The pro-death contingent appear to have targeted Tribe as "anti-soldier", imagine that if you will. Just can't BUY better publicity, but they're giving it free of charge. They keep regurgitating the same vomit they've spewed last month, and the month before and the months before, ad infinitum, but they can't be Pro-Death AND Pro-Life, be it of soldiers or the unborn. One of the most remarkable journalistic "oopsie" moments of the Operation Iraqi Freedom Removal was the admission live on camera, about two hours before the bombs started dropping and six hours before the official deadline, that the ONLY businesses open in Baghdad were gun stores and obstetricians. Striking a triple whammy to Extremist Dogma. One point was that Saddam had kept women ignorant, like "our" allies in Saudi and Kuwait. While insisting that a WOMAN epidemiologist (I'm terrible with names lately) nicknamed "Lady Germ" and, like Tariq Aziz, a christian, was doing advanced bio-terror... as advanced as, say, the US does. Hmm... and all the OB-GYN DOCTORS, mostly women, just appeared out of nowhere, or were sent to US and British medical schools and returned voluntarily to the bad ol' Islamist slavery... The gun shops even EXISTING, far less being open at all... kind of screams "LIARS!" at the NRA and fellow travelers. They insist that tyranny can only be accomplished with an unarmed public. The insistent and strident shrieks that "only the Ba'ath minority were armed!" should long ago have been drowned out by the sound of Shi'ite, Kurdish, and other non-Sunni gunfire. Then there's the reason all the OB-GYN DOCTORS were kept so busy... the knowledge gained from Luftwaffe, RAF and USAF statistics about the "spontaneous abortions" dramatically increasing during and after bombing attacks on civilian population centers. Now, the Standard Warmonger Answer is that, clearly, Saddam was a "coward hiding behind civilians", which begs the question, Were the USAF and RAF bases, and the airmen therein, "cowards, using the citizens of London and other cities as Human Shields"? More pointedly, I was raised in the looming shadow of US (and RAF) based, some of the largest or most dangerous targets: Mendenhal RAFB, the Lackland-Fort Sam Houston-Laughlin and ten other major US bases in Texas' complex, Carswell USAFB in Fort Worth which was the largest SAC base in terms of B-52 "nuclear umbrella" long range bombers, and the Fort Bliss-White Sands- Los Alamos_Holloman AFB complex in far West Texas and Southern New Mexico. Were they "cowards, hiding behind 20 million human shields"? The Denver-Colorado Springs-Pueblo corridor host dozens of military bases, along with most of the population of Colorado, like Peterson AFB. My Mom, my niece, her husband and their 4 kids, lived right at the end of the flight line, off base. The planes on takeoff or landing would be maybe 200 yards up. The front gate was across the highway, about a half mile "as the crow flies", or a mile "as the dog trots". Across the street and down a couple blocks is Christa McCauliffe Elementary School and a day care
Tag: Iraq War
Wikileaked: US soldiers are babykillers
A document released last week by Wikileaks tells of a 2006 raid by US troops on a farmhouse near Balad, Iraq, where the American soldiers handcuffed a household of ten, and executed them with gunshots to the head. Killed: one male adult, three female relatives, an elderly woman, four children aged 3-5, and a 5 month-old infant. Then the raiding party called in an airstrike to cover the crime. Perhaps cross referenced with the Iraq War Logs, reporters will identify which outfit committed the murders, because that's the only way light is being shed on US war crimes, via Wikileaks. Incidentally, the Ishaqi Incident was reported on in 2006 with the Pentagon dismissing accusations that its actions were anything but appropriate. But this recent cable reveals that the USG knew what they'd done. You'd think the Department of Defense would have an interest in cooperating, because until the killers of zip-tied babies are fingered, all American soldiers are babykillers.
Capital is a Treasonous offense.
So now Britain got "Shell"ed in their own territory waters and the once-proud Royal Navy is facing the same kind of humiliation handed to the once-proud U.S. Navy in OUR territorial waters. Our navy got bitch-slapped by the British, told to scurry off and mind their own affairs and let the Grown Ups handle the mess. Turnabout being fair play, as Shakespeare said, but damn it the oceans don't belong to any nation any more than they do to any group of arrogant oil company scheiss-kopfen. They don't rightfully belong to the Human species either. As if the Big Pigs were going to Shell out any of the dividends to the rest of the world in the first second or last place. I bet the Murdoch puke-meister is breathing a sigh of relief that something came along to divert attention from his manipulations. No sense of even a little bit of gravedancing joy over it, though. The oceans provide the life of the planet, and destroying the food, water and air supply that supports the rest of us will destroy the Rich as well... but then, it'll destroy the rest of us along with them.
John Pilger – The War You Don’t See
We call it the Iraq War, as we did the Vietnam War, but America's wars aren't so-named in the host countries. It's the Iraq Invasion, not War, and Afghanistan Invasion really, now Occupation, Decimation and Holocaust. Journalist filmmaker John Pilger subscribes to the theory that if a public is let to see the horrors of war, it will refuse to participate. His new documentary THE WAR YOU DON'T SEE traces US and UK efforts since WWI to propagandize war. Amid interviews with news bureau chiefs who he holds culpable for hyping war, Pilger shows censored footage which could have turned public opinion. I have to wonder if a simple sequence of an Iraqi home subjected to a US raid, in particular the focus on a young daughter's anxiety, would not have broken just enough American hearts.
In Iraq, “willful killing, torture and enforced disappearance” is a crime
Former Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has been sentenced to death by the US Iraqi puppet regime. Pending an automatic appeal, the internationally popular diplomat will hang with other henchmen/assistants of Saddam Hussein for the crimes of "willful killing, torture and enforced disappearance of persons." Do they have the wrong man? Men? Nation? Expeditionary Force? How many consecutive sentences of hangings must the Bush-Obama Team America Junta receive, justice being proportional?
Wikileaks has crippled US warmaking, now, what you can do for Wikileaks
Wikileaks has blood on its hands, says the US military, red-handed. No kidding. Wikileaks killed the war in Afghanistan is what it did, and all those who informed on the resistance or might have been thinking to collaborate with the US/NATO occupiers. 15,000 of the records were held back pending redaction, but Wikileaks informs us that even their full content will eventually be unveiled at a later, less sensitive date. In France there's still contention about identifying those who betrayed the resistance during WWII. Wikileaks has struck a mortal blow to US war-making, as much as the media are trying to drum against it. Here's what you can do to INSURE this great equalizing tool alive. Wikileaks creator Julian Assange has stashed a "if anything should happen to me" file to be opened in the event of US obstruction. Not even Senator Lieberman's effort to impose online Marshal Law will preempt the "insurance" this file offers, because things work differently on the interwebs. The file's already out there, encrypted. You can grab a copy for yourself. If anything untoward befalls Assange, Wikileaks releases the key. Your taking a piece of the action assures that the number of copies out there will defy containment. Right now you can go to wikileaks.org and download the insurance.aes256 file directly, or you can use P2P with a torrent link, in the process helping to disseminate the file. Next simply burn the file to a DVD and stash it away. By the way, Assange has prefaced the mysterious contents of the file thus: it's less about insuring his safety, than insuring that historical records aren't usurped from mankind's shared legacy.
With Obama reversing Iraq withdrawal, Obamapologists put sissy in Sisyphus
Was it news to you? The Iraq withdrawal is off. The war that launched America's first black president GOES ON. Didn't the new Dissembler in Chief campaign to end the Iraq War, sort of, or uh, eventually? Skeptics were ostracized and accused of not stepping up, hope-wise. What's next, Obama's Tink dies if we all don't clap our hands in obeisance, chanting "we believe"? If American voters were upset about Guantanamo, Endless War on Terror, torture, rendition, corporations indemnified of their abuses --take your pick-- you wouldn't know it now. Were you hoping to see Bush and Co prosecuted? What did you think of the President standing by as his SCOTUS nominee gushed about the preeminence of the rule of law.
Imperialism, a tomb for humanity
Earlier this year we passed the 4,000 mark for US troop casualties in Iraq, and we're within a week of hitting the 1,000th US soldier death in Afghan- Pakistan. It seems as good a time as any to rediscover this Vietnam War era poster. Western imperialism didn't meet its match in Indochina. Few could probably have imagined the voracious E Pluribus Empire would collapse instead into an intractable doomsday machine.
On the subject of remote kontrol killing
I occasionally raise this extremely bad example from its Undead Crypt. There is, to paraphrase the Tee Shirts, A Ranch in Texas that's missing its ass-kicking, and I really should go back down there and help them find it. It was a mini-storm on the internet about the time of the Bush Cartel starting the Iraq War. A Texas "game" ranch was promoting a point and click kill a deer game online. Very simple, they had a remote-control rifle pointing in the general direction of where the TAME deer or antelope played errr would go to collect their regularly scheduled food ration. With a camera-scope and a robotic mechanism the online "Hunter" could control with his mouse, joystick or paddles, whatever input device, animal would come to the bait and the Wannabee Great White Hunter would lock on to the Target, get the crosshairs close enough to a quick kill and the software would lock on, a little red light would appear on your screen signifying to click or press enter or what-the-Hell-ever input action you chose, and you would blow the deers brains out. Impressive, huh? The "game" ranch owner defended it by saying that it was probably the only way a Handicapped person would be able to enjoy the "sport" of hunting. Two concepts there, the first is that in order for it to be a Sport or a Game both parties to the Game have to realize that it's a game. And speaking as a disabled person, I find the (pardon my French even though it's English) entire concept of using "those poor cripples have to have a chance at Killing for Fun too" to be really Fucking Offensive. Keep your condescending attitude to yourself. If I find myself in a wheelchair again and you try that Pat the Poor Cripple on the Head routine with me, literally or figuratively, I swear by the Lord Jehovah who made me that I'll pull your arm off and beat you to death with your own arm. Why not make the "game" really exciting, put the robot rifle on wheels or tracks and give me or whoever else a chance to go after the ranch owner or staff instead? Why not have the Robotic Drones the Air Force is using to "cleanly" kill a nameless faceless Enemy and, just incidentally, the "enemy's" kids along with him, all from the air-conditioned comfort of some office chair where the "enemy" is reduced to a non-human computer-generated representation of a "target".... with a built in device that would enable the Target to turn the drone around and have the Drone go home and kill its master? Which the Morally Crippled guys in the office chairs laughing and probably celebrating and giving each other high-fives every time they "score a point" in this sick video game, should realize is going to happen. You can't keep the genie in the bottle, Technology wise. Just like the Atomic Bomb, how long did that Top Secret project last? Of course it didn't help the Los Alamos
US journalists! Visit scenic Kurdistan!
US media correspondents, reporters, tv anchors and news directors, get yourselves to scenic Kurdistan asap, visit the mountains of Sulaimania, the waterfalls of Ahmed Awa are apparently recommended. Embeds, lead the way! It may be the only way all you war propagandists will reap what you so justly deserve. I can't imagine there's a single corporate media journalist who wouldn't be hard pressed to defend the pro-war filter he or she puts on the news for US domestic consumption. Corporate tools? They're military industrial pitchmen. Advocating death and dismemberment without restraint. Let them plead ignorance. Bullshit. I'd love to see Bill Clinton make a case for all of them. Antiwar voices are split on whether to charge MSM collaborators for war crimes, for selling the Anglo world on patently illegal wars. But how else are we to be rid of them? America remains locked in a Vulcan mind meld with these impudent, immoral careerists. Perhaps apprehension by the Iranians, and a trial by revolutionary council, is the only justice they might ever meet. Dispatch them to Kurdistan: Assignment Iran! Let the Persians teach Americans the only way to deal with poisonous snakes. The media song now, to spin the recent errant three in the best light, is that Kurdistan was not an unthinkable destination for tourists such as they, and perfectly safe too. Unless you venture toward the Iran border, where US commandos have been raiding Iranian infrastructure, while the US Navy taunts the Iranian coast in full force. Alas, Kurdistan, quite happy with its undeclared sovereignty from Iraq, has proven to be a safe haven for Anglos. I remember a most heartbreaking scene from the first month of the war, recorded by an independent American photographer as he worked his way through Kurdistan. Perhaps you recall it. Do I mean the friendly fire, or accidental, I'm not sure which to put in quotes, bombing which killed coalition troops, but also took out a Kurd ally who may have turned out to rival a more favored ally? No, not that one. Our photographer was making his second entry into Iraq as I recall, and documented a personal incident thus. He was traveling with a Kurd escort, when an Iraqi combatant broke through with a grenade, determined to blow himself up next to the American. And I should clarify, I was not rooting against the photographer, but-- here's what happened. The Iraqi was being held off by a Kurd fighter, but he had pulled the pin on the grenade, and leaned against his opponent, dooming both of them if the Kurd dared to shoot him. The scene unfolded in the progression of stills the photographer snapped as he hastened away. The Iraqi was chest to chest with the Kurd, pleading to be let to get the American. I interpreted his entreaties to say: Brother let me pass, I must reach the American, I have no quarrel with you, let me die with the infidel. The Kurd seemed for a moment to consider the words of his Iraqi brother.
National Assembly is antiwar exclusively
Reports are emerging from July's National Assembly, the vital effort to unite antiwar forces into a common movement. Delegates from the major peace organizations hammered out a strategy to address Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine. Missing from the consensus? Nonviolence, and good riddance. It goes without saying that humanitarian activists are peaceful. To legislate a dogma of non-confrontation plays right into the hands of the authoritarians. Here's the official report: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TO END THE IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN WARS AND OCCUPATIONS Address given by Marilyn Levin, member, National Assembly Administrative Body, and Planning Committee, Greater Boston United for Justice with Peace Coalition, to the National Antiwar Conference held July 10-12, 2009 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania July 10-12, 2009, 255 people representing diverse organizations and constituencies from all over the country came together in Pittsburgh: 1) To look at where we are today, 2) To articulate our long range goals to rejuvenate the antiwar movement towards building a massive movement capable of forcing an end to their wars and occupations, to take our money back from the war machine to meet pressing social needs, and to save our planet for our children, and 3) To develop and vote for action plans as steps to realize these objectives. All of our major objectives were accomplished and we leave today with a comprehensive action agenda to carry us through to next spring. Everyone had a chance to speak and differences were aired without rancor or splits to achieve unity in action. Friday night’s speakers, along with many conference participants, grappled with how to unify and broaden the movement. Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, we presented a great roster of workshops covering the major issues we face today. Saturday night’s rally was dynamic and inspiring. There were two highlights of the conference for me. First was the international component where activist comrades joined us from Canada and courageous labor leaders of powerful mass movements in Haiti and Guadaloupe reminded us that imperialism and the struggle against it are global. There was a statement by members of the Viva Palestina aid convoy detained in Egypt. We passed motions in solidarity with the struggles of the people of Haiti, Honduras, and Palestine. The second highlight was the discussion on Iran, where, in spite of strong passions stirred up by the rapidly evolving events there, we were able to illuminate the issues and debate our differences. Finally, we were able to agree on a unity position that all could embrace, as well as meeting the foremost call of the Iranians – US Hands off! No Sanctions! No interventions! Self-determination for the Iranian people! A wonderful example of a united front –- as inclusive as possible and taking principled positions that most will accept and act on. So what is the National Assembly? What you saw this weekend explains who we are and how we function. Democracy. All were invited and all perspectives welcomed.
Why does this sound familiar?
Village President John Deschane, 60, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam, said many people in town believe it's disrespectful to fly the flag upside down. "If he wants to protest, let him protest but find a different way to do it," Deschane said Translation from Right Wing Bullshit to Real English: "You have the right to free speech unless we dislike what you say or how you say it" "We're Fighting For Your Freedom, How DARE you go ahead and actually use that Freedom?" Dispute over flag protest erupts in Wisc. village AP By ROBERT IMRIE, Associated Press Writer Robert Imrie, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jul 10, 2:44 pm ET WAUSAU, Wis. – An American flag flown upside down as a protest in a northern Wisconsin village was seized by police before a Fourth of July parade and the businessman who flew it — an Iraq war veteran — claims the officers trespassed and stole his property. A day after the parade, police returned the flag and the man's protest — over a liquor license — continued. The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin is considering legal action against the village of Crivitz for violating Vito Congine Jr.'s' First Amendment rights, Executive Director Chris Ahmuty said. "It is not often that you see something this blatant," Ahmuty said. In mid-June, Congine, 46, began flying the flag upside down — an accepted way to signal distress — outside the restaurant he wants to open in Crivitz, a village of about 1,000 people some 65 miles north of Green Bay. He said his distress is likely bankruptcy because the village board refused to grant him a liquor license after he spent nearly $200,000 to buy and remodel a downtown building for an Italian supper club. Congine's upside-down-flag represents distress to him; to others in town, it represents disrespect of the flag. Hours before a Fourth of July parade, four police officers went to Congine's property and removed the flag under the advice of Marinette County District Attorney Allen Brey. Neighbor Steven Klein watched in disbelief. "I said, 'What are you doing?' Klein said. "They said, 'It is none of your business.'" The next day, police returned the flag. Brey declined comment Friday. Marinette County Sheriff Jim Kanikula said it was not illegal to fly the flag upside down but people were upset and it was the Fourth of July. "It is illegal to cause a disruption," he said. The parade went on without any problems, Kanikula said. Village President John Deschane, 60, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam, said many people in town believe it's disrespectful to fly the flag upside down. "If he wants to protest, let him protest but find a different way to do it," Deschane said. Congine, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq in 2004, said he intends to keep flying the flag upside down. "It is pretty bad when I go and fight a tyrannical government somewhere else," Congine said, "and then I come home to find it right here at my front door." At least they didn't beat up any elderly and disabled people... This time...
Hugo Chavez has message for Obama
Hugo Chavez met Barack Obama at the Summit of the Americas, and presented this gift to the American president: "The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent" by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano. At the United Nations General Assembly in 2006, Chavez held aloft Noam Chomsky's "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance," encouraging everyone to read it. Is there a common theme to the dark-skinned Chavez's book recommendations? Chavez' critics from the Venezuelan upper middle class think he's no brighter than a monkey. His message, educate yourselves. Eduardo Galeano was interviewed by Amy Goodman on the day Barack Obama learned he had won the election. Galeano had this hope for the first US President of color: that he never forget that the White House, his new home, had been built by black slaves. By the way, Galeano's classic, with which Hugo Chavez hopes to bring Obama up to speed, was published in 1971. When Obama won the 2008 election, Eduardo Galeano wrote this essay: I HOPE. 10 November 2008 Will Obama prove, at the helm of government, that his threats of war against Iran and Pakistan were only words, broadcast to seduce difficult ears during the election campaign? I hope. And I hope he will not fall, even for a moment, for the temptation to repeat the exploits of George W. Bush. After all, Obama had the dignity to vote against the Iraq war, while the Democratic and Republican parties were applauding the announcement of this carnage. In his campaign, the word most often repeated in his speeches was leadership. In his administration, will he continue to believe that his country has been chosen to save the world, a toxic idea that he shares with almost all his colleagues? Will he insist on the United States’ global leadership and its messianic mission to take command? I hope the current crisis, which is shaking the imperial foundations, will serve at least to give the new administration a bath of realism and humility. Will Obama accept that racism is normal when it is used against the countries that his country invades? Isn’t it racism to count the deaths of invaders in Iraq, one by one, and arrogantly ignore the many dead among the invaded population? Isn’t this world racist, where there are first-, second-, and third-class citizens, and the first-. second-, and third-class dead? Obama’s victory was universally hailed as a battle won against racism. I hope he will assume, in his acts of government, this great responsibility. Will the Obama government confirm, once again, that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are two names of the same party? I hope the desire for change, which these elections have established, will be more than a promise and more than a hope. I hope the new government has the courage to break with the tradition of the one and only party, disguised as two parties which at the moment of truth do more or less the same thing while
Israeli ‘Hasbara’ spam alert
Remember when the defense department was paying public relations companies and Iraqi newspapers to insert articles praising the Iraq war? The companies also attempted to plant coverage favorable to the US military in US newspapers. There rightly was a media uproar about the manipulation. We'll see whether the same happens over this (Hasbara spamming of blogs?) The (Israeli) foreign ministry shouldn't get a pass on this one. It may view such hasbara as maximising its efforts to "explain" Israel's position in the world media. I view it as a cynical attempt to flood the web and news media with favorable flackery in a vain attempt to tilt public opinion toward Israel. Not only does it do Israel a disservice, it stains every legitimate effort that the ministry might make to explain Israel to the world, since no one will believe a word it says knowing it engages in such outright propaganda. Not to mention that this is such cheap pennyante stuff. What do they gain by this? How effective can it be and how many can be convinced? By the way, I've even noticed the hasbaraniks in my own blog. You can see them a mile away because they've never published a comment before yet write something like: "I've enjoyed your blog for a long time, but anyone with a brain in their head knows that Hamas is out to destroy Israel blah, blah blah." Pretty formulaic stuff. Also, you can Google a few phrases of the comment and if you find it appears elsewhere on the web you know you either have a hasbaranik or someone who has repetition compulsion.... Full article about Israeli military spamming of antiZionist blogs can be read at Hasbara spam alert ...See wikipedia for more about hasbara, otherwise known as Israeli military propaganda spamming. As one can see by the fake 'discussion' by Israeli military spammers here on Not My Tribe, this Israeli suppression of free speech and discussion is a very real problem. We have to spend inordinate amounts of our own time just discussing with these spammers about what they actually are doing rather than talking about anything more political than that. They are extremely boring for us, and extremely boring to others, too. Quite simply they clutter up blogs with their gang graffiti, and that is really about all they are actually about. And be sure to visit the REPORTING AND CREATING THE MESSAGE art of political 'Jewish State' spamming page of the Israel Hasbara Committee to get it from the horse's mouth. See how dishonest all these spammers really are when they claim to be mere concerned citizens all alone by themselves, rather than a concentrated and coordinated Israeli governmental effort in support of the Israeli war machine. They are lying when they pretend that we are making it all up. They are lying for Israel and in support of its racist policies.
Springs peace community still kicking
COLORADO SPRINGS- I received reports that some participants felt ostracized, while others were directly requested to curb their enthusiasm. Fortunately the infighting was kept from public sight, on Armstrong Quad at CC, while school was on break, on a Saturday when downtown was vacant.
When Bush and his Terrorist Corporate Empire started the Iraq War…
...the date chosen for beginning the invasion and occupation was in commemoration of the date in 1988 when the Iraqi Army, with full cooperation and collaboration from the United States, gassed a Kurdish town as part of the continuing war between Iraq and Iran. It should be noted too, that the U.S. Air Force and other military have supplied various countries, Turkey, Iraq, Russia Soviet and post-Soviet... with tactical, logistical and materiel support for their Extermination Campaigns against the Kurds. When a Bu'ush Regime supporter starts with the sob stories about how the Kurds were abused by Saddam, remember that. The Bushi'ites have no concern for any ethnic group, any human rights or freedoms. In fact there are pictures of U.S. state and defense department officials shaking hands and yukking it up with Saddam in the days following the March 19th attack. And official statements that the gas attack had been done by the Iranian troops. This is old news, certainly, but the Propaganda Campaign is being ramped up to "justify" the Murder Campaign begun in Iraq 6 years ago this evening. Ari Fleischer went on record saying that Saddam Hussein had orchestrated 9/11. He said this not 6 years ago but 6 DAYS ago. So, what's a Truth Activist to do? All we can do, keep plugging along and correct the Lies of the war-pigs, keep exposing them for the murdering lying thieves they truly are. Now the same people who told us about Iraq having a million pounds of WMDs are telling us about the New, Scary Boogie-Man State, Iran, having Weapons of Mass Destruction and saying that we need to destroy Iran. This, too, is old news, but again, the Manipulative Ones keep putting out their same old tired lies, so we have to keep reminding them, sometimes gently and sometimes angrily and in a manner quite cross... Of the fact that they Lie through their teeth.
Coloradans For Peace and Freedom: in Ireland and occupied lands everywhere
UPDATE FROM COLORADANS FOR PEACE about March 14 St Patrick's Day Parade: Drummers, Hats, Flags, Kazoos, and a great St Patrick's theme! Come wave international flags for PEACE and FREEDOM! Join COLORADANS FOR PEACE to represent the local peace community in this year's St Patrick's Day Parade. Saturday, March 14, on Tejon Avenue downtown. The parade starts at 12noon, and staging begins at 10am. Peace participants are welcome to park in the TOONS parking lot, at 802 N. Nevada Ave, at the intersection of Nevada and Dale St. We'll have food and drink as early as 9am for those who want to come early. We'll have a canopy there where parade accessories will be distributed. Bring your green peace shirts, if you have them. We'll have fresh shirts available too. The green peace flags from last year are welcome as well. No need to bring any other banners or posters, as parade signs are being limited. Our single, unified message will be pre-vetted. This year's peace theme will tie into the St. Patrick's celebration of Irish independence. Irish Americans celebrate no longer being occupied by Great Britain. Given the current direction of US policy, COLORADANS FOR PEACE want to take this opportunity to call for a stop to all ongoing occupations, in which the US is complicit. Our message is the national DC protest theme marking the 6th year of the Iraq War : OCCUPATION IS A CRIME. More specifically: (FROM IRELAND) TO IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN AND PALESTINE, OCCUPATION IS A CRIME! Behind our main banner, marchers will wave the flags of these four nations. PLUS, as a reminder to parade watchers, of America's own struggle against British occupation, we will also feature the American Revolutionary War era flags which read "Don't Tread On Me!" This year our parade entry will be spearheaded by the superlative Manitou Drummers. The drummers have percussion instruments to share with any participant who wants to accompany them. We will also have a multitude of green kazoos and pipes. The kazoos are decorated with peace symbols. Kevin Johnson of Elope Hats has donated a marching-band-sized portion of super tall leprechaun hats, which will be emblazoned with peace symbols. These hats will be worn by all the musical participants. Other marchers are requested to wear the green peace shirts, or to wave the matching green peace flags. International flag wavers will wear their traditional national costumes. Please contact us if you can lend any suitable apparel. Wearing Kuffiyeh scarves would certainly be appropriate. White bandanas can do in a pinch. These will also be available beforehand. We are also interested in any and all participants who would like to ride their bikes, or walk beside them. Bringing bikes serves as a not unsubtle ecological reminder, to counter the parade's usual multitude of fossil-fuel guzzling vehicles. For the latest updates, please check coloradansforpeace.org
Things to do in March
MAR 2009 2- Edward Prescott: Economic Integration of Sovereign States, Gaylord Hall, CC, 7:30pm 4- Russell Hittinger: the Modern State: Devolution or Subsidiary, Gaylord Hall, CC, 3:30pm 5- Bill Ayres, Derrick Jensen FORBIDDEN EDUCATION, Glenn Miller Ballroom, Boulder, 7pm 6- PARADE SFPJ/Backbone Campaign, CU Boulder, 3-4:30pm 8- (International Women's Strike) 9- Ward Churchill vs CU, Denver State Court, Courtroom 6, 9:30am 13-19 -GENERAL STRIKE Stop bankers from plundering treasury 14- St Patricks Day Parade, Tejon Ave, 12noon 15- Day Against Police Brutality 20- UFPJ Iraq War Moratorium 21- A.N.S.W.E.R. antiwar demonstrations 26- Poet XJ Kennedy, Gates Common Room, CC, 7pm 30- PROTEST 25th Annual Space Symposium, Broadmoor Hotel (thru April 2) 31- Robin Bell: Antartica's Hidden Mountains, Armstrong Theatre, CC, 7:30pm
You can’t spill the beans about Afghan War lies without going to jail!
British officer held over Afghan casualties leak ...And where is that Iraqi shoe thrower, Barack? You still have him in jail for throwing shoes at Bush while you are busy reappointing collegues of Bush into positions under your new Adminsttration? Free him now and hands off this British whistle blower, too!
Israel’s use of White Phosphorus in Gaza
An Italian director has a film about military use of White Phosphorus called The Hidden Massacre on youtube well worth watching to get an idea of what Israel's use in Gaza of this chemical weapon is likely producing now. The US used this weapon against Fallujah in Iraq and Israel has used it already previously in Lebanon. Israel Using White Phosphorus In Gaza Nothing much in our country has changed since US use of napalm against the Vietnamese.
UNDO THE COUP begins at home
COLORADO SPRINGS- Rita wants to remind local Democrats about which way to push Barack Obama, come January 20 after the inauguration, and before then, at the local Democratic Party precinct meetings. Whether we have expectations of Obama or not, if he doesn't know what we want, how's he supposed to deliver? Here's the full text of her latest communique: CHANGE AND MORE CHANGE by Rita Walpole Ague With the Obama inauguration about to happen, may we all come to rest and live in peace and justice and true democracy. Recent comments made by Obama coordinator Bob Nemanich re. the anti-democratic stance certain of his old friends, do not surprise me in the least. Failures of our democracy to function as a democracy are not new, and have been around for awhile - some say since 1947. I recall when the FBI was doing warrantless wiretapping of the Kennedys and MLK, plus countless of their supporters and followers. Such blatant anti-democracy tactics have now reached new levels of power lust and greed under the oh so fascist, manipulative Neocons. Consider Neocon "spook" surveillance and infiltration into so many organizations and efforts, certainly including numerous peace, and justice, and political and governmental organizations and operations The first such governmental operation that comes to my mind is the democratic and fundamental act of voting and having that vote count. No big secret - vote fraud's gone broad based and high tech. Here's reality, as painful as it may be to face - we've lost democracy. And the "change" our almost president Obama has promised to render must first and foremost address this loss of democracy, and all the constitutional violations that go and have gone unchallenged and all too often hide and have been hidden under the guise of "security against terrorism." In the words of the head of Grandmothers for Peace International, we must become our own media, a job Bob Nemanich did so well following the Democratic assembly when he, acting in his co-ordinator position with the Obama campaign, sent out an email far and wide with a request for info. on the intimidation and disenfranchisement that occurred at the Democratic county assembly in February, 2007. Bob wanted identified who it was who had stood at the door and turned away countless elected delegates and alternates, many of whom had dangerously been kept standing outside in the bitter cold for hours. How tragic it is that question even had to be asked by Bob and the party vice chair Jay Ferguson, since the Democratic party chair, John Morris, was most certainly aware who this person at the door was - former NSA operative and then current chair of the local A.C.L.U., and now chair of the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission, William Durland. Certainly Morris knew who Durland
Harold Pinter on drama and US banditry
"What has happened to our moral sensibility? Did we ever have any? What do these words mean? Do they refer to a term very rarely employed these days - conscience? A conscience to do not only with our own acts but to do with our shared responsibility in the acts of others? Is all this dead?" -Harold Pinter (1930-2008) I'm reminded of a friend of mine who asked "You know what PTSD is? It's a bad conscience." An outspoken critic of the Iraq War, Harold Pinter died Christmas Eve. Here is the address he prerecorded for his acceptance of the Nobel Prize in 2005, when he had become too infirm to attend in person. Nobel Lecture: Art, Truth & Politics In 1958 I wrote the following: 'There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.' I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false? Truth in drama is forever elusive. You never quite find it but the search for it is compulsive. The search is clearly what drives the endeavour. The search is your task. More often than not you stumble upon the truth in the dark, colliding with it or just glimpsing an image or a shape which seems to correspond to the truth, often without realising that you have done so. But the real truth is that there never is any such thing as one truth to be found in dramatic art. There are many. These truths challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflect each other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other. Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost. I have often been asked how my plays come about. I cannot say. Nor can I ever sum up my plays, except to say that this is what happened. That is what they said. That is what they did. Most of the plays are engendered by a line, a word or an image. The given word is often shortly followed by the image. I shall give two examples of two lines which came right out of the blue into my head, followed by an image, followed by me. The plays are The Homecoming and Old Times. The first line of The Homecoming is 'What have you done with the scissors?' The first line of Old Times is 'Dark.' In each case I had no further information. In the first case someone was obviously looking for a pair of scissors and was demanding their whereabouts of someone else he suspected had probably stolen them. But I somehow knew that the person addressed didn't give a damn
Bush Iraq press conference hits the fan
"THIS IS A FAREWELL KISS, YOU DOG!" --yelled al-Baghdadia news journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi, as he hurled his first shoe. Finally someone brave enough to have at our obscene Reprobate-in-Chief! What does this say about reporters, officials and celebrities who have access to President Bush but take their shoes off only to show fealty? Homeland Security has all of us removing our shoes, but it took an Iraqi to know what to do with them. If the world needed a sign of hope, that someone would at last stand up to America's miserable criminality, new-detainee al-Zaidi is the one. Bush makes a last visit to a nation he destroyed, and gets: "THIS IS A FAREWELL KISS, YOU DOG!" Our news outlets initially censored the "you dog" bit. Al-Zaidi's threw his second shoe yelling "THIS IS FROM THE WIDOWS, THE ORPHANS AND THOSE WHO WERE KILLED IN IRAQ." Prompting a local Iraqi to write: “Yes, you dirty motherfuckers, NO VICTORY for you in IRAQ. No victory as long as people like Muntather exist…
The Barack Plan to re-brand and re-market US occupation of Iraq
Obama Doesn't Plan to End the Iraq Occupation There in the title to his commentary, Jeremy Scahill puts it quite simple for people to understand. Of course, there are plenty of people who simply do not want to understand The Barack Plan at all, because those people invested a lot of themselves in justifying their vote for Barack Obama. They prefer to be pretend 'counsellors' for the President instead of actually admitting what his true plan for Iraq actually is, a re-marketing of the occupation of that country to the American people. This re-branding and re-marketing of the war has already been done time and time again. It is the Republican agenda, too. Barack Obama and his Democratic Party war machine hope that with this rebranding of war for the more liberal minded out there in the American community, that the war and occupation of Iraq PLUS all the other warmaking of the Pentagon can simply continue on track.
Once an unrepentant soldier, always a…
A bumper sticker ahead of me read ONCE A MARINE, ALWAYS A MARINE. Next to it was LESS MEAN, LESS LEAN, STILL A MARINE. It got me thinking about the soldiers who come back from war, in light of later revelations of their true brutality. A suppressed investigation in the Mekong Delta 1968-1969, resurfaced in this month's Nation: "A My Lai a Month." Operation Speedy Express produced a casualty ration of 40:1, with Vietnamese civilians accounting for an estimated 92%. In view of atrocities which turn out to have been pervasive, what are we to conclude about our veterans? These men are still what? are always what? The preponderance of our dehumanized ex-soldiers are not in the street committing serial murder and rape, at least not in American streets. The Vietnam vets who suffered are now antiwar. The others unrepentant have been perpetrating the wars that followed --should we be surprised-- with the same ferocity and collateral damage? Suppressing the crimes committed in Vietnam, out of concern for the fragile consciences of our vets, has only served to grant license to the war-fueled sadists who still command our inhuman arsenal. Yesterday, a memorial was held in Missouri for William Doyle, of the infamous Tiger Force unit of the 101st Airborne, who went to his grave bragging about the civilians he'd killed, wishing he'd killed more. The 1965-67 atrocities of the Tiger Force were only revealed in 2004. They were not aberrations but results of the orders the soldiers had been given. This was true about the Free Fire Zones of Operation Speedy Express of the 9th Infantry Division, and for the My Lai raid by the Charlie Company. Few were prosecuted, and fewer punished. Lieutenant Calley served only four months for presiding over the murder of 400 Vietnamese villagers in 1968. To be fair, each of these examples involved the US Army. The Marines have their own rap-sheet of war crimes that span more engagements than just America's declared wars, especially in Central and South America. Already Iraq War veterans are trying to confess their deeds in Operation Iraqi Freedom. How many years before journalists are able to report the true crimes of the battle of Fallujah?