Global
A story could start almost anywhere. This one begins at a moment startled
by a rocket.
In the autumn of 1957, America was not at war ... or at peace. The threat of nuclear annihilation shadowed every day, flickering with visions of the apocalyptic. In classrooms, “duck and cover” drills were part of the curricula. Underneath any Norman Rockwell painting, the grim reaper had attained the power of an ultimate monster.
Dwight Eisenhower was most of the way through his fifth year in the White House. He liked to speak reassuring words of patriotic faith, with presidential statements like: “America is the greatest force that God has ever allowed to exist on His footstool.” Such pronouncements drew a sharp distinction between the United States and the Godless Communist foe.
But on October 4, 1957, the Kremlin announced the launch of Sputnik, the world’s first satellite. God was supposed to be on America’s side, yet the Soviet atheists had gotten to the heavens before us. Suddenly the eagle of liberty could not fly nearly so high.
In the autumn of 1957, America was not at war ... or at peace. The threat of nuclear annihilation shadowed every day, flickering with visions of the apocalyptic. In classrooms, “duck and cover” drills were part of the curricula. Underneath any Norman Rockwell painting, the grim reaper had attained the power of an ultimate monster.
Dwight Eisenhower was most of the way through his fifth year in the White House. He liked to speak reassuring words of patriotic faith, with presidential statements like: “America is the greatest force that God has ever allowed to exist on His footstool.” Such pronouncements drew a sharp distinction between the United States and the Godless Communist foe.
But on October 4, 1957, the Kremlin announced the launch of Sputnik, the world’s first satellite. God was supposed to be on America’s side, yet the Soviet atheists had gotten to the heavens before us. Suddenly the eagle of liberty could not fly nearly so high.
The leaders of today's Congress have made clear through numerous lobby visits that unless we can produce polls that show congressional elections in November 2008 hang on the question of impeachment, nobody's going to be impeached. Bush and Cheney can continue to ignore subpoenas, spy illegally, kidnap, torture, murder, and rewrite laws. They can launch another illegal war. They can rig the elections. They could barbeque babies on the White House lawn. It doesn't matter. They will not be impeached.
Never mind the whole question of whether future presidents and vice presidents will be expected to obey any laws. It's all about elections. The Democrats played this same game when Reagan was investigated in the Iran Contra scandal. The Democrats exercised restraint. In the end, they restrained themselves right into a defeat and created the Bush dynasty.
Never mind the whole question of whether future presidents and vice presidents will be expected to obey any laws. It's all about elections. The Democrats played this same game when Reagan was investigated in the Iran Contra scandal. The Democrats exercised restraint. In the end, they restrained themselves right into a defeat and created the Bush dynasty.
An independent journalist was acquitted October 1 in Illinois 19th Circuit Court, of trespassing and resisting arrest charges going back to July 2006 when he covered a war protest at the Midwest Entrance Processing Command (MEPCOM) at the Great Lakes Naval Base.
Mike Ferner, of Toledo, Ohio was pleased when Judge Patrick Lawler announced his decision from the bench on both counts.
“The case was ridiculous from the first,” Ferner said after the acquittals. “I was there photographing three people kneeling down in the MEPCOM parking lot, reading the names of those killed in the war in Iraq. I never should have been arrested in the first place and certainly no one should be put through an ordeal like this, having to make five trips back to Illinois before finally getting my day in court. I was glad to see the court finally told the arresting officer and prosecutor they had no case.”
The three protesters, members of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, had just finished a month-long, 320-mile walk from Springfield to the Navy base north of Chicago to protest the war in Iraq and the occupation of Palestine.
Mike Ferner, of Toledo, Ohio was pleased when Judge Patrick Lawler announced his decision from the bench on both counts.
“The case was ridiculous from the first,” Ferner said after the acquittals. “I was there photographing three people kneeling down in the MEPCOM parking lot, reading the names of those killed in the war in Iraq. I never should have been arrested in the first place and certainly no one should be put through an ordeal like this, having to make five trips back to Illinois before finally getting my day in court. I was glad to see the court finally told the arresting officer and prosecutor they had no case.”
The three protesters, members of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, had just finished a month-long, 320-mile walk from Springfield to the Navy base north of Chicago to protest the war in Iraq and the occupation of Palestine.
With the Senate embracing the reckless Kyl-Lieberman amendment, we've moved one step closer to attacking Iran. But there's still time for Congress to assert itself against yet another needless war with massive destructive potential. By defining Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, a core branch of the Iranian military, as a foreign terrorist organization, Kyl-Lieberman put the U.S. Senate on record as vindicating the Bush-Cheney line that Iranian proxies are part of a global conspiracy, linking Al Qaeda, Iraqi insurgents, Hamas, Hezbollah, and any other enemy the administration wants to list. The bill now makes it far easier for Bush to manufacture some Tonkin Gulf-style excuse, then use it to justify an attack. No wonder Senator Jim Webb called it Cheney's fondest pipe dream.
Faith Communities Uniting for Peace calls upon people of faith and conscience in Central Ohio to join in fasting from dawn to dusk on Monday, October 8, to call for an end to the Iraq War. On this day, people of faith in local communities across our nation will act as catalysts to transform the meaning of the day from one of conquest to community and from violence to reverence. Ending this war can become the first step toward a policy that embodies a deeper, broader sense of generosity and community at home and in the world.
We invite Central Ohioans to join in a community breaking of the fast on October 8, 2007 evening at the intersection of North Broadway and High Street in Clintonville (Columbus, Ohio). We will gather at 6:30 pm and break the fast at 7:04 pm . The event will be a silent vigil. Please feel free to bring a brown bag dinner to eat after the sunset breaking of the fast.
We invite Central Ohioans to join in a community breaking of the fast on October 8, 2007 evening at the intersection of North Broadway and High Street in Clintonville (Columbus, Ohio). We will gather at 6:30 pm and break the fast at 7:04 pm . The event will be a silent vigil. Please feel free to bring a brown bag dinner to eat after the sunset breaking of the fast.
October 2nd will mark the birth anniversary of Human Rights Activist,
Mahatma Gandhi and for the first time, the United Nations is officially
proclaiming this day to be the International Day of Non-violence. Hopefully,
on this day we can all spare a little of our time to reflect on how little
we have all understood Mahatma Gandhi's message, after all everyday we seem
to plunge into a worse state of affairs and drift away farther from Gandhi's
respectable message; "I object to violence because when it appears to do
good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."
He looked like the fool he is, the liar, deceiver, hypocrite and evil man that he is. That’s how TV coverage showed George Bush speaking at his sham “major emitters” climate conference at the State Department on Thursday and Friday. There he was, acting as if he had the credentials to lead the world in the make-or-break battle to immediately slow and, over time, stop and reverse global heating.
Comments by delegates from the 16 countries invited to this conference, as reported in news stories, were mostly tepid, downright dismissive sometimes.
Comments by delegates from the 16 countries invited to this conference, as reported in news stories, were mostly tepid, downright dismissive sometimes.
Contempt for the empirical that can’t be readily jiggered or spun is
evident at the top of the executive branch in Washington. The country is
mired in a discourse that echoes the Scopes trial dramatized in “Inherit
the Wind.” Mere rationality would mean lining up on the side of “science”
against the modern yahoos and political panderers waving the flag of
social conservatism. (At the same time that scientific Darwinism is under
renewed assault, a de facto alliance between religious fundamentalists and
profit-devout corporatists has moved the country further into social
Darwinism that aims to disassemble the welfare state.) Entrenched
opposition to stem-cell research is part of a grim pattern that includes
complacency about severe pollution and global warming -- disastrous trends
already dragging one species after another to the brink of extinction and
beyond.
Hello!
Gosh, I always have so much to say and there's never really enough time or space to say it all in. I don't want to clog your boxes with mail. Mine is certainly full, but I enjoy staying abreast of all the news and so I don't mind. However, I am respectful of your time and storage limitations. I will keep this message themed to Louisiana (as much as possible)!
The first item is a blatant disregard by the Times-Picayune for the candidacy of Malcolm Suber, running for New Orleans City Council. Knowing how I've been treated in the "mainstream" media (MSM), I didn't dare let the omission pass without contacting the newspaper. Of course, somehow I held out hope that they were different given their outstanding coverage during the Katrina tribulations. In the case of candidate Suber, they are proving to wear the same blinders as many others in the MSM. Suber's candidacy showcases the Reconstruction Party--a new political party being formed around the country.
Gosh, I always have so much to say and there's never really enough time or space to say it all in. I don't want to clog your boxes with mail. Mine is certainly full, but I enjoy staying abreast of all the news and so I don't mind. However, I am respectful of your time and storage limitations. I will keep this message themed to Louisiana (as much as possible)!
The first item is a blatant disregard by the Times-Picayune for the candidacy of Malcolm Suber, running for New Orleans City Council. Knowing how I've been treated in the "mainstream" media (MSM), I didn't dare let the omission pass without contacting the newspaper. Of course, somehow I held out hope that they were different given their outstanding coverage during the Katrina tribulations. In the case of candidate Suber, they are proving to wear the same blinders as many others in the MSM. Suber's candidacy showcases the Reconstruction Party--a new political party being formed around the country.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- A Burmese man who hijacked a Thai International Airways passenger plane, to publicize his country's struggle against its military regime, says other protestors in Burma should not seize aircraft but find "dramatic" and "creative ways" to gain world support.
"I do not regret the 'hijacking'. I am proud of what I did -- this peaceful 'hijacking drama' in 1990 -- given the kind of situation at that time," Soe Myint said in an interview.
"There was very little international attention on how the peoples of Burma were struggling under the military regime," he said, reflecting on the reasons he and another Burmese activist commandeered the plane from Burma to India 17 years ago.
The two Rangoon University students wielded a fake bomb and forced the Bangkok-to-Rangoon flight to continue east to India's port of Calcutta in November, 1990, with 220 passengers.
"We were able to do it without any weapon, without harming anyone, and [with] the whole-hearted support we got from the peoples of India," after the plane landed in Calcutta, also known as Kolkata, Soe Myint said.
"I do not regret the 'hijacking'. I am proud of what I did -- this peaceful 'hijacking drama' in 1990 -- given the kind of situation at that time," Soe Myint said in an interview.
"There was very little international attention on how the peoples of Burma were struggling under the military regime," he said, reflecting on the reasons he and another Burmese activist commandeered the plane from Burma to India 17 years ago.
The two Rangoon University students wielded a fake bomb and forced the Bangkok-to-Rangoon flight to continue east to India's port of Calcutta in November, 1990, with 220 passengers.
"We were able to do it without any weapon, without harming anyone, and [with] the whole-hearted support we got from the peoples of India," after the plane landed in Calcutta, also known as Kolkata, Soe Myint said.