While Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech to Congress on Tuesday about democracy (which: chortle), a member of the leftist anti-war group Codepink was arrested after causing a ruckus. Half Moon Bay resident Rae Abileah interrupted the Israeli Prime Minister with a banner that read “Occupying Land Is Indefensible” and shouting, “No more occupation, stop Israel war crimes, equal rights for Palestinians, occupation is indefensible.” Actually, you can barely hear her, as Joe Garofoli points out. You can sort of hear a muffled "Stop Israeli war crimes, but only if you turn the volume up high. See for yourself

Codepink send out the following statement:

As this 28-year-old Jewish American woman spoke out for the human rights of Palestinians, other members of the audience—wearing badges from the conference of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee—brutally attacked her. The police then dragged her out of the Gallery and took her to the George Washington University Hospital, where she was being treating for neck and shoulder injuries.

“I am in great pain, but this is nothing compared to the pain and suffering that Palestinians go through on a regular basis,” said Abileah from her hospital bed. “I have been to Gaza and the West Bank, I have seen Palestinians homes bombed and bulldozed, I have talked to mothers whose children have been killed during the invasion of Gaza, I have seen the Jewish-only roads leading to ever-expanding settlements in the West Bank. This kind of colonial occupation cannot continue. As a Jew and a U.S. citizen, I feel obligated to rise up and speak out against stop these crimes being committed in my name and with my tax dollars.”

Abileah was later arrested at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington DC after allegedly having been assaulted and tackled to the ground by American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) members in the audience.

This morning outside Dianne Feinstein's office in downtown San Francisco, Codepink activists and war veterans "[urged] their senator to speak out against torture being inflicted daily on Army Pvt. Bradley Manning, who is suspected of leaking Wikileaks documents detailing US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Codepink removed most of their clothing to signify Manning being stripped of his rights.

Manning, if you recall, "was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq on suspicion of having passed classified information to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. He was charged in July that year with transferring classified data onto his personal computer, and communicating national defense information to an unauthorized source between November 19, 2009, and May 27, 2010. An additional 22 charges were preferred in March 2011, including 'aiding the enemy,' a capital offense, though prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty. He is currently awaiting a hearing to decide whether he will face a court martial."

Here are some (NSFW) images and video from today's protest.

They sure are crafty, those CodePink dames. First they manage to get within a few inches of Condoleezza Rice. Now they waltz up to Barack Obama and give him some paper. See, while at last night's Democratic Party fundraiser (which raised $2 million), Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans, according to KTVU, handed Obama a petition "allegedly signed by Afghani women who want an end to the war in their country." After handing Obama the petition, Evans said the President told her "‘You know we are not going to end the problem in Afghanistan any time soon.’" To which she replied, "actually you’re not going to solve the problem, they are.” Added bonus: no fake blood.was involved.

Protest-fetish protest group CodePink -- a social circle whose members wear pink feather boas and zany hats while shouting -- will be in Union Square tonight, protesting President Barack Obama's visit. According to Appeal.BCN. CodePink"will ask the president to commit to an exit strategy from Afghanistan." Also, they will display a banner in Union Square, "while a Code Pink member will try to deliver petitions to the president inside the fundraiser." Outrageous.

Other protest groups wringing their hands in Union Square this evening while Obama eats fancy food at the St. Francis Hotel: Single Payer Now, who "plans to have doctors, nurses and health care reform activists across the street from the hotel demanding national single-payer health care," and a group called the Stop NAFTA/CAFTA Coalition, who will ask the president "to end the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which the group says have increased poverty and inequality."

Whether you're a pro-Obama gloater or you live in pro-Hillary Delegate Hub fantasyland, the next few weeks should be interesting. News about City College dedication after the jump.