Judge blocks protesters from marching to West Point to protest Cheney, who will be speaking there tomorrow. The usual national security nonsense was cited as the reason.

Funny, they didn’t block us from protesting near the gate of the US Coast Guard Acaemy on Wednesday when Bush spoke there.  I guess Cheney must be extra-sensitive nowadays given that his poll ratings are even worse than Dubya’s. He well may be the most despised person in the government.

The protest, which is expected to draw thousands, will be gathering in a nearby town as planned and the protest and rally will happen, march or no march.

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Email from Patrick McElwee

The Venezuelan government has legally decided not to renew the broadcast license of a major TV network, Radio Caracas Television (RCTV). RCTV is overtly opposed to the government. That opposition included direct support for the 2002 military coup attempt against President Hugo Chavez.

[My Common Dreams] article also reveals that the policy people at Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Reporters Without Borders - all of whom have criticized the RCTV decision - cannot say that RCTV would get its license renewed in the United States or Europe.

No government anywhere would allow a TV network that had supported overthrowing them to continue to broadcast. Had this happened in, say, Britain, the same critics would no doubt be applauding the decision. Their anti-Chavez bias is showing.

The House and the Senate are likely to take up a measure today criticizing the Chavez government; the European Parliament passed a similar motion this morning, although a tiny fraction of the parliamentarians were in attendance; and the media is going to be all over this. RCTV goes off the air Sunday night.

Let’s get the word out about this in advance of the usual venomous right wing attacks on Venezuela for doing what any country would have done.

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HeadZup is back after a hiatus, and now delivers their patented zany political animations to email and rss as well as cell phones.

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This Saturday, May 26, 8:30 AM
Veterans Park on Main St.
Highland Falls NY, (adjacent to West Point)

ANSWER and dozens of other groups are mobilizing to protest Dick Cheney when he speaks at West Point on Saturday.

From the Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter

The protest is sponsored by the ad hoc West Point May 26th Organizing Committee, a coalition of 47 regional and national peace organizations. The demonstration is expected to be large.

Participants are encouraged to arrive by 8:30 a.m., but we suggest you aim for 8 a.m. Thousands of family members and guests of the graduating class will be traveling over local roads at the same time and delays are inevitable. Further, this will be a well-attended rally and parking space close to the rally site may fill up early. Other travel information is listed below.

The first rally will begin at 9 a.m., followed by a fairly brief 10 a.m. march through Highland Falls, passing in front of the Thayer Gate to West Point, which of course will be blocked by police on the town side and soldiers on the Academy grounds. The march will continue until returning to Veteran¹s Park for a second rally.

WestPointRally has more information, as does ANSWER.

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John Robb, author of Brave New War, in a Spot Report inteview

Remember, a major reason for 9/11 was to get the US into a guerrilla war in Asia and repeat the experience of Russia’s Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan war was a major factor in the collapse of the USSR, as the military and financial cost was overwhelming, and crippled them. In one of those bizarre twists of blowback, the CIA heavily funded mujahadeem (including bin Laden) to fight against the USSR in Afghanistan, only to have those battle-hardened veterans of combat morph into al Qaeda and other such groups years later.

Robb’s crucial point, and I believe al Qaeda has said it too, is that 9/11 was a deliberate attempt to sucker the US into a conflict that will drag down and bankrupt it. And Bush, arrogant twit that he is, walked right into the trap.

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Vermonters are starting to use Waste Vegetable Oil to make maple syrup rather than heating oil. It saves the environment as well as saving money.

But a bigger threat lurks. Canada now dominates the international maple syrup market. Could this be a looming national security issue for those of us who put maple syrup on everything? They’ll pry my maple syrup from my cold, sticky fingers.

(Ok, the real problem is that Vermont is more vulnerable to climate change than Canada, something which is already cutting down on maple syrup production in Vermont.)

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I have about 130 news and blog feeds in Google Reader. An RSS reader like this allows you to read multiple news sources in one place, a huge time saver. Tip: Use the keyboard shortcuts to save even more time.

You can share items by creating a link blog for others to read. This is also a great way to file stuff away for future reference. (To add to your link blog, just click the Share icon at the bottom of the post. Google will do the rest for you.)

Here’s my link blog. It’s a mixture of politics, tech, and whatever.

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