Peace Garden: 05/01/2007

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called “Face” of the American anti-war movement. Especially since I renounced any tie I have remaining with the Democratic Party, I have been further trashed on such “liberal blogs” as the Democratic Underground. Being called an “attention whore” and being told “good riddance” are some of the more milder rebukes.
I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me.
The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a “tool” of the Democratic Party. This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our “two-party” system?
However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the “left” started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of “right or left”, but “right and wrong.”
I am going to take whatever I have left and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost. I will try to maintain and nurture some very positive relationships that I have found in the journey that I was forced into when Casey died and try to repair some of the ones that have fallen apart since I began this single-minded crusade to try and change a paradigm that is now, I am afraid, carved in immovable, unbendable and rigidly mendacious marble.
Camp Casey has served its purpose. It’s for sale. Anyone want to buy five beautiful acres in Crawford, Texas? I will consider any reasonable offer. I hear George Bush will be moving out soon, too…which makes the property even more valuable.
This is my resignation letter as the “face” of the American anti-war movement. This is not my “Checkers” moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources.
Good-bye America…you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.
It’s up to you now.

My heart goes out to this true hero.

There is no "two-party" system. That is clear after the latest cave-in to W. That is clear since this senseless war still continues.

Let's hope Cindy does not give up working outside the system. Or is she facing the reality that there is no hope for change - a reality I don't want to recognize myself?

End the War - a fitting Memorial Day event

Monday, May 28, 2007

If we tried before?

U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba

In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.
Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.
The documents show "the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up and approved plans for what may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government," writes Bamford.
The Joint Chiefs even proposed using the potential death of astronaut John Glenn during the first attempt to put an American into orbit as a false pretext for war with Cuba, the documents show.
Should the rocket explode and kill Glenn, they wrote, "the objective is to provide irrevocable proof … that the fault lies with the Communists et all Cuba [sic]."

Or even a plane flying in to a building? Sound far-fetched?

Clearly demonstrates that we should question everything. Look under every rock. Don't just take our "leaders" word for it. Look deeper. Look at all sources. Listen to those "conspiracy nuts." They may be on to something.

Godfather IV?

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

I always thought of this administration as The Stupids.

Meet the Stupids. Stanley (Tom Arnold) and Joan (Jessica Lundy) and their kids, Buster and Petunia. They're a nice, typical, suburban American family. Except for one thing. None of them has the sense God gave a lemon.

Covert action in Iran

So ABC News has reported that Black Ops are now operating in Iran (some of us knew this already). Question of the day:
If we call those trying to overthrow our nation "Terrorists", what do we call our troops and agents doing the same in a sovereign nation?

The dumbing down of the masses...

Gore , in his new book "The Assault on Reason," touches on a subject that I am incensed about...

In 2001, I had hoped it was an aberration when polls showed that three-quarters of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for attacking us on Sept. 11. More than five years later, however, nearly half of the American public still believes Saddam was connected to the attack.
At first I thought the exhaustive, nonstop coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial was just an unfortunate excess—an unwelcome departure from the normal good sense and judgment of our television news media. Now we know that it was merely an early example of a new pattern of serial obsessions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time: the Michael Jackson trial and the Robert Blake trial, the Laci Peterson tragedy and the Chandra Levy tragedy, Britney and KFed, Lindsay and Paris and Nicole.
While American television watchers were collectively devoting 100 million hours of their lives each week to these and other similar stories, our nation was in the process of more quietly making what future historians will certainly describe as a series of catastrophically mistaken decisions on issues of war and peace, the global climate and human survival, freedom and barbarity, justice and fairness. For example, hardly anyone now disagrees that the choice to invade Iraq was a grievous mistake. Yet, incredibly, all of the evidence and arguments necessary to have made the right decision were available at the time and in hindsight are glaringly obvious.
Those of us who have served in the U.S. Senate and watched it change over time could volunteer a response to Senator Byrd's incisive description of the Senate prior to the invasion: The chamber was empty because the Senators were somewhere else. Many of them were at fund-raising events they now feel compelled to attend almost constantly in order to collect money—much of it from special interests—to buy 30-second TV commercials for their next re-election campaign. The Senate was silent because Senators don't feel that what they say on the floor of the Senate really matters that much anymore—not to the other Senators, who are almost never present when their colleagues speak, and certainly not to the voters, because the news media seldom report on Senate speeches anymore.

Think about this as you are watching "Dancing with the Stars."

As Congress eases the pressure...

Bush could double force by Christmas

The Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops in Iraq this year, an analysis of Pentagon deployment orders showed Monday.
The little-noticed second surge, designed to reinforce U.S. troops in Iraq, is being executed by sending more combat brigades and extending tours of duty for troops already there.
The actions could boost the number of combat soldiers from 52,500 in early January to as many as 98,000 by the end of this year if the Pentagon overlaps arriving and departing combat brigades.

They're letting him off the hook by taking out timetables. It is not the time to ease up - it is time to increase the pressure. Especially when we hear talk about...
Iran's secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq

Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaida elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces intended to tip a wavering US Congress into voting for full military withdrawal, US officials say.
"Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq and it's a very dangerous course for them to be following. They are already committing daily acts of war against US and British forces," a senior US official in Baghdad warned. "They [Iran] are behind a lot of high-profile attacks meant to undermine US will and British will, such as the rocket attacks on Basra palace and the Green Zone [in Baghdad]. The attacks are directed by the Revolutionary Guard who are connected right to the top [of the Iranian government]."

The spin continues. The fingers continue to point. Now they are foretelling the future.

Let's get the troops out of Iraq now before W sends them over the border into Iran.

Speaking the truth

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Jimmy Carter Slams Bush Administration

President George W. Bush’s administration is “the worst in history” when it comes to international relations, former President Jimmy Carter said Friday, taking aim at the White House’s policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy.
The criticism from Carter, which a biographer says is unprecedented from the 39th president, also took aim at Bush’s environmental policies and the administration’s “quite disturbing” faith-based initiative funding.
Douglas Brinkley, a Tulane University presidential historian and Carter biographer, described Carter’s comments as unprecedented.
“This is the most forceful denunciation President Carter has ever made about an American president,” Brinkley said. “When you call somebody the worst president, that’s volatile. Those are fighting words.”

I think it is time that more have the conviction and strength to speak the truth. "Fighting words?" If we have to "fight" to end the war and end the destruction of our government then so be it.

We can do no wrong?

Conway Condemns Afghanistan Apology

The top Marine Corps officer took issue Thursday with statements made by Army commanders in Afghanistan that appeared to find fault with Corps special operations troops involved in a friendly-fire incident March 4.
Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway told reporters May 17 the recent statement made by a top Army commander in Afghanistan that the civilian deaths were a "stain on our honor" and a "terrible, terrible mistake" wasn't appropriate and did not factor in the presumption of innocence every service member enjoys.
"I would just as soon that no one - in any chain of command - apologize or talk about 'terrible, terrible mistakes' or those types of wrong doings," Conway said. "I think he was premature to apologize."

I think we need to apologize for a lot more - more often - sooner. It is never too "premature" to apologize when we are wrong. War is wrong - this war is wrong - all killing is wrong.

Falwell at the Pearly Gates

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The Baptist Standard in 2004 reported

(Jerry) Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchnurg, Va., responded: "I'd rather be killing them over there than fighting them over here, Jesse. And I think you would. ..."
"Let's stop the killing and choose peace," (Jesse) Jackson responded. "Let's choose negotiation over confrontation."
"Well, I'm for that too," Falwell added. "But you've got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops. And I'm for the president to chase them all over the world. If it takes 10 years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord."

So Jerry, you're up at the Pearly Gates and they're looking over your life. How are you explaining this statement away? The Devil made you say those words? I think you are in for one good tongue-lashing (if not a little more).

Passing the time...

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Bush Bash

An easy game to pass the time away and to feel good at the same time.

The Hippies Were Right!

Time To Give The Ol’ Tie-Dyers Some Respect

You know it’s true. All this hot enthusiasm for healing the planet and eating whole foods and avoiding chemicals and working with nature and developing the self? Came from the hippies. Alternative health? Hippies. Green cotton? Hippies. Reclaimed wood? Recycling? Humane treatment of animals? Medical pot? Alternative energy? Natural childbirth? Non-GMA seeds? It came from the granola types (who, of course, absorbed much of it from ancient cultures), from the alternative worldviews, from the underground and the sidelines and from far off the goddamn grid and it’s about time the media, the politicians, the culture as a whole sent out a big, wet, hemp-covered apology.
The core values and environmental groundwork laid by the ’60s counterculture are still so intact and potent even the stiffest neocon Republican has to acknowledge their extant power. It’s all right there: Treehugger.com is the new ’60s underground hippy zine. Ecstasy is the new LSD. Visible tattoos are the new longhairs. And bands as diverse as Pearl Jam to Bright Eyes to NIN to the Dixie Chicks are writing savage anti-Bush, anti-war songs for a new, ultra-jaded generation.
It was, always and forever, about connectedness. It was about how we are all in this together. It was about resisting the status quo and fighting tyrannical corporate/political power and it was about opening your consciousness and seeing new possibilities of how we can all live with something resembling actual respect for the planet, for alternative cultures, for each other. You know, all that typical hippie crap no one believes in anymore. Right?

"All in this together?" One thing is for sure, we will all pay the price for the senseless war, the pollution...So let's work together for peace and for a green world. Get out of your SUV, forget American Idol, don't worry about boxscores. It's time to get involved in saving this nation and planet.

Drums of war again?

Friday, May 11, 2007

Haven't been hearing too much about our upcoming conflict with Iran. Everyone has been either keeping the secret , burying it in back pages or more worried about Paris Hilton's stay in the clink. That is until...
On Carrier in Gulf, Cheney Issues Warning to Iran

Vice President Dick Cheney used the setting of an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf to deliver a stern message to Iran today, warning that the United States would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons or gain the upper hand in the Middle East.
“With two carrier strike groups in the Gulf, we’re sending clear messages to friends and adversaries alike,” he said, in a speech on board the U.S.S. John C. Stennis.
The United States “will stand with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region,” he said.

If we don't want the War in Iraq, what makes him think we want a War in Iran? Crawl back into your cave, Uncle Dick.

Terrorists Thwarted?

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Official: Radicals wanted to create carnage at Fort Dix

"The philosophy that supports and encourages jihad around the world against Americans came to live here in New Jersey and threaten the lives of our citizens through these defendants," New Jersey U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said at a news conference Tuesday.

Next thing we'll be instituting a color-coded terror alert system....ooops, been there, done that.

One week after the veto - how timely!

Let's read closely the closing lines of the article...

While authorities are glad to have arrested them, the individuals are "hardly hard-core terrorists," one law enforcement source said. Another source said that while the allegations are "troubling," they are "not the type that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up."

Who said that? Won't be employed too much longer. Those comments fly in the face of "they'll follow our troops home" logic. I'll bet we see many more arrests before the 4th of July. Have to justify "fear" and justify the war some how - even if we overstate some things a little.

Goin' Down to Baghdad

Antiwar Protest song by the Spicewood Seven of Austin, Texas; Music Video by famed italian post-realist director Antonio Zapanini

Interesting references to Oz:

I keep clicking my heels but the troops aren't home yet.
The scarecrow was in search of a brain but he was a love-able, nice character. Our scarecroW has no brain, no heart, no courage - and not a love-able creature at all.

Go for the gold, W!

Saturday, May 05, 2007

"...the definition of success as I described is 'sectarian violence down.' Success is not, 'no violence.' There are parts of our own country that have got a certain level of violence to it. But success is a level of violence where the people feel comfortable about living their daily lives."

That is what W recently said to Associated General Contractors of America.

Setting his sights very low, wouldn't you say. So this is the man many wanted as their leader - a man willing to accept a "D." Shouldn't we strive for peace - a total lack of violence, an absence of pain. Let's try for the ultimate and hope we achieve 90% of our goal. Isn't that what we are here on Earth for?