Sunday, August 03, 2008

THIS JUST IN! HE'S SUCH A CELEBRITY!

 BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
 
POOR BARACK.  HE HAD ONLY ONE CARD TO PLAY: THE RACE CARD.
 
WITH JOHN MCCAIN CALLING HIM ON IT, BARACK'S SNIVELING.
 
HE AGAIN PLAYED THE RACE CARD ON FRIDAY. 
 
 
98% WHITE?  IS BARACK OBSESSED WITH RACE?  DOES HE GO INTO EVERY EVENT ASKING, "HOW MANY WHITES OUT THERE, DAVID, HOW MANY WHITES?"
 
BARACK THEN TRIED TO BRUSH OVER HIS LIE THAT HE DOESN'T "LOOK LIKE OTHER PRESIDENTS" BECAUSE HE SOUNDED LIKE AN IDIOT SINCE HE IS NOT A PRESIDENT.
 
 
"CENTRAL CASTING"?  DOES HE THINK HE'S JANE FONDA IN THEY SHOOT HORSES DON'T THEY?  AND THAT FILM WAS SET IN THE DEPRESSION.  HE'S SO HOPELESSLY OUT OF DATE AND OUT OF TUNE WITH AMERICA.  NEXT UP, BARACK SUITS UP IN FONDA'S OLD BARBARELLA COSTUME!
 
BARACK OBAMA: THE ZZA ZZA GABOR OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES.
 
 
Starting with war resistance, Jan Slakov (BCLocalNews) proposed ways to prepare for peace this week and the second step was: "Welcome war resisters: Former U.S. President John F. Kennedy once said: 'War will exist until that distant day when the CO [conscientious objector] enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.'  A majority of Canadian MPs understand this, and voted on June 3 to allow U.S. soldiers who object to the 'war on terror' on conscientious grounds to stay in Canada.  However, the Conservative government is ignoring the will of these deserters to be deported to face punishment in the U.S." The Conservative government and conservative shills like Rondi Adamson who offers a string of lies in the Christian Science Monitor.  In fact, Rondi's piece should be titled "No Lie Left Untold."  Rondi admits Canada took in "draft dodgers" during Vietnam but forgets to note they also took in deserters.  Rondi forgets to note the popular (or Parliament) support in Canada for war resisters.  From the July 1st snapshot: "The Angus Reid Poll finds: 'A majority of Canadians would agree with the decision to let American military deserters stay in Canada as permanent residents, a new Angus Reid Strategies survey reveals. . . In the online survey of a representative national sample, three-in-five Canadians (64%) say they would agree to give these U.S. soldiers the opportunity to remain in Canada as permanent residents. Quebec (70%) houses the highest proportion of respondents who agree with the motion, while Alberta (52%) has the fewest supporters. A gender breakdown reveals that while both males and females would agree to let U.S. military deserters remain in Canada, females are much more sympathetic (69% versus 57%)'."  And Rondi is apparently confessing that Canadians spat on US soldiers during Vietnam.  That LIE has long been disproven in the US but apparently, Rondi wants us to believe it happened in Canada.
 
War resisters in Canada need your help. To pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail finley.d@parl.gc.ca -- that's "finley.d" at "parl.gc.ca") and Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, 613.992.4211, phone; 613.941.6900, fax; e-mail pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's "pm" at "pm.gc.ca"). Courage to Resist collected more than 10,000 letters to send before the vote. Now they've started a new letter you can use online here. The War Resisters Support Campaign's petition can be found here. Long expulsion does not change the need for action and the War Resisters Support Campaign explains: "The War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada to urgently continue to put pressure on the minority conservative government to immediately cease deportation proceedings against other US war resisters and to respect the will of Canadians and their elected representatives by implementing the motion adopted by Parliament on June 3rd. Please see the take action page for what you can do."
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Yovany Rivero, William Shearer, Michael Thurman, Andrei Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, 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, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara 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, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, 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. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
 
[. . .]
 
 
Turning to the US presidential race.  "He's a lot more optimistic than me, I can tell you," Jurgen Vsych explains of Ralph Nader to Jan Baughman (Swans Commentary). "That's one thing that we used to fight about, because I'm, I wouldn't say pound-for-pound I'm a total pessimist, but I am pretty pessimistic about a lot of things in the economy and the political successes, he has lots of success stories to tell, although I don't know, I guess because a lot of his work has been undone, systematically undone by dergulation, so how he keeps his spirits up I don't know -- I really don't."  Jurgen Vsych is a filmmaker (including Ralph Nader Crashes The Two Parties) and check out the website she's creating entitled Nader Tube & Ralph Nader Radio.  Jugen Vsych has also written the book What Was Ralph Nader Thinking? which Baughman reviews here.   Speaking at the Dominican University in February of last year, a man complained,  "But we all know you don't have a snow ball's chance in hell of getting elected."  Ralph replied, to the hearty approval of those present, "How about in heaven?" 
 
"Are you a sports fan?  Do you know any sports player who gives up?" Lisa Riley Roche (Desert News) quotes Ralph Nader saying at a news conference in Salt Lake City this morning.  Nader was in Utah capitol on a campaign stop that began Thursday evening when he spoke at the University of Utah.  Introducing him, former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson explained, "This whole nation needs to be turned around.  We're not going to do it with the Democrats saying, 'We'll get around to it someday'." Speaking to the crowd of over 400, Ralph Nader wondered, "Do you realize there is no discernible breaking point for the American people?  We're headed for a cliff . . . where's the breaking point?"  He added, "If none of us have breaking points, none of us have a moral compass."  Robert Gehrke (Salt Lake Tribune) reports that "Nader filed paperwork putting himself on the ballot in Utah" this morning and quotes Ralph stating, "This country is not owned by the two major parties.  They don't own the voters.  There is not even the word 'party' in the Constitution.  There isn't even the word 'corporation' in the Constitution, and yet these two institutions have run our country into the ground and are tearing the heart and soul out of America."  Salt Lake City's KSL reported on the press conference this morning (link has video as well as a text article written by Richard Piatt):
 
Tonya Papanikolas: Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is officially a candidate here in Utah. 
 
Scott Haws: Yeah, he's trying to get the word out with a limited budget and minimal support but at a news conference this morning, he was not afraid to take on the big guys.  Richard Piatt was there and joins us with more.  Rich?
 
Richard Piatt: Well, as you know Scott, Ralph Nader has been taking on the big guys for forty years now, starting with General Motors in the 1960s, you'll recall he successfully got a car called the Corvair pulled off the market. These days, in his seventies, he is just as entergetic.  And he's diligent about running for president this time again.  Nader registered as an official presidential candidate in Utah at the lieutenant governor's office this morning.  He called his rivials John McCain and Barack Obama "corporate candidates."  He appeared with former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson at a news conference this morning.  Nader says the average American tax payer is not being served by the status quo.  Unfair tax policies, inadequate health care options and gridlock in Congress are among the problems he sees.  He says voters need a more diverse campaign.  But he points out that he is being excluded from most of the major presidential debates, furthering what he calls a "corporate candidate quagmire."
 
Ralph Nader: The two parties have spoiled our elections.  They've spoiled our government.  They've spoiled our political system.  And they've turned our government over to  big businness that's about the worst constitutional crime you can imagine.
 
Richard Piatt: Nader has been labeled a spoiler in the past, depriving other candidates, like John Kerry, of votes by defusing the support.  But according to a Dan Jones poll in May here in Utah, Nader barely registers in Utah this year.  The poll showed Nader with only 2 percent of the 604 statewide voters at that time in May.  Even so, he refuses to see himself as a spoiler or even a bad candidate.  Instead, he says he's the only candidate who . . .  is a real alternative.  Nader is scheduled to appear next in Davis, Calif., on Saturday for a rally with his running mate Matt Gonzalez. Back to you.
 
 
 
The Nader-Gonzalez '08 campaign (Matt Gonzalez is Ralph's running mate) has been keeping a very busy schedule and some of the upcoming events include:
 
Sat. August 2nd, 8:00pm
Nader for President 2008 Rally w/ Matt Gonzalez
Davis, CA
Varsity Theater
616 Second St., Davis, CA 95616
Contributions $10/ $5 student
(530) 554-8250 or events@votenader.org
Map it 

Sun. August 3rd, 1:30pm 
Nader for President 2008 Rally w/ Matt Gonzalez   
Sebastopol, CA
Sebastopol Community Center
390 Morris St., Sebastopol, CA 95472
Contribution $10/$5 student  
(415) 897-6989 or events@votenader.org     
Map it 

Sun Aug. 3rd, 4:30pm
Ralph Nader Book Signing and Speech w/ Matt Gonzalez
Healdsburg, CA
Copperfield's books
104 Matheson St., Healdsburg, CA 95448
(707) 235-1026 or events@votenader.org
Map it 

Sun Aug. 3rd, 7:30pm
Nader for President 2008 Rally w/ Matt Gonzalez
Kentfield, CA (Marin)
College of Marin- Olney Hall
835 College Ave., Kentfield, CA
Contribution $10/$5 students
(415) 897-6989 or events@votenader.org
Map it