TWO YEARS AGO - THE US BOMBED FALLUJAH

This Night in Fallujah: Lailat Al Qadr in Ramadan

By Sam Hamod
November 10, 2004

Tonight, in Fallujah

We wait

For the known

For the follow-up

To the fighter planes

To the rockets

To the long days of shelling

To the depleted uranium killing us slowly,

We wait

To see their tanks

Their tanks will come first

They remind us of the Israelis

They remind us American planes killed our cousins

In Palestine

Killed them with American rockets,

Now

They have come for us

We were living

Just living our lives,

With our wives and children,

Just like the Americans

They went to school, they did their lessons

They ran innocently

In the schoolyards

And on weekends the boys

Would tease the girls

In the marketplace, but

Dare not let the mother or

Father of the girl see, the girls

Would twist their

Hair, their smiles

And blush

Away from the eyes

Of their mothers

We were just living

Not looking to fight, just

Wanting to be

Left alone

But they came

Hunting us, like

Animals, like wild

Things, they came

Shooting, randomly,

Dropping 500 pound bombs

Destroying our mosques, our

Churches, our schools, our

Hospitals, our water, our

Electricity—they bombed

Us back 300 years

But, we

Just wanted to live

Just wanted to pray each day

In our mosques, raise our

Children, take care of our

Wives, our old fathers and

Mothers, we are not for

Fighting—but now

There is no

Choice—what good

Would it be to run

To be shot down

Like an animal on the run,

Now it is time, even with

The small weapons

We have, we shall stand now

To protect what we have

To claim our own homes, to claim

Our own peace

They are strange

These Christians, not like

My cousin’s wife

Who is Christian, in our

Christian churches, they say

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,”

“God’s greatest gift is mercy,”

but these men come

with large crosses on their chests,

their ministers teach them songs about

killing and killing for Jesus, these

Americans are strange, we had

Always heard

They were peaceful people, people

Who wanted what we wanted,

Peace, life, justice,

Decency, education,

We had heard----
So now they come,

Loudspeakers on their jeeps, loudspeakers

And louder music, drums banging,

They tell us to surrender or die, they have

Iraqi slaves among them, some of whom

Will, at the last minute, turn on these

Americans, kill some

And themselves be killed,

We have on our side, Allah

We have on our side, our families,

Our homes, our thousands of years

Of having to defend ourselves

From Persians, from Greeks, from

Romans, from Mongols, from Crusaders,

From Turks, from British—now

This new evil, this new devil

Flying their flags, red, white and blue,

Blaring their music and harsh words,

We see their eyes now,

They are young, like

Us, they are afraid, yet

They want to kill us, we

Are “ragheads,” “we are animals,”

We are “assholes,” “we are terrorists”

And every other name you can think of

And they have come to kill us

To wipe our city off the maps of the world,

Off the map of Iraq, they say

They come at the order of the exile

The Americans sent to rule us, Iyad

Allawi, Iyad the whore, Iyad the munafik,

Iyad the devil—and yes,

We shall die, but Allah knows

Who is the evil one

And who is the one who fights in his name,

There is always that short term victory

For the devils

But their long run is not long

And they too shall die

We do not want to die, but

We understand dying is only

Part of living, death is always

Waiting, sometimes

Patiently, other times

Takes us swiftly, but we understand

This is the will of Allah

Some of us must die

So that others will

Understand

Just what is going on

So that others will see

So that others will resist even more

Our deaths will echo in Saudi Arabia,

In Kuwait, in the Muslim halls of the world, in

The cries of our women, in the history of our

Muslim people, in the Khutba’s on Friday’s

Prayers—they know

That we die during Ramadan, they know

We die gloriously at the hand of the heathens, at

The hands of the unbelievers, for the sake of

What the Qur’an taught us,

To protect our families, our homes, our country and

Most of all to protect our mosques

And Islam

So we have stayed to fight

And die during Ramadan, this

Most holy of months, this Ramadan

That requires so much

Discipline and faith, this Ramadan

That is the month of our sign of commitment

To Allah, it is a glorious month

In which to fight, and if necessary

To die

No, we are not mad

We do not wish to die

We have more desire to live

Than these devils who have invaded our land

Attacked our fathers and mothers, who

Have raped our women, who have

Tortured our cousins and brothers in their

Prisons, all in the name of

“democracy,” and “liberty,” and “freedom”—

how hollow their words

how hollow their lies

how hollow their attacks on us

they do not realize

we do not die, we

live, we live

on now, as martyrs, as

heroes, as men who

were not afraid to die, as men

who believed in the Deen, in Allah,

in the same God they proclaim but do not truly follow—

but his wrath is coming

his wrath shall be coming upon them—

if they survive our fight, they

are being poisoned, just as we have been poisoned,

the depleted uranium has poisoned their blood,

has poisoned the eggs in their sperm,

has poisoned their lives

so when they have deformed children, the

children will be witnesses to their killing

us, to their killing of their own souls,

to their killing their own families, and

what of those who will go mad, whose

nightmares will not let them ever sleep

another peaceful night

and what will their faces tell them

when they look in the mirror

when they look on their dressers

and see the pieces of metal

they were given for killing us

in our own homes, in own cities, in

our own mosques and churches,

what will their eyes say,

what will they say when their twisted

lies are uncovered, when the rest of the

world speaks of their massacres of

women and children, of old men, of

bombing hospitals, what will they

do when they see the smirking face

of their presidents, their senators, their

leaders who have allowed them to do this,

have ordered them to do this

—and

what will they say to Jesus

when he speaks to them on Judgement Day

when he asks why they killed—

why they did not say, NO

why they did not prefer prison over killing of innocent

civilians, and to the pilots who

fly freely, without concern of any reprisal, F16s rocketing

our city day after day, night after night, surely

they will not fly with the angels, but

shall burn even worse than the rest—

and so we hear the rockets and hear the bombs

during our maghrib prayer, we have heard since our fajr

prayers, we do not much feel like iftar, the food

has lost some of its taste, no one wants to die,

no one wants to leave their wife and children,

no one wants never to see their father or mother again,

no one wants to have to fight, just to live,

no one wants to have to kill another human being—at least

none of us,

we were living peacefully in our city,

we did not attack anyone, we

did not do anything worse than defend ourselves,

and for that

now we know we must die, we

know that unless Allah produces a miracle

or sends legions of angels to protect us

that the planes will attack

with the tanks that will crush us

with the rockets and snipers who

will split our bodies into pieces, whose

concussions will split our heads open,

whose noise will puncture our eardrums

until we bleed

and like our blessed Prophet Jesus, who came

before our blessed Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,

we shall die, just as Jesus

was martyred—we shall be martyred

by the new Roman, the new crusader army,

on this Night of Power, where Allah’s message of

righteousness and courage is clear, where

we renew our commitment to our God,

where we know he gives us everlasting life

though we may die tonight on the earth,

we shall live forever, in Allah’s hands

We shall live

in history, and the world, yea

the world will remember

we stood and fought this day,

knowing we would die

but knowing that death is only a moment

in God’s time, in Allah’s time

and that those who kill us today

may live long and tortured lives

when they realize what evil they have done

and those evil men

who ordered them on, Allawi, Bush,

Cheney, Wolfowitz, Abizaid, Myers and the rest,

Allah will take care of them

On the earth and on Judgement Day,

And the men who did not have the courage to

Say, No, they will suffer each day

For the rest of their earthly days,

For it is written, that whosoever kills a believer

During Ramadan, will suffer hellfire and damnation

For eternity

So we choose to stand, to die if we must,

But during this blessed month of Ramadan

There is no death to the believer

Only the knowledge that Allah’s ways

Are beyond our understanding—we may not

Be on the earth so see what will happen

From our stand, but we will be looking

Down from Heaven

And we shall see Allah visit his wrath

On those who come to kill us in our homes,

In our city, in our country, in our churches, in

Our mosques—and though we may die,

Like these days of our battle,

Our spirits

Will live forever

Lailat Al Qadr: The Night of Power where God’s message is clear to the world, where God/Allah blesses the righteous and condemns the evil ones.

Ramadan: The Muslim Holy Month of fasting, prayer and renewed commitment to God/Allah (Allah is the Arabic word for God, used by Muslims and Christians alike in the Middle East).

Khutba: The Muslim sermon on prayer days in the mosques.

Sam Hamod prays for the souls of all who will lose their lives in the wrongful American attack on Fallujah; he has published 10 books of poems; he also is the former Director of The Islamic Center of Washington, DC. This poem may be reprinted wherever and whenever anyone wishes; please inform Dr. Hamod if you wish to publish it. [I tried to reach Dr. Hamod, but the email address given did not work. – dancewater]

Democracy Hypocrisy, Part 8

Evil Is As Evil Does

Perhaps Americans don’t notice, but the rest of the world does see the double standard applied when Saddam Hussein is put on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, while US, UK, and Israeli government officials commit far greater crimes by illegally invading countries, targeting civilian populations, and torturing detainees.

I sure noticed how the US government supported and funded Saddam when he was busy making war on Iran and killing off the Kurds. Now, he has been found guilty of ordering the deaths of 140+ Shi’ites. These poor people were living in a village where someone tried to kill Saddam. Saddam got his revenge.

I wonder if the US is going to put the CIA on trial for the car bombs (under Allawi) in the 1990’s in Baghdad. They were attempts to kill Saddam – but instead killed school children. Or how about putting Bush and Blair on trial for their “shock and awe(ful)” campaign in 2003 to kill off Saddam – that only killed civilians.

Or, more appropriately, how about the two assaults on the city of Fallujah? Some of the people there (a very small number) killed off some “security contractors” that happened to be Americans. That was in 2004. How is that any different than what Saddam did?

More HYPOCRISY.

One headline last week said:

Unclear if US Republicans Will Profit From Saddam Trial Verdict.

Profit? They should be on trial with him! They were aided and abetting him when he was doing his dirty deeds!!! They were selling him arms and intelligence!!! The stinking hypocrites!!!

However, I must add that the US Republicans did not profit from the announcement of Saddam's verdict. They lost BIG TIME in the election.

Election Night

First, I want to say that the voting process in NC was very different this time around. I played some part in that, but to be honest, I gave up at some point because I felt I was banging my head against a wall. FORTUNATELY, my friends did not give up. And we now have a paper-trail ballot that was easy and quick and counted by an optical scan machine. 75% of the state has optical scan machines, 25% still have electronic, but they still have a paper trail in the machines (they are just about impossible to read however). Also, we chased Diebold out of the state.

We also had early voting for two weeks. I have worked the early voting polls on three Friday afternoons. I also worked at a poll this afternoon and evening. I found most people had already decided who to vote for in the US House race and the NC House and NC Senate races. But they did not know who to vote for in the non-partisan races, like judges, school board, and water and soil board. So, the information I handed out was useful.

Tonight there is a party in downtown Asheville for the Democrats. I left because I am just too tired. Shuler was pulling ahead, but it is close. I did not vote for either Shuler or Taylor – NEITHER are peace candidates, and I will not vote for anyone who is not ever again. No exceptions.

I was working to promote Doug Jones for NC House. I still don’t know if he will win, but I do hope he does. He is young, a school teacher, a father of two small children. He is a great guy and would be great in the NC House or any elected position. I am hoping that he (when he wins) will join with Susan Fisher (also running for the NC House) and file articles of impeachment against Bush.

That’s my hope and plan. I also expect that the US House and US Senate will go to the Democrats tonight!

I am so glad the elections are over. I've been working on them quite a bit, and it is darn hard to spend that much time outside just standing around in the cold. Most people around here are receptive and polite, but some of those die-hard Republicans are nasty.

Hey, Clear Channel is still very nasty too, I found out tonight! I was at the party and I was telling the Clear Channel guys (One who’s name – I think – was “Mo”) that I hate Clear Channel for how they vilified any anti-war voices prior to the Iraq invasion and I hate them for how they trashed the Dixie Chicks. I said at one point "I will hate Clear Channel until I die." and Mo said "And that can't come soon enough" and walked away. Now, I might get upset if someone said they would hate my employer until they die, but I won't wish them dead!

I wonder if Mo will ever reflect on why someone who used to listen to Clear Channel (country radio) years ago now feels so strongly against the radio conglomerate that she goes around saying she hates them. I wonder if he will ever realize that the attitude he exhibited is exactly what’s wrong with Clear Channel – that you cannot hold an opinion that they don’t like. It is just not acceptable to them, and they will wish you dead if you do. Or else they will try to suppress you (read the FCC comes to Asheville post where the local Clear Channel radio host interrupted me during my 2 minute speech) or just plain vilify you (see “Dixie Chicks”).

Well, we can’t thank the corporate media, like Clear Channel, enough for the current mess we are in.

UPDATE: Shuler takes it (I had predicted he would lose, I was WRONG.) and Doug Jones loses by a slim margin. Also, Kissell, in the eastern part of the state, has lost by a very slim margin, but a count of provisional and absentee ballots could change that. The rest of my candidates won. The Democrats have taken the US House, not sure about the US Senate, but it isn’t looking too good.

Democracy Hypocrisy, Part 7

Guantanamo Prisoners Challenge New Terrorism Law

Lawyers for some Guantanamo prisoners urged a U.S. appeals court on Wednesday to strike down as unconstitutional a key part of the tough anti-terrorism law that President George W. Bush signed last month. They said the new law does not give the U.S. government the power to arrest suspects overseas and imprison them indefinitely without any charges and without allowing them to challenge their detention in U.S. court. A provision of the law unconstitutionally suspends the right under habeas corpus, a long-standing principle of American law, of the detainees to contest their imprisonment, they said. The attorneys, who represented six Algerians captured in Bosnia who have been in U.S. custody since 2002, said the authors of the U.S. Constitution recognized that people held in prison without being charged "must retain the right to obtain a court inquiry." The Bush administration says the new law means the appeals court no longer has jurisdiction to consider pending appeals filed by scores of inmates at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The law states: "No court, justice or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined ... to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination."

Yes, while we are busy bring “freedom and democracy” to the Iraqi people, we are busy denying it to our POWs in Guantanamo Bay, and stripping away civil rights here in the USA. The latest I heard was that we will now need to get “permission” to travel outside of the country. What slop!

Here is what one Iraqi had to say about the “freedom and democracy” Bush is bring to Iraq:

"S said if this is freedom, then I dont want it. If this is democracy, then to hell with it. In Saddam's time, we knew who was coming after us. Today we dont know which direction the bullet, the suicide bomb, the militia will come from. She said, Im in my thirties, the peak of my life. The time where I should be enjoying my life. And yet look at me. Im Christian, yet Im all covered up. I cant even say Im Christian. I cant wear my cross. I have to do it all in hiding."

BUSH IS BRINGING THEM THE FREEDOM OF THE GRAVE AND THE DEMOCRACY OF DEATH.

Democracy Hypocrisy, Part 6

Cluster Bomb Victims Overwhelmingly Civilians

Civilians, a quarter of them children, make up almost all the victims of cluster bombs over the last three decades, a humanitarian agency said on Thursday. In a study of 24 countries and regions, Handicap International said the controversial weapons, which scatter munitions over a wide area, had killed, wounded or maimed 11,044 people of whom 98 percent were civilians. The under-reporting of victims in such places as Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam meant the real total could be almost 10 times higher, it said. Some 27 percent of the victims were children, mainly boys, who were working or playing in areas where munitions were lying around after failing to explode on impact. "For 30 years governments have failed to address the disproportionate, long-term harm these weapons cause to civilian populations," Angelo Simonazzi, the agency's director general, said in a statement. Cluster bombs were recently used by Israel in its month-long war in Lebanon against Hezbollah guerrillas.

Yes, the Bush administration claims the ‘terrorists’ target civilians, and then goes and uses cluster bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, which mainly target civilians. Furthermore, they sell cluster bombs to Israel, who goes and uses them in the last days of the war against Lebanon this past summer. Last I heard, 20+ people, all CIVILIANS, have been killed in Lebanon by the cluster bombs used by Israel and MADE IN THE USA. And that was after the war was over.

This is murderous hypocrisy!

And they wonder “why they hate us”?

Democracy Hypocrisy, Part 5

Bush talking about the Democrats (on November 2, 2006):

"If you listen carefully for a Democrat plan for success, they don't have one. Iraq is the central front in the war on terror, yet they don't have a plan ..."

This is President Bush, who is speaking while campaigning for Republicans. If Bush has a plan, it is to increase chaos and violence in that poor country. It is only the ‘central front on the war on terror’ because he made it so. Talk about creating your own reality!

Here is someone else’s take on Bush’s “PLAN” in Iraq:

OPINION: Bush Has A Plan, And It Is Working

So, does the Bush administration have a plan for Iraq, and if so, is it working? The answer to both questions could well be "yes". But it's not a plan that Bush could publicly boast about, despite the fact that it’s working like a charm. …….. A strategy of fomenting chaos makes perfect sense in a twisted sort of way: a stable, autonomous Iraq means oil will be pumped, bringing down international crude prices, and that's the last thing the Bush administration's backers want. Who are the administration's backers, and who has a hotline to the presidency, via Vice President Dick Cheney? Big Oil.

On Rush’s show, President Bush said this in November 2006:

“Anybody who is in a position to serve this country ought to understand the consequences of words”

Bush said: “BRING ‘EM ON!!!” in July 2003 while our troops were directly in harm’s way. And he has the nerve to tell other people to understand the consequences of words! That phrase was used in an insurgent’s video of attacks on US troops. This is an outstanding example of hypocrisy!

Here’s another Bush comment from October 2002:

“America is a friend to the people of Iraq. Our demands are directed only at the regime that enslaves them and threatens us. When these demands are met, the first and greatest benefit will come to Iraqi men, women and children.”

Well, it seems that all demands were met – before the invasion actually. That is, all the STATED demands about not have a WMD program were met. Yet, oddly enough, Bush shows no interest or concern about what is happening to the Iraqi people. His officials said “stuff happens” when civil society was breaking apart at the seams and “we don’t do body counts” in comment to civilian casualties. Even today, they show no interest in seeing what is happening to the Iraqi people or even counting how many have been killed by this war and occupation.

Okay, technically, what Bush said in October 2002 isn’t hypocrisy – it is just a lie. But the hypocrisy comes in when the Bush supporters make statements that those of us against the war and against Bush policy WANT to see Iraq fail and the Iraqi people suffer. This is total nonsense to think that we went out on cold February days and protested just because we want to see Iraqis suffer, but the true hypocrisy lies in the fact that BUSH DOES NOT EVEN NOTICE THE IRAQI PEOPLE’S SUFFERING!! I’m not sure he knows they exist.

More Deadly Than Saddam

The final indignity, if you are an Iraqi who was shot for accidentally turning into the path of a U.S. military convoy (they thought you might be a terrorist), or blown apart by a car bomb or an airstrike, or tortured and murdered by kidnappers, or just for being a Sunni or a Shiite, is that U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will deny that your death happened.

More Democracy Hypocrisy, Part 4

The American government has closed one of its websites after a newspaper reported the site contained instructions on how to build a nuclear bomb.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said yesterday that it shut down a public Web site after complaints from U.N. weapons inspectors that the site included sensitive details about constructing nuclear and chemical weapons.

It is important to remember that the right wingnuts were the ones who INSISTED that these papers be posted on the web. They were sure that these papers, found in Iraq, would help them determine that Saddam had an active WMD program in 2003. THAT’S WHY THEY WERE POSTED ON THE WEB IN THE FIRST PLACE. So the looney tunes right wingnuts could interpret the papers themselves and prove Bush was right all along.

One of the first things they discovered was that Saddam had chemical and biological weapons detectors – and they thought that proved an active program. Apparently, the definition of the word “detectors” escaped them. (No one has ever said they were very bright.)

Now, with this revelation, they are again claiming that Saddam had an active WMD program – even though the papers date from before 1990 and tell us nothing about Saddam’s program that we didn’t already know! What they do tell people, in Arabic, is HOW to build such programs as Saddam had going back in 1990 - and that he DIDN’T have going in 2003.

And these hypocrites thing the New York Times is endangering national security (See Michell Matkin) when they publish information that everybody already knew – like the fact that Iraq is slipping into chaos. Or the fact that Bush is spying on domestic phone calls.

The right wingnuts go crazy when the New York Times publishes a leaked report from the military, yet they care NOT ONE WHIT about the leaking of an undercover CIA officer’s name – and thereby threaten lots of undercover CIA operatives around the world. Oh, and it just so happened that those operatives were working on uncovering nuclear WMD programs, and were not too popular with the Bush administration because they kept claiming that Saddam did not have a nuclear WMD program. And they were correct, and they will stay correct until the end of time.

That’s today’s examples of DEMOCRACY HYPOCRISY. (I have nine posts in total in this series, and I am starting to think I will NEVER run out of material!)

More Democracy Hypocrisy, Part 3

This blog post was aided by a Republican who is running for the NC House. He says his opponent stands for the HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA. Now, I am not sure what the HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA is exactly, but this guy thinks he knows: “In the past Goforth has been endorsed by NC Equality, a homosexual rights PAC. In April, 2003 he voted in committee to put sexual orientation, gender expression and gender identity into our Equal Employment Opportunity law.”

Got that? This guy thinks being opposed to discrimination under the law as the “homosexual agenda”. This guy think civil rights for all is UN-American and treating others fairly and humanly does not enter into his equation at all.

But, let’s take a look at other Republicans and their support for the HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA.

First, there was the Jeff Gannon/Guckett agenda. This guy got a job in the White House press corps even though he was not a journalist. He was a male prostitute who ran an escort service and a pornographic website. (He was also 8” cut – per his website.) How he got a job in the White House press corps is anybody’s guess, but I think we can assume they either don’t check these guys out ahead of time, or he was “servicing” someone there in the White House. The latter explanation would also serve to explain the mysterious visits to the White House at funny hours. So, was this the HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA? To pretend to be a reporter, even though you are a porn star, and go ask questions that are insulting to Democrats? Well, no, I would say that is the Republican agenda, at least for some Republicans.

I think if we had given Ken Starr about $80 million we could have uncovered the “blue stained shirt” in that little fiasco.

Then there is the Mark Foley agenda. He writes laws to protect children from on-line predators, and then goes after them himself. And blames it on alcoholism, a former priest, and who-knows-what-else!! Who is this the HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA?? Being a total hypocrite about morality? Or is it yet again a REPUBLICAN AGENDA?

I report. You decide.

The last major election, the Republicans got their “base” out to vote in 14 states by getting an anti-gay marriage amendment on the ballot. And apparently, extending civil rights to all Americans is NOT ON THEIR AGENDA, since they seem to think that homosexuality is evil (never mind that people are born that way!). Yes, they got their followers to go to the polls and vote against the HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA, just like the local Republican running for office is doing. They get people all riled up over something that does not impact on their lives, that they can ignore if they choose to, and something that Jesus himself (who they claim to follow) had nothing to say about. THE POSSIBILITY that homosexuals might get married is what they are concerned about – not the poor, not the hungry, not the illegal war in Iraq that has killed over a half million people. Just what some adults might do in the privacy of their own homes, and the fact that they may want to have the same civil rights extended to other people in this country.

Yes, they claim to believe in democracy, even to the point of exporting it to other countries, yet they don’t want equal civil rights for all Americans!

And the LATEST in this huge HYPOCRISY list is the Haggard affair. Pastor Haggard was the head of huge church out in Colorado that is part of the evangelical movement. They strongly condemn (as did Haggard) HOMOSEXUALITY as a SIN. They are against civil rights for all Americans and they are very much in favor of the US Government monitoring and interfering with what adults do in the privacy of their own homes – the last one being true only for the homosexuals and Democrats and other people they hate. (And, in spite of being a so-called “Christian” church, they think it is a-okay to hate anyone. That “Sermon on the Mount” stuff means NOTHING to them.)

Turns out Pastor Haggard not only engaged in HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVITIY, he also paid a hooker for the ‘services’ while preaching that it was a sin! He engaged in homosexual activity with a hooker while trying to make other Americans feel bad because they engage in a mature honest relationship that happen to be homosexual! He engaged in homosexual activity with a hooker while he supports denying civil rights to ALL AMERICANS.

Now, I don’t know if the Republican running for the NC House is also a closet gay that uses a hooker, but I do know that he is opposed to EQUALITY for all Americans and that he is willing to deny some Americans their CIVIL RIGHTS. I do know he belongs to the Republican Party, where all these HYPOCRITES came from. I know he is also the only one in this particular race to use smear attack ads (in print) against his opponent.

Together, I think these qualities make him unsuitable for just about any political office. I will make a copy of this blog post and mail it to him – and he will get it after he loses this election. I hope he does not run again, because I have been polite to him in the past, but I probably won’t be in the future. He just does not deserve it. He is a hypocrite, too.

Oh, and visiting his website shows that he supports the ACTION CLUB which is really an anti-immigration club that goes after the poor folks, not the rich guys who (illegally) give the immigrants jobs. Guess it does not bother him that this area was inhabited by natives until the immigrants from Europe kicked them out (or killed them).

Stay tuned for the next version of Democracy Hypocrisy!

More Democracy Hypocrisy, Part 2

More Democracy Hypocrisy, Part 2

I have a whole list of items to present on “Democracy Hypocrisy” but seriously, I can’t keep up with these a**holes. But here is one more installment:

ABSOLUTELY ASTOUNDING HYPOCRISY

A**holes blame Iraqis (or the Bush administration) for the disaster in Iraq. Glenn Greenwald has that summary of hypocrisy. Before they blamed the Iraqis for voting for the wrong leaders, they praised them for voting for the right leaders. And before they got busy blaming the Bush administration for messing up the war on Iraq, they were busy helping the Bush administration promote the war on Iraq. Ledeen, one of the main promoters of the war on Iraq, said this in 2002: “One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today.” Well, he got what he wanted and now he claims he was against the war! What a liar – and hypocrisy doesn’t get much deeper than this.

However, Dole, our detested Senator from NC, is busy blaming the Democrats for the (in her mind only) upcoming loss of the war in Iraq. I called her office today to remind her that it was a REPUBLICAN president and REBUPLICAN congress that thought up this war in 2001-2002, it was a REPUBLICAN president and a REPUBLICAN congress that started the war in 2003, and it was a REPUBLICAN president and a REPUBLICAN congress that lost the war in August 2003 when the UN headquarters and the holy shrine in Najaf were bombed. IT IS FULLY A REPUBLICAN DEAL, no matter what the upcoming US elections show, and no matter how many despicable DEMOCRATS supported this illegal and immoral war, and no matter what happens next. To blame anyone else is the deepest of lies and hypocrisy, not that they care.

Then Ledeen goes and posts this about his critics (in response to the heat from Glenn Greenwald):

The usual suspects are up in arms that I am a "liar" for stating in response to the Vanity Fair piece that "I opposed the military invasion of Iraq before it took place and I advocated - as I still do - support for political revolution in Iran as the logical and necessary first step in the war against the terror masters."

Without including any links to the people who are making such claims or their overwhelming evidence. Yep, more hypocrisy – then he goes and says this:

As for the Scowcroft excoriation left bloggers are pointing to, I never address military action in it. Which, again, anyone who's been reading me all this time know wasn't my solution to the problem.

Well, see quote above! Taken right from the article he is linking to here! Apparently, turning it into a “cauldron” is not (in his mind) a reference to military action. What is it then, a reference to pure terrorism to be visited on the people of the Middle East? Only a truly evil person would want to turn some part of the world into a CAULDRON. And they wonder why “they” hate us!!

If you wish, you can email the National Review, where Ledeen now claims he was always against the war, and let them know what a liar he is. Below are two emails.

comments.lowry@nationalreview.com

klopez@nationalreview.com

And you can also email the American Enterprise Institute, where Ledeen works, and let them know what a liar and hypocrite he is.

VRodman@aei.org

ALevy@aei.org

I guess technically, this goes way beyond hypocrisy and just is outright LYING. But they are still hypocrites to blame other people for their screw-ups.

Democracy Hypocrisy

Well, the Bush administration has done it again! Bush says he wants democracy for Iraq and Afghanistan and the greater Middle East, then he goes and invests HEAVILY in anti-democracy activities and programs. The best example was Haiti in 2004, where they engineered a coup. Aristide had been elected in 2000, and in 2004, the chaos and turmoil started. More information HERE.

“But did the rebellion really spring from nowhere? Maybe not. Several leaders of the demonstrations -- some of whom also had links to the armed rebels -- had been getting organizational help and training from a U.S. government-financed organization. The group, the International Republican Institute (IRI), is supposed to focus on nonpartisan, grassroots democratization efforts overseas.”

There is also the example of Palestine. They went and elected Hamas, and the USA responded by cutting off all aid, and worse, not saying anything when Israel decided to keep tax money belonging to Palestine. Now, they are trying to starve them out. All this because they don’t like the people they elected.

Today was a double header in the democracy hypocrisy game. The Bush administration has threatened Nicaragua with economic sanctions if they elect Ortega. What right does he have to interfere with the elections in Nicaragua? They claim it is because Ortega had a prior relationship with a terrorist organization that US laws permit them to apply sanctions. First, I don’t think Ortega was any more of terrorist than the Bush administration has been. Second, Ortega and his government would be no threat to the USA at all. More information HERE.

Today’s second entry in the democracy hypocrisy game is Lebanon. They are claiming that there is mounting evidence that Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are planning to topple the Lebanese government. Gee, didn’t Bush go and topple a few governments recently? Not just planned and talked about, mind you, but DID IT. Haiti comes to mind. So does Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush seems to fail to notice that Lebanon is a democracy, and that Hezbollah is part of that democracy. Yes, they are messing around with the government of this country also, and again fail to realize that they have no right to do so. (And neither does Syria or Iran.) More information HERE.

It seems in Iraq that Bush is only bringing them the democracy of death.

The Horror of US Government Rendition

The article below was written by Maher Arar in response to receiving the Letelier-Moffitt International Human Rights Award. Mr. Arar was detained in NYC airport and sent to Syria, against his wishes, to be tortured. I have been following the story of Mr. Arar for a couple of years at least. It is appalling that the US government did this to him, and I sincerely hope that the men and the agencies who were behind this decision are brought to justice. And I do hope they have great difficulty sleeping at night and great difficulty looking in a mirror without throwing up. I hope they suffer ten times worse than anything Mr. Arar suffered, because (unlike Mr. Arar) they deserve it!

The Horrors of Extraordinary Rendition - By Maher Arar

“Since my release I have been suffering from anxiety, constant fear, and depression. My life will never be the same again. But I promised myself one thing, that I will continue my quest for justice as long as I have a breath. What keeps me going is my faith, Americans like yourselves and the hope that one day our planet Earth will be free of tyranny, torture and injustice.”

Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, was a victim of the U.S. policy known as "extraordinary rendition." He was detained by U.S. officials in 2002, accused of terrorist links, and handed over to Syrian authorities, who tortured him. Arar is working with the Center for Constitutional Rights to appeal a case against the U.S. government that was dismissed on national security grounds.

Attacks

This is a graph of the number of attacks that have been recorded in Iraq. Most of the attacks are against US/UK forces, but the attacks on civilians are growing. What is most disturbing is that the number of attacks in steadily going up.

Kucinich letter to Rumsfeld

Dennis Kucinich speaking from the Floor of the House - Extensions of Remarks

Link to this entry in the Congressional Record
May 4, 2006

"Mr. Speaker, [on April 5] I sent the following letter to Secretary Rumsfeld requesting records pertaining to Pentagon plans to use U.S. Special Forces to advise, support, and train Iraqi death squads:"

Hon. Donald Rumsfeld,
Secretary of Defense,
The Pentagon, Washington, DC.

April 5, 2006

Dear Secretary Rumsfeld:

I am writing to request a copy of all records pertaining to Pentagon plans to use U.S. Special Forces to advise, support and train Iraqi assassination and kidnapping teams.

On January 8, 2005, Newsweek magazine first published a report that the Pentagon had a proposal to train elite Iraqi squads to quell the growing Sunni insurgency. The proposal has been called the "Salvador Option," which references the U.S. military assistance program, initiated under the Carter Administration and subsequently pursued by the Reagan Administration, that funded and supported "nationalist" paramilitary forces who hunted down and assassinated rebel leaders and their supporters in El Salvador. This program in El Salvador was highly controversial and received much public backlash in the U.S., as tens of thousands of innocent civilians were assassinated and "disappeared," including notable members of the Catholic Church, Archbishop Oscar Romero and the four American churchwomen. According to the Newsweek report, Pentagon conservatives wanted to resurrect the Salvadoran program in Iraq because they believed that despite the incredible cost in human lives and human rights, it was successful in eradicating guerrillas.

Mr. Secretary, at a news conference on January 11, 2005, you publicly stated that the idea of a Salvador option was "nonsense." Yet mounting evidence suggests that the U.S. has in fact funded and trained Iraqi assassination and kidnapping teams and these teams are now operating with horrific success across Iraq.

We know that the Pentagon received funding for training Iraqi paramilitaries.

About one year before the Newsweek report on the "Salvador Option," it was reported in the American Prospect magazine on January 1, 2004 that part of $3 billion of the $87 billion Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill to fund operations in Iraq, signed into law on November 6, 2003, was designated for the creation of a paramilitary unit manned by militiamen associated with former Iraqi exile groups. According to the Prospect article, experts predicted that creation of this paramilitary unit would "lead to a wave of extrajudicial killings, not only of armed rebels but of nationalists, other opponents of the U.S. occupation and thousands of civilian Baathists." The article further described how the bulk of the $3 billion program, disguised as an Air Force classified program, would be used to "support U.S. efforts to create a lethal, and revenge-minded Iraqi security force." According to one of the article's sources, John Pike, an expert of classified military budgets at www.globalsecurity.org. "the big money would be for standing up an Iraqi secret police to liquidate the resistance."

We know that some of the Pentagon's Iraq experts were involved in the Reagan Administration's paramilitary program in El Salvador.

Colonel James Steele, Counselor to the U.S. Ambassador for Iraqi Security Forces, formerly led the U.S. Military Advisory Group in El Salvador from 1984-1986, where he developed special operating forces at brigade level during the height of the conflict. The role of these forces in El Salvador was to attack "insurgent" leadership, their supporters, sources of supply, and base camps. Currently Colonel Steele has been assigned to work with the new elite Iraqi counter-insurgency unit known as the Special Police Commandos, operating under Iraq's Interior Ministry.

Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, was U.S. Ambassador to Iraq from June 2004 to April 2005. From 1981 to 1985, he was ambassador to Honduras where he played a key role in coordinating U.S. covert aid to the Contras, anti-Sandinista militias who targeted civilians in Nicaragua. Additionally, he oversaw the U.S. backing of a military death squad in Honduras, Battalion 3-16, which specialized in torture and assassination. The U.S. had similar programs of supporting paramilitary groups set up Nicaragua and Honduras as its program in El Salvador. In a Democracy Now interview on January 10, 2005, Allan Nairn, who broke the story about U.S. support of death squads in El Salvador, suspected that Ambassador Negroponte would most likely be involved in the economic side of U.S. support to death squads in Iraq.

We know that a wave of abductions and executions, in the style of the death squads of El Salvador, and with ties to an official government sponsor, and to the U.S., has hit Iraq.

News reports over the past 10 months strongly suggest that the U.S. has trained and supported highly organized Iraqi commando brigades, and that some of those brigades have operated as death squads, abducting and assassinating thousands of Iraqis. Some news highlights:

• May 1, 2005 -- Los Angeles Times reports that the U.S. is providing technical and logistical support to the Maghawir (Fearless Warrior) brigades, the Interior Ministry's special commandos, according to Major General Rasheed Flayih Mohammed. Iraqi authorities plan to increase deployment of the 12,000-strong Maghawir (Fearless Warrior) brigades, which are composed of well-trained veterans who have worked closely with U.S. forces in Najaf, Fallujah and Mosul and include the Wolf, Scorpion, Tiger and Thunder brigades.
• May 16-20, 2005 -- Los Angeles Times and New York Times reveal discovery of 46 bodies, all Iraqi men abducted and slain execution-style, in various locations: floating in the Tigris, dumped in ditches and garbage-strewn lots, and buried at a poultry farm.
• June 15, 2005 -- Washington Post reports that U.S. forces had knowledge of secret and illegal abductions of hundreds of minority Arabs in Kirkuk. The abductions were by forces led by Kurdish political parties and backed by the U.S. military.
• June 20, 2005 -- Los Angeles Times reports that Saad Sultan, of Iraq Human Rights Ministry said that police and security forces attached to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, thousands of whom have been trained by American instructors, are responsible for abusing up to 60% of estimated 12,000 detainees in prison and military compounds. He says the units have used tactics reminiscent of Saddam's secret intelligence squads.
• July 3, 2005 -- Reuters News reports that the government of Iraq publicly acknowledged that the new security forces were using torture. Article further says that accounts are common of people being seized by armed men in the uniforms of the police, army or special units like Baghdad's Wolf Brigade police commandos, and then disappearing without trace or being found dead.
• July 28, 2005 -- Los Angeles Times reports that members of a California Army National Guard company, the Alpha Company, who were implicated in a detainee abuse scandal, trained and conducted joint operations with the Wolf Brigade, a commando unit criticized for human rights abuses. In an online Alpha Company newsletter, Captain Haviland wrote, "We have assigned 2nd Platoon to help them transition, and install some of our 'Killer Company' aggressive tactical spirit in them." The article further states that despite the Wolf Brigade's controversial reputation for human rights violations, it is regarded as the gold standard for Iraqi security forces by U.S. military officials.
• August 31, 2005 -- BBC reports that on the night of August 24, a large force of the Volcano Brigade raided homes in Al-Hurriyah city in the Baghdad, kidnapping and then executing 76 citizens. The victims were all shot in the head after their hands and feet had been tied up. They suffered the harshest forms of torture, deformation and burning.
• November 16, 2005 -- Reuters News reports the discovery of 173 malnourished men, some of whom were tortured, imprisoned in a secret jail run by Shi'ite militias tied to the Interior Ministry.
• November 17, 2005 -- Newsday reports that in the past year, the U.S. military has helped build up Iraqi commandos under guidance from James Steele, a former Army Special Forces officer who led U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in El Salvador in the 1980s. The brigades built up over the past year include the Lion Brigade, Scorpion Brigade and Volcano Brigade.
• February 15, 2006 -- Associated Press reports that the Interior Ministry has launched a probe into death squad allegations.
• February 19, 2006 -- BBC reveals that morgues in Baghdad receive dozens of bodies picked up daily from rivers, sewage plants, waste burial sites, farms and desert areas. Most of the bodies are handcuffed and blindfolded civilians with a bullet or more in the forehead, indicating that they were executed. The handcuffs used on the victims are like those used by the Iraqi police.
• February 26, 2006 -- The Independent reports that outgoing United Nations' human rights chief in Iraq, John Pace, revealed that hundreds of Iraqis are being tortured to death or summarily executed every month in Baghdad alone by the death squads working from the Ministry of Interior. He said that up to three-quarters of the corpses stacked in the Baghdad mortuary show evidence of gunshot wounds to the head or injuries caused by drill-bits or burning cigarettes.
• March 9, 2006 -- Los Angeles Times reports that Iraqi police officers who worked at the Interior Ministry's illegal prison had received American training, and that U.S. trainers have also given extensive support to 27 brigades of heavily armed commandos accused of a series of abuses, including the death of 14 Sunni Arabs who were locked in an airtight van last summer.
• March 10, 2006 -- Sidney Morning Herald reports that men wearing the uniforms of U.S.-trained security forces, which are controlled by the Interior Ministry, abducted 50 people in a daylight raid on a security agency. Masked men who are driving what appear to be new government-owned vehicles are carrying out many of the raids.
• March 27, 2006 -- The Independent reports that while U.S. authorities have begun criticizing the Iraqi government over the "death squads," many of the paramilitary groups accused of the abuse, such as the Wolf Brigade, the Scorpion Brigade and the Special Police Commandos were set up with the help of the American military. Furthermore, the militiamen were provided with U.S. advisers some of whom were veterans of Latin American counter-insurgency which also had led to allegations of death squads at the time.

Mr. Secretary, in light of this evidence of U.S. support for and the existence of death squads in Iraq, what is the basis for your January 11, 2005 statement, that the idea of a Salvador option in Iraq is "nonsense"?

I request a copy of all records pertaining to Pentagon plans to use U.S. Special Forces to advise, support and train Iraqi assassination and kidnapping teams. I look forward to receiving your response.

Sincerely,
Dennis J. Kucinich,
Member of Congress

Now, go watch this flash movie: CRYING WOLF

I personally took notice of a young boy, Ali Nasir Jabur, who was the sole survivor of his family when gunmen wearing Iraqi Security Forces uniforms raided their home the previous night. Ali was ten years old, and this happened on August 20-21, 2005 in Tikrit. I have posted about him on this blog. Ali survived by hiding under a blanket. (Ali, I hope you live to be able to read all this one day, and let me know you survived.) I took his picture and his story to every US Senators office in September 2005. In May 2006, I took another letter to every US Senators office. It was a copy of the original letter with a hand written note shaming them for failing to take any action.

I do suspect the Iraqi Interior Ministry death squads were started and funded by the US government. It may (or may not) be out of their control at this point.

But I do believe they started it, just like in El Salvador.

Be a survivor, Ali, and then bring them to justice.

Some Questions for you, Mr. Edwards

Now that you don't support the Iraq war (being that it is unpopular now and all) after you helped get it started, what are you going to do about all the dead people? A recent study says there are 600,000+ excessive deaths in Iraq since March 2003, when you allowed the war to get going.

And, what are you going to do about all the people who will now get cancer from the D.U. you spread all over the country of Iraq? Do you think those poor people will have access to health care for their cancers (like your wife had)?

And finally, what are you going to do with your war profits? I know it was legal and all to put your money into a 'blind trust'just before the war started and then they invested it in defense industries, but doesn't it make you sick to think you made that money off of KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE WHO NEVER HURT YOU OR YOUR COUNTRY?

Does that keep you up at night? Does it make you throw up when you look in the mirror? Hey, I took all my little bit of money out of mutual funds for that reason, I just could not stomach the idea of making a profit off of DEATH.

How about you?

Oh, I voted for you in 98 for Senate and again in 2004 - but that last vote was the VERY LAST TIME I will vote for anyone who is okay with killing people. I will never vote for another war-mongering again, and I don't care what anyone says about it.

I have better morals than that now.

(I posted the above in a comments section on Daily Kos. Yes, I am angry.)

Surrendering to Peace

Here is a letter that I wrote to a local paper last month:

This past Sept. 11, I participated in a wonderful event in Pritchard Park called Peace on Earth Peace with Earth. It was attended by an estimated 700 people, who were writing a new story for human presence on Earth. It marked and celebrated the work and the life of Gandhi. It was an awesome event. I heard so many voices … that spoke to our deepest longings for peace, justice and stability in our world. This celebration of diversity and the mystery of life itself included spiritual rituals from a couple of different faith backgrounds. From the proclamation by Mayor Bellamy to the many voices raised in song, it was a unifying experience. This was a gathering of people who know that when consumption outstrips local resources, it causes great harm to our brothers and sisters around the world and great harm to our planet. This was a gathering of people who understand that violence to others is violence visited on our own souls, and that we cannot harm others without harming ourselves. This was a gathering of people who needed to stand united and to speak the truths we know.

I went home from this event to see how it was covered on WLOS, but it was not mentioned. Unfortunately, Mark Hyman of Sinclair Broadcasting was on WLOS that evening, and as usual, he spoke from fear, with no recognition of our collective humanity across the planet. He spoke of evil existing in others, with no awareness of any evil that might reside within our own borders. He claimed that those citizens who are opposed to the current wars are part of a “pro-surrender” crowd, and that they were dishonoring the victims of the terror attack that happened five years ago. This would imply that the way to “honor” those victims is by revenge and violent retribution. Mr. Hyman did say, “Fortunately, there are those who withstand the criticism from the pro-surrender crowd.” Considering that the “pro-surrender” crowd is also nonviolent, that’s mighty brave of him! Instead of accusing the voices of dissent of not supporting our troops, perhaps Mr. Hyman could enlist in our military and offer some real support for our troops.

I want to be the first to declare that I am a proud member of the pro-surrender crowd. I surrender to the voices of peace and sanity and reason. I surrender to those voices that call for caring for ourselves, for each other, and for this amazingly beautiful little blue ball we all live on. I surrender to the voices calling for nonviolent solutions to our problems. Imagine a world where instead of invasion and war, we had opened schools, clinics or hospitals in Afghanistan and named every one after one of the victims of the terrorist attack on 9/11. Just imagine.

— Susan
Asheville

Today, someone from Alabama wrote a response to my letter, so now I have to get busy writing a response to his letter! It's only words - but words are all I have - to turn this country around from the path it is currently on. And, the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence - they are only words too. But look what they started!

For the innocent victims of war

Photo: A boy cries while holding the feet of his father outside a hospital morgue in Baquba, about 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, October 18, 2006. His father was killed by gunmen in a market in Baquba, police said. REUTERS/Helmiy al-Azawi (IRAQ)

This picture was used for my blog post on Iraq (News About Iraq) on October 18, 2006. It is the suffering of the children that gets me more than anything.

I am also deeply disturbed by the general attitude in the American population. They seemed to have forgotten about the Lancet study that showed between 400,000 and 900,000 excessive deaths in Iraq since the US/UK invaded. Some claim it isn't true, and some I think are very concerned but ignoring it to perserve their own sanity...... this last group would be the ones who have been against this war all along, and feel horrible that things are turning out so badly for the Iraqi people.

But most of the population is just concerned with their own little lives and their own little concerns - they may get out to vote, they may read a paper or watch the so-called "news" on TV, but they will do little else. They will never notice this little boy and his dead father. They will never notice how they contributed to this situation. They will never notice their responsibility for what has happened here.

They have noticed that Bush is incompetent and a liar, but a significant majority of them noticed over two years too late.

PBS is going to show a movie called "My Country, My Country" about a doctor in Baghdad at the time of the elections. It looks like it will be a very good film, please click HERE for more information and for listing times.

From an Iraqi blogger....

COMMENTS: WE DIE

I really need to be depressed to write something. Fortunately, this happens frequently. I feel sad and depressed. I lost my loved ones. Sorry to tell you that, but I did. I lost my father, my mother, my brother, and my sister, and finally I died. I died 660,000 times. Americans ask "why do you hate us?" well.... I have 660,000 reasons to hate you. But I'm not like you, I'm better, I am not going to go on a killing frenzy, and kill every American I see, I won't come to America and destroy it, I won't butcher your children, or rape your girls. I just won't. 660,000 people died in Iraq, and do you care? Nooooooooooooooooooo, you don't. You would have cared more if they were cattle or sheep; you would have cared more if they were chicken infected with bird flu. For god's sake, you care more about your dogs than about humane beings. But wait a minute, this is wrong, I'm terribly sorry, who said you even consider them to be humane beings anyway? They served their purpose, they died. Every person in this world has a purpose serve. People are born, they grow up, they go to school, they get married, they have kids, they work, they produce, you know the drill. But us, on the other hand, our only purpose is to die. We get married, we have kids, but we might just as well send to their graves immediately, because they are going to die anyway. You get married and reproduce children, we reproduce corpses. Corpses which only purpose is die and be buried. That's what we do, WE DIE.

660,000 died. But he doesn't believe in that number, they grave digger doesn't believe that he killed and buried 660,000 people. And does he give a number? No, he doesn't. he just says its not 660,000. OK, I'll go with that, lets say its half, 330,000. is that enough? No? OK, let's say its 100,000. OK now? No? Let's just say its 50,000. Is this fair? Who gives a rat's ass what the number is you dumb maniac? Whatever the number is, its people. It describes how many people who had been killed. Concentrate, people not cattle. People not dogs. People for god's sake. But again, I'm sorry, you should forgive me, sometimes I get emotional and forget what you think. They are not people, never have been. They served their purpose on earth, they died. That's what we do, WE DIE.

Also, riverbend has a new post up.

Cheney can make children cry

What We Have Done: An Iraqi boy cries outside a hospital in the restive city of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad. Iraq's beleaguered government was struggling to assert its battered authority, purging the police force and sending troops into a town reeling from a four-day sectarian bloodbath.(AFP/Ali Yussef)

And then Cheney has the nerve to say this: "The hopes of the civilized world ride with us".

Mr. Cheney, you made this child cry by killing his parents. Shame on you for being such a heartless murderer!

Progressive Dems of NC Annual Meeting October 2006

Progressive Democrats of North Carolina

Annual Meeting on 10/7/06 in Asheville, NC

This was the third annual meeting of the Progressive Democrats of North Carolina, with between 40 to 60 people present (some were there for part of the day). This meeting opened with a panel on state politics with NC House Representative Susan Fisher and Chris Fitzsimon, Director of NC Policy Watch. Fisher said she looks at candidates from the perspective of issues, and decides which candidate to support from their position on issues. What matters most to her is human rights and transparency of government. Susan felt that the most progressive accomplishment of the NC legislature this session was raising the minimum wage by one dollar – and she immediately added that it needs to go up more. She also worked on childcare subsidies.

Fitzsimon asked why do people who hate government want to get involved in government? He said that the last legislative sessions in the NC legislatures was one of the better ones, and felt several important and useful steps were taken. He said they passed some “reform of the system” – but not enough on legislators and election reform and campaign finance issues. He said 36,000 to 39,000 children are on waiting list for childcare subsidies in North Carolina. We expect people to get off welfare with no provisions for childcare. He also spoke about HIV/AIDS drugs and that NC has stringent criteria for health insuranc3e for 9,000 critically ill people in this state. He said that there was no house vote on a moratorium on the death penalty. He pointed out that there is a requirement to provide housing for migrant workers – but they are required to provide housing but not mattresses. Fitzsimon said that the system is the problem, not just unethical legislators. For example, someone can give a million to NC Democratic Party, who then hand out $100,000+ to NC Senate candidates. This is money laundering. He spoke about schools and testing, and how we are failing there. He said the State Ethics Commission is now established by law, but they hold closed-door sessions. The recent ‘gift ban’ for legislators will cover the amount of the contributions but not the amount that can be raised. It didn’t go far enough. [I felt this panel discussion was very enlightening, and it was also filmed. I hope it will be available on-line one day.]

We then had an opening address by Asheville’s Mayor, Ms. Terry Bellemy. She said, among other things, that we need to elect people who “work well with others” because they will not get anything accomplished if they don’t work well with others. They may have great ideas, but they will be unable to move them forward. Ms. Bellemy recognized Minnie Jones, a local activist in Asheville who started a health clinic and after school program.

We then proceeded to the election of new officers. Members who were unable to attend were able to vote by email, and this was careful regulated. We then had lunch and a short speech from Jim Long, who is running for NC House in District 110, in Cleveland and Gaston counties. I gave a short speech on Progressive Democrats of America and then introduced Doug Jones, who is running for NC House in District 116, in Buncombe County. While we were eating our lunch, they counted the votes. I think we elected a great slate of officers for the Progressive Democrats of NC! The results are listed below.

President: Pete MacDowell

1^st Vice President: Isaac Coleman

2^nd Vice President: Matilda Phillips

3^rd Vice President: Susan Reed

4^th Vice President: Chris Lizak

Treasurer: David Mills

Secretary: Helen Clark

The keynote speaker, Rev. Dr. William Barber, who is the president of the North Carolina NAACP, followed lunch. First off, Rev. Barber said we all need to be members of the NAACP, since it is a multi-racial and multi-cultural civil rights organization, not an African American organization. Rev. Barber spoke of “you shall know them by their fruits”. This reflects the reality that you cannot count on what our politicians say, but rather on the outcomes of their actions and decisions. Rev. Barber stressed that you cannot achieve moral objectives via immoral means. He gave several examples from the so-called ‘war on terror’. Our politicians and citizens use distortion, distraction, and lies about our own use of terror by our country and it’s agents. We don’t speak when our policies fuel terrorism, and we don’t speak the truth about our own terrorist history. He questioned if 9/11 was partly an inside job or just neglect. He said that the politicians used the broken heart of America to follow their own policies instead of talking about that pain and bringing us together – instead, it split us apart. Rev. Barber said we have blinded, one-eyed justice – and that is the problem now, along with the very high level of hypocrisy. He said we are unlearning lessons that we never learned. He said people don’t vote because they see everything politicians do as ‘gaming’ the system. Rev. Barber said a democracy should look like a democracy, sound like a democracy, and feel like a democracy. We should do things that are right, just because they are right. It was a very powerful and progressive speech that challenged us to advance a politics of principle, not a politics of calculated advantage.

This was followed by a panel discussion on progressive politics in Asheville and Chatham County. Robin Cape talked about the importance of ‘inside’ power and having a majority in city council. She stressed that we need to keep going for the highest good, even if it falls short of what we would like. Ms. Cape also said that people had her back, and she is counting on the support of the people who voted her into office. Holly Jones spoke of diversified campaigning and how making phone calls worked better for her. She also talked about fiscal responsibility and how progressives need to get it together around money. She said that Asheville City Council did not raise taxes. Brownie Newman talked about his various campaigns and how he kept trying in order to get on city council. Bryan Freeborn talked about his campaign where they were at first disorganized, but became like a machine and really did some momentum going. Bryan was appointed to City Council based on the fact that the Mayor vacated her council seat and Freeborn was the fourth highest vote getter. Jeffery Starkweather talked about the Chatham Coalition, and how they ran a slate of candidates based on issues. They felt this was the easiest way to win the election, and also felt they can hold the slate accountable since they are the majority. They emphasized collaboration, compromise and communication. He also emphasized that you need to make sure that people hear the message that you want to get across, and that the emphasis is on “we” not on “I”. He also felt that part of every campaign against incumbents is to hold them accountable.

The Progressive Democrats of North Carolina are focusing on the 2008 Lt. Governor’s race and are attempting to find and support a progressive candidate for this office. In light of this, we had three people invited to speak to our group. Lt. Governor candidates had a panel, and this was called a “Vision of the Race”. They pointed out how 2008 election will be a big election in North Carolina, with a US Senate seat, President, and Governor seats will be open. David Mills spoke about how state positions are important but overlooked. Dan Besse from Winston-Salem city council spoke about his decision to run for Lt. Governor. He talked about how Duke Energy got exemptions to pollute more, and how we need to win not by selling our principles, but by explaining our principles. Mayor Pat Smathers (Canton, NC) talked about how vision without action is a daydream, and action without vision is a nightmare. He felt that we should not wait for Raleigh or Washington to fix our problems. Leni Sitnick (former Mayor of Asheville) spoke for Hampton Dellinger. Mr. Dellinger was chief legal council to the Governor and worked in the Attorney General’s office. This Governor’s term (reportedly) executed more people than any prior government. This was brought out by Steven Dear of “People of Faith Against the Death Penalty” who questioned the two potential candidates and the one representative for the third candidate about the death penalty and the death penalty moratorium. All three candidates supported the death penalty but wanted to have a moratorium for some spell to look at the problems inherent in the system. It was pointed out to all of them that if they execute people, they will one day kill an innocent person, since the system is subject to human error. With this, the meeting was adjourned.

First we have the "Roadmap to Nowhere"

This is, of course, a comment on Bush's claims of a "roadmap to peace" in the Middle East in June 2006.

A complete line of b.s.

Then we have the ROAD TO NOWHERE.....

Right here in western North Carolina, no less....

“In the midst of World War II, while many Swain and Graham County NC men were fighting for their country, the US Government and the Tennessee Valley Authority decided to build a hydroelectric power dam which would flood 11,000 acres of North Carolina land. The TVA bought or took 67,800 acres of land from Graham and Swain Counties leaving 1,300 families homeless, some of which were widows with children, some who were elderly and many of which had never lived anywhere else. These people received no relocation assistance from the TVA or the government and the ones who refused to sell, had their land condemned and taken.

The government in order to appease these people promised two things: First, to reimburse Swain County for Hwy 288, which would be flooded when the lake was filled, and second to build a road around the park to give access to the more than 28 cemeteries that were left behind when these people were forced from their land. In 1943 the Government did pay approximately $400,000 to the State of North Carolina, which represented the principle which Swain County then owed in outstanding bonds, but Swain County did not actually see any of this money.”

The ROAD TO NOWHERE is much, much more beautiful than the ROADMAP TO NOWHERE!

The face of someone

who MAY save America.



PHOTO: Darrell Anderson gestures to supporters after a news conference at the Colivn Community Center in Radcliff, Kentucky, October 3, 2006. Anderson, who deserted from the United States military after serving in Iraq , is due to return to Fort Knox, Kentucky, after spending two years in Canada. REUTERS/John Sommers II (UNITED STATES)


It will be the young who staighten this country out and save it, if that is possible. It will be the young adults who stand up for what is right and refuse to go along with what is wrong who will, maybe, turn this mess around.

And, as a member of their parent's generation, I just want to say I am sorry for having allowed things to get into such a horrible, evil mess. I personally worked hard to stop this, but it is my generation that made, or let, it happen.

Mt. St. Helens at night

The world is such a beautiful place.

Where we are headed

President Bush: “The only way to protect our citizens at home is to go on the offense against the enemy across the world. When terrorists spend their days working to avoid capture, they are less able to plot, plan, and execute new attacks on our people. So we will remain on the offense until the terrorists are defeated and this fight is won.”


And since he, and his official squad of kidnappers/torturers/sexual preverts/murderers have no idea who is or is not a terrorists, that means they will go right on with their evil behavior, and create more terrorists all along the way. And, of course, people will feel the need to fight back, or else they just get tortured and killed for no reason.


Oh, but Bush is learning all about how terrorists think by the torture methods. He claimed that by torturing one guy, they found out that terrorists will place bombs high enough in buildings that people cannot escape by jumping, so that all above the bombs will get killed. I guess Bush has never seen a horror movie and also lacks any imagination. I could have told him that. Here's another one they don't need to torture to uncover: if you block exits and then start a fire, or even a smoke bomb, people will panic and crush one another. Of course, that has actually happened many times, although not on purpose as far as I know. I have read that bin Laden got his idea to go after the WTC because he saw hits on buildings in Lebanon.

In the early 1980's.