The Times They Are A-Flaking.

Following another boisterous protest of the House Appropriations Committee, The Encampment sits just across the reflecting pool overlooking the Capitol. There, several anti-war groups including Code Pink have erected a stage, meeting tents and work tables for a week-long series of events, leading up to a March and gathering on the National Mall Saturday, September 29th.
Just as the timing of General David Petraeus' and Ambassador Ryan Crocker's testimony before the Armed Services Committee coincided with the anniversary of 9/11, the anti-war movement has stepped up its efforts to complement these events by holding protests on the Mall simultaneously. With another Defense Department request nearing $200 billion for 2008, Code Pink members attended the Hearings, heckling and chanting in an attempt to echo the indignation of the Committee. Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D. W.VA) was in quite the indignant mood, directing most of his wrath at Secretary of Defense Robert Gates with great alarm at the price tag, most of which is to fund the production of the latest Armored Humvees. After several declarations by Byrd were echoed by the women in pink, the Chairman had enough, evicting the group from the premises, declaring that "he should have evicted them before they'd ever been born".

Verne Huffman and Code Pink member Liz Hourican
"When somebody goes to your house and doesn't want to leave, then you understand what occupation is, then you understand the urgency that we feel" said Liz Hourican , a member of Code Pink from Phoenix. When asked about the viability of the protests of her group in contrast with lobbying she added "Protests are important, it's a great outreach but I feel that lobbying at this point and being in the halls of where the decisions and where the power structure happens to be really comfortable is the answer." She also maintains that her group of Women Against the War were founded out of love for our country, utilization of "Visually bright, savvy and creative methods" and "fun is a big part of it".
Vernon Huffman was also present on Wednesday Evening in front of the capitol. His organization emphasizes bicycling as a necessary tool to decrease America's reliance on the oil resources of foreign governments, often seen as the precursor to war. His outlook on the passing of the next supplemental was grim. "There's no doubt that the machinery of war profiteering is time-tested, it's been around for a long, long time, and it's going to take a lot of us throwing sand in the gears to make it stop. But we are closer now than we have ever been"
The presidential candidate currently held in highest regard by the small crowd was Dennis Kucinich. Citing his trip to Lebanon last year during the conflict with Israel, Hourican proclaimed "Kucinich has a plan. He's speaking my language he's a man of character and integrity."
Overall, the sparsely attended event at The Encampment resembled a much smaller version of protests held on the National Mall in the 1960s and 70s during the Vietnam War. President Bush has been consistently in the negative when asked about the similarities between the two conflicts. But to the anti-war movement they are inseparable. Currently, other events such as the Katrina disaster, the Jena 6, the Scooter Libby trial, warrantless wiretapping and the Alberto Gonzales investigation have been added to the cauldron of misdeeds invoked by the protest movement, cited as cause to call for Bush's impeachment. But regarding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's efforts to end the war or Bush's presidency, Huffman was resigned to to despair "She can take war funding off the table and put impeachment back on, certainly the people of her district would support her, I can't tell you what her point of reality is, it's clear to me what her constituents want ."
For the rest of the evening, singers recycled 60s songs by Dylan, Van Morrison & Buffalo Springfield, with updated lyrics ironically linked to Bush. Tie-dyed war veterans recounted their experience in detail. Strings of logic stretched far into the possibilites of improvement the protesters envisioned. For some it seemed just like the 60s. The same place, the same cause, only on a much smaller scale, but no less important.


Singer:Ron Malero

Why the Nooses?

With the notion of inequal criminal justice raised to the forefront over an exacerbated incident between white and black students, it is inevitable that an "Idiot Facor" enters the equation. Two white youths, 16 and 18 years old, adorned their pickup truck with nooses, which were the popular method of lynchings in the 1950s and 60s. Combine this with the fact that there are still as yet unpunished persons held responsible for civil rights crimes in the 60s walking the streets today, is affirmation of the long-held mindsets of racism and segregation still in existence today.

Driving through the streets of Alexandria, LA, teeming with post-rally revelers is a prank only to the criminal minded. The sad reminder of the most brutal symbol of our not-so-recent past is a tragedy. As we look to the black leadership for a response to the unfolding outrage, we have Jesse Jackson calling out Barack Obama for acting "too white" and then recanting it, while Obama isolated the incident into a "right or wrong" issue. In other words, one side is too passionate, the other not passionate enough. This leaves the middle ground screaming for justice of some kind. Inevitably it comes slowly.