Results tagged “war”

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.

For those of you who still find political satire knee-slappingly hilarious -- i.e., those of you who laugh a bit too loudly at Shakespeare comedy previews at the Embarcadero Cinemas -- you don't want to miss this new action figure of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Created by HeroBuilders.com -- who have also fashioned figures in the likes of Rod Blagojevich, Bernie Madoff, John McCain and Barack Obama -- Pelosi comes complete with a power suit, saucer eyes, and a mini waterboard that reads "Water Board: Fun for the Whole Family." (If you recall, Pelosi is in trouble for claiming she didn't know about war crime-worthy torture techniques approved by the Bush administration, going so far as to say the C.I.A. lied to her. Even though, you know, she probably knew about what was going on the entire time.) You can fondle your very own Pelosi doll for a mere $49.95. But according to NBC Bay Area, HeroBuilders.com is already backed up with 250 pre-sale orders.

Dainty House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has come under fire recently for allegedly knowing that the U.S. was committing illegal acts of torture, has refuted statements saying that the top Democrat knew that the Bush administration was using waterboarding on detainees in "the war on terror." (Also, waterboarding is the LEAST of what was done to prisoners of war. But we digress.) Pelosi told reporters, according to AP, "To the contrary ... we were told explicitly that waterboarding was not being used." Passing the buck, Pelosi went on to say, ""I wasn't briefed, I was informed that somebody else had been briefed about it." But, come on, she totally knew what was gong on. Anyway, in an effort to divert all of this unwanted attention, Pelosi plans on setting up some sort of "truth commission" to "investigate the events in the Bush administration that led to the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques."

After a weary battle to permanently remove Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) from San Francisco schools, the school board voted 4-3 Tuesday night to reinstate the program. If you recall, the army training service was supposed to be phased out in less than a month at all SF public schools. Many argued that the 90-year-old military recruiting program shouldn't be allowed in public schools. "The kind of leadership it teaches is classic military leadership ... It's intended for war, not for civilian life," said Michael Wong, who graduated from Galileo High as a first Lt. in the JROTC. Getting rid of JROTC would have made San Francisco the country's only school district to ban the program based on political bias.

Oh boy. According to IndyBay, who is never one to disappoint, "over 1000 dead in Gaza." But wait, there's more! It seems there's also a "lockdown" going on at the Israeli Consulate over on Montgomery Street this morning. Around thirty or forty "activists" swarmed the consulate shortly after 8 a.m., "putting bike locks on the doors to prevent it from opening. Activists both inside and outside have also locked themselves together with locks and tubes." And now you know what a "lockdown" is. UPDATE: "Traffic disruption in area of Montgomery and Sacramento. Avoid area until at least 11:30 if possible," according to AlertSF.

Protesters livid about Israel's (offensive? defensive? you decide!) action in Gaza are blocking streets in as they head toward the Federal Building on Golden Gate Ave. This is an "emergency protest," if you will, sparked by this weekend's move into Gaza by armed forces Lots and lots of people have died since Israel and Palestine started throwing rocks at each others many moons ago..

         

Last night the streets of San Francisco saw its second night of anger at Israel's assault in the Gaza Strip. The protest over the never-ending war started on Montgomery Street at the Israeli consulate, eventually moving up to the United Nations Plaza along Market Street. The protest remained peaceful. No arrests, as far as we know, were made. (As of today, Israel has rejected a truce call, continuing to bombing Gaza to smithereens.)

Anti-Zionists, cranky over Israel's brazen smack down in the Gaza Strip, which left 220 people dead, will have a whisper-quiet protest over at DiFi's office later this afternoon at 5 p.m. Co-Sponsored by Direct Action to Stop the War; the Middle East Children's Alliance (aw), Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (oh Jesus, really?), and SF Women in Black (wait, what?). We didn't think much of this protest at first; another protest at Diane Feinstein's office where prog elitists can pretend to looked concerned, we sighed to ourselves. But it turns out you're supposed to "bring candles, posters, and banners; wear black." Wear black? We'll see you tonight at Market and Montgomery at five o'clock sharp.

On Dec. 29, U.S. Navy reservist/attorney/councilman Otto Lee, 41, will start a trepidatious, sourjourn deployment in Iraq. The Sunnyvale representative and father of two received his deployment orders three weeks ago, which means the Lee family has had to put Christmas on pause until his return. Lee is a UC-Berkeley graduate (with degrees in chemical and nuclear engineering) and holds a law degree from UC Hastings. He has been with the Sunnyvale City Council for five years. We wish him a safe return.

   

Code Pink is having yet another Bush/war protest today. This time they're using the shoe -- made popular last week by Iraqi journalist Muntader al-Zaidi, who hurled his footwear at President Bush during a press conference -- as the central theme. The protest, it practically goes without saying, is happening in Berkeley this afternoon.

After hurling his black dress shoes at President George Bush last week, Muntader al-Zaidi, a journalist for an independent Iraqi television station, is being hailed as somewhat of a hero. (Word is that he was given an award for courage in Libya.) Also, according to Tim Redmond over at SFBG, just after tossing his heels, Muntader al-Zaidi had the proverbial crap kicked out of him.

             

While we wait for Eater to tell us just what San Francisco bar stands as the most body cavity-cleansing, check out theses glamor shots from the Second Annual Big Bad Blond Wig Bar Crawl.

While yesterday's Karl Rove/John Edwards cabaret spectacular was re-scheduled for today -- in order to sidestep this from happening again, we'll asuume -- two sect members of the women’s peace group CODEPINK were pinched today at SF Marriot on 4th Street today for taking the stage alongside Karl Rove, staging a citizen’s arrest on charges of war crimes.

OK, it has been reported by the NFL Network that the 49ers may offer a position to Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice

One high-ranking 49ers official said last week, “If she’s interested in talking to us, I’m interested in talking to her.” Rice has told friends as recently as last week she would love to become president of an NFL team.

Some "ultra-liberal" site called OpEdNews claims that, while kicking it at the Denver at the Democratic National Convention, fame-hungry Cindy Sheehan "walked in to discover a man working on her phone, screw driver in hand," bugging her phone. Egads! If it's true -- which? come on! -- that's a bit scary. But why Sheehan? Surely her late-night, paranoid exchanges with Chris "Not Since Dan White..." Daly are harmless. Anyway, read more about her alleged privacy rape and her reasons why she's even at the DCN here.

Around 150 protesters were arrested during yesterday's anti-war protest -- "a lesson on how to do it right," raves C.W. Nevius! -- during a rally that was, for the most part, a peaceful affair. Although a few hooligans hurled glass Christmas ornaments loaded with paint at San Francisco police, which seems a bit unnecessary considering how tolerant the police force here acts compared to larger cities such as Los Angeles, people were rather friendly compared to protests in the past. Scrumptious birthday cake, emblazoned with the message "Unhappy 5th Birthday Stop the War Now," oranges, and coffee were handed out to hungry passers-by.

The photographer being manhandled at around 20-25 seconds in is Luke Thomas of Fog City Journal. (Or so we're told.) Then, at the end, the camera operator receives a serious (and seriously questionable) smackdown by an SFPD officer.

Oops.

Fascist Imperial Dogs 1 - Tree Loving Hippies 0- After all that protesting and dancing and carrot juice drinking, the Berkeley City Council chickened out and said they erred in passing that January resolution that disinvited a Marine recruiting station and called them "unwelcome intruders." In that resolution, they also allowed Code Pink permission to blast all sorts of things at the station, gave them a designated parking space in front of it, and permission to protest on Wednesdays from noon to 4 p.m. Why Wednesday? Because it’s Hump Day! They did, however, refuse to issue an apology and used part of their mea culpa to lash out at the Bush administration and the war. This didn't satisfy some conservatives as Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina introduced the "Semper Fi Act" which would redirect money to UC Berkeley and give it to the Southern Heritage Coalition so they can sew more flags with the Confederate flag in them.

Republican (it goes without saying) Assemblyman Guy Houston of San Ramon wants to slice off more than $3 million in state funding from Berkeley for their stance against Marine recruiting. He will introduce legislation to "withhold state transportation money until Berkeley rescinds its 'war on the U.S. Marine Corps.'"

Dispatches from TJICistan points out a delightful fact about General Frederick N. Funston--the apparently sensitivity-free Medal of Honor recipient known for his manliness in both the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War, and the current namesake for Fort Funston--who once boasted the following. Ahem:

Yes, by popular demand, San Francisco Film Society's SF360 Film will once again bring you the one, the only, "Trapped in a Closet" sing-along, the awesomest sing-along this side of the Buffy "Once More With Feeling" sing-along (sing it everyone: "Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes/They've got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses...") The show will be Friday, January 25, at 7:00 pm at Mezzanine.

-- Winged Migration (Le peuple migrateur): Birds! We tend to think nothing of them here in the Bay Area - well, as far as the homely and picked upon poor pigeon goes - but birds are exciting creatures. Colors, flying, migrating, the ability to form perfect V-shapes - just see for yourself tonight at 7:15 p.m. and 9:25 at The Red Vic; $6-8.50.

Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar. Trying to decide what to feature this week was rough. Our choices were slim to none, ranging from the Wu Tang Clan to Bow Wow/Omarion; we just weren't feeling it. Then, we were checking one of our favorite blogs, Stereogum and we came across Vampire Weekend's new song, "I Stand Corrected." We got all excited since we're still reeling from...

Phillyist prepared to party by doing the hustle, lighting the lights, shopping up a storm, and... visiting Khrushchev?

Oh is it a voting day or something? It totally sneaked up on us! It still feels like Monday today. Actually it also feels like October. Anyway, you should probably vote yes on A and no on H, because that's what everyone else is doing. Prop A will protect The Mt Soledad National War Memorial and do something to the air force? and will transform some colleges. Also, Aristotle endorsed it it.

Well, this is interesting. Today we received a (rightfully) irritated press release from Tom Radulovich, District 9 BART Director (co-signed by Chris Daly). It seems that he wasn't involved in the decision to go ahead and close BART on Halloween night. Which? Is bizarre and inappropriate considering, well, he's an elected District 9 BART Director. The missive, which is long and available for your viewing pleasure below (and continues on after the jump), reads...

Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar. Standouts: 1. Nicole Atkins - Neptune City: This New Jersey native, reaches down deep to relate stories of her hometown, Neptune City on her debut release. "From the time I was a kid I started collecting these sad little tragically beautiful personal stories from the people in my life, and my own as well. That sense of history really appeals...