END ALL OCCUPATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Subhead: Get Out of Your Blogs and Into the Streets Part II

This Saturday (in some places there may be marches on Sunday) thousands of people will take to the streets all over the world to demand an end to the war in Iraq.

A war that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of innocent civilians. Bush likes to talk about creating a democracy in Iraq, but he neglects to add that these tens of thousands of women, men and children aren't part of the U.S.-friendly "democracy" he is trying to create in Iraq.

A war that has cost the lives of over 1500 U.S. soldiers. Soldiers who are usually working class, people of color. I'd like to see how long Dick Cheney could last in Iraq. I'd give him half an hour before he sees one brown person with a gun and keels over from a massive coronary.

A war that has sucked away billions of U.S. tax dollars that could be used for schools, health care, social security, public transportation, and more cops on the street. I'm just kidding about the cops, but I thought I'd pretend like I was a liberal Democrat for one second.

Bush says we should end Syria's occupation of Lebanon? I'm down with that. If they are willing to do that, we should be willing to end our occupation of Iraq, and Israel should be willing to end its occupation of Palestine. Of course, neither the U.S. nor Israel is willing to make such a move - deadly hypocrisy isn't questioned by the corporate media these days.

So what are you going to do about this? What am I going to do about this? I won't be blogging that day, I'll be in the streets in San Francisco. I know it's hard to believe that protests can work, but I'd point to the activism in Spain, Venezuela (lately Bolivia) and now Italy to argue that massive protest can work. If it seems to have little effect in the U.S., that just means we need more people and more civil disobedience here. Remember, until Seattle in 1999, the U.S. hadn't seen much protest since the 60's. We managed to stop the Vietnam war then, and we can do something similar today.

I'll see you out on the 19th. You kids in Austin better shut down the Congress Avenue bridge again. Call me when you do.