Thursday, January 03, 2008

THIS JUST IN! IOWA, THE LAND OF LOSERS!

 
LAND OF THE LOSERS, IOWA.  TOO LONG IT HAS ACTED AS THE TONE SETTER FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES.  IT CONTINUES TO HOLD THAT TITLE TODAY.
 
WHILE ELSEWHERE, VOTERS VOTE ONCE FOR ONE CHOICE, IN IOWA THEY CAN GO BACK AND FORTH ALL NIGHT AND DO.
 
LOSER CANDIDATE DENNIS KUCINICH  -- WHO GIVES LIP SERVICE TO ENDING THE ILLEGAL WAR -- HAVE TOLD HIS SUPPORTERS TO VOTE NOT FOR HIM IN THE 2ND ROUND BUT FOR WAR HAWK BARACK OBAMA.
 
HEY, TURD HEAD, YOU JUST FLUSHED YOUR CAMPAIGN SO DROP OUT OF THE RACE ALREADY.  YOU'VE TOLD AMERICA WHAT YOU REALLY THINK OF THE ILLEGAL WAR AND YOU'VE SIGNALED THAT YOU THINK YOUR OWN CAMPAIGN IS  USELESS.  GET GONE AND STOP EATING UP THE OXYGEN FROM CANDIDATES WILLING TO FIGHT FOR A WIN.
 
IN FLORIDA -- WHICH THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE IS TRYING TO PUNISH FOR MOVING UP THEIR PRIMARY -- CITIZENS WHO VOTE PICK SELECT THEIR CHOICE AND GO HOME.  THERE'S ONE ROUND.  NO, "IF I'D KNOWN RICHARDSON WASN'T GOING TO WIN, I WOULD HAVE VOTED FOR HILLARY!  I WANT A DO OVER!  I WANT A DO OVER!"
 
BUT IN IOWA, YOU GET DO-OVERS ALL THE TIME.  IOWA IS NOT TYPICAL OF THE UNITED STATES AND SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED, ELECTION CYCLE AFTER ELECTION CYCLE, BE ABLE TO KICK OFF THE ELECTION CYCLE.
 
 
CORRUPT AND DISGUSTING, THE AMERICAN ELECTION SEASON IS OFFICIALLY OFF AND RUNNING.
 
THE ONLY THING IOWA TELLS THE COUNTRY ABOUT VOTES IS THAT IF THAT STATE'S CITIZENS ARE GIVEN MULTIPLE TRIES TO CAST A VOTE, AT SOME POINT THEY MAY BE ABLE TO MAKE A CHOICE. 
 
THESE ARE THE IDIOTS THAT DECIDE THE FATE OF THE COUNTRY.  AND PEOPLE MADE OF FUN OF THE ELDERLY WHO MISUNDERSTOOD THE MISLEADING BUTTERFLY BALLOT IN 2000.
 
 
 
Starting with war resistance, Ehren Watada is noted in Edwin Tanji's (Honolulu Advertiser) reflections on 2007: "Critics of the war engaged in frequent rallies as well as the appearance in April by Bob Watada, father of Lt. Ehren Watada, who is facing court-martial for refusing deployment to Iraq."  In June 2006, Watada became the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq.  He based his decision on fact that the Iraq War is illegal.  The Christian Sciene Monitor's Dean Paton (at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer) explained in October, "When he returned to Fort Lewis, he began researching Iraq.  The expose at Abu Ghraib prison fueld his doubts about the war.  He read the report of the Iraq Survey Group, a team formed after the 2003 invasion to see if weapons of mass destruction existed.  It found they didn't.  He studied the United Nations Charter, the Nurember Principles, and the Uniform Code of military Justice. . . . Watada realized that from the moment he swore to 'protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic,' and to 'bear true faith and allegiance to the same,' his solemn oath required him to refuse orders to fight an illegal war."  Monica Guzman (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) notes that Paton's column was of "the P-I's 10 most-discussed" and it "touched off debate about the fate of Lt. Ehren Watada, the first Army officer to refuse to deploy to Iraq on grounds that the war is illegal."
 
Meanwhile, in Canada where some war resisters went to seek asylum, the Canadian Parliament has the power to let war resisters stay in Canada. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use. Both War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist are calling for actions from January 24-26.
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Rodney Watson, 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. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
 
 



In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.

 
March 13th through 16th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. 
 
In other March news, Ashley Casale who took part in the March for Peace is trying to raise awareness on an event that will not schedule actions during Winter Soldier but will have actions before and after, Our Spring Break.  March 7th through the 19th, they will be in DC -- with IVAW from the 13th through the 16th.  At Common Dreams, she explains this action that young people have planned and are leading on, "This March marks 5 years since the U.S. invaded Iraq for reasons we were too young to understand at the time; as we grew older we learned it was for oil, wealth, and power and not for peace, freedom, and democracy as we were told and most naively believed.  Now many young people in America are speaking out daily and pledging to travel to D.C. for our spring break to tell Congress, Bush and Cheney that our spring break will end their war.  It may not be as warm as Daytona Beach, but Bush wants us to go there, drink, party and forget about his war.  We're not going to go where he wants us to go.  We're going to go to him instead." 
 
Common Dreams allow comments and they are revealing: "Hello young Americans!" types Smug & Self-Righteous, "Welcome to the anti-war effort.  We've missed you for the past six years and value your long awaited-support."  Then you've got BUTT UGLY associated with Lousiville Peace Action Community who says they "HAVE BEEN working SINCE BEFORE this illegal Iraq War" and "WE DELIGHT IN YOUR AWAKENING AND COMMITTING TO THE CHALLENGES BEFORE US." 
 
Let's repeat reality because Smug & Self-Righteous and BUTT UGLY have missed it: Students were active before the illegal war started, have been active since and if you didn't see them (a) that's your own blindness and/or (b) you're suffering some major media damage.  BUTT UGLY comes from an organization which, for the record, hasn't ended the illegal war but doesn't mind featuring a video entitled "Students, A Challenge for You!" which is nothing but more youth-hatred masked as "motivation" as Chunky Monkey ,who looks like he hasn't showered since he caught Ween in 1993, let's young people know he's 'f--king' disappointed with them for their inaction (THEY WERE NEVER INACTIVE) including during "the lead up to the war."  Define young people, Chunky.
 
In 2003, how old did they have to be qualify for "young"?  10-years-old?  Get serious.  No one needs a lazy ass 38-year-old fat, f--k screaming at students about things he knows nothing about. 
 
Students have been active.  BUTT UGLY, Chunky Monkey and Smug & Self-Righteous might try learning something before flapping their fat mouths.  I'm really sick of this.  February 2003, I started visiting campuses to speak about the illegal war.  I've been doing that for five years next month.  The next time one of these assholes wants to talk about what students have or haven't done, how about they first take their own lazy asses to a high school or college campus?  And, for fun, how about not one they can reach while on their 'brisk' walk?
 
Students have been active from the start.  There was huge passion in Feb. 2003 and students were lied to by 'leaders' who said, "This will end the war, this will stop it."  March 2003, after the illegal war started, go onto a campus to talk about Iraq then and you had to tell with students who felt outraged by the White House and LIED TO by the leaders.  They've spent the last years being active and it's only your smug ingorance that allows you to be unaware of that fact.  But they've waited for leaders to share tools and what they've received instead is 'leaders' visiting their campuses telling them "No, don't boo at that event.  It will look bad for the movement." and other similar crap.  What they've received is a peace movement that closed ranks against them and has not brought them into leadership.
 
Smug & Self-Righteous, Butt Ugly and Chunky Monkey, the only difference you're seeing and will be seeing is students aren't waiting for leadership to come to them.  They've become their own leaders.  And if you want to finger point at anyone, aim that middle one at yourselves for not doing a damn thing in the last five years to help the youth get active.  The '60s' had the Civil Right Movement as a model.  This generation?  What have they had?  And if you're 38-years-old, you're really in no place to hop on your Huffy bike about what students are doing today -- you're too young to have done anything to end apartheid, and you're too old to have been a "student" during the anti-globization movement. 
 
Your ignorance is no excuse.  The fact that you don't know Carla Gomez or Robert Zabala or any of the young people who have been standing up is no excuse.  The fact that media has ignored them is no excuse.  You decided to weigh in and promote yourselves as 'agents of change' when the reality is that you did and do nothing to further the movement.  IVAW, check the faces, is a young organization. Counter-recruiting movements across the country don't just aim to reach the young, they have young people in the ranks and in leadership. 
 
Like a Nation essay winner (truly, they gave a prize for this crap), you come along to tsk-tsk about things you know nothing about.  Your gall is appalling.  And it goes to the peace movement leadership as well.  At the most basic, what the comments (and video) are saying is, "I was here first!"  About as valid as Christopher Columbus making that claim.  Instead of being happy for Ashley Casale and offering encouragement, these asses want to say, "Well, I've been here from the start.  Where were you?  Welcome." 
 
I'm not really sure that in January 2008 any of us who were there "from the start" have earned the right to any bragging since the illegal war drags on all this time later.  wishiwasinagreenstate posted a response to some of the nonsense which opens with, "Welcome?  You've missed us?  Thanks for the welcome, but we've been here all along.  I was much more active in antiwar groups and activies before I graduated from college in 2005.  In fact, the rest of society hasn't really caught up with campus organizing."  As Elaine noted last night (and, yes, she was referring to the comments to this article), "I wonder if people realize when they toot their own horns, when they come off so smug to people who are attempting to plan something, they don't look informed, they just look like smug asses.  The thing I saw was a young woman writing about an action . . . and the response was all these older types being smug and self-righteous.  What they should have done was shut their big mouths."
 
Our Spring Break's schedule is here. And note, from their home page, "Message to older people: We love you too! Join us."  That those much older than Ashley couldn't offer the same kindness in return says a great deal about the sickness in the ranks of the movement, where it's more important to offer, "I did this . . . I did that . . . Welcome, but I was . . ." 
 
Ending the illegal war is going to take the work of many and 'oldsters' need to grasp people coming in are not 'claims jumpers'.
 
 

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