Please God, make it stop!
Did you naively think that Obama’s election as President and the nearly total cessation of any hostilities in Iraq would finally spell the end of the anti-war protests that have occasionally erupted since 2003? Silly you. Because on November 10, 2008, the relentless members of the anti-American political cult World Can’t Wait uncorked a fresh new protest in downtown Berkeley, this time calling on Obama to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan.
Zombietime reader “Jackanape” filmed this video of a shouting match between World Can’t Wait and some pro-American counter-protesters who were dogging them.
The Daily Californian had a videographer on hand as well, and produced this report about the protest, with scenes from earlier in the afternoon when it started on the U.C. Berkeley campus.
World Can’t Wait wore their now-standard Guantanamo prisoner uniforms, with some big plastic chains for extra impact.
To complete the illusion of time travel to a different era, a Ron Paul for President volunteer showed up to observe the anachronistic proceedings.
Will these kinds of protests ever end? I have a terrible suspicion that the answer is “No.”
After a pause for some more arguing with the patriotic counter-protesters, off everybody trooped to the Marine Corps Recruiting Office. Even though Code Pink finally had the wisdom to call it quits and permanently end their futile year-long siege of the office, World Can’t Wait didn’t get the memo, and has now apparently assumed the mantle of leadership in the anti-Marines cause.
And remember: Stop thinking like an American!
(Note: This is not a photo of me, but rather
1Ringo the Gringo on Nov 12, 2008 at 11:37 am:
“Will these kinds of protests ever end? I have a terrible suspicion that the answer is “No.”
——————————————————
Down here in LA the anti-Prop 8 demonstrations over the past week have been larger than the anti-war demonstrations of the past 8 years, and more intense as well.
Because of work and other obligations I was not able to attend the one last Saturday in Silverlake which was estimated to be over 12,000 strong. A friend of mine who was there said that the emotions were running so high that he left for fear that it would turn violent.
As the war in Iraq winds down the culture war at home is winding up….I suspect that you will not be running out of material for your website any time soon.
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2Yashmak on Nov 12, 2008 at 11:57 am:
You can’t teach idiots to stop being an idiots. Why not? Because they’re idiots.
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3Honorary Yooper on Nov 12, 2008 at 11:57 am:
These folks were outside the Obama rally in Chicago on election night. Got off a few shots of them here at my blog. I think the World Can’t Wait people will tire of Obama and become angry that he is not far enough left for them, and that he is not anti-American enough for them.
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4yma o hyd on Nov 12, 2008 at 12:28 pm:
Of course these protests won’t end - these folks have a vested interest in protesting, its their job, their career.
Funny though how they don’t protest about the wars in Africa …
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5Chipset on Nov 12, 2008 at 12:34 pm:
So happy to see there are reasonable people on the other side.. oh, wait, there aren’t.
I look at these mock prisoners and I want to actually show them what torture is like.
Is that wrong?
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6Outrider on Nov 12, 2008 at 12:40 pm:
There will always be people or groups protesting what they perceive to be wrong, or as is more common events that do not happen as they desire. Even during the 80s, we had to contend with groups such as “School of the Americas Watch, run by those crazy MaryKnowll Society, Congregation, and Association elements, various branches of Peace Action, Veterans for Peace, and many splinter or ad hoc groups. All were protesting what they thought was evil, all the while managing to overlook the evil the very groups they were protesting were combatting.
History is repeating itself. We have many people willing to protest our actions to combat evil groups that are in fact truly evil. Most of these protestors have never really met true evil face to face and thus are unaware of what true evil and cruelty look like.
You keep reporting Zombie. I don’t see any end to their insanity, and childish actions, any time soon.
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7pre-Boomer Marine brat on Nov 12, 2008 at 12:55 pm:
These people simply HAVE to have an anti-Establishment capital-C Cause. If all existing causes were to suddenly evaporate, they would be compelled to create one.
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8JDW on Nov 12, 2008 at 1:03 pm:
Hey, if you had a crappy little unimportant, unfulfilled life, wouldn’t you spend most of your small, miserable time trying to make other people equally small? Equally miserable? A douchebag can’t help but be attracted to douchebags. And, in the process, be desirous to have douchebags everywhere.
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9MoonBatt08 on Nov 12, 2008 at 1:06 pm:
Obviously, they haven’t got a job, they haven’t a life. If so, they’d have no time for this non-sense!
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10Quilly Mammoth on Nov 12, 2008 at 1:18 pm:
Hey yooper,
I think they already have given up on Obama.
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11Phil on Nov 12, 2008 at 1:19 pm:
These people will invent causes to protest when there is no atrocity at hand. The left’s hypocricy is overwhelming. They protest the dominant paradigm here, where and only when it is safe to do so, and only as long as they can ride their bikes to Starbucks after the fact and talk about taking a brave stand over their grande carmel machiattos. If they were protesting an actually dangerous regime, like in Iran, or North Korea, these little cowards would be far less inclined to ’speak truth to power.’ They make me sick, they protest the soldier when it is HE who provides him the forum in which to be an idiot. They protest the policeman, when it is HE who guarantees everyone has their soapbox, despite the obvious lack of substance for what it is they are saying in the first place. And sadly, they don’t even recognize this fundamental irony.
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12ProtestShooter on Nov 12, 2008 at 1:25 pm:
Hey, thanks for the link.
Two thoughts…
For people who don’t know the area: The USMC office is clearly the place to be when you want to have a protest and there isn’t any kind of obvious place to put it. Everybody knows where it is, there’s good foot and car traffic, the sidewalk’s wide enough that you don’t have to worry about blocking it quite so much, there’s food in the area, parking’s not too bad, it’s right next to the BART station and the UC campus… pretty much the ideal location both for the Marines and the protesters.
And the second thought is that there’s no percentage in arguing with somebody with a bullhorn. Partially because they’re loud, and partially because the kind of people who own bullhorns aren’t good at listening.
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13Earth56 on Nov 12, 2008 at 1:26 pm:
They are A-N-A-R-C-H-I=S=T-S
aSK an Anarchist what would make them happy in the final conclusion if everything went their way
Answer..uh uh .. you know man…like uh uh Down with Bush !,,,uh uh facist !…uh uh…wheres duh bong man ?
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14CattusMagnus on Nov 12, 2008 at 1:31 pm:
Zombie,
Just out of curiousity, on average, how many prostests are there in Berkeley on a monthly basis?
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15CattusMagnus on Nov 12, 2008 at 1:32 pm:
Or, protests rather.
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16JoeB on Nov 12, 2008 at 1:37 pm:
Good to see that Slipknot was there to lend their support.
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17Occam's Beard on Nov 12, 2008 at 1:41 pm:
Back when I was at Berkeley and dinosaurs roamed the earth every spring the communists would bring out their new line of designer causes. Some years (divestment in South Africa) they would gain traction, other years not (pay raises for union employees at UC ran out of steam when the Chancellor published their pay scales, and students found out those guys were making a bundle).
Is it, as it would appear, still like that, zombie?
The bottom line: these clowns don’t actually care at all about the issue; they view the “issue” as merely a vehicle for agitation. Community organizers, all trying to organize each other.
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18Marius De Lucca on Nov 12, 2008 at 1:48 pm:
Ah. This is why I love the Bay Area — all the kooks.
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19zombie on Nov 12, 2008 at 1:54 pm:
13 Earth56:
Actually, they’re not anarchists — they’re Maoists. They try to hide that fact, but they’re Maoists.
The anarchists should hate World Can’t Wait for this reason, but some very stupid anarchists do hang around them, seemingly unaware that WCW and its parent group the Revolutionary Communist Party are totally in favor of totalitarianism — the opposite of anarchy.
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20zombie on Nov 12, 2008 at 1:58 pm:
14 CattusMagnus:
No way to give a running monthly average, since everything is in flux at this moment due to the election, and because both the Tree-Sit and Code Pink both recently stopped their ongoing nonstop protests.
The Left really have nothing to complain about anymore, but we’ll have to see what 2009 brings! I suspect they’ll be doing a lot of complaining nonetheless.
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21Pierre on Nov 12, 2008 at 2:00 pm:
lol. why would they try to hide that they’re maoist? do other nutcrackers look down on maoists or something?
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22Pierre on Nov 12, 2008 at 2:02 pm:
… besides, zombie, you’re doing a fundamental error by trying to inject reason and logic into the minds of these people. they don’t care who’s what.. DOWN WITH BUSH, MAN!
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23yochanan on Nov 12, 2008 at 2:49 pm:
well these were the she-hags 17% remember this crowd thinks pilosie is a conserative
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24winston on Nov 12, 2008 at 2:54 pm:
Stupid anarchists
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25Desert Storm Vet on Nov 12, 2008 at 2:58 pm:
After reading the sign this moron has on its, I mean his, back, I will definitely follow the American way. I will have my house in the country and drive my Audi. I will live life to its fullest and invest my time and money so I can make the most out of it. I will use Capitalism to the best extent possible to make money and try to live independently off the system instead of following the utopianist group collective mentality being dependent on the system and, I will to the best of my ability, discourage Marxism from rising, maintain the fight to bear arms, and to speak out against the pending socialist storm that is ready to envelop this nation. GOD BLESS THE USA!!!
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26Tantor on Nov 12, 2008 at 3:05 pm:
The protests will stop when the protestors resolve all the psychic drama with their parents which is driving them to act out in public. The protests will stop when the voices in their heads stop, ie never. If you have ever talked to these folks, you soon get the picture of dysfunctional lives with an unfocused grievance against the world.
When I was in grad school in Texas, I once read an editorial in the school paper in which an undergraduate witnessed a passionate protest at another college and longed to imitate it. He just couldn’t think of anything to protest. Still, he longed to protest if only he could find something, anything to protest.
For such folks, protesting is an end in itself. For the bulk of protestors, a demonstration is a party. For the hard core radicals, it is the only social life they have. The target of the protest is peripheral. It’s all about power and control, if only to control the streets or sidewalks and their small band for a couple hours. That is the zenith of their tiny little lives.
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27paybacktime on Nov 12, 2008 at 3:33 pm:
The FAKE “anti-war” imbeciles NEVER demonstrate against al-qada or war criminal osama, or the islamofascist regime of iran and its genocidal threats against Israel, honor killings, executions of gays in islamofascist iran.
If they did, their superiours in socialist UK would give them a tongue lashing.
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28Ken on Nov 12, 2008 at 3:50 pm:
“Did you naively think that Obama’s election as President and the nearly total cessation of any hostilities in Iraq would finally spell the end of the anti-war protests that have occasionally erupted since 2003?”
::sheepish look::
Uh, yeah, I did. I should have known better, d’oh!
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29Fenris on Nov 12, 2008 at 4:08 pm:
Aww geez, them again. Their fliers are at the University of Houston again; I hope schedules don’t conflict so I can snap compromising pictures.
I’m still a little edgy about the “1 million dead” claim. I’ve seen them say 2 million, and I’ve seen criticisms about The Lancet overcounting (650,000.) The Iraqi Health Ministry estimated 400,000, The WHO and the went with 150,000, and the Iraq Body Count Project settled with 97,000. Where’s the consistency?
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30Spiny Norman on Nov 12, 2008 at 4:28 pm:
Consistency? You’re asking political propaganda to be consistent?
At least the Iraq Body Count people had the intellectual honesty to remove Al Qaeda / Mahdi Army / “insurgent” terrorist causalties from their list (it was over 130,000 at one time). They still do not, to my knowledge, distinguish the victims of terrorist bombings from those of US military action.
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31TJB on Nov 12, 2008 at 5:13 pm:
Of course these protests will never end. Its how most of them find pick up girls - trust me, 4 years at Columbia and watching them protest something new each week about which they really know nothing. There is no other motivation other than appearing “sensitive” in front of the opposite sex.
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32Paula on Nov 12, 2008 at 6:17 pm:
I love the sign taped onto someones back that says, “Stop thinking like and American and start thinking like someone who cares for the whole planet.?
I wonder, do this people think it’s “caring” to leave people under the crushing rule of a man that would gas thousands of his own citizens?
Just curious.
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33Fenris on Nov 12, 2008 at 6:34 pm:
32: They’re Maoists. Remember how much Mao cared for those 14 million (minimum estimate) peasants during the Great Leap Forward?
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34Roger Godby on Nov 12, 2008 at 6:37 pm:
In part, proof that welfare reform failed and that too many people are being given student loans to study Studies Studies.
Back in the ’70s, one of my parents went to see a film on a Midwestern state campus in winter. The hippies in line were jumping up and down, leading the parent to think they were drugged up until realizing they were barefooted, just like their brethren in sunny California, where the temperate was probably 50°F warmer. Those people reproduced, and their spawn are visible here as “activists” and “protesters.”
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35George Bruce on Nov 12, 2008 at 6:46 pm:
21Pierre on Nov 12, 2008 at 2:00 pm:
“lol. why would they try to hide that they’re maoist? do other nutcrackers look down on maoists or something?”
They’re shy.
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36notutopia on Nov 12, 2008 at 8:34 pm:
Zombie, great vids and as usual great insight! If they don’t want us to think in America’s best security interests, why don’t they go to live and study across the big pond. Better yet, go to China.
And if O is tested from one of the “friends” they are trying to protect, or worse yet, we have a terrorist event here at home soon after he is in office ?
Can you imagine what the reaction to a reenactment of the ‘Draft’ would do to these hyperventilating Maoists?
They could all stand to benefit from boot camp.
There is obviously too much idle time available from their studies. Unless of course they’re getting extra credit for their participation in protesting.
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37Mike O on Nov 12, 2008 at 8:40 pm:
Maoists? I love that…reminds me of the Big Lebowski
DUDE - They’re nihilists.
WALTER - Huh?
DUDE - They kept saying they believe in nothing.
WALTER - Nihilists! Jesus.
Say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.
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38notutopia on Nov 12, 2008 at 8:40 pm:
Zombie, check out PJM’s, Ron Radosh. He has a nice write on The Chutzpah of Bill Ayers.
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39mwalt on Nov 12, 2008 at 9:11 pm:
Regardless of where one’s ideological sympathies lie, doesn’t it seem strange that protesters (and counter-protesters) revel in these kinds of weird displays? I think it’s reasonable to assume that many of these people are acting in good faith and actually believe in their causes (i.e., they are not just cynically trying to pick up “protest chicks/dudes”) so why devote so much time and effort to something so unproductive? Even if the goal is just to raise awareness, I would think that organizing the same people to go door to door volunteering to mow lawns, clean trash, clean houses, etc. in exchange for a pamphlet or a five-minute speech on the societal ill du jour would change a lot more minds than chanting and sign-waving.
Are these people simply too angry to walk their neighbors’ dogs?
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40Ken on Nov 12, 2008 at 9:25 pm:
“Better yet, go to China”
Those clowns wouldn’t even last a day here in China. That would be hilarious to see.
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41Mauser on Nov 12, 2008 at 11:09 pm:
Why are there no Bosnia protesters at these events?
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42RF on Nov 13, 2008 at 1:01 am:
Good bust Zombie!
lolz They are too angry mwalt…they wouldn’t do very well in DPRK.
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43DangerousNate on Nov 13, 2008 at 6:30 am:
At least code pink had enough brains to realize when to stop. Stupid Maoists, they haven’t read their history books.
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44steveaz on Nov 13, 2008 at 6:55 am:
Most young people living in the Bay area can barely afford to live there. Most are stressed financially, but, because they can’t improve their lot while living in the most expensive region of our country, they are trapped between two competing options: succeed at business and get wealthy (ie. join the hated capitalist echelons), or move, and leave the hip theatre of SF, Oakland, Berkeley and Marin.
This trap of their own making leaves many young people angry, and forces them to lash out at proxies for their angst. In this, the protesters more resemble fussing babies rejecting Mother’s teat than they do reasoned political activists.
If this crowd were to migrate to, say, rural Arkansas, they’d find all the affordable housing and food and community that they can’t seem to afford in the regaled Bay area. And they’d be forced to grow up, pay their mortgages, and enjoy their gay relationships without the Fed’s consent.
These are tough goals for the perpetually adolescent…there should be no wonder why, in anticipation of adulthood’s burdensome responsibilities, they’re gnawing on the tit in Berkeley.
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45marjoriemoon on Nov 13, 2008 at 2:08 pm:
There is nothing wrong with protesting. We are allowed to do so as Americans. An activity that is met with torture in other countries. Given that fact, the irony in the statement, “Stop thinking like an American” blows my mind. Besides Zombie would be out of a “job” without these goons. I find them entertaining personally, so what-me-worry.
Maybe, just maybe, and I’m not betting on it, but maybe now you’ll realize that these far left wackos never represented Obama although they were constantly trotted out by rightwing blogs as the backbone of his supporters. Makes me rather ill. Besides, anarchists do not vote. It’s one of their creeds.
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46Mark on Nov 13, 2008 at 4:04 pm:
STOP thinking. Period.
Then you’ll be just like these career protesters.
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47DaMav on Nov 13, 2008 at 5:19 pm:
My response to your first picture
http://www.completewermosguide.com/Black/Black_Jawa.JPG
Keep up the great work Zombietime!
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48DangerousNate on Nov 13, 2008 at 8:51 pm:
“Those clowns wouldn’t even last a day here in China. That would be hilarious to see.”
If you get video of that, let me know!
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49Fenris on Nov 13, 2008 at 9:35 pm:
47: Utinni!
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50Jim on Nov 14, 2008 at 1:03 pm:
is it me, or do all these assorted fruits and anti-war nuts remind you all of an average Star Trek convention?
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51average_guy on Nov 18, 2008 at 6:54 pm:
marjoriemoon on Nov 13, 2008 at 2:08 pm:
Maybe, just maybe, and I’m not betting on it, but maybe now you’ll realize that these far left wackos never represented Obama although they were constantly trotted out by rightwing blogs as the backbone of his supporters. Makes me rather ill. Besides, anarchists do not vote. It’s one of their creeds.
Hamas doesn’t vote either, but they supported Obama…
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52Anonymous on Nov 19, 2008 at 4:59 am:
“Stop thinking like an American and start thinking like someone who cares about the planet”… like the Chinese… or the Indians… or any country in Africa where they don’t even care about PEOPLE…
I’m not real sure why people think that America or Americans are the only problem… or the only solution.
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53tom bates on Nov 20, 2008 at 11:57 am:
If You Don’t Like Berkeley, Then Get The Fuck Out!
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54Christina on Nov 20, 2008 at 3:22 pm:
Okay, supposedly their thongs are in a twist because we’re killing hapless civilians, right?
I did a bit of math. Assume that a bomb or missile that hits its target (a tank, a weapons cache, whatever) also takes out exactly one (and no more) enemy combatants. And we’ve got a 75% success rate with bombs and missiles hitting the target. That’s 9 dead enemy for every dozen missiles. Which, by the best estimates, also sadly kill just over one non-combatant. I’ll round it up to two. Every hundred dead enemy, 22 dead bystanders.
The amniocentesis done to identify babies with Down syndrome cause the miscarriage of three genetically standard babies for every “enemy” baby with Down syndrome that gets identified and aborted. So for every 100 “enemy” babies, the doctors are killing 22 bystander babies.
Which means that freaking BOMBING MISSIONS have a lower rate of collateral damage than the goddam DOCTORS, who are killing more than 13 times as many bystanders for every enemy target than BOMBERS kill.
If these douchebags are so opposed to the slaughter of innocent bystanders, they can start a lot closer to home and save a lot more lives.
http://realchoice.blogspot.com/2008/11/collateral-damage.html
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55john Kennedy on Nov 23, 2008 at 9:24 am:
Concentrate on Impeachment for the next 6 weeks
.
Why is it that even though the un-Constitutional crimes of Bush & Cheney
have caused most of our problems
World Cant Wait Has Abandoned IMPEACHMENT.
Have some of the leaders of WCW been compromised by Pelosi????
I used to be the organizer for the Colorado Chapter of WCW. No one from WCW ever came to impeachment rallys or protests. We finally shut the Colorado group down because of the lack of interest in holding Bush and Cheney accountable by impeachment.
Prior to the Democratic National Convention I pressed for WCW to make impeachment their sole topic in protests. The rulers of WCW suppressed such talk. We gave up and shut down the chapter.
Have you heard much from WCW about impeachment in the last year?
Do you see Impeachment called for on their website?
To stop the pardons?
Are you worried that Bush will Pardon everyone who tortured on his orders?
If the House approves an impeachment resolution prior to Bush pardoning anyone for torture it will Stop Him From Pardoning his enablers. The Constitution prohibits pardons in the case of impeachment. Take advantage of that fact.
Everyone in the anti-war movement needs to get out in the streets for impeachment prior to the end of this lame duck session of the House (which apparently starts on Dec. 8th).
It doesn’t matter what group gets credit for saving the country from fascists like Bush and Cheney, Just That It Gets Done.
World Can’t Wait needs to lead on this. NOW!!!!
Or explain to our oppressed grandchildren why it
abandoned the Constitution.
If an Impeachment Resolution is not approved by the House in December
No one will ever be tried for War Crimes.
Guaranteed!!!
John H Kennedy, Denver CO, Coordinator for
Impeach Colorado Coalition
..
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56Fenris on Nov 27, 2008 at 12:57 pm:
#55: Are you insinuating that these fliers I took pictures of a month ago came from a DIFFERENT World Can’t Wait? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v733/Fenris_the_Wolf/worldcantwait.jpg
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57Dave Surls on Nov 27, 2008 at 3:28 pm:
“Concentrate on Impeachment for the next 6 weeks”
Left wing loons crack me up.
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