WITH A CAMPAIGN THAT HAS REFUSED TO PICK UP STEAM, THE SELF-PROCLAIMED "ROCK STAR" HAS, LIKE A FREAK SHOW IN THE CIRCUS, PULLED IN THE CROWDS BUT NOT THE VOTERS.
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA IS DESPERATE FOR VOTERS. SO DESPERATE THAT HE TURNS OVER HIS CAMPAIGN TO HOMOPHOBE AND IDIOT DONNIE MCCLURKIN WHOSE COMMENTS INDICATE THAT MCCLURIKIN IS NOT A SUPPORTER OF GAYS, LET ALONE SCIENCE.
THE PATHETIC AND SHAMEFUL MOVE WAS MADE AS A RESULT OF THE FACT THAT DESPITE THE LIKES OF TIME MAGAZINE AND THE NATION MAGAZINE PUSHING HIM AS "THE BLACK CANDIDATE," HE IS NOT. HE IS BI-RACIAL. AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN VOTERS ARE TRUSTING WHITE HILLARY CLINTON IN LARGER NUMBERS THAN BI-RACIAL BARACK. SO BARACK, WHO DID NOT GROW UP IN THE CHURCH, DECIDED TO INVENT SOME GOSPEL ROOTS AND "GOSPEL ROOTS" TO HIM INCLUDE A STRONG DOSE OF HOMOPHOBIA. IT SAYS A GREAT DEAL ABOUT HOW "BLACK" BARACK SEES AFRICAN-AMERICANS THAT HE BELIEVES HOMOPHOBIA IS NECESSARY TO "REACH OUT" TO THEM.
THE NATION FRONTS HOMOPHOBIA BY IGNORING IT IN A PIECE WRITTEN BY A LESBIAN WHO FOCUSES ON TORTURE AND REDUCES BAMBI'S EMBRACE OF HOMOPHOBIA TO A SINGLE SENTENCE: "NEXT TACKLE HOMOPHOBIA!" PATHETIC. SHAMEFUL. DISGUSTING. AS BAD AS MAKING JOKES ABOUT ONE STUDENT BEING JUMPED BY SEVERAL. REPEATING: DISGUSTING! PATHETIC! SHAMEFUL!
SO DESPERATE IS THE NATION TO DEFEAT HILLARY THAT THEY WILL IGNORE BAMBI'S EMBRACE OF HOMOPHOBIA.
YET DESPITE A NON-STOMP PIMPING THAT HAS GONE ON FOR NEARLY A YEAR -- BEGINNING WITH PROFESSOR PATTY WILLIAMS DROOLING OVER THE FACT THAT BARACK WAS PRESIDENT OF THE HARVARD LAW REVIEW -- BAMBI'S TANKING.
THING TO WATCH FOR IN 2008 IF HILLARY CLINTON GETS THE NOMINATION? THE NATION URGING EVERYONE TO VOTE FOR HILLARY . . . AFTER SPENDING MONTH AFTER MONTH TEARING HER DOWN WHILE IGNORING EVERY BIT OF SLEAZE COMING OUT OF BARACK OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN.
HEY RICHARD KIM, DID THE MAGAZINE SILENCE YOU? ARE YOU GOING TO GO ALONG WITH THE SELF-HATING AND SEAT YOURSELF IN THE BACK OF THE BUS OR ARE YOU GOING TO CALL OUT BAMBI'S EMBRACE OF HOMOPHOBIA? IT'S NOT A SIDE ISSUE AND IT GOES TO HOW THE SLEAZE WILL BEHAVE IN OFFICE.
Starting with war resisters. Saturday protests took place around the world. Brett Clarkson (Toronto Sun) reports that their protests included chants of "George Bush we know you, your daddy's a killer too!," that at least 1500 marched "from the U.S. Consulate to Moss Park in opposition to the Canadian military presence in Afghanistan and the U.S. war in Iraq" and that among those standing up for peace was US war resister Patrick Hart formerly "of the 101st Airborne Division, stationed in Fort Campbell, Ky. Hart, who is facing deportation from Canada, went AWOL in August 2005". Meanwhile Nicholas Davis (Toronto Sun) tells the story of Isaiah Trickey -- who grew up in Kenabeek Ontario with his two brothers and three sisters and both of his parents -- realization growing up that his mother was a historical figure. Isaiah's mother is Minnijean Brown Trickey one of The Little Rock Nine who stood up to racism, violence and the Arkansas National Guard to attend Little Rock Central High in 1957 therebysmashing the "Whites Only" policy at the high school. Over the years -- she served in the Clinton administration's Department of Interior -- when asked how a young, teenage woman could stand up, she's usually responded with some variation of, "It had to be done." Which it did but that didn't mean it didn't require tremendous bravery and strength for all nine of The Little Rock Nine (or their parents, as Minnijean Brown Trickey always notes). She married Roy Trickey in September of 1967 (by the way -- most of this isn't in the article, we're having a history lesson -- a needed one if any of this is new to you). Members of the SNCC, they actively protested the war in Vietnam. When Roy Trickey received his draft notice, he applied for CO status but when that was not granted, they left the US for Toronto, made a home there and raised their six children. The marriage ended in 1992 and Minnijean Brown Trickey returned to the US in 1999.
Turning to Hawaii, Rachel Gehriein (Kaui Garden Island News) reports that the Kaua's Peace 'Ohana rally on Saturday, "Supporter Linda Estes had one goal in mind as she held a sign in support for Lieutenant Ehren Watada. Watada, a Honolulu native, was the first commissioned officer in the U.S. armed forces to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq in June 2006. Watada believe the war to be illegal and wound make him party to war crimes."
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
The National Lawyers Guild's convention begins shortly: The Military Law Task Force and the Center on Conscience & War are sponsoring a Continuing Legal Education seminar -- Representing Conscientious Objectors in Habeas Corpus Proceedings -- as part of the National Lawyers Guild National Convention in Washington, D.C. The half-day seminar will be held on Thursday, November 1st, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the convention site, the Holiday Inn on the Hill in D.C. This is a must-attend seminar, with excelent speakers and a wealth of information. The seminar will be moderated by the Military Law Task Force's co-chair Kathleen Gilberd and scheduled speakers are NYC Bar Association's Committee on Military Affairs and Justice's Deborah Karpatkin, the Center on Conscience & War's J.E. McNeil, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee's Peter Goldberger, Louis Font who has represented Camilo Mejia, Dr. Mary Hanna and others, and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objector's James Feldman. The fee is $60 for attorneys; $25 for non-profit attorneys, students and legal workers; and you can also enquire about scholarships or reduced fees. The convention itself will run from October 31st through November 4th and it's full circle on the 70th anniversary of NLG since they "began in Washington, D.C." where "the founding convention took place in the District at the height of the New Deal in 1937, Activist, progressive lawyers, tired of butting heads with the reactionary white male lawyers then comprising the American Bar Association, formed the nucleus of the Guild."
On this week's Progressive Radio, Matthew Rothschild interviewed Tariq Ali.
Matthew Rothschild: How stuck is the United States right now in Iraq? I mean Bush is trying the so-called surge of course and there seems to be no end in sight.
Tariq Ali: There is no end in sight till the US troops and the troops of their allies are withdrawn from that region. As long as US troops remain there, the area will be destabilized. The big question now is: Are the Iraqi parties going to succeed -- and the Iraqi groups -- going to succeed to rise above narrow identity politics and create a national government which preserves and maintains the unity of Iraq? This is an open question. I can't answer definitively one way or the other the way the occupation has gone it's sort of quite strange that when there are imperial, colonial style occupations, one of the things they do is divide the country.
Matthew Rothschild: It seems that the Bush administration is kind of leaning that way right now.
Tariq Ali: It does look like it. And Peter Galbrath and other Democrats writing in The New York Review of Books are more or less arguing for that. It's deeply shocking.
Matthew Rothschild: He's been pushing for that for awhile. Of course he's also been a lobbyist for the Kurds in the north.
Tariq Ali: He has. I think that is what explains it. But you know the nation that you can create a US-Israeli protectorate in northern Iraq and call it Kurdistan is not going to work because even as we speak the Turkish armies are massing on the border, the Turkish parliament has approved by an overwhelming majority -- I was surprised by the size of the majority -- that Turkey has the right to cross the border and take out the Kurds. Essentially, they've done that so that is going to destabilize them. And the Mediterraen -- cause Turkey is sort of a staunch pillar of NATO and has been since the second world war. So if they're now going to antagonize the Turks for the sake of creating a tiny protectorate in northern Iraq, it's not going to look good for them.
Matthew Rothschild: What do you make of the just kind of bread and butter arguments that are thrown around here in the United States for justifying the continued occupation? Tariq Ali, one is that we need to stay there for humanitarian reasons, that there's going to be a bigger bloodbath if we leave?
Tariq Ali: This is one of the more grotesque arguments which I hear. You know, if you look at it, you go in, you occupy a country, nearly a million people are dead -- civilians -- not combatants, 2 million refugees, the entire social infrastructure of the country is destroyed, it's divided basically into three regions and then you say if we leave there will be a mess. How could there be a bigger mess?
Tariq Ali went on to note that when the US leaves it won't be sunshine and flowers "but in the medium term there's a much, much better chance for Iraqis sorting this out than with foreign troops and bases on their soil." Elaine will note the interview tonight at her site Like Maria Said Paz.
Ali spoke of the growing tensions between Turkey and northern Iraq. From Friday's snapshot: "Meanwhile, CBS and AP report that Turkey has decided to put on hold the decision of what to do about or not do 'until the prime minister visits Washington in November before deciding on a cross-border offensive into northern Iraq, the country's top military commander said Friday'." If th assessment was accurate, it fell through quickly. Eric Margolis (Toronto Sun) notes, "No one should be surprised by the dangerous crisis between Turkey and Iraq-based Kurdish separatists. Critics long warned the U.S. invasion of Iraq would inevitably release the genii of Kurdish nationalism. Creation of a virtually independent, U.S.-backed Kurdish state in northern Iraq was certain to provoke Turkish fury." Barbara Miller (Australia's ABC) reports that "weekend talks between Iraqi and Turkish officials have broken down" and quotes Kurd and Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari state that the Turkish demands (turning over PKK leaders) "is a very heavy demand". Noting that 40 "Turks have been killed by the PKK in the past month," Lara Marlowe (The Irish Times) also sees the realationship between the two countries "continue to deteriorate".
Sabrina Tavernise (New York Times) observes, "Iraqi Kurdish officials, for their part, appear to be politely ignoring American calls for action, saying the only serious solution is political, not military. They have taken their own path, allowing the guerrillas to exist on their territory, while at the same time quietly trying to persuade them to stop attacks." Tim Butcher (Telegraph of London) reports, "Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq are warning local people to prepare to run for the hills if Turkey attacks" and quotes Kurdish farmer Mohammed Rajoul declaring, "They came and said we must get ready. They said if we see Turkish planes or helicopters we must not hide in our hourses but must hide outside among the rocks. This is the first time we have been told to prepare for attacks and we are afraid." As the tensions escalate, oil prices soar. AP reports, "Oil prices rose above $93 a barrel to a new trading high Monday in Asia on growing political tensions in the Middle East, a weak dollar and worries about the supply outlook ahead of winter." BBC also notes that crude has broken $93 a barrel. Mark Shenk (Bloomberg News) informs the price per barrel hit $93.80 "in New York after Mexico shut a fifth of its production and the dollar fell to a record low." Moming Zhou and Steve Goldstein (MarketWatch) note that after reaching $93.80 the price dropped to . . . $93.53 thereby closing "at a new record high". New Zealand's The National Business Review warns, "Prices are approaching all-time highs set in 1979 and early 1980, when prices rose to $38 a barrel, or the equivalent of $96 to $101 a barrel or more in today's dollars."
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
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"Iraq and Turkey"
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"Look who's back, Chalabi's back"
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Rudy G Wants Your Vote"
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"Intelligence not a requirement for NYT op-ed pages"
"Truest statement of the week"
"Other Items"
"Iraq and Turkey"
"And the war drags on . . ."
"Look who's back, Chalabi's back"
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Rudy G Wants Your Vote"
"Ruth's Report"
"Intelligence not a requirement for NYT op-ed pages"
"Truest statement of the week"
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