from the Longview News-Journal

AMHERST, Mass. - President Bush’s former chief of staff Andrew Card was loudly booed by hundreds of students and faculty members as he rose to accept an honorary degree at the University of Massachusetts on Friday.

The boos and catcalls - including those from faculty members who stood on stage with Card - drowned out Provost Charlena Seymour’s remarks as she awarded the honorary doctorate in public service. Protesters claim Card lied to the American people in the early days of the Iraq war and should not have been honored at the graduate student commencement.

Card smiled slightly while Seymour spoke and raised his hand in thanks, then sat down without speaking.

Afterward he ignored a reporter’s question about the protesters. “It was a great honor and a privilege to be here,” he said.

The protests were mainly contained to an area in the back of the campus arena, though many of the faculty members on stage joined the three- to four- minute outburst.

One faculty member on stage held a sign: “Card - no honor, no degree.” Another sign said, “War criminals go home.”

Chancellor John Lombardi declined to comment on the protests or Card’s honorary degree.

Before the commencement ceremony, about 100 faculty members and students sang anti-war songs, handed out leaflets and waved signs outside the arena.

read more at the NEWS-JOURNAL

The news I have for “netroots” types and Huffington Post liberals who see the Democratic Party as the major if not only hope for the antiwar movement can be summed up in two words: forget it. Majority leader Sen. Harry Reid recently let the cat out of the bag when he said, “There is new reason this week to believe that a bipartisan consensus on Iraq is emerging.”

Translation: the sellout is coming, if it isn’t already here.

American voters sent a clear message to Washington last November when they voted to put an ostensibly antiwar Democratic Congress in power: they told pollsters the war was the big issue, and, furthermore, they wanted out of Iraq. They voted Democratic not because they suddenly believed that party would end “the culture of corruption” - which is a very bipartisan phenomenon, and voters aren’t dumb enough to believe otherwise - but because they took seriously Democratic promises to get us out of Iraq. Before the election, leading Democrats called for a timetable aiming at complete “redeployment” of U.S. troops out of Iraq: immediately after the election, however, the Dems capitulated to the “surge” (even as their “antiwar” rhetoric waxed louder). Last week the House voted down a measure that would have withdrawn the troops in nine months. If you follow the link you’ll see that Madam Speaker allowed the withdrawal vote “in the hope that her rank-and-file would then unite behind the funding bill” - a two-part bill that would release some $48 billion initially and then schedule a summertime vote to appropriate $52.8 billion more to cover expenses until the end of September.

The White House has threatened to veto the two-part funding ploy but coupled this with an offer to negotiate on the Benchmark Question. All eyes are now on the Senate, reports the Christian Science Monitor, “where majority leader Harry Reid and White House officials have been hunkered down in secret negotiations. Last week, Bush said he had empowered White House negotiators ‘to find common ground on benchmarks.’”

Caught between the Democratic Party’s antiwar base and the War Party’s control of the reins of power in Washington, Pelosi and Reid have been walking a tightrope between the two, but their balancing act is increasingly untenable. Pressure from the ranks of groups such as MoveOn.org - whose leadership initially colluded with the Democratic sellout - has forced a turnaround, and the MoveOners have now issued an ultimatum of sorts to the Dems in the form of an open letter: they’re threatening to move “into opposition”!

Continue reading at AntiWar.com

Things are getting ugly when nuns protest your presence Georgie!

LATROBE, PA. - President Bush could hardly have picked a better private liberal arts college to find a welcoming audience for a commencement address than St. Vincent, a Catholic school run by a loyal former White House aide in a conservative region.

Yet consider what has taken place here since Bush was invited for today’s speech: Students vigorously debated the invitation at a town-hall meeting last month. A former St. Vincent College president wrote a scathing newspaper essay saying Bush had no place on the campus. About a quarter of the tenure-rank faculty wrote an open letter to Bush challenging the Iraq war as contrary to Roman Catholic doctrine. Several dozen people held a candlelight vigil Thursday night protesting the visit. And for several Sundays, nuns protested on the edge of the campus.

The discord, polite and reasoned as it may be, is emblematic of passions across the country as the war moves further into its fifth year, with increasing military deployments and mounting death tolls among Iraqi civilians and U.S. troops.

If anything, the debate there - at a college associated with the Order of St. Benedict and led by a man who once ran Bush’s faith-based initiative - suggests that dissent is spreading into places with little history of protest.

It also suggests that the Bush-led Republican drive to increase support among Catholics, built around Bush’s stance on abortion and other social policy issues, could run into trouble over the Catholic doctrine of a “just war.”

More at the LA Times

We all know it’s going to be a tough battle, but we really have to get to work and support all our Democratic members of Congress and call them to let them know we do not want them to back down.

Find your State’s Representatives here: U.S House of Representatives

Find Your State’s Senators here: United States Senate

Make calls, send written letters and emails with your support to help end this war. Please take a few minutes and get the word to them that we Democrats are behind them 100%!

Meanwhile……

WASHINGTON -
President Bush sparred across the table with Democratic congressional leaders opposed to the
Iraq war on Wednesday in a prelude to a veto showdown over a conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 3,200 U.S. troops.

During an hour long meeting at the White House, the president told lawmakers directly he will not sign any bill that includes a timetable for a troop withdrawal, and they made it clear Congress will send him one anyway.

“We believe he must search his soul, his conscience and find out what is the right thing for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, told reporters after the session. “I believe signing this bill will do that.”

But Dana Perino, White House spokeswoman, said, “It appears that they are determined to send a bill to the president that he won’t accept. They fundamentally disagree.”

Several officials said the session was polite. But they said it turned pointed when Reid recounted a conversation with generals who likened Iraq to Vietnam and described it as a war in which the president refused to change course despite knowing victory was impossible. Bush bristled at the comparison, according to several officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private. One quoted him as saying, “I reject” the comparison.

Read More on YAHOO!

A video thank you to Cindy Sheehan from the ever amazing Ava Lowery

Camp Casey is an amazing experience no matter what time of the year you attend. My Brother, Uncle, and I attended last August during the middle of a drought during 100 degree weather. We stayed a week and despite the heat, and some frustrations with our tent and being stuck in a tent with each other for a week, we had an absolutely amazing and truly life changing time at the Camp. My Mother and I attended again this past week for Camp Casey Easter. We met so many activists from all over the country who came to support Cindy and the peace movement. Cindy Sheehan has inspired us all to become more involved and I know personally she is one of my own role models in the peace movement. Thank you Cindy for all you have done and continue to do to inspire us. This video is just one small token of my appreciation.

Please stop by Gold Star Families for Peace and consider donating what you can to help Cindy and others continue to spread the word about this immoral war based on the Bush administration’s lies.

Protesters against the war in Iraq participate in the ‘March on the Pentagon’ in Washington, March 17, 2007. Thousands of anti-war protestors, some carrying yellow and black signs reading “U.S. out of Iraq now!” marched toward the Pentagon on Saturday, one of a number of protests held or planned around the country and the world. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

More on the protests here, hereand here. I just did a quick google search and didn’t see much in the American newspapers, but I could be wrong. I want to thank each and every protester around the world for marching today!! I wish I could have.

Most articles say “thousands” of protesters. The Yahoo article says there were 10’s of thousands

Ben & Jerry on the Colbert Report

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Anti-Iraq war protesters briefly scuffled with police in Sydney on Thursday before the arrival of Vice President Dick Cheney, underlining divisions within one of Washington’s firmest allies over the unpopular war.

A police spokeswoman said seven people were arrested when police barred up to 200 Stop the War Coalition protesters from marching through Australia’s largest city, demanding Prime Minister John Howard pull troops out of Iraq.

A heavy police presence, including officers mounted on horseback, ringed the protesters in an attempt to minimize disruption to peak-hour commuters, some of whom also squabbled with police.

Protesters held placards saying “Dick Go Home & Take John With You” and “Coalition of the Killing.” Police later relented and shepherded protesters as they marched toward the U.S. consulate. Another protest is planned for Friday.

Cheney arrived amid tight security several hours later.

He is to meet Howard on Saturday. Howard has ruled out following Britain’s example and cutting troop numbers in Iraq but his unwavering commitment has him walking through a political minefield toward an election later this year.

Read more at YahooNews

Coffins of U.S. military personnel are offloaded at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware in this undated file photo. The U.S. military death toll in Iraq has reached 3,000 on December 31, 2006, an unwelcome milestone for President George W. Bush who is searching for a way to turn around the unpopular war even if it means sending more troops. The Pentagon tightly restricts publication of photographs of coffins with the remains of U.S. troops and has forbidden journalists from taking pictures at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the first stop for the bodies of troops being sent home.
REUTERS/HO

Meet the anti-war movement’s newest folk hero: 69-year-old Rosemarie Jackowski, whose arrest during an anti-war protest has made her a cause celebre.

A prosecutor’s plan to retry her for blocking traffic while protesting against the Iraq War is turning the feisty 1.47-metre former schoolteacher into a darling of the dove crowd.

Bloggers have rallied behind her, peaceniks are deluging her with messages of support, and advocates have established a defence fund.

“She’s not a loony toon by any means,” said Andrew Schoerke, 73, a retired US Navy captain who was arrested with her. “She’s a very down to earth, sensible, caring person with some very strong convictions.”

Jackowski was one of a dozen protesters arrested at a March 20, 2003 protest, staged within hours of the start of the United States’ “shock and awe” bombing campaign in Iraq. Carrying a sign that read “Impeach Bush” on one side and listed US “war crimes” on the other, Jackowski refused police orders to get out of the street and was arrested for blocking traffic.

“It was really hard for me to stand there and just hold my sign,” she said in an interview. “I came from a strict ethnic, religious background. I was taught to never ever be disobedient to anyone teacher, parent, policeman. That was my very first act of disobedience to anyone.”

Read more here

The 3,000th U.S. death is prompting more protests…..here. More about upcoming protests here
and here and here