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Monthly Archives: May 2009
Colombia
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA- We went to a fair last night and heard music much like this! Definitely it was the most interesting fair that I have been to in my life! We also took pictures of the Colombian version of the Buckingham Palace guard and us, getting the trooper to smile in full uniform and regalia! There are friendly death squad people here! Que bueno! La Región Andina Colombiana and Colombia: Los Llanos and Llanos Orientales 1 and Ay mi llanura – Colombia
Earth First! Destroy What Destroys You!
It’s your last chance to see the EARTH FIRST! ROADSHOW as it passes through Denver, on its way to the Round River Rendezvous. Tonight, 7PM at Capitol Hill’s Gypsy House Cafe, at 13th and Marion.
From High Country Earth First:
A multi-dimensional presentation with an introduction to and history of Earth First!, News from the front lines of the radical environmental movement, information on local campaigns and struggles, puppet shows, skill sharing, music, movies, and much more!
Come to the Tuesday night event to learn more about High Country Earth First!, Colorado’s very own Earth First! group, and all of the awesome campaigns we are kicking off!
Agents of injustice
“Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power?
Visit the Navy Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts — a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments, though it may be
‘Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O’er the grave where our hero we buried.’
The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus,etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be “clay,” and “stop a hole to keep the wind away,” but leave that office to his dust at least:
‘I am too high-born to be propertied,
To be a secondary at control,
Or useful serving-man and instrument
To any sovereign state throughout the world.'”
–Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
June 6 — End the Siege of Gaza!
From A.N.S.W.E.R.:
Saturday, June 6 marks the 42nd anniversary of the Israeli seizure of Gaza. Organizations and individuals in solidarity with the people of Palestine will be taking to the streets once again to demand: End the Siege of Gaza!
The world looked on in horror this past winter as Israel mercilessly starved and bombed the people of Gaza, killing around 1,400 Palestinians – at least one-third of whom were children. The Arab world now refers to the dark days from the end of December to mid-January “The Gaza Massacre.” Although the mainstream media no longer focuses on Gaza, the suffering continues there nonetheless. Using the pretext of combating terrorism, Israel has refused to allow in even one truckload of cement into Gaza. In other words, the city that was reduced to rubble still lies in rubble today.All these months later, people are still living in tents and are scarcely able to secure the necessities of life.
People of conscience around the world continue to raise their voices in outrage at this crime against humanity, and in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Gaza. We will also stand for all Palestinian people’s inalienable right to return to their homes from which they were evicted. Let your voice be heard.
Honor heroes not war criminals
A special Memorial Day banner for those who would confuse supporting our troops for a blank check endorsement of militarism. Remember the dead and veterans of 1812. No subsequent war has been about protecting American freedoms, but rather to increase our imperial business interests overseas. Declare another holiday if you must for the blimp-necked brutes who supply the muscle for US belligerency.
US Marines embed officer in Daily Show
NPR just outed Rob Riggle! Maybe you knew it already, I did not, but Comedian Rob Riggle of the Daily Show is a Marine Corps Reserves Officer! The news story this Memorial Day being that Riggle just got promoted. His duty in the Marines? Public Relations Officer! On the DAILY SHOW, handling public relations, and he earned a promotion WTF!
We think of reservists like dry-season firefighters: in theory, volunteering to assist in times of crisis. Certainly “putting out fires” defines the challenges of media relations too.
Since when has it been okay to spend defense funding on making palatable what the military does? Defense Department propaganda aimed at the home front public used to be forbidden, when Josef Goebbels was still a bad example. Now we accept paying soldiers to kill civilians, and we need soldiers stationed in LA to keep us in a laughing mood about it.
So which is Rob Riggle’s day job, and which is his reservist post? Riggle’s reserve duty is mentioned in his Daily Show bio, as if he is a soldier. Basically Riggle is a military propagandist embedded with the Comedy Network.
Utah Phillips (d. 23.05.08) remembered
“We the American People are enormously wealthy, you know that? Who owns all those trees in the National Forest? This is not a rhetorical question– we do! Who owns all of that offshore oil you read about in the papers? We do! Who owns all of those minerals under the federal lands? We do! It’s public property and all. But we elect people to go to Washington –who are those assholes?”
Private Funding to close down the Concentration Camp?
This is a question for the Legal Eagles…
Since the only real issue left in getting rid of this huge albatross around our collective national neck… (the one that’s tied to the even larger Boat Anchor)… Is one of funding the venture…
What would block President Obama and his supporters such as us from attempting to secure private funding for dismantling Guantanamo Torture Center?
Solicit donations in small or large amounts, doesn’t matter much about the amounts because it’s Not Campaign Funding…
Nor would the funding have to come only from U.S. citizens nor only from people the State Department considers “friendly” which is a polite term for “compliant to the point of subservience”.
If the fund is maintained with a certain amount of glaznost (up to the point of “short of announcing names of individual donors”) by the International Red (religious symbol of choice here) People for the American Way and the ACLU…
I’m going to put this question to the local ACLU in an open letter on a local website and in the Colorado Springs Independent, also Same in the Ft Worth Independent and the Dallas Observer.
Since the opposition comes from so-called “fiscal conservatives”, that $80 million should be hanged around THEIR collective neck as a sign of Shame.
There’s a 4-mile stretch of road-to-nowhere proposed here in Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs which begins and ends at Public Bus Stops.
At a cost of $260,000,000 (TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY MILLION) USD.
Then there’s the much higher cost of keeping Guantanamo OPEN. A cost which is classified so we’ll never know the true amount.
But it’s in the range of more than a Billion per annum.
Let’s see, $80 Million to close out the account permanently, or 12x (TWELVE TIMES) the amount Annually to keep the sucker running.
Waiting for the Next Dictator in Chief to replace Democracy and President Obama with Bush Regime, Part II and re-start the whole cycle of state-sponsored Terrorism over again. (I constructed that sentence awkwardly deliberately and on purpose because triple repetition is more effective than mere redundancy.)
And the cost incurred by giving REAL Terrorists an(other) actual issue to use against not only the Socially Retarded Animated Sphincters but against EVERY American by association.
Note to the S.R.A.S.s: Shock and Awe has failed Miserably. so has the policy of “Let them hate as long as they fear … Oderint dum Metuant and here I’ll point out that was the motto of Gaius Julius Caesar II (Caligula)
The overwhelming evidence is that policy has given them a very legitimate reason to hate and obviously, they don’t actually Fear along with it.
In the case of “Shock and Awe” there’s two synonyms for “Fear” explicitly included, and using Fear as a weapon of war fits the classic definition of Terrorism.
The Earth is a witch, men still burn her
May 24 – June 6, new moon to full moon, Wild Roots, Feral Futures has posted its location, Durango, Colorado. Check in for full directions.
National Assembly July 10 in Pittsburgh
Antiwar organization leaders are meeting in Pittsburgh on July 10 for the 2nd annual national conference of the National Assembly to coordinate peace efforts as the world faces more war and increased militarism with a changed face.
Re-enacting and Celebrating Genocide… Just Like Skokie…
As immortalized in the classic Film “The Blues Brothers” where a group of dim-wits put on Historically Authentic Military Uniforms (of the SchutzStaffel) and marched through a largely Jewish suburb of Chicago.
So, on Territory Days, can those of us who are of Indian descent expect to see these guys celebrating the American Genocide?
Now, I KNOW somebody will point out that there are still American Indians alive today.
And say that therefore the Genocide and the attempted full-on Extermination of AMERICANS never happened.
Like the Smallpox Blankets,
or herding the Indians onto the U.S. version of the Warsaw Ghetto,
the mass slaughter of the American Bison (Buffalo, TaTonka…)
encouraged and enforced by the U.S. Army in a policy to starve out the plains tribes.
Colonels Custer and Chivington both making the statement that killing the women and children was necessary
because “nits make lice”
and killing off the men without slaughtering the women and children would be a waste of time,
you have to kill the Breeders.
And in a way, they’re almost right.
The bastards FAILED… we’re still here in spite of the Mass Murders.
By the same token, if they want to judge the U.S. Genocide as “false” on those grounds they would have to judge the Nazi Genocide as “false”
And they can dress up and pretend to be the perpetrators of the Racist Murders and laugh and joke and pretend that it was somehow righteous…
But there will be some, especially ME right here, right now….
Who will call you on it, and remind you that such displays are like these…
Might I remind gently that the largest actions the Klan has staged in the past three decades have been attempts to terrorize Native Americans and Immigrants by putting on Period Costumes
And marching through the towns, villages and neighborhoods where we live.
Like Old Colorado City… where I personally live.
Have a Nice Skokie/Selma/Birmingham…
State sponsored Terrorism wins again…
Gestapo Chief Robert Mueller said “Terrorists who can’t be convicted could be set free under the plan” which the House and Senate have now nixed to close the Torture Center.
Aside from laying aside the basics of Human Rights and the Rule of law he said that the non-convicted (and therefore Not Guilty) Terrorists live in a comfortable environment that’s better than some U.S. prisons.
Nice of him to admit that the AmeriKlan prison system tortures American citizens as well.
The pricks who insist that this is all somehow protecting Freedom are the Same Ones who say that we can’t call George Bush and his lackeys (like the Congress) the War Criminals they truly are, because they haven’t been convicted.
Like the coward murdering Scum of Blackwater.
Or the Police and other Pigs when they, for instance, shoot a little old lady through her door (Etta Collins, Dallas Texas) or shoot a man who’s climbing a fence to get away and claim that he’s trying to throw a rock at them (Border Patrol, Arizona, 1985) or the IDF and Similar Terrorist organizations.
Innocent until proven guilty, They SAY.
Unless it’s somebody who isn’t a Right Wing Gestapo Torture Freak who’s accused.
The ones who practice that double-standard are purely and simply COWARDS.
I know we’ll hear from some who say I don’t have the Right to say that because they “fought for my right to say that”.
A Terrorist Ploy used often here in Colorado Springs.
The rest of our formerly Great Nation too.
They’ve caved in and aquiesced to the Terrorists.
High Country Earth First Denver Meeting
High Country Earth First is hosting the EF! ROADSHOW, in DENVER, May 25-26: Monday 2pm in Cheesman Park, and Tuesday 6pm at the Gypsy House.
Four ongoing EF! projects in Colorado: DENVER: Stop I-70 Expansion through North Denver; SAN LUIS VALLEY: Halt gas drilling in Baca National Wildlife Refuge: and WESTERN SLOPE: Red Cliff mine campaign and Feral Futures (May 24 – June 7).
From “Rockslide,” High Country Earth First!
The need for resistance in solidarity with the wild has never been louder or clearer than it is today; the EF! roadshow is a great tool for growing that resistance. There are countless examples to draw from in the story of radical movements before us: militant labor organizing tours, anti-fascist resistance recruitment and international speaking tours to build cross-border solidarity. The origin of Earth First! itself is credited to a few roadshows that kicked it all off in the early 1980s. We are building on this tradition; akin to a fellowship crossing Middle Earth to amass insurgents to face Mordor head-on.
List-serves and websites aren’t enough
This Roadshow’s primary intention is to strengthen our radical grassroots ecological network. For almost 30 years, we have been an organized voice bridging conservation biology with grassroots community organizing, road blockading and eco-sabotage. In the past 5 years we have seen numbers and experience-level in the EF! movement decline drastically. Yet, our place has never been more urgent. New groups are popping up across the country, but they are detached from many of the groups, history, and skills that came before them. We can’t afford to stumble and make the same mistakes over again.We are at the tail end of a decade where corporate globalization rooted itself in the US and spread across the planet like a plague. And now that the reality of climate change is finally sinking into the mainstream consciousness, the same superpowers that pushed so-called ‘free trade’ policies to exploit wild nature more efficiently are promoting carbon trading in attempt to make a profitable industry out of the disasters they’ve created. The spineless Big Green environmental NGOs are scrambling for crumbs and cutting deals with the industry for shallow public relations victories. Earth First! must rise and recognize that it’s presence is a strong component of making the broader environmental movement truly effective. We are its spine, or as an EF! co-founder, Howie Wolke, has put it, we are the lions of a movement ‘ecosystem’. Our niche is critical, and its presence (or absence) is felt deeply by our surroundings.
We need to reconnect the multi-generational aspect of Earth First! that has fallen by the wayside in recent years. We need to broaden our network’s base—from radical rural grandparents to revolutionary urban youth. We need re-establish lost relationships with scholars and scientists who resonate with us. We need to re-inspire musicians and artists to contribute their passion to our battles.
When it comes down to it, solid movements are based on strong personal relationships; and real relationships don’t go very far over the internet. We need face-to-face interaction to build trust with—and support for—each other.
From EF! Here is a glimpse of ongoing local and national campaigns and projects related to EF!. They could all use your support in a variety of ways—from fundraising to showing up in person. Please contact the organizing groups directly to find out what they need most:
Northern California Redwood Defense
Since the fall of Maxxam/Pacific Lumber, forest defenders in the Redwoods have been directing attention on another logging empire: Green Diamond Resource Company (formerly Simpson). In the last 10 years they have clear-cut 52,000 acres of Northern California forests. They are killing off endangered Spotted Owls and have aspirations to sell off thousands of acres in Humboldt County for Salmon killing suburban development. We have set up multiple treesit villages to oppose the destruction, and we need your help TODAY.
www.efhumboldt.org
Appalachian Anti-Mountain Top Removal
The presence of coal plants are threats to the lives within both the human community and the mountain ecosystem. One of the most biologically flourishing areas of the world is being environmentally and socially impoverished by companies practicing mountain top removal. Mountain top removal clogs streams, destroys forests, threatens biodiversity and forces coalfield residents into the unjust choice between income and well-being.
www.blueridgeef.com
Stop I-69 in Indiana
I-69 is a NAFTA superhighway, already constructed from Canada to Indianapolis and projected to extend down into Mexico. This highway is intended for the mass transportation of goods and resources, to further exploit workers and the land, and to lessen companies’ accountability in terms of human and environmental rights. In 2008, they began construction of this road through southwestern Indiana, which will evict hundreds of rural families, destroy hundreds of acres of land, and devastate the habitats of countless species of animals, including the endangered Indiana Bat. www.stopi69.wordpress.com
Fight Development in the North Woods of Maine
The largest piece of undeveloped land east of the Mississippi is under attack. Plum Creek, the nation’s largest corporate landowner, is in the process of rezoning 20,000 acres of the Moosehead Lake region in Maine for luxury house and resorts, while trying to balance it off with a fraudulent conservation easement plan. This plan would still allow timber harvesting, commercial water extraction and the building of new infrastructure, among many other ecologically devastating practices. www.maineearthfirst.wordpress.com
Defend the Last Free-Roaming Wild Buffalo in Montana
The Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) is the only group working in the field, everyday, to stop the slaughter and harassment of Yellowstone’s wild buffalo. Volunteers from around the world defend buffalo on their traditional winter habitat and advocate for their protection. Our daily patrols stand with the buffalo on the ground they choose to be on, and document every move made against them. Tactics range from video documentation to nonviolent civil disobedience. www.buffalofieldcampaign.org
Fight new Copper Mines and Roads in the Deserts of Arizona
Chuk’shon Earth First! is fighting the proposed Rosemont Copper Mine in the Santa Rita Mountains, which is greenwashing itself by claiming a need for increased copper extraction for the solar panel industry. The group is also opposing the expansion of I-10, part of the Department of Transportation’s “Corridors of the Future” program to increase capacity of global industrial commerce. The proposed I-10 Bypass would bisect wild/rural lands and facilitate more sprawl between Tucson and Phoenix. www.chukshonef.wordpress.com
Blue Mountain Biodiversity Project in eastern Oregon
Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project (BMBP) formed in 1991 to increase regional and national awareness of the Blue Mountains ecosystems, to ensure the protection for and reintroduction of diverse native wildlife species, to promote ecologically sound restoration and address the root causes of ecological and community instability. They have trained countless EF!ers is forest monitoring. They are one of the country’s premier grassroots ‘paper-wrenchers’, filing legal challenges that help make our blockades successful. They can be reached at 541-385-9167
Stop Florida Power & Light from trashing the Everglades
Everglades Earth First! (EEF!) have been battling FPL’s plans to build the country’s largest fossil fuel power plant in the Loxahatchee Basin; a headwaters to the remaining Everglades ecosystem. EEF! Is also challenging over 500 miles of new gas pipelines and 2 new Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) facilities. Get more details: www.evergladesearthfirst.org
Stop Gas Drilling in Western New York
There is a proposal on the table to begin one of the largest fossil fuel exploration projects in the country. This project would result hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 emissions, along with the impacts of pipelines, power plants, and new LNG storage facilities. Get in touch with Shale Shock: www.shaleshock.org
Bank of America, Stop Funding Coal!
A national campaign is well underway to stop Bank of America (BoA), who is the largest investor to Mountain Top Removal coal mining. The company recently offered lip-service to address their support for the coal industry, but have made no real steps towards cutting ties with King Coal. With BoA locations in cities across the U.S., this campaign can easily be supported in a decentralized fashion. Give ‘em hell! For more info: www.ran.org
No 2010 Olympics
The Native Youth Movement and other First Nations groups in occupied Canada have called for full-scale resistance to the Winter Olympics proposed in British Colombia. The Olympics proposal includes a mess of development, ski-resorts and infrastructure on indigenous land. Learn more at: www.no2010.com
Root Force
This project is a research database and strategic think tank for direct action intended to target corporate/colonial infrastructure, such as: roads, dams, power plants, and mines. Their website offers background information on transnational companies, government agencies and their local affiliations across the United States. www.rootforce.org
Free those illegally imprisoned at Gitmo
When human rights organizations have called for CLOSING GUANTANAMO, they don’t mean AND CARRY ON ELSEWHERE. “Gitmo” is about the illegal detention and torture of human beings. What kind of rubes are we dealing with?
Guantanamo is an illegal entity. It’s location outside US dominion, and outside Cuba’s border, on technicalities, has been used to pretend there’s a gray area outside the rule of international law. What’s being done inside Guantanamo, holding people indefinitely without bringing charges against them, torture, military commissions, is expressly illegal. Calls to shut Guantanamo down are calls to end the charade of a legal loophole, but they are primarily demands that the immoral behavior be stopped.
We don’t shut down brothels while arranging for their captives to work elsewhere. Polluters aren’t expected merely to shift their poison pipelines into other streams. We don’t make arrangements for drug dealers to relocate before we close a crack house or meth lab.
Reenacting wars of colonial imperialism
COLORADO SPRINGS, 1776. District 12 elementary school 5th graders reenacted a couple Revolutionary War battles, where the heretofore unstoppable Red Coats fought in vain to crush the American insurgency.
Aided by Awakening Councils of British Loyalists, the English troops threw overwhelming force against Colonial militias who would not fight fair.
Comprised mainly of army irregulars, dressed often as ordinary civilians, because they were, the “American” rebels would not renounce terrorist tactics, human shields and unconventional warfare.
British soldiers were conscripted from among the families who could afford neither education or apprenticeships to the skilled trades. Whereas their Tory collaborator were from the colonies’ wealthy landowners.
The British armies represented a coalition from client states of the empire, such as the Scottish Highlanders. These occupation forces supplemented their number with private contractor mercenaries, the professionally equipped, widely despised Hessians.
The Continental insurgency was accused of including foreign fighters.
British military superiority was overwhelming, wherever they concentrated their forces, the rebels withdrew. But there were never enough British soldiers deployed to hold the entire countryside.
The American Freedom Fighters were assisted by France, home of “French Fries,” later called “Freedom Fries,” and the Statue of Liberty.
After eight long years of far flung military engagements, incurring an insurmountable national debt, the English conceded victory to the separatists in what became known as the American War of Independence.
EPILOG:
Playing the heavy in a reenactment of the US patriotic struggle against British occupation, was not so bad as playing a turncoat.
Most Americans look back and picture themselves having been Lexington Minutemen, or Kentucky Rangers or Continental Marines, but many of our forefathers fought against the patriots. The more ignoble among the collaborators were: Simcoe’s Queen’s Rangers, the Loyal Irish Volunteers, the New Jersey Volunteers, Brant’s Volunteers, Butler’s Rangers, Caldwell’s Company, Docksteader’s Rangers, DeLancey’s Brigade, Brewerton’s Company, the King’s Royal Regiment, the Loyal American Regiment, the Royal American Volunteers, the Queen’s Rangers, and Tarleton’s British Legion.
POSTSCRIPT:
Reports of atrocities were dismissed as enemy propaganda. Evidence emerges later of what happens when infantry are left to their own initiative. Witness: stretcher-bearers and wounded come upon a British patrol coming off the lunch-hour, and are put to the bayonet.
Activists have so far failed to construct a real American Antiwar Movement
Despite the grass roots sentiment against all the bloodshed that Bush and now Barack Obama are engaged in, activists in the US have ever failed to construct a real Antiwar Movement. Do you consider that to be a harsh judgment on my part? Then please consider the fact that the US is moving towards the end of what will a decade long occupation of Afghanistan, and yet there has not been one antiwar demonstration, on even a local yet alone a national level, that has focused on opposing this!
As Barack Obama escalates US war making further and into one more new country, Pakistan, the misleaders of the so-called US ‘Peace’ Movement remain totally silent and inactive about it.
Further, there never was any public antiwar reaction to the occupation and demolishing of Somalia, the Israeli destruction of Lebanon in 2006, and also the US moves against Russia with its Georgian adventure at big time war starting, that boom-a-ranged back into the faces of the Republican Klan, absolutely not because the ‘Peace’ movement ever did or said anything in opposition to that war in Southern Ossetia. And even with the issue of blatant US use of torture, the opposition to government terrorism remains scant and ephemeral.
The US public is utterly demoralized and unaware of its own power, thanks to ‘Peace’ misleadership itself, which seems to believe that only tiny groups of religiously motivated New Agers can come together and only for the most milquetoast reasons. Let me illustrate with the local PPJPC (Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission) and their PPJPC May calendar of inactivity. Look at it and weep! They simply plan to not mobilize themselves against THEIR President. Sad to say, the national groups they affiliate with are about on the same wave length, too.
Instead of being leaders, the misleaders who call themselves ‘Peace’ activists are leaders in public apathy and not challengers of it. Instead of smashing the War State, they seem to want to be junior partners to it. They are about as alternative as National Public Radio, KRCC, and The not so Independent are here in the local area. In short, they are not opponents to war making at all.
Without an end to the permanent War State of our American ruling class, there will be no economic or political stability to build a future for us in America. In fact, without an end to this constant construction for the War machine, the Earth is headed for a Dead End. We are currently just sleep walking toward oblivion and there simply is no way to sugar coat that basic fact. Wake up, American Antiwar Movement. You have to organize yourselves, because,People… nobody else is going to do it for you. Join and work with Coloradans for Peace here in Colorado Springs.
A Night to disHonor Israeli indoctrination
GOOD NEWS FOR COLORADO SPRINGS- Not enough endtime zealots turned out to make today’s event scary, although those who did approach us with arguments were disturbing enough. By the way, the “Jewish Market” turned out to be a dozen tables, 75% of them with books, basically free propaganda literature (much of it from StandWithUs) making the case that Israel can do no wrong.
Zionism’s unholy alliance
Tonight is Colorado Springs’ first annual A Night to Honor Israel, an event put on by the local chapter of Christians United for Israel. On the face of it — at least on the flyer for it — the gathering appears to be an outreach of the Christian community to our Biblical compatriots in their “hour of need”, whatever that means. Ostensibly a lovely gesture, but below the surface it’s murkier.
Does anyone remember Jerry Falwell? In 1979, Falwell founded the political lobby known as the Moral Majority on the following four principles:
1. opposition to abortion
2. support of the traditional family
3. strong American military
4. unconditional support for Israel
Abortion, family, even military I understand. But unconditional support for Israel? Why would right-wing Christians be unabashedly pro-Israel? Jerry Falwell saw Israel’s fate as a crucial international issue for Christians because of the role it plays in Biblical eschatological schemes.
To Christian Zionists, the land of Israel is covenant land — land that belongs not to Jews or Arabs but to God himself. It is on God’s land that the Second Coming of Christ will occur. It is on God’s land where the Chosen, the Jewish people, will perish by the millions in the battle of Armageddon, excepting those few Jews who accept Christ’s final offer of salvation. To Christians, Israel is a key player in the Biblical apocalypse and little more. Christian Zionism is, at its core, supremely self-centered and anti-semitic.
Not surprisingly, Christian Zionists are a major obstacle to a just peace between Palestine and Israel, pressuring both the U.S. and secular Israeli governments to refuse to cede a single inch of the Promised Land, indeed to take the entire West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and all of Jerusalem — a message that American Jews are more than happy to embrace.
Since 9/11 a growing contingent of the Christian Right has been aligned with Israel in another important respect. Both see militant Islam as the greatest threat to Judeo-Christian culture, a common enemy that must be defeated. Pastor John Hagee, who founded Christians United for Israel with the active assistance of none other than Jerry Falwell, has called for Israel to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran, not to ensure the safety of the Jewish homeland, but to hasten Christ’s return to earth and the certain annihilation of the Jewish people. I guess it is acceptable to be anti-semitic as long as you’re pro-Israel.
Although called to be peacemakers, Christian Zionists are happy to warmonger in the Middle East and will keep continued pressure on the U.S. government to support Israel’s right to exist and be safe in the midst of the Islamic world — at least until the Second Coming provides the Final Solution.
Pimping gambling with the Preakness
I have to admit I took my eyes off Mine That Bird. Again.
Our own IDF propagandist blows gasket
More from our IP-swapping blog spammer in Newark NJ: He pretends to be a NYU law student, although he trolls here 24/7; he says he’s read over 1000 books on the Middle East, but his comments never stray from pro-Israel website talking-points –even his “personal anecdotes” can be traced to Israel Internet Megaphone PDFs.
In reality he’s an appliance salesman in New Jersey who changes his username and IP to appear to be several people, who all bring up Israel, regardless the subject. My guess is he’s under the employ of the IDF Haganah propaganda arm, of which the US internet PR work is subcontracted to US private military contractors, staffed by telecommuting veteran invalids, but that’s entirely conjecture.
The evolution of “David-Daniel-Melissa’s” spam grew from dullard contradictions to flat out goading when we cut him off. He asserts we censored his comments out of cowardice because we couldn’t refute them. Want a look-see at what you’ve been missing? It appears to me that IDF hiring standards have to be lower than even those of US military recruiters.
We present these statements to give context to his earlier propaganda spam:
David Chinitz, IP: 71.187.131.55, May 14, 5:51 PM
Hey, poor white trash, go back to high school and graduate before writing about foreign affairs, you dumb, ugly ass.
David Chinitz, IP: 71.187.131.55, May 14, 8:27 PM
Hey, Eric, how’s life for the ball-less wonder?
David Chinitz, IP: 96.242.105.25, May 15, 2:58 PM
Yo, members of the Colorado Trailer Trash Society. How are you. Eric, grow a pair of balls, yet, you dumb coward.
Mamie Eisenhower, IP: 96.242.100.31, May 16, 11:01 AM
Hey Tony, how’s the world of white trash today. Seems your ignorance extends far and wide, eh? Life must be tough for a high school drop out and a total degenerate.
Mamie Eisenhower, IP: 96.242.100.31, May 16, 11:03 AM
But, Tony, you’re a high school dropout and a degenerate doper and alky, making you the ultimate dumb ass, you dumb ass. You are a pathietic example of human life.
Mamie Eisenhower, IP: 96.242.100.31, May 16, 11:06 AM
Eric, why don’t you impress everyone with your impeccable academic credentials? LOL You’re as dumb as your high school dropout colleague Tony and the proctologist’s assistant Marie. What a sorry lot you losers are.
The Pope, IP: 96.242.100.31, May 16, 3:15 PM
The staff of NMT are some of the most uneducated white trash losers I’ve ever come across. You have Eric, who attended community college, Tony, a drunk high school drop out junkie and Marie, a proctologist’s assistant. Such a collection of cretins is hard to find elsewhere.
Flying Nun, IP: 96.242.100.31, May 16, 3:18 PM
I must agree. Eric, Tony and Marie are three of the most uneducated misfits I’ve ever seen. Eric and Tony delete posts that they are incapable of refuting, making thie blog totally bogus, baby!
Blake, IP: 96.242.100.31, May 16, 4:45 PM
Marie, what is worse, being a proctologist’s assistant, or a drunken, drugged out high school drop-out like Tony?
Picasso, IP: 96.242.100.31, May 16, 6:07 PM
The Israelis are doing the opposite of taking land, you dummies. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and returned the Sinai to Egypt, which was three times the size of Israel. Being drunk, drug addicted and a high school dropout is such a pathetic way to go throug life.
Stand united against Christian Endtimers who cheerlead colonial war for Zionism
SUNDAY 5/17- Colorado Springs Christians United For Israel has scheduled A Night to Honor Israel to instruct one and all “WHY it is necessary to stand united for Israel: “Biblically, Morally, Geo-politically” on Sunday May 17, from 3pm-7pm at the City Auditorium. Can you guess there will be something to say about this outside?
COLORADANS FOR PEACE will be providing counterbalance to the racist war-mongering outside the City Auditorium, from before 3pm Sunday, until this message is heard: JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE, NO WAR WITH IRAN.
With the consent and aid of the US, Israel most recently committed horrible atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon, and they continue to seize Palestinian land and oppress the Palestinian people. Inciting America’s Christian community to rally for Zionist racism is exactly what will not serve the cause of peace in the Middle East.
The CUFI invite reads: “Join us for Colorado Springs’ first ever Night to Honor Israel as Christian and Jewish communities gather in a show of support for Israel. The event boasts traditional Israeli song and dance, a beautiful banner presentation of the Tribes of Israel, and dynamic speakers that will convey the importance of standing with Israel and encourage us to action. There will be an Israeli Marketplace, and the event will close with a light reception.”
Which sounds reasonable enough, until of course the mention of “encourage us to action.” By action, the CUFI guest speakers mean war with Iran.
The Colorado Springs event is one of scores scheduled across the country this weekend, intended as “a gift to Israel on the anniversary of her creation,” an expression of unconditional support “in Israel’s hour of need.” Israel has in the last hour cast Lebanon and Gaza into death throes, as it grades the remainder of Palestine for Jewish settlements. By hour of need, do they mean, the threat posed by Iran acquiring nuclear weapons? Iran has never threatened the “destruction of Israel” other than the expressed hope that her Zionist system of apartheid borders be dissolved and the inhabitants of the region be permitted a democratic regime of their choosing.
Here are some sample banner slogans:
CHRISTIAN RIGHT + ZIONISM = UNHOLY ALLIANCE
WHAT FRIEND OF ISRAEL CONDEMNS JEWS TO HELL?
ISRAEL IS NOT YOUR ESCHATOLOGICAL PAWN
CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS ARE ANTI-SEMITES
Here’s the COLORADANS FOR PEACE invite, please pass it around!
Fellow peace activists,
If you haven’t heard already, we will be protesting “A NIGHT TO HONOR ISRAEL” to be held at the Colorado Springs City Auditorium this Sunday. The event is sponsored by Christians United For Israel, which teaches unconditional support of Israel, and is currently advocating for a US attack on Iran.This event is touted as the “First Annual” for Colorado Springs, and is among 60 happening on the same day all over the country as “a gift to Israel.” The same featured speakers have been traveling the US over the last several months urging unilateral support for Israel “in her hour of great need.”
COLORADANS FOR PEACE is determined to show that the City of Colorado Springs must not be considered an accomplice to Israel’s racist motives and criminal actions. We believe that peace in the Middle East will not be reached by escalated militarism and preemptive violence.
Please contact whomever you think would be interested. We will assemble on the sidewalk across the street from the City Auditorium at 221 E. Kiowa Street, between Nevada Ave and Weber Street. We’ll be there from 3pm to 6pm or so, serving as peaceful witness against war and racism. We will have Palestinian flags and banners which read OCCUPATION IS A CRIME and STAND WITH GAZA, among others. More information, and updates can be found at http://coloradansforpeace.org
WHAT: Witness for peace at COS Pro-Israel rally
WHERE: Across from City Auditorium at 221 E. Kiowa St.
WHEN: Sunday May 17, from 3 PM to 6 PM,
WHO: Coloradans For Peace with other organizations working toward promoting peace in the Middle EastFeel free to call me if you have any questions. I can be reached at 719.460.2836. Whatever assistance you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
Yours,
Eric Verlo
Coloradans For Peace
Borel & Mine That Bird moon horseracing
To watch the replay of Calvin Borel’s ride at Churchill Downs is more captivating than it was live. Even anticipating the 50 to 1 upset, Mine That Bird‘s final stretch weave from last place to first looks like an athletic feat for Maradona.
It happened so fast, Mine That Bird was mentioned only once before the end of the race, even then it was almost an omission. Borel was so far behind, laying back after getting squeezed coming out of the gate by Papa Clem and Join In the Dance, that the broadcast announcer missed him entirely, declaring that “the last of them all is Mr. Hot Stuff.” Midway through his next phrase he corrects himself to add that “–well behind the rest of them is Mine That Bird.”
From that point, Mine That Bird’s wild ride is ignored even beyond his breakthrough into the lead. As Borel bursts into contention along the inside rail, the announcer erupts “Pioneer of the Nile!” by mistake, or if even because he was looking elsewhere. It isn’t until Borel pulls to a several length lead that Mine That Bird gets a credit. Such was the upset.
Seen from the aerial view, the finish was not a surprise at all. Accelerating into the last turn, Borel and Mine That Bird wove between the others like they were plotting the shortest line between points. The speed differential reminded me of a Grand Prix racer when he’s passing the cars he’s already lapped. As the improbable pair began gaining, their momentum seemed all but irresistible. Watching the replay, you can see Borel’s attack, and marvel that it escaped the attention of all the professionals who usually weigh in so liberally with effusive expertise.
Horse racing is a legitimization of eugenics, meaning that when there is money on the line, genetic supremacy is hard science. That is perhaps what is so invigorating about the Churchill Downs upset. Calvin Borel, the physical personification of a toothless street-corner imbecile, and Mine That Bird, a horse sold for a price less than your average Paint, trained outside the gated enclaves of Kentucky.
RACE RESULT with ENTRY NUMBERS:
1. Mine That Bird #8
2. Pioneer of the Nile #16
3. Musket Man #2
4. Papa Clem #7
5. Chocolate Candy #11
6. Summer Bird #17
7. Join in the Dance #9
8. Regal Ransom #10
9. West Side Bernie #1
10. General Quarters #12
11. Dunkirk #15
12. Hold Me Back #5
13. Advice #4
14. Desert Party #19
15. Mr. Hot Stuff #3
16. Atomic Rain #14
17. Nowhere to Hide #18
18. Friesan Fire #6
19. Flying Private #20
Why be bothered by horrors of detainees
President Obama is blocking the release of further detainee abuse photos. Would more images of outrages committed against US detainees inflame sentiment against US troops? No doubt. Would more of such photos add nothing to the national dialog? Well… If you consider that the media is still vacillating on the definition of waterboarding, torturers and the lawyers who sanctioned torture are being exempted from prosecution, and war criminals like Dick Cheney are bragging about their participation, maybe there’s room for more dialog.
Journalist Seymour Hersh has seen the additional photographs. He’s even recounted the videos of young Iraqi boy detainees being raped by their captors. Hersh described that the most haunting aspect were the boys’ screams. Barack Obama doesn’t want the American conscience haunted by any such brutalities.
Name is Yettaw, John Hasenfus Yettaw.
Ugly American John William Yettaw snapped this picture of himself before swimming across a Burmese lake to meet with detained Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Yettaw claims to be writing an inspirational book on heroes and was apprehended on his return lap. Now Suu Kyi is facing charges of violating the conditions of her house arrest.
The last time a faceless middle-aged American bungled into world events, his funny name was Eugene Hasenfus, another pot-bellied religious Vietnam vet, who turned out to be a private contractor for the CIA. Could Yettaw have been plumbing covert communications equipment in anticipation of Suu Kyi’s role in Myanmar’s upcoming elections, or was Yettaw intended to trip the wire?