“I’m going to be killing people. I’m actually joining the Marines and will be doing this in real life.”
War springs eternal. Compare the words of the 18-year-old boy quoted above by Philadelphia radio station WRTI, as he was wielding a pretend machinegun at a video-game parlor/Army recruiting center at a Philly shopping mall, with those of two neocons, Charles Robb and Charles Wald (retired senator and general, respectively), writing last month in the Washington Post:

“We cannot afford to wait indefinitely to determine the effectiveness of diplomacy and sanctions. . . . Instead, the administration needs to expand its approach and make clear to the Iranian regime and the American people: If diplomatic and economic pressures do not compel Iran to terminate its nuclear program, the U.S. military has the capability and is prepared to launch an effective, targeted strike on Tehran’s nuclear and supporting military facilities.”

I AINT GONNA BE LONG HERE CUZ I WANT YALL TO READ THE STUFF I WROTE ABOUT BROTHER BILL BEFORE AND RIGHT AFTER HE PASSED WELL BEFORE HIS TIME 5 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK.

ILL ALSO JUST SAY THAT WE MUST NAME A SCHOOL OR STREET AFTER HIM. A BUILDING SOMETHING. WE GOT BUILDINGS NAMED AFTER SAMBOS IN THIS TOWN SO WHY CANT WE HAVE A BUILDING NAMED AFTER THE STRONGEST POLITCIAN WE EVER HAD IN THIS CITY!

I THOUGHT KAHARY WAS GONNA LEAD THE EFFORT. HE WAS TALKIN BOUT IN ON HIS SHOW BUT LET IT GO. WELL I AINT LETTING IT GO AND I HOPE WE CAN GET A MOVEMENT GOING FOR IT TO HAPPEN. AND HOW MANY YALL STILL AINT BUYING THE DISPATCH. CHECK IT OUT I AINT BOUGHT ONE SINCE THEN. BUT THEN AGAIN I WASNT BUYING ANY BEFORE THEN EITHER. WE GOT TO CONTINUE THE BOYCOT FOR HOW THEY DISRESPECTED HIM JUST 2 DAYS AFTER HIS DEATH.

AND BEFORE I FORGET PROPS TO THE STREET SOLDIERS CREW FOR REMEMBERING BROTHER BILL THIS PAST SUNDAY.

NEVER FORGET YALL AND MOST OF ALL KEEP BROTHER BILL MOSS LEGACY ALIVE ON EVERY AUGUST 2ND AND ON HIS BIRTHDAY SEPTEMBER 17TH.

.............PEACE.............D
"This is the most exciting time in the world to be living," says Pete Seeger. "There's never been such an exciting time," as we bring on "wind power, solar power..."

Pete should know. The solar panels on his home in the Hudson Valley woodlands turn the meter backwards on sunny days. They also power his pickup, whose front end is filled with batteries.

Pete's unique new music video, Song for Solartopia gets at all that. It'll open on the Big Screen at the 7th annual AREDAY gathering in Aspen, Colorado, on Sunday, August 22. Also playing on a day devoted to Collaboration, Messaging, Solutions and Climate Literacy will be a clip from Carbon Nation and a special environmental director's cut showing of James Cameron's AVATAR.

It is fitting on the fifth anniversary of the death of Bill Moss, lead plaintiff in the legendary Moss v. Bush 2004 lawsuit in Ohio, that the Associated Press is admitting the easy hackability of Diebold machines.

“A hacker has discovered a way to force ATMs to disgorge their cash by hijacking the computers inside them,” reads the AP lead.

The AP goes on to warn that, “The attacks demonstrated last week targeted stand-alone ATMs. But they could potentially could be used against the ATMs operated by mainstream banks.”

What the Associated Press and corporate for-profit media fail to report is that Diebold, one of the world’s leading ATM hardware and sofware providers, also manufactures electronic voting machines with similar problems.

The similarities between hacking a Diebold ATM and a Diebold/Premier election machine are startling. For example, the hacker, Barnaby Jack, Director of Security Testing for Seattle based IOActive, Inc., stated “Every ATM I’ve looked at, I’ve been able to find a flaw in. It’s a scary thing.”

"We've got a country full of ambitious people," Pete Seeger tells us. Solar energy is "something direct," a way to "pay our bills, not tomorrow, but today."

By "bills" Pete doesn't just mean the ones from the electric company. He's talking about the Big Bill, the one from Mother Nature.

At age 91, Pete is American folk activism's truest bard. It's no accident that Pete's new CD is Tomorrow's Children and that his new music video is for Solartopia!, a holistic, socially just, post-corporate vision of a green-powered Earth.

Solartopia, he says, "is the wonderful, positive way of approaching the problem" of a polluted planet. "Don't just say ‘don't, don't, don't.' Say ‘DO! DO! DO!'"

This spring, while finishing up Tomorrow's Children, he joined singer-songwriters Dar Williams and David Bernz in a Beacon studio filled with singing schookids, organized by local music educator Dan Einbender, who co-produced the album.

For Over A Week Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo Has Been Held In The Hole At Victorville Prison Despite Committing Any Infraction. Once Again the US government has imposed another cruel punishment against Gerardo Hernandez, one of the Cuban 5 imprisoned in the US for fighting against terrorism.

On July 21st, without committing any infraction, Gerardo was taken to the hole. The hole is an inhumane windowless space of 7 x 3 feet reserved for prisoners who the prison authorities, for what ever reason, want to isolate. Gerardo is sharing this small space with another prisoner and there is very little ventilation because the air comes from just a small vent on the top of a wall. Temperatures in Victorville are running as high as 105 degrees now and in the space of this tiny cell it is around 95 degrees. He is not allowed to take a shower and is being taken outside in a cage only one hour every other day. Gerardo has been seen by his sister Isabel through a glass with a phone.

Thousands of faithful assiduously listened as I outlined the challenges facing Palestine and its people. Cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’ – God is Great – occasionally resounded from a corner of the giant South African mosque. Many whimpered as I described the tragedy that had befallen Gaza as a result of the Israeli siege. They cheered, smiled and nodded as I emphasized how the will of the Palestinian people would not be defeated. A few older people at the front simply wept throughout my talk, which preceded a Friday sermon in Durban a few months ago.

If passion and kindness were powerful in and of themselves, then the compassion that poured from those Muslim faithful could surely better the world in a myriad ways. The sheer love and concern displayed by men and women of different races, age groups, class affiliation and languages was most uplifting and validating.

Simply put: WICKED has now rightfully joined the pantheon of Broadway standards. For good reason, it will be seen by theater-goers for decades to come. It should not be missed during its current run at the Ohio Theater.

Last night was my second sighting. A year ago, with my daughter Julie, we saw it in Cleveland a few hours after watching LeBron James bury the Chicago Bulls.

WICKED will be around a lot longer than LeBron.

Our first viewing was from the front row, as we were lucky victors in the daily lottery that allows two $25 best-seats-in-the-house. The conductor was a few feet away. We smiled at each other.

On its primal level, the show is an astonishing spectacle. The costuming is lush and brilliant, the stage gorgeous and embracing, the pyrotechnics impressive. Close-up, one can easily be swallowed up just by the fancy footwork. And we were. It was an absolutely terrific first run.

Last night at the Ohio, from much farther away, the staging was still impressive. But second time around is the true test of a work of art. If it's as good or better on the re-visit, it should have legs.

[Editor’s Note: Christopher Ryan is a self proclaimed “prisoner of war”--the war on drugs. The Columbus native and long time drug reform activist was arrested in Nebraska for transporting over a 150 pounds of marijuana. The ethics of smuggling that much pot are complex, but Mr. Ryan is a complex man. He simultaneously considers himself a progressive, an anarchist, and a revolutionary. To him, the issues are clear. Marijuana is a relatively safe and arguably beneficial drug, which is outlawed by the government, out of fear and the desire to control. This irrational policy leads to irrational results. The U.S. Department of Justice estimated in 2006 that over a billion dollars are spent every year on incarcerations related to cannabis. An estimated 800,000 are arrested for all pot related offenses. This billion dollars represents a low estimate of over 40,000 cannabis inmates. Ryan is now one of these inmates, imprisoned for acting on his beliefs responding to his perception of an irrational drug policy.

Pages

Subscribe to ColumbusFreePress.com  RSS