Events

Dr. King was right. The bombs killing poor people in Afghanistan also explode at home.

At least $100 billion will be spent this year in occupying Afghanistan. Over three million jobs at $15 per hour could be created with this money. Instead it’s being used to kill children thousands of miles away.

Meanwhile the big banks that were bailed out with over a trillion dollars from us continue to launder drug profits. Afghanistan, occupied by the U.S., supplies over 90% of the world’s heroin.

Right now the 75,000 people in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province are being pounded by 15,000 troops in the war’s biggest airborne assault. Rockets murdered 12 children in the early hours of this offensive. U.S. General Stanley McChrystal called this war crime merely “regrettable.”

Forty years ago Dr. King said, "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government.” The Pentagon continues to kill people around the world with its $700 billion war budget. At the same time billionaire Bloomberg wants to close schools and St. Vincent’s Hospital may shut down.

Join us to demand an end to occupying the fourth poorest nation on earth. Stop the Brutal US/NATO war on Afghanistan!

MEDIA ALERT: Antiwar Protest in Daytona Beach to mark 1,000 KIA

Afghanistan - 1,000 KIA - Enough Already, Bring Them Home Now!

As of today, Friday February 19, 2010, there have been 998 U.S. troops Killed in Action (KIA) in Afghanistan. On the day following the 1,000th U.S. soldier KIA in Afghanistan ... which should be any day now ... there will be an emergency Antiwar Protest in Daytona Beach billed as "Afghanistan - 1,000 KIA - Enough Already, Bring Them Home Now!".

Note: This event will not be a vigil, but rather a spirited demand that our government Stop The Wars Now!

The only thing worse than sending our soldiers to die in vain in Afghanistan and Iraq is for the American people to allow, by their consent of silence and indifference, more of our soldiers to die in vain.

What have you done today to end the senseless U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? Join us and get involved!

Call your Representative today at (800) 828-0498 or (202) 224-3121 and tell them to vote NO on War Funding!

When:

From 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm on the day after the 1,000th U.S. soldier is KIA in Afghanistan.

(Note: If 1,000th KIA is on a Saturday, then the protest will be held 2 days after on a Monday.)

As of Friday Feb. 19th, 2010 there have been 998 Killed in Action (KIA) in Afghanistan.

(Go to http://www.icasualties.org for the up-to-date total of U.S. soldiers KIA in Afghanistan and Iraq)

Where:

Daytona Beach at the Northwest corner of Nova Road and International Speedway Boulevard in front of the Steak N Shake.

For more information click "Read more." Click "File attachment" for flyer.

MK-ULTRA: The CIA's Mind Control Program
By Stephen Lendman

Note: MK-ULTRA and Ruhullah's story will be featured on the Progressive Radio News Hour this Thursday, February 18 at 10AM US Central time on The Progressive Radio Network. Listen live or later through archives.

MK-ULTRA was the code name for a secret CIA mind control program, begun in 1953, under Director Allen Dulles. Its purpose was multifold, including to perfect a truth drug for interrogating suspected Soviet spies during the Cold War. It followed earlier WW II hypnosis, primitive drugs research, and the US Navy's Project Chatter, explained by its Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request as follows:

It began "in the fall of 1947 focusing on the identification and testing of drugs (LSD and others) in interrogations and the recruitment of agents. The research included laboratory experiments on both animal and human subjects. The program ended shortly after the Korean War in 1953."

It was run under the direction of Dr. Charles Savage of the Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, MD from 1947 - 1953, after which CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence continued it under the name Project Bluebird, its first mind control program to:

• learn how to condition subjects to withstand information from being extracted from them by known means;
• develop interrogation methods to exert control;
• develop memory enhancement techniques; and
• establish ways to prevent hostile control of Agency personnel.

Tonight: February 16, 2010, 7 p.m.

The National Press Club, Washington, D.C.

Robert W. McChesney, professor, University of Illinois. Co-founder of Free Press

John Nichols, journalist, The Nation, and associate editor of the Capital Times in Madison, Wis. Co-founder of Free Press

Jane Hamsher, founder and publisher of Firedoglake.com

Chris Hayes, Washington editor of The Nation

Ivan Roman, executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists

For more information: go to http://www.savethenews.org/FutureOfNewsDC

http://brownbaggers.org

Brown Bag Lunch Vigils Spread from 22 Districts in January, Take Up Cry of "Brownbaggers Not Teabaggers!"

Activists to Visit 57 Congress Members' DC Offices During Vigils at Their Offices Back Home 

On February 17th, Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) will be joined by CODEPINK, AfterDowningStreet, Democrats.com, the California Nurses Association / National Nurses Organizing Committee, United for Peace and Justice, and A New Way Forward in holding brown bag vigils outside (or inside) at least 57 congress members' district offices around the country. 

Participants in Washington, D.C., will visit the Capitol Hill offices of the same congress members.  Gather at 10 a.m. at the Independence Avenue entrance to the Rayburn House Office Building. 

Brownbaggers are asking members of the House to publicly commit to voting No on any bills that fund wars.  Results are tracked at http://defundwar.org

Vigils have been planned in 57 districts.  Is yours on the list?  Will you be there with your brownbag lunch?

Basic info. -- Find existing vigils. -- Add a new one.

http://peaceoftheaction.org

Peace of the Action will be establishing Camp OUT NOW on the lawn of the Washington Monument (with or without governmental permission) on Saturday, March 13th, to be a base of operations from which we will organize and direct daily acts of civil resistance throughout the DC area until our demands are met:

• Troops out of the Middle East, which includes drones, permanent bases, contractors and torture/detention facilities.
• Reparations for the peoples of these war torn regions and a fully funded VA system to reintegrate our soldiers healthfully into our society.

The first week of Camp OUT NOW, we will be holding non-violent civil resistance training, hosting peace notables and being invigorated by musicians as we start building the community that we are going to need in order to help each other through the planned sustained actions.

All persons who have had enough of "business as usual" in DC and are willing to put our anti-war, pro-humanity principles into practice, are invited to come out to Camp OUT NOW and stay with us for as little or as long as you have available.

Direct acts of non-violent resistance will begin Monday, March 22nd, following these events:

March 17 will be the third monthly national day of brown bag lunch vigils.

March 20 will be a national march on Washington

.

After Downing Street, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Peace of the Action, Progressive Democrats of America, and War Criminals Watch invite you to a protest of John Yoo, author of memos "legalizing" aggressive war and torture.

Yoo is scheduled to speak  on March 19, from 3:30-4:30 p.m. at the University of Virginia, Room 125, Minor Hall, McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903.  Meet at Minor Hall at 3 p.m.

March 19th marks the beginning of Year Eight in the illegal occupation of Iraq that Yoo and Jay Bybee provided "legal" justification for.  Yoo counseled the White House on how to get away with war crimes, wrote this memo promoting presidential power to launch aggressive war, and claimed the power to decree that the federal statutes against torture, assault, maiming, and stalking do not apply to the military in the conduct of the war, and to announce a new definition of torture limiting it to acts causing intense pain or suffering equivalent to pain associated with serious physical injury so severe that death, organ failure or permanent damage resulting in loss of significant body functions will likely result.

Yoo claimed in 2005 that a president has the right to enhance an interrogation by crushing the testicles of someone's child.

Yoo has been confronted in his classroom: video, and defended by the Washington Post, and again confronted in the classroom.

Yoo recently told the New York Times that he had worked, not for the law, but for his "client" the president, and that he had no regrets for the felony of conspiring to commit torture.

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

What: Dump Wiretapping Torturer Rep. Jane Harman, June 8, 2010
JOBS and PEACE with Marcy Winograd, Primary Vote June 8, 2010

Our Event for Marcy will be both exciting and informative! We have live music, food, wine, and Marcy herself.

When: Fun Celebration Saturday Feb. 27, 3 and 5 p.m. (rain or shine) for Marcy Winograd for Congress.

Where: It will be happening at Jim and Pat Allen's home at 3717 Mountain View Avenue, Santa Monica, CA. Map

We'll need everyone's help to make this fundraiser, a smashing success! First and foremost, we're asking everyone of us to each invite TEN PEOPLE to join us on the 27th.

Email, call, write, talk to people you meet on the street. We want to pack the house! We can also use food and VOLUNTEERS for the event.
June 8 Primary is just 3 months away. Fire Harman, Elect Marcy.

Clean up Politics in Corrupt Washington. Elect another Kucinich to Congress.

SANTA MONICA PEACE CLUB, Bill Floyd

Artists, Poets, Food, Joy, and Inspiration
By Bruce Gagnon | Organizing Notes

It was an inspiring day and evening and a wonderful testimony as to what happens when activists all across the state come together for a short-term campaign to focus energy and attention on a particular subject....This is how we build real movements. We link the war spending issue to the real life concerns people have and we help find ways for a broader segment of the population to express their outrage over war and social dissolution.

Upcoming Events: Vigils at the offices of our two Maine Congressional representatives will be held February 17 in conjunction with similar actions across the country. On February 18 the artists will head to the state capitol in Augusta for a draw-in where they plan to give their images to state legislators and encourage them to call for an end to war funding as one important way to deal with Maine's current fiscal crisis.

It was about a 13-hour day of hard work, inspiration, and joy for me and the many others who gathered in Bath yesterday for the draw-a-thon to create images and words about bringing our war $$ home.

Things began just after 9:00 am as about 40 artists and poets from all over Maine (and even an artist from Canada) came for the event. Natasha Mayers and Kenny Cole (two artists who do alot of political art) organized via their Union of Maine Visual Artists to get the creative folks there. Included in the group were five students from Unity College.

My job was to organize the kitchen, make sure the artists had coffee, tea, snacks and then lunch. I also was responsible for getting folks from throughout the community and state to come to the evening potluck supper to honor and celebrate the work done throughout the day by the artists and poets.

The art was hung on the wall for all to see as they arrived for the supper and following the bountiful meal we heard music, poetry, and words about the three-month long Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home. Read more, see event photos.

Join leading single-payer advocates on a national conference call this Monday, February 15th at 8pm EST for a discussion of the rise and fall of the public option and why improved Medicare for All, is still the leading policy solution to our health care crisis. Go here to register.

Download flyer from "File Attachment" below.

Peace Grannies Declare War on G.I. Joe
By Joan Wile

The Granny Peace Brigade, shocked and outraged at the transformation over the years of the relatively benign toy soldier, G. I. Joe, into a vicious killing machine, will launch an attack on Hasbro, the manufacturer, in the belief that such an emblem of militaristic overkill distorts the sensibilities of kids into violence and war lust.

"Let's face it -- the increasingly violent nature of toys and games these days is militarizing our children to a dangerous degree, Our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, plus our drones in Pakistan, exemplify the escalation of the U.S. into a nation more interested in making war than peace," said 94-year-old Lillian Pollak, one of the active Brigaders." "G.I. Joe and other such ferocious toys help foster these harmfully aggressive tendencies."

The grandmothers' first strike will occur on Saturday evening, Feb. 13, when the grannies ambush with fliers, signs and an enormous banner the people streaming into the 10th annual "Toy of the Year Awards" ceremony at the Chelsea Piers, at which Hasbro has been nominated in two categories. While peppering the gala attendees with their paper weapons, they will sing revised lyrics to old songs around their anti-war-toys theme, assisted by the Raging Grannies. For Instance, to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat":

(partial lyric) HASBRO, CANCEL G.I. JOE
AND SWITCH TO OTHER TOYS
DOLLS THAT TEACH TO KILL AND MAIM
ARE BAD FOR GIRLS AND BOYS

The Brigade will repeat the action at the Javits Center on Monday, Feb. 15, 11:30 a.m., targeting all attendees to the Toy Fair held there.

What: Daytona 500 Antiwar & 9/11 Truth Public Display,
Video of Central Florida News 13 report from our event at the 2008 Coke Zero 400

When: Sunday, February 14th, 2010 – 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM

Where: Daytona 500 – Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR Drive and International Speedway Blvd in Daytona Beach
(Across from Speedway, 0.1 mile East of Pedestrian Overpass)

Free Speech for People, Not Corporations!
RALLY to Take Back Democracy!
Lawyer’s Mall, Annapolis (near Church Circle)
Monday, Feb. 22nd, 2010   6 - 7 PM

Marylanders are responding to the shocking new Supreme Court ruling that corporations, for the first time, can spend unlimited funds to influence any local, state or federal political campaign, a ruling the state Senate president called "offensive" and "devastating to democracy."  Incredibly, the ruling establishes that corporations are like “people,” protected by the constitution to spend unlimited sums to sway political campaigns as if this were “free speech.”

ABC's This Week: Exclusive Interview with Dick Cheney

In a rare Sunday appearance, former Vice President Dick Cheney sits down for a "This Week" exclusive live interview. Guest anchor, ABC News Congressional Correspondent Jonathan Karl asks Cheney about how the Obama administration has waged the war on terror, the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and why he thinks the President has made the country "less safe". We'll cover it all with the former vice-president - from foreign policy to jobs, health care and 2010 politics. Check local listings for time & channel.

What: 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Shirin Ebadi Speaks on “Universal Human Rights and Iran Today”

When: Friday, February 19, 2010 at 4:00 pm (Reception to Follow)

Where: The Rose Theatre at the University of Memphis Maps
University of Memphis
Michael D. Rose Theatre
470 University Ave.
Rm. 102 Memphis, TN 38152-3470

A native of Iran, Dr. Ebadi became the first female judge in Iran in 1969 at the tender age of 22. Ten years later, during the Islamic Revolution, all female judges were dismissed from their posts and given clerical jobs. Outraged by this, and the continued loss of rights for women in her country, Dr. Ebadi set up practice as a lawyer and became one of the most well-known lawyers in Iran. She focuses her practice on cases involving the unfair treatment of women and children and was awarded the Nobel Peace Price in 2003 for her efforts for peace and women's rights in Iran and across the Middle East. Dr. Ebadi will recount her life story Friday, February 19th at 4:00pm in the Rose Theatre.

Free and open to the public.

A Celebration of the Work and Life of Howard Zinn
Monday, February 15, 2010
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Busboys and Poets, 14th & V
2021 14th Street NW
Washington, DC

Busboys and Poets celebrates the life and work of Howard Zinn with friends Marian Wright Edelman, Amy Goodman, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Ralph Nader, Dave Zirin, David Swanson, and others.

There is no charge for admission and seating is on a first come first seated basis.

During the day, Busboys and Poets will continuously screen Howard Zinn's new documentary film THE PEOPLE SPEAK and the documentary film about Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train.

By David Swanson

"Prophecy" is the title of a new play by Karen Malpede, and I'm here to attempt the unamerican task of telling you to see it without telling you it's a comedy. In fact, I'm going to confess that I had to take a break from it and recover before I could write about it. I felt like I'd taken a blow with an enormous sledge hammer, even though I knew that a whole orchestra of smaller instruments had produced what I was feeling.

It was not a bad feeling, not an undesirable feeling. The play is a thing of beauty, and not all beauty fits into that Hollywood sensation of wouldn't-such-a-thing-be-sweet-but-I-bet-they're-divorced-in-a-year-and-I-shouldn't-have-had-that-last-gallon-of-coke.

The Purpose Prize
A $100,000 prize for people in their encore careers who are inventing new ways to solve social problems.

Ten people over the age of 60 will win in 2010. Nominate yourself or someone you know. Deadline: March 5.

5 tips for nominating someone for The Purpose Prize

1. Learn about past Prize winners to see what we look for. (Click here for a list of 2009 winners.)
2. Nominate someone (possibly you) who switched careers, is tackling a social problem and has plans to expand.
3. Tell a story: What was the "Aha!" moment that propelled your nominee in a new direction?
4. Describe the nominee's impact. What has your nominee accomplished that others should know about?
5. Listen to this podcast for tips on how to create a winning nomination. Read more.