Monday, March 05, 2007

THIS JUST IN! HILLARY EMBRACES, OBAMA BLAMES

 
IN WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE BIG MATCH UP WHERE U.S. SENATOR BARACK OBAMA WAS SUPPOSED TO SHOW HIS STAR SPARKLE -- WHILE MOST OF THE PRESS PRETENDED AS THOUGH U.S. SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON HAD NONE --
THINGS DIDN'T GO QUITE THE WAY OBAMA-MANIA MIGHT HAVE LIKED.
 
THE SETTING WAS SELMA, THE MISTAKES WERE OBAMA'S.
 
SPEAKING TO A BLACK AUDIENCE MAY HAVE THROWN THE BI-RACIAL OBAMA OFF.  OR MAYBE HE WAS JUST STROKING HIS INNER BLAME-THE-VICTIM?
 
SPEAKING TO THE ASSEMBLED, HE DECLARED: "GOVERNMENT ALONE CAN'T SOLVE ALL THOSE PROBLEMS. BUT GOVERNMENT CAN HELP.  . . . IT'S NOT ENOUGH JUST TO ASK WHAT THE GOVERNMENT CAN DO FOR US.  IT'S IMPORTANT FOR US TO ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR OURSELVES."
 
OBAMA, ASSOCIATED WITH THE D.L.C. SOMETIMES AND SOMETIMES NOT, APPEARED TO BE OFFERING THE "IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE LAZY" MESSAGE IN THE USUAL D.L.C. CODE.
 
BY CONTRAST, CLINTON APPEARED TO GET IT DECLARING: "HOW DO WE SAY EVERYTHING IS FINE, BLOODY SUNDAY IS FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS, WHEN OVER 96,000 OF OUR CITIZENS, THE VICTIMS OF HURRICANE KATRINA ARE STILL LIVING IN TRAILERS AND MOBIL HOMES WHICH IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE TO EVERYTHING WE STAND FOR IN AMERICA."
 
OBAMA, ACTING AS THOUGH HE WAS DETERMINED TO ASSURE WHITE VOTERS THAT HE WAS ONLY HALF-BLACK, TOSSED GOVERNMENTAL PROBLEMS OFF AS 'PERSONAL ONES' ASKING THAT PEOPLE TAKE RESPONSIBILITES FOR THE GOVERNMENT'S FAILURES.  CLINTON, BY CONTRAST, CAME OUT LAYING THE BLAME NOT ON PEOPLE BUT ON A NON-RESPONSIVE GOVERNMENT.
 
WHEN NOT TRACKING IN RACIST CODE, OBAMA ALSO COULDN'T SHUT UP ABOUT "THE JOSHUA GENERATION."  APPARENTLY THE WHITE PRESS LOVES IT WHEN AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN (OR EVEN HALF-BLACK) TALKS RELIGION AND DOESN'T FEEL THE NEED TO EXAMINE IT?
 
HE REPEATEDLY ADDRESSED THOSE ASSEMBLED AS THE "JOSHUA GENERATION" AND THOSE WHO BOTHERED TO COMMENT TOLD YOU TALES OF WHAT JOSHUA DID IN THE BIBLE.
 
APPARENTLY, AS USUAL, THEY DON'T KNOW THEIR ILL THOUGHT OPINIONS FROM THEIR ASSES. 
 
THE JOSHUA GENERATION IS AN EXISTING ORGANIZATION KNOWN AS "JOSHUA GENERATION MINISTRIES" WHICH, AMONG OTHER THINGS, BELIEVES PEOPLE WILL BE PULLED UP INTO THE CLOUDS.
 
 
AND THEN, OF COURSE, THERE IS MICHAEL FARRIS' THE JOSHUA GENERATION.  FARRIS WROTE A BOOK ENTITLED JOSHUA GENERATION WHICH APPEALS TO KARL ROVE, RIGHT-WING THINK TANKS AND CHRISTIAN DOMINISTS.  JESUS POLITICS WRITES:
 
. . . "GENERATION JOSHUA" IS LOOSE IN OUR COUNTRY.  HAVE YOU HEARD OF "GENERATION JOSHUA?" IT IS AN EFFORT BY MICHAEL FARRIS, FOUNDER OF PATRICK HENRY COLLEGE, TO TURN CHRISTIAN, HOME-SCHOOLED STUDENTS INTO POLITICAL FOOT SOLDIERS TO GAIN POLITICAL PWOER IN ORDER SUBSUME EVERYTHING -- ENTERTAINMENT, LAW, GOVERNMENT, AND EDUCATION -- UNDER THEIR RIGHT WING VERSION OF CHRISTIANITY.  LIKE JOSHUA OF THE HEBREW BIBLE, GENERATION JOSHUA'S JOB IS TO POSSESS THE LAND, TO CONQUER THE LAND, OR, IN THE WORDS OF THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT, "TO TAKE BACK THE LAND."  AND ACCORDING TO MICHAEL HARRIS, IN THE SPRING SEMESTER OF 2004, PATRICKY HENRY COLLEGE HAD MORE INTERNS IN THE WHITE HOUSE THAN ANY OTHER COLLEGE IN THE NATION. 
 
FOR THOSE PAYING ATTENTION IT MAY HAVE REMINDED THEM OF OBAMA'S OVERLY PRAISED 2004 DNC SPEECH WHERE, FOR THOSE PAYING ATTENTION, HE LAUNCHED AN ATTACK ON GOVERNMENTAL  ASSISTANCE ("THEY DON'T WANT THEIR TAX MONEY WASTED BY A WELFARE AGENCY")
 
 
 
Starting with war resistance.  Tomorrow Agustin Aguayo's court-martial begins in Germany.  He is charged with missing movement and desertion which, if convicted of both charges, could mean being senteced to seven years in military prison.  President of the National Lawyers Guild Marjorie Cohn (writing at CounterPunch) reviews the basics of Aguayo's case noting that what was happening to Aguayo during training was a phase he couldn't name until he and his wife Helga learned of US war resister Stephen Funk and realized the term for those opposed to war is conscientious objector.  Cohn also notes, "Agustin Aguayo is represented by National Lawyers Guild lawyers James Klimaski, Peter Goldberger, and James Feldman."  Amnesty International announced last week that they would have "a delegate to observe the court-martial proceeedings . . . and asses whether Agustin Aguayo would be a prisoner of conscience if convicted and imprisoned."  In addition, as El Universal reported previously, Aguayo, who holds dual citizenship (Mexico and United States), will receive some form of consular assistance as a result of Susana Aguayo's request.  (Susana is Agustin's mother.)  Bertrand Benoit (Financial Times of London) notes that the court-martial "will cast some light on what non-governmental ogranisations claim is a serious drop in troop spirits in Germany" and notes Michael Sharp (Military Counseling Network) stating: "We normally get an average of eight calls a month.  In January alone, we got 30 calls."
 
 
Courage to Resist has posted video (by Jeff Paterson)  of Agustin Aguayo and others speaking in Los Angeles at his press conference on September 26th  La Placita Olivera including Father Steve Niskanen, Father Richard Estrada and Fernando Suarez del Solar (whose son Jesus A. Suarez Del Solar died in Iraq on March 27, 2003).
 
Agustin Aguayo notes, in the video, that he is both an Iraq war veteran and a
Conscientious Objector and "I believe it is one of the greatest tragedies of our lifetime that we use war in an attempt to solve problems."  His wife Helga noted that their twin daughters prepared a letter for their father: "They wrote him a letter and at the bottom of the letter they wrote: 'We are strong, we will get through this.  Never forget that.' and they're only eleven" years-old. Helga also noted her pride in her husband "because he has been fighting" for c.o. status non-stop, for two years, within the military and within the US civilian courts.
 
The Center on Conscience & War notes that the civilian courts have not provided the oversight or recourse that they are supposed to and quotes attorney Peter Golberg stating, "The decision, in the wake of [Ehren] Watada outcome, makes the court martial of Aguayo all the more urgent as a focus of support."  CCW further notes: "Had Aguayo gone AWOL 3 years ago, he may have been out of the Army two and a half years ago -- as happened to someone else in his unit.  As a person of conscience, he played by the rules, trusting that the law would work as it should.  It is unconsioable that Aguayo is still in the Army and facing court-martial 3 years after he first applied for conscientious objector discharge."
 
Turning to US war resister Ehren Watada who, in June 2006, became the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq, Jim Borg (Honolulu Star-Bulletin) profiled Eric Seitz, Watada's civilian attorney who noted several things.  On the issue of the legality of Watada's stand: "Treaties, when they are properly adopted by this country, become part and parcel of American law.  The president cannot select which treaties he is going to implement and ingore others.  And his selective enforcement of the provisions of the law . . . frankly, in my view, should subject him to a war crimes trial -- and, in fact, to the ultimate punishment which the statute requires, which is death.  And if you want to quote me, you can say that.  I am more than happy to see President Bush and Vice President Cheney and Secretary Rumsfeld tried for war crimes.  And I would be the first one to stand up and clap if they were punished as a consequence."  A court-martial for Watada has been scheduled for July.  This would be the second court-martial.  The first of last month saw three days of a court-martial that ended in a mistrial when Judge Toilet (aka John Head) repeatedly prompted the prosecution to ask for a mistrial which they finally did.  Judge Toilet granted a mistrial over the defense's objection.  Seitz tells Borg: "If it's going badly for the prosecutor, the prosecution can't abort the case and then start over.  Nor can a judge abort the case for the prosecutor because the judge thinks it's going badly.  When you have a mistrial in a criminal case, you always have a double jeopardy issue because jeopardy has attached as soon as the jury has been sworn in or the first witness testifies.  And then you try and figure out whether by conduct or by some statement the defendant has caused the mistrial. . . .  I'm thinking to myself, 'My God, this is a defense's lawyer's dream!' We didn't create this mistrial, we didn't agree to it, we didn't approve it.  Jeopardy is attached.  And I don't think either the judge or the military lawyers had any inkling that that was going to be the bottom line."
 
 
Aguayo and Watada are part of a movement of resistance with the military that includes others such as Kyle Snyder, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Mejia, Patrick Hart, Joshua Key, 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.
 

Have a burning question? Go to Yahoo! Answers and get answers from real people who know.
Posted by at