Peace Activists at Hillary Clinton’s Speech

[proud2BlibKansan]

Peace Activists at Hillary Clinton’s Speech Try to Take Back “Take Back America”
by Medea Benjamin


The Take Back America conference, an annual event held in Washington DC this year from June 12-14, is supposed to be a venue for prominent progressives to gather and debate the major issues of our day. Their aim is to “provide the nation with new vision, new ideas and new energy.” But choosing New York Senator and probable presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as a keynote speaker and then stifling dissent against her pro-war position hardly seems the stuff of a new vision for America.

The peace group CODEPINK is widely known for bringing its anti-war message to the halls of power, including inside the Republican National Convention and at President Bush’s Inauguration. But it has also targeted Democrats such as Hillary Clinton who support the war. “We have a campaign called Birddog Hillary,” says CODEPINK’s New York coordinator Nancy Kricorian. “We follow her around the entire state asking her to listen to the voices of her constituents and stop her support of Bush’s ‘stay the course’ policy in Iraq. So far, she hasn’t been listening.”

Fearing that CODEPINK would openly confront Clinton on her pro-war policy, the organizers of Take Back America entered into negotiations with CODEPINK a few days before the conference. “We had lengthy discussions where they pleaded with us not to protest during her keynote breakfast address,” explained Gael Murphy, one of the cofounders of CODEPINK. “Instead, we were told that we could distribute flyers explaining Hillary’s pro-war position to the crowd inside and outside the hotel, and we would be called on to ask her the first question after the speech. We agreed.”

However, when CODEPINK showed up on Tuesday morning in advance of Clinton’s speech, the security guards refused to allow them to pass out flyers, even outside the hotel. “Take Back America violated the agreement from the moment we arrived,” said Ms. Murphy. “Even though we had a table inside the conference, burly security guards blocked us and informed us that it was a private event, that we were not welcome, and they escorted us out of the building. We telephoned the conference staff who then told us that we couldn’t enter the hotel, couldn’t leaflet the event, the hallways—anywhere. They went back on their word and tried to quash even peaceful, respectful dissent.”

more . . .
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0613-33.htm

[Selatius]

1. Hillary Clinton will win the war in Iraq if we vote for her in '08

She'll increase bombing of the country to force the insurgents to the bargaining table. Then she will achieve a peace with the insurgents and declare victory for America, and we will stand down most of our forces. We cut off Iraq's fledgling government of military support because the war is so unpopular and that Iraq's government is now fit to take command, and we finally leave Iraq in helicopters as Iraq's government is sacked by angry militias, and the last helicopter leaves the US Embassy in Saigon. Oops, I meant Baghdad.

And everybody wins!

:sarcasm:

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Flashback much?

:rofl:

[me b zola]

3. 1968 redux

The primaries could get ugly.

[me b zola]

4. rut-roh

Hil just stepped in a big 'ol flaming pile of poo. It's not nice to fool with mother nature }(

[NightOwwl]

5. She's turning into quite the little bushbot.

I hope her presidential campaign goes down in flames. :mad:

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Me too

[chill_wind]

7. "Implicit rebuke from John Kerry"

WAPO:

Liberal Activists Boo Clinton
Rejection of Iraq Timetable Gets Cool Reception at Conference

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 14, 2006; Page A10

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) drew boos and hisses from an audience of liberal activists yesterday as she defended her opposition to a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq, and later she received an implicit rebuke from Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) for failing to acknowledge that her support for the war was a mistake.

Clinton's and Kerry's appearances at the Take Back America conference at the Washington Hilton put on vivid display the Democratic Party's divisions over the foreign policy issue that dominates this year's midterm elections, and the two possible 2008 presidential candidates offered a preview of the debate that could dominate the battle for the party's nomination.

full text: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/13/AR2006061301449.html?nav=rss_politics

[roguevalley]

8. since this means extending the carnage, she should take up

residence in Baghdad or send her daughter to make sure she understands the cost of her intractable stupidity. I could never vote for her, the sad sack.

[Voltaire99]

9. Delighted to hear that Hillary's being booed.

For her record on Iraq, she well deserves it.

[Canuckistanian]

10. That's it. She's done.

I was never for her because of her silence on the legality of the war.

But this is outrageous, the kind of thing you'd expect from a GOP-run conference. Codepink is not exactly a flaming radical group. She could have withstood ONE question from them.

Hillary has gone over the edge here.

[Boxerfan]

11. I hope my theory is correct....Hillary is a buffer for the real canidate

I love telling righties that,spins 'em hard. Anyhow,IMHO she is too decisive & many many people just plain HATE her. Best to use that to draw fire till we reveal our real(GORE!!!!) canidate(I can hope can't I?)