Sunday, January 13, 2008

Pinking Posada








With expectations to shed pink light on the hypocrisy of the Bush Administration's War on Terror and to reexpose the fact that the U.S. government provides safe haven for terrorists, CODEPINK activists from as far away as Hawaii, California, Arizona and Texas flew into Miami, the home of Luis Posada Carriles, the CIA supported anti-Castro exile from Cuba who masterminded the downing of a Cuban civilian airliner that ended the lives of its 73 passengers.












"The FBI has determined that Luis Posada Carriles is a threat to our national security and the U.S. Justice Department's finding describe him as an unrepentant criminal who masterminded plots and attacks." a statement from congressional hearing dated November 15, 2007. Posada, himself, boasted about other terrorist acts committed on hotels in Havana.










Although it is widely known that the Cuban exile community of 'ore provides unwavering support for Posada Carriles, we hoped that the Versailles restaurant would offer us an opportunity to speak to Cuban-Americans about the danger this man presents and to enlist their help in exposing him for what he is.






The local media have been quite intrigued with the prospect of peace activists in pink arriving to their city to pressure the FBI into putting Posada Carriles on the Most Wanted Criminals digital billboards.




http://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec07/billboards122607.html










After being invited to a Spanish language tv talk show, believing it to be just an interview about this campaign,in fact it was Arrebatados,



http://www.americateve.com/programa.php?id=2



a right-wing shouting match in which the two of us were pitted opposite three Cuban exiles who came with sheets and sheets of information on Medea and CODEPINK while we had no clue who the people were verbally attacking us. One of these "guests"accused us of being provocateurs and terrorists. This same individual when questioned admitted to planning and participating in violent tactics if nonviolent ones do not bring about the desired end. Off air he told Medea that "you might well get your head bashed in like a coconut." After leaving this show we thought better of going into Versailles and instead decided on holding a press conference across the street.








In preparation for our press conference on Calle Ocho across from the Cuban exile haven Versailles Cafe, an iconic restaurant in the heart of Little Havana, Medea, Ann, Nancy, Liz, Tighe and myself woke early to the lapping of the warm waters against Ray's boat and the swishing of Caribbean breezes over palm fronds.






The day before, after much discussion with local friends and connections, we decided that the pink police outfits could create unneccessary hostility and thought it best to be rather gaudy than gruff and put the power of PINK to disarm the "patriotas".

So taking advice from Tighe's buddy, Ray, we went to the Red, White and Blue, a superb second-hand clothing store in search of pink dresses.








In no more than 15 minutes the CODEPINK magic did its trick and voila, we had a treasure trove of pink accoutrement, a soft pink felt Ranger hat in mint condition for our colonel Ann, a sleek satin spaghetti-strapped gown for Liz, a voluptuously beaded wine colored one for Nancy, a florescent hot pink skating leotard for Medea and a hibiscus flowered sundress for me.

Tighe, a veritable magician with a hammer and nails miraculously created our "float" by attaching a Wanted banner of Posada Carriles to an A-frame wooden apron. He lined it with a pink muslin banner of letters so huge they virtually shouted END TERRORISM! After hauling it into the bed of the fire-engine red Dodge pickup we "pinked" it up with plastic skirts, our hand painted "CODEPINK says NO to terrorism" banner, pink-painted messages of CODEPINK:women for peace and love and PAZ, adorned with childlike drawings of pink hearts, flowers and peace signs.












After primping and pinking ourselves we headed anxiously down to Calle Ocho. En route, Medea called Detective Jorge Gonzalez who had committed to being at Versailles and ensuring us police protection. He intimated that everything was under control and set up for our press conference across the street from the Versailles restaurant as we had been threatened by one of the guests on the Spanish language television show Arrebatados.

We didn't even make it to the intersection in front of Versailles before a mob of about 200 "mambistas" began yelling obscenities at us. As the truck approached the area, one older grey templed man took the six foot poles of the American and Cuban flags and came running towards us pointing their ends at the front passenger window as if he were a javelin thrower. If not for the younger wiser individual who held him back, Ann Wright or I would have had our heads speared. Another man attempted to jump onto the bed of the truck to rip out the frilly fringe to our sign. Yet another chased us about four blocks as we circumvented the mob.





Needless to say, the event was fraught with tension and violence albeit by little old men. The police, all two of them, caught up to us as we circled around wondering what to do. Should we try to have the conference anyway? Where the hell was the protection the FBI promised us? Should we give in to this intimidation or stand up for our freedom of speech and assembly? We chose the latter although we were specifically denied any protection at the scene. We came to the consensus that the only way to carry out our planned press conference was to go to the main police station since the police would not come to us. There Medea carried out several interviews with Telemundo, GenTV, channel 10, channel 4, the Miami Herald and the Sun Sentinel.




Although we were unable to dialogue with any Cubans that day, we did the following. See next blog: Mojitos and eggs over easy.

21 comments:

LaFajita said...

Wow! Musharraf's goons were plenty scary, but at least they were sane! And to think those guys used to run that island.

Excessive emotionalism can be an early sign of Alzheimer's so it's probably just as well you got off their lawn - er, parking lot - before those geezers hurt themselves. There's a closed ward somewhere in their future.

caterliz said...

don't be afraid of the right wingers in Miami friends

Terrorists should be incarcerated and not allowed safe haven and protected by police fbi cia a small number of right wing violent extremists

we say stop protecting Jose Carriles
and punish terrorists
This is the US

Unknown said...

You all need to Get a LIFE and some DICK...Let me know if you're interested... It seems to me there is too much sexual frustration on your part... YOU NEED TO RELEASE THE FRUSTRATION WIHT A NICE ORGASM!!! OH YEAH BABY!! OH YEAH.. LET'S GET IT ON or should I say HARD!!!

Gor said...

Dude, have you seen the size of some of these women, you don't want to go there.

Here's a picture of one, don't say I didn't warn you.

A Pink Chick!

LaFajita said...

Jose, you need to work on your people skills, companero.

Eileen Coles said...

We have everything we need in the real man department, Joe Schmoe. You are SO not it. We're wise enough to know that the size of the ego is inversely proportional to the size of the dick.

It's really pathetic how you want to beat women up one moment and screw them the next. You probably have to buy it a lot, I seriously doubt anyone would want to get next to you for free.

Anonymous said...

CodePink,

Hello, first I would like to introduce myself, my name is Steve Keck, I am a film student at The Ohio State University. I am in a women's studies course currently and I have decided to do a research paper on (for the most part) your organization. I find it was something that I know not much about, except that my girlfriend heavily supports you, she recommended me to you. I am doing research on antiwar activists that are women. I find the work that your organization does to be very inspirational, I try to express myself through my films in various social issues such as racism, poverty..ect Sometimes, I take courses in various departments to learn more to help me if I want to make a film about it, I feel I should take a course while I am still in still to learn as much as I can about a topic.

I was wondering if you could help stear me in the right direction, I want to find out the percentage of antiwar activists who are women, and different organizations that are similar to yours. Sort of a history of the women's peace movement and percentage facts as accurate as possible (although I know something like that would be a rough estimate). Basically kind of showing if the ratio of women that are antiwar activists has been a consistent ratio historically or if it has changed over time. If there are any websites, people I could interview, books, magazines, indymedia sources...ect Please let me know. If you are unable to help I understand, I thank you for your cooperation, and I will keep my interest in your organization.

Thanks,

Steve Keck

keck.58@osu.edu e-mail me here as I don't know if I'll be back in this blog for a while

Anonymous said...

After reading the comments, there sure is a lot of hate being exchanged on both sides.

Anonymous said...

This is the most ridicules group of people I have ever seen. Why would you protest the very people that are brave enough to stand against our enemies. The way I see it you should join those radical Islamic people because, apparently you share the views of those terrorist. I am curious to what you would do if Berkeley was the next terrorist target, would you still protest the Marines. You should really be ashamed, but I know you are not. That is why I am glad you are the minority…..

Anonymous said...

yall need some Cajun Dick.

Unknown said...

I don't understand what your sad affliction with pink is going to do against the "war for oil" as you are calling it. You people are fucking stupid if you think that this country doesn't need the oil anyway. I am personnally all about green energy, but the country is not prepared(and I don't mean mentally. Most of the country would support a switch to green energy.) at this time to make that switch. You all need to chill out and take your fucking pink peace signs and stick then up your ass; then, after you've done that, sit down and smoke a bowl and realize that you are fighting the wrong cause. Leave the military alone for a while and work on the legalization of marajuanna. You know for some reason it is illegal yet it is used for so many medicinal purposes these days and in the past that I just don't see why it's illegal...Oh...that's right...the government cannot systemmatically tax this substance because if it was legal every hippie with a halogen light--like you code pink people--would grow it him/herself. If everyone is growing their own then there is no supply and demand from as large of a customer base. I wish people would actually think about what they were doing before they did it for once, and how their action is going to affect the people around them. What was the Golden Rule? --"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Wow. That's a good quote.

swdonaldson said...

This is the most retarded site I have ever seen. My father was in the military for 28 years, then me for 5, now I am married to a military man who has been in the military for 15 years, all officers. You don't have any idea what I have given up to let my husband go. None of bastards appreciate it. You don't underdtand how offensive it really is when you come on the O'Reilly Show and pedal your crap about not joining the military or having anything to do with it. Who the hell do you think protects your rights to say this crap. I am completely amazed they even gave you a spot on O'Reilly, you aren't worthy.

Shannon Donaldson

Stephen "buck" OConnor said...

It's not about the oil. Its about the maintainance of stability in the Middle East. Saddam Husein was a threat to the stability of the region, and as such he needed to be removed.The fact that millions of people within Iraq were being brutalized by their own leader is sadly an afterthought. It has become perhaps a new dawn for the people of Iraq to form a government and a society that is suitable for their religeous and social contexts. Why is stability in the Middle East so important? Pretty simple... at present an enourmous amount of our transportation fuel comes from the region. The next time you think that your having a bad day, Imagine that the truck that delivers toilet paper to your local grocery store didn't make it because he or she (the driver) ran out of fuel, your hemmeroids are acting up because you've been wiping with old New York Times op/ed pages, you have to pedal (thats right on a bike) your two kids to daycare in the rain (again),and you hope that the lights stay on at the daycare center all day today ( rolling power outages due to the scarcity of fuel) because if they don't and you have to bring the kids (on your bicycle) to the art gallery (where no one is spending much money anyway because the economy has ground to a hault)your boss might fire you. Your husband isn't much help because he's down at the coast fishing for (guess what...FISH!) to make some extra cash ( credit cards are no longer accepted anywhere) The advertising agency he worked for is pretty much closed. You are also not sleeping well because WINTER is coming and the house (if you are allowed to remain in it during the mortage default hearings) is going to get COLD. Un ugly scenario perhaps ...but not as bad as it could possibly get. We have to move this country of ours towards energy independence, and during that phase, STABILITY in the Middle East and other oil producing nations (like Venezuala )is nothing short of CRITICAL.
Your group clearly has a great deal of enthusiasm and energy. Someone from your group should do research on GTL production of #2 Fuel oil. That is the production of superclean Diesel type transportation fuel using the Fischer/Tropsche method of synthesis for production of Diesel type fuel from natural gas and coal. You will also probably hate the idea that this tecnology that will likely revelutionize transportation for the next 25 years is a result of Nazi Germany's thirst for transportation fuel during WW II ( we have about a three hundred year supply of these fuels in the United States alone)In the event that this technologie is news to you, simply google "GTL" You can also check out websites for BP, Shell, Conoco, Exon/Mobil, etc. All major Automakers selling in the United States (Honda,Toyota,GM,etc) will be introducing a full line of Diesel fuel powered vehicles by the end of the 2010 model year (or sooner) to take advantage of the domestically produced Diesel type fuels. In the meantime stability in the Middle East remains critical .
The possibilty that the people of Iraq ,Palestine ,Isreal, Iran ,Egypt and all of the destitute people in all of the other oil rich nations of the world might someday get to wake up and decide for themselves WHAT I WANT TO DO TODAY!...well thats a dream that you and I live everyday. Sometimes that dream gets delivered by a man with two lanterns in a church steeple in Boston and sometimes it gets delivered by a Marine in HER Humvee in Iraq. Semper Fi

Stephen "buck" OConnor said...

It's not about the oil. Its about the maintainance of stability in the Middle East. Saddam Husein was a threat to the stability of the region, and as such he needed to be removed.The fact that millions of people within Iraq were being brutalized by their own leader is sadly an afterthought. It has become perhaps a new dawn for the people of Iraq to form a government and a society that is suitable for their religeous and social contexts. Why is stability in the Middle East so important? Pretty simple... at present an enourmous amount of our transportation fuel comes from the region. The next time you think that your having a bad day, Imagine that the truck that delivers toilet paper to your local grocery store didn't make it because he or she (the driver) ran out of fuel, your hemmeroids are acting up because you've been wiping with old New York Times op/ed pages, you have to pedal (thats right on a bike) your two kids to daycare in the rain (again),and you hope that the lights stay on at the daycare center all day today ( rolling power outages due to the scarcity of fuel) because if they don't and you have to bring the kids (on your bicycle) to the art gallery (where no one is spending much money anyway because the economy has ground to a hault)your boss might fire you. Your husband isn't much help because he's down at the coast fishing for (guess what...FISH!) to make some extra cash ( credit cards are no longer accepted anywhere) The advertising agency he worked for is pretty much closed. You are also not sleeping well because WINTER is coming and the house (if you are allowed to remain in it during the mortage default hearings) is going to get COLD. Un ugly scenario perhaps ...but not as bad as it could possibly get. We have to move this country of ours towards energy independence, and during that phase, STABILITY in the Middle East and other oil producing nations (like Venezuala )is nothing short of CRITICAL.
Your group clearly has a great deal of enthusiasm and energy. Someone from your group should do research on GTL production of #2 Fuel oil. That is the production of superclean Diesel type transportation fuel using the Fischer/Tropsche method of synthesis for production of Diesel type fuel from natural gas and coal. You will also probably hate the idea that this tecnology that will likely revelutionize transportation for the next 25 years is a result of Nazi Germany's thirst for transportation fuel during WW II ( we have about a three hundred year supply of these fuels in the United States alone)In the event that this technologie is news to you, simply google "GTL" You can also check out websites for BP, Shell, Conoco, Exon/Mobil, etc. All major Automakers selling in the United States (Honda,Toyota,GM,etc) will be introducing a full line of Diesel fuel powered vehicles by the end of the 2010 model year (or sooner) to take advantage of the domestically produced Diesel type fuels. In the meantime stability in the Middle East remains critical .
The possibilty that the people of Iraq ,Palestine ,Isreal, Iran ,Egypt and all of the destitute people in all of the other oil rich nations of the world might someday get to wake up and decide for themselves WHAT I WANT TO DO TODAY!...well thats a dream that you and I live everyday. Sometimes that dream gets delivered by a man with two lanterns in a church steeple in Boston and sometimes it gets delivered by a Marine in HER Humvee in Iraq. Semper Fi

george said...

I find that the Violence in Kenya is more disturbing than what's going on in Iraq. We should organize a trip to that country and defend our African sisters!

george said...

I find that the Violence in Kenya is more disturbing than what's going on in Iraq. We should organize a trip to that country and defend our African sisters!

Anonymous said...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9089532722810348478

check this video out. It shows all the reasons we shouldn't be in the Middle East. We should just pull out right now. I can't believe we are not scared and running.

2nd LT
MS Army National Guard

Anonymous said...

So... The group is devoted to ending all war?

You are aware, of course, that if it werent for things like, oh, say... World War II...
We'd all be speaking German and most of you would be in jail or dead for even attempting to speak your mind.

Or perhaps the Cold War.
Wherein, if we had bowed out of that, we'd all be speaking Russian, and most of you would be in labor camps for even daring to voice opinion against the glorious Motherland.

....... Ah well, I still think most of you are completely removed from practical sense when it comes to global affairs, and that you all are, for the most part, completely insane.

Amsterdam78 said...

Keep Up the good work

D. Engel Lake worth and Florida Socialist Party. End Terrorists in the USA!

NoOne said...

You people have no idea what rights really are, It must be great for you people to be able to say whatever you want no matter how twisted it is... you must be just a bunch of bored housewives with nothing better to do then bitch and moan.... what you need to realize is that fighting and war are a part of life.... almost every animal in the world fights in order to eat and survive.... you've just become lazy and want everything the way you think it should be without even truly looking at what each side is truly about...I would bet a bunch of you women just go along with whatever everyone else says, have any of you actually looked at what's going on? No you most likely haven't and you don't care either

Don't Tread on Me said...

Code Pink- silly chicks...ugh.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=163653&title=marines-in-berkley