Saturday, November 10, 2007

Bam-Bam keeps losing it

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

YESTERDAY IN IOWA, SENATOR BARACK OBAMA, TRYING DESPERATELY TO SAVE HIS FAILED PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION CAMPAIGN, DECLARED SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON HAD "TOO MUCH BAGGAGE" TO BE PRESIDENT.

BY CONTRAST, YESTERDAY BABY BAM-BAMS ALSO DECLARED IN IOWA THAT HE WASN'T INTERESTED IN LOBBING "POT SHOTS" AT SENATOR CLINTON.

DOES HE PAY ATTENTION TO ANYTHING THAT COMES OUT OF HIS MOUTH OR IS HE OFF HIS MEDS?

THE NOT READY FOR THE PRIMARY CANDIDATE ALSO WAS OFFENDED WHEN IT WAS POINTED OUT THAT HE HAS NOT RELEASED DOCUMENTS FROM WHEN HE WAS IN THE ILLONIS STATE LEGISLATURE FROM 1997 TO 2004. BAM-BAM WHINED THAT HE ONLY HAD ONE STAFFER DURING THAT TIME. IF HE ONLY HAD ONE STAFFER THAT'S PROBABLY BECAUSE HE ONLY NEEDED ON STAFFER MEANING THE DOCUMENTS SHOULDN'T BE TOO HARD TO GATHER AND RELEASE. EQUALLY TRUE IS THAT HE'S TOSSING AROUND MONEY LIKE IT'S HIS BRAND OF CHICKEN SOP FOR THE SOUL SO HE COULD EASILY PAY ONE STAFF MEMBER OR MORE TO GET THE RECORDS OUT IN PUBLIC.

BUT BAM-BAM WAS TOO BUSY LYING TO REALIZE THAT. HE DECLARED, "NOBODY HAS REQUESTED SPECIFIC DOCUMENTS" WHEN, IN FACT, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE AND THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES HAVE MADE REQUESTS.

WHILE HE CAN'T AFFORD A STAFFER TO GO THROUGH HIS RECORDS -- AND REMEMBER HIS FRIEND IS UNDER FEDERAL INDICTMENT, HIS FRIEND IS UNDER INDICTMENT FOR BACKDOOR DEALS WITH POLITICIANS LIKE BAM-BAM -- HE HAS SPENT $5 MILLION ON ADVERTISING IN IOWA WITH NO EFFECT SO NOW HE'S SUDDENLY TALKING ABOUT HIS MOTHER WHOM HE HAS AVOIDED TALKING ABOUT. BUT HIS MOTHER IS WHITE AND BARACK OBAMA'S ALREADY ATTACKED AFRICAN-AMERICAN FATHERS THIS FALL, SO IT'S NO SURPRISE THAT HE'S YET AGAIN ATTEMPTING THIS TACTIC.

WHEN THESE REPORTERS CONFRONTED BAM-BAM IN IOWA YESTERDAY, HE SNAPPED, "I AM A ROCK STAR! YOU WOULDN'T TREAT MICHAEL BOLTON OR ANNE MURRAY THIS WAY!"


FROM THE TCI WIRE:

Starting with war resisters. Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) notes today, "There has been a development in the case of Ehren Watada -- the first Army officer to refuse to deploy to Iraq. A federal judge has ruled the Army cannot hold a second court-martial for the Iraq war resister until the court resolves Watada's claim that it would violate his right against double jeopardy. Watada's first court martial ended in a mistrial." Ehren Watada is the first officer to publicy refuse to deploy to Iraq. When he was informed he would be deploying to Iraq, he did as his superiors had advised him, learn as much as he could so he could better serve those under his command. As he began researching, he realized that the Iraq War was illegal. In January 2006, he phoned his mother, Carolyn Ho, to advise her that he was going to be doing something very difficult, refusing to deploy. Shortly after that, he informed the US military which made the pretense of wanting to work out some sort of alternative. As his unit's deployment grew closer and nothing was being accomplished, Watada went public via an interview in June 2006. The initial interview was followed by others. He would tell his story on Democracy Now!, on MTV, on CNN, at Truthout, in LeftTurn, New American Media, Nichi Bei Times, and many other outlets. His mother Carolyn Ho, his father Bob Watada, his step-mother Rosa Sakanishi would appear in multiple outlets including, again, Democracy Now!, Laura Flanders' radio program, Law and Disorder, KPFK's Sojourner Truth and Uprising, KPFA's The Morning Show and Aaron Glantz's reporting on all aspects would spread the issue over all of KPFA's programming, etc. Rolling Stone magazine would put Watada on their "Honor Roll" for the 2006 year-end issue. Watada, as the first officer to resist, would garner more attention than any other Iraq War resister thus far and, in doing so, underscore several realities. Of chief interest to war resisters and those who support war resisters, the silence from The Nation magazine. Readers of the print magazine would make it through the end of the 2006 issues of the weekly 'political' and 'left' magazine without ever seeing the words "Ehren Watada" though there was plenty of time to provide glossy fluff on bad candidates (the DLC's Harold Ford being only one example) and to do 'theme' issues (such as their food issue). There just wasn't time to cover war resisters. Watada would finally make it into print in the January 8th issue (actually a double-issue but we're not going into that nonsense) where he would be called a "coward." The magazine that sat out Watada (and Abeer) throughout 2006 finally prints his name and it's in a statement calling him a coward. (No e-mails on the 'online exclusives,' they were covered long ago.) The article's a cover story (done by The Pooper) and it also contains a tiny sidebar that kind-of, sort-of tells Watada's story . . . after The Nation has already introduced him to print readers as a "coward." It was a telling event that would finally call to everyone's attention the magazine silence on war resisters under the 'leadership' of The Peace Resister. In their laughable article over the summer of 2007, they would manage to insult everyone participating (left, center and right) but the telling moment (after the fact that they wanted praise for an article which bragged of "dozens" of photos of abuse to Iraqis but printed NONE -- the photos did and do exist) would be in the way they reduced war resisters -- Camilo Mejia was a "deserter" (that call is in question since the military legally could not extend -- as they did -- Mejia's enlistment through stop-loss since Mejia was not a US citizen) but he wasn't billed as a "war resister." The coverage and non-coverage of Watada was a water-shed moment in many ways which did include instructing news consumers on who stood with and who stood far, far away. It's also worth noting that many other resisters went public in the wake of Watada: Darrell Anderson, Agustin Augyo, Kyle Snyder, Mark Wilcox, Ricky Clousing and . . . stop there. Stop there and don't continue because that's how All Things Media Big and Small, with every few exceptions, have treated 2007's crop of war resisters. Despite the fact that 2007 is set to be a record year -- according to the military's own official numbers -- for war resistance, emerging war resisters fell off the media map. James Burmeister was the strongest example. Either you followed Canadian media or you caught NOW with David Brancaccio or you didn't have a clue. Too bad for everyone because the last week of September "kill teams" (US service members setting out equpiment as traps to shoot Iraqis) would become a huge story but Burmeister was telling the story when he went public in June of 2007. Eli Israel would remain "Eli Who?" to All Things Media Big and Small despite the fact that he became the first war resister resisting publicly while stationed in Iraq. The Kamunen brothers? In These Times could find them when no one else in independent media could or would. The mainstream media showed some interest because three brothers -- Leo, Leif and Luke -- all electing to self-checkout over the same Christmas 2006 holiday was news . . . to some.

Watada is big Iraq news today and yet, at The Nation, the main page features nothing. No articles (even 'online exclusives'), nothing (except a screen cap that underscores why some people shouldn't part their hair in the middle). Forget the magazine's campaign blog, look at The Notion where conventional 'wisdoms' are dispensed in the best Kooky Cokie Roberts fashion. Today's posts? Karl Rove and a right-wing event, a week long event . . . that started October 21st. Three weeks old and served up as 'fresh' 'news' today on the rag's 'real time' blog: "Rapid reaction to breaking news and unfiltered takes on politics, ethics and culture from Nation editors and contributors." Rapid reaction to breaking news? Not a word on Watada but a three week old right wing action is worth posting on today? That Karl Rove doesn't care for left blogs is 'news,' but Watada isn't? Never forget that since assuming control, Our Lady of Peace Resistance has ensured that The Nation ignores Iraq, employs her friend and exists as a promotion tool for herself (hence all those bad e-mails sent out whenever she's booked anywhere and hence the 'notion' that a screen cap of her, with bad middle part, has more 'credibility' than one of Jeremy Scahill being interviewed by Bill Moyers for his PBS show -- give her time, she'll turn it into the 'political' equivalent of Martha Stewart's Living yet.). Why does the war drag on? Look no further than the non-leadership at The Nation.

Those waking up this morning might have been caught by surprise with the news but as the day wore on, the only excuse for refusal to cover it was not caring. (We did note it early this morning.) Aaron Glantz wasn't wasting his time covering three week old news or GOP poster boy endowed by the left with super-human powers. Reporting at IPS, Glantz notes Watada supporters are calling today's news "a huge victory." What's that? It's what should be one of the biggest stories of the day: US District Judge Benjamin Settle has provided a road block to the military's attempt to court-martial Watada for a second time. The issue that concerned Judge Settle was the same one Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild, immediately noted when the first court-martial was ruled a mistrial over defense objection: double-jeopardy.

Christian Hill (The Olympian) reports, "Settle ruled that the civilian court's review of Watada's double-jeopardy claim is appropriate, rejecting claims by the Army that the court can only step in after the conclusion of the second court-martial and likely appeals within the military court system. He also found that the granting of a preliminary injunction is necessary in part because Watada will 'probably prevail on the merits' of his case, his ruling said. Settle reached that conclusion largely because of what he said was the abuse of discretion by Lt. Col. John Head, the military judge who presided in Watada's first court-martial, in rejecting a so-called stipulation of fact agreed upon by the government and defense that led to the mistrial, the ruling shows." John Head, better known as Judge Toilet, nuff said. Hal Bernton (Seattle Times) quotes Judge Settle's ruling: "The same Fifth Amendment protections are in place for military service members as are afforded to civilians. There is a strong public interest in maintaining these rights inviolate." Bernton also notes Kenneth Kagan's caution that the case is still not over. Kagan and Jim Lobsenz are Watada's civilian attorneys. Glantz observes that the military is already stating they will file additional briefs to argue for a second court-martial and that, "Judge Settle's ruling does not provide a complete victory for Watada, however. The injunction only temporarily blocks Army prosecutors from proceeding." It is the news of the day and it is a deserved victory for Watada. If, as Judge Settle feels, the Constitutional provision on double-jeopardy prevail throughout the process, this is a major victory not just for war resistance but for the Constitution -- especially a heartfelt moment at a time when the current administration has launched one attack on the Constitution after another -- usually without little more than a peep from Democrats in Congress. Double-jeopardy, in the simplest of terms, means that the government does not get a 'do-over.' They have to argue their case and if turns out they did so badly or if it turns out that they have wasted the government's time (and tax payer monies), that's the end of it. They do not get to audition in front of a judge and/or jury to find out which parts of their argument resonate and which parts do not. The provision against double-jeopardy exists to protect citizens from witch hunts by governmental prosecutors. It is a right embedded in the nation from it's founding. In terms of Watada, the prosecution was losing the court-martial -- possibly they should have vetted their list of witnesses better -- and Judge Toilet thought he could call a mistrial to allow them a second attempt at court-martialing Watada. They don't get to reset the clock and start over. That's not how it is supposed to work in the United States. Judge Settle's ruling is a victory for Watada and it is also a victory for the Constitution. It is one of the big stories of the day.Hawaii's KMGB (video and text report) quotes Watada's father, Bob Watada, "For Ehren, hopefully the army will do the right thing and discharge him immediately. That would allow him to get his life going. Because it's been on hold now for over a year." Get on with his life? Aaron Glantz notes that Watada has reported for duty for the last nine months as the appeals process has continued. Equally worth noting is the fact that Watada's service contract expired in December and the military has extended it while the court proceedings continue.


There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, 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, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla 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, 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. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.

Turning to Iraq, Ali al-Fadhily (IPS) pierces through the latest wave of Operation Happy Talk to report on reality, "Despite claims by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Bush administration officials that violence in Iraq is decreasing, residents in the captial tell a different story." Fadhily notes the increased air war, the increased arrests of Iraqis, and an increase in attacks in al-Anbar Province and Baghdad while quoting teacher Salman Hameed explaining, "Sectarian killings are less because all the Sunnis have been evicted from mixed areas in Baghdad. All my relatives and Sunni neighbours who survived the killing campaign led by the militias under the eyes of American and Iraqi forces have fled to either Syria or to other Sunni cities." Muhammad Younis explains to al-Fadhily that the violence continues "but media coverage has almost disappeared." That is the reality. In a really bad puff piece in this morning's New York Times, even Cara Buckley notes that the US military held 16,000 Iraqi prisoners in February of this year and now holds 25,800. While Buckley works overtime to attribute powers to puppet of the occupation al-Maliki (he had no say in the decision by the US military to release 500 prisoners today) but the reality is that the releases happen because there's a lack of space. Innocence or guilt? The US criminal justice system and the US imposed Iraqi criminal justice system is built around the concept of innocent until proven guilty. Iraqi prisoners rarely get trials. They're imprisoned willy nilly, held for months at a time and then released never having received justice but they are supposed to be grateful that the same extra-judicial process that kept them imprisoned went on to release them when they needed to add a new influx of prisoners.

It's among the many reasons Iraqis want all foreign forces -- including the US -- out of their country. But Raed Jarrar and Joshua Holland (writing at CounterPunch) report that efforts are underweigh to strip Iraqis say in the matter, "The United Nations Security Council, with support from the British and American delegations, is poised to cut the Iraqi parliament out of one of the most significant decisions the young government will make: when foreign troops will depart. It's an ugly and unconstitutional move, designed solely to avoid asking an Iraqi legislature for a blank check for an endless military occupation that it's in no mood to give, and it will make a mockery of Iraq's nascent democracy (which needs all the legitmacy it can get." The Iraqi parliament is the only central government that can be considered to have been, in any form, elected by the people. The parliament has repeatedly favored the expulsion of foreign forces -- a position favored by the majority of Iraqis. However, past renewals of the United Nations mandate have taken place without their input. Most recently, al-Maliki (who was not elected by the Iraqi people to the post of prime minister) ignored the country's constitution and decided by himself (with pressure from the US) that the mandate would be extended. When that took place, the Iraqi parliament vowed that was the last time they would be double-crossed or caught unaware. Jarrar and Holland note, "The Iraqi executive branch -- the cabinet and the presidency -- are completely controlled by separatists (including Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and sexuclar politicans.) But the parliament is controlled by nationalist -- nationalists from every major ethnic and sectarian group in the country -- who enjoy a small but crucially important majority in the only elected body in the Iraqi government." The reporters inform that after al-Maliki extra-constitutionally renewed the mandate (that power rests with the Iraqi parliament), they "passed a binding reolution that would force Maliki to go to the parliament and give Iraqi lawmakers an opportunity to block the extension of the mandate." The Iraqi parliament notified the United Nations of that June 2007 binding law. However, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon called the law a "non-binding resolution" in an October 15th report that's only now surfaced. The law wasn't needed, the Iraqi constitution gives the parliament and not the prime minister the power to renew or cancel the mandate. But the law was passed in addition to the Constitution and now the UN Secretary General wants to waive it off as some symbolic action when it is now the law of Iraq.




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"THIS JUST IN! RUDY G CALLS BOY PAL "A CROOK"!"

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Rudy G pledes to make mistakes if he is president

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


G.O.P. PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL RUDY G SOUGHT TO DRAW A LINE BETWEEN HIMSELF AND BOY PAL OR FORMER BOY TOY BERNARD KERIK FOLLOWING BERNIE'S FEDERAL INDICTMENT ON CORRUPTION CHARGES.

RUDY G ADMITTED HE SHOULD HAVE PROBABLY CHECKED OUT KERIK'S RESUME BEFORE MAKING HIM POLICE COMMISSIONER. HOWEVER, HE THEN STATED THAT HIS FRIEND WAS A LOT LIKE "I AM NOT A CROOK" RICHARD NIXON.

IN ORDER TO REASSURE VOTERS CRAZY RUDY G DECLARED, "I MAKE MISTAKES AS A CANDIDATE" AND PLEDGED TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THAT, IF ELECTED, "I WILL MAKE MISTAKES AS A PRESIDENT."

SAID INSANE JOHN MCCAIN, "AND PEOPLE CALL ME NUTS!"


FROM THE TCI WIRE:

Starting with war resisters. September 21st, Nick Watt (ABC's Nighline) examined war resisters and noted the number of people being processed for desertion at Fort Knox "jumped 60% last year" (to 1,414 for Fort Knox -- US military figures) while concluding his report with, "If the total for the first six months of 2007 doubles by year end, it will become the highest annual total in twenty-six years." Michael Sharp of the Military Counseling Network explained to Watt that last year he met with eight to ten people a month seeking a way out of the US military while, in 2007, it is fifteen to twenty a month: "One thing that is clear to me however is that the number is increasing, and the ranks of these people are increasingly higher. I would say take the biggest number you ever get from the military and double it. There is no reason for the military to give out that information."

Watt also spoke with war resister Chris Capps who served in Iraq and then checked out in March of this year, turned himself in after sixty days, and was discharged from the US military.

Capps: How the reporting here outside of America is completely different . . . Yeah, it definitely made me think about what I was doing, what I was a part of.
. . . What was going on outside and what was going on inside Camp Victory were two completely different things. It was like we put a little tiny America inside Baghdad and there was hell breaking loose outside our walls. At first I was thinking about what I was doing. My job was very compartmentalized, you know. . . . That [Abu Ghraib] was kind of a cut clear concise picture of what I was doing in Iraq. I helped repair communications that were being used for things that were just wrong. . . . They've got mixed reactions, they don't know how to react to it. I had a couple of people say, "Wow, that's impressive, that's awesome." . . . I took a Greyhound down to Ok and I turned myself in at Fort Sill.

In Peter Laufer's Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq., Iraq War veteran Kelly Dougherty spoke about how, "My friends and I would discuss refusing. We would dicuss the point at which we were going to refuse to follow orders because we felt that they were putting our lives in complete danger. But as much as we talked, we never did anything. When it came right down to it, you're either going to have to take a stand and suffer maybe the ultimate consequences or you're going to have to suffer maybe the ultimate consequence, which is death. It was like, death is uncertain. I know that if I refuse I'm going to get court-martialed. So I guess I'll just choose possible death." She also states, "I would say it takes a lot more courage to refuse to go and to stand up against the status quo and all your fellow soldiers than it takes to just go along with it." Dougherty is one of the founders of Iraq Veterans Against the War. The organization's chair is war resister Camilo Mejia, the first veteran of the war to resist.

From November 10 through December 16th, Mejia's words will be featured in a new play at Culture Project as it presents Rebel Voices -- based on Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's best-selling book Voices of a People's History of the United States. Along with Mejia, the voices of Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Malcom X and others will be featured. Zinn will take part in the November 18th presentation (opening night) and poet Staceyann Chinn and musician Allison Mooerer will hed the permanent cast while those confirmed to be performing on selected nights are Ally Sheedy (actress and poet, best known for films such as High Art, The Breakfast Club, Maid to Order, the two Short Circuit films, St. Elmo's Fire, War Games, and, along with Nicky Katt, has good buzz on the forthcoming Harold), Eve Ensler who wrote the theater classic The Vagina Monologues (no, it's not too soon to call that a classic), actor David Strathaim (L.A. Confidential, The Firm, Bob Roberts, Dolores Claiborne and The Bourne Ultimatum), actor and playwright Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, Clueless -- film and TV series, Gregory and Chicken Little) and actor, director and activist Danny Glover (The Color Purple, Beloved, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Rainmaker, Places In The Heart, Dreamgirls, Shooter and who appeared on Democracy Now! today addressing the US militarization of Africa) The directors are Will Pomerantz and Rob Urbinati with Urbinati collaborating with Zinn and Arnove on the play. Tickets are $21 for previews and $41 for regular performances (beginning with the Nov. 18th opening night). The theater is located at 55 Mercer Street and tickets can be purchased there, over the phone (212-352-3101) or online here and here. More information can be found at Culture Project.


There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, 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, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla 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, 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. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.

"Once the election brought the Democrats into more power than they had been in before, [some of our members] thought, 'Now something's going to happen, things are going to get better and the war's going to start coming to an end.' But at the same time, a lot of people in the military [and] veterans didn't necessarily have a huge amount of faith that just by electing a few more people, it was going to drastically change the course of the war," IVAW's Kelly Cougherty speaking to Will Dean (Philadelphia City Paper). Which didn't happen and who knew Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would adopt a Beasti Boys refrain ("Yes, yes, y'all -- you don't stop). But she and her Posse In Effect or, more accurately, her Posse Ineffectual have done nothing to end the illegal war. Robert Parry (Consortium News) terms it "Democrats' Year of Living Fecklessly" opening with, "One year ago, the Democrats ended Republican control of Congress, stirring millions of Americans to hope that George W. Bush's Iraq War and his assault on the U.S. Constitution finally would be stopped. Twelve months later, many of those once-hopeful voters feel bitter disillusionment toward the national Democratic Party, which has surrendered in showdown after showdown with the weakened President, from continuing to write blank checks for the Iraq War to ceding more power to him for his surveillance operations." Parry provides a Democratic Worst Flops collection, citing the Michael Mukasey Attorney General nomination moving from the Senate Judiciary Committee to the Senate floor, the confirmation of the questionable (that's being kind) Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, the illegal wiretapping, the promise by Pelosi that it would be fixed after Congress' month-long summer break (still not fixed -- though immunity for the criminal actions of communications providers is getting a big push), Senator Carl Levin's historical ignorance, and more. Sidebar, Robert Parry and sons Nat and Sam will be speaking at Busboys and Poests in Arlingtion, Virginia Saturday Nov. 17th from four p.m. to six p.m. discussing their new book Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush. Sam and Nat Parry have established their own journalist skills at Consortium News and they and Robert Parry can discuss any of the topics pertaining to the current administration but remember that Robert Parry has been doing investigative journalism for years and, if you're in that area or are visting it on the 19th, you'll have access to one of the most straighforward and determined journalists in this country. More events may be scheduled later but mark your datebooks if you're in the area and note that this is the only event scheduled thus far for 2007. Returning to the dismal Democratically-led Congress, Cindy Sheehan (writing at The Progressive) addresses the Democrats in the House shameful response to Dennis Kucinich's motion to impeach president of vice (nod to Wally and Cedric) Dick Cheney: "Nancy Pelosi's selection as Speaker was groundbreaking, and way past time, as the first female Speaker, but she has been, not only a failure but a disaster to democracy. She admitted it herself last week when she said she would give Congress low ratings, too. She acts like she is a helpless player in this national order of things. If only the world wasn't filled with 'Senators and Republicans,' then she would be able to do her job! If the world wasn't filled with Senators, House Reps, Dems and Repugs, my son would still be alive and I would still be a working Mom in Vacaville, Ca." Let's stay with Fancy Nancy and note her marker: January 4, 2007. In November 2006, voters returned power of both houses of Congress to the Democrats and did so because they wanted the illegal war to end. On January 4th, the 110th Congress was sworn in. On that day, 3006 deaths had been announced. Since the Democratically-controlled Congress was sworn in, 852 deaths have been announced. The November 2006 election was about the war. The polls showed the voters saw it as about Iraq and the politicians certainly knew what it was about. And Fancy Nancy did as well, telling Marc Sandalow (San Francisco Chronicle) in a story published two days before the November election, "This election is about Iraq. . . . If indeed it turns out the way that people expect it to turn out, the American people will have spoken, and they will have rejected the course of action the president is on. . . . A Democratic victory would be in the furtherance of reaching that goal. Absent a Democratic vitory, we'll be there for the next 10 years." She also told Sandalow that preventing the illegal Iraq War "is her greatest disappointment in public life." She needs to add "prolonging the illegal war" to that list. Corporate Crime Reporter's Russell Mokhiber (at CounterPunch) transcribes his questioning of Pelosi from Tuesday that begins with, "Isn't it true Madame Speaker that you single handledly could end the war in Iraq by not allowing the Iraq funding bill to go to the floor of the House?" Pelosi either lies in response or she doesn't even know how Congress works. Mokhiber then points out other thing she could be doing (both the other things and the original action he asked of are things Democratic presidential contender Mike Gravel has repeateldy noted are powers the Congress has) but Fancy Nancy doesn't think it would "be effetive." The Ineffectual evaluating effective? Take a moment to laugh at Pelosi. Pelosi then goes on to declare, "If there is anything that I'm disappointed in is that we haven't been able to end the war." If there's anything she's disappointed in? If? She then lies again about the Senate. The reality is the a filibuster stops a bill dead in the tracks. The reality is day after day roll call votes on Iraq -- as Gravel has pointed out -- sends the message to Americans of who is prolonging the illegal war and who is trying to end it. Pelosi's been useless before, now she's just making herself a public liar. It's why she's sunk to an all time low in local polling (Bay Area). Her negatives are now higher than her positives and that is a first for Pelosi. That's what happens when you no longer represent the people who elected you and, in fact, when you don't even make a pretense of representing them. In the November issue of The Progressive, Lloyd Dangle's Troubletown ("Getting Tough, Dem Style") makes the point about the filubster option -- even a cartoon can convey the reality Pelosi runs from. Pathetic Pelosi, Richard Cowan (Reuters) reports, is now announcing more faux-end-the-war-bills (it's not "legislation" until it passes both houses, is signed or vetoed and, if the latter, the veto is overridden) which takes the weak, non-binding measure that was vetoed last time and pushes it through again with $50 billion more for the illegal war. "We'll end the war by funding it!" Troops would remain in Iraq, the 'classification' systems would be left up to the Bully Boy who could classify 'combat' troops 'police' or 'counterterrorism' troops and not bring a single one home. For those emerging from comas, the Pelosi-led House tried this shell game on the American people once already. It did not go over well.


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Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Gangster Rudy

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

SPEAKING OF HIS BOY PAL LAST WEEK, RUDY G DECLARED, "THERE WERE MISTAKES MADE WITH BERNIE KERIK. BUT WHAT'S THE ULTIMATE RESULT FOR THE PEOPLE OF NEW YORK CITY? THE ULTIMATE RESULT FOR THE PEOPLE OF NEW YORK CITY WAS A 74 PERCENT REDUCTION IN SHOOTINGS, A 60 PERCENT REDUCTION IN CRIME. . . . SURE, THERE WERE ISSUES, BUT IF I HAVE THE SAME DEGREE OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THIS COUNTRY WILL BE IN GREAT SHAPE."

FORGETTING THAT KERIK APPEARS TO BE ON THE VERGE OF A FEDERAL INDICTMENT, HE ENTERED A GUILTY PLEA LAST YEAR TO A MISDEMEANOR CHARGE OF USING "MOB-CONNECTED BUILDERS" FOR A PERSONL PROJECT AND THEN GOT THEM CITY CONTRACTS.

IS RUDY G SAYING THAT AMERICA WOULD BE BETTER IF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WOULD ONLY TOSS A FEW CONTRACTS THE MAFIA'S WAY?


FROM THE TCI WIRE:

Starting with war resistance. The Berkeley Daily Planet notes He Stood Up: The Mistrial of Lt. Ehren Watada shows at the Berkeley Fellowship Unitarian Universalists (1924 Cedar at Bonita) Friday at seven p.m. He Stood Up, The Judge Bailed Out, The Mistrial of Lt. Ehren Watada is a documentary from PepperSpray Productions. The film opens with Ehren Watada explaining why he began researching the Iraq War upon learning he would be deploying, "I remember my former commander told me when I was stationed in Iraq it's your responsibility to know everything you can about what you're going to undertake and if you don't that's a disservice to your soldiers." So began Watada's odyssey which would lead him to become (June 2006) the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. The documentary focuses on the February court-martial that ended in a mistrial when Judge Toilet (aka John Head) saw that the prosecution was losing and called a mistrial just as the defense was about to present their argument. The mistrial was called over defense objection. As National Lawyers Guild president Marjorie Cohn has observed, double- jeopardy had already attached to the case.

Watada's future? Friday when the documentary is shown in Berkeley, the current stay, issued by US District Court Judge Benjamin H. Settle, expires Friday, November 9th. Settle issued the stay to review the double-jeopardy issue and other motions. The documentary takes you back to the February court-martial when Judge Toilet wanted Watada to stand trial for his actions but refused to allow the actions to be explained -- in other words, Toilet refused to allow the defense to make a case -- even before he called a mistrial over defense objection.

In addition, he refused to allow the defense's witnesses to testify including Denis Halliday, Marjorie Cohn, Stacy Bannerman, Antonia Juhasz, Richard Falk, Daniel Ellsberg, Francis Boyle, Ann Wright, IVAW's Geoffrey Millard, war resister Darrell Anderson and others.

Early in the documentary, Ann Wright, retired Col. and State Department, explains, "I think we have a military judge who knows full well that his career is on the line. There's lots of pressure that's been brought by the Bush administration on the military, military justice, military lawyers. You have the Judge Advocate Generals of the four military services who, back in 2001, 2002, were slapped down by the Bush administration for daring to suggest that the Geneva Conventions should apply to the people taken from Afghanistan and other parts of the world. You have the military that was standing up saying habeas corpus ought to apply to the people that we've had imprisoned for five years and it's the Bush administration that's saying, 'No, we won't have it.' So I have no doubts that there's a lot of pressure on this military court. The Bush administration doesn't want a First Lieutenant to be able to argue the legality of the war in Iraq. They don't want that at all."

Which explains why the attempted kangaroo-court-martial in the first place. Watada's research demonstrated that the Iraq War was illegal. That's why he refused to deploy. Originally, he attempted to find an alternative -- the US military indicated they were willing to explore that as well. Instead, it became obvious the military was hoping to stall and that, faced with impending deployment, Watada was just head off to Iraq. In June of 2006, months later, he went public with his refusal and why he had reached the decision. The Watada National Steering Committee is calling for vigils on the first and third Saturdays of every month to show support for Watada.

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, 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, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla 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, 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. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.

Have you heard the spin? Iraqi families are returning! Turning and returning! To some secret place inside! Why it's like Cherie Karo Schwartz' Circle Spinning -- except those were Jewish Folk Tales. These? Consider them US Government-Iraqi folk tales. CBS and AP, without even serving you some cookies, want to tuck you in with a tale of a vast returning to Iraq -- saying that those who had fled "abroad" are returning "with more than 46,000 people coming home last month, an Iraqi government spokesman said Wednesday." It, they tell you, is due to the 'improving security situation'. No, the nonsense is repeated because two new outlets lack basic sense. Waleed Ibrahim (Reuters) notes, "The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which tracks the movement of displaced Iraqis, said Iraq's Ministry of Displacement and Migration had registered the return of some 3,350 families, or 20,000 people, to Baghdad since January. Most had come from other areas within Iraq. Dana Graber, an Iraqi displacement expert at IOM in Jordan, said she had not seen the figures referred to by Moussawi and could not comment on the apparent discrepancies." Do you get it? IOM -- which actually tracks -- says 20,000 returned since January and the US' puppet government in Iraq declares 46,000 returning in the last month. Realizing that the lie was laughable (even though the press picked it up), the US military has attached a new qualifier to today's spin which is "border crossings." That's how the Iraqis are tracking this! Border crossings! For those who've forgotten, the earlier attempted lie presented returns to Baghdad, returning to their homes. Today's lie is still a lie. Some of those fleeing the country do return -- when the money runs out and there is no employment in the host country. This is well documented by relief agencies. But the new lie is that it's border crossings! So laughable, so insane, so pathetic. But some -- CBS and AP? -- enjoy having their intelligence insulted. Iraq's not counting at the borders -- all the borders are not secure and many borders that are depend upon the US military. But let's all play stupid and repeat the lie? Apparently that's how it's supposed to work. CBS and AP note, in passing, that the same flack for the US-Iraq military demands that the Iraqi Red Crescent "give reasons behind this hugh number" referring to the 2.3 million Iraqis who have left the country due to the violence. Instead of helping Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi smear an international relief agency, the two outlets should try to doing their own jobs. Reuters managed to do its job. 2.3 million is not a large number. The United Nations has been (PDF format warning) using the figure 2.2 million for about a month now. And, the lies pushed earlier in the week (CBS fell for those as well) came out of the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration and Sattar Nawroz spoke then providing laughter for anyone listening. Again, border crossing weren't brought up then, you just had Nawroz insisting only his ministry had the official figures! His official figures were laughable then as well. Especially amusing in the lies is that earlier in the week, November 4th, the puppet government -- via Nawroz -- was insisting approximately 15,500 individuals had returned to Baghdad and surrounding areas from outside of the country. Three days later, Qassim Moussawi (also a flack -- don't let the Brig. Gen. title fool you) announces 46,600 peoples have returned to Baghdad -- 46,000 people! Even those bad at math (CBS News?) should be able to see that's an increase of over 30,000 families in three days -- the borders must have been trampled! As we noted Monday, "You really have had to been sleeping throughout the Iraqi refugee crisis to pen something like the above. The return numbers are questionable just because Iraq is not officially tracking the numbers. It's equally true that report after report (whether mainstream press or relief agency) has noted returning to Iraq is based upon one thing and one thing only -- running out of money." What's really going on is that the refugee crisis is an embarrassment for the White House and the puppet government so they're attempting to Lancet the United Nations and the Red Crescent, attempting to muddy the waters by attacking the figures (which are accurate) and some outlets happily go along.

In fact, reality on the state of Iraq these days comes not from the professional media but from journalism students such as Matthew Chavez (University of New Mexico's The Daily Lobo):

The Associated Press figures show a decline in American and Iraqi fatalities, especially in Baghdad and Anbar province. But these and other figures should be viewed skeptically -- some sources, such as a recent Agence France-Presse tally, show civilian fatalities slightly increased between September and October, and official agencies are known to underestimate casualty statistics. U.S. military reporting rules, for example, designate corpses with wounds in the back of the head sectarian killings; the front, criminal. Further, an October 30 Government Accountability Office study notes that military reporting of civilian fatalities "may underreport incidents of Shia militias fighting each other and attacks against Iraqi security forces in southern Iraq and other areas with few or no coalition forces." Despite the decreased violence, 2007 is scheduled to be the deadliest year on record for U.S. occupation forces.

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Tuesday, November 06, 2007

How to suceed at the New York Times

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

LITTLE DAVEY HERSZENHORN OF THE NEW YORK TIMES EXPLAINED TO THESE REPORTERS TODAY THAT HE SEES REPORTING AS RIDCULING AND DISTORTING REALITY AND "HIDING BEHIND OFFICIALS TO DO IT."

THIS EXPLAINS HIS SMARMY INTRO WHERE HE MOCKS DENNIS KUCINICH FOR PURSUSING THE PRESIDENCY IN 2008 AND FOR PURSUING THE IMPEACHMENT OF DICK CHENEY.

DAVEY ACKNOWLEDGES THAT IT PUTS HIM AT RISK OF BEING CALLED OUT; HOWEVER, "TELLING THE TRUTH IN THE NEW YORK TIMES GETS YOU FIRED!"

JUDGING BY HIS WORK, DAVEY WILL BE AT THE PAPER FOR A LONG, LONG TIME.

FROM THE TCI WIRE:

Staring with war resistance. Michael Massing offers an excerpt (at Salon) from an anthology entitled What Orwell Didn't Know: Propaganda and the New Faces of American Politics. Massing notes that the mainstream press has a very difficult time conveying the realities of Iraq including the vast number of Iraqis being killed and wounded by US service members. He notes books by former US service members tell more than the press about:

The prevalence of drug use among U.S. troops.
The ubiquity of pornography.
The frequency of stealing from Iraqis.
The widespread contempt in which Iraqis are held.
The routine mistreatment of Iraqi citizens during house raids.
The killing of innocent Iraqis at checkpoints.
The high civilian death toll in Iraq.


Among these recommended readings in the excerpt is Joshua Key's The Deserter's Tale:
". . . Key observes that each military company in Iraq is responsible for dealing with the bodies of the civilians it has killed, and it fell to him to build a shack to hold the bodies of Iraqis slain by his unit until someone came to claim them." In addition, Key explains how they were discouraged from expressions of sympathy with the families picking up their dead and how he was warned and threatened for being seen as too sympethic. Key now lives in Canada with wife Brandi and their four children. His book has been optioned for filming.

Another war resister who went to Canada is James Burmeister and in June he broke the news on the kill teams. The kill teams of US service members purposely leave US property lying around to then have justification for shooting Iraqis. This isn't something a few enlisted thought up, it is a policy and plan coming from the top. Since war resiters get so little attention from All Things Media Big and Small to begin with, it's not surprising that only Canadian media covered those revelations. In this country Josh White and Joshua Partlow broke the story for the Washington Post on September 24, 2007. AP notes: "An Army sniper team leader charged with murdering three men will be tried today in a court-martial that is likely to highlight a classified Pentagon program in which snipers placed fake weapons as 'bait' to attract and kill enemy fighters." Paul von Zielbauer (New York Times) reports on Michael A. Hensley -- the team leader:

The baiting program was introduced to select members of the First Battalion, including Sergeant Hensley, in late January by the Asymmetrical Warfare Group, a Defense Department agency that develops secret methods of githing insurgents in Iraq, said Capt. Mattew Didier, the platoon commander at the time of the killings, in a sworn statement that has not been made public but was obtained by The New York Times.

"If we happened to see the individual take the items we would engage, to destroy the enemy," Captain Didier said in the statement, dated June 23.
Lawyers for Sergeant Hensley and the other snipers accused in the case have suggested the baiting program is relevant to their defense because it demonstrates the extent to which Army and Pentagon commanders approved unconventional methods of killing not only insurgents but also unarmed men of military age who were believed to be enemy fighters.

Again, Burmeister was discussing the program in June -- and yes, it is a program, it is not a few soldiers deciding to have 'kicks'. They were ordered to participate. That is among the reasons Burmeister decided enough was enough and he was checking himself out.

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, 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, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla 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, 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. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.


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Monday, November 05, 2007

Fred Thompson flies solo

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

IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM, THE PEOPLE ARE REPRESENTED BY TWO SEPARATE YET EQUALLY IMPORTANT GROUPS: THE POLICE WHO INVESTIGATE CRIME AND THE DISTRICT ATTORNEYS WHO PROSECUTE THE OFFENDERS.

AND APPARENTLY THE DRUG DEALERS HIRED BY POLITICAL CANDIDATES!

FRED THOMPSON HAS PARTED WAYS WITH BOY-PAL PHILIP MARTIN. THE TWO B.F.F. TORE UP THE TOWN FOR YEARS AND MARTIN'S NOT ONLY BEEN TRAVELING WITH TV ACTOR THOMPSON TO ALL HIS CAMPAIGN STOPS, HE'S BEEN ALLOWING G.O.P. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE THOMPSON TO FLY ON HIS JET AT A FRACTION OF THE ACTUAL COST TO THE THOMPSON CAMPAIGN.

THE TWO HAVE BEEN TIGHT SINCE THE MID-90S WHEN THOMPSON WAS BASED IN D.C. SAID MAGGIE CARLSON, T.V. PUNDIT, "THE TWO OF THEM WERE THE SHANNEN DOHERTY AND TORI SPELLING OF D.C.! THOSE TWO LIVED IT LIKE THERE WAS NO TOMORROW! OR EVEN A TODAY!"



FROM THE TCI WIRE:

Starting with war resistance. John Hartl (Seattle Times) reviews the new documentary by Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimber, Soldiers of Conscience, which examines war resistance, and Hartl notes, "Two of the conscientious objectors, charismatic Aidan Delgado (who leans toward Buddhism) and straight-arrow Joshua Casteel (a patriotic, evangical Christian), are given honorable discharges after they refuse to kill in Iraq. Delgado, who finds himself incapable of using arms 'designed to roast people,' honors one rule: 'Don't take life.' Interrogating an Abu Ghraib jihadist who challenges his commitment to Jesus' teachings, Casteel becomes defensive and self-doubting and finally opts out of the service."

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, 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, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla 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, 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. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.

Staying with the topic of the US military. Courage to Resist reports that a recent story on "search and avoid" missions (which the New York Times described last year -- without identifying it as such) has received attention for one active duty soldier: "The Army has begun a very official 'unofficial investigation of out-spoken Iraq veteran Eli Wright, an active duty soldier at Fort Drum, New York. Apparently the story below prompted right-wing bloggers to press the military to take action against Eli -- for either the actions decribed, or simply talking about them. The military might take action to keep 'search and avoid' missions from again becoming an 'open secret' -- as during the Vietnam War."

Turning to the topic of AWOL, Robert Przbylski (noted here and here) is missing. The Army captain was stationed in Germany, due to deploy to Iraq early next year and has disappeared last month. John Vandiver (Stars and Stripes) reported last week that the military is moving towards reclassifying him: "Today, Przbylski is the only officer in U.S. Army Europe to be listed absent without leave, a position he's been in since Oct. 10. And in a matter of days he faces the prospect of being classified as a deserter, which takes effect after 30 consecutive days of unauthorized absence. As authorities investigate the case, the circumstances surrounding Przbylski's disappearance remain shrouded in mystery." Przybylski's father refused comment to Vandiver. What is know is that Robert Przybylski remains misisng.

Also known is that Ashleigh Higgins was discharged from the US military in July 2006. Over a year ago. She had been in the IRR -- Individual Ready Reserve. Rachel Cohen (The Daily Review) reports that Higgins, who gave birth less than four months ago, has been informed that she must report for duty at Fort Jackson November 11th where she will receive training before being shipped off to Iraq "for up to 400 days" and that not only does she have a newborn, she has no one to take care of it since her husband Daniel is in the Oakland Police Department's police academy and her mother just had surgery and can't pick up any baby -- not even her granddaughter Gabriela. Higgins has found that the military has no desire to work with her thus far. She's been told to fill out a deferment form and report to Fort Jackson at which point something may be decided. Women have been the military for some time and that they want to pull a new mother away from an infant -- a new mother who was discharged over 15 months ago -- goes to just how hard up the military currently is. The guidelines, not suprisingly, for deferments note things such as the potential for a four to six month delay if you are getting married but say nothing about pregnancy. Apparently the US military hasn't noted that women have been serving for some time. Cohen reports that when Higgins informed her superiors that she was pregnant, she was 'rewarded' with being ordered to do push-ups and to run.

Is that really surprising considering the US military's attitude towards women? Nicole Sotelo (WeNews) observes of the realities for some US women married to service members, "It's the principle of the Golden Rule in action. The United States is giving and therefore getting violence in return. The battlefields of Iraq become the battlefields in our homes and neighborhoods in the shape of domestic violence." Sotelo notes that statistics ("military families have a domestic violence rate three to five times higher than the general U.S. population") and that "The U.S. war in Iraq has produced numerous reports of U.S. male soldiers assaulting both Iraqi women and fellow U.S. female soldiers. These soldiers are not assailants by nature, but have been traumatized by the violence of war and now act out that violence against the innocent in Iraq and in the United States upon their return." On the treatment of female service members, Matthew D. LaPlanet (Salt Lake Tribune) covers the topic beginning with Amanda Blume haveing to face soldiers screaming at her ("Why won't you date any of us, b**ch?") beofre kicking her barracks door down and then had to fight off an assault by the men and, GET THIS, "Army commanders charged her with assault." Blume recounts a too familiar story of a command that just didn't give a damn and quotes Blume explaining of how she got charged, "They told me they knew I had hit one of those guys and that was the only thing they could prove." Faced with extending her time in the military to fight the charges, "Blume accepted the charge". Now if you're thinking, "Well her door was kicked down and why exactly did the US military think a group of drunken men were showing up at her door, kicking it down and entering her room in the night to begin with, turns out that the 'investigation' never even bothered to send anyone out to examine the door. The military says three members were punished -- Blume is one of the three -- and Blume reveals that one of the other two punished was a man "who was a senior enlisted soldier who had come to her defense after she ran out of the building." It gets better. The punishment she received for hitting the man (who assaulted her)? He was already supposed to be "under orders to stay away" from her because he had been stalking her.

Now stop a minute and put it all together. At night, a group of men show up at her door, kick it in, and one of them wants to whine that she hit him. Even if the US military is unable to prove the men were drunk, they know damn well that if the poor baby struck is "under orders to stay away" from her, he had no business being in her room. Blume notes her regrets over not fighting it (she just wanted out of the military) and notes that the week before she was finally released "her sergeant, a man she considered a friend . . . chased her into a field and choked her into unconsciousness after she refused his order to stay at at his home after a party there." Now this time, pay attention Congress, it didn't go the way it had before even though the man knew to swear charges first. It was off base so a civilian assault: "Lawton, Okla., city prosecutors prepared a criminal complaint against Blume, but ripped up the charges after speaking to her -- and seeing the bruises on her neck" and the man, Larnelle Lewis, and he refused to contest the three counts of misdemanor assault. Even so, he got a slap on the wrist at the sentencing and Blume didn't know that because she was even advised that the sentencing was taking place. Though convicted, Lewis faced no penalties from the US military -- no reduction in rank, nothing. Sara Rich is quoted in the article explaining, "It's just so typical. The women get blamed. My daughter went to prison instead of getting the help she needed. She was ridiculed and put in jail and reduced in rank. She was treated like the criminal."

Rich's daughter is of course Suzanne Swift. Swift was assaulted and harassed repeatedly as she served in Iraq. There was no punishment for that. When she reported it, it was ignored. When she reported it again it was thought that Swift needed to take a class to learn how not to 'tempt' men because surely every woman who is assaulted -- in the US military's mind -- is just begging for it. In the US military's mind, who doesn't love that kind of attention? Swift got sick of it, as any woman would, and when she was back in the US on leave, since the US military REFUSED to address the command rape, the harassment, the assaults, Swift self-checked out proving that she had far more sanity than the US military which thought the way to address the situation was to flat-out ignore it. The response was to handcuff her and haul her off from her mother's house, to refuse to give her treatment for PTSD, to do a whitewash investigation (that, even so, found some of Swift's charges to be true) and to try to bully her into recanting the truth. Because she wouldn't lie, the US military court-martialed her, she spent thirty days in prison and she's in the service -- the same service where she was regularly assaulted -- until 2009. You might think the US Congress would practice some of that "oversight" that US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can't shut up about; however, the reality is that just as the US military failed Suzanne Swift so did the US Congress. Sara Rich stands without any government body to help her daughter. To this day. Swift needs to be immediately and honorably discharged, with full benefits. That the US Congress will not take up this issue goes to just how worthless the Pelosi-led House and the Reid-led Senate are. Remember right after the 2006 elections, in November, when Pelosi blogged (at The Huffington Post): "I told my colleagues yesterday that the biggest ethical issue facing our country for the past three and a half years is the war in Iraq"? That would be the same illegal war that nearly one year later (six days shy of one year) still drags on though Pelosi did endorse a few toothless, symbolic measures. Is there a reason Pelosi refuses to champion Swift's release? Or is it just another sign of how useless Pelosi's 'leadership' has been? Or as Nora Ephron (The Huffington Post) notes of the Dems in Congres: "What a bunch of losers, hiding behind the fact that it takes 60 votes to shut down debate and 67 votes to override a presidential veto. So what? So pass a law and make Bush veto it. Make him veto something every single day. Drive the guy crazy. What have you got to lose? And meanwhile what have you done? You've voted for the surge, you've voted to authorize a war against Iran, and you're about to vote in favor an attorney general-designate who refuses to call waterboarding torture." And as former CIA analyst Ray McGovern (at Consortium News) observes of an earlier illegal war (Vietnam), "Why did we leave? Only because, despite continued lying by the administration then in power, Congress belatedly woke up to the fact that the war was unwinnable, admitted that for the previous ten years Congress had been wrong, and finally cut off funding for the war. Even then, Congress was not leading; rather it was reacting to a storm of protest across the land." McGovern is calling for action and calling for US troops to withdraw. He also castigates US Senator Joseph Biden as "co-opted." And it's no different across the Atlantic. Madeleine Bunting (Guardian of London) calls out the inaction, "Government ministers now talk of Iraq as a tragedy, as if it was a natural disaster and they had no hand in its making. There's a public revolusion at the violent sectarian struggles best summed up as 'a plague on all their houses', as even the horror gives way to exhaustion. The irony is that in this great age of communications and saturation media, this is perhaps the most important war to become nigh on impossible to report. Unless the reporter is embedded with the occupation forces, it takes either terrifying courage or extraordinary ingenuity to bring images to our screens of those caught up in the awful maelstrom of this imploded country. Without the human stories that bring people and their suffering so vividly to life, there is little chance of public opinon re-engaging with the biggest political calamity of our time. The Iraq war represents the end of the media as a major actor in war."

[. . .]

Two items quickly. WBAI's Law and Disorder -(hosted by Dalia Hashad, Heidi Boghosian, Michael Ratner and Michael Smith), Ratner noted the people need to be contacting their senators to oppose the confirmation of Michael Mukasey for Attorney General. Ratner gave out the switchboard number (202) 224-3121 -- call that and ask for senators serving on the committe and/or your own senators. More information at the program's website and here at the Center for Constitutional Rights and here at the National Lawyers Guild. And in the report Ruth noted, "'The sixth and final hearing,' as the PDF format announcement words it, will take place next Friday, November the 9th, in Seattle, Washington. The timing is four p.m. to eleven p.m. and the location is Town Hall Seattle on 1119 Eight Avenue."

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