Tuesday, October 23, 2007

THIS JUST IN! IS IT JUST STUPIDITY?

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIX MIX -- SOUTH CAROLINA.
 
MITT ROMNEY IS EITHER A GUTTER CANDIDATE OR HE IS JUST THAT STUPID.
 
IN THE MIDST OF TRASHING DEMOCRATS TODAY, HE DECLARED, "ACTUALLY, JUST LOOK AT WHAT OSAM -- BARACK OBAMA -- SAID JUST YESTERDAY.  BARACK OBAMA, CALLING ON RADICALS, JIHADISTS OF ALL DIFFERENT TYPES, TO COME TOGETHER IN IRAQ.  THIS IS THE BATTLEFIELD.  IT'S ALMOST AS IF THE DEMOCRATIC CONTENDERS FOR PRESIDENT ARE LIVING IN FANTASYLAND.  THEIR IDEA FOR JIHAD IS TO RETREAT, AND THEIR IDEA FOR THE ECONOMY IS TO ALSO RETREAT."
 
HAIR CLUB FOR MEN ROMNEY'S CAMPAIGN IS CALLING IT AN HONEST MIX-UP AND SAYING THAT ROMNEY MEANT TO SAY "OSAMA BIN LADEN."  THIS IS NOT A SLIP OF A TONGUE WHERE YOU GET A NAME WRONG, ROMNEY WAS TALKING DEMOCRATS.  HE ATTRIBUTED OSAMA'S REMARKS TO A DEMOCRAT AND HE COMPARED IT TO HIS VIEW OF ACTUAL DEMOCRATIC PLAN.  INSERTING "OSAMA" INTO THE SPEECH DOES NOT FIX IT. 
 
ROMNEY EITHER MEANT TO SLIME OBAMA OR ROMNEY IS REALLY SO STUPID THAT HE DOES NOT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A DEMOCRATIC SENATOR AND A SOMEONE DECLARED A TERRORIST AROUND THE WORLD.  IF HE IS THAT STUPID, AMERICANS NEED TO KNOW.
 
IF THIS IS A TACTIC THE REPUBLICANS INTEND TO USE, OBAMA SHOULD CONSIDER CLOSING THE DOORS ON HIS LOSING CAMPAIGN ALREADY.  IN HIS FIRST NATIONAL INTERVIEW -- ON AIR AMERICA RADIO -- AS A CANDIDATE FOR SENATOR, EVEN THE LEFT HOSTS CALLED HIM "OBAMA."  THE DEMOCRATS REALLY DON'T NEED THE BAGGAGE AND SINCE HIS CAMPAIGN HAS MADE NO WAVES OUTSIDE THE MEDIA, THE BEST THING HE CAN DO FOR THE PARTY IS ANNOUNCE HE'S DROPPING OUT.  REFUSAL TO DO SO MEANS REPUBLICANS WILL CONTINUE TO MAKE "MISTAKES" IN ATTEMPTS TO SMEAR THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.  THE "ROCKSTAR" WHOSE CAMPAIGN NEVER GOT OFF THE GROUND NEEDS TO GRASP THAT HE'S DRAGGING DOWN THE PARTY AND CONSIDER SERVING OUT HIS FIRST TERM IN THE SENATE  -- THE SIX YEAR TERM HE WAS JUST SWORN IN FOR IN JANUARY OF 2005.
 
 
Starting with war resisters.  Ehren Watada  is the first US officer to refuse to deploy to Iraq.  After months of hearing from the military brass that they wanted to work towards a solution (they were just delaying -- thinking if they could delay until deployment, Watada would go to Iraq), he went public in June of 2006.  In February of this year, Judge Toilet (aka John Head) rigged a kangaroo court where Watada would be court-martialed for refusing to deploy but would not be allowed to explain to a jury (Watada chose to go with a jury of his peers) why he made the decision he had.  Despite the rigged court-martial, the third day (when Watada would take the stand for the defense) found Judge Toilet calling a mistrial over defense objections to provide the prosecution with a do-over even though the Constitution forbids double-jeopardy."  The Watada National Steering Committee has a message at Courage to Resist:
 
On the weekend of Oct. 26 - 27, we will be participating in or holding demonstrations in support of Lt. Watada. This is the weekend of the Oct. 27 nationwide day of action called jointly by United for Peace & Justice and International A.N.S.W.E.R. We will be reaching out to them to work jointly where we can, or to have local events in cities and towns where they are not having an event.
For more information, please go to our website , contact us online , or phone us at 877-689-4162.
Local groups who wish to support Lt. Watada can help by holding events or speaking about his case at events you are already planning, holding press conferences, writing articles in the media, or writing letters to the editor of your local media. In newspapers, the letters to the editor sections are among the most widely read sections of the paper. Letters must be short or they will not be published due to space; see the length of letters currently published in your local paper for examples.
 
That is this weekend.  Watada is first Iraq War officer to resist.  Stephen Funk is the first public resister of the illegal war.  Iraq Veterans Against the War's chair Camilo Mejia is the first Iraq veteran to publicly resist the illegal war.  From November 10 through December 16th, his voice will be featured in a new play at Culture Project as it presents Rebel Voices the new play which is based on Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's best-selling book Voices of a People's History of the United States.  Along with Mejia, the voices of Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Malcom X and others will be featured.  Zinn will take part in the November 18th presentation (opening night) and poet Staceyann Chinn and musician Allison Mooerer will hed the permanent cast while those confirmed to be performing on selected nights are Ally Sheedy (actress and poet, best known for films such as High Art, The Breakfast Club, Maid to Order, the two Short Circuit films, St. Elmo's Fire, War Games, and, along with Nicky Katt, has good buzz on the forthcoming Harold),  Eve Ensler who wrote the theater classic The Vagina Monologues (no, it's not too soon to call that a classic), actor David Strathaim (L.A. Confidential, The Firm, Bob Roberts, Dolores Claiborne and The Bourne Ultimatum) and actor and playwright Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, Clueless -- film and TV series, Gregory and Chicken Little).  The directors are Will Pomerantz and Rob Urbinati with Urbinati collaborating with Zinn and Arnove on the play.  Tickets are $21 for previews and $41 for regular performances (beginning with the Nov. 18th opening night).  The theater is located at 55 Mercer Street and tickets can be purchased there, over the phone (212-352-3101) or online here and here.  More information can be found at Culture Project. 
 
Turning to war resisters who have gone to Canada.  Last week Bethany "Skyler" James and Michael Espinal went public about their decision to relocate to Canada.  Going public makes the US nervous, hence the need for spin. Over the weekend  Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star) reported on the statements issued by John Nay, United States Counsul General to Canada, who insists that there's nothing any war resister needs to fear about America. His spinning also revealed an ignorance of the official US policies on COs which Nay (National War College graduate) insisted was "hard" for anyone signing up to claim afterwards that they were.  It was one joke out of another from Nay -- certainly the most laughs he's ever gotten outside of his comb-over.  In the Canadian parliament, Alex Atamenko delivered another appeal that the government begin granting asylum to war resisters in a speech that many see as a response to some of Nay's ridiculous claims (Atamenko specifically mentioned the glossy ads that gloss over the realities of war) and a speech that was warmly received.  Meanwhile the War Resisters Support Campaign is staging an event tonight and tomorrow.  First up, a Halloween Masquerade ball at the Budda Bar tonight, in Toronto, with doors opening at eight p.m.  Tomorrow night Michelle Mason's breakthrough documentary . Breaking Ranks will be screened at the University of Toronto's Claude Bissell Building from six to eight p.m. followed by a question and answer session with war resisters.
 
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." 
 
 

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