Saturday, April 21, 2007

THIS JUST IN! BULLY BOY CORRECTS THE RECORD!

BULLY BOY WAS PISSED AND DRUNK WHEN HE INVITED THESE REPORTERS OVER TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT AND TO SAMPLE HIS WHITE PHOSPHORUS COCKTAILS.
 
AS HE MIXED THE DRINKS (INCLUDED AT THE END), HE EXPLAINED HOW THE WASHINGTON POST HAD MISQUOTED HIM.
 
"I NEVER SAY 'BLOODBATH'!" HE SLURRED.  "I ALWAYS SAY 'BLOODBOX.'  ALWAYS!"
 
AS HE CONTINUED INSISTING, HE SHOWED THESE REPORTERS A PHOTO OF HIMSELF AND FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH IN HAPPIER TIMES (SEE BELOW) WHILE HE PLAYED IN HIS BLOOD BOX.
 
 
 
"SHE REALLY LOVED ME THEN, MAN," BULLY BOY SIGHED, SLAMMING DOWN 4 COCKTAILS AND CHASERS IN A ROW WHILE LAMENTING THAT THE FIRST LADY HAD CHECKED INTO A HOTEL TO AVOID HIS DRINKING.
 
 
 
RECIPE FOR WHITE PHOSPHORUS COCKTAILS:
 
1 CAN LONE STAR BEER
SPLASH OF VODKA
PEPTO BISMOL CAP FULL OF GIN
SPLASH OF VODKA
PINCH OF THUNDERBIRD
SPLASH OF VODKA
 
MIX WELL AND SERVE WITH A VODKA CHASER.
 
 
"The investigating officer said that it was in the best interest of the military to discharge him and that he believed that Agustin was sincere.  However, higher ups in the chain of command -- that never met with my husband -- decided that he wasn't sincere and just didn't really give a reason, just said that he didn't qualify as a conscienious objector," Helga Aguayo speaking to Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) today.  Helga Aguayo sketched out
how her husband came to see the illegal war as immoral while serving in Iraq, how he attempted to receive CO status, the obstacles there and a great deal more including the the convictions of missing movement and desertion.  On the latter, she noted that it "is unheard of for people that are gone less than thirty days -- soldiers that are gone less than thirty days."  Aguayo was gone from September 2nd through September 26th.  The rule of thumb is that if you are gone less than 30 days, desertion isn't even a possible charge.  Not only was Aguayo gone less than 30, he turned himself in.  Helga Aguayo explained how the two felony convictions mean trigger an automatic appeal: 
 
Helga Aguayo: And the other thing is that Agustin will not be discharged.  I'm getting congratulations -- 'Oh, congratulations, he's coming home' -- we don't know when he's coming home, one.  And, two, he actually will not be discharged from the military for twelve to twenty-four months from now, because he got a bad-conduct discharge and it's such a serious offense.  He has two felonies.  It goes onto an automatic appeal, and because of that, he will remain active-duty, which means he has to abide by the standards that is required of every soldier. He could potentially be charged with anything else during the time that he's on voluntary or involuntary leave or administrative leave.  They'll give him of the three, if it's approved.  And we won't know if it's approved.
 
Amy Goodman: Could he sent back to Iraq?
 
Helga Aguayo: I hope not.  I don't think so.  I think it would be -- I mean, Agustin's gotten a lot of support.  And I, you know, would definitely just go to the press and go to the people.  I don't think it would be in their best interest to do that.
 
 
Agustin Aguayo's repeated attempts to receive CO status demonstrate the need for the system to be fixed.  As does the case of Robert Zabala who had to take the issue to the civilian courts to be awarded his status.  The two, and many others, illustrate the problems with and arbitrary nature of the way the US military chooses to recognize (or not) CO status.
 
 
Aguayo is part of a movement of war resistance within the military that also includes  Ehren Watada, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Camilo Mejia, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson,  Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Mejia,  Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, 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.
 
 
Turning to news in Iraq, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates landed in Baghdad Thursday to provide war weary Iraqis and US service members with a bus and truck show of My Cousin Vinnie.   David S. Cloud, Alissa J. Rubin and Edward Wong (New York Times) report that he visited "to press Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq to move faster on Sunni-Shiite reconciliation at a momment when Mr. Maliki's ability to deliver appears limited, at best."  This allowed Bobby Gates to attack the part of Lisa with vigor as he stomped his feet in the safety of the Green Zone.
 
Bobby Gates:  Well I hate to bring it up because I know you've got enough pressure on you already.  But, we agreed to get an oil law passed as soon as we installed you.  Meanwhile, ELEVEN MONTHS LATER, no oil law, Iran is making us nervous and our bully clock is TICKING and the way this war is going, I ain't never going to see the theft of Iraqi oil.
 
 
While Gates was telling/ordering al-Maliki to step it up, Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) reported that it really doesn't make a great deal of difference: "Military planners have abandoned the idea that standing up Iraqi troops will enable American soldiers to start coming home soon and now believe that U.S. troops will have to defeat the insurgents and secure control of troubled provinces.  Training Iraqi troops, which had been the cornerstone of the Bush administration's Iraq policy since 2005, had dropped in priority, officials in Baghdad and Washington said."
 
 

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Thursday, April 19, 2007

THIS JUST IN! STILL CRAZY!

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIX MIX -- SOUTH CAROLINA.
 
 
CRAZY JOHN MCCAIN SEEMS DETERMINED NOT ONLY TO LOSE HIS BID FOR THE G.O.P. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION BUT WHAT LINGERING BITS OF SUPPORT HE STILL HOLDS.
 
SENATOR CRAZY, IN A STUMP APPEARANCE, WAS ASKED WHAT HE WOULD DO ABOUT IRAN AND, IN RESPONSE, BROKE OUT INTO "BOMB, BOMB, BOMB, BOMB, IRAN, BOMB BOMB, BOMB, BOMB, ANYWAY, EH . . ."
 
ALREADY A DISAPPOINTMENT IN THE HORSE RACE OF FUNDRAISING, THE JOHN MCCAIN SHOWBOAT EXPRESS APPEARS TO BE RUNNING OUT OF STEAM AND TAKING ON WATER.
 
AN ANONYMOUS CAMPAIGN STAFF MEMBER TOLD US, "HE'S NOT KIDDING WITH HIS SLOGAN OF 'VOTE INSANE! VOTE JOHN MCCAIN!' HE'S CRAZY AND READY FOR THE RUBBER ROOM BUT AS LONG AS THE CHECKS AREN'T MADE OUT OF RUBBER, I'LL KEEP WORKING FOR SENATOR SENILE'S VANITY RUN."
 
AND THAT'S WHAT COUNTS AS STRONG SUPPORT IN THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN.
 
 
Yesterday in Iraq, AP notes, "233 people killed or found dead across Iraq.  At least 183 of those are killed when four large bombs explode in mainly Shiite locations of Baghdad."  Kirk Semple (New York Times) bills it as "the deadliest day in the capital since the American-led security plan for the city took effect two months ago."  It is also the deadliest day in the capital or Iraq this year.  AFP observes that the violence "raised questions about the US-backed security plan for the capital."  Patrick Cockburn (Independent of London via CounterPunch) opens with, "Yesterday will go down as a day of infamy for Iraqis who are repeatedly told by the US that their security is improving."  CNN reports: "It was the worst bombing in the Iraqi capital since the 4-year-old war began, topping the February toll of 130 dead in a bombing in the same marketplace."
 
 
Salam Faraj (AFP) reports that today: "Devastated Iraqis hunted for dead relatives in the city mortuaries on Thursday" and quotes one man sobbing, "Oh God, why all that!" as he stared at "frozen corpses stacked up in the giant morgue at the Imam Ali hospital in Sadr City after a night-time curfew was lifted and daybreak made it safe enough to leave home."  Kirk Semple notes Salar Karmal Zari who had been visiting the capital, declaring, "The blast threw me to the ground and shattered a window over my body. . . .  I saw a human head in front of the store and many cars burning and smoke everywhere. . . . I will never stay in Baghdad anymore."
 
 
Roger Hardy (BBC News) notes of yesterday, "This was supposed to be a day when the Iraqi government could show it was making tangible progress towards the eventual withdrawal of foreign forces."  Hardy's referring to the handoff of the Maysan province to Iraqi control.  As noted yesterday, the transfer was supposed to be a brilliant photo-op, puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki had a speech all prepared but ended up being a no-show when the latest wave of Operation Happy Talk splashed and crashed against reality.  Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's National Security Adviser, ended up reading al-Maliki's speech.  The empty words are all the more empty because, quoting Patrick Cockburn, "the transfer of political or security control by the US and Britain to Iraqi authorities has always been deceptive.  Iraqis believe, with some reason, that real control remains in the hands of the occuyping forces.  Earlier in the year, British forces blew up a police headquarters in Basra and US helicopter-borne troops tried to kidnap two senior Iranian officials visiting Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president."
 
If you use the links or read any of the coverage, you may note something missing -- what tends to always go missing: Iraqi women's voices.  Though many reports mention that women (and children) were among the victims, Iraqi women's voices are abesent from the reporting. Did you know that on one day in November, a Baghdad morgue housed 150 female corpses?  (They had gathered over a ten day period with no one claiming them.)  Ms. readers will know that.  In the spring 2007 issue of Ms. (in stores on April 24th), Bay Fang contributes "The Talibanization of Iraq" (pages 46 through 51) which takes a look at women's lives in Iraq since the start of the illegal war, noting the destruction of basic rights and much more.  Yanar Mohammed (Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq) tells Fang of being able to "meet with groups of 200 or 300 women at factories or the railway station" in the early years of the illegal war; "But this year is completely different.  A woman can't even walk two to three blocks safely, much less [come to] a meeting."  Bay Fang addresses the MADRE report (which may make Ms. one of the first national periodicals to do so -- on MADRE's report click here to read in full in PDF format or in HTML), addresses the issue of "OH THERE ARE WOMEN IN THE PARLIAMENT!" by noting "During the January 2005 elections for the National Assembly, political parties were required to field electoral slates on which every third candidate was a woman, and as a result women captured 31 percent of the seats.  But nearly half of the elected women parliamentarians ran on the list of the Shiite alliance, and they have had to toe the conservative line of their party.  Some of the women parliamentarians could be forces for moderation and progress -- such as Mayson al-Damluji, a former undersecretary of culture who has urged the prime minister to honor his pledge to improve women's rights -- but the dangerous political environment of targeted assassinations has prevented them from being very outspoken."  Again, the latest issue of Ms. magazine (Spring 2007) goes on sale April 24th.  And though Fang's article isn't available currently online, Martha Mendoza's "Between a Woman and her Doctor" went up yesterday.
 
Now if the news above is news to you, that's because the media (big and small) have been in a feeding frenzy over twin (dueling?) soap operas and reality has fallen even more out of favor.  Addressing this with a hard hitting column, Norman Solomon (CounterPunch) observes: "Several days after the mass killings at Virginia Tech, grisly stories about the tragedy still dominate front pages and cable television.  News of carnage on a vastly larger scale -- the war in Iraq -- ebbs and flows.  The overall coverage of lethal violence, at home and far away, reflects the chronic evasions of the American media establishments."  Solomon goes on to explore the reasons for the different approaches in coverage.
 
Turning to the issue of war resisters, yesterday in Germany Agustin Aguayo was released.from the military prison he was sent to after his March court-martial.   
David Rising (AP) notes that Aguayo, credited for the time he was held following his turning himself in September, served "less than six weeks behind bars" on an eight month sentence.  Mark St. Clair (Stars and Stripes) reports that Aguayo received "a bad conduct discharge, which he has since appealed" and that the appeal means, according to Lt. Col. Elizabeth Hibner, that he is "on active-duty status, with the same standards as all the other soldiers in the unit."  Aguayo attempted (repeatedly) to receive CO status and the Center on Conscience & War has declared May 14th the day to lobby Congress to pass a law that would "protect the rights of conscientious objectors". 
 
Meanwhile, Sarah Olson (Truthout) reports on Marc Train who self-checked out the US Army last month, following the March 16th DC demonstration. Olson reports that Train signed up "under the delayed-entry program".  That's a nice little trick that the US military likes to play whereby someone under the age of consent when it comes to signing a legal contract is allowed to do so.  (Note: If you sign up under the delayed-entry program, you can say "NO."  You do not have to go in.  There are a number of legal reasons for that including contract law.  But anyone who has signed up to enter after high school graduation or after they turn 18 is not required to follow through.  Don't go to a base, don't go down to speak to anyone.  You can send a letter saying that you have changed your mind.)  Garrett Reppenhagen (Iraq Veterans Against the War) tells Olson, "Everyone's situation is different, and you have to weigh your obligations to your country and your oath against your moral compass and your higher conscience.  There is never a right or wrong answer when matching such powerful forces." 
 
Yesterday on Flashpoints, Olson interviewed US war resister Ricky Clousing who spoke of how learning of Camilo Mejia and Kevin Benderman "and others" were examples.   Clousing self-checked out and, after turning himself in, was court-martialed October 12th and served three months.
 
Ricky Clousing: I definitely don't regret my decision, I really feel like I responded the way that I needed to.  You know, there's this quote that says, you know, if you bow to the universe the universe bows back.
 
Sarah Olson: So today, though, war is increasingly unpopular, more American soldiers are denouncing it, the Iraqi resistance is growing, people on both sides continue to die.  Where do you, from your pespective as someone who's served in Iraq, where do you believe we need to be headed?
 
Ricky Clousing: A lot of people want to ask me, a lot of people want to know, 'Well who should we vote for,' you know, or 'What do you think's going to happen in the next election' and this, and this, and this.  And I think people are, they're living in a fantasy land if they think that by electing a Democrat in 2008 is going to fix all our problems, you know.  And like, "Oh there's this amazing spokesperson, they're speaking out against the war."  Sure, it's great that it's becoming more popular and more mainstream that people are questioning stuff but this is a radical movement.  It doesn't stop with the Iraq war, at that, you know.  It's much larger and demanding that our government not only be accountable but provide the type of government that we're supposed to be living in which isn't happening, you know?  I mean, we're not, we're not a people, the government is not by the people and for the people cause the people have a completely different priority list and a completely different agenda than the people that are in power and are benefitting you know  from corporate America that's tied into war and conflict and so many other aspects of society that are getting neglected because of it.  I mean the war machine in general is not just just about Iraq, it's not just about Afghanistan, you know, all the weapons that are being made and sent across the world and the role that we play economically across the world.  There are so many huge issues, you know.  So I think that it's so big and I don't mean to sound like a downer about stuff, I'm just saying I think that . . . I don't know the answer to like where things should be I just know that change doesn't happen without awareness, you know.  To start there, all of us need to be becoming more self informed and also spreading that awareness in whatever avenue we have.
 
 
Train, Clousing and Aguayo are part of a movement of war resistance within the military that also includes  Ehren Watada, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Justin Colby, Camilo Mejia, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson,  Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Mejia,  Patrick Hart, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, 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.
 

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Wednesday, April 18, 2007

THIS JUST IN! TRASH RISES AND TRIES TO PASS AS DEM!

 
 
GRIFFIN BELL WAS APPOINTED TO BE ATTONEY GENERAL BY JIMMY CARTER.  BELL DID NOT SERVE OUT HIS ENTIRE TERM.  THOUGH BELL HAD KENNEDY CONNECTIONS IN THE 60S, HE LEFT HIS DEM PARTY DANCE CARD AT STUDIO 54 SOMETIME IN THE LATE 70S -- ACCOUNTS DIFFER REPORTEDLY DUE TO 'CLUB DISEASE' -- CODE FOR COKE USE.
 
LIKE ANY CLUB KID WORTH HIS WORTH, BELL WAS MORE FAMOUS FOR MAKING MR. BLACKWELL'S BEST DRESSED LIST (1978) THAN FOR ANYTHING HE DID WHILE ATTORNEY GENERAL.
 
WITH STUDIO 54 IN RUINS, GRIFFIN HEADED OFF IN THE EARLY DAWN, MUTTERING "BREAD & BUTTER," AND ENDED UP IN G.O.P. HEADQUARTERS (RUMORED TO BE EVEN WILDER THAN STUDIO 54) WHERE HE WAS PART OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT UNDER RONALD REAGAN.  IN FACT, HE WAS ON THE DEPARTMENT'S ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON SOUTH AFRICA.  FOR THOSE WHO FORGOT OR NEVER KNEW, THE REAGAN WHITE HOUSE SUPPORTED APARTHEID.  WHAT A PRINCE LITTLE GRIFFY BELL, WORKING TO UPHOLD RACISM.
 
TO TOP THAT, HE CARRIED WATER FOR POPPY BUSH AS WELL, SERVING ON POPPY'S FEDERAL ETHICS LAW REFORM (1989) AND BEING THE MOB LAWYER FOR POPPY WHEN HIS CRIMINAL ACTIONS DURING IRAN-CONTRA WERE COMING TO LIGHT.  MOST RECENTLY, THE TIRED OLD MAN (88 YEARS OLD) SHOWED UP IN 2004 WITH A NASTY CASE OF MAN LOVE FOR BULLY BOY WHOM HE ENDORSED IN 2004.
 
THAT TRASH AIN'T DEMOCRAT.  DON'T LABEL IT "BIPARTISAN."  THAT TRASH HOPPED OVER TO THE REPUBLICAN SIDE TWO DECADES AGO.
 
 
 
Addressing Iraq and Congress today was Matthew Rothschild who spoke with Andrea Lewis on KPFA's The Morning Show today.
 
Andrea Lewis: Certainly the Democrats have made a lot of gestures and talk about getting the troops out sooner and cutting off the funding.  It seems to me to be kind of stalled -- the whole plan.  What do you think about what's going on on that front?
 
Matthew Rothschild: Well, first of all, news today in Iraq, terrible day, in Baghdad, 127 people killed in a series of blasts in Baghdad so this idea that Baghdad is becoming a nice, safe, quiet place to visit according to John McCain, clearly not the case.  I do think that the Democrats are not doing enough to demand withdrawal within 6 months or, max, a year and not having loopholes where even if that thing passed and even if Bush were to sign it, Bush would still be able to stay in Iraq for years and years because even the Democrats' legislation allows the president to keep training Iraqi security, keep going after al Qaeda and, you know, helping out patrolling Iraq in defense of US personnel which could be Haliburton.  It could be US contractors over there.  So with those loopholes even in the best of bills this war could go on under Bush -- or under Bush's sucessor if it be Hillary Clinton, John Edwards or Barack Obama. None of the Democrats are demanding withdrawal without conditions and that's what's going to have to happen at some point because otherwise, you know Bush is going to keep this going and I think the Democrats are going to capitulate.  I think Harry Reid, not only has he capitulated on gun control, but he's going to capitulate on this, he's going to take even the kind of fake deadline the Democrats have in that legislation and he's going to take those away.  And so Bush will get his funding and this war will go on and it's going to go on until the 11th hour on January 20, 2009 when Bush leaves office and then the Democratic president, if it be a Democratic president, or the Republican successor is going to continue to wage that war unless we really raise the stakes that people of this county, not just Democrats, but the people across party lines are way ahead of the politicians on this.  They want the troops to come out within a year.  And, at some point, we've got to raise our voices a little bit louder.
 
[Note -- I've smoothed over Rothschild's response by removing "uh" and "you know"s.  I have no problem with them and think it's better to include to reflect speaking styles; however, I was in the middle of something else and had to lose the flavor to keep the context.]
 
In war resistance news,  Agustín Aguayo  was to be released today from the brig in Germany he had been sentenced to since his March 6th court-martial for refusing to deploy to an illegal war.  AP reports that he was released: "With credit for time already served, he spent less than six weeks behind bars before being released, said US European Command spokeswoman Lt. Col. Elizabeth Hibner."  Aguayo was repeatedly denied Conscientious Objector status.  First by the military and then by the civilian court system (he will be appealing).  The Center on Conscience & War has declared May 14th the day to lobby Congress for COs: "Our voices together are magnified when we gather and organize to lobby congress for the sake of rights for the conscientious objector.  It is important to support servicements who become conscientious objectors, to lobby for a place for conscience in an inherently violent organization suffering from a dire lack of it.  A law to protect the rights of conscientious objectors (CO) in the military is needed.  With no end in sight to the brutal wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places around the globe, the number of COs in the military is increasing.  The GI Rights Hotline has experienced a sharp increase in the number of calls from those seeking a CO discharge.  The current military policy for COs is not working: they face harassment, they are forced to violate their beliefs and they are denied CO status for arbitrary reasons.  A law passed by Congress is needed to fix the broken system and to put specific procedures in place for the CO discharge process.  May 16th will be a day for voters to make their voices heard for the proposed bill, the Military CO Act."  Links:
 
Come and lobby in Washington, DC or lobby your member of Congress at their local office near your home.
Click here to sign up for lobby day.
 
On May 15th, International CO Day, CCW is participating in 2 events:
Congressional Briefing: 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
An Aspect of Religious Freedom: Conscience in the Military,
sponsored by FCNL, Peace Tax Fund, and John Lewis

Advisory Council, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm @ Church of the Brethren (tentatively)
Church of the Brethren
337 North Carolina Ave. SE
Washington, DC 20003
 
Today, in Geneva, the two day, United Nations organized, "International Conference on Addressing the Humanitarian Needs of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons inside Iraq and in Neighbouring Countries" concluded.  The UN notes that 60 nations participated in the conference on "the nearly 4 million Iraqis who have fled their homes" and that UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, hopes that Iraqis will return to Iraq  and that he "voiced hope that international gratitude for the burden assumed by receiving countries -- with Syria hosting 1.2 million Iraqis and Jordan another 750,000 -- would soon translate into financial support.  He also sought an increased amount of resettlement to third countries, considered necessary for the most vulnerable refugees."  BBC reports that the puppet government of Iraq is willing to give $25 million to Syria and Jordan for housing some of the displaced.  By contrast, the US offered $18 million.  If you don't grasp the difference, Iraq is a client state of the US at present, a client state that still guarantee basic services (let alone security) to Iraqis.  But it has promised $25 million while no-big-spender Bully Boy has okayed $18 million -- to pay for the crisis he created.  Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has declared that:
 
1) The Iraqi Government, in [consultation] with the countries hosting large numbers of displaced Iraqis, will establish offices to address the issue.  These offices will work closely with the host countries, the UNHCR and non-governmental organisations.
 
2) The Iraqi Government has allocated 25 million US dollars to fund the work of these offices.
 
3) The large numbers of displaced Iraqi people are straining the infrastructures of hosting countries.  The Iraqi Government will extend financial assistance to host governments, and its relevant ministries, to support their infrastructure.
 
Dahr Jamail (IPS) reports that Baquba's displaced who have sought refuge in Damascus refer to Baquba with the term "dead city" and notes that "armed men roam the streets and al-Qaeda reigns" and quotes Aziz Abudlla (who was a professor in Baquba) stating, "I think well over half of our city has left, and those who remain never leave their homes.  Those who are left sit in their homes and wait for their death.  They may take their fate from a terrorist entering their house, or a car bomb, or a shooting."
 
Finally, Kevin Zeese (Democracy Rising) interviews Caitlin Esworthy (Port Militarization Resistance of Olympia) about actions to end the illegal war and the attacks peaceful activists suffered from the Tacoma police.  Zeese asks about the "police reaction" and Esworthy responds: "In sum: force, intimidation and erasure of numerous constitutionally protected rights.  Over the course of the two weeks (from March 2nd to the 17th) the police chose to daily escalate their tactics in response to the large groups of people voicing their opposition to the occupation of Iraq and in favor of keeping the 4th Brigade home.  There were pedestrians and drivers that resulted in disorientation and intimidation, use of "less-than-lethal" (read: sometimes lethal) weapons on non-violent protestors, RAMPANT violation of citizens' right to not be videotaped by public officials without probable cause, officers refusing to identify themselves, restriction of the right to wear backpacks on a public street and the repeated restriction of citizens' rights to assemble within reasonable proximity to that which they are protesting so that the nature of their protest is not fundamentally altered (both of which are supported by Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decisions), vehicles being searched without cause or warrant, the list goes on."  A video clips are provided.
 
 

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Tuesday, April 17, 2007

THIS JUST IN!

 
ALL OF D.C. IS CONCERNED WITH THE BULLY BOY WHO HAS REVEALED HE IS "FRUSTRATED WITH CONGRESS."
 
INSIDERS SAY THEY FIRST REALIZED THERE WAS A PROBLEM ON FRIDAY WHEN PRESIDENT OF VICE DICK CHENEY KILLED A BIRD WITH HIS PLANE AND BULLY BOY HAD NO JOKES.  MORE RECENTLY, SECRETARY OF STATE AND ANGER CONDI RICE ATTEMPTED TO CHEER HIM UP BY PLACING A WHOOPI CUSHION UNDER ALBERTO GONZALES IN A PRE-SATURDAY MASSACRE RUN THROUGH MEETING.
 
"NOTHING," RICE REPORTS.  "NOT A GIGGLE, NOT A CHORTLE, NOT EVEN A SMILE."
 
 
 
Starting with war resister news, Ehren Watada's father, Bob Watada, shared Saturday of how his son's struggle has inspired him.  Ehren Watada, in June 2006, became the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq.  In February 2006, his court-martial ended a mistrial and his next court-martial is scheduled for July 16th.  Brian Charlton (AP) reports that Bob Watada spoke Saturday at a Honolulu meeting of the Society of Professional Journalists where he explained, "It was because of him that I've gone out and educated myself."  Charlton notes the stroke Rosa Sakanishi (Ehren's step-mother) suffered.  That was in January at the rally in DC, shortly after Bob Watada spoke.  Ann Wright managed to catch Sakanishi as she was falling.

There are many lessons to be learned from Watada and other war resisters.  Ehren Watada  is part of a movement of war resistance within the military that also includes Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Justin Colby, Camilo Mejia, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson,  Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Joshua Key, Ricky Clousing, Mark Wilkerson, Agustin Aguayo, Camilo Mejia,  Patrick Hart, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, 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.
 
 
Al Jazeera reports on Abu Fares who left Iraq with his family but returned after the start of the illegal war in 2003 which he felt was cause for hope and return (the disposing of Saddam Hussein) only to discover that "Everything was chaos.  We spent days with no water or electricity.  I had to write my will every time I wanted to leave the house."  The family has now returned to Iran with no plans to return to Iraq.  The issue of refugees is one that Dahr Jamail and Ali al Fadhilly have reported on at length for IPS and Dahr has also reported on it frequently for Flashpoints.  Last Tuesday, on Flashpoints, Dahr spoke with Emily Howard about the refugee problem and the refusal to address it by it the US.  He noted that those fortunate enough to afford to leave (buying their way out of arrests frequently) become internal refugees (wandering or living in refugee tents) or else the become external refugees who leave the country.  Friday on KPFA's The Morning Show, Dahr spoke with Andrea Lewis and Aaron Glantz about the Iraqi refugees who had gone to Syria and noted, "I have updated numbers from meeting with Sybella Wilkes yesterday who is the UNHCR regional public information officer.  And according to UNHCR,  there are, there's 1.2 million is the minimum estimate they have in Syria alone.  The governement of Syria, who UNHCR admitted probably has more accurate figures than they do, estimates there's between 1.4 and 1.5 million Iraqi refugees here, hundreds of thousands of those are Shia as well.  I think people in the US are led to believe that it's only the Sunni population that's leaving and, while they are the majority, it's important to note that there's a giant number and growing number of Shia up here in Syria as well.  But really the situation is really -- even just those numbers, as if they're not staggering enough by themselves -- the situation here is UNHCR has only actually registered approximately 70,000 of these people.  So that means these are only the 70,000 that literally have so little of anything that they have to literally go there for food and in some way to find some housing.  So the crisis is certainly going to grow  exponentially as these other Iraqis here, and I have met with many of them, are living on their savings right now.  What are they going to do when their savings run out?   Syria right now has  approximately a 20 to 25% unemployment rate.  Add in another between 1.2 to 1.5 million Iraqis, so already that figure is too low.  And as time persists, of course, the situation will worsen.  And we have between 30 and 50,000 more Iraqis coming into Syria alone every single month." [Those unable to listen to the broadcast can click here for that and other remarks by Dahr.] 
 
Today the United Nations held a conference in Geneva on the subject of the refugee crisis.  BBC reports that Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General, "urged Iraq's neighbours not to close their borders to refugees, and states further afield to do more to help tackle the humanitarian crisis."  Sephanie Nebehay (Reuters) reports that the appeal includes a request "for international aid for nearly 4 million Iraqis".  The United Nations states: "Hundres of concerned participants from governments, aid organization and United Nations bodies gathered in Geneva today" and quotes UNHCR head Antonio Guterres citing a "moral imperative" which requires the actions of "[a]ll of us -- representatives of governments, international organizations and civil society".  Meanwhile Nicholas Keung (Toronto Star) reports: "The UN has raised only half of its $60 million goal for 2007, a figure that includes $2.5 million pledged by Canada."  Deutsche Welle notes, "Germany's Department of Foreign Affairs had announced on Monday that it would make 2.2 million euros in aid available to Iraqi refugees and displaced persons."  IRIN notes that the conference continues tomorrow
 
From refugees to the puppet government that created (or assisted the US government in creating) the problem.  On the heels of Moqtada al-Sadr's block exiting their six minister position in the coalition Nouri al-Maliki cobbled together and filled well after the Consitutionally mandated deadline, the US government launches a global push to shore up support for their puppet.  Ann Scott Tyson (Washington Post) reports that US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will be "using potential U.S. arms sales and other military assistance" to shore up support in the Middle East for al-Maliki.  David S. Cloud (New York Times) notes that Gates' trip will include encouraging "leaders to back Iraq's government and to put aside their doubts about Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's ability to curtail sectarian violence". Julian E. Barnes (Los Angeles Times) informs that "Defense Department officials acknowledge that the support for Maliki in Sunni-dominated nations is not as firm as they would like."  Or at all.  Fatih Abdulsalam (Azzaman via WatchingAmerica) predicts that, when the US does withdraw from Iraq, "the current government -- if it still exists at the time, God forbid -- it would certain encounter its political death, both nationally and internationally, especially if it's notion of using extreme repression to further the national reconciliation process remains unchanged.  The problem is not in any of these options, but al-Maliki himself and his delusional promises of building a military force capable of action as an alternative to the Americans, without purging the existing force of sectarian elements."
 
The attempts to shore up  support for the puppet government outside the US comes as Gary Langer (ABC News) reports on the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll which finds: "A bare majority of the Americans for the first time believe the United States will lose the war in Iraq, and a new high -- two-thirds -- say the war was not worth fighting."  Possibly Robert Gates will next take his goody bag house to house throughout the US?
 
 
 

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Monday, April 16, 2007

THIS JUST IN! DON'T DINE OUT WITH MAINSTREAM PRESS!

 
THIS AFTERNOON, THESE REPORTERS ANSWERED A CALL FROM MAINSTREAM PRESS WHO "NEEDED TO TALK, REALLY, REALLY BAD" AND SUGGESTED WE MEET UP AT CAPITAL Q.
 
MAINSTREAM PRESS ARRIVED LATE AND, ONCE SEATED, MONOPOLIZED THE CONVERSATION. 
 
 
MAINSTREAM PRESS STOPPED DRUMMING THE TABLE WHEN THE FOOD ARRIVED; HOWEVER, MP STILL MONOPOLIZED THE CONVERSATION.
 
 
AFTER GOING ON AND ON ABOUT A DECISION THAT WAS A YEAR AND A HALF AWAY, MAINSTREAM PRESS SUDDENLY HAD TO "DASH" AND RUSHED OFF LEAVING THESE REPORTERS WITH THE CHECK.
 
LESSON: DON'T DINE OUT WITH THE MAINSTREAM PRESS: THEY BORE YOU WITH THEIR 'PROBLEMS' AND STICK YOU WITH THE CHECK.
 
 
 
 
Starting with news of war resistance.  The sound you here is a long WHIIIIINE as a spoiled brat gets a public spanking.  Clancy Sigal (at The Daily Trojan) walks spoiled brat through some basic realities in his response column to the realities of broken contracts:
 
We've been here before during Vietnam, when the desertion rate skyrocketed as soldiers, sailors and marines began to realize what a bogus, pointless war it was.  War-resistance inside the military, including going AWOL, finally broke the Army and forced the Nixon administration to the bargaining table.  Once again we're faced with a dilemma: Who violated the 'contrat' -- the government or the runaway soldiers?  Pope Benedict XVI deserted the Nazi Wehrmacht.  Muhammad Ali refused to serve in the Vietnam War, which he believed was racist and warranted.  And so it goes.  Does the U.S. government, and its military and Veterans Administration, honor or dishonor its 'contract' by forcing combat-weary GIs back into battle through its notorious 'stop loss' policy of refusing to discharge soldiers on due ldate and extending their deployments in a horrendous civil war?  Does the Pentagon honor its obligation when it sends medically unfit soldiers back to the meat-grinder - and, again notoriously, without the proper equipment or weapons?
 
Again, the sound you hear is a pampered, spolied brat getting a public spanking via Clancy Sigal.  In other news of war resisters, Bully Boy's escalation has had many effects -- more Iraqis killed, more US service members killed and Linjamin Mull, Patrick Maloney (Canoe News) reports, reached the decision to self-check out of the US military and move to Canada following Bully Boy's announcement.  Linjamin Mull was a NYC social worker who signed up as a result of "a crushing student debt" and achieved the rank of specialist in the army.  Meanwhile, Jenny Deam (Denver Post) reports on Justin Colby who served as a medic in Iraq and made the decision to self-check out on July 4th of last year and moved to Canada.  Deam notes, "Army figures released last week show 1,710 soldiers have deserted in the past six months.  The numbers are rising as the war goes on: 3,101 walked away between October 2005 and October 2006; 2,659 walked away during the 12 months before." 
 
Yes, it is a movement, a growing movement, an ever growing movement.  Mull and Colby are part of a movement of war resistance within the military that also includes Dean Walcott,
Ehren Watada (whose next court-martial is scheduled for July 16th), Camilo Mejia, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson,  Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Joshua Key, Ricky Clousing, Mark Wilkerson, Agustin Aguayo, Camilo Mejia,  Patrick Hart, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, 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.
 
 
 

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