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The Less Things Change...
...the more they stay insane.
As we start off this week, the shadows of an immoral, illegal war being escalated by an unethical, untrustworthy administration loom long over our souls.
As we start off this week, celebrations and retrospective honorifics once again mark the passing of one of America's most charismatic leaders, one of America's boldest and brightest voices for change -- a man who won the Nobel Peace Prize but was still cut down in cold blood by those who would choose hatred over love, war over peace, polarization over inclusiveness.
As we start off this week, we can hardly avoid hearing echoes and recollections of two of this man's greatest speeches. We hear once again how he had a dream, that he had been to the mountaintop, and we remember once more how very different things were in his day than they are in ours.
But are they, really?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. saw what was happening around him and he felt he could no longer keep silent about the biggest woes his beloved country was wreaking upon another country on the other side of the world. He spoke these words in 1967, forty years ago this year, and he was talking then about Vietnam; but for the name of that beleaguered country, though, he could just as easily been speaking now about Iraq instead.
Read his words and ponder. Hear his words and listen, listen well -- because those words are every bit as true today as they were in 1967, and there can simply be no moral grounds for that still to be so. He called for change back then, as we are calling for change today; but it still for us to act upon that call. Change does not just happen -- change is made to happen. And it is our duty, each and every one of us, to heed the call of history and to make change happen now.
The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.
And some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.
[...]
Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.
Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom, and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.
If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and deadly game we have decided to play. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war.
[...]
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.
[...]
We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says: "Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word."
We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on."
We still have a choice today: nonviolent co-existence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.
[...]
And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace.
If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
And it's sad that the Lamestream Media has done everything to obscure and bury any thoughts of MLK Jr. as a peace activist.
Thanks for sharing, Otter.
peace
/pis/
Pronunciation[pees]
Pronunciation noun, interjection, verb, peaced, peac·ing. –noun
1. the normal, nonwarring condition of a nation, group of nations, or the world.
2. (often initial capital letter) an agreement or treaty between warring or antagonistic nations, groups, etc., to end hostilities and abstain from further fighting or antagonism: the Peace of Ryswick.
3. a state of mutual harmony between people or groups, esp. in personal relations: Try to live in peace with your neighbors.
4. the normal freedom from civil commotion and violence of a community; public order and security: He was arrested for being drunk and disturbing the peace.
5. cessation of or freedom from any strife or dissension.
6. freedom of the mind from annoyance, distraction, anxiety, an obsession, etc.; tranquillity; serenity.
7. a state of tranquillity or serenity: May he rest in peace.
8. a state or condition conducive to, proceeding from, or characterized by tranquillity: the peace of a mountain resort.
9. silence; stillness: The cawing of a crow broke the afternoon's peace.
10. (initial capital letter, italics) a comedy (421 b.c.) by Aristophanes.
–interjection 11. (used to express greeting or farewell or to request quietness or silence).
–verb (used without object) 12. Obsolete. to be or become silent.
—Idioms13. at peace, a. in a state or relationship of nonbelligerence or concord; not at war.
b. untroubled; tranquil; content.
c. deceased.
14. hold or keep one's peace, to refrain from or cease speaking; keep silent: He told her to hold her peace until he had finished.
15. keep the peace, to maintain order; cause to refrain from creating a disturbance: Several officers of the law were on hand to keep the peace.
16. make one's peace with, to become reconciled with: He repaired the fence he had broken and made his peace with the neighbor on whose property it stood.
17. make peace, to ask for or arrange a cessation of hostilities or antagonism.
[Origin: 1125–75; ME pes
—Related forms
peaceless, adjective
peace·less·ness, noun
peacelike, adjective
—Synonyms 2. armistice, truce, pact, accord. 3. rapport, concord, amity. 6. calm, quiet.
—Antonyms 6. insecurity, disturbance.
more...
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/peace
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921
"All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it."
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French historian - Source: Democracy in America, 1835
"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace."
GWBush, June 18, 2002
"War is Peace"
Big Brother in George Orwell's 1984
You owe us, Bush says:
"(The) Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude."
http://tinyurl.com/yboq4z
US military strike on Iran seen by April ’07
By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times
The attack will be launched from the sea and Patriot missiles will guard all oil-producing countries in the region, they add. Recent statements emanating from the United States indicate the Bush administration’s new strategy for Iraq doesn’t include any proposal to make a compromise or negotiate with Syria or Iran.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16169.htm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-zogby/a-dangerous-speech-that-i_b_38545.html
A Dangerous Speech That Ignores Reality
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-levine/george-bush-is-a-psychopa_b_38443.html
George Bush is a Psychopath, and We Are His Enablers
Excerpt:
Given this reality, the President's ability to look squarely at the American people--indeed, the world--and claim that America is the best hope for the " millions of ordinary people... from Afghanistan to Lebanon to the Palestinian Territories... [who] are sick of the violence," demonstrates one of the most important traits of a psycho or sociopath, the ability to lie pathologically, without a hint of conscience, or of guilt or remorse at the consequences of these lies.
But what of the American people? Why are the vast majority of citizens, including those who voted the Republicans out of both houses of Congress, and including the Democratic legislators whom we chose to replace them with, sitting by and allowing this to happen? Sure, there will be a "symbolic" vote against further deployments, but nothing will be done actually to stop the President. Instead, as the editor in chief of one of the major inside the beltway publications explained to me yesterday, the Democrats are perfectly happy to sit back and let Bush bleed America dry in order to avoid being blamed for losing Iraq in 2008. They, and the American people who are doing nothing to stop them, will let thousands of more troops die, wars spread to ever more countries, all to achieve the greatest political capital for use in the next presidential election.
Behind this calculus is the the belief that the more American soldiers that die in the next two years and the more of our tax dollars that disappear, the greater the chance that Americans will vote for the Democratic ticket come November 2008 because they will blame the President. This may be true, but it is a spineless and immoral truth that thoroughly blemishes a Democratic Party already blackened with guilt for its enabling of the invasion to begin with, not to mention the wholesale war on America's most basic liberties and Freedoms in the last six years.
{{{What I've said before: appeasing a psychopath gives them more power....}}}
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2154792.ece
Bush faces mutiny over extra troops for Iraq
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sherman-yellen/the-educator-in-grief_b_38664.html
The Educator in Grief
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-hart/a-surge-of-constitutional_b_38211.html
A Surge of Constitutionalism
Excerpt:
Surely now even the most cynical neo-conservative is prepared to declare victory. We destroyed all those weapons of mass destruction that Richard Cheney knew existed. Iraq is no longer an imminent threat to U.S. national security, not that it ever was. We have rid ourselves of the tyrant S. Hussein (though it was never quite clear why he, among several dozen tyrants, deserved our special attention), and we have given the Iraqi people freedom, which they are now using to kill each other.
What we, the world's most dominant military power in history, cannot do is impose peace on a nation with scores to settle.
Needed now is not a surge of military forces. Needed now is a surge of citizen commitment to restore the Constitution of the United States of America.
{{{By following his articles on HuffPo, I'm gaining a new respect for Hart... He expresses himself very well in writing.}}}
So much for whirled peas...
Sometimes I'm still amazed by the beautiful thoughts and words Martin Luther King uttered. And then it's followed by amazement that he would have been murdered for uttering those peaceful and biblical words.
The power of his words continue to this day.
And while I picture the 60's generation of "liberals" who were inspired by his words, it's scary to say that the neocons and some Republicans to this day reflect the opposing view of the sixties.
It's why they harp on Vietnam as "liberals loss" and why Iraq is "liberals loss" too. It's why they have to run elections through hate instead of love, acceptance, and justice for all.
Someday, I hope MLK's dream will come true.
Absolute Power
The real reason the Bush administration won't back down on Guantanamo.
By Dahlia Lithwick
Why is the United States poised to try Jose Padilla as a dangerous terrorist, long after it has become perfectly clear that he was just the wrong Muslim in the wrong airport on the wrong day?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16171.htm
Excerpt:
The object is a larger one, and the original overarching goal of this administration: expanding executive power, for its own sake.
~~~~~
But Guantanamo stays open for the same reason Padilla stays on trial. Having claimed the right to label enemy combatants and detain them indefinitely without charges, the Bush administration is unable to retreat from that position without ceding ground. In some sense, the president is now as much a prisoner of Guantanamo as the detainees. And having gone nose-to-nose with the Congress over his authority to craft stripped-down courts for these "enemies," courts guaranteed to produce guilty verdicts, Bush cannot just call off the trials.
The endgame in the war on terror isn't holding the line against terrorists. It's holding the line on hard-fought claims to absolutely limitless presidential authority.
Holiday Hypocrisy
By Stephen Lendman
Borrowing the line from Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore: "Things are seldom as they seem, Skim milk masquerades as cream." It's as true here in the US today as it was in 19th century England, and its message explains how to understand and view our affairs of state and why the title of this essay was chosen - to reflect on our national federal holidays that, in fact, represent something much different than the stated reasons we commemorate them for.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16170.htm
Excerpt:
The US was founded as a secular state, and the Constitution's First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of religion has been interpreted by the Supreme Court as requiring a "wall of separation" between church and state prohibiting the government from adopting any religion or denomination as official and requiring the government to avoid undue involvement in religion, its trappings or expressions.
That status is now in jeopardy following the introduction of the "Constitution Restoration Act of 2004" in the Congress and reintroduced in near-identical form in 2005. If reintroduced again and adopted in the 110th Congress, it would turn the US into a de facto theocracy even though its supporters deny that's its intent. Don't believe them.
Support for the bill is led by Dominionists like Pat Robertson and at least those remaining of the 28 House and Senate sponsors like him in the last Congress, who support tearing down the sacred wall between between church and state so the US can be governed by Christian dogma as they interpret it. It would make lawbreakers of those of other faiths, or none at all, disobeying whatever parts of Christian canon the bill designated the law of the land - a very scary prospect for about 75 million non-Christians in the country and many others of Christian faith who won't go along.
If adopted, this bill will remove the Supreme Court's authority to challenge the right of anyone in or affiliated with federal, state or local government to acknowledge "God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government" - the Christian God, that is. Any judge at any level interpreting the Constitution otherwise would henceforth be subject to impeachment and prosecution in the new United States of America ruled by the Pat Robertson types of influence in it. Anyone jittery? It would also likely elevate the Thanksgiving holiday to one of obligatory Christian observance, even for non-Christians, advancing its current optional religious overtones to mandatory status.
{{{If you want to read that piece of tripe: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.3799: }}}
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2154844.ece
Big Brother: What it really means in Britain today
{What it really means for us, too....}
http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2154789.ece
Leading article: Personal privacy and the power of the State
Libby Trial Full of Political Intrigue
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011507Z.shtml
Former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby goes on trial on Tuesday on charges of perjury in a case that has all the elements of a political thriller. The tale involves a spy's blown cover, the US administration's preparations for war in Iraq and elaborate intrigue among Washington's power brokers.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2154794.ece
Hippies mark 40th anniversary of San Francisco's Summer of Love
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/rush-and-snow-set-cause-o_b_38623.html
Rush and Snow Set Cause of Feminism Back
http://bluelagoon.blogs.pennlive.com/default.asp?item=365210
Holiding History Hostage
This article addresses immigration from a different perspective. (The name change thing is inaccurate when you remember the spelling on names that survived the Ellis Island paperwork processes, but the author has valid points otherwise. My ancestors all got here before Ellis Island opened, so there are only parts of this article that resonate with me, mostly as it pertains to learning the language.)
Iran Target of US Gulf Military Moves, Gates Says
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1990962,00.html
He used to favor diplomacy. Now he feels we need to scare them and prove we aren't "overcommitted" in Iraq. Scary.
Hippies Mark 40th Anniversary of Summer of Love
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2154794.ece
Are we old yet?
madame defarge:
Visualize world police.
Poor Rural Voters get hit Again. Then why do poor rural voters in places like West Virginia continue to support Republican candidates?
Rural hospitals, nursing homes hard hit by Bush plan:
"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Many rural hospitals and nursing homes would get fewer federal dollars under a proposal to save Medicaid almost $4 billion over the next five years -- a change that would have "a significant economic impact on a substantial number" of health care providers, the Bush administration acknowledges."
"The White House recommendation says that Medicaid payments to health care providers operated by local governments such as counties cannot exceed costs. The rule says health care providers -- not a state or local government -- must get all of the reimbursement they are entitled to get when they treat a Medicaid patient."
"We expect this rule to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities, specifically health care providers that are operated by units of government," the proposed rule says."
Newsweek
Jan. 22, 2007 issue - As she entered her sixth decade, Sara Davidson found that, as she puts it, she "couldn't get arrested." The author of 1978's best-seller "Loose Change," Davidson suddenly found herself single, out of work and an empty nester all at once. She bottomed out—so she wrote a book, "LEAP! What Will We Do With the Rest of Our Lives?" Inspired by her story, NEWSWEEK asked boomers to list the three things they still want to do—no matter what.
STEPHEN KING, Author, 59
One of the world's best-selling novelists, with more than 25 top sellers under his belt, King has built a loyal fan base of millions by consistently scaring them. His latest, "Lisey's Story," came out in October last year.
"I'd like to outlast George W. Bush's second term of office."
TO-DO LIST
1. To live to see George W. Bush tried for crimes against humanity.
2. To fly in space—orbital would be fine—and to write about it.
3. To see "American Idol" canceled.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16608500/site/newsweek/
I'm a boomer ..
1. travel 'round the world
2. exhibit some photography
3. see karma in action
Poor Rural Voters get hit Again. Then why do poor rural voters in places like West Virginia continue to support Republican candidates?
Posted by: Bubba at January 15, 2007 04:12 PM
Because they are willing to pay that price in order to prevent two men from getting married. What a scary idea!
STEPHEN KING, Author, 59
TO-DO LIST
3. To see "American Idol" canceled.
Posted by: monkey at January 15, 2007 04:35 PM
Same here! I want ALL reality TV cancelled.
Posted by: monkey at January 15, 2007 04:35 PM
Mine:
1. To see Bush charged with crimes against humanity and convicted and sent to prison.
2. To see our government institute national health-care coverage.
3. Religious, ethnic, and racial tolerance and World Peace.
Realistically,
I'd settle for:
1. Going to Europe and Spain. (Travel)
2. Seeing my children happy and healthy and settled with a job they love (or family or whatever makes them happy.)
3. Seeing our government take the power away from the lobbyists.
I want ALL reality TV cancelled.
Posted by: Ally McRepuke at January 15, 2007 05:17 PM
Me Three.... Based on the fact that the commercials for the 'reality' shows are intolerable, loud, and obnoxious, I categorically refuse to watch any of them! When ads for them come on during one of the four to six shows I actually watch, I mute the commercials. It's easier to tape the few shows I watch so I can fast forward through commercials.
I have had no problem watching maybe 5 hours/tv per year since 1991.
Okay, I'm not a Stephen King fan and the only book of his I ever read was Carrie.... But I'll agree with his #1 wish:
1. Live to see the psychopathic dictator (AND the people in his administration!) tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity (since it doesn't seem like Congress Critters will get around to impeaching them before '08). The list of crimes for which they could be tried and convicted grows longer every day.
2. I'd love to see the restoration of our rights and privileges... which means our Congress Critters will have to repeal virtually all the crappy laws passed since 2000. The sooner that happens, the better for all of us.
3. I want the war(s) in Iraq and Afghanistan stopped, Gitmo closed, and the prisoners returned to their home countries the same day. I'd settle for that happening immediately....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070115/ap_on_re_mi_ea/kuwait_ruling_family
Member of ruling Kuwait family condemned
KUWAIT CITY - A court has convicted a member of Kuwait's ruling family for drug trafficking and it condemned him to death, according to a ruling obtained Monday.
It is believed to be the first time that a member of a ruling family in one of the Gulf Arab states received the death sentence for a drug offense.
{More on link.}
While we're on the topic of Martin Luther King, Jr., and as re recall the massive number of people who gathered on the mall to hear his "I have a dream" speech...
Let's look forward a couple of weeks, to Saturday, January 27th, and the plans for another huge rally on the mall - this time against the war.
This message from MoveOn today:
Dear MoveOn member,
If you are like me, you watched with outrage last week as Bush announced his plan to send 21,000 more US troops to Iraq.
Today, as we honor Martin Luther King Jr., I have been thinking about his words:
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
On January 27th, United for Peace and Justice are planning a March on Washington to end the war.
I'll be in Washington with thousands of other MoveOn members. Can you join me? Click here for more information:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3468
As Americans, we stand at a crossroads: we can allow this unaccountable administration to continue down a deadly path or we can redouble our efforts to change the direction of this tragic war.
Many of you have already raised your voices against "escalation." Last week, MoveOn members and allies around the country staged more than 1000 Emergency Rallies to Stop Escalation in Iraq to show public opposition to Bush's plan. Now, tens of thousands of folks are taking the message directly to Washington.
To make it plain that most Americans are united in our opposition to more war, we want to have people from all 50 states and every congressional district marching. So, if you yourself can't make it, can you donate $25 to help pay travel expenses for a MoveOn member who otherwise would not be able to make it? (See below for info on applying for travel funds yourself).Click here to help:
https://pol.moveon.org/donate/marchondc.html?id=9714-1878126-Qg07uylHIZNJepNiBD9_5Q&t=2
A MoveOn member whose son is a soldier preparing to go to Iraq explained the Bush plan this way:
" 'Escalation' is just a word for more people dying. They're going to be more American people, and they're going to be more Iraqi people, and they're all going to be innocent people."1
Imagine people from every state together in D.C. calling for a sane end to this war. With your help, we can make this happen.
Big marches and rallies in Washington DC have helped to secure many of our country's most important gains. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington in 1963 was a turning point in the fight for equality and civil rights. The power of Americans standing together for justice cannot be underestimated. This march on Washington can be a similar turning point for the war.
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and thanks for all you do.
–Eli Pariser, Executive Director
Monday, January 15th, 2007
This one could be really big!!! If you check out the UFPJ link, they have bus sign ups, and there are busses going from all around the country. And many of those busses are full.
Anyone here going? I'm trying to work it out....
More thoughts on MLK Day...
Listening to the audio of Dr. King's speeches is even more powerful than reading them. He was a preacher, a skilled orator, and his choice of language and phrasing was shaped by the cadence and the sound of the words as they were spoken, not just read. We are fortunate that so many recordings of Dr. King's speeches exist for us to hear today.
We are not fortunate, however, to know that so many of the things he said forty years ago still ring so true for us today. He was speaking about Vietnam then; we are speaking about Iraq today. But the same issues and the same problems keep echoing down the years nonetheless.
Dr. King said that the war in Vietnam was an illegal war, an immoral war, a war that threw away the lives of young Americans and destroyed the very country that they were supposedly sent there to defend. He indicted the large corporations and war profiteers whose political influences in the name of greed were allowed to trump the principles of peace and justice.
Dr. King called the government of his day to task for initiating such horrible carnage, and challenged the citizens of his day to unite and rise up in opposition to that egregious war for empire that had so blackened America's heart and soul before the entire world community.
The fact that we are still calling for the citizenry to unite and rise up in opposition to an egregious war for empire today is nothing short of appalling. How can it be that we have learned nothing in the forty years since Dr. King closed his speech that day with these flowing words?
"And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace.
"If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
"If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
The less things change, the more they stay insane. So it is incumbent upon all of us, you and I and the persons we elected us to represent us in Washington, to stop the insanity and insist on change now, not later. It is our responsibility to answer Dr. King's call and to insist that our country makes the right choices when it comes to the Middle East now, not later.
This is a time for courage, not complicity. This is a time for action, not acquiescence. This is a time to make things right, not make things worse. We can't sit back and let someone else demand the return of sanity to our government's affairs any more than we can sit back and let that government force its insanity upon a people half a world away.
Forty years ago, Dr. King called us to action. Today it is on us, on *all* of us, to heed that call. In honor of his memory, and in honor of the memories of all who have given their lives since he spoke those words, we can do no less.
Once Upon A Time In The West
by Dire Straits
Some people get a cheap laugh breaking up the speed limit
Scaring the pedestrians for a minute
Crossing up progress, driving on the grass
Leaving just enough room to pass
Sunday driver never took a test
Oh yeah, once upon a time in the west
Yes its no use saying that you dont know nothing
Its still gonna get you if you dont do something
Sitting on a fence thats a dangerous course
Oh, you could even catch a bullet from the peace-keeping force
Even the hero gets a bullet in the chest
Oh yeah, once upon a time in the west
Mother Mary your children are slaughtered
Some of you mothers ought to lock up your daughters
Who's protecting the innocenti
Heap big trouble in the land of plenty
Tell me how we're gonna do whats best
You guess once upon a time in the west
Oh yeah, once upon a time in the west
Oh yeah, once upon a time in the west
Oh yeah, once upon a time in the west
Once upon a time in the west
Suz and I are in the chat now...
Carol, I'm going Saturday. Wonder if there will a DCP table. Unclear what is happening after the march, even with the Code Pink sked.
I will stay through a little bit of Sunday, but then need to leave.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/01/15/tomlinson-steps-down/
Tomlinson Steps Down
Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (which runs Voice of America and other overseas programming put out by the U.S.), has told the White House he is not seeking renomination to his appointed post. As the Washington Post notes, this is "something of a formality" with the Senate now controlled by Democrats. Tomlinson has been under fire recently over alleged ethical violations[..]
In recent weeks, however, I have concluded that it would be far more constructive to write a book on my experiences rather than to seek to continue government service.
~~~~~
And almost as if by magic, news comes that Bill Moyers has a new program planned with PBS, starting with a look at Iraq and the Press.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003532397
Bill Moyers to Return to PBS With Weekly Show -- Starting with Look at Press and Iraq
NEW YORK Bill Moyers is returning to PBS in April with a weekly public affairs series, ''Bill Moyers Journal,'' that resurrects the name of his first public television series for a new century.
Moyers, 72, did two specials for PBS last year, and both the work and response ''whetted my appetite for more.''
''People keep writing or stopping me on the street to suggest stories that are not being reported and voices that are not being heard,'' said the former press secretary for President Lyndon Johnson. ''A lot of Americans long for more than conventional wisdom, celebrity pundits, predictable opinions and safe analysis of the obvious.''
The first episode on April 25 discusses the role of the press before the invasion of Iraq.
{{{More on link.}}}
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/01/15/countdowns-sunday-talk-show-roundup/
Countdown’s Sunday Talk Show Roundup
Michael T. Klare | Is Energo-Fascism in Your Future?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011507H.shtml
Michael T. Klare writes: "It has once again become fashionable for the dwindling supporters of President Bush's futile war in Iraq to stress the danger of 'Islamo-fascism' and the supposed drive by followers of Osama bin Laden to establish a monolithic, Taliban-like regime - a 'Caliphate' - stretching from Gibraltar to Indonesia. While there may indeed be hundreds, even thousands, of disturbed and suicidal individuals who share this delusional vision, the world actually faces a far more substantial and universal threat, which might be dubbed Energo-fascism, or the militarization of the global struggle over ever-diminishing supplies of energy."
The New York Times | Busywork for Nuclear Scientists
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011507A.shtml
The New York Times writes: "The Bush administration is eager to start work on a new nuclear warhead with all sorts of admirable qualities: sturdy, reliable and secure from terrorists. To sweeten the deal, officials say that if they can replace the current arsenal with Reliable Replacement Warheads (what could sound more comforting?), they probably won't have to keep so many extra warheads to hedge against technical failure. If you're still not sold, the warhead comes with something of a guarantee - that scientists can build the new bombs without ever testing them."
New Law Could Subject Civilians to Military Trial
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011507E.shtml
Private contractors and other civilians serving with US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan could be subject for the first time to military courts-martial under a new federal provision that legal scholars say is almost certain to spark constitutional challenges.
Excerpt:
Previously, civilians could be tried under the UCMJ only during a declared war. Since military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan never involved a declaration of war, civilians have been exempt. But the new provision also allows the UCMJ to be applied to certain civilians during a "contingency operation." Operations in Afghanistan and Iraq both fit that definition.