COLORADO SPRINGS- For nine months now Carpenters Union Local 515 has been protesting GE Johnson’s use of Spacecon subcontractors who misclassify workers to substantially evade labor costs. Everyday, union members like Jose Cano man this banner at Cascade Avenue, between Bijou and Kiowa, with no end in sight.

COLORADO SPRINGS- I’m not sure which is the more insulting, being accused of murder, or being likened to a hayseed Howdy Doody with nothing between his ears.

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Photos by Ryan.

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You can hold forums attended by the faithful, or beat your breast where only the choir can hear, but when there’s a crowd, you’re a regular shrinking violet. The meek don’t inherit the earth, they inherit the dirt. Last Saturday the Colorado Springs PPJPC didn’t tell its members about the opportunity to participate in the city’s biggest parade. And it declined to lend Coloradans For Peace the green flags with which it had marched the year before. What exactly are local citizens supposed to think is happening in the local peace community?

UPDATE MARCH 21 MARCH ON PENTAGON: Students & Communities Mobilize to March on the Pentagon and the Corporate War Profiteers

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I think there’s an interesting St Patrick’s Day theme in the making… Americans have always opposed occupation. Irish Americans supported the IRA’s fight against the British. And wasn’t our first mantra “Don’t Tread on Me?”

A.N.S.W.E.R. has 7 Reasons to March on DC. We can borrow them!
- The war in Afghanistan is expanding and widening.
- 350,000 U.S. troops and US-paid contractors still occupy Iraq.
- Israel’s Siege of Gaza remains in place, with backing of Washington.
- Obama’s Justice Department is continuing the policy of renditions.
- Air strikes on Pakistan are killing an increasingly number of civilians.
- The real Pentagon war budget is over $1.3 trillion annually.
- More than 20 million people are now unemployed and under-employed.

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FREE GAZA Rally, January 18, Colorado Springs

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Who can begrudge Palestinians for resisting annihilation ? Our PC ideal would be to resist with nonviolence, bare your chest and dare the IDF soldiers to kill you. But they will, and as Israel has forbidden foreign cameras, who will be moved by your sacrifice?

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WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE TO JOLT THE CONSCIENCE OF ISRAEL?!
IDF killings continue. Soldiers are being given “free-fire-zone” license!
 
Meet this weekend, SUN, Jan 18 at 1PM, Acacia Park, at the torii gate, a traditional site for antiwar protest.
 
The Shinto arch at Nevada Ave and Bijou Street commemorates our sister city of Fuji-yoshida, Japan. The plaque reads: “the purpose of the sister city relationship is to promote understanding between the people of our two countries and cities”

COLORADO SPRINGS- Governor Bill Ritter introduced his appointment to the US Senate, political novice Michael Bennet, to an audience of Springs Democrats today. Judging just by Bennet’s own words, this development is about as disappointing as it gets. Full report after this note:

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Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and his pick to replace Senator Ken Salazar, Denver School Superintendent Michael Bennet, will be visiting Colorado Springs on Saturday, Jan 10. You’re invited to meet the two at the Penrose Public Library at 12noon. COME AT 11AM, make them heed their constituents and stop the US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and GAZA.
 
Let’s show them that Colorado isn’t just about soldiers and weapons contractors earning their livelihood from the expenditure of ordnance.

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COLO. SPRINGS- Some pictures from today’s ANSWER / UFPJ protest of Israel’s continued attacks on Gaza. Meanwhile Israel launched more air attacks and continued to mobilize forces in preparation for a ground “incursion.”

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A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) is calling for a national day of action, TUESDAY December 30, to protest Israel’s sudden open-ended aggression against the non-Jews of Occupied Palestine. Israeli soldiers are being mobilized for an invasion of the Gaza Strip, the inhabitants of which have already been softened under a brutal extended embargo. Sound familiar?

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The ACLU has uncovered a police report which reveals that the first gassing of protesters at the DNC was in response to actions by an undercover provocateur. The police explain their ruse was to extract the infiltrator from the crowd without blowing his cover, but those who were there saw the maneuver’s real purpose. The Denver Post wrote DNC police staged confrontation that prompted pepper spray

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If the McCain-Palin ticket survives Tsunami Obama, to reconstitute a GOP win or draw in the late hours of election eve, several options are availing themselves for the American people’s political baptism. In the event of a need for an RU468, Colorado activists will be gathering 9am at the Capitol steps in Denver. For locations nationwide, or to learn what contingency plans are being prepared near you, check Liberty Tree, The Foundation for a Democratic Revolution.

DENVER- “Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will speak at an 11:30 a.m. Sunday rally in Denver’s Civic Center park … Gates for Obama’s Denver rally open at 10 a.m. Members of the public should enter at the Greek Theater on West 14th Avenue Parkway between Bannock and Broadway … For security reasons, attendees are asked to not bring bags and to limit personal items. No signs or banners will be permitted.” Does it sound like they’re trying to set up an Obama-flocked-by-thousands St Louis/Berlin style backdrop? I think this scene begs for an ANTIWAR reminder. OBAMA: NO WAR ON IRAN/AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN/SUDAN

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COLORADO SPRINGS- At Sarah Palin’s rally at Sky Sox Stadium on Monday, it was really depressing to see the thousands of people still turning up to see her. But what a bunch they were, and many of them brought children. A few local Dems showed up at 6am to demonstrate for Obama, and a hairy counter-protester set up a t-shirt stand across the street. He kept shouting “Obama sucks” every few seconds. However inane, his effect was demoralizing. He struck this fitting pose when he saw me aim my camera.

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HELLO COLORADO SPRINGS- How is this for a busy Monday?
6AM-8:00AM -Sky Sox Stadium: welcome chorus for Sarah Palin
9AM – County Commission: public comment on Bob Balink abuses
12AM – Monday noon antiwar vigil (half-hour PEACE break!)
12:30AM-2PM – CC student EARLY VOTING MARCH downtown

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COLORADO SPRINGS- We held posters that read SEIZE THE FED, JAIL NOT BAIL-OUT, FORECLOSE ON WALLSTREET, NO REWARD FOR HIGH RISK, and of course NO BUSH BAILOUT. When we got rebuttals, it went like this: “Why do you bring Bush into this? Bush doesn’t have anything to do with the bailout.” We needed to complain to Barack, apparently.

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MEET -AFTER WORK- TUESDAY at the corner of SMITH BARNEY and MORGAN STANLEY, where DAIN RAUSCHER meets BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON at the Plaza of the Rockies Building. That’s where Colorado Springs needs to voice its objections to a bailout for the Wall Street extortionists. Don’t hand over America’s wealth to the money traders! Scribble your sentiments on the back of whatever poster-board is lying around your office and meet at TEJON & COLORADO from 4:30-5:30PM. Bring determination to tell them NO! (You can RSVP with TrueMajority.)

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My favorite visual from Thursday’s Wall Street action: EAT THE RICH, invoking Peter Richardson’s Class War cult classic. The bastards are making a grab for $700 BILLION in this salvo. Which proposition is the more preposterous?
 
What’s with the Wall Street building garbed in the Stars and Stripes? Odd enough that the architecture impersonates a courthouse or mausoleum. Is the stock market a federal agency? Draped in Red, White and Blue it looks like the command center of the Capitalist empire.

COLORADO COLLEGE- A friend of mine, not without influence at CC, shared my alarm at the police security buildup at the Denver DNC.

Ultimately however, he considered the development to be of concern chiefly to those inclined to protest. Less relevant to those disinclined.

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