Wednesday,
July 30, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, Parliament takes their
summer recess, a war resister tells his story, for-show actions
continue in Iraq, a new report on waste in Iraq is released, and more.
Tuesday, July 15th
will go down as a black day in Canadian history. The first Iraqi War
Resister from the American military was deported from Canada for
refusing to fight in a war that Canada refused to get involved in, that
the United Nations has called illegal, and that much of the world sees
as an invasion of a sovereign country for oil resources. Robin
Long, 25, was one of hundreds of U.S. men and women who have struggled
with the decision to risk life-long separation from their families,
friends and their country to stay in Canada. If they return to the U.S.
they can face arrest, court martial, prison sentences, deployment to
Iraq and being blacklisted from employment and education opportunities
for the rest of their lives. Many of these youth have been targeted by
an 'economic draft', a US recruitment effort that targets the poor with
offers of employment, health care for family members, higher education
and more if they sign up. These promises are not always kept. Our
country has a history once known for peacekeeping, for the art of
diplomatic negotiation, for refuge in times of war, for welcoming
conscientious objectors like the Mennonites, the Quakers, the
Doukhobors, and the Vietnam draft dodgers. These immigrants have made
huge contributions to the life of their communities and to our
country. Prime Minister Harper's Conservative government chose to direct the deportation of Mr. Long DESPITE the June 3rd House of Commons vote
in favour of a resolution introduced by my colleague, Olivia Chow,
Federal NDP Immigration Critic. This motion called on our Government to
cease any removal or deportation actions against conscientious
objectors who have refused or left military service related to a war
not sanctioned by the UN. It called for the government to immediately
set up programs to allow their application for permanent residency
status, so that they can remain in Canada. Further,
on June 27th Angus Reid released a poll showing that 64% of Canadians
believe that US War Resisters should be allowed to stay in Canada,
re-enforcing the fact that the vote in Parliament was reflecting the
will of the Canadian people. On
July 4th the Federal Court of Canada acted, and ruled that war resister
Joshua Key should have his denied refugee claim reviewed by the Refugee
Board of Canada. The court found that someone who refuses to take
part in military action which "systematically degrades, abuses or
humiliates" combatants or non-combatants might qualify as a
refugee. On July
9th, the Federal Court further ruled that war resister Corey Glass's
order for deportation the next day should be stayed for an indefinite
period of time. The Canadian people and the Parliament of Canada have spoken. I
call upon Minister Day, Minister Finley and Prime Minister Harper to
respect the will of Parliament and the Canadian people and to stand up
to President Bush to ensure that American soldiers who oppose that war
receive a welcome in Canada. Alex Atamanenko, MP BC Southern Interior
And, of course, "draft dodgers" and "deserters" were both welcomed into Canada during Vietnam. On Robin Long, the War Resisters Support Campaign states:
Against
the wishes of Canadians and Canada's Parliament, the federal government
deported U.S. Iraq war resister Robin Long to the United States, where
he faces punishment for refusing to participate in the Iraq
War. Robin is currently being held at Fort Carson, Colorado. People can send letters of support to Robin at the following address:
Robin Long, CJC 2739 East Las Vegas Colorado Springs, Colorado USA 80906
Robin
is allowed to receive hand or type-written letters. They must not
include anything like drawings made with markers, lipstick, crayons,
stickers etc. or print articles. There can be no enclosures, with the
exception of standard size photographs (ie. up to 4x6 inches). These
must be printed at a photo developing place (i.e. not photocopies, or
from a home printer, or Polaroids), and there must be LESS than ten
photos, otherwise they will get put in lockup with his personal
belongings and he won't see them. The
War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada
to urgently continue to put pressure on the minority conservative
government to immediately cease deportation proceedings against other
US war resisters and to respect the will of Canadians and their elected
representatives by implementing the motion adopted by Parliament on
June 3rd. Please see the take action page for what you can do.
War resisters in Canada need your help. To pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist
all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and
Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail finley.d@parl.gc.ca -- that's "finley.d" at "parl.gc.ca") and Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, 613.992.4211, phone; 613.941.6900, fax; e-mail pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's "pm" at "pm.gc.ca"). Courage to Resist collected more than 10,000 letters to send before the vote. Now they've started a new letter you can use online here. The War Resisters Support Campaign's petition can be found here.
Long expulsion does not change the need for action and the War
Resisters Support Campaign explains: "The War Resisters Support
Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada to urgently continue to
put pressure on the minority conservative government to immediately
cease deportation proceedings against other US war resisters and to
respect the will of Canadians and their elected representatives by
implementing the motion adopted by Parliament on June 3rd. Please see
the take action page for what you can do."
Thank goodness for The Canadian Press. Were it not for their article, the CBC, the Welland Tribune, the Globe and Mail and the Buffalo News
(among others) might have blank spaces. Instead, all work from the same
TCP article to tell you that Deltona, Florida's 23-year-old Tyrone
Pachauer was arrested by US Customs and Border officers as he attempted
to enter the US following a self-checkout while on leave (December 19th
through January 1st). He was reportedly living with relatives in
Brampton, Ontario while AWOL. Precious Yutango (Toronto Star) is the only one filing a report and cites
US Customs and Border Protection's Kevin Corsaro stating, "Supposedly,
he had left boot camp in December for Christmas break. I guess he
decided he didn't want to be in the army anymore so he fled to
Brampton." Meanwhile AP reports
Casey Anne Hardt (18-years-old, from Chiloquin, Oregon) was arrested in
. . . Louisiana -- which may hold the record for the most arrests of
AWOLs during the Iraq War. She was arrested at a traffic stop in
Bossier City (right next to Shreveport). AP states she had a desertion warrant and was now awaiting "extradition to Fort Leonard Wood", MO.
Courage to Resist speaks
with Michael Thurman (audio interview) about how he signed up,
at seventeen-years-old, for the delayed entry program in 2005 while in
high school, "I was really interested in aviation and having a career
in aviation. . . . One day the air force recruiter came to school and I
was talking to her about joining the military as an air force
maintenance technician and eventually working to become a pilot." He
described himself at that time as "indifferent," "young," "motivated by
self-interests" and in "a conservative right-wing household."
In
his senior year he "found some new friends" who provided him with "more
of a liberal lean towards politics. So I started seeing it through
those eyes and that's when I started becoming a little discontent with
the war and the government. . . . But I was still ready to go."
Thurman
was then sent to Lackland Air Force Base for basic training where, "I
just questioned a lot of things I was being taught." In one class the
training was videos of violence -- people being shot, people being
blown up -- which led Thurman to questioning. As did "one of the
chants was about killing people" which all indicated that "it just
seemed like a really hateful, angry situation I didn't want to be in."
Michael
Thurman: I didn't really want to be part of killing people but I was
already in and I didn't really have a choice so I just advanced and
kept telling myself it might get better. So I went through tech school
with that . . . with that kind of -- I was a little bit angry about my
situation and I got depressed about it a lot. And from there -- It was
actually during tech school that I started studying a lot of Eastern
philosophy and thought and Buddhism and Taoism and that kind of changed
my perspective in a spiritual way towards humanity and towards
existence. So . . . I guess I could say at that point I could say I
was totally opposed to the situation I was in.
Eventually, he ended up at Beale Air Force Base:
Michael
Thurman: I started working out on the flight lines. And every day I
was out there I just thought of all the indirect killing I was
contributing to and I just couldn't take it anymore. So one day I told
my supervisor that I didn't agree with any of it and I didn't want to
be in the military anymore. And I told him, if there was any way I
could get out, I'd like to get out. They took me off of flight run.
He's actually the one who told me about consientious objector. I
actually didn't know about the term until I was introduced to it by
him. So I looked into it and I read down the criteria and I thought,
"Wow, yeah, this is what I am, this is what I'm going to apply for so I
can get out of the military." So I applied for consientious. objector
status and it took me a long time to it was a really arduous process.
They put me in -- they put me in the office. They took me off of
flight line and put me in an office. And I was just doing personnel
work just pushing paper and filing. I was like a file clerk and that
sort of stuff which I was still contributing to it. So every day that
I was in, I was in constant turmoil about even the little, the little
stuff -- like mopping or taking out the trash. It still contributed to
this huge system that I was totally opposed to being.
Courage to Resist: So from the time you first asked to get out until you were discharged, how long was it?
Michael
Thurman: It took a very long time, eight months for me to get
discharged by the time I applied for conscientious objector status.
What happened was, when I applied I had to write a huge paper about
what I believe and how it came to be and why I couldn't contribute to
war anymore. And at that point, I had to talk to a psychiatrist to make
sure I was still sane. I guess they thought I might have been crazy .
. . I talked to a lawyer at the legal office and she's actually the
one that processed all my legal stuff and determined whether or not I
was actually a cons obj and she recommended me to my base commander
and it basically went up the chain of command so that's why it took a
long time. Oh and I also had to talk to a chaplain and the chaplain
gave me a report about my religious and spiritual beliefs. And, so
yeah, from that, from those interviews it goes to legal office on base
and then it just goes up the chain of command. And it went all the way
up to the Secretary of the Air Force and it took eight months for that
to happen.
There is a growing
movement of resistance within the US military which includes Andrei
Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste,
Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano
Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal,
Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn,
Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross
Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique,
Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez,
Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada,
Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen,
Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman,
Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck,
Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine,
Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey,
Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua
Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell,
Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake,
Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres,
Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and
Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada
have applied for asylum.
In
the US today, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstuction
issued a report. Stuart Bowen Jr. issued a note to the report [PDF format warning] explaining,
"The United States has now appropriated more than $50 billion in
taxpayer dollars for Iraq's reconstruction." The report notes its
basis is "seven new audit products" between May 1st and June 30th of
this year. The US has outsourced and done so badly if that's not
redundant. As is well known, the US government has provided no
oversight. Most recently, Dana Hedgpeth and Amit R. Paley (Washington Post) reported
Monday on a finding from the Officie of the Special Inspector General
for Iraq Reconstruction, "The U.S. government paid a California
contractor $142 million to build prisons, fire stations and police
facilities in Iraq that is has nver built or finished". The report
released today notes these oversight problems on the part of the US
government:
* Inappropriate payment of award fees.
* Insufficiently defined scope of work.
* Inadequate preparation of detailed and independent cost estimates.
* Not initiating timely action to close out task orders.
Of
course a key problem was the awarding of no-bid contracts on what
appears to be a crony system. Parsons is always in the news . . . when
it comes to corruption. The report is not different and notes Parsons
re: fire houses, "SIGIR reviewed the largest task order, Task Order 51,
which called for Parsons to design and construct 21 fire stations in
Anbar and Baghdad. Because of multiple delays and cost increases, the
U.S. government reduced the number of stations to be constructed to
100. Later another fire station was eliminated before construction
began because of land ownership issues, and a second was terminated for
the convenience of the government after it was bombed twice during
construction leaving nine. In 2006, Parsons completed the nine fire
stations and transferred them to the GOI. The award fee paid to
Parsons for wok on this tark order was $296,294 -- 23% of the total
available award fee."
Parsons bills itself as "a leader
in many diverse markets such as infrastructure, transportation, water,
telecommunications, aviation, commerical, environmental, industrial
manufacturing, education, healthcare, life scienes and homeland
security." The company was formed in 1944 and moved to Pasadena in
1992 -- a move James F. McNulty instituted four years prior to be
coming CEO and President of the company. McNulty is currently the
Chair of the Board (and has been since 1998) and he joined Parsons upon
retiring from the US army (Col.) in 1988. What a ride it's been for
McNulty. Griff Witte (Washington Post) reported
at the end of the 2006 that Parsons and McNulty felt under attack from
Congress and McNulty was blaming others and that he "suggested the
government needed to rethink its heavy dependence on the private sector
for reconstruction, security and support in a combat environment. The
comments are unusual for the leader of a firm that makes much of its
money doing work for the government. Then again, few have been
battered as badly as Parsons, an employee-owned, California-base
compnay with a six-decade track record. Since the spring, when news of
the stumbling health clinic program first broke, the company's
preformance has been derided in the press and upt under the microscope
at congressional hearings. At a hearing in September, Rep. Henry A.
Waxman (D-Calif.) spoke of a $75 million police academy that Parsons
was responsible for but that wend badly awry: 'This is the lens through
which Iraqis will now see America. Incompetence. Profiteering.
Arrogance. And human waste oozing out of ceilings as a result'." On a June 23, 2004 broadcast of PBS' NewsHour,
Waxman called it what it was: "It is looked at as profiteering. And we
shouldn't have that go on a time when we've got brave. American men
and women who are facing the possibility of giving their lives to help
the U.S. effort." McNulty rejected that and insisted that there was no
way "we are somehow taking advantage of either the Iraqi people or our
government." In January of last year, KCET's Life & Times was returning
to the difference of opinions between Waxman and McNulty with Waxman
arguing, "I don't think anybody ought to get paid and be able to keep
the money if they didn't do what they were supposed to do. Then they
found that the Iraqi subcontractors didn't do the work, so why should
the United States taxpayers pay for that? We should get our money
back." To which McNulty responded, "There is nothing wrong with our
firm having made a profit on that work that we did over there in Iraq.
It was legitimately earned. It was honestly earned and none of our
employees nor our firm should feel the least bit bad about that." That
'honest' work that McNulty's so proud of is best evaluated by Jackie Northam (NPR) reporting in May of 2007:
"Getting a definitive answer on the number of clinics completed by
Parsons is not easy. Of the original 151 promised, the construction
company says it handed over 20 fully equipped, completed health-care
centers. The Army Corps of Engineers disputes that number, saying it
received only six completed clinics. Some of those needed additional
work, the Corps says."
The SIGIR report notes that
"Iraq's oil revenues will crest $70 billion by the end of the year."
meanwhile approximately $40 million in US tax dollars was wasted on a
prison outside Baquba (Kahn Bani Sa'ad) which was turned over to the
central government in Baghdad (to finish).This prison was a Parson's
'effort'. The report notes, "About $142 million was spent on various
Parsons projects that were ultimately canceled or not completed,
including Kahn Bani Sa'ad. The report notes Iraq's deputy prime
minister (Barham Salih) stating, "Iraq does not need financial
assistance." BBC explains,
"This . . . meant the government was capable of fundign reconstruction
projects itself. The report also criticised the Iraqi authorities for
failing to improve sewage and drainage facilities. . . . Roger Hardy,
the BBC's Middle East analyst, said the report was the latest in a
string of criticisms by the watchdog of the way in which American
taxpayers' money is being spent in Iraq" Click here for HTML folder containing links to the -- PDF format warning -- sections of the report. Peter Spiegel (Los Angeles Times) points out,
"Democratic leaders in Congress are pushing the administration to
pressure the Iraqi government to fund its own infrastructure projects
through rising oil revenue."
Meanwhile, the pagentry of puppety . . . Diyala Province. Campbell Robertson (New York Times) reports,
"Military officers, both Iraqi and Americans, said the insurgents had
probably fled the are after news media reports that the sweep was to
begin soon, though officials had been saying publicly that it would be
likely to begin in early August." Alexandra Zavis (Los Angeles Times) explained,
"Iraqi soldiers and national police encountered no resistance as they
knock in Baqubah and the town of Khan Bani Saad, about 15 miles south.
But this is well-trod ground for the Iraqi forces and their U.S.
counterparts, who have conducted repeated operations in the area since
last year." It's a for-show effort that (a) props up the puppet Nouri
al-Maliki and (b) makes the war seem 'winnable.' In the real world, Reuters reports
that Moqtada al-Sadr has "called on Iraq's leaders not to sign a
security deal with the United States, offering to throw his support
behind the government if the talks were scrapped." Iraq's parliament
is out of session now (for one month); however, Reuters reports that Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani has called a special session for Sunday to address the electoral issues.
Last
Friday on Capitol Hill, the House Judiciary Committee weighed in on
"executive power and its constitutional limits" in an inconsequential
discussion of King George's imperial presidency.
There would be no vote on impeachment, no discussion of the dereliction of Congressional duty, and no Ralph Nader.
Ralph
Nader, who has long championed the necessity of impeachment for W's
repeated, defiant high crimes and misdemeanors, was not invited to
testify at the Rayburn Building on Friday morning. Writer DC Larson
summed the situation up, proclaiming that the "Democrat-led Congress
are as unconcerned about political justice as is any neo-con in Rupert
Murdoch's Rolodex."
The Nader campaign was there to observe,
along with hundreds of other concerned citizens, but couldn't crack the
guest-list, despite a run-in with Ms. Kucinich . Only 16 individuals
were granted admission into the hall to observe testimony from the
following witnesses:
Panel I:
Hon. Dennis Kucinich U.S. House of Representatives 10th District, OH
Hon. Maurice Hinchey U.S. House of Representatives 22nd District, NY
Hon. Walter Jones U.S. House of Representatives 3rd District, NC
Hon. Brad Miller U.S. House of Representatives 13th District, NC
Panel II:
Hon. Elizabeth Holtzman Former U.S. House of Representatives 16th District, NY Department of Justice
Hon. Bob Barr Former U.S. House of Representatives U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 7th District, GA
Hon. Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson Founder and President High Roads for Human Rights
Stephen Presser Raoul Berer Professor of Legal History Northwestern University School of Law
Bruce Fein Associate Deputy Attorney General, 1981-82 Chairman, American Freedom Agenda
Vincent Bugliosi Author and Former Los Angeles County Prosecutor
Jeremy A. Rabkin Professor of Law George Mason University School of Law
Elliott Adams President of the Board Veterans for Peace
Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr. Senior Counsel Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
Said
Chairman John Conyers with regard to his committee's inaction, "we are
not done yet, and we do not intend to go away until we achieve the
accountability that Congress is entitled to and the American people
deserve."
Dear Editor, Tuesday,
July 15th will go down as a black day in Canadian history. The first
Iraqi War Resister from the American military was deported from Canada
for refusing to fight in a war that Canada refused to get involved in,
that the United Nations has called illegal, and that much of the world
sees as an invasion of a sovereign country for oil resources. Robin
Long, 25, was one of hundreds of U.S. men and women who have struggled
with the decision to risk life-long separation from their families,
friends and their country to stay in Canada. If they return to the U.S.
they can face arrest, court martial, prison sentences, deployment to
Iraq and being blacklisted from employment and education opportunities
for the rest of their lives. Many of these youth have been targeted by
an 'economic draft', a US recruitment effort that targets the poor with
offers of employment, health care for family members, higher education
and more if they sign up. These promises are not always kept. Our
country has a history once known for peacekeeping, for the art of
diplomatic negotiation, for refuge in times of war, for welcoming
conscientious objectors like the Mennonites, the Quakers, the
Doukhobors, and the Vietnam draft dodgers. These immigrants have made
huge contributions to the life of their communities and to our country. Prime
Minister Harper's Conservative government chose to direct the
deportation of Mr. Long DESPITE the June 3rd House of Commons vote in
favour of a resolution introduced by my colleague, Olivia Chow, Federal
NDP Immigration Critic. This motion called on our Government to cease
any removal or deportation actions against conscientious objectors who
have refused or left military service related to a war not sanctioned
by the UN. It called for the government to immediately set up programs
to allow their application for permanent residency status, so that they
can remain in Canada. Further,
on June 27th Angus Reid released a poll showing that 64% of Canadians
believe that US War Resisters should be allowed to stay in Canada,
re-enforcing the fact that the vote in Parliament was reflecting the
will of the Canadian people. On
July 4th the Federal Court of Canada acted, and ruled that war resister
Joshua Key should have his denied refugee claim reviewed by the Refugee
Board of Canada. The court found that someone who refuses to take part
in military action which "systematically degrades, abuses or
humiliates" combatants or non-combatants might qualify as a refugee. On
July 9th, the Federal Court further ruled that war resister Corey
Glass's order for deportation the next day should be stayed for an
indefinite period of time. The Canadian people and the Parliament of Canada have spoken. I
call upon Minister Day, Minister Finley and Prime Minister Harper to
respect the will of Parliament and the Canadian people and to stand up
to President Bush to ensure that American soldiers who oppose that war
receive a welcome in Canada. Alex Atamanenko, MP BC Southern Interior
The above is a letter to the editor sent to Arrow Lakes News. Alex Atamanenko is an MP from the New Democratic Party.
Why do people sign up? Some don't. Some sign up for the 'delayed entry
program' while they are underage and that does not mean they have to go
into the military. But the recruiters love to lie. Irving Gonzales and
Eric Martinez (as well as their families) found that out. In "Caught on tape: Army recruiters threaten high school students"
(text and video), KHOU's Mark Greenblatt reports on what happened to
both Gonzales and Martinez when both decided, no, they weren't
interested. Which they can do. The military cannot hold young adults to
contracts signed as juveniles. (Stop-loss should be legally tested on
the grounds of involuntary servitude and the bulk of service contracts
for would not stand up in a court of law based on the court's
historical standing regarding time of length and age of consent.) The
delayed entry program is not enlistment. When Gonzalez decided to tell
his recruiter he'd changed his mind and now planned to go to college
instead, the lies started and never ended:
The reaction: Gonzalez said a recruiter told him if he did drop out, they would send him to jail. Scared, Gonzales called Sgt. Glenn Marquette, a supervisor at the Greenspoint Recruiting Station. Marquette told Gonzales there was no way out. "You signed a binding contract," he said. But that wasn't true. Army
recruiting regulations say delayed entry members can leave any time.
They specifically mention "under no circumstances will any (recruiter)
threaten, coerce, manipulate, or intimidate (future soldiers), nor may
they obstruct separation requests." Further,
they state: "At no time will any (recruiter) tell a (Delayed Entry
Program) member he or she must go in the Army or he or she will go to
jail." But when Gonzales
asked Marquette what would happen if he just didn't show up for
service, a phone recording captured this reply: "Then
guess what?" said Marquette. "You're AWOL. Absent without leave. You
want to go to school? You will not get no loans, because all college
loans are federal and government loans. So you'll be black barred from
that. As soon as you get pulled over for a speeding ticket, they're
gonna see you’re a deserter, they're going to apprehend you, take you
to jail." Marquette
continued: "So guess what? All that lovey-dovey 'I wanna go to college'
and all that? Guess what? You just threw it out the window, because you
just screwed your life."
Glenn Marquette needs to be in
prison. Not a slap on the wrist, he needs to be thrown in prison. He
has a power and he has a trust -- he abused both. Exploitation of
minors. Firing isn't good enough. They've been placed in a position of
trust, they are deceiving and lying and people's lives are at risk. as
KHOU points out, it keeps going on and on:
Three
years ago in May of 2005, we found that another recruiter from that
station, a Sgt. Thomas Kelt, had left this phone message to a high
school student. This time the issue was simply keeping an appointment
to talk: "By federal law you
got an appointment with me at two this afternoon at Greenspoint Mall,"
Kelt told him. "OK? You fail to appear and we'll have a warrant, OK? So
give me a call back." Our
investigation into that call led to the Army announcing a national
stand-down so all of its recruiters could re-examine their methods and
regulations. But just two
months later, 11 News found that instead of punishing Sgt. Kelt, the
Army had promoted him to the role of station commander at a neighboring
recruiting station. That meant he would supervise and train other
recruiters on how to do the job. (And today? the Army confirms Sgt. Kelt still holds that supervisory position, but has since been transferred out of Texas.)
An
American man wanted in the U.S. on desertion charges who had apparently
been living for months in Brampton has been arrested while trying to
cross the border back into the U.S. American customs officials
apprehended Tyrone Pachauer, 23, at the Peace Bridge border crossing in
Fort Erie on Monday.
To show your support for US war
resisters in Canada, there are a number of actions you take. To
pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist
all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and
Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail finley.d@parl.gc.ca -- that's "finley.d" at "parl.gc.ca") and Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, 613.992.4211, phone; 613.941.6900, fax; e-mail pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's "pm" at "pm.gc.ca"). Courage to Resist collected more than 10,000 letters to send before the vote. Now they've started a new letter you can use online here. The War Resisters Support Campaign's petition can be found here.
Long expulsion does not change the need for action and the War
Resisters Support Campaign explains: "The War Resisters Support
Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada to urgently continue to
put pressure on the minority conservative government to immediately
cease deportation proceedings against other US war resisters and to
respect the will of Canadians and their elected representatives by
implementing the motion adopted by Parliament on June 3rd. Please see
the take action page for what you can do."
And came across Brian Lamb interviewing former New York Times reporter Chris Hedges.
Lamb asked Hedges who he's going to vote for this year for President.
Hedges did not hesitate.
"I'm going to vote for Nader," Hedges said.
"I can't vote for anybody who doesn't call for an immediate end to the war in Iraq."
"The war under post Nuremburg laws is a criminal war of aggression.
It's illegal. We have no right as a nation to debate the terms of the
occupation. We have no right to be there."
Hedges is a beacon of morality and courage in swamp of corruption, dishonesty and cowardliness.
And Hedges stands with Nader/Gonzalez -- the anti-war candidacy in 2008.
Hedges is just out with a new book, with Laila Al-Arian, titled Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians.
He's the author of two other anti-war classics:
What Every Person Should Know About War
and
War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning.
Luckily, we've come across a stash of all three.
And
for a donation of $200 now to fund our current ballot access drive,
we'll ship you all three books -- Collateral Damage, What Every Person
Should Know About War, and War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning.
This
coming fall, the Nader/Gonzalez campaign is positioning itself to make
the war in Iraq a central issue in the November campaign.
But
first, as you know, we're in the middle of nationwide drive to put
Nader/Gonzalez on 30 state ballots by August 10 -- on the way to 45
ballots by September 20.
And we need to raise $100,000 by August 10 -- just 13 days away.
So, donate $200 or more now, and we'll ship you the anti-war trilogy by Hedges.
Military
officers, both Iraqi and American, said that insurgents had probably
fled the area after news media reports that the sweep was to begin
soon, though officials had been saying publicly that it would be likely
to begin in early August. To achieve some degree of surprise, orders
to begin the operation came late Monday, catching even some military
personnel off guard.
Iraqi
soldiers and national police encountered no resistance as they knocked
on doors in Baqubah and the town of Khan Bani Saad, about 15 miles
south. But this is well-trod ground for the Iraqi forces and their U.S.
counterparts, who have conducted repeated operations in the area since
last year.
News Advisory FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
Chris Driscoll (Washington), 202-360-3273, chris@votenader.org; Ashley
Sanders, (SLC) 801-916-6307, ashley@votenader.org
RALPH NADER AND ROCKY ANDERSON WILL ADDRESS CAMPAIGN RALLY IN SALT LAKE CITY THURSDAY EVENING
Who: Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader with former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson What: Nader/Gonzalez Campaign Rally When: Thursday July 31, 7:30 p.m. Where: Libby Gardner Concert Hall, 1375 E President Circle, Salt Lake City, UT 84112
Independent
Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader will be joined by former Salt Lake
City Mayor Rocky Anderson at a Nader/Gonzalez campaign rally Thursday,
July 31, 7:30 p.m. The rally will be held in the Libby Gardner Concert
Hall, 1375 E President Circle, Salt Lake City. A suggested contribution
of $10/ $5 students will be asked at the door.
Mr.
Nader will speak about critical issues the major party candidates have
taken "off the table," that the Nader/Gonzalez campaign has put on the
table, including:
a comprehensive, negotiated military and corporate withdrawal date from Iraq;
a single-payer, Canadian-style, private delivery, free-choice public health insurance system for all;
a living wage and repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act;
a no-nuke, solar-based energy policy supported by renewable, sustainable, energy-efficient sources;
a carbon tax to deter global warming;
an
end to the corporate welfare and corporate crime that has resulted in
millions losing pensions, savings and jobs and squandered tax dollars;
and,
more direct democracy reflecting the preamble to our
constitution which starts with "we the people," and not "we the
corporations."
About the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign According
to a July 1 CNN poll, Ralph Nader is polling six-percent nationally,
higher than his highest major poll numbers during the same time period
in 2000 and approaching the ten-percent threshold required for
eligibility to participate in "America's Presidential Debate in New
Orleans", a non-Commission on Presidential Debates sponsored event
scheduled for September 18. In the key swing state of Michigan -- whose
voters were partially disenfranchised by the Democratic National
Committee -- an EPIC-MRA poll found Nader at eight-percent.
About Ralph Nader Celebrated
attorney, author and consumer advocate Ralph Nader has been named by
Time Magazine one of the "100 Most Influential Americans in the 20th
Century". For more than four decades he has exposed problems and
organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest
groups advocating solutions. He led the movement to establish the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and
enact the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and countless other pieces of
important consumer legislation. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer
cars, eat healthier food, breath better air, drink cleaner water, and
work in safer environments. Nader graduated from Princeton University
and received a LLB from the Harvard School of Law. For more information on the Nader/Gonzalez campaign, visit VoteNader.org.
We've just finished another hectic day here in the D.C. office and I wanted to dash off a quick udpate about the "Dinner with Ralph" e-mail contest.
The whole team (including Ralph, who came up with the idea!) is blown
away to see so many people sign-up as contestants, and even more as
participants and supporters.
Over the last five days, over 200 of our supporters have reached out to
more than 10,000 of their friends -- clearly there's nothing like a
little of the good ol' competitive spirit!
So -- quickly -- I want to remind you that it's not to late to
participate in the contest. The contest doesn't end until August 7th,
so there's lots of time left to win dinner with Ralph, or Matt, or to
win one of the many other prizes that are available.
And, we've just added two new prizes:
For anyone who enters and recruits at least five friends:
take part in an invitation-only conference call with Ralph and Matt.
That's right -- just recruit five friends to join our movement and
you're in on the conference call, and a chance to ask your questions to
Matt or Ralph.
And, if you recruit 20 friends
to join our "people fighting back" campaign: your choice of a t-shirt
from our Web store (and we have lots of new designs on the way). People
who reach 25 friends will get a t-shirt and a copy of the Declaration
of Independence.
Reach out to friends. Win prizes. It's really that easy. And we make it even easier by providing a way for you to invite up to 30 friends at a time from your address book -- you can go back and invite more friends as often as you'd like.
The people who are currently in the lead -- Ramy Mousa of Baton Rouge, LA; Anna Chambers of Fort Payne, AL; Scott Keddy of Cambridge, MA -- all got there in just five days.
Not only is there enough time to catch up, but with over 10 days left
in the contest, there's time to be queen (of king) of the hill. (The contest leader board is one of the most popular pages on our site right now!)
We really need more people to get in on the competition. Why? Because
this is our chance to reach out beyond "the choir" and to speak to the
people you know who may not even be aware of the Nader/Gonzalez
campaign. They may not realize that Nader/Gonzalez is ready to stand up
for the issues that matter in this election; issues like single payer
health care, reversal of U.S. policy in the Middle East, and military
withdrawal from Iraq. These are issues that need to be on the table
this year.
Tuesday July 29, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, is Diyala being used for
for-show purposes, all-they-need-now-is-a-locust-plague news, Iraqi unions have
a victory?, and more.
Starting with war resistance. James Burmeister was a class of 2007 war
resister which we all know means they got NO attention from Panhandle Media. His story was compelling -- as
are the stories of all war resisters -- and it was also news breaking. Mark
Larabee's "Soldiers still go over the hill even in an
all-volunteer Army" (The Oregonian, July 16, 2007) would break the
news of James Burmeister and of the kill-teams targeting Iraqi civilians. And
Panhandle Media would respond with . . . silence and indiferrence. Maybe they
just found it all 'tedious'? Dee Knight never saw the job of indpendent media
to render war resisters (or the Iraq War) invisible. Knight (Workers World) reports that Erich Burmeister
(rightly) considers his son a hero, "I think my son is a hero. There are many
Iraqis who were not killed because of what he did, and many GIs whose lives were
saved because of it. He made a tremendous service to his country by standing up
and bearing witness to the 'bait-and-kill' war crimes." Erich Burmeister
discusses the court-martial as well as the lead up and feels the military played
"'good cop-bad cop' . . . to perfection" in convincing James to enter a guilty
plea ("We took the bait and got our butts kicked"). Of the court-martial, he
notes, "I feel like the case was used as an example to other soldiers. Not only
will you get punished, but your loved ones will be too." James Burmeister can
receive letters "at Box A, Fort Knox, KY 40121." Earlier this month, Helen
Burmeister explained to Rachel McDonald (OPB), "I'm very disappointed in the way
they feel they can treat veterans of war. I think the reason my son went AWOL
was for a good reason. I don't think he deserved the punishment he got." James Burmeister was court-martialed July 16th,
Dee Knight covered the court-martial here and noted the
military came down hard on James because he was a whistle-blower.
Burmeister self-checked out and went to Canada. He decided to return to the
US in March and turn himself in. Robin Long self-checked out and went to Canada
as well; however, he did not make the decision to return. Judge Anne Mctavish
made the decision to extradite him and tried to pass it off as
deportation. Courage to Resist notes:
On July 15, 2008 U.S. Army PFC Robin Long became the first war
resister since the Vietnam War forced to leave Canada and to be turned over to
the U.S. military. Robin is currently being held in the El Paso County Jail, in
Colorado, awaiting his Courts Martial. He will be present for his Courts Martial
at Fort Carson, Co. He will likely be charged for AWOL, desertion, and possibly
speech-related violations of military discipline; he is facing a General Courts
Martial, the maximum penalty of such a trial is 20 years confinement. Support
Robin Long and all troops with the courage to resist!
War resisters in Canada need your help. To pressure the Stephen Harper
government to honor the House of Commons
vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane
Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone;
613.996.9749, fax; e-mail finley.d@parl.gc.ca --
that's "finley.d" at "parl.gc.ca") and Stephen Harper (Prime Minister,
613.992.4211, phone; 613.941.6900, fax; e-mail pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's "pm" at
"pm.gc.ca"). Courage to Resist collected more than 10,000 letters to send
before the vote. Now they've started a new letter you can use
online here. The War Resisters Support
Campaign's petition can be found here. Long expulsion does not
change the need for action and the War Resisters Support Campaign explains: "The
War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada to
urgently continue to put pressure on the minority conservative government to
immediately cease deportation proceedings against other US war resisters and to
respect the will of Canadians and their elected representatives by implementing
the motion adopted by Parliament on June 3rd. Please see the take action page for what you can do."
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which
includes Andrei Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard
Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano
Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew
Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard,
Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany
"Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James
Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua
Key, Ehren Watada, Terri
Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia,
Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc
Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark
Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo
Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders,
Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey,
Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel,
Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris
Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian
Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La
Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war
resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
In Iraq yesterday, bombings took place in Baghdad and another in Kirkuk.
Following the Kirkuk violence, Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Sabrina Tavernise (New
York Times) report, violence broke out in the form of mob attacks on
Turkmen, buildings were burned, guns were fired, rocks were thrown ("at least 25
Turkmen guards" were injured) leading Iraqi MP Saadeddin Arkej to declare, "I
can't practice democracy at the Parliament while the dictatorship is attacking
and burning the headquarters of the Turkmen Front in Kirkuk and burning and
looting other Turkmen establishments." Caesar Ahmed and Ned Parker (Los Angeles
Times) observe, "The bombing and reprisals provided a glimpse of the
passions among Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs over the future boundaries of Iraq's
Arab north and its Kurdistan region." Meanwhile AFP reports Turkey flew planes over northern Iraq in
an air strike which they state "completely destroyed" a cave used by PKK members
but Kurdish spokesperson Sinksar Abudllah states the bombings took place "where
there are only families who earn their living raising sheep. This is the first
time that Turkish planes have attacked during the day. We have not received any
information about casualties."
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Diyala
Province bombing that claimed 1 life. Diyala Province is where the assault began
today -- despite last week's leaks that it would start August 1st. Khalid al-Ansary (Reuters) reports that 14,000 to
18,000 Iraqi soldiers should be in the province now and notes, "A Reuters
witness said large numbers of Iraqi police and army personnel had deployed in
Baquba, where they were searching homes. The U.S. military was present in small
numbers backed by helicopters, the witness said." AFP notes the US military's attempts to hard-sell it
as an Iraqi operation (and ntoes they once claimed it would involved 30,000
Iraqi soldiers). AP quotes Ahmed Kadhim ("35-year-old
businessman") who criticizes the loose lips, "I think this allowed armed groups
to flee outside the province." Deborah Haynes (Times of London) appears
to back that up, noting that a serach in Fatamia found "only three or four
families remained. Six months ago there were 30 to 40 families. This eerie
scene has been played out repeatedly in other villages across the southeastern
corner of Diyala province, one of the country's most notorious areas." Which
should lead to questions of -- remember this was leaked well in advance --
whether or not this is a for-show measure intended to make it appear that things
are improving? In another report, Deborah Haynes (Times of London) notes
that Iraqi military is "backed by small US military teams". China's Xinhua points out that Diyala
Province is now under curfew. UPI reveals the assault's name "Omens of
Prosperity." BBC adds, "Apart from the deployment in Baquba,
Iraqi and US forces conducted raids in several outlying areas."
Alex Spillius (Telegraph of London)
reports US Gen David Petraeus is estimating Iraqis could be in (security)
control of their country by the middle of 2010. Considering Petraeus' past
estimates, don't hold your breath. Gordon Lubold (Christian Science Monitor) tosses a
damp blanket on Petraeus -- the GAO says that after all this time, Iraq is still
not responsible (in full -- or puppet) for 8 provinces, most forces aren't at
any level of readiness, benchmarks remain unreached.
The Iraqi government has withdrawn an order banning eight key union
organisers belonging to the powerful Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU). The
union leaders were ordered out of the southern city of Basra after the Western
backed government of Nuri al-Maliki said they were memebers of "militias" and
helped in the smuggling of oil. The union denied these charges. Hassan Juma'a
Awad, the head of the IFOU, called on unions around the world to rally to the
oil workers. In a statement he said, "This act is a clear evidence that the
Iraqi state seeks to liquidate trade unions in this important Iraqi economic
sector. It is important to note that the south is the main source of oil in
Iraq." Sabah Jawad, the spokesman for the Naftana, the organisation that
campaigns for Iraqi oil rights, told Socialist Worker that the government
reversed the order following mounting pressure from Iraqi unions and the
international anti-war movement. Jawad said, "We told Hussain al-Shahristani,
the Iraqi oil minister, that this was not acceptable, and informed him that we
were aware of the measures being taken by the oil ministry." US and European
oil multinationals are scrambling to grasp Iraq's vast oil reserves. George Bush
made the take-over of oil one of his key "indicators" that the "surge" is
succeeding. The return of the multinationals, 36 years after Iraq nationalised
its oil, has been greeted with widespread anger. The oil workers have been at
the head of the movement resisting the hand over of the industry to western
comanies. "The withdrawal of the order is a victory for international
solidarity and Iraqi trade unions," Jawad said.
I read an article in the July 12 edition of the New York Times titled
"Obama Won't Commit to Event at Military Base." The article confused me, because
in a recent Army Times article titled "If Obama Wins," you were quoted as saying
"Precisely because I have not served in uniform, I am somebody who strongly
believes I have to earn the trust of men and women in uniform."
The NY Times article mentioned, and it bears repeating, that Fort
Hood is the largest active-duty military installation in the country. Our post
is so large and our commitment to Iraq so great that the Killeen Daily Herald
published an article on July 13, 2008 about our sister division titled "4th ID
Association Looking to Expand Soldier Memorial."
Since speaking out against the war, I've had to take great
precautions to ensure that I'm never perceived to be speaking on behalf of the
United States Army nor the Armed Services as a whole, so I hope this letter
isn't perceived as such. But I have to say that I think it would be a huge step
toward earning the trust of men and women in uniform if you and your campaign
work with Carissa Picard and the Presidential Town Hall Consortium, and commit
to appearing at this meeting the way Senator McCain has.
The full letter is here. Meanwhile John Pilger (New Statesman) calls out
Barack's rah-rah on Afghanistan slaughter, "Having declared Afghanistan a 'good
war', the complicit enablers are now anointing Barack Obama as he tours the
bloodfests in Afghanistan and Iraq. What they never say is that Obama is a
bomber. In the New York Times on 14 July, in an article spun to appear as if he
is ending the war in Iraq, Obama demanded more war in Afghanistan and, in
effect, an invasion of Pakistan. He wants more combat troops, more helicopters,
more bombs. Bush may be on his way out, but the Republicans have built an
ideological machine that transcends the loss of electoral power -- because their
collaborators are, as the American writer Mike Whitney put it succinctly,
'bait-and-switch' Democrats, of whom Obama is the prince." Meanwhile, look what
happens when Gary Younge lets his Socialist roots hang free: He can tell the
truth the way he so rarely does in The Nation or the Guardian
of London. Writing for the UK's Socialist Review,
Young's Obama-devotion is not rushed to maximum high and includes the
following:
"[Obama] is being consumed as the embodiment of colour blindness,"
Angela Davis, professor of history of consciousness at the University of
California, Santa Cruz, told me last year. "It's the notion that we have moved
beyond racism by not taking race into account. That's what makes him conceivable
as a presidential candidate. He's become the model of diversity in this
period... a model of diversity as the difference that makes no difference. The
change that brings no change." Finally, he did not build a multi-racial
coalition but a bi-racial one. Clinton's base has been erroneously portrayed as
simply the white working class and older white women. But in California Latinos
and Asian-Americans went much more heavily for Clinton than whites did and made
her victory possible. The same was true with Latinos in Texas. Indeed the only
state where Obama won the Latino vote was his home state of Illinois. And even
then by just 1 percent.
Gary Younge, has it been erroneously reported? Yeah and you certainly did
your part to PUSH THE LIE in your other two outlets. In fact, he has been
nothing but a s**t stirrer and a LIAR throughout this election cycle as he
pretended he was 'one of us' (he's British, he will not be voting in this
election) and posed as a Democrat to make his lies just a little more forceful
to Americans. Either tell the truth or beg for Americans to start asking,
"Exactly who is Gary Younge?" (He's already lied again this week and the
misogynist Common Dreams was happy to repost it.) For the
record, Angela Y. Davis speaks the truth. [On truth, Michael D. Shear and Dan Balz (Washington
Post) try to track down the story of Barack's skipping out on wounded
US soldiers.] Patrick Martin (WSWS) points today to a Newsweek
interview with Barach where he "emphasized" "phased withdrawal" and Martin
observes this is "support for an open-ended US military presence in Iraq". It's
the 'residual forces' aspect that Barack will never be clear on -- but any
paying attention should have grasped he's not calling for withdrawal. Last week
Katie Couric (CBS Evening News -- video and
text at link) interviewed Barack and attempted to press him to get specific
about this "residual force" -- noting that "some of your advisors have said it
could be tens of thousands of troops. Why can't you be more specific as to what
you envision?" Barack's response included, "As I've said before . . . I am not
interested in a false choice between either perfect inflexibility in which the
next 16 months or the next two years I ignore anything that's happening in Iraq.
Or, alternatively, that I just have an open-ended, indefinite occupation of Iraq
in which we're not putting any pressure on the Iraqis to stand up . . . take
this burden on. What I'm gonna do is to set a vision of where we need to go, a
clear and specific timeframe within which we're gonna pull our combat forces
out." He would never answer the question. [Ava and I covered the interview here.] And unlike his remarks on Sunday, he did
agree the 'surge' was a success in that interview. (The 'surge' has not been a
success.) He's not supporting withdrawal. Which is why Patrick Martin (WSWS) concludes "The Amrican people
thus will be given the choice on November 4 of voting for War #1 or War #2, Iraq
or Afghanistan. In fact, they will be saddled with both wars, with only slight
differences between the Democrats and Republicans over which war should receive
the largest proportion of US military resources. Those who oppose American
militarism, who want to bring an end to the oppression and violence wrought by
imperialist aggression throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, have been
disenfrancised by the two big business parties." And voters have other choice
(including write-in, staying home, voting for other offices but not for
president) which includes other candidates because it is not a two-person
race. Ralph
Nader is the independent presidential candidate, Cynthia
McKinney is the Green Party presidential candidate and Bob Barr is
the Libertarian Party candidate. Last week the Nader - Gonzalez (Matt Gonzalez)
began a series of campaign stops that found local and regional media more
receptive to covering the presidential race than is the national media. Jim Galloway (AJC) quoted Nader speaking
at the University of Georgia, "[Obama is] always talking about his past as a
community organizer. But again and again, day after day, he's back-tracking,
surrendering, flip-flopping -- and appointing the worst corporatist advisors you
can imagine." John O'Connor (The State) covered
Ralph's appearance in South Carolina where Ralph explained of Barack and
presumed GOP nominee John McCain, "They represent a minority viewpoint. We
represent a majority of the American people." Yvonne Wenger (Post and Courier)
reported on the South Carolina stop as well quoting Ralp stating, "If you
don't resist, the situation gets worse. The alternative is surrender. . . . The
stands McCain and Obama have taken again and again do not have the support of
the majority of the American people." Sebastian Kitchen (Montgomery Advertiser) reported on his
stop in Montgomery at the Rosa Parks Library and Museum and how he noted "Rosa
Parks challenged the system" and wondered of the Iraq War, corporate control of
the country, minimum wage and healthcare, "Why aren't these issues talked about
by the major parties?" Marshall Griffin (KWMU) reported yesterday,
"Ralph Nader is a step closer to getting his name on Missouri's presidential
ballot. Robert Dalaviras, State Coordinator for the Nader campaign, delivered
two boxes of petitions to the Secretary of State's office in Jefferson City this
morning." KXAN reported on his Austin stop noting that he
called for a number of issues:
"A comprehensive, negotiated military and corporate withdrawal date
from Iraq" "A single-payer, Canadian-style, private delivery, free-choice
public health insurance system for all" "A living wage and repeal of the
anti-union Taft-Hartley Act" "A no nuke solar-based energy policy supported
by renewable, sustainable, energy-efficient sources" "A carbon tax to deter
global warming "An end to corporate welfare and corporate crime that has
resulted in millions losing pensions, savings and jobs and squandered tax
dollars" "More direct democracy reflecting the preamble to our constitution
which starts with 'we the people,' and not 'we the corporations"
Jennifer Latson (Houston Chronicle) reported on Ralph and
Matt Gonzalez' stop in Houston and how they received $7,000 in donations -- in a
state that as a result of restrictive (to put it mildly) ballot access laws,
they won't even be on the ballot for. (Texas voters can write-in
Nader-Gonzalez.) Nader declared in Houston, "This is the worst state in the
country in terms of denying voters their own choice of candidates." Prior to the
Austin stop, David Shieh (Austin American-Statesman) did
a Q&A with Nader:
American-Statesman: So why are you running for the presidency?
Ralph Nader: Strong labor laws facilitating unions, strong consumer
protections, environmental, foreign, military policy -- all these are not being
addressed in a way that a majority of people in this country want them
addressed. The majority of people in this country want single-payer health
insurance. They want a living wage. They want to get out of Iraq. They want a
lot of things that we stand for, and the other side -- (Sens. John) McCain and
(Barack) Obama -- are either against it or ignore it. They don't want to talk
about it.
Austin Cassidy (Austin Cassidy's Independent
Political Report) explains that August 2nd and 34d will find Ralph,
Cynthia McKinney, Brian Moore an Gloria La Riva competing in Sacramento for the
Peace and Freedom Party's nomination which would allow the candidate to be on
the ballot in California. (Cynthia's already on the ballot as the Green
nominee). La Riva was part of a woman of color presidential ticket in both 1996
and 2000 (with Monica Moorhead). Team Nader notes:
Is Nader/Gonzalez for real?
The country wants to know.
Will Nader/Gonzalez be on enough ballots in
November to make a run for it?
And to be seriously considered for the Presidential
debates?
We're now on 18 state ballots, heading toward 30 by
August 10 - on our way to our ultimate goal of 45 states by September 20.
And getting to thirty won't happen unless we hit
our goal of $100,000 by August 10. (Which would give us $2 million for the
entire campaign year to date.)
Thanks to you, we're at over $13,000 in just a few
short days.
First off, Democracy Now! features an Asian-American voice. Linda Jue. If you've been paying attention this year or read Liang's column in Polly's Brew
Sunday, you know how rare that has become for the show that has
increasingly defined "race in America" as Black and White (or, as some
argue, as Black and Jewish White). Juan Gonzalez is again hosting today
so consider making time to check the broadcast out.
Let's turn
to columns which we rarely note. Background, years ago, during the
initial second wave of the Women's Liberation Movement, there were
outlets that refused to let female reporters cover the movement, that
claimed that women couldn't be objective. The same thing happened
following Roe v. Wade with
regards to abortion coverage. If you want to know what was supposedly
feared in terms of lack of objectivity, look no further than Bob
Herbert's latest incoherent nonsense entitled "Can Obama Run the Offense?". Now most of us are aware Herbert made a mini-'name' for himself (and interested the Times to begin with) by demonizing African-Americans (primarily African-American males) while working at The New York Daily News. If he thinks his work on behalf of the bi-racial blunder changes that past or makes up for it, he is sadly mistaken.
If the Times
thinks he contributes a column, they are sadly mistaken. Before we go
further, it should be noted that (at best) Gail Collins and Maureen
Dowd went out of their way to demonstrate (repeatedly!) that they were
not bound by any internal, self-ruling to support other women.
Herbert's felt no need to assert any 'independence.' And, of course, no
one has ever expected it from him. Because in American society, it's
always the worst to be the "girl."
Here's Herbert attempting (yet again) to ride to Barack's rescue (opening paragraph):
Let's
see if I've got this straight, Barack Obama is a United States senator,
a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his party's
candidate for president of the United States -- and yet it was somehow
presumptuous of him to meet with foreign leaders last week during his
trip to the Middle East and Europe.
First, Barack is the
"presumed" or "presumptive" candidate. Until the convention, there is
no candidate. Try sticking to the facts. "Meet with foreign leaders"?
Yeah, he looks like a complete strutting ass going to Europe to meet
with leaders and there's a reason for that -- one Herbert never
commented on in real time.
Keven Rudd, Australia's Prime
Minister, visited the United States and attempted to meet with front
runner candidates (as well as visit the White House) face-to-face.
Which front runner couldn't be bothered? That would be Barack Obama.
Australia has a long, long historic relationship with the US. Sadly,
those ties led Australia into the illegal war (though former prime
minister John Howard didn't need a great deal of prodding). But Barack
didn't have time for Kevin Rudd. A prime minister elected with the hope
that he would end Australia's involvement in the Iraq War. A person
hailed as a "change" leader. And Barack was just too damn busy?
Herbert
might try leaving his bubble in NYC and interacting with the world.
This community has a ton of Australian members and they found it
offensive -- they found a great deal offensive. Barack issued a press
release and couldn't get John Curtin's name correct (a huge insult in
Australia). Barack made a few minutes (20) time for a phone call to
Rudd while Hillary broke from campaigning to meet with Rudd
face-to-face for twice that amount of time. I'm real sorry that Bob
Herbert is so terminally ignorant but there's no reason to punish
readers for that fact.
Couric's
follow up question should have been, "You're saying that Afghanistan is
something the full Senate committee should address and you're touting
Afghanistan as 'the central front in the war on terror.' Well on
January 31st, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on
Afghanistan, heard testimony from the State Dept.'s Richard Boucher and
you didn't attend that hearing. Do you think now you should have been
at the hearing?" We're sure
Barack would have tried to weasel out with the claim that he was
debating Hillary in Los Angeles. Yes, that night. The hearing started
at 9:30 a.m. EST. With a three hour time difference between the East
Coast and the West Coast and a 'new' thing called "airplanes," there
was no reason for him to skip the hearing. While
the hearing was going on, Barack was speaking at the Trade Technical
Community College -- which was only one of his many campaign stops that
day. We do not agree with a 'war on terror,' nor do we claim that
Afghanistan needs more US troops or more war. But Barack claims that .
. . now. What did he say about 'ready on day one isn't enough, you have
to be right on day one'? On January 31st when Afghanistan was the issue
of the committee he 'serves' on, he thought it was more important to
visit community colleges and drum up votes than to focus on what he
calls 'the central front in the war on terror.'
Barack
couldn't be bothered on Januray 31st. Bob Herbert will go on to lament
the housing crisis, et al, in his column. He will write, "Americans are
losing jobs, losing the equity in their homes, losing their retirement
nest eggs, and tragically, in increasing numbers, actually losing the
family home itself." And exactly how is that addressed with Barack
traipsing the globe? These aren't new developments and of course, one
of Barack's initial sell-outs as US Senator was to side with the
banking industry and make it more difficult for citizens to declare
bankruptcy. Barack's also got big money backing him that is tied to the
current crimes. And "current" needs to be clarified. These aren't new
developments. Barack's not addressed them. And he can't address them on
a whirlwind European and MidEast tour. [July 18th, Bill Moyers Journal (here for transcript) did the strongest report on the housing crimes of any American outlet so far.]
Herbert's
column is so pathetic that he tries to drag Rev. Jesse Jackson into it
-- or rather, tries to drag Rev. Jackson through the mud. Yes, he's
allegedly writing about Barack's summer trip but he's got to go back to
an already dead topic. (Or maybe he still has a need to trash
African-American males? That would explain his love for Barack.)
His
love affair is so intense that he's even willing to disown his past
work regarding Iraq and to trash the topic of the illegal war as he
furiously scribbles: "And for all the tedious talk about timelines and
what the surge in Iraq has or has not accomplished, the top three
issues in this campaign are still the economy, the economy and the
economy." Oh look, Bob Herbert has spliced James Carville and Tim
Russert into one person ("It's the economy, stupid" meets "Florida,
Florida, Florida!"). It's 2008 and we're getting tired crap -- recycled
from 1992 and 2000 -- from Bob Herbert?
"All the tedious talk about timelines"? The Iraq War has gone on for five years now. I'm really sorry that Bob Herbert's Dream Lover can't answer a damn question;
however, the people have a right to know about timelines and the
'surge.' It's too bad that Bob Herbert has sold out whatever tiny bit
of integrity he had to whine that Iraq is a distraction. He really is
pathetic and his column today is a horrid piece that not only lacks
style or grace, it lacks coherent thought. Paul Krugman's been advised
to focus on the economy before. Maybe Bob Herbert needs to be advised
to focus on the topic he was hired to cover -- and, no, it wasn't
national political races.
Columnists? Reading the New York Times'
news section, you may be reminded of another columnist. Specifically
Norman Solomon. Solomon once billed himself as a media critic but that
really doesn't fly now that he's a delegate for Barack. The reality is
that Solomon's as bad as Herbert about dusting off old columns each
year and trying to call them "new." Around 2006, Solomon was no longer
of any use to Iraq. As most will remember, he could go storm any outlet
to plead for a reporter while forgetting that Ehren Watada
was the story and Ehren was facing a court-martial. Norman was so
devoted to the female reporter that some joked he was showing up on CB
radio to plead her case. (The reporter might be asked to testify at
Watada's court-martial and -- horror! -- if asked, she might have to
decide whether she should testify or shouldn't! She couldn't say what
she'd do. But she wanted the whole world to be outraged for her. As did
Norman.)
Thom Shanker contributes "Air Force Plans Altered Role in Iraq"
-- the air war. Which has been ongoing and which -- as during Vietnam
-- will only increase. Fear of draw-downs in the number of US troops
stationed in Iraq (which the Air Force agrees will happen), plans are
made to increase the fly-overs and the bombings. And, guess what,
"technical advisors" (remember Barack's 'plan' leaves those behind)?
They'll be calling in air strikes. In fact, that's presented as a
'good' thing. "General North," Shanker writes, "dismissed that concern,
saying that only United States or allied air controllers would be
allowed to call in airstrikes from Americans or allied fighters and
bombers. These restrictions would be part of a program to limit
accidental civilian casualties should bombing play a larger role in the
months ahead, commanders say." Limit casualties? Before Norman got
hitched to Barack, he could have a field day with that laughable
concept. Shanekr went to the "air operations center" but signed "a
written agreement" which forbids him from naming "the base" or
revealing its location. A lot of good minds going to waste trying to
prop up a man. Maybe it's so disgusting to feminists because we long
ago stopped seeing it as our life's goal to stroke the male ego?
Luckily for Barack, handmaiden has become a gender neutral job.
Unluckily
for Iraq, two who could be counted on to provide some much needed
perspective and reality on the Iraq War have gone AWOL in order to prop
up a War Hawk candidate. If there's any good to be found from Bob
Herbert's public ditherings, it's that Norman Solomon is no longer the
man who has embarrassed himself the most due to a crush on Barack. It's
now Herbert. (We're not factoring in idiots like Tom-Tom who never
possessed an ounce of intellectual heft. We're talking about strong
minds and Norman and Bob Herbert were once of the two of the strongest
when it came to taking on the Iraq War.) Solomon could grab Shanker's
report and produce a blistering column. But he's a Barack Groupie these
days and so many of them, like Bob Herbert, find talk of timelines for
withdrawal "tedious." Find discussing the 'surge' "tedious."
Once
upon a time, Bob Herbert and Norman Solomon grasped that if they didn't
hit hard on the Iraq War, few would and the spin would take hold. It
wasn't "tedious" back then. The 'surge' didn't work. Was never going to
work. Because Barack couldn't say those words to Katie Couric, because
he instead pushed the notion that it had worked, Barack's groupies no
longer feel 'vested' in addressing the topic. It's all so 'tedious.'
Funny thing is that US forces haven't left Iraq and many US families
and Iraqi families would find the use of "tedious" to scoff at
discussing timelines for withdrawal to be flat out offensive. But screw
Iraqis, screw US service members, Bob Herbert's got a lover man to get
into the White House.
Will Nader/Gonzalez be on enough ballots in November to make a run for it?
And to be seriously considered for the Presidential debates?
We're now on 18 state ballots, heading toward 30 by August 10 - on our way to our ultimate goal of 45 states by September 20.
And
getting to thirty won't happen unless we hit our goal of $100,000 by
August 10. (Which would give us $2 million for the entire campaign year
to date.)
Thanks to you, we're at over $13,000 in just a few short days.
Dear Bill Greider, Jim Hightower, and Bob Kuttner:
I
write this letter of inquiry out of respect and wonderment to my three
friends whose progressive writings over the past generation have been
second to none in the community of public intellectuals.
You
write cogently - as if people matter first, as if responsive elections,
politics and government are critical for a resourceful society that is
functionally and institutionally dedicated to the pursuit of justice.
There is one exception to the above generalization with which I have direct familiarity.
In
your recent writings and interviews, where you have had pertinent and
relevant opportunity to inform your audiences, you declare your
dissatisfaction with the two major parties and their leaders over
specific issues and records of evasions and neglect.
But you make no mention of the Nader/Gonzalez campaign and its policies that are square on with your positions.
You
ignore the areas of action and engagement we are representing or
furthering and that McCain and Obama either oppose or ignore.
We're
not inferring any endorsements here - just pointing out candidates who
are reflecting your kind of political and economic advocacy.
My question is this:
If,
year after year, the two major parties oppose or ignore our policy
prescriptions, and often facilitate making conditions worse for the
people, how do you propose to jump start or spark some movement inside
the presidential electoral arena?
You
and most of your policy colleagues, whether they write, speak,
interview or conduct conferences, almost never choose to recognize or
mention the positions and records very similar to yours that were
taken, or are being taken, inside the presidential electoral arena by
Nader/Camejo (2004) or Nader/Gonzalez (2008).
There
are times during interviews on television or radio when the comment or
question thrown out at you begs for some mention that someone out
there, whom you have known for a long time, is contrasting and
challenging the two party "elected" dictatorship that defiantly
excludes or marginalizes competition - through state ballot laws and
closed debates (a serious civil liberties issue, if nothing else).
The
corporate Democrats who control the Party know that they will not be
taken to task by the leading writers and polemicists of the progressive
community in a way that will discomfort them - i.e. pointing out that
their voters can avail themselves of other options on the ballot.
Is there any other language that they understand inside the electoral process?
It
is as if your predecessors in the nineteenth century spoke out for
abolition, suffrage, labor and farmer empowerment without mentioning or
recognizing the existence of those small parties and independent
candidates who pioneered, along with parallel civic movements, those
great social justice advances we now take for granted.
None
of these political candidates ever won a national election, but active
speakers, writers, and conveners did not treat them as non-persons.
A
very few of your colleagues are beginning to write about the number
three presidential and vice presidential candidates in this race. (In
Wimbledon or the NCAA tournament, the number 60th seed or team is given a chance to play.)
They realize what an effort it takes just to place one's candidacy on the playing field of a rigged system.
You should empathize enough to cover us on the road after Labor Day.
One journalist - Chris Hedges - found his breaking point and has written columns supporting our campaign.
What is your breaking point in this context?
Is
that a valid question to ask as our country is being driven into the
ground and its global corporations are tearing at its heart and soul?
Have you ever visited our websites in 2004 and 2008 - voternader.org?
I know about the uni-directional jackhammer nature of Washington's opinion oligopoly.
What
I have difficulty understanding is what is its antonym in the
progressive media when it comes to reporting and commenting about those
who are contending inside the electoral arena?
I look forward to your considered response.
In
the meantime, all of us at the Nader/Gonzalez campaign continue to
absorb and value your insights and proposals but with a growing sense
of puzzlement over the missing gap.
Sincerely yours,
Ralph Nader
P.S.
Look at the near blackout nationally of the indictments this month
brought by the Pennsylvania Attorney General against state Democratic
legislators and legislative aides using government time and taxpayer
money to move against electoral and political opponents, including
removing Nader/Camejo from the ballot during the 2004 presidential
campaign. It was headline news in Pennsylvania but nationally, even the
civil liberties groups were not moved. Without candidate rights, how
valuable are voter rights in a gerrymandered nation?
Wearing
their flowing black garments, they can carry hidden explosives past
most checkpoints because customs of modesty prevent male guards from
frisking them. On Monday, four female suicide bombers in two Iraqi
cities used this tactic to enter areas defended by hundreds of soldiers
and police officers.
The above is the opening of Sudarsan Raghavan's "Four Women Kill Dozens In Suicide Blasts in Iraq: Kurdish Protest Hit in Kirkuk; Shiites Targeted in Baghdad" (Washington Post)and
the focus is on the the bombings in Baghdad and the bombing in Kirkuk.
As for women, maybe now is a good time to ask why the US government
thought it was okay to pay female "Awakening" Council members 20% less
than their male counterparts? But that question will probably never be
explored. You'll note that many outlets (CNN among them) are tacking on
the female "Awakening" Council members angle to this story -- but no
one seems to mention (let alone question) the fact that they're being
paid 20% less. (For the record, this community does not support putting
thugs on the payroll. We are noting that the US government is sending a
strong -- and bad -- message when they pay Iraqi women 20% less for the
same job.) Like the Post, the New York Times front pages the bombings via Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Sabrina Tavernise's "Bombers and Ethnic Clashes Kill 61 in Iraq" which really focuses more on Kirkuk and part of the reason for that may be due to what followed the bombing in Kirkuk:
No
one claimed responsibility for the bombing, which bore the hallmarks of
Sunni Arab extremists. Nonetheless, many in the crowd blamed Turkmen
extremists for the attack, and within minutes a mob of enraged Kurds
began attacking Turkmen political offices and setting their buildings
ablaze. "They burned Turkmen buildings and they burned many cars," said Brig. Burhan Taha of the Kirkuk police. Gunfire
and rocks from the mob wounded at least 25 Turkmen guards, according to
the Kirkuk police. The guards -- some armed with machine guns --
returned fire, killing at least 12 Kurds in the mob. An additional 102
people were wounded in the melee that followed the bombing, the police
said, though it was not clear how many were shot by Turkmen guards or
wounded by other violence. Another
senior Kirkuk police commander, Brig. Sarhad Qadir, said the mob that
attacked the Turkmens included members of the Asaish, a Kurdish
security force, who were not in uniform but were carrying weapons.
Iraqi
MP Saadeddin Arkej is quoted stating, "I can't practice democracy at
the Parliament while the dictatorship is attacking and burning the
headquarters of the Turkmen Front in Kirkuk and burning and looting
other Turkmen establishments." Tavernise and Oppel also note that the
province's governor has requested United Nations troops on the ground.
In
both Baghdad and Kirkuk, fingers were pointed. Baghdad may have seen
retaliation violence aimed at those perceived to be responsible;
however, Baghdad violence is so common that it's rarely of interest to
reporters these days (or columnists -- hold on for the next entry) and
it's also true that an attack on Shi'ite Pilgrims that enraged the
Shi'ite controlled city of Baghdad would most likely result in
retaliation that was kept 'underground'. (In other words, corpses found
two or three days from now -- or maybe a mass grave in a few months.)
Caesar Ahmed and Ned Parker's "Bombings kill dozens in Baghdad, Kirkuk" (Los Angeles Times):
Ordinary
residents in Kirkuk worried about the aftermath of Monday's bombing and
mob violence. "Today's events will create a big crisis. A solution for
the Kirkuk issue must be found," said Burhan Shirko Qadir, a Kurdish
merchant. Turkmens were
seething. Turkmen Front local leader Nazhat Abdul-Ghani said four party
members had been wounded and seven others kidnapped. "Today
the Kirkuk issue took a dangerous turn," said Jankeez Yousif, a Turkmen
who works in the oil industry. He bitterly criticized Iraqi security
forces in the city, which he accused of being an extension of the
Kurdish political parties -- a common complaint voiced by groups in the
north. All sides blamed outsiders for carrying out the bombing. In
Baghdad, militants turned their attention to the country's Shiite
majority. Three female suicide bombers blew themselves up over the
course of an hour, targeting Shiite faithful on their way to a sacred
shrine. At least 32 people were killed and 102 wounded. About a million
Shiites were expected for the event commemorating the death in 799 of a
religious leader regarded by Shiites as a saint.
Dean Yates and Waleed Ibrahim (Reuters) place
the death toll of the bombings at 58 and the number wounded at 250. The
New York Times places the death toll at 61 and the wounded at 238.
Monday,
July 28, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, the US military says
"WOOPSIE!" for two incidents where civilians were killed, Sister
Barack bombs at the NOW convention, The Nation magazine continues to struggle with the concept of journalism (surprising absolutely no one) and more.
David
Nancarrow: He joined the army in 2003 now 25-year-old Robin Long will
answer to military officials after he made a choice not to join his
unit in Iraq. Thanks for joining us tonight. I'm David Nancarrow.
Michelle Molison: And I'm Michelle Molison. Robin Long flees to Canada just as his unit is being deployed to Iraq.
David
Nancarrow: AWOL for three years, Long was deported from Canada and sent
back to the US just last week. This the first time since the Vietnam
era. KKTV's news reporter Eric Lupher joins us live at Fort Carson
tonight and, Eric, Long has plenty of supporters saying he had the
right to make the decision he made.
Eric
Lupher: His support comes from a local activist group who was out
earlier today in protest claiming that Long didn't know what he was
getting into when he joined the service but others feel the exact
opposite, saying 'If you're going to join the military during wartime,
you better be prepared to go to war."
Col
B. Shannon Davis: We join military service to fight our nation's wars.
When you join and you sign up, you know that right up front.
Eric Lupher: This group disagrees.
Garrett Reppenhagen: There's a huge propaganda smear across the country to get young men to join the military.
Eric
Lupher: Garrett Reppenhagen, along with other members, supporters --
young and old from the Pikes Peak Justice Peace Commission stand in
protest at Alamo Square Park.
[Unidentified
male demonstrating in support of Robin]: At the end of the day, you
know, we really feel that Robin should be free.
Eric Lupher: Free from the military from the war Robin Long never wanted to fight.
Lee
Zaslofsky: Robin Long did what he did because of his conscience and
because he believed that the war was wrong, that he was simply running
away or hiding out.
Eric Lupher: But according to Col B. Shannon Davis, the requirements of service are clear from the very beginning.
Col
B. Shannon Davis: There should be no reservations when you take the
oath of office to protect your country and fight for your country.
Eric Lupher: But Long's supporters refuse to give up, refuse to believe the war in Iraq is justified.
Lee Zaslofsky: I think most Americans now realize that the war in Iraq is a complete mistake.
Eric Lupher: So they protest.
Col
B. Shannon Davis:They're exercising the freedoms of this country
tonight and I'm not going to put them down for that. That's their
freedom, that's what I fight for them to have those freedoms.
Eric
Lupher: Long will likely go to court-martial. Now Fort Carson is
hesitant to tell us what penalty is ahead of him. Now Long's attorney
[James Branum] tells us that his client could spend years in prison
and, worse case, face death. David and Michelle?
David Nancarrow: Alright Eric Lupher live for us at Fort Carson tonight. Thanks very much.
There
is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which
includes Andrei Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis
Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall,
Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney
Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad
McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell,
Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha
Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister,
Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada,
Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen,
Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman,
Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck,
Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine,
Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey,
Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua
Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell,
Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake,
Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres,
Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and
Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada
have applied for asylum.
Turning to Iraq. Over the weekend Sabrina Tavernise (New York Times) reported
that the pipeline between northern Iraq and Turkey is pumping oil at a
"more than tenfold" increase from 2007 and, oh, by the way, US forces
patrol the pipeline. Additionally, Tavernise noted (in her final
paragraph), "Also on Friday, the American military acknowledged that it
unintentionally killed the son of an editor for an American-financed
newspaper in the northern city of Kirkuk on Thursday.
The military said soldiers had been fired at from a taxi and shot back,
hitting Arkan al-Naiemi, 14, in the taxi." Consider it starting a
trend. June 25th snapshot: "Reuters notes
the US military shot dead 2 'suspects' in Samara and they shot dead 3
people in a car 'near Baghdad airport'. On the 3 in Baghdad, Doug Smith (Los Angeles Times) reports,
'Officials at Yarmouk Hospital identified the dead as a manager and two
female employees of a bank at the airport. Iraqi police also reported
that two bodyguards were injured' while the US military maintains they
were attacked by the bank employees." Sunday Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) reported
that the US military has admitted the three slaughtered were civilians
and not, as they LIED in June, criminals. There's an apology tacked on
in there but it's not going over with the son of the bank manager.
Mohammed Hafeth "said the image of his father's burning vehicle haunts
him. He'd waited in his father's office that morning surprised that he
wasn't there yet. They'd left at nearly the same time that morning."
Fadel reports Mohammed learned of the shooting and arrived on the scene
to find the car on fire and being told by US soldiers that he had to
leave. He asks Fadel, "Why did they kill him like this? We demand
that they send those soliders to an Iraqi and American court." The
family turned down an offer of $10,000 from the US military. Today Sudarsan Raghavan and Qais Mizher (Washington Post) note
that the family wants a written apology and quote Mohammed stating, "It
was only $10,000. My father was the main provider for our family. We
are a displace people. We also have to replace our car. We are in a
very difficult time." Richard A. Oppel Jr. (New York Times) observes
that "the findings call into question the way the military handled the
aftermath of the shootings" and quotes Lt Col Steve Stover stating, "We
don't believe there was any cover-up." Saif Hameed and Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) remind,
"Initially, some soldiers thought that someone in the car was shooting
and that Iraqi police had found a weapon in the vehicle, the miltiary
said. However, no weapon was found and the passengers turned out to be
a man and two women who worked at the airport bank." Iraqi police had
found a weapon? Thought that. And then waived the vehilce through a
checkpoint? Really?
Hameed and Parker also note
that multiple bombings struck Baghdad today: "Early today, 20 civilians
were killed and 47 wounded by three female suicide bombers in eastern
Baghdad as Shiite pilgrims marched to the Imam Kadhim shrine in west
Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said. The attacks happened a day
before a religious festival marking the death of the revered Shiite
figure, who died in 799." Earlier, Mohammed Abbas (Reusters) reported 24 dead from 3 Baghdad bombings (all three bombngs are said to have been female suicide bombers). Nicholas Spangler and Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) report 24 dead in Baghdad with sixty-seven injured. Camilla Hall (Bloomberg News) points out
those figures are the ones being used by Jalal Talabani, Iraq's
president, in a message he left on his political party's website and
that he noted the dead includes women and children. The Telegraph of London explains,
"The pilgrims were walking through the Karrada district of central
Baghdad, towards Kadhimiyah in the city's north where up to a million
people will celebrate a Shia festival, when the bombers struck." The Australian notes,
"The bombers struck in quick succession in the Karrada district of
central Baghdad as tens of thousands of Shia pilgrims were making their
way on foot towards Kadhimiyah in the north of the Iraqi capital, site
of today's Shia festival, a ceremony that has been marred by bloodshed
in the past." "Thousands of Shi'ite Muslims walk through this popular
shopping district here in Baghdad, mournful religious sermons blare
from speakers set up to greet them," Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson (NPR's All Things Considered) explains from "less than two miles" where the three Baghdad bombings took place. Hussein Kahim (McClatchy) notes Baghdad has imposed a ban on cars from five a.m. tomorrow through five a.m. Wednesday. CNN places the death toll at 32 with one-hundred and two people wounded.
It
was not the only major bombing today. North of Baghdad in the oil-rich
city of Kirkuk, it was politics, rather than religion, that drew a
suicide bomber this morning," Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson offered on NPR's All Things Considered. Washington Post's Sudarsan Raghavan (filing at the Financial Times) notes
the Kirkuk bombing (also said to be a 'female suicide bomber') and
states that nothing suggests the Baghdad bombings and the Kirkuk
bombing were connected. China's Xinhua cites
Birg Burhan Wasif (Kirkuk police chief) as the source for stating that
the bomber was a male and, using the police figures, state 22 people
died and one-hundred and eighty-seven were injured as they protested
the bill on provincial elections. (The one that the Kurds walked out on
the vote of and that Iraq's Presidential Council has already
rejected.) CBS and AP explain,
"Kurdish objections over a proposed power-sharing formula on the
provincial council in Kirkuk have blocked the law from being passed.
Kirkuk is in an oil-rich area and many Kurds consider it to be part of
their historical land. The area is home to Kurds, Turkomen, Arabs and
smaller groups." CNN reports
that Kirkuk has a ban on vehicle and pedestrian traffic ("from 3 p.m.
Monday until 7 a.m. Tuesday") and places the death toll at 38. In
other reported violence today . . .
Reuters notes 1 woman shot dead in Mosul, 1 man shot dead in Mosul.
Corpses?
Reuters notes 1 corpse discovered in Mosul and 1 corpse ("handcuffed woman with a gunshot wound to the chest").
In other news, Katharine Euphrat (AP) reports
that the VA's suicide prevention hotline (1-800-873-TALK) has received
requests for assistance from over 22,000 veterans. The statistics are
from the government and the government also states that they have
prevented 1,221 veterans' suicides.
Turning to the US presidential race. Thank The Nation
for us noting the first item. It's been covered. But when Air Berman
thinks he can lie and The Nation wants to let him, we have to cover
it. Thursday Barack Obama was in Germany. He was scheduled to meet
with wounded US service members there. He cancelled. He had a host of
excuses and the one he finally stuck with was that the Pentagon said
no. Air Berman runs with that and whines, "The Obama campaign scrapped
the troop visit after the Pentagon told them it would be viewed as a
campaign event." There is no hope for Air Berman. He is not a
journalist, he never will be. He wants to be a Mac Daddy but that'll
never happen either. Reality broke in the real media Friday
evening/night. Air ignores that -- by choice. His candidate is more
important to him than the truth. Dan Balz (Washington Post) reported,
"The Pentagon said Friday that it did no prevent an Obama visit" and
quoted Pentagon flack Bryan Whitman stating, "Nobody denied Senator
Obama the opportunity to visit our wounded being cared for at
Landstuhl. Obviously, as a sitting senator, he has an interest in that
and certainly visit in an official capacity." Dan Balz or Air Berman,
who you gonna trust? Exactly. So little Ari whines Barack was forced
to do it because the Pentagon said what was planned was a campaign
event! Ari, you no doubt know of Maj Gen Scott Gration (Barack
advisor). Caren Bohan (Reuters) quoted him
Friday evening stating, "Senator Obama did not want to have a trip to
see our wounded warriors perceived as a campaign event". Barack
cancelled the event. He did so when the Pentagon informed he could not
use it as a photo op. They didn't tell his campaign the visit couldn't
happen, they walked the campaign through what was allowed and what
wasn't. All the adoring press? Nope. When he found out he wouldn't
be able to use wounded GIs as cheap props in campaign photos, he blew
off the scheduled visit and went to his hotel to work out. That's
reality. CNN quoting
Whitman, "We do have certain policy guidelines for political campaigns
and elections. And what is appropriate and what is not appropriate in
those situations. But the Pentagon certainly did not tell the senator
that he could not visit Landstuhl." As Trina noted Friday,
"Usually everyone lies for him. But the Pentagon's not going to do that
for him and now he's exposed as the man who decided to skip out on
wounded service members after he was informed he couldn't turn it into
a campaign stop. If a tree falls in the forest when no one is around,
did it make a sound? If Barack emotes with no cameras around, he thinks
it won't make for a media sound-byte. So it was okay for him to blow
off US soldiers. How disgusting is he?" And how disgusting is Ari
Berman that he wants to show up on Monday and LIE and how disgusting is
The Nation that they go along with it? Pretty disgusting but the Campus Marxist King
went from Katrina's coffee-fetcher to Barack's official campaign
blogger and regularly brags he can get anything planted in The
Nation. Apparently so. Air Berman creates a conspiracy and then traces
it back to the White House ("the Bush Administration intervened to
block Obama's planned visit"). Now I know that there really aren't any
brains at the top of The Nation but when you start allowing
your staff to create their own rumors and print them as fact, you've
hit a new low. Air 'quotes' MSNBC but doesn't link, I believe it may be
to this and Domenico Montanaro added an update:
"One military official who was working on the Obama visit said because
political candidates are prohibited from using military installations
as campaign backdrops, Obama's representatives were told, 'he could
only bring two or three of his Senate staff member, no campaign
officials or workers. Obama could nto bring any media. Only military
photographers would be permitted to record Obama's visit." Barack Obama
is the presumped and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. John
McCain is the same for the GOP. McCain appeared on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos yesterday (transcript here) and George Steph asked him about the cancelled visit.
John
McCain: Well, I know this, that those troops would have loved to have
seen him. And I know of no Pentagon regulation that would have
prevented him from going there -- without the media and the press and
all of the associated people -- nothing that I know of would have kept
him from visiting those wounded troops. And they are gravely wounded,
many of them.
George Stephanopoulos: He's done it many times in the past.
John
McCain: In Landstuhl, Germany, when I went through, I visited -- I
visited the hospital. But the important thing is that, if I had been
told by the Pentagon that I couldn't visit those troops, and I was
there and wanted to be there, I guarantee you, there would have been a
seismic event. And so, I believe he had the opportunity to go without
the media. And I'll let the facts speak for themselves.
US News & World Reports points out that Whatever Happened to Baby Jane Senator Claire McCaskill stumbled onto the set of Fox News Sunday
to rail against an ad that McCain's running by bleating out, "The most
disappointing thing about this ad is that it's beneath John MCain,
because he's playing political football with wounded soldiers." No,
Claire, drop the 40 proof vodka long enough to grasp "the most
disappointing thing" is that Saint Barack bailed on wounded service
members when he found out it couldn't be a photo-op. (For other
'disappointing things about this,' look in the mirror, Claire.) Juliet Eilperin (Washington Post) notes that Diebold's own Chuckie Hagal took to CBS' Face The Nation where he roared (in his best Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?),
"I think John is treading on some very thin ground here when he"
cutting him off because Chuckie didn't have his facts. That's the US
Senate for you, they wake up and drink harder all day than the rest of
us. Knock another back, Chuckie. As usual when Bambi gets anything
but soft gloves and feather kisses, the campaign whines (and then
usually screams "racism!"). Tommy Vietor -- who's been the Agnes Gooch
to Barack's Mame for far too long -- whines to Eilperin, "I think a lot
of people are wondering what happened to the civil campaign John McCain
said he was going to run." Agnes Vietor whines a lot to the press -- click here for the whining to Alexander Cockburn in 2006. Note that the article was published in 2006 -- before Alex drank the Kool-Aid and peed it all over himself in public.
Ava and I covered
the travelogue and Barack's alarming statements (alarming to those who
played fool or were fools) re: Iraq, Syria, Israel and more. We will
come back to that later in the week but for now check out Katie Couric's interview with Barack (CBS Evening News -- links has video and transcript). Now we're turning to Peggy Simpson's report (WMC) on
the NOW convention (July 18-20) which took place in Bethesda and
featured Marie Cocco, Patricia Ireland, Carol Jenkins, Carolyn Maloney,
Irshad Manji, Monica Aleman and others. Simpson reports NOW president
Kim Gandy announced to one and all that "sister" (I'm being sarcastic)
Barack sends greetings. From prison, Kim? Do we need to mount a Free
Barack action? He sends his greetings? That lousy pig who used sexism
non-stop sends his greetings? Let's drop back to June, to Katharine Q. Seelye and Julie Bosman (New York Times) reporting on the media finally maybe noticing the sexism targeted at Hillary:
In
response, the Obama campaign directed a reporter to Representative
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat of Florida who supported [Ms.]
Clinton but who is now speaking for the Obama campaign. She said Mr.
Obama had no specific plans for a speech on sexism, partly because he
already incorporated themes of discrimination as a societal problem in
his speeches.
No specific plans -- now or
ever. He could travel all over the globe but he couldn't show up for
the NOW convention? No feminist wants to hear his garbage. Which is
obvious from Simpson's report.
She notes that Gandy's message from Sister Barack resulted in "a minor
ripple of applause." Simpson focuses on one organizer who spoke to the
conference, Jehmu "Green spoke last weekend at the national NOW
convention, one that was subdued rather than boisterous, in the wake of
Hillary Clinton's primary defeat by Barack Obama. Some NOW delegates
wore Hillary tee-shirts. There was minimal talk of Obama and loud
cheers whenever someone mentioned Clinton." She quotes Green
explaining, "We increased [women's] turnout by 200 percent in the
[Democratic] primaries -- gosh, we came really close to nominating
Hillary. . . I also was disheartened when I saw young women vilify
Senator Clinton and vilify being a feminist."
To The Contrary's Bonnie Erbe (US News & World Reports) explains,
"Obama draws an adoring crowd of 200,000 in Berlin. He pulls ahead in
national polls. Meanwhile, McCain, who has run a near-disastrous
campaign, inches up in key swing states? Go figure. I say, give Obama
the guitar he so richly deserves and make him a rock star. Give McCain
a war to run somewhere. And let voters redo the primaries so they can
nominate two more mainstream candidates. Anyone who says the election
is over and Obama is the victor reminds me of the Obama partisans
drumming Sen. Hillary Clinton out of the race and turning off millions
of potential Democratic supporters in the process. They do their
candidate a much greater service if they duct-tape their mouths." On
the Berlin event, Just Say No Deal
issues this statement: "While coverage of Senator Obama's Berlin speech
provided audiences here at home nothing less than a visual 'shock and
awe,' it neglected to mention that the well-hyped speech had an opening
act: a gratis concert by two wildly popular groups, Reggae artist
Patrice and rock band Reamonn (pictured below with Barack Obama).
While we appreciate the Obama Campaign's hospitality, on behalf of
furthering US-Germany relations, offering free bratwurst, pizza and
even beer for three hours during the free rock concert, we question
whether or not the monies might have been better spent here on
financially strapped US citizens. Similarly, back on May 20, 2008 in
Portland, Oregon, Senator Obama took the stage following the critically
acclaimed local band The Decemerists, who gave a rare free concert for
75,000 fans. While news stories generated by both appearances focused
on the enormity of the crowd size, few mentioned the accompanying
perks, leaving some to question whether revelers are showing up for
Senator Obama or for free food and entertainment. Without this
additional information, Just Say No Deal
contends that Americans are being misled about the presumptive
Democratic nominee's true popularity." Let's just add to that the fact
that there are dangers in handing out free beer that go beyond driving
after. All in Germany who received free beer better have been at least
21-years of age (unless Barack's claiming a nationality other than
US). Doubt it? In 2002, a US House Rep just knew he would be the new
Minority Leader (the Dems were in the minority then). He could taste
it. His base was different than Nancy Pelosi's and he didn't think she
was all that. What deralied him? In 1992, he gave out free beer to 3
males -- two were 16 and one was 17. It was a campaign 'action.'
(Suburbs had been blockwalked, consider this an after-party.) He was
repeatedly warned that he needed to stop but, hey, he was in Congress,
he'll do what he damn well wants. He did at approximately 4:00 p.m.
The 'after-party' took place at his family's business on a busy,
downtown corner. The 'after-party' took place in the parking lot.
Photos were taken. For over ten years, he never gave it a second
thought. Then he wanted to be Minority Leader. Funny how things can
surface when you least expect it. Like photos of you and a bunch of
male teenagers pulling back on long necks in broad daylight. (And
that, by the way, is the real story on how Nancy Pelosi ended up
Minority Leader -- now Speaker of the House. You won't find it in the New York Times or the Washington Post but that is how the only real competition was cleared from the field.)
Will Nader/Gonzalez be on enough ballots in November to make a run for it?
And to be seriously considered for the Presidential debates?
We're now on 18 state ballots, heading toward 30 by August 10 - on our way to our ultimate goal of 45 states by September 20.
And
getting to thirty won't happen unless we hit our goal of $100,000 by
August 10. (Which would give us $2 million for the entire campaign year
to date.)
Thanks to you, we're at over $13,000 in just a few short days.
The
top U.S. military commander in Iraq isn't buying the increasingly
popular idea of a publicly stated timetable for American troop
withdrawal. Gen. David Petraeus, the Iraq commander, said in an
interview with McClatchy that the situation in Iraq is too volatile to
"project out, and to then try to plant a flag on, a particular date." With
violence at its lowest levels of the war, politicians in both the
United States and Iraq are getting behind the idea of a departure
timetable. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was first,
suggesting he would have combat troops home within 16 months of
Inauguration Day. The idea got a big boost during his overseas trip,
when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki indicated support for that
general timeline. During a Friday interview on CNN's "The Situation
Room," Republican candidate John McCain, who had opposed setting a
timeline, appeared to shift ground. McCain said that 16 months "is a
pretty good timetable" but must be based on conditions on the ground.
The
U.S. government paid a California contractor $142 million to build
prisons, fire stations and police facilities in Iraq that it never
built or finished, according to audits by a watchdog office. The
Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) said Parsons
of Pasadena, Calif., received the money, part of a total of $333
million but only completed about one-third of the projects, which also
included courthouses and border control stations. The inspector
general's office is expected to release two detailed audits today,
evaluating Parsons's work on the contract, which is worth up to $900
million.
Katharine Euphrat (AP) reports
that the VA's suicide prevention hotline (1-800-873-TALK) has received
requests for assistance from over 22,000 veterans. The statistics are
from the government and the government also states that they have
prevented 1,221 veterans' suicides.
Juan Gonzalez interviews Ryan Lizza today on Democracy Now!and
you may have to go to the website to catch it. Pay attention, forty
minutes in, to the discussion on the 'big speech.' Pacifica's doing
fundraising and it appears they're going to bury that segment. WBAI is
ignoring it (focusing on the last segment of the broadcast). KPFA and KPFK are broadcasting the Lizza segment. It'll come at approximately 40 minutes into the show. (And you can visit the website for transcript regardless of whether your outlet plays the broadcast in full.)
Kimberly notes this from a column today by Robert Novak (!):
The
toughest interrogation of Obama came from CBS anchor Katie Couric in
Jordan last Tuesday. She asked four times whether the troop surge he
had opposed was instrumental in reducing violence in Iraq. Obama
answered straight from talking points by citing "the great effort of
our young men and women in uniform." That sounded like the old
politics. He would have sounded more like a new politician if he had
simply said, "Yes, the strategy did work." That would have infuriated
antiwar activists but not enough for them to drop Obama.
The
family of Hafeidh Aboud, one of the three civilians killed on their way
to the airport last month, said late Sunday night that the U.S.
soldiers responsible should be prosecuted either in the United States
or in Iraq. "Why did they do
this to us? My father liked the Americans very much," said Mohammed
Hafeidh Aboud, 21, one of Hafeidh Aboud's seven children. "The American
soldiers are guilty. Why did they do this? Why?" The
shooting took place June 25 as Hafeidh Aboud was on his way to Rasheed
Bank, where he had worked for 33 years. In the car with him were
employees Suroor Ahmed, 32, and Maha Youssef, 31. Around
that time, a convoy of American soldiers from the 4th Brigade Combat
Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light), were traveling in the vicinity,
the military said. One of the vehicles developed mechanical problems
and pulled off along a road adjacent to the airport. About
8:40 a.m., as soldiers tried to repair the vehicle, Aboud's Opel
approached the rear of the parked convoy, according to the military and
witnesses. The military said in a statement that the car was speeding
toward the soldiers, who viewed it as a threat. "When the vehicle
failed to respond to the soldiers' warning measures, it was engaged
with small arms fire," the statement said. The three civilians died instantly.
But the findings called into question the way the military handled the aftermath of the shootings. For
example, a key assertion of the news release issued by the military on
the day of the killings was that "a weapon was recovered from the
wreckage." But the military said Sunday that no one claimed to have
found a weapon in the car or had seen a weapon taken from it. Instead,
one of the soldiers at the scene reported seeing an Iraqi police
officer pull something from the burned car and then place it in the
front seat of an ambulance, according to Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a
spokesman for the Fourth Infantry Division, which patrols Baghdad. The
soldier never said the item pulled from the car was a weapon, he said.
But the soldier's account nevertheless formed the basis for a statement
in an initial internal military assessment of the attack, which said
that a weapon had been pulled from the car. "We don't believe there was any cover-up," Colonel Stover said. The
investigation also revealed that the car had already passed through a
major checkpoint leading into the airport, which required the occupants
to submit to a thorough search for weapons and other dangerous objects.
As they had many times before, the bank employees then drove down the
main civilian road to the airport.
Saif Hameed and Ned Parker's "U.S. acknowledges that three Iraqis killed by soldiers were unarmed" (Los Angeles Times) addresses original statements from the military back in June: In
its statement on the June shooting, the U.S. Army said its soldiers had
felt threatened when they saw a car speeding up a road toward them, and
the driver did not heed warnings to stop. The military said its June
statement describing the dead as criminals was incorrect. Initially,
some soldiers thought that someone in the car was shooting and that
Iraqi police had found a weapon in the vehicle, the military said.
However, no weapon was found and the passengers turned out to be a man
and two women who worked at the airport bank.
Yesterday in the New York Times, Sabrina Tavernise contributed "A Shiite Militia in Baghdad Sees Its Power Wane"
which sounds the political death of Moqtada al-Sadr. A visitor e-mailed
the public account asking why we didn't note it. I don't believe it.
Had that article appeared at the start of the March, no problem. But
Tavernise's article seems completely unaware of Basra. Prior to the
uprising al-Sadr stirred and then calmed, the article would make more
sense and indicate that the US government's whispers that al-Sadr's
influence was over; however, what happened argued something completely
different. Again, at the start of March, it would seem possible.
Post-Basra?
Turning to the US presidential race, Monica Johnson explains to the Free Lance Star how she's voting:
If
a person feels that neither John McCain nor Barack Obama will make a
suitable president, then voting for one of them based solely on his
place in partisan politics is foolish and irresponsible. When
neither of the two main political candidates is satisfactory, it is up
to us, the voters, to look elsewhere for someone worthy of the office
of president. If you're looking for a scapegoat to blame for George Bush's victories over Al Gore and John Kerry, don't blame Ralph Nader. Blame
the thousands of registered Democrats who can't be bothered to vote.
Blame the Democratic National Committee for nominating candidates who
are unable to garner enough support to defeat a disliked commander in
chief. But don't blame Ralph Nader for doing his duty as an American, for trying to give the power back to the people. I will be voting for Ralph Nader this November because I don't want to waste my vote.
When
Ralph Nader came to town, a group of about 60 dedicated followers dug
deep into their pockets to give more than $7,000 to the perennial
third-party presidential candidate. The
Sunday afternoon campaign stop at the Hilton hotel on the University of
Houston campus drew supporters who believed winning isn't everything,
and who said they were investing in the future of politics and
democracy. Nader criticized
his Republican and Democratic rivals for being influenced by corporate
donors. Multiple candidates help keep politics clean, he added. He
also criticized Texas for requiring more than 74,000 signatures to
place an independent candidate on the ballot. He wants the Legislature
to ease those rules. "This
is the worst state in the country in terms of denying voters their own
choice of candidates," he said. "What is it about Texans, who consider
themselves rebels and tough critters, and they're just patsies when it
comes to corporate barons?" Many
who gathered in the hotel ballroom said they will write in Nader when
they vote. This is his fifth run for president. Since his controversial
run as the Green Party candidate in 2000, he has campaigned as an
independent.
He
addressed about 20 supporters in front of the Rosa Parks Library and
Museum on Saturday, and attempted to draw a parallel between his
quixotic presidential quests and Parks' role in the civil rights
movement. "Rosa Parks challenged the system," he said. Nader, who
has made multiple runs for the White House, spoke out against the war
in Iraq, the Bush administration, the government catering to giant
corporations, the low minimum wage, and the atrocity of people living
in this nation without healthcare. "Why aren't these issues talked
about by the major parties?" Nader asked before saying those parties do
not represent the American people. He said he seeks to advance people's health, safety and economic well-being.
Marie and Kendall noted the items on the Nader campaign stops. And Kendall asked if Dee Knight's "Military resister's father calls him 'a hero'" (Workers World) could be noted again::
When
James Burmeister was court martialed last week, he was sentenced to six
months in the stockade and a Bad Conduct Discharge. "I feel like the
case was used as an example to other soldiers," his father told Workers
World. "Not only will you get punished, but your loved ones will be
too." "They attacked James as more of a sociopath than a patriot,"
said Erich Burmeister. "They hammered on the point of his going AWOL
and leaving his unit in great danger. They painted him as a coward." "I
think my son is a hero," Erich continued. "There are many Iraqis who
were not killed because of what he did, and many GIs whose lives were
saved because of it. He made a tremendous service to his country by
standing up and bearing witness to the ‘bait-and-kill’ war crimes." After
James went AWOL he exposed this program, in which U.S. sniper teams
leave "bait" to lure Iraqis and then kill them. When he denounced the
program, it turned into a media scandal. (See "U.S. aims to lure
insurgents with 'bait,'" Washington Post, Sept. 24, 2007.) Being on
a military base "unnerved me and my wife," Erich said. "In hindsight it
was the perfect 'good cop-bad cop' thing, played to perfection.”
Between the JAG lawyer the Army assigned, and the prosecution, Erich
said, "They really had me convinced that the best strategy for [James]
was to plead guilty. We took the bait and got our butts kicked." He
said their JAG attorney "was rotten. Had we been able to afford good
civilian legal defense, we could have pursued more options. I wish we
had done it." Speaking of James, Erich said, "The amazing thing is
he is taking it better than those of us who love him so much. He's very
strong. He told us, 'Understand this, anything the Army can do to me
can't be as bad as being in Baghdad doing what they wanted me to do.'
He's relieved not to have a gun in his hand anymore. That's what he
cares about. "Once he had achieved his goal, making the public aware
of 'bait and kill,' he was prepared to turn himself back in. He's
strong, and I'm sure he'll do okay. He didn't seem to be as troubled by
it as we were. We're hoping he'll stay that way and will be with us
soon." Supporters can write to James Burmeister at Box A, Fort Knox, KY 40121. Articles
copyright 1995-2008 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of
this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided
this notice is preserved. Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011 Email: ww@workers.org Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php
James
Burmeister was a class of 2007 war resister which we all know means
they got NO attention from Panhandle Media. His story was compelling --
as are the stories of all war resisters -- and it was also news
breaking. But Matthew Rothschild, Amy Goodman, Katrina vanden Heuvel,
et al always had something 'better' to do. American Idol's not going to
watch itself, after all, and they've got a Barack Obama to get into the
White House. When Burmeister went public at the end of June in 2007,
anyone in Panhandle Media that gave a damn could have interviewed him
and broken the story on the kill-teams. Didn't happen. Again, there was
always something 'better' to do. How proud they must be of themselves
today. Dee Knight has been among the very few journalists during this
illegal war that readers could repeatedly count on to bring them the
news of war resistance. From Knight's "Military resister's father calls him 'a hero'" (Workers World):
When
James Burmeister was court martialed last week, he was sentenced to six
months in the stockade and a Bad Conduct Discharge. "I feel like the
case was used as an example to other soldiers," his father told Workers
World. "Not only will you get punished, but your loved ones will be
too." "They attacked James as more of a sociopath than a patriot,"
said Erich Burmeister. "They hammered on the point of his going AWOL
and leaving his unit in great danger. They painted him as a coward." "I
think my son is a hero," Erich continued. "There are many Iraqis who
were not killed because of what he did, and many GIs whose lives were
saved because of it. He made a tremendous service to his country by
standing up and bearing witness to the ‘bait-and-kill’ war crimes." After
James went AWOL he exposed this program, in which U.S. sniper teams
leave "bait" to lure Iraqis and then kill them. When he denounced the
program, it turned into a media scandal. (See "U.S. aims to lure
insurgents with 'bait,'" Washington Post, Sept. 24, 2007.) Being on
a military base "unnerved me and my wife," Erich said. "In hindsight it
was the perfect 'good cop-bad cop' thing, played to perfection.”
Between the JAG lawyer the Army assigned, and the prosecution, Erich
said, "They really had me convinced that the best strategy for [James]
was to plead guilty. We took the bait and got our butts kicked." He
said their JAG attorney "was rotten. Had we been able to afford good
civilian legal defense, we could have pursued more options. I wish we
had done it." Speaking of James, Erich said, "The amazing thing is
he is taking it better than those of us who love him so much. He's very
strong. He told us, 'Understand this, anything the Army can do to me
can't be as bad as being in Baghdad doing what they wanted me to do.'
He's relieved not to have a gun in his hand anymore. That's what he
cares about. "Once he had achieved his goal, making the public aware
of 'bait and kill,' he was prepared to turn himself back in. He's
strong, and I'm sure he'll do okay. He didn't seem to be as troubled by
it as we were. We're hoping he'll stay that way and will be with us
soon." Supporters can write to James Burmeister at Box A, Fort Knox, KY 40121. Articles
copyright 1995-2008 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of
this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided
this notice is preserved. Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011 Email: ww@workers.org Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php
Mark Larabee's "Soldiers still go over the hill even in an all-volunteer Army" (The Oregonian,
July 16, 2007) broke the news in the US on James Burmeister and . . .
nothing from Panhandle Media. Last Monday, a week after Burmeister was
court-martialed, Goodman could finally 'make the time' to mention James
on her program. In headlines. A bad headline. Barack Obama? She can't
make it through a day without him. War resistance? She's got other
things to do. Burmeister went public about his resistance and the kill
teams was huge news. But can't force an unqualified War Hawk down the
public's throat and also find time to cover the things that matter so
Goody knew who buttered her bread. It's that time again, where she begs
for money on air. She can't do her daily Barack Obama Lovefest without
you, only with you. So give, give generously. If you didn't, she might
have to get a real job.
They're just there to try and make the people free, But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me. Just more blood-letting and misery and tears That this poor country's known for the last twenty years, And the war drags on. -- words and lyrics by Mick Softly (available on Donovan's Fairytale)
Last Sunday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war hit the 4,123 mark. And tonight? 4124. Just Foreign Policy's counter estimates the number of Iraqis killed since the start of the illegal war to be 1,245,538 -- same as last Sunday.
In some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports
a Baghdad rocket attack wounded three people, a Kirkuk roadside bombing
claimed the lives of 2 Iraqi service members, a Basra roadside bombing
wounded one person, a roadside bombing outside of Baquba wounded seven
Iraqi service members, a Basra bombing claimed the lives of 2
"Government guards protecting oil ministry facilities," bombers blew up
2 homes and "attacked Abo Khamees police station" wounding two children
and one police officer, and an Al-Anbar Province home bombing on Zaki
Obid's home resulted in no known wounded or dead but a bombing of
Obid's vehicle resulted in the deaths of 2 of his guards with two more
guards wounded as well as "Obid and his son."
Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports
unknown assailants attacked and wounded Abdul Hadi al Jaza'iri
("official in Baghdad Operation Command") in Baghdad, 7 Shi'ite
pilgrims were shot dead as they headed "towards the holy shrine in
Kadehmiyah" according to the wires but "Officials in the Ministry of
Interior and local council of Mada'in" deny this took place, and an
armed clash in Neneveh resulted in the deaths of 2 Iraqi service
members with three more wounded.
It's already Monday (even here on the West coast) as I rush to finish this. Mohammed Abbas (Reusters) reports
24 dead from 3 Baghdad bombings (all three bombngs are said to have
been female suicide bombers) and he confirms 7 pilgrims shot dead in
Baghdad on Sunday.
Dropping back to the June 25th snapshot: "Reuters notes
the US military shot dead 2 'suspects' in Samara and they shot dead 3
people in a car 'near Baghdad airport'. On the 3 in Baghdad, Doug Smith (Los Angeles Times) reports,
'Officials at Yarmouk Hospital identified the dead as a manager and two
female employees of a bank at the airport. Iraqi police also reported
that two bodyguards were injured' while the US military maintains they
were attacked by the bank employees." Today Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) reports
that the US military has admitted the three slaughtered were civilians
and not, as they LIED in June, criminals. They have issued an 'apology'
and it's not going over that well (nor should it):
Mahdi's son, Mohammed Hafeth, said the statement was insufficient. He
said the image of his father's burning vehicle haunts him. He'd waited
in his father's office that morning surprised that he wasn't there yet.
They'd left at nearly the same time that morning. Hafeth drives bank
employees to work. That morning his father offered to take one of
Hafeth's passengers and picked up another female bank employee who
lived nearby their central Baghdad home. As he sat in the office a
colleague walked in and told Hafeth his father's car was broken down on
the airport road. Hafeth reached for his car keys. "I'll drive," he recalled his colleague saying. As
they approached his father's car he saw the flames. He jumped from the
car and started to run toward the burning vehicle, but U.S. soldiers
blocked his way. "Go," he recalled them ordering. But he said he
couldn't move. He dropped to the ground and wept as his father burned
inside the vehicle. "Why did they kill him like this?" Mohammed
Hafeth said Sunday in a phone interview. "We demand that they send
those soldiers to an Iraqi and American court." Mahdi was the father
of six, including Hafeth. Hafeth said he now shoulders the financial
responsibility for his family on his approximately $100-a-month salary. "I
was shocked that my father was killed by the Americans," he said.
"Supposedly we move in a secured area ... we used to wave at them and
they waved at us." Hafeth said he didn't accept the compensation
offered by the U.S. military. They offered $10,000, he said, and that
wasn't enough for his father's car let alone his father's life. "My
father was a peaceful man," he said. "He never did anything wrong.
Everybody knew his good reputation and everybody liked him."
tyrone pachauer
alex atamanenko
mcclatchy newspapers
amit r. paley
the washington post
dana hedgpeth
alexandra zavis
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campbell robertson
mark greenblatt
chris hedges
cbs
evening news
katie
couric
jennifer
latson
sebastian
kitchen
richard
a. oppel jr.
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tavernise
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parker
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ahmed
john
pilger
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the cbs evening news
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saif hameed
