No PEACE for George this summer

Camp Casey III and Iraq

By Cindy Sheehan

After BushCo's stooge, Nouri al-Maliki was in America last week thanking soldiers for their sacrifices in helping the USA kill and oppress his very own people and thanking Congress for giving George a blank check to spend how he sees fit to kill and oppress the Iraqi people, almost 4,000 of our soldiers in Alaska's 172nd Stryker Brigade were shown how much they are appreciated by having their enlistments extended another 120 days.

I saw the Angel of Death in the skin of Donald Rumsfeld say, while he was busy rushing in or out of the Pentagon (it doesn't really matter), that it is "unfortunate" that the soldiers have to remain in Iraq. I think it is unfortunate for our troops and for the innocent people of Iraq and Afghanistan that Donald Rumsfeld has to remain as the Secretary of War.

I can't imagine how disappointed the families and the soldiers must feel. The 172nd has been in the violent Anbar Province for almost a year and I am sure they and their families were starting to really look forward to their homecoming. I can imagine that there are more than a few mothers out there who were allowing themselves to start breathing again. I am sure mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, children, aunts and uncles, and extended friends and family were already planning coming home parties and anticipating the enormous hugs and overwhelming sense of relief that would accompany their soldiers home, too. Now the 172nd will be redeployed to Baghdad to be right smack dab in the middle of sectarian violence and back in the thick of things. Four more months of heat, spiders the size of puppies, MREs, anxiety and peril; as their Secretary of War and Commander in Chief drive around DC in cushy air-conditioned and up-armored SUVs and also get to sleep in comfy beds, cozy in the fact that the sacrifices of our children and their families are guaranteeing Exxon and other war bandits billions of dollars in profits.

Right-wing people who support the killing of innocent men, women, and children, are trying to stir up crap about my land purchase in Crawford, Tx to run Camp Casey. The worst thing that I have heard a Crawford resident say is that I am a "dumb Democrat." The crap that NEEDS to be stirred up in Crawford is that George and Co have the nerve to go on vacation when our soldiers can't get home after serving in the vile mess that BushCo created. Instead of working for peace and stability in the region, our continued presence there is encouraging and causing the violence. Our troops need to be removed---not increased.

Recent polls showed that 72% or our troops wanted to start coming home by the end of this year and 83% of the Iraqi people want the occupation to end. Those numbers are significant if only for the fact that they are probably low---soldiers and occupied peoples have never felt at liberty, or even secure to share their feelings with the oppressors.

To this end of creating a peace plan that the Iraqi people want and can feel comfortable and secure with (it is, after all, their country), a contingent of peace activists, including myself, will travel to Amman, Jordan to meet with Iraqi Parliamentarians who don't parrot what BushCo wants them to say and would actually like coalition forces to be removed from their country. It is an historic and significant step in this abominable and shameful episode of our history. The meeting is also highly significant since our State Department has been transformed into an adjunct of the War Department and is headed by the Deputy Secretary of War: Condi Rice. We have no diplomats in our country: just war mongers who can clear brush, shop for shoes, and laugh at gullible Americans all the way to the bank while they are depositing their war profits.

We will be meeting with the Iraqi representatives in Amman on August 4th, and many of us will return to Camp Casey in Crawford on August 6th to outline the plan and present a way that Americans and Iraqis can work together to end the killing on both sides of the conflict. August 6th is also a very meaningful date for me because it is the same day, one year ago, that I originally sat in the ditch with other peace mongers and we were eventually joined by thousands of peace mongers from all over the world.

On that day, we will ask to meet with George again to brief him on our meeting with real Iraqis who live, work, and raise their families outside of the Green Zone and outside of the influence of DC. Due to past performance, I don't think he will meet with us, (not very neighborly) but I am sure he will know that we are there and we have an Iraqi driven plan when his only plan is to kill more people because so many have already been killed---which is what "stay the course" and "honor the sacrifices of the fallen" really mean. George is so comfortable cutting and running from Crawford when he feels threatened by the truth, I wish he would cut our soldiers loose from the nightmare of occupation and allow Iraqis to run their own country.

Please come to Camp Casey this year, or donate to help promote peace for our time and our world. Since George has rescheduled his summer to avoid us, we will reschedule our summer to not allow him the pleasure of having a leisurely vacation while the Middle East is burning because of his policies.

If we can't count on our leaders to solve conflicts non-violently, then we must count on ourselves.

We need to get busy putting peace into practice. This is the time to do it and Camp Casey is the place where it will get done.

The Camp Casey dates have been changed to accommodate George's schedule and will be August 6th to September 2nd. Please go to the Gold Star Families for Peace website to stay posted on future exciting developments for Camp Casey III this summer.

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan who was killed in Iraq on 04/04/04. She is the co-founder and President of Gold Star Families for Peace and currently on Day 27 of the Troops Home Fast.

Gerry Fonseca shows the land that he purchased on behalf of war protestor Cindy Sheehan in Crawford, Texas, Friday, July 28, 2006. War protesters will have a new and bigger gathering place when they return in August to President Bush's adopted hometown: a 5-acre lot bought with insurance money Sheehan received after her son was killed in Iraq. (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam)

Gerry Fonseca, a fellow war protester who acted as Cindy Sheehan's agent, shows the land that he purchased on behalf of Sheehan in Crawford, Texas, Friday, July 28, 2006. War protesters will have a new and bigger gathering place when they return in August to President Bush's adopted hometown: a 5-acre lot bought with insurance money Sheehan received after her son was killed in Iraq. (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam)

Gerry Fonseca talks to a reporter Friday, July 28, 2006, at a site near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he purchased land on behalf of war protester Cindy Sheehan. Sheehan plans to return to Crawford in August to protest the war. (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam)

South Florida Peace Events

Atrocities of War

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author and

Miami Herald Investigations Editor

Mike Sallah

Speaks on his book Tiger Force, A True Story of Men and War, one of the great military cover-ups of the 20th Century and perhaps the last great secret of the Vietnam War. Particularly relevant today given growing revelations of atrocities in Iraq committed by US forces.

Saturday, July 29^th

1pm at American Legion Post #29,

6445 NE 7^th Avenue, Miami

7pm at St. Maurice’s Catholic Church,

2851 Stirling Road, Dania Beach

Also speaking:

Camilo Mejia, Iraq War Veteran and Conscientious Objector

Patrick McCann, National Board Member, Veterans For Peace

*A fund-raiser for Veterans For Peace, to help South Florida veterans attend the Veterans For Peace Convention in Seattle August 10 – 13

For more information, contact Sam Feldman at 305-588-4247 or Patrick McCann at unityact2@aol.com

***************************************

PEACE RALLY this Saturday 7/29/06


HELP RAISE AWARENESS AND
STOP THE BLOODSHED IN LEBANON


Please join us.

Location:
Torch of Friendship
Las Palomas Park (BAY SIDE)
Biscayne Boulevard and 2nd Street
N.E. Downtown Miami

Time:
Saturday July 29, 2006 @1 P.M.
For questions, call Samer @ 205-566-6777
Email: samzman777@yahoo.com

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COME OUT. IF NOT FOR
YOURSELF, AND NOT FOR YOUR FAMILY BACK HOME, THEN
FOR THE INNOCENT LITTLE CHILDREN WHO ARE BEING
KILLED EVERY DAY IN THIS WAR.

*********************************************

We are getting permits for the locations below. Please spread the word!

---

Join a Rolling Thunder of Voices against the War!

Protest Wrong Way Bush Sunday August 30^th at 10 am in Miami

Bring your homemade protest signs and sunscreen!

· Protest begins with a 10am rally at the John F. Kennedy Torch of Friendship at Bayfront Park near Bayside on Biscayne Boulevard in Downtown Miami.

· Protest will then move along the East (Miami-side) and West (Miami Beach-side) MacArthur Causeway bridges as Bush travels to the Coast Guard.

· Protest then moves to the Port of Miami Bridge just East off Biscayne Boulevard between Bayside and the AA Arena as Bush visits there.

· The protest concludes with a 2 pm rally at the JFK Torch of Friendship at Bayfront Park near Bayside on Biscayne Boulevard in Downtown Miami.

Take mass transit to Bayside and then after the rally to the Omni Bus Terminal/ Metromover Station and walk to the Miami-side MacArthur Causeway bridge or take the C, K, M, or S Metrobus to the Miami Beach-side MacArthur Causeway bridge. Then back to the Freedom Tower Metromover Station to walk to the Port of Miami Bridge and the JFK Torch of Friendship at Bayfront Park.

****************************************

The War Tapes
Director: Deborah Scranton

Straight from the front lines in Iraq, THE WAR TAPES
is the first war movie filmed by soldiers themselves.
These soldiers bypassed Pentagon supervised media to
share their experience like never before. Funnier,
spicier, and more gut wrenching than news reports,
this is Operation Iraqi Freedom as filmed by Sergeant
Steve Pink, Sergeant Zack Bazzi and Specialist Mike
Moriarty. Steve is a wisecracking carpenter who
aspires to be a writer. Zack is a Lebanese-American
university student who loves to travel and is fluent
in Arabic. Mike is a father who seeks honor and
redemption. Each leaves a woman behind - a girlfriend,
a mother and a wife. Through their candid footage,
these men open their hearts and take us on an
unforgettable journey, capturing camaraderie and humor
along with the brutal and terrifying experiences they
face. These soldiers got the story that 2,700 embedded
reporters never could.

Friday, August 4 - 6pm, 8pm
A "no holds barred" Q&A with "Soldier with a Camera"
and Specialist Mike Moriarty will follow the Friday,
6pm screening.
Saturday, August 5 - 3pm, 5pm, 7pm
Sunday, August 6 - 3pm, 5pm, 7pm 

Casey's Mom buys land in Crawford to hold Camp Casey

Cindy told me about this when I got to see her last week. Very cool way to get around the freedom they are trying to take away in George's home town of Crawford. I hope she holds on to that peice of land for a very long time.

FYI: My friends, the Arredondo's, are going through some hard times right now. If you can, please help them either by sending them a note of well wishes or with money. Carlos hasn't worked in a long time. Brian, their son, is having a hard time and Melida has had to handle it all. Please help them if you are able.

May peace be inside all of us
Cindy

Sheehan buys plot in Crawford with son's insurance money

By JACK DOUGLAS JR.

STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

SHEEHAN

CRAWFORD -- As President Bush prepares to spend some vacation time at his ranch here, not all is peaceful within the peace movement that has doggedly criticized his war policies for the past year.

The Gold Star Families for Peace says on its Web site that its members will again flock to Crawford in August to protest Bush's wartime decisions. Leader Cindy Sheehan is again demanding to meet with the president -- a replay of a year ago -- garnering worldwide attention and making Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier, the most familiar face of anti-war protesters.

But Sheehan and Mark Mattlage, owner of the 1-acre property where protesters have been allowed to gather, have had a falling out over scheduling and increased costs for liability insurance.

So, Sheehan has purchased a 5-acre plot in Crawford, saying she did so with some of the insurance money she received after her son, Casey Sheehan, was killed in Iraq.

"We decided to buy property in Crawford to use until George's resignation or impeachment, which we all hope is soon for the sake of the world," Sheehan said in a newsletter, scheduled to be sent to her supporters today. "I can't think of a better way to use Casey's insurance money than for peace, and I am sure that Casey approves."

Now an official resident of Crawford, like Bush, Sheehan predicted in the newsletter that she and her supporters will "enjoy a cordial relationship with everyone."

The anti-war gathering in this tiny town, 20 miles west of Waco, is scheduled for Aug. 16 through Sept. 2. But there is a question about whether protesters will ever get within shouting distance of the president since he is scheduled to be at his ranch mainly during the first two weeks of August, before the protests get under way.

In an e-mail to the Star-Telegram, Sheehan called Mattlage's family "heroic" for "their contribution to the peace movement." Referring to the property used last year, she added: "We left them with a better property and one with amazing positive and peaceful energy."

Mattlage, who no longer lives near Crawford, said he is a registered Democrat but has not opposed Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq. He said he did not lend his land to the protesters for political reasons. Instead, Mattlage said, he was worried that someone would get hurt if anti-war advocates continued to assemble just off Prairie Chapel Road, leading up to the president's ranch.

"We're kind of peacemakers. We didn't want to see anybody get run over on that road ... and we knew nobody else would offer" land, Mattlage said.

He said he did not charge for the use of the land but did require the protest group to reimburse him for the cost of liability insurance, initially amounting to between $700 and $800. For subsequent gatherings, including Thanksgiving and then Easter, Crawford Peace House paid to put in electrical and water lines.

Mattlage said he had no idea so many Sheehan supporters would gather on his property, and he acknowledged some of what the protesters said about Bush and the U.S. in the war made him cringe.

"I did not want a Jane Fonda incident," he said, referring to the actress's 1972 visit to a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft camp that earned her the famous nickname "Hanoi Jane."

Despite some misgivings, the business relationship between Sheehan and Mattlage was friendly and, at times, jokingly flirtatious, according to an exchange of e-mails between the two, provided to the Star-Telegram by Mattlage.

The relationship began to sour somewhat, he said, when he recently learned on the group's Web site that protesters planned to return to Crawford in August. He said he did not agree to let them use the land at that time because it coincided with his family's plans to hunt doves. He said he also did not want Sheehan to use his property when Bush was at his ranch. "I just didn't want his vacation to be interrupted. It was out of respect for the president," Mattlage said.

He said he eventually agreed to let Gold Star Families for Peace use his land in August but only with the understanding that, because of the expected huge crowds, liability insurance costs were going to increase significantly to between $5,500 and $6,000. Mattlage said that, on the advice of his lawyer, he also told the protest group to sign a "hold harmless" agreement that would further free him of liability if something went wrong.

In a newsletter e-mailed to Mattlage and protest organizers on June 23, Sheehan told Mattlage, "I cannot in good faith accept the terms that you and your lawyers are holding us hostage with. ... I fear we will have to find alternatives to using your land ... "

Saying and feeling the same as Cindy Sheehan

I got to spend some time with Cindy Sheehan and her sister DeDe last Friday for a few hours. It was the first time I got to see her and DeDe but we were friends from the moment we hugged.

We talked about how this all has to stop. Someone has to draw the line in the sand and say "I'm not going to be a part of this killing". I told Cindy, It comes down to if you were being attacked by someone how far would you go to destroy that person for yourself? For me, I couldn't kill another human. I would take what they did to me but I could never lower myself down to their level of ending another precious life. Now, I ask myself if my children were involved what would I do? I would protect my children but still I could not take away precious life given to someone.

But with that, we all have life lessons to learn. The lessons will only repeat themselves to us until we learn the lesson being taught. How many times will we allow the lesson to repeat itself?

May peace be inside all of us
Cindy

Helplessly Hoping

Day 21

Troops Home Fast
By Cindy Sheehan

I have been in such a blue funk of depression and worry since Israel's over-reaction---or "over action" in Lebanon in what seems to be insanity escalating out of control. What our media and some world leaders seem to expediently forget is that Israel massacred an entire family on a beach in Lebanon with a rocket and kidnapped two Palestinian citizens before Hezbollah and Hamas kidnapped some Israeli soldiers. Who started the cycle of violence in those countries? Who knows? Who cares! The important question is: who is going to be the courageous one(s) with integrity, wisdom and compassion that is going to at long last stop the absurdity?

As hard as I may try, I cannot wrap my mind around the fanatical rhetoric coming out of DC and from all over the world and the mindless and seemingly overwhelming support of Israel's right to "defend itself." What Israel is doing in Lebanon by killing hundreds of innocent civilians in a relatively short period of time is like the US defending itself from the tens of thousands of innocent babies, women and children in Iraq. It is morally reprehensible and just an extension of BushCo's campaign to enrich the voracious war profiteers.

I read yesterday that our State Department approved a new shipment of bombs and rockets to Israel. With the thousands upon thousands of US made bombs and rockets being dropped on Lebanon by the IDF it makes one wonder if the expiration dates on the bombs were nearing and the war machine needed to sell and ship more bombs so that the CEO's could fill their Hummers, limos, and jets with gas. Naively, I always presumed that the State Department was there to prevent the use of military force not support it by authorizing more weapons for more efficient killing! Don't we have a War Department for more killing? I feel like I am living in Bizarro World.

I have been watching a lot of cable news networks and have heard such one-sided phrases as: "Over 50 civilians killed in Lebanon today, but the real story is in the Israeli city of Nazareth, where two Hezbollah rockets landed." Why is that the real story Tucker Carlson? It is an immensely tragic story because two harmless children were killed in Nazareth, but how does it trump over 50 civilians being killed in Lebanon? Oh yeah, I forgot! John Bolton said that there is no " moral equivalency" between innocent Arabs being killed and innocent Israelis being killed. It's not immoral for Israel to kill innocent civilians because they are fighting terror with more terror: it's the American Way!

One day I heard another perfectly coiffed and composed talking head say while the fancy war graphics rolled across the TV screen in my hotel room: "This is day 12 of fighting in the Middle East." Day 12! Try selling that idiotic sound bite to the people of Iraq and who are dying by the dozens still everyday in increasing violence. Try telling our soldiers who keep on dying over there that this is "Day 12"…It is more like 2567 on day 1200 plus of fighting in Iraq. The war crimes in Israel and Lebanon have so conveniently knocked Iraq completely off the radar screen which is probably a thing of beauty and a welcome development to the White House and Pentagon.

We are being told that a few hundred people have been killed in Lebanon when we were shown a mass grave on CNN in the ancient city of Tyre that had almost 90 coffins in it being presided over by a distraught mayor telling us that at least two or three hundred more of his city's residents were buried in the rubble of the barbaric Israeli attacks. Tyre is one city and we viewed the mass grave days ago. Tyre and the rest of the country are being relentlessly bombed for the sins of a few which is a crime against humanity.

It seems like we are arm chair witnesses to Armageddon and ashamed witnesses to our fool of a President at the G-8: groping women; talking, eating, and swearing with his mouth full; drooling over slicing a pig and generally acting like a drunken and amorous frat boy at a toga party. I would like to ask George Bush a few more questions besides, "What noble cause?" Like: "What the hell is so humorous you jester in a tailored suit? You told us that you were making the world a safer place because of your War of Terror, and you are decidedly not!" I would also like to ask him if he is proud of himself for the way things are going on the 1200 th plus day of fighting in the Middle East. Of course it is not about pride---it is about profit and the Project for a New American Century.

I mourn for the murders of the Israeli people, which are just as tragic (but not more tragic) and done just as barbarically (but not more barbarically) as the murders that Israel is commiting in this needless violence, as much as I mourn the deaths of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and the innocents in all Arab countries who are trapped in this insane spiral of bedlam. When is the world going to realize that bloodshed cannot be stopped, cured or even alleviated by shedding more blood? Killing is a cancer that spreads the more it is fed. This disease is spreading around the world and instead of passing resolutions to condone the punishment of an innocent civilian population; Congress should be passing resolutions condemning ALL types of violence and should be supporting Rep. Dennis Kucinich's (D-Oh) ( H.Con.Res 450) call for a truce so a diplomatic solution can be sought---one that brings ALL sides to the table and one that ALL sides can feel comfortable and safer with. The only way to a "lasting cease fire" that the weapons broker, Condi, keeps talking about is a negotiated settlement that includes and insists on peaceful co-existence in the region.

Martin Luther King, Jr said it is either; "Peaceful co-existence or mutual co-annihilation." Our planet is headed on a path of annihilation if we don't all stop and take a deep breath, relax and realize that our brothers and sisters are being killed in the Middle East so that more bombs and rockets can be rushed there (on all sides) and so that our oil companies can have total control of the world's oil resources.

I have felt so helpless in the face of such unwarranted carnage, calamity, and sorrow. I have felt hopeless that anything I do can even alleviate the suffering of one person. I am helplessly hoping that the people of the world will join me and rise up to say a collective: "In God's (Allah's---whatever's) name: enough is more than enough, already!"

One last quote: Dwight David Eisenhower said that: "I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it." I believe that we the people of Earth should demand that our governments get out of our way and stop be beholden to the war machine and allow us to have peace. Selfishly, I would love to have a world that my surviving children and their children can peacefully co-exist with peoples of other nations in.

I recognize Israel's right to defend itself as I recognize the US's right to defend ourselves as I recognize Lebanon's and Iraq's right to defend themselves---but I donot, cannot, and will not recognize anyone's right to commit wholesale slaughter on babies and children. I refuse to recognize that right no matter who does it---terrorists or state-sanctioned wars of terror---I refuse to recognize the right to slaughter and, whether it makes a difference, or not, I refuse to be silent about it.

It must stop: For my children, your children and their children.

They are all our children.

Listen up! Stop using 9/11 as an excuse for Iraq

I got this email. I think you should be aware of what our kids have to go through in Iraq. Except I have one problem with this email..........
THE PEOPLE WHO DID 9/11 HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IRAQ!!!!!!

Well, In a way they did. Please do your homework and figure out the truth for yourself. There's enough information out there. The only reason there was a 9/11 was to make Iraq happen. Stop being so stupid to the truth. You think all these events just happened? It was all part of their plan. Everything that is happening right now is all part of their grand plan for us. These people who are running our country, and the world are sick selfish people who are going to destroy us all if they get their way.

AND Stop going to Walmart. Their part of the problem.


May peace be inside all of us,
Cindy

I HOPE I DO NOT HEAR OF ANYONE BREAKING THIS ONE OR SEE DELETED

This is a ribbon for soldiers fighting in Iraq. Pass it on to everyone and pray.

Something good will happen to you tonight at 11:11 PM. This is not a joke. Someone will either call you or will talk to you online and say that they love you. Do not break this chain.
Send this to 13 people in the next 15 minutes. Go.

SLEEP LAST NIGHT?

Bed a little lumpy...



Toss and turn any...


Wish the heat was higher...


Maybe the a/c wasn't on...


Had to go to the john...


Need a drink of water...



?

?

?

Scroll down

Yes... It is like that!

Count your blessings, pray for them,

Talk to your Creator
and
the next time when..

the other car cuts you off and you must hit the brakes,
or you have to park a little further from Walmart than you want to be,
or you're served slightly warm food at the restaurant,
or you're sitting and cursing the traffic in front of you,

or the shower runs out of hot water,



Think of them...

Protecting your freedom!

DO NOT DELETE-PLS PASS ON-Message from Iraq

The proud warriors of Baker Company wanted to do something to pay tribute To our fallen comrades. So since we are part of the only Marine Infantry Battalion left in Iraq the one way that we could think of doing that is By taking a picture of Baker Company saying the way we feel. It would be awesome if you could find a way to share this with our fellow countrymen. I
was wondering if there was any way to get this into your papers to let the world know that "WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN" and are proud to serve our country." Semper Fi
1stSgt Dave Jobe

The attached photo was forwarded from one of the last U.S. Marine companies in Iraq. They would like to have it passed to as many people as possible, to let the folks back home know that they remember why they're there and that they remember those who've been lost.

Conyers vs. Bush

Conyers v. Bush

I wanted to update you on the lawsuit I have filed against George W. Bush and members of his administration, referred to in legal parlance as Conyers v. Bush.

You are likely familiar with a number of steps I have taken to challenge the legality and constitutional grounds of the Administration's actions. From the lead up to Iraq, to the Downing Street Minutes, to the outing of a CIA agent, to warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens, I have called loudly for the Bush White House to explain itself.

Donate Now and Help Me Fight Back and Work Toward a New Democratic Majority Schoolhouse Rock - I'm Just a Bill Legal Filing at Talk Left

I decided to file suit against the President in Federal Court in Michigan, along with 11 Senior Democratic Members of Congress. This suit was necessary because of a clear violation of the constitution. When the President signed the Deficit Reduction Act (which "reduced" the deficit by cutting taxes, health care benefits, and student loans), he signed into law a bill that had not passed the House and Senate. A different version of the bill passed each house of Congress with a multi-billion dollar difference in funding for life-saving medical equipment.

Anyone who ever watched Schoolhouse Rock knows this to be a problem.

Given the stakes involved I felt it was imperative to aggressively take this fight to the courts. The President's lawyers tried to get the bill dismissed, but late last week I responded with legal filings that stand up for the rule of law and the Constitution and hope to bring the President, and our United States government, back under the rule of law.

I wanted to email you this news today to update you on our efforts and to thank you for your help and support. Thank you also for your continued dedication to a better democracy.

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr.

Do you know how many today as you go about your day?

2558

2 Americans, dozens of Iraqis killed

By Robert H. Reid / Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two American soldiers were killed Saturday in Baghdad, seven Shiite construction workers were gunned down and five Sunni civilians were blown up, deepening the capital's security crisis. Shiite politicians called on the prime minister to cancel his visit to Washington to protest Israel's attacks in Lebanon.

One U.S. soldier died in the second of two roadside bombs that exploded in east Baghdad at mid-morning. An Iraqi civilian was killed by the first blast, police said. Another American soldier died Saturday evening when gunmen attacked his patrol with small arms fire, the military said.

The seven Shiite workers were killed and two were wounded when gunmen opened fire on a construction site near Baghdad International Airport, police said. Later Saturday, a mortar shell killed five civilians at a market in the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Amil in west Baghdad, police said.

The violence appeared to be part of the tit-for-tat reprisal killings by Sunni and Shiite extremists which have led to a dramatic deterioration of security in the Iraqi capital.

Two rockets also blasted the heavily guarded Green Zone, which includes the U.S. and British embassies as well as major Iraqi government offices, but the U.S. military said there were no casualties.

U.S. troops also reported killing 15 gunmen in a three-hour firefight in Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad.

With violence rising, the United States is moving to bolster American troop strength in the Baghdad area, putting on hold plans to draw down on the 127,000-member U.S. military mission in Iraq.

The security crisis in Baghdad is expected to figure prominently when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki meets President Bush at the White House on Tuesday. U.S. officials are expected to push al-Maliki, a Shiite, to move quickly to calm sectarian tensions and abolish Shiite militias blamed for much of the violence.

But the visit comes amid rising anger among Iraqis over Israel's attacks in Lebanon, launched after Shiite Hezbollah militiamen seized two Israeli soldiers.

On Saturday, the Fadhila party, which is part of al-Maliki's Shiite alliance, urged the prime minister to call off his visit.

"Fadhila demands that the prime minister cancel his visit to the U.S. in solidarity with the Lebanese people and over what is going on there, the disasters due to the Zionist aggression amid international silence about these crimes," party official Sheik Sabah al-Saiedi told The Associated Press.

Despite public anger over Lebanon, the Shiite political establishment has too much to lose politically by risking its ties with the Americans over the fate of Hezbollah.

Nevertheless, al-Maliki, a former Shiite activist who spent years in exile in Syria, has condemned Israel's offensive and has complained that the United States and the international community have not done enough to stop it.

Al-Maliki told reporters he would convey that message personally to Bush.

"The hostile acts against Lebanon will have effects on the region and we are not far from what is going on in Lebanon," al-Maliki said. "We will speak with the United Nations and American government to call for a cease-fire quickly."

Al-Maliki spoke following the first meeting of a government committee formed to reconcile Iraq's disparate sectarian and political groups, but differences emerged immediately between top Shiite and Sunni officials over the issue of amnesty for insurgents.

Al-Maliki told reporters that despite his proposal for amnesty for some insurgents, "all those whose hands were tainted with blood should be brought to justice."

But the Sunni speaker of parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, snapped back, saying that "if we punish a person who killed an American soldier, who is an occupier, we should punish the American soldiers who killed an Iraqi who fought against occupation."

Most of the insurgents who have been fighting U.S. forces are Sunnis. The United States and the Iraqi government have sought to reach out to selected insurgent groups in hopes of convincing them to lay down their arms.

In other news Saturday:

• 10 Iraqi soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb struck a convoy in Karmah, west of Fallujah in the insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, police Lt. Ahmed Ali said.

• Three people died and five were injured in a bombing and shooting in the market in Baqouba, where U.S. forces killed five civilians the day before. The U.S. military expressed regret over the civilian deaths and blamed extremists for putting civilians in danger.

• An American soldier died Thursday of a non-combat related injury, the U.S. military reported. He was assigned to the 43rd Military Police Brigade.

• One civilian was killed when masked gunmen attacked Iraqi police in Mosul, and three gunmen died in an a separate firefight with police there.

My friends the Arredondo's speak about their son Alex

Grieving parents speak against the war
By Joe Cohen jcohen@theacorn.com

IN MEMORIAM-Carlos and Mlida Arredondo brought a symbolic flag-draped coffin to the Thousand Oaks Library, where they spoke about their son, Alexander, a Marine killed in Iraq.

As dozens filed in to the Thousand Oaks Library to hear the parents of a 20-year-old Marine speak about his death in Iraq, Carlos Arredondo, the father of the soldier, was busy taping poster-sized color photos of his lost son on the front wall of the library.

There was a picture of Marine Alex Arredondo in full uniform, another of him holding a gun, and another of Alex smiling next to his little brother John. And then two more posters were hung. Poster No. 4, of Alex lying in an open coffin, makeup disguising the wound from the fatal bullet that entered his temple and took his life in Iraq. Poster No. 5, a picture of his headstone.

Then his father wheeled in a coffin draped in an American flag with Alex's combat boots attached to the top. His uniform was draped on the coffin.

After being announced, the guest speakers from Massachusetts walked forward together and took the lectern.

REMEMBERING-An empty coffin represents killed in action.

The Global Exchange Ventura County Supporters and the Democratic Club of the Conejo Valley jointly sponsored the free lecture on July 12.

Mlida Arredondo is Alex's stepmother. His mother lives out of state and is raising a second son. She wants to maintain her privacy and does not take part in public talks about the Iraq War. Two unwelcome visitors

Mlida Arredondo told the audience that in 2003, on her husband's birthday, she heard on the radio that two Marines had been killed in Iraq.

She drove home from work that day to find that her husband had set himself on fire, having also splashed gasoline inside the van of the military men who had come to their home to deliver the bad news.

Then the fuel ignited. Arredondo was hospitalized for weeks with burns over nearly a third of his body. The Marine notifications officers were not injured. They were inside Arredondo's home, waiting to speak with Mlida.

Arredondo told the library gathering that in his sudden grief he had grabbed a hammer and gasoline from his garage, smashed the military van with the hammer and splashed gasoline inside the van. He said he had not planned to torch it, but his 64-year-old mother touched him as he poured gas into the van and startled, he flicked the button on a barbecue lighter he was holding.

The flames almost killed him, searing 26 percent of his body.

Arredondo remains angry about the way his 17-year-old son was recruited into the Marines.

"It only takes one parent's signature to allow your child to be recruited," he said. His boy pledged his allegiance to the Marines just three weeks before Sept. 11, 2001.

"The recruiter promised me my son would be okay and come home alive a better man. The day I was told he was killed I called that recruiter. There was no answer. He'd changed his phone number."

Arredondo said the government seduced his son into the military, promising him a $50,000 scholarship when he got out of the service. The scholarship offered to new recruits this year is $70,000 with an additional $20,000 signing bonus.

"What they don't tell you is that if the soldier screws up or even gets a non-battle-related injury all of the bonuses go away," he said.

Illusions and questions

Arredondo, who was born in Costa Rica, remembers what it was like when he arrived in America.

"When I first came to this country I saw Vietnam veterans sleeping on park benches," he said. "This is the most powerful country in the world and they treat their veterans like this?"

He said he felt that President Bush had lied about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction.

"In Costa Rica we had two presidents locked up in jail for being crooked and that's a Third World country. I expect more from America," he said.

Arredondo has appeared on Spanish and English language radio and television throughout the U.S. and internationally. He participated in the "Bring Them Home Now Tour," with Gold Stars Families for Peace and Military Families Speak Out, where he met with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark and Kofi Annan, secretarygeneral of the United Nations.

The Arredondos were in California visiting the Camp Pendleton base where their son had lived and trained.

Mlida Arredondo said a good Marine never leaves his friends behind, so the couple visited the base, spending six hours with the young people there, feeling an instant bond with the brave soldiers whom they consider family.

"They are a band of brothers and I love them. Any Marine is welcome in my house any time," Mlida said.

The Arredondos remain distraught that it took 10 months to receive an official e-mail from the government explaining exactly how their son was killed. "It still doesn't make much sense," Carlos said.

"They said he was engaged for three hours in heavy combat before he was shot in the temple and killed. My question is . . . where was his helmet? They said he wasn't wearing it."

'We need a change'

Mlida said that last Thanksgiving the couple went to help serve meals to homeless veterans and made a disturbing discovery.

"The vets after they serve have to go it alone. We were shocked to see that there are already homeless Iraq war veterans with medical and mental problems.

"One in five soldiers come back with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," she said. "This year the U.S. government cut $145 million from the PTSD program. That didn't make the front page.

"I talked to a veteran who told me he couldn't get a job as a security guard because he 'had no experience,'" the mother said. "I guess carrying an AK-47 for your country doesn't count towards experience."

The couple talked about their anger toward the Bush administration. "Very few of them have family who have served or have served themselves," Mlida said. "You know what I figure? That they can't handle dealing with what we are dealing with."

Carlos Arredondo has traveled with Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in the war and made national news last year by organizing protests and camping outside Bush's Texas compound. "I've seen a lot of people who believe we need a change," he said.

"I'm here from Boston and a Third World country because I believe we can make a little difference here. Republicans threw the rock (that started the war) and then they hid their hands. I'm angry. We need a change."

Tom Mullens, president of the Democratic Club of the Conejo Valley, said that having the Arredondos speak of their loss humanizes the soldiers in the Iraq war.

"I think everyone is concerned about what is going on in Iraq," Mullens said. "The human toll is sometimes hard to understand until you come into contact with someone who can relate to what it's really like, losing a son in combat."

Newbury Park resident Andy Goetz brought his three children to hear the speakers. "They see the news and what's going on in Iraq and this makes it much more personal," Goetz said. "It's important that our kids start thinking about politics and something intellectual apart from video games."

The audience reacted to the speakers' remarks with hushed silence and repeated ovations. A question and answer period followed.

The Arredondos have established three scholarships in Alex Arredondo's name. To learn more or to contact them, visit alexandercarlos.hogger.net.

McKinney in a run off because of bogus voting machines

We MUST take control of how we vote. We can not allow this to continue! These machines can't be trusted. The people running the machines can't be trusted. What will we do this time when we all vote and we know they stoll another election from us? ....What will we do? Every election it's the same stories. Every election I say to myself "we will stand up this time". But will we? OH, just pay your taxes and shut up, go about your day. Don't get involved with what your government is doing in your name. They know better than you, right? And that is how we got to the place we find ourselves in.

GO VOTE PEOPLE! SPEAK OUT WHEN THIS CRAP HAPPENS SO WE CAN MAKE IT STOP! NOT ONLY SPEAK OUT - MAKE PEOPLE WHO HAVE CONTROL OF OUR VOTING SYSTEM COUNT YOUR VOTE.

May peace be inside all of us,
Cindy

Machine Vote-Flipping Claimed in McKinney Primary

Thursday, 20 July 2006, 12:06 pm
Article: Atlanta Progressive News
By Matthew Cardinale, News Editor and National Correspondent,
Atlanta Progressive News (July 18, 2006)

(APN) ATLANTA –“You’ve got electronic voting machines. Many people called in and shared their concern. They pushed the button for Cynthia McKinney and Hank Johnson came up. It wasn’t one time, it wasn’t two times, it was many, many times,” Karen Fitzpatrick, who has been monitoring elections for US Rep. McKinney’s re-election campaign, told Atlanta Progressive News in an exclusive interview.

Let me repeat: The McKinney Campaign says they have documented complaints of voters here in Georgia whose votes FLIPPED BEFORE THEIR VERY EYES on Diebold machines.

“It started early this morning. There were well over 25 to 30 calls that came in [to the campaign office]. Many of them went to the poll manager [after this happened]. In some cases, the poll managers said there’s nothing we can do. In some cases the voter left frustrated as if their vote had been compromised, as if it had been stolen,” Fitzpatrick said.

And many voters hadn’t even selected the “cast ballot” button yet, when they were told it was already too late, Fitzpatrick said.

“I believe that was their instructions. There’s no question in my mind they were following instructions,” from the Elections Division under Cathy Cox, she said.

“The zero results report didn’t come up zero on many precincts today. Whenever it doesn’t come out a zero, that means votes didn’t get counted,” Fitzpatrick said.

McKinney’s campaign showed APN a stack of affidavits from who they say are traumatized voters. APN hopes to interview some of these voters very soon and bring you the details.

Meanwhile, Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin talked exclusively with APN. The renowned activists both flew into Atlanta especially for the McKinney campaign’s primary celebration. Sheehan told APN she hasn’t ruled out running for Congress in the future in California.

But the celebration ended up only partially a celebration in fact. McKinney had the majority of the vote, but not enough to avoid a runoff race against Mr. Hank Johnson.

“I don’t believe the results,” Fitzpatrick said, adding she expected to see problems with electronic voting and other aspects of the elections process, but didn’t expect McKinney would end up in a runoff race.

But back to the vote switching. More on Sheehan and Benjamin and their hunger strike and the McKinney celebration in a moment.

“With automated voting, you’re entrusting what you put on a ballot will be encoded [properly],” Fitzpatrick said.

The many programming insecurities in electronic voting have been covered extensively previously, including an extensive study recently by the Brennan Center.

“It doesn’t take much to say, Every tenth voter, I want you to do this with Cynthia’s vote,” Fitzpatrick said.

McKinney’s campaign has reported a volume of elections irregularities. “We had so many failures,” she said. There are situations where people got the wrong party ballot, of Democrats who received Republican ballots.

Fitzpatrick said she is also concerned with “how the state of Georgia is trying to block the poll watchers, the only eyes and ears. They want to put elections in a black box.”

Other problems included people’s polling places having been changed without them being informed, machines going down, and the slow processing speed of electronic poll books delaying the voting process.

The Congresswoman’s “passion is to ensure the rights of everyone across all color lines, that your right of Democracy is protected, that your right to vote is yours, and that the vote you cast can be counted,” Fitzpatrick said.

“We’ve got to put the public on notice that the office that’s supposed to be ensuring the integrity of the elections process is not going their job, and is working against their interest because they are disenfranchising people. Their primary job is to administer transparent elections in the view of the public,” Fitzpatrick said.

SHEEHAN, BENJAMIN ATTEND MCKINNEY PRIMARY GALA

“She stands for everything I stand for,” Cindy Sheehan told Atlanta Progressive News, when asked why she came to McKinney’s primary shindig. Sheehan is in the 15th day of her fast. Over 4,000 Americans have pledged to fast for some period of time since July 4th.

Congresswoman McKinney joined other members of Congress in fasting for one day recently. A video of a DC press conference on this is available on truthout.org under multimedia.

“She tells the truth. She speaks from the heart and integrity, even when it’s not popular sometimes,” Sheehan said.

“We need more people in Congress like her who have backbones,” Sheehan said, adding she has worked with McKinney as a result of McKinney’s role in the Out of Iraq Caucus in Congress.

“We were talking about, if it’s a volunteer army, then you should be able to volunteer to get out if the mission changes,” Sheehan said.

“I came under a lot of attack from the corporate media too,” Sheehan said, regarding McKinney’s treatment by the megacorporate press. “Like her I try to talk from my heart and stay focused on the issues.”

Sheehan told APN she has not ruled out running for US Congress in the future. She had discussed a possible challenge to US Sen. Feinstein (D-CA) this year and later decided not to do it. “I’m gonna get the troops home first. If I thought running for Senate in California could do that,” she would do it, she said. Right now she’s trying to get a lot of antiwar candidates elected including Hillary Clinton’s challenger, Mr. Tasini, in New York.

Medea Benjamin of Codepink said McKinney helped her and other activists get access to US House hearings on the treatment of detainees following the Supreme Court ruling that holding them indefinitely is unconstitutional.

“She’s one of the few people who’s been supportive over the years of the Peace Movement,” Benjamin said. “There’s a growing chasm between Congress and the grassroots movement.”

“The peace movement is at a very critical juncture because on one hand, we have managed to capture public opinion. Most people think the Invasion of Iraq was a mistake and want the troops home at the end of the year. 72% of troops themselves say this. You can’t continue to have politicians voting for the war. What’s new on this is the Iraqi side, not just Iraqi people, but the President, Vice President, and National Security Advisor,” also opposing the US occupation of Iraq.

“If we keep building opposition we will have to withdraw troops. It might happen this year or next year. Will they withdraw permanent bases, that’s another question.”

Benjamin admitted she’s been deeply affected by the fast of the last two weeks she’s been doing, she says, “to bring the troops home fast.”

“I do get a little dizzy once in a while. Like today running around in the sun. I get a little less sharp and focused. On the other hand, you feel much more grounded, centered, because you’re thinking about it all the time. Absorbing a little bit of suffering of the troops and their families and the Iraqi people,” Benjamin said.

MCKINNEY CELEBRATION INCLUDES DANCING, BIG SPEECH

The celebration included singing, dancing, poetry, musical instruments, and more. McKinney, Benjamin, Sheehan, and copious local activists including Sir Jesse of the Feminist Outlaws boogied down on the dancefloor.

It was hosted by Bessie Winn, Miss Black Georgia USA. Performances were done by Delores Major, a jazz funk electric violinist; gospel singer Wanda Trent-Phillips; dancer Trinette Ogunnusi; Antoinette Dunstan, and others.

McKinney received the most votes in the Primary, but, as we said earlier, not enough to avoid a runoff with Hank Johnson. At the end of the night she gave a passionate speech, surrounded by supporters, and in front of every major media outlet fathomable.

“Some people think by repeating something that’s not true makes it so. Just repeating a lie doesn’t make it true,” McKinney said.

“I’m the one who tells the truth. On what George Bush knew about 9/11. I put my body against the war machine, against the wheels and the levers of the machine. And I said you’ve got to stop it.”

“We believe in the power of the people over special interests every time. I have a strong and uncompromising position against the war machine. It is outrageous [US Secretary of Defense] Rumsfeld can go before Congress and say $2,500,000,000,000 [2.5 trillion dollars] was lost and our children are suffering.”

“I have said [much] about this and so much more... The Carlyle Group... The defense contracts of Haliburton. I don’t mind speaking truth to power.”

“I’m asking the people of the 4th Congressional District to stand with me now... who think America is on the wrong track and think America can do better.”

“Quite frankly, we’ve been in this place before, but you know what? It is impossible to keep a good woman down. I intend to fight the good fight. I will continue to tell the truth. I will challenge anyone who tries to destroy anything [I’ve built]. This battle is now engaged. We intend to win.”

*************

About the author:

Matthew Cardinale is the News Editor and a National Correspondent for Atlanta Progressive News and may be reached at matthew@atlantaprogressivenews.com This article contained additional reporting by Matthew Cardinale, News Editor.