MIB-BLOG
and rants
chaper two - 2005

<sup>"It makes me think of what my friend Reverend Goat just told me, 'Let me say this before it goes any further, New Orleans didn't die of natural causes, she was murdered.'" --Dr John.

Fire and Arrest Chertoff NOW!
MASS MURDER IN NEW ORLEANS AND JEFFERSON
file charges and start impeachment NOW!
Call for the Resignation of George Bush
Impeach Bush Now, Before More Die

"Hate your next door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace." - Barry McGuire, Eve of Destruction, 1965

"Goverment is the entertainment division of the Military Industrial Complex." - Frank Zappa

"The Christian Right are Neither" - bumper sticker seen in S.F.

"The system must crash, and the comfort level diminished, before justice will ever be done. The good news is that's what's happening. That's also the bad news."-- Jeff Wells

'To be paranoid means to believe in delusions of danger and persecution. If the danger is real, and the evidence credible, then it cannot be delusional. To ignore the evidence, and hope that it CANNOT be true, is more an evidence of mental illness."

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/10/18/tularemia/index_np.html
Biological alarm in Washington
Did terrorists attack Washington with a deadly pathogen?
By Mark Benjamin
Oct. 18, 2005
On Sept. 24, 2005, tens of thousands of protesters marched past the White House and flooded the National Mall near 17th Street and Constitution Avenue. They had arrived from all over the country for a day of speeches and concerts to protest the war in Iraq. It may have been the biggest antiwar rally since Vietnam. A light rain fell early in the day and most of the afternoon was cool and overcast.
Unknown to the crowd, biological-weapons sensors, scattered for miles across Washington by the Department of Homeland Security, were quietly doing their work. The machines are designed to detect killer pathogens. Sometime between 10 a.m. on Sept. 24 and 10 a.m. on Sept. 25, six of those machines sucked in trace amounts of deadly bacteria called Francisella tularensis. The government fears it is one of six biological weapons most likely to be used against the United States.
It was an alarming reading. The biological-weapons detection system in Washington had never set off any alarms before. There are more than 150 sensors spread across 30 of the most populated cities in America. But this was the first time that six sensors in any one place had detected a toxin at the same time. The sensors are also located miles from one another, suggesting that the pathogen was airborne and probably not limited to a local environmental source.
William Stanhope, associate director for special projects at the St. Louis University School of Public Health's Institute for Biosecurity, has been closely following scattered government and news reports about the incident. He's convinced it was a botched terrorist attack. "I think we were lucky and the terrorists were not good," he says. "I am stunned that this has not been more of a story."
The DHS scrambled for three days to confirm just what may have been in the air that day. On Sept. 27, it turned for help to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC did its own tests, and on Sept. 30 -- six days after the deadly pathogens set off the sensors and well into the incubation period for tularemia -- alerted public health officials across the country to be on the lookout for tularemia, the deadly disease caused by F. tularensis.
"It is alarming that health officials ... were only notified six days after the bacteria was first detected," House Government Reform chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., wrote in an Oct. 3 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "Have DHS and CDC analysts been able to determine if the pathogen detected was naturally occurring or the result of a terrorist attack?"
Government officials say the sensors detected a natural event. "There is no known nexus to terror or criminal behavior," Russ Knocke, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, told the Washington Post. "We believe this to be environmental." "It is not unreasonable that this is a natural occurrence," says Von Roebuck, spokesman for the CDC. "There are still no cases of tularemia."
However, Salon has spoken to numerous people who were at the Washington Mall on Sept. 24. Four say they got sick days later with symptoms that mirror tularemia.
Relatively speaking, F. tularensis is an effective biological weapon. A little bit goes a long, deadly way. A tiny amount -- 10 microscopic organisms -- can cause tularemia. After an incubation period of three to five days (it can range from one to 14 days), tularemia attacks the lymph nodes, lungs, spleen, liver and kidneys. Symptoms include fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, joint pain, dry cough and progressive weakness. Left untreated, tularemia can kill 50 percent of those who've contracted it. Conventional strains of the bacteria do respond to antibiotics, reducing death rates to as low as 2 percent.
As with anthrax, the U.S. military weaponized and stockpiled F. tularensis in the 1960s. The Soviets are said to have engineered strains to be resistant to antibiotics and vaccines. A World Health Organization Committee in 1969 estimated that dispersal of 110 pounds of F. tularensis over a city of 5 million would incapacitate 250,000 people and 19,000 of them would die.
"The biggest concern is that a terrorist would use the organism because it has such a high infectivity rate with a low number of organisms," says Dr. Steven Hinrichs, director of the University of Nebraska Center for Biosecurity.
Scientists have long said that if terrorists use tularemia in an attack, it will look like this: The bacteria will show up in the air in a city, rather than the country, and perhaps at a major event.
"If Francisella tularensis were used as a bioweapon, the bacteria would likely be made airborne so they could be inhaled," the CDC warns in an information sheet on tularemia. In a June 2001 consensus statement titled "Tularemia as a Biological Weapon," the American Medical Association warned an attack would come in "an aerosol release" in "a densely populated area."
There is no evidence that terrorists have ever used tularemia as a biological weapon before, but it may have been used by the Soviets against German troops during the 1942 Battle of Stalingrad, according to a report by the Council on Foreign Relations. The report adds that microbe stocks in Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Uzbekistan are insecure and terrorists could potentially steal weaponized strains of tularemia from them.
So far, there are no signs of a tularemia outbreak in the U.S. But because it comes on like the flu, it is unclear if the government would even know if a few people from the Mall that day scattered across the United States had tularemia. The amount detected in the sensors suggests a very small amount was in the air.
"Clinicians don't often think of it, and it has a non-specific presentation," says Jeff Bender, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota. "It is basically flu-like symptoms that sound like every other disease you can get."
Like anthrax, F. tularensis is a naturally occurring bacteria. It is typically found in small mammals like squirrels, water rats and rabbits, which is why tularemia has also been called rabbit fever. Those critters get it mostly from bites by ticks, flies and mosquitoes. People have contracted tularemia from insect bites or from handling or eating infected material or skinning dead animals. F. tularensis is a concern mostly in central and Western states, particularly Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Montana. Nearly all cases occur in rural areas, according to the CDC. Around 125 people in the United States get tularemia each year. Most cases in the United States appear to have come from insect bites or handling animals.
Although insects mostly transmit the disease, there have been cases where the bacteria appears to have become aerosolized in the natural environment. Bacteria from a dead animal could contaminate some soil. In the right conditions, the bacteria might stay viable in the environment for weeks. The soil might then get stirred up and cause the bacteria to be airborne. Fifteen cases of tularemia were reported in Martha's Vineyard in 2000, apparently after lawn mowers or brush cutters stirred up contaminated material into the air. One person died. Public officials have theorized something similar happened in Washington: The bacteria got into the soil on the mall and it was the marchers themselves who kicked it up into the air.
It is unclear if such a scenario explains what happened on Sept. 24. "The fact that it happened in six locations would have supported an attack scenario," says Hinrichs from the University of Nebraska Center for Biosecurity. Hinrichs has not seen any test results proving that what was in the air that day was a deadly pathogen. Still, he says that government officials would have to consider the incident as more than a natural event. "To have found it in all six would have raised their level of suspicion," says Hinrichs. "It could be a failed attack."
The sensors that picked up on the pathogen are part of the Department of Homeland Security's Bio Watch program. Since Sept. 11, sensors have been placed in 30 of the most populated cities in the United States. Most cities have roughly 12 sensors, although Washington is thought to have more.
The exact locations of the sensors are a secret. Some are piggybacked onto existing air monitoring stations, used by the EPA to measure pollution. The sensors look for signs of the six pathogens scientists consider most likely to be used as biological weapons by terrorists, including F. tularensis. (Other pathogens include anthrax, smallpox and plague.)
Sept. 24 was not the first time the Bio Watch sensors had detected possible biological weapons pathogens. Since the system was deployed, sensors around the United States have identified pathogens that could be used as biological weapons on five separate occasions, Jeffrey Stiefel, program manager for Bio Watch chemical countermeasures, said at an open lecture at the National Institutes of Health on Oct. 6. In all of those cases, the detections were apparently the result of natural phenomena. Indeed, some critics have long worried that one weakness of the Bio Watch program might be the difficulty of distinguishing between natural events and terrorism.
In 2003, two Bio Watch sensors detected F. tularensis near Houston in what the government later determined was a natural event, though the environmental source was never identified. But this was the first time anything popped up in Washington. "This is the first time we have had a situation there that I am aware of," says the CDC's Roebuck. It is also the first time six sensors simultaneously picked up on the same thing. "It has never happened that way before -- that many," Stiefel of the DHS said in his lecture.
Just after the antiwar rally, DHS officials faced a perplexing situation. While the six sensors detected something, at first it was not clear what it was.
Filters are removed from the sensors usually every 24 hours. A laboratory then performs a preliminary test to look for signs of a deadly pathogen. Six filters from the Mall showed the existence of a possible pathogen during that first round of tests.
A second round of tests could confirm the presence of F. tularensis using polymerase chain reaction techniques, which detect DNA signatures. The second round of tests was conducted sometime between Sept. 25 and Sept. 27. But in the second round of tests, none of the samples from the filters was a full DNA confirmation that what was floating around Washington that day was definitely F. tularensis. But it looked like it could be.
"The collectors were concentrated along the Mall," Stiefel said in his lecture. "That starts to say, 'Something looks a little funny here. The bottom line here is that there is something out there."
This posed a quandary for department officials. Under the Bio Watch program, substances detected that are not confirmed positive pathogens can be ignored. But six sensors had detected the same thing in Washington during the biggest peace march in a generation. And Washington, D.C., is not exactly tularemia country.
There was another troubling thing. One of the sensors that went off was located at the Lincoln Memorial on the far western end of the Mall. Another was located near Judiciary Square, roughly two miles to the east and two blocks north of the Mall. A third was at the Army's Fort McNair, more than two miles from the Lincoln Memorial down the Potomac River past the Mall, on the point of land where the Washington Channel and Anacostia River meet. The locations of the other three sensors have not been disclosed.
This makes a natural event on Sept. 24 more difficult to imagine. Under the government's scenario, soil on or near the Mall somehow became contaminated with the bacteria, perhaps from the body or blood of a dead or injured small rabbit or squirrel. That soil then got stirred up -- possibly by the marchers themselves -- and floated across the Mall and beyond. Marchers and book festival attendees contacted by Salon say it was dusty on the Mall in the morning. But it rained early that day and stayed moist, making the dust theory perhaps less likely, at least after that rain.
"One sensor, I'd say maybe," says biosecurity expert Stanhope of the dust theory. "Two sensors is a stretch. Six sensors? I'm sorry, you don't have enough money to buy enough martinis to make me believe that it is naturally occurring at six different sites. I don't think you could get me that drunk to believe that."
As for how the bacteria may have erupted through natural processes, says Hinrichs of the University of Nebraska Center, "I can't imagine how it could have happened." Asked if he could imagine a scenario whereby F. tularensis could float around the Mall in the dust, Bender, an infectious disease epidemiologist, says, "Theoretically, it is possible." Asked if it could have been an attack, he says, "The question you are asking, 'Was this real or not?' That is a very valid question."
Another possibility is that somebody was testing U.S. biological weapons defenses. How sensitive are the sensors? How quickly and effectively can the government react?
"The Department of Homeland Security would have to consider the possibility that it was neither natural nor an attack, but that it was a testing of the system," says Alan Pearson, a former DHS official, who is now the biological and chemical weapons director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, a nonpartisan organization. "Was somebody trying to see what would happen?"
Regardless of the source, Pearson says, he was troubled that it took the government nearly a week to alert the public. "It points out that the system is still not working fast enough," he says. "If it turned out to be something that really affected people, which it turned out not to be, the system was too slow."
The federal government says that the most compelling argument against a terrorist attack is that nobody got tularemia. That may be true. But some people say they caught something that day.
Mike Phelps, 45, says he attended the rally in Washington that day, traveling round trip by bus from Raleigh, N.C. On Sept. 27, he came down with a fever, sore throat and headache. Within days, he was coughing up dark phlegm. When he blew his nose, it would bleed. "It was gross," he says. "I literally vomited out cup loads of phlegm. Most of it was dark-colored. I've never had anything like this before."
Phelps' doctor said he had pneumonia and prescribed antibiotics. A few days later, Phelps read about the tularemia scare and called his doctor. His doctor told him that if it was tularemia, he would have prescribed him the same antibiotics. Phelps says he called the CDC but was transferred to an automated system. Frustrated, he hung up.
Several members of the women's peace group, Code Pink, also from North Carolina, who attended the march, say they got sick afterward. Stephanie Eriksen, a 46-year-old network engineer for AT&T, says she developed swollen glands and cold symptoms in her throat and chest. She developed a persistent cough that still lingers. "My throat has still not recovered completely," she says. Eriksen says her 14-year- old daughter marched in Washington and got sick. She was tested for strep throat. Eriksen said the results were negative.
Aimee Schmidt, a Code Pink member and student at North Carolina State, says that she developed flu-like symptoms and a raging headache that lasted three days after the march. She says her eyes hurt and her whole body ached. She never went to the doctor. "I made a choice, wise or not, to just deal with it," she says.
Of course, there are countless benign explanations for these symptoms. And it could be true that nobody got sick from F. tularensis on Sept. 24. But bioterror experts say that doesn't prove it wasn't a terrorist attack. The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, they point out, made several unsuccessful biological weapons attacks before the sarin attack in the Tokyo subway system on March 20, 1995. Previous efforts by the cult to release a botulin toxin from a vehicle in 1990, and anthrax spores from a building in 1993, apparently failed to sicken or kill anyone because of faulty dispersal methods.
Terrorists may have made a similar screw-up in Washington on Sept. 24. "One of my working hypotheses is that there was an attack and they failed in their dispersion system," says Stanhope. "They dispersed an incredibly low concentration."
Government assurances that there is "nothing to see here" are reminiscent of the federal government's initial response to the infamous anthrax attacks in fall of 2001. In an Oct. 4, 2001, press conference, then-Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson emphasized that anthrax occurs naturally in the environment and that "there's no evidence of terrorism."
"I want everyone to understand that sporadic cases of anthrax do [naturally] occur in the United States," Thompson said. Thompson said the first victim to fall ill, a Florida man, was an "outdoorsman" and that investigators were looking into a stream he may have drank from in North Carolina. That man, Bob Stevens, 63, died the next day from inhaling weaponized anthrax that was apparently sent to the offices of American Media Inc. in Boca Raton, Fla.
Soon after, anthrax was sent to the office of Sen. Tom Daschle, D- S.D. Government officials claimed it was a "common variety" and not the weaponized agent most feared. Of course, further investigation proved otherwise.
Currently, the investigation into what happened on Sept. 24 is ongoing. Government officials have apparently been taking soil samples around the Mall, attempting to pinpoint a natural source for F. tularensis. In the meantime, on Oct. 5, the National Institutes of Health announced it would award two contracts worth a total of $60 million to develop new tularemia vaccine candidates. The announcement said nothing of the events 11 days earlier.
Currently, the investigation into what happened on Sept. 24 is ongoing. Government officials have apparently been taking soil samples around the Mall, attempting to pinpoint a natural source for F. tularensis. In the meantime, on Oct. 5, the National Institutes of Health announced it would award two contracts worth a total of $60 million to develop new tularemia vaccine candidates. The announcement said nothing of the events 11 days earlier.

We're OK
Special K.
Sept. 2, 2005
Survived the storm OK, very minor damage where we are but my brother is missing. All the rest of our family is allright. Hammond was not hit that bad compared to New Orleans, fallen trees etc, some siding on my house small piece. We really were safe there it is not the same as being in New Orleans believe me. Power was restored in town and I a m hopeful they get it to my house soon.
The federal government is lying about aiding us the local officials are furious there is not Red Cross , or army , or anything federal in Orleans, Jefferson, or st. Bernard YET!!!!
People are dying while Bush grandstands on TV, but the Parish president who we know personally said on WWL Radio today he has been begging for three days for food, water, transportation, military support and has gotten NOTHING from US government.
Don't believe the lies they are telling on TV. And never vote Republican again!
Please forward to anyone you know who knows me. We are going down there tomorrow to try to help at Ochsner Hospital.
Thanks,
Kevin

New Post Re: LSU hurricane expert on CNN estimate 100,000 drowned Watching the same reports.
Sept. 1, 2005
Posted by Sweejak
This guy Cafferty asked for feedback on the question: what to do with looters. I wrote in and asked why CNN was so obsessed with looting from businesses that had been totally destroyed...especially since a lot of that looting is of food, clothing and other necessities.
I also said "please put people ahead of property." Meserve used that exact phrase about 10 minutes later. Maybe a fluke since she obviously couldn't have read that email directly and I admit it wasn't the most original alliteration.
I also asked if psyops was still working at CNN, given how they keep hitting this looting theme over and over again. Naturally, I figured my email would not get read.
Here's the worst part: there's still NO ONE dropping drinking water into these areas. Right now FOX NEWS...that's right FOX, has been on the air (their main anchor...good looking but kinda creepy guy...don't know his name) PLEADING with the police, come to exit 235 on hwy 10. There are thousands who don't know where to go. He shot down a level below to a woman with a child who looked just about dead from heat exhaustion and dehydration. He talked directly to someone from the state police and PLEADED with her to send someone down. She simply did not even acknowledge his plea...just said "we're busing people out." Wouldn't tell him where people were to go. Unbelievable.
So FOX is not obsessing about looting, which is a natural, predictable, and absent violence COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT PART OF THE DISASTER, while CNN continues to harp on it. One reporter even said "looters are causing 'chaos'." No, that would be HURRICANE KATRINA.
I actually asked this Cafferty dude what they were doing with this looting obsession...trying to justify shoot to kill curfews? trying to downplay the humanity of those left behind? I don't know. It looks like they are backing off that a bit as I think Cafferty's emails went against their theme. He did read one where a viewer said "turn Superdome into a jail." Unbelievable.
Starman
Unregistered User
(8/31/05 3:41 pm)
Reply New Post computer-model estimate Thanks for the link -- Among the comments, re: the immaculate idiocy of the World's Worst Reporter, Blitzer
-- what a fucking pathetic excuse for a 'news' reporter -- he didn't ask for a clarification. I take it it was an estimate for those actoss the whole affected area of flooding and storm-surge destruction -- utterly appalling. God I hope it isn't true, but realistically, it might be higher, especially with consequences in the days to weeks to come with spread of disease.
Catch the bit where CNNs Blitzer was talking with a policeman who reported the downtown Bourbon and Canal clothing-store fire, Blizer was asking questions that he knew more about because Blitzer was in much-better news-communication, such as re: the levee situation. The policeman didn't even have radio-contact with his dept! I mean, how stupid is THAT? I almost think FEMA should commandeer news-resources and use them to coordinate communication. I mean, don't the police have independant-powered radios?
Blitzer seems to want to push the 'looting' situation, when the far more immediate problem, as everyone gently tries to remind him, is the human safety issue with needs and disease. What a fuckin' idiot.
I began thinking yesterday that much of the damaged region is reminescent of bombed-Iraq, with people -- perhaps a couple million or more -- living without running water and electricity and fuel and fresh-food. The 'Gulf war' vs the 'Gulf storm' -- do you think perhaps SOME people might reflect on the hardship US policies have caused the people in Iraq, now that they're facing some similiar issues re: repair of horribly-damaged critical infrastructure -- although without the added chaos of terrorism and a shooting-war? Innocents all, who do the most suffering.
Terrible.
Starman
seemslikeadream
Registered Member
Posts: 497
(8/31/05 3:59 pm)
Reply New Post Re: 10,000 additional National Guard to augment security not relief!
Reply New Post Re:Our Nation Is In Great Danger from CrackpotAmerica
Our Nation Is In Great Danger
In the wake of this disaster, we are all bearing witness to the competence of our nation’s institutional response. I am afraid that this response is less helpful than it is indicative of the gross incompetence and arrogance of our President’s agenda. Further, those private institutions that have received great benefit over the past six years are serving to remove their facade of charity and compassion by their meager offerings to this devastated landscape.
The immense consequence of the President’s quest to cut funding to FEMA coupled with his complete disregard for any tangible plan for emergency preparedness will now be experienced by our entire nation. Yet, there is no mention of it thus far in the mainstream.
The President in his great narcissism has not walked a single yard of this broken soil since the storm has passed. As people scrambled upward in their homes to save their very lives, the President opted to enjoy a sliver of sweetly frosted cake on a sunny tarmac and attend a town hall meeting to discuss matters of no relevance to the immediate crisis.
While the Coast Guard worked to chop holes out of roofs to save men and women in their potential last moments, the President opted to commemorate Japan’s surrender, strumming a guitar with a boyish posture.
His only attempt to console a wounded region was to credit himself for offering federal relief and a few drops of oil, which would have been released had he drowned in an attic himself.
His benefactors, the huge companies that have been granted billions of dollars in tax relief, have begun responding to this tragedy by offering the equivalent of pocket lint to the effort. It seems that billions upon billions of dollars in annual revenue only merit an average of $1 million in relief from companies such as Wal-Mart, GM, and various oil companies, a stark reflection of the horrid decadence of all who have benefited from the President and his contempt for the citizens of this nation.
Many of our representatives will hold their tongues about the deplorable state of our nation as a result of the incompetence, distain, and complete separation from reality the President and his constituency has shown. However, I have great hope that at the very least, the greater nation and in its vast diversity will at last face the reality of what this despicable administration has done to us all.
It is difficult for the typical American to imagine that our nation can be so devastated that things such as revolt, violence and even revolution could reach their doorstep. I believe that a huge component of our national culture is a certain sense of insulation from the horrific chaos we witness around the globe and in the third world. But here we are, on the brink.
Be warned.
Be warned that the immediate future for all of us will be difficult. Be warned that the system of control established by the President will be thrust upon us with great intensity; not for the purpose of stabilizing the unrest of our nation; but for the sake of maintaining the fruits of his sinister actions thus far.
It will not be discussed over the next few weeks, but a national crisis is coming. As a direct result of the actions of the great narcissist, we will all be subjected to the ramifications in his place.
There will be national fuel shortages. There will be acts of violence and desperation as the availability of certain “luxuries” is taken away from us. There will be martial law. There will be Martial law for no legitimate reason other than keeping the voice of America silent. There will be massive layoffs.
There will be hopelessness.
The President does not have the integrity to persuade the American people to make personal sacrifices to serve the greater good. His constituents know this. And so, he will try to control all of us from above, choosing who must sacrifice and who may not. Although he has no voice, he has power and will use it covertly to suit his whims.
If there was ever a time for us to get up and fight to save our nation, that time is now.
First, I urge all of you to look around your homes and scrounge up any amount of loose money, clothing, and essentials and donate them. Go to your local Red Cross or the Salvation Army with your offerings. While you are there, please give blood if you have the ability. Do whatever you can to help. Every penny, every blanket, every spare room that can hold someone counts. I am not wealthy either, but I am going to do what I can.
Secondly, as the situation improves for the people of the south, please do whatever you can to send the message to your government that you demand the removal of this President and his administration. It is time that he suffers an inkling of the consequence for his arrogance.
I fear that if he remains in office, our nation will not have the opportunity to heal itself in our lifetime, if ever. Whatever you feel about these words, please do not ignore the logical conclusions we can draw from this cancer on our nation. For, we are beginning to witness them at this very moment.

Can’t Happen Here
Aug. 31, 2005
I thought Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here and Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale are the works of fiction envisioning the dystopian American society in a militant-fascist regime, but these novels have the self-fulfilling prophecy of George Orwell’s iconic masterwork 1984 [“Iraq in Utah,” Aug. 25, City Weekly].
The heavy-handed and brutish military-style raid in the name of drug prevention is the epitome of de facto fascismo. The suppression of a legitimate (one that tries hard to stay legal under a stringent circumstance) rave with vicious force would make Benito Mussolini fill himself with fascistically macho pride from beyond the grave.
Media who generously give a blowjob to the esteemed machismo of the Utah County Sheriff’s Office is a fine example of demonstrating the characteristic tenet of fascism in suppressing out of fear, ignorance and morally panicked belligerency with the propagandistic arm of the corporate-controlled mainstream media to cheering approval of uptight soccer mothers and militant arm-chair Daddy Warhawks.
The Utah County Sheriff’s press releases may gush praise and fabricate lies justifying the raid, but such egotistical, self-congratulatory abuse of power and deception by “public servants you can trust” become obvious when countered by the witnesses’ shocking Internet posts that report brutal tactics of the officers against harmless attendees and damning video evidence. This is Footloose deja vu, only absurdly totalitarian in reality.
The Diamond Park incident is a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money. The sheer, albeit unjustified, brutality of the raid perpetuated against the attendees on the private property in disregard of documented legal permits leave the unmistakable impression that Utah law enforcement dumped a large steaming plop of crap on the Bill of Rights.
Utah County law enforcement who engaged in the vigorous assault on the Constitution at the rave would be at home in alliance with Il Duce’s Blackshirt posse in 1920s Italy.
Aaron Heineman
Mesa, Ariz.

The Most Amazing Experience of My Life
posted via Sweejak
Report from a forum friend who just returned from Camp Casey.
August 15, 2005
I just returned home from a weekend at Camp Casey. I am so overwhelmed with emotion that I don't know what to say. I slept there two nights and was able to be actively involved with the camp.
The high point of the weekend was the moment that a caravan of cars began making their way along the winding road leading to Camp Casey after the Peace Rally on Saturday afternoon, held in Crawford. I was standing on the road side, waving a huge flag with a peace symbol on it, waiting to welcome the new arrivals at the camp. As the first car reached the camp, I looked back up the hill, and as far as I could see, the cars were lined up, bumper to bumper, making their way to the place Cindy Sheehan has taken her stand for peace and truth. All of us who had stayed at the camp to assist with the coordination of this influx of people were not expecting this. I don't know what we expected, but it wasn't 500 cars lined up, inching their way up the road to Camp Casey, cars as far as we could see, for nearly an hour. Every time I looked down that road and saw all the cars, tears would stream down my face and I could barely choke out the words, "Welcome to Camp Casey, we are so glad you're here!"
Cindy Sheehan is an amazing woman. She speaks from the heart and she speaks the truth. She has started something here. She has reminded the people of this country that WE have the power.
There is so much more I want to share with you all. Pictures, stories, memories. I met so many wonderful people. I need to upload my pics and take a shower - it was truly "roughing it" to stay at the camp! I've hardly slept since Friday. But I'll leave you with the words Cindy and I exchanged Friday evening, when I met her at the Peace House in Crawford.
I introduced myself to Cindy and said, "I have a son who just turned 15 this week. I don't...." and I couldn't finish the sentence because I was holding back my tears. So, Cindy finished it for me, "I don't want your son to have to die in a war either." I nodded and replied, "I'm so sorry this happened. I tried so hard before the war began, I did everything I could to protest, trying to prevent it." Cindy stood up off the couch where she was sitting and hugged me and said, "Thank you. Thank you for trying to save my son's life. And I will do everything I can to save your son's life. We have to stop this war."

Cindy Sheehan - nobody's fool
posted via Sweejak
August 13, 2005



I just got back, decided not to stay the night, I still have a job and needed to get back although as the sun was going down I started to regret it and am now thinking of the weekend.
Driving in I got the creepy feeling that I was approaching a sort Neo Mordor illuminated with Kleig lights. The rains had lifted and the sun started baking turning the air into a hot mist.
Cindy Sheehan appears to be nobody's fool, I watched her do an interview and she fielded tricky MSM questions flawlessly. I saw no, nada, handlers or advisors hanging around. She is not going to be easy to smear, they will have to take her out of context (Drudge) or use other trickery.
Lots of lefties, lots of independents, vets, Code Pink, media from all over. Some arrived who heard about it while travelling decided to change course and head to Crawford. Continual flow of people arriving and leaving so it was hard to get a count. At any one time there were probably 200 out on the roadside and maybe another 70 or so at the Crawford Peace House in town. Truthout says that the official count was 705 not including media. This is out in the middle of nowhere on the side of a country road, not an ideal place for any gathering.
The police presence was at a minimum and they were not threatening in the least. If I can judge by the stories of the previous few days the police have decided to let this thing ride for now. The mood was energized and friendly with clusters of people involved in discussion. The most interesting to me was a woman, a wife of a Baptist minister, who pulled along side the cross planters and decided to engage in a debate. I left when the conversation turned to SUV's. In ranching country people actually use SUV's. Anyway, after planting crosses the debate was still ongoing with utterly frustrated protesters... it's the cognitive dissonance! Towards the end they had decided that they would get some guitars and seranade the minister's wife with Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth". All was not lost as the debate got cast into a different direction by talking about what we can agree on which happened to be quite a lot. I could go on about this because it was an unexpected turn and it adresses one of my favorite memes, but in the end she agreed to go to a 'teach in" or something like it and traded cell phone numbers with an activist from the evil city of LA. Did we break a Baptist?
A thousand crosses were planted ( with rubber mallets for pity's sake) along the road to W.
Oh, and the fire ants? As overblown as any other terror alert.... and call me a dreamer but Cindy Sheehan is a hero.
Most interesting day, a few pics not very good ones but I did shoot some good video I think:

"Top 10 hatemongers" list in a "nondiscriminatory way"
forwarded from Sweejak
July 29, 2005

Oh gee, Freakman finally, well he just freaks (again) and who does he go after AIR AMERICA. LOL I guess that leaves me ok. Meanwhile, back to undermining the war.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has urged the U.S. government to create blacklists of condemned political speech--not only by those who advocate violence, but also by those who believe that U.S. government actions may encourage violent reprisals. The latter group, which Friedman called "just one notch less despicable than the terrorists," includes a majority of Americans, according to recent polls.
Friedman's July 22 column proposed that the State Department, in order to "shine a spotlight on hate speech wherever it appears," create a quarterly "War of Ideas Report, which would focus on those religious leaders and writers who are inciting violence against others." But Friedman said the governmental speech monitoring should go beyond those who actually advocate violence, and also include what former State Department spokesperson Jamie Rubin calls "excuse makers." Friedman wrote:
"After every major terrorist incident, the excuse makers come out to tell us why imperialism, Zionism, colonialism or Iraq explains why the terrorists acted. These excuse makers are just one notch less despicable than the terrorists and also deserve to be exposed. When you live in an open society like London, where anyone with a grievance can publish an article, run for office or start a political movement, the notion that blowing up a busload of innocent civilians in response to Iraq is somehow 'understandable' is outrageous. 'It erases the distinction between legitimate dissent and terrorism,' Mr. Rubin said, 'and an open society needs to maintain a clear wall between them.'"
The "despicable" idea that there may be a connection between acts of terrorism and particular policies by Western countries is one that is widely held by the citizens of those countries. Asked by the CNN/ Gallup poll on July 7, "Do you think the terrorists attacked London today mostly because Great Britain supports the United States in the war in Iraq?" 56 percent of Americans agreed. In a CNN/USA Today/ Gallup poll (7/7-10/05), 54 percent said "the war with Iraq has made the U.S....less safe from terrorism." Since they see a connection between Iraq and terrorism, a majority of Americans are what Friedman calls "excuse makers" who "deserve to be exposed."
Friedman's column urged the government to create quarterly lists of "hatemongers" and "excuse makers"--as well as "truth tellers," Muslims who agree with Friedman's critique of Islam. Friedman's proposed list of "excuse makers" would have to include his New York Times colleague Bob Herbert, who wrote in his July 25 column, "There is still no indication that the Bush administration recognizes the utter folly of its war in Iraq, which has been like a constant spray of gasoline on the fire of global terrorism."
Leading members of the U.S. intelligence community might also find themselves on such a blacklist, based on a report summarized earlier this year in the Washington Post (1/14/05):
"Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of 'professionalized' terrorists, according to a report released yesterday by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director's think tank.... According to the NIC report, Iraq has joined the list of conflicts--including the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate, and independence movements in Chechnya, Kashmir, Mindanao in the Philippines, and southern Thailand--that have deepened solidarity among Muslims and helped spread radical Islamic ideology."
Though Friedman calls on the State Department to compile the "Top 10 hatemongers" list in a "nondiscriminatory way," it's doubtful that such a list would, in fact, even-handedly include all advocates of violence. It would not be likely, for example, to include someone like Thomas Friedman, who during the Kosovo War (4/6/99) called on the Clinton administration to "give war a chance," writing, "Let's see what 12 weeks of less than surgical bombing does." In a follow-up column (4/23/99) he declared that "! Like it or not, we are at war with the Serbian nation," and insisted that "every power grid, water pipe, bridge, road and war-related factory has to be targeted." Despite the fact that by calling for attacks on civilian targets he was advocating war crimes, Friedman should have no fear that he'll find himself on a State Department list of "hatemongers."
Friedman's suggestion that those who seek to understand or explain political violence are not part of "legitimate dissent" comes at a time when calls for censorship are becoming more and more blatant. Bill O'Reilly (Radio Factor, 6/20/05, cited by Media Matters, 6/22/05) made a chilling call for the criminalization war opponents:
"You must know the difference between dissent from the Iraq War and the war on terror and undermining it. And any American that undermines that war, with our soldiers in the field, or undermines the war ! on terror, with 3,000 dead on 9/11, is a traitor. Everybody got it? Dissent, fine; undermining, you're a traitor. Got it? So, all those clowns over at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains, because they, you know, they're undermining everything and they don't care, couldn't care less."
The call for the arrests of Air America Radio hosts was said as though it were a joke, though O'Reilly is deadly serious when he says that the commentators on that network are "undermining" the war--and that such "undermining" is treason.
O'Reilly more recently (7/25/05) went after Herbert's column that argued that the Iraq War fueled terrorism: "Bob Herbert is most likely helping the terrorists, but his hatred of Mr. Bush blinds him to that. He's not alone, but this kind of stuff has got to stop. We're now fighting for our lives. And those helping the enemy will be brought to your attention."
"Attention," rather than arrests, is all that Friedman has threatened "excuse makers" like Herbert with. But it's a small step, as O'Reilly's rhetoric demonstrates, between marginalizing critics of U.S. foreign policy as "just one notch less despicable than the terrorists"--and criminalizing criticism itself.
ACTION: Please let Thomas Friedman know that opponents of the Iraq War do not deserve to be on a government blacklist--even if they oppose the war because they believe it encourages terrorism.
CONTACT:
Thomas Friedman
c/o New York Times Editorial Page
editorial@nytimes.com

Doris Colmes: ''Papers, please': I smell the long-forgotten rot of fascism'
Posted on Friday, June 3, 2005
By Doris Colmes
forwarded by Sweejak
Those were the magic words of the time: "Papiere, Bitte." (Translation: "Papers, Please.") Hearing those words, even now, causes dull echoes of sounds akin to bodies hitting dirt, or bullets penetrating flesh to thud into my mind. Because, if those papers weren't correctly in order, or, if you were a Jew sneakily present in any place (including the grocery store) which displayed the usual "NO JEWS OR DOGS ALLOWED" sign, you were dead meat-- literally. And, yes, of course I'm talking about my childhood as a little Jewish kid in Nazi Germany.
No one ever forgets stench. Whether it is a long-forgotten encounter with a ripe skunk, or a ripe egg, or a ripe decomposing body, once one of those odors has been brain-documented, then even the slightest tinge of such an aroma pops back up immediately, along with the circumstances under which it first offended the nostrils.
And, that's what's happening now. I smell the long-forgotten skunk, the long-forgotten rot of fascism. What is happening all around can no longer be denied. What I ran away from so desperately in 1938 is coming back full circle. Only the jack-boots have not yet arrived. America quite literally saved my life. The love and gratitude deep in my heart for this country will never go away. But I'm scared now. Haunted by deep fear for the generations to come, who may wind up as I did -- looking over their shoulders, scurrying for cover, mute with terror. And it hurts.
Think I'm some kinda elderly nut-job neurotically manufacturing dictatorship? Well, let's look at the 82 billion dollar defense bill passed just a few weeks ago, which (with a vote tally of 100 to 0) had the Real ID Act hidden inside it. This law allows a national identification process in which each and every person in the U.S.A. will be on computer.
This ID will be based on driver's license applications, although it isn't just for driving. Just like the infamous "Internal Passport" of Nazi Germany, no one will need it unless needing to fly, cash checks, apply for jobs, walk the streets, enter federal buildings -- or drive. As stated in TIME magazine on May 15, 2005, "If you are a wealthy recluse with liquid assets, it doesn't concern you." Everyone else better watch out! Well, maybe that wealthy recluse had better watch out also. After all, he/she might be of a forbidden religion, or of suspicious racial origin.
Legal "ID Theft" and legal "illegal surveillance?"†[1] The Real ID Act links driver's licenses of all states, creating a data base including the private details of every single U.S. citizen. It mandates that your driver's license share a common machine-readable digital photo of you, all the better to track your every movement. It hands the federal government unfunded mandate power to dictate what data all states must collect for license holders, including everything from fingerprints to retinal scans". And, if you don't drive, you'll still need to submit to the national ID card. How else, after all, will the cop who doesn't like the shape of your face, or the fact that you are (God Forbid) wearing a turban get to arrest you? Yes, "Papiere Bitte" has come home to roost.†
And, folks, that's only the beginning. More technically sophisticated techniques will be implemented as they occur. If the Nazis had had electronic surveillance, phone bugging and all else that the Patriot Act not only condones but advises, there would have been an even tighter grip on the populace.
After all, the Patriot Act is modeled directly after Gestapo methods: Those 3:00 AM home intrusions -- without warrant or reason for arrest -- will get our undesirable "domestic terrorists" straight to the nearest version of Guantanamo with no need for trial. The USA is currently building thirty seven "detention centers" nationwide, and they'll soon be filled with persons who protest too much, or are simply of the wrong nationality. After all, it worked very well in Germany, successfully eliminating Jews, Gypsies, and anyone willing to stand up, and refuse to "Hail Hitler."††
What's next? Well, it's already happening: The Geneva Conventions were initiated after WW II to prevent the insane war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Nazi Germany from ever happening again. Now, with blithe disregard of all of the above, the U.S.A. not only institutes torture (not just physical, but deliberately mental and emotional) on its prisoners, but actually exports these folks to countries in which such torture is governmentally approved. What the U.S. domestic prison system has kept hidden for years, is now right out there for everyone to applaud. How long it will take before the prison guards tie together the legs of a woman in labor and then make bets on how long it will take her to die? After all, that's what guards did for fun in Nazi Germany. Abu Ghraib, anyone?
So, you ask, "If that's all true, why doesn't the media expose it all?" Now, that's such a classic example of Nazi strategy, it's almost funny. The Nazis took over the media, folks. No newspaper published a single sentence without governmental approval, and propaganda was fed to the populace instead of news. Sound familiar? A TIME magazine article, (April, 2005), gave illustrated examples of how the current administration administers this process.
And, last but certainly not least, the Nazis took over the German government in its entirety with one simple maneuver: They simply took over the courts. You know, like it's happening right now, today, even as we speak: Our filibuster was busted, and those neo-con activist judges are a-sittin' on the bench, ready to take over the Supreme Court. Because, once that Supreme Court is co-opted, hey, driver's license ID cards are gonna be the least of our worries. Ask me. I know!
[1] Jim Babka, Canyon Lake Week, Canyon Lake, TX 5-11-2005

S.S. RANT
Feb. 25, 2005
from da Fuse
SOCIAL SECURITY:
(This is worth reading. It is short and to the point.)
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years. Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.
You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan. For all practical purposes their plan works like this:
When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die. Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments. This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries. For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives. Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.
Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA...ZILCH... This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;
"OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"! From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer) we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.
In other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits!
Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made. That change would be to: Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us, then sit back and watch how fast they would fix it!
Keep this going clear up thru the 2008 election!! We need to be heard!

"Garage Sale Ladies"
Feb. 20, 2005
Rev. First Duval
It was on that fateful Saturday about a year ago that it all began. My wife and I were taking our little treasure hunting trips around town early, hitting the good garage sales before they were raped of anything good. My brother and his wife joined this day and we soon found the pickings very interesting.
As we approached our third sale of the day it became clear that the yard was not only filled with used junk, but also a group of middle aged women, good looking ones too. As we walked up a cute brunette in her 30’s stated loud enough for all to hear, "Alright. Alright, that’ll be enough of that kind of talk. OK?" As she said this she was busy gathering up a pile of women’s panties and lingerie and stuffing them back into one of the boxes. Laughter from the women followed.
"Oh don’t worry about us. I promise we won’t be offended," I stated, trying to join in to whatever fun may be going on here.
My bro and I quickly sized up the joint and realized that there wasn’t too much of interest here for us guys, except maybe those attractive strangers in our field of view. We made ourselves comfortable, pretending to test out the for sale bar stools in the yard, one of the few items that wasn’t women’s or children’s clothes. Our wives dug into the piles of clothes and we soaked in the view.
Soon the sexy brunette got it started again. "Do you think I could start a business cleaning gentlemen’s houses wearing just this?" She held up a sexy, see through, lacy piece of lingerie, complete with padded bra inserts and stained crotch.
We all replied, "Hell yeah." The other ladies and us guys encouraged her to go on. We suggested ways she could hustle her future clients out of more money.
"Would you like me to clean up the little mess over here?," she asked while pretending to crawl and cocking her full ass from side to side in her tight jeans. "Should I rub it like this or rub it like that?," she asked while now bouncing and spreading in a stripper like fashion.
More laughter and even applause from her audience.
"I can’t believe I used to fit into all these things," chimed in a cute blonde of about 30. All of the teddys and nighties and panties were size 6, and she looked like a size 9. So she hadn’t packed that much after becoming a mom. She looked tight and fine. This said a few things to us guys there. First off, all this sexy stuff had been hers, of course and she was the type of girl who liked to dress up for extended, nasty sex sessions. What also clicked in my mind was that that was her pussy juice and God knows what else, that visibly stained the crotch of every piece.
"Like I’m gonna wear something like these days?," said one.
"I used to like all that stuff before I got fat."
"I used to like all that stuff before I got old," answered the cute old lady who owned the house. She said her name Kate and was in her late 50’s, her daughters were busy running the lingerie show and the sale of their cast away items.
We all bantered and carried on in a flirting fashion as the brunette displayed different pieces of sexy underwear. We wanted to see her model this stuff and flaunt her stuff on the driveway runway. Yeah, like that was going to really happen, but she did press different ones to her torso, giving an ides of what it would look like on her, all the while turning, dancing and posing.
Soon the floor show was over with the arrival of a few families with all sizes of kids. Just as quick as it had started it was done. Our wives remained buried in the mounds of clothes looking for that special find, seemingly oblivious to the nasty exchange that had just occurred. The families joined our ladies in serious shopping. The conversation got a lot more civilized and it was time for us to go. Before we took off Kate managed to get in that she’d lost her husband 3 years ago and that she gets so lonely here all by herself.
"Shoot, we’ve been having such a good time that we might have to come back by later just to hang out," said myself, trying to leave on a positive note.
"Please do," was Kate’s reply.

"Loss of Hurt"
Rev. First Duval
Jan. 29, 2005
On the heels of a record setting depressed December, which only gave way to a make or break, frantic make up January, which offered little time to hear myself think. The job has had me on the road all over the Nor-Cal and my political obsession with the news only seemed to bring me further down every day. The day gig in a nut shell is thinking and implementing ways of making enemas, and enema like products more desirable. Tracking their sales in the field at the point of sale. It also involves some market brain storming for yet to be released products like a toothpaste delivery system for patients with extreme periodontal disease. In between the traveling and the advertising tracking I tend to relax monitoring the nation news and cultural events. Well ’05 has brought only frustration on the latter’s end. Tokyo Rush, Sean of the S.S. and the Wiener Nation, or as they are better know as the Apparatus of Evil are just as evil as ever. Our democracy is proven to be a sham. The vote recounts were conducted by the same corrupt people who fixed the election in the first place. The inauguration of the anti-prez took place. Sorry, I went to work despite the movement for a general strike, as I couldn’t let me comrades down and yes, I forgot to pack a lunch and was forced to spend a lot more than a single dime on food. Hey, I got hungry. I did see Bush’s march to the swearing in ceremony, surrounded by his Senatorial Guard and led by a two ton, jowl giggling, earth shaking pig lady who had to be the laughing stock of the world. I suppose W was trying to look Lucy Liu and the Rollin’ 88’s from "Kill Bill 1", but actually evoked more of the animated images from Pink Floyd’s "The Wall". I had to chuckle a little upon hearing that some of the "Haves" had gotten pinned by security during the parade, were delayed, cold and even pepper sprayed. Since then the V.P. has said openly that the Zionist will nuke Iran the second they become atomic and that, "it’s not our role to stand in the way of that." He then went on the ceremonies at Auschwitz sporting a ski jacket, obviously looking for ways of improving Camp Gitmo. The Senate rubber stamped approval of that gap toothed, Cornielous looking, NFL commissioner wanna be, Aunt Tomisina, house niggra, yes person, brown nosing Condy Rice as Secretary of State, with the accent on the con.
But I digress…
While driving back across the valley from the Bay Area last week, I found a perfect Kosinski like moment to exist between my two lives, if only for a little while. The lady doing the driving was talking about how a black bear attacked her foothill estate. The bear was attracted to a deer hide she’d been curing, but was repelled by the chemicals once it got to the barrel. The bear then got away with a 50 pound sack of goat food while scaring to death her two goats. Well, actually the goats hung themselves on the clothes line they were tied to, but dead anyway you look at it. I spaced out heavily on the images from the vehicle. The January storms that had ravaged California were now gone. The setting sun bathed the now green valley with magic light. The pollution and clouds were gone today and the snow capped coastal range looked almost touchable. These and man made structures were reflected in the still standing pools of water creating new visual memories. The radio was tuned to a community station out of Nevada City and was playing some quality Blue Grass and Country music tunes. Not your chart busters, but quality shit. They sang about heartache, drinking problems, girl’s first names, etc.. Made me think of friends of mine who drop to their knees with the mention of a certain name, deep hurt that lasts a lifetime. I thought of what it is was like to love that way. It’s an impractical, pie in the sky, immature type of feeling. You know? The type of love a thinking person isn’t really capable of having after their mid 20’s. I remember those feeingsand this brought a brief wave melancholy. I then realized that what I missed was not any particular person or relationship or ability to love like that again, but it was loss of the potential for hurt. A hurt like that, one you makes you blubber for a lifetime, only is possible from that kind of ’puppy love’. So I listened to the wailing on the radio and regretted, just a bit, the loss of hurt. What intense feelings those are. Its true, I caused a lot of hurt and felt a lot in return, but that’s not really possible these days. Its all on a different level today. I then transposed these feeling to the loss of democracy today. Who’s being naïve here? Self government is a joke. Our system now is pure fascist and benefits only the major corporations and the extreme rich. I’m not talking about the dot com’ers or the Nuevo rich. I mean the kind of rich you have to be born into. The 28,000 people who’s families have always ruled this country and culture. So dry your tears, change the disc and have another beer. If we’re a little cynical or apathetic to it all, well there’s plenty of good reasons to go around.
Thanks,
Rev. First Duval, MIB

Blog reply by Justin 699
Feb. 2, 2005
Quote:
Originally Posted by first duval
The day gig in a nut shell is thinking and implementing ways of making enemas, and enema like products more desirable.
Hmm, I see.
Quote:
Originally Posted by first duval
Our democracy is proven to be a sham.
Oh yeah? did you get to vote? Are you sure you are talking about the United States of America? Or are you writing from Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by first duval
I couldn’t let me comrades down
Very Interesting, perhaps Cuba would be a better place for you to live, there are plenty of "comrades" there, they have a democracy that works much better and their system certainly isn't set up to only benefit "the major corporations and the extreme rich."
Quote:
Originally Posted by first duval
The Senate rubber stamped approval of that gap toothed, Cornielous looking, NFL commissioner wanna be, Aunt Tomisina, house niggra, yes person, brown nosing Condy Rice as Secretary of State, with the accent on the con.
That is the most disgustingly racist thing I think i have heard yet so far in 2005. Are you bitter because you believe that due to the color of her skin that she should be poor, stupid and vote democrat? Sorry, looks like you lost another one, she doesn't need your welfare dollars, she has a job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by first duval
Our system now is pure fascist and benefits only the major corporations and the extreme rich.
Seems to be working for you, you sell things to shove up people's asses and have enough money and free time to purchase a computer and visit us here. Its certainly working for me, and I am neither extremely rich not a corporation. If you work hard and get educated, you can make it.
No hard feelings, just sounds like you are a bit bitter, yet you revel in the freedoms provided for you in this marvelous "fascist" state. I'll wave my flag, you burn yours.
Justin 699

January 18, 2005
The role of audacity in political struggle
Dennis Kobray
Lessons of History - Demoralize Your Base, and Defeat is Inevitable -
We're all familiar with the saying "those who ignore the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them"Yet there are those on the left who insist upon defying history and thus bringing about more defeats.The debacle of the presidential election campaign of 2004 and the losing strategy of ABB/safe states was just the latest chapter in a long list of mistakes and refusal to learn from them.Two tragic examples from the past can illustrate this.
From 1936-1939 there was a revolution in Spain. The fascist Franco had attempted to seize power and the left fought back. Radicals from all over the world were inspired and many came to Spain to fight alongside their Spanish sisters and brothers. The fascists were on the defensive.The workers were calling for nationalization of the dominant sectors of the economy, to be put under the control of the workers' factory committees.The peasantry was calling for breaking up the great estates and instituting a thoroughgoing land reform. Catalonia and the Basques were calling for autonomy from Madrid, colonies such as Morocco were seeking independence.
But the Stalinized Spanish Communist Party and the social-democratic Socialist Party opposed the demands of the workers, peasants, oppressed nationalities and colonies -they were going "too far" and would "provoke" the reactionaries.The policy of the Popular Front required that the left voluntarily de-claw itself, so as to be "acceptable" to the so- called "progressive" section of the Spanish elite. The needs and wants of the left base had to be put on the shelf. " First we fight the civil war, THEN we'll fight the revolution! " So the militant workers were told to cool it on organizing factory committees to run industry, and the people in the countryside were told to stop land confiscations; the Basques and the Catalonians were instructed to be quiet about autonomy, and the colonies were promised independence - someday.
This took the wind out of the left's sails. Masses of people who had never been political had been awakened for the first time in their lives to the intoxicating possibility of taking control of their society. The fires of revolution were burning in their souls, and their leaders had doused the flames with a bucket of ice water ! Soon demoralization set in.The most socially/politically advanced and courageous sections of the workers started to withdraw from the struggle.They were more than ready to lay everything on the line in the fight for a new society where their class would make the decisions, but why risk their lives in a battle for "progressive" factory owners as opposed to "reactionary" owners? The same phenomenon occured in the countryside, with the Basques and Catalonians, and in the colonies.The revolutionary wave was now clearly receding, and it was the reactionaries who were feeling the wind in their sails.Why didn't the left go back into a counter-offensive?Because people are not batteries that can be recharged when they run out of juice. Leon Trotsky said that popular frontism constantly threatened to "light the wick of dynamite, and at the last minute extinguished it. After awhile, the flame wouldn't take and the dynamite was useless." By 1939 one of the most promising opportunities for the left was crushed, and its effects were felt throughout Europe. The powerful working class movement in France was thrown into disarray and retreat, leading eventually to the disgraceful capitulation to Germany in 1940. The defeat in neighboring Spain had sapped their fighting spirit. The regimes of Hitler and Mussolini were strengthened, and the USSR remained isolated. And the Spanish left wouldn't recover for decades.
A second example of defeat being snatched from the jaws of victory was in 1973. Salvador Allende of the Chilean Socialist Party was elected President in 1970.The same wonderful flowering of mass optimism that had gripped the people of Spain in the 1930s was everywhere in Chile. I remember back then hearing a report from someone who had recently gone down there to check it out for himself, recounting how he talked to average people who had never given politics a second thought, and were now reading the newspapers of half a dozen left groups and discussing issues that were once the sole province of the elite! As was the case in Spain, the left felt a powerful momentum. The workers in the copper mines were demanding nationalization so that the wealth of Chile stayed in Chile, and didn't go to the US Kennecott capitalists.The landless peasants were already carrying out confiscations of the great estates. Nixon and Kissinger were in panic mode, saying that Chile's geostrategic importance was too great to be left to its people! They had sought to get the Chilean military to "intervene" before Allende could be inaugurated, and were rebuffed. It looked like Bolivar's dream ( and Che's! ) of the South American revolution was unfolding before us.The left in the US was deeply inspired - all eyes and hopes were on Chile.
But as was the case in Spain, the Popular Unity government's strategy was to cool things down, not bring them to a boil. It goes without saying that a revolutionary movement cannot be on the offensive continuously. Every battle has its advances, retreats, and holding patterns. These are tactical issues to be decided by the forces involved. But what was involved here was not tactics but the strategy of watering down the demands of the masses of Chilean workers and peasants so as to be acceptable to the "progressive" Chilean capitalists.Workers were told to stop occupying the mines, mills and factories; peasants were scolded about land seizures - "we can't provoke the reactionaries!" Slowly, the wind went out of the sails of the left and demoralization of the best fighters led to their becoming passive, not active participants in the struggle. The reaction sensed this shift of momentum, as they did in Spain, and with the help of the US CIA started to advance. This culminated in the disaster of 9/11 - September 11, 1973 - the US supported coup led by Pinochet that crushed the movement, killing and "disappearing"thousands.The new regime served as the vanguard for counter-revolution throughout South America with its "Operation Condor" organizing torture and assassinations of leftists in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.The isolation of Cuba continued and the international left was in deep despair.
Does any of this sound familiar? We did not have a revolution brewing here in the US in 2004,unfortuneately nothing close.Workers weren't taking over their factories, and there was not a mass socialist/ communist/ green party, yet there WAS mass outrage and fury over the war against Iraq as well as Bush's domestic policies. Approximately 35 million people worldwide marched against US imperialism, greatly invigorating the US left with the optimism that we are not alone! The Democrats had gone along with the war, the Patriot Act and the tax cuts for the rich, leaving the field for the presidential election campaign completely open to a candidate who clearly opposed this and stood strongly for peace and a program of the left.The qualitative transformation of the Green Party into the dominant voice on the left was on the agenda.
And then came ABB/ safe states! The left had to hold back its demands so as not to alienate the " center " and provoke the right.We were told to drop our opposition to empire building and enlist in the "war on terror". Attendees at the Democratic Convention in Boston, 80-90% of whom were opposed to the war, were told to shut up, even to the point of not being allowed to wear antiwar bandanas and kerchiefs! Their nominee actually said that even if he knew that there were no WMDs and no connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, he STILL would've supported an American President's right to wage pre-emptive war.The Democratic left, and even some greens swallowed this with the lame hope that " first we win the election, then we move him ( Kerry ) to the left." Shades of Spain!
As was the case in Spain in the 1930s and Chile in the 1970s, this attempt to dilute our principles, our very reason for being, doused the fire in many activist souls, and caused demoralization and cynicism. Many retreated somewhat from their high level of activism and became passive, as if helplessly watching a slow motion train wreck. The defeat of November 2 devastated many and threw all the movements for social change into a deep funk.Without Nader to blame, the new scapegoat was "the stupid public", or a non charismatic candidate, or an unfair media instead of criticizing a strategy that took away our momentum, and sapped us of our strongest weapon - a no holds barred attack on the policies that the majority of people in this country also oppose. It became more a math problem than politics - add together the people who are opposed to the war, labor, Blacks and Latinos, pro choice defenders, supporters of gay marriage, the environment - add to them the " center " and we'll have a numerical majority! The problem was that it was QUALITY that mattered, not simple quantity. Malcolm X used to say that if you want to stay awake, you order some black coffee.But when you "integrate" it with cream, you dilute it and weaken it. Instead of waking you up, it puts you to sleep. Six ounces of pure black coffee is more potent than ten ounces of coffee with cream. And a political campaign appealing to the left base and its potential allies - like the 40-50 million people who don't vote, the 45 million people without health insurance, the tens of millions of unemployed and working poor - would've been infinitely more potent ( whether it won the election or not ) and long - lasting than a concoction that watered down its appeal so as to reach more voters in the form of Reagan Democrats!
While we can learn from the mistakes of the past, we can also learn from the successes. In Russia of 1917, revolutionary fervor gripped tens of millions.There were mass desertions from the war with shootings of officers, strikes and factory occupations by workers, land seizures by peasants, agitation for self - determination by the oppressed nations of the Tsarist Empire - " the prisonhouse of nations!",and the spontaneous creation of councils - "soviets" - as a rival power base to the Provisional Government. And there were political parties such as the Mensheviks who feared that this would "provoke" reaction. They tried to lower the heat by opposing every advance of the masses, even going so far as to support the hated imperialist war because " now that we have no more Tsar, now that we are a revolutionary democracy, the war is a revolutionary war!"
But unlike in Spain and Chile, there was a party in 1917 large enough to be heard that sought to push the revolutionary process forward, not hold it back. Especially after its leader Lenin came back from exile in April, this party called for MORE worker committes to run the factories, mines, mills and railroads, MORE land seizures by the peasants, total opposition to the war, self - determination of oppressed nations including the right to separate from Russia,and for ALL POWER to be in the hands of the national Soviet of workers, soldiers and peasant representatives.
In August of that year, the Russian equivalent of Franco and Pinochet - Kornilov - announced that he was marching on the heart of the revolution, Petrograd with the aim of crushing it. Not just the Bolshevik Party, but the soviets, factory committes, unions, women's organizations - even the Mensheviks and other moderates would be liquidated. Unlike in Spain or Chile, there was a party in Russia of 1917 that hadn't constantly sought to dampen the fighting spirit of the people.The Bolsheviks didn't succumb to a lesser evil strategy where they dropped their criticisms of the Menshevik - Kerensky government in order to fight the greater evil of Kornilov. Neither did they assume a "pox on both houses" ultraleftist condemnation of both sides/abstention from the struggle.Their approach was to fight Kornilov MILITARILY, and to fight the Provisional Government POLITICALLY, so as to lay the basis for the inevitable fight against the latter for power. Lenin's party maintained complete political independence and the right to criticize the moderates. It did not spread illusions in their good intentions, but unceasingly attacked them for their political treachery. The result was that this coup never happened - it evaporated into thin air! Railroad tracks were torn up to hinder the movement of Kornilov's troops, and red soldiers met, spoke to and won over the bulk of his army! The spirit of the great leader of the French Revolution, Danton was alive and well - " audacity, audacity, and still more audacity!"
We could've used some of that audacity in the 2004 campaign. Instead, we got the opposite - political cowardice. We missed a great opportunity last year, but it didn't end with our being crushed as was the case in 1939 and 1973 - and 1965 where between half a million and three million were murdered by a CIA supported General Suharto - the Indonesian version of Kornilov/Franco/Pinochet. We still have time to learn from the past. Revolutionary situations are rare in history, and when they spring up we must be ready. I firmly believe that someday we will get our chance - we must prepare for that day so that we can make the most of it. The first step is to fight uncompromisingly for political independence from and unending hostility to the two wings of corporate America. No matter who they throw up as the "greater evil" in 2008 to frighten us into the arms of the Democrats, we must immunize ourselves and carry that banner of "audacity, audacity, and still more audacity!"
Dennis Kobray

Jan. 4, 2005
"The police,gestapo,cia,fbi,kgb,mossad,whomever started every,and I mean every, riot that went on in this country that year. [ca 1968] I was in Lincoln Park and Grant Park for that one day.It was so blatant that there were aggitators,Rubin,Hoffman,Hayden. Fast forward to the Murders at Kent State,Being a freshman at Southern Ill.Univ.the same instigating and aggitating.Go into the computer facillities that were supposedly used for the VietNam War break out some windows throw out some garbage and try to egg on the crowd to burn the place down. Then these assholes would split then the police come in tear gas, pepper gas,and god knows what other gasses.They could turn a peacefull demonstration into a full blown riot with one bull horn or one tear gas cannister.Sinusses were never clearer after that.These guys shot teargas cannisters into the old folks home in Carbondale,Illinois.I'm talking about shooting through the second and third story closed windows,and open ones.Those folks must have been a real threat.The cops that week acted like they were on some serious drugs."
--- Increase 1776

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