REACTIONS TO AIPAC'S ATTEMPT TO KILL IRAN DEAL

There has been alot of buzz across the Internet the last couple of days about the swelling opposition in Congress to the Iran nuclear deal.  Right-wing Republicans and Democrats have joined up for a strong effort to kill any deal with Iran by unilaterally increasing already painful sanctions.  Israel wants Iran taken down.  Below is an excellent take on the issue by Kevin Zeese who helps run PopularResistance.org

It seems like right now there is not a lot of likelihood [Senate leader] Harry Reid will let any vote come to the floor.  It is definitely a destructive bill that pushes the US in the wrong direction and we should keep a list of those who have supported Iran sanctions at this key moment.  So, it is good to have the list.

Is it the right time for protest?  Depends where and what purposes.  It would be good to draw attention to the 58 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) senators and protest them, perhaps in their home states as war mongers when the rest of the US doesn't want war.  They should receive some bad politics for their actions.  People should know their senator puts Israel before US interests.
 
As to DC, not sure -- Reid is seeming pretty strongly opposed to moving forward and a bunch of Dem senators who are chairs of key committees have told him do not bring this to a vote.  Robert Naiman tells Real News: "Ten Senate Democratic committee chairs, led by Dianne Feinstein, who's head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Carl Levin, who's head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, ten Senate Democrats sent a letter to majority leader Reid saying, do not bring this bill to a vote, we oppose this bill, please let us know of any plans to bring this bill to a vote, 'cause we oppose bringing this bill to a vote."
 
This may be where it ends.  AIPAC gets its symbolic show of strength without pushing to far into what would have become a crisis for them if they actually succeeded.
 
There is more of an update, just posted here
 
By the way, the fact that people like Feinstein and Levin, loyal AIPACers, are playing the role of blocking the vote, makes this all look very orchestrated to me. A show of force by AIPAC but if they blocked Obama on Iran AIPAC/Israel would lose major support in the US.  They can't carry out their threat without a lot of political cost.
 
Kevin Zeese
Baltimore, MD

Then, just to make this a bit more interesting, I'd like to add some words on this by Tarak Kauff from Woodstock, NY.  Tarak is a leader of Veterans for Peace and often in the street.

Kevin's analysis is always astute. Thanks Kevin. However, I am still thinking that a demonstration (banner drops, office occupation, outside demo) in DC at the Hart, where the 3 Senators who proposed the bill offices are would be appropriate.

Even if this is a symbolic show of strength for AIPAC and the bill would not come to the floor, orchestrated, as Kevin suspects, or not, it presents an opportunity to publicly denounce and expose AIPAC, Shumer, Menendez, and the rest who play AIPACs deadly game. And their intentions are always deadly. Since they brought this up, my feeling, if we can get enough support for the action, is to proceed as if this is a real move towards war - which in any respect, long term or short term, it is.

AIPAC and their congressional lackeys should be slammed every time they open their mouth - and this time they have put their foot in it but good. What with some key Dems opposing this, it is, I think, perhaps a great opportunity for us to further weaken and divide the pillars.

Tarak Kauff
Board of Directors
Veterans for Peace

THE RISE OF FASCISM

• This is a very good video and fills many gaps in our US history.  Our organizing needs to point out and name this corporate fascism or else it's maniacal ego will grow and become even more repressive.  We are right on the edge of the wall now.  Time to protect the kids and push back.

• I once saw George W. Bush's Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld briefly quoted on video.  He was walking out of the Pentagon and spoke this one powerful line:  "We plan everything."  Rumsfeld was answering the question about the quagmire that Iraq had become and the press was wondering if the Bush team was just plain incompetent.  Rumsfeld's answer has lodged deeply into my brain and I think of it often.  The oligarchy has all the resources it needs to control the political and economic system.  If they make mistakes they cover them and move on.  But clearly the Bush team knew that their plan for Iraq, to destroy and permanently destabilize the country, would cause many in the public to question their "ability" to run a war.  They actually wanted people to question Bush's competence.  That way folks might not spend much time asking a different question: "Mr. Rumsfeld, now that we all see the mess you've made in Iraq, are you willing to confess that you did this on purpose because your wider plan is to create permanent instability in many countries around the world that stand in the way of complete corporate control of declining resources on our planet?"  
• They plan everything....but now and then the boiling public outrage gets beyond even the control of the NSA and CIA.  Occupy was a real challenge but was then crushed under orders from the White House. The oligarchy knows and fears the growing public anger about massive disparity between the rich and the poor. Now is the time when the elites get dangerous - they get scared and mean.  But we are like Wack-a-mole at the county fair - we keep popping up and they can't hit all of us.

• I taped the next edition of my public access TV show today.  My guest was Pastor Bill Bliss from a church (UCC) in Bath who is doing good work in our community on behalf of those who are struggling with our collapsing economy.  He was actually my first guest when I started doing the TV show in December 2003.

RODMAN ON HIS KOREA VISIT

Actually he is right....he is just a person trying to make peace in his own way.  Someone has to the break the ice at last - instead of a hot shooting war - and it turned out to be Dennis Rodman.  Sometimes history comes calling and you have to go with it.....

WHO STILL BE THE DEVIL?

"Somebody Blew Up America" by Amiri Baraka with Rob Brown-saxophone, recorded live on February 21, 2009 at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY.

This production is part of "Free Jazz at the Sanctuary," a 13-part series of performance videos featuring some of the world's most talented improvisers. Each hour-long show is available on DVD directly from Downtown Music Gallery (www.downtownmusicgallery.com). For more information on this series, visit www.JazzSanctuary.org

WE ARE BEING SCHOOLED......

Frack U. Mexico. Directed by Greg "Gringoyo" Berger. Screenplay by Al Giordano.

Good news! Mexico has the fourth largest shale gas reserves in the world, and the Mexican Congress is about to change the constitution so that private companies can drill for it. That means that U.S. companies will soon be there, fracking for gas. Sure, there may be some complications from the more than 500 chemicals that will be pumped into Mexico's aquifers, but never fear: Joe T. Hodo, President of "Frack U. Mexico!" is here to show you why Mexicans should stop worrying and learn to love fracking...or else.

NO MORE EXCUSES

On the 12th anniversary of the arrival of prisoners at the U.S. detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, activists occupy the National Museum of American History to create their own exhibit.

THE FUNNIES....

Maine - the way life should be......

THE BEAUTIFUL WORDS

SUNDAY SONG

THIS ISSUE ON CORPORATE WELFARE

My latest public access TV show with guest Orlando Delogu who is a retired law professor at the University of Southern Maine.  He specializes on corporate welfare issues and helped us tremendously in our recent campaign here in Bath to try to block the requested tax break by General Dynamics that owns Bath Iron Works.  We were able to trim about one million dollars from this proposed corporate tax break.  A bit more money for the local people and less for those at the top of the war machine. 

COOKING DAY

I got an early start this morning with my day of cooking.  I got my pasta sauce (from scratch) going that will cook for several hours.  We are hosting the birthday party sleep-over at the Addams-Melman House tonight for one of our local friends who is turning 15.  She's having a bunch of friends over for dinner and slumber party.  She requested my spaghetti so I decided to make enough sauce that I can freeze.  It's always good to have some sauce in the freezer.

While cooking I've been listening to a CD of Italian music that a friend made for my 60th birthday party.  I listen to it often when I cook.  It reminds me of the early years when my Italian mother used to sing all the time when she was cooking - particularly to Mario Lanza records.  As the years rolled by she sang less and less until she pretty much stopped.  I'm trying to reverse that trend in my life.

My grandmother was born with polio and lived in a nunnery in Italy for many of her young years.  She was a bit of a religious zealot who used to throw shoes at us from her wheelchair.  It felt like she got more bitter as she got older.  When I was around 14 my grandfather gave me a bag of hand sewn Yarmulkes and told me "these have been in the family for generations.  I want you to have them."  No other word was said.....no one wanted to talk about how my grandfather Vincent's family had dropped their Jewish identify and culture to become Northern Baptists.  He was an ambitious immigrant.

My grandfather would cook on Sundays, rigatoni with meatballs or sausage or chicken or beef ... and always a wonderful small soup to start.....and the kids all drank wine (mixed half-and-half with water) that Vincent made from the grapes in his garden in Shelton, Connecticut.  We'd visit this big house on the hill between our military moves. Angela was the Italian immigrant maid that worked at the house for years.  I loved her the most because she was kind and the most authentic.

My mother and her sister and two brothers were taught at school the American dream - make money, leave home, become a city slicker, cut loose and fancy free...and consume.  Then at home they were taught the culture of La Famiglia, deep sense of responsibility and reverence for the elders, frugality, the old ways.  Conflict arose between the immigrant parents and the young first-generation Italian-Americans that was my mother's group.  They questioned but had no clue where they were going.  They had a hard time deciding which was their true identity, their "new American" identity, so they become extremely neurotic.  Then as parents these 1st generation folks had a hard time telling their own kids (my generation) what was real and what was not.

While taking a sociology class in college I ran into a book called "Blood of My Blood: The Dilemma of the Italian Americans," by Richard Gambino.  He taught college and was astounded at how many of his Italian-American students had no sense of grounding - they were at times adrift in this culture because of the disconnection from their traditions.  This book helped liberate me in many ways as I stumbled through my own neurosis that has often engulfed me but the story helped me see the bigger picture so I could fit the pieces of my family puzzle together.  I had to find my own mind and place in the world.  In our family time no one talked about anything real - the real world was not either known or allowed to be discussed.

I always think of the immigrants today....they bring the good from the old world with them and the dominant American culture either rejects or absorbs some of these new gifts - but those who immediately suffer from the great loss of the goodness from the old ways are stunned by the experience.  I feel for them all the time.

TOP 10 REASONS TO ABOLISH LISTS

I spend a good amount of time on Facebook.  As an organizer I can spread information quickly and a great distance. I find many good articles and videos.  It's useful to me although I don't like their sellout to the NSA.

Lists seem to be the current fashion on FB and I am one who has all my life tried to walk away from trends, fashion, the popular thing because I didn't want to be like everyone else.  Sometimes one succumbs to the prevailing waves but in general I've tried to stay loyal to that attitude.

So here is my list about why lists are worn out:

10.  Lists are linear thinking and the native people tell us that our entire mindset must move away from industrial brain patterns if we are to live on Mother Earth in a good way.  (linear means straight line thinking...uniform...no diversity...no pictorial representations...obedience to the line, to authority)

9.  Lists keep us from telling stories which are the traditional way to pass on information to each other

8.  Lists simplify the complicated            

7.  Lists make little noise

6.  The list makers, and list keepers, hold much of the power             

5.  The master(s) of the list makers and list keepers also have lists

4.  Lists reenforce the class division - corporations are at the top of the list of annual profits, donations to politicians, polluters of the environment, makers of weapons, and the fewest members of their class ever going to jail

3.  Key activists get their names on lists used by Mr. Big to spy on the people

2.  Lists create separation - X is the most popular person in the public eye and Z is not.  Z feels slighted and is angry with X (and the public).  X fears Z might become most popular on next year's list.  So X undermines Z

1. Lists are anti-life in that they help keep us disconnected from the web of creation...lists keep us away from the circle which is a revolutionary concept

Here is an example of the linear and the circle in direct conflict. The linear is very efficient.

A GREAT ONE PASSES.....

Amiri Baraka, the poet, playwright and political organizer died Thursday at the age of 79. Baraka was a leading force in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1963 he published "Blues People: Negro Music in White America," known as the first major history of black music to be written by an African American. A year later he published a collection of poetry titled "The Dead Lecturer" and won an Obie Award for his play, “Dutchman." After the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, he moved to Harlem and founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre.

In the late 1960s, Baraka moved back to his hometown of Newark and began focusing more on political organizing, prompting the FBI to identify him as "the person who will probably emerge as the leader of the pan-African movement in the United States." Baraka continued writing and performing poetry up until his hospitalization late last year, leaving behind a body of work that greatly influenced a younger generation of hip-hop artists and slam poets.

Democracy Now interviews four of Baraka’s longtime comrades and friends: Sonia Sanchez, a renowned writer, poet, playwright and activist; Felipe Luciano, a poet, activist, journalist and writer who was an original member of the poetry and musical group The Last Poets; Komozi Woodard, a professor of history at Sarah Lawrence College and author of "A Nation Within a Nation: Amiri Baraka and Black Power Politics"; and Larry Hamm, chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress in Newark, New Jersey.

JEJU JOY

Mass in snowy morning at Navy base destruction gate .... Release of Kim Eun-Hye from prison... video by Dunguree

CRACKING DOWN IN THE UK

In the UK, the government is introducing new laws to protect US military bases in Britain - a person could be punished just for walking a dog nearby. The government's using legislation enacted over a century ago, to move ahead without Parliament's approval.

IF YOU HAD DOUBTS....

• It's been a good day.  I went to our state capital in Augusta today to the rally of the Maine Alliance for the Common Good.  It's a statewide multi-issue group that some of us created last year.  We had a big rally during the legislative session in 2013 and today we held a rally on just the second day of the new session at the capital. About 150 folks turned out and the event featured mostly young speakers, including a ten-year old boy speaking about Nestle that controls alot of the water in Maine.  Other speakers talked about climate change, student debt, environmental devastation across the state, the need for a single-payer health care system, the need to bring our war $$ home, recognizing indigenous culture, and corporate domination of our politics.  Many of the young people said how empowering it was to have an audience to hear their message.  One young man said that none of his peers believe in the system anymore - it does not work for them.  It chains them with massive student debt and then spits them out onto a dead job market with a declining environmental condition.  He said he too felt lifted by the experience.

This alliance, unlike some others in the state that are more closely allied to a particular political party, is a group of more independent people.  The big difference is that the people at today's rally are talking about the corporate domination of politics in Maine and across the nation.  They are willing to connect the issue dots and hold Democrats in power accountable as well as the Republicans.  Some progressive organizations are under the protective wing (they get funding from Democratic party funders) so they have less ability to freely fly in the political world.  Sad but true.

• Another great thing that happened today was an email from Joseph Gerson who works for the AFSC in Boston.  He helped put together the Okinawa statement (see below) that was then sent to the media on Okinawa and across Japan.  I was told there was a great response yesterday with many papers covering the statement (including the Stars & Stripes military overseas paper).  Here is more from Joseph along with a report from Okinawa: 

Friends,

This note is addressed to those whose names I solicited for the Okinawa statement, and others of you whose e-mail addresses I have readily at hand.

If you had doubts about what impact your signature on the Okinawa statement might have, please take a look at the second paragraph of  our key partner Satoko Norimatsu's note below.  You may also be interested to see the five pages of today's Ryukyu Shimpo. Okinawa's leading newspaper, which are attached.

Also to add that we are preparing a second round of signatures to reinforce the impact that we've already had and to take it further. If you have colleagues/peers who you think would be interested in signing, please share the statement with them and ask them to send their names and identification to me.

Thank you  so much,
Joseph

-----Original Message-----
From: Satoko Norimatsu
Subject: Ryukyu shimpo pages from January 9

Joseph, Peter, Kevin,

Here are pages from the January 9 edition of Ryukyu Shimpo (one of the two Okinawan newspapers) with special articles on our action. Front page top news again following the previous day, a double-length editorial, comments from experts, voices of praise and excitement from within Okinawa, and the highlight is the full list of us with photos and profiles. Full text of our statement and release too.

Mayor Inamine had a rally marking the launch of the start of the campaign yesterday, and he had a copy of Ryukyu Shimpo in his hands, put it up and said something like "We are not alone! We have international support like this!" followed by a big applause by a crowd of 3,000 people. Many colleagues in Okinawa tell me everybody is talking about it in Okinawa now, even those who are normally not interested in base issues. After their sense of abandonment and despair at Nakaima's betrayal, our action seems to have re-invigorated the Okinawans. The extent of the effect of our action seems to know no limits.

Thanks again,
Satoko Oka Norimatsu
Peace Philosophy Centre http://peacephilosophy.com

IT'S JUST SMALL CHANGE

WEDNESDAY DOUBLE FEATURE.....

The Daily Show
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The Daily Show
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THE BATTLE IN ATHENS

A VIEW FROM THE OTHER SIDE