Upcoming events in the Asheville area and beyond....

Photo found on Emptywheel blog.  This is somewhere in Michigan.

UPCOMING EVENTS

08/03/11 SIERRA CLUB MEETING
The local Sierra Club will present a program on the history of the National Parks and current Sierra Club involvement in Park issues on Wednesday, Aug 3 at 7:00 pm  by Lisa McWherter, Sierra Club Outings Leader.   Location: Unitarian Church in Asheville at Charlotte and Edwin.  Contact information:  judymattox@sbcglobal.net or 828-683-2176

08/04/11VETERANS FOR PEACE MEETING
Time is 6:30 PM and location is VFP HQ at the Phil Mechanic Studios at 109 Roberts Street (the corner of Haywood and Roberts), Asheville. VFP CHAPTER 099 – more information at http://vfpchapter099wnc.blogspot.com/

08/04/11 MYSTERIOUS RABBIT PUPPET ARMY TOUR
The Mysterious Rabbit Puppet Army rolls into Firestorm Cafe on the 4th of August as part of its whirlwind, month-long excursion across the continental United States to raise awareness about the prison system. The tour stop will include a few different shows. The feature show uses shadow puppets to outline the history of the Prison Industrial Complex, from antebellum slavery in the south to where it is today. The other two shows are a modernized Hansel and Gretel, as well as a rock opera featuring Ted, the anti-technology turtle. All of the shows are child friendly.  Time is 7 PM and location is Firestorm Cafe and Books in downtown Asheville.

08/05/11 RADICAL ROOT IN THE APPALACHIAN SOUTH
The Radical Roots Project brings together the stories of individuals working toward creative change. Whether writing, farming, storytelling, instrument building, horse logging, or community organizing, each story offers a framework for a new interpretation, understanding and meaning of resistance in Appalachia. These diverse forms of resistance emerge from intimate local relationships, reflect a deep sense of place, and serve as a catalyst for increased community engagement and democratic empowerment. Time is 6 PM and location is Firestorm Cafe and Books in downtown Asheville.

08/06/11 GREEN PARTY MEETING
The Buncombe County GREEN Party's business meeting is free & open to the public. It will be held from 10AM to noon, upstairs in the Fortune Building, 729 Haywood Rd., West Asheville. Contact Ronald @ 828LUCK180 or Larry @ 828-225-4347 for more information.

08/07/11 ASHEVILLE VEGFEST
On Battery Park Avenue, with kid’s entertainment and live performances.  Starts at noon.

08/07/11 ASHEVILLE NOW MEETING
Asheville NOW monthly meeting  Sunday, August 7 at 3:00am at Grove Arcade
We'll meet at the bookstore at the lower end of the Grove Arcade. Come upstairs and bring an appetite/thirst as food & drinks are available at the bookstore. This is our regular monthly meeting. We will discuss recent events surrounding our efforts to assist the homeless women veterans in our area, as well as plans for our upcoming fundraising event.

8/11/11 ASHEVILLECONNECTS
Held at 34 Wall St. in 3rd floor conference room from 9:30 to 11:30 AM.  AshevilleConnects is a local initiative to strengthen the Asheville community by making best use of existing resources and tapping our creativity. To RSVP: http://ashevilleconnects.wufoo.com/forms/z7x4a3/ or call Kathleen at 231-5565.   Volunteer options available.

08/12/11 MOVIE NIGHT AT UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH   
The movie “Bag It” will be shown at 7 PM.  Donations accepted, this is at the Asheville UU church.  This is co-sponsored by Transition Asheville.  A self-described "average guy," Jeb Berrier notices that plastic bags are piling up in his house. So he embarks on a personal quest to figure out where they come from, why they're so ubiquitous and where they end up after they're thrown away. With a humorous tone, Suzan Beraza's documentary also explores our society's dependence on other single-use plastic items such as wrappers, food containers and bottles -- and what alternatives may exist.

08/18/11 “NEIGHBOR SAVES” PROGRAM BY TRANSITION ASHEVILLE
Transition Asheville's Energy Action Group is sponsoring a presentation on WNC Green Building Council's Neighbor Saves program. Neighbor Saves is an innovative program aimed at empowering participants to Save Energy, Save Money, Improve Comfort and Build Community in a team based (not just neighbors), fun environment. Participants get trained by and complete work on each others' homes with an experienced supervisor.  Time is 7 PM for this program, and the location is Unitarian Universalist Church in Asheville.  The event is free, and you will have an opportunity to meet members of Transition Asheville's Energy Action Group, and learn more about our vision. You can learn more about Neighbor Saves on their webpage.  If you have questions, you can contact Kendall Hale at hale.kendall@gmail.com

08/18/11 to 08/22/11 NIRS RECLAIM POWER ACTION CAMP
Nuclear Information and Resource Service will hold an action camp in the area for nuclear activists.  All skill levels are welcome.  Location and directions will be disclosed after people register.  More information at:   www.reclaimpowersoutheast.org

08/20/11 PROTEST THE “OTHER WARS”
Please note also that the 2nd annual BLACK IS BACK conference held last weekend in DC has called for August 20 actions to protest the "other wars," i.e. the US backed wars and corporate proxy wars on the African continent, the occupation of Haiti, the war on the Black community in the U.S., and the ever more militarized operations on the U.S. Mexican border.

09/15/11 MOUNTAIN AREA INTERFAITH FORUM MEETING
This meeting will take place from 10 AM to noon, and the location is the Unitarian Universalist Church in Asheville on Edwin and Charlotte Streets.  

09/16/11 to 09/18/11 MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AT 50 CONFERENCE
The Military Industrial Complex at 50: Charlottesville, VA.  A Conference on Moving Money from the Military to Human Needs  http://micat50cville.org  Speakers include Col. Ann Wright, Karen Kwaitkowski, Ray McGovern, Helena Cobban, and more.  

09/21/11 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
The Second Annual International Day of Peace celebration will be from 4:30 to 7:30 PM at Pack Square.  Sponsoring and/or endorsing groups who are involved in our event include Asheville Peacetown, Veterans for Peace Local 099, Arts to People, the local UN Association, the B'hai community, the Mountain Area Interfaith Forum,the Social Action committee of the First Congregational United Church of Christ and other faith groups.

09/24/11 CALL TO ACTION ON THE CLIMATE
Moving Planet--a global day of call to action/awareness around climate change on Sept 24, organized by Bill McKibbon and the 350 crew, more info at www.moving-planet.org/.  

10/06/11 FREEDOM SQUARE IN WASHINGTON DC
Join thousands to protest wars and injustice on the tenth anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan.  Stop the machine, create a new world!  More info here:  http://october2011.org/statement

10/08/11 to 10/09/11 MARCH ON U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND
Join us on October 8-9, 2011 in South Florida and at the gates of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, Florida as we demand:  NO BASES, NO 4TH FLEET, BUILD BRIDGES, NOT BASES.  http://soaw.org/component/content/article/39/3686-october-2011-march-on-the-us-southern-command

11/13/11 to 11/15/11  LAKE JUNALUSKA PEACE CONFERENCE
The fourth annual Lake Junaluska Peace Conference, “Poverty, Abundance, and Peace:  Seeking Economic Justice for All God’s Children,”  will lift up some of the systemic causes of poverty and economic disparity to help participants better understand these issues and to be equipped as change agents to work for alleviating these causes of poverty for a more just and peaceful world. See http://www.lakejunaluska.com/peace/ for more information about program and registration.

11/18/11 to 11/20/11  SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS WATCH IN FT. BENNING
http://www.soaw.org/

Bob Dylan

AUSTIN, TX - AUGUST 04  Bob Dylan performs on the first night of his American tour at The Backyard on August 4, 2010 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Gary Miller/FilmMagic)

Tangled Up In Blue

Early one mornin’ the sun was shinin’
I was layin’ in bed
Wond’rin’ if she’d changed at all
If her hair was still red
Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like Mama’s homemade dress
Papa’s bankbook wasn’t big enough
And I was standin’ on the side of the road
Rain fallin’ on my shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I’ve paid some dues gettin’ through
Tangled up in blue
She was married when we first met
Soon to be divorced
I helped her out of a jam, I guess
But I used a little too much force
We drove that car as far as we could
Abandoned it out West
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing it was best
She turned around to look at me
As I was walkin’ away
I heard her say over my shoulder
“We’ll meet again someday on the avenue”
Tangled up in blue

I had a job in the great north woods
Working as a cook for a spell
But I never did like it all that much
And one day the ax just fell
So I drifted down to New Orleans
Where I happened to be employed
Workin’ for a while on a fishin’ boat
Right outside of Delacroix
But all the while I was alone
The past was close behind
I seen a lot of women
But she never escaped my mind, and I just grew
Tangled up in blue
She was workin’ in a topless place
And I stopped in for a beer
I just kept lookin’ at the side of her face
In the spotlight so clear
And later on as the crowd thinned out
I’s just about to do the same
She was standing there in back of my chair
Said to me, “Don’t I know your name?”
I muttered somethin’ underneath my breath
She studied the lines on my face
I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When she bent down to tie the laces of my shoe
Tangled up in blue

She lit a burner on the stove
And offered me a pipe
“I thought you’d never say hello,” she said
“You look like the silent type”
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin’ coal
Pourin’ off of every page
Like it was written in my soul from me to you
Tangled up in blue
I lived with them on Montague Street
In a basement down the stairs
There was music in the cafés at night
And revolution in the air
Then he started into dealing with slaves
And something inside of him died
She had to sell everything she owned
And froze up inside
And when finally the bottom fell out
I became withdrawn
The only thing I knew how to do
Was to keep on keepin’ on like a bird that flew
Tangled up in blue

So now I’m goin’ back again
I got to get to her somehow
All the people we used to know
They’re an illusion to me now
Some are mathematicians
Some are carpenters’ wives
Don’t know how it all got started
I don’t know what they’re doin’ with their lives
But me, I’m still on the road
Headin’ for another joint
We always did feel the same
We just saw it from a different point of view
Tangled up in blue

Copyright © 1974 by Ram's Horn Music; renewed 2002 by Ram’s Horn Music

Evil

NATO planes bomb a Gaddafi compound in Tripoli last month. Air strikes by allied forces have become increasingly ineffective.  EPA

God damn them for their evil ways.

UNITED NATIONAL ANTIWAR COMMITTEE (UNAC) STATEMENT

UNITED NATIONAL ANTIWAR COMMITTEE (UNAC) STATEMENT ON U.S. NON-INTERVENTION IN LIBYA AND OTHER COUNTRIES

At great risks to their lives, activists organizing to oppose oppressive, dictatorial regimes in the Middle East and North Africa have inspired us by their courage and determination.  We ruefully acknowledge past and continuing U.S. support for dictatorships and military rule in the region.  We recognize that the U.S. has been directly involved in supplying weapons and other forms of support to regimes that have committed atrocious human rights abuses against civilians.  Conscious of our responsibility to stop the United States from further manipulations that would interfere with movements on behalf of true democratic developments in other countries, UNAC calls for an immediate halt to U.S. intervention in regions and countries where mass mobilizations are challenging oppressive regimes.  

We have seen the horrific consequences of U.S./U.N.-imposed economic sanctions against Iraq, as well as the consequences of U.S./U.N. operation of “no-fly zones” over northern and southern Iraq, prior to the U.S. Shock and Awe attacks and invasion.

We therefore oppose any form of U.S. military or economic intervention in Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia and other countries where movements are rising in opposition to dictatorships and military rule.

United National Antiwar Committee

www.UNACpeace.org
UNACpeace@gmail.org      

Protest against AIPAC

This happened on 12-13-10.  Gratitude to them for standing up for what is moral and just!

It can be done. Now is the time.

An excellent article by Kevin Reese:


It Can Be Done. Now is the Time. Americans Can Stop the Corporate Machine and Create a New World
By Kevin Zeese

October2011.org seeks to Stop the Machine and Create a New World. It can be done. Indeed, it must be done and now is the time to do it. The thousands who have joined October2011.org know the challenges we face but we also know that the disastrous direction the country is going is unacceptable. We have seen that the normal tools - elections, lobbying and education - do not work. The U.S. is facing a crisis on many fronts - economic, environmental and in foreign relations - and the government does not respond or even makes things worse.

We certainly understand the despair, lost hope and discouragement that many Americans feel about the U.S. political system. The system seems designed to make change impossible. We also see the power and sophistication of the corporate propaganda media machine. But, we also see people in the United States seeing through the propaganda, understanding the truth and getting angry. In every rebellion around the world that has occurred in the last year - from Egypt to Spain - the view that it can’t be done, the people will not rise up would have been the belief of 95% of the population before it happened. Predicting the future is not as easy as it looks. There is a lot of evidence that the time may be right for an American Awakening. The past is not always the future.

The organizers of October2011.org are well aware of the challenges we face and aware of the power of the U.S. police forces to stamp out dissent. We have faced them before. We are developing contingency plans to deal with those issues. And, we know if the police remove us on the first day, October 6, we will come back in the days that follow with even more people. We will not give up. Indeed, in Spain on the first day, the police cleared out a few hundred people, and then they came back two days later with thousands more and stayed for a month. They continue to pressure the government with their indignant independent movement demanding real, fundamental change starting with real democracy, not the phony two party charade they encounter in Spain as we also do in the United States.

October2011.org is a peoples led effort. The people who have signed up are doing their part: Spreading the word; Urging their friends and families to come; And, coming themselves. We all know we cannot let business as usual continue -- it is literally killing us and others, degrading the environment, destroying the middle class and creating massive transfers of wealth to the richest 1%.
One thing that stops many from doing anything is fear of failure. We don’t fear failure.

October2011.org will be a success. The issue is what level of success will it be? That is up to you, dear reader. If you see the misdirection of the country, do not despair, join us. Unified with confidence in our power we cannot be stopped.

There are always people who say “it can’t be done.” If the human species lived by that credo we’d still be living in caves and not growing our own food. Africans would still be slaves in the United States. Women would not be allowed to vote. All of these changes became inevitable after seeming impossible. Indeed, change is inevitable. Our economy is collapsing and government is dysfunctional. This cannot continue. Change will occur. It is our job to direct it to a better world.

People involved in this effort have been organizing for years, some for decades. Some of the leaders, including me, organized events where 130+ were arrested in December and 110+ in March protesting the wars. Many were part of organizing demonstrations of tens of thousands of people. This event builds on years of organizing, not just demonstrations but organizations. It is not an event coming out of nowhere or disconnected from other organizing work. And, none of us see this event as the final event that will solve all the problems the United States is facing.

We see October2011.org as another event building an independent movement. This event is not about “instant”gratification, it is about persistent, well-informed citizen action that demands an end to war and domination by concentrated corporate interests.

In December I worked with some of the leaders of Veterans for Peace and other organizations to protest the wars. We knew when we organized this event we would be building to something like October2011.org -- we called it building a ”culture of resistance”. At this event, Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent and author Chris Hedges, made a clarion call for resistance, large and small, against corporatism and militarism: “Hope will only come now when we physically defy the violence of the state. All who resist, all who are here today keep hope alive. All who succumb to fear, despair, and apathy become an enemy of hope. They become in their passivity agencies of injustice.”

LINK TO FULL ARTICLE AND VIDEOS OF PROTESTS HERE.

Power to the People!

Upcoming events in the Asheville area and beyond....

07/27/11 NIRS MEETING
“No nukes in WNC” is an educational workshop with Mary Olson, from NIRS Southeast.  Time is 6 to 8 PM.  Held at NIRS House, call for location and directions 828-252-8409.

07/28/11 MTN PROTECTORS & FRIENDS BONFIRE/PICNIC/MEETING
Food and fun will be from 6 to 8 PM, and a fireside meeting from 8 to 9 PM.  Location is 26 Ivy Street North in Asheville.  Call Monica at 757-647-9996 for directions only.  RSVP to monticanow@yahoo.com. Vegetarian food and drink provided, bring a folding chair or blanket.  Come and add your ideas to the campaign to stop nuclear waste transport through the mountains.

08/04/11VETERANS FOR PEACE MEETING
Time is 6:30 PM and location is VFP HQ at the Phil Mechanic Studios: 109 Roberts Street (the corner of Haywood and Roberts), Asheville. VFP CHAPTER 099: http://vfpchapter099wnc.blogspot.com/

08/06/11 GREEN PARTY MEETING
The Buncombe County GREEN Party's business meeting is free & open to the public. It will be held from 10AM to noon, upstairs in the Fortune Building, 729 Haywood Rd., West Asheville. Contact Ronald @ 828LUCK180 or Larry @ 828-225-4347 for more information.

8/11/11 ASHEVILLECONNECTS
Held at 34 Wall St. in 3rd floor conference room from 9:30 to 11:30 AM.  AshevilleConnects is a local initiative to strengthen the Asheville community by making best use of existing resources and
tapping our creativity. To RSVP: http://ashevilleconnects.wufoo.com/forms/z7x4a3/ or call Kathleen at 231-5565.  Volunteer options available.

08/12/11 MOVIE NIGHT AT UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH
The movie “Bag It” will be shown at 7 PM.  Donations accepted, this is at the Asheville UU church.

08/20/11 PROTEST THE “OTHER WARS”
Please note also that the 2nd annual BLACK IS BACK conference held last weekend in DC has called for August 20 actions to protest the "other wars," i.e. the US backed wars and corporate proxy wars on the African continent, the occupation of Haiti, the war on the Black community in the U.S., and the ever more militarized operations on the U.S. Mexican border.

09/15/11 MOUNTAIN AREA INTERFAITH FORUM MEETING
This meeting will take place from 10 AM to noon, and the location is the Unitarian Universalist Church in Asheville on Edwin and Charlotte Streets.

09/16/11 to 09/18/11 MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AT 50 CONFERENCE
The Military Industrial Complex at 50: Charlottesville, VA.  A Conference on Moving Money from the Military to Human Needs http://micat50cville.org  Speakers include Col. Ann Wright, Karen Kwaitkowski, Ray McGovern, Helena Cobban, and more.

09/21/11 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
The Second Annual International Day of Peace celebration will be from 4:30 to 7:30 PM at Pack Square.  Sponsoring and/or endorsing groups who are involved in our event include Asheville Peacetown, Veterans for Peace Local 099, Arts to People, the local UN Association, the B'hai community, the Mountain Area Interfaith Forum,the Social Action committee of the First Congregational United Church of Christ and other faith groups. More information to come.

09/24/11 CALL TO ACTION ON THE CLIMATE
Moving Planet--a global day of call to action/awareness around climate change on Sept 24, organized by Bill McKibbon and the 350 crew, more info at www.moving-planet.org/.  More information to come.

10/06/11 FREEDOM SQUARE IN WASHINGTON DC
Join thousands to protest wars and injustice on the tenth anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan.  Stop the machine, create a new world!  More info here:  http://october2011.org/statement

10/08/11 to 10/09/11 MARCH ON U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND
Join us on October 8-9, 2011 in South Florida and at the gates of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, Florida as we demand:  NO BASES, NO 4TH FLEET, BUILD BRIDGES, NOT BASES.
http://soaw.org/component/content/article/39/3686-october-2011-march-on-the-us-southern-command

11/13/11 to 11/15/11  LAKE JUNALUSKA PEACE CONFERENCE
The fourth annual Lake Junaluska Peace Conference, “Poverty, Abundance, and Peace:  Seeking Economic Justice for All God’s Children,”  will lift up some of the systemic causes of poverty and
economic disparity to help participants better understand these issues and to be equipped as change agents to work for alleviating these causes of poverty for a more just and peaceful world. See
http://www.lakejunaluska.com/peace/ for more information about program and registration.

11/18/11 to 11/20/11  SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS WATCH IN FT. BENNING
http://www.soaw.org/

******************************

*************
ONGOING EVENTS
*******************************************
SUNDAY
Episcopal Peace Fellowship holds a weekly vigil from 5:30 to 6 PM at All Soul's Cathedral.

TUESDAY
Veterans for Peace have a weekly vigil at 5 PM at Pack Square

WEDNESDAY
Haywood Peace Vigilers have a weekly vigil at 4 PM at Haywood Country Courthouse in Waynesville.
Asheville Cop Watch meeting at 5 PM at Firestorm Cafe.

THURSDAY
Asheville Homeless Network meeting at 2 PM at Firestorm Cafe.

FRIDAY
Women in Black have a weekly vigil at 5 PM at Pack Square in Asheville
Women in Black have a weekly vigil at noon at the Old Courthouse in Hendersonville

SATURDAY
Transylvanians for Peace and WNC Physicians for Social Responsibility have a weekly vigil at noon in front of the courthouse in Brevard.

The Parting Glass by the Wailin' Jennys

“Mask of Anarchy”

Part of a poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley:

“Rise like lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number!

Shake your chains to earth, like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you – Ye are many, they are few!”

Thinking....

This is the logo for the upcoming protest in October in DC.  I hope to make it to this protest.

On another note, I have often wondered about the tactics of the US military, US government, US politicians and their agencies and contractors.  It is obvious that they continually do things to make things worse in the countries we are occupying and bombing, and they do it on purpose.  It appears that their plan is to keep doing things to inspire more terrorism in the world, and thereby require more military and violent interventions - that, of course, includes lying, stealing, destruction, torture, rape, kidnapping, unending imprisonment, and being the biggest terrorists themselves.  They start up wars of aggression, like in Iraq, which causes immense pain to tens of millions of people - and grows more terrorism.

And the question is:  do they do this because they are evil?  or because they are stupid?  I guess they can be both...... but if they are smart enough to get elected president of the USA, it is hard to argue that they are stupid.   The other day, I ran across the phrase "militant ignorance" and I think this applies.  Maybe these people doing these things - start up wars, bomb countries, order torture, run black site prisons, etc (the list goes ON AND ON!!!) are really determined to stay ignorant of what is really going on.

And the people who support these politicians and policies - well, I guess they are militantly ignorant too.

The video below has a victim of a hate crime saying that he forgave the man who attacked him, basically because he believed his faith told him to do so.  He said the attacker was ignorant who did not know the difference between right and wrong. 

I guess there is a lot of ignorance in this world.

Muslim victim’s forgiveness inspires touching last words from killer

A clip from the movie "War Made Easy"

This clip is about when the US media was silent and/or deceiving about the upcoming war on Iraq.  The few anti-war voices out there were silenced.

Reaper drone in Kandahar

These things are so evil.  This photo came from an article about killing Pakistani civilians.

The centre cannot hold.....

Turning and turning in the widening gyre | The falcon cannot hear the falconer | Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold | Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world | The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere | The ceremony of innocence is drowned | The best lack all conviction, while the worst | Are full of passionate intensity. — W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming

Photo is of Seneca Rocks, West Virginia, March 2011.

Declaration of Thingamajig

Message from Voters for Peace

 Photo is of a Women in Black vigil at Pack Square, Asheville in 2010.  The following came from a Voters for Peace email a couple of days ago:

In little more than two years President Barack Obama has violated the U.S. Constitution by:

1) Ordering military attacks on sovereign nations without Congressional authorization.

2) Issuing Executive Orders for the extra-judicial assassination of U.S. citizens in violation of guarantees of due process.

3) Presiding over military, paramilitary and intelligence service use of torture in violation of prohibitions against cruel and unusual treatment.

4) Ordering and attempting to assassinate foreign heads of state.

5) Obstructing justice by failing or refusing to investigate credible allegations of torture brought against the previous administration.

President Obama is the current occupant of the throne to the imperial presidency. The first four items above apply to Mr. Obama himself, while the last applies to alleged crimes that occurred during the presidency of George W. Bush, with substantial supporting evidence, that Mr. Obama has neglected to prosecute.

It is not just "credible allegations of torture".  In fact, Cheney went on live TV and bragged about torture.  I have been thinking lately that I got rid of my HONK TO IMPEACH sign too damn soon.  Obomba should be impeached, but it does not seem fair to impeach him without having had any real effort to impeach Bush and Cheney, or any indictments.  What a horrible, evil mess this country is in!

And Obomba too!

WikiLeaks Samba Video

What's next, WikiLeaks??

PFC Manning - a Hero of mine

PFC Bradley Manning, Conscience & Agency
by Ethan McCord, former Specialist U.S. Army

Serving with my unit 2nd battalion 16th infantry in New Baghdad Iraq, I vividly remember the moment in 2007, when our Battalion Commander walked into the room and announced our new rules of engagement:

“Listen up, new battalion SOP (standing operating procedure) from now on: Anytime your convoy gets hit by an IED, I want 360 degree rotational fire. You kill every [expletive] in the street!”

We weren’t trained extensively to recognize an unlawful order, or how to report one. But many of us could not believe what we had just been told to do. Those of us who knew it was morally wrong struggled to figure out a way to avoid shooting innocent civilians, while also dodging repercussions from the non-commissioned officers who enforced the policy. In such situations, we determined to fire our weapons, but into rooftops or abandoned vehicles, giving the impression that we were following procedure.

On April 5, 2010 American citizens and people around the world got a taste of the fruits of this standing operating procedure whenWikiLeaks released the now-famous Collateral Murder video. This video showed the horrific and wholly unnecessary killing of unarmed Iraqi civilians and Reuters journalists.

I was part of the unit that was responsible for this atrocity. In the video, I can be seen attempting to carry wounded children to safety in the aftermath.

The video released by WikiLeaks belongs in the public record. Covering up this incident is a matter deserving of criminal inquiry. Whoever revealed it is an American hero in my book.

Private First Class Bradley Manning has been confined for over a year on the government’s accusation that he released this video and volumes of other classified documents to WikiLeaks — an organization that has been selectively publishing portions of this information in collaboration with other news outlets.

If PFC Bradley Manning did what he is accused of doing, then it is clear—from chat logs that have been attributed to him—that his decision was motivated by conscience and political agency. These chat logs allegedly describe how PFC Manning hopes these revelations will result in “worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms.”

Unfortunately, Steve Fishman’s article Bradley Manning’s Army of One in New York Magazine (July 3, 2011) erases Manning’s political agency.  By focusing so heavily on Manning’s personal life, Fishman removes politics from a story that has everything to do with politics. The important public issues wrapped up with PFC Manning’s case include: transparency in government; the Obama Administration’s unprecedented pursuit of whistle-blowers; accountability of government and military in shaping and carrying out foreign policy; war crimes revealed in the WikiLeaks documents; the catalyzing role these revelations played in democratic movements across the Middle East; and more.

The contents of the WikiLeaks revelations have pulled back the curtain on the degradation of our democratic system.  It has become completely normal for decision-makers to promulgate foreign policies, diplomatic strategies, and military operating procedures that are hostile to the democratic ideals our country was founded upon.  The incident I was part of—shown in the Collateral Murder video—becomes even more horrific when we grasp that it was not exceptional.  PFC Manning himself is alleged to describe (in the chat logs) an incident where he was ordered to turn over innocent Iraqi academics to notorious police interrogators, for the offense of publishing a political critique of government corruption titled, “Where did the money go?” These issues deserve “discussion, debates, and reforms” — and attention from journalists.

Fishman’s article was also ignorant of the realities of military service. Those of us who serve in the military are often lauded as heroes.  Civilians need to understand that we may be heroes, but we are not saints.  We are young people under a tremendous amount of stress.  We face moral dilemmas that many civilians have never even contemplated hypothetically.

Civil society honors military service partly because of the sacrifice it entails. Lengthy and repeated deployments stress our closest relationships with family and friends.  The realities, traumas, and stresses of military life take an emotional toll. This emotional battle is part of the sacrifice that we honor. That any young soldier might wrestle with his or her experiences in the military, or with his or her identity beyond military life, should never be wielded as a weapon against them.

If PFC Bradley Manning did what he is accused of, he is a hero of mine; not because he’s perfect or because he never struggled with personal or family relationships—most of us do—but because in the midst of it all he had the courage to act on his conscience.

++++++++++
Ethan McCord is a Hero of mine also.

A voyage of life and death

Ex-CIA Agent Explains How Bloggers Can "Dump Congress On Its Ass"

While I am sitting here preparing postcards for the US Congress and Obama (to inform them of my opinion of their choices), I watched this video.  So, in the future, all postcards will first be posted on the blog for everyone to read.  Maybe bloggers can change things.....

Clinton owns up to one of his many sins

President Clinton:  “Since 1981, the United States has followed a policy, until the last year or so when we started rethinking it, that we rich countries that produce a lot of food should sell it to poor countries and relieve them of the burden of producing their own food, so, thank goodness, they can leap directly into the industrial era. It has not worked. It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake. It was a mistake that I was a party to. I am not pointing the finger at anybody. I did that. I have to live every day with the consequences of the lost capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people, because of what I did.”

Yes, that is what you did - destroy the local economy (and not just in Haiti!) and let the poor suffer.  And it was not a "mistake" because you did it on purpose and you did it again and again.  And that's not all!  Clinton also apparently helped build schools in Haiti, with FORMALDEHYDE IN THEM.

It seems we only elect criminals here in the USA.

Some quotes from Anne Frank in 1944

“I don't believe that the big men, the politicians and the capitalists alone are guilty of the war.  Oh, no, the little man is just as keen, otherwise the people of the world would have risen in revolt long ago!  There is an urge and rage in people to destroy, to kill, to murder, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated and grown, will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again.”  -- 15-year-old Anne Frank, before being taken to her death in the Nazi concentration camps

“I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too; I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.” – Anne Frank, Saturday 15th of July, 1944

We are the world (true USA version)

We bomb the world
We kill the children
We are the ones who make a darker day
So let's start bombing
There's a choice we're making
We're destroying our own lives
It's true we'll make a darker day
Just you and me  

"For Everyman" by Jackson Browne

Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project

Obama hit 1,000 today!

As you can see in the sidebar, there is a tally of the number of US military deaths in Afghanistan under Bush and Obama.... and Obama hit one thousand today!  Hooray!

Of course, there are likely more American deaths there- contractors, aid workers, mercenaries, etc.  And there are far, far, far more Afghan deaths under Obama than there are US military deaths.

Obomba is disgusting.

TORTURERS ARE US!!

FromGlenn Greenwald:

In August, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder -- under continuous, aggressive prodding by the Obama White House -- announced that three categories of individuals responsible for Bush-era torture crimes would be fully immunized from any form of criminal investigation and prosecution:  (1) Bush officials who ordered the torture (Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld); (2) Bush lawyers who legally approved it (Yoo, Bybee, Levin), and (3) those in the CIA and the military who tortured within the confines of the permission slips they were given by those officials and lawyers (i.e., "good-faith" torturers).  The one exception to this sweeping immunity was that low-level CIA agents and service members who went so far beyond the torture permission slips as to basically commit brutal, unauthorized murder would be subject to a "preliminary review" to determine if a full investigation was warranted -- in other words, the Abu Ghraib model of justice was being applied, where only low-ranking scapegoats would be subject to possible punishment while high-level officials would be protected.

And now that the US Department of “justice” has done a preliminary review, they have determined that virtually ALL the cases of homicide (there are two exceptions) by torture done by US agents are okay-dokey.   This is what I expected, but it is still very depressing.   The Obama administration is going to “look forward” and ignore all evidence of wrong doing – except for the whistle blowers.  They will be prosecuted. 

Taguba, who wrote up and conducted the investigation into detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib said this:  "there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

And while torture and kidnapping have stopped under the Obama administration, it has been stopped for something worse – outright assassination.

What a sad time in America. 

As Leon Panetta said: "We are now finally about to close this chapter of our agency's history" but we have not closed our nation’s shame.  Far from it.

Upcoming events in the Asheville area and beyond....

Photo:  Samih Tariq, 27, left, and his wife Umm Sajad, center, holding 3-month-old, Sajad, Ahmed Tariq, 24, right, launch lit candles onto the Tigris river to make a wish near the al-Khadir shrine in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, July 3, 2011. Tariq and his wife wished during a similar ceremony last year to have a baby, and conceived Sajad soon afterward. Each candle represents the wishes of one individual for the following year. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

UPCOMING EVENTS

07/12/11 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE PLANNING MEETING
This is at Room 102, downstairs at First Congregational Church of Christ in Asheville.  Time is 6 PM.  Peacetown Asheville is organizing this event.

07/15/11 FRIDAY NIGHT MOVIE SERIES AT COMMON LIGHT MEETINGHOUSE
July 15: Budrus - An amazing account of one family's leadership of a movement to prevent Israel's Separation Barrier from slicing the Palestinian village of Budrus in half.
July 22: The Singing Revolution - The people of Estonia had no weapons but their inspiration and their singing culture.  They sang their way to freedom from Soviet domination.
Time is 7:30 PM.  Location is Common Light Meeting House in Black Mountain.
This is presented by Daniel O. Snyder, PhD, who is a private practice pastoral counselor in Asheville and Black Mountain.  He has been studying and teaching nonviolence since l974 and since 2004 has taught a variety of workshops on peacemaking at Common Light Meeting place.   Dan is offering this summer's series of films and discussions, and clinics for the purpose of helping nonviolence toward its "tipping point," supporting awareness of a force that could transform the world.  To register or to find out more, email Mahan Siler at jahan222@bellsouth.net or call 828- 298-9509.

07/15/11 PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY MEETING
Lunch will be eaten at noon, and meeting starts at 12:30. Location is NIRS office at 45 Riverview Drive, please park on the street. This meeting is open to all, and a short program is usually included.  Please go to www.wncpsr.org  for more information, which includes how to get there and other details.

07/15/11 DAY OF ACTION ON NUCLEAR WASTE
Meet up at 4 pm on Friday July 15 at Pritchard Park in downtown Asheville, there will be speakers and a march to the US Federal Building to rally at Otis & Patton Avenue.  Message: keep high-level radioactive waste at the nuclear power plants where it is made.  Do not ship it to a so-called “temporary site,” do not ship it through these mountains, do not separate the plutonium.  This is sponsored by the Mountain Protectors Group.

07/16/11 WORK, CAPITALISM, ECONOMICS, RESISTANCE
This author event will be held at Firestorm Cafe & Books at 5 PM.  This is a presentation of the new book by Crimethnic, “Work: Capitalism, Economics, Resistance” followed by a discussion with contributors.

07/16/11 ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT TOWN HALL MEETING
The local sub-chapter of The Zeitgeist Movement will hold its first monthly Town Hall Meeting from 5pm to 7pm at the Hi-Fi Cafe, in the Downtown Market at 45 S French Broad Ave.  We encourage the public to ask questions about The Movement's background and mission, and learn about upcoming chapter events. Food donations requested for Manna Food Bank.  More event info: http://zeitgeist-nc.groupsite.com/group/asheville/calendar/soonest/283134.  Contact Gary at gkentnc@gmail.com for more info about TZM.

07/17/11 ETHICAL SOCIETY OF ASHEVILLE
“The YMI – It’s History, Significance and Present Programs” will be presented by Ronald King at the Sunday, July 17th meeting of the Ethical Society of Asheville, 2:00-3:30 PM, held in the Botanical Gardens Visitor Center, 151 W.T. Weaver Blvd.  The YMI Cultural Center has a rich history, having been built in 1892 and listed on the Historical Registry.  There will be a discussion period following the presentation.  Mr. King is a former battalion chief with the Asheville Fire Department, YMI board member and Interim Director of Operations at the YMI.

07/27/11 NIRS MEETING
“No nukes in WNC” is an educational workshop with Mary Olson, from NIRS Southeast.  Time is 6 to 8 PM.  Held at NIRS House, call for location and directions 828-252-8409.

07/24/11 LETTER WRITING TO IMPRISONED ACTIVISTS
Letter writing circle to send our words of support to imprisoned activists.  Location is the Battery Park Roof Garden from 1:30-3:30 PM. (0206 on keypad at door to be buzzed in).  Come learn about and share information about current U.S. political prisoners. Write letters of support.  Read letters from inside. For Info: Clare Hanrahan 828-242-5610.  Prisoner addresses, writing tips, information on issues and actions and prisoner profiles provided. Support our sisters and brothers who are bearing the burden of dissent. Bring snacks and postcards, stationery & stamps.  RSVP appreciated.

08/12/11 MOVIE NIGHT AT UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH  
The movie “Bag It” will be shown at 7 PM.  Donations accepted, this is at the Asheville UU church at Charlotte and Edwin Streets.

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ACTIONS AND READINGS
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This piece (below) came from an email sent to United for Peace & Justice.  It was part of a discussion about the recent votes in the US House concerning wars and war funding.

++++++++

Apart from the wavering Reps in the Progressive Caucus, its worth thinking about the fact that last month  204 members of the House of Representative (178 Democrats) voted for the McGovern-Jones amendment asking the White House for "a plan for accelerated transition of US forces from Afghanistan." The plan did not materialize and most of those Congressional Representatives voted to fund the wars anyway.

In May I received a flood of alerts from national peace groups, Move-On, Campaign for America's Future and others progressive entities urging me to "end the war in Afghanistan" by supporting McGovern-Jones. I did support that amendment and respect both Congressmen for their antiwar efforts. But whatever its merits, that was not a "war-ending" piece of legislation. It was a plea to the President to end the war. Which he is plainly not doing.

The contrast this week was hard to miss. Most of the organizations, which sent out those previous alerts had nothing to say about the $648.7 billion defense budget ...in the same period, where even Medicare and Social Security were on the chopping block because of shortage of money. Why was that? Groups holding their fire for what reason?

Rusti

Nonviolence Guidelines

The photo above came from the anti-nuclear bombs conference in the summer of 2010 in Tennessee.

The information below was on a handout given to me at the demonstration in the recent past.

*Be nonviolent in speech and tone as well as in action.

*Show respect for all people; each person has a piece of the truth.

*Always leave the other a face-saving way out.

*In difficult moments, behave as a disciple of nonviolence.

*Try to make human contact with your antagonist, meeting them on the level of your common humanity.

*Do not hide anything.  Tell the truth.

Song: God Bless the Grass

Malvina Reynolds - Sings the truth (1966)

God bless the grass that grows thru the crack.
They roll the concrete over it to try and keep it back.
The concrete gets tired of what it has to do,
It breaks and it buckles and the grass grows thru,
And God bless the grass.

God bless the truth that fights toward the sun,
They roll the lies over it and think that it is done.
It moves through the ground and reaches for the air,
And after a while it is growing everywhere,
And God bless the grass.

God bless the grass that grows through cement.
It's green and it's tender and it's easily bent.
But after a while it lifts up its head,
For the grass is living and the stone is dead,
And God bless the grass.

God bless the grass that's gentle and low,
Its roots they are deep and its will is to grow.
And God bless the truth, the friend of the poor,
And the wild grass growing at the poor man's door,
And God bless the grass.

Nuclear waste from nuclear plants

"Until we know how to safely dispose of the radioactive materials generated by nuclear plants, we should postpone these activities so as not to cause further harm to future generations. To do otherwise is simply an immoral act, and that is my belief, both as a scientist and as a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing."  -- Dr Shoji Sawada

Caught: Agent Provocateurs in Quebec in 2007

We need to catch the agent provocateurs here in the USA.

Cloisters Condominium Community Garden - June 30, 2011

Continuing my monthly series of our community garden. 

US Mayors Call for End to Wars and Nuclear Weapons

Photo:  Some of the nation's mayors gather for a press conference in downtown Oklahoma City.

Photo from the website of an Oklahoma TV channel.

Last month, the mayors of major US cities held a conference.  They voted to adopt two resolutions:  for the drawdown of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and the abolition of nuclear weapons.  These resolutions also called for the money spent on these activities to be spent on the needs of Americans and American cities.  The resolution on nuclear abolition was unanimous.  This group of mayors represents all US cities that have more than 30,000 residents.

"We shall overcome" by Roger Waters (about Palestine)

Brian Haw

Photo:  Anti-war protestor Brian Haw poses near the Houses of Parliament in London in an October 25, 2004 file photo. British peace campaigner Brian Haw, who lived and slept outside the Houses of Parliament in London for a decade to protest about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has died of cancer, his family said on June 19, 2011. He was 62.   REUTERS/Toby Melville/files

Brian Haw is a hero of mine.  He stood outside of the British Parliament in London against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  He sacrificed a decade of his life to get a message across:  that war was wrong, very wrong.  He did not stop the wars, but he will be remembered as a man who stood against them by camping out with his signs that clearly stated that the wars were wrong.  He was there in all kinds of weather, all year round.  He did it for years.  This is what a writer in The Guardian saidabout him:

The remarkable thing about Brian was not only his principle, but his determination, alone, to be effective as indeed he was; for millions of people must have seen him there or on television, and came to know of his campaign.

He had a few friends who shared his long hours on the square and he must have done endless little broadcasts with TV crews. Film units from all over the world who were in London reporting on the likelihood of an Iraq war would also come to Parliament Square to see Brian, who they described as "the man of peace in Westminster", and thus he presented to the world a message of reconciliation that was certainly not coming from the two backbenches at the time.

Brian Haw made great sacrifices for peace, and while he was not successful, he tried very, very hard to achieve that goal.  He will be remembered forever as the man who tried to stop the wars, particularly on Iraq.  He died in June, 2011.  Rest in peace, Brian.

Ann Wright

This is a picture of Ann Wright in Greece, taken last week.  Last I heard, the Flotilla for Gaza is still blocked in a port in Greece.  Several folks have been arrested for protesting peacefully.  I don't know how this will end, but I am following events there pretty closely.

I hope the Flotilla for Gaza makes it to Gaza.

A protest song for the drone bombers

"For America" by Jackson Browne

Let your love flow...

Dancin' in the moonlight......

Witness Against Torture - July 2011

US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DISRUPTED BY ANTI-TORTURE ACTIVISTS
Witness Against Torture Interrupts a Vote on the
House Floor with the call "Close Guantanamo!"

WASHINGTON, DC – While the US House of Representatives chamber filled for a vote today at 4:40pm, Representatives' eyes and ears turned toward the Chamber's gallery as a group of activists interrupted proceedings to call for the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison and denounce provisions in the Defense Appropriations Bill concerning detention policy.  Fifteen people from the group Witness Against Torture stood in the gallery to read the following statement:

Today the House of Representative is in the process of contemplating not the passage of a bill but the commission of a crime. Provisions in the proposed Defense Appropriations Bill grant the United States powers over the lives of detained men fitting of a totalitarian state that uses the law itself as an instrument of tyranny. The law would make the prison at Guantanamo permanent by denying funds for the transfer of men to the United States, even for prosecution in civilian courts.  Abandoning the civilian courts, the bill would be the ultimate concession that the rule of law and cherished American values cannot survive the fear and hatred that have consumed this country.  The proposed bill makes restrictions on the transfer of detainees even to foreign countries so severe that no one — whether cleared for release by our own government or acquitted in trials — could be expected to leave Guantanamo. It therefore mandates the indefinite detention even of innocent human beings, which is the very essence of tyranny. Congress has an obligation to uphold the US Constitution. All Americans have the obligation to defend human rights. The proposed bill makes America a callous and reckless jailer, unworthy of the name of democracy. It must be defeated.  Guantanamo must close. Those unjustly bound must be freed. Justice must rule.

The activists were removed from the gallery by the police and placed under arrest.  They will likely appear for arraignment in District of Columbia Superior Court on Friday. 

Earlier today, before entering the House chamber, members of Witness Against Torture, the Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition (TASSC), Amnesty International and other groups embarked on a March of Shame, walking between the institutions in Washington DC that continue to be responsible for unjust, illegal, and immoral American policies and conduct.

Beginning at the White House at 11am, the anti-torture activists, dressed in the orange jumpsuits and black hoods that are now emblematic of the policies of torture and abuse that the Obama administration inherited from President George W. Bush and has further entrenched. Then the group solemnly processed to the Department of Justice, the Supreme Court, and the Capitol.

The demonstrators called on all branches of government to close Guantanamo, end indefinite detention, repudiate the Military Commissions, and resist any effort to reauthorize torture in the form of “enhanced interrogations.”  The procession took place as the House of Representatives is dealing with a version of the 2012 defense appropriations bill that undermines US Federal Courts, keeps Guantanamo open, and attempts to expand indefinite detention.

Witness Against Torture will vigil at the Department of Justice on Friday (6/24) from noon to 2pm. These demonstrations are part of a week of activities organized by the Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition International, culminating in a vigil in front of the White House on Saturday, June 25^th from 7am to 7pm. 

Witness Against Torture demands:

• Close the prison at Guantánamo Bay;
• Free all prisoners who have been cleared for release, ensuring their safe resettlement and providing asylum in the U.S. for those unable to go elsewhere;
• Produce charges against all other prisoners and prosecute them in U.S. courts;
• Open all detention centers to outside scrutiny. That includes accepting the oversight of the International Committee of the Red Cross of all facilities; and
• Conduct a comprehensive criminal inquiry against all those who designed and carried out torture policies under the Bush administration.

Witness Against Torture

http://www.witnesstorture.org/