Well this is a fine developement for Colorado Springs. Arguably the highest profile progressive elected to a local post, city councilman and vice-mayor Richard Skorman, has resigned his position to become the regional liason for Senator Ken Salazar.
 
The announcement was made the same day that Salazar cast his vote with the majority to renew the Patriot Act. The same month that Salazar stood up to say he would not support a democratic effort to filibuster the Aleto nomination. The same year that Salazar voted for a budget which included draconian cuts to social services.

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A conglomeration of peace activists took part in the Manitou Carnival Parade this year. We had fire-breathers, our Blue Lady, and a banner which read TIME TO REBUILD: A NEW WORLD IS POSSIBLE -THE PIKES PEAK JUSTICE AND PEACE COMMISSION.
 
We encountered someone along the parade route who objected to our bringing politics into the parade. Peace, justice, that’s politics?

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Serbian General Ratko Mladic, seen here with NATO commander General Wesley Clark, wearing each other’s caps, is accused of the infamous massacre of 7,500 Muslims at Srebrenica. Separated from the women, all the men and boys from Srebrenica were gathered into a soccer stadium and killed.
 
Mladic is also sought as a war criminal for the bombardment of Sarajevo. Wesley Clark may still face war crimes charges based on the bombardment of the civilian population of Kosovo.

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I might never have imagined myself saying this, being somewhat agnostic in my practices, certainly atheist in my personal dialogs.

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Does this picture say it all? An American serviceman coming home, a population oblivious sort of. They can see something happening outside the plane, the half on this side of the plane at least. And that’s all there is to it.

Since Bush has been in office, a half trillion dollars was added to our nation’s deficit. How much of that was due to our disastrous and costly war? A third. How much for our social welfare, including for Katrina? A sixth.

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How do you know you are not hearing the straight scoop from the media? Health care.
 
How many industrialized nations are there? Twenty-five or so? And our nation is among them. We don’t have the highest standard of living, nor the second highest, but we’re up there. We’re talking compared to Europe, Britain, Scandinavia, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

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I went to a Democratic party fund-raiser last night, the TRUE BLUE AMERICAN RALLY. I stood by the door most of the night and handed out fliers about tomorrow’s meeting to reclaim the media. I knew all of the politicians who spoke, I knew the evening’s organizers, somehow it didn’t occur to me until that evening to ask to make an announcement for the Monday meeting. Here are my notes:

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When Michael de Yoanna from the Independent called me to research his February 1st article about KRCC losing some of its funding from Colorado College, I told him I thought it highly unlikely.

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Trying to cajole community leaders into putting their weight in support of a couple progressive causes, it had been recommended to me not to address the small matter of the war. Fair enough, with consensus-building comes compromise.
 
So next up however for Colorado Springs: an ANTI-ANTIWAR list. You want to avoid taking a stand on the war, fair enough, let’s put it on record. Are you against the illegal war in Iraq? Yes or no. Taking no position is the same as no.

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Another reason to wait 18 hours to call the cops? For alcohol to leave your system? And Cheney didn’t have a hunting license. Better to be called a bumbling hunter than a drunk poacher, or the person who authorized Scooter Libby to out a CIA agent.

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(I was asked to make a pitch to the local ACLU for the upcoming community forum about media reform. Here’s my letter. Could this not be addressed to any number of civic organisations? Meanwhile, you can find a plea to non-organizations at myKRCC.org. )

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Yesterday I attended the annual members meeting of the Justice and Peace Commission and felt like there was an inertia of inactivity, or let’s say activity of lesser consequence, which was not to be overcome. As if perhaps the PPJPC were not going to let this war disrupt their good efforts toward promoting sustainable living, fair trade and mass transportation.

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Today I watched the opening ceremonies of the White Olympics in Torino.
 
Yes, White Olympics. Virtually all the athletes are white. White because winter sports take place in northern climes where most everybody is white. White because winter sports require equipment beyond what tropical non-developed countries can afford their athletes. White because that is the color of the world aristocracy.

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The alliance of Chavez, Morales and Castro is not surprising. It is the South American revolution which Castro and Guevarra hoped to ignite 45 years ago. Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba are united by purpose and philosophy, reclaiming power for the common people, emerging from colonial oppression under which they have suffered since the arrival of the Spanish 500 years ago.

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May this thought-bubble hover over your head like a personal black cloud:

When in all of human history have community activists turned out to be wrong? Human rights? Religious freedom? Liberty? Peace?

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Enron super-con man, alleged, Jeff Skilling, explained today that the Enron bubble need never have burst if only investors had held their confidence in Enron’s outrageous marketplace success. On paper.

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Is protest now a crime?

Someone called the police on the CPT vigil.

Just after noon on Thursday, a patrol car pulled into the Toons parking lot. The officer rolled down her window and motioned for someone to come over to speak for the eight vigil keepers assembled near the Nevada Avenue sidewalk.

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I cannot agree to disagree. Not while you are torturing and killing innocent civilians, I cannot agree to disagree about whether it is necessary or whether as you suggest you are doing it at all.

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Two German newspaper have joined a leading French newspaper in reprinting the controversial Danish caricatures of Islam’s prophet Mohammed. They are acting in solidarity with the Danish paper whose actions provoked an international boycott of Danish products. This is how collective action is supposed to work. Speak out, and if you’re threatened, be joined by another voice and then another, until there would be too many voices to silence.

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One day the Boers of South Africa decided to retain the greater part of the country, wall themselves off from the rest of the South African population except for a good number of black natives which it kept as non-citizen laborers, and called their home “Boerlandia.”
 
Could Boerlandia then have said to the black people of Africa, and to the world at large: “do blacks not recognize the right of Boerlandia to exist?”

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