Climate Change At The Poles IS Man-Made | CommonDreams.org

The FACTS are in...and unequivocal. As a lifelong Alaskan and a loving citizen of the planet, I call for every person to demand action to mitigate the befouling of our world.

Read John Eskow's pithy review of Corporate Journalism's Poster Boy.

Stop deportation of Robin Long from Canada
US Iraq War resister in Canada arrested and taken to Vancouver for expedited deportation. Supporters on both sides of border taking action now. Contact Prime Minister Harper today!

Army moving against Lt. Watada
Despite US Constitution and protections against double jeopardy, Army appears ready to retry First Lt. Ehren Watada a week from now—Tuesday, October 9—at Fort Lewis. Supporters encouraged to take action.

Sgt. James Circello, AWOL, protests war
Army Airborne Infantryman went AWOL in April due to opposition to military intervention in the Middle East, now traveling country protesting and speaking out.

Message from Elliot D S Adams
National President, Veterans for Peace: "Courage to Resist gives our young soldiers the help and support so they can stand up to the military and do what is right, moral and lawful." Donate

Stop the deportation of Robin Long from Canada!

US Iraq War resister Robin Long

By Courage to Resist
October 2, 2007

Yesterday, October 1, U.S. Iraq War resister Robin Long was arrested in Nelson, British Colombia—a small city about 50 miles north of where Washington State and Idaho intersect with Canada. He was taken to the police station and detained. Today, Tuesday, he was flown to Vancouver, where the authorities intend to possibly bring him to the border and hand him over to U.S. military authorities. Supporters on both sides of the border are taking emergency action: “Stop the deportation of U.S. war resister Robin Long!” E-mail, call, fax, and/or write Canadian officials today:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Fax: 613-941-6900 | Email: pm@pm.gc.ca
80 Wellington Street, Ottawa K1A 0A2, CANADA

The Honourable Diane Finley, PC, MP
Phone: 613-954-1064 | Email: minister@cic.gc.ca
Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1L1, CANADA

Robin, a native of Boise, Idaho hitchhiked to Canada in June 2005 seeking sanctuary after leaving his Fort Knox, Kentucky based tanker unit in order to resist deployment to Iraq.

Emergency rally Wednesday, October 3, 2007, 4:30 pm at the Dundas Street West and University Avenue in Toronto, Canada organized by the War Resisters Support Campaign (Canada)

Read complete action alert and background info

Despite Constitution, Army moving against Lt. Watada

"Puppetistas" put war on trial 2/5/07 outside Ft. Lewis. Photo: Jeff Paterson for Courage to Resist

By Courage to Resist
October 2, 2007

The Army appears ready to retry First Lt. Ehren Watada a week from now—Tuesday, October 9—at Fort Lewis, Washington. As scheduled, the retrial will be heard by the same military judge that orchestrated the February mistrial in order to give the prosecution a “do-over” after they rested their case against the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq.

Supporters of Lt. Watada and GI resisters are being urged to take action to highlight double jeopardy outrage!

Michael Wong, a member of the Watada Support Committee and Veterans for Peace, is working hard to mount a public response.

Mike Wong states:

This is in gross violation of law and the Constitution, because his lawyers have appealed against a second trial on the basis of double jeopardy. For quite some time, Ehren's lawyers were proceeding on the assumption that since the appeal is in progress in the court system, the Army would cancel or postpone the October 9th court martial. But now it is only a week away, and nothing has been canceled or postponed. The trial is looking very much like it is on.

Friends and allies around the country are being encouraged to hold teach-ins, demonstrations, press conferences (if you have lawyers who can address the double jeopardy issue, please have them speak), write letters to the editors, anything you can do, on the weekend prior to October 9 and/or on the day of.

Read complete call to action and background

AWOL Army paratrooper protests war

AWOL Sgt. James Circello (left) and Iraq War resister Mark Wilkerson (right) under St. Louis Arch 8/19/07. Photo Jeff Paterson for Courage to Resist

By James Circello Jr. and Courage to Resist. October 2, 2007

Sergeant James Circello Jr. is an Army Airborne Infantryman who went AWOL in April 2007 because of his opposition to U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.

James enlisted in the Army in 2001 following the attack on the World Trade Center. He spent a year in the Kirkuk area of northern Iraq with the 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade from March 2003 to March 2004.

After much soul-searching, James left his base in Vicenza, Italy (Caserma Ederle) on April 10, 2007. Recently he has attended the Veterans for Peace National Convention in St. Louis this August, the mass anti-war march on Washington DC last month, and is currently working with Iraq Veterans Against the War and Courage to Resist.

James plans to turn himself over to military authorities soon and will undoubtedly need our support.

I saw kids turn into animals
By James Circello, AWOL Army Sgt.

I enlisted in September 2001
and reported to my unit in Italy in June of 2002.
I was an alright Private—
got along with everyone, did my job the best I could,
trained and jumped from airplanes....

I saw kids turn into animals.
Members of my own unit, who I will never speak negatively about,
doing things that one day I know
will haunt them.

I saw soldiers mistreating detained Iraqis.
Detained on nothing more than pure suspicion in some cases.
But why not, it was the Old West, anything goes and anything did go. Honestly.

Questionable shootings.
Questionable decisions by superior commanders.
Nothing ever questioned by your superiors.
You as the Soldier were always in the right.

One platoon in particular killed so many people,
some legally,
some others
maybe not so legally.
They were investigated.
Nothing ever came from it.
Everyone always knew nothing would come from it.
In the military you watch each other's back, against the "bad guys"—
including the investigators.

I did see a side of Iraq I didn't know existed.
A courageous group of people, fighting for their own survival,
compassionate and friendly.
It was always so easy to make friends with an Iraqi—
whether he was Kurdish, Arabic or Turkish—
it never made a difference.
I left the country feeling awful.
It was so hard to speak to anyone in America about it,
because they had no idea.

Read Sgt. James Circello's complete story, view video

A message from Elliot D S Adams

Elliot Adams

National President of Veterans for Peace

Every service person is charged with the responsibility to disobeying an illegal order. Orders that violate the treaties of the United States like the Geneva Conventions are illegal. Courage to Resist gives our young soldiers the help and support so they can stand up to the military and do what is right, moral and lawful.

Please make a donation to support the work of Courage to Resist.

ORB Survey And 1.2 Million Iraq Deaths Ignored By Australian And Anglo-American Media

By Dr Gideon Polya

19 September, 2007
Countercurrents.org

In February 2007, as we approached the Fourth Anniversary of the US-UK-Australian invasion of Iraq, I published an article on Countercurrents entitled “US Iraqi Holocaust and 1 million Excess Deaths” (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-polya070207.htm ) ;

I detailed and documented the following horrendous circumstances in Occupied Iraq: “as of February 2007: (a) the accrual cost has been $2.3 TRILLION; (b) there are 3.7 million Iraqi refugees; (c) the post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) total 1.0 million (ONE MILLION); (d) post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.6 million; (e) there were 1.7 million excess Iraqi deaths associated with the Western-imposed 1990-2003 Sanctions War; (f) there were 1.2 million under-5 year old infant deaths in the 1990-2003 Sanctions War (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12261/42/ ); and (g) Coalition deaths total about 3,360.”

It is now September 2007and after a further SEVEN months of US-UK-Australian war and occupation the horrendous human and economic cost has inevitably increased.

As of September 2007: (a) the accrual cost of the Bush War on Terror stands at $2.5 trillion (as determined by US 2001 Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz) ; (b) there are 4 million Iraqi refugees; (c) the post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) total 1.1 million; (d) post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.5 million (a corrected estimate based on the latest UN data); (e) there were 1.7 million excess Iraqi deaths associated with the Western-imposed 1990-2003 Sanctions War; (f) there were 1.2 million under-5 year old infant deaths in the 1990-2003 Sanctions War; and (g) Coalition military deaths now total about 4,086 (see: http://icasualties.org/oif/ ) .

For detailed analysis and documentation of these latest, updated estimates of the cost of the Iraq War see “The Cost of War”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/13099/26/ and “US State Terrorism, Iraqi Genocide & Afghan Genocide - 6 years post-9/11 Bush War excess deaths total 4 million”: http://open.newmatilda.com/crosswire/?p=129 ).

These appalling realities have been largely IGNORED by racist, lying, holocaust-ignoring Australian and Anglo-American mainstream media.

In September 2007 a top UK polling organization ORB (Opinion Research Business) has estimated that 1.2 million Iraqis have died violently post-invasion (see: http://www.opinion.co.uk/Newsroom_details.aspx?NewsId=78 ), twice as many as the 0.6 million post-invasion Iraqi violent deaths estimated by the top US Johns Hopkins medical epidemiologists in their research paper published in the top medical journal The Lancet in October 2006 (see: http://web.mit.edu/CIS/pdf/Human_Cost_of_War.pdf ). ORB describes itself thus: “Established in 1994, ORB have grown to become one of the UK’s leading bespoke corporate and issues-led market research companies” (see: http://www.opinion.co.uk/who-we-are.aspx ). The head of ORB was the head of UK Gallup Poll from 1980-1994.

However, only a few Western newspapers (most notably the US Los Angeles Times and the UK Guardian) have carried a report of this important, professional survey. The cowardly, dishonest and unethical UK BBC has failed to report this ORB survey. There has been COMPREHENSIVE NON-REPORTAGE by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Australian Mainstream Media as a whole.

The UK ORB estimate of 1.2 million, violence-related, post-invasion Iraqi deaths is supported by 5 estimates from 4 independent data sets of about 1 million post-invasion Iraqi excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that should not have happened) as of September 2007 (for details see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/16802/42/ and http://open.newmatilda.com/crosswire/?p=129 ).

As of September 2007, excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that should not have happened) in post-invasion Iraq total:

(1) 0.7 million (from conservatively UNDER-estimated UN Population Division data);

(2) 0.8 million (from estimating post-invasion under-5 infant deaths from UNICEF data and dividing by 0.7) (see “Layperson’s Guide to Counting Iraq Deaths”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/5872/26/ );

(3) 1.0 million (using data from The Lancet published in 2004);

(4) 1.0 million (using data from The Lancet, published in 2006); and

(5) 1.1 million (the “best estimate”, from using data published in The Lancet in 2006 and using Iraq’s impoverished but peaceful neighbors Syria and Jordan for a comparative mortality baseline).

The following message has been sent to various branches of the Australian ABC, to major Australian Mainstream media and to international journalists and to decent Australian politicians whose Parties (the Australian Greens and the Australian Democrats) object to the carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan:

LETTER:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Last week the US Los Angeles Times and the UK Guardian reported the UK ORB survey indicating 1.2 million violence-linked, post-invasion Iraqi deaths, a figure consonant with 5 estimates of about 1 million post-invasion Iraqi excess deaths from 4 independent authoritative data sources (the UN Population Division 2006 Revision, UNICEF and top US medical epidemiologists published in the top medical journal The Lancet in 2004 and 2006) (for documented details see: http://open.newmatilda.com/crosswire/?p=129 ).

ORB is a top UK market research organization and its head was formerly Managing Director of UK Gallup Poll from 1980-1994. However as far as I can judge from the Web, this horrendous statistic has NOT been reported by ANY Australian Mainstream media, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Those resolutely NOT reporting the continuing Coalition mass murder of Iraqis must answer the obvious charge of being anti-Arab anti-Semitic holocaust deniers.

It would be a grievous insult to honest sex workers to apply the obvious descriptive to “Aunty” ABC in the light of its sustained, cowardly, contemptible and racist holocaust-ignoring.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Gideon Polya

Melbourne, Australia

END LETTER

What we continue to see is sustained, remorseless, simultaneous Holocaust Commission and Holocaust Denial by the racist US-UK-Australian Coalition,

Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. What can decent people do? In short, vote with your feet, oppose Anglo-American “democratic Nazism”. There must be ZERO TOLERANCE for mass murder, racism, genocide, media lying, politician lying and holocaust denial. Don’t vote for the racist liars and mass murderers, don’t buy their newspapers, don’t watch their TV, don’t listen to their radio stations and don’t buy the goods and services of their racist supporters.

Decent people are obliged to (a) inform others about horrendous human rights abuses (such as the Iraqi Holocaust, the Iraqi Genocide) and (b) to act ethically in all their dealings with individuals, corporations and countries complicit in such atrocities (e.g. through individual and collective, inter-national and intra-national Sanctions and Boycotts).

Of course, you can do YOUR bit in the Bush War on Terra and Humanity - the Bush War on Asian, Arab, Muslim and Non-European Women and Children - by simply transmitting this message to everyone you know.

Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003). He has just published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ ).

Reporting From Baghdad

Scott Ritter

Posted on Sep 6, 2007
It should come as no surprise that the Bush administration’s newest military-man-of-substance-turned- political lapdog, General Petraeus, maintains that the situation in Iraq is not only salvageable, but actually improving, due to the "surge" of U.S. combat troops into Iraq over the past year. All the president and his collection of GI Joe hand-puppets ask for is more time, more money and more troops.
There is no reason to believe that the compliant war facilitators who comprise the "anti-war" Democratic majority in Congress will do anything other than give the president what he is asking for. No one seems to want to debate, in any meaningful fashion, what is really going on in Iraq.
Why would they? The Democrats, like their Republican counterparts, have invested too much political capital into fictionalizing the problem with slogans like "support the troops," "we’re fighting the enemy there so we don’t have to fight them here," and my all-time favorite, "leaving Iraq would hand victory to al-Qaida."
There simply is no incentive to put fact on the table and formulate policy that actually seeks a solution to a properly defined problem. Like the Republicans before them, the Democrats today seek not to govern with the best interests of the people in mind, but rather to game the system in order to consolidate political power. Political sloganeering has so trumped reality that any political backlash that is generated from the so-called "Petraeus Report" will be limited to how the Democrats could better sustain a conflict that kills American troops, since no mainstream Democratic leader has expressed a true "get out of Iraq now" policy.
Nearly 4 1/2 years after President Bush’s ill-fated (and illegal) decision to invade and occupy Iraq, few people in a position to influence policy formulation and implementation in America have actually grasped the horrible truth about what has transpired, and what is transpiring, in Mesopotamia today. As the United States places the finishing touches on Fortress America, the new half-billion-dollar Embassy complex in the heart of the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad, and more troops pour into mega-bases throughout Iraq, the reality (and futility) of permanent occupation has yet to sink in. What could be going through the minds of those members of Congress who keep signing blank checks for the president? Is there no oversight of how and why this money is spent? How can someone fund permanent infrastructure one day, then speak of the need to get out of Iraq the next?
The compliant mainstream media, of course, is no help. The war in Iraq has become a major generator of advertising revenue for these corporations, so there is no incentive to actually report the truth, but rather manipulate the fiction. Iraq has become a prestige destination for every aspiring journalist or struggling anchor, determined to get "the big story." The most recent manifestation of this syndrome is CBS News anchor Katie Couric, who earlier this week traveled to Iraq because she was (in her own words), "Curious about very basic questions regarding living conditions, about how much fear there is in the street, about how the soldiers really are doing." That the situation in Iraq has been boiled down to these three big, burning issues (living conditions, fear in the streets, and how the troops are really doing), and that CBS is sending their multi-million-dollar investment to investigate, speaks volumes about the truly degenerate state of American journalism today.
The real big three she should be addressing are "Why do Americans keep dying?" "Who is killing them?" and "Why?" Of course, answering these questions would undermine the very fantasy world Couric is being sent to cover, one where Americans are doing good deeds in the name of peace and justice for downtrodden Iraqis. Couric’s jaunt is fraud on a massive scale. Ironically, she herself acknowledged this when she admitted that her upbeat reports from Iraq were reflective of what the U.S. military wanted her to see, and not honest "reporting" on her part.
If Couric and her ilk won’t answer these questions, I will. "Why do Americans keep dying?" Simple: Because we are in Iraq. We don’t belong there. Our presence is derived from our own violation of law, not someone else’s, and as such any effort to sustain our presence is tainted by this same foundation of illegitimacy. In short, Americans will keep dying in Iraq as long as we remain in Iraq. If Katie wanted to really get to the bottom of this story, she could venture out on her own to any one of the villages and towns where Americans have been killed recently. Of course, she would probably end up dead herself, which would defeat the purpose of trying to report the story.
"Who is killing them?" Another easy answer: Iraqis. We are occupying their homeland. We are violating their sovereignty. We are butchering, abusing and torturing their citizens. Our continued presence is an affront to the socioeconomic-political fabric that is (or was) Iraqi society. If someone occupied my hometown in the same manner Americans occupy Iraq, I’d be killing them any way I could. And I would be called a hero by my own people, not a terrorist. The Bush administration, in an effort to deflect public attention away from this reality, has created the fiction of a massive al-Qaida presence in Iraq, working in parallel with a similarly large Iranian Revolutionary Guard Command presence, which apparently is responsible for the majority of anti-American violence and dead U.S. troops.
Rhetoric aside, however, American officials who make these claims have been unable to back them up with hard facts and figures. There is an al-Qaida presence in Iraq. However, the majority of what is known as "al-Qaida in Iraq" is composed of Iraqis, not foreigners. The whole phenomenon is a direct result of the American occupation of Iraq, and would dissipate the moment America left the country. Likewise, the accusation of direct Iranian involvement in anti-American violence is questionable. Iranian political support of Iraqi Shiite groups who violently oppose the American occupation of Iraq is real, but then again we know this: We invited the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq to join us in toppling Saddam. Based out of Iran, functioning as a de facto arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Command, SCIRI did as we asked. Why, then, are we shocked when SCIRI maintains ties with the very entity that created and nurtured it? It is Iraqi Shiites who are killing Americans, not Iranians. And they would kill us with or without the support of Iran.
Now we come to the third and perhaps most difficult question: "Why?" In some odd way, Katie Couric’s jaunt to Iraq answers that question: Because Americans truly don’t care. Oh, we care about vague softball issues, such as "conditions in the street," "fear," and of course, "how the American troops are really doing," especially when they are fed to us in 30-second sound bites or three-minute "in-depth" stories. Little feel good segments planted in between commercials, designed not to infringe on our intellectual curiosity for more than 30 minutes so we don’t loose our focus watching the latest "reality" show or made-for-television drama.
The fact is, Couric’s made-for-television news is to what is really happening in Iraq as "CSI: Las Vegas" is to what is really happening on the streets of Sin City. CBS knows that, which is why they are packaging Katie in this fashion. The shame is that for most Americans watching, they think they’re getting the real deal. They are not, but will continue to wallow in their ignorant indifference. Katie will struggle to tell us that our kids keep dying in Iraq to "improve the quality of life" and "reduce the level of fear" on the streets of Baghdad. She solemnly informs us that "our boys and girls" are suffering, but they know it is in support of a just and noble cause. Katie will continue to report the story in Iraq from the perspective of an American political dynamic, not Iraqi reality.
She won’t go visit one of the American mercenary units in Iraq, the private military contractors who challenge the American military for numerical supremacy. She won’t burrow into the never-never land of legal ambiguity that allows these mercenaries to commit murder at will, to treat Iraq (and Iraqis) as second-class citizens in their own nation, and whose continued abuse of Iraq results in a deep and undying hatred for all things American. Katie may catch a movie in a hardened underground theater on one of the Pentagon’s mega-bases, or go shopping in a PX inside the "Green Zone" to get a "feel" of life for our troops, but she won’t venture up north, into Kurdistan, where other secure outposts of foreign occupation sit, out of sight and mind. If Couric would visit the Iraqi Oil Ministry, she might be shocked to witness the legal maneuvering and exploitation carried out by foreign oil companies (including, directly or indirectly, American oil companies).
Working with local Kurdish officials, small oil exploration and drilling camps are sprouting up all over northern Iraq, where they siphon off the wealth of the Iraqi people. Shipped out of Iraq via Turkey and (surprisingly) Iran, using long-established smuggling routes, these illegal ventures are generating billions of dollars in income for oil companies, and because these ventures aren’t supposed to exist, this income goes unreported. You can’t miss these sites. Any review of Google-Earth imagery would show these facilities springing up like mushrooms over the last few years. The U.S. military knows about them, and yet does nothing. Note to Richard Kaplan (Katie Couric’s producer): If you want to investigate this story, I’ll provide you with the geographic coordinates. Drive up and try to talk your way into the security perimeter. Position Katie well for the camera shot and demand answers. Just look out for the Canadian, South African or American mercenaries who are charged by "Big Oil" to keep this dirty little secret "secret."
Instead of going to Iraq to report on why Americans keep dying, Katie could just stay here, in America. There are any number of corporations whose boardrooms she could visit. Or she could smooth-talk her way into a number of country clubs, to interview the human face of the "military industrial complex" that President Eisenhower warned us about a half-century ago. She might take a look at congressional campaign financing, where the profits from these corporations fund the campaigns of the politicians who continue to do nothing about Iraq. Then, and just then, would Katie come close to answering the question of "Why?"
But she won’t. Or should I say, she can’t. CBS is owned by General Electric. GE is working hard to get favorable trading status with any number of foreign trading partners. The U.S. trade representative is working hard on GE’s behalf. Hard-nosed "reporting" by the likes of Couric would not go over well in the bowels of the White House, where instructions to the U.S. trade representative are issued. "I’m Katie Couric," her broadcast could begin. "Tonight I am declaring independence from corporate control over how I report (i.e., read) the news." Answering the "why" of Iraq requires confronting the layers of corruption and corporate domination of America on so many levels that even if Katie wanted to, she couldn’t—at least not from her perch as anchor of the CBS Evening News.
In a way, Iraq is a manifestation of all that ails America today. A complete breakdown of fundamental societal checks and balances brought on by greed and hubris. From General Petraeus who will give it, to the mindless corporate-owned minions who populate much of Congress who will receive it, to the entertainment-as-news media which will report on it, and to the American people who will consume it with no foundation upon which to evaluate it, the "Petraeus Report" will have little relevance to what is really going on in Iraq. Once again, Americans will be searching for a solution to a problem they have yet to properly define.

:: Article nr. 36058 sent on 07-sep-2007 20:47 ECT

www.uruknet.info?p=36058
Link: www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070907_reporting_from_baghdad/

SOS: The United States of Terror

Sarah Meyer, Index Research

September 20, 2007
Index Research
"Gonzales told a stunned Senate Judiciary Committee that the US Constitution did not provide habeas corpus protection to American citizens. " Paul Craig Roberts
"The best long term strategy to fight terrorism is adhering to the law of the land." Terry Turchie

+

1. Voyage with Charon
2. Iran You're Next
3. Some Recent US Nuclear Information
4. Exponential Terrorism in the USA and Europe
5. The New Attorney General and 'Enemy Combatants'
6. Is Humiliation the Key to US Policy?
7. Where is the Resistance?
8. Appendix: The Barksdale Nuke Accident
9. Footnotes
10. Related Index References

Michaelangelo's Charon

When are the whole bloody lot of 'terrorists’ and truth slayers sitting at the White House, Pentagon and corporate board meetings, controlling OUR world going to be escorted by Charon across the river Acheron? Pageboys/girls attending them could be Sarkozy, Merkel, Blair, Howard and Harper, Rummie, Wolfie and PNACers While they look like other human beings, I feel they easily fit into the category of what Hannah Arendt called "The Banality of Evil.’¹

Iraq Genocide

What is the difference between Hitler invading Europe and Cheney-Bush invading the Middle East / Afghanistan? Do we have to wait until the 6m genocide quota arrives before DOING anything? Are not the 1.2m Iraqi deaths by violent means mega-enough?
Cheney Bush have committed $2.5 trillion to killing 3.4 million Asians - i.e. Bush (Cheney) was saying it was worth it to spend $735,000 / head killing Asian men, women and children. Is that not enough?

2. Iran .. You’re Next

19.09.07: Iraq security and Iran warmongering
© Steve Bell 2007

While mainstream media/Congress/Petraeus were faffing around fibbing about Iraq, the U.S. government continued to use 'nuclear’ as its foil for its war plan in Iran , according to an 80 page study written by two British security analysts. What bleeding hypocrisy!
US Govt: Iran's Military to be Declared "Specially Designated Global Terrorists" (01.09.07.) [The real "global terrorists" sit in the White House ]
Meanwhile, with media-eye-off-ball, the US managed to lose a nuclear weapon² - which is surely as bad as or worse than Iran’s 10 year plan. The US has studiously ignored not only its own nuclear weapons, but those in Israel,
India, Pakistan, France and the UK.
Now the US government has put Syria on the nuclear watch list. This will ensure Cheney another bonus for his "Hands Up Halliburton" war funds at taxpayers expense.
Syria had a chemical weapons explosion mishap in mid-July? The detonation reportedly released deadly chemical agenets into the air ... about 50 miles from the Turkish border. ... 15 Syrian soldiers and dozens of Iranian engineers were killed...". ["Stuff Happens"? ... ]
The US/Israel are being uncharacteristically silent about the recent raid by Israel on Syria. What is fed to the public is eerily like the prelude to the Iraq war. The silence prompted Peter Beaumont in the Observer (16.09.07) to ask: Was Israeli raid a dry run for attack on Iran?

3. Some Recent US Nuclear (etc.) Information

[PDF] A SPECIAL THREAT: U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy Under the Bush Doctrine (PROTEUS FUND)
FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS
"U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces: Background, Developments, and Issues," (updated 05.09.07)
Syria on Nuclear "Watch List," U.S. Says (13.09.07. Global Security Newswire / NBC. "Syria might have sought out nuclear equipment from "secret suppliers" and is currently hosting North Koreans, a high-level U.S. nuclear nonproliferation official said today." )
U.S. Study Panel Eyes New Nuclear Weapons Submarine
by Elaine M. Grossman, Global Security Newswire. WASHINGTON — In a closed-door meeting in November, advisers to U.S. Strategic Command are slated to report their recommendations for what could become the Navy’s next nuclear weapons-carrying submarine, Global Security Newswire has learned (see GSN, Dec. 20, 2001). The command, which is responsible for the nation’s nuclear force operations, has assigned its "Strategic Advisory Group" to develop a list of capabilities desired for a boat that might ultimately replace the service’s Ohio-class submarines and the Trident D-5 nuclear-armed ballistic missiles they carry, according to sources close to the panel.
U.S. to Convert Weapons Plutonium Into Nuclear Fuel
17.09.07. By Greg Webb. Global Security Newswire. The United States today announced plans to declare 9 metric tons of plutonium in the U.S. nuclear stockpile to be excess to its defense needs and to convert the material into fuel for nuclear power plants (see GSN, Aug. 2). The material is currently in the form of nuclear weapon pits, the basic nuclear explosive component of every U.S. nuclear weapon. The quantity is sufficient to produce more than 1,000 nuclear weapons, said U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, but he did not specify how pits would be converted in the program over a span of decades.
U.S. Awards $3.7M for Radiation Sensors (17.09.07. nti.)
The funds were provided to Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina and the District of Columbia to help prevent the movement of illicit nuclear and radiological materials.
Depleted Uranium
Depleted Uranium, Increased Risk
05.09.07. Perry O’Brien, Cornell University - uruknet. Weapons the Department of Defense claims are harmless have serious and lasting effects It is significant, however, that Gulf War veterans have been found to be more likely to develop cancers of the bone, skin, and liver than other veterans. Even more alarming, Iraqi doctors have reported up to a five-fold increase in cancer rates among populations living near sites contaminated by depleted uranium. DU also has an environmental impact, since its half-life is about 4.5 billion years. UN teams found traces of DU in Bosnia seven years after the war there, and Iraq has hundreds of radioactive sites left over from the first Gulf War. This persistent contamination puts DU in violation of the Geneva Conventions prohibition on weapons that "cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment." Given the evidence linking DU exposure with numerous health problems, it is shameful that the United States continues to field such weapons without further research on their human impact....
Non-Nuclear News
Other US Horrors
A History Of US Secret Human Experimentation
$s and £s Spent
US War Spending
09.09.07. wikileaks. Table of contents: US Military Equipment in Afghanistan; US War Spending; Analyzing the Contents of the Leaked Document; Homemade radio bombs change everything (Robots, protective armor); Other Equipment - (chemical weapons, A One Cent Rocket launcher, a Wide Range of Cryptologic Gear; Following the Money; Comprehensive Tally; The Original Document; Tools for Analysis; See also: About the Analysis, 'Further Research Tasks and Questions, Notes and References, Appendix. See also: US MILITARY EQUIPMENT IN AFGHANISTAN
U.S. Arms Exports and Military Assistance in the "Global War on Terror"
06.09.07. Center for Defense Information. CDI’s ongoing research continues to document some troubling trends. Using U.S. government data, CDI has documented that, in the five years after Sept. 11, total U.S. arms sales (Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales ) to these 25 countries were worth four times more than those concluded in the five years prior to Sept. 11, and these countries received 18 times more total U.S. military assistance (Foreign Military Financing and International Military Education and Training) after Sept. 11 than before. Furthermore, 72 percent of the countries in this series received more military assistance and 64 percent conducted more arms sales with the United States during the five years after Sept. 11 than during the entire period between the end of the Cold War and Sept. 11 (FY 90-01). .. the United States has increased sales to new post Sept. 11 allies and has made several large and potentially troublesome arms deals, including a multi-billion dollar sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan . .. Total Direct Commercial Sales in the five years after Sept. 11 totaled roughly $66 billion more than in the five years prior, an 11-fold increase. .. Just as the United States is using arms sales as a reward to its allies in the "war on terror," military assistance programs have also increased since Sept. 11.
Includes pdf report on case studies for following countries: South Caucasus: • Armenia • Azerbaijan • Georgia; South Asia: • India • Nepal • Pakistan; Southeast Asia: • Indonesia • Philippines • Thailand; Middle East: • Bahrain • Oman • Yemen; Central Asia: • Kazakhstan • Kyrgyzstan • Tajikistan • Turkmenistan • Uzbekistan; Africa: • Algeria • Chad • Mali • Mauritania • Niger • Djibouti • Ethiopia • Kenya
Oh! What a Lovely War on Terror - it's the number the arms dealers love
14.09.07. Simon Jenkins, Guardian. A very pithy MUST READ article!. The biggest threat to our freedoms comes not from al-Qaida but from the security bureaucrats and their cronies, 'The noblest testament to freedom is the American constitution, yet, as Grayling points out, the latest statute passed under its aegis runs contrary to its ethos. The mission of the Patriot Act is "to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes". Montesquieu and Madison would have been appalled at such generalised statism. Nor are the act's powers temporary, wartime ones; they are permanent, as are Britain's myriad terrorism laws. By extending state power to curb civil liberty they do the terrorist's job (such as it is) for him. Never was Franklin's maxim more apt, that he who would put security before liberty deserves neither. Freedom cannot be strengthened by being weakened. That is the sophistry of dictatorship. ... Seen in the light of history, I do not find Grayling's alarmism out of order. It is simply true that in Britain and America arms dealers, in league with security bureaucrats, have fuelled public debate with extreme paranoia. Those who defend liberty are accused of appeasing an unseen enemy. Those who plead democracy are accused of threatening the state. If the freedom show is to get back on the road, some battles must clearly be fought over and again.'
Guns, not roses, for Iraq (18.09.07.Salon.com.) The U.S. is selling billions in weapons to Iraq. Is the Pentagon's plan making the country secure or arming it to the teeth for civil war?

4. Exponential Terrorism in USA and Europe

There is a police state in Baghdad. What is there to stop a police state in the US? Look at the recent developments:
Taser-Happy US Police
Free speech? VIDEO
Police Taser Student During Kerry Forum. 3 min.
And Kerry stood idly by
Now read this important article by Carolyn Baker, THE END OF AMERICA: THE POLICE STATE IS RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW (20.09.07). This article is about more than tasering and is superb for historically embracing the problems America now has. My own observation of a black person tasering a white person? This is yet another example of rage / violence as a result of humiliation, as discussed below.
Wheelchair=bound Woman Dies After Being Shocked with Taser 10 Times. (19.09.07)
Racism? Iraqi-Americans removed from flight for speaking Arabic
(31.08.07. RAW STORY) Al-Arabiya News in Dubai interviewed one of the six men, who explained that their company has a contract with the US government for defense training. "I do not know why they treated us this way," he said. "We actually came to help the Americans."
Searching Passengers' Faces For Subtle Cues to Terror
19.09.07. Washington Post. Looking for signs of "stress, fear and deception" among the hundreds of passengers shuffling past him at Orlando International Airport one day last month, security screener Edgar Medina immediately focused on four casually dressed men trying to catch a flight to Minneapolis.
VIDEO. There Are Too Many Mosques In This Country . Rep. Peter King. 1 min.
US-NATO fires two women for marrying Muslims (01.09.07. magicstatistics.com); see
Education is under severe pressure from the US government. Campus Watch is an ominous 'think tank.’ Corporations sit in universities. Students, professors and legal scholars now come under increasing attack.
Are Animals Safe from The "War on Terror"?
THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO "PROTECT" YOU FROM TERRORIST LIVESTOCK
700,000 Name Terror Watch List Still Riddled With False Information
07.09.07. Wired.com/anti-war.com.
Local Troops Deploy to Nation’s Capital
(22-24.08.07. wesh.com – legitgov.org.)
Members of the 1st Battalion 265 Air Defense Artillery have mobilized and are on a plane headed first to Ft. Bliss, then for federal active duty in the capital region. The troops will be deployed for a year. The 265th is part of Operation Noble Eagle. They are ordered by the president to the nation's capital, where they will operate high-tech weapons systems 'against' any potential air threat .
Habeus Corpus vs. Military Commissions Act
Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008
21.09.07. Project Censored - Sonoma State University – Uruknet.
1 No Habeas Corpus for "Any Person. " With the approval of Congress and no outcry from corporate media, the Military Commissions Act (MCA) signed by Bush on October 17, 2006, ushered in military commission law for US citizens and non-citizens alike. While media, including a lead editorial in the New York Times October 19 , have given false comfort that we, as American citizens, will not be the victims of the draconian measures legalized by this Act—such as military roundups and life-long detention with no rights or constitutional protections—Robert Parry points to text in the MCA that allows for the institution of a military alternative to the constitutional justice system for "any person" regardless of American citizenship. The MCA effectively does away with habeas corpus rights for "any person" arbitrarily deemed to be an "enemy of the state." The judgment on who is deemed an "enemy combatant" is solely at the discretion of President Bush. The oldest human right defined in the history of English-speaking civilization is the right to challenge governmental power of arrest and detention through the use of habeas corpus laws , considered to be the most critical parts of the Magna Carta which was signed by King John in 1215...
The New York Times | Restoring American Justice (17.09.07. The New York Times editorial / Truthout)
NY Times calls on Congress to undo the damage it caused when it passed the Military Commissions Act in 2006. The top priority is to reverse the suspension of habeas corpus, "one of the most powerful weapons against tyranny in democracy's arsenal."
On 19 September 2007, the American Senate murdered democracy by barring the restoration of habeus corpus . 'Congress last year eliminated this right for non-U.S. citizens labeled "enemy combatants" by the government.'
What is Martial Law Like? (29.08.07. news.ao.com/newsbloggers)
A unique feature of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was a small glimpse into the scary world of Martial Law. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said after the disaster that officers didn't have to worry about Civil or Miranda rights when dealing with the looters. Ideas like this cause concern with regular citizens: what happens if you're not a looter? There's a mini-documentary called Code Red: Martial Law from YouTube which features news clips from the 2005 New Orleans Martial Law experiment. VIDEO
Verizon and Government Seek Dismissal of Data-Mining Programs on Secrecy and Free Speech Grounds
(30.08.07. Ryan Singel, wired.com.)
Verizon and its government allies told a federal court judge Thursday that national security requires the dismissal of lawsuit accusing the phone provider of violating federal privacy laws by allegedly providing millions of phone records to a secret anti[pro]-terrorism data-mining program. Verizon also argues that the nation's telephone privacy laws interferes with the company's free speech rights.
Bush Seeks Legal Immunity for Telecoms
(31.08.07. AP-legitgov.)
The Bush regime wants the power to grant legal immunity to telecommunications companies that are slapped with privacy suits for cooperating with the White House's controversial [illegal] warrantless eavesdropping program.
Bush presses Congress to extend domestic spying . (19.08.07. Reuters)
Feds to Restrict Volunteers at Disasters
(01.09.07. AP.)
In an effort to provide better control and coordination, the federal government is launching an ambitious ID program for rescue workers to keep everyday people from swarming to a disaster scene. A prototype of the new first responder identification card is already being issued to fire and police personnel in the Washington, D.C., area. "They're more worried about keeping volunteers out than doing an analysis of what really went wrong," Shearer said. "Independent citizens need to be involved, where we have no ax to grind or cross to bear. But we will tell the truth, and we will tell what we see and bear witness to the incompetence."
NORTHCOM Plans 5 Day Martial Law Exercise
(05.09.07. blacklisted news.co.)
The United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) has just announced plans for an anti-terrorism exercise called Vigilant Shield 08. The exercise which is slated to run from October 15th to October 20th is described as a way to prepare, prevent and respond to any number of national crises. The exercise is simply a test case scenario for the implementation of martial law.
F-15s Fly Over NY for 9-11 Anniversary (07.09.07. military.com.)
Two F-15 Eagles from the 102nd Fighter Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base, Mass., will over fly New York City as part of the continuing Operation Noble Eagle mission.
Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Certain Terrorist Attacks (whitehouse.gov, 12 Sep 2007)
Former FBI Counterterrorism Expert Warns if National Security Given to CIA, U.S. Will Have Crossed Line of No Return
14.09.07. Palisades, NY (PRWEB). Counterterrorism expert (Turchie) warns that law of the land is being abandoned for secrecy in war against terrorists. If this continues, it will be a victory for the terrorists.
"The way the government is set up today to fight terrorism indicates that we as a nation have learned nothing," said former FBI Counterterrorism expert Terry Turchie in an address at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, Monday evening, Sept. 10th. "Terrorism is intimidation and coercion designed to strike fear in people in order to change the political, economic or social fabric of the country. The terrorists are very clear and they know what they are doing. Unlike the terrorists, our focus on terrorism is driven by politicians and emotion and what comes in the morning mail."
DHS Issues National Preparedness Guidelines
(14.09.07. nti.org/d.)
The U.S. Homeland Security Department said yesterday it had issued a planning document intended to help boost preparedness around the nation for a major catastrophe (see GSN, March 2).
The National Preparedness Guidelines "establish a vision for national preparedness and provide a systematic approach for prioritizing preparedness efforts across the nation," the agency said in a press release. . The purpose of the guidelines is to: organize and synchronize efforts at all levels of government to boost disaster readiness; guide national preparedness investments; incorporate the lessons of prior catastrophes in developing ,u>preparedness priorities; facilitating a "capability-based and risk-based investment planning process"; and prepare a system for measuring progress and overall preparations for terrorism and other potential crises.
State-secret overreach (16.09.07) * Siegal, LA Times) For too long, judges have allowed the government to hide mistakes behind national security. On Aug. 15, before an overflow crowd at the federal courthouse at 7th and Mission in San Francisco, three judges from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals listened to lawyers argue whether the once-obscure "state secrets privilege" gives the government an absolute right to withhold documents, bury evidence and block lawsuits. … "The bottom line here is the government declares something is a state secret, that's the end of it," Pregerson said. "The king can do no wrong." … In recent years, as the Bush administration has relied more heavily on the state secrets privilege to have cases thrown out of court, judges have generally been willing to concede meekly to the government's argument. Could it be that the government has finally overplayed its hand? … Over time, the desire to protect military secrets has started to look a good deal like the impulse to cover up mistakes, avoid embarrassment and gain insulation from liability.
Is the "Terrorist Threat" Another Bush-Cheney Fabrication? (16.09.07. Sherwood Ross, Global Research)
In the most massive racial profiling since Japanese-Americans were herded into detention camps in World War II, the Bush administration after 9/11 required 80,000 Arab and Muslim foreign nationals living here to be photographed, fingerprinted and subjected to "special registration," The Nation magazine said. The publication reports an additional 8,000 foreign nationals were sought out by the FBI for interviews and more than ! 5,000 foreign nationals were put in "preventive detention" --- a total of 93,000 people made to register, subjected to interview, or jailed.
US Guard chief: Billions more needed for equipment (19.09.07. Reuters) 'The U.S. National Guard has been strained by multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and faces equipment shortfalls totaling tens of billions of dollars, the Guard's top general said on Wednesday. ... The U.S. president can call the Guard into action for federal missions, such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while state governors can activate the Guard in response to emergencies, such as hurricanes or civil disturbances.'
[ Just to ratchet up paranoia - is there going to be a nuclear "Pearl Harbor"? Watch the stock market; Educate Yourself: MICROCHIP IMPLANTS, ELECTRONIC TORTURE, AND MIND CONTROL
Recommend The National Security Archive for more information. The 18.09 release is about The Pentagon’s Spies and The Counterintelligence Field. Talon info here, too.
The US Colludes with Europe in its "War on Terror"

The Great Wall of Adamiya, Baghdad

The US maintains a continual policy of 'divide and rule’. This is represented by walls. And prisons. There is an Israeli wall around Palestine.³ Baghdad has been divided by US walls. Is the US insinuating its 'wall of terror' philosophy into Europe via the European Union?
US demands 10 year ban on access to PNR documents
The US government has written to the Council of the European Union - seven days after it was signed - asking it to agree that all the documents regarding the negotiations leading to the controversial new EU-US PNR (passenger name record, signed on 23 July 2007) agreement be kept secret (under a "confidentiality" clause) Tony Bunyon of Stateswatch wrote: "US access to PNR data and its further processing is an issue of substantial public interest which directly effects the rights and privacy of EU citizens and therefore all the documentation should be in the public domain for parliaments and people to see and discuss. It is a quite outrageous request and it is even more outrageous that the EU is going to agree to it."
EU-US PNR agreement: US changes the privacy rules to exemption access to personal data
- USA to give exemptions for the Department of Home Security from its Privacy Act
- USA to give exemptions for the "Arrival and Departure System" (ADIS) from its Privacy Act
- Did the EU know that the US was planning to introduce these exemptions?
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments: "The adoption of these two exemptions will seriously diminish any rights EU citizens have to find out what data is held on them and who it is held by. Did the Council and the Commission, who negotiated the agreement, know the US was planning to introduce them, and if not why not?"
Does the EU know that Lockheed has made a bid for the UK census? Personal data is not safe on a computer, and especially in the hands of the US Defense Department. It is easily lost, stolen or discarded .
U.K. Reportedly Developing New Nuclear Warhead (05.09.07. Global Security Newswire) The United Kingdom is preparing a design for a new nuclear warhead in an effort similar to the U.S. Reliable Replacement Warhead program, the London Herald reported yesterday. Less than one year ago, several British ministers insisted there were no plans for improvements or refurbishment to the estimated British stockpile of 160 submarine-launched nuclear warheads.
When our Tony was Prime Minister, he said the country would have its say on Trident. In 2005, a Mori poll showed that 54% of the British public opposed a new nuclear weapons system to replace Trident. A January 2007 YouGov poll showed that "64% of the British public believe that the government should support an international Convention to ban all nuclear weapons." But Bliar never listened to the people; he was more interested in supporting corporate - and US - interests. On March 14 2007, the British Parliament voted to replace its Trident submarine nuclear weapons platform with new submarines and upgraded missiles and warheads. This was of concern to the people of Utah. It is still concerning the UK public.
Our guardian of 'nuclear free was Tony Benn, MP - but he has alas retired, though he is not silent. Our UK guardians of human rights freedom are the Observer's fierce and fearless Henry Porter - and the much admired Rabinder Singh, QC.

Rabinder Singh QC
© Sarah Meyer

5. The New Attorney General and Enemy Combatants

In sharp contrast to Mr. Porter and the honourable Singh QC, I continue to be amazed at how CheneyBush manage to replace the terrible with a potentially worse nominee. So 'The Big Lie Gonzales’is to be replaced by a Giuliani advisor . He is alleged to be a supporter of "enemy combatants indefinite detention." He is Michal B. Muscazy .
Just the ticket for future Martial law in America.

6. Is Humiliation the Key to US Policy?

Italian Squadristi

Is there an uncanny resemblance between the the WW2 Italian Squadristi⁴ and the (presently) Iraq-banned Blackwater and the thousands of other "security" forces?
NB: SECURITY, OED. "The condition of being protected from or not exposed to danger; freedom from doubt; Now, chiefly, well-founded confidence, certainty; freedom from care, anxiety or apprehension."
There is no such thing as "security". "Security" companies were formed to make money on our anxieties, just as pharmaceutical companies financially thrive on anxiety about health and have a vested interest in illness.
We have to ask what is the motive for violent occupation, for violence in one's own country as well as in another's country. Revenge was the motive for the (illegal) phosphorus bombing in Fallujah .

Haditha

There were further revenge killings in Haditha

Haditha

Both attacks were from humiliation resulting in rage and ending in murder. Who knows how many other innocent people in Iraq / Lebanon / Palestine and Afghanistan have been American/Israeli-murdered / bombed into their graves?
My next question (being Jungian oriented) is: who humiliated Cheney-Bush when they were young? Does Bush cry because Cheney bullies him? Tears for dead Americans or dead alleged sheikhs rings pretty false to me. You? Was their humiliation while young terrible enough to want to perpetrate a genocide on a country or a nuclear one on our planet?

7. Where Is the Resistance?

What is the purpose of, why do people / European nations buckle - collude with the US bullying ? Why do the media buckle and collude? What is the relationship between the bully and the victim? The only way to deal with fear is to face it, and walk through it. This is freedom.
As Gabriele Zamparini wrote onThe Cat’s Dream , "Silence is complicity."
There is some hope – but more needs to happen than just a poll (12.09.07. rasmussenreports.com)
A poll in Turkey names the US as the "Greatest Threat."
This feeling against the US government - NOT against the American people - is widespread.
Dr. Bowman wrote An Open Letter to the New Generation of U.S. Military Officers (14.09.07)
The Australians complained: APEC 2007 - World’s #1 Terrorist And #1 War Criminal In Australia (08.09.07. Dr Gideon Polya, Countercurrents)
The government is the Grand Champion for leaking (often false) information. Citizens could do this more often, even though Leaks Led to Imprisonment of Source, CIA Says "Those who are entrusted with America's secrets and break that trust by divulging those secrets are guilty of a crime. … CIA acts within a strong framework of law and oversight," he said. Full text here.
What about the crimes of the US government? Governments as well as civilians must be accountable to the law. No war crimes trial yet? Why not?
See: GLOBAL SECURITY, UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS
"We are working to bring about a safer world by eliminating the risks posed by nuclear arsenals and nuclear terrorism, improving nuclear power plant safety, preventing the deployment of anti-satellite and space-based weapons, and enhancing international dialogue on security issues." Update 05.07.
Shoppers and McMansioners need to take courage and act too.
Humour Helps
The Road to Serfdom
Good News Department
Furor Ends in Deanship for Liberal Scholar (18,.09.07. NY Times / legitgov.) After backing out of a deal last week, the University of California, Irvine, reversed course yesterday and announced that it was hiring Erwin Chemerinsky, a liberal law professor, to be dean of its new law school after all.
Angry students march on campus (18.09.07. Tampabays10.com/legitgov.) Nearly 200 angry students marched on the campus of the University of Florida tonight, demanding justice for a student who was Tasered and arrested by campus police. The student, 21-year old Andrew Meyer was arrested after loudly and repeatedly trying to ask U.S. Sen. John Kerry questions during a campus forum.

Image from Wake Up From Your Slumber

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8. APPENDIX ONE: THE B-52 US BARKSDALE NUKE ACCIDENT

U.S. Bomber Mistakenly Flies With Nuclear Weapons
05.09.07. nti.org. A U.S. Air Force strategic bomber flew with at least five nuclear-armed cruise missiles last week, apparently violating nuclear weapons handling policies that stretch back nearly 40 years
Was a Covert Attempt to Bomb Iran with Nuclear Weapons foiled by a Military Leak?
09.09.07. M.E. Salla, The Canadian – ICH. … This article asks lots of questions and is thus a MUST READ.
ACC orders commandwide standdown Friday
10.09.07. airforcetimes – ICH. The entire command - about 100,000 active-duty airmen - is standing down training flights and many other operations as part of a command-wide safety day. Command boss Gen. Ronald Keys ordered the Sept. 14 safety standdown in the wake of the Aug. 30 nuclear incident at Minot Air Force Base, N.D.
Barksdale Missile Number Six: The Stolen Nuclear Weapon
11.09.07. Chuck simpson, abovetopsecret. … 'That is a pretty scary revelation, and considering the media hasn’t uttered a word about the missing warhead makes it even scarier.’
The Barksdale Nukes
13.09.07. Scott Vest, Counterpunch. B-52s and Bush’s War Plans. B-52s and Bush’s War Plans. However, as much as I can relate to the mind set that the Bush Administration is up to no good, I have to say that it almost certainly had to be an accident, or if not an accident it was not a prelude to nuclear war with Iran or anyone else. The fact is that if a nuclear strike was planned out of Barksdale AFB using the B-52H aircraft stationed there, it could be accomplished without needing to ferry live weapons from North Dakota against long-standing policy on a combat aircraft.
I asked Scott Vest if he would respond to some of the questions posed in 'Above Top Secret'. He kindly gave permission to quote his reply:
"There is an office called 'Munitions Control' that keeps records and had graphic displays to track where warheads are during maintenance and exercise efforts. They would have cut a workorder to send the missiles to the missile shop in the 'Weapons Storage Area' to get demated. I don't know where the error first occurred for sure, but it's possible that there was either an error in the workorder only calling for six rather than twelve missiles to get demated, or perhaps the workorder got logged as complete when only half of the work had been done. These systems are run by humans, after all. Another possibility is that the convoy crew pulled the wrong trailer from storage. From that point on, the operations would have no longer been considered nuclear, because there weren't supposed to be any warheads in the picture when the missiles were transported to the jet, loaded, and flown. It seems possible to me that since no warheads were planned to be dealt with that checks were not made to verify, either due to complacency, or a lack of the types of redundant checks that the article suggests. Either way, this procedural hole should be repaired by the Air Force. Many of the added procedures for nuclear surety would not have needed to be done for a non-nuclear ferry mission."
Media, politicians maintain silence on flight of US nuclear bomber
14.09.07. Bill Van Auken, WSWS – legitgov. [On August 30, a US B-52 Stratofortress bomber flew nearly 1,500 miles over the length of the United States with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles fixed to its wings.] ...One [Military Times] correspondent, identifying himself as a "retired B-52 crew chief," described the official account as "unbelievable." ...Another posting reads: "I think everyone here is making an assumption that they didn’t know. This is an absurd assumption. As soon as those ACMs [advanced cruise missiles] hit the hard-mounts, the talkback between the computers instantly enabled. The crew knew they were carrying nukes long before they finished the checklist for takeoff."
Air Force Chief to Review Nuclear Weapons Handling
Global security newswire. The head of the U.S. Air Force today is expected to discuss nuclear weapons handling procedures with officials at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, where six nuclear warheads were loaded last month on to a B-52 bomber that flew the weapons over several states, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 6).

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9. Footnotes

[1] Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem , published 1963, chapter 15
[2] See Appendix on Barksdale nuke incident
[3] At least 4,228 Palestinians and 1,024 Israelis have been killed since September 29, 2000 See further details on Palestine's plight here
[4] Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism , Vintage 2005, pp 58 - 62

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10. Related Index References

Totalitarianism and Obedience (Updated 03.05.07)
U.S. Martial Law Timeline (Updated 08.09.07)
PNAC: Part I - Blueprint for Imperialism
Lockheed Martin and UK Census Collusion
Iraq: Security Companies and Training Camps (Updated 20/09)
Iran war : Resource Info (24.01.07, updated to 23.04.07)

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with thanks to William Bowles, Winston Weeks, Dr David Halpin and Musafir.

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Sarah Meyer is a researcher living in the UK. She is a member of the BRussels Tribunal.
The url to SOS: The United States of Terror is: http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2007/09/sos-united-states-of-terror.html
Smaller url: http://tinyurl.com/364g5s

Burning the Law in a Riot of Treason
    By William Rivers Pitt
    t r u t h o u t | Columnist

    Monday 27 August 2007

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

- Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

    The departure of Alberto Gonzales from the Attorney General's Office brings America to a place of definitions, and hanging in the balance is the very idea of the nation itself. The basic concepts and fundamental principles of our republic now stand as the only legitimate considerations going forward, for they have been tested almost to annihilation already, and will not endure much longer if we continue on this path.

    It is the mythology within the Declaration of Independence we speak of, the fiction that tells us we are endowed with rights, and that those rights are unalienable. This falsehood has been vividly exposed in the last several years, and it has been a harsh lesson indeed. All the rights we hold dear and believe to be our greatest strength are, in fact, only words on old paper with neither force nor power. The next line - "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" - is the muscle behind the myth, the core that has endured a withering assault.

    Matters are so much worse than our national political dialogue lets on. The resignation of Gonzales has unleashed a torrent of hard words and harsh criticisms aimed at the deplorable nature of his tenure, but the truth of it continues to elude mention. They call Gonzales an incompetent, a crony, a loyalist, a disgrace, leaving off the one word necessary to fully explain who he is, and what he was engaged in before he stepped down.

    Alberto Gonzales is a traitor. That is the only word to explain it.

    He is not the only one; there are many more traitors like him in the Bush administration, criminals joined in an act of treason so vast and comprehensive that it beggars comparison. Nothing quite like this has ever before been attempted in America, and if they are allowed to succeed, there will be nothing of what defines America left to be seen.

    Gonzales and his Bush administration collaborators have committed their treason against the rule of law itself, a crime so absolute that it is technically not illegal. There is no code, ordinance or law specifically forbidding the total ruination of all our rights and protections; the act is neither felony nor misdemeanor, because nobody ever considered the black-letter necessity of making it illegal to destroy the rule of law.

    But there is no America without that rule of law - no rights, no protections, no Constitution; there is nothing, and if you destroy the rule of law, you destroy the idea that is America itself. The only word for a crime like that is treason, and those who would dare commit it are traitors. Gonzales and his Bush administration collaborators have done more than dare. They have been pursuing it, with deliberation and intent, throughout each moment of their tenure.

    Their treason is not in the actual crimes they have committed, but in the way they have chosen to avoid accountability for them. Their treason is not their refusal to obey the Freedom of Information Act, but in their insistence that they are above the application of that law. Their treason is not in their refusal to obey subpoenas from Congress, but in their claim that they are above the laws behind those subpoenas. Their treason is not that they fired United States attorneys and then refused to come clean about it, but that they decimated the impartiality of the Department of Justice and turned the rule of law into another partisan weapon. Their treason is not the NSA surveillance of Americans, but their steadfast refusal to submit to the governing laws and the requirement of oversight.

    When George W. Bush asserted a claim of Executive Privilege that made him and his administration immune to all laws and oversight, that was an act of treason because it shattered the rule of law. When Dick Cheney asserted that the Office of the Vice President was not part of the Executive Branch, because he did not want to obey the laws requiring him to hand over official documents to the Archives, that was an act of treason because it shattered the rule of law. When Alberto Gonzales chose to surrender the independence of the Department of Justice so he could protect those assertions, that was an act of treason because it shattered the rule of law.

    Americans have only the rights they are able to protect and defend. Our rights are nothing more than ideas; only theory and argument on parchment all too easily burned to ashes. The power of those rights is only found in our collective submission to the rule of law, and submission to that rule of law is all that stands between our freedoms and the conflagration of tyranny. Without the rule of law, there is no America.

    That is the treason of Alberto Gonzales, and the treason of the Bush administration entire. They have attacked and undercut the rule of law by refusing to submit to it, and in doing so have brought us to the edge of appalling infamy. Theirs is a crime without peer, and we will be fortunate beyond measure if we are able to recover from it.

    The fact that Alberto Gonzales has left is meaningless in the main, because the treason he participated in continues in his absence. If the damage is to be repaired, he must be replaced by someone who will submit to the main imperative, someone who will submit to the rule of law, someone with real independence and unbending respect for the idea that is America. Gonzales must not be replaced by another crony or yes-man, because Americans have only those rights we can protect and defend, and another traitor in that lofty post is no protection at all.

    Gonzales was more than a poor steward of this trust. He was a traitor among traitors. If the rule of law is to stand, the treason he helped commit must be ended, and a patriot must take his place.

An article from:

Oregon Alliance for Retired Americans

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www.orara.org

In Health Care Reform Debate, Single-Payer System is Labor's Only Clear Choice

- Rose Ann DeMoro

Union members have a huge stake in the present debate on health care reform.

At a time when employers routinely slash or eliminate health benefits for workers and their families or force union members on strike to preserve those benefits, when insurance plans routinely restrict workers' choice of doctors and prescription drugs, and when more working families declare bankruptcy due to medical debt, only one reform can provide the health care security working people need: single-payer.

Under single-payer, you don't face the loss of health benefits if you lose your job or are forced out on strike. You don't face employers constantly shifting costs onto your back. You don't have to worry about retiree health care if you are able to retire before age 65. And you are no longer at the mercy of the insurance industry predators who routinely deny care.

NOT A DREAM

Single-payer is not a dream. It's legislation-House Resolution 676, introduced by Congressmen John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich, with dozens of co-authors. It also has the backing of 235 labor organizations in 40 states, including 17 AFL-CIO state federations and 60 county/regional central labor councils. Several states, including California and Illinois, also have single-payer bills in the hopper.

Does single-payer work? Every industrialized nation in the world except the U.S. has either a single-payer system, like Medicare, or a national health system, like our veterans health system. That's why the U.S. stumbles along at 37th in the world in overall health care quality, according to the World Health Organization.

Under single-payer, all health care revenues go into one publicly administered pool of money that pays for all medically necessary services delivered by doctors, hospitals, and other providers.

Its guiding principles are:

· Universality: Everybody in, nobody out.

· Portability: Even if you lose your job or never had one, you still have health coverage, guaranteed.

· Comprehensive, uniform benefits: No Cadillac plans for the wealthy, no tricycle plans-with high deductibles, limited services, and caps on coverage-for everyone else.

· Choice of physician, hospital, clinic, and other caregivers: Most private plans restrict where you can go.

· Cost controls and cost savings: 30 percent of every dollar that currently goes to insurance companies pays for their administrative costs-and their profits. Under single-payer, savings accrue from eliminating this overhead.

· Public oversight: The public sets policies and administers the system, instead of high-priced CEOs meeting in secret and making decisions based on what inflates their compensation packages or company profits.

OBVIOUS SOLUTION

Single-payer is such an obvious solution that one might wonder why there is not overwhelming accord by labor, liberal, and progressive organizations and politicians to campaign for it.

One reason is the enormous economic and political clout of the health care industry. The 20 largest HMOs in the U.S., for example, made $10.8 billion in profits in 2005. Drug companies make even more; the world's 13 biggest reported $62 billion in profits in 2004.

Health care corporations employ that wealth to block real reform in Washington and in state capitols. They promote "solutions" for the health care crisis that throw more money to the private marketers who created the present mess by putting revenues and profits ahead of the health and well-being of patients.

Thus, we're presented with a series of market-based approaches masquerading as "universal" coverage, along with browbeating campaigns designed to lower public expectations and promote the conventional wisdom that only substandard solutions are feasible.

We've heard this before. From abolition of slavery to women's suffrage to enacting Social Security and Medicare to ending legal segregation, our history is filled with achievements that the political "realists" repeatedly dismissed as unrealistic.

INADEQUATE REFORMS

Most of the alternatives offered instead are based on expanding the role of the insurance industry. Among the ideas now being touted by, among others, liberal advocacy groups and a few Presidential candidates, are mandates that everyone be required to buy insurance, tax deductions to encourage people to buy insurance, taxes on employers to pay for more insurance, and expansions to existing federal or state programs to buy insurance for the low income.

No wonder that Stephen Hemsley, chief executive of health care giant UnitedHealth Group, calls one such scheme, by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, "an interesting set of proposals that represent real opportunities for our business."

Both the Schwarzenegger plan and the Massachusetts law on which it is modeled have as their central premise the requirement that all state residents buy health insurance.

Yet neither places any limits on skyrocketing premiums, and in both states individuals and families will face huge deductibles with even the cut-rate plans the law will force them to buy. The result is that many will end up paying for virtually all their medical expenses or gamble with their health by avoiding most services.

On the other hand, the California and Massachusetts models are welcome news in the corporate boardrooms of the insurance industry. Insurers stand to make hundreds of millions more just in California.

Another favored scheme, especially by some in labor, is employer mandate "pay or play" plans that require businesses to provide health benefits or pay into a state pool to buy insurance for the uninsured.

But in addition to being another windfall for the insurers, a federal court ruling throwing out a Maryland law based on this approach cast doubt as to whether any employer mandate will withstand legal challenge.

The health care industry and conservative ideologues hardly need our help. It's time for labor activists to unite behind the only health care reform that is universal, comprehensive, and assures one standard of quality care for all.

Rose Ann DeMoro is executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.

Please read this outrageous reportage of an Air Force woman being court-martialed for her own rape! It's time to have her superiors, right on up to the Commander in Chief, removed from duty!

Feministing

Once More Olbermann has hit the nail on the head.  It is time to clean house and senate of all betrayers of the US and our troops. 

Link to Keith Olbermann | The Entire Government Has Failed Us on Iraq

Ask a conservative what the biggest problem in America is today, and you'll get answers like over-taxation, a sexualized culture, a lack of respect for authority, insufficient church-going or big government running amok. But if you then asked the conservative what the real source of the problem was--the beating heart pumping blood to each and all of these socio-politico-cultural wounds--you'd get the same answer: liberalism.
On the other hand, you could ask a liberal a hundred questions about the problems facing our country before you'd get to an answer that placed conservatism at the heart of the nation's ills.
And conservatives learn these messages when still young. What does a "campus liberal" do? Well, it depends what his or her issue is: fighting sweatshop labor, or environmental degradation, or the Iraq war, or any of a dozen other problems about which liberals are concerned. What, on the other hand, does a "campus conservative" do? Fight liberals and liberalism.
You can hear it in the media as well. As any fan of Limbaugh, Hannity or O'Reilly hears every day, whatever the issue is, the problem is liberals. Conservatives write books saying liberals are The Party of Death, who are Trashing Democracy, Waging War Against Christianity, Screwing Up America, Corrupting Our Future--and on top of it all, our whole ideology is A Mental Disorder. Liberals, on the other hand, write books about why George W. Bush is a terrible president. (I plead guilty.)
What we haven't yet seen from the left is a sustained critique, not just of a particular politician or a particular policy, but of the entire ideology and worldview of conservatism.
As everyone knows, conservatives have succeeded in making "liberal" an epithet, something they throw at their opponents--who try desperately to dodge the label. The demonization of "liberal" has been successful in part because conservatives have effectively created what social psychologists call a "schema" with decidedly negative features around the term. A schema is a set of ideas that are connected in people's minds, such that activating one idea--"liberal"--activates a whole set of related ideas, like lights on a Christmas tree. We assemble schemas as a way of storing and categorizing related information in memory. In this case, the related ideas are things like "soft on crime," "weak on defense," "sexually permissive," and so on. The ideas liberals would like to pop right up in people's heads when they hear the term liberal--"wants prosperity for everyone," "supports universal health care" or "stands up to powerful interests"--are farther away from the schema's center.
This didn't happen by accident. It is the result of a relentless campaign against liberalism by conservatives. And liberals need to do the same thing to conservatism.
A good first step would be to never, ever again use the word with a positive connotation. How many times has a Democrat, in order to score a debating point, said, "A true conservative wouldn't tolerate these Republican deficits?" How many times have solidly liberal Democrats described themselves as "fiscally conservative?" Those formulations accept that true conservatives are principled people with noble goals. They are not, and should not be talked about as though they were. When was the last time you heard a Republican call himself a "social liberal," even if he is one? They don't, because they understand that liberalism is an opposing ideology to which they will give no aid or comfort.
So allow me to offer a few points of attack on conservatism, ones that will resonate with the public and accrue both short-term and long-term gains to the liberals who use them.
1. Conservatism has failed. The overwhelming majority of the American public now sees the Bush administration as a failure. They failed in Iraq, they failed after Hurricane Katrina, they failed on health care, they failed to deliver rising wages, they failed on the deficit, they failed, they failed, they failed. Why? Liberals need to argue that it wasn't a product of incompetence; it was a failure of conservative governance. As Alan Wolfe put it in a recent Washington Monthly article, "Conservatives cannot govern well for the same reason that vegetarians cannot prepare a world-class boeuf bourguignon: If you believe that what you are called upon to do is wrong, you are not likely to do it very well."
Conservatives had their chance: a Republican president, a Republican Congress, Republican-appointed courts--in short, the perfect environment for enacting their vision with little to stand in their way--and they failed. Should we be surprised at the level of corruption? Of course not; they don't think government is there to serve the people, so why shouldn't they raid it for whatever they can grab?
In short, progressives should start talking about the Bush administration's failures not as those of a president, but of an ideology.
2. Conservatism is the ideology of the past--a past we don't want to return to. Liberals need to embrace the culture war, because we're winning. The story of American history is that of conservative ideas and prejudices falling away as our society grows more progressive and thus more true to our nation's founding ideals. Conservatives supported slavery, conservatives opposed women's suffrage, conservatives supported Jim Crow, conservatives opposed the 40-hour work week and the abolishment of child labor, and conservatives supported McCarthyism. In short, all the major advancements of freedom and justice in our history were pushed by liberals and opposed by conservatives, no matter the party they inhabited at the time.
Conservatism is Bill Bennett lecturing you about self-denial, then rushing off to feed his slot habit at the casino. It's James Dobson telling you that children need regular beatings to stay in line. It's a superannuated nun rapping you on the knuckles so you won't think about your dirty parts. It's Jerry Falwell watching "Teletubbies" frame by frame to see if Tinky Winky is trying to turn him gay. Conservatism is everyone you never wanted to grow up to be.
3. Conservatives are cowards, and they hope you are, too. We're afraid, they shout. We're so afraid of terrorists; we have to become more like the things we hate. We're so afraid; we have to let our government sanction torture. We're so afraid; we have to let the government spy on us. We're so afraid, we have to give the president dictatorial powers. We're so afraid; we just want to rush to the arms of politicians who say they'll protect us.
Progressives need to frame their rejection of the fear campaign as an act of courage: Al-Qa'ida does not scare us, and we will not dismantle our democratic system because we are afraid. The America we love does not cower in fear, as the conservatives want it to.
These are just a few ways progressives can begin to talk about contemporary issues in the context of the larger ideological conflict that shapes our political history. As an added bonus, when we make clear just what it is we are against at its fundamental, philosophical level, we define for the public who we are and what we stand for.
One of the troubling contradictions in contemporary public opinion is that while on nearly every issue the progressive position is more popular, the number of people willing to tell a pollster they consider themselves "conservative" still far outnumbers the number willing to say they're "liberal." It wasn't always that way, and it doesn't have to be that way. Winning converts isn't just about convincing people you're right on the merits of issues, it's also about showing them that your side is one they want to join, and the other side is one they want to avoid.
The key challenge facing progressives right now is how--once George W. Bush decamps for Crawford in January of 2009--to maintain the increased energy motivating the political left in recent years. They will be able to do so if they come to understand that George W. Bush is not what they need to fight. What they need to fight is conservatism.
Paul Waldman is a senior fellow at Media Matters for America and the author of the new book, Being Right is Not Enough: What Progressives Can Learn From Conservative Success, just released by John Wiley & Sons. The views expressed here are his own.
© 2006 TomPaine.com
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A belief is not merely an idea that the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind.

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Please check out my letter to the IBU membership about our current contract negotiations! 

Link to InlandBoatmen's Union of the Pacific - Alaska Region - News

Hi Folks!

More on the war profiteering in Iraq; from a documentary that the GOP (gang of parasites) leaders on Capitol Hill banned from presentation today. 

Link to Truthdig - A/V Booth - ‘Legal Stealing’

Mass amnesia makes Americans forget the story behind May Day
April 26, 2007 By Rudolph J. Vecoli  (Commentary published in the Barre/Montpelier Times Argus

May Day: The holiday of the workers. In days gone by, when men, women and children often worked 10 or more hours a day, seven days a week, May Day was an assertion on the part of wage-slaves that they were sovereign human beings with control over their own lives and destinies. They celebrated the day with marches of tens and hundreds of thousands throughout the world.
May Day was an expression of the international solidarity of the working class. "Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains," was not just a slogan. It was a battle cry in the war between classes. Their marches and rallies, with fiery speeches, impassioned poetry and stirring anthems, gave them a sense of their collective strength. It was an act of defiance of the combined forces of employers and public authorities. Often their gatherings were brutally attacked by police or thugs with clubs and guns.
Many of us have grandparents or great-grandparents who participated in these observances. Few of us acknowledge or are even aware of this inspiring part of our family histories. We Americans suffer from mass amnesia of the remarkable and some times glorious history of workers' struggles for liberty of expression and social justice. Who now remembers May Day?
Although not often taught in American history classes, May Day originated in the United States during the campaign for an eight-hour day. The Knights of Labor, the nascent American Federation of Labor and various anarchist groups designated May 1, 1886, for nationwide demonstrations for the eight-hour goal. An incident which occurred several days later in Chicago made this the beginning of a global workers' movement. Following a clash between strikers and police in which several workers were killed, a protest meeting was held in Haymarket Square.
When police attacked the gathering, a bomb was thrown, killing several officers. In the trial of anarchists (who were not accused of the bombing, but for advocating violence) which followed, eight were found guilty and four subsequently executed. These "Haymarket martyrs" quickly became revered heroes of labor movements throughout the world.
With this tragic episode in the class war in mind, the International Socialist Congress meeting in Paris in 1889 designated May 1, 1890, as an eight-hour holiday to be observed by workers in all countries. An increasingly conservative Samuel Gompers and AF of L had by the mid-1890s distanced themselves from May Day and embraced the legally sanctioned Labor Day, which was observed the first Monday in September. Coming from radical backgrounds, Finns, Slavs, East European Jews, Italians and other immigrants found their cherished May Day opposed not only by capitalists but often by American workers as well. Despite being denounced as "foreign born reds," they kept the torch of May Day idealism burning for another generation.
The response of the "bosses," political and economic, was twofold: to allay the anger of the workers, measures were taken to ameliorate the worst abuses of the capitalist system; while extreme repression was used to silence the most vocal and active labor advocates. The case of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian anarchist immigrants, electrocuted on Aug. 23, 1927, following a blatantly biased trial, is the most heinous example of the latter.
However, the ideal of May Day had already been shattered by the collision of international solidarity of the "proletariat" with the fervid nationalism resulting from World War I. Patriotism trumped class consciousness, and millions of workers killed each other in the name of the fatherland. Meanwhile, the Bolshevik Revolution which appeared to fulfill the vision of a collective republic turned out to be a Trojan horse in the socialist camp. The Leninist-Stalinist regime proved to be a ruthless dictatorship presiding over state capitalism. Among the earliest and most passionate opponents of Communist Russia were socialists and anarchists whose comrades were being liquidated by the Bolsheviks.
The aspiration for the unity of workers was shattered by these developments.
In the United States, the Great Depression of the 1930s did not usher in communism but the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which saved capitalism and laid the basis for a welfare state.
May Day was hijacked by the Soviet Union with its displays of military prowess in Red Square. The association of May Day with Soviet Communism has given it a bad name to this day.
In this age of globalization, when workers are pitted against each other, across oceans and continents, we have returned to conditions of pitiless exploitation of human beings. If greed ever was constrained by patriotism, it certainly is not today. The quest for profits knows no inhibitions by national ideologies or loyalties. Yes, we are involved in a class war, a war of oil companies, the military-industrial complex, the corrupted political institutions, against the workers and consumers.
We, the American working people, remain beguiled by symbols, the flag, the Fourth of July, the Thanksgiving turkey. It is time to revisit May Day in the spirit in which it was conceived over a hundred years ago. Only an international labor movement can hope to match the prowess of the amoral trans-national capitalist system. Freeing ourselves from the sordid history which stained the banner of May Day, we need to raise a cleansed, purified standard on which is emblazoned once again: "Workers of the World Unite!"
Rudolph J. Vecoli is professor emeritus of history and former director of the Immigration History Research Center University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He lives in St. Paul

Posted by Austin

Source: ILWU : Message: May Day forgotten.....

But I cannot, with candor, tell you that all is
well with the world. Clouds of suspicion, tides of illwill
and intolerance gather darkly in many places. In
our own land we enjoy indeed a fullness of life
greater than that of most Nations. But the rush of
modern civilization itself has raised for us new difficulties,
new problems which must be solved if we are
to preserve to the United States the political and economic
freedom for which Washington and Jefferson
planned and fought.
Philadelphia is a good city in which to write
American history. This is fitting ground on which to
reaffirm the faith of our fathers; to pledge ourselves
to restore to the people a wider freedom; to give to
1936 as the founders gave to 1776-an American way
of life.
That very word freedom, in itself and of
necessity, suggests freedom from some restraining
power. In 1776 we sought freedom from the tyranny
of a political autocracy-from the eighteenth century
royalists who held special privileges from the crown.
It was to perpetuate their privilege that they governed
without the consent of the governed; that they denied
the right of free assembly and free speech; that they
restricted the worship of God; that they put the average
man's property and the average man's life in
pawn to the mercenaries of dynastic power; that they
regimented the people.
And so it was to win freedom from the tyranny
of political autocracy that the American
Revolution was fought. That victory gave the business
of governing into the hands of the average man,
who won the right with his neighbors to make and
order his own destiny through his own Government.
Political tyranny was wiped out at Philadelphia on
July 4, 1776.
Since that struggle, however, man's inventive
genius released new forces in our land which
reordered the lives of our people.. The age of
machinery, of railroads; of steam and electricity; the
telegraph and the radio; mass production, mass distribution-
all of these combined to bring forward a new
civilization and with it a new problem for those who
sought to remain free.
For out of this modern civilization economic
royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were
built upon concentration of control over material
things. Through new uses of corporations, banks and
securities, new machinery of industry and agriculture,
of labor and capital-all undreamed of by the fathersthe
whole structure of modern life was impressed into
this royal service.
There was no place among this royalty for our
many thousands of small business men and merchants
who sought to make a worthy use of the
American system of initiative and profit. They were
no more free than the worker or the farmer. Even
honest and progressive-minded men of wealth, aware
of their obligation to their generation, could never
know just where they fitted into this dynastic scheme
of things.
It was natural and perhaps human that the
privileged princes of these new economic dynasties,
thirsting for power, reached out for control over
Government itself. They created a new despotism and
wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service
new mercenaries sought to regiment the people,
their labor, and their property. And as a result the
average man once more confronts the problem that
faced the Minute Man.
The hours men and women worked, the
wages they received, the conditions of their laborthese
had passed beyond the control of the people,
and were imposed by this new industrial dictatorship.
The savings of the average family, the capital of the
small business man, the investments set aside for old
age-other people's money-these were tools which the
new economic royalty used to dig itself in.
Those who tilled the soil no longer reaped the
rewards which were their right. The small measure of
their gains was decreed by men in distant cities.
Throughout the Nation, opportunity was limited
by monopoly. Individual initiative was crushed in
the cogs of a great machine. The field open for free
business was more and more restricted. Private enterprise,
indeed, became too private. It became privileged
enterprise, not free enterprise.
An old English judge once said: "Necessitous
men are not free men." Liberty requires opportunity
to make a living-a living decent according to the
standard of the time, a living which gives man not
only enough to live by, but something to live for.
For too many of us the political equality we
once had won was meaningless in the face of economic
inequality. A small group had concentrated
into their own hands an almost complete control over
other people's property, other people's money, other
people's labor-other people's lives. For too many of
us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men
could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness.
Against economic tyranny such as this, the
American citizen could appeal only to the organized
power of Government. The collapse of 1929 showed
up the despotism for what it was. The election of
1932 was the people's mandate to end it. Under that
mandate it is being ended.
The royalists of the economic order have conceded
that political freedom was the business of the
Government, but they have maintained that economic
slavery was nobody's business. They granted that the
Government could protect the citizen in his right to
vote, but they denied that the Government could do
anything to protect the citizen in his right to work and
his right to live.
Today we stand committed to the proposition
that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average
citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling
place, he must have equal opportunity in the market
place.
These economic royalists complain that we
seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What
they really complain of is that we seek to take away
their power. Our allegiance to American institutions
requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain
they seek to hide behind the Flag and the
Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the
Flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always,
they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom,
not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule
and the over-privileged alike.
The brave and clear platform adopted by this
Convention, to which I heartily subscribe, sets forth
that Government in a modern civilization has certain
inescapable obligations to its citizens, among which
are protection of the family and the home, the establishment
of a democracy of opportunity, and aid to
those overtaken by disaster.
But the resolute enemy within our gates is
ever ready to beat down our words unless in greater
courage we will fight for them.
For more than three years we have fought for
them. This Convention, in every word and deed, has
pledged that that fight will go on.
The defeats and victories of these years have
given to us as a people a new understanding of our
Government and of ourselves. Never since the early
days of the New England town meeting have the
affairs of Government been so widely discussed and
so clearly appreciated. It has been brought home to us
that the only effective guide for the safety of this
most worldly of worlds, the greatest guide of all, is
moral principle.
We do not see faith, hope and charity as unattainable
ideals, but we use them as stout supports of a
Nation fighting the fight for freedom in a modern civilization.
Faith- in the soundness of democracy in the midst of
dictatorships.
Hope-renewed because we know so well the progress
we have made.
Charity- in the true spirit of that grand old word. For
charity literally translated from the original means
love, the love that understands, that does not merely
share the wealth of the giver, but in true sympathy
and wisdom helps men to help themselves.
We seek not merely to make Government a
mechanical implement, but to give it the vibrant personal
character that is the very embodiment of human
charity.
We are poor indeed if this Nation cannot
afford to lift from every recess of American life the
dread fear of the unemployed that they are not needed
in the world. We cannot afford to accumulate a
deficit in the books of human fortitude.
In the place of the palace of privilege we seek
to build a temple out of faith and hope and charity.
It is a sobering thing, my friends, to be a servant
of this great cause. We try in our daily work to
remember that the cause belongs not to us, but to the
people. The standard is not in the hands of you and
me alone. It is carried by America. We seek daily to
profit from experience, to learn to do better as our
task proceeds.
Governments can err, Presidents do make
mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine
justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the
sins of the warm-hearted in different scales.
Better the occasional faults of a Government
that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent
omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its
own indifference.
There is a mysterious cycle in human events.
To some generations much is given. Of other generations
much is expected. This generation of Americans
has a rendezvous with destiny.
In this world of ours in other lands, there are
some people, who, in times past, have lived and
fought for freedom, and seem to have grown too
weary to carry on the fight. They have sold their heritage
of freedom for the illusion of a living. They
have yielded their democracy.
I believe in my heart that only our success can
stir their ancient hope. They begin to know that here
in America we are waging a great and successful war.
It is not alone a war against want and destitution and
economic demoralization. It is more than that; it is a
war for the survival of democracy. We are fighting to
save a great and precious form of government for
ourselves and for the world.
I accept the commission you have tendered
me. I join with you. I am enlisted for the duration of
the war.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Acceptance Speech for the Renomination
for the Presidency
June 27th, 1936 - Philadelphia, PA

Sir! No Sir! A Film About The Gi Movement Against The War In Vietnam.

In the 1960s, thousands of American GIs rebelled against the Vietnam War, changing the course of U.S. history and society. No film has ever told their story...until now.

Sir! No Sir! website is also an incredible resource of information of the history of GI Resistance. Offering audio, an image gallery, and a vast library of the gi movement in depth.

 Watch the trailer and find out when this film is coming to your city!

  Web Link      Mission Rejected : U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq
Disillusioned, outraged, and betrayed, American soldiers are taking a stand against the war in Iraq. A shattering journey of revelation, pain, and betrayal, Mission Rejected takes the reader deep into the turmoil of U.S. troops confronting the Iraq