Revised & Updated 9/6/05.
By Jack Random
Hurricane Katrina streaked across the southern Florida peninsula, turned north and marked a path to the heart of New Orleans. At the last possible moment, with catastrophic predictions filling the airwaves, it veered east, striking Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi.
At first report, it seemed New Orleans, jewel of the south, was spared the full force of nature’s unnatural wrath. St. Bernard’s parish and the ninth ward were subsumed under ten feet of water, power was out, and the damage to homes, businesses and structures was substantial but on the night of August 29 we were confident that the very survival of the city of jazz was not in question.
We were concerned for all the victims in the path of the hurricane. The forces that spared New Orleans had brought death and destruction elsewhere but we were confident that our government would provide sufficient aid and assistance, knowing that they could not fail in the hour of greatest need. Our politicians are good at confronting a crisis. It is one of the blessings of democracy that they cannot ignore the people in a televised disaster.
By the time we awakened on the morning of August 30, we were stricken, paralyzed, horrified by what we saw. Our government had utterly failed to answer the call and New Orleans was under siege. The levees had broken. Eighty percent of the city was submerged. We were told that martial law had been declared. There was no order and no relief. The nation and much of the world began to cry and our tears would not end for seven days and nights.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the city of New Orleans for she has won the undying devotion of every man and woman who has known her embrace, however briefly, and she is dying before our unbelieving eyes.
If you are a praying person, pray for the homeless, the destitute and the stubborn defenders of New Orleans. Pray for the birthplace of jazz, for a culture of tolerance that predates the American nation by a hundred years. Pray for Bourbon Street, Jackson Square, the St. Louis Cemetery and the tomb of Marie Laveaux. Pray for a city of a million unfathomable contradictions and mysteries, city of light and darkness, city of hope and despair, city of faith and godlessness, city of passion and unholy calm, city of blues and ragtime, city of jazz. City of jazz.
Of all the cities in America, New Orleans is the most ancient and the most international. It is a blend of French, Caribbean and southern cultures. It is where slavery was practiced ruthlessly and where former slaves were allowed to flourish. It is where every artist and musician must go to reveal the soul. It is where Robert Johnson, Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton and Louie Armstrong learned their trade.
If you have never been to New Orleans, you may never know what you have missed. We can only pray that she will rise again and that the world’s generosity will not end when the cameras are turned away. We have always known that the sea would someday swallow her whole, that the French Quarter would become a pictorial memory, that the shores of Lake Pontchartrain would no longer be distinguishable, that the triumph, the glory, the profound gloom and sorrow of this mystical American treasure would be swept away. We just did not know that it would come so soon.
New Orleans may be a doomed city. Like Venice, Italy, doomed by its geography and the indifference of world governments to global warming, to melting glaciers, to altered ocean currents: We should have seen it coming. We should have recognized the signs years, decades ago, while there was still time to act. Some of us, in fact, did.
Tragically, it seems it may be America’s turn to pay the price of global climate change. We have listened to the mainstream experts. They avoid the phrase “global warming” but they cannot but acknowledge that it is the rising temperature of the Gulf that has precipitated this season of severe storms. It will not end with Katrina and Katrina does not begin to compare with the devastation of the Indian Ocean tsunami. What more will we require to transform sympathy into action?
When there was still time, we should have done so much more. America was late in acknowledging the problem, late in accepting the human contribution, and even now, we stand virtually alone in refusing to sign on to the first modest effort to confront inevitable catastrophe (the Kyoto Accord). It is not too late to accept the challenge but I fear it is too late to avert a chain of tragedy.
For now, we can only pray that the damage can be alleviated and that we can recover the living, breathing miracle of creation that is New Orleans for another generation. We can pray that we have not lost forever the sacred womb of a nation and the sweetest, most enchanting of lovers the world will ever know.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS).
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Thursday, September 01, 2005
The Reckoning: Bush Summons WWII while The Easy Drowns
By Jack Random
While all eyes were on the unfolding disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, our president was comparing the Iraq war to World War II and the Marines were dropping two 500-pound bombs on suspected insurgents on the Iraqi-Syrian border. Iraqis claimed they hit civilians.
Is this what they call “precision bombing”?
If Iraq is World War II, then this was another chapter in the bombing of Dresden.
If you believe in spiritual forces – whether it is karma, the life force, a supreme goddess or an almighty god – then it is not difficult to perceive these events as mother earth’s revenge.
The overhead camera reveals a wide path of destruction, shattered homes, decimated lives, terrified people, rising waters, looting and price gouging, fear and lawlessness.
For a moment, it seemed that the war had come home. Gulfport and Biloxi were reduced to rubble and New Orleans was under siege.
Where was the National Guard as New Orleans was transformed into a third world country, reminiscent of Baghdad after the American liberation? I recalled Donald Rumsfeld’s pronouncement that you had to expect a little looting in a free society.
Meantime, President George W. Bush was in California, addressing yet another subdued military audience, instructing the brave and the dutiful that their cause was noble and supreme – not another Vietnam but another World War II march against fascist imperialism.
Meantime, the National Guard was at the wrong Gulf – the Persian Gulf – when it was needed at home.
The president graciously conceded to cut his vacation short. He would return to Washington with a little detour in the war zone of Louisiana. The Republican governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, went on record asking him to stay away. We need the Guard to protect the nation in a time of need. We do not need a presidential photo op. The president’s job is to reassure the nation, not to interfere in an ongoing rescue mission.
Go back to Crawford, Mr. President. No one still believes that you are anything but a front man, a grade B actor, who refuses to confront a grieving mother before the eyes of the world because the people will perceive what we already know: Cindy Sheehan is more eloquent, more knowledgeable, more compassionate and infinitely more sincere than the supreme commander of the greatest power on earth.
So George the diminutive wishes to invite a comparison of Iraq to World War II. Whom does he think he is kidding? There are parallels but they are not favorable to the current American president. Dubya is no FDR and Saddam Hussein is no Adolph Hitler. He was lured into attacking Kuwait (by cross-drilling, Kuwaiti belligerence and America’s implied consent) and subsequently hammered by the most powerful military force on earth. At the time of war’s inception, he was a threat to no one.
It is time to stop the pretense, the imperial charade. We need our troops at home now. We need the hundreds of billions of dollars we have squandered and continue to squander in a war can never “win” regardless of its resolution. The Iraqis will never yield the oil and they will never accept our military presence. We can only extend the misery, the needless dying and destruction. We have destroyed their nation and we can never make amends.
Bring the soldiers home now when we need them. Accept that the Iraqis must decide the shape and form of their own government. Accept that we cannot possess Iraqi oil and we cannot establish Iraq as an American fortress.
Too many lives have already been lost to the horrors of a failed ideology of conquest. We need the Guard and our resources to provide for our own citizens. We need to join the community of nations not as master but as partner. We need the world to be as one in the coming days of tragedy.
In many horrifying and disturbing ways, Hurricane Katrina has brought the war home. Let us finally be wise enough to recognize the signs.
There are far greater enemies we must confront than petty dictators like Saddam Hussein. We are now confronted with the angry forces of nature. We have pumped the earth, air and water so full of toxic poisons that now we must face the inevitable consequences. We cannot confront them alone.
There is no more time for war and occupations.
It is time for the reckoning.
The sooner we accept the challenge, the better.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS).
While all eyes were on the unfolding disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, our president was comparing the Iraq war to World War II and the Marines were dropping two 500-pound bombs on suspected insurgents on the Iraqi-Syrian border. Iraqis claimed they hit civilians.
Is this what they call “precision bombing”?
If Iraq is World War II, then this was another chapter in the bombing of Dresden.
If you believe in spiritual forces – whether it is karma, the life force, a supreme goddess or an almighty god – then it is not difficult to perceive these events as mother earth’s revenge.
The overhead camera reveals a wide path of destruction, shattered homes, decimated lives, terrified people, rising waters, looting and price gouging, fear and lawlessness.
For a moment, it seemed that the war had come home. Gulfport and Biloxi were reduced to rubble and New Orleans was under siege.
Where was the National Guard as New Orleans was transformed into a third world country, reminiscent of Baghdad after the American liberation? I recalled Donald Rumsfeld’s pronouncement that you had to expect a little looting in a free society.
Meantime, President George W. Bush was in California, addressing yet another subdued military audience, instructing the brave and the dutiful that their cause was noble and supreme – not another Vietnam but another World War II march against fascist imperialism.
Meantime, the National Guard was at the wrong Gulf – the Persian Gulf – when it was needed at home.
The president graciously conceded to cut his vacation short. He would return to Washington with a little detour in the war zone of Louisiana. The Republican governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, went on record asking him to stay away. We need the Guard to protect the nation in a time of need. We do not need a presidential photo op. The president’s job is to reassure the nation, not to interfere in an ongoing rescue mission.
Go back to Crawford, Mr. President. No one still believes that you are anything but a front man, a grade B actor, who refuses to confront a grieving mother before the eyes of the world because the people will perceive what we already know: Cindy Sheehan is more eloquent, more knowledgeable, more compassionate and infinitely more sincere than the supreme commander of the greatest power on earth.
So George the diminutive wishes to invite a comparison of Iraq to World War II. Whom does he think he is kidding? There are parallels but they are not favorable to the current American president. Dubya is no FDR and Saddam Hussein is no Adolph Hitler. He was lured into attacking Kuwait (by cross-drilling, Kuwaiti belligerence and America’s implied consent) and subsequently hammered by the most powerful military force on earth. At the time of war’s inception, he was a threat to no one.
It is time to stop the pretense, the imperial charade. We need our troops at home now. We need the hundreds of billions of dollars we have squandered and continue to squander in a war can never “win” regardless of its resolution. The Iraqis will never yield the oil and they will never accept our military presence. We can only extend the misery, the needless dying and destruction. We have destroyed their nation and we can never make amends.
Bring the soldiers home now when we need them. Accept that the Iraqis must decide the shape and form of their own government. Accept that we cannot possess Iraqi oil and we cannot establish Iraq as an American fortress.
Too many lives have already been lost to the horrors of a failed ideology of conquest. We need the Guard and our resources to provide for our own citizens. We need to join the community of nations not as master but as partner. We need the world to be as one in the coming days of tragedy.
In many horrifying and disturbing ways, Hurricane Katrina has brought the war home. Let us finally be wise enough to recognize the signs.
There are far greater enemies we must confront than petty dictators like Saddam Hussein. We are now confronted with the angry forces of nature. We have pumped the earth, air and water so full of toxic poisons that now we must face the inevitable consequences. We cannot confront them alone.
There is no more time for war and occupations.
It is time for the reckoning.
The sooner we accept the challenge, the better.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS).
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Bear Butte: Sacred Ground
From: Carter Camp [mailto:cartercamp@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 11:29 PM
To: Sovereign Nations
Subject: Protect Bear Butte!
It has taken me several days to get over some of the outrage and shock I felt when I read the letter from a Sturgis bar owner saying he planned to open a giant, biker bar and "Buffalo Chip" style entertainment venue beside our sacred mountain Bear Butte. Now my outrage has turned to anger and a determination to do something to fight this desecration.
Often native people in this state need to educate their white neighbors when they offend or insult us without malicious intent to do so. We recognize that it is hard for some people to understand that in our beliefs "places" can be sacred and not to be defiled or that Bear Butte is foremost amongst them.
But this is not so with the developer in question, as a local man he knows very well that Indian people from around the country pilgrimage to pray at Bear Butte yearly. Over thirty of our Nations hold Bear Butte sacred and inviolate. By choosing the name "Sacred Ground" for his planned scene of noise and debauchery, Mr. Allen has personally slapped the face of every warrior of every Nation that holds Bear Butte sacred. I am sure there will be a response. I wonder if Mr. Allen knows how many Tribes have purchased property near the sacred mountain and will be his neighbors. Indians have bought land and pay taxes on it without fanfare just to have a quiet place and access to the sacred places.
Some have said in your newspaper that building and noise around the sacred mountain is "inevitable". I beg to differ, it may be rare but I believe sometimes the will of a minority will be heard in America and greed can be subverted. It may be that cooler heads and patient explanations by traditional Indian people can persuade him to withdraw the proposal. I hope so because if they can not it is my considered opinion that Mr. Allen and the State of South Dakota will witness the largest clash of cultures since 1973.
There are many places in America where sacred and/or historical places are preserved by a green zone or buffer zone against unwanted developments interfering with the nature of the place or experience. Only greed can deny Bear Butte the same respect and care. It is long past time that all further development be put on hold until the preservation of all aspects of maintaining Bear Butte can be considered (including tolerable noise and traffic levels) to preserve what is left of a sacred environment.
I call on the State and County to close Highway 79 between SD Hwys 34 and 212 during the Sturgis Bike Rally and that alternate routes be found or constructed. I further call on the State to limit public access to the mountain during June so ceremonies can take place on the sacred mountain.
Over the last few years a grassroots organization called the "Defenders of the Black Hills" led the struggle to stop the illegal placement of an unacceptably noisy shooting range a few miles from the sacred mountain.
Although I cannot speak for them, as a founding member I intend to ask that stopping this development be placed very high on our agenda at the next meeting. It may take lawsuits, or national boycotts of "Broken Spoke Saloons", it may take protests and letter writing, it may once more take much sacrifice on the part of our people but it is a struggle we must take on if we are to survive as whole people and Nations.
The good thing out of this bad news is that Mr. Allen's plan has offended every Indian person in South Dakota and the entire Great Plains area. We must unite as never before to crush this proposal and stop any future attacks on our real "Sacred Grounds", our beloved mountain. In this fight, Teton Lakota and Cheyenne warriors can struggle alongside Crow, Shoshoni and Mandan, Blackfoot, Ojibway and Arikara. Ponca like me can join with Pawnee, Otoe, Kaw, Osage, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne and Arapahoe who journey here from exile in Oklahoma to maintain our ties to the sacred mountain. We must call on our Tribal Governments for support and the whole world for assistance in this effort. We must enlist the many resources of Indian Country to beat back this obscene development proposal and enact protective laws to protect her. On this we must stake our sashes to the ground. On this we cannot fail!
Carter Camp, Ponca Nation
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 11:29 PM
To: Sovereign Nations
Subject: Protect Bear Butte!
It has taken me several days to get over some of the outrage and shock I felt when I read the letter from a Sturgis bar owner saying he planned to open a giant, biker bar and "Buffalo Chip" style entertainment venue beside our sacred mountain Bear Butte. Now my outrage has turned to anger and a determination to do something to fight this desecration.
Often native people in this state need to educate their white neighbors when they offend or insult us without malicious intent to do so. We recognize that it is hard for some people to understand that in our beliefs "places" can be sacred and not to be defiled or that Bear Butte is foremost amongst them.
But this is not so with the developer in question, as a local man he knows very well that Indian people from around the country pilgrimage to pray at Bear Butte yearly. Over thirty of our Nations hold Bear Butte sacred and inviolate. By choosing the name "Sacred Ground" for his planned scene of noise and debauchery, Mr. Allen has personally slapped the face of every warrior of every Nation that holds Bear Butte sacred. I am sure there will be a response. I wonder if Mr. Allen knows how many Tribes have purchased property near the sacred mountain and will be his neighbors. Indians have bought land and pay taxes on it without fanfare just to have a quiet place and access to the sacred places.
Some have said in your newspaper that building and noise around the sacred mountain is "inevitable". I beg to differ, it may be rare but I believe sometimes the will of a minority will be heard in America and greed can be subverted. It may be that cooler heads and patient explanations by traditional Indian people can persuade him to withdraw the proposal. I hope so because if they can not it is my considered opinion that Mr. Allen and the State of South Dakota will witness the largest clash of cultures since 1973.
There are many places in America where sacred and/or historical places are preserved by a green zone or buffer zone against unwanted developments interfering with the nature of the place or experience. Only greed can deny Bear Butte the same respect and care. It is long past time that all further development be put on hold until the preservation of all aspects of maintaining Bear Butte can be considered (including tolerable noise and traffic levels) to preserve what is left of a sacred environment.
I call on the State and County to close Highway 79 between SD Hwys 34 and 212 during the Sturgis Bike Rally and that alternate routes be found or constructed. I further call on the State to limit public access to the mountain during June so ceremonies can take place on the sacred mountain.
Over the last few years a grassroots organization called the "Defenders of the Black Hills" led the struggle to stop the illegal placement of an unacceptably noisy shooting range a few miles from the sacred mountain.
Although I cannot speak for them, as a founding member I intend to ask that stopping this development be placed very high on our agenda at the next meeting. It may take lawsuits, or national boycotts of "Broken Spoke Saloons", it may take protests and letter writing, it may once more take much sacrifice on the part of our people but it is a struggle we must take on if we are to survive as whole people and Nations.
The good thing out of this bad news is that Mr. Allen's plan has offended every Indian person in South Dakota and the entire Great Plains area. We must unite as never before to crush this proposal and stop any future attacks on our real "Sacred Grounds", our beloved mountain. In this fight, Teton Lakota and Cheyenne warriors can struggle alongside Crow, Shoshoni and Mandan, Blackfoot, Ojibway and Arikara. Ponca like me can join with Pawnee, Otoe, Kaw, Osage, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne and Arapahoe who journey here from exile in Oklahoma to maintain our ties to the sacred mountain. We must call on our Tribal Governments for support and the whole world for assistance in this effort. We must enlist the many resources of Indian Country to beat back this obscene development proposal and enact protective laws to protect her. On this we must stake our sashes to the ground. On this we cannot fail!
Carter Camp, Ponca Nation
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
The Chavez Exchange, Final Entry
(3rd & final entry in an exchange regarding Hugo Chavez & The Slug)
Good points, Jack. You can't necessarily be guilty by association. However, there is a disconnect here between what Chavez says about America -- "the most savage empire that has ever existed" and praise for Castro and Mao. It doesn't compute. Chavez sinks waist-deep in a bed of hypocritical quicksand. While America did get in bed with unsavory characters, no American President ever held their society up as a model we should follow. Not so Chavez with Cuba or Maoist China. It's clear he believes Cuba is a great society and model for the Latin American world. The fact that Fidel has never been elected by the Cuban people to do anything is a non-issue for Chavez. That's deeply troubling.
I'm also reading troubling stories about new legislation that prohibits "insulting a government official". Who is going to decide what is criticism and what is an insult? That's censorship, and it's a law that can be used to intimidate anyone who writes something Chavez doesn't like. There is also evidence Cuban intelligence officers are now working in the country, helping identify potential enemies of Chavez. He also seems to have complete autonomy to spend the country's oil wealth (or give it away) as he sees fit, without so much as a vote in parliament. Others have pointed to Chavez savaging of property rights. Such a move would trigger a revolt in our democracy. If land reform was necessary, it seems to me Chavez could have chosen a path that respected the rights of existing owners. The Brazilian President has commented privately that Chavez is an "unconscious authoritarian" -- I think that's probably a good way to define him, but it's also ominous.
Hitler analogies are vastly overused, and I wouldn't presume to compare Chavez to Hitler, but the conditions of a very popular President who turned a country around at the expense of their civil liberties has happened before.
The country has had a majority of poor -- long neglected. Chavez is the first President to put their interests first. If I were living in the barrios, I wouldn't care either if free speech and property rights were trampled on -- in the short run. In the long run, I might want to be one of those property owners myself. I'd wake up someday with an authoritarian government I might be sick of, but no way to get rid of.
As you say, we'll see. If Chavez busied himself running his country without trying to ruin mine, I wouldn't be so militant in pointing out his obvious flaws. America is not Chavez enemy, but he has made it clear that he is ours, and that means I'm going to watch every move he makes.
Brook
[Editor’s Note: This was posted to complete an exchange regarding Hugo Chavez and Pat Robertson’s call for his assassination. The writer’s point of view is his own. For those who require refutation, see the original commentary on Dissident Voice 8/27/05 or a new article posted on Common Dreams 8/29/05, “Hugo Chavez: A Walk in the Footsteps of Arbenz & Allende” by Dr. Rosa Maria Pegueros: www.commondreams.org. Viva Chavez!]
Good points, Jack. You can't necessarily be guilty by association. However, there is a disconnect here between what Chavez says about America -- "the most savage empire that has ever existed" and praise for Castro and Mao. It doesn't compute. Chavez sinks waist-deep in a bed of hypocritical quicksand. While America did get in bed with unsavory characters, no American President ever held their society up as a model we should follow. Not so Chavez with Cuba or Maoist China. It's clear he believes Cuba is a great society and model for the Latin American world. The fact that Fidel has never been elected by the Cuban people to do anything is a non-issue for Chavez. That's deeply troubling.
I'm also reading troubling stories about new legislation that prohibits "insulting a government official". Who is going to decide what is criticism and what is an insult? That's censorship, and it's a law that can be used to intimidate anyone who writes something Chavez doesn't like. There is also evidence Cuban intelligence officers are now working in the country, helping identify potential enemies of Chavez. He also seems to have complete autonomy to spend the country's oil wealth (or give it away) as he sees fit, without so much as a vote in parliament. Others have pointed to Chavez savaging of property rights. Such a move would trigger a revolt in our democracy. If land reform was necessary, it seems to me Chavez could have chosen a path that respected the rights of existing owners. The Brazilian President has commented privately that Chavez is an "unconscious authoritarian" -- I think that's probably a good way to define him, but it's also ominous.
Hitler analogies are vastly overused, and I wouldn't presume to compare Chavez to Hitler, but the conditions of a very popular President who turned a country around at the expense of their civil liberties has happened before.
The country has had a majority of poor -- long neglected. Chavez is the first President to put their interests first. If I were living in the barrios, I wouldn't care either if free speech and property rights were trampled on -- in the short run. In the long run, I might want to be one of those property owners myself. I'd wake up someday with an authoritarian government I might be sick of, but no way to get rid of.
As you say, we'll see. If Chavez busied himself running his country without trying to ruin mine, I wouldn't be so militant in pointing out his obvious flaws. America is not Chavez enemy, but he has made it clear that he is ours, and that means I'm going to watch every move he makes.
Brook
[Editor’s Note: This was posted to complete an exchange regarding Hugo Chavez and Pat Robertson’s call for his assassination. The writer’s point of view is his own. For those who require refutation, see the original commentary on Dissident Voice 8/27/05 or a new article posted on Common Dreams 8/29/05, “Hugo Chavez: A Walk in the Footsteps of Arbenz & Allende” by Dr. Rosa Maria Pegueros: www.commondreams.org. Viva Chavez!]
Monday, August 29, 2005
The Chavez Exchange, Continued
(A Response to a Commentary posted on Dissident Voice 8/27/05)
Jack,
You didn't keep up with the news during Chavez recent visit to China. His praise of Mao was well documented. Here's a link to the news report that many services picked up.
http://dailynews.muzi.com/ll/english/1342232.shtml
This statement, coupled with Chavez recent "revolutionary democracy" Cuban rant, should worry every Venezuelan citizen. Mao was one of the worst leaders of the 20th Century responsible for the deaths of millions of his own people from starvation and the brutal occupation and rape of Tibet -- a peaceful Buddhist country -- still illegally occupied today, while the world turns a blind eye. Chavez is running around the world talking about things he doesn't even know about.
What it demonstrates is that Chavez favors his ideology above democracy and civil liberties. When you're fawning over authoritarian dictators and never utter a single word of criticism or call for greater civil liberties in their nations what other conclusion can you come to? He's also now jumping in bed with Iran, which is not only brutally repressive, they are viciously anti-socialist. They rounded all the socialist/Marxists up and shot them after their revolution.
Look, the bottom line here is that it doesn't matter what we do, until we achieve a sustainable birth rate on this planet, we're always going to have desperately poor people. This is the elephant in the room nobody wants to talk about. Yemen, the poorest Arab nation has an average 6 children per household. Latin American birth rates are not far behind. These are people who can't even feed one child having 6 or 7. Unless your economy is growing at greater than 10% a year, there's no way you'll ever keep up. While the Chinese model is certainly Draconian, it's estimated their one-child policy has reduced their population by 250 million people in the past 15 years. That's a staggering statistic. This is where I'm placing my emphasis. I want social justice too, but we need to talk about social responsibility at the same time. Otherwise, we're whistling in the wind.
Brook
RANDOM RESPONSE:
I concede the point. According to Reuters (a very reputable source), Chavez “declared himself to have been a Maoist from the time he was a child.”
I confess I find that declaration troubling. I can only surmise that Chavez either does not believe the history of brutal repression under Mao or he has distinguished between the words of Mao (quite pleasing) and his actions (quite disturbing).
Nevertheless, sympathy for Mao on the matter of socialism does not support the notion that Chavez is anti-democratic. Do not confuse economic and political theories. Chavez is, after all, an avowed Bolivarian – and that is definitive democracy.
On this matter, I must offer something of a retraction: I am to some extent a defender of socialism in that I believe that economies function best when a balance is struck between the dynamics of capitalism and the ideals of socialism. As an objective observer, you will concede that the American system is such a hybrid. Unbridled American capitalism led to repeated collapse until FDR struck a balance with the New Deal. That balance has been under constant attack since the Reagan administration – including the policy initiative of Bill Clinton.
While it appears we have wandered from the topic at hand, your attacks on Hugo Chavez do not support the conclusion that he favors an ideology “above democracy and civil liberties.” (If he moves against either, I will be among the first to challenge him.) Your case is built on guilt by association. If you apply the same logic to American foreign policy, your attack would be vicious indeed. What you do not discuss is the overwhelming support of the Venezuelan people for their elected leader and his determined efforts to lift the masses from dire poverty in an oil-rich nation.
Time and an unbiased reading of history will reveal who is right and who is wrong. For now, I will remain a defender of Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian revolution.
The key to understanding American engagement in Latin America and throughout the world is that it is guided not by an ideology of freedom, justice or democracy, but by an overriding economics of exploitation.
I have enjoyed this exchange but I think it is time to post it and move on. There is a war going on. If you would like the final word, I will post that as well (within the bounds of decency).
I agree with your bottom line concern about a sustainable birthrate. Perhaps we have found common ground.
Peace,
Random
P.S. I would welcome your opinion on the war.
Jack,
You didn't keep up with the news during Chavez recent visit to China. His praise of Mao was well documented. Here's a link to the news report that many services picked up.
http://dailynews.muzi.com/ll/english/1342232.shtml
This statement, coupled with Chavez recent "revolutionary democracy" Cuban rant, should worry every Venezuelan citizen. Mao was one of the worst leaders of the 20th Century responsible for the deaths of millions of his own people from starvation and the brutal occupation and rape of Tibet -- a peaceful Buddhist country -- still illegally occupied today, while the world turns a blind eye. Chavez is running around the world talking about things he doesn't even know about.
What it demonstrates is that Chavez favors his ideology above democracy and civil liberties. When you're fawning over authoritarian dictators and never utter a single word of criticism or call for greater civil liberties in their nations what other conclusion can you come to? He's also now jumping in bed with Iran, which is not only brutally repressive, they are viciously anti-socialist. They rounded all the socialist/Marxists up and shot them after their revolution.
Look, the bottom line here is that it doesn't matter what we do, until we achieve a sustainable birth rate on this planet, we're always going to have desperately poor people. This is the elephant in the room nobody wants to talk about. Yemen, the poorest Arab nation has an average 6 children per household. Latin American birth rates are not far behind. These are people who can't even feed one child having 6 or 7. Unless your economy is growing at greater than 10% a year, there's no way you'll ever keep up. While the Chinese model is certainly Draconian, it's estimated their one-child policy has reduced their population by 250 million people in the past 15 years. That's a staggering statistic. This is where I'm placing my emphasis. I want social justice too, but we need to talk about social responsibility at the same time. Otherwise, we're whistling in the wind.
Brook
RANDOM RESPONSE:
I concede the point. According to Reuters (a very reputable source), Chavez “declared himself to have been a Maoist from the time he was a child.”
I confess I find that declaration troubling. I can only surmise that Chavez either does not believe the history of brutal repression under Mao or he has distinguished between the words of Mao (quite pleasing) and his actions (quite disturbing).
Nevertheless, sympathy for Mao on the matter of socialism does not support the notion that Chavez is anti-democratic. Do not confuse economic and political theories. Chavez is, after all, an avowed Bolivarian – and that is definitive democracy.
On this matter, I must offer something of a retraction: I am to some extent a defender of socialism in that I believe that economies function best when a balance is struck between the dynamics of capitalism and the ideals of socialism. As an objective observer, you will concede that the American system is such a hybrid. Unbridled American capitalism led to repeated collapse until FDR struck a balance with the New Deal. That balance has been under constant attack since the Reagan administration – including the policy initiative of Bill Clinton.
While it appears we have wandered from the topic at hand, your attacks on Hugo Chavez do not support the conclusion that he favors an ideology “above democracy and civil liberties.” (If he moves against either, I will be among the first to challenge him.) Your case is built on guilt by association. If you apply the same logic to American foreign policy, your attack would be vicious indeed. What you do not discuss is the overwhelming support of the Venezuelan people for their elected leader and his determined efforts to lift the masses from dire poverty in an oil-rich nation.
Time and an unbiased reading of history will reveal who is right and who is wrong. For now, I will remain a defender of Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian revolution.
The key to understanding American engagement in Latin America and throughout the world is that it is guided not by an ideology of freedom, justice or democracy, but by an overriding economics of exploitation.
I have enjoyed this exchange but I think it is time to post it and move on. There is a war going on. If you would like the final word, I will post that as well (within the bounds of decency).
I agree with your bottom line concern about a sustainable birthrate. Perhaps we have found common ground.
Peace,
Random
P.S. I would welcome your opinion on the war.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Response to Chavez & The Slug
("Hugo Chavez & the American Slug," Dissident Voice 8/27/05)
C'mon Jack, your facts about Hugo Chavez were far too biased to be taken seriously.
I condemn Pat Roberts[on’s] comments, but I am equally offended by Chavez DAILY insults, taunts, and offensive comments about America. This man runs around the world inciting hatred towards us, and he is a head of state -- not a private citizen. A recent sampling of his rants:
"America is the most savage empire that has ever existed"
"We have to destroy American imperialism, before it destroys the world"
These aren't the words of a mild-mannered, peace-lover, Jack. He also called Cuba a "revolutionary democracy", which makes a mockery of Constitutional democracy everywhere. Fidel Castro has one of the worst human rights records in the Western Hemisphere the past 50 years. Hugo Chavez values his ideology above his democratic principles. His allegiance to Castro proves that.
Chavez WANTS confrontation with the US, because it increases his status as a bold, "anti-imperialist" whatever that means. Bush's relative silence towards Chavez is the correct path. He is taking Venezuela down the well-worn, Bolshevik Revolutionary path to destruction. We don't have to do anything to Chavez. He's self-destructing just fine on his own.
Meanwhile, China, India, and a host of other nations aren't sitting around whining about the evils of free trade. They're building strong, robust economies and growing huge middle classes. Hmmmm... maybe there's a lesson there -- if Chavez was smart enough to see it.
Brook D.
RANDOM RESPONSE:
So, you’re a globalist. Let me guess: Brookings Institute.
I wish to thank you for taking the time to convey your thoughts. Here are a few of mine.
I have grown weary of the game of rhetorical opposites. You go to war in the name of peace. You oppress classes and whole societies in the name of justice. You inflict mass poverty in the name of global prosperity and you commit genocide in the name of God.
One of us is badly misinformed.
First, it is Pat Robertson (not Kansas Senator Pat Roberts) who called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez. Let us assume that was a typographical error.
Second, Chavez joins a distinguished list of dissident leaders opposing American imperialism, including Nelson Mandela, Arundhati Roy, Jimmy Carter, Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky.
Third, outside of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, no one has greater cause to oppose the actions of the American government than Hugo Chavez does. In the context of two American sponsored coups – political and military – his rhetoric is a model of moderation.
Fourth, while Castro’s Cuba is certainly not a democracy, he has at least provided for the education and health care of his people. One hopes that true democracy will come to Cuba (one hopes the same for America – witness Ohio 2004 and Florida 2000) but it will not come at the barrel of an American gun. It will come when Cubans are convinced that democracies like Haiti and Venezuela can thrive without the interference of powerful foreign governments and their corporate proxies.
I have denounced Castro’s crackdown on Cuban dissidents but to compare him with Pinochet, Somoza, Noriega, Duarte and Borja of El Salvador, and Rios Montt of Guatemala, is nothing short of absurd. Given that all of these strongmen were once allied with their American masters, one could reasonably place Nixon and Reagan on the short list of human rights violators – unless the citizens of other nations are discounted.
You suggest that Chavez wants a confrontation with the US; I suggest he has no choice. If you do not accept that the American government twice sponsored and coordinated coups against Chavez, your naivety is almost charming.
Finally, your offering of China and India as the models for third world economic growth is equally revealing. China and Japan hold the markers on America’s unfathomable debt, but that does not translate to a burgeoning, western-style middle class. The last I checked, you rose above poverty in China with an income of one hundred American dollars per year – not exactly the kind of income that buys Nike footwear.
The story is similar in India: An economy built on cheap labor (the prescription of the global “free” economy) simply cannot build a consumer society. It is a snake swallowing its own tail. A consumer society by definition must offer greater than living wages but when wages rise, the foundation of the economy crumbles.
Peace,
Random
C'mon Jack, your facts about Hugo Chavez were far too biased to be taken seriously.
I condemn Pat Roberts[on’s] comments, but I am equally offended by Chavez DAILY insults, taunts, and offensive comments about America. This man runs around the world inciting hatred towards us, and he is a head of state -- not a private citizen. A recent sampling of his rants:
"America is the most savage empire that has ever existed"
"We have to destroy American imperialism, before it destroys the world"
These aren't the words of a mild-mannered, peace-lover, Jack. He also called Cuba a "revolutionary democracy", which makes a mockery of Constitutional democracy everywhere. Fidel Castro has one of the worst human rights records in the Western Hemisphere the past 50 years. Hugo Chavez values his ideology above his democratic principles. His allegiance to Castro proves that.
Chavez WANTS confrontation with the US, because it increases his status as a bold, "anti-imperialist" whatever that means. Bush's relative silence towards Chavez is the correct path. He is taking Venezuela down the well-worn, Bolshevik Revolutionary path to destruction. We don't have to do anything to Chavez. He's self-destructing just fine on his own.
Meanwhile, China, India, and a host of other nations aren't sitting around whining about the evils of free trade. They're building strong, robust economies and growing huge middle classes. Hmmmm... maybe there's a lesson there -- if Chavez was smart enough to see it.
Brook D.
RANDOM RESPONSE:
So, you’re a globalist. Let me guess: Brookings Institute.
I wish to thank you for taking the time to convey your thoughts. Here are a few of mine.
I have grown weary of the game of rhetorical opposites. You go to war in the name of peace. You oppress classes and whole societies in the name of justice. You inflict mass poverty in the name of global prosperity and you commit genocide in the name of God.
One of us is badly misinformed.
First, it is Pat Robertson (not Kansas Senator Pat Roberts) who called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez. Let us assume that was a typographical error.
Second, Chavez joins a distinguished list of dissident leaders opposing American imperialism, including Nelson Mandela, Arundhati Roy, Jimmy Carter, Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky.
Third, outside of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, no one has greater cause to oppose the actions of the American government than Hugo Chavez does. In the context of two American sponsored coups – political and military – his rhetoric is a model of moderation.
Fourth, while Castro’s Cuba is certainly not a democracy, he has at least provided for the education and health care of his people. One hopes that true democracy will come to Cuba (one hopes the same for America – witness Ohio 2004 and Florida 2000) but it will not come at the barrel of an American gun. It will come when Cubans are convinced that democracies like Haiti and Venezuela can thrive without the interference of powerful foreign governments and their corporate proxies.
I have denounced Castro’s crackdown on Cuban dissidents but to compare him with Pinochet, Somoza, Noriega, Duarte and Borja of El Salvador, and Rios Montt of Guatemala, is nothing short of absurd. Given that all of these strongmen were once allied with their American masters, one could reasonably place Nixon and Reagan on the short list of human rights violators – unless the citizens of other nations are discounted.
You suggest that Chavez wants a confrontation with the US; I suggest he has no choice. If you do not accept that the American government twice sponsored and coordinated coups against Chavez, your naivety is almost charming.
Finally, your offering of China and India as the models for third world economic growth is equally revealing. China and Japan hold the markers on America’s unfathomable debt, but that does not translate to a burgeoning, western-style middle class. The last I checked, you rose above poverty in China with an income of one hundred American dollars per year – not exactly the kind of income that buys Nike footwear.
The story is similar in India: An economy built on cheap labor (the prescription of the global “free” economy) simply cannot build a consumer society. It is a snake swallowing its own tail. A consumer society by definition must offer greater than living wages but when wages rise, the foundation of the economy crumbles.
Peace,
Random
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Civil Divide: An End to the Occupation
JAZZMAN CHRONICLES: DISSEMINATE FREELY.
By Jack Random
As the neocon warlords grudgingly admit that everything they told us to justify an aggressive war on Iraq was not only wrong but intentionally so, that sound you hear in the background of every White House communiqué is the drone of neocon snarls, snickers and chortles.
Yeah, we lied. So what? What are you going to do about it?
The idea that we owe it to the Iraqi people to remain in country to repel an insurgency is predicated on the patently absurd assumption that we are good guys and, therefore, whoever chooses to fight with us (Kurdish independents and Shiite fundamentalists) are somehow more worthy of controlling Iraq’s future than those who fight against us (foreign jihadists and Iraqi nationalists).
Forget the emotionally charged rhetoric (well deserved and fully justified) and consider it in simple, logical terms: We invaded the wrong nation for the wrong reasons. After Shock and Awe and the fall of Baghdad, with anarchy on the streets, we rushed in to guard the oil fields and the oil ministry. We destroyed the nation and contracted with predominantly American corporations for “rebuilding” and restoring the flow of oil. While promising to withdraw at first opportunity, we secured the oil contracts and established a dozen fortresses.
I have held back writing on the theme of civil divide not because I am uncertain of the principle but because I was uncertain of its application to the conquest and occupation of Iraq. I have listened to all the arguments, while observing a rapid deterioration of the situation on the ground, and I am no longer in doubt.
There is absolutely no moral and no compelling practical reason for maintaining the geographical integrity of Iraq.
Precedent was set in the early nineties with the civil divide of the former Czechoslovakia. At the end of 1992, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic (Bohemia and Moravia) and the Slovak Republic (Slovakia). The former Soviet satellite, birthplace of the Velvet Revolution, conquered by a long line of empirical powers, chose to divide amicably into two nations rather than to fight a bloody, Kosovo style civil war.
It was a monumental moment in history. For the first time in recorded history, two sovereign nations chose to reject an artificial boundary rather than fight for the spoils.
What is good for ancient Bohemia is as good for ancient Mesopotamia.
Like Czechoslovakia, Iraq is the artificial creation of colonial powers. It is not one nation. It is divided by thousands of years of history and a cultural heritage Americans can only imagine. Let the Shiites have the south. Let the Kurds have the north. Let the Sunnis have the valley of the Tigres and the Euphrates. Let them share the oil revenue according to their numbers.
This is the equation that will solve the impenetrable problem that an ill-conceived invasion and occupation has put in place. Let there be no error in historical interpretation: The American action was among the most irrational and unjustifiable in modern history. There is little in the result that will favor American interests. We have defied international law. We have broken the covenant of modern civilization. We have committed an act of unjustified aggression against a sovereign nation and we deserve no advantage.
We have lost a war owing to our unbridled arrogance and we will pay the price. The only questions that remain are: How many lives and how much treasure?
Those who continue to push for prolongation, escalation and perseverance, would trade lives for money – in the end, to no avail.
Resolve the conflict. Give up the installations. Void the contracts.
End the occupation.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE APPEARED ON DISSIDENT VOICE, COUNTERPUNCH, ALBION MONITOR AND BUZZLE.
By Jack Random
As the neocon warlords grudgingly admit that everything they told us to justify an aggressive war on Iraq was not only wrong but intentionally so, that sound you hear in the background of every White House communiqué is the drone of neocon snarls, snickers and chortles.
Yeah, we lied. So what? What are you going to do about it?
The idea that we owe it to the Iraqi people to remain in country to repel an insurgency is predicated on the patently absurd assumption that we are good guys and, therefore, whoever chooses to fight with us (Kurdish independents and Shiite fundamentalists) are somehow more worthy of controlling Iraq’s future than those who fight against us (foreign jihadists and Iraqi nationalists).
Forget the emotionally charged rhetoric (well deserved and fully justified) and consider it in simple, logical terms: We invaded the wrong nation for the wrong reasons. After Shock and Awe and the fall of Baghdad, with anarchy on the streets, we rushed in to guard the oil fields and the oil ministry. We destroyed the nation and contracted with predominantly American corporations for “rebuilding” and restoring the flow of oil. While promising to withdraw at first opportunity, we secured the oil contracts and established a dozen fortresses.
I have held back writing on the theme of civil divide not because I am uncertain of the principle but because I was uncertain of its application to the conquest and occupation of Iraq. I have listened to all the arguments, while observing a rapid deterioration of the situation on the ground, and I am no longer in doubt.
There is absolutely no moral and no compelling practical reason for maintaining the geographical integrity of Iraq.
Precedent was set in the early nineties with the civil divide of the former Czechoslovakia. At the end of 1992, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic (Bohemia and Moravia) and the Slovak Republic (Slovakia). The former Soviet satellite, birthplace of the Velvet Revolution, conquered by a long line of empirical powers, chose to divide amicably into two nations rather than to fight a bloody, Kosovo style civil war.
It was a monumental moment in history. For the first time in recorded history, two sovereign nations chose to reject an artificial boundary rather than fight for the spoils.
What is good for ancient Bohemia is as good for ancient Mesopotamia.
Like Czechoslovakia, Iraq is the artificial creation of colonial powers. It is not one nation. It is divided by thousands of years of history and a cultural heritage Americans can only imagine. Let the Shiites have the south. Let the Kurds have the north. Let the Sunnis have the valley of the Tigres and the Euphrates. Let them share the oil revenue according to their numbers.
This is the equation that will solve the impenetrable problem that an ill-conceived invasion and occupation has put in place. Let there be no error in historical interpretation: The American action was among the most irrational and unjustifiable in modern history. There is little in the result that will favor American interests. We have defied international law. We have broken the covenant of modern civilization. We have committed an act of unjustified aggression against a sovereign nation and we deserve no advantage.
We have lost a war owing to our unbridled arrogance and we will pay the price. The only questions that remain are: How many lives and how much treasure?
Those who continue to push for prolongation, escalation and perseverance, would trade lives for money – in the end, to no avail.
Resolve the conflict. Give up the installations. Void the contracts.
End the occupation.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE APPEARED ON DISSIDENT VOICE, COUNTERPUNCH, ALBION MONITOR AND BUZZLE.
Saturday, August 20, 2005
A Mother Plants the Staff
JAZZMAN CHRONICLES: DISSEMINATE FREELY.
Dying in Vain: A Mother Plants the Staff
By Jack Random
Cindy Sheehan has gone home to care for her ailing mother. She has left behind a legacy of truth. She has given rebirth to a movement rich in truth, strong in moral righteousness, but struggling to maintain its balance and unity. She has asked the questions that many have asked before her but while our voices have been lost in a sea of media confusion, hers has registered clearly from sea to shining sea.
How many have given their lives to support the proposition that dying in an immoral war is not dying in vain? Not if you persevere? Not if you win? At last, the Nazi analogy is wholly appropriate. If the Third Reich had prevailed, would German soldiers not have died in vain? If not, then how can our persistence in an unholy war sanctify the blood of our fallen soldiers?
I have news for all of you who have questioned the character and derided the integrity of Cindy Sheehan: Every soldier who has lost his and her life in this war has died in vain. The fact that we initiated this war means that every soldier who lost his life in Vietnam also died in vain. We were supposed to have learned the error of our ways. We were supposed to have corrected our course. We were supposed to have sworn never again to fight an unjustified, immoral war, a war of choice, and a war of imperial ambition against indigenous peoples. Instead, we appear to have learned nothing and therefore our soldiers have died in vain.
How many clichés can be thrown at a wary public to justify the next soldier’s death? My country, right or wrong! Love or leave it! These colors do not run!
How many soldiers must die for the incredible incredulity of the American people? How many must die because the president projects a good old boy image and walks with bowed legs though I reckon he has ridden a horse no more than his silver spoon associates. How many must die for the Hollywood images of Duke Wayne, Rambo and Arnold Schwarzenegger? How many must die so that we can continue to pretend that we are the chosen, the master nation, the exception to all rules of international law and common decency?
Cindy Sheehan is hardly a wild-eyed radical. She is a grieving mother who has chosen to plant the staff. She is the darkest nightmare of both major parties though the Democrats shamelessly exploit her cause without embracing her singular demand: an end to the occupation now! She will not compromise. She will not yield to those supposedly “wiser” and more knowledgeable than herself – those who can spin a few rationalizations to justify another thousand or two thousand American lives. She wants our soldiers to come home and she holds to that simple message no matter how hard the pundits and pretenders push and prod.
The media are beside themselves trying to understand how one woman can possess such power of persuasion. Silver spooner Anderson Cooper of CNN and the house of Vanderbilt thought he had a scoop when he “reported” (paraphrase): I asked her if she was a radical and she said, “I guess I am.” The scoop is nobody cares. Your little labels no longer work the charm they used to work. She is a woman with something real to say and that has become the rarest of all commodities on the airwaves.
Cindy Sheehan is not saying anything that thousands have said often and repeatedly since the war drums began pounding on the twelfth of September 2001 but, for the first time, the crowd we could never reach (the barbecue crowd, the tailgaters, the NASCAR fans, the six-pack after church crowd, on and on) has finally begun to listen.
If you will not listen to a grieving mother, you are beyond redemption – and you are in need of redemption more than you can imagine. Ignorance has never been a very potent excuse for immorality but in the age of information, it is clearly deliberate and intentional. If Dante’s hypothesis is correct, there is a place in the lower depths for such as you.
One wonders what son Casey would think of his mother’s stand. He was after all a volunteer. If he felt even marginally as I do about my mother, whether or not he agrees with her, his heart is teeming with love and pride.
It is a hard and painful thing to accept that your child has given his life in a cause that is both false and malicious. We can only hope that it is not in vain if it helps to bring the war and the occupation to an end.
If you sincerely wish to support our soldiers, caught in the vice grip of political malfeasance, take a vow for the coming election: Vote only for candidates who are sworn to bring our soldiers home – not tomorrow, not a year from now, but today.
Listen to the mothers. Listen to their voices and gaze into their eyes. The warlords of the White House may try to recruit their own mothers to the cause of war but the fire that resides in Cindy Sheehan’s soul will be missing. You can buy or find almost anything (including a spokesperson for any cause) but you cannot buy passion, sincerity or a mother’s love.
Cindy Sheehan is the real thing and all of us should be eternally grateful.
Jazz.
Dying in Vain: A Mother Plants the Staff
By Jack Random
Cindy Sheehan has gone home to care for her ailing mother. She has left behind a legacy of truth. She has given rebirth to a movement rich in truth, strong in moral righteousness, but struggling to maintain its balance and unity. She has asked the questions that many have asked before her but while our voices have been lost in a sea of media confusion, hers has registered clearly from sea to shining sea.
How many have given their lives to support the proposition that dying in an immoral war is not dying in vain? Not if you persevere? Not if you win? At last, the Nazi analogy is wholly appropriate. If the Third Reich had prevailed, would German soldiers not have died in vain? If not, then how can our persistence in an unholy war sanctify the blood of our fallen soldiers?
I have news for all of you who have questioned the character and derided the integrity of Cindy Sheehan: Every soldier who has lost his and her life in this war has died in vain. The fact that we initiated this war means that every soldier who lost his life in Vietnam also died in vain. We were supposed to have learned the error of our ways. We were supposed to have corrected our course. We were supposed to have sworn never again to fight an unjustified, immoral war, a war of choice, and a war of imperial ambition against indigenous peoples. Instead, we appear to have learned nothing and therefore our soldiers have died in vain.
How many clichés can be thrown at a wary public to justify the next soldier’s death? My country, right or wrong! Love or leave it! These colors do not run!
How many soldiers must die for the incredible incredulity of the American people? How many must die because the president projects a good old boy image and walks with bowed legs though I reckon he has ridden a horse no more than his silver spoon associates. How many must die for the Hollywood images of Duke Wayne, Rambo and Arnold Schwarzenegger? How many must die so that we can continue to pretend that we are the chosen, the master nation, the exception to all rules of international law and common decency?
Cindy Sheehan is hardly a wild-eyed radical. She is a grieving mother who has chosen to plant the staff. She is the darkest nightmare of both major parties though the Democrats shamelessly exploit her cause without embracing her singular demand: an end to the occupation now! She will not compromise. She will not yield to those supposedly “wiser” and more knowledgeable than herself – those who can spin a few rationalizations to justify another thousand or two thousand American lives. She wants our soldiers to come home and she holds to that simple message no matter how hard the pundits and pretenders push and prod.
The media are beside themselves trying to understand how one woman can possess such power of persuasion. Silver spooner Anderson Cooper of CNN and the house of Vanderbilt thought he had a scoop when he “reported” (paraphrase): I asked her if she was a radical and she said, “I guess I am.” The scoop is nobody cares. Your little labels no longer work the charm they used to work. She is a woman with something real to say and that has become the rarest of all commodities on the airwaves.
Cindy Sheehan is not saying anything that thousands have said often and repeatedly since the war drums began pounding on the twelfth of September 2001 but, for the first time, the crowd we could never reach (the barbecue crowd, the tailgaters, the NASCAR fans, the six-pack after church crowd, on and on) has finally begun to listen.
If you will not listen to a grieving mother, you are beyond redemption – and you are in need of redemption more than you can imagine. Ignorance has never been a very potent excuse for immorality but in the age of information, it is clearly deliberate and intentional. If Dante’s hypothesis is correct, there is a place in the lower depths for such as you.
One wonders what son Casey would think of his mother’s stand. He was after all a volunteer. If he felt even marginally as I do about my mother, whether or not he agrees with her, his heart is teeming with love and pride.
It is a hard and painful thing to accept that your child has given his life in a cause that is both false and malicious. We can only hope that it is not in vain if it helps to bring the war and the occupation to an end.
If you sincerely wish to support our soldiers, caught in the vice grip of political malfeasance, take a vow for the coming election: Vote only for candidates who are sworn to bring our soldiers home – not tomorrow, not a year from now, but today.
Listen to the mothers. Listen to their voices and gaze into their eyes. The warlords of the White House may try to recruit their own mothers to the cause of war but the fire that resides in Cindy Sheehan’s soul will be missing. You can buy or find almost anything (including a spokesperson for any cause) but you cannot buy passion, sincerity or a mother’s love.
Cindy Sheehan is the real thing and all of us should be eternally grateful.
Jazz.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Demands for a Peaceful Revolution
By Dennis Baer [dennis.baer@verizon.com ]
Here's how we force congress to pass a progressive agenda. Companies do not like boycotts. I suggest you email these demands to Walmart, Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Curves for Women health clubs, each big Republican contributors. Also include Eckerd, CVS, and Walgreens Pharmacy chains. You can send this to other companies as well.
Send this email to your friends and to others on political mailing lists. Thank you.
Send this text in email or fax to a company you can afford to boycott which either heavily supports Republicans or should know better that we need progressive legislative change.
We demand that your company executives get the Republican Party to hold a press conference and accede to these demands and then finally legislate and sign these into law. Until such a press conference happens and the legislation gets passed I will boycott your products.
We demand that the Republican party end their aggressive and hateful action to end a woman's right to choose abortion or not.
We demand the resignation of Tom Delay.
We demand that the United States withdraw from Iraq.
We demand that the Congress of the United states and the president of the United States enact a law to increase the minimum wage to TEN dollars an hour and also to extend unemployment benefits for all people whose unemployment benefits expired after 6 months even though they still seek work.
We also demand that the Congress of the United States to not privatize social security benefits in any form including taking a percentage of the social security tax and placing it in private accounts. People can already create their own pensions with money after taxes in the private sector.
We also demand that the congress make all of a person's earned income taxable for social security FICA tax purposes and remove the 88,000 dollar salary cap. This will make social security solvent for many years to come.
We demand the congress increase the payroll tax in order to make social security solvent as well.
We also demand congress and the president enact a prescription drug benefit under Medicare Part B which covers 80 percent of medication cost, with no extra premium, no extra deductibles, no means test and no coverage gaps, and no penalties for signing up in a succeeding year..
We also call for the complete repeal of the faulty Medicare law HR 1 / S 1 passed by congress in Nov 2003.
We also demand vote by mail throughout the United States of America. This will prevent Republicans from vote suppression by skin color which happened electronicly and in person in the 2000 and 2004 elections. Demand that your state implement vote by mail with ballots easy to fill out and difficult to change or invalidate by Republican Party officials.
We demand Civil servants on every state payroll should keep track of voter registrations and vote counting of mail in votes in each precinct and not companies such as Choicepoint. We need to take the Republican Party out of the business of keeping track of voter registration and counting votes.
We demand States ban the secretary of state from engaging in politics especially acting as a campaign official for a presidential campaign.
________________________________________
We do this in the spirit of peaceful resistance to a congress that refuses to enact this legislation
If you don't support what the Republicans did since they took over the House of Representatives in 1995 and don't support the Republican party's plans for this year then Join the revolution for progressive legislation and sign the petition at
http://www.boycott-republicans.com
HIT REPUBLICAN CONTRIBUTORS IN THEIR WALLETS !!
Write this url on your one, five and ten dollar bills in the white areas in Pencil.
--------------------
To each person reading this if you agree with my message please tell your friends and have them tell their friends.
We can stop the war in Iraq by boycotting the defense contractor General Electric corporation.
I want each and every person who wants to stop the War in Iraq to contact the defense contractor General Electric. Go to http://www.ge.com and send them email to the effect that you have decided
not to buy any GE products including Ovens, stoves, refrigerators, light bulbs, televisions, radios, telephones, video recorders, dvd recorders and players, etc.
UNTIL their company executives get the President of the United States aka THE CHIMP to hold a press conference announcing that he will withdraw all US Troops from Iraq, to get replaced by UN troops to defend Iraq until Iraq troops can defend their own country.
In addition to sending email from the web site you can make these demands of GE through their public relations officials. Please act polite when contacting them.
Gary Sheffer
Executive Director, Communications and Public Affairs
(203) 373-3476
gary.sheffer@ge.com
Peter O'Toole
Director, Public Relations
(203) 373-2547
peter.o'toole@ge.com
Yes his name's really Peter O'Toole but Bush appeared the one Lying in Winter about the Iraq war.
Join the revolution for progressive legislation:
http://www.boycott-republicans.com
http://groups.myspace.com/revolutionforprogressivelegislation
http://www.campusprogress.org/page/community/blog/maximus
http://www.network54.com/Forum/259017
http://www.cafepress.com/revolution09
For the complete list of podcasts look here http://savefile.com/projects/330309
Here's how we force congress to pass a progressive agenda. Companies do not like boycotts. I suggest you email these demands to Walmart, Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Curves for Women health clubs, each big Republican contributors. Also include Eckerd, CVS, and Walgreens Pharmacy chains. You can send this to other companies as well.
Send this email to your friends and to others on political mailing lists. Thank you.
Send this text in email or fax to a company you can afford to boycott which either heavily supports Republicans or should know better that we need progressive legislative change.
We demand that your company executives get the Republican Party to hold a press conference and accede to these demands and then finally legislate and sign these into law. Until such a press conference happens and the legislation gets passed I will boycott your products.
We demand that the Republican party end their aggressive and hateful action to end a woman's right to choose abortion or not.
We demand the resignation of Tom Delay.
We demand that the United States withdraw from Iraq.
We demand that the Congress of the United states and the president of the United States enact a law to increase the minimum wage to TEN dollars an hour and also to extend unemployment benefits for all people whose unemployment benefits expired after 6 months even though they still seek work.
We also demand that the Congress of the United States to not privatize social security benefits in any form including taking a percentage of the social security tax and placing it in private accounts. People can already create their own pensions with money after taxes in the private sector.
We also demand that the congress make all of a person's earned income taxable for social security FICA tax purposes and remove the 88,000 dollar salary cap. This will make social security solvent for many years to come.
We demand the congress increase the payroll tax in order to make social security solvent as well.
We also demand congress and the president enact a prescription drug benefit under Medicare Part B which covers 80 percent of medication cost, with no extra premium, no extra deductibles, no means test and no coverage gaps, and no penalties for signing up in a succeeding year..
We also call for the complete repeal of the faulty Medicare law HR 1 / S 1 passed by congress in Nov 2003.
We also demand vote by mail throughout the United States of America. This will prevent Republicans from vote suppression by skin color which happened electronicly and in person in the 2000 and 2004 elections. Demand that your state implement vote by mail with ballots easy to fill out and difficult to change or invalidate by Republican Party officials.
We demand Civil servants on every state payroll should keep track of voter registrations and vote counting of mail in votes in each precinct and not companies such as Choicepoint. We need to take the Republican Party out of the business of keeping track of voter registration and counting votes.
We demand States ban the secretary of state from engaging in politics especially acting as a campaign official for a presidential campaign.
________________________________________
We do this in the spirit of peaceful resistance to a congress that refuses to enact this legislation
If you don't support what the Republicans did since they took over the House of Representatives in 1995 and don't support the Republican party's plans for this year then Join the revolution for progressive legislation and sign the petition at
http://www.boycott-republicans.com
HIT REPUBLICAN CONTRIBUTORS IN THEIR WALLETS !!
Write this url on your one, five and ten dollar bills in the white areas in Pencil.
--------------------
To each person reading this if you agree with my message please tell your friends and have them tell their friends.
We can stop the war in Iraq by boycotting the defense contractor General Electric corporation.
I want each and every person who wants to stop the War in Iraq to contact the defense contractor General Electric. Go to http://www.ge.com and send them email to the effect that you have decided
not to buy any GE products including Ovens, stoves, refrigerators, light bulbs, televisions, radios, telephones, video recorders, dvd recorders and players, etc.
UNTIL their company executives get the President of the United States aka THE CHIMP to hold a press conference announcing that he will withdraw all US Troops from Iraq, to get replaced by UN troops to defend Iraq until Iraq troops can defend their own country.
In addition to sending email from the web site you can make these demands of GE through their public relations officials. Please act polite when contacting them.
Gary Sheffer
Executive Director, Communications and Public Affairs
(203) 373-3476
gary.sheffer@ge.com
Peter O'Toole
Director, Public Relations
(203) 373-2547
peter.o'toole@ge.com
Yes his name's really Peter O'Toole but Bush appeared the one Lying in Winter about the Iraq war.
Join the revolution for progressive legislation:
http://www.boycott-republicans.com
http://groups.myspace.com/revolutionforprogressivelegislation
http://www.campusprogress.org/page/community/blog/maximus
http://www.network54.com/Forum/259017
http://www.cafepress.com/revolution09
For the complete list of podcasts look here http://savefile.com/projects/330309
Tears for Ripley Mae Sherwood
The Untold Casualties of War
By Jack Random
“What responsibility do we have as citizens who send people to go fight in our wars? Do we do everything within our power, moving mountains if that’s what it takes, to provide for [them] when they come home?”
Steve Robinson, Executive Director, Gulf War Resources Center.
Why does a 35-year-old man go to war as a private in a volunteer army? Why does he come home on leave to shoot his wife and himself? Why does a 36-year-old man leave an infant child orphaned, motherless and fatherless?
Stephen Sherwood was a musician who played in a heavy metal band. He had long hair, tattoos, and was active in the local music scene. He was twice married and held down a job as a paramedic for ten years.
When his wife became pregnant, Stephen Sherwood joined the army because it was the only way he could find to provide health insurance for his family.
Sent to Iraq, he was assigned to the cannon crew of the Second Brigade Combat Team, serving a year in Baghdad and Ramadi. It was hard duty. The Second Brigade lost sixty-eight soldiers in Ramadi alone, taking some of the heaviest casualties in the war. It also took the lives of a great many Iraqis, undoubtedly including women and children, wives and infant daughters.
When Stephen Sherwood came home on leave to Fort Collins, Colorado, there was no apparent reason to worry. He was just another soldier on his way back to Iraq. Nine days later, he and his wife were dead.
Did the war change Stephen Sherwood?
How could it not?
Stephen, Sara and Ripley Mae Sherwood were not only casualties of an unjust war; they were casualties of an economic system that does not provide health care to the family of a man who held a good job for a decade.
He answered the call of fellow citizens in distress but when it came to filling his most fundamental needs, the privatized medical industry turned its back.
Stephen Sherwood did not want to become a soldier. He did not want to go to war. Like every man, he only wanted to provide for his family. Ten or twenty years from now, Ripley Mae will want to know what happened to her biological parents. A foster parent (or if she’s lucky, an aunt or uncle) may tell her that her daddy went to war and came back a different man. She will want to know why and whether it was worth it.
What will we tell her? What will we tell our own children? That we went to war for a lie and continued to fight for another? Will we say it was to spread the blessings of democracy (without it choking in our throats) or will we finally admit it was all about oil?
Not long ago, America cried a river of tears for Terri Schiavo. Who will cry for Ripley Mae Sherwood? It is safe to say that all America will not cry the tears that this one little girl will cry when she learns the truth.
Forty-five soldiers have gone to war and committed suicide over there. Thirty-five more waited until they came home. Some of them took others with them. They will not be serenaded by honor guards. Parades and memorials will not remember them but they are casualties of the war as much as any other and their numbers are growing.
Lieutenant Colonel Dave Johnson of Fort Carson called Stephen Sherwood “a hero” and maybe, in some strange and twisted way he is, but that is a bitter pill for the surviving family members.
Heather West, his former wife, recalled Stephen as a “creative, thoughtful, very sensitive person.” She added: “This not the person that I knew.”
It is a familiar refrain.
It is what friends and family said when Andres Raya (condemned by the authorities as a gangster) returned home to cut down a local police officer in a probable suicide by cop.
It is what friends and family said when Sergeants Matthew Denni and James Pitts came home to kill their wives. It was what friends and family said when Sergeant Curtis Greene hanged himself in his barracks.
Maybe it is what friends and family are supposed to say or maybe it is simple truth.
War is hell. It is one of the most horrific of human experiences – not only for the fallen but also for the survivors. It cannot help but change a man, a woman, husband, wife, mother or father.
The government that goes to war for less than a compelling reason owes a great deal more to the survivors of war than it can ever begin to repay.
What will our government say to Ripley Mae Sherwood? It will not even send condolences. Unless a sea change happens in this country, it will not even apologize. It will not admit wrong.
Perhaps the government will ask Ripley to go to war so that she can afford a decent education or basic health care.
Do not be fooled, Ripley. A government that will never admit wrong – even in the most egregious cases – cannot be trusted. Tell them to find someone else. Tell them you have already paid enough. There is always another way.
I wish I knew your birthday. I’d like to send you a card in eighteen or twenty years. It would be signed: From someone who remembers. I’m sorry.
Jazz.
Sources:
“Ft. Carson GI, wife shot dead,” By Monte Whaley and Erin Emery, Denver Post 8/5/05.
“2nd BCT Soldier kills wife, self,” The Colorado Springs Gazette, 8/5/05.
“Soldier Just Back From Iraq Kills Wife, Self,” WRAL.com, 8/5/05.
By Jack Random
“What responsibility do we have as citizens who send people to go fight in our wars? Do we do everything within our power, moving mountains if that’s what it takes, to provide for [them] when they come home?”
Steve Robinson, Executive Director, Gulf War Resources Center.
Why does a 35-year-old man go to war as a private in a volunteer army? Why does he come home on leave to shoot his wife and himself? Why does a 36-year-old man leave an infant child orphaned, motherless and fatherless?
Stephen Sherwood was a musician who played in a heavy metal band. He had long hair, tattoos, and was active in the local music scene. He was twice married and held down a job as a paramedic for ten years.
When his wife became pregnant, Stephen Sherwood joined the army because it was the only way he could find to provide health insurance for his family.
Sent to Iraq, he was assigned to the cannon crew of the Second Brigade Combat Team, serving a year in Baghdad and Ramadi. It was hard duty. The Second Brigade lost sixty-eight soldiers in Ramadi alone, taking some of the heaviest casualties in the war. It also took the lives of a great many Iraqis, undoubtedly including women and children, wives and infant daughters.
When Stephen Sherwood came home on leave to Fort Collins, Colorado, there was no apparent reason to worry. He was just another soldier on his way back to Iraq. Nine days later, he and his wife were dead.
Did the war change Stephen Sherwood?
How could it not?
Stephen, Sara and Ripley Mae Sherwood were not only casualties of an unjust war; they were casualties of an economic system that does not provide health care to the family of a man who held a good job for a decade.
He answered the call of fellow citizens in distress but when it came to filling his most fundamental needs, the privatized medical industry turned its back.
Stephen Sherwood did not want to become a soldier. He did not want to go to war. Like every man, he only wanted to provide for his family. Ten or twenty years from now, Ripley Mae will want to know what happened to her biological parents. A foster parent (or if she’s lucky, an aunt or uncle) may tell her that her daddy went to war and came back a different man. She will want to know why and whether it was worth it.
What will we tell her? What will we tell our own children? That we went to war for a lie and continued to fight for another? Will we say it was to spread the blessings of democracy (without it choking in our throats) or will we finally admit it was all about oil?
Not long ago, America cried a river of tears for Terri Schiavo. Who will cry for Ripley Mae Sherwood? It is safe to say that all America will not cry the tears that this one little girl will cry when she learns the truth.
Forty-five soldiers have gone to war and committed suicide over there. Thirty-five more waited until they came home. Some of them took others with them. They will not be serenaded by honor guards. Parades and memorials will not remember them but they are casualties of the war as much as any other and their numbers are growing.
Lieutenant Colonel Dave Johnson of Fort Carson called Stephen Sherwood “a hero” and maybe, in some strange and twisted way he is, but that is a bitter pill for the surviving family members.
Heather West, his former wife, recalled Stephen as a “creative, thoughtful, very sensitive person.” She added: “This not the person that I knew.”
It is a familiar refrain.
It is what friends and family said when Andres Raya (condemned by the authorities as a gangster) returned home to cut down a local police officer in a probable suicide by cop.
It is what friends and family said when Sergeants Matthew Denni and James Pitts came home to kill their wives. It was what friends and family said when Sergeant Curtis Greene hanged himself in his barracks.
Maybe it is what friends and family are supposed to say or maybe it is simple truth.
War is hell. It is one of the most horrific of human experiences – not only for the fallen but also for the survivors. It cannot help but change a man, a woman, husband, wife, mother or father.
The government that goes to war for less than a compelling reason owes a great deal more to the survivors of war than it can ever begin to repay.
What will our government say to Ripley Mae Sherwood? It will not even send condolences. Unless a sea change happens in this country, it will not even apologize. It will not admit wrong.
Perhaps the government will ask Ripley to go to war so that she can afford a decent education or basic health care.
Do not be fooled, Ripley. A government that will never admit wrong – even in the most egregious cases – cannot be trusted. Tell them to find someone else. Tell them you have already paid enough. There is always another way.
I wish I knew your birthday. I’d like to send you a card in eighteen or twenty years. It would be signed: From someone who remembers. I’m sorry.
Jazz.
Sources:
“Ft. Carson GI, wife shot dead,” By Monte Whaley and Erin Emery, Denver Post 8/5/05.
“2nd BCT Soldier kills wife, self,” The Colorado Springs Gazette, 8/5/05.
“Soldier Just Back From Iraq Kills Wife, Self,” WRAL.com, 8/5/05.
Monday, August 08, 2005
Mike's Morality Rant
From the Heart of Michael D. Caine:
Do George Bush and his merry band of conservatives really think that we are safer now than we were before the invasion of Iraq? Is it really possible that they are that blinded by their own stupidity? Does their religious belief in their righteousness really fool themselves?
There were suicide bombers before the Iraq invasion, but were there as many? There was suffering in Iraq, but was there as much? There was hatred for America before Iraqi “Freedom” but did it reach the level we see now?
The Conservative Republicans are spreading a delusionary virus that is killing our democracy at home and our youth in an Arab Nation that never attacked the United States nor was even a threat to do so. Lead by Bush these religious ideologues blatantly scraped the moral high ground right off into the swamp and created a quagmire they can’t seem to understand is too deep to slog through and too wide to bridge especially when the timbers used are our children.
Can the conservatives not see that even religious wars won have their costs, and that some wars aren’t worth it? In Iraq what is worth the cost? They can talk democracy all they want, we wouldn’t be there if Iraq had the same amount of oil as Sudan.
When I hear George Bush pleading for us to back his war because his intentions all along have been to bring Democracy to the Iraqi people, I want to puke. Are the Conservative Republicans really that dumb? Are their memories really that short? Have they truly forgotten that we went there to root out the Weapons of Mass Destruction and the terrorist training camps (that weren’t there in truth until after our invasion)?
The flag bearing, end justifying, super patriotic religious right has kidnapped our nation and is holding us at bay with a knife to the throat of our children, and when those of us that see it say “drop the knife” we are labeled “Traitors”.
The Moral Majority lacks the courage to think and the morality to tell the truth and every one of them is a Conservative Republican. They use a book, a good book, to judge others and hide behind. Lacking the ability to defend their actions they hold up their shields of “belief” as if to believe is to know the truth when their truth lies only in the I of the beholder.
We don’t need the separation of church and state, only the thoughtful, moral use of both.
[Editors Note: I believe the moral majority is now the 62% of the people who no longer support the war. Bring our soldiers home now!]
Do George Bush and his merry band of conservatives really think that we are safer now than we were before the invasion of Iraq? Is it really possible that they are that blinded by their own stupidity? Does their religious belief in their righteousness really fool themselves?
There were suicide bombers before the Iraq invasion, but were there as many? There was suffering in Iraq, but was there as much? There was hatred for America before Iraqi “Freedom” but did it reach the level we see now?
The Conservative Republicans are spreading a delusionary virus that is killing our democracy at home and our youth in an Arab Nation that never attacked the United States nor was even a threat to do so. Lead by Bush these religious ideologues blatantly scraped the moral high ground right off into the swamp and created a quagmire they can’t seem to understand is too deep to slog through and too wide to bridge especially when the timbers used are our children.
Can the conservatives not see that even religious wars won have their costs, and that some wars aren’t worth it? In Iraq what is worth the cost? They can talk democracy all they want, we wouldn’t be there if Iraq had the same amount of oil as Sudan.
When I hear George Bush pleading for us to back his war because his intentions all along have been to bring Democracy to the Iraqi people, I want to puke. Are the Conservative Republicans really that dumb? Are their memories really that short? Have they truly forgotten that we went there to root out the Weapons of Mass Destruction and the terrorist training camps (that weren’t there in truth until after our invasion)?
The flag bearing, end justifying, super patriotic religious right has kidnapped our nation and is holding us at bay with a knife to the throat of our children, and when those of us that see it say “drop the knife” we are labeled “Traitors”.
The Moral Majority lacks the courage to think and the morality to tell the truth and every one of them is a Conservative Republican. They use a book, a good book, to judge others and hide behind. Lacking the ability to defend their actions they hold up their shields of “belief” as if to believe is to know the truth when their truth lies only in the I of the beholder.
We don’t need the separation of church and state, only the thoughtful, moral use of both.
[Editors Note: I believe the moral majority is now the 62% of the people who no longer support the war. Bring our soldiers home now!]
Friday, August 05, 2005
UPDATE FROM LEONARD PELTIER
(From the International Peltier Forum)
July 30, 2005
Aho my relations,
As I sit here in my solitary confinement cell at USP Terre Haute, and reflect over the past month’s events, I can’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of love and gratitude for each and every one of you who have so diligently stood by me in this time of crisis. As you already know by now, on June 30, 2005, I was transferred from Leavenworth Facility, to Terre Haute USP. The reason for my transfer, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons Administrative staff was that the Leavenworth Facility was downgraded from maximum security level to medium, and therefore I could not remain at Leavenworth due to my illegal sentencing and consequent maximum security rank.
I was transferred without notification to my attorney, Barry Bachrach, and my family. Upon my arrival to Terre Haute I was placed in solitary confinement and was told that I would remain in solitary confinement until my personal file arrived. My personal file arrived, but I remain in solitary confinement allegedly for security reasons. I am confined to a cell that is 8’X 8’, it has a window that is covered from the outside with an elaborate shield that allows me to see 2-3 inches of the sky out of the top and 2-3 inches of the ground. All prisoners are supposed to get at least one hour of sunlight or outdoors and so I am taken from my cell to what is called a Recreation Room (Rec Cage), and the only sun or outdoors that I see is from some windows high up in this large room with a few air holes in them. I am able to walk up and down and this fulfills the one hour of sunlight or outdoors recreation time.
Whatever the system’s logic is, it seems that I won’t stay in Terre Haute for much longer and will be transferred again. I do not know when and where, nor do I know if this cruel game will be over after another transfer. After all, removal and relocation have been used to break our people from the beginning of this country’s history. This keeps my Defense Committee from taking the necessary steps to re-establish an office, but they are doing everything they can to help me in this most precarious and uncertain situation.
Before this situation developed, I asked Russ Redner to be the National/International Executive Director of the LPDC. Russ is a brother from our original Northwest AIM crew, a long time ally, and one of the original founders of the LPDC. I have trusted Russ with my life many times and he’s proven himself at every turn. I want him to be the last person I ever have to ask to guide the LPDC, and as such I have given him full authority to do whatever is necessary to prevent problems that have plagued us in the past from ever surfacing again. He and his wife, Paula, bring a renewed energy to the LPDC. It is essential that Russ, Barry Bachrach, Mike Kuzma, and the new team at the LPDC be supported so they can work most effectively to achieve my freedom and accomplish the things that need to be done for my people. I have confidence that all of you who truly support me will extend your vote of confidence to Russ and my new team.
A month in solitary is beginning to take a toll on me but your letters give me much hope and encouragement. Many of you have written, e-mailed and called USP Terre Haute, and other organizations. This has brought some improvement to my solitary confinement. I am now getting my medications on a daily basis, I can write out, I am receiving my mail, and I am allowed one phone call a month. I am allowed contact visits for those persons authorized on my visiting list. The contact visit is restricted to a two hour period, and is conducted through a glass pane and a phone. I am allowed to visit with my attorney without those restrictions.
At this time I am asking that you continue to call/write/e-mail the contacts below requesting that my security level be downgraded to medium due to my health, age and good behavior and that I be transferred to a medium security institution with all my hard earned prisoner privileges restored. In case I am transferred please add the new facility (keep checking our official website: http://www.leonardpeltier.org) to your contact list and ask them to respect my human rights and prisoner privileges. Again, I thank you for your support and prayers and hope that I may one day soon be among you.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
*-*-*-*
CONTACT LIST:
U.S. Penitentiary
4700 Bureau Road South
Terre Haute, IN 47802
Phone-812-244-4400
Fax----812-244-4789
THP/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV
Federal Bureau of Prisons
320 First Street NW
Washington, DC 20534
202-307-3198
info@bop.gov
Amnesty International
5 Penn Plaza – 14th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212-807-8400
Fax: 212-463-9193 / 212-627-1451
admin-us@aiusa.org
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10118-3299
Tel: 1-(212) 290-4700
Fax: 1-(212) 736-1300
hrwnyc@hrw.org
Senate Judiciary Committee:
* Arlen Specter, Chairman
711 Hart Building
Washington, DC 20510
Tel: 202-224-4254
* Senator Patrick Leahy, Ranking Member
433 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
* Senator Edward Kennedy
317 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202/224-4543
FAX: 202/224-2417
* Senator Joseph Biden
201 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: 202-224-5042
Fax: 202-224-0139
* Senator Dianne Feinstein
United States Senate
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3841
Fax: (202) 228-3954
* Senator Richard Durbin
332 Dirksen Senate Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2152
Fax: (202) 228-0400
* Senator Herb Kohl
330 Hart Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5653
Fax: (202) 224-9787
* Sen. Charles E. Schumer
313 Hart Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-6542
Fax: 202-228-3027
TDD: 202-224-0420
Congressional Judiciary Committee:
* Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
* Honorable Robert C. Scott
1201 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-8351
Fax: (202) 225-8354
bobby.scott@mail.house.gov
* Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee
2435 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3816
* Honorable Maxine Waters
2344 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-2201 phone
202-225-7854 fax
* Honorable Martin Meehan
2229 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3411
Fax: (202) 226-0771
TTY: (202) 225-1904
* Honorable Bill Delahunt
2454 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3111
Fax: (202) 225-5658
William.Delahunt@mail.house.gov
* Honorable Anthony Weiner
1122 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
(202) 225-6616
weiner@mail.house.gov
United Nations:
Louise Arbour, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva
1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Fax: 41-22-917-9022
E-mail: tb-petitions@ohchr.org
U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations
United Nations Office at Geneva
1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Email: WGindigenous@ohchr.org
Fax: 41-22-917-9008
The Special Rapporteur on human rights and fundamental freedoms of
indigenous peoples: Mr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen
His contact person is: Pablo Espiniella, Human Rights Officer
Tel. 41-22-917-9413
Fax 41-22-917-9008
email: indigenous@ohchr.org
U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions
c/o Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
CH-1211, Geneva 10
Switzerland
Fax: 41-22- 917-9006
=+=+= FREE LEONARD PELTIER NOW! =+=+=
From: International Peltier Forum [mailto:kolahq@skynet.be]
Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 2:50 PM
To: IPF
Subject: [LP Forum News] Update from Leonard Peltier
=+=+= INTERNATIONAL FORUM of VIPs for PELTIER =+=+=
August 4th 2005 :
10772 days of WRONGFUL IMPRISONMENT!
=+=+=+=+=+=
ONLINE PETITION FOR EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY
http://users.skynet.be/kola/lppet.htm
ONLINE PETITION FOR PAROLE
http://campaign-pyramid.com/kola/leonard/
=+=+=+=+=+=
July 30, 2005
Aho my relations,
As I sit here in my solitary confinement cell at USP Terre Haute, and reflect over the past month’s events, I can’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of love and gratitude for each and every one of you who have so diligently stood by me in this time of crisis. As you already know by now, on June 30, 2005, I was transferred from Leavenworth Facility, to Terre Haute USP. The reason for my transfer, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons Administrative staff was that the Leavenworth Facility was downgraded from maximum security level to medium, and therefore I could not remain at Leavenworth due to my illegal sentencing and consequent maximum security rank.
I was transferred without notification to my attorney, Barry Bachrach, and my family. Upon my arrival to Terre Haute I was placed in solitary confinement and was told that I would remain in solitary confinement until my personal file arrived. My personal file arrived, but I remain in solitary confinement allegedly for security reasons. I am confined to a cell that is 8’X 8’, it has a window that is covered from the outside with an elaborate shield that allows me to see 2-3 inches of the sky out of the top and 2-3 inches of the ground. All prisoners are supposed to get at least one hour of sunlight or outdoors and so I am taken from my cell to what is called a Recreation Room (Rec Cage), and the only sun or outdoors that I see is from some windows high up in this large room with a few air holes in them. I am able to walk up and down and this fulfills the one hour of sunlight or outdoors recreation time.
Whatever the system’s logic is, it seems that I won’t stay in Terre Haute for much longer and will be transferred again. I do not know when and where, nor do I know if this cruel game will be over after another transfer. After all, removal and relocation have been used to break our people from the beginning of this country’s history. This keeps my Defense Committee from taking the necessary steps to re-establish an office, but they are doing everything they can to help me in this most precarious and uncertain situation.
Before this situation developed, I asked Russ Redner to be the National/International Executive Director of the LPDC. Russ is a brother from our original Northwest AIM crew, a long time ally, and one of the original founders of the LPDC. I have trusted Russ with my life many times and he’s proven himself at every turn. I want him to be the last person I ever have to ask to guide the LPDC, and as such I have given him full authority to do whatever is necessary to prevent problems that have plagued us in the past from ever surfacing again. He and his wife, Paula, bring a renewed energy to the LPDC. It is essential that Russ, Barry Bachrach, Mike Kuzma, and the new team at the LPDC be supported so they can work most effectively to achieve my freedom and accomplish the things that need to be done for my people. I have confidence that all of you who truly support me will extend your vote of confidence to Russ and my new team.
A month in solitary is beginning to take a toll on me but your letters give me much hope and encouragement. Many of you have written, e-mailed and called USP Terre Haute, and other organizations. This has brought some improvement to my solitary confinement. I am now getting my medications on a daily basis, I can write out, I am receiving my mail, and I am allowed one phone call a month. I am allowed contact visits for those persons authorized on my visiting list. The contact visit is restricted to a two hour period, and is conducted through a glass pane and a phone. I am allowed to visit with my attorney without those restrictions.
At this time I am asking that you continue to call/write/e-mail the contacts below requesting that my security level be downgraded to medium due to my health, age and good behavior and that I be transferred to a medium security institution with all my hard earned prisoner privileges restored. In case I am transferred please add the new facility (keep checking our official website: http://www.leonardpeltier.org) to your contact list and ask them to respect my human rights and prisoner privileges. Again, I thank you for your support and prayers and hope that I may one day soon be among you.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
*-*-*-*
CONTACT LIST:
U.S. Penitentiary
4700 Bureau Road South
Terre Haute, IN 47802
Phone-812-244-4400
Fax----812-244-4789
THP/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV
Federal Bureau of Prisons
320 First Street NW
Washington, DC 20534
202-307-3198
info@bop.gov
Amnesty International
5 Penn Plaza – 14th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212-807-8400
Fax: 212-463-9193 / 212-627-1451
admin-us@aiusa.org
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10118-3299
Tel: 1-(212) 290-4700
Fax: 1-(212) 736-1300
hrwnyc@hrw.org
Senate Judiciary Committee:
* Arlen Specter, Chairman
711 Hart Building
Washington, DC 20510
Tel: 202-224-4254
* Senator Patrick Leahy, Ranking Member
433 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
* Senator Edward Kennedy
317 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202/224-4543
FAX: 202/224-2417
* Senator Joseph Biden
201 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: 202-224-5042
Fax: 202-224-0139
* Senator Dianne Feinstein
United States Senate
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3841
Fax: (202) 228-3954
* Senator Richard Durbin
332 Dirksen Senate Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2152
Fax: (202) 228-0400
* Senator Herb Kohl
330 Hart Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5653
Fax: (202) 224-9787
* Sen. Charles E. Schumer
313 Hart Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-6542
Fax: 202-228-3027
TDD: 202-224-0420
Congressional Judiciary Committee:
* Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
* Honorable Robert C. Scott
1201 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-8351
Fax: (202) 225-8354
bobby.scott@mail.house.gov
* Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee
2435 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3816
* Honorable Maxine Waters
2344 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-2201 phone
202-225-7854 fax
* Honorable Martin Meehan
2229 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3411
Fax: (202) 226-0771
TTY: (202) 225-1904
* Honorable Bill Delahunt
2454 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3111
Fax: (202) 225-5658
William.Delahunt@mail.house.gov
* Honorable Anthony Weiner
1122 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
(202) 225-6616
weiner@mail.house.gov
United Nations:
Louise Arbour, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva
1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Fax: 41-22-917-9022
E-mail: tb-petitions@ohchr.org
U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations
United Nations Office at Geneva
1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Email: WGindigenous@ohchr.org
Fax: 41-22-917-9008
The Special Rapporteur on human rights and fundamental freedoms of
indigenous peoples: Mr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen
His contact person is: Pablo Espiniella, Human Rights Officer
Tel. 41-22-917-9413
Fax 41-22-917-9008
email: indigenous@ohchr.org
U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions
c/o Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
CH-1211, Geneva 10
Switzerland
Fax: 41-22- 917-9006
=+=+= FREE LEONARD PELTIER NOW! =+=+=
From: International Peltier Forum [mailto:kolahq@skynet.be]
Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 2:50 PM
To: IPF
Subject: [LP Forum News] Update from Leonard Peltier
=+=+= INTERNATIONAL FORUM of VIPs for PELTIER =+=+=
August 4th 2005 :
10772 days of WRONGFUL IMPRISONMENT!
=+=+=+=+=+=
ONLINE PETITION FOR EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY
http://users.skynet.be/kola/lppet.htm
ONLINE PETITION FOR PAROLE
http://campaign-pyramid.com/kola/leonard/
=+=+=+=+=+=
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Over There: The Duality of War
It is difficult to imagine what Fox is up to: If they think their new series on FX “Over There” is a recruiting tool, I believe they are mistaken. If they think it will fill impressionable young minds with that gung ho spirit of patriotic fervor, they will surely be disappointed. Only the psychopathic would find this depiction of war attractive.
There is a lot wrong with Steven Bochco’s Iraq war series. Virtually everyone in the platoon is young and attractive, belying the fact that so many of the soldiers in this war are drawn from the Guard and Reserves. Check the latest casualty list: It is no longer an army of high school graduates, the young and naïve. There is probably more bravado and thoughtful reflection than reality allows but there is also something beneath the surface of this Hollywood production that strikes deep and rings true.
What comes across in “Over There” is a potent message concerning the duality of war, the same message that Stanley Kubrick delivered in the Vietnam classic “Full Metal Jacket.” It is the acknowledgment that no matter where the individual begins in philosophy, values and character, the experience of war will force every soldier to confront internal demons. In war, only a soldier’s duty is clear and even that may be called into question. It is the realization that the soldier on the far side of the field is not fundamentally different than the soldier on the near side. It is the understanding that words like democracy, insurgency, terrorist, freedom, occupation, liberation, good and evil have very little meaning in the line of fire. It is the reality that war is hell and no one escapes unscathed.
It will be interesting to see where the series goes from its beginning, whether it will temper the antiwar portion of the equation that compels the viewer to confront a moral dilemma. If it remains true and gains a growing audience, Fox will confront its own dilemma: Whether to kill a rare program with critical and popular appeal or allow it to raise the very questions its news division has fought so long and hard to deny.
If it lives up to its pilot, “Over There” has the power to reach many American hearts and minds. When both are engaged in sufficient numbers, the end of the occupation will be at hand.
Jazz.
There is a lot wrong with Steven Bochco’s Iraq war series. Virtually everyone in the platoon is young and attractive, belying the fact that so many of the soldiers in this war are drawn from the Guard and Reserves. Check the latest casualty list: It is no longer an army of high school graduates, the young and naïve. There is probably more bravado and thoughtful reflection than reality allows but there is also something beneath the surface of this Hollywood production that strikes deep and rings true.
What comes across in “Over There” is a potent message concerning the duality of war, the same message that Stanley Kubrick delivered in the Vietnam classic “Full Metal Jacket.” It is the acknowledgment that no matter where the individual begins in philosophy, values and character, the experience of war will force every soldier to confront internal demons. In war, only a soldier’s duty is clear and even that may be called into question. It is the realization that the soldier on the far side of the field is not fundamentally different than the soldier on the near side. It is the understanding that words like democracy, insurgency, terrorist, freedom, occupation, liberation, good and evil have very little meaning in the line of fire. It is the reality that war is hell and no one escapes unscathed.
It will be interesting to see where the series goes from its beginning, whether it will temper the antiwar portion of the equation that compels the viewer to confront a moral dilemma. If it remains true and gains a growing audience, Fox will confront its own dilemma: Whether to kill a rare program with critical and popular appeal or allow it to raise the very questions its news division has fought so long and hard to deny.
If it lives up to its pilot, “Over There” has the power to reach many American hearts and minds. When both are engaged in sufficient numbers, the end of the occupation will be at hand.
Jazz.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
SHORTSTACKED: SPOTLIGHT ON ROVE & CHENEY
By Jack Random
An article on Common Dreams (“Rove Scandal Could Stick” by Mark Weisbrot) was the first I have seen to seriously ask the obvious question: What did the president know and when did he know it?
My own reading of this sordid affair (the exposure of a CIA agent and its subsequent cover-up) is that it will not reach the desk of the president but that is hardly a reason to relent.
If anyone in the White House were to have informed the president, the question would be: Why would he do that?
The elders among us may recall how forces conspired to knock out vice president Spiro Agnew (the president’s hatchet man) before Nixon took the fall. In a parallel twist of irony, if someone in Cheney’s office gave information to the president that exposed him to liability, it would be a vice presidential insurance policy. It would be Cheney saying to Bush: If you take us down, we’ll take you with us.
There is an enormous difference between Dick Nixon and George W. Bush. There are similarities as well: In psychoanalytical terms, both seem blessed or cursed (depending on your point of view) with the combination of gigantic egos and dwarfed super egos. The critical difference, however, is that Nixon did not need a Karl Rove because he was a Karl Rove. For all his moral shortcomings (or perhaps because of them), Nixon was a master politico and one can be sure that many Republican candidates consulted him even in exile.
Watergate would not have had a profound impact on American politics if it had not gone to the very top. Mitchell, Haldeman and Ehrlichmann [1] may have been capable of any number of immoral deeds but they were not essential to the Nixon White House. The Chief Executive wore all the hats and had his finger in every pie. By contrast, our current president’s greatest virtue (again, a two-edged sword) is that he knows his limitations. He depends on others to formulate policy and guide the ship of state.
Colin Powell, George Tenet, John Ashcroft and (most curiously) Paul Wolfowitz have already jumped ship. With her promotion to Secretary of State, Karl Rove and Dick Cheney have effectively removed Condoleezza Rice as the president’s daily adviser. They can send her off on global publicity tours, leaving themselves to run the office.
As enamored as the president is with Condoleezza and Rummy (Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld), he is as dependent on Cheney and Rove as Rush Limbaugh is on pharmaceutical remedies. The president’s enormous ego gives them carte blanche to secure his legacy and record his pages in history. Without Cheney and Rove, he is what he is: A notoriously incompetent and ill-informed executive who has failed at every venture he has attempted short of politics.
Having won a second term in the last election, we might be tempted to think that Rove no longer has a function. We would be wrong. Aside from orchestrating White House spin, Rove has two critical items on his agenda: Building Republican dominance in the midterm elections and positioning the Republican Party to continue the Bush legacy. Dick Cheney’s agenda is to forward the current policies of free trade and expand the war on terror with all that entails.
To the extent that Rove and Cheney succeed, the horrors of the Bush administration will be visited on future generations not only in America but in the world at large.
The stakes are high and both men are short stacked with a diminishing supply of cards to be played. Rove and Scooter Libby (Cheney’s Chief of Staff) have fully exploited their access to privileged information and their connections in the media. While they may have pulled it off in Florida and Ohio, it is extremely difficult for politicos to operate in the spotlight. As long as the Plame-Wilson-Miller case hangs over them, they are compelled to spend most of their time and efforts covering their trails.
With Times reporter Judy Miller in jail, a parade of her colleagues under subpoena, and every other operative in Washington cowering in their executive suites, anyone who receives a call from Rove, Cheney or their minions is conveniently on vacation.
It does not matter if the president himself takes the fall. As long as the dirty underside of his manufactured case for war is fully exposed, a legacy will be secured. The younger Bush pages will combine with the Nixon pages in a chapter on infamy.
If Rove and Cheney take the fall, the legacy is mortally wounded and even the spineless Democrats may be emboldened to distance themselves from the policies of the Bush White House. Who knows but that they may even be so emboldened as to demand an end to the occupation?
If not, the door to an effective third party or independent political movement will swing wide open.
Jazz.
[Note: Attorney General John Mitchell resigned in disgrace. Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman and Domestic Policy Advisor John Ehrlichmann were fired as intended fall guys.]
An article on Common Dreams (“Rove Scandal Could Stick” by Mark Weisbrot) was the first I have seen to seriously ask the obvious question: What did the president know and when did he know it?
My own reading of this sordid affair (the exposure of a CIA agent and its subsequent cover-up) is that it will not reach the desk of the president but that is hardly a reason to relent.
If anyone in the White House were to have informed the president, the question would be: Why would he do that?
The elders among us may recall how forces conspired to knock out vice president Spiro Agnew (the president’s hatchet man) before Nixon took the fall. In a parallel twist of irony, if someone in Cheney’s office gave information to the president that exposed him to liability, it would be a vice presidential insurance policy. It would be Cheney saying to Bush: If you take us down, we’ll take you with us.
There is an enormous difference between Dick Nixon and George W. Bush. There are similarities as well: In psychoanalytical terms, both seem blessed or cursed (depending on your point of view) with the combination of gigantic egos and dwarfed super egos. The critical difference, however, is that Nixon did not need a Karl Rove because he was a Karl Rove. For all his moral shortcomings (or perhaps because of them), Nixon was a master politico and one can be sure that many Republican candidates consulted him even in exile.
Watergate would not have had a profound impact on American politics if it had not gone to the very top. Mitchell, Haldeman and Ehrlichmann [1] may have been capable of any number of immoral deeds but they were not essential to the Nixon White House. The Chief Executive wore all the hats and had his finger in every pie. By contrast, our current president’s greatest virtue (again, a two-edged sword) is that he knows his limitations. He depends on others to formulate policy and guide the ship of state.
Colin Powell, George Tenet, John Ashcroft and (most curiously) Paul Wolfowitz have already jumped ship. With her promotion to Secretary of State, Karl Rove and Dick Cheney have effectively removed Condoleezza Rice as the president’s daily adviser. They can send her off on global publicity tours, leaving themselves to run the office.
As enamored as the president is with Condoleezza and Rummy (Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld), he is as dependent on Cheney and Rove as Rush Limbaugh is on pharmaceutical remedies. The president’s enormous ego gives them carte blanche to secure his legacy and record his pages in history. Without Cheney and Rove, he is what he is: A notoriously incompetent and ill-informed executive who has failed at every venture he has attempted short of politics.
Having won a second term in the last election, we might be tempted to think that Rove no longer has a function. We would be wrong. Aside from orchestrating White House spin, Rove has two critical items on his agenda: Building Republican dominance in the midterm elections and positioning the Republican Party to continue the Bush legacy. Dick Cheney’s agenda is to forward the current policies of free trade and expand the war on terror with all that entails.
To the extent that Rove and Cheney succeed, the horrors of the Bush administration will be visited on future generations not only in America but in the world at large.
The stakes are high and both men are short stacked with a diminishing supply of cards to be played. Rove and Scooter Libby (Cheney’s Chief of Staff) have fully exploited their access to privileged information and their connections in the media. While they may have pulled it off in Florida and Ohio, it is extremely difficult for politicos to operate in the spotlight. As long as the Plame-Wilson-Miller case hangs over them, they are compelled to spend most of their time and efforts covering their trails.
With Times reporter Judy Miller in jail, a parade of her colleagues under subpoena, and every other operative in Washington cowering in their executive suites, anyone who receives a call from Rove, Cheney or their minions is conveniently on vacation.
It does not matter if the president himself takes the fall. As long as the dirty underside of his manufactured case for war is fully exposed, a legacy will be secured. The younger Bush pages will combine with the Nixon pages in a chapter on infamy.
If Rove and Cheney take the fall, the legacy is mortally wounded and even the spineless Democrats may be emboldened to distance themselves from the policies of the Bush White House. Who knows but that they may even be so emboldened as to demand an end to the occupation?
If not, the door to an effective third party or independent political movement will swing wide open.
Jazz.
[Note: Attorney General John Mitchell resigned in disgrace. Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman and Domestic Policy Advisor John Ehrlichmann were fired as intended fall guys.]
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
CounterPunch Response: Miller Time
[Note: This is a response to "Miller Time/Pull the Threads" as posted by CounterPunch 7/15/05]
Read your Miller Time ...
I have a feeling that the right is making us go in circles. Too much time is being spent in opposing their lies, which is making us look partisan.
We should shift the focus on to Judith Miller, as in my opinion that is where the real truth lies. Rove seems to be a distraction and is rightly taking the flak at present because nothing really may be proven against him.
If we shift the focus to "Special Plan Office" in the White House operating under the VeePee and the disinformation they generated with "General Judith Miller" etc., in the lead-up to the Iraq fiasco, we will be getting closer to where all this should be leading.
It looks like Libby and Miller had a conversation, which is the root of this. My feeling is that subsequently Miller told Novak about Valerie [Plame] but in the context of being Wilson's wife in the CIA, who so called "engineered" the trip, rather than being a covert agent. Again my gut says both Novak and Rove were ignorant of the covert status, otherwise Novak would not have gone public. Rove is highly disciplined in what he does, thus exposing a covert agent does not really fit into being his modus operandi.
The problem is that Miller has taken on a so-called martyr role and the liberal media has rolled over in her favor. They have to get out of this and realize how she is taking us all for a ride to hide her own "false journalism" and "march beats to war".
I think Miller is the key and the prosecuter "is telling us so" based on whatever he has said or done till now. Cooper/Rove is not in the same category as Miller/VeePee/Rumsfeld in lead up to war. That is the story Americans need to know, and then we can talk treason of the highest order!!!!
-- Allwar Isbad
Read your Miller Time ...
I have a feeling that the right is making us go in circles. Too much time is being spent in opposing their lies, which is making us look partisan.
We should shift the focus on to Judith Miller, as in my opinion that is where the real truth lies. Rove seems to be a distraction and is rightly taking the flak at present because nothing really may be proven against him.
If we shift the focus to "Special Plan Office" in the White House operating under the VeePee and the disinformation they generated with "General Judith Miller" etc., in the lead-up to the Iraq fiasco, we will be getting closer to where all this should be leading.
It looks like Libby and Miller had a conversation, which is the root of this. My feeling is that subsequently Miller told Novak about Valerie [Plame] but in the context of being Wilson's wife in the CIA, who so called "engineered" the trip, rather than being a covert agent. Again my gut says both Novak and Rove were ignorant of the covert status, otherwise Novak would not have gone public. Rove is highly disciplined in what he does, thus exposing a covert agent does not really fit into being his modus operandi.
The problem is that Miller has taken on a so-called martyr role and the liberal media has rolled over in her favor. They have to get out of this and realize how she is taking us all for a ride to hide her own "false journalism" and "march beats to war".
I think Miller is the key and the prosecuter "is telling us so" based on whatever he has said or done till now. Cooper/Rove is not in the same category as Miller/VeePee/Rumsfeld in lead up to war. That is the story Americans need to know, and then we can talk treason of the highest order!!!!
-- Allwar Isbad
Monday, July 18, 2005
Mark of The Beast
Unlike the White House propaganda machine, numbers do not lie; rather, they speak for themselves:
1.....2.....3.....4.....5.....6.....7.....8.....9
a......b.....c.....d.....e.....F.....g.....h.....i
j.......k.....l.....m.....n....O.....p.....q.....r
s.......t.....u.....v.....w....X.....y......z
What are the odds?
1.....2.....3.....4.....5.....6.....7.....8.....9
a......b.....c.....d.....e.....F.....g.....h.....i
j.......k.....l.....m.....n....O.....p.....q.....r
s.......t.....u.....v.....w....X.....y......z
What are the odds?
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Why I Love The British
Sunday will mark the final round of the 134th Open Golf Tournament at the Old Course of Saint Andrews. The Open dates back to 1860 (play was suspended for the world wars) on a course that is centuries old.
I love The Open. Here’s why:
The Royal & Ancient course was landscaped by the earth.
A trap is a trap – a hazard that punishes a wayward shot, not a safe haven from which to par or birdie. Traps at the Old Course sport names like the grave, cat’s trap, the coffins, Nick’s bunker, the Hell bunker and the Beardies.
Greens are greens, not pool tables on a putt-putt layout.
The elements are in play: the wind and the rain, the weather and terrain.
The Royal & Ancient refuses to pretend that a championship course is anything but par 72. The combined greens at Saint Andrews add up to 18, keeping faith with the mystical bond of golf to the number nine.
At its best, an Open course requires an array of shots not required of an American style course. With few exceptions, you cannot win an Open without mastery of the knockdown, the bump-and-run, the stinger, the low runner, the bank shot, the draw and the fade.
Despite American dominance in recent years (8 of 10 champions), the Open is the truly international major. While Americans may be infatuated with the Masters and the US Open, the rest of the world recognizes the Claret Jug as the most prized treasure in golf.
The islanders love their champions and know the game, from the least recognized golfing masters (Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris) to the contemporary greats. All who would rise to the status of immortals (Hogan, Jones, Nicklaus, Woods) must pass the test of the Open.
It ain’t over ‘til it’s over. A ball lost in the gorse, out-of-bounds at the Road Hole, or five shots out of a pot bunker is always possible. According to script, the leaders come back to the field as the afternoon winds kick up and the sun bakes the already hard ground.
As they say, play on and may the best golfer win.
Postscript: All hail the Tiger! Long may he reign!
[Tiger Woods Major championships: 2 Opens, 4 Masters, 2 US, 2 PGA + 3 US Amateurs. If the Amateur is included, Tiger now ranks second, tied with Bobby Jones, seven behind Jack Nicklaus, two ahead of Walter Hagen, and four clear of Gary Player and the immortal Ben Hogan.]
I love The Open. Here’s why:
The Royal & Ancient course was landscaped by the earth.
A trap is a trap – a hazard that punishes a wayward shot, not a safe haven from which to par or birdie. Traps at the Old Course sport names like the grave, cat’s trap, the coffins, Nick’s bunker, the Hell bunker and the Beardies.
Greens are greens, not pool tables on a putt-putt layout.
The elements are in play: the wind and the rain, the weather and terrain.
The Royal & Ancient refuses to pretend that a championship course is anything but par 72. The combined greens at Saint Andrews add up to 18, keeping faith with the mystical bond of golf to the number nine.
At its best, an Open course requires an array of shots not required of an American style course. With few exceptions, you cannot win an Open without mastery of the knockdown, the bump-and-run, the stinger, the low runner, the bank shot, the draw and the fade.
Despite American dominance in recent years (8 of 10 champions), the Open is the truly international major. While Americans may be infatuated with the Masters and the US Open, the rest of the world recognizes the Claret Jug as the most prized treasure in golf.
The islanders love their champions and know the game, from the least recognized golfing masters (Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris) to the contemporary greats. All who would rise to the status of immortals (Hogan, Jones, Nicklaus, Woods) must pass the test of the Open.
It ain’t over ‘til it’s over. A ball lost in the gorse, out-of-bounds at the Road Hole, or five shots out of a pot bunker is always possible. According to script, the leaders come back to the field as the afternoon winds kick up and the sun bakes the already hard ground.
As they say, play on and may the best golfer win.
Postscript: All hail the Tiger! Long may he reign!
[Tiger Woods Major championships: 2 Opens, 4 Masters, 2 US, 2 PGA + 3 US Amateurs. If the Amateur is included, Tiger now ranks second, tied with Bobby Jones, seven behind Jack Nicklaus, two ahead of Walter Hagen, and four clear of Gary Player and the immortal Ben Hogan.]
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Response from The UK
[Note: This was a response to "London & Madrid: Days of Sorrow & Refection" as published on Buzzle.com.]
Thank you
I was born and raised in London; all of my family still live there, and I just a few miles away. Of course it is difficult not to get caught up in the outrage, the sorrow, and the accompanying rhetoric and tub-thumping. Of course we must not bow to terrorism, and of course we never will.
But we must not forget that these events are the fruit of a poisoned tree which we have allowed to be planted.
Sadly we in the UK, as in the US, have elected a leader for whom the concept of Crusade is as fresh and as meaningful as that of Jihad is for those who have perpetrated these acts.
It is a mentality which is self perpetuating; it justifies any act, any intervention, any interference we may wish to perpetrate in the name of righteousness and in pursuit of our own interests. It denies utterly our long history of colonial abuse, political betrayal and bloody-minded double -dealing. It then demonizes those on whom we inflict our will, and denies any justice there might be in their viewpoint or their actions or re-actions.
My viewpoint is not one of Marxist self-abuse, it is simply that I lack the nationalist penchant for ignoring any truth [that] does not sit well with our benevolent self-image.
You have spoken a truth which is unfashionable, even unpalatable, but which must find a way through the propaganda if we are ever to bring these horrors to an end for all concerned.
This was the first of your articles I have read, but I will be seeking out others, and sending this one to my friends, whether they want it or not.
best regards
Neal Dowsett
Thank you
I was born and raised in London; all of my family still live there, and I just a few miles away. Of course it is difficult not to get caught up in the outrage, the sorrow, and the accompanying rhetoric and tub-thumping. Of course we must not bow to terrorism, and of course we never will.
But we must not forget that these events are the fruit of a poisoned tree which we have allowed to be planted.
Sadly we in the UK, as in the US, have elected a leader for whom the concept of Crusade is as fresh and as meaningful as that of Jihad is for those who have perpetrated these acts.
It is a mentality which is self perpetuating; it justifies any act, any intervention, any interference we may wish to perpetrate in the name of righteousness and in pursuit of our own interests. It denies utterly our long history of colonial abuse, political betrayal and bloody-minded double -dealing. It then demonizes those on whom we inflict our will, and denies any justice there might be in their viewpoint or their actions or re-actions.
My viewpoint is not one of Marxist self-abuse, it is simply that I lack the nationalist penchant for ignoring any truth [that] does not sit well with our benevolent self-image.
You have spoken a truth which is unfashionable, even unpalatable, but which must find a way through the propaganda if we are ever to bring these horrors to an end for all concerned.
This was the first of your articles I have read, but I will be seeking out others, and sending this one to my friends, whether they want it or not.
best regards
Neal Dowsett
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
FDR THEY AIN'T
Excerpt from "George & Tony Get Their Al Qaeda Fix" by Greg Palast.
The cruel, evil jerks who blew up the London subway last week, despite appropriating al-Qaeda's name for their website and T-shirts, have about as much to do with al-Qaeda as a Beatles tribute band has to do with the Fab Four.
I'm not belittling the heartbreaking hideousness of this crime, but let's get the facts straight. If al-Qaeda is the Panzer Division of terrorism, these London bombers were terrorism's Cub Scouts. We're talking a few pounds of nitro wired to a clock -- a design badly copied off the Internet.
Al-Qaeda this ain't.
Blair knows it. And Bush knows it... because Blair and Bush are al-Qaeda junkies. They've sold us on everything from fingerprinting five-year olds to invading Baghdad to tolerating plummeting paychecks all on the slick line that we are under attack by a well-trained, well-armed, well-funded hidden army called al-Qaeda.
For Bush and Blair, organized terror's diminishing powers was a political problem -- until last week, when the al-Queda addicts of the White House and Downing Street got a new terror fix. Even if it wasn't the real al-Qaeda, it was enough for them to mainline into the body politic a big, fat dose of fear.
FDR calmed a nation when he said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." But the Bush and Blair slogan is, "We have nothing to sell but fear itself."
[Note: Greg Palast is the reporter who blew the lid off the Great Disenfranchisement Florida 2000. SEE: www.GregPalast.com.]
The cruel, evil jerks who blew up the London subway last week, despite appropriating al-Qaeda's name for their website and T-shirts, have about as much to do with al-Qaeda as a Beatles tribute band has to do with the Fab Four.
I'm not belittling the heartbreaking hideousness of this crime, but let's get the facts straight. If al-Qaeda is the Panzer Division of terrorism, these London bombers were terrorism's Cub Scouts. We're talking a few pounds of nitro wired to a clock -- a design badly copied off the Internet.
Al-Qaeda this ain't.
Blair knows it. And Bush knows it... because Blair and Bush are al-Qaeda junkies. They've sold us on everything from fingerprinting five-year olds to invading Baghdad to tolerating plummeting paychecks all on the slick line that we are under attack by a well-trained, well-armed, well-funded hidden army called al-Qaeda.
For Bush and Blair, organized terror's diminishing powers was a political problem -- until last week, when the al-Queda addicts of the White House and Downing Street got a new terror fix. Even if it wasn't the real al-Qaeda, it was enough for them to mainline into the body politic a big, fat dose of fear.
FDR calmed a nation when he said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." But the Bush and Blair slogan is, "We have nothing to sell but fear itself."
[Note: Greg Palast is the reporter who blew the lid off the Great Disenfranchisement Florida 2000. SEE: www.GregPalast.com.]
Monday, July 11, 2005
Even The Dead Stand On End At The End Of The Day
Lock and load fellow citizens and let him have it with paint guns filled with the same hate he has spewed at so many others.
- Chris Mansel
Karl Rove sits in front of several television sets taking notes on the coverage of the attack on Fallujah. He counts how many times each network mentions the number of dead, the number wounded. Like a ghastly documentarian he organizes the numbers and leaks stories to the press in ways that will change the story of Iraq so subtlety that it would take constant attention to each newscast to tell the difference. Staffers come and go and bring fresh wine coolers for Rove to swill down and laugh a menacing uncontrollable laughter.
Karl Rove (on the phone): Yea, the latest report is that the citizens of Iraq are offering meals to the soldiers as they enter their homes. Many of the wounded Iraqi soldiers are asking about the prize on Saddam?s head.
A Reporter from the Fox Network: Ok, we?ll get it on the air. Any news on any changes in the cabinet yet?
Karl Rove: I should know something in about two weeks tops.
A Reporter from the Fox Network: Is there any word on the massacres in the Sudan?
With that comment the line goes dead.
- Chris Mansel
[See the Mansel Report: www.chrismansel.blogspot.com]
- Chris Mansel
Karl Rove sits in front of several television sets taking notes on the coverage of the attack on Fallujah. He counts how many times each network mentions the number of dead, the number wounded. Like a ghastly documentarian he organizes the numbers and leaks stories to the press in ways that will change the story of Iraq so subtlety that it would take constant attention to each newscast to tell the difference. Staffers come and go and bring fresh wine coolers for Rove to swill down and laugh a menacing uncontrollable laughter.
Karl Rove (on the phone): Yea, the latest report is that the citizens of Iraq are offering meals to the soldiers as they enter their homes. Many of the wounded Iraqi soldiers are asking about the prize on Saddam?s head.
A Reporter from the Fox Network: Ok, we?ll get it on the air. Any news on any changes in the cabinet yet?
Karl Rove: I should know something in about two weeks tops.
A Reporter from the Fox Network: Is there any word on the massacres in the Sudan?
With that comment the line goes dead.
- Chris Mansel
[See the Mansel Report: www.chrismansel.blogspot.com]
Sunday, July 10, 2005
From the Mind of Chris Mansel
Air Force One (The Sadistic Wagon With A Squeaky Wheel) [Random Note: Shades of Gonzo.]
(for Jack Random)
Air Force One left London and as soon as it was in the air the flight crew disrobed and the alcohol started to run in-between the aisles. President Bush went into his secret office near the fuselage and put in a DVD that contains a montage of Condi Rice strolling in front of the camera. The creases in her pants suit moving in slow motion. The President thrusts his groin into the television screen, aides gather together intelligence on the bombings and begin to make secure phone calls to Saudi Arabia to schedule another. When the President gets all worked up to the point of climax he opens a door located inside his closet to enter a small pool of oil so he can commit coitus with himself. President Clinton kept vagina cigars in this secret room and former President Reagan kept stag films of Hedy Lamar and Clara Bow. Jelly Beans tied on gold string reeking of excrement.
In the President’s office Karl Rove and Karen Hughes watch footage of the attacks in London and sculpt data for Scott McClellan and the White House press core, for speeches in the upcoming elections and to use in the files that Rove keeps in his secured bunker of misinformation. Rove laughs greedily and spits in his hand and grabs Karen Hughes by the neck and bends her toward him. Karen Hughes performs a sadomasochistic act on Rove’s person. The President walks in and opens a beer.
President Bush: Now Karl, when I go sign this book at the embassy what do I write…a message of some sorts or what? Sorry you didn’t die Tony, something like that?
Karl Rove relieves himself into a bucket on the floor and Karen Hughes hits a button and a Secret Service agent arrives instantly to dispose of the waste. Karen Hughes arranges herself and the talk continues.
Karl Rove: You just sign your name and express your sympathies.
President Bush looks at Karen Hughes and at Karl Rove with a confused expression.
Karl Rove: Sympathies, how sorry you are…(laughs) ok just write whatever you want to.
Karen Hughes: Mr. President can we please turn off this tape of Condi?
The President looks across the room at Condi and then returns his gaze to the television screen.
-------------------------------------------
Predictions: The Bush/Clinton Alliance
I have seen the line in the darkness and it is hellish. I have a prediction and it is so goddamn twisted it just might come true. Okay, former President Clinton was appointed by current President George W. Bush to serve with his father former President Bush to aid in raising money for victims of the Tsunami. They have gotten to be friends despite their “differences” and Barbara Bush has even referred to former President Bill Clinton as her son. The Bush family is friendly with the Clinton family and Senator Hillary Clinton will most certainly run for President. This is where it gets weird.
Senator Hillary Clinton will run on the friendship of the Bush family, the photo-ops, etc., and will garner the attention of Bush Republicans. She will win the presidency with his “further than center” views but now the kicker, a preemptive strike. I can’t believe I am saying this; Hillary will get her second term by pardoning either Karl Rove or current President George W. Bush for his role in using 9/11 for a reason to invade Iraq illegally and the approval of torture beyond the restrictions of the Geneva Convention. When does torture get to beat something even the Republican Party will not allow? When it interferes with the votes being tallied in the home districts of the candidates in the house and the senate.
This is so twisted like I said that it just could come true. Slicker than Willie, darker than Nixon, and crueler than Idi Amin the Bush/Clinton alliance could dispel any and all rumors that true evil rests only in the hearts of men.
- Chris Mansel
See The Mansel Report: www.chrismansel.blogspot.com.
--------------------------------------------
Random Note: Say a prayer for Jimmy wZ, hunkered down in the path of Hurricane Dennis. Somewhere on the Florida panhandle, the celestial sounds of a silver flute are praying for us all. Be well, wZ man. Mitakuye Oyasin. Let it be so.
(for Jack Random)
Air Force One left London and as soon as it was in the air the flight crew disrobed and the alcohol started to run in-between the aisles. President Bush went into his secret office near the fuselage and put in a DVD that contains a montage of Condi Rice strolling in front of the camera. The creases in her pants suit moving in slow motion. The President thrusts his groin into the television screen, aides gather together intelligence on the bombings and begin to make secure phone calls to Saudi Arabia to schedule another. When the President gets all worked up to the point of climax he opens a door located inside his closet to enter a small pool of oil so he can commit coitus with himself. President Clinton kept vagina cigars in this secret room and former President Reagan kept stag films of Hedy Lamar and Clara Bow. Jelly Beans tied on gold string reeking of excrement.
In the President’s office Karl Rove and Karen Hughes watch footage of the attacks in London and sculpt data for Scott McClellan and the White House press core, for speeches in the upcoming elections and to use in the files that Rove keeps in his secured bunker of misinformation. Rove laughs greedily and spits in his hand and grabs Karen Hughes by the neck and bends her toward him. Karen Hughes performs a sadomasochistic act on Rove’s person. The President walks in and opens a beer.
President Bush: Now Karl, when I go sign this book at the embassy what do I write…a message of some sorts or what? Sorry you didn’t die Tony, something like that?
Karl Rove relieves himself into a bucket on the floor and Karen Hughes hits a button and a Secret Service agent arrives instantly to dispose of the waste. Karen Hughes arranges herself and the talk continues.
Karl Rove: You just sign your name and express your sympathies.
President Bush looks at Karen Hughes and at Karl Rove with a confused expression.
Karl Rove: Sympathies, how sorry you are…(laughs) ok just write whatever you want to.
Karen Hughes: Mr. President can we please turn off this tape of Condi?
The President looks across the room at Condi and then returns his gaze to the television screen.
-------------------------------------------
Predictions: The Bush/Clinton Alliance
I have seen the line in the darkness and it is hellish. I have a prediction and it is so goddamn twisted it just might come true. Okay, former President Clinton was appointed by current President George W. Bush to serve with his father former President Bush to aid in raising money for victims of the Tsunami. They have gotten to be friends despite their “differences” and Barbara Bush has even referred to former President Bill Clinton as her son. The Bush family is friendly with the Clinton family and Senator Hillary Clinton will most certainly run for President. This is where it gets weird.
Senator Hillary Clinton will run on the friendship of the Bush family, the photo-ops, etc., and will garner the attention of Bush Republicans. She will win the presidency with his “further than center” views but now the kicker, a preemptive strike. I can’t believe I am saying this; Hillary will get her second term by pardoning either Karl Rove or current President George W. Bush for his role in using 9/11 for a reason to invade Iraq illegally and the approval of torture beyond the restrictions of the Geneva Convention. When does torture get to beat something even the Republican Party will not allow? When it interferes with the votes being tallied in the home districts of the candidates in the house and the senate.
This is so twisted like I said that it just could come true. Slicker than Willie, darker than Nixon, and crueler than Idi Amin the Bush/Clinton alliance could dispel any and all rumors that true evil rests only in the hearts of men.
- Chris Mansel
See The Mansel Report: www.chrismansel.blogspot.com.
--------------------------------------------
Random Note: Say a prayer for Jimmy wZ, hunkered down in the path of Hurricane Dennis. Somewhere on the Florida panhandle, the celestial sounds of a silver flute are praying for us all. Be well, wZ man. Mitakuye Oyasin. Let it be so.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
LEONARD PELTIER IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center
--------------------------------------------
As Americans celebrate their myth of freedom and justice for all, Leonard Peltier is moved without warning or notification to Terre Haute, Indiana, USP and is held in solitary confinement at least through the long holiday weekend.
At a time when this country seeks understanding for its obvious wrongs around the planet and cannot understand why the global village mistrusts it, the U.S. government is mistreating and using extraordinary domestic rendition upon the most beloved contemporary Native American warrior. Leonard Peltier, whom - again in defiance of the global opinion - this country refuses to acknowledge as a political prisoner, today sits in a tiny cell without windows and human contact as the American people prepare to celebrate their myth of justice and freedom for all.
After twenty nine years in prison for a crime he didn't commit he was moved without rhyme or reason, and without notification to his family and attorney, from Leavenworth USP to Terre Haute Indiana USP. He was immediately placed in solitary confinement, "the hole". Leonard is sixty years old, he suffers from arthritis, bone spurs, all the discomforts associated with diabetes, and recently had a stroke.
The Bureau of Prisons may argue that placing a transferred prisoner in solitary confinement is a routine procedure until all the appropriate paperwork is processed, but the timing of this action adds to its cruelty since it was carried out right before the long weekend preceding this 4th of July. In addition, this development comes at a time when Peltier’s legal team is successfully arguing very important motions and the US Courts might be obligated to release him. It is no too far fetched to imagine that to prevent his release, he is subjected to this psychological and physical torture in hope that it will break his body and spirit, and literally kill him.
As seen in the world stage today, the U.S. concepts of freedom fighters, terrorists, illegal combatants, murders, and battle casualties, are relative at their best, and duplicitous, deceptive, and capricious in their application. The same government that manipulated Canadian sovereignty and false affidavits to obtain the extradition of Leonard Peltier, our freedom fighter, today protects Jose Posada Carriles, a real terrorist, and denies his extradition to Venezuela where he was involved in the bombing of a Cuban airliner resulting in the murder of all its passengers. On the other hand, the “crime scene” in which they have framed Peltier is a battle in which armed and trained US government combatants, illegally entered non-US territory, and attacked a group of armed civilians defending their land and families, and they, as well as one of those civilians (Joe Stuntz), became casualties of war. Why must then Peltier pay with his life?
Does the FBI feel any remorse for any of its victims: Joe Stuntz, Buddy Lamont, or Frank Clearwater? How about Pedro Bissonette or the Jimmy Little Incident? Both murdered by US backed forces, using deadly force, and bludgeoning Jimmy Little in front of his family. His son Jimmy, Jr. witnessed this terrible act and when he reached 21 committed suicide--a note revealed that he missed his Dad and saw no reason to live. Jimmy, Jr was an Olympic cross-country talent when he was at Loneman School as a 7th grader. He was the next Billy Mills but the trauma of the US invasion and its violence killed him before he had a chance to mature, he really was dead before he lived.
Who pays for our dead? Or are our lives still as worthless to the American people as when they would pay money for our skins red with our blood (hence the term redskins so celebrated by this culture). Our wounds are deep, and the torment that created them is unforgettable. We know we cannot go back in time, but what can be done today is to put an end to the assault on indigenous people, that has been taking place without reprieve since the beginning of this country. Enough is enough America! Basta ya! Honor our treaties, stop taking and destroying our land and resources, respect our sovereignty and our culture, rectify the language of your history, and free our warriors! Free Peltier!
Wanbli Watakpe aka Russ Redner
Executive Director, LPDC
Paula Ostrovsky
Media PR Officer, LPDC
leonardpeltier.org
--------------------------------------------
As Americans celebrate their myth of freedom and justice for all, Leonard Peltier is moved without warning or notification to Terre Haute, Indiana, USP and is held in solitary confinement at least through the long holiday weekend.
At a time when this country seeks understanding for its obvious wrongs around the planet and cannot understand why the global village mistrusts it, the U.S. government is mistreating and using extraordinary domestic rendition upon the most beloved contemporary Native American warrior. Leonard Peltier, whom - again in defiance of the global opinion - this country refuses to acknowledge as a political prisoner, today sits in a tiny cell without windows and human contact as the American people prepare to celebrate their myth of justice and freedom for all.
After twenty nine years in prison for a crime he didn't commit he was moved without rhyme or reason, and without notification to his family and attorney, from Leavenworth USP to Terre Haute Indiana USP. He was immediately placed in solitary confinement, "the hole". Leonard is sixty years old, he suffers from arthritis, bone spurs, all the discomforts associated with diabetes, and recently had a stroke.
The Bureau of Prisons may argue that placing a transferred prisoner in solitary confinement is a routine procedure until all the appropriate paperwork is processed, but the timing of this action adds to its cruelty since it was carried out right before the long weekend preceding this 4th of July. In addition, this development comes at a time when Peltier’s legal team is successfully arguing very important motions and the US Courts might be obligated to release him. It is no too far fetched to imagine that to prevent his release, he is subjected to this psychological and physical torture in hope that it will break his body and spirit, and literally kill him.
As seen in the world stage today, the U.S. concepts of freedom fighters, terrorists, illegal combatants, murders, and battle casualties, are relative at their best, and duplicitous, deceptive, and capricious in their application. The same government that manipulated Canadian sovereignty and false affidavits to obtain the extradition of Leonard Peltier, our freedom fighter, today protects Jose Posada Carriles, a real terrorist, and denies his extradition to Venezuela where he was involved in the bombing of a Cuban airliner resulting in the murder of all its passengers. On the other hand, the “crime scene” in which they have framed Peltier is a battle in which armed and trained US government combatants, illegally entered non-US territory, and attacked a group of armed civilians defending their land and families, and they, as well as one of those civilians (Joe Stuntz), became casualties of war. Why must then Peltier pay with his life?
Does the FBI feel any remorse for any of its victims: Joe Stuntz, Buddy Lamont, or Frank Clearwater? How about Pedro Bissonette or the Jimmy Little Incident? Both murdered by US backed forces, using deadly force, and bludgeoning Jimmy Little in front of his family. His son Jimmy, Jr. witnessed this terrible act and when he reached 21 committed suicide--a note revealed that he missed his Dad and saw no reason to live. Jimmy, Jr was an Olympic cross-country talent when he was at Loneman School as a 7th grader. He was the next Billy Mills but the trauma of the US invasion and its violence killed him before he had a chance to mature, he really was dead before he lived.
Who pays for our dead? Or are our lives still as worthless to the American people as when they would pay money for our skins red with our blood (hence the term redskins so celebrated by this culture). Our wounds are deep, and the torment that created them is unforgettable. We know we cannot go back in time, but what can be done today is to put an end to the assault on indigenous people, that has been taking place without reprieve since the beginning of this country. Enough is enough America! Basta ya! Honor our treaties, stop taking and destroying our land and resources, respect our sovereignty and our culture, rectify the language of your history, and free our warriors! Free Peltier!
Wanbli Watakpe aka Russ Redner
Executive Director, LPDC
Paula Ostrovsky
Media PR Officer, LPDC
leonardpeltier.org
Friday, July 01, 2005
SCHIZO SCHERZO: THE LAST WALTZ
By Jack Random
Schizo: Split, irrational, bizarre.
Scherzo: A playful movement in a symphony.
The psychological theory of cognitive dissonance holds that two incompatible thoughts cannot be held in one mind simultaneously – or rather, they cannot be held without damage to the psyche.
For example, if you believe that good people do not do bad things and that Joe is a good person and then learn that Joe hit his wife, you are confronted with a dilemma: Either Joe is not a good person or good people do bad things. Something must give.
A recent poll suggested that nearly 70% of Americans no longer support the war in Iraq. They do not believe that the war was necessary, justified or worth the cost. A subsequent poll suggested that fully 60% of the people believe we must stay in Iraq to a successful conclusion.
Curiously, these polls mirror the position of the mainstream Democrats and support the current policy of the Bush White House (though they object to certain administrative details). It is a portrait of two parties in spasmodic harmony, waltzing in blissful ignorance while the flames of war rage just beyond the sight and sound of our fearless patriotic leaders. It is the portrait of a mythology-pathology designed for cinematic rendition and set to the tune of Schizo Scherzo in B flat major. It is strangely reassuring and hauntingly stimulating but it is not founded in reality. Something must give.
With all due respect, the consensus position is a hybrid of incompatible beliefs. We are in effect saying we oppose the war but support the occupation. It is like acknowledging that we raided the wrong house but we might as well finish the search. More accurately, it is like slaughtering half a village only to learn that the victims are innocent. Rather than acknowledge our mistake, apologize and make amends, we wipe out the survivors so that no one lives to tell the tale.
This is the American pathology and it has never been more dangerous than it is today. To us, Iraq is like a walk in the park – even if the park is a little risky at night. To the Iraqis, having lost over a million people, more than half a million children, to the western liberators over the last decade, it is an endless nightmare. Not only do we destroy and occupy their country, laying contractual claim to their bountiful resources, but we expect them to be grateful as well: Schizo Scherzo.
It is time we confronted our own dark truths. We have been allowed to shelter ourselves from responsibility by pretending that we have faith in our leaders. We are not to blame if our leaders deceived us. We were told Iraq was the enemy. We were told they posed a threat to the world. We were told they conspired to knock down the Twin Towers. We were ill equipped to distinguish between the lies, the deceptions and the ultimate truth.
The truth is the polls do not tell the story they pretend to tell. They pretend to be a snapshot of public opinion at a given time. They are no such things. We have taken our cues from our leaders. It is not what we believe but what we say we believe that matters. The polls are nothing but a façade, a masquerade, so much puff and stuff.
We Americans are neither stupid nor ignorant. We did not believe in the weapons of mass destruction fantasy. We did not believe even for an instant that Saddam Hussein knocked down those towers. We did not believe that diplomacy was played out at the United Nations. Rather, we simply required something to tell our children and grandchildren now and in the future. Our leaders gave us the lies so that we could hand them down through the decades like Manifest Destiny and absolve ourselves of blame.
The fact is, like Cheney and Wolfowitz and all the president’s men, we believed it would be a cakewalk. We believed that no matter how many Iraqis died in Shock and Awe, they would be grateful and no more than a handful of our soldiers would pay the price. We believed it would be a long weekend in the desert (like the first Gulf War) and when it was over there would be parades and parties and medals of distinction.
We believed that the world would salute in awe and allow us to play the Cowboy King one more time. Just another episode of Duke Wayne, the Lone Ranger, 20 Mule Team Borax and How the West Was Won. We’re the best and the brightest. We’ve earned our stripes. When the chips were down and all the cards were on the table, we picked ourselves up by our own bootstraps, summoning every last ounce of courage and willpower, gave it one last college try, and won one for the Gipper. Why?
Cue music (Queen):
We are champions, my friend!
We’ll keep on fighting ‘til the end!
No time for losers ‘cause we are the champions … of the world!
What a shame it is not a movie. We could demand a better ending. As it is, we are saddled with the reality we have helped to create. There is no more pretending. As we stand with the president and his vision of endless war, we will find no redemption. The blood is on our hands now and all the waters of the Tigres and Euphrates will not wash the stain from our collective soul.
We have lost our senses. We have gone mad. What is the world to do when its most powerful member has wandered over the rainbow to the dark side of the moon?
It’s a waltz and we’re spinning our way through history like Scarlet O’Hara and Rhett Butler, pretending that the war is about honor and not slavery, like Charlotte Corday with a dagger to the heart of Jean Paul Marat, convinced that Marat is the source of all evil, like brave Colonel Custer at the Little Big Horn, Chivington at Sand Creek and the eighteen recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor for the slaughter of 350 unarmed Lakota at Wounded Knee.
It’s Schizo Scherzo and we all have our parts, dancing continuously in the flames of war and bathing in the waters of penitence.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE APPEARED ON THE ALBION MONITOR, BUZZLE, COUNTERPUNCH, DISSIDENT VOICE & OTHER SITES. SEE JACKRANDOM.COM.
Schizo: Split, irrational, bizarre.
Scherzo: A playful movement in a symphony.
The psychological theory of cognitive dissonance holds that two incompatible thoughts cannot be held in one mind simultaneously – or rather, they cannot be held without damage to the psyche.
For example, if you believe that good people do not do bad things and that Joe is a good person and then learn that Joe hit his wife, you are confronted with a dilemma: Either Joe is not a good person or good people do bad things. Something must give.
A recent poll suggested that nearly 70% of Americans no longer support the war in Iraq. They do not believe that the war was necessary, justified or worth the cost. A subsequent poll suggested that fully 60% of the people believe we must stay in Iraq to a successful conclusion.
Curiously, these polls mirror the position of the mainstream Democrats and support the current policy of the Bush White House (though they object to certain administrative details). It is a portrait of two parties in spasmodic harmony, waltzing in blissful ignorance while the flames of war rage just beyond the sight and sound of our fearless patriotic leaders. It is the portrait of a mythology-pathology designed for cinematic rendition and set to the tune of Schizo Scherzo in B flat major. It is strangely reassuring and hauntingly stimulating but it is not founded in reality. Something must give.
With all due respect, the consensus position is a hybrid of incompatible beliefs. We are in effect saying we oppose the war but support the occupation. It is like acknowledging that we raided the wrong house but we might as well finish the search. More accurately, it is like slaughtering half a village only to learn that the victims are innocent. Rather than acknowledge our mistake, apologize and make amends, we wipe out the survivors so that no one lives to tell the tale.
This is the American pathology and it has never been more dangerous than it is today. To us, Iraq is like a walk in the park – even if the park is a little risky at night. To the Iraqis, having lost over a million people, more than half a million children, to the western liberators over the last decade, it is an endless nightmare. Not only do we destroy and occupy their country, laying contractual claim to their bountiful resources, but we expect them to be grateful as well: Schizo Scherzo.
It is time we confronted our own dark truths. We have been allowed to shelter ourselves from responsibility by pretending that we have faith in our leaders. We are not to blame if our leaders deceived us. We were told Iraq was the enemy. We were told they posed a threat to the world. We were told they conspired to knock down the Twin Towers. We were ill equipped to distinguish between the lies, the deceptions and the ultimate truth.
The truth is the polls do not tell the story they pretend to tell. They pretend to be a snapshot of public opinion at a given time. They are no such things. We have taken our cues from our leaders. It is not what we believe but what we say we believe that matters. The polls are nothing but a façade, a masquerade, so much puff and stuff.
We Americans are neither stupid nor ignorant. We did not believe in the weapons of mass destruction fantasy. We did not believe even for an instant that Saddam Hussein knocked down those towers. We did not believe that diplomacy was played out at the United Nations. Rather, we simply required something to tell our children and grandchildren now and in the future. Our leaders gave us the lies so that we could hand them down through the decades like Manifest Destiny and absolve ourselves of blame.
The fact is, like Cheney and Wolfowitz and all the president’s men, we believed it would be a cakewalk. We believed that no matter how many Iraqis died in Shock and Awe, they would be grateful and no more than a handful of our soldiers would pay the price. We believed it would be a long weekend in the desert (like the first Gulf War) and when it was over there would be parades and parties and medals of distinction.
We believed that the world would salute in awe and allow us to play the Cowboy King one more time. Just another episode of Duke Wayne, the Lone Ranger, 20 Mule Team Borax and How the West Was Won. We’re the best and the brightest. We’ve earned our stripes. When the chips were down and all the cards were on the table, we picked ourselves up by our own bootstraps, summoning every last ounce of courage and willpower, gave it one last college try, and won one for the Gipper. Why?
Cue music (Queen):
We are champions, my friend!
We’ll keep on fighting ‘til the end!
No time for losers ‘cause we are the champions … of the world!
What a shame it is not a movie. We could demand a better ending. As it is, we are saddled with the reality we have helped to create. There is no more pretending. As we stand with the president and his vision of endless war, we will find no redemption. The blood is on our hands now and all the waters of the Tigres and Euphrates will not wash the stain from our collective soul.
We have lost our senses. We have gone mad. What is the world to do when its most powerful member has wandered over the rainbow to the dark side of the moon?
It’s a waltz and we’re spinning our way through history like Scarlet O’Hara and Rhett Butler, pretending that the war is about honor and not slavery, like Charlotte Corday with a dagger to the heart of Jean Paul Marat, convinced that Marat is the source of all evil, like brave Colonel Custer at the Little Big Horn, Chivington at Sand Creek and the eighteen recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor for the slaughter of 350 unarmed Lakota at Wounded Knee.
It’s Schizo Scherzo and we all have our parts, dancing continuously in the flames of war and bathing in the waters of penitence.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE APPEARED ON THE ALBION MONITOR, BUZZLE, COUNTERPUNCH, DISSIDENT VOICE & OTHER SITES. SEE JACKRANDOM.COM.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Reading from the Script: In Response to The President 6/28/05
By Jack Random
Tonight the president addressed a solemn assembly of soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. His case for the continued occupation of Iraq can be summarized in one word: Tired.
Did he respond to the Downing Street memos? No.
On a day when two more American soldiers and 30-40 Iraqis, including a member of the Iraqi Parliament, were killed, did he offer a realistic assessment of where we are in relation to where we have been? No.
As our investment in this war approaches 1,800 dead, 20,000 wounded and $400 billion dollars, did he provide any assurance that our mission would be completed in the coming months, years or decades? No.
The president repeatedly reasserted his false and discredited claim that this war was somehow related to the attack on this nation nearly four years ago.
If we are to take the president at his word, it was never about weapons of mass destruction. If it was our troops would long be home. Instead, it was all about ideology. If we take the president at his word, he cleverly deceived the American people and tried to deceive the world community in order to fan the flames of Islamic jihad by implanting an ideological war in the Middle East – an ill-fated venture by any objective analysis.
The president makes no distinction between terrorists and insurgents fighting a foreign invader. He implies that the “coalition” allies are growing in number and strength when in fact nation after nation has drawn down their troops and pledged withdrawal in deference to the democratic will of their people: Ukraine, Italy, Spain and Poland. The allied forces that remain will not engage in battle and the second largest fighting force in Iraq is neither Britain nor Australia but the army of American paid mercenaries.
The president claims that we are making significant progress but the reports on the ground tell a different story. There is no progress on security, jobs, electricity, water or sewage and the insurgency is growing daily. Ironically, if we were to succeed in establishing a truly democratic government in Iraq their first act would be to demand our removal.
The president has the audacity to quote Osama bin Laden the day after an American helicopter is shot down in the forgotten war in Afghanistan and a week after political appointee and Director of Central Intelligence Porter Goss testified that we know where bin Laden is but we cannot violate sovereignty. Since when has sovereignty prevented military action in this administration?
The president asserts that ours is an ideology of freedom while the enemy has an ideology of hatred but the occupier of a foreign land cannot bestow freedom on the occupied and it is not for us to define Iraqi freedom.
Finally, the president claims that we will stand down when the Iraqis stand up. The difficulty is that the Iraqis that are standing up now (against the greatest fighting force on earth) are not standing by our side.
It is an insult to every American for our president to compare this war to the American Revolution and the Civil War. We have brought civil war to Iraq and civil war will be our legacy whether or not we honor our promise to leave. As for the revolution, we fought for our freedom against a colonial power and one that brought a scourge of Hessian mercenaries to oppose us. Whom in this equation do we most resemble?
Before another life is lost in this historical misadventure, take a hard look at where this president has led us and where he intends to go.
Stop the war machine.
End the occupation.
Bury the doctrine of perpetual war.
Jazz.
Note: For a responsible withdrawal plan see www.democracyrising.us.
Tonight the president addressed a solemn assembly of soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. His case for the continued occupation of Iraq can be summarized in one word: Tired.
Did he respond to the Downing Street memos? No.
On a day when two more American soldiers and 30-40 Iraqis, including a member of the Iraqi Parliament, were killed, did he offer a realistic assessment of where we are in relation to where we have been? No.
As our investment in this war approaches 1,800 dead, 20,000 wounded and $400 billion dollars, did he provide any assurance that our mission would be completed in the coming months, years or decades? No.
The president repeatedly reasserted his false and discredited claim that this war was somehow related to the attack on this nation nearly four years ago.
If we are to take the president at his word, it was never about weapons of mass destruction. If it was our troops would long be home. Instead, it was all about ideology. If we take the president at his word, he cleverly deceived the American people and tried to deceive the world community in order to fan the flames of Islamic jihad by implanting an ideological war in the Middle East – an ill-fated venture by any objective analysis.
The president makes no distinction between terrorists and insurgents fighting a foreign invader. He implies that the “coalition” allies are growing in number and strength when in fact nation after nation has drawn down their troops and pledged withdrawal in deference to the democratic will of their people: Ukraine, Italy, Spain and Poland. The allied forces that remain will not engage in battle and the second largest fighting force in Iraq is neither Britain nor Australia but the army of American paid mercenaries.
The president claims that we are making significant progress but the reports on the ground tell a different story. There is no progress on security, jobs, electricity, water or sewage and the insurgency is growing daily. Ironically, if we were to succeed in establishing a truly democratic government in Iraq their first act would be to demand our removal.
The president has the audacity to quote Osama bin Laden the day after an American helicopter is shot down in the forgotten war in Afghanistan and a week after political appointee and Director of Central Intelligence Porter Goss testified that we know where bin Laden is but we cannot violate sovereignty. Since when has sovereignty prevented military action in this administration?
The president asserts that ours is an ideology of freedom while the enemy has an ideology of hatred but the occupier of a foreign land cannot bestow freedom on the occupied and it is not for us to define Iraqi freedom.
Finally, the president claims that we will stand down when the Iraqis stand up. The difficulty is that the Iraqis that are standing up now (against the greatest fighting force on earth) are not standing by our side.
It is an insult to every American for our president to compare this war to the American Revolution and the Civil War. We have brought civil war to Iraq and civil war will be our legacy whether or not we honor our promise to leave. As for the revolution, we fought for our freedom against a colonial power and one that brought a scourge of Hessian mercenaries to oppose us. Whom in this equation do we most resemble?
Before another life is lost in this historical misadventure, take a hard look at where this president has led us and where he intends to go.
Stop the war machine.
End the occupation.
Bury the doctrine of perpetual war.
Jazz.
Note: For a responsible withdrawal plan see www.democracyrising.us.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
HEALING AN ANCIENT SORROW
JAZZMAN CHRONICLES: DISSEMINATE FREELY.
THE DISHONOR OF WOUNDED KNEE
By Jack Random
“The Sun Dance is the most enigmatic of all Lakota ceremonies. It is a blood sacrifice, a trial by fire, and a vision quest by pain and suffering. It is not, as the white man believes, a rite of passage or a test of manhood. It is a pipeline to the overworld, a sacred bond connecting mother earth to father sky, connecting all sentient beings to the Great Spirit beyond. It is the tree of life and the great wheel of the universe.”
From the novel Cries for a Vision by Jack Random.
Buffalo Man took the vow of Kablaya, the Lakota spirit guide who received the vision of the Sun Dance. A thong from the hide of a buffalo was tied to the Sun Dance Tree and its two ends were attached with wooden spikes to his chest. He would sing the ancient chants beneath a blistering sun and dance until the thongs broke free.
He prayed for the people who were massacred on a cold winter’s day at Wounded Knee. He prayed for the soldiers who killed them. He prayed for the great healing that would mend the Sacred Hoop and help his people live good and fruitful lives.
On the third day of the Sun Dance, he received a vision. He was told that the Sacred Hoop was broken on December 29, 1890. He was told that it would take seven generations to heal the wound and that the healing could not begin until the Medals of Honor bestowed on the soldiers at Wounded Knee were rescinded. Since that day, he has worked toward this end.
On Monday, June 13, the United States Senate took the belated measure of apologizing to the African American descendants of the victims of lynching. Combined with reopened cases of Emmett Till and a 1964 KKK murder of three civil rights workers, it was a powerful reminder that justice will be heard and the wounds of great wrongs require decades, even centuries to heal.
On Tuesday, June 14, J.D. Kotrla-Chipps (AKA Buffalo Man) wrote me to request assistance in fulfilling his mission. He informed me that eighteen Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded to the soldiers and officers of the Seventh Calvary for their actions in the Massacre of Wounded Knee.
He did not need to recount the events of that massacre. I am certain that I do not need to retell the story here for it is familiar to every man and woman who has studied this nation’s history. To know the story is to know the greatest crime ever committed by Americans on American soil.
It is not necessary to summon the memory of the Paiute prophet Wavoka, whose fevered vision gave birth to the Ghost Dance, a dance that called forth the spirits of the ancestors and prophesied the return of the buffalo. It is not necessary to retell how the Ghost Dance spread across the plains like a raging wildfire. It is not necessary to tell how it gave birth to renewed hope in defeated peoples and desperate lives. It is not necessary to tell how it captured the hearts of brave warriors and chiefs like Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and Big Foot of the Lakota nation. It is not necessary to tell how an elderly Sitting Bull was killed by turncoat Indian police acting on the fears of the bluecoat war chiefs. It is not necessary to tell how the Seventh Calvary, revenge still burning in their hearts for the demise of Custer at the Little Big Horn, tracked down and encircled Big Foot’s band to prevent them from dancing the forbidden dance, to prevent their cries from reaching the ancestors, and to block their prayers to the Great Spirit.
It is not necessary to retell how the encircled Lakota, mostly old men, women, children and infants, were disarmed before an uncertain catalyst – a dropped gun or an untimely cry of remorse – triggered the massacre of 350 defenseless Lakota Indians. It is not necessary to recount that the Lakota had been peaceful for fourteen years and that Big Foot carried the white flag of peace. It was 1890 and the first opportunity the bluecoats had to employ their Hotchkiss cannons. The rolling thunder of bullets mowed down the renegade dancers with record efficiency.
It is not necessary to draw a portrait of the mass grave or the body of Big Foot frozen in his dance of death on the barren landscape of a South Dakota winter. It is not necessary to pull once more at the strings of the reader’s heart for it has been done a thousand times by words more powerful than mine.
It is not necessary to tell the story of Wounded Knee again and yet, why do I sense that the young are happily unaware, as if the story skipped a generation of school children?
Every child in every town and city in America should be compelled to read Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee for until they know the story they do not know what it is to be American. Until they know and understand, as a child always understands the truth, there will always be a dark and toxic seed within the soul of the nation.
We are not asking that the land be returned to its rightful owners. We are not asking for full and just reparations. We are not asking that the sacrilegious images of the Great White Fathers be removed from the sacred mountains of the Lakota Black Hills. We are not asking that the church of the Black Robes be swept from the holy burial ground of the Wounded Knee Memorial.
We are only asking that eighteen medals of dishonor be rescinded. We ask not only for the victims of Wounded Knee and their descendants but for the perpetrators and theirs as well. Imagine having committed this crime, having its bloody spectacle etched in your memory, knowing that what was done that day would not be forgotten as long as the rivers run and clouds inhabit the sky, and being “honored” by your government for this deadly, horrendous deed.
We cannot know what ran through those soldiers’ minds that day, as the bullets flew and the bodies fell, but we do know that what any human being would feel on the day they were honored was not pride but unbearable shame. Little wonder there was no ceremony. It would surely have been spoiled by cries of horror and tears of shame.
If those soldiers were alive today, they would tell you enough is enough. They have carried the burden of hypocrisy beyond the grave. For their sake, as well as for 350 lost Lakota souls, their descendants and survivors, rescind the medals and let the healing begin.
It is the mission of a man who has buried his heart at Wounded Knee, planted his staff, and committed his life. It is not too much to ask. Indeed, it is the very least a civilized nation can do.
Mitakuye Oyasin.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS).
Contact J.D. Kotrla-Chipps at www.woptura.com.
THE DISHONOR OF WOUNDED KNEE
By Jack Random
“The Sun Dance is the most enigmatic of all Lakota ceremonies. It is a blood sacrifice, a trial by fire, and a vision quest by pain and suffering. It is not, as the white man believes, a rite of passage or a test of manhood. It is a pipeline to the overworld, a sacred bond connecting mother earth to father sky, connecting all sentient beings to the Great Spirit beyond. It is the tree of life and the great wheel of the universe.”
From the novel Cries for a Vision by Jack Random.
Buffalo Man took the vow of Kablaya, the Lakota spirit guide who received the vision of the Sun Dance. A thong from the hide of a buffalo was tied to the Sun Dance Tree and its two ends were attached with wooden spikes to his chest. He would sing the ancient chants beneath a blistering sun and dance until the thongs broke free.
He prayed for the people who were massacred on a cold winter’s day at Wounded Knee. He prayed for the soldiers who killed them. He prayed for the great healing that would mend the Sacred Hoop and help his people live good and fruitful lives.
On the third day of the Sun Dance, he received a vision. He was told that the Sacred Hoop was broken on December 29, 1890. He was told that it would take seven generations to heal the wound and that the healing could not begin until the Medals of Honor bestowed on the soldiers at Wounded Knee were rescinded. Since that day, he has worked toward this end.
On Monday, June 13, the United States Senate took the belated measure of apologizing to the African American descendants of the victims of lynching. Combined with reopened cases of Emmett Till and a 1964 KKK murder of three civil rights workers, it was a powerful reminder that justice will be heard and the wounds of great wrongs require decades, even centuries to heal.
On Tuesday, June 14, J.D. Kotrla-Chipps (AKA Buffalo Man) wrote me to request assistance in fulfilling his mission. He informed me that eighteen Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded to the soldiers and officers of the Seventh Calvary for their actions in the Massacre of Wounded Knee.
He did not need to recount the events of that massacre. I am certain that I do not need to retell the story here for it is familiar to every man and woman who has studied this nation’s history. To know the story is to know the greatest crime ever committed by Americans on American soil.
It is not necessary to summon the memory of the Paiute prophet Wavoka, whose fevered vision gave birth to the Ghost Dance, a dance that called forth the spirits of the ancestors and prophesied the return of the buffalo. It is not necessary to retell how the Ghost Dance spread across the plains like a raging wildfire. It is not necessary to tell how it gave birth to renewed hope in defeated peoples and desperate lives. It is not necessary to tell how it captured the hearts of brave warriors and chiefs like Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and Big Foot of the Lakota nation. It is not necessary to tell how an elderly Sitting Bull was killed by turncoat Indian police acting on the fears of the bluecoat war chiefs. It is not necessary to tell how the Seventh Calvary, revenge still burning in their hearts for the demise of Custer at the Little Big Horn, tracked down and encircled Big Foot’s band to prevent them from dancing the forbidden dance, to prevent their cries from reaching the ancestors, and to block their prayers to the Great Spirit.
It is not necessary to retell how the encircled Lakota, mostly old men, women, children and infants, were disarmed before an uncertain catalyst – a dropped gun or an untimely cry of remorse – triggered the massacre of 350 defenseless Lakota Indians. It is not necessary to recount that the Lakota had been peaceful for fourteen years and that Big Foot carried the white flag of peace. It was 1890 and the first opportunity the bluecoats had to employ their Hotchkiss cannons. The rolling thunder of bullets mowed down the renegade dancers with record efficiency.
It is not necessary to draw a portrait of the mass grave or the body of Big Foot frozen in his dance of death on the barren landscape of a South Dakota winter. It is not necessary to pull once more at the strings of the reader’s heart for it has been done a thousand times by words more powerful than mine.
It is not necessary to tell the story of Wounded Knee again and yet, why do I sense that the young are happily unaware, as if the story skipped a generation of school children?
Every child in every town and city in America should be compelled to read Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee for until they know the story they do not know what it is to be American. Until they know and understand, as a child always understands the truth, there will always be a dark and toxic seed within the soul of the nation.
We are not asking that the land be returned to its rightful owners. We are not asking for full and just reparations. We are not asking that the sacrilegious images of the Great White Fathers be removed from the sacred mountains of the Lakota Black Hills. We are not asking that the church of the Black Robes be swept from the holy burial ground of the Wounded Knee Memorial.
We are only asking that eighteen medals of dishonor be rescinded. We ask not only for the victims of Wounded Knee and their descendants but for the perpetrators and theirs as well. Imagine having committed this crime, having its bloody spectacle etched in your memory, knowing that what was done that day would not be forgotten as long as the rivers run and clouds inhabit the sky, and being “honored” by your government for this deadly, horrendous deed.
We cannot know what ran through those soldiers’ minds that day, as the bullets flew and the bodies fell, but we do know that what any human being would feel on the day they were honored was not pride but unbearable shame. Little wonder there was no ceremony. It would surely have been spoiled by cries of horror and tears of shame.
If those soldiers were alive today, they would tell you enough is enough. They have carried the burden of hypocrisy beyond the grave. For their sake, as well as for 350 lost Lakota souls, their descendants and survivors, rescind the medals and let the healing begin.
It is the mission of a man who has buried his heart at Wounded Knee, planted his staff, and committed his life. It is not too much to ask. Indeed, it is the very least a civilized nation can do.
Mitakuye Oyasin.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS).
Contact J.D. Kotrla-Chipps at www.woptura.com.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
THE DISHONOR OF WOUNDED KNEE
Dear Reader:
Yesterday, the United States Senate took the belated measure of apologizing to the African American descendants of the victims of lynching. Combined with the case of Emmett Till and the reopening of the case of the 1964 KKK murder of three civil rights volunteers, it is a powerful reminder that justice will be heard and the wounds of great wrongs require decades, even centuries to heal.
It has recently come to my attention that there were 18 Medals of Honor awarded to the soldiers and officers of the Seventh Calvary for their participation in the Massacre of Wounded Knee. I need not recount the events of that massacre. They are burned into the conscience of every man and woman who has studied the history of this nation. I am certain you are fully acquainted with them and feel, as I do, that a greater crime has never been committed on American soil.
The wounds of Wounded Knee have never healed. Perhaps it is too much to ask for reparations (I do not believe so) but I have no doubt that no individual of conscience can possibly believe that those medals should still be honored.
In recent years, our government has apologized for past crimes, including the internment of Japanese Americans during WW II. Presidents have apologized for our nation's exploitation of blacks as slaves. Our nation has never apologized for genocide.
I ask your assistance in contacting your representatives in Congress to affect a simple act of atonement: Repeal the Medals of Dishonor. Let the healing begin.
Sincerely,
Jack Random - Author of Ghost Dance Insurrection
Contact: J.D. Kotrla-Chipps (aka Buffalo Man) www.woptura.com
Yesterday, the United States Senate took the belated measure of apologizing to the African American descendants of the victims of lynching. Combined with the case of Emmett Till and the reopening of the case of the 1964 KKK murder of three civil rights volunteers, it is a powerful reminder that justice will be heard and the wounds of great wrongs require decades, even centuries to heal.
It has recently come to my attention that there were 18 Medals of Honor awarded to the soldiers and officers of the Seventh Calvary for their participation in the Massacre of Wounded Knee. I need not recount the events of that massacre. They are burned into the conscience of every man and woman who has studied the history of this nation. I am certain you are fully acquainted with them and feel, as I do, that a greater crime has never been committed on American soil.
The wounds of Wounded Knee have never healed. Perhaps it is too much to ask for reparations (I do not believe so) but I have no doubt that no individual of conscience can possibly believe that those medals should still be honored.
In recent years, our government has apologized for past crimes, including the internment of Japanese Americans during WW II. Presidents have apologized for our nation's exploitation of blacks as slaves. Our nation has never apologized for genocide.
I ask your assistance in contacting your representatives in Congress to affect a simple act of atonement: Repeal the Medals of Dishonor. Let the healing begin.
Sincerely,
Jack Random - Author of Ghost Dance Insurrection
Contact: J.D. Kotrla-Chipps (aka Buffalo Man) www.woptura.com
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