The aim is not just one more demonstration but the largest antiwar demonstration in US history.

A mobilization of one million people marching on Washington DC would be the best possible trigger for an avalanche of grassroots organizing throughout the country and among service members and their families and veterans. It is time for something bold and broad. Something that sends an unmistakable message to the powers that be that the people of the United States have entered the field of politics in such a way as to become an irresistible force.

Each group and movement should maintain its political independence. Each group can inscribe on its banners a variety of slogans or ideas or demands but what will allow us to unite for the largest mobilization of all the people is the simple unifying demand. Whatever differences that exist between groups, and there are many and they are important, are not sufficient justification for preventing us from coming together in a show of force that will change the direction of this country. The lives of too many people, all victims of a criminal war, are too precious for our movement to tolerate anything that prevents us from reaching our potential to end the war in Iraq. With determination, maturity and mutual respect our diverse anti-war movement can unite.

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Barack Obama says “we must not rule out using military force” against Iran and Syria, and both the Army and Marines will need substantially more troops. But he promises to bully less and listen more. Whatever that means. An allegedly kinder, gentler imperialism under president Obama still means invading other countries. I’m sure someone in Iran whose home is blown up by assault helicopters will appreciate his promise to listen more.

Of course it wouldn’t be kinder and gentler at all, and his policy is no different from that of Bush for any country that would be invaded.

“People around the world have heard a great deal of late about freedom on the march,” Obama writes. “Tragically, many have come to associate this with war, torture, and forcibly imposed regime change.”

Golly, now why would anyone think that? Rather than deal with the root cause, an invasion based on lies, Obama instead ignores it, promising trust me instead, even as he supports future invasions.

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Bees aren’t vanishing. Yes, there’s a problem, but it’s not nearly as problematic as thought. First off, it’s only with one species of bee, and there’s no reason to believe that species will die off. Evn if it did, no biggee. Also, there’s no hard numbers on how many have died and such die-offs have happened before, and the bees came back.

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Not that anything else should be expected from him.

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From Backspace

Kremlin, Inc.. “There is no censorship — it’s much more advanced. I would call it a system of contacts and agreements between the Kremlin and the heads of television networks. There is no need to start every day with instructions. It is all done with winks and nods. They meet at the end of the week, and the problem, for TV and even in the printed press, is that self-censorship is worse than any other kind. Journalists know — they can feel — what is allowed and what is not.” Boy does that sound familiar.

This is what Chomsky calls “manufacturing consent.” A self-muzzling press, or one that takes on the values of the ruling class, doesn’t need the the threat of overt censorship to remain compliant.

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Classical music, as witness this fist fight at the Boston Pops.

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