Image by Xizi (Cecilia) Hua @ Neon Tommy via Flickr
by Cindy Sheehan
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
August 31, 2013
The President of the USA, aka, Able Servant of Empire, claims that his planned assault on Syria will be “limited” and he won’t order any “boots on the ground” as if he is angling for praise from the almost non-existent antiwar movement and/or to prove that he really earned that Noble Peace Prize!
Image by Susan Melkisethian via Flickr
TheRealNews on Aug 21, 2013
Advocates say sentence is a serious blow to whistleblowers and investigative journalism, Manning plans to appeal and request President Obama for a pardon. Continue reading
democracynow·Dec 14, 2012
Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
DemocracyNow.org – While the U.S. military is preparing to extend what is already the nation’s longest war, new ties are emerging between the peace movement here and in Afghanistan. The group “Afghan Peace Volunteers” recently invited international peace activists to help launch a campaign called “2 Million Friends for Peace in Afghanistan,” a nod to the number of Afghans killed in the last four decades of war and occupation. Continue reading
by Donald Ristow
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
Nov. 9, 2011
Image by Bird Eye via Flickr
“I would not deny that the pilotless plane, flying bomb, or whatever its correct name may be, is an exceptionally unpleasant thing, because, unlike most other projectiles, it gives you time to think. What is your first reaction when you hear that droning, zooming noise? Inevitably, it is a hope that the noise won’t stop. You want to hear the bomb pass safely overhead and die away into the distance …”
–George Orwell in 1944 describing the terror of V-2 rockets
It has become almost passé to make comparisons to the old Nazi regime anymore because the analogy has become so overused and abused. Continue reading
Image by Cau Napoli via Flickr
Updated: added the transcript Sept. 15, 2011
by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
Sept. 4, 2011
This Sunday (September 4), Cindy welcomes good friend of peace and of Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox, the notable woman of conscience, Ann Wright. Ms. Wright won’t steer you wrong! On this show she will talk about the recent Gaza Freedom Flotilla which she was a leader on the American boat and her recent trip to Jeju Island in South Korea where the Korean occupants are making a courageous stand against a US Naval base being built there. Continue reading
Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr
Taytaba2 on Mar 20, 2011
Police brutality at Free Bradley Manning protest as Colonel (Ret.) Ann Wright and Daniel Ellsberg become victims of targeted assault
by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
March 18, 2010
THE REVOLUTION NEEDS CASH!
liamh2
February 01, 2010
On Nov. 3, 2009, on Capitol Hill, activists from the “Coalition for Free Gaza March,” personally confronted Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA,) just outside his office over the Goldstone Report. The Congressman then quickly rushed towards his private elevator. Afterwards, six activists strolled into Room 2221, Rep. Bermans office, in the Rayburn Building, around 10 AM. There, they began reading the 575-paged UN Report of Judge Richard Goldstone. The Goldstone-authored document is highly critical of Israel’s recent military conduct in Gaza, labeling some of its action as “War Crimes.” Rep. Berman, who is Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, has introduced HR 867 in the House. Its purpose is to reject the report of the distinguished jurist, without giving Judge Goldstone a chance to personally testify before the Congress on his findings. HR 867 is due for a vote in the House later today. See, http://codepinkalert.org/article.php?… and
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/V… and
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?Doc… and http://www.juancole.com/2009/09/golds… and http://www.boomantribune.com/?op=disp… and
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/nod…
by Eileen Coles
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted at www.docudharma.com/diary
August 17, 2009
While I was serving at Ramstein during Desert Storm, “Overseas!” magazine came out with an article with that incredibly cheesy title. It featured a tough looking gal in chocolate chip cami’s with a firm set to her jaw and a pair of the ubiquitous 1980’s ZZ Top “cheap sunglasses” that were being offered for sale in every AAFES store, BX, PX, and commissary. I believe she was either standing there holding a weapon or standing behind a gun emplacement. The very idea that this woman would be in combat was laughable at the time, women were having enough problems being allowed to fly C130 cargo missions for USAFE’s arm of the Desert Storm operation, Proven Force.
By Dee Knight
http://www.workers.org
Jul 19, 2008
Private First Class James Burmeister faces a Special Court Martial at Fort Knox on July 16. The charges are AWOL and desertion. He returned to Fort Knox voluntarily in March, after living 10 months in Canada with his spouse and infant child. He refused redeployment to Iraq while on leave in May 2007.
In most such cases at Fort Knox, the Army has in recent years quietly dismissed the resister with a less than honorable discharge “for the good of the military.” This time it’s different. The brass “offered” Burmeister a year in military prison and a dishonorable discharge if he agreed to plead guilty.
Burmeister refused the offer. His father, Erich, says the Army is making an example of James for denouncing a secret “bait-and-switch” program he was forced to participate in while in Iraq. In media interviews last year in Canada, James described the program as a war crime he was forced to commit. Shortly afterward, the program’s details came out in the Washington Post.
“Baiting is putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of destroying the enemy,” the Post quoted Capt. Matthew Didier, leader of an elite sniper scout platoon. “We would put an item out there and watch it. If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would engage the individual.”
The Post reported that “Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said such a baiting program … raises troubling possibilities, such as what happens when civilians pick up the items. … ‘You might as well ask every Iraqi to walk around with a target on his back,’ Fidell said.” (Sept. 24, 2007)
James had asked to be classified as a conscientious objector following his training in Germany, but his request was ignored by his commander. Instead, he became a machine gunner. “Our unit’s job seemed to be more about targeting a largely innocent civilian population or deliberately attracting confrontation,” he wrote in his deposition seeking asylum in Canada. “These citizens were almost always unarmed. In some cases the Iraqi victims looked to me like they were children.” (Eugene Weekly, May 22)
In Iraq, Burmeister had been knocked unconscious and his face filled with shrapnel when his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb. The shrapnel wounds left him with a traumatic brain injury, and he suffers from severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. His parents insist that he urgently needs medical and psychological help, not jail time.
His parents have waged an unceasing struggle for the Army to release him. They called on their representative, Peter DeFazio, to launch a congressional inquiry into James’s case, but have so far heard nothing. James’ mother, Helen Burmeister, flew to Fort Knox in June, with help from anti-war ex-Colonel Ann Wright. Helen spoke directly to the base commander there, demanding that her son be discharged in lieu of a court martial. She then joined supporters from Veterans for Peace and Vietnam Vets Against the War demonstrating outside.
On July 8 the Army invited Helen to attend her son’s court martial on July 16. This time both she and her husband Erich are going. They’re determined to keep James out of jail. “I bought a one-way ticket,” Erich told Workers World. “I’m not leaving without my son. If I have to sit outside the base and wait for him, I’ll do it. Even if I have to go on a hunger strike, that’s what I’ll do. My son does not deserve another day in jail.”
In an interview with Courage to Resist, Erich said: “[James] struggles with PTSD, yet he is quartered within earshot of the shooting range and tank training area, daily hearing the gunfire and explosions. He has been prescribed a dangerous cocktail of anti-psychotic drugs and sleep aids by Army doctors, while the command decides if they want to send him to prison, as a coward, a soldier who faced death, and followed orders to ‘shoot to kill.’ The cowards—George Bush and Dick Cheney, those in Congress and the generals with the blood on their hands—why are they the punishers instead of the punished?” (couragetoresist.org, May 12)
Supporters can contact the Fort Knox post commander, General Campbell, to demand a speedy discharge and no further punishment for James. Send email to knox.pao@conus.army.mil, or call the Fort Knox public affairs office at 502-624-7451. Ask that they discharge PFC James Burmeister now so that he can get the help that he needs.
***
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Talk by Colonel (Ret.) Ann Wright co-author of the book “Dissent: Voices of Conscience – Government Insiders Speak Out Against the War in Iraq” given April 18, 2008 at University Temple United Methodist Church in Seattle.
After Downing Street
Feb 27, 2008
C-SPAN Book TV will air a reading from Dissent: Voices of Conscience with Colonel (Ret.) Ann Wright and Daniel Ellsberg this Sunday, March 2.
3:45 a.m. Eastern Time (12:45 a.m. Pacific)
and
3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (12:00 Noon Pacific)See Book TV for more about the program.
Please visit www.voicesofconscience.com, for more about the book and Ann Wright’s schedule of readings.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Added: December 10, 2007
Code Pink, at White House Rally, Protests Torture Policies
At a White House rally, on Dec. 10, 2007, activists from Code Pink protested the torture policies of the Bush-Cheney Gang. Today is International Human Rights Day. Sharing her views at the protest action was Ms. Medea Benjamin, Co-Founder of Code Pink. For more background on this particular White House-related demonstration, check out:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=…
Oct. 26, 2007
Today I had my day in court.
On February 17th, I was arrested after saying “The American people voted to end the war in Iraq” as I was walking out of the Senate gallery. The Senate was debating the non-binding resolution to admonish Bush’s “troop surge”, and I felt obligated to speak truth to power in order to remind America’s elected officials that they were largely ignoring the will of the People.
So, after months and months of delays, I finally got my jury trial. My lawyer argued that I really didn’t disrupt anything because I did not interrupt any Senators speaking. He did his best to convey that I did not intend to disrupt the business the Senate. However, the jury did not take long to find me guilty for Disruption of Congress.
I was a little disappointed, but I must say that I did not regret what I had done in the Senate on that day in February… the Senators needed to hear those words. In fact, the good thing about my trial is that the prosecution was forced to repeat my words, “The American people voted to end the war in Iraq” over and over again… those words are forever in the court record!
Anyway, the prosecutor told the judge I should be put on probation and should serve 5 days in jail.
I got a chance to speak to the judge, and I told her that although I did not want to go to jail, I respected that I was found guilty of a crime that required her to punish me. I also promised her that I would not speak in the Senate again until I was elected by the people of Missouri to the United States Senate.
The judge said she would hold me to my promise that I would only speak in the Senate when I am an elected official. She also said it seemed clear to her that I broke the law, but it wasn’t really much of a violation, and that she felt the decision could have gone either way depending on the particular jury. In the end, she fined me the maximum fine of $500 and told me that if I ever came back to her court under similar charges, she would make sure I served REAL jail time if I were convicted.
This blog is pretty much done, but I do want to say that a whole bunch of my friends were there to support me… CODEPINK women and our allies are the greatest people in earth!!! The good news in all this is that the judge said that my “stay away” order would be vacated when my fine was paid… and it literally blew me away when Ann Wright came up to me with the entire amount of the fine for which all of my great friends had pitched in to pay. So, we marched right up to the finance office and paid the fine!
So, now I am off to give a presentation at a conference in Vermont tomorrow, then will continue traveling the east coast lecturing to college students in my Transforming Traditional Politics tour.
Keep the faith…
Peace & Freedom
Midge
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Democracy Now!
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
60 Arrested at No War, No Warming Protests in Washington
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Hundreds of people converged on the U.S. Capitol Building to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Bush administration’s record on climate change. We speak to organizer Ted Glick, who is on the 50th day of a Climate Emergency Fast. [includes rush transcript]
No War, No Warming was the theme of a day of civil disobedience in Washington, D.C. on Monday. Hundreds of people converged on the U.S. Capitol Building to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Bush administration’s record on climate change. At least sixty-one people were arrested after some blocked a street near the Cannon House Office Building. Some of the protesters were in polar bear costumes. Before the arrests, independent journalist Robin Bell of Bell Visuals caught the polar bears’ arrival at the Capitol Building.
The musical voices of the polar bear protesters, among the hundreds who took part in the No War, No Warming day of action in Washington on Monday. (Video courtesy of Robin Bell of Bell Visuals, bellvisuals.com). Ted Glick was one of the organizers of the No War, No Warming protest. He is Coordinator of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council and is now on the fiftieth day of a Climate Emergency Fast. He joins us on the phone from Washington.
***
No War, No Warming, Rise Up!
by Ted Glick / September 18th, 2007For months a movement has been developing that consciously and intentionally links the related issues of the war in Iraq/oil wars and the heating up of the earth that is disrupting the world’s climate. On Monday morning, October 22, in Washington , DC on Capitol Hill and elsewhere around the country, that movement will become visible as large numbers of people engage in nonviolent direct action to disrupt business as usual. We will be calling for an end to this criminal war and strong action to slow, stop and reverse global warming (www.nowarnowarming.org).
These issues are connected, of course, by oil. Everyone who’s got their head screwed on straight knows that the reason for the invasion of Iraq was oil. The US government is occupying Iraq both for its oil and to try to turn it into a US-friendly military base from which it can better control the entire region.
Why? It’s not just because Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield, Rice, Wolfowitz and the neo-cons are motivated by we’re-the-rulers-of-the-world ideology. There is actually a perverse logic to what they’re doing, particularly given their personal connections to the oil industry.
The US and the world are in a deepening energy crisis. Easily accessible oil and natural gas are getting hard to find even as the demand for and competition over energy throughout the world accelerates. There is agreement among those who study this issue that we are either right at or very soon will be at “peak oil,” a point where as much oil that is in the ground will have been found and used as there is oil still remaining. And the big problem is that those remaining reserves are getting harder and more expensive to bring out of the ground.
There is a common sense solution to this dilemma. Instead of war in Iraq escalating into war with Iran and who knows where else, the US could lead the world by using its technological know-how and resources to advance a worldwide clean energy revolution. We could rapidly undercut the appeal of Al-Qaeda by withdrawing our troops from the Middle East and promoting, instead, huge solar energy farms in this sun-drenched region of the world. We could help the formerly colonized countries of the Global South who are currently developing their economies by using greenhouse gas emitting coal or dangerous nuclear power. We could help them shift to renewable energy technology to obtain energy via solar panels, wind turbines, the tides or the earth (geo-thermal).
What kind of world do we face if we don’t stand up, if we don’t rise up to demand a serious course correction?
A report was put out this spring by the CNA Corporation, a national security think tank, written by six retired admirals and five retired generals, including the former Army chief of staff and George W. Bush’s former chief Middle East peace negotiator. In it, in the words of an Associated Press story, they “called upon the U.S. government to make major cuts in emissions of gases that cause global warming.”
“The report warned that in the next 30 to 40 years there will be wars over water, increased hunger, instability from worsening disease and rising sea levels and global warming-induced refugees. ‘The chaos that results can be an incubator of civil strife, genocide and the growth of terrorism,’ the 35-page report predicted.
“‘Climate change exacerbates already unstable situations,’ former US Army chief of staff Gordon Sullivan told Associated Press Radio. . .
“In a veiled reference to Bush’s refusal to join an international treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the report said the U.S. government ‘must become a more constructive partner’ with other nations to fight global warming and cope with its consequences.”
The options before us are crystal clear. Down one road, the one we’re now on, lies a cascading series of oil and water wars, climate disasters and ecological devastation. Down the other lies a turn toward peaceful resolution of conflicts, energy conservation, efficiency and a clean energy revolution, and social and economic justice.
Another world is possible, but for it come about another US is necessary, in the words of the recent US Social Forum. It’s a world worth fighting for, a world worth sacrificing for. Our children and their children are counting on us to do the right thing, and to do it now. The clock is ticking, and we need to act as if the future of human society depends upon what we do, because it really does.
Ted Glick is the Coordinator of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council and co-founder of the Climate Crisis Coalition. His Future Hope columns are archived at ippn.org. Read other articles by Ted, or visit Ted’s website.
Parts 2-9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HwxpkiyvE0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NR2oIlz6QU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMkOi9OP994 Pigs and dancing polar bears
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjLmBn5vZWY More protesting polar bears
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYVPYlaMctI Pigs arresting protesters instead of Bush
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6onE_3uQ5_Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6onE_3uQ5_Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S09ZKcNGAeQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcvQuCbMs_I
Police mistakenly arrest a windmill rather than Bush
Updated: 10.25.07
More Police Arresting Protesters
In a major show of revitalization, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) used guile and speed to combat the overwhelming numbers and fierce tactics of the Capital police. Once again flexing it muscles in the face of what it considers Fascism, SDS was in the thick of the struggle to bring the reality of the Iraq War home to the American people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNvh7TZqWU4
Arresting a 13 yr old girl!
Dandelion Salad 