"I think nothing has higher priority than averting an attack on Iran"

A speech by Daniel Ellsberg, the former Defense Department analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/092607a.html

Senate appropriations hearing errupts into chaos

Senator Byrd (D-WV) who chairs the appropriations committee, gave a stirring speech against the war in his opening statements.Defense Secretary Bob Gates, Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte were at the hearing asking the Senate for $200 billion more dollars for the war in Iraq. Read more about the protest here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesside27sep27,1,5193794.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true

I was arrested before the nearly two dozen code-pinkers and war protesters were kicked out of the hearing, because I came specifically to denounce Negroponte. I made a fairly large, black banner with "DEATH SQUADS FOLLOW NEGROPONTE" painted in white letters. When Negroponte started to testify, I went behind him and held up my banner. I've heard from others that were there that "the cameras went crazy" but I've yet to see any mention on the internet of my action. Oh well, at least the Senators and their staff saw it. I spent a few hours in lock-up and got out later that day. Who really belongs in jail, that's what I'd like to know.

Video:

(New: There actually is a shot of me holding up the banner as we "welcome" Pace, Gates, and Negroponte -- though it wasn't until he actually started to testify that I came up right behind him and got arrested. This is a pretty astounding, if low-quality video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xzv-qlZMPQ&mode=related&search=

Here's an embedded video of the hearing being broken up by Pace's remarks on homosexuality:

Article from Charleston Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.com/story/News/2007092745/Byrd-blows-his-top-at-Senate-hearing/

Camp Pelosi East

I'm in Washington D.C. right now with Code Pink, we've set up a new "Camp Pelosi" at the peace encampment in front of the reflecting pool below the Capitol. I've never been here before, and it's all been a bit overwhelming, especially considering I've started another "hunger strike" together with a handful of other Code Pinkers (including Toby Blome, who also fasted at San Francisco's summer recess encampment in front of Pelosi's house). There will be a big march here in Washington on Saturday, September 29th. Come join us if you can!

I don't have a lot of time to blog, but please check out this video -- one of the best I've seen in a long time -- about lies, liars, and the kinds of things we are doing to restore the truth:
http://911blogger.com/node/11602

Fahrenheit 451?

I just read something disconcerting in an email from Sojourners [ http://www.sojo.net/ ]... apparently U.S. prisons have started purging and banning books, particularly religious books:

"Prison libraries limited the number of books for each religion to between 100 and 150 under new rules created after a 2004 U.S. Department of Justice review of how prisons choose Muslim religious services providers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Feldman said." -- [Assosciated Press]
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/22/america/NA-GEN-US-Prison-Book-Ban.php

Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/us/10prison.html?ex=1347163200&en=93a79f2540fb3d8d&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Among the banned books are seemingly innocuous titles like: "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner and "The Purpose-Driven Life" by Rev. Rick Warren. Weird. The excuse, of course, was that religious books were being used as tools to recruit terrorists. Just how long will it be before certain religious books start disappearing from public libraries? Is someone trying to resurrect the Spanish Inquisition?

A moment of silence

I'm a strong believer in the power of spiritual action (prayer, meditation, fasting ...) so I'm glad to pass along this message from my Iraq Moratorium [ http://iraqmoratorium.org/ ] news list:

"The Network of Spiritual Progressives is joining with the National Council of Churches and many other organizations to sponsor an interfaith fast for peace, October 8th. We hope you'll participate. We also are supporting the Moratorium this coming Friday, Sept. 21st, and urge people to make the moratorium visible in the following way: wherever you are at noon on Sept. 21st, stop what you are doing and stand in silent attention, meditation and/or prayer in solidarity with the peace movement's call for an immediate end to the US occupation of Iraq and in solidarity with the call for a Global Marshall Plan and a national rejection of the Strategy of Domination in favor of the Strategy of Generosity. If you are in a car, pull it to the curb and stand silently next to the car. If you are in a hospital, classroom, govt. building, or wherever you are, a restaurant, or anywhere else, and just stop what you are doing and stand up in silence for 5 minutes. And spread the world to others. We urge this to be repeated each third Friday of the month till the troops have been totally withdrawn from Iraq and environs."

Speaking of prayer/meditation, please send your positive thoughts to Sami al-Haj, an al-Jazeera journalist who is dying from his hunger strike in Guantanamo Bay Prison [ http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m36296&hd=&size=1&l=e ]. What has this man done? He has a wife and 7-year old son he hasn't seen since he was 1 year old. This man has a story to tell the world. He has yet to be tried, I'm not sure he even has access to a lawyer. God forgive this country for what has been done to him in our name.

Arrest Bush, Not Rev

Update from Rev. Yearwood:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6749749344962047663&q=Arest+Bush+not+rev&total=8&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

What Bush's invasion would look like in the United States

What if everyone in the red states were dead, and everyone in the yellow states were driven from their homes?



source:
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/

The disconcerting death of congressman Paul Gillmor

I just read this piece by Carol Wolman on Bay Area 9-11 Truth organizer Carol Brouillet's blog, communitycurrency.org:
" ... last Wednesday, Congressman Paul Gillmor (R-OH) was found dead in his home. This was reported as a heart attack, until word leaked out that he had blunt trauma to the head and neck. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20649320/ Now we're being told he fell down the stairs. Gillmor was investigating a series of option trades that are suspicious- someone is betting billions of dollars that the market will fall 50% by September 21st. Even with the housing crisis, it would take a major catastrophe, like a 'terrorist' attack, to precipitate such a plunge. As part of his job on the House Finance Committee, Gillmor was investigating this deal. Was he murdered because he was about to reveal something?"

I don't know about this site, but it seems to concur:
EXCLUSIVE: Private Eye Calls Rep. Gillmor’s Death a Murder; Odd Finance Sector Discovery a Likely Motive

http://bigheaddc.com/2007/09/09/murder/

BTW, Carol Brouillet just had some great new "dollars" printed up -- but unlike the famous "deception" dollars (featuring a picture of Bush and links to many 9-11 truth sites) this one is called a "conception" dollar, with a picture of Cindy Sheehan and links to positive, hopeful sites with solutions and hope for a brighter tomorrow. Check it out! http://www.communitycurrency.org/conception.html

Capitol police break Rev. Yearwood's leg

... for standing in line, waiting to hear General Petraeus's report. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiradcejA6o

For this offense the minister was arrested, joining his good friend Cindy Sheehan and several other peace activists taken into police custody that day:

Anti-war protesters disrupt Iraq hearing
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-09-10-Protests_N.htm

I was watching the hearings with other Code Pinkers in San Francisco. It was really remarkable -- Petraeus's microphone went dead and he couldn't speak for the longest time, when peace advocates jumped in to fill the gap. One of them was patriot Ray McGovern, who, observing that Congress had neglected to follow customary procedure, shouted "Swear him in." For this McGovern was kicked out of the hearing room. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091107K.shtml

Here's video of Rev. Yearwood discussing the arrest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4t0vImR4ag&NR=1

General Strike

I've often thought the best way people can change the world is for everyone to just stay home.
http://www.strike911.org/

http://smokingmirrors.blogspot.com/2007/09/taking-it-to-streets.html

Bombing Iran is Insanity

... unfortunately we seem to have allowed a bunch of insane, corrupt, morally bankrupt scoundrels to move into our White House, Senate and Congress.

It should be obvious to anyone not deliberately wearing blinders that this country has been setting up for a confrontation with Iran (not to mention passing laws that would deign to "legitamize" the sudden implementation of Martial Law) for months now. Much of our Navy is tied up in the Persian Gulf. This is lunacy. China and Russia aren't just going to allow us to choke off such a large percentage of the world's oil in the event of us attacking Iran -- and our military is precariously overstreched already. I often wonder if that isn't the point -- to destroy our military, to destroy America's standing as the world's remaining "superpower" so the "New World Order" (under the dictates of World Bankers, Illuminati, whoever the hell they are) can more easily assimilate us into an Orwellian nightmare.

Bush: Iran 'the world's leading supporter of terrorism'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2157750,00.html

Showdown Over Iran
We can stop the coming war with Iran – but concerned Americans must act quickly
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11534

The War Criminal in the Living Room
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/09/364490.shtml