Duty to Warn
American culture continues to spiral downward to an oblivion and the only way to stop it is through our love and concern. Much has occurred over the past few days and week. The shooting massacre at Virginia Tech jarred us into disbelief and renewed our concerns over domestic violence, gun control and man''s inhumanity to man.
It was just days ago that the nation was embroiled in the Don Imus ''nappy-headed ho'' controversy along with the ''bitch-ho'' culture that rappers and hip hop artists have cultivated over the past 20 plus years.
And it was only a few months ago that the ''F-word'' slur towards the gay community with Isaiah Washington and later with Tim Hardaway was fodder for the evening news. Meanwhile America continues to be engaged in a prolonged war over nothing as it desperately tries to force democracy and Western values onto a people who resent it.
It was just days ago that the nation was embroiled in the Don Imus ''nappy-headed ho'' controversy along with the ''bitch-ho'' culture that rappers and hip hop artists have cultivated over the past 20 plus years.
And it was only a few months ago that the ''F-word'' slur towards the gay community with Isaiah Washington and later with Tim Hardaway was fodder for the evening news. Meanwhile America continues to be engaged in a prolonged war over nothing as it desperately tries to force democracy and Western values onto a people who resent it.
"I HOPE IT'S YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS THAT DIE" said US Representative Dana Rohrabacker to American citizens who questioned the Bush Administration’s unlawful extraordinary rendition policies.
Congressional hearings provide a deep insight into the inner spirit of our elected representatives-and sometimes, the insight is not pretty.
On April 17, we witnessed Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) unleash his unbridled anger onto members of the European Parliament’s committee on Human rights who were invited guests and witnesses in the House Foreign Affairs European subcommittee hearing. The European Parliamentary human rights committee had issued a report in January, 2007 sharply critical of the Bush administration’s extraordinary rendition program in which persons from all over the world were detained by either CIA or local police and then flown by CIA jet (torture taxi) to other countries where they were imprisoned (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Libya, Djibouti, Morocco, Yemen. The report was equally critical of European governments for allowing the unlawful flights to take place.
Congressional hearings provide a deep insight into the inner spirit of our elected representatives-and sometimes, the insight is not pretty.
On April 17, we witnessed Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) unleash his unbridled anger onto members of the European Parliament’s committee on Human rights who were invited guests and witnesses in the House Foreign Affairs European subcommittee hearing. The European Parliamentary human rights committee had issued a report in January, 2007 sharply critical of the Bush administration’s extraordinary rendition program in which persons from all over the world were detained by either CIA or local police and then flown by CIA jet (torture taxi) to other countries where they were imprisoned (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Libya, Djibouti, Morocco, Yemen. The report was equally critical of European governments for allowing the unlawful flights to take place.
He had accomplices. Don't kid yourself: 23-year-old Cho Seung-hui didn't forge his two little pistols in his smithy shop.
He had a dealer, a guns-and-bullets pusher-man who put the heat in his hand, took the kid's money and pocketed it with a grin.
"Whether you are looking for a pistol for affordable training or simply the excitement of shooting, the P22 is the pistol for you!"
That's the ad on the Walther website for the student-reaper, a Walther .22.
Not that Walther, or its fellow murder-maker, Glock, which crafted the other Weapon of Student Mass Destruction, the Glock 9mm, kept all of the killer kid's money. The gun makers religiously tithe a portion of their grim reapings to their friends in Washington.
This report isn't about gun control legislation or the right to bear arms or any of that sideways crap. This is about a group of co-conspirators who dropped two killing devices into the hands of someone who shouldn't have had access to a plastic spoon.
He had a dealer, a guns-and-bullets pusher-man who put the heat in his hand, took the kid's money and pocketed it with a grin.
"Whether you are looking for a pistol for affordable training or simply the excitement of shooting, the P22 is the pistol for you!"
That's the ad on the Walther website for the student-reaper, a Walther .22.
Not that Walther, or its fellow murder-maker, Glock, which crafted the other Weapon of Student Mass Destruction, the Glock 9mm, kept all of the killer kid's money. The gun makers religiously tithe a portion of their grim reapings to their friends in Washington.
This report isn't about gun control legislation or the right to bear arms or any of that sideways crap. This is about a group of co-conspirators who dropped two killing devices into the hands of someone who shouldn't have had access to a plastic spoon.
I do not hesitate one second to state clearly and unmistakably: I belong to the American resistance movement which fights against American imperialism, just as the resistance movement fought against Hitler.
---Paul Robeson
Virtually every day our mendacious corporate media publicizes the farcical "debate" between officials of the Bush Regime and Congress. While numerous polls have indicated that over 2/3 of US Americans want an end to the war in Iraq, and voters positioned the Democrats to exercise the will of the people, the war rages on.
Between the Gulf War, the subsequent US-driven draconian UN economic sanctions, and the seemingly endless US invasion and occupation of Iraq, well over a million Iraqis are dead. Infrastructure essential to vital human needs, including transportation, health, utilities, water, and sanitation has been decimated. Depleted uranium will continue to visit misery and death upon the Iraqi population long after the imperial invaders have been sent packing, as we were in Vietnam.
---Paul Robeson
Virtually every day our mendacious corporate media publicizes the farcical "debate" between officials of the Bush Regime and Congress. While numerous polls have indicated that over 2/3 of US Americans want an end to the war in Iraq, and voters positioned the Democrats to exercise the will of the people, the war rages on.
Between the Gulf War, the subsequent US-driven draconian UN economic sanctions, and the seemingly endless US invasion and occupation of Iraq, well over a million Iraqis are dead. Infrastructure essential to vital human needs, including transportation, health, utilities, water, and sanitation has been decimated. Depleted uranium will continue to visit misery and death upon the Iraqi population long after the imperial invaders have been sent packing, as we were in Vietnam.
They and Edwards Refuse to Oppose a Bush-Cheney Attack on Iran
NEW YORK CITY (April 16, 2007) MONDAY – Congressman and Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is challenging his fellow candidates' votes to authorize and fund the war in Iraq, and their positions on Iran.
"Clinton, Edwards, and Obama share responsibility for wasting hundreds of billions of dollars in an unnecessary war. And the American tax payers on this day need to remember that," Kucinich charged. Hillary Clinton and John Edwards voted to authorize the war. Clinton and Barack Obama continue to vote to fund it.
At a New Hampshire town meeting yesterday, someone asked Clinton about her vote to authorize the war, and asked if she had read the intelligence reports prior to her vote. Senator Clinton is reported to have said that if she had known then what she knows now, she never would have voted to give the President the authority to go to war.
NEW YORK CITY (April 16, 2007) MONDAY – Congressman and Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is challenging his fellow candidates' votes to authorize and fund the war in Iraq, and their positions on Iran.
"Clinton, Edwards, and Obama share responsibility for wasting hundreds of billions of dollars in an unnecessary war. And the American tax payers on this day need to remember that," Kucinich charged. Hillary Clinton and John Edwards voted to authorize the war. Clinton and Barack Obama continue to vote to fund it.
At a New Hampshire town meeting yesterday, someone asked Clinton about her vote to authorize the war, and asked if she had read the intelligence reports prior to her vote. Senator Clinton is reported to have said that if she had known then what she knows now, she never would have voted to give the President the authority to go to war.
Land of the free, home of the War on Terrorism
"They told us this was one of the world's worst terrorists, and he got the sentence of a drunken driver," said Ben Wizner, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, referring to David Hicks, a 31-year-old Australian who in a plea bargain with a US military court will serve nine months in prison, largely in Australia. That's after five years at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba without being charged with a crime, without a trial, without a conviction. Under the deal, Hicks agreed not to talk to reporters for one year (a slap in the face of free speech), to forever waive any profit from telling his story (a slap -- mon Dieu! -- in the face of free enterprise), to submit to US interrogation and testify at future US trials or international tribunals (an open invitation to the US government to hound the young man for the rest of his life), to renounce any claims of mistreatment or unlawful detention (a requirement which would be unconstitutional in a civilian US court).
"If the United States were not ashamed of its conduct, it wouldn't hide behind a gag order," said Wizner.)[1]
"They told us this was one of the world's worst terrorists, and he got the sentence of a drunken driver," said Ben Wizner, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, referring to David Hicks, a 31-year-old Australian who in a plea bargain with a US military court will serve nine months in prison, largely in Australia. That's after five years at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba without being charged with a crime, without a trial, without a conviction. Under the deal, Hicks agreed not to talk to reporters for one year (a slap in the face of free speech), to forever waive any profit from telling his story (a slap -- mon Dieu! -- in the face of free enterprise), to submit to US interrogation and testify at future US trials or international tribunals (an open invitation to the US government to hound the young man for the rest of his life), to renounce any claims of mistreatment or unlawful detention (a requirement which would be unconstitutional in a civilian US court).
"If the United States were not ashamed of its conduct, it wouldn't hide behind a gag order," said Wizner.)[1]
There’s a new clue to the motivation behind the recent firing of federal prosecutors. Reporters Gordon, Talev and Taylor of McClatchy Newspapers established a likely relationship between the post 2000 hard right turn in civil rights policies at the Department of Justice and the promotion of the new cadre of right wing U.S. Attorneys who support restricting voter eligibility. Karl Rove’s own words on the subject indicate a further connection between recent appointments in nine states where very tight Congressional races were anticipated
The Bush Justice Department is imploding after years of consistently undermining the rights and freedoms of those citizens it claims to serve. From the Patriot Act to the unfettered sadism endorsed at White House inspired and sponsored torture centers around the world, the Justice Department stands with the White House. It provides a fig leaf of legal justification for the various adventures which involve war, death a suffering.
The Bush Justice Department is imploding after years of consistently undermining the rights and freedoms of those citizens it claims to serve. From the Patriot Act to the unfettered sadism endorsed at White House inspired and sponsored torture centers around the world, the Justice Department stands with the White House. It provides a fig leaf of legal justification for the various adventures which involve war, death a suffering.
There's only one reason a man with a wife with incurable breast cancer and two small children at home should be running off to run for president.
Not because he wants the job, or even because she wants it for him.
Because she wants it for them.
Of course, the obvious explanation for why a man whose wife's cancer recurs would keep running is that he's too ambitious to give it up. After all, presidential candidates never see their wives anyway. Why let it interfere with a campaign that is going well enough? We're used to political marriages that put family second to ambition.
But I don't think that's it in John Edwards' case. First of all, it's not true. He was willing to give it up. Second of all, he didn't have to give it up forever, just for this time, against two very strong contenders no less.
Not because he wants the job, or even because she wants it for him.
Because she wants it for them.
Of course, the obvious explanation for why a man whose wife's cancer recurs would keep running is that he's too ambitious to give it up. After all, presidential candidates never see their wives anyway. Why let it interfere with a campaign that is going well enough? We're used to political marriages that put family second to ambition.
But I don't think that's it in John Edwards' case. First of all, it's not true. He was willing to give it up. Second of all, he didn't have to give it up forever, just for this time, against two very strong contenders no less.
"You is feeling like you was lost in the bush, boy? You says: It is a puling sample jungle of woods.
You most shouts out: Bethicket me for a stump of beech if I have the poultriest notions what the farest
he all means."~~James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939)
My friend Bernie says ever since the Bush gang stormed the White House in 2000, then stormed the World Trade Center in 2001, we've done nothing but run in circles like a bunch of terrified chickens with our heads chopped off. "We have no sense of direction," Bernie said, "we're staggering around in a jungle of lies, deceit, and scandal with no way out -- and that's the way they planned it."
"You're kidding!" I exclaimed, astonished. "You mean they planned this mess? It's nothing but bloody chaos out there --"
My friend Bernie says ever since the Bush gang stormed the White House in 2000, then stormed the World Trade Center in 2001, we've done nothing but run in circles like a bunch of terrified chickens with our heads chopped off. "We have no sense of direction," Bernie said, "we're staggering around in a jungle of lies, deceit, and scandal with no way out -- and that's the way they planned it."
"You're kidding!" I exclaimed, astonished. "You mean they planned this mess? It's nothing but bloody chaos out there --"
Friends, Romans, Countrymen,
I'm sorry that I haven't been up-to-date with every ebb and flow of this disaster, but believe me I have been following it all. A little background, please forgive me if you have heard this before. At my neighborhood peace group, Chelsea Neighbors United to End the War, back in November we were discussing what to do with Congress member Jerrold Nadler (NY 8th CD). We were considering making him our target. We were just about to challenge him on the issue of the war, considering sitting in at his office, etc. Then he came and stood with us at our weekly action: Chelsea Stands Up Against The War. He stayed a good while and we got to express ourselves on the need to stop funding the war. On January 12th he came out with his "Protect The Troops and Bring Them Home Act of 2007. We thought that this was as good as anything we had seen, endorsed it and started working for it.
We are all familiar with what has happend since January 12th. Here is my take:
I'm sorry that I haven't been up-to-date with every ebb and flow of this disaster, but believe me I have been following it all. A little background, please forgive me if you have heard this before. At my neighborhood peace group, Chelsea Neighbors United to End the War, back in November we were discussing what to do with Congress member Jerrold Nadler (NY 8th CD). We were considering making him our target. We were just about to challenge him on the issue of the war, considering sitting in at his office, etc. Then he came and stood with us at our weekly action: Chelsea Stands Up Against The War. He stayed a good while and we got to express ourselves on the need to stop funding the war. On January 12th he came out with his "Protect The Troops and Bring Them Home Act of 2007. We thought that this was as good as anything we had seen, endorsed it and started working for it.
We are all familiar with what has happend since January 12th. Here is my take: