DENVER, COLORADO- These guys have been complaining about corrupt local officials and trying every which way to bring them to justice, even the people's own. Now the state is throwing the book at the accusers. The eight are in jail, unable to post bond, and getting no attention from the press except derision. They're being labeled "Paper Terrorists" but no one's explaining what they were doing, certainly not trying to enrich themselves. What kind of "criminal enterprise" is not for profit? Here's the front page of their indictment:
Tag: Boulder
Broomfield Police play rough game of Cowboys & Indians with Idle No More Native Americans, literally
BROOMFIELD, COLO.- Fellow Occupy members and I joined in a "round dance" flash mob at a local mall on Wednesday night, as part of the growing IDLE NO MORE actions whose First Nations grievances include the despoiling of indigenous treaty lands by tar sands extraction and the XL pipeline, and sovereignty issues about which Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence is now on a 22 day hunger strike. Two previous round dances in Colorado had proceeded uneventfully but no sooner had we begun in the Flatirons Crossing Shopping Center, located between Denver and Boulder, that mall security and police began routing the round dancers out the door. It was a rather comical scene, peaceful dancers, many of them children, being blocked and herded straight out into the cold, no warning or explanation being given. Of course the round dance stopped in its tracks, people instead dancing in place, gently waving their signs, as security told them they had to leave or face arrest. Apparently, because we didn't hear it. Drummers were let to finish the first song, after which they packed up to leave. Once the drumming stopped however, we were surprised to hear security and police officers relaying their instructions, that "anyone who looked Native American" should be made to leave. Of course we questioned what we were hearing, and were then threatened with immediate arrest and ushered out the door. At the same time, police officers were running in a continuous line into the mall to conduct sweeps as many flash mob participants were still arriving from all directions. Many got lost on the way, or miscalculated the traffic they'd encounter, so arrived late. In essence however, people without signs, not singing or dancing or drumming or holding their ground, were summarily being ordered to leave the mall immediately, based upon the clue that they looked Native American. If my "Cowboys and Indians" analogy seems kinda flip. Imagine squads of Broomfield and Westminster police, roaming throughout the FlatIrons Mall checking people's faces to see if they qualify to be expelled. The mall wasn't cleared of all shoppers, just those who looked indigenous. A fairly scarey game, considering that many of the Idle No More participants were children. I can tell you part of the thrill for me, of the round dance flash mobs, as a European immigrant, is feeling the surroundings begin to fill with indigenous faces. That is turned around in the hostile atmosphere created by the police, as western law enforcement resumes its traditional role of hunting down those it pretends don't belong. I had invited a friend to bring her young family, part Native American, to join the dance. Thankfully they couldn't make it. What if they'd had, and come late, and were walking through the mall full of shoppers, and were encountered by squads of police who sought them out of the crowd and inexplicably ordered them to leave the premises? What's any American child to think of that? I have a young nephew who just that day I'd
Vandana Shiva visits Boulder, Oct 18
Vandana Shiva will speak at Boulder's Unity Church on Sunday, October 18 at 7pm. Dr. Shiva's speaking tour coincides with World Food Day, October 16. The internationally celebrated physicist and activist is a leading proponent of SLOW FOOD. Among her books, are STOLEN HARVEST and EARTH DEMOCRACY. This event is a fundraiser for KGNU Community Radio. Unity Church is located at 2855 Folsom.
Boulder Daily Camera editorial and CU campus Colorado Daily are unanimous
BOULDER- All the Denver TV news vans were standing by as Ward Churchill retook the CU campus podium. Local coverage of the Glenn Miller Ballroom event was front page and immediate, in both the students' Colorado Daily and the Boulder Daily Camera. The surprise wasn't just that the articles were unflattering, but that they were the exact same. I'm sure it's not news to the CU students that their free campus paper is none other than the reformatted local daily. You might wonder which is the more student-inclined. The news section of the student paper is titled CU AND THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC, as if to differentiate the student body from their "Leftist" township. The same article in the local daily Bill Ayers backs Ward Churchill, was retitled NOTORIOUS DISSENTER BACKS UP EMBATTLED PROF for the kids. Keep in mind, this is not the work of the students. While it might look perfectly transparent to publish a student-focused edition, full of campus-life related ads, what would be the purpose of two distinct internet facades for the same content? If not to reinforce the notion that the editorial content was distinct. Maybe the TWIN DAILIES reporters had time enough only to write their articles before hearing the speeches, because their stories reflected none of the convivial humanism presented by all the guests. The other article published the next morning was: Crowd faces tight security for Ayers, Churchill talk at CU. A follow-up article the next day was more in depth, but not about the subject of Thursday's event, neo-McCarthyism. The Saturday article redraws the battle lines of the Churchill-CU dispute. If you'd like to judge for yourself, both do have a video of the Thursday Forbidden Education rally. Pretense of separate publications is dropped when you click Full local coverage of Ward Churchill and his trial against CU, where you get all the accruing coverage courtesy of the BOULDER DAILY CAMERA. The only real alternative news in Boulder comes through the Boulder Weekly. But neither is it student run. By its actions against Ward Churchill, and certainly by its grip on student communication, the CU administration appears bent on rotting Boulder's promise of higher education from its academic core.
College Republicans not brightest bulbs
BOULDER- A favorite photo from Thursday night's event. This is the president of the CU College Republicans, who got up to object to student funds being spent on terrorists and frauds. Even after Ayers and Churchill spoke about how neither education nor students should be treated like commodities, sweaty dope Andrew Crown asked why a university could not do like any well-run corporation, and fire whomever it wished. The crowd booed, but the panel of guests calmly encouraged us to let everyone have their say. It's a reserve and graciousness of which I am in short supply. These guys shout down activists, attack progressives, remember the RNC Kicker, and the Protest Warriors? They have the ear of the mainstream corporate press. Why would we need to tolerate a single of their blimp-necked peeps at a discussion for intelligent people? If you think I am assessing someone's intelligence level based on whether he agrees with me, I am. On academic matters, it most certainly is appropriate. In classes, assessments of the retention and comprehension of man's accumulated understanding of the subjects are called tests. Does the University of Colorado have no admissions standards? Mr. Crown's questions was answered well beyond his ability to understand, and he returned to his seat shaking his head like the whole lot of us were incorrigible. I hope so.
Bill Ayers and Derrick Jensen to speak on Forbidden Education in Boulder
FORBIDDEN EDUCATION: Bill Ayers and Derrick Jensen will speak in Boulder on Thursday March 5, in solidarity with Ward Churchill's legal challenge against his dismissal by CU. MEANWHILE, THIS JUST IN... This press release just came in from DC conservative Christian PR group GRIFFNEWS, also of USAsurvival.org... Wednesday, March 04, 2009 Attorney General Urged to Investigate Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn by Campaign for Justice for Victims of Weather Underground Terrorism WASHINGTON, D.C.- Pressure is mounting for an expanded probe of former Weathermen Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn , and their alleged roles in the 1970 bombing murder of a San Francisco policeman. Larry Grathwohl, former FBI informant in the Weather Underground and author of Bringing Down America: An FBI Informer with the Weathermen, will repeat his sworn testimony that points to the involvement of the Weather Underground in the bombing murder of Sgt. Brian V. McDonnell at a News Conference on Thursday, March 12, at 12:30 p.m. at the National Press Club, 529 14th St., NW, 13th floor (First Amendment Lounge), Washington, D.C. Grathwohl says that he was at a meeting where Ayers said that his wife Dohrn had planted the bomb. The News Conference is being sponsored by the Campaign for Justice for Victims of Weather Underground Terrorism, a project of investigative journalist Cliff Kincaid's America's Survival, Inc. The cold case of Sgt. Brian V. McDonnell, killed in 1970 when a bomb exploded at the San Francisco Park Police Station, has been quietly reopened by law enforcement authorities in the hope of finding the person or persons responsible for the crime. But Grathwohl and other speakers say that more cooperation at the federal level in the investigation is needed. That is why they are demanding that Attorney General Eric Holder authorize more resources for the probe. Grathwohl will be joined by four other speakers who will discuss the McDonnell case, the violent history of the Weather Underground, and the reemergence of its members in political and campus organizing activities: – Cliff Kincaid, veteran journalist and President of America's Survival, together with internationally-renowned blogger Trevor Loudon, will release a new report on how members of the SDS and Weather Underground have revived a radical student movement on college campuses. The report will examine the international connections that people like Ayers currently have with anti-American regimes and movements. –Jim Pera, a retired San Francisco police sergeant who was one of the first on the scene after the February 16, 1970 bombing, will have photographs of the heavy metal staples from the bomb used to kill Sergeant McDonnell. – Herbert Romerstein, a former Congressional investigator, will release a new report that examines the violent history of the Weather Underground and its links to other terrorist and communist groups. The Campaign for Justice for Victims of Weather Underground is a project of America's Survival, www.USAsurvival.org, an independent foreign affairs watchdog organization.