Thank you, Soldiers, for defending our Free Speech! You all military sweethearts are doing such a damn good job, too! Here is a you tube film of you USA soldiers going about your hard work protecting our American Free Speech rights. Love you, Storm Troopers and Snipers, Drone Mechanics, and Nuclear Weapons people! Love you DEARLY. Pacifist Kathy Kelly at Whiteman (funny the name, ay?) AFB.

'Oath Keepers' is an effort of the American Far Right to organize more cops and military into a blatantly fascist organization that is dedicated to fighting ‘domestic enemies’ of the US capitalist Empire. To the US Far Right, that would include just about anybody other than themselves. And who do they increasingly openly support for President? Why it’s Ron Paul, who else?

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Nobody likes to draw the short straw, but isn’t that already our lot living in Colorado Springs? Yeah, it’s easy to protest Wall Street from the safety of a provincial backwater, our city even backed us with a permit, but is that really grabbing the imperial bull by the horns? The Occupy Movement has spotlighted how the world’s 99% are oppressed by the ruling elite. It made more clear how true democracy is undermined by their military-industrial-corporate-banking complex. Now, doesn’t a major chunk of that alliance operate right where we live? Think. It ain’t banking or industry, and the corporations here orbit around the headliner of that lineup, the military, our city’s dominant export. Yes, criticizing the military in a military town is not popular. Do you think the Wall Street protesters were a welcome sight to Manhattan’s bankers? You can call to “End the Fed” online, or protest anything in the world from a digital soapbox, but a public demonstration is limited to what’s in your local vicinity, especially if you mean to OCCUPY IT. Look on this as a curse or a blessing: The Zuccotti Park activists get to target sharkskin-suited traders, we’re up against men with guns. But what are you going to do, cheerlead the OWS front in NY, or hold up your end of the fight?

If the Qurans recently burned at NATO bases in Afghanistan were disposed of accidentally in the incineration pits, aren’t American Fundamentalist Talibans concerned about where the excess bibles go? By now we all know the M.O. at US camps in our occupied territories is to incinerate any and all unused inventory. They’re even ordered to burn leftover bottled water. Can there be any doubt if the US forces found themselves with too many Qurans to go around, that they had fewer takers for Christian bibles? When you raise the subject in these parts, even yokels profess their indignation at the prospect of burning a bible, so wouldn’t they want to scrutinize what’s being burned at our military bases? Or is it the same with American flags? When hippies do it, it’s a national sacrilege, when the Army does it, it’s ordained cremation.

Yeah, these things. For a long time shoemakers have known that the best configuration for a shoe sole would be a bare foot. Which doesn’t hold up as well on jagged rocks and hot or cold concrete etc.
 
So Vibram made shoes that mimic the human foot as closely as possible and they really are good shoes. One would think that the Army, which spends a whole bunch of time and money treating feet and ankles injured by marching or simply standing in the regular boots, would welcome something that would give you a tactical advantage. A HUGE tactical advantage.
 
Well, there’s Military Tradition, you see, and Military Tradition dictates shiny black boots. They finally “got religion” on that score when they discovered that Polished Black Boots show up bigger than shit on infrared imaging. They were spending beaucoup d’argent on camouflage fatigues that didn’t show up on Infrared cameras and (ahem) rifle sights but making the soldiers wear what amounted to great big signs screaming “Here we are, shoot us!” Actually it took them about a decade after that was leaked to the general public and two decades after the Army knew about it. It’s like the British tradition of wearing bright red shirts with a freakin’ white “X” right over the prime target region of the human torso. The U.S. Army with one-quart canteens in battle zones where the temperature is hotter than Texas and dry dry dry and you need to drink a quart every half hour or so.

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Tripoli, the site of the FIRST U.S. Military engagement to prop up capitalism, is apparently fallen, not to economic “free” market forces, but to the Armed Forces. In a book titled “Liberty Reclaimed”, often described as the libertarian bible, the statement is made and reiterated “the only substantial difference between the Soviet Union and the United States isn’t one of raw political power or the freedom of the subjects but one of economic policy.”
 
So, when the Military claimed and still claim that they were and are fighting for freedom, they’re lying. Just as the Pentagon and their contractors lie about Agent Orange, which killed Miss Johnnie’s husband and a countless number of others. Countless because the Pentagon, bowing to their Corporate Masters, denied for more than a decade that Agent Orange actually causes human death. They also have recently claimed in a lawsuit that locks out the people of VietNam from any lawsuits that the people of the Republic of VietNam (Saigon government) sprayed with A.O. (and lots of other Military hardware sold at massive profits by the Corporations who now claim a moral exemption to taxation) were enemy combatants thus not eligible for compensation for their kids being killed. Hmmm… I was told, as was everybody else in America, in Boy Scouts, at Church, in ROTC and later in the Air Force that the U.S. actions in VietNam were for the freedom of the PEOPLE in the R.V.N. Just like the lies told to justify the war in Libya. And Iraq. And Afghanistan. And Nicaragua. And Honduras. And insert the next several “dictatorships” which dare to put their own national interests above the Capitalist Powers.

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The US Department of Defense finally released the list of US soldiers killed on the NATO MH-47 Chinook helicopter downed in Afghanistan.

Median age was in high 30s, which is unsurprising for highly trained Special Ops, but isn’t it interesting that the usual disproportionate percentage of Americans of Color as cannon fodder (see casualty figures) doesn’t extend to the higher-paid military career jobs?
 
Huge props of course to African Americans who decide against being career hitmen. And let’s not neglect the exclusively white composition of the Abu Ghraib snap shot perps, and the docket, however sparse, of other US soldiers accused of war crimes.

I swear the Territory Days Triumphalism celebration (Like the so-called “Islamic Triumphalism” rally around the world last September 11th, remember that? They were celebrating Eid, one of their holidays they celebrate every damn year using the same Lunar Calendar the Israelis use. It’s like Famous Racist Jerkoff Mel Gibson if he would actually go so far as saying that Passover is Jewish Triumphalism for killing Jesus) is getting More Racist every year. Anyway, at Territory Days they’re celebrating Custer, Kit Carson, Gen Palmer, Colonel Chivington… claiming once more that the Sand Creek Massacre was instead a necessary battle because the Cheyenne and Arapaho, who had a legal right to be there, were Threatening Being Bad Indians And Not Doing What Their Newly Self-Appointed White Overlords Told Them To Do. The White Overlords who didn’t have a legal right to be there.

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When Tony posted nearly three years ago (!) about how shocking conditions in Haiti had become, it was a magnet for people saying the starving kids pictures (from Medicins sans frontiers, internationally respected medical aid agency, just not so much here in America) were recycled pictures from Ethiopia 3, 2 and one decade ago.
Then when that was refuted, and before they raised that Stupid Response again, the people of Haiti were blamed for their own misfortunes. As though their LEADERS had actually been empowered by popular vote instead of installed, against the expressed will of the People, by and for the profit of American Corporate Hegemony. Alternating with French Hegemony until the AmeriCorp bought out the French.
We broke it, we supposedly bought it, right? That’s the one of the irRationale for staying in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(rationale is both plural and single, I checked, you didn’t, kiss off) Of course, it’s not the American Corporations who are Paying the bills “we” ran up by breaking all the pottery, although they seem to be getting quite a lot of public funding to manipulate the Public Army and the Public intelligence community and the public “rebuilding” campaign, which mostly consists of taking very expensive videos and photographs of Other People moving the shards around.
Much the same way they’re paid to watch and take pictures while other people bury the Dead “shards” in Haiti. Through public funding for their private “efforts”.

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Former Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has been sentenced to death by the US Iraqi puppet regime. Pending an automatic appeal, the internationally popular diplomat will hang with other henchmen/assistants of Saddam Hussein for the crimes of “willful killing, torture and enforced disappearance of persons.” Do they have the wrong man? Men? Nation? Expeditionary Force? How many consecutive sentences of hangings must the Bush-Obama Team America Junta receive, justice being proportional?

A thousand times NO you ignorant dupes! The ACLU wants me to support the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, so that more gays can join the military. Otherwise-progressives are lobbying for the Dream Act, so that the children of undocumented immigrants can join the US military. Let me also warn you I oppose Affirmative Action for the School of the Americas torture curriculum. And equal pay for female armed-drone specialists. DADT is the homosexual’s exclusive escape clause for war crimes complicity. Is this an LGBT rights campaign to assert that gay soldiers are dumb enough for the military?

Just heard a commercial for a “rent to own” place. One where the payments on a laptop computer totaled two and a half grand for a 450 dollar machine.
A 700 dollar (at the high end price) refrigerator, 159 bux a month for two years, 3816 dollars.
That’s a 400% markup.
So, what’s the Big Deal about Minimum Wage? Why shouldn’t those of us who rent out our labor have to do it not at a profit, not even at a “break-even” rate, but below the actual cost for us to produce our labor? If I were to walk into the Rent-to-own place and demand to only pay $700 for the $700 refrigerator, would I be legitimately allowed to walk out the door, (with a rented dolly and rented pickup of course) with the refrigerator? How about if I only offered $500? Surely he could survive on $20 a month for 2 years.
No? What if I got some Publicly Paid Goons to force him to negotiate on my terms, the way Capital always does when they’re confronted with the silly-ass demands of Labor that the Workers actually be paid an adequate wage?
See, every time this question gets put to the Capitalists, they come off with a duplicate of Squealers Speech from Animal Farm about how the duties of Leadership are so much more strenuous than the duties of Followers that the Pig Leaders deserve, nay, NEED, to have the windfall apples, the milk and to sleep in the farmhouse.

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First the generic word Taliban. Which translates, if I’ve got the wording right, according to the State Department, “soldier”. More or less. Then “blamed for”. Is that a tacit admission that they’re catching the rap but not in fair measure?
Then there’s the notion that the “Taliban” in general and al Qa’eda in particular have been driven far from civilian population centers. So that’s two conflicting if not Mutually Exclusive stories being told by the same party, the Koalition of the Killing.
At its most blunt, its an admission that they’re losing, in the first part, and that they were covering it up with a blanket of lies about having the Taliban driven far away from the civilians.

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There’s a new yellow ribbon on our block. Anymore, yellow ribbon stickers on cars designate wives of servicemen, or realtors sucking up to the military because the only real estate sales here come from Fort Carson’s ever expanding war training. Actually, vehicles of military families are now often festooned wildly with ribbons designating service, regiment and very specific distinctions. Their tailgates mimic the colorful macaroni worn by soldiers on parade. Fine time too, to abandon the old yellow ribbon and the specialization it stood for.

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The Coast Guard is going to set fire to the oil slick from the Deepwater corporate boo-boo. Deliberately. You know, the Coast Guard DO get first pick of the finest confiscated Recreational Psychopharmaceuticals.

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Things you learn while cleaning out your spam folder. Get bigger breasts. Get a bigger penis, get a scholarship to the Police Academy. (???) cash in on your GI bill, join the Army, get compensation from the Nigerian Government for being a victim of a Nigerian scam, just give them all your identification and a valid bank account they can Clean out errr.. transfer the funds to… Classic Viagra, not just regular Viagra, no SIR! It’s CLASSIC and of course goes well with whatever dope makes your breasts bigger. AND… The Chicago Police have been offered from two Illinois Legislators assistance in the form of National Guard troops. OK so that was on the way to the mail folder on Yahoo. But the story is legit.

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A more polite version of the “Human Shields” crap the Pentagon puts out. Oh, and IDF. And, let’s see, the VietMinh, North Korea, the Boxer Rebellion,Oh Here’s One, the Rebellion in the British Colonies on the eastern coast of North America a couple hundred years ago.
Translating Bullshit to English, using my patented Brother Jonah Pentagon to English dictionary, that comes out as Read more »

… and Paul, Ringo and the estates of John and George are gonna sue me…
But in the Smokescreen Media, where rumors of a Black Man having sex is more important than massive firepower being thrown at what was the poorest country on earth, until they dismantled the economy of Haiti, well…
They have to do SOMETHING to distract people from such unimportant stuff like the Former First “lady” Clinton saying that IRAN has a military dictatorship, while and at the same time the U.S. Army is busy dismantling the Local Government in Helmand Province and replacing it with a U.S. Military Dictatorship.

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I admit to feeling less supportive than I ought to for gays pushing for their right to wed — in the midst of every American’s crumbling civil rights — while our country decimates foreign human rights and lives. Couldn’t gay marriage activists at least share the spotlight with peace, out of consideration for the suffering of others, proportionately? How about: Make Love (Marital), Not War. Now gay rights are being made a wedge issue with the dubious right to aspire to be a soldier. Is now the time for us to urge the military to leave no gay behind?

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Great. America has a children’s classic to make girls project a role for themselves in the new war culture. Leave it to Disney to refashion Private Benjamin into Clueless for military recruiters. As goes Israel, so goes Fascism.

Will cause an outcry from those who want to make the Moon into a missile base. Water can be made into fuel and breathable oxygen by splitting the molecule apart using a charge of direct current. Such as can be harvested from Solar Panels. On the moon there’s no such thing as a cloudy day, and one side is eternally night, the other eternally day. Or close enough as to make no practical difference.

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They want war crimes trials, then book ‘em. Senators John Cornyn, Lamar Smith, Joe Lieberman, Jim Webb and John McCain have mouthed off against bringing accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to trial in US civilian courts. They want Mohammed and his fellow detainees tried by military tribunals, which have already been condemned as violations of international law. So has voting to support the attack on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, secret prisons, etc.

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COLORADO COLLEGE- The news from the ISRAEL TODAY lecture is all good. If you’d been there, you might wonder how my takeaway from such a bilious gathering could be upbeat. I’ll tell you. The Palestinian voice was well represented, Israel’s presentation was Old Testament, and the writing on the wall grows ever more clear. And I got a few nice pics.

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The Israel Today event changed the speakers on us, instead of the Israeli Consul General to Los Angeles, it’s the Deputy Consul Gil Artzyeli. But the act’s still on. Get to Gaylord hall sometime before noon, it’s the conference room at the Southeast corner of the Worner Center building. We’ll stand outside with our repudiation of Mr. Artzyeli’s message, then go inside to assure the discussion steers toward being honest. I found this quote by Artzyeli, addressing the Denver Jewish community earlier this year about the Gaza incursion:

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