The Federal Elections Commissions has solved all of the electoral problems in the United States by politely asking corrupt politicians and contributors to 'fess up' if they've done anything illegal.
The proposal contains two penalty recommendations for violators who voluntarily blow the whistle on themselves. One would reduce civil penalties by 50 to 75 percent of standard fines, depending on the steps taken to report and correct the violation. Another would set the reduction at 50 percent, but give the commission leeway to lower or increase the discount based on mitigating factors.
"What this policy focuses on are people who come in and tell us things that we would not otherwise know," Weintraub said.
How perfectly fantabulastic! We can solve all of our problems this way... just look sternly at policymakers and PACs, fold your arms, and gently say "Now, is there anything you'd like to tell me?"
Don't be too rough with them. Even in the worst cases, a little apology goes a long way. Like, for instance, if you've been unjustly tortured in a CIA-run prison where you were beaten and sodomized, it would just be churlish to demand more than a mea culpa. Yeah, the honor system, that should do it...hahahaha
Notice these are not lower income homes, these are mansions. This is a total violation of the 2nd Amendmant and everyone invovled needs to be put in prison. NEVER GIVE UP YOUR GUNS! Only slaves are disarmed
W.House Will Defy Democrats on Security: Republican By REUTERS Published: November 30, 2006
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is unlikely to allow the incoming Democratic majority in Congress to learn details about its domestic spying program and interrogation policy, a Republican senator said on Thursday.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who has criticized the Bush White House's secrecy about national security issues, said he would welcome detailed congressional oversight of the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping.
"It would be ideal,'' said Specter, whose committee was blocked by the administration this year from conducting a full review of the program, despite an outcry among some lawmakers that the spying was illegal.
"We have to really get into the details as to what the program is, as to how many people they are tapping, what they're finding out,'' he told an American Bar Association conference on national security.
But he said he had "grave reservations'' that Congress would end up getting the information from the administration....
For the past four years, without public notice, federal agents have assigned millions of Americans and other international travelers computer-generated scores assessing the risk they pose of being terrorists or criminals.
The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments. And the government intends to keep them on file for 40 years.
Earlier in November, the government disclosed the existence and details of the Automated Targeting System (ATS) for the first time in the Federal Register. Privacy and civil liberties lawyers, congressional aides and even law enforcement officers said they thought the ATS had been applied only to cargo.
Before people start trumpeting about how nice it is to lose some privacy in return for the fluffy feeling of security that this measure gives them... bear in mind not only that statistical false positives are significant, you have no method of contesting or viewing this material, and, since the "9/11 hijackers" bought round-trip tickets and used credit cards to purchase them, this would not have prevented even that incident from occuring.
A similar DHS data-mining project for domestic air travelers -- now known as Secure Flight -- caused a furor two years ago in Congress, which has barred its implementation until it can pass 10 tests for accuracy and privacy protection.
No such furor this time, since accuracy doesn't have to be verified by anyone and there is no contesting the conclusions. Think about that while you absently follow some of the links posted here... it's going on your "permanent record", little ones.
South Africa will use World Aids Day tomorrow to launch a plan that turns away from years of denial and obfuscation over the disease by President Thabo Mbeki and his health minister, which critics say have cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The new strategy follows a shift in power that sidelined the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who was accused of promoting pseudo-scientific policies while Aids claims nearly 1,000 lives a day in South Africa.
She was removed from responsibility for HIV policy while ill in hospital, weeks after embarrassing the government at the international Aids conference in Toronto by promoting a diet of garlic and beetroot as a serious alternative to drugs in treating HIV. Leading Aids scientists called Dr Tshabalala-Msimang's views "immoral" and demanded she be sacked. A senior UN official said her claims belonged to the "lunatic fringe".
[Article continues at link. Thank goodness the United States relies on more reliable and scientific policies for diminishing the spread of HIV, such as prayer and abstenance.]
Three months ago, Kisungu Gloire considered himself fortunate. A 13-year-old refugee, he had a house to sleep in, food to eat, and a stepmother who took care of him as one of her own. Then one day, Kisungu's fragile world fell apart.
His stepmother delivered a baby that was stillborn. She blamed Kisungu, calling him a witch. She had a dream that Kisungu was trying to kill her, and then tried to burn him with a flaming plastic bag. She took him to a priest to perform an exorcism, but when that appeared to have failed, she finally stopped feeding him and told him to get out.
"When I would ask for food, she refused," he says. "Another time I asked for food, she took a kitchen knife and cut me in the eye. When I talked with my brother, he said, 'Just drop it.' So then I moved out onto the streets."
[Article continues at link. Fortunately, things are totally different here in the USA. There are no teenagers kicked out of their parent's house because their parent's superstition can't accept them being gay. And all of the babies born because their mother's superstition can't accept abortion are adopted immediately by loving, capable families. Thank goodness that in the United States, superstition doesn't breed homeless children.]
(IsraelNN.com) Pope Benedict XVI Nazi Rat urged Muslim religious leaders during his visit to Turkey on Tuesday to "utterly refuse" to support or participate in violence.
"Terrorism" in St. Augustine's City of God
From a late April 1986 interview with Noam Chomsky:
Q: Why is "terrorism" such a useful ideological construct?
Chomsky: First, their conception of terrorism is highly selective. There's a wonderful story in St. Augustine's _City of God_, where Alexander the Great captures a pirate and says, "How dare you molest the seas!" And the pirate turns to him and says, "How dare you molest the world! I have a small ship, so I'm a pirate, a thief. But you have a big navy so you're an emperor." If an emperor disturbs the world, that's not terrorism, but if a thief disturbs the seas, that is terrorism.
The second resolution condemns not only the use of torture by the Bush administration, but it denounces the use of anthropological knowledge in torture and extreme interrogations. The AAA's statement stands in stark contrast with the American Psychological Association's ambivalent policies which provides psychologists working in military and intelligence settings with some cover should they wish to assist in extreme interrogations or torture. One of the concerns underlying this resolution comes from reports by Seymour Hersh that CIA interrogators consulted anthropological works such as Raphael Patai's book, The Arab Mind, to better design culture-specific means of torture and interrogation. This resolution passed unanimously with little debate.
The Association of Social Anthropologists has kicked off their new Ethics blog with a sharp critique of PRISP, the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program, backed by anthropologist and unreformed cold warrior Felix Moos. PRISP offers funding to students in the social sciences, on the condition that they do summer internships and other activities with the CIA and other intelligence agencies, essentially serving as a recruitment tool for US intelligence services. I have posted about PRISP here before, voicing concern about the loss of autonomy this cozying up to the state may engender in the long run, and these concerns are shared by John Gledhill at the ASA:
INSIDE HIGHER ED - At Barnard College, Nadia Abu El-Haj, an anthropologist who is coming up for tenure, is under attack by some alumnae and pro-Israel groups for a book, published by the University of Chicago Press, that was critical of Israeli archaeology and its use in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At Wayne State University, similar groups are pushing the university not to hire Wadie Said for a faculty position in the law school. In that case, critics of Said are attacking him and his late father, the literary theorist Edward Said, saying that both Saids' activism on behalf of the Palestinian cause has amounted to support for violent groups.
These debates follow the cancellation last month of a lecture by Tony Judt, a professor at New York University, at the Polish consulate in New York City, amid charges that the Anti-Defamation League had encouraged Polish officials to call off the talk. And in June, Yale University turned down Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who is a leading figure in Middle Eastern studies, for a position after a lengthy period in which critics of Cole argued that he was not a suitable choice for the position, in part because of his criticism of Israel. And Princeton University has faced criticism over a possible hire as well.
This weekend, the Middle East Studies Association, of which Cole is the president, voted to expand the work of its academic freedom committee which has focused on helping scholars in the Middle East to engage in efforts on behalf of colleagues in the United States.
"The subtext of these controversies is whether it is going to be allowed for Palestinians to hold positions in academe in the United States. Is it going to be allowed for people who are not Zionists to hold positions? Is there a Zionist litmus test in the United States?" said Cole in an interview Monday. He characterized the pro-Israel groups' activities as "the privatization of McCarthyism" and said that they represented the most serious threat today to academic freedom in the United States....
Pennsylvania's legislature was conned by the Neocon master of Disinformation and the Big Lie, David Horowitz, into wasting taxpayer money to investigate if professors mistreat their students because of the latter's politics. The commission found that such instances are "rare" and that nothing further need be done. D'oh. There is not any way to know how students vote, and why would you bring that in to grading their paper on Moliere's plays? Pennsylvania voters should consider whether Rep. Gibson C. Armstrong, R-Lancaster, deserves to sit in their legislature if he is going to waste their hard-earned money on these silly wild goose chases. Isn't there a Pennsylvania (or better, Lancaster) bloggers' network that can bring Armstrong's record in this regard before the public?
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Lawmakers wrestled, slapped each other and tumbled across the floor of Mexico's Congress after opposition legislators threatened to block the inauguration of the incoming president, whom they accuse of stealing the election.
By late Tuesday, the brawl had turned into a tense standoff between congressmen of President-elect Felipe Calderon's conservative party - who want him to take the oath of office in Congress - and opposition leftists who have vowed to block the swearing-in ceremony.
The battle showed how hard it could be for Calderon to unite a nation divided since he narrowly defeated opposition candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in the disputed July 2 election.
Congress has seen plenty of degrading behavior, but Tuesday's brawl came as Mexico faces central questions on the effectiveness of its government, with escalating turf wars between drug gangs and bloody street battles in the southern city of Oaxaca, which was seized for five months by leftist protesters.
Under the guise of combating the stigma of mental illness, the U.S. government will soon begin a massive campaign of psychiatric indoctrination, designed to increase the acceptance of psychiatric chemical imbalance theories and labeling, and to pave the way for national psychiatric screening, driving more Americans into seeking psychiatric drug treatment.
Oh and for those whom don't know or missed it: Bush wants to be your shrink "This month", President Bush plans to unveil a broad new mental health plan called the 'New Freedom Initiative.' Never mind that it couldn’t have less to do with freedom; if you’re a thinking American, this initiative should scare the hell out of you."
Oh, and the APA is proud you don't Know : The American Psychiatric Association is bragging in its own membership newsletter that they pleased the Bush Administration by successfully discouraging the mainstream media from looking into the corruption exposed by the British Medical Journal in a recent series of articles.
While in process of watching this melt-down In Iraq one should know why your kids are dying and many more will die. Over at Moon there is a post and discussion going on that untangles the puzzle. One commenter puts it thus:
Seems too much Fixation on what guy is fighting what guy... Anyone care what any of them are fighting for, or why the sudden HYSTERIA coming out of Washington???
Well, it turns out WE, THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA, ARE WINNING. Maliki told Wash to shove it up their ass - the Wall St. Predators could NOT Steal their infrastructure. They would not implement Prop. 38 or 39 of the so-called Constitution. Victory for the people of America & Iraq. I've been waiting for this. That's why there's this frantic talk of imposing a Dictator, even a damn Sunni, anyone who allows them to STEAL EVERYTHING. Anyone know what other economic provisions they're revolting against. THIS IS SO FANTASTIC. Meanwhile Americans sit around like stooges & let their entire economy be stolen...Go Iraqiis...
CPA order #38 is a reconstruction levied tax on Iraqis to fund reconstruction, 5% I think.
CPA order #39 is the "privitization" order de-nationalizing state ownership.
According to Antonia Juhasz in her The Hand-Over that Wasn’t article The (New and Improved) Bremer Orders to wit the CPA Order #39 allows for the following: (1) privatization of Iraq’s 200 state-owned enterprises; (2) 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi businesses; (3) “national treatment” of foreign firms; (4) unrestricted, tax-free remittance of all profits and other funds; and (5) 40-year ownership licenses. Thus, it allows the U.S. corporations operating in Iraq to own every business, do all of the work, and send all of their money home. Nothing needs to be reinvested locally to service the Iraqi economy, no Iraqi need be hired, no public services need be guaranteed, and workers’ rights can easily be ignored. And corporations can take out their investments at any time.
Anyway, so there's both the Constitution & the Bullshit Bremer shoved down their throats the instant before he fled, and this comes from the latter? I forget what they're called, but the reason for the "interim govt." was 'cuz by Int'l Law Occupation Forces couldn't implement them. Where's the part about farmers not being allowed to save & use their ancient seeds - are they fighting over that too?
I'm finally reading Antonia Juhasz's book on "Bu$h Agenda" in Iraq ( Uncle recently posted link to her that kicked me into gear to get it off my bookshelf) & the invasion is about terrorizing ME into allowing Pirates to ransack their economies.
I'm frustrated it's so impossible to find out the substance of what they are fighting for. We're hoodwinked into thinking it's tribal/religious internicine feuds, yet the warfare may be 99% economic. Or put it this way, if they hadn't thrown so many guys out of work via these policies, would they be fighting? Sunnis fighting to keep from being left w/no oil, and are the rest fighting xUS elite economic agenda? This really changes the picture.
How long ago was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in theaters, further how many here saw it?
I linked a post not to long ago about the military trying to create killing machine super solders with no conscience, genetically and otherwise, well, perhaps the implications here are the 'otherwise'
60 Minutes did a segment on Propranolol. What are the implications here, both for common/elite abuse of the drug, and/or genuine help for victims of trauma, Can I run off and say that this is all under the design and control of the Military-Intelligence-Pharma industry and does not bode well?
The Memory Pill
If you experienced a painful or traumatic event, would you want a pill which could lessen the bad memories of what happened? That option might soon be here because of a drug called propranolol.
Background
If there were a pill you could take after experiencing a painful or traumatic event that would permanently weaken your memory of what had just happened, would you take it?
An ongoing study suggests it's a choice that may not be so far off. The drug is called propranolol and it's already used to treat high blood pressure. As Lesley Stahl reports, the prospect of using propranolol to modify memory has some trauma victims filled with hope, and some critics alarmed by the potential for misuse.
Note that section 4 is (unwittingly?) called "Mind Control?"
Also note as with any tool, Propranolol can be extraordinarily useful to some people, and isn't, of itself, a sinister substance.
There are far more troubling subtances in the black ops pharmacopoeia, many of which we probably don't even know about.
Propranolol has been around since the late 1950's.
It's brilliant for stage fright, it blocks adrenaline and the fight-or-flight response.
I'm sure it has enormous potential in helping people forget traumatic events.
Every drug has potential for abuse.
Further, while I don't wish post-traumatic stress disorder on anyone, this is all about treating soldiers who are experiencing extremely high rates of PTSD in the Oil War on Terra.
Sunday's LATimes carried a front page story about renewed experiments with psylociben or 'magic mushrooms' as therapy but without mentioning that LSD and other psychoactive drugs were used by the CIA for years on unwitting Americans to see if it could be weaponized.
Again, the renewed Cold War hoax has mind control efforts back in full swing and soldiers are perfect lab rats for today's Mengeles mandated with getting more mileage out of the fewer soldiers they can trick into the killing game.
'Fix' the ones ya got since fewer will sign up. Oh, and make sure they don't go all activist when they come home pissed off.
The implications of such nefarious thing as as black ops projects, manchurian candidate's i.e., "super spies" or induced soviet style forced mental institution imprisonment, or Bush's plan to screen every man, woman, and child in America under his mental health program is beyond frightening.
Ironically, he was speaking at a dinner honoring people for upholding the First Amendment:
Gingrich raises alarm at event honoring those who stand up for freedom of speech By RILEY YATES Union Leader Staff 7 hours, 7 minutes ago
MANCHESTER - Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.
Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.
"We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the next decade," said Gingrich, a Republican who helped engineer the GOP's takeover of Congress in 1994.
Gingrich spoke to about 400 state and local power brokers last night at the annual Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment award dinner, which fetes people and organizations that stand up for freedom of speech.
And this prick is a contender for 08 President? Contract on America indeed.
Because irony should be savoured, the same week in which we reminisce about how it was bankruptcy that ended the former Soviet Union, A semi-literate US President is announcing plans to build the most expensive Presidential library to date.
Come to think of it, what was the final price tag on this guy's re-inaugural ball? Why are the least deserving of it so consistently addicted to pageantry?
Besides, why have a Presidential library at all if your going to seal the goddamn records as he did from his first administration. What's he going to put in the library, a bunch of "top secret" stamps over all the records?
I should be flabbergasted by the hubris and hypocrisy coming from this dink, however, I'am not.
A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.
A Muslim-run domestic violence prevention agency is holding a vigil and a new type of dialogue group next week to address Fremont's fifth homicide, which occurred when a 62-year-old husband allegedly gunned down his wife after an argument in their kitchen.
SEMAH founding director Reshma Yunus said she wants to bring more awareness about domestic violence within the Muslim world, a topic that's often stigmatized and not discussed.
[Ready for a discussion about Islam and violence against women? Start here.]
Further, what the WaPo article below cited (the one Pat Lang is refering to), is such a bizarre inversion of Reality, only possible by propagandists in the Center of the Empire under the influence of AIPAC. What do sticks mean when you have to beg Iran & Syria to save your bacon??
Here's a more grounded realistic assessment, that also underscores why Israel in the grips of its own radical right wing is so dangerous to America & the ME generally.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - While American commanders have suggested that civil war is possible in Iraq, many leaders, experts and ordinary people in Baghdad and around the Middle East say it is already under way, and that the real worry ahead is that the conflict will destroy the flimsy Iraqi state and draw in surrounding countries.
Whether the U.S. military departs Iraq sooner or later, the United States will be hard-pressed to leave behind a country that does not threaten U.S. interests and regional peace, according to American and Arab analysts and political observers.
""We're not talking about just a full-scale civil war. This would be a failed-state situation with fighting among various groups"" growing into regional conflict, Joost Hiltermann, Middle East project director for the International Crisis Group, said by telephone from Amman, Jordan.
""The war will be over Iraq, over its dead body,"" Hiltermann said.
...
As Iraq's neighbors grapple with the various ideas put forward for solving the country's problems, they uniformly shudder at one proposal: dividing Iraq into separate regions for Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, and then speeding the withdrawal of U.S. forces.
""To envision that you can divide Iraq into three parts is to envision `ethnic cleansing' on a massive scale, sectarian killing on a massive scale,'' Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, said Oct. 30 at a conference in Washington. ``Since America came into Iraq uninvited, it should not leave Iraq uninvited.""
``When the ethnic-religious break occurs in one country, it will not fail to occur elsewhere, too,'' Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Germany's Der Spiegel newsweekly recently. ``It would be as it was at the end of the Soviet Union, only much worse. Large wars, small wars -- no one will be able to get a grip on the consequences.''
...
Diplomats and analysts increasingly are urging the Bush administration to reach out to both countries as part of a regional approach to quelling Iraq's troubles. Former Secretary of State James Baker, leader of a panel preparing a set of policy recommendations for the Bush administration, already has endorsed the idea of seeking the help of Iran and Syria.
"The thing is, because Iran and Syria both have spoiling power in Iraq, if you could neutralize them,'' it would ease some of the many pressures within Iraq, Hiltermann said. But he said the two countries may demand a mighty trade-off: for Syria, U.S. help with its biggest stated aim, winning back the Golan Heights from Israel; for Iran, U.S. compromise over its nuclear program.
Sticks...Sticks...Doesn't this paragraph tell us that it is Israel that stands in the way of enlisting help of relevant nations to hammer out a settlement, or am I missing something? Civil war could ripple outward, indeed, Cui bono?
The Pentagon is considering forming hit squads of Kurdish and Shia fighters to target leaders of the Iraqi insurgency in a strategic shift borrowed from the American struggle against left-wing guerrillas in Central America 20 years ago.
"... just in case you wondered just WHO was behind all this "Sectarian violence."
* Bethel AME Church, Cambridge, Md.: The church hosted a rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Martin O*Malley and other Democratic candidates on Nov. 2. O*Malley and others sought votes and were introduced by the pastor. Churches may host educational forums featuring all candidates but not partisan rallies.
* Sioux City Baptist Church, Sioux City, Iowa: On Oct. 29, the church made available biased *voter guides* produced by the Iowa Christian Alliance, a 501(c)(4) organization. The guides violated several standards established by the IRS and were clearly stacked to favor Republican hopefuls.
* Mount Ennon Baptist Church, Clinton, Md.: The church*s pastor attacked Republican senatorial candidate Michael Steele from the pulpit Nov. 5 while Steele*s opponent, Benjamin Cardin, sat in the front row.
* Lakeview Assembly of God, Hot Springs, Ark.: The church hosted Republican gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson on Oct. 15. It placed an ad in the local newspaper inviting people to hear Hutchinson speak, identifying him as the GOP candidate. Hutchinson*s Democratic opponent was not on the program.
"When Polish student Michael Gromek, 19, went to America on a student exchange, he found himself trapped in a host family of Christian fundamentalists. What followed was a six-month hell of dawn church visits and sex education talks as his new family tried to banish the devil from his soul. Here's his story."
Bob Averill's classmates at the Art Institute of Portland had finished up their work in a character development class on November 8, and were chatting to pass the time until class was over. The discussion moved toward spirituality. Averill, a Game Art Design student and a devoted atheist - he even runs a blog called Portland Atheist - sidled over and joined the conversation.
It was the last time he'd be in an Art Institute class - within two weeks, he was expelled, less than a year before he'd hoped to graduate.
In the classroom that day, Averill says one young woman was talking about her belief in energy layers and astral beings.
"I jokingly asked her if she believed in leprechauns. It turns out, she does. They live on another energy layer," Averill wrote in notes to himself later that day. "In the interest of bringing my own view to the discussion, I began to ask her how she knew these things. Again I know all too well that people can be sensitive about their spiritual beliefs, so I was pretty much walking on glass as I did so."
Averill says he wasn't trying to disprove the other student's religious beliefs, but "to convince her not to insist that they were scientifically proven."
The student, apparently offended, complained to the teacher. Averill was called into a meeting that evening, he says, with the Art Institute's dean of education, associate dean, and the dean of student affairs.
According to Averill, he was told the meeting was "because of my altercation with [the other student]." Averill says he pointed out that he'd "only offered a different viewpoint in a discussion that [my classmate] had started."
"They didn't respond well," Averill told the Mercury. "Their mantra was 'no discussing religion in school,' which is fine except that I did not initiate the conversation, she had." Averill was suspended for four days, until a judicial hearing with the dean of student affairs.
[Article continues at link. Religion makes for hard hearts, soft minds and thin skin.]
This 1948 cartoon, conceived as a warning of the dangers of State Capitalism, stands on its own as a warning against Conservatism & the Bush administration.
What is the big breakthrough, in terms of politics, on the web in the last few years?’ Matthew Taylor asked the e-Democracy conference last week "It's basically blogs which are, generally speaking, hostile and, generally speaking, basically see their job as every day exposing how venal, stupid, mendacious politicians are." Depicting political bloggers as a cross between vermin rooting through politician's bins and overbearing mother-in-laws -" The internet has immense potential but we face a real problem if the main way in which that potential expresses itself is through allowing citizens to participate in a shrill discourse of demands,' he said as if he had legions of bloggers screeching at him all day - Taylor laid the blame for the current state of British politics firmly on their shoulders. Clearly a dangerous bunch, then. Al Qaeda must be spitting - going to all that bother of flying jets into building when they could have brought western democracy to its knees from home in their pyjamas.
Let me tell you a story...it won't take very long...about how far the Bushist doctrine of fear and power has spread.
How far, how deeply and how dangerously it has spread.
Security people at Charles DeGaulle airport broke the arm of the internationally famous jazz trumpet player Valery Ponomarevlast week...an American citizen for over 30 years...because he argued with the gate people at an Air India flight to New York when they demanded that he gate check his trumpet rather than bring it onto the plane. A trumpet that:
A-Fits with no problem whatsoever in the overheads.
and
B-Had been properly tagged as carryon baggage before he got to the gate.
Read on.
Now you must know that that musicians try very hard to get their instruments onto planes whenever they can do so. Baggage handlers are notorious for breaking things, and a broken instrument is painful in any number of ways. So is a lost or misrouted instrument. It's not like you can just pick up another one before the gig and play at your usual level of competence. Even if you are lucky enough to FIND one, every instrument has its own quirks and personality, and most professional musicians own instruments that are not easily replaceable. Older instruments or ones that were custom built or modified to their specifications. And since 9/11 and the whole Homeland Security/Terrorism scare-scam, if you DO carefully pack an instrument in a special ape-proof flight case and allow it to be checked as baggage, the minimum wagers that are doing "security" work in the baggage depeartment are often capable of opening the case, taking the instrument out to see if it's a bomb (Duh...a trumpet or violin REALLY looks bomb-like on an X-ray machine.) repacking it backwards and upside down and then forgetting to close the latches.
I have SEEN this happen.
So Valery...63 years old, maybe 5' 5" tall, 140 lbs...pitched a bitch at the gate when some pissed-off functionary at a loading gate decided to pull rank on him. They called security and four (as he so colorfully put it to me today when he told me the story) "giant asshole cops" took him someplace where there were no witnesses, tried to forcibly take his trumpet away and when he would not let go of it with his right hand, pulled his left arm behind his back and broke it.
And people sniff and moan when the word "fascism" is used to describe what is happening in America and in much of Western Europe as well.
Valery did not try to fight these people. As he related today (I wish I could reproduce his great Russan accent) "I grew up in Soviet Union under Stalin and Khruschev. I know enough not to try to hit a cop. Let alone four of them. Big, stupid motherfuckers." (Here he stands on tiptoe and raises his remaining functioning hand as high in the air as he can.) "They were THS BIG!!! FOUR of them!!! I am not THAT stupid."
And indeed he is not.
Here is a man who grew up in Russia when playing "jazz" was almost an act of open rebellion and got so good that Art Blakey hired him to join the Jazz Messengers in the late '60s. And if you do not know how serious THAT was...Blakey was possibly the only equal to Miles Davis in terms of hearing and hiring the best of the best in the post-bop era.
Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter...that level.
The BEST of the best.
So here we have this INSATIABLY positive little Russian guy, authentically playing in an idiom that had its genesis in the riot-torn black ghettos of America during the Civil Rights era. Moving to New York, getting his citizenship, re-starting a life here...a true "American" success story, when there really was such a thing. Now seriously crippled...they had to operate because it was a complex break...and unable to even HOLD a trumpet, because George fucking Bush and his handlers have decided that they are the deciders and we are their subjects.
I just thought I would bring this general "fascism" discussion down to a more personal level. This can happen to ANY of us who do not totally surrender on any level whatsoever to the madness of these people.
It's their way or it's their way.
Arthur Gilroy (who wrote the above), has an update on Pnomarev's story. Seems he's been interviewed by some folks at CBS news and will be on their evening news show (if you can stomach Katie Couric) approximately 6:45 EST. In Arthur's words:
CBS Nightly News tonight. They spent three hours interviewing him a couple of weeks ago and now they tell him...and he told me...that the story will run tonight. (Friday, 11/24/06.) 6:45 PM EST they said, although if you really want to see it you might have to watch Katy Kutie or her sub from the get-go because "Breaking News" like W. choking on a pretzel or a few hundred incinerated Iraqis...both stories being considered roughly equal in importance by the corporation corpses who really call the media shots...might change the schedule somewhat.
It happens...
I'm rooting for the pretzel, myself.
And I am rooting for Valery as well.
Read on.
Big media means more chance for Valery to get some recompense from Chas. DeGaulle and his racist, imperialist inheritors.
We shall see.
But one way or another, this shows the way "the blogs" work.
From the relatively small audience of two left of center blogs starting on Sept. 13th (Booman Tribune and My Left Wing-"The Ballad of Valery Ponomarev. It's Their Way Or It's Their Way." Here and here. And "What Good Are Blogs? The Slow, Steady Action of the Starfish on the Clam. [Valery Ponomarev Knows]" Here and here. ) to larger centrist blogs like dKos and special interest websites like The Jazz Times, to the International Herald Tribune and the NY Times, thence to the ears of millions on CBS.
A précis of the way it works.
Pas à pas. (Step by step.)
Let's hope this artist can get the justice he deserves.
Couldn't find a vid, but here's the little guy with his giant spirit, on his myspace blog...Valery Ponomarev ~Uncle $cam (Hope you don't mind that I added this)
It is worth noting that no one ever need identify himself as a non-astrologer or a non-alchemist. Consequently, we do not have words for people who deny the validity of these pseudo-disciplines. Likewise, "atheism" is a term that should not even exist. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma. The atheist is merely a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (eighty-seven percent of the population) who claim to "never doubt the existence of God" should be obliged to present evidence for his existence -- and, indeed, for his benevolence, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in the world each day. [...] Consider: the city of New Orleans was recently destroyed by hurricane Katrina. At least a thousand people died, tens of thousands lost all their earthly possessions, and over a million have been displaced. It is safe to say that almost every person living in New Orleans at the moment Katrina struck believed in an omnipotent, omniscient, and compassionate God. But what was God doing while a hurricane laid waste to their city? Surely He heard the prayers of those elderly men and women who fled the rising waters for the safety of their attics, only to be slowly drowned there. These were people of faith. These were good men and women who had prayed throughout their lives. Only the atheist has the courage to admit the obvious: these poor people spent their lives in the company of an imaginary friend.
Video, via Digg: "Australian filmmaker John Safran is so fed up with mormons ringing his doorbell early in the morning that he flies to Salt Lake City Utah and tries to convert Mormons to atheism. Needless to say, the locals were not pleased."
The Bibles were safe the night Christ Episcopal Church turned to tinder, allegedly at the hands of Caleb Uriah Lussier, police said Monday.
Lussier, 20, allegedly confessed to police that he used gasoline to torch the church in late May after he gathered the Bibles in a bag and placed them outside the reach of the flames.
Lussier, of Plymouth, Mass., is a student at the Word of Life Bible Institute in Schroon Lake, not far from Christ Episcopal. Investigators said he acted out of a religious zeal that also may have played a role in a fire at another church in his hometown and in threats against three other houses of worship.
Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland said Lussier thought the members of Christ Church were hypocrites who deviated from the teachings of the Bible and the word of God. He allegedly robbed the church twice in May. On one occasion he left behind a message written in a Bible: "You've been warned." On May 30, a fire at the 77-year-old church burned out of control before firefighters arrived.
[Lussier was only following Exodus 23:24, 34:11, Numbers 33:50-52, Deuteronomy 7:5, 13:12. Deuteronomy even specifies that arson is the approved method. 'Yeah, but that's the wicked Jewish part of the Bible, we follow Jesus!' Okay, then take a bite out of James 2:10. Maybe religion itself is a bad idea.]
But recent developments suggest that the Bush administration may already be contemplating what to do with Americans who are deemed insufficiently loyal or who disseminate information that may be considered helpful to the enemy.
Top U.S. officials have cited the need to challenge news that undercuts Bush’s actions as a key front in defeating the terrorists, who are aided by "news informers" in the words of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Robert Gates.
In November 1987, as the Reagan administration was still scrambling to contain the Iran-Contra scandal, then-deputy CIA director Robert M. Gates denied that the spy agency had soft-pedaled intelligence about Iran’s support for terrorism to clear the way for secret U.S. arms shipments to the Islamic regime.
With Congress hoping for a new Defense Secretary who has both the guts and the clout to stand up to White House pressure, the senators who will evaluate Gates’s fitness for the job may want to look back at this troubling Iran-Contra episode.
Of course we all know, even with the the Democrats controlling congress in 07, I doubt seriously that they'll do anything more than wave this nomination through as they did the rest of Poppy's crime family, and friends.
"Deliveries of the Tor-M1 have begun. The first systems have already been delivered to Tehran," ITAR-TASS quoted an unnamed, high-ranking source as saying.
Of course, as to whether or not these reports are true, beats me. Further, more than who benefits, --we know the answers to that--, thus it's not not just qui bono, but "quo vadis", where will this terror-monomania addled dry drunk take us? Heaven only knows...
While Ken Kesey will be sorely missed, let's face it, in a world this twisted who needs fiction?
John Young's Cryptome site is full of stuff like this (see above) out of the Federal Register or similar official documents, and his captions, as in this case "Prez Orders Lucent-Alcatel to Allow Spying",are usually right on the mark. The actual document is both very grave and dry as dust. Its content will come as no surprise to habitue's of this watering hole. Nevertheless the sheer volume of such edicts, ordinances and directives, and the very aridity of their bureaucratic prose validate our most dire forebodings. It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the national security bureaucracy is, day in and day out, eroding the very civil liberties it purports to defend, and finds accomplices for its nefarious campaign among elected officials of both parties. As long as the damnable dyarchy retains control there seems to be little hope for a change in direction.
Also see, Amdocs... It was a four part Fox news special done after 911 that detailed the monitoring of all phone calls by an Israeli company.
Amdocs has contracts with the 25 biggest phone companies in America, and more worldwide. The White House and other secure government phone lines are protected, but it is virtually impossible to make a call on normal phones without generating an Amdocs record of it.
Only 31 days of shopping left! Happy shoppers make good citizens, don't worry the Democrat's are in power now, your safe.
Bobby Kennedy Assassination:New Discovery Linking CIA Pt1
Nor, finally, is it in any way a "theory" that the one, single name that can be directly linked to the Third Reich, the US military industrial complex, Skull and Bones, Eastern Establishment good ol' boys, the Illuminati, Big Texas Oil, the Bay of Pigs, the Miami Cubans, the Mafia, the FBI, the JFK assassination, the New World Order, Watergate, the Republican National Committee, Eastern European fascists, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the United Nations, CIA headquarters, the October Surprise, the Iran/Contra scandal, Inslaw, the Christic Institute, Manuel Noriega, drug-running "freedom fighters" and death squads, Iraqgate, Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction, the blood of innocents, the savings and loan crash, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the "Octopus," the "Enterprise," the Afghan mujaheddin, the War on Drugs, Mena (Arkansas), Whitewater, Sun Myung Moon, the Carlyle Group, Osama bin Laden and the Saudi royal family, David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, and the presidency and vice-presidency of the United States, is: George Herbert Walker Bush.
Guy's walking near his house, had a seizure, got tasered, arrested, and spent three weeks in jail. This part is really extraordinary:
"Beloungea was ultimately found not guilty by reason of insanity. Beloungea is not insane — he's simply epileptic. But his lawyer, Otis Underwood, told ABC News there was no other way to get Beloungea off the charges than the insanity defense. The catch: He had to spend 20 days locked in a criminal mental facility.
Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, "regretted," that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head. But Then It Was Too Late
Step by step, inch by inch. Little political increments...(Always for your or your children's safety)
In the case of the above main post:
The NYPD has installed a patrol tower in a Harlem neighborhood in an effort to cut crime in the high-risk neighborhood.
The two-story booth tower, called Sky Watch, gives the officer sitting inside a better vantage point from which to monitor the area. Officers in the booth have access to a spotlight, sensors, and four cameras. The tower is portable and can be moved to the areas that need it most.
The Departments of Justice, State, and Homeland Security spend millions annually to buy commercial databases that track Americans' finances, phone numbers, and biographical information, according to a report last month by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. Often, the agencies and their contractors don't ensure the data's accuracy, the GAO found.
Buying commercially collected data allows the government to dodge certain privacy rules. The Privacy Act of 1974 restricts how federal agencies may use such information and requires disclosure of what the government is doing with it. But the law applies only when the government is doing the data collecting.
Consequences of the Panopticon
as Foucault puts it:
the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate (uh, that would be you) a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power. So to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action; that the perfection of power should tend to render its actual exercise unnecessary; that this architectural apparatus should be a machine for creating and sustaining a power relation independent of the person who exercises it...
' When the concentration camps were first established the Nazis detained in them their more prominent foes. Pretty soon there were no more prominent enemies available, because they were either dead, in the jails, the camps, or had emigrated. Still, an institution was needed to threaten the opponents of the system. Too many Germans became dissatisfied with the system. To imprison all of them would have interrupted the functioning of the industrial production, the upholding of which was a paramount goal of the Nazis. So if a group of the population got fed up with the Nazi regime, a selected few members of this group would be brought into the concentration camp. If lawyers became restless, a few hundred lawyers were sent to the camp, the same happened to physicians when the medical profession seemed rebellious, etc. The Gestapo called such group punishments "actions" and this new system was first used during 1937-38, when Germany was first preparing to embark on the annexation of foreign countries. During the first of these "actions" only the leaders of the opposition group were punished. That led to the feeling that just to belong to a rebellious group was not dangerous, since only the leaders were threatened. Soon the Gestapo revised its system, and selected the persons to be punished so that they represented a cross-section through the different strata of the group. This new procedure had not only the advantage of spreading terror among all members of the group, but made it possible to_ punish and destroy the group without necessarily touching the leader if that was for some reason inopportune. Though prisoners were never told exactly why they were imprisoned, those imprisoned as representatives of a group came to know about it. Prisoners were interviewed by the Gestapo to gain information about their relatives and friends. During those interviews prisoners sometimes complained that they were imprisoned while more prominent foes of the Nazis were at liberty. They were told that it was just their bad luck that they had to suffer as members of a group, but if their fate did not teach the group to behave better, they would get a chance to meet them all in the camp.'
Do not be lulled into a false sense of security by the above, (because it's not happening here) as it has long been known that the UK is merely a big test lab for us serfs here in the land of the free.
More on Saifullah Paracha, whose petition for transfer to the U.S. for cardiac surgery was denied on Monday. Paracha had a heart attack earlier this month during torture and does not want to undergo surgery by his torturers. We have a couple of stories about him here with background information.
BURIED WITHIN a recent government brief in the case of Guantanamo Bay inmate Majid Khan is one of the more disturbing arguments the Bush administration has advanced in the legal struggles surrounding the war on terrorism. Mr. Khan was one of the al-Qaeda suspects who was detained in a secret prison of the CIA and subjected to "alternative" interrogation tactics -- the administration's chilling phrase for methods most people regard as torture.
and this...
Saifullah Paracha was found shackled and beatenby his defense attorney on November 7 and 9.
Mr. Paracha, a 59-year-old Pakistani businessman who holds US residency, has had two heart attacks and recently had chest pains, prompting doctors at Guantanamo to schedule the procedure for November 21. Source: SA News.
"This is a completely new procedure for Guantanamo. Mr. Paracha very well might need open heart surgery, and that has never been done before at Guantanamo," Katznelson said.
Jesus Fucking Christ, there are no words, can you imagine the terror of having the same people who beat you into a heart attack do the very operation to... ahh, fuck it. AMERICA ARE THE FUCKING TERRORIST'S.
Let us start with the biggest lie of all, that the Democrats cannot end the war, are unable to do it, do not have the power to do it. Big, big, big lie. Bush is now asking for another $127 billion to "stay the course." If either the House or the Senate refuses to pass that request, the war cannot be prosecuted. It only requires a simple majority in one chamber House or Senate. That is it. The power is there...
But do not expect the Democrats to take such a course. The election was rigged by Rahm Emanuel in favor of pro-war Democrats, and the beating which John Murtha took at the hands of Hoyer, Emanuel and others is evidence that the war party is firmly in control of Dem foreign policy and will do nothing to end the war. In fact Emanuel wants to raise at least 100,000 more troops...
What are we to do, then? Simple. We can work now on mounting a third party challenge to the Democrats in 2008. The platform of such a challenge would be simple. We are against war and the police state; these are the over-arching issues of the moment and we shall not compromise on them for any reason. The current test of these principles is Iraq. If all troops are out of Iraq by November, 2008, then our issue is gone and we cannot expect to win. If the U.S. remains in Iraq, then we may or may not win but the Democrats will have to confront us; we may defeat them or we may spoil the election for them. But either way, we will be a force to be reckoned with...
We must have some nationally known leaders who could start the ball rolling. I can think of Kevin Zeese, Ralph Nader, Ron Paul, Justin Raimondo, Lew Rockwell, Alex Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair, Cindy Sheehan, Lila Lipscomb, Patrick Buchanan, perhaps even maverick Democrats like Cynthia McKinney, Maxine Waters, James Webb, Jack Murtha or Carol Shea-Porter - or maverick Republicans like Chuck Hagel, who, Lieberman-like, might declare their independence even while "caucusing" with one of the war parties. There are endless possibilities...
Hopefully many Greens and Libertarians would join in and commit themselves to running a consensus set of candidates in 2008. This is a two-year strategy. But we must begin now...
This will allow the idea to germinate and build as the Democrats show again and again that they are the other War Party. With every sell-out, the movement will grow. Importantly, the Democrats will not be able to say they were not warned. They will have plenty of time to act and prove us wrong. They now have the power to end the war. If they fail to do so, what good are they?..
This is a win-win strategy. If the Democrats extract US forces from Iraq in a year's time, then we have won. If not, then we have started a new political movement, which realigns many forces in preparation for future battles against the War Parties.
Film-maker Shane O'Sullivan has spent the last three years investigating the assassination of Bobby Kennedy in 1968.
He has uncovered new evidence that at least three CIA agents were in the hotel the night he died. Tonight we show the findings and ask: could CIA agents have had something to do with the murder of RFK?
A man who was stopped for a routine traffic violation somehow managed to shoot himself in the back of the head while handcuffed in the back seat of a police cruiser, cops said.
John Stockwell is an ex Cia Chief and he is talking about the american creation of the 3rd World War... "We are not attackin our enemy we are attacking the 3rd World"
Yet another American bishop has avoided jail time in connection with the sex-abuse scandal.
Sonoma County (California) DA Stephan Passalacqua has announced that Bishop Daniel Walsh of Santa Rosa will not face formal charges if he enters a state counseling program. The bishop - who faced a slam-dunk conviction carrying a 6-month prison term, for failing to make a prompt report on a priest who admitted to child abuse - is ready to take the deal.
"We certainly hope that our decision involving Bishop Walsh will send a clear message to all mandated reporters of the importance of immediately reporting to law enforcement any child abuse or elderly abuse any injury of an assault," said Passalacqua.
A clear message? Not likely, pal. Nearly 20 years after the Gilbert Gauthe scandal, 15 years after the Porter case, 4 years after the Dallas meeting, 1 year after the Portland bankrupcty... After all that, if an American bishop still doesn't get the message, you can't seriously expect 4 months of counseling to do the trick.
Meanwhile readers might be wondering about the priest whose dalliance with a teenage boy got the ball rolling. Francisco Xavier Ochoa faces 10 felony counts of child abuse, but first the California authorities will have to catch him. Those crucial hours between his (non-sacramental) confession to Bishop Walsh, and the bishop's required report to police, gave the accused molester time to go on the lam. Ochoa is believed to be hiding now in Mexico. He got the message.
[The message for the rest of us? If you say an invisible monster that lives in the sky gave you permission to do something, you are above the law.]
Once in jail the houston janitors were Gitmo-ised by the *ahem* police, -one of the other inmates--had a seizure. The second night they made it freezing and took away many of our blankets. We didn't have access to the cots so we had to sleep on a concrete floor.
Contact: Office of Media Relations ( media@support.ucla.edu ) Phone: 310-825-2585
Statement from UCLA Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams About Incident at Powell Library
University police are investigating an incident late last night in which police took a student into custody at Powell Library. Investigators are reviewing the incident and the officers' actions. The investigation and review will be thorough, vigorous and fair.
The safety of our campus community is of paramount importance to me. Routinely checking student identification after 11 p.m. at the campus library, which is open 24 hours, is a policy posted in the library that was enacted for the protection of our students. Compliance is critical for the safety and well-being of everyone.
"research associate and director of the Harvard-Brandeis Cooperative Research for Israel's Legal Development at the Harvard Law School"
"Another of his books, Anti-Terrorism and Criminal Enforcement, (2nd ed., 2005), is the first casebook to deal comprehensively with the rapidly evolving field of anti-terrorism law and the criminal enforcement process."
chancellor@conet.ucla.edu
Chief of Police, Karl T. Ross 310 825-1633 kross@ucpd.ucla.edu Captain, John Adams 310 825-4406 adamsj@ucpd.ucla.edu Norman Abrams 310-825-2151 chancellor@conet.ucla.edu
There have been quite a few recent videos of police brutality, including this unprovoked assault on demonstrators in which a mentally retarded man is beaten up, the repeated beating of LA resident William Cardenas while he lies struggling under a policeman's knee that rests on his neck, this unprovoked beating of a man which continues after they've got him on the ground and handcuffed, this all-out wailing on a guy who had already given up, and this novel technique for arresting a man. Indeed, there's so much of it about that someone has decided to make a compilation and set it to music.
Random strangers with mobile phones and camcorders can surely only capture a tiny fraction of this shit.
Taking "buy nothing day" to the next level: no bartering
A local co-operatively run coffee shop is having a barter fair for buy nothing day, and it got me thinking. Barter fairs seem like good fun, and there are a number of clear advantages to bartering over fiat exchange. As Fenris 23 put it "It is usevalue usevalue exchange rather than exchangevalue usevalue." Barter fairs may be the only true free markets (see: Manuel DeLanda). Also, bartering by-passes financial institutions (though when it comes to larger scale economic hacking, alternative currencies and credit unions may be more successful).
So why am I against bartering as part of "buy nothing day"? It depends on the reason for "buy nothing day." If the intention to create a large-scale alternative economic system free of the exploitation of capitalism (the ultimate goal of The Church of Stop Shopping, as I understand it), then bartering (coupled with other, more scalable alternatives), makes total sense. But if the aim is to liberate a day of the year to be free of consumerism, then barter should be abstained from.
Exchanging something of value for something else of value is still commerce, and participants in the market are still propelled by the grand goal of shopping: getting a good deal, or at least not getting ripped off. The entire process can still be boiled down to the exchange of something surplus for something equally, if not more, desirable. Again, there's nothing wrong with this. That's life. But to me, the idea of liberating a day from buying would be about rejecting, if only temporarily, the self-interest of trade and getting back to the spirit of thankfulness. It would be about spending the day not trying acquire more, but to appreciating what I have. Spending time with family and friends, or getting some valuable alone-time, or giving with no expectation of exchange. I harbor no illusions of a large scale gift-economy working any time soon, and no illwill to those seeking to improve their lives through trade. But doesn't a day dedicated solely to living and not thinking about gaining or losing property sound nice?
Also: Check out Bolo'Bolo author PM's Liberating Wednesday (courtesy of Trevor Blake). (He does advocate barter, as the agenda here is the creation of alternative economies).
(Full hypocrisy disclosure: as I will be traveling on Buy Nothing Day, I will likely end up at least buying coffee, if not a meal somewhere).
So what exactly did a priest say to get a Pasadena church in trouble with the IRS?
The federal agency has launched an investigation into the activities of All Saints Episcopal Church, asking whether a sermon by a former rector before the 2004 presidential campaign constituted campaigning. As tax-exempt organizations, churches are barred from campaigning for candidates.
The sermon, delivered Oct. 31, 2004, by the Rev. George F. Regas, was framed as a debate involving Jesus, President Bush and his Democratic challenger, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts.
In September, the church announced that it would not comply with an IRS summons demanding that All Saints turn over materials with political references, such as sermons and newsletters, produced during the 2004 election year. The current rector, the Rev. Ed Bacon, did not obey a summons that ordered him to testify before IRS investigators.
The church continues to set a defiant tone. On Sunday, All Saints will sponsor a conference called "The War, the Pulpit and the Right to Preach." It will include workshops on conflict resolution, tax law and "Prophetic Traditions and Free Speech." Regas and Bacon are scheduled to speak.
But did Regas' speech violate federal laws? The answer, mostly likely to come from the courts, hinges on how one defines campaigning and interprets his remarks.
An extended excerpt from the sermon appears below. It represents about a third of the text. The complete address can be found at http://www.latimes.com/beliefs.
-- Steve Padilla
Good people of profound faith will be for either George Bush or John Kerry for reasons deeply rooted in their faith. I want you to hear me on this. Yet I want to say as clearly as I can how I see Jesus impacting your vote and mine. Both Sen. Kerry and President Bush are devout Christians -- one a Roman Catholic and the other a Methodist.
Against the teachings of Jesus, listen in as Kerry and Bush debate three hugely important issues this morning: ending war and violence, eliminating poverty and holding tenaciously to hope.
Sen. Kerry and President Bush are engaged in a titanic battle for the White House. Central to their race for the presidency is the quest for peace. How deeply the world longs for peace. President Bush has led us into war with Iraq as a response to terrorism.
Yet I believe Jesus would say to Bush and Kerry: "War is itself the most extreme form of terrorism. President Bush, you have not made dramatically clear what have been the human consequences of the war in Iraq.
"More than 1,100 U.S. soldiers dead, 8,000 wounded -- some disabled for life -- and now the latest figures say 100,000 Iraqi fighters, women and children are dead. Oh, the cost of your war.
"Your fundamental premise for the massive violence of this war is that it is the proper response to the terrorist attack that took place Sept. 11, 2001. But remember: The killing of innocent people to achieve some desired goal is morally repudiated by anyone claiming to follow me as their savior and guide."
Jesus, looking at the United States, the most powerful nation in the history of civilization, disavows any path that affirms grief must lead to war; Jesus refuses to accept the violence of war as the necessary consequences of our tragic losses on Sept. 11.
Maybe you are calling Jesus naive, but he points us to the truest reality in the universe: "Mercy brings mercy and revenge brings revenge. Tragically, your world refuses to learn this truth even after so many bitter experiences in every part of the world. Mercy brings mercy. Revenge brings revenge."
How Jesus mourns the deaths of those 3,000 people killed on Sept. 11. But Jesus also mourns the death, devastation and loss in Afghanistan and Iraq and Sudan and Israel/Palestine and in so many other parts of the world. They too are part of God's precious human family.
Jesus would say to us: "Yes, mourn the deaths of those closest to you who have died; yet it is troublesome that you in America could get so caught up in the tragedy of Sept. 11 without ever noticing all my children who have been blown apart by this war, and the 30,000 children under 5 years of age across the globe who die every day of malnutrition and hunger. My heart can hardly bear it."
Jesus confronts both Sen. Kerry and President Bush: "I will tell you what I think of your war. The sin at the heart of this war against Iraq is your belief that an American life is of more value than an Iraqi life. That an American child is more precious than an Iraqi baby.
"God loathes war. At the time of the trauma of Sept. 11 you did not have to declare war. You could have said to the American people and the world: 'We will respond but not in kind. We will not seek to avenge the death of innocent Americans by the death of innocent victims elsewhere, lest we become what we abhor.' "
Jesus continues: "Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine. Forcibly changing the regime of an enemy that posed no imminent threat has led to disaster. It will take years for the widely felt hostility in Iraq and around the world to ebb. The consequences of arrogance, accompanied by certitude that the world's most powerful military can cure all ills, should be burned into America's memory forever.
"President Bush, Sen. Kerry, will you save us from all this suffering? But God's only hands are yours and all who call upon my name. In the midst of great suffering, I call out to you: 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.' "
Jesus turns to President Bush again with deep sadness. "Is what I hear really true? Do you really mean that you want to end a decade-old ban on developing nuclear battlefield weapons, as well as endorsing the creation of a nuclear 'bunker-blaster' bomb? Are you really going to resume nuclear testing? That is sheer insanity.
"This only encourages nations to build their nuclear arsenal in defense against you. This is morally indefensible."
Jesus grows more insistent. "The development of battlefield nuclear weapons and threatening their use against 'rogue' nations and willing to strike first is a dangerous change of policy. Talk of winnable nuclear war is the greatest illusion. I am indignant when I hear people in your government saying a nuclear war could end for anyone as a victory."
Everything I know about Jesus would have him uttering those words. From my own study, prayer, reflection and dialogue, I say that nuclear war is the enemy. Anyone who can avoid seeing the horror of that has lost his soul. The political reality that nuclear war still remains an option for America and other countries is the paramount horror of modern existence.
The nuclear bomb is the most outright evil thing that human beings ever created.
What does it say about the moral values of a nation that puts its security in nuclear weapons that are morally outrageous? I believe that Jesus calls us to be nuclear abolitionists through the political process. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."
When you go to the polls on Nov. 2, vote all your values. Jesus places on your heart this question: Who is to be trusted as the world's chief peacemaker?
Tip of the hat to Antiwar.com. Of course it goes without saying that the answer to that last question would have been neither Bush nor Kerry (though Kerry would have been arguably more sane than the current despot reigning in the White House). Being antiwar is definitely not going to make the PC police happy campers, hence the impulse to harass those who dare to call bullshit on the warmongering.
"America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.
"Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight."
--James Ellroy, American Tabloid
Ensure a Free and Fair Election (Ban Paperless Voting Machines
"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."
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