Dave Schultheis of Colorado State Senate District 9- Lost in a Black Hole of Stupidity

Posted on February 26, 2009 by Tony Logan

In this day and age, science has finally located the Black Hole of Human Stupidity and it is centered on Colorado State Senator Dave Schultheis, elected representative of Colorado State Senate District 9. That’s quite a dishonor, but Dave fully deserves the distinction. I mean today, how many public officials have Joseph McCarthy listed as a great American patriotic hero on their website? That’s major league Black Hole of Stupidity if there ever was one and the people of State District 9 elected this twit! Let his love of American fascist Joe McCarthy be expressed in his own words.

Here he answers a man who wrote him opposed to his legislative support for mandatory recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance…

6. Your passing references to McCarthy are noted. I would encourage you to do some reading on Mr. McCarthy. The modern myth about him serves the political agenda of the anti-American crowd, but it does not serve history or the nation very well. McCarthy was a golden boy from Wisconsin, the youngest sitting judge ever appointed in that state, and the youngest man to be elected from that state to the U.S. Senate. He married a Washington beauty queen after moving to the capital. Because of his natural talent and intellectual and moral strength, he was on the fast track to high places. He sacrificed his personal ambitions in order to confront no-kidding Communists who had infiltrated the U.S. at high levels, and his efforts helped lead to the conviction of Alger Hiss and other documented Communist spies. Secret Soviet cables known as the Venona Project which were declassified in 1995 have removed any doubt about this. It may sound far-fetched, given all the modern nonsense you have heard about McCarthy, but his true legacy was not one of forcing patriotism on innocent little children, an association you seem to draw. It was one of courageous, though imperfect, defense of the world’s freest and best political institutions. Again, I commend him to your prudent investigation.

I hope this helps you understand my point of view, and that of others advocating both formal, public patriotism, and inner, personal patriotism. This country is great. This country is good. Loving it deeply enough to advocate public ceremonies which reflect that love is not dangerous, but healthy. Naturally, I would be happy to answer your open letter, should you care to send one, with one of my own.

Best regards to you, and thank you again for taking the time both to write and follow up.

Dave Schultheis

See Rep. Schultheis Responds to Constituent on Pledge of Allegiance
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Want more words of wisdom from this homophobic and immigrant-phobic dingbat, Dave Schultheis? How about his website’s headliner quote against being tolerant? Here it is then…

“Tolerance is a virtue of a man without convictions.” — G. K. Chesterton, who strongly influenced C.S. Lewis

So who is this G.K. Chesterton whose quote Schultheis puts on his website? He became a major Catholic apologist right at the time that the Catholic Church was solidly fascist in its sentiments in countries like Spain and Italy. Here below is part of wikipedia’s description of Chesterton…

Accusations of anti-Semitism
Both Chesterton and Belloc have faced accusations of anti-Semitism during their lifetimes and subsequently.[17] Their criticisms of the “international Jewish banking families” are some of the most important reasons for these accusations. For example, Chesterton, Belloc, and Chesterton’s brother Cecil, were vehement critics of the Isaacs, who were involved in the Marconi scandal in the years before World War I.[18] George Orwell accused Chesterton of being guilty of “endless tirades against Jews, which he thrust into stories and essays upon the flimsiest pretexts.”[19]

In The New Jerusalem, Chesterton made it clear that he believed that there was a “Jewish Problem” in Europe, in the sense that he believed that Jewish culture (not Jewish ethnicity) separated itself from the nationalities of Europe.[20] He suggested the formation of a Jewish homeland as a solution, and was later invited to Palestine by Jewish Zionists who saw him as an ally in their cause. In 1934, after the Nazi Party took power in Germany he wrote that:

In our early days Hilaire Belloc and myself were accused of being uncompromising Anti-Semites. Today, although I still think there is a Jewish problem, I am appalled by the Hitlerite atrocities. They have absolutely no reason or logic behind them. It is quite obviously the expedient of a man who has been driven to seeking a scapegoat, and has found with relief the most famous scapegoat in European history, the Jewish people.[21]

The Wiener Library (London’s archive on anti-semitism and Holocaust history) has defended Chesterton against the charge of anti-Semitism: “he was not an enemy, and when the real testing time came along he showed what side he was on.”[22]

Chesterton condemned the Nuremberg Laws, and he died in 1936, as the Hitlerite antisemitic measures were temporarily decreased due to the Berlin Olympics, long before lethal persecution by the Nazis would start.

G. K. Chesterton From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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More? Here is State Senator Schultheis touting sales of a book that decries homosexuals as being just what? …’The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today’! See Intolerant Dave on Homosexuality

Hey, did you know that? They are the principal threat to religious freedom protected by none other than Dave Schultheis! (and CS daily, The Gazette! They share this nutty view that Christians are under major attack, too). Poor Christians…. Who can save them from the fags?

Yes, Dave Schultheis of Colorado State District 9 is lost in a Black Hole of Stupidity, but that’s North Colorado Springs for you! And Dave Schultheis is one of the few remaining living, openly McCarthyite fossils left in America! Incredible! And how he manages to fuse together MLK with Joseph McCarthy is an amazing feat! Only in Colorado do we have such genius! It’s an amazing place!

Costs rise with America’s ongoing ‘Health Care’ boondoggle

Posted on February 24, 2009 by Tony Logan

acls Costs up almost 10% in 2 years? Poor delivery of care, many uncovered at all, and yet the price is almost 2 1/2 trillion per year now? This is America, Land of White Collar Run-Away Crime. This simply is not the best health care system in the world and far from that. See U.S. health care spending reaches $2.4 trillion in ’08

All this profiteering off human suffering caused not just by disease and old aging, but a human economic system that rewards greed, callousness, and sheer theft! Public health has been dismantled, and the role of poverty in making disease proliferate everywhere totally ignored. And we have a tiered system of delivery where some get superior care, and others get next to none. America is a sick country with a sick system of delivery of Medical Care. And it is not getting any better. We’ve been lying down and playing dead. We’ve been dying… PERIOD… because we have accepted this atrocity without fighting enough against it. In fact, most have gone along with it without giving it even a single thought.

No need to call EMS for this sick system. It is already dead!

From Iraq to Afghanistan to Palestine, Occupation is a Crime!

Posted on February 23, 2009 by Eric Verlo

A.N.S.W.E.R. has 7 Reasons to March on DC. We can borrow them!
– The war in Afghanistan is expanding and widening.
– 350,000 U.S. troops and US-paid contractors still occupy Iraq.
– Israel’s Siege of Gaza remains in place, with backing of Washington.
– Obama’s Justice Department is continuing the policy of renditions.
– Air strikes on Pakistan are killing an increasingly number of civilians.
– The real Pentagon war budget is over $1.3 trillion annually.
– More than 20 million people are now unemployed and under-employed.

7 Reasons You Should March on the Pentagon on March 21, 2009

1
The war in Afghanistan is expanding and widening. President Obama announced last week that another 17,000 troops are on their way to Afghanistan. Only 18 percent of Afghanis support this escalation and only 34 percent of the people of the United States approve of the added troops despite the president’s popularity, according to the Washington Post/ABC poll announced on February 17, 2009. This is a colonial war. The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, was not involved in the decision to add more occupying troops into his country. Rather, he was “informed of the deployments in a telephone call with Obama” on February 17, according to the Washington Post (February 18, 2009).

2
About 350,000 U.S. troops and U.S.-paid private contractors (mercenaries) still occupy Iraq. The Iraqi people want the occupation to end. Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is insisting that only two of the 14 combat brigades in Iraq exit in 2009. The war and occupation of Iraq costs $430 million each day. If the U.S. government were to end the military occupation, any and all future Iraqi governments would return to a position of political independence from the economic and political dictates of the United States. Iraq’s anti-colonial legacy has created a political reality that prohibits the country from becoming like Kuwait or Saudi Arabia–an out-and-out dependency on U.S. imperialism. That is the real reason that the U.S. government fears a complete disengagement from Iraq and an end to its military occupation.

3
Israel’s Siege of Gaza remains in place, with the full backing of Washington. The U.S. government has continued to fund Israel’s war and blockade against the people of Gaza. The Pentagon provided the funding, and technical and logistical support for the establishment of the Israeli war machine, including its massive cluster and white phosphorous bomb arsenal, and the country’s large cache of nuclear bombs.

4
The new Justice Department has announced that it will continue the policy of renditions, meaning the CIA and Pentagon will capture and kidnap individuals anywhere in the world and transfer them to other countries. “The Obama administration appears to have determined that the rendition program was one component of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism that it could not afford to discard.” (LA Times, Feb. 1, 2009)

5
The new administration has stepped up the air strikes that are killing an increasingly large number of Pakistani civilians. Unmanned drone bombing attacks violate Pakistani sovereignty and are creating an ocean of resentment and anger inside of Pakistan. The U.S. government has no right to carry out these drone bombing strikes in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. The people of the United States would not accept the legitimacy of other governments ordering air attacks in the United States. We must openly and loudly reject such tactics by the government that speaks in our name and spends our tax dollars for such aggression.

6
The real Pentagon war budget is over $1.3 trillion annually. This is greater than the combined total of most of the other countries in the world, including all the NATO countries, and Russia and China. Some label this “waste spending” because it spends precious resources to build exotic and high cost weapons, a new generation of nuclear weapons, and space-based war fighting capabilities, while filling the coffers of the big investors (i.e., the biggest banks) in the war corporations. Pentagon contracting is often based on guaranteed “cost-plus” contracts that reward price gouging since corporate profit is based on a fixed percentage above their expenses. Another label for this process is “extreme corruption” and theft from the public treasury.

7
More than 20 million people are now unemployed and under-employed. Nine million families are either in foreclosure or are at risk of foreclosure this year, according to the statistics just released by the government. Forty-seven million people are without health care. College tuition hikes are soaring and millions of students are at risk of being forced out of school. The people want change. They don’t want a simple tweaking of Bush’s criminal foreign policies. They want to put people’s needs before corporate greed. They want an end to wars of aggression that are wreaking havoc, death and destruction abroad, and diverting urgently needed resources in the service of semi-colonialism and Empire.

Denise was Mitch was Mary was Ronald

Posted on February 17, 2009 by Eric Verlo

Etc, etc. Lest comment responses be perceived to address a fresh GIYUS, hasbara, cyber-friend of Israel. “They” parrot the same Internet Megaphone IDF propaganda talking points: Gaza is not occupied, there was no genocide, Israel’s birthright to exist is a moot point, Zionism is neither racism nor Apartheid, anti-Arab Professor Bernard Lewis, the greenhouses gifted by Israel, CAMERA articles, etc.

UPDATE: The original title of this post was:
Denise was Mitch was Mary was Ronald
Now: Alex is Walid is Peter is Allan is Ali is Sean is Denise…

Our Newark NJ gender switching Bob & Carol & Tom & Alice just jumped [back] from IP 96.242 to 71.187. Posters, notice the comment IP when you reply to “Denise” or his next impersonation. Part of the Megaphone strategy is to project a multitude of voices indignant about accusations leveled at Israel.

“Denise Cohen” 71.187.138.56 + 96.242.105.155
“Mitch Horace” 96.242.105.155
“Ronald Goff” 71.187.135.202 + 71.187.139.75 + 96.234.113.207
“Ellie Bloch” 71.187.135.202
“Kevin Greenough” 71.187.135.202
“Andrew Schiffman” 71.187.139.75
“Morton Perelman” 71.187.139.75 + 96.234.104.119
“Tom Ely” 96.234.104.119
“Alicia Kirsch” 96.234.101.120
“Grace Cohen” 96.234.101.120
“Claire Short” 96.234.101.120
“Mary Walters” 71.187.141.32 + 96.234.107.159

UPDATE:
“Ali Duran” 193.200.150.45 + 71.187.138.56
“Sean Dobson” 193.200.150.45 + 71.187.138.56
“Peter Krieger” 193.200.150.26
“Walid Ashwari” 193.200.150.29
“Allan Faver” 193.200.150.167
“Alex Shamir” 193.200.150.167
“Melissa Cook” 71.187.138.56
“David Stengler” 71.187.128.24

In this case, ONE voice UNITED in the guise of too many. It may be only cricket to give “Denise” our ear. Can we hope he/she will develop some intellectual honesty?

Looking forward, here are some of the alerts which GIYUS and partners are circulating for troll support:

2009-02-15
U.S. now sees Iran as pursuing nuclear bomb
Little more than a year after U.S. spy agencies concluded that Iran had halted work on a nuclear weapon, the Obama administration has made it clear that it believes there is no question that Tehran is seeking the bomb.
Act Now!

2009-02-11
Amnesty: Hamas at a deadly campaign against rivals
Amnesty is exposing Hamas’ deadly campaign against its Palestinian critics and rivals. At least two dozen people were killed and many more tortured during and after Israel’s recent Gaza offensive.
Recommend Article

2009-02-04
UN: Hamas seized Gaza food aid and blankets
The U.N. says Hamas police in Gaza have raided a U.N. warehouse and seized thousands of blankets and food parcels meant for needy residents.
Expose this story

2009-02-01
Cyprus Searches Iranian Arms Ship
Cypriot authorities are searching a cargo ship suspected by the United States of carrying Iranian arms to Hamas militants in Gaza. Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias said the ship had violated U.N. resolutions.
Expose this story

2009-01-26
BBC, Sky News won’t broadcast Gaza charity appeal
To protect their objectivity both BBC and Sky News have refused to broadcast an emergency fund raising appeal for people living in the Gaza Strip.
Support their decision

2009-01-21
Iranian Holocaust Denial Book to be Issued in English
Iranian publisher plans to launch English- and Arabic-language versions of a book of caricatures and satirical writings about the Holocaust
Protest this act

2009-01-19
United in the fight against Hamas’ Terror
Six European leaders visited Jerusalem yesterday to extend their support to Israel and pledge their commitment to ending the arms smuggling into Gaza.
Send them a message

Bridges TV breaks in two

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Tony Logan

Bridges TV built few bridges. U.S. Muslim TV network founder charged with beheading wife. Obviously there is a big disconnect between how religious people of all stripes, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhists, and others, represent their religion’s teachings and how the religious people themselves behave. Sad to say, particularly because of the method chosen by this man to kill his wife, that others will soon rush to vent their own religious motivated hatreds against Muslims, and to vent them in a most public manner.

Divest from Israeli Occupation!

Posted on February 15, 2009 by Tony Logan

Hampshire College becomes first college in U.S. to divest from Israeli Occupation! Spread the word that there is a Movement to Boycott Israel economically worldwide. Support is varied and comes from many different people. See Support Palestinian Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel and in Colorado US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

Megaphone troll “mistakes”

Posted on February 15, 2009 by Brother Jonah

One of them suggested that the only mistake was another one=ten of them logged in with many usernames, thus undermining the message.
The Message undermines itself. It starts with the Racist precept that the “Palestinians are not a People”, meaning more simply “They ain’t Humans with human rights or human emotions or human dignity”.

And, gentlemen, that IS the premise on which the entire Gaza Ghetto creation, the entire War Against Civilians in Gaza, is founded.

That’s the position you’ve spent much time defending.

The simple fact is, YOU, being American ChickenHawks, not even Israelis, and I strongly suspect not even JEWISH Americans, Hate.

You hate, therefore you kill.

Even though your only participation in the Racially Motivated Hate Crime going on against the PEOPLE of Gaza right now, is to stand on the sidelines and cheer for the Other Murderers.

That’s called “Aiding and Abetting” in Legal Terms.

It makes you every bit as guilty of Murder as if you actually had the STONES to put the weapon into your own cowardly hands and strike PEOPLE dead.

You wish to repeat the Lies issued to you by Likud and IDF and the Pentagon, and get indignant when you’re called Liars? Too Bad.

I’ll Remind YOU, again and again, that the Lying sources of your “evidence” are the same sources for Mr Bush’s “Weapons of Mass Destruction” lies.

IDF murders civilians, and are “cleared” by an investigation conducted by who, exactly?

Oh, that’s right, the so called “investigation” is done by THEIR FELLOW MURDERING PIGS in the IDF and the U.S. Military

Golly gee, that makes perfect sense… Military Pig asks his fellow murderer “Did you commit any murders?”
His fellow Murderer says “Why, no, I didn’t”

Military Pig “investigating” says “Oh, OK, case closed”.

Then the Trolls act like they’re Offended and that it’s somehow “Hate Speech” that WE don’t just believe the Pigs the same way they do.

America’s tunnel vision about Israel

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Tony Logan

tunnel
“Suppose that the U.S. weapon makers had to use a tunnel to deliver weapons to Israel. The U.S. would have to build a mighty big tunnel to accommodate the weapons that Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Caterpillar have supplied to Israel. The size of such a tunnel would be an eighth wonder of the world, a Grand Canyon of a tunnel, an engineering feat of the ages.

“Think of what would have to come through.

“Imagine Boeing’s shipments to Israel traveling through an enormous underground tunnel, large enough to accommodate the wingspans of planes, sturdy enough to allow passage of trucks laden with missiles. According to UK’s Indymedia Corporate Watch, 2009, Boeing has sent Israel 18 AH-64D Apache Longbow fighter helicopters, 63 Boeing F15 Eagle fighter planes, 102 Boeing F16 Eagle fighter planes, 42 Boeing AH-64 Apache fighter helicopters, F-16 Peace Marble II & III Aircraft, 4 Boeing 777s, and Arrow II interceptors, plus IAI-developed arrow missiles, and Boeing AGM-114 D Longbow Hellfire missiles,

“In September of last year, the U.S. government approved the sale of 1,000 Boeing GBU-9 small diameter bombs to Israel, in a deal valued at up to 77 million.

“Now that Israel has dropped so many of those bombs on Gaza, Boeing shareholders can count on more sales, more profits, if Israel buys new bombs from them from them. Perhaps there are more massacres in store. It would be important to maintain the tunnel carefully.

“Raytheon, one of the largest U.S. arms manufacturers, with annual revenues of around $20 billion, is one of Israel’s main suppliers of weapons. In September last year, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency approved the sale of Raytheon kits to upgrade Israel’s Patriot missile system at a cost of $164 million. Raytheon would also use the tunnel to bring in Bunker Buster bombs as well as Tomahawk and Patriot missiles.

“Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest defense contractor by revenue, with reported sales, in 2008, of $42.7 billion. Lockheed Martin’s products include the Hellfire precision-guided missile system, which has reportedly been used in the recent Gaza attacks. Israel also possesses 350 F-16 jets, some purchased from Lockheed Martin.

“Think of them coming through the largest tunnel in the world.

“Maybe Caterpillar Inc. could help build such a tunnel. Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of construction (and destruction) equipment, with more than $30 billion in assets, holds Israel’s sole contract for the production of the D9 military bulldozer, specifically designed for use in invasions of built-up areas. The U.S. government buys Caterpillar bulldozers and sends them to the Israeli army as part of its annual foreign military assistance package. Such sales are governed by the US Arms Export Control Act, which limits the use of U.S. military aid to “internal security” and “legitimate self defense” and prohibits its use against civilians.

“Israel topples family houses with these bulldozers to make room for settlements. All too often, they topple them on the families inside. American peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death standing between one of these bulldozers and a Palestinian doctor’s house.

“In truth, there’s no actual tunnel bringing U.S. made weapons to Israel. But the transfers of weapons and the U.S. complicity in Israel’s war crimes are completely invisible to many U.S. people.”

Taken from Kathy Kelly’s What Americans Can’t See About Gaza

Barack Obama is trying to keep Donald Rumsfeld from being sued for torture!

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Tony Logan

‘Padilla’ filed a 43-page civil lawsuit in federal court in Charleston against several U.S. officials, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, and former Attorney General John Ashcroft, seeking a declaration that was done to him, including torture, isolation, and denial of the procedural protections in the Bill of Rights, was illegal and unconstitutional.

Padilla has filed a similar case in San Francisco against Yoo, who authored or co-authored some of the infamous torture memos. At a hearing today in Charleston, Barack Obama’s Justice Department will ask a federal magistrate to dismiss Padilla’s case against Rumsfeld and others. Next week, it is expected to do the same in the case against Yoo.’ See Obama’s Defense of Rumsfeld and Yoo by Jacob G. Hornberger.

My Country, Right or Wrong…

Posted on February 1, 2009 by Brother Jonah

The Unfortunately immortal words of the Fortunately mortal Stephen Decatur,

…Don’t even apply to my own country, I’ll literally be DAMNED if they’ll apply to another.

If, as in the recent case wherein Israel tired of merely watching the Gaza Ghetto slowly starving and invaded and started shooting up a whole mess of people, then I for one and quite a lot of others WILL at the very least point out THEY ARE COMMITTING A MASSIVE CRIME.

So we get a bunch of people otherwise known as “TROLLS” riding in on their high horses and Fury in Their Words about “How DARE you criticize a Foreign Country which is actually a subsidized Puppet Vassal State of the U.S. Empire”

The Isolation and subsequent Invasion of Gaza was set in motion because Israel and their Puppet-Masters in Washington made the arrogant demand years ago that Hamas or anybody even remotely related to Hamas would not be allowed to have any say in the governance of the Untermenchen in the Ghetto, but the people of the Ghetto refused to listen to their Israeli Master (RACE) and did what “Free” people are accustomed to doing, which is to make their own national choices without the Israeli Master (RACE) having any say in who should be their representatives or how they should represent them.

How DARE those subhumans actually raise up and say that they are Humans and equal in every respect to their Israeli Masters (RACE)?

Your heroes blew away the daughters and niece of one of the most prominent Palestinian peace advocate there is, because he DARED to get out actual news of what was happening just prior to the Israelis Targeting His House Specifically and MURDERING some of his family.

Then came off with the LIE that there was sniper fire coming from that vaguely general direction.

If there had been rifle fire coming toward the INVADING PIG ARMY then by international law, that apparently non-existent sniper would have been Legitimate Self Defense…

But, apparently, the Israeli “DEFENSE” Force were the only ones who recorded it.

And even then, with all the high-tech aiming devices on their rifles, their cannons, the control systems of their helicopters, guess what another word for those devices is?

DIGITAL CAMERAS…

That’s right, they had to be using DIGITAL CAMERAS when they took aim at the doctors home and family, but somehow they don’t have any actual recorded oh, what’s that word for something that shows you’re not Lying Your Pig Asses Off? Oh, Yeah, EVIDENCE.

Now some of you trolls with your Computer Expertise might have to back off jamming up the servers of any of us Infidel who DARE contradict your LIES.

…or at least long enough for you to use your Computer Skills to Manufacture the “proof”.

Obama is pushing Nuclear Industry ahead in Black Face with Ron Kirk

Posted on January 31, 2009 by Tony Logan

Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, Obama’s nominee for U.S. trade representative, is awaiting Senate confirmation. He is also a nuclear power industry lobbyist for Energy Future Holdings Corporation or formerly TXU , and one of their big ones, too. Oh, and did I mention that he is Black?

Energy Future Holdings Corporation owns Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant just right outside of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, as the local Chamber of Commerce likes to bill itself to the public.

BOOM! Obama is off to an explosive start as President! He is opposed to Iran’s nuclear power industry though… (Oh, and did I mention that Ron Kirk is a Democrat?) Oh, YES! Obama is for change, atomic change, too!

Obama in Afghanistan- $40,000 for the lost lives of 15 people?

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Tony Logan

‘U.S. commanders on Tuesday traveled to a poor Afghan village and distributed $40,000 to relatives of 15 people killed in a U.S. raid, including a known militant commander. The Americans also apologized for any civilians killed in the operation.’ See the Associate Press report US pays $40,000 after 15 Afghans die in raid for their entire report on the ‘collateral damage’.

Question is, is this how Obama thinks he can wins hearts and minds in Afghanistan? If not, then why is he moving more US troops to occupy that country? Why does he continue to use the US military to bomb civilian areas? This is nothing more than a continuation of Bush’s military policy.

Barack Obama resembles Gerald Ford more than he does Lincoln

Posted on January 23, 2009 by Tony Logan

Today’s Denver Post print edition headline reads U.S. closes door on Guantanamo, torture. Of interest is how their internet version of this headline has changed the verb tense from ‘closes’ to ‘closing’. Yes, well it amounts to about the same thing, kind of? Well but is it a closed book, or not? That question has to be asked because Gerald Ford supposedly closed the book on Watergate, which was where a President acted in a criminal manner but was left entirely free from facing any criminal charges! The President will be stopped (after his criminal acts become just too obvious and exposed) but is simply above the law, was how the message was left later to be read by the likes of Dubya Bush and Dick Cheney.

Yes, Barack Obama wants to clean America’s image up and closing Guantanamo’s detention unit down is key to that. But he also wants to sweep the dirt under the rug and get on with it, so to speak. There is no evidence that he plans to prosecute anybody for the crimes they committed by running this Federal torture camp, and this is what makes us look on these seemingly positive moves with a huge amount of scepticism.

Eisenhower, too, eventually stopped the McCarthyite witch hunt from going further forward, but then continued to wage the Korean War that resulted in millions going to their deaths. He kept the Cold War going full tilt, and much of the world worried that the ‘cold’ would become a hot war with nuclear weapons begin launched. In fact, Eisenhower’s military command thought long and hard about nuking China. So looking at the edicts coming out from Barack Obama on his first day about supposedly moving to end the torture regime of the Bush Administration should not be looked at with rose tinged glasses on.

Suspected U.S. missile attacks kill 18 in Pakistan At the same time as Barack is supposedly ending US government torture of POWs, his Administration is continuing the bombing of targets that hit civilians in Pakistan as often as not. Further, the bombing raids are a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty, same as the continued now Barack Occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are, too.

While nobody can expect Barack Obama to reverse all that Bush’s Klan instituted with DP loyal assistance in just one or two days, let alone one or two weeks, there still is really no reason to assume that Barack has any plan to do so… EVER. In this sense, Barack Obama resembles Gerald Ford much more than he resembles Abraham Lincoln. Eventually this will become rather obvious but for now the liberal euphoria continues. They are being led around on their leashes by the corporate media and Barack, but what we are actually seeing so far is Barack Obama pardoning Bush and his gang for crimes committed.

American pacifist Kathy Kelly reports from Gaza

Posted on January 23, 2009 by Tony Logan

“Yet, all the world helps after an earthquake,” said a doctor at the Shifaa hospital in Gaza. “We feel very frustrated,” he continued. “The West, Europe and the U.S., watched this killing go on for 22 days, as though they were watching a movie, watching the killing of women and children without doing anything to stop it. I was expecting to die at any moment. I held my babies and expected to die. There was no safe place in Gaza.”

Another doctor from the hospital…

“They are lying to us about democracy and Western values,” he continued, his voice shaking. “If we were sheep and goats, they would be more willing to help us. You know, the most important thing you can tell people in your country is that U.S. people paid for many of the weapons used to kill people in Gaza,” said Dr. Saeed Abuhassan. “And this, also, is why it’s worse than an earthquake.”

taken from Report From Rafah- Worse Than an Earthquake by Kathy Kelly

Israeli troops to withdraw by tomorrow?

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Brother Jonah

Warsaw Ghetto Well. So does this mean the Knesset were doing Bush one last ass-kissing or does it mean the “Emergency” declared wasn’t actually as much of a big deal as they let on? Were they really “fighting for their life” or was it just politically timed?

according to Huffington Post Israeli troops out of Gaza by the inauguration.

Which is Tomorrow.

So did they actually find the Yellow Cake Uranium, the Anthrax, Smallpox and all that Nerve Gas?

O, THAT’S RIGHT, THIS WAR WASN’T PROPAGATED SPECIFICALLY ON THOSE PARTICULAR LIES… MY BAD…

so, Mr Haddad, you’re the expert, or so you keep telling us, and Your government whichever one it happens to be, signed on to those lies, so… maybe YOU can tell us where all the Iraqi WMDs are… because the most highly trained experts in the British and U.S. Armies haven’t found them.

Or if you want to tell us that the business in Israel is in no way related, we’ll understand.

We won’t believe you, but we WILL understand.

By the way, that image is a mirror image of Warsaw Ghetto.

Mr Haddad and the rest might contend that it’s not like that at all, but they would once again only be mouthing the trash their Masters tell them to say.

Barack Obama headed to becoming America’s most disappointing President

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Tony Logan

accident-ahead OK, excuse time is now over as Barack Obama takes office, so what does the future actually hold for us? The Democrats can now no longer hide behind the Bush Administration and even though most Americans believe that the Republicans and not the Democrats are responsible for the economic crash, they will now expect results from this new president. He can talk, but can he walk the walk?

But here is the sad state of affairs per Global Insight which is the world’s largest economics organization. The American economy is sinking fast. See New York to lead U.S. in job losses for Global Insight’s analysis of the situation.

Hundreds of thousands of people’s jobs will now go under according to this forecast, and yet Barack Obama’s plan for action looks like a total disaster in the making. Soon enough, even Democratic Party voters will get upset at the disaster unfolding as they watch the Democratic Party give trillions to corrupted and bankrupt businesses while all the while cutting social services needed for the common good. They may well see the US government itself declining into bankruptcy?

Add to this, the Barack Obama plan to continue fighting wars all around the globe as the economy tanks and just keeps on tanking. There is no new game plan from the Democrats and eventually more and more people will begin to catch on. Plus, the novelty of having a Black man as president will hold off criticism only just so long, and then resentment of the Democrats will build up just as it did with Bush. Add to this, people may actually begin to see the relationship between the country’s militarism and the country’s bankruptcy in the making? Yes, I think they will. A bad economy opens people’s eyes.

For that reason it is quite sensible to have real cynicism about the fanfare and media show we will see tomorrow night. The same corporate media that did all they could to make us fans of the Republican show of the last 8 years will be screaming at us to embrace ‘The Change’… ‘The Change’ that is no change. They will try to dazzle us and awe us with superfluities of all sorts of stuff, but the new show looks quite still born at this point though it may take a while for most to realize that? Hope will fizzle quite quick as the whole world sinks into economic depression, America leading the pack. Barack Obama will most likely become America’s most disappointing President, though through the fireworks display little of that future will be foreseen by most during his Inauguration Day ceremonies tomorrow

Barack just cannot deliver the goods (nor has the desire to) to actually bring about this change that is, and will be, absolutely necessary. Yes, though Bush is now truly despised by so many, it may well be that Barack becomes not just disappointing but despised as well? When there are no jobs around, people want to know why? And the answer to that WHY will be…. Barack just did not deliver.

I see sadness and despair, hate and anger ahead. I see people growing fed up with empty promises while the rats continue to get fed.

They wanted to ‘Save Darfur’ but are promoting using White Phosphorous on Gaza instead!

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Tony Logan

olive tree It seems that many of those who wanted to ‘Save Darfur’ are now actually out there supporting Israel and its daily bombardment of Gaza’s civilian population with thousands of half-ton explosives, cluster bomblets, and White Phosphorus shells, many if not most, made in the USA! What a puzzle?

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is one of those notables since he’s been a long time Zionist and demander of increased US military aggression against Sudan, but the group of newly gung-ho genocide advocates against the Palestinians also includes Hillel, the largest Jewish student group around the world. They fairly recently made ‘Saving Darfur’ the major focus of their political work. Now they have returned to the ‘Saving the Jewish State’ theme by killing Palestinians which is their #1 cause once again. See their website for the position Hillel Endorses JCPA Support for Israel. Now check out their ‘Save Darfur’ campaign for calling for military intervention by principally the US and Britain into Africa. Never Forget. Save Darfur and never save Iraq, Afghanistan, or Somalia, let alone Gaza?

OK, let’s go on over to another US group advocating vocally to ‘Save Darfur’, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum down in Miami, Florida of all places. What are they up to? Just check on CONSCIENCE at their website to see if they have located any problems in the world today other than Darfur? Oops, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Congo, Gaza are all missing! Gaza civilians not a problem for them…. ??? Neither are Armenians, Native Americans, nor Black African slaves. What holocausts? I guess there was only one with maybe an add on of Darfur? I’m surprised, in fact. Well they are worried about the Chechens, too, it seems. Just to be fair…

There are many others out there who wanted to ‘Save Darfur’. Some of them are the local peace do-nothings at the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission here in Colorado Springs allied with United for Justice and Peace nationally, which has had many a member concerned about ‘Saving Darfur’. So much so that they actually held a rally or two to show their desire for more intervention by the US government. I remember seeing some of them in tears even.

Today I’m not sure where they have disappeared to? White phosphorus and Gaza just not their thing I guess? Neither is Somalia, Congo, Afghanistan, nor really even Iraq! Funny group of people. They never really seem to get it together to demonstrate for anything other than themselves? Always fundraising though. Got some money for their office people? Staff salaries are always important! They may or may not show up at the next rally against war? You never know with these folk?

What about the group Stop Genocide Now? What did you find other than their concern about Darfur? They claim to be the following…

‘Stop Genocide Now (SGN) is a grassroots community dedicated to working to protect populations in grave danger of violence, death and displacement resulting from genocide.’

Only Darfur seems to be where they have found this ‘population’ though. Go figure? ‘Genocide’ seems to be only in Darfur? That’s amazing!

OK, I’ll stop here. I think the reader has gotten the picture by now. ‘Save Darfur’ as a rallying point really is not about saving people that much by promoting peace in the civil wars of Sudan. There is another and rather well kept hidden agenda behind this campaign, and the fact that so many groups have a blind side about this hidden agenda they are supporting is quite telling.

For many of these folk, Darfur is on the back burner and blasting away at Gaza is primary. Don’t worry though, since they’ll all be back urging humanitarian intervention quite soon. Oh wait! Supporting the US-Israeli war on Palestinians is seen by many of these people as being humanitarian interventionism. Ain’t that right, Willy Pete? Where else will they go next?

“Because you have drowned others, you were drowned…” –Rabbi Hillel

Documents show Clinton Administration funded Colombia’s death squad killings

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Tony Logan

US out of Colombia Bill Clinton presided over murdering off hundreds of thousands of Iraqis via economic warfare, the bombing of multiple civilian targets in Yugoslavia including TV stations, water treatment plants, and the Chinese Embassy, and also the financing of Colombia’s death squads where tens of thousands of Colombians were murdered. Barack Obama has given new jobs in government policy making to these same Democratic Party political hacks that made all this bloodshed happen back in the 1990s. See “Body count mentalities” for some of the Colombian story about Democratic Party promotion of war and torture abroad. This was D.C.’s war, too. It was the Democrats’ war.

Antiwar.com reports that ‘since at least 1990, U.S. diplomats were reporting a connection between the Colombian security forces and far-right drug-running paramilitary groups, according to the Washington-based National Security Archive (NSA). In the meantime, the U.S. State Department continued to regularly certify Colombia’s human rights record and to heavily finance its “war on drugs.” The declassified documents were published Jan. 7 by the NSA, a non-governmental research and archival institution located at the George Washington University that collects, archives, and publishes declassified U.S. government documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act.’

That was all back when only Israel and Egypt were getting more U.S. ‘aid’ dollars than Colombia was. With the Gaza slaughter underway as I write, we can today see the results there, too, of all that US money. Barack Obama is not about to change a damn thing! He is not CHANGE.

Secret Documents Show US Aware of Colombian Army Killings in 1990s

Nonviolent vigils will be death of Gazans

Posted on January 11, 2009 by Eric Verlo

GAZA PROTESTS PROLIFERATE! Demonstrators are occupying Israeli consulates, storming embassies, harassing pro-Israeli rallies, and spilling blood on Zionist memorials. Not that anything is working so far. Meanwhile, in non-stories for the press, the usual non-confrontational passivists are lighting candles in memory of the slain. Are they anticipating, in their non-violent wisdom, the eminent extinction of the Palestinians of Gaza? Pacifists seem more comfortable to commemorate the ideological sacrifice of martyrs sooner than advocate for the survival of the endangered.

Others are not content to mourn Zionism’s ultimate triumph. Here’s the best analysis yet I’ve encountered for antiwar strategists.

In Caracas, the protests have the support of the state. Venezuelan president Chavez expelled the Israeli Ambassador and called his nation’s Jews to repudiate Israel’s inhumanity in Gaza:

“Now I hope that the Venezuelan Jewish community speaks out against this barbarism. Do it. Don’t you strongly reject all acts of persecution?”

Here is the Free Palestine Alliance statement released January 9, 2008:

The Massacre Intensifies:

As we prepare this thirteenth FPA statement, the Zionist army was continuing what it does best the wholesale slaughter of children and unarmed civilians. As would be expected of the current state of affairs of the US-controlled international scene, the massacre of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is continuing despite yesterday’s feeble UN Security Council resolution that calls for Israel to immediately stop its attack. Actually, the US-Zionist leadership went the other way — more and more attacks. The Israeli Zionist army was given additional orders to escalate the conquest as it enters into a third phase of obliteration. Simultaneously as the Israeli cabinet was giving orders for a higher kill and destruction ratio, the US Senate was not going to be outdone by Zionists. It had to add to its long and shameful record. So it secretly issued a fast-tracked resolution fully supporting the ongoing massacre and giving Israel the needed cover. We ask, is this Senate resolution in the best interest of the people of the US?

But is it not the legacy and norm of the US-Israeli alliance to discard the will of the people of the US and the world. Is it not their norm to discard any and all UN resolutions that may remotely disagree with their strategic plans? The examples are far too many to list, including both UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions dating as far back as 1947.

Yesterday’s UN resolution was approved by 14 of the 15 nations that currently sit on the Security Council, with the US abstaining. As would be expected, the resolution did not address the deadly siege that has been imposed on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, nor did it condemn outright the fascistic actions of the Zionist polity.

Sadly, Palestinian victims have now reached at least 800 murdered and more than 3,300 injured. And these numbers are certain to climb substantially. Yesterday alone, fifty Palestinians were found murdered under their destroyed homes, some with their bodies already beginning to decompose. The Red Cross reported finding 4 near-death children slumped near and over their decomposing dead mothers. These children, like many others, were reported by the Red Cross to have been left without rescue in starvation and thirst for four full days around their killed mothers due to attacks on rescue workers.

On the very same day the UN Security Council resolution was issued, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that serves approximately 800,000 Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip decided that it was forced to fully halt its services. This decision came following the killing of one of UNRWA’s truck drivers, and due to the extreme conditions imposed by the Zionist army on relief workers. The UNRWA also strongly condemned the Israeli cover-up used to justify the bombardment of the Al-Fakhoura school that murdered and injured over 100 children and their parents.

Come Out in Force Tomorrow:

The people of the US have a moral obligation to turn out in massive numbers tomorrow, Saturday, from Washington, DC to San Francisco, Los Angeles and in between, to send a clear message that this campaign of murder must stop at once. In DC, we will be right there to send a message to the Bush administration, the incoming Barak administration, and to the entire US Congress. In San Francisco, where the United Nations took its first founding steps, we can highlight the charade of UN resolutions and international diplomacy, pointing to the double standards and outright racist behavior of the US and its allies. In Los Angeles and all other cities and towns, we can and must mobilize to join in protest in the largest possible numbers. This is the time to stand for what is moral and just. We cannot continue funding Israel while the people of the US are in dire need for funds right here to rescue homes and towns from collapse.

Rather than pay for the destruction of the Gaza Strip, let us pay for the construction of roadways, parks, and schools.

Rather than destroy thousands of Palestinian homes, let us fix the collapsing housing market and keep people in their own homes.

Rather than send more people homeless, let us protect folks from evictions and foreclosures.

Rather than kill doctors, nurses, and relief workers, let us build hospitals and provide health care to the millions without it.

This is our time to let Obama know that he could very easily stimulate both the economy and the morality of the US by stopping all funds used to kill babies and their mothers. Instead, we can invest these same funds in the education and upbringing of millions of impoverished children, right here in the US.

This is indeed our time, folks, and we must come out to lead the US Congress and administrations to the moral high ground. The interest of the US and its people is best served by supporting the construction of US infrastructure, housing, schools, hospitals, and by creating jobs at a living wage. Rather than kill Arab unionists, let us support strengthening unions and their demand for a respectable life and wages.

This is our time to show that Palestine is but a symbol for ALL just struggles. Struggles we all wage every day in various forms. The massacre against the Palestinian people should focus a very bright spotlight on what is wrong with US policies: US tax dollars are being sent to the Israeli army under US diplomatic cover, and are being used to boost corporations that manufacture military hardware, to conquer and destroy countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than rescuing a failing nation from its impending economic depression.

Signs of Defeat:

We regard the UN Security Council Resolution as a fig leaf void of legitimacy. For one thing, it came 13 days following the massacre, and after more than 4,100 Palestinian casualties between killed and injured. It appears that key power-brokers at the UN had hoped that by waiting long enough (13 days) without action, the Zionists could in fact secure a political and military victory.

While the resolution attempts to provide a diplomatic cover for the Israelis and the US as a way out of their unattainable goals, it is nonetheless a clear indication that the ongoing conquest is unable to achieve any Zionist political gain. In fact, politically speaking, the US-Zionist-Arab regime tripartite axis is only achieving the very opposite of what they had intended through this massacre: (1) the Palestinians have achieved massive international, Arab, and Palestinian support; (2) the possibility for appointing a client regime in the Gaza Strip is non-existent; (3) the sustenance of the Abbas PA in its current formation has become very uncertain; and (4) the little legitimacy some Arab regimes have is that much more diminished.

To the extreme dismay of the US and Zionist leaders, the UN resolution demands an immediate stop to the attacks and the opening of all crossings; and it opens the gates for humanitarian aid. Hence, rejected by the Zionist leadership at once. Due to the weight of the pressure on US Arab allies, who could not under any circumstance return home empty-handed, the US had no choice but to abstain rather than give its usual veto — a way to give the US-supported despots a piece of paper to wave in the face of a sea of millions and millions in protest everywhere. Ironically, the gravity of the massacre made a full circle, compromising the stability of the alliance that is responsible for its implementation. The more violent the attack, the more stubborn the resistance, the more widespread the support, and the weaker the grip of despotic regimes.

Let us join the millions who have taken to the streets thus far, including today, in thousands of towns and cities in the world. There are those who are volunteering as doctors, nurses, and rescue workers, with many already killed and injured; there are those who are giving blood to hospitals and to the Red Cross and Red Crescent; those who are protesting; many are writing, painting, dancing and singing for freedom and liberation; and there are those who are holding sit-ins, and those who are giving flowers of appreciation to the Venezuelan government for their principled stance. All are out, and all are outraged.

Come and join!

Take your stand and come out tomorrow. Make it known that this massacre cannot continue!

All Out in Solidarity with the Palestinian People!

The Free Palestine Alliance

January 9, 2009

And this report from A.N.S.W.E.R. about Sunday’s march on DC:

From Washington, DC to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Worldwide–Hundreds of Thousands March to Let Gaza Live!

On Sat., Jan. 10, hundreds of cities, and hundreds of thousands of people, responded to the call for an International Day of Emergency Action to support the people of Gaza. Outside the United States, marches took place in London, Edinburgh, Cairo, Athens, Kuala Lumpur, Beirut, Seoul, Mexico City, Jakarta, Montreal, Paris, Barcelona, Marseilles, Lyon, Oslo, Berlin, Bern, Karachi, Nablus, New Delhi, Amman, Sarajevo, Ramallah, Stockholm, and Tokyo. The protests continue to grow — today, another 250,000 took to the streets in Spain and more than 100,000 in Algeria.

In the U.S., the Day of Action was initiated on just one week’s notice by a call from the ANSWER Coalition, Muslim American Society Freedom, Free Palestine Alliance, National Council of Arab Americans, and Al-Awda – International Palestine Right to Return Coalition. In Washington DC, over 20,000 took to the streets in the freezing rain to demand, “Let Gaza Live!” The streets were so backed up that thousands of people in buses and cars were still arriving after the march had left Lafayette Park.

The demonstration began with a rally at the White House. Featured speakers included former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who was just on a humanitarian relief mission attempting to bring supplies to Gaza when the boat she was on was intentionally struck by an Israeli military vessel; Mahdi Bray, Executive Director, Muslim American Society Freedom; Rev. Graylan Hagler, National President of Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice; Mounzer Sleiman, Vice Chairman, National Council of Arab Americans; Ralph Nader; Paul Zulkowitz, Jews Against the Occupation; Brian Becker, National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition; Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, attorney and co-founder, Partnership for Civil Justice; and others.

The spirited march then led to the Washington Post, where demonstrators denounced the paper for its biased pro-Israeli coverage of the massacre and its complete blackout of protest activities in the United States.

In San Francisco, 10,000 took part in the march and rally. The rally included a huge outpouring from the local Arab community, and energetic participation from Bay Area youth.

A crowd of 2000 demonstrators confronted a heavy police presence in downtown Orlando for the “Let Gaza Live: Florida Statewide March for Palestine” called by Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition/Florida—just six days prior. The demonstration is the largest anti-war demonstration in Florida in more than a decade and certainly the largest ever protest in Florida calling for a free Palestine. Police tried to intimidate marchers by initially searching all bags, forcing protesters to remove sticks from signs, and denying the use of amplified sound. Organizers and protesters challenged and pushed back their unwarranted scare tactics, and the protest turned out to be a powerful success.

In Los Angeles, 10,000 people participated in a regional mass march and rally to “Let Gaza Live” at the Westwood Federal Building. Hundreds of Palestinian flags and signs reading “Stop bombing Gaza!” and “The real terrorists: U.S./Israel war machine!” lined all sides of the street and the lawn in front of the federal government headquarters. It was the largest protest and the first major march in Southern California since the Israeli bombing campaign and invasion began.

A funeral procession led the march with makeshift coffins draped with Palestinian flags, representing the hundreds of people killed by Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza. Hundreds of children followed, along with a huge, hand-made Palestinian flag, in a contingent organized by the Palestinian American Women’s Association.

The worldwide movement is continuing to grow with more protests today, Jan. 11. There will be countless other actions in the days to come. Today in New York City, the police carried out a violent assault against those marching in mid-town Manhattan in support of the people of Palestine. A number of people were injured and arrested.

With the support of the United States, the Israeli military machine has expanded its invasion into urban areas of Gaza. The death toll among Palestinians is now nearly 900, with many thousands wounded. The injured and hungry of Gaza have no relief. We must do everything in our power to deepen and broaden this movement in the coming days.

UNDO THE COUP begins at home

Posted on January 8, 2009 by NMT

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

One big pimp for the Pentagon

Posted on January 8, 2009 by Tony Logan

Korean prostitute “Our government was one big pimp for the U.S. military,” one of the women, Kim Ae-ran, 58, said in a recent interview reports the NYT. Ex-Prostitutes Say South Korea and U.S. Enabled Sex Trade Near Bases.

This woman is talking about South Korea but just as well could have been talking about the South Vietnamese government, the Thai government, or the Philippine government. When one strips away all the rhetoric about fighting communism, fighting terrorism, and fighting to bring democracy to whoever? …what remains is the naked reality of ‘our boys’ screwing over other peoples on behalf of the US corporate elites’ profit making and power.

All those lies about why the US supposedly went and occupied South Korea to spread democracy we have heard through all these long years, are now crumbling away into the real facts becoming more known about mass atrocities, mass prostitution of Korean women, and the simple mass brainwashing of the American people back then that is coming out. Korea was no good war, but was rather merely the Japanese occupation of that country being turned into the US occupation of a portion of that Peninsula.

Many in the US military High Command wanted to drop nuclear weapons on China at that time as they used Korea as a base for their US government Asian aggression! That’s the moral caliber of the US Political and Military establishment and the forced sex trade was the same thing just passed downward as spoils to the grunts. Part of the ‘character building’ the US military is noted for. Join the Army and get a license to kill. Get a license to fuck an under aged prostitute with little to no risk from the law.

Psychic wins lottery and The Bush Propaganda Connection.

Posted on January 6, 2009 by Brother Jonah

The first is the most famous headline you’ve never read… the rest of it is about the so-called “Bible Code”. The “History Channel” is running the shitmongering 4 times this evening, saying the Bible Code is accurate, predicted assassinations, 9/11 yadda yadda yadda….

Remember this show was taped in 2003.
It also allegedly predicted that Saddam was tied to 9/11 and the often discredited Bush LIE about WMDs, and the retarded notion that they were somehow smuggled to Syria.

Instead of, you know, Saddam knowing he’s going to be killed no matter what, actually USING them. And somehow smuggling a Million Pounds of Nerve Gas out of the country while the U.S. Army, Navy Air Force Marines were watching them under the proverbial microscope.

People watching this show, if they believe any of the Israeli and CheneyBush Corporation CRAP mentioned therein, will believe that God, in person, has given them the Celestial Green Light not only to ~~Invade, conquer and occupy~~ errr “Liberate” Iraq, but also to “Liberate” Syria.

This is alternating with a show about the Seven Seals of the Apocalypse, wherein the Political Propaganda-inspired narrative, when mentioning Biological Weapons, always bring in the notion of a small government or non-governmental organization unleashing them.

Not even mentioning, because this is BushCo Propaganda, the intent of the Bush Administration to unleash Smallpox on Iraq.

Bush and Co. ordered the Koalition of the Killing Imperial StormTroopers to be vaccinated against a disease which is extinct in the wild and the only known cultures of it left in the world are in the United States and the Former Soviet Union.

It wouldn’t be the first time the U.S. Military has used smallpox as a Bio-Terror weapon either.

The LIE put out by the Koalition of the Killing was that Saddam Hussein intended to use the Smallpox virus, which he didn’t even HAVE,

BUT… the first persons you would vaccinate against a horrendous Bio-Terror weapon (Which the U.S. has, and Iraq did NOT have) would be the soldiers in your own army.

This ties to something repeated in the PNAC statements of Intent to Commit Mass Murder, Robbery and World ~~Conquest~~ errr “Liberation” (under the Benevolent Domination of U.S. Corporations)…

That

We have biological agents tailored to “a certain genotype” and should always consider their use

Of course the people who suggested that were Jewish and were talking about using a bio-terror weapon that’s tailored to Their Own Genotype.

Meaning Arabian.

What’s that said at Seder? “Our father was a wandering Arabian” sound familiar?

And the Arab and Israeli claims, seemingly contradictory, stem from the history that they are, indeed, two branches of the Same Family.

Add in 3700 more or less years of family infighting complicating those claims… but with all the complications the dispute arises within the family.

An interesting story illustrating this is in the end of the Book of The Judges of Israel, in the Old Testament. Segues into the books of Samuel. Involving the Tribe of Benjamin.

If the Rulers of the Knesset want to distance themselves from these bastards they really should start doing it really soon…

Instead of, you know, being the Puppets ruled by these same bastards who would willingly kill off every Jew in Israel and the rest of the Arabian Peninsula and Asia as well.

make no mistake, these dudes are Master Propagandists. Propaganda by the way means “planting seeds”.

There’s such a thing as planting seeds of Evil too… and, sure enough…

Doomed to repeat internment camps

Posted on January 5, 2009 by Eric Verlo

Several miles north of Moab, Utah, on Highway 191, there’s an Historical Interest marker to commemorate the Civilian Conservation Corps work camp at Dalton Wells. According to the plaque on the site, Camp DG-32 was used for public works through the Great Depression, and converted in 1943 into a concentration camp for Japanese Americans accused of being troublemakers at the civilian internment camps. The plaque offered an apology for the “total violation their civil rights,” and this admonition:

After which someone added in parentheses: “(Patriot Act, 2001)” and then as if to make the point, a next somebody scratched it out.

Full text of the marker:

Civilian Conservation Corps Camp DG-32 (Co. 234)
1935-1942

During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, CCC Camps were scattered all over the USA. They provided gainful employment to youth of the nation with work on public service projects. Between 1933 and 1942, four camps were located near Moab. Each camp worked on various natural resource project for the Soil Conservation Service, the National Park Service, and the forerunner of the Bureau of Land Management.

DG-32 was a long-lasting camp and typical of most with wooden, tar-paper covered barracks and buildings housing some 200 young men between the ages of 18 and 25. Enrollees came from the eastern states, and leadership was provided by the Army, Grazing Service, and local men experienced in construction and stock grazing needs.

Under spartan conditions, clothing, food, and housing were provided in the primitive camp. Pay was $30 per month with $25 sent home.

DG-32 projects included many range improvements: stock trails down the precipitous sandstone cliffs, spring developments, wells and stock ponds, eradication of rodents that competed with stock for feed, fences for corrals and pastures, reservoir dams, roads and bridges. These projects provided on the job training for the enrollees, besides the benefits they brought to the local economy. Many of these works are still in use today. The value of the camp and its works to Grand County is beyond estimation. It was a significant milestone that greatly influenced the economic history of the county.

All that remains of the camp today are the cottonwood trees planted by the enrollees that you see fronting this site, concrete slabs for buildings, graveled roads and rock-outlined walkways, the remains of an old windmill and a rock masonry water storage tank. These remnants signify the moving history of a time when America valiantly struggled to restore its economic stability and provide its young people with meaningful employment.

Japanese-American World War II Concentration Camp
1943

On January 11, 1943, a train pulled into Thompson Station north of here with armed Military Police guarding sixteen male American citizens of Japanese ancestry. While the locals of the town waited to cross the tracks, the entourage was loaded and transferred to the old abandoned “CCC” camp located here at Dalton Wells.

Their crime? They were classified as “troublemakers” in the Manzanar, California Relocation Center where they and their families had been forcibly located at the start of World War II. Removed from their homes and lands in California under a Presidential Executive Order, they were subject to the whim and mercy of poorly-trained bureaucrats and military personnel in the center. This Executive Presidential Order was the result of wartime hysteria, racial bigotry, and greed.

The original sixteen men were removed from Manzanar and brought here without the benefit of council. They did not have a formal hearing or proper arrest proceedings, and the action was in total violation of their civil rights. It was a process more compatible with fascism than democracy.

The inmates troubles worsened when and informer and confidant of the administration was beaten. An organizer of the mess hall workers was thrown into jail as a suspect. A meeting was held in the camp to protest the jailing and a riot resulted. Two inmates were killed by trigger-happy soldiers.

Other Japanese-American men were soon brought to the camp. Thirteen came from Gila River, Arizona, having been charged as being members of an organization which was fully sanctioned by camp officials. Ten more came from Manzanar as “suspected troublemakers.” Fifteen came from the Tule Lake, California, charged with refusing to register their availability for the draft and their loyalty to the U.S. under a set of confusing, denigrating requirements.

All these men were U.S. citizens; some were veterans of Work War I, others were family men, college graduates, and responsible U.S. citizens. Their incarceration here is a vivid example of how our Japanese-American citizens were treated during World War II. May this sad, low point in the history of our democracy never be forgotten, in the hope that it will never happen again.

The group was transferred by truck to an abandoned Indian school at Leupp, Arizona, on April 27, 1943. As those involved began to realize the inequality of the situation, the inmates were released back to relocation centers later that year. Thus, a black mark in the history of liberty and justice in the United States was ended.

Barack and Dubya walk hand in hand

Posted on January 3, 2009 by Tony Logan

barack Obama Commander in Chief
WELL, YES HE IS NOW… He is co- Commander in Chief.

It should be becoming increasingly clear to the public by now that both Dubya and Barack have the same programs to ‘rescue the economy’ through increasing government debt, ‘surging’ in Afghanistan, and green lighting Israel’s slaughter in Gaza. Did I mention that they both plan to stay in Iraq, though after the inauguration it will be Barack totally in command of this operation? Does anybody seriously still believe that Barack is somehow against keeping Iraq an occupied country with US troops? Really? Then what kind of dope are you are on would be my question to you?

U.S. could be facing debt ‘time bomb’ this year is the Barack plan for ‘change’, as Obama sugar coats the Democrats plan to bailout the corporate elites with a shallow promise to supposedly create 3,000,000 jobs. Sure you will, Barack, and you will throw the US government into bankruptcy along with your Republican and your Clintonite buddies screwing us, the working public, over royal. It’s clear who your real friends are, and it ain’t us.

And the con game that Barack is playing about not being in office yet with an inability to change US government policy towards Israel’s invasion of Gaza is totally phony. Shoot! Barack and his Buddies are already plotting out space wars with China in the years ahead even. Obama Moves to Counter China With Pentagon-NASA Link (Update1) It’s just pure gullibility on the part of anybody that actually believes that Obama is not able to intervene in regards to Israel bombing and invading Gaza. The same type of gullibility that made some folk think that Dennis Kucinich was some sort of DP Golden Boy, too. Not much a menace to the gun toting Barack-Hillary group at the top of the party is Dennis. He can’t even open his mouth having caught the same bug that must be ailing Barack on this matter.

And Bush and Obama are walking hand in hand on the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, continuing US torture of POWs, and threatening the Russians, too. Surprising isn’t it, that President Mr. BIG CHANGE has not muttered one word about ending official US government policy of torturing its POWs? He plans merely to cover it up and pretend otherwise. Barack is as much war without end as the Republicans he is now copying like a parrot for.

Don’t get it wrong. Obama will enter into office with a virtual bombardment of meaningless ‘change’ rhetoric, since that is his forte. He’s good at saying nothing real while doing a shuffle. You can continue to fall for it if you want, but think how stupid you will feel down the line? Your only excuse will be…. At least he wasn’t Dick Cheney and Dubya. Small consolation though for you inactivity while you made excuses for this crew. Barack and Dubya are walking hand in hand now, and that’s what your vote bought.

Semper Fi, Ollie- Again…

Posted on December 31, 2008 by Brother Jonah

You know, this whole scene in Israel and Palestine right now has the marks of Bush double dealing again, playing all sides against the middle.

The cowboy-looking swarthy fellow who identified himself as a Jew AND a Marine. last night as he was cursing us…

…brought this back to mind.

I wonder, sometimes, how much guilt does the U.S. government share, in our name and with our tax dollars of course, and our kin on the ground… and under the ground.

Why, exactly, did the “smart money” give arms to Hizbollah?

Knowing of course that Hizbollah doesn’t like them and would do their level best to strike, but you notice, the so-called Patriots who struck the deal, they didn’t get killed.

Over 300 Marines, mostly the scions of the “lower” classes, got killed.

Likewise, when the deals were struck with the Medellin Cartel, same time, yeah? There was a “Massive Crackdown” on the southern borders, for those of us who smoked marijuana, it was a Famine in the Land.

Suddenly, though, “black tar” and smokeable cocaine were everywhere.

You might say, tongue firmly in cheek, there was a massive “smack” or a “crack”, down on the southern border.

When I was stopped by the Border Patrol and they were waving guns in my face, screaming in Spanish, there were actually death squads in El Paso at the same time.

And since they didn’t offer any badge or insignia type evidence to the contrary, at least primarily, yeah, I thought that was who it was.

The idea that these Drug Militia were financed at least partly by Yankee Government donations crossed my mind more than once.

Fortunately, a bullet hasn’t crossed my mind, not yet at least.

Then, Bush comes off with the strangest ever response to the 9/11 strikes… his operatives start saying that the Colombians in particular were funneling money to al Qa’eda…. and no explanation of why exactly they would know that.

The one that fits most perfectly is the connection between Saddam Hussein and Bush, Manuel Noriega and Bush… as in Bush the Elder and “Saint Ronnie the Incredibly Teflon Nice”…

USMC Lt. Colonel Oliver North.

I would say, and Mr North should listen, he’s been playing with some incredibly BAD boys.

North is now the biggest link left between Bush Junior and al Qa’eda.

He should look to what happened to the Other Major Links.

Probably with his assistance. Because he’s not averse in any way to lying, stealing, killing or betrayal…

Perhaps his “loyalty” to the Bu’ush Regime lies in his innate cowardice, he’s scared to testify.

How about it, Ollie? You’ve got ~~friends~~“associates in town here who monitor this website and our activities, and our writings.

Somewhere under all that slime with which you coated yourself, maybe there’s a little bit, a spark, if you will, of actual Patriotism.

Truth, Ollie, truth… it’s the only path left for you,
I’ve looked down the barrels of your comrades guns before. The only way I survived was by standing my ground.

Semper Fi.

You know what it means. “faithful forever”.

You haven’t been faithful yet, not to the Marine Corps, nor to America nor to God Himself.

Nor to yourself. You’ve let yourself become the Lap-dog of the Empire.

Make that stand for the first time in your life.

Not My Tribe

The Myth of Middle Ground

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