Emergency Protests Against Obama's Afghanistan Escalation

http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php/hom... -

The richest country in the world is destroying the poorest country!

Stop the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq!

When Obama announces a troop increase to Afghanistan (likely the week of November 30), join protests before the announcement, on the day of and the day after.

This surge can only be stopped by sustained, independent political protest.

World Can’t Wait and anti-war groups are organizing protests against across the country.
Join us at www.worldcantwait.net 866 973 4463

So far, protests are planned in the following cities:

San Francisco

World Can't Wait is joining with other anti-war forces including the local chapters of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, Code Pink and others to mobilize

On the SAME WEEKDAY that Obama announces the escalation: 5:00 PM at Fifth & Market (Powell St. BART): San Francisco street protest including die-ins In the East Bay, feeder rallies and a BART march: 3:30 PM Rally: Marines Recruiting Station, 64 Shattuck Square, Berkeley 4:00 PM Rally: downtown Berkeley BART station then march by BART to arrive 5:00 PM at Fifth & Market in SF NOTE: If the news breaks on a weekend, these protests will happen the following MONDAY

The day of the announcement, the World Can't Wait SF office <(415) 864-5153> will have a recorded message confirming the protest times and locations.

Send us info on other campus and community protests that we can also publicize.
Chicago

The Chicago Chapter of World Can't Wait is joining with other groups to build an emergency protest at 5 pm on the day Obama announces his plans to surge the war in Afghanistan. This war was wrong and immoral when Bush was president, and it's wrong now! If the announcement is made after 5 pm, we will be at Federal Plaza (Dearborn & Adams) at 5 pm the next day, and a protest will be held there the next Saturday for those who can't come on a weekday. Details here. Plan to join this action, forward this email, spread the word on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and bring friends and co-workers with you!

We aren't waiting in the meantime either. We will be at State Street & Randolph, Chicago (noon to 2 pm) on “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving (Nov 27), protesting ongoing wars and occupation and building for the emergency protest of Obama's “surge” in Afghanistan, whenever it is announced. We plan to be doing street theater so join us! The crowds are large that day and very diverse, coming from the suburbs as well as the city, so it's an important opportunity to build for the upcoming protest and mobilize new people, including young people who are out of school that day.

Join Us This Sunday, Nov. 15, 1:30 - 3:30, N. Michigan Ave. at Adams

We don't want to sit passively waiting for what seems inevitable - Obama's announcement of more troops being sent to Afghanistan, with all that means for more death and destruction. Opposition needs to be mobilized now! So we will participate in the Sunday protest in front of the Art Institute (on North Michigan Ave across from Adams St) between 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm this coming Sunday, building for the emergency response to Obama's pending “surge” announcement. The weather should be fairly good, which means more people in the streets, so we'll be distributing our national flyer with information on the local protest. Please join us and bring your own signs/ideas!
New York

Sunday, 11-15, 1-5pm. Washington Square Park, Hauley Plaza. World Can't Wait and Military Families Speak Out will display the American Friends Service Committee “Eyes Wide Open” exhibit of military boots and civilian shoes. Photo and interview opportunity with military families and veterans.

Monday, 11-16, 5:30-8:30pm. Father Duffy Park, 47th & Broadway (just north of Times Square). Press conference followed by candle light vigil, in addition to the “Eyes Wide Open” exhibit.
Greensboro North Carolina

4:30- 6:00 pm, corner of Elm and Market on the day after Obama makes the announcement
Connecticut

The Obama Administration is expected to soon announce their decision to send some tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan. We need to demonstrate the popular opposition to the war in Afghanistan in as many towns and with as large a number of protesters as possible when this happens. Join us at the federal buildings in Hartford and New Haven, CT from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. the day after.

Called by*: Chris Gauvreau and Stan Heller, CT United for Peace CT Students Against War Middle East Crisis Committee West Hartford Citizens for Peace and Justice Northeast Connecticut Coalition for Peace and Justice Citizens for Global Solutions/United Nations Association Connecticut Peace Coalition/New Haven CT ANSWER Coalition International Socialist Organization Socialist Action

*List in formation
Seattle

The Day After Obama announces his plan for war escalation in Afghanistan: 4:00 pm 4th & Pine, Westlake, Seattle seattle@worldcantwait.org

I have a blog on the Oakland Press. What I need right now are commenters. The blog is located at
From the Left

The righties have got quite a few commenters, so I can really use your help. If you have any questions, please e-mail me at bfealk@wideopenwest.com

Bruce

Yesterday, over 20 million people gathered in E. Lansing, MI to protest Fox hate monger, Glenn Beck.

Estimate has been revised due to new photographic evidence provided by other people that attended the protest.

According to official estimates, over 20 million people protested Glenn Beck's appearance at the Michigan Chamber of Commerce's Annual Dinner in E. Lansing. The University of I Don't Know used scientific body count technology to come up with their estimate, according to attendees at the event.

Netroots Nation held an excellent panel discussion with Representative Gerald Nadler, Vince Warren from the Center for Constitutional Rights, Melissa Goodman from the ACLU and Marcy Wheeler, blogger for Firedog Lake.

Torture Accountability Panel from Netroots Nation

I had a really interesting encounter with a gentleman at an anti-health care rally in Troy, Michigan. Roger had said before I turned the camera on that if he had the chance and he thought he could get away with it, he would murder me. Mind you, this is from a man that says he is pro-life.

I had a really interesting encounter with a gentleman at an anti-health care rally in Troy, Michigan. Roger had said before I turned the camera on that if he had the chance and he thought he could get away with it, he would murder me. Mind you, this is from a man that says he is pro-life.

I had a really interesting encounter with a gentleman at an anti-health care rally in Troy, Michigan. Roger had said before I turned the camera on that if he had the chance and he thought he could get away with it, he would murder me. Mind you, this is from a man that says he is pro-life.

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Conservative consultant and blogger at OaklandPolitics.com, Chetly Zarko has agreed to be waterboarded. Even though he has stated waterboarding is "just pouring a little water on someone's face," he has several conditions to being waterboarded.

Chetly Zarko said...

"First, I will accept Fealk's ridiculous and impractical challenge if he solves the problems that make it ridiculous. One would need large liability insurance, a doctor present, a qualified and experience waterboarder (the hardest to find), a clear definition of WB, and a more fair recompense to me if I "succeed" or even a definition of what "succeed" is (I'm not going into a situation where success isn't defined).

Second, I've stood by the McCain position on this - not the Bush position. I oppose torture and think Bush was wrong to even try to go down the legal definition road he went down. It was a tactical and public relations mistake, as well as ethically challenged - to try open up the definition of torture.

That said, I do not think Bush went so far as to commit a crime here, or at least the evidence does not exist for that.

Bush himself had legal opinions justifying it. He never once disobeyed a court ruling on any Patriot Act issue or other matter relating to this area. And even the lawyers were operating under what the law would define as a "colorable" argument - that is, unless the lawyers made patently "frivolous" arguments, and while the standards for that rarely enforced there are some logical standards for frivolty that do exist, the lawyers (or by extension Bush) are not guilty of a war crime. The simple fact is that "torture" is not a precisely defined term, and like most terms, it is not a rigid term in that the context of an act doesn't have some bearing on whether it is torture or not."

I'm a little confused by his conditions, though. If waterboarding is safe and effective, why does he need a doctor standing by and a large liability policy?

I am trying to contact Keith Olbermann at Countdown to see if Keith would be willing to make the same offer to Chetly that he made to Sean Hannity.

First, let me say, I was overjoyed with President Obama’s performance in Europe. It gave me a deep sense of pride in my President as he spoke about worldly matters and even was so bold as to make it a goal of his administration to eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the earth. Given the level of warmongering the United States has been prone to for decades, it was good to hear the President in front of a world audience bring this issue to the fore.



My pride shrivels, though, when I read stories and watch television news and read stories on the Internet about how he wants to look forward when it comes to the issues of investigating and prosecuting war crimes committed by members of the Bush administration. The fact that Bush and Cheney were directly involved in these acts has been admitted to by former President Bush and Vice President Cheney, yet President Obama and his Justice Department are protecting Bush and Cheney from even being investigated and getting to the full truth of whether they should be prosecuted. It is embarrassing to the United States that a foreign country, Spain, is initiating an investigation and prosecution of Bush administration officials for these crimes, yet the President and Congress are mostly silent. Not one Republican would sign on to Senator Leahy’s Truth Commission.

A report from the Red Cross documents that the CIA has codified the following techniques for trying to get information from detainees:

* Suffocation by water poured over a cloth placed over the nose and mouth... (waterboarding)
* Prolonged stress standing position, naked, held with the arms extended and chained above the head...
* Beatings by use of a collar held around the detainees' neck and used to forcefully bang the head and body against the wall...
* Beating and kicking, including slapping, punching, kicking to the body and face...
* Confinement in a box to severely restrict movement...
* Prolonged nudity...this enforced nudity lasted for periods ranging from several weeks to several months...
* Sleep deprivation...through use of forced stress positions (standing or sitting), cold water and use of repetitive loud noises or music...
* Exposure to cold temperature...especially via cold cells and interrogation rooms, and...use of cold water poured over the body or...held around the body by means of a plastic sheet to create an immersion bath with just the head out of water.
* Prolonged shackling of hands and/or feet...
* Threats of ill-treatment, to the detainee and/or his family...
* Forced shaving of the head and beard...
* Deprivation/restricted provision of solid food from 3 days to 1 month after arrest...

Worse yet, it has been reported recently by authoritative sources that torture doesn’t work. It does not give us reliable information. So all the conservatives that are screaming as they read this are just plain wrong when they say we have to use torture to protect American lives.

My other disappointment in President Obama is his position on warrantless wiretapping. President Obama is not only defending the illegal surveillance on Americans, but he is seeking to indemnify the United States from being sued by victims of illegal surveillance. Bush, Cheney and other members of the Bush administration are criminals of the highest order and should spend the rest of their days in a dark cell, but thanks to President Obama they will spend them playing golf at swank country clubs with the perpetrators of the biggest financial fraud in history. Millions are in jail for possessing small amounts of illegal drugs, yet Bush and Cheney walk free.

Watch Governor Jennifer Granholm joins Bruce Fealk,host of Michigan Progress, http://www.michiganprogress.blogspot.com .

We talk budget, energy and blogging.

Please leave a comment.

Former Army Chaplain James Yee tells his harrowing story from Guantanamo Bay
Former Army chaplain, James Yee is a Muslim that served our country honorably at Guantanamo Bay ministering to Muslim detainees. He received many commendations while serving there. He was detained, and put in solitary confinement at Guantanamo Bay after having arrested when he landed in the U.S. for a 2-week leave. Please watch yourself and ask your friends, family and acquaintances to visit the site and watch this important interview. It could happen to you.
Watch the video at this link.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=33...

Local political activist, Bruce Fealk, held the first Hawaii Joe Knollenberg Retirement party on Sunday. Over a dozen of Knollenberg’s constituents attended and donated funds to Knollenberg’s retirement fund. The retirement fund is designated to be given to whoever the Democratic candidate is after the primary in August of 2008. “Since there is no declared Democratic challenger yet, there needs to be opposition to Joe Knollenberg,” said Bruce Fealk. “Joe Knollenberg just isn’t listening to his constituents. He won’t make appointments with anyone that has a different point of view on the issues. He isn’t listening to his constituents when he votes in Congress either. Even though in a recent survey conducted in downtown Birmingham 79% of those surveyed said they were against the escalation of the war in Iraq, Joe voted for it. That’s not representing the people that put you in office” Fealk further commented. His web site doesn’t even mention the war in Iraq as an issue. The retirement parties will be held across the district in the coming months. Two more parties are already in the works as a result of Sunday’s party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTq-b9Nga5o

Local political activist, Bruce Fealk, held the first Hawaii Joe Knollenberg Retirement party on Sunday. Over a dozen of Knollenberg’s constituents attended and donated funds to Knollenberg’s retirement fund. The retirement fund is designated to be given to whoever the Democratic candidate is after the primary in August of 2008. “Since there is no declared Democratic challenger yet, there needs to be opposition to Joe Knollenberg,” said Bruce Fealk. “Joe Knollenberg just isn’t listening to his constituents. He won’t make appointments with anyone that has a different point of view on the issues. He isn’t listening to his constituents when he votes in Congress either. Even though in a recent survey conducted in downtown Birmingham 79% of those surveyed said they were against the escalation of the war in Iraq, Joe voted for it. That’s not representing the people that put you in office” Fealk further commented. His web site doesn’t even mention the war in Iraq as an issue. The retirement parties will be held across the district in the coming months. Two more parties are already in the works as a result of Sunday’s party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTq-b9Nga5o
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Local political activist, Bruce Fealk, held the first Hawaii Joe Knollenberg Retirement party on Sunday. Over a dozen of Knollenberg’s constituents attended and donated funds to Knollenberg’s retirement fund. The retirement fund is designated to be given to whoever the Democratic candidate is after the primary in August of 2008. “Since there is no declared Democratic challenger yet, there needs to be opposition to Joe Knollenberg,” said Bruce Fealk. “Joe Knollenberg just isn’t listening to his constituents. He won’t make appointments with anyone that has a different point of view on the issues. He isn’t listening to his constituents when he votes in Congress either. Even though in a recent survey conducted in downtown Birmingham 79% of those surveyed said they were against the escalation of the war in Iraq, Joe voted for it. That’s not representing the people that put you in office” Fealk further commented. His web site doesn’t even mention the war in Iraq as an issue. The retirement parties will be held across the district in the coming months. Two more parties are already in the works as a result of Sunday’s party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTq-b9Nga5o

Joe Knollenberg has decided to run again in 2008. I think it's time for him to retire and I want to help the Democratic candidate, whoever that person is. One way to even the playing field is to have our candidate start out with some money in the bank.

We also need a bigger majority in the House of Representatives and Joe's seat is one of the most vulnerable in the country.

If you can attend and possibly even bring some friends, and make a donation to the cause, it would really be appreciated by our candidate and the Democratic party. If you have friends that might like to come, please forward this invitation to them using the forward link below.

Please join us for Joe Knollenberg's retirement party. If you could bring a dish to pass, that would really help out.

Forward this to a friend!

For more details about this invitation and to RSVP online, go to: http://www.party2win.com/retirejoeknollenb...

http://hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...

Liberal finds his voice in a conservative town
BY ANNETTE KINGSBURY
STAFF WRITER


Bruce Fealk is a man on a mission.

A Democrat in a county dominated by Republicans, he acknowledges he wasn't politically active until a couple of years ago. Now, he's demonstrating, blogging, campaigning, setting up Web sites and, most recently, hosting a local-access cable television show that can also be viewed on the Web.

(Please read the rest of the story and leave a kind comment.)
http://hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...

Over the weekend I wrote a letter to the Oakland Press asking them to pull Ann Coulter's column due to her outrageous statements at the Conservative Political Action Conference in regard to John Edwards.

This morning I received an e-mail from the Editorial Editor saying that the Oakalnd Press would no longer carry her columns.

Hip, Hip, Hooray.