BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIX MIX -- DC.
IT WASN'T A GOOD DAY TO BE THE CHAMPION IN THE INTERNATIONAL BILLIE JEAN KING LOOKALIKE CONTEST OR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR ALBERTO GONZALES TODAY.
SECRETARY OF STATE AND ANGER, CONDI RICE, EXPLAINED TO THESE REPORTERS THAT ALBERTO HAD BEEN GIFTED WITH A DIAMOND TENNIS BRACLET FROM FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL JOHN ASSCROFT AND WAS PLANNING TO WEAR IT IN HIS RECREATION OF THE BILLIE JEAN KING AND BOBBY RIGGS MATCH IN SEPTEMBER (WITH BULLY MOMMA BARBARA BUSH PLAYING THE BOBBY RIGGS PART) BUT HE LOST IT WHILE RUNNING A SNAKE DOWN DICK CHENEY'S TOILET THIS MORNING.
SO HE WAS A LITTLE OF SORTS ALREADY BEFORE HE HELD HIS PRESS CONFERENCE AND THAT EXPLAINS WHY HE MADE ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE AS HE ISSUED ONE CONTRADICTORY STATEMENT AFTER ANOTHER.
FOR INSTANCE, HE STATED, "I STAND BY THE DECISION AND I THINK IT WAS THE RIGHT DECISION." THE DECISION WAS TO CONSPIRE TO FIRE ATTORNEY GENERALS AROUND THE NATION AND TO MISLEAD CONGRESS ABOUT IT. THAT WAS THE DECISION. SO ONE THE ONE HAND HE SAID HE STOOD BEHIND IT.
ON THE OTHER, HE SAID, "I ACKNOWLEDGE THAT MISTAKES WERE MADE HERE. I ACCEPT THAT RESPONSIBILITY." BUT OF COURSE IF IT WAS "THE RIGHT DECISION" THAN NO MISTAKES WERE MADE BECAUSE THE DECISION WAS TO TAKE PART IN A CONSPIRACY TO FIRE PEOPLE, TO FORCE THEM TO PRETEND IT WAS THEIR DECISION, AND TO MISLEAD CONGRESS AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED. THAT IS ALL PART OF THE DECISION, ALL PART OF THE MISTAKES.
SECRETARY RICE SAID IT SHOULD ALL BLOW OVER TOMORROW, "HARRIETT MIERS IS SENDING ABLIE A TENNIS BRACELET WITH MATCHING EAR RINGS. AND SHE'S PURCHASED A SIMPLICITY PATTERN TO MAKE HIM A REALLY ATTRACTIVE TENNIS OUTFIT."
Turning to news of war resistance, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today that Helga Aguayo, the wife of Agustin Aguayo, has stated they will "continue to fight for her husband's release from a military prison" and quotes Helga Aguayo stating: "What I do want now is my husband to be released which will happen in 40-45 days. We pursue it legally and that he is found to be a conscientious objector, one, that his conviction of desertion is overturned, two, and that he is given an honorable discharge. That's all I hope for." Agustin Aguayo was court-martialed March 6th in Germany and was sentenced to 8 months in prison but given credit for the 161 days he had already served while awaiting his court-martial.
Another US war resister, Ehren Watada was the subject of a short film noted by Jeff Yang (San Francisco Chronicle) today:
CAAM's evolutionary throughline might be visible in its production of Curtis Choy's "Watada, Resister," an 18-minute mini-film documenting the historic conversation between Lt. Ehren Watada, the Japanese American soldier who is facing court martial as the first U.S. commissioned officer to refuse deployment to the Iraq War, and Frank Emi and Yosh Kuromiya, Nisei resisters of a generation before, who rejected service in the U.S. military as a protest against the internment of their friends and family.
By connecting Watada with these moral forebears, the work connects yesterday to today, bringing the legacy of history to the dynamic, shifting playing field of the present. The medium is as much a message as the content: "Watada, Resister" was released directly to the Internet as a streaming and downloadable video.
"Curtis came to us saying, 'We have to tell this story, but I don't want to wait two years to do this for PBS, and I don't want to raise a lot of money,'" says [Stephen] Gong. "We pulled together a few thousand dollars to cover the costs of a crew up in Seattle and in L.A., and Curtis did his own editing, while our staff pulled together the contextual narrative to give people a way to understand the material. And literally, that was it. This was a story that needed to be told now, and this gave us a way to tell it."
Agustin Aguayo, Ehren Watada are part of a movement of resistance within the military that includes Kyle Snyder, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Mejia, Patrick Hart, Ivan Brobeck, Darrell Anderson, Ricky Clousing, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Corey Glass, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
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