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Indybay Feature

Protest outside Obama Fundraiser "Fund People's Needs, Not War—Stop Cuts & Layoffs!"

Date:
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Time:
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Event Type:
Protest
Organizer/Author:
ANSWER Coalition
Email:
Phone:
415-821-6545
Address:
ANSWER Office: 2969 Mission St
Location Details:
Nob Hill Masonic Center, 1111 California St.
(btwn Jones and Taylor), SF

President Obama will be in San Francisco for a $35,800 per plate fundraiser. Join the ANSWER Coalition and other organizations to say:

END THE WARS & OCCUPATIONS
Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Haiti & everywhere!

FUND JOBS, HEALTHCARE, SCHOOLS AND HOUSING, NOT WAR!
Stop budget cuts & layoffs!

THE PEOPLE & THE PLANET, NOT NUCLEAR PROFITS
No more gov’t subsidies for nuclear corporations!
Added to the calendar on Tue, Apr 5, 2011 6:09PM
Due to a White House scheduling change, the protest outside President Obama's San Francisco fundraiser at the Nob Hill Masonic Center, 1111 California St., will begin at 7:30pm today, Wednesday, April 20.

Join the ANSWER Coalition and other organizations to say:

End the War and Occupation
Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Haiti & everywhere!

Fund Jobs, Healthcare, Schools and Housing, Not War! Stop budget cuts & layoffs! Stop the war on working people!

The People & the Planet, Not Nuclear Profits
No more gov’t subsidies for nuclear corporations!

Initiated by the ANSWER Coalition. Endorsers include: Al Awda—Palestine Right to Return Coalition, CODEPINK—Women for Peace, and Alameda Co. Green Party.

Call 415-821-6545 or reply to this email to endorse or for more info.

April 20 marks the first anniversary of the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. We demand: Seize BP's assets to pay for environmental clean-up and restoration, and to fully compensate those who are have suffered health problems and loss of livelihood.

Comments (Hide Comments)
by protester
This fundraiser at the Masonic Auditorium is NOT THE MAIN EVENT of Obama's visit to San Francisco. Instead he'll be raising most of his money from the wealthy elite at a $35,800-per-person dinner at billionaire Marc Benioff's home: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=86397&tsp=1

According to publicly available info, Marc Benioff lives at 3230 Jackson Street: http://sf.blockshopper.com/property/0973011/3230_jackson

Let's move the protest to (or at least CONTINUE the protest at) 3230 Jackson Street, immediately following the Masonic Auditorium protest, at approximately 6pm. Obama is going straight from the Masonic to Benioff's home, where billionaires will buy influence. Where is the transparency? The corruption never stops! Doesn't matter who's president!

A peaceful protest on the sidewalk near 3230 Jackson Street is perfectly legal -- although the police will certainly have the whole neighborhood cordoned off. However close we can get, that's where the protest should be held. Everyone planning to attend the Masonic event should join us at 3230 Jackson as well (in Presidio Heights, between Presidio Ave. and Walnut Street).

There's little point in protesting Obama's for-show phony "people's" event at the Masonic. Expose the corruption where it happens!
by Anti-Fascist
The record is clear and was understood by those of us who understand capitalism: Obama is just as much a fascist as Bush, and often times worse as capitalism, which they promote, is in a greater state of decay with each passing day. THUS, ANYONE ATTENDING ANY OBAMA EVENT IS A PROUD SUPPORTER OF FASCISM and all demonstrators should point this out by stating that the face of American fascism is the face of all Obama supporters and all Republican Party supporters. You have a choice on most ballots, namely socialist candidates which is Peace & Freedom Party in California, and the Green Party, officially on the ballot in 45 states and DC, and usually gets on the ballot in the other 5 states.
Peace & Freedom Party:
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/
Green Party:
http://www.cagreens.org/
Treating these Democrats who support Obama as psychiatric cases is over; they are knowing fascists, as the list below will demonstrate. Here is the fascist record of Obama, proudly supported by the Democratic and Republican Party:
1. Perpetrating 4 blood for oil wars: Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan
2. Torture and imprisonment of Bradley Manning, who should be freed immediately
3. Supporting the continued existence of the torture concentration camp called Guantanamo and fascist military tribunals instead of simply closing the prison, giving the land back to Cuba, and freeing the prisoners.
4. Supporting targeted assassinations of American citizens around the world, supporting secret prisons, renditions and torture around the world.
5. Supporting the US military base called Israel to protect US oil profits, and its accompanying torture and murder of Palestinians and theft of Palestinian land
6. Supporting the fascist US military and its 700 plus bases around the world, and supporting ROTC and JROTC in the schools, which military should be abolished immediately
7. Support of nuclear power and nuclear weapons, both of which must be abolished immediately if humanity and the earth are to survive
8. Supporting British Petroleum and all other oil companies in their destruction of the Gulf of Mexico and the southern United States as the area is now not fit for human habitation.
9. Support of the death penalty
10. Support of the privatization of public schools with a charter school, often a military charter school replacing public schools
11. Giving billions of our tax dollars to the banks which is used to enrich the bank owners, instead of loaning or granting money to people who need it or better yet, using the money to finance public works programs such as financing free public transportation, excellent free public school education for all from pre-school (age 3) through and including university, repairing all of our crumbling roads and bridges, guaranteeing enough public swimming pools so that every 7 year old in this country learns to swim and has a place to enjoy swimming every single day, building more public libraries open to all 7 days a week, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and the like, the best way to eliminate unemployment
12. Supporting cutting workers' wages in half as a condition to save the private auto manufacturing companies
13. Supporting an insurance company profiteering scheme claiming to be a healthcare plan instead of socialized medicine as exists in the rest of the industrialized world guaranteeing free top quality medical care from cradle to grave, all paid for with our tax dollars instead of paying for war. Socialized medicine necessarily includes free drugs, free medical devices, free treatments of all kinds including acupuncture, and FREE ABORTION ON DEMAND, with abortion clinics in every county in this country instead of about 12% of US counties.
14. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM BY CUTTING FUNDING FROM THE PAYROLL TAX IN A DEAL WITH THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
15. Supporting the continued prosecution of attorney Lynne Stewart and all other political prisoners in the federal prison concentration camp system.
THIS IS JUST THE SHORT LIST. THERE ARE NO MORE EXCUSES FOR SUPPORTING OBAMA AND REFUSING TO VOTE EITHER PEACE & FREEDOM OR GREEN.
by Anti-Fascist
16. Obama Oppose 9/11 Truth Movement which exposes that 9/11 was an Inside Job, the American Reichstag Fire, perpetrated by the US military as that is what no air defense means, and if you need more, there is the controlled demolition of the Twin Towers and Building 7 which was not hit by a plane, with the use of thermate, a military substance. There were no hijackers on those planes; they were on remote control guided by the US Air Force; 9 so-called hijackers were alive on 9/12/01; the government admits all the names are phony; their names were not on the passenger lists; they were incompetent pilots at the flight schools they supposedly attended and could not have done any of the maneuvers alleged; they were notorious womanizers and drunks by the government's description, not devoutly religious and much more. The Motive, Means & Opportunity existed only with the US government and its patron, the US capitalist class, which had lost the Soviet bogeyman in 1991 as justification for its war profiteering and needed a new lie.
by Had Enough
Here is the horrifying, vicious, hoodlum statement from the Anti-Labor Democrat Obama on the understaffed air traffic control rooms in this backward country, causing air traffic controllers to fall asleep on the job as they have less than 16 hours between shifts, often no more than 8 hours:
"The fact is when you're responsible for the lives and safety of people up in the air, you better do your job." Stated on Good Morning America.
THIS IS THE BULLY SCAPEGOATING OF A VICIOUS ANTI-LABOR THUG. It should be mandatory that all workers in all occupations have at least 16 hours between shifts. It should also be mandatory that there always e 2 controllers on duty at all times and that when they each take any break, they be allowed to sleep during their breaks. The rest of the world allows controllers to sleep during their breaks, but not the backward USA. And when you have a thug who calls himself president uttering anti-labor hate remarks, it only endangers all our lives. Please never vote for any Democrat or Republican and always vote either Peace & Freedom or Green.
Join the Green Party and break the 2 party hold on our money and our freedom.
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/04/19/obama-schedule-wednesday-april-20-2011/

FYI:

1:30 pm || Arrives in San Francisco
1:45 pm || Participates in Town Hall on bringing down the deficit

Marc Benioff's house:
6:15 pm || Delivers remarks at DNC fundraiser – private residence; San Francisco

8:30 pm || Delivers remarks at second DNC fundraiser- Nob Hill Masonic Center; San Francisco
by Never Forgive, Never Forget
Since you cannot reach everyone with this sudden change in time, clearly done to avoid protesters, just stay outside the Masonic, exercising your First Amendment right to protest. It is outrageous that any Democrat or Republican can come to this town with such an abysmal record, and this Democrat does so on Gulf Oil Disaster Day, 1 year since the April 20, 2010 oil disaster, perpetrated by a primary campaign contributor to the Democrats, British Petroleum. Here are some quotes from one article that should remind everyone of the horror that is the Democrat-Republican Party, one fascist, warmongering, anti-environmental gang:
From: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/bps1-a20.shtml
One year ago today, on April 20, 2010, an explosion on the BP-run Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers, injured 17 more, and led to the greatest single ecological catastrophe in US history. By the time the blown out Macondo well was capped on July 15, 2010, some 206 million gallons of oil had gushed out from the wellhead located one mile beneath the ocean’s surface and about 50 miles from Louisiana’s southeast coast. Millions more gallons of highly toxic chemical dispersant were dumped on the Gulf’s surface or released underwater.

The consequences of the disaster will be felt for decades. The spill directly impacted thousands of square miles of the Gulf of Mexico and coastline stretching from Texas to Florida, including estuaries, marshlands, and beaches. Hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents face financial hardship, including many thousands who lost their jobs as a result of damages to the fishing and tourism industries. Cleanup workers will suffer serious health problems as a result of acute exposure to toxins released by the oil and chemical dispersants. Numerous species of marine and coastal life may never recover.

The BP and White House cover-up began in the very hours after the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Even as the fire still raged, BP and Transocean transported the 115 survivors not to their families, but to a holding center where they were interrogated by BP lawyers and forced to take drug tests. With the media already broadcasting images of the blazing rig, their families had no idea whether they were dead or alive.

From that day on, the Macondo well released millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf. Yet on April 23, BP and US Coast Guard officer Mary Landry insisted there was no spill, claiming that oil visible on the surface was fuel from the collapsed rig. It was not until April 24 that BP admitted there was a spill, after the slick had become so large its origins could not be denied. At this point BP and the Obama administration claimed that a maximum of 42,000 gallons, or 1,000 barrels, per day were spilling into the Gulf.

At the same time, the administration displayed complete indifference to the most immediate victims of the spill—the workers on the rig. On April 22, two days after the explosion—with the fate of 11 missing men still unknown—a reporter asked White House press secretary Robert Gibbs if Obama had yet “reached out to anyone in Louisiana over the oil rig explosion.” Gibbs responded, “Let me check on that. I don’t believe so.”

For more than a week after the blast, the Obama administration limited its public comments largely to reiterating its support for the lifting of moratoriums on offshore oil drilling on the Atlantic coast, the northern waters of Alaska, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. When asked at an April 23 news conference whether this disaster would cause Obama to reconsider these policies, Gibbs said flatly, “No.”

“We’ve taken swift action to ensure the safety of those that are there and to ensure the safety to the environment by capping the exploratory well,” Gibbs declared. “We need the increased production. The president still continues to believe the great majority of that can be done safely, securely and without any harm to the environment. I don’t honestly think [the disaster] opens up a whole new series of questions, because, you know, in all honesty I doubt this is the first accident that has happened and I doubt it will be the last,” Gibbs concluded. Obama did not make his way to the Gulf until Sunday, May 2, nearly two weeks after the explosion.

From the outset, administration officials acted as little more than BP spokesmen. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, pegged by Obama to head up its response to the crisis, repeatedly extolled BP. “I trust Tony Hayward,” Allen said of the BP CEO. “When I talk to him, I get an answer.”

To deflect such criticism, the Obama administration knowingly promoted a lie. On April 28, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimated the rate of spillage from the blowout was at most 5,000 barrels or 210,000 gallons, five times BP’s estimate but only a sixth of that cited by MacDonald. Documents later gathered by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling revealed that the 5,000 barrels claim had no scientific foundation. It was based an internal NOAA e-mail written in the first days of the disaster by a scientist criticizing BP’s claim that the spill rate was 1,000 barrels per day. The commission also found that the White House acted to block NOAA from revising the spill rate upwards.

On May 12, BP finally released a short, pre-recorded clip of the underwater blowout. A journalist from National Public Radio (NPR) took the footage to three experts for separate types of scientific analysis. The results were shocking. Timothy Crone, a scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, put the spill rate at 50,000 barrels (2.1 million gallons) per day. University of California astrophysics professor Eugene Chaing put it in a range of 20,000 to 100,000 barrels daily. Steven Wereley of Purdue University used particle image velocimetry to establish a spill rate of 70,000 barrels per day—which he later increased to 95,000 barrels—with a margin of error of 20 percent.

The Obama administration and BP simply ignored these analyses, falsely claiming that there was no way to know what the spill rate was, and that in any case knowledge of the dimensions of the spill would not impact the response.

These were lies.
*******
The 4/20/11 SF Chronicle has a story on a Wade Randlett bringing young people from the slums to see the millionaire president (he is worth at least $7 million and as described above, is viciously anti-labor). See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/20/MNNM1J33CS.DTL
Here is the Bay Guardian's story on Wade Randlett:
"Divide and conquer: Why are the mayor and school superintendent supporting the right-wing operatives at SFSOS?" by Steven Jones at
http://www.sfbg.com/39/34/news_sfsos.html
A telling display of how downtown forces speak and flex their political muscle took place May 17 when the political advocacy group SFSOS held its third-anniversary luncheon at the headquarters of the Gap, followed by a fiery press conference slamming people who question whether school superintendent Arlene Ackerman's generous pay package was legally approved (see "Cutting the Golden Parachute," May 4).

The ringmaster of this circus was SFSOS head Wade Randlett, who partnered up with Gap founder Don Fisher, financier Warren Hellman, and U.S. senator Dianne Feinstein to start SFSOS.

The stated goal of the group is to "support clean streets, clean parks and clean government," but in practice, the group has pushed an aggressive right-wing agenda to downsize city government, privatize public services, oppose taxes and regulation, purge the political ranks of progressives, stop school desegregation efforts, and skirt the city's open government and campaign finance laws.

During last year's supervisorial races, SFSOS – directly and through front groups – savaged Sup. Jake McGoldrick (Randlett told the S.F. Sentinel he wanted to "rip his throat open") and others with nasty, deceptive direct-mail campaigns. So underhanded was the approach that both Hellman and Feinstein resigned from the organization in protest and the Board of Supervisors targeted the group with a new set of regulations designed to better control independent expenditures.

******
PLEASE CHANGE YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION TODAY AND NEVER VOTE FOR ANY DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN AT ANY LEVEL OF OFFICE. See
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/
and
http://www.cagreens.org/
Instead of ignoring Obama's presence in SF in the afternoon, let's simply move the protest to where he'll be, at Marc Benioff's home, 5:00pm!!! 3230 Jackson Street. Be there.

The White House just updated the schedule, which now looks like this:

------------------------------

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/04/19/obama-schedule-wednesday-april-20-2011/

1:30 pm || Arrives in San Francisco
1:45 pm || Participates in Town Hall on bringing down the deficit

Marc Benioff's house:
6:15 pm || Delivers remarks at DNC fundraiser – private residence; San Francisco

8:30 pm || Delivers remarks at second DNC fundraiser- Nob Hill Masonic Center; San Francisco

------------------------------

According to publicly available info, Marc Benioff lives at 3230 Jackson Street.

Obama will arrive at 3230 Jackson sometime around 5:00pm. That is the place to be! Peaceful but effective protest!

Meet on Jackson Street, east of Presidio Ave., since the police will have the 3200 block cordoned off.

Afterward, we can go to the Masonic, at 7:30pm.

FIRST PROTEST OBAMA AT BENIOFF'S HOME, 5:00pm, THEN JOIN ANSWER AT MASONIC AT 7:30pm

BE THERE at 3230 JACKSON!
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