Democrats In Maine Ashamed Of Supporting Obama's Wars

In the most Orwellian of protest venues, outside the Portland Expo center October 30, where President Obama was scheduled to make a campaign appearance for a fellow Democrat. Staffers constantly exhorted those in line to keep their cell phones turned on, and a large screen tv erected in sight of the queue played a series of ads attacking Gov. Paul LePage so loudly it drowned out normal conversation.

When I referenced the propaganda stream a 20-something Democratic staffer attempted to straighten me out about the (false) dichotomy of corporate party politics saying, "You're on their side. They are the good guys." This is what passes for political discussion in our age.

Twenty-five of us stood for a couple of hours engaging with the crowd. Friend Bruce Gagnon brought a message about the folly of making our state economy so dependent on military contracting and spending more than 50% of the federal discretionary budget each year on the Pentagon. He called out to those in line about these problems and asked, "What does it say about the soul of our nation?" One decorated veteran told Bruce, "I fought so you would be free to say that." Bruce noted that he, himself, is a veteran -- a Veteran for Peace, that is.

It was one of the most interesting protests I've attended because of the interaction with the party faithful and the simply curious. I had a spool of pink ribbon with the message "President Obama: keep your promises for peace! Codepink.org" and I walked the length of the line asking who would like a ribbon. About 100 people took one.

Many reached for a ribbon after hearing me say, "Do you think it is ok to drop a bomb because it says Democrat on it? Are Democratic bombs falling on children in Syria and Iraq better than Republican bombs?" People's body language said these questions made them uncomfortable. Sometimes I added, "I don't believe you think bombing civilians is ok." Their shamed faces told the tale.

Children especially wanted a ribbon. Not all parents allowed them to take one, but some families were in harmony.

One Portland family including mom in a wheelchair were happy that we had brought extra signs.

There was a lone Tea Party protester when I first got there. She probably has a different reason than I do for not wanting the Maine National Guard sent to Africa.

There were two tv news crews there who filmed our signs and interviewed protesters. But their editors must have killed the stories when they got back to the station because coverage of our presence and our messages is nowhere to be found.

Bringing some authentic news to the people is what motivates me to drive two hours and stand around getting cold after I've worked all day. One guy in line said about Obama and peace, "He was doing great until ISIS." I said Obama has drone bombed Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, and I hoped he could find some sources of information for himself besides corporate news.

Most squirm inducing message? That the U.S. is preparing to use depleted uranium weapons in Syria and Iraq. This seemed to be new information for most of our listeners. I guess all the election reporting kind of drowns out news of nuclear warfare being waged in our name, with our tax dollars. As intended.

Thanks to our friends from Peace Action Maine who showed up with their banner. It was also neat to meet some newcomers to Portland who enthusiastically helped us hold signs and banners."I didn't know how to support peace because I just moved to Portland from Georgia," a young man named Matt told me. "A friend told me about this event and so I just came down." Matt spent quite a long time talking to Tim who had driven up from New Hampshire to join us. Both were interviewed by a t.v. news crew, but I guess you won't get a chance to hear their voices.

REVISED Nov. 1: Apparently I was wrong, and I am delighted to say so. Bruce Gagnon's interview did turn up on WGME's 6pm t.v. newscast.

Ten Years After, The Stench Remains

The stench of bodies burned by white phosphorus, of stillborn children with depleted uranium-induced deformities so gross they are barely recognizable as human, of torture and rendition conducted by contracting firms such as Blackwater (now known as Academi), recently revealed as directly in the employ of the CIA and its taxpayers; the stench of burning oil fields, of hungry children shivering in the cold in North America, of the farts of fat, sleek war profiteers the mainstream media tells us to revere as "winners" in the vicious game of access to the dirty fuels that keep the light burning for capitalism.

Business, politics and war -- there you have it. Haliburton, the love of Dick Cheney's life, made billions off the Iraq war.  Bush will get a presidential lie-brary in Texas. Rice will continue with lucrative teaching and lecturing gigs. Et cetera, ad nauseum.

The people of Iraq will continue to suffer the effects of civil unrest, and of the destroyed infrastructure that was never repaired even though corporations billed the U.S. government billions to do the job.

The veterans who went to invade Iraq will continue to wrestle the demons of despair, many broken in body and spirit. Many will not make it back to their families or the lives they left behind. Many went into the military after the gigantic lie of 9/11 -- that it was the unaided work of Islamic terrorists -- and many more went, not out of idealism, but because there were no living wage jobs for kids with high school diplomas, and they wanted the money to go to college. They never studied true world history and current events, so they never really knew that the dictator they were supposed to be risking their lives to topple had been a close U.S. friend and ally for years.

Four million Iraqi refugees, one million of whom have yet to return home. At least hundreds of thousands, perhaps as many as a million civilian deaths in Iraq. A highly profitable war for the 1%. That's why Bush made a buffoon of himself very early in the occupation declaring "Mission Accomplished." The direct feed from the U.S. taxpayer to the corporations that kept him in office was firmly in place. And in 2013, the U.S. taxpayer is still bleeding dollars into those accounts faster than a human being could even count.

SYSTEM SUCKS: Pictures That Are Worth 1,000 Words

Occupy Oakland silkscreen image, not sure which artist(s) to credit

An Iraqi boy in an orphanage drew his mother and slept in her arms.

Image credit: imgur, via James Hobbs' facebook page.

Source: Occupy Maine facebook event for May 1, 2012 General Strike

Jeju Island, South Korea, where the Samsung Corporation is being paid to pour concrete over the UN Heritage Site coral reefs in order to make a port to dock Aegis nuclear weapons equipped destroyers built in Bath, Maine, USA. (In case you were wondering what the sign in the first image -- SYSTEM SUCKS -- was talking about.)

Birth defects in Fallujah after use of depleted uranium weapons by US military in 2004. Source: http://truth-reason-liberty.blogspot.com/2010/07/more-suffering-for-people-of-fallujah.html

From Michael Kelly today in Business Insider The US Poured So Many Toxic Weapons On Fallujah In 2004 That Residents Still Pay The Price:

The study, released by the Switzerland-based International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, shows that in the years following Operation Phantom Fury there has been a 4-fold increase in all cancer, including a 12-fold increases in childhood cancer in those aged 0-14.

Lights Around Portland on 9/11

Second stop of the Care-a-Van to Bring Our War $$ Home: Portland, Maine where organizer Grace Braley held an event on the evening of 9/11 ranging people around the bay with points of light. As we arrived, so did the Fukushima peace walkers on their way to Boston. So first we greeted people from the country that the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on. Then Mansour and Jane arrived; Mansour is from Libya, where NATO and the U.S. dropped bombs made with depleted uranium.

All of us spread out along the edge of the bay waiting for 7:45pm when we would turn on our love lights for fifteen minutes. Here Mark stands with Michael Cutting, one of those who was around the kitchen table in Sally Breen's house when the BOW$H slogan originated.

We saw Markos Miller, our favorite candidate for mayor of Portland, plus a lot of other peaceniks as we hiked the mile to our designated spot near Interstate-295. Along the way my sister in PINK Pat Taub explained why she was joining in on behalf of her young grandchildren.

A highway worker ignored Mark climbing on the sign post next to southbound I-295, but at least one passing motorist honked in greeting.

As twilight gave way to night we could see points of light along the shore stretching in both directions. A bicyclist passed us holding his light aloft. Back at the parking area we saw our friend El-Fadel Arbab, who was a lost boy of Sudan that found his calling traveling around speaking to young people about raising their voices against genocide. He will be at UMaine Presque Isle this week speaking to about 1,000 young people in total.

We're all in this together, people. Either we bring the light, or the forces of darkness will close over all of us.

The Rah Rah Wars

Beautiful sad song and strong photographs, especially of children of war. Iraq, a war so old that early video of Medea getting dragged out of congressional hearing looks a bit dated. And one feels nostalgic for the turnout just before Shock and Awe shocked all into realizing that multitudes could struggle and the unpopular war would start anyway.

Other wars start with vibrant cheering from lots of quarters -- the first gulf war, say, or this one against Libya. These are generally presented as "short" wars; get in, and get out. And there is always some ex-son of a bitch of ours cruelly using his own people, using weapons we sold him. So it's the good old U.S. of A. to the rescue of the people.

Cool names help make rah rah wars: Operation Desert Storm. And a lot of ordnance has to be discharged in a swift, costly fashion right from the get go. Forty-five missiles tipped with depleted uranium warheads hit Libya, just like that. Operation Unified Protector!

In the interests of the civilians there, of course.

Because the wonderful U.S. which is the leader at so many things is also the leader at protecting the safety and security of civilians. Unless they happen to be standing in the path of some energy transport routes or something inconvenient like that.

Others seem be turning away from yet a third war, turning up on the bridge, calling up and donating to help support the struggle, turning away from the insanity of endless war against a nameless enemy who can never be defeated. Everywhere you look these days, folks want to bring our war dollars home.

...Helen Gearhart, an Iraq vet, speaks about her experience before being taken behind the police line at Quantico. Part of a great set by Ellen Rachel Davidson here. Bradley Manning, 303 days.

War wasting funds, lives, environment

Draw-a-Thon II interview with Kenny Cole, artist whose drone show "The Hellfire Story" at SPACE Gallery in Portland hosted the 'Thon. Here he talks about preaching beyond the choir.

Here in Maine we are preparing for an organizing meeting to check in about what the Bring Our War $$ Home campaign has been up to lately, and to make our plans for the future. The recent Maine Peace Walk with Veterans for Peace and Buddhist monks and nuns in the lead got press throughout the state (links here, here, here and here!) and helped spread the cost of war message far and wide before ending at the Draw-a-Thon on Veterans Day.

Revelations are coming thick and fast from WikiLeaks' trove of U.S. diplomatic cables; it will be impossible to digest all the information in time for tomorrow. So many wasted funds could provide a useful focus: Karzai administration corruption, "aid" to the empire's many client states, and taxpayer funded State Dept. providing intel for private corporation Blackwater (name hidden, unlike your private parts if you decide to fly home for the holidays).

Activist Tom Sturtevant had a great idea recently about focusing on the Blue Angels' colossal waste of fuel, funds, and immense carbon footprint. How are we still affording stuff like this? Let the unemployed eat jet fuel! We will discuss this at the meeting also.

Before the meeting many of us will stand with the annual weekly advent vigil at Bath Iron Works. BIW is the largest employer in the state and one place where it is believed workers put depleted uranium weapons on Aegis destroyers. Is this any way to make a living?

This Sunday evening there is a good informational program on D.U. that Codepink organizer Beth Adams has put together with help from her friends. That event is Dec 5 in Portland, Maine 7:15-9:15pm at Sacred Heart/St. Dominic Church, 80 Sherman St., Portland, ME. 

fmi (413)-522-7505

A Community Discussion and Action Ideas will follow. Identical programs will be presented in Hartford on December 4^th and Portland, Maine on December 5^th. The program is jointly sponsored by: The American Friends Service Committee of Western Massachusetts, Traprock Center for Peace and Justice, The Alliance for Peace and Justice, Western Massachusetts Code Pink and the Nuclear –free Future Coalition of Western Massachusetts, and more!

D.U. = WAR CRIME

I once had to protest an administrator in my old school district who was gung-ho to hang a flag of our state, sent from Iraq by a National Guards-mom whose daughter had been a student of ours.

The principal was going to hang it proudly in the gym because as she explained, "It had flown over Fallujah!" She had already read aloud a letter from soldier mom to her kid at graduation the previous spring. (The use of high school graduation ceremonies for recruiting purposes is a topic I will leave for another day.)

As the U.S. prepares to "exit" Iraq at the end of this month, leaving behind only 50,000 troops and the largest embassy compound ever built (fortifed, natch) I am reflecting on the battle of Fallujah. Some years have passed since my country used my tax dollars to bombard the city with weapons of mass destruction. Many of the WMD's were made of depleted uranium; because it is a very dense material, D.U. is used to make missile points that will penetrate strongly. Then the explosion turns the D.U. to fine dust that becomes part of the local environment for a very long time.

One of my stalwart fellow vigilers held a sign for years that said: D.U. = war crime. We used to tease him by saying that those driving by us on the bridge probably thought it said "Duh" because no one knew what D.U. meant.

The children that have been born in Fallujah since the U.S. attacked know what D.U. means, because they are living with birth defects caused by radioactivity levels that scientists who studied the situation describe as "worse than Hiroshima." Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005-2009 was published here in June. The little girl pictured above was lucky to be born with deformed feet rather than a misplaced eye or nose -- I guess. Wonder what will happen if she tries to have children of her own someday?

Nuclear Detonation Timeline "1945-1998"
A horrible, strangely beautiful rendering of historical data
by Isao Hashimoto (www.ctbto.org/specials/1945-1998-by-isao-hashimoto/)