WORLD CAN'T WAIT http://sfbaycantwait.org/ THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA CHAPTER en Copyright 2012 Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:50:20 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification

It's three years since Obama promised to close Guantánamo.

Sign the petition at "We the People" urging him to honor his promise. 25,000 signatures are needed by February 6 to secure a response, so please sign up, and spread the word.

]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2012/01/#002715 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2012/01/#002715 Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:50:20 -0800 Day of Mass Action to Prevent U.S. Attack on Iran

http://www.facebook.com/events/305742392811934/


nowaroniranFeb4.jpg

Saturday, February 4 

Rally and March 

Meet at NOON 

Powell and Market Streets

San Francisco



In many ways, U.S. war on Iran has already begun.

The United States and Israel, both of which have nuclear weapons, say they will stop at nothing to keep Iran from having a nuclear program, even though the U.S. Secretary of Defense says Iran won't have nuclear capability anytime soon.

The U.S. has begun harsh economic sanctions that can destroy the Iranian economy, and the lives of millions of Iranians through depriving them of food, medicine and electricity. Either the U.S. or Israel is killing Iranian scientists in car bombings. U.S. surveillance drones are flying over Iran, in violation of its sovereignty. 3 U.S. carrier groups are right off Iran's shore. And secret U.S. commando operations are in the country.

Will we allow another U.S. war based on lies?

Iraq is devastated from decades of U.S. military intervention and sanctions that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of children, and led to 4.5 million people being driven from their homes. Afghanistan, the poorest country in the world, is being destroyed by the richest.

Let the whole world see that we will not let the U.S. rain death, destruction and devastation onto yet another country and further inflame a dire situation in the Middle East. One thing we know is that when people stand up together to resist the crimes of their government like the courageous protesters of the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement, something beautiful can emerge.

]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2012/01/#002711 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2012/01/#002711 Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:03:52 -0800 Stand Up for Abortion and Birth Control

Saturday, January 21 in San Francisco, the Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights and the California National Organization for Women presented a West Coast Rally for Reproductive Justice. VIDEO of speeches here and here. 

On the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, women's fundamental right to abortion is hanging by a thread.

  • Nearly 90% of U.S. counties have no abortion provider.
  • 2011 saw the greatest number of restrictions passed at the state level parental notification laws, mandatory waiting periods, gestational bans, etc. - restricting this access even further.
  • Doctors who provide abortions are hunted, terrorized and killed.
  •  And the stigma and shame cast on women who get abortions is greater than ever.

But that is not all. Now, even birth control is under siege. Pharmacists refuse to fill prescriptions. "Personhood" amendments seek to criminalize miscarriages and ban all contraception. And President Obama openly upheld Kathleen Sebelius's unprecedented decision to overrule the FDA and block over-the-counter distribution of Plan B (emergency contraception).

If 2011 marked an unprecedented escalation in the assault on women's lives, 2012 must mark the launch of unprecedented resistance!

"Whether through legislation or through extra-legal terror, whether from the Republicans' assault or the Democrats' capitulation, forcing women to have children against their will is immoral and enslaving.  We must rely on ourselves - not politicians - to defeat these attacks and win abortion on demand and without apology." - Sunsara Taylor, member of World Can't Wait's national advisory board

A woman who cannot decide for herself when and whether to have a child is not free. Forced motherhood is female enslavement. And when women - half of humanity - are not free, then no one is free.

]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2012/01/#002697 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2012/01/#002697 Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:02:33 -0800 party loyalty: to what end?

"some of us are capable of objecting to grave injustices even when they don't directly affect us -- Glenn Greenwald

As we head into Election Year, there is an increasingly common, bizarre and self-evidently repellent tactic being employed by some Democratic partisans against those of us who insist that issues like indefinite detention (along with ongoing killing of civilians in the Muslim world) merit high priority. The argument is that to place emphasis on such issues is to harm President Obama... while helping competing candidates who vehemently oppose such policies. Thus, so goes this reasoning, to demand that issues like indefinite detention and civilian deaths be prioritized in assessing the presidential race is to subordinate the importance of other issues...

]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2012/01/#002693 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2012/01/#002693 Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:11:36 -0800 the WORLDWIDE implications of the National Defense Authorization Act

"President Obama... will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law," said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director."The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield. The ACLU will fight worldwide detention authority wherever we can, be it in court, in Congress, or internationally."

Obama signs the NDAA

]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2012/01/#002690 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2012/01/#002690 Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:08:49 -0800 Ominous Parallels

"If you think Weimar Republic Germany is a long time ago and far away so it can't happen here, you are wrong. It can happen here, and unless something is done to stop it, it almost surely will happen here. It is happening already -- Thurman Hubbard

Is the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 now law?

]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/12/#002689 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/12/#002689 Sat, 31 Dec 2011 13:15:53 -0800 Taking a Stand against the National Defense Authorization Act


Obama re-election headquarters in the Twin Cities, Minnesota
photo c/o Women Against Military Madness Media Committee

David Gespass, president of the National Lawyers Guild, calls this bill an "enormous attack on the U.S. and our heritage" and a "significant step" towards fascism.

Defence Act Affirms Indefinite Detention of U.S. Citizens

see also The Fast Hardening of Soft Fascism

]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/12/#002684 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/12/#002684 Sat, 31 Dec 2011 13:00:17 -0800 National Insecurity: The Threat of American Militarism

1020-mel-goodman.jpg

"President Obama, who endorsed protection for courageous whistleblowers during his campaign, has been both unwilling to investigate crimes of the Bush administration and most willing to invoke the Espionage Act of 1917...

see The War Against Truth

Former CIA analyst Mel Goodman speaks at Illinois State University. (Photo by Ryan Denham/WJBC)

 ]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/12/#002685 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/12/#002685 Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:26:41 -0800 Obama signs national defense funding bill, looks to expand attacks on civil liberties]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/12/#002677 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/12/#002677 Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:49:57 -0800 December 15, 2011: HUMAN RIGHTS DAY?

c/o Huffington Post:

The Senate passed a defense bill Thursday that authorizes indefinite detentions of American terrorism suspects, coincidentally acting on the controversial measure on the 220th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights.

The bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, passed 86 to 13 and is expected to be signed quickly by President Obama, who withdrew a veto threat against the bill Wednesday. Six Democrats, six Republicans and one independent opposed the bill.

politics as usual cannot meet the enormity of this challenge
"Once this becomes law, you will be living in a different kind of America, one that no longer guarantees certain inalienable rights. Americans will have no rights whatsoever in America -- no due process, no First Amendment speech rights, no right to remain silent or to be tried by a jury of your peers. You will only have the right to a military tribunal with a military judge and a military lawyer... 

]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/12/#002659 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/12/#002659 Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:51:31 -0800 Cops stage an early-morning raid on OccupySF, trashing everything in their path. VIDEO here.

Major standoffs continue

640_cops-ferry01-img_5309-adj.jpg
Several hundred activists returned to Justin Herman Plaza Wednesday evening, where they re-established the camp taken down in the raid that started about 2am the previous night (Dec. 7).

In the words of one organizer, "OSF is very much alive and kicking, whether they raid us or not. This is an opportunity to recruit."

More PHOTOS
]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/12/#002662 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/12/#002662 Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:07:23 -0800 this is what a Police State looks like afb67e50-9c90-45bd-a4bb-781bbf41409a_part6.jpgFor Occupiers questioning which side the cops are on, the following should help resolve that debate:

UC Davis launches probe 
of sadistic pepper spray 
attack on students

Pregnant Seattle protester miscarries after police abuse
]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/11/#002637 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/11/#002637 Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:24:46 -0800 Police Raid Occupy Cal
Police Raid Occupy Cal

Getty Images

University of California, Berkeley students set up tents after a general assembly voted to again occupy campus as part of an "open university" strike in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement on Nov.15, 2011 in Berkeley, California. Teach-outs, workshops, public readings, and marches culminated in an attempt to re-establish an Occupy Cal encampment that was shut down by police last week. Police raided the new encampment this morning.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Police-Raid-Occupy-Cal-134027458.html

]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/11/#002629 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/11/#002629 Thu, 17 Nov 2011 05:20:08 -0800 Scores of arrests in S.F.

Lacy Atkins / The Chronicle

A protester is carried out of the bank after refusing to stand as she is arrested inside the Bank of America in the financial district, Wednesday November 16, 2011 in San Francisco, Calif. The arrests happened after hundreds of students marched through the streets of San Francisco.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/16/MNDP1M07K8.DTL#ixzz1dveZRl3x
]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/11/#002628 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/11/#002628 Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:20:14 -0800 Chris Hedges: "This Is What Revolution Looks Like"]]> http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/11/#002625 http://sfbaycantwait.org/2011/11/#002625 Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:47:55 -0800