Published September 29, 2009 @ 10:07AM PT

Birthers, Deathers, Tea Parties, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin ... heck, even Kirk Cameron! It seems every time you turn on the TV, some conservative is spewing crazy talk. Well, rather than laugh, cry, or just shake your head, you can now take that OMG GOP WTF?!? moment and help counter the right-wing spin machine.  CREDO has created a new website called OMG GOP WTF?!? featuring the latest absurdities from the GOP. Each week, there is a new quiz that benefits progressive organizations who counter the spin.  This week, CREDO has selected CODEPINK as the beneficiary and we earn $0.10 for every correct answer. So take the quiz and then challenge your friends!  TAKE THE QUIZ: http://bit.ly/PJVpj  SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS: http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http:... Read More

Published September 14, 2009 @ 03:44PM PT

98-0, 420-1. That is the outcome of the 9-14-01 Congressional vote to authorize military force in Afghanistan. There was one dissenting vote. Only one leader could see that war was not an answer in the wake of 9/11. Today marks eight years since Congresswoman Barbara Lee's courageous act, and her words continue to ring true.  VIDEO Today, 57 percent of American oppose the war in Afghanistan and opposition is continuing to grow.  Americans are tired of a war that is increasingly deadly for its soldiers, draining our economy, and distracting us from our needs at home.  Yet despite all this, Obama has been escalating the war in Afghanistan and next week it is expected that General McChrystal will ask for authorization for more even more troops. Even General Petr... Read More

Published June 30, 2009 @ 04:24PM PT

  by Jodie Evans Not long after the statue of Saddam fell in Firdos Square, several CODEPINK women and I returned to Iraq.  We'd first visited in February during the time Bush proclaimed, "The game is over" and announced his plans for "shock and awe."  We'd learned then how much Iraqis loved Americans and did not want our disrupting their country; they asked us to let them deal with Saddam because the change had to come from within or it could be a disaster. We fell in love with Iraq and felt totally safe there, taking cabs in the wee hours of the morning, walking at 2 a.m. on the Tigress and driving to many parts of the country.   Returning a few months later, however, we found the country devastated. Bustling markets were empty, the streets were those of a ... Read More

Published June 24, 2009 @ 11:10AM PT

As part of its mission to highlight and promote the stories and perspectives of Afghan women, CODEPINK has launched an ongoing series of print, audio and video interviews “Afghan Women Speak Out,” conversations with leading international women activists and policymakers. In light of the current debate in Congress over a $94 billion war funding supplemental bill, the great majority to be spent on military needs rather than that for humanitarian aid or training of Afghan forces, our fourth interview in the series which focuses on security needs in Afghanistan, is particularly pertinent. CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans interviews Malali Bashir, an Afghan-American Fulbright Scholar pursuing her MBA in International Business at Brandeis University. Prior to r... Read More

Published June 15, 2009 @ 10:27AM PT

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was making a major foreign policy speech at Tel Aviv University Sunday, Israeli police outside the university attacked international protesters of Israel's invasion of Gaza, illegal settlements and the apartheid wall.  Heavy-handed police treatment of the unarmed, peaceful members of the CODEPINK delegation there began immediately after they unfurled several pink banners that read "Free Gaza" and "End the Occupation." CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin and New York activist Zool Zulkowitz were physically dragged across the street from their original protest site next to the entrance gate to Bar Ilan University where audience members and press entered the university complex to attend the speech. Read the rest of the article on the Hu... Read More

Published June 11, 2009 @ 09:20AM PT

Global weapons sales topped 1 trillion dollars last year, with the U.S. accounting for a whopping $603 billion in military spending in 2008. Can you imagine what $603 billion dollars could do towards eradicating hunger, immunizing children, fixing broken infrastructure, creating sustainable jobs and providing quality education and housing? And here we are again in 2009 about to pour billions of dollars into further death and destruction. Congress will soon vote on the 2009 Supplemental budget bill with $100 billion in continued funding for the military quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill is also loaded with unrelated junk and pet projects, such as money for a plan to spur domestic car sales, money for military aircraft the Pentagon doesn't want, and $5 billion to bac... Read More

Published June 10, 2009 @ 11:47AM PT

As part of its mission to highlight and promote the stories and perspectives of Afghan women, CODEPINK has launched an ongoing series of print, audio and video interviews "Afghan Women Speak Out," conversations with leading international women activists and policymakers. For the third interview in the series (view our first and second interview here), CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans interviews Mariam Nawabi, an Afghan-American attorney, social entrepreneur, and activist about Afghan women and Congress' rush to pass another $94 billion for war this week. Nawabi is a founding member of the Afghanistan Advocacy Group, a national network of Americans who wish to engage in dialogue with policymakers regarding development and security in Afghanistan. She served as senior adviser to the... Read More

Published June 01, 2009 @ 01:29PM PT

by Jodie Evans For eight years, many Americans have justified the war in Afghanistan as a moral battle to "protect" Afghan women. But Afghan women tell another story: more U.S. war will bear them more suffering. Three decades of foreign occupation -- with little sign of ending -- have led to the complete collapse of more than a century of progress in Afghanistan for women's rights, which reached their peak in the 1970s. Occupation destroyed Afghan public services and created incredible poverty, a perfect void of power ready to be filled by the Taliban (encouraged by the U.S. to counter Soviet influence). Many Afghan women say the collapse poses a greater threat to women's lives: 87 percent are illiterate, 1,600 out of every 100,000 mothers die while giving birth or of related compl... Read More