Bush Vetoes TuesdaySanta Barbara Protests Wednesday

As you probably know, President Bush will veto the Iraq Accountability Act -- a bill to end the Iraq war and bring the troops home safely in 2008 -- most likely tomorrow. After all it's a perfectly fitting way for him to commemorate his Mission Accomplished speech, which he gave 4 years ago.

So, to show Americans want the war to end as soon as possible, on Wednesday, May 2 starting at 5:30 pm, local Santa Barbara residents will protest President Bush’s veto. Residents will gather on the 101 Freeway overpass at Micheltorena Street to make some noise expressing their strong disapproval of President Bush’s veto. This protest will help get the message out to the greater Santa Barbara area in a vivid and unequivocal manner at the height of evening rush hour traffic.

Feel free to join us--bring a noisemaker, a sign, and your indignation. Let the world know that President Bush does NOT speak for you. Local members of MoveOn.org Political Action are organizing Wednesday’s event, which is one of several hundred around the country. If you live somewhere else, go join your local protest.

Ugly Anniversary

If you're in Santa Barbara or its environs tomorrow, go to this. If you're not, find out where one is happening hear you.

Saturday, March 17th, Santa Barbara, CA

Power Of Peace
Cost of War
a Day of Action

Gather 11:30 Vera Cruz Park
March at Noon
Rally at Sunken Gardens 1pm
Workshops to follow

tell a friend

Can't We Take a Print?

As Craig Smith has reported, the News-Press has basically become Bugs Bunny baseball--catching, Scott Steepleton, leftfield, Scott Steepleton, rightfield, Scott Steepleton.... Sure enough, that's one cartoonish way to cover the news and an insult to the community. Despite what some say, a newspaper isn't just a business: what if someone called a hospital just a business? the water company just a business? a university just a business? How is a newspaper not also a public service, answering the crucial need that allows the public to remain informed and wise citizens? And since when do businesses get to operate solely in their own self-interest--shouldn't we expect some morality from them, no matter? (Ah, I dream. Sorry, got moved a bit by the Obama speech this weekend. Damn people keep giving me hope we might be able to save this country.)

That said, we all need to show up at this event:

WAKE-UP WENDY WEDNESDAY
Wednesday, February 21, 12 noon, De La Guerra Plaza
Organized by community members

Had Enough? Join Your Friends to Support a Free Press and Worker Rights. Bring picket signs stating your concerns, whether they are to reinstate unfairly fired reporters, to urge Wendy McCaw to bargain in good faith with the Teamsters, to ask readers to cancel their subscriptions, to call for a boycott of News-Press advertisers, or to demand the termination of Travis Armstrong.

Make a sign, grab some noisemakers, and come down to De La Guerra Plaza. We will form a picket line in front of the News-Press building and ask newspaper customers to do business with other publications. This is our opportunity to organize our community around this serious issue. We’ll have a short program with speakers and also offer ways to get more involved.

And then there's this brilliant idea from someone who used to work for the paper. Right now they can afford a hit in circulation, even losing some advertising, for the News-Press owns one very profitable arm no one has discussed enough yet. In addition to printing the ever-shrinking (almost wrote shirking) paper, and all the small locals Wendy bought up and mostly gutted (Goleta Valley Voice, El Mexicano, Blue Edge), the printing plant out in Goleta does jobs for hire. That's good easy money, running others' product, and we have to pressure those folks to go elsewhere. It's a project someone could take on, pairing these publications with new printers.

Anybody out there up for it?