If you watched President Obama's major speech on his national security policies yesterday, or even just read about it today, you no doubt must have seen or heard about the protester at the National Defense University in Washington who began shouting in the middle of the address regarding drone warfare.
That activist was Medea Benjamin, best known as being a member of Code Pink. That's a group of female peaceniks who wear pink and are best known for crashing congressional hearings and speeches like the one Obama held yesterday, espousing their message (they were quite active in the not very active protest scene here in Tampa last year at the RNC).
Code Pink is actually only a handful of people, and Benjamin has been their main face and voice. Still youthful looking at 60, I began covering her back in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 90's with her human rights group Global Exchange. After George Bush began his war on terror, Benjamin began making regular appearances in Washington, where she has become an almost Zelig-type activist, always at the site where all the cameras are.
Some conservatives (namely Joe Scarborough) have denounced her and her group today, asking how come they were so in prominent during the Bush era, but have been dormant during the Obama years. But nothing could be further from the truth. Last year she published a book called Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control, which was extremely critical of Obama's reliance on drones as a method in the war on terrorism, and she and her minions were part of a group of left-wing activists who some say forced Obama to delay naming John Brennan to head CIA years ago (that job went to Leon Panetta, then David Petraeus, then Brennan).
Rand Paul's infamous filibuster speech against drone warfare (and targeting American citizens) was another occasion where the left and Libertarian right came together to show opposition to this policy. Meanwhile, Benjamin says she'll protest the president again, so enough of the idea that left-wing activist groups like Code Pink have been "soft" on him on this issue.
Well, the Boy Scouts went up and did it last night - they're allowing openly gays in their ranks. That was too much for Orlando-area conservative activist John Stemberger, who says he'll leave the organization and try to form a similar style group.
The Tampa City Council had a very intense discussion yesterday regarding the hiring of a budget analyst. Bottom line is that it ain't gonna happen.
And in Tampa, St. Petersburg and 400 other cities around the world around 2PM tomorrow, people will be coming together to protest the Monsanto Corporation.
