Tuesday, February 26, 2008

San Jose Police to Use Sound Weapon

I hope this article confirms for any doubters that yes, there is such a thing as a wave-frequency weapon, and they are intended for domestic use. I contend devises like these have already been used during protests using inaudible frequencies.

http://www.infowars.com/?p=461

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Total lunar eclipse tonight

There are always a couple lunar eclipses a year, but total eclipses are more rare (the next one won't be until 2010). This one becomes exact at 7:31 pm, PST. Hindus and Buddhists have long believed that prayers and mantras become much amplified during eclipses, so if you're inclined to send some prayers, chant or dance for peace during this time, heads up!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Radical Botany

I love these articles I find posted on Portland Indymedia from time to time. They're like a walk in the woods with a grandparent filled with ancestrial wisdom, who's always pointing out the wonderful things in nature I would otherwise have neglected to notice.

Online Radical Botany Skill Share

Plant/human communities and the White Oak

Learning the Lay of the Land and Oregon Grape

Plant Identification and Miner's Lettuce

Plants as Shelter and Willow

Plants for clothes, shoes and utility- Plant: Cattail

Seeds and wild plants-Valuable?

The Great Harvest

Nettles and the potherb

Horsetail

I'll update this post when I see new articles.

THE MESSAGE

Silence, they say, is the voice of complicity.
But silence is impossible.
Silence screams.
Silence is a message,
just as doing nothing is an act.

Let who you are ring out and resonate
in every word and every deed.
Yes, become who you are.
There's no sidestepping your own being
or your own responsibility.

What you do is who you are.
You are your own comeuppance.
You become your own message.

You are the message.


Leonard Peltier
U.S. Prisoner #89637-132

The Big Secret

Friday, February 15, 2008

Report from Berkeley



I was at the Berkeley recruitment center event on the 11th and 12th. The Berkeley city council had drafted a letter telling the Marine recruiters they weren't welcome in that town and gave Code Pink a free parking space in front of the center to hold their protests. Code Pink activists are currently gathering signatures to zone the recruitment center out of town.

Of course, plenty of folks aren't happy with this, and right-wing radio tools are rallying their ever-faithful listeners to come to the "defense" of the Marines. Republicans in Washington have drafted a bill, the "Semper Fi" bill, to punish Berkeley for this "snub" by the city council, which would take away $2 million of Federal money from the city and give it to the Marines. As if the Marines don't have enough of a budget already (how about this, Congress? Take away *Blackwater's* entire budget and give it to the Marines. That's a measure I'd support!)

So "Move America Forward" lined up on one side of the street and Code Pink and World Can't Wait lined up on the other -- in front of City Hall. Kitty-corner to the town hall, across the street from the pro-recruiter people, is a high school. Talk about a recipe for trouble! It seemed like everyone in MAF had a huge flag. They strung the biggest one -- the size of a small room -- over the park like the backdrop of the movie "Patton" (it even had 48 stars!). They played stuff like Toby Keith and the star-spangled banner over a booming sound system. They even had a plane fly over trailing the words "Semper Fi." Meanwhile, we had genuine folk singers (like Betsy Rose), accoustic guitars and a banjo, and sang songs ourselves, like "This Land is Your Land." Later on kids danced around on unicycles and a 9-11 truth girl did a fire dance (which the police quickly had her put out).

About 50 kids walked out of class and joined the World Can't Wait contingent, then marched and skateboarded and basically invaded the "Move America Forward" crowd, mocking them with their picket signs. This was hours after both sides had been calling each other out on opposite sides of the streets, and one of the main orgainzers of the MAF crowd (Melanie Morgan?) called the Code Pink supporters "traitors" and said we ought to be locked up in FEMA camps. At any rate, a 12 and a 14 year-old were arested stemming from this event.

Later, while I was lining the street holding an American flag and flashing a peace sign (much to the chagrin of the flag-happy MAF crowd), the guy next to me chided the Move America Forward people for being "good Germans." Not long after this a *really* big guy from across the street came up behind us, mad as hell, saying something like, "Okay buddy, I'm right here. You call me a Nazi to my face!" The guy, who was from a holocaust family, was genuinely hurt and upset. It turns out the guy next to me was from a holocaust family as well. I've never seen two men come closer to blows without actually throwing a punch, and believe me, that would have been an ugly scene. The recruitment supporter was a beefy guy about 6'5" and he was surrounded by a smattering of cocky young kids with ready access to wooden picket signs, all in the midst of dozens of senior and middle-aged women and men, with a baby carriage thrown in for good measure. There were no cops in the (immediate) vacinity. Fortunately there *were* some very sensible, powerfully peaceful women who were able to de-escalate the conflict ... but dang! That was one tense moment.

Things got hairy again after tge MAF crowd took it upon themselves to march across the street to confront us andagain, where were the police? So for about 15 minutes Code Pink supporters and the MAF crowd were intermingling with each other -- I think it's a minor miracle the situation didn't explode into a riot.

The police finally came and separated the two camps and the gorgeous and surreal day was followed by a chaotically fascinating night. I think both sides learned something profound -- that it's possible for people with very different viewpoints to come together and work out their grievances with a dialogue. You can't imagine how much hope that inspires in me.

A riot in Berkeley would have been a NeoCon puppetmaster's wet dream. But it turns out the America I believe in is still here, with We the People.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Bush admits to War Crimes. Can we impeach him now?

This article really lays it out there.

Torture Is Impeachable and Has Been Confessed to
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/30882

More evidence we live in a Fascist State

There's been a lot of Internet buzz about this article at the Progressive. It seems there's a program called "InfraGard" that is preparing corporations for Martial Law. Here's a quote from a business owner who attended an InfraGard meeting:

“Then they said when—not if—martial law is declared, it was our responsibility to protect our portion of the infrastructure, and if we had to use deadly force to protect it, we couldn’t be prosecuted."

It says in the article that corporations are more privy to our government intelligence than our elected officials are. This should remove all doubt as to who really runs America. Is it We the People? No. It's the corporations.

It's private corporations that count the vote that decides who our "elected officials" are even going to be! That is, if they don't already have that in the bag by buying off said officals with campaign contributions, or buying the public's loyalty with controlled media and the latest PR/commercial manipulation.

Here's a quote often attributed to Benito Mussolini: "Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism as it is a merge of state and corporate power." Whether or not you agree with this statement, it should be clear we are reverting from a society where power and resourses are being stolen from the many and given to the very few. This is intolerable. Too many people have fought and died for the principles behind the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution to let them be desecrated this way.

Mrs. Powel -- "Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
Ben Franklin -- "A republic, if you can keep it."

When the Law makes you an Outlaw

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Okay, what the hell kind of "intelligence"

do you get from people who have been locked up in a secret location, with no access to a lawyer (or anyone else for that matter) for 6 years?

US admiral confirms secret camp at Gitmo

I have some guesses. You wouldn't get any kind of relevant military intelligence, but you might well get a lot of psychological intelligence, as in these guys are being used as human guinea pigs for God knows what awful kind of purpose.

Here's a year-old article by Naomi Klein that speaks of what I mean:

The US psychological torture system is finally on trial

Note: since then, Jose Padilla was sentenced to 17 years in prison on charges different from the ones he was actually imprisoned and tortured for.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Worrisome developments in the Middle East

In light of multiple cut Internet cable lines in the Middle East (5 so far) and the Iranian Oil Bourse that was scheduled to be inaugurated this week [ http://www.energybulletin.net/39844.html ], I thought I'd post this link:

What you should know about America's economy
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/03/336864.shtml

It's a compilation of some of my old radio scripts. Check out the script on Dollar Hegemony.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Montel Williams speaks the truth on FOX News

... and he loses his job a few days later.

Thank you for speaking your heart and telling the truth, Montel. Some things are more important than swallowing your integrity and whoring one's image on TV for money and corporate approval.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/75800