blog

crunch-tv

italian - english

Dizzy Dayz

exposesite

dahbud mensch

balzac's blog

disclaimer

#3 TELL-A-VISION

Thanksgiving Is A Celebration of Genocide
The End of American Thanksgivings
The Black Commentator - Issue 66

Nobody but Americans celebrates Thanksgiving. It is reserved by history and the intent of "the founders" as the supremely white American holiday, the most ghoulish event on the national calendar. No Halloween of the imagination can rival the exterminationist reality that was the genesis, and remains the legacy, of the American Thanksgiving. It is the most loathsome, humanity-insulting day of the year - a pure glorification of racist barbarity.

We at [Black Commentator] are thankful that the day grows nearer when the almost four centuries-old abomination will be deprived of its reason for being: white supremacy. Then we may all eat and drink in peace and gratitude for the blessings of humanity's deliverance from the rule of evil men.

Thanksgiving is much more than a lie - if it were that simple, an historical correction of the record of events in 1600s Massachusetts would suffice to purge the "flaw" in the national mythology. But Thanksgiving is not just a twisted fable, and the mythology it nurtures is itself inherently evil. The real-life events - subsequently revised - were perfectly understood at the time as the first, definitive triumphs of the genocidal European project in New England. The near-erasure of Native Americans in Massachusetts and, soon thereafter, from most of the remainder of the northern English colonial seaboard was the true mission of the Pilgrim enterprise - Act One of the American Dream. African Slavery commenced contemporaneously - an overlapping and ultimately inseparable Act Two. [Continue reading at]:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/66/66_cover_thanksgiving.html

Thanksgiving, Celebration of Genocide
Native American Holocaust Absolution by Pilgrims

Skipping past the signing of the Mayflower Compact, the first concerns of the new arrivals were finding something to eat and a place to settle. After anchoring off Cape Cod on November 11, 1620, a small party was sent ashore to explore. Pilgrims in every sense of the word, they promptly stumbled into a Nauset graveyard where they found baskets of corn which had been left as gifts for the deceased. The gathering of this unexpected bounty was interrupted by the angry Nauset warriors, and the hapless Pilgrims beat a hasty retreat back to their boat with little to show for their efforts. Shaken but undaunted by their welcome to the New World, the Pilgrims continued across Cape Cod Bay and decided to settle, of all places, at the site of the now-deserted Wampanoag village of Patuxet. There they sat for the next few months in crude shelters - cold, sick and slowly starving to death. Half did not survive that terrible first winter. The Wampanoag were aware of the English but chose to avoid contact them for the time being.

In keeping with the strange sequence of unlikely events, Samoset, a Pemaquid (Abenaki) sachem from Maine hunting in Massachusetts, came across the growing disaster at Plymouth. Having acquired some English from contact with English fishermen and the short-lived colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River in 1607, he walked into Plymouth in March and startled the Pilgrims with "Hello Englishmen." Samoset stayed the night surveying the situation and left the next morning. He soon returned with Squanto. Until he succumbed to sickness and joined his people in 1622, Squanto devoted himself to helping the Pilgrims who were now living at the site of his old village. Whatever his motivations, with great kindness and patience, he taught the English the skills they needed to survive, and in so doing, assured the destruction of his own people. [Continue Reading at]:

http://www.tolatsga.org/wampa.html

I'm Sorry You Have Taken So Long to Say You're Sorry
by David Pego

"I think America clearly knows the atrocities - the holocaust, the land theft, the boarding school experience completely wiping out the language and cultures of our Native brothers and sisters."

http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/native/politics_law/pego_apology_bill.asp

The Thanksgiving Myth
by John Two-Hawks

Let me begin by stating that thousands of years before the 'official' Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed by Governor Winthrop of the Massachussetts Bay Colony in 1637, North American Indigenous people across the continent had celebrated seasons of Thanksgiving.

'Thanksgiving' is a very ancient concept to American Indian nations. The big problem with the American Thanksgiving holiday is its false association with American Indian people. The infamous 'Indians and pilgrims' myth.

It is good to celebrate Thanksgiving, to be thankful for your blessings. It is not good to distort history, to falsely portray the origin of this holiday and lie about the truth of its actual inception. Here are some accurate historical facts about the true origin of this American holiday that may interest you [Continue Reading at]:

http://www.nativecircle.com/mlmThanksgivingmyth.html

Bear Butte International Alliance
http://matopaha.org/wp/factsheet/

"In an 1868 treaty, drafted at Fort Laramie in Sioux country, the United States established the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux people. However, after the discovery of gold there in 1874, the United States confiscated the land in 1877. To this day, ownership of the Black Hills remains the subject of a legal dispute between the U.S. government and the Sioux."

rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/06/07/news/top/doc466889c890107729521849.txt

Native American Issues & Causes & NDN News Website - http://www.ndnnews.com/

Amestizo

Here's my holiday wish: that all of us flood Hon. Nancy Pelosi's mailbox with impeachment notices.

Nancy recently said she'd put impeachment back "on the table" as soon as she received 10,000 handwritten letters calling for her to do so.

Was she serious? There's only one way to find out. - Gar Smith

http://www.earthisland.org/project/genPage2.cfm?generalID=118&pageID=175&subSiteID=44

Iraq Deployment 3.0

by Dizzy Dayz

On Saturday, October 27th, my family and I will start the 30 day countdown for our third Iraq deployment. I "affectionately" call it, Iraq Deployment 3.0.

Unlike his first deployment, that lasted about 6 months, and his last deployment, that lasted 12 months, this deployment will last "at least 15 months", but "not more than 18 months".

This deployment will be the longest we have ever been apart, since we met back in 1997.

His first (ever) deployment was back in 1999, where he was deployed to Bosnia for 6 months. His next deployment, wasn't actually a "deployment" per se, but he was stationed at a remote base in South Korea in 2002 for one year. Six months after he returned from Korea, he was deployed to Iraq in 2003. He was home for over a year when he was redeployed to Iraq, for one year, in 2005.

Almost two years to the exact day that he left for Iraq Deployment 2.0, he is leaving for his third tour.

Fifteen months is only three months longer than his most previous tour, but that's three more months of playing "single mom" to three children and reminding the youngest ones that "Daddy is at work". They don't need to know that Daddy is in danger. Sure, he doesn't come home for months at a time, but they don't need to know that's not normal for average Daddies. Of course, it doesn't hurt that we live in a community where lots of Mommies and Daddies go to work for months, so they think it's normal.

It will be nice when this "normal" life is no longer part of our every day existence.

It will be nice when Daddy isn't missing (literally) every other birthday or anniversary. It will be nice when Daddy comes home every night for several years rather than being at work every day/night for several months. It will be nice to not have to hold my breath when I hear "bad news" about Iraq on the news.

Of course, one has to think positively. I know that for 15 months, the music in the van cd-changer will be only music I love to listen to. I know that I won't have to watch any movies or television shows that I don't like. If I want to go somewhere, I don't have to take into consideration whether or not he wants to go. Less laundry? Whoo-hoo! A totally tidy master bedroom? Whoa, Nelly!

Of course, it's hard to accentuate the positive when your entire daily routine is a mix of anxiety about how he is doing and animosity towards those who keep this illegal war going. I have grown tired and annoyed at otherwise "thoughtful" people who pat me on the head with some nonsense about how he's over there so we can have freedom over here. I know that's not true. But, I just smile and walk away instead of ranting about how much bull that is.

Thankfully, I have things to keep me occupied. Care packages to send, friends and family to call, a business to run, and children to care for and a blog (or two...) to rant on. We will pretend like Iraq Deployment 3.0 is a normal part of our every day lives. We will go on for 15 months as if it's normal for Daddies to go to work war, every other year.

Truthfully, we will be just fine. The thing isn't so much that he's going, it's that this is the third time. It will be nice when we can start counting the number of years he is home against positive milestones the way we count how long our troops have been in Iraq (four years since I started my business).

In the meantime, we begin the big countdown to Iraq Deployment 3.0 (T-minus 33 days).

Source: http://dizzydayz.blogspot.com/2007/10/iraq-deployment-30.html

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is a well-armed lamb, contesting the vote."

Home: http://dizzydayz.blogspot.com/

3 NORTH BEACH ARTISTS

JAMES REDO
OPENING RECEPTION TONIGHT 7-12 PM
AGNETA FALK - GEORGE LONG - JAMES REDO
SAT: NOV. 3rd OPEN 12 TO 12 WITH MUSIC BY RENOWNED GUITARIST JONATHAN RICHMAN
FINE PRINTING SALON 225 7th ST
(Between Howard & Folsom)
MAKING IMPRESSIONS (415-621-5999)

JAMES REDO
Provenance : San Francisco, Europe
Sources : MC Escher, Albrecht D ürer
http://jamesredo.com/

Redo is a native San Franciscan, born on Nov. 19, 1942 of Portuguese heritage. As a world class fine artist and published poet, he has produced thousands of drawings and paintings, and scores of sculptures in wood and stone. To say Redo is prolific would be an understatement - his work expresses complex ideas in a direct and eloquent manner, thereby retaining the quality of mystery implicit in all great works of art. The work stimulates a passionate response and provokes deep intellectual reflection through its intensity.

Redo developed a love for traveling at an early age and received his education primarily in Europe, North Africa, and North America. His first show was at the age of 10 at the Iolani Palace in Hawaii. At the age of 13 while living in Frankfurt, Germany, he had his first profound encounter with one of the great spirits of art, the famous Renaissance artist Albrecht D ürer, a precursor to Escher.

"This exhibition opened me intellectually to the world of art. It connected my mind and spirit to the world of humanity. Everything jelled; The focus demonstrated in Dürer's work in turn invoked my own focus. From that exchange I had my initial understanding of philosophy and its message.

"This reverberated in my soul."

Later in Europe, Redo spent much of his time drawing in the Louvre in Paris, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Holland, and other great museums in major cities throughout Europe.

"Two of my early art teachers gave me confidence in myself. They taught me not to worship others. My education in the fine arts includes experiencing the major museums of the world.

"The US is a nation that represents a diversity of all cultures - it is a land of opportunity that invites the dialogue necessary for the survival of all culture. And particularly, in the Bay Area, 'where its happening' - all of the creative dialogue necessary for transforming consciousness within a high-tech environment.

"Fine Art in the US is generally seen as a luxury. I've had many 'conversations' with the great spirits of art and learned that though fine art may be a luxury, it is a necessity for the enlightened spirit and the endowment of a bounteous life.

"To my mind Fine Art is never only reducible to any blatant commercial equation. What is Fine Art after all but the articulation of our humanity. My work expresses a quality of purpose throughout the entire process, from inspiration to fruition, in the various media with which I work.

"People who like spicy food love my work."

Biogrphy courtesy of Artwithin Studios

James Redo's portrait by Ed Brooks

http://jamesredo.com/redo0.html

SUMMER OF LOVE 40th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL
KBWB-TV20 - Channel 20 - Cable 13 - San Francisco
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4th - 8:00 PM Pacific Time

40 years ago, 500,000 free spirits flocked to San Francisco with new ideas that changed the world forever...

Don't miss great performances from Country Joe McDonald, Taj Mahal, Canned Heat, New Riders of the Purple Sage and many more... all recorded, as it happened LIVE, at Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park! Plus... go back stage for revealing and up close interviews with the rock legends that made it all happen. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.yourtv20.com/programs/9106276.html - From: Marliese's Corner

Lake County Blues Allstars
Thursday, November 8th, 7 PM, Kelseyville, CA

Veterans Day 2007

For Yellow, Scumbag, Chickenhawks Who Stole Liberty & Freedom

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is a well-armed lamb, contesting the vote.

Homeless Veterans
by Fly_On_The_Wall

I call bullshit on a Murderous Bush Administration, Senate, and Congress who are destroying the United States government.

I suppose one could ignore U.S. government lies and concentrate on more important issues; like, where Dana Perino's hidden mole is located or David Gergory's "What happened across the International Date Line doesn't necessarily stay hidden across the International Date Line," but I would rather concentrate on how our lying government uses our Military like a worn out dish rag; remembering it was Donald Rumsfeld who called Vietnam Veterans STUPID for not figuring out a way to avoid the DRAFT, like chickenhawks Cheney and Bush.

The following Google News link lists over one thousand (1,000) articles on HOMELESS VETERANS; showing these M'Fers don't really shive a git about VETERANS:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=homeless+veterans&btnG=Search+News

In hiding: homeless vets

Counting the number of veterans on the streets is difficult because they avoid notice, experts say
By Meagan Ingerson

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071112/LOCAL18/711120403/-1/LOCAL17

Nation must house its homeless veterans

Sunday was Veteran's Day, the day set aside to honor those men and women who throughout our history have paid the highest price for our liberty. The nation has no shortage of notable heroes and yet it is difficult to argue there are any more important, or more heartbreaking, than the normal, everyday, largely anonymous folks who, when asked, have answered their nation's call.

One day seems hardly sufficient to thank them.

http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071112/OPINION01/711120333/1079

Bush's Veterans Day Speech: Spin and Straw Men

Written by David R. Mark

No one should have been surprised by President Bush's Veterans Day speech in Pennsylvania.

As JABBS wrote yesterday, new questions are being raised about whether Bush, Vice President Cheney and others in the White House inner circle made pre-war claims based on information provided by regarding Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a captured Al Qaeda commander — information that the CIA and DIA said lacked credibility. This latest revelation backs up earlier news articles that suggest Bush, Cheney and others had made pre-war claims not supported by the National Intelligence Estimate.

It was clear that the White House would "hit back," as anonymous White House aides told CNN on Tuesday. Bush's speech, and the conservative noise machine that followed on various cable "news" channels, served that purpose.

But, in responding to the recent news, the president offered spin and straw men.

Bush, in his speech in Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania., first indicated that he supported free speech:

BUSH: One of the hallmarks of a free society and what makes our country strong is that our political leaders can discuss their differences openly, even in times of war.

But then he qualified that:

BUSH: While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war.

And then he provided the straw man:

BUSH: As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them. Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough. And our troops deserve to know that whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our nation is united, and we will settle for nothing less than victory.

It's a crafty piece of speechwriting. The information revealed over the past few days says that the White House inner circle had information in 2002 that was ignored or misrepresented in making the case for war to Congress and the American people. While it supports information revealed nearly two years ago, the newest information, regarding claims made by al-Libi, was only recently made available to the press and the American people in the last few days. But in spite of this, Bush makes the false charge that Democrats are trying to "rewrite" history.

Then, to drive his point home about the devil he knows as the Democrats, he starts questioning his critics' patriotism, suggesting that criticizing White House actions is akin to not supporting the troops. It's a classic example of empty conservative spin. Joseph McCarthy would have been proud.

***

The president's comments yesterday were criticized by Republicans as well as Democrats, which counters the president's spin that he is only being attacked by "Democrats and anti-war critics."

In a speech in Philadelphia, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), criticized how the war has been presented to Americans. Santorum, who has been distancing himself from Bush of late, the White House. Afterward, Santorum said the war has been "less than optimal" and "maybe some blame could be laid" at the White House. "Certainly, mistakes were made," Santorum said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) said he agrees with Democrats who are pressing the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee to move forward with an investigation into whether the administration manipulated intelligence.

"I was probably the main driver on the Republican side because I thought we needed the answers to whether intelligence was misused, intentionally or unintentionally," Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald.

***

White House officials fanned out to television appearances to reinforce Bush's argument and Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman added his voice. He said Democrats who once worried that Saddam was amassing weapons of mass destruction now want an investigation of the intelligence. "Maybe this investigation will reveal that they were brainwashed," Mehlman said in a speech to be delivered Friday evening in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Maybe Mehlman is correct. Maybe the Democrats were given false information by the White House, not the "same information" as the White House, as conservatives claim. Maybe we should stop buying into the spin — the administration brainwashing — and actually rely on facts.

As The New Republic reported in 2003: "Senators were outraged to find that intelligence info given to them omitted the qualifications and countervailing evidence that had characterized the classified version and played up the claims that strengthened the administration's case for war."

***

A final note: In reporting the president's charges against "Democrats and anti-war critics," Fox News, CNN and MSNBC each rolled tape of the president, but failed to offer anything resembling equal time for a Democratic rebuttal. And of course, none of the networks offered the rebuttals from Santorum or Hagel.

Fair and balanced? Only for those administration brainwashers ...

***

This item first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

Source: http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/11/12/124922.php

Steve Bell

To the Guy Who Called Me A Traitor
by ARNOLD OLIVER

I haven't heard from you for a while. Three years ago you called me a "traitor", just before the invasion of Iraq. You also wrote, "Your voice against our elected government is a voice against its people, a voice against this nation."

I guess I must have set you off with my skepticism about an Iraqi nuclear weapons program and other nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, not to mention the highly dubious claims being made that Iraq was involved with 9/11 or Al Qaeda.

I am sure that you had every intention to contact me and apologize since you were so utterly wrong about, well, everything. But I suppose you were busy.

As the third anniversary of the war approaches, let's review the fine mess that you've gotten us into.

The war in Iraq has become a horrendous drain of American lives and treasure. With no end in sight, we have already lost over 2300 U.S. soldiers and will spend more than $315 billion through 2006. At least 18,000 American soldiers have suffered devastating wounds, and another 50,000 show signs of acute psychological distress.

Iraqi losses have been staggering. Over the last three years, at least 100,000 have died--most killed by U.S. forces. It is estimated that U.S. troops kill three Iraqi civilians for each insurgent dispatched. As bad as Saddam's regime was, under Bush & Company Iraq has gone from being the one of the most developed and educated countries in the region to a failed state.

The insurgency rages unabated, and civil war looms; coalition forces control only the ground upon which they stand. Amnesty International reports that U.S. troops have detained thousands of Iraqis; many are innocent and many have been abused--all of which further inflames the insurgency.

Wealthy Americans, meanwhile, have been asked to sacrifice precisely nothing. The Bush administration has cut their taxes and put the entire cost of the war on the national tab. Our children and grandchildren will pay the bill. Meanwhile, Haliburton continues to rake it in--$16 billion in Iraq war contracts so far.

From the Geneva Conventions to the UN Charter to the Treaty on Torture, the Bush regime has left the fabric of international law in tatters. Our country has become an international pariah.

And the troops have had it. A large majority of U.S. soldiers in Iraq now say it is time to leave: 72% "think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and more than one in four say the troops should leave immediately." (Le Moyne College/Zogby International, 2/28/06)

Many of us saw it all coming. But we were censured and ridiculed, our competence and integrity questioned, and in some cases our careers were damaged.

But I should not complain. When you denounced me, I joined a distinguished group that included generals Tony Zinni and Bill Odom, hard working UN weapons inspectors, and regrettably, too few brave journalists and academics. Let's salute all who refused to be intimidated.

During another war at another time, Theodore Roosevelt put it well, "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president . . . is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."

But you, on the contrary, readily gave in to the orchestrated campaign of mass hysteria that was used to manipulate the American public into supporting an unnecessary and illegal war. You choose to give your support to an administration that "went to war without requesting--and evidently without being influenced by--any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq," according to Paul Pillar, recently retired from the CIA.

In blindly following incompetent leaders, you abetted taking our country into what Gen. Odom calls "the greatest strategic disaster in US history". By choosing to be an unthinking disciple you abandoned your responsibilities as a citizen in a democracy.

To the guy who called me a traitor: The one who betrayed our country was you; and the hands stained with the blood of the innocent are yours.

Arnold Oliver is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio. He can be reached at soliver@heidelberg.edu

http://counterpunch.org/oliver03212006.html

Spazio Pubblico ShaKe -* viale Bligny 42, Milano
*Giovedì 29 novembre 2007 *dalle ore 21.30
*presentazione del DVD ShaKe Edizioni Underground

from: gomma.tv

Face Addict - A film by Edo Bertoglio
29 November 2007 - 21:30 hours - Milano

Attended by Edo Bertoglio, Steve Small, and John Lurie [Manhattan Lounge Lizards] with a slideshow of 150 photographs taken by Edo of Andy Warhol, Jean-Micheal Basquiat, etc. and as a special event, for the first time publicly, an extract from the Film from the International Film Festival Competition, Locarno, 2005

Face Addict is an insider's look into the creative world of NY downtown scene of the late 70s-early 80s filmed by one of the members of the party, a photographer Edo Bertoglio. No wave, new wave, Warhol's Factory, Basquiat, post-beat generation, poets, queers, freaks. Just a tip of the iceberg of various artistic phenomenas that were born in that time, when art blurred with life. Some of those remarkable characters died shortly before or after their work has reached wider public. We look at that period through the eyes of the people involved. Those who survived were visited by their old pal. He opens his archive of photographs, shares it with his friends. And they're sharing common memories of that incredibly creative and crazy period. One of the common experiences were drugs and during the second half of the movie Bertolio is telling the story of his and his friends addiction and its role in total disintegration of the scene. From now on we're witnessing Walter Steding helplessly trying to fight his heroine addiction. But fortunately "Face Addict" is not just a documentary portrait of past era neither it's anti drug manifesto. It's also a great, intimate look into those fragile people's souls.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475265/

Face Addict nasce dal sentimento di urgenza che provo quando mi confronto col mio passato. Racconta le esperienze collettive di alcuni fra i protagonisti della comunità artistica della «Downtown scene» che ho visto nascere, che mi ha ospitato e che, ormai, non esiste più. Sono fuggito da New York con – unico bagaglio – un baule pieno di foto: i miei archivi, le mie immagini, i miei scarti, emulsioni ed emozioni di anni che in me hanno lasciato tracce profonde. Solo a distanza di vent’anni sento di aver raggiunto la serenità sufficiente per ripercorrere quel periodo senza rimpianti né turbamenti, con un leggero e insieme intenso distacco; per tornare in quei luoghi, ritrovare coloro che, come me, hanno vissuto, sono sopravvissuti a quegli anni, che li hanno attraversati per diventare qualcosa o qualcuno, per dimenticarli o esserne dimenticati. (Edo Bertoglio) - 09/08/2005

http://www.con-tatto.org/sx_canale/dettaglio.asp?sez=Con-Cinema&id_sezione=4&id_subSez=49&id_articolo=889

More information at: http://www.shake.it/ or http://www.gomma.tv/

The Charlatans, 1964, Golden Gate Park Conservatory

George Hunter, Dan Hicks, Mike Wilhelm, Mike Ferguson, Richie Olsen

Mike Wilhelm [Charlatans (1964-1969), Loose Gravel (1969-1976), Flamin' Groovies (1976-1982)] sent some pictures from the past to share. They are located at:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Scrapbook/Mike_Wilhelm.html

DirkFest Web Photo Gallery

Avengers, DirkFest, Great American Music Hall, June 8, 2007

Some thoughts following DirkFest

It is rare for a reunion show to work as well as DirkFest did at the Great American Music Hall on June 8, 2007. To be able to recreate a night from the past that actually lets a person exist in the past is extraordinary. This is not something I try to do or even think of as a good idea. I've been to events in the past with gatherings of people from the "old days" that were fun but never reached the level of being like the night at DirkFest. I talked to other people that night and after who felt the same way. [Continue Reading At]:

Thanks to James Stark - Source: http://www.jamesstark.com/dirksen_web/index.htm
Home: http://www.jamesstark.com/

"Grateful Head" 1982

Some of my designs in the vein of what I call "Grateful Art", done by the artists that created psychedelic posters for the Avalon and Fillmore ballrooms, album covers for the Grateful Dead, Underground Comix, etc.... people like Stanley Mouse, Anton Kelly, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin, 'Spain' Rodriguez and Robert Crumb (just to mention a few). Particularly, the combination of roses and skulls, potent symbols of life and death, has always interested me.

Thanks to John Flores - Source: http://www.johnfloresgraphics.com/Sculls&Roses.html
Home: http://www.johnfloresgraphics.com/frontPage.html

Greetings from Blacksburg, Virginia!

"Imagine the power of 600,000+ hours of community service performed by the Virginia Tech community and supporters of Virginia Tech to honor those lost April 16 and the commitment to service they demonstrated within their communities worldwide. We invite everyone to become "engaged" in the university motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve)."

The Blacksburg community is sitting on a heart of gold. Volunteerism that America was founded on is bringing folk together. Let it grow from sea to shining sea!

Thanks to Chris - http://www.engage.vt.edu/

Anybody Recall Gray Davis ?

hummm... recall...
by Dahbud Mensch

PRESENT:

January 2007

Senator Feinstein's Iraq Conflict

As a member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee, Sen. Feinstein voted for appropriations worth billions to her husband's firms

By Peter Byrne

Called Into Question

Here are a few examples from the Congressional Record of questionable intersections between Feinstein's legislative duties and her financial interests:

# At a MILCON hearing in 2001, Feinstein interrogated defense officials about the details of constructing specific missile defense systems, which included upgrading the early warning radar system at Cobra Dane radar on Shemya Island, Alaska. In 2003, Perini reported that it had completed a contract to upgrade the Cobra Dane radar system. It has done similar work at Beale Air Force Base in California and in the United Kingdom. URS also bids on missile defense work.

# In the 2002 MILCON hearings, Feinstein questioned an official about details of the U.S. Army's chemical demilitarization program. URS is extensively involved in performing chemical demilitarization work at key disposal sites in the United States.

# At that same hearing, Feinstein asked about the possibility of increasing funding for anti-terrorism-force protection at Army bases. The following year, on March 4, 2003, Feinstein asked why the anti-terrorism-force protection funds she had advocated for the year before had not yet been spent. On April 21, 2003, URS announced the award of a $600 million contract to provide, among other services, anti-terrorism-force protection for U.S. Army installations.

# Beginning in 2003, both Perini and URS were awarded a series of open-ended contracts for military construction work around the world, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under Feinstein's leadership, MILCON regularly approved specific project "task orders" that were issued to Perini and URS under these contracts.

# At a March 30, 2004, MILCON hearing, Feinstein grilled Maj. Gen. Dean Fox about whether or not the Pentagon intended to prioritize funding the construction of "beddown" maintenance facilities for its new airlifter, the C-17 Globemaster. After being reassured by Fox that these funds would soon be flowing, Feinstein said, "Good, that's what I really wanted to hear. Thank you very much. Appreciate it very much, General." Two years later, URS announced a $42 million award to build a beddown maintenance facility for the C-17 at Hickam Air Base in Hawaii as part of a multibillion dollar contract with the Air Force. Under Feinstein's leadership, MILCON approved the Hickam project.

# In mid-2005, MILCON approved a Pentagon proposal to fund "overhead coverage force protection" in Iraq that would reinforce the roofs of U.S. Army barracks to better withstand mortar rounds. On Oct. 13, 2005, Perini announced the award of a $185 million contract to provide overhead coverage force protection to the Army in Iraq.

# In the 2005 MILCON hearings, Feinstein earmarked MILCON legislation with $25 million to increase environmental remediation at closed military bases. Year after year, Feinstein has closely overseen the environmental cleanup and redevelopment of McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento, frequently requesting that officials add tens of millions of dollars to that project. URS and its joint ventures have earned tens of millions of dollars cleaning up McClellan. And CB Richard Ellis, a real estate company headed by Feinstein's husband Richard Blum, is involved in redeveloping McClellan for the private sector.

This investigation examined thousands of pages of documents, including transcripts of congressional hearings, U.S. Security and Exchange Commission filings, government audits and reports, federal procurement data and corporate press releases. The findings were shared with contracting and ethics experts at several nonpartisan, Washington, D.C.-based government oversight groups. Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit organization that analyzes defense contracts and who examined our evidence says, "The paper trail showing Sen. Feinstein's conflict of interest is irrefutable. "

On the face of it, there is nothing objectionable about a senator closely examining proposed appropriations or advocating for missile defense or advancing the cleanup of a toxic military base. Blum profitably divested himself of ownership of both URS and Perini in 2005, ameliorating the conflict of interest. But Feinstein's ethical dilemma arose from the fact that, for five years, the interests of Perini and URS and CB Richard Ellis were inextricably entwined with her leadership of MILCON, which last year approved $16.2 billion for military construction projects.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, remarks, "There are a number of members of Congress with conflicts of interest. [California Republican Congressman John T.] Doolittle, for example, hired his wife as a fundraiser, and she skimmed 15 percent off of all campaign contributions. Others, like [former] Speaker [Dennis] Hastert and Cong. [Ken] Calvert, were earmarking federal money for roads to enhance the value of property held by their families.

"But because of the amount of money involved," Sloan continues, "Feinstein's conflict of interest is an order of magnitude greater than those conflicts." [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.bohemian.com/metro/01.24.07/dianne-feinstein-0704.html

PAST:

Tuesday, March 30th, 1999

Chevron Bans Pacifica From Press Conference with U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Chevron yesterday barred a credentialed Pacifica Radio news reporter from attending a public news conference with U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein. Wendell Harper, a 20-year veteran in news reporting for Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley, California, was denied access to the press conference at Chevron's San Francisco headquarters. He was there to cover Chevron's announcement that it was phasing out MTBE additives from its gasoline. Fred Gurrell of Chevron's Public Affairs office told KPFA station manager Nicole Sawaya that "Pacifica does not report news" and hung up on her. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0359203

Project Censored Top 10 of 1997

8. "Little Known Federal Law Paves Way for National Identification Card"

The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act has created a legal framework for mandating a national identification card for all Americans. Theoretically, this would be for the purpose of preventing non-citizens from using various public services, or gaining employment. One aspect of the law would make employers run potential employees' ID cards through a machine linked to the Social Security Administration, which could then approve or deny the applicant for employment. The government could actually gain veto power over private employment.

States are offered $5 million per year grants if they want to try to institute one of three ID programs. Additionally, federal agencies may only accept driver's licenses which fit the new specifications-- they must have the owner's fingerprints digitally encoded on a magnetic strip on the card. Georgia actually passed a bill instituting this ID program, but it was repealed after massive public outcry.

The author of this bill is California Senator Diane Feinstein, who wants a plan to be "immediately implement[ed]" that would force all Americans to carry an ID card with a "magnetic strip on it on which the bearer's unique voice, retina pattern, or fingerprint is digitally encoded. [Mark of the Beast?]"

http://www.projectcensored.org/ ~ Article Source

On Becoming What One Despises

Steve Bell

On Becoming What One Despises
Will Bushtards, Senate, and Congress Gas the Kurds?
by Balz

Project SHAD: American Servicemen Used As Guinea Pigs

Project SHAD, an acronym for Shipboard Hazard and Defense, was part of the joint service chemical and biological warfare test program conducted during the 1960s. Project SHAD encompassed tests designed to identify US warships' vulnerabilities to attacks with chemical or biological warfare agents and to develop procedures to respond to such attacks while maintaining a war-fighting capability. Although classified, the Department of Defense has been actively pursuing declassification of relevant medical information. To date twelve SHAD projects have been evaluated and released for your review.

The SHAD program planned as many as a hundred individual tests and was part of the larger Deseret Test Center program. Many tests were never actually executed. DoD investigators plan to look at all Deseret Test Center’s chemical and biological tests conducted between 1963 and 1970

Of the 4,300 sailors known to be involved, to our knowledge, only 622 have been notified.

http://www.projectshad.org/

How many times during the lies that led to Bushtard's Shocken_Fuken_Awful attack on Iraq did you hear about (Evil Doer) Saddam gassing the Kurds? At least 100 to 500 times as part of an act of Karen's speech writing, mongering fear?

Then, while a quagmire in Iraq deepens, I notice commercials on corporate media suggesting, as a tourist, I should visit Northeastern Iraq, followed by paper news media: Iraq Kurdistan launches tourism campaign by Alicia A. Caldwell, October 20, 2006 - Here is the Official Website of Iraqi Kurdistan Tourism

Recently, Kurds have been mentioned again: Bushtard vows help for Turkey against Kurds and articles surrounding this story are reminiscent of Bushtard's administration feeding lies to U.S. citizens through paid-off corporate media.

The first thing that came into my mind was, Bushtard must smell oil, so I took a look and discovered this piece by Jim Holt titled, It’s the Oil - October 18, 2007

(imo) Slate was on track with this article by Christopher Hitchens titled: Divide and Conquer The United States should be squeezing Turkey, not the other way around. - Oct. 29, 2007

Today it would appear there is little difference between Bushtard and the Evil Doers he spoke of, leading up to the illegal war in Iraq. The following links help paint a greater picture:

Martin Rowson

Global Eye -- The Foggy Dew

"Avast, ye swabs! Can we spray ye salty dogs with poison gas?" "Arrr, Cap'n, that ye may. We herewith absolve ye of all legal responsibility for this immoral act! "

By Chris Floyd
Published: May 31, 2002

Let us return briefly to the question of Saddam Hussein's employment of the poison gas he developed with the help of those lovers of humanity, Ronald "Bitburg" Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush. Hussein is alleged to have bombarded Iraqi Kurds with poison gas in 1987 and/or in 1988, in the midst of his long and ferocious war with Iran.

There are conflicting accounts of the incident. Some say thousands were killed; some say hundreds; a few say none. Some say the Kurds were actually caught in a murderous crossfire of noxious fumes between the Iranian and Iraqi armies. Others say the Kurds -- long persecuted by Saddam, as they are persecuted by NATO stalwart Turkey -- were fighting alongside the Iranians and thus made themselves "lawful combatants." The official story is that Hussein simply gassed the Kurds in a paroxysm of ethnic cleansing (for which he was later rewarded by the aforesaid GHWB with even more American money and material).

Whatever the facts, the charge that Hussein "gassed his own people" has been the bloody shirt repeatedly waved by George W. Bush in his frantic bid to build support for an invasion of Iraq. Such an action, we are told, puts a nation beyond the pale of civilization and sends it hurtling into the abyss of ultimate evil. Any state that would "gas its own people" is, we're told, a rogue state, a terrorist state.

The United States "gassed its own people" during the Vietnam War. The Defense Department has admitted that the Pentagon sprayed more than 4,000 U.S. sailors with various substances, including the deadly nerve gas sarin and a gruesome biological toxin, in a four-year operation (1964-68) called Project SHAD, The New York Times reports.

The Pentagon said its records do not show that the sailors gave their "informed consent" to participate in the secret tests.

We can harbor no illusions -- and that's important today to remember. Saddam Hussein attacked Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990. He's fired ballistic missiles at Iran and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Israel. His regime once ordered the killing of every person between the ages of 15 and 70 in certain Kurdish villages in northern Iraq. He has gassed many Iranians, and 40 Iraqi villages.

GW Bushtard - September 12, 2002

A War Crime Or an Act of War?

By STEPHEN C. PELLETIERE

It was no surprise that President Bush, lacking smoking-gun evidence of Iraq's weapons programs, used his State of the Union address to re-emphasize the moral case for an invasion: ''The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages, leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind or disfigured.''

The accusation that Iraq has used chemical weapons against its citizens is a familiar part of the debate. The piece of hard evidence most frequently brought up concerns the gassing of Iraqi Kurds at the town of Halabja in March 1988, near the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. President Bush himself has cited Iraq's ''gassing its own people,'' specifically at Halabja, as a reason to topple Saddam Hussein.

But the truth is, all we know for certain is that Kurds were bombarded with poison gas that day at Halabja. We cannot say with any certainty that Iraqi chemical weapons killed the Kurds. This is not the only distortion in the Halabja story.

I am in a position to know because, as the Central Intelligence Agency's senior political analyst on Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, and [snip]

Before we go to war over Halabja, the administration owes the American people the full facts. And if it has other examples of Saddam Hussein gassing Kurds, it must show that they were not pro-Iranian Kurdish guerrillas who died fighting alongside Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Until Washington gives us proof of Saddam Hussein's supposed atrocities, why are we picking on Iraq on human rights grounds, particularly when there are so many other repressive regimes Washington supports? [Continue Reading At]:

New York Times - January 31, 2003

I am not surprised that Iraqis feel more confident about the future than Americans do. They were the ones who lived under the tyrant. They were the ones whose families got gassed by his chemical weapons. They were the ones who, if they spoke out, were harassed by a police state. It must be a magnificent feeling to be liberated from the clutches of a tyrant.

GW Bushtard - January 11, 2006

Boxers and Briefs by Dahbud Mensch

Steve Bell

"God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East." - George W. Bush - HAARETZ.COM

Steve Bell

Martin Rowson

Martin Rowson

Lying Chickenhawk says what

Remember the U.S.S. Liberty

http://www.ussliberty.org/g/libmemorial.gif
34 U.S. Military Dead, 171 Wounded
http://www.ussliberty.org/

about terror and terrorists?

Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less [George W. Bush] would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th [Honorable Republican] President of the United States and Respected General

Fornicating Corporate Media Screw Writers and Lie, by Omission, to The People

Corporate executive pigs, as usual, are licking the feces off Whiteyhouse boots by refusing to reveal the lies of a criminal government led by Evil Neocons and filled with (sic) Republicons and Democraps.

The following is NEWS SO BIG, THEY WILL NOT COVER IT

UPDATE: Scott McClellan in Upcoming Book Ties Bush to CIA Leak Case -- Dodd Calls for Probe

E&P was first mainstream news outlet to report on Monday night that the McClellan excerpt reads:

"The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.

"There was one problem. It was not true.

"I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration "were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself. "

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003675070

20000 brain injuries go unreported by Pentagon

Quoted directly from Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
(http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2007-11-22-braininjuries_N.htm?csp=34)

At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries, according to military and veterans records compiled by USA TODAY.

The data, provided by the Army, Navy and Department of Veterans Affairs, show that about five times as many troops sustained brain trauma as the 4,471 officially listed by the Pentagon through Sept. 30. These cases also are not reflected in the Pentagon's official tally of wounded, which stands at 30,327.

The number of brain-injury cases were tabulated from records kept by the VA and four military bases that house units that have served multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One base released its count of brain injuries at a medical conference. The others provided their records at the request of USA TODAY, in some cases only after a Freedom of Information Act filing was submitted...

The data came from:

• Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center in Germany, where troops evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan for injury, illness or wounds are brought before going home. Since May 2006, more than 2,300 soldiers screened positive for brain injury, hospital spokeswoman Marie Shaw says.

• Fort Hood, Texas, home of the 4th Infantry Division, which returned from a second Iraq combat tour late last year. At least 2,700 soldiers suffered a combat brain injury, Lt. Col. Steve Stover says.

• Fort Carson, Colo., where more than 2,100 soldiers screened were found to have suffered a brain injury, according to remarks by Army Col. Heidi Terrio before a brain injury association seminar.

• Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, where 1,737 Marines were found to have suffered a brain injury, according to Navy Cmdr. Martin Holland, a neurosurgeon with the Naval Medical Center San Diego.

• VA hospitals, where Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been screened for combat brain injuries since April. The VA found about 20% of 61,285 surveyed — or 11,804 veterans — with signs of brain injury, spokeswoman Alison Aikele says. VA doctors say more evaluation is necessary before a true diagnosis of brain injury can be confirmed in all these cases, Aikele says.

Soldiers and Marines whose wounds were discovered after they left Iraq are not added to the official casualty list, says Army Col. Robert Labutta, a neurologist and brain injury consultant for the Pentagon.

"We are working to do a better job of reflecting accurate data in the official casualty table," Labutta says.

Most of the new cases involve mild or moderate brain injuries, commonly from exposure to blasts.

More than 150,000 troops may have suffered head injuries in combat, says Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., founder of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force.

"I am wary that the number of brain-injured troops far exceeds the total number reported injured," he says.
About 1.5 million troops have served in Iraq, where traumatic brain injury can occur despite heavy body armor worn by troops.

Okay...So Clinton is bought to an impeachment hearing for a sexual act, but this administration takes no responsibility for not reporting 20,000 brain injuries for our troops?

Who is going to pick up the medical tab for these guys? The administration is claiming that the injury happened after they came home.

If people do not stand up and speak out against this, what can we expect them to stand up for?

http://yourthreecents.com/blog/yourthreecents.php?id=35

Primo Moroni was my teacher, brother, comrade. - gomma.tv

gomma.tv
http://gomma.tv/
November 15, 2007

UPDATE: Additions to presentation: Matthew Schianchi on "oral story" and the great jazz musician Gigi Cifarelli

Hours 19:00 - Aperitivo - Avant-garde culinary presentation on aperitif

Hours 20:00 - NEW CHANGES IN URBAN AND METROPOLI: Introduction Bicycle Film Festival, with Brendt Barbur (New York), director and founder of Bicycle Film Festival with vast knowledge of subcultures of Urban cycling in five continents.

Hours 21:00 PRESENTATION OF THE MOON UNDER HOUSE "by John Martin, with the Exposure maps on the history "alternative" Milan years Cinquanta-Ottanta (neighborhood bands, bars and dance, political, Social centers) and the projection of a video produced by Martin and Moroni. Speakers, among others, Ida Farè of the Faculty of Architecture in Milan.

Podcast 021 - From Primo Moroni there is still much to learn 29-10-07

Category: Podcast Mp3 Radio

Primo Moroni was my (and many, many others) teacher, brother, comrade.

"The moon under house" is a book - and a rubber-TV podcast, where John Martin and Prime narrate the Milan urban transformation and consequent changes in youth associations and movements.

Why from Moroni, his intelligence and generosity, his philosophy, style, and art of hospitality there is still much to learn.

Google Italian to English Translation

Google Italian to English translation SHAKE E-NEWSLETTER

File MP3 and links suggested: CLICK HERE TO LISTEN / DOWNLOAD THE PODCAST "Primo Moroni: THE MOON IN HOUSE ", registered in Piacenza, Centro Carlo Marx, November 1989

http://mp3.gomma.tv/audio/gommatv%20021%20-%20Moroni_Lalunasottocasa.mp3

Asshole of the Year

by Paul Krassner

It's Tim Russert. The moment he said to Dennis Kucinich at a "debate" among Democratic presidential candidates, "This is a serious question," you knew it wouldn't be. A responsible journalist might have asked, "Why do think that Dick Cheney should be impeached rather than George Bush?" But Russert wanted to further marginalize Kucinich--to ridicule him in a flying saucer kind of way--and, like a trial lawyer who already knows what a defendant's answer will be--his "serious question " was "Did you see a UFO?"

Kucinich tried to explain that the U in UFO means "unidentified" flying object. He joked, "I'm moving my campaign office to Roswell, New Mexico and Exeter, New Hampshire." He pointed out that Jimmy Carter had seen a UFO, and that "More people--" Russert interrupted him with a statistic: 14% of Americans have seen UFOs. Kucinich asked him to repeat that number, as if to thank him for inadvertently providing him with the UFO sighters vote. Russert repeated the number and, with the smug satisfaction of having generated a guaranteed sound bite, he said, "I want to ask Senator Obama... "

There was a predictable trickle-down effect. Even Bill Maher mocked Kucinich, though Maher's real target should've been Russert. A few days later, I met a woman who asked me who my ideal candidate is. "Dennis Kucinich," I said. She responded, "Isn't he the one who said he saw some Martians?" Of course, there's a video of that encounter in the secret government's implied-blackmail lock-box, along with the video of a threesome--Charles Schumer, Dianne Feinstein and a billy goat--and the video of Rudy Guliani performing an abortion on Pat Robertson's mistress.

Ironically, Russert's co-moderator, Brian Williams--in his capacity as a host on Saturday Night Live--referred to the mainstream media's proactive assumption that Hillary Clinton will win in the primaries and then in the general election. Fundraising is the name of that particular political game, because the candidates with the most money will buy the most TV commercials and print ads. Tim Russert has given a claymation face to that open conspiracy. And, in the process, that old saying and song, "There's no business like show business," has landed in the outdated metaphors graveyard. There is indeed a business like show business. It's the news.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-krassner/asshole-of-the-year_b_72192.html

Nancy Pelosi, Public Enemy Number One

by Margaret Kimberley
Wednesday, 17 October 2007

blackagendareport.com - 2007-10-17 Her machinations since Democrats took over the U.S. House in January 2007 show that Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't scared of the Republicans - "her eagerness to cooperate with the Bush regime is matched only by her incompetence in leading Congress." Pelosi and her leadership clique have never had the slightest intention of seriously opposing George Bush, since they are quite content with a status quo of endless war, half of New Orleans abandoned, true universal health care on perpetual hold, and a growing police state. Every constituency of the Democratic Party has been betrayed, with the complicity of Pelosi and her crowd. And there must be pay-back for back-stabbing.

"If they were poor and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they would be arrested for loitering, but because they have 'Impeach Bush' across their chest, it's the First Amendment." - Nancy Pelosi

The Democratic Speaker of the House would like to arrest activists for loitering. Her Quisling-like behavior has led protesters to her front door in San Francisco, but she has only herself to blame for the inconveniences she and her rich neighbors now suffer. The great unwashed masses have a right to assemble at her home, her office, or anywhere else they choose in order to exercise what is left of their right to speak freely. Her own words show her level of contempt for the democratic process.

It is clear that Nancy Pelosi's reign as Speaker has been an absolute disaster for the Democratic party and for the entire nation. Her eagerness to cooperate with the Bush regime is matched only by her incompetence in leading Congress. Under her watch, Congress gave Alberto Gonzales, on his way to riding out of town on a rail, a significant victory by expanding FISA regulations to allow warrantless surveillance of American citizens.

"Her eagerness to cooperate with the Bush regime is matched only by her incompetence in leading Congress."

The story of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act debacle has been blamed on Bush. It is true that he once again lied about a terror threat, but it is not true that Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats were innocently stampeded. The Democrats had every intention of caving from the very beginning. Pelosi and the rest of the leadership promised the ACLU and other civil liberties groups that they wouldn't pass a bill without first investigating the extent of White House law breaking and without consulting them first. They did no such thing. As an ACLU lobbyist put it, "They turned around and screwed us over - and the Constitution - all at once."

Disappointment in the Democrats, pleas to "grow a spine" miss the point entirely. Pelosi and her clique have no interest in Democracy. They go through the flimsiest pretense of opposing Bush when they have no interest in doing so. Her goal is to preserve the status quo, not to overturn it.

Nancy Pelosi now has stated publicly what she thinks of us, the citizens of this country. We are an irritant to be tolerated, not people with rights that must be respected. Pelosi is an omen, a warning that acceptance of Democrat party actions is the first step on the road to political hell. It is a lesson that must be learned now, before President Hillary Clinton takes office.

"They go through the flimsiest pretense of opposing Bush when they have no interest in doing so."

The fix is definitely in for Clinton to win the Democratic party nomination. The Democratic candidates' fundraising prowess versus Republicans is a sign that the big money political donors of both parties are all betting on the Democratic horse.

Clinton's ascension to the throne now reserved for family dynasties should not be accepted as an absolute victory. The "middle of the road" after Bush is still right wing. Triangulation this time around means more war, New Orleans destroyed and deserted, and more dirty dealings in Congress.

Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of what passes for Congressional leadership have perfected their criminal enterprise. Every act of treachery is followed by lame excuses for inaction. The truly spineless ones, progressives wallowing in denial, foolishly whine, asking each other what is wrong when the answer stares them in the face. The Democratic party is complicit in killing democracy.

"Civil liberties groups and antiwar groups must finally realize that they can only play a role in movement politics."

Activists must keep protesting at her house and working for her defeat in the 2008 congressional elections. They must also cease cooperating with her. The farce must end before it is too late. Pelosi, like Bush, has no loyalty to her constitutionally based responsibilities. She must no longer be treated as though she is a friend when she has proven herself to be an enemy.

Civil liberties groups and antiwar groups must stop meeting with Pelosi or her staff. They must finally realize that they can only play a role in movement politics. It is said that insanity is defined as repeating the same action over and over yet expecting a different result. Progressives have waged many righteous battles in the last seven years, but they are about to go down in history as insane actors in a badly written play.

Activists must begin making demands. They must demand impeachment, they must demand that New Orleans be rebuilt, they must demand no further funding for occupation in Iraq or for a new war in Iran. Pelosi and her co-conspirators must be called out as the back stabbers that they are. Only then will democracy have any chance of being restored.

Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com. Ms. Kimberley' maintains an edifying and frequently updated blog at freedomrider.blogspot.com. More of her work is also available at her Black Agenda Report archive page.

Black Agenda Report
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=397&Itemid=44

What Does the Bush Whiteyhouse Have On Nancy Pelosi;
she Isn't Married To Somebody Who Controls Defense Contractors?

RECALL WORKS FOR ME,
_Else_ There is Secession
by Dahbud Mensch

Right before Thanksgiving I was excited because somebody in one of the groups I participate with mentioned Nancy Pelosi would put impeachment back on the table if she received 10,000 handwritten letters.

As I was getting an envelope, I stopped to check if this was an 'urban legend' and discovered, "Speaker's office denies '10,000 letters' impeachment rumor by Jason Rhyne over at rawstory.com.

"Damn Democraps," my mind said, as I looked around the InterTubes for somebody with intestinal fortitude... and this, pretty much, covers it:

Peace and impeachment in Los Angeles
by David Swanson
November 7, 2007

[snip] When the Nazis were tried, not every low-ranking grunt or good german was put on trial. Rather, those at the top were considered most responsible. When people are tried for the crimes of Bush and Cheney, it's those at the lowest levels who take the fall. If you join the U.S. military as a public soldier or a mercenary, you may someday be prosecuted for having obeyed illegal orders. But those at the top are considered immune.

Rumsfeld may face prosecution if he travels too much. Gonzales may possibly someday face prosecution. And many of us will not rest until Bush and Cheney are behind bars. But Bush and Cheney consider themselves and their top collaborators above the law.

As you've heard, thanks to Senator Schumer and California's own Senator Feinstein (whose husband is a war profiteer), the Senate is likely to approve as our top law enforcement official a man who refuses to call torture techniques torture because doing so might aid in the prosecution of torturers. Feinstein claims that Mukasey admits that the military cannot waterboard. But she avoids the fact that the CIA has been doing the waterboarding, and that Mukasey will not reject the practice. Feinstein then turns around and proposes banning waterboarding, as if it were legal. She adds that the Senate should question Mukasey about it... AFTER confirming him.

Bush was prepared to have no Attorney General if not Mukasey. And why not? Gonzales never exercised any independent thinking while holding that office. There was always something ludicrous about impeaching him. Having no Attorney General would be appropriate, I think, in a government in which we've gone for years without any people's representatives in Congress.

This is the year of the living dead in Washington. And it will be two years if we don't do something. The Democratic Congress took power in January with the intention of keeping Bush, Cheney, and the occupation of Iraq around for two years, so that they could run in the next elections against the same things they'd just been elected to deal with.

So, the Democrats faced a dilemma, How do you keep a war and a criminal administration around while appearing to oppose them for two years? You do it by introducing bills. And the fight for the doomed bills becomes an electoral campaign funded by taxpayers. Of course, you know from the start that with very few exceptions any decent bills, especially on Iraq, will be vetoed if not filibustered. But if you sell the idea hard enough that you simply must have a bill, then what you can do is watch good bills fail and then introduce bad bills and watch them be signed into law.

But we have actually known since last November that there would be only two useful things this Congress could do ? although it could do lots of other things after doing these two ? and neither one involves passing a bill.

The first thing is to announce that there will be no more bills brought to the floor to fund the occupation of Iraq. Ed Schultz on his radio show this week asked Harry Reid why he doesn't just do that. Reid had no answer and sounded as if he'd never thought about the idea. He admitted that he could do it, but said he would not. Pelosi has, in her trademark phrase, said that the idea is ?off the table.? But 41 senators could filibuster the funding, and Senator Boxer is the single most likely senator to find the nerve to do it. She is the only senator who has said she supports impeachment, and she was the only senator to challenge the Ohio election results.

Boxer and her colleagues can establish the model for ending the occupation funding by following Chris Dodd's lead and filibustering a bill to legalize unconstitutional spying and grant immunity to violators of FISA and our fourth amendment.

In the House, 90 congress members have committed to voting No on funding bills that don't end the occupation by January 2009. [PEACE PLEDGE - http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/peacepledge]

Source: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/20/2007/2874

The 22 most corrupt members of Congress
http://www.beyonddelay.org/
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/30138

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi - 450 Golden Gate Avenue, 14th Floor - San Francisco, CA 94102 - Phone: (415) 556-4862
Chairman John Conyers, Jr. - House Judiciary Committee - 2426 Rayburn Building - Washington, DC 20515
Mr. Steny H. Hoyer - House Democratic Majority Leader - H-107, The Capitol Building - Washington, D.C. 20515
Dianne Feinstein - http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUS.EmailMe
WHITE HOUSE COMMENT LINE 1-800-663-9566 - (press Zero to bypass long recording) - from 9 am - 5 pm Eastern time

"Man Of My Word", Go Fire Yourself !
by Dahbud Mensch

Hi, I'm Scotty Pants on Fire McClellan,

Welcome to:

We've Got A Secret

Panelists, please put on your blindfolds

and Let's Bring Out Our First Guests

Will You Sign In Please

...and I've Got A Secret !
Bush Meets Godzilla
[Short FLASH]
dahbud's dahbud's home page
Permalink: http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/rovesecret.html

Throughout history a simple technique has been used by Them to keep US in line called Divide & Conquer and here is how it works:

1). Keep the People stupid. [39+/-% of the people in the United States still believe Saddam and the one million, plus/minus (1,000,000+/-) dead Iraqi civilians had something to do with 9/11]

2). If any sign of intelligence appears (in the People), create Have & Have Nots, by giving Have Something, Have Not Nothing, and provoke a fight between them using Corporate Media. [MAJOR MEDIA is owned by 6 corporations and one of them, General (NBC) Electric, is the largest exporter of Weapons of Mass Destruction ON THE PLANET = currently marketing 'bomb sniffers' == 'profits not people bring good things to Corporate masters' ?]

3). While 'the People' are immersed in fear and war, sell Bombs & Tractors to both sides; and in this case, GAS & OIL for big profit and don't get caught for Fraud !"

"At Harvard Business School, thirty years ago, George Bush was a student of mine, I still vividly remember him. In my class, he declared that 'people are poor because they are lazy.' He was opposed to labor unions, social security, environmental protection, Medicare, and public schools. To him, the antitrust watch dog, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Securities Exchange Commission were unnecessary hindrances to 'free market competition.' To him, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal was 'socialism.' Recently, President Bush's Federal Appeals Court Nominee, California's Supreme Court Justice Janice Brown, repeated the same broadside at her Senate hearing. She knew that her pronouncement would please President Bush and Karl Rove and their Senators. President Bush and his brain, Karl Rove, are leading a radical revolution of destroying all the democratic political, social, judiciary, and economic institutions that both Democrats and moderate Republicans had built together since Roosevelt's New Deal."

Yoshi Tsurumi

Only Criminals, FDA Drug Addicts, Evil Doer Republicans & Democrats, Special Interest Whores, Corporate Media, and Ministers of Satan

Something Evil Appears

Would Support A Government Bent On Destroying Liberty and Freedom!

by Herb

The bible warns Satan's demons take on the image of God, similar to that done in Eden, (How else do they gain control of earth?): II Corinthians, 11:14 - Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. His ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

GOD said, "thou shall not kill" and JESUS extended this concept when he said,

Christians are to no longer execute sinners, so they should not wage carnal war, but spiritual warfare (John 18:36; 2 Corinthians 10:1-6; Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Timothy 1:18-20; 6:11-14; 2 Timothy 2:3-5; 4:6-8)

Christians must be peacemakers forgiving those who do them harm treating their enemies with love and not seeking revenge (Matthew 5:9, Romans 14:19), (Ephesians 4:29-32; Colossians 3:12-14; Matthew 6:9-15; Mark 11:25-26), (Luke 6:27-36) (Romans 12:17-21; 1 Peter 3:8-12).

Hatred which is the same as murder is unforgiving, vengeful and hostile towards one's enemies (1 John 3:15)

Bush Presses Congress for Iraq Money
By DAVID STOUT

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 — President Bush began a new offensive against Congressional Democrats today over money for the Iraq war, calling on the lawmakers to give American troops "what they need to succeed in their missions" and pass a bill without strings attached.

"The American people expect us to work together to support our troops," Mr. Bush said at the Pentagon this afternoon after meeting with top Defense Department officials. "They do not want the government to create needless uncertainty for those defending our country, and uncertainty for their families. They do not want disputes in Washington to undermine our troops in Iraq, just as they're seeing clear signs of success."

The White House issued a statement before the president's remarks, citing sharp declines in terrorist attacks, civilian fatalities and fatalities to Iraqi security forces since the increase, or "surge," of United States troops began in June. As a result of this "return on success," the White House said, about 5,700 American troops will come home by year's end.

The president has repeatedly accused the Democratic-controlled Congress of dithering for months about money for the war in Iraq and the Afghanistan campaign. Mr. Bush prodded the legislators today to move quickly when they return to Washington next week and provide money for the war before adjourning for Christmas.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader, pounced on the Mr. Bush's words. "The president demands more money to continue his failed war policy, yet he and his enablers in Congress have rejected our proposal for an additional $50 billion provided they work with us to change course in Iraq," Mr. Reid said in a statement. "He cannot have it both ways."

"Democrats have and will continue to ensure our troops have the resources they need to do their jobs and will continue to fight for a war strategy worthy of their sacrifices," Mr. Reid said.

The Senate Democratic leadership office said Congress had appropriated some $450 billion for the Iraq war so far and that despite the White House image of a "return on success" in the form of a troop withdrawal, there are 162,000 American troops in Iraq now and there are still expected to be 130,000 by next July.

The last time the money issue flared up, just over a week ago, the Democrats accused the administration of using scare tactics to try to get its way on the money bill. A bill approved recently by the House would provide $50 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns — but would call for pulling American troops out of Iraq by the end of 2008 and narrowing their mission in the meantime. The president's Republican allies in the Senate stalled the bill in that chamber.

Democrats have described the conditions attached to the bill as prudent and reasonable; the president and his allies have disdained them as attempts to micromanage military operations from afar.

"We have nearly 200,000 troops in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they are relying on this Congress to send them the funding they need to complete their mission," the White House said today. "We also have about 100,000 civilian workers at bases across the country who will be receiving furlough notices if Congress continues to delay action."

The Pentagon has enough money to continue operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the time being. It can shift money between accounts, although that can be complicated. And notices of layoffs do not necessarily mean they will actually happen.

But the president said Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates had put things in perspective when he said: "The Defense Department is like the world's biggest supertanker. It cannot turn on a time, and I cannot steer it like a skiff."

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/world/middleeast/29cnd-prexy.html?ref=us

The Antichrist is variously understood as being a consummately evil system of government or leader.

The Antichrist will be a leader who deceives many people.

The Antichrist will divide the world and create war without end.

The Antichrist will declare that things which are evil to be good.

The Antichrist will refer to war as peace, death as a solution for justice, and serving the wealthy as a means of helping the poor.

Many nations will recognize that he is evil, but his own people will be inclined to believe his deceptions.

This Modern World - Tom Tomorrow

Dreamstreets

Dreamstreets
WVUD - Wednesday Mornings
11-11:30 AM Eastern -- 8-8:30 AM Pacific

Listen On-line at: http://www.wvud.org/listen_online.htm with Even Steven

Boptime

Boptime
WVUD - Saturday Mornings
6-10 AM Eastern -- 3-7 AM Pacific
Listen On-line at: http://www.wvud.org/listen_online.htm with Even Steven

Archives

home