The death of Utah Phillips reminded me of a favorite story he would tell about the Haymarket widow Lucy Parsons. Shoot or Stab Them was advice that got the anarchist agitator arrested whenever she tried to speak in public. Lucy’s husband was among those anarchists framed and executed for the infamous 1886 Haymarket bombing. Lucy continued to advocate for labor rights and social change. Here’s how Utah told the rest of the story:

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COLORADO SPRINGS- Such an unfortunate characterization of the J&P.

In the Gazette coverage of the Air Force Academy graduation, the paper featured this teaser on the front page: “War protesters bail early.” The article on page 8 began: “Air Force Academy cadets apparently are made of sterner stuff.” We can’t deny “while the cadets and their families sat through the early morning fog and drizzle, war protesters left rather than wait for the late-arriving President Bush,” but Springs activists rarely show anything but tenacity in making their point. Why would they leave early and give the media such a predictable pot shot? Do we chalk it up exclusively to our antagonistic local daily newspaper?

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WASH YOUR OWN DISHES via CrimethInc

CAPITALISM
You wash the dishes, the ones who own them profit.
 
ANARCHISM
We all share in the dishwashing.

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COLORADO SPRINGS, 9:25AM- Bush motorcade travels I-25 en route to the 2008 Air Force Academy graduation ceremony, passing our banner!

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A couple years ago some Colorado Springs activist organizations had a chance to host a public screening of a documentary about Judi Bari and her posthumus court victory against the FBI. It turned out the Feds had planted the bomb with which they tried to discredit her, and kill her too. Judi recovered but died of cancer before she could hear a jury award 4.4 million dollars for the FBI’s trying to rob her and the Earth First movement of their First Amendment voice.

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COLORADO SPRINGS- While a motorcade delivered President Bush to the Broadmoor Hotel, we were at the AFA airing our fresh age-old message.

It’s the proverbial proverbial Writing on the Wall. If you think Aramaic will be indecipherable to freeway drivers, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin” was Greek to the original king for whom the fortune foretold his reign would be “numbered, weighed and divided.”

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Every year, those disposed to holding peaceful protests at the Air Force Academy will deliberate about the relative merits of using either the South Gate or the North Gate entrances. Whether one sees more traffic than the other is difficult to measure because the AFA routes the incoming cars via whichever entrance is not being protested. Accordingly, the AFA only offer permission for demonstrations at a single entrance at a time. When we’ve tried to cover both, the Air Force forces us out based on the “agreed” restrictions. Since both entrances are located on Air Force land, this may be regarded as their prerogative. But let’s not confuse the AFA “entrances” for the approaches to those points which are on public land. The I-25 overpass, as an example.

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I’m taking over the Bachelor Nutrition Series. Yes, Eric is a bachelor. But he’s my bachelor; as such, he’s carefully tended and well fed. The Simple Nutrition Series (its new name) should be geared toward those who know something about the body and, as such, desire nutritious fare but who, for whatever reason, find themselves culinarily challenged for a spell.

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MANAGUA, NICARAGUA- My daughter and I have been in Nicaragua for a little less than three weeks now, and I am glad to have successfully gotten my surgery done and over with. In addition, I have visited with my friend, Rafael, and his family, and have gotten to see Nicaragua for the first time since my visit here in 1985. A lot has certainly changed, and I will write more about that when I get back inside The States. For right now, I am staying busy with “home schooling” my daughter by being her tour guide, of sorts, here. Next week we hit the beach!

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posted this on Craigslist… Date: 2008-05-25, 1:31AM MDT

Just to remind people, since the Old Colorado City Territory Days celebration of colonialism and Imperialism is going on…

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Who ran over my cane yesterday.

I had gone downtown, complete with my bicycle and trailer, to pick up a computer for my landlady. (it’s a nice one too…) Just by co-inky-dink it was right across the street from Toons and in a truly amazing co-inky-dink Eric happened to be there… and Marie, and we shared some Vegetarian Munchies and good fellowship, then I went on home… with a minor mishap on the way.

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Utah Phillips died Friday. Friends have circulated a May 14th letter he’d sent. The Salt Lake Tribune reprinted a great interview from 2005. And fellow performer David Rovics forwarded this remembrance: Read more »

Why is it that people who want to re-investigate the official 9/11 account are thought to be dragging their heels in the past, but publishing industry flag-wavers can trot out the orthodox 9/11 dogma every election cycle to repave America’s jack-boot stay-the-course resolve?

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This isn’t a Teflon administration. It’s Kevlar. We’ve seen Bushco take direct hits and drum on like the Energizer Bunny. This cabal is Timex, its lies blatantly unmasked, guns smoking, hands bloodied, but if it has a heart, its telltale beat is not pounding, just ticking.

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What are Vegas bookmakers giving for odds? Check Sportsbook, Bodog, Sportsbetting, Gamblers Palace, and Bet Us.

Beware Raytheon!, Third Friday in April, Colorado Springs.

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My 14-year-old son is going to China next month, along with a group of classmates and chaperones. Yesterday I went to Wells Fargo to exchange $400USD for Chinese yuan. A small currency exchange, cash for cash, very routine. To accomplish the task, however, I was required to provide two forms of identification. This was not a glance-at-the-information kind of ID check, which would’ve been pointless to begin with. No, the clerk put the information into the bank’s data base before handing me the money.

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I’ve read quite a bit about vegetarianism over the years. Nutritionists assert that in order to be healthy a vegetarian must actively seek the full complement of amino acids that make up protein, the building blocks of our bodies, by consuming protein. This sounds like a reasonable assertion, but does it hold true in nature? Do living organisms, all of which are basically organized proteins, require ingested protein to survive?

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Bush 43 is coming to the Air Force Academy commencement next week and I can’t think of anything to say. It’s not that Dubya’s becoming irrelevant, or that he’s an irredeemable reprobate or conversant as a doornail. IT IS probably that there is nothing even funny about the calamity he’s wrought. IT IS that I cannot wish him even pangs of conscience. Can you?

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Three score years ago the US created in the Holy Land a permanent refuge for the Jews of Europe, making at the same time refugees of the Palestinians who were living there. The anniversary of Israel thus coincides with the commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba, the “day of the catastrophe” when Palestinians lost their land. On Israel’s 60th birthday the US president spoke before the Knesset and pledged America’s eternal allegiance to Zionism. Meanwhile Israel’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations told Israeli Radio, “Nakba is a tool of Arab propaganda used to undermine the legitimacy of the establishment of the State of Israel, and it must not be part of the lexicon of the UN.”

Gorée Island, just 3 kilometers off the coast of Senegal, was one of the largest slave trading outposts in West Africa during the 16th and 17th centuries. Men, women and children were collected from the region and herded into holding pens on the island. They were then made to pass through this portal and onto waiting slave ships, where they eventually were sold, destined for the colonies of the New World. For thousands, this door represented the last connection they had with Africa.
 
Yippee. Comin’ to America.

Hello, I participated in the most incredibly diverse rally in front of the United Nations at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza. Here are my remarks:

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COLORADO SPRINGS- Channel 5/30 News reporters were called away from the World Arena last Saturday to cover a stabbing at a public music event at the flea market. A fight broke out in a crowd of 2000 people and the first responders found themselves undermanned. Fortuitously, riot police had been standing by at the Democratic State Convention. At 1:30pm, this contingent (or fraction) was redeployed to provide backup. The KOAA TV camera captured the hardware the CSPD had anticipated needing to provide convention security on this otherwise harmonious and peaceful, uncloudy and idyllic Colorado Springs Saturday at the World Arena.

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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO- As previously announced, the Army is conduction a public scoping meeting on May 21 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Colorado Springs about their tentative Pinon Canyon takings. At 6:30pm they’ll outline their need to Grow-The-Army (GTA) on account of the GD-GWOT. Southeastern Colorado ranchers intend to voice their opposition at an early session 3-6pm and boycott the 6:30 public relations meeting. Here’s an invitation from Bill Sulzman:

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TO CORRECT POLICE BLOTTER DISINFO
(A friend asked me casually “how far did you get?” I was disappointed to admit that Peter and I were not arrested trying to get into the convention.)
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The police team coordinating security at the Colorado Democratic State Convention used confusion and unreasonable exertion of authority to curtail public participation. Officers broke protest signs over their knees and used arrest, detention and relocation to keep dissenting voices from the public eye until the opportunity to demonstrate had passed.

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