Tuesday, April 20, 2010

A Video Interlude: Victor Jara

I hate letting a day go by without at least a simple entry about current events, but so much is happening it's hard to focus on just one item of interest -- I'm working on longer pieces on teabaggers, the war presidency, reclamation of leftist symbols, and other areas of personal interest.



But, in the interest of not letting too much time go between posts, here's another video interlude, this time focusing on one of my personal heroes, Chilean guitarist, singer/songwriter, labor activist, and communist Victor Jara, who was assassinated on 15 September 1973 by the fascist junta -- led by Augusto Pinochet -- that overthrew -- with CIA involvement -- the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende during the "original" 9/11.

Before Jara was killed, they broke his hands, and mockingly threw his guitar at him and told him to "play now" -- such was the power of his words and his songs and the threat they meant to the fascist regime.

Victor Jara knew then -- as did his killers -- what Woody Guthrie knew years earlier -- "this machine kills fascists."

While many of Jara's songs were about the obvious things like love, he also sang songs of revolution. This song honors Che Guevara, the Argentinean doctor who helped overthrow the fascist and corrupt regime of Fulgencio Batista of Cuba, and who then went on to foment revolutions in Africa and other parts of Latin America:



And, taking the internationalist angle a little bit further, Christy Moore, legendary Irish musician, sings a song about Victor Jara:

Sunday, April 18, 2010

The Death of Law and Order....

America prides itself on being a nation of laws. Politicians -- particularly those of the Republican stripe -- say the very fabric of society is endangered if laws are not enforced, and they say no one should be above the law. "Democracy depends on it!" they insist.

But that belief in the religion of law and order is not absolute, as we witnessed during the 8 years of the Bush Regime. CIA agents were outed, American citizens were spied upon by the intelligence community, and prisoners were tortured and killed in CIA-run prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Gitmo.

None of this was kept particularly secret -- as each crime was made public, the NeoCons and their proxies came out and insisted "national security" allowed for bending of some laws, and outright suspension of others. In a nod to Nixon (and apparently forgetting how that turned out for him), more than a handful said illegal acts weren't illegal if the President did them.

So, we turn back to the issue of torture, which has crept back into the public in recent weeks.

After denying the practice of torture for years, Dick Cheney took the lead in arguing that torture was in fact legal. And much of the US public ignored the legalities and accepted his statements.

But if torture was legal and protected by executive decision, why order the destruction of interrogation tapes unless even the White House and the CIA realised their actions were illegal? If Porter Goss wants to take the heat for the crime, let him do the time, but don't stop there -- investigate, prosecute, convict and sentence the architects of torture.

Obama takes the myopic position that we need to look forward instead of backward. But this isn't about someone speeding in a school zone, this isn't about someone smoking a bowl on a Friday night, this isn't running out on your tab at the corner bar, this is about torture being committed by the United States of America, and having that torture covered up at the highest levels.

Open investigations now, for the sake of democracy, and prove that Presidents, Vice Presidents, and CIA directors are not above the law. Or let's dispense with enforcement of laws for the rest of us, cuz I'd rather smoke my bowl, pay my sex workers, speed in my car, and download my music, movies and porn without worry.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Human Rights Victory

Does one need to be a woman to be a feminist? Does one need to be African-American to be anti-racist? More to the point, does one need to be a member of any particular group to identify with and support that group? Obviously, the answer is no to all three questions, and so it is with my identifying as a straight ally.

I've long had positive relationships with gay and transgendered folks -- I've been in their homes, I've been in their bars, I've hugged and I've kissed gay and transgendered friends in the same way as I'd hug and kiss any other friend or family member.

Much of this stems from being raised to be inclusive and non-judgemental, to be accepting and tolerant of differences, because usually those differences are so minor they are inconsequential.

All that to say that over the years I've become a straight ally, attending gay pride rallies, attending rallies in support of gay marriage and civil unions, and engaging in dialogue with both straight and gay friends and family about what being a straight ally means in general and what we as straight allies can do specifically to help our gay friends and family members achieve social justice through equality.

And it's because of the personal relationships I've had with my gay friends that I am very personally affected by Obama's historic directive to hospitals receiving federal money to allow for the gay partner of gay patients to visit them.

For too long, loving partners of gay patients have been viewed "simply" as friends, and denied visitation rights for their partners who lay sick or dying in hospital beds, like Janice Langbehn, who was denied access by a social worker to be at her partner's bedside as she lay dying from a fatal brain aneurysm.

Obama's directive tells hospitals that those dark days of discrimination are now over. This is humane, this is just, this is inclusive, and it is long overdue. This is not a gay or straight issue, it is simply a human rights issue, and as such, it is a clear human rights victory. It was politically courageous of Obama, and it was a no-brainer.

It is also the mark of a civilised society, and a place we can not walk away from. There is no turning back. And there should be no turning back until the GLBT community has the same rights and privileges as the rest of society.

And it's not just a gay victory -- it's a victory for patient rights in general, because now, we the patients have the right to decide who visits us when we're in the hospital, not politicians or bigoted hospital workers or family members.

And more importantly, this allows patients to decide who can have medical power of attorney to make extremely difficult but important life-saving or end-of-life decisions. Libertarians SHOULD embrace this, because it is about personal choice and personal freedom, and gets the state and corporate interests out of a very personal and often decision-making process.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

A video interlude: Woody Guthrie on Cde. Pavlichenko

In lieu of a "real" blog entry today (work has a way with interfering with an in-depth piece I'm wokring on), I'm going to start a weekly (if not more frequent) "video interlude" section here focusing on lefty music and other treasures.... This particular entry has been lifted almost verbatim from a previous FB posting, so apologies to those who cry "rerun!".

So anyhow, appropriately enough, with all the talk of militias and fascists, I bring you the story of Ludmilia Pavlichenko. Credited with killing 309 fascist soldiers (including 36 enemy snipers) during the nazi invasion of Russia (making her the most successful female sniper in history), Miss Pavlichenko was a rare breed of Soviet sniper -- just one of 2000 female snipers, she was also one of only 500 who survived the war.

Wounded in 1942, she was pulled away from the front, and sent to Canada and the US (where she met with FDR in the White House). She was made a Hero of the Soviet Union and trained other Soviet snipers until the war ended.

This here is a song by anti-fascist folk musician Woody Guthrie, who, as the intro below notes, recorded this song in 1946.



And while we're on the subject of Woody Guthrie and killing fascists, here's another song he did, way before Billy Bragg got a hold of it:

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Sedition and other sundries....

First, news that the Teabagger "rally" in Washington DC last November cost taxpayers $13600, for the sound, staging and equipment, thoughtfully paid for out of taxpayer-funded allowances by Michele Bachmann (MN), Tod Akin (MO), Tom Price (GA) and Steve King (IA). This, for a group that is supposedly not aligned with the GOP, and odd for a group railing about taxpayer money being wasted on such idiotic things like health care!

Second, we find that even the nutjob teabaggers have their limits on crazy -- a California teabag group has rescinded an offer to foreign-born birther leader Orly Taitz to speak at their event, after receiving calls from candidates concerned with being too attached to the crazy that is Orly.

Third, it's kind of hard for the Teabaggers to argue that they aren't bigots and racists when one of their leaders is, well, a bigot and a racist. If the label fits, well, you know the rest....

Then, we get into the meat of this post, and an update on Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, the birther Army physician facing court martial for refusing to obey orders, stemming from his belief that Obama is not the legitimate President because of his "questionable" birth.

A discussion via facebook comments between a friend of mine and I compared the questions surrounding George W. Bush's military service and the questions surrounding Barrack Obama's place of birth. The thing that struck me is that while the questions surrounding Bush's service were fierce for a short time, they quickly lost steam thanks to the controversy surrounding Rathergate, and the Democratic leadership never really ran with it on their own.

This is not the case with the birther "movement" -- Republican senators and other state elected officials, pandering to the birthers and teabaggers, continue to raise questions about Obama's birth. The media, having taken a look at the controversy, has seemed to accept the legitimacy of Obama's American birth, but that hasn't killed speculation from the RW.

Getting back to Lakin, we find out today that he's getting some support from the GOP establishment. Let's not kid ourselves, this is a military officer, disobeying lawful orders from his commander in chief, getting aid and comfort from the GOP establishment. This is not pro-military, this is not pro-America, this is not pro-democracy. This is enabling far rightwing lunacy and bigotry, and giving it legitimacy by mainstreaming its support.

Which brings me to a great blog entry by Sara Robinson entitled "None Dare Call It Sedition" -- if you have a while to read this piece, I'd suggest you do so, because it pretty much screams out what many of us have thought for a while.

Coming from the Left, and having been called unAmerican, anti-America, anti-democracy, and any other red-baiting slur for 8 years under Bush and Company, having been told to "love it or leave it", having been told to "put America first!" and to be "country before party!" I have to wonder -- had the Left under Bush organised itself half as well as the Teabaggers, had we talked about "defending the constitution from a tyrannical regime" with guns and militias -- how soon would we have been visited by DHS agents and shipped off to Gitmo?

Just a point to ponder, because Ms. Robinson dares call it what it is -- sedition, and these militia folks a walking a mighty fine line, a walk being tolerated much more than the miles-away line the Left walked under Bush.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A militia within the military....

Pardon the lack of focus and rambling nature of this, I'm still getting into the groove of "serious" and "consistent" blogging.

Anyhow, it was an odd and not altogether positive day for the Teabagger "Movement" and the US military.

Early in the morning, we were greeted with the news that the Teabaggers, like a cancerous rot, had spread to the military with the formation of the so-called "Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots" which vows to "stand up on the very soil we defended to preserve common sense conservatism and defend our Constitution that is threatened by a tyrannical government".

Having close ties to the broader Teabagger "Movement," its founder, active duty Marine sergeant Gary Stein, and presumably an expert on constitutional law, has raised the possibility of disobeying orders from his commander in chief.

The article itself is worth a read, as it does call into question the legality of active duty military personnel acting in such an open and partisan manner. More worrisome is the thought that this miniscule group within the military sees itself as a legitimate, autonomous militia.

Later on in the day came word that notorious birther, Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin of the US Army was under investigation for refusing to follow orders because he doesn't believe Obama is a legitimate President. As the day went on, it was confirmed that he was facing court martial.

Weeks back, I noted that gay soldiers could be booted out of the military for being gay, yet Lt. Col. Lakin could blatantly and publicly refuse orders with seemingly no repercussions. So, I'm heartened -- no small feat for an anti-war/anti-military commie -- that it appears, for the moment, that legitimately bad apples now face the full hammer of military justice.

Then, almost on cue, Stein, apparently sensing the Defense Department's patience was running short, came out with a statement saying his group, doesn't support a military uprising, views President Obama as the legitimate commander-in-chief, and will follow all constitutional orders.

The GOP under Chucklenuts played fast and loose with the Uniform Code of Conduct in using military personnel for partisan purposes. The Teabagger "Movement" is no more than a proxy for the GOP, engaging in a cynical attempt in presenting itself as a so-called grassroots movement.

This military angle is a very slippery slope, and a dangerous elevation of the Teabaggers -- merely a quasi-political group at the movement -- into a quasi-political group with an armed wing, loyal to nothing but a narrow rightwing fascist ideology.

Oklahoma Militia?

I've got a strong affinity for Oklahoma. I grew up there, I've got friends and family there, Woody Guthrie is from there, and I've got a lot of good memories attending powwows, the state fair, Middle Earth Daycare in Norman, visits to the family ranch in Woodward.

And as I've told folks before, I believe in two things -- a working class revolution leading to a redistribution of wealth and control of the means of production and distribution by the workers ending in a classless society free from the scourge of capitalism and wages slavery, and the University of Oklahoma football program.

For all the things I love about Oklahoma, there are also some things that drive me crazy about it, least of which are the politicians there that make Texas pols seem half-way sane, which these days is a pretty low bar.

I'll set this bit up first by saying that Texas politicians are known for saying some batshit crazy stuff on a pretty regular basis. The crazy just ain't limited to state legislators or congressional reps either -- Gov. Good Hair himself has stepped into the Teabagger breach and erroneously said that Texas had the right to leave the union if it wants to.

Keep in mind, the GOP not too long ago was all about "American First!" and "Country Before Party!" not too long ago, but now, they have suddenly become anti-federalist and pro-secessionist. We've already fought one war over that issue, and the pro-union side won.

Anyhow, Oklahoma Teabaggers have got Gov. Good Hair beat on the crazy talk. Simply put, Oklahoma conservatives and lawmakers want to form an anti-federal militia to "defend against" federal infringement on state sovereignty.

FDR said famously that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, but the GOP has become master purveyors of fear, and selling it at bargain rates to their easily-led sheep, ever since the attacks on Washington and New York. They offer no real solutions, and they are more than willing to give away liberties for security, and the Bush Years were evidence that they really didn't care about the Constitution. This latter day conversion to Constitution-Fetish is frankly unbecoming to the wingnuts, who at least should be consistent in their crazy. Easier to keep score and keep track, you know....

Leave it to a foreign-born, black muslim socialist (that's tongue in cheek talk for the sarcasm-impaired) to scare angry white males into forming militias to keep the federal bogeymen out of Oklahoma.

A shame it didn't work for the Native Americans. And we saw how it turned out in Waco and Ruby Ridge.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Groups call for arrest of Bloody Don....

Not that they have a snowball's chance in hell in succeeding, but a coalition of NGOs have called for the arrest of Bloody Don Blankenship, the politically-connected millionaire CEO of Massey Energy, whose West Virginia mine was the scene of the deaths of 29 miners last week.

As the group argues, and what I've been saying for the better part of a week now, these 29 miners would still be alive but for the willful conduct by Massey and Blankenship, who flouted safety regulations and appealed numerous violation citations.

The Ongoing Trials of Henry Kissinger

Close friends and comrades know my deep interest in Latin American revolutions, as well as the CIA's involvement in the various coups and assassinations that have toppled democratically-elected governments throughout the region, resulting in hundreds of thousands of lives lost and destroyed asserting US dominance in the region.

One of the more odious and unapologetic figures who features prominently in the supression of these Latin American liberation movements was Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. His fingerprints have long been on coups and assinations, to the point where Christopher Hitchens, before he went all neocon and batshit, wrote a pretty good book entitled The Trial of Henry Kissinger, which was made into a subsequent documentary which you can watch and/or download from google video. If you have an hour and twenty minutes, there's no better use of your time than watching the video.

If you don't have time, you can read two excerpts from Hitchens' book here and here

All that is a long way around to the point of this posting tonight. Word comes that Kissinger rescinded warnings against Condor assassinations, seen as essentially giving a greenlight to Chile's fascist regime to assassinate former Chilean Defense Minister Orlando Letelier in Washington in 1976.

Why does this matter now? For decades, Kissinger's defenders have said that Harry Shlaudeman, his assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, sent the cables to US ambassadors in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay on his own, countermanding an explicit State Department ban on assassinations by Southern Cone's military regimes as part of Operation Condor.

However, evidence has emerged that Shlaudeman was acting on behalf of Kissinger, at his behest, or, more clearly, under his orders. Washington knew of plans by Operation Condor to assassinate dissidents in their own countries and abroad, the State Department imposed a ban on such assassinations, and Kissinger rescinded that ban, paving the way for the assassination of Letelier by Pinochet's fascist assassins in Washington less than a week later.

Is this the smoking gun that will finally make Kissinger pay for his crimes against humanity? Probably not. Democrats have a weak stomach when it comes to punishing criminals of Kissinger's calibre, and "law and order" "strong on terrorism" Republicans would push back, saying Kissinger should be carved on Mt. Rushmore for his tireless fight against democracy in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, never mind he gave foreign terrorists permission to assassinate a political figure right in the heart of our nation's capitol.

Toxic Tea....

When is a Teabagging Republican not a Teabagging Republican? When he's running for re-election in politically-moderate Massachusetts and knows he can't pander to a miniscule but rabidly-vocal segment of the voting population and hope to get re-elected....

Newly-elected Senator Scott Brown, perhaps better known as the tucked Playgirl model candidate (eh, moderately NSFW), won Ted Kennedy's senate seat thanks in large part to the Dems fielding a weak candidate unworthy of filling such large shoes, but also in part thanks to support from the Teabaggers. And true to form, they saw his victory as a victory of their own, and a portent of things to come.

So, when the Teabaggers, fronted by Teabagging Luminary/Visionary Sarah Palin, decided to hold a "massive rally" in Boston, invited Mr. Brown to attend, he said, um, thanks but no thanks. At a time when the IRS proves more popular than the Teabaggers, even Teabagger-supported politicians know their support is toxic to the majority of correct-thinking voters.

Expect more of the same as GOP politicians jettison the brain-dead, thuggish political neophytes they shamelessly fostered and supported while it was expedient.

Massey CEO Blankenship Has Complained About 'Nonsensical' Regulation

Murderous, bloody-handed Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship thinks regulations that could have saved 25 miners were
"difficult to comply with" and "nonsensical."

You know what? Laws governing what I can and can't ingest, smoke, or drink, and laws governing sex (paid or otherwise) are nonsensical and, yes, oftentimes, difficult to comply with. But I don't have millions of dollars in my bank account to circumvent those laws like Bloody Don.

Clearly, being on the wrong side of the class war has its perks and advantages, like being able to kill 25 of your workers through negligence and defiance of safety regulations....

Ron Paul: President Obama Is Not A Socialist

Leave it to Texas RW loony Ron Paul to school the GOP's leadership on what Obama is not -- a socialist. Instead, Ron Paul correctly describes Obama as that quintessentially-American political creature, a corporatist, a wily and cunning animal that infests and controls both major political parties, whose only reason for existence is to preserve and protect corporate capitalism at the expense of the working class.

Read the article from Talking Points Memo for the skinny on Ron Paul's remarks to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.