Town Hall Meeting

Have you heard of Bikini Island? Apparently it’s this small set of islands in the Pacific where the inhabitants lived for centuries, and in 1946 the US decided they wanted it to test nuclear bombs. Some of the Bikinians decided to stay. Peter Gabriel wrote a song about it, super heavy when you know this story. Listen to it here:

Here is some more info:

“An American came to Bikini. He said he was the most powerful man in the world. He said he wanted to drop a bomb on Bikini. He said America wanted to use Bikini and that we would have to leave.”

–Kilon Bauno, Chief of the Bikinians

http://highschoolbioethics.georgetown.edu/units/cases/unit3_3.html
http://www.aracnet.com/~pdxavets/cushing2.htm

It’s unbelievable this type of history just gets swept under the rug. When I read about things like this I think of how ridiculous it is to say things like “lets get America back to doing good.” As a good friend of mine said, “when I read or hear someone say ‘lets get the US back on track,’ I turn off immediately because it’s pure nationalist propaganda that’s very carefully packaged and consumed primarily by the (disappearing) middle class.”

To add insult to injury, that two piece bathing suit we all know about was named after this island and the detonations were used as a marketing gimmick on the reasoning that the suit would cause a burst of excitement. I can’t make this stuff up, believe me.

Even though these things don’t technically exist, artist Trevor Paglen has taken photos of 189 spy satellites and has put them on display at UC Berkeley. Below is one of the photos. Check out the Wired article about it here. The exhibition is August 6th through September 14th. Funny quote from Paglen: “The National Reconnaissance Office cannot classify Kepler’s laws of planetary motion.”

I am going to miss his insights a ton, we all lost a very important comedian yesterday. Check out this routine analyzing the first Bush, first Iraq War…We Like War

Same thing, different day. Go here for the pictures. The turnout was much smaller this year than the 4 year anniversary. I’d say 5,000 people showed up this time. It could be due to the news no longer covering the war. Apparently “only” around 30 civilians have been killed there per day in the past few months. What progress! Let’s just forget about it and talk about election politics instead, that’s much more important apparently. It’s heartbreaking to think we have more troops in Iraq than at any time during this war, yet news coverage is so minimal. I suppose it could also have to do with the fact that more journalists have died in this war than in any other war.

…and get angry!

and this doesn’t even mention the deaths and lives ruined.

-Thanks Narda and Topy for the link!

Another mass protest in Los Angeles, one of many around America this weekend. Here are some pictures. The war is 4 1/2 years old now. It is unbelievable how the reasons for the war were all completely proven false, yet the war goes on. WTF! I estimate the crowd at around 7500.

Another group of major protests are planned for October 27. Most are sponsored by the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition, and you can view the locations here. Or go to our demonstrations page to see where else demonstrations may be happening. Please go. If you have never been to a peace protest before, then I encourage you to go even more, you won’t regret it.

In April 2006 at Johns Hopkins University, a student asked a question about what the legal status of private military contractors is in Iraq. Bush dodged the question, see the video below in case you never saw this. The current situation with Blackwater and the other 120,000 to 180,000 private military contractors in Iraq shows you just how little has actually been done in this area. One theory on why Bush answered the way that he did here (specifically the word “delegation”) is so he could avoid any problems during war crimes trials. No matter what his reason is, the answer is unacceptable and the mainstream media is complicit by not getting the answer to this question back in 2003, let alone 2006 or 2007.

‘Nuff said. Thanks Topy for the picture!

I estimate about 20,000 showed up yesterday in Los Angeles to speak up for an end to the Iraq war and occupation. Check out the pictures here. Unfortunately, the local government no longer makes estimates, so we don’t really know, and the news media won’t pick up the duty. I made sure to get a sampling of the media coverage, so I watched the national NBC news and the local CBS news. Neither one covered the voices of the protesters for more than 10 seconds, and BOTH made sure to mention counter protesters. I was at the LA protest, and we outnumbered the counter protesters approx. 20,000 to 4. It is so sad that we can participate in such a huge showing of solidarity, but our voices are suppressed. When we behave peacefully, they don’t air our voices and they give us a few seconds of coverage. What do we have to do to be heard?!? This reminds me of the quote from John F. Kennedy, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.”

It is very inspiring to see so many turnout here, and this wasn’t even the main protest, that was at the Pentagon.

…and other propaganda like that make this story even more sad. A 12 year old boy died from a toothache is the headline. This article does a good job of going into all the details of how it happened. Basically what occurred is he got a toothache, his family had been dropped from Medicaid, and his brother was dealing with 6 rotten teeth, so they didn’t take Deamonte to a dentist. Then the tooth got infected and the bacteria spread to his brain. He spent 6 weeks in the hospital before he died. “God Bless America” and “This is the greatest country on Earth” make me wince a little more after reading this story. This should not happen, especially in such a wealthy country. America is still the only industrialized nation in the world without a national health care system.

Some names that give me concern because they are powerful and they are Democratic presidential hopefuls and they are sometimes considered liberal or centrist: Biden, Clinton, McCain, and Schumer.

Some names that give me relief are all 30 (not one Republican) who voted for it. You can see how everyone voted at the senate website: Cluster Bomb Vote Breakdown.

Who would vote against such a thing, it is beyond comprehension. This issue has been around for a while but was reignited when Israel dropped cluster bombs on Lebanon in the last days before the recent cease fire. Many of the bomblets go undetonated, and then days or weeks later innocent people might walk by and trigger them, killing or maiming all near it. This is the exact same problem with land mines and the reaosn why land mines have been made illegal all over the world. But here we have the US Senate voting 70-30 against stopping the use of cluster bombs! In case you are wondering, the US uses cluster bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan and NATO used them in Yugoslavia in 1999.

I marched in the Los Angeles protest on Saturday to mark the 3rd anniversary of the Iraq invasion by U.S. led troops. The turnout was once again great, I would say around 5,000-7,000 people came to represent. You can see my pictures here. This march was another sign of hope that we are not alone and in fact huge numbers of us want peace and justice. Los Angeles is such a huge, disconnected place with no open spaces and to see such a huge group gather like this for the 3rd time in a year is very promising.

MoveOn has started a petition to be sent to your local Senator to stand up with Senator Feingold to censure Bush. The Bush administration is using fear to get Americans to allow themselves to be illegally monitored. Information came out this morning, as reported here on Democracy Now!, that at least one pacifist group has been monitored. I believe the Bush administration is using this power to eliminate dissent, and so I signed the petition. Go to this site to sign up: political.moveon.org/censure/.

The anniversary of the invasion of Iraq is coming up again. There will be mass protests all around. Demonstrate your disgust for militarism, greed, nepotism, cronyism, or just go out and meet a bunch of fellow peaceful citizens. Try a google search to find a protest near you, or any of the following links:

www.internationalanswer.org
www.unitedforpeace.org
www.campusantiwar.net
www.warresisters.org

Bernie Sanders is an independent running in Vermont. He is honest and fights for very important issues, such as corporate domination of media, workers rights, and protecting the environment. I donated some money to his campaign, which you can do too by going to his website: www.bernie.org.

You can also learn more about what he is doing now in the House of Representatives at: www.bernie.house.gov

What an outstanding turnout today in Los Angeles. The turnout was announced at 50,000 people. That same number was announced in San Francisco, and an amazing 300,000 announced at the main event in Washington, DC! It was invigorating to see such non-violent support for peace and justice. All of my pictures have been posted here. I’ve already seen the national press say things like “thousands of protestors showed up across the country” and “pro-Bush protestors were there as well.” I have given up on the mainstream media long ago: CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN (I don’t even count Fox since they are in a whole other league). I was there, you can see my pictures. Real reporting would include things like “hundreds of thousands protested across America today” and “people are fed up with militarism and occupations.” Thankfully we still have news programs like Democracy Now!.

September 24, 2005 – mark your calendars! It’s a great opportunity to protest the illegal war on Iraq, the illegal occupation of Haiti, the attempted and failed coup on Venezuela’s president, and any of the other U.S. foreign or domestic policy horrors you can think of. The main protest will be in Washington, D.C. There will also be major ones in at least Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. Go to our demonstrations page for links to more information.

If you haven’t heard about this model before, read about it here. It is so important to understand that the people who wrote this plan are in charge of the American government right now. After reading that, go to their website www.newamericancentury.org to see the sunshine version. Check out their statement of principles and who signed it at the bottom, such as Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Jeb Bush.

Whether you read it straight from their website, or anywhere else, PNAC is about global dominance by America through military means. September 11 was an opportunity for the military part of PNAC’s strategy to really be fulfilled. In their definitive 2000 white paper “Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century,” they explain that America’s military spending should be, at a minimum, 3.8% of GDP. By 2004, it was 3.9%, up from 3.0% in 2001 (check my references here and here).

Why won’t the U.S. media ask tough questions? This video really makes you wonder what happened on September 11, 2001 at the Pentagon. It made me realize that I have never heard a detailed review of what actually happened that day at the American military headquarters. Even if this isn’t true, I think its important for us all to go outside the boundaries of mainstream thinking and analyze events independently.

-Thanks Quinn for the link