Is Trig really the love child of John Edwards and Sarah Palin?

Posted on September 7, 2008 by Thomas Mc

“I did not have sex with that man, Brad Hanson, er Scott Richter.” (What’s the definition of “sex”, again?) Sarah Palin cheated on her husband, had an affair with his business partner and best friend, who has now filed an emergency motion to seal his divorce papers (denied). Remember how the Republicans crowed about John Edwards’ affair, when he wasn’t even on the ticket? I’m guessing she’ll withdraw her nomination by the end of the month. At any rate, it should be fun watching Dr. Dobson try to spin this to the Religious Right that, “she may be a whore, but she’s our whore!” (I think I’ll go out and buy some popcorn.)

Oh, and why doesn’t either the hospital, or the State of Alaska have a copy of Trig’s birth certificate???

Freudian honesty. Tom Ridge calls John McCain, “John Bush.”

Feds shut down bank that John McCain’s son drove into the ground.

Sarah Palin, Queen of the Alaskan Frontier

Sarah Palin Vlogs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Experience counts: Palin, as “commander-in-chief of the Alaska Nat’l Guard,” never issued a single order.

Honesty counts: Palin lied about visiting troops in Iraq before Obama.

Bookburner for Jesus: Palin tried to get librarian fired for not censoring books as she demanded.

And you thought GW Bush had a knack for picking the least qualified person. Hey, I just realized: If Sarah Palin is qualified to be VP, then since I run this rinky-dink little website — I must be qualified to be White House Communications Director! w00t!

Excerpts from Thomas McCullock’s notes Sept 6, thomasmc.com.

Pentagon Airlines carries both cocaine and renditioned prisoners

Posted on September 7, 2008 by Tony Logan

This scandal is being kept pretty much out of the US news. What we are referring to is the Mexico drug plane used for US ‘rendition’ flights: report It really shows the low moral character of the US government torturers. The torturers are connected with cocaine pushing too, though is that really so surprising?

Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Shades of Colombia where the US puppet government is connected with the cocaine crowd, too. And brings back memories of Colonel Ollie North in Central America. There is a long history of Pentagon connections with pushers.

‘USA! USA! USA!’

This is the chant that many of the McCainites responded with to the antiwar protesters as these militarism nuts lined up like sheep to go see their clown during his campaign visit yesterday in Colorado Springs, That got met by simply leading their chant in front of them,

‘USA, USA, USA…. USA Stop Torture of POWs Now!’

Shut the fools up real quick, it did. Try it. The Right Wing no longer even tries to muster up its previous effort to deny the reality of US torture of POWs. They are just pathetic as they try to call others out as being UnAmerican, though it is they themselves who support using torture on innocent US held prisoners. Just pathetic they are… And shameless, too.

Colo. Springs unintelligentsia for McCain

Posted on September 6, 2008 by Eric Verlo

COLORADO SPRINGS- Elsewhere, John McCain’s campaign hasn’t been able to draw audiences of more than 500 people, but Colorado Springs folk came in droves. Doors opened at 9am, but cars began queuing at 7. When the event began at eleven, the 10,000 seats were taken and thousands more faithful were still arriving. Plus us.

I held a couple signs, to remind attendees about the KEATING FIVE, HELLO? and about McCain’s dubious Hanoi Hilton mistreatment, P.O.W. FRAUD.

We got a lot of “America love it or leave it” sentiment. Otherwise the opportunity was ripe to confront some of this city’s most ardent war supporters with reminders of a different school of thought.

A half-dozen PETA activists came with compelling issues to put before the crowd. One was dressed as Sarah Palin with a beauty queen sash that read MISS GLOBAL WARMING, another was dressed as a polar bear. Two more were wolves holding signs asking to outlaw the sniping of wild animals from airplanes.

Zombies infest Information Super Highway

Posted on September 4, 2008 by Tony Logan

dead iphone Are you part of the growing INTERNET zombie crowd? You know what I mean, are you a cyborg zombie infested with spyware, spam, and HIV (hijacked INTERNET voices)? Are you down with the Microsoft runs? Zombie plague sweeps the internet You are sick because the police target the wrong people to harass and now you are a zombie! The cyberpolice aren’t after them that made you sick, but you!

How to resist someone else’s arrest

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Eric Verlo

A SPPD officer was dragging an arrestee along the street at an RNC protest when he was body-blocked for a fumble and INTERCEPTION!

A feat of great courage, with a plain-clothed cameraman opposite. Officer unfriendly reacted by spraying mace as he exited the jeering crowd.

Video from THE UPTAKE:

The UpTake captured video of a St. Paul police officer dragging a “black bloc” protester away from a bus, only to get tackled from behind. The officer sprayed a chemical agent all around him but ultimately lost the suspect and called for backup. Video by Corey Becker.

Teargassing the Poor People’s March

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Tony Logan

The police rioters are really too much! Here is a photo spread of their tear gassing of the Poor People’s March yesterday at the RNC. You think that the US government would be ashamed of how they are looking before the entire World, but they have just completely lost it. All they seem to understand these days is how to use brute force, whether it be at home or abroad.

Riot Cops Gas Docile Crowd Outside the RNC Democratic Mayor Coleman of St. Paul has been doing his part to discredit US`democracy, too, by praising the police for doing a good job! I guess he thinks that at least it doesn’t look as bad as the Democratic Party ’68 Convention did in Chicago? Maybe not, but then again, people are getting a glimpse worldwide of how messed up the US truly is under the Two Party System of misgovernment.

Just say no, Sarah Palin

Posted on August 31, 2008 by Marie Walden

Exactly who is John McCain pandering to by adding Sarah Palin to the ticket? Talk is that he’s hoping to hook the evangelical crowd, but he’s obviously missing a few key bits of information.

Conservative Christians do not put their women in positions of authority over men. Ever. In my former church, women were not allowed to preach to the general congregation because this was seen as unbiblical, and a condescension to their male counterparts. Believe it or not, they aren’t even permitted to lead the “praise and worship” musical segment of the Sunday service for the same reason. Jezebel can forget about the support of evangelical males.

As for females, they present an even peskier problem. Christian women have strong opinions about the roles of wife and mother. In my experience, few evangelical wives are employed full-time outside the home. Their lives are about rearing godly children and glorifying their husbands. Many consider themselves helpmates, subordinate to their husbands and the church. They are not going to view Sarah Palin as a sister in Christ. She resembles a Biblical harlot, not a Proverbs 31 role model.

There is a nonreligious unbridgeable gap here as well. In case you hadn’t heard, there is an ongoing feud between stay-at-home mothers (SAHMs) and women employed outside the home. The SAHMs claim the moral high ground in the area of child-raising and husband-tending, while the working women, especially those in traditionally male-dominated professions, cling to feminist values of independence, equality, and self-actualization. Ms. Palin — the working woman who calls herself a soccer mom — may strike both camps as an imposter. And many women, regardless of work status, will wonder why Sarah would leave five children, including a special-needs infant, to be used as a pawn in a good-ol’-boys ploy.

I feel sorry for Sarah Palin. She’s being used as hastily begotten arm candy to pretty up an ugly ticket. Things won’t go well for her this election season. In my opinion, she should have refused McCain’s offer. She should have thanked him for the honor of being asked, and then used the national spotlight to showcase who she really is. Not the life preserver he’d like her to be.

Undercover surveillance has uniform too

Posted on August 31, 2008 by Eric Verlo

DENVER- DNC day 0, Undercover observers.

Could this NOT BE A COP? My goodness the cops had undercover uniforms too! White shirt, tan cargo shorts, white socks, running shoes, camera and backpack. This bicyclist was helping to track Unconventional Denver as they veered from the permitted parade route along 16th Street Mall.

Another barrel bellied gentleman was recording the Sunday antiwar rally. There were hundreds of police video cameras out there, not held at the ready for something to happen, like the other videographers, but constantly pointed. Wouldn’t that be recording a bunch of nothing, unless you’re simply trying to document faces?

I have another theory, which comes of imagining dozens of surveillance cameramen each shift, clocking out and depositing multitudes of digital videotape cassettes, marked by location, time, and perhaps incident. Would that seem to be a nightmare to organize? I’m thinking these cameras were up to something else.

These two square pegs were videotaping the Sunday UA Lincoln Boulevard standoff. The person in the foreground is an example of what real participants look like. His camera is waiting for something to capture. The rear two have cameras aloft, whether they’re paying attention our not.

The yellow shirted boy scout gestured to this third duffer behind them. I’m not sure the signal except that he stepped back as I photographed.

I wonder if these cameras held aloft haven’t been retrofitted to give live video feeds, instead of recording unto individual DATs. I bet they’re transmitting wireless signals to a communications truck nearby, where not only are the images being recorded into a data bank, likely they are being monitored for a real-time sense of what’s happening in the crowd. That might explain why the cameramen were seldom seen panning or changing their angle. It might also be possible that they were receiving their instructions through the camera viewfinders.

Now this guy isn’t wearing the day uniform. What’s he doing? I include him just for contrast. He’s wearing the black colors of a provocateur or plant and sure enough when the antiwar march came its closest to the Pepsi Center, suddenly he broke his silence. Where before he’s stood back, observing the morning rally. Now he was moving through the marchers offering instructions. Many of the organizers were trying to create something of a circle in front of the Pepsi Center entrance. This “marcher” who held no banner, and wore no political message, was now helpfully urging everyone to continue past.

DNC disruption provided by FOX NEWS

Posted on August 31, 2008 by Eric Verlo

DENVER- Sunday DNC Antiwar Rally. Predictably enough, the only disorder at the DNC protests was instigated by Fox News knave Griff Jenkins. At Recreate 68’s kickoff rally on Sunday, ambush reporter Jenkins tried to rush the stage and force an interview of Ward Churchill. AIM security intervened, but the camera skirmish created an inordinate distraction for the speaker at the podium and the audience trying to listen.

The diminutive Fox dick started shouting about HIS FREE SPEECH RIGHTS, which I believe illuminated his own understanding of the “journalism” role Fox serves. He doesn’t report, he decides. This thug’s media clout gave him the delusion he could speak over our right to assemble and attend to our speakers. His self-importance was laughable, and the crowd was not convinced. It started chanting FUCK FOX, FUCK FOX. Which of course Fox News reported as an anti-Fox riot. This was repeated later when Jenkins tried to interview marchers along the parade route.

In fact the only confrontations to come of the DNC demonstrations involved Fox’s Jenkins, Michelle Malkin, and inexplicably as far as I can undersand, Alex Jones from Prison Planet.

Sarah Palin is Dan Quayle in Drag

Posted on August 30, 2008 by Thomas Mc

Alaskan news media chastised Sarah Palin for “conduct unbecoming a human being, never mind a governor.”

VPILF? ewww. (now, her hubby, on the other hand…) And it only took a few minutes for the nude pictures of her to start showing up. That should turn on the “Family Values” crowd. And, um, Cindy’s actually going to let John spend the next two months traveling around with her?

Mossad website says US to attack Iran before election. Whaddaya’ bet Obama jumps on the bandwagon if they do?

You have the right to remain silent. Refusing to remain silent may result in your being classified as a suspected terrorist. This is “freedom” in the 21st century US of A.

Gestapo raids headquarters of protest group ahead of RNC. 30 cops with guns drawn storm building, detain and photograph 50, for “fire code violation.”

Hurricane Gustav already category 4, (and expected to be CAT5 by Sunday morning) and it hasn’t even entered the Gulf of Mexico, where they usually pick up most of their steam. And it currently looks like it will make landfall where it will cause the greatest amount of damage to New Orleans. [Stormpulse]

Excerpts from Thomas McCullock’s notes Aug 30, thomasmc.com.

Fish out of hot water in peaceful crowd

Posted on August 30, 2008 by Eric Verlo

DENVER- Sunday DNC day zero, Civic Center Park, agent provocateurs
I made it a sideline to take photos of potential police instigators at the DNC protests. What excuse can law enforcement make for planting undercover agitators in a peaceful assembly? Encouraging lawlessness is how Pinkerton thugs used to bust up efforts to organize unions.

They stand out like black-clad thumbs. And they’re making the crowd nervous. I’m still not sure these thug cops aren’t planted to be noticed on purpose. They serve as sheep dogs, moving the flock along with just the faintest of aggressive postures to trigger fear responses.

Now would you say they’ve been joined by a female officer of similar demeanor?

Isn’t this fun? Can you detect another TRIO moving along the same walkway? Hint, they’re closer to forty something.

My travel plans for the Minneapolis RNC

Posted on August 28, 2008 by Eric Verlo

To get the hell out of the country. We have a police state and a people who stand awestruck. They’re shocked by it, but not enough to say.

Really, the activists hyped the risk of arrest and spread that legal illogic to reporters. We faced potential police brutality if we sticked by the IVAW vets? We faced arrest for standing on the grass? We put ourselves in jeopardy of being jailed for turning onto Speer instead of following the Police golf cart leading the way for the “unpermitted” march? Wouldn’t journalist want to ask why? What law are we breaking? Do we have to obey a command to disperse if it’s not lawful? What happened to free speech? We’re just standing here. Can we no longer do that?

To raise your voice against this wall of police would seem to others to ask for trouble. For example, when you start drumming or chanting, a number among the crowd might join you, but the greater part of them will very quickly recede. LIKE THAT MIGHT BE AGAINST THE LAW.

IVAW betrays their youthful marchers and capitulates to the Democratic Party

Posted on August 28, 2008 by Eric Verlo

DENVER- I have friends in Iraq Veterans Against the War, but their much anticipated action today was totally FUBAR. Given latitude by the other protest organizers to be the feature action on the last day of the DNC, the IVAW march aimed no higher than to ask that their rep be allowed to meet with a party representative. The IVAW had Rage Against the Machine do a free concert, asked the audience to follow them across town to lend moral support, and when the appointment with a DNC delegate was given them, the IVAW cheered, thanked their fellow marchers, and asked everyone to go home.

This in the face of hundreds of cops in riot gear, heavy machinery, and a large audience of bystanders, delegates and press. The confrontation needed to put the spotlight of media attention on the issue of military imperialism and corporate fascism, passed like it some kind of Pirates of the Caribbean amusement ride, everyone smiling and posing for pictures under the noses of heavily armored riot police menacing the crowd with batons and riot control guns.

Instead of chants like THIS IS WHAT A POLICE STATE LOOKS LIKE, or megaphone entreaties to ask why do nonviolent common citizens face such intimidation by police, the crowd watched Code Pink and other theatrical performances sing cutesy songs to recast the oppressive tone into a humorous light. They should have been signing “Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.” Comedic relief is often laudable, but should we be laughing, instead of facing the militarization of our policeman stone cold sober?

No, instead of calling the Democratic Party and the City of Denver on their repressive ways to curb dissent, the situation was kept in check by the vets’ self-policing. The police never had to issue an order. Instead the IVAW coordinators were constantly detailing city ordinances and forewarning everyone about possible arrest. Every time, more and more people retreated from the action.

For example, the IVAW march was un-permitted, and yet they directed it into the allowed free speech area, instead of veering toward better visibility and “certain arrest.” Oh, you don’t have a “permit” for your march, but there are places that are off limits, meaning, for which you don’t have “permission?” Which is it then? The crowd of Rage fans wanted to have their voices heard. They didn’t want to be led in somber veteran respect mode until all their spirit was worn out of them. The IVAW march coordinators kept everyone in line, followed prearranged parade direction signs, and even allowed themselves to be led by the damn police golf cart whose backward facing sign flashed FOLLOW ME.

So the crowd followed the IVAW into the Free Speech dead end, and they and a multitude of press waited for something to happen. I heard an IVAW coordinator phoning Barack Obama’s office from which they were expecting a phone call. When no Obama appearance materialized, the vets led everyone back out again and into the “forbidden area” with it’s oft-reminded possibility of arrest.

I was asked to stay back with the rest of the followers, and not crowd the IVAW formation. I told the coordinator that he had led us into the Auroria free speech maze and back, and I was not about to obey a single further idiotic command, no matter how much “respect” the veterans were needing.

Seriously. All “out of respect for the veterans.” Even reporters were barked orders as if they were subordinate to the vets. I took umbrage at being told constantly to stop every few minutes to listen to the vets give their witness of Iraq and wait as their spokesman gave further statements to the press. Staying behind, keeping a distance, or keeping the way clear was supposed to be honored “out of respect for the veterans.”

These were the same veterans who went to war when we asked them not to. I’m very thankful that each of them has changed their tune now, but where was their respect for us before more than a million Afghans and Iraqis were killed at their hands? No, the veteran worship was severely misplaced. They earn no points from me for “their sacrifices in the service.” The bastards killed innocent people, they should be begging forgiveness, not assuming to command our respect.

That said, I think the antiwar movement is misplacing its hopes thinking the IVAW can carry any sort of ball promoting an end to war. The vets are after a return of their comrades, and better veterans benefits. That’s a far cry from pacifism, or even a repudiation of US predatory militarism. And this DNC stunt proved it. Here’s how the self-aggrandized crunts blew the last opportunity to show dissent at the DNC.

They held a concert which pulled the youth element away from where they might have been participating in street actions. Of course this is no different than Tom Hayden and Ralph Nader drawing their audiences from likely people who had to choose whether to protest or go see them. Not such a big deal, but it got much worse.

This afternoon the IVAW shepherded a reported 5,000 supporters not to the Pepsi Center delegate entrance, but deep into the Free Speech Cage, away from sight of convention delegates. After a long delay they moved everyone into the promising area, but kept thinning the crowd with warnings of potential arrest. They also kept the marchers well out of proximity of the police lines. The IVAW limited what anyone could say, out of respect for the vets, led them in a last chanted instruction to Go Home, then reminded stragglers that it was the expressed wish of the veterans that everyone leave the area lest an ensuing disturbance mar the IVAW event. After everyone was gone, the veterans even gave a round of applause for a nearby contingent of cops. More in the morning when I’m feeling less enraged.

Tuesday arrests before parade began

Posted on August 26, 2008 by Eric Verlo

DENVER- Tensions mount on third day of DNC protests. R-68’s Carlos is arrested for a too-spirited rebuttal of an anti-gay provocateur. Another participant was arrested for stepping into the street to take a picture.

As Backbone Project organizers were trying to pull together today’s march, a couple of god-hates-fags preachers set up on a corner of Civic Center Park. Crowds were drawn and angry debates led to confrontation led to a parade of police intervening. One of Recreate-68’s people was arrested and led off, while the preachers went on try to goad others. The crowd followed the police which built to a stand off at the West edge of the park. There, squad after squad of policemen held the line along the street while behind them more police donned riot gear.

It was barely eleven a.m. and already the megaphone rhetoric was elevated to expressions of the standoff the night before. The crowd shouted and chanted until the police abruptly marched away. De-escalating the tension.

The demonstration went as planned, with the spirited participation of Code Pink, plus all the Backbone Campaign puppets. Except the parade was lead by a dozen bicycle police, and a police ATV golf cart with a large electronic sign that flashed back at the marchers: “WELCOME TO DENVER” AND “FOLLOW ME”

I’d like to add that Policemen are insistent on being given right of way. Police cyclists ride beside every procession. Even shouting out warnings to clear their own personal way.

Monday DNC counter-hoopla highlights

Posted on August 26, 2008 by Eric Verlo

(Even from the great distance from which this photo is being taken, we’re being given 10 seconds to leave the area or be arrested.)

DENVER- Highlights: Freedom Cage repudiated. Tent State practically a no-show. Exciting un-permitted procession to Federal Courthouse. Alex Jones attempts two disruptions of R68. Code Pink headquarters at Mercury Cafe decisively pro-Obama. Daily Kos “Big Tent” visibly party operatives only. Unconventional Action provoked into trouble again. More undercover cop pics. Some provocateurs, including two ready to commit violence. Details and great pics soon.

1. The Free Speech area, dubbed the FREEDOM CAGE is literally out of sight of the Pepsi Center, and adjacent a beige DPD mobile unmanned tower whose function is yet to be known.

2. Twenty Tent Staters stayed overnight in the cage because it’s open 24 hours. The Tent State encampment in the park was also small, with often nobody there to represent them during the day. People stopping by for the advertised TSU “classes” found school was out.

3. March to Federal Courthouse was fast and exciting. At one point the lead banner was carried OVER a police cruiser. The un-permitted procession avoided an attempted head-on confrontation with a police squad. By the march’s end the group attracted all varieties of riot clad police who encircled our rally at the courthouse doors. The event was entirely peaceful and eventually the cordon shrunk back.

The only disruption was a visit by TV journalist Alex Jones who’d come to heckle, and was not quickly enough repulsed. He repeated that performance at the Denver Mint levitation a few hours later. That interruption worked out better for R68, because instead of distracting from speakers, this time it galvenized the crowd as they had to repeat protracted chants to drown out the disturbance. 75% of the block was lined with police.

Unconventional Action takes to street

Posted on August 24, 2008 by Eric Verlo

DENVER- Let’s start with the second confrontation. DNC disruption-minded Unconventional Action held Broadway Ave beneath the Capitol building, prompting riot police to close in.

Unconventional Action to RECLAIM THE STREETS
3PM 16th Street Mall

Departing from permitted route
“To locations downtown, particularly near delegates’ hotels, where coordinated direct action and protests may take place after the End the Occupations march.”

First Confrontation:
Unconventional Action moved up from Civic Center Park, unto Lincoln Ave and stayed. Mounted police were the first responders.

Horses were used to advance against the crowd and split it.

Eventually Unconventional Action relinquished their position and moved over one block.

Second Confrontation
Back to Broadway Avenue. After riot troops formed their line, UA marchers stepped up against them.

This lead to some tense moments. Police commanders could be heard instructing each other “if anyone (unintelligible), shot them.” Just as abruptly, Unconventional Action broke off and marched North, beckoning all to follow. “Off the sidewalks, into the streets!” Few takers.

Riot police jumped on SUVs and gave chase.

To be continued…

Police Liaison is double-edged handcuff

Posted on August 19, 2008 by Eric Verlo

Large demonstrations such as planned at the DNC invite a basic need for crowd management. From any standpoint there is an inherent requirement to involve officer friendly. Pardon my sophomoric wonder about how this can be done with sufficient prudence.

The term Police Liaison is self-explanatory. In the context of an organized public demonstration, police liaisons channel communication between organizers and law enforcement commanders. If crowd behavior diverts from what was permitted, liaisons are the last chance for diplomacy before an escalation of violence.

This can serve both sides. A crowd could be steered away from trouble, in particular if someone has been tasked with the responsibility for their actions. As well, police over-reaction can be countermanded if police leaders are alerted to their subordinates’ misbehavior.

In a perfect scenario, liaisons facilitate a smooth, legal public action. But what if events develop imperfectly? i wonder what vulnerabilities are created by having named liaisons.

At minimum, liaisons have been personally introduced to police and vice versa. They are given the police commander’s telephone number, and likewise the police are able to contact the liaisons. But in what further ways does having the liaison telephone numbers benefit the police?

It’s not hard to imagine that a police department could justify getting permission to conduct surveillance on those contact numbers. The liaisons are self-avowed protest organizers, aiming only to conduct fully legal activities, activities which they’ll fully admit however are often out of their control. They should have no objections to serving as extra eyes for law enforcement, whose expressed interest is providing a safe secure environment for all. A FISA court would be hard pressed to oppose such preventive oversight. The liaisons have as much as volunteered. Surveillance could consist of monitoring phone calls, passive bugging of all activities within earshot of the discretely activated phone units, or of course, GPS tracking of liaison movements. Why not? It’s for the security of all concerned.

Alternately, and let’s presume the police department would only do this if crowd actions were heading south, the police could elect to round up the liaisons in a preemptory arrest, to severe what they perceive to be the leadership from the crowd of followers. Such a preemptive move could also be decided merely from early plan-making overheard from the eavesdropping.

It could be presumed that law enforcement is already monitoring the phones of activists whom they consider to be persons of interest. But those activists who volunteer to be police liaisons in effect offer up their responsibility for their compatriots’ actions. They represent themselves as authority sufficient to try to steer protests from trouble. Liaisons as much as formalize their participation in the outcomes that eventually develop.

Should some terrible illegal act be committed, be it real or a frame-up, have the liaisons bound themselves to subsequent conspiracy charges that an investigation would trace in order to declare guilty parties? Imagine if such acts were terrible enough to warrant calling the organizing body a terrorist entity. Would the formalized police liaisons be considered its de facto signatories? Whoever would imagine that peaceful protesters exercising their right to assemble to petition their government for redress of their grievances should fall under the scrutiny of the Department of Homeland Security?

Rick Warren, what on the Earth are you here for?

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Tony Logan

Obama and Jesus Rick Warren, Southern Baptist guru pastor and author of the book, ‘What on Earth am I here for?’, has got me asking…

Rick Warren, what on the Earth are you here for, Man? I mean it is you who is going to be taking Barack Obama’s Christian loyalty oath this 16th of August at the Saddleback Church (love that name!) , right? Is this a power play on your part against Baby Graham, the Southern Baptist Preacher Man’s son?

Now I know that it is only God that is your thing and what all, but I got to ask aren’t you trying to get the Crazy Religious Right crowd back into play here by sponsoring this ..uh///… ‘debate’ between McCain and Obama? You going to be talking God a lot, right?

I wonder if you and Barack are going to be turning away any women wearing Islamic scarves away from audience participation? You are for tolerance I know and all that…. But Hey! Isn’t that ‘tolerance’ only when it is on Christian terms dictated by the American military? Both McCain and Obama don’t need to take any of that tolerance stuff too seriously, now do they?

Rick Warren, with this debate sponsored by little ol’ you, you will become a serious player big time, right? At least in the shopping mall world of God that is. You will have helped dumb down America yet another notch! Thanks to your friend, Barack. And thanky to God!

Opening ceremonies of Beijing Olympics star humanity in his own flea circus

Posted on August 10, 2008 by Eric Verlo

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 in daily Chinese work life.

Later the performance took on a Disneyesque quality as dancers opened umbrellas illuminated with large smiling faces of children. Is that a touch-stone theme for pseudo international-harmony? The promise of children? I wondered after seeing the drummers harnessed to their sewing tables, coordinated by an electronic whip-master, if the faces of children represented the child workforce. In traditional cultures childhood idleness ends when a child can carry water or sweep the floor. The idealized child is a Western facade and here China appears eager to celebrate the ruse. Mankind’s aspiration should emulate the innocuous, non-threatening smile of a child.

Gladiators
Never before have I gotten a clearer sense of the Olympics as gladiator games. The audience are the privileged few, who do not bring politics to the games except the rivalry of nationalism, a preference for their athletes, rooting for a win to enhance their prestige. Ninety dignitaries were in attendance in Beijing. And what a celebration of harmony. Regardless the turmoil between nations outside, between world leaders, harmony. Because they’re going nowhere. Only rebels and coups threaten the ruling class. Did you know an IOC rule forbids the display of flags of entities not competing in the games?

Politics don’t enter the minds of the athlete class because they’ve got a singular focus, their performance. Some strive for financial rewards, others are focused on the physical achievement. All are vying to please the emperor, to live to compete again.

Even as the techno pageantry dazzled, by the end I was still shocked to see a human being reduced to flintlock to carry the flame to the gigantic torch, a blazing industrial altar.

The colossal fireworks show looked to be outside the view of the stadium audience, but I saw no throngs outdoors to witness it. The pyrotechnics reminded me of Shock and Awe the first night in Baghdad, cameras well recessed to take it all in. It turns out a chunk of the fireworks was CGI for the TV spectacular.

In hindsight for me the highlight of the evening was seeing President Bush sitting next to Vladimir Putin, each saluting their athletes in turn, neither turning toward each other, at least on camera, while in Georgia US backed forces battled Russian soldiers in all out war. An example of a tangible measure to which politics are kept out of the Olympic Games.

Photos:

Military fiction, publishing as product takes us further downhill to total cultural illiteracy

Posted on August 7, 2008 by Tony Logan

When Americans step inside the big chain publishers’ bookstores, Barnes and Noble and Borders, they are almost always under the delusion that they are inside real bookstores containing real books. Nothing could be farther from the truth though. We instead have merely entered into the realm of publishing as product.

What do I mean by ‘publishing as product’? The answer simply put is that publishing historically was an act of putting an art form in front of the art appreciating public. That art form was called literature and you had to read to get it. Publishing was never a pure process without politics, but far from it as politics was essential to what often got published, and what did not. But todays publishing world is far different than that of the past. What does the American literature reading public run into today?

Today’s publishing world has as much to do with art (literature) as McDonald’s has to do with cooking (culinary arts). Content inside the big publishing firms today is handled like a product, not an art that has high impact on politics and national culture. Conservative businessmen still limit what gets published and what does not, but the censorship involves not censuring and disallowing individual radical authors, but censoring and disallowing entire product lines. To cover up this censorship, a whole new group of alternative products have been developed to better hide the fact that real literature is no longer a product to be carried on the shelves.

As an avid book reader since I was a kid, I have been going into America’s bookstores for 1/2 a century which has allowed me to see this devolution in process on a continual basis. So let me name a few of the new publishing product lines that have displaced the old book shelves that once were partially inhabited, at least some, by novels in translation from other parts of the world.

Americans have always been an ethnocentric society and that has been always encouraged by conservative publishers who published mainly American authors. But where once stood Steinbeck and Zola, now stands shelves after shelves of books under other categories of products instead of just Fiction , all now directed to a population segmented by market research science laboratories. We now have Gay Literature, Christian Literature, and the latest grouping something called Military Literature. Further, one finds literature now very much separated into gender categories (Thanks, Oprah! See what you helped do?). Of course, as a remnant of the ’60s we have tiny sections of Black Fiction, Chicano Fiction, Native American Fiction, though not Black Fiction from elsewhere than the US, Latin American fiction from elsewhere than the US, or Native American fiction from say Guatemala or Peru.

We also have oodles of shelves with product lines directed to UFO believers, New Age dabblers, fascist talk show lovers, ‘self help’ addicts, and this new grouping identified for product line identity sales, the US military grunt fan club of all that is weaponry and war. Hence comes ‘Military Fiction’.

There is nothing really modern about this since Hollywood keyed in on this crowd since way back even before John Wayne. (Kids, if you don’t know who John Wayne is, then text message some Dude who might know and ask him?) What is new is to see this product line as marked out, pushed, and delineated as it is today. We shall all be corporately sliced and diced down to our very genes, it seems…

So who are the ‘writers’ for this new product line called Military Fiction? Here they are in Barnes and Nobles, War and Military Fiction division. Notice all those B&N sub-divisions of this hither before non-existent category of Fiction. Notice how they tossed in Vonnegut and Hemingway to make the new product line look less superficial than it really is?

Can you imagine this sort of thing in French, Italian, or German bookstores? They don’t have half their countries’ populations working for the military-security-industrial complex though. Personally, I can see a future reduction int he Christian Fiction and Christian Non-Fiction product lines, and and even larger spread of product items in the War and Military Fiction and Non-Fiction departments. Maybe even an ICE Fiction product line, too? And Private Military Contractor Fiction area?

Meanwhile, culturally, the US heads toward being a total illiterate wasteland in the publishing of real literature in the English language, especially in the translation of foreign authors of note. The worst of all this, is that almost all those entering into these warehouses of bookfood products think that they are part of the educated just by being there among the shelves of what??? … shelves of trash. All the books have been replaced by artificial-alterficial-superficial bookfood, or spam of lit. This delusion of education being sold at the bookfood warehouses is the phoniest product line of them all.

Oh, and that photo that led off this commentary? That is a promotion from a category of bookfood called ‘Women’s Military Fiction’, which is a combo of Romance, pseudo Feminism, and Pentagon Pro-war propaganda? Here is Lindsay McKinna’s website promo comments about her bookfood.

‘Lindsay McKenna (A.K.A. Eileen Nauman) is the best-selling author of Valkyrie and 75 fiction books in the last 20 years. Known as the “Top Gun of Women’s Military Fiction,” she created the sub-genre of military adventure/romance and covers a mainstream women’s market having sold over 10 million books worldwide.’

Who needs international literature in American bookstores when there is this sort of crap to sell? That’s why literature by authors from other countries just really is not there anymore. It has been replaced by bookfood spam.

Support the Troops, and vice versa?

Posted on August 3, 2008 by Eric Verlo

Beijing Spring 1989 Do you remember the Beijing Spring of 1989? Students were protesting China’s authoritarian regime occupied Tiananmen Square and for a time successfully won over the soldiers sent in to expel them. Do you remember the images? Waves of People’s Liberation Army soldiers arrived, but as students and supporters blocked their way and pleaded with them not to brutalize their fellow citizens, the soldiers would join them, some even helping to persuade the next soldiers.

Civilian appeals to soldier Ultimately we know the tanks came in. The Chinese leadership used hardened soldiers from the outlying territories, whose dialect was different from the Han Mandarin spoken in Beijing, who had more indoctrination than education, and were thus less susceptible to the entreaties of the demonstrators. Those troops ultimately beat and killed untold numbers of the protesters. Executions and imprisonments followed for the organizers who survived.

COLORADO SPRINGS- In what’s become the US totalitarian means of suppressing protest at past conventions and the FTAA, law enforcement manpower is supplemented by a state’s National Guard. The US military commanders responsible for securing the upcoming August DNC are preparing their soldiers to feel no sympathy for the street rabble they will have to confront. They know not to let their men succumb to sympathy for the nonviolent DNC antiwar demonstrators.

From what rural parts of Colorado does our National Guard plan to draw its ranks to ensure its soldiers won’t have anything in common with progressive/intellectual/working-class activists? Well, Colorado Springs of course!

Student is beaten This is where the SUPPORT THE TROOPS mantra might begin to feel odd. Common people support their troops, but do the troops support the people? That’s hardly their training. Supervised by military intelligence trainers and contractors for the tasks of crowd control, the National Guard is conditioned to steel themselves against civil disobedience. It will behoove demonstration organizers to reach out to the guard community ahead of time, to communicate the message of peaceful patriotism we’ll be advocating in the streets.

Tiananmen Square before Olympic spirit

Posted on August 2, 2008 by Eric Verlo

Beijing 2008 boycott
Human rights activists are crying foul about China’s role in Tibet and Burma. Here’s a illustrated time-line of the events which led to the totalitarian repression of the Tiananmen protests of 1989. Reprinted from Christus Rex.

Beijing Spring -A look back at the 1989 Spring that impacted a nation. Visit original website to see archival video footage from the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather.

April 15
Former Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang, a leading reformist, dies of a heart attack at the age of 73. Students at Beijing University put up posters praising Hu that indirectly criticize the opponents who forced his resignation following student demonstrations in 1986-87.

April 17
Thousands of students march in Beijing and Shanghai shouting “long live Hu Yaobang, long live democracy, long live freedom, long live the rule of law.”

April 18
2,000 students from Beijing bicycle into Tiananmen Square and protest before the Great Hall of the People. Included in their demands for democratic reforms is the repudiation of official campaigns against freedom of the press.

April 21
Crowds of up to 100,000 demonstators gather in Tiananmen Square to mourn Hu.

April 22
Students defy police orders to leave the square, while riots break out in the provincial capitals of Xian and Changsha. Official memorial ceremonies are held for Hu at the Great Hall of the People.

April 23
Beijing students announce a boycott of university classes.

April 24
Tens of thousands of students at Beijing universities go on strike, demanding a dialog with the government.

April 27
Bolstered by broad-based support, more than 150,000 students surge past police lines and fill Tiananmen Square, chanting slogans for democracy and freedom.

April 29
Government officials meet with student leaders, but independent student groups say they will continue a class boycott at 41 university campuses in Beijing.

May 2
6,000 students march in Shanghai.

May 4
100,000 students and supporters march on Tiananmen square to celebrate the 70th anniversary of China’s first student movement, while similar demonstrations are held in Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities. 300 journalists protest outside the official Xinhua News Agency.

May 9
Journalists petition the government for freedom of the press.

May 13
2,000 students begin a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square.

May 15
Government deadline for students to leave the square comes and goes. A welcoming ceremony for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s state visit is moved to the airport.

May 16
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators occupy the square.

May 18
One million people march in support of the hunger strikers. Li Peng, Premier of the State Council, issues a stern warning to student leaders and refuses to discuss their demands.

May 19
A tearful Zhao Ziyang, China’s General Secretary, makes a pre-dawn visit to weakened hunger strikers. Li also visits the students briefly. In the evening the students decide to end the hunger strike, but quickly change their mind when Li and President Yang Shangkun announce martial law. Zhao reportedly resigns or is ousted from power after failing to convince Li and others to compromise.

May 20, 1989
Chinese authorities ‘pull the plug’ on Dan Rather who is reporting live from Beijing.

May 28
About 80,000 people (mostly students from outside the capital) demonstrate but, unlike past rallies, few workers participate.

May 30
Students unveil their “Goddess of Democracy,” a replica of the Statue of Liberty, on the square. The government calls it an insult to the nation.

May 31
Farmers and workers stage the first of several pro-government rallies in Beijing’s suburbs.

June 1
The Beijing Municipal Government bans all foreign press coverage of the demonstrations.

June 3
Tens of thousands of troops advance on the city shortly after midnight, but are repulsed by residents who put up barricades. By the afternoon 5,000 troops appear outside the Great Hall of the People, but are again surrounded and stopped. In the final assault that evening, troops shoot and beat their way to the square.

Taping the beginnings of the massacre, correspondent Richard Roth is arrested.

June 4
Troops occupy the square and smash the “Goddess of Democracy” with tanks. The shooting continues with soldiers periodically firing on crowds gathered on the outskirts of the square. Residents set fire to more than 100 military trucks and armored personnel carriers. The government claims the “counterrevolutionary riots” have been suppressed. Meanwhile, riots break out in southwestern Chengdu.

Richard Roth is released and reports further on the night’s violence.

June 5
There are reports of clashes between rival military groups around Beijing. President Bush condemns the “bloody and violent” crackdown and orders a suspension of U.S. military sales and contacts with the Chinese government.

June 5, 1989
Richard Roth reports: one anonymous man stops a column of 18 tanks.

June 6
Foreign embassies advise their nationals to leave China. The government says 300 people were killed and 7,000 injured in the crackdown, but claims most of the dead were soldiers. There are more reports of clashes between military units. Six people are killed in Shanghai when a train runs through a barricade. The U.S. State Department announces that dissident Fang Lizhi and his wife have sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy.

June 7
Troops, responding to what they say is sniper fire, shoot into a foreign diplomatic compound. The United States and other governments order the mandatory evacuation of dependents of diplomatic personnel.

June 8
Premier Li Peng appears in public for the first time since the crackdown to congratulate troops.

June 9
China’s leader Deng Xiaoping appears for the first time since May 16. In a speech to military officers he blames the turmoil on counterrevolutionaries attempting to overthrow communism.

June 10
Beijing authorities announce the arrest of more than 400 people, including student and labor leaders.

June 11
The government issues a warrant for the arrest of Fang Lizhi and his wife, saying they committed crimes of “counterrevolutionary propaganda and instigation.”

June 12
The government bans all independent student and labor organizations and says police and soldiers should shoot all “rioters and counterrevolutionaries.”

June 13
The government issues a wanted list for 21 student activists who led the democracy movement.

June 14
China orders the expulsion of Associated Press reporter John Pomfret and Voice of America Bureau Chief Alan Pessin.

June 15
Three Shanghai men are sentenced to death for burning a train that ran over protesters. The nationwide arrest total reaches above 1,000.

June 17
A Beijing court sentences eight people to death for attacking soldiers and burning vehicles during the June 3-4 assault.

June 18
Politburo member Qiao Shi appears prominently in the official media, adding to speculation the party security man will replace Zhao.

June 20
The government nullifies all exit permits in an apparent attempt to stop fugitives from leaving the country.

When preaching ‘nonviolence’ promotes violence

Posted on August 1, 2008 by Tony Logan

The division in Denver amongst groups supposedly building protests at the Democratic Party National Convention offers us a prime example of how excessive preaching of ‘nonviolence’ in a religious manner can actually encourage police violence against the protesters who are the most critical of the dominant political establishment.

Groups allied with the United For Peace and Justice coalition split off from Recreate ’68 claiming that the leaders were not sufficiently committed to being nonviolent. By doing so, they gave the police rhetorical backup for anything they might do at the DNC to protesters that come to protest the politics as usual agenda of the Democratic Party. This split was a divisive blow against having a united Left political organization focusing on advocating Progressive ideas at the big event, which the DNC represents in the US, and those who arrive to protest will find themselves in the streets with a split organizing leadership, all due to the rather sectarian religious rhetoric of the ‘nonviolence’ preachers.

The truth is, the Democratic Party tied leaders of the United for Peace and Justice don’t really want that much of a real protest at the DNC because most of these UFPJ leaders’ are tied to the philosophy of voting for the so-called lesser of two evils. They plan to encourage people to vote for the Democratic Party candidate. The non-violence issue has allowed them an excuse to make the protest against the Democratic Party smaller, divided, and inconsequential. Further it allows them to label their political opponents in the Peace Movement, those not tied to the Democratic Party like they are, as being unreasonable agitators who want confrontation, which is actually how the corporate press of this country wants to portray all protesters.

The reality is that there are no members of the Recreate ’68 coalition that are violence prone, and everybody wants the protests at the DNC to be nonviolent. However, the ‘I am more nonviolent than you’ preaching from the Alliance for Real Democracy crowd has obscured that, something that can only help create greater police violence and not less.

Provocative provocation at the DNC

Posted on July 29, 2008 by Eric Verlo

Everything for Everybody
This lingo is undeniably inviting… “a small demand.” I’m guessing something of non-violence training involves not only refraining from violence against persons, but also against material disparity. Threatening redistribution of wealth will certainly provoke a violent defense of corporation-as-person personal property. Why can’t the non-violent crowd preach the non-violent forfeiture of capital loot?

That’s never been the purview of religion has it? They can’t ask the miscreants at the top to get religion, they are just after the low man on the totem pole to accept his fate.

Unconventional Action DNC flier

I wore polka dots today

Posted on July 29, 2008 by Marie Walden

…and felt like an idiot. Why? I think polka dots are adorable. They are playful and happy and youthful which are traits I value. And the outfit I had on was classy and cute. So why did I feel anxious that someone might pop over unexpectedly and see my polka dots? I’m not sure, but I changed rather than further contemplate the issue.

I think that maybe polka dots aren’t me. Whatever that means. Like all women, I have a closet full of clothes that I never wear. Truthfully, my closet is a schizophrenic mixed bag pining for psychiatric intervention. I must’ve worn these styles at one time, but I guess I’ve changed. Or, more likely, they were never me. I just didn’t know it, because I was adept at changing me to be a part of the crowd du jour.

I don’t think men are this way. A couple years ago, a friend and I took a getaway to Mexico for a few days. We hung out under a big beach umbrella, two pale obviously-American chubbies in a sea of gorgeous foreigners. The women were thin, tanned, and beautiful, but they couldn’t hold a candle to the men. Unbelievably fit, glistening brown skin, boy shorts. At once holding a cigarette and a partner’s perky breast, we couldn’t stop staring at the men.

When the couples eventually got up and dressed, the guys wore capri pants, silky dark shirts, and closed-toe leather sandals. But even through my drool I knew that, were I given the chance, I probably wouldn’t date any one of them. Seriously! They were not my type.

As pretty as the beach boys were, my type of guy doesn’t spend much time thinking about his hair and wardrobe. A makeover is buying his favorite shirt in another color. I’ve never succeeded in slipping Bruni Maglis over his tennis shoes, nor a man purse over his shoulder. Even the plain front/pleated front battle can rage for days, so sartorial transformation has never been in the cards. Men know what they are comfortable wearing, and are usually unwilling to indulge our female fantasies. Truly, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

If men can stay true to form, why do women’s closets suffer from bipolar disorder? Are we multifaceted and complex, or are we being unduly influenced the expectations of our mates, the opinions of our friends, and the daily media mind fuck?

Though my closet doesn’t reflect it yet, my chameleon days are over. I am newly unapologetic about my hairstyle, my yoga pants, and my Doc Martens. When I dress up I usually wear black from head to toe. I don’t show a lot of skin, and hide my few curves. I wear simple earrings, no other jewelry. I no longer worry about fashion trends, because I refuse to be trendy.

My manner of dress is merely an outward manifestation of the natural, unadorned, athletic, private girl that I am. I cover my body in such a way that I’m not constantly mindful of the fact that I’m wearing something. Something that feels foreign and awkward. Like polka dots.

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