NMT has obtained screenshots from Atomic Games ‘Six Days in Fallujah,’ traded p2p and remarketed as Six Hours in My Lai. There was no budget to modify the OIF coalition uniforms to resemble the Vietnam GIs, but who’s looking at the clothing? Nostalgic vets will find the rape reenactments unremarkably familar. In reality the mayhem of My Lai and My Khe lasted 28 hours, not six, but industry research indicates that cyber ejaculators rarely have more than a six hour window before a landlady looks in on them.

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Maybe you don’t fear facing off with an army intelligence interrogator, FBI detective, or secret service agent sitting in a Fusion Center determined to anticipate your next move. But what about a loan officer, insurance adjuster, arbitration negotiator, prospective employer, or plaintiff’s lawyer taking your deposition, who’s armed with your psychological profile made up of your Facebook quiz answers? Your plan to defeat an IRS polygraph by clenching your butt-cheeks is a plan B of olden days. The ACLU has been anticipating these eventualities for you. They’ve devised their own Facebook quiz to illustrate.

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COLO. SPRINGS- Well, that wasn’t so hard. Our message was warmly received by soldiers who shook our hand in the staging area, and afterward we were thanked by others for what we are trying to do. Antagonism came from the crowd, but not as fiercely as we’d braced ourselves for. Eight years of horror has taken the edge off the “these colors don’t run” mentality. Hence the military imperative for parades like these. Our antiwar presence was all the more important to show the soldiers that some at home are fighting to rescue them. The rest of the attendees were giving them a “welcome home” as they did in 2004, and will keep doing only to redeploy them. The soldiers need to see more real support: a determination to stop these wars.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: COLORADANS-FOR-PEACE CONDEMNS COLORADO SPRINGS PRO-WAR PARADE.
 
–And why not? The rationales for the Iran and Afghanistan wars have been repudiated by the Obama administration. What place has this city to celebrate them? The wars have been declared illegal by international magistrates. How then can Americans presume to cheer their soldiers’ actions? Regardless the jingoism of the Colorado Springs community, to idealize militarism, while thousands of innocent civilians suffer under its boot every day, is unconscionable. A bigoted majority of Lamborn voters want to lynch a certain black man, should we give them a permit?

Cindy Sheehan may be glamping again. This time it’s Martha’s Vineyard, where Sheehan is prepared to lay siege to another presidential vacation. Which certainly highlights what’s become undeniable about Barack Obama. He heralds no change. And I’m not prepared to hope the effectiveness of petitioning our leaders has changed either. Bush answered to no one, Obama won’t even dance with them who thought they elected him. The antiwar message has no one’s ear. Let’s put it to the American people.

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Mountain Justice activists Laura Steepleton and Nick Stocks continue to occupy trees adjacent Massey Energy’s West Virginia coal mine, preventing further blasting of the Edwight mountaintop removal site. Assistants at the base of the trees were arrested for trespassing, but called back, expected to help the police communicate with the sitters.
Earth First! spokesman Mike Roselle has been visited by State troopers, demanding he command the Coal River Valley treesitters to climb down. Check Climate Ground Zero for updates, where you can leave messages of encouragement.

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COLORADO SPRINGS- I have to admit dropping my guard on the TABOR issue yesterday after 5 out of 4 council members pledged on Monday to vote in favor of putting reform on the November ballot. Private citizens who testified before the council went home satisfied that the city had heeded their words. No such luck. On Tuesday when the official vote was taken, two of the members changed their vote to NO. Council woman Jan Martin and Mayor Lionel Rivera decided to reverse what they’d told the public they’d do.

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As I was heading for work this morning, the imperialist faux liberal, faux public radio, ‘National Public Radio’ was informing the whole world that ‘The Liberal Lion of the Senate’ was no more. In Heaven, no doubt… But… if I had been able to tune into Rush’s or Dreck’s programs there is no doubt, too, that they would have informed me that it was ‘The Liberal Liar of the Senate’ that had just departed for Hell. Both these delusional camps and their camp followers are wrong though. The truth is that he was neither saint nor devil, but rather something in between. Maybe a lizard?

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According to CSAction, snively congressman Doug Lamborn has sent out 70,000 mailers, billed to the taxpayer, to disseminate the insurance biz wingnut falsehoods about health care reform. He’s hoping to reconstitute a teabagger assembly at a public meeting on Thursday evening, August 27, at the Valley Hi Golf Course on Colorado Springs’ Southeast side. Get there early with YOUR message. 5PM, Chelton and Airport. The anti-tax teabaggers hate standing next to signs that don’t represent them, so think of some slogans that do. How about: DO UNTO OTHERS, or
FAITH HOPE CHARITY, or “as you did to the least of My brethren,
you did it to Me.” -Matt 25:40

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Ted Kennedy, last high-born American public servant, exits stage left. The Kennedy brothers set a fine example of how to account for yourself once you have enough money. Today it’s thought sufficient to follow in Rockerfeller’s footsteps: donate the requisite sums to be called a philanthropist, or occupy high offices to entrench the family riches.

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Lt. William Calley has expressed remorse for the first time for leading the 1968 My Lai Massacre. Although he still maintains he was only following orders. Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role, but President Nixon commuted his punishment to three years of house arrest. Who should have been accountable for the 500 civilians executed in My Lai?

I snapped this photo at Monday’s city council meeting: A stringer for right-wing KVOR radio holds his microphone up to the chamber’s amplification system. Curiously, he only assumed this conspicuous stance when the council members were explaining their votes, and then, ONLY for those anticipated to speak against TABOR and its proponents.
 
As the councilmen vied to straddle the fence on the issue, this gentleman would slowly stand whenever someone’s reasoning appeared to vacillate against the interests of the anti-tax wingnuts, Local Liberty Action, and teabagger Sean Paige.

Are you looking for a good children’s film, and a film for the whole family to watch? Are you looking for a film where your children can learn about an alternative universe, and one that our American government has helped make? Then check out The Devil’s Miner.
 
Bolivian children labor in the silver mines of Cerro Rico, dating back to the 16th century, where devout Catholic miners sever their ties with God upon entering the mountain.

COLORADO SPRINGS- When the swine flu hits the fan, contrary to all earlier scaremongering, H1N1 is no scatological disaster. I have an example: Without even looking, we know of two confirmed cases of swine flu in Colorado Springs School District 12. You wouldn’t know it to talk to the school, the city, the newspapers, or County Health. Is that odd?

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COLORADO SPRINGS- I attended a COS city council meeting today, lured by the prospect that Vice Mayor Larry Small was going to call the CS Independent publisher a liar to his face.
 
I’m always excited at the prospect of differences of opinion reaching a level of incivility. Do we care about these issues? Or is it all about liking each other, regardless who’s oppressing whom? We gentlemen debaters, after all, are never those affected by the injustices in question.

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Colorado Springs will be hosting a parade on August 29 to welcome troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Its predecessor was a 2004 victory parade, this one is billed as a Red White and Brave Welcome Home. You might shy from holding an antagonistic banner like “I DON’T WORSHIP WAR,” but imagine a message draped from a balcony along Tejon Ave! WELCOME HOME, NOW STAY HOME or WHAT HAPPENS IN IRAQ, STAYS IN IRAQ or my favorite, addressed to the 50,000-plus expected to attend: WE’RE CELEBRATING THE MURDER OF HOW MANY CIVILIANS?

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Michael Moore is premiering CAPITALISM, A LOVE STORY at Venice and Toronto. “By spending just a few millions dollars to buy Congress, Wall Street was given billions.” In a scene from the preview, Moore asks Blue Dog Dem Congressman Baron Hill: “How did this collapse happen?”
 
Said Hill: “I got home on a Friday, everything was just fine; I called back after my plane landed in Indiana and all of a sudden we’ve got this crisis on our hands.”

 
Are you a fan of the American Western? How do you think your taste might match a survey of French film critics? Though we mock their high regard for Jerry Lewis, let’s allow that France has a film history that predates ours, and a legacy of critical journals beyond the reach of our Hollywood shills. Besides which, the golden age of the movie western lies well between the brothers Lumiére and the Nouvelle Vague. Perusing John Cawelti’s The Six-Gun Mystique published in 1976, I found a list of the TOP TEN GREATEST WESTERNS. Think any of your favorites made the list?

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Excepting that the South fought for slavery and rural feudalism, their nostalgia is libertarian. Is that the enduring emotional charge behind flying the Confederate flag? Hoyt Axton recorded I’m a Good Old Rebel as being a “song of the Civil War,” but the spirit is decidedly Post.

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“Licensed to Kill” was an Ian Fleming invention. His friend Richard Meinertzhagen dropped Fleming’s phrase for guests to infer he was a secret agent. RM’s routine of arriving at diner parties with a smoking gun reinforced whispers that he had been the inspiration for James Bond. Meinertzhagen turned out to be a flake, but the authority to play god is still coveted by espionage idolators. Federal statutes prohibit identifying covert CIA operatives, regardless what they’ve done. Is that the same thing? A mythical supra legem indemnity? Sorry Virginia, nemo est.

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America needs an Odysseus, obviously, to outwit the Cyclops and put out his eye. Against the all-seeing American health insurance lobby, our politicians are virtually powerless. To overcome this omniscient villainy without an Odysseus, the only hope is to rush the monster all at once — and all at once, put it to the sword. Senators and congressmen may say the industry is too powerful to defy, I do not doubt it. But if all act in unison, the beast’s threats will be its last, and come to naught.

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How gracious of us! The US is beneficiary of a succession of clemencies shown to American citizens. Iran releases an American propagandist, North Korea forgives two more, Myanmar allows us to extricate a oddly errant citizen. All of them Americans, for which we are thankful, but still indignant and unrepentant. When Scotland elects to release a Libyan prisoner on compassionate grounds, the US president cannot object enough.

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WESTSIDE, COLORADO SPRINGS- A signature gatherer pushing Doug Bruce petitions was doing miserably well outside the Uintah King Soopers today, but I was able to interrupt for the quarter hour I could spare. Give him your 15-cents worth when you come for groceries. He’ll run, watch:

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I’ve forgotten: is school the hard-fought birthright that enables men to guard their liberty with an educated vigilance, or is it where the majority become indoctrinated to march in lockstep upon the rest? Inhancing our kids’ nuturing with information they wouldn’t be getting from their parents is beginning to resemble the school inoculations, whether mandatory or coerced. The schools will make fascists of our children or they will kill them.