All American Activism

Psywar: The Science Of Modern Propaganda

2012-02-11T08:43:00.000-08:00

Metanoia presents an uncensored look at the history of modern propaganda, war and worker's rights.

From the hoax of Weapons Of Mass Destruction, the fictitious Gulf Of Tonkin incident that precipitated American involvement in Viet Nam to murderous Union busting in the Industrial Age this film does not flinch from the social and economic factors that erupt into war and suppresses revolutions.

References:
Metanoia Films, Filmography

A Real Number Two Man: Meet The RNC Chair

2012-01-30T18:38:00.000-08:00

When is a comparison to a drunken murderer and a well-respected US President relevant?

In right-wing American politics there is already an official king of mud-slinging and that man's name is Carl Rove. If there was a runner-up for this dubious distinction then it would be without a doubt the recently installed Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus, a man whose recent characterizations of President Barack Obama as a criminally negligent and murderous cruise ship captain seem like the enfeebled ramblings of an angry drunk on the Bowery.

On CBS's Sunday political show Face The Nation, Mr. Priebus stated "- we're going to talk about our own little Captain Schettino, which is President Obama." referring to a recent disaster on the Mediterranean Sea in which a drunken cruise liner captain nearly capsized his ship on the Italian coast killing over a dozen passengers.

Monday, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who left the position in disgrace in 2011, told MSNBC the analogy was “unfortunate.”

The White House press secretary Jay Carney stated: “If you are so desperate for attention that you make an analogy that Michael Steele deems inappropriate, you know you’ve probably gone too far.”

Much like the Republican king-of-mud-slinging Carl Rove, who got a pinhead elected president by making a future Nobel Prize winner look like a sap and re-elected for making a decorated Viet Nam war hero, activist and senator look like a traitor to his country, Priebus is on the attack.

In fact, Priebus is well known for distorting information - i.e. lying through his teeth. On April 5th 2011, in an interview with Meredith Viera on The Today Show, Preibus stated, "We've lost 26 million jobs." while attacking President Obama when in fact the real figure was 2.6 million according to Politifact a Florida based non-partisan watchdog group. Priebus later apologized for the mistake.

His newest poisonous remarks have already gained widespread coverage at the Washington Post and nationally on CBS and FOX "News" paving the way for even more venomous and preposterous attacks coming as the presidential election nears this November.

References:
Wikipedia, Reince Priebus
Washington Post, RNC Chairman Compares Obama To Criminally Negligent Cruise Ship Captain
CBS, DNC Fires Back At Slanderous Remarks

Uncomfortable Facts: Mitt Romney's Fortune Was Made From Selling Out American Workers

2012-01-07T05:52:00.000-08:00

Numbers don't lie. Crooked politicians do. Romney's $100 million dollar profit on "rolling-up" American factories.

Factories closing in other states and in other towns is something that we Americans have grown used to. When it happens we feel ashamed and hopeless - but when it happens in your own backyard, by a haughty man who promotes himself as a "job creator" it is devastating.

Marion, Indiana is a lot like the towns you see in between large cities anywhere in the country. The town has an over-developed shopping center, a historical downtown and many homes tucked in the middle. And, like many other towns in America, it has also seen it's most important local manufacturing sectors implode for the past 20 years.

"Romney has 'rolled back' democracy two hundred U.S. blue collar workers at a time, while touting his own role as a 'job-creator' in a truly Nixonian display of politics."

In an election year, it has come to light that a haughty man, in his own private jet and charming, paternal grin was at the very heart of this implosion for at least one town - the town of Marion, Indiana.

The following is an excerpt from "The Making of Mitt Romney," originally published in the Boston Globe on June 26th 2007:

"In 1992, Mitt Romney's Bain Capital Group acquired American Pad & Paper, or Ampad, from Mead Corp., embarking on a 'roll-up strategy' in which a firm buys up similar companies in the same industry in order to expand revenues and cut costs.

Through Ampad, Bain bought several other office supply makers, borrowing heavily each time. By 1999, Ampad's debt reached nearly $400 million, up from $11 million in 1993, according to government filings.

Sales grew, too - for a while. But by the late 1990s, foreign competition and increased buying power by superstores like the Bain-funded Staples sliced Ampad's revenues.

The result: Ampad couldn't pay it's massive debts and plunged into bankruptcy. Workers lost jobs and stockholders were left with worthless shares.

Bain Capital, however, made money - and lots of it. The firm put just $5 million into the deal, but realized big returns in short order. In 1995, several months after shuttering a plant in Indiana and firing roughly 200 workers, Bain Capital borrowed more money to have Ampad buy yet another company, and pay Bain and its investors more than $60 million - in addition to fees for arranging the deal.

Bain Capital took millions more out of Ampad by charging it $2 million a year in management fees, plus additional fees for each Ampad acquisition. In 1995 alone, Ampad paid Bain at least $7 million. The next year, when Ampad began selling shares on public stock exchanges, Bain Capital grabbed another $2 million fee for arranging the initial public offering - on top of the $45 million to $50 million Bain reaped by selling some of its shares.

Bain Capital didn't escape Ampad's eventual bankruptcy unscathed. It held about one-third of Ampad's shares, which became worthless. But ... Bain Capital and it's investors ultimately made more than $100 million on the deal."

References:
AFL-CIO Archive, Strike Bound Factory
Moveon.org, Why Voters Are Calling Romney 'Mr. 1%'
Mass Resistance, Romney made huge fortune while workers lost jobs, stockholders and creditors lost money.

The American Jobs Act

2011-11-21T18:30:00.000-08:00

Tax Cuts To Help America's Small Business Hire And Grow
(re-printed from White House Press Release)

Cutting the payroll tax cut in half for 98 percent of businesses: The President’s plan will cut in half the taxes paid by businesses on their first $5 million in payroll, providing a tax but targeting the benefit to the 98 percent of firms that have payroll below this threshold.

A complete payroll tax holiday for added workers or increased wages: The President’s plan will completely eliminate payroll taxes for firms that increase their payroll by adding new workers or increasing the wages of their current worker (to ensure that this tax cut is focused on small businesses, the tax relief is capped at $50 million in payroll increases)

Encouraging businesses to make investments by extending 100% business expensing into 2012. This extension would put an additional $85 billion in the hands of businesses next year.

Help entrepreneurs and small businesses get access to capital, grow and hire by expanding Small Business Administration backed loan limits and cutting red tape.

References:
White House.com, Economic News

Whose Streets?!

2011-10-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

Non-violent demonstrators take their cause to the streets and come under fire in NYC.

Bloggers can cobble together a thousand pointy paragraphs but they won't equal a single step into the reality of a situation. Assuming you, Gentle Reader, haven't been to any kind of political protest I'd like to take you to a scene that I'm very familiar with - to take you into the hurricane of pavement level politics.

As an American citizen, I've demonstrated against everything from KKK and Nazi rallies in Indianapolis, Against the War in Iraq in Cincinnati, and for NORML in Minneapolis. There is a wild-eyed fury cooking at all times in these crowds. This fury is made of collective frustration and demands immediate action. This fury is fed by thousands of days spent thinking that "something must be done" about the grim realities of politics-as-usual that gleefully bulldozes Ma and Pa's operation, forecloses on Grandma, denies healthcare to babies and then smiles it's perfect shark-tooth smile back at the world as it offers it the extremely slimy rationalization that "You should been more like me - a cold-hearted sadist wrapped in Old Glory."

Occupy Wall Street, and the growing Occupy movement, is long overdue due to the fact that these yuppies are meeting too little resistance as they insist that they have sole ownership of America. The thing is: They don't. The People, the kids and the leaders that make up the Occupy Movement, are demonstrating against a world that is not getting any easier to live in - for anyone, while trillions of US tax dollars go to a few corrupt billionaires. If that doesn't outrage you as an American citizen - then please stop reading this now.

Still there, friend? Then maybe you should find a Occupy movement via Meet-Up near you and see what others are talking about. Movements change politics. From the original Boston Tea Party to the modern Tea Party, movements change politics.

References:
Meet-Up, Occupy Together

War Is Over!

2011-10-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

October 21st 2011 President Barack Obama announces the end of the American war in Iraq as of January 1st 2012. This was one of the key campaign promises that Senator Obama made during his presidential campaign.

In the coming months President Obama has also stated that he will withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan in light of recent and key developments in the War In The Middle East. These include the deaths of Osama Bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi, Anwar al-Awlaki and the truly inhuman Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq who beheaded unarmed hostages on videotape and uploaded them to the Internet.

References:
CBS News, Obama Announces End Of Iraq War
Wikipedia, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Yellow Journalism For Red-Blooded Americans

2011-09-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

Fox News, home of Fairly Unbalanced journalism, celebrates 15 years on basic cable airwaves.

In an era where journalistic standards in America have returned to the lows of shamelessly wide-eyed propaganda not seen since the term yellow journalism was coined - a familiar beast rides the tide. Around the clock, 24-hour-a-day cable news networks fill the airwaves with unbearably soft news, copy-and-paste "investigative" practices that often are taken directly from the AP wire in whole and critical amounts of under-reporting of serious incidents and events that effect millions of Americans taking precedence.

Events taking a back seat to low budgets, lack of integrity and thinly disguised political agendas include: the on-going Gulf Oil Spill, astronomically increasing drug-related crime, Union crushing on Capital Hill, unbelievable amounts of corruption in government such as Former Governor Sarah Palin, Former Sen. William Jefferson, Former Sen. Larry "Footloose" Craig, Dick Cheney shooting a guy in the face all are glee-fully ignored.

So, in a cable new market dominated by incompetence, lack of standards and extremely low ratings what "format" of news could succeed?

Answer #1: Only a clearly corrupt one.

Let's use Wikipedia's definition of yellow journalism as a frame work. Wikipedia defines yellow journalism as presenting "little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism."

Any given day on Fox News Channel easily meets with this description. The network features undeniable correlations with yellow journalism at it's lowest. The vast majority of stories and reporters on Fox ooze their own upbeat, barbed brand of hate-mongering at it's most reptilian. The corespondents regularly display a distinct and unmistakable hatred of criticism, a hatred of government regulations, a hatred of poor people, a hatred of taxes and above all - a hatred of their opponents.

Wait. Back track. Journalism has opponents? What country are we again? Freedom of the Press is guaranteed to all Americans. So who is the enemy of American broadcast company Fox News brand of Journalism?

Answer #2: Democrats.

The channel, seen in 102 million homes as of 2010, markets itself as "fair-and-balanced" dozens of times an hour despite a clear right-wing bent in nearly all of their stories that either champion Republicans or demonize Democrats. The programming constantly re-enforces the phrase "fair-and-balanced". It's a concept that other news shows such as PBS's News Hour actually did by simply reporting the news and covering both sides of an issue - not by insisting they did so in a "fair-and-balanced" fashion. Ever.

On Fox News the only thing fair-and-balanced are the light meters and the check books. The producers figured, correctly, that "conflict-of-interest" didn't exactly roll off the tongue.

The same tabloid Journalism that screamed "Bigfoot Spotted In Gas 'N Go" was something that we all used to laugh at in the supermarket. Today, the same National Enquirer headlines have evolved and re-emerged under the guise of Fox's own "fair-and-balanced" coverage which amounts to nothing more than 24-hour-a-day yellow journalism. This reporting is done under the bold-faced headline "IS OBAMA AN AMERICAN?" or "JOHN KERRY'S COWARDICE!"

Reporting "news" on this channel with a straight face is an act of pure Charlatanism. Charlatan itself is an interesting term dating back to 16th Century meaning snake-oil sellers, evil eyed con-men and slight-of-hand artists. The charlatan's job was gain just enough of your confidence in order to rob you. Not the most violent of short cons but certainly one that stung long after. Fox's approach is much the same. Such is the case when they they "reported" that George W. Bush was now president of the United States even though there was a statistical tie that the Supreme Court had to decide many months later and all other new outlets thought better of reporting an unverified rumor.

Does that sound "fair-and-balanced" to you? Maybe it did to John Prescott Ellis cousin to George W. Bush and senior producer at Fox News during election night coverage in 2000.

And if none of this has made the slightest dent in your perception of Fox News then take the example of Michelle Malkin, a Fox News correspondent and former L.A. Times columnist, is clear example of this kind of yellow journalism.

In 2004, following claims made by the dirtiest mud smear campaign known to American politics that framed a highly decorated Viet Nam vet and long-serving U.S. Congressman as a gutless lying coward, Malkin appeared on MSNBC. At that time she stated that "there were legitimate questions over whether John Kerry's wounds were self-inflicted". Senator John Kerry, the US Army and the United States Congress knew better of course.

Calling a hero like Kerry, a man decorated for saving his own men's lives in combat, a coward was madness.

It was the insistence on that madness made by Swift Boat Veterans For Truth that was the really contagious part. It stunned people. It was like saying that Gandhi ate strangled babies to keep up his strength or that Mother Teresa sucked dongs on the side for kicks.

It was something so outrageously deranged, and flying in the face of facts, that it stunned the upper-brain of anyone who heard it. It banished the ability to form cohesive sentences in order to disagree.

What made it worse than simple mud-slinging was that no one said it was so. It was that disgusting.

By repeating this madness, Michelle Malkin was simply echoing the party line no matter how ridiculous, offensive and anti-American it was. And somehow, by slandering a hero both on and off the battlefield Malkin has become one of the most popular "news" correspondents on Fox News.

Forget about "fair-and-balanced", Malkin's over-heated and ill-informed approach is much more like "Salute-to-Victory" or in it's native toungue: "Sieg Heil".

The phenomena of Fox News and it's tabloid version of events is undeniable. In the future we can look forward to what Ted Turner, founder of CNN, has referred to as more "dumbed down propaganda" when wave after wave of yellow journalism scourges the airwaves from the most brightly painted swastika in the world of 24-hour-news.

Mikey Doesn't Like It, Math vs. Politics and The Nicest Looking Shark Contest

2011-07-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

The youngest member of the Senate is elected on June 22nd 2010 in South Jordan, Utah

On July 25th 2011 Utah Senator Mike Lee (R) appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox News* talk show where he appeared to have a very hard time when it came to calculating basic unemployment figures.

"Unemployment has gotten worse." Senator Lee declared, his eyes focused directly into the cold camera lens.

While this plays well with firmly entrenched Republicans it is absolutely false.

This deliberate characterization of facts both nationally and locally including the most recent numbers released by Lee's own home state of Utah. These numbers, released by the office of Utah state governor Gary R. Herbert, show that unemployment in Utah has decreased from 2010 to 2011.

In spite of documentation released from reputable national and state government sources Senator Lee declared that President Obama's policies have increased unemployment in America when a basic check of Mr. Lee's "facts", even in his home state of Utah, reveals a very different picture.

In fact, each month in 2011 shows a consistently lower national unemployment rate than in 2010. This isn't simply a politicized "misstatement" by Senator Lee - it's a lie that can be proven a lie with a simple check of figures that are well within the public purview.

U.S. Bureau of Labor figures show lower national unemployment rates than 2010 in 2011.

This inability to employ simple math, paired with a knack to pander to his far right-wing base of Tea Party conservatives, shreds Lee's integrity. His nationally televised tirades on the truth are nothing more than vitriolic and venomous attacks against his own People - one that further endangers America's recovery during a Republican engineered financial crisis that could easily change the course of America's economic recovery. The debt ceiling, at the heart of the debate, has been raised over 30 times since Ronald Reagan.

Reagan raised the debt ceiling a total of 17 times during his own Recession choked Presidency.

This deliberate characterization of facts, and a complete lack of mention of the monetary cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (1.2 trillion and counting), is often the new face of the Republican Party. The new Republican Party appears willing to say anything, no matter how preposterous, in order to deal President Obama a political bitch slap.

The major problem is that the rest of country will be taking it across the face with President Obama, should supporters of Obama's strategy fail. This includes pensioners, retirees, the severely disabled and the children of the working poor.

The rest of Mr. Hannity's show was dedicated to a short "debate" in which ultra-conservative Republican correspondents and columnist's "argued" about how good looking the current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives John Boehner (R) of Ohio was.

As the Hannity production crew rolled tape of Boehner - Mr. Speaker gleamed darkly with his eyes focused tightly on the Congressional teleprompter. And it's true, the congressman from South West Ohio does possess a restless and easy grace - like a manicured Sea World shark that smells political blood in the water...

In conclusion, the immutable fact is: Americans like detached charm but they respect honesty. While politicians like Lee and Boehner can often fall short of the truth, when a politician grossly mischaracterizes vital figures in a obviously flawed way during a economic crisis, it is up to us as Americans to relieve Senator Lee of his responsibility to do things like simple math. Perhaps the good people of Utah can replace Lee with a 3rd Grader who can.

References:
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001-2011 Unemployment Stats
Utah Governor's Office, 2010-2011 Unemployment Stats
Yahoo News 7/28/2011, Unemployment Decrease Drives Up Dow-Jones 50 Points

* = Please note, The Sean Hannity Show on Fox News began national syndication on September 10th 2001. This is a contributing factor to the state of panicked agitation that pervades the program.

The Fog of War

2011-05-08T05:35:00.000-07:00

Film maker Errol Morris and Nixon's former Secretary of Defense James McNamara examine a world at war.

The Fog of War, presented here in it's entirety, is the most important and shockingly relevant movie you will ever watch. While Viet Nam and action in Cambodia, Laos and greater Indochina are not much more than a few bothersome chapters in American students history books - they live on in many ways.

These decades of American military involvement in Viet Nam live on in the silence of the hundreds of thousands of veterans of that action.

Film-maker Errol Morris' Fog of War (2003), released the same year that America invaded Iraq, carefully examines the factors that led up to Viet Nam. Former Secretary of Defense James McNamara, who passed away at the age of 93 in 2009, speaks very candidly with Morris about the day to day operations of warfare in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

References:
Errol Morris.com, The Fog of War
IMDB, The Fog of War (2003)

Priests And Nuns Sent To Prison In Tacoma

2011-03-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

Rev. Bill Bichsel greats supporters outside the Tacoma federal courthouse before a sentencing hearing March 28th 2011. Photo by Joe Barrentine.

WASHINGTON - Hundreds gathered in front of the federal courthouse in Tacoma Monday afternoon as the Bangor 5 heard their sentence.

They each were facing up to ten years in prison for breaking into the Navy submarine base at Bangor, but a judge "went easy" on the octogenarians in the bunch.

Jesuit priest Bill Bichsel, 82, received three months in federal prison for cutting through the base's fences in November 2009. He was unapologetic even after he was found guilty of trespassing and destruction of government property.

"They're a sign of mass destruction of our planet, of our people," Bichsel said.

Bichsel's sister and co-conspirator Anne Montgomery, 84, gets two months. Tacoma social worker Lynne Greenwald will head to jail for six months. Susan Crane, 65, of Baltimore, and 60-year-old Steve Kelly of Oakland are each slapped with 15 months sentences.

The five said they did it because nuclear warheads stored on submarines at the base are "illegal, indiscriminate killers".

Bichsel, along with the Rev. Stephen Kelly of Oakland, Calif.; Lynne Greenwald of Tacoma; Sister Anne Montgomery of Redwood City, Calif.; and Susan Crane of Baltimore, cut through fences in November 2009 to reach the weapons storage area at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor where they put up banners, scattered sunflower seeds and prayed until they were arrested to protest submarine nuclear weapons.

References:
My Northwest.com. Priest and Nuns Convicted Of Protest

Remembering Buddy Gray

2011-03-22T12:58:00.001-07:00

A high school volunteer for Little Buddies and OTR kids at the Cincinnati Zoo.

CINCINNATI - Buddy Gray was a controversial activist in inner city Cincinnati in the 1980's and 1990's. Armed with nothing more than a likable demeanor and a plan in a high-crime neighborhood in Cincinnati his shrewd political activities forced city leaders to address the working poor in it's Over-The-Rhine area. Tragically, Buddy Gray was murdered by a neighbor - a mentally ill man that Buddy himself had helped to find housing. Gray was gunned down by the same of violence that has engulfed OTR for the past 30 years.

The life of Buddy Gray is remembered by many including volunteers at Little Buddies, a volunteer program from 2005 to 2006. Little Buddies, named after Gray, took young kids from OTR on free field trips to museums and to the Cincinnati zoo in order to expose them to the larger world of art, music and science.

References:
Wikipedia, Buddy Gray
Moeller.org, ReSTOC Programs
Moeller.org, Zoo Day 2006
I Am Jack's Outraged Tears Of Burning Hatred, Remembering Buddy Gray

2010 Census Figures

2011-03-10T07:05:00.000-08:00

IFRAMES not supported
Roll over a county above for the results of the 2010 population.

The numbers are in, again, Americans. And once again, several cultural assumptions in America are proven completely wrong. Each decade, when these numbers come in, assumptions about race, crime and population are as irrelevant as ever.

I. Race
One such classic distortion, used by many to over-simplify or to deceive, is that minorities and groups such as blacks and hispanics are "over-breeding like crazy" or "taking over" when minorities in America are, in light of the 2010 American census, less than 20% of the total current American population - a total population of nearly 310 million. This something like 230 million whites to 80 million all other minorities - this is counting for all minorities including those of Middle Eastern, Native American, Asian and Hispanic heritage.

II. Crime
The murder rate in America, according to Wikipedia, is 6.1 percent while areas of like North Africa have a murder rate of less than 1.4 percent - which is even lower than Europe which is at 1.8 percent.

III. Redistricting
Another assumption is that big cities just get bigger. This is also wrong, according to US Government numbers. They really are just getting emptier. Redistricting is a term for this kind of American population migration. Redistricting happens when enough people who have moved out of large cities, like Cleveland and Cincinnati by the tens of thousands, and no longer require representation in Washington or their state legislature.

IFRAMES not supported
Roll over a county above for the results of the 2010 population.

This population shift creates a situation in which new (or re-drawn) districts (aha, redistricting) happens in new communities to better represent the people of each state while taking the power from old district's Senators and re-assigning it.

The 2010 U.S. Census is a study in the cold, hard fact that America is high-crime, white majority country with major cities that contain vast pockets of blight.

References:
Wikipedia, US Census
Wikipedia, US Demographics
US Census, US Data

Slow Boat To Nowhere: The Court Martial of Capt. Owen Honors

2011-02-21T06:08:00.000-08:00

Capt. Honors of the USS Enterprise and former Top Gun Ace drummed out of the US Navy by a political witch hunt.

Navy Captain Owen Honors the former skipper of the USS Enterprise.

On January 5th, of this year of 2011, in an act of political theater on the level of Swift Boat Vets for Truth, the U.S. Navy fired the popular captain of the USS Enterprise Captain Owen Honors after less than a year at that post.

In addition to being a highly respected Naval Officer, Captain Honors was a former jet fighter pilot who saw action in the Fall of Yugoslavia and in the first Gulf War logging 3,400 flight hours in 31 types of aircraft with more than 700 landings on 15 carriers. He has flown 85 combat missions in three different theaters. As a young man he was also he was a legendary test pilot for advanced fighter jets (including the 645 mph T-45A) and a member of several elite squads in the Navy's Top Gun program.

From 2010 to early 2011 as Captain of the Enterprise and previously as skipper of many other boats, according to his own men - thousands of which were his personal responsibility, as a captain during combat operations in the Middle East Owen Honors was without peer having known first hand the daily pressures and isolating bitterness of being at war.

What then was this well-respected skipper's crime to lose an exemplary 30-year career in the blink of an eye? Did he get caught in a shameful sex scandal? Make a terrible error in judgment that cost lives? Did he falsify a report? Was there a dereliction of duty? Did he fail in his job responsibilities to the men and women of his command?

No. In fact - the opposite.

He made a joke.

A T-45a U.S. Navy jet fighter is the type of aircraft that Capt. Honors flew and carried aboard his boat.

Like most jokes, especially bad ones, it came at the expense of another person. And then, after 30 plus years of service to America in it's armed forces - he was abruptly fired - four years after the series of videos containing the joke were leaked to non-military personnel by an Navy officer that Honor had reprimanded himself.

Today, there are two distinct sides to this issue. I have no doubts as to my own allegiances in this matter having made many, many bad jokes. In the worst case scenario my own attempts at humor were interpreted as an immediate precursor to violence, death threats or even sexual advances. These unlikely interpretations were, w/out fail, made by hysterical women or scowling men with IQ's barely larger than their shoe size.

Now, as an American who often questions his country's true priorities I can only wonder why a man of Owen Honors intelligence and extraordinary achievement would be condemned for making his command a better place to live - and even to die.

It saddens and shocks me that a man who led his life in the service of his country was discharged like a snot-nosed high school drop-out with a born to lose tattoo on his forehead for cracking wise to his CO.

Do you want to know more about the decision to fire and discharge Captain Honors? Ask those who made it at the Senate Armed Forces Committee:

Senator Carl Levin (D) Michigan
Chairman

John McCain (R) Arizona
Ranking Member

Senate Armed Forces Committee
Room SR-228, Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-6050
Main Phone Number: 202-224-3871
Fax Number: 202-228-0036

Full Committee Members:
Joseph I. Lieberman (I) Connecticut
Jack Reed (D) Rhode Island
Daniel K. Akaka (D) Hawaii
Ben Nelson (D) Nebraska
Jim Webb (D) Virginia
Claire McCaskill (D) Missouri
Mark Udall (D) Colorado
Kay R. Hagan (D) North Carolina
Mark Begich (D) Alaska
Joe Manchin III (D) West Virginia
Jeanne Shaheen (D) New Hampshire
Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D) New York
Richard Blumenthal (D) Connecticut
James M. Inhofe (R) Oklahoma
Jeff Sessions (R) Alabama
Saxby Chambliss (R) Georgia
Roger F. Wicker (R) Mississippi
Scott P. Brown (R) Massachusetts
Rob Portman (R) Ohio
Kelly Ayotte (R) New Hampshire
Susan M. Collins (R) Maine
Lindsey Graham (R) South Carolina
John Cornyn (R) Texas
David Vitter (R) Louisiana

References:
Wikipedia, Owen Honors
Wikipedia, T-45 Goshawk
Huffington Post, Owen Honors Relieved Of Command
Military Times, Disgraced CO Honors now firing back
Facebook, Support Captain Honors
BNET, Should Honors Have Been Fired?

Teachers Rock @ The Rock 'N Roll Hall Of Fame

2011-01-28T06:31:00.000-08:00

Teachers Rock 2010-2011
Professional Development Workshops for K-12 Educators

Teachers Rock is a professional development workshop series for K-12 level teachers and school administrators interested in integrating popular music into core-curriculum teaching. Held at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, this monthly series is offered free of charge from 4:30 – 6 PM on the second Wednesday of most months and is held on-site at the Rock Hall. Education Programs Manager Stephanie Heriger, a musicologist and former elementary special education teacher, leads the series.

Each Teachers Rock session will spotlight a specific grade band or content area by exploring great moments in rock and roll history and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees who made those moments happen. Educators will learn how to use appropriate arts-integrated activities and instructional methods and will receive featured lessons and resources for use in their own classrooms. Participants are encouraged to share and workshop their own lessons and strategies with colleagues in our open discussion forum. Documentation of participation is available at the close of each session.

References:
RNRHF!, Teachers Rock

"I am the luckiest man on earth ... I'll still get to grow old with my wife and see my kids grow up."

2011-01-11T13:36:00.000-08:00

Re-posted from the original story at Ball State University.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the story of a man who is overcoming a series of uncommon, overwhelming obstacles and is still fighting.

Every time graduate student Jeff Mittman opens his computer to log into an online course or attends a class at the Ball State Indianapolis Center, he knows no obstacle can stop him.

The former Army sergeant has set many goals for himself. He won't allow the loss of most of his vision—the result of a roadside bomb that tore through his armored Humvee in 2005 while on duty in Iraq—to stand in his way.

After dozens of surgeries to repair damage to his face, Mittman is well on his way to earning a master's degree in executive development.

"I like to tell people that I am the luckiest man on earth because I'll still get to grow old with my wife and see my kids grow up," says Mittman, who has been featured at annual Veterans Day observations around the state and praised on the floor of the U.S. Senate by Sen. Richard Lugar. "My blindness and other disabilities cause me a certain amount of inconvenience but provide opportunities and experiences that are invaluable to me and my family."

An admitted computer geek, he spends a great deal of time with his electronic devices and smartphones in order to keep up with the latest news, communicate with fellow students, and research information for papers or projects for his classes.

"Technology is the great equalizer. My computers and the software allow me to perform and study just like any other student. My military background has trained me to set goals and focus on going through the necessary steps to accomplish those goals."

Mittman says he chose the master's program at Ball State because of the university's national reputation for assisting disabled students as well as its work to help disabled veterans transition from the battlefield to the classroom.

"The transition was seamless," he says. "The folks at Ball State have been wonderful as I work on my graduate degree, which I decided would give me an advantage in the job market."

References:
BSU.edu, Sgt. Jeff Mittman
Vision Aware, Sgt. Jeffrey Mittman
PBS News Hour, Interview Transcript

Faces of Political Protest in America: 1969

2011-01-01T05:04:00.000-08:00

References:
Hartford Indie Media,
No Business as Usual: 10,000 Protest the Vietnam War in Hartford

The Friend of a Crook is also a Crook OR How I Unlearned History And Voted Republican

2010-03-15T10:35:00.000-07:00

On Sunday March 14^th Lamar Alexander, called President Obama's efforts to make health care more accessible to the public "the most brazen act of political arrogance that I can remember since Watergate".

It is stupefying that 35 years after Watergate rocked this country that modern Americans are expected to see clear acts of corruption as very minor and forgivable glitches of an otherwise perfect President. As if that wasn't low enough: We are now expected to believe that Nixon's resignation was somehow a mistake! A mistake made by a handful of misguided politicians and not the result of his own shocking crimes. This is revisionism and a rewrite of history. It's revisionism and it's cloaked in a farce of political theater. Nixon was a crook.

As the old saying goes: the friend of a Crook is also a crook.

Alexander's irrational nationally televised remarks compare President Obama to Richard Milhouse Nixon - a crooked little man who resigned from office in shame after he ordered a series of crimes (including burglary, theft, perjury to name a few) committed in America and against Democratic political opponents who he was already well ahead of in his re-election bid.

Republican Richard Nixon fled office only after it became clear that a majority of the U.S. Senate were going to impeach him and then forcibly throw him out of office as President of the United States. Not for any other reason. Alexander is insinuating Watergate and Nixon's resignation were some kind of a wacky misunderstanding - that it was all perpetrated by a handful of left-wing glue sniffers on a whim on Saturday night.

Well, it wasn't. And either is broader access to health care for all Americans.

I strongly encourage readers of All American Activism to copy the following email and send it directly to the Senator from Tennessee's Office to express their outrage as out-of-touch Republicans drag out their heinous political skeletons in order stop the current administration from making health care more available to all Americans.

---

Lamar Alexander
Jr. Senator, Tennessee (R)

Dear Senator Alexander,

Sir, the remarks you have recently made on March 14^th 2010 on CBS's Face The Nation were shockingly irresponsible. I am deeply saddened and troubled that you would compare the current President and constitutional scholar with a Crook who resigned from office in widepread shame in the wake of his own corruption.

Senator Alexander, to further your wrong-minded statement you have also stated, in no uncertain terms, that Watergate was a minor and forgivable glitch in an otherwise perfect system. It wasn't. It was a gross abuse of power by a corrupt politician who got into the White house by default after the best of American political manhood was gunned down in Viet Nam, central Texas and Los Angeles. Richard Nixon was the last man standing, not the best one.

During your CBS interview Senator you directly compared President Obama's effort to provide broader access to health care with the policies of former President Nixon, a man who resigned from office in shame due to nefarious and criminal activity. Nixon is widely known to have ordered break-in's and felonies committed against Democrats in the mid-seventies i.e. Watergate - and then you call the action against these crimes "arrogance"? Sir, this statement seems erroneous. To compare legal health reform with executive orders to commit crimes in the guise of justice is irresponsible leadership.

Americans did want Nixon to resign or be impeached by a whopping majority. He was a selfish man who spent his formative years working for the infamous Senator from Wisconsin Joe McCarthy's HUAC on witch-hunts in which he merrily assisted in blacklisting men and woman for not being "American enough". Afterward, as President, he destroyed thousands of pieces of evidence that would have been used to put him in prison for corruption. This is not President Obama's record at all. And Watergate was not a minor or forgivable event in American history.

Sir, please, in the future, think about the remarks you, as a representative of the American people, make in public settings. Elitist revisionism in a time where technology makes history accessible to everyone is very ill advised. As the former Secretary of Education under George H. Bush, you should know your American history better than to label a Crook like Tricky Dick Nixon a hero while calling the policies of a constitutional scholar crimes. Sir, this is not "Our Long National Nightmare" in which the President is a shady character ordering secret crimes - this the 21st Century.

Thank you for your time,
Paul Schmitt
Indianapolis, Indiana

---

Please email or mail the above letter, with your own name, to Senator Lamar Alexander to let him know you don't think President Obama is a crook. Let Senator Alexander that you are not gullible enough to believe that corruption and health care for more Americans are the same thing.

This letter can be sent to Lamar through his website or one of two regular mailing addresses:

Sen. Lamar Alexander
Nashville Office
3322 West End Avenue Suite 120
Nashville, TN 37203

Sen. Lamar Alexander
Washington DC Office
455 Dirksen Senate Office Building
District of Columbia 20510-4204

References:
Lamar Alexander.com
Govtrack.com
Red State Revolt!

Faces of Political Protest in America: 2008

2010-01-01T00:01:00.001-08:00

Part One: The Fourth
Nearly three years ago, March 4th of 2008, on the 5-year mark of the War in Iraq, a peaceful demonstration was held at the U of C at Berkeley and marched to downtown Oakland. The 5 mile march took almost 2 hours and passed the major hubs of commerce in San Francisco and Oakland.

Part Two: The Twentieth
Another protest, held on March 20th 2008, also marked the fifth anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Antiwar protesters yesterday were subjected to excessive uses of force by several officers of the San Francisco Police Department.

References:
Fog City Journal, Peaceful antiwar protest marred excessive use of force
Fog City Journal, Whose War Is This?
Protest Shooter, UC Berkeley 3-2008

OEF - Afghanistan KIA: Tech. Sgt. Anthony Campbell

2009-12-21T18:51:00.000-08:00

Cincinnati Police Officer Killed In Afghanistan
Re-printed from the original WCPO Article

Family of 35-year-old Sgt. Anthony Campbell, a police officer and Army Reservist, lay their father and husband to rest in December of 2009.

On December 15^th 2009, 35-year old Tech. Sgt. Anthony C. Campbell Jr. died from wounds inflicted by an improvised explosive device in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Campbell was assigned to the 932nd Civil Engineer Squadron, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. He had also served in the Air Force from 1992-1995.

"Cincinnati grieves today with the news that we have lost a member of our city family as he served our country overseas," said Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory said. "We offer our sincerest sympathies to Officer Campbell's family and friends. We honor his deep commitment to public service both at home in Cincinnati and abroad."

"He just always had in his mind that he wanted to be a police officer," said Chris Webster, a friend of Campbell's.

The Cincinnati Police Department is mourning the loss of an officer they call a 'walking example of what (they) want in an officer'. Lt. Col. James Whalen says

"This one came home. This one isn't a near miss this one is a tragic event we weren't able to avoid," said Lt. Col. James Whalen. "It's given everyone a moment to pause."

Campbell is survived by his parents, his wife, Emily, an 11-year-old son, Devin, a 7-year-old daughter, Jordan, and a 2-year-old son, Ryker.

References:
WCPO Channel 9, Cincinnati Police Officer Killed In Afghanistan
WXIX Fox 19, Cincinnati police officer killed overseas

OEF - Afghanistan KIA: Sgt. Federico Borjas

2009-12-21T18:07:00.000-08:00

San Diego SWAT officer killed in combat in Afghanistan
Re-printed from the LA Times Article by Katherine Linthicum
Shortly after Army Reserve Sgt. Federico G. Borjas arrived in Afghanistan in late September he called his father to tell him what he saw.

"He said, 'This place is just like back home,' ", said Raimundo "Mundo" Borjas, his older brother. "This is the same moon; these are the same stars."

Federico Borjas, a 33-year-old San Diego police officer, had always dreamed of serving his country overseas. Last year, a decade after he completed a stint in the Marines he volunteered for the Army Reserve, in part hoping to reach that goal.

His police colleagues said he also had another motivation: to honor his cousin, Army National Guard Spc. Eric U. Ramirez, 31, of San Diego, who was killed in an attack in Iraq in early 2004.

Just weeks after Borjas deployed to the Middle East with the San Diego-based 416th Civil Affairs Battalion, 351st Civil Affairs Command, a gunman ambushed his convoy. He died October 16^th 2008 in the Bermel District Center of Afghanistan's Paktia province, south of Kabul.

Raimundo Borjas said his brother, known as Rico to family and friends, was a thoughtful man with a big smile and a soft spot for his 11-year-old daughter, Yvette.

His brother had an easy way about him, Raimundo Borjas said, but spent his life looking for challenges.

"He always wanted to excel," he said.

The brothers acquired their discipline as children growing up in a small town outside Orlando, Fla. They lived in a house next to the orange grove where their parents worked. "It was backwoods," Raimundo Borjas recalled. "It was the boonies."

There were few Latinos in town, and the family faced discrimination, he said.

"They just kind of pushed us to the side," he said of their neighbors. "We grew up pretty rough."

Their father, who also was a Baptist pastor, pressed his children to work hard. He told them they should never do anything halfway.

"We'd go to school, come home, do our homework and then go out and help our family in the fields," Raimundo Borjas said.

Federico Borjas followed his brother into the Marines, joining at age 18.

After four years of service, Federico Borjas left to join the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, serving as a corrections deputy in Otay Mesa. A few years later, he joined the San Diego Police Department. He served on its prestigious SWAT team and, later, its color guard.

Raimundo Borjas said he will never forget watching Yvette the day of the Federico's funeral, attended by about 1,000 mourners, including San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and hundreds of law enforcement officials from around the state.

"She went to the casket and said, 'Can I touch his face?' " Raimundo Borjas recalled. "I said, 'Yes, mija, touch his face, touch his hand. Remember him. This was your father.' "

In addition to his daughter, brother and father, Federico Borjas is survived by his mother and two sisters. He was buried with full military honors at on San Diego’s Point Loma

References:
LA Times, San Diego SWAT officer killed in combat in Afghanistan
Military City, Honor The Dead: Sgt. Federico Borjas
They Were Sons and Daughters, Sgt. Federico Borjas

OEF - Afghanistan KIA: Marine Neil Dunstan

2009-12-21T17:25:00.000-08:00

Marines killed In Afghan Bomb Blast
Re-printed from the original article at Scotsman.com

Royal Commando Marine Neil Dunstan, 32 of Scotland, died fighting Taliban forces in Afghanistan November of 2008.
On November 14^th 2008, Marine Neil Dunstan, was killed with a fellow Roayl commando when their Jackal vehicle was struck by an explosive device during a patrol in Garmsir district of southern Helmand, Afghanistan.

Marine Dunstan, 32, of Bournemouth, Scotland was due to marry his fiancee, Katie Miller, in the summer of 2010 when his military service ended.

Katie Miller said of her fiancee: "Neil was so proud to be a marine and lived each day to the full. He was my soulmate and the love of my life. Neil was very much loved by all the family."

Dunstan, while in the service had travelled the world, visiting the USA, Ghana, Egypt and Bavaria. He also worked in close defence of the UK's independent nuclear deterrent, serving with the Fleet Protection Group Royal Marines. He developed an interest for mountaineering when working for the Mountain Leader & Reconnaissance Company. After a winter deployment to Norway and a number of mountaineering trips to Switzerland he succeeded in selection for the Brigade Patrol Troop where he fulfilled his goals of becoming a reconnaissance soldier and a trained military parachutist.

At the time of his death, Dunstan was operating with the UK Landing Force Command Support Group, working to gather information to improve troops' awareness of the surrounding area and conditions. His deaths bring the total number of British troops killed in Afghanistan to 124.

Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Andrew McInerney remembers of Dunstan that he: "- possessed Commando qualities in abundance. His quiet confidence and humility was an inspiration to all those who worked with him. A quiet but natural leader, his maturity and intellect made him a valued role model and mentor to the men with whom he served."

References:
Wikipedia, Coalition Members Killed In Afghanistan
Scottish Ministry of Defence, Marines killed in Afghanistan
The Scotsman Edinburgh, Marines killed in Afghan bomb blast
Palace Barracks, Royal Marine Commando - Afghanistan

OEF - Afghanistan KIA: Corporal Glen Arnold

2009-12-21T16:58:00.000-08:00

On September 18^th 2006^st, Corporal Glen Arnold, a 32-year-old medical technician with 2 Field Ambulance - a Canadian medical unit, was killed along with three other Canadian soldiers when a suicide bomber attacked his foot patrol about 30 kilometers (60 miles) west of Kandahar city in Afghanistan.

Seven weeks before Cpl. Arnold, a father of five children, was killed in Afghanistan, he posted his thoughts on a family blog dedicated to his nephew who was recovering from serious burns.

"I have been to war-torn countries and have not been affected as much as I have in this situation," he wrote, "I find the frustration unbearable at times that I can't be with my brother and nephew in their time of need."

"When I compare my causes of frustration to his, it makes mine petty," he added.

Cpl. Arnold served in the Canadian Forces (CF) for 14 years. During which he deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina, as a member of DART (Disaster Assistance Relief Team) in Sri Lanka as well as a previous deployment to Afghanistan.

References:
Wikipedia, Coalition Members Killed In Afghanistan
CBC News, All Four Soldiers ID'ed
Operation Enduring Freedom, Glen Arnold
SooToday.com, Statement from the family of Corporal Glen Arnold

The State of Arizona vs Jeff Pataky

2009-11-06T13:49:00.000-08:00

Re-printed from the original article at Citizen and Media Law

In March 2009, Phoenix police raided the home of Jeff Pataky, a blogger who runs Bad Phoenix Cops, a blog that has been highly critical of the Phoenix Police Department. According to The Arizona Republic, Pataky's home was raided by ten Phoenix police officers who handcuffed his girlfriend for three hours while they conducted the raid.

"We have heard internally from our police sources that they purposefully did this to stop me," Pataky told the Republic. "They took my cable modem and wireless router. Anyone worth their salt knows nothing is stored in the cable modem."

The search warrant lists petty theft and computer tampering with the intent to harass as potential crimes. Pataky, who was away on a business trip when the raid occurred, says he has yet to see an affidavit that explains why they had probable cause to conduct the raid.

The search warrant provides little insight into what police believe Pataky has done. It does, however, mention repeatedly that police were to search for personal correspondence between Pataky and "Dave Barnes." According to The Arizona Republic, Barnes is a former Phoenix homicide detective who went public in 2007 with claims of mismanaged evidence at the city's crime lab. In May 2009, Barnes' home also was raided by police due to his alleged "involvement in what some officers perceived to be a connection to a blog critical of the policeleaders," the Republic reported at the time.

Carlos Miller, who runs the Photography is Not a Crime Blog, is reporting that Pataky recently filed a lawsuit over the raid, which netted three computers, routers, modems, hard drives, memory cards and everything necessary to continue blogging. Pataky told Miller that he has not let the raid stop him from blogging, however, "They thought they were going to scare us into a corner but they just made us stronger."

UPDATE: 07/14/09
Pataky filed a lawsuit against the City of Phoenix and the officers involved in the raid. Pataky's six-count complaint alleges abuse of process, intentional infliction of emotional distress, harassment, and violation of privacy.

Related Links:

Details:
Website(s) Involved: Bad Phoenix Cops
Subject Area(s): Censorship
Location of Filing/Threat: Phoenix, Arizona
Court Name: County of Maricopa, State of Arizona
Relevant Documents:Pataky Search Warrant (03-09-2009), Affidavit for Search Warrant.pdf (03-09-2009), Pataky Complaint.pdf (07-14-2009).

"He knew what he was doing. He wanted to save Marines' lives..."

2009-10-04T14:26:00.000-07:00

Cpl. Jason L. Dunham is the first Marine Recipient of the Medal of Honor since 1970.

Cpl. Dunham was 22, of Scio, N.Y.; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, at Twentynine Palms, Calif.; died April 22nd 2004 at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Md., of injuries sustained April 14 when he used his body to shield comrades from a grenade explosion in Husaybah, Iraq. He posthumously received the Medal of Honor in 2007. This is his story:

Fallen marine recieves medal of honor
By Gidget Fuentes
Associated Press Staff writer
Reprinted from an 2007 article at Militarycity.

President Bush announced today (January 11, 2007) that Cpl. Jason Dunham, who died more than two years ago after covering a grenade with his helmet to save his fellow Marines, will receive the Medal of Honor.

This will be the first Medal of Honor — the nation’s highest award for battlefield heroism — bestowed on a Marine in the Iraq war and the first earned for combat action since 1970, during the Vietnam War.

Dunham, a 22-year-old machine gunner from Scio, N.Y., was manning a checkpoint near Karabilah, near the Syrian border in Iraq, on April 14, 2004, when an Iraqi man grabbed his throat. As the two scuffled, the Iraqi dropped a grenade with the pin removed, and Dunham quickly jumped on it, using his Kevlar helmet and body to smother the blast.

Shrapnel pierced his skull, and he died eight days later with his parents at his side at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland having never regained consciousness.

Bush announced the award during a ceremony today at Quantico, Va., where Marines and other top military and government leaders gathered for the grand opening of the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

The Medal of Honor is typically presented by the president at an Oval Office ceremony at the White House.

Three of Dunham’s fellow soldiers with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, suffered shrapnel wounds but survived. Two weeks later, Kilo Marines mourned Dunham at a memorial service held at their camp in Qaim, Iraq.

“He knew what he was doing. He wanted to save Marines' lives from that grenade,” said Lance Cpl. Jason Sanders, 21, a mortarman, according to a Marine Corps News article.

Dunham’s story was told in a book, “A Gift of Valor,” penned by Wall Street Journal Micheal Phillips. Phillips was a reporter embedded with 3/7 battalion in the spring 2004. In an article Phillips, wrote just weeks after Dunham’s death, unit leaders already had weighed the gravity of his final combat action and the potential recognition of that heroism.

The battalion commander at the time, Lt. Col. Matthew Lopez, submitted Dunham’s nomination for the Medal of Honor, noting “I deeply believe that given the facts and evidence presented, he clearly understood the situation and attempted to block the blast of the grenade from his squad members. His personal action was far beyond the call of duty and saved the lives of his fellow Marines,” Phillips recounted in his article.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., later issued a statement asking the president to award the Medal of Honor to Dunham, noting that his actions “embodied the courage and fortitude that have made the armed forces of the United States the most respected in the world. I can imagine no clearer case of an individual soldier exhibiting the ideals that the Congressional Medal was established to honor.”

Former president George W. Bush presents Cpl. Dunham's Congressional Medal of Honor to his parents Daniel and Deborah Dunham in 2007.

Since his death, Dunham’s family and friends have maintained a web site, jasonsmemorial.org, and a memorial scholarship fund but largely have stayed on the sidelines as the nomination has run through the review process.

“Jason would have wanted to earn it on his own,” his mother, Deb Dunham, told Marine Corps Times in September. “We feel he’s earned it.”

Dunham is the first Marine to receive the Medal of Honor since Vietnam, and the second to receive it for actions in the Iraq war.

Two other Marines have reportedly been nominated for the Medal of Honor for heroism in Iraq. Sgt. Rafael Peralta, 25, with 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, died Nov. 15, 2004, during the second battle of Fallujah. His unit had been fighting insurgents in a house when he was mortally wounded. He then cradled a grenade to save other Marines in the room.

The other name mentioned has been Lance Cpl. Christopher Adlesperger, 20, with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, who died Dec. 9, 2004. One month earlier, Adlesperger, after taking fire from a house during the Fallujah battle, climbed to the top of the house, fired grenades through the roof, shot and killed insurgents as they ran out of the house and led the charge back into the house to make sure it was secure, according to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times.

References:
Memorial to Cpl. Dunham
Marine Corps, Medal of Honor Citation Cpl Jason L. Dunham
Military City, Honor the Fallen

Faces of Political Protest in America: Pittsburgh 2009

2009-10-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

In September of 2009, world leaders met in downtown Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania. A large group of peacefull protestors were on hand to air grievances from NAFTA to demonstrating against the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Although there was an unofficial media "black-out" of the event, due to political pressure, many independent journalists and photographers were on hand to document the arrests of hundreds of the tens of thousands of protestors and activists in downtown Pittsburgh.

Ethics in Business: Nucor and the Global Meltdown

2009-03-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

Nucor Corporation Chairman, CEO and President Daniel DiMicco testifies during a hearing before the Congressional Steel Caucus on Capitol Hill February 4, 2009.

While many people are bemoaning the economy Dan Dimicco is saving jobs by being one of the biggest recyclers on Earth. His company, Nucor, recycles entire scrapyards and make them in steel and girders for buildings, cars, and heavy machinery. Dimicco is succeeding without firing a single of his 20,000 employees.

I caught his 60 Minutes interview in February as TARP was not the immediate answer to 20 years of compromised trade policy. As more bailout money was proposed for American business men like Dimicco looked for answers.

As DiMicco spoke about the steel industry, there was a clear blue-collar work ethic and common sense approach to his ideas. Here was a guy that looked like he could work in one of his foundries but instead was talking very clearly about how to re-invent the American steel industry.

"I like this guy." I said to the tv as DiMicco spoke.

He made some serious and gutsy statements about apathy in business and the impossible lack of trade tariffs tipping the balance of the free market. These conditions are what make American Steel so expensive. He spoke about the end of the Steel industry in 1970's and compared it directly to the dying automobile industry in America today.

These are factors that have shaped decades of recent history and no one is else is publicly discussing what's happening to cause this economic disaster or what to do next - except for Dan Dimicco.

In 2008, his company's business soared but the stock (listed as NUE) has taken a hit, although not nearly as bad the rest of the industrial sector.

References:
NUCOR.com, About Us
NUCOR, Full 60 Minutes Interview transcript

Ben Todd is Home

2009-02-06T09:55:00.000-08:00

Video clip originally posted as an i-Report on CNN by Rosehips.
This scene is repeated every week in America. Before you get all angried up, and after you stop crying, think about why this undeclared war began.

International criminals Bin Laden and Zawahiri are still free. These Muslim fundamentalists are directly responsible for the deaths of 3000 men, women, and children in New York City, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC. They have never stood trial. They enjoy the protection of an entrenched population that cares nothing for the senseless mass murder that their heroes have caused and continue to cause the people of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and America.

Instead, more good boys, future leaders whose presence will be sorely missed, are coming home from the desert on ice because there is still no clear goal in mind. Until this undeclared war, shaped by irrational religious scorn and fostered by the ill-concieved policies of George W. Bush, finally comes to an end: God bless all these boys and the families of all American soldiers.

Mai Lai: Plus 40 Years. Across the Gulf of Extraordinary Evil

2008-12-08T13:48:00.000-08:00

Hugh Thompson, Jr. (1943-2006) was a Viet Nam era helicopter pilot. His three man helicopter crew exemplified ethics in military combat during the war. Thompson was a 25-year-old helicopter pilot when he and his small crew stopped the bloodiest massacre of unarmed civilians recorded during the war.

A young officer named Colin Powell would make his political bones covering up the brutal slaughter of an estimated 504 unarmed men, women and children. They were killed in the small isolated village of Son My - a outlying province of Mai Lai in central Viet Nam.

On his patrol on the morning of March 16^th 1968 Hugh Thompson observed a series of civilian dead laying in the open, two of which were suspected Viet Cong he had dropped off earlier for US interrogation. After landing close to Son My, Thompson questioned the action with several of the officers of C for Charlie Company including one Second Lt. William Calley who told Thompson, "It ain't your business".

Rebuked but determined, Hugh Thompson dropped his small OH-4 observation helicopter in the middle of the turmoil, between the remaining Vietnamese and Charlie Company. Although not an officer, he got out and began screaming orders to cease fire.

Of the remaining villagers, Thompson managed to evacuate eleven peasants. His door-gunner, one Specialist Glenn Andreotta²*, sifted through the bodies of the dead to find a sole survivor - a small boy.

Son My was just one village of a chain of Mai Lai villages that Charlie Company knew of. If the action had not been stopped the human cost could have climbed into the thousands.

In the aftermath, William Calley was tried of the murder of 109 Vietnamese unarmed civilians. He was found guilty of the murder of 22 of unarmed civilians. His superior officer Captain Ernest Medina was acquitted of all charges. Thompson's original sentence of Life, given in September of 1971, was commuted by Richard Nixon and then became a legal fiasco that resulted in his 1974 release after serving three and half years of house arrest.

For Thompson, life was not as fortunate. After his report, in 1968, Thompson began drawing incredibly dangerous suicide missions. His OH-23 sustained enemy fire on eight occasions and then was shot down a total of four times. In his final combat crash Thompson broke his spine.

He partially recovered and was nearly court martialed in a ploy directed by South Carolina Senator L. Mendel Rivers. Unable to be drummed out of the service based on lies and overzealous politicians - Thompson became an Army pilot instructor in Fort Rucker, Alabama. He also served in California and Hawaii before he retired from the military in 1983. He attended a memorial service 30 years after the massacre at Mai Lai to commemorate the massacre and his act of heroism. Thompson died of complications from cancer in 2006 at the VA in Alexandria Louisiana.

According to another hero of the era, former VA director and Democratic senator from Georgia, Max Cleland the actions of Thompson and his crew, for which they were hounded and haunted by their entire lives were, "true examples of American patriotism at its finest."

1*= Most of the title of this entry comes from a song by David Rovics.

2*= Glenn Andreotta would be killed a few weeks later. On April 8th, when acting as door-gunner, a single shot was fired into his head from the ground before his helicopter crashed into the jungle.

Reference:
Wikipedia, Hugh Thompson Jr. | Wikipedia, Ronald Haeberle Combat Photographer | Hugh Thompson on Monthly Review Magazine | Transcript of Center for the Study of Military Ethics Presentation: Moral Courage in Combat |Testimony of William Calley, UMKC Archive

Free Speech 1, Facism -2 Million Dollars

2008-11-26T11:05:00.000-08:00

Antiwar Activists Win $2 Million Settlement from New York City in Major Victory for Free Speech Rights

Re-printed from an article posted at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

August 19, 2008, New York, NY – A group of 52 local activists today announced a $2 million settlement in their lawsuit against the City of New York. The activists were illegally arrested on April 7, 2003 while protesting against the Iraq war in front of a military contractor's offices in midtown. The settlement in Kunstler et al v. New York City follows the dismissal in 2003 of all criminal charges brought against these individuals and four costly years of delays by the City in negotiating an end to the civil lawsuit.

“The New York Police Department violated core constitutional rights when it arrested a group of peaceful demonstrators who were lawfully protesting against the commencement of the Iraq war and those who stood to profit from it,” notes Sarah Netburn, attorney with Emery Celli Brinkerhoff Abady LLP, which handled the civil rights case along with the Center for Constitutional Rights.

“We are gratified by the City’s decision to compensate these individuals whose targeted arrests were without probable cause and intended to quell future protest in New York City. This lawsuit, and this settlement, vindicates our clients’ rights to assemble and speak their mind free from the fear that they will be punished for their views.”

Attorneys and plaintiffs noted, however, that the City's decision to drag the case out is part of a long and disturbing pattern by which it attempts to “wear down” plaintiffs to avoid political damage, even at huge expense of tax dollars and City resources. “My question is, why did the NYPD send over 100 police in riot gear, along with vehicles to block the street and disrupt the flow of morning rush hour traffic, all to stop a legal, peaceful protest, when there are far more important matters they could be pursuing? And, why did they fight us in court so doggedly when they knew the evidence proved that we were arrested without any police orders to leave?” asked Ahmad Shirazi, a film editor and grandfather and one of the plaintiffs in the case.

An NYPD videotape of the demonstration depicts a group of demonstrators lined along the sidewalk of West 56th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues – with ample space for pedestrians – who were arrested without any police warning or opportunity to leave. The police arrested 94 people that day.

The arrests took place outside the offices of the Carlyle Group, an investment firm with ties to the Bush family and an extensive portfolio of holdings in the military-defense sector. The police tactics used that day became the model used by the NYPD during the 2004 Republican National Convention held in New York.

At that event, thousands of activists were illegally arrested, jailed and mistreated. Lawsuits related to the police conduct at the RNC are still winding their way through the courts. NYPD officials are now consulting with police departments in Denver and Minneapolis on their plans for the 2008 Democratic and Republican Conventions.

“We hope our victory helps convince the City to stop violating people's rights as a matter of policy and stop wasting taxpayers' money doing so,” said Sarah Kunstler, an attorney and filmmaker who is the daughter of the late William Kunstler, noted attorney and civil rights champion. Ms. Kunstler was acquitted after a trial of all criminal charges brought against her. “It should also serve as a reminder that Washington's illegal war in Afghanistan and Iraq is also being fought at home – against its own citizens and in the name of war profiteers like Carlyle and Halliburton. We intend to continue our resistance until this stops.”

References:
*0 = Attorney, filmmaker and Activist Sarah Kunstler who originally filed the federal law suit in 2004.

*1 = Out-going Vice-President Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton stock has nearly tripled from $20 in March of 2003 to $52.10 a share in June of 2008 due solely to multi-billion dollar no-bid contracts to support the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. These contracts which were largely terminated by the US Army due to poor performance. Please see the chart below.

*2 = MSNBC story on the outcome of four year law suit against the City of New York.

Faces of Political Protest in America: DC, Denver, Kansas City and Providence 2008-2009

2008-11-26T09:38:00.000-08:00

Thugs 0, Northsiders 1

2008-11-19T07:48:00.000-08:00

Northside is an inner city neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. Graphic courtesy of
Wikipedia.

The War on Drugs is waged in every city in America. The part of this war that affects us as Americans happens among our country's downtowns and suburbs. This is not an "invisible war" in a third world country. It's right here, right now.

If you don't believe me, perhaps you live outside the interstate beltway of your own town where drug trafficking is less apparent but still happens. Maybe you live in a better area where wading or punching through through crack addicts and police tape to get into your building isn't part of your life.

But for a moment imagine living there, balanced between credibility, diversity and crime - risking your life to walk two blocks to buy baby formula or get a newspaper, to cash your pension check at the local bank, or to sit down and enjoy a beer with your neighbors at the local tavern. Imagine navigating through gangs of drug addled thugs, who stand like lost kindergardeners in the middle of a busy street as you try to get to work on time. Or, ignoring VD ridden prostitutes so you can rent a video or to grab some grub from a local restaurant.

Imagine being glared at by a long, long line of skeletal men, who look like they just crawled out their coffins, begging for whatever loose change you can spare to piece together a hit, a fix, or a drink. Imagine dealing with fearful law-abiding residents who've lived so long among the debris of civilization that they can no longer identify friend from foe. Their eyes dart away when they meet yours like they've been stung. Or worse, they stare at you like their eyes are miles underwater - but shifting slightly in their sockets trying get a grip on what dry land used to look like.

With all these factors in place, in spite of a long tradition of community activism groups, volunteer centers, and faith based initiatives - you have my neighborhood, the old Northside. The bad Northside. An inner city neighborhood that became for three long years a playground for low-level crack dealers who weren't much more than children.

The section Hamilton Avenue in Northside hosts several music and community festivals.

The new Northside, it's been 30 years in the making, it’s a neighborhood where counter-culture went to settle down and live together in a kind of uneasy truce. Punkers, gay folks, educators, artists and working-class saints all live and work together within a less than 2 mile radius. It’s a small area that reaches from north to south from Rockford and Hamilton Avenue to the William P Dooley Bypass.

Jamel Sechrest, left, and Oliver McLean, right, are two of 50 alleged gang members imprisoned for drug and violent crime convictions.

In this chunk of the old Northside, I lived across the street from a crack house for nearly three years. I faced waves of young, unemployed and uneducated kids, who on a daily basis, made a clear choice to be petty criminals instead of citizens. Over the three years that this gang was active they made it clear that they wanted to take over the entire neighborhood. They called themselves the Northside Taliband.

Most people, including my family, dozens of police officers, paramedics and firefighters who regularly rushed to my block advised me to move and move fast. I was repeatedly told that this was a "bad area".

Hamilton Avenue Photo courtesy of Tango Cincinnati and Cincinnati Magazine.

In this "bad area" there's a 1880's era church housing a children's daycare and school across the street from this crack house. On the corner, a non-profit called Happen Inc. that teaches art to kids and adults. This sits next to a 100 year old Carnegie public library. Across the street is the headquarters for a multi-faith community organization called CAIN that distributes food and clothing to the poor. All these vital organizations are located within 500 feet of this crack house and my building. This was not a "bad area". This was a clearly troubled area that's fighting for a chance to continue to make a positive impact.

Late in 2008, the City of Cincinnati, in conjunction with federal law enforcement, chose to clean up a horde of petty thugs and crack dealers called the "Taliband". The misspelled name itself became a big part the group's complete undoing.

The fact that 30 firearms were stolen in a 2007 during a burglary in Northside, combined with the common knowledge that a low level street gang named itself after a international terrorist organization, got serious local and national law enforcement attention *¹. If they chose a name they thought people would fear - it backfired into rage.

I, like many others, have a brave brother in the military. He has spent the last six years of his life fighting in the desert against evil men who called themselves the Taliban. Not only did I hate these crack dealers for what they were but I hated them more for what they wanted to be: mindless wannabe terrorists.

Assumed terrorist affiliation plus a lot of guns equaled massive law enforcement attention. On top of every other bonehead attempt to instill fear into the citizens of Northside, this low-life group of nickel and dimers referred to themselves as an "army"*².

This "army" had it's own web site meticulously listing it's members, friends, activities, locations and photographs of the members. This web site was an invaluable evidence gathering tool for local law enforcement to track dozens of crack dealers down.

Waves of arrests followed. It was a longtime in the making - a six-month investigation into this 90+ member gang. The news of the indictments and raids were all over the local news:

Above, teenage gang members are arrested for drug trafficking and armed robbery.

It was officially citywide news. And the embattled reputation of the Cincinnati Police Department needed it. The night the arrests started I sat quietly at the crowded November Northside Community Council meeting. I listened as the long list of indictments and arrests were read by a police captain who had been busy raiding suspected crack houses all day with local cops and ATFE personnel. As he spoke about the operation, between waves of applause, there was a definite feeling of relief among everyone there. Among the most optimistic of us, there was a recognition that the neighborhood could be changing for the better.

The old Northside got a little fuzzier and distant as I pictured the waves of thugs begin to disappear. In the old Northside, over the course of the three years there, I'd filed 3 Assault complaints, 2 Trespassing complaints and 1 attempted Robbery complaint. I was very aware of the dangers in my neighborhood. Like myself, my friends and neighbors were regularly victimized: "jumped" and robbed at gunpoint by groups of these thugs. Could these old realities really be coming to an end? And how long would Northside get a break from desperate drug addicts and thieves?

For a few minutes, I really let myself picture the ideal Northside, the WIP Northside, right before I left the meeting. A neighborhood where dark alleys and shadowy streets didn't loom as large on the long walk home. A neighborhood that wasn't the dumping ground for the homeless, a destination for yuppies looking for drugs or a place to ditch shot up stolen cars.

I pictured young working-class families and elderly folks walking the streets they lived in with less reason to fear what might meet them there. Whether that was day or night. A place where community organizations are more respected than a handfull of petty thugs are feared. And that's the Northside that I want to live in. The new Northside.

*A = From the City of Cincinnati's own city wide Crime Statistics for 2007.
*B = ATFE and Federal Atty's Office.
*C = According to Cincinnati's FOX 19 News report the gang's motto was "We aren't a gang we're an army."

Additional References:
CPD Operational Information
Channel 9 WCPO.com Arrest Reports
Northside is Neighborhood Enhancement Plan (NEP) 2008 Neighborhood of the Year.