This afternoon Jess spoke with Junue Millan who's part of the team working at Ralph Nader's just opened Denver office. The office's primary focus is the Super Nader Rally in Denver (August 27th, 7:oo pm) at the Magness Arena and they are very excited planning for a huge rally that they are expecting 5,000 to 7,000 people to turn out for. A rally of that sixe is not easy to plan and organize in such a short time and they need volunteers. If you're in the Denver area (or plan to be) and would like to volunteer the office is at 1155 Sherman Street, Suite 111. Walk-ins are fine. You can also call the office (303) 832-2509 or e-mail junue@votenader.org.

This is the first Nader Super Rally and will take place while the Democratic Party is holding their national convention in Denver as well. [ September 4th, a Nader Super Rally will be held at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, during the GOP convention.] Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez will be at the Super Rally in Denver and there will also be guest speakers. The plan is to release the names of the guest speakers as the event approaches and the first name released is artist, activist and rocker Jello Biafra.

The point of both Nader Supper Rallies is to let the people put the issues on the table. Noting corporte crime, the Iraq War, singel-payer universal health care and other very real issues, Ralph Nader explained to Neal Conan yesterday on NPR's Talk of the Nation, "That's what we're saying to the American people: If you don't take it over, if you don't win your government back, if you don't vote for people you believe in who have a record of accomplishment and a good platform, which you can see on VoteNader.org, what's left for you to decide? I mean, these two parties don't represent you in area after area. Their drum is beaten by the big corporations." It's about putting the real issues on the table and confronting the two-party duopoloy which is attempting to limit the debate -- both in terms of candidates (just the Republican nominee and the Democratic nominee) and in terms of what can be discussed. You're not going to get issues with the debates being limited to two candidates. You're going to get safe blah-blah and every now and then someone will shake it up, like John Edwards in 2004 raising the issue of sex in the vice presidential debate. (And acting as if Dick Cheney's stance on gay Americans was so hideous -- the same John Edwards who declared in the YouTube/CNN Democratic presidential candidate debates this go-round that his high morals and Bible meant he couldn't support same-sex marriage. But in 2004, he was trying to play Mr. Englightened.) That's what you'll get with the two main parties. Blah-blah and easy attempts at hits and smears.

On Talk of the Nation, Ralph asked the very apt question, "Why do we want to ration the debates?" And we don't. America doesn't want to. The two major parties want to and they will get away with it until enough people start objecting. They will shut out Ralph and Bob Barr and Cynthia McKinney. They will use America's presidential debate as an informercial for the Republican and Democratic parties and cheapen the discourse. The best we'll be able to hope for -- as in 2004 -- is bloggers who fact check because the candidates aren't going to bother. That's why Dick Cheney could (and did) claim in the 2004 debate that he'd never met John Edwards before. John Edwards didn't correct him. It was the bloggers who questioned him, it was the bloggers who hunted down photos and posted them. If there's a better example of just how for-show the debates are when the Dems and Repubes limit who is invited, think of it. But if John Edwards isn't smart enough to know whether or not he's met Dick Cheney before, this idea that two major political parties are so wise and so informed flies right out the window.

As Ralph pointed out to Neil Conan about John McCain and Barack Obama, "And they really don't have a plan to get out of Iraq and they want to expand the Afghanistan War. " They don't. But how are people supposed to grasp that when actual presidential candidates (Bob, Cynthia and Ralph) calling for an end to the illegal war aren't allowed on stage? Oh sure, we'll have hacks like Katrina vanden Heuvel insist John McCain is the root of all evil while Barack pees rainbows, that we have to 'trust' our 'hearts' and just know that, despite what Barack's actually saying, if he's elected there will be some miracle transformation that will make Barack want to end the illegal war. Yeah, and maybe that miracle will spread and Katrina will be gifted with a functioning brain? I wouldn't advise that you bet money on either option.

What we'll have is Blah-Blah and, the day after, the likes of Katrina will show up to insist something amazing took place. They'll spin. The hideous Rachel Maddow will spin like crazy. John Edwards clearly lost the debate with Dick Cheney in 2004. The day after, Mike Papantonio noted that reality, noted how disappointing Edwards was, pointed out that the v.p. candidates are always supposed to hit hard, that Edwards was a lawyer and didn't hit hard. And Rachel had an on air tear-fest and began badgering Papantonio to change his opinion. At the end he was offering a very weak okay-okay.

Outside of his own family, it's doubtful anyone's rooted for Dick Cheney in many, many years. But if the reality is that Edwards lost to the Black Hole, that's the reality. Maddow couldn't handle it. War Hawk Maddow (she spent years on Air America Radio arguing against withdrawal and offering the false analogy of the Pottery Barn -- even after it was known to be false -- as her 'reasoning') is now being cheered by The Nation (Hillary Hatred pays off!). That's your indication of the 'level' of discourse 'alternative' media is going to be serving up.

To have a real discussion about the Iraq War or any other issue, we need to have all the presidential candidates up on stage.

As Ron Jacobs (Dissident Voice) points out, "Good thing there’s an election coming up. Once Bush is gone, the world will get better. Won’t it? At least one of the candidates has to be against all this war and threats of war, right? Maybe Obama is just playing the game when he promises fealty to Tel Aviv. Maybe he doesn’t mean it when he sounds like Bush in regards to Iran. Maybe he’ll listen to the American people (and not the generals) after he gets elected and bring the troops back from Iraq by the end of 2009." That's the candidate who's going to represent the 'anti-war' position on stage?

No. And that's insane. The American people turned on the illegal war in 2005. The majority is still agains the illegal war. In American democracy we are supposed to recognize and foster the minority viewpoints. But we are not supposed to render majority opinion invisible. That's what's going to happen if the duopoly is not broken in the upcoming debates. The majority of Americans will be rendered voiceless.

As a sidebar, Ron brings up the payment issue in his article. The puppet government should be paying and no reperations need to be made to it. It is not a government of the people. Nouri al-Maliki is the DC puppet. He's installed. He sits on millions of Iraqi monies and refuses to spend it to help the Iraqi people. Making him pay is what should happen right now because his government is illegitimate. He wants to be a puppet, let him pay. It's not taking money from the Iraqi people because he's not spending it on them. While he can't use the funds for reconstruction or improving the people's lives, he can (and did last month) go on a huge weapons shopping spree. Joe Biden pointed out reality in April: The US is spending a ton of money to prop up a government that is not legitimate in the eyes of the Iraqi people and we're supporting their war on the Iraqi people.

Reperations need to be made by the US government. No question. But to a real government, a legitimate one that represents the Iraqi people, not the interests of the White House. The US needs to withdraw from Iraq immediately. But neither presumed candidate John McCain or Barack Obama supports that. As long as the installed puppet is kept in power, the puppet should have to pay for it. It's not taking money that would be spent on the Iraqi people because al-Maliki's refusal to spend that money did not start this year. It's been characteristic of his entire term.

Robert Fisk gets right to the point in "New actor on the same old stage" (Independent of London):

But this dreary old stage play doesn't end there. No one follows the narrative any more because it is so repetitive. Take Nouri al-Maliki, the PMIGZ -- Prime Minister of the Iraqi Green Zone -- who's suddenly gone from being the Democrats' favourite target to being their election buddy-buddy, as Max Boot sagely noted in The Washington Post. Maliki suggested to Obama that Iraq will be ready to assume responsibility for its own security by 2010. Bingo. This chimes in perfectly with Obama's promises.
But wait a minute. In May, 2006, Maliki announced that "our forces are capable of taking over the security in all Iraqi provinces within a year and a half". Five months later, the PMIGZ said that it would be "only a matter of months" before Iraqi security forces "take over the security portfolio entirely and keep some (sic) multinational forces only in a supporting role". Then in January, 2007, Maliki boasted that "within three to six months our need for the American troops will dramatically go down".
Four months later, he was at it again, claiming that Iraqi forces would control all security "in every province" within eight months. Quite apart from the idea that there is a security "portfolio" in Iraq, his own military chums don't agree with any of this bumph. The PMIGZ's own defence minister claims his forces can't assume responsibility until 2012, while the Iraqi commander in Basra wants US troops to stay until 2020!
Even if we ignore all this drivel, what does Obama want to do with his soldiers once he withdraws them from Iraq? He's going to send the poor devils back to Afghanistan, that graveyard of foreign armies where the Taliban were so utterly defeated in 2001 that they are now stronger than ever. I would recommend that Obama glance through Appendix XXIV of the official British account of the 1878-80 Second Afghan War where he will find the British announcing victory over a massed Afghan force which included a fierce group of fighters known as "talibs". These men would choose a particular soldier in the British ranks and make a suicidal attack to seize him and cut his throat in front of his comrades.

Now maybe if Robert Fisk was moderating the debates, some light of truth could shine in. But he's not moderating. And if we all we have is McCain and Obama, we don't have much of a debate. (Though Barack will no doubt continue his stammering and fumbling uh-uh-uh speech pattern.) America deserves better and democracy deserves better. The people have a right to see all the candidates up on stage, to hear what they stand for and what they don't. The people have a right to make an informed decision. Hype doesn't end the illegal war.

It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)

Last Thursday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4134. Tonight? 4141. That's seven more and, yes, M-NF only released four death announcements (they let DoD 'make the announcements' for the others). Just Foreign Policy lists 1,252,595 as the number of Iraqis killed up from 1,251,944 last week.

Michael Winship's latest essay is entitled "America and the World" (Bill Moyers Journal):

In a letter written in 1648, the Swedish statesman, Axel Oxenstierna, chancellor to both King Gustavus Adolphus and Queen Christina, counseled, "Know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed."
The fighting between Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia is an unnerving reminder of that, and of how quickly the balance of global power can be tilted from unexpected directions with barely a warning.
Some hawks and neo-cons called for NATO intervention or even suggested we send in Stinger missiles or the 82nd Airborne as a peacekeeping force. President Bush warned, "Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century."
Perhaps, but the reality of the early 21st century is that, in the short run, at least, the president’s words ring hollow. In spite of past promises of support to Georgia, Russia is key to our efforts in the Middle East and our European allies are dependent on Russia for energy. The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have both our military strength and our international credibility stretched perilously thin at a time when oil-rich Russia is reemerging as a superpower. We’ve boxed ourselves in.
It was in that light that I came upon the Oxenstierna quote the other night, while re-reading the late historian Barbara Tuchman’s The March of Folly, a knowing compendium, from ancient Troy to Vietnam, of the ways in which, given half a chance, those in power will steer their ships of state straight into the rocks. In the first chapter, she also quotes American President John Adams: "While all other sciences have advanced" -- you can almost hear him sighing -- "government is at a stand; little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago."
Andrew J. Bacevich probably would agree with all of the above. The retired Army colonel, a West Point graduate, teaches history and international relations at Boston University. His latest book, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, explores our nation’s current predicament, not just on the world stage but here at home as well. He spoke with my colleague Bill Moyers on this week's edition of the PBS series Bill Moyers Journal.
Bacevich speaks truth to power, no matter who's in power, which may be why those of both the left and right are eager to hear his views. Perhaps it's also because when he challenges American myths and illusions, he does so from a genuine patriotism forged in the fire of his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam and the death a year ago of his son, an Army lieutenant in Iraq. The Limits of Power is dedicated to the young man but the senior Bacevich, a man of quiet, solid gravitas, holds his grief privately between himself and his family.
"Our foreign policy is something that is concocted in Washington, D.C., but it reflects the perceptions of our political elite about what we the people want," he told Moyers. "And what we want, by and large is... this continuing flow of very cheap consumer goods. We want to be able to pump gas into our cars regardless of how big they may happen to be... And we want to be able to do these things without having to think about whether or not the books are balanced at the end of the month, or the end of the fiscal year."
To that end, he says, "One of the ways we avoid confronting our refusal to balance the books is to rely increasingly on the projection of American military power around the world to try to maintain this dysfunctional system or set of arrangements that have evolved over the last 30 or 40 years."
"... I think historians a hundred years from now will puzzle over how it could be that the United States of America, the most powerful nation in the world, as far back as the early 1970’s came to recognize that dependence on foreign oil was a problem, posed a threat, compromised our freedom of action. How every president from Richard Nixon down... declared, 'We’re going to fix the problem.' [But] none of them did."
He continued, "The clearest statement of what I value is found in the Preamble to the Constitution. There is nothing in the Preamble to the Constitution which defines the purpose of the United States of America as remaking the world in our image, which I view as a fool's errand... I believe that the framers of the Constitution were primarily concerned with focusing on the way we live here, the way we order our affairs. To try to ensure that as individuals, we can have an opportunity to pursue our, perhaps, differing definitions of freedom, but also so that, as a community, we could live together in some kind of harmony. And that future generations would also be able to share in those same opportunities... With the current crisis in American foreign policy, unless we do change our ways, the likelihood that our children, our grandchildren, the next generation is going to enjoy the opportunities that we've had is very slight because we're squandering our power. We are squandering our wealth."
Bacevich believes, "The Congress, especially with regard to matters related to national security policy, has thrust power and authority to the executive branch. We have created an imperial presidency. The Congress no longer is able to articulate a vision of what is the common good. The Congress exists primarily to ensure the reelection of members of Congress."
That imperial presidency, he says, "has made our democracy a false one. We're going through the motions of a democratic political system. But the fabric of democracy, I think, really has worn very thin."
Iraq, Bacevich concludes, "was a fundamental mistake. It never should have been undertaken. And we're never going to do this kind of thing again." This might, he thinks, "be the moment when we look ourselves in the mirror [and]... see what we have become. And perhaps undertake an effort to make those changes in the American way of life that will enable us to preserve for future generations that which we value most about the American way of life."
Andrew Bacevich's words should echo down the corridors of Congress and the halls of the White House, no matter who becomes our next President.

Friday (in most markets, check local listings), Bill Moyers sits down with Andrew Bacevich to discuss the imperial impresidency. And I think Billie's local station is no longer in pledge drive mode but somewhere some PBS may be. If it is, you can always stream video or audio or read transcripts (or podcast) at Bill Moyers Journal online.


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

iraq
i hate the war
the ballet
robert fisk
ron jacobs
bill moyers journal
michael winship
pbs

Thursday, August 14, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, US war resister Jeremy Hinzman mounts an appeal, a president learns stay away from all those fatty foods or face heart surgery, the Ralph Nader campaign gears up for this month's Nader Super Rally by opening their Denver headquarters today, and more.   Starting with war resistance.  Yesterday, US war resister Jeremy Hinzman was informed that he and his family must leave Canada by September 23rd.  He and his wife Nga Nguyen went with their son Liam to Canada and Jeremy became the first US war resister in Canada to publicly seek safe harbor.  July 21st Jeremy and Nga added daughter Meghan to their family.  Ian Austen contributes a paragraph for today's New York Times.  The Los Angeles Times also reduces it to World Briefing. Utah's Daily Herald includes it in briefings as does Tulsa World. Radio Netherlands files a brief as well. All Headline News joins the brief squad while BBC teases out a brief with padding but Canwest News Services settles for a brief.  Michael Futch (Fayetteville Observer) speaks with Jeremy who explains, "I don't regret what we've done.  I've had the opportunity to speak out against the war.  No offense to the soldiers over there -- I have respect for them as soldiers -- but it was a bogus war based on false pretenses . . . and I'm happy to have not taken part in it."  Don Jorgensen (South Dakota's KELOLAND TV) notes that Jeremy is "a graduate from Rapid City Stevens High School" in South Dakota and that Jeremy told the KEOLAND News that he expects if he is forced out of Canada he will be sentenced to prison. Sindh Today quotes him stating, "We're disappointed. Life goes on and we'll make the most of it wherever we end up."  Brett Clarkson (Edmonton Sun) quotes Jeremy stating, "Iraq was an unjust war based on false pretences, and every soldier who refused to fight probably saved a lot of lives."  Hinzman was outside the Canada Border Services Agency in Toronto and Jessica McDiarmid (Canadian Press) continues, "The 29-year-old was stoic as he walked out, holding the glass door open for his son Liam, 6, and his wife Nga Nguyen, who cradled a newborn daughter in her arms."  CBC notes, "Federal NDP citizenship and immigration critic Olivia Chow, who put forward the June motion, called Wednesday's decision "mean-spirited," and called on Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley to halt the deportation of Hinzman and other war resisters immediately."  The War Resisters Support Campaign's Dale Landry ("himself a deserter of the U.S. Air Force") tells Liam Lahey (Inside Toronto), "We're going to try everything we can do legally to keep him in the country.  If Jeremy is sent back, his wife is left as a single mom raising two small children and that's not an easy thing to do while he's in jail for God knows how long."  Meghan is a Canadian citizen and before the Canadian government moves further, they might want to check their own policies regarding the parents of Canadian citizens.   Reuters reports Alyssa Manning (Jeremy's attorney) is filing "a new appeal in Canada's Federal Court" and arguing that the ruling/order "did not take into account the effect on his family if he ended up in prison".  Iraq Veterans Against the War issued this statement:   US Iraq War resister Jeremy Hinzman was informed on August 13th that his application to stay in Canada has been rejected. Jeremy served a tour in Afghanistan in a non-combat role after applying for conscientious objector status. When his unit, the 82nd Airborne Division, was to be deployed to Iraq Jeremy and his family decided to come to Canada. Jeremy is the first U.S. war resister to apply for refuge in Canada. He has been ordered to be deported by September 23rd. Jeremy is in Canada with his wife Nga Nuyen, and their two young children. The decision to deport Hinzman comes just two months after the Canadian Parliament passed a motion calling on the government to allow US war resisters to apply for Permanent Resident status in Canada.   To support Jeremy, call or email Hon. Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, and ask her to intervene in this case. Phone: 613.996.4974 email: finley.d@parl.gc.ca.     Jeremy Hinzman and other war resisters in Canada need support and to pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail finley.d@parl.gc.ca -- that's "finley.d" at "parl.gc.ca") and Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, 613.992.4211, phone; 613.941.6900, fax; e-mail pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's "pm" at "pm.gc.ca"). Courage to Resist collected more than 10,000 letters to send before the vote. Now they've started a new letter you can use online here. The War Resisters Support Campaign's petition can be found here. Long expulsion does not change the need for action and the War Resisters Support Campaign explains: "The War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada to urgently continue to put pressure on the minority conservative government to immediately cease deportation proceedings against other US war resisters and to respect the will of Canadians and their elected representatives by implementing the motion adopted by Parliament on June 3rd. Please see the take action page for what you can do."   There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Yovany Rivero, William Shearer, Michael Thurman, Andrei Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum. Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).   Moving on to Iraq and file it under "No surprise."  October 21, 2007 we noted: "In today's New York Times, Andrew E. Kramer tells you that Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, is upset with Syria for publicly endorsing the Turkish parliament's vote to approve the Turkish military being sent into Iraq to fight the PKK. 'Usually I refrain from commening on Syrian positions to maintain our historical good relations,' Talabani (who stuffed his face with fatty foods` on his recent trip to the US to visit the Mayo Clinic, just FYI -- the heart trouble is not going to be cured by pigging out in hotel rooms)."  Talabani's face stuffing (of fatty foods) never made the press but it's all anyone could talk about.  It should have made the news. We returned to that topic over and over.  (And he reportedly visited a book store on that trip and staggered, nearly passing out.  It took the support of several men for him to make out of the bookstore.) June 16th we were 'harping again' (as one drive-by e-mailed) with: "Meanwhile AP notes that the president of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, is in the US and will receive treatment at the Mayo Clinic. A brief mention is made of the fact that this is not his first visit or that moments after leaving last time, he was spotted gorging on fatty foods in public. (And 'gorging' is putting it mildly.) He's 73-years-old and really can eat whatever he wants -- if he steps down as president. But while he's president (or 'president') of an occupied country, there's really no point in treating him if he's going to completely ignore doctors' orders and it's not as if the average Iraqi is going to be flown to the Mayo Clinic."  Deborah Haynes (Times of London) reports that the Iraqi president is "said to be in 'good health' today after undergoing heart surgery in the United States, an operation that left some Iraqis wondering whether he is still fit for the job."  Peter Graff (Reuters) points out that, prior to today, the press was told he was in the US for "a knee operation."  CBS and AP state: "A statement by the presidential press office said Talabani entered the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota on Aug. 2 for knee surgery but 'the medical team found out that he suffers from a problem in one of the heart valves'."  That's a sweet way to put "We thought we could lie but Reuters found out the truth, broke the story and now we have to admit to the heart surgery."  "I think he's too old to continue as President," Fadel Dawish tells Deborah Haynes in Baghdad while "Nassar al-Rubaie, a senior Shia politician, said the medical reports from the hospital would determine whether the heart operation would affect Mr Talabani's ability to work."    In Iraq today, religous pilgrims were among those targeted repeadly.  The Shabaniyah festival has repeatedly been plagued with violenct attacks on pilgirms each year (since the illegal war started).  The festival is honoring the birth of Mohammed al-Mahdi who was the twelth iman and also the last Shi'ite to be an imam -- one who is predicted to come back to the world and bring peace with him.  AFP explains, "Tens of thousands of Shiites are expected to flock to Karbala to venerate Imam Mahdi, an eighth century imam who vanished as a boy and whom Shiites believe will return to bring justice to the world."  Peter Graff (Reuters) adds that the Shi'ite pilgrimages and festivals "have become an annual ritual show of strength for Iraq's Shi'ite majority since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Arab who restricted some Shi'ite religious practices." In the attack with the largest number of known deaths, CBS and AP report that a bomber (apparently female) in Iskandariya took her own life as well as the lives of "at least 26 people and wounding dozens" in "the deadliest in a series of attacks" on the pilgrims.  The Telegraph of London quotes eye witness Ahmed al-Saadi explaining, "I heard a big explosion.  I turned my head back and saw big flames.  We rushed to the site and saw charred bodies, while wounded people were crying for help. Pots and burnt prayer rugs were scattered all the place."  Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) observes, "So far this year, there have been about 30 female suicide bombing attacks, according to the U.S. military. Last year, there were just seven."   In other reported violence today . . .   Bombings?   Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 police officer (and five pilgrims were wounded), another claimed the life of 1 pilgrim (seven more wounded), a Diyala Province roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 8-year-old girl and left her sister and mother wounded and a Baquba roadside bombing claimed the lives of 2 police officers (and left three more wounded).  Reuters notes "five employees of Baiji oil refinery" were injured in a Baiji roadside bombing.   Shootings?   Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 police officer shot dead in Mosul.  Reuters drops back to yesterday today and notes a Mosul home invasion in which 1 man was killed and his son was injured.   Corpses? Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 corpse discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes that the corpse "of a murder policeman" was discovered in Kirkuk.   Meanwhile Peter Graff (Reuters) reports that six sailors who served at Camp Bucca in Iraq are now looking at a court-martial "for abusing detainees" and that the court-martials are expected to commence "within the next 30 days."   Turning to the US presidential race.  As they prepare to rock Denver, the Ralph Nader - Matt Gonzalez campaign opened up their Denver headquarters today.  The office is located in Suite 111 on 1155 Sherman Street, a tree-lined street whose intersection with East 12th Avenue makes it very accessible becuase East 12th is a bus route.  The office is wheel chair accessible.  Jess spoke with Junue Millan this afternoon about the opening and the news confernce which was attended by at least five media people including Univision.  The office was "specifically created" for the Super Rally that will be held in Denver (at the Magness Arena) on August 27th. They are expecting between 5,000 and 7,000 people to attend and are currently working on a website just for the Denver office.   The Denver event will take place as the Democratic Party stages there convention and  there is a great deal of excitement for the Super Rally and volunteers are needed to help with fliers and getting the word out.  Those interested in assisting can e-mail Junue Millan at junue@votenader.org as well as call the office (303) 832-2509 or walk in.  They intend to be open from nine in the morning until nine in the evening Monday through Friday as they work to pull together this large project.  Both Ralph and Matt will be speaking at the event and, as the event gets closer, they will begin announcing some of the guest speakers they've already confirmed.  Artist, activist and rocker Jello Biafra is among those who will be participating.   The Super Rally in Denver (September 4th, a Nader Super Rally will be held at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, during the GOP convention) will start at seven o'clock p.m and will PUT ON THE TABLE the issues that the two major parties refuse to address -- the Iraq War, single-payer universal health care, corporate crime, impeachment and more.  It will also challenge the two-party duopoly by insisting that the presidential debates be opened.  As Kat noted last night, " I really find it offensive that Ralph Nader, Bob Barr and Cynthia McKinney (or Chuck Baldwin for that matter) have to fight to get into the debates. They are presidential candidates and should be in the debates. What are the Democrats and Republicans so scared of? Are their candidates so weak that they can't hold their own against Ralph, Bob, Cynthia and Chuck? Do John McCain and Barack Obama get the night sweats just thinking about being on stage with the other candidates? In a real democracy, debates would be open to all on the ballots. This nonsense that you have to meet X% would be called out. It's not a popularity contest. It's supposed to be a race for the presidency."   Yesterday, Ralph was a guest on NPR's Talk of the Nation.  Below is some of the exchange:   Neal Conan: Back in February Ralph Nader announced that he was running for president as an independent candidate.  The longtime consumer advocate's third consecutive run for the White House.  If you'd like to talk with him about his campaign, why he's running, our phone number is 800-989-8255, e-mail again is talk@npr.org and, of course, political junkie Ken Rudin is with us, he's NPR's political editor and you can read his political junkie column at nrp.org.  And, Ralph Nader, nice to have you with us on the program today.  Why are you running for president, remind us?   Ralph Nader: This campaign stands for a whole number of changes and redirections that are supported by a majority of the American people.  We're the only ones who are standing for full Medicare for all, for  a living wage, for cutting the bloated, wasteful military budgets full of so much contracting fraud that's offending tax payers.  We want to cut down tax payer coherced subsidies to corporations, you know  the hand outs giveaways bailouts of crooked Wall Street firms.  We want to open up the presidential debates.  Why are we rationing debates?  We don't ration weather reports, do we?   Neil Conan: No.   Ralph Nader: Or entertainment or sports.  And we want to shift the tax burden more to things that society likes the least or dislikes the most like security derivative speculation  pollution, gambling, addictive industries before you first tax human labor.  And we want to crack down on corporate crime, fraud and abuse.  And, you know, public radio's reported that -- repeatedly stealing people's pensions, ripping off their savings, their mutal funds -- all of this has been reported  and the major party candidates, McCain and Obama, are taking these issues off the table.  They don't have a corporate crime crackdown, law and order, against these crooks.  They don't have a decent tax reform.  They don't want to open up the presidential debates.  They don't want full Medicare for all which even a majority of doctors want in a recent poll and a majority of the American people giving you free choice of doctor and hospital cutting out a lot of wasteful bureacratic expenses.  And they really don't have a plan to get out of Iraq and they want to expand the Afghanistan War. So we really have a very broad agenda for people to sink their teeth in and say, "What's left for us to decide as the people?  Is there anything left for us to decide as these corporations have hijacked our government and control about every department and agency?"  That's what we're saying to the American people: If you don't take it over, if you don't win your government back, if you don't vote for people you believe in who have a record of  accomplishment and a good platform which you can see on VoteNader.org, what's left for you to decide?  I mean, these two parties don't represent you in area after area.  Their drum is beaten by the big corporations.    Neal Conan: Could we have some time for callers to ask some questions?  800-898-255 e-mails us talk@npr.org and let's see if we can get a caller on the line.  Let's go to, this is line 6, Peter, Peter with us from Pennelton, is that right, in Oregon?  Pendleton, it must be.    Peter: Hello?   Neil Conan: Yes go ahead.   Peter: Hi.   Neil Conan: Go you're on the air.   Peter: Mr. Nader?   Ralph Nader: Yes.   Peter: Hi.  In 2004, I voted for John Kerry and I actually have regretted it ever since. And I really wish that I had written your name in. Of course, I don't believe that you were on the ballot in Oregon.  But --   Ralph Nader: The Democrats pushed us off.   Peter: I'm sorry?   Ralph Nader: The Democrats pushed us off state ballots with frivilous litigation, partisan judges.  You're right, we weren't on the ballot even though we got a lot of signatures, more than necessary.   Peter: It was pretty dirty.  But this year, it seems just so easy to just get behind Barack Obama but, at the same time, there are people like me who are pretty liberal and see you as a more progressive candidate.  What is one way that Barack Obama could become more progressive?   Ralph Nader: Well, he could be the  Barack Obama, who knows what the score is rather than having  antenna out for political advantage.  He would reflect what he believes, what he said privately believes we should have full Medicare for all, he prefers the single-payer system.  He certainly knows about the exploitation -- commercial and otherwise --  of the lower 100 million Americans on the income scale but he doesn't associate himself with any comprehensive reform plan there. He's taking actually more corporate interest money than John McCain as of June 30 of this year.  And he wants to have a bigger military budget.  His plan for getting out of Iraq  according to his military adviser would leave 50,000 soldiers, American soldiers, there with all  these bases.  That's not really getting out of Iraq. I think he's making a strategic mistake that Mondale, Dukakis, Kerry and others have made by moving toward the Republican position on area after area, by not drawing a bright line between the two as these issues I mentioned earlier he's going to lose votes, he's not going to gain votes.   Neil Conan: And let me ask you, Senator Obama, of course, the Democratic nominee this time around, you're on the ballot in 35 states is the Democratic Party this year continuing to work to keep you off the ballots elsewhere?   Ralph Nader: No, not so far.  We're going to be on about 45 state ballots.  We sued the Democratic Party last November for their abusive legal process  in violating our civil rights in '04 -- places like Pennsylvania.  And, in answer to your question, what's keeping them from doing what they did in '04 is the state Attorney General of Pennsylvania has brought indictments against 12 Democrats, two state legislatures and 10 legislative aides for using government money, government space, government resources to get us off the ballot in 2004 in Pennsylvania and they also gave them a $188,000 tay payer bonus and this is criminal stuff.  So I don't think they're going to do it again this year.   Team Nader is releasing daily audio of Ralph Nader (with Matt Gonzalez expected to participate as well).  Ralph's Daily Audio  is the web page and we noted "Open the Debates!" in yesterday's snapshot.  Below is the transcript to Ralph's "Corporate Tax Cheats:"       A report just out by the well regarded US Government Accountability Office concludes that about two-thirds of corporations operating in the United States did not pay taxes annually from 1998 to 2005.  Imagine that.  Senator Byron Dorgan, the Democrat of North Dakota, called the findings "A shocking indictment of the current tax system." He continues, "It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country.  The tax system that allows this whole sale tax avoidance is an embarrassment and unfair to hard working Americans who pay their  fair share of taxes.  We need to plug these tax loopholes and put these corporations back on the tax rolls." Senator Carl Levin says, "This report makes clear that too many corporations are using tax trickery to send their profits overseas and to avoid paying their fare share in the United States." The GAO report said that 28% of large corporations paid no taxes during that period between 1998 to 2005.  It's suspected that a lot of these global corporations were using transfer pricing to reduce their tax bills.  This allows these multi-national corporations to transfer their goods and assets between their internal subsidiaries so they can record in the jurisdiction with low tax rates like the Bahamas. David Cay Johnston, in his great book Perfectly Legal concluded, and I paraphrase him, he said, "These global companies have now reached a point of power and manipulation where they can decide how much taxes they're going to pay, where they're going to pay these taxes, and when they're going to pay these taxes." That's the leading tax reporter for the New York Times, a Pulitzer Prize winner, David Cay Johnston.  It's something to think about when we ponder the double standard between working people on the one hand under our tax system and those tax escapees the global corporations on the other.  This is Ralph Nader.     That was released today.  Yesterday's was Ralph's "Outsourcing" and it appears below:      This is Ralph Nader.  You know how often these big corporate executives, when they're shipping jobs of American workers to fascist or communist dictators abroad who know how to keep their workers in their place .  Do you know how often they say "Well we have to do this to keep up with the global competition"? But one thing they don't do to keep up with the global competition is to outsource themselves, outsource their own CEO jobs or their own faluting commentators and editors jobs.  Let's start with the New York Times editorial page.  It would be hard to replace Maureen Dowd, no doubt.  But Thomas Friedman?   He of the rah-rah, pro-corporate, globalization, cheesy metaphors?  Well he could easily be replaced by a hard working Indian or Chinese bi-lingual columnist at a much lower rate.  And how about Wall Street?  All those investment bank executives, the executives of Citigroup or Merrill Lynch.  Imagine how many first rate Indian or Chinese executives could have done a much better job than Bob Rubin who helped drive the giant Citibank into the ground.  I'm sure good executives from India or China could replace Rick Wagoner as CEO of General Motors at a much, much lower salary.  That's the way to meet the global competition: Outsouce  CEOS.  "What's good for the worker," says the CEO, "is not good for the CEO."  The shareholders know better thye've got to demand outsourcing CEOS for a new fresh. energetic start for the management of their country.  I'm Ralph Nader.   At Dissident Voice, Ron Jacobs has another must-read, this one explaining when 'withdrawal' isn't really withdrawal. (I'm out of time, we'll quote Ron tonight in "I Hate The War.")  Robert Fisk (Independent of London) also dares to tell the truth about the 'withdrawal' Barack and Iraqi puppets are trying to sell.  And, community note, last night Rebecca offered "breakfast club," Ruth went with "Betrayed," Kat offered "Pretty in Pink and Reckless," Marcia explored "Outrageous Fortune," Elaine examined "Broadway Danny Rose" and Mike went with "Die Hard and Baby Boom." Cedric's "The battered syndrome is what Bambi works" and Wally's "THIS JUST IN! BARACK SPITS ON WOMEN AGAIN!" covered the latest disgusting insult to women from Team Obama. And if you missed Betty's "Testing out The Obama Playbook" and Trina's "Garlic Pasta in the Kitchen" over the weekend, please check them out.     iraq jeremy hinzman michael futch don jorgensen ian austen sindh today liam lahey brett clarkson david hutton jessica mcdiarmid talk of the nation npr the new york times andrew e. kramer the los angeles times tina susman mcclatchy newspapers deborah haynes robert fisk ron jacobs iraq veterans against the war

Wednesday, August 13, 2008.  Chaos and violence continue, Miss Iraq calls out the sex trade, Jeremy Hinzman is told he's leaving, the US military announces another death leading August's death toll so far to surpass July's, and more.   Starting with war resistance.  CNN notes US war resister Jeremy Hinzman has been told to leave Canada.  Jeremy Hinzman, his wife Nga Nguyen and their son Liam went to Canada in January 2004. He became the first Iraq War resister to publicly go to Canada. He and Brandon Hughey were the first war resisters to attempt to be granted safe harbor in Canada. The Immigration and Refugee 'board' (it's one person deciding) declined to grant status. Both then began appealing to the courts. In May of 2007, the Federal Court of Appeals sided with the board and the Federal court.  In November 2007, Canada's Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal.  June 3rd Canada's House of Commons voted (non-binding motion) in favor of Canada being a safe harbor for war resisters. Despite that vote, Judge Anne Mactavish saw fit to extradite Robin Long in July and to call it 'deportation.' In Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq, Peter Laufer writes:   Yet the arrival of Iraq War soldiers seeking refuge in Canada didn't sit well with officials.  Army Specialist Jeremy Hinzman's case was the first to be adjudicated, after he became the first U.S. war resister ever to apply for refugee status in Canada.  The Immigriation and Refugee Board denied his claim; appeals may drag on for years.  While his case is pending, Canada allows him to stay in the country and provides him with a temporary work permit.  The ruling from the Refugee Protection Division of CIC insists Hinzman failed to mmake a case that the Iraq War was illegal: "He has not shown that the U.S. has either as a matter of deliberate policy or official indiffernce, required or allowed its combatants to engage in widespread actions in violation of humanitarian law." A veteran of the U.S. action in Afghanistan, Hinzman took his wife and baby to Canada when he received orders at Fort Bragg for a tour of duty in Iraq.  "No matter how much I wanted to, I could not convince myself that killing someone was right," he said once he surfaced in Toronto.  Hinzman had applied to be discharged as a conscientious objector, requested noncombat duties, and spent much of his time in Afghanistan performing kitchen chores.  His CO application was rejected after a hearing in Afghanistan.  Back in the States, when his orders for Iraq came, Hinzman felt he had only two choices: disobey tem and risk prison, or flee the country.   Prison was not an option.  "I have already missed a large chunk of my young son's life and I was willing to sacrifice any more lost time with him, especially during his formative years," he said.  Canada looked like a good bet, given its policies toward deserters during the Vietnam War.  Hinzman expressed no regrets about his decision and is convince the Iraq War is illegal.  "I object to the Iraqi war," he announced, "because it is an act of aggression with no defensive basis.  It has been supported by pretenses that cannot withstand even elementary scrutiny.  First, before the U.S. dropped the first bomb, it was quite evident that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.  Second, the Bush administration had the gall to exploit the American public's fear of terrorists by making the absurd assertion that a secular Batthist government was working with a fundamentalist terrorist group.  There was nevery any intelligence to substantiate this.  Third, the notion that the U.S. wants to export democracy to Iraq is laughable.  Democracy is by the people, not an appointed puppet theater."   Peter Laufer's book was published in 2006 and you might think the shelves have filled up in the time since but you'd be wrong.  A few war resisters have movingly told their stories in book form and you have  Aimee Allison and David Solnit's wonderful  Army Of None but that's really about all.  Jeremy became a news topic in May 2004.  May 26, 2004 was when CBS News noted, "A U.S. soldier who deserted his Iraq-bound regiment and sought asylum in Canada said the U.S. war in Iraq was illegal and he accused the United States of committing war crimes.  Pfc. Jeremy Hinzman, 25, is believed to be the first U.S. soldier to apply for refugee status in Canada after refusing combat duty in Iraq." In December of 2004, Jeremy told Scott Pelley (60 Minutes II, CBS), "I was told in basic training that, if I'm given an illegal or immoral order, it is my duty to disobey it."  As to the myth of 'freedom' being fought for in Iraq, Hinzman declared, "Whether a country lives under freedom or tyranny or whatever else, that's the collective responsibility of the people of that country."   The day started with Michael Futch (Fayetteville Observer) reporting that a decision was expected in Jeremy's status and that Fayetteville Quaker House director Chuck Fager was at work make signs for a planned demonstration supporting Hinzman -- "Shame, Canada, shame!" if the news was bad or "Thanks Canada! Jeremy Hinzman: Soldier of Conscience" if the news was good.  Futch quotes Fager this afternoon explaining, "This is a very disappointing decision.  It puts Canada more fully in complicity with an illegal and immoral war.  Jeremy will probably end up back here at Fort Bragg.  That's usually what happens."  Futch also notes Hinzman and Nga added a daughter to their family in July, "Megan, who has Canadian citizenship."     The War Resisters Support Campaign issued this statement today:   U.S. Iraq war resister Jeremy Hinzman was told today that his family's application to stay in Canada has been rejected.  Hinzman was told that he does not qualify under Canada's Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) program following a review by a Citizenship and Immigration department officer.   Jeremy, his wife Nga Nguyen and their son Liam were the first Iraq War resisters to come to Canada to seek sanctuary.  On July 21, their second child was born in Toronto.  If deported, they would be the first family sent to the U.S. to face punishment.  On July 15, the Canadian government deported U.S. war resister Robin Long who is currently awaiting court martial at Fort Carson, Colorado.  Hinzman served a tour in Afghanistan in a non-combat role after applying for conscientious objector status.  When his unit, the 82 Airborne Division, was to be deployed to Iraq Hinzman and his family decided to come to Canada.  "I applied for Conscientious Objector Status in the U.S. Army because I realized that I cannot kill a fellow humna being.  But my application was denied.  I knew that in Iraq I would be ordered to take part in combat operations, or other actions that are against my principles," said Hinzman.  "Nga and I knew Canada had welcomed many Americans like us during the Vietnam War, and we knew Canada had refused to join the invasion of Iraq."  "Sending Jeremy and his family back to the U.S., where he would face harsh punishment, would be cruel," said Lee Zaslofsky, coordinator of the War Resisters Support Campaign.  "It would fly in the face of the motion adopted by the House of Commons on June 3, which called on the Harper government to stop all deportation proceedings against these conscientious objectors." Recent Federal Court of Canada decisions in the case of U.S. war resisters Joshua Key and Corey Glass have indicated that the refugee process which failed to grant protection to the Hinzman family may have been seriously flawed.  The War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on the federal government and the Hon. Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, to intervene to prevent the Hinzman family from being sent to the U.S. to be punished.    Nick Kyonka (Toronto Star) reports, "Jeremy Hinzman, 29, had filed for a pre-removal risk assessment and permanent residency on humanitarian and compassionate grounds with Citizenship and Immigration Canada in January after several prior failed attempts to gain refugee status.  Today he was told that both of those applications had been rejected and he must leave the country by Sept. 23."  Kyonka quotes Jeremy stating, "Obviously we're disappointed but life goes on and we'll make the most of it wherever we end up."  AP quotes him stating, "I'm disappointed but I think that every soldier that has refused to fight in Iraq has done a good thing and I'm not ashamed."  Meagan Fitzpatrick (Canwest News Service) adds that War Resisters Support Campaign's Michelle "Robidoux said Hinzman, who lives in Toronto with his wife and two children, plans to take a close look at the decisions before deciding how to proceed."  The Canadian Press notes: "Federal NDP Citizenship and Immigration Critic Olivia Chow, who put foward the June [3rd Parliament] motion, called the decision [to expell Jeremy] 'mean spirited.'  She called on Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley to hald the deporation of Hinzman and other resisters immediately."     Jeremy Hinzman and other war resisters in Canada need support and to pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail finley.d@parl.gc.ca -- that's "finley.d" at "parl.gc.ca") and Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, 613.992.4211, phone; 613.941.6900, fax; e-mail pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's "pm" at "pm.gc.ca"). Courage to Resist collected more than 10,000 letters to send before the vote. Now they've started a new letter you can use online here. The War Resisters Support Campaign's petition can be found here. Long expulsion does not change the need for action and the War Resisters Support Campaign explains: "The War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada to urgently continue to put pressure on the minority conservative government to immediately cease deportation proceedings against other US war resisters and to respect the will of Canadians and their elected representatives by implementing the motion adopted by Parliament on June 3rd. Please see the take action page for what you can do."   There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Yovany Rivero, William Shearer, Michael Thurman, Andrei Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum. Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).   Crispin Thorold (BBC News) notes King Abdullah II of Jordan's brief ("symoblic") visit to Iraq on Monday and notes an estimated 750,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan and that "these refugees have an uncertain status.  They are referred to as guests, not refugees and year-long residency permits are hard to obtain.  The vast majority were granted short stays in the country, which since 2005 have become virtually impossible to renew.  Without official paperwork the refugees are not allowed to work."  Meanwhile Suki Falconberg (Women's Space) reports on Iraqi female refugees in Syrica "are being sold for sex.  There is a large sex trade in young Iraqi girls in the nighclubs of Damascus.  Fourteen-and fifteen-year-olds -- literally girls -- not even women yet, and even children, are being sold" and quotes Myra Adel, Miss Iraq, explaining why her pagaent days are done, "They have been great to me but I will no longer be involved with the Pageant, due to the fact that I really couldn't take it when I saw all those refugees in Syria being mistreated . . . seing these people suffer made me ashamed. . . . I don't deserve to live in a classy apartment while other women are selling themselves. . . . What kind of sick demented human being would want to have sex with a 10-year-old?"  Falconberg notes:   She says that the "annual government budget in Iraq exceeds 70 billion US dollars. Where is that money going? Power cuts are long, people get electricity for only an hour or two a day...water is cut off as well." She would like to see some of the money going to fund the Iraqi women and girls in Syria who are so desperate they must sell themselves to survive. Ms. Adel brings up a great question--to repeat it--where is the money in Iraq going? Is US and Iraqi corruption, combined, so overwhelming that a few are getting enormously rich and the majority of Iraqis are suffering terrible hardships, and in the case of the subject of this article, the women in prostitution, those hardships mean bodies and lives that will be nightmares forever from this degradation.   Where does the money go?  Why is the puppet allowed to sit on so much money?  He can spend it on weapons (and does).  Today Ernesto Londono (Washington Post) covers the efforts to build Iraq's air force and notes, "U.S. lawmakers appropriated $8.5 billion to train and equip Iraq's security forces in 2007 and 2008. Of that sum, roughly $457 million went to the Iraqi air force."  So the US is tossing out more money to prop up the brutal puppet regime they installed.  And who is helping the Iraqi peole?   Myra Adel places blame at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees as well.  Meanwhile Bernd Debusmann (Reuters) reports that the tiny US target of accepting 12,000 Iraqi refugees for 2008 will be met by September 30 (end of fiscal year) but "[t]he bad news is that 12,000 people represent a tiny fraction of the vast exodus of Iraqis driven from their homes by the violence and ethnic cleansing unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion.  Estimates of their number vary.  The widely used figure of 5 million is about one in five.  To get that into context: relative to the size of the population, it would equal the forced displacement of almost 60 million Americans."  This comes as Zvi Bare'el (Haaretz) reports that Europe is no longer welcoming Iraqi refugees, "At the end of July, European countries decided to halt the processing of accepting new refugees and to postpone until September discussions about those who submitted their requests for refugee status.  The decision does not stem only from concern over the growth in the number of Iraqis in Europe and an increase in the 'Muslim element' on the continent, but primarily against the backdrop of Iraqi Preime Minister Nuri al-Mliki's request to stop absorbing refugees.  Al-Maliki explained to European heads of state and interior ministers he met with that the situation in Iraq has improved and Iraq needs its refugees in order to rebuild the state."  What the puppet of the occupation, Nouri, really means is that the refugee crisis makes it so very hard to sell that "turned corner" nonsense and launch another wave of Operation Happy Talk.  In November, he preyed on the helpless -- helpless due to his own actions and his own inactions -- and tried (with the help of the US government) to jump-start The Myth of the Great Return.  Those refugees were not thrilled and eager to return to Iraq.  They had run out of money, they were bussed in and, upon arriving in Baghdad, a number immediately were confronted with physical threats.  Using the same techniques as then, this week 250 Iraqis returned.  al-Maliki begged and whined to the Egyptian government that these pesky refugees were just making him look so very, very bad.  Couldn't they do Nouri a solid?  Help a puppet out?  The refugees were near broke and that combined with pressure from the Egyptian government created the 'returnees'. Possibly due to the strong work of Damien Cave and Cara Buckley (New York Times) when the Myth of the Great Return was still going on previously, the press was far less eager to hop on boogie board and ride the latest wave of Operation Happy Talk.  Equally true is that NGOs continue to state that Iraq is not a safe region for refugees to return to.   Near Kirkuk today there's been an assassination attempt.  Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "The district commissioner of al Multaqa district abdul Kareem Ali Nasif and three of his guards were wounded by a suicide car bomb that targeted the convoy of Nasif while he was going to his office district in al Multaqa district west of Kirkuk early morning."  This continues a long line of attacks on officials.  It also continues a long line of attacks on US collaborators.   Aws Qusay (Reuters) reports that "Abdul Karim al-Jubouri . . . also leads pro-U.S. security vonteer forces in the area, was wounded along with three bodyguards."  Most recently, yesterday, Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reported a Baghdad roadside bombing that wounded three, a Diyala Province assassination attempt on the Governor via a bomber who took his/her own life apparently as well the lives of 3 civilians (seven people were left wounded). Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) reports that Monday's bomber was "a man dressed as a woman" and she quotes Raad Tamimi (the governor) explaining that, "He tried to head towards us but we were careful, because suicidal attackers are common in Diyala."   Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .   Bombings?   Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing claimed 1 life, a Nineveh car bombing claimed 2 lives (seven people wounded), a Mosul bombing left two people wounded, another Mosul bombing ("suicide bomb") claimed the life of the bomber and the lives of 2 Iraqi service members (sixteen people were wounded), a Diyala Province roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 woman and left two more wounded, and another Diyala Province bombing claimed the lives of 2 Iraqi police officers ("national police").   Shootings? Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports one police officer was wounded in a Baghdad shooting,   Corpses?   Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 2 corpses discovered in Baghdad   Today the US military announced: "A Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed when the vehicle they were riding in was struck by an improvised-explosive device in northwest Baghdad at approximately 10:10 a.m. Aug. 13." With that announced death, the month of August (not even half over) has already passed the month of July for most US fatalities.  The monthly toll thus far is 14 with 4141 the number killed since the start of the illegal war.   Non Iraq related but also on the topic of immigration and refugees and the way governments mistreat those most in need of help.  Independent journalist David Bacon reports. "Maria Rosala Mejia Mqarroquin and Anacleta Tajtaj, Guatemalan immigrants, were arrested in an immigration raid at the agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville on May 12.  The raid was the largest workplace raid in a single worksite in recent history.  Both were released to care of their children, but now have to wear ankle bracelets to monitor their movments.  They and 46 other women cannot work or travel, and have been waiting for weeks for a hearing which would result in their deporation.  Most have husbands or brothers now in Federal prison, forced to plead guilty to misusing a Social Security number, as a result of the raid."  David Bacon's latest book comes out next month, Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon Press).   Turning to the US presidential election, Maureen Hoch (PBS' NewsHour) gets credit for attempting to be inclusive: "Both the DNC and the RNC will have to contend with counter rallies during their conventions. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader is planning events in both Denver and St. Paul. Ron Paul supporters are organizing a mini-convention in St. Paul to coincide with the second day of McCain's GOP event."  A nice attempt at being inclusive but, to be clear, Cynthia McKinney is the Green Party's presidential candidate.   Ralph Nader is running as an independent (and Bob Barr is the Libertarian Party candidate).  As Hoch notes, Nader is holding super rallies.  Along with super rallies, there is also the issue of the debates.  As he notes in an audio campaign message:   This is Ralph Nader. The only time when tens of millions of Americans tune in for a couple of hours and pay attention to politics is during the prime time presidential debates. For our democracy to survive, prevail and thrive, we must have an open debate about the challenges we face and the solutions that we must apply. We really don't need two-candidate debates that sound like canned interviews. We don't need debaters prepped to look like a couple of game show contestants. We don't need show business, we need serious debate.        A 2000 Zogby poll showed that nearly 52% of the people wanted other candidates in the debates. In 2004, another Zogby poll showed 57% of likely voters wanted the debates opened up. A July 2008 poll by Zogby found that 44% of the public agreed that the American system is broken and cannot be repaired by the traditional two party politics and election. Another poll had 61% of the people saying both parties are failing.         It's time to open up the debates to third party candidates. I'm running for president because our democracy has been the target of an accelerating hostile corporate takeover. Control of our government by large corporations results in huge corporate welfare payouts, mega-fraud by military contractors, a pay or die system of health insurance, continued man-made global climate change and a collapsing financial system being propped up by the day on the backs of the American taxpayer with no restrictions, guarantees or return on investment. This and much more has happened with the craven complicity of both major political parties and politicians in Washington.    Friends, as things stand, the three debates run by the two parties through the private Commission on Presidential Debates, a corporation, will exclude critical discussion of the control of our democracy by large corporations We need honest talk in this campaign. It's time to respect the will of the American people, to expand their access to arguments and facts that address issues central to their daily lives. It's time for the American people to take control of the political system. We can begin by opening up the presidential debates. I'm Ralph Nader.      Ralph Nader was on NPR's Talk of the Nation today (audio available shortly). With more on the super rallies, Team Nader notes:   Are you ready to rumble? If yes, make a contribution now to help fund our protest rallies in Denver (August 27) and Minneapolis (September 4). Thousands of Americans will be in Denver and Minneapolis to protest the pro-war corporate controlled Democrats and Republicans. Nader/Gonzalez has rented arenas in both cities to rally Americans opposed to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and corporate control over all aspects of our lives. And to lay down one simple demand - open the Presidential debates. As Ralph put it the other day, if we are allowed into the debates -  and reach tens of millions of Americans with our message - it will be a three-way race. Thanks to your help, we are on track to be on 45 states ballots by September 20 (Currently, we are on 31.) If we get into the debates, our six percent in the polls will jump to 15 percent or more. And the American people will sense a three-way race. Then everything is possible. But first, we have to pay for our up front costs in Denver and Minneapolis. And we need to raise $50,000 before August 20. To pay for sound, lights, office, arena, phone lines, staff, lodging, 100,000 handbills. We've taken some of our best road-trippers and flown them into Denver to promote the rally. We have also opened an office in downtown Denver. (See today's Denver Post article here.)  Our staff is lining everything up to make them memorable rallies. But we've got bills to pay now. So, drop $10, $20, $50, $100 or whatever you can -- give to your heart's content -- but not more than the legal limit of $4,600. Then watch your name go up in lights on our new super rallies widget. And see us move toward our goal of $50,000. Let's crank it up. And get it done. Thank you in advance. See you in Denver and Minneapolis. Onward to November       iraq jeremy hinzman michael futch brandon hughey  peter laufer aimee allison david solnit the los angeles times tina susman mcclatchy newspapers sahar issa laith hammoudi the washington post ernesto londono david bacon talk of the nation npr

Tuesday, August 12, 2008.  Chaos and violence continue, the refugee crisis continues (though we're supposed to forget), the US military announces another death, and more.   Starting with war resistance.  Rich Droste is a US war resister in Canada.  Law is Cool interviewed Droste for their podcast Friday.   Rich Droste: My name is Richard Drew Droste, the second.  I'm age 22.  I've lived in Canada since March 7th   Law is Cool: What brings you to Canada?   Rich Droste: It's a long, long. long journey and a long and winding and road that led me to Canada.  I joined the army at the age of 17 for many reasons -- mostly to escape the lifestyle I was living, the promise of education, the pursuit of something more grand than what I was living.  I was homeless at the time, living in my car for the previous two years, still trying to get my own education and just maintain a working lifestyle.  They provided me with so many benefits of what I now know is half-truths obviously but didn't at the time.  And at the age of 17, I was able to make that one decision to give my life for the country that I barely knew anything about but you're not old to make any other adult decision in the US at that age, right?  So I joined as a combat engineer time at this time, believing that there was this huge terrorist threat on our nation, believing that America could not wrong type mentality, you know, I followed CNN and Fox 'News' pretty much for my whole life and, you know, if you don't look for an outside source you're not going to find it.  And if you're happy in your bubble why burst it, right? So the further I get into the military I become more educated with what's really going on all across the world and not just in Iraq or just Afghanistan but also the human trafficking and prostitution rings around military institutions across the world. The fact that we're standing up for human rights and freedom to me and seeing these things happen in Korea while I was stationed there was my first big question against the military and I basically got told to shut and try not to fix anything that your pay grade can't handle, you know.  They say they don't support it if you ask them and they'll be quoted saying they don't support it but during the day there's regulations and only US soldiers and citizens can go inside these clubs and these bars that contain all this human trafficking and prostitution.  All of their money for those rings are coming from soldiers' pockets. It shows that there may not be verbal support but there's definitely financial support, right?  And that was my first big problem.  Around my second year in the military I became a Conscientious Objector the war in Iraq because of the illegalities, the unhumane activities that are happening there.  The just unusual behavior -- the way we treat men, the way we treat women.   Law is Cool: What does it mean to be a Conscientious Objector for those of us who don't know?   Rich Droste: Within the military, there's a system so if you want to be a non-combatant, this is supposed to be a legal thing.  You can file this Conscientious Objector packet which states that you are against the dualities of the war that the efforts working for and then you can work as a noncombatant inside the US military such as a cook, a medic, an X-ray technician, whatever it may be, there's numerous jobs and there supposed to supply you with that.  Well around a year after I filled out that paperwork, it was mysteriously lost.  And I was told this with a wink from the person I was asking.  So it just goes to show they weren't trying to put that much effort into helping me with this Conscientious Objector packet.  Around my third year, six month, which meant I only had about six months left on my original contract, I found out I was getting stop-lossed and sent to Iraq.  By this time I had already stated I was an objector and I would have no part in this war, if anything I would like to end this war -- you know what I mean  -- I'm not going to fight in it.  And they said you go to this war, you go jail, your only other option is to re-enlist , signing on a new contract, and get a non-combatant job, right?   So those are my options.  I decide through friends and people that were looking out for me honestly that had no role over what happens to me they advised me to re-enlist for a different job and I did. I thought it was a smart thing to do.  So I re-enlist to be a computer networker, well a systems operator analyst, it's all computer networking, IP configuration, connecting servers, routers and such.   Law is Cool: What was your reason for choosing that kind of a job?   Rich Droste: It was -- it was mostly just maintaining networks for the generals and superiors that are going over there anyway.  Which I didn't know when I signed up for the job.  The reason I signed up for the job was because I thought it was a communication job.  So I could communicate.   Law is Cool: But you probably wouldn't be in the front lines with something like that?   Rich Droste: Absolutely.  And by my understanding, I wouldn't be participating in any combatant side of the military.  Well my last week of training, I'm about to graduate this new course, and I find out that I'm going to 4th RTB which stands for Ranger Training Battalion.  So not only am I training combatants, I'm training elite combatants to go fight in this war and I told them I wouldn't have any part of it.  So there I got to try to fill out another Conscientious Objector packet.  It's denied because I don't meet the quote-unquote "criteria."  I ask them what the criteria is, they can't give me an answer.   Then I go to mental health and explain my reasoning behind all this.  They try to put me on sleeping aids and anti-depressants saying I'll get over it, I just need rest, and to lighten up.  And I was told to "suck it up and drive on."  And that was their cure-all answer for that.  And then I went to a chaplain which is a preacher, a priest, and he finds your religious denomination.  At this time, I was still very much agnostic which is I believe in a higher power but I think there's too much out there for the human mind to comprehend really. And I'm talking to him and he tried to explain to me that God justified this war and wouldn't harm us or call us sinners for our wrong doings to the Iraqi people -- civilian and terrorist alike because humans are humans, regardless of their decisions, right?  And uh, so that's what he tried to convince me.  I talked to him numerous occasions and I couldn't get anything out of him or any help. After I went up and down the chain of command and tried to get this non-combatant job and after so much so much dedication I actually went AWOL  four days after my original ETS date -- so I fulfilled my original contract and I came to Canada.   Law is Cool: Now why Canada?  Why not Mexico?   Rich Droste: There we go, yeah.  That's a great question and that's something I wish more potential resisters would know is  when I was going through this I was looking for other instances where soldiers experienced similar grounds, same thing that happened to me, because I knew  it was happening all across the military .  So I looked up online.  What better source, right? So I find there's all these soldiers and there's so many thousands living in the States  and there was anywhere from 200 to 500 living in Canada.  I found that there was about 50 that applied for refugee status in Canada. And the things that they were doing, the political aspects, the education . . . I didn't come here to hide.  I came here very well knowing that I could be deported and sentenced in the United States for my 'wrong doing' and that's -- I'm fine with that.  I accept that. I came here to educate the people.  I came here to open people's views and even if they don't understand it, even if they disagree, at least they're not ignorant to the matter.     War resisters in Canada need support and to pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail finley.d@parl.gc.ca -- that's "finley.d" at "parl.gc.ca") and Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, 613.992.4211, phone; 613.941.6900, fax; e-mail pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's "pm" at "pm.gc.ca"). Courage to Resist collected more than 10,000 letters to send before the vote. Now they've started a new letter you can use online here. The War Resisters Support Campaign's petition can be found here. Long expulsion does not change the need for action and the War Resisters Support Campaign explains: "The War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada to urgently continue to put pressure on the minority conservative government to immediately cease deportation proceedings against other US war resisters and to respect the will of Canadians and their elected representatives by implementing the motion adopted by Parliament on June 3rd. Please see the take action page for what you can do."   There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Yovany Rivero, William Shearer, Michael Thurman, Andrei Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum. Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).   King Abudllah II of Jordan made an unnannounced visit to Baghdad yesterday.  Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) observes, "The visit is the latest in a eries of moves by Arab states that Iraqi and U.S. officials say could improve security and counter the influence of Shiite-led Iran, a player here in economic, diplomatic and security matters."  Lelia Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "Iraq had planned to give the monarch a state welcome but instead the king arrived and left with no fanfare.  The announcement of his visit came as he boarded a plane to leave Iraq." AP notes that "U.S. officials had been urging King Abdullah to visit Iraq to bolster ties between the two countries as part of Washington's campaign to shore up support for the Iraqi government as a counterweight to Iranian influence." Deutsche Welle points out, "Jordan hosts about 500,000 Iraqi refugees who have fled violence in their war-torn country, and Amman has estimated the costs of sheltering them so far at more than 1.3 billion euros ($2 billion)."   Dominique Soquel (WeNews) reports on the Iraqi refugees in Syria where "women [are] barely eking out a living from low-income jobs, international aid and sex work.  Women such as Mohamed Ali, whose husbands are dead, missing or disabled, were hit hardest."  Soquel provides the stories of a number of women such as "Sajida Baha Al Deen, . . . from Mansour, Baghdad, and has been in Damascus for 16 months.  She turned to sex work to provide for herself and her two children. 'What matters is that I am still standing on my feet,' she said after a short storm of tears came and went.  'Something in your sould gets numb.' One year after her husband's death, Shiite militias sprayed her hairdressing salon with bullets and looted the remains. In September 2006, at 2 a.m., 12 masked men barged through her bedroom door threatening to end her life and that of her two Sunni-named Boys, Bakar, now age 9, and Omar, age 10, because her husband was an American collaborating traitor."  The twelve men gang raped her, forced to sign over her home and car to one of them and finally departed her home.   The Iraq War has resulted in an estimated 4 million refugees (internally and externally displaced).  Yesterday it was time for a big press to-do over 250 Iraqi refugees 'returning' from Egypt.  Reality was provided today by IRIN: "At the airport, some of the returnees said they were returning because their savings had run out; others said they had been ill-treated and had no rights in the host countries."  Last Friday, Refugees International issued a statement which included:    Refugees and IDPs know from their contact with friends and family that it is not safe to go home. Violence is still widespread, and basic services such as access to healthcare, clean water or adequate shelter are unavailable in many parts of the country. As the situation in Iraq evolves, it is essential the US Government, the Government of Iraq and other countries in the region do not encourage returns to Iraq until conditions are met for a voluntary, safe and sustainable return process. A rushed premature return process would have disastrous consequences both for the displaced and for the stability of Iraq.   And what is anyone returning to?  Earlier this week, Lara Logan (CBS Evening News) reported on the realities for autistic children in Iraq: No medical care providers.  Logan notes, "Incredibly, the only doctor who did treat it, who founded a medical center in the name of his own autistic son, has fled the country.  He left behind some social workers who try their best to help, but even they haven't been paid in four months."  Rahna Abdul is the only parent for her son Alli and she has no doctors she can turn to and what happens to him if something happens to her?   Rahna Abdul: Who will take care of him if I die for example?  Maybe I go in the street and there is a bomb in my way, and I'll die.    Lara Logan: Especially now?   Rahna Abdul: Especially in these situations, so who would take care of him?  In his situation who would take care of him?"   Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .   Bombings?    Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing that wounded three, a Diyala Province assassination attempt on the Governor via a bomber who took his/her own life apparently as well the lives of 3 civilians (seven people were left wounded).  The Governor was unscathed and, Reuters notes, a curfew is in place until tomorrow morning.   Shootings?   Reuters notes 6 family members were shot dead outside of Ramadi.   Corpses?   Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 corpse discovered in Baghdad.   Today, the US military announced: "A Multi-National Force - West Marine was killed when his unit was attacked by an enemy force in Anbar Province Aug. 10."  The death was in Tirkrit and two more marines were wounded.  That means 12 US service members have died in Iraq so far this month.  (ICCC says eleven but hasn't noted this death yet.)  Reuters notes 4,139 US service members have died in Iraq since the start of the illegal war (one more than ICCC's current count).   Turning to the US presidential race.  To The Contrary's Bonnie Erbe (writing at US News & World Reports) notes that of the Democratic Party's proposed platform that people are saying "the Clinton camp is quite happy with the platform's including of language to the effect that Clinton placed 18 million 'cracks' in the glass ceiling (an allusion to her winning 18 million votes during the primaries)" and notes JustSayNoDeal's Diane Mantouvalos believes Barack still can't close the deal "because a large chunk of Clinton's 18 million supporters are upset that the Obama campaign has not been more gracious toward Senator Clinton and has done little to reach out to her former supporters."  And possibly it also has something to do with what Erbe notes today, "More evidence of a candidate faux pas. 'O-Force One' as CBS' Allison O'Keefe describes Obama's campaign plane, contains a luxurious section for the candidate more reminiscent of an airborne corporate executive suite than a presidential candidate who has to appeal to working class American voters."  It probably doesn't help that Barack's on yet another vacation -- his third since March -- and that has the Limp Noodle Women Haters ready to scream for Cokie Roberts' head.  On ABC's This Week Sunday, Roberts noted (here for video) that Barack's still "tied in the polls" and yet he's on a "vacation in Hawaii" which "does not make any sense whatsoever."  Limp Noodles think they're offering 'analysis' with non-pith such as "She knows Hawaii's a state!"  They really are pathetic.  Roberts is noting that candidates don't campaign in Hawaii.  (And Barack's not campaigning there.)  No presidential nominee of one of the two primaries has since Richard Nixon (in the run he lost to JFK).  [Ralph Nader campaigned there last month.]  That's not new and it's not news but the Limp Noodles work real hard to act like Cokie's said something crazy.   Hawaii is seen as a Democratic state.  It's not a place where the party thinks their presidential nominee needs to campaign (and Barack is not campaigning there).  Residents in Hawaii feel differently (as they should).  But Cokie's pointing out that, "He should be in Myrtle Beach and, you know, if he's going to take a vacation at this time.  And I just think this is not the time to do that."  Where is Myrtle Beach?  South Carolina.  Now why might Cokie make that statement?  Hmmm.  American Research Group's polling found Barack to have a 5% lead in South Carolina (plus/minus 4%) in June which is not a lead.  In July?  They found McCain to be at 47% to Barack's 45%.  McCain had increased by 3% in their polling while Barack had dropped by 4% and undecided had increased by 1%.  That's one of the better polls for Barack (of reputable pollsters, don't include the hack Zogby).  Rasmussen Reports' June poll found McCain at 48% and Barack at 39% in South Carolina. Public Policy Polls survey last month found McCain at 45% and Barack at 39%. Now why might Cokie Roberts have said Barack -- if he was going to vacation -- would be better off in Myrtle Beach?  You can dispute her conclusions, you just can't pretend you have no idea why she 'went there' unless you're really eager to show how uninformed you are.  It really is amazing when you grasp how damn few women are even invited into the conversation in print or on TV but how, week after damn week, the little Limp Noodles manage to savage women.  They do it over and over.  King Limp Noodle probably exhausted himself today since he rips into Cokie, Maureen Dowd (as always) and Emily Bazelon.  For those needing audio, Roberts also discussed the race on NPR.  We've called out Cokie before here and will do so again.  That's not the issue.  The issue is the Limp Noodles who have to rip apart a woman in order to get it up.  Buy Viagra, you dirty, old men.  No man ever faces the same type of wrath from the Limp Noodles as does every woman.  We've noted that before and they are again eager to play Bash the Bitch again.  It's getting real damn old.   Nothing wrong with holding a woman accountable -- and 'tone' doesn't matter as long as it's applied in the same way (zeal) towards both men and women.  Watch as we go after a woman right now.  Her name is Holley Simmons and she graduated college in 2007 and is now, for all intents and purposes, NPR's acting ombudsperson.  Shocking as that alone is, let's add that she has no journalism degree that, until being hired as an intern by NPR, had no journalism experience.  Yet now she 'handles' listeners complaints in e-mails and at blog posts at the ombudsperson's website.  Consider it fraud.  Completely unqualified to get a job as a reporter, she now 'explains' NPR's journalistic decisions (as she sees them) to listeners.  An English lit major with a sociology minor and no journalsim training.  She 'explained' (justified) NPR's sorry record of covering candidates this year. NPR is failing and having some untrained idiot excuse their failures doesn't make it look any better.  In her laughable blog post, she writes about being told that as the candidates make news, they will be covered.  Barack's on vacation.  His campaign got two stories on Morning Edition today (one on how he'd like to win Virginia -- I'm sure any presidential candidate would like to win Virginia -- I'm not sure how that ever qualifies as news?).   Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader are being shut out of the coverage on what is supposed to be National Public Radio.  (We'll get to Pacifica, hold on.)   At Minnesota's MPR, Tom Scheck manages to post on a Ron Paul event and on Ralph Nader's September 4th super rally in Minneapolis.  Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is planning super rallies. Foon Rhee (Boston Globe) notes the August 27th one in Denver and Nader's call for the opening of the debates.  Sam Youngman (The Hill) also saw the super rallies as news.  As did Jesse A. Hamilton (Hartford Courant).  Ralph is scheduled to be a guest on NPR's Talk of the Nation tomorrow (which will broadcast live from the Newseum in DC).  But Nader was in Canada last night and that's not news to NPR and the super rallies aren't news and . . . Go down the list.  NPR decides what it wants to emphasize and calls it news.  Barr, McKinney and Nader are being shut out.  At a pretty much Democratic geared website, Jeralyn (TalkLeft) noted Ralph's trip to Canada and the comments included some surprisingly supportive remarks.   You should also check out Elaine later tonight.  If she decides to respond to the ridiculous e-mail from a 'journalist,' it should make for interesting reading.  But Queen Norman Approximately.  Yeah, he was lying again.  Yeah, it was embarrassing.  For now, Ava and I will note, Norm was spraying the drapes today and he's never been housebroken, somebody get him to the vet already.  We'll tackle that garbage Sunday.  If you suffered through Queen Norman today and need some reality, check out Katiebird's post (The Confluence).   Ralph Nader: The only time when tens of millions of Americans tune in for a couple of hours and pay attention to politics is during the prime time presidential debates.  For our democracy to survive, prevail and thrive,  we must have an open debate about the challenges we face and the solutions that we must apply.  We really don't need two-candidate debates that sound like canned interviews.  We don't need debates prepped to look like a couple of game show contestants.  We don't need show business, we need serious debate.     What's he talking about?  Opening the debates.  And you can hear him here. Team Nader notes:   We are launching a new feature on votenader.org. It's a daily audio message from Ralph Nader. Anyone who has traveled with Ralph marvels at his encyclopedic knowledge of the workings, failings, and potential of our democracy, from the marketplace to the workplace to liaisons between corporations and government to the courageous stands politicians used to take once in a while. From now until Election Day, five days a week, we will feature new, short audio recordings from Ralph. It starts with a message on opening the debates. You can download the podcast, or listen at your computer. Unlike the corporate candidates who stick to a narrow message until their handlers allow them to take a half-step, Ralph expresses himself freely on issues that affect you each day. So, listen in. It'll be like traveling the road with Ralph. Tell your friends about it. And look for future recordings from Matt Gonzalez as well. Thanks for checking in. Onward to November.   iraq the los angeles times tina susman leila fadel mcclatchy newspapers  lara logan the cbs evening news bonnie erbe

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is planning super rallies. Foon Rhee (Boston Globe) notes the August 27th one in Denver and adds:

Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate who is running as an independent for president, announced today that he will hold a rally during the Democratic National Convention to open the fall debates to other candidates.
"We need serious debate," Nader says in a web video. "It's time to open the debates to third-party candidates".

Yesterday Ralph held a press conference addressing corporate crime and the so-called 'war' on drugs:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8–At a news conference today Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader outlined his plan to empty prisons of non-violent drug offenders and fill them up with corporate criminals.

"Non-violent drug offenses are being over prosecuted and corporate crime is being under prosecuted," Nader said. "The Justice Department must begin to reverse course, crank up the crackdown on corporate crime, and end the cruel and inhumane war on non-violent drug possession."

"The criminal justice system is broken–so badly that one hardly knows where to begin describing the breakdown," Nader said. "Let's start with the war on drugs, since commentators across the political spectrum recognize its lunacy. We pour almost endless resources–roughly $50 billion every year–into catching, trying, and incarcerating people who primarily harm themselves. This insane war on drugs damages communities and drains crucial resources from the police, courts, and prisons. These resources could be better used to combat serious street and corporate crime that directly violates the public's liberty, health, safety, trust, and financial well-being. As with alcoholics and nicotine addicts, the approach to drug addicts should be rehabilitation, not incarceration."

"The current drug policy has consumed tens of billions of dollars and wrecked countless lives," Nader said. "The costs of this policy include the increasing breakdown of families and neighborhoods, endangerment of children, widespread violation of civil liberties, escalating rates of incarceration, political corruption, and the imposition of United States policy abroad. In practice, the drug war disproportionately targets people of color and people who are poverty-stricken. Coercive measures have not reduced drug use, but they have clogged our criminal justice system with non-violent offenders. It is time to explore alternative approaches and to end this costly war."

In 2004, Ralph Nader wrote President Bush urging that he grant clemency to 30,000 non-violent drug offenders. Nader's letter highlighted the three-decade-long failed, and unjust, drug war. His call for clemency highlighted a similar request made by 400 clergy members to President Bill Clinton in 2000.

Nader's letter recalled President Bush's substance abuse problems and noted that if Bush had been incarcerated for cocaine use he "probably would not have gone on to have the career you have had."

The letter also highlighted the rapid expansion of the prison system in the United States which now houses more than 2.1 million people–one-quarter of the world's prison population.

Clemency for non-violent drug offenders would save billions of dollars annually.

"It is urgent that the U.S. reverse the incarceration binge. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that if incarceration rates remain unchanged an estimated one of every 20 Americans and greater than one in four African Americans can be expected to serve time in prison during their lifetime," Nader said. "It is time to make the failed war on drugs a central issue in the American political dialogue. For too long we have let this injustice continue to grow unhindered. Taking action on clemency at the federal level will set an example for the states and begin the process of reversing this failed policy."

The Nader/Gonzalez campaign also calls for an immediate end to the criminal prosecution of patients for medical marijuana.

"The current cruel, unjust policy perpetuated and enforced by the Bush Administration prevents Americans who suffer from debilitating illnesses from experiencing the relief of medicinal cannabis," Nader said. "While substantial scientific and anecdotal evidence exists to validate marijuana's usefulness in treating disease, a deluge of rhetoric from Washington claims that marijuana has no medicinal value."

At the same time, the Nader/Gonzalez campaign supports industrial hemp as a renewable resource with many important fuel, fiber, food, paper, energy and other uses.

Industrial hemp is a commercial crop grown for its seed and fiber and the products made from them. Industrial hemp is one of the longest and strongest fibers in the plant kingdom, and it has had thousands of uses over the centuries.

"In need of alternative crops and aware of the growing market for industrial hemp–particularly for bio-composite products such as automobile parts, farmers in the United States are forced to watch from the sidelines while Canadian, French and Chinese farmers grow the crop and American manufacturers import it from them," Nader said.

Federal legislators–except for Congressman Ron Paul and a few others–continue to ignore the issue of removing it from the DEA list. It is time to allow hemp agriculture, production and manufacturing in the United States.

Nader would shift the billions saved from the war on drugs to a war on corporate crime.

Corporate crime costs Americans hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Tens of thousands of Americans are killed each year and hundreds of thousands of Americans injured and sickened each year by preventable corporate-bred violence.

From pollution, medical negligence, procurement fraud, product defects, and financial fraud, to antitrust, public corruption, foreign bribery and occupational homicide, corporate crime enforcement is widely ignored by politicians–yet acutely felt by all Americans.

The FBI estimates, for example, that burglary and robbery–street crimes–costs the nation $3.8 billion a year.

The losses from a handful of major corporate frauds–Tyco, Adelphia, Worldcom, Enron–swamp the losses from all street robberies and burglaries combined.

Health care fraud alone costs Americans $100 billion to $400 billion a year.

The FBI estimates that, 16,000 Americans are murdered every year.

Compare this to the 56,000 Americans who die every year on the job or from occupational diseases such as black lung and asbestosis and the tens of thousands of other Americans who fall victim to the silent violence of pollution, contaminated foods, hazardous consumer products, and hospital malpractice.
These deaths are often the result of criminal recklessness. Yet, they are rarely prosecuted as homicides or as criminal violations of federal laws.
Prosecutors, defense attorneys and other criminal justice experts concur that corporate crime is under prosecuted.
The decline of criminal prosecution of cartel enforcement is exemplary of the demise of corporate crime enforcement as a whole.
A recent report from the American Antitrust Institute found that the number of criminal cartel cases brought by the Division has dropped 49 percent from 1995-99 to 2004-06.
And the number of corporations charged annually dropped continuously from 1995 to 2007.
"There now is a significant and growing backlog of criminal investigations and unresolved matters," the report found.
Part of the problem lies with the fact that the Antitrust Division is underfunded and understaffed.
The report calls for a doubling of the Antitrust Division’s budget.

Nader/Gonzalez would crack down on corporate crime and violence with a 12-point program:

1. Increase Corporate Crime Prosecution Budgets: The Department of Justice’s corporate crime division and the Securities and Exchange Commission have been chronically and pitifully underfunded and therefore do not have sufficient resources to combat the massive often reported corporate crime wave in the United States. This results in inadequate investigation, settlement of cases for weak fines and ignoring many corporate crime violators completely. There needs to be a strong corporate law-and-order will in the White House.

2. Ban Corporate Criminals from Government Contracts: The US should enact a tough, serious debarment statute that would deny federal business to serious and/or repeat corporate lawbreakers. The federal government spends $265 billion annually on goods and services. These contracts should not support corporate criminals. These standards should also apply to procurement contracts in Iraq.

3. Crack Down on Corporate Tax Avoidance: The US should punish corporate tax escapees by closing the offshore reincorporation loophole and banning government contracts and subsidies for companies that relocate their headquarters to an offshore tax haven. The IRS should be given more power and more budgetary resources to go after corporate tax avoiders. Publicly-traded corporations should be required to make their tax returns public.

4. Democratize Corporate Governance: Shareholders should be granted the right to democratically nominate and elect the corporate board of directors by opening up proxy access to minority shareholders and introducing cumulative voting and competitive elections. Shareholders should be given the power to approve all major business decisions, including top executive compensation. Shareholders should be treated as the owners of the corporation–since, in fact, that is what they are.

5. Expand Corporate Disclosure: Corporate sunshine laws should be enacted that require corporations to provide better information about their records on the environment, human rights, worker safety, and taxes, as well as their criminal and civil litigation records.

6. Rein in Excessive Executive Pay: Shareholder authorization should be required for top executive compensation packages at each annual shareholder meeting. Stock options, which now account for about half of the executive compensation, should be counted on financial statements as an expense (which they are). Tax deductions for compensation 25 times above the compensation received by the lowest paid worker in a corporation should be eliminated, as recommended by the famous business guru Peter Drucker. Insiders like Warren Buffett say excessive corporate executive pay is associated with inflated profits and other accounting deceptions.

7. Fix the Pension System: Corporations must be held more responsible for the retirement security of their employees. At a minimum we need to give workers a voice on the pension board; not require workers to stuff their 401(k) plans with company stock; and give workers the right to control their 401(k) plans. In addition, an Office of Participant Advocacy should be created in the Department of Labor to monitor pension plans.

8. Restore the Rights of Defrauded Investors: Repeal the self-styled securities reform laws that block defrauded investors from seeking private restitution, such as the private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which allowed the aiders and abettors of massive corporate crime (e.g., accountants, lawyers, and bankers) to escape civil liability.

9. Regulate Derivatives Trading: All over-the-counter financial instruments, including derivatives, should be subjected to the same or equivalent audit and reporting requirements as other financial instruments traded on stock exchanges. Rules should be enacted regarding collateral-margin, reporting and dealer licensing in order to maintain regulatory parity and ensure that markets are transparent and problems can be detected before they become a crisis.

10. End Conflicts of Interest on Wall Street: Enact structural reforms that separate commercial and investment banking services and prevent other costly, documented conflicts of interest among financial entities, such as those that have dominated big banks and security firms in recent years.

11. Track the Extent and Cost of Corporate Crime: The Department of Justice should establish an online corporate crime database. Also, just as the FBI issues an annual street crime report, "Crime in the United States," it should also publish an annual report on corporate and white collar crime with recommendations.

12. Foster a National Discussion on Corporate Power: Establish a Congressional Commission on Corporate Power to explore various legal and economic proposals that would rein in unaccountable giant corporations. The Commission should seek ways to improve upon the current state corporate chartering system in a world of global corporations and propose ways to correct the inequitable legal status of corporations as "persons." The Commission would be led by congressionally-appointed experts on corporate and constitutional law, and should hold citizen hearings in at least ten cities followed by a public report and recommendations.

In 1938, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in a message to Congress calling for a similar inquiry–The Temporary National Economic Commission–said that a government controlled by private economic power "is fascism."


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

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