Tony's Mr. Relationshp Man himself now! He and Lisa went out last weekend and now it's all "Lisa this" and "Lisa that" and "Lisa thinks" . . . :D
She's going to be coming to the Iraq Study Group Friday night so that will be cool. (She's the one who helped Nina, Tony and me out last week by posting our "Iraq Study Group calls for all US troops to leave Iraq Immediately." Remember, that's The People's Iraq Study Group. And you saw that last Thursday here. Get the point?
(I know you do! I'm reading the e-mails and Beth's asked if she can weigh in for her column tomorrow. She's the ombudsperson for The Common Ills. I don't have one for my site. But she got so many e-mails on this, she called this afternoon and asked if she could address it and I was like "Sure." So she talked to me, talked to Nina, talked to Tony and, last time I knew, she was trying to get ahold of C.I.)
On a similar note, I'm walking up the drive when the cell goes off. (My ring tone right now is too embarrassing to name! :D) (No, it's not little Justy!) It was Cedric calling and he had posted this evening and wanted me to read it "when you get time" and drop an e-mail. I know there's some party that Three Cool Old Guys are having at their nursing home tonight and Cedric's going to that. So I got in and logged on and pulled up his site.
It's called "A rare solo entry." You gotta read it. I think he's worried what C.I. will think and C.I.'s not going to care. Cedric's offering his thoughts and presenting them as such so C.I.'s not going to care and C.I.'s the last person to say, "Oh, no, The Nation has done a great job covering Iraq in 2006!" We all know that's not the case. We all know that they hide behind ex-generals, that they won't cover war resisters. (Ehren Watada did not get an article in the magazine, they did two on him online -- and no other war resister, but he's the only officer and they seem to have an allergic reaction to anyone of the people.)
I have never gone after the peace movement and never would -- they work really hard and they've done amazing stuff -- but I think that's the only thing that if I weighed in on, C.I. would get upset about. C.I.'s not going to care. Cedric's pointed out before how The Nation disgracefully joined the dog pile on Harry Belafonte and C.I. wasn't bothered by that. That call was straight up and I think Cedric's calls tonight are as well. So check out "A rare solo entry." (Harry Belfonte is one of Cedric's favorites. That's because he is Cedric's grandfather's all time favorite singer and because Harry Belafonte sticks his neck out and doesn't play it safe. So some who try to play it safe try to make sport of the man. I don't do that. Harry Belafonte is a brave man. The world would be better off if even 1/3 of us had his bravery.)
Dropping back to Tone, every time we talk about doing something and grabbing something to eat, we always go, "Anything but pizza." And that's what we always end up eating! We'll toss out a few places and be like "Ho-hum." Then one of us will go, "Well, you want pizza" and the other will be, "Yeah, let's get a pizza." We went through that song & dance again tonight!
We ended up getting sausage and mushroom. Do you know a pizza that I like now but didn't think I would? Or a topping, I guess. Anchovies. My folks love that and I was always, "No, not having any" growing up. Rebecca, C.I., Elaine, Betty, Wally and Ava love anchovies on pizza. And for about a year I was like, "Get that away from me!" :D Then Elaine goes that I love Gardettos (might be spelled wrong) which I do. And I love the brown pieces in it. That's made from anchovies! I didn't know that.
So on weekends, with Rebecca (and Fly Boy) and Elaine over and my folks loving it too, we'll usually end up having an anchovy pizza about every other week. I really do like it and am surprised.
Know what else I like? WBAI's Law and Disorder. The first segment's the one I haven't gotten to yet. They interviewed Henri Alleg who is a reporter. Back while the French-Algerian War was going on, he was arrested by the French and they 'questioned' him.
'Questioned' him the way Bully Boy has people 'questioned' today. They tortured him. He wrote a book about it called The Question. He and Michael Ratner and Michael Smith talked about the comparisons between that and what the Bully Boy is doing and how quick the slide is.
I really liked this interview. They interviewed a woman awhile back who had seen all this stuff in her life, really amazing stuff. And I loved that interview. I loved this one too. Even if Alleg did worry that his English was lacking? (It wasn't. He speaks better English than I do.) (Which may not be hard to do!)
Henri Alleg survived and he can warn us (or anyone who will listen) which he did but I really love these interviews they do with people who have all this experience to draw on. I like it when they interview young people too. They did a thing with two women who were protesting with postcards and art that was pretty cool. But when they're interviewing someone with this huge history, I really enjoy it.
I was thinking about that today because I was reading a book C.I. had passed on. I really don't have time to read right now except for school. But Tony goes through the stack of books and pulls out stuff and reads it (so does Dad) and there was a book Tony couldn't stop talking about.
I lost the book! I'm digging through my backpack and can't find it. (It's got too much junk in there -- class notes, books for class, Sports Illustrated -- that I'm trying to read but I really don't even have time for that or The Sporting News -- and a ham sandwich! I forgot about that. :D)
The book's called Fugitive Days and it's by Bill Ayers. It's a really good book and starting and stopping is killing me. Tony basically read it straight through. I mentioned it to Rebecca and she told me it was on the 2005 "Books that spoke to you" thing -- books the community enjoyed. Carl picked it. Carl's a pretty cool guy. We've done two roundtables together for Gina and Krista and their round-robin. I'll share something else about that entry that Rebecca told me. Members were pretty cool about their picks. But some non-members weighed in. (I don't mean Ron here, I'm talking about one person.) This person e-mails C.I. this huge list of books and some of the titles are wrong and some of them have the wrong author and some of them were never published in America or Europe. C.I. works like crazy to hunt down the books (and ended up bringing in a friend who's a ref libraian at a college in California for help) and manages to get the list up. Then this non-member sees the list up and that some people noted children's books. Now this is after the list was posted, okay? That non-member then e-mails wanting to add even more books. The non-member had their own site and could have noted any book they wanted there. But they wanted C.I. to go in and change their list. Add about five or six more books and pull out one or two listed. That's why this note is in that entry: "A word on corrections. There aren't going to be any for this post unless you feel you were misquoted. If you feel you were misquoted, you have until Wednesday to e-mail the site common_ills@yahoo.com and after that, (Kat's phrase) 'it is what it is'." Rebecca said C.I. was frustrated when hunting down all the books first listed (and that's with help from a friend) and couldn't believe that another list was being provided by the same person. Can't figure out who it is? Well, gee, who was asked for three books and provided over twenty?
Okay, here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Thursday, December 7, 2006. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq, AP estimates that there were 75 reported Iraqi deaths, war resister Kyle Snyder travels the West coast of the US speaking out against the illegal war, the James Baker Circle Jerk isn't fawned over by non-gas bags, Democracy Now! host a roundtable on Iraq, and Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin, Missy Comley Beattie and Patti Ackerman fight for free speech in Manhattan.
Starting with peace news. As Thomas Watkins (AP) observes, "For a wanted man, Pfc. Kyle Snyder is keeping a remarkably high profile." Recapping, Snyder self-checked out of the US military while on leave after serving in Iraq. He went to Canada in April of 2005. There he spoke out publicly and, following the return from Canada of US war resister Darrell Anderson, Snyder made the decision to return as well. On October 31st, turned himself in at Fort Knox only to self-check out again after discovering the military had lied yet again. Since then Snyder has been underground, surfacing to speaking out against the war.
Watkins reports that, despite a warrant being out on Snyder, he's traveling the West coast and speaking out such as in San Diego at the start of the week where his speech included, "Seeing children begging for food and water after two years of occupation, you really start to question if you are the good guy." Speaking with Snyder is war resister Darrell Anderson and, Watkins notes, "a mobile chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War".
As Indybay IMC noted, "Friday, December 8th, 7:30pm at the College of Marin in Kentfield, segments of the film "Ground Truth" will be shown, and Iraq combat veteran-turned-war-resister Darrell Anderson will speak. Also that evening, at 7:30pm at the Buena Vista United Methodist Church in Alameda, the film "The Ground Truth" will be shown, and there will be a panel with Rev. Michael Yoshii, and Bob Watada and Rosa Sakanishi. That night in San Jose, there will be a reception and fundraiser for Kyle Snyder at 6pm at the San Jose Friends Meeting House. On Saturday December 9th, there will be a peace vigil in support of Lt. Ehren Watada, in front of the MLK, Jr. Library in San Jose from 12-4pm." [Bob Watada is Ehren's father and Rosa Sakanishi is Ehren's step-mother.]
These events are part of the National Days of Action to Support GI resistance and GI rights" that Courage to Resist is calling from this Friday (Dec. 8th) through Sunday (Dec. 10th).
David Zeiger (Common Dreams) writes of these actions and notes the importance of these actions: "Today the new GI resistance movement is growing -- more soldiers are going public with their opposition, thousands are going AWOL, the first GI coffeehouse opened recently (with internet!), and the antiwar movement is realizing that supporting these soldiers is the next step. It's time for us to escalate public pressure and action in support of the growing movement of thousands of courageous men and women soldiers who have in many different ways followed their conscience -- upholding international law, taking a principled stand against unjust, illegal war and occupation and standing up for their rights. Widespread public cupport and pressure will help create true support for courageous troops facing isolation and repression, and help protect their civil liberties and human rights."
Zieger is the director of Sir! No Sir! which documents that war resistance within the military during Vietnam and, for those planning house parties, is highly recommended. (Click here for a community review.)
Right now, events are known to be scheduled in Alameda, CA; Honolulu, HI; Kentfield, CA; Long Beach, CA; Maui, HI; Missoula, MT; Montpeiler, VT; Nanuet, NY; New York, NY; Olympia, WA; Portland, OR; San Francisco, CA; Santa Barbara, CA; San Jose, CA; Seattle, WA; Tallahassee, FL; Vancouver, B.C. Canada; Worcester, MA.
The actions are to call for:
1) Support for War Objectors
2) Protect the Right to Conscientious Objection
3) Protect the Liberties & Human Rights of GI's
4) Sanctuary for War Objectors
As Thomas Watkins (AP) notes, "The Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force have seen some 19,000 troops total go AWOL since 2001." Kyle Snyder, Darrell Anderson and Ehren Watada are among the US war resisters who have gone public. They are part of a resistance movement within the military that also includes Joshua Key, Ivan Brobeck, Ricky Clousing, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Meija, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Jeremy Hinzman, Corey Glass, Patrick Hart, Clifford Cornell, Agustin Aguayo, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, and Kevin Benderman. Those are some of the war resisters who have gone public and over thirty US war resisters are currently in Canada attempting to be legally recognized.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Appeal for Redress is collecting signatures of active duty service members calling on Congress to bring the troops home -- the petition will be delivered to Congress next month.
As the US administration demonstrates no desire to end the war, the fatalities pile up. AP estimates 75 reported deaths of Iraqis on Thursday. Some of those deaths include:
Bombings?
Reuters notes one dead and another wounded from a roadside bomb in Riyad.
Shootings?
In Baghdad, Reuters reports, "the deputy chief of al-Sadoun police station," Basil Abdullah, and two of his guards were shot dead. AP reports an attack on "a school in western Baghdad, killing the Sunni headmaster in his office and threatening teachers not to return".
Dropping back to Wednesday, Aseel Kami (Reuters) reports that Al Harith Hassan was shot on his way to work yesterday morning and died enroute to a hospital. Kami notes that he was "[o]ne of Iraq's best-known psychiatrists" and "dean of Baghdad University's psychiatric centre".
Corpses?
Reuters reports three corpses were discovered in Iskandariya. AP reports that 48 corpses were discovered in Baghdad.
And the deaths do not happen is isolation or in a vacuum. Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fahdily (IPS) address the issue of a nation where "Widows are the flip side of violence that has meant more than a million men dead, detained or disabled" and how this growing and increasing reality happens in a country where international NGO's pulled out in October 2005. Jamail and Al-Fahdily note that if a woman can afford a bribe, she may be able to get on the country's new relief program that pays out widows one hundred dollars a month which, as Haja Saadiya Hussein notes, "is not enough to support my big family." This at a time when, as Matt Weaver (Guardian of London) notes "what is becoming the biggest refugee crisis in the world" (according to Refugees International) is resulting from the daily chaos and violence in Iraq with (UN figures) over 100,000 Iraqis leaving the country each month and over 1.8 million Iraqis now living outside of Iraq not by 'choice' but for safety.
In the face of these realities, CNN reports, Iraq has scheduled, not one, but two, conferences -- with one among neighboring nations and the other "to include the United Nations and Arab League" but, no real rush apparently, they'll take place in 2007. Also in no real apparent rush is the US administration. On CNN's Larry King Live last night, King attempted to pin Tony Snow down about a "timely fashion" asking that he "Define that" and Tony Snow, admistration's mouth piece, declared that "maybe by the end of the year, the president can announce a new way forward." Maybe. Or, as Cat Power would sing, "Maybe Not."
As AFP reports, Bully Boy and England's prime minister Tony Blair are meeting in DC. And any thoughts that the laughable report issued by the James Baker Circle Jerk would have taken any Bully out of the Boy were misguided. CNN reports that Bully Boy's already tossing the bull/weight around as he tells two soverign nations, Iran and Syria, what they need to do in order to participate in any talks regarding Iraq. Phyllis Bennis (Institute for Policy Studies), speaking with Philip Maldari and Andrea Lewis on KPFA's The Morning Show, today explained that the US administration has created a climate where neither Iran or Syria may feel the need to meet the US administration half-way. [Thanks to Zach for noting that.]
While most in the mainstream press fawn over the report from the James Baker Circle Jerk, Democracy Now! devoted the hour to a serious critique of the report today. Amy Goodman spoke with Congress members Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey. Woolsey termed it "too little, too late." Lee stated, "too many of our young men and women have died. This is a senseless war. It's wrong. We need to bring our troops home and we need to bring them home now. I do not agree with the timetable that they laid out in the report. I mean, look at how many -- eleven more young people died yesterday." Also participating in the roundtable was author Anthony Arnove (IRAQ: The Logic of Withdrawal) who stated that "the report offers only a slight correction of course for a policy that needs fundamental reversal." Woolsey noted that Democratcs in Congress should be listening to the people, that the message of the November election was change and that people are ahead of elected officials on this issue . Sami Rasouli, of the Muslim Peacemakers Team, joined the roundtable discussion from Najaf and observed that if American forces left Iraq, any al-Qaeda forces would as well. Rasouli also noted that only 1300 al-Qaeda forces are said to be in Iraq and that the report demonstrates that Bully Boy's false claims before the start of the illegal war and to this day (that the US is there to fight 'terror'). Antonia Juhasz, author of The BU$H Agenda, joined the discussion to note that the James Baker Circle Jerk report advocates the privatization of Iraq's oil industry: "should be reorganized as a commercial enterprise, the proposal also says that, as you [Amy Goodman] say, Iraq's oil should be opened up to private, foreign energy and oil companies, also, another radical proposal, that all of Iraq's oil revenues should be centralized in the central government, and the report calls for a US advisor to ensure that a new national oil law is passed in Iraq to make all this possible and that the Constitution of Iraq is ammended to ensure that the central government gains control of the all of Iraq's oil, oil revenues. All told the report calls for privatization of Iraq's oil, turning it over to private, foreign, corporate hands, putting all the oil in the hands of the central government and essentially, I would argue, extending the war in Iraq to ensure that US oil companies get what the Bush administration went in there for, control and greater access to Iraq's oil."
Anthony Arnove brought up the issue of reparations noting the need to think "about what happens after withdrawal and I think we have to raise a demand for reparations to be paid to the Iraqi people, reparations not only for the harm and destruction caused by this illegal invasion and occupation, but all the years before that, when the United States supported sanctions on the country, and before that supported the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, armed, trained, funded and backed Saddam Hussein as he carried out the worst of his abuses."
Meanwhile, David Swanson (Let's Try Democracy) notes that the James Baker Circle Jerk recommends toothless talking points re: permanante bases in Iraq while "we are spending billions of dollars to construct bases in Iraq for the U.S. military. The new Democratic majority in Congress knows this, knows the damages these bases are doing, and knows the good that could be done by making better use of all that money, not to mention the lives lost in the process. If we speak up, perhaps the new majority will also know how quickly it can become a minority again if it does not seize this issue, expose it, and set it right."
Edward Wong and Abdul Razzaq Al-Saidi (New York Times) survey Iraqi people (the ones that the James Baker Circle Jerk was allegedly concerned about) and find that the hand jive is most popular . . . inside the heavily fortified Green Zone but even there it's not overwhelmingly popular. In the United States, Peter Smith(Courier-Journal) looks at Kentucky's reaction -- apparently having little interest in 'official sources' and gas bags, decides that the plan is far from embraced -- and quotes Anita Anderson, mother of US war resister Darrell Anderson, who notes the 'maybe' of some-sort of withdrawal in 2008 and states, "I can't even imagine the young boys that are going to be damaged, and the young girls. I've talked to active-duty soldiers, ones in Iraq. They're not doing well over there."
Tom Hayden (The Huffington Post) offers a six point plan that addresses Anita Anderson's concern of time by advocating a US withdrawal "in months rather than years," peace talks, a "special envoy" working towards "conflict resolution, not a military solution," acceptance that the puppet government doesn't represent Iraqis and much more. Military Families Speak Out's co-founder Nancy Lessin declares of the James Baker Circle Group's report, "Each one of these is wrong and will not produce the desired effect. The real problem is the U.S. occuaption." And Nancy A. Youssef and Hannah Allam (McClatchy Newspapers) note that the report has many flaws and zoom in on: "The group also recommends that the U.S. add more advisers, including Department of Justice officials for Iraq's frail judicial system. But the U.S. already has advisers throughout the government. Indeed, scores of coalition soldiers fill the halls of the Interior Ministry on any given day."
So what's a person to do?
"Go for your dreams, be true to your heart and listen to your gut. If your path starts to go astray, jump out of the road and take a romp through the woods."
That's activist and CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin's advice for young girls and women which she shares with Bay Area Business Women. It's advice she puts into practice in her own life and currently that's taken her to Manhattan where she, Cindy Sheehan, Patti Ackerman and Missy Comley Beattie are on trial for . . . failure to yield right-of-way? Refusal to disown the right to peaceable assembly?
In a new release calling for charges to be dropped, CODEPINK notes that the charges stem from the attempt on March 6th to deliver a petition calling for the end of the war (a petition 72,000 people had signed) to the then UN Ambassador for the US, John Bolton. In 2005, the petition had been dropped off with no problem. In 2006, the four women were part of a group of fifty that "was stopped by the New York City police and four of the leaders were arrested and charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and obstructing government adrministration." As they had done in 2005, they had phoned ahead of time to say that they would be dropping off the petition. Dropping off a petition signed by American citizens now means that a building (US Mission to UN) needs to go into lockdown and the police need to be called? In Bully Boy's America, apparently so.
As Rebecca (Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude) observes, "when cindy sheehan's on trial, we're all on trial. . . a public building meaning 'open to the public,' the women wanted to deliver a petition (no danger there), they called ahead of time, the place decides to shut down to avoid them. if the place's business was interfered with, that came when the building decided to go into lockdown. if a manhattan prosecutor wants to prosecute some 1, prosecute the people who made the call that u.s. citiznes were not welcome." (Rebecca notes that an audio report of the case can be found on yesterday's The KPFA Evening News.)
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