[Mb-civic] bush tanks...demonstrations in DC

[Mha Atma Khalsa]

"Public approval of Bush's handling of Iraq tumbled
eight points in just
the last week, to 32 per cent."

http://www3.cjad.com/content/cp_article.asp?id=/global_feeds/CanadianPress
/WorldNews/w092173A.htm

The Canadian Press, 2005

Public pressure mounts for Bush to curtail Iraq war
after Katrina disaster

Updated at 18:30 on September 21, 2005, EST.


WASHINGTON (CP) - President George W. Bush says he can
wage
war in Iraq and still pay most of the huge bill for
rebuilding the
hurricane-lashed Gulf Coast. Most Americans don't
agree with him. And for
the first time, Bush is facing a serious revolt in his
own party over how
to pay for hurricane relief.

Republicans already edgy about the estimated
$200-billion US price tag to
clean up after Katrina were bracing for more damage by
week's end as
hurricane Rita hurtled toward Texas and the battered
Louisiana coast.

For now, they're split on whether to cut domestic
programs or add billions
more to the whopping $333-billion U.S. deficit,
options that Americans
clearly aren't favouring in opinion polls.

And with congressional elections looming next year,
analysts say
legislators are increasingly feeling the heat from
voters who tell
pollsters the Iraq war was a mistake and Bush is
spending too much there.

If the tide of public opinion doesn't budge, Bush may
not be able to
withstand an abrupt change in priorities, said Charles
Cushman, a politics
professor at George Washington University.

"His supporters in Congress could abandon him if he's
not going to be able
to help them get re-elected," he said.

"There will be tremendous pressure to declare victory
no matter what's
going on in Iraq and go home."

A new Gallup survey Wednesday reported a record high
in the percentage of
Americans favouring a reduction of U.S. troops in
Iraq, with 63 per cent
saying some or all of them should come home.

The opinion shift on troop withdrawal was similar
among Republicans,
Democrats and independents.

And 54 per cent of Americans chose less spending on
Iraq over other
means of paying for Katrina, including increasing the
deficit, cutting
domestic programs or raising taxes, an option Bush has
ruled out.

Public approval of Bush's handling of Iraq tumbled
eight points in just
the last week, to 32 per cent.

An Iraq backlash from Katrina was evident in other
recent polls, including
an Associated Press-Ipsos survey this week in which
two-thirds said Bush
was spending too much on the war.

As well, a recent New York Times survey suggested more
than eight in 10
Americans are concerned about the $5 billion US spent
each month in Iraq,
with support for the war falling to an all-time low.

Still, only 26 per cent said they expected U.S. troops
to be withdrawn
within two years.

"Technically, it is possible for the administration to
continue to wage
war in Iraq and launch huge domestic efforts," said
Will Dobson, managing
editor of Foreign Policy magazine.

"The question is whether either can be done to the
expectations of the
public," he said. "And now Bush is in complete damage
control mode."

The president's record low approval ratings after the
bungled response to
Katrina didn't improve following a nationally
televised speech last week
where he promised to fund one of the world's largest
reconstruction
efforts.

In a recent editorial, Richard Haas, president of the
Council on Foreign
Relations, said the aftermath of Katrina will
"inevitably" increase
pressure on Bush to reduce his involvement in Iraq and
spend more
to rebuild or improve the country's capacity to deal
with future
disasters.

Even before Katrina stuck, there were increasing
concerns about the
effectiveness of the Iraq effort, which has gobbled
nearly $200 billion US
and claimed the lives of nearly 2,000 U.S. soldiers.

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan's vigil last month
near Bush's Texas ranch
also renewed national focus on the war and its toll on
the 140,000
soldiers there.

But analysts say it was clearly Katrina that sparked
an abrupt spike in
discontent, against the backdrop last week of the
deadliest day in Baghdad
since the March 2003 invasion, when more than 150
people were killed in
suicide bombings.

And the hurricane catastrophe has supplied renewed
energy for anti-war
groups planning massive rallies in the U.S. capital
this weekend.

Some groups are now specifically targeting individual
U.S. legislators on
the issue of whether they're soft on national
security.

"The terrible tragedy of Katrina brought a silver
lining and that's more
scrutiny of Bush's foreign and domestic policy," said
Bill Dobbs, media
co-ordinator for United for Peace and Justice.

"We've got to put Congress on the hot seat. Congress
gave George Bush the
authority and money to wage this war. Now they have to
hold him
accountable."

And that's exactly the president's weak spot, said
Cushman, who notes that
much of the war costs have been borrowed and China
holds a lot of the U.S.
debt.

"Even considering the Reagan deficits, which were
enormous, these guys
make them look like pikers," he said. "They're
spending money like drunken
sailors."

The question, said Cushman, is whether Democrats can
mount an effective
case against waste and abusive government in next
year's elections.

That kind of campaign worked well on the flip side for
former speaker Newt
Gingrich, credited with in 1994 with marshalling the
electoral success
that allowed Republicans to take control of the House
of Representatives
for the first time in 40 years.

"Democrats might actually get their act together now.
There's a
counter-case to be made," said Cushman.

"It could be a very compelling indictment of
malfeasance and incompetence
in office."

The Canadian Press, 2005

***

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/347908p-
296915c.html

New York Daily News
September 20, 2005

Errol Louis

She knows the game

You launch a political movement with the activists you
have, not the
activists you wish you had. Those who want America out
of Iraq have Cindy
Sheehan, and while she's not perfect, history will
likely record her as a
key leader in the growing movement to end the war.

Sheehan was just one more grief-stricken suburban
mother of a serviceman
killed in Iraq until last month, when she set up a
protest vigil outside
President Bush's vacation ranch.

Since then, she has been speaking in dozens of cities
on the
Bring Them Home Now Tour, which will culminate in a
giant anti-war
protest in Washington this weekend. More than 100
buses of
protesters will be leaving from New York City alone in
the next few days.

She has become a regular target for right-wing
pundits.

"Cindy Sheehan is on a mission to figuratively urinate
on her son's
grave and make his death stand for nothing," said Mark
Williams, a
conservative radio talk show host, on Fox News.

Another pro-war conservative, David Horowitz, has
called Sheehan "a
woman who exploits the death of her own son and
doesn't respect
her own son's life."

Sheehan often provides ammunition to her opponents by
using over-the-top
rhetoric. In a typical comment, her Web site calls the
Bush administration
"murderous thugs who have caused so much mindless
mayhem."

But despite her verbal excesses, Sheehan has humanized
what the polls say
is now a majority position among citizens: that the
Bush administration
has been untruthful about the reasons for the war,
wildly wrong about
forecasts of success and is committed to staying put
in what increasingly
looks like a military quagmire.

Anti-war activists compare Sheehan to Rosa Parks, the
Alabama seamstress
whose 1955 arrest for refusing to obey Montgomery's
segregated bus seating
laws helped spark the civil rights movement. The
analogy is spot on.

Sheehan, like Parks before her, is accused of going
beyond respectable
dissent and turning political and militant. In the
process, say critics,
Sheehan has been co-opted by sinister leftist
organizations, including the
Communist Party.

Critics said exactly the same thing about Rosa Parks,
who was an active
member of the NAACP, fully versed in the growing
movement to end
segregation and well-aware of the group's search for a
good test case.
Segregationists howled over a photo showing Parks -
along with a young
Martin Luther King - at the Highlander Folk School, a
Tennessee-based
training school for social activists that
conservatives called a Communist
front.

Sheehan, like Parks, is no political novice. Shortly
after her son was
killed in action last year, Sheehan joined a group
called Military
Families Speak Out. Months later, she formed a new
organization, Gold Star
Families for Peace, and began pushing anti-war groups
to turn up the heat
on Bush. When they declined, Sheehan headed for
Crawford, Tex.

This woman will enter the history books not as a
leftist dupe, but as an
extraordinary, if infuriating, catalyst who was right
on the merits and
courageous enough to stand her ground. Just like Rosa
Parks.


Originally published on September 20, 2005

***

Don't stop at the portentious headline.  A law has
been passed
which disallows the brutal DC police actions of 2002
and there is
currently an accord promising a peaceful gathering. 
Of course,
there's always that possibility, but highly unlikely -
in DC or in LA. Ed

The Washington Post - Sep 18, 2005
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2005/09/17/AR20050917
01217_pf.html

Police Fortify Numbers for War Protests

Demonstration Will Be the First Since the District
Passed Arrest Law

By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer

D.C. police have canceled days off and are planning to
deploy several
hundred officers during an antiwar demonstration next
weekend that will
include a march near the White House, but officials
said they expect no
trouble.

Saturday's rally, part of a weekend of protests and
counter-protests, will
be the first demonstration allowed to surround the
White House in more
than a decade. It is the first major rally to occur
since a D.C. law that
requires police to give clear warnings before
arresting demonstrators took
effect.

Passed in response to the much-criticized mass arrests
of protesters
at a downtown park in 2002, the law also restricts the
use of police
lines to contain nonviolent demonstrators and requires
that police
wear clearly identifiable badge numbers. Police also
may not stop
spontaneous rallies -- as long as such incidents do
not clog sidewalks or
violate traffic laws -- by arresting demonstrators for
protesting without
a permit.

Organizers said they are mobilizing nationwide for
what could be the
largest war protest since the U.S.-led invasion of
Iraq more than two
years ago. Various coalitions are organizing buses,
vans and carpools to
bring in protesters from across the country.

"We can anticipate 100,000 people," said Cmdr. Cathy
Lanier, who
supervises the police department's special operations
division. "There
will be mothers, grandmothers and children -- a huge,
diverse group. They
are very peaceful. We have been meeting with them
regularly."

The umbrella organizations staging the rally -- United
for Peace and
Justice and the ANSWER Coalition -- say they represent
thousands of
people and dozens of causes. They obtained permits for
public areas
that can hold about 100,000 people.

Organizers are asking protesters to gather at 11 a.m.
Saturday on the
Ellipse, where the rally is scheduled to take place.
The march will cover
a stretch of streets in the blocks surrounding the
White House and Justice
Department and wind up at the Washington Monument,
organizers said.

Counter-demonstrators, who are planning rallies before
and after the
antiwar gathering, are expected along the march route.

To control crowds, D.C. police officials said they
will have dozens of
officers directing traffic at 110 spots. Other
officers will be stationed
along the march route. D.C. police said staffing
levels in the city's
police districts will not be affected by the special
deployment.

U.S. Park Police will join D.C. police in the
crowd-control effort.
Park Police also have canceled days off for officers
who patrol the
Ellipse and other federal areas where the main antiwar
rallies are to be
held. Scores of Park Police officers will be in
uniform Saturday,
including some on horseback and bicycles.

Undercover officers will mingle among demonstrators.
Others in riot
gear will be ready to respond to an emergency, said
Park Police Sgt.
Scott Fear.

"We prepare for the worst but hope for the best," Fear
said. He echoed
Lanier's view that police anticipate no trouble from
people associated
with the main antiwar groups. He said police were
keeping an eye on
splinter groups that could cause problems.

"Our intelligence unit has been working with other
agencies to gather as
much information as possible," Fear said.

Besides the rallies related to the war in Iraq, D.C.
police are
preparing for demonstrations at the downtown
headquarters of the
International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which are
scheduled to
hold meetings next weekend. The semiannual gatherings
often draw
anti-globalization and other protest groups, and D.C.
police said they
will close some streets and station about 300 officers
near the buildings
to handle crowds and traffic.

The police warning law, passed in April, came in
response to police
handling of another IMF-World Bank protest. In
September 2002, police
rounded up about 400 demonstrators and bystanders in
Pershing Park and
arrested them, even though they had not been given an
order to disperse.
This year, the District government agreed to pay
$425,000 to settle a
lawsuit filed by seven people who the city
acknowledged were wrongfully
arrested. A class-action lawsuit against the city is
pending.

Lanier said there will be subtle changes in the police
response next
weekend, most of them not visible to bystanders. Among
the
differences, the department educated officers about
the new law's
requirements and restrictions. If officers need to don
riot gear, they
will be required to display badge numbers clearly on
their helmets, she
said.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder of and a lawyer
with the
Partnership for Civil Justice, has been working
closely with police to
obtain permits for the antiwar demonstration. She said
she did not expect
problems at the rally or with the police response. She
is taking her
7-month-old son to the rally, she said.

"I think police are going to try to show that they are
trying to abide by
the Constitution," Verheyden-Hilliard said.

[Staff writer Petula Dvorak contributed to this
report.]

© 2005 The Washington Post Company


###

Join Mass March and Rally in L.A.
>From Iraq to New Orleans
Fund People's Needs, Not the War Machine

STOP THE WAR IN IRAQ,
MARCH & RALLY!

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24th

MARCH: 12 NOON at Olympic & Broadway, Downtown LA

RALLY: 1:30 PM at the Federal Building, Los Angeles &
Temple

Call ANSWER for more information: 323-464-1636

Co-Sponsors: L.A. County Federation of Labor, Alliance
for Just and
Lasting Peace in the Philippines, Coalition for World
Peace, Committee for
Justice to Defend the LA 8, Free Palestine Alliance,
Frente Unido de los
Pueblos Americanos, Gabriella Network, Global
Resistance Network, Global
Women's Strike, Hermandad Mexicana Nacional,
International Socialist
Organization, Islamic Shura Council of Southern
California, KMB -
Pro-People Youth, Korean Americans for Peace, Latino
Movement USA, Muslim
Students Association-West, National Council of Arab
Americans, National
Committee to Free the Cuban Five, National Lawyers
Guild, Office of the
Americas, Palestinian American Women's Association,
Party for Socialism
and Liberation, Peace and Freedom Party, South Asian
Network, United
Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), U.S. Labor Against War,
Youth & Student
A.N.S.W.E.R.

---

Demonstration in Washington, DC - Sept 24, 2005

INFO:

Bus Drop Off, Parking, Maps, Tabling, Contingents,
Housing & More!

Click on link below to obtain essential information
for the September 24th
rally and demonstration in Washington, DC. Courtesy of
the A.N.S.W.E.R.
Coalition.

http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=6793



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