Tag Archives: The Gazette

Robin Long gets Leavenworth, with help

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ppjpc supporting Robin LongCOLORADO SPRINGS- Extradited desertion/political refugee Robin Long, spent several weeks jailed in Fort Carson after being refused political asylum in Canada. An army court let Long plead guilty to the charge of desertion based on a plea bargain agreement. The local PPJPC held vigils to publicize Long’s plight, and it turns out, did a little bit more.

In a just published letter to the Independent, indefatigably blow hardy local attorney Bill Durland was revealed to have been co-counsel. Durland assisted with arranging the guilty plea and as a result, Robin Long was sentenced to one and a quarter years in Leavenworth. Thanks a lot I’m sure.

Was Robin Long a war resister? Who would think he’d want to quit resisting being told by the Army what to do? Long fled to Canada because he wanted to be NOT GUILTY of war crimes. These have been his own arguments: Every soldier has a right to refuse illegal orders. The war in Iraq has been determined by international bodies to be an illegal war. Why is Robin Long pleading guilty?

Already reported was that Long’s first character witness was also someone from the PPJPC, whom Long had only just recently met, through three visitations. It was the mysteriously socially inept Pete Haney, the new-hire Dynamic Peace Director who’s presided over that organization’s declining participation. The Gazette reported Haney’s helpful testimony on behalf of Robin Long:

“I’ve observed Mr. Long in situations that would be trying to just about anyone,” Haney said. “He seemed to me to be extremely poised and lucid.”

In Colorado Springs it’s not enough that you find yourself up a creek without a paddle, you’ll find “friends” who’ll make sure to put holes in your canoe.

The Gazette stalethinkers

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GazetteCOLORADO SPRINGS- The comical Gazette editorial staff today ranted against the Colorado Springs area’s atheist community in a headliner opinion piece, where the stalethinkers of The Gazette pedantically explained in their Bible Talk editorial opinion column ‘why rude guests are not welcome’.

The highlight of this comic strip was the stalethinker writer claiming that the atheists were ‘rude’ just from calling themselves ‘freethinkers’. That hurts their Christian feelings…booh-hoo-hoo… bring out the red, white, and blue hankies now. They claimed that ‘a few atheists have their panties in a twist again’ unlike the ever so courteous Gazette stalethinkers!

The stalethinkers base all their beliefs, they would have us believe…lol, because they are not free enough in their thinking to not follow the Bible all the time (but not so literally since they love killing so much). They believe in a stalethinking brand of Christianity that says the rich are God’s Chosen Ones, because they can freely and stalely kick the poor around all the time. Not to mention blow them up, shoot them down, and waterboard them at will.

I love these stalethinker farts from The Gazette! They called me up recently (3 weeks ago) and said that my subscription had expired several months ago, whereupon I replied let it be so! I’m still getting the staleness though? What should I do, tell them that I shall sue them unless they pay me for delivery to my house of their rag? I feel like I am ecologically personally destroying the planet by allowing this stalemate to continue. Adverts for Kohls, Safeway, Kroger, and Albertsons be damned! I don’t got religion like the stalethinkers at The Gazette do!

Corporate Dictatorship over the US gives Big Business a free ride

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Corporate vandalsThe US government has released a study done by the government itself, that declares that over 2/3 of both American and foreign corporations pay no taxes here. This is truly a robbing hood society where the working poor are forced to fund the government paid welfare that most corporations in the US feed off, and the corporate dictatorship running America gives its corporate patrons a free ride PLUS with taxes on top of getting its own welfare rip off payments from The State it controls. Most Companies In US Avoid Federal Income Taxes

Of course, you will not hear any complaints about this on the ‘news’ programs and Right Wing blabber mouth programs, as all you will hear is assholes ranting against the poor and racial minorities in poorly disguised manner. Plus, you will hear constant promotion of the incessant government military and Police State apparatuses. More welfare for the rich pigs, all the time, always is the blast of crap that is so constant these days. Just today our local Pig Paper, The Gazette, was complaining once again that so many folk want to fix the mess that is the corporate Health Lack-of-Medical Care Welfare gang the Insurance companies currently run against the American people.

Everywhere one looks, it is the corporations riding rough shod over human rights, democracy, and Social Justice. Everywhere it is the corporations destroying the ecology of Planet Earth. They pay little tax to the Corporate Dictatorship government to carry out their agenda against the American people. Instead they force their own victims to pay for this atrocity.

We need to get it together, People, and stop voting for these con artists that the corporate world gives us to ‘choose’ from. You know who they are… they are the Republican and Democratic Party politicians that foul up our national political life so thoroughly at present. It’s time to finally get fed up with these gangsters and ride them out of power for good!

Crossing the line at Peterson AFB

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North gate of Peterson AFB
COLORADO SPRINGS- The annual Sisters Witness Against War took an interesting step forward Friday when three sisters decided to step across the line. Ostensibly to deliver a letter which had gone thus far unanswered by the Peterson AFB commander. Event founder Barbara Huber decided she would commit herself to this act of Civil Disobedience and was joined by two others. A press release declared this intention, the Gazette was on hand to record it, and a local patrol car stood by as well.

Barbara explained her plan to the reporter. That she’d sent the letter several times but had not received a response. The only recourse she felt she had was to deliver the letter in person, to know it had reached him. Barbara also admitted knowing that the base commander was away, and so the best she could hope for was to deliver the letter into the hands of his secretary. PAFB confers with Gazette Plain-clothed security had been circulating through our demonstration, asking for specifics about our intentions. When I saw them conferring with the Gazette team, I immediately worried for Barbara’s plan. If the Air Force officers learned that Barbara need only be introduced to their commander’s secretary, that person could be waiting to meet us at the gate and the whole hoopla could be averted.

Fortunately, the Peterson machos seemed all too eager to create a confrontation. As the demonstrators neared the gate, a soldier with the gait of a Carabinieri grabbed a megaphone and cautioned us away. But the sisters continued. Several soldiers donned riot helmets.
Riot gear

Fed intervenesThe man in pink wore a badge on his folder. He couldn’t persuade Barbara to turn back.

Barbara deliberates

(More pictures at csaction.org)

EPILOGUE: PETERSON AFB HAS A RIOT SQUAD

Protesters in custody
COLORADO SPRINGS- There is a postscript to the Sisters Witness Against War arrests at Peterson AFB last Friday. Where we left off, three women stepped across the line to protest our nation’s ongoing militancy, and the base commander’s refusal to hear the consciences of pacifists. Barbara, Mary Ann and Esther were led away to be processed, handed to the police, then released. Esther told me the sight that awaited her as she was taken out of our view.

Taking this step, this year, by the way, was in honor of Elizabeth. As the three women were being escorted around the security/reception building, out of view from the protest, they encountered a line of soldiers, dressed in riot gear, being put through various drills. Asking about the apparent extremity of such measures, the women were told that this happens every time there are protests on the other side of the gate. The preparations are standard procedure.

If you can imagine what it’s like from our side, fifty or more quiet nuns usually, once or twice a year, holding home-sewn banners or small signs, facing a security booth being manned by a dozen soldiers, some with binoculars, some in plain clothes. It’s quiet and uneventful. You’d never guess there are people in riot gear being put through their paces behind the scenes.

I laugh because it’s always a nearly-spoken hope that one day we will walk toward the gate, and all of us supplicate ourselves in a compassionate plea to end the war-making. While probably every participant certainly has the courage to be arrested, decorum and a sense of pragmatism hold us back. We await a better opportunity, an impassioned leader to follow, probably. And so through the years, the sisters have only ever mounted a limited nonviolent assault on that yellow line.

This year as the arrests were wrapping up, a soldier noticed that someone’s feet had unknowingly strayed over the line. He pointed sternly and the wouldn’t-be offender hopped giddily back like a new gambler who hadn’t intended a bet.

Even this time, we murmured to ourselves, if only all of us would simply cross that line, they wouldn’t know what to do with us.

Well, as Esther’s report clarifies, they would know what to do with us. And they ready themselves every year to do it. Which has me thinking that they have a higher respect for our potential than we do ourselves. They know what’s at stake, even as we yet do not.

I struggle questioning whether we can reach across to the military mindset with our pacifist ideology. Especially as their militarism extends to dealing peace-petitioners physical blows. Will there be human consciences to reach, or just gung-ho soldier appetites to satisfy? That question holds me back.

Beijing extracurricular Olympic schedule

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I have a last-minute, refocused interest in a safe and not-too-disrupted Beijing Olympics. It’s already been unofficially eventful. Here’s a time line of the counter-Olympics leading-up to the Opening Ceremonies. The Gazette is in Beijing. So are we!

OC -5: Marie arrives in Beijing!

OC -4: Sixteen Chinese policemen killed in Kashgar by Uighur separatists. Two Japanese journalists beaten by police for covering story.

OC -3: Earthquake hits Sichuan Province hours after Olympic torch passes.

OC -2: Four US-UK protesters unfurl TIBET banner as torch arrives at Beijing Bird’s Nest Stadium. / Four US cyclists cause furor by stepping off the plane wearing US-issued breathing masks. / Visa revoked for TEAM DARFUR Olympian alumni. Yay!
Tibet protester arrested in Tiananmen Square
OC -0: FREE TIBET demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. American Tourists stabbed. Assailant jumps to death. Official account. Chinese witnesses not at liberty to tell what they actually saw.

OC +1: Tibet activists ejected from Honk Kong equestrian arena. Protester sets himself on fire in Ankara.

Speaking of toilets

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if it’s yellow if it’s brownWhen I visited Southern California in the mid-eighties, I was bedazzled by my boyfriend’s beachside neighborhood. Tiny stucco houses. Flowering vines crawling weatherworn trellises. Impossibly narrow streets. Sandy restaurants serving fish tacos. Cramped outdoor patios overlooking the ocean — the vast inconceivable Pacific ocean. An exciting vista for a Colorado girl.

As with all lovers’ trysts, the visceral has faded to ephemera, and I am left with only a sense of place and time. However, one tangible relic remains from my visit, and it was recently brought to mind afresh. If it’s yellow let it mellow; if it’s brown flush it down. In case you’ve not heard this California incantation, it is a reference to pee and poo, number 1 and number 2, realities that, to my mind, are best left behind stall doors. In any case, they should not be fodder for a state mantra. Drought be damned!

After many years of recklessly rejecting the admonition, I am prepared to pass California wisdom on to my Colorado offspring. Why? The Gazette reported this week that 1/3 of a typical household’s water usage goes to flushing the toilet. 1/3! I have six Kool-aid swilling children so the flushing in our house, reinforced rigidly by prissy mother me, is nonstop.

No more. New rule. If it’s yellow let it mellow; if it’s brown flush it down. I have yet to divine an apt consequence for willful disobedience.

Tattoos and Ayn Rand Thought

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gazette.jpg ———– The Gazette editorialist got out his little Ayn Rand ‘Atlas Shrugged’ book last Monday, waved it in the air, and pronounced it a good thing that El Paso County (Big Bad Government!) was no longer going to inspect tattoo parlors in the area. This is the same nut case at the paper that is all ‘for the troops’. Well, who does he think goes to many of these tattoo parlors? Well, it is the troops, Sir.

The Gazette is run my a bunch of sad sack ideologues who are always against Big Government, except when Big, Big, BIG GOVERNMENT is destroying somebody else’s country and making Big, Big, BIG BUSINESS a killing in tax payer paid government contracts. But when it comes to protecting the troops from getting AIDS or Hepatitis at the tattoo parlor, well The Gazette is against the County checking out the sanitation there! Sick. See below…
———————————-

July 14, 2008 – 9:57PM The Gazette
SELF-POLICING TATTOO JOINTS
Don’t involve county in body art

You walk into Bob’s Tattoos seeking service. You want a bone through your nose and the Virgin Mary etched into your arm. Something’s not right. You’re struck by the stench of kitty litter and other strange smells. You’re introduced to 300-pound Bob, the parlor’s founding partner and managing artist. Bob wears a grubby muscle shirt and Dolfin shorts to show off his own tattoos. They don’t look so good, but that’s OK because Bob explains he got them in prison, and not at Bob’s Tattoos. What do you do?

A. Look for a certificate from the county that says Bob’s OK to pierce your nose and jam ink into your skin.

B. Leave, and do some research. Speak with multiple peers with good body art, and ask them which parlors do it best. Find a reputable shop, check it through the Better Business Bureau, and then personally assess the risks.

Unless you’re ultra brave, the correct answer is “B.” After all, even Bob’s Tattoos could look good on the day of a county inspection. And even a once-good tattoo business can go downhill after getting a stamp of approval from the county.

The right tattoo on the right part of the right person can be a fine thing. But good, safe results aren’t something the county can or should try to ensure. If ever there were an activity in which the buyer must beware, it’s the business of shopping for body art.

The mere fact that so-called painful cuts to El Paso County’s budget involve the elimination of tattoo parlor inspections indicates fiscal excess. The health department has no legitimate reason for spending nearly $30,000 annually to inspect tattoo parlors.

It’s not in question that dirty body art tools can lead to infection and disease. But nobody is required to commission a tattoo, and the majority of citizens never do. It’s a risk anyone can easily avoid by simply choosing against body art. Those who do seek tattoos and such ought to be responsible for assessing the risks themselves. The tattoo-free public shouldn’t be forced to subsidize needless, private, elective bodily expressions.

The county’s Board of Health plans to vote Wednesday on whether to permanently eliminate inspections, and most certainly they should. Tattoo artists are organizing to converge on the meeting, however, urging the county to maintain inspections.

The fact that responsible tattoo parlors favor county inspections isn’t surprising. An approval certificate is like a valuable reward for good, clean practices. The inspection requirement creates a layer of bureaucracy that serves as a hurdle to entry. It dissuades cheap, startup fly-by-night operators from wanting to set up shop and compete. It also eases concerns of customers who might otherwise ask lots of questions or chicken out of getting tattooed.

Tattoo artists, however, don’t need government to give them a useful stamp of approval. Reputations speak for themselves, and stamps of approval are best obtained through private associations of professionals. Free publications that sell advertising, for example, pay private auditing associations to verify circulations. Without the audit, it’s hard to compete. Lawyers join private associations, such as the American Bar Association, that enforce standards on members and offer assurances to customers. Good tattoo artists, if they wish to separate themselves from the riffraff, need to form a credible organization that sells a stamp of approval to those who qualify.

No stamp of approval, however, should weigh in too heavily when it comes to letting someone inject ink beneath your skin. Few transactions require more personal information and diligence than the purchase of a tattoo. Good, safe tattoos aren’t something the county can or should guarantee. Nothing can replace the ages old advice: Buyer beware. Besides, tattoos are free-spirited expressions of individuality. Don’t involve the county in what’s otherwise a solid act of rebellion.

Fort Carson’s boot on your 4th of July

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Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph July 4, 2008I just love the Gazette’s headline on their July 4th front page: POST IS KEEPING TABS ON ITS ‘BOOTPRINT’. Is it a cute eco play on words, or an ironic malapropism? About collateral damage, Rumsfeld famously said the US doesn’t do body counts. I am reminded of course of George’s Orwell’s foretelling: “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.”

Certainly the PR crew at Fort Carson meant to imply the equivalent of an environmental footprint in Army lingo. But footprint is itself no longer the literal track left behind you as you walk. It has come to mean the space you occupy, or the resources you consume. Or that of your computer or the printer on your desk for example. The portion of surface resources which each item displaces.

There must be a semantic fallacy which applies here, a mixed semaphore perhaps? As if you could tell me “put a sock in it.” And the Army would add “Put a BOOT in it. HA HA.”

If the Fort Carson sustainability spin doctors want to call the Army eco impact a “bootprint” instead, it probably is more accurate. Their activities have devastation-unleashing consequences. And as the interviews in the article reveal, the warrior’s real passion is in the warfare, hybred-whatsits be damned.

On this Independence Day when we’re all wishing ourselves “Happy” Patriotism, let’s reflect on the full context of Orwell’s 1984 passage:

Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.

Community should learn to welcome immigrants

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Imagine my surprise today, to open up The Gazette and see the Metro section of the paper with a column by opinion writer Barry Noreen titled “Community should learn to welcome immigrants.” I have read this paper for two years now and had not yet found any commentary by its opinion writers that I agreed with 100%. And here it was at last!

Noreen spotlighted the efforts of Megumi Nakamura and others in the community to befriend immigrants coming into the US, rather than to persecute them. Reminds me kind of the All- American holiday Thanksgiving even, where American immigrants made an annual meal to thank those that were kind and gave them assistance. For Megumi, everyday should be Thanksgiving American style, rather than persecution American style with ICE, which is the new name La Migra has given to itself.

One thing missing from the commentary though, was any thought that most immigrants are fleeing from countries that our own US government has Big Time helped mess up. Fact is, our own government is all over the world right now, messing up the lives of other peoples. It has been this way for decades now, too. So we should try to stop allowing government officials to do that so that maybe we would have less poor people entering our US Borders looking for a new life, for their families and their kids. And we should learn to welcome those that do enter meantime.

Barry Noreen, thank you for being brave and bucking the Far Right trend over at The Gazette. It was a brave thing to have written the column the way you did. Thanks.

SUV sales crash, oil up, GM on verge of going under

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I just put a bumper sticker on my car that states simply that ‘America needs an oil change’. That’s code for America needs a policy change on energy issues, which won’t be easy, because the US is still run by THE STUPIDS.

Take our press full of dimwit papers like our own local Colorado Springs Gazette. At the Gazette, they are still into denial about Global Warming, climate change,, and declining world energy supplies. They are sill pushing for unrestricted suburban sprawl, unrestricted Pentagon-military-industrial welfare, and maximum consumerism. ‘What crisis?’ is their motto, which is reminiscent of Alfred E. Newman’s line ‘What me worry?’ Reading the Gazette is a little like reading Mad Magazine, except they’re not joking and really believe the madness they push!

Meanwhile, nobody can unload their lead balloons, the SUVs of America. Detroit is going under (I know that we thought it already was under, but..) big time, and all THE STUPIDS can do is plan a war against Iran! What geniuses they are!

America needs an Oily Dick change, but is the new one of Oily Barack going to be much better? America stands by with their thumbs up their butts hoping so, but the future looks grim, since THE STUPIDS are still running the entire show. That would be the business men.

Press gloats over split in Antiwar Movement up in Denver

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The Gazette of Colorado Springs today published a national AP report gloating about how activists planning protests in Denver during the Democratic Party convention have been split into two different organizing groups. The Denver Post, too, has a commentary about this split… Convention protest hit by groups’ split The cops and corporate press could not be happier with this unfortunate development.

The split has several causes, not least of is that Democratic voters amongst Peace-antiwar group’s memberships really don’t want much of a protest at the Democratic Party Convention at all. Here in Colorado Springs we have the same phenomena, where many Democratic Party glued liberals are doing all they can to ignore the Denver protests and will avoid at all lengths going 1- hour North to participate in them.

The local Colorado Springs based Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission is currently playing dead on dealing with this upcoming big Colorado event. Their 3 paid staffers and Board cliquers have other things on their agenda, like perhaps napping for a year or so? Don’t look for them to help build up much (if any?) of a good vibe for going up to Denver to protest there. Heck, the word ‘protest’ is kinda radical, is it not? And these people are as ‘peaceful’ as deep sleep. They only get violent when woken from their sleep, in fact.

Actually there really is little of a new split here. Those who want to protest will, and those that don’t want to protest will try to hinder those that do. What else is new these days in antiwar circles? The Democratic Party people amongst us really should be labeled Inactivists.

Pro-militarism Gazette puff pieces have helped endanger GI lives

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The Colorado Springs Gazette is always promoting military contractors and pushing for more warfare to keep that weapons industry moving, and has done this hiding behind the great pretense that they supposedly only care about American troops. That’s their big lie and many readers fall for it.

But let us look for a moment at KBR, one of those war profiteers that The Gazette has done puff pieces in their paper for previously in the not so distant past. KBR is in the press now once again for their company policy of having deliberately exposed American soldiers to toxic chemicals that are deadly fatal. See The Boston Globes recent article titled Witnesses link chemical to ill US soldiers

So cut back to The Gazette’s puff piece for KBR titled WORKING FAR FROM HOME By the way, KBR is actually the name of Halliburton these days, the company Dick Cheney came from. Notice how The Gazette puffed for these guys in 2001 like they were God’s gift to America. We in Colorado Springs need to expose the lying propaganda of The Gazette, and point out how it helped expose American soldiers to deadly poisons. What a sorry ass newspaper!

MySpace censors Bush AFA protest story

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Radley
MYSPACE.COM- Radley created an adjunct MySpace page on which he recounted his experience protesting President Bush’s recent AFA visit. Now the page is gone, Radley is being denied access, and MySpace will not explain their actions. Here’s what he wrote:

Bush sucks… anyone for Denny’s?

Well, before I begin this blog. I would like to place a disclaimer in front of it.

Disclaimer: I’m not really an extremist. I try to stay out of the political and social disruptions in the world. Mostly so I can form my own opinion and not argue with zealots of any kind.

That being said, I’d like to tell you about my last “peace protest” with Eric Verlo.

At first, I must admit. I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to help Eric on June 7, the day Bush was arriving to Colorado Springs to give some speech for the Air Force Academy. I suppose this was due to his supposed “liberal shenanigan” reputation amongst reviews placed upon him by the Gazette, the Independent, and/or the Independent.

Also, I forgot to mention about his recent arrests by the Colorado Springs Police Department for his “peace protests” at the St.Patty’s Day parade, and the democratic state convention.

Perhaps I was feeling adventurous, or I ‘m too much of a nice guy. I decided to do it. Even though the thought of getting arrested did go through my mind.

As a matter of fact, when I left the house at six in the morning, (very unusual, let me remind you) my stepfather said, “call us if you get arrested.” Nervousness sets in.

When I got there, I really had no idea of what was going on. All I really remembered was I said yes to meeting Eric on June 7 2008.

The plan was to place a sign up for GWB saying “mene mene tekel upharsin”. The quote “mene mene tekel upharsin” was taken from the bible in the book of Daniel saying, “numbered, weighed and divided.”

Here are some pictures of the event.

I’ll be honest. In retrospect, I’m very glad I went. I didn’t get arrested either. The cops were unbelievably nice to us.

I learned two important things from this.

1. It was surprising how vehement and aggressive some people can get about voicing their anti-peace protest opinions. A few people where yelling at us with their usual republican psycho babble. Statements like ,“Give BUSH his day!” or the common place middle finger.

This gave me an idea. This is good. Too good. My current film “The Republican” is a independent film that ridicules the absurdity of republicanism. By the way, Its currently in production and expect a gorilla marketing campaign coming very soon to Colorado Springs.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that from witnessing the reaction of one of Eric’s peace protests makes this an almost perfect place to premire my film. For anyone who knows anything about the film industry knows no there is no bad publicity. As filmmaker John Waters says put as much sex and violence in your first couple of films, so you start getting people’s attention.

2. the second thing I learned was something about my boss Eric Verlo. To be flat out honest, I don’t think I really knew Eric at all until this event. Even though I’ve been working for him for years. He came across to me as just one of your average guys who wants to slove the America’s problems, just like everyone else. Not someone these political pundits take as some extremist liberal. Its interesting how the media labels you into groups, I wonder what mine might be in the future?

So, afterwards we all came to the conclusion that bush sucks. Eric sort of suggested in a non sequitur way “anyone for Dennys?”

Protesters forget thinking cap stamina

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COLORADO SPRINGS- Such an unfortunate characterization of the J&P.
Gazette reported 5/29/2008- WAR PROTESTERS BAIL EARLY
In the Gazette coverage of the Air Force Academy graduation, the paper featured this teaser on the front page: “War protesters bail early.” The article on page 8 began: “Air Force Academy cadets apparently are made of sterner stuff.” We can’t deny “while the cadets and their families sat through the early morning fog and drizzle, war protesters left rather than wait for the late-arriving President Bush,” but Springs activists rarely show anything but tenacity in making their point. Why would they leave early and give the media such a predictable pot shot? Do we chalk it up exclusively to our antagonistic local daily newspaper?

While it might be unfair to compare the brawn of military officers to that of septuagenarian activists, I fear this was a test of brains, and the space cadets came out on top.

The AFA had announced that President Bush was expected at 9am. His motorcade not having turned up by then prompted diverse deductions: he might have sneaked through another entrance, he might have choppered in, or he might have been called away to emergency affairs of state. Activists might also have become discouraged by the diminishing flow of cars into the event. A lack of passersby is the surest way to take the wind out of a protester’s banner. But the number of incoming having petered to nil would have been the giveaway to Bush’s impending arrival.

A presidential motorcade along an interstate has few escape routes, and so cannot begin before all vehicles have been cleared from its course. Escorts block all on-ramps over 30 minutes before to ensure the procession will encounter nothing to threaten its pace. That the AFA gates were advertised as open to attendees until 9:30am puts to lie the suggestion that Bush was expected by nine. The path would not have been unencumbered until the later time. Indeed police did not begin emptying the interstate until after nine. The motorcade sped into the North Gate by 9:45. Bush was not due to speak until eleven.

Did the protesters lose heart and/or heat? I think what the participants forfeited was thinking for themselves. Through the PPJPC, activists let the AFA relegate demonstrations to the minimally visible North Gate, and they let the AFA misinform them about Bush’s ETA. Compound this to the lukewarm organizing effort and contradictory announcements of the action plans. It’s hard to see how the J&P could have done worse if they’d tried. Low turnout, TV interviews of unprepared interviewees, and the rag-tag bunch ultimately offering the Gazette a pithy swipe at their capitulated spirit.

These are otherwise very determined activists. Usually their self-sacrifice does not include their very mission.

Here’s the full text:

AFA graduation notebook
May 28, 2008 – 5:15PM
By BILL REED and LANCE BENZEL
THE GAZETTE

Protesters miss late-arriving Bush

Air Force Academy cadets apparently are made of sterner stuff than anti-war protesters.

While the cadets and their families sat through the early morning fog and drizzle, anti-war protesters left rather than wait for a late-arriving President Bush.

By the time Bush, whose motorcade was behind schedule, passed through the North Gate, a solitary protester – carrying a sign reading, “War is not the answer” and flashing a peace symbol – was all that remained of a band of 20 people who planned to greet the president.

The rest cleared out amid slate-gray skies before the president pulled past the gate at 9:45 p.m., 45 minutes after his scheduled arrival.

South of the academy, five other protesters stood on a hillside overlooking Interstate 25 near the Fillmore exit and unfurled a cryptic message.

Their 50-foot long banner read, “Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin,” an Aramaic phrase meaning, “It has been counted and counted, weighed and divided.”

The biblical figure Daniel interpreted the so-called “writing on the wall” as a judgment against the king Belshazaar, determining that his acts had been weighed and found deficient and that his kingdom would be divided.

“We wanted to speak to him in a language he purports to listen to, which is the Bible,” said Eric Verlo. “It was a great location for the motorcade to see us.”

We will miss you Elizabeth

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Elizabeth poses with fellow arrestees the day after the 2007 St Patricks Day debacleWe will all miss Elizabeth. Despite the press, the city government , and The Gazette all dragging her name through the mud last year, me and my family will miss Elizabeth because she was a loving person who gave a lot of herself for, and to, others. This was the real Elizabeth, and not the fake ‘antiwar dissident’ that the killers amongst us wanted to be portrayed to the public.
 
The sad truth about Elizabeth’s last days amongst us, was that she ran a foul of our pathetic US Medical System, which quite frankly killed her with its negligent and defective ‘care’ as it does millions of other older people. Like Elizabeth, these elderly that this business kills, are our friends, neighbors, and family. It makes one weep that we have to endure such a destruction of life and spirit at this sad and reactionary moment in our country’s history.

Elizabeth knew what the world was about. She, earlier in life, had been a rather conservative though nominally liberal woman cruising through life. But somewhere, she began to question what she was seeing and living, and became a true American ‘dissident’.

She hated the racism she saw around her when she was a teacher and resident in Chicago. She hated the endless and stupid wars that our government pushes with a passion. She grew to despise the American Medical System’s uncaring and thoughtless approach to the sick and aging. She grew to want a fundamental change to the society that she had had to live with all her life, and she began to work with others constantly to see that things might begin to change.

Elizabeth was always welcome in our home, and she always welcomed us to hers. We knew her as one easily to anger, but one who was just as easy to forget and forgive. In fact, she was more likely to forgive others for their differences and bad habits than she was ever likely to bear an unnecessary grudge. That was the Elizabeth we knew and grew to love. We knew a loving and kind Elizabeth. We knew an Elizabeth who cared deeply about others.

Elizabeth and Tony at Peterson AFB

Thank you, Elizabeth, for your gifts to my daughter, who began to think of you as her adopted grandmother. In fact, you were just exactly that. And thank you for making the peace dog welcome always. This dog loved you, too. Yeah, she did. Ruf, ruf.

I remember the time when we went up to Palmer Park and I was poo-pooing your concern for this highly trained (yeah, right!) dog who was leaning out the open window. I was paying your words no attention as I rambled on about some other esoteric and stupid political point. Then lo-and-behold, Ms. Beastley did jump out of the window of our moving car and rolled over entirely once or twice after hitting the ground, then looked up stupidly at us, and then promptly proceeded to run after the squirrel! I will remember that moment between us for a lifetime, Elizabeth. You always saw what others refused to see.

My daughter will remember you for the doll you gave her, the one that has a striking likeness to you. She cherishes that doll that you so kindly gave to her. My daughter cried with the news of your death, and we are so glad that we visited you at least one more last time before you passed away so suddenly. My daughter was ready to try to get you to play a game of Risk with her. She knew you would be a good one to try to keep her from taking over the world.

At that last visit, I tried to cheer you up by saying how good you looked upon just then having escaped from the hospitals that had held you. However, you had this way of looking through others superficial chit-chat and reading the real truth in their minds. I saw it in your eyes then. I saw the despair on your face about what had been done to you by the surgeon, but by the time I realized what had been seen in your face I was already in the car.

Elizabeth advocated for health care for allMy only regret is that I did not return to inside your apartment and give you the big hug that you needed right then, even if it was to be a hug given right in front of your other 2 friends who were with you at the moment. I thought to myself, aw… you need the rest and less people around at this time, more than the hug. I was wrong once again.

Elizabeth, we will miss you. You were a good friend, and you talked the talk, and walked the walk. You were kind and had a heart of gold most of all. They tried to tear you down, but they never did, and that spirit is what we most will remember always about you. That, and the love you gave others. You made an impact on all our lives and without you around, we will find a big void.

If there is a heaven, I have no doubt that you have already spoken to Jesus and have begun to argue politics with him right as I write. Give him Hell, Elizabeth! Somebody needs to hold him and his dad accountable, and you are the one with the spirit to do it, too.

Our love…

Pictures in remembrance of Elizabeth

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Elizabeth FineronA memorial will be held for Wilma Joanne “Elizabeth” Fineron at Benet Hill Chapel, 2pm Monday April 28.
 
Steve Handon will officiate the ceremony. The music will be performed by First Strike Theater alumni. Benet Hill Monastery is at 2577 Chelton Rd. The chapel is located behind the school.
 
The Gazette wrote that Elizabeth walked her talk, the Indy featured a similar tribute. CSAction reprinted an email Elizabeth sent about her hospital ordeal.
 
Below we’ve collected some pictures of Elizabeth.

Early portrait

Already a knowing smile

On the steps with brother and cousin

Long blond hair

Becoming a nun

With friends in Woodland Park

Irish

In the afternoon sun

Birthday

Gathering with friends

Big smile

For a tribute and more pictures, click here.
For an amusing photo sequence, click here.

Elizabeth sent this email about her difficulties at the hospital:

I have had a very rough medical month and a half. I went into Memorial with Pneumonia the second week of March. While there they planned for me to return to have the right Corroded Artery done and in the meantime they sent me to Health South Rehab to work on balance. I stayed there a few days and returned home to wait two days to go back to Memorial for the surgery. I had the surgery and went home. At home I watched the hematoma on my neck get bigger and bigger and me get “dimmer and dimmer”. On Monday I saw Dr. Carlson and the next day (April 1st) I returned to Memorial for him to go in and heal the INFECTION. While in my neck he accidentally cut into the artery. In order to stop the bleeding he had to cut the main nerve to my tongue. A plastic surgeon (Dr. James) came and sewed up the tongue. Then Dr. Carlson put a patch on the Artery. Two days later he went back in to remove the patch and put a vein from the leg. While in something happened to my vocal cord. They kept me in Memorial a few more days and sent me back to Health Care South. I just got home yesterday and will have home medical care for a while. I feel very withdrawn from every thing so Paulette, if you want to call me or come visit me that would be terrific and I can get caught up. Love you both.

Elizabeth.

Gazette advocates for Iraq withdrawal

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LTE- Regarding your editorial IRAQ: NO MORE HOLD AND PRAY, I’m very glad to see your paper finally suggest that “this war should make Americans more skeptical the next time a political leader suggest war.” While your editorial now recommends that US forces get out of Iraq, will the Gazette also advocate for a just withdrawal? In particular that out of care not to abandon the Iraqi people, instead of sticking around to shoot more, we should fund an international force to rebuild their country. America owes a large war reparation to the victims of its illegal war.

If the usual critics now taunt you with accusations you want to “cut and run,” reassure them the US must certainly cut an extraordinarily large check for what it has done. If the American public thinks the war has hurt our economy, wait until we face up to giving restitution to those we’ve harmed. We all understand that what cost 1.2 trillion to destroy, will cost several trillion more to restore. There can be no peace without justice.

By the way, the fiasco in Iraq was predicted by many, before it started. You laud the skepticism now, why not cut the dissident voices a little slack the next time they are trying to prevent wayward and wanton actions?

Is promoting First Affirmative Financial Network promoting ‘economic sustainability’?

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Financial sectionIs promoting the First Affirmative Financial Network actually promoting real ‘economic sustainability’? The reason I ask this, is that tonight the Justice and Peace group here in Colorado Springs is hosting the message of this FAFN group in the PPJPC offices downtown. The host (a paid PPJPC office staff member) is somebody that keeps pushing something he calls ‘sustainability, but has never defined what he means by this.

It seems now, that his idea of economic sustainability is having and/ or pushing a stock investment portfolio in so-called ‘green’ companies. Read The Gazette about this outfit Certified green

Yes, Yes. The Gazette is certainly a great champion of environmental causes, right? This color green keeps coming up with the PPJPC, does it not? So now it arises that the PPJPC is championing ‘green investment’ as the idea of how capitalism can solve earth’s problems. Wow! It’s great to have common cause with The Gazette on this one, for sure. That is sarcasm now.

The point is that there is a big difference between championing the environment and the championing the green washing of a certain sector of the corporate world. That is what the First Affirmative Financial Network is more about than anything else, but is the world going to be saved by pushing for people to make nicer investments? That is a totally doubtful idea, and is a simplistic strategy to help save the environment for future generations.

Is the Justice and Peace Commission to be nothing more than green-washing huggers for the city, the military, and a certain sector of the corporate world? I hope not, but that seems to be the direction that some in the PPJPC want to push the group, while keeping out real discussion about what saving the environment for future generations would actually entail.

Something called the Green City Coalition to coagulate

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I just got a notice that some inert substance is trying to come to life! Something called the Green City Coalition has sprung forward from the Sustainable Living Working Group and that it is all coming to life like Frankenstein’s monster! Here is the stated purpose of the creature…

Draft Mission Statement: ‘The purpose of the Green City Coalition is to promote an ecologically, economically and socially healthy city and county, for the benefit of present and future residents of the Pikes Peak region. We envision healthy, equitable and sustainable communities, both human and natural.’

Wow! Has a committee ever put forward a prettier announcement of its coming to life from inanimate matter? Instead of a brown shirt city we are to visualize whirled green peas! Well, actually not even that, really. Maybe Fort Carson can help out some in the greening of CS? With our help, of course…

MORE INFO—The next meeting of the Green City Coalition Steering Committee will be 6:30-8:30 p.m. on April 9 at the City Hall Academy Room, 107 N. Nevada Ave. For more information, contact Steve at sustain@ppjpc.org or (719) 632-6189.

Yes, if you can mutter the word SUSTAINABILITY, be there, or be square! This is so exciting! It reminds me of Austin, Texas, and oh YES, it is so ever green in that city… NOT.

Does this sort of vacuous nonsense really have much meaning? Or is it just a silly pretense to being some sort of counterpoint to Gazette newspaper editorials claiming that we should not worried about environmental issues at all?

I love the color GREEN! So do the Irish. So do frogs and alligators. So does the CIA. Let’s get a plan to recycle The Gazette and save Mother Earth!

Gazette readers show their stuff

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Hurt feelingsThey’re still going at it at the Gazette, readers invective on the Feb 2 Saint Patrick’s Day parade article have kept it among the top commented stories, although you’d hardly recognize the subject.
 
It’s still plenty hurtful and doesn’t represent the public nor the sentiment of support I get almost daily.

In the golden days of the not long ago World Wide Web, going back to the computer Bulletin Board Services to which you could direct your modem, chat rooms used to be private. Or you could elect to take your chat private, to spare yourself the din of the newcomers, or spare everyone the subtext for which they might have no context. The blog comment format affords no similar filter.

Of course, those were also the days before spam, when computer literacy was buoyed by the fact that only well-intended people knew how to use them, or even had the curiosity to try.

I try to avoid waiting room comment areas because what’s said is so broad, and usually so bombastic as everyone tries to be the center of attention, that it’s easy to feel hurt if you lose sight that these are people in their bathrobes, in their Barca-loungers, covered in cat dander. Not your typical Gazette readers I should hope, but sufficiently uncouth to deter anyone else from even venturing to the keyboard. Hopefully someone in PR can figure out how not to represent our city by a show of our bottom-scratchers.

(If they’re Googling themselves: mercurialrust, davidb, pastor roy, turdman, coloradogirl, duncan, jeep4fun, pornstar, hmmmmm, jwstrue, back2colorado4go, pc12784, just1voice, justhefacts, skiracer, shazam3, erniezippreplat, moonshine, amazed2, rightswatcher, lexiii, 101abn, ruserious, elephant, sportz, welltondiplomat, some1stolemyname, etc)

Moving Pictures, or pathetic Gazette pseudo-journalism?

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Today’s Sunday Gazette highlights its Iraq coverage with a huge headline titled, ‘Moving Pictures’. Below the headline in smaller print is the additional sub-headline, ‘Everyday Iraq Through a Humvee Window’. Our local paper has no shame at all, it seems, as it even brags about being ‘in bed with’ the American government occupation army of Iraq as it rides through the Baghdad suburban streets in super armored vehicles pointing high powered weaponry at the local kids !

What we get is not real reporting but Pravda style propaganda. Comical crap. We can expect no less from this Far Right Wing propaganda rag called The Gazette. Their paper is pure trash. The local community deserves much better.

Speaking for the city speaking for Army

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Gazette announced that PPJPC is invited to march in St Patricks Day parade
The Gazette announced that the PPJPC has been invited to join in this year’s St Patrick’s Day parade. But they’ve framed the peace advocates as “protesters” instead of participants like any other, unlike the pro-war military cheerleaders for example. Why wouldn’t the PPJPC also be considered cheerleaders for peace? Even more telling, the Gazette summarized the parade organizer’s decision to tolerate social issues as “The Springs has lifted a ban…” This suggests that the decision making about the parade has been where we had always expected, in the hands of the city.

The Woolsey’s track record

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James Woolsey and wife, Sue, are big players in the Colorado Springs area. Susan Woolsey makes policies over at Colorado College, where she sits on the Board of Regents and James is a bigwig neocon player nationally, where his position as ex CIA head gives him some big name power and recognition.

So what exactly is the Woolsey track record like? See James Woolsey: Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind for some idea of what the patriarch is really like. Our last encounter with him was where he was trying to spread the idea in the local area that bio-fuels was an ecological dream that our government should be pushing night and day, (he has companies pushing just that, too.) He was given a forum at the campus chapel by his wife over at Colorado College to spout what the Woolsey’s would like to see become a big family money maker…. biofuels… and specifically government promotion of them.

The Woolseys are a local group of aristocracy that operates with the complicity of the local press in keeping their activities and backgrounds well hidden from the general public. You won’t see either The Independent or The Gazette giving out much info about this family, but rather they will print pieces of parallel propaganda in support of their neocon agendas. Example in point was how The Indy only printed a puffy happy piece about Bio Fuels Evolving priorities Ex-CIA head James Woolsey feels conservation helps battle terror as well as climate change when they interviewed James Woolsey for his bio fuels promotion tour.

Is The Independent scared of the guy and intimidated by him? Well, they have reason to feel that way since he is a thug who wields quite a lot of power nationally and locally. It is much easier to play along with the Woolsey family than to cross them.

Similarly, with wife Susan running the show over at Colorado College, it is much easier to play along with the idea that the local privileged college for elites is a bastion of liberalism, though it is not even close to being that. KRCC, the local radio station run by Colorado College, also helps promote that desired liberal image though its programming in actuality is quite conservative, the program ‘Democracy Now’ being the exception that proves the rule. The rest of the programming is quite white bread though.

Yes, we have close encounters of ‘the Fourth Kind’ in Colorado Springs with the Woolsey family. This is another group of bigwig aristocracy that pushes the Christian Right Wing agenda here combined with constantly pushing ‘defense contract’ militarism. They help set some of the political agendas at Colorado College, The city hall, The Independent, and The Gazette in a way that goes quite under noticed and never commented on.

We’ll try to keep an eye on them in the days ahead, since Colorado no longer needs agendas being set by the likes of the Woolseys and Coors families.

The Early Warriors in the Fight for Racial Equality

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Since Martin Luther King Day is coming up shortly, it behooves us to post some material about who really got the Civil Rights Movement moving in the beginning. It wasn’t just tie wearing preachers spouting something vaguely connected to Jesus’s teachings that made this a Movement that had to be dealt with by America’s ruling White elites.

Today, it has gotten even worse. MLK has been turned into a lifeless corporate icon, and today’s supposed civil rights heroes are pretended to be people like Condi Rice, Barack Obama, and General Colin Powell!

Open the most wretched media rags (The Gazette? lol…etc.) and you will see hacks like Thomas Sowell promoted endlessly with photo of his Black face prominently displayed over his columns. And Oprah brings us out to the ‘Far Left’ of these corporate media sponsored ‘rights warriors’! Judge Joe Hill the ‘Center’.

In reality, even the Black Congressional Congress has lost any punch they once had. They have been mainly neutered by the Democratic Party power establishment. So where did the radicals come from that made things happen in the past? Some were Christian inspired radicals, some were Muslim inspired, and many were inspired by ‘The Reds’.

See the published New York Times review of

DEFYING DIXIE
The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950
By Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore

US government thanks Guantanamo prisoners for having themselves tortured- Have a good life!

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It really takes the cake, does it not? The US government broke all international laws, tortured numerous innocent Prisoners of War for 4-5 years, and then releases these innocents without a note to anybody! Not even a ‘Good bye, So sorry’!

What a lawless goon squad we have for a government! See Ten Saudi Guantanamo inmates free

I wouldn’t look to see much of this story soon in the local Right Wing rag. They always pretend to be against big government and then back it all the way. That’s the calling card of The Gazette troop of editorial nitwits.

They love the suppression of individual freedoms and the War to Promote Terrorism. Anything to support big business and ‘defense’ contracting. A little torture here and there on innocent POWs bothers them not the least.