THOU SHALT NOT KILL

The so called "Christian Right" makes such a fuss over having the ten commandments on public property but turn a blind eye towards capital punishment, not to mention rascist murder.

The following is from "Counterpunch".

December 12, 2005

If a Black Man Dies in America, Does It Make a Sound?
Killing Tookie Williams

By NATE MEZMER

If Stan Tookie Williams is executed tomorrow who will feel the negative effects? Most of those who support his state sponsored murder do not live in war torn regions of the Golden State of California. Thus it is difficult for these privileged people to understand the benefits of Stan's contributions on behalf of non-violence. However, because blacks are sentenced to death twice as frequently as whites who've been convicted of the same crime it appears that this may be more than a misunderstanding.

If a young black man is shot in South Central does it make a sound in Thousand Oaks?

If Stan Tookie Williams is executed tomorrow who will feel the negative effects? Stan was convicted of four murders 25 years ago in connection with armed-robbery however the key witnesses were felons who recieved 'benefits' in exchange for their testimony. ( facts of the case). I have encountered many people who say that since Stan was a gang-banger and a co-founder of the Crips that such facts alone should condemn him despite his transformation. This notion is almost laughable if it were not so dubious, especially in light of the fact that our own country, the United States of America, is currently disguising the hostile takeover of oil-rich Iraq as a righteous crusade for freedom.

If a young black man is shot in Hunter's Point does it make a sound in Hillsborough?

If Stan Tookie Williams is executed tomorrow who will feel the negative effects? The current administration in the White House is the most mafia regime in the history of the country and is thus run by some of the biggest gangsters in the world. The war in Iraq, a war based on falsehoods and conspiracies, collusion and neglegence, has been responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent civilians and has taken the lives of more than 2,100 US soldiers. This being said, no one is calling for the execution of the president?

If a young black man is shot in Watts does it make a sound in Orange County?

If Stan Tookie Williams is executed tomorrow who will feel the negative effects? Indeed, lessons in retribution and justice in the form of war and execution never seem to get the job done. After, 9/11 we haphazardly attacked two countries, enraging large portions of the global community and subsequently created a greater terror threat than had existed before. Maybe if we had stopped to understand why the attacks had occurred in the first place our nation and its soldiers would not be in the same deadly predicament? Furthermore, becasue violence begets violence, as the bumper sticker says, "why do we kill people who kill people, to show that killing people is wrong?"

If a young black man is shot in Richmond does it make a sound in the Oakland hills?

If Stan Tookie Williams is executed tomorrow who will feel the negative effects? Unlike the Christian re-birth of President Bush, the spiritual re-awakening of Stan Tookie Williams has been synonymous with peace. As documented, over 150 youth have pledged that Stan's writings and works have been responsible for their decision to remove themselves from the gang life. Since, 2001 Stan Tookie Williams has been nominated for 5 Nobel Peace Prizes and has won several awards for his work concerning non-violence. In that same time George W Bush has managed to invade two countries in the middle-east.

If a young black man is shot in South Sacramento does it make a sound in Granite Bay?

If Stan Tookie Williams is executed tomorrow who will feel the negative effects? After witnessing the government's reaction to Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans it seems that our nation is comfortable with stranding its black population. Although the tragedy did eventually spawn some national concern, we have since failed to address the real problem that blacks have been drowning in America for years. Thus the very fact that blacks are left to fend for themselves in ghettos and slums across the country does not bode well for an individual of the same color, who speaks out about such injustice and who's ultimate fate rests in the hands of the same people and the same system that creates such inequality.

If a black man is murdered in America does it make a sound?

Nate Mezmer is a political Hip-Hop artist and resident of Davis, CA . He can be reached at: mezmerfmk@yahoo.com

Know Thyself

I AM THE WALRUS (The Beatles)

Video Code provided by VideoCodeZone.Com

i am citizen. show me what to think.

The following was published at "Americas Best Political Newsletter" COUNTERPUNCH.

December 10 / 11, 2005

Advertisements, Infomercials and Stacatto News
The Widening Wasteland of the American Media

By RALPH NADER

There are times when unchallenged commercial greed morphs into institutional insanity. I am referring to the overall advertising-saturated, trivialized performance of the media conglomerates' utilization of our public airwaves 24 hours a day and their dominance of the ever-expanding scores of cable channels.

Take a test. If you are an average consumer of TV or radio broadcasts or newspapers and magazines, you are ready for your exam. Have you ever seen coverage of the following three long-standing civic organizations working on very important aspects of our society's needs and failures?

Lois Gibbs came out of the struggle over Love Canal's toxified residential neighborhoods to start and lead the nationwide Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) in Falls Church, Virginia. Over the years the Center has organized thousands of small but vigorous community groups who are challenging or stopping the presence of toxic chemical particulates and gases in largely lower-income neighborhoods. Lois and her associates have trained thousands of ordinary people, committed to protecting their families, and educated scores of communities about the nature of these toxics and what can be done about them with law, action and exposure.

They have victory after victory to show for their efforts, but so intense and widespread has been the poisoning of America over the decades by corporations that there is always more to discover and do.

Right now, the Center has its community associations "fighting to block local schools from being built on contaminated land in Alabama, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island." CHEJ's new report--Building Safe Schools: Invisible Threats, Visible Actions--covers the laws and situations in 250 states. Here is one example of many:

"In Birmingham, Alabama, Wenonah High School is being constructed on contaminated soil. The site is also across the street from the largest gasoline storage facility in the state and is adjacent to a railroad track and a junkyard. The site was further contaminated this past July by a gas spill when a train and gas truck collided right in front of the site of the future school."

For more information, see www.childproofing.org.

For an astoundingly-optimistic demonstration of what science can do for the people, consider the Appalachia Science in the Public Interest (ASPI) out of Livingston, Kentucky. Founded in the '70s by one of our former public interest scientists, Dr. Albert Fritsch, ASPI has shown what can be done for peoples' houses, cars, and larger buildings with "proven energy conservation, healthy home and renewable energy solutions." It connects "consumers with marketers of related products and services".

It is the moving force, with state agencies, renewable-energy companies and college institutions, behind the annual Bluegrass Energy Expo. The 2005 event featured, among others, the University of Kentucky College of Engineering Solar Car. The Expo has taught many people in what one writer called "a rich land with poor people" about sustainable forests, water purification and conservation. It is a very hands-on organization that makes you want to obtain its recommended products pronto. See its web site: www.a-spi.org. And send for its wonderfully-engrossing Simple Lifestyle Calendar 2006 for $7.50 (to ASPI Calendar, 50 Lair Street, Mt. Vernon, KY 40456).

In Washington, D.C. another unsung group of Americans is working hard at the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH). END TWO There are hundreds of thousands of homeless people in our wealthy country. According to the Homeless Coalition, "60% are living in emergency shelter or transitional housing, and 40% are living on the streets. The majority, 53% are single adults, 42% are families and 5% are homeless/runaway youth."

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, says NCH, "multiplied the homeless population along the Gulf Coast by as much as a hundred fold." All this is in the face of the Bush regime's proposed slicing of federal subsidies for housing by 40%. That proposal, sent to Congress, does not cut the burgeoning budget for the number one occupant of public housing--George W. Bush in the White House.

NCH reports, organizes and lobbies all over the country. They are supporting legislation, introduced by Rep. Julia Carson, of federal homeless policies that "tackle the root causes of homelessness and poverty in this nation." For more on NCH, see its web page: www.nationalhomeless.org.

Now back to the mostly maniacal mass media's priorities. 90% of radio and television are devoted to advertisements and entertainment. Often the rest is staccato news, weather and sports repeated throughout the day. There are, of course, he sterling exceptions such as weekly sections of 60 Minutes or the two and a half minute investigations on the network nightly TV news.

Cable is a widening wasteland. With infomercials (bracelets and necklaces, etc.), re-run movies, sports and comedy shows, and endless silly drivel, it does not matter how many new cable channels are added. There will not be any devoted to the wholesome activities and successes of groups such as the aforementioned to life up people, get them more active and introduce the young to practical citizenship that solves serious problems.

That is, not until enough people around America become serious about the need for serious media and reassert some control over the public airwaves they own and the no-rent licenses given out to radio and television companies by the Federal Communications Commission. Communities that license cable companies also need to feel the enlightened heat of local residents and neighborhood groups. It is ours for the demanding.

Let's start demanding.

A Man Who Transformed the World as We Knew it.

Richard Pryor, comic voice of black America, dies

Ned Temko
Sunday December 11, 2005
The Observer


Richard Pryor, whose genius for turning personal tragedy and social injustice into humour made him one of the most influential American comedians of the last four decades, died yesterday. Pryor, who was 65, had been ill for several years with multiple sclerosis.

Born in the Midwestern state of Illinois and brought up in a brothel, he began, like many black comedians at the time, by trying to appeal to respectable audiences. All that changed after what he later called a stage 'epiphany' in 1967, before a posh hotel audience in Las Vegas. He looked into the crowd, paused, suddenly said into the microphone 'What the fuck am I doing here?' - and walked off stage.

What followed was a redefined Pryor, a self-styled angry 'nigger' who combined the profanity of Lenny Bruce with the perfect timing of old Vaudeville. Over the next two decades, he made a huge impact as a stand-up comedian with a foul mouth and a sharp wit, inspiring a generation of artists from Eddie Murphy to Robin Williams.

Pryor moved from stand-up to a series of hit film comedies during the Seventies and Eighties, starring in films including Stir Crazy, and Silver Streak.

He didn't tone things down after he became famous. In his 1977 NBC television series The Richard Pryor Show, he threatened to cancel his contract with the network. NBC's censors objected to a skit where he appeared naked except for a flesh-coloured loincloth to suggest he was emasculated.

His stage routine and films often drew on personal tragedy, particularly when he set himself on fire while using cocaine in 1980. This led to a painfully funny stand-up act recorded in a film, Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip. He once told an interviewer it was 'much easier for me to talk about my life in front of 2,000 people than one-to-one. I'm a real defensive person ... If you were sensitive in my neighbourhood, you were food.'

Even when he was in poor health with MS, a degenerative disease of the nervous system, comedy remained a lifeline. During one performance in the early Nineties, he asked: 'Is there a doctor in the audience?' All he got was nervous laughter so he added: 'No, I'm serious. I want to know if there's a doctor here.'

A hand finally went up. 'Doctor,' Pryor said, 'I need to know one thing. What the fuck is MS?'

The comedian once marvelled that 'I live in racist America and I'm uneducated, yet a lot of people love me and like what I do and I can make a living from it. You can't do much better than that.'

I am Sorry for Comparing Bush to Hitler

In my "Please, Please, Please....." posting I think I got a little carried away with my enthusiasm and concern for the current state of the world effected by U.S. foreign policy. I think the comparison was an insult to both. I don't think Bush has the intelligence or will to lead a political force to unleash the horrors manifested by Hitler. Bush is a puppet for the forces and personalities that have a Hitleresque vision for the world. I can't put their picture in my post because they are hiding in the shadows. They might make appearances at Bohemian Grove and at other secret meetings of U.S. and world leaders, but I doubt it. I think the are hiding deeper than that and have their representatives appear at these gatherings.

I stand by my warning, but apologize to George Bush and Adolf Hitler. Probably the most available representative person to have compared to Hitler would have been Dick Cheney. I think he is quite conscious of what he is doing and expressing through his office and the performance of his President.

George is a fool who has been groomed to give this performance. Reagan transformed the Presidency from that of a leader to one of a performer playing the role and reading the script prepared for him by his playwrights and directors. Bush thankfully doesn't have the skills and experience of Reagan. Beware of Arnold Schwarzenegger. With the movie roles that have prepared him the thought of him in the White House is definitely a Hitleresque nightmare.

The following satire is from "The Onion".


Voice Of God Revealed To Be Cheney On Intercom
December 7, 2005 | Issue 41:49

WASHINGTON, DC: Telephone logs recorded by the National Security Agency and obtained by Congress as part of an ongoing investigation suggest that the vice president may have used the Oval Office intercom system to address President Bush at crucial moments, giving categorical directives in a voice the president believed to be that of God.

President Bush sits at his desk in the Oval Office, where he received messages from an intercom voice identifying itself as "God" and thought to have been Vice President Cheney.

While journalists and presidential historians had long noted Bush's deep faith and Cheney's powerful influence in the White House, few had drawn a direct correlation between the two until Tuesday, when transcripts of meetings that took place in March and April of 2002 became available.

In a transcript of an intercom exchange recorded in March 2002, a voice positively identified as the vice president's identifies himself as "the Lord thy God" and promotes the invasion of Iraq, as well as the use of torture in prisoner interrogations.

A close examination of Bush's public statements and Secret Service time logs tracking the vice president reveals a consistent pattern, one which links Bush's belief that he had received word from God with Cheney's use of the White House's telephone-based intercom system.

Officials privately acknowledged that there is reason to believe that the vice president, as God, urged Bush to sign legislation benefiting oil companies in 2005.

"There's a lot of religious zeal in the West Wing," said a former White House staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "It's possible that the vice president has taken advantage of that to fast-track certain administration objectives."

An ex-Treasury Department official and longtime friend of Cheney was asked to comment on the vice president's possible subterfuge. "I don't know. I certainly don't think it's something [Cheney] planned," he said. "I do know that Mr. Bush was unfamiliar with a phone-based intercom, and I suppose it is possible that Dick took advantage of that."

A highly placed NSA official who has reviewed the information released Tuesday said Cheney masked his clipped monotone, employing a deeper, booming voice.

Said the NSA source: "It sounded as though the speaker, who identified himself as God, stood away from the intercom to create an echo effect."

On Capitol Hill, sources are expressing surprise that Cheney, a vice president with more influence than any other in U.S. history, would have resorted to such deception.

"The vice president has a lot of sway in this administration," said a former White House aide. "But perhaps when President Bush was particularly resolute and resistant to mortal persuasion, the vice president chose to quickly resolve disputes in his favor with a half-decent God impression."

For many, the revelation explains Bush's confusion in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

"I was very surprised by the president's slow response in New Orleans," political commentator Bill Kristol said. "The president told me that he was praying every day in his office, but had received no reply. I had no idea what he meant, but of course, it all makes sense now."

At the time of Katrina, Cheney was on a fly-fishing trip, from which he returned on Sept. 1.

According to highly placed White House sources, Bush's senior advisers are trying to shield the president from the news. Aides are concerned that too harsh an awakening might shake Bush's faith, which has been a central part of his life for nearly 20 years.

"It's hard to tell the leader of the free world that he has been the butt of an elaborate and long-term ruse," a former staffer said. "Maybe it would be easier to take if it came from Cheney's God voice."

© Copyright 2005, Onion, Inc. All rights reserved.The Onion is not intended for readers under 18 years of age.