Life Imitates Blogging

“This is why I hope we never explore the cosmos, and go to other planets: any intelligent life we find there is bound to be declared an Enemy.”Antiwar.com blog, October 13

“Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani yesterday said preparedness will be key for all crises, even an attack from outer space. During a town hall meeting in Exeter [New Hampshire], a young questioner asked the former New York mayor about his plan to protect Earth. “If (there’s) something living on another planet and it’s bad and it comes over here, what would you do?” the boy asked….

“Giuiani: ‘Of all the things that can happen in this world, we’ll be prepared for that, yes we will. We’ll be prepared for anything that happens.'”New Hampshire Union-Leader, October 15.

David Horowitz Slanders Antiwar Activists, Ron Paul

A fairy tale posted at FrontPageMag.com:

The campaign mounted by campus leftists against Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which is scheduled to take place on more than 100 campuses during the week of October 22-26 has taken a new turn with the announcement of a counter-protest at the Washington Monument. The protest, which will be called “American Fascism Awareness Day” is being organized by Adam Kokesh of Iraq Veterans Against the War, the Revolutionary Communist Party, Students for Justice In Palestine, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee among others and will feature speakers such as congressman Dennis Kucinich and presidential candidate Ron Paul, anti-war activists Cindy Sheehan and Harry Karry and actor Sean Penn. According to a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist Party, one of the sponsors of the event, “This is an answer to the Jew Horowitz and the neo-conservative Zionists who dragged us into an imperialist war in Iraq and are spreading hatred against Muslims to support their war plans against the Republic of Iran.”

Flyers for the American Fascism Awareness Protest were distributed on at least ten campuses which are scheduled to hold Islamo-Fascism Awareness Weeks in 9 days. (The text of the flyer is reprinted below.) Many Americans contacted by Frontpagemag.com were outraged over the announced protest. Latisha Freeman, an African American student at one of the campuses that was flyered commented that all Americans were not racists and that the flyer was generally “unpatriotic and unfair.” American Legion commander K. “Ike” Landsman, was blunter. “These are communist ingrates who don’t appreciate this great country and they ought to be deported to Iran or Afghanistan where they would be welcome." Fox News Channel anchor Alan Colmes, had a different take. “Lighten up,” Colmes said when he was shown the flyer; “this is a parody of views that liberals actually have. No one should get upset. This is just free speech in action.”

Who Hates Americans? We Do.

Your typical American is:

  • A racist. A sexist. A homophobe.
  • An Islamo-phobe.
  • Is willing to invade other countries for oil and pleasure.
  • Is easily manipulated by Rush Limbaugh and Jews.
  • Is the cause of global warming.

Join Us For American Fascism Awareness Day
Place: Washington (Slaveholder) Monument
Date: November 31, 2007
Time: 12PM-2:00 PM

Speakers:
Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, congressmen
Adam Kokesh, Iraq War veteran
Cindy Sheehan, Harry Karry, peace activists
Michael Moore, Sean Penn, film-makers

Sponsors:

Peace and Social Justice Crusade, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Code Pink, Muslim Students Association, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Students for Justice in Palestine, Revolutionary Communist Party, International A.N.S.W.E.R., Moveon.org, DailyKos.com, Indy-Media.org, HuffingtonPost.com, Ivorypower.com

There is, of course, no November 31, and no such event. "Latisha Freeman" is Horowitz-speak for any old schvartze; I leave it to you to figure out why they named the fictional superpatriot "K. Ike." None of the groups listed have this “event” mentioned on their websites, and a Google search produces only results from the original hoax article. But this failed effort at satire will almost certainly be taken as fact by Horowitz’s vicious, drooling followers. And the insinuation that Ron Paul, in particular, has any affiliation with Communist or Neo-Nazi groups is laughably false.

Putin Did It

I see Putin is going ahead with his trip to Tehran in spite of rumors that he’s to be assaulted by suicide bombers or captured. One has to say, however, that if the Russian president is assassinated, he’ll probably be blamed for plotting his own demise. After all, he’s been blamed for the death of practically every Russian “dissident” and half-baked journalist, from the nuclear poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko to the shooting death of Anna Politkovskaya.

 

Aaron Glantz: The War Comes Home

Antiwar.com regular contributor Aaron Glantz has been working very hard at KPFA Radio with his new project, The War Comes Home.

A sample:

[audio:http://warcomeshome.org/files/audio/005.Aguayo.mp3]

MP3 here.

Army medic Augustin Aguayo refused to load his gun in Iraq and then escaped through a base window in Germany rather than be deployed a second time. He said during basic training he realized that he could never use his gun to kill anyone. But the military turned down his application to become a conscientious objector and when he turned himself in at Fort Irwin in California they shackled him and flew him back to Germany – where he spent six months in a US military prison.

[audio:http://warcomeshome.org/files/audio/004.dean_.mp3]

MP3 here.

Last Christmas, Army Reservist James Dean barricaded himself in his father’s farm-house with several weapons and threatened to kill himself. Authorities responded by cordoning off the house and fired tear gas inside. They brought in armored vehicles and blew a hole in the right side of the house. Just past midnight on Dec. 26, a state police sharpshooter shot Jamie Dean dead.

[audio:http://warcomeshome.org/files/audio/008.casteel.mp3]

MP3 here.

After serving as an interrogator at Abu Ghraib prison, Joshua Casteel traveled to the Vatican where he was given an audience with Pope Benedict XVI. Casteel argued for a firmer antiwar stance from the Catholic Church. Church leaders, he says, should actively encourage soldiers to become conscientious objectors when political leaders wage an unjust war.

[audio:http://warcomeshome.org/files/audio/009.bolles.mp3]

MP3 here.

Dr. Gene Bolles has spent 30 years repairing bodies broken by disease, accidents and brutality. Drafted into the military during the Vietnam War, the Colorado neurosurgeon served for two years as a flight surgeon, witnessing the suffering of both U.S. military personnel and Vietnamese civilians. Yet, despite his extensive experience with war, nothing has shaken him up more than the 26 months he spent working at Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany treating U.S. soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Bill Astore

Saving the Military from Itself

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/charles/aw101107billastore.mp3]

Ret. Lt. Col. Bill Astore, author of the recent article, “Saving the Military from Itself,” discusses the strain on the U.S. military, the Petraeus Report fraud, the necessity of withdrawal from Iraq, “troop support” and the difference between the war against al Qaeda and the occupation of Iraq.

MP3 here. (16:35)

William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), earned a doctorate in modern history from the University of Oxford in 1996. He has taught military cadets at the Air Force Academy, officers at the Naval Postgraduate School, and now teaches at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. His books and articles, focusing primarily on military history, include Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism (Potomac Press, 2005).

Monica Benderman

A Matter of Conscience

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/charles/aw101107monicabenderman.mp3]

Monica Benderman, wife of conscientious objector Sgt. Kevin Benderman, author of Letters from Fort Lewis Brig: A Matter of Conscience, explains the story of her husband’s persecution at the hands of the government for objecting to the war in Iraq.

MP3 here. (16:46)

Monica Benderman is the wife of conscientious objector, Sgt. Kevin Benderman.