only succeed by rehumanizing degraded societies, by undoing, one by one, the many individual acts of repression, obstruction, denial,
marginalization and autocracy that cumulatively turned wholesome developing societies into freak nations, and decent, people into animals that kill with
terror.”

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What economy?

W
In case you didn’t already think that Bush’s war-mongering was distracting from domestic issues like the economy, here’s a direct connection. Trouble is, it’s hard to tell the difference between The New York Times and The Onion! Guess which is which:

 

Less than three months ago, President Bush signed with great fanfare sweeping corporate antifraud legislation that called for a huge increase in the budget of the Securities and Exchange Commission to police corporate America and clean up Wall Street.

Now the White House is backing off the budget provision and urging Congress to provide the agency with 27 percent less money than the new law authorized.


Administration officials say their proposed increase is enough and that other budgetary needs, like the military and security against terrorism, make it impossible to afford more.

 
Amid growing concerns about the faltering stock market and deepening recession, President Bush vowed to tackle the nation’s economic woes head-on Tuesday, assuring the American people that he “will not rest” until Saddam Hussein is removed from power.

“Our nation’s economy is struggling right now,” said Bush, delivering the keynote address at the National Economic Forum. “Our manufacturing base is weak, new home sales are down, and unemployment is up. Millions of our people are suffering. That is why I stand before you tonight and make this promise: Saddam Hussein will be stopped.”

  
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Woody Harrelson puts his foot down
WoodyIt’s not like he has particularly unique insights, he’s just saying what tons of other Americans are, but we don’t get heard since we never landed that regular role on Cheers. Then again, he’s only being published in The Guardian so it’s not exactly reaching the mass of ‘murkins either. “I’m an American tired of American lies” says Woody.

I remember playing basketball with an Iraqi in the late 80s while Iran and Iraq were at war. I didn’t know at the time that the US and Britain were supplying weapons to both sides. I asked why they were always at war with each other and he said something that stayed with me: “If it were up to the people, there would be peace. It’s the governments that create war.” And now my government is creating its second war in less than a year. No; war requires two combatants, so I should say “its second bombing campaign”.


OK, I mean it, I’m really leaving now…

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Democratic Party Pooper
protesters @ Price's office, Monday 10/7/02
The party at David Price’s office ended last night when protesters were arrested for sitting in the Congressman’s office. That’s his Chapel Hill office. He also has offices in Durham, Raleigh, and Washington, DC. Who do you think pays for those? The same people who should be allowed to sit in them, dammit.

So have you taken Michael Moore’s Peace Pledge yet? “I pledge to never vote again for any Democratic candidate for public office who has voted in favor of George Bush’s war in Iraq.”
 Do it now.

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Party at David Price’s place… meet me at 4:30
'Let us not become the evil that we deplore.' - Barbara Lee
I’m surprised to find myself saying it, but I think we are on the cusp of a movement against war that, while not bearing much comparison to the 60’s, will carry enough momentum that advocates for peace can have SOME influence on the outcome. But history has taught us that “democratic” government does not work without people voicing principled protest over national policy when it is necessary.

Now’s the time. We should expect representation from our congresspeep. (If Chapel Hill’s representative doesn’t stand against militarism, who will?) Contact Price’s office and/or come on out to the protest TODAY. You don’t have to sit-in or get arrested or anything. Just stand together and be counted. Imagine how you will feel if the war rolls on and you didn’t even try to stop it.

Here’s your to-do list for today
(courtesy the people sitting in David Price’s office):

  1. Call & Email Price’s office in DC. State that you know there are
    people from our community sitting in at his office, urge him to listen to
    the voice of his constituency, and urge him to vote no on any resolution
    sanctioning war & TO SIGN ONTO REPRESENTATIVE BARBARA LEE’s alternative
    (pro-peace) resolution (Resolution 473) as his fellow North Carolinians
    Mel Watt and Eva Clayton have.

       Phone: 202.225.1784,
       Email: david.price@mail.house.gov
       http://www.house.gov/price/Email_David.htm

    The resolution he’s working on is not enough; he supports ground
    troops accompanying weapons inspectors – may be weaker than Bush’s
    rhetoric, but is still tantamount to invasion.

  2. MONDAY’S RALLY DREW 325+ PEOPLE! Help recreate that Tuesday –
    meet at the corner in front of his office again from 4:30 to 5:30 to
    protest.     HIS OFFICE IS THE BROWN BOX BUILDING ON THE CORNER OF 15-501 and
    THE ROAD WHERE BORDER’S AND LOWE’S are located. The D Bus runs directly
    there.     If you can organize carpools – please do so: groups left from Morehead Planetarium lot today
    one-half hour before the rally began.

  3. The sit-in will be a rotating sit-in. Tara and others
    there are currently organizing a shift list, and ANY INTERESTED PERSON
    PLEASE CALL TARA at 602.6823! We need people power!
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To do TODAY…
[Peace is patriotic]
10 AM: Gather at Sen. John Edwards’ office in the post office on the Fayetteville St. Mall in downtown Raleigh to meet with his staff to say no to war.
4:00-6:00 PM: Gather for protest outside of Congressman David Price’s Office, Hwy 15/501, Chapel Hill, at the corner of Lowes and Borders, on the D bus line. For more information, contact Michal Osterweil (and tell her she was awesome on WUNC this morning).