Did everyone have a good Fourth of July? (Those in the US, not stationed in some illegal war.) Mike and I flew out to C.I.'s last night. Which put us in the hotzone, as it were.
I will never be surprised by (yet never fail to marvel over) C.I.'s ability to put everything aside and do whatever needs to be done at that moment. If you missed C.I.'s reply to a vulgarian writing a vulgar e-mail, click here. When Rebecca and talked in the afternoon, she was convinced C.I. was not going to do a snapshot today (and thought it likely that there would be some sort of farewell announcement at The Common Ills). That could have happened and I wouldn't have been surprised. But I didn't think it was very likely.
I also would not have blamed or faulted C.I. for doing what Rebecca expected. It is very rare to see get angry. C.I. can get mad but usually it's the sort of mad where C.I. can detach from it and find some humor in it. The nasty e-mail did not create a situation for detachmen. Not surprising considering C.I. was accused of writing something that was never written and trashed by someone trying to present himself as a 'leader' of those helping war resisters in Canada.
Face it, C.I. covers war resisters more than any other site. The topic is rarely in big media, and C.I. has to spend a great deal of the time on the phone tracking down stories in regional media. But war resistance never falls off the radar at The Common Ills. So to have some hack e-mail this abusive nonsense to C.I. was really not going to go over well.
That is before you consider the fact that C.I. is sick of doing a website. That is before you consider the fact that it was the Fourth of July and the first Friday C.I.'s been home in months. C.I. had family and friends scheduled to come over. Was planning to do light entries at the website throughout the day. Instead, some failure in his own field decides to take a dump in the public e-mail account.
We were all talking about it today but avoiding the subject around C.I. (unless C.I. brought it up) because we knew how much this had angered C.I.
Some were attempting to figure out what the point of the idiot's e-mail was?
I said repeatedly what I'm writing now: Don't do that.
Don't assume that there was some logic in some failed reject screaming their head off at C.I. for things C.I. never did.
Just the fact that the reject couldn't determine what C.I. had written says you don't waste time trying to figure out his motives. He was obviously unhinged.
It may have had something to do with C.I. More likely, it had nothing to do with C.I.
It's a disjointed, insulting e-mail (when Mike asked to read it and C.I. told him "Fine," I crowded around the laptop as well). My guess is the person has emotional problems and may have been self-medicating.
But it doesn't matter. He doesn't matter.
What matters is the little stunt he pulled. Not why. We could spend hours trying to hypothesize and second-guess it. It wouldn't change the stunt he pulled.
I did know C.I. would do a snapshot regardless. My guess was C.I. would blow off the non-war resister and take the attitude of, "If these are the people that are 'helping' them, I really can't afford not to cover the topic of war resisters because they clearly need all the real help they can get."
I am not as kind as C.I. and have noted here before what a s**t-poor job I think the 'movement' in Canada has done. That's not an opinion C.I. disagreed with. But, until the vulgarian decided to go off on C.I., it wasn't a topic that was going to be covered at The Common Ills.
But the reality is that Canada welcomed US deserters during Vietnam.
The reality is that the 'movement' has failed to establish that in their argument today and has, in fact, repeatedly ignored that fact. Instead, they've offered a lot of useless crap about the draft. There is no draft today. It had no impact on Canada's decision back then and it has no impact on today's argument.
But by pushing that nonsense, they've allowed the right-wing outlets (like the National Post) to tell their readers there is a difference and while it would be fine to give amnesty to draft dodgers, it is wrong to give it to deserters.
Right-wingers (and others) see that and wonder if there's a point?
The 'movement' should have corrected that lie loudly from the beginning. They refused to.
I judge them as the gang-that-couldn't-shoot-straight on some days and as an abject failure on others.
I have shared those feelings here before.
I will never know why the vulgarian felt the need to lie and rip apart C.I. in an e-mail. But the why doesn't matter. The work does. On that basis -- judging by the work -- the 'movement' in Canada is a failure.
A vulgarian can try to distract with some intricate fantasy of ABC News rushing to the Pentagon and asking, "What lie do you have for us to print, chief?" But the reality is still there.
Instead of coming up with convuluted, crackpot theories about ABC News, the 'movement' in Canada should have been doing their job. They weren't and today they must be judged a failure.
It's a judgment they should be familiar with having done so little for so long and gotten the bulk of what they did do wrong. Go read Trina's "Thoughts" -- I support every opinion she writes 100%.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Friday, July 4, 2008. Chaos and violence continue (if little reported), .Barack can't eat his waffles but he can waffle, Ralph Nader takes his presidential campaign to the people and more.
Starting with war resistance. Brett Clarkson and Jason Buckland (Toronto Sun) report US war resister Corey Glass, scheduled to be deported from Canada July 10th, is believing nothing "until he receives a DD 214 -- a form from the US department of defence that confirms he has been discharged from active duty service -- he can still be charged when he returns to the U.S." Lindsey Weibe (Winnipeg Free Press) reports that supports of US war resisters staged a sit-in at the "Pembina Highway office of Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge yesterday".
In the US, Courage to Resist is planning "July 9th actions at Canadian Consulates nationwide:"Join a vigil and delegation to a Canadian consulate near you on Wednesday, July 9th to support war resisters! On the eve of Corey Glass' possible deportation, we will demand, "Dear Canada: Abide by the June 3rd resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!" More details and cities to be confirmed soon!
Washington DC - Time TBA - 501 Pennsylvania Ave NW (map). Sponsored by Veterans for Peace. Info: TBA San Francisco - Noon to 1pm - 580 California St (map). Sponsored by Courage to Resist. Info: 510-488-3559; courage(at)riseup.net Seattle - Time TBA - 1501 4th Ave (map). Sponsored by Project Safe Haven. Info: 206-499-1220; projectsafehaven(at)hotmail.com Dallas - Time TBA - 750 North St Paul St (map). Sponsored by North Texas for Justice and Peace. Info: 214-718-6362; hftomlinson(at)riseup.net New York City - Noon to 1pm - 1251 Avenue of the Americas (map). Sponsored by War Resisters' League. Info: 212-228-0450; wrl(at)warresisters.org Philadelphia - Time TBA - 1650 Market St (map). Sponsored by Payday Network. Info: 215-848-1120; payday(at)paydaynet.org Minneapolis - Time TBA - 701 Fourth Ave S (map). Info: TBA Los Angeles - Noon to 1pm - 550 South Hope St (map). Sponsored by Progressive Democrats LA. Info: pdlavote(at)aol.com Help organize a vigil at one of these other Canadian Consulates: Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Miami, Anchorage, Houston, Raleigh, Phoenix, or San Diego. Please contact Courage to Resist at 510-488-3559. Veterans for Peace issued a joint call with Courage to Resist and Project Safe Haven for July 9th vigils at Canadian Consulates: "Dear Canada: Do Not Deport U.S. War Resisters!" Contact us if you can help organize a vigil, or can otherwise get involved. Locations of the 22 Canadian Consulates in the United States.Recently on June 3rd the Canadian Parliament passed an historic motion to officially welcome war resisters! It now appears, however, that the Conservative government may disregard the motion. Iraq combat veteran turned courageous war resister, 25-year-old Sgt. Corey Glass of the Indiana National Guard is still scheduled to be deported July 10th.We will ask that the Canadian government respect the democratic decision of Parliament, the demonstrated opinion of the Canadian citizenry, the view of the United Nations, and millions of Americans by immediately implementing the motion and cease deportation proceedings against Corey Glass and other current and future war resisters. Join Courage to Resist, Veterans for Peace, and Project Safe Haven at Canadian Consulates across the United States (Washington DC, San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles confirmed--more to be announced).We mailed and delivered over 10,000 of the original letters to Canadian officials. Please sign the new letter, "Dear Canada: Abide by resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!" http://www.couragetoresist.org/canada
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 http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/mc/compose?to=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 http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/mc/compose?to=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.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes 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).
It's Fourth of July weekend. Reuters made it through it without filing a single "Factbox" report of the violence. Not everyone had the day off . . .
Bombings?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 2 Baghdad roadside bombings resulting in four people being wounded. And dropping back to Thursday, MNF announced today, "Two local nationals were killed and one was wounded when an explosion occurred near the Yarmouk Hospital in west Baghdad at approximately 8:55 p.m., July 3."
Shootings?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 Iraqi civilian shot dead and two more wounded by US forces as they were driving on a highway and that they shot dead the a six-year-old girl, wounded four of her brother and her mother as they stormed into the home of Hasen Atiyah al-Iqabi in Baquba.
Corpses?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 2 corpses discovered in Baghdad.
Turning to the US presidential race. Barack Obama? Arab News notes, "For Obama, who recently changed his positions on campaign finance and a wiretapping law, the suggestion that he was also changing course on a central premise of his candidacy holds particular peril. While Obama has long said he would consult commanders in the field when withdrawing troops, that point might have been lost on many Democratic primary voters who supported his call to end the war." What's going on? A bit of reality on War Hawk Barack. Suzanne Goldenberg (Guardian of London) puts it this way, ".Barack Obama was yesterday fending off charges from right and left that he had abandoned the core premise of his candidacy - the withdrawal of all US combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office - in an attempt to attract voters from the political centre." Suzanne's a little out of it. So were Katrina vanden Heuvel and Arianna Huffington on ABC's This Week last Sunday. Withdrawal in 16 months? That's 'so January 2008.' Barack promised withdrawal of all (combat) troops within 10 months in a speech in Houston, Texas. Always one to carry water for Barack, Tom Hayden immediately penned "End the War in 2009" (which popped up online at The Nation, Feb. 20th and elsewhere a bit later). Hayden: "In his victory speech in Texas Tuesday, Barack Obama promised to end the Iraq war in 2009, a new commitment that parallels recent opinion pieces in The Nation. Prior to his Houston remarks, Obama's previous position favored an American combat troop withdrawal over a sixteen-to-eighteen-month timeframe. He has been less specific on the number and mission of any advisors he would elave behind." (The Texas primary was in March. Barack was in Texas campaigning, for any more confused than usual by Tom-Tom's bad-bad writing.) Texas community members saw the 10 month 'promise' pushed in advertising as well as on the campaign trail. Those were his words (and Tom-Tom notes 'words matter') so let's all drop the nonsense that Barack's plan was 16 months (or at least leave the lying to Katrina who's become so very good at it). Goldenberg's uninformed, ignorant or lying -- take your pick. In her piece (dated tomorrow), she traces the uproar to Thursday when Barack said he might 'refine' his Iraq 'plan.' If that's when the uproar started, is Arianna Huffington psychic? Arianna was calling him out for 'refining' on Iraq Sunday on This Week. More water carrying from the allegedly 'independent' Guardian of London (which never wrote about the Downing Street Memos because 'independence' did not include informing people that Tony Blair lied England into an illegal war -- no time for 'truth-telling' while Blair was in office at any rate.) CNN reports that presumed GOP presidential candidate John McCain and the RNC are calling Barack a "flip-flopper" and they quote Barack's 'clarification' where Barack lies and says he has always said 16 months. No, Barack, you went to ten months in February. AP reports he celebrated the 4th of July in Butte, Montana (Kansas, he's done with you, he got what he needed) eating a hot dog. Tom Baldwin (Times of London) observes, "Grassroots activists whose energy and donations have helped to propel Barack Obama towards the White House are suddenly choking on the bitter pill of disillusion.
In less than a month since clinching the Democratic nomination, he has performed a series of policy pirouettes to assuage concerns about his candidacy among a wider and more conservative electorate." Geoff Elliott (The Australian) points out, "Barack Obama has started a dramtic reversal of the policies that helped him defeat Hillary Clinton for the presidential nomination, softening hardlines stances on the Iraq war and troop withdrawals.
Campaigning in North Dakota, Senator Obama said that while the US could not sustain a long-term presence in Iraq, his trip to the Gulf nation this month might prompt him to "refine my policies" on the war." John Bentley (CBS News) quotes Brian Rogers of the McCain campaign stating, "Today, Barack Obama reversed that position, proving once again his words do not matter. He has now adopted John McCain's position that we cannot risk the progress we have made in Iraq by beginning to withdraw our troops immediately without concern for conditions on the ground. Now that Barack Obama has changed course and proven his past positions to be just empty words, we would like to congratulate him on taking John McCain's principled stand on this critical national security issue. If he had visited Iraq sooner or actually had a one-on-one meeting with Gen. Petraeus, he would have changed his position long ago." Jonathan Weisman (Washington Post) terms it Barack exploring "the possibility of slowing a promised, gradual withdrawal from Iraq". NPR has two audio reports here. How bad it is? A friend just called to laugh at ____'s latest nonsense. In place of a now killed feature for Third, we may address ____'s latest nonsense and his plethora of lies throughout the campaign. Poor ____, it's even harder to airbrush out reality today than it was following his expulsion from the Red Family commune in his "smash the state" days (when he fancied himself Chris Jones in Wild In The Street).
Ralph Nader is opposed to the illegal war and has always been opposed to it. He called it before it started and throughout. He has not waffled like Saint Barack. Yesterday he spoke at the University of Hawaii-Manou. Craig Gima (Honolulu Star-Bulletin) reports:
In a news conference before the speech, Nader said Hawaii voters are being marginalized by the major candidates.
"When political candidates do not campaign in a state, voter turnout suffers," Nader said, adding that he has campaigned in all 50 states in the last two elections.
Nader said he supports the Akaka Bill and native Hawaiian rights, and said Hawaii should be a model for the rest of the country in renewable energy.
"This is the only place in the world where every form of renewable energy occurs," he said.
Nader also said that if elected he would push for universal health care, an increase in the minimum wage to $10 an hour and the repeal of what he called the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act.
Derrick DePledge (Honolulu Advertiser) notes that no presidential candidate has campaigned in Hawaii since Richard Nixon in 1960, notes Nader is already on the ballot in Hawaii for the presidential election and quotes him explaining, ""I didn't start running for president until the doors started closing in Washington against consumer, environmental, labor and other citizen groups. So when you don't have a chance to have a chance to improve your country on Capitol Hill and before the regulatory agencies, you either close up shop and go to Monterey and watch the whales or you go into the electoral arena." Third Party Watch covers it here. Ahead of the apperance KHNL, AP and KITV reported on it. Thursday the Reno Gazette Journal reported Nader's campaign had turned in their signatures to be on the ballot in Nevada. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the campaign collected 12,000 signatures -- far more than needed to qualify. KRNV reports that if the Democrats attempt any of the manuevers they did in 2004, the Nader campaign will fight it.
The Nader Team notes:
Declare your independence from the flip-floppers McCain and Obama.
Drop $4 now on Nader/Gonzalez for the Fourth of July weekend.
Thank you.
As you enjoy your Fourth of July weekend with friends and family, keep an eye on Nader/Gonzalez:
Ralph Nader will appear on CNN and C-Span this weekend.
Steve Scully's interview of Ralph will run on C-Span twice on Sunday night at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. EST. You can also watch on line now here.
CNN's Rick Sanchez interview with Ralph will run on Saturday night.
Ralph is a huge sports fan. Check out Dave Zirin's recent interview with Nader on sports here.And Dan Patrick's Sports Illustrated interview here.
When Ralph Nader was growing up in Winsted, Connecticut, his hero was Yankee slugger Lou Gehrig. Gehrig was known as the Iron Horse for his stamina and persistence. (Now you know where Ralph gets it.)
Ralph is campaigning in Hawaii this weekend. See story here.
Nader/Gonzalez will be on the ballot in Nevada. See story here.
We here at the Nader/Gonzalez campaign are pumped about the possibilities this summer.
Ralph is polling at 6 percent.
We'd like to bump it to ten percent and get Ralph into the Presidential debates.
We're shooting for 45 states by September.
And the possibilities of a three way race.
Two flip floppers.
And the real deal.
So, drop four dollars now on the real deal.
And declare your independence from the flip-flopping, corporate controlled McCain and Obama.
Together, we are making a difference.
Have a safe and happy holiday weekend.
Onward
The Nader Team
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Barack's sweetheart deal
"Obama Got Discount on Home Loan" (Joe Stephens, Washington Post):
Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.
The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a "super super jumbo." Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates.
Compared with the average terms offered at the time in Chicago, Obama's rate could have saved him more than $300 per month.
More than $300 a month. How very nice for him. How very nice for the special interests backing him. At the same time he was saving money due to his elected position, he wasn't very concerned with average citizens. You can tell that by his refusal to put a stop to Tony Rezko's slums. Even though his constituents complained to his (then) state office about it. He got into the Senate and voted to make it harder for average citizens to declare bankruptcy. But he got his sweetheart deal and isn't that really all that matters?
I'm covering a topic for C.I. I was in a session when C.I. called. So C.I. called Rebecca who passed on the message. Here it is, word for word, "Tell her: 'Loud, long scream. Guardian of London. There's no way I can talk about without cursing.'"
That's all I needed. We had both heard about the upcoming Guardian articles from a friend with the paper and we were hugely disappointed.
It's a two-part series. Although, honestly, the length barely qualifies for one article. (I'm not linking, no links to trash.)
That's quantity? Quality?
Let me start with the good. The Guardian of London did acknowledge that the Hillary campaign was targeted. That's more than the American media has done -- Big or Small. Or are we all supposed to forget Amy Goodman, Bill Moyers, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Matthew Rothschild, et al enlisting in that campaign?
The 'first part' acknowledges that some mean things were said online . . . at The Daily Toilet Scrubber. Did they miss BuzzFlash? Did they miss Democratic Underground? Did they miss the bulk of the blogs?
However, at least they named one outlet that was seen as Democratic.
Part two goes into Maureen Dowd, Chris Matthews and others who are not left. But portrays them as such. (Kat told me C.I. tried to include this in the snapshot and was just at the breaking point. I'm sure that was one of the points.) Muareen Dowd? Didn't the paper's own public editor note (two Sundays ago) that Dowd ran a campaign of destroying Hillary and did so in terms that would be considered sexist if Dowd were a man? (They were sexist, regardless of Dowd's gender. I say 'sexist' based on the entire work Dowd did. One 'joke' here or there that I didn't find funny, I'd let slide. But it was column after column.)
I just got done reading over part two and saw why C.I. was so pissed. The writers allow that Hillary wasn't calling for an assassination (she wasn't). But the writers link to some stupid, stupid blogger. I don't know if it's a man or a woman. But he writes -- and they link to this in their article as 'good' criticism -- that the Kennedy family was offended! Were they? RFK Jr. gave a public statement. He noted it was very clear what Hillary was talking about and he didn't take offense to it.
How did the blogger miss that? But having missed that, the writers for the Guardian demonstrate that they are F**KING STUPID or just playing with the truth.
I don't know which it is.
But I know where C.I. would have headed with this.
Hillary used several (I believe three) examples of campaigns that had lasted past May and one was 1968 and she noted that RFK's campaign ended when he was assassinated and that was the summer of 68. That's historical. That's the way it was. I remember when RFK was assassinated.
(I am one who either romanticizes RFK's stands or gets his stands. You can take your pick. But I did believe RFK was the real deal. No disrespect to John Pilger whom I think the world of.)
Now all the crazies came out screaming at Hillary and some who weren't crazy prior decided to join in. Throw Marjorie Cohn among the latter.
That group was screaming that we can't mention RFK, what might happen to Barack! Even if Hillary wasn't calling for Barack's assassination (if she were, the FBI and Secret Service would have been investigating her, buy a clue), she was putting it out there and with the Christ-child Barack running, no one must talk about history!
It's just not fair to him!
Now that was stupid. It was stupid, it was ignorant and it showed a real lack of judgement.
But do you know who the worst ones were? As bad as Marjorie Cohn was (and I believe Cohn embarrassed herself so much with that column that she'll never live it down -- she's a smart woman, highly intelligent and that column was a shock to a lot of people), she wasn't the worst.
Toeing that line? A website posted a column on the thing. I don't know where the column was originally. Maybe it was original to the website. But the column, by a woman I don't know, argued that it was wrong for Hillary to mention assassination. It was wrong! It was wrong because something might happen to Barack! That just wasn't right and assassination was off limits as a topic!
You really need to absorb that ___ website took Hillary to task for noting history. I'll tell you about ___ website in a second. But they front paged that column and when C.I. heard about it, the promotion they had asked for was pulled.
Who was it? COPA. Who is COPA? Coalition On Political Assassinations. June 6th through 9th, COPA was investigating RFK's assassination. Now it was so damaging to Barack -- and his well being -- if Hillary even noted history. But COPA was staging a four day event on the assassination. No concerns from COPA about how that might impact Barack.
They shouldn't have been concerned. History is history. But to take that approach, they have to allow that history can be spoken of. Smearing Hillary in a fanatical column and saying she did something awful by just noting the facts in passing pulls that excuse from COPA. So if COPA wants to rip her apart for half of a sentence and claim she has risked Barack's well being and very life, what does COPA staging a four-day conference on the assassination of RFK do?
It's so hypocritical. Hillary can't even mention it, but please come attend our conference and we're streaming the first night online! Our conference on RFK's assassination!
The Guardian of London's 'two-part series' is crap. It unearths nothing. It labels non-lefties 'left' (Matthews and Dowd). It refuses to call out the ones that need calling out. It ignores Keith Olbermann and, though I suggest everyone do that, the reality is that Olbermann staged a non-stop war on Hillary. So did The Nation, so did The Progressive, so did Democracy Now!, so did so many on the actual left. They don't get called out. They never will.
I could continue on and on about this topic but I know why C.I. was biting the tongue on top of screaming. It's a planned feature at Third this weekend. We've got a piece on war resistance and this one planned.
The Guardian articles need to be called out. They're more than has been done by the MSM in this country but they refuse to address the real topics, the real culprits.
It's a very embarrassing article. That they had "two parts" and produced so little is shameful. (If this keeps up, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Ava and C.I. didn't accept the book offer on the table still -- even though they keep saying no -- to write about the 2008 primary.)
They're the only ones who can tell it because they know what actually went down. They know who started the ball rolling and they know how FaceBook was brought into the Barack campaign. It's a very ugly story. About a big-nosed woman with money she controlled tossing it around to buy support for Barack from 'independent' media.
Not trying to start a war with Bob Somerby, but he didn't get the story. The great critic didn't get it. Because he only follows cable (and newspapers) and because he's an outsider. You had to be an insider to know what went down. Bill Clinton damn well knows what went down and his fury is understandable. Democrats did not decide Barack was the nominee. Democrats were excluded from their own party. There was a plot to steal the nomination from Hillary before the first primary. What appeared to be 'critics' were not and Ava and C.I. tracked the real story down. Amy Goodman couldn't because she was part of the plan. A lot of people were. Some were in on it at the inner most circles. Some were only doing what they needed to do for favors, monies and attention. But it was driven by one big-nosed woman -- with a beek so sharp you could open a can with it.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Wednesday, July 2, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, Corey Glass gets big news, 'discussions' in Iraq (at the direction of DC), attacks on Iraqi judges continue, and more.
Starting with war resistance. In a dramatic development for US war resister Corey Glass, currently residing in Canada, there are no charges against him. May 21st was when Corey Glass was told he would be deported. Corey Glass is an Iraq War veteran and a US war resister. He went to Canada seeking asylum -- the kind of welcoming Canada provided to war resisters ("draft dodgers" and "deserters") during Vietnam. After being told he was being deported, he's been 'extended' through July 10th. June 3rd Canada's House of Commons voted (non-binding motion) in favor of Canada being a safe harbor for war resisters. This morning Russell Goldman (ABC News) reported: "Unbeknownst to him and his legion of supporters, Glass, 25, was actually discharged from the U.S. Army shortly after he went AWOL in 2006. . . . According to U.S. Army documents and officials Glass was discharged from the California National Guard on Dec. 1, 2006, four months after he arrived in Canada and six months after he failed to show up to a required muster." Goldman quotes Corey stating, "I had absolutely no idea that I had been discharged. This is insane. This is so weird. There are no warrants? No one is looking for me?" According to Major Nathan Banks, the US military does not consider Glass AWOL or a deserter, there are no charges against Glass and Glass is out of the military.
Events planned are still being held. Corey Glass is not the only US war resister in Canada and he is also not necessarily in the clear. In the US, Courage to Resist is planning "July 9th actions at Canadian Consulates nationwide:"Join a vigil and delegation to a Canadian consulate near you on Wednesday, July 9th to support war resisters! On the eve of Corey Glass' possible deportation, we will demand, "Dear Canada: Abide by the June 3rd resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!" More details and cities to be confirmed soon!
Washington DC - Time TBA - 501 Pennsylvania Ave NW (map). Sponsored by Veterans for Peace. Info: TBA San Francisco - Noon to 1pm - 580 California St (map). Sponsored by Courage to Resist. Info: 510-488-3559; courage(at)riseup.net Seattle - Time TBA - 1501 4th Ave (map). Sponsored by Project Safe Haven. Info: 206-499-1220; projectsafehaven(at)hotmail.com Dallas - Time TBA - 750 North St Paul St (map). Sponsored by North Texas for Justice and Peace. Info: 214-718-6362; hftomlinson(at)riseup.net New York City - Noon to 1pm - 1251 Avenue of the Americas (map). Sponsored by War Resisters' League. Info: 212-228-0450; wrl(at)warresisters.org Philadelphia - Time TBA - 1650 Market St (map). Sponsored by Payday Network. Info: 215-848-1120; payday(at)paydaynet.org Minneapolis - Time TBA - 701 Fourth Ave S (map). Info: TBA Los Angeles - Noon to 1pm - 550 South Hope St (map). Sponsored by Progressive Democrats LA. Info: pdlavote(at)aol.com Help organize a vigil at one of these other Canadian Consulates: Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Miami, Anchorage, Houston, Raleigh, Phoenix, or San Diego. Please contact Courage to Resist at 510-488-3559. Veterans for Peace issued a joint call with Courage to Resist and Project Safe Haven for July 9th vigils at Canadian Consulates: "Dear Canada: Do Not Deport U.S. War Resisters!" Contact us if you can help organize a vigil, or can otherwise get involved. Locations of the 22 Canadian Consulates in the United States.Recently on June 3rd the Canadian Parliament passed an historic motion to officially welcome war resisters! It now appears, however, that the Conservative government may disregard the motion. Iraq combat veteran turned courageous war resister, 25-year-old Sgt. Corey Glass of the Indiana National Guard is still scheduled to be deported July 10th.We will ask that the Canadian government respect the democratic decision of Parliament, the demonstrated opinion of the Canadian citizenry, the view of the United Nations, and millions of Americans by immediately implementing the motion and cease deportation proceedings against Corey Glass and other current and future war resisters. Join Courage to Resist, Veterans for Peace, and Project Safe Haven at Canadian Consulates across the United States (Washington DC, San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles confirmed--more to be announced).We mailed and delivered over 10,000 of the original letters to Canadian officials. Please sign the new letter, "Dear Canada: Abide by resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!" http://www.couragetoresist.org/canada
Canada's War Resisters Support Campaign will hold a "Rally to Stop the Deportation of Parkdale Resident Corey Glass" July 3rd, begins at 7:00 p.m. (with doors opening at six p.m.) at the May Robinson Building, 20 West Lodge, Toronto: "In 2002, Corey joined the Indiana National Guard. He was told he would not have to fight on foreign shores. But in 2005 he was sent to Iraq. What he saw there caused him to become a conscientious objector and he came to Canada. On May 21, 2008, he got his final order to leave Canada by July 10, 2008. Then on June 3 Parliament passed a motion for all the war resisters to stay in Canada. However the Harper government says it will ignore this motion." They are also asking for a July 2nd call-in. Diane Finley is the Immigration and Citizenship Minister and her phone numbers are (613) 996-4974 and (519) 426-3400 -- they also provide her e-mail addresses minister@cic.gc.ca ("minister" at "cic.gc.ca") and finled1@parl.gc.ca ("finled1" at "parl.gc.ca").
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 http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/mc/compose?to=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 http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/mc/compose?to=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.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
Turning to Iraq, Alexandra Zavis (Los Angeles Times) reports that, unlike the US Congress, the Iraqi Parliament is postponing the summer vaction. Zavis reports that this is said to be in response to the allegedly upcoming provinical elections and the failure to pass the legislation that the US White House wants. For those remember last summer, the Iraqi Parliament was under criticism last year for taking a summer break. They ended up taking one resulting in some harsh criticism from inside the US. Meanwhile Sabrina Tavernise (New York Times) paints a portrait (intentionally or not) of Iraqis being conned: Hoshyar Zebari (Iraq's Foreign Minister) declares that immunity for contractors has been lifted and Iraq might have control of their own air space and . . . . Who is advising Iraqis on these contracts? Attorneys for the White House? The US State Department? Doubt it? James Hider (Times of London) speaks with a contractor who explains what the 'law' says and the 'reality': "But bringing to book any Western security guards accused of shooting civilians would be difficult, the contractor noted. 'If it's someone like Blackwater, nine times out of ten the individual is spirited out of the country'." Zebari was talking it up in Baghdad again today. Sudarsan Raghavan (Washington Post) reports that Zebari declared at a Baghdad press conference today, "We have reached a comfortable stage of negotiations and the differences have been narrowed." As Raghavan and the Los Angeles Times' Doug Smith and Raheem Salman all note, Zebari is talking 'concessions' already (on both sides!). That would put the US client-state in an even weaker position. And is anyone else starting to note that 'progress' always 'happens' when Jalal Talabani is absent? Fresh from having the Mayo Clinic unplog his arteries, the ever-expanding Jalal Talabani is back in the news. BBC reports that yesterday, in Athens, Jalal (attending a conference, he wasn't there for sunbathing) shooks hands with Irsrael's Defense Minister Ehud Barak. And that Talabani's office quickly issued a "statement [which] said he was responsding to a request from Mr Abbas and was acting as leader of his Kurcihs party and deputy president of the Sociliast International, not as Iraq's president." Finishing the Talabani portion, Turkish Daily News reports he "was elected to a vice-chairmanship in the Socialist International over the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, who avoided attending the summit in Greece and therefore was not nominated". On the issue of the treaty, Watching America has translated Palestinian Writer's piece (written for al Jazeera):
The first step in getting Iraq out from underneath its catastrophe is the withdrawal of American troops. . . . The most stunning of those who fear for an Iraq in which the Americans leave are those who want to sign a security agreement with the Bush administration, or an American-Iraqi treaty which is now on the agenda and of which some items have already been leaked. It gives the right for the occupation to stay in Iraq for an indefinite amount of time of up to several years, or even a permanent occupation. And with a permanent occupation would come a permanent catastrophe that would be renewed and everlasting. Signing a security agreement or a militay/political/security treaty alongside the crime that is the proposed oil agreement would require a hand in treachery to Iraq, to Arabs and to Muslims, under any and all circumstances.
Meanwhile the United Arab Emirates' The National sees talk that the Sunni bloc -- (Tawafaq Front) boycotting for a year now -- might return to the Iraqi Parliament as a sign of optimism. Remember that in a few weeks. (False hopes always die hard.) Closer to reality, Sabrina Tavernise reported today: "Another judge was the target of an intimidation campaign on Tuesday, at least the sixth in two days, in a trend that has alarmed Iraq's judiciary. A bomb was placed near the house of Judge Qusay al-Bayati, of the Court of Appeals in eastern Baghdad. The judges previously attacked were on the same court. The bomb was defused and did not explode."
Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a US military camp in Baghdad was the target of an attack early this morning which started with exchanges of gunfire and then had "two 107mm rockets" fired at it (according to the US military) and 2 civilians were killed when the US returned fire, three Baghdad roadside bombings resulting in 2 deaths and nine people wounded
Kidnappings?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports Azad Argoshi was kidnapped Wednesday morning and later "found in very bad shape".
Corpses?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses discovered in Baghdad.
Turning to the US presidential race. Barack Obama continues to attempt to prove he is patriotic. Meanwhile this is how Ralph Nader described the country to Jim Lehrer (PBS' NewsHour) in 2000, "Well there are ups and downs. Obviously the slavery period was counteracted by the antislavery movement, women got the right to vote, workers got the right to form trade unions. They built the middle class. As they say, they gave us our weekend, they gave us benefits. The farmers' popular progressive movement against the banks and railroads companies that leavened power more; it gave people a chance to have more voice. So I think we have to look back at our history and say why is it every time concentrated power got too much and social justice movements opposed them, and the dominant business community opposed a social justice movement and finally lost, America was better as a result. Everybody benefited, including the businesses because democracy tends to expand markets." In 2000 at this time, Nader was coming in at four-percent in most polls. The most recent CNN-Opinion Research Poll found him to be holding at 6%.
On the Iraq War, while Barack wants credit for a speech he 'gave' in 2002 (online recording is a 're-creation'), what has he done since? While Barack was supporting Bully Boy's illegal war throughout 2004 and stating repeatedly that he didn't know how he would have voted if he had been in the Senate, Ralph Nader knew where he stood in 2004: "Every day our exposed military remains in war-torm Iraq, we impreil U.S. security, drain our economy, ignore urgent domestic needs, and prevent Iraqi demonstratic self-rule. We need to announace a withdrawal of our troops, not increase them." In May of 2004, speaking to the Council of/for/from Foreign Relations, he would explain (in the belly of the beast): "After 9-11, it's now become quite clear that whatever emphasis there was on the al Qaeda apparatus, there was a superior emphasis on removing Saddam Hussein from Iraq. What's interesting about this is the following. It illustrated -- in ways perhaps never before illustrated in our country -- the fragility of our democratic institutiatons. Here is a nation run by a tottering dictator presiding over a diplated army, with troops not willing to fight for him, surrounded by hostile Kurds to the north, hostile Shiites to the south, surrounded by three very powerful countries compared to his military ability: Iran, Turkey and Israel. And had he directed one aggressive threat toward any of them, they would have obliterated his regime. And yet Iraq under Hussein was viewed as a threat to the United States? But what was most troubling was the lack of any deliberative process by the US Congress which was stampeded into this situation, lack of any deliberative or investigative process by the mass media which clicked their heels and loved the graphics that they were given, and without a deliberative attentiveness to the perceived concerns of the American people. Before the invasion of Iraq, we tried to have Bush meet with one or more distinct groups in our country who had knowledge and were concerned about the invasion of Iraq. Thirteen of these groups, with very little press attention, wrote open letters to President Bush in February and early March, asking for a meeting. They included letters signed by the National Council of Churches, former military officers, former intelligence officials, student groups, women's peace advocates, a business group, labor group. I don't know of any other impending hostility that had such an ecumentical coming-together, expressing doubt and opposition to the pending move. None of these letters were answered by the White House. There were no meetings. President Bush, being the messianic militarist that we've come to know so well, was not interested in meeting with anyone who was critical of his proposed Iraq policies. That was a severe scar on our democratic fabric."
Meanwhile Steve Holland (Reuters) notes Barack's "flexibility" and "nuance on Iraq". Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report), endorsing Cynthia McKinney (presumed Green Party nominee), observes, " The true voices of peace speak clearly, in simple language. 'The U.S. should withdraw all troops and mercenaries from Iraq in as orderly a fashion as possible,' says former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, candidate for the Green Party's presidential nomination. 'This withdrawal should be quickly accomplished, since the troops and the equipment were all pre-positioned in the area to start with, at the start of the invasion'."
And Team Nader notes:
Here's something you can do right now for Nader/ Gonzalez.
Donate six dollars now.
Why six dollars, you may ask?
Because yesterday, CNN reported that Ralph Nader is at six percent in its most recent national poll.
And while the flip-floppers Obama and McCain might look down on six percent, we are excited.
Our goal of course is much higher.
Right now, our goal is ten percent in the national polls.
Why ten percent?
Because ten percent gets us into the Google sponsored debates in New Orleans on September 18.
If we get on the Google sponsored debates, we're convinced Nader/Gonzalez will move toward 20 percent.
At twenty percent, people see a three way race.
When people see a three way race, everything is possible.
And we believe that in this momentous election year, everything is possible.
But right now our motto is as follows:
Get it done.
Now, what exactly do we mean by get it done?
We mean get Ralph Nader on the ballot in at least 45 states (Ralph was on only 34 in 2004)
Here's our ambitious ballot access timetable:
Ten states by July 6.
Fifteen states by July 20.
Thirty states by August 8.
Forty states by September 1.
Forty five states by September 15.
Right now, we're in stage one: ten states by July 6.
And we're in the middle of the stage one fundraising campaign.
Right now, we need to raise $40,000 by July 6, 2008.
Thanks to your generous donations, we're at $27,672.
But we want to get to ten states as soon as possible.
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If we can get stage one done early, then we can move onto stage two ahead of schedule.
So, please, drop a six spot here now.
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Together, we are making a difference.
iraqcorey glassabcrussell goldman
alexandra zavisthe los angeles timesthe new york timessabrina tavernise
sudarsan raghavanthe washington post
Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.
The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a "super super jumbo." Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates.
Compared with the average terms offered at the time in Chicago, Obama's rate could have saved him more than $300 per month.
More than $300 a month. How very nice for him. How very nice for the special interests backing him. At the same time he was saving money due to his elected position, he wasn't very concerned with average citizens. You can tell that by his refusal to put a stop to Tony Rezko's slums. Even though his constituents complained to his (then) state office about it. He got into the Senate and voted to make it harder for average citizens to declare bankruptcy. But he got his sweetheart deal and isn't that really all that matters?
I saw that and since it went with what I was journaling about last night, I wanted to start off with it.
The rest of the post?
I'm covering a topic for C.I. I was in a session when C.I. called. So C.I. called Rebecca who passed on the message. Here it is, word for word, "Tell her: 'Loud, long scream. Guardian of London. There's no way I can talk about without cursing.'"
That's all I needed. We had both heard about the upcoming Guardian articles from a friend with the paper and we were hugely disappointed.
It's a two-part series. Although, honestly, the length barely qualifies for one article. (I'm not linking, no links to trash.)
That's quantity? Quality?
Let me start with the good. The Guardian of London did acknowledge that the Hillary campaign was targeted. That's more than the American media has done -- Big or Small. Or are we all supposed to forget Amy Goodman, Bill Moyers, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Matthew Rothschild, et al enlisting in that campaign?
The 'first part' acknowledges that some mean things were said online . . . at The Daily Toilet Scrubber. Did they miss BuzzFlash? Did they miss Democratic Underground? Did they miss the bulk of the blogs?
However, at least they named one outlet that was seen as Democratic.
Part two goes into Maureen Dowd, Chris Matthews and others who are not left. But portrays them as such. (Kat told me C.I. tried to include this in the snapshot and was just at the breaking point. I'm sure that was one of the points.) Muareen Dowd? Didn't the paper's own public editor note (two Sundays ago) that Dowd ran a campaign of destroying Hillary and did so in terms that would be considered sexist if Dowd were a man? (They were sexist, regardless of Dowd's gender. I say 'sexist' based on the entire work Dowd did. One 'joke' here or there that I didn't find funny, I'd let slide. But it was column after column.)
I just got done reading over part two and saw why C.I. was so pissed. The writers allow that Hillary wasn't calling for an assassination (she wasn't). But the writers link to some stupid, stupid blogger. I don't know if it's a man or a woman. But he writes -- and they link to this in their article as 'good' criticism -- that the Kennedy family was offended! Were they? RFK Jr. gave a public statement. He noted it was very clear what Hillary was talking about and he didn't take offense to it.
How did the blogger miss that? But having missed that, the writers for the Guardian demonstrate that they are F**KING STUPID or just playing with the truth.
I don't know which it is.
But I know where C.I. would have headed with this.
Hillary used several (I believe three) examples of campaigns that had lasted past May and one was 1968 and she noted that RFK's campaign ended when he was assassinated and that was the summer of 68. That's historical. That's the way it was. I remember when RFK was assassinated.
(I am one who either romanticizes RFK's stands or gets his stands. You can take your pick. But I did believe RFK was the real deal. No disrespect to John Pilger whom I think the world of.)
Now all the crazies came out screaming at Hillary and some who weren't crazy prior decided to join in. Throw Marjorie Cohn among the latter.
That group was screaming that we can't mention RFK, what might happen to Barack! Even if Hillary wasn't calling for Barack's assassination (if she were, the FBI and Secret Service would have been investigating her, buy a clue), she was putting it out there and with the Christ-child Barack running, no one must talk about history!
It's just not fair to him!
Now that was stupid. It was stupid, it was ignorant and it showed a real lack of judgement.
But do you know who the worst ones were? As bad as Marjorie Cohn was (and I believe Cohn embarrassed herself so much with that column that she'll never live it down -- she's a smart woman, highly intelligent and that column was a shock to a lot of people), she wasn't the worst.
Toeing that line? A website posted a column on the thing. I don't know where the column was originally. Maybe it was original to the website. But the column, by a woman I don't know, argued that it was wrong for Hillary to mention assassination. It was wrong! It was wrong because something might happen to Barack! That just wasn't right and assassination was off limits as a topic!
You really need to absorb that ___ website took Hillary to task for noting history. I'll tell you about ___ website in a second. But they front paged that column and when C.I. heard about it, the promotion they had asked for was pulled.
Who was it? COPA. Who is COPA? Coalition On Political Assassinations. June 6th through 9th, COPA was investigating RFK's assassination. Now it was so damaging to Barack -- and his well being -- if Hillary even noted history. But COPA was staging a four day event on the assassination. No concerns from COPA about how that might impact Barack.
They shouldn't have been concerned. History is history. But to take that approach, they have to allow that history can be spoken of. Smearing Hillary in a fanatical column and saying she did something awful by just noting the facts in passing pulls that excuse from COPA. So if COPA wants to rip her apart for half of a sentence and claim she has risked Barack's well being and very life, what does COPA staging a four-day conference on the assassination of RFK do?
It's so hypocritical. Hillary can't even mention it, but please come attend our conference and we're streaming the first night online! Our conference on RFK's assassination!
The Guardian of London's 'two-part series' is crap. It unearths nothing. It labels non-lefties 'left' (Matthews and Dowd). It refuses to call out the ones that need calling out. It ignores Keith Olbermann and, though I suggest everyone do that, the reality is that Olbermann staged a non-stop war on Hillary. So did The Nation, so did The Progressive, so did Democracy Now!, so did so many on the actual left. They don't get called out. They never will.
I could continue on and on about this topic but I know why C.I. was biting the tongue on top of screaming. It's a planned feature at Third this weekend. We've got a piece on war resistance and this one planned.
The Guardian articles need to be called out. They're more than has been done by the MSM in this country but they refuse to address the real topics, the real culprits.
It's a very embarrassing article. That they had "two parts" and produced so little is shameful. (If this keeps up, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Ava and C.I. didn't accept the book offer on the table still -- even though they keep saying no -- to write about the 2008 primary.)
They're the only ones who can tell it because they know what actually went down. They know who started the ball rolling and they know how FaceBook was brought into the Barack campaign. It's a very ugly story. About a big-nosed woman with money she controlled tossing it around to buy support for Barack from 'independent' media.
Not trying to start a war with Bob Somerby, but he didn't get the story. The great critic didn't get it. Because he only follows cable (and newspapers) and because he's an outsider. You had to be an insider to know what went down. Bill Clinton damn well knows what went down and his fury is understandable. Democrats did not decide Barack was the nominee. Democrats were excluded from their own party. There was a plot to steal the nomination from Hillary before the first primary. What appeared to be 'critics' were not and Ava and C.I. tracked the real story down. Amy Goodman couldn't because she was part of the plan. A lot of people were. Some were in on it at the inner most circles. Some were only doing what they needed to do for favors, monies and attention. But it was driven by one big-nosed woman -- with a beek so sharp you could open a can with it.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Wednesday, July 2, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, Corey Glass gets big news, 'discussions' in Iraq (at the direction of DC), attacks on Iraqi judges continue, and more.
Starting with war resistance. In a dramatic development for US war resister Corey Glass, currently residing in Canada, there are no charges against him. May 21st was when Corey Glass was told he would be deported. Corey Glass is an Iraq War veteran and a US war resister. He went to Canada seeking asylum -- the kind of welcoming Canada provided to war resisters ("draft dodgers" and "deserters") during Vietnam. After being told he was being deported, he's been 'extended' through July 10th. June 3rd Canada's House of Commons voted (non-binding motion) in favor of Canada being a safe harbor for war resisters. This morning Russell Goldman (ABC News) reported: "Unbeknownst to him and his legion of supporters, Glass, 25, was actually discharged from the U.S. Army shortly after he went AWOL in 2006. . . . According to U.S. Army documents and officials Glass was discharged from the California National Guard on Dec. 1, 2006, four months after he arrived in Canada and six months after he failed to show up to a required muster." Goldman quotes Corey stating, "I had absolutely no idea that I had been discharged. This is insane. This is so weird. There are no warrants? No one is looking for me?" According to Major Nathan Banks, the US military does not consider Glass AWOL or a deserter, there are no charges against Glass and Glass is out of the military.
Events planned are still being held. Corey Glass is not the only US war resister in Canada and he is also not necessarily in the clear. In the US, Courage to Resist is planning "July 9th actions at Canadian Consulates nationwide:"Join a vigil and delegation to a Canadian consulate near you on Wednesday, July 9th to support war resisters! On the eve of Corey Glass' possible deportation, we will demand, "Dear Canada: Abide by the June 3rd resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!" More details and cities to be confirmed soon!
Washington DC - Time TBA - 501 Pennsylvania Ave NW (map). Sponsored by Veterans for Peace. Info: TBA San Francisco - Noon to 1pm - 580 California St (map). Sponsored by Courage to Resist. Info: 510-488-3559; courage(at)riseup.net Seattle - Time TBA - 1501 4th Ave (map). Sponsored by Project Safe Haven. Info: 206-499-1220; projectsafehaven(at)hotmail.com Dallas - Time TBA - 750 North St Paul St (map). Sponsored by North Texas for Justice and Peace. Info: 214-718-6362; hftomlinson(at)riseup.net New York City - Noon to 1pm - 1251 Avenue of the Americas (map). Sponsored by War Resisters' League. Info: 212-228-0450; wrl(at)warresisters.org Philadelphia - Time TBA - 1650 Market St (map). Sponsored by Payday Network. Info: 215-848-1120; payday(at)paydaynet.org Minneapolis - Time TBA - 701 Fourth Ave S (map). Info: TBA Los Angeles - Noon to 1pm - 550 South Hope St (map). Sponsored by Progressive Democrats LA. Info: pdlavote(at)aol.com Help organize a vigil at one of these other Canadian Consulates: Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Miami, Anchorage, Houston, Raleigh, Phoenix, or San Diego. Please contact Courage to Resist at 510-488-3559. Veterans for Peace issued a joint call with Courage to Resist and Project Safe Haven for July 9th vigils at Canadian Consulates: "Dear Canada: Do Not Deport U.S. War Resisters!" Contact us if you can help organize a vigil, or can otherwise get involved. Locations of the 22 Canadian Consulates in the United States.Recently on June 3rd the Canadian Parliament passed an historic motion to officially welcome war resisters! It now appears, however, that the Conservative government may disregard the motion. Iraq combat veteran turned courageous war resister, 25-year-old Sgt. Corey Glass of the Indiana National Guard is still scheduled to be deported July 10th.We will ask that the Canadian government respect the democratic decision of Parliament, the demonstrated opinion of the Canadian citizenry, the view of the United Nations, and millions of Americans by immediately implementing the motion and cease deportation proceedings against Corey Glass and other current and future war resisters. Join Courage to Resist, Veterans for Peace, and Project Safe Haven at Canadian Consulates across the United States (Washington DC, San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles confirmed--more to be announced).We mailed and delivered over 10,000 of the original letters to Canadian officials. Please sign the new letter, "Dear Canada: Abide by resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!" http://www.couragetoresist.org/canada
Canada's War Resisters Support Campaign will hold a "Rally to Stop the Deportation of Parkdale Resident Corey Glass" July 3rd, begins at 7:00 p.m. (with doors opening at six p.m.) at the May Robinson Building, 20 West Lodge, Toronto: "In 2002, Corey joined the Indiana National Guard. He was told he would not have to fight on foreign shores. But in 2005 he was sent to Iraq. What he saw there caused him to become a conscientious objector and he came to Canada. On May 21, 2008, he got his final order to leave Canada by July 10, 2008. Then on June 3 Parliament passed a motion for all the war resisters to stay in Canada. However the Harper government says it will ignore this motion." They are also asking for a July 2nd call-in. Diane Finley is the Immigration and Citizenship Minister and her phone numbers are (613) 996-4974 and (519) 426-3400 -- they also provide her e-mail addresses minister@cic.gc.ca ("minister" at "cic.gc.ca") and finled1@parl.gc.ca ("finled1" at "parl.gc.ca").
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 http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/mc/compose?to=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 http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/mc/compose?to=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.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
Turning to Iraq, Alexandra Zavis (Los Angeles Times) reports that, unlike the US Congress, the Iraqi Parliament is postponing the summer vaction. Zavis reports that this is said to be in response to the allegedly upcoming provinical elections and the failure to pass the legislation that the US White House wants. For those remember last summer, the Iraqi Parliament was under criticism last year for taking a summer break. They ended up taking one resulting in some harsh criticism from inside the US. Meanwhile Sabrina Tavernise (New York Times) paints a portrait (intentionally or not) of Iraqis being conned: Hoshyar Zebari (Iraq's Foreign Minister) declares that immunity for contractors has been lifted and Iraq might have control of their own air space and . . . . Who is advising Iraqis on these contracts? Attorneys for the White House? The US State Department? Doubt it? James Hider (Times of London) speaks with a contractor who explains what the 'law' says and the 'reality': "But bringing to book any Western security guards accused of shooting civilians would be difficult, the contractor noted. 'If it's someone like Blackwater, nine times out of ten the individual is spirited out of the country'." Zebari was talking it up in Baghdad again today. Sudarsan Raghavan (Washington Post) reports that Zebari declared at a Baghdad press conference today, "We have reached a comfortable stage of negotiations and the differences have been narrowed." As Raghavan and the Los Angeles Times' Doug Smith and Raheem Salman all note, Zebari is talking 'concessions' already (on both sides!). That would put the US client-state in an even weaker position. And is anyone else starting to note that 'progress' always 'happens' when Jalal Talabani is absent? Fresh from having the Mayo Clinic unplog his arteries, the ever-expanding Jalal Talabani is back in the news. BBC reports that yesterday, in Athens, Jalal (attending a conference, he wasn't there for sunbathing) shooks hands with Irsrael's Defense Minister Ehud Barak. And that Talabani's office quickly issued a "statement [which] said he was responsding to a request from Mr Abbas and was acting as leader of his Kurcihs party and deputy president of the Sociliast International, not as Iraq's president." Finishing the Talabani portion, Turkish Daily News reports he "was elected to a vice-chairmanship in the Socialist International over the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, who avoided attending the summit in Greece and therefore was not nominated". On the issue of the treaty, Watching America has translated Palestinian Writer's piece (written for al Jazeera):
The first step in getting Iraq out from underneath its catastrophe is the withdrawal of American troops. . . . The most stunning of those who fear for an Iraq in which the Americans leave are those who want to sign a security agreement with the Bush administration, or an American-Iraqi treaty which is now on the agenda and of which some items have already been leaked. It gives the right for the occupation to stay in Iraq for an indefinite amount of time of up to several years, or even a permanent occupation. And with a permanent occupation would come a permanent catastrophe that would be renewed and everlasting. Signing a security agreement or a militay/political/security treaty alongside the crime that is the proposed oil agreement would require a hand in treachery to Iraq, to Arabs and to Muslims, under any and all circumstances.
Meanwhile the United Arab Emirates' The National sees talk that the Sunni bloc -- (Tawafaq Front) boycotting for a year now -- might return to the Iraqi Parliament as a sign of optimism. Remember that in a few weeks. (False hopes always die hard.) Closer to reality, Sabrina Tavernise reported today: "Another judge was the target of an intimidation campaign on Tuesday, at least the sixth in two days, in a trend that has alarmed Iraq's judiciary. A bomb was placed near the house of Judge Qusay al-Bayati, of the Court of Appeals in eastern Baghdad. The judges previously attacked were on the same court. The bomb was defused and did not explode."
Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a US military camp in Baghdad was the target of an attack early this morning which started with exchanges of gunfire and then had "two 107mm rockets" fired at it (according to the US military) and 2 civilians were killed when the US returned fire, three Baghdad roadside bombings resulting in 2 deaths and nine people wounded
Kidnappings?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports Azad Argoshi was kidnapped Wednesday morning and later "found in very bad shape".
Corpses?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses discovered in Baghdad.
Turning to the US presidential race. Barack Obama continues to attempt to prove he is patriotic. Meanwhile this is how Ralph Nader described the country to Jim Lehrer (PBS' NewsHour) in 2000, "Well there are ups and downs. Obviously the slavery period was counteracted by the antislavery movement, women got the right to vote, workers got the right to form trade unions. They built the middle class. As they say, they gave us our weekend, they gave us benefits. The farmers' popular progressive movement against the banks and railroads companies that leavened power more; it gave people a chance to have more voice. So I think we have to look back at our history and say why is it every time concentrated power got too much and social justice movements opposed them, and the dominant business community opposed a social justice movement and finally lost, America was better as a result. Everybody benefited, including the businesses because democracy tends to expand markets." In 2000 at this time, Nader was coming in at four-percent in most polls. The most recent CNN-Opinion Research Poll found him to be holding at 6%.
On the Iraq War, while Barack wants credit for a speech he 'gave' in 2002 (online recording is a 're-creation'), what has he done since? While Barack was supporting Bully Boy's illegal war throughout 2004 and stating repeatedly that he didn't know how he would have voted if he had been in the Senate, Ralph Nader knew where he stood in 2004: "Every day our exposed military remains in war-torm Iraq, we impreil U.S. security, drain our economy, ignore urgent domestic needs, and prevent Iraqi demonstratic self-rule. We need to announace a withdrawal of our troops, not increase them." In May of 2004, speaking to the Council of/for/from Foreign Relations, he would explain (in the belly of the beast): "After 9-11, it's now become quite clear that whatever emphasis there was on the al Qaeda apparatus, there was a superior emphasis on removing Saddam Hussein from Iraq. What's interesting about this is the following. It illustrated -- in ways perhaps never before illustrated in our country -- the fragility of our democratic institutiatons. Here is a nation run by a tottering dictator presiding over a diplated army, with troops not willing to fight for him, surrounded by hostile Kurds to the north, hostile Shiites to the south, surrounded by three very powerful countries compared to his military ability: Iran, Turkey and Israel. And had he directed one aggressive threat toward any of them, they would have obliterated his regime. And yet Iraq under Hussein was viewed as a threat to the United States? But what was most troubling was the lack of any deliberative process by the US Congress which was stampeded into this situation, lack of any deliberative or investigative process by the mass media which clicked their heels and loved the graphics that they were given, and without a deliberative attentiveness to the perceived concerns of the American people. Before the invasion of Iraq, we tried to have Bush meet with one or more distinct groups in our country who had knowledge and were concerned about the invasion of Iraq. Thirteen of these groups, with very little press attention, wrote open letters to President Bush in February and early March, asking for a meeting. They included letters signed by the National Council of Churches, former military officers, former intelligence officials, student groups, women's peace advocates, a business group, labor group. I don't know of any other impending hostility that had such an ecumentical coming-together, expressing doubt and opposition to the pending move. None of these letters were answered by the White House. There were no meetings. President Bush, being the messianic militarist that we've come to know so well, was not interested in meeting with anyone who was critical of his proposed Iraq policies. That was a severe scar on our democratic fabric."
Meanwhile Steve Holland (Reuters) notes Barack's "flexibility" and "nuance on Iraq". Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report), endorsing Cynthia McKinney (presumed Green Party nominee), observes, " The true voices of peace speak clearly, in simple language. 'The U.S. should withdraw all troops and mercenaries from Iraq in as orderly a fashion as possible,' says former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, candidate for the Green Party's presidential nomination. 'This withdrawal should be quickly accomplished, since the troops and the equipment were all pre-positioned in the area to start with, at the start of the invasion'."
And Team Nader notes:
Here's something you can do right now for Nader/ Gonzalez.
Donate six dollars now.
Why six dollars, you may ask?
Because yesterday, CNN reported that Ralph Nader is at six percent in its most recent national poll.
And while the flip-floppers Obama and McCain might look down on six percent, we are excited.
Our goal of course is much higher.
Right now, our goal is ten percent in the national polls.
Why ten percent?
Because ten percent gets us into the Google sponsored debates in New Orleans on September 18.
If we get on the Google sponsored debates, we're convinced Nader/Gonzalez will move toward 20 percent.
At twenty percent, people see a three way race.
When people see a three way race, everything is possible.
And we believe that in this momentous election year, everything is possible.
But right now our motto is as follows:
Get it done.
Now, what exactly do we mean by get it done?
We mean get Ralph Nader on the ballot in at least 45 states (Ralph was on only 34 in 2004)
Here's our ambitious ballot access timetable:
Ten states by July 6.
Fifteen states by July 20.
Thirty states by August 8.
Forty states by September 1.
Forty five states by September 15.
Right now, we're in stage one: ten states by July 6.
And we're in the middle of the stage one fundraising campaign.
Right now, we need to raise $40,000 by July 6, 2008.
Thanks to your generous donations, we're at $27,672.
But we want to get to ten states as soon as possible.
So, help us blow by our $40,000 goal early.
If we can get stage one done early, then we can move onto stage two ahead of schedule.
So, please, drop a six spot here now.
There's nowhere to go but up.
Together, we are making a difference.
iraqcorey glassabcrussell goldman
alexandra zavisthe los angeles timesthe new york timessabrina tavernise
sudarsan raghavanthe washington post
Corey Glass is discharged
Sunny here. Hey everybody. Rebecca phoned and asked if I could put something up that she thought Elaine would want up? Sure. I'll even do it without checking with Elaine (who's in a session right now). It's pretty important. In fact, it's very important. This is C.I.'s "Corey Glass is not AWOL, is not a deserter" from this morning in full:
In a dramatic development for US war resister Corey Glass, currently residing in Canada, there are no charges against him. May 21st was when Corey Glass was told he would be deported. Corey Glass is an Iraq War veteran and a US war resister. He went to Canada seeking asylum -- the kind of welcoming Canada provided to war resisters ("draft dodgers" and "deserters") during Vietnam. After being told he was being deported, he's been 'extended' through July 10th. June 3rd Canada's House of Commons voted (non-binding motion) in favor of Canada being a safe harbor for war resisters. Today is when Russell Goldman (ABC News) reports the development. In "Canada Ready to Deport U.S. Deserters," Goldman reveals:
Unbeknownst to him and his legion of supporters, Glass, 25, was actually discharged from the U.S. Army shortly after he went AWOL in 2006.
Glass and about 40 other American deserters who like him sought refugee status have prompted a national debate in Canada that last month reached the floor of Parliament on where to draw the line between cowardice and conscience.
"I had absolutely no idea that I had been discharged," said Glass when ABC News informed him of his status. "This is insane. This is so weird. There are no warrants? No one is looking for me?"
According to U.S. Army documents and officials Glass was discharged from the California National Guard on Dec. 1, 2006, four months after he arrived in Canada and six months after he failed to show up to a required muster.
Army Major Nathan Banks is quoted stating the US military does not consider Glass AWOL or a deserter, there are no charges against him, he is out of the military.
The development (similar developments happened during Vietnam) comes as polls show huge support in Canada for US war resisters. From Jason Buckland's "Don't turf Iraq war deserters, poll says" (Toronto Sun):
Three in five Canadians favour giving U.S. soldiers resisting the Iraq War a chance to stay in Canada as permanent residents, a new poll said yesterday.
Results from the nation-wide Angus Reid survey showed 64% of Canadians support war objectors seeking refuge north of the border.
"I think Canadians were opposed to the Iraq War from the start," said Lee Zaslofsky, national co-ordinator for the War Resister Support Campaign (WRSC).
"The fact that it has dragged on so long -- is in shambles, really -- I think Canadians understand why someone would want to stop fighting for that kind of cause in that kind of place."
The news today includes a shocker for many reporters. Ebony Horton, whom we called out in May, and others quick to swallow, should damn well pay attention. Sarah Childress (Newsweek) reports, "The number of active-duty soldiers who deserted the Army last year is higher than previously reported -- at 3,301, the military said last week. (The Army said the original figure was tallied incorrectly.) Deserters are branded after abandoning their posts without permission for 30 days. The tally is hardly at Vietnam War levels, but it's still significant for an all-volunteer military."
As Rebecca noted Friday, we are discussing how to cover the illegal war at Third and this news about Glass actually jumps a planned angle for Sunday. What's happened isn't surprising historically. Corey Glass should inquire about his IRR status before attempting to visit or return to the US. For Glass and for others, action is still needed. So planned actions should continue such as Canada's War Resister Support Campaign calling for a "NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION, Wednesday July 2nd" -- that's today:
Write a letter to the editor
Letters to the editor are an important piece of the public debate on this issue. The majority of Canadians opposed the war in Iraq and support the provision of sanctuary for US soldiers. Send a copy of your letter to the campaign to resisters@sympatico.ca.
And, in the US, Courage to Resist is planning "July 9th actions at Canadian Consulates nationwide:"
Again, those actions should continue. Team Nader notes:
Sherry and Lyle highlighted the above.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
corey glass
abc
russell goldman
jason buckland
sarah childress
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
In a dramatic development for US war resister Corey Glass, currently residing in Canada, there are no charges against him. May 21st was when Corey Glass was told he would be deported. Corey Glass is an Iraq War veteran and a US war resister. He went to Canada seeking asylum -- the kind of welcoming Canada provided to war resisters ("draft dodgers" and "deserters") during Vietnam. After being told he was being deported, he's been 'extended' through July 10th. June 3rd Canada's House of Commons voted (non-binding motion) in favor of Canada being a safe harbor for war resisters. Today is when Russell Goldman (ABC News) reports the development. In "Canada Ready to Deport U.S. Deserters," Goldman reveals:
Unbeknownst to him and his legion of supporters, Glass, 25, was actually discharged from the U.S. Army shortly after he went AWOL in 2006.
Glass and about 40 other American deserters who like him sought refugee status have prompted a national debate in Canada that last month reached the floor of Parliament on where to draw the line between cowardice and conscience.
"I had absolutely no idea that I had been discharged," said Glass when ABC News informed him of his status. "This is insane. This is so weird. There are no warrants? No one is looking for me?"
According to U.S. Army documents and officials Glass was discharged from the California National Guard on Dec. 1, 2006, four months after he arrived in Canada and six months after he failed to show up to a required muster.
Army Major Nathan Banks is quoted stating the US military does not consider Glass AWOL or a deserter, there are no charges against him, he is out of the military.
The development (similar developments happened during Vietnam) comes as polls show huge support in Canada for US war resisters. From Jason Buckland's "Don't turf Iraq war deserters, poll says" (Toronto Sun):
Three in five Canadians favour giving U.S. soldiers resisting the Iraq War a chance to stay in Canada as permanent residents, a new poll said yesterday.
Results from the nation-wide Angus Reid survey showed 64% of Canadians support war objectors seeking refuge north of the border.
"I think Canadians were opposed to the Iraq War from the start," said Lee Zaslofsky, national co-ordinator for the War Resister Support Campaign (WRSC).
"The fact that it has dragged on so long -- is in shambles, really -- I think Canadians understand why someone would want to stop fighting for that kind of cause in that kind of place."
The news today includes a shocker for many reporters. Ebony Horton, whom we called out in May, and others quick to swallow, should damn well pay attention. Sarah Childress (Newsweek) reports, "The number of active-duty soldiers who deserted the Army last year is higher than previously reported -- at 3,301, the military said last week. (The Army said the original figure was tallied incorrectly.) Deserters are branded after abandoning their posts without permission for 30 days. The tally is hardly at Vietnam War levels, but it's still significant for an all-volunteer military."
As Rebecca noted Friday, we are discussing how to cover the illegal war at Third and this news about Glass actually jumps a planned angle for Sunday. What's happened isn't surprising historically. Corey Glass should inquire about his IRR status before attempting to visit or return to the US. For Glass and for others, action is still needed. So planned actions should continue such as Canada's War Resister Support Campaign calling for a "NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION, Wednesday July 2nd" -- that's today:
STOP THE DEPORTATION OF U.S. WAR RESISTER COREY GLASS
On July 2nd…
CALL MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION DIANE FINLEY!
Details
U.S. Iraq War resister Corey Glass is still facing deportation on July 10th, despite the Parliament of Canada having voted in favour of a motion to let Corey and other U.S. war resisters stay.
The federal government and the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration must respect the will of Parliament and implement the motion which calls on the government to "immediately implement a program to allow conscientious objectors and their immediate family members […] to apply for permanent resident status and remain in Canada; and … the government should immediately cease any removal or deportation actions … against such individuals."
On July 2nd, the War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on all supporters to call Minister Diane Finley and ask her to:
• STOP deportation proceedings against Corey Glass and all U.S. Iraq war resisters; and
• IMPLEMENT the motion adopted by Canada’s Parliament to allow U.S. Iraq war resisters to apply for permanent resident status.
Here are the numbers to call:
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley
613.996.4974
MP Diane Finley's constituency office (Simcoe):
519.426.3400
Or email her at:
minister@cic.gc.ca
or
finled1@parl.gc.ca
* * *
It is more urgent than ever that we send a message to the Canadian government that Canada needs to welcome US men and women who refuse to participate in the illegal and immoral war in Iraq. There are three actions you can take today to help support the war resisters.
- Sign the petition in support of the war resisters;
- Contact the federal government and make your views known; and
- Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.
Petition
Add your name to the petition calling for the federal government to implement a provision to allow war resisters to stay in Canada. Initial signatories include June Callwood, David Suzuki, Maude Barlow, Shirley Douglas, Naomi Klein, Ann-Marie MacDonald, and many others.
Please download a copy of the petition, sign it, circulate it and return it to the campaign.
Write a letter to the editor
Letters to the editor are an important piece of the public debate on this issue. The majority of Canadians opposed the war in Iraq and support the provision of sanctuary for US soldiers. Send a copy of your letter to the campaign to resisters@sympatico.ca.
And, in the US, Courage to Resist is planning "July 9th actions at Canadian Consulates nationwide:"
Join a vigil and delegation to a Canadian consulate near you on Wednesday, July 9th to support war resisters! On the eve of Corey Glass' possible deportation, we will demand, "Dear Canada: Abide by the June 3rd resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!" More details and cities to be confirmed soon!
Washington DC - Time TBA - 501 Pennsylvania Ave NW (map). Sponsored by Veterans for Peace. Info: TBA
San Francisco - Noon to 1pm - 580 California St (map). Sponsored by Courage to Resist. Info: 510-488-3559; courage(at)riseup.net
Seattle - Time TBA - 1501 4th Ave (map). Sponsored by Project Safe Haven. Info: 206-499-1220; projectsafehaven(at)hotmail.com
Dallas - Time TBA - 750 North St Paul St (map). Sponsored by North Texas for Justice and Peace. Info: 214-718-6362; hftomlinson(at)riseup.net
New York City - Noon to 1pm - 1251 Avenue of the Americas (map). Sponsored by War Resisters' League. Info: 212-228-0450; wrl(at)warresisters.org
Philadelphia - Time TBA - 1650 Market St (map). Sponsored by Payday Network. Info: 215-848-1120; payday(at)paydaynet.org
Minneapolis - Time TBA - 701 Fourth Ave S (map). Info: TBA
Los Angeles - Noon to 1pm - 550 South Hope St (map). Sponsored by Progressive Democrats LA. Info: pdlavote(at)aol.com
Help organize a vigil at one of these other Canadian Consulates: Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Miami, Anchorage, Houston, Raleigh, Phoenix, or San Diego. Please contact Courage to Resist at 510-488-3559.
Veterans for Peace issued a joint call with Courage to Resist and Project Safe Haven for July 9th vigils at Canadian Consulates: "Dear Canada: Do Not Deport U.S. War Resisters!" Contact us if you can help organize a vigil, or can otherwise get involved. Locations of the 22 Canadian Consulates in the United States.
Recently on June 3rd the Canadian Parliament passed an historic motion to officially welcome war resisters! It now appears, however, that the Conservative government may disregard the motion.
Iraq combat veteran turned courageous war resister, 25-year-old Sgt. Corey Glass of the Indiana National Guard is still scheduled to be deported July 10th.
We will ask that the Canadian government respect the democratic decision of Parliament, the demonstrated opinion of the Canadian citizenry, the view of the United Nations, and millions of Americans by immediately implementing the motion and cease deportation proceedings against Corey Glass and other current and future war resisters.
Join Courage to Resist, Veterans for Peace, and Project Safe Haven at Canadian Consulates across the United States (Washington DC, San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles confirmed--more to be announced).
We mailed and delivered over 10,000 of the original letters to Canadian officials. Please sign the new letter, "Dear Canada: Abide by resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!"
http://www.couragetoresist.org/canada
Again, those actions should continue. Team Nader notes:
We're Having a Party!
We're having a party!
A Nader/Gonzalez House Party!
And we're inviting you to be one of 100 Nader/Gonzalez supporters to host a House Party on Saturday night July 26, 2008. Sign up now.
With the help of modern technology, you can have Ralph Nader right there with you in your living room.
If you choose to be one of the 100 to host a house party, we will send you a remarkable documentary DVD about Ralph Nader - An Unreasonable Man and the Awake from Your Slumber DVD starring Ralph Nader and Patti Smith - both autographed by Ralph Nader.
Plus, we'll throw in a special collector's edition Nader/Gonzalez button.
The purpose of the National Nader/Gonzalez House Party Day?
Raise $100,000 to help put Nader/Gonzalez on at least 45 state ballots.
To reach our goal, we are asking that each house party host bring together 20 or more friends, family, and other party goers to donate $50 each.
But you can organize your house party any way you want. If you want to bring together 40 people at $25 a pop, that's great. Or four people at $250 a pop, that's good too.
Now, of course, you won't be doing this alone.
Ralph is really excited about our house party project. (Check out our House Party video here.)
He'll be available that night - either by phone or through the wonders of the Internet - to talk with you and answer your questions.
So, if you want to host a house party - click here. Our house party staff will answer any and all questions you may have.
If you can't host a house party, please donate now to help fund our ballot access drive - remember, you can give Nader/Gonzalez up to the legal limit of $4,600. And if you choose, your name will appear on our home page!
So, if you can, join with us on July 26.
While McCain and Obama continue to flip-flop toward November, Ralph Nader remains steadfast - standing firm on a platform to shift the power away from the corporations and back to the people.
On Sunday, Ralph told ABC's George Stephanapolous that we intend to get on at least 45 states.
And we can't let Ralph down.
Stand by the candidacy that will stand by you.
By the way, yesterday, 319 of you kicked in $12,761.69. Thank you all very much.
As a result, we are now well on our way to our fundraising goal of $40,000.
This will help us secure ten state ballot lines by July 6. Together, we are making a difference.
Onward
The Nader Team
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Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Barack's Chicago roots
"New mystery: Feds planned to link Obama-Rezko but backed off" (Andrew Macolm, Los Angeles Times):
According to published reports in the Chicago Sun-Times, recently unsealed documents show prosecutors intended to call several witnesses who would tie Rezko to Obama. The federal judge ruled that they could.
"Witnesses will testify that Rezko was a long-standing supporter and fund-raiser of Barack Obama," one prosecutor wrote in their planning notes. But for unexplained reasons, they ended up not calling those witnesses.
Oh. Yeah. Antoin "Big Tony" Rezko. The gift that you can't give back. Over $250,000 dollars were steered to Barack Obama's campaigns by Tony Rezko.
Rezko is the slumlord whose slums were in Barack's district. That didn't prevent Barack from steering public money to Rezko. Nor did it make Barack give a damn when consituents living in those slums complained about the conditions, the lack of heat, etc.
"Rezko prosecutors considered focus on Obama" (Mike Robinson, AP):
Rezko, 52, was accused of stacking two key state boards with obedient followers by wielding political clout and using his power to squeeze a contractor and a group of money management firms wanting to do business with the state for payoffs. He is was convicted earlier this month and now awaits his sentence.
It was no secret that Rezko was a long-standing contributor to Obama's campaigns -- although not to the Democrat's current race for president. Obama's campaign fund has returned some $250,000 in Rezko-related donations and Obama has been accused of no wrongdoing.
Federal prosecutors may not have wanted to muddy the presidential campaign by bringing Obama into the testimony when there was no evidence of wrongdoing by him. The newly released documents suggest federal prosecutors steered clear of an intense focus on Obama and that they could have done somewhat more.
Rezko is a slumlord. Hillary was not stretching the truth when she made that observation. If you remember, Barack tried to lie and say he'd done maybe five hours of work for Rezko and that was the extent of their relationships. That was a lie.
"Connect the Dots: Tony Rezko, Allison Davis, Barack Obama" (Pat Hickey, Chicago Daily Observer):
A three year old boy was crushed to death by a rusty wrought iron gate on Friday last week. Accidents happen - Chicago's newspapers will tell you. If a Chicago Police Officer had been within fifty miles of the falling fence, The Sun-Times Frank Main would have linked Curtis Cooper's Death to 'Systemic Racism and Institutionalized Brutality.'Chicago's Media Incumbents do not see any connections between Curtis Cooper's crushed little body and the tons of Progressive Chicago Clout that helped unhinge the truth. There is nothing more heart-breaking than the death of a child due to an accident. A three year old, like Curtis Cooper, and his pals probably weigh between thirty five and fifty pounds each -tops but we are told their hi-jinks and collective weight ripped a solid wrought iron fence from its hinges. Here's this morning's account from the Chicago Tribune on the death of three year old Curtis Cooper:
"Urban Property Advisors, the management company hired by the Chicago Housing Authority, characterized the death as a tragic accident and said there would be an investigation. "It is an accident like anything that happens in this world," said Dalphine Jasper, a regional property manager for the company, which has managed the facility. Property manager Ronald O'Neal said there are weekly inspections as the complex undergoes renovations. "There was nothing wrong with [the gate] other than the fact that it was our belief that children were playing on it before it fell," O'Neal said.
The Sun-Times digs a bit deeper:
"As the 22-year-old mother watched from a window, a gate weighing hundreds of pounds broke from its hinge, fell atop the boy and killed him, Cooper's family said. The property, currently under renovation, is managed by the clout-heavy Urban Property Advisors (UPA). The gate was one of many placed on both sides of communal backyard areas shared by the row homes. On Friday, some were chained to their sideposts because the hinges were broken. A witness said the one that fell was not chained, but that the bottom hinge was not connected."The gate's been like that," Curtis' aunt, Lisa Springfield, said. "You can see the parts rusted." On Friday, a UPA regional manager said all of the gates that were not sturdy would be removed. And Saturday, authorities were out taking some down."
It all goes back to the company Barack's kept.
"Grim proving ground for Obama's housing policy" (Binyamin Appelbaum, Boston Globe):
Grove Parc has become a symbol for some in Chicago of the broader failures of giving public subsidies to private companies to build and manage affordable housing - an approach strongly backed by Obama as the best replacement for public housing.
As a state senator, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee coauthored an Illinois law creating a new pool of tax credits for developers. As a US senator, he pressed for increased federal subsidies. And as a presidential candidate, he has campaigned on a promise to create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that could give developers an estimated $500 million a year.
But a Globe review found that thousands of apartments across Chicago that had been built with local, state, and federal subsidies - including several hundred in Obama's former district - deteriorated so completely that they were no longer habitable.
Grove Parc and several other prominent failures were developed and managed by Obama's close friends and political supporters. Those people profited from the subsidies even as many of Obama's constituents suffered. Tenants lost their homes; surrounding neighborhoods were blighted.
Some of the residents of Grove Parc say they are angry that Obama did not notice their plight. The development straddles the boundary of Obama's state Senate district. Many of the tenants have been his constituents for more than a decade.
"No one should have to live like this, and no one did anything about it," said Cynthia Ashley, who has lived at Grove Parc since 1994.
No one did anything about it? But Barack's got a record we're all supposed to be thrilled with. I haven't seen that record, have you?
I've seen a lot of liars in Panhandle Media make excuses for the corrupt Barack. I haven't seen any record. By the way, where are his records from when he was in the Illinois legislature? He kept promising them. Where are they? The excuse was that he didn't have the money in the legislature and he didn't have enough assistants but he was working on it now. He's raked in more dough than any Democrat ever running for office in the US. Where are the records?
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Tuesday, July 1, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, war resisters have greater support in Canada than some may have thought as a new poll indicates, tag sale on Iraqi oil continues, the Nader-Gonzalez campaign raises over $10,000 yesterday, and more.
Starting with war resistance. As Canada gears up for actions to demonstrate support for US war resisters, a new poll is released. The Angus Reid Poll finds: "A majority of Canadians would agree with the decision to let American military deserters stay in Canada as permanent residents, a new Angus Reid Strategies survey reveals. . . In the online survey of a representative national sample, three-in-five Canadians (64%) say they would agree to give these U.S. soldiers the opportunity to remain in Canada as permanent residents. Quebec (70%) houses the highest proportion of respondents who agree with the motion, while Alberta (52%) has the fewest supporters. A gender breakdown reveals that while both males and females would agree to let U.S. military deserters remain in Canada, females are much more sympathetic (69% versus 57%)." The findings come as Canada is on the verge of deporting the first US Iraq War resister. May 21st was when Corey Glass was told he would be deported. Corey Glass is an Iraq War veteran and a US war resister. He went to Canada seeking asylum -- the kind of welcoming Canada provided to war resisters ("draft dodgers" and "deserters") during Vietnam. After being told he was being deported, he's been 'extended' through July 10th. June 3rd Canada's House of Commons voted (non-binding motion) in favor of Canada being a safe harbor for war resisters. Douglas Glynn (The Barrie Examiner) quotes Corey stating, "The motion is not legally binding, though the majority of Parliament voted for it. I realized innocent people were being killed. I tried to quit the military while in Iraq," he said, "but my commander told me I was just stressed out and needed some R and R (rest and relaxation), because I was doing a job I was not trained to do. I went home on leave and said I was not coming back." So that's where it stands currently.
Canada's War Resister Support Campaign is calling for a "NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION, Wednesday July 2nd:"
STOP THE DEPORTATION OF U.S. WAR RESISTER COREY GLASS
On July 2nd… CALL MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION DIANE FINLEY!
DetailsU.S. Iraq War resister Corey Glass is still facing deportation on July 10th, despite the Parliament of Canada having voted in favour of a motion to let Corey and other U.S. war resisters stay.
The federal government and the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration must respect the will of Parliament and implement the motion which calls on the government to "immediately implement a program to allow conscientious objectors and their immediate family members […] to apply for permanent resident status and remain in Canada; and … the government should immediately cease any removal or deportation actions … against such individuals."
On July 2nd, the War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on all supporters to call Minister Diane Finley and ask her to: • STOP deportation proceedings against Corey Glass and all U.S. Iraq war resisters; and • IMPLEMENT the motion adopted by Canada's Parliament to allow U.S. Iraq war resisters to apply for permanent resident status.
Here are the numbers to call: Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley 613.996.4974
MP Diane Finley's constituency office (Simcoe): 519.426.3400
Or email her at: minister@cic.gc.ca or finled1@parl.gc.ca
In the US, Courage to Resist is planning "July 9th actions at Canadian Consulates nationwide:"Join a vigil and delegation to a Canadian consulate near you on Wednesday, July 9th to support war resisters! On the eve of Corey Glass' possible deportation, we will demand, "Dear Canada: Abide by the June 3rd resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!" More details and cities to be confirmed soon!
Washington DC - Time TBA - 501 Pennsylvania Ave NW (map). Sponsored by Veterans for Peace. Info: TBA San Francisco - Noon to 1pm - 580 California St (map). Sponsored by Courage to Resist. Info: 510-488-3559; courage(at)riseup.net Seattle - Time TBA - 1501 4th Ave (map). Sponsored by Project Safe Haven. Info: 206-499-1220; projectsafehaven(at)hotmail.com Dallas - Time TBA - 750 North St Paul St (map). Sponsored by North Texas for Justice and Peace. Info: 214-718-6362; hftomlinson(at)riseup.net New York City - Noon to 1pm - 1251 Avenue of the Americas (map). Sponsored by War Resisters' League. Info: 212-228-0450; wrl(at)warresisters.org Philadelphia - Time TBA - 1650 Market St (map). Sponsored by Payday Network. Info: 215-848-1120; payday(at)paydaynet.org Minneapolis - Time TBA - 701 Fourth Ave S (map). Info: TBA Los Angeles - Noon to 1pm - 550 South Hope St (map). Sponsored by Progressive Democrats LA. Info: pdlavote(at)aol.com Help organize a vigil at one of these other Canadian Consulates: Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Miami, Anchorage, Houston, Raleigh, Phoenix, or San Diego. Please contact Courage to Resist at 510-488-3559. Veterans for Peace issued a joint call with Courage to Resist and Project Safe Haven for July 9th vigils at Canadian Consulates: "Dear Canada: Do Not Deport U.S. War Resisters!" Contact us if you can help organize a vigil, or can otherwise get involved. Locations of the 22 Canadian Consulates in the United States.Recently on June 3rd the Canadian Parliament passed an historic motion to officially welcome war resisters! It now appears, however, that the Conservative government may disregard the motion. Iraq combat veteran turned courageous war resister, 25-year-old Sgt. Corey Glass of the Indiana National Guard is still scheduled to be deported July 10th.We will ask that the Canadian government respect the democratic decision of Parliament, the demonstrated opinion of the Canadian citizenry, the view of the United Nations, and millions of Americans by immediately implementing the motion and cease deportation proceedings against Corey Glass and other current and future war resisters. Join Courage to Resist, Veterans for Peace, and Project Safe Haven at Canadian Consulates across the United States (Washington DC, San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles confirmed--more to be announced).We mailed and delivered over 10,000 of the original letters to Canadian officials. Please sign the new letter, "Dear Canada: Abide by resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!" http://www.couragetoresist.org/canada
Canada's War Resisters Support Campaign will hold a "Rally to Stop the Deportation of Parkdale Resident Corey Glass" July 3rd, begins at 7:00 p.m. (with doors opening at six p.m.) at the May Robinson Building, 20 West Lodge, Toronto: "In 2002, Corey joined the Indiana National Guard. He was told he would not have to fight on foreign shores. But in 2005 he was sent to Iraq. What he saw there caused him to become a conscientious objector and he came to Canada. On May 21, 2008, he got his final order to leave Canada by July 10, 2008. Then on June 3 Parliament passed a motion for all the war resisters to stay in Canada. However the Harper government says it will ignore this motion." They are also asking for a July 2nd call-in. Diane Finley is the Immigration and Citizenship Minister and her phone numbers are (613) 996-4974 and (519) 426-3400 -- they also provide her e-mail addresses minister@cic.gc.ca ("minister" at "cic.gc.ca") and finled1@parl.gc.ca ("finled1" at "parl.gc.ca").
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 http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/mc/compose?to=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 http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/mc/compose?to=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.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
Turning to Iraq, where UPI notes the (five) attempted assassinations of (five) judges yesterday. You might think it was a big story. Not to the New York Times where Sabrina Tavernise and Andrew E. Kramer offer up seven sentences on the assassination attempts -- seven sentences that begin in paragraph 20 of a 25 paragraph story. The two conclude, "The attacks seemed to be calculated to intimidate rather than to kill. It was not clear who was responsible." More attention, to be fair, than PBS' The NewsHour gave it last night with Ray Suarez offering, "In Iraq today, bombings in Baghdad targeted five judges; all escaped unharmed." And for public television's NewsHour, that was that. The Gulf Daily News leads with the assassination attempts, "Only one of the jurists was injured in the attacks, which happened four days after senior judge Kamil Al Showaili of the country's Higher Judicial Council was assassinated while driving home in mostly Shi'ite east Baghdad. Police said it was unclear whether Al Showaili's slaying was related to the latest attacks." Of al-Showali, RTT notes he was "[t]he President of the same court" and "one of Iraq's most important judges, charged with handling criminal cases for eastern Baghdad." Jordan's Al Bawaba explains of the attacks "police believe may be part of a Shiite campaign to force them to free jailed militants or reduce their sentences."
On the diplomatic front, Jordan Times reports that Nayef Zeidan was sworn in yesterday as Jordan's ambassador to Iraq. Previously, Zeidan was Jordan's ambassador in the United Arab Emirates. Jordan's embassy in the Netherlands notes, "The Jordian embassy in Baghdad has been run by a charge d'affaires for three years and the Kingdom has not sent an ambassador, citing 'security concerns'." This follows King Abdullah II's public statements in May -- as the US White House pressured Arab countries -- that Jordan would
wound send an official emissary to Iraq. The Jordan Times points out, "Several Arab countries have linked sending back their ambassadors to the restoration of security in Iraq. So far, Bahrain and the UAE have decided to send back ambassadors to Baghdad after the security situation improved following two 'successful' military campaigns against Al Sadr militia and Al Qaeda." King Abdulla II, speaking with Lally Weymouth (Washington Post) last week, offered, "I am actually optimistic for the first time on Iraq. I think that Iraqi society is moving in the right direction. It's the first time that I have felt that Iraqis have, as much as they can, bound themselves together into a unity." From Jordan to another country that shares a border with Iraq, Turkey. The Turkish Daily News reports, "Turkey has proposed establishing a joint industrial zone with Iraq in the border town of Ovakoy, a province in the country's southeastern Anatolian region, State Minister Kursat Tuzmen told reporters yesterday." Today's Zaman quotes Tuzmen declaring, "We may establish a joint industrial zone at Ovakoy, on the Turkish-Iraqi border. Both Turkey and Iraq could freely conduct industrial and commercial activities there. We may concentrate on energy production and sales at the planned industrial zone at first, and later extend its scope to other fields." The comments are similar to ones Tuzmen made Sunday while attending a business forum in Baghdad's Green Zone. Last week, Tuzmen was also stating Turkey would be increasing trade with Catalonia. Meanwhile Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that alcohol is being sold in Iraq ("retail only") and speak with Yazidi Dawood and Christian Saif (who didn't want their full names noted for publication) about their experiences selling alcohol (previously Saif had a store fire bombed and nine of the thirteen stores his family owned were taken over by "Islamist insurgents".).
As noted yesterday, the TSC (technical service contracts) -- which were no-bid contracts -- are on hold. Sudarsan Raghavan and Steven Mufson (Washington Post) report Iraq's plan, announced by the country's Minister of Oil Hussain al-Shahristani, to up "production by about 60 percent, or approximately 1.5 million barrels a day" via opening eight fields (six oil, two natural gas) up to foreign partners and the bidders are "35 companies -- including firms from the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and India". The New Zeland Herald estimates this move "could lead to the biggest foreign stake in Iraq since the industry was nationalised more than 30 years ago" while also noting "concerns that a dominat role for Western firms could feed perceptions that US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein to grab the country's natural resources." Doug Smith and Said Rifai (Los Angeles Times) explain, "The bidding will proceed even though parliament has not yet ratified a national oil law to regulate foreign contracts" and note that the announcement took place during a "testy news conference" when the Ministor of Oil "renewed his criticism of the Kurdish regional government for signing deals with foreign companies that offer them a share of oil they extract." Gina Chon and Russell Gold (Wall St. Journal) add that Shahrastani called the "20 separate oild eals, with companies including Hunt Oil," to be "a clear violation of the rules." Sam Dagher (Christian Science Monitor) observes, "Major oil firms have been positioning themselves for years to gain access to Iraq's vast oil reserves, which are estimated at 115 billion barrels -- the world's second largest after Saudi Arabia." Janet McBride (Reuters) wonders, "Are U.S. and British firms obvious choices as partners because of their expertise? After all before the U.S.-led invasion Iraq often preferrred Russian firms. Or are U.S. and British firms repeating the benefit of their government's policies?"
Turning to some of today's violence . . .
Bombings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad car bombing that left five people wounded, a Diyala Province roadside bombing that wounded "one policeman, three children and four men" and aother Diyala Province roadside bombing that claimed the lives of 3 brothers and left their father wounded a Nineveh Province truck bombing that claimed the life of 1 person (plus the bomber) and left twenty-five people wounded and, dropping back to Monday, a Diyala Province car bombing that claimed 4 lives and left nine people wounded." Reuters notes a Mosul roadside bombing that claimed the life of 1 police officer and a Sulaiman Pek bombing apparently attempting to assassinate "the mayor of the town of Sulaiman Pek" that resulted in the death of 1 bodyguard.
Shootings?
Reuters notes Iraqi soldiers shot dead 2 people in Baghdad.
Corpses?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses discovered in Baghdad today.
Hugh Eakin (New York Times) reports one of the more alarming incidents of violence Iraqi documents from Saddam Hussein's rule that are considered historic, important for humanitarian and historical purposes and document human rights abuses are not in Iraq. They are now in the United States and under the control of the right-wing Hoover Institution. An Iraqi exile (Kanan Makiya) 'claimed' themwhen he returned to Iraq after the start of the illegal war. He set up the Iraq Memory Foundation. The files, which were never Kanan Makiya's to claim, were being held in the Green Zone until Makiya decided to take them out in 2006. Whether he had permission is unclear but what is clear is that the Iraqi government wants those documents back and most outside 'experts' believe the papers should be housed in the Iraq National Library and Archive.
Meanwhile James Glanz (New York Times) reports that at least 13 Americans have died in Iraq from electrocution caused by the shoddy work done by KBR which knew of the problems but did not fix them. Meanwhile, Adam Kokesh (Revolutionay Patriot) posts an e-mail from a service member stationed at Camp Falluja in Iraq revealing that "our sister units berthing area caught fire and burned to the ground. It spread so fast and with 120 temps here today, there was no way they could contain the fire in time. These Marines lost everything that they had, all of their military issued gear as well as personal gear."; while another explains that the loss is made harder due to the fact that the PX is a problem and includes this quote, "Yeah it is very hard to get stuff here, the shipments have really slowed down. We pretty much resort to people back in the states sending us shaving cream and s**t like that, or wait until someone goes to BIAP and they bring it back in bulk. You can't even buy skivee shirts and what not. It blows."
Turning to the US race for president. Alexander Mooney (CNN) reports on the latest CNN-Opinion Research Corporation poll which finds Ralph Nader with 6% of the vote, Bob Barr with 3% (Adam Kokesh is supporting Bob Barr), John McCain with 43% and Barack Obama with 46% -- the poll does not include Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party's presumed nominee. PBS' NewsHour has today added profiles of presidential candidates Ralph Nader and Bob Barr.
"We do need a more fundamental strategy here on giant corporate power," Ralph Nader declared in October of last year at the DC Green Festival. That is the central political issue of our time. It's corporate power and the takeover of our government and the spread of commercial values into every nook and cranny of our culture including the commercialization of childhood, the commercialization of universities, the commercialization of almost everything these large companies touch. . . . The other day there was a report saying that TORT lawyers were having trouble suing nursing home chains for severe mistreatment of elderly people and neglect. And the reason why is because these nursing home chains are owned by tiers of corporations -- some of them offshore. And the most immediate tier have very few assets so they can't be responsible for paying the verdicts. And so the TORT lawyers say, 'Well we just can't handle it.' And so more and more people can be mistreated or neglected in these nursing homes with impunity."
Ralph Nader's running mate is Matt Gonzalez and the Nader-Gonzalez ticket is on the ballot in Illinois and The Hartford Courant notes: "Campaign volunteer Peter Ellmer was able to solicit several pledges on Sunday from people who are willing to collect signatures to get Nader on the Connecticut ballot." Nader is working to be on the ballot and Team Nader notes that Monday saw $12,761.69 donated to the Nader-Gonzalez campaign. We'll close with Nader in a moment, but first, the Dems. Paul Bedard (US News & World Reports) notes that Barack's campaign is still suffering problems from Wesley Clark's remarks [see yesterday's snapshot or Deilah Boyd's (A Scriveners Lament) post here] and now also from Barack's efforts to distance himself from Clark and includes these observations by Suzi Parker, "Obama can kiss Arkansas goodbye. A lot of Dems are mad that Obama threw Clark under the bus and denounced his comments about McCain. If anything, they think the Obama should have just let the comments lie. A lot of Dems I am talking to are Clintonites but also supported Clark in 2004 [when he ran for president]. Also hearing from Clark supporters who were in the draft movement that the Obama folks must have forgotten Clark has a massive database of supporters that has only gotten bigger since 2004 because Clark has been out campaigning for Dems since then." Susan (Random Thoughts from Reno) blogs, "Now convince me, Obama supporters, your candidate is something other than a ringer for the GOP. This guy is NOT, repeat NOT, a Democrat. Now he wants to expand 'faight-based' programs . . . Yeah, give these outfits federal money and allow them to discriminate. That's REAL progress." Also noting the new support for 'faith-based' programs is Vasleftt (Corrente) who terms it part of "Obama's bottomless pit of capitulation" and withdraws the previous endorsement of Barack. This is on the heels of his cave-in on illegal spying, his broken promise over public financing and, as Klaus Marre (The Hill) points out, Barack's 'big speech' yesterday was a slap-down to MoveOn. If there is a spine in there, presumably, it is collapsible. Finally, Team Nader notes:
We're having a party!
A Nader/Gonzalez House Party!
And we're inviting you to be one of 100 Nader/Gonzalez supporters to host a House Party on Saturday night July 26, 2008. Sign up now.
With the help of modern technology, you can have Ralph Nader right there with you in your living room.
If you choose to be one of the 100 to host a house party, we will send you a remarkable documentary DVD about Ralph Nader - An Unreasonable Man and the Awake from Your Slumber DVD starring Ralph Nader and Patti Smith - both autographed by Ralph Nader.
Plus, we'll throw in a special collector's edition Nader/Gonzalez button.
The purpose of the National Nader/Gonzalez House Party Day?
Raise $100,000 to help put Nader/Gonzalez on at least 45 state ballots.
To reach our goal, we are asking that each house party host bring together 20 or more friends, family, and other party goers to donate $50 each. But you can organize your house party any way you want. If you want to bring together 40 people at $25 a pop, that's great. Or four people at $250 a pop, that's good too.
Now, of course, you won't be doing this alone.
Ralph is really excited about our house party project. (Check out our House Party video here.)
He'll be available that night - either by phone or through the wonders of the Internet - to talk with you and answer your questions.
So, if you want to host a house party - click here. Our house party staff will answer any and all questions you may have.
If you can't host a house party, please donate now to help fund our ballot access drive - remember, you can give Nader/Gonzalez up to the legal limit of $4,600. And if you choose, your name will appear on our home page!
So, if you can, join with us on July 26.
While McCain and Obama continue to flip-flop toward November, Ralph Nader remains steadfast - standing firm on a platform to shift the power away from the corporations and back to the people.
On Sunday, Ralph told ABC's George Stephanapolous that we intend to get on at least 45 states.
And we can't let Ralph down.
Stand by the candidacy that will stand by you.
iraq
corey glassthe new york timessabrina tavernisejames risenandrew e. kramerhugh eakinsudarsan raghavansteven mufsonthe washington post
mcclatchy newspapersdoug smiththe los angeles times
According to published reports in the Chicago Sun-Times, recently unsealed documents show prosecutors intended to call several witnesses who would tie Rezko to Obama. The federal judge ruled that they could.
"Witnesses will testify that Rezko was a long-standing supporter and fund-raiser of Barack Obama," one prosecutor wrote in their planning notes. But for unexplained reasons, they ended up not calling those witnesses.
Oh. Yeah. Antoin "Big Tony" Rezko. The gift that you can't give back. Over $250,000 dollars were steered to Barack Obama's campaigns by Tony Rezko.
Rezko is the slumlord whose slums were in Barack's district. That didn't prevent Barack from steering public money to Rezko. Nor did it make Barack give a damn when consituents living in those slums complained about the conditions, the lack of heat, etc.
"Rezko prosecutors considered focus on Obama" (Mike Robinson, AP):
Rezko, 52, was accused of stacking two key state boards with obedient followers by wielding political clout and using his power to squeeze a contractor and a group of money management firms wanting to do business with the state for payoffs. He is was convicted earlier this month and now awaits his sentence.
It was no secret that Rezko was a long-standing contributor to Obama's campaigns -- although not to the Democrat's current race for president. Obama's campaign fund has returned some $250,000 in Rezko-related donations and Obama has been accused of no wrongdoing.
Federal prosecutors may not have wanted to muddy the presidential campaign by bringing Obama into the testimony when there was no evidence of wrongdoing by him. The newly released documents suggest federal prosecutors steered clear of an intense focus on Obama and that they could have done somewhat more.
Rezko is a slumlord. Hillary was not stretching the truth when she made that observation. If you remember, Barack tried to lie and say he'd done maybe five hours of work for Rezko and that was the extent of their relationships. That was a lie.
"Connect the Dots: Tony Rezko, Allison Davis, Barack Obama" (Pat Hickey, Chicago Daily Observer):
A three year old boy was crushed to death by a rusty wrought iron gate on Friday last week. Accidents happen - Chicago's newspapers will tell you. If a Chicago Police Officer had been within fifty miles of the falling fence, The Sun-Times Frank Main would have linked Curtis Cooper's Death to 'Systemic Racism and Institutionalized Brutality.'Chicago's Media Incumbents do not see any connections between Curtis Cooper's crushed little body and the tons of Progressive Chicago Clout that helped unhinge the truth. There is nothing more heart-breaking than the death of a child due to an accident. A three year old, like Curtis Cooper, and his pals probably weigh between thirty five and fifty pounds each -tops but we are told their hi-jinks and collective weight ripped a solid wrought iron fence from its hinges. Here's this morning's account from the Chicago Tribune on the death of three year old Curtis Cooper:
"Urban Property Advisors, the management company hired by the Chicago Housing Authority, characterized the death as a tragic accident and said there would be an investigation. "It is an accident like anything that happens in this world," said Dalphine Jasper, a regional property manager for the company, which has managed the facility. Property manager Ronald O'Neal said there are weekly inspections as the complex undergoes renovations. "There was nothing wrong with [the gate] other than the fact that it was our belief that children were playing on it before it fell," O'Neal said.
The Sun-Times digs a bit deeper:
"As the 22-year-old mother watched from a window, a gate weighing hundreds of pounds broke from its hinge, fell atop the boy and killed him, Cooper's family said. The property, currently under renovation, is managed by the clout-heavy Urban Property Advisors (UPA). The gate was one of many placed on both sides of communal backyard areas shared by the row homes. On Friday, some were chained to their sideposts because the hinges were broken. A witness said the one that fell was not chained, but that the bottom hinge was not connected."The gate's been like that," Curtis' aunt, Lisa Springfield, said. "You can see the parts rusted." On Friday, a UPA regional manager said all of the gates that were not sturdy would be removed. And Saturday, authorities were out taking some down."
It all goes back to the company Barack's kept.
"Grim proving ground for Obama's housing policy" (Binyamin Appelbaum, Boston Globe):
Grove Parc has become a symbol for some in Chicago of the broader failures of giving public subsidies to private companies to build and manage affordable housing - an approach strongly backed by Obama as the best replacement for public housing.
As a state senator, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee coauthored an Illinois law creating a new pool of tax credits for developers. As a US senator, he pressed for increased federal subsidies. And as a presidential candidate, he has campaigned on a promise to create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that could give developers an estimated $500 million a year.
But a Globe review found that thousands of apartments across Chicago that had been built with local, state, and federal subsidies - including several hundred in Obama's former district - deteriorated so completely that they were no longer habitable.
Grove Parc and several other prominent failures were developed and managed by Obama's close friends and political supporters. Those people profited from the subsidies even as many of Obama's constituents suffered. Tenants lost their homes; surrounding neighborhoods were blighted.
Some of the residents of Grove Parc say they are angry that Obama did not notice their plight. The development straddles the boundary of Obama's state Senate district. Many of the tenants have been his constituents for more than a decade.
"No one should have to live like this, and no one did anything about it," said Cynthia Ashley, who has lived at Grove Parc since 1994.
No one did anything about it? But Barack's got a record we're all supposed to be thrilled with. I haven't seen that record, have you?
I've seen a lot of liars in Panhandle Media make excuses for the corrupt Barack. I haven't seen any record. By the way, where are his records from when he was in the Illinois legislature? He kept promising them. Where are they? The excuse was that he didn't have the money in the legislature and he didn't have enough assistants but he was working on it now. He's raked in more dough than any Democrat ever running for office in the US. Where are the records?
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Tuesday, July 1, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, war resisters have greater support in Canada than some may have thought as a new poll indicates, tag sale on Iraqi oil continues, the Nader-Gonzalez campaign raises over $10,000 yesterday, and more.
Starting with war resistance. As Canada gears up for actions to demonstrate support for US war resisters, a new poll is released. The Angus Reid Poll finds: "A majority of Canadians would agree with the decision to let American military deserters stay in Canada as permanent residents, a new Angus Reid Strategies survey reveals. . . In the online survey of a representative national sample, three-in-five Canadians (64%) say they would agree to give these U.S. soldiers the opportunity to remain in Canada as permanent residents. Quebec (70%) houses the highest proportion of respondents who agree with the motion, while Alberta (52%) has the fewest supporters. A gender breakdown reveals that while both males and females would agree to let U.S. military deserters remain in Canada, females are much more sympathetic (69% versus 57%)." The findings come as Canada is on the verge of deporting the first US Iraq War resister. May 21st was when Corey Glass was told he would be deported. Corey Glass is an Iraq War veteran and a US war resister. He went to Canada seeking asylum -- the kind of welcoming Canada provided to war resisters ("draft dodgers" and "deserters") during Vietnam. After being told he was being deported, he's been 'extended' through July 10th. June 3rd Canada's House of Commons voted (non-binding motion) in favor of Canada being a safe harbor for war resisters. Douglas Glynn (The Barrie Examiner) quotes Corey stating, "The motion is not legally binding, though the majority of Parliament voted for it. I realized innocent people were being killed. I tried to quit the military while in Iraq," he said, "but my commander told me I was just stressed out and needed some R and R (rest and relaxation), because I was doing a job I was not trained to do. I went home on leave and said I was not coming back." So that's where it stands currently.
Canada's War Resister Support Campaign is calling for a "NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION, Wednesday July 2nd:"
STOP THE DEPORTATION OF U.S. WAR RESISTER COREY GLASS
On July 2nd… CALL MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION DIANE FINLEY!
DetailsU.S. Iraq War resister Corey Glass is still facing deportation on July 10th, despite the Parliament of Canada having voted in favour of a motion to let Corey and other U.S. war resisters stay.
The federal government and the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration must respect the will of Parliament and implement the motion which calls on the government to "immediately implement a program to allow conscientious objectors and their immediate family members […] to apply for permanent resident status and remain in Canada; and … the government should immediately cease any removal or deportation actions … against such individuals."
On July 2nd, the War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on all supporters to call Minister Diane Finley and ask her to: • STOP deportation proceedings against Corey Glass and all U.S. Iraq war resisters; and • IMPLEMENT the motion adopted by Canada's Parliament to allow U.S. Iraq war resisters to apply for permanent resident status.
Here are the numbers to call: Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley 613.996.4974
MP Diane Finley's constituency office (Simcoe): 519.426.3400
Or email her at: minister@cic.gc.ca or finled1@parl.gc.ca
In the US, Courage to Resist is planning "July 9th actions at Canadian Consulates nationwide:"Join a vigil and delegation to a Canadian consulate near you on Wednesday, July 9th to support war resisters! On the eve of Corey Glass' possible deportation, we will demand, "Dear Canada: Abide by the June 3rd resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!" More details and cities to be confirmed soon!
Washington DC - Time TBA - 501 Pennsylvania Ave NW (map). Sponsored by Veterans for Peace. Info: TBA San Francisco - Noon to 1pm - 580 California St (map). Sponsored by Courage to Resist. Info: 510-488-3559; courage(at)riseup.net Seattle - Time TBA - 1501 4th Ave (map). Sponsored by Project Safe Haven. Info: 206-499-1220; projectsafehaven(at)hotmail.com Dallas - Time TBA - 750 North St Paul St (map). Sponsored by North Texas for Justice and Peace. Info: 214-718-6362; hftomlinson(at)riseup.net New York City - Noon to 1pm - 1251 Avenue of the Americas (map). Sponsored by War Resisters' League. Info: 212-228-0450; wrl(at)warresisters.org Philadelphia - Time TBA - 1650 Market St (map). Sponsored by Payday Network. Info: 215-848-1120; payday(at)paydaynet.org Minneapolis - Time TBA - 701 Fourth Ave S (map). Info: TBA Los Angeles - Noon to 1pm - 550 South Hope St (map). Sponsored by Progressive Democrats LA. Info: pdlavote(at)aol.com Help organize a vigil at one of these other Canadian Consulates: Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Miami, Anchorage, Houston, Raleigh, Phoenix, or San Diego. Please contact Courage to Resist at 510-488-3559. Veterans for Peace issued a joint call with Courage to Resist and Project Safe Haven for July 9th vigils at Canadian Consulates: "Dear Canada: Do Not Deport U.S. War Resisters!" Contact us if you can help organize a vigil, or can otherwise get involved. Locations of the 22 Canadian Consulates in the United States.Recently on June 3rd the Canadian Parliament passed an historic motion to officially welcome war resisters! It now appears, however, that the Conservative government may disregard the motion. Iraq combat veteran turned courageous war resister, 25-year-old Sgt. Corey Glass of the Indiana National Guard is still scheduled to be deported July 10th.We will ask that the Canadian government respect the democratic decision of Parliament, the demonstrated opinion of the Canadian citizenry, the view of the United Nations, and millions of Americans by immediately implementing the motion and cease deportation proceedings against Corey Glass and other current and future war resisters. Join Courage to Resist, Veterans for Peace, and Project Safe Haven at Canadian Consulates across the United States (Washington DC, San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles confirmed--more to be announced).We mailed and delivered over 10,000 of the original letters to Canadian officials. Please sign the new letter, "Dear Canada: Abide by resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!" http://www.couragetoresist.org/canada
Canada's War Resisters Support Campaign will hold a "Rally to Stop the Deportation of Parkdale Resident Corey Glass" July 3rd, begins at 7:00 p.m. (with doors opening at six p.m.) at the May Robinson Building, 20 West Lodge, Toronto: "In 2002, Corey joined the Indiana National Guard. He was told he would not have to fight on foreign shores. But in 2005 he was sent to Iraq. What he saw there caused him to become a conscientious objector and he came to Canada. On May 21, 2008, he got his final order to leave Canada by July 10, 2008. Then on June 3 Parliament passed a motion for all the war resisters to stay in Canada. However the Harper government says it will ignore this motion." They are also asking for a July 2nd call-in. Diane Finley is the Immigration and Citizenship Minister and her phone numbers are (613) 996-4974 and (519) 426-3400 -- they also provide her e-mail addresses minister@cic.gc.ca ("minister" at "cic.gc.ca") and finled1@parl.gc.ca ("finled1" at "parl.gc.ca").
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 http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/mc/compose?to=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 http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/mc/compose?to=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.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
Turning to Iraq, where UPI notes the (five) attempted assassinations of (five) judges yesterday. You might think it was a big story. Not to the New York Times where Sabrina Tavernise and Andrew E. Kramer offer up seven sentences on the assassination attempts -- seven sentences that begin in paragraph 20 of a 25 paragraph story. The two conclude, "The attacks seemed to be calculated to intimidate rather than to kill. It was not clear who was responsible." More attention, to be fair, than PBS' The NewsHour gave it last night with Ray Suarez offering, "In Iraq today, bombings in Baghdad targeted five judges; all escaped unharmed." And for public television's NewsHour, that was that. The Gulf Daily News leads with the assassination attempts, "Only one of the jurists was injured in the attacks, which happened four days after senior judge Kamil Al Showaili of the country's Higher Judicial Council was assassinated while driving home in mostly Shi'ite east Baghdad. Police said it was unclear whether Al Showaili's slaying was related to the latest attacks." Of al-Showali, RTT notes he was "[t]he President of the same court" and "one of Iraq's most important judges, charged with handling criminal cases for eastern Baghdad." Jordan's Al Bawaba explains of the attacks "police believe may be part of a Shiite campaign to force them to free jailed militants or reduce their sentences."
On the diplomatic front, Jordan Times reports that Nayef Zeidan was sworn in yesterday as Jordan's ambassador to Iraq. Previously, Zeidan was Jordan's ambassador in the United Arab Emirates. Jordan's embassy in the Netherlands notes, "The Jordian embassy in Baghdad has been run by a charge d'affaires for three years and the Kingdom has not sent an ambassador, citing 'security concerns'." This follows King Abdullah II's public statements in May -- as the US White House pressured Arab countries -- that Jordan would
wound send an official emissary to Iraq. The Jordan Times points out, "Several Arab countries have linked sending back their ambassadors to the restoration of security in Iraq. So far, Bahrain and the UAE have decided to send back ambassadors to Baghdad after the security situation improved following two 'successful' military campaigns against Al Sadr militia and Al Qaeda." King Abdulla II, speaking with Lally Weymouth (Washington Post) last week, offered, "I am actually optimistic for the first time on Iraq. I think that Iraqi society is moving in the right direction. It's the first time that I have felt that Iraqis have, as much as they can, bound themselves together into a unity." From Jordan to another country that shares a border with Iraq, Turkey. The Turkish Daily News reports, "Turkey has proposed establishing a joint industrial zone with Iraq in the border town of Ovakoy, a province in the country's southeastern Anatolian region, State Minister Kursat Tuzmen told reporters yesterday." Today's Zaman quotes Tuzmen declaring, "We may establish a joint industrial zone at Ovakoy, on the Turkish-Iraqi border. Both Turkey and Iraq could freely conduct industrial and commercial activities there. We may concentrate on energy production and sales at the planned industrial zone at first, and later extend its scope to other fields." The comments are similar to ones Tuzmen made Sunday while attending a business forum in Baghdad's Green Zone. Last week, Tuzmen was also stating Turkey would be increasing trade with Catalonia. Meanwhile Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that alcohol is being sold in Iraq ("retail only") and speak with Yazidi Dawood and Christian Saif (who didn't want their full names noted for publication) about their experiences selling alcohol (previously Saif had a store fire bombed and nine of the thirteen stores his family owned were taken over by "Islamist insurgents".).
As noted yesterday, the TSC (technical service contracts) -- which were no-bid contracts -- are on hold. Sudarsan Raghavan and Steven Mufson (Washington Post) report Iraq's plan, announced by the country's Minister of Oil Hussain al-Shahristani, to up "production by about 60 percent, or approximately 1.5 million barrels a day" via opening eight fields (six oil, two natural gas) up to foreign partners and the bidders are "35 companies -- including firms from the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and India". The New Zeland Herald estimates this move "could lead to the biggest foreign stake in Iraq since the industry was nationalised more than 30 years ago" while also noting "concerns that a dominat role for Western firms could feed perceptions that US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein to grab the country's natural resources." Doug Smith and Said Rifai (Los Angeles Times) explain, "The bidding will proceed even though parliament has not yet ratified a national oil law to regulate foreign contracts" and note that the announcement took place during a "testy news conference" when the Ministor of Oil "renewed his criticism of the Kurdish regional government for signing deals with foreign companies that offer them a share of oil they extract." Gina Chon and Russell Gold (Wall St. Journal) add that Shahrastani called the "20 separate oild eals, with companies including Hunt Oil," to be "a clear violation of the rules." Sam Dagher (Christian Science Monitor) observes, "Major oil firms have been positioning themselves for years to gain access to Iraq's vast oil reserves, which are estimated at 115 billion barrels -- the world's second largest after Saudi Arabia." Janet McBride (Reuters) wonders, "Are U.S. and British firms obvious choices as partners because of their expertise? After all before the U.S.-led invasion Iraq often preferrred Russian firms. Or are U.S. and British firms repeating the benefit of their government's policies?"
Turning to some of today's violence . . .
Bombings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad car bombing that left five people wounded, a Diyala Province roadside bombing that wounded "one policeman, three children and four men" and aother Diyala Province roadside bombing that claimed the lives of 3 brothers and left their father wounded a Nineveh Province truck bombing that claimed the life of 1 person (plus the bomber) and left twenty-five people wounded and, dropping back to Monday, a Diyala Province car bombing that claimed 4 lives and left nine people wounded." Reuters notes a Mosul roadside bombing that claimed the life of 1 police officer and a Sulaiman Pek bombing apparently attempting to assassinate "the mayor of the town of Sulaiman Pek" that resulted in the death of 1 bodyguard.
Shootings?
Reuters notes Iraqi soldiers shot dead 2 people in Baghdad.
Corpses?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses discovered in Baghdad today.
Hugh Eakin (New York Times) reports one of the more alarming incidents of violence Iraqi documents from Saddam Hussein's rule that are considered historic, important for humanitarian and historical purposes and document human rights abuses are not in Iraq. They are now in the United States and under the control of the right-wing Hoover Institution. An Iraqi exile (Kanan Makiya) 'claimed' themwhen he returned to Iraq after the start of the illegal war. He set up the Iraq Memory Foundation. The files, which were never Kanan Makiya's to claim, were being held in the Green Zone until Makiya decided to take them out in 2006. Whether he had permission is unclear but what is clear is that the Iraqi government wants those documents back and most outside 'experts' believe the papers should be housed in the Iraq National Library and Archive.
Meanwhile James Glanz (New York Times) reports that at least 13 Americans have died in Iraq from electrocution caused by the shoddy work done by KBR which knew of the problems but did not fix them. Meanwhile, Adam Kokesh (Revolutionay Patriot) posts an e-mail from a service member stationed at Camp Falluja in Iraq revealing that "our sister units berthing area caught fire and burned to the ground. It spread so fast and with 120 temps here today, there was no way they could contain the fire in time. These Marines lost everything that they had, all of their military issued gear as well as personal gear."; while another explains that the loss is made harder due to the fact that the PX is a problem and includes this quote, "Yeah it is very hard to get stuff here, the shipments have really slowed down. We pretty much resort to people back in the states sending us shaving cream and s**t like that, or wait until someone goes to BIAP and they bring it back in bulk. You can't even buy skivee shirts and what not. It blows."
Turning to the US race for president. Alexander Mooney (CNN) reports on the latest CNN-Opinion Research Corporation poll which finds Ralph Nader with 6% of the vote, Bob Barr with 3% (Adam Kokesh is supporting Bob Barr), John McCain with 43% and Barack Obama with 46% -- the poll does not include Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party's presumed nominee. PBS' NewsHour has today added profiles of presidential candidates Ralph Nader and Bob Barr.
"We do need a more fundamental strategy here on giant corporate power," Ralph Nader declared in October of last year at the DC Green Festival. That is the central political issue of our time. It's corporate power and the takeover of our government and the spread of commercial values into every nook and cranny of our culture including the commercialization of childhood, the commercialization of universities, the commercialization of almost everything these large companies touch. . . . The other day there was a report saying that TORT lawyers were having trouble suing nursing home chains for severe mistreatment of elderly people and neglect. And the reason why is because these nursing home chains are owned by tiers of corporations -- some of them offshore. And the most immediate tier have very few assets so they can't be responsible for paying the verdicts. And so the TORT lawyers say, 'Well we just can't handle it.' And so more and more people can be mistreated or neglected in these nursing homes with impunity."
Ralph Nader's running mate is Matt Gonzalez and the Nader-Gonzalez ticket is on the ballot in Illinois and The Hartford Courant notes: "Campaign volunteer Peter Ellmer was able to solicit several pledges on Sunday from people who are willing to collect signatures to get Nader on the Connecticut ballot." Nader is working to be on the ballot and Team Nader notes that Monday saw $12,761.69 donated to the Nader-Gonzalez campaign. We'll close with Nader in a moment, but first, the Dems. Paul Bedard (US News & World Reports) notes that Barack's campaign is still suffering problems from Wesley Clark's remarks [see yesterday's snapshot or Deilah Boyd's (A Scriveners Lament) post here] and now also from Barack's efforts to distance himself from Clark and includes these observations by Suzi Parker, "Obama can kiss Arkansas goodbye. A lot of Dems are mad that Obama threw Clark under the bus and denounced his comments about McCain. If anything, they think the Obama should have just let the comments lie. A lot of Dems I am talking to are Clintonites but also supported Clark in 2004 [when he ran for president]. Also hearing from Clark supporters who were in the draft movement that the Obama folks must have forgotten Clark has a massive database of supporters that has only gotten bigger since 2004 because Clark has been out campaigning for Dems since then." Susan (Random Thoughts from Reno) blogs, "Now convince me, Obama supporters, your candidate is something other than a ringer for the GOP. This guy is NOT, repeat NOT, a Democrat. Now he wants to expand 'faight-based' programs . . . Yeah, give these outfits federal money and allow them to discriminate. That's REAL progress." Also noting the new support for 'faith-based' programs is Vasleftt (Corrente) who terms it part of "Obama's bottomless pit of capitulation" and withdraws the previous endorsement of Barack. This is on the heels of his cave-in on illegal spying, his broken promise over public financing and, as Klaus Marre (The Hill) points out, Barack's 'big speech' yesterday was a slap-down to MoveOn. If there is a spine in there, presumably, it is collapsible. Finally, Team Nader notes:
We're having a party!
A Nader/Gonzalez House Party!
And we're inviting you to be one of 100 Nader/Gonzalez supporters to host a House Party on Saturday night July 26, 2008. Sign up now.
With the help of modern technology, you can have Ralph Nader right there with you in your living room.
If you choose to be one of the 100 to host a house party, we will send you a remarkable documentary DVD about Ralph Nader - An Unreasonable Man and the Awake from Your Slumber DVD starring Ralph Nader and Patti Smith - both autographed by Ralph Nader.
Plus, we'll throw in a special collector's edition Nader/Gonzalez button.
The purpose of the National Nader/Gonzalez House Party Day?
Raise $100,000 to help put Nader/Gonzalez on at least 45 state ballots.
To reach our goal, we are asking that each house party host bring together 20 or more friends, family, and other party goers to donate $50 each. But you can organize your house party any way you want. If you want to bring together 40 people at $25 a pop, that's great. Or four people at $250 a pop, that's good too.
Now, of course, you won't be doing this alone.
Ralph is really excited about our house party project. (Check out our House Party video here.)
He'll be available that night - either by phone or through the wonders of the Internet - to talk with you and answer your questions.
So, if you want to host a house party - click here. Our house party staff will answer any and all questions you may have.
If you can't host a house party, please donate now to help fund our ballot access drive - remember, you can give Nader/Gonzalez up to the legal limit of $4,600. And if you choose, your name will appear on our home page!
So, if you can, join with us on July 26.
While McCain and Obama continue to flip-flop toward November, Ralph Nader remains steadfast - standing firm on a platform to shift the power away from the corporations and back to the people.
On Sunday, Ralph told ABC's George Stephanapolous that we intend to get on at least 45 states.
And we can't let Ralph down.
Stand by the candidacy that will stand by you.
iraq
corey glassthe new york timessabrina tavernisejames risenandrew e. kramerhugh eakinsudarsan raghavansteven mufsonthe washington post
mcclatchy newspapersdoug smiththe los angeles times
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