Monthly Archives: June 2007

St Patrick’s Day Six plus One

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Get a lawyer! Get a lawyer! Yes, go get a lawyer! In days gone past, people would shout, ‘Get a witch doc, he will intervene for you with the Gods!’ Well, us Justice and Peace folk got a lawyer for the St Patrick’s Day Seven, and we seem just as credulous as the most primitive of people about this magician playing against the legal Gods on behalf of those criminally charged.

No need to stay together, the lawyer says. Split into two! And get another lawyer, two. Two, three, many lawyers! I’ve seen folk meekly following the worst guidance of doctors many a time before, but now I guess I will get to see pro-peace people hypnotized by their legal, uh friend, the lawyer.

Eric seems to have accepted the advice to split The Seven into Six plus One, and so has the Six. Solidarity now thrown out the wind. This is now a legal issue and stand still.

It seems, we will stand still until the court rules against The One in favor of the city and its police, that the city government had assault people who tried to walk against the Pentagon. Gone is the issue of how John O’Donnell is mere front man for how the city issues permits and tries to stifle all but Pentagon led (and fed) parades, air shows, and assemblies in this city. No counter social issues Now! It’s divisive! Eric misled the poor city of Colorado Springs. Guilty as charged. Now stay out of any parade.

What is typical here, is how this decision to split the case was made not by our group discussion, but by a lawyer or two in our midst. And perhaps a publisher, too. In fact, most of the Justice and Peace still have yet to hear about how there will be two trials, not one. So sez the lawyer and we shall follow and do. All fall down. We got the lawyer, and he will be our downfall. How often this happens when Movement activists fold up, and allow themselves to be led by the nose by ‘legal specialists’. Deals and decisions get made in secret, and input of commoners get wiped out.

Such faith! To oppose the guidance of our legal counselor would be ‘inappropriate’, they would say? Of course, what was once a political matter that needed the mobilizing of public support, has now been turned into a hidden away, private court matter with all the rules to be followed of a legal system that allows Guantanamo to happen. People who still believe in following the rules of a democracy that doesn’t really exist, also seem to be content following the rules of a legal system that only exists in skeletal remains, too.

It looks bad in the days ahead for the St Patrick’s Day Six plus One. Shaking hands and hugging the police by the ACLU (as done at their recent annual meeting) will lead to defeat in the court room, but good relations between wanna-be power brokers and power. Lawyers most often get the people beat, not saved. A ‘good lawyer’ gets the Six saved, the One beat, and the Movement down the drain. And for that, he will be thanked.

That’s the better scenario. The worst, is well worse. Solidarity would do better.

Resurrection Day!

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From Oaxaca comes Resurrection! Hundreds of thousands once again march in a city smaller than Colorado Springs where previous protesters and their leaders had been brutally assaulted, tortured, and kidnapped away into far away prisons. Big business polls suggest that 2/3 of Mexicans are behind the illegitimate government of Felipe Calderon. Oaxaca disagrees. What an inspiration!

Be the second to see this film on youtube about the march. I was the first. You might want to start about 1/3 way through though as the first 1/3 didn’t show much. Ni Perdon, Ni Olvido

‘Save Darfur’ interventionists seem bloody ignorant about Africa, its culture, and its history- Save Lado, too, Comrades!

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Free Tibet, Stop Genocide in Kosovo, Liberate East Timor, and now Save Darfur with that ‘genocide’ tag being thrown around again. And lots of vitriol against Arabs and China mixed in. There seems to be all sorts of poorly thought out comments and ill considered positions going around town concerning this issue of ‘Darfur’, currently in the national spotlight ala Paris Hilton.

One local activist recently claimed on his web site that the Sudanese government was a US puppet state. Talk about getting it totally backwards! The reality is it’s the independence of the Sudanese government from DC control that Another activist here in the Springs was cheer-leading Democratic Party Colorado Governor Ritter for taking steps to firm up the US campaign beginning an economic war against Sudan. Colorado will not do bizness with bad Africans! Oh, Whoopee, Guvnor! I’ll bet my bottom dollar that you will do business helping your political buddies commit GENOCIDE against Palestinians and Iraqis, though. Am I right?

Right now, the Colorado Springs pro-peace people seem to be stumbling around in the dark on many fronts. The police attack on the St Patrick’s Day parade participants has them stumbling, and the anemia of the national Pro Peace folk hasn’t helped either. So why not jump on the ‘Save Darfur’ bandwagon? It makes sense. I guess there is just not enough problems on the home-front at this time? So let’s go save some Black folk from the evil Arabs and Chinese! And we’ll be led by Dubya, who will correct his problems in Iraq by changing a letter and nuking Iran.

The Justice and Peace had ourselves up a booth at Juneteenth today. They placed us right next to our old buddies, the storm troopers under the command of Police Chief Liars Myers. We’re getting to be almost family at this point. And on our nice little table we had some lit about Saving Darfur.

No, nobody had brought any material saying it might be nice saving all of Africa by getting the US the fuck out of their. I felt in a genteel mood and just sat for a while chitchatting and smelling the bbq. The Gazette was Heiled as being so very generous for poor Black folk by having ‘given generously’ with the publicity. It felt so good, so why be contentious? I just couldn’t…

I had my sign ‘Stop US War on Somalia’ with me, but Aw Shucks. Why confuse folk still trying to decide whether the Dar is for the Fur, or the Fur is for the Dar? And every body’s Albanian is still not much up to par And what’s the national language of island nation of East Timor anyway? Uh sorry, I meant the half island nation of East Timor. Hey, why shouldn’t we demand liberation and independence for West Timor, too? And what’s the next half-island down the shore? The world is complex, but you can speed read it if you are a liberal interventionist, for sure! I would have felt like a simpleton with my sign at the picnic.

There were some pamphlets to help you out on this with Darfur on our table. Did you know that Darfur was once an independent nation? Until the British defeated them of course.

Believe me, you will never learn this sort of stuff from the ‘Save Darfur’ crowd. They just don’t know it. That’s right. Darfur was pasted onto Sudan by the British. Those who paste on may want to peel the paste on back off, though. For humanitarian reasons, no doubt. From Blair to Brown to Save Darfur!

By the way, I am thinking of starting up a Colorado Springs society to save the Lado people. Don’t know about them? Hey, they’re just right down the road from Darfur. And guess what? They are victims of genocide, too. Save Lado! Is it pronounced like in Spanish, or like ‘lad oh!’ in English? It’s always fun when nobody can pronounce the name of the place we’re headed to ‘intervene’ into. Makes it more fun to watch the TV news!

I’m not making this up, so do the research on your own and let’s then get together and start a group (or 2 or 3) at Colorado College and get some sweet chickens (let me know if the use of ‘chickens’ here is not pc, like headless chickens) to help us out. What do you say? This is America, is it not? Anything can happen. We’re a good people for sure. So let’s do something for the Lado people right now! Start the propaganda, uh I meant ‘education’ going and we’ll get the troops in as soon as we can!

Meanwhile, let the conservatives increase the military budget a tad more, so that we’ll all then be ready to move into action together.

Save Lado!

Killbox circa Sinai Desert

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Remains of the Egyptian Army in the Sinai Desert 1967
Does this scene of carnage look familiar to you? I thought it was the infamous Highway of Death where US airplanes destroyed the Iraqi convoys retreating from Kuwait in 1990. No, this was twenty three years earlier, in the Sinai Desert on the first day of the 1967 Six Day War.

The Egyptians had been threatening to attack Israel, even though they were completely outclassed by Israel’s military. However Israel seized the opportunity to launch a preemptive attack and decimated Egypt’s air force the first day, and Egypt’s ground forces the day after.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the six day war and the resultant occupation of Palestine. In describing the human cost of that war, I heard an Israeli representative explain that Israel lost 552 soldiers, “quite heavy losses for Israel, if you consider per capita.” And the Arab casualties? “Hard to say. Around 15,000 or so.” Does that kind of ratio appear familiar? Even the phrasing? The lack of interest certainly does.

Abuse, or politically motivated false allegations?

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Occupational Hazard: False Allegations of Child Abuse Against Educators
By Brian Barrido, Esq. and Jay Mykytiuk
A school custodian was accused of sexual abuse by five girls. The charges were later dropped when the girls admitted that they had fabricated the story because the custodian had reported them for vandalizing a restroom. An Assistant Superintendent jumped off a bridge to his death after being accused of abusing a student. He had been cleared of any wrongdoing earlier that day.

A social studies teacher was accused of molesting a student during a school field trip. Eleven months later, his name was cleared when his accuser recanted. A nine year-old girl offered to pay each of her friends one dollar if they would accuse her teacher of abuse.

False allegations of child abuse against teachers and other school employees can be economically, emotionally, and financially devastating. It can lead to criminal prosecution and long jail terms. And it is a real phenomenon. One school administrator claims to receive 10-12 false accusations of abuse against teachers every year. Multiplied across the country, this number is staggering and disturbing.

Because crimes against children are so horrific, naturally accusers are taken seriously. What this means for accused teachers, is that they are usually presumed guilty—a presumption that can be very difficult to overcome. The most common motive of students who falsely accuse their teachers is to punish teachers who either disciplined them or give them poor grades. A false accusation of physical or sexual abuse will usually ensure that the targeted teacher is, at the least suspended or fired, and at worst, brought up on criminal charges. If an investigation is not properly handled, or the accused educator is not adequately represented by legal counsel, they may lose their careers and their freedom.

Some schools are addressing the issue before the problem arises. School handbooks advise teachers not to have any physical contact with students. Others discourage teachers from ever being one-on-one with a student in a classroom. But despite these precautions, educators remain vulnerable to abuse charges due to the nature of their positions.

The consequences of a guilty plea or conviction for physical or sexual abuse are potentially disastrous. Besides substantial jail time, the convicted abuser will lose his teaching license. If convicted of sexual abuse, one must register as a sex offender, and have their name and residence publicly posted. The convicted abuser will be barred from certain types of jobs, and will often be forced to undergo psychological treatment. This adds up to a steep price for simply choosing a career in education.

An educator accused of physical or sexual abuse against a child should seek counsel immediately. A competent attorney will investigate your case, gather character witnesses, and argue your case to the District Attorney. Your attorney should secure expert witnesses in the area of child psychology. In general, it is crucial that your attorney prepare a comprehensive legal strategy to combat the false accusations and prove your innocence.
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What if you had protested the Iraqi War? What if you were an Iraqi War vet who had recently spoken out publicly against an unpopular war? What if you had repeatedly protested The Iraqi War on a street corner near to the school where the accusations came about? What if you had spoken out at your city council’s meeting in front of the mayor and then been covered on multiple channels of the local news and had spoken out against a police attack on a pro-peace group at the local St Patrick’s Day Parade?

You do the math…

See Solidarity

The woman from Hell

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Every so often a story in the news sort of grabs out at the reader. My first wife used to occasionally call me an ‘aguafiestas’, or a ‘rainer on the party’. Hey, that’s nothing compared to being an ‘mordidafiestas’, or ‘party biter’. Beware the woman from Hell! ‘Testicle attack

‘That’s yours’! lol… Well what else could the friend say?

Is this man sane, or what?

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A local antiwar activist is in the habit of occasionally sending out to a group of people articles she finds of interest with her own comments about them. When Joe Lieberman announced that he wanted to have the Pentagon start dropping bombs on Iran she sent out the reporting of his comments asking if, ‘Is this man sane, or what?’ I’ve got an answer for that one…

Yes, Joe Lieberman is sane. In fact, he was the Democratic Party’s vice presidential candidate a few years back, running with Al Gore. What is insane, though, are all those people who now want to rehab Al Gore’s image and make him out to be a liberal. It was he who chose ‘insane’ Joe to run on the presidential ticket with him!

The web site ‘Common Dreams’ is one big example of those now fawning over Al Gore. In fact, I was just booted from being allowed to say I thought that a sad thing for them to be doing. Now, they will not allow me to comment on any article they publish there! They are sensitive people, and sensitive people like to ban criticisms of their sensitivities.

What if Al Gore had gotten into office as President of the US? Many Americans feel that that would have made all the difference in the world. They are kidding themselves though. Responsible people do not run alongside the Joe Lieberman’s of the world. They do not run with the Clintons of the world either.

Are we sane if we were to believe that Al Gore, or any of the other Al Gore clones, can make things somehow different than they are while living under King Bush? No, I don’t think so. You would just be another Democratic Party voter, that’s all, and we would still be living with an Alice in Wonderland world.

Reality is really hard to deal with with such insane ‘options’ to choose from.

‘Global Fleet Stations’, AFRICOM, and demanding intervention

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West Africa: U.S. Navy Plans Six-Month Regional Training Mission is to be done under AFRICOM direction. Both AFRICOM and this US militarization program for Africa that also includes bombing, invading, and occupying Somalia must be OK for all the activists calling for intervention into the Sudan. Why do I say this? It is simply because they want the US and Europe to intervene in Africa, rather than stop intervening there.

In fact, none of these groups speak out against these current activities of the Pentagon on the African continent. This is not an oversight at all. Many in the supposed world ‘peace’ camp actually unfortunately are not all that anti- US military use at all. They are what might be termed pseudo pacifists. These people just seem to think that it would be better for them to direct the war machine, and not Bush. That will not be the case though. The US war machine will bring about more suffering and bloodshed, and not greater peace, in Africa, if allowed by us to be used there.

Do not go along with all this call for intervention against Sudan. Intervene against your own reactionary government first.

Birth Mothers Exploited by Adoption

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You’ve seen those horrid little shop fronts run by the Religious Right. You know, the ones that offer ‘counselling’ to pregnant women. They say that they are there to help save women from the trauma they would undergo if they were to terminate their pregnancy by having an abortion.

It’s all pure bullshit though! The real trauma for a young woman is not so much from having an abortion, as these zealous creeps suggest, but rather is the trauma that would occur if the pregnant woman was to go on with her pregnancy and then give it up for adoption. It is about the worst trauma that a woman can undergo in her life, and yet the Religious Right ‘counsellors’ will pretend that giving their baby away will actually be less traumatic to the young woman than having an abortion would be. They are liars.

Yes, the Religious Right are like snakes in the grass of the Garden of Eden offering up a sweet apple to the innocent and inexperienced younger women of America. I personally despise these people with all my heart, and can only hope that their syrupy lies will never effect the lives of any young women that live around me as friends, family, and neighbors. Unfortunately, I know that many young women in our society will be bullied by the obnoxious and inconsiderate religious rhetoric of the Christian Right. The Christian Right thrives on child abuse, and their favorite targets are young child/ women in their early teens. Especially those that have gotten pregnant due to being denied access to appropriate birth control and appropriate education about their own bodies and their own psyches.

There are several national organizations that help battle the propaganda of the Religious Right about adoption supposedly being the best way to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Birth Mothers Exploited by Adoption is one of those. They struggle to help themselves, to help also to tell the truth to young pregnant women and their friends, and to also help those adopted children that want to find their birth parents, since the laws often make it next to impossible for adopted children to do this, even when they become adults!

Here are some of the tales of tragedy and trauma coming to those women that were coerced into giving away their children. This is where the real trauma is, and it is not from having an abortion. Birth Mothers Exploited by Adoption could just as well named themselves ‘Young Women Bullied, Brutalized, and Exploited by Right Wing Religion’. That would be even more to the point.

Los Temerarios- Mexico versus Peru

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When I first met my wife, she was curious to know which Mexican group I liked the most. The surprise answer (to her) was ‘Los Temerarios’. Since then, we have travelled together from Matamoros de Tamaulipas to Matamoros de Coahuila, or the city without law, as my wife once heard it called by a bus driver. And like those 2 cities of the same name, as it turns out there are also 2 groups called ‘Los Temerarios, one from Zacatecas, Mexico and the other from Huarochiri, Peru.

You decide which group is best! Select videos with music by both groups follows. You got to get really drunk in cantinas to appreciate the music of Los Temerarios de Mexico though. Best cantina music ever made IMO! Unfortunately, the 2 videos selected hardly do justice to their music. You got to be in the working side of town on a Friday or Saturday night to get the sound down just right.

Temerarios de Peru and more of their music at Go Ear

Temerarios de Mexico- Tu Ultima Cancion and Te Hice Mal.

Another gay battlefield

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One million hate filled Fundamentalist Christians marching in a demonstration against Satan inspired homosexuals? A projected festival of 3 million Gays and friends and family of this segment of society to follow? Moo… Yes, Dorothy, we are not in Kansas any more. Gays have our support in their battle against the Religious Nuts who want to crucify them, whether it be in the US, Nigeria, Moscow, or Brazil.

No confidence for Gonzo.

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A vote is set for a No Confidence of Mr Gonzalez, Monday the 11th, day after tomorrow.
One person who I correspond with says it is a wimp thing to do.

The Democrats, and the rest of the Congress, have to do things strictly within the established rule of law, BECAUSE rather than in spite of, Mr Bush’s contempt for the Constitution or indeed any law.

Wimp? Don’t think so.

But the only other two alternatives are complete surrender, or revolution.

Any coup will have to be done according to law, with every i dotted and every t crossed. Otherwise we trade one group of bandits for another.

Either we rise to the civilized idyll or sink into just another failed political experiment, mired in barbarism.

Not a moral victory, but an assurance that the victory will be done morally.

It would be easy to rouse a mob to ‘storm the Bastille’, take Bush out in the Rose Garden and hang him from one of the immaculately trimmed trees, by his own intestines, while he’s still alive.

But then what?

This is perhaps the last test of whether such a thing as Democracy or a republic survives.

To answer tyranny with further tyranny would only ensure that tyranny wins.

There are so many in America, even in the armed forces, who are so angry that they would launch a coup, one that is decidedly NOT bloodless.

Red October was carried out by amateurs.

The original storming of the Bastille was carried out by amateurs. Not even talented amateurs.

A lot of, perhaps a majority of, the new revolutionaries are people who were members of the Armed Forces at one time.

That’s one of the perils of having 35 years of uninterrupted Selective Service. You wind up with millions of men who have advanced training, and a burning anger at the things they were forced to do and the humiliations they were forced to endure.

What sort of cold blooded, organized havoc might they wreak?

I for one know exactly what armed violence is like. I don’t want it visited on my countrymen by my countrymen. I keep my skills honed, hoping and praying that such a day will never come, but always prepared for it.

Sure a lot of the pigs will die in a revolution.

So will a lot of the revolutionaries. So will a lot of civilians who are just trying to get out of the way.

That’s the way it ALWAYS works. It is not something to be desired.

Mommy, it’s not right!

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All of us, of course, are very concerned about Britney and Paris, Ted and Rush. They all seem to suffer from substance abuse, and our hearts go out to them as they deal with their own private demons.

Ok, so they don’t suffer so much from private demons, but rather public ones. Still, when Ted’s makeup is wrecked by tears, and Rush shows us his crotch since he’s wearing no thong, it’s rather disconcerting to us all. So, thank God we have reporters like Professor Gary Leupp, whose The Unfair Treatment of Paris Hilton keeps us socially backward denizens of the Left informed with what’s real, and what’s not.

Let’s hope he starts up a column titled ‘SOCIETY’ to give us more regular coverage of our American Idols. We need it to help balance our unbalanced minds.

From Y to V- The CIA’s Otpor strategy to overthrow governments

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Since so many pacifists seem prone to accept at face value and fall for any rhetoric that appears to be supporting ‘peaceful’ means of protest, even when it is being pushed from the Pentagon and Washington DC, the following information is quite important. This is from Setting the Stage for Turmoil in Caracas…
—Repeating the East European experience in Venezuela—

The new imperial strategy includes something called “American Corners.” These “corners” are small offices set up by Washington throughout the target country that basically serve as mini-embassies. It is not completely clear what exactly these “corners” do, but inside you will find an array of information about the United States, including study abroad opportunities, English classes, and pro-U.S. propaganda. On top of this, the mini-embassies also organize events, trainings, and lectures for young students.

Interestingly, they seem to be very abundant in countries that Washington seeks to destabilize. The former Yugoslavian countries have a total of 22 American Corners, including 7 in Serbia. The Ukraine has 24, Belarus 11, Russia 30, even Iraq, with 11. By far the highest concentration of the “corners” is in Eastern Europe, where Washington has focused its destabilization efforts in recent years. [17]

There are at least 4 “American Corners” in Venezuela, the most for any Latin American country, and the U.S. also finances literally hundreds of organizations throughout the country to the tune of more than $5 million a year. [18] Together, these U.S.-funded organizations are working to implant the Eastern European experience in Venezuela. As reported by Reuters, the Venezuelan opposition is already learning the Serbian tactics to overthrow a regime from a retired U.S. army colonel named Robert Helvey.

“Helvey, who has taught young activists in Myanmar and Serbian students who helped topple the former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, is giving courses on non-violent opposition tactics this week at an east Caracas university,” said the article. “Neither Helvey nor the organizers of the Caracas seminar would give details of exactly what opposition tactics were being taught. But in his work in Serbia before Milosevic’s fall, Helvey briefed students on ways to organize a strike and on how to undermine the authority of a dictatorial regime,” reported Reuters. [19]

And more recently, in the university city of Mérida, history professor from Texas, Neil Foley, hosted an event sponsored by the U.S. embassy and the Venezuelan-American Center (Cevam), not an official “American Corner” but serving the same purpose. Foley, who has also spoken in various “American Corners” in Serbia, gave speeches in both Bolivia and Venezuela on “American values.” [20]

I attended one of Foley’s speeches and, as expected, it was a complete pro-U.S. propaganda campaign imposed upon the university students. The professor gave exactly the message that the U.S. Embassy had paid him to give, speaking wonders about American society and “American democracy.” According to Foley, the United States solves all of its problems by tolerance for others and an all-inclusive “dialogue,” between opposing parties. And sending a clear hint to the Venezuelan students, Foley implied that any government that does not live up to these standards “must be overthrown.” [21

Also, besides the full article (which is well worth reading) from where this excerpt came from, the additional following article is also of interest. Behind Venezuela’s “Student Rebellion”. Who’s pulling the strings?

Hiding the war out of sight

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While our government should not technically be called fascist, it is also true that in many ways it acts as if it is. Many have pointed out through the years that ‘liberal democracies’ running Empires act towards their colonies’ people as fascist governments do to their own populations. Certainly, this insight holds true for the US Empire, as well it has for European empires in the recent past.

Now the US government is trying to ban photos, video, and basically all non vetted reporting about the US Terror War on the Iraqi people. The principle is, Out of Sight, Out of Mind. This brings back the memory of how many Germans at the end of WW2 claimed to not have known about their government’s NAZI concentration camps. Seems implausible, but maybe not? The simple truth is that the Nazis, like our own US government, hid away their crimes against humanity from their own people as best they could.

Empires act against the populations in their occupied colonies as fascists do against their own peoples. Think of that next time you get to listen to the sickening pretense of what is passed off to us as campaign ‘debates’ in this Empire’s election campaigns. Little real is getting discussed as the press cooperates with hiding away this US government war of terror from its own public. Some are already saying, ‘We just didn’t know.’ They want you to vote for them, too.

Watch out, or We The People in the US will get led as far astray as the German people once did. They’re trying to hide the US’s terroristic war out of our sight, like once the concentration camps were hidden out of sight inside Europe.

Unpublished response to Gazette editor

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Gazette editorial supervisor Sean Page thinks he’s clever to admonish the St Patrick’s Day Seven for disturbing the peace. Unseemly for pacifists, he derides, haha. Ala Rodney King he asks: why can’t you give peace a chance?

Mocking us for being insufficiently peaceful for pacifists is like the bully chiding his prey for not taking their lumps. This isn’t about making peace with you or the police officers, it isn’t about keeping the peace in our community, AT ALL. The issue is bringing peace to war-ravaged Iraq and Afghanistan, et al.

I can turn the other cheek, as a matter of fact, but I don’t presume to do it for the Iraqi. Why should the innocent Iraqi or Afghan bear the brunt of your anything? I want you to stop persecuting THEM and I offer you no peace until you do.

Call me uncharitable, but I don’t want to make peace with mass murderers, baby killers and rapists, or those who would cover for them, excuse them or egg them on. The minute you put down your guns and put your pants back on is when I will lower my voice.

Mas cumbia colombiana

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Why more cumbia colombiana? Simply because I like the style of music and dance and it has given me a lot of pleasure through the years. La mujer que me gusta, Para Mi, Loquito por ti, and several medleys of songs by Orquestrsa Numero Uno de Colombia Part 1 Part 2, and legendary Aniceto Molina’s El Condor Legendario and en concierto. Sonora Dinamita- Cosquillitas en Monterrey. Ay Laylita!

G8- Why the protest?

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AMY GOODMAN: Explain what the Group of Eight are.
JOHN PERKINS: Well, the Group of Eight are the wealthiest countries in the world, and basically they run the world. And the leader is the United States, and it’s actually the corporations within these countries that run it. It’s not the governments, because, after all, the governments serve at the pleasure of the corporations.

In our own country, we know that the next two final presidential candidates, Republican and Democrat alike, are going to each have to raise something like half a billion dollars. And that’s not going to come from me and you. Primarily that’s going to come from the people who own and run our big corporations. They’re totally beholden to the government. So the G8 really is this group of countries that represent the biggest multinational corporations in the world and really serve at their behest.

All of commentary at… John Perkins (author of ‘The Secret History of American Empire;…’) interview by Amy Goodman Kind of an ‘Imperialism Made Simple’ for American university miseducated Bachelor Degree dunderheads, perhaps?

RU one of those credentialed? If so, write to us. You can be helped.

Impersonating a soldier

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We all know it’s illegal to impersonate a police officer, but is it illegal to impersonate a soldier? This notion appears to me to be an utter urban myth, readily quoted but unsubstantiated. Is there such a restriction? We are seeing recent veterans getting in trouble for wearing their uniforms at peace rallies, they don’t face jail time, but rather not insubstantial downgrading of their discharge status. But you and I face no such punitive risk. Why don’t we take the lead and don their uniforms?

I’m not certain that pretending to be soldiers protesting the war would come off well at all, but perhaps it could embolden real soldiers to do it. What if they wore each other’s uniforms, from an opposite branch of the military for example? Does their code of conduct preclude that? Would such political expression jeopardize a vet’s retirement benefits?

The so-called surge has yielded an upsurge of soldiers now calling for peace. We see it on the streets when we hold up our PEACE NOW banners. A good portion of honks, thumbs-up, and peace-signs come from active duty soldiers. We even see them tooting their horns to get our attention, less we miss their smiling encouragement. Our soldiers are ripe for taking a stand against this war. Let them do it. Let’s figure out a way to include their voices. They have earned the right, after all, to speak out as soldiers. We sent them to war as soldiers, however can we presume to strip them of the authority when they return?

I could only find a law passed last year, the Stolen Valor Act, which made it illegal to impersonate a decorated soldier, such that “anyone who knowingly wears, manufactures, or sells any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the U.S. armed forces, or any of the service medals or badges awarded to the members of such forces, or the ribbon, button, or rosette of any such badge, decoration or medal, or any colorable imitation thereof, except when authorized under regulations made pursuant to law, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”

Which gives me an idea. Let’s get some Op. Iraqi F. uniforms and decorate them with LEGAL NON-US medals, such as Iron Crosses and Nazi regalia, and then parade as satiric soldier-dissenters. Neither military getups nor creepy regalia appeal to me, but there might be something pretty chilling about the sight.

Two and a half for Scooter

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Poor Scooter, fall guy for Bush and Cheney’s record setting criminality. He got a 2 and 1/2 year sentence for something you and I might have gotten life, and yet, he will probably not even have his golf games interrupted. He now faces a likely pardon or time at a country club ‘prison’. Such disgrace!

The funniest part of the whole thing, is who gave him personal references in front of the judge. They were Paul Wolfowitz, Henry Kissinger, and Donald Rumsfeld! Write your government representatives and ask that his time be spent at Guantanamo instead. They say he looked red eyed and ashen faced when he left the courtroom. Let him look like Padilla when he comes out Guantanamo. That would teach the bum a lesson, would it not?