solanasaurus.com

Could George W. Bush ever possibly be impeached? There’s no better way to find out than to actually put him on trial. The clever folks at the Culture Project are mounting a mock trial with no script and no actors that will debate the case for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

They are doing this over 5 Mondays, each week discussing a different article (1st week: Initiation & Continuation of Illegal War, 2nd week: Torture & Extraordinary Rendition, and so forth).

Mondays will tackle five articles of impeachment directly, through depositions, modeled on actual impeachment hearings ­ bringing in renowned lawyers from both sides of the argument, who will interview expert witnesses culled from the arenas of the military, public policy, international negotiation, and media.

Culture Project is bringing together some of the most important and knowledgeable thinkiers: Michael Ratner (President, Center for Constitutional Rights), Bruce Fein (Assoc. Deputy Attorney General under President Ronald Reagan; member, ABA Task Force on presidential signing statements), Retired Colonel Ann Wright, writer Joe Conason, attorney Martin Garbus, attorney Elizabeth Holtzman, and many others.

It’s guaranteed to be a lot less frivolous and salacious than the Clinton impeachment hearings, not to mention depressing and aggravating – but I wouldn’t miss it. If no one is willing to actually do this in real life, the least we can do is support the make believe version.

I wish the women in the videos on the “I am Emily X” blog showed more anger. The urgency of the reproductive rights situation just isn’t communicated as effectively as it could be. It’s only a few weeks ago that the Bush administration (yet again) put an anti-birth control radical in charge of U.S. family planning policy.

Susan Orr used to be a director at a Christian-right organization called the Family Research Council. Now she is the head of a federal program responsible for providing birth control and other family planning services to the poor. And this isn’t the first time someone totally against sex-education and family planning has been put in charge of America’s family planning programs. No reproductive rights should be taken for granted in this country.

Planned Parenthood need all the funds they can get to help fight anti-abortion/anti-planning activists. I’m actually a little surprised this clever campaign to raise money based on the amount of anti-abortion protesters spotted at one clinic this month didn’t earn more.

Please support the wonderful work Planned Parenthood does.

Anti-abortion activists are nearly halfway through a 40 day 24-hour campaign to picket all the Planned Parenthood clinics in the country. They are not actually able to target every single clinic, or even gather that many protesters in all locations. But outside the many clinics where they have, they are successfully terrorizing young women for visiting clinics where they receive medical treatment, sexual health advice, birth control, and abortions.

Planned Parenthood has responded with a quite creative campaign – a blog titled I am Emily X, “the true life diary of a frontline Planned Parenthood worker and activist”. Emily X describes her work day, and interviews colleagues who work with her on video. You can pledge to donate x number of cents per anti-abortion protester she counts on her way to work.

I can’t imagine how awful it must be to be shouted at and harassed for being a doctor at one of these clinics or a patient seeking treatment. I always thought it was bad enough that they make you walk through a metal detectors to even get into the clinics in New York. It’s hard to believe this stuff still goes on the in the United States, and very depressing that even one doctor interviewed for the blog doesn’t feel she can show her face. We need to stand up for everyone’s right to chose when and with whom they have babies.

As I’ve written previously (here and here), women’s rights worldwide are under constant attack from the manipulative and misguided anti-abortion activists in this country. Please support Planned Parenthood if you can.

Incredibly, Avaaz.org – the global online activism community – has reached 1 million members in just six months. Here’s a summary of all the campaigns they’ve run in that time. They’ve steadily been building infrastructure and membership. I wonder when and which issue they will choose to really flex their muscles. And will they give members any say in what it will be?

I need to join this group. After my next snooze.

Finally, it seems I may have found support from an unexpected source — Denmark’s B-Society. This pressure group advocates the rights of ” B-people” who, like me, are sluggish and bed-bound first thing, but whose energy spikes in the evening.

Reporters Without Borders has started a petition calling for the release of arrested Egyptian bloggers Kareem Amer and Abdul-Moneim Mahmud.

Sign the petition.

Amnesty International offers cheap tickets to torture chambers all over the world. Air Torture is sponsored by the Bush Administration.

The US social forum will be held in Atlanta at the end of June.

I’ve got an article on openDemocracy about my experience the last two weeks at the UN.