RNC protest - it's a wrap.

There is so much that didn't make it in to the corporate media -- I don't know where to begin. So I will start with CODEPINK. It is interesting to note that the dark blond woman who had the banner ripped out of her hands is a constituent of John McCain who knows he has done nothing for the people of Arizona although he has helped corporate Arizona -- and with the trickle down effect has p---ed all over the people of Arizona.




The night before Medea and Jodie engaged in a free speech act at Palin's speech.


Here you can see real journalistic news coverage of the act of free speech:

A very Republican friend of mine summarized his reaction to the free speech engaged in by Liz and Nancy last night during the McCain speech after I distributed a URL to AP coverage of my pink sisters that lands at a video of the event near the spot on the page where the speech act is accessible under the heading "Protest...." I find it interesting that I couldn't link directly to the proper video. Oh well.

"I KNEW it. You CodePinksters are a resourceful, albeit deeply irritating (but that is the point, after all, isn't it?) lot!

Though I disagree with your group's policy prescriptions, I am glad to see someone was able to penetrate the unconstitutional barriers to free speech both parties erected on the pretext of security concerns. I only wonder why Code Pink did not crash the love fest at Mile High Stadium, also, or did they but went unheard in such a massive, outdoor venue?"

You can see that Pinksters interupt Obama too in the video immediately above.

CODEPINK actions at the RNC on Flickr.

I believe the Make Out Not War action best captured the spirit of CODEPINK - presenting the other side of the coin per the war in and occupation of Iraq in a non-violent jester inspired manner that can even make people laugh until they stop and think deeply about the action -- then tears are likely.

Things were not quite as peachy for journalists engaging in what is supposed to be doubly protected reporting through free speech acts instances of free speech acts. Amy Goodman was arrested when asking to speak to a police officer in charge so as to find out where the cops in Darth Vader suits had taken two of her producers they had arrested. I recommend watching the entire program to get a feel for the abuse of power that went on throughout the entire RNC. Amy Goodman got the most attention of the group but several other journalists were detained, arrested, and charged with very serious misdemeanors or felonies.

If you don't have time to watch the entire video -- go to the end so you can see a reporter summarize another event where the police were way out of line to begin with... but then exaccerbated the situation by rounding up the journalists too.

This doesn't even begin to cover the huge number of other outrageous acts instigated by the police. Here are links to just a few.

Pepper spray directed directly and purposesively into the eyes of a photojournalist.

From the blogosphere, Pam's House Blend covers the situation well.

Here's the photo of police abuse of a protester that got the photographer arrested. This could have broken the protester's neck or crushed his throat.

More than 50,000 have already signed on to a petition delivered today to St. Paul City Hall to have charges against journalists dropped.

Photography is not a crime discussion on flickr is worth checking out. So is this about photographer's rights.

And then there are the hundreds of arrests that even CNN finds used questionable tactics as well as pre-emptive search and seizures.

And then there was the arrest of a photographer last week at the DNC who took a pic of a democratic honcho and some big donors who was arrested -- that must have been a warm up.

Wake Up America. John McCain is Senator from a Pit of Corruption.

This is the first of many posts that will be made over the next couple of months that highlight John McCain and what his interests and protection of interests vital to his family's continuing wealth have done to Arizona. This article by Halbfinger in yesterday's New York Times offers tantalizing details that require further investigation about financial holdings and interests of the McCain family. Family is an interesting term to use here, as it also has a more foreboding connotation illustrated to me by a friend of mine who was told by his Chicago-based "labor relations" father-in-law ---whose son has a beer distributorship in Northern Indiana--- "Ya don't juss marry da girl, ya marry da Family." McCain's children and wife, THE McCAIN FAMILY either run and/or hold significant shares in the massive Cindy Hensley McCain owned beer distributorship in Arizona.

I live in Arizona. October 2nd I will be into my third decade lived in Arizona under the regal rule of the very small number of families that control almost every aspect "plantation Arizona." My life has been impacted by the lack of concern these families, such as the McCain family, have for the people of the state. John McCain has never lived in this state, he has flown over the lives of the little people in strata above the everyday lives his entire time he has been associated with the richest women the state. He was arm candy for little Cindy Lou.

• ranks second highest nationally in franchise jobs
• 50th in education
• in top three in foreclosure rates
  
• Above average drug use, among the top in violent teen death, near the top in teen pregnancy, and citizens living below poverty rate usually comes in around 20 %
  
• highest national crime rates

But Arizona ranks low in taxes on beer. Close to 20% lower than the national average on alcohol taxes. Hmmmmm. What people are side-stepping is what the beer distributorship, the Keating Five, and Marley connections imply. Organized crime. Perhaps mobster perhaps not.... organized crime comes in all sorts of white collars in Arizona.

Wake up America! You don't want anything to do with any successful politician from this corrupt state.

Visualization of the Scale of Death in Iraq

The Faces of Death

I happened to look up this morning as I was glancing over the smarmy chosen few purportedly "news" stories being touted by the corporate media and saw this accidental imagery on my husband's computer screen. I asked him to do a screen capture and send it to me. It doesn't show either composite picture in its entirety but it gives a chilling visualization of how far we've come -- in the wrong direction -- since the first portrait of bUsh (emphasis on U because you haven't acted) created from the faces of our dead due to their handling and exploitation as corporate mercenaries circulated on the internet. Look how far we've come. All the way from one psycho bUsh to psycho wannabe Insane McCain. Yes, I'm pissed, outraged , grieving, and murderously agitated that we've reached tombstone (definitely not a milestone as milestones are supposed to mark achievements) publicly acknowledged number of 4000 U.S. military dead. And unfortunately this number doesn't come anywhere close to showing the HORRIFIC numbers actually associated with this immolation of a people.

I'm going to go throw up.

Watch this!

McCain 180 Degrees on Torture

John McCain switches and votes FOR TORTURE. What else is he willing to do to get elected, or to please his corporate handlers once elected? There is no telling is there? The poor man was tortured for 6-7 years in a N. Vietnamese prison camp. It is not his fault, but anyone who has undergone torture and survived has some emotional and mental damage. His explosive temper is well documented. Then there is the vote against cancer research even though he is a cancer survivor. And of course the stench of the Keating 5 that lingers under his American Hero cologne. This switch to vote for torture caps it for me - John McCain is unstable. This time I agree with the conservatives... McCain is no conservative. Neither is he liberal in any sense of the word. If you look at his record over time you will find that it is awash in significant reversals that cast doubt on his loyalty to any party. Reversals are fine if tempered with reason and based on increased information or evidence. His reversals are not. They are based on who he is serving at the time.

McCain received funds connected to Abramoff. Deja Vu: he was part of the Keating Five who worked to protect Charles Keating. Keating bankrupted The Lincoln S & L. An interesting aside: The ties to Reagan Bush campaign finance is interesting too. (Remember Reagan deregulated the banking industry.) A good summary of the whole sordid Lincoln S & L affair that shows the connections to Arizona and how this hurt thousands of individuals (some committed suicide) as well as all American taxpayers who ultimately paid the costs of this fiasco can be found in a letter written by Franklin R Mancuso. For more scholarly discussion of the Bush-Reagan role in all stages of the S & L crisis read Bill Black and James Galbraith's 2002 letter.

McCain helped out the criminal who cost the American taxpayer 3 billion dollars. Furthermore, has ties to Abramoff slime. If this isn't enough, think about this: Manchurian Candidate. And geesh I've been so good I didn't even mention his age or other personal problems.