He really can't walk on water, FYI

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIX MIX -- DC.


DAVID CORDERO, A 24 YEAR OLD UNDERGRADUATE AT THE SCHOOL OF THE ART AND INSTITUTE, SEES U.S. SENATOR BARACK OBAMA AS JESUS IN A NEW PAPER MACHE SCULPTURE. OR 'PAPIER MACHE' AS THE PRETENTIOUS SAY.

THE 24 YEAR OLD UNDERGRADUATE SEES OBAMA AS JESUS BUT THE MOST SURPRISING THING MAY BE A 24 YEAR OLD UNDERGRADUATE. WHEN THESE REPORTERS REQUESTED OFFICIAL COLLEGE TRANSCRIPTS, WE WERE REBUFFED.

MEANWHILE, ROBERT NAIMAN RISKS BLASPHEMY BY SUGGESTING THAT OBAMA DOES NOT WALK ON WATER. WRITING ABOUT BARACK OBAMA TELLING THE A.P. THAT NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, BULLY BOY WILL GET THE SUPPLEMENTAL, NAIMAN ASKS, "WHAT KIND OF AN ORGANIZER CONFIDES TO THE MEDIA THAT WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE, HIS SIDE IS GOING TO BACK DOWN?"

ONE WHO CAVES FREQUENTLY OR DOESN'T HAVE ENOUGH EXPERIENCE.


FROM THE TCI WIRE:

Starting with news of war resistance, Robert Zabala has received his conscientious objector status. Tony Parry (Los Angeles Times) reports that the C.O. status was granted, not by the military, but instead by U.S. District Judge James Ware who "ordered the Marine Corps to discharge Zabala within 15 days." Zabala's long journey is outlined in Peter Laufer's Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq. Zabala comes from a military family, finished boot camp "at the top of his class"
as he grew more and more sure that he could not participate in warfare.

Zarbala tells Sandra Gonzales (San Jose Mercury News) that 'motivational' shorts (music videos) and seeing the swapping of photos picturing dead Iraqis made him sent him on his journey and that, although "evaluated by a pshychologist and chaplains who believe he was qualified" for c.o. status, "the commandant of the Marine Corps" thought otherwise. Henry K. Lee (San Francisco Chronicle) reports a 2004 excahnge "with a fellow Marine" which prompted even more contemplation -- Zabala, "I began to think about the thousands of people who died in the past year in war, who didn't die due to just one soldier or suicide bomber, but largely by an organization. This organization trains to kill human life."


Zabala tells Peter Laufer that about discovering the classification of C.O., "You ever heard that song 'Pina Colada'? The singer is reading off that description and he realizes, 'Hey, this is my wife!' I was reading the CO description and I realized -- hey, this is me! I wanted my conscientious objector discharge. If they put me in a nonfighting job, I still saw myself as a cog in the Marine Corps machine." In 2003, Robert Zabala completed his C.O. paperwork ("I will no longer participate in an organization that sustains war.") Zabala told Laufer, "I will get my conscientious objector discharge. I will make the Marine Corps see me as a conscientious objector regardless of what anybody says. If they reject my claim I'm going to appeal." It took the federal court system's help but Robert Zabala was awarded C.O. status.

Peter Laufer's book is Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq and it provides an overview of various war resisters and peace efforts. Norman Solomon provides the foreward and the list price (US) is fourteen dollars.

Zabala is a part of a movement of resistance within the military that also includes Ehren Watada, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Joshua Key, Corey Glass, Ricky Clousing, Mark Wilkerson, Agustin Aguayo, Camilo Mejia, Patrick Hart, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.



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