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It Was 30 Years Ago Today
"Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play?"
(Um, no. Sorry, wrong answer. But thanks for playing.)
It was 30 years ago today that a group of committed civic activists raised so much hell in New Hampshire that over 1,400 of them got thrown in the local hoosegow for non-violently protesting something they felt very, very strongly about.
What those people, and the many hundreds of their comrades that didn't end up being jailed along with them, accomplished on April 30, 1977 still resonates after all these years.
As well it should. What they did -- and, more importantly, how they did it -- still serves as a role model for citizen activists to this day.
They called themselves the Clamshell Alliance, and this is their story.
Steven Rosenberg of the Boston Globe provides an overview of that day's events and the successful organizational tactics behind them in this anniversary article:
NUCLEAR REACTION
In Seabrook 30 years ago, nuclear foes raised a voice still heard todaySEABROOK, N.H. -- About a mile from the Atlantic, the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant rises up from hundreds of acres of auburn clam flats. From a distance, the 6.5-foot-thick steel-reinforced concrete dome has the look of an amphitheater, but within the gray sphere atoms are split, using uranium and in the process creating enough electricity for more than 1 million homes every year.
For as long as most people in this working-class town of 8,000 can remember, they've called this place the Nuke. Tucked about a half- mile within a narrow road off Route 1, it's easy to miss. Thirty years ago, however, on April 30, 1977, the plant was hardly anonymous. With helicopters hovering overhead, hundreds of State Police and National Guard troops spread out over the 900-acre site, and then-governor Meldrim Thomson Jr. walked the grounds in army fatigues.
Thomson told the news media he had expected violence from the 2,500 demonstrators who walked onto the dusty construction site to protest the plant's construction. Instead, police faced a group that practiced civil disobedience, and within 24 hours they had begun the largest mass arrest in New Hampshire history, taking 1,414 antinuclear protesters into custody.
[...]
In June of 1976, about 25 people from coalitions throughout New England gathered in Rye Beach for a meeting about the proposed Seabrook plant. They included representatives from the People's Energy Project, the Granite State Alliance, the Wampanoag Tribe, and anti-nuclear groups from Cape Ann, Western Massachusetts, and Boston. At the meeting, they decided to name their group the Clamshell Alliance -- a nod to the clam flats that the nuclear plant owners had planned to flood with water from the plant.
"The strength of the whole Clamshell Alliance was our organization," said Jay Gustaferro, a Gloucester lobsterman who was one of the alliance's founders. Gustaferro and Isabel Natti had created the North Shore Alternative Energy Coalition in Gloucester and held alternative energy science fairs in Cape Ann in the early 1970s. They said they joined the Clamshell Alliance because they could see Seabrook, which is 14 miles from the shores of Gloucester.
On Aug 1, 1976, the first protest at the plant was held, and 18 people were arrested. On Aug. 22, another occupation was held, and 180 people were arrested. Then, on April 30, 1977, more than 2,500 people walked onto the Seabrook site from four directions; others were ferried by boat to the site by local fishermen. Most had spent the night at campgrounds provided by sympathetic area residents who opposed the plant.
Surrounded by hundreds of police, the protesters pitched tents, sang no-nukes songs, and discussed the use of alternative energy such as wind and solar power. With drugs and alcohol forbidden by the alliance and the group sticking to its philosophy of civil disobedience, no major injuries were reported, and there were no scuffles with the police.
"I think it was the power of nonviolence that really energized the Clamshell Alliance," said Cushing.
"I think the nonviolence and civil disobedience aspect was extremely powerful because it was so peaceful," added Sam Lovejoy, who led a contingent of antinuclear protesters from an organic farm in Montague.
After the group refused to disperse, protesters were arrested and held in five National Guard armories throughout the state for 13 days. Most declined to post bail, which helped their cause, said Guy Chichester of Rye, N.H., who served as a spokesman during that time and appeared on national TV. "We were getting news all over the country and all over the world. Why would we move out?"
What made the Clamshell Alliance's nonviolent protests against the construction of the Seabrook Station nuclear plant three decades ago so relevant to members of the DCP community today? As writer Richard Asinov later noted,
The overwhelming success of the Clamshell Alliance's occupation can be attributed to three factors; the planning and leadership of the Clamshell Alliance itself; the strength of the affinity group and the spirit and discipline of the occupiers; and the strong impact that women in key leadership roles exerted on the events.
In other words, the Clamshell Alliance was a living, breathing example of what being a democracy cell in action is all about.
Their organization and effectiveness in standing up against a nuclear plant in New Hampshire back in 1977 still serves as an excellent working model for us to follow as we stand up against an unjust war, unchecked greed, and an out-of-control imperial presidency today.
A few minutes spent using The Googles can provide you with a richly-detailed understanding of what the Clamshell Alliance did there, how it worked the way it did, and why it still matters to us now. Here are just a few links to get your started on your quest of discovery:
To the Village Square: Nukes, Clams, and Democracy
The Good Fight
Arnie Alpert's Clamshell Memories
30th Anniversary of the Seabrook Occupation, Clamshell Alliance
30th Anniversary of Huge Anti-Nuke Demo
Social Ecology and Social Movements: From the 1960s to the Present
This is so great! As many of you know, Dick Bell was very much a part of the Clams. I told him he has to come and comment, and share some tales.
I am off to the Code Pink house for an evening of food and feats. Will check in later!
Just saw a documentary on PBS over the weekend that showed how people were standing out in front of the White House yelling at LBJ "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did ya kill today?"
Thousands of them.
That's all that will do it.
Since we're traveling back in time, did you see this?
Kent State victim: Tape may answer shooting mystery
Source: Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A man who was shot when National Guard troops opened fire on anti-war protesters at Kent State University 37 years ago said Sunday the federal government should reopen its investigation because an audio recording taken on campus that day reveals an order to fire.
Alan Canfora, who was shot and wounded in the right wrist, said he requested a copy of the nearly 30 minute tape six months ago from Yale University, where a government copy had been stored in an archive. Just before a 13-second barrage of gunfire, a voice on the tape yells, "Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!" Canfora said.
--snip--
The FBI investigated whether an order had been given to fire on May 4, 1970, and said it could only speculate. One theory was that a guardsman panicked or fired intentionally at a student and others fired when they heard the shot.
"We think this is a troubling piece of evidence that was somehow overlooked," said Canfora, who planned to release CD copies of the recording Tuesday at news conference at Kent State, about 30 miles southeast of Cleveland. "We're not seeking revenge or a new prosecution of guardsmen, we just want the truth."...
Read more: http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/17154947.htm
Holy crap, MDF. That gets some of us, as you know, right where we live.
All but four of us, that is.
So where is our Boudica now that we need her?
Posted by: Otter at April 30, 2007 05:51 PM
Pelosi will never match the bravery of Boudicca (who, along with her daughters, were beaten and raped by Romans as a result of the Roman tax collectors who tried to confiscate her dead husband's estate, which ultimately led Boudicca to unite a few of the Celtic tribes; they utterly destroyed three towns, started on a fourth - Tacitus and Dio wrote about the Rebellion and what led up to it, and they have a physical description of Boudicca - a tall woman with a deep voice and red hair to her knees; there's a statue of her and her daughters at Westminster Bridge in London - I have an image of it), but if Nancy Pelosi could have been the modern, more peaceable, American version of the warrior queen if she had put impeachment on the table on behalf of the American people clear back in January. Pelosi, like so many modern women in power, still has the remnants of acquired helplessness, still listen to the patriarchs in power. She does not wield true power unless she does something to benefit the people who elected her and her fellow representatives.
I used to respect Pelosi, but all that is now gone. The only way she can redeem herself in my eyes is to put impeachment back on the table. There's more than ample support from WE THE PEOPLE for impeachment (I believe), but it takes getting our Congress Critters to do the will of the people who elected them, and it takes waking up the bobble heads in Lamestream Media who have so abused our trust that they unquestioningly repeat the brainwashing propaganda for all these years. I truly believe we NEED to rid ourselves of the dictator wannabes who currently reside in *our* White House. If we can't impeach them, we will certainly suffer more than we have already (nationally and internationally).
Picking up the pieces will be extremely difficult, but FUBAR as SNAFU is not something that we can tolerate indefinitely either.
NonnyO,
I actually disagree with you about what you said about Pelosi and impeachment. It's difficult to describe how I'm feeling, but I don't believe that she's just passively waiting for the patriarchs to tell her what to do.
Instead, I believe she is setting up the chess board. She's not going to say check mate until she sets up her strategy and puts it into action. When you play chess you know that you either have check or check mate. If you say check too soon, you lose the powerful piece that you put in a dangerous position. But if your strategy works, when you say, "Check Mate" you win and the king is gone.
So that's the reason I'm disagreeing with you on this. But also, when you have a criminal (a target) you don't charge him until you're ready to go to court. It's smart! If you charge too soon then you risk losing the case altogether.
So in essence two good reasons showing how this is carefully being done.
I'd rather her and them be slow and careful than fast and fail!
NonnyO,
Keep in mind that 56% now support Dems while only 35 support Republicans. And Bush's approval rating is 28%.
But the Republicans are still playing to their base and those in Congress must feel enough heat that they're willing to ditch the partisan protectivism and instead chose integrity and the Constitution.
It's an uphill battle. But we only get one chance to impeach. So we have to do it right.
Posted by: sparrow at April 30, 2007 08:27 PM
I agree. Pelosi is a very smart politician. She grew up in politics & knows how to play the game. I'm more than willing to trust her.
(And not only that, she's got great taste in hairdressers when she's in Chicago.)
Posted by: madame defarge at April 30, 2007 08:36 PM
Yeh...thanks for saying that madame. I trust her too.
I liked my hairdresser from Chicago so much I married her.
Groom, groom!
Posted by: monkey at April 30, 2007 08:48 PM
And it's a good thing. We all know how much grooming monkeys need... ;-)
Looking fwd to Mr. Bells comments on the Clams.
Posted by: madame defarge at April 30, 2007 08:50 PM
Are you saying I'm no Harry Reasoner?
Otter... great threads, man.
You're not just a hairy primate
http://z.about.com/d/gonyc/1/7/2/R/snow_monkeys.jpg
I'm sure you're Prince Harry. That's why your hairdresser groomed you; you're such a prince (of peace).
Posted by: monkey at April 30, 2007 09:01 PM
Nor are you Donald Trump...thank goodness...
If you could ask a question of an Iraqi Member of Parliament, right now, what would it be?
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at April 30, 2007 07:22 PM
True. But we do that on the internet now. It's been a curse and a blessing.
The curse is that we're not in the streets.
The blessing is that this underground news system may have saved our democracy.
Posted by: karen at April 30, 2007 09:25 PM
Do they really want democracy?
Is democracy the right type of government for Iraq?
Do they want us to keep our troops there or withdraw?
Posted by: karen at April 30, 2007 09:25 PM
Can the diverse factions within Iraq ever coexist peacefully?
Dear Iraqi Parliment,
WTF does you taking a two month 'vacation' mean?
Yall ain't planning on coming back, are you?
Ok that was two.
Sorry, I should put my questions into context...
"The committee considering amendments to the Iraqi Constitution appears to be as far from completing its work as it has always been. Meanwhile, the Assembly is apparently planning to go on a two month recess at the end of June. Let me repeat that since it is so unbelievable - the Iraqi Council of Representatives is apparently planning to go on a two month recess at the end of June. And incredibly, Hasan Suneid, a lawmaker and adviser to Prime Minister Maliki, was quoted in the paper the other day as saying that “time is irrelevant.” Well time is plenty relevant to us, our troops and their families."
http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=273209
Sick, but still informed.
If you could ask a question of an Iraqi Member of Parliament, right now, what would it be?
Posted by: karen at April 30, 2007 09:25 PM
I Believe that the upper echelons of the Iraqi Government right now have been installed by the Bush Brigade. It cannot be called a democratically elected government. Therefore, my question would come as a referendum for the entire population to vote upon.
Do you want US troops to stay in Iraq? YES NO
My question:
What needs to happen to bring hope to your people and peace to your region? (Side question: What is the role of the US and EU (Nato, etc..) in making this happen?
When you're used up, where do you go
Soldier
-- know that song "Twenty" by Robert Cray?
Click on my name & see photos from Ft. Lewis area almost 4 years after "Mission Accomplished" day - just got home
Thanks for posting this link to the Clamshell Alliance. 30 years ago, I covered the occupation of the Seabrook site with a team of photographers and writers from the late lamented Real Paper. Joe Conason was on the writing team; if my memory serves me well, he was one arrested, but got out of jail in order to put out a special 20,000 word issue of the paper. Some of the reporters rode it out in the Armory, an experience very few American journalists have ever had.
.
I haven't had a chance to read the whole story; I usually find these accounts to be horribly skewed in one direction or another, depending on who was interviewed. But I always enjoying finding out what the New Hampshire clams are up to now.
Posted by: sparrow at April 30, 2007 08:27 PM
Posted by: sparrow at April 30, 2007 08:31 PM
Posted by: madame defarge at April 30, 2007 08:36 PM
I want to trust Pelosi. I really do.
But WTF is taking so danged long with the investigations? Conyers drew up impeachment papers a very long time ago, before the last election day. We ALL know by now the criminals lied, and because of those lies, they ordered an illegal invasion of Iraq (a war crime under Geneva Conventions, which makes the soldiers accomplices to his war crime just because they were following orders because of those lies, and following orders is not a just defense against war crimes), and we ALL know the torture and illegal detention of people at Gitmo and elsewhere is also a war crime. That's quite aside from the other crimes they've committed, starting with the first lies and the growing list of other frauds and perks granted to corporate cronies.
If the Cons in Congress are illiterate and can't read the Geneva Conventions for themselves (they - and most Dems, dammit! - were only too eager to pass legislation that took away our privacy and our rights with the Patriot Acts and MCA '06, among other bad legislation; didn't they or their staff persons read those bills before voting on them?), then someone needs to 'splain it to them in plain English. The Cons up for re-election must realize it's political suicide to keep backing the top criminals in the administration.
If Pelosi and the rest of the Dems (and a few moderate Cons) sit on this too long, the clock will run out on the administration (if they allow the next election in '08) and there will be no criminal charges or impeachment proceedings brought. The crimes are all well-known by now. Isn't that good enough to at least start the proceedings...? The evidence has already been gathered. How much more needs to be investigated?!?
After these last six years, I'm in a state of PTSD as far as "trusting" any politicians, even the few I like. Most still stick to warmed-over Bu$hSpeak (Hillary, Obama, Edwards, in particular), use some of the same Bu$hSpeak language and phraseology (Gag! Get me a barf bag, quick!), and we need an abrupt departure from the delusions of the Beltway Bubble dialogue... we need reality-based rhetoric and firm deconstruction of the status quo neo-Con political rhetoric on the part of Dems (along the lines of Jon Stewart, Keith Olbermann, and Bill Moyers).
I know I regularly get my knickers in a knot over all of this, but I just don't understand the delay on the part of Congress Critters who KNOW they "should" do right by the people who elected them. "Seems like" delaying tactics to appease the spoiled brat until he's out of office, rather than "political strategy."
If you could ask a question of an Iraqi Member of Parliament, right now, what would it be?
Posted by: karen at April 30, 2007 09:25 PM
Do you want 75% of the revenues from your oil to go to the US oil corporations, per the proposed constitutional amendment dictated by the Bush administration?
In other words, I think the two-month vacation on the part of the Iraqi Parliament is "political strategy."
They don't want the money they could get from the oil wells in their own country to go to US oil corporations.... I think.
So, they're playing a waiting game, too, until Georgie is out of office.
Meanwhile many people will continue to die based on Georgie's and Dickie's lies for oil beneath the sands of Iraq....
Re: Murtha
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/30/114619/295
Long comment section worth reading on this, too.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/4/30/19425/3054
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/4/30/17838/4615
http://www.murtha.org/
Murtha's (non-government) web site. It has his phone number (including an 800 number) on the same page where one can email him. I notice he's using the Teddy Roosevelt quote that I like so well on his home page.
On link off of C&L story:
http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2007/04/29/6318
http://www.ifilm.com/profile/james_cavenaugh/video/2827514
To the tune of "Sinner Man, Where You Gonna Run To?" - Caveat: disturbing images in between others I know you will appreciate.
Report Questions Usefulness of Iraq Reconstruction Projects
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/043007R.shtml
Poor construction, improper design, substandard materials and lack of maintenance have brought into question the usefulness of seven of eight US-funded Iraq reconstruction projects. "If these projects are typical of the quality and effectiveness of operations and maintenance performance on transitioned projects, the value of the US investment in Iraq reconstruction will be at risk," said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general, in his report to Congress and the Bush administration.
{{{MISSING from this article: the names of the corporations involved and how they are connected to the Bush administration.... That's a huge sin of omission to not include that information. On PBS's News Hour, someone was interviewed about this very issue, and I notice no one, including the snooze anchor, mentioned the names of the US corporations who built these things....}}}
Thomas D. Williams | Pentagon Contractors Owe $7.7 Billion in Unpaid Taxes
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/043007J.shtml
Excerpt:
Meanwhile, a recent GAO inquiry reveals that about 113,800 contractors working for a variety of federal agencies, including the Pentagon and the General Services Administration, have built up $7.7 billion in unpaid taxes. This matches untidily with a March GAO report saying that more than 21,000 doctors, health professionals or medical suppliers, collecting billions in federal Medicare dollars, simultaneously owed more than $1 billion in federal income taxes. Federal agencies either have to rely on their hired contractors and medical providers to disclose what they owe the IRS, or dig out the data elsewhere in public record disclosures of the debts, said the GAO report. It goes on to explain that the IRS does not file public liens on the property of all tax debtors, nor does it have a central file where federal agencies can obtain those liens.
{{{Talk about adding insult to injury.... And if we had no war to pay for and increase our debt, how much money could we put into health care and education and finding alternative energy (to name only three things that seem to be at the level of 'crisis' now or shortly in the future)....???}}}
A Saudi Prince Tied to Bush Is Sounding Off-Key
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/043007M.shtml
No foreign diplomat has been closer or had more access to President Bush, his family and his administration than Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia. Since the Iraq war and the attendant plummeting of America's image in the Muslim world, King Abdullah has been striving to set a more independent and less pro-American course, American and Arab officials said. And that has steered America's relationship with its staunchest Arab ally into uncharted waters. Prince Bandar, they say, may no longer be able to serve as an unerring beacon of Saudi intent.
Excerpts:
Bush administration officials have been scratching their heads over steps taken by Prince Bandar's uncle, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, that have surprised them by going against the American playbook, after receiving assurances to the contrary from Prince Bandar during secret trips he made to Washington.
For instance, in February, King Abdullah effectively torpedoed plans by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for a high-profile peace summit meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, by brokering a power-sharing agreement with Mr. Abbas's Fatah and Hamas that did not require Hamas to recognize Israel or forswear violence. The Americans had believed, after discussions with Prince Bandar, that the Saudis were on board with the strategy of isolating Hamas.
American officials also believed, again after speaking with Prince Bandar, that the Saudis might agree to direct engagement with Israel as part of a broad American plan to jump-start Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. King Abdullah countermanded that plan.
Most bitingly, during a speech before Arab heads of state in Riyadh three weeks ago, the king condemned the American invasion of Iraq as "an illegal foreign occupation." The Bush administration, caught off guard, was infuriated, and administration officials have found Prince Bandar hard to reach since.
Since the Iraq war and the attendant plummeting of America's image in the Muslim world, King Abdullah has been striving to set a more independent and less pro-American course, American and Arab officials said. And that has steered America's relationship with its staunchest Arab ally into uncharted waters. Prince Bandar, they say, may no longer be able to serve as an unerring beacon of Saudi intent.
"The problem is that Bandar has been pursuing a policy that was music to the ears of the Bush administration, but was not what King Abdullah had in mind at all," said Martin S. Indyk, a former United States ambassador to Israel who is now head of the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy.
Of course it is ultimately the king - and not the prince - who makes the final call on policy. More than a dozen associates of Prince Bandar, including personal friends and Saudi officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that if his counsel has led to the recent misunderstandings, it is due to his longtime penchant for leaving room in his dispatches for friends to hear what they want to hear. That approach, they said, is catching up to the prince as new tensions emerge between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Bandar, son of one of the powerful seven sons born to the favorite wife of Saudi Arabia's founding king, "needs to personally regroup and figure out how to put Humpty Dumpty together again," one associate said.
~~~~~
A few nights after he resigned his post as secretary of state two years ago, Colin L. Powell answered a ring at his front door. Standing outside was Prince Bandar, then Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, with a 1995 Jaguar. Mr. Powell's wife, Alma, had once mentioned that she missed their 1995 Jaguar, which she and her husband had traded in. Prince Bandar had filed that information away, and presented the Powells that night with an identical, 10-year-old model. The Powells kept the car - a gift that the State Department said was legal - but recently traded it away.
The move was classic Bandar, who has been referred to as Bandar Bush, attending birthday celebrations, sending notes in times of personal crisis and entertaining the Bushes or top administration officials at sumptuous dinner parties at Prince Bandar's opulent homes in McLean, Va., and Aspen, Colo.
He has invited top officials to pizza and movies out at a mall in suburban Virginia - and then rented out the movie theater (candy served chair-side, in a wagon) and the local Pizza Hut so he and his guests could enjoy themselves in solitude. He is said to feel a strong sense of loyalty toward Mr. Bush's father dating to the Persian Gulf war, which transferred to the son, whom he counseled about international diplomacy during Mr. Bush's first campaign for president.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, as the United States learned that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi and focused on the strict Wahhabi school of Islam that informed them and their leader and fellow Saudi, Osama bin Laden, Prince Bandar took a public role in assuring the Americans that his nation would cooperate in investigating and combating anti-American terrorism. He also helped arrange for more than a hundred members of the bin Laden family to be flown out of the United States.
Nancy Tobi | Rebuttal to Dill's Support of the HR 811 Trojan Horse
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/043007T.shtml
"Dr. David Dill, long-time proponent of the concept of 'verified voting' (voters get to proofread computer printouts of their voting intention), recently posted an op-ed in support of the Holt Bill (HR 811)," writes Nancy Tobi. "However, Dr. Dill's arguments in support of HR 811 fall apart from the moment he promotes an 'it's this or nothing' position. Every argument he makes in support of the bill is easily deconstructed when we remember we are fighting for our American democracy and not the right for corporate technologists, computer expert elitists, and bureaucrats to run our elections."
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iraq's sectarian warfare fueled a sharp increase in global terrorism in 2006, the U.S. State Department reported Monday.
The total number of terrorist attacks was up more than 25 percent from the previous year, according to the State Department's annual report on global terrorism.
Incidents in Iraq accounted for nearly half of the 14,000 attacks and about two-thirds of the more than 20,000 fatalities worldwide. The number of deaths blamed on attacks increased by about 40 percent.
-snip-
Militants find new safe haven
Terrorist organizations behind the violence are setting up along Pakistan's northwest frontier in safe havens created by the country's September 2006 peace agreement with tribal leaders, the report said.
Despite the presence of 80,000 Pakistani troops and border guards along Afghanistan's frontier with Pakistan, the tribal areas have become "sources of instability for Pakistan and its neighbors," Urbancic said.
Tribal leaders are not living up to their agreement to deny shelter to Islamic militants, he said. That has led to more fighters pouring into Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are battling a resurgent Taliban movement.
Meanwhile, al Qaeda and other groups, including Islamic guerrillas and Kurdish separatists fighting the Turkish government, are fighting to establish sanctuary in Iraq amid the chaos, Urbancic said.
The report accuses Iraq's neighbors Iran and Syria of fueling violence in Iraq by providing weapons and training to militant groups and allowing fighters to cross into Iraq to attack American troops.
-snip-
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said the new document, which comes as President Bush prepares to veto an emergency war-spending bill that calls for U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq in 2008, "dramatically demonstrates once again the unfortunate results of four years of a failed strategy."
"Congress is asking the president to change course in Iraq because it is what the American people, military experts and the Iraq Study Group know is necessary to more effectively fight terrorism," Reid said in a statement issued Monday afternoon. "We hope the president seizes this opportunity to change course instead of refusing to recognize the reality on the ground."
The report, however, declares that "progress is mixed," more than five years after al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. It concludes that the nature of terrorism is shifting toward "global insurgency."
"If the battle against terrorism isn't in Iraq, it's going to be somewhere else," Urbancic said. "It started out in Afghanistan. The terrorists are looking for places where they can operate and that's what they're doing. So we can fight them in Iraq, we can fight them somewhere else. The fact is, they're there, and they're going to find other ungoverned spaces."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/30/terror.report/index.html
global insurgency... nice work, neocons.
So, they've apparently given up claims on killing no. 2's from Al Qaeda & are now moving on to the no. 1 hit slot. Why is it that we've never heard of these people until they claim they're dead?
Cynical old me thinks we'll be seeing more of these reports now to bolster up the war...
Unconfirmed reports say al Qaeda in Iraq leader dead
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Unconfirmed reports Tuesday indicated that Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri had died in fighting between rival militant groups north of the Iraqi capital, according to an Interior Ministry spokesman.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/05/01/iraq.main/index.html
Hey, it's not *all* gloom-doom-and-schadenfreude these days, ya know, even in here... *ahem*
---------------
An Electric Night For South Carolina Dems
April 30, 2007(CBS) Signs of Democratic enthusiasm about the 2008 election are not hard to find these days. On the fundraising front, seven Democratic presidential candidates raised nearly $25 million more in the first three months of this year than 11 Republican candidates. Polling reflects the confidence and the corresponding nervousness within the GOP: A recent CBS News poll found that 61 percent of registered voters — including 36 percent of Republicans surveyed — thought a Democrat would be elected in November 2008.
But those dry statistics don't capture the kind of energy and excitement on display last Friday night in Columbia, S.C., following the party’s Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinner. For well over a decade, Rep. Jim Clyburn has hosted a fish fry following the dinner as a way to reward campaign volunteers and party activists unable to afford a ticket to the fund-raiser.
As South Carolina's influence in the presidential nominating system has grown, so has the size and influence of Clyburn's event. According to the congressman's office. this year's event was the largest ever, with more than 2,000 activists estimated to have shown up in the lower level of a parking garage for breaded whiting, Sunbeam bread and cold beer or soda. While Clyburn led the crowd in the Electric Slide late in the evening, the real electricity surrounded the six presidential candidates who showed up earlier.
[snip]
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/30/politics/main2743166.shtml
---------------
gonna party like it's $19.99,
Otter
Democrats to make one last pitch
Congressional Democrats will hold an elaborate signing ceremony for the bill Tuesday, during which they will make one last pitch for the president to sign the measure before sending it up to the White House for the promised veto.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid again urged Bush not to veto the spending bill, which he said represented the will of Congress and the American people.
"It's a good and responsible bill and will begin the long process of leading us out of a war that has cost so many American lives and so much treasure," Reid said on the Senate floor. "There's still time to sign this bill and change course in Iraq."
Tuesday is the fourth anniversary of Bush's speech that declared an end to "major combat" in Iraq.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino last week warned Democrats against "using the troops for their own political PR stunts" by having Bush receive the measure Tuesday, in hopes that he would veto it on the anniversary.
"It is very troubling that Democrats would be so cynical to use our troops in that way," she said.
New bill in the works
Lawmakers are already at work on another bill that has a better chance of getting the president's approval. The new bill would strip out the controversial troop removal language and replace it with a series of benchmarks to measure the progress of the Iraqi government.
The benchmarks would include passing laws related to the sharing of oil revenue and national reconciliation and reducing sectarian violence -- benchmarks that Bush himself has publicly pressed the Iraqis to meet.
However, the big question facing lawmakers and the White House is what happens if those benchmarks aren't met.
Many Democrats and some Republicans support setting out consequences, but the White House fiercely opposes the idea, which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday would "tie our own hands" and reduce the United States' "flexibility" in Iraq.
A senior Republican lawmaker, working behind the scenes with senators from both parties, has suggested a possible way to bridge that gap -- requiring troops to be withdrawn if the benchmarks aren't met but allowing the president to waive that requirement if he chooses.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/30/bush.congress.veto/index.html
Sure, waive any law if the president chooses...
WHAT THE FUDD!!!!
I'm not really awake yet. (Call this sleep blogging...) But Jesselyn Radack has posted an interesting thread at D-kos. But within that thread is an incredibly interesting comment.
Here's the thread.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/1/61810/61392
(snip)
If the DAG (McNulty), the PayDAG (William Moschella)--he fessed up to inserting the stealth provision in the Patriot Act that allowed the AG to appoint new U.S. Attorneys and bypass Senate confirmation--and Gonzo's former chief-of-staff (Kyle Sampson) had little or no involvement in drawing up the hit list, then that means Monica Goodling did it. Or, more likely, the White House. Either scenario is bad--Monica because she is a recent Regents-grad and political operative in a huge position of power for which she is unqualified, and the White House because it shows how politicized the Justice Department is and how willing 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is to interfere with federal prosecutions and dilute the system of checks and balances.
Here's the comment:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2007/5/1/61810/61392/9#c9
Is this a Wheel Conspiracy? (5+ / 0-)
There's mounting evidence that Gonzales and his deputies structured the USA firing process so as to avoid involvement in the details, delegating much of the actual decision-making responsibility to lowly goons, such as Monica and Kyle.
Does that make Gonzo and McNulty any less vulnerable to conspiracy charges, should it be proven that there was an underlying criminal motive, such as to obstruct investigations of serving USAs?
It seems to me, that the extraordinary measures the top-tier players have taken actually proves both legs of the legal test for conspiracies, the elements of a)mens rea (criminal intent), and b) actus reus (criminal agreement).
Would you agree with this?
I wrote yesterday at another post: http://www.dailykos.com/...
Conspiracies where the top tier offenders rely on middlemen to actually carry out the crime are "wheel conspiracies". The US Attorneys firing case, essentially, is a Wheel Conspiracy, with Gonzales and Rove acting conspirators by virtue of their knowledge of the purpose of the scheme, and underlings (Sampson and Gooding) acting as the middlemen, in an attempt to shield the higher-ups from accountability. See, below: http://faculty.ncwc.edu/...
CONSPIRACY
The essence of conspiracy is an agreement. It doesn't have to be a written one. Usually, it's inferred from the facts or circumstances. What the agreement has to be about doesn't even have to be criminal, only "unlawful". Under some statutes, a conspiracy can involve any act injurious to public health, public morals, free commerce, or any act perverting justice. Because a conspiracy by itself is almost treated as a substantive crime in itself, this is the only inchoate offense that the law permits a person to be charged with in addition to the target crime (that is, a person can be charged with both murder and conspiracy to commit murder, e.g.).
Conspiracy is the favorite tool of prosecutors. There's a lot of presumptions and procedural rules that favor the prosecution. It's easy to get a conviction for conspiracy because, basically, all the prosecutor has to do is present all the evidence and let the judge tell the jury what test will be used to determine whether an agreement existed. In most jurisdictions, proof of the agreement is sufficient; no further (overt) act is required.
In jurisdictions requiring an overt act, the standard is not as high as the law of attempt, and is basically proven by showing at least one of the conspirators had at least the intent to commit a substantive offense. Conspiracy is still a specific intent crime, so "purposively" must be used, not just knowledge, although there's a whole string of inconsistent case law that indicates erosion in this area.
The elements of conspiracy include:
(1) mens rea -- a specific intent to attain a particular criminal objective on the part of at least one person in the partnership. Purpose can be inferred from circumstances surrounding the combination, such as failure to keep records, clandestine meetings, quantities involved, continuity of the relationship, etc.
SNIP
(2) actus reus -- proof of an agreement is proof of the actus reus for conspiracy. Proof of an unwritten understanding will suffice. Most agreements are of two types, and the judge is obligated to instruct the jury how to determine the types:
*
chain conspiracy -- this usually involves the distribution of something, like drugs, where each person in the conspiracy handles the commodity at different points in the process, like with the stages of manufacture, distribution, and sale
*
wheel conspiracy -- this is where a hardcore group of participants ("middlemen") handle most of the transactions, like a hub, protecting those at the top and those at the bottom (the spokes) by only allowing them to participate is some of the transactions http://faculty.ncwc.edu/TOConnor/293/293lect05.htm
Wow, sparrow, thanks for the tips. It's nice to know that there are at least some mechanisms by which we can bust these bastids.
The higher you fly, the deeper you go.
The deeper you go, the higher you fly.
TPM has Ray McGovern up on Tucker's show.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/013911.php
The higher you fly, the deeper you go.
The deeper you go, the higher you fly.
Posted by: monkey at May 1, 2007 09:45 AM
Confucius say, "Look to the one who flies higher than a kite..."
Wolfowitz could quit if his name is cleared
Paper: World Bank chief wants the bank to clear him of wrongdoing
MSNBC News Services
Paul Wolfowitz has signaled he may consider resigning from his post as president of the World Bank, but only if the bank’s board clears him of having done anything wrong when he offered a generous compensation package to his girlfriend, according to a report on The Wall Street Journal’s Web site.
Until now, Wolfowitz has indicated he will not leave his post, criticizing what he calls a “smear campaign” against him. On Monday, he told a bank panel he had acted in good faith in securing a promotion and pay raise for his girlfriend. He said had no plans to resign, and President Bush gave him a fresh endorsement.
A change in his position could pave the way for a compromise that is being explored by the bank’s board, the paper said. Under this scenario the bank’s board, or a board panel investigating Wolfowitz, would issue a statement that at least avoids a harsh condemnation of his actions, and he would step down after that, the Journal said.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18413676/from/RS.1/
Snug as a thug in a rug.
In 1993, Sen. John McCain led an effort to cut off funds immediately for military operations in Somalia after a firefight in Mogadishu killed 18 U.S. troops. The former prisoner of war in Vietnam brought a hush to the chamber floor when he asked what would happen if Congress failed to act and more Americans died.
"On whose hands rest the blood of American troops? Ask yourself this question," said McCain, R-Arizona.
Congress ultimately agreed to back President Clinton's request to give him until March 1994 to get troops out, with funding denied after that date. In 1999, Congress passed similar legislation prohibiting money spent to keep U.S. troops in Haiti after May 2000.
"When Americans are imperiled, ultimately the president has to bear that responsibility," Clinton said at the time of the Somalia vote.
Now, McCain -- a GOP presidential contender for 2008 -- says setting a date certain on the war in Iraq is like sending a "memo to our enemies to let them know when they can operate again."
Matt David, McCain's campaign spokesman, said it is "intellectually dishonest" to compare Iraq to Haiti and Somalia because of the volatility now in the Middle East and terrorist threat.
"Haitians and Somalians do not want to follow us home and attack us on American soil," David said in a statement.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/01/congress.antiwar.ap/index.html
I was 9 years old the day Faye Aline Self disappeared. She was my aunt, my mothers baby sister.
I remember seeing her that last time, that afternoon. My uncle, (Alines brother Douglas) had taken us with him from Texas because he was supposed to fix something minor on her car. Doug, his wife, my cousin Keli and myself who was staying wih them all drove down to Coushatta. Alines daughter was 11 months old, and she was there with Aline, asleep in the very bed a killer claims he killed her momma in that night. I sat on that same bed with her, playing, feeding her a bottle.
That day was also the last time I would see Tiffany, that day and the next morning. The loss of Alines older children Karrie 10, and Petey 8, came about in the next few years because of what happened to Aline that night. Within 5 years they also were lost to our family.
But, anyways, that day, Alines last day, I remember it being so calm, very normal. Me and Keli played with our little cousin until she fell asleep on that bed. Pink comforter, yellow baby blanket. Tiffany had bright red hair, she looked so sweet.
Aline was there with a new boyfriend, after all these years, I was the only one who remembered his name. Younger. He was very handsome in a blonde type of way. Aline and he made a very pretty couple, and they seemed very....in love. He was very kind and openly affectionate twords her.
After Tiffany fell asleep me and Keli were kicked outside so the adults could visit. I remember Aline was very pretty, and that day she just seemed to glow. I think she was in love. She was 26 years old and going through a nasty divorce with Tiffs father. She had just beaten cancer. She was a tiny woman and she was always kind to me, unlike some of the other adults in my family. She was a nice person.
We were playing right in front of what I now know was Robert Brownes apartment. Wanda Hudson lived across the driveway. We never knew she existed until two monhs later when her butchered body was found there. But that day, Alines last day, was just like any other day. So calm.
Alines boyfrend left, and we went with her to the resturant she worked at. She served us lunch herself. Everyone had hamburgers except Dougs wife, BLT. Funny how you remember stupid things like that. When we left we took Tiffany with us and went to my grandparents house in Ashland Louisiana, just up the road from Coushatta. That was the last time our family saw her.
The plan was she would come that night, or the next morning and Doug would fix her car at grandpas house. We waited, but she never came. No one said 'missng' or 'vanished' then. Those words woud not enter our vocabulry until the next few days.
Doug was angry, he thought she stood him up after he had drove all the way from Houston just for her. We waited, played with Tiff, ate grandmas dinner, but then we had to go, Doug and his wife both worked for the railroad and had to get back to Houston. No one understood yet what was happening to us.
I went back to my parents house in Texas, and not long after that my mother called and found out Tiffany was still at their house and grandma was freaking out. Calls were going back and forth, before long all of us kids were lurking in doorways and hallways trying to figure out wtf was going on.
Wihin those first few days, my grandfathers neighbor and friend, a sherriffs deputy, came to my grandfather and told him Alines car was abandoned, in the parking lot of a resturant/lounge called The Wagon Wheel. He instructed my grandfather to remove the car. My grandather and other uncle did so.
And that is when all hell broke loose. As a poet, I mostly remember how the language changed. They started using the word 'missing'. "Vanished"... 'Foul Play'.
My grandmother went to the Red River Parish Sherriffs Department after the car was brought back. She tried to file a missing persons report. She was told Aline was and adult that could come and go as she pleased. Her baby was still at my grandparents, and the cops told us where to find the car, and then they refused to take a missing persons report.
They turned my grandmother away, and we can prove it. Aline was her youngest child. At one point they told my mother to her face that Aline had 'just ran off with some man'.
There are two missing persons reports now in the police file from that time, but we can also prove both of them are fake. Police forgeries. Most likely put in later for some asscovering. More on that file in a minute.
At the time Aline disappeared, Kerwin Brown was the Red River Parish Sherrif. The DA was Bill Jones, he is still he DA even now. But in 1983, Kerwin Brown was runnng for re-election and my grandpa was a political player. The man running against Brown was named Buddy Huckabee. Huckabee started making behind he curtain promises to my grandfther. Something to the effect of 'Help me get eleced and I will find your daughter.'
Then, two months after Aline disappeared, the savaged body of Wanda Hudson was found in her apartment. Across he driveway from Alines apartment. Her family immediately named Robert Chareles Brown as a suspect. He was at his apartment, also 50 feet away when she was found. He was never questioned. His father was a Red River Deputy, an his brother, who owned the apartmets was a hero ex-trooper, shot and permenantly disabled while trying to stop a robbery.
We can also prove by that time his name, Robert, was also in Alines 'case file' but more on that in a second. Buddy Huckabee immediately started using Wandas murder as a campiagn platform. 'Elect me and I will keep your daughters safe'. Something like that.
It woked, and Huckabee was eleced as Red River Parish Sheriff 4 months after Aline disapeared and two months after Wandas body was found.
A week or so after taking office, my mother clearly describes what happened when Huckabee came to my grandparents house.
My mother and grandmother went to a bedroom off the livingroom, and sat in the dark listening to the confrontation between my grandfather and the new sheriff.
Sherrif Huckabee told my grandfather that Alines police case file had been found in the trunk of Kerwin Browns patrol car, and the contents completely purged. They even took her dental records. He did not tell us Wanda Hudsons murder file was also found in that same trunk. We did'nt know that till last year.
Anyways, Huckabee also told my grandfather a 'copy' of Alines drivers liscense was found 'at Kerin Browns house'.
My mother says my grandfather EXPLODED and started calling Kerwn Brown 'that lying son of a bitch!' repeatedly.
My mom helped track down another copy of Alines dental records. The Red River Parish sheriffs department never once mounted any search for Faye Aline Self. Nothing was explained.
There are still no answers at all to any of the most basic and obvious questions. The Red River Paish sheriffs department has lied through their teeth about any and every single thing we have ever asked them. The lies are so many and so complex I could spend hours writing about each of them. Twenty four damn years of lies. Lies about murder.
Huckabee was still sheriff when a killer named Henry Lee Lucas was brought to bay in Texas and started confessing to everythng they put in front of him. He confessed to Alines murder, and something very strange happened.
Lucas we know for a fact was making a false confession, but, they(the cops) said he drew a map to clothes. In Desoto Parish. A place we are sure he never went too. But, Huckabee went there, and lo and behold a pair of jeans, a shirt, and an empty purse were there. Womens clothing, roughly matching Alines in description and size. She was a size 4.
And without any warning at all, Huckabee again returned to my grandparents and told my grandma of Lucas 'confession' and oh by the way, are these Alines clothes?
My grandmother literally went into shock on he spot and could not walk for days. My mother was called to Louisiana immediately, they took turns holding grandma under a cold shower and sitting with her as she sobbed for hours on end.
There was some talk after that it was a 'false' confession. Some of us chose to believe it anyway, because it was easier than ...nothing. More years passed. More lies and obstruction from the Red River Parish Sheriffs Department. And the DAs office.
And the clothes that were recovered? They were logged into the evidence vault where they promtly went missing as surely as Aline had vanished. The current sheriff has no idea how that happened nor does he really seem concerned about it.
And through all of the years, there are may other stories going around. More murdered and missng women. And the ever present rumors of drug running cops. Cops landing 'little planes full of drugs in the swamps' that were offloaded into 'police cars' on clandestine landing strips.
We have an eyewitness to it. Wanda Hudsons cousin who was raised wih her. He said he saw Kerwin Brown doing that very thing some 6 months before Wanda was found ..butchered. We have reason to believe my grandfather also saw something to that effect.
They always tried tellng us Aline and Wandas' deaths were not related. Even after they knew about Robert Browne in Colorado, they were still telling our family "We KNOW who killed Wanda, it was that boyfriend of hers that found her body, we just never could make a case against him'. That boyfriends name so happened to be John Higgs, the town pharmacist. So not kidding.
And I hope one day John Higgs sues their ass for libel, slander, and all the money they extorted from his parents before he finally was run out of town. Both his parents died thinking he may have done it. And if he does sue them I will gladly testify how even 3 years ago the Red River Parish Sheriffs department was telling me he was a killer.We now know, they already knew about Robert Brownes confessing to Wanda, but they still lied anyway.
Years before we even knew the Colorado authoriies were involved, the cops there had already refused to deal with Red River and went to the state police instead.( Apparently the Red River Parish Sheriffs department vanish a lot of important evidence,I can not say what because it is...sensitive, but the files and clothes are not the only missing police evidence.) We never were informed of Colorado in any way, until we stood there watching TV saying Robert Browne had confessed to 48 murders, including Alines and Wandas. My mother went into shock and wept and screamed for 3 days after.
And, pretty much from there, you know the rest.
None of the most basic questions have been answered. Aline is still missing. Her parents died not knowing what happened to their youngest child. Alines children were ripped away from our family due to not having any legal standing to fight for them. I last saw Tiffany that day, 24 years ago.
Karrie and Petey were around a few more years, us couins had a few more years to play together, then they too were swept away from our family by traitors inside my family I will leave nameless, for now. Petey wound up in an orphanage, Karrie a foster home. I last saw them when I was 13 years old. 20 years ago.
I was 9 when her mother disappeared, Karrie was 10. She was my friend and my cousin. The loss of her and her siblings is what I remember most, even more clearly than I can remember their mother, it was their vanishing I remember hurt so damn bad. Hearing the adults worry and cry for them is still painful even in memory. Even as a teenager I would think of them and just feel a horrible dread in my soul. They were just kids.
Losing Aline triggered the loss of all 4 of them.
But Karrie is coming home again this month. For a long weekend. The State Police are coming to my house for a big dinner the night she gets here.
Yeah, I know, police invited to dine at my house. Freaky but ok.
After 24 years, it should be one very interesting day.
PS.... As a sidenote, I would like to point out what happened to Buddy Huckabee. Red River Sheriff from 83 to 2000
For all these years we waited for Kerwin Bown, sheriff up til 83, to be questioned about what they were doing. He died long before that could happen.
Huckabee was still alive though when the Robert Browne story broke. Trooper Allen, La state police, is now in charge of Aline and Wandas murder case. We had waited all these years for one cop to simply question another cop.
Trooper Allen sets up a meeting with Huckabee to finally offically question him. They were suppossed to meet first thing that morning, and it is called off at the last moment, because Huckabee has a stroke so bad, he winds up dying from it.
The day he knew he would be finally questioned, his brain exploded.
It is just like everything else in this case, so unfair, and so curious at the same time.
Oh Christy.
(((hugs)))
Christy,
Thanks for sharing your story with us. It's taken me a while to post back to you because it's difficult to know what to say. (((Hugs))) about says it all. But I'll add that there are invisible bonds of friendship and love in this group. We care about you and will be sending some TLC your way, even if you can't see it, it's there.
Days late to see this here. Thanks for the memories. I remember this oh so well living right down the road from Seabrook.