Rose Colored Clashes Code Pink activists are learning a hard-fought lesson: Sticking out on Capitol Hill isn't always a plus
(Photographs by Darrow Montgomery)
Once a self-described “shy” librarian, Desiree Fairooz had her star turn on Capitol Hill last October.
The Code Pink activist faced off with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a congressional hearing room, screaming that Rice had the blood of millions of innocent Iraqis on her hands. Photos showed a pained-looking Rice clutching the back of a chair while Fairooz circled, her red-painted hands a few inches from the secretary of state’s face.
The incident—protest or borderline criminal assault, depending on one’s political views—made headlines around the world and sent the message that Code Pink Women for Peace wasn’t going away.
Named to poke fun at the Bush administration’s color-coded terrorism alert system, the group uses outlandish costumes, tongue-in-cheek singalongs, and campy guerrilla theater. Its antics often play on stereotypes about femininity and feminism—and they helped position Code Pink on the vanguard of the country’s peace movement.
During the first four years of its existence, when the Republicans controlled Congress, Code Pink activists developed a knack for subverting committee hearings. They unveiled protest banners or flashed a bit of pink at the television cameras. When the Democrats took charge of the House and Senate in November 2006, the protesters were overjoyed at the prospect that like-minded lawmakers would finally give them a chance to be both seen and heard at key committee hearings on the war.
Shortly after the new Congress convened, Code Pink rented a row house on Capitol Hill with grand plans to host activists from its 250-plus chapters around the country and abroad. The idea was to give folks from Pasadena to Pittsburgh the opportunity to bring their protest to Washington.
As the war dragged on and both parties in Washington turned their attention to elections and domestic issues, however, Code Pink’s one-time allies in the Democratic Party deserted them. These in-your-face activists were learning an important Beltway lesson. Success as a protest group doesn’t necessarily beget more success, just more obstacles.
The House
The five-bedroom row house on 5th Street NE is decorated in shades of pink. There are pink lampshades, throw pillows, and quilts. Most of the furniture and décor were donated by supporters or bought secondhand. Stored in the basement are the pink slips that activists wear to suggest America should fire President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
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The pink police uniforms came out last summer when the activists picketed the office of Alberto Gonzales, then the U.S. attorney general. There are beauty pageant sashes reading i miss america and i miss justice.
The pink hospital scrubs with matching pink prescription pads promote the message that the country is ailing and Code Pink has the cure. Other peace props have less metaphorical content. A larger-than-life papier-mâché puppet head of Secretary Rice sits atop a bookcase in the dining room. Downstairs, heads of Bush and administration officials await their turn in the spotlight. One of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld lies upside down, kept handy, perhaps, should a reunion protest tour arise.
House residents hold potluck dinners every Wednesday night. Anyone’s welcome, except the opposition.
In October, the gatherings attracted protesters from FreeRepublic.com, a group that dubs itself “the premier online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web.” Kristinn Taylor, co-leader of FreeRepublic’s D.C. chapter, has some problems with Code Pink. He says the group is running a dangerously overcrowded lodging house and lobbying office in violation of various city zoning codes.
“Code Pink is famous for flaunting the law and daring people to do something about it. And usually they get away with it,” says Taylor, who wants them evicted. His group filed a complaint last May. So far, however, city officials have declined to shut down the house but say they are monitoring the situation. Taylor says that’s a bureaucratic way to say they have no plans to act.
“If the D.C. chapter of the Ku Klux Klan had opened an office on Capitol Hill, you can be sure the D.C. government would shut it down, as well they should,” Taylor says. “It’s the D.C. government playing politics.”
Drawing perhaps the most fire is Code Pink’s support for the Iraqi insurgency that has killed more than 3,700 American soldiers and wounded nearly 30,000 since since post-combat operations began there in May of 2003.
The group’s co-founder, Jody Evans, was an international observer at the World Tribunal on Iraq in June 2005. The Tribunal culminated in a statement signed by ativists from 10 countries that characterized the insurgency as “legitimate and justified” and called for war crimes charges against Bush and other world leaders who backed the U.S. invasion. Among the signers was playwright Eve Ensler, creator of The Vagina Monologues and a member of Code Pink.
The group has also raised the hackles of conservatives by collecting medicine and hundreds of thousands of dollars from its U.S. supporters and shipping the humanitarian aid to groups working with Iraqis displaced by the war, some of them in insurgency strongholds like Fallujah. Taylor has called the humanitarian aid program “treasonous.”
Code Pink co-founder and one of its chief strategists Gael Murphy retorts: “What’s treasonous? It’s already been agreed by the majority of Americans that this was an illegitimate invasion. How are we being treasonous by criticizing this war?”
She scoffs at allegations the group is funneling money to insurgents. To make sure it is not diverted for anything other than humanitarian ends, Code Pink has partnered with a single Baghdad-based charitable organization that helps widows and orphans in the capital and several of the worst-hit provinces, she says.
Full-time Activists
Before she threw every pink article of clothing she owned into a suitcase and boarded a flight to Washington, Desiree Fairooz had a job as a second-grade teacher at a public school in a suburb of Dallas. Before that, she’d worked at the Arlington, Texas, public library.
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This war is the first to move her to acts of civil disobedience. Desiree, or Des as her friends call her, says she had never participated in any kind of protest. Growing up in Los Angeles, Fairooz, 51, was too young to march against the Vietnam War. And, anyway, protesting was never encouraged by her parents, whom she describes as “working people.” Like many of her colleagues in Code Pink, she says 9/11 was a call to action. She hadn’t been particularly interested in current events. Now, she needed to understand why the terrorists hated Americans enough to fly planes into buildings. She didn’t limit herself to the mainstream media but started seeking out independent news sources and Bush administration critics. She didn’t like what she learned about U.S. foreign policy and the mounting toll on Iraqi civilians caught up in the war.
As her outrage grew, so did her sense of isolation as a budding peacenik in President Bush’s home state. She learned about Code Pink while surfing the Internet and first saw Cindy Sheehan at a political meeting in the Dallas area. When Sheehan announced that she planned to go down to Crawford, Texas, to stage a vigil at President Bush’s ranch, Fairooz drove to Crawford, too. There, she met several of the Code Pink founders. They hit it off.
Last year, she came to Washington to attend Code Pink’s Mother’s Day political actions and decided she needed to make a deeper commitment to ending the war. Once she heard Code Pink had rented a place in D.C. and needed resident-activists, she withdrew enough cash from her retirement account to stay in D.C. awhile and signed on as the house “den mother.” She left behind a husband, two grown sons, and a 6-year-old granddaughter.
Once she had made the decision, she was relieved. “I just couldn’t live with myself anymore,” says Fairooz, who said she was overcome with thoughts of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi. The Iraqi teenager was raped and murdered in March 2006, her parents and younger sister shot dead and their home burned in an alleged coverup. Five U.S. soldiers were charged in the case.
“I just feel so guilty,” says Fairooz, brushing away tears.
An Unexpected Incident
The biggest blow sustained by Code Pink has come not from the conservative loudmouths but rather from a bipartisan phenomenon. For much of 2007, “Iraq fatigue” drained the Capitol Hill house of its residents and stymied the group’s effectiveness.
In October, just as detractors were stepping up complaints about the group house, the Pinks had only four full-time residents. The group needed a spark.
The day Fairooz and her red-painted hands made headlines around the world, the Pinks got up early and trekked to the Capitol, as usual.
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“Attending the congressional hearings related to Iraq is something that we do often here in Washington, D.C., and it’s a matter of habit to approach whoever is testifying to let them know how we feel about the issues,” Fairooz said in an interview with an online radio station afterward. “Our intent was to sit in the hearing and hold up masks of Condoleezza Rice with the fake blood on our hands. But as it turned out, I was seated in the second row, much closer than I anticipated, and there was no one seated right in front of me, and I was able to take a few steps forward and tell her what I thought of her and the policies of this administration.”
Fairooz and several others were immediately ejected from the hearing and held by Capitol Police.
Samantha Miller, a recent college graduate with a nose ring and spike-heeled boots, was on a Metro train headed to work when she started receiving text messages about Fairooz’s protest. She raced back to the house and started working the phones.
Miller is one of the few paid staff members employed by Code Pink. As the group’s D.C. coordinator, she is charged with, among other things, administrative duties, updating the Web site, and calling the press whenever the group’s activists get arrested. Murphy says the group has an annual budget of about $250,000, which comes mostly from individual donors and fundraisers such as selling Code Pink T-shirts and hosting wine and cheese mixers with celebrities.
Miller called the Capitol Police to find out where those arrested were being held. Soon, the press started calling. “I must have given out Des’ bio 20 times that morning. Everyone wanted to check the spelling of her name.”
“It was inspirational,” she says. “We were really proud but really worried about her, too.”
E-mails poured in from around the country and the world. An Iraqi woman who had met the activists when a Code Pink peace delegation visited Baghdad a few years earlier sent one congratulating them. Visitors started arriving at the house. Once they learned those arrested wouldn’t be let out of jail until the next morning, some people prepared a hot meal before leaving the house. “When you get out of jail, everybody wants a hot shower and a hot meal,” Miller explains.
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A few days later, after they were bailed out of jail, Fairooz and Medea Benjamin, the group’s co-founder, were invited to the D.C. studio of Democracy Now, a nationally distributed radio and television show. At the end of the interview, Benjamin made a call for reinforcements. The group repeated the appeal, blasting e-mails to its 150,000-person mailing list.
Among those who responded was Sally Newman, a law student from Minnesota.
“I said, ‘Oh, yeah. I can do that,’” Newman recalls. “I’ve been calling and demonstrating and submitting e-mail petitions for the last four years. So there is something really attractive about coming down and talking to the people who make the decisions.” Newman is dressed in a fuchsia sweater, a matching ribbon in her dark blond hair. If she weren’t traveling in a pride of pink activists, she could pass as a Hill staffer.
“I’m trying to blur the lines a little bit,” says Newman. “I like that people don’t know if I’m in Code Pink or just a girly-girly.” She notes that the Black Bloc, sometimes violent anti-globalization activists who favor black clothes and ski masks, tend to evoke fear and wonders whether the color pink elicits a warm and fuzzy reaction instead.
Will Chapple, a 24-year-old emergency medical technician who spent the better part of the last year volunteering his medical skills in the West Bank and Darfur, heard the appeal over Internet radio. Kik Skakel Williams, meanwhile, who maintains that she’s not a bona fide member of the group, “decided ‘what the hell?’” after she received an e-mail. She signed up for Code Pink’s mailing list at the urging of her 25-year-old daughter. For her, activism is part of a new leaf she turned over about two years ago.
“I decided that anything that wouldn’t hurt me I would try,” she says.
Tough Going
Code Pink volunteers find out pretty quickly that the very quality that attracted them to the group—its in-your-face tactics—has made the peace work harder.
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Benjamin and another prominent Code Pink activist, retired Army colonel and diplomat Ann Wright, have been denied entry to Canada because of their arrests in anti-war protests. The women say Canadian immigration officials told them they could not enter the country because their names appeared on the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database. FBI spokesperson Paul Bresson said the agency does not comment on who is in the database but confirmed that the agency shares portions of the list with the Canadian government. The FBI, he says, plays no role in decisions on who Canada lets into the country. “The Canadian government has their own rules as far as that goes,” Bresson says.
A Fox News commentator stoked the flames of controversy by calling for the use of Taser guns on Code Pink activists, a proposal that’s been thoroughly debated in the blogosphere.
“Now we’ve been labeled as a terrorist group,” says Leslie Barkman, a massage therapist from Sunderland, Mass. She chafes at critics who label Code Pink “a bunch of crazies” when she feels it’s the people who aren’t protesting who should question their sanity.
Tensions were growing long before the Condi Rice incident, says Murphy, who notes that last March, the Code Pink contingent arrived along with throngs of other activists at a congressional hearing on the supplemental budget only to learn that just a couple of seats had been reserved for the public. Many of those who’d lined up outside refused to move.
“The next thing I knew, I was rolling around on the floor getting handcuffed and charged with assaulting a police officer. I certainly didn’t assault anyone—if anything, I was assaulted,” says Murphy, who has been banned from the whole of Capitol Hill since May. She goes to trial Feb. 28 to contest an arrest for disrupting Congress. The incident in question occurred at the Dirksen Senate Office Building; on May 10, Murphy says she was attempting to unfurl a banner after a Judiciary Committee hearing where Rice had testified.
Murphy, who is not paid for her work with Code Pink thanks to “a very supportive spouse,” believes the press coverage the group’s methods have garnered has helped move the debate from whether or not troops should be withdrawn from Iraq to when the withdrawal will occur. “I don’t think we’d be there without the citizens’ effort,” she says.
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Code Pink’s tactics are “opportunistic,” she acknowledges. “But after five years of beating our heads against the wall, we feel that we have to take opportunities where we can.”
“We’ve definitely gone the polite route and the letter-writing route. And we’ve had meetings. But nobody is willing to work outside of the box,” she says. Predicting things will get worse for Code Pink as the 2008 presidential elections near and the debate over domestic issues like immigration further overshadows the war, Murphy says the group’s leadership is already talking about how to evolve and remain effective.
As it becomes increasingly unlikely that troops will come home this year, Murphy says, Code Pink plans to step up its calls for the indictments of officials in the Bush administration, the State Department, and Central Intelligence Agency. The group will also renew its push for impeaching Bush and Cheney.
“We know laws have been broken. Bush himself admitted to breaking the law,” Murphy says, referring to the wiretapping controversy that flared up in 2005, in which Bush in fact asserted he had broken no laws. “If we allow this to go on, we’ll see more of it,” Murphy says, adding that her group wants to “shed some pink light” on what it considers the administration’s excesses.
Pink Profiling
When Code Pink first came together, it was a lot easier to pull out a sign or wave a banner from a strategic spot behind a politician, a tactic the group used repeatedly to get itself and its message on C-SPAN and the evening news.
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These days, Fairooz and her colleagues say, the pink thing just paints a target on them. Holding up a sign, shouting out a slogan, or even just flashing a “peace” sign will sometimes get you arrested, they say. Fines have gone up, and several protesters are contesting charges in court that could land them in jail for months.
“We call it ‘pink profiling.’ We’ve been pulled out of hearings just for wearing pink,” according to Benjamin, who says the Capitol Police trail around after them. “You hear them on their walky-talkies saying, ‘Pinks in the house.’”
“The fact is we’ve been effective, and that’s why we’re being targeted,” she adds.
Code Pink members are now keeping a database to track what they assert to be false arrests and incidents of police brutality.
The U.S. Capitol Police denies the charges of pink profiling.
“The Capitol Police treats everyone fairly. We apply all the laws the same to everyone,” says department spokesperson Sgt. Kimberly Schneider.
The Pinks test that policy constantly. On one outing, a delegation of Pink protesters is singing one of the Raging Grannies’ political ditties with a chorus that goes: “Lies, Lies, Lies.” The singing transports them past a group of gawking teenage field-trippers in the Russell Senate Office Building.
The activists’ loud T-shirts are emblazoned with political slogans, a stark contrast with Hill staffers’ squared-away attire. They continue their chorus of “Lies, Lies, Lies,” as they head to Sen. Hillary Clinton’s office.
The receptionists guarding a couple of enormous hardwood doors there greet the Pinks with chilly politeness, understandable considering Code Pink has operatives trailing the Clinton campaign and heckling the candidate whenever possible. There have been other run-ins dating back to Clinton’s early support for the war.
When Clinton legislative correspondent Joshua N. Williams arrives, he ushers the group to the end of the hall, where political wrestling ensues. The topic is Clinton’s position on bringing home the troops. The women are ready for the standard Democratic response to their protest, which is to point the finger at Bush and his GOP faithful. Leslie Barkman lays into Williams when he reaches for it.
“Hillary can get anything done that she wants to,” Barkman says, her voice rising. “What the hell is she doing? Why doesn’t she step up and get the job done?”
“She’s trying,” says Williams, looking abashed.
“Not hard enough!” Barkman says. “I’ve been in the halls of bullshit for two days now, so pardon my language, but it’s not enough.”
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The meeting wraps up, and they round a corridor and run into two unsuspecting members of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s staff. Code Pinker Liz Hourican says hello and then heads right into her standard stump. One of the aides offers another familiar retort: “Have you talked to the Democrats? Because they’re running Congress now.”
Williams turns to the man’s colleague and compliments her for wearing the Code Pink color—a neon blouse that peaks out from her black pantsuit. The woman flashes a sugary smile with just enough vinegar when she drawls, “It’s the least I can do.”
Onward to the Senate Committee on Science and Transportation, where they are greeted by an aide charged with admitting the public to the hearing room and calling the Capitol Police if the occasion arises.
The aide closes the door and stands in front of it. He and Hourican, who know each other from countless earlier meetings, exchange pleasantries. Then he makes a personal appeal for the group not to disrupt the proceedings and tells Hourican he’d like her to take off her tiara before going in.
She refuses. He insists. They reach a compromise: The rest of the women go into the room, while Hourican, her tiara in place, remains outside. She’s upset and excuses herself to the ladies room.
After first refusing to be interviewed, the aide approaches me. He wants to explain: He’s just enforcing the rules. Only dress hats are allowed in the Senate chamber. Why should his room be any different? But it soon becomes clear the issue is broader than Hourican’s tiara—which she has worn into every hearing room and senator’s office visited that day.
“Respect. They tell me they don’t have signs. The next thing you know they are holding up signs. It’s disrespectful,” says the aide, who refuses to give his name, noting rules that bar him from sharing his opinions with reporters. But he has a lot more to say.
“Stress, stress, stress,” he says. Since the Condoleezza Rice incident, he says, he’s got a lot more to worry about. Each time Code Pink operatives come into view, he feels compelled to call the Capitol Police. And, sure enough, a plainclothes officer in a tan suit, a walky-talkie device in his ear, appears in the corridor. Uniformed officers follow.
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Hourican, who’s returned from the loo and is now buttonholing senators, takes a timeout to point out a burly police officer heading purposefully down the hall. “He’s arrested me twice in the past two weeks. See him? I’m not going to look,” she says. He cruises by without a glance and huddles in the corner with his colleagues.
The aide says he can sympathize with the Pinks’ position but doesn’t like their tactics.
“A lot of mothers and parents have been very effective, and they came here with no signs and no screaming and yelling,” he says, adding that he’s dealt with all kinds of activists during his last 38 years working on the Hill. The Code Pink activists, he says, are wearing out his patience. “They take advantage of your kindness,” he says.
“Sweetheart,” he exclaims to no one in particular, “take it to the White House.”
Soon the hearing breaks up, and the out-of-towners gather in the hallway. Hourican says goodbye to the aide and wishes him a good Christmas in case she doesn’t see him again before the break. Her unexpected cease-fire is well-received.
“Can I get a hug?” he responds. She quickly crosses the room, they embrace. Everybody smiles. The day’s almost done. It’s time to head back to the group house.
Laughter and Lobbying
The visiting activists return to the house for a quick dinner of stir-fried vegetables, tofu, and brown rice. Between resting feet, checking e-mail, and eating dinner, Williams gets everyone to form a circle for Laughter Yoga, an exercise that involves a lot of full-belly guffaws. If jocularity doesn’t come naturally, you can fake it, and “you still get the same health benefits” she assures the group, before starting in with moves like “The Milkshake,” “The Cell Phone,” and one posture that involves crumpling up the body in simulated weeping, then throwing your head back and letting loose a deep belly laugh.
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Soon the group breaks up into smaller parties and heads to political forums at area universities. Fairooz changes into her Code Pink pajamas, pulls her hot-pink bathrobe over them, and relaxes. The next day, she has a status hearing in her court case stemming from the Condi Rice incident. A meeting of the D.C. chapter of Code Pink gets going in the basement, while a few exhausted peace warriors hang out in the living room, gathering their strength for the next day’s work.
The following morning, dawn breaks on the first snow of the season. Over at Stanton Park, about halfway between the Code Pink house and Capitol Hill, the statue of American Revolutionary War major general Nathanael Greene, riding a horse, one hand outstretched pointing the way, has been saddled with a new message. troops home now, it says. Stenciled in lightly on the right bottom corner is the Code Pink signature.
Jan. 11 - 17, 2008 (Vol. 28, #2)
Comments
11:12 pm
The article was good, but I did not think it offered much in the way of a critical view of Code Pink other than some token quotes. The fact is Medea Benjamin has dubious associations with communist causes. She lived in Cuba and described it as heaven. Medea Benjamin, Jodi Evans and Cindy Sheehan went to Venezuela and visited with the dictator Hugo Chavez. Also, Code Pink is a member of the United for Peace and Justice coalition which is led by Judith LeBlanc of the Communist Party USA. A little bit of research would have yielded all of these facts and more.
12:37 am
Code Pink has blood on their hands, the blood of troops killed by the weapon and aid bought with the $665,000 Code Pink sent to Fallujah at the height of the fighting. Now that Fallujah isn't al-Qaeda's strong hold but Ninevah is, Code Pink is raising money for Nineveh. Like the congressional aide said, Code Pink will take advantage of people's kindness and lie to people.
Who has to hide their name when they help widows and orphans? Yeah, people worldwide just hate it when you help widows and orphans.
Come clean Code Pink, admit that you've taken the 60's protests when you carried Viet Cong flags to the next level and actually fund the murder of US troops.
12:40 am
Code Pink and UFPJ were projects of Global Exchange, Medea Benjamin's cash cow.
It's actually Leslie Cagan, long time Communist Party USA organizer, that is Medea's puppet at the helm of UFPJ. Gael Murphy at one time was also on UFPJ's Steering Committee and may still be.
The information that Gael Murphy is a "kept woman" is a laugh riot.
7:09 am
Code Pink is inconsistent.
How can it claim to support impeaching the President and yet Code Pink's leadership embraces a dictator like Hugo Chavez?
How can it claim to support closing Guantanamo Bay and yet when Code Pink's leaders went to Cuba they refused to meet with the Women in White who are the spouses of political prisoners in Cuba?
How can Code Pink claim to be about peace when its leader Medea Benjamin was behind the Seattle riots during the 1999 WTO?
How can Code Pink claim to be patriotic when it affiliates itself the likes of high profile communists such as Judith Leblanc who are avowed to destroying the US Constitution? Recall, Code Pink belongs to LeBlanc's United for Justice and Peace coalition which is a front for the Communist Party USA?
Why does Code Pink march with groups like International ANSWER when ANSWER is a front for the socialist and rabidly anti-semitic Workers of the World Party? The leader of ANSWER, Brian Becker, went to North Korea and praised the government there and blamed the US for its famine.
Why did Medea Benjamin actively provide support to communist fighters in Nicaragua in the 1980's?
Why given the poor human rights record of Cuba has Medea Benjamin advocated to lift the trade embargo against Cuba?
I suggest to you that Code Pink is not antiwar, it is anti United States. I further suggest to you that it preys on well intended people who are genuinely antiwar to be useful idiots advancing the communist agenda that is behind Code Pink.
Moreover, I suggest to you that despite all its criticism, Code Pink offers no realistic solutions. Sure, we can just pull out of Iraq, but at what cost to the region and the people there. What will happen to the Kurds in the North if we leave. Will the Kurds not be threatened by the Turks? Also, what will happen if ethnic strife rears its head when we go, will not other countries in the region get involved? We left Vietnam and Southeast Asia and after we left millions died and that is the legacy Code Pink would have us leave in Iraq. Again, they offer heaps of criticism, but no solutions.
They claim to be about peace, but they seek to divide. All their talk of impeachment is not even taken seriously by the most liberal members of Congress. Impeachment would divide and weaken a nation at war and that is why they advocate for it.
History works in odd ways. No one can say whether Pres. Bush was right or wrong for invading Iraq. It will take the perspective of about 50 years before we can evaluate whether it was the right thing to do. It is often hard to judge anyone or anything accurately in the present. It takes history to do that. During the Civil War, Pres. Lincoln was criticized in much the same way Code Pink criticizes Bush. There were even riots against the draft in the Civil War. Pres. Lincoln was called a baboon back then. Yet, with the perspective of history we can say he did the right thing. Moreover, Pres. Ford was criticized in his own time for giving Nixon a pardon, but did you notice at his death how all the commentators were saying it was a brilliant move that was good for the nation?
I agree, like most of the other pieces on Code Pink this article attempts to be balanced, but it is not well researched.
8:18 am
Code Pink is a member of UFPJ, but Global Exchange is the parent of both UFPJ and Code Pink. It's just another knot in the tangle of false front peace groups that spring up. But the constant is the leadership. There are only so many traitors in the US so they have to do double duty.
LaBlanc? I don't associate that name with UFPJ. The visible public head is Leslie Cagan/ What is LaBlanc's role? Have a link to her UFPJ connections?
Funny that a peace and "social justice" group founded by well heeled millionaire Marxists would be diverting bread donated for the homelss to their DC flop house, espcially when they have a annual budget that would pay for the operation of the DC house many times over.
But then again, none of the people in love with communism ever rol up in a Yugo or Trabant. It's typically a Saba or Volvo. Or in the case of Code Pink, they were seen arriving at a House Office Building in a big ass Cadillac Escalade SUV. That defines the gap between the Politburo and the Proliteriate it seems. Power always has it's perks.
8:25 am
BTW, nice big ass Code Pink Ford SUV there in the photograph.
Code Pink doesn't like people protesting them at their DC house? Boo freaking hoo.... They have inconvenienced the whole block in San Francisco with their camping out at Pelosi's.
Yu have to ask, since Code Pink charges for rent and food, but steals bread from the homeless, where DOES the money go?
11:57 am
Wow, the conspiracy theorists are coming out of the woodwork on this one. First of all, Code Pink doesn't charge for rent or food. My wife stayed there for a week and it didn't cost her a dime. All they expect is for the visitors to the house to participate in some way. Secondly, I think this is a fairly accurate article, except the part where the author claims that Code Pink supports the insurgency simply because one of its members was an observer in an international meeting. Code Pink is strictly and totally anti-violence. But the freepers would rather console themselves with 40 year old thinking, i.e. commies and dirty hippies. Grow up.
12:23 pm
Kirk,
If as you claim the allegations I have written amount to nothing about paranoia about communists and hippies then tell me what was written that is not true?
Do you deny that Cindy Sheehan, Jodi Evans and Medea Benjamin went to Venezuela to meet with Hugo Chavez? Do you deny that Cindy Sheehan was quoted as saying that she would rather have Chavez than Bush as president? Do you deny that Cindy Sheehan was quoted as saying her son died for a war fought for Israel?
Do you deny that Medea Benjamin lived in Communist Cuba and described it as "heaven?"
Do you deny that Code Pink is a member of the United for Peace and Justice Coalition? Do you deny that UFPJ is led by Leslie Cagen and Judith Leblanc who are known communists?
Do you deny that Medea Benjamin organized the 1999 Seattle protest that led to riots amounting to millions of dollars in damages?
Do you deny that the Women in White in Cuba requested a meeting with Code Pink when they were down there but these wives of communist Cuba's political prisoners were snubbed by Code Pink?
Do you deny that International ANSWER is a front for the Workers' of the World Party? Do you deny that its leader Brian Becker went to North Korea and praised its government and blamed the US for its famine?
If this is all paranoia then please tell me which part of the above that you deny? All of the above is easily substantiated by a little research.
The fact that your wife marches with Code Pink does not mean that she has researched the moral inconsistencies behind this group and its leadership. It is fine to be antiwar, but it does not reflect a consistent position when you claim to be antiwar and yet you affiliate with antiwar groups that embrace dictators, organizes riots and snub the wives of political prisoners.
12:48 pm
By the way Kirk, just so you know, the communists killed about 20-30 million people in the 20th century and they advocate for a government that could not exist with our constitution. And, as to the hippies, mark my words, the hippies of the 1960's degenerated into robbing armored cars and banks and planting bombs in DC. It is only a matter of time before these nice non-violent people get to that point.
1:44 pm
Faith: Love your numerous questions that start with "Do you deny", very McCarthy-esque that. Very little time here at work to engage you on each point, but I will say that your paranoia really shows through. And the handfull of hippies who robbed banks and armored cars pale in comparison to the number who went on to become doctors, lawyers, and connservative talk show hosts. And any misdeeds by Hugo Chavez pale in comparison to the raping of the US Treasury that GW Bush has done. Back up and try again, hon.
5:57 pm
I don't need to back up and try again because you have put forth nothing to show that any of what I have said is untrue. In terms of raping the treasury, you could have made the same argument against Franklin D. Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson. If Pres. Bush did anything wrong, I am sure your democratic Congress would be impeaching him right now and it has not happened.
6:54 pm
>
It's not up to me to prove it's untrue, it's up to you to prove it IS true. Logic 101. Let's take this bit of claptrap as an example: "How can Code Pink claim to be about peace when its leader Medea Benjamin was behind the Seattle riots during the 1999 WTO?" Please cite your sources. Madea Benjamin was behind the riots? You mean, she got up at some point and screamed into a bullhorn "let's trash the place"? Is there video of this? Eyewitnesses?
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Geez, right-wing-nuts are willing to go back waaay beyond 40 years. Still pissed about FDR, wow. The thing that kills me about people like you is that you have no sense of history and your place in the world. Before the advent of unions, FDR, Bill Haywood, etc., there was no such thing as a 40 hour work week, overtime pay, or weekends. You like having Saturday and Sunday off? Thank a union member and those crazy socialists from back in the day. You actually think that things have always been like this, and if those pesky unions and govt institutions like OSHA would just go away and leave us alone, the generous folks who own the corporations would continue to treat us with kindness, respect, and generosity that we've grown accustomed to. Yeah, for about five minutes.
>
You are absolutely delusional. The fact that the scared bunny democrats are hiding under the bed and pissing themselves is proof that Bush did nothing wrong? Logic and Argument is a course offered by most community colleges. I suggest you sign up. In the meantime, take your valium, and go back and watch some more Fox News.
11:20 pm
Well Medea Benjamin's group global exchange said of the Seattle riots:
"Do we wish that the people causing the damage had been arrested? No. Would we have helped to get them out of jail if they had been? Yes."
I do not suggest that Benjamin got on a bullhorn and ordered the riots, but she was the organizing force behind the protests in which the riots occurred.
In any event, I do not criticize FDR and have not. You misinterpreted what I said which is that you could, following your own logic, say FDR starved the treasury to by fighting World War II as did Wilson before him in World War I. All wars cost money.
The Congress is the only entity that can impeach the president if they chose such an unwise course of action. The reason they have not is because there simply is no basis for it. It is unrealistic and it is not going to happen.
By the way, Medea Benjamin admitted to the Washington Times editorial board recently that Code Pink has not been effective. Is it any wonder why? After all street theater and stupid tactics are not very persuasive.
11:27 pm
And, your acid dialogue about being delusional and calling my arguments "claptrap" is not the height of intellectual discourse. You have no idea what my politics are. I do however try to be consistent in my views. Even if I hated Pres. Bush with a passion, I am not sure I could affiliate with groups led by people who embrace Hugo Chavez. I am not sure I could protest holding prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and yet refuse to meet with the wives of Fidel Castor's political prisoners.
Unlike you, I actually admire the liberal intellectuals who existed in the 1940's and 1950's. They are a different bread than you are. Some of the them were supporters of Soviet communism, but they questioned the consistency of their views on when they saw what Stalin did. In that sense, they were self critical. You are not intellectually to a point where you can look inward and do the same and I can respect that in the hopes that you will someday get there. Until that time, you are just an ideologue.
12:00 pm
Good grief! The real problem is that multi-national corporations are making a killing on the killing that this war creates & people who believe in democracy are speaking up against the huge gap, bigger than ever before, between the ultra rich & the middle class & poor. Others who study the details have noticed that democracy in this country is a hostage to capitalism. It is not "communist" to object to war profiteering and other capitalist looting of our communities and our world. If we are the biggest power & the best fed, who but us has the resources and the energy to provide some kind of fair fight in favor of justice for all. The planet is shrinking faster than the ice caps are melting: get a grip, fellow Americans! The whole world is watching & democracy never was a spectator sport! Also: in a true democracy, there's plenty of room for activists of all stripes. The real poison is the judgmental mindset that shuts out debate & simplifies every argument down to black or white, red or blue. In fact, Bush & his administration are guilty of many illegalities: most of America didn't ask for 50 years to figure this out. To understand our slow progress on impeachment, study Congressional voting requirements. The Democrats have a too small majority but many inside & outside of Capitol Hill are fighting hard for impeachment & deserve the support of any citizen with a conscience. Think of the future, think of the debt, think of all those fat cats getting richer by the minute: if only more people had the spirit to act up! As for Code Pink: well-behaved women never had much hope of being heard, never mind changing this war-torn world ...
4:14 pm
The profits of companies lately are not from war, the reason the stock market is doing so well is tax cuts. The greatest economic expansions in US history were in times of peace such as the mid to late 50's and the mid 90's. So, I don't understand why you think corporate America is always the culprit behind war. That is not to say that no companies make a profit during war, but it is myopic to claim that the heads of corporate boards hold meetings and tell the president to go to war because they need money.
Capitalism enhances democracy in case you don't know. It is a great equalizer because a dollar in my hands in equal to a dollar in your hands. Contrast that with Soviet style economies in which everyone is equally poor except the party leaders and there is no incentive to produce or be inventive.
As to the ice caps melting, there is nothing concrete to show it is because of human activity. These are theories. In the Northeast during the 1800's there was the year without summer in which there were frosts in July. That was well before industrialization. There was a so called Little Ice Age from the 1600's to the late 1700's. Extreme weather patterns are a constant thing in history.
You say in a democracy there is room for activists of all stripes. Last time I checked, communism would not be compatible with the US Constitution.
You say the Bush administration is guilty of many illegalities, but who made you a member of Congress or a judge to make that determination? Fifty years from now after all you ideologues are dead we will be able to take a more clear and unbiased look at the Bush administration without all the political propaganda that is pervasive now.
Impeachment is not on a slow path it is on no path. Get over it because it will not be happening. The democrats rule the committees and if they believed it was justified they could do it. However, only the most extreme people among us advocate for it.
I do agree that federal spending is at an all time high, but it is entitlement spending that is going to create the smashup. It is a fact that Congress for years raided social security (By the way it was the democrats who first spent social security for none retirement purposes). It is a fact that the baby boomer's will strain the system. The whole Congress and almost all the president's are to blame for that. Another weakness is that the president does not have a line item veto so spending often gets into bills because a line item veto has been held unconstitutional.
There is nothing wrong with making money or being in business or being rich. A lot of these people create jobs, they pay most of the tax burden in the country and are inventive. Many of them started with nothing. As far as corporations, do you think we would have won World War II without Ford or gone into space without Northrup. Do you think we would have vaccinations for diseases without Merk? You can't blame capitalism for every ill you see. It is a microcosm of the human experience. As long as people touch something there will be bad things, but there is a lot of good. I am not sure a better system has been invented. Even if you are so fringe that you believe communism or socialism works you surely must acknowledge that it comes at a severe price in terms of freedom.
A lot of well behaved women get heard. Have you ever heard of Ayan Rand or Clare Booth Luce?
And in terms of changing the "war torn world" you need to understand that war has always been part of the human experience and it will always be so. You can't look at people and think of how they should be because they will disappoint you every time. You have to look at them for what they are. They will do the bad things, the unexpected, they will battle and fight. Sorry, that has always been part of the human experience and it will always be.
So you don't like Bush and you don't like capitalism. Hang out with your antiwar friends who prefer the company of dictators like Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro. Hang out with the likes of Jane Fonda who was anti-Vietnam war but is pretty silent when it comes to talking about the millions who died at the hands of communists after we left. You claim to be all about legality and yet the communists who lead the antiwar movement would dispense with our constitution to achieve their workers paradise and they also by the way advocate violent revolution.
4:20 pm
Oh by the way if not being well behaved is a recipe for success than you need to ask yourself why Medea Benjamin acknowledged Code Pink's lack of success in an interview with the Washington Times last month. You can find it on You Tube.
Apparently Code Pink's own leader seems to disagree with your assertion that behaving badly works. All it achieved was getting a some of Code Pink's members arrested and put in prison and it got them criminal records.
4:43 pm
Why don't you antiwar "Activists" try and provide solutions instead of street theater. Please grace us with your plans to insure (1) Iran does not get nuclear weapons; (2) That Pakistan's nuclear weapons do not fall into the hands of radicals; (3) That North Korea does not proliferate nuclear technology throughout the world; (4) Insure than Israel is not destroyed by Iran; (5) Insure that Al Queda does not take over Iraq; (6) Insure that the world's oil resources do not fall into the hands of terrorists; (7) Insure that the US is safe from within given that we don't even know who is here because of decades of liberal immigration policies; (8) Insure that the debt is reduced and yet take care of defending the country and paying out entitlements like social security; (9) How you will solve the genocide in Darfur; (10) How you would get China which is the biggest polluter to reduce pollution; (11) How you would create jobs; and(12) How you would stimulate the economy and (13) How you would insure that after we left Iraq it would not result in a bloodbath.
It is easy for you to heap bitter criticism against the president, but you offer no realistic solutions. Believe me, if you had workable answers they would almost certainly be implemented. I know for sure that if any of you were president there is no way we would have not been attacked in nearly 7 years because you want to sit down and talk to people whose agenda is to destroy you.
12:45 am
Kirk,
There is no statute of limitations on murder.
Hey, if commies don't exist, then tell Medea to stop writing books like CUBA: Talking About Revolution.
12:49 am
Kirk,
Code Pink is an endorser of the WTI findings, findings which tell one side to use terror ("certain acts of desperation") against your fellow citizens, the ones who swore an oath to defend you. And tells the enemy that their cause is legitimate and justified under the UN Charter and international law.
Your wife worked with Code Pink, that means she's an accomplice to war crimes in violation of the Geneva accords. She has blood of American troops and innocent Iraqi victims of al_qaeda terrorists on her hands.
How can you sleep with such an immroal and inhumane woman?
12:53 am
TD,
Gee, you've convinced me. That whole thing about being pissed that Code Pink says they are for peace but facilitates the murder of US troops, how judgemental of me.
What was I thinking when I called them traitors.
We'll get right on that today....
1:46 am
Well Right On Code Pink for their consistent and fearless presence in DC. Hell with the morons who blabber about capitalism and democracy walking hand in hand while they excuse torture and occupations that no lover of liberty would ever endure in our own country. It's laughable to hear about the great left wing conspiracy as we are bombarded be apologist candidates who don't have the guts to speak out about Israel's 300 nuclear weapons, and citizens who wonder how the "free world" will survive those pesky Iranians and their ski boats.
Street theater is a wonderful way to communicate ideas in a country where the media is owned by those who profit from the status quo, and the citizens are entranced by fear, while Halliburton relocates to Dubai.
Just so folks know. Those marvelous masks of the current criminal administration have been provided for free to Code Pink by the Backbone Campaign. The Backbone Campaign has four sets, built by volunteers on Vashon Island, WA, and provides them to groups around the country that stand for setting a precedent of accountability rather than impunity.
Keep up the good work sisters!
Bill Moyer
E.D. Backbone Campaign
http://backbonecampaign.org
2:48 am
Bill:
You talk about torture, but waterboarding has been used on 2 or 3 high ranking Al Queda and in one case it prevented attacks that were in the works. It is too bad that you are not in a position where you are responsible for the safety of others and where you have to make tough choices in someone's interrogation. So, if you knew that you could waterboard someone and save lives, what would you do? You can sit from the comfort of your home having no responsibility for anyone else and ponder that question.
And you complain about Israel, but if I am not mistaken Israel has been attacked several times has it not? Tell us, would you rather have a nuclear Israel or a nuclear Iran?
You say the current administration is criminal, but who made that determination?
AGAIN:
Why don't you antiwar "Activists" try and provide solutions instead of street theater. Please grace us with your plans to insure (1) Iran does not get nuclear weapons; (2) That Pakistan's nuclear weapons do not fall into the hands of radicals; (3) That North Korea does not proliferate nuclear technology throughout the world; (4) Insure than Israel is not destroyed by Iran; (5) Insure that Al Queda does not take over Iraq; (6) Insure that the world's oil resources do not fall into the hands of terrorists; (7) Insure that the US is safe from within given that we don't even know who is here because of decades of liberal immigration policies; (8) Insure that the debt is reduced and yet take care of defending the country and paying out entitlements like social security; (9) How you will solve the genocide in Darfur; (10) How you would get China which is the biggest polluter to reduce pollution; (11) How you would create jobs; and(12) How you would stimulate the economy and (13) How you would insure that after we left Iraq it would not result in a bloodbath and (14) How you would get Osama Bin Laden.
It is easy for you to heap bitter criticism against the president, but you offer no realistic solutions. You have no responsibility for anyone else so it is easy for you to criticize. You don't have to make decisions.
We live in tough and dangerous times and the president is doing his job which is to protect the United States. All your ilk seeks to do is undermine the US hence all of your bitter dialogue that offers ZERO in the way of real solutions.
Believe me, if you had workable answers they would almost certainly be implemented. I know for sure that if any of you were president there is no way we would have not been attacked in nearly 7 years because you want to sit down and talk to people whose agenda is to destroy you.
4:13 am
Protest is good...
After all, 'We the People' are SUPPOSED to be the Voice
But not all voices get heard
4:42 am
Code Pink:
The Women’s Anti-War Movement
by John J. Tierney
The women wear pink dresses and
sportswear and carry pink parasols
and pink protest signs that declare
their opposition to the Iraq war. Mainly white
and middle-aged, they proclaim themselves
to be the wives and mothers and daughters of
men and women in the armed services, and
they say they are earnestly devoted to peace
and opposed to U.S. war policies. Acting out
bits of political theater, they denounce their
enemies—no, not Osama bin Laden—but
giant puppet figures who walk with them. The
puppets have the oversized heads of George
W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.
The women call themselves Code Pink:
Women for Peace. But don’t be fooled by all
the theatricality of the ladies in pink. Behind
the deceptive façade of stagy protests and
moral outrage, the women running Code Pink
(which the group spells CODEPINK in capital
letters) are serious and very radical political
activists. They subscribe in varying degrees
to strands of Marxist, neo-Marxist, and progressive
left-wing thought, and their ideas
belong to a long and complex history of
radical politics going back to the early Bolsheviks.
As I pointed out in my book The
Politics of Peace: What’s Behind the Anti-
War Movement? (Capital Research Center, 2005), the leadership of the current anti-Iraq
war movement is an outgrowth of the old
Communist Party and of communist splinter
groups that emerged in reaction to Stalinism.
The women who lead Code Pink are in that
tradition.
Of course, Code Pink describes itself as a
“grassroots peace and social justice movement.”
It was founded in November 2002 as
the U.S. was about to topple Saddam Hussein,
but more generally it has aimed to coordinate
feminist protests against George W. Bush
and the war on terror. The group is not just
anti-Bush and anti-war, however: it is antieverything
about America—against the U.S. economic system, against U.S. foreign and
domestic policies, and against the American
culture of “racism” and “sexism.”
1:20 pm
Conservative people like FaithL continue to use the Karl Rove play book by noting that the Democrats have no ideas to solve problems. What a bunch of BS.
Here, FaithL challenges anti-Bush Americans (which makes up about 70 percent of the voting age population in the United States by the way):
(1) FaithL: "Iran does not get nuclear weapons".
Let's see Bush and his ilk continue to rattle their sabres against Iran. The recent NIE report on Iran's alleged nuclear program destroyed Bush's credibility about this "threat".
I have an idea...let's try engagement with Iran. Develop closer economic, academic and cultural ties with the country. Eventually, the hardline mullahs from Iran will lose power if more Iranian people are exposed to the good side of American foreign policy.
(2) FaithL: "That Pakistan's nuclear weapons do not fall into the hands of radicals".
The Bush solution is to continue to back a dictator who might be responsible for the murder of Benazir Bhutto. No, we should encourage full democratization in Pakistan EVEN if that means the Islamic parties gain in power. By the way, radical Islamic groups are not that popular in Pakistan to begin with. It's the moderate and liberal Pakistanis who will win if Musharraf loses his authority.
(3) FaithL: "That North Korea does not proliferate nuclear technology throughout the world".
So what do you right-wing conservatives propose? Bombing North Korea? Starving North Korea? Last time I checked, the Bush administration hasn't shown must interest in this area. They are letting the Chinese and Russians negotiate the terms of nuclear disarmament. But then again, North Korea was allowed to grow its nuclear weapons program under Bush's watch.
(4) FaithL: "Insure than Israel is not destroyed by Iran".
What evidence do you have that shows Iran is an imminent threat to Israel? Why would Iran risk such a military venture when the US, NATO, and other developed powers would respond with harsh force? Got a better idea as a liberal: why don't we ensure peace and security for ALL countries in the Middle East...not just Israel.
(5) FaithL: "Insure that Al Queda does not take over Iraq".
Study after study shows that the Al Qaeda threat in Iraq is overblown. There are more dangerous challenges posed by Iraqi-based Sunni insurgent groups and Shiite militias backed with Iranian money and arms.
(6) FaithL: "Insure that the world's oil resources do not fall into the hands of terrorists".
We liberals are focusing on developing renewable and alternative energy sources so we can remove our reliance on oil. How about the US get rid of its oil addiction for starters so we don't have to fund the security for medieval, dictatorship regimes such as Saudi Arabia.
(7) FaithL: "Insure that the US is safe from within given that we don't even know who is here because of decades of liberal immigration policies".
How would you do this? You realize that we live in a more interconnected world now. You realize how large this country is in terms of geography and population.
(8) FaithL: "Insure that the debt is reduced and yet take care of defending the country and paying out entitlements like social security".
The Bush administration has failed miserably here. How about we stop funding the Iraq War and no more tax cuts for the wealthiest slice of the American population.
(9) FaithL: "How you will solve the genocide in Darfur".
Well, the Bush administration has basically ignored the problem. Gee, there's no oil in western Sudan, right? How about getting the EU involved to impose strict economic sanctions and create greater diplomatic isolation of the Sudan regime.
(10) FaithL: "How you would get China which is the biggest polluter to reduce pollution".
Well, we are not a good role model since the Bush administration dissed the Kyoto Protocol which calls for aggressive reduction of greenhouse gases. If the United States isn't serious about reducing CO2 emissions, why should China follow suit?
(11) FaithL: "How you would create jobs?"
Maybe creating government-based stimulus programs that would enhance our infrastructure: highways, rail systems, bridges, air traffic control system, electric & gas utility networks, and the expansion of broadband internet to every home would be a huge jobs generator.
Add more labor protection rules in free trade agreements. Thanks to NAFTA and other free trade agreements, our country has permanently lost good-paying manufacturing sector jobs.
(12) FaithL: "How you would stimulate the economy."
How about providing payroll tax relief for middle and lower income Americans? How about pursuing health care reform so employers and individuals are saddled with huge bills?
(13) FaithL: "How you would insure that after we left Iraq it would not result in a bloodbath".
Well, we created the mess in the first place didn't we. How long are you prepared to stay in Iraq? 10 more years? 20 more years? 100 more years? We should set a timetable for withdrawal. A political compromise must be reached between the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds to ensure stability in Iraq. Unfortunately, Bush has not been successful in this area. Maybe a Democratic President will have more success in this area.
(14) FaithL: "How you would get Osama Bin Laden".
Oh you mean, Osama Bin Forgotten. Our Dear Leader has failed miserably in this department. Tell you what...if you are unemployed, don't have health insurance coverage, you are looking at mounting credit card bills, you have a sick wife or kids, you have an empty food pantry, risk of foreclosure, higher crime in your neighborhood, higher gas prices...the last fucking thing on your mind is how do we get Osama bin Laden.
And this is why the Democratic Party will gain more seats in Congress and why our next President of the United States will be either a black man or a woman. People like FaithL are stuck in this September 11, 2001 (America vs. The World) mind set. Issues like the economy, health care access and affordability, housing foreclosures, quality of public school education are a much higher priority than Al Qaeda and Iran to the American people. Democrats get it and have attainable ideas. The Republicans are lost in the wilderness just like George W. Bush.
3:47 pm
Well, a whole page of the solutions to all the problems of the world. I have seen more detailed writing on Brittany Spears. Nothing more than a rant against Pres. Bush than an offering of any realistic solutions. Believe me if you had the answers Time would make you Person of the Year or you might win the Nobel Peace Prize. Don't expect any awards any time soon.
5:59 pm
Ha Ha! I love the 7 year old response from FaithL regarding my post:
"Oh yeah...well...well...I know you are but what am I?"
America is going progressive and turning away from conservative politics. Republican rule bankrupted our nation of its finances and its spirit. Enjoy the 2008 election year!
6:54 pm
Kirk, Coldbliss, Faith- I must say that I've enjoyed the comments more than the article itself.
One thing is for sure. America is definitely not winning on any front.
3:08 am
Of course we are winning on many fronts. I am optimistic for the future. It doesn't matter whether it is a Republican or a Democrat in the White House, average middle class people made this country great and will continue to do so. Sorry, I don't buy into the negativity of the ideologues. I don't blame all the terrible things in the world on whoever is in the White House or rules the Congress. Both parties are dominated by well intended people who want the best for the country. Are there some bad people out there? Sure there are... And, there always will be.
I transcend party politics because I love the country and I am not interested in the bitter discourse that never ends and says nothing and offers nothing. Not my cup of tea. I'll leave that up to all of you. I love the country and I love democracy and freedom! When you see people who blame Bush or Clinton for all the ills in the world run away from them because they are nothing more than political ideologues trying to steal the discourse for their own ends.
3:31 am
In terms of the so called 7 year old response, why would I want to waste my time educating a political ideologue? Sure, I could go into this huge discourse about why unilateral talks with North Korea have more potential than bilateral talks. I could talk about how North Korea deceived the Clinton administration and how those bilateral talks failed in spite of good efforts by the President at the time. I could tell you how Bush has decided not take the country into that trap again. What is the use in my trying to give you history. You can't take an unbiased look at anything.
Sure, I could tell you that no other country in the world has done more for Darfur than the U.S. and that China is the one that is supporting the genocide there, but would you really believe it? You think the solutions to the world's ills are reduced to a few sentences written by an ideologue on this blog.
I could try until I am blue in the face to tell you that the President and Congress has very little control over the economy and that in sometimes periods of recession are actually healthy in some respects. But, what good would it do for me to give you an education about finance. If you are interested in how Wall Street works you can look it up yourself.
I could tell you that there are a lot of considerations in leaving Iraq. But what is the point? Why would I waste my time telling you about the tensions between the Kurds and the Turks that could boil over in an unstable Iraq. I could tell you that other countries in the region could get further drawn in if we leave it unstable. What is the point though? You think we made a mistake going into the war in the first place and that we should leave it screwed up to punish ourselves at the expense of a lot of regular people in the region who might die if we leave it unstable. I can't give you a history lesson or a dissertation on the present state of the region because you simply wouldn't care because your mind is made up.
It is nice to talk about health care reform and everyone agrees that this is something that we will have to deal with. There is no easy answer to it. Look at what reforms did in England and France. These countries have developed a lot of pricey programs and such programs solve some problems, but create others. Why should I lay out all the advantages and disadvantages of health care reform for you. You think it is an easy problem to solve.
I don't need to address all of your suggestions because, yes you have laid out some areas that need attention, but the problem is that you think the solutions are all easy. You think America is to blame for all the world's ills. I wouldn't wish the task of dealing with these things on my worst enemy. These are tough challenges. The difference between you and I is that I know that everything has an affect on everything else and that there are no easy solutions to any of these problems. In that sense, I have a little more savoire faire on the issues than you will ever have. And, that is because I am an intellectual and not an ideologue like you.
Just keep sitting in your armchair and solving the world's problems with your simple two sentence canned solutions. If ignorance is bliss you and your ilk must be pretty happy.
3:55 am
Just to further illustrate my point, Coldbills talks about his concern for the environment and his concern about the economy and competing. I am not suggesting that both are not legitimate issues. But, you can't regulate the environment without impacting the economy and without impacting the ability to compete. And then, what do you when proposed treaties place higher burdens on the US than they do on polluters such as China who are actually worse on the environment than any other country in the world? What I am saying is not that there is or is not a solution, what I am saying is that everything is so intertwined there is no easy solution.
Unlike you, I don't know the answers to these problems. I do know that they are more complicated than Coldbliss would have you believe. I don't fault you for trying to come up with solutions, but where I do fault you is that you think the answers are easy. Trust me, no matter who gets elected problems are going to still exist.
You say you are a liberal, but we have had periods where we have had a democratic Congress and a liberal president and still had stagflation. We have had republican leaders and had recession. The economy is cyclical and goes through periods of boom and then it pulls back. It doesn't matter who is running the Congress or the White House. If you think it does, then you take a rather simplistic view of the US economy.
Sometimes an economic pullback is healthy. I don't have the time to go through the history of Keynesian economics and von Hayek's economic theories. At times both served the country well. Keynes was liberal and his theories were good during times of depression, but they did not work in the 1970's. Hayek's conservative theories served us well in the 1980's and 1990's, but who knows what will come along that Hayek could not count on.
Both the liberals and the conservative have some good ideas to start finding solutions. Don't get caught up in labeling one good or bad. They both want to protect the country and insure the continuation of the freedom we have enjoyed in this very challenging time.
10:27 am
I do love the comments from the antiwar protesters to the effect that protest is good. I am not sure that is correct. Protest is just that, protest. It offers no solutions, it just criticizes the status quo. If you really want to do some good try and shed the bitter acid discourse and start thinking about realistic solutions.
What made the Founding Fathers so great is that they all got together and came up with a plan that laid out a workable government from nothing that turned out to be a significant triumph for democracy even though it had some flaws.
What made the liberals of the 1930's so great is that they came up with ideas to bring the economy out of depression. Then, they came up with a strategy to fight World War II and turn back fascism.
The conservatives of the 1980's stood up to communism and came up with ideas to bring the economy out of stagflation.
I don't care what your politics are. If you are talking bitter and negative you are not solving anything. If you really want to do something, do some research and come up with realistic plans to solve existing problems while taking into account the impact of these plans.
Have you ever heard of the X paper which laid out plans to stem the tide of communism? Any one of you could write a plan like the X paper if you realized that we need more solutions rather than criticism and protest.
If the antiwar crowd really wanted to get out of Iraq, then why don't they come up with a workable plan for political reconciliation there? A plan that democrats and republicans could embrace and say wow that might actually help speed along progress and get us out sooner.
Don't expect these people to come up with anything. They are too fooled by the their own smoke to realize they are accomplishing ZERO. Don't get me wrong, I have no hatred toward them. I wish they would start using their intellect instead of their acid discourse. Maybe they would actually do something that we could all agree on that would help.
I think it is sad that on all sides of the political arena we have ideologues instead of intellectuals. I am not an advocate of one side or another in the political spectrum. I am an advocate of an optimistic can do attitude that Kennedy talked about. You don't solve problems with protest. You solve them with intellect. And that is in short supply these days and our children and grandchildren will surely pay for this lack of intellect and all this bitter discourse. It does no one any good and it certainly has no impact on solving problems.
10:50 am
In spite of all the disagreement, there is a lot of common ground. If you heap less criticism and find the common ground and work from there you will see solutions start to come forward in stead of just criticism. Then, and only then, will you see change in the status quo. You have to find where we agree and work from there. When you focus in on the areas in which we disagree all you do is cause more noise and solve Zero. You don't need to shill for any political agenda. You can solve problems with intellect, not partisan politics. You are all nothing more than fools with so much potential and so little knowledge about how to use it positively to actually do us all good. It is a tragedy.
12:08 pm
Faith- you need a hug!!
But you're right - petty bickering won't get us anywhere. It will take a firm grasp of history and an altruistic perception of the present to come up with the answers. Nothing is so complicated that it can't be undone. That's optimism.
When I say that America is not winning, I allude to the fact that we are no longer the almighty nation of days past. I honestly can't think of a tangible sector that we lead in besisdes spending. You're well read, so you MIGHT be able to name a few others. Globalism and time have allowed other nations to catch up. So America is not altogether bad. It's just not number one in every race any more. The momentum is headed in the other direction. That's all I was saying.
1:53 pm
As George Orwell said over half a century ago "Pacifism can only be preached behind the protective cover of the British Navy" and the same is true with the US navy today. Let us remember that the grandparents of the "Code Pinkers" delivered "Peace in our Time" in 1938 when England appeased tyranny, and after the greatest conflagration in history ended in 1945, 80 million had died during their "peace" time.
The so-called activists are not just amusing theater, they actually embolden the enemies of freedom. And the tyrants whom organizations like Code Pink and their totalitarian allies support hate the West because women are allowed to attend school, learn to read, expose their hair or skin. Of course they have no understanding of the connection, and I suspect none of them have ever read bin Laden's fatwa of 1996 calling for the deaths of Americans and other Westerners who support women's rights.
But trying to argue with them will get you nowhere since their religion is far more ingrained than any of the traditional churches such as Protestantism, Judaism, Catholicism, etc. Medea Benjamin moved to her “Utopia” of communist Cuba decades ago because she hated the USA and said she thought she had died and gone to heaven on earth. Sadly for us, even Castro thought she was too radical for “heaven” and kicked her out. This was long before G. W. Bush had even thought of getting into politics. But of course he is now the cause of all the world’s problems, including the heartbreak of psoriasis.
And introducing facts to the issue will only result in getting an insult in return. They live in a world made safe for them by patriots who have shed their blood to enable them to speak in English and not German or Japanese or Arabic, and they can shut out the real world by living in halfway-houses where they share their delusions with fellow sufferers of Bush Derangement Syndrome.
3:01 pm
FaithL: "I do love the comments from the antiwar protesters to the effect that protest is good. I am not sure that is correct. Protest is just that, protest. It offers no solutions, it just criticizes the status quo. If you really want to do some good try and shed the bitter acid discourse and start thinking about realistic solutions."
Give me a break. First, where did you stand before the US started dropping bombs on Iraq in 2003? I am willing to bet you bought the whole WMD "threat" by Saddam BS in the first place. Let's Get 'Em, right? I bet you had a BIG smile on your face when the Saddam statue was getting torn down. Vindication, right?
Who created this mess in Iraq? I don't think it was Saddam Hussein. Al Qaeda came in force AFTER the US invasion. Nope. The United States of America smashed the powder keg to pieces. We break it...guess what? We have to fix it. Almost 4,000 dead military personnel and hundreds of billions of tax-payer dollars later, we are definitely paying for this mess.
I agree that we need a lasting political solution before we completely pull out. But what if the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds can never reach a compromise. Did you ever think about this? What does the US do then? Stay in Iraq for another 20, 30 or 50 years? Permanently? You never really answered this question in my first reply by the way.
People protest for a reason. We have to show the world that we are disgusted with US military policy in the Middle East. Protest is about gaining publicity as much as venting our frustration and anger. It's a constitutional right. You know...the freedom of assembly and petition of grievances.
By the way...protest groups and political leaders have ideas out there. The logical conclusion is that we cannot maintain our military presence in Iraq due to the enormous political instability and financial liability to our country. Of course, you don't think this is a "real" idea because YOU DON'T AGREE WITH IT! You are a hypocrite--pure and simple. If you don't like an idea...you don't call it an idea or a strategy...you call it gibberish not worthy of intellectual discussion. Listen, you are a conservative hack masquerading as a sensible intellectual exploring answers to difficult questions. You like one kind of answer...the partisan answer that fits your philosophical viewpoint of the world. So spare me, I am an intellectual looking for common ground BS.
5:04 pm
Cold, you don't know what I stand for or what my positions are. I am so far beyond ideologues like you. My analysis of Iraq is less concerned about what got us there as it about what challenges exist now and addressing those challenges.
Political resolution is not going to happen there all night. I have heard it legitimately said that people want Thomas Jefferson's and George Washington's to step up in Iraq and come up with a political solution. The problem is that the prior regime killed all the Thomas Jefferson's and George Washington's there.
Okay, so you agree that we need a lasting political solution before we completely pull out. Now that is one of the most realistic statements you have made. It is also one in which there is a lot of common ground. Regardless of what got us in there, no one wants to leave the people there to the wind.
I am not a political leader to make the determination of how long we stay. Unlike you, I don't claim to have all the answers. I am not privy to expert analysis, intelligence or real time information. All I know is what little is reported in the news. I know the problems are not as simple as everyone thinks they are.
I am just trying to look through the blue smoke find some realistic answers. I do however truly believe that the last place I see answers coming from is the antiwar crowd. All I see there is hatred and bitterness coming from them.
I agree that protest is a right, but that does not mean that it achieves anything. I believe in the power of intellectualism, not idealogical demagoguery and insults coming from people with their own political agenda. This is my last post, I am not coming back on this issue, we are spinning our wheels here.
2:26 am
From Wikipedia.....
The consistency of Code Pink's antiwar credentials and its values as an antiwar group is criticized because while it publicly opposes President Bush and his policies in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Code Pink's leaders have embraced Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. Most notably, Code Pink's three highest profile members, Medea Benjamin, Jodi Evans and Cindy Sheehan, visited Hugo Chavez in January 2006. After returning to the United States, Cindy Sheehan stated in an MSNBC interview that she would rather live under Hugo Chavez than President Bush.[16]
Medea Benjamin has often praised Hugo Chavez in various articles despite his support for the communist FARC, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia leftist, narco-terrorist guerrillas which have been responsible for about 750 kidnappings in Columbia and has fought the democratic government in Columbia for forty years. FARC use routes through Venezuela to import weapons, cash, and war material, and to export drugs and the United States State Department's position is that Chavez is complicit with FARC's activities.[17] Moreover, Chavez has maintained close economic and diplomatic ties with Cuba and Iran. Chavez has also proclaimed his "brotherhood" with Saddam Hussein and has also favorably described the Taliban.[18] While Benjamin has praised Chavez in a series of written articles, and considers herself a human rights and social justice activist[19], she has never publicly criticized him for his seizure of all independent media in Venezuela. Instead, Benjamin associated the Venezuelan media with the elites who were opposed to Chavez. She wrote, "Infuriated by their loss of power, the elite use their control over the media to blast Chavez for destroying the economy, cozying up to Fidel Castro, antagonizing the US government, expropriating private property, and using dictatorial rule." Benjamin further wrote that President Bush and John Kerry, could learn a lesson from Hugo Chavez about winning the hearts and minds of the people.[20]
The organization Global Exchange, which Medea Benjamin is the founding director and co-director[21], describes Venezuela as being "..at the center of a new, progressive model of socioeconomic development that is shaping Latin America’s future. There are few countries where everyday people actually receive the benefits of cooperation with multinationals: a redistribution of oil profit, a guarantee for healthcare written into the constitution, and record-breaking achievements in education. What's more, having been internationally ratified as a democracy during the August 2004 recall referendum, Venezuela has embarked upon some of the most innovative regional programs that Latin America has ever seen."[22]
Contrary to the assertions of Medea Benjamin, Cindy Sheehan and Global Exchange, Hugo Chavez has not been progressive in the area of human rights. Human Rights Watch has declared that Chavez misused regulatory authority in his decision to shut down Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) harms free expression.[23] Human Rights Watch also accuses Chavez of political persecution and undermining the independence of the Venezuelan judiciary.[24][25][26]
3:48 am
A little more from Wikipedia about those nice sweet girls of Code Pink(o)
Support of Venezuelan Crackdown on Free Expression
Despite the crackdown on free expression and civil rights in Venezuela, Medea Benjamin continued to support Hugo Chavez. She was quoted as saying that the crackdowns on free expression and civil rights in Venezuela are "myths."[30] In an interview with Tucker Carlson on MSNBC, Benjamin was asked, "Do you want to revise that given the news that Hugo Chavez has closed the last nationally broadcast opposition television station for criticizing him?" Benjamin replied that it was not true and that what happened was that Chavez simply did not renew the license because "it "participated in a coup against a democratically elected government, his [Chavez's] government."[31] Carlson responded that a 360 page Venezuelan government published book accused RCTV, the last independent television station closed by Chavez, as showing lack of respect for authorities and institutions. Carlson asked Benjamin, "I would think, as a self described liberal, you would stand up for the right of people to, quote, challenge authorities and institutions. And yet, you are apologizing for the squelching of minority views. Why could that be?" Benjamin replied that, "They [RCTV] falsified information. They got people out on the street. They falsified footage that showed pro Chavez supporters killing people, which did not happen. They refuse to cover any of the pro Chavez demonstrations." Carlson responded that he thought someday Medea Benjamin would be ashamed of her statements regarding the crackdown on RCTV[32]
11:42 am
OK, I was going to remain quiet, because I don't think bashing each other on the internet will accomplish much (which is why I'm involved in CODEPINK, rather than just writing emails about how much the war sucks), but seriously, wikipedia? Outdated wikipedia? None of that is in the current iteration of the CODEPINK entry. Surely you can do better research than that. Bash away if you like, but do everyone a favor and bash with current, cited information.
8:18 pm
SR:
Which parts of the Wikipedia article are not true? I mean it is a little difficult to dispute the words of Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin when there are transcripts and video out there.
11:48 am
Then cite them, not an article that no longer exists.
12:56 pm
SR:
I am not in college where I need to cite sources. You don't deny any of this because you know it is all true. If you are interested in the sources, then take your ass over to the Wikipedia page for yourself and check them.
9:48 pm
I suspect that Code Pink is truly fun for those involved -- everyone loves a chance to get all riled up and impress oneself with self-righteousness.
Unfortunately, its actual effect is probably counterproductive. Code Pink gives the pro-war crowd a convenient boogeyman (boogeywoman?) to point at -- rude, antidemocratic protestors whose leadership proclaims that they're on the side of those killing U.S. troops. That may make about 3% of the population feel real good, but for the overwhelming majority that actually turns out to vote, it sounds somewhere between nutty and viciously anti-American.
7:01 am
The pro-war groups seems to able to have it both ways; exposing the horrific threat from this bunch of fearsome pink-panty wearing, sticky paint hurling, commie loving group while managing to send other people's sons and daughters off to die for the war (on terror, of course)