On May 1st, 2008 the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) will stop-work for eight hours at all West Coast docks to protest the continued US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Transport and postal workers are joining in. A similar action last year in Australia led to violence. A 2003 antiwar dock worker protest in Long Beach met with unprecedented police brutality.

“If you boycott China, when do they boycott America for what we’re doing in Iraq?” Good question, Will.i.am. Another good question by Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas is, Where Is The Love?

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Cancer it is turning out, may not be gene mutation. Peter Duesberg, the man who was first to challenge that HIV, (the “probable” cause of AIDS as announced by U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary in April of 1984), was not capable of causing cell or immune destruction, is now challenging the established scientific theory that gene mutation is the cause of cancers. And he may be right. His proposition for chromosomal damage by cell aneuploidy, supports the suspicion that many of us have had and is being established more so in the mainstream …that cancer is caused by combination of poor diet, lethargy, non-nutritional, toxin ridden industrial food manufacturing, fast foods and man made environmental toxins and carcinogens of all sorts.

The doctor has declined to say whether depriving herself of her daily Dr Pepper supplement (corn syrup) has precipitated recent health difficulties.
 
After a doctor’s visit today, Pattie was urgently scooted to Penrose Hospital for more tests. She has a westward facing room on the tenth floor, room 1006. Pattie is scheduled for GI tests tomorrow and is expected to be incarcerated for three or four days. Visitors welcome.

This might sound bizarre, but I connected to this because Miss Johnnie was watching a Rockies’ baseball game.

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On my walk today, I noticed something that looked like a tiny planetarium on a neighbor’s deck.
 
“Is that a planetarium on your deck?” I asked, half kidding.
 
“No,” he replied. “It’s a telescope.”
 
“Really? Like a Celestron?”
 
Smiling, he shook his head. “No, not like a Celestron.”
 
Check out what my neighbor does in his spare time.

The presidential elections will decide if The Empire continues to openly advocate and use torture against POWs or not. All the 3 candidates support continuing the occupations of Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan in one form or another, and they all agree on starting a future war against Iran and any of its allies still around.

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But we kind of expected that, no?

For instance there was a United Nations mandate about Torture, and Shirley Temple Black was one of the signatories, which said Torture was not permissible under any circumstances.

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It started out truly messed up.

I had volunteered to be a live kidney donor for a friend in California. After months of tests on her and bureaucratic bull-poopoo on my end, lots of waiting and sweating, the hospital said that I was not acceptable as a donor, for a health problem I consider to be no more than a nuisance.

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We will all miss Elizabeth. Despite the press, the city government , and The Gazette all dragging her name through the mud last year, me and my family will miss Elizabeth because she was a loving person who gave a lot of herself for, and to, others. This was the real Elizabeth, and not the fake ‘antiwar dissident’ that the killers amongst us wanted to be portrayed to the public.
 
The sad truth about Elizabeth’s last days amongst us, was that she ran a foul of our pathetic US Medical System, which quite frankly killed her with its negligent and defective ‘care’ as it does millions of other older people. Like Elizabeth, these elderly that this business kills, are our friends, neighbors, and family. It makes one weep that we have to endure such a destruction of life and spirit at this sad and reactionary moment in our country’s history.

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Remember that hideous and sick official of the Cheney Adminstration, Donald Duck-The-Truth-About-Iraq Rumsfeld? You know, the guy who reminded one of Dr. StrangeLove and Dr. Moreau both. Where is he? He was one of the principle proponents and architects for the policies of torturing US held POWs and the US government occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Is he hiding from prosecution?

Do you have feelings one way or another about your friends in the media business? It’s easy, I realize, if you’re not particularly activated about the war, to have no opinion about what the media is or is not telling you. It’s easy to remain apolitical if the news you hear doesn’t resonate with any alarm. You ask: “Everyone is against the war, why belabor the point?”

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“While we acknowledge that Judge Walthers’ task may be unprecedented in Texas judicial history, we question whether the current proceedings adequately protect the fundamental rights of the mothers and children of the FLDS,” said Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, in a statement.

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Sometimes the only thing standing between me and complete despondency is the mountain.
 
My fellow bloggers have endless energy to tackle important issues — homelessness, hunger, war, politics, environment, media, government, healthcare, torture, death. The list is depressing and endless. I admire them, but I am not made of steel like they are. I am more a fragile flower and, when buried under humanity’s toxic waste and cut off from nature’s largesse, I wither very quickly.

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COLORADO SPRINGS- I attended a County Commission meeting Thursday morning and caught such a whiff of bureaucratic decay that I don’t have any faith that our local government works at all.

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A memorial will be held for Wilma Joanne “Elizabeth” Fineron at Benet Hill Chapel, 2pm Monday April 28.
 
Steve Handon will officiate the ceremony. The music will be performed by First Strike Theater alumni. Benet Hill Monastery is at 2577 Chelton Rd. The chapel is located behind the school.
 
The Gazette wrote that Elizabeth walked her talk, the Indy featured a similar tribute. CSAction reprinted an email Elizabeth sent about her hospital ordeal.
 
Below we’ve collected some pictures of Elizabeth.

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It’s hard being a puppet for foreign imperialists. Hamid Karzai almost paid for his crimes with his life Saturday, though the real target of this assassination attempt was the American occupation of Afghanistan. Afghan president survives assassination bid

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John McCain isn’t just a maverick TM, he’s that unfavored horse in the Kentucky Derby!

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SIERRA MADRE, CALIFORNIA- My sister Lisa was evacuated last night from her home at the edge of the brush near Pasadena as a wildfire works its way down the canyon. You can check the latest status at the City’s website, and there’s a blogger undertaking communications at Penitent Rambling.

If Al Sharpton has his way, it’s the end of Obama.
 
The policemen in New York City were let off for pumping fifty bullets into an unarmed black man, a young bridegroom on the eve of his wedding. Racism is alive and well at the NYPD, and an angry protest by Americans of Color, calling for recognition of racism and reform of the New York police department, will amplify the issue further.

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COLORADO SPRINGS- I watched yesterday as a group of homeless men disbanded beneath an underpass. I remarked how their yet unbent frames and close-shaved heads made them appear more menacing than usual. Then I noticed one had a graphite prosthetic calf, and I thought about our vets who disappear themselves into being vagabonds. Homelessness is elective you could say, like despondency or suicide. If one in four of America’s homeless are veterans, why not tell us what that fraction amounts to? They must know.

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A certain ChickenHawk has now called for violence BY Americans AGAINST Americans to promote his own perverted political agenda. Speaking of Rush Limp-dog of course.

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He was dressed like Hunter S. Thompson… even had the silly cigarette holder (unlighted ciggie, of course, he was on a public bus, remember)
 
Usually the Iraq vets I meet on the bus and can immediately tell are vets are the ones with the Walter Reed hardware attached to what’s left of their limbs.

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In the early part of the 20th century, Argentina and Chile were engaged in an ongoing border dispute. Inspired by Pope Leo XIII’s calls for worldwide peace and harmony, the Bishop of Cuyo commissioned a statue of Christ the Redeemer to remind believers of Christ’s message of peace. As the countries drew closer to armed conflict, plans were made to ship the statue from Buenos Aires to the Andes as a symbol of peace between the two nations.

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