On June 30,
2005, Sudan's new Vice President, former SPLA leader John Garang died when
his helicopter crashed in the southern region of the country. Was it
really an accident?
By Lila
Schow
TIMELINES
Just like for 9/11 and the Iraq war, sourced timelines are key in cutting
through the Bush Administrations efforts to obfuscate the TRUTH. Here are
some of the timelines that are beginning to take shape:
Local officials are now saying, the
article reports, that had Washington heeded their warnings about the
dire need for hurricane protection, including building up levees and
repairing barrier islands, "the damage might not have been nearly as
bad as it turned out to be."
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If you fall on the side that is pro-George
and pro-war, you get your ass over to Iraq, and take the place of somebody
who wants to come home. And if you fall on the side that is against this
war and against George Bush, stand up and speak out.
But I have to tell my
colleagues something. As I saw the African Americans, mostly African
American families ripped apart, I could only think about slavery, families
ripped apart, herded into what looked like concentration camps. So I was
reminded of a Miami Herald article written on July 5, the day after
Freedom Day, 1987.
The title of the article was ``Reagan Aides and the Secret
Government,'' and here is a quote from that article: ``A copy of the memo
was obtained by the Herald. The scenario outlined in the Brinkerhoff memo
resembles somewhat a paper Giufreda had written in 1970 at the Army War
College in Carlyle, Pennsylvania, in which he advocated martial law in
case of a national uprising by black militants.'' In which he advocated
martial law in case of a national uprising by black militants. The paper
also advocated the roundup and transfer of two ``assembly centers or
relocation camps of at least 21 million American Negroes.''
Now, I did not write that; the U.S. Government wrote that. They were
going to round up 21 million Negroes because they were afraid of freeing
black people. A story of neglect? I am not surprised about any story of
neglect of the people that comes from this body with this set of
priorities, that passes these kinds of budgets on the backs of the
American people, these kinds of tax cuts on the backs of the American
people.
Taco Bell Boycott
Victory The Coalition of Immokalee Workers won a
landmark victory in their national boycott of Taco Bell when Taco Bell
agreed to meet all their demands to improve wages and working conditions for
Florida tomato pickers in its supply chain.
Despite an effort by auto industry
lobbyists to kill the move, two Pacific Northwest States - Oregon and
Washington - are getting ready to adopt California's new vehicle
emission standards to reduce greenhouse gases.
Fight over Alaska
Oil Drilling Continues Conspicuous by its absence in the sweeping energy bill that President
Bush has championed and will sign Monday is his top energy priority: opening
an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling.
Judge Says Bush's Easing of Forest Plan Is
Illegal A federal judge has concluded that the Bush
administration broke environmental laws last year when it cleared the way
for more commercial logging of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest
and Northern California.
Dam
and Waste Will Go, Freeing Two Rivers The removal of a decaying dam aims to restore two
of Montana's major rivers to free-flowing conditions by 2009 at a cost of
about $100 million.
Today, the judiciary branch of the U.S. government
completed a perfect trifecta of inhumanity in upholding a $20,000 fine
against Voices in the Wilderness for
bringing medicine to Iraqi citizens. Judge Bates agrees that it was
lawful and proper for the U.S. government to deny needed drugs and
medical supplies to Iraq's most vulnerable citizens, despite the
evidence that several hundred thousand innocent children were dying
because of brutal economic sanctions.
"Voices will not pay a penny of this fine. The economic sanctions regime
imposed brutal and lethal punishment on Iraqi people. The U.S.
government would not allow Iraq to rebuild its water treatment system
after the U.S. military deliberately destroyed it in 1991. The U.S.
government denied Iraq the ability to purchase blood bags, medical
needles and medicine in adequate supplies-destroying Iraq's health care
system.
"We chose to travel to Iraq in order to openly challenge our country's
war against the Iraqi people. We fully understood that our acts could
result in criminal or civil charges. We acted because when our country's
government is committing a grievous, criminal act, it is incumbent upon
each of us to challenge in every nonviolent manner possible the acts of
the government.
"We continue to oppose the U.S. occupation of Iraq, which continues the
devastation of the Iraqi people. Over the past two years of occupation,
the health care and water systems in Iraq have not improved. Nearly
300,000 children under the age of 5 now suffer from acute child
malnutrition. It's likely that over 100,000 Iraqis have died because of
the occupation-either killed outright by military action or died because
of the lack of safe drinking water, adequate health care, lack of food.
What has our country wrought in Iraq?
"We choose to continue our non-cooperation with the government's war on
the Iraqi people through the simple act of refusing to pay this fine. To
pay the fine would be to collaborate with the U.S. government's ongoing
war against Iraq. We will not collaborate.
"We fully understand that the U.S. government may take other action
against Voices in the Wilderness, or possibly us as individuals, for our
continued refusal to collaborate with the government's policies. But we
invite representatives from the government to enter into dialogue with
us about how best to correct the misguided, ill-conceived and criminal
acts of our country towards the Iraqi people. We invite all U.S.
citizens to pause and consider how we might bring about an end to the
blood shed and the violence in Iraq-an end to the occupation and payment
of reparations to Iraq for the devastation our country has wrought upon
the Iraqi people these past 15 years.
"We pause to ponder the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who asked of
himself and his co-conspirators in resistance to Hitler, whether they
were yet of any use. We too live in times of unspeakable peril and
violence. We too live in times when questioning and resisting our
government is the one path remaining to act for justice. We too have
struggled and seen untold numbers of innocent people die at our
government's hand. We too answer as Bonhoeffer did, that yes, indeed,
our acts and fidelity to our brothers and sisters throughout the world
are not only of use, but of absolute necessity. We invite all to join us
in a conspiracy of life to end our country's war against the Iraqi
people.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
-- 6:00-8:30 p.m. at CU Boulder, Chemistry 140 (east of the fountain behind
the UMC). A program to remember the innocent people
who died on 9/11 and to expose the lies about what happened that day.
Sponsored by RMPJC and CU Wilderness Study Group.
I have learned from first hand
experience that war is the destroyer of everything that is good in the
world, it turns our young into soulless killers and we tell them that
they are heroes when they master the "art" of killing.
All Things Considered, September 7, 2005 · The commentator's hometown
of Geneva, Ala., has two things in common with New Orleans: it oozes
character, and occasionally river water. In 1990, the town rebuilt in
such a way as to make it more integrated.
There have been 2,087
coalition troop deaths, 1,893 Americans, 95 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, one
Dane, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Hungarian, 26 Italians, one Kazakh, one
Latvian, 17 Poles, one Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and
18 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of September 9, 2005.
Fifty thousand people have died so far.
... When we know there are between a million and 2 million who can yet
be saved, what is our excuse for watching this happen in slow motion?
Here's the Funny Part
by William Rivers Pitt
George W. Bush coughed up his
latest rationale for continuing the Iraq war - I think this is the fourth or
fifth one of these to this point - by saying that because so many American
soldiers have been killed, we have to keep sending American soldiers to get
killed as a means of honoring the American soldiers who have been killed.
Big talk from a guy who spends more time on vacation than a French
aristocrat.
The only difference between the following two photos is the color of
skin. Both photos show what is technically looting, although taking food
during a disaster seems more like survival. There is no excuse for the
black man to be labeled a looter while the white people are residents
“finding" bread and soda. The AFP caption seems more appropriate in
contrast to the AP's choice of words.
Associated Press (AP) caption: A young man walks through chest
deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on
Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans
after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on
Monday.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) caption: Two residents wade through
chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store
after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of
Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to
be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military
choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears
parking lot. Man, was that a drag.
Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We
could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do
like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin
with?
Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while
the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1
then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there
were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm
was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I
know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't
like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead
soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!
I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead
of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business
peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane
was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?
And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will
reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for
New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that
even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to
be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more
important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!
On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have
to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the
clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the
disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on
some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.
There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy
and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out.
Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would
happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter
making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global
warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was
so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York
to Cleveland.
No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault
that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands
had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's
not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white
people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing
-- NOTHING -- to do with this!
You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our
Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and
the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.
P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at
your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now
driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you
can
catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.
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Political violence is an act of force, intimidation or abuse by a group or
individual aimed at influencing, maintaining or seizing political power. The
time has come to end such illegitimate violence perpetrated by our own United
States government.
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