The reverse shock doctrine

I wonder what would happen if the people and their representatives were to shock the powerful and their funders for a change? What if on November 16th, the Iraq Moratorium day, everybody together took major actions? What if everyone with a job took the day off work? What if everyone wore orange? What if everyone with a tax bill wrote to the IRS to say not to expect another dollar of that portion of taxes that goes to war? What if everyone who gives money to Democrats wrote to them to say not one more dime before impeachment? What if everyone left their homes in the morning and went straight to the nearest district office of their congress member, sat down, and picnicked on the floor, refusing to leave without two written commitments: 1. to vote no on any more money to occupy Iraq, and 2. to cosponsor articles of impeachment against Cheney and Bush? What if everyone brought cell phones and media lists and spent all day phoning the media from their congress member's office?

If everyone did these things, the congress members would be shocked, the police would be shocked, the media would be shocked, and the White House

Giuliani and Clinton taste occupation in Iowa

DES MOINES -- A new campaign to place the Iraq war in the center of Iowa's presidential caucus races kicked off in Des Moines yesterday. But as often happens, it wasn't so much the protest that made the story as the reaction to it.

"Seasons Of Discontent--A Presidential Occupation Campaign," or SODAPOP as its organizers dubbed it, targeted the campaigns of Rudolph Giuliani and Hillary Clinton, taking over their offices in the Iowa state capital and disrupting both campaigns for several hours before a total of 19 people were arrested.

The "law and order" Giuliani campaign waited only about two hours to call on the suburban Clive, Iowa police to arrest 10 activists. The Clinton campaign appeared more reluctant to remove the protesters, waiting almost eight hours before requesting the Des Moines Police Department remove nine activists. The last two hours of the Clinton occupation generated reactions from young staffers that typically send a candidate's damage control unit into overtime, especially when that candidate is trying to appeal to rock-solid Democratic voters.

Tell Nancy to Impeach Dick Cheney

House Resolution 333 for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney is off the House floor, and has instead been sent to the Judiciary Committee for "further study." This maneuver, organized by Pelosi and the Democratic leadership, is consistent with their mantra that impeachment is "off the table." But, we are told Nancy Pelosi is reported to have replied to the question of impeachment that if she received 10,000 hand written letters she would proceed with it. What are we waiting for?

Cindy Sheehan wrote this:

Dear Friends

Instead of sending your impeachment letters for Dick Cheney to Nancy Pelosi's office, send them to my office so we can get an official count.

Please send them to:
Cindy for Congress
RE: Impeach Dick Cheney
1260 Mission Blvd
San Francisco, Ca 94103

Please pass this around and have them sent by Friday, November 16th and we will have them delivered to her office in San Francisco before Thanksgiving.

Spread this far and wide so we can take sacks of letters to her.

Don't include anything besides the letter.

Love
Cindy

Understanding the next war money vote

If I were a member of Congress, I would make this pledge:

I pledge to vote No on any bill, and to vote No on bringing to the floor for a vote any bill, that includes any funding to extend the occupation of Iraq. This pledge does not prevent me from voting for funding for a withdrawal, although such funding is clearly not needed by the Pentagon. It does not prevent me from voting for funding for veterans' services or for the reconstruction of Iraq by Iraqis, or for relief for hurricane victims or for cash for avocado growers, or for anything else. But I will only vote for items I approve of if they are in bills that do not contain a single dollar for the continuation of the occupation of Iraq.

I am only confident a single Congress Member (Dennis Kucinich) takes this position. It's possible that a few or even dozens will act on that position, but they have not said so publicly.

Used razor blades

Hidden agendas unfold and a sinister veep whips fear into a froth one more time: “Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions. We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

The words he never adds, though many Americans, I imagine, silently do it for him, are: “It takes one to know one.”

This is the thing. We’re gaga over nukes ourselves. It takes one recklessly driven government with a God-complex to spot another one. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

China's hedge strategy

ASAT PUZZLE
China carried out its first successful test of an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon in January 11, 2007. Using a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile, the test knocked out an aging Chinese weather satellite about 537 miles above the earth on January 11 through kinetic impact, or by slamming into it. The first known satellite-killing test in space in over 20 years, the test has enabled China to become the third state with ASAT capabilities, second only to the United States and Russia. Since the test was known to the world in January 17, several countries including the United States, Japan and Canada had voiced concern over it. In the meantime, experts around the world speculated on China's incentives for the move.

Some arms control experts thought that it could precede a new round of Chinese diplomatic efforts to prod the Bush administration into negotiations over a space weapons ban. For more than a decade, particularly as U.S. missile defense plans and deployments have accelerated, Beijing has repeatedly urged participants in the United Nations Conference on Disarmament to hammer out a multilateral treaty to

Peace and impeachment in Los Angeles

This past Friday night and Saturday, Ann Wright and I spoke at four events in the Los Angeles area on the topics of peace and impeachment. I flew home, but Ann intended to keep going at the same pace for another week or more without ever leaving L.A. The people of Santa Barbara and Oxnard and Venice and Santa Monica turned out in large numbers on Friday and Saturday nights and even Saturday morning to talk about what they could do to end the occupation of Iraq and the illegitimate administration of Bush and Cheney. Young people turned out too and are creating their own events with Ann. Los Angeles even has a busy office known as the Los Angeles National Impeachment Center. If only this same energy really were national! At three events I asked rooms full of Californians whether they would risk jail by sitting in their congress members' offices to impeach Bush and Cheney. Every time, 90 percent of the people present raised their hands. And when I asked whether they would submit to waterboarding if it rid our government of these criminals, 80 percent raised their hands. Now, THAT's asking what you can do for your country.

Boycott Chevron: Stand With Burma

Join the U.S. Campaign for Burma and people of good will throughout the world in a boycott of Chevron and Texaco, the biggest financial supporters of the Burmese military regime. Why boycott Chevron (and their Texaco brand too)? What does this have to do with the repression in Burma? Big oil and gas money prop up this corrupt dictatorship. Threaten the money supply, and the regime will cave. When we get millions of people to stop buying gas at Chevron and Texaco stations, big oil money and their friends in the U.S. government will begin pulling strings fast.

Read Amy Goodman's shocking expose on the connection between interational oil and gas money and the repressive Burmese military regime.

"Chevron's Pipeline Is the Burmese Regime's Lifeline" By Amy Goodman, Alternet

The barbarous military regime depends on revenue from the nation's gas reserves and partners such as Chevron, a detail ignored by the Bush administration.

When God made Neil Young

Dear Editor:

Recently, I’ve watched the 2005 made-in-Nashville movie Neil Young: “Heart of Gold,” several times.

Divine! What a “Heart of Compassion.”  Thank you Canada.

Now, I understand why as a 19 year-old back in 72’ how C-7 squeezed so many coins out of my tight jean pockets.  Selection C-7 was the new release “Heart of Gold” on the old Rock-Ola that played loudly in the coroner of my smoky pool hall.

So wrong were those Lynyrd Skynyrd  song writers who declared that we Alabamians  didn’t need “mister young around anyhow,” in “their” Sweet Home Alabama.  The two who murdered my two older brothers definitely needed a friend like peaceful Young.

If those strong winds ever blow me up north it would be heavenly to ride across that Canadian prairie with such a gentle soul.

Wonder if the prairie dogs would sing with Neil, or just be silent and listen to their forever friend.

God must have been thinking of me when He made Neil.  How about you?

Happy Birthday, Mr. Young. (November 12)

With compassion,
Mike Sawyer
Birmingham, Alabama

We remember… Nov. 2 memorial anniversary of the 2004 Ohio election

Trumpets played “Taps” as members of The Ohio Election Justice Campaign and the public gathered around the coffin with 350 small American flags inside it, each flag representing 100 disenfranchised voters in the 2004 election. 

This November 2nd, in contrast to that cold and rainy day three years ago, was sunny and clear.  Downtown Columbus was silent save for the sound of the wind whipping the Ohio flag against the Statehouse flagpole, a sound which punctuated Tim Kettler’s opening eulogy:  

“We will visit the office of Ohio Secretary of State and Ohio Attorney General and ask why have they have permitted a system to exist that ignores election crimes, that allows private corporations to own and control our elections, and allows those most vulnerable and least heard, the poor and working poor, to be ignored once again.”

After the eulogies, the trumpets played, the pallbearers raised the casket, and the mourners followed the casket as it proceeded down E. Broad Street, past the Franklin County Board of Elections, the Secretary of State’s Office, and the Attorney General’s office. 

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