Tag Archives: Parade

Why does this sound familiar?

Posted on by
2

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…

Addict, pederast dies, much fanfare

Posted on by
Reply

But let’s look past the innuendo and unproven transgressions, to celebrate the man’s contribution to the cannon of Western popular music product. Please!

I hear celebrities dismiss the allegations of Michael Jackson’s pedophilia like too much water under the bridge, which would be true I suppose, if Jackson’s victims were more like John Wayne Gacy’s, buried under Neverland, instead of tucked into San Fernando Valley homes, divvying multimillion-dollar payoffs with their enterprising panderer parents. Will the confidentiality clauses stand between the public ever knowing which pederast was the more prolific? That innuended, I do concur those bottoms were small fry compared to Jackson’s true sick imprint on America.

The Michael Jackson TM projected a perversion of role models. Not even a cynical anti-hero, the self-crowned King of Pop was the nul-idol. Jackson rejected his skin color, his sexuality, even his place of belonging among mortals. Other than pathos for the sick dance-cyborg who never had a childhood, what humanity did Jackson share to communicate? To be fair, it wasn’t Jackson who kept the spotlight trained on his black/white Icarus act, foisting the unnatural deception that man can soar with a single glove.

Now dead, Jocko is heralded as among the greatest. But MJ was an internationally recognized poster child for enfeebled humanity, a glorified counter-renaissance man, resembling a human being like a drag queen pretends femininity. He may have channeled vinyl High Fructose Corn Syrup like no other, walking backward while dancing and such, but worth what legacy exactly? Jackson shares the ignobless of the Big Mac, the Lucky Strike cigarette, and DDT. Iconic and good riddance.

Michael Jackson did nothing for black emancipation, or acceptance of homosexuals, or the plight of the children of poverty. The vast majority of the world’s children are “robbed of their childhoods,” you narcissistic rich dumb-ass, and that didn’t stop you from amassing your vast fortune at their expense.

Jackson probably did more to amplify the phobia against pedophiles, the single minority he did incarnate, by denying the preponderance of indicators, by vilifying his accusers, instead of taking his riches to Dubai right from the start, to show the world into what true debauchers wet their willies.

He might even have championed sympathy for plastic surgery binge-purgers, but he lied about that worm-hole until his nose literally fell off. I remember when Jackson made public appearances in surgery masks, feeding the fiction that he was a germophobe. Meanwhile everyone in Hollywood knew from their own rhinoplasties about the actual face-saving purpose of those masks.

Perversely, it was Jackson’s least aberrant eccentricity that killed him. Drugs. Even as TV viewers watch Jackson’s body pass from helicopter to ambulance, over a red carpet no less, Big Pharma makes sure that the talking heads refer to Jackson’s narcotics as “pain-killers.” Jocko was in constant pain, apparently, like Rush Limbaugh and all overachievers etc, hence their susceptibility to addiction. You’d think the alibi would eventually defy credulity.

Prescription drugs circulate among the well-to-do, with the same ease with which the rich have access to good lawyers. The difference between street and medical drugs is that no one cares about the heroin or crack addict’s “pain.”

All the celebrities speaking in tribute to Michael Jackson want to minimize the ugliness Jacko paraded, even, and especially his drug habit. Some who profess to have been close friends express their utter shock at Jackson’s passing, at his frail condition and the magnitude of his drug use. How close could they have been?! Or how culpable are they still on Big Pharma’s not-yet-upped jig?

Jackson was the King of Sick Culture. His collaborator eulogizers are its second tier whores. What contemptible shills, who’ve got theirs, behind their Beverly Hills gates and their own golden narcotics tickets. Even at the premature passing of a unique creative soul, due without question to drug abuse, his peers don’t want to aggravate the corporate forces which continue to pervert the human social animal to beyond self-recognition.

yet another Triple Standard… (quadruple, quintuple, sextuple ….)

Posted on by
Reply

A group of “hippies” including a retired Judge get beaten by the CSPD at a parade where the entrance fees and requirements are fulfilled, the Gag-Zette and all it’s Sieg Heil readership say “well, Free Speech, yes, but there have to recognitions of Consequences of that Speech (In other words, we’re “Free” to say whatever we want as long as the Local Gestapo isn’t offended in any way) Ward Churchill…

Sues because a Government Agency, (state college) machs mit der Sieg Heil and obeys the orders of UnterFuhrer Bill Owens and fires him on made-up charges…

The jury agrees but only awards him a dollar.

One Juror says the same thing, “Free speech, yes, but there has to be recognition of Consequences of Free Speech”

Meaning, once again, that the Local Gestapo can crack down on Free speech…

An American journalist gets arrested in Iraq and it’s a “Hostage Situation” according to the Same Right Wing Freaks who think we should be beaten, impoverished or imprisoned for “free” speech.

The Right Wing FigPuckers like our Regular ChickenHawk Trolls say WE should be docile and accept punishment for Free Speech but not their Right Wing Accomplices.

They say WE should be punished for Civil Disobedience but that THEIR War Criminal “heroes” should go unpunished for THEIR murders and Tortures and other Violent Crimes.

Like the Blackwater Goon Squads.

I’m not for the death penalty, but the four Blackwater Goons who got hacked up and hanged on the Fallujah bridge, while nobody deserves death, they DID get exactly what they and their Comrades in and out of the Official Military dish out routinely.

But again, we should be punished for objecting.

Some of the Right Wing Freaks have suggested that I should be beaten up or even murdered for pointing out these things.

Since they have no MORAL objections to those suggested actions, and their Leaders say that there’s no LEGAL objections, and the Local Gestapo like the EPCSD and the CSPD would look the other way or perhaps even participate in such actions, I guess the only REAL reason they haven’t comes down to Simple Cowardice.

2 turncoat Democrats are our senators!

Posted on by
Reply

Freshly minted US Senator Michael Bennett just voted against the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009, siding with the usurious banks. Do we give him a pass? It’s not Bennett’s first snub of the November 2008 progressive mandate. What’s it going to take before Colorado constituents shout down the Washington insider for being a fraud? Bennett is speaking at CC’s commencement on May 18. Is he or is he not accountable?

I don’t dare, actually. Some of my friends still think he shows promise. But I had a chance when Governor Ritter first paraded him to Colorado Springs, to look into his averted eyes. I saw the face of a weasel. Bennett spoke too, committing to absolutely nothing. Did I mention he was a Zionist? I’m hoping someone will consider his grace period expired.

As well today on HB 1274, Colorado Senator and proven shit John Morse took “repeal the death penalty” out of the Repeal The Death Penalty Bill. Morse also sponsored SB 241 the DNA Sampling of Felony Arrestees which would mandate that DNA records be kept of all those accused of a felony.

No word yet on John Morse’s next visit to Colorado Springs. He didn’t join Representative Lamborn at the Tax Day Tea Party, but you know he wanted to.

Bernard Madoff serves time incognito

Posted on by
7

Pnzi scheme financier scam artist in Groucho incognito glassesYou and I fight traffic tickets, Phil Spector fights charges that he put a gun to a woman’s mouth and pulled the trigger, he fights for years. Everyone fights against the long arm of the law, except Bernie Madoff. Does that make sense to you?

The biggest economic fraud ever perpetrated by one man, and that man pleads guilty. Hmmm.

We are told that as a consequence, Madoff doesn’t have to tell anyone where he buried the treasure. Meanwhile his accomplices are being charged and are proclaiming themselves innocent.

Okay, I didn’t know that not plea-bargaining means not having to say you’re sorry, or divulge where you took the loot. I didn’t know that when Kenneth Lay died, it meant that because his appeal could then never be exhausted, his wife and family got to keep the money. An appetizing pattern emerges…

Can you imagine a parade of white-collar-criminal bunkmates sidling up to Madoff in prison, hoping to learn the whereabouts of his vanished bullions (who saw that pun coming)? Nor can I. Michael Milken –now a financier and philanthropist–had plenty of business suitors waiting to hire his larcenous consultation when he was released. Paper crimes don’t garner severe prison sentences. Whether Madoff has a felony on his record or not can hardly hinder his future prospects.

Madoff has a very good reason to plead guilty. It’s a bit like the Kenneth Lay play-possum legal strategy. Let’s remember Bernie Madoff couldn’t even afflict himself with jail. He remained out on bail in his luxury penthouse, until his day in court. Since then where has he been? Have YOU seen him? Are you sure he’s where authorities say he is?

I’m convinced that Bernie has a plan to stay out of the penal system. And it doesn’t involve a jury verdict.

I’d guess with just a fraction of his loot, he can pay off the very few administrators involved to handle the paperwork to incarcerate someone in his place. No visitors, no outsiders to know. It won’t be Bernie doing the time, it’ll be a stand in. Maybe as simple as a real inmate, written off as released, but reissued Bernie’s ID. No cosmetic surgery necessary, what’s the probability that prison guards know what Bernie Madoff looks like anyway.

If Bernie had to go back and forth to court, he’d have to do be there himself. Being seen by too many people.

In prison, rather, not in prison, Madoff can live the rest of his years on a private estate, miles from onlookers, his fence-line probably abutting Kenneth Lay’s.

Why no ticker-tape parade for veterans?

Posted on by
Reply

Screen grab from IAVA tv spot
The IAVA ad depicts a lone soldier returning from deployment, and implies that Americans are indifferent and unappreciative of military service. Ignoring the empathy it solicits from ordinary viewers, for veterans’ eyes I think it’s a brilliantly subversive message.

DC March on the Pentagon was fueled by a promising alternative energy: youth

Posted on by
3

Youth and Student ANSWER Coalition march on the Pentagon March 21
WASHINGTON DC- Speakers were still entertaining an impatient crowd, and coffin carriers were mobilizing for the March to the Pentagon, when from the west came the Black Bloc. Bicycle cops in royal blue lycra scrambled to shepherd the group’s healthy gallop as they appeared from over the hill to kick the parade to a sudden start. They virtually led the parade over the bridge, until organizers prevailed upon the interlopers to allow the veterans groups to resume the lead, as planned. But it would not be the last initiative from the Anarchists.

(Click on image for better quality, wider crop)

1. THE MARCH
ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
Black Bloc gallops into lead position, abruptly starting parade.

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
International Socialist Organization pass Lincoln Memorial

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
Peace groups from Vermont to Georgia

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
Youth and Student A.N.S.W.E.R.

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
West from the Washington Monument

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
Hezbollah crosses Arlington Memorial Bridge

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
Campus Antiwar Network

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
Across the Potomac

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
To the Pentagon

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
Code Pink paraded the parade

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
To military industrial complex in Crystal City

2. INTERRUPTION
ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
At a narrowing of the route at the Boeing building, several students blocked the march with a plastic barrier.

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
Raising questions about the gentrified nature and self-policing demeanor of the event organizers and participants.

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
The Black Bloc honored the picket line, thus the Campus Antiwar Network and following groups were brought to a halt.

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
When the Black Bloc decided to move on to next actions, the march resumed.

2b. INTERRUPTION
ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

Marie Walden, March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

Eric Verlo, March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
At the first hint of misbehavior, stocky 40-something “videographers” in undercover protest garb were pointing their cameras into the noses of the black-clad participants.

3. MESSAGE VARIETY
ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
Why explain? You won’t listen.

4. COUNTER PROTEST
ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
On the Pentagon lawn, near signs pointing to the “Pentagon Memorial,” white folk waited with the usual anti-antiwar slogans.

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
Megaphone versus megaphone.

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
That simple.

5. CONFRONTATION
ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009
Police in riot gear await march destination at KBR.

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

6. COLORADANS FOR PEACE
ANSWER March on the Pentagon 2009

ANSWER March on the Pentagon 2009

Eric Verlo, March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

Eric Verlo, March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

Eric Verlo, March on the Pentagon, Mar 21, 2009

(Still more photos to follow…)

Onward Christian Cowards

Posted on by
Reply

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
You can hold forums attended by the faithful, or beat your breast where only the choir can hear, but when there’s a crowd, you’re a regular shrinking violet. The meek don’t inherit the earth, they inherit the dirt. Last Saturday the Colorado Springs PPJPC didn’t tell its members about the opportunity to participate in the city’s biggest parade. And it declined to lend Coloradans For Peace the green flags with which it had marched the year before. What exactly are local citizens supposed to think is happening in the local peace community?

Are you in any of the parade pictures?

Posted on by
Reply

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009 Tejon StreetCOLORADO SPRINGS- The Coloradans For Peace parade entry got good coverage this year, from KRDO13, FOX21, and the GAZETTE, which reported the full text of our banner. Reporter Lance Benzel interviewed a number of us, and I was hoping to see one of the responses he was tickled to get from Devon, aged 11. Asked whether she was fazed by sporadic negative responses, she replied “No. They’re just uninformed.”

Devon, by the way, wasn’t going to participate in the parade, owing to the events she witnessed two years ago when marchers were brutalized by the police. But the responsibility of taking pictures got the better of her, so she accompanied the large banner, sometimes running out ahead for artistic license.

Back to my question. No doubt too many of you notice that there are no photographs of you in the St Patrick’s Day Parade. We were a little short-handed, so perhaps if you have pictures of your own, please do share.

Although the action went without a hitch, we definitely could have used extra marchers for the flag waiving and the kazoos. Rita had plenty more shamrock shaped placards, some which honored Elizabeth Fineron, others which warned of the Intelligence Fusion Centers which are begining to dominate domestic law enforcement in the name of Homeland Security.

No really, where were you on Saturday? Maybe you see plentiful options for speaking out against war. If marching with a banner reminding thousands that OCCUPATION IS A CRIME seems too confrontational to you, perhaps you favor doing something else. And what is it? Because I wasn’t aware that doing nothing is an option for activists.

Are you against the wars and occupations a little bit? More than a little bit? A lot? Are you for peace, a little bit, or a lot?

Between doing something, and doing nothing, which best describes your effort?

By not supporting the local peace efforts, whatever they are, you are certainly giving silent consent to the war parties. And by sabotaging local peace efforts you are without a doubt supporting the war. What cowards you’ve become. Self-censoring cowards.

St Patricks Day Parade photos

Posted on by
Reply

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
COLORADO SPRINGS- Peace contingent in St Patrick’s Day parade.

(Click on images to see larger crop.)
St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Devon decorates last minute stand-in for the Bookmobile.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Assembling at staging area, last position.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Dancers, as MaryLynn and Dave look on.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Layla and Andy

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Kat, Debbie and Lily

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Sarah, Dave and Jake on Kazoo.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Friend of Ryan and Ryan.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Amanda.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Distributing the flags

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Mike looks back as we take off.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
With motorcycle escort.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Eric and Devon.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Video grab from Mike Coletta.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Lead banner. All subsequent photos by Devon.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Dancers

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Tony leads drumming

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Drummers

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Drummers

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Pattie (three screen grabs from Loring’s video)

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Layla and Andy

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Looking down parade route

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Amanda

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Cheers

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Eric waves Iraq flag

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Amanda rides ahead

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Behind Amanda, are Jonathan, Rita, Loring and Marie.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
More peace contingent two blocks back.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Jonathan, tricked out bike, and Don’t Tread On Me.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Flags of occupied lands.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Reflection in Plaza of the Rockies.

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
At disbanding point, this police officer suddenly begins shouting MOVE MOVE MOVE!

St. Patricks Day Parade 2009
Patty triumphant.

What the hell is wrong with these freaks

Posted on by
2

Young Marines I mean.
I have PT in 7 hours and should be sleeping but this is weighing on me.
According to a couple of comments made by a kid who is a Member of their organization they recruited him by saying that if he didn’t join them, he would turn into a Homosexual Drug Addict…
Colorado Springs Celebrates Underage Vets

If “Devilpup” is actually an Adult leader of the organization and trying to sell it to us as a “Character Building” group then the dude is seriously messed up in his head.

If he IS actually just a member of the Junior Terrorist League, Young Marines Division, then the people who sold him that line of Bullshit are the ones who have a Serious Mental Deficit Disorder and are trying to make him, and his fellow kids, grow up as retarded as they are.

Aside from

These organizations are helping the youth of this nation make something of themselves–besides drug addicts, corrupt politicians, and gay pride parade dancers. (And yes, I don’t give a cr*p over political correctness. Wise people don’t.)

Being almost word for word a quote from Adolf Hitler…

They’re recruiting these kids into Paramilitary Organizations based on Fear of being Gay?

They seriously not only told that to the kids once, they apparently make them memorize the Hate.

They teach these kids that they’re better than Perry, who died with a needle in his arm, better than my friend “Hoot” Gibson, I used to work day labor with him, and yeah, he was a wino… Hoot tried to catch a train one day and slipped under the wheels…

Ira Hayes who died drunk in a ditch.

at least according to Private X.

Perry was in the Marine Raiders, went to Vietnam and Cambodia… I saw his commendations and know he was real.
But the Devilpups would, apparently, from the tone of the comment, considered him to be just another junkie.

Same with Clarence, Private X you never met Clarence and I hope for your sake that before you ever do you should clean up your attitude a little… No, make that “Clean it up a Whole Lot”.

Another VietNam Vet, Marine, came back but left some of his soul back in Nam.

Hoot was in the First Marines, a young sergeant when they were island hopping in the Pacific Theater. Operated a flamethrower.
In the years I knew him a lot of people thought of as just another bum, a wino. Yeah, he drank a lot, big deal.

He doesn’t need snot-nosed 14 year olds spitting on his memory. He didn’t tell me a damn thing about his service, other Marines did.

Ira Hayes I never met. He, too, fought in the Pacific Theater, they’ve got a statue of him from a really famous photograph…

He was one of the guys raising the flag on Mount Suribachi.

The Devilpups are teaching you Hatred for your fellow Americans and they should really seriously be ashamed of themselves for doing it.

Oh, and talking about somehow your Hatred Values being Christian or Godly, you should drop that Devil from your groups name.

I’m Brother Jonah, and I approved this message.

I’m Brother Jonah and I also Wrote this message.

I’m not in hiding, you want to brace me up sometime and discuss how your hatred for your fellow Americans is somehow Righteousness, I’m easy to find.

Coloradans For Peace and Freedom: in Ireland and occupied lands everywhere

Posted on by
Reply

shamrock-exclamationUPDATE 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

Posted on by
Reply

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

Progressive Insurance clown makeup

Posted on by
8

Flo the Progressive Insurance checkout cashierMy favorite TV commercial has to be the Dr Pepper candy aisle parade, but next best is Progressive Insurance’s painted lady Flo. The unselfconscious checkout geek is simply a brilliant solution to a daunting PR challenge. Who does not despise their insurance company? We hate their greed and eagerness to invade our privacy, in the person of the operator trying to glean more information than you want to tell, to the adjuster intent on paying out as little as possible. How then does an ad campaign portray an insurance spokesperson who is likeable and still believable?

Make her an object of ridicule, although oblivious to judgment. Flo’s not prettier than anyone, nor smarter, nor certainly fashionable, and as a result she is completely non-threatening. Throw in an indefatigable enthusiasm and she becomes endearing beyond words. She’s an insurance rep you can’t hate because why bother?

Nothing new to the stereotype, Flo is Madge of Palmolive meets Drew Carey’s nemesis Mimi Bobeck. But they obviously threw in sex appeal, which I lack for insight to deconstruct.

Jail the jailer! Throw Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Federal Prison

Posted on by
23

Joe ArpaioGuantanamo is just the tip of the iceberg for taking down the work of the Bush-Cheney Klan that now continues to infiltrate positions of power at all levels throughout the US. Racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio has already murdered some of his prisoners, tortured many more of them, and is himself nothing more than a common criminal. He belongs in jail but just not his own one. He needs to be taken out of power first of all, but then thrown in a Federal Prison where he most certainly does belong!

Arizona needs to do some real soul searching to figure out what it is about the place that produces these assholes like, Joe Arpaio? Too much Injun killing in the past perhaps? See Chained Immigrants Paraded By Arizona Sheriff

A fine mess you got us into, said the fat man to the little man

Posted on by
Reply

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy- a fine messI’m convinced the economic “mess” we find ourselves in, is of the Laurel and Hardy variety. The iridescent definition of “mess” leads us to infer that our predicament-mess, results from a clutter-mess of options. To hear the parade of experts, our financial mess is a chaotic tangle to dumbfound even a string theorist. I think it’s more like a job for CSI. This “mess” is painted to obscure an entirely un-messy crime scene. The common American is in a mess alright, we’re staring at a bare bank vault floor.

Sleuths can trace a fugitive’s ATM visits, and every bank transaction above $2,500, do you think they can’t follow the money when it’s in the twelve figures, if they wanted to?

empty bank vaultThe mess may be a clutter of fingerprints and a tangle of wire transfers to Switzerland. Maybe we face a daunting defensive line of corporate lawyers. The press is no helping any, choosing to interview the usual odd-footed pundits, instead of the over hundred economists trying to beat down the door to oppose the various economic stimulus bank heists.

The entire public discourse is being dumbed down. The MSNBC text title beneath Obama as he gave his Daschle mea culpa, read “IS CHANGE TOO DIFFICULT?” By the way, couldn’t the President of the United States have enough clout to answer each question about Tom Daschle with a quick admission and segue to a pitch for his proposed stimulus package?

Next the spotlight moved to Joe the Plumber, the Senate Republicans inviting him to a closed door session where he could brief them on his Middle East junket, the stimulus, and party strategy. Joe the Not Even Licensed Plumber?

I was beginning to suspect Sarah Palin had been selected as a ruse to give the American people no choice but to elect a black man to the presidency. Now it appears the GOP was purposefully courting idiocy, and realizes now perhaps that it hadn’t aimed low enough. Maybe it hopes to recreate its success in the shoes of Dumb George.

To Joe the Plumber, every problem is not going to look like three quarter inch pipe in need of a wrench. Problems like the economy, or how to use your watch to calculate how to get to a political rally on time, are going to look like powerful quandaries. And the media hopes to use Joes like Joe as a Greek Chorus, or in modern parlance, a focus group of one, to demonstrate to the public beast that Joe the Everyman Us is stumped.

Does Obama have the votes to pass this or that? Even with a Democratic majority, polls will show that if Joe Public can’t count it on the fingers of both hands, he’ll believe the pundits when they say Obama doesn’t.

NACA urges nonviolent bank terrorism

Posted on by
1

wesley-edens fortress-investment-groupThe Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America is suggesting you take your mortgage company protest to the streets, their streets. Specifically the neghborhood where your predatory lender CEO lives. Let his kids meet your kids. Let them ask their daddy why your children are being put out on the street. NACA has listed online all the pertinent names and addresses to facilitate what they call the “Predators Tour,” a sort of involuntary Parade of Homes.

To fight eviction, NACA cautions victims to remain in their homes, and solicit legal help. But when it comes to changing mortgage lending policy, NACA promotes CONFRONTATION and ADVOCACY. They’re calling these posh neighborhood rallies: nonviolent bank terrorism.

NATIONAL CITY MORTGAGE
Peter Raskind, CEO
(216) 222-2000
peter.raskind@nationalcity.com
Net worth: $5 Million
Home value: $1 Million
19212 Shelburne Road, Cleveland, OH 44118

HSBC
Brendan Mcdonagh, CEO
(224) 544-6676
Net worth: $20 Million
Home value: $2.5 Million
1065 Fisher Ln, Winnetka, IL 60093

CERBERUS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT (GMAC)
Stephen Feinberg, CEO
(212) 891-2100
Net worth: $1 Billion
City Address: $19.75 Million
36 East 67th Street, New York, NY 10065
Weekend address: $1.1 Million
35 Craig Court, Stamford, CT 06903

GREENWICH FINANCIAL SERVICES
William Frey, CEO
(203) 862-3600
Bill@greenwichfin.com
Home value: $2.2 Million
10 Glenville Road, Greenwich, CT 06831

GOLDMAN SACHS
Lloyd Blankfein, CEO
(212) 902-1000
Lloyd.Blankfein@gs.com
Net worth: $350 Million
Vacation Home: $6.05 Million
121 Parsonage Lane, Sagaponack, NY 11962
City address: $26 Million
15 Central Park West 1617A, New York, NY 10023

MORGAN STANLEY
John Mack, CEO
(212) 761-4000
Net worth: $400 Million
Home value: $2.75 Million
6 Club Road, Rye, NY 10580
Vacation address 1: $7.8 Million
53 S. Beach Road, Wilmington, NC 28411
Vacation Address 2: $4.34 Million
54 S. Beach Road, Wilmington, NC 28411

BARCLAYS
Robert Diamond, CEO
(212) 412-4000
Net worth: $200 Million
Vacation address: $6.5 Million
3 Lincoln Way, Nantucket, MA 02554

CREDIT SUISSE
Robert Shafir, CEO Americas
(212) 325-2000
Net worth: $20 Million
Vacation home: $3.25 Million
354 Bluff Road, Amagansett, NY 11930

FORTRESS INVESTMENT GROUP, LLC,
Wesley Edens, CEO
(212) 798-6100,
Net Worth: $1.6 Billion
Country address: $1.88 Million
8 Oyster Pond Road, Edgartown, MA 02539
City Address: $7.23 Million
271 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024

Israel, Judah, Moab, Edom, Samaria, Palestine…

Posted on by
14

And why it all counts.

Since the whole Israel Right-Of-Return is a huge part of any Any ANY issue involving the modern state of Israel.

It’s not just Religious Talk, so if you’re offended by Biblical references then toughie-poo.
The Bible just happens to be one of the premier sources for Israeli history.

AND.. Arab History

AND Palestinian history.

This is really oversimplifying things, but to most Americans Judah and Israel are equivalent and Palestinian and Arab are interchangeable terms.

To those no-doubt Highly Paid Lobbyists For the Israeli “DEFENSE” Force who insist on calling us liars or ignorant or hate-mongers or whatever, this will be Kindergarten stuff, …

ASSUMING OF COURSE THAT THEY ACTUALLY ARE JEWISH and/or BIBLICAL SCHOLARS or SERIOUSLY AS EXPERT ON THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE REGION THEY CLAIM THEMSELVES TO BE (and of course, as they claim we cannot possibly be…)

After the reign of Solomon, just to start, in the middle where a beginning properly belongs, Just Ask Steven Spielberg…

After the Reign of Solomon Israel and Judah were two separate Kingdoms.

Israel, and Judah.

Remember that because it is important and there will be a quiz later, which will count for 57.3% of your total grade.

After the kingdom of Israel got their collective head knuckled by Assyria (Remember Jonah?) but not Judah, and then a short while (historically speaking) later Nebuchadnezzar conquered BOTH and carried away into captivity… NOT EVEN MOST of Israel or Judah, Because They Left The Poor People Behind… (Remember Jeremiah? Of course you do…)

At this point the remnants of the Philistines aka Phoenicia aka Lebanon… a Greek culture…
And the remnants of Moab, descendants of one of the sons/slash/Grandsons of Lot (by his two daughters,)

( you know, Moses wasn’t very Kind or Gentle when he described the doings of his relatives, but he cut Lot a “lot” of slack, claiming he was too drunk to recognize his own daughters)

And the remnants of Edom, descended from Esau, the brother of Jacob aka Israel…

and various tribes of actual Arabs, descendants of Abraham’s first son Ishmael

And even the descendants of the recently (relatively) Dismantled Hittite and Assyrian Empires…

And throw in Ethiopians, Egyptians and Nubians who were stranded in the back and forth conquests over several centuries.

THESE were the people who lived in Israel and Judah at the time.

When people babble much about the Lost Tribes of Israel they’re refering to the Kingdom of Israel which consisted of the vast majority of the tribes of Israel save for Judah and Levi.

And They’re Not “lost” in the sense that they up and disappeared either, it’s “lost” like in the RELIGIOUS context.

More on that…

Remember how I said that Moses was NOT overly kind to the memory of his ancestors and relatives?

Of course you do.

Some of the highest ranking members of the Knesset and Mossad were quoted/slash/interviewed by a Religious Scholar from Colorado Springs and it gets routinely broadcast on TBS.

Who popped off with the Really Racist viewpoint, seconded and aided by the Israelis, that since many (but not all) of the Palestinians are descended from Esau, aka Edom, and their country called Idumea by the Romans, and they considered Esau to be a vagabond and lazy, shiftless and ignorant….

They consider ALL Palestinians to be Lazy Shiftless and Ignorant Vagabonds.

The term “morally dissolute” was thrown in as well, and the notion that ALL the descendants were morally dissolute Because Of Their Ancestry.

Not Racist? I can easily see that it IS… Extremely Racist.

Moses said that Jacob, ISRAEL, cheated Esau out of his birthright, his possessions and even the blessings of their father Isaac.

Stole, and Lied to do it.

That’s two of G_d’s Top Ten on His personal Hit Parade.

When Joseph, 11th son of Israel and first son of his favorite wife Rachel, was sold into slavery by his 10 elder brothers, according to Moses and generally recognized by both Muslim and Jew (the religious groupings) as being accurate, JUDAH wanted to have Joseph killed.

Here Moses plea bargains for his own ancestor Levi, (he wasn’t Ethnically a Jew, although he was Israelite, and Hebrew, but… the Edomites are ALSO Hebrew…

According to Moses, Levi prevented his brothers and especially JUDAH from Killing Their Brother, and was allegedly somehow not aware that a Passing Band of Arabs (Ishmaelites) was so close to their camp, as in “right in the middle of their encampment” that they managed to buy Joseph without Levi knowing about it until much later.

Moses was a Prophet but he was first a Man, and people don’t go out of their way to disrespect Grampa.

Judah also married his own daughter-in-law, OK so she was actually the widow of two of her sons, but here Moses tries not to be nasty about his kinfolk… Judah thought she was a prostitute, “went in unto her” and knocked her up, before marrying her… and without of course consulting his wife.

But, hey, it’s the EDOMITES who are “morally dissolute” right?

Racist? Hell yeah that’s racist.

Let’s flash forward again, this time to Right After The Babylonian Captivity.

The King of Persia (Iran) allowed the priesthood and as many of the Judean (Jews) Captives to return to Israel and Judah.

There they found that the poor who were left to tend the lands in Israel and Judah and Edom and Moab and Lebanon had intermarried.

Oh, NO!

Say it ain’t so, Jonah!

Jewish people intermingling with the Goyim? Gasp! Oh the Horrors!

Ezra and Nehemiah, the two Levite Priests who led the Return to the Land… Thanked the Israelite and Moabite and JEWISH peasants for keeping the land as well as could be expected, then condemned them for Not Maintaining Racial Purity.

And kicked them off the Rich Folks’ lands which they had been tending for more than 70 years.

“Thank you for all your time and labor, now Get Off My Property You Smelly Racially Impure Peasants YOU!”

These then are the “Lost Tribes” of Israel.

Where did they go? They didn’t. They’re still there.

In the New Testament they’re called “Samaritans”.

The parable of the “Good Samaritan” must have raised quite a few Elitist Pharisaic Eyebrows because the Pharisees and Sadducees considered anybody not Wealthy and Elite like themselves to be Ignorant Peasant Scum…

Plus they weren’t Racially Pure.

The Romans didn’t carry off ALL of the people in the region as slaves, not even all of the Jews.

Same way the Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites and Alexander the Great didn’t.

Evidence, you say?

I mean, evidence aside from that already accepted by “Israel” and their FAMILY who are also Children of Israel the Palestinians?

Boy, you sure drive a hard bargain, but OK, here’s Evidence.

Olive Groves and Vineyards.

Sure Olive trees and grape vines grow wild in the region, but we’re talking Massive Cultivation of them.

Olive Groves and Vineyards that are older than the Roman Empire.

On land where if they were to survive at all they had to be Irrigated.

Anybody who has ever done Farming (And here I’ll excuse the Intellectual Elites like Don and Grace and Mary and David Haddad, who might all be the Same Person with different names)

I’ll excuse you because I don’t believe you’ve ever put hand to shovel or hoe or axe.

BUT I HAVE.

Maintaining an agricultural enterprise of any sort requires Hard Work.

In modern times there are machines which take up most of the Hard Work but they’ve only existed about a century and a half.

For 20 times as long these Groves and Vineyards have been tended by hand.

Irrigation ditches mean Water… and Dirt… Combined.

You have to clear the weeds out of the irrigation ditches at least 5 times a year just to keep the water running.

And if you’re using shovel, axe and hoe to do it it’s one hell of a lot of hard work.

If you’re doing it in Palestine Israel it’s one Hell of a lot of Hard Work under a Relentless Merciless Blazing Sun.

Olive Trees that were planted 60 years ago wouldn’t be producing yet.

They DO take that long.

You plant an Olive Grove not in the hopes that YOU, yourself, will ever eat the fruit thereof, because you most likely WON’T, but instead for your grandchildren.

A Vineyard will start producing within a decade, but it takes centuries to get one going full blast.

“Israeli” Wine and Olives? And in only 60 years?

Sir No Sir!

Those vineyards and groves were tended, by hand, for centuries and even millenia by those “Lazy Shiftless Morally Dissolute” Arabs, Edomites, Moabites and ISRAELITES who make up the Palestinian Nation.

Right to Return? What about the Right To Remain?

Those ARE Israel and have been for thousands of years.

Acknowledged as such by the scriptures that you as Jews and I as a Christian and the Muslims to be the Truth.

If you want to pop off with the “Right Of Return” and quote Scripture to justify your actions you have to Be Judged By Scripture as well.

That’s the Essence of the Law of Moses.

“Behold, I set a stumbling block in Zion”.

Oh, and speaking of Moses, that bit about “Thou Shalt Not Kill”?

#6 on G-d’s Top Ten List… yeah, THAT one…

You know, G_D meant what He said.

That’s why they’re called the Ten Commandments and not “a bunch of Meaningless Suggestions”.

In order to judge someone to Death you have to be Pure yourself.

That means, (and of course, as David Haddad said in his many personalities, I’m “ignorant” and don’t know a Damned thing)

That means You Must Have NEVER committed any of the sins punished by Death according to the Law of Moses.

Even if you were redeemed of the penalty of your sins, “Redeemed” simply means that the debt was paid, not that it never existed.

Washington DC changing of the guard

Posted on by
2

Barack Obama superheroIt reminds me of the Rose Bowl, or the Super Bowl, or more specifically, WAITING for the Main Event. It seems to me that Obama has lost his first battle against entrenched power. We have to wait, to anticipate in spoon-fed loops of network hoopla, we have to watch dignitaries, supposed rivals, embrace each other, we have to fawn as our ruling elites are paraded on red carpets, in entirely different screen shots than the thronging millions. And Barack Obama has to wait too. The nation’s pressing challenges are going to take years to address, apparently, and I believe it if Obama puts himself at the disposal of the miscreants. I’ve watched a London changing of the guard, lots of pomp, but nothing happens.

Am I anticipating a memorable inauguration speech? If President Obama announces his intent, forthwith, to initiate judicial proceedings in The Hague against as many of the previous administration as are found culpable. I expect Obama to tell them he’ll give them a half minute head start. I want to hear Barack Obama put his head against a tree and count to thirty.

UNDO THE COUP begins at home

Posted on by
Reply

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 was and what he’d been assigned to do, just as Morris knew and knows who Durland is and what he does when Morris recently authorized that complaints re. voting “irregularities” be sent to Durland.

And how tragic it was and is that Morris, supposedly a staunch Democrat and chair of the local party, praises people such as El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink, the same official who ousted me from his office in Oct. of 2006 as I attempted to cast an early vote and refused to take off my small “Grandmothers for Peace” button. Very recently and far more outrageously, Balink attempted to disenfranchise Colorado College students and keep them from voting, attempting to intimidate their parents with a threat of IRS involvement. Disenfranchisement and intimidation. Isn’t there a pattern?

And what role has and does Colorado Springs being a major “fusion center” play in these and all the other totally undemocratic and unconscionable incidents we’ve experienced here in Colorado Springs – for example, the tear gassing of peaceful demonstrators as they gathered prior to our entry into the Iraq war? Similar tear gassing occurred at that time only in one other city on earth – Athens, Greece. Then there was the brutalizing of the peace demonstrators during the 2007 St. Patrick’s Day Parade – their offense was wearing a uniform of sorts, green shirts with peace signs. They peacefully marched and rode under permit in the parade, and suddenly were brutalized beyond belief. Guess what? No national press coverage, even though one of the top stories of the year happened that day – the dragging in the street by a cop of Elizabeth Fineron, a physically disabled former nun, until she was raw and bleeding on her thigh and stomach, an act of torture still available for view on the internet and in photos which appeared in the Independent. Talk about terror!

Cursed until the day of her death with post traumatic stress disorder following her being so brutalized, Elizabeth died a year and a month later, the victim of a fully “infused” Colorado Springs Police Department. Next came the arrest, handcuffing and removal of two peace demonstrators at the 2008 Democratic State Convention, along with the destruction by police of the support poles for the banner. Their true offense was standing outside police lines, holding up a banner that asked: “Dems, please stop funding the war in Iraq.” Waiting to enter the arena to take part in the convention, elected delegates and alternates cheered the demonstrators, as simultaneously, unidentified persons, standing on a nearby hotel roof with a hyperbolic dish, surveilled and recorded the entire arrest incident. The official offense the police initially charged the peace demonstrators with was “obstruction,” but that charge was almost immediately abandoned and replaced with the charge of “trespass.” Guess who would be the party to bring and pursue such a complaint of trespass? You guessed it – the leaseholder of the convention site, the Colorado state Democratic party!

And then came the request by the head of the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission, at that time but no longer located behind the Independent in a building which the Indy owns, for police to appear and question and possible place under arrest four individuals, myself included, who sat in folding chairs in a streetside parkway outside the J&P office for an hour one spring evening and discussed the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Denver. We considered what “infusion” style police tactics might be (and unfortunately were) used on peace demonstrators. Once again, it’s difficult to miss the pattern of disenfranchisement and intimidation.

Rather than standing watch on the constitution and democracy and asking the hard but vital questions that are the basis of all good critical thinking, the U.S. has allowed itself to be spun by the greed and power mongers and their corporate controlled mass media into a state of “La La Land.” Not only was Elizabeth Fineron a victim of a fully “infused” Colorado Springs Police Department, but the peaceful older disabled woman, an Obama supporter, a teacher who dedicated herself to peace and justice for all, was a victim also of a naive, consumption preoccupied, unquestioning and not sufficiently concerned U.S. populace.

It’s increasingly apparent that what all this spells: COUP! Certainly we all, under the leadership of our man Obama, need to address the Neocon-insurged “IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID” peril we find ourselves in. But until we place as our number one priority the return of true vs. token democracy, and do what it takes to “UNDO THE COUP,” we’ll continue to be at the mercy of the military/industrial/corporate power and greed mongers who, like Bob’s old school friends, think we Americans are stupid, should not be able to vote, and believe democracy is a quaint, antiquated, naive institution. Our democracy, which has been tortured, waterboarded, and all but done away with over the years, will be beyond resuscitation if we don’t clearly concentrate on the root of the problems underlying the economic and total undemocratic mess we’re in today.

Let’s keep the faith, and Obama-style hope. Let’s honor of all our U.S. brothers and sisters who, along with Elizabeth Fineron, have donned a uniform and fought and died for their country – for democracy and the constitution, for lasting peace and fundamental justice. Let’s rejoice in the not so minor miracle that’s happened – the election of Barak Obama. Let’s celebrate his inauguration. Let’s push hard and fight peacefully but firmly for the change we so desperately need. And let’s never stop reminding our soon to be President Obama that we’re counting on him to bring about the change he’s promised – the change we so need and long for.

President Obama, congratulations, and never forget – we want to help you and your appointees to UNDO THE COUP!

Rita Ague

Is Roland Burris a GOP Senate ringer?

Posted on by
1

Roland BurrisIs there more to senator-aspirant Roland Burris being turned away in DC, than political theater? Illinois governor Blagojevich was caught asking for payola to decide the appointment. Did he get the money? Without asking, the DC Dems are acting like the unassuming Mr. Burris is the pay-to-play golden ticket holder. I suspect the undistinguishing features which allay our suspicions about the septuagenarian may be the very traits which interest his sponsors.

In boxing, it’s called a ringer.

While some Democrats are content to ask the would-be junior senator if he’d consent to be a modest placeholder until the 2010 election, I think that’s exactly what he’s intended to be, but not for the Dems. Burris is a placeholder for the GOP. The uncharismatic Burris, regular-loser of elections, is meant to remove any incumbent advantage the Democrats would hope to cultivate in the next two years. Burris would waste that opportunity, then face a Republican challenger in the next election and lose.

Who did you think was offering big bucks for the senate seat? Was someone going to pay multi-millions to put Jesse Jackson in Washington? If the Dems had dibs on the party affiliation of Barack Obama’s old office anyway, why was Blagojevich expecting that an ally would pay millions to install one particular Democrat over another?

Who would have been offering the millions, except bidders dismayed at Blagojevich’s nonpartisan disloyalty. Maybe the Democratic Party’s insufficient coffers, and the projected Republican gained foothold, is what drew colleagues to unleash investigators to nail the turncoat sumbitch politician.

Though no one’s asking such questions, Burris cuts short the proforma inquiries, about his links to the governor’s alleged graft, with mock surprise that his personal record might invite suspicion. Except, what is Burris’s public record but a trail of failed elections? He has no accomplishments other than the elections in which he played straw man or spoiler and he lost every one. Perhaps he has always been an innocent pawn. It would seem pretty damn racist to suggest the diminutive black man has never been accomplice to the scheme, even now.

No one dares be seen critical of Burris, who would be the only African American in the Senate. And the media is not about to spoil the GOP fix. Burris is in, and apparently it’s all legal. And inevitable. The best legal opinions the media want to parade before us explain that because the governor is still in office, his appointment of Burris is legitimate. Even though the crime is the very act which installed Burris.

Does that make sense to you? A bank robber gets to keep the bank’s money until he’s faced a jury of his peers? A court order could secure the monies for the bank, lest the accused gamble it all in Vegas, or score big, and return with a better legal team.

An injunction could prevent Blagojevich and partners from enjoying the fruits of their crime, until the mess is untangled. But the corporate media and the GOP have put the Democrats in the difficult position of turning Burris away.

The American dyslexia for economics

Posted on by
3

The interest rate for banks is down to zero. B of A and Citibank are still charging 39%. What again does economic news have to do with me?
 
The biggest news on the economy was BREAKING NEWS a week ago: the US economy is in a recession, and has been for over a year. Can news a year old still be news? What news exactly are we getting from the experts, economists and other mesmerists paraded on the television every evening?

We consult them on a minute by minute basis, actually, on 24/7 cable news stations, for every hint of a whiff of where the weather vane might indicate the US economy is blowing. If the stock market doesn’t hang on their every diagnosis, it reacts to what unelected, self-made officials say. Now we’re led to understand all that spinning can flip-flop for a year-old contradictory study.

And who’s going to let America know when we’ve hit a full-on depression? Will we be told it before the decade is enshrined post-facto in a Time-Life retrospective? Are those in charge so cynical that they count on the public knowing the truth in spite of their lies, because it’s we who endure the effects in real time anyway? The media can lie about unemployment figures too –what could it possibly matter to the unemployed?

It’s not only ADD. Americans understand why too-sobering statistics are kept from us, lest a post-mortem induce pre. We are the great engine of consumerism, running on pure flattery. I think it’s the same self-defeating fatalism which fuels the life insurance scam. We bet against ourselves. We buy self-help books. We are eternally sick.

But does the economy really work so? Would an autopsy be self-fulfilling? Can an economy go sour due to one bad-apple-attitude, or would it be because of the lost jobs?

I’m guessing this is where the University of Chicago meets Euripides, or if it prefers, palmistry. There’s a global comeuppance in your future, you small fraction of Earth’s population who have expended the lion’s share of its resources. That’s what will introduce the American quality of life to harsh earthbound reality.

Keeping American consumers in debt is less a magician’s act of driving the economy, than it is a swindler’s function of distracting the poor dupe until he’s lost his shirt.

But this swindler is not planning to catch the next bus out of town.

This banking scam isn’t over until the shirtless victim is thrown out the saloon door and into the street, where’s he’s got no redress but to face line after line of well armed riot police.

Unsustainably powered lights on parade

Posted on by
Reply

Parade of Lights 2008
COLORADO SPRINGS- There used to be a float in the PARADE OF LIGHTS which set an example for energy conservation. The lights were generator-driven and the admittedly un-flashy vehicle moved along entirely under pedal power. Did it look out of place between the commercial affairs shellacked in Christmas light?