St. Louis – His government broke his heart but it could not break Air Force veteran Charles Powell’s spirit.  Fighting back tears, the 64 year-old vet stood tall and resolute in front of 400 of his comrades, describing in verse the final steps of a painful disillusionment.

Each summer during the national convention of Veterans For Peace, time is reserved for a Veterans’ Speakout, where any member can rise to say whatever is on their mind.

When the veterans gathered in 2002, prior to the invasion of Iraq, George Bush and the hawks of Washington were pounding away on the war drums.  That year, Powell, who had served on a Titan ICBM launch crew during the Cuban missile crisis, read his poem titled, “I Won’t Let Them Take My Flag.”  He noted the warmongers were “again waving my flag” as a buildup to invasion, and he countered what he felt was a manipulation of the national symbol with the following lines reminiscent of the great Langston Hughes.

As the security check line began moving slowly at Washington Dulles airport, one passenger standing a few steps ahead of me appeared particularly uneasy. His dark skin, long beard, trimmed moustache, prayer spot centered on his forehead, and overall demeanor quickly gave away his identity, though he had obviously labored little to hide it. He was a Muslim and a religious one at that. Predictably, a few minutes later he was singled out and his clothes spread across a separate station reserved for those "randomly" selected for extra security check.

Let’s make it official. The DRE is dead. DRE, of course, stands for “Direct Recording Electronic” voting machine. It also goes by the name of touchscreen voting machines. But whatever you call it, for all practical purposes, it is dead.

Consider the evidence. How many new DREs have been sold by vendors such as Diebold (ah, Premier), Sequoia, ES & S, and Hart? The vast majority of sales have already taken place. And there are still some states that have statewide implementations from one vendor without VVPAT, such as Maryland and Georgia . But the truth is that no one recently has come out with a new DRE device. Third tier vendors (see my site for a listing) have had little success and many of them are now folding up shop, and the ones that are still remaining have got to be hurting, or working on other lines of business.

U.S. and state government officials refused to allow water or food relief into New Orleans. This was a brazen attempt to "starve people out" - a "war crime" under the Geneva Conventions. Hundreds of people died unnecessarily of thirst. And yet, there was no shortage of water or food being sent.

The questions raised here still are unanswered.

"I'm sick to death of hearing things from uptight narrow-minded pigheaded politicians. All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth."
- John Lennon

AS HURRICANE KATRINA RAVAGED THE GULF STATES, many organizations kicked into high gear to send relief to local groups in Mississippi and Louisiana, with no help from the government or formal relief agencies. Among them was the Malcolm X Grassroots movement, with whom the Brooklyn Greens shared an office. Tons of donated supplies poured into the office and were trucked to Jackson Mississippi, where they were distributed through community-based efforts.

USDA requires Aurora Organics to reduce dairy herd size and remove organic label from some milk

CORNUCOPIA, WI: The USDA issued an urgent news release Wednesday evening announcing enforcement actions taken against the Aurora Organic Dairy, based in Boulder, CO, the nation’s largest organic factory-farm operation. USDA’s enforcement requirements for Aurora include "removing certain animals from the organic herd and ceasing to apply the organic label to certain milk."

The action is the result of an investigation triggered by formal legal complaints filed in 2005 and 2006 with the USDA by The Cornucopia Institute charging multiple violations of federal organic regulations. Cornucopia, a Wisconsin-based farm policy group, made on-site visits to the dairy giant’s factory-farm operations in Colorado and Texas, gathering evidence supporting its complaints.