Democracy for New Mexico

Guest Blog: May Day, May Day, The Kids Are Not Alright

Caution: Very graphic in some sections

This is a video guest blog by Brian Fejer of Albuquerque:
The kids are not alright! Walked through UNM Campus on May Day with my ghetto blaster blasting the What Really Happened Lies mp3 (see above video). You could cut the apathy with a knife. Short of a draft, it seems not much can reach these kids.

The pre-emptive Iraq 'War' protestors, were right. The Pro Iraq 'War' supporters are still dead wrong. I remember in the days before the invasion of Iraq protesting on the UNM Campus, and how most of my friends, family, and fellow students wouldn't be caught dead at a antiwar demonstration. On the day of the 2003 student walkout as protesters snaked through campus, doubling and tripling the size of the march, even going through school buildings chanting stand up, walk out, I recall the terrified looks of students cowering in their classrooms. When the war in Iraq started, UNM was on Spring break, and most UNM students never realized the brutality of the APD Police Riot. Four years later, these kids would still rather be on their ipods!

The other day US Marines were on campus recruiting with a rock climbing wall. I walked up to them and asked if they were still hunting down Nine Eleven Conspirator Osama Bin Laden. They just shrugged. I've written scores of letters to the Daily Lobo about Iraq, the tyranny of signing statements and the Military Commisions Act, torture, but you just can't shake this generation. Maybe they are just desensitized from the video games and the corporate media? Land of the Free, Home of the Brave: I'm not so sure anymore, I do what I can. I'm working on a one man show called Post American. It depicts the horrors of war you don't see in the Albuquerque Journal!

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Brian Fejer. You can see other examples of his videos on his YouTube channel under Post American. Warning: many are graphic and disturbing, like the war itself. Guest blogs provide our readers with an opportunity to express their opinions on political issues and don't necessarily represent our views. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper right-hand corner of our main page.

Using the Iraq Supplemental to Steal Iraqi Oil

Today's must read: Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone's article, Pelosi's New Iraq Supplemental Is Outright Colonial Robbery. Excerpt:

Saddam Hussein rips off Iraqi people, America "liberates" said people from Saddam, then bludgeons them with Saddam's debts until they hand over the keys to the oil industry. Nice deal, yes?

The proposed Hydrocarbon Law is a result of pressure from the American government on the Iraqis to draft an oil policy that would adhere to the IMF guidelines. It allows foreign companies to take advantage of Iraqi oil fields by allowing regions to pair up with foreigners using what are known as "production-sharing agreements" or PSAs, which guarantee investing companies large shares of the profits for decades into the future. The law also makes it impossible for the Iraqi state to regulate levels of oil production (seriously undermining OPEC), allows oil companies to repatriate profits, and would also allow companies to hire foreign workers to man facilities. Add all the measures up and the Hydrocarbon law not only takes control of the oil industry away from the Iraqi state, but virtually guarantees that the state will profit very little from future oil exploitation.

... let's just say this about the Democratic Party. They can wash their hands of this war as much as they want publicly, but their endorsement of this crude neocolonial exploitation plan makes them accomplices in the occupation, and further legitimizes the insurgency. It is hard to argue with the logic of armed resistance to U.S. forces in Iraq when both American parties, representing the vast majority of the American voting public, endorse the same draconian plan to rob the country's riches. This isn't a situation in which there's going to be a better deal down the road, after Bush gets thrown out of office. Looking at it from that point of view, peaceful cooperation with the Americans is therefore probably impossible for any patriotic Iraqi; the economic consequences are too severe.

Taking Back Mother's Day for Peace

From Brave New Foundation, CodePink and No More Victims: Brave New Foundation launched a new short viral video in honor of Mother’s Day featuring actresses Felicity Huffman, Vanessa Williams, Alfre Woodward, Christine Lahti and feminist icon Gloria Steinem, as well as two Muslim women, Fatma Saleh and Ashraf Salimian. The video celebrates the original meaning of Mother’s Day, founded during the Civil War as a call upon women to unite for peace in the name children everywhere. The video is being distributed virally over the internet by Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Foundation via You Tube in partnership with a large coalition of groups including the Unitarian Universalists, SEIU, Soldiers of Yesterday and Tomorrow, National Organization for Women (NOW), Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools, United For Peace and Justice and others.

In 1870, after the devastation of the American Civil War, social activist and poet Julia Ward Howe wrote the original Mother's Day Proclamation calling upon the women of the world to unite for peace. This Mother's Day, celebrate the true meaning of the holiday by giving your mother an e-card with a donation to No More Vicims. No More Victims is a non-profit organization which brings war-injured Iraqi children to the United States for medical treatment. Learn more at MothersDayForPeace.com.

Contributions made through the site will go to help bring Salee, a ten-year-old girl who lost both of her legs in the Iraq war, to Greenville, South Carolina where she will receive surgical treatment and prosthetics.

On November 7, 2006, ten-year-old Salee was playing outside her home in Hasswa, Iraq with her brother, cousin and some friends when US jets circled overhead. Suddenly the jets fired three missiles, apparently at two passenger vehicles. One of the missiles hit Salee's home, killing her brother and taking both of Salee's legs.

Domenici Subpoenaed ... Again

This time in the local Elevator Nine trial. New Mexico FBIHOP has . See our previous post for background on this case, including links to a Common Dreams article by one of the demonstrators and to a relevant Pax Christi NM website.

Edwards' Iraq Ad: I Like It

I encourage you to visit JohnEdwards.com/WeThePeople/ and donate a few bucks to keep this ad on the air. I just did. You can also upload a clip of yourself stating your We The People opinion on Iraq for use in the online version of the ad. Edwards definitely seems to be staking out one of the strongest bring-the-troops-home-now Iraq war positions of the prez candidates (along with Richardson and Kucinich). Thank goodness someone is. Our House and Senate Dems need a constant push to keep up the fight. Right after Bush's veto of the war funding bill, rumors of "compromising" with Bush about a firm deadline popped up everywhere. Let's encourage our Dems stand their ground!

Four Years Ago Today: Mission Accomplished

From Digital Museum of Modern Art

Today is the fourth anniversary of Bush's declaration of Mission Accomplished in the Iraq war. Think Progress has the depressing numbers on what's happened in Iraq since that day. Senate Democrats provide data on what the war has meant for New Mexico and other states.

is running the above TV ad now that Bush has vetoed the Iraq supplemental bill.

Mr. President, you can veto a bill but you can't . Call Bush at 202-456-111.

Recalling what happened four years ago, Media Matters reports:

On May 1, 2003, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln aboard an S-3B Viking jet, emerged from the aircraft in full flight gear, and proceeded to "press[] flesh," as The Washington Post put it, as he shook hands and hugged crew members in front of the cameras. Later that day, Bush delivered a nationally televised speech from the deck of the Abraham Lincoln in which he declared that "[m]ajor combat operations in Iraq have ended," all the while standing under a banner reading: "Mission Accomplished." Despite lingering questions over the continued violence in Iraq, the failure to locate weapons of mass destruction, and the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein, as well as evidence that Bush may have shirked his responsibilities in the Texas Air National Guard (TANG) during the Vietnam War, the print and televised media fawned over Bush's "grand entrance" and the image of Bush as the "jet pilot" and the "Fighter Dog."

Juan Cole has a commentary in links. Now even Republicans are talking about benchmarks for any future war funding bills. Here are the endorsements of five retired generals for the Iraq funding bill.

Sign Up for Wednesday's MoveOn Veto Rally

From Terry Riley: I am hosting an Albuquerque rally for MoveOn at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, May 2nd, at San Mateo and Montgomery to speak out against Bush's VETO of the military funding bill. Please RSVP now by clicking . I would like to see a really large turn out.

If people can come early, I will be there before 4:30 PM and plan to stay through 6:30 PM. Come as soon as you can and stay as long as you can! There is plenty of parking in the Albertson's parking lot on the SW corner. I will have many signs but please feel free to bring your own signs, LARGE!

Mission (Not) Accomplished: 4 Years Ago and Counting

From Robert Greenwald and the Brave New Foundation:
It's almost May 1st. Who can forget the so-called "Mission Accomplished" from four years ago? Who can forget the pomp and circumstance, the primping and posturing in a staged photo-op built on the backs of those destroyed by the war. The mission has not been accomplished. In honor of all those who have been killed, whose lives have been destroyed in this terrible war of choice, we have been working hard on a short film that will not let that horrific day go unnoticed.  Watch the film and spread it far and wide: see above or visit Tell Us The Mission.

We've also got a contest looking for what SHOULD have been on the "mission accomplished" banner. Submit your banner and the winning one will be on car bumpers all over the country! (You'll get some cool stuff too) For more details, and to enter:

https://tellusthemission.org/home/win

The spoken word performance in the video was done by a wonderfully talented young man, Steven Connell, who's been in feature films on HBO, Showtime and MTV. He is a strong, creative, and articulate voice in reaching a young and diverse audience. We are grateful for his time and effort, and to Norman Lear who first found and called Steven to the attention of a wider audience.

Just days before this video and website was to go online, an American soldier serving in Afghanistan wrote an op-ed which has since stirred up a national debate. The soldier questioned why we do not lower the flag to half-staff when a soldier dies at war. We at Brave New Foundation were so inspired by his question that we decided to begin a petition to amend the US Flag Code.

Sign the petition to have flags lowered for a day each time an American service member dies at war:

https://tellusthemission.org/

Please forward this on far and wide -- to your friends, schools, churches, to any local television or radio. We must not let this day go unnoticed. We must make our voices and passions heard.

Robert Greenwald and the Brave New Foundation team
https://www.robertgreenwald.org/

Online Videos by Veoh.com
Tom Haden: Stop the Iraq War

Journalism = Transcription

Did you see Bill Moyers' new PBS special last night? If you did, you know how disturbing it was to witness the media's cowardice and the administration's lies dissected and put on display in such a compelling manner. If you didn't, you need to make a point to see it and encourage your family, friends, neighbors and colleagues to do the same. You can watch the video or read the transcript of the program here.

Most of us will recognize the facts Moyers' compiled on how too many were lured into buying BushCo's lies and propaganda, but to see everything organized and communicated chronologically is powerful indeed. With the myriad of horrors produced by Bush and his cronies, it's easy to forget just how blatantly and dishonestly the case for war was made, and just how nonchalantly and obediently the mainstream media served as BushCo's uncritical transcription service and megaphone.

One segment to watch for is about the reentry of the UN inspectors into Iraq right before the invasion, and how the results of their profoundly thorough investigation, which turned up nothing in terms of WMD or nukes, was dismissed and ignored -- and still is today.

David Sirota does a great job of summarizing the show's exposure of the mainstream media's inside the Beltway laziness and arrogance. Excerpt:

In interview after interview after interview, we hear top journalists and opinionmakers declare that they believe journalism is no longer about basic, hard-scrabble reporting or getting scoops. As the Washington Post's Walter Pincus says, most reporters today actually try to avoid getting scoops because they "worry about sort of getting out ahead of something" and - gasp! - making their friends inside Official Washington mad at them. So rather than, say, do the real work of reporting news, journalism has become a profession that is almost entirely about PR, transcription and packaging Establishment spin for news copy. This is why, for example, many of the highest-profile political "journalists" like Joe Klein and David Broder never bother to actually report anything anymore - but instead spend most of their time pontificating on horse race polls and campaign gossip, expecting us to believe that's real "news."

... Moyers, channeling a fantastic piece by Jebediah Reed in Radar Magazine, notes that most of the people who regurgitated the Washington Establishment's debunked case for war have actually been rewarded with even more prominent positions in the media. And while these desperate-for-attention media icons like Bill Kristol and Tom Friedman are happy to throw themselves in front of cameras for almost any opportunity to promote themselves, they categorically refused to talk to Moyers for his PBS special.

And Glenn Greenwald takes on "our failed and barren press" in no uncertain terms while revealing how nothing has changed with the mainstream media outlets since their spectacular failures during the run-up to the war. Excerpt:

For those who have been following these issues, there was no single, specific blockbuster revelation that was not previously known, although Moyers' focus on the superb (and largely ignored) pre-war work of Real Journalists at Knight-Ridder (now at McClatchy) does cast a new light on the profound malfeasance of our most influential media outlets.

... the documentary is -- in one sense -- a very valuable historical account of the corrupt behavior by our dominant political and media institutions which deceived the country into the invasion of Iraq. But on another, more significant level, it illustrates the corruption that continues to propel our political and media culture.

Just consider that, as Moyers notes, there has been no examination by any television news network of the role played by the American media in enabling the Bush administration and its warmonger propagandists to disseminate pure falsehoods to the American public. People like Eric Boehlert have written books about it, and Moyers has now produced a comprehensive PBS program documenting it. But the national media outlets themselves have virtually ignored this entire story -- arguably the most significant political story of the last decade -- because they do not think there is any story here at all.

Also be sure to check out Tom Tomorrow's cartoon on what the pundits slash faux journalists were saying before the war. Unfortunately, the media travesties mostly continue. Welcome back, Bill Moyers. His new series, Bill Moyers' Journal, will be aired Friday nights on PBS (KNME) at 9:00 PM.

Happy Springtime (Bush Is Over)

Music video presented by JTMP.org and performed by Op-Critical featuring the Harmonic Angels. Please see BushIsOver.org , www.A28.org, and AfterDowningStreet.org to be a part of this rebirth movement.

Iraq Coalition CasualtiesIraq Casualty Count: U.S. Troop Deaths 3,333 (85 this month). U.S. Non-Mortal Casualties 26,188. Untold Iraqi Security Force and Civilian Wounded and Dead. War in Iraq Costs: $420,320,000,000 and counting.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich has introduced articles of impeachment against Cheney. Learn more.

A28 impeachment events everywhere on Saturday. Find one near you: https://www.a28.org

Also visit: https://www.impeach07.org

Impeachment Put on Table at Capitol Today
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2007-04-25 23:15.

At noon today a distinguished group of public elected officials, prominent voices of conscience, actors and artists, and military families gathered in front of the U.S. Capitol to call for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

With debate sharpening between Congress and administration over including withdrawal dates from Iraq in the Supplemental Spending Bill, today's press conference continued the growing momentum against the Bush Administration. Dennis Kucinich, having filed an impeachment resolution Tuesday against Vice President Cheney appeared at today's press conference and said that yesterday the press said he was alone in calling for impeachment. Today standing together with the 100 of us gathered in front of the Capitol, he declared that he is not alone, he is standing with the people for impeachment.

Among today's speakers were Mayor Rocky Anderson (Salt Lake City); Pultizer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges; Daniel Ellsberg; Cindy Sheehan; World Can't Wait Director, Debra Sweet; The Nation correspondent, John Nichols; co-founder of Afterdowningstreet.org, David Swanson; and Washington State legislator, Eric Oemig.

Several speakers brought out the full array of crimes of the Bush Administration. Chris Hedges said: "The President is guilty, in short, of what in legal circles is known as the "crime of aggression." And, if we as citizens do not hold him accountable for these crimes, if we do not begin the process of impeachment, we will be complicit in the codification of a new world order, one that will have terrifying consequences."