World Can’t Wait Alert and Pelosi Site Taken Down Today Over Women’s Issue
World Can’t Wait | http://www.worldcantwait.org
Earlier this week, when we heard that protest groups in Denver are not planning one march against the occupation of Iraq and the potential attack on Iran, we wrote this. I'm inviting you to sign on to the letter here.
16 July 2008: In six weeks, the Democrats meet in Denver.
As recent news makes clear, an attack on Iran could happen before the election, driving the Bush Agenda into the next administration, no matter who the president is.
Who will stop an attack on Iran?
Not the Democrats who secretly authorized military operations George Bush already has underway inside Iran. Not the Democratic leaders - including Senator Obama - who insist, again and again, that "all options" remain on the table for military action against Iran, including the use of nuclear weapons!
Not the Democrats who, in their majority, including Obama, not only sanctioned retroactive immunity for the large telecom companies who went along with Bush and spied on people, but have given them prospective immunity in expanded government spying.
This war now belongs to the Democrats no less than the Republicans. If it is left to McCain and Obama, the occupation will continue for years. It was wrong to go into Iraq, it's wrong to stay in Iraq, it's wrong not to get out now!
If there is not a strong showing from the anti-war movement against this whole direction outside the convention, it will signal those who make war and the victims of these wars around the world that the people of this country will go along with continued occupation, with McCain or Obama sending many more troops to Afghanistan, and with threats to Iran. The Bush regime promised a war to last generations. Are we against this, or not?
The anti-war movement must set a standard of resistance, not accommodate what is intolerable. Only the people - not the politicians - can force open debate over why the U.S. occupation must end now. Only we can act on our convictions, letting others know that an end to the illegal, unjust and immoral wars and occupations will not happen without massive mobilization of the people, and that putting all your hopes and energies into the elections will not bring the change millions desire.
Some people say protest does not work. They are WRONG! What does not work is passivity in the face of a government being more widely exposed as committing war crimes and a public increasingly sickened by what is being done in their name. If the anti-war movement was so ineffectual why did the New York Times have to call it the "other superpower"?
Whether one plans on voting for Obama or not, we all must be in the streets making our clear opposition to torture, bloody occupations and any new war against Iran vividly clear. People are traveling the country to campaign for Obama. With a strong call from the anti-war movement, some will be willing to bring an anti-war message to Denver.
Local Denver activists have gone to court for permits for political protest outside the convention, and have permits for nearby parks. Recreate68 plans a march against the war on Sunday August 24, the day before the convention starts. The Alliance for Real Democracy, another coalition, is currently not planning to join this march.
Whatever differences exist, they pale in comparison to the responsibility those of us who are not at peace with being at war have to stop the US occupation of the Middle East. The world needs to see us in the streets in Denver, marching together on the eve of the convention opening.
If you're concerned this protest will be too small, you're not alone. The people in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan & Pakistan whose lives may be lost to further US aggression share that concern. It is the responsibility of those of us who know the devastation and misery the continued occupation of Iraq and an attack on Iran would bring to the world to struggle to bring many more forward to participate in this.
This is a call to MARCH together with the demand Stop the war in Iraq/Afghanistan, and Stop an Attack on Iran! You could have separate rallies and speakers at different sites in the park, but call out the many thousands of people to march together.
We will join with others in mobilizing everyone who has ever been against this war, and all those who know in their hearts this is wrong, to be in the streets of Denver, standing with the people of the world and refusing to be party to these wars.
We the undersigned will do all we can to get people to Denver to participate.
Missy Beattie, Elaine Brower, Larry Everest, Ron Kovic, Dennis Loo, Cynthia McKinney, Dede Miller, Cindy Sheehan, David Swanson, Debra Sweet, Sunsara Taylor,Kevin Zeese Add your name to the letter here.
SIGN UP to join World Can't Wait in Denver August 23-28
A Digg story that contained a link to a statement on the website of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reached the front page this morning, apparently sending so much traffic to Pelosi's site that it crashed completely.
The blog entry was a comment on a rule reportedly being drafted by the Bush administration's Department of Health and Human Services. The rule would threaten to cut funding to medical care providers which refused to hire personnel who preferred not to perform abortions for religious or moral reasons.
Commentators have noted that the proposal's definition of abortion is so broad that it could include, as the Times' Countdown to Crawford blog wrote, "multiple forms of contraception, including some birth control pills, IUDs and emergency 'morning after' contraception." (C2C also posted about this situation).
Pelosi's statement, reproduced here, reads in part:
If the Administration goes through with this draft proposal, it will launch a dangerous assault on womens' health.
The majority of Americans oppose this out of touch position that redefines contraception as abortion and represents a sustained pattern of the Bush Administration to reject medical and sound science in favor of a misguided ideology that has no place in our government.
Digg can send thousands of visitors to a website at a time, a level of traffic concentration that can bring down even large and relatively well-established sites. It's probable that the Speaker.gov site rarely gets spikes of this size, and so -- like many websites that get Dugg, Drudged, Slashdotted or even Yahoo! Buzzed -- they'll have to learn the hard way that there's no such thing as too much bandwidth.
When I called Pelosi's office, the spokesperson I talked to did not know there was a problem with the site. When he tried to load it himself, it did not come up. He said he'd look into it and call back.
UPDATE (12:19 p.m.): The site appears to be back up and running.
