Memo To Petraeus
by Dick Cavett

On Petraeus: Its rule: never use a short word where a longer one will do. It must be meant to convey some misguided sense of “learnedness” and “scholasticism” — possibly even that dread thing, “intellectualism” — to their talk. Sorry, I mean their “articulation.”

No crook ever gets out of the car. A “perpetrator exits the vehicle.” (Does any cop say to his wife at dinner, “Honey, I stubbed my toe today as I exited our vehicle”?) No “man” or “woman” is present in Copspeak. They are replaced by that five-syllable, leaden ingot, the “individual.” The other day, there issued from a fire chief’s mouth, “It contributed to the obfuscation of what eventually eventuated.” This from a guy who looked like he talked, in real life, like Rocky Balboa. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

What would the general be forced to say if it weren’t for the icky, precious-sounding “challenge” that he leans so heavily on? That politically correct term, which was created so that folks who are legally blind, deaf, clumsy, crippled, impotent, tremor-ridden, stupid, addicted or villainously ugly are really none of those unhappy things at all. They are merely challenged. (Are these euphemisms supposed to make them feel better?) And no one need be unlucky enough to be dead or hideously wounded anymore. Those unfortunates are merely “casualties” — a sort of restful-sounding word.

I have a friend who would like the opportunity to say to our distinguished warrior, “General Petraeus, my son was killed in one of your challenges.”

Read More »

October 18th, 2007

This is Rahna Rasheed’s younger brother.

That’s her body you can see covered on the stretcher in the background. She was 17.

She was shot this morning by green zone government forces who mistook her for a fighter during a raid on her village north of Baqubah.

She was rushed to Baqubah hospital but died of gunshot wounds to the head.

The lady with bloodstained clothers and blood on her face is her mother. The other two adults are Hamid and Shokriya Hasan her uncle and aunt. The photograph was taken this morning at Baqubah hospital morgue.

The savages of war reign down on anyone in their way

Via: Uruknet | Link: gorillasguides.com

War is good for business. Everything else be damned. In that same context people always want to give Bush a good deal on a Brooklyn Bridge or an ocean front property in Kansas (or yellow cake or wmd's, etc) and without reservation he goes for his wallet like a father handing out cash to his kids.

Washington's Wars and Occupations
Month in Review #28
August 30, 2007
By Max Elbaum, War Times/Tiempo de Guerras

THE BIG DISCONNECT

The promised September assessment of where things stand in Iraq is around the corner.

So right on cue George Bush declared (Aug. 22) that "a free Iraq" is within reach.

The same day Iraq's Electricity Minister told reporters that "armed groups" - not the Iraqi government - control the switching stations that channel power throughout Iraq's energy grid. A new report from Bush's own Intelligence apparatus declared that prospects for the Iraqi government to unite the country were somewhere between bleak and gloomy.

Bush's dreamland "free Iraq" is part of the President's "support for freedom and democracy throughout the Middle East."

Most Arabs and Muslims, though, see that kind of support as "the kiss of death," according to Turki al-Rasheed, a prominent (and largely pro-U.S.) Saudi reformer. "The minute you are counted on or backed by the Americans, kiss it goodbye, you will never win," al-Rasheed told the New York Times (Aug. 10). The Times went on to report that "The paradox of American policy in the Middle East - promoting democracy on the assumption it will bring countries closer to the West - is that almost everywhere there are free elections, the American-backed side tends to lose."

It's Alice-in-Wonderland come to life. Bush's imaginings (and the imperial interests they are conjured up to defend) vs. the real world and most of the people in it.

And if it isn't hard enough to parse through the bullshit, we have to read between the lines when the Dems say "end the war."

"Even as they call for an end to the war and pledge to bring the troops home, the Democratic presidential candidates are setting out positions that could leave the U.S. engaged in Iraq for years. John Edwards would keep troops in the region to intervene in an Iraqi genocide and be prepared for military action if violence spills into other countries. Hillary Clinton would leave residual forces to fight terrorism and to stabilize the Kurdish region in the north. And Barack Obama would leave a military presence of as-yet unspecified size in Iraq to provide security for American personnel, fight terrorism and train Iraqis."

Bush says we're making progress in Iraq and anyone who differs is "undermining the troops."

I just can't. I'm done. (as Father Luke says)

(italics are mine; the rest is via an email newsletter from war-times.org; not yet published to the website)

Operation 2012

Operation: 2012 is dedicated to the establishment of social justice and bringing about the end of both government and corporate tyranny by utilizing progressive media in order to promote worker solidarity, greater consumer awareness and encourage non-violent civil disobedience or civil initiative. We promote a five-step process dedicated to changing the existing power structure that has invaded the American/global political system.

We call for a collective movement by the nations labor unions to strike in protest to governments domestic policy.

We call for a boycott of non-sustainable corporations and endorse rescinding corporate personhood.

We reject the campaign of falsification, disinformation, and misrepresentations of the corporate media.

We promote greater consumer awareness in the market place and encourage sustainable socially responsible investing.

We encourage civil disobedience/civil initiative.

Operation 2012 recognizes the American and coalition military presence in Iraq as an illegal occupation in violation of international law. We call for an immediate military and corporate withdrawal. We also encourage impeachment hearings against the current administration to become a part of mainstream political discourse.

We are not anti-government, nor anti-democratic, but rather we seek to expose the corporate interests that currently dictate the U.S. foreign and domestic policy. The liberation of America from the grip of corporate influence is contingent upon grassroots organizing and local efforts to stop feeding the corporate machine by withholding our dollars and re-examining our role in its workforce. Rather than dwelling on problems and social ills, we focus on reversing these trends and righting the wrongs.

Operation 2012 is also a source of daily headlines related to our movement.

The term 2012 is derived from the Mayan civilization; the year that human beings will enter a new era of awareness.

link

Bone Dance: A Late Epiphany at the New York Times

This is the sound of a very large bone, lodged for a very long time, being hocked up at last:

"It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit." -- the New York Times, July 8, 2007.

Only four years -- and hundreds of thousands of dead bodies -- too late, of course. And it might have been nice if the Times editorialists had noted the very large part their own paper played in what they now call -- they now call -- "this unnecessary invasion."

[Read More from writer Chris Floyd]

More On The G8 Summit Protests

700 anti-war activists started a new settlement in two places on the planned bombing range at the Kyritz-Ruppiner Heide. The former command tower was painted in anti-militaristic pink, accompanied by a performance by musicians from "Lebenslaute" and over 100 clowns. Tons of accommodations for protesters. link

Here you can see underreported videos on g8tv, g8 radio transmissions, and get updates from the g8 protest timeline, see the anti-g8 camps, etc.

Links:
Dissent!-Network
G8 Podcast
G8 Protests Timeline
G8-TV
G8 Radio
Indymedia - Germany

Bush's Fleurs du Mal
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: May 27, 2007

The president thinks he can save face if he keeps taunting Democrats as the party of surrender - just as Nixon did - and dumps the Frankenstate he's created on his successor.

For me, the saddest spot in Washington is the inverted V of the black granite Vietnam wall, jutting up with the names of young men dying in a war that their leaders already knew could not be won.

So many died because of ego and deceit - because L.B.J. and Robert McNamara wanted to save face or because Henry Kissinger wanted to protect Nixon's re-election chances.

Now the Bush administration finds itself at that same hour of shame. It knows the surge is not working. Iraq is in a civil war, with a gruesome bonus of terrorists mixed in. April was the worst month this year for the American military, with 104 soldiers killed, and there have been about 90 killed thus far in May. The democracy's not jelling, as Iraqi lawmakers get ready to slouch off for a two-month vacation, leaving our kids to be blown up.

The top-flight counterinsurgency team that President Bush sent in after long years of pretending that we'd "turned the corner" doesn't believe there's a military solution.

--MORE--

So many deaths; so little truth.

Four Dead In Ohio

Sandra, Bill, Allison and Jeffrey

"RIGHT HERE, GET SET, POINT, FIRE!"
Kent State Audio Tape Released
Click here for audio file

Thirty seven years ago on May 4, 1970, an anti-war student demonstration at Kent State University, Ohio, left four students dead. I was a senior in high school and the news slapped me across the face. I watched the guardsmen shoot down these college kids for peacefully protesting against the war. Can you imagine how that would play out today with our 24 hour news saturation? It was easy to be pissed off and angry at police and lawmakers when they were sending my friends off to war and now killing those left behind. If you weren't already radically involved with change, Kent State was going to change you.

"Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio."
("Ohio" lyrics by Neil Young)

Kent State: May 1-4,1970
Why the Protest began
Nixon announced a troop offensive into Cambodia on April 30, and said going into Cambodia was necessary to "win the peace". But it was really an escalation of war into another country we had no business being in. (sounds familiar) When the the fires from the artillery began to burn in Cambodia, a raging fire of protest spread across the US, especially on college campuses. There wasn't much protesting in the streets until the students got fired up. Students were the nucleus of protest back then as many demonstrations and marches were born there.

This day is as important to me as any other day in history. There would be no turning back now in our rage against war. Remember Kent State.

ON THIS DAY - MARCH 16, 1968

1968 - Vietnam: My Lai Massacre

Carrying on the tradition of 'teaching' American values to the godless & the communist, Captain Medina leads a 'victorious' attack on the village of Xom Lang, near My Lai in South Vietnam.

While the upper brass circles overhead in helicopters,
Charlie Company enters the hamlet of My Lai 4 &
methodically & ruthlessly murders an estimated 347
civilians over an 8-hour period.

Most are women, children & old men. Some are slain by
bullets fired into their houses, others herded into small
groups & mowed down, & still more die when they are
hurled into a ditch & sprayed with automatic rifle fire.

The Army will first try to cover it up & the US media will
refuse to report it. Later they will portray it as an aberration,
one bad guy (Calley), one good guy (who stops it). Calley
is later convicted, sent to his room for being a bad boy,
then released.


Photograph of Kim Phuc (reprinted above) running from a napalm attack on My Lai with her clothes burnt off, one of the most enduring images of the Vietnam War. She recalls: "Nick Ut [the photographer,] took us to the hospital nearby and then he dropped us there and ran into the darkroom to develop the film that he took."

Live from the electronic teat..... the Anti-War edition

* On March 19 the fifth year of the illegal, immoral, disastrous war in Iraq will begin. Activists across the country are mobilizing to mark the occasion with demonstrations, vigils and direct actions from Friday March 16 through Tuesday March 20. Add your voice to the rising call for peace: right here

* Congress is expected to vote on the bill to suspend operations at the SOA/WHINSEC in as early as May 2007. April will be a critical time for us to organize and make our voices heard.

This April 25-27, SOA Watch activists will organize local public fasts and events throughout the United States to educate the general public and members of Congress on the SOA/WHINSEC issue. link

* Activists 'Purify' Site After Bush Visit link

* 20 Arrested At SDS New York Counter Recruitment Action - link

* Do you have a protest or topical song available on the web? As of today Neil Young's Living With War website has 1430 song listings. Send your song link to: songs@lwwtoday.com

* Sign The Petition - The US Copyright Office has released their new set of rates for the payment of royalties by Internet Radio -- royalty rates so high that they will put RP and every other US-based indie webcaster out of business.

Quote For Today
"Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war." --Martin Luther King, Jr.

Smith and Tibetan monks at Carnegie Hall Monday night. Photo: AP

Death loomed large at the Philip Glass curated benefit concert for Tibet House U.S. Monday night at Carnegie Hall, when a parade of legendary talents - among them Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Michael Stipe - performed numbers in honor of deceased friends. And as if that weren't depressing enough, when the thrilling succession of reimagined hits and covers stopped, we suddenly realized that all our idols onstage talking about death will die, too. Oh, God.

There were chanting monks, a beautiful, minimalist set from Sigur Rós, and Ben Harper. Debbie Harry happily danced to an acoustic version of "Heart of Glass." And then came Lou Reed, the first to sing about getting old. Ray Davies harkened back to the Kinks' glory days, getting the crowd to sing along with "Lola," "Sunday Afternoon," and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion." He admitted to being foggy about why, exactly, he was there: "This is a great event. I'm not sure of all the details, but the spirit moved me." And then he, too, got wistful about age. "Being in a band at this point in my life is a separation anxiety of the worst sort," he said. "We never know when we'll meet again.

"A very chatty Stipe sang a duet of "Everybody Hurts" with Smith; then he performed "Chorus and the Ring," written in honor of two dead friends, Kurt Cobain and William S. Boroughs, and dedicated to Karin Berg, the A&R rep who'd originally signed R.E.M., the Cars, and Television, who died in 2006. "I've never sung it live before," he said, "other than with my band in my apartment yesterday."

It may have been the best concert we've seen in years, and the night belonged to Smith. She did an amazing cover of "Within You Without You," in honor of George Harrison's birthday on Sunday; she rocked "1959," the rousing antiwar anthem she wrote "addressing the rise of the Beats, the takeover of Tibet by the Chinese, and the beautiful Chevy Impala"; she and Glass gave an incredible tribute to departed friend Alan Ginsberg. Back in 1995, a few months after her husband's death, Smith explained, Ginsberg had brought Smith out of her seclusion to perform at a Tibet House benefit. Every year since Ginsberg's death, Smith and Glass have performed his poem "Wichita Vortex Sutra." Monday night it rose on a slow crescendo till Smith intoned in strident staccato, "I declare the end of the war!"

If only it were that easy. —Jada Yuan

Stipe sang the R.E.M. oddities "New Test Leper," and "Chorus and the Ring," which he said developed after conversations he had with the late beat poet William S. Burroughs. The latter song has never been performed by R.E.M., according to Stipe.

All of my favorite people were there --must have been really great. Let's see if I can find a podcast or mp3 link of the music.

link

It Only Takes 41 Senate Votes to End the War. Republicans Show the Way.

Filibuster to End the War Now!

By JOHN V. WALSH

We hear over and over again that it "takes 60 votes to get something serious done in the Senate." That is a lot of malarkey. It takes only one senator to begin a filibuster against any bill. And then it takes only 41 votes to uphold that filibuster and prevent any proposed law from coming to the floor.

Thus, the present authorization for defense funding in the coming fiscal year can be stopped cold if it contains funds for the war on Iraq. And this can be done by just one courageous Senator, backed by 40 colleagues.

Let me propose the following scenario. Just one Senator, Ted Kennedy or Russ Feingold or Robert Byrd, arises in the Senate and declares that he will filibuster the present defense authorization bill if it contains funds for the war on Iraq or Iran. That bill is then dead unless there are 60 votes (3/5 of the 100 Senators) to end the debate, i.e., to invoke cloture. That is it. Bush no longer has the funds to prosecute the war. He has to come back with a funding bill acceptable to the 41.

READ MORE »»

2 Upcoming Films With Links To The 60s

Neal Cassady - From the bars of Denver to the Steel Mills of Utah to the avant-garde parties of Manhattan, across a nation whose heart is calling for a role-model, a leader, a hero... Neal Cassady's on the road again, and all his old pals are there with him--Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, The Merry Pranksters. They're searching for Neal's long-lost father, who holds the key to the great unwritten American novel. But in the end it's Neal alone, and in the rear-view fast-approaching are cops, groupies and the dark chimera of his own vanity.

Release Date: To Be Announced
link


Across The Universe - A love story set against the backdrop of the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, mind exploration and rock 'n roll, the film moves from the dockyards of Liverpool to the creative psychedelia of Greenwich Village, from the riot-torn streets of Detroit to the killing fields of Vietnam. The star-crossed lovers, Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), along with a small group of friends and musicians, are swept up into the emerging anti-war and counterculture movements, with "Dr. Robert" (Bono) and "Mr. Kite" (Eddie Izzard) as their guides. Tumultuous forces outside their control ultimately tear the young lovers apart, forcing Jude and Lucy – against all odds – to find their own way back to each other.

I don't know if I would like this one or not. I've read that it's more like a series of punctuated scenes and characters each represented by a Beatles song - 32 in all. Too much of a musical for me...maybe it has more of a story.

Now the Neal Cassady film sounds promising because the people are interesting. Cassady, Kesey, Kerouac, the the Pranksters, of whom I thought were the end-all and be-all of the universe when I was growing up.

Release Date: September 28, 2007.
View trailer
Link

W E B T R A I L

* See The Night Sky @ SkyTonight.com. Have you seen the moon lately? Wow!

* Dec 5, Tuesday in Celestial Timings: The still nearly full Lunar Standstill Moon is crossing the center point of the Galactic Edge as it moves into Cancer. This is what is referred to as the ?out of bounds? Moon and it is transmitting energies from beyond our galactic realm. This suggests we are receiving a whole new download of inter-galactic information and vibrational frequency that is beyond the bounds of our ordinary reality. Greater ease in assimilating these energies occurs when we consciously engage our thoughts and actions releasing attachment to results and limiting beliefs about who we are. See more on the Galactic Edge and the Lunar Standstill at Shamanic Astrology.

* A Stunning New Look At Déjà Vu at Science Daily describes an ongoing thesis that involves in part a study on a blind person. Fascinating read.

* I keep reading glowing reviews about The Fountain. Angela-Eloise has discovered the same thing. Sounds pretty good.

* More on Firefox Tweaks here. See Screenshot Firefox Extensions

* Whole Lotta CDs - Robert Plant's new 9-cd package. If you liked "Kashmir", and I happen to think it's his strong suit, this is for you.

* Today in Peace & Justice History, December 5:
1000 antiwar protestors try to close NYC induction center; 585 arrested including Allen Ginsberg and Dr. Benjamin Spock. (1967)

* Greatest Hits - Satirical Living Will

This Week in Peace & Justice History is a collection designed to help us appreciate the fact that we are part of rich history advocating peace and social justice. While the entries often focus on large and dramatic events there are so many smaller things done everyday to promote peace and justice.

Sign up for weekly Peace History Newsletter

December 4, 1969
President Richard Nixon, Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew, and 40 U.S. governors embarked on a fact-finding mission to discover the causes of the generation gap. They viewed films of "simulated acid trips" and listened to hours of "anti-establishment rock music."

December 4, 1968
264 were arrested at a military induction center in New York City during War Resisters League civil disobedience action.

December 4, 1916
Five members of a woman's suffragist group unrolled a banner from the visitor's gallery during President Wilson's annual message (state of the union) to Congress, asking, "Mr. President, What will you do for woman suffrage?" There was no mention of the issue in his speech.

December 4, 1833
The American Anti-Slavery Society was formed by Arthur Tappan in Philadelphia. He and his brother Lewis were active abolitionists throughout their lives, including providing legal defense for the Africans who mutinied on the slave ship Amistad.

December 4, 1970
Cesar Chavez was sentenced to 20 days in jail for refusing to call off United Farm Workers? consumer boycott of lettuce.

December 4, 1980
United Nations agreed to establish the University of Peace and a short wave radio station, Radio Peace International, in Costa Rica.

link

NEW BILL COULD DEFINE ANTI-WAR PROTESTORS AS ENEMY COMBATANTS

Attorneys for the Center for Constitutional Rights claim that what appears to be the final version of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 could allow the government to detain the attorneys themselves as 'enemy combatants.' CCR Legal Director Bill Goodman said: "This bill makes a mockery of the rule of law."

The current version of the Military Commissions redefines an "unlawful enemy combatant" so broadly that it could include anyone who organizes a march against the war in Iraq."

link - [via]

New York Protests

SDS New York marched to the United Nations on Tuesday, September 19th, 2006 to protest the presence of George W. Bush in New York City. Bush, whom the SDSers regard as a war criminal, was in New York to "try to sell the world community a bill of goods - a handful of irrational, unbelievable, excuses for acts of barbarism in Iraq and elsewhere - committed in the name of the people of the United States", said Lauren Giaccone of Pace (University) SDS. John Cronan, also from Pace SDS, said: "we are also sending a message to the anti-war movement - it is time that the students' voice be heard as we are the group that is most directly affected by Bush's murderous policies".

link

SDS Pace was the first chapter within SDS New York to endorse the "Number The Dead" protest - held on September 17th, 2006 on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. They were followed by MDS New York. Members of New School, Pratt and UCF SDS. The goal was to have 2700 participants stand along the east side of Fifth Avenue - in a human chain extending from 8th Street to 98th Street.

Yoko Ono donated 3000 buttons that stated: "Imagine Peace" - these were distributed to participants by the organizers. At the event, each participant held a placard that contained the name of a dead US soldier or stated "11,000 Iraqis". A documentary film crew videotaped the vigil. More photos by Fred Askew

Tuesday - September 19, 2006 - 17 Arrested at UN Rally

So exhilarating to see the students pick up the torch as they organize their SDS chapters and take it to the streets.

link

Channel 4 was criticised last night over a "docudrama" that shows George W Bush becoming the fifth President of the United States to die at the hands of an assassin.

President Bush, his head superimposed on to an actor’s by computer-generated imagery, being assassinated by a sniper in the Channel 4 drama, Death of a President.

The channel's programme, Death of a President, looks back on the events of October 2007, when America has become even further polarised by the President's policies and the War on Terror.

Leaving a hotel in Chicago after speaking to a meeting of business leaders, President Bush is confronted by anti-war demonstrators and in the confusion is gunned down by a sniper.

The resulting hysteria is inflamed when it emerges that the chief suspect, Jamal Abu Zikri, was born in Syria.

link

Principal bars Coral Springs student from singing anti-Bush song at talent show

A 10-year-old Coral Springs girl won't be allowed to sing a controversial President Bush-bashing ballad at her school talent show after her principal deemed it inappropriate and too political.

The song, Dear Mr. President, performed and co-written by the singer Pink, criticizes the president for the war in Iraq and other policies, including his stance on gay rights.

Link

This probably comes up much more often than we're made aware. In my high school, a band switched their song choice in a talent show and sang Country Joe & The Fish, "Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag" to thunderous applause from the students and a swift closing of the curtain from the principal. They knew they'd never be able to get permission to sing it so they snuck it in.

Let the 10 year old sing whatever she wants. And if a mini neocon wants to sing something, so be it. Aren't we talking about free speech?

SDS
Regional SDS Conference
Providence, April 23, 2006

Bethany, Ct. April 13, 2006 - Long time anti-war activist Thomas Good, 47 year old member of the Industrial Workers of the World and the War Resistors League living in New York City announced today that on April 23rd, the first regional conference will be held by the new Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Good, who is helping organize the conference, explained that the new SDS is significantly different from the old SDS.

Good reported that in only a few months of activity, the re-born SDS has established seventy-seven chapters nationwide.

Paul Buhle, a historian at Brown University and SDS activist in the 1960s is enthusiastically at work planning the conference. Buhle said, "The voice of the young and the most democratic social movement of the 1960s, is back again...with a new generation." [MORE...]

Corpus Delicti

Corpus Delicti debuted on Saturday February 15th, 2003 with 25 performers on the street - joining over 100,000 protestors in Hollywood - for the largest Anti-War march in LA history. Since then, Corpus Delicti has performed 15> times at various locales in Los Angeles - with over 50 performers from various disciplines - participating with the company.

I have so much respect for good performing artists in all their many expressions. Particularly with the camaraderie of the participants. Our 1970s group, Montrose, was extremely fulfilling and brought together several departments at our university -- art, drama, music, even political science. via

Stew Albert 1939 - 2006

Berkley 1968 - Portland 2002
Stew Albert a prominent anti-Vietnam war activist, an early supporter of the Black Panthers and a founder of the Yippie radical protest group, died Monday at age 66 in Portland, Oregon.

Initially diagnosed with Hepatitis C, he spent a whole year enduring grueling chemotherapy. He spoke openly about it on his website, documenting each day and each weekly shot. He was finally declared free of the disease only to be diagnosed with liver cancer this past December. The ultimate Fuck You. (My sister passed away this past Thanksgiving also from liver cancer from Hep C.) We spoke thru email about Hep C, how it sucked and how the treatment felt worse than the disease. I was always inspired by his spirit. From 1968 in Chicago throughout his life. People with true 60s ideals are a rare breed. Tom Robbins said, Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business. Stew certainly believed in magic.

On his website...from Judy
"Stew will be buried tomorrow (Wednesday) in Jones Pioneer Cemetery in Portland. He will be wrapped in a tallis (Jewish prayer shaw), holding a stuffed flower from the Haight and wearing his kick-ass Frye boots and our wedding ring."

There are beautiful sentiments expressed on his website, Bay Area Indymedia, Infoshop News, SFGate, and on Counterpunch.


More On Hepatitis C
Allen Ginsberg died from complications of it. Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, and David Crosby of Crosby, Stills, & Nash, both had liver transplants and still suffer from it. Ken Kesey, author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, suffered from it and died of liver cancer in 2001. Penny Arcade, the 55-year-old performance artist for the East Village avant-garde art scene since Andy Warhol roamed the city, also suffers from it.

Miles Keaton Andrew, a 52-year-old author who contracted it when he experimented with intravenous drugs as a teenager, has kept a blog, www.mkandrew.com, since 2001 about his experiences battling H.C.V. His blog has received a million hits in the past year. “I understand the whole stigma thing,” he told The Villager. "There are a lot of people like me who might have experimented with drugs. Some of us got sick from it and it isn’t anything to be ashamed about."

Hep C Life After Interferon is another blogger who documents his experience with it.

Jury Deliberating...
The first and only federal conspiracy trial arising out of civil resistance to the Iraq War is ongoing in Binghamton, NY.

No verdict has been returned yet in the trial of The St. Patrick's Four. The jury will resume deliberations at 9:30 AM, Monday morning, September 26th.

Representing peace activists all over are four Catholic anti-war activists who have already stood trial for their stand against the invasion of Iraq. Now, more than two years later, cleared of the original charge of criminal mischief, they are being charged with conspiracy and are being tried again.

THE CRIME: On March 17, 2003, Dan, Clare, Peter, and Teresa entered a military recruiting center in Lansing, New York, and poured a half cup of their own blood around the vestibule. No one was prevented from entering or leaving the recruiting center as they then knelt and read an impassioned statement against the Iraq War.

Link

ArthurFest
Musicians both noted and obscure, as well as a sidebar cavalcade of art, film and culture, will perform in the Los Angeles hipster suburb of Los Feliz on Sept. 4-5 with the debut of ArthurFest. "It's a bit of a coming-out party," says Jay Babcock, editor of Arthur, which is co-producing the Labor Day weekend event at Barnsdall Art Park with Spaceland Prods. "It's a big prom."

The two-day lineup includes:
SONIC YOUTH, SLEATER-KINNEY, THE BLACK KEYS, CAT POWER, OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL, T-MODEL FORD, MERZBOW, THE JUAN MACLEAN, DEAD MEADOW, COMETS ON FIRE, & More.

* New Cowboy Junkies - It's probably the most poignant anti-war/anti-violence disc in years. Link

* New York Dolls recording again.

* Clapton exploring reggae

Arundhati Roy and other international anti-war advocates on Monday accused the United States and Britain of war crimes in Iraq and called at a "tribunal" in Turkey for direct action against companies that profited from the conflict.

The symbolic tribunal, uniting former U.N. officials, legal experts and human rights activists, sought the immediate withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq and payment of reparations for the damage caused during the conflict.

"We recommend that people throughout the world launch actions against U.S. and UK corporations that directly profit from this war," Arundhati Roy, India's Booker Prize-winning novelist, told a news conference at the end of the meeting. Link

And this from Scott Ritter...
Ritter told people they need to acknowledge and accept that the battle to stop the war has been lost and the United States will pay a heavy price.

"This is our Pearl Harbor. The U.S. has taken a big hit and it's going to take a long time to dig out."[more »]

I've heard so many lies now that anything I hear that closely resembles the truth just scares the shit right out of me.

The Rolling Stones are to embark on a mammoth world tour, kicking off with 35 dates in the US and Canada in August. [more »]

"If the draft is re-instated we may be subject to induction. We pledge that we will not serve in the U.S. armed forces as long as U.S. troops are occupying or waging war in Iraq." If you're at risk of being drafted, feel free to Take The Pledge.

There's an underground movement to make smoking sexy again... Coherent Light is an adult site that caters to fans of dominant babes who light up and don't give a flying fuck. In fact, they wanna blow smoke in your face and maybe snuff a Kool 100 out on your ass. Well, I'm all for smoker's rights. (via: wfmu blog - NSFW [more»])

Anti-war hoopster, Steve Nash, from Canada, wins NBA's MVP.

Robert Plant making late night rounds on tv this week. Listen to 3 of his new songs from the Mighty Rearranger cd.

Send a message to key Senators urging them to "Vote No" on the nuclear option. Write your own letter or use the letter online and just add your name and hit "send". Quick & easy to do.

Project Save CBGB. The New York club currently faces a rent dispute and lease expiration on August 31, 2005.

Today's Quote
All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.
-- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

**Update--May 11, 2005
WAYNESVILLE - Pastor Chan Chandler submitted his resignation to the members of East Waynesville Baptist Church on Tuesday, a move some said was the only way to resolve current tensions at the church. link
There were taped recordings of his sermons telling parishoners that voted for Kerry that they could either repent at the altar and ask for forgiveness, or leave the church. His decision to leave the church may just be the beginning of his problems after the IRS steps in.

Four Dead In Ohio
Thirty five years ago today, on May 4, 1970, an anti-war student demonstration at Kent State University, Ohio, left four students dead. I was a senior in high school and the news slapped me across the face. I watched the guardsmen shoot down these college kids for peacefully protesting against the war. Can you imagine how that would play out today with our 24 hour news saturation? It was easy to be pissed off and angry at police and lawmakers when they were sending me and my friends off to war and killing those left behind. If you weren't already radically involved with change, Kent State would change you.

Kent State: May 1-4,1970 Why the Protest began
Nixon announced a troop offensive into Cambodia on April 30, and said going into Cambodia was necessary to "win the peace". But it was really an escalation of war into another country we had no business being in. When the the fires from the artillery began to burn in Cambodia, a raging fire of protest spread across the US, especially on college campuses. There wasn't much protesting in the streets until the students got fired up. Students were the nucleus of protest back then as many demonstrations and marches were born there.

This day is as important to me as any other day in history. There would be no turning back now in our rage against war. Remember Kent State.

Are anti-drug technologies and mind-control vaccines the future of the drug war?

You may not have heard about it yet -- but you will.

The first mainstream media report was in a British newspaper report dated July 25, 2004. The headline read, Children to Get Jabs Against Drug Addiction. In it, we learn that a "radical scheme to vaccinate children against future drug addiction" is being considered by the British Government.

Under the plan, doctors would "immunize children at risk of becoming smokers or drug users with an injection."

The article claimed the scheme would function "similarly to the current nationwide Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccination program. Childhood immunization would protect adults from the euphoria experienced by users, making drugs such as heroin and cocaine pointless to take."

Is this the future of the drug war? A nightmare dystopia where children are inoculated against feeling forbidden euphoria? [more »]

The world still says "No" to war.

Veterans and soldiers families at regional anti-war mobilization near Ft Bragg, NC.

More pix from March 19 global Anti-War protests.


Cumming - spray it all over - Actor Alan Cumming is introducing his new frangrance, Cumming, and the body splash, Cumming All Over and confesses he is not entirely sure which way it swings. He's currently at work on "Bam Bam and Celeste," in which he plays Margaret Cho's love interest, and in "Reefer Madness," a musical airing on Showtime in April.

On This Day in 1969 - John & Yoko fly to Gibraltar & get married then fly to Amsterdam for one week "lie-in" for peace.

Drill in the uninterupted wilderness of Bush's mind.

Cry & Cheer & Canada Bound & Rally

* A registered sex offender with an extensive criminal history has confessed to kidnapping and killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who disappeared from her bedroom more than three weeks ago.

I sure wish I knew what the answer is to deal with the ever growing legions of child abusers and offenders. So many things going on in the world, but I keep coming back to this tragic story. I'm moved to check the NC Sex Register Offender site once again. Evidentally others have the same idea and the site was busy for some time before I could get in. What can you do but continue to be weepy, feel helpless and keep your children close?

* March Madness - Duke looked good tonight. They always give you a potential heart-stopping beginning and then get down to business and find a way to win. Usually. Bucknell is feeling mighty this evening. Georgia Tech, MSU also winning moments ago. Alabama's loss and Pittsburgh's loss did me in and Kansas was one of my FF. So, who burst your bracket?

* Peace-Out
You can get out of the military as a conscientious objector, even if you enlisted.

* Soldiers' families to hold anti-war rally at Ft. Bragg - In Fayetteville, NC, home of Ft. Bragg, military families and veterans have been central to organizing what promises to be an extraordinary mobilization. If you live in driving distance from Fayetteville, we urge you to join this powerful event (visit http://www.ncpeacejustice.org for more details). Fayetteville beefs up security for peace rally.

Today's Quote
All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.
- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

What Half the World Wants - by Mumia Abu Jamal

If we look to the ubiquitous commercials that zip past our eyeballs, we would think that most women want the bun-roller or a new and improved derma-peel. Each of which promises a brand new sexier you. But there is a world beyond the glare of the TV screen where women are organizing and fighting for - not a new toy but a new world.

On March 8, women around the world in LA, England, Argentina, Uganda, Peru, Philadelphia, San Francisco, in Guyana, in southern India, in Trinidad and Tobago, in Spain, women will be staging the fifth global women's strike.

A movement involving women in some sixty countries many involved in grass roots organizations. Fighting for payment for housework, for clean safe water resources, for housing, education, gender justice, and peace. In a world where war is now our norm, the global women's strike is part of the vast throng against war and occupation. Not only in Iraq, but in Palestine, in Columbia, in the Congo and in Kashmir. Their organizing slogan, which unites strikers from a broad array of struggles, is deceptively simple: 'Invest in Caring not Killing.'

Although the movement had its beginning years ago in the '[Wages] for Housework' movement in England, it has grown considerably into a worldwide antiracist and antiwar movement. The movement recognizes the basic inequality built into the capitalist economic system. The class, racial and gender based exploitation underlying it all. Women's issues differ from nation to nation and between classes in the same nation.

Yet there are also similarities in the fundamentals underlying those differences. On the supportive role played by women in the home, Marxist, feminist Selma James in her influential 1973 pamphlet 'Sex, Race and Class' writes: 'House wives are involved in the production and, what is the same thing, reproduction of workers. What Marx calls labor power. They service those who are daily destroyed by working for wages and who need to be daily renewed and they care for and discipline those who are being prepared to work when they grow up.' At base, James argues, because women's work performs such a critical role in capitalist reproduction, it should receive a commensurate return.

All around the world women are trying to better their condition and that of families and communities. In England, Crossroads Women's center at 230a Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2AB, is coordinating the strike. Their email address is womenstrike8m@server101.com.

In Peru the Centro de Capacitacion para Trabajadoras del Hogar in Lima can be emailed at ccth@terra.com.pe.

In Trinidad and Tobago, the National Union of Domestic Employees are organizing, their email address: domestic@tstt.net.tt.

Here in the US, there are Crossroads women's centers in LA, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Their email addresses are simple:
la@crossroadswomen.net
sf@crossroadswomen.net
philly@crossroadswomen.net

Those without Internet access can call them by phone.
LA (323)-292-7405
San Francisco (415) 626-4114
Phily (215)-848-1120

In Kampala, Uganda the Kaabong Women's Organization is concerned not with war in a distant land, but war at home. For Uganda, there has been war for the past 17 years. Their demand is not just for peace, but for land and for water. For there, as in much in the rest of the world, agriculture rests on the backs of billions of women. The Kaabong Women's organization can be emailed: akulum@hotmail.com. "Invest in Caring, not Killing", hmm what a concept.

From Death Row this is Mumia Abu Jamal.
http://www.prisonradio.org/maj/maj_2_26_04half.h