Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Bully Boy tries Operation Happy Talk, students in Sussex stand up, Iraq and more

Good evening. Let's get things kicked off with Democracy Now!


Bush Vows to Turn Over Most of Iraq to Iraqi Troops By Year's End
On Monday, President Bush vowed for the first time to turn over most of Iraq to newly trained Iraqi troops by the end of this year. It is unclear how this will happen. Just last month the Pentagon admitted there are no longer any Iraqi battalions capable of fighting without U.S. support.

So if there are no capable battalions and Bully Boy's claiming the United States would turn over the operations to the non-equipped battalions, what's going on? Smoke & mirrors. We're in an election year cycle. Bully Boy ups the lie wattage because to tell the truth to the people would hurt his party. I wonder how many people will believe the latest lie?

This is yet another wave of what C.I. long ago dubbed Operation Happy Talk. That's all it is. Tell feel good lies and hope people don't get the ugly reality.

I told C.I. that I'd help out if there were members wanting to post events coming up to protest the invasion of Iraq on the third anniversary and I got this forwarded to me. It's from Durham Girl who is also a reader here. She found it at Indymedia, "North Carolina Week of Action Against the War:"

Kick off a week of peace and justice with a major regional anti-war march and rally in Fayetteville on Saturday, March 18. Highlighting the connection between the war in Iraq and domestic issues such as spying, torture and the failed government response to Hurricane Katrina, the week is an open invitation to North Carolinians to express their opposition to wars at home and abroad.
March 18: March & Rally for Peace & Justice, Fayetteville.
WHERE: Participants will gather at 10:00 am at the County Health Center, 227 Fountainhead Lane, and march to Rowan Street Park on Woodside Ave for a Rally from 1:00 - 4:00 pm.
WHO: Speakers at the rally will include Iraqi pharmacist Dr. Rashad Zidan, who works in Baghdad and Fallujah to aid victims of war, especially orphans; Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst and outspoken Bush administration critic; Summer Lipford, mother of Army private Steven Sirko who died in Iraq last April; Patrick and Bernadette O'Neill of Stop Torture Now; Vietnam veteran and peace activist Wade Fulmer; and many more
March 19-24: A wide variety of actions and a diversity of tactics. Actions will include:
March 19: Rally at Pack Park, 2:00-4:00, Asheville March 20: March on the Pentagon, 9:00-12:00, 410-323-7200, Washington, D.C March 23: Lobbying and vigils at NC Congressional offices, info@NCpeacejustice.org March 25: Iraq War Resister Camillo Mejia Speaks Out, Greensboro
March 25: Really Really Free Market and Festival of Resistance, Raleigh
For more information and updates on Week of Action events: www.NCpeacejustice.org
Andrew Pearson 919/360-2028
The war is still on. And it's not just in Iraq.
It's in Central Prison, it's at the unemployment office, it's in New Orleans, it's on women's bodies, it's in Guantanamo Bay, it's on your privacy, it's on your health care, it's on the atmosphere, it's on your children and it's on your children's children
Stop The War.

So if you live in North Carolina and are thinking "I don't think we're doing anything" there is stuff going on. You can be active. I'll try to put up some stuff all week. Yes, I could find my own stuff. I do know how to surf the net. But Elaine and I were talking and feeling a little lazy because C.I.'s already active in protests this week. Then Elaine told me C.I. had a nasty cold and was "buying cough syrup by the six pack" which was a joke but if you know C.I. you know that's not too far from the mark. Speaking out on the third anniversary is important and knowing C.I.'s once again got a cold and is still pulling out all stops made me and Elaine wonder what more we could do? So what we decided is we could be doing more to get the word out about events. And yeah, we could surf and get some stuff or we could do C.I. a solid and say, "Look, we know you're pressed for time and can't note everything so how about you slide some things members want noted our way and we'll help out?"

We are a community. No, not every community member visits my site but most of my readers are members and I'm one too. So we can run C.I. into the ground as a community or we can help out. And we really do need to all be getting the word out so this is a way to do that, help out C.I. and help out the community. Thanks to Durham Gal for saying it was cool to note her highlight here.

By the way, there's a special edition of the gina & krista round-robin that will go out tomorrow morning. Gina, Krista, Elaine, me, C.I., Jess, Ava and Betty are all participating in a late night (real late night) roundtable where we'll be discussing Danny Schechter's documenatry Weapons of Mass Deceptions. Eli and Wally are going to try to take part too so look for that. There will a special edition tomorrow, Thursday, the regular edition Friday and a special edition Saturday. Gina and Krista are trying to get people who aren't taking part in rallies for whatever reason to do house parties. Schechter's WMD is a great movie and if you're trying to plan something for you and your friends to do, you can rent or buy that movie and show it at your place.

Ma's going to write a column for Thursday's special-edition to help out and Nina's doing one right now in my bedroom for tomorrow's special-edition. Kat's got some photos she's putting in to tomorrow's special-edition so that will be cool too. We're all trying to do a little extra because usually the weight falls on Gina and Krista and C.I. and you can go, "Well it's Gina and Krista's thing" but they need help when they're doing special-editions and it usually falls just to or mainly to C.I. Elaine and me were talking about how we'd feel guilty anyway but knowing that C.I.'s got a nasty cold and is going all out just makes us feel more guilty. So if you're a community member, I hope you'll find some way to participate. Pru's not going to just do her stump ___ column that she always does but she's also getting together with some of the other members in England to offer their perspective. That's supposed to go in Thursday's special-edition so look for it Thursday morning. And Friday morning, you can also look forward to reading a thing Dad's going to do. He's so nervous about it but when I asked him if he'd do something, he said he would. He said it may be lame (it'll be great) but it will be ready and in Friday's round-robin.

Back to Democracy Now!


New Poll: 36% Approve Bush; 60% Say War is Going Badly
Bush made the announcement during a speech that launched a new public relations campaign to win greater support for the war in Iraq and his presidency. The latest USA Today/CNN poll shows the president's approval rating is at just 36 percent. And 60 percent of the country says the war in Iraq is going badly.

See that's why Bully Boy has to do another round of Operation Happy Talk. People have caught on to him and he needs lies to try to win back approval.

C.I. passed another thing on. Lori e-mailed on this and thank you to Lori for letting me have it here. This is from UK Indymedia and it's "Sussex students revolt!:"

MORE than 100 students at Sussex University have staged a 'learn-in' occupation of their library in protest at the "continued degradation" of the quality of their education.
On the evening of Wednesday 8th March 2006 the Sussex University library at Falmer, Brighton, was held open past its 9:30pm closing time, until 2am.
Amongst many activities, discussions (‘libraries as communist anomalies within capitalism’, ‘education and war,’ etc), workshops (creative writing, yoga, activist training, etc), book readings, film showings, international student networking and plain old dissertation writing were held successfully. The atmosphere inside the library was described as "breathtaking".
Students agreed by equal consensus to leave at 2am in respect for the Library building manager and possibly other library staff who could only go to sleep when students left. Said one student: "Library staff were very understanding and so were Security. It seems like the vast majority at Sussex University are against the Vice Chancellor Alasdair Smith in particular and the problems facing students and workers globally in general. Apparently the university [mis]management is shaking in their knees. They've come to realise that their positions are soon to be history!"
The action was in full support of all AUT industrial action, the sortUSout campaign, and the global fight for free high quality education the world over (as this is being written 45 universities in France are on strike or under student occupation!).
Through privatisation and corporatisation financial profit for the few is being put over the right of education for all, globally. Students and staff at Sussex University are tired of empty words and silent blows. Together we demand change.

When we were on the phone this afternoon, C.I. mentioned that and I was like, "If Lori's okay with it, I'll grab it." Students are making themselves heard. They're saying no to the idea that it's okay to turn the public goods into a private business. We can make ourselves heard here in the United States. We can be a powerful force. So I hope everyone who is in college like me or in high school will do their part on this third anniversary and speak out.

My professor pointed this out to me. People online are going on about the New York Times story that might not be accurate. And they all seem to have discovered that story late this morning. C.I. wrote about it early this morning "NYT: How to grab glory but spread blame" and apparently is the only print reader which is how C.I. caught it (and started writing about it Saturday). It's not just that they might have made a mistake, it's also that they're trying to spread the blame. Like prof said, "To know that you have to read The Common Ills." He goes, "I hope you'll put a link up to it at your site." No problem. But everyone was asking me on campus to link to another thing (and I was already planning to) which is "The war coverage (and lack of it)." That'll explain to you why we need to be demanding better coverage from the corporate media so check it out.

Now get over to Like Maria Said Paz and check out Elaine.















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