Think Pink!

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2008-03-03T17:12:00.000-06:00

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2008-03-03T17:09:00.002-06:00

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NO MEETING MARCH 3, 2008

2008-03-03T17:05:00.000-06:00

No meeting tonight

2008-03-01T13:41:00.001-06:00

No meeting March 3

2008-03-01T13:27:00.000-06:00

No meeting March 3, 2008.

Feb. 3 Benefit for CodePink!

2008-01-26T08:43:00.000-06:00

Carol Williams concent Feb. 3, 2008 -- 3PM

2008-01-24T21:22:00.001-06:00

Carol Williams will play a benefit concert for CodePink -- Madison Women for Peace, Sunday February 3, 2008, at Escape Java Joint, 3 PM. More details soon.

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2008-01-24T21:20:00.000-06:00

testing the blog

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2008-01-24T21:19:00.001-06:00

Carol Williams concert to benefit CodePink

2008-01-24T21:15:00.000-06:00

Carol Williams will play at Escape on Sunday February 3, 2008, 3PM. Hear an interview with Carol on "Her Turn" on WORT that morning.

Meeting Monday Dec. 3

2007-11-29T11:34:00.000-06:00

Regular meeting Monday December 3, 2007, 6:30 pm, Social Justice Center.

16 Days of Activism

2007-11-20T21:23:00.000-06:00

Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Art Show, Spoken Word, Discussion, Film

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2007-11-16T07:43:00.001-06:00

Testing

Meeting Monday Nov. 19

2007-11-16T07:38:00.000-06:00

Meeting reminder -- Monday Nov. 19, 6:30 pm, Social Justice Center, Madison. Finalize details of our 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.

Pink the School Board Meeting Nov. 5

2007-11-04T16:34:00.000-06:00

For Monday, Nov. 5, 2007 -- Hey CodePinkers -- the Madison School Board will address the issue of the military in our schools at the meeting on Monday, November 5, 2007. You may know there are now logos for the military on score boards and recruiters as school, too. We peace people would like our schools to reflect and encourage a more positive future. So we shall go to the informational picket in pink with our sings, then attend the meeting, and maybe speak.

TIME: Picket from 5:30-6:30 p.m. 545 W. Dayton (Doyle Administration Building near Kohl Center) followed by the meeting at 7:00 p.m. We get to see our ally Maya Cole in her role on the board. See the Madison Area Peace Coalition Web site (MADPEACE.ORG) for details.

Because we intend to support this worthy cause, we will not plan on a meeting at the Social Justice Center on Nov. 5.

Meeting Monday October 15

2007-10-13T21:21:00.000-05:00

The MadWomen will meet Monday, October 15, 2007, 6:30 pm, Social Justice Center. On the agenda -- our activities associated with Sixteen Days Against Gender Violence. Also, Saturday, October 27 peace rally in Chicago.

NO MEETING LABOR DAY

2007-08-22T22:28:00.000-05:00

Just when it looked like the regular meeting schedule would reappear, we have a change -- no meeting on Labor Day, September 3rd. But we're cooking up an event or two for Sixteen Days (against gender violence) November 25 -- December 10. More details to come.

The next Madwomen meeting will be Monday, September 17, 2007, 6:30 pm, Social Justice Center.

Meeting Monday Aug. 20

2007-08-18T20:54:00.000-05:00

Our regular meeting schedule is here again. We meet this Monday, Aug. 20, 2007, 6:30 pm, Social Justice Center, 1202 Williamson St. Madison. E-mail Madowmen at Merr.com (but close the spaces and use the @ instead of the word) if you have questions.

Aug. 6 meeting update

2007-08-04T07:10:00.000-05:00

Our regularly-scheduled Monday Aug. 6 meeting will be at Shelly's house at 6:30 pm. This is a combination social and business meeting. If you are on our list you received a message from Shelly with the address. If you need the address please contact madwomen "at" (change that to @) merr.com. There are no spaces in that address.

IMPORTANT NOTICE -- MEETING CHANGE TO TUESDAY!!!

2007-07-15T12:44:00.000-05:00

Our July meeting is moved to Tuesday, July 16, 6:30 PM, at Mother Fools, 1101 Williamson St. Women For Peace, please come to the meeting. No meeting on Monday this month.

Malalai Joya Update

2007-06-10T18:42:00.000-05:00

Please contact your members of Congress, asking them to go on record in support of Malalai Joya's reinstatement in Afghanistan's parliament (as called for by Human Rights Watch and others). In other tragic news, another brave Afghan woman who criticized the country's warlords and drug lords, Peace Radio's Zakia Zaki, has been killed.

From the Defense Committee for Malalai Joya:

On June 6, 2007, police in Herat province in West of Afghanistan stopped hundreds of Joya supporters to stage their peaceful protest demonstration in the center of the city.

Malalai Joya's supporters had planned a demonstration in front of Sports Stadium in center of Herat city in protest to Malalai Joya's suspension. Despite the fact that they had been permitted by the related authorities a day back, before the people gathered in the mentioned area all the routes leading there were blocked by tens of armed police to prevent the demonstration. ...

The organizers of this demonstration claimed that they had also been threatened several times by unknown people to refrain from this protest and a number of warlord authorities are responsible for intervention in this peaceful movement in support of Malalai Joya. ...

It is worth mentioning that earlier a similar protest of Malalai Joya's supporters in Kunar province was stopped by the head of security of that province.

Malalai Joya Needs Your Help

2007-05-28T12:04:00.000-05:00

Madison Women for Peace was honored to host Afghan parliamentarian and women's rights activist Malalai Joya in March 2006, as part of our International Women's Day celebration (organized with the WI Coordinating Council on Nicaragua; see our photos section for pics from the event).

The warlords and drug lords who Malalai frequently criticizes have long tried to silence her, even attempting to assassinate her. But Malalai has been able to continue her activism and outspoken defense of human rights - until recently, when she was suspended from Parliament. The given reason for her suspension is that Malalai called the Afghan parliament "worse than a stable or a zoo," because "at least there you have a donkey that carries a load and a cow that provides milk." Human Rights Watch is calling for Malalai to be reinstated.

Below is an action alert from the Defense Committe for Malalai Joya. Please take action, in support of real democracy and women's rights in Afghanistan!

In the past few weeks, after Malalai Joya's return from a successful international tour and interview with a local TV station in Kabul, the warlords and criminals in the Afghan Parliament and Senate, tried hard to silence Joya and kick her out of the Parliament.

They have used one of her recent comments during an interview as a justification for their move. In the interview, she expressed that the Afghan Parliament is worse than an animal stable whose many members are the murderers and enemies of Afghan people.

On May 21, 2007, with a gross majority, the Parliament dominated by warlords and drug-lords suspended Joya for three years and ordered the High Court to file a case against her. They also directed the Interior Ministry to restrict her movements to within the country. This means she is not allowed to travel outside Afghanistan.

In a press conference in Kabul, Joya announced that it is a political conspiracy against her and she will continue her fight against the warlords and enemies of Afghan people. She is ready to face an independent court and will use the opportunity to expose the enemies of Afghan people through it. Joya added, "but I am very sorry that there is no justice in Afghanistan and the judiciary is also infected with the virus of warlordism and the fundamentalists occupy it."

Some Afghan lawyers that we approached believe that the Parliament's decision is illegal and only a court can decide to oust an elected representative of people from the parliament.

But we are happy that majority of ordinary Afghan people strongly support Joya and she is receiving many phone calls, letters and emails full of sympathies and solidarity following the parliament decision.

WE URGE all her supporters and well-wishers to come forward and help Joya now.

YOU CAN do so in the following ways:

* Write to Afghan officials and file your protest for expelling and prosecuting Joya, while the terrorists and human rights violators in the parliament were provided immunity before any court for their past crimes last month.

* Express your concern for Joya's security during the court sessions as the fundamentalists currently hold key positions in Afghanistan's judiciary.

* Circulate this letter and ask lawyers and defenders of human rights in your area and country to come forward and help Joya during her court proceedings and defend her.

* Donate to Joya's security fund online at https://www.malalaijoya.com/donor/donor_info.php to help improve her security with necessary equipment and facilities, while she is now deprived of all official facilities.

Letters of protest can be sent to the following sources:

President Hamid Karzai
eq.ahmad@gmail.com
president@afghanistangov.org

Supreme Court of Afghanistan
aquddus@supremecourt.gov.af
Feedback Form of the Supreme Court

Afghanistan's Parliament
hasib-n786@yahoo.com

Interior Ministry
moinews@gmail.com
wahed.moi@gmail.com

Justice Ministry of Afghanistan
info@moj.gov.af
hidayatr@moj.gov.af

We thank you for your prompt action and support and hope you will forward a copy of your letters to mj@malalaijoya.com.

For more information, visit www.malalaijoya.com.

Is It Time to Put Impeachment on the Table?

2007-05-20T21:01:00.000-05:00

Town meeting on "Impeachment, Peace & Action"

Monday, May 21, 2007, 5:30 to 7:45 pm
UW Memorial Union, Great Hall, 800 Langdon St, Madison

From Buzz Davis, the chair of the WI Impeachment / Bring Our Troops Home Coalition, and a member of Veterans for Peace:

We said in the November elections, "Get our troops out of Iraq!" Did Congress listen? No! They've spent four months talking about spending $100 billion MORE for MORE troops. ...

Under the United Nations Charter and the U.S. Constitution, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are illegal. They're wars of aggression. Rep. Conyers introduced his House resolution to impeach Mr. Bush in December 2005. Thirty-six House members signed on. The Republicans buried the bill.

Then came November, we voters gave Democrats Congressional control and what does Speaker Pelosi say? "Impeachment is off the table because Democrats will be too busy doing the public's business."

Huh? Ms. Pelosi, impeachment to protect and defend the Constitution is the MOST important public business!

Rep. Kucinich now has introduced his House resolution to impeach Mr. Cheney. Are House members rushing to cosponsor? No, House members are taking orders from Pelosi.

State Rep. Frank Boyle has introduced his Assembly joint resolution to impeach Mr. Bush. No rush by Assembly members to cosign either. That's a federal issue, they rationalize.

Thousands of WI National Guard and Reserve members have been called up to serve in illegal wars and it is not a WI issue? When tornadoes next rip through WI, we will not be able to properly react because the Guard members and equipment are in Iraq. Our governor remains silent on allowing WI citizens to be called to serve in illegal wars. And this is not a WI issue?

The solution is simple: Impeach Bush and Cheney for massive high crimes - illegal wars, illegal torture and illegal wiretapping of Americans. Impeach and remove the crooks from office because the wars are illegal and our troops will be brought home. Why? Because the next president will NOT be dumb enough to say, "Well the first thing I must do is continue the Iraq war."

Mother's Day for Peace: Sat. May 12

2007-05-06T16:47:00.000-05:00

Join local Women for Peace: CodePink members in reclaiming the peace activist roots of Mother's Day on Saturday May 12!

From 9 am to 12 noon on May 12, we'll be in front of the Children's Museum, where State Street meets the Capitol Square. (Other events, including Art Bikes and children's events, will also be going on, hopefully increasing our audience.)

We'll have a few large exhibits, including Julia Ward Howe's original Mother's Day proclamation from 1870, which reads in part:

Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.

Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.

We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.

We'll also have information on the U.S. war economy, and postcards for passers by to support a more sane allocation of resources that prioritizes health, education, the environment and other human needs over war.

Join us at the planning meeting on Monday May 7 and/or for the event on Saturday May 12. And wear your pink proudly!

Action: No New Nukes in Wisconsin

2007-04-29T14:35:00.000-05:00

Wisconsin's very reasonable restrictions on new nuclear power plants -- saying no new nuclear plants can be built in the state until / unless: (1) nuclear power is economically advantageous for state residents; and (2) there is a designated repository for nuclear waste -- are under attack.

On May 10, the state Joint Legislative Council will receive a special committee report recommending that the above restrictions be revoked. (If you would like to attend the Council meeting, it opens at 8:30 am on Thursday May 10, at the 411 South room of the state Capitol.)

The Wisconsin-based group Nukewatch is encouraging all state residents to contact their representatives in support of the state's restrictions. Their sample letter is copied below. See www.nukewatch.com for more information.

Dear Representative / Senator,

Please vote no on any repeal of state statute 196.493 -- a common sense law that protects the public from unnecessary pollution and nuclear waste. A bill to repeal the law may be introduced by Representative Phil Montgomery (R-Dist 4) May 9.

If passed, the repeal would encourage the building of more nuclear reactors in Wisconsin and increase the likelihood that the state will become a national high-level nuclear waste dumpsite.

If passed, the repeal would eliminate two legal conditions that must now be met before new reactors can be built in Wisconsin:

1) That a federal nuclear waste storage site must be in operation and accepting waste fuel; and
2) That reactor-generated electricity must be economically advantageous to the ratepayer compared with alternatives.

A special Nuclear Power Committee has recommended (March 5, 2007) repeal of these precautionary and fiscally conservative requirements. Its effort is part of an industry-wide push for more reactors (and waste production) nationwide.

Pro-nuclear propaganda has it that nuclear power is "cheap" and "carbon free." But nuclear waste management will cost hundreds of billions of dollars for at least 300,000 years; and the mining, milling and production of reactor fuel creates millions of tons of carbon pollution that the industry ignores.

The proposed Yucca Mountain dump site in Nevada is unfit and should never open. A Nuclear Regulatory Commission member said Feb. 7, 2007 that the Yucca project must be scrapped. This puts Wisconsin near the top of the list of potential national dump sites, especially if thousands of tons of new waste is produced by new reactors.

On April 12, the state of California rebuffed a similar attempt to repeal conditions on reactor construction. Wisconsin should do the same. Please vote no on repeal of State Stat. 196-493.

Sincerely,

Name
Address
Phone