Stark Stands Up, Dems Sit Down

Perhaps this isn't the most important news story of the day, but it is a little funny to follow:

On Thursday, Congress discussed overriding Bush's veto to the health care bill. Rep. Pete Stark (D- CA) had the following comments to make:

First of all, I'm just amazed they can't figure out, the Republicans are worried we can't pay for insuring an additional 10 million children. They sure don't care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where ya gonna get that money? You going to tell us lies like you're telling us today? Is that how you're going to fund the war? You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President's amusement. This bill would provide healthcare for 10 million children and unlike the President's own kids, these children can't see a doctor or receive necessary care. [...]

But President Bush's statements about children's health shouldn't be taken any more seriously than his lies about the war in Iraq. The truth is that Bush just likes to blow things up. In Iraq, in the United States and in Congress.

Yay for Stark's "colorful way of expressing himself" !!!! Outraged (and hypocritical) Republicans demand an apology for this flagrant attack in George II. Stark has kind of refused. It's interesting, especially since Republicans have always been so warm and fuzzy. Here's a photo of Rep. Steve King (R- IA) expressing his opinion of the bill. JC Watts later called Stark a "small person with a withered soul."

Does the attention Stark has received indicate anything? DISTRACTION, GOoPer style? And who's feeding into it? Our friend Pelosi, among others. No need to draw attention to more worthy issues (funding the war with $200 billion per year? reinstituting habeus corpus? Blackwater? providing health care for 10 million kids?)...

Occupation and resistance in Iraq

This is pretty amazing: a six-minute 'video op-ed' posted on the New York Times website about the Iraqi resistance. It includes interviews and statistics that show that it is the American occupation itself, rather than sectarian strife or 'terrorism,' which is causing the vast majority of the obscene violence in Iraq. Ordinary Iraqis are understandably incensed by the presence of the American military, and it is this fact which is causing them to fight--which accounts for most of the attacks in the country (74% of all violent acts in Iraq are aimed at the American military, as opposed to other Iraqis, according to the US Department of Defense). Definitely worth watching.

Nancy, Nancy, You Can't Hide!

Video of the Campus Antiwar Network protest at Nancy Pelosi's office, which BSTW, along with other campus antiwar groups in the Bay Area, organized:

Statement on anti-Muslim "satire" at GWU

* * For Immediate Release: Friday, 12 October 2007 * *
Statement on anti-Muslim "satire" at GWU
Press Contacts:
Rayyan Ghuma (Univ. of Maryland): 410-530-6078
Chris Schwartz (Univ. of Northern Iowa): 319-230-5677
Chris Dols (Univ. of Wisconsin): 608-215-7035

On October 8, 2007 at George Washington University, anti-Muslim posters were plastered all over campus, saying “Hate Muslims? So do we!!!” This poster claimed to be in the name of the conservative students on campus, but in fact, it seems that some misguided anti-war activists issued the posters as “satire.” The Campus Antiwar Network condemns this action in the strongest possible terms. We do not believe the posters were an “anti-war action.” Instead, they played into the racist atmosphere that Muslim and Arab students and people in general suffer today.

No doubt, the racist right-wing and the police will use these events to try to clamp down on genuine anti-war and anti-racist actions at George Washington as well as on other campuses across the country. We oppose all attacks on free speech on the part of the university and police authorities.

We call on all anti-war activists and anti-racist people to condemn the actions that took place at George Washington University. Despite this terrible action, we continue to believe that the organizers of the so-called “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” are themselves stoking the racist hysteria against Muslims and Arabs.

CAN will continue to organize in solidarity with Arab and Muslim people against the Islamophobia that George Bush is using to justify his war in Iraq. We believe that the continued occupation of Iraq is a crime against humanity and we demand that we bring all the troops home now.

passed by CAN chapters at the following schools
Kent State University
University of Maryland--College Park
San Francisco State University
Northeastern Illinois University
Rochester Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
City College San Francisco
University of Wisconsin--Madison
University of Illinois--Chicago
University of Illinois--Champaign-Urbana
City College New York

Workshop on Vietnam

Perhaps over the next week anyone who finds information contributing to the Jeffs' discussion on Vietnam could post it for all to see and learn!

Simply add a comment to this message to contribute to the conversation.

October 27th -- protest the war in San Francisco

The October 27th protest against the war in Iraq is just around the corner. We're hoping for a good showing of people from UC Berkeley. The Campus Antiwar Network is sponsoring a student contingent and everyone is more than welcome to join us.

Protesting the war has in recent years been considered a little passe (partly because people feel they don't do anything and partly because people feel that they are a kind of ritualized political theater of the left). But it has always seemed to me that this conclusion was based on people's raised expectations about protesting the war Iraq, namely, that protests were ALL that it would take to stop the war.

Protests have never been sufficient to stop any war. In the 1960s, there were of course substantial demonstrations, but a) they were happening all over the country, and not just in a few places every 6 months and b) they were only part of the resistance to the war time effort (which included, domestically, draft-dodging, counter-recruitment, sit-ins, etc. and internationally, importantly included the successful military tactics of the Vietnamese NLF).

But protests are necessary. They not only give people a chance to see what the anti-war movement looks like, they get to see what it is that the antiwar movement wants. We get an opportunity to meet and talk to other activists who have their own experiences of organizing successes and failures and we get to learn from them. And perhaps most importantly, they can definitely be a boost for morale in some trying times.

Stand Up! Speak Out!

STAND UP! SPEAK OUT!

Against poverty and for the millenium development goals

Wednesday, Oct 17th San Fran Civic Center

www.standupsanfrancisco.org