queen bess hurt other women

January 30, 2007
Listen to Senator Feingold's Opening Statement
Good morning, and welcome to this hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee entitled "Exercising Congress's Constitutional Power to End a War." We are honored to have with us this morning a distinguished panel of legal scholars to share their views on this very important and timely issue.
I thank Chairman Leahy for allowing me to chair this hearing. Let me start by making a few opening remarks, then I will recognize Senator Specter for an opening statement, and then we will turn to our witnesses.
It is often said in this era of ubiquitous public opinion polls that the only poll that really matters is the one held on election day. On November 7, 2006, we had such a poll, and all across this country, the American people expressed their opinion on the war in Iraq in the most significant and meaningful way possible -- they voted. And with those votes, they sent a clear message that they disagree with this war and they want our involvement in it to stop.
The President has chosen to ignore that message. So it is up to Congress to act.
The Constitution gives Congress the explicit power "[to] declare War," "[t]o raise and support Armies," "[t]o provide and maintain a Navy," and "[t]o make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces." In addition, under Article I, "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law." These are direct quotes from the Constitution of the United States. Yet to hear some in the Administration talk, it is as if these provisions were written in invisible ink. They were not. These powers are a clear and direct statement from the founders of our republic that Congress has authority to declare, to define, and ultimately, to end a war.
Our founders wisely kept the power to fund a war separate from the power to conduct a war. In their brilliant design of our system of government, Congress got the power of the purse, and the President got the power of the sword. As James Madison wrote, "Those who are to conduct a war cannot in the nature of things, be proper or safe judges, whether a war ought to be commenced, continued or concluded."
The President has made the wrong judgment about Iraq time and again, first by taking us into war on a fraudulent basis, then by keeping our brave troops in Iraq for nearly four years, and now by proceeding despite the opposition of the Congress and the American people to put 21,500 more American troops into harm's way.
If and when Congress acts on the will of the American people by ending our involvement in the Iraq war, Congress will be performing the role assigned it by the founding fathers -- defining the nature of our military commitments and acting as a check on a President whose policies are weakening our nation.
There is little doubt that decisive action from the Congress is needed. Despite the results of the election, and two months of study and supposed consultation -- during which experts and members of Congress from across the political spectrum argued for a new policy -- the President has decided to escalate the war. When asked whether he would persist in this policy despite congressional opposition, he replied: "Frankly, that's not their responsibility."
Last week Vice President Cheney was asked whether the non-binding resolution passed by the Foreign Relations Committee that will soon be considered by the full Senate would deter the President from escalating the war. He replied: "It's not going to stop us."
In the United States of America, the people are sovereign, not the President. It is Congress' responsibility to challenge an administration that persists in a war that is misguided and that the country opposes. We cannot simply wring our hands and complain about the Administration's policy. We cannot just pass resolutions saying "your policy is mistaken." And we can't stand idly by and tell ourselves that it's the President's job to fix the mess he made. It's our job to fix the mess, and if we don't do so we are abdicating our responsibilities.
Tomorrow, I will introduce legislation that will prohibit the use of funds to continue the deployment of U.S. forces in Iraq six months after enactment. By prohibiting funds after a specific deadline, Congress can force the President to bring our forces out of Iraq and out of harm's way.
This legislation will allow the President adequate time to redeploy our troops safely from Iraq, and it will make specific exceptions for a limited number of U.S. troops who must remain in Iraq to conduct targeted counter-terrorism and training missions and protect U.S. personnel. It will not hurt our troops in any way -- they will continue receiving their equipment, training and salaries. It will simply prevent the President from continuing to deploy them to Iraq. By passing this bill, we can finally focus on repairing our military and countering the full range of threats that we face around the world.
There is plenty of precedent for Congress exercising its constitutional authority to stop U.S. involvement in armed conflict.
In late December 1970, Congress prohibited the use of funds to finance the introduction of United States ground combat troops into Cambodia or to provide U.S. advisors to or for Cambodian military forces in Cambodia.
In late June 1973, Congress set a date to cut off funds for combat activities in South East Asia. The provision read, and I quote:
"None of the funds herein appropriated under this act may be expended to support directly or indirectly combat activities in or over Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam by United States forces, and after August 15, 1973, no other funds heretofore appropriated under any other act may be expended for such purpose."
More recently, President Clinton signed into law language that prohibited funding after March 31, 1994, for military operations in Somalia, with certain limited exceptions. And in 1998, Congress passed legislation including a provision that prohibited funding for Bosnia after June 30, 1998, unless the President made certain assurances.
Our witnesses today are well aware of this history, and I look forward to hearing their analysis of it as they discuss Congress's power in this area. They are legal scholars, not military or foreign policy experts. We are here to find out from them not what Congress should do, but what Congress can do. Ultimately, it rests with Congress to decide whether to use its constitutional powers to end the war.
The answer should be clear. Since the President is adamant about pursuing his failed policies in Iraq, Congress has the duty to stand up and use its power to stop him. If Congress doesn't stop this war, it's not because it doesn't have the power. It's because it doesn't have the will.

that's from russ feingold's 'Opening Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing Exercising Congress's Constitutional Power to End a War.' when wally and cedric want something noted, i'm there. they're really knocked out by what russ feingold did and they should be. you should be. i am knocked out. there's 1 spine in the senate, at least.
russ, russ, russ, why won't you run for president? your country is calling you!!!!

c.i. has a strong snapshot today - usually does, but i'm talking in terms of media. we were on the phone tonight and the 1st thing c.i. said was 'i am so sorry, i meant to link to you but we'd just finished three campuses and i had exactly 30 minutes to pull that together and almost didn't get it done in time.' there was no need to link and i assumed, due to the topic, that it wouldn't be linked.

but the topic, of women who won't support and assist other women, needs to be addressed. (and we both have addressed it.) today, c.i. is addressing the not-so-fresh terry gross who has 1 of the worst records for interviewing women. when i still listened to npr, it was something like 2 women a week and 7 to 8 men a week.

younger people may not get why that is offensive. before npr, it wasn't common to encounter women on the radio. i'm not talking rock radio which could usually manage 1 to 2 women on a day and night as deejays. i'm talking about news. and npr's last claim to fame may be evening out the balance between women and men on air - as reporters and as hosts. so the not so fresh terry gross benefitted from that system created by npr and her thank you to other women has been to produce a male heavy show. her regulars, such as the lame entertainment weekly critic, are male. her guests are mainly males.

now let me explain something for her and to katrina vanden heuvel and all the women who climbed over the backs of other women. we didn't create the pyramid so you could get to the top and then do nothing to help other women.

we were happy to be part of the pyramid (yes, i was a cheerleader) because we saw the fight, the struggle, as being fought by women for women. we weren't expecting a 'victory' to be 'oh look terry gross has her own show! isn't it great for terry gross!' or 'oh look katrina's editor and publisher of the nation! how amazing for katrina!'

the hope was that when women made it through doors, they'd bring other women with them. when women got to power positions, they'd be interested in equality and not in being queen bees.

what a terry gross or a katrina vanden heuvel is doing is being a queen bee.

they climbed our backs to get on top of the pyramid and apparently we all suffered for that just so they could be the only woman in the room. apparently it wasn't about women, it was, for each, about themselves.

now at some point this week, katrina wrote a post on motherhood. (sometime this week because the nation screws up their posts. they aren't on the west coast so it's not a time zone issue but if you visit that site fairly often you've learned not to trust the time stamp.)

suddenly katrina's interested in portraying herself as a mother?

when it was time to pick a writer to cover the state of the union address, she not only didn't go with a woman, she went with a man cnn reported was arrested in a sting for sexual predators. he was arrested for attempting to meet up with what he thought was an underage girl.

he said then that he was innocent. but he wouldn't provide the court records and has even claimed that he couldn't because they're 'sealed.' he can unseal them. he's the 1 charged. he can make it public. he chooses not to. why is that?

as long as he only offers 'i didn't do it and i'm not going to explain myself,' he's a sexual predator in my book.

so i find it so offensive that katrina wants to talk about motherhood so shortly after getting a sexual predator to write about the state of the union address.

now if you'd told me, when we were all fighting for equality, that a queen bee would come along and not only would she ignore women but she would publish a sexual predator repeatedly in her magazine, i would've thought you were crazy.

but enough time has gone by for 'queen bee' to become a popular term. and katrina vanden heuvel is a queen bee.

when some female friends complained to c.i. late last year about how the nation wasn't publishing women and provided a list of women that had been turned down (but other publications published their work), c.i. said 'we'll start tracking it.' and when ava and c.i. steered the third estate sunday review edition on christmas weekend, they implemented that feature.

how it works is we cover each issue as it arrives in the mailboxes. we do a simple stats. how many women did they publish and how many men did they publish. so this week's 'nation stats' (that's the title of the feature when it runs) brought us up to the 5th issue for 2007. and how are women doing?

just on the 1st 5 issue, males had 37 more bylines than women. the ratio is approximately 1 woman for every 4 men. now if this continues for the year, you're looking at something like males receiving 370 more bylines in the nation for the year of 2007 than women do.

if they want to count 2006 (c.i. did after the problem was pointed out) they'll see that this isn't a new problem and that women are grossly under represented in the nation.

why does it matter? a woman's the editor and publisher. katrina vanden heuvel has the last say. she can commission an article, she can accept a freelance 1. somehow, katrina's not interested in women. she's benefitted from the fight that women have fought but she's not interested in doing her part to continue the fight, she just wants her titles.

now that's bullshit. and it needs to be called out.

and women (and hopefully men) need to be appalled by that. 4 male bylines for every 1 by a woman? that's disgusting. and we need to start calling out women who allow that to happen.

we need to call terry gross out for her male heavy show.

women did this before. we protested, we demanded. and the results were that a terry gross comes along and her road is much easier than it would have been without the women's movement. so the idea that she doesn't have a debt to pay is crazy.

the idea that she's even trying to pay that debt is nonsense.

and women need to stop trying to prod and plead. we demanded when men were in charge and we can damn well demand when a woman's in charge - can and should.

it's past time that the terry grosses and katrina vanden heuvels knew that women weren't going to stand for this shit.

we were fighting for equality. and we still don't have it. and when women who have benefitted from the work of other women want to burst that glass ceiling just so they can piss on us, we need to call them out on it.

when katrina got her position as editor, there was a bit of joy for some women. when she went on to also get the title of publisher, more so. but she's done nothing with that.

and do we want to talk topics? the magazine didn't publish 1 word on the gang rape of 14-year-old abeer. now katrina loves to run the sexual predator's pieces but a 14-year-old girl is raped and murdered by u.s. soliders (some of whom have confessed) and her 5-year-old sister was murdered and both of her parents as well ....

she doesn't need to give us her bullshit mommy pieces because no feminist in the world would feel comfortable with publishing (over and over) the work of a man busted in a sting to capture sexual predators. i can't imagine why a mother would feel comfortable publishing a sexual predator, but a feminist certainly wouldn't.

so we need to start calling people out. we need to make sure that the fact that she wrote a boring, dopey article on abortion in russia back in the 80s doesn't hide the fact that she's not doing 1 damn thing for women.

if we don't call it out, other women have to deal with it on down the line. it is our duty.

if someone's thinking, 'well maybe women just aren't interested in politics?' - visit the real world. but also note that even in the arts section, where katrina's assigning pieces left and right, whole issue go by where it's man after man reviewing books without even 1 women.

apparently, in katrina's world, women can't even read.

she is our american taliban and just because she has a vagina doesn't mean she can't hurt women.

she is hurting women and we need to start calling it out and letting all the queen bees know that it's not acceptable and that we will not stand for it.

now i have no interest in writing for any magazine (i never have). but i will not be silent while other women get nixed because there are already 'too many' women in an issue. 'too many' - if you notice - doesn't mean equal. too many averages out to 1 woman for every 4 men. that's embarrassing and women need to start calling this out. ava and c.i. stepped up (no surprise, they're fearless and they take feminism very seriously). but others need to be stepping up to. and paying attention. until we start complaining and start demanding, nothing is going to change.


here's c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

January 30, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, Bully Boy's spin on Najaf comes loose, Ehren Watada's court-martial is still scheduled for Feb. 5th but there is a new development,
and US Senator Russ Feingold maintains he is not running for president in 2008 but delivers something sharper, more focused and harder hitting than any of the declared candidates has yet to offer: "In the United Sates of America, the people are sovereign, not the Presidents. It is Congress' responsibility to challenge an administration that persists in a war that is misquided and that the country opposes. We cannot simply wring our hands and complain about the Administration's policy. We cannot just pass resolutions saying 'your policy is mistaken.' And we can't stand idly by and tell ourselves that it's the President's job to fix the mess he made. It's our job to fix the mess, and if we don't do so we are abdicating our responsibilities."


Last week, Ehren Watada, the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq appeared on NPR's Fresh Air with his attorney Eric Seitz where they were interviewed by NO HELP TO ANYONE Terry Gross. Gross cited the laughable Seattle Times editorial and Watada's response was:


When we join the military we don't swear an oath to a person or, especially officers, in our oath we do not swear an oath of loyalty to any one person or any group of people or even an institution. We swear an oath to protect the Constitution and also the American people as a whole and we have to follow the rule of law as it says in the Constitution and when we have . . . When I joined the military in March 2003, I believed the administration when they said there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, there were ties with Sadam to al Qaeda and 9-11. We all know those lies were false now and there have been many reports coming out of retired CIA analysts and officers saying that the intelligence was not bad it was intentionally falsified to fit the policy. When we have as I said a group of people in our government who mislead the public who mislead the other branch of government in order to justify their war that is a violation of the Constitution. And, um, I just have to say that regardless of what they convict me on, if they convict me or sentence me, I am doing what I swore an oath to do when I joined the military 3 years ago and as I said I did not realize the extent of the deception that was waged upon us that I do now.


That was the first segment of the January 25 show. The second is where she got into real trouble and there's a reason for that: Terry Gross can find a man anywhere. Her next book might need to be entitled Manhunt. It's women she can't find. And she's far from alone on that -- as of the February 5, 2007 issue of The Nation, for the magazine to offer women in equal number (equal, not more) there February 12, 2007 issue would have needed to print 37 pieces written or co-written by women and none by men. The Nation ratio by gender is basically 1 female for every 4 males. Gross specializes in her nerdy dominitrix pose on air -- full of tension and archness -- and it's a laughable bit but she's made it profitable. What she has not done (appalling when you consider that NPR broke down barriers for women -- including Gross) is do her part to offer women an equal platform. Appalling considering the history of NPR, more appalling considering the information she was seeking in the second segment of the show when she interviewed Eugene Fidell asking him questions about issues that he frequently hems and haws on. If you're asking about the Law of Land Warfare, Gross, you can go to a woman. Retired colonel Ann Wright taught that.

NPR audiences were cheated out of a full discussion about Ehren Watada because Queen Bee Gross can have countless males on her show each week (several guests each day) but somehow more than two or three women send Gross into a panic. It's harmful to all women and, in the case of Ehren Watada, it prevented Gross from being able to find the answers to her questions.

Had Ann Wright been invited into the second segment (instead of one male 'expert') she could have stated, "As part of our overal military training there is a history of service personnel being told that you do not have to follow an illegal order. It comes from the commissions that we take that we are to uphold the lawful orders of our superios. Implicit in that is that if there is an illegal order you are under no obligation to follow it." Wright served in the military, served in the US State Department and the quote is from what she testified to in the August Article 32 hearing.

Ehren Watada faces a court-martial on February 5th (and got the Diane Sawyer "Aren't you ashamed!" treatment from Gross last week). Though it never would have been the court-martial of Sarah Olson (despite where independent media put their emphasis in what passed for 'coverage'), she and Gregg Kakesako will not appear in court. All the hand wringing was for nothing. All the, "Phil, you've got to write about this! We need you!" phone calls were a waste of time. Already today Amy Goodman's interviewed Olson and no one ever needs to do so again. Goodman made the mistake of asking a very basic question -- Now that she's not going to be asked to testify, will she be covering the court-martial? It was too much for Olson -- she sputtered, she stammered, she had no answer. The parody "Run, Olson! Run!"
never looked so true.

Ehren Watada was always the defendant in his court-martial -- even if that basic point couldn't be grasped by indy pundits. The charges reduce the maxiumum number of years Watada could serve if he is punished in the court-martial -- from six years, it has now dropped to a maximum of four years in prison. Eric Seitz, Watada's civilian attorney, told AP, of the kangaro court awaiting his client: "This is not a justice proceeding but a disciplinary proceeding. Really, the only thing the Army is interested in here is what kind of punishment to mete, not whether Lieutenant Watada is guilty or innocent of the charges."


Watada is a part of a movement of resistance with the military that includes others such as Agustin Aguayo (whose court-martial is currently set to begin on March
6th), Kyle Snyder, Darrell Anderson, Ivan Brobeck, Ricky Clousing, Aidan Delgado, Mark Wilkerson, Joshua Key, Camilo Meija, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Jeremy Hinzman, Corey Glass, Patrick Hart, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.

On the topic of going to Canada, Patrick Malone (Canada's The London Free Press) reports
on Matt Lowell who was attempting to receive refugee status in Canada and has heard back from the Immigration and Refugee Board: "Eight pages long, it can be summed up in one word: No." The article also notes a meeting this Thursday at 7:00 pm at the Tolpuddle housing co-op, common room, 380 Adelaide St. at King Street in London (Ottawa, not England) where you can meet with Iraq war resisters and those "offering support to military resisters."

In Iraq, the big (press) issue is still what happened in Najaf.

Bombings?


Sam Knight (Times of London) reports an "explosion, in the town of Mandali, 60km north east of Baghdad and near the border with Iran, claimed the lives of 23 worshippers at a Shi mosque, doctors said. A further 60 people were injured when a suicide bomber detonated a belt of explosives in the midst of a crowd of around 150 people entering the Ali al-Akbar mosque". Michael Howard (Guardian of London) reports a mortar attack in Baghdad that killed "at least 17 people and injuring 72." Kim Gamel (AP) notes "a bomb in a garage can exploded as scores of Shiites - most them Kurds -- were performing rituals in Khanaqin, a majority Kurdish city also near the Iranian border. At least 13 people were killed and 39 were wounded, police Maj. Idriss Mohammed said." Reuters notes a car bomb in Mosul that killed two police officers (wounded two more) and a secon mortar attack in Baghdad left nine people wounded.



Shootings?

Al Jazeera reports that "four Ashura pilgrmins" were shot ded with an addition six injured in Baghdad today.



Also today the US military announced: "One Marine assigned to Multi-National Forces-West died Monday from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province" and they announced: "LSA Anaconda, Iraq– A 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) Soldier was killed in an accident when a M-1114 HMMWV rolled over northwest of An Nasiriah Jan 29."

Meanwhile Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) further discredits Bully Boy's false assertion that the February 22nd bombing in Samarra of a Shi'ite mosque began the sectarian violence -- Fadel notes that the claim is already disputed by "U.S. diplomats, Iraqi politicians, U.S. intelligence analysts and journalists [who] had reported throughout 2005 that attacks on Sunnis by Shiite militias were rising and that the militias had infiltraded the security forces"; however, Fadel reports that Ibrahim al Jaafari (former prime minister of Iraq0 states "he told U.S. officials nearly two years ago that Shiite Muslim militas were infiltrating the country's secuirty services".

In latest lies the Bully Boy told the world, CBS and AP report that Bully Boy continues to cite the recent events in Najaf as proof of yet another turned corner: "My first reaction on this report from the battlefield is that the Iraqis are beginning to show me something." Marc Santora (New York Times) reported today that, contrary to the latest wave of Operation Happy Talk: "Iraqi forces were surprised and nearly overwhelmed . . . and needed far more help from American forces than previously disclosed".

In other news, does US Senator Arlen Specter watch Democracy Now!? If so he may have seen the speech US Rep Maxine Waters delivered at the rally in DC Saturday -- where she made the point that Bully Boy was not the decider. AP reports that Arlen Specter said something similar, in milder terms, today: "I would suggest respectfully to the president that is not the sole decider. The decider is a shared and joint responsiblity." Then, Specter saw his shadow and won't be spotted again until spring.

Staying on the topic of the US Congress, Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report) notes US Rep Maxine Waters recent appearance on CNN where she outlined the plans by the Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus to visit "early Democratic primary states" in order to make some Democratic presidential candidates demonstrate a spine. When asked by Wolf Blitzer if this were a reference to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, "they both have to prove themselves," was Waters' response.

Also addressing the issue of spine and justice, Anthony Arnove (author of IRAQ: The logic of Withdrawal) observes (at CounterPunch): "The other night, on 60 Minutes, President Bush said 'Everybody was wrong on weapons of mass destruction.' Yet millions of us who protested this war before it started were right, and were ignored. We did not have access to any special intelligence. We simply used our intelligence. And today we have the intelligence to know that each day we continue the occupation of Iraq, the situation gets worse. Every time we have been told 'we are turning the corner,' the situation gets worse. And we have the intelligence to know that you cannot oppose the war, as some Democrats have proclaimed, and yet fund this war. To those who say we cannot withdraw 'precipitously,' there is nothing precipitous about pulling out after four years of occuyping another country against its will. And to those who say we are abandoing the troops, the best way to support the troops is to bring them home."

Today, US Senator Russ Feingold held a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on "Excercising Congress's Constitutional Power to End a War" to explore the issue of what powers Congress has in ending Bully Boy's illegal war. From Feingold's opening statement:
"It is often said . . . that the only poll that really matters is the one held on election day. On November 7, 2006 we had such a poll, and all across this country, the American people expressed their opinion on the war in Iraq in the most significant and meaningful way possible -- they voted. And with those votes, they sent a clear message that they disagree with this war and they want our involvement in it to stop. The President has chosen to ignore that message. So it is up to Congress to act." Noting the words written into the US Constitution (Congress has the power to declare war, the power of the purse, etc.), Feingold then stated, "The President has made the wrong judgment about Iraq time and again, first by taking us into war on a fraudulent basis, then by keeping our brave troops in Iraq for nearly four years, and now by proceeding despite the opposition of the Congress and the American people to put 21,500 more American troops into harm's way. If and when Congress acts on the will of the American people by ending our involvement in the Iraq war, Congress will be performing the role assigned it by the founding fathers -- defining the nature of our military commitments and acting as a check on a President whose policies are weakening our nation. . . . There is little doubt that decisive action from the Congress is needed. Despite the results of the election, and two months of study and supposed consultation -- during which experts and members of Congress from across the political spectrum argued for a new policy -- the President has decided to escalate the war. When asked whether he would persist in this policy despite congressional opposition, he replied: 'Frankly, that's not their responsibility.' [. . .] It’s our job to fix the mess, and if we don’t do so we are abdicating our responsibilities. Tomorrow, I will introduce legislation that will prohibit the use of funds to continue the deployment of U.S. forces in Iraq six months after enactment. By prohibiting funds after a specific deadline, Congress can force the President to bring our forces out of Iraq and out of harm's way."


On last weekends protests, rallies and marches, Danny Schechter writes at BuzzFlash to remind everyone that the numbers reported do matter as do media coverage: "Do the anti-war organizaers see this as a problem? Don't they think they should try to do something about it as a problem and protest this ritualistic treatement? Shouldn't they make the media coverage a issue? Are they only listening to themselves? I was on Air America in LA on Saturday afternoon and feisty host Bree Walker, a former TV anchor, agreed. But the anti-war movement continues to pay lipservice to this problem, perhaps for fear of 'alienating' the press." To be clear, Danny's writing of the mainstream press. I would expand that to include independent media as well (and no community member would disagree with that assertion).

Also addressing the issue of big media at BuzzFlash, Cindy Sheehan writes: "In the United States today, we have a media controlled b corporations that are, for the most part, controlled by other entities that profit off of war. NBC is owned by General Electric, a major war profiteer (which used to be a crime punishable by hanging). The corporate media has a lot at stake by keeping the wag-the-dog occupation of Iraq aloat on BushCo's failed ship of state.


Attempting to get the word out on her son Ehren Watada, Carolyn Ho is rallying for one more speaking tour. Some of her dates this week include:

Wednesday January 31 3:00 to 5:00pm
The Center for Race, Politics & Religion University of Chicago Chicago, IL
7:00-9:00pm
St. Xavier University 3700 West 103rd St. (103rd & Pulaski) McGuire Hall Professor Peter N. Kirstein (773) 298-3283 Kirstein@sxu.edu
Indiana
Thursday February 1 10:00 to 12:00am
Emerson High School 716 East 7th Avenue Gary, Indiana Carolyn McCrady (219) 938-1302 Jim Spicer (219) 938-9615
12:30 to 2:30pm
Purdue Calumet University 2200 169th St. Hammond, Indiana Professor Kathy Tobin (219) 989-3192 tobin@calumet.purdue.edu Classroom Office Building CLO 110
7:00-9:00 pm
Valparaiso University U.S. Hwy 30 & Sturdy Rd Room 234 Neils Science Center Valparaiso, Indiana Libby A Hearn Partners for Peace (student group) (309) 834-2199 Libby.AHearn@valpo.edu Lorri Cornett Northwest Indiana Coalition Against the Iraq War (219) 916-0449 la_cornett@yahoo.com

Friday February 2
Noon Purdue University Wesley Foundation 435 West State St. West Lafayette, Indiana Sheila Rosenthal (765) 404-5489Lafayette Area Peace Coalition


Finally, the lies that led to war include the false claim of 'yellowcake' in Bully Boy's 2003 State of the Union address. When it imploded on him, they attempted to attack and silence Joseph Wilson by destroying his wife Valerie Plame -- a CIA agent until those at the White House decided to blow her cover. Rory O'Connor is blogging about Scooter Libby's trial and Judith Miller was supposed to appear today.

jane fonda, feminist wire daily and katrina - the woman who holds other women back

the above is Isaiah's latest the world today just nuts, 'Peace Resister' and it is already in the mail to my mother-in-law who intends to hang it in her foyer and have an 'opening' with several of her friends who can't stand katrina so that they can all enjoy it.

i'll note that if i was the editor & publisher of a magazine, as katrina is, i'd be afraid to show my face in public if i ran four male writers in my magazine for every 1 woman. i'd be embarrassed and ashamed and i'd get on that inequality, i'd start addressing it real quick before people started calling me a 'queen bee' and nothing how my promotion appears to have benefitted me but hurt other women. that's the reality of what's going on when you turn to males 4 times as much as you do women.

do people get that? do they get how disgusting it is that the nation has so far run 4 times as many men as women? i hope they get it and i hope they're outraged that so few women are printed in the magazine - and i hope they connect the embarrassing number of women in print with the person who makes those decisions, the person who assigns pieces - that's katrina vanden heuvel. and let's not kid that she's helping any other woman right now as she reinforces a myth (that went out of fashion years ago) that women just can't write about politics - not like men.

i think i would be so embarrassed if i'd done what katrina has that i'd walk around apologizing to every woman i saw: 'i'm sorry, i could be making a difference but i'm just a woman who slept with my college professor and married him so i have a huge daddy complex and, in practice at my job, that means i need to be surrounded by men non-stop. i'm the eternal little girl, daddy's little girl, who needs men around to make her feel special and loved and if a woman's around as well, i feel competitive so i keep women out of my magazine as much as possible.'

turning to more pleasant topics ...

i had a blast with betty this past weekend. and with her kids. i really enjoyed their visit. i hope she did. i'm sure it would have been more exciting to be in d.c. and i wish i could have been there too.

but it was a wonderful visit. betty will be blogging for kat tonight, heads up. kat will be getting in late and betty volunteered to grab posting for her tonight. so be sure to check for that.

i loved fonda's speech. betty and i were talking about how we wanted to highlight it today. so here it is from '"Silence Is No Longer An Option": Jane Fonda, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins Speak Out' (democracy now):

JANE FONDA: I’m really here because I want to thank you all. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here today. So many of you, so many of today's speakers, including my fellow actors up here, were here at the beginning, before we went into Iraq, because you knew and they knew what was in store. Thank you so much for the courage to stand up against this mean-spirited, vengeful administration. Your actions are proof that the most precious part of this country, its soul, is alive and well. So thank you. Your ongoing commitment to ending this war allows people in other parts of the world to remain hopeful that America has the stuff to become again a country that they can love and respect. Thank you. I especially want to thank and acknowledge the servicemen and women and the military families and Gold Star mothers that are here.
A lot of press people have been asking me today, "What's the difference between now and during the Vietnam war?" And I’ll tell you one huge crucial difference: it took six years for Vietnam veterans, active-duty servicemen, Gold Star mothers and military families to come out against the war. It has happened now within three years of the war. Their presence here is critical, and we should acknowledge their courage.
I haven't spoken at an antiwar rally in 34 years, because I've been afraid that because of the lies that have been and continue to be spread about me and that war, that they would be used to hurt this new antiwar movement, but silence is no longer an option. My daughter, who is here with me today -- come here -- she was a little girl when she would come with me to the anti-Vietnam War protests. She's here today with her two little children, my grandchildren. I’m very proud that they're here, but I’m so sad that we still have to do this; that we did not learn the lessons from the Vietnam War; that we've made the same mistakes, blindness to the realities on the ground, hubris and arrogance in dealing with a people and culture far older than we are; and that we understand so little, carelessness and thoughtlessness in our approach to rebuilding a country we've destroyed, allowing billions of dollars to be stolen, squandered at the hands of private contractors, just as this administration has done in our own gulf in the post-Katrina era.
So, thank you. Thank you for being here, and we'll continue to be here for as long as necessary. God bless.

isn't that an amazing speech? betty and i loved it. and, don't forget to check out bettty's 'The Wino Friedman' that went up saturday morning.

on the d.c. activities, i'll note 'DC: Thousands Gather for Iraq War Protest' (feminist daily wire):

Feminist groups had a strong presence at the rally, assembling beforehand at the Navy Memorial for a rally and feeder march to the larger protest on the National Mall. CodePink organized the successful women’s convergence, where the repeated slogan was "Women say pull out!" The strong presence of women activists confirmed the results of the most recent Ms. poll, which found that women are more likely to feel strongly about the Iraq war than men. In an article for the Winter 2006 issue of Ms., Blanche Wiesen Cook explored the unique involvement of women in the peace movement.

peace is a feminist issue. i'm glad that so many strong women were present saying 'no!' to war. there are times when feminism is stretched so thin i wonder where the meaning is? the women turning out to make their voices heard were celebrating the and honoring the best of feminism. peace, preventing rape, reproductive rights, equal pay and much more are feminist issues. when i hear someone hailing shoes as a feminist issue (and i have), i start thinking a shop-a-holic's trying to justify her own spending. (to be clear, shoes can be a feminist issue. women destroy their feet with high heels. i'm not talking about those types of critiques. i'm talking about silly women who want to make excuses for spending a fortune on shoes and instead of admitting that they are gluttons, they try to say it's 'empowerment.')

here's c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

Monday, January 29th. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq, massive demonstrations took place in the United States over the weekend, another US helicopter is shot down, and Carolyn Ho hits the road again to raise awareness of her son, Ehren Watada.

Starting with news of Ehren Watada, Iraq war resister, the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq who now faces a February 5th court-martial in Fort Lewis, Washington. Speaking with Tina Chau (KGMB), Watada explained why he took his stand against the Iraq war: "I believed the justifications. I believed they were true and factual and as we know now, they were grossly negligent and wrong. . . . Just being part of that [war] would be adding more fuel to the fire instead of putting it out." Saturday, columnist Joe Copeland (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) covered Watada and the reasons why he took his stand against the illegal and immoral war: "His views changed as he read up on Iraq in preparation, as he put it, to be a better leader of troops under his command. Instead, the growing knowledge led him to become the only commissioned officer known to refuse Iraq duty, acknowleding from the start that he might have to carry the imprisonment that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other practitioners of civil disobedience felt was their responsibility to accept in calling attention to wrongful government policy. In Watada's case, the prison time could be as much as six years."

Carolyn Jones (San Francisco Chronicle) reports that Sunday Ehren Watada's mother, Carolyn Ho, spoke in Chinatown to at least 200 people urging them to to support her son: "You celebrate the American dream. You live it. And that is what my son is fighting for now." Megan notes that Carolyn Ho was interviewed Saturday by Kris Welch on KPFA's Saturday Morning Talkies. and that Carolyn Ho noted she is starting another speaking tour to raise awareness of her son that will run right up to the February 5th court-martial. In addition actions are being planned around the country for February 5th -- click here for a list of demonstrations. Carolyn Ho's announced speaking dates:

Chicago, IL,
Tuesday January 30,
5:30pm
Tentative Operation Push Chicago event
7:30pm
Japanese American Citizens League5415 N. Clark, Chicago

Wednesday January 313:00 to 5:00pm
The Center for Race, Politics & ReligionUniversity of ChicagoChicago, IL

7:00-9:00pm
St. Xavier University3700 West 103rd St. (103rd & Pulaski)McGuire HallProfessor Peter N. Kirstein (773) 298-3283Kirstein@sxu.edu
Indiana

Thursday February 110:00 to 12:00am
Emerson High School716 East 7th AvenueGary, IndianaCarolyn McCrady (219) 938-1302Jim Spicer (219) 938-9615
12:30 to 2:30pm
Purdue Calumet University2200 169th St.Hammond, IndianaProfessor Kathy Tobin(219) 989-3192tobin@calumet.purdue.eduClassroom Office Building CLO 110

7:00-9:00 pm
Valparaiso UniversityU.S. Hwy 30 & Sturdy RdRoom 234Neils Science CenterValparaiso, IndianaLibby A HearnPartners for Peace (student group)(309) 834-2199Libby.AHearn@valpo.eduLorri CornettNorthwest Indiana Coalition Against the Iraq War(219) 916-0449la_cornett@yahoo.com

Friday February 2
Noon Purdue UniversityWesley Foundation435 West State St.West Lafayette, IndianaSheila Rosenthal (765) 404-5489Lafayette Area Peace Coalition

Watada is a part of a movement of resistance with the military that includes others such as Agustin Aguayo (whose court-martial is currently set to begin on March
6th), Kyle Snyder, Darrell Anderson, Ivan Brobeck, Ricky Clousing, Aidan Delgado, Mark Wilkerson, Joshua Key, Camilo Meija, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Jeremy Hinzman, Corey Glass, Patrick Hart, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.

On CBS' Sunday Morning, Rita Braver examined the issue of war resisters who go to Canada ("Estimates say there are between 200 and 250 of them") and interviewed Justin Colby and Dean Walcott as well as Vietnam war resister. Colby explained how he signed up after 9--11 only to see his support for the war vanish after a serving a tour in Iraq: "When I realized these people we were killing -- 'cause we killed a lot, I saw a lot of dead people -- when I realized the people we were killing had nothing to do with 9/11, that's when I was, like, 'Okay, this is not for me! This, ya know, I was wrong." Dean Walcott spoke of how he felt there was nothing else he could do but self-check out after serving two tours of duty in Iraq and now focusing on "talking about it, raising the issue, getting it out there for people to debate about it." After his first tour and before his second, Walcott was stationed at a hospital in Germany: "A lot of guys who skin was melted off. A lot of guys who you couldn't recognize literally from their face to their feet. Missing arms, missing legs, couldn't breate on their own, couldn't feed themselves. These kids, literally kids -- 17, 18, 19, 20. And this look in their eyes that -- Oh, I'm never gonna forget it. The look in their eyes when they finally came to understand that they're never gonna walk again. They're never gonna hold their wife and their children again. And having them ask me, 'Why?' Ya know -- a 'big-picture why.' And I couldn't tell them."

Calling for an end to the illegal war, at least 500,000 people demonstrated in DC on Saturday. Speakers included Iraq vets (such as Iraq Veterans Against the War's Garrett Repperhagen), activists (Feminist Majority Foundation's Eleanor Smeal, Kim Gandy. president of NOW, Leslie Cagan of United for Peace and Justice, Jesse Jackson, Noura Erakat, Gold Star Families for Peace's Carlos Arredondo and others), and artists such as Jane Fonda, Eve Ensler, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and Sean Penn. The link goes to today's Democracy Now! which covers the protest -- all but Ensler are included in the segment which can be read (transcript), listened to or watched. The demonstration also included a message from US Senator Russ Feingold -- the closest anyone in the US Senate got to the rally. US House members Maxine Waters, Lynn Woolsey and John Conyers spoke and US Rep and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich spoke noting that "We are the peacemakers." And it included Bob Watada (click here for Democracy Now!'s report feature Bob Watada, Maxine Waters, John Conyers, Lynn Woolsey and Jonathan Hutto). Bob Watada is Ehren Watada's father and while he and his wife Rosa Sakanishi spoke in DC, Ehren spoke in Seattle and his mother Carolyn Ho spoke in the Bay Area.

The most cited speech by participants we spoke to at the demonstration was Bob Watada. As he declared, "We are a civilized nation, we need to bring an end to a war for blood oil" the crowd erupted in chants of "Say it! Say it!" He spoke of the importance of speaking out (and quoted Abraham Lincoln: "To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.") and he spoke of his son: "The military commanders want to punish him -- and punish him for saying the emperor has no clothes . . . The truth is a danger to the Bush empire."


Ehren's step-mother Rosa told the massive crowd: "And you know, you and I know, that we have to live for peace and justice and that is what Ehren's doing . . . Bring the troops back home now!"

The Honolulu Advertiser reported that Rosa collapsed at the DC demonstrations (and was caught by Ann Wright) due to what doctors at George Washington University Hospital have diagnosed as "a mild stroke."

The second most cited speech by participants we spoke with was Jane Fonda's -- "I haven't spoken at an anti-war rally in 34 years because of lies about me that were used to hurt the anti-war movement. But silence is no longer an option. . . . Thank you so much for the courage to stand up to this mean-spirited and vengeful administration." Fonda was joined by her daughter Vanessa Vadim and Vanessa's two children. During Vietnam, as Fonda noted in her speech, Vanessa was often accompanying her on the road (and got used to sleeping in dresser drawers converted into makeshift cribs). She noted her pride that her family was participating but her sadness that once again the citizens of the US have to protest an illegal war and lobby their elected representatives to take action to end it.

Protest took place elsewhere in the United States and Adam Schreck, Ashraf Khalil and David Streitfeld (Los Angels Times) put the number demonstrating at 3,000. Vietnam vet Ron Kovic and Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan were among those making their voices heard. Kovic stated, "I'm seeing soldiers and veterans like myself who trusted and believed at first and who are realizing they've been lied to." Cindy Sheehan observed, "There's definitely a groundswell growing. I just wish it was growing faster. If half the people of Los Angeles who disagree with this war were here, then we would have miles of people." Laurie Phillips (Tri-Valley Herald) reports that the police estimate "3,000 to 4,000 people" participated in the Bay Area demonstration and that Carolyn Ho spoke to the crowd: "What is going on here, in Washington, D.C., and in this country cannot stop. There is a momentum that is growing" and that her son, Ehren Watada, enlisted because of a desire to do what was right only to learn that the Iraq war is based "on a lie." Aaron Glantz (IPS) corrects the low balled police estimate and notes that the crowd numbered 5,000

In Seattle, Ehren Watada spoke as part of a discussion on the war. Lori Hurlebaus (Indybay IMC) reports that, in addition to the rally, the march took on a military recruiting center led by Iraq vets Darrell Anderson and Chanan Suarez-Diaz (both of Iraq Veterans Against the War) "were attempting to present the recruiters with a book of photos of all U.S. service members who have died in Iraq, but the center was closed as the demonstrators arrived and the recruiters would not accept the book" and that participants chanted "Occupation is a crime, Ehren Watada should do no time!" and "You gotta resist, don't enlist!"

And actions continued today in DC. AP reports that nine people arrested while gathered "around a courtyard pool inside the Rayburn House office building, throwing yellow roses onto the ice as they recited the names of Iraq War victims" and their crime, according to the police was unlawful assembly. Unlawful assemble in the Congress? The First Amendment to the US Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abriding the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assmeble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Learn it, memorize it, it will put you one up on the Capitol police.

AP also notes that at least 100 people took to the Hart Senate office building "waving children's shoes to represent Iraqi children killed in the war" and quotes CODEPINK's Medea Benjamin stating, "We feel the American people don't know how many Iraqis have been killed because of the American invasion."

And in the Winter 2007 edition of Ms. magazine (now on sale), Patricia McFadden reports on the recent "Feminism and War" conference at Syracuse University noting participants (Cindy Sheehan, Cynthia Enloe, Patrice N. Delvante, Zillah Eisenstein and others): "The three-day conference gave feminist voice to the most urgent political matters of the day. We debated, for example, the ways in which war and religion oppress and exclude women, and how issues of identity are easily conflated into belief systems. At the 'Rally Against Iraqi War and Occupation,' justice activist Angela Davis spoke in a local park about the necessity of resisting the seduction of right-wing propaganda associated with 'homeland security' and 'terrorism.' She discussed ways in which feminism could better engage with notions of security and community."

And in Iraq?

Bombings?

CBS and AP report two car bombings in Kirkuk which resulted in 11 dead and 34 wounded, while, in Baghdad, a car bomb claimed at least 4 lives and left another 6 wounded and a construction worker was killed and two more wounded by the explosion from "[a] bomb hidden under a concrete barrier". Reuters notes five people killed in a rocket attack on a Shi'ite mosque in Tuz Khurmato and eleven people killed (28 injured) in Zaafaraniya.

Damien Cave (New York Times) reports that "at least five girls" died in Baghdad on Sunday in a mortar attack on a girl's school. Cave quotes a teacher on one of the girls who died, "She hugged and kissed me, then went outside and the bomb hit. After a few minutes, she was dead." The BBC quotes a 15-year-old, "I couldn't see much but what I saw was my friend Maha, who was lying beside me on the ground. The shrapnel hit her in th eyes and there was blood all over her face. . . . She was dead."


Shootings?

Mohammed Al Awsy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports "this noon a sniper in karada area shot a policeman who was guarding HAY AL WIHDA bank" and "According to a security and medical source from baqouba city today, a group of terrorists attacked a residential complex for AL BAYAT tribes in KARA TABA village which led to the killing of 8 civilians." Al Awsy also notes: "According to the police chief of diyala province general GHANEM AL QURAISHI, 1,500 police staff and officers have been dismissed, and 950 volunteers were accepted."


Corpses?

CNN reports that 22 corpses were discovered in Baghdad today.

In Najaf, a fight began on Sunday (or Saturday depending on the report) and may or may not be over. There is reality, there are reports and then there's what the US military is saying. Their chief talking point, the US military's, is that the fighting of resistance forces was carried out by the Iraqi military and US troops only came in afterwards -- rah, rah, the Iraqi military is leading -- that sort of thing. CBS' Lara Logan lets the hot air out of that ballon by noting that "the heavy American involvement shows how reliant the Iraqis still are on U.S. Military backup." The US military claims do not hold water but some outlets are reporting that US troops didn't even move in to assist until early Monday. The reality is, and this is from Centcom, a US helicopter left the sky in Najaf and two US soldiers were killed. Left the sky? It crashed. It was brought down. But we're not ever supposed to note that. Now for those outlets reporting that US troops didn't join in the battle until Monday or that US troops weren't there until late Sunday, please note that the Sunday crash is identified by Centcom as "earlier today." You can all loosen your belts, relax a little, it's okay to tell the truth, Centcom's waived you through on it. The Iraqi military had US support from the beginning and when the Iraqi military wasn't effective, the US military had to come in. It's the same story, day after day.

Richard Mauer and Qassim Zein (McClatchy Newspapers) report that the helicopter was shot down"by what appeared to be a ground-fired rocket" -- and they're quoting unnamed generals from the US military. Borzou Daragahi (Los Angeles Times) reported Sunday that US military had announced the death of seven troops on Saturday. Today, Daragahi noted that in addition to the two deaths from the helicopter, the US military also reported three more deaths of US troops. AFP reports: "Sunday was one of the deadliest days in recent months, with at least 115 people killed or found dead across the country from a wave of bombings and shootings.

On the speculation (reported as fact) that the Najaf battle was over a "cult" and the numbers being fed to the press, The BBC notes: "BBC's Mike Wooldridge in Baghdad says there is no independent confirmation of the scale of casualties and there is still uncertainty about the group." Stephen Farrell and Hassan al-Jarrah (Times of London) also note that events are unconfirmed and in dispute.


Drew Brown (McClatchy Newspapers) reports on the Pentagon's latest effort to persuade people to become cannon fodder as part of $1.2 billion a year they waste on recruitment --they're going after "parents and other role models to encourage youth." Maybe they'll start offering parents' signing bonuses next, "Sign up Bobby or Bonnie and we'll give you fifty dollars!" In addition, Brown reports, the Pentagon is also considering granting citizenship to non-citizens residing in other countries if they will sign up to fight.


Meanwhile, CNN reports that Major General Richard Zilmer admitted today that Al-Anbar Province is not dominated by foreigners fighting for the resistance. He did, however, link them with al Qaeda -- score: one lie cleared up, another continues to be advanced. As Dahr Jamail (among others) has repeteadly reported (for longer than we can count), the resistance in Al-Anbar Province is homegrown. It was created by the US. It was fueled by the US. Ramadi doesn't want to be the new Falluja (and after the slaughter and desctruction there, who can blame them?). Zilmer tells CNN that the US military is working with tribal leaders in the region -- some tribal leaders. Left unstated are two obvious facts: 1) that 'plan' proved to be a real solution in Afghanistan, didn't it?, (2) the US military has put tribal leaders on the payroll. As this becomes more and more apparent to Iraqis in Al-Anbar Province, any sway the mini-leaders had (they don't even have any major tribal leaders on their side) is lost. It also needs to be noted that those put on the payroll have gotten a little flashy with the bling-bling further alienating Iraqis in the region.

The general is all a ga-ga-goo-goo over Bully Boy's planned escalation and is ready to spin (who allows themselves to be spun since they don't point out the obvious) with how much the addition troops (4,000) that would be sent to Al Anbar Province will do. Left unstated is that the number still leaves foreign fighters (US, British) in a strong minority. Left unstated is that, as Blair's cabinet faces the deadline of the timeline they've tossed to appeas British citizens, the number will only be replacement numbers for the soon to leave British.


Finally, Levi Pulkkinen (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) reports on the January 11th death of Dale Noyd who served in the Air Force, achieved the rank of captain and then said "NO" to deploying to Vietnam and was court-martialed in 1967 -- Pulkkinen notes Ehren Watada spoke of Dale Noyd Thursday at the Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church in Seattle:
"Nothing has changed (since Vietnam) except the names and the faces. We are here today because we did not learn our lesson." Also today, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) reported on journalist, columnist and author Molly Ivins whose cancer has re-emerged and was recently hospitalized. Editor & Publisher noted that in her second to last column (In the Jan. 11th column) she "wrote that she would dedicate every single one of her syndicated columns from now on to the issue of stopping the war in Iraq, until it ended." She may still -- she's beat cancer before.

josh ritter, state of entertainment (betty & my thoughts)

betty, flyboy and i just started listening to wbai a little while ago to catch the peace special that's in today's snapshot.

i'm getting used to the new browser so if links seem little, that's why.

so we came in on the special right before the good war. that's a documentary that they are playing selections from. that's really an amazing film. it's about war resisters during ww2 and what happened to them.

betty's kids were my big concern, whether they'd have fun or not because in the past, i was able to be a lot more active. fortunately, they have had a blast. flyboy went out yesterday and bought some toys. it was his audition for when our baby arrives. he did a good job actually. while the sun was out, they just wanted to run along the beach, but now they're in toy city (and having a blast with that as well). betty's daughter stared at my hair for the 1st half hour. she's used to me as a blonde but being here all the time, i needed a change and t gave me red hair (with henna) so it was, 'i think i know her but what did she do to her hair?' which she actually asked after 30 minutes, 'what did you do to your hair?' she had to touch it and play with it and then rendered her verdict, 'pretty.'

tomorrow, the adults will be watching the ground truth and kids can watch that as well if they want, or if they just want to be with the adults (betty thinks her daughter will want to be in her lap the whole time). it really is weird to think every 1's in d.c. and i'm not. i feel, honestly, like i'm letting the cause down. if i could be there, i would. this has been (knock wood) smooth sailing but with all my miscarriages in the past, there are things i can do and things i can't and travel just isn't one of the things i can do. not right now. i also have a list of foods i can't eat. we're just being hyper cautious (we = me, flyboy and my doctor).

betty says to put in 'rebecca is not fat.' i feel fat. i've told her on the phone for weeks, 'i'm huge, i'm huge!' that doesn't stop me from eating, mind you. but i am huge. betty says that's not quite true. she also asked me what is going on with this screen?

i have no idea. i type a line and there's nothing and then all the sudden letter by letter it scrolls across. it may be this new browser, it may be something else but it is weird and time consuming because after i type a few lines and there's nothing, i have to stop and wait to be sure that it's there. which is making this post take much longer than it should and will cut down on any links (i've already pasted the snapshot in from c.i.'s e-mail and i didn't have to even provide a link for the snapshot because c.i. includes that when e-mailing it to all of us).

so what can we talk about? betty says music. she wants to note 'girl in the war' by josh ritter. i love that song and betty's daughter loves that song. betty says she'd be in her room playing with her dolls and betty would walk by and hear her sing 'got a girl in the war'. it's off josh ritter's the animal years and betty's grabbing my cd off the rack to see if there's a link we can put in. if i flip to another page (a mistake i made earlier), i was waiting 5 minutes before i could get back into this screen. okay josh ritter has a website.

'this war is ... unwinnable' david (see snapshot for last name) who is hosting the wbai special just said that with a whole string of words between and betty hollered, 'say it again!'

so the animal years was reviewed by kat and you can google 'kat's korner josh ritter animal years' and pull it up. she also picked 'girl in the war' as 1 of the best songs of 2006.

'girl in the war' has this beautiful sound to it that goes up and down. the music alone will hook you. betty's picking out the lyrics:

peter said to paul you know all those words we wrote
are just the rules of the game and the rules are the first to go
but now talking to god is laurel begging hardy for a gun
i got a girl in the war man i wonder what it is we done

that's the 1st verse. there are 11 songs on the cd. betty's 2nd favorite is 'here at the right time' and that is a really beautiful song. i think i'd pick 'thin blue flame.'

betty says what we really need musically right now is some 1 to do like diana ross did near the end of vietnam and record a song like 'hey now young mothers' (betty adds it may just be 'young mothers'). i know the song, i just don't know the title.

we both think 2006 was an amazing year for music compared to previous 1s. you had ben harper, michael franti & spearhead, neil young, pink, the dixie chicks, josh, and a few others

- we were frozen. i wasn't going to reboot because we'
re still listening to the special and i'd love to see the sentence i've typed some day soon. but if we'd rebooted, we would have missed at least part of the special.

so stephan smith would be on the list and he has a third name (you can find him by searching 'stephan smith'). we can't pull that from the cds because flyboy keeps that 1 in his car. and another 1 would be david rovics with halliburton boardroom massacre. but really, are the others not aware a war is going on?

do kids put up with that (the 1s who do, i know many do not put up with the crap that's being pushed off on them) because they don't any better or do they really like that junk?

i didn't like bubble gum music even when i was a teenager. betty says she did only if the guy was cute. which i can relate to. i wouldn't care for the music, but i would eye the bubble gum boys if they had anything to offer.

the good war and those who refused to fight it is the name of the film i mentioned before. they just mentioned the title again.

but does music, we're back to that, have anything to say or is it just about escape? betty just added true of films too. she says she really can't get into fantasies today or fluff and finds herself watching documentaries more and more. (and says 'shout out to c.i. for being a 1 person netflix!' c.i. is always passing around documentaries.) it is true. if i turn on the tv these days and watch a few hours (i always have it on for background noise but i rarely pay attention to it) i feel like i've just been drug through the tabloids and have been fed goo and sugar to the point that i'm about to hurl.

it frequently seems like we have a non-stop diet of escapism and i know we are all hungry for meaning. which is why i would recommend josh ritter's cd to you. the animal years. this is not the never-grow-up, peter pan that is justin timberlake. this is an adult trying to record the world around him.

and we froze again. so i'm going to post this before i end up frozen completely.

now here's c.i.'s 'iraq snapshot:'

Friday, January 26, 2007. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq, ten days to go until Ehren Watada's February 5th court-martial begins, groups mobolize to end the war in the United States, Bully Boy issues death threats to Iranians in Iraq and a death threat to American democracy, the privatization of Iraq's assets is boldly expressed but we're all supposed to look the other way and the US military gets caught in a lie.

Starting with Ehren Watada, he, his father (Bob Watada) and his mother (Carolyn Ho) will be out in full force tomorrow. Susan Paynter (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) reports will be taking part in Seattle's events to end the war: "1 p.m. at the Center for Social Justice, 2111 E. Union St., moving to the Military Recruitment Center at 2301 S. Jackson St., then to the Langston Hughes Center at 104 17th Ave. S. at 3, where speakers will include Lt. Ehren Watada." Watada, who will be part of a panel discussion, is the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq and he is facing a Februarty 5th court-martial in which he will not be able to present any real defense because 'Judge' Head has a really sick sense of what "justice" is.

Michael E. Ruane (Washington Post) reports that Bob Watada will be speaking at the DC rally tomorrow and Bob Watada tells Ruane: "There is no doubt in my mind that the invasion and occupation of Iraq is wholly unwarranted. The Iraqi people have done absolutely nothing to the United States. They've done nothing to deserve the massacre and the pummeling they're getting . . . the plunder, the torture, the rape, the murder of innocent people. It's got to stop." Meredith May (San Francisco Chronicle) reports that, in San Francisco, things kick off with "a noon rally at Powell and Market streets. Carolyn Ho, the mother of Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada of Hawaii, who is refusing orders to deploy to Iraq, will speak to the crowd."

Three different cities tomorrow where they will be attempting to get the message that the illegal war needs to end and that what will take place in the February 5th court-martial won't be justice because the 'judge' has refused to allow Ehren Watada to present his reasons for refusing to deploy, the studies he did as part of his command that led him to the conclusion that the war was illegal and immoral. Marilyn Bechtel (People's Weekly World) spoke with Marti Hiken (National Lawyers Guild) who noted that "people do not surrender all their constional rights when they enter the military" and that "Regardless of whether the military wins this court martial, they lose for silencing an individual who has so much integrity that is evident to people across the country."

Saying "no" to an illegal war is hard. It takes courage. (Note the Cowards Silence plauging the left if you doubt that, but I'm actually talking about those in the military who have said "no.") Watada is a part of a movement of resistance with the military that includes others such as Agustin Aguayo (whose court-martial is currently set to begin on March

6th), Kyle Snyder, Darrell Anderson, Ivan Brobeck, Ricky Clousing, Aidan Delgado, Mark Wilkerson, Joshua Key, Camilo Meija, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Jeremy Hinzman, Corey Glass, Patrick Hart, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.

In the United States, tomorrow sees protests, rallies and marches around the country. As CODEPINK notes: "Join us on January 27 to say No More Funding for War! Bring Our Troops Home Now! We will use our feet and our lungs and our signs and our outrage to let Bush and our new Congress know that we are serious about ending this war.
If you can't make it to DC, see if there is a solidarity event being planned in your area. If not, create your own, even if that means standing alone on a street corner with a sign! In lieu of lobbying, you can call your Congressperson to demand they cut the funding for George Bush's War. Our voices are powerful, wherever we may be geographically. We know peace is the only real path to hope and opportunity for this country. Together we will make it happen."

If you can't make it to DC, you can still be heard. If there's not an event in your area, start one. Avaaz.org (formely Ceasefire Campaign Team) is attempting to get the word out on a way you can be heard in DC if you're not able to attend:

Join Saturday's global peace march... without Leaving Your House!
This Saturday, hundreds of thousands of Americans will march on Washington DC to demand peace and justice in Iraq and the Middle East. We can be there too, raising a global voice of solidarity -- through our own worldwide virtual march. Time is short, so add your voice and join the march today!
http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_peace_march/
This could signal the rebirth of the US peace movement. We need to show them the world is on their side. Let's bring our call for peace to the streets of power in Washington. Join the global peace march and tell your friends today!

Events will be covered by some media. Known coverage will include: KPFA which will broadcast live from the DC demonstrations from 10:00 am to noon PST. (At which point it will begin covering demonstrations in the Bay Area.) and Laura Flanders who will cover the days demonstration Saturday night (7:00 to 10:00 pm EST) on her program RadioNation with Laura Flanders (heard on Air America Radio and other outlets). (Both KPFA and Air America Radio offer online streaming.) (KPFA also offers their achived broadcasts for free, so if you miss the live coverage and would like to hear it later, check out the KPFA Archives). Rachel notes that WBAI will broadcast live coverage of the demonstrations from

11:00 am to 1:00 pm EST. In addition, she notes that tonight (Friday) on WBAI, David Occhiuto will host a special which will feature anti-war films, interviews and will include coverage of Ehren Watada including sections of the speech he gave in Seattle that the the Article 32 hearing in August included and the court-martial next month plans to include in their prosecution of him. Tune in to hear the message that so frightened the military brass that 'Judge' Head has gagged Watada's defense from presenting. That's tonight, WBAI,

7:00 pm to 11:00 pm EST (over the airwaves in NYC and surrounding areas as well as online).

As people mobilize to get the truth out, the US military finds some cover-ups implode faster than others. New details emerge regarding Saturday's reported violence. Saturday, five US troops were killed in Karbala when resistance fighters reportedly wearing US uniforms were waived through checkpoints and made it to a meeting in Karbala. Five US troops were reported as dying during the attack that followed. The AP is reporting (based on US and Iraqi military sources) that four of the five were kidnapped and the four were then killed with bodies being discovered as far away as 25 miles. There was a lot of Happy Talk this week. There was the lie that corpses discovered in Baghdad were tapering off (42 discovered yesterday), there was the lie that what's happening on Haifa Street is normal and not an attack that's killing civilians, there were showy moments in the US Congress and there were the lies of Bully Boy's State of the Union address. When we're neck-deep in lies, it's really easy for the US military to lie (that is what happened) and misinform the public.

Without the lies, the escalation couldn't be sold and a lot of people are vested in selling the escalation. And note that when the AP asked about it, the US military played dumb. As Steven R. Hurst and Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) reported later, the US military has now confirmed that four were kidnapped and killed later (1 of the 4 was apparently discovered "mortally wounded").

Bombings?

CBS and AP report a bombing of a pet market utilizing a bomb hidden among pigeons that has resulted in the death of at least 14 people in Baghdad. Stephen Farrell (Times of London) reports: "Police said insurgents concealed the explosives inside a cardboard box punched with holes to make it appear a container for pigeons, parrots or other birds which are prime attractions at the market. The blast, which also wounded 55, hit the Ghazel market on the eastern banks of the Tigris just before the weekly curfew intended to protect crowds attending mosques during noon prayers on the Islamic day of prayer." Farrell notes that the explosion allowed some caged pets to be let loose but many died. Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports: "Two civilians were injured when an IED exploded in Milhaniya, a part of Amil neighborhood at 1 pm." Reuters notes: "On Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Shi'ite mosque on the outskirts of Mosul, killing seven and wounding 17 more after prayers, a police source said."

Shootings?

Reuters notes: "Gunmen opened fire on a crowd in Baghdad's Bayaa district, killing one person and wounding two, a police source said."

Corpses?

CBS and AP report: "Seven tortured bodies of people who had been blindfolded and had their hands and legs bound before they were shot in the head were found in the capital Friday, according to police." Reuters notes that number of corpses discovered in Baghdad today has risen to 27 while one corpse was discovered in Kirkuk and a headless corpse was discovered in Hawija. Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports: "The body of the Iraqi boxer Hussein Hadi was found in Haifa street. Police said that Hadi was kidnapped three days ago and he found hanged today."

Also today, the US military announced: "One Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 6 died today from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province."

Meanwhile, CNN reports that the Iranian government is calling "terrorism" on Bully Boy's recent order (backed up by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates) for US troops to kill (on the spot) Iranians they suspect of plotting terrorism. These execution orders by the Bully Boy come with no jury or defense, just an instant passing of judgement.

In financial news, AFP reports that one of Iraq's two vice presidents, Shi'ite Adel Abdul Mahdi, has called the illegal occupation of Iraq "idiotic" but is pushing the 'we will be safe if we have to raid and terrorize school children, residents of homes, etc' that was so popular with the puppet of the occupation yesterday. Those confused by the both-sides-talking Mahdi can refer to a commentary by Antonia Juhasz (Huffington Post) last May: "The re-appointment of Mahdi may yet provide the Bush Administration with its most important victory in the Iraq war since Saddam Hussein was pulled out of a rabbit hole in Tikrit. However, Mahdi's Vice Presidency may also ultimately generate at least as much hostility towards the United States as the invasion itself. Over the course of the war, Mahdi emerged as one of the most aggressive proponents of the Bush administration's economic agenda for Iraq, including the implementation of controversial corporate globalization rules and greater U.S. corporate access to Iraq's oil." Mahdi earlier served in the Bremer 'government' and will probably serve in a great many other puppet governments to follow.

MarketWatch reports: "Over the next several years, the minister [Mahdi] said Iraq would look to privatize all of state-owned industry, which number around 60 companies. He also said Asian companies were keen to enter discussions with the Iraqi government over industrial contracts. Hariri said Iraq was also in discussions with San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp over engineering contracts, without elaborating."

The privatization. Antonia Juhasz (author of The BU$H Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time) attempted to address the realities of the oil law on KPFA's Living Room

January 11th. But a (male) guest, of course, new better and felt that whatever laws were passed, Iraqis could undue the damage many years on down the line. That's confronting the problem! For those who didn't grasp the importance of what Juhasz was addressing, The San Jose Mercury News reports "Iraq is in negotiations with San Ramon-based Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. to build a new $3 billion petrochemical facility, and is in talks with several other Western companies over industrial projects. In an interview Thursday, Iraq's minister for industry and minerals Fowzi Hariri said the discussions with Chevron and Exxon began this week in Washington and are at an early stage." The New York Times fluffed their coverage of the law last Saturday. Apparently, we're all supposed to pretend it doesn't matter or take the attitude of, "Hey, they can fix in 20 years!"

For those who've forgotten, in polling where Iraqis side with the resistance on the topic of attacking foreign fighters (including American troops), they also note the belief that the continued war is nothing but an attempt for foreigners to get their hands on Iraqi assets. Prvatization laws and multi-billion dollar deals by outsiders tend to convey that impression.

In political news, CNN reports that that the Democratic leadership in the US Congress may push for a revamping of the 2002 act that the Bully Boy cited as his authorization for starting a pre-emptive, illegal war of agression on Iraq. Of course, with Democrat leadership, "maybe" means basically what "We'll see" means when said by a parent.

In news of dictators, CNN reports on Bully Boy of the United States latest string of I statements: "I am the decider . . . I've picked the plan . . . I know . . ." Though his love affair with self continues unabated, as the recent poll by CBS News found on Bully Boy's desired escalation: "More than 70 percent of Americans think he should have to get congressional approval before he commits those troops." (68% of poll respondents stated they were "uneasy" with Bully Boy's ability to make decisions regarding Iraq.) Though Bully Boy appears to have forgotten this basic fact, in a democracy, the people are "the deciders."

Reminder: Those in DC Saturday should check out Anthony Arnove, author most recently of IRAQ: The Logic of Withdrawal, who will be speaking at Busboys and Poets at 5:00 pm and those in the NYC area on Sunday should check out Joan Mellen speech at 7:30 p.m. at the 92nd Street Y (92nd Street and Lesington Avenue). Mellan, a professor at Temple University and the author of seventeen books, will be presenting a lecture on the JFK assasination . . . and beyond. Tickets are $25. Mellen's latest book is A Farewell to Justice which probes the assasination of JFK. She was a guest on Law and Disorder November 7, 2005. And the March 15, 2006 broadcast of KPFA's Guns and Butter featured her speech "How the Failure to Identify, Prosecute and Convict President Kennedy's Assassins Has Led to Today's Crisis of Democracy." You can also read a transcript of that speech here.

iraq

ehren watada

antonia juhasz
ben hamamato
living room
kris welch
kpfa

michael e. ruane
the washington post
susan paynter

united for peace and justice

joan mellen

anthony arnove

law and disorder

bonnie faulkner

guns and butter

mikey likes it

radionation with laura flanders
laura flanders

thursday

i'm about to post for tonight but before i do, i did post last night. i wasn't able to log in here, so i posted at elaine's site. if you missed it, here it is:

rebecca here, not elaine. elaine's off. i'm here because i'm such a great friend. no, really!

actually, i'm here because i caught her as she and mike were going through the airport (i had to wait for them to land) and i told her 'i can't log in. can i blog at your site?' she said sure and gave me the password. at some point, i'll be back at my site. hopefully tomorrow. wally, elaine and c.i. are the only 1s who are still using old blogger that i'm aware of. cedric was until he went to post today.

he got a message that he had to switch. it was no 'if you'd like to switch now' (switch to beta) so we'll probably soon all be on it. (c.i. will probably be the last just due to the fact that the common ills is so huge with all those entries. elaine doesn't want to switch but we know at some point every 1's getting switched.)

so that's what's what. hello to elaine's readers. warning: i have a foul mouth. and then some.

so i web surfed tonight to get stuff to write about and ended up wondering - what was the point?

let me explain.

1) editor & publisher tells you about the offensive non-joke where an iraqi soldier points a gun at a reporter, squeezes the trigger and laughs because the gun did not go off. they posted that at 11:55 a.m. today est. which would mean 8:55 am pst.

matters because?

4:26 am pst is the time stamp on c.i.'s 'The Times disgrace themselves -- New York and LA' - covering the same thing.

2) then i find rory o'connor and david olson's 'Helping Lara Logan' and think, 'well sure, i'll help lara out. what's she need?' what she needs is to get the slaughter of haditha street on air at cbs. the slaughter that c.i.'s been pointing out for weeks now. (including today, including yesterday, including last week.) (i forgot to ask c.i. if friends at cbs news were talking about it. they may have been and that may have been why c.i.'s hit so hard on it.)

elaine loves isaiah's comics (i do too) so let me give you a heads up there. you do not want to miss sunday's comic. if you've had it with the media types who present left but can't do a damn thing to help war resisters, be sure to check it out. 'born useless' - as my mother-in-law & i like to think of a certain woman - is 1st out of the gate. (with that old horse face.)

but i did find 1 thing i really, really loved. this is from david rovics' 'They Kept On Walking' (truthout):

Our taxi dropped us off at the checkpoint outside Nablus, so we could walk through the checkpoint and take another taxi into the city. With the travel restrictions and hundreds of checkpoints everywhere, this is the way you have to travel, if you're lucky enough to be allowed to travel at all.
There, on the outskirts of this ancient Palestinian city, as with every other city in the West Bank, was a heavily armed gang of young Israeli men and women in green IDF uniforms. One of the men inspected my passport and spent a few minutes trying to discourage me from entering Nablus. "It's crazy in there. There are Arab terrorists. There are bombs every night. It's not safe." I thanked him for his warning, and I thought to myself that he might have an entirely different experience in Nablus if he visited the city in a role other than an occupation soldier.
We got into another taxi and drove towards the city center, passing one destroyed factory after another. They were bombed in 2002 when Israel invaded, leaving much of the city in ruins. Several of the factories used to make soap. Nablus was known for them, but no longer.
Inching along in gnarled traffic, we eventually got to the campus of An-Najah National University. I was to do a concert there that evening to a large and appreciative audience. Due to circumstances beyond my control, each organizer on my tour of Palestine had only a few days to put together a concert, and Saed Abu-Hijleh managed to pull it off brilliantly.
Contrary to the warnings of the Israeli soldier, I only met really nice people like Saed during my stay in Nablus. Saed was my age, in his late thirties, a good-looking man in a sports jacket. He greeted us warmly, and together we walked across the campus to his office. As we passed hundreds of students and other people on this extremely crowded, bustling campus, it was obvious that Saed commanded a deep respect and admiration from everyone.
Saed is a professor and is the administrator in charge of public relations. Under the current restrictions of the Israeli occupation, the only way he could potentially get out of Nablus would be on foot at great personal danger. He and his car are not allowed to leave the city. Before the Al-Aqsa Intifada, when travel was easier for most Palestinians, he had studied for nine years in Iowa City, and he remembered his time there fondly.
We got to his small office, and Saed was showing me a lovely booklet one of his students had made with Arabic translations of some of my songs. It was to be handed out to everybody coming to the concert that night. There was a picture of a woman on his desk, and I asked him who she was. He explained to me that she was his mother, and he said she had recently been killed by Israeli occupation soldiers.

so we get an issue i really care about and it's written by some 1 whose music i really enjoy. david rovics is a singer-songwriter and you can read 'Kat's Korner: David Rovic's Halliburton Boardroom Masscre' if you haven't heard it yet. kat picked it as one of the best of 2006. the cd actual comes with a bonus dvd and we've been intending to do something on that at the third estate sunday review. fingers crossed, we'll do it this weekend.

okay, i am late starting (due to blogger's problems - if mike doesn't blog tonight, that's the problem) so let me wind it on down. i won't be able to go to dc and i wish i could. but airplane travel is out of the question (due to pregnancy) and it would be a road trip (with me worrying the whole time, see what i wrote yesterday) so i'll be here. betty will be here tomorrow with her kids and, on saturday, we're going to have a big gathering. we'll be watching and discussing the ground truth.

maybe you can't make it either? maybe, like me, for health reasons, d.c. is out of the question. if that's the case, i hope you will do something in your own area. and there is something every 1 can do (c.i. passed this on to me):


Dear friends,
I just joined a global virtual peace march demanding that the new US Congress stop President Bush's escalation in Iraq and demand a real peace plan, and I thought you might be interested. Please see the email below.
Subject: Join Saturday's global peace march... without Leaving Your House!
This Saturday, hundreds of thousands of Americans will march on Washington DC to demand peace and justice in Iraq and the Middle East. We can be there too, raising a global voice of solidarity -- through our own worldwide virtual march. Time is short, so add your voice and join the march today!
http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_peace_march/Avaaz
This could signal the rebirth of the US peace movement. We need to show them the world is on their side. Let's bring our call for peace to the streets of power in Washington. Join the global peace march and tell your friends today!
With hope,
Ricken, Paul, Tom, Rachel, Galit, Lee-Sean and the rest of the Ceasefire Campaign (now Avaaz.org! ) Team

now here's c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

Thursday, January 25, 2007. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq, the Green Zone comes under attack, more people with courage speak out for Ehren Watada, US war resister Agustin Aguayo recevies a court-martial date, Nouri al-Maliki prepares to target schools and homes, and the delusional Dick Cheney makes like a Starship cover band as he sings "Nothing's Going to Stop Us Now."

Starting with news of war resistance. Bobbie Morgan (Bainbridge Buzz) observes, "Sometimes it takes a travesty to create a hearo. We have a hero close by, awaiting a court martial for refusing to participate in the Iraq war because he feels it was never a lawful war."
Morgan is writing of Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse to deploy to the Iraq war. Next month, February 5th, Watada faces a court-martial.

Speaking recently with Ken Mochizuki (International Examiner), Watada stated: "I've said publicly that I'm willing to face the consequences for my action. But, I would ask that I be given a fair trial. So, there's no desertion there. And, when it comes to dissension, I have dissented, obviously, against the orders I've been given. Watada's referring to the ruling by 'Judge' Head which strips him of the ability to mount a defense or even offer his reasons for refusing to deploy. Stanley Campbell (Rock River Times) notes Watada's reasons that Watada will not be allowed to uttered in court: "It's my conclusion as an officer of the armed forces that the Iraq war is not only morally wrong but a horrible breach of American law. Although I have tried to resign out of protest, I am forced to participate in a war that is manifestly illegal. As the order to take part in an illegal act is ultimately unlawful as well, I must, as an officer of honor and integrity, refuse that order." Again, the court-martial is scheduled for February 5th, Fort Lewis, Washington.


Meanwhile, in Germany, a court-martial date has been set for US war resister Agustin Aguayo. Kevin Dougherty (Stars & Stripes) reports that at today's arrinment hearing, the judge decided ("barring any delays") that the court-martial will start on March 6th. Aguayo
served in Iraq and, based on what he witnessed, decided serving in Iraq was against his religious beliefs. He then applied for conscientious objector status but was denied that status and expected to deploy to Iraq for a second tour. From September 2nd through September 26th of last year, Aguayo was absent from the military. He turned himself on the 26th. He has appealed his denial of C.O. status and, although the US Court of Appeals heard arguments on November 21, 2006, they have yet to issue a ruling.


Agustin Aguayo, Ehren Watada are part of a movement of resistance within the military that also includes Kyle Snyder, Darrell Anderson, Ivan Brobeck, Ricky Clousing, Aidan Delgado, Mark Wilkerson, Joshua Key, Camilo Meija, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Jeremy Hinzman, Corey Glass, Patrick Hart, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.

In the United States, many demonstrations will be held on Saturday including a rally and march in DC. For information on that, you can check out CODEPINK's Bring the Peace Mandate to D.C. on J27! KPFA will be broadcasting live from the DC demonstrations from 10:00 am to noon PST. (At which point it will begin covering demonstrations in the Bay Area.) Saturday night (7:00 to 10:00 pm EST), Laura Flanders will cover the days demonstrations and more on RadioNation with Laura Flanders.

CODEPINK, United for Peace & Justice and many other groups are taking part in Saturday's DC demonstration and march and in activites around the United States (at least fifty cities in the US have activities scheduled -- fifty in addition to DC -- at this time and more are expected to be added to the lists).


As the mobilizations gear up, shades of Tricky Dick, Bully Boy is spying on peace groups. Aaron Glantz (OneWorld) reports on US Defense Department documents obtained by the ACLU which reveal that 186 demonstrations have been spied on and recorded by the Defense Department: "The internal Defense Department documents show it is monitoring the activities of a wide swath of peace groups, including Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Code Pink, the American Friends Service Committee, the War Resisters League, and the umbrella group United for Peace and Justice, which is spearheading what organizers hope will be a massive march on Washington this Saturday."

In Iraq today, CNN reports that occupation puppet Nouri al-Maliki declared, "I ask everyone to excuse us as we do the job. No school, house, mosque or husseiniya [Shiite mosques] will be out of reach of our forces if they are harboring outlaws. The same for political party headquarters." If that doesn't trouble you, imagine it as the school in your neighborhood, your house. Civilians are being targeted and al-Maliki wants "everyone" to "excuse us" while the BBC reports that the the Iraqi parliament has voted in favor of this death wish.

Not unlike the continued slaughter on Haifa Street which the Muslim Scholars Association has termed "a campaign of genocide." Richard Mauer (McClatchy Newspapers) reports on eye witness Omar Abu Khatab who stated, "We have many people wounded and badly injured and we have also people killed. We want someone to help us bury them but we cannot get any help. We don't have any food or water. Until now, 16 days under this curfew and we cannot go out." Another resident, Abu Ali, explains to Mauer how the slaughter continued even after most media lost interest, "The Americans left; only the Iraqi forces stayed in Haifa. There were snipers on the buildings, Iraqi Army snipers. It kep people home because they shot two people that tried to go out to the street. They burned four buildings. They closed the area, which left the families with no food -- we had to whare with others what we had."

This 'fine' Iraqi military that al-Maliki intends to turn loose on homes and schools includes some real thugs as evidenced by incident reported this morning by Damien Cave and James Glanz (New York Times): "One Iraqi soldier in the alley pointed his rifle at an American reporter and pulled the trigger. There was only a click, the weapon had no ammunition. The soldier laughed at his joke." Hate to break it to Cave and Glanz, it's not a joke. Any fool knows you don't aim guns at people for a joke. That applies if you're cleaning it or at target practice and you better believe it applies in a war zone.

Reporters Without Borders counted 146 journalists killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war through January 18, 2007. Does someone really think it's funny that an Iraqi soldier is aiming a gun at journalists and squeezing the trigger? Had a journalist been hit (or, worse, killed), you better believe the excuse would be "I didn't know it was loaded." Guns aren't toys and anyone who isn't smart enough to grasp that, who thinks a gun is a prop for a joke, needs to have his butt kicked out of the Iraqi military right away. Instead, he (and no doubt others like him) will be doing house raids, school raids. Maybe he can be 'funny' by aiming the gun at children and squeezing the trigger when that happens?

Journalists have died in Iraq and for the Times to report it as a "joke" is an insult to all journalists, those in Iraq and outside of it. It also insults the memory of the journalists killed in Iraq or any other conflict. It's a "joke" to them. Just a "joke." The New York Times needs to get their priiorities straight and if the slaughter on Haifa Street doesn't trouble you, maybe when they target school children it will bother you.

Bombings?

Reuters reports that a car bomb in a central Baghdad market killed 20 and left 18 wounded.
Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) reports the death toll from the bombing climed to 26 and the number wounded to 54. AFP reports "that the explosion set a bus loaded with passengers ablaze, and destroyed half the front of a nearby building."

In addition, Reuters notes one person died and 13 were wounded in a Sadr City market in Baghad while three died and 10 were wounded from a roadside bomb in west Baghdad, a motorcycle bomb "killed a boy and an elderly woman in the city of Falluja" not far from a school, and four civilians were wounded in a bombing in Tal Afar.

In addition to the motorcycle bomb in Falluja, AFP reports one struck a central Baghdad market killing 4 and wounding 2o while destroying "stalls and carts" and quotes an official stating, "The bomb was strapped to a morotocycle which was parked on one side of the road that runs through the market."


Most important in terms of the press the Green Zone was attacked today. In June, when the Green Zone was almost breached, Nouri al-Maliki began the 'crackdown' that long ago cracked up. Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) reports that two or three rockets hit the Green Zone and six people were wounded. The Green Zone is the heavily fortified bunker area of Baghdad where the US is building its embassy, where the Iraqi government meets and where many reporters are stationed. AP notes that during the attack a voice came blaring over the PA system insisting that "This is not a drill" in English.


Shootings?

Reuters notes that two people were wounded near Haswa and that Hussein Abdul Aziz ("a member of the city council of al-Gayara") was shot dead near Mosul.


Corpses?

Reuters reports two corpses were discovered in Mosul and two in Dujail.


In political news, a toothless, symbolic measure passed through a Senate committee yesterday and now awaits a vote in the full Senate. CBS and AP report that Dick Cheney (second to the Bully Boy) has responded that, even if the resolution passes the full Senate, "It won't stop us." Margaret Taliv (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that US Senator Dick Durbin has called Cheney "delusional." Though Cheney, no doubt, is delusional, it should be remembered that he shot his own friend. Delusional, crazed and a (hopefully) bad shot.

Hopefully a bad shot? Otherwise that incident was intentional which would result in charges of assault or attempted murder and Cheney might be confessing today. Which brings us to legal news, Beth Rucker (AP) reports that Corey R. Clagett "pleaded guilty to charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to obstruct justice." Earlier this month, Juston Graber did the same (to charges of aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon) for his actions in the same May 9, 2006 incident where three Iraqis were detained near Tikrit, then released and killed after the relase with the claim that they had been 'escaping.' Corey Clagett was asked his intentions when he shot at the three men and he told the court, "To kill them, your honor,"

Those in DC Saturday should check out Anthony Arnove, author most recently of IRAQ: The Logic of Withdrawal, who will be speaking at Busboys and Poets at 5:00 pm and those in the NYC area on Sunday should check out Joan Mellen speech at 7:30 p.m. at the 92nd Street Y (92nd Street and Lesington Avenue). Mellan, a professor at Temple University and the author of seventeen books, will be presenting a lecture on the JFK assasination . . . and beyond. Tickets are $25. Mellen's latest book is A Farewell to Justice which probes the assasination of JFK. She was a guest on Law and Disorder November 7, 2005. And the March 15, 2006 broadcast of KPFA's Guns and Butter featured her speech "How the Failure to Identify, Prosecute and Convict President Kennedy's Assassins Has Led to Today's Crisis of Democracy." You can also read a transcript of that speech here.