Pelosi Is an Expert at 'Drowning Out Opposing Views'

Disruption of the health care town hall meetings has triggered some rich debate about free speech in the U.S. In these discussions, CODEPINK has been referenced several times as the group that has most often tested the boundaries of free speech. Over the years, we've been chided and insulted by the media, Members of Congress, former Press Secretaries, and even President Bush himself. However, when Nancy Pelosi weighed in recently on the town hall "mobs," saying that "drowning out opposing views is un-American," I was compelled to respond.

In Defense of Disruption

What do:

Rush Limbaugh

Barack Obama

Newt Gingrich

Nancy Pelosi

PhRMA

Families USA

America’s Health Insurance Plans

AARP

Harry Reid

Mitch McConnell

and Fox News

have in common?

They are all freaked out by single payer.

They have all bought the corporate line:

The market has a central place in health insurance.

In contrast, the majority of doctors.

The majority of nurses.

Stop Complaining About Right-Wing Protests! The Left Should Be (Re)Learning How It's Done

OMG! Those protesters showing up at Democratic "town meetings" to promote the president's health care "reform" program are being bused in from out of town? 

Scandal! Que horrible! (Gasp!) 

Aquino’s Ripple Effect

Today the formal mourning ends for Corazon Aquino, the former president of the Philippines who died at the beginning of this month, but her significance as a figure of hope will live on.

The Ezra I Knew: The Man with the Roses

I first knew Ezra Nawi as the man with the roses. He was not a florist. He was a plumber, a gentle Jerusalemite who would show up every Friday at French Square, his rucksack brimming with bouquets of long-stemmed roses. He would cross the moat of Friday traffic to where we stood: 20 or so women, wearing black and holding little hand-shaped signs that read, "Stop the Occupation" in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Smiling, Ezra would slowly circle the low wall on which we perched, stopping to hand a rose to each and every one of us.

We Need More Protest to Make Reform Possible

Why is there so little protest in response to these hard economic times?

Health Insurance Giants Arrest Children While Senators Arrest Seniors, Nurses, Doctors

If you doubt for one moment the power of money and its control over whether or not our nation will grant the human right of healthcare to all, just look at who has been arrested speaking up for publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare in the past 90 days.

Frankie, 11, and eight others were arrested in July in Des Moines, IA, as Blue Cross felt a little too much pressure to answer questions about their denials of care and their profits:

Young Climate Activists Call On Clinton to Stop Tar Sands Pipeline

The Avaaz Action Factory is at it again. This time its target is Secretary Clinton; its quest is to get her to stop a new pipeline that would send Canadian tar sands oil into the US.

Yesterday, during morning rush hour, these young and creative activists showed up at the State Department in full costume, complete with a kiddie pool full of a tar sands mixture. Their banner read: "Clinton be a Leader. Say No to Tar Sands, Stop Global Warming."

Bend It Like Obama?

As I write, the Senate Finance Committee has yet to release its version of healthcare reform legislation, and Harry Reid has announced that the Senate won't vote on any healthcare bill until after the August recess. This is worrisome. The future of progressive politics and the nature of the American social contract, not to mention the lives and health of millions of our fellow citizens, is up for grabs.