The Guerrilla Campaign

- by Stephen Lendman 8/18/08 From July 21 - 31, Joint Task Force (mostly US, but also UK, Brazil and Italy) "Operation Brimstone" large scale war games were conducted off the US East coast in the North Atlantic. Its purpose may have been to prepare for a naval blockade of Iran. Initial reports after its completion were that participating ships were deployed to Persian Gulf and Arabian and Red Sea locations to join up with the present American strike force in the region. The major media cover none of this, and US Navy sources deny it. So precise information is unclear. From what's known, however, redeployment may be planned, and a blockade may ensue. The situation remains tense and worrisome. Under international and US law, blockades are acts of war and variously defined as: -- surrounding a nation or objective with hostile forces; -- measures to isolate an enemy; -- encirclement and besieging; -- preventing the passage in or out of supplies, military forces or aid in time...

by Mary Pitt 8/15/08 This morning, August 18th, the news was blaring from CNN and MSNBC: Donald Trump Bails Out Ed McMahon! The story that followed told us that poor ole Ed had fallen ill, was having a hard time financially and was in danger of losing his home. Now, I do not lack for sympathy for this poor man who had such an illustrious and munificent career and who can, even now, be seen on commercial television hawking insurance for oldsters so that they will not be devastated by one of the lingering illnesses that we oldster are prone to develop. However, can we broaden our view a bit to take in the larger scene? It is all well for a "somebody" to have a friend like Mr. Trump who is able and will ride to the rescue. But this country is full of "nobodies", (like yours truly), who suffer long illnesses in our old age, who are willing to work as much as prospective employers will allow, and whose homes and very lives depend on our fiscal savvy and our ability to sc...

At 11:02 a.m., at an altitude of 1,650 feet, Fat Man exploded over Nagasaki.

John, do you know how long a person making minimum wage has to work to be able to afford a pair $520 Ferragamo Loafers like you wear? At $6.55 an hour, that’s more than 79 hours. Actually even more, because of the payroll taxes that would be taken out. And that’s only if that person has no other expenses except for wussy shoes like you wear. So, old man, except for the few males around who think it’s a great idea to gigolo off their wives like you do, who else would NOT be seeing you as just a bit elitist? Personally, I don’t find gigoloes very manly either. And I’m not all that sure one would have the cojones to do what’s necessary without first checking with the wife. Now that’s going to slow down our response time, which is probably not wise in these troubled times. Let’s face it, John. You’ve been sucking off the public teat your whole life. You really don’t have a clue about what working people are facing. You have even less of a clue about the needs and solutions of the poor amo...

Congress votes to immunize lawbreaking telecoms, legalize warrantless eavesdropping Glenn Greenwald Wednesday July 9, 2008 14:11 EDT http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/07/09/fisa_vote/index.html The Democratic-led Congress this afternoon voted to put an end to the NSA spying scandal, as the Senate approved a bill -- approved last week by the House -- to immunize lawbreaking telecoms, terminate all pending lawsuits against them, and vest whole new warrantless eavesdropping powers in the President. The vote in favor of the new FISA bill was 69-28. Barack Obama joined every Senate Republican (and every House Republican other than one) by voting in favor of it, while his now-vanquished primary rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, voted against it. John McCain wasn't present for any of the votes, but shared Obama's support for the bill. The bill will now be sent to an extremely happy George Bush, who already announced that he enthusiastically supports it, and he will sign it into l...

No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the house. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the house is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at the truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of di...

US Raid Sends Message on Iraq "Agreement" Sunday, 29 June 2008 Chris Floyd http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1549/135/ As we know from The Godfather -- that seminal work of American political philosophy which serves as the Bible for policy-making in the Bush Administration -- a horse's head in the bed can be highly effective tool in difficult contract negotiations. Last Friday, Bush went his fictional mentors one better in the "negotiations" over an agreement setting out the public terms of a de facto permanent American occupation of the conquered land: he laid the corpse of a kinsman on the doorstep of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. McClatchy Newspapers reports that U.S. Special Forces launched a deadly raid in al-Maliki's home province -- which has supposedly been returned to the full control of the Iraqi government. Without any warning to Iraqi forces, the American unit stormed the rural town of Janaja at dawn on Friday with 60 troops and i...

In 1977 , John N. Mitchell became the first former U.S. attorney general to go to prison as he began serving a sentence for his role in the Watergate cover-up. (He was released 19 months later.) 1981 Mark David Chapman pleaded guilty to killing rock musician John Lennon. and, in 1970, President Richard Nixon signed a measure lowering the voting age to 18. So, VOTE. It’s your future we’re talking about here. The Real State of Iraq […] As for the Iraqis killed by Americans, like the 24 civilians in Haditha , the survivors are not going to be pro-American any time soon. The US can always find politicians to come out and say nice things on a visit to the Rose Garden. But the people. I don't think the people are saying nice things in Arabic behind our backs. The wars of Iraq-- the Iran-Iraq War, the repressions of the Kurds and the Shiites, the Gulf War, and the American Calamity, may have left behind as many as 3 million widows . Having lost their family's breadwinner, many are d...

So, the lickspittle little johnny, he of the rictus grin, and the ass-kisser charlie, he who wants to be the number two, have decreed that they want more areas opened up for drilling. They were joined in this by the enlightened one, our own king little georgie. This will cause the magical drop in gas prices. They promise. They really mean it this time. Of course, what they won’t tell you is this: Rahall to Big Oil: Use It or Lose It June 12, 2008 CONTACT: Allyson Groff or Blake Androff, 202-226-9019 http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=389&Itemid=1 Washington, D.C. - In an effort to compel oil and gas companies to produce on the 68 million acres of federal lands, both onshore and offshore, that are leased but sitting idle, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) today introduced legislation that gives Big Oil one option - either "use it or lose it." "Big Oil, as many Americans already suspect,...

Well, we’ve been kinda busy here at the guerrilla campaign, you could say. Some folk were pleased, and a whole bunch are still pissed off, or will be soon. What fun. And we’re also starting to layout the site for the presidential campaign ahead. The Supreme Court, by a narrow 5-4 decision, restored habeus corpus. http://supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/06-1195.pdfd http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/washington/12cnd-gitmo.html Of course, the corrupt scalia, roberts, alito, and the totally inept thomas dissented. Apparently, they still believe that their Lord, the Decider and Enlightened One, the little georgie, should be allowed to strut about some more like a little emperor. Still, it’s a victory in the sordid story of torture, kidnap, rape, and murder, that’s the story and legacy of the bush administration. Oh, hey, did you know that it was a molotov cocktail that got tossed into the Texas governor’s mansion, according to the ATF. A molotov cocktail of all things. http://www.keyetv.c...

by Mary Pitt 5/31/08 When I was a child growing up in Kansas during the Great Depression, toys were few and hard to come by. Almost all of my dolls were made by hand by my mother of leftover fabric scraps from her essential sewing. Others were passed down from neighborhood kids who had outgrown them. Recently, while discussing politics with a dear friend, one particular rag doll popped into my mind. This doll was a unique one, I have no recollection of its origin, and I have never seen another like it. It was made of white fabric with a painted-on face and golden yarn hair, and wore a lovely dress in pale colors that denoted a degree of gentility, with hands folded across the front of the body in a demure position. While I was admiring my new possession, my mother took it from me gently, turned it upside-down, and it became a different doll, with black face and arms, with a kerchief tied about its black hair, dressed more modestly in a long gray dress with a white apron. :"It'...

Stealth growers seed or plant on land that doesn't belong to them. The result? Plants that beautify or yield crops in otherwise neglected or vacant spaces. By Joe Robinson Special to The Times May 29, 2008 http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/scimedemail/la-hm-guerrilla29-2008may29,0,3848418.story BRIMMING with lime-hued succulents and a lush collection of agaves, one shooting spiky leaves 10 feet into the air, it's a head-turning garden smack in the middle of Long Beach's asphalt jungle. But the gardener who designed it doesn't want you to know his last name, since his handiwork isn't exactly legit. It's on a traffic island he commandeered. "The city wasn't doing anything with it, and I had a bunch of extra plants," says Scott, as we tour the garden, cars whooshing by on both sides of Loynes Drive. Scott is a guerrilla gardener, a member of a burgeoning movement of green enthusiasts who plant without approval on land that's not theirs. In London...

Riding in Red Neck City II

- Anti-Chavistas, That Is by Stephen Lendman 5/16/08 Who said crime doesn't pay? Read on. The Washington-based Cato Institute is all about "Individual Liberty, Free Markets, and Peace," or so says its web site. It's been around since 1977 preaching limited government and free market religion with plenty of high-octane corporate funding for backing. It better have it for the award it presented on May 15. It was to a 23 year old fifth year Venezuelan law student at Universidad Catolica Andres Bello. Yon Goicoechea was the fourth recipient of the "Milton Friedman Liberty Prize" in the amount of $500,000. For what? What else. For serving the interests of capital back home and leading anti-Chavista protests. Goicoechea is leader of Venezuela's "pro-democracy student movement" that in Cato's words "prevented Hugo Chavez's regime from seizing broad dictatorial powers in December 2007." The reference is to the narrow defeat of Venezue...

By Sheila Samples 5/16/08 Everybody knows that the dice are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed. Everybody knows the war is over. Everybody knows the good guys lost. Everybody knows the fight was fixed. The poor stay poor, the rich get rich. That's how it goes. Everybody knows. - Leonard Cohen The fate of millions was sealed the moment Dick Cheney selected himself as The Destroyer whose charge to keep for the next eight years would be -- as Capitol Hill Blue's Doug Thompson so succinctly described George W. Bush -- a "criminally insane, pill-popping dry drunk." I don't know about that. I've seen some drunks in my time -- even dry ones -- and George Bush appears to be more than a little moist. Bush was the perfect foil for Cheney. The Scalia-driven 2000 election coup catapulted Bush to the top of the political heap. For the first time in his worthless, impotent, cruelly indifferent life, Bush was suddenly important -- the most powerful man o...

by Richard L. Franklin 6/12/08 The issues evaded by the three presidential candidates are huge in number, so I'm presenting one single issue I see as urgently pressing. None of the three candidates has bothered to even mention the endless, ongoing poisoning of America. I live no more than fifty yards from the beautiful Fox River. Unfortunately, paper mills dot its shoreline for many miles. And these factories have been dumping a deadly poison into that beleaguered river for over a century. That poison is dioxin. It is so deadly one dare not swim in the river or eat any fish from that river, but where American eagles unwittingly eat the poisoned dead fish that litter the shores. The poison thusly enters a food chain. Small animals eat the dead fish, and larger animals eat those animals. Waterfowl feed on aquatic vegetation tainted by dioxin and then are eaten by animals and humans alike. And so forth. The river bottoms for miles and miles are covered with megatons of poisoned mud. D...

Ratcheting Up For War on Iran by Stephen Lendman 5/12/08 Led by Dick Cheney, Bush administration neocons want war on Iran. So does the Israeli Lobby, but it doesn't mean they'll get it. Powerful forces in Washington and the Pentagon are opposed and so far have prevailed. Nonetheless, worrisome recent events increase the possibility and must be closely watched. Recall George Bush's January 10, 2007 address to the nation. He announced the 20,000 troop "surge" and more. "Succeeding in Iraq," he said, "also requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of extremist challenges. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing 'terrorists' and 'insurgents' to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt (those) attacks....we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry a...

Supreme Court says states can demand photo ID for voting By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer Mon Apr 28, 6:09 PM ET WASHINGTON - States can require voters to produce photo identification, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, upholding a Republican-inspired law that Democrats say will keep some poor, older and minority voters from casting ballots. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080428/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_voter_id The right to vote is protected in more than the initial allocation of the franchise. Equal protection applies as well to the manner of its exercise. Having once granted the right to vote on equal terms, the State may not, by later arbitrary and disparate treatment, value one person's vote over that of another. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES GEORGE W. BUSH, et al., PETITIONERS v. ALBERT GORE, Jr., et al. ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE FLORIDA SUPREME COURT [December 12, 2000] http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-949.ZPC.html and so, a question. How does Indiana or the ...