Today is Roe vs. Wade 30th Anniversary

“On this day 30 years ago, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe v Wade, forever changing US law, culture, society, lifestyles, and setting in motion a philosophical debate that continues to this day. Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, or somewhere inbetween, this may be a moment to pause and perhaps listen, to understand that there are points of view other than your own, and hard questions that do not have simple answers.” [Scripting News]

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It’s ok to oppose war as long as you don’t oppose war 

The LA TImes today, in an “analysis” of French opposition to an Iraq War opined it would be deeply tragic if France voted NO for war. Why?  Because then the US would forced, forced I tell you, to act outside the UN, and this would hurt the international status of France. Huh?

Let’s see if I have this right. If a rogue nation (that would be us) ignores a UN vote and goes to war anyway, this would reflect badly on those nations opposed to war. According to the convoluted Orwellian “logic” here, it’s ok for a country to oppose an Iraq War as long as they don’t actually vote against the war. Because a NO vote will hurt their status since the aforementioned rogue nation will ignore the vote thus damaging the credibility of the UN.

It would appear to me that the rogue nation is the problem here, and not those opposing the rogue nation.  As I’ve said before, with headlines like this, it getting harder to do satire.

From the article

“In the 1998-99 Kosovo crisis in Yugoslavia, the U.S. faced a certain Russian veto of military intervention. Washington assembled a coalition that included the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and left the United Nations behind. That move seriously weakened the U.N.’s role as an international player. If the U.S. skirted the U.N. again, it would cast the Security Council into irrelevance and, along with it, France’s great standing that derives from its veto-holding status.

“Would France kill the goose that laid the golden egg of international prestige?” said Malone. “I doubt it. They are skeptical, they want to defend their principles, but the last thing they want the Americans to do is act outside the council.”

This just in. I guess satire IS still possible.

President reassures U.S.: “Our righteous slaughter of Iraqi babies shall not be thwarted by fraidy cat euro-faggots!”

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Adventurer-author kidnapped by paramilitaries

Robert Pelton Young has been kidnapped by right wing paramilitaries in Columbia. They have have promised to free him. Let’s hope so.

Young has written a number of books about travelling in seriously dangerous areas. He was the first journalist to interview the “American Taliban”, John Walker Lindh. He was able to do this because he was as respected by our Special Forces as he was by the Taliban and warlords. Not an easy feat.

In one book he details two rules for travelling in dangerous places.

1) Be nice to everyone. The man next to you on the bus could be a rebel commander.

2) Just because they live in a mud hut doesn’t mean they can’t be every bit as perceptive, intelligent, and witty as you are.

Let’s pray he comes home soon.

“The author of the travel book “The World’s Most Dangerous Places” was kidnapped with two other Americans near the Colombia-Panama border, police said Tuesday.

Author Robert Young Pelton, 47, of Redondo Beach, Megan A. Smaker, 22, of Oakland and Mark Wedeven, whose hometown wasn’t released, were traveling Saturday through a lawless area used by Colombian guerrillas and paramilitary groups for drug and arms trafficking, authorities said. Pelton was researching a story for National Geographic’s Adventure Magazine.

Carlos Castano, leader of Colombia’s violent right-wing paramilitary groups, told Reuters that the three Americans had been taken into custody by his forces to protect them from leftist guerrillas belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. He said they would be turned over soon to the Roman Catholic Church.”

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Support For a War With Iraq Weakens

From the Washington Post

“Seven in 10 Americans would give U.N. weapons inspectors months more to pursue their arms search in Iraq, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll that found growing doubts about an attack on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

In addition to the public’s skepticism about military action against Iraq, the poll found that a majority of Americans disapproved of President Bush’s handling of the economy for the first time in his presidency.”

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Crowd sizes and future actions

The S.F. police, originally estimated the Jan 11 protest crowd at 40,000. They now estimate the crowd at 150,000.

Which of course means it was probably closer to 200,000 - and the photo here, taken by a helicopter chartered by ANSWER, shows just how big the SF march was. 

Why do police give absurdly low estimates of crowd size at demonstrations? Here in LA on Jan 11, the police estimated the march at an absurdly low 2,000, a number even the LA Times didn’t print.  Local radio news stations said it was 20,000-30,000. So why the deliberate lie by the police?

The upcoming Feb. 15 International Day of Action has been called by European groups and there will be major actions across Europe and the U.S. There’s no one organizing group this time, instead multiple groups are planning multiple actions, probably in dozens of cities.

For example, United for Peace is organizing marches in SF & NYC. Here in LA, so far, there will be a Peace on the Beach rally organized by Santa Monica activists and a march in Hollywood by ANSWER. Many more actions will be announced soon, so find a group you like and join in.

We will probably be at war by then. King George the Mad has made it quite clear he will ignore public opinion, world opinion, the UN, and the advice of allies, and that he will have his war. A war for no discernable reason except empire, power, and oil.

Iraq arms? If that be the reason for war, then where are the arms? And why are we going after Iraq when we can’t find their weapons and not going after North Korea who cheerfully admits to having such weapons? And why, for that matter, are we going after other countries for having weapons when we are the biggest weapons dealer on the planet and possess more weapons than all other countries put together?

It’s lunacy. There’s no thought given here about blowback, like what will the unintended consequences of this imperial adventure be. Already once steady allies like Germany & France are going their separate ways, sickened by the Bushies lust for war. How do we plan to run Iraq, assuming we can even conquer it? And will it stay conquered? Will it upset the balance of power in the region? Will the populace of Gulf nations start rampaging in the streets? Do the Bushies think about any of this?

I’ve watched the peace movement grow exponentially over the past several months. It continues to grow. And now, just within the past week or so, the mass media, after months of studiously ignoring it, is now giving solid coverage. Why? Because the protests finally got so big they could no longer be ignored.  That’s why.

And they will be getting much bigger.

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