Life, Love, and Liberty

Tells it like it is:

First of all, I’m just amazed they can’t figure out, the Republicans are worried we can’t pay for insuring an additional 10 million children. They sure don’t care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where ya gonna get that money? You going to tell us lies like you’re telling us today? Is that how you’re going to fund the war? You don’t have money to fund the war or children. But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement. This bill would provide healthcare for 10 million children and unlike the President’s own kids, these children can’t see a doctor or receive necessary care. [...]

But President Bush’s statements about children’s health shouldn’t be taken any more seriously than his lies about the war in Iraq. The truth is that Bush just likes to blow things up. In Iraq, in the United States and in Congress.

Of course, this kind of reality check is not welcomed by everyone in the allegedly “anti- Iraq War” Congress, so Nancy Pelosi had to step in to offer the following:

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rebuked a fellow San Francisco Bay-area liberal Friday for what she said were “inappropriate” comments about Iraq during a congressional debate.
During a debate on children’s health care Thursday, Rep. Pete Stark accused Republicans of sending troops to Iraq to “get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement.”

Condemnations rolled in from Republican politicians, right-leaning bloggers had a field day, and a White House spokesman declined to “dignify those remarks” with a response.

Pelosi issued a statement Friday evening rapping Stark, who is in his 18th term representing the liberal East Bay. He’s California’s longest-serving House members.

“While members of Congress are passionate about their views, what Congressman Stark said during the debate was inappropriate and distracted from the seriousness of the subject at hand—providing health care for America’s children,” Pelosi said.

I don’t think there are adequate words in the English language to describe how angry I am with the Democrats in Congress. They are complete partisans of the imperial project with only a few notable exceptions. And people will go to the polls in 2008 with the intent of voting for Clinton or Obama, or whichever militaristic candidate — and I’ll be pretty shocked if somebody like Kucinich gets it — gets the nomination. They will expect some kind of end to the slaughter and they will be entirely going about it the wrong way.

To any Democratic friends of peace reading this, please don’t vote at all, or if you must try to elect a Democrat, then choose somebody like Kucinich who has admirably stood up to the warfare state like virtually no other members of Congress have.

To the left-libertarians reading this, I know the guy is advocating government health insurance rather than something delightfully anarchistic like mutual aid societies combined with systemic overhaul, but he does let the Republicans know that being opposed to big government spending also means not starting trillion dollar wars.

And I do believe that stolen money is better spent insuring sick children living in the context of a statist tainted healthcare market rather than on killing Iraqis.

Compliments to the fiery Chris Floyd for alerting me to this story.

The next quarterly fundraising drive for Antiwar.com is upon us, so be sure to consider making a donation.

Also, for anyone wondering where the 70,000 dollars goes, it would be a good idea to take a look at the Who we Are part of the site. They have a list of advisors, researchers and other folks who might be paid for their efforts. I can’t verify it for you, so it’s just a speculation.

I quote a story that appeared in Next Left Notes below:

Berwyn, IL - November 2, 2007. Over 70 students participated in a sit-in against the Iraq War on All Saint’s Day, Thursday, November 1st. It began third hour when dozens of students gathered quietly in the lunchroom at Morton West High School and refused to leave. The administrators and police became involved immediately and locked down the school for a half hour after class ended. Students report that they were promised that there would be no charges besides cutting classes if they took their protest outside so as not to disturb the school day. The students complied, and were led to a corner outside the cafeteria where they sang songs and held signs while classes resumed.

Despite a police line set up between the protestors and the student body, many other students joined the demonstration. Organizers say they chose November first because it is the Christian holy day called the feast of All Saints and a national day of peace. They wrote a letter and delivered it to Superintendent, Dr. Ben Nowakowski who was present at the time, stating the reason for their protest.

Deans, counselors and even the Superintendent tried to change the minds of a few, mainly those students with higher GPA scores to abandon the protest. The school called the homes of many of the protestors. Those whose parents arrived before the end of school and took their students home, or left before the protest ended at the final bell, received 3-5 days suspension. All others, an estimated 37 received 10 days suspension and expulsion papers. Parents report that Nowakowski stated those who are seventeen will also face police charges.

Parents who are frantically trying to spare their child’s expulsion flooded the school yesterday to file appeals on the matter. So far, Superintendent Nowakowski has held firm on the punishments. They are expected to find out the results of the appeals on Tuesday. Parents and students report and the school’s videotape shown to some of the parents confirms that the students were non-violent in their action and there was no damage to property.

The protest came on the heels of a recent incident on October 15th, when a student reported hearing that another student had a gun on campus. The story of the eyewitness was deemed unreliable and the school was not locked down. Later that week (October 19), the Berwyn police, acting on a tip arrested one of the youths originally questioned for gun possession and he allegedly confessed to carrying an unloaded semi-automatic handgun that day. All these issues, plus the expected announcement of whether uniforms will be established in the school should make the next Board of Education meeting on Wednesday at 7:00pm at the Morton East campus very well-attended.

See the link below for the Superintendent’s statement on the matter:
http://www.jsmortonhs.com/news/contentview.asp?i=203515

For letters or phone calls of support, please see information below:

Dr. Ben Nowakowski, Superintendent
District 201
2423 South Austin, Cicero, IL 60804
bnowakowski@jsmorton.org
(708) 222-5702

Mr. Lucas, Principal
Morton West High School
2400 S. Home Ave.
Berwyn, IL 60402
jlucas@west.jsmorton.org
708-222-5901

Mr. Jeffry Pesek, President
Board of Education, District 201
3145 South 55th Avenue
Cicero, IL 60804
708-802-1863

For the rest of the Board Members see:
http://www.jsmortonhs.com/board/default.asp?c=4867

For parent contact:
Pam Winstead 708-749-3163, serp@comcast.net

Alma Moran 708-717-4202, qtalmita@yahoo.com

Adam Szwarek 847-587-8849, tsq9743@aol.com

Chicago Indymedia: http://chicago.indymedia.org/

There has been a petition put together, so please sign it. It’s available at this link.

Also, check out one of Arthur Silber’s passionate posts on the issue here.

Observing the unspeakable death and destruction engulfing Iraq from afar is a strange experience. I can read the latest headlines on Antiwar.com, or even watch a video with footage of civilian casualties, but the reality of the situation is still not completely real to me. Nothing I’ve experienced in my life can match what many Iraqi individuals have suffered as a result of the murderous actions of the American state, and various jihadists who promise them “liberty” in the guise of an Islamic state. It’s hard for me to entirely understand what it’s like to live a day in Iraq.

Iraqi inhabitants face fears and anxieties related to potential death that I simply don’t because of my far more comfortable existence. What is it like to wonder whether you will be randomly killed at a military checkpoint on the way to work in the morning? Or that your child will suffer death via mortar fire? Such are the questions that occupy the attention of countless individuals caught up in the slaughterhouse that Iraq has become.

It truly makes me realize just how precarious human existence really is. The comfort of being able to wake up the next day without being grateful that an artillery shell didn’t rip apart your household is something I take for granted. I don’t go to sleep at night with much in the way of thoughts except “oh; how terribly fatigued I am” or “I wish I was caught up in some wild sexual fantasy in San Francisco”. The latter thought being a possibility is entirely dependent upon the peace and liberty for which so many have striven in human history, yet so few have actually ended up experiencing.

I call upon those fortunate enough to find some enclave of liberty or beacon of happiness in this world to grasp it and never let it go. Let liberty be your shining light! The political value that provides the context for you to truly pursue your dreams in life; whether they be performing at that live musical show you always wanted to, or studying the game collection of your favorite grandmaster of chess, or being reunited with someone who you love dearly, after far too long of a separation.

To Life; the fountainhead — Randians nod their heads in approval here — of it all!

To Love; the feeling that underlies the most joyful acts of sexual intimacy.

To Liberty; the political value that provides the context to happily pursue joy and love in life.

“In memory of

Munir’s mother

Munir’s sister, 8

Munir’s infant brother, Abdul Haq, buried alive

killed and wounded in the late afternoon of December 1, 2001

in the mountain village of Kama Ado (Madoo), 40 kms south of Jalalabad in the Tor mountains. It was Ramadan. Munir, 12, recalled, “We heard the voice of planes and we went outside to see what was happening. A bomb landed on our home. There weren’t Taliban or Arabs with us. For nothing they dropped bombs here.” After the first U.S bomb exploded, Munir’s mother and 8-year-old sister were dead. His infant brother, Abdul Haq, was buried alive. Relatives spotted the boy’s foot sticking out of a mound of dirt and dug him out. The U.S. war planes returned three times; destroying all 30 mud brick homes in Kama Ado and killing at 55-150 loved ones. Many bodies were too damaged to be recognized. In April 2003, Munir told a visiting journalist, “Before it was good here. The people and my father worked on the land. Life was better than it is now. We have lost everything.” Munir’s father, Shingul, 55, now raising four surviving children alone, tried to talk about his late wife and daughter but could only turn away and weep.

B-52’s dropped bombs on a string of mountain villages including Kama Ado

If this account is true, then there doesn’t seem to be any legitimate military — from the “rules of engagement” that the armed forces use — reason to be dropping bombs. My guess is that air strikes are used as a way of carrying out collective punishment, the area is considered a “free fire zone”, or there was just a bloodthirsty desire to kill any Afghans.

They might have hit insurgents in some of the other villages.”

This account is from The Afghan Victim Memorial and raises some disturbing questions about the use of airpower in Afghanistan.

If this account is true, then there doesn’t seem to be any legitimate military — from the “rules of engagement” that the armed forces use — reason to be dropping bombs. My guess is that air strikes are used as a way of carrying out collective punishment, the area is considered a “free fire zone”, or there was just a bloodthirsty desire to kill any Afghans.

They might have hit insurgents in some of the other villages.

In the event of an aggressive war on Iran, a number of people have pledged to engage in protest. I am highlighting the petition that individuals have been signing below:

To: All Friends Of Peace And Progress
Preamble.

The Bush regime lied knowingly, openly and repeatedly in order to
justify waging aggressive war against Iraq and its subsequent occupation.
Hence, its current propaganda campaign attempting to demonize and justify
war with Iran has no credibility and is a source of great concern.

Past US governments are guilty of a long series of assaults on Iran.
In 1954, the democratically elected government of Iran was overthrown by a
CIA sponsored coup, introducing 26 years of brutal dictatorship under the
Shah - and lucrative concessions for American oil companies. From 1980 to
1988, the US government financed Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi aggression against
Iran, resulting in a million Iranian casualties and costing them $350
billion. Today, having invaded and occupied its neighbors, the US
government has a quarter million combat soldiers and mercenaries stationed
on both Iran’s eastern and western borders and three aircraft carrier led
naval battle groups lurking off Iran’s coast. Daily the Bush regime
regales the public with accusations against Iranian leadership and sponsors
sanctions against them while refusing to talk to them. Reports of current
US military incursions into Iran and attempts to destabilize Iranian
society are consistent with past US government activities.

Oblivious to domestic and world opinion and to international law, the
war criminal Bush regime conspires to instigate a pretext to attack Iran
again. It is their clear intent. We have seen this before.

Pledge.

We, the undersigned, will not further acquiesce to military aggression
against other nations by the Bush regime. In the event of an attack by US
military forces against the nation of Iran, we pledge to oppose that
aggression by our active participation in a campaign of mass non-violent
resistance, including civil disobedience, with the express intent of
impeding further aggression.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The link to the peitition is here.

The quarterly Antiwar.com fund raising drive is upon us, so I am doing my customary post that urges people to consider donating towards the site’s continued existence. It’s a wonderful resource when it comes to keeping up with U.S. foreign policy and other international affairs. I visit it on a daily basis to keep myself informed about the happenings in Iraq, Afghanistan, and so forth. I urge people to consider sending any amount of money that they can afford. The site has several ways of making donations, so you have a good chance of finding a payment method that works for you.

I was feeling increasingly pessimistic about the prospects of warding off the potential campaign of mass murder being planned against Iran, yet a post by Arthur Silber led me to realize that there might still be hope.

To quote the post:

Perhaps people think that nothing they do at this point can alter what seems close to inevitable. It may be that even large-scale, continuing public protest would change nothing — but we don’t know that. Since it hasn’t been tried, it is impossible to predict what the effects might be. And permit me to offer a recent example, an instance where activism on the part of a large number of “ordinary” Americans did in fact change an outcome of some significance.

In terms of substance, I view the example as a profoundly unfortunate one, for it has to do with the defeat of the immigration bill. I viewed that bill as a terrible one, but for reasons directly opposed to those offered by its loudest opponents — for their opposition was obviously racist in nature. Of course, they denied their objections were racist, but they all finally resorted to discussions of “demographics,” and what they viewed as terrifying changes in our “culture” and to “way of life.” Such coded words fool no one, and this kind of viciously disapproving attitude toward immigrants has a long and awful history in the United States.

But with regard to the following observations, I am not concerned with why opponents of the immigration bill fought it so vehemently: I am focused only on the fact that they opposed it so strenuously, and that their opposition had the intended effect. I’ve mentioned that I listen to far too much talk radio, in part because I don’t have television. I listened to a number of conservative talk radio shows during both recent periods when the immigration bill came up for consideration: Limbaugh, Hannity, Al Rantel here in Los Angeles, Mark Levin, and several others. On both occasions, all of the shows talked about the immigration bill all the time. They discussed what they viewed as its inevitable awful results, why it was “unAmerican,” how it would destroy our country, and included the other standard rightwing talking points on this subject.

And they all did something else: they told their listeners to call and email people in Congress, and to call and email various Republican organizations, including the Republican National Committee, and to take all these actions repeatedly. They provided phone numbers and email addresses, and they indicated the general message that should be conveyed. They didn’t do this only once in one show: they did it throughout their shows, on every show, for over a week both times. The message was unceasing and unrelenting. It was repeated over and over and over. You couldn’t listen to one of the major conservative talk shows without hearing it within five minutes of tuning in. It went on all the time.

One part of the message deserves particular note, and all of the shows I heard made the same point: they condemned those Republicans, including Bush, who supported the bill without mercy. They told people to inform the RNC and all the appropriate Congressmen and Senators that they would receive no further support of any kind, including financial support, unless the bill was defeated. In their view, support of the bill was a betrayal of core conservative principles. They therefore maintained that any such alleged “conservatives” did not deserve to be in office. As one, they said that these betrayers of the conservative faith should not hold power any longer — and that the principles they believed were imperiled were more important than the continuation in power by the Republican party.

Why not encourage a similar campaign when it comes to the Democratic base? Or anyone who is concerned about the prospect of military action against Iran. The idea would be to try planning some kind of sustained series of mass emailing, postal mailing, and phone calling days. It would be even better to see if enough people could be convinced to do these types of actions on a daily basis. I’ve decided to speak to as many individuals as I can in an effort to get them to take part in the above. I’ll ask them to speak to as many people as they can and see if some kind of chain reaction could be sparked. I also intend to devote more blogging time to the issue, so I can reach those who are not already convinced of the need to deter such an attack. I am asking anybody else reading this to do the same. It may be possible to deter the gang in Washington from another act of aggressive war via this kind of leaderless grassroots resistance.

Some other ideas:

- The college students reading this could try to see if they could organize some kind of teach-in on campus.

- The anti-war/left-libertarian/progressive/anyone concerned about this issue blogosphere could advertise these mass action days.

- The Center for a Stateless Society could publish op-eds that encourage opposition to war with Iran while simultaneously tying its origins to the existence of the nation- state. I have a piece started that will make such an argument.

The present context of horrific approval ratings for the Bush administration is ripe for a sustained information and call to action campaign. It would be positively and wonderfully dialectical! : -)

The link to the contact information page for the Senate is here, while the listing for the House of Representatives is here. It’s also possible to use this page to contact the folks in Washington. It’s never too late to start letting the governing class know that your electoral support for them is jeopardized by their heinous policies. They may not care about the victims of the warfare state, but a threat to their power is something that would be a cause for concern to them.

Additional Info

If collaboration is on the table, be sure to learn the subtle art of teleconferencing. The best part of a telephone conference call is the opportunity for multiple players to contribute to the topic at hand. There are plenty of ways to make free conference calls, so don’t be lured into any expensive contracts.

I happily announce the addition of two juicy new items on the sidebar. The first is a wonderfully passionate essay by Arthur Silber titled “Some Races Are Just Not as Good as Others”, while the second is the website of an organization called the Iraq Freedom Congress. They apparently have a U.S. chapter too, and I offer my support to them.

I guess this makes me quite “traitorous”, but I don’t think you can truly be considered a traitor, if you don’t believe in the legitimacy of the state in the first place. The writing of this post is reminding me that I haven’t ever read No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority in its entirety. I’ll have to add it to my summer reading list!

Brad Spangler lets us know about a triple whammy of anarchist and/or libertarian media fundraising drives. If you’re interested, then here are the three sites:

-Antiwar.com

-Rational Review

-Infoshop.org

I’ve made use of all three sites before, but the one I visit the most is Antiwar.com. It’s a very good site for keeping up with news related to foreign policy.