Organizing Locally

AWAKEN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA
By Michael Clark

Since June first, I've been publishing a series of diaries entitled "Awaken the MSM" at Daily Kos.

Initially these diaries were aimed at lifting the virtual news blackout on DSM. After a month of pushing for coverage, relatively little had been achieved. At the time, it seemed to me that if web-based activists continued to operate under our tactics up until that point--primarily a scatter-shot approach to contacting media outlets--we were unlikely to make significant progress soon. I wanted to begin a focused, coordinated, and above all sustained effort to get the attention of the news media.

San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday Opinion Section, full page on Iraqi labor unions

Text and photos by David Bacon

GET IT HERE

Politely, peacefully, and nonviolently inquire when you see them as to what sort of imbeciles they take us for.

Thursday, June 9, 2005

*NEW DETAILS: BUSH in Columbus, OH, 9:35am: THE PRESIDENT makes remarks on the PATRIOT Act, Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy | Columbus, OH, OPEN PRESS [Washington Post, 6/9/05; White House 6/9/05]

*NEW: MEHLMAN in Pennsylvania, 5:30pm: Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Ken Mehlman takes his "Conversations With The Community" outreach series to Jewish business and community leaders in Pennsylvania, Thursday, June 9, 2005. What: "Conversations With The Community" Town Hall When: Thursday, June 9, 2005 5:30 - 6:30 pm (EDT) Where: The Duquense Club, 325 Sixth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA [RNC, 6/8/05]

From US Labor Against War

Tour of United States planned for June 10-26:

Six Iraqi labor leaders will be touring the US to speak with the labor movement to both educate US trade unionists about the conditions faced by Iraqi workers and their struggles and to build direct worker-to-worker, union-to-union solidarity and support for Iraqi trade unionists in their effort to build a progressive secular Iraq.

LEARN MORE.

By Bob Olsen, Toronto

On June 7, the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War ( www.nowar.ca ) adopted my suggestion that we start an Indict Bush campaign here in Canada.

Here is the text of a handbill that we will print next week, to be handed out at local events.

Indict: to charge with a criminal offense.

George Bush should be charged with war crimes under Canada's "Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act".

"This act was passed in 2000 to bring Canada's ineffectual laws in line

Here's Bush's schedule for those who want to try to ask him about the Downing Street Minutes or even to stage a peaceful nonviolent protest.Wednesday, June 8, 2005

*NEW DETAILS: BUSH in Washington DC, 10:30am: President Bush will welcome Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House on June 8, 2005. This meeting will provide an opportunity to invigorate U.S.-Turkish cooperation with respect to Turkey's European Union aspirations, and to strengthen our work together to advance freedom in Iraq and the Broader Middle East, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. [White House Release, 5/24/05; 6/7/05]

Please post as comments below the responses Congress Members and Senators send you to your Emails.

WAR IS A CRIME (FORMERLY AFTER DOWNING STREET) COALITION MEMBERS

Organizations and individuals interested in joining should contact us.

See also, the list of organizations supporting prosecution of Bush, Cheney, et alia.

Organizations

1% A Peace Army
A Bigger Tent
Action Center for Justice
Agir contre la guerre (France)
Alliance Marxist-Leninist (Marxist-Leninist Review)
America In Solidarity

How do we find Bush in order to ask him about the Downing Street Minutes - or even to stage a peaceful nonviolent demonstration? Check his schedule below!

Tuesday, June 7, 2005
*NEW DETAILS: BUSH in Washington DC, 3:25 pm: THE PRESIDENT meets with the
Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom, Oval Office, The White House, STILLS AT TOP A spokesman said
the two will discuss Iraq and Afghanistan, weapons proliferation and
security issues in the Middle East. [The Morning Grind, 6/1/05; White House,
6/705]

*NEW: BUSH in Washington DC, 4:45 pm: THE PRESIDENT participates in a Joint

Where can we find Bush and administration officials in order to ask them about the Downing Street Minutes, or even to organize peaceful non-violent protests? Check the schedule below!

Monday, June 6, 2005

BUSH in Fort Lauderdale, FL, 11:45 am: THE PRESIDENT makes remarks at the Opening of the Organization of American States General Assembly, Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, OPEN PRESS [White House, 5/27/05]

BUSH in Washington DC, 5:00 pm: THE PRESIDENT makes remarks at the White House Black Music Month Reception, South Lawn, The White House OPEN PRESS [White House, 5/27/05]

Be polite, concise, informative, and passionate. Be like the author of the following letter -- even if she did just copy and paste our press release ;-)

Copyright 2005 MediaNews Group, Inc. and New England Newspaper Group Inc.
The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts)
June 1, 2005 Wednesday
SECTION: LETTERS
LENGTH: 412 words
HEADLINE: Learn the case for impeachment

BODY:
To the Editor of THE EAGLE:-

A coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups, and political activist groups has announced a campaign to urge the U.S. Congress to launch a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war. The campaign focuses on evidence that recently emerged in a British memo containing minutes of a secret July 2002 meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security officials.

"Eyes of Babylon," a play by AfterDowningStreet.org member and Iraq War Veteran Lance Corporal Jeff Key closes in LA on Sunday, June 19.

FROM: http://www.plays411.com/website/htmlconsumer/play_info.asp?show_id=171

On March 31st, 2004, Lance Corporal Jeff Key, United States Marine went on CNN's Paula Zahn Now to say to five million people what he at one time would not have said to one other person.

The Eyes of Babylon is story of Key's personal struggles trying to reconcile being part of a war that he knows to be illegal and immoral and a profound commitment to the reasons he became a marine. Told by Key with excerpts from his personal journals from Iraq. We follow him from the morning of September 11th, 2001, through his tour in Iraq, and on to his return to America to begin a life of political activism and philanthropy. Key decides that the time to stop lying about his sexuality has come and goes on to use the ban on gays in the military to exit the Marine Corps and thereby avoid ever again being asked to take innocent life for corporate gains. More the story of a psychological and emotional journey culminating in spiritual epiphany than a documentation of the war, this piece is a profoundly personal look inside the conscience of a man faced with near impossible decisions.

Those inclined to organize peaceful nonviolent demonstrations aimed at asking Bush or members of his administration about the Downing Street Minutes may benefit from this schedule of upcoming appearances.

Friday, June 3, 2005
ROMNEY in Manchester, NH: MA Gov. Mitt Romney (R) heads to NH 6/3 to speak to the state Federation of GOP Women's annual Lilac Convention; the women's group is the same one that hosted Pres. Bush in '99 on his first campaign visit there. Bay State GOP exec. dir. Tim O'Brien said that Romney will be talking about "balancing the budget and creating jobs" in MA. O'Brien "downplayed" the trip's implication for pres. politics: "Gov. Romney is a national political figure just like Ted Kennedy and John Kerry who go across the country raising money for their party. I wouldn't read too much into it. People go raise money for their party and that's what the governor is doing here" (Straub, Boston Herald, 5/26).

If you speak face-to-face or by phone or Email with your family members, neighbors, and friends, we would love to hear what they think of the Downing Street Minutes, especially if you convince someone that a congressional investigation is needed. How did you persuade them? What did they start out thinking? What did they learn from you? What did you learn from them? Please open this article and post Comments at the bottom.

Former C.I.A. Analyst Ray McGovern and Attorney John Bonifaz Will Headline Progressive Democrats� Panel Discussion In Washington, D.C. on Friday, June 3

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) � Tim Carpenter, National Director of Progressive Democrats of America, announced today that former C.I.A. Analyst Ray McGovern and author and attorney John Bonifaz will headline the organization�s Teach-In this Friday, June 3.

McGovern and Bonifaz will detail the misdeeds by the U.S. President and a possible movement by members of Congress to move to a Resolution of Inquiry as a result of what has been revealed in the Downing Street Minutes. Details of topics, speakers and the event location follow.

The Big Brass Alliance was formed in May 2005 as a collective of progressive bloggers who support After Downing Street, a coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups, and political activist groups formed to urge that the U.S. Congress launch a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war.

FOLLOW THIS LINK: http://www.bigbrassblog.com/bba.html