Saturday, May 31, 2008

Janet Hook has trouble with reality and history

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
 
SOMETIMES WE GRIMACE AT OUR PEERS.  TAKE JANET HOOK (RHYMES WITH CROOK) WHO WONDERED TO US TODAY OF MICHIGAN AND FLORIDA'S STATE CERTIFIED PRIMARIES, "HOW DO YOU COUNT WHAT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE COUNTED?"
 
HOW DO YOU REPORT AND BE SO STUPID?
 
JANET HAD NO ANSWER FOR US.
 
 
"THAT BLOWS MY MIND!" EXCLAIMED JANET -- SURPRISING US ONLY BECAUSE WE DIDN'T KNOW SHE HAD A MIND.
 
 
 
 
Late yesterday  Canada's Liberal Party issue "Liberals Call on Government to Show Compassion for War Resisters."
 
The Liberal Opposition is calling on the Conservative government to support a motion that would allow conscientious objectors to apply for permanent resident status in Canada, said Liberal Citizenship and Immigration Critic Maurizio Bevilacqua.           
"Five years ago, the Liberal government made a principled decision not to participate in a war that wasn't sanctioned by the United Nations (U.N.). We should not now punish individuals and their families for making the same decision based on their personal principles," said Mr. Bevilacqua.        

The motion, which was passed by the Immigration Commmittee and is being debated in the House today, calls on the government to allow conscientious objectors, and their immediate family members, who have refused or left military service related to a war not sanctioned by the U.N. and who do not have a criminal record to apply for permanent resident status and remain in Canada. The motion also stipulates that the government should not proceed with any action agains any war resister who currently faces deportation.     
"The government has a choice: it is not compelled to force these people to go back to a country where they may face prosecution under military law, or may be permanently branded for making a principled decision," said Mr. Bevilacqua.    
"Stephen Harper has indicated that, had he been Prime Minister in 2003, Canada would have participated in the Iraq war. I hope that the fact that Mr. Harper got it wrong at the time will not prevent him from showing compassion for those who made the right decision."
 
Kristen Thompson (Vancouver's Metro) reports that retired US Col and former US diplomat Ann Wright will be speaking in Vancouver Sunday "at an event honouring women war resisters".   While Wright speaks up, many stay silent and war resisters in Canada today need support as they wait to see if the motion for safe harbor is going to come to the Parliament floor.  You can utilize the following e-mails to show your support: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration.  In addition Jack Layton, NDP leader, has a contact form and they would like to hear from people as well. A few more addresses can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use.  Lahey quotes NDP's Oliva Chow, who steered the motion, explaining, "If (Liberal leader) Stephane Dion were to say tomorrow that he supports this motion . . . we will then debate it.  So we need people to call Mr. Dion . . . 'whose side you on Mr. Dion'?"  The number to call is (613) 996-5789.       
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes 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 US political races.   Panhandle Media is a complete utter failure and they damaged not only themselves, they damaged the work of the few truly independent journalists who actually work.  John Pilger is one of the few and you can view the hatred in the comments (some of which may be deleted when this goes up) his article (New Statesman) has received.  Pilger's not doing anything different than what he has always done, be a journalist.  But those who pretend to be his peers have so debased 'independent' media that the real independent journalists have to put up with nonsense from the Cult Panhandle Media built.  From Pilger's article (and, note, Pilger would be just as harsh on Hillary and has been before):
 
On the war in Iraq, Obama the dove and McCain the hawk are almost united.  McCain now says he wants US troops to leave in five years (instead of "100 years", his earlier option).  Obama has now "reserved the right" to change his pledge to get troops out next year.  "I will listen to our commanders on the ground," he now says, echoing Bush.  His adviser on Iraq, Colin Kahl, says the US should maintain up to 80,000 troops in Iraq until 2010.  Like McCain, Obama has voted repeatedly in the Senate to support Bush's demands for funding of the occupation of Iraq; and he has called for more troops to be sent to Afghanistan.  His senior advisers embrace McCain's proposal for an aggressive "league of democracies", led by the United States, to circumvent the United Nations.
 
[ . . .]
 
Despite claiming that his campaign wealth comes from small individual donors, Obama is backed by the biggest Wall Street firms: Goldman Sachs, UBS AG, Lehman Brothers, J P Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, as well as the huge hedge fund Citadel Investment Group.  "Seven of the Obama campaign's top 14 donors," wrote the investigator Pam Martens, "consisted of officers and employees of the same Wall Street firms charged time and again with looting the public and newly implicated in originating and/or bundling fraudulently made mortgages."  A report by United for a Fair Economy, a non-profit group, estimates the total loss to poor Americans of colour who took out sub-prime loans as being between $164bn and $213bn: the greatest loss of wealth ever recorded for people of colour in the United States.  "Washington lobbyists haven't funded my campaign," said Obama in January, "they won't run my White House and they will not drown out the voices of working Americans when I am president."  According to files held by the Centre for Responsive Politics, the top five contributors to the Obama campaign are registered corporate lobbysits.   
What is Obama's attraction to big business?  Precisely the same as Robert Kennedy's.  By offering a "new", young and apparently progressive face of the Democratic Party -- with the bonus of being a member of the black elite -- he can blunt and divert real opposition.  That was Colin Powell's role as Bush's secretary of state.  An Obama victory will bring intense pressure on the US anti-war and social justice movements to accept a Democratic administration for all its faults.  If that happens, domestic resistance to rapacious America will fall silent.
 
Meanwhile Barack is in trouble despite the efforts of John McCormick and Manya A. Brachear (Chicago Tribune) to rescue him.  Another crackpot Barack friend, mentor and supporter (as noted in yesterday's snapshot) showed their ass: Michael Pfleger.  Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite maintains that she spoke at Trinity (Barack's church) Sunday as well (different services -- Trinity has mutliple services each Sunday) and writes: "We in the United Church of Christ are trying to have what we call 'A Sacred Conversation on Race' and I did not find Pfleger's sermon to represent what we in the UCC are trying to do in having a sacred conversation.  Instead, Pfleger's sermon was a bullying rant that was disrespectufl of the members of Trinity United Church of Christ, disrespectful of Senator Hillary Clinton and really also disrepectful of Senator Obama" blah blah.  SBT, you lost it.  You were making sense and then you had to toss out poor Barack.  Poor Barack's been friends with Pfleger since Barack first breezed into Chicago over a decade ago.  Also, the members you are offended for, the video shows no booing.  Clapping, yes.  If SBT is not the most embarrassing person in all of this named Barack or Pfleger, that's only because Senator Dick Durbin had to butt into it.  He told the Chicago Tribune, "I like Mike.  He's my friend."  You need to find some better friends, Durbin. He almost outs himself in his vast wordage.  What's the difference between Jeremiah Wright and Pfleger?  Pfleger's White and that's it.  They both 'preached' hate speech.  But Wright, according to Durbin, allowed for 'marvelous' opportunities because Barack dould say, 'What's he so angry about?'  And a race conversation, according to Durbin, could begin.  That conversation never took place.  But here's where Durbin clams up -- obviously when you ask, "What's he so angry about?" regarding Pfleger, you can't point to this and that and everything else that was trotted out for Wright's crackpot theories such as the US government created AIDS to wipe out African-Americans.  Pfleger's just a hate monger. 
 
Jake Tapper (ABC News) quotes Cardinal Francis George of the Archidoces of Chicago in this statement: "The Catholic Church does not endorse political candidates.  Consequently, while a priest must speak to political issues that are also moral, he may not endorse candidates nor engage in partisan campaigning.  Racial issues are both political and moral and are also highly charged. Words can be differently interpreted, but Fr. Pfleger's remarks about Senator Clinton are both partisan and amount to a personal attack.  I regret that deeply."  All the links contain text (and most video) of Pfleger's hate speech yesterday.  This was Barack's response: "As I have traveled this country, I've been impressed not by what divides us, but by all that unites us.  That is why I am deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-thinking rhetoric, which doesn't reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause."  That's not an apology. 
 
Here's an apology Barack: "This will be the second time in two weeks I have apologized to someone over the actions of a Roman Catholic Priest. It is not a pleasant thing but it is the right thing. Rev. Michael Pfleger had no business giving any kind of sermon like the one he did ridiculing Hillary Clinton let alone giving a sermon anywhere else than in his own Parish at a Mass. This kind of grandstanding mockery of another human being is totally against the Catholic faith and the spirit of inclusivity and respect for all human beings that Catholics hold dear. He has sinned against God, Hillary, and his priesthood for which an apology is not enough. I hope he has scheduled a confession and a retreat to rethink his role as Priest would not hurt either.  To Mrs. Clinton I apologize as a Roman Catholic and am embarassed by this priests words and actions. I have no idea his motivations but please do not take this man's view nor his words as that reflecting Catholics, or the Catholic Church."  That's Catherine J. writing at Gather.  She didn't do anything requiring an apology.  She and Pfleger are the same faith.  But she wanted to apologize and she offered a real and heartfelt one.  That's an apology.  What Barack offered was sop and insulting.  His friend for over twenty years, his patron, his mentor, a part of his campaing (until weeks ago -- as all the media rushes to insist) trashed Hillary Clinton and others in despicable terms, in outrageous sexist slander and did so at Barack's church of 20 years -- to the applause and shouts of encouragement from Barack's church.  He owes an apology.  But he's never been forced by the press to apologize once.  He's never apologized to anyone.  "I regret . . ."  That's not an apology, it's a declined invitation.  That's Barack's buddy offering that hate speech.  Barack steered $100,000 of tax-payer money to the crackpot's church.  Yeah, he owes a big apology.
 
Pfleger thinks he can get away with this crap as well.  CNN notes his 'apology': "I regret the words I chose on Sunday. These words are inconsistent with Sen. Obama's life and message, and I am deeply sorry if they offended Sen. Clinton or anyone else who saw them."  He doesn't regret anything.  He thought he was cute as he minced around and did his little parody of women on stage.  You can watch the video and see him grinning.  (Liars at the Chicago Tribune tell you he was rushed off stage by organ music -- that's a lie.   Watch the video.  There is a time lapse and no organ music is played to tell him to wrap it up.)  Foon Rhee (Boston Globe) reports the Clinton campaign's Ann Lewis declared on MSNBC, "I'm not sure what the 'if' was about" -- Pfleger's statements are "simply appalling."
 
John Bentley (CBS News) notes Senator John McCain (presumed GOP presidential nominee) stating, "I have known Sen. Clinton for a long time.  I respect her, and I think that kind of language and that kind of treatment of Sen. Clinton is unwarranted, uncalled for, and disgraceful."  Barack could have said that but chose not to.  If it's a race between McCain and Obama in November, McCain's ahead currently because spoiled little princes aren't generally embraced by America.  As Ken Dilanian (USA Today) points out, "Obama has not specifically addressed what Pfleger said about Clinton."
 
Hillary's still in the race and she's winning the popular vote.  Fabien Levy (HillaryClinton.com) observes, "Wild weather did not stop residents of Huron from coming out to see Hillary on Thursday. Droves of voters turned out to see Hillary at Campbell Park, but due to inclement weather the event was moved into the Huron Events Center. Once inside, a packed house heard Hillary speak directly about the issues including our broken economy, the war in Iraq, veteran's affairs and universal health care."  Huron, South Dakota, bit of trivia, is where Cheryl Ladd was born.  So there's the trivia and now for the important take-away.  The primaries will end with neither Hillary or Barack having enough delegates awarded (through primaries and caucuses) to calim the nomination.  The race should continue to the convention in August.  Some are trying to stop democracy, some don't trust the voters, some don't trust Democrats.  Apparently, Democrats gathering together in Colorado this August is a frightening thought to Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean and Harry Reid.  Oh goodness, the trio worries, what might they do!  They might ensure that the people are heard.  Shame on anyone who attempts to end this historic race before the finish line is reached.  Michael P. Forbes (Austin-American Stateman) tells you what Pelosi, Reid and Dean can't and won't:
 
As the last primary votes are cast on Tuesday, some will want a coronation before the will of the Democratic Convention has been adjudicated.
There will be very loud and very determined illegitimate calls for Clinton to bow out. They will cry of suspect pleas to party unity and ill-conceived suggestions that a prolonged nominating process -- one that rightfully should go to decisive balloting for president at the Democratic Convention from August 25-28 -- is harmful to the party.         
That's baloney. The excitement of this Democratic primary season as attested to by burgeoning party coffers and unprecedented levels of voter participation serve to reinvigorate the national Democratic Party after 12 years of Republican reign in Congress and eight years of a very unpopular Republican president. With daily reminders at the gas pump and in the grocery store of an ailing economy and two wars abroad, Americans are more than ready to put Democrats back in the White House.                  
A national dialogue that continues all the way to the Democratic Convention on the attributes and abilities of Clinton and Obama and who is the Democrat most competent to be president is healthy for the political process and advantageous to the nation.  
 
 

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Barack's Nutty Preachers

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
 
"I LOVE BARACK!" GUSHED ASSOCIATED PRESS' CARYN ROUSSEAU EXPLAINING THE CRAP-ASS ARTICLE SHE WROTE.
 
PREIST MICHAEL PFLEGER IS REFERRED TO AS A BARACK "SUPPORTER."
 
PFLEGER IS IN TROUBLE OVER A SEXIST RANT THAT TURNED UP ONLINE.  CARYN ROUSSEAU LOVES BARACK SO MUCH SHE NOT ONLY DIDN'T INCLUDE THE FACT THAT PFLEGER HAS "KNOWN  OBAMA SINCE HIS EARLY DAYS IN CHICAGO"  AND WAS PART OF THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN, SHE LEFT OUT THE FACT THAT HE DELIVERED HIS 'SERMON'/HATE SPEECH AT BARACK'S CHURCH.
 
OR THAT THE KOOKS AT TRINITY WERE ON THEIR FEET APPLAUDING IT.
 
"I JUST LOVE HIM," GASPED CARYN AS SHE DOODLED "CARYN OBAMA" IN HER NOTEPAD.
 
WHEN WE ATTEMPTED TO REACH PFLEGER FOR A COMMENT, HE EXPLAINED HE COULDN'T TALK, HE WAS WAITING FOR BILL MOYERS TO CALL TO OFFER HIM AN HOUR OF TIME TO EXPLAIN HOW HIS SEXIST AND RACIST REMARKS DON'T MEAN HE'S A SEXIST OR A RACIST WHILE BILL NODS ALONG AND PLAYS DUMB.
 
 
Today Waterbury Republican American notes that US war resister Robert Weiss was "sentenced to seven months in confinement" after being "found guilty of desertion with intent to avoid hazardous duty, and missing movement through design" and briefly notes that Weiss had applied for CO status (seems surprised that he would then deploy to Iraq -- apparently, they're unfamiliar with the process) and that he self-checked out in December of last year. Though it's published today, the verdict and sentencing was May 13th and Courage to Resist noted it then. Then and now?
 
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 US war resister and Iraq War veteran Corey Glass was informed he had until June 12th to leave Canada or he would be deported.  Eight days later and Democracy Sometimes! Amy Goodman still can't utter two words on her laughable show: "Corey Glass."  Today Goody chatted up Norman Finkelstein about the 'horror' of being deported from a country whose government you criticize (Israel).  Finkelstein's return to the US could mean imprisonment or even the death pen --  Wait.  Finkelstein's deportation means nothing.  He's risked nothing.  Unlike Corey Glass, Finkelstein could not be imprisoned in this country, nor is he at risk of death (which is the maximum penalty for desertion).  But there was Goody proving she can always be ever more useless.  If you missed it, when she decided Democracy Sometimes! existed to pimp her candidate, she quit pretending to give a damn about the Iraq War.
 
While Goody stays silent, war resisters in Canada today need support as they wait to see if the motion for safe harbor is going to come to the Parliament floor.  You can utilize the following e-mails to show your support: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration.  In addition Jack Layton, NDP leader, has a contact form and they would like to hear from people as well. A few more addresses can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use.  Lahey quotes NDP's Oliva Chow, who steered the motion, explaining, "If (Liberal leader) Stephane Dion were to say tomorrow that he supports this motion . . . we will then debate it.  So we need people to call Mr. Dion . . . 'whose side you on Mr. Dion'?"  The number to call is (613) 996-5789.       
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes 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 US political races.   David J. Kalbfleisch and Jason Wallace are member of  Iraq Veterans Against the War and they are both running for the US House of Representative out of Illinois.  Kalbfleisch is running in the tenth Congressional district and Wallace in the eleventh.  They are both Green Party members and you know they will do everything to end the illegal war if elected.  So when the same people attacking Hillary find time for other things, wait and see how many take the time to steer to you either candidate?  (Answer: They won't.  Both men are running against Barack's handpicked lemmings.)
 
As already noted, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke with the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday.  A story was published, the interview was so much more interesting. "The convention is supreme," Pelosi stated dropping back to the 1984 race when she attempted to inform states (such as New Hampshire) that they would not be seated.  "Ha! Ha! Ha!" was the response Pelosi received.  The candidates (Gary Hart and Walter Mondale) voted to sit them and "the convention is supreme."  The delegates didn't care what Pelosi told them, they knew they'd have to be seated.  Despite sharing that tale, Nancy didn't seem to absorb it.  She stated there must be a penalty for Michigan and Florida (but not for New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina).  What was the penalty in 1984? There was none.  Tell everyone that fact, Nancy.
 
"We cannot take this fight to the convention," claims Pelosi.  What she really means is she wants to stop the race and she has a limited number of days to do that.  What are we talking about?  Pelosi: "Right now this is all under the auspices of the DNC, not yet the convention, that doesn't trigger until the end of June."  That is correct, Pelosi, Dean, et al, lose all power to try to decide for Democrats as June closes.  Pelosi and others want to shut down the process because, as she herself put it, "the convention is supreme."  She can't control the convention, no one can.  Equally true is that whatever IDIOTIC plan she and Coward Dean (Sugar N Spice's name for Howard) attempt to ram down Michigan and Florida's throats, if both candidates remain in the race to the convention, Florida and Michigan will be seated in full.  Why is that?  Neither Hillary or Barack would say say "no" anymore than Hart and Mondale wanted to tick either state off.  That is what it will be and that's another reason Coward and Pelosi want to shut down the process, they're trying to keep the blood off Barack's hands.  Pelosi's interview is a laugh riot.  She starts talking about the Republican Party having no ideas (I agree with her on that) but then she's off talking about the Erie Canal. "We have to think in new, fresh ways" she also says.  The Erie Canal?  New and fresh.
 
In Barack news, TalkLeft, Big Tent Democrat has another video from Obama's church. The video's a YouTube one and we could post it here but we take trash to the curb, we don't post it. "Father Mike" (Michael Pfleger) presents a hate speech on Hillary -- filled with lies, distortions and apparently psychic ability.  Someone call the Vactican -- I believe a heresy has been committed.  What I know is that little stunt is exactly why Trinity was already in danger of losing its tax-free status.   How 'spiritual' and 'refreshed' the kooks at Trinity must have felt after that non-stop, misogynist hate speech.  Tennessee Guerilla Women steer to Janet Bagnall (Montreal Gazette) who observes, "Clinton's critics always describe the problem as her. They would never oppose a candidate because she is female, you understand, it's this particular woman they don't like ... because she's tainted, because she is married to Bill Clinton, because she's single-handedly destroying the Democratic Party, she's too feminine, too masculine ... there's no end to the litany of failings attributed to the first woman in U.S. history to wagea serious campaign for a presidential nomination.
The increasingly hysterical calls for her to withdraw from the contest started long before last week when she pointed out that it wasn't unusual to continue to campaign into the summer and even up to the convention itself. Her husband didn't nail down the 1992 Democratic nomination until June; Bobby Kennedy was still campaigning in June 1968."  Take that
'feminists' Katrina vanden Heuvel and Betsy Reed (In 2007, the two faux 'feminists' published 491 men, 149 women.)  Tennesee Guerilla Women notes the DC rally this Saturday:
 
A group of high-profile Hillary Clinton supporters, Democratic fundraisers and Florida Democrats is planning to hold a day-long rally Saturday outside the Washington hotel where the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee Meeting will be considering the fate of votes cast in the Michigan and Florida primaries to call attention to what they say is the exclusion of women's voices from the democratic -- and Democratic -- process and the disenfranchisement of Michigan and Florida voters.

Announced speakers so far include National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy and Florida Democratic congresswoman Corinne Brown. Organizers say that they expect individuals to come in from 26 different states for the rally, as well as some major celebrity speakers, and that they are receiving logistical assistance or other support from the pro-Clinton United Federation of Teachers and EMILY's List. The group Florida Demands Representation, organized by James Hannagan, will also be there.
 
Meanwhile Lindsay Levin of Hillary's campaign notes: "Hillary has earned more votes than anyone in the history of the Democratic primaries, and she will lead in the popular vote with more than 17 million ballots cast when the primaries conclude on June 3rd.  Not only is Hillary the top vote-getter, poll after poll shows she fares better against Sen. McCain in large swing states than Sen. Obama.  She is the only candidate winning in the battlegrounds of Ohio and Florida.  Hillary's candidacy has attracted a broad coalition of new voters.  In fact, the highest increases in turnout have come among her core supporters -- millions of new women, Latinos and people over 45 voted in the primaries for the first time.  In the coming days, superdelegates will have a clear choice: who is ready to serve as President on day one and who is best able to beat John McCain in November?  When you look at her wins in the important swing states and her strength against Sen. McCain in head-to-head matchups, there's no question that Hillary is the strongest candidate."
 
Lastly, Bob Somerby continues addressing the vile and disgusting sexist nature of the press.  That puts him way up on FAIR who refuses to EVER call out Keith Olbermann.
 

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Save the last dance for Barack

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
 
 
APPARENTLY DIPLOMACY TO BARACK IS A SADIE HAWKINS DANCE?
 
WHEN IT WAS POINTED OUT THAT HE HAD FLIPPED, FLOPPED, FLIPPED AGAIN, FLOPPED AGAIN AND BEEN ALL OVER THE MAP WITH WHAT HE WOULD DO, BARACK SAID, "THESE ARE MY POSITION AND I AM STICKING TO THEM DEPENDING UPON THE DAY."
 
WHEN THESE REPORTERS ASKED HIM IF HE WAS ON THE RECORD REGARDING "NO PRECONDITIONS," HE AGREED HE WAS.
 
 
BARACK SCRATCHED HIS HEAD, TUGGED EITHER EAR AND THEN ASKED, "IS THAT NOT ALLOWED?"
 
 
 
Starting with war resistance.  Camilla Mortensen (Eugene Weekly) reports on US war resister and Iraq War veteran James Burmeister who self-checked out and went to Canada only to return this year, turn himself in and wonder what comes next: "His father fears the Army wants to keep Burmeister quiet about the 'bait-and-kill' teams the he alleges have been used to kill Iraqi civilians.  While James Burmeister awaits the Army's decision, his father [Erich Burmeister] is fighting to bring him home.  From the article:
 
Burmeister was also distrurbed by the "small kill teams" for which he was asked to provide cover.  On Sept. 24, 2007, the Washington Post investigated the story of the classified program of using "bait and kill" tactics in which sniper teams would scatter "bait" such as ammunition and detonation cords to attract Iraqi insurgents who would then be shot by snipers.  But Burmeister, who had deserted from the Army five months before the story broke, had been telling that story to the media for months. 
In a July 2007 article in The Oregonian, Burmeister said he had participated in a team that placed fake cameras on poles and labeled them U.S. property to give the team the rights to shoot anyone who to tried to move or takes the equipment.
 
Kill teams?  September 26, 2007, Josh White and Ann Scott Tyson's "Charges Against Snipers Stir Debate on 'Baiting'" (Washington Post) was published.  From the July 16, 2007 snapshot:
 
James Burmeister is a war resister who went to Canada after serving in Iraq.  He, his wife, Angelique, and their son, Cornell, now live in Ottawa.  Mark Larabee (The Oregonian) reports on Burmeister and notes the "traps" were an issue -- setting out the fake carmera or other equipment so that someone would go for it and then shooting them for touching US property -- with James Burmeister declaring, "As soon as anyone would mess with it, you were supposed to lay waste to them.  I completely disagreed with that tactic.  I can't see how that's helping anyone whatsoever"; and on Iraq, "I though people needed to be free there.  But when I went there it was all about captures and kills and it felt like we messed things up over there."  For some reason, J.E. McNeil is quoted in the story and really doesn't know the first thing about the topic.  I'll call out McNeil the same way I would a right winger.  McNeil's area of expertise and area of interest is C.O.s and that's the topic McNeil should stick to.  I find McNeil's remarks (and ingorance) damaging.  It takes only a few seconds to say, "C.O.s is my focus.  Have you considered calling the War Resisters Support Campaign?"  A voice who does know something on the subject, Helen Burmeister, mother of James, whom Larabee reports is proud of her son and declares, "I don't support the war.  I don't know anybody who supports what's going on in Iraq.  . . . It took guts for him to do what he did."
 
 
James Burmeister: Myself, I was a Calvary scout.  We do a lot of reconnaissance, mapping out, a lot of raids.  Our platoon in particular would set up small groups called "Platoon Kill Teams" -- maybe a group of four, five people, some snipers and we would set up fake cameras, we would put "Property of US government" in English and Arabic and we would wait for an Iraqi to come up and touch it because that gives the US the right to kill them -- so they say.  That would be the typical thing we would do.          
 
Rob Benzie: You called this baiting.  Is that right?            
 
James Burmeister: Definitely.                     
 
 
 
Join the vigil outside Fort Gordon near Augusta, Georgia Thursday, May 29th, 7:30pm at Gate 1 to demand "Free Ryan Now!" Ryan will be court martialed Friday, May 30th for resisting war. 
Ryan was formally charged with multiple counts of AWOL stemming from his attempt to be released from the Army prior to Iraq deployment. He will face a Special Court Martial--with a maximum one year prison sentence--on Friday, May 30. Since voluntarily returning to Fort Gordon on April 14 and formally applying for a conscientious objector discharge, Ryan has been held in pre-trial confinement at the Charleston Navel Brig.          
Following his arraignment, Ryan was able to call friends for a couple of hours. Primarily, he wanted to express his gratitude for everyone's support, and making him feel that his stand against war, and his time already spent in the brig, meant something. In addition to Courage to Resist members, he was also able to talk to Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace representatives prior to returning to the brig.   
 
War resisters in Canada today need support as they wait to see if the motion for safe harbor is going to come to the Parliament floor.  You can utilize the following e-mails to show your support: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration.  In addition Jack Layton, NDP leader, has a contact form and they would like to hear from people as well. A few more addresses can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use.  Lahey quotes NDP's Oliva Chow, who steered the motion, explaining, "If (Liberal leader) Stephane Dion were to say tomorrow that he supports this motion . . . we will then debate it.  So we need people to call Mr. Dion . . . 'whose side you on Mr. Dion'?"  The number to call is (613) 996-5789.       
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes 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).
 
[. . .]
 
"I said, hell is so close, and heaven's out of reach/I ain't givin' up quite yet/ I've got too much to lose" (Augustana's "Sweet and Low," Can't Love, Can't Hurt, Epic Records).  Bully Boy gave a speech in Colorado Springs today.  Michael Abramowitz (Washington Post) observes, "President Bush acknowledged to 'learngin as we go' in building democracy in Iraq, as he used a commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy Wednesday to counsel patience and resolve in America's wars of the 21st century." For laughs, full speech here and note how he's confused about which people ("a new mission: Protect the American people -- Iraqi people") and here's Bully Boy defining 'success' and 'victory': "So in Iraq and Afghanistan, we set a clear definition of success: Success will come when al Qaida has no safe haven in those countries and the people can protect themselves from terror. Success will come when Iraq and Afghanistan are economically viable. Success will come when Iraq and Afghanistan are democracies that govern themselves effectively and respond to the will of their people. Success will come when Iraq and Afghanistan are strong and capable allies on the war on terror. Men and women of the Air Force: These successes will come -- and when they do, our nation will have achieved victory, and the American people will be more secure."  Barack Obama would like to be president -- first he'd need to win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination -- and certainly anyone idiotic enough to think the US has 57 states is Bully Boy's undeclared son.  Yesterday he was caught in yet another lie: His uncle rescued people in Auschwitz.  Only it wasn't his uncle.  Maybe it was his "great uncle".  Oh, and maybe it was Buchenwald.  Here for Jeralyn (TalkLeft), here for Elaine, here for Mike and Wally and Cedric's did a joint-post on it.
 
Today Amy Goodman demonstrate she is filth, human trash and so much more than just living in a political closet.  Long after the nonsense over Friday's remarks by Hillary were over, Trash Goody had to 'cover' them today.  The same piece of trash that has NEVER mentioned James Burmeister's name, has NEVER told her audience that Corey Glass was informed last Wednesday that he was being deported from Canada on June 12th, go down the list.  She's not but human filth.  Bob Somerby (Daily Howler) explains how trash came to make the non-story a story: "Obama's campaign told the 'press corps' to jump.  The 'press corps' barked and then wondered: How high?"  There was nothing wrong with what Hillary Clinton said and it wasn't news in March but Obama's campaign e-mailed and faxed it and got all the WHORES of the 'press' (include Red Amy Goodman right next to Keith Olbermann) to swing their tired, flabby asses under the streetlamp for another night -- may they call contract a social disease.  In the real world (translation, where propagandist Amy Goodman could never work), Jake Tapper (ABC News) reports Gallup's latest poll "seems to re-affirm Sen. Hillary Clinton's argument that she is likelier to beat Sen. John McCain than is Sen. Barack Obama."  Maureen Dowd (no link to trash) produced more trash for today's New York Times and, at some point, maybe someone should ask the obvious: Why would Bill Clinton tell Hillary to drop out and why would she follow that?
 
As someone who has known the Clintons for over 15 years, yes, Bill listens to Hillary, yes, Hillary listens to Bill.  But they both make up their own minds.  It sure is interesting that no man's wife was ever instructed by the press to tell him to drop out but the press feels more than comfortable insisting Bill should tell Hillary to drop out.  It's sexism and let's not pretend it's anything else.  Caryl Rivers (WeNews) notes the very real backlash Hillary is confronting:
 
Put these disparate items together and you see the clear message: Women have gone too far, and they shouldn't be running for president. They belong at home, and in fact are choosing to stay home. So why shouldn't males get the college spots, and who cares about workplace discrimination?         
As president Hillary Clinton could change at least some of this. That's why it's so hard to listen to the delegate-counters say her prospects are fading.
Some women are fighting back.
On May 20, the Women's Media Center launched a "Sexism Sells, But We're Not Buying It" campaign against the pervasive sexism in the media's election coverage. The group's Web site offers a petition for you to sign, chiding media outlets for their performance. "Sexism isn't a partisan issue," it says. "We're not going to let anyone hit the snooze button on this important issue!"
To which I say, "Amen!"
 
 
Meanwhile Shamus Cooke (Socialist Appeal) observes, "As Barack Obama's anti-war rhetoric is blasted around the country in his attempt to seal the Democratic nomination, his real position on U.S. militarism is being revealed discretely to his political, military, and corporate colleagues. Two recent examples prove beyond any doubt that Obama is in total conformity with the U.S. ruling class on the issue of maintaining -- or even expanding --  the role of the military in the Middle East. This of course is the complete opposite of what he tells those who fill stadiums to hear him speak."  Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report) explores Obama at length but we'll note this section:
   
It is fair to say that Somalia is the first African war to be tackled by the new American military command, Africom. So widespread is public opposition on the continent, fearing an attempt to re-colonize the region, no country has agreed to host the Africom. But Barack Obama fully supports the robust U.S. military presence. "There will be situations that require the United States to work with its partners in Africa to fight terrorism with lethal force," said Obama. "Having a unified command operating in Africa will facilitate this action."          
Obama's enthusiasm for swamping Africa in an ever-expanding "war on terror," is obvious.
On the western shores of the continent, Obama was rumored in early May to have proposed a cease fire in the guerilla war over oil resources in Nigeria's Niger River delta. The insurgents, who claim the central government excludes delta residents from the benefits of oil production, have also asked former President Jimmy Carter to mediate the dispute. Whether anything comes of either request, it is certain that Nigeria, Africa's number one oil producer, will always be a leading candidate for Africom intervention. The presence of guerillas in the delta is all the Americans - including, based on his own words, Obama - will need to invoke the terror threat.
 
For more on the topic, see The Third Estate Sunday Review's "Idiots:"
 
As we've long noted, Barack also promotes war in Africa and, as others seem to forget, the whole point of abandoning Europe and setting up bases in Africa was that the US wants to stage new wars in that region. Bully Boy, attempting to secure land for bases, was rebuffed by African leaders. Do you really think "Son of Kenya" is going to be rebuffed? Do you really think some of the hype about Barack on the part of the same media that sold you the illegal war isn't over the fact that US imperialism can expand? 
             
Hillary trying to get US bases is just another White impearilist to rebuff. (She's made no statements indicating she wants the US to take part in wars in Africa. By contrast, Samantha Power got on board Bambi's Senate work to sell him war on Darfur and he still echoes Power's opinion.) "Son of Kenya" could get those bases. And it's amazing that so many allegedly 'anti-war' types are silent on that fact.         

The Iraq War has taken place. It is ongoing. It's laughable to see 'peace' 'leaders' refuse to call out what's set to come in Africa. It's laughable to watch them avoid using the term "
AFRICOM."

AFRICOM was supposed to be up and running by now. It is up and running . . . in Germany but the failure to secure land deals for bases has stymied it somewhat.  May 23, 2002,
Mike Crawley's article in The Christian Science Monitor opened with the following:


In the search for alternative sources of oil outside the politically volatile Middle East, the US is increasingly turning toward a place not normally seen as a major energy producer: sub-Saharan Africa.           
The region's crude oil production surpassed 4 million barrels a day in 2000 – more than Iran, Venezuela, or Mexico. The US currently gets 16 percent of its oil imports from sub-Saharan Africa -- almost as much as from Saudi Arabia. And, according to projections by the National Intelligence Council, that proportion will reach 25 percent by 2015, surpassing the entire Persian Gulf. The vast majority of it will come from a stretch of coastline between Nigeria and Angola called the Gulf of Guinea.
 
Samantha Power, for those who've forgotten, is Our Modern Day Carrie Nations and The Nation magazine (the 'anti-war' Nation magazine) has been happy to run her garbage.  Those in the peace movement stupid enough to listen to 'leaders' saying Barack will end the illegal war damn well better be willing to own what's planned for Africa.
 

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Barack whines

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
 
"STUPID OLD BUCHENWALD!" GRIPED SENATOR BAMBI OBAMA TODAY, KICKING A WALL REPEATEDLY.  "WHO EVER HEARD OF BUCHENWALD!"
 
HE WAS UPSET BECAUSE THE PRESS HAD CAUGHT HIM IN HIS LIE THAT HE HAD A GREAT UNCLE (ON HIS MOTHER SIDE) WHO HELPED FREE AUSCHWITZ WHEN THAT WAS THE SOVIET UNION.  (MAYBE BAMBI'S PINK ROOTS WERE SHOWING?)  iT WAS BUSHENWALD.  THESE REPORTERS ATTEMPTS TO POINT OUT THAT BUSHENWALD WAS ALSO A CONCENTRATION CAMP DID NOT HELP.
 
"AUSCHWITZ IS BETTER! EVERYONE KNOWS IT!  NOW I'M STUCK WITH TALKING ABOUT BUSHENWALD!  WHY WON'T THE PRESS LET ME EAT MY WAFFLES IN PEACE!  SHOULDN'T IT BE ENOUGH THAT I SAY IT!  THEY DON'T HAVE TO CHECK IT OUT!"
 
BARACK FINALLY EXHAUSTED HIMSELF, FELL TO THE FLOOR, CURLED UP AND SUCKED ON HIS THUMB.
 
 
Starting with war resistance.  Last Wednesday, US war resister and Iraq War vet Corey Glass was informed by the Canadian government that he had until June 12th to leave on his own and, after that, he would be deported.  The government is refusing to grant him asylum.  Attorney Jeffrey House explains to The Real News Network (link has text and audio), "A soldier discovers the war is illegal, and then he or she doesn't want to participate in it.  If they go back to the United States, they're treated as deserters, and they can't argue, 'Oh, this is an illegal war.'  The courts have said you're not able to raise such a complicated question.  And so a main argument and a main reason why these soldiers have refused to fight on honorable grounds is being kept out of the court system -- it tears the heart out of the argument."
 
Yesterday Sandra Cason (Marshall News Messenger) reported on the family of James Grady Johnson who died while serving in Vietnam (February 26, 1968).  Cason spoke with his siblings and oldest sister Linda Ford stated that her half-brother went AWOL for a brief period (three days) and is quoted by Cason stating, "'I bear a great burden of guilt. I'm the one who talked him into' going back 'and I took him to the plane in Longview. It is something I will always regret. I had the money to send him to Canada, which is what a lot of others did'."
 
War resisters in Canada today need support as they wait to see if the motion for safe harbor is going to come to the Parliament floor.  You can utilize the following e-mails to show your support: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration.  In addition Jack Layton, NDP leader, has a contact form and they would like to hear from people as well. A few more addresses can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use.  Lahey quotes NDP's Oliva Chow, who steered the motion, explaining, "If (Liberal leader) Stephane Dion were to say tomorrow that he supports this motion . . . we will then debate it.  So we need people to call Mr. Dion . . . 'whose side you on Mr. Dion'?"  The number to call is (613) 996-5789.       
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes 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 political races in the US.  Where there are lies, there lies Katrina vanden Heuvel who writes, "The women of The Nation are the first to deplore the sexism in media commentary this primary season, but a 'cover up'?"  We'll get back to "cover up" but let's be really clear that "the women of The Nation" -- she makes it sound like a special issue of Playboy, doesn't she? -- didn't do crap.  Stab Barbara Ehrenreich?  Her idiotic nonsense about Hillary's 'scary' religion?  (While refusing to note Barack's ties to the same prayer group.)  Betsy Reed? Self-loathing lesbian Laura Flanders staying silent on Barack's use of homophobia but making time to slime Robin Morgan?  How about this simple and undeniable fact: The Nation magazine publishing 491 men, 149 women in 2007.  Want to fix sexism, Katrina, fix your own damn magazine.  Funny, you dispatched Ben to e-mail this site in the summer of 2007 claiming that you were going to do just that.  And you never did a damn thing.  True, Katrina did call out David Schuster's outrageous remark on MSNBC that Hillary was 'pimping' Chelsea. She deserves credit for that -- no sarcasm.  You didn't see anyone at The Progressive call it out, did you?  Amy Goodman played dumb.  So Katrina does get credit for that but that credit is off-set by the fact that she allowed longterm sexist (so sexist it got him kicked out of the Berkeley commune) Tom Hayden to hide behind his wife for his sexist rant which The Nation was happy to publish online.  No, Katrina, the women of The Nation have done damn little.  Over and over.  "Cover up"?  Bill Clinton (video here) was speaking of the push to force Hillary out of the race when she is in fact winning the popular vote.  Bill's not a crackpot, his remarks were not 'shocking'.  He called it like it was.  It's cute of Katrina to pretend like she's been pro-Bill Clinton until now.  She's written and okayed the publishing of the sort of crap one's more used to seeing in The Weekly Standard but fascists in love with authoritarian regimes stick together, now don't the?  Katrina, you're not a feminist.  (You also didn't win an award from Planned Parenthood -- The Nation was awarded, not you -- try correcting that lie.)  For the record, a feminist calls out homophobia but no one at your crap-ass magazine (with declining circulation that can no longer be hidden by including trial subscriptions in the count) ever called out Barack's homophobia.  Sell your lies elsewhere.
 
Katrina also feels the need to offer this version of the rules and 'democray': "when the polls close on June 3, superdelegates should move, expeditiously, to make their decision . . ."  Uh, no, they shouldn't.  The rules don't allow for that.  By the rules, it now goes to the convention floor unless Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama decides to drop out.  Democracy is a difficult concept for the school girl spending her days dreaming of the Soviet Union but that's what we've got in the US, accept it.  "Cover up" frightens Katty-van-van because she's been all up in the campaign since 2006.  She's been behind the scenes, using the Roosevelt Institution to conduct 'meet ups'.  If anyone ever checks out how the Institution played it this election season, it won't be pretty for Katty.  She brought on FaceBook to the campaign, she orchestrated coverage, she did a great deal.  She doesn't believe in democracy and it's no surprise that she's scared now. There's a push back and it's so huge, Katrina has to put aside the planning and aftermath time for the seventeenth birthday party to scribble some garbage quickly.  For more on how Panhandle Media has schemed to deceive the people, see "Realities in the Democratic presidential nomination contest," "The Democratic Race for the presidential nomination," "hillary, hillary and only hillary," "Only Hillary can win in November," "Hillary can win in November," "Want to win the White House?," "Realities in the Democratic presidential nomination contest," "Realities in the Democratic presidential nomination contest," "There's only one choice for Democrats,"
"The cruelest and most vile word you can call a Democrat," "Is the DNC paying attention?" and "Hillary's the only choiceAs Elaine's noted, Katty-van-van is no friend to women.  The women of The Nation have done damn little other than encourage it and waive it through (in one of three pieces -- columns and blog posts -- Katha Pollitt did call out Tom Hayden -- but how did he get published to begin with?  The same way that filth of a 'book review' sliming two women authors and extolling the virtues of a bordello was published in The Nation's first issue for 2007.  Take responsibility for that, Katrina.)   As Linda Hirshman (Slate) noted of Pig Hayden's nonsense:
 
In a recent Nation column, Tom Hayden (the '60s guy, now in his 60s) deployed a full arsenal of insults, comparing Clinton to Lady Macbeth and then going on to liken her appearance to a "screech" on the blackboard.               
Hayden, apparently fearing some criticism, hid behind the voice of his never-before-heard third wife, Barbara, a "meditative practitioner of everything peaceful and organic," never previously given to offering hostile political pronouncements. But Clinton's appearance on TV apparently makes Tom's wife "scream." Poor Tom Hayden, still looking for a sufficiently submissive female. Everyone remembers Jane Fonda, Hayden's second wife. But probably few Nation readers remember the first Mrs. Hayden, one Casey Hayden. In 1965, right around the time she divorced Tom, Casey Hayden wrote the screed that helped launch the women's liberation movement, "Sex and Caste." Her ex-husband's most recent unleashing of the hysteria rocket shows how little distance we have covered since Casey Hayden picked up her pen.
 
That garbarge of Hayden's was brought to you by Betsy Reed and Katrina vanden Heuvel.  They need to own it and they need to apologize for it.  (Don't hold your breath waiting.)  They could have done a roundtable on the issue but weren't interested.  Instead CNN's Reliable Sources, anchored by Howard Kurtz, did that.  Susan (Random Notes) has posted the video of the discussion and notes "Marie Cocco really hits the 'liberal' or 'progressive' blogs and their commentators for their filth."  
 
Carol Costello: It does bother me personally.  It does bother me deeply.  And you know I've done many stories on The Situation Room on this.  One thing I would like to say, you know, we sit around and we blame males for sexist comments but women are guilty as well.  I remember Jane Fonda came out and called Hillary Clinton what?  "A patriarch with a vagina."  Laura Ingraham, the conservative radio talk show host played the Wicked Witch of the West music everytime she talked about Hillary Clinton.  Randi Rhodes, a liberal woman talker, she called Hillary a term I cannot say on television.  But at least she was fired on it.  But women play into this sexist culture as well.  You know, explain to me, ladies, why women play into this when they have been in the same position as Hillary Clinton, fighting to get to the top, they know what it's like and yet they play into it.  And they get away with it because the media doesn't cover that part of it."
 
Transcript here.  It should be noted Jane Fonda has denied that she made the statement everyone heard her make but, after saying the "c" word on NBC what do you expect?  While Katty-van-van issues dispatches from her Harlem mansion, her crush Barack puts his foot in his mouth again.  Not content to claim there were 57 states in the United States, Jeralyn (TalkLeft) points out Barack's now claiming to see dead people: "On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today -- our sense of . . ."  Barack Obama, thinking he's fit to be president, doesn't even know what a "fallen hero" is. Apparently, they didn't teach that Indonesia (or Barack couldn't follow it) and skipped it in his posh prep school as well.  (Jeralyn also reviews the primaries and the caucuses here.) It's a hard knocks life, that elite life Barack's lived.  Rachael Jolley (New Statesman) speaks with Sidney Blumenthal about how he sees it as part of the Hillary campaign:
 
"She has a tangible connection with them that she didn't have before. She has very definite connections with these voters."        
Blumenthal, who has written extensively about the consequences of a Republican-dominated America and been an outspoken critic of Bush the younger, believes that the Democrats' key failure in the latter part of the 20th century was an inability to reach and represent working people: "This is a central factor for the regeneration of the Democratic party," adding they had come to be seen as "elitist".           
The Democrats were further stigmatised, particularly through the Reagan years, as less patriotic than the Republicans, and less competent with the economy - similar to the picture the Tories painted of the UK Labour Party in the 1970s and 1980s. "The Clinton period was an effort to deal with these inherited problems and to reconstruct the centre left," says Blumenthal.         
The strength of Blumenthal's conviction that Hillary should be the next Democratic candidate matches the strength -- and waspishness -- of his opinion that Barack Obama should not. For example, he dismisses Obama's foreign experience as "I think he stopped in Britain once for a day".              
"Obama's problem is, as a candidate he hasn't really extended his support beyond his base as a state senator." These supporters hail from liberal academia, the well-off young and African Americans, believes Blumenthal, who is not afraid to point the finger at Obama's attitude to working class as "insulting", plainly referring to comments during the Pennsylvania primary.          
 
Meanwhile Joan Walsh makes an idiot (and racist) out of herself at Salon where she posited on Monday that those White and Latino voters not supporting Barack may not be racist, they just may have a "lack of familiarity with Obama."  Quoting Ava: "How dare you write about people you know nothing about and how dare your Anglo publication try to talk about my community.  Kiss my Latina ass, Joan Walsh.  Latinos and Latinas know who Obama is -- I imagine so do most White voters regardless of income unless they're returning from a mission to Mars -- the reality is WE DO NOT LIKE HIM.  It has nothing to do with race, it has everything to do with his empty rhetoric and the fact that he's a light-weight.  Hillary's the fighter and has earned that title.  But Barack couldn't take that title away from her with both her hands tied behind her back.  He is weak.  The Latino community does not look to weaklings to lead. Dolores Huerta is no cream puff.   Either leave your desk and speak to the people you think you 'know' or write about what you do know.  I doubt you know a damn thing about the White working class in Kentucky but I damn well know you don't know a thing about the Latino community.  Clue to Joan: Instead of you writing about my community, how 'bout you get off your Anglo ass and hire some Latinos and Latinas to write and, no, that's not a a request for a job. Tu no eres nadaien importante loca vieja.  If that confuses you, it just demostrates my point.  Let me throw it back to you: You may not be racist, you just may be stupid.  How does that feel on your end?" 
 
Lastly, Womens Media Center notes (link has petition and video): "On May 23, The Women's Media Center, along with our partners at Media Matters, launched, "Sexism Sells, But We're Not Buying It," a new video and online petition campaign illustrating the pervasive nature of sexism in the media's coverage. While Hillary Clinton's campaign has cast a spotlight on the issue of sexism, this isn't a partisan issue: it's about making sure that women's voices are present and powerful in our national dialogue. If you haven't already, please click on the image at right to watch the video. You can also read a statement about the video from WMC president Carol Jenkins. Then sign on below to join our petition campaign."
 

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