Oh dear, is this really the best antiwar argument we've got? The share of federal spending which goes to war-making IS astounding, and should give the common citizen pause, but how does it speak to the average weapons industrialist attending the 2011 Space Symposium? They're trickle-down folks! The more money going to science and skilled labor the better. High tech would be happier if 100% of government spending went through them. Plus the only thing worse than antiwar arguments lamenting OUR OWN casualties, IMO worse too than NIMBY, is making it all about how we can't AFFORD it.
Tag: Broadmoor
As per usual, Colorado Springs monied class is unrepentant, gaga for GW Bush
Yep, they turned up in their orange tans, diamonds, black gowns and shiny SUVs, to support Christian charter schools and honor "God Bless Him" George Dubya Bush. This was my favorite sign from the protest.
Jesus Springs welcomes fugitive Bush
After seeing Colorado College gush over a whitewashed CIA murderer, I'm not in any mood to watch local Christian groupies applaud George War-criminal Bush. The plan for Saturday at the Broadmoor is to pummel the arrogant creep with shoes, ceremoniously of course, and probably in effigy. We'll have a Bush impersonator, a little monkey in a suit strutting about with impunity. And it appeals to me more that we not land any hits, so we'll have Junior ducking this shoe and that, taunting us with his sick hehehe. And won't that reflect reality? Justice frustrated by a snickering good ol' boy. Except, is there outrage left for Bush? I know I hardly feel it anymore. It's Obama dissembling about torture and dropping the bombs now. Here's the list of embarrassing local businesses and idiotri welcoming George Bush to Colorado Springs, they're even giving him an award, apparently he's an inspiration to charter school students: Colorado Springs Christian Schools Steve Schuck Dick Saunders, Saunders Construction El Pomar Foundation Pete & Jackie Kuyper Sonya Camarco, LPL Financial Dewhirst & Dolven, Attorneys Bob & Kelly McGrath Dr. Ron & Renee Rains Interim Healthcare Clear Ink Foundation Colorado Custom Decks Dr. Mike & Kathy Hall Mateos Salon & Day Spa Dar Howard Envision Investment Group Dave & Lynda Bjorklund First Western Trust Bank Scott & Beth Bugosh Richard King Brown Freedom Financial Services The Milestone Group Clear View Properties The Sonchar Family Joseph & Melissa Hornsey Ken & Rae Driscoll Rick & Margaret Brown David & Gloria Neuder Todd Pickle Lee & Mickey Bolin Seelye Group Ltd. Liberty Toyota Matrix Design Group DWG & Associates Blazer Electric Supply ACSI Joe Woodford Thor Iverson Consulting Rothgerber Johnson Lyons LLP Kathryn Emrick American Iron & Metal Stephanie Brock Design Integrity First Financial Phil & Mary Kiemel Weavers Online Rocky Mountain Custom Trim
THEY can’t afford feudal serfdom any more than US
Meaning the Corporates. Like Bush and Walker. They've sunk their assets and their asses into the credit economy deep. They broke it and expect US to make all the concessions so they can salvage enough of the system to support their luxury lifestyle. It's gone, gone gone... They'll have real estate without tenants or maintenance, cars without gas or drivers, WideScreen MegaUltra-3D televisions without electricity or audiences. roads that nobody could drive on even if they DID have cars and gas, and no way to pay the Working Class people they've hired to guard their palaces. Their "liquid" assets are phantoms, Credit Cards, Mortgages, car loans. Bush is scheduled to ride his ass into town on what, Palm Sunday, Good Friday? I'll have to check the date. Into a town they look upon as being the New Jerusalem, to be lauded by the New Priesthood at the New Temple to their god Mammon. Blasphemy, yes. It is. And I'm sure they are aware of it. Gov Walker is actually from here, you know. They scheduled the "Lion's Heart" award ceremony before Scott Walkers Putsch, although that was probably coordinated too, Maybe Sir Scott of Walker was going to present King George with the head of American Labor on a silver charger. OK so the Royalist and religious metaphors overlap a lot and I, for one, can't help the fact that their corporate church and corporate state are built on contradictions. But I'm placing my bet that Scott Walker is on the scheduled Evenings Entertainment. Mene, mene, tekel upharsim Mene, Mene, tekel peres
What would Bush war cabal have to say to America’s insurance cronies?
Why would Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and General Stanley McChrystal be addressing US insurance execs? McChrystal of all people, specifically. How to make war on poor people, even in America? My best guess would be motivational speeches about how to stay out of jail, no matter what the enormity of the crime. Cheney speaks today at the Broadmoor. Come tell the assemblage (7:30-8:30AM) that you don't approve they choice of mentor.
Colorado Springs is belly of space beast
What's that up in the sky? It's a mini-me space shuttle with no windows, a former NASA project now entirely USAF. Amateur space object trackers have located the X-37B, the US military's super secret unmanned space shuttle. What's so secret about an unarmed, ostensibly inoffensive piece of space hardware? Good question. It depends on what military role you consider to be noncombatant. Although I'd hope we could all agree by now that Predator Drone pilots wagging remote joysticks at stateside air force bases are plenty lethal if even illegal warfaring combatants. So what harm then, the little mini-me shuttle quietly going about its orbit? During WWI, observers used to float above the trenches in balloons to direct artillery fire. The (unarmed!) bastards were despised more than the gunners themselves. The early airplane pilots earned the deference they're shown to this day by the grunts on the ground because they would send the artillery spotters scrambling. It's thought that the X-37B is performing such reconnaissance tasks, perhaps with more flexibility and advanced technology than our standard satellites. But that wouldn't entirely explain why this former NASA project is being kept out of the public eye. Here's obfuscating verbiage from a local war-in-space contractor, the Secure World Foundation based in Superior, Colorado. "The program supports technology risk reduction, experimentation and operational concept development.” The Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office is more forthright about its function: “development and fielding of select Defense Department combat support and weapons systems.” "Mission Control" by the way is located at the Air Force Space Command’s Third Space Experimentation Squadron, based at Schriever Air Force Base, right here. A worrisome aspect about the X-37B is the secrecy, in light of the fact that its path can be charted by amateurs, if obviously also adversaries. The trajectory of the rocket which launched the vehicle into orbit, its spent hull directed now into an orbit around the sun, is also considered top-secret. When Peace in Space activists are protesting the Space Symposium at the Broadmoor every year, this is what we are angry about: doublespeak pretending to be about space exploration. What will putting arms in space mean but more arms in space, quickly, adversaries rushing to grab a beachhead before the US is in the position to prevent it? The X-37B is nothing but an near-space preditor drone, armed not with guns but the means to deploy space mines equipped with guns. If serving as the eyes and ears for targeting weapons isn't immoral enough.
How to get on the terrorist watch list
Impersonate an astronaut? Criticize defense contractors? I have no idea. But at the airport, welcome to the tertiary security check delay, where they dust your hands for potential explosive residue. "Dust" in an antiquated term relating to the dust detectives used to sprinkle at crime scenes to make fingerprints more visible. These days they "wipe" objects with chemically treated cloths to register the presence of particular substances. The pH strip meets the Swiffer. I have lost all sense of a control passenger to measure what security measures subjugate the average citizen, as most of my friends do qualify as "persons of interest" to the increasingly hostile corporate atmosphere. I dropped Protester X off at the bus stop on Lake Circle, between the two roundabouts and went to park the car. I'd left her to don her spacesuit and walk the quarter block to the corner where we'd hold a banner at the Broadmoor's main entrance. As I doubled back along the sidewalk, I could hear the convention center security radios squawking one after another. "We've spotted one by the parking structure" they rang out in alarm. From the next I heard: "She's at the El Pomar Exit, moving south." A security official sped by me on a three-wheeled Segway. By the time I reached my colleague, her new wheeled escort was poised impassively behind her. Here she was, peace flag in hand, looking every bit like a moon walker coming toward me on the sidewalk, with Broadmoor's grumpy head of security having no sense he was spoiling the imagery. He rolled quietly behind and past us as we assumed our stance on the lawn, and I explained to my fellow astronaut the walkie-talkie hullabalu which had announced her landing. The now usual, annual steps for man, hoping for peace in space, a not inconsiderate leap of faith for mankind. I've had no trouble at airports, perhaps because my actions are an open book. Someone with fewer records or an indeterminate daily schedule, might perhaps rate a question mark on security agency lists. It's become more than an inconvenience. Whether your political opinions score the watch list, the no-fly list, or the permissible to assassinate while overseas list, your freedom of expression is abridged.
Now we need gun control in space
Asked if we were having fun, I answered: "Absolutely -- we're the only astronauts who don't answer to the Pentagon" or weapons contractors.
Broadmoor Space Symposium to show kids the marvel of death squad drones
COLORADO SPRINGS- America's biggest war profiteers convene on the Broadmoor tonight through Thursday (April 12-15) to celebrate selling weapons in space. And seriously, they're inviting your kids. Under the guise of the wonders of space explorations, bus loads of local schoolchildren will tour the weapons exhibits, marveling at everything from satellites to yes, unmanned drones, failing to ponder why astronauts and mission probes are in the clutches of our military. They'll see the protests outside and wonder why someone has something against Manifest Destiny beachheads in space.
Which would you find more insulting?
COLORADO SPRINGS- I'm not sure which is the more insulting, being accused of murder, or being likened to a hayseed Howdy Doody with nothing between his ears. However cold-blooded the death merchants may be, calling them murderers to their faces is plain rude. The recent Space-weapons Symposium was an opportunity we couldn't resist to do just that, but I will never assert that our message was for everyone. If some peace advocates are uncomfortable with a condemning tone, there are plenty of alternative approaches. But the sanctimonious rancor with which protesters chose sides on Monday, in favor of what they considered a more charitable theme, invites a counterpoint. First let me say that an advantage to having two distinct messages at the scene meant that at first glance, one protest could be confused for being a counter-protest of the other. Which meant we were able to draw the attention, if only for the seconds it took to realize their curiosity was mistaken, of even the many trying to avert their eyes. This year, the Citizens for Peace In Space group elected to chide the Space Symposium attendees, those warmongers in space-sheep's clothing, to "Stop Truth Decay," using handouts and a puppet to illustrate a complementary pun: "Mental Floss." Get it? Well, you probably needed to read the flier. There was also a giant toothbrush, and before and after teeth. The mental-floss demonstration involved a large paper-mache smiling country bumpkin agitating a string, pulling it literally "in one ear and out the other," to and fro. For some reason I associate that with some sort of international gesture for a person you think is empty headed. As twirling your finger in the vicinity of your ear expresses disrespect for another's sanity. If I were a space technology scientist, even if only accidentally murderous, I think I'd prefer being called a homicidal bastard, sooner than a grinning doofus. Which is to say, I subscribe to both themes, and the spirit demonstrated by the Truth Decay team was convivial, but judging messages based which opens, rather than shuts down communication, which peace contingent then was being the more condescending? Actually, a surprising number of attendees took pictures of our MURDERERS banner, many of them posing with us, sooner that stand next to the puppet, much less take a flier. Of course, I'm not sure what that indicates about the efficacy of either message.
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?
Y’all are murderous mercenary profiteers
Photos by Ryan. Broadmoor Hotel Marie Pattie Eric Convention Center Custom bus murals sponsored by ITT Our point exactly.
National Space [Weapons] Symposium
REMINDER! The military-industrial complex converges this week on the Broadmoor Conference Center, in the guise of "Space Symposium 2009." The biggest mercenaries, profiteers, mass-murderers and top brass will gather over cocktails in the late afternoon, after weapons exhibitors have set up their displays. Local news is already hyping the event, this year's emphasis is, we kid you not, EDUCATION! Citizens for Peace In Space (CPIS) is reprising their STOP TRUTH DECAY street theater at 5pm on Monday, Coloradans 4 Peace has reserved a more pointed message, to begin at 4pm, before the death-merchant revelers retreat inside. We will also be bannering the arrival of school buses, Tuesday through Thursday, between 8am-10am. Springs schools have organized field trips to the Space Symposium exhibits, without revealing the context of the massive malevolent industry behind it. In the past, the school children crane their necks to see us, but teachers have been able to dismiss the odd protesters as Peace Luddites, giving the children no clue as to why we might be opposed to the event. This year our message will be more succinct. In the past, organizers have expressed not knowing where to stand, nor when, to be seen by the school buses. But not this year. The days of containing the protest message to only inoffensive slogans, or coordinating with police as to where it's permissible to stand, ARE OVER!
Silly warmongers, space is for kids
Once again the Colorado Springs peace community has the unique opportunity to protest the annual Space Symposium hosted at the Broadmoor. First, the event provides unparalleled access to the upper echelons of the US military industrial for-profit killing machine. And this year, their war-in-space theme is not even disguised: "Space as a Contested Environment." Think they're talking about Sputnik? Leave space to NASA, not to baby killers You can banner in front of weapons industry office buildings, you can have your progress blocked at their parking lots, but at the opening ceremonies of the Broadmoor Space Symposium, you can put your message directly in the faces of the war criminal bosses themselves. Details to follow.
Obama in our bastion of white bigotry
COLORADO SPRINGS- News reports far and wide recounted Barack Obama's visit yesterday to our "Bastion of the Religious Right." He toured the Air Force Academy and Peterson AFB, and spoke with veterans at UCCS on the Christian North side. He finished off with the fundraiser at the Broadmoor, an atmosphere so genteel, Obama would have stood out against his Caucasian audience like a white man on the Broadmoor wait staff. Clearly our peace contingent had the less embarrassing task outside with our banners, where we were enthusiastically received, tourists stopped to pose for pictures with us. For years the Broadmoor has been scamming the system by applying for work visas for temporary workers, claiming that the Colorado workforce is inadequate for their resort needs. Which might be true. While much of their low-wage earners are recruited from Eastern Europe, for the food service they've settled on Jamaicans. I can only conjecture that it's because the Caribbean is closer, the labor pool is cheaper, the Jamaicans already speak English but can't entangle themselves with the African American community several neighborhoods away, and they look good in all-white uniforms. I do hope Obama remarked on the jarring plantation racial divide last night at dinner. As habitues of protesting the Broadmoor, we detected some interesting adjustments last night. For a start, the key security posts were being manned by Secret Service men who'd donned the maroon crested jackets. Not only did it make them look less conspicuous, they were in charge. Except they didn't stand flat-footed, and deftly multi-tasked with PDAs. This left the usual security manager free to offer us his assistance! We think he was tickled that on this occasion we would be protesting his political opposites. But there was the suggestion of a racist fervor as the big southern guy and erstwhile asshole jumped into his SUV, and pulled beside us, beaconing us to hop in for a ride to the west entrance, the quicker to have banners in place before Mr. Obama's arrival. Otherwise, passersby and attendees were positively convivial. Salutations were warm and familiar. One couple visiting from Iowa hopped out of their car and asked to hold placards with us while we snapped their picture. Between reports into their headsets, the guards engaged us in friendly conversation. News coverage of Obama's earlier speech at UCCS showed that the audience of "veterans" in the gym was well seeded with dark faces, many of them recognizable to locals as active Democrats of color. KRDO Channel 13 went so far as to put a microphone on African American June Waller, to record her "yessirs" like amens at a gospel service. Which they played as chorus to Obama's remarks. June's audio track began with her asking the person beside her for help with a camera "How do I get this going?" I know June as outgoing and self-deprecating, not the least bit incompetent. We can imagine the Dems were stage managing the event to project racial diversity. It the same wallpapering that Bush's handlers
Shall we stand our ground with Obama?
The man who brought Democrats out of the closet, our presumptive Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Barack Obama, will be speaking in Colorado Springs Wednesday night at the Broadmoor. WHETHER OR NOT you hope he gets elected, do we remind Obama and the Democrats he rode in on, that the American and world peoples need real change? "Change" does NOT mean: endorsing FISA, funding more war, staying in Iraq, bullying Iran, or not promising universal health care. Can you name anything Barack Obama is going to do for you? He'll withdraw the "combat troops" (10%) from Iraq? Come put your two cents before the eyes of these presumptive progressives. MEET US 6PM WED. AT THE BROADMOOR. There's nothing wrong with Obama that the voice of the people can't fix. You know there's only one way to make sure he hears it! UPDATE: The event will be held at BROADMOOR WEST, behind the lake. The best car and foot traffic will still pass our original spot.
Defense Industry belligerance mindset
Mark's amusing Space Symposium Billy Bad-Ass video is getting traction. As the CPIS delegation is enroute to Omaha, KRDO Channel 13 talked to Mark and I about Tuesday morning (and Wednesday morning 2006). The man who blind-sided our costumed Darth Vader would not have known who was under the robe. By the look of the rest of the protesters, it most likely would have been someone of advanced age, who could not have handled an unexpected thrust in the back. The little bully pushed so hard he threw himself off quilter (and out of the frame), and had to be assisted by Broadmoor security. While officers stood by. At least in my case, two years ago, officers intervened as an enraged army commander in running shorts jogged right up to me and with his hands gripping my collar tried to knock me down.
Protest of Space Profiteer Arms Sellers
Citizens for Peace In Space and representatives from the Global Network turned up to protest the annual space profiteering convention.
CPIS against Space Weapons Symposium
Reminder: Citizens for Peace In Space will be protesting the Space Symposium held annually at the Broadmoor. As usual the event is 99% about space weaponry. Come see all the smarmy businessmen (suntans and loafers) and their military meal tickets (top brass). CPIS activities include a protest at the opening cocktail hour MONDAY 17:00-17:45; then at 19:00-20:30 a panel discussion at Penrose Library with CPIS guests JN Rao of India, Jan Tamas of the Czech Republic, Damian Moran of Poland and Mary Beth Sullivan of Maine; TUESDAY 15:00-16:00 bannering at Peterson AFB; WEDNESDAY 10:30-12:30 bannering at the Broadmoor while schoolchildren are bused in to see the pseudo- scientific displays which glorify US military superiority.
We lose they lose
Protesting at the side of the street does seem futile at times, it certainly seems so just thinking about it. But out there catching each others eyes, you're reminded of its mysterious power, particularly when you're shown to what extent those against you are willing to go to keep you from being there. When we first turned up Monday at the Broadmoor Space Symposium Arms Bazaar, we were quickly moved from a section sidewalk declared off limits to us. The police could not explain exactly what ordinance or why, except that they had orders to keep us off the Lake Circle sidewalk. We complied the way reasonable people do, because the area to which we were confined seemed at first glance perfectly suitable. We occupied the corner of Lake and Lake Circle, where we could hand fliers to symposium attendees crossing to the Convention Center. But this gave us contact with only a fraction of the participants in attendance. The majority of the weapons dealers stayed inside the center, whose windows faced the sidewalk area forbidden to us. We decided to accept the "free speech zone" given us until we could research the new restriction, mindful of the recent Appeals Court verdict which upheld the Broadmoor's discretion to cordon off its entire neighborhood as a security zone for the NATO conference some years back. Citizens for Peace In Space lost that appeal. It took Bill Sulzman until 10pm Wednesday to get someone at the CSPD to speak to the issue of the exclusive use permit granted to the Broadmoor. That representative, a Commander Overton, agreed to meet Bill the next morning to negotiate where protesters would or would not be restricted. Was this a victory of discourse and civility? It certainly was a victory for the Space Arms Symposium. They effectively kept us off their turf until the last day, then thwarted a legal challenge by deciding to give in. We got to stand on the contested sidewalk for a snowy hour of the last day of the conference. This is where less confrontational pacifists hinder their protest efforts. It might be well to resolve your differences by arbitration, meanwhile the bad guys hold the real estate. In the end our message does not get out, the war rages on, we are entangled in bureaucratic battles until our rights are upheld. This was the tactic used at the DNC, RNC, FTAA, WTO, and indeed our own St Patrick's Day: detain the dissidents until their opportunity to be heard has passed. It's an abridgment of our civil liberties, and the government factors into its budget the liability of likely legal judgments. But what price lost free speech? What cost for every day the war goes on? We know that number. What cost for each further contract for more WMDs? If protest could stop that, that's the price the government owes us. Could street protest have that effect? Somebody thinks so. Last year at the Broadmoor, the reaction to our protest was very telling. The first day we
White Mountain
White Mountain met its match last night, at their homecoming football game. The idea usually is to pick an opponent to beat at your homecoming festivities. Later you might visit a fellow school on their homecoming weekend and lose to them in return. But "South," the underprivileged shoe-in with half the athletic department and budget, would not play ball. And that was the good news. There was a distinct home advantage, the bigger, better lit bleachers, the multiple cheerleading squads, the band, the fireworks, everything uphill and upwind from the diminutive visitors stands. But the Indians got whooped by the visiting Pueblo South Colts, and maybe expected it. It felt like a surprise to most, and it was pretty dark out there. Add to that the anonymity of shiny football helmets under high school stadium lights, but if you looked closely you could tell it was darker on the south side of the field. The Pueblo South High School players were black and hispanic. White Mountain gets its name because there are no children of color there. Well, there are the occasional adopted black children, and the whitish black children of privilege, but few others. Cheyenne Mountain is very very white. Nothing wrong with that, it's an affluent neighborhood and welcomes all who can afford to be there. But at the base of Cheyenne Mountain is a racism more overt and the children of White Mountain pass it everyday. Cheyenne Mountain Resort is a terribly exclusive country club with amazingly expensive membership fees and golf tee fees. And all the attendants there are black. It's the Pullman porter valet concept with plantation era uniforms. They look like lawn jockey figurines. Thin black people in pure white clothes. Smiling black faces, happy to be there. Nothing illegal about the hiring standard, here's how it works: Cheyenne Mountain Resorts applies for an immigration waiver to hire international workers. They claim the jobs which resorts offer cannot be filled by the local labor force. The pay's not enough, the career prospects are not enough, and true enough, the local populace is not enough either. Too fat maybe, poor work ethic, have social problems perhaps, and locals have their own transport to bring or fetch complications for the resort. Locals bring too much financial baggage to the table. On the other hand, imported laborers are housed at company apartments. They're shuttled to and from work. When they've finished their three month stint they are sent home. Deliriously uncomplicated and cheap. Cheyenne Mountain Resorts does its hiring in Jamaica. Know any white people in Jamaica? Well, they don't appear to sign up to work across the sea, away from their home and family, on a rich man's plantation. The Broadmoor takes advantage of the same immigrant labor waiver to staff its hotel and restaurant, except they hire exclusively in Eastern Europe. I'm not sure that's not racist to another extreme. The slavic labor force is the least expensive in the world, in the world of white people. There are no colored