The fabulous women from CODEPINK have started a campaign to build an important platform for opposing the Bush regime's lunatic idea of attacking Iran. Peace Action has supported it too.

Dear Friends,

CODEPINK has started a new effort to get mayors around the country to sign a resolution against going to war with Iran. The resolution will be presented at the US Conference of Mayors on June 20 in Miami. It is cosponsored by 11 mayors, and we are seeking more sponsors. Below is a copy of the resolution and a sample cover letter. Please consider sending this to your mayor and following up with a call encouraging him/her to sign on. The passage of a resolution against war with Iran on behalf of mayors nationwide will send a strong message to the White House and Congress that the American people want diplomacy, not war!

Sincerely,

Kevin Martin/Peace Action

Here is the wording of the resolution.

RESOLUTION OPPOSING MILITARY INTERVENTION IN IRAN
SUBMITTED TO THE US CONFERENCE OF MAYORS

1. WHEREAS, the President and members of his Administration have alleged that Iran poses an imminent threat to the United States, U.S. troops in the Middle East and U.S. allies; and

2. WHEREAS, these allegations are similar to the lead-up to the Iraq War and U.S. occupation, with the selective use of information and unsubstantiated accusations about Iran's nuclear program and its supply of weapons to Iraqi forces as centerpieces of a case to the American people for aggression against Iran; and

3. WHEREAS, Iran has not threatened to attack the United States, and no compelling evidence has been presented to document that Iran poses a real and imminent threat to the security and safety of the United States that would justify an unprovoked unilateral pre-emptive military attack; and

4. WHEREAS, we support the people of Iran who are struggling for freedom and democracy, and nothing herein should be misconstrued as support for the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but it should be understood that a unilateral, pre-emptive U.S. military attack on Iran could well prove counterproductive to the cause of promoting freedom and democracy there; and

5. WHEREAS, a 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), representing the consensus view all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, concluded that Iran froze its nuclear weapons program in 2003, and an earlier NIE concluded that Iran’s involvement in Iraq “is not likely to be a major driver of violence” there; and

6. WHEREAS, an attack on Iran is likely to cause untold thousands of American and Iranian casualties, lead to major economic dislocations, and threaten even greater destabilization in the Middle East; and

7. WHEREAS, a pre-emptive U.S. military attack on Iran would violate international law and our commitments under the U.N. Charter and further isolate the U.S. from the rest of the world; and

8. WHEREAS, an attack on Iran is likely to inflame hatred for the U.S. in the Middle East and elsewhere, inspire terrorism, and lessen the security of Americans; and

9. WHEREAS, the Iraq war and occupation has already cost the lives of over 4,000 American soldiers, the maiming and wounding of over 38,000 American soldiers, the death and maiming of over one million Iraqi civilians; and

10. WHEREAS, the Iraq War and occupation has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $500 billion, depriving our cities of much-need funds for services and infrastructure; and

11. WHEREAS, except at our peril, we cannot ignore the history of U.S. government misinformation used to inspire U.S. aggression in Vietnam and again in Iraq, as embodied in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and more recently in the what we know now as false claims of weapons of mass destruction; and

12. WHEREAS, any conflict with Iran is likely to incur far greater costs and divert more precious national resources away from critical human needs,

13. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors hereby urges the Bush Administration to pursue diplomatic engagement with Iran on nuclear issues and ending the violence in Iraq; and

14. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors urges Congress to prohibit the use of funds to carry out any military action against Iran without explicit Congressional authorization; and

15. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that suitable copies of the resolution be forwarded to President George W. Bush and all members of Congress.

CODEPINK has provided a copy of the resolution and a sample cover letter.

I was thinking when I read about this that the above campaign also sounds like a good idea for nonbinding resolutions for City Councils to pass. It turns out CODEPINK was way ahead of me, and they have a page on their website with just such an action. Oakland already has passed just such a resolution.

Go forth and kick ass.

 

Of course, it sucks to be in Iraq period.

However, one underreported aspect of how bad things are under the occupation is the plight of Iraqi farmers, as reported by Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail on 3/29/08.

New plant diseases, attacks by occupation forces and escalating fuel prices are strangling farmers in Diyala province.

Prior to the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003, farmers in Baquba, the capital city of Diyala province 40 km northeast of Baghdad, struggled with plant diseases they believed were caused by bombs dropped during the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 1991.

Trees were infested with white fruit fly, aphids and plant louse, and there was a shortage of water for irrigation. The directorate-general of agriculture used helicopters to spread insecticide.

After the invasion, the situation has worsened. Helicopter spraying seems unthinkable.

"With helicopters large distances can be sprayed in one stroke," Aboud Ibrahim, a 55-year-old local farmer told IPS. "In the case of white fruit fly, when a farmer sprays the insecticide, the disease can move back to his farm again from the neighbouring farm within six hours. This is why simultaneous treatment of all farms is so efficient."

Helicopters now mean something else. "Helicopters and fighters of the coalition forces attack farmers who work at night on their farms," said a local farmer who did not want to be named. "Due to the water quotas, farmers are forced to water their farms even at night. Some farmers have been shot in firing by coalition forces. Farmers would rather neglect their farms than risk death."

You may not know this, but Iraq had a thriving agriculture sector before Bush invaded that country. A supervisor at the directorate-general of agriculture in Diyala said on condition of anonymity:

"Iraq now imports almost all its crops from neighbouring counties like Syria, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon, after decades of exporting to these same countries."

Bush/Clinton/Cheney/McCain/Faux News/the NY Times et. al. have liberated Iraq, from food self-sufficiency.

As one would expect, the corporate media did not pick up on this story. They would rather bombard us with how the escalation in Iraq is cutting back on "the violence." Of course, "the violence" doesn't included US violence against the Iraq people, which has gone up during the escalation.

We are all supposed to be so bored with the war that we won't pay attention to it. Now that the Obama/Clinton feud is winding down, I wonder what shiny new thing the corporate media hacks will point us at instead of what is going on in the war on Iraq.

Britney Spears, Martha Stewart, Linday Lohan, etc. need to get cracking. We need something to distract us from the elephant in our national living room.

 

From a 5/22/08 CODEPINK email blast:

May the words of Gilda Carbonaro whose only child, Alessandro, died from injuries received in Iraq, move you to take action this Memorial Day weekend:

It still seems unreal that Alex did not return from Iraq, that his bright future was cut short, that his young bride was left a widow.

A silent scream wants to break out of my chest as I contemplate his stark absence and think of the young men and women who will die today and tomorrow to fill the other graves that have been prepared at Arlington.

We do not honor our loved ones by accepting the continued loss of life in a reckless, irresponsible war that has no military solution. We do not honor the troops by standing by indifferently as members of the Congress give their sneering Commander-in-Chief a blank check to continue a war based on a tidal wave of lies and hubris.

We honor the fallen by beginning an immediate redeployment from Iraq and by showing our determination to stop a new war with Iran. We honor the fallen by making sure that those who return from Iraq and Afghanistan receive all the help they need for their education, and their physical and mental health. We honor the fallen by taking action, by making peace.

 

We often are encouraged to disregard wisdom accumulated by elders by corporate media, both news and entertainment. The wealthy and the CEOswould much rather us blindly follow the boob tube than learn real lessons about life. This is one of many areas where we could learn a lot from the indigenous peoples' of this continent.

One group of elders we should all learn from is the Granny Peace Brigade. In addition to their website, they have a blog which keeps up with their activities to resist the Iraq war, promote peace, and defy complacency.

They show us a model of strength, compassion, and concern while managing to keep a sense of humor about themselves. Their use of parodies of songs from the days of their youth provides a way for them to get peoples' attention in an era of information overload.

They even let me sing with them once at Union Square a while back.

Of course, they don't just sing. They picket, march, and use a particularly pragmatic tactic to get people to call their congresscritters, PHONE-A-THONS.

Keep the pressure on Congress!
Response to our Phone-a-Thons has been so enthusiastic that we are repeating them regularly in different locations. We ask people to call Congress on the spot (using our phones) and urge their Senators and Representatives to stop the war by stopping the funding.

YouTube video of their singing at a recent Phone-A-Thon.


Here are links to a couple of their flyers (PDF - quarter sheet):

- Stop Funding the War

- Impeach Cheney Before He Attacks Iran

- Filibuster War Spending

They also have a great page that you shouldn't miss:

Resources for Lobbying Congress

 

I've already posted on the similarities between the political agendas of Bush and Hillary Clinton. Since then, Clinton has become even more rabid in her saber rattling with Iran, making her more like Shrub.

This month, Bring it On! also had an excellent post on similarities in personalities, histories, and behavior between the two of them. Here are the first three paragraphs.

History sometimes cycles through repeating patterns that aren’t easily noticeable. Political history - obfuscated as it is by partisan squabbling and self-interest - is a particularly difficult place to notice them. Sure, there are plenty of polls, records galore, and election results to ponder, but ideological differences tend to make us think of politicians in opposing parties as completely different from one another.

As hard as it is to see, and as appalled as both would be to hear it, George Bush and Hillary Clinton are two of those politicians who are so alike they’re almost the same. From their membership in privileged political dynasties to their ability to effortlessly divide constituencies, they become more and more alike as time goes on. Both have squandered political capital like shore-leave sailors spending money on cheap hookers and booze. Both have an affinity for scorched earth policies and little tolerance for those mere mortals who question them. Compromise and easy forthrightness are anathema to them and the day either of them admits a mistake is the day the planet will reverse direction.

But their quixotic pursuit of unattainable goals, regardless of the cost to others, is perhaps their single most noticeable parallel.

Read More

 

This is a follow up to a previous post on George Galloway's homophobic comments on the Kazemi case. Hat tip to Blazing Indiscretions. From the Independent UK 5/21/08:

Gay student who faced execution in Iran granted asylum in Britain

By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Wednesday, 21 May 2008

A gay man who faces the death penalty in Iran has won asylum in the UK after protests prompted the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, to reconsider his case.

Family and supporters of Mehdi Kazemi, now 20, welcomed the decision yesterday not to send him back to Iran where his boyfriend was arrested by the state police and executed for sodomy.

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Southwark and Bermondsey, said: "I am delighted by the Home Office decision that my constituent Mehdi Kazemi can now stay in this country. This is great news for a very decent guy."

Mr Kazemi came to London to study in 2005, but in April 2006 discovered his gay partner had been arrested and named him as his boyfriend before his execution. Fearing he might suffer the same fate if he returned, Mr Kazemi decided to seek asylum in Britain. His claim was refused and he fled to the Netherlands where he also failed to win asylum before returning to Britain last month.

His case won support from MPs and peers who signed petitions supporting his claim for refugee status in this country, prompting a surprise intervention by Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, who agreed to reconsider the case.

In an open letter to the British Government, Mr Kazemi told the Home Secretary: "I wish to inform the Secretary of State that I did not come to the UK to claim asylum. I came here to study and return to my country. But in the past few months my situation back home has changed. The Iranian authorities have found out that I am a homosexual and they are looking for me."

Yesterday, the UK Border Agency said it had decided to allow him asylum, granting him leave to remain for five years. A spokesman for the agency said: "We keep cases under review where circumstances have changed and it has been decided that Mr Kazemi should be granted leave to remain."

I just hope that five years is long enough or that his asylum is renewed. It is terrible enough that his boyfriend was murdered by the heterosexist, fundamentalist regime in Iran. It would be even worse if Kazemi was murdered too.

Read Kazemi's Thank You Note to His Supporters

 

The code for this was emailed to everyone in the Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus, which I am a member of through my efforts in the March 19 Blogswarm Against the Iraq War.

"Impeachment is off the table," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "Democrats are not about getting even. Democrats are about helping people get ahead."
...
She used the word "bipartisan" at least eight times in her few minutes before the media, and said that she had promised the president that she would cooperate with him as much as possible.

-- Two days after the 2006 midterms, by Bill Moyers, National Examiner, November 09, 2006

They are inviting people to spread it around. Here is a version of the code I modified slightly to fit better within a Blogger Blog.

<br /><img style="width: 305px; height: 196px;" src="http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u65/vradul/pelosibushcemetery.jpg"><br><br><blockquote>"Impeachment is off the table," said Pelosi, D-Calif. <span style="font-style: italic;">"Democrats are not about getting even. Democrats are about helping people get ahead." </span><br>...<br>She used the word "bipartisan" at least eight times in her few minutes before the media, and <span style="font-style: italic;">said that she had promised the president that she would cooperate with him as much as possible.</span></blockquote>-- <a href="http://www.examiner.com/a-388565%7EPelosi__Impeachment__off_the_table_.html" target="_blank">Two days after the 2006 midterms</a>, by Bill Moyers, National Examiner, November 09, 2006<br><br />

 

It's no secret that Hillary Clinton can't win the Democratic nomination, she can only steal it with a superdelegate scam. Obama has won an absolute majority of the legitimate delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Sign the Petition for Clinton to Drop Out of the Presidential Race!

Now that Clinton has made an apparent death threat against Obama, there is absolutely no excuse for supporting her. The horror of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto is far too fresh in our minds. I just hope Clinton hasn't brought that horror to the US with the result being the death of Obama.

 

I thought that there was nothing that an evil racist, heterosexist, corrupt, Republican, war criminal like Hillary Clinton could do that would shock me.

I was wrong. This news is astonishing and perhaps criminal.

Clinton was responding to a question from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader editorial board about calls for her to drop out of the race.

"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," she said, dismissing the idea of dropping out.

Clinton shouldn't just drop out of the race. She should resign in disgrace from the Senate and never show her face in public again.

The Justice Department also should launch a criminal probe into the matter and determine if Ms. Clinton made a terrorist threat.

 

Just a reminder that John McCain seems to have lost his filter.

When John McCain refers to "straight talk," the "straight" part refers to heterosexuality, not directness or honesty. "Keating Five" McCain is as dishonest and deceptive as they come.

Brave New Films does a great job of film editing to demonstrate McCain's dishonesty. This YouTube video also shows McCain looking very confused at several points.