Guests attending the Code Pink fundraiser for Jerry Brown step over a protester. Photo by Chuck Back.
Posted on 08/26/2010 6:14:10 PM PDT by kristinn
Democrat California gubernatorial nominee Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown mocked as “silly” the concerns raised by a retired Marine Corps colonel about Brown attending a fundraiser at the home of terrorist supporter and Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans. Speaking to reporters Wednesday evening at a campaign rally at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building, Brown labeled the call by Col. Bucky Peterson to return the money from the fundraiser “dishonest” and “the sillies[t] thing I’ve ever heard.” Peterson’s statement was released by Brown’s opponent, Republican nominee Meg Whitman.
Guests attending the Code Pink fundraiser for Jerry Brown step over a protester. Photo by Chuck Back.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Brown’s comments.
Asked about the fundraiser by Evans, who is also a co-founder of Code Pink, Brown said that he has no connection to that group. “That’s the sillies (sic) thing I’ve ever heard.. Jodie worked in my (presidential) campaign,” he said. The weekend event in Los Angeles had “nothing to do with Code Pink. That was Jody and campaign workers over many decades and they came to her house.”
For Whitman to distort that… it’s dishonest,” he said, charging that it was “within that same pattern of dishonesty” he has seen in the GOP candidate’s campaign.
Whitman’s campaign Wednesday released a statement from one of the GOP candidate’s supporters, retired Colonel Bucky Peterson, a 31 year veteran of the U.S. Marines, who called on Brown to return the money from the fundraiser.
Contrary to Brown’s claim, the fundraiser was a Code Pink event. The entrance to the fundraiser was adorned with large Code Pink banners.
***
(Note: The above is an update to the article below.)
Actress Sally Kellerman reacts to protesters as she enters the Code Pink fundraiser for Jerry Brown. Photo by Chuck Back.
The campaign of California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman released a statement by retired Marine Colonel Bucky Peterson on Wednesday urging Whitman’s Democrat rival, California Attorney General Jerry Brown, to return campaign donations raised at a fundraiser last Saturday at the home of terrorist supporter and Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans.
The Whitman campaign issued Col. Peterson’s call to Brown on the occasion of Brown’s scheduled speech Wednesday evening at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building.
Jodie Evans is a longtime political ally of Brown’s who worked for his various campaigns and elective offices from the 1970s to the 1990s, culminating when Jodie Evans managed Brown’s failed 1992 campaign for the Democrat’s presidential nomination.
In the 2000s, Jodie Evans teamed with communist revolutionary Susan ‘Medea’ Benjamin in founding Code Pink, a group that supports Islamic terrorists and works with state sponsors of terrorism against the United States. Jodie Evans and Benjamin are also leading Democratic Party activists; Jodie Evans was a top fundraiser for President Barack Obama.
Jodie Evans also has donated thousands of dollars to the reelection campaign of her fellow California Democrat, Sen. Barbara Boxer.
In his statement, Col. Peterson cites the experience related at Big Peace by Gold Star mother Debbie Lee of a run-in with Jodie Evans and Code Pink. Lee, whose Navy SEAL son Marc Alan Lee gave his life saving fellow SEALs in Operation Iraqi Freedom, wrote she was told by Code Pink activists her son “deserved to die in Iraq if he was stupid enough to go over there.” Petty Officer Second Class Lee was awarded the Silver Star for his courageous sacrifice. Col. Peterson wrote:
“I am deeply troubled and disappointed that Jerry Brown went to the home of Jodie Evans, one of the leaders of Code Pink, last weekend to raise thousands of dollars for his gubernatorial campaign. Sadly, Jodie Evans and her Code Pink associates have taunted the mothers of heroes who gave their lives in combat, telling Debbie Lee that her son ‘deserved to die in Iraq if he was stupid enough to go over there.’ While military women and men are proud that we defend the rights of all citizens to voice their dissent, this type of behavior crosses the line in a civil society. The fact that Code Pink and Jerry Brown are aligned causes me to question his judgment to deal with issues involving the large military presence in California as well as our substantial veteran population. If Jerry Brown is on the side of veterans, he should return the thousands of dollars he raised at the event and let the people of California know whether he supports the actions of Code Pink.”
Attendees at the Brown fundraiser were forced to step over pro-troop protesters who laid on the sidewalk at the front gate of Jodie Evans’ Venice mansion. The protest was organized by Melanie Morgan, founder of Move America Forward, the nation’s largest pro-troop organization.
Bedsheet-sized Code Pink banners were hung on a white picket fence at the fundraiser’s entrance gate, making it clear this was a Code Pink event.
According to Morgan and other protesters, Jodie Evans did not handle being given a dose of her own aggressive protesting. Jodie Evans confronted Morgan, angrily taunting Morgan, “you are on crack.”
In an apparent effort to avoid the dozen or so protesters, Brown exited from the back of the house and reportedly left in a different vehicle from the Dodge Durango that delivered him and was kept running for the two hours he was there.
The Whitman campaign was silent about Jodie Evans’ fundraiser for Brown until today’s statement, issued four days after the event.
According to the statement, Col. Peterson is a 31-year Marine Corps veteran who re-upped after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. In 2008, Jodie Evans said that Osama bin Laden had “valid arguments” for the attacks.
At least he'd be made to deal with the results of his 'collective bargaining' policy with the unions made way back during his last term.
statement 4 days after the fact? really? Palin, 30 minutes!!!
California schmalifornia. I don’t care about who those idiot Democrats elect as their goveror. All I care about is the congressional delegatation they foist upon the rest of us.
My Word!!! That looks like Gollum in pink tights.
LOL! That might actually be seen as a complement!
Governor Moonbeam needs his grill busted. Good and hard.
All I remember as a yoout, my Dad saying “If it’s Brown, flush it”.
Like Father, like son.
Of course Brown would ridicule the veteran’s concerns. What else would one expect of a leech with nothing on his resume but lifelong attachment to the political host.
MOON BEAMER needs a sweeping job at the dog park.
At the GOP Convention in August 2008, Jodie Evans was the one who tried to rush the stage and assault Sarah Palin. No comment so far by the quick-to-indignation press.
JODIE EVANS
Leftist activist and Democratic Party fundraiser
Co-founded Code Pink for Peace
Board member of the Rainforest Action Network
Jodie Evans is a radical activist and Democratic fundraiser best known as the co-founder — along with Global Exchange’s Medea Benjamin — of Code Pink for Peace. Evans also works closely with Leslie Cagan, the pro-Castro leader of United For Peace and Justice. Over the years, Evans has supported such activist groups as Citizen Action, the Earth Island Institute, and the California subsidiary of NARAL Pro-Choice America. She is currently a Board of Directors member for the Rainforest Action Network.
Evans rose to public prominence via her leadership role with Code Pink for Peace, a self-described “grassroots peace and social justice movement” formed in 2002 to organize public protests against America’s impending war in Iraq. For four months, from late 2002 through early 2003 (shortly prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq), Evans led Code Pink members in staging all-day antiwar vigils outside the White House. She initiated a campaign where activists literally gave pink slips (women’s lingerie) to President Bush and other pro-war officials — a metaphor for pink slips of the paper variety, which are traditionally given to employees whose jobs are being terminated. These unique tactics brought Evans and her group considerable national news coverage and many talk-show invitations.
After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Evans led a delegation of fifteen Code Pink women to Baghdad, where they met with Iraqi women for the purpose of “creat[ing] the understanding that the people of Iraq are no different than you and me.” While in Baghdad, Evans repeatedly and publicly painted America as an unprovoked aggressor, and Iraqis as noble defenders of their invaded homeland. “Iraqis continue to resist the occupation in their own way,” said Evans and Code Pink.
In addition to her Code Pink duties, Evans also sits on the Advisory Board of Iraq Occupation Watch (IOW). Her fellow IOW officials include Leslie Cagan; Medea Benjamin; Rania Masri of the Iraq Action Coalition, Peace Action, United for Peace and Justice, and the American Civil Liberties Union; Maria Luisa Mendonca of the World Social Forum; Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies and the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation; Milan Rai of Voices in the Wilderness; Pratap Chatterjee of Berkeley's Pacifica radio station KPFA; and Stanford University professor Joel Beinin.
In January 2006, Evans traveled to Venezuela with Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin for a friendly meeting with President Hugo Chavez.
In August 2006, Evans was one of a dozen activists (among whom were also Medea Benjamin, Cindy Sheehan, and Tom Hayden) who participated in a Code Pink-sponsored trip to meet Iraqi “political leaders” in Baghdad. Team member Geoffrey Millard referred to this trip as a “diplomatic communication.” As such, it may have violated the legal prohibition against private U.S. citizens conducting their own foreign policy. Among the Iraqi parliamentarians with whom Evans and her cadre met were:
Sheikh Ahmad al-Kubaysi, who once declared that foreign-born jihadists killing U.S. soldiers were “very brave” heroes who were “guaranteed Paradise”; Al-Kubaysi also is said to have given militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr $50 million.
Saleh al-Mutlaq, the trip’s prime sponsor, who chided Americans for trying “to brand as terrorists the honorable national resistance movements.”
Shortly after that 2006 trip, Evans spoke highly of the conditions that had existed in Iraq under Saddam Hussein: “Let’s go back to the Iraq before we invaded, there was a good education and health care system, food for everyone. That system didn’t belong to Saddam it belonged to the Iraqi, it belonged to years of creating what a civilization needed. If your parents didn’t send you to school they could be put in jail.”
In January 2007, Evans traveled to Cuba as a guest of that nation's Communist regime.
In early September 2008, Evans perpetrated identity theft that enabled her to gain admittance to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota; she was detained by the Secret Service when she attempted to rush the stage during the acceptance speech of vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
In a June 2008 radio interview, Evans expressed sympathy for the grievances that had prompted Osama bin Laden to order the 9/11 attacks: “We were attacked because we were in Saudi Arabia, that was the message of Osama, was that because we had our bases in the Middle East, he attacked the United States.” When the interviewer subsequently asked Evans whether she considered that “a valid argument,” she replied: “Sure. Why do we have bases in the Middle East? We totally violated the rights of that country. Why do we get to have bases in the Middle East?”
In 2009 Evans and Code Pink led several trips to Gaza, Egypt and Israel to deliver cargoes of “humanitarian aid” to Gaza's Hamas-led government, and to publicly denounce Israel. During one trip to Gaza in early June of that year, Hamas gave Code Pink a letter to be hand-delivered to President Barack Obama.
In December 2009, Evans and Code Pink led more than 1,000 leftists, among whom were Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, to Cairo in order to deliver “humanitarian aid” to the Hamas-led government of Gaza. To lend credibility to her mission, Evans carried with her a letter of support from Senator John Kerry. Prior to the trip, Hamas had guaranteed the safety of the Code Pink retinue in Gaza.
In January 2010, Evans and Code Pink asked the Muslim Brotherhood to “join us in cleansing our country!” — and implied that an appropriate means of doing that would be to kidnap former President Bush and his wife, as well as Karl Rove and other members of the former Bush administration.
BigGovernment.com has chronicled Evans’ extensive ties to Barack Obama:
In February 2007, Evans co-hosted (along with her now-deceased husband Max Palevsky and Dreamworks executives Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg) a key Obama fundraiser just weeks after Obama had announced his presidential candidacy. Evans herself donated the maximum $2,300 to Obama’s campaign.
In April 2007, the Obama presidential campaign announced that Evans was one of its early fundraising bundlers.
In June 2008, Evans met with Obama at a high-priced fundraiser.
In late August 2008, Evans attended the Democratic National Convention and, because of her status as a bundler, was invited to two private receptions with Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden.
In September 2008, Evans attended two exclusive Hollywood fundraisers with Obama. Two weeks later, she met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York City.
In October 2008, Evans worked with Code Pink’s Los Angeles chapter on a get-out-the-vote campaign in Obama’s behalf.
After Obama’s election as President in November 2008, Evans and some fellow Code Pink representatives traveled to Iran at the personal invitation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
On June 19, 2009, Evans visited the White House and met with Buffy Wicks, the deputy of Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. That same month, Evans visited the White House residence.
In the fall of 2009, Evans, at a San Francisco fundraiser for Obama, personally gave the President a propaganda package compiled from her recent trip to Afghanistan, where she had met with the Taliban. The next day, Evans was given a briefing by Obama’s deputy chief of staff.
In November 2009, when Obama announced his plan to send additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, his staff coordinated with Evans on the matter of how the anti-war left’s dissent against that policy should be expressed.
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