There's a wife too

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

HE'S SUCKED UP AND GLAD HANDED BIG CORPORATIONS REPEATEDLY FOR ALL THOSE CORPORATE DONATIONS BUT SENATOR BARACK OBAMA JUST CAN'T SEEM TO PULL AHEAD OF SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON IN THE POLLING FOR WHICH DEMOCRAT AMERICA WOULD LIKE TO SEE AS PRESIDENT.

SO TODAY, THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN EMBARKED ON A NEW STARTEGY.

IF YOU CAN'T GET BEHIND OBAMA, THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU!

MICHELLE OBAMA, THE CANDIDATE'S CORPORATE WIFE WHO TRIES TO MAKE LIKE SHE'S A CARE GIVER, INFORMED A SOUTH CARONLINE AUDIENCE, "YOU KNOW, POLITICS IS A NASTY BUSINESS, AND YOU DON'T HOLD OUT HOPE THAT FAIRNESS WILL WIN, THAT TRUTH AND JUSTICE CARRIES THE DAY."

NASTY BUSINESS, MICHELLE? YOU WANT TO TALK TO US ABOUT WHAT YOUR HUSBAND'S CAMPAIGN DID TO JERI RYAN? YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT HOW YOUR TRASHY HUSBAND RAN A WOMAN'S NAME THROUGH THE MUD TO DESTROY HER EX-HUSBAND WHO WAS RUNNING AGAINST OBAMA?

AS TRASHY AS HER BI-RACIAL HUSBAND, MICHELLE OBAMA THEN SOLD MORE SOP SAYING THAT HER HUSBAND, WHO HAS YET TO COMPLETE HIS THIRD YEAR IN THE U.S. SENATE, IS "A TEST" FOR AMERICA THAT WILL DETERMINE ITS MORAL CHARACTER AND IF THEY ACCEPT "REAL AND TRUE."

MICHELLE OBAMA IS CORRECT, IT IS A TEST FOR VOTERS. WILL THEY VOTE FOR A QUALIFIED CANDIDATE OR WILL THEY VOTE FOR HER HUSBAND?

HAVING SMEARED HIS 2004 DEMOCRATIC OPPONENT WITH RUMORS OF BEING A WIFE BEATER, HAVING SMEARED HIS THEN 2005 REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE WITH WHAT HAD BEEN SEALED COURT RECORDS ABOUT A DIVORCE, BARACK OBAMA'S ALREADY BEEN CAUGHT PLANTING RUMORS ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON IN THE PRESS AND USING RACIST LANGUAGE.

WAS THAT HIS WHITE HALF TALKING? WHO KNOWS WITH BI-RACIAL OBAMA? BUT IT IS A TEST AND SO FAR THE PRESS IS FAILING. WE DO, HOWEVER, HAVE HOPE IN THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

FROM THE TCI WIRE:

Starting with a weekend recap. Saturday and Sunday's death tolls topped 100 each day, combined they reached at least 250 (that is only reported deaths and Sunday's is McClatchy Newspapers plus only one incident reported by Molly Hennesy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times). On Saturday's death toll, in the Salaheddin province where violence is common in Tirkrit, Armili had been a relatively peaceful city. That changed with an early morning truck bombing in a market. Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reported that 35 houses were destroyed with residents inside many. Dean Yates (Reuters) quoted resident Jasim Ali whose wife had been at the market, "I ran to the market and saw burned cars along with dead and wounded people everywhere. I screamed until I found my wife. She was wounded in the head and hand." Today, Molly Hennessy-Fiske (Los Angeles Times) notes that the death toll from the bombing has climbed to at least 150 from that one bombing.

This weekend also saw the death toll for US service members pass the 3600 mark (a strangely under-reported benchmark). Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Ali Adeeb (New York Times) reported Sunday that the deaths of 9 US service members had been reported by the US government. (They reported that and the one hundred plus deaths of Iraqis from inside the paper, it should be noted.) ICCC puts the death toll at 3606 since the start of the illegal war and at 28 for the month thus far. Also reporting losses over the weekend was the UK military which annouced two deaths over the weekend, both in Basra. 22-year-old Chrisopher Read died Saturday when the wounds he received were not treatable. [Please note, the link goes to the UK Defence Ministry which states Read died Saturday night after receiving wounds on Saturday morning. Many press reports are stating Read died on Sunday -- not according to the UK Defence Ministry's own statement: ". . . but sadly died of his injuries during the night of Saturday 7 July."] 23-year-old Ryan Francis also died on Saturday but from a roadside bombing. Andrew Grice (Independent of London) notes that 23 year-old Edward Vakabua died Friday in Basra. The deaths brought ICCC's numbers to 159 for the British military.

On June 27th, Gordon Brown took the office of Prime Minister. Since then, the UK has lost 6 soldiers in Iraq. His predecessor, Tony Blair, made the news as his former director of communication, Alastair Campbell, publishes a book entitled The Blair Years which reveals, among other things, that when then US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared the United States would go to illegal war with/on Iraq even if Britain wasn't joining them, Poodle Blair "went bonkers". Andrew Grice (Independent of London) observes that Campbell sees the book as a chance to have first crack at writing (rewriting) the Poodle's history and that he downplays debate about the illegal war while also, hand on heart, claiming sorrow over the death of David Kelly, the British scientist who may or may not have taken his own life but died shortly after it was revealed he was the source for the BBC reporting that the Blair government was "sexing up" intelligence, which they, indeed were. Blair also made the mushroom cloud claims and the Times of London's reporting on the Downing Street Memos revealed that the Blair government was aware the US was "fixing" intelligence to make it fit their desires for illegal war. Michael Smith (Times of London, June 12, 2005) on more DSMs -- this time a briefing paper: "Ministers were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal. . . . The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair's inner cricle on July 23, 3003, said that since regime change was illegal it was 'necessary to create the conditions' which would make it legal. This was required because, even if ministers decided Britain should not take part in an invasion, the American military would be using British bases. This would automatically make Britain complicit in any illegal US action."

Illegal war it what is. Many grasp that. One that does Ehren Watada who refused to deploy to Iraq and became the first commissioned officer to do so publicly in the US. Watada took that public stand in June 2007. In February 2007 he was court-martialed. Judge Toilet, aka John Head, declared a mistrial -- over defense objection -- when the prosecution was clearly losing. (This has been addressed repeatedly at community sites. For the most recent writing on this topic, click here.) On Friday, at Fort Hood, pre-trial motions were heard. Adam Lynn (The News Tribune) reported two developments -- Judge Toilet refused the request that he "disqualify himself from the case, despite arguments from Watada's new attorneys that there is at least the appearance that Head cannot be impartial in this matter. Head then ruled that trying Watada again wouldn't violate his constitutional right not to be prosecuted twice for the same crime, also known as double jeopardy." Helen Altonn(Honolulu Star-Bulletin) spoke with Eric Seitz (Watada's civilian attorney for the first court-martial, he is now being represented by civilian attorneys James Lobsenz and Kenneth Kagan) who sees that Army Court of Appeals taking "the issue far more seriously than Judge Head is capable of doing. I would never expect Judge Head to reverse himself but would certainly expect the Appellate Court to do that. He was not the most competent udge I've met in my life." Robert Watada, Ehren's father, told Altonn that he wasn't surprised by Judge Toilet's behavior, "My own assessment is that it (the military court proceeding) was very much like a Salem witch trial. We fully expected this." Altonn notes many do not believe the court-martial (if the Appeals Court rules it can go foward) will begin as scheduled on July 23rd but will more likely be held in October. Noting the various groups and people supporting Watada, L.A. Chung (San Jose Mercury News) wrote that "what impresses me most are the membrs of the Heart Mountain draft resisters. They know all about taking an unpopular stand on principle. These are people like Mits Koshiyama in San Jose, Frank Emi and Youshi Kuromiya in Los Angeles, and others. They know the personal cost can still resonate and sting, even after 60 years. Heart Mountain, Wyo. is where so many Japanese-Americans from Santa Clara County were interned during World War II. A group called Fair Play Committe rose up in reaction to a move to draft young men from the camps to fight in the segregated -- and storied -- Army unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Branded as draft resisters and condemned by leading community organization -- the Japanese American Citizens League -- the committee persevered through their trial on principle."


There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one 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, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.

There are also Iraq veterans resisting. Leading the way is Iraq Veterans Against the War
which just concluded a bus tour. Amy Renczkowski (Conn.'s The Day) reports on last week's stop in Groton and quotes Jimmy Massey stating, "We're going out in the communities with fliers, interacting with military members that would talk to us." Click here to read their blogging of the bus tour and click here for photos of the tour. Adam Kokesh who was, obviously, on that bus tour has also blogged about it at his site. In addition, Holiday Dmitri (Radar magazine) profiled Kokesh a few weeks ago and deserves credit for being the only member of the press thus far to cite Schacht v. US -- the Supreme Court case that is on the side of Kokesh and anyone else wearing partial or full military drag in any theaterical production including street theater. [You can also click here and read a transcript of an ass hole talking. A scared and frightened one -- so old it's now missing its prostate.] Friday, we noted Joel Bleifuss "The New Children's Crusade" (In These Times) and the article, which notes IVAW is modeled after Vietnam Veterans Against the War, will be available online Friday the 13th and is in the August issue of In These Times.

The bus tour was not Iraq Veterans Against the War's only action for summer. Last week, as Barbara S. Miller (Raleigh Observer-Reporter) noted, IVAW's Paul Abernathy protested outside US House Rep Tim Murphy's Mount Lebanon office when Murphy refused to meet constitutent Abernathy. Among upcoming actions will be joining A.N.S.W.E.R., CODEPINK and others in DC September 15th for March on Washington.


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