The photo of the bikers in Waco is as upsetting to me as it is to many of us. Many years ago I saw a photo of a naked starving child in the Sudan. I was so shocked by this photo that I had to turn away. And there-in lies the power of a photo. The photo that Eric used in his article has the same effect. It's hard to look at, but we must not forget the message of the article. The photo serves to remind us of the carnage the Waco Police Department is capable of, this is where we need to keep our focus, they need to answer their role and why these men lay dead in that parking lot. We should never let them investigate themselves. We have already heard too many lies from them about this incident ( Premeditated Murder). Our call needs to be for an honest independent investigation. At the present there are far too many holes in the stories the police spokesman is putting out. The photo itself is proof of their lies. 43252
Tag: Massacre
Ludlow 100 year anniversary feted by social class that committed massacre
DENVER, COLO.- I might be sensationalizing a technicality, but in effect it's what happened: the remembering of Ludlow has been commandeered by the class who perpetrated it. The preliminary series of events commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the Ludlow Massacre (April 20, 1914) concluded tonight at Denver's History Colorado Museum with a panel discussion featuring only establishment voices. "Is Ludlow relevant?" was the question posed to five participants among them three professors, a soldier, and a union rep. That's like asking "is global warming real?" The question is loaded with the suggestion that the opposite is equally plausible. I would have preferred to hear HOW is Ludlow relevant. Though the union rep skillfully skirted the issue, no one pushed back at another flawed presumption, that the coal strike was an armed conflict. Yes the massacre provoked the ten day "Coal Field War" during which striking miners retaliated against the mine company employees, but the death toll was still but a fraction of the number of miners killed in the mine accidents which precipitated the Ludlow strike. It took an audience member to address that omission. Alas nobody mentioned the aftermath that found many miners under arrest, others scattered, and
Pueblo museum excises Mine Workers Union from Ludlow Massacre exhibit!
PUEBLO, COLORADO- 2014 marks one hundred years since the Ludlow Massacre of 1914. A variety of commemorations are planned before the formal anniversary on April 20. I attended one such event on Wednesday, a lecture by a CSU professor to footnote the "Children of Ludlow" exhibit at El Pueblo History Museum. I'm always excitied when attention is paid to Ludlow, a subject regularly left out of American schoolbooks, but I was disappointed to find key elements of labor history excised from the museum's narrative. Literally. The United Mine Workers of America, the organization central to the strike, which supplied the tent city, and which even today maintains the memorial site, was mentioned only once, IN FINE PRINT! The Ludlow miners voted to strike because the mining companies refused to recognize the UMWA. Unmentioned. The horrors of the atrocity were not tempered, in their explicitness perhaps we think them enough, but there was also the apologist suggestion that some culpability belonged to the miners. I questioned one curator who admitted they were at pains to keep the story "balanced" and that the squeakiest wheel thus far has been the National Guard. Apparently the Guard is offended that its role will
Bear Creek Massacre, January 29, 1863
The year 2014 will mark the 150th anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre, on November 29, two days after Thanksgiving. But on this day, January 29 of the year before, a Shoshone village suffered an identical fate. The Bear Creek Massacre was also once called the Battle of Bear Creek, but the only grounds which western military history buffs have to argue that such engagements were "battles" not massacres, is that was how the US cavalry waged its fights against the hostiles, its only victories were raids upon unsuspecting villages. 39870
Latest massacre in Syria has almost all the hallmarks of a US military atrocity
The victims are civilian, most of them women and children, killed with disproportionate force, with the usual un-Islamic effort made to burn the bodies to cover it up. Hell, this could have been an all-American lone-GI "Kandahar Shooting Spree", if you believe the DoD and don't want to credit our US Special Forces Death Squads. If only the dead had been peed on or had trophy fingers removed, we'd know for sure. Now President Bashar Assad's forces are reportedly preventing western "monitors" from either coming upon, or leaving the crime scene, to spin NATO's nauseatingly regular calling card and frame Assad for the atrocity to justify Western intervention. Said Assad of last week's massacre of Syrian civilians, it "was the work of monsters" which is codeword for Israelis and their habitual inhumanity toward non-Jewish Semites, but clearly now must include US standard practice as it pursues its global war on Islam.
About Juan Cole on the bloodshed in Houla, Syria…
Houla was bombed by the Syrian government and 30 to 40 children were killed among the 90 casualties in this portion of the US attack on Syria as the Syrian government fought back by bombing US backed rebels. Juan Cole though, like many of the liberal-Left humanitarian imperialists, simply refuses to acknowledge that the US is orchestrating any war on Syria or, by extension, any war against the Syrian government's ally, Iran. He demands of people opposing his support of US imperialist military intervention inside Syria, that they MUST denounce Assad for resisting US allied forces! What a line of crap! 33889
Horrible Things that Empire Offers US
This is a NMT guest commentary by Fidel Castro... The Empire offers US an inhuman destiny. ...It's nothing to smile about.
Oops. Add two rapes to the feat of Staff Sgt. Bales, death squad of one (Aghans say 1/16th) behind Panjwaii Massacre
An Afghan parliamentary fact-finding mission reports that two women were raped before being killed in the US NATO night raid on Panjwaii. Yeah, Americans still can't pronounce My Lai. The same US corporate press is raping Afghanistan.
Oh, he’s Mr. Nice American Guy alright
'Bales, a student of Middle Eastern history and customs, often admonished younger GIs to treat noncombatants with courtesy and respect, Alexander said. "Some guys had a pretty negative attitude, but Bales wasn't like that at all. He said there was no need to be a jerk. Be polite, be professional and have a plan to kill everyone you meet if you need to." (from The Seattle Times report about Robert Bales ...Oh, he's Mr. Nice Guy alright! He's the all American guy, from an all American family, with an all American attitude!
Did US Staff Sergeant Robert Bales engage in a US military revenge killing?
(Robert Fisk) 'The Afghan narrative has been curiously lobotomised – censored, even – by those who have been trying to explain this appalling massacre in Kandahar. They remembered the Koran burnings – when American troops in Bagram chucked Korans on a bonfire – and the deaths of six Nato soldiers, two of them Americans, which followed. But blow me down if they didn't forget – and this applies to every single report on the latest killings – a remarkable and highly significant statement from the US army's top commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, exactly 22 days ago. Indeed, it was so unusual a statement that I clipped the report of Allen's words from my morning paper and placed it inside my briefcase for future reference. 31766
I’ll see your Staff Sgt Robert Bales and raise you 15 death squad members
Everyone from the US Department of Defense to the School of the Americas knows it takes a village to raze a death squad, or vice versa. According to the manual, if you want to storm houses in the middle of the night, gather the male family members for execution, shoot everyone in the head, gather stray bodies into a pile, pour gasoline over them and burn them, then repeat the operation in a neighboring village, you need a death squad, possibly two, especially if everyone's drunk. US forces have pulled off so many of these massacres in Iraq and Afghanistan, that it's a wonder military analysts don't recognize the Panjwayi raid as a textbook operation. If the official US spin is to be believed, and one drunken staff sergeant can do the work of 15-20, I'm thinking our entire NATO force in Afghanistan could be reduced by the same factor without jeopardizing US kill goals.
American society looks into the mirror and sees this
US Army killer, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales
Spinning US atrocities, words matter: shooting sprees & shopping rampages
Headlines about Sunday's midnight massacre in Kandahar transformed quickly from NATO FORCES RAID to become LONE GUNMAN KILLS 16, as the attributed sources shifted from Afghan locals on the scene to US military spokesmen. One might argue it's in the interest of national security to attribute the murders in Balandi and Alkozai to a solitary stalker, to tamp the swelling anger of the Afghan populace, but what's the truth? Making a rare concession, the NYT has revised its headline a 3rd time to read LONE SOLDIER SAID TO BE KILLER OF 16 AFGHANS, and the BBC puts "ACTED ALONE" in quotes. (UPDATE: AP adds "allegedly" and LA Times "apparently") Pundits stroke our soldiers' egos by asking could one special forces soldier alone kill so many (?!), but more difficult to imagine is how a rogue fighter can equip himself and pass through multiple security defenses unobserved. Also doubtful is how and why a stealth assassin would burn the victims' bodies as he moved about. Easier to believe is that damage control decided it best that one man take the fall for his comrades, God and country, probably the one too drunk to object.
Bahrain King Hamad fells monument at Pearl Roundabout to efface revolution, also so his hanging won’t be iconic
The prevailing talking point on Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa is that he's a "good man." So is his son the Crown Prince, apparently both "good men," which stands at odds with the ongoing murderous repression of their fiefdom's pro-Democracy demonstrators and the doctors trying to save them. How genteel an argument, to dismiss reports of massacres, arrests and beatings out of hand, because their reality would simply be too out of character to be believed. Media spokesman for the proto-Saudis and their Western Boyars assure viewers the news is inherently inconsistent with the much-self-beloved royals. How does that square with the sudden calculated move to tear down the monument at the center of the Pearl Roundabout which had become the iconic symbol of Bahrain's popular uprising and its resilient demonstrators? Oh the sculpture resembled less political symbolism than cake decoration, the usual garish erection by born-in-a-tent nouveau riche. But what are we to conclude was the king's benevolent motive? A sudden aesthetic enlightenment" I would advise the self-bolstered monarch to fell every structure in Bahrain from which his subjects might be able to string a noose.
The Original Intent of Guns in Schools
Since a lot of the jackass political hacks who feel that more guns in schools will actually reduce school violence ALSO believe that they have the "original intent" of the founding fathers, the mythical group of Holy Men anointed by God Himself to dictate the course of American history and laws long after they died... Let's hold them to their OWN original intent. 23276
Mississippi set to honor Klan Founding Father Bedford-Forrest
With "heritage" license plates. "It's not Hate, it's Heritage... a heritage of hating people so badly that we would deny them liberty from before they're born and tear our nation apart, slaughter all together a half million Americans, in order to keep them as Slaves." This is the guy whose orders, carried out, were to massacre Union P.O.W.s because they were black. After the surrender of Ft Pillow, April 12th 1864. A real American TERRORIST, infamous for his saying of "Save your Confederate Money, the South will rise again!" and urged that among others, General Robert E Lee should be hanged for surrendering, and every Confederate soldier refuse to honor the surrender, and keep the war going forever. 22978
Miz Lisa Czeladtko, drop the hell out of the race, M’kay?
You know, there's not many options. Threatening police actions and lawsuits for people mocking your positions on civic issues, especially when you're hoping to be in government power, to be honest, would put you right up there with Rivera and his adopted/anointed replacement Bach-door. And the rest of the Clown Parade that is, sadly, our City Government. You've worked at St Mary's, cool. But a few hours a week doesn't equal one single day of the nightmare Hell that IS Homelessness. And it surely doesn't give you any moral authority to go putting down people who have to endure that Hell. Go back to the Country Club, m'kay? That guy you saw cursing in the park, Remember? Your instant diagnosis of schizophrenia... what if he isn't "crazy" or in the case of real schizophrenia, suffering from a degenerative neurological disorder? Would it make any difference to you, personally? How much concern does that show for HIS welfare as opposed to worrying that children might see what illness or death or age or poverty looks like? I call that the Prince Siddhartha Syndrome. Before he became The Buddha. 22836
TeaParty on Giffords “Hey, we TOLD the Bitch to shut up”
Translated into plain English that is. Basically Mr Humphries said that anybody who has a Palin contract out on him should go into hiding. Quote: The Arizona congresswoman shouldn't have attended an event "in full view of the public" if she had security concerns, according to Tucson Tea Party co-founder Trent Humphries. 22112
“Capital” Punishment, forced compliance with Money-Worship.
If, as a Corporate Lawyer and somewhat friend suggests, Capital were the be-all and end-all for progress, economically, politically, technologically, and even spiritually, why then is Participation Made Mandatory? The Capitalist PIGS go after not only nations who opt for a more socialist economy, but communes within the Capitalist CONTROLLED countries. 19780
Two “american civilians” killed at firing range in Afghanistan
And two Afghans. The "american civilians" is a code routine which means "Blackwater or Equivalent Mercenary Thugs who might or might not actually even be americans". So much for those "civilians" carrying guns and wearing uniforms and training other murderers how to do it. Now, how about the 120 REAL civilians, Afghans, mostly CHILDREN, murdered at Granai by United States Uniformed Military who were then given a free pass on any prosecution for their crimes? Or the ONE U.S. Soldier who is currently in a Military Prison in Iraq for exposing not just the MURDERS, of which the Afghan people were fully aware, but the LIES told by the U.S. Military to justify those MURDERS? 18904
Of thee I Billy Sing
OK, so that was the stupidest title. But the real story is even more stupid. Australian TV producers were casting for a TeleDocumentary TV series "The Legend of Billy Sing" about a Chinese-Australian soldier who is lauded as a hero of Gallipoli. One of the Stupidest military campaigns in history, and that says much. Billy Sing was called the "Suvla Assassin" because he was apparently single-handedly responsible for the deaths of 200 Turkish soldiers. Imagine an Australian version of Sgt York, (every time I see some of this jingoistic crap I think of the film that didn't-quite-star-John Lennon, he had a supporting role, "How I Won The War".) but instead of Sgt Alvin York being portrayed by whoever the hell played him he was played and cast as say, an English or French or whoever Recent Immigrant instead of a hillbilly from the Cumberland Gap, imagine how well that would play in Tennessee. 16599
Difference between College Recruiter and Army Recruiter again
So Maryland Public Schools have been administering the ASVAB tests to students wholesale, as in every kid takes the test. This is the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. I suppose the Maryland Board of Education didn't ask very many questions about Uncle Sugar giving them FREE testing materials and evaluations. What a "(Trojan)gift horse". So the tests have an Opt-Out, option 8, which makes the test from the Army point of view anonymous. There was a loophole in the original agreement. Option 8 was not available. Until now. The Board of Education and the Maryland Legislature wised up a bit. So the Recruiters were contacting the kids not only with the best scores, but for one Really Damn Important part of what the ASVAB measures... Suggestibility. The willingness to follow orders and be stupidly obedient. Clever, eh? The PentaGoons got a low cost database of the most vulnerable kids, the ones who could be most easily (mis)led to believe any lies the Recruiters give them. 16121
WOOT! Kissinger War-Crimes evidence coming out!
This one a communication FROM his Royal Satanic Lowness to the puppet leadership of the Chilean Massacres in 1976. That would be in the final year of the Noble Reign of King Gerald of Ford. You remember how Bush the Elder and Bush The Chimp accused Iraq of hiding WMDs and War Criminals... and we on the Left (the ones who are still accused of being Wrong and of course Stupid because we questioned their fake assumptions) published a map of the one country on earth which has more of each class of WMD than the rest of the world combined and also harbors more war criminals than the rest of the world combined? with the headline "We Found 'em!" 15936
US inhumanity maxed at Azimuth Limit
"Light 'em all up. Come on, fire!" Watching the leaked combat footage of the helicopter gunships killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007, I'm troubled by my own desensitized response. When I saw earlier leaked videos of an AH-64 vaporizing Iraqi farmers and a C-130 wreaking mayhem in Afghanistan, I remember my real shock at seeing a human life extinguished. This time not even flinch. "Just fuckin', once you get on 'em just open 'em up." Not at the brutality, nor the callousness of the play by play --even as the pilots targeted rescuers trying to help the wounded. I fault the Rules of Engagement that allowed the massacre, not the soldiers' laughing swagger --as I hope they will not begrudge my unguarded satisfaction when eventually spectators will be treated to leaked footage of American soldiers taking some fire. 15850
A bit of Blatant Racism from veteran historian Dave Hughes and the Gazette
Ok so nothing actually NEW about that, except that it was published yesterday. Mr Hughes celebrates the "counterinsurgency" and "Anti-Terrorist" actions of the Racist Murderer Kit Carson and the Colorado Militia. Yeppers! While blatantly comparing the Racist War on Iraq and Afghanistan to the equally Racist, equally For Profit War Of Conquest which "subjugated" the American Indians, he doesn't apologize for his own attitude that them thar dark skinned "insurgents" need to be Put In Our Place and God-Damn Stay There. 15666