BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
BARACK OBAMA IS HOPPING MAD. HE CALLS THESE REPORTERS TO SCREAM ABOUT A REPORT IN THE NIGERIA TRIBUNE.
WE YAWN AND TELL HIM FEW AMERICANS READ THAT PUBLICATION.
HE FRETS, HE STORMS, HE THUNDERS AND, MAINLY, HE WHINES.
HOW DARE THEY SAY NICE THINGS ABOUT HIS WHITE MOTHER. HOW DARE THEY IMPLY SHE WAS HURT THAT HE DID NOT WRITE NICELY ABOUT HER.
WE SHOOT BACK, "HOW DARE THEY TALK ABOUT INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE BEING ILLEGAL IN SOME STATES WHEN YOUR PARENTS MARRIED BUT DIDN'T BRING UP THE FACT THAT BIGAMY WAS ILLEGAL IN ALL. YOU KNOW, BARACK, YOUR PARENTS WERE NOT LEGALLY MARRIED. YOUR FATHER ALREADY HAD A WIFE IN KENYA THAT HE LEFT BEHIND TO COME TO THE U.S. AND REJOINED HER AFTER HE LEFT THE U.S. IN KENYA, IT MAY BE OKAY TO HAVE SEVERAL WIVES BUT IN THE U.S., YOU LEGALLY ARE ALLOWED JUST ONE."
BARACK THUNDERED AND YELLED SOME MORE.
HE WENT ON AND ON ABOUT HIS FATHER LOVED HIM AND THAT'S WHY HE WROTE THE BOOK ABOUT HIS FATHER.
"THAT WOULD BE THE FATHER YOU NEVER KNEW," WE POINTED OUT. "THE ONE WHO HIGHTAILED IT BACK TO KENYA AND NEVER SAW YOU AGAIN. THE ONE WHO DID NOT KEEP IN CONTACT WITH YOU. WHICH IS WHY, WHEN YOU WENT TO KENYA AS AN ADULT, YOU WERE SHOCKED TO FIND OUT HOW MANY HALF-BROTHERS AND HALF-SISTERS YOU HAD AND HOW MANY WIVES YOUR FATHER HAD."
"THIS CAMPAIGN," BARACK INSISTED, "HAS BEEN ABOUT PROVING SOMEONE LOVES ME EVEN IF DADDY DIDN'T!"
WITH THAT HE SLAMMED DOWN THE PHONE.
GREAT, JUST WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN'T NEED, ANOTHER IMMATURE BOY WITH UNRESOLVED DADDY ISSUES.
Starting with war resistance. Teviah Moro (The Orillia Packet & Times) reports that the Quakers in Orillia will demonstrate tomorrow in an attempt to register their support for war resisters in Canada. Ottawa, Nelson, B.C., Victoria, B.C., Port Dover, Sarnia and Strathory will also hold demonstrations. Moro notes: "Organizers of the Orillia rally, to be held outside the Opera House from 12:30 to 1:30 p. m., aim to explain the underlying issues of the pending deportations and will have petitions on hand."
Meanwhile, It was two years ago today, as Austin Jenkins (OPB News) notes, that Ehren Watada became the first officer to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq in June 2006. In August 2006, he faced and Article 32 hearing. In February, he faced a kanagroo court-martial. Judge Toilet (aka John Head) declared a mistrial over defense objection as Watada was about to take the stand (after which the defense would have rested and the military jury would have reached a decision). Judge Toilet forgot a lot that day. He announced that a new court-martial would take place in March but that was really beyond his call (and why no court-martial took place then). He also forgot about the US Constitution, popularly known as "the law of the land," and it's provision against double-jeopardy. In November of last year, as Judge Toilet repeatedly tried to force another court-martial, US District Judge Benjamin Settle ruled that no action could take place until the double-jeopardy was resolved. Watada has been in limbo since. William Cole (Honolulu Advertiser) speaks to Ehren's father, Bob Watada who has "suggested to his son's attorneys that they somehow force a conclusion to the issue" and whom Cole quotes stating, "The attorneys are talking to the Army. They aren't telling me what they are saying, but they are talking to them." Austin Jenkins (OPB News) quotes one of Watada's two civilian attorneys, Ken Kagan, declaring, "It's conceivable that the appeals process in the 9th Circuit could consume anywhere from 18 months to three years. So that is a limbo that is very hard for Lt. Watada to imagine but he's prepared to do what he needs to do."
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes 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). Shhhh. Listen? It's the sound of hundreds of computers in Panhandle Media booting up over their sobs as they force determination to yet again sell their political crush as someone who will end the illegal war. Media anointed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is not 'anti-war' and is not seriously opposed to the illegal war. But if you didn't have Tommy Hayden, Laura Flanders and the gang lying for him non-stop, people wouldn't think otherwise, now would they? (Those two named because they have both -- in February -- talked about how Barack's feet need to be held to the fire and yet they've never done so. Someday I suppose, as the Mighty Bosstones once sang.) The Press Trust of India reports that Barack told CNN he would "not tule out the possibility that conditions on the ground could alter his policy of immediately beginning a troop withdrawal and that Barack insisted of his 'pledge' to end the illegal war, "Well, you know, I'd never say there's 'nothing' or 'never' or 'no way' in which I'd change my mind." Confronted with his statements on withdrawal policy, Obama replied, "Well, you know, I'd never say there's 'nothing' or 'never' or 'no way' in which I'd change my mind". He spoke of "broader perspective"s and offered praise for Gen David Petraeus. It's shocking only if you've trusted the liars of Panhandle Media. Barack has changed his position on the Iraq War repeatedly. While running for the US Senate, he told Elaine and I at a big money, private fundraiser that he didn't favor withdrawal. His attitude was that the US was in Iraq now and had to win. (Neither Elaine nor I contributed to his run. We both immediately walked out of the fundraiser.) At that point he was a myth of the radical left, an "anti-war" candidate. The press picked up on that and he became the "anti-war" Senator which required ignoring not only his public statements (his many public statements) but his continued voting for the illegal war once he got into the US Senate. Throughout the campaign, he has signaled (and sometimes stated) to the mainstream press that his stance is far from it's portrayed. "Hopelessly Devoted To Barack" Tom Hayden made a real ass out of himself doing a quickie write up of an NYT article co-written by Michael Gordon. The reality of what was what was in the transcript of the interview which the paper posted online. In February, after his advertsiments where he robotically declared that his mother died of cancer, the campaign went into overtime with an advertisement that played like the Pepsi Generation (truly, it was the late 60s and early seventies Pepsi generation commercials). To a bad 'rock' guitar, the commercial opened and featured quick shots of Barack barking out sentences while groupies swooned. "We want . . ." he barked over and over, a laundry list of demands. The Iraq War was on it. But Barack wasn't running to be "we," he was running to become the nominee of the Democratic Party and then the president. There were no "I will end the Iraq War." All he did was offer what "we" wanted. It got the psychos in Panhandle Media excited. Of course, were he serious about ending the illegal war, his campaign would have stolen not the Pepsi commercials of that period, but the Coke commericals: I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony . . . There was no "pledge" or "promise" made to end the illegal war, despite the groupies like Tom Hayden going bug-eyed crazy in their efforts to pretend otherwise (a fleeting sentence delivered in Houston, TX, as ginned up by Hayden into a new plan for Iraq). Then came the crash and burn of his advisor (a counter-insurgency supporter and War Hawk) Samantha Power. The pathetics in Panhandle Media made themselves laughable -- and include John Nichols, Davey D and BuzzFlash at the top of that list. Poor Samantha "fired" (Power resigned) for calling Hillary Clinton a "monster." Poor sweet Sammy. No, she resigned because of the damage she did with the press in England. The "monster" insult was the trivia the MSM pumped out. On that same trip, she insulted Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the UK and presumed ally of the next US administration regardless of who becomes president, and she gave an interview (that Panhandle Media refused to cover) to the BBC where she explained that Barack would be not be held accountable, if elected president, to any 'pledges' about Iraq he's making on the campaign trail. She explained, as an advisor to Barack and a campaign insider, that any plans about what to do in Iraq would be decided only after he entered the White House. Had that interview gotten the attention it should have, Barack would have faced tough questions. That didn't happen. It wasn't of interest to the corporate media (which still wants the illegal war) to give it much traction and the rejects of Panhandle Media are in love with Barack because of his 'connections' (his using of) Saul, Bernardine and Bill. They deluded themselves into believing he was a Socialist when he is just a user who will use anyone regardless of political ideology in his efforts to climb to the top. The Queen of the Beggars, Amy Goodman, wanted credit for a few minutes (two?) she aired of her speaking with Barack. In it, he basically repeated what Samantha Power had said. Goody never pursued that in panel discussions (all panel discussions accepted the lie that he was against the illegal war and would immediately end it). Goody never connected it with the Samantha Power BBC interview (though Barack was making the same points Power had months prior) and she never wrote one of her bad columns, where she recycles some segment of her show, on the topic. It was lie, lie, lie, denial, denial. They worked overtime not to include Eli Lake (New York Sun) report in the narrative. Lake reported that the "day-to-day coordinator" of Barack's campaign had just written a paper which argued for 60,000 to 80,000 US troops to remain in Iraq "as of late 2010, a plan at odds with the public pledge of the Illinois senator to withdraw combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office." Among the very few who have tried to maintain perspective and stick to reality about War Hawk Barack are Phyllis Bennis, John Pilger, Doug Henwood and Juan Gonzalez. It's a very small list. By contrast, most have offered 'reasons' of support for Barack like the insane Dave Lindorff who believes Barack should be supported because Barak is "a black candiate who has risked jail by doing drugs."
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot" |
Saturday, June 07, 2008
THIS JUST IN! BARACK LOVES DADDY!
Friday, June 06, 2008
THIS JUST IN! THE NOT SO ANTI-WAR BARACK!
BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
THOUGH HE HASN'T EVEN SEIZED THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION OFFICIALLY, BARACK OBAMA'S ALREADY DECLARING "TROOPS HOME NOW" IS 'IFFY.'
IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, BARACK TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "I GOT TIRED OF PRETENDING I WAS GOING TO END THE IRAQ WAR AND IN THE GENERAL ELECTION YOU HAVE TO RUN TO THE RIGHT. HAVING ALREADY USED HOMOPHOBIA AND SEXISM ALL DURING THE PRIMARY, WHAT OTHER RIGHT-WING TACTIC DID I HAVE TO OFFER EXCEPT MAYBE WEARING A BOW TIE?"
Starting with war resistance. On Tuesday, Canada's House of Commons passed a motion to grant safe harbor status to US war resisters in Canada. Aaron Wherry (Macleans.ca) observes, "Liberal Jim Karygiannis and New Democrat Olivia Chow put together a motion and got it to a vote." Ontario Now notes that the Tory party was against the motiong but they "were outvoted by the other three opposition parties, 1137-110 in the vote" and quotes MP Olivia Chow explaining, "There is a lot of support by ordinary citizens to allow U.S. war deserters the right to stay in Canada." Travis Lupik (The Straight) speaks with US war resister Brad McCall: "Reacting to the news, McCall told the Straight that he planned to celebrate, and then field interviews and prepare for the next battle. McCall said that he was hopeful that the Conservative government will abide by the House's recommendation, but cautioned that the war resisters had not won yet. 'I think they [the Conservatives] will probably just ignore it and see if anybody notices,' he said." [For previous coverage of McCall from The Straight click here and here.] Elliot Robins (Kootenay Western Star) speaks with US war resister Ryan Johnson who states, "We're pretty excited. It's a big step for war resisters here in Canada. We have a direct show of support from Parliament and it could be a very important thing to help end this [Iraq] war. . . . It's pretty hard to start your life based on the hope that a country that you've never been to before will suddenly decide to change its entire law around something to allow me to stay here. My life has been dramatically changed by our [Johnson and his wife, Jenna] decision to come to Canada, but even if I was deported, I wouldn't take back my decision to have come here."
Meanwhile Chris Cook (Pacific Free Press) takes a look at media in Canada (such as the CBC) and finds it lacking as it works hard to ignore the news about Tuesday's vote. What of so-called 'independent' media in the US? What's Panhandle Media in the US doing? As usual, not a damn thing. The Nation hasn't done a story on it or even a blog post (they have at least nine blogs supposedly updated regularly). It's not news to our 'friends' at The Nation. (Ask Katrina what happened on Wife Swap last night and she'll write you an essay.) The Progressive? Matty Rothschild and company are far too busy. CounterPunch -- the allegedly non-electoral hokum Counterpunch? At least 20 articles published today and yesterday. Number on war resisters? Zero. Cost of publicly pretending to give a damn about ending the illegal war? Priceless. Amy Goodman, apparently putting down her copy of Hu**ler magazine for a moment or two, surfaced yesterday morning with four sentences on the ruling. And still managed to do severe damages. "As many as 200 U.S. war resisters are currently living in Canada," she gushed. As many as? 200 was surpassed in 2006. But Goody hasn't sat down with one since November of 2006 so we can't expect up to date info from her. Mike addressed trashy Amy Goodman last night (including linking to the piece on Hu**ler that we can't here due to being 'work safe' for all readers). 14 days and she still hasn't found it worth informing her listeners that US war resister Corey Glass was ordered to leave Canada. May 21st, US war resisters and Iraq War veteran Glass was informed that he had until June 12th to leave Canada or he would be deported. Apparently that's not news and not important to Panhandle Media.
Laughably, a Panhandle Media 'conference' takes place this weekend to talk up the importance of a . . . useless echo chamber? We're supposed to strengthen something that already refuses to deliver the news we need? We're supposed to give a damn about Panhandle Media? It's really past time to stop rewarding bad behavior. Now if we didn't have so many in Panhandle Media who were stupid, uncaring or damaged from intensive drug use, we might be able to end the illegal war. We might have ended it some time ago. But to do that, we'd need to be informed of two things (1) what is actually happening and (2) our own history.
Panhandle Media will never save one person, let alone the world. So let's save ourselves while they stay useless. In 1969, a member of the US Congress went to Canada to speak with war resisters. His name? Ed Koch. Better known today as the former mayor of NYC. Between then and the end of 1974, Kokch introduced how many amnesty bills in the US House of Representatives? Four. Now if we know that, we can ask why none of our 'friends' in Congress have yet to make that trip? Dennis Kucinich, Canada is calling. Where are our bills in Congress calling for amnesty for war resisters? Forget "laws" -- which are bills that have been passed -- where are our bills arguing for amnesty. By the end of 1974, because of the work by people like Koch, a Republican would step forward in the Senate with a bill for war resisters (only one group of them). Who was that Republican? Ask Panhandle Media. Remember they care sooo much and they are soooo informed and they have all the information to give you . . . right after the never ending pledge drive cycles.
In the real world, 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").
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes 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 political race, Allison Stevens (Women's eNews) reports on Hillary Clinton's primary campaign: "And Clinton's candidacy shined a high beam on stubborn strains of sexism, said Clare Giesen, executive director of the National Women's Political Caucus, a group in Washington, D.C., that works to elect pro-choice women to office. 'This campaign has unveiled sexism as none of us thought existed," she said. "It's like some feral object; it's just out of control.' The depth of sexist attitudes became apparent in national news media coverage of Clinton, Giesen said. A Feb. 1 media study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., showed that from Dec. 16 through Jan. 27, five out of six on-air evaluations of Obama were favorable but only half of Clinton were. Giesen said sexist comments in the media serve as a rallying cry for women's rights advocates. 'There is a definite second act that comes after this election. Even if she got the nomination, what we have looked at is a real resistance to women in power, and a fear. And we've got to do a lot to educate people'." Froma Harrop (Rasmussen Reports) observes, "What's dangerous for the Democratic Party is that, for many women, the eye of the storm has moved beyond Hillary or anything she does at this point. The offense has turned personal. They are now in their own orbit, having abandoned popular Democratic Websites that reveled in crude anti-Hillary outpourings -- and established new ones on which they trade stories of the Obama people's nastiness. But worse than the online malice has been the affronts to their faces." Rev. Renita J. Weems (Something Within) compiles a list of what the campaign season taught her: "Fourth, now I know what I always suspected, namely that while racism is a sin, sexism is perfectly acceptable and tolerated in this country. Women are the worst culprits. The outright woman-hating jibes, the prejudice against Clinton as a middle-age woman, the physical mockery, and the anti-white woman rage have not been easy to witness. Clinton has not run a faultless campaign-- far from it. (Her surrogates need to be fired!) But Hillary Clinton the woman and the politician did not deserve the venom, the acrimony, the hatred, and the name-calling commentators and the public heaped on her throughout this race."
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot" |
Thursday, June 05, 2008
THIS JUST IN! BIG TONY TAKES THE FALL!
BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
PRESUMED DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL DISASTER BARACK OBAMA MET WITH THESE REPORTERS LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT FULL OF "HOPE".
"I DODGED ANOTHER BULLET!" HE SHOUTED GLEEFULLY REFERRING TO THE CONVICTION OF HIS POLITCAL MENTOR "BIG TONY" REZKO WHO WAS FINALLY NABBED AFTER YEARS OF BRIBING POLITICIANS.
"THEY'RE NOT EVEN CONNECTING HIM WITH ME! EVEN AFTER HE SUPPLIED MY CAMPAIGNS WITH OVER A QUARTER OF MILLION DOLLARS! AND HIS BUYING THE LAND NEXT TO MY MANSION WHEN THE OWNER WOULDN'T SELL ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER! NOTHING CAN TOUCH ME!"
WHEN THESE REPORTERS BROUGHT UP THE RUMORS OF MICHELLE OBAMA ON TAPE DELIVERING SOME SORT OF "GET WHITEY" SPEECH, BARACK DID NOT DENY THE EXISTANCE OF THE TAPE BUT SAID, "IF I WORRIED ABOUT A TAPE OF EVERY NUTTY THING MICHELLE'S EVER SAID, I'D NEVER GET ANY SLEEP."
Starting with war resistance. As noted in yesterday's snapshot, Canada's House of Commons voted on the motion to grant safe harbor to war resisters and it passed (137 in favor, 110 against). The motion was first proposed in December of 2007. It took Corey Glass and other war resisters to make it happen as much as it took any political party. May 21st, US war resisters and Iraq War veteran Glass was informed that he had until June 12th to leave Canada or he would be deported. Maggie Farley (Los Angeles Times) notes of Glass, "he became the first deserter to receive orders to leave the country -- and ended up a symbol of Canada's conflicted sentiments about the war. On Tuesday, Canada's House of Commons passed a motion urging the government to allow deserters to stay. The measure, though nonbinding, could lead to a last-minute reprieve for Glass and nearly 40 others who have asked for refugee statues." UPI files a brief and quotes NDP's Olivia Chow stating, "Ordinary people want the Iraq war resisters to stay. The Harper Conservatives must respect this and immediately implement this motion." Joanna Smith (Toronto Star) explains how US war resisters Megan and Chris Bean (husband and wife) went to Ottawa to observe the House of Commons Vote. Megan Bean explains of their decision to come to Canada, "We were over there to maintain the peace and we were trying to hand it over to the Iraqis. This is what we always heard. You don't sign up for (the U.S. Navy) to see a bunch of people kill for no reason." Paige Aarhus (London Free Press) quotes war resister Rich Droste on the vote, "I almost wanted to cry when I heard, it was amazing. This just shows that support is growing and Canada can still be a refuge against militarism." He wasn't the only one excited by the verdict. "We are very happy that we won. We're hopeful that the government wll respect the democratic process," Phil McDowell tells John Ward (Canadian Press via Nova Scotia News) who also quotes Joshua Key: "We've had one hand tied behind our back because we can't argue the illegality of the Iraq war, which we all know is illegal. But, with that we just take it one step at a time. I just hope it continues going forward." Janice Tibbetts (CanWest News Service) offers an overview of the resistance today explaining how Canada's Federal Court of Appeals refused to grant the first two public war resisters in Canada, Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, who went on to appeal that decision to Canada's Supreme Court and were denied on November 15, 2007. Vietnam era war resister Gerry Condon (writing at Courage to Resist) notes the "historic vote" and how "all the opposition parties -- the Liberal Party, the New Democratic Party, the Bloc Quebecois and the Green Party" came together to vote in favor the motion. Condon outlines a number of steps to take here. In addition, 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").
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Turning to US political news. Two primaries were held last night, the last two in the contest: South Dakota and Montana. The press told the country Barack Obama was a winner. While he did win Montana, he lost South Dakota. The Christ-child lost South Dakota to Hillary by over 10% -- 55.35% for Hillary, 44.65% for Barack. The same media that told you all day yesterday that Hillary would conceed (see Bob Somerby's piece today) spends today asking when she will drop out of the race? Hillary Is 44 observes, "Obama is unelectable and not qualified to be president. On the night Obama lost South Dakota (Obama's own projections had him winning South Dakota by 15 percent) he spoke in the same hall in which Mondale conceded to the Reagan landslide. Obama will either concede now or in November. Obama won't win Democrats he needs to win (like the Democrats on this very website). In state after state many Democrats clearly state they will either NOT vote, vote for the unacceptable John McCain, or write in Hillary's name. That Democrats, many who have never voted for a Republican or nightmared about voting for a Republican, to say they will vote for a Republican is shocking and foreshadows doom for the Democratic? Party in November - if Superdelegates actually vote for Rezko/Ayres/Pfleger/Wright/Farrakhan's friend - Obama." Actually, some will vote for Ralph Nader if Barack's the nominee. Yesterday, CBS Evening News offered a roundtable (link has transcript and video) featuring some Hillary supporters in Penn.
Sandra Miller, former county commissioner: I think from the very beginning she's been mistreated. I know -- I watched a lot of interviews and so forth where Sen. Clinton was referred to as "Mrs. Clinton" whereas Sen. Obama was "Sen. Obama."
Meredith Ciambrello, teacher: It bothers me to think with the kind of coverage that we've had, that we're speaking of, that it's influencing the voters. And when I talk to young men or other young women and they say, "I hate Hillary" and just the venom that comes out of them. And I wonder where is that coming from.
Kathleen O'Dell, sales manager: I think we have a little different standard with sexism than we do with, say, racism. I mean there have been people who go to their rallies and stand up - the guy who stood up and said, "hey, iron my shirt." Now consider that if somebody had showed up at an Obama campaign and had a banner saying something about his race or about somebody's religion, we'd be up in arms. Everybody would be like, "how disgusting."
Meredith Ciambrello, teacher: It bothers me to think with the kind of coverage that we've had, that we're speaking of, that it's influencing the voters. And when I talk to young men or other young women and they say, "I hate Hillary" and just the venom that comes out of them. And I wonder where is that coming from.
Kathleen O'Dell, sales manager: I think we have a little different standard with sexism than we do with, say, racism. I mean there have been people who go to their rallies and stand up - the guy who stood up and said, "hey, iron my shirt." Now consider that if somebody had showed up at an Obama campaign and had a banner saying something about his race or about somebody's religion, we'd be up in arms. Everybody would be like, "how disgusting."
An idiot ("fuzkida") posting at CBS states, "Any so-called Hillary supporter who votes for McCain is not a true progressive. NO progressive wuould [sic] be that spiteful as to screw up the country for another 4 years just bc. they are sore losers." No true "progressive" (unless that's The Idiot Lakoff's 'framing' for "closted Communist") could support a candidate who used homophobia in South Carolina to scare up votes, who demonized gays and lesbians because it could help him recover momentum after losing New Hampshire. So spare us the lectures "fuzkida."
No feminist could support Barack in the primaries. Any who said she was a feminist and did was either uninformed (and didn't know about the use of homophobia) or she's not a feminist because she elected to ignore it. There's no middle ground on this. Some may come around to Barack. But the reality is a number of 'feminists' exposed themselves as not by refusing to call out the use of homophobia as a campaign strategy. "fuzkida" is not a feminist, obviously. And women don't need to hear you lecture. I believe the idiot Mark Karlin of BuzzFlash tried that after Hillary won New Hampshire. It certainly was cute to see those pieces throughout the campaign, where men lectured women telling them over and over that they shouldn't vote based on gender (naturally, they assumed that only by voting based on gender could a woman support Hillary -- working from the sexist premise that no woman could be worthy of the nomination). But, thing is, did they ever lecture any group supporting Barack? Nope. It was only women they thought they felt comfortable trying to boss around. Why was that?
Ellen Willis ("Up from Radicalism: A Feminist Journal") explaining it in 1969:
A genuine alliance with male radicals will not be possible until sexism sickens them as much as racism. This will not be accomplished through persuasion, conciliation, or love, but through independence and solidarity; radical men will stop oppressing us and make our fight their own when they can't get us to join them on any other terms.
True then, true today. But no one was supposed to notice and it was easy not to as Panhandle Media worked overtime not just to smear Hillary Clinton with lies but also to ignore the sexism in the MSM (while contributing their own sexism). Take CounterSpin, the weekly radio program by 'media watchdog' FAIR, which ignored the sexism non-stop and finally, when called out loudly and, repeating, I never asked for that, those were unsolicited e-mails from FAIR) and repeatedly, managed to include Hillary being called a bitch in their May 24th broadcast. Here is CounterSpin's criticism of sexism in the 2008 race in full: "CNN viewers were treated to one pundit explanation that people might call Hillary Clinton a bitch because well isn't that just what some women are." You'll note they don't identify the program or the gas bag speaking. That's a funny sort of 'media criticism,' isn't it? And sadly, that's all the weekly radio program CounterSpin can point to. How very proud they must be. Then there's Free Speech TV's laughable Grit TV ("with Laura Flanders!") which not only brought on sexists who had slammed Hillary to say there was no problem but also got off a joke that Latinos and Latinas in California can't speak English. I guess that was supposed to pass for 'progressive' as well? It was especially hilarious to see Laura Flanders and Betsy Reed move away from Hillary to actually fret over sexism and homophobia (!) as 'applied' to John Edwards who is neither a woman nor gay.
"Now there were days when I had the strength enough to fight for all of us," declared Hillary last night, "and on the days that I didn't, I leaned on you, the soldier on his third tour of duty in Iraq who told his wife, an Iraqi veteran herself, to take his spending money and donate it to our campaign instead. The 11-year-old boy in Kentucky who sold his bike and video games to raise money for our campaign. The woman who came to a rally hours early, waited and waited to give me a rosary. And all those who whispered to me, simply to say I am praying for you."
Hillary Clinton preempted the morning-after critics. She asked the question herslef in a Tuesday night speech after the delegate count from South Dakota and Montana pushed Barack Obama over the top as the Democrats' probably nominee for president.
"I understand that a lot of people are asking: 'What does Hillarywant? What does she WANT?"
Ignoring mounting speculation that she had told the New York congressional delegation that she'd be open to the vice presidential position, which some cynics said was the start of overt lobbying for that post, she said instead:
"Well, what I want is what I have always fought for in this whole campaign. I want to end the war in Iraq. I want to turn this economy around. I want health care for every American. I want every child to live up to his or her God-given potential."
And then she added significantly: "And I want the nearly eighteen million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard, and no longer to be invisible."
The Hillary skeptics who bemoaned her ambition should read that and absorb the message. It means far more than being on a national ticket.
Hillary's a fighter and as long as she wants to be in the race, she will be. She won the popular vote. (My own personal feelings -- and those of the community -- are that she should carry this to the convention.) It's cute how the goons and loons want to lecture. They pull that nonsense every four years and whine between about how a message should be sent. The difference for all Hillary supporters is that we saw the pass Barack was given over and over and we found him vapid and lacking. The difference for women especially is that we're not Spastic Keith Olbermann spewing his 'thoughts' instantly. As with Anita Hill earlier, the treatment of Hillary was about all women and it's not about 'sore losers.' The 'unity' talk ignores that (a) there's nothing in the Obama campaign for voters and (b) why would women want to 'unify' with their attackers. Now when the vile Ike Turner died, many of the male gas bags online didn't get it. They thought Tina Turner should forgive her torturer of many, many decades. But that's not how it works.
And I'm down to
Your last cigarette and
this "We are one" crap
as you're invading . . .
-- "Taxi Ride," written and recorded by Tori Amos
'Unity' says the press today just as they said it when Bully Boy stole Florida from Al Gore. The bit players are all the same, they just had facial reconstruction. And I think you'll see a number of women who refuse to play cheerleaders for Princess Tiny Meat Barack. Not all, as Susan (Random Notes) point out, someone will gladly sell out. For the record, whomever the Democratic nominee is, Gloria Steinem will campaign for them. She does that every four years. I am not talking about Gloria. I have not and will not ever insult Gloria. But Gloria's always been the sweetest. Which isn't denying that's she's also very strong. It is pointing out that if Barack's given the nomination, don't expect to see a crowd of feminists skipping happily along -- several paces behind him. Women have witnessed non-stop sexism and grasped that feminism is needed now more than ever. This is the rebirth, not a time to be afraid. (True regardless of whom the Democratic nominee is in August.) And some can be cast aside like Christine and her beau Bernie who launched an attack on our own Kat -- demanding that she change a written opinion and demanding that she do so in his words and act like it was her opinion and her words -- that should have clued us into just how sick and vapid so many passing for 'contemporary' and 'popcult' 'feminists' actually were. So it's a good time for feminism and one in which faux feminists can hit the road and take their (at best) half-assed 'principles' with them.
John Bentley (CBS News) reports John McCain, presumed GOP presidential nominee, stated, "There are many of Sen. Clinton's supporters who believe that I am by far the best qualified to secure this nation's future, who don't want us to sit down with Ahmadinejad and other tyrants. I think there's a lot of Sen. Clinton's supporters who will support me because of their belief that Sen. Obama does not have the experience or the knowledge or the judgement to address this nation's national security challenges when we're in two wars."
Ralph Nader has selected Matt Gonzalez as his running mate and Team Nader's "The Uprising" notes yesterday's Democracy Now where the hosts and guest David Sirota talked a good game about an "uprising against Wall Street and Washington" but somehow avoided ever mentioning the Nader-Gonzalez ticket:
On Democracy Now, Sirota said that there is great anger and disaffection in America directed at not just the government, but also at corporate America, at big business, at banks and the financial system.
And for twenty minutes, he talked and talked and talked about the uprising in this momentous Presidential election year.
But not once did Sirota mention Ralph Nader's candidacy -- which polls indicate millions of people support.
And not once did Amy Goodman or Juan Gonzalez ask him about the Nader/Gonzalez candidacy.
Anger at corporations, big business and banks.
Presidential election year.
And no mention of Ralph Nader?
What we are to make of this?
That David Sirota doesn't really give a damn about the uprising.
If he did, he would happily welcome Nader/Gonzalez into the political arena as the most meaningful political expression of the uprising in 2008.
Sirota has spent hundreds of hours surveying the uprising, but refuses to even acknowledge the work of hundreds of young people working non-stop around the country to put Nader/Gonzalez on the ballot for what is shaping up to be a four way Presidential race -- McCain, Obama, Nader, Barr.
And Nader/Gonzalez will be the Presidential campaign for the uprising against corporate power in this Presidential election year.
And Sirota doesn't say a peep about it.
Why not?
Because he's concerned but not serious about change.
Meanwhile presumed Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney has bigger problems now than defining 'victory' as getting 5% of the votes (revealing her campaign as not a real run for the office), she now has to deal with her online supporters running voters off. (Yeah, I heard about the e-mails. We'll probably address "Miss Prissy for Cynthia" at Third this weekend.)
So what do we know? Hillary's still in the race. Supporters want her to go to Denver (but that will be her decision -- and after the way she and her family have been smeared and slimed, even her strongest supporters would understand her deciding the victory was in staying in the race when everyone said drop out, staying in the race and winning the popular vote, staying in the race and showing the world just how strong women are). Nader's running a real campaign.
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
"Princess Tiny Meat's Big Day (Ava & C.I.)"
"History made but really not reported"
"Princess Tiny Meat's Big Day (Ava & C.I.)"
"History made but really not reported"
"Hillary wins South Dakota"
"11 days and Amy Goodman can't say 'Corey Glass'"
"THIS JUST IN! NOW HE THROWS SUPPORTERS UNDER THE BUS!"
"11 days and Amy Goodman can't say 'Corey Glass'"
"THIS JUST IN! NOW HE THROWS SUPPORTERS UNDER THE BUS!"
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Tuesday, June 03, 2008
THIS JUST IN! NOW HE THROWS SUPPORTERS UNDER THE BUS!
BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
MEET ROY LAVERNE BROOKS. SHE'S FROM FORT WORTH, TEXAS. SHE IS A SUPER DELEGATE. SHE ENDORSED BARACK OBAMA.
SO SHE SHOULD BE SITTING PRETTY WITH THE BARACK OBAMA CAMPAIGN, RIGHT?
THINK AGAIN.
HAVING THROWN GAYS, LESBIANS, WHITE WORKING CLASS VOTERS, THE ELDERLY, WOMEN, LATINOS AND EVEN HIS OWN GRANDMOTHER WHO RAISED HIM UNDER THE BUS, BARACK'S RUNNING OUT OF PEOPLE TO RUN DOWN.
TARGET ROY LAVERNE.
THIS WEEKEND, THE BAMBI CAMPAIGN SPREADED SOME OF THAT STUFF THEY CALL 'HOPE' BUT REALLY STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN.
THEY CALLED ROY LAVERNE AND NOT TO THANK HER FOR ENDORSING BARACK.
SHE IS RUNNING TO BECOME THE STATE DEMOCRATIC CHAIR IN TEXAS.
DID THEY CALL TO WISH HER GOOD LUCK?
NO.
THEY CALLED TO THREATEN HER.
THEY TOLD HER, DROP OUT OF THE RACE OR WE WILL PULL YOUR SUPER DELEGATE STATUS.
SHE NOTES THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE THE POWER TO DO THAT.
BUT THEY TRIED TO BULLY HER. APPARENTLY WOMEN AREN'T SUPPOSED TO RUN FOR PUBLIC OFFICE AND HASN'T THAT BEEN THE REAL MESSAGE OF THE HOPE DOPE BARACK?
OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN TRIED TO SPIN IT, BUT, AS ROY LAVERNE POINTED OUT, "WE ALL ARE TALKING ENGLISH, IT'S NOT LIKE WE'RE TALKING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. . . . I CLEARLY UNDERSTOOD WHAT THE POINT WAS -- TO INTIMIDATE ME, AND I REFUSED TO BE INTIMATED."
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Starting with war resistance. May 21st US war resister and Iraq War veteran Corey Glass was informed by the Canadian government that he had until June 12th (ten days from now) to leave the country or he would be deported. Trashy filth Amy Goodman still hasn't 'informed' her declining audience about that development. But then, Goody's never mentioned Corey Glass. In fact, she'll soon be hitting the two year mark since she last sat down with a war resister. But let's all pretend Goodman has something to offer. (And, while we're at it, we can pretend that latest 'book' is actually selling.) Saturday John Hagan (Globe & Mail) pointed out, "The Liberals' Bob Rae recently joined the NDP's Olivia Chow and others in urging Parliament to pass a motion allowing American Iraq war resisters, such as Corey Glass, to stay in Canada. Last week, Mr. Glass was refused refugee status and became the first Iraq war resister to be scheduled for deportation." That is important but what Hagan did next was as well. Over and over, the lie is repeated that, during Vietnam, Canada welcomed "draft dodgers" and, even 'helpers' sometimes add, 'we don't have a draft today.' Hagan walks the idiots through slowly explaining "draft dodgers" and "deserters" and how both were welcome in Canada and, most importantly, "References to 'dodgers' and 'deserters' had no legal meaning in Canada. The Immigration Act made no reference of any kind to military service as grounds for prohibiting entry to Canada." Michele Mandel (Edmonton Sun) reports that "the estimated 200 Iraq war resisters who have sought haven here will be watching a historic Parliamentary vote that could be their last hope. The motion, with the support of all three opposition parties, asks the government of Candad to stop removal orders and allow conscientious objectors 'who have refused or left military service related to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations' to apply for permanent resident status." Mandel reports that US war resister and Iraq War resister Phil McDowell will be present to see how the vote goes and he explains, "I was a good soldier, I was promoted quickly. It was just a moral decision. It was a tough thing to do, to stand up and say I disagreed with the war." Andrea Woo (Vancouver's Metro News) quotes Ann Wright on the impending vote, "The vote in the Canadian parliament about whether or not war resisters can stay is really monumental. It's important not just for the individuals who will be affected by it, but also on another level for the conscience of Canada." Wright is a retired US Army Col and also a US diplomat retired from the US State Dept. She was in Canada to speak at a rally Sunday for female war resisters. Chantal Eustace (Vancouver Sun) notes that Wright entered the country with no problems. Previously Canada had turned Wright away due to the US government putting her on a 'watch list' due to civil disobedience.
You can utilize the following e-mails to show your support: 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. In addition Jack Layton, NDP leader, has a contact form and they would like to hear from people as well. A few more addresses 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. Lahey quotes NDP's Oliva Chow, who steered the motion, explaining, "If (Liberal leader) Stephane Dion were to say tomorrow that he supports this motion . . . we will then debate it. So we need people to call Mr. Dion . . . 'whose side you on Mr. Dion'?" The number to call is (613) 996-5789.
In the US Friday, war resister Ryan Jackson faced a court-martial. At Courage to Resist, his attorney James Branum explains:
At the hearing, we argued that Ryan's actions were an act of civil disobedience that stemmed from his belief that all war is wrong and Ryan himself gave a moving statement in which he expressed his own views on the immorality of war and the necessity of breaking the law for the sake of conscience.
At today's court-martial hearing at Ft. Gordon, GA, Conscientious Objector Ryan Jackson was given a sentence of 100 days in prison. With time already served, he has only 29 days remaining!
Ryan was also sentenced to a Bad Conduct Discharge, demotion to E-1 (private), and reduction to 2/3 pay for multiple specifications of being AWOL (as well as minor count of having postive drug test for marijuana).
You can find pictures taken after his court-martial, pictures from a vigil/protest held in Ryan's behalf by local Augusta residents, and the text of a statement that Ryan wrote while in prison for his supporters here.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes 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 US political races. And we'll start with a quote that really comments on the non-stop sexism in this primary campaign season and on this ridiculous notion that it can be ignored as well as how many male 'lefties' have stabbed women in the back -- yet again.
A genuine alliance with male radicals will not be possible until sexism sickens them as much as racism. This will not be accomplished through persuasion, conciliation, or love, but through independence and solidarity; radical men will stop oppressing us and make our fight their own when they can't get us to join them on any other terms.
You may be thinking, "Well that says it all." It pretty much does. But it said it all in 1969 as well. That's the late, great Ellen Willis ("Up from Radicalism: A Feminist Journal"). Not only have we seen it all before but some of the same sexists from that period (Tom Hayden, Robert Scheer . . . it's a long, long list) have really done their part from day one to make sure this campaign season was the most sexist campaign ever. They've lied about Hillary, they've smeared her, they've invented 'soul communications' they had with her from a plane of (mis)understanding far, far away. They've hidden behing women to make the attacks and, of course, Queen Bees have been happy to participate in the attack. Nothing says "Love me, I won't challenge you!" as much as kicking another women in the gut while a man looks on. Not all men are sexists and one of the accomplishments of the feminist movement has been to raise awareness for men and women. But there are sexist males and Queen Bees still out there -- a lot of them and, as Ava and I noted Sunday reviewing Grit TV, they're never so 'funny' as when they pretend to be 'enlightened.' Bob Somerby (Daily Howler) catches some pigs in action today: "One such crawler is creepy Roy Sekoff, Arianna's unseemly boy toy. Last Thursday night, Sekoff appeared on MSNBC's Verdict with Dan Abrams. Discussions of pundit misogyny/sexism had been in the air for weeks. And Sekoff wanted to vote with his mouth, which gave us a window to his soul. But then, to judge from the transcript–we didn't see the program--Jonathan Alter didn't exactly bathe himself with glory here either." And certainly they were out in full force Saturday at the DNC 'rules' committee meeting where they decided the best way to award delegates to someone who refused to have their name on a state's ballot (Barack Obama) was to give him more delegates than the winner of the state (Hillary Clinton) should have received. Nothing says 'fair' and 'orderly' -- apparently -- as much as rewarding Barack's tantrum by giving him not just the delegates they think he, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and John Edwards might have won from those voting "Uncommitted" in the Michigan primary (of course some of those might vote "Uncommitted" today or might vote for Hillary), they had to give him more. More than Hillary who received over 50% of the vote. Apparently Barack would have cried real hard and might have wet his undies if the 'rules' couldn't be bent and then broken in his favor. Delilah Boyd (A Scrivener's Lament) shares her thoughts: "Bye bye, Howard. Bye bye, Ms. Brazile. (I like your girlfriend more than I've ever liked you, anyway; for the record, I'll even try to be civil to you when I run into you at Frager's Hardware Store... I'm just done with you, Donna.) Bye bye, DNC. You've made it perfectly clear that don't need me.... or the 17+ million others just like me."
Barack made public that he had left the Trinity Church over the weekend. This followed one clip of Michael Pfleger 'preaching' hate and sexism at Trinity. As Andrew S. Ross (San Francisco Chronicle) wondered, "Apart from the appallingly racist nature of Father Michael Pfleger's remarks about Hillary Clinton, what is one to make of the congregation who seemed to lap it all up?" Turns out Pfleger was saying more than the one clip showed. Last night, Jake Tapper (ABC News) reported on another clip of that same 'sermon' (now two Sundays ago) where Pfleger declared "America is the greatest sin against God" and Tapper observed: "But Obama's relationship with Pfleger -- who is the priest at a different, Catholic, church -- spans decades. In September, the Obama campaign brought Pfleger to Iowa to host one of several interfaith forums for the campaign. Pfleger has given money to Obama's campaigns and Obama as a state legislator directed at least $225,000 towards social programs at St. Sabina's, according to the Chicago Tribune. Pfleger appears to have been scrubbed from the Obama campaign's page that features the testimony of faith leaders, but you can see the cached version HERE."
Hillary is the winner of the popular vote but some want to force her out of the primary -- what does it matter if voters are voting for you? Just because you have the most votes doesn't mean you are a winner! Didn't we all learn that in 2000 when Al Gore had more votes and didn't become president! Yes, the DNC appears perfectly willing to trash democracy. Howard Wolfson (HillaryClinton.com) points out: "According to Real Clear Politics, Hillary's popular vote lead over Sen. Obama has grown with her Puerto victory last night. She has won 17,916,763 votes compared to 17,723,200 for Sen. Obama when every state that has already voted is included in the tally. Read more."
Strangely Barack leaving the nutty church required Amy Filth Goodman to do a long quote from Barack on what she tries to trick people into believing is a 'news' program (it's not even a public affairs program -- today's 'big' story? Scahill's book is coming out in paperback!) but she reduced Hillary to two sentences. Hillary Wins Puerto Rico on Sunday and Goody reduces it to two lines. Hillary won 68% of the vote to Barack's 32% in Puerto Rico yesterday in another blowout for the Clinton campaign. But again, what do voters matter? Not much to the DNC apparently.
June is Gay Pride Month. And here's Hillary's statement:
As we begin Gay Pride Month, I join the LGBT community in celebrating an historic year in which our country continues to make progress towards the fair and equal treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. Still, we have so much work to do. I look forward to working with the LGBT community to make sure that all Americans in committed relationships have equal benefits and that nothing stands in the way of loving couples who want to adopt children in need. We need to expand our federal hate crimes legislation and pass a fully-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act. And finally, we need to put an end to the failed policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Courage, honor, patriotism and sacrifice -- the traits that define our men and women in uniform -- have nothing to do with sexual orientation.To each and every LGBT American, I say this: You have done so much to help this country understand your lives by simply being open and honest about who you are and living your lives with dignity. Thank you for your courage. It is time that we recognize your hard work. I know that this country is ready for changes in the law that reflect the evolution in our hearts. You deserve a government that treats you with the respect you deserve.
America deserves a President who appeals to the best in each of us, not the worst; a President who values and respects all Americans and treats all Americans equally no matter who they are or who they love. That is truly the promise of America.
I did check Barack's campaign. We all know he used homophobia in South Carolina but maybe he wanted to make some weak ass statement? Nope. He threw the LGBT community under the bus a long time ago and apparently these days just wants to put the bus in reverse to now back over them.
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
"Other Items"
"Australia says bye-bye Iraq"
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Queen Nancy Pelosi"
"And the war drags on . . ."
"The Littlest Nixon is not Eisenhower's granddaughter!"
"Protests and Pfleger"
"Other Items"
"Truest statement of the week"
"Truest statement of the week II"
"A note to our readers"
"Editorial: To the convention!"
"TV: Grime & Grit TV"
"TV: Basic cable rejects"
"War resistance ignored"
"Roundtable"
"What the hell's wrong with Nancy Pelosi?"
"Reality on the Democratic Primary"
"Highlights"
"Agustana's Sweet and Low"
"Janet Hook has trouble with reality and history"
"THIS JUST IN! LAT'S JANET HOOK THINKS SHE HAS A MIND!"
MEET ROY LAVERNE BROOKS. SHE'S FROM FORT WORTH, TEXAS. SHE IS A SUPER DELEGATE. SHE ENDORSED BARACK OBAMA.
SO SHE SHOULD BE SITTING PRETTY WITH THE BARACK OBAMA CAMPAIGN, RIGHT?
THINK AGAIN.
HAVING THROWN GAYS, LESBIANS, WHITE WORKING CLASS VOTERS, THE ELDERLY, WOMEN, LATINOS AND EVEN HIS OWN GRANDMOTHER WHO RAISED HIM UNDER THE BUS, BARACK'S RUNNING OUT OF PEOPLE TO RUN DOWN.
TARGET ROY LAVERNE.
THIS WEEKEND, THE BAMBI CAMPAIGN SPREADED SOME OF THAT STUFF THEY CALL 'HOPE' BUT REALLY STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN.
THEY CALLED ROY LAVERNE AND NOT TO THANK HER FOR ENDORSING BARACK.
SHE IS RUNNING TO BECOME THE STATE DEMOCRATIC CHAIR IN TEXAS.
DID THEY CALL TO WISH HER GOOD LUCK?
NO.
THEY CALLED TO THREATEN HER.
THEY TOLD HER, DROP OUT OF THE RACE OR WE WILL PULL YOUR SUPER DELEGATE STATUS.
SHE NOTES THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE THE POWER TO DO THAT.
BUT THEY TRIED TO BULLY HER. APPARENTLY WOMEN AREN'T SUPPOSED TO RUN FOR PUBLIC OFFICE AND HASN'T THAT BEEN THE REAL MESSAGE OF THE HOPE DOPE BARACK?
OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN TRIED TO SPIN IT, BUT, AS ROY LAVERNE POINTED OUT, "WE ALL ARE TALKING ENGLISH, IT'S NOT LIKE WE'RE TALKING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. . . . I CLEARLY UNDERSTOOD WHAT THE POINT WAS -- TO INTIMIDATE ME, AND I REFUSED TO BE INTIMATED."
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Starting with war resistance. May 21st US war resister and Iraq War veteran Corey Glass was informed by the Canadian government that he had until June 12th (ten days from now) to leave the country or he would be deported. Trashy filth Amy Goodman still hasn't 'informed' her declining audience about that development. But then, Goody's never mentioned Corey Glass. In fact, she'll soon be hitting the two year mark since she last sat down with a war resister. But let's all pretend Goodman has something to offer. (And, while we're at it, we can pretend that latest 'book' is actually selling.) Saturday John Hagan (Globe & Mail) pointed out, "The Liberals' Bob Rae recently joined the NDP's Olivia Chow and others in urging Parliament to pass a motion allowing American Iraq war resisters, such as Corey Glass, to stay in Canada. Last week, Mr. Glass was refused refugee status and became the first Iraq war resister to be scheduled for deportation." That is important but what Hagan did next was as well. Over and over, the lie is repeated that, during Vietnam, Canada welcomed "draft dodgers" and, even 'helpers' sometimes add, 'we don't have a draft today.' Hagan walks the idiots through slowly explaining "draft dodgers" and "deserters" and how both were welcome in Canada and, most importantly, "References to 'dodgers' and 'deserters' had no legal meaning in Canada. The Immigration Act made no reference of any kind to military service as grounds for prohibiting entry to Canada." Michele Mandel (Edmonton Sun) reports that "the estimated 200 Iraq war resisters who have sought haven here will be watching a historic Parliamentary vote that could be their last hope. The motion, with the support of all three opposition parties, asks the government of Candad to stop removal orders and allow conscientious objectors 'who have refused or left military service related to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations' to apply for permanent resident status." Mandel reports that US war resister and Iraq War resister Phil McDowell will be present to see how the vote goes and he explains, "I was a good soldier, I was promoted quickly. It was just a moral decision. It was a tough thing to do, to stand up and say I disagreed with the war." Andrea Woo (Vancouver's Metro News) quotes Ann Wright on the impending vote, "The vote in the Canadian parliament about whether or not war resisters can stay is really monumental. It's important not just for the individuals who will be affected by it, but also on another level for the conscience of Canada." Wright is a retired US Army Col and also a US diplomat retired from the US State Dept. She was in Canada to speak at a rally Sunday for female war resisters. Chantal Eustace (Vancouver Sun) notes that Wright entered the country with no problems. Previously Canada had turned Wright away due to the US government putting her on a 'watch list' due to civil disobedience.
You can utilize the following e-mails to show your support: 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. In addition Jack Layton, NDP leader, has a contact form and they would like to hear from people as well. A few more addresses 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. Lahey quotes NDP's Oliva Chow, who steered the motion, explaining, "If (Liberal leader) Stephane Dion were to say tomorrow that he supports this motion . . . we will then debate it. So we need people to call Mr. Dion . . . 'whose side you on Mr. Dion'?" The number to call is (613) 996-5789.
In the US Friday, war resister Ryan Jackson faced a court-martial. At Courage to Resist, his attorney James Branum explains:
At the hearing, we argued that Ryan's actions were an act of civil disobedience that stemmed from his belief that all war is wrong and Ryan himself gave a moving statement in which he expressed his own views on the immorality of war and the necessity of breaking the law for the sake of conscience.
At today's court-martial hearing at Ft. Gordon, GA, Conscientious Objector Ryan Jackson was given a sentence of 100 days in prison. With time already served, he has only 29 days remaining!
Ryan was also sentenced to a Bad Conduct Discharge, demotion to E-1 (private), and reduction to 2/3 pay for multiple specifications of being AWOL (as well as minor count of having postive drug test for marijuana).
You can find pictures taken after his court-martial, pictures from a vigil/protest held in Ryan's behalf by local Augusta residents, and the text of a statement that Ryan wrote while in prison for his supporters here.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes 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 US political races. And we'll start with a quote that really comments on the non-stop sexism in this primary campaign season and on this ridiculous notion that it can be ignored as well as how many male 'lefties' have stabbed women in the back -- yet again.
A genuine alliance with male radicals will not be possible until sexism sickens them as much as racism. This will not be accomplished through persuasion, conciliation, or love, but through independence and solidarity; radical men will stop oppressing us and make our fight their own when they can't get us to join them on any other terms.
You may be thinking, "Well that says it all." It pretty much does. But it said it all in 1969 as well. That's the late, great Ellen Willis ("Up from Radicalism: A Feminist Journal"). Not only have we seen it all before but some of the same sexists from that period (Tom Hayden, Robert Scheer . . . it's a long, long list) have really done their part from day one to make sure this campaign season was the most sexist campaign ever. They've lied about Hillary, they've smeared her, they've invented 'soul communications' they had with her from a plane of (mis)understanding far, far away. They've hidden behing women to make the attacks and, of course, Queen Bees have been happy to participate in the attack. Nothing says "Love me, I won't challenge you!" as much as kicking another women in the gut while a man looks on. Not all men are sexists and one of the accomplishments of the feminist movement has been to raise awareness for men and women. But there are sexist males and Queen Bees still out there -- a lot of them and, as Ava and I noted Sunday reviewing Grit TV, they're never so 'funny' as when they pretend to be 'enlightened.' Bob Somerby (Daily Howler) catches some pigs in action today: "One such crawler is creepy Roy Sekoff, Arianna's unseemly boy toy. Last Thursday night, Sekoff appeared on MSNBC's Verdict with Dan Abrams. Discussions of pundit misogyny/sexism had been in the air for weeks. And Sekoff wanted to vote with his mouth, which gave us a window to his soul. But then, to judge from the transcript–we didn't see the program--Jonathan Alter didn't exactly bathe himself with glory here either." And certainly they were out in full force Saturday at the DNC 'rules' committee meeting where they decided the best way to award delegates to someone who refused to have their name on a state's ballot (Barack Obama) was to give him more delegates than the winner of the state (Hillary Clinton) should have received. Nothing says 'fair' and 'orderly' -- apparently -- as much as rewarding Barack's tantrum by giving him not just the delegates they think he, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and John Edwards might have won from those voting "Uncommitted" in the Michigan primary (of course some of those might vote "Uncommitted" today or might vote for Hillary), they had to give him more. More than Hillary who received over 50% of the vote. Apparently Barack would have cried real hard and might have wet his undies if the 'rules' couldn't be bent and then broken in his favor. Delilah Boyd (A Scrivener's Lament) shares her thoughts: "Bye bye, Howard. Bye bye, Ms. Brazile. (I like your girlfriend more than I've ever liked you, anyway; for the record, I'll even try to be civil to you when I run into you at Frager's Hardware Store... I'm just done with you, Donna.) Bye bye, DNC. You've made it perfectly clear that don't need me.... or the 17+ million others just like me."
Barack made public that he had left the Trinity Church over the weekend. This followed one clip of Michael Pfleger 'preaching' hate and sexism at Trinity. As Andrew S. Ross (San Francisco Chronicle) wondered, "Apart from the appallingly racist nature of Father Michael Pfleger's remarks about Hillary Clinton, what is one to make of the congregation who seemed to lap it all up?" Turns out Pfleger was saying more than the one clip showed. Last night, Jake Tapper (ABC News) reported on another clip of that same 'sermon' (now two Sundays ago) where Pfleger declared "America is the greatest sin against God" and Tapper observed: "But Obama's relationship with Pfleger -- who is the priest at a different, Catholic, church -- spans decades. In September, the Obama campaign brought Pfleger to Iowa to host one of several interfaith forums for the campaign. Pfleger has given money to Obama's campaigns and Obama as a state legislator directed at least $225,000 towards social programs at St. Sabina's, according to the Chicago Tribune. Pfleger appears to have been scrubbed from the Obama campaign's page that features the testimony of faith leaders, but you can see the cached version HERE."
Hillary is the winner of the popular vote but some want to force her out of the primary -- what does it matter if voters are voting for you? Just because you have the most votes doesn't mean you are a winner! Didn't we all learn that in 2000 when Al Gore had more votes and didn't become president! Yes, the DNC appears perfectly willing to trash democracy. Howard Wolfson (HillaryClinton.com) points out: "According to Real Clear Politics, Hillary's popular vote lead over Sen. Obama has grown with her Puerto victory last night. She has won 17,916,763 votes compared to 17,723,200 for Sen. Obama when every state that has already voted is included in the tally. Read more."
Strangely Barack leaving the nutty church required Amy Filth Goodman to do a long quote from Barack on what she tries to trick people into believing is a 'news' program (it's not even a public affairs program -- today's 'big' story? Scahill's book is coming out in paperback!) but she reduced Hillary to two sentences. Hillary Wins Puerto Rico on Sunday and Goody reduces it to two lines. Hillary won 68% of the vote to Barack's 32% in Puerto Rico yesterday in another blowout for the Clinton campaign. But again, what do voters matter? Not much to the DNC apparently.
June is Gay Pride Month. And here's Hillary's statement:
As we begin Gay Pride Month, I join the LGBT community in celebrating an historic year in which our country continues to make progress towards the fair and equal treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. Still, we have so much work to do. I look forward to working with the LGBT community to make sure that all Americans in committed relationships have equal benefits and that nothing stands in the way of loving couples who want to adopt children in need. We need to expand our federal hate crimes legislation and pass a fully-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act. And finally, we need to put an end to the failed policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Courage, honor, patriotism and sacrifice -- the traits that define our men and women in uniform -- have nothing to do with sexual orientation.To each and every LGBT American, I say this: You have done so much to help this country understand your lives by simply being open and honest about who you are and living your lives with dignity. Thank you for your courage. It is time that we recognize your hard work. I know that this country is ready for changes in the law that reflect the evolution in our hearts. You deserve a government that treats you with the respect you deserve.
America deserves a President who appeals to the best in each of us, not the worst; a President who values and respects all Americans and treats all Americans equally no matter who they are or who they love. That is truly the promise of America.
I did check Barack's campaign. We all know he used homophobia in South Carolina but maybe he wanted to make some weak ass statement? Nope. He threw the LGBT community under the bus a long time ago and apparently these days just wants to put the bus in reverse to now back over them.
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
"Other Items"
"Australia says bye-bye Iraq"
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Queen Nancy Pelosi"
"And the war drags on . . ."
"The Littlest Nixon is not Eisenhower's granddaughter!"
"Protests and Pfleger"
"Other Items"
"Truest statement of the week"
"Truest statement of the week II"
"A note to our readers"
"Editorial: To the convention!"
"TV: Grime & Grit TV"
"TV: Basic cable rejects"
"War resistance ignored"
"Roundtable"
"What the hell's wrong with Nancy Pelosi?"
"Reality on the Democratic Primary"
"Highlights"
"Agustana's Sweet and Low"
"Janet Hook has trouble with reality and history"
"THIS JUST IN! LAT'S JANET HOOK THINKS SHE HAS A MIND!"
Monday, June 02, 2008
THIS JUST IN! NOW HE'S THROWING SUPPORTERS UNDER THE BUS!
BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
SO SHE SHOULD BE SITTING PRETTY WITH THE BARACK OBAMA CAMPAIGN, RIGHT?
THINK AGAIN.
HAVING THROWN GAYS, LESBIANS, WHITE WORKING CLASS VOTERS, THE ELDERLY, WOMEN, LATINOS AND EVEN HIS OWN GRANDMOTHER WHO RAISED HIM UNDER THE BUS, BARACK'S RUNNING OUT OF PEOPLE TO RUN DOWN.
TARGET ROY LAVERNE.
THIS WEEKEND, THE BAMBI CAMPAIGN SPREADED SOME OF THAT STUFF THEY CALL 'HOPE' BUT REALLY STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN.
THEY CALLED ROY LAVERNE AND NOT TO THANK HER FOR ENDORSING BARACK.
SHE IS RUNNING TO BECOME THE STATE DEMOCRATIC CHAIR IN TEXAS.
DID THEY CALL TO WISH HER GOOD LUCK?
NO.
THEY CALLED TO THREATEN HER.
THEY TOLD HER, DROP OUT OF THE RACE OR WE WILL PULL YOUR SUPER DELEGATE STATUS.
SHE NOTES THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE THE POWER TO DO THAT.
BUT THEY TRIED TO BULLY HER. APPARENTLY WOMEN AREN'T SUPPOSED TO RUN FOR PUBLIC OFFICE AND HASN'T THAT BEEN THE REAL MESSAGE OF THE HOPE DOPE BARACK?
OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN TRIED TO SPIN IT, BUT, AS ROY LAVERNE POINTED OUT, "WE ALL ARE TALKING ENGLISH, IT'S NOT LIKE WE'RE TALKING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. . . . I CLEARLY UNDERSTOOD WHAT THE POINT WAS -- TO INTIMIDATE ME, AND I REFUSED TO BE INTIMATED."
Starting with war resistance. May 21st US war resister and Iraq War veteran Corey Glass was informed by the Canadian government that he had until June 12th (ten days from now) to leave the country or he would be deported. Trashy filth Amy Goodman still hasn't 'informed' her declining audience about that development. But then, Goody's never mentioned Corey Glass. In fact, she'll soon be hitting the two year mark since she last sat down with a war resister. But let's all pretend Goodman has something to offer. (And, while we're at it, we can pretend that latest 'book' is actually selling.) Saturday John Hagan (Globe & Mail) pointed out, "The Liberals' Bob Rae recently joined the NDP's Olivia Chow and others in urging Parliament to pass a motion allowing American Iraq war resisters, such as Corey Glass, to stay in Canada. Last week, Mr. Glass was refused refugee status and became the first Iraq war resister to be scheduled for deportation." That is important but what Hagan did next was as well. Over and over, the lie is repeated that, during Vietnam, Canada welcomed "draft dodgers" and, even 'helpers' sometimes add, 'we don't have a draft today.' Hagan walks the idiots through slowly explaining "draft dodgers" and "deserters" and how both were welcome in Canada and, most importantly, "References to 'dodgers' and 'deserters' had no legal meaning in Canada. The Immigration Act made no reference of any kind to military service as grounds for prohibiting entry to Canada." Michele Mandel (Edmonton Sun) reports that "the estimated 200 Iraq war resisters who have sought haven here will be watching a historic Parliamentary vote that could be their last hope. The motion, with the support of all three opposition parties, asks the government of Candad to stop removal orders and allow conscientious objectors 'who have refused or left military service related to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations' to apply for permanent resident status." Mandel reports that US war resister and Iraq War resister Phil McDowell will be present to see how the vote goes and he explains, "I was a good soldier, I was promoted quickly. It was just a moral decision. It was a tough thing to do, to stand up and say I disagreed with the war." Andrea Woo (Vancouver's Metro News) quotes Ann Wright on the impending vote, "The vote in the Canadian parliament about whether or not war resisters can stay is really monumental. It's important not just for the individuals who will be affected by it, but also on another level for the conscience of Canada." Wright is a retired US Army Col and also a US diplomat retired from the US State Dept. She was in Canada to speak at a rally Sunday for female war resisters. Chantal Eustace (Vancouver Sun) notes that Wright entered the country with no problems. Previously Canada had turned Wright away due to the US government putting her on a 'watch list' due to civil disobedience.
You can utilize the following e-mails to show your support: 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. In addition Jack Layton, NDP leader, has a contact form and they would like to hear from people as well. A few more addresses 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. Lahey quotes NDP's Oliva Chow, who steered the motion, explaining, "If (Liberal leader) Stephane Dion were to say tomorrow that he supports this motion . . . we will then debate it. So we need people to call Mr. Dion . . . 'whose side you on Mr. Dion'?" The number to call is (613) 996-5789.
In the US Friday, war resister Ryan Jackson faced a court-martial. At Courage to Resist, his attorney James Branum explains:
At the hearing, we argued that Ryan's actions were an act of civil disobedience that stemmed from his belief that all war is wrong and Ryan himself gave a moving statement in which he expressed his own views on the immorality of war and the necessity of breaking the law for the sake of conscience.
At today's court-martial hearing at Ft. Gordon, GA, Conscientious Objector Ryan Jackson was given a sentence of 100 days in prison. With time already served, he has only 29 days remaining!
Ryan was also sentenced to a Bad Conduct Discharge, demotion to E-1 (private), and reduction to 2/3 pay for multiple specifications of being AWOL (as well as minor count of having postive drug test for marijuana).
You can find pictures taken after his court-martial, pictures from a vigil/protest held in Ryan's behalf by local Augusta residents, and the text of a statement that Ryan wrote while in prison for his supporters here.
At today's court-martial hearing at Ft. Gordon, GA, Conscientious Objector Ryan Jackson was given a sentence of 100 days in prison. With time already served, he has only 29 days remaining!
Ryan was also sentenced to a Bad Conduct Discharge, demotion to E-1 (private), and reduction to 2/3 pay for multiple specifications of being AWOL (as well as minor count of having postive drug test for marijuana).
You can find pictures taken after his court-martial, pictures from a vigil/protest held in Ryan's behalf by local Augusta residents, and the text of a statement that Ryan wrote while in prison for his supporters here.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes 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 US political races. And we'll start with a quote that really comments on the non-stop sexism in this primary campaign season and on this ridiculous notion that it can be ignored as well as how many male 'lefties' have stabbed women in the back -- yet again.
A genuine alliance with male radicals will not be possible until sexism sickens them as much as racism. This will not be accomplished through persuasion, conciliation, or love, but through independence and solidarity; radical men will stop oppressing us and make our fight their own when they can't get us to join them on any other terms.
You may be thinking, "Well that says it all." It pretty much does. But it said it all in 1969 as well. That's the late, great Ellen Willis ("Up from Radicalism: A Feminist Journal"). Not only have we seen it all before but some of the same sexists from that period (Tom Hayden, Robert Scheer . . . it's a long, long list) have really done their part from day one to make sure this campaign season was the most sexist campaign ever. They've lied about Hillary, they've smeared her, they've invented 'soul communications' they had with her from a plane of (mis)understanding far, far away. They've hidden behing women to make the attacks and, of course, Queen Bees have been happy to participate in the attack. Nothing says "Love me, I won't challenge you!" as much as kicking another women in the gut while a man looks on. Not all men are sexists and one of the accomplishments of the feminist movement has been to raise awareness for men and women. But there are sexist males and Queen Bees still out there -- a lot of them and, as Ava and I noted Sunday reviewing Grit TV, they're never so 'funny' as when they pretend to be 'enlightened.' Bob Somerby (Daily Howler) catches some pigs in action today: "One such crawler is creepy Roy Sekoff, Arianna's unseemly boy toy. Last Thursday night, Sekoff appeared on MSNBC's Verdict with Dan Abrams. Discussions of pundit misogyny/sexism had been in the air for weeks. And Sekoff wanted to vote with his mouth, which gave us a window to his soul. But then, to judge from the transcript–we didn't see the program--Jonathan Alter didn't exactly bathe himself with glory here either." And certainly they were out in full force Saturday at the DNC 'rules' committee meeting where they decided the best way to award delegates to someone who refused to have their name on a state's ballot (Barack Obama) was to give him more delegates than the winner of the state (Hillary Clinton) should have received. Nothing says 'fair' and 'orderly' -- apparently -- as much as rewarding Barack's tantrum by giving him not just the delegates they think he, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and John Edwards might have won from those voting "Uncommitted" in the Michigan primary (of course some of those might vote "Uncommitted" today or might vote for Hillary), they had to give him more. More than Hillary who received over 50% of the vote. Apparently Barack would have cried real hard and might have wet his undies if the 'rules' couldn't be bent and then broken in his favor. Delilah Boyd (A Scrivener's Lament) shares her thoughts: "Bye bye, Howard. Bye bye, Ms. Brazile. (I like your girlfriend more than I've ever liked you, anyway; for the record, I'll even try to be civil to you when I run into you at Frager's Hardware Store... I'm just done with you, Donna.) Bye bye, DNC. You've made it perfectly clear that don't need me.... or the 17+ million others just like me."
Barack made public that he had left the Trinity Church over the weekend. This followed one clip of Michael Pfleger 'preaching' hate and sexism at Trinity. As Andrew S. Ross (San Francisco Chronicle) wondered, "Apart from the appallingly racist nature of Father Michael Pfleger's remarks about Hillary Clinton, what is one to make of the congregation who seemed to lap it all up?" Turns out Pfleger was saying more than the one clip showed. Last night, Jake Tapper (ABC News) reported on another clip of that same 'sermon' (now two Sundays ago) where Pfleger declared "America is the greatest sin against God" and Tapper observed: "But Obama's relationship with Pfleger -- who is the priest at a different, Catholic, church -- spans decades. In September, the Obama campaign brought Pfleger to Iowa to host one of several interfaith forums for the campaign. Pfleger has given money to Obama's campaigns and Obama as a state legislator directed at least $225,000 towards social programs at St. Sabina's, according to the Chicago Tribune. Pfleger appears to have been scrubbed from the Obama campaign's page that features the testimony of faith leaders, but you can see the cached version HERE."
Hillary is the winner of the popular vote but some want to force her out of the primary -- what does it matter if voters are voting for you? Just because you have the most votes doesn't mean you are a winner! Didn't we all learn that in 2000 when Al Gore had more votes and didn't become president! Yes, the DNC appears perfectly willing to trash democracy. Howard Wolfson (HillaryClinton.com) points out: "According to Real Clear Politics, Hillary's popular vote lead over Sen. Obama has grown with her Puerto victory last night. She has won 17,916,763 votes compared to 17,723,200 for Sen. Obama when every state that has already voted is included in the tally. Read more."
Strangely Barack leaving the nutty church required Amy Filth Goodman to do a long quote from Barack on what she tries to trick people into believing is a 'news' program (it's not even a public affairs program -- today's 'big' story? Scahill's book is coming out in paperback!) but she reduced Hillary to two sentences. Hillary Wins Puerto Rico on Sunday and Goody reduces it to two lines. Hillary won 68% of the vote to Barack's 32% in Puerto Rico yesterday in another blowout for the Clinton campaign. But again, what do voters matter? Not much to the DNC apparently.
June is Gay Pride Month. And here's Hillary's statement:
As we begin Gay Pride Month, I join the LGBT community in celebrating an historic year in which our country continues to make progress towards the fair and equal treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. Still, we have so much work to do. I look forward to working with the LGBT community to make sure that all Americans in committed relationships have equal benefits and that nothing stands in the way of loving couples who want to adopt children in need. We need to expand our federal hate crimes legislation and pass a fully-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act. And finally, we need to put an end to the failed policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Courage, honor, patriotism and sacrifice -- the traits that define our men and women in uniform -- have nothing to do with sexual orientation.
To each and every LGBT American, I say this: You have done so much to help this country understand your lives by simply being open and honest about who you are and living your lives with dignity. Thank you for your courage. It is time that we recognize your hard work. I know that this country is ready for changes in the law that reflect the evolution in our hearts. You deserve a government that treats you with the respect you deserve.
America deserves a President who appeals to the best in each of us, not the worst; a President who values and respects all Americans and treats all Americans equally no matter who they are or who they love. That is truly the promise of America.
As we begin Gay Pride Month, I join the LGBT community in celebrating an historic year in which our country continues to make progress towards the fair and equal treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. Still, we have so much work to do. I look forward to working with the LGBT community to make sure that all Americans in committed relationships have equal benefits and that nothing stands in the way of loving couples who want to adopt children in need. We need to expand our federal hate crimes legislation and pass a fully-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act. And finally, we need to put an end to the failed policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Courage, honor, patriotism and sacrifice -- the traits that define our men and women in uniform -- have nothing to do with sexual orientation.
To each and every LGBT American, I say this: You have done so much to help this country understand your lives by simply being open and honest about who you are and living your lives with dignity. Thank you for your courage. It is time that we recognize your hard work. I know that this country is ready for changes in the law that reflect the evolution in our hearts. You deserve a government that treats you with the respect you deserve.
America deserves a President who appeals to the best in each of us, not the worst; a President who values and respects all Americans and treats all Americans equally no matter who they are or who they love. That is truly the promise of America.
I did check Barack's campaign. We all know he used homophobia in South Carolina but maybe he wanted to make some weak ass statement? Nope. He threw the LGBT community under the bus a long time ago and apparently these days just wants to put the bus in reverse to now back over them.
"And the war drags on . . ."
"The Littlest Nixon is not Eisenhower's granddaughter!"
"Protests and Pfleger"
"The Littlest Nixon is not Eisenhower's granddaughter!"
"Protests and Pfleger"
"Janet Hook has trouble with reality and history"
"THIS JUST IN! LAT'S JANET HOOK THINKS SHE HAS A MIND!"
"THIS JUST IN! LAT'S JANET HOOK THINKS SHE HAS A MIND!"
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