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Home » CP Action Hmpage » Campaigns » Bust McCain
NATIONAL ACTION NEWS & PICS
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2008 RNC
Action!
CODEPINK joined joined tens of thousands to protest
at the RNC in St. Paul, Minn. Along with Courage to Resist,
Global Exchange, Oil Change USA, Rainforest Action Network,
and the Ronald Reagan Home for the Criminally Insane,
CODEPINK hosted
“rallies” to denounce Big Oil's in-bed
relationship with the Republicans and the Iraq War for
Oil.
See action video on PBS here! |
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McCain Busting in
the Nation's Capitol , By Medea Benjamin
Today
was a good day for our “Busting McCain” campaign. When
we heard that he was going to be speaking at Washington's
Grand Hyatt Hotel for the National Federation of Independent
Business' Summit, we started planning an “inside/outside”
action with a Greeting Committee outside the hotel and
in the lobby, a PINK SLIP banner drop in hotel atrium,
a PINK Send Off and three brave CODEPINKers who BUSTED
McCain during his speech!
We won't give away our secret about how we got inside
passes to a closed meeting. That's part of the CODEPINK
lore. But we did indeed get four passes. Three of the
people—all women—made it through security and into the
room with no problem. Tighe Barry got booted out (his
ponytail was probably a giveaway). Jes Richardson got
in as press, and so did I—for about 5 minutes. Once they
recognized me and threw me out, they kicked Jes out, too.
Meanwhile,
outside the hotel, our intern Lorena Schmidt donned a
pink wig and greeted passer-bys with flyers and our McCain
song to the tune of classic Beach Boy song Barbara Ann—the
very song McCain parodied when he sang “Bomb, bomb, bomb
Iran...” Lorena, of course, sang Don't bomb, bomb, bomb,
bomb, bomb, Iran,” with verses like “McCain, you are insane,
you'll wipe out a generation if you get to bomb the nation
of Iran." Most people were amused and found it a
great way to protest.
At about 9:00am Lorena, Jes and I greeted McCain as he came in
the building with "Senator McCain, we want to stop the war and bring the troops
home! Senator McCain, don't attack Iran--please!" As he went down the escalator,
he waved and smiled to us. Little did he know that there were CODEPINK women
waiting inside the ballroom for him!
Three
CODEPINKers, dressed like businesspeople (no pink!) and
sporting McCain campaign buttons, got inside the ballroom
in time for a lovely breakfast. When McCain starting speaking
to the business association, Gael Murphy cried out, "War
is bad for small business! Attacking Iran will only make
things worse! We are spending 5,000 dollars per second,
12 billion dollars per month! Imagine the investments
in small business we could make with that money instead
of killing people and illegally occupying other countries.”
Soon
after Murphy was “escorted” out of the room, it was Alicia
Forrest's turn. McCain insisted he was going to help grow
the economy, so Alicia yelled out, “Mr. McCain, how do
you expect to do that with 100 years of war?” She hung
on tight to the doors as they pulled her out, shouting
"No War! No McCain!" This was covered in boos
from the McCain supporters, but still the point was made.
The last to speak out was Barbara Briggs-Letson, who was visiting
the CODEPINK house from Sebastopol. Barbara got up and asked how McCain could
support spending $11 million an hour on war. She, too, was quickly escorted out.
We all cheered when we were watching Lou Dobbs on CNN in the evening and saw
Barbara on TV as she was leaving the room!!!
Meanwhile,
on the 6th floor of the hotel, facing the huge atrium,
Tighe Barry and Julie Allen were waiting to drop a huge
40-foot pink slip saying “McCain=Bush: Endless War.” As
soon as they dropped it, other CODEPINKers in the lobby
chanted “Say No to Endless War” and "Money for jobs
and education, not for war and occupation." The security
guards scurried up to confront them and force them to
take it down.
Our last encounter of the day came when McCain was
on his way out, where we got right up to him . We even ran after him in his car,
as he smiled and waved to us, and then ran to talk to the press entourage as the
mounted their McCain Straight Talk Express bus.
McCain Busting in the
Nation's Capitol
Medea Benjamin
Today was a good day for our “Busting
McCain” campaign. When we heard that he was going to be speaking at Washington's
Grand Hyatt Hotel for the National Federation of Independent Business' Summit,
we started planning an “inside/outside” action with a Greeting Committee outside
the hotel and in the lobby, a PINK SLIP banner drop in hotel atrium, a PINK Send
Off and three brave CODEPINKers who BUSTED McCain during his speech!
We
won't give away our secret about how we got inside passes to a closed meeting.
That's part of the CODEPINK lore. But we did indeed get four passes. Three of
the people—all women—made it through security and into the room with no problem.
Tighe Barry got booted out (his ponytail was probably a giveaway). Jes
Richardson got in as press, and so did I—for about 5 minutes. Once they
recognized me and threw me out, they kicked Jes out, too.
Meanwhile,
outside the hotel, our intern Lorena Schmidt donned a pink wig and greeted
passer-bys with flyers and our McCain song to the tune of classic Beach Boy song
Barbara Ann—the very song McCain parodied when he sang “Bomb, bomb, bomb
Iran...” Lorena, of course, sang Don't bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran,” with
verses like “McCain, you are insane, you'll wipe out a generation if you get to
bomb the nation of Iran." Most people were amused and found it a great way to
protest.
At about 9:00am Lorena, Jes and I greeted McCain as he came in
the building with "Senator McCain, we want to stop the war and bring the troops
home! Senator McCain, don't attack Iran--please!" As he went down the escalator,
he waved and smiled to us. Little did he know that there were CODEPINK women
waiting inside the ballroom for him!
Three CODEPINKers, dressed like
businesspeople (no pink!) and sporting McCain campaign buttons, got inside the
ballroom in time for a lovely breakfast. When McCain starting speaking to the
business association, Gael Murphy cried out, "War is bad for small business!
Attacking Iran will only make things worse! We are spending 5,000 dollars per
second, 12 billion dollars per month! Imagine the investments in small business
we could make with that money instead of killing people and illegally occupying
other countries.”
Soon after Murphy was “escorted” out of the room, it
was Alicia Forrest's turn. McCain insisted he was going to help grow the
economy, so Alicia yelled out, “Mr. McCain, how do you expect to do that with
100 years of war?” She hung on tight to the doors as they pulled her out,
shouting "No War! No McCain!" This was covered in boos from the McCain
supporters, but still the point was made.
The last to speak out was
Barbara Briggs-Letson, who was visiting the CODEPINK house from Sebastopol.
Barbara got up and asked how McCain could support spending $11 million an hour
on war. She, too, was quickly escorted out. We all cheered when we were watching
Lou Dobbs on CNN in the evening and saw Barbara on TV as she was leaving the
room!!!
Meanwhile,
on the 6th floor of the hotel, facing the huge atrium,
Tighe Barry and Julie Allen were waiting to drop a huge
40-foot pink slip saying “McCain=Bush: Endless War.” As
soon as they dropped it, other CODEPINKers in the lobby
chanted “Say No to Endless War” and "Money for jobs
and education, not for war and occupation." The security
guards scurried up to confront them and force them to
take it down.
Our last encounter of the day came when McCain was
on his way out, where we got right up to him . We even ran after him in his car,
as he smiled and waved to us, and then ran to talk to the press entourage as the
mounted their McCain Straight Talk Express bus.
For
our finale, Tighe drove up to the hotel entrance with
our beautiful black and pink pick-up truck decked out
with signs saying "Don't Buy Bush's War" and
"Congress, Don't Fund War!" Megaphones out the
window, we sped away entertaining and educating the good
people of DC about the threat of McBush.
All in all, it was a great day for the McCain Busters! |
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