A DC judge yesterday in DC ruled that ANSWER protestors can not use sign holders because they might contain razor blades and thus could be a Horrible Hideous Menace. Republicans of course will be allowed to carry umbrellas. Further, the linear footage on the parade route in the ANSWER area was lowered to 120 feet while the Inauguration Committee gets over 5280 feet, more than one mile. Barricades and 7 foot barbed wire fences sprouted around the ANSWER area Monday night. The forces of repression are doing their best to scare people off and make things difficult.

However, it matters not what the Bushies, who underneath their strutting bluster are terrified of the people and terrified their war is going badly wrong, will do to block dissent. They won’t succeed. There’s been huge media interest in the coming ANSWER counter-inaugural protests this Thursday, the whole world is indeed watching.

From the national ANSWER office

D.C. Emergency Fundraising Appeal
Logistical and tactical update

It is a great but partial victory that we have secured an area for a mass assembly protest right along the inaugural parade route. The permitted site at 4th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW (north side) holds 10,000-20,000 people. We will be having a fired up, energetic event at the parade route, including music and a people’s speak out. This permitted demonstration space allows for a significant sound system as well as bleachers. There is no way that George Bush and the world media can ignore the antiwar movement right at the site of the inaugural parade route.

The National Park Service and the Secret Service have done everything in their power to stop this from happening, and even now they are imposing last minute restrictions and obstacles that have significantly increased the cost of our sound system and bleacher set up. At every turn the government has changed its story about what will be allowed. They have waited until the last possible moment to issue a permit. Since the permit is only obtained in hand now we have been forced to renegotiate the contract with sound and bleacher contractors.

We need to raise an additional $15,000 in the next 36 hours. We have been able to count on the generous contributions and donations of people who believe in the antiwar movement in the past. You can make a contribution through a secure server by clicking here, where you can also find information on how to contribute by check.

Here in LA, the ANSWER phone has been ringing constantly, and people are coming from several other states, something that has never happened before. We have permits for a rally and march at the Westwood Federal Building starting at 6 pm.

Some are calling for a do-nothing day in protest, others will turn their back on Bush as he travels the inauguration ruote. While these are laudable tactics, ANSWER believes more, much more, is needed. Get in the streets, get loud, and get vocal. The majority in the country now oppose the war. Indeed, the front page headline today in the LA Times says “Support of war hits new low.”  Let’s keep building on that and force the Bushies to end their vile wars for oil and power.

Jim Lafferty of the National Lawyers Guild said last night at the regular ANSWER volunteer meeting that he’s not sad that Bush won, because now imperialism, in all its arrogant ugliness, is out in plain view for the whole world to see. Even Ted Kennedy is using the term, and the Right wears it as a badge of honor. These may be dangerous times, however they also abound with opportunity to make a difference, a real difference.

But the change will only come by people getting in the streets. Be there.

The LA demo is 6 pm at the Westwood Federal Building. Volunteers, please be there by 5 pm.

And, you probably thought I was joking when I said a judge banned sign holders because protestors could put razor blades in them, right?

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US military admits they’ve lost in Iraq

U.S. military commanders increasingly believe that American troops will never entirely defeat Iraqi insurgents and now plan to reduce offensive operations and focus on training Iraqi security forces.

In other words, they’ve lost and want Iraqis to clean up the mess they created. Which might be a military solution, but the Bushies won’t allow that to happen. If the US leaves Iraq, then the US power base with control of the oil is gone. WAnd that was the entire reason for this illegal invasion and war in the first place.

Although operations last fall in such restive locales as Samarra, Fallouja and the northern part of Babil province were deemed successful, the subsequent surge in violence in previously placid cities such as Mosul — outside of which a suicide bomber killed 22 people at an American base Dec. 21 — has shown that the fighters are able to relocate to areas where the U.S. has fewer forces.

Well duh, this is called “guerilla warfare.” I guess they forgot the lessons of Vietnam where the same ignorant overconfidence led to their defeat.

This is evidence, officials said, that operations planned and executed by U.S. troops can never wipe out the insurgency.

So they plan to train Iraqis to do it? Just how will Iraqis be able to accomplish this? Answer, they won’t. Thus Iraq and the entire region will be destabilized with civil war and massive chaos now a given. Yet Bush wants to invade Iran now too.

See you in the streets tomorrow for the counter-inaugural protests.

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From Slugger O’Toole comes this “short ‘blog compendium’ of the latest crisis in Northern Ireland”, concerning allegations the IRA just pulled off a 22 million pound (40 million US) bank robbery, the biggest ever in the U.K.

Northern Bank raid and political fallout, so far

As yet, there is little sign of any tangible public evidence of IRA authorship of the raid arising. Nor indeed, any sign of a credible defence from Sinn Fein over the many questions raised by the crisis - not least its apparently anomalous position viz a viz law and order.

As reader James from Silicon Valley might put it: party on!

And of course, *someone* stole the money.

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US ’should not rule out torture’

The outgoing head of the US Department of Homeland Security has said torture may be used in certain cases in order to prevent a major loss of life.

Speaking to the BBC, Tom Ridge said the US did not condone the use of torture to extract information from terrorists.

But he said that under an “extreme set” of hypothetical circumstances, such as a nuclear threat, “it could happen”.

A spokesman for Mr Ridge said his comments were taken out of context and did not amount to approval of torture.`

Saying you approve of torture sometimes IS condoning torture. Lordy, do these idiots EVER tell the truth or are they so deluded they no longer know or care what it is.

From Amnesty International, this is what the Bushies are about.

Guantánamo – an icon of lawlessness

On 11 January 2005, the Guantánamo prison will enter its fourth year. In its more than 1,000 days of executive detentions, Guantánamo has become a symbol of a government’s attempt to put itself above the law. The example it sets is of a world where basic human rights are negotiable rather than universal. Such a world, although built in the name of national security, is dangerous to us all.

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Forwarded by a friend who lived in Indonesia for fifteen years.

You all know how much the people of Aceh have suffered from the  earthquake and tsunami of 26 December 2004. As of 30 December 2004, the  death toll in Aceh is estimated at 80,000 lives lost. Yet, in the midst  of this suffering, the breaking news from international media yesterday  and today is that Indonesian armed forces are continuing their military  operations in Aceh. Rather than helping the people, in a number of  areas, the troops are intimidating villagers, scaring them away from  their villages and then looting their homes, and in several cases,  killing alleged separatists who are not armed.

If you are concerned about this situation where more abuses and  hardships  are being inflicted on a population that is already suffering, please  sign  the petition ‘Stop all military operations in Aceh!.’

Please tell other concerned friends about this petition.

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