Monthly Archives: February 2008

Prince Harry plays anonymous sniper

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All smiles behind the machine gunPrince Harry, it’s been disclosed, has been taking his winter holiday in Afghanistan, fighting the resurgent “Terry Taliban” in the Helmand Province, and calling in air strikes like any ordinary [armed] bloke. The UK and international press were colluding to keep Harry’s deployment a secret, until the story broke on the internet. Now royal family handlers are deciding whether to bring the prince back lest he draw unwanted fire.

We can probably all agree that Prince Harry, as third in line to the throne of England, would make a tempting prize for any number of third world fighters seeking redress from the British Empire for colonial injustice. The sun never sets over regions still adversely impacted by the legacy of British misrule. And Prince Harry is playing cowboy in one of the most notorious, Afghanistan. His Joint Tactical Air Control (JTAC) task unit is even entrenched over an old British fort.

But if Harry can say this: “It’s nice just to be here with all the guys and just mucking in as one of the lads.” Should the whole world be conspiring to ensure he isn’t shot like one of the lads? Is there an MI5 contingent out in the field making sure no Afghans get hurt while the prince plays soldier?

Prince Harry plays soldierThis was voluntary service on the part of “Cornet Wales.” Denied permission to serve as a tank commander in Iraq, the prince joined the JTAC group to secretly embed himself with the action.

The young cornet, whose radio codename is Widow 6 7, is directing air strikes against sorry Afghan asses. The least he could do before he heads home with pictures and war stories to decorate the palace, is to have stuck his head out for who he is. What part of an honest press should have pledged to remain silent just because a prince wants to get in some live shooting practice?

NOTE: The press embargo was only intended for the length of Harry’s deployment. In reality, a group of reporters was given full access that they might return, afterwards, with such headlines as: Prince Harry: Sacrifice for Queen and country, or Prince Harry can look every soldier in the eye, or Britain’s Prince Harry: Wild child turned war hero.

Super Harry kills the barbarians

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One of the frequent refrains in the US is that the powerful and well-to-do war promoters here always keep their own children out of the fighting, and that many of them are ‘chicken-hawks’, gung-ho avoiders of doing the actual fighting themselves. But in Britain, along comes Prince Super War Hawk, Killer of the Pagan, and he has duly registered and true authentic ‘royal blood’, too! He’s a True Warrior Prince from the Royalty… pure breed!

Well, the US has had several more plebeian Super Heroes for the pro-war press, one of which was an American pro- football player who once tried to outdo Warrior Prince Harry. That American Super Hero evidently was not very popular among his own troops, and was killed by ‘innocent’ fire. But Super Prince of Arabia, TE Lawrence, no I meant of Afghanistan, Prince Harry, is claiming to be the truest killer of the barbarians of them all. He’s making a few dinosaurs in Britain proud that such a fossil from the dead Empire of Great Britain apparently still is around, lost in some sort of time warp, one must guess?

In this picture Super Prince MANS a machine gun, as he strolls through the brutal barrios of The Natives. But alas, Super Prince is ready to PULL OUT, and return to being only poor Clark Kent once again.

Who needs Princess Di in these modern times, when the Murdoch press can PUSH Super Prince in its tabloids? But for now, Super Prince Harry must once again remove his Super Hero cape, and return to his people. One wonders what the British population thinks of this gala show?

Conspiracy and Betrayal

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America is getting to be something like Czarist Russia, where conspiracy theories swirled about people’s minds big time. Many ordinary Russians back then thought that there were all sorts of conspiracies to control the Czar, who was seen as almost a national icon, saint, and benevolent dad all wrapped up together. Of course he was none of those things. Still, people believed that he was, and that there were conspiracies galore to hijack this good man away from the people.

In America today, conspiracy theories are becoming the IN THING among many sectors of the population. Many nice liberals seem to be prone to fall for the various veins of betrayal and conspiracy thought. Many claim that The Truth is Not Being Told, etc. Yes, but it never is in fact, but the conspiracy fan thinks that this is something new and is caused by a band of conspirators in high power.

Conspiracies are real. There are multiple real conspiracies flying around our country at this very moment, down to the dog track level. But the liberal conspiracy fan, like the Russian peasant of old, fixates on usually only one idea. This idea becomes sort of an obsessive compulsive disorder fixated on political dirt, so to speak. The liberal conspiracy fan sees contamination, and those who do not agree with them are idiots and even part of the conspiracy to deny the political betrayal seen by mainly an elite core group of believers.

The conspiracy theorist believes in devils, Satanic plots, and zombies, who are not informed actors on the scene as they see themselves to be. Over on counter punch. org there is an interesting examination of the current state of this phenomena. within antiwar circles

Conspiracy Theory, Fears of Betrayal and Today’s Anti-War Movement This is scary stuff like a horror show, as nefarious people in dark shadows destroy our nation. Or so thinks the liberal conspiracy fetishist.

Holding Iraq down for others to kick it

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It’s been repeated we cannot pull US forces out of Iraq before we have established an Iraq military with which the Iraqis can defend themselves. Not a police force, not a constabulary or carabinieri, but a veritable army to defend Iraq against its neighbors. Unless we’re talking about Turkey.

It did sound surreal the first time they made the case, didn’t it? The US expends all that ordnance to destroy the Iraqi army, then we claim to need to build it up again. But Iraq has enemies besides just us, we’re told, so fair enough, we’ll defend them until they can do it themselves. But that doesn’t apply to Turkey.

Apparently, the US, and the Iraqi Puppet military role with respect to the Iraqi northern neighbor of Turkey, is to hold the region open to surgical strikes on select Iraqi malcontents. The Turkish incursions have the same elements of Israel’s excursions into Lebanon. They are facilitated by the US.

These extra-judicial posses, lynch mobs I suppose you could call them, are like the raids General Pershing used to conduct into Mexico in search of Poncho Villa. Complete violations of another nation’s autonomy. The US provides the equipment, the intelligence, often with advisors, and the diplomatic cover. When international outrage reaches critical mass, the US finally relents and expresses its concern that the offender show proper restraint. In Israel’s case, the US withheld its admonitions like an old man who’d lost his hearing aid. Watch if the same is not happening with Turkey.

Turkey’s beef with Iraq has to do with the longstanding effort on the part of the Kurdish minorities in Iraq, Iran and Turkey to call for an independent Kurdistan. Turkey does not want to lose its mountainous regions to the Kurds, and has suppressed its own Kurds by even criminal means. Turkey resists admitting responsibility for the Armenia Genocide lest comparisons be drawn to how it has been resolving its Kurdish problem.

Turkish General Haldun Solmazturk describes the latest Turkish incursion into Iraq on Voice of America as having dealt a blow to the PKK, the faction in the highlands of Iraq and Turkey which is fighting for Kurdish independence.

“Fatal would be too much to describe the potential effect,” he said. “But it would be a major blow. Because in any conflict you do not fight the people, you fight the minds and wills of the people. Such an operation will be a major blow on the will of the people.”

Too pretty to blog?

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An oft-heard conversation in my house goes something like this:
“Mom, why did I only get one Thin Mint and Lara got two?”
“Because I like her better.”
 
Fortunately, my kids are wise enough to know that to accept this un-motherly, and of course untrue, explanation is to be spared an hour-long lecture on The Inherent Unfairness of Life or Life Is Not a Zero-Sum Game or, my favorite, From Each According to Ability To Each According to Need.

Too pretty to flyToo bad that I am not the parent of the 18-year-old girls escorted off a Southwest Airlines flight who claim that they were just too pretty to fly. Had I been on the receiving end of such a lame defense I would’ve gleefully launched into my Pretty Is As Pretty Does speech, which would be great fun since it’s not one I get to use very often.

When I was in college at CU-Boulder, I thought I was rather attractive. Unfortunately for me, most of the girls there were more than rather attractive. I would occasionally go to a college bar hoping to catch the eye of a handsome fraternity boy. I would stand with good posture, trying to project an enigmatic alluring presence, hoping that someone would sense my intelligence, robust wit, and deep compassion for humanity. Well, it never happened. Not once. Finally tiring of plodding along a dead-end road, I decided to change my tack and give it one more try. I positioned myself near a table of 8 Sig Eps, reached into the depths of my being, and let rip an ear-shattering near-heroic burp. Eight heads turned my way. Chairs were pulled out, beers were purchased, and fraternity men jockeyed to be the one who’d take me home to meet the folks. Cosmic confirmation of Pretty is as Pretty Does had been attained.

What, say you, does this have to do with the poorly-mothered girls on the plane? In the twenty years since my stint in Boulder, my understanding of human nature has expanded beyond the Panhellenic membership base. Growing up I remember being unsettled by the apostle Paul’s words To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. This seemed disingenuous to me, an outright manipulation to attain a specific goal. But I think I’ve figured out what Paul meant, and modern-day evangelists would do well to take note.

Life isn’t always about me. In fact, life is rarely about me. Or you. It is about figuring out who everyone else is, and what matters to them. It’s about showing empathy and understanding, not forcing one’s opinion or will on someone else. My parents laugh when they meet someone who knows me, because the descriptions of what I am are so varied. Sophisticated and polite. Boisterous and raunchy. Well-read and articulate. Creative and unpredictable. Conservative. Liberal. Jock. Freak. Certainly all elements of my personality. But if I’ve properly assessed who these people –or even organizations — are, then also a reflection of them. Persuasion, cooperation, effectiveness, even friendship, require common ground. Emotional intelligence is necessary to figure out where that common ground lies.

The pretty girls, if they were thirsty and in need of a bathroom, should have better assessed the situation, the timing of their requests, and the duties of the flight attendants. If they had, their tray tables would likely have been overflowing with water and snack pretzels, and a flight attendant would have extracted the bathroom dweller on their behalf. Too pretty to fly? No, too self-absorbed and emotionally-retarded to fly.

Fortunately for my kids, this entire speech has been reduced to meaningful eye contact, one arched eyebrow, and a quiet snap behind my back. This isn’t about you. Reassess. Adjust to the situation. Or you’ll be getting no Thin Mints at all.

Senior Democrats eat their young

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Help the Dems out, just this once. The County Assembly last Saturday was overrun with excited delegates and alternates. Palmer High could hardly support the numbers, or more notably, the DP was unaccustomed to such a turn out. I’d like to insinuate that the DP did not know how to keep the usual lid on everyone’s enthusiasm. But they tried. A line formed around the block while volunteers at the door held newcomers at bay. Some were told they couldn’t enter, many were kept waiting until beyond the posted 10:30am time limit to have submitted their ballots.
I know who was at the door. Do you?

Democratic organizer Bob Nemanich wrote this in a 2/26 email to his
Fellow Obama Supporters!:

Jay Ferguson, the vice chair of the El Paso County Democratic Party and I have been receiving numerous reports of curious and even worse descriptions of attempts, by some party volunteers managing the entrance doors last Saturday morning, attempting to turn rightfully elected delegates away from the convention. This is serious stuff. If any of you witnessed or experienced an attempt by someone telling delegates who were in line Saturday morning and told to go home because; of “the crowds were too big”, “no more room inside”, “they had enough delegates”, “the fire marshal was going to close us down” or were told “their name was not on their lists” or other intimidations.

You need to contact us immediately! We will need the description of the person who was at the door making these or other statements or intimidating anyone, which line you were in, the time, and other circumstances which might further identify this person and activity of attempting to suppress the vote.

Blow the whistle on the unscrupulous gatekeeper and whoever he got his instructions from. Write Bob at rwnemanich at gmail.com

The Rosa Parks Lone Rider Theory

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Rosa Parks photographed after the Montgomery Bus Boycott, posed with newspaper reporter“Rosa Parks did so act on her own!” I’m faced with this repudiation yet again, as J’s high school class revisits the civil rights movement. Their reading list includes Howard Zinn, but still the lesson plan is determined to press home the Parks as lone rider theory.

It makes a heroic story, to tell of lone brave Parks (she’s even painted as elderly, are you kidding me?), riding home from a tiring day at work, so tired that she becomes tired of being told to go to the back of the bus. She stands her ground, an example to us all, and changes history.

Yes it is inspiring, yes it feels empowering. But IS it empowering? Does it empower you to stand up to injustice in the face of harsh, legal if also physical, consequence? Have you yet? You’re no Rosa Parks I could confidently guess, and it’s not your fault.

Do you doubt that there haven’t been countless upstarts, individuals railing against repressive authority, who’ve spoken their piece, made their gesture, only to be humbled by arrest, jail, judges, fines, and the ridicule of the community? It happens all the time. They are marginalized, broken, and ultimately worn down.

Let me describe another kind of heroism. Working for civil rights activists as a stenographer, being in on the discussions about who would make the strongest test case, and picking the right moment mindful of the preparations needed to mobilize colleagues to rally to your defense; thus committing your act of civil disobedience with ready support. Is that any less heroic? I’d suggest it takes more bravery because you know you are launching a political act that will have legs. And it will require more from you than just anger or being tired.

Cindy Sheehan didn’t just march down to Crawford Texas and pitch her lone tent. She consulted with an incredible network of organizers to conceive the plan, Code Pink maven Medea Benjamin among them

Rosa Parks and the bus she rode in on launched a key maneuver for the civil rights movement, and that’s certainly not a lesson the establishment wants to teach its children. Teach them that history is made by individuals, unique, gifted iconoclasts, with whom you’d have to have delusions of grandeur to identify. “You Sir, are no Kennedy,” or Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks. It’s the monarchist belief that only special people are endowed to rule. No need for commoners to concern themselves, the aptitude for nobility is hereditary.

Don’t teach children that to change anything you have to take on the establishment with its own weapons. Idealistic youth don’t want to hear that you have to fight politicians with politics.

You don’t have to become the system to defeat it, but you have to inhabit the system and understand that it operates with the mechanisms of human nature. You must play the system, and no one, absolutely no one, has ever done it alone. Not even Eve.

Was Rosa Parks an iPod-wearing rebel-without-a-cause? Not hardly.

Mercury Fulminate in Fountain Creek

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I noticed something about the Rampart Range cleanup controversy but don’t know if I posted it here. A few months ago (before the Range became, as always, a sheet of impenetrable ice) there was a story in the Indy about it. Only, the focus was on Lead. Lead, it was pointed out by the Anti-environmental people, is hard to dissolve in water. Therefore it wasn’t in any way responsible for the sudden spike in toxins in the Manitou spirit-water.

What’s worrisome, though, isn’t the lead, (carcinogenic sure, but not as much as) Mercury.

As in, Mercury Fulminate.

Not pure mercury, but a tarnish or rust of mercury, mercury nitrate.

And, yeah, water soluble.

But the primers in those millions of rounds of ammunition popped off up there every year, the primers are made of mercury fulminate.

Some .22 caliber rounds have no smokeless powder at all, just mercury fulminate.

Remember when the Cowboy Star President, Ray Gunn, got busted in the head and shoulder with a .22? and there was a mini controversy about the ammo… because it had Mercury Fulminate in the slugs as well, making them Explosive.

And, of course, the AFA and Ft Carson have their gun ranges and rifle ranges as well.

Thing about mercury fulminate, it’s the most common detonator both for the shells which toss the projectiles, because it is SO very reliable (trust me, you strike that stuff with anything and it’s going to pop…) the explosive projectiles and the bombs released use it as a primer/detonator as well.

for the same reason.

Just before I came up here, some of y’all were in a dispute with Ft Carson over the ammunition waste metals.

The Army basically told everybody to STFU and it ain’t none of our damn business what kind of poison they’re pouring into our water supply.

Oh, and I DID mention this once… at Camp Casey one evening.

What the Army had said about “Our troops need to use the same types of ammunition in their weapons in training as they do in the Global War on Terror”… this is important… that includes the DU anti-tank ammunition.

That, you know, could be another reason they really really don’t want people to think about the CAUSES of cancer.

Stop plans for ICE detention in Denver

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OPPOSE the construction of a new immigrant detention center in Aurora!
Colorado Progressive Coalition office, 1600 Downing St. Suite 210
Saturday, March 1 11:00 a.m.

The GEO Group, one of the nation’s largest private prison corporations wants to build a new 1,100 bed immigrant holding facility in Aurora. The Aurora Planning Commission will vote on the proposal to build this facility March 12.

If you would like to help stop this facility from being built:

1. Contact Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition with your name and/or organization to sign on to the attached petition. Contact: chandrarusso-at-gmail.com

2. Contact the Planning Commission directly, along with the Mayor and Aurora City Council, and tell them to oppose the detention center. Their email addresses: schapel-at-auroragov.org, citycouncil-at-auroragov.org, etaur-at-auroragov.org, and rrpeters-at-auroragov.org

3. Personalize and print the petition as a letter to be sent to: Planning Commission Members, Aurora Mayor and City Council c/o Susan Chapel, 15151 E. Alameda Parkway, 2nd floor, Aurora, CO 80012

4. Join us on Saturday, March 1 at 11 a.m. at the Colorado Progressive Coalition, 1600 Downing St. We will meet to review strategy, talk about how to engage safely and respectfully. We will then drive out to Aurora to flyer. If you are unable to make it to this event but know others that might, please forward this message to them.

—————————-

Dear Planning Commission Members,

As you may know, the GEO Group, a billion dollar corporation, wants to build a new 1,100 bed immigrant holding facility in Aurora. This facility will hurt our community and lead to great suffering while putting millions of tax dollars into the pockets of a destructive corporation.

We strongly urge you to OPPOSE the construction of a new immigrant detention center in Aurora when it comes up for hearing on March 12.

Here is why:

Detention hurts asylum seekers and other victims of torture and trauma Torture survivors, victims of trafficking, and other vulnerable groups can be detained for months or even years, further aggravating their isolation, depression, and other mental health problems associated with the horrors they have experienced.

Conditions in detention are atrocious Detention centers across the country have prevented men, women and children access to phones and food. Several people held in immigration detention have died because they did not receive basic medical care. The GEO Group was forced to close detention centers after the US Justice Department sued for “abuse and neglect,” “life threatening conditions,” and sexual assault of children.

Private prisons profit off of misery GEO is expecting $30 million a year in profits for its new Aurora facility. GEO has a vested interest in having sufficient men, women and children to fill its beds. To GEO, they’re not people, they’re profits- at $95 per person per day. To this end, the GEO group has given hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to ensure elected officials push for policies that benefit GEO- more detentions nation-wide.

A detention center can become a poorly run state or federal prison almost overnight The GEO Group has not been granted an immigration contract for its proposed Aurora facility, meaning it could be used as a prison. Private prisons have been shown to cut corners, have inadequate staffing levels and receive little government oversight.

As decision makers for Aurora, we trust you will make choices that strengthen our communities and enhance our way of life. We believe you will support development that enriches our neighborhoods and maintains our values.

Building one of the country’s largest immigration detention center in Aurora does neither of these things. It is an affront to communities, families, workers and tax-payers. We trust you will not allow this detention center to be built.

Raise awareness to the CAUSE of cancer

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Look at all that pink respect for breast cancer! Breast cancer awareness, I mean to say. As Marie has pointed out, women’s basketball over the weekend was draped in custom pink uniforms for the cause of cancer. “Cause” is an unfortunate pun, actually. No one’s interested in raising awareness of the cause of cancer.

I saw some coaches awarding Coach Yow a symbolic check for $10,000, to go “100% to breast cancer research” the announcers were happy to point out: “Not 93%, or even 99%, but 100% to research!” That’s good. If it had gone toward raising awareness [through ad campaigns], that money would be going 100% back to the television network.

About medical research, I have to wonder, if it weren’t for private fund-raising efforts, would there be insufficient research for a cure for cancer? Without Jerry’s Kids, or Walk for a Cure, etc, would it not be in the public’s interest to cure diseases like cancer? Are the 50,000 women diagnosed with cancer each year going unnoticed? Is the Health Department not picking up on the trend?

Whether our medical/industrial system wants to cure cancer is a matter of reasonable doubt. From a management perspective, can our society afford to stop this natural-seeming population trimmer? Breast Cancer preys generally upon women of post-reproductive age. Is our economy terribly concerned about the longevity of a less productive population segment?

Breast Cancer awareness would appear to be more about remembrance, about honoring those women who’ve lost the lottery of industrial toxin exposure. What about awareness of what’s causing cancer? We’ve researched causal-links plenty. Perhaps we should be raising money to go toward awareness of the cancer culprits. Let’s see if the media talking heads will speak so glibly about that!

Aren’t we learning that cancer behaves like rust? Cancer is oxidation, it’s, well, a cancer, in the figurative sense. Cancer is decay. It can be thwarted by proper avoidance of carcinogens, such as cigarette smoke, pollutants, or toxins. We know the sources of carcinogens: industry, chemicals, manufacture of plastics, poisons, toxic foods, etc.

How does wearing pink make any of that more visible? We’ll cure cancer when we arrest the causes. When we, literally, arrest the purveyors.

Are anti-depressants really Doc ordered placebo drugs?

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There is category of meds I call Doctor ordered placebos. You see, the doctors are, within the general population, the most fooled of them all by pill placebos. They often truly believe in drugs that don’t much work, simply because it makes them feel more powerful and strong to prescribe medication not generally thought of as placebo like, rather than just admitting that pharmaceuticals might not be of much effect for a condition. In short, doctors prescribe instead of admitting helplessness in confronting some condition.

‘Doctor, Mrs Hoot is acting up, what can we give her?’

Usually, instead of a swift kick in the ass, it will be a pill of some sort. Zombies are easier to manage for the doctor and his side kicks. It beats a wooden mallet, I guess? Besides, the police aren’t armed with them, but with elephant guns instead.

From the BBC… Anti-depressant prescription rates have soared. New generation anti-depressants have little clinical benefit for most patients, research suggests.

Maybe you need ‘counseling’ instead? But that’s probably way too much trouble.

America ‘In debt we trust’

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Why is this country going down? It’s because ‘in debt we trust’ to give us jobs, of all things! It actually works the other way ’round. Check out In Debt We Trust

The multi-national corporations are putting the American people into hock. Payday loans may very well soon be replaced by lack-of-payday groans.

Do you really know how much in debt you have become? Our lives are now seemingly being played like Russian Roulette with everything. Especially with your health… You are already in debt but do not yet know it.

US allied troops sneak into Darfur by way of Chad

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It’s really quite simple. France owns Chad, and Britain once owned Egypt and Sudan. The US, Britain, and France are all into North Africa together these days. They want the Chinese out. Enter Zionist Steven Spielberg, and a whole host of other ‘concerned people’. Enter European Union troops (under French, British, and US control) into Chad, the country that neighbors Sudan. Now throw in a sprinkling of tears. Yes, the European Union is now fully engaged in a regional war in North Africa. They snuck into the region through the back door last week, and it will all be very ‘humanitarian’ in the press spin.

Chad rebels say French EU peacekeepers ‘not neutral’ and they are right. The group, ‘Save Darfur’, has promoted a return of French troop[s and towards the newer US colonial control of the region. They must really be happy now.

The Cancer Cartel at work again

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Think pink Nike jerseyI don’t know how many of you are women’s basketball fans, but just in case you missed last weekend’s action, most of the top-ranked college teams played their games bedecked from head to toe in pink uniforms, compliments of Nike. The Think Pink initiative is a global, unified effort of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) to raise breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond. More than 800 universities participated in some capacity in the event which happened to coincide with ESPN’s ‘February Frenzy’ of games. Fans of the game were encouraged to don pink in support of the cause.

Now, I don’t know if you’ve seen a typical women’s basketball fan, but I can assure you that pink is not her favorite color. However, like the rest of us, she’s always willing to do her part in the fight against breast cancer.

During last week’s action, in addition to the play-by-play reminder of breast cancer, fans were repeatedly encouraged to give generously to the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund. We were told that we must band together to stop this ruthless killer of women. Yes, we surely surely must.

My question is why didn’t Nike just write a big check to the fund and be done with it? We could’ve actually WATCHED the Rutgers-Tennessee game, a rematch of last year’s NCAA final; the fund would have its money; more “research” could be done; big Pharma and their minion-surgeons could have their pin money; big food could keep fucking with the food supply so that these fundraisers will always be necessary. And Nike will be at the ready to supply gear for each of them, swoosh color negotiable.

Even more importantly, more women would be convinced to cough up money for an annual mammogram, more biopsies of benign tissue would be done and, in the process, even more of them would get cancer from the large, very unnatural and unhealthy, doses of radiation they regularly receive. I mean, let’s forget that one of the world’s foremost authorities on radiation, John W. Gofman, (MD, PhD, Professor Emeritus at UC-Berkeley–no hack, this guy), estimates that 75% of breast cancer cases could be prevented by avoiding exposure to the ionizing radiation of mammography and x-rays.

Sounds like a win-win for everyone. Except, of course, the people who are supposedly benefiting by thinking pink. Maybe next year they could really get everyone’s attention, not just basketball fans, by naming the campaign Think Dead. Just a thought.

Test your candidate on civil liberties

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Tonight, instead of hearing a Wal-mart exec explain how Saving People Money Helps Everyone On Earth Live Better TM, stop by another CC venue to see the ACLU Winter Forum. The event in Slocum Commons is scheduled to be a candidate forum where regional representatives of the presidential candidates will respond to ACLU concerns about the abuse of power by the office of the executive. A good idea, on paper.

THE ISSUES BEING: Congressional Suspension of Habeas Corpus for Detainees, Indefinite Detention Without Arrest, Trial, Legal Representation or Judicial Forum, Surveillance of Domestic U.S. Citizens, Rendition, Torture, Abuse of Executive Power, i.e. Separation of Powers, Signing Statements, etc, The Patriot Act, and more.

I’m not sure whether the representatives would be able to get beyond how they think their bosses would respond. It’s hard to imagine each will not agree that all American Civil Liberties must be protected, keeping our security in mind, yada yada yada; as opposed to salivating openly at the chance to get into power and abuse every executive advantage like your predecessors.

The only hope I see for a discussion is for a Green Party spokesman for Cynthia McKinney to clarify what the corporate candidates have already revealed about themselves based on their actions and affiliations.

And now of course with Ralph Nader stepping in to mix things up, there’s the chance to hear what an independent might lend by way of outrage. Have the McKinney and Nader camps been invited?

Springs Culture Cast has party for Craig Richardson and Klayton Elliot Kendall of Springs Culture Cast

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Craig Richardson spars with BabetteThe Smokebrush is feting the first anniversary of the Springs Culture Cast enterprise on Thursday night. I love the work Craig and Klayton are doing to illuminate our city’s culture scene. Every weekday the two assemble a four minute segment on local arts. I especially like when their delivery swerves into the theatrical, but I can’t laugh forever at their sledgehammer self-promotion.

Radio segway: “It’s time for the Springs Culture Cast:”

Underwriter credit: “Springs Culture Cast is brought to you by…”

Intro: “Welcome to the radio edition of Springs Culture Cast.”

Reporter: “Hi I’m Craig Richardson with Springs Culture Cast… ”

“…This segment of Springs Culture Cast was produced by Craig Richardson and Klayton Elliot Kendall.

“To explore our video archives, please visit us online at Springs Culture Cast dot com.

“For Springs Culture Cast, this is Craig Richardson.”

Undocumented immigrant as superhero

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The latest issue of Mother Jones features four photographs from Dulce Pinzon’s SUPERHERO project. These portray Mexican immigrant workers costumed as might befit the superhero responsibility they carry. Favorite unsung heroes? The Thing, Human Torch and Superman below.
Superman
NOE REYES from the State of Puebla works as a delivery boy in Brooklyn New York. He sends home 500 dollars a week.

I am voting against McCain

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I’m voting against McCain.
 
Saying there isn’t any difference between the candidates is like stating there’s no difference physically or philosophically between you and me, or me and Eric or you and Eric.

The Anti-Immigrant crowd are howling for Obama’s blood as well. They’re suggesting absurdly that his father planned to smuggle a future terrorist into america in the womb of an American citizen.

The Wall is so unworkable just as a physical engineering problem, it’s clear to you, clear to me, and probably clear to each and every candidate for any office higher than Dog Warden that it’s a massive, expensive Feel-Good giveaway to construction workers, until after the election at least.

Any one issue, like the Wall or the War or Health Care or Wiretapping, … they all converge on one simple, monstrous Elephant in the Parlor fact…

Allowing any Bush Annointed Bush Replacement, such as McCain, to win even by the slightest of margins, will be seen by the 19% Jackass Squad as an overwhelming mandate to Implement every stinkin’ one of the Chimp’s signing statements and Executive Orders, to replace the Constitution, as Bush put it “stop waving the Constitution in my face It’s just a goddamned piece of paper” yeah, THAT Constitution, with the so-called Patriot Act.

There’s plenty of criticism of the Constitution from the left as well, it seems to be somewhat of a dinosaur, it has regressive Articles, some of which were stricken from the use but not from the letter of the law, like a black man being worth 1/3 of a White man in the census.

BUT the Patriot Act in conjunction with the Signing Statements, the Executive Orders, the Attorney General refusing to enforce Contempt of Congress citations or subpoenas from Congress, the Supreme Court backing his sorry ass on that, the Vice President saying he’s neither Executive Branch nor Legislative, but instead is some kind of Super-Executive above all laws…
Pure retrogressive.

The trend wipes all legal issues raised since the Code of Hammurabi.

“Badges? We don’ need no steenkeeng Badges!” or warrants, or probable cause, or finding somebody guilty UNDER THE LAW, or a legitimate reason to invade any country on earth…

Any vote that will put that Jackass McCain on the throne will be a vote for the utter destruction of America and every place and person on Earth that the American Empire can take down with it.

It will be a vote for Absolute Rule, “we told you to, that’s why” Rule.

Tony, man, I love you brother, but pissing away your vote for Nader would be even worse than voting directly for McCain. Even worse than sitting home and refusing to vote.

Nader could have done something truly hellified in the political sphere by running for Congress, in the 60s or even today.

Under the Constitution the Congress would have an extreme hold over the power of the presidency. He had the support in and out of Congress to do it.

And the support to have effected some real hard-core changes over the past 40 years.

40 years of that kind of working for change would translate into a real chance for being President. I just get the feeling, though, that not putting in that kind of time or effort shows that he really doesn’t want to be the President.

He doesn’t actually want, at least in any way that’s obvious, to have the responsibility or be in the position of change.

Voting for him would be voting for No Change, save for the change in the number of milestones on the road to a collective National Grave.

I personally ain’t ready to do that.

You see the political situation here in the Springs, you saw it in Highland and University Parks, Houston, El Paso, and even in other countries, like in the Distrito Federal in Mexico. The situation of no change except for steady worsening.

No, Obama isn’t going to Save America. Not just no, but hell to da fuck no…
Despite the “Cult-like Supporters” slur, everybody or most everybody who intends to vote for him realizes that.

Voting for No Change, though, Guarantees the Damnation of America.

Viva Obama? Well gag me please…

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This has got to be the most comical Democratic Party campaign video around. Viva Obama 2008 Empty, stupid, and patronizing it is. Obama is hardly any friend of the Latino community and almost every single Democratic Party politician has had a long history of voting to militarize the US- Mexico Border, including supporting the building of the Border Wall currently being constructed that was voted on in 2006 with total DP support.

However, here are the 2 DP candidates now campaigning in Texas for the Hispanic vote while feigning being against the Border Wall project. Obama, Clinton Dump Border Wall in Debate

Mentally challenged unfit for insurgency

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Indignity at the barrel of a gunUS disinformation forces in Iraq pointed recently to an insurgency so in its last throes, that it was desperate enough, and dastardly, sure enough, to press mentally retarded girls into service as suicide bombers. Soon enough our military was forced to recant that report. The young Iraqi women may have been bipolar, or depressed, but they didn’t have Down Syndrome, as cranial deformities caused by the bomb blasts had led the US forensics to conjecture. But the false accusation had its desired effect and there was worldwide condemnation of the Iraqi resistance. This story has irked me in both incarnations.

Namely, why in the name of the Special Olympics is it alright to presume the mentally handicapped could not rise to the challenge faced by their fellow insurgents?

That there would need to be suicide bombers is sad for anyone to contemplate. But a people oppressed by overwhelming military dominance have little recourse. The US drove the Japanese to resort to recruiting Kamikazis. The French pushed the Algerians to the most desperate efforts. The Soviets, the US and Israel have since left Afghans, Iraqis and Palestinians no option but “terrorism.” We don’t label carpet-bombing, detainment or torture as “terrorism,” but freedom fighters and their asymmetrical warfare is enough to terrorize us.

And so, to many Iraqis, maybe especially those orphaned by our invasion and occupation, to be a suicide bomber is to be put to the only strategy which may yet prove effective. Rocks thrown against tanks do nothing. Shots fired against armor-clad troops yield naught but a hail storm of higher caliber bullets. IEDs are now up against heavier mine-resistant vehicles. Civilians without access to artillery or high-tech triggering remotes have no choice but to deliver their angry message in person, guided and detonated by their brave partisan selves prepared to pay the price with their lives.

Of course a mentally disabled person cannot reasonably be considered to have understood enough to make such a profound sacrifice. But I’m surprised the PC crowd wouldn’t allow them the dignity to aspire to contribute to the cause of their fellow Iraqis. I’d venture to ask if their lives could have served a more honorable service. It must suck to be mentally handicapped in Iraq, considering the US has destroyed every semblance of health care service, and refuses to rebuild it. The US is killing the health-needy of Iraq, even as they accuse the insurgency of the exploitation/murder.

And which side cannot deny preying upon the retarded from which to recruit its troops? With casualties on the rise, American motives unmasked, the timetable interminable, and the prospect of surviving intact virtually null, who but the mentally challenged are signing up to “defend freedom” for Uncle Sam?

What does a billion dollars look like?

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We hear money has been spirited away by the billions in Iraq. Leading some to wonder what that amount of cash would look like in the tangible sense. For example, would a billion dollars be visible from Google Earth?
Stealth bomber crashes at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam
Last week in Guam, Americans were offered an opportunity to see 71.7 tons of money go up in smoke. By some accounts, “The Spirit of Kansas” was a 2.5 billion dollar plane, others say the B-2 bomber costs 1.2 billion dollars. Hopefully the insurance adjusters will sort it out. The crash represented three to six times more than the Hubble lens, or a solid fraction of our armaments budget.

Knowing we are in over our heads

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One reason we have governments, for you inquiring civil libertarians, is for guidance. I can certainly think of two matters which might always evade common man’s grasp: nutrition and economics.

In spite of all best efforts to educate a public, we may have to agree that nutrition and economics are too big for the layman to grapple. We elect representatives to Washington to advise our lives about complexities like these.

Take for example the fudgsicle, it’s “low fat” but probably not on the whole going to make you skinnier. By the taste, the fudgsicle is made of sugar. So where does that put it, as obesity causal factors go?

Regulating calorie intake vis-a-vis carbs, electrolytes, supplements, additives, toxins and who knows what, is not a static math problem. It’s about maintaining a buoyant equilibrium as we move our bodies forward in our mortal trajectory. It’s like keeping the steam pressure up on an old locomotive, there was a reason the train drivers were called engineers. A steam engine didn’t start and go like its Lionel Train facsimile, it had to be tended, coaxed and fed lest it a) falter or b) explode.

Not everyone can be an engineer. We can read how-tos, and feel good about taking the levers, but ultimately the pop-guides are written to take us in circles to the next self-help over-simplification.

Likewise, not everyone can understand economic theory. We like to apply our bookkeeping common sense, our coupon-clipping savvy, and Nike GTD ethic to the federal budget: just balance it, but spreading greater prosperity is much more complicated than that. Try conducting even domestic trading with “neither a borrower nor a lender be.”

That’s why we elect administrators, that’s why we make them give big speeches to demonstrate their competence. We know we want smart people to be in charge. You’d think that concern would be intuitive, but we have learned it to be otherwise.

Evidently we need at the very least to be taught in our schools that our leaders must have more than the common sense of our drinking buddies. Our educational system must keep citizens up to speed to appreciate that governance is a demanding task. We don’t need to know the complexities, but we need to know enough to tell buffoons like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and Sean Hannity that their homespun drivel is for uneducated morons.

Ralph Nader white knight on dark horse

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Spare no unflattering portrait of third party candidateIf a picture is worth a thousand words, there are no end of terrible words which corrupt opinion shapers want to throw at Ralph.
 
A consumer/citizen advocate would indeed look sinister in the eyes of corporate malfeasance and to those interests who have pirated our democracy. The media portraits are consistent with dark shadows and a scowl, even though Nader’s only special interests have been ours.

If Citizen Nader wants to run for president and dedicate more of his life to public service, we should be so lucky. The only party he’s pooping by stepping into the ring, is the two-party fraud perpetrated by the beltway television lying bastards. The charlatans so smugly think the American political spirit should be satiated by the choice between their stooge on the right and their stooge on the left.

Asked if his candidacy would serve as a spoiler, Nader replied:

“If the Democrats can’t landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, emerge in a different form.”