2011 has certainly been a splashy pink year in exposing the truth about policy makers, decision makers and elected officials who have publicly failed, sometimes miserably, in the struggle for equality, civil liberties, accountability, peace and social justice. Below are some highlights from a memorable year. Almost everything was caught on camera!

Activists across the country, including CODEPINK spent the year confronting Bush, John Yoo, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, John Bolton, Henry Kissinger and others for war crimes. Meanwhile up north in Canada, a Senate Page, Brigette DePape, silently stood up on the floor of the Senate chamber with a “Stop Harper” sign. Stephen Harper is the current Prime Minister of Canada and the leader of the Conservative Party. Harper has been leading Canada with a conservative agenda since 2006. Activists oppose Harper’s administration because of its “alienation of university students, expanding prisons, cutting art funds and then redirecting it to military spending.”

As President Obama spoke at the Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California, CODEPINK activists created a Facebook campaign telling the president to ‘Update Your War Status’ referring to the U.S. military intervention in Libya and the continued military spending in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Barack Obama, during his campaign, promised to close Guantanamo and end torture. American voters have recognized the costs of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Libya–lives lost, international cooperation thwarted, and tax dollars squandered. The Obama administration has authorized unmanned drone attacks in Pakistan, in direct contravention of international law, and an attack in Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of many civilians. Watch the CODEPINK intervention team engage President Obama outside the White House.

Former Minnesota Governor and GOP Presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty visited San Francisco where he was “glittered” by CODEPINK activists. If elected, the former presidential candidate said he would reinstate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (the ban on openly-gay service). As Governor of Minnesota he vetoed a bill that would have allowed surviving partners of same-sex couples the right to decide what to do with their loved one’s deceased body, because he believes in “traditional marriage”.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s book “In My Time” hit the shelves at local bookstores earlier this year. At the kick off of Cheney’s media book tour, CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin inspired activists to take action in moving Cheney’s book to the Crime section in bookstores in her 10 reasons to move Cheney’s book.

 CODEPINK Co-Founder Jodie Evans Disrupts War Criminal Dick Cheney

Using social media to its full advantage to protest Cheney’s new book, activists had created a Twitter handle (@fakecheney) and hashtag #InMyTime, joined a Facebook group, taken pictures of moving books for a Flicker slideshow, filmed a YouTube video and downloaded, printed and inserted “Doin Time” bookmarks. Even actor Alec Baldwin got in on the action and tweeted how he felt about Cheney’s new book. If anything, Cheney’s resurrection has inspired creative action and opened old wounds.

Dick Cheney managed to stay in the news for most of the year defending torture and insisting the intelligence to invade Iraq was correct. His visit to left-leaning San Francisco didn’t go unnoticed. Activists with CODEPINK, World Can’t Wait, National Accountability Network, PDA and OccupySF held a protest inside and outside the Palace Hotel where Cheney was addressing a luncheon full of investors. Read more about Cynthia Papermaster confronting Dick Cheney inside the investor’s conference.

There’s been a wave of political disruptions taking the 1% by storm! Well-known figures such as Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson had to take refuge and others like Karl Rove simply “lost his mind”. The 99% has moved its persistency against social and economic inequality and greed from outside the urban camps to inside convention rooms and university auditoriums, flexing their new voices for real change and using the people’s microphone: “Mic Check!”.

After years of CODEPINK disruptions, it’s refreshing to see the Occupy Wall Street Movement take the reins of a tactic that requires nerves of steel to address those who should not be feted in a country with high unemployment, high foreclosures, expensive health insurance, bloated military budget, expensive tuition and skyrocketing homeless communities. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2012!

Condoleezza Rice’s new memoir, ‘No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington‘, hit the shelves of bookstores across the country on Nov. 1st. The former Secretary who brought us images of mushroom clouds claims to be setting the record straight. We think it’s time to set the record straight, too. Condi’s book belongs in the Crime section and CODEPINK activists (hopefully including YOU!) will be moving it to where we think it belongs in our local bookstores…Fiction, Fantasy, Crime, you decide! Join the Facebook group to move Condi’s book. Be sure to leave a ‘No Higher Honor’ bookmark inside a few copies of the book, too! Just download, print, cut and go!

CODEPINK Dallas continues to confront war criminals in the belly of the beast. Local CODEPINK coordinator Leslie Harris told torture memo author John Yoo ‘turn yourself in’.

The Occupy movement has been holding former Bush officials accountable. Outside the Goldman Sachs headquarters in New York City, the 99% demonstrators attempted a citizen’s arrest of former President George W. Bush.

In Wichita, Kansas the Occupy movement held a loud, energetic, Mic check! demonstration against George W. Bush.

George W. Bush isn’t the only war criminal who has gotten away from the movement. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was greeted by CODEPINK, ETAN, World Can’t Wait and Occupy Wall Street outside the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s visit to left-leaning San Francisco didn’t go unnoticed. Activists with CODEPINK, World Can’t Wait, National Accountability Network, PDA and OccupySF held a protest inside and outside the Palace Hotel where Cheney was addressing a luncheon full of investors.

Read more about Cynthia Papermaster confronting Dick Cheney inside the investor’s conference. Watch the video of Nancy Mancias speaking out against him.

In her latest piece ‘Guantanamo: the most expensive prison on earth’, Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg describes the cost U.S. taxpayers pay to keep the prison open, the cost to house a detainee and the combat pay the guards receive like troops in Afghanistan.

Barack Obama blazed a path to the White House on a platform that promised a complete break with the George W Bush presidency. On Guantanamo Bay, rendition, corporate accountability, finance reform, habeas corpus, illegal wiretapping, domestic spying, whistleblowers, Afghanistan – and a host of other issues – the current president promised change. In reality, however, he only offered continuity and in some cases, such as the prosecution of whistle blowers and the assassination of US citizens overseas, he outstripped his predecessor’s zeal.

Sign up to join the day of action against Guantanamo taking place at Lafayette Square on January 11, 2012.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney manages to stay in the news defending torture and insisting the intelligence to invade Iraq was correct. He has praised President Obama’s use of targeted assassination and felt the White House should apologize to former Bush administration officials for criticizing enhanced interrogation. President Obama has increased drone attacks, killing supposed enemies without trial or due process. In these attacks innocent civilians including women and children have perished. The drone industry continues to receive a surplus of funds from the government to continue to operate while much needed programs in the country are being cut. CODEPINK cofounders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans speak out against manufacturer General Atomics, maker of the killer Predator and Reaper drones.

Donald Rumsfeld continues on the speaking circuit across the globe. He received a real patriotic welcoming from members of Veterans for Peace and CODEPINK while in Boston. Rumsfeld helped craft the invasion of Iraq and lied the country into war.

Rumsfeld found himself going toe-to-toe with Al-Jazeera news. If you recall, while working as cameraman with Al-Jazeera news, Sami al-Hajj was detained in Pakistan and wrongfully held for six years at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo.

Former President George W. Bush is expected to receive an un-welcoming from the city of Surrey in Canada later in the month. Amnesty International and other human right groups are urging the government of Canada to arrest the former president when he enters the country. Even though there has been a public outcry against Bush traveling to Canada, former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg has been denied entry into the maple leaf country. Begg who has traveled throughout Europe, Northern Africa, Middle East and Central Asia speaking out against his wrongful detainment, flew into Montreal and was taken into custody and denied entry.

Karl Rove was the latest politician to get “glitter-bombed” by gay rights advocates in Minneapolis. Rove and former President Bush are opposed to same-sex marriage. Rove does not regret his or Bush’s stance on this issue.

The controversial media-mogul Rupert Murdoch whose company News of the World faced allegations of hacking the phone numbers of private citizens was speaking at an education conference in San Francisco. In true San Francisco spirit, Morduch was greeted by demonstrators from Occupy Sesame Street and US Uncut, an organization holding corporations accountable through creative actions.

Lawyers and activists across the country including CODEPINK continue to hold former and current elected officials accountable for leading the country, and world, down a path of war and violence.

While former Vice President Dick Cheney continues to speak and sell his new book, he and his book continue to receive un-welcoming receptions. In Chicago, the Illinois Coalition Against Torture and World Can’t Wait held a peaceful presence outside of his event, yet for those attending Cheney’s event in Vancouver, BC, they were meet with protesters locking arms, pushing and shoving matches with police, and arrests. A Canadian immigration representative stated Cheney should not be allowed into the country because he admits to authorizing torture including against a Canadian citizen.  CODEPINK activists continue to re-shelve Cheney’s new book inside local bookstores.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is on the book speaking circuit too. In Boston, members of CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace and others tried to make a citizen’s arrest to hold him accountable for torture and lying the country into the war with Iraq.

Activists in Minnesota greeted former President George W. Bush as he spoke in the suburban town of St. Louis Park.

Lawyers with the Center for Constitutional Rights drafted an indictment for torture against Bush for the Attorney General in Canada. Bush is scheduled to speak in Surrey, Canada later this month.

President Obama’s motorcade came through the San Francisco Bay Area. Women from World Can’t Wait and CODEPINK agitated and held banners outside the gates of Moffett Air Field. His motorcade took him right past signs, chants, and an activist dressed in a “Guantanamo prisoner” jumpsuit.

Photo courtesy of Singtao

In her White House press pool report, Carol Lee with the Wall Street Journal describes the demonstration.  “Some people were outside along the route from the airport to the highway, waving and snapping photos. There were also some anti-war protesters who held signs like, “Stop the wars,” “The war in Afghanistan is still wrong,” “Endless War” and “Afghanistan 10 years of war crimes.”

San Francisco activists including CODEPINK staged a protest outside the Marine Memorial where ‘Torture Memo’ author John Yoo was speaking at a Young Republican event.

Also speaking at the event was Ann Coulter and Andrew Breitbart. John Yoo was Bush’s Top Legal Lackey in helping to create the construct for torture. As Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel, John Yoo was dubbed “Dr. Yes” signing off on the legal opinions purporting the use of torture was legal as a part of the president’s vast wartime powers.

Military spouse Ashley Joppa-Hageman attended a Donald Rumsfeld book signing event at Ft. Lewis, Washington where she handed Rumsfeld a copy of her husband’s funeral program, explaining that her husband joined the military because of his lies. Donald Rumsfeld lied about WMDs and spent $3 trillion on the war in Iraq that killed over 4,000 US soldiers and 1.4 million Iraqis. He suspended the Geneva Conventions, approved countless acts of torture in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and held prisoners indefinitely without access to legal counsel.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s book “In My Time” hit the shelves at local bookstores across the country to wide spread criticism from former Bush administration officials such as Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell to anti-war and human rights organizations. At the kick off of Cheney’s media book tour, Amnesty International was persistent in holding a no torture presence outside the barricades of the Today Show in New York City. CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin inspired activists to take action in moving Cheney’s book to the Crime section in bookstores in her 10 reasons to move Cheney’s book.

Using social media to its full advantage to protest Cheney’s new book, activists had created a Twitter handle (@fakecheney) and hashtag #InMyTime, joined a Facebook group, taken pictures of moving books for a Flicker slideshow, filmed a YouTube video and downloaded, printed and inserted “Doin Time” bookmarks. Even actor Alec Baldwin got in on the action and tweeted how he felt about Cheney’s new book. If anything, Cheney’s resurrection has inspired creative action and opened old wounds.

In her piece  “Cheney, Rumsfeld and the Dark Art of Propaganda” DemocracyNow! Amy Goodman threads Cheney’s book release and military spouse Ashley Joppa-Hageman action against Rumsfeld together.

There are still others to be held accountable, CODEPINK activists in Dallas staged a protest presence outside of the Commercial Vehicle Outlook Conference where Karl Rove was keynote.

Rove was intimately involved in the treasonous act of exposing the identity of covert American intelligence officer Valerie Plame for political retribution. “Only an energized and politically active public can make those prosecutions happen,” said one of the CODEPINK members. “War criminals must be publicly exposed and prevented from occupying powerful or influential positions within our society.”

Hundreds of protesters in Minneapolis protested outside the Convention Center where President Barack Obama was speaking to the American Legion. Former FBI Whistleblower Coleen Rowley writes Minneapolis Message to Obama Was Clear: Bring the War $$ Home.

Some people may think that being diagnosed with uterine cancer, followed by an extensive surgery that led to a month of debilitating infections, rounded off by months of chemotherapy, might get a girl down. But, in truth, this has not been my poison. This has not been what pulses through me late at night and keeps me pacing and awake. This has not been what throws me into moments of unbearable darkness and depression.

Cancer is scary, of course, and painful. It tends to interrupt one’s entire life, throw everything into question and push one up against that ultimate dimension and possibility of dying. One can rail at the gods and goddesses: “Why? Why now? Why me?” But, in the end, we know those questions ring absurd and empty. Cancer is an epidemic. It has been here for ever. It isn’t personal. Its choice of the vulnerable host is often arbitrary. It’s life.

For months, doctors and nurses have cut me, stitched me, jabbed me, drained me, cat-scanned me, X-rayed me, IV-ed me, flushed me and hydrated me, trying to identify the source of my anxiety and alleviate my pain. While they have been able to remove the cancer from my body, treat an abscess here, a fever there, they have not been able to even come close to the core of my malady.

Three years ago, the Democratic Republic of Congo seized my being. V-Day, a movement to stop violence against women and girls, was invited to see firsthand the experience of women survivors of sexual violence there. After three weeks at Panzi hospital in Bukavu, where there were more than 200 women patients, many of whom shared their stories of being gang-raped and tortured with me, I was shattered. They told me about the resulting loss of their reproductive organs and the fistulae they got – the hole between their vagina and anus or vagina and bladder that no longer allowed them to hold their urine or faeces. I heard about nine-month-old babies, eight-year-old girls, 80-year-old women who had been humiliated and publicly raped.

In response, taking the lead from women on the ground, we created a massive campaign, – Stop Raping Our Greatest Resource: Power to Women and Girls of DRC – which has broken taboos, organised speak-outs and marches, educated and trained activists and religious leaders, and spurred performances of The Vagina Monologues across the country, culminating this month with a performance in the Congolese parliament. V-Day activists have spread the campaign across the planet, raising money and consciousness. In several months, with the women of Congo, we will be opening the City of Joy, a community for survivors where women will be healed in order to turn their pain to power. We have also sat and pleaded our case at Downing Street, the White House, and the office of the UN secretary general. We have shouted (loudly) at the Canadian parliament, the US Senate, and the UN security council. Tears were shed; promises were made with great enthusiasm.

As I have lain in my hospital bed or attempted to rest at home over these months, it is the phone calls and the reports that come in daily from the DRC that make me ill. The stories of continued rapes, machete killings, grotesque mutilations, outright murdering of human rights activists – these images and events create nausea and weakness much worse than chemo or antibiotics or pain meds ever could. But even harder to deal with, in the weakened state that I have been in, is knowing that despite the ongoing horrific atrocities that have taken the lives of more than 6 million people and left more than 500,000 women and girls raped and tortured, the international power elite appear to be doing nothing. They have essentially written off the DRC and its people, even after continued visits and promises.

The day is late. It is almost 13 years into this war. The Obama administration, as in most situations these days, refuses to take a real stand. Several months ago I visited the White House to meet a high official to engage the first lady in our efforts to end sexual violence in Congo, believing that her solidarity would galvanise attention and action. I was told, essentially, that femicide was not her “brand”. Mrs Obama, I was told, was focusing on childhood obesity.

It surprised me that a woman with her capabilities lacked ambidextrous skills (or was it simply interest and will that was absent?). Then we have Secretary Clinton, who at least after much pressure visited the DRC almost a year ago, and made promises that actually meant a huge deal to the people. They were excited that the US government might finally prioritise building the political will in the Great Lakes region to end the war there. But, of course, they are still waiting. And then there is the UN. The anaemic and glacial pace and the death-like bureaucracy continue to allow and, in the case of Monuc and the security council, even help facilitate a deathly regional war.

Two weeks ago, in Kinshasa, one of Congo’s great human rights activists, Floribert Chebeya Bahizire, was brutally murdered. In the same week, at Panzi hospital the family of a staff member were executed. A 10-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl were gunned down in their car on their way home. Murdering and raping of the women in the villages continues. The war rages on. Who is demanding the protection of the people of Congo? Who is protecting the activists who are speaking truth to power? At a memorial service last week in Bukavu, a pastor cried out: “They are killing our mammas. Now they are killing our children. What have we done to deserve this? Where is the world?”

The atrocities committed against the people of Congo are not arbitrary, like my cancer. They are systematic, strategic and intentional. At the root is a madly greedy world economy, desperate for more minerals robbed from the indigenous Congolese. Sourcing this insatiable hunger are multinational corporations who benefit from these minerals and are willing to turn their backs on the players committing femicide and genocide, as long as their financial needs are met.

I am lucky. I have been blessed with a positive prognosis that has made me hyper-aware of what keeps a person alive. How does one survive cancer? Of course – good doctors, good insurance, good luck. But the real healing comes from not being forgotten. From attention, from care, from love, from being surrounded by a community of those who demand information on your behalf, who advocate and stand up for you when you are in a weakened state, who sleep by your side, who refuse to let you give up, who bring you meals, who see you not as a patient or victim but as a precious human being, who create metaphors where you can imagine your survival. This is my medicine, and nothing less will suffice for the people, for the women, for the children of Congo.