They condemn those of us in America who rebel against their fascist Corporate leadership and presumption of ownership of every aspect of our lives, calling it "Freedom" while their Pig-Slaves break our heads with clubs and plastic bullets. And in the case of Oscar Grant, lead and copper bullets. While cheering rebellions in countries which have denied "deprived" the Poor Little Rich Boys like Halliburton, Exxon-Mobil, British Petroleum, Royal Dutch, Shell, "stolen" their claim to have Corporate Control over their ports and their oil. And they actually finance and organize the so-called "spontaneous" rebellions like in Libya and now, Syria. Never mind they're also paying Other Peoples Money And Lives to put down REAL grass roots movements in Iraq and Afghanistan and Yemen... And Turkey. Turkey is now paying back their Corporate Overlords for the U.S. and NATO PUBLICLY FUNDED Terror War against the Kurds and Albania. The Slave-Caliph Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemns Syria for responding violently to violent attacks while continuing to suppress, with the help of his Puppet Masters in London and Washington, the Kurdish People actually having a right to life. Lick them Pentagon Boots, "caliph" Erdogan. They're your masters and you are their dog. Just like the New Puppet Regime in Libya, and the somewhat more established Puppet Regimes in Tel Aviv, Kabul, and Baghdad. Be the little whipped hound for racist bastards who call you "ragheads" and "sand-niggers" and "muzzle monkeys". You might wear golden chains and a gold collar, but they're still a collar and chain. Just like the Oakland, Denver, Colorado Springs and New York Police departments violently suppressing freedom here, in the very homeland of your puppet-masters and, at their bidding.
Tag: Baghdad
Nobama, Out of our country!
Seemingly unimpressed by CIC Barack Obama's recent 'surprise' visit to their country, tens of thousands of Iraqis today demonstrated against continued US military presence in their country in Baghdad's Firdous Square, where the statue of then-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was pulled down on April 9, 2003. Iraqi protesters call for US exit
Space Symposium grand finale not a dud
COLORADO SPRINGS- According to local sources, this year's grand finale of the Broadmoor Hotel's fireworks display, marking the final evening of the National Space Symposium, was not a dud. It simply never came. Observation was complicated by last year's unusual 25 minute delay which preceded the final synchronized collision of explosives. Anticipating it was a precedent, we waited. Twenty five minutes is time enough to speculate about a lot. What caused the different colors, for example, and whether other properties might be reflected in the different combustions, smell maybe, or debris? We speculated that maybe the grand finale was top secret, like the much of the space program, veiled behind the US Black Budget. Maybe what we couldn't see was a subterranean explosion commemorating the participants' nuclear testing. We didn't feel anything. Maybe the big weapons specialists are unimpressed by mere fireworks anyway, like so many legal-sized firecrackers. What dessert celebrates a meal of watered soup? Who can watch a fireworks display anymore without thinking of Shock and Awe over Baghdad, 2001, when America watched in great anticipation of that grandest of would be finales, our attempt at regime change via techno-regicide? [That was a dud.] I remember one of the networks had an Iraqi university professor on the phone in Baghdad. He was asked if he feared for his family's lives. He was asked why they didn't flee. In return he asked "WHY ARE YOU BOMBING US?" It was decided that wires had gotten crossed and this professor was an unintentional interviewee. The phone call was hastily dispatched with sincere wishes that the professor and his children would survive until morning. Last night no finale came. I hope the average Space Symposium attendee was as disappointed as we. But we noted that tonight's pyrotechnics, more than the usual, symbolized war of the unending kind. What the military industrial complex entrusts to Development. Whether we're talking artillery or naked Spartans, warfare amounts to the continued consumption of one inflammable projectile after the next. Expending one shell/bomb/human being means having to replace it with another. No industry wants a customer who doesn't purchase its product for consumption, or no one would need return for more. How do you profit from weapons manufacture if there is not unending war?
Things to do in April
APRIL 2009 3- Antonio Skarmeta: Swing and Literature, Gaylord Hall, CC, 7pm 5- Andrew Skurka: Walking the Great Western Loop, CC, 4pm 7- Rajeev Taranath, Concert sarod/tabla, Packard Hall, CC, 7:30pm 14- Anniversary of BURNING OF BAGHDAD LIBRARY 15- LUDLOW SYMPOSIUM, Max Kade Theater, CC, 7pm 17- International Day of Farmers Struggle 20- 20th Annual Holocaust Commemoration, Gates Common Room, CC, 7pm
Ward Churchill: Some People Push Back
Here is Ward Churchill's notorious 9/11 "Little Eichmanns" essay, published online September 12, 2001, presented here for archival purposes lest critics think they can silence one of our nation's strongest dissenting voices. Churchill later expanded this piece into a book entitled On the Justice of Roosting Chickens: reflections on the consequences of U.S. imperial arrogance and criminality published by AK Press in 2003. Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens by Ward Churchill When queried by reporters concerning his views on the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, Malcolm X famously – and quite charitably, all things considered – replied that it was merely a case of "chickens coming home to roost." On the morning of September 11, 2001, a few more chickens – along with some half-million dead Iraqi children – came home to roost in a very big way at the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. Well, actually, a few of them seem to have nestled in at the Pentagon as well. The Iraqi youngsters, all of them under 12, died as a predictable – in fact, widely predicted – result of the 1991 US "surgical" bombing of their country's water purification and sewage facilities, as well as other "infrastructural" targets upon which Iraq's civilian population depends for its very survival. If the nature of the bombing were not already bad enough – and it should be noted that this sort of "aerial warfare" constitutes a Class I Crime Against humanity, entailing myriad gross violations of international law, as well as every conceivable standard of "civilized" behavior – the death toll has been steadily ratcheted up by US-imposed sanctions for a full decade now. Enforced all the while by a massive military presence and periodic bombing raids, the embargo has greatly impaired the victims' ability to import the nutrients, medicines and other materials necessary to saving the lives of even their toddlers. All told, Iraq has a population of about 18 million. The 500,000 kids lost to date thus represent something on the order of 25 percent of their age group. Indisputably, the rest have suffered – are still suffering – a combination of physical debilitation and psychological trauma severe enough to prevent their ever fully recovering. In effect, an entire generation has been obliterated. The reason for this holocaust was/is rather simple, and stated quite straightforwardly by President George Bush, the 41st "freedom-loving" father of the freedom-lover currently filling the Oval Office, George the 43rd: "The world must learn that what we say, goes," intoned George the Elder to the enthusiastic applause of freedom-loving Americans everywhere. How Old George conveyed his message was certainly no mystery to the US public. One need only recall the 24-hour-per-day dissemination of bombardment videos on every available TV channel, and the exceedingly high ratings of these telecasts, to gain a sense of how much they knew. In trying to affix a meaning to such things, we would do well to remember the wave of elation that swept America at
Mark 6TH YEAR of Iraq Occupation with profiteers Boeing, Lockheed, GD and KBR
A.N.S.W.E.R.'s March 21 MARCH ON THE PENTAGON to mark the sixth year of the War in Iraq will be directed not only at the US Department of Defense, but at the war profiteers for whom 2007 was a record year, among them Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and KBR. In Colorado Springs the merchants of death can be visited on one corner. On March 21, 2009, March on the Pentagon and the Corporate War Profiteers The March on the Pentagon on Saturday, March 21 is shaping up to be a dramatic and highly significant demonstration. Many thousands of people are coming to Washington, D.C. to make their voices heard. March 21 will culminate in a dramatic direct action where hundreds of coffins—representing the multinational victims of militarism, Empire and corporate greed—will be carried and delivered to the headquarters of the Corporate War Profiteers and Merchants of Death. From the Pentagon, we will march to the nearby giant corporate offices of Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin Corporation, General Dynamics and KBR (the former subsidiary of Halliburton). The march will start close to the State Department in Washington, D.C. (assemble at 12 noon at 23rd St. and Constitution Ave. NW). Please make an urgently needed donation today by clicking this link to donate online through our secure server, where you can also find information on how to donate by check. These are the Corporate War Profiteers and Merchants of Death. They are the vultures who profit off the death and suffering of the people of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, and off of the thousands of U.S. soldiers and marines who have died or been wounded in these wars of aggression. They are anti-worker and anti-union. The march will be led by a large contingent of veterans and family members of veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and from earlier conflicts. Militarism and Corporate Capitalism We will march on their slick-and-shiny corporate offices that are located less than a mile from the Pentagon. Their location in the very shadow of the Pentagon speaks volumes about the intimate connection between militarism and corporate capitalism. When the Pentagon brass retire, they rotate out of their Pentagon offices and directly into the Corporate boardrooms and office suites of the Death Merchants. It is a very cozy and very profitable relationship for the elites—in and out of uniform. They make the profits, others do the bleeding. Last year was a great year for the Corporate War Profiteers and Merchants of Death. Profits soared even as the rest of the economy neared collapse. The CEOs of the four corporations that we will be visiting on March 21 received more than $319 million in compensation in 2007 alone (and remember, that's just for four individuals). "We the People" paid the bill for the high tech weapons that were used against occupied people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. The Corporate Executives laughed all the way to the bank while grieving parents and children buried their loved ones from Baghdad to Kabul to Gaza to Detroit. A quick examination shows that the CEOs of
IT demands proof…
Of anything WE write. Perhaps It should take the challenge... Show US proof that YOU actually exist other than a Yahoo ID, Hotmail or gmail ID created yesterday. Many Commercial sites don't even respond to such IDs because they're effectively ANONYMOUS And are used many times for Spam and E-Mail Scam operations. And E-Bay doesn't accept them as your actual Email identity. and the commercial sites that don't accept your Bull-poo-poo Yahoo ID also turn it over automatically to SpamCop and other Anti-Spam World Wide Web databases. What say, Eric, Tony, Marie? Should NMT subscribe to one of those databases? 1) Did Someone Say Credibility? As in somebody who doesn't even use a Real Name To Describe ITself, and keeps telling us that everything WE say must be outright Lies because IT has Imperial Military Sources which say that Invasions, Occupations and Mass Slaughter are actually manifestations of Freedom... And that IT considers and believes that anything which Gainsays the word of Professional Killers just could not possibly be true or worthy of consideration. It has also said in all of ITs many many "personalities" that we're so stupid and crazy and Left Wing that we're really not worth IT writing anything to us blah blah blah blah blah Kind of like Charlie Browns Teacher... wa woo wah wah wuh.... But has "wasted ITs time" posting hundreds of links to Military Sources and their Propaganda Outlets like the New York Post and really Any Outlet Related To DumFox Noose NutWerx. All done, so it seems, from the Kindness of ITs heart. Of Course. 2) In case IT didn't catch the hint... IT has been not only CALLED a Liar IT has proven the point repeatedly that IT is a Liar or perhaps a loosely organized co-op of Liars working together. Funny how the only actual ISRAELIS who have had the courage to link to their writings are Peace Activists which IT has also spammed in ITs many "independent" personalities. I invite the Casual Reader or even the Serious Student of the issues to glance over to the left hand side of the screen and view ITs name repeated over and over, until you scroll through the pages to find where ITs "persona" has been seriously challenged and ITs name, National Identity, Faith, even ITs gender mysteriously changes... and so forth through it's many incarnations. On the Right Hand Side of the screen you'll notice a HUGE number of posts listed, 106,73,52 etc etc etc but THIS link you're reading now is the most important of them all IT cyber-screams and cyber-wails that we're not being "fair" to IT and that calling IT a liar is somehow censorship. IT has also not provided ANY proof or even Evidence that IT has done or written ANYTHING on the World Wide Web or in Newspapers, Broadcast Media or even College Publications other than what IT has written here. That last is Important because several of ITs "identities" claim to have gone to various Universities and to be officers in Various Military Services. Which would mean they I mean IT, if it were an officer
Billionaire bank robbers do not go to jail
I thought there was something odd with a headline about a recent break in a 2001 murder case: Arrest of inmate imminent. Probably it makes perfect sense to hasten with the arrest of someone already incarcerated. Meanwhile, Allan Stanford, suspected of an $8 Billion dollar fraud, is "laying low" and not under arrest. And Bernard Madoff, of the $50 Billion fraud, is free in his penthouse. Really. It's probably too soon to know how the Guinness Book of Records will rank these crimes, but we might guess these are the biggest, even if you include the S&L heists. Although record keepers will note the bank "bailout" heist, the GWOT military industry heist and the Tax Cuts For The Rich heist will eclipse all. What distinguishes the earlier crime record holders, from these break-the-bank blockbusters, is the urgency expressed, in familiar days, about bringing the guilty to justice. If asked to name the biggest heist of all time, most of us think of the Great Train Robbery, maybe just because it still has a ring to it. The take was peanuts by today's standard. Buster Edwards and company stole $3.7 million from the mail train, (today it would be equivalent to $58 million). Still the offenders were undone. The record before that, thirteen years before, was the 1950 Brinks Robbery for $2.7 million. Since then: Brinks Mat; Société Générale heist, Nice; Lufthansa, $6M; Heathrow Airport security vehicle $6.5M; the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston 1990 $300M; the Oslo National Museum, Oslo 1994 $58M; and the Carlton Hotel Jewelry store, 1994 $44M. This millennium there was: the Northern Bank Robbery, Belfast, Ireland 2004 $50M; Fortaleza, Brazil bank, 2005 $65M; Securitas Depot robbery, 2006 $92.5M; and I've gone a little out of order to list last, the only heist to reach one billion: the Central Bank of Iraq, Baghdad March 2003 $1B; Does that explain why Messrs Stanford and Madoff are reclining in the luxury of their own abodes, except to illustrate that the rich are different from you and me?
Activism heroics and roadkill
This is by no means a complete list of contemporary populist heros, but I'd like to start with comedian Stephen Colbert, who roasted President Bush at a Washington Correspondents Association Dinner, like a court jester gone rabid. With celebrated White House correspondent Helen Thomas's help, Colbert belittled the decider-in-chief to his face right in front of his friends. Don't Taser Me Bro There was University of Florida student Andrew Meyer, who held his ground asking critical questions of Senator John Kerry. Meyer was tackled and tasered for his impertinence, while Kerry kept mumbling, to divert attention from "Don't taser me Bro." Bidder 70 Then Utah environmentalist Tim DeChristopher disrupted a government land auction, driving up prices and buying several leases raising paddle number 70, until federal agents took him away. Extraction industry spokesperson Kathleen Sgamma may have miscalculated the degree of DeChristopher's popular support. She earned no one's sympathy when she complained: "There's a democratic process in place if you don't like what's happening. If we all just decided we wanted to change the laws unilaterally, that would run counter to our democracy." The Shoes And Iraqi Journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi is in jail for throwing his shoes at that dog Bush, when our president was making a farewell visit to Baghdad. (His trial date is fast approaching actually.) The shoes missed, but Bush was made to duck, which is the closest anyone's come to getting reality to register with the cretinous bitch. Barack's first press conference Let's also mention Helen Thomas again, at Barack Obama's first press conference a week ago. When Obama ceremoniously called on Thomas to lob the last question, Thomas asked the president to name who in the Middle East had nuclear weapons. It was something of a leading question, because the answer is known, but bears reminding when the argument is repeated that Iran acquiring nukes would lead to proliferation. Thomas put Obama in the position of having to utter recognition of Israel's never-mentioned nuclear program, or very conspicuously avoid the subject. Which is what he did. Israel Divestment Movement Now the Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine have succeeded in getting their school to divest in Israel, just as Hampshire College led the way in the nationwide divestitures which contributed to the fall of Apartheid in South Africa. Board of trustees chairman Sigmund Roos tried to explain that the school's actions were in no way a repudiation of Israel, and accused the students of falsely claiming otherwise. Of the 800-signature petition, Roos explained: "We never took it up. Students know that." Really? A petition signed by 800 of your students and faculty, and the Hampshire College board of trustees wouldn't even read it? Roos doesn't know what hit him.
Harold Pinter on drama and US banditry
"What has happened to our moral sensibility? Did we ever have any? What do these words mean? Do they refer to a term very rarely employed these days - conscience? A conscience to do not only with our own acts but to do with our shared responsibility in the acts of others? Is all this dead?" -Harold Pinter (1930-2008) I'm reminded of a friend of mine who asked "You know what PTSD is? It's a bad conscience." An outspoken critic of the Iraq War, Harold Pinter died Christmas Eve. Here is the address he prerecorded for his acceptance of the Nobel Prize in 2005, when he had become too infirm to attend in person. Nobel Lecture: Art, Truth & Politics In 1958 I wrote the following: 'There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.' I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false? Truth in drama is forever elusive. You never quite find it but the search for it is compulsive. The search is clearly what drives the endeavour. The search is your task. More often than not you stumble upon the truth in the dark, colliding with it or just glimpsing an image or a shape which seems to correspond to the truth, often without realising that you have done so. But the real truth is that there never is any such thing as one truth to be found in dramatic art. There are many. These truths challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflect each other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other. Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost. I have often been asked how my plays come about. I cannot say. Nor can I ever sum up my plays, except to say that this is what happened. That is what they said. That is what they did. Most of the plays are engendered by a line, a word or an image. The given word is often shortly followed by the image. I shall give two examples of two lines which came right out of the blue into my head, followed by an image, followed by me. The plays are The Homecoming and Old Times. The first line of The Homecoming is 'What have you done with the scissors?' The first line of Old Times is 'Dark.' In each case I had no further information. In the first case someone was obviously looking for a pair of scissors and was demanding their whereabouts of someone else he suspected had probably stolen them. But I somehow knew that the person addressed didn't give a damn
Bush Iraq press conference hits the fan
"THIS IS A FAREWELL KISS, YOU DOG!" --yelled al-Baghdadia news journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi, as he hurled his first shoe. Finally someone brave enough to have at our obscene Reprobate-in-Chief! What does this say about reporters, officials and celebrities who have access to President Bush but take their shoes off only to show fealty? Homeland Security has all of us removing our shoes, but it took an Iraqi to know what to do with them. If the world needed a sign of hope, that someone would at last stand up to America's miserable criminality, new-detainee al-Zaidi is the one. Bush makes a last visit to a nation he destroyed, and gets: "THIS IS A FAREWELL KISS, YOU DOG!" Our news outlets initially censored the "you dog" bit. Al-Zaidi's threw his second shoe yelling "THIS IS FROM THE WIDOWS, THE ORPHANS AND THOSE WHO WERE KILLED IN IRAQ." Prompting a local Iraqi to write: “Yes, you dirty motherfuckers, NO VICTORY for you in IRAQ. No victory as long as people like Muntather exist…
Dear Mrs Palin: write the 10 Commandments on the tablet of your heart…
This is a recurrent theme, Mr Bush and Mrs Palin have gone to bat for the notion of placing the Ten Commandments in every government building and facility in America. Except they don't actually live by them in the first place, and actively break most of them daily in the second place. 1.You shall have no other gods before me 2.You shall not make for yourself an idol 3.You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God 4.Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy 5.Honor your father and mother 6.You shall not murder* 7.You shall not commit adultery 8.You shall not steal*** 9.You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor these last are counted as one Commandment 10.You shall not covet your neighbor's wife You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor We have been told, repeatedly and indignantly, that we need to support a war started by none other than Mr Bush, and that God says we need no support it. That's Commandments 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10 all in one swoop. We were told in the beginning that it was because Saddam Hussein was amassing Weapons of Mass Destruction in preparation for a terrorist attack on America, and that he had been a participant in the attack on 9-11-2001. Both of which had been exposed as lies before the first bombs fell on Baghdad. So much for Commandment #9 The real reason is obviously to take the Oil which belongs to the Iraqi people. Commandments #8 stealing and #10 coveting it in the first place. This is in relation to an Idolatrous worship of money by the lying murdering thieves who started the war. They "jokingly" refer to a Graven Image (literally, the picture of George Washington is an engraving) as "The Almighty". A title usually which usually refers to God. If it is "merely a joke" then it's taking God's name in vain Commandment #3. If it's not "merely a joke" then it's having another god before God, Commandment #1, Graven Image #2 AND Blasphemy #3. They now very arrogantly admit that the original reasons for George Bush starting the war, they're somehow proud of committing perjury which breaks Commandment #9. But they insist that God is somehow instructing them to do these things, in "Revelations of the Holy Ghost". A type of Blasphemy, Commandment #3, which Jesus Himself said is The One Unforgivable Sin, Blaspheming against the Holy Ghost. And they insist that we support this action, and that God Himself commands us to do so... again with Commandment #3. And that it doesn't matter that they broke Commandment #9. When they use the name Christian, they are AGAIN using the Name of God, and doing it in vain It's been described as The Adoption and the Church has been termed "The Bride of Christ", so we as Christians take the name the same way an adopted child takes the name of his adopted father, and the way a bride
Obama endorsed by infamous UN liar
"Less than a teaspoon of dry anthrax, a little bit about this amount -- this is just about the amount of a teaspoon --" Colin Powell perjured himself at the UN, playing the leading role in encouraging the invasion of Iraq which resulted in the deaths of over a million Iraqis. Now he's lauded for endorsing Barack Obama? What hope is there that Obama will seek a just resolution to the war in Iraq? Let's continue this excerpt from Colin Powell's presentation before the United Nations on February 6, 2003: " ...less than a teaspoon full of dry anthrax in an envelope shutdown the United States Senate in the fall of 2001. This forced several hundred people to undergo emergency medical treatment and killed two postal workers just from an amount just about this quantity that was inside of an envelope. "Iraq declared 8,500 liters of anthrax, but UNSCOM estimates that Saddam Hussein could have produced 25,000 liters. If concentrated into this dry form, this amount would be enough to fill tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of teaspoons. And Saddam Hussein has not verifiably accounted for even one teaspoon-full of this deadly material. "And that is my third point. And it is key. The Iraqis have never accounted for all of the biological weapons they admitted they had and we know they had. They have never accounted for all the organic material used to make them. And they have not accounted for many of the weapons filled with these agents such as there are 400 bombs. This is evidence, not conjecture. This is true. This is all well-documented." Transcript to Feb. 6, 2003 U. N. presentation by Colin Powell Part 1: Introduction Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, distinguished colleagues, I would like to begin by expressing my thanks for the special effort that each of you made to be here today. This is important day for us all as we review the situation with respect to Iraq and its disarmament obligations under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441. Last November 8, this council passed Resolution 1441 by a unanimous vote. The purpose of that resolution was to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction. Iraq had already been found guilty of material breach of its obligations, stretching back over 16 previous resolutions and 12 years. Resolution 1441 was not dealing with an innocent party, but a regime this council has repeatedly convicted over the years. Resolution 1441 gave Iraq one last chance, one last chance to come into compliance or to face serious consequences. No council member present in voting on that day had any illusions about the nature and intent of the resolution or what serious consequences meant if Iraq did not comply. And to assist in its disarmament, we called on Iraq to cooperate with returning inspectors from UNMOVIC and IAEA. We laid down tough standards for Iraq to meet to allow the inspectors to do their job. This council placed the burden on Iraq to comply and disarm and not on the inspectors to find
Jonah and the Obama Chinese food story
(Editor's note: Jonah posted this account yesterday on Alfrankenweb, which reached the Rec List on Daily Kos. Now I'm fielding emails and calls inquiring whether Jonah is real. Here are the Alfrankenweb posts, until Jonah can give us an update.) OK, so this is the story as I finally got straight. I was out scrounging scrap metal today, to get enough food money to last us through the weekend. I came home and Miss Johnnie, my landlady, was crying and showing me a table full of food. I thought one of our friends or my relatives had come over and bought for us. But it was bought, according to the lady who owns the restaurant, by Barack Obama over the phone. After the Obama Campaign Workers came to the door, and were listening to Miss Johnnie describe why she, a registered republican, was voting for Obama. She showed a picture of her daughter Michelle the Marine who had been deployed to Iraq twice, and is still pending discharge because of the Stop Loss. All her kids in fact. And her late husband, who had died of Agent Orange from his service in VietNam. About that time the campaign workers started making phone calls and she got to talk to Obama. She was in tears while telling me all this so I got the story wrong at first. She talked about the War, about the health care bill that got turned down because it was "too expensive" but the Rich Thieves got to take 16 times as much just because they had broken the economy with their wild schemes. About the VA messing around with the repayment of the medical expenses she had borne by herself over the 12 years since her husband died, over nitpicky paperwork errors on Their Part. About me being out against doctor's orders scrounging scrap metal just to make it through til monday. One of the volunteers was a Marine and a Nam Vet, so much for the notion that Veterans are all voting for McCain, (despite his continued votes to screw the veterans the same way the VA is messing up Miss Johnnie's paperwork and payments) Miss Johnnie, understandably, doesn't talk without a great deal of emotion on those subjects. So after the Volunteers left, about 20 minutes later a very large order of Chinese food charged to Obama came to the door. The Delivery man is a recent immigrant and doesn't speak English, so he called his boss, who confirmed it but said it was supposed to be a surprise. Enough food to last until Monday. I came in with this really pitiful half gallon of milk and about a meal worth of food and some cat food.. and she was crying and showing me all the food. And said that Obama had bought it for us. I didn't get the story quite right the first time, so I thought he had been there in person. Not quite, but you know how in the Churches people say "I'll be there in spirit"? He was there in a way that really counts. McCain has a fake falsified made-up "Joe
Iraq speaks up: Get Out, Occupiers!
How many times have I heard the words from Democratic Party type liberal smurfs, saying that demonstrations supposedly accomplish nothing? Yet how to explain that the Iraqis seem to think otherwise and just held a huge demonstration in Baghdad under conditions that Americans cannot even begin to imagine having for themselves? Iraqis stage mass anti-US rally. Unlike do-nothing Americans, Iraqis seem to see value in holding mass demonstrations to show the world how they feel about US troops continuing to promote slaughter in their country. And they are right to do so. These demonstrations, in their case, are part of supporting armed struggle to resist the imperialist invaders. Holding mass demonstrations in our country, too, would work toward the goal of regaining national sovereignty away from others.
Capitalism has failed. It is time to try something else
America is Lost. The Senate of the Damned (2/3 of which is not up for reelection, so they can ignore the will of the voters) passed an $800B givaway for the filthy-rich on Wall St, nothing for Americans losing their homes. They actually added $100B in bribes to the already rejected extortion package. Will Congress succeed in throwing a magic TARP over our eyes, and let Wall St. abscond with another $Trillion of taxpayer money? If ever there was a time for a second American Revolution, this is it. Never mention the greed. Nutcase Conservatives again try to scapegoat minorities for Wall St. meltdown. Just like Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany's economic collapse. In taped interview, McCain proves what an asshole and liar he really is. I hear his handlers are worried about him going postal before the election. Another huge success for McCain's surge. Dozens killed in Baghdad bombings this morning. Muslim clerics issue fatwa against new Pakistani president, for flirting with the slutty tramp Sarah Palin. I'm going to the store to buy some popcorn, tonight is when Sarah Palin makes a complete fool of herself debating Biden, and tomorrow the Republicans will have to hide their faces in shame at the thought of having to vote for her. But hey, a contract is a contract, even with the Devil himself. Excerpts from Thomas McCullock's Oct 2nd notes, thomasmc.com.
Martial Law undeclared in New Orleans
WE INTERRUPT WITH BREAKING NEWS- New Orleans is under MARTIAL LAW. It's a scoop! The Breaking News keeps announcing the anticipation of Hurricane Gustav, without explaining the images which speak the obvious. The National Guard have arrived, and they're not carrying sandbags. The soldiers are sitting in parked Hummers, with assault rifles across their knees. As if what undid New Orleans and Baghdad was the looting pursuant to Katrina and Shock and Awe. Hurricanes and floodwaters can demolish homes in the wrong neighborhoods. The homes on higher grounds have to fear the looters. So a curfew has been announced, starting at 9PM tonight, with no set end time. Is that a curfew or Marital Law? If the power goes out, how are you supposed to learn when "curfew" has been lifted? If you're found outside your property lines, you face arrest for ignoring the mandatory evacuation. You'll be presumed to have intentions on your neighbor's property. The Mayor of New Orleans is warning that potential looters will be sent directly to Angola [Prison.] There will be no quarter, he appears to be saying, no temporary holding facility between court and sentence. You'll go directly into the General [Prison] Population. Adding, "May God have mercy on you," as if pronouncing the last rites on a condemned man. Can he do that? Can they throw away the key on citizens innocent until proven guilty? Mayor Ray Nagin is speaking down to his constituents as if they are adolescents he can scare straight. But I'm sure the same TV audience which cheers when their Law and Order heroes smack down suspects who don't confess, are loving these tough words of warning. Here's a black man speaking as if he knows that his constituents 1. have no self respect, and 2. can't wait to loot. I see the same public desensitivity to excessive police presence, as became apparent at the DNC. We may stand aghast, but few question if it's appropriate. Tons of cops, heavily armed, even pointing their guns at you. Unless you find yourself brutalized, it's just added security. And so long as you don't have a problem with whose rule of law is being enforced, who can argue with absolute power? Perhaps security developments in New Orleans are not called Martial Law, because they're closer to everyday law as we're coming to see it. Here are Mayor Nagin's condescending words: You need to be scared. You need to be concerned. And you need to get your butts movin' Out of New Orleans. Right now. That's the scare tactic used to justify police crackdown. It makes me laugh. And then finally, I just talked to the Sherif and to the Police Chief, I just want to send a strong message out to anybody who's thinking about lingering around and becoming a looter. Looting will not be tolerated. We have doubled the police force, Doubled the National Guard force that we had for Katrina, And looters will go directly to jail. You will not get out -uh uh- You will not get a pass
Opening ceremonies of Beijing Olympics star humanity in his own flea circus
Can you remember an Olympic Games opening ceremony that was not spectacular? Suffice it to say Beijing was the biggest, befitting the world's most populous nation. "Awesome" provides perfectly qualified praise. I have to say this spectacle invoked colossal horror as it drew a full-color digital smiley face over Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Automatons I thought the drumming performance was the most impressive. Two thousand (and eight) drummers beating their hands on antique-style drums set in mobile tables. The bare skinned drummers beat hard, seemingly to illuminate the square table surfaces, like fireflies assigned coordinates in an array, or a spider's web. We've admired marching ceremonies before, and synchronized flags. We marvel at the precision ensembles of Rockettes, Busby Berkley choreography, and, for want of an example further afield, the Chinese circus. What made the Bird Nest Stadium extreme so horrific was the miniaturization of man's role. If it had been a Seurat painting, one man, one dot, we might have been comforted to see ourselves woven into a tapestry which created an artistic expression. Instead, long shots showed the full effect to be an LED board, each pixel either on or off, flickering based on whether that person was activated or not. Man as electron, charged or uncharged. I wondered what was the stadium perspective. Did the audience of 91,000 see the large electronic panel or the matrix of individuals sweating to power it? An aerial view gave the TV audience the full effect, while other cameras zoomed in as if to provide a microscopic perspective of the human termites working frenetically in the machine. Putting people in the role of insect automatons would seem to me a phobia of a humanitarian society. But the mechanized human component of the 2008 opening ceremonies was not disharmonious with the way we already see China. Everywhere performers were tethered, playing tiny roles in gargantuan schemes. Some provided the piston power to undulating cubes. They revealed themselves only at the end, and emerged only partially, free but to give a smile and wave. These giant light-board shows were switched by computers, their human components alerted by electric signal, be it light, or tone, or sensor, to synchronize their positions. A TV commentator who remarked about the amazing lack of wires, would be overlooking how his personal computing devices communicate these days. Human labor The human element was required for the spectacle, otherwise we've seen more complex LEDs on old ballpark scoreboards. Technically the chain-link of humans was superfluous, but doesn't it represent China, where labor costs are negligible? And so we cheered the 2008 drummers, who worked drums mounted into tables that could pass for work desks. Indeed the drummers were bent over them like bent people, galley slaves exerting themselves to the rhythm of the whip. It was a sea of modern slaves, the sweatshop laborers. Actually, two thousand and eight impressed the crowd, but that number is probably small for a factory workforce. Probably there are scenes like this many times as big
Update: Tony Snow still dead…
Now on the epitome of hubris, the Republicans are setting up a Trust Fund, and asking Americans to contribute. Steely Dan, Jethro Tull and the Doobie Brothers are planning a benefit concert. all contributions tax deductible of course. Meaning, we the people are going to be paying for it. And, Tony Snow didn't die in poverty. Had plenty of insurance. Got paid well for selling American Soldiers and Iraqis to their deaths based on what anybody who had any sort of sources of information, and the pure courage to use those sources, would know to be a LIE. A whole series of lies. Acting as GWs mouthpiece he deliberately joined him in Murder and Theft. That makes him an accomplice under any legal system on earth. A lot of the people in the Springs don't give a damn about any Iraqi people being killed, but they pretend to care about American casualties. So I'll focus on that. Tony Snow, like everybody associated with Bush, was heavily invested in the Oil and "defense" industries. He, like the Bush family still do, made money every time an American soldier became a casualty. I can easily picture him doing a little jig and saying "Cha-ching! yeah, baby, c'mon and die, daddy needs a new pair of dancin' shoes! Cha-Ching! Cha-Ching!" I strongly suspect the same thing about ALL supporters of this war. They no likey, me no givey damn they no likey. Ali Burton, the Thief of Baghdad, makes enough money in One DAY to put the Poor, Impoverished Rich Widow on easy street for the rest of her unnatural life. This is the widow of one of Bush's accomplices, who made excuses for Mr Bush when Mr Bush refused to increase and tried to decrease VA benefits and other Veterans, their dependents or Widows and Orphans programs. The widows and orphans of the soldiers Mr Bush and Mr Snow had Murdered for their fun and profit (mostly profit) are given the collective cold shoulder here, but one of the Murderers is being honored for his crimes, and we, the people, are without our consent directly subsidizing the payments of a trust fund for the Murderer's wife and children... because it's a tax deduction...
American government’s love affair with bunkers and walls
Check this out! An actual building in San Diego accidentally built by the Pentagon that looks like the Nazi swastika! The Navy is now spending over $600,000 to change the appearance of their building! Everywhere one looks, American government is building bunkers and walls! All though out Baghdad, the Pentagon is building bunkers and walls. In the West Bank, Israel and the Pentagon together are building bunkers and walls. On our southern border with Mexico, YES you guessed it, America is building bunkers and walls. Do we think for one split second that the rest of the world hasn't noticed that America is about bunkers and walls these days? All the sugary sweet talk in the world is not going to hide that fact away from the world. When one drives by an American embassy anywhere in the world one sees bunkers and walls. When one drives down the road in much of America, one sees bunkers and walls (prisons). Oh Sweet Land of Liberty.... Hardly! Yes, America is now an imprisoning nation, land of bunkers and walls. Do you live in a gated community? Probably not, since you would not be likely to be reading this commentary if you were into that sick mindset. But many, if not in fact the majority of us, live behind bunkers and walls. Bunkers and walls need regulations, lots of them. They need tickets, passports, and papers to go with this order. They need guns, barbed wire, and tasers. They need dope, lots of it, because bunkers and walls are shall we say it? ... they are depressing. Bunkers and walls need uniforms, officials, and lawyers, though not to enforce the law but to break it. Once it was parking lots, shopping malls, and interstate freeways. Today, it is more bunkers and walls. United We Stand. Divided We Fall. We are falling with bunkers and walls. Bunkers and walls is what brought elites, other than our own, down before, simply because most people hate bunkers and walls. American government has a love affair with bunkers and walls.
Compare Eastern Front EMBED footage
Embedding journalists in the military is not new. It's simply privatizing the Army press corp. Doesn't this early coverage of Operation Barbarossa look strikingly like the US advance on Baghdad? Support the Troops!
Cynthia McKinney and Cindy Sheehan together in Mexico City!
Below, we reprint 2 speeches made in Mexico City Friday, just yesterday, April 4, 2008. The speech Greed ... by Cindy Sheehan, and another speech by Cynthia McKinney that is without title. Cynthia McKinney Segundo Encuentro Continental de los Trabajadores Mexico City, Mexico, April 4, 2008 Brothers and Sisters in the Movement I am happy to be here in Mexico City where the people all over Latin America are on the move: On the move for justice, self-determination, and peace. I love that you have created a Power to the People movement with your votes that is stronger than the mightiest military force on the planet! With the power of your vote you have taken your countries back. Now, all we have to do is to count all the votes in the United States and Mexico! In the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, an estimated six million people went to the polls and voted, but their votes weren't counted. In 2000, and again in 2004, Democrats helped to install Republicans into power rather than fight for the victory that the voters had given them. As a result of this kind of collusion, the Democratic majority in our Congress has failed to impeach Bush. They have failed to institute a livable wage, stop the multiple wars the U.S. is fighting right now, and they have failed to protect human rights anywhere in the world, including even at home. That's why I left the Democratic Party. I refused to become complicit in war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the peace, spying on the American people, and ripping our Bill of Rights to shreds. And so I declared my independence from the U.S. leadership that gave us tax cuts for the wealthy and a country 53 trillion dollars in debt and Hurricane Katrina. To my brothers and sisters at this Conference and in the United States, I say: Hands off Haiti! Hands off Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Argentina now making a claim for the Falklands! Hands off Venezuela and Ecuador! No to Plan Mexico; No to Plan Colombia! Hands off Pemex! And finally, it was on this date, 40 years ago, that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered. We now know that Dr. King was murdered as part of a conspiracy that included his own government. Hatched in the bowels of the Pentagon, where so many other regime change operations have been hatched, the government of the United States launched regime change at home on Black America. We blacks in the United States have long known the pain and the consequences of having authentic leadership snatched from us; of having someone else pick our leaders before we pick them ourselves. I am proud to join this international movement for self-determination; for justice and for peace. Despite today's difficulties, we must never let our dream be deferred. We in the U.S. gain inspiration from your successes here so we can carry the struggle to every nook and cranny of the United States. Que vivan los pueblos de america! Cindy Sheehan -Key Note Speech "GREED" Segundo Encuentro Continental de los Trabajadores Mexico City, Mexico, April 4, 2008 First of all I would like to thank the International Labor Council and the Electrician's Union for such a warm welcome and I would like to assure you all, my brothers and sisters that
Moving Pictures, or pathetic Gazette pseudo-journalism?
Today's Sunday Gazette highlights its Iraq coverage with a huge headline titled, 'Moving Pictures'. Below the headline in smaller print is the additional sub-headline, 'Everyday Iraq Through a Humvee Window'. Our local paper has no shame at all, it seems, as it even brags about being 'in bed with' the American government occupation army of Iraq as it rides through the Baghdad suburban streets in super armored vehicles pointing high powered weaponry at the local kids ! What we get is not real reporting but Pravda style propaganda. Comical crap. We can expect no less from this Far Right Wing propaganda rag called The Gazette. Their paper is pure trash. The local community deserves much better.
Where are Salam Pax and Raed Jarrar?
The BBC has an update on Iraqi bloggers. Riverbend is back, she's now a refugee in Syria. Nabil is in Jordan. "Zappy" is in the UK. 24stepstoliberty now writes from California. Livesstrong and Najma are in Mosul. Last-of-Iraqis writes from Baghdad and shares the dashed-syntax with neurotic-iraqi-wife from the Green Zone. September last year, Raed Jarrar, namesake of Where is Raed? was not permitted to board a JetBlue plane at JFK because he wore a t-shirt which read "We will not be silenced." Salam al-Janabi, aka Salam Pax the Baghdad Blogger last posted to Fat Whiner on July 2006, and made a CNN video in April.
Dallas whores to visit US troops in Iraq
As the morale begins to plummet, there is always one thing that will cheer up The Troops. Just send in the whores! For over 3 decades as the USO article below states, Dallas's finest plastic whores have been doing their patriotic duty as military circus clowns. This year will be no different. How it must cheer up The Troops to have this bit of plastic Barbie Doll whoredom dance their way into the soldier's none-too-pleasant desert reality, churning these young soldiers stomachs. Whores do love whores! Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders to Entertain Tom Landry can't be there with The Girls, but how about having Franklin Graham on board in Baghdad, at least? Alas, this year's musical will not be last year's big hit, Spring Time for Hitler in Germany, but will be a delightful new score, Autumn Time for Bush in Iraq! Lots of song and dance to be had! But where's the booze?