Huge Step, Capitol Steps

And here's the video of SDS at the Capitol Steps. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised? But maybe it'll be on YouTube:



Technorati tags: SDS, video, peace, anti-war, march, protest, Washington DC

SDS Is Back

SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) bears the greatest credit for transforming what otherwise might have been a well-attended march this past Saturday into an action of street theater, resistance, and civil disobedience that has the potential to launch the movement that will end this war.

The re-launch of SDS has been supported and joined by the group's first President, Al Haber, along with Tom Good and Paul Buhle, also SDS originals from the sixties.

The SDS is talking about a parallel group to be called MDS, Movement for a Democratic Society, that would provide non-student or "older radicals" with a vehicle to work with students and participate in a strong, multi-generation movement.

Technorati tags: SDS, peace, anti-war, march, protest, Washington DC, Iraq

Birth of a True Movement

I've just returned to Asheville from the wildly successful anti-war march in Washington D.C. My deep thanks go to our local Veterans for Peace Chapter for the wonderful travel and lodging they coordinated for us.

I rate this effectiveness of this march extremely high based on several important measures. United for Peace and Justice, who organized the rally, estimate the number of attendees at 400,000, which the NYT cites without question. Consensus suggests this is a quite accurate number. There were also many local rallies around the Nation, and so the numbers were fantastic.

There were also at least two very valuable civil disobedience actions, the first of which was the storming of the Capitol Building's steps by SDS. That's right! SDS IS BACK!

The other was a massively energetic street-blocking sit-in on the parade route with chants of "SIT DOWN! Surround the Capitol!" Lots of folks sat, several danced, and the chanting was loud and cohesive. This peaceful but illegal and confrontational demonstration with about 60 people participating (SDS'ers joining after the Capitol Steps "Surge") escalated into a major stand-off with Capitol Police. The police responded with about 12 each of motorcycle units and horseback units, a helicopter, about 10 police cars, and rooftop surveillance. The number of protesters probably delayed their attempts to make arrests, and as they eventually moved in to make arrests and rammed forward through the crowd with the motorcycles, the chant changed to "ARREST GEORGE BUSH!" right into the faces of the befuddled police.

I'll write more about Saturday's march and the now highly energized 2007 Peace Movement tomorrow. Gotta get some shut-eye now.

war, peace, anti-war, march, protest, Washington DC, Iraq, Iran

We're Still in Hot Water

Sure is chilly here, but global warming remains an urgent problem. Scientists will release a report that Human-caused global warming is currently evident through undeniable smoking guns all around us.

The water temperature at Key West, FL of 78.3 F is at the April average temperature for that location, far above the 69 F typical of January.

CO2 has hit a new record in atmospheric concentrations of 383.04 PPM, and we have a new record year-over-year increase every month.

If you haven't seen Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth,' you must.

Technorati tags: global warming, climate change, environment

28%

"Bush Poll Ratings Before Speech Fall to Nixon's Level" observes *Bloomberg*, reporting:

Bush reached an all-time low 28 percent approval rating in a CBS poll released today. Sixty-six percent of those surveyed in the CBS poll said they opposed Bush's sending 20,000 additional troops to Iraq, and 75 percent said the war there is going badly. Fifty percent said Congress shouldn't provide money for the 20,000 additional troops.

The country came out and voted for the Democrats last November. They must now come through for us and bring the troops HOME.

Technorati tags: bush, war, peace