The most non-working man in politics

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE   WHILE HILLARY CLINTON BUSTS HER ASS TRYING TO SAVE BARACK OBAMA'S FALTERING CAMPAIGN, THE LITTLE PRINCE CONTINUES HIS VACATION IN HAWAII.   WHEN REACHED FOR COMMENT, BARACK INSISTED HE'D WORKED SO HARD HE "GOT A BLISTER."   WHEN ASKED WHERE, BARACK SAID, "ON MY HEINIE.  IT IS VERY HARD TO SIT ON YOUR ASS ALL DAY."   FROM THE TCI WIRE:   Starting with war resistance.  Last month US  war resister Robin Long was extradited from Canada. Courage to Resist notes that Robin is "being held in the El Paso County Jail, near Colorado Springs, Colorado, awaiting a military court martial for resisting the unjust and illegal war against and occupation of Iraq.  Robin will be court martialed for desertion 'with intent to remain away permanently' -- Article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice -- in early September.  The maximum allowable penalty for a guilty verdict on this charge is three years confinement, forfeiture of pay, and a dishonorably discharge from the Army.  In order to expedite Robin's trial,  it appears that his unit command, the Fourth Brigade Combat Team, Fourth Infantry Division is option to not charge Robin with speech-related violations of military discipline; opting to try and convict Robin as fast as possible." They note the public support that Garrett Reppenhagan (IVAW) and others have shown in Colorado for Robin.  A protest held at Fort Carson (see July 28th snapshot)  was noted here last month and Lee Zaslofsky declared at the protest: "Robin Long did what he did because of his conscience and because he believed that the war was wrong, that he was simply running away or hiding out. . . . I think most Americans now realize that the war in Iraq is a complete mistake."  James Branum is Robin's civilian attorney and he discussed Robin's case in this video (transcript of which is in the August 5th snapshot) noting, "So they had a hearing late at night.  Robin was put into jail. And since that point, he has been held here in Colarado Springs in the Criminal Justice Center in El Paso County -- basically just a regular old county jail with all kinds of people, dangerous criminals many of them, and it's a difficult place to be.  But Robin's in good spirits and we're now dealing with the consequences of his action in the military courts here." Courage to Resist offers the followings to support Robin:         1. Donate to Robin's legal defense         Online: http://couragetoresist.org/robinlong         By mail: Make checks out to "Courage to Resist / IHC" and note "Robin Long" in the memo field. Mail to:    Courage to Resist       484 Lake Park Ave #41     Oakland CA 94610  Courage to Resist is committed to covering Robin's legal and related defense expenses. Thank you for helping make that possible.      Also: You are also welcome to contribute directly to Robin's legal expenses via his civilian lawyer James Branum. Visit girightslawyer.com, select "Pay Online via PayPal" (lower left), and in the comments field note "Robin Long". Note that this type of donation is not tax-deductible.     2. Send letters of support to Robin      Robin Long, CJC        2739 East Las Vegas            Colorado Springs, CO 80906        Robin's pre-trial confinement has been outsourced by Fort Carson  military authorities to the local county jail.         Robin is allowed to receive hand-written or typed letters only. Do NOT include postage stamps, drawings, stickers, copied photos or print articles. Robin cannot receive packages of any type (with the book exception as described below).        3. Send Robin a money order for commissary items          Anything Robin gets (postage stamps, toothbrush, shirts, paper, snacks, supplements, etc.) must be ordered through the commissary. Each inmate has an account to which friends may make deposits. To do so, a money order in U.S. funds must be sent to the address above made out to "Robin Long, EPSO". The sender's name must be written on the money order.       4. Send Robin a book           Robin is allowed to receive books which are ordered online and sent directly to him at the county jail from Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. These two companies know the procedure to follow for delivering books for inmates.     War resisters in Canada also need support and to pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail finley.d@parl.gc.ca -- that's "finley.d" at "parl.gc.ca") and Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, 613.992.4211, phone; 613.941.6900, fax; e-mail pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's "pm" at "pm.gc.ca"). Courage to Resist collected more than 10,000 letters to send before the vote. Now they've started a new letter you can use online here. The War Resisters Support Campaign's petition can be found here. Long expulsion does not change the need for action and the War Resisters Support Campaign explains: "The War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada to urgently continue to put pressure on the minority conservative government to immediately cease deportation proceedings against other US war resisters and to respect the will of Canadians and their elected representatives by implementing the motion adopted by Parliament on June 3rd. Please see the take action page for what you can do."   There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Yovany Rivero, William Shearer, Michael Thurman, Andrei Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum. Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).   [. . .]   Turning to the United States presidential campaign.  Ralph Nader visist Canada Monday:   Ralph Nader to speak on Monday August 11, on the trading floor of old Toronto Stock Exchange building. Please circulate and post widely.  Event also features partial screening of the biographical documentary, An Unreasonable Man. Now at over 5 percent in national polls, Nader is on his third run for President of the United States.  Find out why he runs and what's at stake for Canada this election. Ralph Nader is the only major candidate for President of the United States standing up to implement Canadian-style universal healthcare, a Dion-style Carbon Tax, and ending the war in Iraq with a full 6-month withdrawal. Over ten million Americans say they will vote for him, and another 20 million say they would if they thought he had a chance of winning. He's on track to be on the ballot in 45 states, and has a shot at getting in the Google Presidential Debates to be held in New Orleans this September. Come see him this Monday August 11 at the Design Exchange in Downtown Toronto. Event Program:  Screening of a portion of An Unreasonable Man, the acclaimed documentary on Ralph Nader Ralph Nader Remarks on the US Presidential Election: What's at stake for Canada? Q and A with Ralph Nader Where: Design Exchange, 234 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario M5K 1B2. Time: 7:00 to 9:30 pm  Ticket Price: Free, donations appreciated, RSVP to ensure seating.  To RSVP, email toronto@votenader.org  or call Rashi Khilnani at 647 286 0396 for more details.     A huge section (regarding NPR) just got pulled because the snapshot's way too long.  That will be carried over to Third for Sunday but the transition is now lost so just pretend that Nader, Bob Barr and Cynthia McKinney were just discussed.  Adam Kokesh participated in last month's farce of an impeachment hearing and wrote about it at his site, "I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate Bob Barr would be testifying.  He didn't disappoint.  He made a great opening statement about 'Preserving Constitutional Liberty through Checks and Balances and the Separation of Powers,' but the best part of his testimony was in the second round before questioning.  'What we are facing now is a Constitutional clock, and it is countind own what remains of the Constitution of this great land.  I might ask then to introduce for the record the disappearing Bill of Rights.  This is the Bill of Rights that we as members of the Judiciary Committee know [he holds up a copy of the Bill of Rights] as adopted in 1791.  [he flips it over to reveal a copy of the Bill of Rights that is largely redacted] This is what it is fast becoming.'  You know it's a sad day when a former Congressman has to submit the Bill of Rights for the record in a Congressional hearing!"  Kokesh shares many of his observations in the post and also includes Barr's written statement to the committee.  The hearing was a farce.  As Kokesh points out the Democrats "seemed to be really trying to make case for their won party's reelection.  They failed.  As petulant and petty as the Republicans were throughout the hearing, Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican, hit the nail on the head: 'It seems that we are hosting an anger management class.  This hearing will not cause us to impeach the president; it will only serve to impeach Congress's credibility.'  The Democrats have become a sorry excuse for an opposition party.  I don't think any of the many potentially deserving members of the Bush Administration will ever be impeached for the same reason that we didn't have impeachment hearings today or even months ago.  The Democrats are just as corrupt, and complicit.  Spineless Democrats are Neocon Appeasers and the blood is on their hands too."  He goes on to predict that voters will be driven to the Libertarian Party (Bob Barr is the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee).  The entire post is worth reading in full. Adam Kokesh is, of course, an Iraq War veteran and the co-chair of IVAW.  His remarks are him writing for himself.  IVAW is a diverse and growing group committed to ending the illegal war but it does not require that members belong to one political party (or any).  Nor do they confuse their organization with a get-out-the-vote movement; instead, they are bringing an end to the illegal war.   Matt Gonzalez is Ralph Nader's running mate. He and Ralph spoke at Sebastopol on Sunday and NPR didn't consider that 'news' apparently.  A real broadcast journalist did.  Which is why Bonnie Faulkner devoted the hour of her KPFA Wednesday show to providing the voices shut out by the media.  Yesterday we noted some of Ralph's speech and we'll note some of Matt's speech today.  Bonnie Faulkner hosts Guns and Butter,   [Here for KPFA archive.] Matt is speaking of how he and Ralph recently held a campaign event in Austin, Texas.   Matt Gonzalez: It was vey interesting to see that the weekly newspaper sort of put an ad about our appearance and they wrote something like, "Maybe Ralph will apologize for the last eight years?" And, you know, I thought -- I thought it was amusing sort-of, but then I started getting angry about it and i thought to myself, "Well wait a second, who should be apologizing?  Who's voted for this war?  Who voted for the Patriot Act? Who supports all these appropriations?  Who supports the FISA bill?" I mean at some point there has to be responsibility taken for these positions.  And this idea that it all belongs at the feet of Ralph Nader is just so absurd that it's insulting to our intelligence.  The war in Iraq is probably one of the ugliest things we've ever engaged in.  Nancy Pelosi told us, 'Elect me the Speaker [of the House of Representatives] and I'll get you out of the war.'  Well I want you to know when she was not the speaker we put $116 billion into the war.  She became the Speaker January of 2007, that amount went up by $50 billion.  $50 billion more.  From $116 to $165.  This year, it went up to $189 -- so another $20 billion on top of that.  What's wrong with our country?  What's wrong with our opposition party that they can -- with a straight face -- tell you that the problem with this country is that candidates who hold views different than the ones that they hold are somehow not allowed to engage in the democratic process and not allowed to get out there and try to get our ideas out?  Ralph Nader and I are fighting to end the war in Iraq. We want single-payer health care.  We want to reform the Taft-Hartley law that has really taken the strength out of labor -- that's essentially outlawed general strikes, jurisdictional strikes, secondary boycotts, all kinds of things the labor movement can't do anymore.   Now when I think about what was the problem in 2000  I'm just awestruck that so little has been done to cure the problem that we have in this democracy.  Two things happened.  We let somebody get announced and declared the president of the United States who got less votes than one of the other candidates.  And we let someone be declared the winner who didn't even have the majority of the vote.  Now we're all intelligent people, we can figure out how we would fix this problem: We would mandate that the winner would have to get over 50% of the vote.  That would be that.  How complicated is that?  How is it that all the brain power in the Democratic and Republican Parties can't figure that out?  Well first off for the Democrats, let me say this: "You like to invoke the name Ralph Nader but you never invoke the name Ross Perot who won 19% of the vote and 'elected' Bill Clinton president in 1992 with 43% or less of the vote.  Clinton got less percentage of the vote than our current president did in 2000. But you never hear about."  So the first thing I want to say is the antiquated line, you know, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. There is a reason why these political parties don't want to change the system.  It's not because they don't know how.  It's that if they were to change the system, the political spectrum would widen.  What's possible in this country would widen.  And they would whether have arbitrary outcomes and be in power roughly half the time than to fix the problem and really change American democracy.  So if they're not willing to change the problem then aren't we rewarding them when we attack Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez and all the other candidates out there that are trying to talk about the real issues? Now it's astounding to me that Barack Obama likes to say 'Well . . .' -- for his explanation why he can't do the things that need to be done and take the positions that he should take, he likes to say -- 'super heroes don't get elected in politics.'  Well, you know, there are no super heroes in the Canadian legislature that passed health care for their citizens. The [US] legislatures that vote against the Patriot Act are not super heroes.  They're human beings like we are who believe in due process and equal protection and want a citizenry that isn't at the whim of governmental invasion of privacy.  That's -- that's -- it's fundamental.  There's a whole group of people out there that are trying to make apologies for the Democratic nominee, saying, 'Well he's only moving to the right now that he's secured the nomination.'  It's not true.  It's not true.  Barack Obama supported the Republican Class Action Reform Law.  This was something that David Sirota wrote for The Nation -- and many of their columnists made fun of -- they said 'This is a big business bonaza.'  John Kerry voted against it, Hillary Clinton voted against it.  The Democratic nominee has always supported limiting pain and suffering damages and medical malpractice cases -- favoring the wealthy in effect, those with good jobs over those with poor ones.  He's opposed getting any kind of royalties from the mining of public lands -- the hard rock minerals on public lands.  He voted for the Energy Policy Act in 2005 -- a vote that [John] McCain even opposed in 2005  Mobil Exxon, as we all know, has record profits now of over $40 billion a year.  In 2005 they had record profits of over $35 billion a year and one of the Chicago newspapers -- in response to Obama's vote for this thing --  pointed out that it was an odd time to be dishing out oil-welfare.  You know?  Because we were giving tax breaks and subsidies in greater amounts than we were investing money in alternative energy.  This is a candidate that opposes gay marriage.  He has come out in response to progressives saying  'What are you doing -- what are you talking about with this faith-based initiative stuff?'  And you know what he does? He scoffs at progressives and says, 'You have not been listening to me.'  Well listen, we are listening to you now.  We have listened to you with your FISA vote, with your 'change' on off-shore drilling, with your condemnation of a Supreme Court opinion related to the death penalty and you don't deserve our vote.  You're not going to get it. And if you give these candidates your vote, you're guaranteeing that the system stays in place.  You're guaranteeing that they can just say one thing to you and change their mind afterwards.  One of the most notorious recent things that Obama said that just is astounding relates NAFTA.  First off, he's campaigning in the primary and he's saying to everybody, he says 'I don't think NAFTA has been good for Americans and I never have."  Well it turns out that an AP writer goes back and look at his -- a guy named Calvin Woodward -- goes back and looks at his Senate campaign in 2004 and guess what?  At the time Obama said the US should pursue more deals such as NAFTA and argued that his opponent's calls for tarrifs would spark a trade war.  Okay?  So now he's against NAFTA, okay?  He's in a tight race with Hillary Clinton, he's against NAFTA now, maybe he's figured out that NAFTA  has created a scenario where we have displaced millions of Mexican workers, caused the migration to the north because we're subsidizing corn, for instance, dumping it in Mexican markets and ruining their agricultural system.  What would you do in that situation?  So now he tells -- he's in a fight with Clinton over who's against NAFTA more.  He wins the nomination in effect and he gets interviewed by a writer for Fortune magazine, June 18th, Nina Easton, Washington editor, asking him, 'What about NAFTA, you said you would invoke the six month clause to unilaterally get out of it?'  He says, 'Well, you know, sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified."  So he went from calling it devastating and a big mistake to it's just rhetoric.  And that's what we're supposed to buy into?  We're supposed to buy into political rhetoric because we're not allowed to have better candidates?  We're not allowed to have candidates that are saying, "Come on, we can have a better country.  We can change this around"?  The Democrats . .. You know, if voting for complacency  and capitulation and appeasement worked, I would advocate it.  It's not working.  It's just not working. And notice they tell us 'If we can just have this, we'll win. If we can just have this next thing, we'll change everything.'  I love how these US Senators run around and say, "Well if I were president  the home morgate crisis wouldn't have happened and the oil prices wouldn't be what they are."  You've been in the United States Senate, what the hell have you been doing there?  Why do we have to elect -- give you a promotion, when you're asleep on the job. Right?  Now you counter that, you counter that with Ralph Nader's history of achieving legislative accomplishments as an outsider.  How does his record match up against Senator McCain's and Senator Obama's?  Right?  I mean Freedom of Information Act, Clean Air, Clean Water, all the automotive work, all the consumer protection work. a lifetime of trying to wake up the American public to stand up and fight back and not to take this anymore.  Right?  Imagine what it is to go into a progressive town and have a progressive publication say "Maybe they'll apologize for the last eight years?"  It's really gross.  It's not the way to treat Americans participating in a democracy trying to tell people, 'Come on, let's try to fix this.'  I want to just close by making reference to the historical examples I think are important to keep in mind.  There were candidates in the past that people said, "Don't vote for them. You're throwing your vote away if you vote for them.  You know people like Eugene Debbs who ran for president a number of times and, you know, he thought we should have the forty-hour work week, you know?  He thought women should be allowed to vote.  Imagine that?  The radical concept that women were 'advanced enough'  intellectually and 'mature enough' that they could vote.  This was actually a discussion in our society and it was Eugene Debbs that was saying "Yes."  And maybe he got 6% of the vote, the best he ever did was 6%.  So if you had lived in that time and somebody had said, "Don't vote for Eugene Debbs, you're throwing your vote away"  -- what would you have said to them? Now with this historical lens to look back.  How do we break through things?  And you go even further back, you go to the Liberty Party of the 1840s James Birney advocating abolition of slavery.  He can get 1% of the vote.  You're throwing your vote away if you vote for him apparently.   Well I don't believe that and I hope that you don't.  I think it takes a lot of courage to be someone like Ralph Nader who is being attacked for standing up in a democracy and trying to articulate views that the other candidates are essentially throwing away, rejecting, you know?  And I think we are at that historical moment are we going to vote for what we believe in or are we just going to keep buying into rhetoric about "hope" and "change" that it's already been proven to us is false? Thank you.   Team Nader notes:   This is it. Our accounting team has decided to cut off our primary season online donations this Monday. This means no more matching funds from the federal government after this weekend. If you've already contributed, but have yet to donate up to $250, then this is your last chance to bump it up to $250 and have it matched. If you haven't donated at all this is your last chance to have your contribution -- up to $250 -- doubled. If you give $50, the government will give us $50. If you give $100, the government will give us $100. If you give us $250, the government will give us $250. But we are running out of time. We need you to do two things now: One -- forward this urgent matching funds call to action to everyone you know. And two -- make your donations double by giving up to $250 right now. Our green eye shade people tell us it's time to shift to the general campaign. It's time for Ralph to mount his 50 state campaign. It's time to mount an effort to get Ralph in the debates. And whatever our green eye shade people tell us to do, we do. So, here we go. Time is running out. Hit the button now. And double your money, double our possibilities. And after you hit contribute, sit back and watch Ralph Nader later today on C-Span. Ralph will be discussing his plan to empty the prisons of non-violent drug offenders and fill them with corporate criminals at a 10am EST press conference. (Click here for C-span daily TV schedule.) And remember, for a contribution of $100 or more to our campaign between now and Sunday night, we will send to you an autographed copy of Ralph's rousing call to arms -- Civic Arousal and a copy of No Debate -- the classic expose of the corporate control of the Presidential debates. So, donate now. We'll ship you the books. And sit back and watch Ralph on C-Span. Together, we are making a difference. Onward     RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot" "Other Items" "Iraq" "I Hate The War" "Testing out The Obama Playbook" "Garlic Pasta in the Kitchen" "ralph nader, robin morgan" "nader video, nader campaign and more" "Bill Moyers, Ralph Nader" "Talking post" "Ralph Nader campaign video" "Go away, Tom Hayden, far, far away" "Carly Simon" "There's not an election in Canada this November" "Nader, pretend people and more" "Nader in Canada Monday" "Yeah, talking John Edwards" "Who's buying off 'independent' media?" "Barack needs his beauty rest " "THIS JUST IN! BARACK'S BEAUTY REST!"

Barack needs his beauty rest

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE OLD GEEZER BARACK OBAMA IS IN THE MIDST OF HIS THIRD VACATION SINCE JANUARY.  HE TOOK HIS 1ST VACATION FOLLOWING HIS RUNNING OFF AT THE MOUTH IN PHILADELPHIA.  HE TOOK HIS 2ND VACATION AFTER STEALING THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION.  AND NOW HE'S VACATIONING AGAIN -- ALTHOUGH HE PREFERS TO SAY, "I'M GETTING MY BEAUTY REST."   WHEN REACHED IN HAWAII FOR COMMENT, BARACK EXPLAINED, "ONE OF THE REASONS I WANT TO BE PRESIDENT IS FOR THE BENEFITS.  I SAW ALL THE VACATION DAYS BULLY BOY GOT AND I FIGURED I DESERVED THEM TOO.  I'D LIKE SOME SICK DAYS TOO BUT I'M NOT GOING TO CHOKE ON A PRETZEL JUST TO GET THEM.  IT'S GOOD TO BE PRESIDENT."   WHEN WE REMINDED BARACK THAT HE WAS NOT PRESIDENT, HE BEGAN SCREAMING AND CRYING.  THE LITTLE TYKE WAS SO UPSET WE DIDN'T EVEN RAISE THE ISSUE THAT HE'D GOTTEN MORE DONATIONS FROM EXXON THAN JOHN MCCAIN.    FROM THE TCI WIRE:   Starting with war resisters.  Agustin Aguayo served in Iraq and refused to load his weapon.  Aguayo learned quickly upon arriving in Iraq that 'rules' were out the window as he and other medics were instructed that they would not care for any Iraqi civilians wounded.  Seeing it first happened deepened Aguayo's spirituality and his beliefs that the Iraq War was illegal and immoral.  He attempted to go through the process where the US military grants you Conscientious Objector status.  When the military refused to recognize that he was a CO, Aguayo took it to the civilian courts.  A hearing was scheduled in the US Court of Appeals for November 2006; however, the US military informed he would be in Iraq when that hearing took place. To explain physically (he'd already done so verbally many times) that he was not deploying for a second tour of Iraq, Aguayo self-checked out of the US military on September 2nd and turned himself at Fort Irwin on September 26.  Despite being AWOL less than thirty days, the US military decided to court-martial him for desertion.  March 6, 2007, Aguayo was court-martialed and Aguayo admited he was AWOL but refused the charges of desertion.  Col Peter Masteron sentenced Aguayo to 8 months in prison but did allow the 161 days Aguayo had already been imprisoned to count towards time already served.  In June, Agustin and his wife Helga P. Aguayo provided updates to the current status.  Agustin had hoped to take his case all the way to the Supreme Court (and had every right to -- as well as a strong case, the military's refusal was based on the 'concept' that religion and spirituality are a fixed point and cannot be deepened by life, time or experiences).  March 18th the Supreme Court refused the case.  Agustin writes, "This mean my case will never be heard by the Supreme Court and my quest for justice failed and I will never be vindicated legally.  Although, I have come to accept this and knew of the possibility it has been disheartening.  I don't need outside sources to validate me.  I know who I am and I know what is in my heart."  Helga explains the physical strain of the ordeal:   My health which had been on a steady decline finally deteriorated to the point where my condition of Psoriasis became life-threatening.  The stress of fighting the Army and being persecuted for opposing this war had finally caught-up with me.  There have been ups and downs to my health but the situation when Augie got back was pretty grim.  I think I had been so strong for so long that I was finally able to let go and fall; I knew Augie would be there to catch me. Aside from my condition I didn't realize how badly hurt my family was.  Our harshest battle has come from trying to put our family back together, again.  My panic attacks were out of control and it almost seemed as if Augie and I picked-up right where we left off the last time we were together: having major panic and anxiety attacks while he jumped out the back window and went AWOL.  His PTSD kicked in full force and I was a basket case.  Throughout our ordeal, [their twin daughters] Raquel and Rebecca had been strong and fought side by side with us, with poise and courage.  But they too, began showing signs of emotional crises. [. . . ] They saw their father be dragged away to prison, convicted and labeled a felon.  And then we had to start over from scratch.  How were we to begin healing?   Agustin stays busy in a number of ways as he waits for his discharge, "Currently, I am involved in peace work and speak as much as I can to at-risk youth. My wife and I also support many soldiers and their families going through the CO process and/or deployment. For more information on this program click here. To help fund this project click here. And although we still don't have a book deal we are actively working on a book project."  At the Aguayos' website you can purchase the documentary A Man Of Conscience about Agustin (by Sally Marr and Peter Dudar) on DVD for ten dollars plus shipping and handling. Agustin had many things all war resisters don't have.  He had a mother and extended family willing to stand with him.  He had his daughters supporting him.  And he had Helga who never backed down no matter how the military attempted to intimidate her into silence.  Helga was fierce (and I mean that as the highest compliment) and that's most likely the reason Agustin got credit for time served.  She dared one and all not to look at her during the court-martial and not to grasp the way they were terrorizing her family as they attempted to rail-road her husband.  If they attempted to steer her husband's case out of the press, she just spoke out louder.    Repeatedly, we've seen that those with a support base tend to fare better in legal proceedings than those without.  Of those with, a support base that is highly vocal and does not go away tends to result in lesser sentence.   War resisters in Canada often don't have that built-in support because they've restarted their lives in a new country.  But anyone can send the message that the world is watching. To pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail finley.d@parl.gc.ca -- that's "finley.d" at "parl.gc.ca") and Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, 613.992.4211, phone; 613.941.6900, fax; e-mail pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's "pm" at "pm.gc.ca"). Courage to Resist collected more than 10,000 letters to send before the vote. Now they've started a new letter you can use online here. The War Resisters Support Campaign's petition can be found here. Long expulsion does not change the need for action and the War Resisters Support Campaign explains: "The War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada to urgently continue to put pressure on the minority conservative government to immediately cease deportation proceedings against other US war resisters and to respect the will of Canadians and their elected representatives by implementing the motion adopted by Parliament on June 3rd. Please see the take action page for what you can do."   There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Yovany Rivero, William Shearer, Michael Thurman, Andrei Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum. Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).   [. . .]   Turning to the US presidential race. Ralph Nader is the independent candidate for president   The two-party system -- a 220-year-old political prison, winner take all, electoral college, duopoloy -- basically says to voters: "You got two choices.  You stay home and not vote.  Or, if you want your vote to mean something, and you want to be with the winner, you vote for one of the two major party candidates.  Otherwise, you are wasting your vote."  And you hear Matt [Gonzalez] say, "Were those voters in the 19th century who spun off from the Whigs and the Democrats and didn't try to spin the difference between these two parties on slavery waste their vote?"  Aren't we glad that enough voters voted for the Liberty Party at least to put it on the political map in 1840 and the Woman's Suffrage Party, the Populist Party, the Labor Party, the Greenback Party.  All these parties and then Norman Thomas' Socilaist Party, Progressive Party will follow it.  Eugene Debbs.  What did they propose?  A-ha.  The blasphemy of their days is the common place of our days.  They proposed direct election of senators, 40-hour week, progressive income tax, Social Security, Medicare.  They proposed labor standards.  They proposed  regulation of big business.  So we have three kind of voters in this country.  One, the hereditary voters who will vote Republican and Democrat no matter who the nominee is because their grandparents did. That's a big chunk.  [NYC] Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg, when he was thinking of running for [presidential] office, I had a telephone conversation with him -- actually, just before he was going to announce that he wasn't, on that day.  And he said "I've done surveys and polls all over the country.  Here's my conclusion. 15% of the Republicans will vote for the Republican nominee if the Republican nominee was Leon Trotsky.  And 15% of the Democrats would vote for the Democratic nominee if  the nominee was Ayn Rand."  That was a way of saying, if he threw his hat in the ring, he starts with a 30% handicap.  Maybe he's understimating it? But that's one, the hereditary voter.  The second is the tactical voter. The tactical voter says, "Let's be realitistic. We don't care about how bad the Democratic Party is in terms of our supporting it as long as we know the Republican Party is worse.  That's the tactical vote.  "Be realisitic."  The tactical voters is one who spends three years moaning and groaning about the Democratic Party.  "They didn't roll back any of President Bush's legislation when they took over in 2007!  Not one.  Not even the disallowing Uncle Sam to negotiate for volume discounts with the drug companies when the Drug Benefit Act -- a bonaza worth tens of billions of dollars to the drug companies -- was enacted.  They didn't roll back anything. They keep funding the war.  Their leader -- presumptive nominee -- wants more soldiers in Afghanistan.  He doesn't have an exit strategy.  They don't do anything about strengthening the corporate criminal crime laws.  John Conyers has a single-payer bill, HR 676, 85 members of the House have signed on but he can't get one Democratic Senator to introduce it in the Senate.  Not one. Not Obama, not Clinton and not those two great, new progressive senators Bernie Sanders and Senator Brown. Sherrod Brown from Ohio.  Those are the great hopes of the progressive wing.  Now why don't they introduce it?  Senator Sanders who has come out against impeachment vigorously along with Senator Brown "It's exactly what Karl Rove wants us to do -- is to initiate impeachment."  'So he can turn the 26% of the people who support Bush against us!'  Is that what he really means?  I'm putting that word in his mouth.  I mean this is the lowest popular president in modern times and Cheney's at 16% which is almost happen-stance, you know.  Harry Truman proposed universal health care. 1945.  Sent it to Congress 1950.  What are we talking about here?  Isn't it about time that we join the community of nations?  Taiwan has universal health care.  Every western country has universal health care.  A country we give four billion dollars a year to, Israel, has universal health care.  Maybe they should have a foreign aid program?  Reverse it back to us?  Now what does it mean when you don't have health insurance? What is means is that 18,000 Americans die every year according to the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, that's six 9-11s every year.  The Urban Institute just came out with an estimate: 22,000. That means hundreds of, hundreds of thousands of people get sick, stay sick, don't have their injuries treated cause they can't afford health insurance.  Why doesn't that get us angry?  Because the people who can do something about it, who can have their calls returned, have health insurance.  How many people here do not have health insurance?  That's pretty impressive.  How many are under twenty-five?  See, that's what people out of school are now facing.  Trying to find affordable health insurance, or health insurance of any kind, affordable housing, trying to deal with rapacious student loan companies like Sallie Mae with all their fine print and their gouging interest rates, wondering whether their jobs are going to be outsourced abroad because anything with software, architect, engineer, accounting, computer, all that can be outsourced. Law -- a lot of law jobs now are starting to be outsourced. Even media jobs are starting to be outsourced. I'm still looking for CEO jobs to be outsourced.  I think there are some very good bi-lingual Chinese executives, brilliant skills, who for 10 percent of the pay would take care at General Motors and Exxon and Pfizer.  After all, they're outsourcing their own employees jobs to keep up with the global competition. Well . . . let's start at the top.  Huh? So the tactical voter is a complicit voter -- wittingly or unwittingly -- because the moment you go you're so terrified of the worst party you go to the next worst party -- on a huge number of issues, a huge number of corporate power issues.  Then you're saying to the least worst nominee -- Obama, for example -- that your vote can be taken for granted because you are so terrified of the Republicans that you will not make any demands on Obama in the area of women's rights and abolishing poverty and consumer protection and environment and tax changes and the wars and all the rest of it.  And labor reforms and repeal of Taft-Hartley.  So you don't make any demands.  Don't, don't disturb them! I mean, they gotta' be elected!  They've got a strategy for election. They sure have.  Mondale.  Dukakis.  Kerry.  Gore -- who won but it was taken from him, but it was a lot closer than it should be.  Clinton who had Bob Dole as his opponent, who would campaign in Missouri and look at his watch and say, "I think I got to go to the airport so I can get home." Washington, DC.  He really wasn't that serious. It is not a winning strategy.  It is a losing strategy.  Clinton, as Matt just said, benefitted greatly from those 19 million votes [referring to the 19 million who voted for H. Ross Perot, the third-party candidate].  Then there's the third class of voter.  The third class of voter reflects what Eugene V. Debbs once said.  He said, "Better to vote for someone you believe in and lose than someone you don't believe in and win."  What did he mean by that?  He meant if you vote for someone you don't believe in and win that someone is going to betray you, that someone is not going to look back on what your support is supposed to mean.  And the Democrats have betrayed this country in ways that some chroniclers will fill many books in the coming future.  So the important thing here is to measure these parties by what the American people need, want, deserve, are entitled to.  That's way over do.  Those are the yardsticks.  The Democrats could have stopped Bush on the war.  They had the votes to block almost everything he did.  You know the Senate can, when you've got over 40 seats you can almost block anything. Ask the Republicans.   That's Ralph Nader speaking at Sebastopol Sunday.  Did you miss it?  You can hear it online.  Bonnie Faulkner -- apparently the last working journalist in broadcast media -- thinks you have a right to know about all the candidates, not just the front runners.  Wednesday on KPFA, her program, Guns and Butter, featured Matt Gonzales and Ralph Nader speaking at the Sebastopol Community Center.  [Here for KPFA archive.]  Maria Recio (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that, "Nader accuses the news media of being in a 'cultural rut' by ignoring him.  He said he'd been on national television only 10 seconds this election cycle.  'Put me in all the debates and we'll have a three-way race'."  And Ralph's right about that.  David Cook (Christian Science Monitor) offers a more complete quote of Nader, "The media is in a cultural rut.  I am not talking about their private, incisive, skeptical conversations with one another. I am talking about the questions they don't ask, the questions they ask. Give me a bunch of 10-year-olds instead of the White House press corps, and the president would be far, far more upset and anxious. . . .  Don't be so cynical about small starts. If nature was like you, seeds would never have a chance to sprout."   Team Nader notes:   It was a breakthrough day with the mainstream media. Yesterday morning, Ralph Nader met with a group of reporters at a breakfast meeting sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. The meeting resulted in a slew of articles - including those that appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Miami Herald, the National Journal and US News and World Report. One of the points that Ralph made at the meeting yesterday was that if he is given the opportunity to debate the two corporate candidates - McCain and Obama - it will become a three-way race. Yes it will. But right now, the debates are controlled by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) - which is controlled by the two major parties and the corporations that fund them. But fear not. We'll be campaigning over the next couple of weeks to bust up the corporate hammerlock on free speech in this election year and to get Ralph and Matt into the debates. To first step is to create a viable candidacy. And the candidacy can't be viable if we're not on enough state ballots. As the Miami Herald headline put it today: Nader Sets Goal to be on Most Ballots. Our goal: 45 states. And thanks to you, we're on track - on in 28 now, 30 by Sunday, 45 by September 20. But right now, we need your help to fund this massive, nationwide ballot access drive. We need your help to meet our target of $100,000 by Sunday, August 10. We're at over $61,000 with only four days to go. So, here's the plan. We need 390 of you - our loyal supporters - to donate $100 each now. And in return, we'll ship you No Debate, the classic expose of the Commission on Presidential Debates. And we'll also send you an autographed copy of Ralph Nader's 49-page political manifesto - Civic Arousal. To help us bust open the debates this year, you'll need these two books - No Debate for the rock solid expose and criticism of the corporate-controlled debates. And Civic Arousal for a healthy dose of homegrown Ralph inspiration. (In Civic Arousal, Ralph reports the following: When we were youngsters, our father would ask us provocative questions. One day he asked - What is the most powerful, event-producing force in the world? We guessed and guessed. His answer: Apathy. What? Yes, he said. Apathy. Because huge numbers of apathetic citizens, or victims, allow bad guys to create all kinds of problems on the ground - from dictatorial regimes, to repressed economic conditions, to health and safety hazards, to corruption, to wars.) If you already have these books, get yourself another set. They make a great gift for young and old alike in this election season. And you'll help put Nader/Gonzalez on the ballot. So, do it now. Drop that $100 spot on Nader/Gonzalez. Don't delay. We need to get 'er done this weekend. (Only one set of books per donation of $100 or more. If you would like two sets, please donate twice. Three sets, donate three times.) Help push us past our $100,000 goal. And get these two classics now. Thank you. Together, we will open up the debates. Onward     And non-Iraq news. First, Carly Simon's new CD This Kind of Love (reviewed by Kat here) leads to a lengthy interview on NPR's World Cafe where she discussed the new album, her career and breast cancer.  John Pilger (at ZNet) reflects on the bombing of Hiroshima. Friday (in most markets) NOW on PBS features Pakistani documentarian Sabiha Sumar discussing her film Dinner With the President -- her documentary on Pervez Musharraf, the President of Pakistan.  And Robin Morgan explores the United Nations at WMC.     RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot" "Other Items" "No progress" "st.elmo's fire and heathers," "Private Benjamin"  "The Godfather III, Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" "Pee Wee's Big Adventure"  "Michelle Pfeiffer"  "Jumping Jack Flash" "THIS JUST IN! CHUCKLES ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL!" "Barack's misadventures"

Barack's misadventures

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE   POOR SISTER BARACKA.  IT'S ONE THING AFTER ANOTHER FROM THE CAMPAIGN DETERMINED TO LOSE IN NOVEMBER.   FIRST UP, BARACK LOST HIS MUSLIM COORDINATOR OVER PRESUMED TIES OR LINKS TO HAMAS.  THEN CAME BARACK'S ANNOUNCEMENT THAT HIS CAMPAIGN ADS WOULD RUN ON GAS-TV (A IN-HOUSE SERVICE AT SOME FLORIDA GAS STATIONS) ONLY THEY AREN'T RUNNING AND THERE WAS NEVER ANY DEAL BUT BARACK'S PEOPLE ARE POUTING AND SAYING IT WAS A TRICK BY JOHN MCCAIN. (IF THEY'RE TRYING TO SAY MCCAIN OUTSMARTED THEM, DO THEY REALLY THINK THAT BUILDS CONFIDENCE IN BARACK?)   AND STILL IN THE NEWS IS PARIS HILTON'S DEFENSE OF BARACK AIMED AT JOHN MCCAIN.  LAST WEEK, JOHN MCCAIN NOTED THE SKINNY FELLOW'S CELEBRITY STATUS.  "NOT TRUE!" CRIED THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN.  THIS WEEK, YOU CAN'T GET AWAY FROM CELEBRITY HILTON'S VIDEO AND IT ONLY REINFORCES THAT, YES, BARACK IS A CELEBRITY.  DAVID AXELROD REFUSED TO CONFIRM RUMORS THAT BARACK IS CURRENTLY IN NEGOTIATIONS TO BECOME CENTER SQUARE ON HOLLYWOOD SQUARES.   FROM THE TCI WIRE:     Starting with war resistance. In June 2006, Ehren Watada became the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq.  That decision followed much research on his part and the decision at the end of 2005 that he could not participate in an illegal war.  For months prior to going public, Watada attempted to work with the US military which gave him every indication that they wanted to work with him on this issue.  But no alternative was ever accepted.  Instead he was repeatedly told that something would happen, some decision would be reached.  His command was attempting to run out the clock because June 22, 2006 would be when he would deploy to Iraq and they thought if they strung him along he would have no choice but to deploy.  Instead, Watada went public.  Almost two years ago, his Article 32 hearing was held (August 17, 2006). The Article 32 hearing allowed Watada to call witnesses such as retired Army Col Ann Wright and former UN under-secretary Denis Halliday. Lt Col Mark Keith oversaw the Article 32 hearing.  In February 2007, Judge Toilet (aka John Head) presided over the court-martial.  Judge Toilet had his own idea of 'justice' which included refusing to allow Watada's defense to explain why he decided to refuse to deploy.  He could admit (or not) that he refused to deploy, but Judge Toilet wouldn't allow his reasons to be explained to the military jury.  Judge Toilet also refused to allow Watada's attorney to call various witnesses.  It was 'justice' in name-only.  Despite that, Watada's case was presented strongly.  So strongly that, on the third day, when Watada was due to take the witness stand, Judge Toilet suddenly found fault with a stipulation that he himself had explained to the jury and that he himself had overseen.  Judge Toilet 'suggested' the prosecution move for a mistrial and the prosecution did not immediately take the hint or grasp that Toilet was handing them a do-over.  When they did grasp it, they made the motion and Judge Toilet ruled the court-martial a mistrial over defense objection.  The Constitution prohibits double-jeopardy -- one of those pesky laws Judge Toilet never grasped.  Toilet said the second court-martial would take place in March of 2007.  It did not.  It has not taken place.  Last November US District Court Judge Benjamin Settle ruled that the Constitutional issue had to be resolved.  It still hasn't been resolved.    In December 2006, Watada's service contract expired.  The first court-martial took place despite that fact.  All this time later, Watada remains in the service and reports for duty on base while he waits for the US military to figure out their next move.  The military had their chance to court-martial him but when Judge Toilet realized Watada might walk, he threw the justice system out the window and declared a mistrial.  As a result, the military really has no 'follow up' at this point.  They need to release Watada from the army immediately.  His service contract expired nearly two years ago and his Article 32 took place almost two years ago.     War resisters in Canada need support as well. To pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail finley.d@parl.gc.ca -- that's "finley.d" at "parl.gc.ca") and Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, 613.992.4211, phone; 613.941.6900, fax; e-mail pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's "pm" at "pm.gc.ca"). Courage to Resist collected more than 10,000 letters to send before the vote. Now they've started a new letter you can use online here. The War Resisters Support Campaign's petition can be found here. Long expulsion does not change the need for action and the War Resisters Support Campaign explains: "The War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada to urgently continue to put pressure on the minority conservative government to immediately cease deportation proceedings against other US war resisters and to respect the will of Canadians and their elected representatives by implementing the motion adopted by Parliament on June 3rd. Please see the take action page for what you can do."   There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Yovany Rivero, William Shearer, Michael Thurman, Andrei Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum. Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).   [. . .]   Turning to the US presidential race.  Ron Jacobs (Dissident Voice) notes just how much it is costing the peace movement (and how willing 'leaders' are to table objection to the illegal war): Just look at the major national antiwar organization United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ) and their public stance regarding the desire of organizers of the protests at the upcoming Democratic convention to stage a large antiwar march at the convention. According to a recent press release from some organizers of the march, Leslie Cagan of UFPJ told some Denver organizers, "We don't think it makes sense to plan for a mass march that might not end up being all that mass!" In other words, UFPJ is refusing to help build support for the march. There can only be one reason for UFPJ's stance. That reason is UFPJ's allegiance to the Democratic Party. This allegiance is not an allegiance found among the grassroots of UFPJ but at the top. It involves a political misunderstanding of the Democrats' role in maintaining the US empire and a fear of losing funding from elements of UFPJ that are tied to the Democratic Party. Ignoring the fact that it is the Democratic Congress that has kept the Empire's wars going, UFPJ continues to call the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan "Bush's Wars." Besides the attempts to silence the antiwar voice in the streets, there are also ongoing attempts by Democratic Party manipulators to keep antiwar language out of the Party's platform. This is in spite of a statement signed by the progressive wing of the party demanding that the language be included. If 2004 is any indication, there will be no antiwar language in the 2008 Democratic Party platform.   We saw this happen in 2004 and the peace movement was in disarray until the summer of 2005 (Cindy Sheehan resparked the movement).  That cannot happen again but it is happening as too many see their 'peace' role as "cheerleader for Barack."  Presumed Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama continues to run the most embarrassing campaign in recent memory.  Today's big news is that another campaign staffer (volunteer!) has been outed.  Perry Bacon Jr. (Washington Post) reports that the volunteer was Chicago's own Mazen Asbahi who held the title of  "Muslim outreach coordinator" until the Wall St. Journal did the job the campaign should have and found ties to Jamal Said and the North American Islamic Trust.  True or false doesn't matter and will not be known for some time.  In a campaign perception matters.  The Obama campaign has already telegraphed that they see Asbahi as someone to wash their hands of and it's one more sign of how inept that campaign is that they didn't do the vetting that a paper did.  Though Asbahi will most likely be found to have no links or ties to terrorists and be nothing but a dedicated volunteer who believed in a candidate and wanted to work for the candidate's election, the campaign continues to demonstrate just how unskilled and unknowledgable they are.  This is the campaign that drummed up over a week's worth of mock outrage over a satirical cover of The New Yorker which lampooned the notion that, among other things, some may see Barack as a terrorist.  If they put half that energy into vetting their staff, they wouldn't be in the news on this today.  Asbahi joined the campaign July 25th, after the mock outrage.  The campaign damn well took offense at satire but apparently lacked the intelligence to do the basic vetting of any high-profile spot.   Asbahi joined the campaign with a high-minded/self-serving statement and now leaves the campaign with a cloud over himself and one over the campaign.  He does so with the usual nonsense statement about how his departure is "to avoid distracting from Barack Obama's message of change" but the real message the campaign has again sent is that they do not know how to run a campaign including the most basic procedure of vetting anyone in a profile role.   Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is for a real withdrawal (not a partial redeployment to Afghanistan masked as a 'withdrawal').  Nader continues to pursue ballot access and will hold a press conference in Iowa tomorrow morning at 9:30:    Nader/Gonzalez Campaign and the Iowa Peace and Freedom Party Wednesday Will Submit more than Double the Required Signatures for Ballot Qualification Supporters of Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader and the Iowa Peace and Freedom Party will submit petitions to place Mr. Nader and running-mate Matt Gonzalez on the November 2008 election ballot, Thursday, Aug. 7, to the Iowa Secretary of State's Office. Mr. Nader will be on the ballot as the Iowa Peace and Freedom Party nominee, and if he gains more than 2 percent of the vote in the state, the party will become a ballot-qualified political group. Iowa will be the 26th state in which the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign has filed for a ballot line since the celebrated consumer advocate announced his intent to run during a February 24 appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." To qualify to appear on Iowa's ballot, state law requires submission of the signatures of 1,500 registered voters. The Nader/Gonzalez campaign will submit more than 3,000 signatures. Scott Knight, the Nader/Gonzalez Iowa State coordinator, will be joined by Iowa supporters of Nader/Gonzalez 2008 and the Peace and Freedom Party at 9:30 a.m. for a news conference at Capitol West Steps, West Mall area, Capitol Building, Des Moines, IA. Iowans have been hit recently with massive floods and with the greed of large corporations, like Whirlpool Corp., which in July filed a federal lawsuit aiming to slash the medical benefits of thousands of retired Maytag workers after having bought out that company. The Nader/Gonzalez Campaign offers solutions instead of excuses. Mr. Nader would rein in corporate greed, waste and abuse and respond to natural emergencies with preventative public investments and rapid response to those disasters. As president, Mr. Nader would rebuild the Mid-West instead of tearing down the Mid-East. WHO: Iowa Supporters of Nader/Gonzalez 2008 Campaign and the Peace and Freedom Party   WHAT: News Conference and turn-in of nominating petitions  WHEN: Thursday, Aug 7, 2008, 9:30 a.m.  WHERE: Capitol West Steps, West Mall area, Capitol Building, Des Moines, IA  About Ralph Nader Celebrated attorney, author, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader has been named by Time Magazine one of the "100 Most Influential Americans in the 20th Century." For more than four decades he has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups advocating solutions. He led the movement to establish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and enact the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and countless other pieces of important consumer legislation. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments. Nader graduated from Princeton University and received an LL.B from Harvard Law School. About Matt Gonzalez Matt Gonzalez was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2000 representing San Francisco's fifth council district. From 2003 to 2005, he served as Board of Supervisors President. A former public defender, Gonzalez is managing partner of Gonzalez & Leigh, a 7-attorney practice in San Francisco that represents individuals and organizations in mediation, arbitration, and administrative proceedings before state and federal regulatory bodies. Gonzalez graduated from Columbia University and received a JD from Stanford Law School. About the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign According to a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted from July 27-29, Ralph Nader is at 6 percent nationally, higher than his highest major poll numbers during the same time period in 2000 and approaching the 10 percent threshold required for eligibility to participate in "America's Presidential Debate in New Orleans," a Google-sponsored event scheduled for September 18. In the key swing state of Michigan -- whose voters were partially disenfranchised by the Democratic National Committee -- an EPIC-MRA poll found Nader at 8-10 percent.     RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot" "6 US service members killed in Iraq since Saturday" "The money" "nader, ramzy baroud " "William Blum, Barack" "Pat Benetar stings Barack" "E-mail from someone disillusioned and awakened" "Heather McRobie reveals her stupidity " "Scary Kerry get lost, support Ed!" "Next up, Greek tragedies! " "THIS JUST IN! THE AMERICAN FARCE!"