Nine health care reform activists were arrested this morning while staging a sit-in inside Senator Joseph Lieberman's congressional office in Washington, D.C.
The activists were there representing an organization called Mobilization for Health Care For All.
Explaining their reasons for their actions, student activist Jason Ortiz said, "we staged a sit-in at Senator Lieberman's office this morning in order to ask him to return the $65,000 campaign donation that he recently received from the Aetna health insurance corporation and to ask him to represent the people of Connecticut, not the insurance companies."
The group was also there to protest Senator Lieberman's announcement last week that he will filibuster any health reform bill in the Senate that contains a public option.
In total there were 9 arrests made at approximately 10:15 a.m. EST, Thursday, November 5.
At 9:15 this morning the group requested a meeting with the Senator and refused to leave until they were given a chance to meet with him. They were told by Senator Lieberman's staff that they would not be given a meeting with the Senator, and that if they did not leave they would be arrested. Senator Lieberman's staff subsequently contacted law enforcement, and 9 activists were physically removed from the building and arrested.
Some members of the group went to a meeting of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (which Senator Lieberman chairs) to stage a protest in the presence of Senator Lieberman. They were asked to leave and did so without incident.
Of those arrested, one, Brittney Florio, is currently a University of Connecticut student, and one, John Mohrbacher, is an alumnus.
For more information, please call Jason Ortiz at (860)639-8101
I only recently discovered the power of the OpEd News website.
I believe George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, and others should be arrested, hauled away in handcuffs, have mugshots taken, processed, and then be wrapped in chains and leg irons to face a very public trial like any other common criminal.
Prosecuting George W. Bush, Rowland style:
http://www.opednews.com/maxwri... so that hopefully Bush, also, does time in Federal Prison, hopefully for the rest of his life.
To get Bush prosecuted there is only one brief chance.
I am asking you to donate to the people who are behind this.
Charles Manson prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi, and Charlotte Dennett are on task. Time is short, please check this out and give:
http://starkravingviking.blogs...
The pair is pictured with Ben & Jerry of the ice cream fame, in link above.
We're one more step closer to prosecuting George W. Bush for murder up in Vermont.
I helped Charles Manson prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi and Charlotte Dennett serve papers on the current VT AG establishing jurisdiction. Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Mike Brown is writing on the various events at the Democratic convention in Denver for My Left Nutmeg.
I've haven't seen the riots and arrests that the media have been showing on TV - and I'm on the street, literally. The following pictures were taken on the street outside the Denver Convention. If you like these, I'll publish some anti-abortion protesters carrying signs showing fetuses cut up into several pieces.
1. The Phelps Family (a.k.a God Hates Fags, Inc.) - demonstrating as only they can do. The Rev. Fred Phelps has been sending his family around to spread the love for about 20 years.
Front page of CT Post today (1/26/08)....Karl Rove is going to be commencement speaker at this year's graduation ceremony at Choate Rosemary
Hall up in Wallingford. It is beyond me to the reason why he would be a good speaker to graduating high school seniors?
Many of the students are planning to walk out in protest; however, some who aren't fans of Rove want to hear what he has to say (or lack thereof, IMHO).
If I were a student there I would be protesting as well!
From my blog, Politics in the Zeros, posts with videos of speakers at the Bush protest on May 23 in New London.
Ted Goodnight. Veterans for Peace.
He was in the Reserves for 15 fifteen years, volunteered for active duty after 9/11, served 9 months in Afghanistan, where he "drank the Kool-Aid" before becoming disillusioned with the wars. He now opposes them and is active in Veterans For Peace. http://polizeros.com...
Brian Becker. National Coordinator ANSWER Coalition, the group that called the protest. http://polizeros.com...
Our fearless leader will be disgracing our state on Wednesday and it appears that the anti-war rally will have some unwanted company. A group calling themselves Gathering of Eagles (sounds a little Nazi-esque to me) is planning on attending. They have permits in place to rally across the street from the Coast Guard Academy.
ANSWER has permits for a rally at the main gate, but according to an article in the Norwich Bulletin, the Secret Service is trying to declare the area off limits, which will be pretty interesting if the Secret Service prevails in its request. ANSWER is asking that people show up at 7 AM to take possessiion of the rally site in numbers before they can be swept aside.
To get an idea of the wingnuts who will be there to support the Decider, check out http://gatheringofea...
Nearly all Senate Republicans - and independent Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut - ducked debate Monday on the president's troop-surge plan for Iraq. They can't hide much longer from this critical issue. Nor can they protect the president from Congress' and the public's waning confidence in the war.
...A nonbinding bipartisan resolution crafted mostly by Republican Sen. John W. Warner said it "disagrees" with the president's plan to send another 21,500 U.S. troops into Iraq's civil war. The resolution fell 11 votes short of the 60 needed to begin debate on it. Voting against debate were 45 Republicans and Mr. Lieberman, who said the resolution would "discourage our troops."
Surely Iraq's deteriorating battlegrounds are more discouraging than debate would be. Just as surely, soldiers themselves are debating the wisdom of escalating a war going badly.
In stark and welcome contrast to Connecticut's let's-not-talk-about-it senator stood Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, who argued passionately on the floor that "if we want the president to listen to Congress, then we'd better start acting like the co-equal branch of government that we are and stop acting timidly, fearful of being held responsible for demanding a different course in Iraq."
Remember that Samuel Alito wasn't worth filibustering for Joe (because "it was time to move on"). But apparently the threat of a non-binding debate on Iraq rises to the level that necessitates pulling out every parliamentary trick in the book.
And about his "discouraging the troops" smear... the Secretary of Defense seems to strongly disagree, while giving the troops much more credit for their intelligence and emotional maturity than Lieberman does:
Pace and Gates said they did not think debate in Congress would hurt the morale of troops in combat, undercutting an assertion by many congressional Republicans that members opposing the war were undermining the fighting forces there.
"As long as this Congress continues to do what it has done, which is to provide the resources for the mission, the dialogue will be the dialogue, and the troops will feel supported," Pace said.
Gates added that troops understand members of Congress want to find the best way to win the war. "I think they're sophisticated enough to understand that that's what the debate's really about," he said.
If he's there, someone should ask him why he has a lower opinion of our troops than the Secretary of Defense does.
Update: Via Americablog, 11 troops have been killed in the two days while Lieberman has prevented debate of Iraq in the Senate. About 300 American troops have been killed since election day.
In case you haven't noticed it on the MLN calendar, I wanted to highlight a this item from John Murphy at CCAG about a protest tomorrow in Hartford.
Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, Connecticut Citizen Action Group, MoveOn.org, TrueMajority.org, and VoteVets are joining together for a protest tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 8 at 4:30PM at Joe Lieberman's Hartford office.
Murph writes:
On Monday, Senator Joe Lieberman (CFL-CT) voted against ending the filibuster on a debate on the war in Iraq. He joined with Republican leaders and nearly all of his Republican colleagues to block debate and a vote on a bipartisan resolution expressing the Senate's opposition to sending more American troops into a civil war in Iraq.
By doing so, Lieberman gave President Bush the green light to move forward with his escalation plans. An overwhelming majority of the American public have called for a change of course in Iraq. So have the Iraq Study Group, senior military leaders, the troops and the intelligence community.
Why do the CIA, FBI, and Connecicut State Police spend so much time tracking activists?
The Ken Krayeske arrest last week has caused quite a bit of good blogging, and finally, so far, some good inquiry by the Governor facing the threat and likely reality of legislative investigations.
Often, people seem to ask: "With all the foreign terrorists and suspected domestic terrorists and criminals, why do they spend all those $ and infiltrating and spying on peaceful activists and protesters?"
My answer maybe different than most. I recognize that paranoids and fearful people such as Nixon and Bush may be a huge factor, yet perhaps they are more enablers than causes.
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