Long Line of Chickenhawks
Cindy Sheehan

An anti-war activist at a town hall meeting in Iowa recently asked Mitt Romney why not ONE of his five sons served the USA in the military. The woman’s brother had been in Iraq and she understandably would have liked to know if the Romney family was so supportive of BushCo’s war of terror why didn’t they support it with their own flesh and blood.

Mitt Romney said that his five privileged elite stockbroker/real estate boys are supporting our nation by helping get their father “elected.” We could dispute the allegation of how getting a pandering, war-mongering, born-again abortion foe elected is good for our country, but that’s not the point. The point is the ruling class elite who don’t have to worry about health-care, jobs, or how they are going to pay for their children’s college tuition send our children to fight and die in their wars that only make them richer while sending working-class families into life times of despair.

Alter: Is California GOP Trying to Steal the 2008 Election?
By Jonathan Alter
Newsweek

Aug. 13, 2007 issue - Our way of electing presidents has always been fer-tile ground for mischief. But there's sensible mischief—toying with existing laws and the Constitution to reflect popular will—and then there's the other kind, which tries to rig admission to the Electoral College for strictly partisan purposes. Mischief-makers in California (Republicans) and North Carolina (Democrats) are at work on changes that would subvert the system for momentary advantage and—in ways the political world is only beginning to understand—dramatically increase the odds that a Republican will be elected president in 2008.

Right now, every state except Nebraska and Maine awards all of its electoral votes to the popular-vote winner in that state. So in mammoth California, John Kerry beat George W. Bush and won all 55 electoral votes, more than one fifth of the 270 necessary for election.

Instead of laboring in vain to turn California Red, a clever lawyer for the state Republican Party thought of a gimmicky shortcut. Thomas Hiltachk, who specializes in ballot referenda that try to fool people in the titles and fine print, is sponsoring a ballot initiative for the June 3, 2008, California primary (which now falls four months after the state's presidential primary). The Presidential Election Reform Act would award the state's electoral votes based on who wins each congressional district. Had this idea been in effect in 2004, Bush would have won 22 electoral votes from California, about the same number awarded the winners of states like Illinois or Pennsylvania. In practical terms, adopting the initiative would mean that the Democratic candidate would likely have to win both Ohio and Florida in 2008 (instead of one or the other) to be elected.

University of Colorado President Hank Brown and the Board of Regents Exhibit Bad Timing in Firing Ethnic Studies Professor Ward Churchill and a Disdain for Academic Freedom and Our First Amendment
by Andrew H. Dral

As an alumnus of the University of Colorado, receiving my MBA in 1989, I am very troubled by the witch hunt conducted by University of Colorado President Hank Brown and the Colorado Board of Regents against Ethnic Studies Professor Ward Churchill. Clearly, from the timing, Ward Churchill was removed for referring to the victims of 9/11 as “little Eichmanns.“ Hank Brown’s July 26, 2007 Wall Street Journal article is a fine display of hypocritical nationalism, in the world of Hank Brown and his minions dissent against the government has no place. Ward Churchill‘s rhetorical point was the United States (US) is not always on the side of justice, virtue, or liberty, and in many instances our government -- driven by corporate greed -- perpetrates genocide, human rights violations, and war crimes.

The nineteen hijackers of 9/11, 15 of them Saudis, had a well defined negative view of the US, equating the US with medieval Saudi monarchist oppression. The monarchy is the perfect example of totalitarian oppression of its people. US administrations have had a long history of disgraceful Saudi quid-pro-quo. The Bush administration and family have shown much more disregard for bringing freedom to the people of Saudi Arabia than most. Bush has admitted economics trumps torture, civil rights, or human rights. It’s no wonder that roughly half the captured foreign fighters in Iraq are Saudis. Saudi oppression will only be made worse and our reputation more damaged when the US delivers $20B in arms sales to the oppressive Saudi regime, so the monarchists can further repress its people under authoritarian medieval rule. Hank Brown and the Regents have done much harm to the University’s reputation by squelching academic freedom, making sure unconventional thought -- often the truth -- never sees the light of day.

By Don Tosaw...

Our democratic system of government requires that those citizens who are eligible to vote can do so without undue difficulty, fear or intimidation and that their votes be tallied as they cast them. This requires voting systems which preserve the secrecy of one's ballot. It also requires that the voters and the nonvoting public have the utmost confidence in the validity of the election results. These requirements can only be achieved through the use of voting systems which offer reliability, transparency, security and verifiability. The electronic voting systems decertified by Secretary of State Debra Bowen are neither transparent nor secure and the results of elections conducted using these systems cannot be independently verified. Therefore, I applaud Secretary Bowen's decision to decertify these systems.

The Threat of U.S. Fascism: An Historical Precedent
by Alan Nasser | on CommonDreams.org

Perhaps the most alarming slice of twentieth-century U.S. history is virtually unknown to the general public, including most scholars of American history. One hopes that a recent BBC documentary titled The Plot Against America and an article of the same name by Columbia Law School professor and longtime human rights activist Scott Horton, on the website of Harper’s magazine, will sound an alert.

In 1934 a special Congressional committee was appointed to conduct an investigation of a possible planned coup intended to topple the administration of president Franklin D. Roosevelt and replace it with a government modelled on the policies of Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini. The shocking results of the investigation were promptly scotched and stashed in the National Archives. While the coup attempt was reported at the time in a few newspapers, including The New York Times, the story disappeared from public memory shortly after the Congressional findings were made available to president Roosevelt. It was the recent release from the Archives of the Congressional report that prompted the BBC and Horton commentaries.

Dave Dionisi is responsible for National Awareness for Teach Peace. Dave is the author of American Hiroshima, a book about how to prevent the next 9/11 attack in the United States. Prior to working in corporate America, Dave served the country as an Army Intelligence Officer. His business and military experiences over the last 24 years are complemented by an extensive background as an international volunteer worker in Asia, Central America, Europe and Africa. He lives in Davis, CA. Learn about the small country of Liberia as it encounters the US Empire.

"Liberia is a beautiful place where elephants still roam with many of the exotic animals we see on television. The people are extremely friendly and handle adversity with tremendous grace. Workers in Liberia and many other countries around the world are exploited by multi-national corporations. This exploitation is managed by secret armies and intelligence operations."

High Cost Of Low Prices by Dave Dionisi

Thanks for the plug Norman!

From the Grave, a Senator Exposes Bloody Hands on Capitol Hill
by Norman Solomon | Published on Thursday, July 19, 2007 by CommonDreams.org

It was a chilling moment on a split-screen of history. While the Senate debated the Iraq war on Tuesday night, a long-dead senator again renounced a chronic lie about congressional options and presidential power.The Senate was in the final hours of another failure to impede the momentum of war. As the New York Times was to report, President Bush “essentially won the added time he said he needed to demonstrate that his troop buildup was succeeding.”

Meanwhile, inside a movie theater on the opposite coast, the thunderous voice of Senator Wayne Morse spoke to 140 people at an event organized by the activist group Sacramento for Democracy. The extraordinary senator was speaking in May 1964 — and in July 2007.

A typical dash of media conventional wisdom had set him off. The moderator of the CBS program “Face the Nation,” journalist Peter Lisagor, told the guest: “Senator, the Constitution gives to the president of the United States the sole responsibility for the conduct of foreign policy.”

A Bloody Media Mirror
Media Beat (7/9/07) | By Norman Solomon

Many of America’s most prominent journalists want us to forget what they were saying and writing more than four years ago to boost the invasion of Iraq. Now, they tiptoe around their own roles in hyping the war and banishing dissent to the media margins.

The media watch group FAIR (where I’m an associate) has performed a public service in the latest edition of its magazine Extra. The organization’s activism director, Peter Hart, drew on FAIR’s extensive research to assemble a sample of notable quotations from media cheerleading for the Iraq invasion.

One of the earliest quotes to merit special attention came from ace New York Times reporter -- and chronic Pentagon promoter -- Michael Gordon. In a CNN appearance on March 25, 2003, just a few days into the invasion, Gordon gave his easy blessing to the invaders’ bombing of Iraqi TV.

Gordon cited “what I’ve seen of Iraqi television, with Saddam Hussein presenting propaganda to his people and showing off the Apache helicopter and claiming a farmer shot it down and trying to persuade his own public that he was really in charge, when we’re trying to send the exact opposite message” -- and so, the Times reporter went on, Iraqi TV was “an appropriate target.”

The Best Reasons Not to Impeach, And Why They're Wrong
By David Swanson | December 7, 2006

Political questions are tricky and complicated. Sometimes causes that are just and good must take a backseat to other priorities or long-term strategies. Setting all such perfectly reasonable considerations aside for a moment, I'd like you to ask yourself a simple yes or no question: Do you think President Bush has committed one or more impeachable offenses?

If you said no, I want to talk to you for a second. If you said yes, let's talk in just a minute – but stick around for this first, you'll enjoy it.

"Bush has not committed perjury."

Among those who believe Bush has not committed any impeachable offenses, the most common reason is that he has not lied under oath. But impeachment is a political, not a legal, process – Congress is not obliged to let Bush off on any such technicality. And, in any case, it's a technicality that makes no sense, because perjury is one crime among many. Impeachment is the penalty for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. The Constitution says nothing about perjury as a ground for impeachment. And it is a crime to mislead or to defraud Congress, whether or not you do so under oath. When Diane Sawyer asked Bush on television why he had made the claims he had about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction, he replied:

Perhaps it is time that we re-read the Declaration of Independence very carefully. As our country creeps closer towards a dictatorship and fascism, we better wake up before it's too late.

Violations of the FISA Act (illegal wiretapping / spying on Americans), Presidential signing statements ("unitary executive powers"), launching an illegal war of aggression against Iraq without cause, kidnap and torture, rendition, obstruction of justice, criminal negligence in responding to the Katrina disaster, war profiteering, over one trillion dollar cost in the occupation of Iraq, Guantanamo, etc...

We are taught in school to respect and revere our Declaration of Independence. Unfortunately, under the Bush regime, if one were to write the Declaration of Independence today, they would be locked up in Guantanamo for eternity without a trial.

Quotes of particular note (emphasis is mine):

"...That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,..."

..."But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

You can substitute "present King of Great Britain" with "pResident George W. Bush".

"The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States."

"He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good."

"He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people."

"He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries."

Can you say, Unitary Executive Powers?

"For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever."

You can substitute "foreign Mercenaries" with "domestic Mercenaries".

"He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation."

NPR has an audio recording of the Declaration of Independence here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11703583

The full text is below:
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Olbermann: Bush, Cheney should resign
‘I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.’
SPECIAL COMMENT | By Keith Olbermann | Updated: 5:13 p.m. PT July 3, 2007


Click picture to watch video

“I didn’t vote for him,” an American once said, “But he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”

That—on this eve of the 4th of July—is the essence of this democracy, in 17 words. And that is what President Bush threw away yesterday in commuting the sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

The man who said those 17 words—improbably enough—was the actor John Wayne. And Wayne, an ultra-conservative, said them, when he learned of the hair’s-breadth election of John F. Kennedy instead of his personal favorite, Richard Nixon in 1960.

“I didn’t vote for him but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”

The sentiment was doubtlessly expressed earlier, but there is something especially appropriate about hearing it, now, in Wayne’s voice: The crisp matter-of-fact acknowledgement that we have survived, even though for nearly two centuries now, our Commander-in-Chief has also served, simultaneously, as the head of one political party and often the scourge of all others.

We as citizens must, at some point, ignore a president’s partisanship. Not that we may prosper as a nation, not that we may achieve, not that we may lead the world—but merely that we may function.

An Open Letter to America: Now Is The Time For Us To Stand Up and Stand Together
by Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. : July 2, 2007

My Fellow Americans:

The power of our voices against the U.S. occupation of Iraq is reaching the top echelons of the military and the administration. Our government is persecuting Americans who speak out against the U.S. military presence in Iraq. The U.S. military has launched politicized attacks on its own military members and moral leaders who oppose the war to discredit their voices of dissent.

We have seen them target Cpl. Adam Kokesh to stop him from exercising his freedom of speech, after risking his life in Fallujah, Iraq. We have seen them threaten Sgt. Liam Madden for publicly stating the legal fact that the U.S. invasion is a war crime according to the Nuremberg principles. They have targeted Cpl. Cloy Richards, a soldier put in the media spotlight when his mother Tina Richards worked to get him the health care he needs after returning from Iraq eighty percent disabled. These are not happenstance targets. These young men are leaders of the Iraq Veterans Against the War and they are speaking out in a strong and coordinated way.

And now I have been targeted.

Who am I? Many of you know me as a reverend, an activist, an architect of Hip Hop politics and a freedom fighter, but I am also an Officer in the United States Air Force Reserve. I have long been in the struggle for peace and freedom and I serve proudly as a leader of faith. I joined the military as part of the “poor peoples draft” - to help pay for my education. In May 2000 I was commissioned as an Officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and was accepted into the Chaplain Candidates program. In 2002 I graduated from Howard University School of Divinity, Magna Cum Laude. I was ordained a Reverend and Elder in the Church of God in Christ shortly after my graduation and today I remain in good standing in the Church. In May 2003 I completed the Chaplain Candidates program, but I decided not to pursue a career as a Chaplain in the Air Force. I have been in the Air Force Reserve Individual Reserve program ever since.

Since I sent out the last piece, the Rev's hearing has been postponed for a month...so our walk will be starting on July 10th from Camp Casey...

and our route is almost set and we will get that out tonight or early tomorrow.

Love
Me

Call Out The Instigator
by Cindy Sheehan

Call out the Instigator
Because there’s something in the air
We got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution’s here
You know it’s right!

-Thunderclap Newman

I’m not backing off. I tried to remove myself from the political realm of the US, what BushCo is turning into an Evil Empire, but the blatant audacity of George commuting Scooter’s sentence (he’s not ruling out a full pardon —and you know he will) has dragged me kicking and screaming back in. I can’t sit back and let this BushCo drag our country further down into the murky quagmire of Fascism and violence, taking the rest of the world with them!

I have sat quietly back these past five weeks as the slaughter in Iraq sorrowfully surges along with George’s bloody escalation—and as the philosophical opposition to the war has soared to almost four out of every five Americans. I have remained silent when Senator Barack Obama said that impeachment is only reserved for “grave, grave” breeches! Well, BushCo has created hundreds of thousands of graves dug by their lies and greed. For cripes’ sake, George admitted to breaking the FISA Act (which is a felony) that also breeched the 4th Amendment to our Constitution that already prohibited illegal search and seizure. How was Bill Clinton’s offense graver than George’s, Dick’s, or Scooter’s? Did we ever think that the criminality and arrogance of the Nixon White House would be eclipsed in our time with nary a “baaaah” from the Sheeple in Congress?

Commuting Scooter
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/24255
By David Swanson

George Mason (1725-1792), the father of the Bill of Rights (1791-2002), argued at the Constitutional Convention in favor of providing the House of Representatives the power of impeachment by pointing out that the President might use his pardoning power to "pardon crimes which were advised by himself" or, before indictment or conviction, "to stop inquiry and prevent detection."

James Madison (1751-1836), the father of the U.S. Constitution (1788-2007), added that "if the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty."

Of course, Bush has long been connected in a suspicious manner to Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, and others. Madison would probably have called for Bush's impeachment when Bush first refused to investigate or hold anyone accountable for leaking Valerie Plame's identity, or rather when Bush lied us into the war in the first place, or when he confessed to illegal spying, or when he detained people without charge and tortured them, or when he overturned laws with signing statements or refused to comply with
subpoenas, and so on and so forth. Madison wouldn't have wanted to see his Constitution tossed aside until the moment Bush commuted Libby's sentence. But he certainly would have acted now if not before.

Zombie - by Cindy Sheehan

On the way home from Los Angeles yesterday, my daughter Carly, and I stopped in a store on the Grapevine to purchase some CDs for the longish drive (6 hours). One of the CDs we bought was a greatest hits album by The Cranberries.

It’s not me, it’s not my family. One of the songs is the above song, Zombie. The Cranberries were an Irish group that took on social issues like violence and drug addiction: serious problems in all societies, but especially their society in the 1990s. We were listening to the CD and after Zombie I looked at Carly and she was wiping tears off of her face. She said: “How can you listen to that song? You listened to it the day Casey was killed while you were cleaning the house.”

“It sure has deeper meaning to us now, doesn’t it?” I quietly replied as I started weeping.

By Dan Bacher

Two San Joaquin Valley Representatives, Dennis Cardoza of Merced and Jim Costa of Fresno, were among 42 Democrats that voted to keep the world's foremost torture school, the School of the Americas, open during a House vote on June 21. The vote was 203 yes, 214 no, 1 voting "present" and 19 not voting.

White House of Mirrors
June 24, 2007 | Editorial | NY Times.com

President Bush has turned the executive branch into a two-way mirror. They get to see everything Americans do: our telephone calls, e-mail, and all manner of personal information. And we get to see nothing about what they do.

Everyone knows this administration has disdained openness and accountability since its first days. That is about the only thing it does not hide. But recent weeks have produced disturbing disclosures about just how far Mr. Bush’s team is willing to go to keep lawmakers and the public in the dark.

That applies to big issues — like the C.I.A.’s secret prisons — and to things that would seem too small-bore to order up a cover-up.

Turn, Turn, Turn
Cindy Sheehan

To everything there is a season.
A time for war, a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes, Hebrew Scriptures

I wish I could say I thought of something profound as I saw the president and his wife's picture on that billboard on Hwy 317 in my rear view mirror on my way out of Crawford today. I will be back for the final weekend farewell to Camp Casey on July 6th, but I won't be back as the owner of property there, or as a leader of the American peace movement.

The protests that were Camp Casey I and II that evolved into the five acres on Hwy 317 (Lone Star
Parkway), which was known as Camp Casey III, definitely were effective and served a relevant purpose in the national discourse of the pros and cons of the war. In an occupation that was and still is kept far from apathetic American eyes, summer '05 was one of the first times the cost of BushCo's Iraq fiasco was made public and many people sympathized and resonated with and some even traveled for miles to be with the Mom in the ditch.

When I announced that I was going to put my five acres up for sale in Texas, the horrible anti-peace; anti-American group, Move America Forward announced that they would buy it to erect a "Memorial." This group still cheer-leads and supports a war where our troops are clearly being misused and mal-treated by their civilian leadership and celebrates each death as a sacrifice for the neo-con, obscene, and Orwellian idea of "freedom." Move America Forward is still collecting money for their memorial, which will never be built on my old property and if they really wanted
to buy it, they wouldn't have sent out a press release---they just wanted a few more minutes of fame off of my misery!

Ex-California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi and Ex-attorney General Bill Lockyer Have Made California a Third World Business Regulator  -- Where’s Our Eliot Spitzer?

by Andrew H. Dral

 

 

The State of California is a world class industrial power, ranking as the fifth largest economy in the world by gross domestic product (GDP).  It accounts for 1/6 of the US‘ total gross national product (GNP), but when it comes to corporate corruption and the regulation of business it has a dismal third world track record.

 

At the beginning of the decade then California Attorney General Bill Lockyer sponsored an attorney generals meeting in Los Angeles.  Eliot Spitzer, at the time, the Attorney General of New York, complained that the corporate sponsorship of the event violated his ethics code.  He warned his colleagues for participating in a free Disney event that evening.  It was an ethical violation of their office.  Lockyer told Spitzer, “you have a lot of nerve“ to criticize the group’s planning, a fight almost ensued.  Mr. Spitzer understands the ethical nature and duty of his high profile position to expose fraud and criminal behavior.  The politicians – Bill Lockyer and John Garamendi -- in California do not.  Mr. Spitzer‘s greatest weapon is to disclose industry misdeeds through large penalties and to obtain agreements to change industry business practices.

 

For the sake of its citizenry, The State of California must start acting like a world class regulator.  We need political advocates, laws, and regulations that protect the citizenry and investors in California companies.  It’s no coincidence that the energy crisis -- rolling black-outs and exorbitant energy pricing -- occurred in California and no where else.  The political system and regulatory environment in California is broken.

Governor Schwarzenegger Supports Peripheral Canal around Delta

By Dan Bacher

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, confirming the worst fears of fishing and environmental groups, called for the construction of a peripheral canal around the Delta and the building of more dams at a town meeting in Bakersfield on June 14.

This is the first time that the Governor has publicly announced his support for a peripheral canal. The voters in 1982 turned down a proposition funding a canal, due to the environmental catastrophe it was expected to inflict on the Delta, and each legislative attempt to build it has been defeated because of strong opposition by conservation groups.

The call for building a canal and more storage facilities couldn’t have come at a worse time. The Delta smelt, a small 2 to 3 inch fish that is found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, is on the verge of extinction, due to massive increases in water exports by the state and federal governments over the past five years. Other species, including winter run chinook, spring run chinook, longfin smelt and green sturgeon, are expected to follow the smelt over the abyss if the Delta smelt becomes extinct.