Repetition does not transform
a lie into a truth.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt
The truth
is that Bush just likes to blow things up
-- in Iraq, in the United States and in Congress.
-- U.S. Representative Pete Stark
18 October 2007
Saturday
1 December 2007
Deep End
News
Ukiah cannabis cartel . . .Young was hired in December 2005 by then-DA Norman Vroman after a 20-year career in the Mendocino County Public Health Department.
Second walk-out in three days (
see Thursday, below)Iraq parliament hit by walkout
over raid on Sunni leader
AP / AFP
"We're living in an Orwellian era."
Another reason to impeach:
Mike Adams, newstarget: "
This is happening, folks. You're LIVING through an amazing chapter of history right now. You're actually witnessing the downfall of a free nation and the rise of a superpower fascist state. You're actually part of it."
Note: "our" Congressman, Mike Thompson, voted "Yea" on the House version,
H.R. 1955 (official links:
1,
2)See Sunday 28 October 2007 (scroll down)
Philip Giraldi is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served eighteen years overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain.
The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act
Philip Giraldi, huffingtonpost
"Anti-extremist" bill targets online thoughtcrime
Declan McCullagh, cnet
Bush also challenged . . . a law requiring him to keep in place an existing command structure for the Navy's Pacific fleet.
Another reason to impeach:
Omar Khadr was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 Witnesses to be held secret at Guantanamo trial AFP
a few more reasons to impeach:
Cindy Taylor, Mike Widomski ... and Julie Myersrawstory: "Pelosi, through a spokesman, didn't directly comment on Nirenberg's venture."
John Edwards for President:
Support the Troops. End the War.
sign up: johnedwards.com
Women for Edwards here
Slow Loc@l
Hmmm: "Obsolete"? Among the Consent Calendar items on the Board of Supes Agenda for next Tuesday: "Adoption of
Resolution Authorizing the Destruction of Obsolete Personnel Records,
Background Files and Citizen Complaint Files [emphasis added] of the Office of the
Sheriff-Coroner".
Also on the Consent Calendar: resolutions honoring County Clerk Marsha Wharff and Godfather Al Beltrami, the two Jonestown County officials -- knocked out of action by a spider bite and a car crash, respectively -- who know the most about where the bodies are buried.
According to the Agenda, the BOS will convene, go into closed session, emerge from closed session for snacks and chat (honoring long-time employees who've yet to meet with career-ending mishaps) in Conference Room B at 10:30, meet as the Water Agency, go to lunch at noon.
In the afternoon, the Supes are scheduled to raise fees across the board (a "Public Hearing" timed for 1:30), finish off the Westport Municipal Advisory Council, and meet as the Air Quality District.
(Really, dear reader: if any of the foregoing strikes you as . . . far-fetched, take a look at the Agenda . . . )
Jonestown County Journalism: just where, do you suppose, does that "from the blog" business originate, that bloats the Sunday front page of the paid-for print edition of the dreadful Ukiah Daily Journal? This afternoon, the UDJ "blog" shows exactly one comment: "K.C., Why don't you just admit that you made a mistake with the TWK column. Everyone makes them you know. Being funny would be its only justification and it is clearly not."
At the PressDemocrat website, meanwhile, none of the comments on Mike Geniella's notably crummy piece on the arrest -- or whatever it was -- of Laura Hamburg mentions Geniella's presumably-deliberate error in describing the Hamburg-Cooperriders' short-lived "Newspaper-Type Product" -- a promotional
yuppie-shopper, heavy on cute, which appeared occasionally -- as "a weekly publication".
(For anybody who's curious, some of the website -- apparently the work of Hamburg's second ex-husband, Sid Cooperrider -- is still online.)
Slow Loc@l link . . .
Thursday 29 November 2007
The resolution lists more than a dozen high crimes and
misdemeanors of the Bush and Cheney administration and "calls upon the U.S.
House of Representatives to immediately initiate impeachment proceedings . . . "
NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD calls for Impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney nlg.org
full text: PDF file
Iraqi Lawmakers Walk Out to Protest 'Humiliating' Green Zone Treatment
Ann M. Simmons, LAtimes
Iraq MPs block Maliki nominees Reuters
Iraqi contractors frozen out of U.S. Matthew Lee, AP
Iraq War Contract Scandal Widens AP/military.com
Fire kills 2, shuts key Canada-U.S. pipeline
Reuters / AFP / AP
Houston-based Enbridge Energy won't proceed with public offering after pipeline explosion thomson financial
Stun gun used on pregnant woman in Ohio AP
Keith Olbermann raised the alarm about the program on his show Wednesday . . .
more . . .
Close to home . . .
" ... owed the state more than $350,000 for overcharging Medi-Cal."
Slow Loc@l
Jonestown County Journalism: Mendocino County's for-profit "press" has finally gotten around to mentioning the Hamburgs' boo bust (50 pounds of pot, $10,000 cash):
1. PressDemocrat puff-piece by Mike Geniella
2. Ben Brown in the Ukiah Daily Journal
So far, no denunciatory editorials -- such as those which memorably attended the arrest, jailing -- for a lot less -- and court appearances of the (young, black, Congressionally-unconnected) Parker brothers -- have issued from the weed-"greed" watch-dog UDJ.
But it's early days -- and editor K.C. Meadows' Boonville associates have, for two weeks running, attributed the police presence at the Hamburgs' Robinson Creek rancheria to "a teenage boy [who] called the cops to say that Matt Hamburg, age 30 or so, had 'grabbed his crotch'", etc. . . .
more Slow Loc@l . . .
Tuesday
27 November 2007
A total of six people died after being Tasered in separate incidents last week in the US and Canada
via @Risk . . .Another inconvenient truth:
Al Gore's Web site hacked
Robert McMillan, IDG News
Support the Troops who Refuse to Fight . . .Radio tonight -- KMUD, 7 pm:
Army of None, Resistance
David Solnit will be the guest tonight on KMUD's Politically Correct Week in Review, 7 p.m..
David is the co-author of Army of None (to Counter Military Recuritment, End War and Build a Better World)
and with his co-author, Gulf War resister Aimee Allison, will be touring the North coast in early December. David is an organizer for Courage to Resist, a support committee for military objectors, and founder of Art and Revolution [see DemocracyNow!.]
David will be talking with hosts Paul and Tom on the people power strategy to support resistance and weaken the Empire.
This is a call-in show so feel free to dial up 923 3911 or 1 800 KMUD RAD. You can listen on the internet at KMUD.org
Slow Loc@l
Last newspaper? The Ukiah Daily Journal, the Denver-based MediaNews outlet claiming to be "Mendocino County's local newspaper", has finally done it: the front page of yesterday's (Monday, 26 November 3007) print edition contained no news whatsoever.
In other non-news, Sheriff Tom Allman, talking fast Monday night on previously-public radio,
bulldozed his way through an Annie Esposito "interview" with what appeared to be prepared statements, declining to comment on the recent no-arrest bust -- a purported 50 pounds of processed marijuana, a cascade of cash, etc. -- of Laura Hamburg (see 18 November).
Allman, who's reinstated Gary Hudson as Under-sheriff, did claim that "the purpose of a taser is to prevent injury" -- which should come as news to the "mentally ill" woman tasered and crushed by former Sheriff Kendl and Deputy Bradley -- Kendl's now in the Police Department in Fort Bragg -- two years ago (10 September 2005, 9-11 Eve, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina), of whom -- she's facing major surgery this week -- more anon.
Sunday
25 November 2007
Tasers a form of torture, says UN
AFP
Billing of wounded vet stirs outrage
Connor Sheets, buffalonews
U.S. soldier wounded in Iraq won't have to repay sign-up bonus
Cnews
Wounded Vet Told To Pay Back Bonus
cbs
"[Mike Thompson's] two-faced game is apparently paying off in influence in both directions . .
. the careerist mentality of Thompson and his colleagues in the face of rampant fascism demand that we develop strategies of civil resistance. "
Paul Encimer:
Cosmic Cosmetics Among the Democrats
I watched the vote go down on CSPAN in the House over the nonbinding Iraq troop redeployment (haha) measure HR 4156. This was no bipartisan love fest like the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 which offers grants to vigilantes and snitches to find out who among us is the most pissed off about our Homeland Empire. That one passed 411 to 6. HR 4156 was a real squeaker, sneaking by at the barest level 218 to 203.
Our very own Blue Dog Mike Thompson got the big debate plum, delivering the final word before the completely assembled House in advance of the vote on 4156. He was a bit nervous but got several good rounds of applause.
One of his applause winning riffs was his “rebuttal” to his opposite number, a white-haired Republican dude from Florida who scornfully attacked HR 4156 for its lack of substance –- with nonbinding timelines that even so left troops and mercenaries all over Iraq. Thompson responded to great applause that if it was so innocuous why were the Republicans so hard-line about it?
Thompson’s rebuttal deserved his Party’s approval since it killed a record of four birds with one stone. Number one, he mocked the Republicans for their rigid and suicidal pro-Bush stand that WE ARE WINNING THE WAR, something that us Vietnam era activists heard every couple months for 10 years or so.
Number two, he defended the fragile egos of the Progressives who were supporting this charade by insisting that there was something after all to HR 4156, if only a tweak of Bush’s Pinocchio-sized nose.
Number three, the fact that it was he, Mike Thompson, loyal member of the Blue Dog Caucus, doing the arguing reassured his fellow canines that this tweaking wouldn’t hurt the Empire a bit, honest.
Number four, he saved face for the Party by handing the left wing anti-war Base (us) a tantalizing symbolic victory. Just wait, it promised, until the Democrats had 60 Senators and a Lieberman Liberal for President. The Democrats obviously believe they have a real mind fogger here, a Cognitive Dissonance spectacular that will bring us base types dutifully to the polls in 2008.
Thompson did manage to get my enthusiastic applause when he made the point that from the time that Congress knew it would have to withdraw troops from Vietnam until the time it actually did so 21,000 Americans soldiers died. This continues to distinguish him and Democrats like Murtha from the ChickenHawk opposition to whom The Troops are a renewable resource.
Even Speaker of the House, Nancy Betrayus, made a decent speech, referring to her Oath of Office with a sense of urgency that could have been mistaken for an intention to put Impeachment back on the Dems rotten little table. In fact, an Urban Legend has Nancy B. offering to put Impeachment on the table if she got X number of hand written notes {c/o Cindy for Congress, 1260 Mission Street, San Francisco CA 94103). Lots of desperate people are biting on this (I may still drop Nancy a line.)
I have to admit I haven’t been this involved in a TV vote since as a high school student I watched excitedly with my sister as JFK narrowly lost his VP bid to Estes Kefauver in 1956. In this case, with a few minutes to go, one of the 5 Republicans who had put the measure at a victorious 218, shifted to NO and as the clock ticked down the handful of Dems who hadn’t voted swelled the NOs among Dems to a big 15. But finally with about 2 minutes to go one of the Dems went into the YES column. I waited (anxiously?) for one of the Republicans to shift from YES to NO and defeat the measure. (The thrills and chills of parliamentary democracy.)
Instead of defeat however the Orderly and Responsible Iraq Redeployment Act [sic sic sic] passed barely 218 to 203 with 4 Republicans adding to the winning total and 15 Dems joining the Republican losers. These NOs included Progressives Kucinich and Pete Stark -- with John Lewis sitting this one by voting Present and Julia Carson not voting. The only staunchly anti-war Republican -- Ron Paul -- voted NO as well -- no doubt, like the Progressives, unable to stomach the cosmetic compromise of it all. 9 Blue Dogs, 3 New Democrats and 2 Democrats without a Caucus joined the Republicans (the math doesn’t quite add up because Barrow from Georgia belongs to two Caucuses –- Blue Dogs and New Democrats!)
In any case, the narrow “Democratic Party victory” in passing this measure is evidence of the “power” of the left wing antiwar “base” forcing these Machiavellian heroics. Quite a feat to bring such unity to what is actually not a party but a coalition. There are really THREE distinct Democratic Parties disguised as Caucuses: the Blue Dog Republican Lite Party, the Global Zionist New Democrat Party and the Progressive Democrat American Party.
It would have been remarkable –- if HR 4156 wasn’t so laughable –- to see only 9 out of 46 members of the Blue Dog Republican Lite Party (the BDRLP) break ranks to come to the aid of their Empire. It wasn’t that long ago that just about half of them voted to protect the Emperor and his eavesdropping FISA violations. Another one third supported his assault on habeas corpus and affirmed his right to torture by voting for the Military Commissions Act. Larger numbers of Blue Dogs were no doubt willing to indulge themselves in a bit of uncharacteristic lese-majeste because of their realization that the Democratic Party Leadership, to which Thompson seems to have ascended, has the Progressives playing grammar school soccer while the opposition suits up for NFL level football.
All this goes a long way to explain Thompson’s otherwise unaccountable behavior as a Progressive Blue Puppy (voting with the Progs while hanging with the Dogs). His two-faced game is apparently paying off in influence in both directions. He is able meanwhile to keep providing politically (and commercially) correct pork barrel for the district as well.
For our part we here at the base can continue to challenge him Monday mornings at his local offices and by working for anti-war candidates in the primary and in the election. But the careerist mentality of Thompson and his colleagues in the face of rampant fascism demand that we develop strategies of civil resistance. It’s clearly pointless to pin our hopes on the Progressives whose 70 members (including 24 crossovers from the 41 member Black Caucus) seem motivated by the same fear of The American People, so to speak, that pervades the Democratic Party leadership in general. A clean break with the system a la the Mexican Zapatistas looks more like the answer.
Paul Encimer: Box 162 Piercy CA 05587