Following up on his unpatriotic stopover in Jersey City last month, John McSame as Bush is headed back to the Garden State for an encore performance - this time in South Jersey. And, once again, New Jersey will be there to welcome him this Friday, June 13th:
Place: Burlington County Community College
Student Lot 1 on College Dr
Pemberton, NJ 08068
Time: 9:00 AM
These things can be really hard to get to on a weekday. But, remember - it's not nearly as hard as YouTube has been on him:
Sussex County Community College
1 College Hill Road, Newton, NJ 07860
Performing Arts Center
the Sussex County Community College
from 10-12
Protest at 9 am
An incredible woman named Janice Swack will be there to tell Garrett exactly what she thinks of him. Garrett aroused her anger for having the audacity to be in Sussex County on June 2 to kick off Veterans History Project - AFTER he voted AGAINST the GI Bill.
Janice, who is married to a disabled ex-POW, will be there - with her husband's wheelchair to voice her anger at the Congressman from the 5th District.
From Janice's email to me:
"My husband is a 100% disabled WWll Ex POW who used the GI Bill and got a Ph.D. If it had not been for it, he would not have had the money to go to college and this poor kid would have spent his life in poverty. The GI Bill began the middle class that we all enjoyed."
I met Mrs. Swack after an event on Friday where Rachel Maddow was interviewing Camille Abate. Mrs. Swack's determination touched me. Her husband was a Jewish soldier during WWII who was a Prisoner of War. Because of his faith, he was sent to Buchenwald. She couldn't go on without her eyes tearing up, describing what had happened to her husband over 60 years ago. She was so angry at Garrett she is staging a one woman protest against Garrett ala Cindy Sheehan.
With Janice was Robert Levine, the National Service Officer of the American Ex-Prisoners of War, Inc. Garden State Chapter No.1 located in River Edge. Mr. Levine had himself lost his leg in WWII. At that time, he said, prosthetics were not as state of the art. He was given a CIVIL WAR era leg to replace what he had lost. And yet, he stated that as veterans of WWII they were treated so much better than our veterans coming home from Iraq. As a WWII veteran he is angry that our young Iraq soldiers are not treated as well as he was. He often speaks to the soldiers returning who have lost limbs in Iraq. His eyes teared up as he spoke of them. It was hard not to be touched by what Janice and Robert had to tell me. I found my eyes welling up as I listened.
Please urge anyone at all who can go tomorrow to stand with Janice Swack - Garrett will be there 10-12, Janice will be there at 9 am for her protest. The press will be there. Lets show the veterans that we care and show Garrett that we are appalled at his lack of leadership when it comes to helping our veterans who have sacrificed so much for us.
It is only one week since Memorial day - but there are so many veterans to help every day - all year long.
If you can at all attend, please do and give Janice an email to let her know.
Janice Swack
jswack@comcast.net
For those interested in helping out our veterans but who can't make it to Sussex on June 2, Rachel also pointed out http://www.votevets.org
From time-to-time, I hear someone compare Iraq to Viet Nam. Almost invariably, the discussion always gets to "I guess young people just don't care anymore." It's almost as if the real protest in the 1960s turned out to the the draft and voting age - change those two things and the peace movement just goes away.
Of course, that isn't true. Young people, in my experience, care very deeply. You just won't hear about what they're doing in our corporate controlled media. Bad for advertising revenues, I suppose.
Rutgers, for example, held organized and well-planned protests to mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. But unlike previous years, not much was mentioned in the press. This, despite the fact that over six hundred people participated and the peaceful protest even drew anti-protestors. Come on - the Klan gets better coverage than this, and for a cause that's unremorsefully aimed at inciting violence rather than quelling it.
This taken from the Rutgers Walkout Coalition blog:
On Friday a member of Rutgers Against the War received a summons for activities during the March 27th Rutgers Walkout Against the War. The student was the only person to receive a summons for the activity despite the fact that the walkout was organized by a coalition of multiple groups.
The official charge: ?Did engage in conduct which caused a physically dangerous or hazardous condition, specifically by organizing and participating in a protest march onto route 18 disrupting traffic in violation of N.J.S. 2c: 33-2A(2)?
An official response will be released from the student and the walkout coalition about the police charges.
On March 19th, about 100 Princeton High School students held an anti-war walkout to commemorate the 5 year anniversary of the war in Iraq. The students missed two periods of class during the hour-long rally and speak-out and for that, Principal Gary Snyder gave them each two days of detention.
Today, an expected 200-250 students will protest the punishment with a teach-in and march to the Princeton School Board meeting at 4pm where they plan to participate in the public comment period.
"This detention is unfair, because we were taking a chance to voice our opinions and educate ourselves, which we are not given the opportunity to adequately do so in school," said Aislinn Bauer, a Princeton High School sophomore and one of the organizers of the walkout. "We're turning this punishment into something productive."
"What I do not understand is how we were able to miss three periods to see Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience perform and throw Mardi Gras beads at us, which had little to no educational value," said Russell Cavallaro, a Princeton High School sophomore. "This walkout actually had educational value. Students were educated on the causes of the war, why it should never have happened, and had a chance to offer their respects to the fallen soldiers."
Yep, Mardi Gras beads are cool in school, but those darned kids have to be kept in their place and trained to be good little mindless automatons.
To Joe Ferriero, organized democratic protest = intimidation and legalized bribery = democracy. The jokes almost write themselves. Promoted from the diaries -- Juan
Well, it's official. The MSM thinks we have an actual "army" of Democratic Grassroots activists against Pay to Play. Good.
The funny thing is it is really more like - "A Word to the Wise is Sufficient". There is such excellent communication between our Legislators in the 37th District and our voters, and a genuine dialog between the rank and file Dems and the LD37th team - that news travels at light speed. That's all. When an internet savvy activist simply hears what is going on in their name - they are used to logging on, plugging in, and mobilizing others who care what their party is up to and need to know. Blackberries and text messages are even faster than the internet. There is no ordering around, there is only communication.
I'm going to be standing outside 50 Main street as it is my right to do to express my displeasure at the actions of my Party Chairman and the BCDO attorney. If all the friends I have made since the Dean campaign and on Blue Jersey here feel like standing out there with me, I won't turn them away. We'll be nice but we won't be silent.
I am not trying to intimidate my fellow Committee members, I am trying to awaken their consciences. I am trying to free the County Employees who can't speak up. I don't think they are bad people. I think they are terrified to rock the boat. That's why I'm happy to do it for them.
Please join the Summit Interfaith Peace Vigil if you can on March 24th when we will be holding a special vigil in remembrance of the 4th anniversary of the Iraq war. The vigil will be held from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm across from the Summit Post Office at the intersection Maple St. and Broad St. in Summit. (There is a public parking lot behind the post office.)
The vigil will focus on the needs and hardships of military families with loved ones in Iraq. The purpose is to draw attention to the often overlooked human costs of this war. We are inviting all interested persons to join us. Our theme for the event is "Honor the dead, heal the wounded, end the war".
We will also be collecting money for the Deployed Military Spouses Relief Fund which was established due to recent increases in deployments and the resulting emotional and financial stress placed on military spouses and families. For more information on the fund you can contact:
I know Marion. I'd be surprised if she's even 5'4" and as reported, she is 69 years old. She is one of the gentlest people I know. There is no way she was ever a threat to the cop. Here's her story, followed by the AP version:
As most of you know, I am a lifelong Democrat. In my nearly 70 years of living, I have always believed in the ideals of the Democratic party, but I have come to recognize that the local Democrats in Piscataway have long abandoned those ideals in favor of their own political interests...
In my own effort to encourage people to vote the Democrats off the council, I made eight cardboard signs by hand and began hanging them around the township on Wednesday morning. One of my signs was hung at the intersection of Morris Avenue and South Randolphville Road near my home. While driving by not long after hanging the sign, I noticed that the sign had been taken down. I parked my car on the side of the road and walked over to pick up the sign and re-hang it. At this time, I was accosted by a Piscataway police officer, who instructed that I not re-hang the sign, suggesting that re-hanging the sign would interfere with work being conducted by a PSE&G crew nearby. When I protested that I had every right to hang the sign, the officer grabbed the sign from my hand, immobilized me with a grip around my shoulder and proceeded to place me under arrest. He physically forced me to the ground while handcuffing my hands tightly behind my back.
I was transported to police headquarters where I spent the next four hours handcuffed to a wall. Despite my repeated requests to make a telephone call to alert my family and friends of my whereabouts, I was not permitted. The handcuffs were so tight around my wrists that they are now bruised and swollen. After spending nearly five hours locked in handcuffs, I was eventually permitted to call my former husband who came to get me and drive me to retrieve my car which had been impounded.
Wednesday was one of the worst days of my life. No one should ever be subjected to the treatment that I received from our local police on Wednesday. I believe that my arrest was entirely politically motivated and that I was mistreated solely because of my opposition to the current Democrat regime. This is America, and I have every right to express my opinion, orally or on a sign. It is a sad state of affairs when our local Democrats and their police force resort to such ruthless tactics to attempt to silence their critics.
and here's what the AP reporter makes of it:
Elderly woman accused of punching cop
PISCATAWAY (AP) -- A 69-year-old woman who was charged with assaulting a police officer has turned around and filed a complaint against him for the incident, which stemmed from a political sign she had put up.
The incident started last Wednesday when Marion Munk, a ceramics instructor at a community college, said she noticed a handmade political sign she'd left on a street corner near her house was knocked to the ground.
Munk said she stopped at the corner, where Public Service Electric & Gas Co. crews were working, to find out why her sign, which was against incumbent Democrats, was down on the ground but two signs in favor of the Democrats were up.
"I asked them, 'Who did this?'" Munk said. "But they just wanted me out of the way."
Munk said Sgt. Wayne Vakulchik, an officer who was there directing traffic, grabbed the sign from her, at which point she "pushed him out of the way."
In the police report of the incident, Vakulchik said Munk punched him in the chest and that the sign was in the way of the PSE&G workers so they took it down, police said.
Munk, who was charged with disorderly conduct and assaulting a police officer, said she was handcuffed to a wall at police headquarters for more than four hours after her arrest. She's filed a complaint with the police department.
Vakulchik "just yanked me around," Munk told the Home News Tribune of East Brunswick.
Capt. Richard Ivone of the Piscatway Police Department said an internal affairs investigation would be conducted on Munk's complaint against Vakulchik, which cites excessive force. Ivone said the utility workers at the scene witnessed the whole incident, "so we should get this wrapped up pretty quickly." ...
The Home News reported that she faces up to 18 months in prison if she's convicted for assault.
After talking with someone who's worked on these issues, I'm calling for the mayors of Highland Park, Edison, Piscataway and New Brunswick to set up civilian review boards with subpoena power and asking for an external auditor from the state.
The hate-mongering Westboro Baptist Church will protest at the funeral of a fallen marine this morning in Madison:
A religious group that routinely pickets military funerals --claiming that American servicemen and women are dying because God is angry at the country's tolerance toward homosexuality -- plans to demonstrate during today's funeral for Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher Cosgrove.
The Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kan., announced Tuesday that it would picket the funeral at St. Vincent Martyr Church in Madison, where funeral services for Cosgrove will be held beginning at 10:15 a.m.
Cosgrove, a 2001 graduate of Whippany Park High School, was killed Oct. 1 by a suicide bomber while manning a checkpoint in Iraq.
I don't know what the family wants to do about this, but I would assume they wouldn't mind some supportive counter-protestors there. Anybody know someone with the Patriot Guard?
On Saturday, September 16, in Summit, NJ
Reading of the Names of US Servicepeople and Iraqi civilians killed in
Iraq
12 Noon to 4 PM, Town Green, Summit, NJ
About 3000 names will be read by members of Military Families Speak Out, who have loved ones in Iraq, by veterans of the Iraq War and by other volunteers.
Army 1st Lieutenant Ehren Watada, as expected failed to deploy with his unit to Iraq. Although he is not the first soldier to invoke consciencious objector status and refuse orders to deploy, he is believed to be the first officer to do so. Watada remains on the base at Fort Lewis under orders not to speak publicly and awaiting a decision from his commanding officer on whether or not he should be charged and for what. In January Watada attempted to resign his commisson stating
"I am wholeheartedly opposed to the continued war in Iraq, the deception used to wage this war, and the lawlessness that has pervaded every aspect of our civilian leadership."
On June 7th during a press conference Watada expressed the belief that deploying to Iraq would make him a "party to war crimes".
It is my conclusion as an officer of the armed forces that the war in Iraq is not only morally wrong but a horrible breach of American law. Although I have tried to resign out of protest, I am forced to participate in a war that is manifestly illegal. As the order to take part in an illegal act is ultimately unlawful as well, I must as an officer of honor and integrity refuse that order."
If would like information counseling the troops and on conscientious objector status you can contact the Catholic Peace Fellowship. They even have a local chapter in NJ. You can contact
Stephen J Spiro, New Jersey Organizer
Box 4451 - Brainy Boro Station
Metuchen, NJ 08840-4451
Spiro_CatholicPeaceFellowship_NJ@Hotmail.Com
The New Jersey Chapter of the Catholic Peace Fellowship will also be at the following events this weekend if you want to drop by
June 24, Saturday.
St Joseph’s Parish Fair.
School grounds, Manning Ave & Westervelt Ave,
North Plainfield, NJ.
10am to 8pm
June 25, Sunday.
Fanwood Street Fair.
Downtown Fanwood, NJ
11am to 5pm
This isn't strictly Jersey-related, but there was a large New Jersey contingent at today's protest against the war in New York. In fact there were people from all over. I met some folks from Pennsylvania, Vermont and even Chicago.
A friend and I arrived around noon and we managed to get to the front of the march. It was BIG. The organizers say there were over 350,000. I couldn't even guess, but there were a LOT of people. So many that even when we were at a higher elevation, we couldn't see the end of the march (click any photo for a larger version):
(Though it's likely I just photoshoped this. The media tells me nobody was there.)
