Monday, November 14, 2005

Massachusetts and San Francisco fight back, Bully Boy still lies

Good evening. Remember to check out Elaine's Like Maria Said Paz because we'll be hitting the same two items from Democracy Now! So let's get started.

Thousands of Students Say No To Recruiters in Boston
The Boston Globe is reporting that more than 5,000 high school students in five of Massachusetts' largest school districts have removed their names from military recruitment lists. In Boston, about 3,700 students, or 19 percent of those enrolled in the city's high schools, have removed their names from recruiting lists. At Cambridge Rindge and Latin School more than half the student body, ordered the school system not to give their names to the military this year.


Let's hear it for Massachusetts! I say that not just because it's my state but because way to go!
I think this could be duplicated in most of the states. It's just a case of us getting the word out and letting people know what is going on and that they can opt out but have to do so in writing.
In fact, if you didn't opt out, your story is even more important to share. Tell people about all the calls and calls. That's reason enough for a lot of parents to opt out, they don't want to get calls every evening from recruiters.

And they shouldn't have to. Wasn't that the point of the do not call list? To stop people from trying to sell you stuff over the phone? Recruiters are trying to sell you the military. Now is there a kid out there who doesn't know that the United States has a military? No.

This is telemarketing and when it's done by the government it's "okay."

So especially if you have a horror story (which is pretty much everybody who didn't opt out in writing), share it. Tell 'em about the Thursday night at nine o'clock calls, the phone calls during dinner. How you say, "I'm not interested" and they kept calling and calling.

Every now and then you hear some gas bag say, "Kids today don't do anything." Those gas bags don't know what we're doing. I talked to Ruth on the phone Sunday afternoon to compliment her on her outstanding Ruth's Morning Edition Report. (If you haven't read her latest, go read it.) And we were talking about how active people my age and younger are. Ruth knows, she's got grandkids. But she said, and this is important, that the mainstream media didn't take the youth of the sixties seriously either. She said they had to do substained actions over and over before they got any attention. The gas bags in the mainstream media never know what they're talking about because they're too busy hopping in limos to dash from chat & chew to chat & chew and the only time they see an actual person is when they're paid to speak somewhere.

And before you think it's just my state, let's check out, from CounterRecruiter, Kat Aaron's "College Not Combat in SF:"

The November 8th elections brought another 4 years of Republican Michael Bloomberg to New Yorkers. Across the country, San Francisco voters struck a blow against military recruiting. Voters there approved a ballot measure urging the city's "public high schools and college campuses to keep out military recruiters."
According to the Associated Press:
Measure I, dubbed "College Not Combat," opposes the presence of military recruiters at public high schools and colleges. However, it would not ban the armed forces from seeking enlistees at city campuses, since that would put schools at risk of losing federal funding.


This is a movement and a lot of gas bags are acting like we should be where the youth was in 1968 but they didn't start out in 1968. They started out years and years before. It takes work.
And what C.I. rightly dubbed the summer of activism put down further roots and we're just going to see more and more. That's why Bully Boy has to lie Friday because even the White House knows what the gas bags don't, the country has turned against the war and will keep turning it against it.

Back to Democracy Now!

White House Tries To Alter Transcript of Press Briefings
The White House has been accused of trying to rewrite history after requesting Congressional Quarterly and the Federal News Service to alter the transcript to a October 31 press briefing. Both news agencies reported White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan responded to a question about the CIA leak case by saying "that's accurate." But the White House insists he said, "I don't think that's accurate." So far both Congressional Quarterly and the Federal News Services have refused to change their transcripts but the White House website now claims McClellan said "I don't think that's accurate."

That's how they deal with reality at the White House, they try to alter the facts. That's what got us into this war. They can't tell the truth and then they want to change what actually happened.

Hey, you know what, Wally said it best at The Daily Jot this morning:


Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts on Bully Boy's Veterans Day Speech. Bully Boy when the lips start flapping, the lies start flying.
Years from now, he'll be like the converse George Washington. Parents will tell about him chopping down a cherry tree and how when asked, even though he was holding the axe at the time, he said, "No, no, it wasn't me!" When he was shown photos a neighbor took of him chopping down the tree, little Bully Boy would whine, "We all wanted to chop down the cherry tree!"
Moral of the story parents will point out to children, "You are responsible for your own actions. Not 'everyone else.' Not Bill Clinton. You."
At The Third Estate Sunday Review, I worked with them on this piece about the lies of Bully Boy. Check it out.

Now let's note Dave Zirin's "The Soccer Star and the President:"

If there were a Mount Rushmore of international soccer, Diego Maradona's face would be on it. In 2000 he was named by FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association), along with Pelé, as the greatest player in the history of the sport. But in his native Argentina, Maradona is a lightning rod for love, hate, brutal criticism and passionate defense. He is Muhammad Ali in 1968--if 1968 lasted for twenty years.
Maradona was in the eye of a media storm last weekend, as he participated in a rally against George W. Bush and US trade policy while Bush met with Latin American leaders at the Fourth Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Surely many wondered why this stocky, five-foot-six former athlete was so adored, so incendiary and so intimately involved in a protest against the American President.
Maradona went from soccer superstar to Argentine folk hero during the 1986 World Cup, when he avenged the 1982 British defeat of Argentina in the Falklands War. Argentina trounced England four years later with two Maradona goals--one with his foot and one with the sly help of his hand, a score that has become known as "the hand of God."

Dave Zirin's a great writer and everyone should check out What's My Name Fool? and I hope you don't look at that and go "Oh, sports." Sports can communicate. The link takes you to our review of it at The Third Estate Sunday Review and you can also check out the latest book discussion, "Five Books, Five Minutes."

Check out Elaine's comments tonight.








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