Uproot nuclear missiles in our backyard

Uproot not upgrade nuclear missiles in our backyard
Vigil to commemorate Trinity atomic test blast, July 16, 1945
Nuclear SILO N-8, Weld County, 1pm Saturday, July 14, 2007
(CITIZENS FOR PEACE IN SPACE carpool starts at PPJPC at 9:30am)

From Bill Sulzman of Citizens for Peace In Space:
UPROOT, DON’T UPGRADE MISSILES IN OUR BACKYARD

The nuclear non proliferation treaty (1970) and the International Court of Justice opinion (1996) both call for the dismantling of all nuclear arsenals and the prevention of new nuclear weapons anywhere.

U.S. policy ignores both principles. Nuclear silo N-8 in Weld County should be uprooted not upgraded. Ranchers and farmers know the scourge that weeds represent. For good things to grow bad ones have to be eliminated and replaced. The 49 Minuteman III missiles in our state and the other 451 spread across parts of Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana and North Dakota are illegal, immoral and noxious for the whole world. They need to be eliminated to restore the integrity of our state and our country.

Join us on July 14 at Nuclear silo N-8 in Weld County, the site of the 2002 Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares action. Help us express our gratitude to Sisters Ardeth, Carol and Jackie and to Fr Carl Kabat who remains imprisoned for a similar action in North Dakota last year. We will also remember the Trinity atomic blast which occurred July 16, 1945.

The vigil at the silo will start at 1:00. We will leave in a carpool from the Justice and Peace Office, 214 E. Vermijo Colorado Springs at 9:30 AM on Saturday July 14. For more details call 389 0644. We will have maps for those who are driving.

Impeach Me -go ahead I dare ya

Remember this taunt? Knock my block off, (chip on my shoulder), Go ahead, I dare ya.
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

WHEREAS Lewis Libby was convicted in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in the case United States v. Libby, Crim. No. 05-394 (RBW), for which a sentence of 30 months’ imprisonment, 2 years’ supervised release, a fine of $250,000, and a special assessment of $400 was imposed on June 22, 2007;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, pursuant to my powers under Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, do hereby commute the prison terms imposed by the sentence upon the said Lewis Libby to expire immediately, leaving intact and in effect the two-year term of supervised release, with all its conditions, and all other components of the sentence.

IN WITNESS THEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand and seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Farfour Mouse vs Mickey

It’s hard to believe how lost in LaLaLa Land are America’s proZionist conservatives. One big issue for some of them is the supposed ‘hostage taking’ of Mickey Mouse by Gaza Strip’s Farfour Mouse. I’m not making this stuff up either! See Farfour for yourself.

These lunatics of the American Right don’t get riled up about what Israel and the US have done to the million plus people of the Gaza Strip, way over 50% of them children. It matters not the least to them that Gaza has the lowest standard fo living in the world, and that most of the inhabitants living in this total misery are children. No. Instead they are worried about this mouse, Farfour! They’re worried that he’s a terrorist rat teaching the kids to hate! Can you imagine how lost in nonsense these nuts actually are? They’re our neighbors, too. Scary.

Here is another clip with some CNN commentary of Farfour in action, but go read the American posters’ comments and see who is really sick in the head. And nobody seems too concerned about Farfoura. But then again she’s not a mouse, is she? She’s more the butterfly… The Daffy Zionist Ducks can handle that. But don’t pick on Walt’s pre-WW2 made fascist rodent, or they get all upset.

And nobody seems to care about Walt Disney himself. He wa a rather loathsome character.
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Below is the real situation in Gaza, where per capita GDP is now around $500-$600 per year and falling.
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on the 40th anniversary of occupation my statement in the UN
SPECIAL MEETING TO MARK 40 YEARS OF OCCUPATION
BY ISRAEL OF THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORY,
INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM

UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
7 June 2007
STATEMENT BY

DR. MONA EL FARRA
PROJECTS DIRECTOR
MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN’S ALLIANCE

Red Crescent Society For Gaza Strip
GAZA

?Your Excellency Mr. Paul Badji, Chairman of the Committee,
Distinguished guests and Excellencies,

It is my honour to be amongst you today, despite the gravity of the occasion being commemorated, on this 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

First, let me say that 2007 is the 40th anniversary of 59 years of the brutal occupation of the Palestinian people.

As we called for an end to apartheid in South Africa and the right of all people to live together and have equal rights, we must now, before it is too late, call for true justice for the Palestinians.

Today, we heard about the economic plight of the Palestinian people. We heard about Palestinians in Israeli prisons which number close to 8,000 men and women, including approximately 350 children under the age of 14, most of whom have been tortured.

How many UN resolutions must be passed by the UN? How many years of calling for 2 States before there is an understanding that Israel continues its aggression on the ground against women, children and men, the demolition of thousands of homes and the continued building of the apartheid wall?

Let us not just speak of the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza. We must never forget those who live as second-class citizens inside Israel and most of all, those who were forced from their homes and lands in 1948.

Now is the time to call for a real peace, with justice for all the children in the region. This can only be accomplished by supporting the right of return of all Palestinians.

Now is the time to acknowledge that the two-State solution is not the answer.

From Gaza I came, where the children of my country have no safe homes, no safe streets, no proper and adequate health facilities, no proper food, clean water, or regular electrical power, no recreational activities and no good education. The list of deprivation of their basic needs is too long to count.

I lived this occupation as a child, and am still living it as an adult. I can see it in the eyes of my daughter when she is afraid, tired, restless and exhausted because of the unsafe and unpredictable quality of life in Gaza under occupation. I saw it as soon as we crossed the borders on our way to Egypt, where she sensed something new and different: freedom, safety and space. Gaza is like a big, unsafe prison. And it is a very small place for 1.4 million people, half of whom are children.

I face the occupation every day during my work when hundreds of Palestinian patients are denied permits and accessibility to proper medical treatment, outside Gaza. There are a few lucky patients who get a referral and permit for treatment outside Gaza. The majority, however, have to wait and wait. Many die while waiting.

What is more heart-breaking than children who do not have adequate food and a healthy atmosphere to grow up to be well rounded adults? According to the Health Work Committees Organization, 42 per cent of children in Gaza under the age of 5 suffer from iron deficiency anemia and 45 per cent suffer from some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, due to the experiences that they are subjected to as a result of the non-stop military actions of the Israeli Occupation Forces, which almost always affect civilians in one way or another.

I will never forget the story of a woman in labor, who had to wait several hours at a checkpoint last November, during one of many Israeli military operations in the north of Gaza. Eventually she arrived at the Al Awda hospital in Jabalia refugee camp where she gave birth to her baby. When she left the hospital with the baby to go to home in the village of Beit Hanoun, there was no home; her home had been demolished by the Israeli occupying army. There are many cases and many stories, but I believe it is not the numbers that really matter, even one incident such as the above is one enough human rights violation.

I remember a 4-year old child in the same village who was forced to stay in one room with all members of his family for 48 hours while the Israeli Army commandeered their home. The child was thirsty and the soldier was there with his bottle of water, the occupied and the occupier in the same space. The soldier offered water to the thirsty child. The child said “no, no, no”. The child’s natural reaction was a combination of fear of what the soldier represents and the steadfastness in the face of the occupation. This is what characterizes the Palestinian people: steadfastness and resistance in the face of all adversity; even small children can express it with their natural reactions more than any words or speeches. The soldier on the other hand is a human being that has been forced by the Israeli occupation machine to lose his humanity.

Whenever I think of Palestinian children and their lives under occupation, I always think of the Israeli children. As adults, we have a commitment to both sets of children to provide a safe environment for them to live peacefully. It is not the occupation or the wall or the ongoing aggression against my people that will bring safety or security for Israeli children, only peace that is based on justice will do so. Justice means that the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people must be considered. Israel must recognize its moral responsibility towards the Palestinian refugees.

While Israel is physically outside Gaza, it still completely controls our lives, all aspects of our lives: health, education, economy and freedom of movement.

Life under occupation is degrading to human dignity. It has deprived us of our freedom, and only free people can make peace. It is most peculiar that we are forced to deal with the patterns of life under occupation as normal, well-established facts and when people lost hope and faith in the world or any future chances for change, and when the world turns its head away.

On the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, it is fitting to call once again on the international community to put pressure on Israel to fulfil its obligations by abiding by the UN resolutions related to Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Israeli occupation should be ended now and the right of return must not be forgotten.

Thank you.

Denver May Day pro- immigrant workers march

Reports are that 150,000 in Chicago marched for a Just Immigration Reform and an end to the government raids launched in the last year by the Bush Administration. That one was a huge demonstration by any standards. The march and rally I went to in Denver had somewhere between 8,000 to 10,000 participants by my estimate, and started off very spirited.

The march route was way too long, though, as it wrapped from Lincoln Park to Cuernavaca Park, and that ultimately made the march a somewhat grueling experience for many participants. Overall though, it boasted the sprits of most of the marchers to come together in the streets in such large numbers.

May Day 2007 has to be counted as a big success as many have become quite demoralized by the Immigration Raids like the one in Greeley, Colorado at the Swift plant there. The numbers showed that despite all the obstacles that now confront immigrants, they still have the ability to mobilize huge numbers of people and that these workers make a huge impact on the US economy. Without continual immigrant labor, the US economy would collapse and come to a standstill.

How sad though to see, that native American workers of non-Hispanic background seem to no longer mobilize themselves much for any defense of their rights. It would have been much better for the Colorado unions to have participated in the May Day rally held by the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. They should be ashamed that they did not. ‘Workers United Will Never Be Defeated’, but the Colorado labor movement played dead at this May Day. Shame on you, Denver Unions!

Pentagon lies blowback- from Jessica Lynch to Pat Tillman

Remember Jessica Lynch and the Pentagon psy-op built around her capture by Iraqis? It was all lies we were fed just like with the bull shit stories the Pentagon has been telling us regarding Pat Tilman’s death. Following is an excerpt from recent MSNBC reportage.

….On April 24, 2007, Lynch was back in the spotlight when she testified before a House committee investigating whether the Pentagon misled the American public about the experiences of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lynch was walking slowly, according to the Associated Press, when took her seat at the witness table along with relatives of former NFL star Pat Tillman, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.

“The bottom line,” Lynch said in a determined tone, “is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don’t need to be told elaborate tales.”
…..
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Comment…But they don’t want to tell the truth, simply because it is too self incriminating , Jessica. Full article at MSNBC

Investigate this


While the CSPD investigates reports that its officers employed excessive force at The 2007 John O’Donnell St. Patrick’s Day Parade, you can check out this collection of news segments which feature the St Patrick’s police surge on home-video footage. (Courtesy of Mark Lewis)
Fast forward to these select items:
At the 5:27 mark, Frank Cordero in an illegal choke hold,
At 5:04, Molly Eaves being held by the throat,
At 3:30, Elizabeth Fineron knocked down by two police officers, and
At 3:14, dragged swifty across the pavement.

MTA and the ‘failure to communicate’

There is a sad but funny commentary on Alternet titled, ‘The Iraq Debacle- Failure to Communicate?‘ I took a semester of Modern Standard Arabic ages ago and this article and the subsequent commentaries discuss the lack of available Arabic translators amongst ‘our troops’ and the various causes for that.

Following is my comment under one of the threads discussing this article.

Nothing new here…
Posted by: logansafi on Apr 9, 2007 7:14 PM

There’s nothing new here with our clownish military and our clown CIC. Nobody knew how to speak Albanian or Serbo Croat either, and God save us if they ever go into Darfur-Chad-Sudan! ‘Saviours’ without a clue they always are.

It is obvious why the US military is so in bed with Israel. Israel is the only country that has some Arab linguist ability, especially when you count their Falangist Lebanese killer friends.

MTA should be what this lingua franca should be called. Modern Torture Arabic. Good for use while stealing Iraqi oil.

Washington DC’s Torture International at work in Somalia

The US has succeeded in taking a relatively quiet and tranquil situation in Somalia and converting it back into yet another human rights disaster. Now, Somalia is another country occupied by brigades of foreign troops all led by the Pentagon. And where the Pentagon goes, the use of torture soon follows. Has anybody heard of their supposed representatives, Democratic or Republican, opposing this US terrorism underway in Somalia? MIA once again…..
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Rights group slams ‘rendition’ of Somalis
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Monday, April 02, 2007

NAIROBI: Human Rights Watch on Saturday accused the governments of Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and the United States of secretly detaining hundreds of people fleeing the deadly conflict in Somalia. “Each of these governments has played a shameful role in mistreating people fleeing a war zone,” said Georgette Gagnon, HRW’s deputy Africa director. “Kenya has secretly expelled people, the Ethiopians have caused dozens to disappear, and US security agents have routinely interrogated people held incommunicado,” he added. In a statement, the rights panel detailed “arbitrary detention, expulsion and apparent enforced disappearance of dozens of individuals who fled the fighting” between Ethiopia-backed Somali troops and the powerful Islamist movement from December through January 2007. HRW said since late December, Kenyan security forces arrested at least 150 individuals from some 18 different nationalities at the Liboi and Kiunga border crossing points with Somalia.

“The Kenyan authorities then transferred these individuals to Nairobi where they were detained incommunicado and without charge for weeks in violation of Kenyan law,” it said. The rights body said the US and other national intelligence services interrogated several foreign nationals while they were being detained in Nairobi, where they were also denied access to legal counsel and their consular representatives. “At least 85 people were then secretly deported from Kenya to Somalia in what appears to be a joint rendition operation of those individuals of interest to the Somali, Ethiopian, or US governments,” the statement said. – AFP

Shillelagh-bearing lepre-cons

lepre-con.jpgIf our local media coverage and relative lack of moral outrage on the part of the citizenry over the St. Paddy’s Day debacle has you a bit depressed (with today’s freedom-loving Gazette editorial calling the peace marchers “parade crashers” and “political zealots” serving as salt in our ever-deepening collective “rugburn”), check out the national blog The Daily Kos. They picked up Cara DeGette’s article which, thus far, has generated over 300 comments. Most of them biting and insightful and hilarious. An example:
 
Cops Are Thugs Get it?
I’m sure there is a perfectly good justification for dragging a 75-year-old woman down the street. Maybe their sunglasses were so dark, they thought she was black?
by Snarcalita on Mon Mar 19, 2007 at 11:14:23 PM PDT

Sure made me feel a lot better…..

Out Whenever?

I got to hand it to liberal Democrats, they are totally behind the idea of ‘Out of Iraq Now!’ That is when Out Now actually means December 31, 2007, almost 10 months away!

It reminds me of the debate about the meaning of the word ‘is’ and if Slick’s Monica blowjob constituted sex, or not. Now, we have the word ‘now’ meaning much later than it is usually meant, it seems? ‘Now’ is now to actually mean …then in 9 and 2/3 months away from today!

Maxine Waters has gotten ‘tough’ with Bush, and says she will not supplement Iraqi War funding (add to it), unless US troops are pulled Out Now (out in 9 2/3 months), that would surely only apply if there is no ’emergency’ with Iran to come along. Oh how very reasonable, Maxine. Certainly there will be no ’emergency’ with Bush and Dick in charge…. lol.

As to our very own Democratic Party Colorado Senator, Kenneth Salazar? He probably is worried still that Iraqi people might get hurt if we leave without removing their oil first? That’s the type of people many of these liberal Demnocrats truly are. Caring and responsible folk. And of course I’m being sarcastic now.

As the Democrats play their word games, the Iraqi and Afghan people continue to have to put up with foreign military occupation of their countries. Shame on these politicians for their continual bullshit. The word now should mean now, not some date in the future contingent on whatever taking place.

Out Whenever! What a catchy slogan NOT.

OUT NOW! and only when NOW! is truly now, not after Christmas.. whenever and whatever.

Rebecca Tinsley and Darfur- when ‘Waging Peace’ is calling for imperialist military action

Rebecca Tinsley, head of a British group called ‘Waging Peace’, spoke this past Tuesday at Colorado College. Her topic was Darfur and stopping a supposed genocide going on there. The report of the meeting in the Colorado College student newspaper neglected to mention that she was also director of this group, ‘Waging Peace’, nor that Tinsley is also a hotshot within the Carter Center.

And who else is hot within the Carter Center right now? Why it happens to be Madelyn Albright, who once told a CBC reporter that the deaths of half a million Iraqis per Clinton’s sanctions ‘were worth it’. Albright was also a featured speaker last year at an American rally calling for ‘action’ against Sudan. ‘Waging Peace’ it seems, is in reality making propaganda in favor of imperialist intervention rather than against it, though they might try to deny it.

I was unable to get to the Colorado College forum on time, but a quick google on Tinsley and ‘Waging Peace’ is quite educational in itself. Here is Tinsley calling for European imperialist intervention into the African country of Sudan from the website of that group she directs. See their Feb. 15, 2007 press release.

Rebecca Tinsley spends much of her time lobbying Tony Balir and George W. Bush to ‘intervene’ in Africa where she is fond of shouting GENOCIDE, GENOCIDE, GENOCIDE in every direction. It seems that she is not that interested in the genocides underway against the peoples of Iraq, Palestine, or Afghanistan, though. She specializes in calling for imperialist action, not for calling to stop imperialist action. She calls this ‘Waging Peace’!

Progressives need to educate themselves more about these NGO types that do as Rebecca Tinsley and the Carter Center associated liberal hawks like Madelyn Albright are doing with Darfur. Edward Herman has an interesting commentary today on Znet about Human Rights Watch, another NGO that is prone to shrill for starting off imperialist ‘actions’ by crying GENOCIDE, while staying rather mum on ongoing genocides by imperialist countries. See HRW in Service to the War Party

Of note: Rebecca Tinsley is also a member of the London Human Rights Watch committee.

Affirmative Action, Not Military Action

Click for Denver TV coverage of the rallyDespite the weather, illness (the other driver got sick), and early departure time, a small band of us made our way to Denver yesterday, to attend both a summit for the defense of Colorado’s many affirmative action programs (the Colorado Unity 2007 Coalition Conference), and the antiwar rally held on the steps of the state capitol building.

The conference was to spark an alert to the public that national Right Wing groups are going to try to implement legislation come 2008, that would reverse the many affirmative action programs that are in place that mandate fair treatment to women and minority racial sectors of our population here in this state. And well, the rally was part of a national effort to end the war and to prevent it from being further extended regionally into Iran, Syria, and Lebanon.

The keynote address to the conference was to have been the Democratic governor of the state, but apparently he was too exhausted from the previous night’s business gala here in The Springs to either attend the conference, or to attend the rally at the capitol building against the war. Go figure? However, I was pleasantly surprised by another Democratic Party speaker, the president of the Colorado state senate, Peter Groff. Instead of the usual pretending that the Democrats are preparing to change it all around, Senator Groff basically all but admitted that his fellow democrats were a fairly totally hopeless cause for backing up any progressive political issue! What a breath of fresh air and from a Democratic Party politician no less. Honesty, and honestly. To see what I mean about the man, here are some remarks he made on MLK Day this year.

At 11:45 we headed towards the antiwar rally, and we were met by crowds of people streaming toward the capitol building. Protesters were already assembled up the steps, and cars passing by were highly supportive with their honking and varying salutes to the people at the protest. The rally was definitely spirited and the numbers were fairly good, though not great. I would say that there were about 1300-1500 that participated. Certainly this merits coverage by the Colorado Press, but they deliberately blacked us out. Instead, the Rocky Mountain Mainly Censored News carried an AP release titled, Thousands protest from coast to coast that mentioned none of us protesting the war in cities in between.

There was also a march and protest in Boulder of at least hundreds of people. The Boulder Blocked Camera hid this away under a headline titled, “Activists, Stop funding”. Actually behind this hidden door, the coverage of the local event was not too horrible, but nothing about Denver there at all. And our on local toilet paper, The Gazette? Well really, does anybody really go there to get news coverage anyway? Suffice it to say that their coverage of national antiwar actions and local was their standard par for the hole. About 20 strokes and into the pond. We can only hope that the publishers there do more bird hunting with Dick Cheney. They have nothing to worry about anyway, since they are heartless ideological fools, so the birdshot will not damage.

After the rally, we headed back for the afternoon sessions of the Affirmative Action conference. Lessons learned for the day? We cannot depend much on either the politicians are the corporate press to support what’s right for us and the rest of the world. Without more anger there will not be more action. We certainly need more groups like Colorado Unity to defend equal treatment before the law in jobs and education, but if we as a people don’t have any fight back in ourselves, then we will still get trompled by the Right. We as a people are being assaulted on all fronts, and yet the anger has yet to reach a level where other than a few people will do much of anything.

Colorado Unity needs the public’s help to defend Affirmative Action in this state. Without it, the already privileged will stomp on the rest of us. Equal access to opportunities, and equal pay for equal work. That’s Affirmative Action.

El Paso Co. to respect the Sanctity of Life

County resolved to uphold the sanctity of life in Haditha
We got a heads-up from our friends at Newspeak about an impending anti-abortion proclamation by the El Paso County Board of Commissioners. I accidentally read the 2nd page first. If you strike out half the WHEREASes, the resolution is about all human life. And their concluding paragraph dots the i. Those crazy pro-war Republicans are finally speaking out against Bush’s atrocities. It’s about time. We can be proud that El Paso County proclaims an end to war.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the undersigned members of the Board of County Commissioners of El Paso County, Colorado hereby proclaim January 21-28, 2007, as Sanctity of Human Life Week in El Paso County. As we reflect upon the sanctity of human life, we call upon our residents to recognize this week with appropriate ceremonies in our homes and places of worship, to rededicate ourselves to compassionate service, and to reaffirm our commitment to respecting the life and dignity of every human being.
DONE THIS 11th day of January 2007 at Colorado Springs, Colorado

THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
OF EL PASO COUNTY, COLORADO

Dennis Hisey, Chair
Jim Bensberg, Vice Chair
Wayne W. Williams, Member
Sallie Clark, Member

Resolve for justice and peace in 2007

Peace sign Christmans wreaths prevailI’d like to see 2007 bring renewed optimism for being able to fight injustice around the world. We’re seeing unprecedented rebellions on every continent, citizen’s efforts to reform the traditional mechanisms of inequality and oppression. People are protesting rigged elections, usurious banking systems, phony environmental policies, authoritarianism and outright military aggression. People are laying their lives on the line for what they believe. I’d like the people of Colorado Springs to awaken to such a call.

Colorado Springs sits in the belly of the military industrial beast. While our neighbors may cheer militarism, a rising number have also been coming to see the effects of US corporate policies in a different light. We resist our nation’s bellicosity and refuse to allow its actions being done in our name.

We face an uphill battle against a fascist media and an undereducated populace, but it would be a far cry to conclude that we will not prevail. We will prevail because we must. There is no brotherhood of man without equality and mutual respect. There is no humanity without offering our most to those in need. A life lived upon the backs of others is not worth living. Pursuit of happiness without concern for the suffering of others leads us nowhere.

If we can lead by example our efforts will have already prevailed.