Ralph Nader to speak on Monday August 11, on the trading floor of old Toronto Stock Exchange building.
Please circulate and post widely.
Event also features partial screening of the biographical documentary, An Unreasonable Man.
Now at over 5 percent in national polls, Nader is on his third run for President of the United States.
Find out why he runs and what's at stake for Canada this election.
Ralph Nader is the only major candidate for President of the United States standing up to implement Canadian-style universal healthcare, a Dion-style Carbon Tax, and ending the war in Iraq with a full 6-month withdrawal. Over ten million Americans say they will vote for him, and another 20 million say they would if they thought he had a chance of winning. He's on track to be on the ballot in 45 states, and has a shot at getting in the Google Presidential Debates to be held in New Orleans this September. Come see him this Monday August 11 at the Design Exchange in Downtown Toronto.
Event Program:
Screening of a portion of An Unreasonable Man, the acclaimed documentary on Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader Remarks on the US Presidential Election: What's at stake for Canada?
Q and A with Ralph Nader
Where: Design Exchange, 234 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario M5K 1B2.
Time: 7:00 to 9:30 pm
Ticket Price: Free, donations appreciated, RSVP to ensure seating.
To RSVP, email toronto@votenader.org or call Rashi Khilnani at 647 286 0396 for more details.
Please circulate and post widely.
If you care about democracy or candidates not in the GOP or Democratic Party, you will want to check out Third this Sunday. C.I. pulled a big editorial section out of the snapshot today because there wasn't room for it. C.I. passed it over to Third. I was reading over it tonight and I don't know that we need to change a word. We may need to expand it a bit. But I think C.I. said it all.
The media is refusing to cover the candidates. When someone in a position that allegedly involves ethical oversight doesn't grasp that it goes to how degraded our democracy has become.
It's really amazing when you consider the fluff the press passes off as news.
It's not like we're getting news. Nedra Pickler writing tonight about landing at an airport and a promise of 'shaved ice' is not news.
"Nader Calls For End Of War On Drugs, Urges Crack-Down On Corporate Crimes" (RTTNews):
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader Friday called for an end to the war on non-violent drug offenders in favor of a war on corporate crime.
Nader said that the "so called war on drugs" consumes far too many resources while clogging the courts.
"We pour almost endless resources - roughly $50 billion every year - into catching, trying and incarcerating people who primarily harm themselves," Nader said. "This insane war on drugs damages communities and drains crucial resources from the police, courts and prisons. These resources could be better used to combat serious street and corporate crime."
He added, "Nader/Gonzales would empty prisons of nonviolent drug offenders and fill them up with convicted corporate criminals."
Drug offenses are better addressed as health concerns rather than criminal matters, Nader said.
"As with alcoholics and nicotine addicts, the approach to drug addicts should be rehabilitation, not incarceration," he said. "We don't put nicotine addicts in jail. We don't put alcoholics in jail. They lead to far greater mortality and morbidity than drug addicts."
That's actual news.
I don't have much to write because I keep coming close to C.I.'s topic we're doing at Third.
That's really always been C.I.'s gift, to just put something into words so clearly and so basic. In classes, people would get lost in the details and C.I. would be called on and just take it back to where it belonged and what was at stake. When I got done reading it, I asked Kat, "Did C.I. talk about this?"
I meant had C.I. been speaking about the topic on the road because it really zoomed in and, many times, what appears at The Common Ills in terms of commentary is something C.I.'s been working on at various speaking events.
Kat said it wasn't. She said C.I. heard about the e-mail Martha had received, phoned a friend at NPR to ask what was going on and then dictated that section.
I'm tired. That's going to be it for tonight from me. Have a great weekend.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Friday, August 8, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, Moqtada al-Sadr floats an offer for disbanding, US presidential candidate Ralph Nader prepares to visit Canada, and more.
Starting with war resistance. Last month US war resister Robin Long was extradited from Canada. Courage to Resist notes that Robin is "being held in the El Paso County Jail, near Colorado Springs, Colorado, awaiting a military court martial for resisting the unjust and illegal war against and occupation of Iraq. Robin will be court martialed for desertion 'with intent to remain away permanently' -- Article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice -- in early September. The maximum allowable penalty for a guilty verdict on this charge is three years confinement, forfeiture of pay, and a dishonorably discharge from the Army. In order to expedite Robin's trial, it appears that his unit command, the Fourth Brigade Combat Team, Fourth Infantry Division is option to not charge Robin with speech-related violations of military discipline; opting to try and convict Robin as fast as possible."
They note the public support that Garrett Reppenhagan (IVAW) and others have shown in Colorado for Robin. A protest held at Fort Carson (see July 28th snapshot) was noted here last month and Lee Zaslofsky declared at the protest: "Robin Long did what he did because of his conscience and because he believed that the war was wrong, that he was simply running away or hiding out. . . . I think most Americans now realize that the war in Iraq is a complete mistake." James Branum is Robin's civilian attorney and he discussed Robin's case in this video (transcript of which is in the August 5th snapshot) noting, "So they had a hearing late at night. Robin was put into jail. And since that point, he has been held here in Colarado Springs in the Criminal Justice Center in El Paso County -- basically just a regular old county jail with all kinds of people, dangerous criminals many of them, and it's a difficult place to be. But Robin's in good spirits and we're now dealing with the consequences of his action in the military courts here."
Courage to Resist offers the followings to support Robin:
1. Donate to Robin's legal defense
Online: http://couragetoresist.org/robinlong
By mail: Make checks out to "Courage to Resist / IHC" and note "Robin Long" in the memo field. Mail to:
Courage to Resist 484 Lake Park Ave #41 Oakland CA 94610
Courage to Resist is committed to covering Robin's legal and related defense expenses. Thank you for helping make that possible.
Also: You are also welcome to contribute directly to Robin's legal expenses via his civilian lawyer James Branum. Visit girightslawyer.com, select "Pay Online via PayPal" (lower left), and in the comments field note "Robin Long". Note that this type of donation is not tax-deductible.
2. Send letters of support to Robin
Robin Long, CJC
2739 East Las Vegas
Colorado Springs, CO 80906
Robin's pre-trial confinement has been outsourced by Fort Carson military authorities to the local county jail.
Robin is allowed to receive hand-written or typed letters only. Do NOT include postage stamps, drawings, stickers, copied photos or print articles. Robin cannot receive packages of any type (with the book exception as described below).
3. Send Robin a money order for commissary items
Anything Robin gets (postage stamps, toothbrush, shirts, paper, snacks, supplements, etc.) must be ordered through the commissary. Each inmate has an account to which friends may make deposits. To do so, a money order in U.S. funds must be sent to the address above made out to "Robin Long, EPSO". The sender's name must be written on the money order.
4. Send Robin a book
Robin is allowed to receive books which are ordered online and sent directly to him at the county jail from Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. These two companies know the procedure to follow for delivering books for inmates.
War resisters in Canada also 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).
Anna Badkhen files from Iraq for Salon. This week she's been reporting on the realities of the "Awakening" Council (aka "Sons Of Iraq," aka "Turncoats For Coins"). On Tuesday, Badkhen reported on an Iraqi who discovered grenades in Baghdad but didn't feel he could say anything: "If I tell the Iraqi police or the Sons of Iraq they will tell the wrong people, and I will be killed. I don't trust them. If I tell the Americans, they'll tell no one how they found about the grenades." Wednesday she reported on the "Awakening" Council members quoting US Lt Justin Chabalko explaining, "When the SOIs [Sons of Iraq] stood up, we were basically hiring terrorists." Badkhen observes:
The Sons of Iraq was formed in 2007, when Sunni tribal leaders, tired of violence and disillusioned with Islamic fundamentalists such as al-Qaida in Iraq, encouraged tribal members -- including some former militia members -- to guard Sunni and mixed neighborhoods against takeover by sectarian gangs. The Americans touted the creation of the Sons of Iraq as a major diplomatic success and agreed to finance the organization, paying each member a monthly salary of $300, despite the protests from the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government, which never liked the idea of legitimizing the Sunni-dominated fighting force.
The force helped quell the Sunni insurgency in Baghdad and in Iraq's tribal heartlands, such as the restive Anbar province. But what a year ago looked like a brilliant solution to sectarian violence is now looking like a time bomb. Many of the force's members once fought alongside al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgency organizations against American troops and the predominantly Shiite Iraqi security forces. And now, a joint U.S.-Iraqi government plan to disband the force could put up to 80,000 men out of work -- and leave them armed and disgruntled.
April 8th, as The Crocker and Petraeus Variety Hour performed before Congress, US Senator Barbara Boxer pointed to reports that Nouri al-Maliki wouldn't put "half of them" onto the Iraqi security forces out of concerns about their loyalty and Boxer pointed out the US was buying their loyalty at $182 million a year, $18 million a month and wondered "Why don't you ask the Iraqis to pay the entire costs of that program?" A question worth asking then and now. Yochi J. Dreazen (Wall St. Journal) reports today that, "The U.S. military was supposed to be out of the employment business by now. When it introduced the Sons of Iraq initiative last year, senior commanders expected the local security personnel to be hired gradually into the ranks of the Iraqi army and police. But Iraq's Shiite-dominated central government has balked at the idea of bringing so many young Sunni men -- including many onetime militants -- into the country's fledging security forces. Less than 20% of the roughly 103,000 Sons of Iraq had been given government jobs as of early June. That has left U.S. forces responsible for employing -- and paying -- the Iraqis." Sudarsan Raghavan and Ernesto Londono (Washington Post) report on the "Awakening" Councils today and notes the tensions escalating as people think of elections: "The National Front and other onetime insurgent groups will join a bitter struggle for power between established Sunni politicians of the Iraqi Islamic Party and upstart leaders of the Sahwa, or 'Awakening' council, a U.S.-backed tribal alliance whose popularity has grown following its success in combating the group al-Qaeda in Iraq. 'Entering the elections is to change the current reality in our area, the domination of the Sunni spectrum by the Iraqi Islamic party,' said Effan al-Issawi, the top Awakening commander in Falluja. 'They are unworthy of leading the Sunnis'." No, it doesn't sound like 'peace,' now does it? That's what you get when you put thugs on the payroll and that was the intent, as US Secretary of State Condi Rice made clear in an interview this week where she referred to "Sons of Iraq in Anbar" as part of Gen Petraues' "smart counterinsurgency strategy".
This week the Iraqi Parliament adjourned their special session with no agreement on provincial elections which most analysts believe make it impossible for the elections to be held in October and others state it is impossible to hold elections this year period. Yesterday, the US State Dept was asked for comment on the development. Acting Deputy Spokesperson Gonazlo R. Gallegos replied as follow: "I believe I have something. Okay. We continue to urge the Council of Representatives to seek a compromise that can be adopted promptly. We regret that the Iraqi Parliament adjourned yesterday without finishing its work on a local elections law. The parliamentarians have made great strides towards finishing the closing agreement on most of the more difficult issues. We recognize that the election law brought to the floor important questions regarding the status of Kirkuk. The status of Kirkuk is, indeed a sensitive issue that needs to be addressed in a serious fashion, but it is an issue that cannot be solved through the legislative mechanism of the eleciton law. The election law should not be held hostage to that problem." Gallegos was also asked by the treaties the White House is attempting to negotiate with the puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki -- popularly and wrongly called SOFA. "Updates on the SOFA," Gallegos stalled. "My understanding is that they're continuing. I don't have anything particular to say about the process right now. We haven't discussed those publicly before. I'm not going to here. As we said, we'll provide you with details when we get through with this." Asked for an estimate of when such an agreement might be reached, Gallegos replied, "I would not be prepared to provide a timeline for that." Actually, the White House provided a timeline -- they stated the negotiations would be completed July 31st. [Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) reports on rumors of a deal being reached.] Meanwhile Mark Kukis (Time magazine) explains, "Shi'ite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr stepped back into Iraq's political fray Friday with an offer that (if genuine) Washington would be hard-pressed to refuse: Set a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, and the Mahdi Army will begin to disband. 'The main reason for the armed resistance is the American miltiary presence,' said Sadr emissary Salah al-Ubaidi, who spoke to reporters in Najaf Friday. 'If the American military begins to withdrawal, there will be no need for these armed groups'." Ali al-Mashakheel and Nick Schifrin (ABC News) point out that al-Sadr's cease-fire/freeze "was one of the main reasons that violence in Iraq has dropped to the lowest levels in four years for both civilians and trooops."
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Tal Afar car bombing that claimed 18 lives and left twenty people wounded. Reuters notes the number wounded has already risen to twenty-five.
Turning to the United States presidential campaign. Ralph Nader visist Canada Monday:
Ralph Nader to speak on Monday August 11, on the trading floor of old Toronto Stock Exchange building.
Please circulate and post widely.
Event also features partial screening of the biographical documentary, An Unreasonable Man.
Now at over 5 percent in national polls, Nader is on his third run for President of the United States.
Find out why he runs and what's at stake for Canada this election.
Ralph Nader is the only major candidate for President of the United States standing up to implement Canadian-style universal healthcare, a Dion-style Carbon Tax, and ending the war in Iraq with a full 6-month withdrawal. Over ten million Americans say they will vote for him, and another 20 million say they would if they thought he had a chance of winning. He's on track to be on the ballot in 45 states, and has a shot at getting in the Google Presidential Debates to be held in New Orleans this September. Come see him this Monday August 11 at the Design Exchange in Downtown Toronto.
Event Program:
Screening of a portion of An Unreasonable Man, the acclaimed documentary on Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader Remarks on the US Presidential Election: What's at stake for Canada?
Q and A with Ralph Nader
Where: Design Exchange, 234 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario M5K 1B2.
Time: 7:00 to 9:30 pm
Ticket Price: Free, donations appreciated, RSVP to ensure seating.
To RSVP, email toronto@votenader.org or call Rashi Khilnani at 647 286 0396 for more details.
A huge section (regarding NPR) just got pulled because the snapshot's way too long. That will be carried over to Third for Sunday but the transition is now lost so just pretend that Nader, Bob Barr and Cynthia McKinney were just discussed. Adam Kokesh participated in last month's farce of an impeachment hearing and wrote about it at his site, "I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate Bob Barr would be testifying. He didn't disappoint. He made a great opening statement about 'Preserving Constitutional Liberty through Checks and Balances and the Separation of Powers,' but the best part of his testimony was in the second round before questioning. 'What we are facing now is a Constitutional clock, and it is countind own what remains of the Constitution of this great land. I might ask then to introduce for the record the disappearing Bill of Rights. This is the Bill of Rights that we as members of the Judiciary Committee know [he holds up a copy of the Bill of Rights] as adopted in 1791. [he flips it over to reveal a copy of the Bill of Rights that is largely redacted] This is what it is fast becoming.' You know it's a sad day when a former Congressman has to submit the Bill of Rights for the record in a Congressional hearing!" Kokesh shares many of his observations in the post and also includes Barr's written statement to the committee. The hearing was a farce. As Kokesh points out the Democrats "seemed to be really trying to make case for their won party's reelection. They failed. As petulant and petty as the Republicans were throughout the hearing, Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican, hit the nail on the head: 'It seems that we are hosting an anger management class. This hearing will not cause us to impeach the president; it will only serve to impeach Congress's credibility.' The Democrats have become a sorry excuse for an opposition party. I don't think any of the many potentially deserving members of the Bush Administration will ever be impeached for the same reason that we didn't have impeachment hearings today or even months ago. The Democrats are just as corrupt, and complicit. Spineless Democrats are Neocon Appeasers and the blood is on their hands too." He goes on to predict that voters will be driven to the Libertarian Party (Bob Barr is the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee). The entire post is worth reading in full. Adam Kokesh is, of course, an Iraq War veteran and the co-chair of IVAW. His remarks are him writing for himself. IVAW is a diverse and growing group committed to ending the illegal war but it does not require that members belong to one political party (or any). Nor do they confuse their organization with a get-out-the-vote movement; instead, they are bringing an end to the illegal war.
Matt Gonzalez is Ralph Nader's running mate. He and Ralph spoke at Sebastopol on Sunday and NPR didn't consider that 'news' apparently. A real broadcast journalist did. Which is why Bonnie Faulkner devoted the hour of her KPFA Wednesday show to providing the voices shut out by the media. Yesterday we noted some of Ralph's speech and we'll note some of Matt's speech today. Bonnie Faulkner hosts Guns and Butter, [Here for KPFA archive.] Matt is speaking of how he and Ralph recently held a campaign event in Austin, Texas.
Matt Gonzalez: It was vey interesting to see that the weekly newspaper sort of put an ad about our appearance and they wrote something like, "Maybe Ralph will apologize for the last eight years?" And, you know, I thought -- I thought it was amusing sort-of, but then I started getting angry about it and i thought to myself, "Well wait a second, who should be apologizing? Who's voted for this war? Who voted for the Patriot Act? Who supports all these appropriations? Who supports the FISA bill?" I mean at some point there has to be responsibility taken for these positions. And this idea that it all belongs at the feet of Ralph Nader is just so absurd that it's insulting to our intelligence. The war in Iraq is probably one of the ugliest things we've ever engaged in. Nancy Pelosi told us, 'Elect me the Speaker [of the House of Representatives] and I'll get you out of the war.' Well I want you to know when she was not the speaker we put $116 billion into the war. She became the Speaker January of 2007, that amount went up by $50 billion. $50 billion more. From $116 to $165. This year, it went up to $189 -- so another $20 billion on top of that. What's wrong with our country? What's wrong with our opposition party that they can -- with a straight face -- tell you that the problem with this country is that candidates who hold views different than the ones that they hold are somehow not allowed to engage in the democratic process and not allowed to get out there and try to get our ideas out? Ralph Nader and I are fighting to end the war in Iraq. We want single-payer health care. We want to reform the Taft-Hartley law that has really taken the strength out of labor -- that's essentially outlawed general strikes, jurisdictional strikes, secondary boycotts, all kinds of things the labor movement can't do anymore. Now when I think about what was the problem in 2000 I'm just awestruck that so little has been done to cure the problem that we have in this democracy. Two things happened. We let somebody get announced and declared the president of the United States who got less votes than one of the other candidates. And we let someone be declared the winner who didn't even have the majority of the vote. Now we're all intelligent people, we can figure out how we would fix this problem: We would mandate that the winner would have to get over 50% of the vote. That would be that. How complicated is that? How is it that all the brain power in the Democratic and Republican Parties can't figure that out? Well first off for the Democrats, let me say this: "You like to invoke the name Ralph Nader but you never invoke the name Ross Perot who won 19% of the vote and 'elected' Bill Clinton president in 1992 with 43% or less of the vote. Clinton got less percentage of the vote than our current president did in 2000. But you never hear about." So the first thing I want to say is the antiquated line, you know, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. There is a reason why these political parties don't want to change the system. It's not because they don't know how. It's that if they were to change the system, the political spectrum would widen. What's possible in this country would widen. And they would whether have arbitrary outcomes and be in power roughly half the time than to fix the problem and really change American democracy. So if they're not willing to change the problem then aren't we rewarding them when we attack Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez and all the other candidates out there that are trying to talk about the real issues? Now it's astounding to me that Barack Obama likes to say 'Well . . .' -- for his explanation why he can't do the things that need to be done and take the positions that he should take, he likes to say -- 'super heroes don't get elected in politics.' Well, you know, there are no super heroes in the Canadian legislature that passed health care for their citizens. The [US] legislatures that vote against the Patriot Act are not super heroes. They're human beings like we are who believe in due process and equal protection and want a citizenry that isn't at the whim of governmental invasion of privacy. That's -- that's -- it's fundamental. There's a whole group of people out there that are trying to make apologies for the Democratic nominee, saying, 'Well he's only moving to the right now that he's secured the nomination.' It's not true. It's not true. Barack Obama supported the Republican Class Action Reform Law. This was something that David Sirota wrote for The Nation -- and many of their columnists made fun of -- they said 'This is a big business bonaza.' John Kerry voted against it, Hillary Clinton voted against it. The Democratic nominee has always supported limiting pain and suffering damages and medical malpractice cases -- favoring the wealthy in effect, those with good jobs over those with poor ones. He's opposed getting any kind of royalties from the mining of public lands -- the hard rock minerals on public lands. He voted for the Energy Policy Act in 2005 -- a vote that [John] McCain even opposed in 2005 Mobil Exxon, as we all know, has record profits now of over $40 billion a year. In 2005 they had record profits of over $35 billion a year and one of the Chicago newspapers -- in response to Obama's vote for this thing -- pointed out that it was an odd time to be dishing out oil-welfare. You know? Because we were giving tax breaks and subsidies in greater amounts than we were investing money in alternative energy. This is a candidate that opposes gay marriage. He has come out in response to progressives saying 'What are you doing -- what are you talking about with this faith-based initiative stuff?' And you know what he does? He scoffs at progressives and says, 'You have not been listening to me.' Well listen, we are listening to you now. We have listened to you with your FISA vote, with your 'change' on off-shore drilling, with your condemnation of a Supreme Court opinion related to the death penalty and you don't deserve our vote. You're not going to get it. And if you give these candidates your vote, you're guaranteeing that the system stays in place. You're guaranteeing that they can just say one thing to you and change their mind afterwards. One of the most notorious recent things that Obama said that just is astounding relates NAFTA. First off, he's campaigning in the primary and he's saying to everybody, he says 'I don't think NAFTA has been good for Americans and I never have." Well it turns out that an AP writer goes back and look at his -- a guy named Calvin Woodward -- goes back and looks at his Senate campaign in 2004 and guess what? At the time Obama said the US should pursue more deals such as NAFTA and argued that his opponent's calls for tarrifs would spark a trade war. Okay? So now he's against NAFTA, okay? He's in a tight race with Hillary Clinton, he's against NAFTA now, maybe he's figured out that NAFTA has created a scenario where we have displaced millions of Mexican workers, caused the migration to the north because we're subsidizing corn, for instance, dumping it in Mexican markets and ruining their agricultural system. What would you do in that situation? So now he tells -- he's in a fight with Clinton over who's against NAFTA more. He wins the nomination in effect and he gets interviewed by a writer for Fortune magazine, June 18th, Nina Easton, Washington editor, asking him, 'What about NAFTA, you said you would invoke the six month clause to unilaterally get out of it?' He says, 'Well, you know, sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified." So he went from calling it devastating and a big mistake to it's just rhetoric. And that's what we're supposed to buy into? We're supposed to buy into political rhetoric because we're not allowed to have better candidates? We're not allowed to have candidates that are saying, "Come on, we can have a better country. We can change this around"? The Democrats . .. You know, if voting for complacency and capitulation and appeasement worked, I would advocate it. It's not working. It's just not working. And notice they tell us 'If we can just have this, we'll win. If we can just have this next thing, we'll change everything.' I love how these US Senators run around and say, "Well if I were president the home morgate crisis wouldn't have happened and the oil prices wouldn't be what they are." You've been in the United States Senate, what the hell have you been doing there? Why do we have to elect -- give you a promotion, when you're asleep on the job. Right? Now you counter that, you counter that with Ralph Nader's history of achieving legislative accomplishments as an outsider. How does his record match up against Senator McCain's and Senator Obama's? Right? I mean Freedom of Information Act, Clean Air, Clean Water, all the automotive work, all the consumer protection work. a lifetime of trying to wake up the American public to stand up and fight back and not to take this anymore. Right? Imagine what it is to go into a progressive town and have a progressive publication say "Maybe they'll apologize for the last eight years?" It's really gross. It's not the way to treat Americans participating in a democracy trying to tell people, 'Come on, let's try to fix this.' I want to just close by making reference to the historical examples I think are important to keep in mind. There were candidates in the past that people said, "Don't vote for them. You're throwing your vote away if you vote for them. You know people like Eugene Debbs who ran for president a number of times and, you know, he thought we should have the forty-hour work week, you know? He thought women should be allowed to vote. Imagine that? The radical concept that women were 'advanced enough' intellectually and 'mature enough' that they could vote. This was actually a discussion in our society and it was Eugene Debbs that was saying "Yes." And maybe he got 6% of the vote, the best he ever did was 6%. So if you had lived in that time and somebody had said, "Don't vote for Eugene Debbs, you're throwing your vote away" -- what would you have said to them? Now with this historical lens to look back. How do we break through things? And you go even further back, you go to the Liberty Party of the 1840s James Birney advocating abolition of slavery. He can get 1% of the vote. You're throwing your vote away if you vote for him apparently. Well I don't believe that and I hope that you don't. I think it takes a lot of courage to be someone like Ralph Nader who is being attacked for standing up in a democracy and trying to articulate views that the other candidates are essentially throwing away, rejecting, you know? And I think we are at that historical moment are we going to vote for what we believe in or are we just going to keep buying into rhetoric about "hope" and "change" that it's already been proven to us is false? Thank you.
Team Nader notes:
This is it.
Our accounting team has decided to cut off our primary season online donations this Monday.
This means no more matching funds from the federal government after this weekend.
If you've already contributed, but have yet to donate up to $250, then this is your last chance to bump it up to $250 and have it matched.
If you haven't donated at all this is your last chance to have your contribution -- up to $250 -- doubled.
If you give $50, the government will give us $50.
If you give $100, the government will give us $100.
If you give us $250, the government will give us $250.
But we are running out of time.
We need you to do two things now:
One -- forward this urgent matching funds call to action to everyone you know.
And two -- make your donations double by giving up to $250 right now.
Our green eye shade people tell us it's time to shift to the general campaign.
It's time for Ralph to mount his 50 state campaign. It's time to mount an effort to get Ralph in the debates.
And whatever our green eye shade people tell us to do, we do.
So, here we go.
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Saturday, August 09, 2008
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Michelle Pfeiffer
"Nader, still in the presidential ring, sees in Obama a decline in 'fortitude'" (David Cook, Christian Science Monitor):
The media came in for a dose of Nader’s ire. "The media is in a cultural rut," he said. "I am not talking about their private, incisive, skeptical conversations with one another. I am talking about the questions they don't ask, the questions they ask. Give me a bunch of 10-year-olds instead of the White House press corps, and the president would be far, far more upset and anxious."
Among Nader's prescriptions for media reform: "Don't be so cynical about small starts. If nature was like you, seeds would never have a chance to sprout."
Democrats have criticized Nader for diverting enough votes from Al Gore in Florida in 2000 to hand the presidential election to George W. Bush. It is a charge Nader rejects, calling the spoiler label "a contemptuous word of political bigotry."
With polls showing that Nader is not going to win the White House this year, why is he running his third national campaign and making his fifth effort at becoming president? The answer has to do with his definition of winning.
"I define winning in many ways that are acceptable to political scholars," Nader told reporters Wednesday. "One is you keep the agendas alive. There is a generation of Americans who couldn’t even argue the progressive income tax much less the estate tax, which has been renamed. So you keep the progressive agenda alive, you bring a lot of young people in, a lot of not-so-young people get a little morale boost."
He cited hope that what he says during the campaign "would pull or push the other two major candidates."
I would offer a tip to the Nader campaign that responding to questions should include, "We won't know who the winner is until the votes are counted." The answer above, if expanded in the same manner, is the exact reason that the press doesn't cover Nader. I know that because I know how much C.I. and Ava have been screaming at friends in the press to assign Nader stories to reporters. There's nothing wrong with the answer in and of itself but if it veers any more towards the territory of, "Okay, I can't win," the press will use it as their excuse not to cover the campaign.
I've heard Ava and C.I. make the argument with editors and producers. It goes like this, "It's August, the election is in November. You're deciding the election for the people based on who you are covering." (They actually add a huge dollop of guilt tripping on top of that.) Nader can win. Anyone can. But you need press coverage. Candidates need to be very careful in how they speak of winning to the press -- it is a hostile press and one looking for any reason not to cover you. Cynthia McKinney's defining 'victory' as 5% eliminated her from even spotty coverage. Bob Barr can easily steal all the third party coverage (the press likes him and finds his run fresh). So the Nader campaign should begin replying to those questions with assertions such as, "Are you trying to telling me that you can call the November election today? Is that how powerful you are? Or how knowing?"
An election is when the winner is decided. Until the votes are counted, no one 'knows' despite claims otherwise. If polls were what decided elections, then the predictions would mean we could call of the actual voting in November and save a great deal of money.
Ralph Nader has a real chance this year because there are a number of candidates and, in a crowded field, the eventual winner will most likely not reach 50% of the total votes. This is also an election where voters are tired of the status quo and Barack is very much the status quo. It could end up being a historic election if the Nader campaign is able to get the word out on Ralph.
The winner will be determined on election day and not before.
So what movie am I going to talk about from the eighties?
We're all blogging on an eighties movie.
I went back and forth on what film to pick and finally decided to go with an actress who was in the bulk of my possible choices: Michelle Pfeiffer.
In Dangerous Lisaons (one of my favorites of the decade), she is the heart of the film, the torment, and her loss has real weight. Dangerous Liasons was remade the following decade as a teen flick and it was a disaster. Michelle's character truly loses everything and all Reese Witherspoon loses in Cruel Intentions is her virginity. A bad lay really doesn't qualify as a tragedy. If you believe otherwise, try living a little more.
Michelle started off the decade in the misfire Grease 2. Singing about a guy who's a "cool rider" should have finished her career. But she was too talented.
Tequila Sunrise is a flawed film. The stars are really Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell whose charcters are so interested in one another that "the girl" really seems unneeded. But Michelle plays her and brings moments to the role (and film) that help it rise above a locker room game of who-has-the-bigger-one?
Married To The Mob was the first film I felt really belonged to Michelle for more than a few moments. In this one, her husband (Alec Baldwin) is in the mob and she wants out. After he's killed, she and her son move to NYC to start over but the mob doesn't want her to and the FBI wants to use her. Michelle is really amazing in this film and shows a strong flair for comedy. It's a Jonathan Demme film which means it is all over the map but that actually works for the film.
The Fabulous Baker Boys was supposed to be Jeff and Beau Bridges' film. While I think Beau achieves some real moments in the picture, the movie belongs to Michelle who plays Susie Diamond. The film plods along at the start and the only life comes from an auditioning montage. The two brothers play two brothers who play pianos in a night club act. They decide to get a 'girl singer' to try to keep business going. The singers auditioning are quite frightening (especially the one doing an operatic version of the Pointer Sisters' "So Excited"). The auditions are over. With a "God__ it!" and a "S**t!" Michelle makes her entrance off screen.
Already, with those two lines, she has your attention and she hasn't even been spotted by the camera yet. Susie's a complex role. She's a woman who turns tricks (call girl) and who wants money. She also can actually sing.
Is she worth it? That question fades as her entrance into the film really forces the conflict between the two brothers to the forefront. It's not just that without Pfeiffer the film doesn't work, it's also that she pulls the film up to a higher level. Instead of seeing some second-rate hack's attempt to rip off Sam Sheppard (or other American playwright), you've got a film you can watch. You'll be so thrilled with what she does that when you watch it a second time, you'll really notice how long it is before she comes onscreen.
During the same period, she made the ridiculous Witches of Eastwick. The source material (a bad book by John Updike) necessitated changes. The director wasn't up for them (he controlled all). So you've got a film with some delight that changes tone and veers all over the place before the third act. The performances of Michelle, Cher, Susan Sarandon and Jack Nicholson are the only reason to watch and, fortunately, they all do such a great job that you can actually enjoy the film. If you're watching it for the first time, you'll be disappointed by how little it adds up to in the end, however.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Wednesday August 6, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, a war resistance anniversary approaches, 6 US service members have died in Iraq since Saturday, the Iraqi provincial elections seem unlikely this year, the puppet al-Maliki sits on millions and spends very little, and more.
Starting with war resistance. In June 2006, Ehren Watada became the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. That decision followed much research on his part and the decision at the end of 2005 that he could not participate in an illegal war. For months prior to going public, Watada attempted to work with the US military which gave him every indication that they wanted to work with him on this issue. But no alternative was ever accepted. Instead he was repeatedly told that something would happen, some decision would be reached. His command was attempting to run out the clock because June 22, 2006 would be when he would deploy to Iraq and they thought if they strung him along he would have no choice but to deploy. Instead, Watada went public. Almost two years ago, his Article 32 hearing was held (August 17, 2006). The Article 32 hearing allowed Watada to call witnesses such as retired Army Col Ann Wright and former UN under-secretary Denis Halliday. Lt Col Mark Keith oversaw the Article 32 hearing. In February 2007, Judge Toilet (aka John Head) presided over the court-martial. Judge Toilet had his own idea of 'justice' which included refusing to allow Watada's defense to explain why he decided to refuse to deploy. He could admit (or not) that he refused to deploy, but Judge Toilet wouldn't allow his reasons to be explained to the military jury. Judge Toilet also refused to allow Watada's attorney to call various witnesses. It was 'justice' in name-only. Despite that, Watada's case was presented strongly. So strongly that, on the third day, when Watada was due to take the witness stand, Judge Toilet suddenly found fault with a stipulation that he himself had explained to the jury and that he himself had overseen. Judge Toilet 'suggested' the prosecution move for a mistrial and the prosecution did not immediately take the hint or grasp that Toilet was handing them a do-over. When they did grasp it, they made the motion and Judge Toilet ruled the court-martial a mistrial over defense objection. The Constitution prohibits double-jeopardy -- one of those pesky laws Judge Toilet never grasped. Toilet said the second court-martial would take place in March of 2007. It did not. It has not taken place. Last November US District Court Judge Benjamin Settle ruled that the Constitutional issue had to be resolved. It still hasn't been resolved.
In December 2006, Watada's service contract expired. The first court-martial took place despite that fact. All this time later, Watada remains in the service and reports for duty on base while he waits for the US military to figure out their next move. The military had their chance to court-martial him but when Judge Toilet realized Watada might walk, he threw the justice system out the window and declared a mistrial. As a result, the military really has no 'follow up' at this point. They need to release Watada from the army immediately. His service contract expired nearly two years ago and his Article 32 took place almost two years ago.
War resisters in Canada need support as well. 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).
In Iraq, there is still no movement on provincial elections. Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, " After weeks of late-night negotiations and under intense U.S. pressure, Iraqi lawmakers failed to pass a much-debated provincial elections law Wednesday before adjourning for the month. The failure to pass the law, which would govern elections in provinces across the country, may push the elections into next year. If elections don't happen by the end of this year, it could be July before the balloting could be carried out, U.N. spokesman Said Arikat said." UPI reports that, citing Kurdish MP Fouad Massoum, there is the possibility of "a special session of Parliament sometime during the recess, which ends Sept. 9," to again try to address the issue of elections. Gina Chon (Wall St. Journal) notes the "days of intense negotiations and heavy pressure from the U.S., the United Nations and Britain" and how Kirkuk continued to be a stalling issue. Most reports do. Leila Fadel offers another theory among Iraqis, that those currently holding office aren't willing to risk losing office if new elections are called. Walter Ibrahim (Reuters) gets a non-official US response, quoting someone at the US embassy in Iraq who refused to be named but did declare, "The United States regrets that the Iraqi parliament today adjourned without finishing its work on a local elections law."
On the other big news of Iraq today, a new report finds that Nouri al-Maliki, puppet of the occupation, is refusing to spend the many millions on reconstruction still. White House press secretary Dana Perino declared, "It's interesting -- what I find interesting about this report, as well, is when you're looking at these two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, seeing how vastly different Iraq is from Afghanistan in terms of the natural resources that they have. Afghanistan is a very poor country, one of the poorest in the world. Iraq will come back much faster, given that they had some semblance of infrastructure, as crumbling as it was, but something to work from. Afghanistan is being built from scratch. And so I thought that was something worth taking away." What's interesting is that someone tasked with speaking to the press on behalf of the White House appears to have only just realized the differences between Afghanistan and oil-rich Iraq. It does not speak well of Perino -- even as spin, it should produce laughter. Perino was speaking on board Air Force One as the Bully Boy traveled to Thailand and repeatedly referred reporters' questions to the US State Dept implying that she hadn't seen the latest report. Later, after Air Force One landed in Thailand, Bully Boy would hold a public event with Thailand's Prime Minister Samak but took no questions. Apparently, like Perino, he was unfamiliar with the report. Perino: "I saw the report -- I saw the reports about the report -- so I'd refer you back to the State Department, just to -- as they wake up this moring -- just to make sure that they've looked at it, because I don't know all the details." A rather shocking admission for someone tasked with being the public face of the White House. Plenty of egg on the face to go around because, in DC this afternoon, the State Dept's Gonzalo R. Gallegos (Acting Deputy Spokesperson) held the daily press briefing and was asked about Iraq . . . never. Not once. Macedonia, Mexico and many other topics. Gallegos didn't arrive with a prepared statement and tossed immediately to questions. Not one reporter asked about Iraq. How very sad and very telling.
If you're feeling a sense of deja vu, you may be thinking back to last Wednesday when the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstuction issued a report. Stuart Bowen Jr. issued a note to the report [PDF format warning] explaining, "The United States has now appropriated more than $50 billion in taxpayer dollars for Iraq's reconstruction." The report notes its basis is "seven new audit products" between May 1st and June 30th of this year. You may be thinking of the silence that greeted that report as the press focused instead on the gossip and whispers that the White House was putting out declaring Bully Boy would speak Thursday morning and deliver a 'major' statement on Iraq that everyone just knew was going to be about the treaty between the White House and the puppet. The treaty, the White House had promised, would be wrapped up by July 31st. Bully Boy gave his statement, no word about a treaty. The dealine passed. And the government report on reconstruction was lost and forgotten.
For some context on the latest report, let's drop back to April when Gen David Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker did their song and dance before the US Congress. From the April 8th snapshot, where US Senator Barbara Boxer is questioning Crocker:
She wanted to know about the training, all the training, that had gone on and then on again. "We've done a lot for the Iraqis just in terms of the numbers themselves," Boxer declared. "I'll tell you what concerns me and most of my constituents, you said -- many times -- the gains in Iraq are fragile and reversable. . . . So my constituents and I believe that" after all the deaths, all the money, "you have to wonder why the best that you can say is that the gains are fragile and reversable." Noting the lack of military success and Hagel's points, Boxer pointed out that nothing was being done diplomatically "and I listened carefully to Senator Hagel and Ambassador Crocker -- from the answer you gave him, I don't get the" feeling that the White House has given anything, it's still "the status quo. She then turned to the issue of monies and the militias, "You are asking us for millions more to pay off the militias and, by the way, I have an article here that says Maliki recently told a London paper that he was concerned about half of them" and wouldn't put them into the forces because he doubts their loyalty. She noted that $182 million a year was being paid, $18 million a month, to these "Awakening" Council members and "why don't you ask the Iraqis to pay the entire cost of that progam" because as Senator Lugar pointed out, "It could be an opportunity" for the Iraqi government "to turn it into something more long term." This is a point, she declared, that she intends to bring up when it's time to vote on the next spending supplamental. Crocker tried to split hairs.
Boxer: I asked you why they couldn't pay for it. . . . I don't want to argue a point. . . I'm just asking you why we would object to asking them to pay for that entire program giving all that we are giving them in blood and everything else?
Today Karen De Young (Washington Post) reports that the US Government Accountability Office has found that while "Iraq's oil income will more than double this year . . . Baghdad continues to spend only a small percentage of its own money on reconstruction and services while it banks billions in surplus funds" and that, "Between 2005 and 2007, only 10 percent of Iraq's expenditures went toward reconstruction, with just 1 percent spent on maintaining U.S. and Iraqi-funded investments in roads, water, electricity and weapons, according to a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office. Even when Baghdad has allocated larger sums, the report said, it has spent only a small portion of the budgeted money." Kevin Hall (McClatchy Newspapers) points out that the report "left little doubt that Iraq, which racked up $32.9 billion in oil earnings from January through June, can afford to pay more for its own reconstruction." Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers' Baghdad Observer) takes the topic from the abstract to the concrete: "Driving through Iraq you feel the neglect here. In Basra the city is rivers of sewage, destroyed buildings and bridges from war after war after war. Every day I pass by the same buildings destroyed years ago during the U.S. led invasion in my neighborhood in Baghdad. Every day they look exactly the same, a pile of rubble. The electricity problem seems to be getting worse; Iraqis have an average of about four hours of electricity a day. While there is talk of reconstruction, a bridge here, flowers planted there the people don't feel a change."
In her brief remarks on Air Force One, Dana Perino offered a laughable example of how the puppet al-Maliki is helping Iraqis declaring that, "One thing that's very important is how they are spending their money, which is distributing it evenly amongst the --- around the country, but amongst the different sects as well, so Shias, Sunnis, and Kurds. It's something that they're going to have to continue to work out. We want them to take on more of their own responsibilities just from a security standpoint, but also reconstruction.
Also, if you remember, Prime Minister Maliki went into Sadr City, Basra and Mosul, he offered immediate financial assistance to people who were living there under those terrible conditions." The assaults on the people in those areas? The turn-over-your-guns-and-I'll-toss-a-few-coins-your-way is 'relief'? In what world?
Reality came via Sunday's press conference in Baghdad: hospitals that hide bed shortages, lack of supplies and more via a paint job. And we saw that justified by the Deputy Minister of Health for Grants and Loans who declared, "It is good for their psychological health . . . it is good to take care of the appearance, to see the building a new, clean." Spoiled blood, lack of medicine, lack of beds, lack of prosthetics, etc. are just minor details, after all, what matters is the hospital slapped on a new coat of paint outside. Or that's what matters to the Ministry of Health. Reality comes via Dalia al-Achi and Carole Laleve's UNHCR report Sunday on how the UNHCR and Syrian Arab Red Crescent was aiding Iraqi refugees in Syria by distributing "school kits to Iraqi refugee children . . . distribution of uniforms, shoes and school materials . . . and is expected to outfit 30,000 children from Damascus and Rural Damascus before the start of the Syrian School year on Sept. 7. Last year, UNHCR's distribution reached 20,000 Iraqi children." And what's al-Maliki done besides sit on millions? Not a damn thing.
But there was Perino on Air Force One this morning delcaring, " It's really important that they figure out a way to quickly get that money to those people directly. I think they've made a lot of progress on that, but they needed to do more." al-Maliki's done nothing for the people. But he has managed to go on spending sprees for items he wants. From last Friday's snapshot:
It's been a busy week for the puppet -- a regular spending spree. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency started the week with the announcement that they "notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq of Armored Security Vehicles as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $206 milliion." Wednesday included "The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq of Light Armored Vehicles as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $3 billion" and "The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq of technical assistance for construction of facilities and infrastructure as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $1.6 billiion" and "The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq of Helicopters and related munitions as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $2.4 billion." Thursday brought this announcement, "The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq of M1A1 and Upgrade to M1A1M Abrams Tanks as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $2.16 billion."
Staying on the topic of violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing that left two police officers wounded, a Baghdad bombing ("targeting . . . one of the Iraqi security companies") left four people injured, a Ninevah car bombing that killed the driver, 1 civilian, 1 Iraqi service member and left nine other people wounded and a Basra roadside bombing that wounded one civilian. Reuters notes a Mosul car bombing that claimed 3 lives (plus driver of the car) and left fourteen injured.
Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 "Awakening" Council members shot dead in Baghdad.
Corpses?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 corpse discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes 2 corpses discovered in Mosul and 16 corpses discovered in Diyala Province.
Last Thursday morning, the Bully Boy held court at the White House and said nothing. The press corps acted as though something had been said. "This has been a month of encouraging news from Iraq," he spun and the press took their marching orders. They're still following those 'turned corner' marching orders despite the fact that there is no treaty, despite the fact that there will most likely be no October provincial elections, despite the fact that al-Maliki is spending next to nothing on reconstruction and despite the fact that violence is again up in Iraq. Much was made all last week of "Only 13 US soldiers dead in Iraq for the month of July!" As if 'only 13' dead from an illegal war was something to go wild over.
Private Timothy J. Hutton
Specialist Jonathan Menke Sergeant Gary Henry Sergeant Brian K. Miller Private 1st Class Jennifer L. Cole Specialist Kevin R. Dickson Specialist Ronald Andrew Schmidt
All six US service members have died since Saturday morning. Somehow that hasn't resulted in the 'coverage' that 13 for the month of July resulted in coverage last week.
Turning to the US presidential race. Ron Jacobs (Dissident Voice) notes just how much it is costing the peace movement (and how willing 'leaders' are to table objection to the illegal war):
Just look at the major national antiwar organization United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ) and their public stance regarding the desire of organizers of the protests at the upcoming Democratic convention to stage a large antiwar march at the convention. According to a recent press release from some organizers of the march, Leslie Cagan of UFPJ told some Denver organizers, "We don't think it makes sense to plan for a mass march that might not end up being all that mass!" In other words, UFPJ is refusing to help build support for the march.
There can only be one reason for UFPJ's stance. That reason is UFPJ's allegiance to the Democratic Party. This allegiance is not an allegiance found among the grassroots of UFPJ but at the top. It involves a political misunderstanding of the Democrats' role in maintaining the US empire and a fear of losing funding from elements of UFPJ that are tied to the Democratic Party. Ignoring the fact that it is the Democratic Congress that has kept the Empire's wars going, UFPJ continues to call the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan "Bush's Wars." Besides the attempts to silence the antiwar voice in the streets, there are also ongoing attempts by Democratic Party manipulators to keep antiwar language out of the Party's platform. This is in spite of a statement signed by the progressive wing of the party demanding that the language be included. If 2004 is any indication, there will be no antiwar language in the 2008 Democratic Party platform.
We saw this happen in 2004 and the peace movement was in disarray until the summer of 2005 (Cindy Sheehan resparked the movement). That cannot happen again but it is happening as too many see their 'peace' role as "cheerleader for Barack." Presumed Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama continues to run the most embarrassing campaign in recent memory. Today's big news is that another campaign staffer (volunteer!) has been outed. Perry Bacon Jr. (Washington Post) reports that the volunteer was Chicago's own Mazen Asbahi who held the title of "Muslim outreach coordinator" until the Wall St. Journal did the job the campaign should have and found ties to Jamal Said and the North American Islamic Trust. True or false doesn't matter and will not be known for some time. In a campaign perception matters. The Obama campaign has already telegraphed that they see Asbahi as someone to wash their hands of and it's one more sign of how inept that campaign is that they didn't do the vetting that a paper did. Though Asbahi will most likely be found to have no links or ties to terrorists and be nothing but a dedicated volunteer who believed in a candidate and wanted to work for the candidate's election, the campaign continues to demonstrate just how unskilled and unknowledgable they are. This is the campaign that drummed up over a week's worth of mock outrage over a satirical cover of The New Yorker which lampooned the notion that, among other things, some may see Barack as a terrorist. If they put half that energy into vetting their staff, they wouldn't be in the news on this today. Asbahi joined the campaign July 25th, after the mock outrage. The campaign damn well took offense at satire but apparently lacked the intelligence to do the basic vetting of any high-profile spot. Asbahi joined the campaign with a high-minded/self-serving statement and now leaves the campaign with a cloud over himself and one over the campaign. He does so with the usual nonsense statement about how his departure is "to avoid distracting from Barack Obama's message of change" but the real message the campaign has again sent is that they do not know how to run a campaign including the most basic procedure of vetting anyone in a profile role.
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is for a real withdrawal (not a partial redeployment to Afghanistan masked as a 'withdrawal'). Nader continues to pursue ballot access and will hold a press conference in Iowa tomorrow morning at 9:30:
Nader/Gonzalez Campaign and the Iowa Peace and Freedom Party Wednesday Will Submit more than Double the Required Signatures for Ballot QualificationSupporters of Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader and the Iowa Peace and Freedom Party will submit petitions to place Mr. Nader and running-mate Matt Gonzalez on the November 2008 election ballot, Thursday, Aug. 7, to the Iowa Secretary of State's Office. Mr. Nader will be on the ballot as the Iowa Peace and Freedom Party nominee, and if he gains more than 2 percent of the vote in the state, the party will become a ballot-qualified political group.Iowa will be the 26th state in which the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign has filed for a ballot line since the celebrated consumer advocate announced his intent to run during a February 24 appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." To qualify to appear on Iowa's ballot, state law requires submission of the signatures of 1,500 registered voters.The Nader/Gonzalez campaign will submit more than 3,000 signatures.Scott Knight, the Nader/Gonzalez Iowa State coordinator, will be joined by Iowa supporters of Nader/Gonzalez 2008 and the Peace and Freedom Party at 9:30 a.m. for a news conference at Capitol West Steps, West Mall area, Capitol Building, Des Moines, IA.Iowans have been hit recently with massive floods and with the greed of large corporations, like Whirlpool Corp., which in July filed a federal lawsuit aiming to slash the medical benefits of thousands of retired Maytag workers after having bought out that company. The Nader/Gonzalez Campaign offers solutions instead of excuses. Mr. Nader would rein in corporate greed, waste and abuse and respond to natural emergencies with preventative public investments and rapid response to those disasters. As president, Mr. Nader would rebuild the Mid-West instead of tearing down the Mid-East. WHO: Iowa Supporters of Nader/Gonzalez 2008 Campaign and the Peace and Freedom Party WHAT: News Conference and turn-in of nominating petitions WHEN: Thursday, Aug 7, 2008, 9:30 a.m. WHERE: Capitol West Steps, West Mall area, Capitol Building, Des Moines, IA About Ralph NaderCelebrated attorney, author, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader has been named by Time Magazine one of the "100 Most Influential Americans in the 20th Century." For more than four decades he has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups advocating solutions. He led the movement to establish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and enact the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and countless other pieces of important consumer legislation. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments. Nader graduated from Princeton University and received an LL.B from Harvard Law School.About Matt GonzalezMatt Gonzalez was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2000 representing San Francisco's fifth council district. From 2003 to 2005, he served as Board of Supervisors President. A former public defender, Gonzalez is managing partner of Gonzalez & Leigh, a 7-attorney practice in San Francisco that represents individuals and organizations in mediation, arbitration, and administrative proceedings before state and federal regulatory bodies. Gonzalez graduated from Columbia University and received a JD from Stanford Law School.About the Nader/Gonzalez CampaignAccording to a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted from July 27-29, Ralph Nader is at 6 percent nationally, higher than his highest major poll numbers during the same time period in 2000 and approaching the 10 percent threshold required for eligibility to participate in "America's Presidential Debate in New Orleans," a Google-sponsored event scheduled for September 18. In the key swing state of Michigan -- whose voters were partially disenfranchised by the Democratic National Committee -- an EPIC-MRA poll found Nader at 8-10 percent.
iraq
ehren watada
ron jacobs
karen deyoung
the washington post
mcclatchy newspapers
leila fadel
campbell robertson
the new york times
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The media came in for a dose of Nader’s ire. "The media is in a cultural rut," he said. "I am not talking about their private, incisive, skeptical conversations with one another. I am talking about the questions they don't ask, the questions they ask. Give me a bunch of 10-year-olds instead of the White House press corps, and the president would be far, far more upset and anxious."
Among Nader's prescriptions for media reform: "Don't be so cynical about small starts. If nature was like you, seeds would never have a chance to sprout."
Democrats have criticized Nader for diverting enough votes from Al Gore in Florida in 2000 to hand the presidential election to George W. Bush. It is a charge Nader rejects, calling the spoiler label "a contemptuous word of political bigotry."
With polls showing that Nader is not going to win the White House this year, why is he running his third national campaign and making his fifth effort at becoming president? The answer has to do with his definition of winning.
"I define winning in many ways that are acceptable to political scholars," Nader told reporters Wednesday. "One is you keep the agendas alive. There is a generation of Americans who couldn’t even argue the progressive income tax much less the estate tax, which has been renamed. So you keep the progressive agenda alive, you bring a lot of young people in, a lot of not-so-young people get a little morale boost."
He cited hope that what he says during the campaign "would pull or push the other two major candidates."
I would offer a tip to the Nader campaign that responding to questions should include, "We won't know who the winner is until the votes are counted." The answer above, if expanded in the same manner, is the exact reason that the press doesn't cover Nader. I know that because I know how much C.I. and Ava have been screaming at friends in the press to assign Nader stories to reporters. There's nothing wrong with the answer in and of itself but if it veers any more towards the territory of, "Okay, I can't win," the press will use it as their excuse not to cover the campaign.
I've heard Ava and C.I. make the argument with editors and producers. It goes like this, "It's August, the election is in November. You're deciding the election for the people based on who you are covering." (They actually add a huge dollop of guilt tripping on top of that.) Nader can win. Anyone can. But you need press coverage. Candidates need to be very careful in how they speak of winning to the press -- it is a hostile press and one looking for any reason not to cover you. Cynthia McKinney's defining 'victory' as 5% eliminated her from even spotty coverage. Bob Barr can easily steal all the third party coverage (the press likes him and finds his run fresh). So the Nader campaign should begin replying to those questions with assertions such as, "Are you trying to telling me that you can call the November election today? Is that how powerful you are? Or how knowing?"
An election is when the winner is decided. Until the votes are counted, no one 'knows' despite claims otherwise. If polls were what decided elections, then the predictions would mean we could call of the actual voting in November and save a great deal of money.
Ralph Nader has a real chance this year because there are a number of candidates and, in a crowded field, the eventual winner will most likely not reach 50% of the total votes. This is also an election where voters are tired of the status quo and Barack is very much the status quo. It could end up being a historic election if the Nader campaign is able to get the word out on Ralph.
The winner will be determined on election day and not before.
So what movie am I going to talk about from the eighties?
We're all blogging on an eighties movie.
I went back and forth on what film to pick and finally decided to go with an actress who was in the bulk of my possible choices: Michelle Pfeiffer.
In Dangerous Lisaons (one of my favorites of the decade), she is the heart of the film, the torment, and her loss has real weight. Dangerous Liasons was remade the following decade as a teen flick and it was a disaster. Michelle's character truly loses everything and all Reese Witherspoon loses in Cruel Intentions is her virginity. A bad lay really doesn't qualify as a tragedy. If you believe otherwise, try living a little more.
Michelle started off the decade in the misfire Grease 2. Singing about a guy who's a "cool rider" should have finished her career. But she was too talented.
Tequila Sunrise is a flawed film. The stars are really Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell whose charcters are so interested in one another that "the girl" really seems unneeded. But Michelle plays her and brings moments to the role (and film) that help it rise above a locker room game of who-has-the-bigger-one?
Married To The Mob was the first film I felt really belonged to Michelle for more than a few moments. In this one, her husband (Alec Baldwin) is in the mob and she wants out. After he's killed, she and her son move to NYC to start over but the mob doesn't want her to and the FBI wants to use her. Michelle is really amazing in this film and shows a strong flair for comedy. It's a Jonathan Demme film which means it is all over the map but that actually works for the film.
The Fabulous Baker Boys was supposed to be Jeff and Beau Bridges' film. While I think Beau achieves some real moments in the picture, the movie belongs to Michelle who plays Susie Diamond. The film plods along at the start and the only life comes from an auditioning montage. The two brothers play two brothers who play pianos in a night club act. They decide to get a 'girl singer' to try to keep business going. The singers auditioning are quite frightening (especially the one doing an operatic version of the Pointer Sisters' "So Excited"). The auditions are over. With a "God__ it!" and a "S**t!" Michelle makes her entrance off screen.
Already, with those two lines, she has your attention and she hasn't even been spotted by the camera yet. Susie's a complex role. She's a woman who turns tricks (call girl) and who wants money. She also can actually sing.
Is she worth it? That question fades as her entrance into the film really forces the conflict between the two brothers to the forefront. It's not just that without Pfeiffer the film doesn't work, it's also that she pulls the film up to a higher level. Instead of seeing some second-rate hack's attempt to rip off Sam Sheppard (or other American playwright), you've got a film you can watch. You'll be so thrilled with what she does that when you watch it a second time, you'll really notice how long it is before she comes onscreen.
During the same period, she made the ridiculous Witches of Eastwick. The source material (a bad book by John Updike) necessitated changes. The director wasn't up for them (he controlled all). So you've got a film with some delight that changes tone and veers all over the place before the third act. The performances of Michelle, Cher, Susan Sarandon and Jack Nicholson are the only reason to watch and, fortunately, they all do such a great job that you can actually enjoy the film. If you're watching it for the first time, you'll be disappointed by how little it adds up to in the end, however.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Wednesday August 6, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, a war resistance anniversary approaches, 6 US service members have died in Iraq since Saturday, the Iraqi provincial elections seem unlikely this year, the puppet al-Maliki sits on millions and spends very little, and more.
Starting with war resistance. In June 2006, Ehren Watada became the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. That decision followed much research on his part and the decision at the end of 2005 that he could not participate in an illegal war. For months prior to going public, Watada attempted to work with the US military which gave him every indication that they wanted to work with him on this issue. But no alternative was ever accepted. Instead he was repeatedly told that something would happen, some decision would be reached. His command was attempting to run out the clock because June 22, 2006 would be when he would deploy to Iraq and they thought if they strung him along he would have no choice but to deploy. Instead, Watada went public. Almost two years ago, his Article 32 hearing was held (August 17, 2006). The Article 32 hearing allowed Watada to call witnesses such as retired Army Col Ann Wright and former UN under-secretary Denis Halliday. Lt Col Mark Keith oversaw the Article 32 hearing. In February 2007, Judge Toilet (aka John Head) presided over the court-martial. Judge Toilet had his own idea of 'justice' which included refusing to allow Watada's defense to explain why he decided to refuse to deploy. He could admit (or not) that he refused to deploy, but Judge Toilet wouldn't allow his reasons to be explained to the military jury. Judge Toilet also refused to allow Watada's attorney to call various witnesses. It was 'justice' in name-only. Despite that, Watada's case was presented strongly. So strongly that, on the third day, when Watada was due to take the witness stand, Judge Toilet suddenly found fault with a stipulation that he himself had explained to the jury and that he himself had overseen. Judge Toilet 'suggested' the prosecution move for a mistrial and the prosecution did not immediately take the hint or grasp that Toilet was handing them a do-over. When they did grasp it, they made the motion and Judge Toilet ruled the court-martial a mistrial over defense objection. The Constitution prohibits double-jeopardy -- one of those pesky laws Judge Toilet never grasped. Toilet said the second court-martial would take place in March of 2007. It did not. It has not taken place. Last November US District Court Judge Benjamin Settle ruled that the Constitutional issue had to be resolved. It still hasn't been resolved.
In December 2006, Watada's service contract expired. The first court-martial took place despite that fact. All this time later, Watada remains in the service and reports for duty on base while he waits for the US military to figure out their next move. The military had their chance to court-martial him but when Judge Toilet realized Watada might walk, he threw the justice system out the window and declared a mistrial. As a result, the military really has no 'follow up' at this point. They need to release Watada from the army immediately. His service contract expired nearly two years ago and his Article 32 took place almost two years ago.
War resisters in Canada need support as well. 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).
In Iraq, there is still no movement on provincial elections. Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, " After weeks of late-night negotiations and under intense U.S. pressure, Iraqi lawmakers failed to pass a much-debated provincial elections law Wednesday before adjourning for the month. The failure to pass the law, which would govern elections in provinces across the country, may push the elections into next year. If elections don't happen by the end of this year, it could be July before the balloting could be carried out, U.N. spokesman Said Arikat said." UPI reports that, citing Kurdish MP Fouad Massoum, there is the possibility of "a special session of Parliament sometime during the recess, which ends Sept. 9," to again try to address the issue of elections. Gina Chon (Wall St. Journal) notes the "days of intense negotiations and heavy pressure from the U.S., the United Nations and Britain" and how Kirkuk continued to be a stalling issue. Most reports do. Leila Fadel offers another theory among Iraqis, that those currently holding office aren't willing to risk losing office if new elections are called. Walter Ibrahim (Reuters) gets a non-official US response, quoting someone at the US embassy in Iraq who refused to be named but did declare, "The United States regrets that the Iraqi parliament today adjourned without finishing its work on a local elections law."
On the other big news of Iraq today, a new report finds that Nouri al-Maliki, puppet of the occupation, is refusing to spend the many millions on reconstruction still. White House press secretary Dana Perino declared, "It's interesting -- what I find interesting about this report, as well, is when you're looking at these two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, seeing how vastly different Iraq is from Afghanistan in terms of the natural resources that they have. Afghanistan is a very poor country, one of the poorest in the world. Iraq will come back much faster, given that they had some semblance of infrastructure, as crumbling as it was, but something to work from. Afghanistan is being built from scratch. And so I thought that was something worth taking away." What's interesting is that someone tasked with speaking to the press on behalf of the White House appears to have only just realized the differences between Afghanistan and oil-rich Iraq. It does not speak well of Perino -- even as spin, it should produce laughter. Perino was speaking on board Air Force One as the Bully Boy traveled to Thailand and repeatedly referred reporters' questions to the US State Dept implying that she hadn't seen the latest report. Later, after Air Force One landed in Thailand, Bully Boy would hold a public event with Thailand's Prime Minister Samak but took no questions. Apparently, like Perino, he was unfamiliar with the report. Perino: "I saw the report -- I saw the reports about the report -- so I'd refer you back to the State Department, just to -- as they wake up this moring -- just to make sure that they've looked at it, because I don't know all the details." A rather shocking admission for someone tasked with being the public face of the White House. Plenty of egg on the face to go around because, in DC this afternoon, the State Dept's Gonzalo R. Gallegos (Acting Deputy Spokesperson) held the daily press briefing and was asked about Iraq . . . never. Not once. Macedonia, Mexico and many other topics. Gallegos didn't arrive with a prepared statement and tossed immediately to questions. Not one reporter asked about Iraq. How very sad and very telling.
If you're feeling a sense of deja vu, you may be thinking back to last Wednesday when the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstuction issued a report. Stuart Bowen Jr. issued a note to the report [PDF format warning] explaining, "The United States has now appropriated more than $50 billion in taxpayer dollars for Iraq's reconstruction." The report notes its basis is "seven new audit products" between May 1st and June 30th of this year. You may be thinking of the silence that greeted that report as the press focused instead on the gossip and whispers that the White House was putting out declaring Bully Boy would speak Thursday morning and deliver a 'major' statement on Iraq that everyone just knew was going to be about the treaty between the White House and the puppet. The treaty, the White House had promised, would be wrapped up by July 31st. Bully Boy gave his statement, no word about a treaty. The dealine passed. And the government report on reconstruction was lost and forgotten.
For some context on the latest report, let's drop back to April when Gen David Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker did their song and dance before the US Congress. From the April 8th snapshot, where US Senator Barbara Boxer is questioning Crocker:
She wanted to know about the training, all the training, that had gone on and then on again. "We've done a lot for the Iraqis just in terms of the numbers themselves," Boxer declared. "I'll tell you what concerns me and most of my constituents, you said -- many times -- the gains in Iraq are fragile and reversable. . . . So my constituents and I believe that" after all the deaths, all the money, "you have to wonder why the best that you can say is that the gains are fragile and reversable." Noting the lack of military success and Hagel's points, Boxer pointed out that nothing was being done diplomatically "and I listened carefully to Senator Hagel and Ambassador Crocker -- from the answer you gave him, I don't get the" feeling that the White House has given anything, it's still "the status quo. She then turned to the issue of monies and the militias, "You are asking us for millions more to pay off the militias and, by the way, I have an article here that says Maliki recently told a London paper that he was concerned about half of them" and wouldn't put them into the forces because he doubts their loyalty. She noted that $182 million a year was being paid, $18 million a month, to these "Awakening" Council members and "why don't you ask the Iraqis to pay the entire cost of that progam" because as Senator Lugar pointed out, "It could be an opportunity" for the Iraqi government "to turn it into something more long term." This is a point, she declared, that she intends to bring up when it's time to vote on the next spending supplamental. Crocker tried to split hairs.
Boxer: I asked you why they couldn't pay for it. . . . I don't want to argue a point. . . I'm just asking you why we would object to asking them to pay for that entire program giving all that we are giving them in blood and everything else?
Today Karen De Young (Washington Post) reports that the US Government Accountability Office has found that while "Iraq's oil income will more than double this year . . . Baghdad continues to spend only a small percentage of its own money on reconstruction and services while it banks billions in surplus funds" and that, "Between 2005 and 2007, only 10 percent of Iraq's expenditures went toward reconstruction, with just 1 percent spent on maintaining U.S. and Iraqi-funded investments in roads, water, electricity and weapons, according to a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office. Even when Baghdad has allocated larger sums, the report said, it has spent only a small portion of the budgeted money." Kevin Hall (McClatchy Newspapers) points out that the report "left little doubt that Iraq, which racked up $32.9 billion in oil earnings from January through June, can afford to pay more for its own reconstruction." Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers' Baghdad Observer) takes the topic from the abstract to the concrete: "Driving through Iraq you feel the neglect here. In Basra the city is rivers of sewage, destroyed buildings and bridges from war after war after war. Every day I pass by the same buildings destroyed years ago during the U.S. led invasion in my neighborhood in Baghdad. Every day they look exactly the same, a pile of rubble. The electricity problem seems to be getting worse; Iraqis have an average of about four hours of electricity a day. While there is talk of reconstruction, a bridge here, flowers planted there the people don't feel a change."
In her brief remarks on Air Force One, Dana Perino offered a laughable example of how the puppet al-Maliki is helping Iraqis declaring that, "One thing that's very important is how they are spending their money, which is distributing it evenly amongst the --- around the country, but amongst the different sects as well, so Shias, Sunnis, and Kurds. It's something that they're going to have to continue to work out. We want them to take on more of their own responsibilities just from a security standpoint, but also reconstruction.
Also, if you remember, Prime Minister Maliki went into Sadr City, Basra and Mosul, he offered immediate financial assistance to people who were living there under those terrible conditions." The assaults on the people in those areas? The turn-over-your-guns-and-I'll-toss-a-few-coins-your-way is 'relief'? In what world?
Reality came via Sunday's press conference in Baghdad: hospitals that hide bed shortages, lack of supplies and more via a paint job. And we saw that justified by the Deputy Minister of Health for Grants and Loans who declared, "It is good for their psychological health . . . it is good to take care of the appearance, to see the building a new, clean." Spoiled blood, lack of medicine, lack of beds, lack of prosthetics, etc. are just minor details, after all, what matters is the hospital slapped on a new coat of paint outside. Or that's what matters to the Ministry of Health. Reality comes via Dalia al-Achi and Carole Laleve's UNHCR report Sunday on how the UNHCR and Syrian Arab Red Crescent was aiding Iraqi refugees in Syria by distributing "school kits to Iraqi refugee children . . . distribution of uniforms, shoes and school materials . . . and is expected to outfit 30,000 children from Damascus and Rural Damascus before the start of the Syrian School year on Sept. 7. Last year, UNHCR's distribution reached 20,000 Iraqi children." And what's al-Maliki done besides sit on millions? Not a damn thing.
But there was Perino on Air Force One this morning delcaring, " It's really important that they figure out a way to quickly get that money to those people directly. I think they've made a lot of progress on that, but they needed to do more." al-Maliki's done nothing for the people. But he has managed to go on spending sprees for items he wants. From last Friday's snapshot:
It's been a busy week for the puppet -- a regular spending spree. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency started the week with the announcement that they "notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq of Armored Security Vehicles as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $206 milliion." Wednesday included "The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq of Light Armored Vehicles as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $3 billion" and "The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq of technical assistance for construction of facilities and infrastructure as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $1.6 billiion" and "The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq of Helicopters and related munitions as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $2.4 billion." Thursday brought this announcement, "The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq of M1A1 and Upgrade to M1A1M Abrams Tanks as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $2.16 billion."
Staying on the topic of violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing that left two police officers wounded, a Baghdad bombing ("targeting . . . one of the Iraqi security companies") left four people injured, a Ninevah car bombing that killed the driver, 1 civilian, 1 Iraqi service member and left nine other people wounded and a Basra roadside bombing that wounded one civilian. Reuters notes a Mosul car bombing that claimed 3 lives (plus driver of the car) and left fourteen injured.
Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 "Awakening" Council members shot dead in Baghdad.
Corpses?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 corpse discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes 2 corpses discovered in Mosul and 16 corpses discovered in Diyala Province.
Last Thursday morning, the Bully Boy held court at the White House and said nothing. The press corps acted as though something had been said. "This has been a month of encouraging news from Iraq," he spun and the press took their marching orders. They're still following those 'turned corner' marching orders despite the fact that there is no treaty, despite the fact that there will most likely be no October provincial elections, despite the fact that al-Maliki is spending next to nothing on reconstruction and despite the fact that violence is again up in Iraq. Much was made all last week of "Only 13 US soldiers dead in Iraq for the month of July!" As if 'only 13' dead from an illegal war was something to go wild over.
Private Timothy J. Hutton
Specialist Jonathan Menke Sergeant Gary Henry Sergeant Brian K. Miller Private 1st Class Jennifer L. Cole Specialist Kevin R. Dickson Specialist Ronald Andrew Schmidt
All six US service members have died since Saturday morning. Somehow that hasn't resulted in the 'coverage' that 13 for the month of July resulted in coverage last week.
Turning to the US presidential race. Ron Jacobs (Dissident Voice) notes just how much it is costing the peace movement (and how willing 'leaders' are to table objection to the illegal war):
Just look at the major national antiwar organization United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ) and their public stance regarding the desire of organizers of the protests at the upcoming Democratic convention to stage a large antiwar march at the convention. According to a recent press release from some organizers of the march, Leslie Cagan of UFPJ told some Denver organizers, "We don't think it makes sense to plan for a mass march that might not end up being all that mass!" In other words, UFPJ is refusing to help build support for the march.
There can only be one reason for UFPJ's stance. That reason is UFPJ's allegiance to the Democratic Party. This allegiance is not an allegiance found among the grassroots of UFPJ but at the top. It involves a political misunderstanding of the Democrats' role in maintaining the US empire and a fear of losing funding from elements of UFPJ that are tied to the Democratic Party. Ignoring the fact that it is the Democratic Congress that has kept the Empire's wars going, UFPJ continues to call the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan "Bush's Wars." Besides the attempts to silence the antiwar voice in the streets, there are also ongoing attempts by Democratic Party manipulators to keep antiwar language out of the Party's platform. This is in spite of a statement signed by the progressive wing of the party demanding that the language be included. If 2004 is any indication, there will be no antiwar language in the 2008 Democratic Party platform.
We saw this happen in 2004 and the peace movement was in disarray until the summer of 2005 (Cindy Sheehan resparked the movement). That cannot happen again but it is happening as too many see their 'peace' role as "cheerleader for Barack." Presumed Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama continues to run the most embarrassing campaign in recent memory. Today's big news is that another campaign staffer (volunteer!) has been outed. Perry Bacon Jr. (Washington Post) reports that the volunteer was Chicago's own Mazen Asbahi who held the title of "Muslim outreach coordinator" until the Wall St. Journal did the job the campaign should have and found ties to Jamal Said and the North American Islamic Trust. True or false doesn't matter and will not be known for some time. In a campaign perception matters. The Obama campaign has already telegraphed that they see Asbahi as someone to wash their hands of and it's one more sign of how inept that campaign is that they didn't do the vetting that a paper did. Though Asbahi will most likely be found to have no links or ties to terrorists and be nothing but a dedicated volunteer who believed in a candidate and wanted to work for the candidate's election, the campaign continues to demonstrate just how unskilled and unknowledgable they are. This is the campaign that drummed up over a week's worth of mock outrage over a satirical cover of The New Yorker which lampooned the notion that, among other things, some may see Barack as a terrorist. If they put half that energy into vetting their staff, they wouldn't be in the news on this today. Asbahi joined the campaign July 25th, after the mock outrage. The campaign damn well took offense at satire but apparently lacked the intelligence to do the basic vetting of any high-profile spot. Asbahi joined the campaign with a high-minded/self-serving statement and now leaves the campaign with a cloud over himself and one over the campaign. He does so with the usual nonsense statement about how his departure is "to avoid distracting from Barack Obama's message of change" but the real message the campaign has again sent is that they do not know how to run a campaign including the most basic procedure of vetting anyone in a profile role.
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is for a real withdrawal (not a partial redeployment to Afghanistan masked as a 'withdrawal'). Nader continues to pursue ballot access and will hold a press conference in Iowa tomorrow morning at 9:30:
Nader/Gonzalez Campaign and the Iowa Peace and Freedom Party Wednesday Will Submit more than Double the Required Signatures for Ballot QualificationSupporters of Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader and the Iowa Peace and Freedom Party will submit petitions to place Mr. Nader and running-mate Matt Gonzalez on the November 2008 election ballot, Thursday, Aug. 7, to the Iowa Secretary of State's Office. Mr. Nader will be on the ballot as the Iowa Peace and Freedom Party nominee, and if he gains more than 2 percent of the vote in the state, the party will become a ballot-qualified political group.Iowa will be the 26th state in which the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign has filed for a ballot line since the celebrated consumer advocate announced his intent to run during a February 24 appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." To qualify to appear on Iowa's ballot, state law requires submission of the signatures of 1,500 registered voters.The Nader/Gonzalez campaign will submit more than 3,000 signatures.Scott Knight, the Nader/Gonzalez Iowa State coordinator, will be joined by Iowa supporters of Nader/Gonzalez 2008 and the Peace and Freedom Party at 9:30 a.m. for a news conference at Capitol West Steps, West Mall area, Capitol Building, Des Moines, IA.Iowans have been hit recently with massive floods and with the greed of large corporations, like Whirlpool Corp., which in July filed a federal lawsuit aiming to slash the medical benefits of thousands of retired Maytag workers after having bought out that company. The Nader/Gonzalez Campaign offers solutions instead of excuses. Mr. Nader would rein in corporate greed, waste and abuse and respond to natural emergencies with preventative public investments and rapid response to those disasters. As president, Mr. Nader would rebuild the Mid-West instead of tearing down the Mid-East. WHO: Iowa Supporters of Nader/Gonzalez 2008 Campaign and the Peace and Freedom Party WHAT: News Conference and turn-in of nominating petitions WHEN: Thursday, Aug 7, 2008, 9:30 a.m. WHERE: Capitol West Steps, West Mall area, Capitol Building, Des Moines, IA About Ralph NaderCelebrated attorney, author, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader has been named by Time Magazine one of the "100 Most Influential Americans in the 20th Century." For more than four decades he has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups advocating solutions. He led the movement to establish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and enact the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and countless other pieces of important consumer legislation. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments. Nader graduated from Princeton University and received an LL.B from Harvard Law School.About Matt GonzalezMatt Gonzalez was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2000 representing San Francisco's fifth council district. From 2003 to 2005, he served as Board of Supervisors President. A former public defender, Gonzalez is managing partner of Gonzalez & Leigh, a 7-attorney practice in San Francisco that represents individuals and organizations in mediation, arbitration, and administrative proceedings before state and federal regulatory bodies. Gonzalez graduated from Columbia University and received a JD from Stanford Law School.About the Nader/Gonzalez CampaignAccording to a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted from July 27-29, Ralph Nader is at 6 percent nationally, higher than his highest major poll numbers during the same time period in 2000 and approaching the 10 percent threshold required for eligibility to participate in "America's Presidential Debate in New Orleans," a Google-sponsored event scheduled for September 18. In the key swing state of Michigan -- whose voters were partially disenfranchised by the Democratic National Committee -- an EPIC-MRA poll found Nader at 8-10 percent.
iraq
ehren watada
ron jacobs
karen deyoung
the washington post
mcclatchy newspapers
leila fadel
campbell robertson
the new york times
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Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Heather McRobie reveals her stupidity
"Today on the presidential campaign trail" (AP):
However, Obama voted for a 2005 energy bill backed by Bush that included billions in subsidies for oil and natural gas production, a measure Cheney played a major role in developing. McCain opposed the bill on grounds it included billions in unnecessary tax breaks for the oil industry.
Poor little Barack. Trying so hard to paint McCain as the gift to Big Oil and just like Bully Boy. Bet he wishes he'd voted "present" on that energy bill. But he didn't. His limited record is so poor of the votes he actually has cast in his political life.
Innermonologue from Heather McRobie
Hey, I'm Heather McRobie. I'm a WHORE FOR BARACK. That's not unusual because many in the press -- male and female are. But I'll come back to why it's even more ridiculous for me.
First, I make a complete ass out of myself by screaming "racism" every chance I get. You might call me the female Bob Herbert.
Did I mention that I'm part of the British Whores for Barack?
Right. I have no real say in this election so I should learn to shut my fat mouth. But from England I see everything. That's why I write in "Conservatives for Hillary Clinton?" that Sean Hannity objecting to Hillary Clinton called a "bitch" is just an attempt on Hannity's part to play the race card.
See I'm really, really stupid. See I don't know a DAMN THING ABOUT THE U.S. Which is why I missed Bob Dole calling out sex scenes in movies and foul languages. And how I missed the 'bi-partisan' effort of Tipper Gore's that censored music.
I'm Heather McRobie and I'm just a DUMB, STUPID ASS. It would be too much work for me to find out that the right-wing regularly calls out cursing in songs and movies. That they see it as the decaying of society. It would be too hard for me to know that conservative organizations in the US exist solely to label TV content objectionable. I like being a STUPID IDIOT and a BUSYBODY butting into US elections.
And, from England, I know all about race relations!
Well, I know nothing about them but I know how to scream "RACISM!" at everything. It doesn't matter to me if I cheapen the ability to object to real racism by doing so because I live in England.
And look how stupid I am? I say that just because Barack has Ludacris on his iPod doesn't mean that Barack EVEN KNOWS Ludacris. I'm TOO STUPID to know that right before Barack announced to America he was running for president, he first met with Ludacris to shore up support.
Listen to me prattle on in my annoying manner. And watch as I say that the sexism in the primaries aimed at Hillary came from the right-wing. I really am just a CHEAP WHORE who doesn't know anything which is how I miss Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and all the other BARACK WHORES' use of sexism from MSNBC.
But what makes me the biggest joke is I work for the Guardian of London and, if you missed it, we never talked about the Downing St. Memos because we were also WHORES FOR TONY BLAIR. So even though Ron Suskind's book -- in the news everywhere else -- directly states that Tony Blair and M16 knew Iraq had no WMD before the start of the illegal war, here I am writing about US elections. Even though I can't vote in them. Even though it's none of my damn business. If I was worth anything I would be calling out Tony Blair's lies because he was my Prime Minister and I am a British citizen and I do live in England. But it's so much easier to WHORE FOR BARACK. Besides I'm PATHETIC. That's why I work for the Guardian to begin with.
That's my take on Heather McRobie and, honestly, all the rest of non-Americans who do not live in America and repeatedly ignore the scandals of their own government in order to shill for Barack.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Tuesday, August 5, 2008. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq, the stalemate in Parliament continues, Turkey continues to be worried, the Guardian of London continues to reveal that a political party's newsletter (New Labour) doesn't make for journalism, news of Robin Long, Ralph Nader and -- gasp -- the Undead Speaks -- meaning we should all keep a close eye on Yorba Linda.
Starting with war resistance. US war resister Robin Long's civilian attorney James Branum has a YouTube video where he explains some of the basics of Long's case. Branum is a member of the National Lawyers Guild (and co-chair -- with Kathleen Gilberd -- of their Military Law Task Force).
James Branum: What's happening in Robin's case, Robin Long was an American soldier. And when he was recruited to join the US military, his recruiter and him were talking and Robin told the recruiter, said, "I'm okay with being in the army but I don't want to go to Iraq. I don't believe in it." Recruiter said, "Don't worry about it. You won't have to go to Iraq. I can make sure you won't. In fact, you'll be stationed at Fort Knox here in Kentucky. So Robin thought, "Okay, I can live with that." So he did that, he joined. Turned out the recruiter was honest about one point. Yes, he was stationed at Fort Knox [. . .] however he was told very quickly, "Yes, you're going to Iraq and you're going to be sent to Fort Carson, trained to go to Iraq and then, after that, you're going to be sent there." So Robin, what he ended up doing was, he ended up going to Canada and there's a lot there that I can't go into about his story but to make a real long story short it was an issue of conscience at the end of the day. He had to do what he felt was right. He couldn't do something that he felt wasn't right. And he couldn't go. That's what it comes down to. So when he got to Canada, he was living his life. He applied for aslyum status so he could stay there. And he was working. And as an asylum seeker, he was able to get a work permit and what-not. He also had a son while he was there who's now about two-years-old. And he had his life very well established. He did a lot of different jobs. All kinds of different stuff. For awhile, he was a fruit picker. He worked in different orchards. In fact, that's kind of what got him into trouble cause when he was working as a fruit picker, he was a seasonal migrant worker, you know? And so he was, for awhile, out in British Columbia. And he was previously in Ontario and there was a misunderstanding [. . .] from Canadian immigration about where he was supposed to check in to. And Robin thought he had checked in like he was supposed to. The immigration authorities say he didn't. There's a misunderstanding there. But to make a really long story short, even though Robin was fighting this in the Canadian courts, the Canadian officials pulled a sneaky manuever -- basically, they were able to fast-track him through deportation within four days so that he or his lawyer did not have time to respond appropriately in the Canadian system. And so he was trapped and he was sent to the US.
And what happened was he was held in jail for a few days in Canada and then he was handed over to US officials at the border. And actually, the Canadian officials even told the US officials, "Here's your deserter." Handed him off. And so from there, the immigration officials transferred him to a local jail and he was held in two different local jails for awhile before the military came and picked him up and transferred him to Fort Carson, Colorado. And at that point, at 11:30 at night, they had a hearing to decide whether he would remain in what is called pre-trial confinement. Because in the military, you don't get bail. Basically, you either are released before your trial or you wait in pre-trial confinement.
So they had a hearing late at night. Robin was put into jail. And since that point, he has been held here in Colarado Springs in the Criminal Justice Center in El Paso County -- basically just a regular old county jail with all kinds of people, dangerous criminals many of them, and it's a difficult place to be. But Robin's in good spirits and we're now dealing with the consequences of his action in the military courts here.
Robin Long was extradited. He was not deported. If that wasn't obvious before, it should be from the description above. Judge Anne Mctavish needs to be held accountable for her actions. The extradition process in Canada would have immediately opened up other avenues of appeal for Robin. That's why she didn't want to call it "extradition." Calling it "deportation" allowed her to act with NO OVERSIGHT. It wasn't deportation and -- repeating again -- as the father of a young Canadian child, the immigration laws in Canada are very clear about Robin's rights to stay in the country. It would be politically beneficial to the New Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and Bloc Quebecois to call for Parliament to hold an investigation into how Haper's government and Mctavish allowed Long to be extradited while telling the people of Canada he was being deported.
Steve Clarke, Federal Liberal candidate for Simcoe North and, last month, he wrote "Gov't can't keep ignoring motion concerning war objectors: Clarke" -- a letter to the editor (Orilla Packet & Times) which resulted in Ralph Moore's letter. Saturday, the paper ran his is "Re: Ralph Moore letter to the editor, 'Candidate's letter challenged by reader':"
I would like to thank Mr. Moore for his letter of July 18 in response to my earlier letter on conscientious objectors. Although I disagree with Moore's opinion on the legality of the Iraq war, I truly welcome honest public debate on important matters such as this one. The unsanctioned invasion of Iraq occurred March 18, 2003, a full seven months before the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1511 to ensure the "restoration of stability and security" in response to the chaos caused by the invasion. The resolution does not and could not provide retroactive exoneration. The fact remains, Stephen Harper would have committed Canada to this illegal war if he were Prime Minister at the time. As for Afghanistan, I would much prefer that Canada was there with our original intention of peace-keeping and reconstruction. However, our troops deserve our full support in this new, combative role, which is sanctioned by the UN. The point of my letter was that the Conservative government must respect the motion on conscientious objectors passed by Parliament. Harper himself said the government has a moral responsibility to respect such motions. This motion is based on an issue of fundamental human rights, and it is downright callous to ignore it. According to an Angus Reid poll conducted June 6 and 7, 2008, after Parliament passed the motion calling on the government to make a provision to allow war resisters to stay in Canada and to cease all deportation and removal proceedings, two-thirds of Canadians want Canada to grant permanent residence status to U. S. Iraq war resisters. The Harper Conservatives are afraid of raising the ire of their ideological cousins in the Republican administration but, ignoring the democratic will of Parliament and the views of the large majority of Canadians will only raise the fury of Canadian voters who want a more progressive government that reflects Canadian values. Steve Clarke, Federal Liberal candidate for Simcoe North
War resisters in Canada need your help. To pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail 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).
Yesterday at the US State Dept, Gonzalo R. Gallegos (the department's "acting deputy" spokesperson) declared, "My understanding -- that the Iraiq parliament did not convene on Sunday. However, it has not yet recessed and lawmakers remain ready to reconvene once a new bill is ready for them to consider. The Iraqi political leaders are continuing to discuss the elections law. Ambassador Crocker and [US] Embassy officials continue to encourage Iraqis to work towards compromise and consensus, and to develop an elections law that will allow for provincial elections this year." Provincial elections. Long postponed. Long said to take place in 2008. Said for most of the year to take place in October. Fell apart last month as the Kirkuk issue split Parliament and led the Kurdish bloc to walk out. Campbell Robertson (New York Times) notes the United Nations is yet again proposing that the issue of oil-rich Kirkuk be tabled. As Robertson appears to explain it, not only would the issue of whether Kirkuk remained with the central government or split off into the Kurdish region be tabled, also tabled would be Kirkuk participating in provincial elections. Conspiracy! That's what AFP reports the Kurdish region's president, Massud Barzani, has called some efforts and quotes him stating, "After the long talks we held it was clear for us that what happened on July 22 was a big conspiracy and very dangerous for the democratic and constitutional process of Iraq, in particular against the Kurds." From the July 22nd snapshot:
Waleed Ibrahim (Reuters) reports today on "a walkout by Kurdish lawmakers over how to deal with the disputed oil city of Kirkuk" with regards to the supposedly upcoming provincial elections and quotes Khalid al-Attiya (Deputy Parliamentary Speaker) stating, "We cannot have a vote with an absence of a whole faction. The vote is useless. It will be rejected by the represenatives of this bloc and by the presidency council." CNN notes the makeup of the presidency council: Jalal Talabani (President, Kurd), Tariq al-Hsahimi (Vice President, Sunni) and Adel Abdul Mahdi (Vice President, Shi'ite) and adds, "Many observers believe Talabani would stand with his Kurdish compatriots and vote against the measure, bringing it back to square one." Kurdish MP Mahmoud Othman is quoted by AP stating, "The draft of the provinical elections law will be referred to the presidential council, which will definitely not approve it. So the elections will be postponed until next year."
If the president of the Kurdish region is upset, you can take that to mean the issue is far from resolved. So it should come as no surprise that today's meeting resulted in nothing. The Iraqi Parliament closed session for the summer last Wednesday (yes, they did Campbell Roberston). They scheduled one special session for Sunday. At that session, nothing was accomplished. Nothing was accomplished yesterday and nothing was accomplished today. Hurriyet notes of Sunday: "A vote had been planned for Sunday but it was scrapped when lawmakers failed to agree on how the elections would affect Kirkuk, which minority Kurds want to make part of their semi-autonomous northern region. Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli called on the country's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in a written statement to warn Iraqi Kurdish groups in Kirkuk more openly and take the necessary measures in order to protect Turkmen's rights. Turkey, who has historical ties with Kirkuk, has been monitoring the situation very closely and calls on all parties to reach consensus for a solution." At the US State Dept yesterday, Gallegos was asked about Recep Erdogan (Turkey's Prime Minister) speaking to Jalal Talabani (Iraq's President) to express concern over Kirkuk being annexed into the Kurdish region and Gallegos responded, "I think we said something about that last week, I believe. And our position is that we believe that this -- now is not the time to be making such a decision. We believe that the parties need to leave themselves open to all appropriate or -- all options in order to come to an understanding so that they can proceed with provincial elections this fall."
Strange wasn't it? How the United Nations pitched to Iraq just what the US favored? As Hurriyet noted, "Iraqi political leaders reached a tentative compromise on Monday" and were due to debate it again today. UPI explains, "The Iraqi Parliament adjourned its Tuesday session without reaching an agreement on provisions in the election law regarding the status of the city of Kirkuk. Shahied al-Jaberi with the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance said lawmakers opted to postpone the issue until the Wednesday session because lawmakers could not agree on the Kirkuk issue, Voices of Iraq reported." They also note Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, Parliamentary Speaker, even arranged for the time alloted for debate to be extended but that resulted in nothing as well. Iran's Press TV reveals that, should the measure pass, "Elections in Kirkuk would also be postponed until no later than December 2009." BBC reports that "a Turkmen representative, said a delay [in Kirkuk voting] was unacceptable." China's Xinhua quotes Parliament's Deputy Speaker Khalid al-Attiyah, "The parliament session to approve the provincial election law has been delayed until tomorrow." Ned Parker Said Riifai (Los Angeles Times) point out, "The deadlock also prevented a vote by parliament on a $21-billion supplemental budget. The crisis has marked the first time that elements of one of the most prominent Shiite Muslim parties, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, have broken with the Kurds, their traditional allies."
Meanwhile Bully Boy faces a fresh onslaught of charges that he lied the world into an illegal war. Tim Reid and Sam Coates (Times of London) report that Ron Suskind's latest book (The Way of the World) includes details such as
* British intelligence (specifically M16) was informed that Iraq had no WMD in January 2003, that then Prime Minister Tony Blair was informed of that and that Poodle Blair passed it on to Bully Boy.
*That the CIA was ordered by the White House to create a forgery "from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Huseein" in order to falsely tie Iraq to 9-11.
Bill Plante (CBS News -- link has text and video) reports: "The book alleges that Habbush, Saddam's intelligence chief, was in CIA protective custody after the 2003 invasion, that the White House ordered CIA officials to have [Tahir Jalil] Habbush [al-Tikriti] write and backdate the letter, and paid him $5 million. The author quotes two former CIA officials who claim to have seen a draft of the letter on White House stationery." Interestingly (but not surprisingly) the Guardian of London is AVOIDING this story. That's only a surprise for anyone that confuses that RAT-TRAP with actual journalism. The Guardian sold the illegal war in England. When the Times of London exposed the Downing Street Memos, the Guardian refused to cover it. The Guardian is the DLC party organ in England. It is not journalism, it is not a newspaper. You have MPs in England saying that there needs to be an investigation and you have . . . silence from the Guardian. Never confuse that outlet with journalism.
Ali al-Mashhadani is a real journalist practicing real journalism. As noted in the July 31st snapshot, he is being imprisoned by the US military with no charges against him. The Committee to Protect Journalists has released a statement:U.S. military authorities should present charges against a Reuters cameraman detained since last Tuesday, or they should release him immediately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. [. . .] A spokeswoman for the Multi-National Forces-Iraq told CPJ that al-Mashhadani was detained because he posed a security risk and that his case would be reviewed within a seven-day period that began on July 29. "This is the third time U.S. forces have detained Ali al-Mashhadani without charge," said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. "The military has never substantiated any wrongdoing by him. The authorities must make evidence against him public or release him immediately."
Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 2 Baghdad roadside bombings that left five people wounded.
Shootings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports an attack on "Awakening" Council members in Kirkuk that left 3 of them dead.
Corpses?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 corpse discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes a corpse was found in Mosul today.
For those keeping score (and you should be) the deaths of 2 US soldiers from a Baghdad bombing Monday was covered in print by Ned Parker and Said Rifai's "Roadside bomb kills 2 U.S. soldiers in Baghdad" (Los Angeles Times) and Sudarsan Raghavan's "Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Baghdad Bombings" (Washington Post). The New York Times did not think it was news. That's five since Saturday according to ICCC.
Turning to the Undead -- it's got to be the only reason he's still around. Aging boy-toy Hank Kissinger shows up in the Khaleej Times to dish -- and with nary a starlet around. Kissinger who sold and re-sold an earlier illegal war sometimes makes sense -- sometimes that's insane sense, sometimes . . . Today he declares of withdrawals from Iraq, "Under the fixed withdrawal scheme, combat troops are to be withdrawn, but sufficient forces are to remain to protect the American Embassy, fight a resumption of Al Qaeda and contribute to the defence against outside intervention. But such tasks require combat, not support forces, and the foreseeable controversy about the elusive distinction will distract from the overall diplomatic goal." Yes, he has noted the problem. Those are combat troops whether you call them "combat" or something else. Where he's wrong is when he claims that there's no need for a fixed withdrawal. (Mass killings are and have always been Viagra for Hank.) But that's the reality of Barack's plan that supposed 'peace' 'leaders' don't want to face. It's not withdrawal. It was never withdrawal. Maybe with Kissinger pointing it out, it will finally register. In other news of presumed Democratic presidential nominee and presumed narcissist Barack Obama, US News & World Reports offers an exhuastive round-up of the reaction to his latest cave
A widely-distributed AP story also says Obama's proposal "includes two significant reversals of positions he has taken in the past," noting that "as recently as last month" he "argued against tapping into the petroleum reserve," while USA Today reports Obama's proposals include "two reversals of positions he has taken in the past." A widely-syndicated McClatchy pieces is titled, "In Another Switch, Obama Calls For Tapping U.S. Oil Reserve," and says "Obama's revised position on a key energy issue was his second shift in three days." Likewise, the New York Times titles its piece, "Obama, In Shift, Urges Tapping Oil From U.S. Reserve."However, the Wall Street Journal reports that Obama aides defended the move, saying Obama "had met with economic advisers and business leaders in Washington last week, and they had advised him to call for tapping the government reserve." The New York Daily News adds, "Team Obama cast the proposal as a 'refinement,' rather than a flip-flop, on Obama's previous opposition to tapping the 770-million barrel reserve."In an editorial, the San Francisco Chronicle says that Sen. Obama's "energy policy is offering more flip flops than a Lake Tahoe souvenir stand." The New York Post editorializes, "One more week, one more Barack Obama reversal on a key issue. Actually, make that two reversals. ... So much for principles."
Turning to independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader. As Ruth pointed out yesterday, "AP reports today that Mr. Nader's campaign will turn in signatures tomorrow to qualify for South Dakota's ballot. Lebanon Daily News reports that Mr. Nader should be on Pennsylvania's ballot because the campaign has collected 24,666 signatures (the deadline is Friday). Jesse A. Hamilton (Hartford Courant) reports that the Nader-Gonzalez ticket picked up the nomination of California's Peace and Freedom Party ('carrying with it an automatic slot on the California election ballot') and contains this statement from the Nader campaign, 'There can no longer be any justification -- if there ever was -- for Ralph Nader not being included in every national poll'." Foon Rhee (Boston Globe) noted the Nader campaign's plans for the week includes garnering "the November ballots of seven states". Tim Carpenter (Capitol-Journal) reports that "Kansas is the 22nd state in which Nader's forces filed papers since his campaign began in February." Richard Winger (Ballot Access News) reports Nader is now on the ballot in Michigan. AP notes the campaign plans to file for the ballot today in South Dakota. Meanwhile John Geluardi (San Francisco Weekly) covers the College of Marin campaign stop Sunday by Nader and running mate Matt Gonzalez with Gonzalez asking the large crowd assembled, "How is he [Barack] going to 'change' the culture of Washington if he can't stand up to those corporations?" Nader's remarks included, "We now grow up corporate. When you start looking at ads when you're two, three, four years old, pretty soon the world is Madison Avenue. Then in college it's computer skills, computer skill, computer skills. What about civic skills? Young people think they live in a Democracy because they can vote for American Idol."
Finally, from Team Nader:
Only two days left in our Win Dinner with Ralph E-mail Contest.
Many thousands of you have signed on.
And a select few of you are competing for the grand prize of a dinner with Ralph.
This morning, Ramy Mousa from Baton Rouge, Louisiana tops the leader board with 263 friends that have joined our network.
But many more thousands of you haven't even played.
So, we'd like you to try it.
You bring us the e-mails of your friends, neighbors and countrymen.
We feed them up-to-the minute breaking news about the two corporate candidates - Obama and McCain - and the growing challenge by Nader and Gonzalez.
Nader/Gonzalez is an unconventional campaign, in many ways.
One, there is no national convention.
We're running as independents.
Two, we have a broad range of support.
Take Iggy Pup here, for example.
We asked Iggy.
Iggy, who ya going vote for?
Iggy, being on our e-mail list, knew that Nader/Gonzalez would shift the power from the corporations back into the hands of the people.
Check out Iggy's answer in this just released Nader/Gonzalez video.
But it's not enough for Iggy to be plugged in.
Or for you to be plugged in.
We have to spread the word far and wide.
And one way to do it is to build our network of supporters.
Just bring us five new e-mails, and you can be part of a special invite-only conference phone call with Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez.
But you have to get going.
The contest ends the day after tomorrow - Thursday August 7 - at 11:59 PM on the West coast.
There are other great prizes.
But most importantly, you'll be helping us spread the word.
About the candidacy that will stand up to the two corporate parties in November.
So, help us out - find five people right now that will join our network of supporters.
Click here to get started.
If you are already in the game, thank you.
You can track your ranking on our leader board.
Find more friends and family and colleagues, and watch yourself move on up.
We'll be announcing the winners in a week or so.
Thank you for joining.
Together, we are making a difference.
Onward.
iraqrobin long
the washington postsudarsan raghavansaid rifaithe los angeles timesned parkercampbell robertsonthe new york times
tim carpenterjohn geluardirichard winger
u.s. news & world reports
However, Obama voted for a 2005 energy bill backed by Bush that included billions in subsidies for oil and natural gas production, a measure Cheney played a major role in developing. McCain opposed the bill on grounds it included billions in unnecessary tax breaks for the oil industry.
Poor little Barack. Trying so hard to paint McCain as the gift to Big Oil and just like Bully Boy. Bet he wishes he'd voted "present" on that energy bill. But he didn't. His limited record is so poor of the votes he actually has cast in his political life.
Innermonologue from Heather McRobie
Hey, I'm Heather McRobie. I'm a WHORE FOR BARACK. That's not unusual because many in the press -- male and female are. But I'll come back to why it's even more ridiculous for me.
First, I make a complete ass out of myself by screaming "racism" every chance I get. You might call me the female Bob Herbert.
Did I mention that I'm part of the British Whores for Barack?
Right. I have no real say in this election so I should learn to shut my fat mouth. But from England I see everything. That's why I write in "Conservatives for Hillary Clinton?" that Sean Hannity objecting to Hillary Clinton called a "bitch" is just an attempt on Hannity's part to play the race card.
See I'm really, really stupid. See I don't know a DAMN THING ABOUT THE U.S. Which is why I missed Bob Dole calling out sex scenes in movies and foul languages. And how I missed the 'bi-partisan' effort of Tipper Gore's that censored music.
I'm Heather McRobie and I'm just a DUMB, STUPID ASS. It would be too much work for me to find out that the right-wing regularly calls out cursing in songs and movies. That they see it as the decaying of society. It would be too hard for me to know that conservative organizations in the US exist solely to label TV content objectionable. I like being a STUPID IDIOT and a BUSYBODY butting into US elections.
And, from England, I know all about race relations!
Well, I know nothing about them but I know how to scream "RACISM!" at everything. It doesn't matter to me if I cheapen the ability to object to real racism by doing so because I live in England.
And look how stupid I am? I say that just because Barack has Ludacris on his iPod doesn't mean that Barack EVEN KNOWS Ludacris. I'm TOO STUPID to know that right before Barack announced to America he was running for president, he first met with Ludacris to shore up support.
Listen to me prattle on in my annoying manner. And watch as I say that the sexism in the primaries aimed at Hillary came from the right-wing. I really am just a CHEAP WHORE who doesn't know anything which is how I miss Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and all the other BARACK WHORES' use of sexism from MSNBC.
But what makes me the biggest joke is I work for the Guardian of London and, if you missed it, we never talked about the Downing St. Memos because we were also WHORES FOR TONY BLAIR. So even though Ron Suskind's book -- in the news everywhere else -- directly states that Tony Blair and M16 knew Iraq had no WMD before the start of the illegal war, here I am writing about US elections. Even though I can't vote in them. Even though it's none of my damn business. If I was worth anything I would be calling out Tony Blair's lies because he was my Prime Minister and I am a British citizen and I do live in England. But it's so much easier to WHORE FOR BARACK. Besides I'm PATHETIC. That's why I work for the Guardian to begin with.
That's my take on Heather McRobie and, honestly, all the rest of non-Americans who do not live in America and repeatedly ignore the scandals of their own government in order to shill for Barack.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Tuesday, August 5, 2008. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq, the stalemate in Parliament continues, Turkey continues to be worried, the Guardian of London continues to reveal that a political party's newsletter (New Labour) doesn't make for journalism, news of Robin Long, Ralph Nader and -- gasp -- the Undead Speaks -- meaning we should all keep a close eye on Yorba Linda.
Starting with war resistance. US war resister Robin Long's civilian attorney James Branum has a YouTube video where he explains some of the basics of Long's case. Branum is a member of the National Lawyers Guild (and co-chair -- with Kathleen Gilberd -- of their Military Law Task Force).
James Branum: What's happening in Robin's case, Robin Long was an American soldier. And when he was recruited to join the US military, his recruiter and him were talking and Robin told the recruiter, said, "I'm okay with being in the army but I don't want to go to Iraq. I don't believe in it." Recruiter said, "Don't worry about it. You won't have to go to Iraq. I can make sure you won't. In fact, you'll be stationed at Fort Knox here in Kentucky. So Robin thought, "Okay, I can live with that." So he did that, he joined. Turned out the recruiter was honest about one point. Yes, he was stationed at Fort Knox [. . .] however he was told very quickly, "Yes, you're going to Iraq and you're going to be sent to Fort Carson, trained to go to Iraq and then, after that, you're going to be sent there." So Robin, what he ended up doing was, he ended up going to Canada and there's a lot there that I can't go into about his story but to make a real long story short it was an issue of conscience at the end of the day. He had to do what he felt was right. He couldn't do something that he felt wasn't right. And he couldn't go. That's what it comes down to. So when he got to Canada, he was living his life. He applied for aslyum status so he could stay there. And he was working. And as an asylum seeker, he was able to get a work permit and what-not. He also had a son while he was there who's now about two-years-old. And he had his life very well established. He did a lot of different jobs. All kinds of different stuff. For awhile, he was a fruit picker. He worked in different orchards. In fact, that's kind of what got him into trouble cause when he was working as a fruit picker, he was a seasonal migrant worker, you know? And so he was, for awhile, out in British Columbia. And he was previously in Ontario and there was a misunderstanding [. . .] from Canadian immigration about where he was supposed to check in to. And Robin thought he had checked in like he was supposed to. The immigration authorities say he didn't. There's a misunderstanding there. But to make a really long story short, even though Robin was fighting this in the Canadian courts, the Canadian officials pulled a sneaky manuever -- basically, they were able to fast-track him through deportation within four days so that he or his lawyer did not have time to respond appropriately in the Canadian system. And so he was trapped and he was sent to the US.
And what happened was he was held in jail for a few days in Canada and then he was handed over to US officials at the border. And actually, the Canadian officials even told the US officials, "Here's your deserter." Handed him off. And so from there, the immigration officials transferred him to a local jail and he was held in two different local jails for awhile before the military came and picked him up and transferred him to Fort Carson, Colorado. And at that point, at 11:30 at night, they had a hearing to decide whether he would remain in what is called pre-trial confinement. Because in the military, you don't get bail. Basically, you either are released before your trial or you wait in pre-trial confinement.
So they had a hearing late at night. Robin was put into jail. And since that point, he has been held here in Colarado Springs in the Criminal Justice Center in El Paso County -- basically just a regular old county jail with all kinds of people, dangerous criminals many of them, and it's a difficult place to be. But Robin's in good spirits and we're now dealing with the consequences of his action in the military courts here.
Robin Long was extradited. He was not deported. If that wasn't obvious before, it should be from the description above. Judge Anne Mctavish needs to be held accountable for her actions. The extradition process in Canada would have immediately opened up other avenues of appeal for Robin. That's why she didn't want to call it "extradition." Calling it "deportation" allowed her to act with NO OVERSIGHT. It wasn't deportation and -- repeating again -- as the father of a young Canadian child, the immigration laws in Canada are very clear about Robin's rights to stay in the country. It would be politically beneficial to the New Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and Bloc Quebecois to call for Parliament to hold an investigation into how Haper's government and Mctavish allowed Long to be extradited while telling the people of Canada he was being deported.
Steve Clarke, Federal Liberal candidate for Simcoe North and, last month, he wrote "Gov't can't keep ignoring motion concerning war objectors: Clarke" -- a letter to the editor (Orilla Packet & Times) which resulted in Ralph Moore's letter. Saturday, the paper ran his is "Re: Ralph Moore letter to the editor, 'Candidate's letter challenged by reader':"
I would like to thank Mr. Moore for his letter of July 18 in response to my earlier letter on conscientious objectors. Although I disagree with Moore's opinion on the legality of the Iraq war, I truly welcome honest public debate on important matters such as this one. The unsanctioned invasion of Iraq occurred March 18, 2003, a full seven months before the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1511 to ensure the "restoration of stability and security" in response to the chaos caused by the invasion. The resolution does not and could not provide retroactive exoneration. The fact remains, Stephen Harper would have committed Canada to this illegal war if he were Prime Minister at the time. As for Afghanistan, I would much prefer that Canada was there with our original intention of peace-keeping and reconstruction. However, our troops deserve our full support in this new, combative role, which is sanctioned by the UN. The point of my letter was that the Conservative government must respect the motion on conscientious objectors passed by Parliament. Harper himself said the government has a moral responsibility to respect such motions. This motion is based on an issue of fundamental human rights, and it is downright callous to ignore it. According to an Angus Reid poll conducted June 6 and 7, 2008, after Parliament passed the motion calling on the government to make a provision to allow war resisters to stay in Canada and to cease all deportation and removal proceedings, two-thirds of Canadians want Canada to grant permanent residence status to U. S. Iraq war resisters. The Harper Conservatives are afraid of raising the ire of their ideological cousins in the Republican administration but, ignoring the democratic will of Parliament and the views of the large majority of Canadians will only raise the fury of Canadian voters who want a more progressive government that reflects Canadian values. Steve Clarke, Federal Liberal candidate for Simcoe North
War resisters in Canada need your help. To pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail 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).
Yesterday at the US State Dept, Gonzalo R. Gallegos (the department's "acting deputy" spokesperson) declared, "My understanding -- that the Iraiq parliament did not convene on Sunday. However, it has not yet recessed and lawmakers remain ready to reconvene once a new bill is ready for them to consider. The Iraqi political leaders are continuing to discuss the elections law. Ambassador Crocker and [US] Embassy officials continue to encourage Iraqis to work towards compromise and consensus, and to develop an elections law that will allow for provincial elections this year." Provincial elections. Long postponed. Long said to take place in 2008. Said for most of the year to take place in October. Fell apart last month as the Kirkuk issue split Parliament and led the Kurdish bloc to walk out. Campbell Robertson (New York Times) notes the United Nations is yet again proposing that the issue of oil-rich Kirkuk be tabled. As Robertson appears to explain it, not only would the issue of whether Kirkuk remained with the central government or split off into the Kurdish region be tabled, also tabled would be Kirkuk participating in provincial elections. Conspiracy! That's what AFP reports the Kurdish region's president, Massud Barzani, has called some efforts and quotes him stating, "After the long talks we held it was clear for us that what happened on July 22 was a big conspiracy and very dangerous for the democratic and constitutional process of Iraq, in particular against the Kurds." From the July 22nd snapshot:
Waleed Ibrahim (Reuters) reports today on "a walkout by Kurdish lawmakers over how to deal with the disputed oil city of Kirkuk" with regards to the supposedly upcoming provincial elections and quotes Khalid al-Attiya (Deputy Parliamentary Speaker) stating, "We cannot have a vote with an absence of a whole faction. The vote is useless. It will be rejected by the represenatives of this bloc and by the presidency council." CNN notes the makeup of the presidency council: Jalal Talabani (President, Kurd), Tariq al-Hsahimi (Vice President, Sunni) and Adel Abdul Mahdi (Vice President, Shi'ite) and adds, "Many observers believe Talabani would stand with his Kurdish compatriots and vote against the measure, bringing it back to square one." Kurdish MP Mahmoud Othman is quoted by AP stating, "The draft of the provinical elections law will be referred to the presidential council, which will definitely not approve it. So the elections will be postponed until next year."
If the president of the Kurdish region is upset, you can take that to mean the issue is far from resolved. So it should come as no surprise that today's meeting resulted in nothing. The Iraqi Parliament closed session for the summer last Wednesday (yes, they did Campbell Roberston). They scheduled one special session for Sunday. At that session, nothing was accomplished. Nothing was accomplished yesterday and nothing was accomplished today. Hurriyet notes of Sunday: "A vote had been planned for Sunday but it was scrapped when lawmakers failed to agree on how the elections would affect Kirkuk, which minority Kurds want to make part of their semi-autonomous northern region. Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli called on the country's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in a written statement to warn Iraqi Kurdish groups in Kirkuk more openly and take the necessary measures in order to protect Turkmen's rights. Turkey, who has historical ties with Kirkuk, has been monitoring the situation very closely and calls on all parties to reach consensus for a solution." At the US State Dept yesterday, Gallegos was asked about Recep Erdogan (Turkey's Prime Minister) speaking to Jalal Talabani (Iraq's President) to express concern over Kirkuk being annexed into the Kurdish region and Gallegos responded, "I think we said something about that last week, I believe. And our position is that we believe that this -- now is not the time to be making such a decision. We believe that the parties need to leave themselves open to all appropriate or -- all options in order to come to an understanding so that they can proceed with provincial elections this fall."
Strange wasn't it? How the United Nations pitched to Iraq just what the US favored? As Hurriyet noted, "Iraqi political leaders reached a tentative compromise on Monday" and were due to debate it again today. UPI explains, "The Iraqi Parliament adjourned its Tuesday session without reaching an agreement on provisions in the election law regarding the status of the city of Kirkuk. Shahied al-Jaberi with the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance said lawmakers opted to postpone the issue until the Wednesday session because lawmakers could not agree on the Kirkuk issue, Voices of Iraq reported." They also note Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, Parliamentary Speaker, even arranged for the time alloted for debate to be extended but that resulted in nothing as well. Iran's Press TV reveals that, should the measure pass, "Elections in Kirkuk would also be postponed until no later than December 2009." BBC reports that "a Turkmen representative, said a delay [in Kirkuk voting] was unacceptable." China's Xinhua quotes Parliament's Deputy Speaker Khalid al-Attiyah, "The parliament session to approve the provincial election law has been delayed until tomorrow." Ned Parker Said Riifai (Los Angeles Times) point out, "The deadlock also prevented a vote by parliament on a $21-billion supplemental budget. The crisis has marked the first time that elements of one of the most prominent Shiite Muslim parties, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, have broken with the Kurds, their traditional allies."
Meanwhile Bully Boy faces a fresh onslaught of charges that he lied the world into an illegal war. Tim Reid and Sam Coates (Times of London) report that Ron Suskind's latest book (The Way of the World) includes details such as
* British intelligence (specifically M16) was informed that Iraq had no WMD in January 2003, that then Prime Minister Tony Blair was informed of that and that Poodle Blair passed it on to Bully Boy.
*That the CIA was ordered by the White House to create a forgery "from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Huseein" in order to falsely tie Iraq to 9-11.
Bill Plante (CBS News -- link has text and video) reports: "The book alleges that Habbush, Saddam's intelligence chief, was in CIA protective custody after the 2003 invasion, that the White House ordered CIA officials to have [Tahir Jalil] Habbush [al-Tikriti] write and backdate the letter, and paid him $5 million. The author quotes two former CIA officials who claim to have seen a draft of the letter on White House stationery." Interestingly (but not surprisingly) the Guardian of London is AVOIDING this story. That's only a surprise for anyone that confuses that RAT-TRAP with actual journalism. The Guardian sold the illegal war in England. When the Times of London exposed the Downing Street Memos, the Guardian refused to cover it. The Guardian is the DLC party organ in England. It is not journalism, it is not a newspaper. You have MPs in England saying that there needs to be an investigation and you have . . . silence from the Guardian. Never confuse that outlet with journalism.
Ali al-Mashhadani is a real journalist practicing real journalism. As noted in the July 31st snapshot, he is being imprisoned by the US military with no charges against him. The Committee to Protect Journalists has released a statement:U.S. military authorities should present charges against a Reuters cameraman detained since last Tuesday, or they should release him immediately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. [. . .] A spokeswoman for the Multi-National Forces-Iraq told CPJ that al-Mashhadani was detained because he posed a security risk and that his case would be reviewed within a seven-day period that began on July 29. "This is the third time U.S. forces have detained Ali al-Mashhadani without charge," said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. "The military has never substantiated any wrongdoing by him. The authorities must make evidence against him public or release him immediately."
Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 2 Baghdad roadside bombings that left five people wounded.
Shootings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports an attack on "Awakening" Council members in Kirkuk that left 3 of them dead.
Corpses?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 corpse discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes a corpse was found in Mosul today.
For those keeping score (and you should be) the deaths of 2 US soldiers from a Baghdad bombing Monday was covered in print by Ned Parker and Said Rifai's "Roadside bomb kills 2 U.S. soldiers in Baghdad" (Los Angeles Times) and Sudarsan Raghavan's "Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Baghdad Bombings" (Washington Post). The New York Times did not think it was news. That's five since Saturday according to ICCC.
Turning to the Undead -- it's got to be the only reason he's still around. Aging boy-toy Hank Kissinger shows up in the Khaleej Times to dish -- and with nary a starlet around. Kissinger who sold and re-sold an earlier illegal war sometimes makes sense -- sometimes that's insane sense, sometimes . . . Today he declares of withdrawals from Iraq, "Under the fixed withdrawal scheme, combat troops are to be withdrawn, but sufficient forces are to remain to protect the American Embassy, fight a resumption of Al Qaeda and contribute to the defence against outside intervention. But such tasks require combat, not support forces, and the foreseeable controversy about the elusive distinction will distract from the overall diplomatic goal." Yes, he has noted the problem. Those are combat troops whether you call them "combat" or something else. Where he's wrong is when he claims that there's no need for a fixed withdrawal. (Mass killings are and have always been Viagra for Hank.) But that's the reality of Barack's plan that supposed 'peace' 'leaders' don't want to face. It's not withdrawal. It was never withdrawal. Maybe with Kissinger pointing it out, it will finally register. In other news of presumed Democratic presidential nominee and presumed narcissist Barack Obama, US News & World Reports offers an exhuastive round-up of the reaction to his latest cave
A widely-distributed AP story also says Obama's proposal "includes two significant reversals of positions he has taken in the past," noting that "as recently as last month" he "argued against tapping into the petroleum reserve," while USA Today reports Obama's proposals include "two reversals of positions he has taken in the past." A widely-syndicated McClatchy pieces is titled, "In Another Switch, Obama Calls For Tapping U.S. Oil Reserve," and says "Obama's revised position on a key energy issue was his second shift in three days." Likewise, the New York Times titles its piece, "Obama, In Shift, Urges Tapping Oil From U.S. Reserve."However, the Wall Street Journal reports that Obama aides defended the move, saying Obama "had met with economic advisers and business leaders in Washington last week, and they had advised him to call for tapping the government reserve." The New York Daily News adds, "Team Obama cast the proposal as a 'refinement,' rather than a flip-flop, on Obama's previous opposition to tapping the 770-million barrel reserve."In an editorial, the San Francisco Chronicle says that Sen. Obama's "energy policy is offering more flip flops than a Lake Tahoe souvenir stand." The New York Post editorializes, "One more week, one more Barack Obama reversal on a key issue. Actually, make that two reversals. ... So much for principles."
Turning to independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader. As Ruth pointed out yesterday, "AP reports today that Mr. Nader's campaign will turn in signatures tomorrow to qualify for South Dakota's ballot. Lebanon Daily News reports that Mr. Nader should be on Pennsylvania's ballot because the campaign has collected 24,666 signatures (the deadline is Friday). Jesse A. Hamilton (Hartford Courant) reports that the Nader-Gonzalez ticket picked up the nomination of California's Peace and Freedom Party ('carrying with it an automatic slot on the California election ballot') and contains this statement from the Nader campaign, 'There can no longer be any justification -- if there ever was -- for Ralph Nader not being included in every national poll'." Foon Rhee (Boston Globe) noted the Nader campaign's plans for the week includes garnering "the November ballots of seven states". Tim Carpenter (Capitol-Journal) reports that "Kansas is the 22nd state in which Nader's forces filed papers since his campaign began in February." Richard Winger (Ballot Access News) reports Nader is now on the ballot in Michigan. AP notes the campaign plans to file for the ballot today in South Dakota. Meanwhile John Geluardi (San Francisco Weekly) covers the College of Marin campaign stop Sunday by Nader and running mate Matt Gonzalez with Gonzalez asking the large crowd assembled, "How is he [Barack] going to 'change' the culture of Washington if he can't stand up to those corporations?" Nader's remarks included, "We now grow up corporate. When you start looking at ads when you're two, three, four years old, pretty soon the world is Madison Avenue. Then in college it's computer skills, computer skill, computer skills. What about civic skills? Young people think they live in a Democracy because they can vote for American Idol."
Finally, from Team Nader:
Only two days left in our Win Dinner with Ralph E-mail Contest.
Many thousands of you have signed on.
And a select few of you are competing for the grand prize of a dinner with Ralph.
This morning, Ramy Mousa from Baton Rouge, Louisiana tops the leader board with 263 friends that have joined our network.
But many more thousands of you haven't even played.
So, we'd like you to try it.
You bring us the e-mails of your friends, neighbors and countrymen.
We feed them up-to-the minute breaking news about the two corporate candidates - Obama and McCain - and the growing challenge by Nader and Gonzalez.
Nader/Gonzalez is an unconventional campaign, in many ways.
One, there is no national convention.
We're running as independents.
Two, we have a broad range of support.
Take Iggy Pup here, for example.
We asked Iggy.
Iggy, who ya going vote for?
Iggy, being on our e-mail list, knew that Nader/Gonzalez would shift the power from the corporations back into the hands of the people.
Check out Iggy's answer in this just released Nader/Gonzalez video.
But it's not enough for Iggy to be plugged in.
Or for you to be plugged in.
We have to spread the word far and wide.
And one way to do it is to build our network of supporters.
Just bring us five new e-mails, and you can be part of a special invite-only conference phone call with Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez.
But you have to get going.
The contest ends the day after tomorrow - Thursday August 7 - at 11:59 PM on the West coast.
There are other great prizes.
But most importantly, you'll be helping us spread the word.
About the candidacy that will stand up to the two corporate parties in November.
So, help us out - find five people right now that will join our network of supporters.
Click here to get started.
If you are already in the game, thank you.
You can track your ranking on our leader board.
Find more friends and family and colleagues, and watch yourself move on up.
We'll be announcing the winners in a week or so.
Thank you for joining.
Together, we are making a difference.
Onward.
iraqrobin long
the washington postsudarsan raghavansaid rifaithe los angeles timesned parkercampbell robertsonthe new york times
tim carpenterjohn geluardirichard winger
u.s. news & world reports