E-mails, peace movement

C.I. noted this Thursday:

And, community note, last night Rebecca offered "breakfast club," Ruth went with "Betrayed," Kat offered "Pretty in Pink and Reckless," Marcia explored "Outrageous Fortune," Elaine examined "Broadway Danny Rose" and Mike went with "Die Hard and Baby Boom." Cedric's "The battered syndrome is what Bambi works" and Wally's "THIS JUST IN! BARACK SPITS ON WOMEN AGAIN!" covered the latest disgusting insult to women from Team Obama. And if you missed Betty's "Testing out The Obama Playbook" and Trina's "Garlic Pasta in the Kitchen" over the weekend, please check them out.

I include that to link to all the movie posts which are worth checking out and to note Trina and Betty who post once a week and usually get overlooked by us as a result. I also include it for Wally and Cedric's joint-post.

I had an e-mail asking why C.I. was avoiding a topic. I checked with Wally and C.I. helped on Wally and Cedric's joint-post above. I assumed that was the case from reading it. (That's not giving C.I. credit for it, it's pure Wally and Cedric. But I assumed C.I. tossed it out as a topic.) C.I. has not ignored that topic (and Wally says he and Cedric both tried to get C.I. to take a credit on their joint-post). But C.I. can't cover it during the week and also this weekend without feeling like, "I'm repeating myself."

Last week, C.I. and Ava suggested a topic and it was a wonderful topic. But the time it would take to write it would mean we would be working on Third until at least noon. So it was tabled until this weekend. What's covered in the joint-post fits in perfectly with Ava and C.I.'s suggested article. (Look, Sunday, for the article whose title is a question.)

Another e-mail asked why C.I. hasn't covered Hillary. PUMA, et al. will be covered in Ava and C.I.'s TV commentary this week when they include a radio interview. They'll probably also include a TV interview (also with PUMA members). Thursday's snapshot contained information Jess tracked down about Ralph Nader's Denver headquarters. C.I. already had a great deal on Nader in that snapshot before Jess called with the information. There was also the Talk of the Nation interview that C.I.'s noting again today and feels like there is still more to note on that. Bonnie Erbe has a great column (or the section I've heard of it is great) but that's bookmarked for their TV commentary as well. (Erbe was writing about Hillary.)

The editorial should be picking up on a point C.I. made Monday in the snapshot (a strong point that our peace 'leaders' are ignoring) and C.I. set that aside (it's withdrawal from Iraq) so that it could be an option for a Third editorial. We're all trying to do as much thinking as possible about the edition before we all meet up on the nightmare confrence call.

So a lot of things this week have been tabled by C.I. (those are only some of them) so that they could be used at Third or used if needed in the hopes that we might be able to actually spend less than 18 hours (or more) working on the edition. Everyone is tired and, to offer a personal note, Jess and Ava do not get to spend much time on the weekends together (they are a couple) if she, C.I., Kat and Wally arrive home Saturday afternoon and then have to work all night on Third only to have to turn around Monday morning and hit the road again.

Someone e-mailed claiming to be a veteran. I have no idea why anyone would make that claim when they weren't. However, I have enough veterans in my practice that it's very obvious when someone who has never served in the military starts telling stories about their military days and they aren't using the jargon. He claimed he was a veteran and wanted to know how he could sign up for the group session on Thursday.

I always feared that would happen at some point. I never assumed that someone would fake being a veteran as he did, but I assumed that someone would write in (a genuine veteran) at some point. The group is tight and works very well. I do not bring anyone into it without many weeks of private sessions. It would blow the work they are doing if someone came in who was not ready to do some real work.

As for private sessions, I'm booked up.

If he were a real veteran, the answer would be the same but I would feel bad about it.

Most of the veterans originally started off as referrals from C.I. C.I. could still get me to rearrange my schedule to try to book one more because I know C.I. wouldn't ask if it wasn't important (and C.I. has three others that are used in addition to me). In the last year, private sessions are generally referrals from other veterans I've either already had in therapy or currently have in therapy.

I also do not think that reading this blog (even if the guy had been a veteran) would mean I'm the one to go to. If you're expecting that who I am here is who I am in therapy, you are mistaken. Many who do read this and sometimes comment to me about it will note that something here surprised them.

I'm more focused in sessions (and say much less than I do in a blog post). What you read here is someone at the end of her day trying desperately to pull together a post and be done with it.

A very good friend (and I've noted him before) wanted to do sessions after he returned from Iraq. We talked about it to make sure I wasn't the only one he'd be comfortable with. When it was established that wasn't the case, I quickly found another therapist for him. If it had turned out the other way, I would have done sessions but would have been looking for someone to match him up with because I think our friendship would have inhibited him.

By the same token, I think that someone trying to find a therapist doesn't need to do so based on a blog. I think you are most likely setting yourself up for disappointment because you're coming in not just with a hope that you will receive help (a hope I share) but also that I'm going to be in person just like I am here. This is blog, a journal. I'm writing my opinions. As a therapist, I'm not interrupting someone with, "Yeah, that sounds important, but hold on because I want to tell you about this movie I saw first."

The snapshot was late today and that was my fault. I had a headache all day and when I finished the last session, I closed the door. That's my little sign of being wiped out. After ten minutes, Sunny buzzed me to say C.I. had called during the last session and really needed me to return the call. Since it was Friday and I had waived at Sunny as I was closing the door, I honestly assumed she had left. So I first apologized to her and wished her a good weekend. Then I called C.I. and the issue was if I'd be offended if a section on UPFJ was included in the snapshot.

UPFJ was a group I supported.

I listened and said there was nothing in it that bothered me and, in fact, I agreed with every point that C.I. made. I think UPFJ could still do some strong work but don't see it happening unless they make a point to break with the election. They need to make it very clear that they are not cheerleading any candidate. They need to make pressure and demands to end the illegal war. If and when they're willing to do that, I will gladly reconsider my opinon of them; however, I have seen this year everything I saw in 2004. It does not build confidence.

2004, for those who don't remember, was when the peace groups hooked their wagons up to John Kerry's campaign. It took forever to get the peace movement started again after that and Cindy Sheehan deserves the bulk of the credit for restarting it. I'm not fond of Cindy Sheehan anymore but I will give credit where it's due. I'm not fond of Cindy these days because she used her Peace Mom cred for Barack. Barack is a War Hawk. There was Cindy with her jabs at Common Dreams, jabbing Hillary, propping up Barack.

Barack is worse than anything Cindy might think of Hillary because people wrongly thought he was going to end the illegal war. Some like Tom The Womanizer Hayden still push that lie. But John Pilger, Glen Ford, Robert Fisk and others are not playing that game and it's become harder for even the die-hard Media Whores in 'alternative' media to push that lie.

I think Hillary was the better candidate for those concerned about the illegal war.

First, if you didn't believe her when she said she'd end the illegal war, great. That meant from day one in the White House, you'd be pressing her and demanding that she end it. Instead, the Hype Wagon will police themselves and others if Barack's elected and the peace movement will probably have to wait and wait and "give Barack time." Somewhere at the end of his first term even the Media Whores won't be able to pretend he's going to end the illegal war.

Second, Hillary's comments about ending the illegal war were sincere. C.I. and I spoke about that at length. C.I. went back and forth on whether to make that argument and decided not to because wasn't that what the Barack Liars were doing? C.I. made the case for Hillary on grounds that were factual and not on predictions. But C.I. believed (as did I) Hillary's promise. At one point, I said, "You don't have to go into why you believe it" (meaning private conversations) "you can just make the presentation that Hillary's saying this and if she doesn't do it, the peace movement will rip her apart in her first 100 days."

But C.I. felt (and I understand why) that it was better to stick with the record and the facts and let the Tom-Tom's spew lies.

I believe it was after the summer of 2006 that Cindy began speaking out about the Afghanistan War and noting that it was wrong too and that everyone needed to call for it to end. Which is why Cindy having kind words for Barack was always a joke. He was always going to up the number in Afghanistan (and he never promised withdrawal -- only a possible reduction). So with that nonsense and Tom Hayden's, I completely understood why C.I. wanted to stick with reality and not turn into some sort of joke.

I don't dislike Cindy or loathe or hate her. She just has nothing to say that I care to hear anymore. I'm sure she's still one of the sweetest women around. But I had respect for her and her actions ended that.

I've also been very clear here that Joan Baez is not anyone I will ever listen again.

Joan damn well knows what counter-insurgency is and, had she done een an iota of homework before endorsing Barack, she would have known that not only did he have Sarah Sewall and Samantha Power and a host of other counter-insurgency pushers on his team but he himself had publicly and repeatedly supported counter-insurgency. I lay that at Joan's door. I don't put it at Cindy's.

The reason for that is that Joan knows what counter-insurgency is. Joan saw the effects of it when she visited Vietnam. For her to endorse anyone who supports counter-insurgency was just offensive.

There was no reason for her to endorse anyone. I know Gabe was among those pressuring her but she's a grown woman and can easily say, "I don't support counter-insurgency. I've never endorsed before and I'm not going to break that pattern in order to support counter-insurgency."

That's war on the people and Joan Baez damn well knows that.

Whatever her reasons for endorsing, it translated as The Peace Queen wants to be The Popular Queen. The woman who stood up repeatedly to brutal regimes didn't have the good sense to reject counter-insurgency in 2008. Bye-bye, Joan.

"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Friday, August 15, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces more deaths, Ralph Nader keeps issues on the table and more.

Starting with war resistance. Wednesday US war resister Jeremy Hinzman learned that the Canadian government has ordered him out of that country by September 23rd. Today he appeared on Democracy Now! where Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman interviewed him.

JEREMY HINZMAN: Well, essentially, it turns our lives upside down. We, as you said, just had a baby [daughter Megahn]. Our son [Liam] knows nothing else aside from Canada. And if we do go back, which it's looking like, I will undoubtedly be court-martialed and serve some time in jail.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Is there any appeal process left to you yet that might delay the September 23rd deadline?

JEREMY HINZMAN: There is. It's not guaranteed that we'll be granted leave to appeal, but if my lawyer can find errors in the compassionate and humanitarian decision that the Canadian Border Services rendered, then we can--we can appeal. But there's no guarantee that the court will grant us leave.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And what were the arguments the court used in rejecting your appeal?

JEREMY HINZMAN: Well, in a compassionate and humanitarian case, you need to show that there would be undue hardship if you returned to your country of origin, and we--and you also need to show that you've been established in Canada and can live independently. And we did that. In the decision, the officer said we've established ourselves well in Canada. We haven't been a hindrance to the social assistance programs. But he said that wasn't enough for us to stay. He said the US has a fair justice system. My First Amendment right to free speech is protected. And they also mentioned that--for whatever reason, I don't know--they mentioned George Bush's No School Left Behind program to say that our son would be able to get a good education. I found that kind of humorous.

[. . .]

JUAN GONZALEZ: Have you maintained ties with other US war resisters who are in Canada, who have gone there in recent years?

JEREMY HINZMAN: There are a number of us in Toronto, and I am acquainted with them. There's a movement called the War Resisters Support Campaign that's been active pretty much since we got here, and we have meetings, and there's been a lot of lobbying in support of us. And on June 3rd, the Canadian parliament passed a nonbinding motion by a vote of 137-to-110 saying that US war resisters should be able to remain in Canada. However, the conservative government is refusing to enact the legislation.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, Canada, of course, has a long history of giving refugee status to resisters from American wars. Obviously, during the Vietnam War, there were many who went there. How would you characterize the difference between this government's treatment of war resisters and what you know of past times?

JEREMY HINZMAN: Well, during the Vietnam era, of course, Pierre Trudeau, who was a liberal, was in power, and he famously stated--at least up here--that Canada should be a haven from militarism, and that kind of opened the floodgates for American soldiers to come to Canada. I think 50,000 eventually settled here. Right now, there's a conservative minority government. Canada has a parliamentary system, and they hold the balance of power. And I wouldn't say they're lapdogs to the US, but they share many of the same values of the Bush administration and aren't really sympathetic to what we're doing.

AP files another story where they quote Jeremy stating, "I went through all the training. I served honorably in my unit. I used army provisions to try become a noncombatant and remain in the army as a medic or something, but I still would be subject to going on combat missions as a medic. I can't bring myself to shoot another person. If people want to criticize me for that, then I'm honored to be criticized because I'm not a killer."
Jeremy Hinzman and other war resisters in Canada need support and to pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail 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. Long expulsion does not change the need for action and the War Resisters Support Campaign explains: "The War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada to urgently continue to put pressure on the minority conservative government to immediately cease deportation proceedings against other US war resisters and to respect the will of Canadians and their elected representatives by implementing the motion adopted by Parliament on June 3rd. Please see the take action page for what you can do." The War Resisters Support Campaign has called an "Emergency Meeting to Stop the Deportation of Jeremy Hinzman and his family, Wednesday August 20 at 7 p.m. at the Steelworkers Hall, 25, Cecil Street" (Toronto) and encourages everyone to "Read the War Resisters Support Campaign press release and circulate it widely

James Burmeister is a US war resister. He is the whistle blower who went to Canada and told the world (or those who would listen) about the kill teams. Last month, Dee Knight's "Army court-martials resister for blowing whistle on 'bait-and-kill'" (Workers World) offered an overview of Burmeister's court-martial providing the context and why the US military brass wanted to silence him. Today Evan Kornfeld (US Socialist Worker) also offers a look at James court-martial (James was not deported or extradited, he returned to the US from Canada of his own accord earlier this year and was court-martialed July 16th):

The Eugene Weekly has pointed out that of the 4,698 soldiers who have been charged with desertion in 2007, only 108 have been convicted. [Erich] Burmeister, James' father, believes that his son was prosecuted as punishment for speaking out about the bait and kill teams.After the trial, at which he testified on his son's behalf, he said, "I obviously now believe that James has been made an example to the rest of the soldiers and to the rest of those who dare think about what James did, that the punishment can be quite severe."

Courage to Resist has noted that "The PFC James Burmeister Support Campaign can be reached at letjamesbefree@gmail.com" and that he can receive mail at this address:

James Burmeister
Box A
Fort Knox, KY 40121

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Yovany Rivero, William Shearer, Michael Thurman, Andrei Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).

Turning to Iraq. Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) reports that the death toll for yesterday's bombing attack on pilgrims is 20 "and it raised the specter of more bloodshed as the pilgrimage route becomes crowded before the event Saturday." Sami al-Jumaili (Reuters) explains that "Despite the [security] precautions, Kerbala is bracing for the worst. Local health director Alaa Hammoudi said that 40 medical units were standing by, and that extra hospital beds were made ready. Near the mosque, makeshift clinics were set up in tents and trailers. Some pilgrims donated blood." Campbell Robertson and Riyadh Muhammed (New York Times) quote an eye witness to yesterday's bombing, Ali, who explains, "I saw smoke, and I smelled the very bad smell of burned flesh and blood. The reactions were a little less than at the last blast maybe because they already have been shocked." Sudarsan Raghavan and Saad Sarhan (Washington Post) cite Iskandariyah police chief Ali al-Zahawi insisting there is "a shortage of female police officers in the town". And why is that? Hey, remember when women were being purged? Remember when female police officers were informed they could not carry fire arms? And remember how the pig and thug and puppet Nouri al-Maliki was pleased as punch with all of that and shocked when a few (very few reports) objections were raised? The puppet needs the illegal war to stay in power. And the White House doesn't give a damn about the rights of Iraqi women. So it was the perfect blend for pigs everywhere. Anna Badkhen (Salon) reports that, even in the crack-downed Baghdad, "women here still feel threatened. One can't yet see a pervasive shift in the way women dress. They continue to wear the conservative clothing that the militias began compelling them to wear after the U.S. invasion. Most women remain cocooned in shapeless, black abaya dresses and hijab scarves that covered their hair. . . . Before the war, Tammy says, she could walk down the streets of her hometown, the southern and heavily Shia Iraqi port city of Basra, dressed like most teenagers in the United States -- in jeans and no head scarf. Saddam Hussein's regime was one of the world's most despotic, but it was secular and allowed Iraqi women personal rights and freedoms unparalleled in the Persian Gulf. Women, who make up more than half of the country's populartion, could drive, travel abroad alone, serve in Iraqi security forces and work side-by-side with men. They chose whom to marry and whether to marry at all, and were among the most educated in the region. . . . After the U.S. invasion in 2003, conservative Muslim clerics called for Iraq to become an Islamic state. In the name of Islamic values, they eroded the liberties women here enjoyed even under Saddam's oppressive regime. Schools, once coed, became segregated by gender; women were afraid to go outside without a head scarf. As sectarian violence engulfed Baghdad and other parts of the country in 2006, it brought in its wake even more constraints on women's freedoms." And the White House didn't just let it happen, they encouraged and, in fact, still encourage it. At a time when female bombers are said to be the biggest threat to stability in Iraq (foreign forces on the ground in Iraq are the biggest threat to the country's stability), the US military actively recruits women into their "Awakening" Councils and yet -- despite a supposed need which should be driving the market forces -- they pay these women 20% less than their male counterparts. No one objects. No one calls it out. And it reinforces the message to those installed into power in Iraq (by the US) that women are not equal and that their worth is less than that of a man's.

Helen Benedict (In These Times) reports on the increased number of sexual assaults in the US military -- women serving assaulted and abused by their "comrades-in-arms" -- and notes that "the attention always focuses on the women: where they were when assaulted, their relations with the assailant, the effects on their mental health and careers, whether they are being adequately helped, and so on. That discussion, as valuable as it is, misses a fundamental point. To understand military sexual assault, let alone know how to stop it, we must focus on the perpetrators. We need to ask: Why do soldiers rape?" It's the culture of the institution (which includes looking the other way) and that institution has had a bigger impact than any other US institution in Iraq.

Institutions, organizations. How does the peace movement ever plan to be effective in the US with such sorry-ass 'leaders.' Tom Hayden shows up to soil his own name at The Nation this week with "The Defunding of the Peace Movement." He pretends to be talking straight (no doubt inflicting howls of laughter from all who know Tom-Tom) and pretends like Barack has pledged to end the illegal war. Barack has pledged no such thing. He might reduce the number of US forces in Iraq (to send them to Afghanistan) but he has not called for all US troops out of Iraq -- and long ago refused to promise in a televised debate that, if elected president, all US troops would be out of Iraq by 2012. Tom-Tom's heart-heart races for Barack so he lies and lies. The problem, as Tom-Tom sees it, is that people aren't giving money to peace organizations. Or 527s. 527s? No, those are not peace organizations but Tom was never a peace leader. Not now, not back then. He was always someone lusting after a political career and that motivated him then and does so now. It's always been about setting Tom's end up. He talks to Leslie Cagan of UPFJ and she's wondering what her organization could do with $100,000? More of the same, Leslie, absolutely nothing. Say it again.

When UPFJ (not one of the worst offenders in my opinion) had more money it didn't change the way they operated. At best, they were silent on John Kerry. Other orgs and 'leaders' made it their life's work to shill for his 2004 election. If UPFJ is facing fund shortages it goes to the lousy leadership they've shown since the start of the illegal war. Engaging in their sniping with A.N.S.W.E.R. which is fine if it's just an open debate but is not fine when it prevents actions from taking place. There has not been a huge peace rally since January 2007. No one's in the mood to give one damn dime to any of these useless organizations. (IVAW remains the only organization that is working at ending the illegal war.) They all go rushing off to "War With Iran Tomorrow!" or "Saint Bhutto Has Died!" or one hundred and one other causes while they abandon Iraq. (Again, my opinion, UPFJ has not been the worst offender there. CODESTINK has been the worst and the most hypocritical. UPFJ has tended to go for silence as opposed to hawking non-peace events/candidates.) Barack's greedy. How surprising that people are just now grasping that. How pathetic that Leslie's going to whine to Tom-Tom instead of taking to the UPFJ website to state, "We are an organization trying to end the illegal war. We are not endorsing any candidate. We are endorsing the end of the Iraq War. If you are with us on that, we could use some donations to continue this struggle." Tom-Tom lies as well and claims, "The Obama finance committee is under more pressure, literally, to pay Hillary Clinton's debt to Mark Penn than to fund any messages on war, recession and global warming." Tom Hayden, you sexist pig, drop the Bash The Bitch games. At your age, it only makes you look older, uglier and more pathetic. Barack hasn't done a damn thing to retire Clinton's debt (and Hillary has stated that she's paying off small vendors first). That joint-appearance where he gave the speech and 'forgot' to ask people to donate to Hillary and only returned to the stage when reporters questioned him on it? He's done nothing to help her with her debt and shame on you, a man who'd be living on the streets were it not for his divorce settlement, for pretending otherwise and yet again trying to make it all about Hillary. Your Lover Man has failed you Tom. Your limp and inactive and it has nothing to do with Hillary. You fell in love with Barack and he broke your heart. Those are the breaks, grow the hell up before senility sets in.

Or has that already happened. Tom-Tom was one of the signers of that ridiculous ass-kiss to Barack from The Nation. As we observed at Third:

Because The Nation is run by the brain dead and the socially stunted today, they decide to copy that with an open letter. (They only know how to do what was done before, no visionaries or dreamers they.) The open letter is called "Change *We* Can Believe In" and if the starring of "We" didn't indicate to you there was a lot of ego tripping going down, you only had to read the names of those who signed on to the garbage -- including non-Democrat Frances Fox Piven (billed as Francis Piven -- what happened, she looked in a mirror?), The Ego Of Us All's Red Buddy who pimped her hard to The New York Times and did more to lie for Friedan than even she herself did, Democratic Groupie (in the worst sense of "groupie" in the rock world) Norm Solomon, Tom-Tom Hayden (still fretting about the 1969 violence we pointed out recently), Red Billy Fletcher, Take Me To My Divorce Pay Day! Jodie Evans, Emma Goldman lookalike Barbara Ehrenreich, Does-Marlo-Know-You-Signed-That-Garbage Phil Donahue, School Girl Katrina vanden Heuvel (who reportedly came up with the embarrassing phrase "the long night of greed" -- to which C.I. responded, "Oh, she's turned her hand to autobigoraphy?") and, yes, Howard Zinn.

At Dissident Voice, John Walsh calls out that nonsense:

The letter is also frankly dishonest when it says that Obama is simply moving to a more "centrist stance" In what sense "centrist"? The war is wildly unpopular and close to 70% of Americans want the U.S. out of Iraq asap. What is "centrist" about moving away from a landslide majoritarian position? And what is the "peace" candidate doing when he calls for 100,000 more active duty army and marines, when he calls for more military spending, when he calls for stepping up the war on Afghanistan, when he talks belligerently about Iran, and when he equivocates on how many tens of thousands of troops are to be left in Iraq? All these are positions that the "peace" candidate took during the primary. They are not new.

[. . .]

What is awfully irritating is that Katrina Vanden Heuval and the rest of the "liberal" elite criticize supporters of McKinney/Clemente and Nader/Gonzalez for "wishful thinking." Compared to the sentiments and views of the supplicants' letter, supporters of third party candidates are hard core realists. And it is very sad to see some of the signatories of this letter who in better times would have been men and women who put principle over "lesser evil" politics. Read the letter carefully. Look at the signatories. It may bring tears.


Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .

Bombings?

Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports pilgrims continue to be targeted with a Baghdad roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 (nine more wounded), a Baghdad mortar attack left two people wounded, another Baghdad roadside bombing left six people wounded, and a Salahudding car bombing that claimed 5 lives (twenty more wounded).

Shootings?

Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports an armed clash in Kirkuk that resulted in 1 death and an Al Anbar Province assassination attempt on "Sheikh Kahmees Al-Dulaimi, the Imam of one of the mosques in Falluja" who was taken to the hospital for medical care



Today the US military announced: "A Multi-National Force -- West Marine was killed Aug. 14 when his unit received small-arms fire during security operations approximately 1 km east of Fallujah." And they announced: "A Multi-National Corps-Iraq Soldier died of non-battle related causes Aug. 15 in Baghdad. An investigation into the cause of death is under way." That brings the total number of US service members killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war to 4143 and the death toll for the month thus far is 16 -- which is 3 more than the July total that all the news outlets thought was news.

Neil Conan: We're talking with independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader here at the Newseum. I'm Neil Conan along with NPR Political Junkie Ken Rudin. If you'd like to join us, 800-989-8255 e-mail talk@npr.org. This is Talk of the Nation from NPR News. And let's get a question from here in the Newseum.

Patty: Hi, good afternoon. I'm Patty from San Francisco, California and as a retired public school principal I'd like to know your views on No Child Left Behind. And I'd also like to know what your education platform is.

Ralph Nader: Well the way No Child Left Behind has been implemented is not good. First of all, there are too many tests. It ruptures the relationship between teachers and students -- they've got to have a test Tuesday and a test Thursday. They're the wrong kind of tests in my opinion: A, B, C, D, "None of the above." That's not the assessment test that I think are better evaluators They make teachers teach to the test. It's this frantic test mania. It creates unnecessary anxiety among children. So I'm against it. Teachers are against it too. A lot of people think it was underfunded and I think the key thing in environmental agenda for a presidential candidate is more decent facilities -- I mean a lot of these inner-city schools are crumbling, we have gleaming stadiums funded by you the tax payer in the same cities the schools, and clinics and libraries are crumbling. The second thing is decent pay for competent teachers. They should be assessed too. And the third is citizen skills, civic skills. We should teach students connecting the classroom with their town with their community so they can learn about the history, the geography, economics, government of their town and in the process learn citizen skills. How to use the Freedom of Information Act in your state, how to build coalitions, how to get information from City Hall. How to do comparative price analysis of staples in supermarket. That's what makes student learn indirectly reading, writing and arithmetic. I hope a lot of teachers will . . . push to replace No Child Left Behind with this kind or practical and down to earth and very exciting educational process.

Neil Conan: Thanks for the question. Let's go the phones, line six, and Mike is with us from Boca Raton in Florida.

Mike: Good morning or good afternoon. Mister candidate, considering what's happened since the year 2000, don't you think that your candidacy creates too much of a risk of unintended consequences based on your past performance?


Ralph Nader: Well the social scientists who studied that say that [Al] Gore won the election, he won the popular vote. The electoral college stood in his way and the press investigations and others in Florida indicate, and Gore believes this, that he won Florida but it was taken from him before, during and after election day in all kinds of tricky ways that have been subject to documentaries and investigations, to the five Republicans in the Supreme Court who selected George Bush. I keep saying to Democrats "Look in the mirror Go after the thieves because they might do it again and there was a lot of shenanigans in Ohio -- the swing state that left Kerry behind --

Mike: You obviously can't win. Which of the two candidates would you prefer to be president. The other two candidates.

Ralph Nader: The ones that are closer to the agenda of Nader - Gonzalez and we don't have time to go through a checklist but if you want to look at VoteNader.org we have a sheet which says these are the issues on the table for Nader - Gonzalez -- like full health insurance -- and they're off the table for McCain and Obama. It's quite remarkable how similar they are on about 15 major re-directions for country and the reason is they've been dialing too much for corporate dollars and they're too close to these corporate interests.

Mike: Well you know, I'm all for anyone being able to run but candidly we can't stand another eight years of George Bush, McCain and that crowd.

Ralph Nader: Nor can we. In fact if Al Gore picked up my withering criticism in detail of Bush's record in Texas when he was governor, he'd have won even over the obstacles that these Republican illegally put in his way.

Team Nader has set up Ralph's Daily Audio to leave audio commentaries and the one that went up today is entitled "Impeachment:"


This is Ralph Nader. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are the most impeachable president and vice president in the history of the United States. The Constitution of the United States structures our democracy within the rule of law. Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senator Barack Obama and their Republican associates are seriously subverting the rule of law by blocking the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
Bill Clinton must be shaking his head in wonderment. High Crimes and Misdemeanors are what get a president impeached. That's in Article II, Section IV of our Constitution. Let's consider the case of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney.
High crimes and misdemeanor number one: The criminal war, invasion and occupation of Iraq in violation of our Constitution, federal statutes and international treaties that our country belongs to. The second is systemic torture condoned at the top of our government. That even violates the US Army Field Manual as well as FBI procedures. High crimes and misdemeanor number three: the arrests and imprisonment of thousands of Americans without charges, denying ha beaus corpus the fundamental requirement for a restraining power to show why the liberty of a person is being restrained. High crimes and misdemeanor number four: spying on millions of Americans without a judicial warrant. This one violates the FISA Act which provides for a five-year jail term. High crimes and misdemeanor number five are all those signing statements that George W. Bush declared when he signed one bill after another from Congress saying that it would be up to him to decide whether or not to obey the law. I guess one could call him King George IV.
The American Bar Association, the largest barre association in the world, quite conservative, has sent three major reports to President George W. Bush outlining his serious violations of provisions in our Constitution. I stood in front of the White House for 45 minutes a few weeks ago and declared the reasons for the impeachment or resignation or subsequent prosecution of Bush and Cheney for the five categories of High Crimes and Misdemeanors.
If we allow rampant, recidivist criminal activity in the White House -- as Speaker Pelosi, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain have done week after week, month after month -- that'll simply set the stage for future presidents to think that they too can break the law with impunity and run our civil liberties, our civil rights, our safety, our freedoms, our status before the world into the ground. I'm Ralph Nader.


Friday (in most markets, check local listings), Bill Moyers sits down with Andrew Bacevich to discuss the imperial impresidency. PBS tonight (and throughout the weekend depending on when your local station airs it) will also feature Washington Week. Janine Zacharia (Bloomberg News) will be among the guests. She's been doing a ton of research on refugees so she should be able to pull that into her topic (the positions of Barack and McCain), Todd S. Purdum (Vanity Fair) will discuss the upcoming Democratic National Convention (will Gwen or anyone mention the Nadar Super Rally that will take place in Denver August 27th?), and Jeffrey Birnbaum (Washington Post) will be among the guests (Birnbuam will be addressing campaign monies and laws). And NOW on PBS explores the US and Mexican border.

iraqjeremy hinzman
james burmeisterrobin longevan kornfeldt
democracy nowjuan gonzalez
dee knight
tina susmanthe los angeles timesthe new york timescampbell robertsonriyadh muhammedthe washington postsudarsan raghavansaad sarhan
anna badkhen
john walsh
bill moyers journalpbsjanine zachariatodd s. purdumjeffrey birnbaumwashington weeknow on pbs
talk of the nationnpr

Broadway Danny Rose

"Denver Nader/Gonzalez 2008 Headquarters Opening for Super Rally" (Team Nader):
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 12:00:00 AM
ShareThis

News Advisory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jenny Przekwas, 303-718-4477, jenny@votenader.org

DENVER NADER/GONZALEZ 2008 HEADQUARTERS OPENING FOR SUPER RALLY

WHAT: News Conference for Denver Nader/Gonzalez 2008 Headquarters Grand Opening

WHEN: 1 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 14

WHERE: Denver Nader Headquarters1155 Sherman St. Suite 111

(303) 832-2509

Colorado Nader/Gonzalez supporters proudly announce the grand opening of the campaign's Denver Headquarters with a news conference on Thursday, Aug. 14 at 1 p.m.

The Headquarters' energy is fully concentrated on Nader's "Open the Debates" Denver Super Rally at the Magness Arena at 7 p.m. on Aug 27, during the Democratic National Convention.

With the Democratic National Convention coming to town, Colorado Nader supporters are gearing up to challenge the Democrats to bust open the presidential debates and ignite discussion on issues that the Democrats are leaving off the table such as single-payer universal health care, impeachment, and getting out of Iraq.

Ralph Nader drew sellout crowds to super rallies during his 2000 campaign and is currently at 6 percent in the latest CNN poll and on track to be on the ballot in 45 states.

For more information on the Nader/Gonzalez campaign, visit: votenader.org.

That's tomorrow. Tonight?

Tonight is movie blog post.

Last time, I focused on a performer (Michelle Pfeiffer -- an amazing actress). Tonight, I'm going to focus on one movie.

Broadway Danny Rose.

That's a Woody Allen film and I probably need to do some Woody Allen background.

With Diane Keaton, Woody made three masterpieces: Sleeper, Love & Death and Annie Hall. Those are comic gems and can be watched over and over. They are superior to his work prior. (Play It Again Sam starred both of them but was based on a Neil Simon play, so I'm not counting it.)

Now the first two have some serious themes in them but they are always a breeze to sit through. With Annie Hall, Woody added some bittersweet qualities.

Then he decided to work on bringing the audience down. Interiors. Manhattan had some comic moments but it is also a film that's in search of a point of view. I can watch it about once a year and no more. (I could put on Sleeper or Love & Death on any given day, time permitting.)

People started making the valid complaint that he wasn't making his funny movies. (Which he hates to hear.) He made Stardust Memories which really plays out like an attack on his fans. (It also plays out like Jerry Lewis attempting to do drama.) By that point he wasn't working with Diane Keaton.

He would make an awful 'romp' next, his first film with Mia Farrow and Mia's probably the only thing worth watching in that film.

It's a bad film and really seems to exist to punish the audience. "You want funny?" he seems to ask. "Well here's some juvenile crap to laugh at."

Then comes Zelig which honestly is funny and among his great films. But Broadway Danny Rose is my favorite of his films with Mia.

The story is that an agent (Woody) named Danny Rose is trying to bring back a crooner's career. The man's cheating on his wife and he needs Danny to be the beard for him and Tina (Mia).

Danny has to play the beard and escort her to the big opening. That requires a lot of work because Tina's had it with Lou's "two-timing ways." She's not a sweet innocent and her last husband was "a juice man for the mob." He got juice for the mob? No, he ran a numbers racket until they shot him in the eyes. "He's blind?" asks Danny. "Dead," Tina corrects him because, as Danny notes, "The bullets go right through."

A mobster is in love with Tina and thinks if he rubs out Danny, Tina will be his. So they're trying to escape the mob and make the big opening. It's a very funny movie.

Throughout the bulk of the movie, Tina's eyes aren't seen. She's wearing sunglasses. After she betrays Danny (she's talked Lou into firing him and getting a new agent, Syd), she's in the bathroom and she's not wearing the sun glasses. It's one of the few times in the film you see her eyes and it's very effective.

But what's so amazing is how effective Mia is throughout the film. Not only can she not depend on using her eyes to convey emotions, she's also wearing a wig and padding. She immerses herself in the character of Tina who is completely unlike any character that Woody's ever been teamed with onscreen (then or since).

The Mia period contains many strong movies (Hannah & Her Sisters, Crimes & Misdameanors, Zelig, his segment of New York Stories . . .) but I really think Broadway Danny Rose is the best. It's a black & white film and that may turn some people off.

But Woody's actually funny in it and, a lot of times, he's not. He's pretty much always the same character and often recycles lines. He recyles them here as well but the rushed pace (they're on the run) allows him to really peel off one-liners quickly. There's also the fact that Tina's not that crazy about him at the beginning. Now Luna (Sleeper) isn't either. But Tina's shows open contempt towards him which just makes him more nervous and adds zip to the one liners. She tells him he lives in a dump and that he's living like a loser.

It is really Mia's movie. She creates a charcter so different from anything she's ever played. It really takes the film to a new level and also makes the relationship that develops between Danny and Tina mean a great deal more.

If you're in search of a film that moves quickly and will have you laughing, I suggest you make a point to see Broadway Danny Rose. If you've already seen it, you can enjoy it again. (It's one of a handful of films I can watch over and over.) If you haven't and you enjoy a well made comedy, you'll be surprised by just how strong it is. If you've ever made the mistake of doubting just what a strong actress Mia Farrow is, it will quickly correct your misguided judgment.

"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Wednesday, August 13, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, Miss Iraq calls out the sex trade, Jeremy Hinzman is told he's leaving, the US military announces another death leading August's death toll so far to surpass July's, and more.

Starting with war resistance. CNN notes US war resister Jeremy Hinzman has been told to leave Canada. Jeremy Hinzman, his wife Nga Nguyen and their son Liam went to Canada in January 2004. He became the first Iraq War resister to publicly go to Canada. He and Brandon Hughey were the first war resisters to attempt to be granted safe harbor in Canada. The Immigration and Refugee 'board' (it's one person deciding) declined to grant status. Both then began appealing to the courts. In May of 2007, the Federal Court of Appeals sided with the board and the Federal court. In November 2007, Canada's Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal. June 3rd Canada's House of Commons voted (non-binding motion) in favor of Canada being a safe harbor for war resisters. Despite that vote, Judge Anne Mactavish saw fit to extradite Robin Long in July and to call it 'deportation.' In Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq, Peter Laufer writes:

Yet the arrival of Iraq War soldiers seeking refuge in Canada didn't sit well with officials. Army Specialist Jeremy Hinzman's case was the first to be adjudicated, after he became the first U.S. war resister ever to apply for refugee status in Canada. The Immigriation and Refugee Board denied his claim; appeals may drag on for years. While his case is pending, Canada allows him to stay in the country and provides him with a temporary work permit. The ruling from the Refugee Protection Division of CIC insists Hinzman failed to mmake a case that the Iraq War was illegal: "He has not shown that the U.S. has either as a matter of deliberate policy or official indiffernce, required or allowed its combatants to engage in widespread actions in violation of humanitarian law."
A veteran of the U.S. action in Afghanistan, Hinzman took his wife and baby to Canada when he received orders at Fort Bragg for a tour of duty in Iraq. "No matter how much I wanted to, I could not convince myself that killing someone was right," he said once he surfaced in Toronto. Hinzman had applied to be discharged as a conscientious objector, requested noncombat duties, and spent much of his time in Afghanistan performing kitchen chores. His CO application was rejected after a hearing in Afghanistan. Back in the States, when his orders for Iraq came, Hinzman felt he had only two choices: disobey tem and risk prison, or flee the country.
Prison was not an option. "I have already missed a large chunk of my young son's life and I was willing to sacrifice any more lost time with him, especially during his formative years," he said. Canada looked like a good bet, given its policies toward deserters during the Vietnam War. Hinzman expressed no regrets about his decision and is convince the Iraq War is illegal. "I object to the Iraqi war," he announced, "because it is an act of aggression with no defensive basis. It has been supported by pretenses that cannot withstand even elementary scrutiny. First, before the U.S. dropped the first bomb, it was quite evident that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. Second, the Bush administration had the gall to exploit the American public's fear of terrorists by making the absurd assertion that a secular Batthist government was working with a fundamentalist terrorist group. There was nevery any intelligence to substantiate this. Third, the notion that the U.S. wants to export democracy to Iraq is laughable. Democracy is by the people, not an appointed puppet theater."

Peter Laufer's book was published in 2006 and you might think the shelves have filled up in the time since but you'd be wrong. A few war resisters have movingly told their stories in book form and you have Aimee Allison and David Solnit's wonderful Army Of None but that's really about all. Jeremy became a news topic in May 2004. May 26, 2004 was when CBS News noted, "A U.S. soldier who deserted his Iraq-bound regiment and sought asylum in Canada said the U.S. war in Iraq was illegal and he accused the United States of committing war crimes. Pfc. Jeremy Hinzman, 25, is believed to be the first U.S. soldier to apply for refugee status in Canada after refusing combat duty in Iraq." In December of 2004, Jeremy told Scott Pelley (60 Minutes II, CBS), "I was told in basic training that, if I'm given an illegal or immoral order, it is my duty to disobey it." As to the myth of 'freedom' being fought for in Iraq, Hinzman declared, "Whether a country lives under freedom or tyranny or whatever else, that's the collective responsibility of the people of that country."

The day started with Michael Futch (Fayetteville Observer) reporting that a decision was expected in Jeremy's status and that Fayetteville Quaker House director Chuck Fager was at work make signs for a planned demonstration supporting Hinzman -- "Shame, Canada, shame!" if the news was bad or "Thanks Canada! Jeremy Hinzman: Soldier of Conscience" if the news was good. Futch quotes Fager this afternoon explaining, "This is a very disappointing decision. It puts Canada more fully in complicity with an illegal and immoral war. Jeremy will probably end up back here at Fort Bragg. That's usually what happens." Futch also notes Hinzman and Nga added a daughter to their family in July, "Megan, who has Canadian citizenship."

The War Resisters Support Campaign issued this statement today:

U.S. Iraq war resister Jeremy Hinzman was told today that his family's application to stay in Canada has been rejected. Hinzman was told that he does not qualify under Canada's Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) program following a review by a Citizenship and Immigration department officer.
Jeremy, his wife Nga Nguyen and their son Liam were the first Iraq War resisters to come to Canada to seek sanctuary. On July 21, their second child was born in Toronto. If deported, they would be the first family sent to the U.S. to face punishment.
On July 15, the Canadian government deported U.S. war resister Robin Long who is currently awaiting court martial at Fort Carson, Colorado.
Hinzman served a tour in Afghanistan in a non-combat role after applying for conscientious objector status. When his unit, the 82 Airborne Division, was to be deployed to Iraq Hinzman and his family decided to come to Canada.
"I applied for Conscientious Objector Status in the U.S. Army because I realized that I cannot kill a fellow humna being. But my application was denied. I knew that in Iraq I would be ordered to take part in combat operations, or other actions that are against my principles," said Hinzman. "Nga and I knew Canada had welcomed many Americans like us during the Vietnam War, and we knew Canada had refused to join the invasion of Iraq."
"Sending Jeremy and his family back to the U.S., where he would face harsh punishment, would be cruel," said Lee Zaslofsky, coordinator of the War Resisters Support Campaign. "It would fly in the face of the motion adopted by the House of Commons on June 3, which called on the Harper government to stop all deportation proceedings against these conscientious objectors."
Recent Federal Court of Canada decisions in the case of U.S. war resisters Joshua Key and Corey Glass have indicated that the refugee process which failed to grant protection to the Hinzman family may have been seriously flawed.
The War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on the federal government and the Hon. Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, to intervene to prevent the Hinzman family from being sent to the U.S. to be punished.

Nick Kyonka (Toronto Star) reports, "Jeremy Hinzman, 29, had filed for a pre-removal risk assessment and permanent residency on humanitarian and compassionate grounds with Citizenship and Immigration Canada in January after several prior failed attempts to gain refugee status. Today he was told that both of those applications had been rejected and he must leave the country by Sept. 23." Kyonka quotes Jeremy stating, "Obviously we're disappointed but life goes on and we'll make the most of it wherever we end up." AP quotes him stating, "I'm disappointed but I think that every soldier that has refused to fight in Iraq has done a good thing and I'm not ashamed." Meagan Fitzpatrick (Canwest News Service) adds that War Resisters Support Campaign's Michelle "Robidoux said Hinzman, who lives in Toronto with his wife and two children, plans to take a close look at the decisions before deciding how to proceed." The Canadian Press notes: "Federal NDP Citizenship and Immigration Critic Olivia Chow, who put foward the June [3rd Parliament] motion, called the decision [to expell Jeremy] 'mean spirited.' She called on Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley to hald the deporation of Hinzman and other resisters immediately."


Jeremy Hinzman and other war resisters in Canada need support and to pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail 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. Long expulsion does not change the need for action and the War Resisters Support Campaign explains: "The War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada to urgently continue to put pressure on the minority conservative government to immediately cease deportation proceedings against other US war resisters and to respect the will of Canadians and their elected representatives by implementing the motion adopted by Parliament on June 3rd. Please see the take action page for what you can do."

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Yovany Rivero, William Shearer, Michael Thurman, Andrei Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).

Crispin Thorold (BBC News) notes King Abdullah II of Jordan's brief ("symoblic") visit to Iraq on Monday and notes an estimated 750,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan and that "these refugees have an uncertain status. They are referred to as guests, not refugees and year-long residency permits are hard to obtain. The vast majority were granted short stays in the country, which since 2005 have become virtually impossible to renew. Without official paperwork the refugees are not allowed to work." Meanwhile Suki Falconberg (Women's Space) reports on Iraqi female refugees in Syrica "are being sold for sex. There is a large sex trade in young Iraqi girls in the nighclubs of Damascus. Fourteen-and fifteen-year-olds -- literally girls -- not even women yet, and even children, are being sold" and quotes Myra Adel, Miss Iraq, explaining why her pagaent days are done, "They have been great to me but I will no longer be involved with the Pageant, due to the fact that I really couldn't take it when I saw all those refugees in Syria being mistreated . . . seing these people suffer made me ashamed. . . . I don't deserve to live in a classy apartment while other women are selling themselves. . . . What kind of sick demented human being would want to have sex with a 10-year-old?" Falconberg notes:

She says that the "annual government budget in Iraq exceeds 70 billion US dollars. Where is that money going? Power cuts are long, people get electricity for only an hour or two a day...water is cut off as well." She would like to see some of the money going to fund the Iraqi women and girls in Syria who are so desperate they must sell themselves to survive. Ms. Adel brings up a great question--to repeat it--where is the money in Iraq going? Is US and Iraqi corruption, combined, so overwhelming that a few are getting enormously rich and the majority of Iraqis are suffering terrible hardships, and in the case of the subject of this article, the women in prostitution, those hardships mean bodies and lives that will be nightmares forever from this degradation.

Where does the money go? Why is the puppet allowed to sit on so much money? He can spend it on weapons (and does). Today Ernesto Londono (Washington Post) covers the efforts to build Iraq's air force and notes, "U.S. lawmakers appropriated $8.5 billion to train and equip Iraq's security forces in 2007 and 2008. Of that sum, roughly $457 million went to the Iraqi air force." So the US is tossing out more money to prop up the brutal puppet regime they installed. And who is helping the Iraqi peole?

Myra Adel places blame at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees as well. Meanwhile Bernd Debusmann (Reuters) reports that the tiny US target of accepting 12,000 Iraqi refugees for 2008 will be met by September 30 (end of fiscal year) but "[t]he bad news is that 12,000 people represent a tiny fraction of the vast exodus of Iraqis driven from their homes by the violence and ethnic cleansing unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion. Estimates of their number vary. The widely used figure of 5 million is about one in five. To get that into context: relative to the size of the population, it would equal the forced displacement of almost 60 million Americans." This comes as Zvi Bare'el (Haaretz) reports that Europe is no longer welcoming Iraqi refugees, "At the end of July, European countries decided to halt the processing of accepting new refugees and to postpone until September discussions about those who submitted their requests for refugee status. The decision does not stem only from concern over the growth in the number of Iraqis in Europe and an increase in the 'Muslim element' on the continent, but primarily against the backdrop of Iraqi Preime Minister Nuri al-Mliki's request to stop absorbing refugees. Al-Maliki explained to European heads of state and interior ministers he met with that the situation in Iraq has improved and Iraq needs its refugees in order to rebuild the state." What the puppet of the occupation, Nouri, really means is that the refugee crisis makes it so very hard to sell that "turned corner" nonsense and launch another wave of Operation Happy Talk. In November, he preyed on the helpless -- helpless due to his own actions and his own inactions -- and tried (with the help of the US government) to jump-start The Myth of the Great Return. Those refugees were not thrilled and eager to return to Iraq. They had run out of money, they were bussed in and, upon arriving in Baghdad, a number immediately were confronted with physical threats. Using the same techniques as then, this week 250 Iraqis returned. al-Maliki begged and whined to the Egyptian government that these pesky refugees were just making him look so very, very bad. Couldn't they do Nouri a solid? Help a puppet out? The refugees were near broke and that combined with pressure from the Egyptian government created the 'returnees'. Possibly due to the strong work of Damien Cave and Cara Buckley (New York Times) when the Myth of the Great Return was still going on previously, the press was far less eager to hop on boogie board and ride the latest wave of Operation Happy Talk. Equally true is that NGOs continue to state that Iraq is not a safe region for refugees to return to.

Near Kirkuk today there's been an assassination attempt. Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "The district commissioner of al Multaqa district abdul Kareem Ali Nasif and three of his guards were wounded by a suicide car bomb that targeted the convoy of Nasif while he was going to his office district in al Multaqa district west of Kirkuk early morning." This continues a long line of attacks on officials. It also continues a long line of attacks on US collaborators. Aws Qusay (Reuters) reports that "Abdul Karim al-Jubouri . . . also leads pro-U.S. security vonteer forces in the area, was wounded along with three bodyguards." Most recently, yesterday, Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reported a Baghdad roadside bombing that wounded three, a Diyala Province assassination attempt on the Governor via a bomber who took his/her own life apparently as well the lives of 3 civilians (seven people were left wounded). Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) reports that Monday's bomber was "a man dressed as a woman" and she quotes Raad Tamimi (the governor) explaining that, "He tried to head towards us but we were careful, because suicidal attackers are common in Diyala."

Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .

Bombings?

Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing claimed 1 life, a Nineveh car bombing claimed 2 lives (seven people wounded), a Mosul bombing left two people wounded, another Mosul bombing ("suicide bomb") claimed the life of the bomber and the lives of 2 Iraqi service members (sixteen people were wounded), a Diyala Province roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 woman and left two more wounded, and another Diyala Province bombing claimed the lives of 2 Iraqi police officers ("national police").

Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports one police officer was wounded in a Baghdad shooting,

Corpses?

Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 2 corpses discovered in Baghdad

Today the US military announced: "A Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed when the vehicle they were riding in was struck by an improvised-explosive device in northwest Baghdad at approximately 10:10 a.m. Aug. 13." With that announced death, the month of August (not even half over) has already passed the month of July for most US fatalities. The monthly toll thus far is 14 with 4141 the number killed since the start of the illegal war.

Non Iraq related but also on the topic of immigration and refugees and the way governments mistreat those most in need of help. Independent journalist David Bacon reports. "Maria Rosala Mejia Mqarroquin and Anacleta Tajtaj, Guatemalan immigrants, were arrested in an immigration raid at the agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville on May 12. The raid was the largest workplace raid in a single worksite in recent history. Both were released to care of their children, but now have to wear ankle bracelets to monitor their movments. They and 46 other women cannot work or travel, and have been waiting for weeks for a hearing which would result in their deporation. Most have husbands or brothers now in Federal prison, forced to plead guilty to misusing a Social Security number, as a result of the raid." David Bacon's latest book comes out next month, Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon Press).

Turning to the US presidential election, Maureen Hoch (PBS' NewsHour) gets credit for attempting to be inclusive: "Both the DNC and the RNC will have to contend with counter rallies during their conventions. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader is planning events in both Denver and St. Paul. Ron Paul supporters are organizing a mini-convention in St. Paul to coincide with the second day of McCain's GOP event." A nice attempt at being inclusive but, to be clear, Cynthia McKinney is the Green Party's presidential candidate. Ralph Nader is running as an independent (and Bob Barr is the Libertarian Party candidate). As Hoch notes, Nader is holding super rallies. Along with super rallies, there is also the issue of the debates. As he notes in an audio campaign message:

This is Ralph Nader. The only time when tens of millions of Americans tune in for a couple of hours and pay attention to politics is during the prime time presidential debates. For our democracy to survive, prevail and thrive, we must have an open debate about the challenges we face and the solutions that we must apply. We really don't need two-candidate debates that sound like canned interviews. We don't need debaters prepped to look like a couple of game show contestants. We don't need show business, we need serious debate. A 2000 Zogby poll showed that nearly 52% of the people wanted other candidates in the debates. In 2004, another Zogby poll showed 57% of likely voters wanted the debates opened up. A July 2008 poll by Zogby found that 44% of the public agreed that the American system is broken and cannot be repaired by the traditional two party politics and election. Another poll had 61% of the people saying both parties are failing. It's time to open up the debates to third party candidates. I'm running for president because our democracy has been the target of an accelerating hostile corporate takeover. Control of our government by large corporations results in huge corporate welfare payouts, mega-fraud by military contractors, a pay or die system of health insurance, continued man-made global climate change and a collapsing financial system being propped up by the day on the backs of the American taxpayer with no restrictions, guarantees or return on investment. This and much more has happened with the craven complicity of both major political parties and politicians in Washington. Friends, as things stand, the three debates run by the two parties through the private Commission on Presidential Debates, a corporation, will exclude critical discussion of the control of our democracy by large corporations We need honest talk in this campaign. It's time to respect the will of the American people, to expand their access to arguments and facts that address issues central to their daily lives. It's time for the American people to take control of the political system. We can begin by opening up the presidential debates. I'm Ralph Nader.

Ralph Nader was on NPR's Talk of the Nation today (audio available shortly). With more on the super rallies, Team Nader notes:

Are you ready to rumble?
If yes, make a contribution now to help fund our protest rallies in Denver (August 27) and Minneapolis (September 4).
Thousands of Americans will be in Denver and Minneapolis to protest the pro-war corporate controlled Democrats and Republicans.
Nader/Gonzalez has rented arenas in both cities to rally Americans opposed to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and corporate control over all aspects of our lives.
And to lay down one simple demand - open the Presidential debates.
As Ralph put it the other day, if we are allowed into the debates - and reach tens of millions of Americans with our message - it will be a three-way race.
Thanks to your help, we are on track to be on 45 states ballots by September 20 (Currently, we are on 31.)
If we get into the debates, our six percent in the polls will jump to 15 percent or more.
And the American people will sense a three-way race.
Then everything is possible.
But first, we have to pay for our up front costs in Denver and Minneapolis.
And we need to raise $50,000 before August 20.
To pay for sound, lights, office, arena, phone lines, staff, lodging, 100,000 handbills.
We've taken some of our best road-trippers and flown them into Denver to promote the rally. We have also opened an office in downtown Denver. (See today's Denver Post article here.)
Our staff is lining everything up to make them memorable rallies.
But we've got bills to pay now.
So, drop $10, $20, $50, $100 or whatever you can -- give to your heart's content -- but not more than the legal limit of $4,600.
Then watch your name go up in lights on our new super rallies widget.
And see us move toward our goal of $50,000.
Let's crank it up.
And get it done.
Thank you in advance.
See you in Denver and Minneapolis.
Onward to November


iraqjeremy hinzmanmichael futchbrandon hughey
peter laufer
aimee allisondavid solnit
the los angeles timestina susman
mcclatchy newspaperssahar issa
laith hammoudi
the washington posternesto londono
david bacon
talk of the nationnpr

Reply to Heather McRobie and others

Let me hand out whatever's left for those late to the party.

Maria is a Common Ills community member. About twice a month, she used to do a post at The Common Ills and would always end it with "paz" (peace). She (and Francisco and Miguel) now do the community newsletter El Spirito. When I started this blog, I named it "Like Maria Said Paz" in honor of Maria and her strong committment to peace.

This blog is nothing but a journal. I don't go back and fix typos. When C.I. shuts down The Common Ills, I am shutting this site down. I did not plan to do a blog. I never wanted to. Rebecca went on vacation in 2005 (the summer) and she figured she could trap me into blogging by having me fill in for her. I guest posted. As that drew to an end, Mike launched a campaign to get community members to ask me to blog.

Prior to this site, I did a piece about once a month in the gina & krista round-robin and that's really about all that I can manage. But far be it from me to say "no" to the community. So I started this site.

It's nothing but a journal. There are a few things here that might be "okay" at best. But I don't re-read over my stuff anymore than I would read over my physical journals. It is a journal, nothing more.

I do not post on Thursdays. Thursday night I have the veterans session. It's the only session I do in the evenings. All other appointments are during the day. Thursday works best (the group has voted to try other times before and it doesn't work) because it is so close to the weekend (my opinion). So I don't blog on Thursdays.

These days, I'm blogging most days just to repost C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot."

I have no illusion that I'm doing anything wonderful or insightful here.

I hope that clears it up for all the big babies e-mailing. I beg everyone in the community not to highlight me at their sites. I do not seek links.

So if you're coming here, you're doing it on your own accord. Don't whine to me that you don't like something I said or that I've hurt your feelings.

The above applies to a number of whiners who have a higher opinion of their work than I do.

Now let's zoom in on one whiner.

Last week, I wrote "Heather McRobie reveals her stupidity." Guess who wrote?

Yeah, her. Heather McRobie.

Yes, Heather, you are a media whore.

You are one for the reasons I outlined in that post.

Sean Hannity (whom I have never watched and never will because I do not watch Fox "News") was offended by a pro-Obama song in which Nas referred to Hillary Clinton as a "bitch." Heather saw racism. From across the Atlantic, Heather saw racism.

The conservatives in this country have a long history of calling out language they find inappropriate (which would include "bitch"). Only a liar or a dunce wouldn't know that, wouldn't know about The Moral Majority (which most famously targeted Flamingo Road), wouldn't know that the conservatives continue to have TV 'watch dog' groups on the alert for any transgression. (In fact, Ava and C.I. noted that one such group called out Living With Fran for everything under the sun while deeming other shows with sexual humor -- and male leads -- okay.) Only a liar or a dunce wouldn't know that Robert Dole trashed films (such as Pulp Fiction) and (looked like a hypocrite for not calling out True Lies if that's really how he felt -- but Ahnuld starred in that).

I don't like Sean Hannity. I don't watch him. I wouldn't waste my time reading one of his 'books.' However, I'm not so consumed with rage and hate that if he calls out Nas for using "bitch" that I immediately scream, "RACISM!" I have no idea whether Sean Hannity is a racist or not. I do know he is part of a movement (right-wing) that regularly calls out language and sex scenes in entertainment (while ignoring violence, naturally).

Here's something else I know: Heather will not be voting in the US election. So why is she fueling anger and rage to try to elect Barack. (Answer: She's a media whore.) When she wrote her nonsense, Ron Jacobs had been in the news cycle with his revelations -- including that, before the illegal war started, British intel had told then Prime Minister Tony Blair that there were no WMDs in Iraq.

Blair would be British, like Heather. Blair would be her former leader. But Heather's boring us all with her uninformed rants as she tries to work up support for Barack by lying.

The Guardian of London did not expose the Downing St. Memos nor did they cover them. Kind of a big omission, Heather.

The Guardian is nothing but an apologist for New Labour. It likes to pretend it's "independent" but it is not. They did their slams on Noam Chomsky and many other things. They're not left. They're centrist. They're centrists who covered for Tony Blair and continue to do so.

A Media Whore is someone in England who writes an uninformed rant about a US election when their own country has revelations in the news that the Media Whore chooses to ignore because New Labour must never be called out.

Don't get me started on that piece of trash Guardian. I was at the same party C.I. was in 2003 where their 'reporter' felt the need to lecture everyone present that Joe Lieberman was the best choice for president. A very basic issue was raised, by an American Jew, of how, since 9-11, didn't a president have to be prepared to serve every day? What about the Sabbath?

The 'reporter' tried to cry bigotry. No, it wasn't. The American explained they were Jewish and noted that during the recount, when the Secret Service was worried about violence and begged Lieberman to get into a car, he insisted upon walking because it was the Sabbath. The question was restated, if the Secret Service wanted Lieberman whisked away immediately and it was the Sabbath, would Lieberman follow their recommendation or insist he couldn't use a vehicle?

It's not a minor question. It is a very real issue and Lieberman made it by disregarding the Secret Service's request that he ride in a vehicle to avoid the protesters during the recount.

Three years after that conversation, Lieberman would leave the Democratic Party. So much for the Guardian's 'judgment.' But what that conversation demonstrated (and everyone at the party was talking about it), was that the 'reporter' was too heavily invested in one candidate to cover the campaign. Which led to serious questions about why the British 'reporter' was so involved in the US elections to begin with?

Heather, I know all about your worthless paper. I know about it from former writers, I know about it from current columnists. If my opinion is so shocking to you, you obviously live a very sheltered life.

Heather e-mailed last week. I rarely read my e-mails. My assistant Sunny does. She saw Heather's e-mail on Monday but couldn't figure out who Heather was? When she asked me, I replied, "Who?" That's how little Heather matters in my life. Had C.I. not called in the middle of a morning session this morning and spoken to Sunny, I still wouldn't know. Your 'name' -- like your writing -- doesn't register with me. But Sunny mentioned the e-mail to C.I. who knows all the bylines -- even the tiny ones. C.I. explained to her who you were and Sunny passed it on to me this afternoon.

I don't do private e-mails. In the beginning, my exception was if they were people fighting for peace. But (a) I don't have time for it and (b) I'm not in the mood. If Sunny sees an e-mail she wants to reply to, she will. (It is not in Sunny's job duties to read or reply to my e-mails. She does it because she enjoys reading them.)

This is a journal. It is not one I promote. It is not one I ask anyone to promote. If you don't like my opinion, why are you here?

Maybe getting angry fuels you and allows you to make it through the day? If so, more power to you.

Otherwise, if you don't like what's here, don't read it. It's that simple.

As for "whore, really?" Yes, whore really. You stay silent on the crimes of your government and try to influence an American election with lies, you're a whore.

I noted in the post that media whores could be male or female. Sorry that comprehension is beyond your limited skills.

Prove me wrong, if you want, Heather. All you'd need to do would be to cover the now well exposed lies of Tony Blair. But you'll never do that because that's not what your paper is about. That makes you a whore and that makes you somone prolonging the illegal war. Boo-hoo elsewhere, Heather. People are dying in Iraq and liars and apologists like yourself are guilty.

So waste everyone's time with your uninformed pieces about American elections. Bore us all with your 'insight' from across the Atlantic. Go to bed every night knowing that you again refused to call out your own prime minister. Bully Boy didn't get England into the illegal war, Tony Blair did. But it's so much easier to gripe about America, right? Real courage would require calling out your own government and you don't have courage -- real or faux.

So, yes, Heather, "whore."

I mentioned C.I. of The Common Ills, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude and Mike of Mikey Likes It! in this. I will again encourage everyone to read Ava and C.I.'s "TV: The stench of 'public affairs' programming."

"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Tuesday, August 12, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, the refugee crisis continues (though we're supposed to forget), the US military announces another death, and more.

Starting with war resistance. Rich Droste is a US war resister in Canada. Law is Cool interviewed Droste for their podcast Friday.

Rich Droste: My name is Richard Drew Droste, the second. I'm age 22. I've lived in Canada since March 7th

Law is Cool: What brings you to Canada?

Rich Droste: It's a long, long. long journey and a long and winding and road that led me to Canada. I joined the army at the age of 17 for many reasons -- mostly to escape the lifestyle I was living, the promise of education, the pursuit of something more grand than what I was living. I was homeless at the time, living in my car for the previous two years, still trying to get my own education and just maintain a working lifestyle. They provided me with so many benefits of what I now know is half-truths obviously but didn't at the time. And at the age of 17, I was able to make that one decision to give my life for the country that I barely knew anything about but you're not old to make any other adult decision in the US at that age, right? So I joined as a combat engineer time at this time, believing that there was this huge terrorist threat on our nation, believing that America could not wrong type mentality, you know, I followed CNN and Fox 'News' pretty much for my whole life and, you know, if you don't look for an outside source you're not going to find it. And if you're happy in your bubble why burst it, right? So the further I get into the military I become more educated with what's really going on all across the world and not just in Iraq or just Afghanistan but also the human trafficking and prostitution rings around military institutions across the world. The fact that we're standing up for human rights and freedom to me and seeing these things happen in Korea while I was stationed there was my first big question against the military and I basically got told to shut and try not to fix anything that your pay grade can't handle, you know. They say they don't support it if you ask them and they'll be quoted saying they don't support it but during the day there's regulations and only US soldiers and citizens can go inside these clubs and these bars that contain all this human trafficking and prostitution. All of their money for those rings are coming from soldiers' pockets. It shows that there may not be verbal support but there's definitely financial support, right? And that was my first big problem. Around my second year in the military I became a Conscientious Objector the war in Iraq because of the illegalities, the unhumane activities that are happening there. The just unusual behavior -- the way we treat men, the way we treat women.

Law is Cool: What does it mean to be a Conscientious Objector for those of us who don't know?

Rich Droste: Within the military, there's a system so if you want to be a non-combatant, this is supposed to be a legal thing. You can file this Conscientious Objector packet which states that you are against the dualities of the war that the efforts working for and then you can work as a noncombatant inside the US military such as a cook, a medic, an X-ray technician, whatever it may be, there's numerous jobs and there supposed to supply you with that. Well around a year after I filled out that paperwork, it was mysteriously lost. And I was told this with a wink from the person I was asking. So it just goes to show they weren't trying to put that much effort into helping me with this Conscientious Objector packet. Around my third year, six month, which meant I only had about six months left on my original contract, I found out I was getting stop-lossed and sent to Iraq. By this time I had already stated I was an objector and I would have no part in this war, if anything I would like to end this war -- you know what I mean -- I'm not going to fight in it. And they said you go to this war, you go jail, your only other option is to re-enlist , signing on a new contract, and get a non-combatant job, right? So those are my options. I decide through friends and people that were looking out for me honestly that had no role over what happens to me they advised me to re-enlist for a different job and I did. I thought it was a smart thing to do. So I re-enlist to be a computer networker, well a systems operator analyst, it's all computer networking, IP configuration, connecting servers, routers and such.

Law is Cool: What was your reason for choosing that kind of a job?

Rich Droste: It was -- it was mostly just maintaining networks for the generals and superiors that are going over there anyway. Which I didn't know when I signed up for the job. The reason I signed up for the job was because I thought it was a communication job. So I could communicate.

Law is Cool: But you probably wouldn't be in the front lines with something like that?

Rich Droste: Absolutely. And by my understanding, I wouldn't be participating in any combatant side of the military. Well my last week of training, I'm about to graduate this new course, and I find out that I'm going to 4th RTB which stands for Ranger Training Battalion. So not only am I training combatants, I'm training elite combatants to go fight in this war and I told them I wouldn't have any part of it. So there I got to try to fill out another Conscientious Objector packet. It's denied because I don't meet the quote-unquote "criteria." I ask them what the criteria is, they can't give me an answer. Then I go to mental health and explain my reasoning behind all this. They try to put me on sleeping aids and anti-depressants saying I'll get over it, I just need rest, and to lighten up. And I was told to "suck it up and drive on." And that was their cure-all answer for that. And then I went to a chaplain which is a preacher, a priest, and he finds your religious denomination. At this time, I was still very much agnostic which is I believe in a higher power but I think there's too much out there for the human mind to comprehend really. And I'm talking to him and he tried to explain to me that God justified this war and wouldn't harm us or call us sinners for our wrong doings to the Iraqi people -- civilian and terrorist alike because humans are humans, regardless of their decisions, right? And uh, so that's what he tried to convince me. I talked to him numerous occasions and I couldn't get anything out of him or any help. After I went up and down the chain of command and tried to get this non-combatant job and after so much so much dedication I actually went AWOL four days after my original ETS date -- so I fulfilled my original contract and I came to Canada.

Law is Cool: Now why Canada? Why not Mexico?

Rich Droste: There we go, yeah. That's a great question and that's something I wish more potential resisters would know is when I was going through this I was looking for other instances where soldiers experienced similar grounds, same thing that happened to me, because I knew it was happening all across the military . So I looked up online. What better source, right? So I find there's all these soldiers and there's so many thousands living in the States and there was anywhere from 200 to 500 living in Canada. I found that there was about 50 that applied for refugee status in Canada. And the things that they were doing, the political aspects, the education . . . I didn't come here to hide. I came here very well knowing that I could be deported and sentenced in the United States for my 'wrong doing' and that's -- I'm fine with that. I accept that. I came here to educate the people. I came here to open people's views and even if they don't understand it, even if they disagree, at least they're not ignorant to the matter.


War resisters in Canada need support and to pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail 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. Long expulsion does not change the need for action and the War Resisters Support Campaign explains: "The War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada to urgently continue to put pressure on the minority conservative government to immediately cease deportation proceedings against other US war resisters and to respect the will of Canadians and their elected representatives by implementing the motion adopted by Parliament on June 3rd. Please see the take action page for what you can do."

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Yovany Rivero, William Shearer, Michael Thurman, Andrei Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).

King Abudllah II of Jordan made an unnannounced visit to Baghdad yesterday. Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) observes, "The visit is the latest in a eries of moves by Arab states that Iraqi and U.S. officials say could improve security and counter the influence of Shiite-led Iran, a player here in economic, diplomatic and security matters." Lelia Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "Iraq had planned to give the monarch a state welcome but instead the king arrived and left with no fanfare. The announcement of his visit came as he boarded a plane to leave Iraq." AP notes that "U.S. officials had been urging King Abdullah to visit Iraq to bolster ties between the two countries as part of Washington's campaign to shore up support for the Iraqi government as a counterweight to Iranian influence." Deutsche Welle points out, "Jordan hosts about 500,000 Iraqi refugees who have fled violence in their war-torn country, and Amman has estimated the costs of sheltering them so far at more than 1.3 billion euros ($2 billion)."

Dominique Soquel (WeNews) reports on the Iraqi refugees in Syria where "women [are] barely eking out a living from low-income jobs, international aid and sex work. Women such as Mohamed Ali, whose husbands are dead, missing or disabled, were hit hardest." Soquel provides the stories of a number of women such as "Sajida Baha Al Deen, . . . from Mansour, Baghdad, and has been in Damascus for 16 months. She turned to sex work to provide for herself and her two children. 'What matters is that I am still standing on my feet,' she said after a short storm of tears came and went. 'Something in your sould gets numb.' One year after her husband's death, Shiite militias sprayed her hairdressing salon with bullets and looted the remains. In September 2006, at 2 a.m., 12 masked men barged through her bedroom door threatening to end her life and that of her two Sunni-named Boys, Bakar, now age 9, and Omar, age 10, because her husband was an American collaborating traitor." The twelve men gang raped her, forced to sign over her home and car to one of them and finally departed her home. The Iraq War has resulted in an estimated 4 million refugees (internally and externally displaced). Yesterday it was time for a big press to-do over 250 Iraqi refugees 'returning' from Egypt. Reality was provided today by IRIN: "At the airport, some of the returnees said they were returning because their savings had run out; others said they had been ill-treated and had no rights in the host countries." Last Friday, Refugees International issued a statement which included:

Refugees and IDPs know from their contact with friends and family that it is not safe to go home. Violence is still widespread, and basic services such as access to healthcare, clean water or adequate shelter are unavailable in many parts of the country. As the situation in Iraq evolves, it is essential the US Government, the Government of Iraq and other countries in the region do not encourage returns to Iraq until conditions are met for a voluntary, safe and sustainable return process. A rushed premature return process would have disastrous consequences both for the displaced and for the stability of Iraq.

And what is anyone returning to? Earlier this week, Lara Logan (CBS Evening News) reported on the realities for autistic children in Iraq: No medical care providers. Logan notes, "Incredibly, the only doctor who did treat it, who founded a medical center in the name of his own autistic son, has fled the country. He left behind some social workers who try their best to help, but even they haven't been paid in four months." Rahna Abdul is the only parent for her son Alli and she has no doctors she can turn to and what happens to him if something happens to her?

Rahna Abdul: Who will take care of him if I die for example? Maybe I go in the street and there is a bomb in my way, and I'll die.

Lara Logan: Especially now?

Rahna Abdul: Especially in these situations, so who would take care of him? In his situation who would take care of him?"

Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .

Bombings?

Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing that wounded three, a Diyala Province assassination attempt on the Governor via a bomber who took his/her own life apparently as well the lives of 3 civilians (seven people were left wounded). The Governor was unscathed and, Reuters notes, a curfew is in place until tomorrow morning.

Shootings?

Reuters notes 6 family members were shot dead outside of Ramadi.

Corpses?

Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 corpse discovered in Baghdad.

Today, the US military announced: "A Multi-National Force - West Marine was killed when his unit was attacked by an enemy force in Anbar Province Aug. 10." The death was in Tirkrit and two more marines were wounded. That means 12 US service members have died in Iraq so far this month. (ICCC says eleven but hasn't noted this death yet.) Reuters notes 4,139 US service members have died in Iraq since the start of the illegal war (one more than ICCC's current count).

Turning to the US presidential race. To The Contrary's Bonnie Erbe (writing at US News & World Reports) notes that of the Democratic Party's proposed platform that people are saying "the Clinton camp is quite happy with the platform's including of language to the effect that Clinton placed 18 million 'cracks' in the glass ceiling (an allusion to her winning 18 million votes during the primaries)" and notes JustSayNoDeal's Diane Mantouvalos believes Barack still can't close the deal "because a large chunk of Clinton's 18 million supporters are upset that the Obama campaign has not been more gracious toward Senator Clinton and has done little to reach out to her former supporters." And possibly it also has something to do with what Erbe notes today, "More evidence of a candidate faux pas. 'O-Force One' as CBS' Allison O'Keefe describes Obama's campaign plane, contains a luxurious section for the candidate more reminiscent of an airborne corporate executive suite than a presidential candidate who has to appeal to working class American voters." It probably doesn't help that Barack's on yet another vacation -- his third since March -- and that has the Limp Noodle Women Haters ready to scream for Cokie Roberts' head. On ABC's This Week Sunday, Roberts noted (here for video) that Barack's still "tied in the polls" and yet he's on a "vacation in Hawaii" which "does not make any sense whatsoever." Limp Noodles think they're offering 'analysis' with non-pith such as "She knows Hawaii's a state!" They really are pathetic. Roberts is noting that candidates don't campaign in Hawaii. (And Barack's not campaigning there.) No presidential nominee of one of the two primaries has since Richard Nixon (in the run he lost to JFK). [Ralph Nader campaigned there last month.] That's not new and it's not news but the Limp Noodles work real hard to act like Cokie's said something crazy. Hawaii is seen as a Democratic state. It's not a place where the party thinks their presidential nominee needs to campaign (and Barack is not campaigning there). Residents in Hawaii feel differently (as they should). But Cokie's pointing out that, "He should be in Myrtle Beach and, you know, if he's going to take a vacation at this time. And I just think this is not the time to do that." Where is Myrtle Beach? South Carolina. Now why might Cokie make that statement? Hmmm. American Research Group's polling found Barack to have a 5% lead in South Carolina (plus/minus 4%) in June which is not a lead. In July? They found McCain to be at 47% to Barack's 45%. McCain had increased by 3% in their polling while Barack had dropped by 4% and undecided had increased by 1%. That's one of the better polls for Barack (of reputable pollsters, don't include the hack Zogby). Rasmussen Reports' June poll found McCain at 48% and Barack at 39% in South Carolina. Public Policy Polls survey last month found McCain at 45% and Barack at 39%. Now why might Cokie Roberts have said Barack -- if he was going to vacation -- would be better off in Myrtle Beach? You can dispute her conclusions, you just can't pretend you have no idea why she 'went there' unless you're really eager to show how uninformed you are. It really is amazing when you grasp how damn few women are even invited into the conversation in print or on TV but how, week after damn week, the little Limp Noodles manage to savage women. They do it over and over. King Limp Noodle probably exhausted himself today since he rips into Cokie, Maureen Dowd (as always) and Emily Bazelon. For those needing audio, Roberts also discussed the race on NPR. We've called out Cokie before here and will do so again. That's not the issue. The issue is the Limp Noodles who have to rip apart a woman in order to get it up. Buy Viagra, you dirty, old men. No man ever faces the same type of wrath from the Limp Noodles as does every woman. We've noted that before and they are again eager to play Bash the Bitch again. It's getting real damn old.

Nothing wrong with holding a woman accountable -- and 'tone' doesn't matter as long as it's applied in the same way (zeal) towards both men and women. Watch as we go after a woman right now. Her name is Holley Simmons and she graduated college in 2007 and is now, for all intents and purposes, NPR's acting ombudsperson. Shocking as that alone is, let's add that she has no journalism degree that, until being hired as an intern by NPR, had no journalism experience. Yet now she 'handles' listeners complaints in e-mails and at blog posts at the ombudsperson's website. Consider it fraud. Completely unqualified to get a job as a reporter, she now 'explains' NPR's journalistic decisions (as she sees them) to listeners. An English lit major with a sociology minor and no journalsim training. She 'explained' (justified) NPR's sorry record of covering candidates this year. NPR is failing and having some untrained idiot excuse their failures doesn't make it look any better. In her laughable blog post, she writes about being told that as the candidates make news, they will be covered. Barack's on vacation. His campaign got two stories on Morning Edition today (one on how he'd like to win Virginia -- I'm sure any presidential candidate would like to win Virginia -- I'm not sure how that ever qualifies as news?). Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader are being shut out of the coverage on what is supposed to be National Public Radio. (We'll get to Pacifica, hold on.) At Minnesota's MPR, Tom Scheck manages to post on a Ron Paul event and on Ralph Nader's September 4th super rally in Minneapolis. Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is planning super rallies. Foon Rhee (Boston Globe) notes the August 27th one in Denver and Nader's call for the opening of the debates. Sam Youngman (The Hill) also saw the super rallies as news. As did Jesse A. Hamilton (Hartford Courant). Ralph is scheduled to be a guest on NPR's Talk of the Nation tomorrow (which will broadcast live from the Newseum in DC). But Nader was in Canada last night and that's not news to NPR and the super rallies aren't news and . . . Go down the list. NPR decides what it wants to emphasize and calls it news. Barr, McKinney and Nader are being shut out. At a pretty much Democratic geared website, Jeralyn (TalkLeft) noted Ralph's trip to Canada and the comments included some surprisingly supportive remarks.

You should also check out Elaine later tonight. If she decides to respond to the ridiculous e-mail from a 'journalist,' it should make for interesting reading. But Queen Norman Approximately. Yeah, he was lying again. Yeah, it was embarrassing. For now, Ava and I will note, Norm was spraying the drapes today and he's never been housebroken, somebody get him to the vet already. We'll tackle that garbage Sunday. If you suffered through Queen Norman today and need some reality, check out Katiebird's post (The Confluence).

Ralph Nader: The only time when tens of millions of Americans tune in for a couple of hours and pay attention to politics is during the prime time presidential debates. For our democracy to survive, prevail and thrive, we must have an open debate about the challenges we face and the solutions that we must apply. We really don't need two-candidate debates that sound like canned interviews. We don't need debates prepped to look like a couple of game show contestants. We don't need show business, we need serious debate.

What's he talking about? Opening the debates. And you can hear him here. Team Nader notes:

We are launching a new feature on votenader.org.
It's a daily audio message from Ralph Nader.
Anyone who has traveled with Ralph marvels at his encyclopedic knowledge of the workings, failings, and potential of our democracy, from the marketplace to the workplace to liaisons between corporations and government to the courageous stands politicians used to take once in a while.
From now until Election Day, five days a week, we will feature new, short audio recordings from Ralph.
It starts with a message on opening the debates.
You can download the podcast, or listen at your computer.
Unlike the corporate candidates who stick to a narrow message until their handlers allow them to take a half-step, Ralph expresses himself freely on issues that affect you each day.
So, listen in.
It'll be like traveling the road with Ralph.
Tell your friends about it.
And look for future recordings from Matt Gonzalez as well.
Thanks for checking in.
Onward to November.

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bonnie erbe