October 27th Peace March in Seattle
There was a peace march and rally in Seattle this weekend. Were you there?
Several thousand activists rallied at Judkins Park and then marched downtown to Occidental Park in good ol Pioneer Square. The event was well done and focused on an anti-war message. Several chapters of Veterans for Peace from around the Northwest were in attendance as well as the Seattle chapter #8 of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
United for Peace and Justice coordinated the Seattle effort with local peace groups and organizations.
A few photos and… the usual accompanying words. Seattle march
Be afraid Spokane. Dino is on his way!
Dino Rossi is gearing up for another run at the Governorship of the great state of Washington and will be announcing this bit of news today in Spokane Washington. This Spokane announcement will come several hours after the first announcing of the “news” in Issaquah. Way to go Dino team, you start the day by pointing out to an already overly sensitive Spokane that they remain a distant second to the wet side of the state.
Spokane is a funny place. It has a chip on its large Lilac covered shoulders and obviously your team has already failed you. Not unlike Chelan County and Cary “jet ski” Condotta. Let me offer you semi-solid advice from a Spokanite point of view. I mean really Dino, the way your fans have been reminding us of the stolen election, the more you are aligned with Al Gore and John Kerry. Both of these men have a cock in the stolen election fight. Perhaps you should get advice from them?
So let’s get back to Spokane. You just can’t show up in the “City that Alexie” built, without having a little inside information first.
Read more…
Mission Accomplished. And More!
The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) passed by town today. Being nostalgic to a fault, I was filled with fond remembrance of our fearless leader proclaiming that the mission was indeed accomplished, as he stood on the deck of the Lincoln. That was May of 2003. Whats new since then? Too much to enjoy reading here. But as some may have feared, I did compile a few things to ponder…
Since May of ’03, approximately 3660 more U.S.troops have died in Iraq. Well over 25,000 were wounded. More than 1000 contractors have died since then as well. Iraqi civilian deaths? It does happen. Numbers range from 90,000 to over a million…
Over 2 million Iraqi refugees have fled to places like Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. We promised to take in 7000 Iraqis this year. So far, 1608 have been allowed to come to America this year. Some day we have promised to allow 25,000 Iraqis a taste of freedom in America. Your welcome Iraq!
We spend 2 billion dollars a week spreading democracy in Iraq.
And look, just today the GOP blocked health care coverage for children, as the House failed to override the Bush veto on SCHIP.
And not to be out done, Intelligence Committee Democrats today compromised with the White House to go ahead and offer telephone companies retroactive immunity from prosecution over illegal wiretapping of you. And me. Thank you Senators Rockefeller and Feinstein! But wait! Thanks may be in order for Senator Dodd, who has put a hold on the FISA bill…
I could wander aimlessly on…. I shall spare you, and end with a little quote from Dennis Kucinich (no “little” jokes, please). Dennis says, ” Now the people in the Administration of George Bush better remember their Miranda rights, because when I’m elected President I’m going to see that they are arrested. I’m not kidding here! I want to let you to know something; how I feel about what’s happened to our country. We have been led into a war based upon lies — an unjust a war. We’ve seen our civil liberties taken away because of lies. The President, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense are all part of this. They’re going to be held accountable under the law. If someone runs a traffic light, they’ll get a ticket here. There are a million dead Iraqis and almost 4,000 dead American soldiers as a result of this war. Where is the accountability? What’s happened is that our constitution is being torn up. And in this toxic environment, the Administration, in its never-ending quest for more scapegoats, focuses on immigrants. You know it and I know it. And we see, unfortunately, the failure of the Democratic Party to stand up to this Administration. “
Photo, no Decider onboard
Arlington Northwest
Arlington Northwest is a memorial to the men and women of our military that have died in Iraq. This was the fourth year that the Olympia chapter of Veterans for Peace, (chapter #109) had set up the display. With over 3800 crosses and markers displayed at Heritage Park in Olympia Washington, the memorial was a sobering reminder of the cost of war. Olympia VFP wanted to raise public awareness to the real cost of war and the sacrifices that these troops, their families and all others involved were incurring. Arlington Northwest Memorial 2007, a visual reminder of the costs of war….
Link to photos. Olympia Arlington NW
Videos showing Congressman Baird’s constituents giving him hell
This is a series of 11. The first one is mostly Baird stating his case so make sure you look at a few of the others. I will just provide the link for the first and second one. If interested in all the others just click “more videos from this channel” and you’ll see they are all named accordingly. These people from Olympia, Washington are an amazing bunch.
Rep. Brian Baird Goes to Washington
Olympia, Washington that is. One of Congressman Baird’s many town hall meetings where he attempted to explain his new found support of leaving the troops in Iraq for at least another six months.
From a newspaper point of view…try here, from the Olympian. http://www.theolympian.com/news/story/224202.html
The First Post….
Welcome to it!
We will be adding a few more contributors and getting coverage of events, news and info…ASAP. So stay tuned. I’ll post some links to a few photo essays from recent and semi-recent events to check out until we get things up and running here at the Lens…
Thanks
