We are not with you and we don’t believe you  

“The message from Moscow

Tony Blair’s first public attempt to heal the diplomatic wounds of the Iraq war suffered a humiliating rebuff yesterday when Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, refused to lift UN sanctions and mocked the possibility that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq.

Mr Blair started with the full diplomatic niceties but became increasingly animated until he issued a dire warning of a new world order in which two different poles of power act as rivals to one another. The world faced a choice between a partnership between the US and the main countries of the world or a continued “diplomatic stand off”, he said.”

Blair is demanding a unipolar world where everyone simply does what the US wants. Oddly, he is opposed to the (obvious) increasing power of Europe, which is joined by Russia and China, in clear opposition to the lunacies currently emanating from D.C. Up until a few months back, I think there was a partnership between the major powers. However the Bushies have blown that into irretrievable pieces. So why is the poodle from Britain so craven in his backing Bush?

And why did Putin rub it in his face?

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Winning their hearts and minds, eh?

“U.S. kills 15 Iraqis during an anti-American rally

United States soldiers shot and killed 15 people at an anti-American rally late Monday, hospital officials said today. Iraqis said the soldiers opened fire, unprovoked, while the Americans — who were positioned in a school — said they were fired on first and then carefully counterattacked.

Either way, with 65 people reported wounded during the rally on Saddam Hussein’s birthday, sentiment against the American military presence jumped several notches, even as United States officials are seeking to build greater trust among ordinary Iraqis.”

Can you say “Lebanon”? I knew you could…

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Dems to filibuster Owens

“Be still my beating heart, the Dems are going to filibuster another Bush judicial nominee — the odious Priscilla Owen!”

Yet another sign of incipient vertebrae growing on Democrats. Excellent. They may yet be developing a workable spine.

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Saddam Hussein will make statement in three days

“Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will make a statement to the people of Iraq in three days, Agence France-Presse cited the London-based Arabic language al-Quds newspaper as saying”.

Heck, I’m hoping for a joint televised announcement by Saddam and bin Laden. Mostly because then the “reporters” on Fox News would become so enraged they’d probably start foaming at the mouth - which would be fun to watch.

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 Outsider Ramsey Clark makes a difference

The L.A. Times printed my letter, and others, today responding to their Saturday article about Ramsey Clark, which trivialized him as an ineffective outsider.

Re “He’s the Ultimate Outsider,” April 26: Ramsey Clark has hardly “forfeited a last chance to make a difference.”

In 1991, after Gulf War I, he founded the International Action Center so the peace movement would have a permanent home. After 9/11, IAC and others formed the ANSWER coalition, the biggest and most active of the antiwar coalitions, which has organized numerous huge peace rallies nationwide.

I’d say he was making quite a difference.

Bob Morris
Encino

Clark’s views on U.S. foreign policy are cogent and shared by many outside the mainstream. The logic behind them is compelling and not difficult to grasp. Attributing them to “private penance,” being “gullible” or suffering from a “willful conscience” is voodoo journalism, and the failure to report Clark’s reasons as he himself sees them is a disservice to your readers.

Arthur Gelmis
Washington


Your profile of Clark got it right that he never was an insider after his stint with government. What you didn’t mention were his two important books, the 1970 “Crime in America” and the 1992 “The Fire This Time: U.S. War Crimes in the Gulf War.”

No former attorney general after Clark ever distinguished himself or herself in any way except Richard M. Nixon’s John Mitchell, who went to prison. Most followed the traditional insider path by parlaying their government service into big bucks as private attorneys.

Sure, Clark is an outsider, but that doesn’t make him “fringe.” He is a highly principled individual who doesn’t toe the party line. That’s what America is supposed to be all about.

Stephen Yagman
Venice

(Yagman is a L.A. lawyer well known for filing suit against LAPD for police brutality. The home page of his law firm says “We are active in protecting the rights of those abused by police brutality and corruption, including Los Angeles and all other police departments“.)

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How the road to war was paved with lies

“Intelligence agencies accuse Bush and Blair of distorting and fabricating evidence in rush to war

The case for invading Iraq to remove its weapons of mass destruction was based on selective use of intelligence, exaggeration, use of sources known to be discredited and outright fabrication, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

A high-level UK source said last night that intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic were furious that briefings they gave political leaders were distorted in the rush to war with Iraq. “They ignored intelligence assessments which said Iraq was not a threat,” the source said. Quoting an editorial in a Middle East newspaper which said, “Washington has to prove its case. If it does not, the world will for ever believe that it paved the road to war with lies“, he added: “You can draw your own conclusions.”

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Massachusetts to legalize gay marriage?

“In just a few months, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts is likely to legalize gay marriage, thus setting off a titanic national struggle. (See my piece, “The Coming Battle.”) Yet neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have any inkling of what is about to hit them.

Once Massachusetts legalizes gay marriage, it will be a domestic culture-war story like no other.”

The author of this story, Stanley Krutz of the reactionary National Review, thinks the ensuing furor will drive moderates to the Republicans. I think quite the opposite will happen.

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National ANSWER conference

We in ANSWER LA are having a regional conference on May 10, The following weekend, May 17-18, there will be a two day national conference in NYC, which I may go to.

It’s billed as the National Conference Against War, Colonial Occupation And Imperialism, with major speakers, workshops, etc.

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The colossal colon is on tour!

Dave Barry explains all. This is NOT satire, the colossal colon is real!

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Bush approval rating slipping

Even Fox News says so

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Stop Sars, or else, warns flu expert

“SARS could become as widespread as flu viruses unless action is taken to destroy it now, a leading Welsh disease expert warned last night.

Professor Ron Eccles of Cardiff University’s Common Cold Centre warned that unless Sars is brought under control now it could become endemic.

He warned that any treatment for the disease was likely to take many years to develop, so there was all the more need to stop the disease in its tracks at this early stage.”

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Waiter, more perchlorate salad dressing, please!

 ”A laboratory test of 22 types of lettuce purchased at Northern California supermarkets found that four were contaminated with perchlorate, a toxic rocket-fuel ingredient that has polluted the Colorado River, the source of the water used to grow most of the nation’s winter vegetables.”

Well that’s just great… However, “Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif, introduced legislation Tuesday in the Senate guaranteeing a community’s “right to know” about the use of perchlorate by companies.”

“If passed, the Perchlorate Community Right-to-Know Act would require anyone who has stored or transported more than 375 pounds of perchlorate since Jan. 1, 1950, to report to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency no later than June 1, 2005. It also would require anyone who discharged perchlorate into the water to report volumes, method and remedial actions to the EPA by the same date.”

Perchlorate contamination has been found in 400 water sources in 20 counties statewide.”

Why isn’t discharging perc into water utterly and completely against the law?

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Hey!

Wasn’t Iraq supposed to have weapons of mass destruction (WMD)? Wasn’t that why we invaded?? So, why haven’t we found any?

Rather than answers, there is only chaos:

“Sources inside the Bush administration described the hunt for weapons as beset by infighting and potentially disastrous delays, and suggested that stocks of chemical and biological agents themselves might never be found.”

“Everybody realises that it’s gotten off to a rocky start,” one official closely involved in the weapons search told the Los Angeles Times. “Frankly, the whole situation is very confusing at the moment.”

Why would there be infighting about finding WMD’s? And why wouldn’t finding them be a top priority?

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Argentina’s occupied factories

Brukman is a factory in Argentina that has been occupied and successfully run by workers after owners abandoned it. The government is forcibly trying to take it back for the owners. There has been major violence, and thousands have demonstrated against the government. In a truly chilling phrase, the federal judge who wrote the eviction order said: “Life and physical integrity have no supremacy over economic interests”. What a guy…

Naomi Klein explains more in The Guardian:

“Last Monday, the Brukman factory was the site of the worst repression Buenos Aires has seen in almost a year. Police had evicted the workers in the middle of the night and turned the entire block into a military zone guarded by machine guns and attack dogs.

Brukman isn’t just any factory, it’s a fabrica ocupada, one of almost 200 factories across the country that have been taken over and run by their workers over the past year and a half. For many, the factories, employing more than 10,000 nationwide and producing everything from tractors to ice cream, are seen not just as an economic alternative, but as a political one as well.

In Brukman, for instance, the means of production weren’t seized, they were simply picked up after they had been abandoned by their legal owners. The factory had been in decline for several years, debts to utility companies were piling up, and, over a period of five months, the seamstresses had seen their salaries slashed from 100 pesos a week to a mere two pesos - not enough for the bus fare.

These factories have become a major political issue in Argentina. Their new President will have to tread quite carefully. The economy is shattered, unemployment is massive, and workers aren’t about to leave. ”When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose”.

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Stupid cat tricks

Miss Monica reports on a Sunset magazine letters to editor:

“I saw your tip about using a pan of beer to kill slugs (”Let Snails Die Happy,” January, page 12).  This has worked great for us over the years, except recently we found our new neighbor’s cat drank it.  We worried about the effect of a half-cup of brew on this relatively small cat.  He became visibly intoxicated and also began anticipating the pan’s refills, rushing over to lap it up…”

I have two cats. Joey can handle his catnip. Suzy can not. Joey sniffs it a few times, has a little fun, then walks away. Suzy, tragically, rolls wantonly in the catnip, then after a bit and without fail, gets up, walks over to Joey, and starts a fight. Clearly, Suzy can not handle her catnip.

Happily, she has been catnip free for some months now and amuses herself primarily by knocking over wastebaskets, rooting around for a piece of paper, which she picks up in her mouth and brings to me. I am now required to roll the paper into a wad and toss it across the room so she and Joey can play soccer with it. Eventually one of them picks it up in their mouth, brings it to me, dropping it at my feet so we can play more. Aren’t they JUST ADORABLE!

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Bush may be a write-in on more than one state ballot

“The GOP’s unusually late nominating convention — it does not begin until Aug. 30 — is the problem. Bush is not scheduled to accept his party’s nomination until Sept. 2, 2004. That falls after the deadline for certifying presidential candidates not only in Alabama, but also in California, the District of Columbia and West Virginia.”

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Thoughts on this week’s news

What IS North Korea doing? While other countries tremble in fear of offending the U.S., North Korea cheerfully sticks their thumb in George Bush’s eye.

Considering the duct tape will stop terrorists mania which struck a few weeks back, imagine what full blown SARS paranoia could be like. We may find out.

Who would have thought the Dixie Chicks had more balls than all the Democrats in Congress?

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Get your armored Cadillac now!

“The country’s two largest automakers are jumping into the limited but expanding U.S. market for armored vehicles as drivers’ concerns grow  about terrorism and random violence.”

Damn, I had NO IDEA I needed to be concerned about this. I drive my Prius all over L.A., sometimes in Areas Thought To Be Dangerous, and  not until now had it even occurred to me to be worried about being attacked by a terrorist. Thank you Detroit!

“The new vehicles being created by General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. can withstand shots from powerful handgun and high-powered rifle blasts.”

Wow, just like in the movies. Life imitates Art! Cool! Um… wait, if the car fails to stop the bullets, do I get my money back?

“It’s a small segment, but it’s growing and it’s profitable,” Ford spokesman Todd Nissen said.”

Highly placed sources said Lincoln will introduce a special version of the Navigator aimed at drug smugglers, with secret compartments for transporting heroin and cocaine, and the ability to kill anyone within a 100 yard circumference. “We expect his baby to go for $250,000, and be stunningly profitable”, said the Head Troll in charge of Marketing, drooling as he contemplated the fat stock options that would soon be his.

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SARS hysteria

“Fear has taken hold: 45,000 face masks have been sold by one supplier alone, and the masks are expected to double in price as the Sars virus crisis deepens. But this is not Hong Kong, China or Singapore, where the killer bug has claimed more than 200 lives. This panic buying is taking place in Scotland.”

However,

“Wearing a face mask, even in an affected area, is likely to do little good, say the CDC and the WHO. The surgical-type face masks seen on the streets of Hong Kong are little help, the CDC has said, although people who suspect they have SARS should wear them to protect others.”

For more info, see the CDC SARS page.

Hey, maybe Detroit could market special versions of their armored passenger cars, with biohazard suits, masks, and filtered oxygen at every seat.

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Argentina, the poster child for why neo-liberalism doesn’t work

Argentina has 50% unemployment now. Workers have taken over and are successfully running factories that were abandoned by their owners. Whole new barter systems and neighborhood councils are emerging to fill the void left by an economy on life support and a government that is ineffective at best.

An economy on life support? Didn’t Argentina used to be the poster child for neo-liberalism? It sure did. You know the theory. Privatize everything and the miracle of the marketplace will shower prosperity on everyone. (Sounds like a religion, doesn’t it?).

Argentina tried all that, and for a few years it looked like it was working. Of course to strengthen the economy, as the peso was pegged to the dollar, they had to borrow huge sums of money from the IMF and World Bank. Then the strong peso meant that exports plunged because the rest of South America wasn’t pegged to the dollar and couldn’t afford their expensive exports. Then came hyper inflation and chaos, which has continued to the present. Now Argentina can’t afford the interest on the loans, much less pay off the principal.

The World Bank and IMO, in effect, tell the Argentinian government what laws they can pass. Should a law they don’t like somehow pass, whoops, up go the interest rates, and have some more misery, Argentina.

Right now, thanks to the miracles of neo-liberalism, Argentina, as mentioned, has 50% unemployment. The middle class is vanishing. Former doctors and professionals are driving cabs and rooting through trash looking for cardboard to get enough money for food. The hopeful sign is that many are joining together, organizing when and where they can, forming their own extra-governments.

And in one of the factories taken over by workers, in this case by 55 women, the government just moved in to evict them and thousands of people from all walks of life turned out in the streets near the factory in support.
 
All this from Daniel Morduchowicz, an Argentinian and photographer living in Los Angeles,who spoke tonight at an International Action Center meeting tonight.

Check out his website, Cronopios, his work is superb…

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Sign of the times

This banner appeared outside an Assyrian Church of the East in Los Angeles, just before the U.S. invaded Iraq. Just recently, several American flags were posted prominently outside, directly facing the street.

What a sad commentary on these times when a little church needs to proclaim loudly their members are Americans and for peace, simply because many of them are of Syrian ancestry. Because the obvious subtext here is, please don’t attack us.

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Flat screen LCD monitor

I held off as long as I could, waiting for prices to fall. And they have! I just bought a ViewSonic 17″ flat screen LCD monitor for $399 (with the rebate). That’s about what I spent several years ago for the 17″ tube monitor I replaced. This new monitor takes up vastly less real estate on my desk, weighs 12 pounds rather than 45 - and has more screen space!

Yes that’s right, a LCD 17″ monitor has more screen area than a 17″ tube monitor, as they are measured differently.  This new 17″ LCD has 17.4″ diagonal, my old 17″ tube has 16″ diagonal. To put it differently, the new monitor screen is 14″ x 11″, while the old one is 13″ x 10″. That’s a big difference.

Plus it tilts most any way I want, and can even be pivoted 90 degrees to portrait mode, and, with a click, the screen contents also re-organize themselves to portrait mode. Wheee…

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Thank you, warrior women of Dixie, and welcome to the movement.

This is extraordinary. A top country group speaks out against the Iraq invasion. The right wing hit squads move into action, whipping up a frenzy, trying to make them grovel. The usual stuff; “fans” burn records, radio stations refuse to play them. They even get death threats.

So what do the Dixie Chicks do? Come back even stronger, that’s what, saying anyone who thought they’d shut up is seriously wrong.  

From The Guardian;

“They have been called Saddam’s Angels and the Dixie Sluts, traitors and big mouths, all because they made a disparaging remark about President Bush at a concert in London last month.

Radio stations stopped playing their new CD and invited listeners to dump their old albums in rubbish bins and there have been death threats and calls to boycott their upcoming US tour.

Now the Texas-based Dixie Chicks are fighting back. They have posed for the cover of next week’s Entertainment Weekly cheerfully wearing nothing but the epithets they have attracted and vowing to continue to speak their minds.

“People think this’ll scare us and shut us up and it’s gonna do the opposite,” said Maines. “They just served themselves a huge headache.”

Bruce Springsteen said,

“The Dixie Chicks have taken a big hit lately for exercising their basic right to express themselves. To me, they’re terrific American artists expressing American values by using their American right to free speech. For them to be banished wholesale from radio stations, and even entire radio networks, for speaking out is un-American”.

“The pressure coming from the government and big business to enforce conformity of thought concerning the war and politics goes against everything that this country is about - namely freedom. Right now, we are supposedly fighting to create freedom in Iraq, at the same time that some are trying to intimidate and punish people for using that same freedom here at home”.

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ProtestRecords.com

“Protest-Records.com offers free MP3’s and stencils to share, not to sell.
 
www.protest-records.com (as curated by Thurston Moore and Chris Habib) exists for musicians, poets and artists to express LOVE + LIBERTY in the face of greed, sexism, racism, hate-crime and war.

FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT”

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Clinton helped Blair plot Iraq invasion politics

What, you thought Clinton was a peacenik? Not him, nor his wife, for that matter.

“Tony Blair took repeated secret advice from the former American president Bill Clinton on how to unlock the diplomatic impasse between Europe and the US in the build-up to the war on Iraq, the Guardian can reveal.”

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