The War Effort

The diary begins:

"I got a call from Samantha at the CODEPINK office last week: 'Can you disrupt Pelosi on Saturday?' " she asked.

Admittedly timid about leaving the safety of her house for such a high-profile gig, author Gayle Brandeis nevertheless set out for the Morongo Casino and Resort in Palm Springs to confront the "powers that be." It would be Operation Unfurl Banner, except that war metaphors probably are not in order here.

Brandeis' inspiration for Saturday's disruption would be transgender war activist Midge Potts. "Last week, watching footage of our own Midge in her hot pink IMPEACH BUSH shirt standing behind Valerie Plame (pictured), I felt such a swell of admiration and pride."

Brandeis arrived at Morongo to find House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wasn't attending the Native American women's forum. Nevertheless, she writes: "I found a seat near the front of the room--better for disruptive visibility--and flipped through the program, trying to keep my breath steady."

The speaker: Lt. Gov. John Garamendi. She quickly decides Garamendi isn't proper disruption material, even though she never once heard him say that, "If we didn't fund the war, we'd have plenty of money available for social programs."

Brandeis saved her disruption for the next speaker, Rep. Hilda Solis (D-El Monte, pictured), who Brandeis said "pimped No Child Left Behind" during her presentation. Toward the end, Solis told the Morongo crowd why she had voted for supplemental funding for the Iraq war: the soldiers needed even basic equipment, like medical scissors.

"Jodie turned to me and said, 'I'm going to be sick.' " Brandeis writes. "We decided that as soon as Solis' speech was over, we'd carry the DON'T BUY BUSH'S WAR banner to the front of the room."

Moments later, Jodie and Brandeis walked to the front. They opened the banner. A "hush and a crackle of energy." Solis frowned. Mission accomplished.