Edited

For a while now the News has been running its reader-contributed Speakout columns online with a note: "This Speakout has not been edited."

Not been edited? Is that, like, normal for a newspaper these days? Oddly, not all Speakouts bear the warning (or whatever it is). Here's one by Henry A. Hurst, III of Aurora, on, er, Experiential criterion of divinity (yes, I'm always working that in somewhere):

I would like to put Doug Leek's challenge "Find Out About Jesus For Yourself" (Letters 3/12/07) into a somewhat timeless perspective that I have discovered in my research of this subject.

Not edited.

But this one, on the Army's use of Colorado land? Edited.

How about "The dangers of motorcycle helmets"? Nope. Or a Speakout on the Voice of Coors Field controversy (bet you didn't even know there was one):

The Colorado Rockies recently announced Ryan Saunders as their new Public Address Announcer for Coors Field. But it appears the Rockies knew they were going to hire Saunders before they even put the ad on their website or planned their media-frenzied contest.

Rigged American Idol-type competition: not edited.

Most of them aren't. What exactly does "not edited" mean, anyway? Spelling not corrected? Facts not checked? Piece not even read by an editor? Weird. Even dangerous. I like that. Not something you often associate with newspapers, danger.

Weird Bird Friday

I've had Richard Thompson's ever-so-cheery song (aren't all of his songs cheery?) Walking on A Wire going through my head for the past three weeks. Yes, three weeks. So it must be time for weird birds on a wire:

I collected this in my Weird Bird directory months ago and now can't remember what it is or where it came from. Any ideas out there?

--Drunkawife

Dupe and poop?

A few more Colorado (or around in there) stories:

The Rocky's whole business section has been turned over to coverage of the trial of former Qwest (God I hate that spelling) CEO Joe Nacchio, who sold $100 million of the Denver phone company's stock under peculiar circumstances in 2001. Isn't there a name for that? Pump and dump? Prime and slime? Pee and flee? Whatever. Here's more about the case than any sane person (as Noam Chomsky would say) could ever want.

Yellowstone grizzlies taken off endangered species list:

Grizzly bears have recovered so well in Yellowstone they no longer need protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, said Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett today.The U.S. Government officially announced it was removing the bear from the threatened list.

Louisa Wilcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council disagreed with the decision, saying grizzlies are being threatened by the effects of global warming. One of the bear's primary food sources, white bark pine tree, is being attacked by pine beetles, reducing what the bears can eat, she said.

Cue the the polar bears:

"Recognize that grizzly bears and polar bears are close cousins," Wilcox said. "They are going to live in a world of shrinking habitat because of warming weather. We are deeply opposed. We think it's premature."

Woody Harrelson's dad dies in Canon City Supermax:

Charles Harrelson was convicted of murder in the May 29, 1979, slaying of U.S. District Judge John Wood Jr. outside his San Antonio, Texas, home. Prosecutors said a drug dealer hired him to kill Wood because he did not want the judge to preside at his upcoming trial.

Charles Harrelson denied the killing, saying he was in Dallas, 270 miles away, at the time.

Wood, known as "Maximum John" for the sentences he gave in drug cases, was the first federal judge to be killed in the 20th century.

Also the only one, as far as I can tell, though a federal judge's family was murdered a few years ago.

Update: In a letter to a Denver attorney last June, Charles Harrelson

wrote eloquently about a peaceful, silent existence of reading and writing, of watching David Letterman's monologues and listening to National Public Radio and the BBC.

"Being able to take a shower anytime, stay awake all night if I wish, ... read or write or watch whatever TV channel (some 70 channels are available) or listen to the 10 or so radio stations ... offers something akin to independence."

Idyllic. Wonder who you have to ki--never mind. The Belfast Telegraph has a fascinating piece on Charles (the judge wasn't the first murder he was tried for, nor the second) and the effect he may have had on young Woody--who is, rather famously, nuts.

Anti-war hoo-haw junior

The Post:

Shouts of "Stop the War" rang through downtown Denver as 200 high school students walked out of class to protest the war in Iraq. . . .

"We don't want to fight because we want justice here," said Jazs Garcia, 17, an organizer of the march. "If we don't have justice here, how can we have justice somewhere far away?"

Two questions, Jazs: 1. You're an idiot. 2. How do you pronounce that goofy name of yours? Gar-CEE-uh, I imagine. Favorite quote:

People standing on the sidewalks along the march route respectfully watched the students.

They better have.



Our future: one in four will become a little Churchill.
Update: The story and pic are on the Post's front page. The Rocky seems to have missed it altogether. Go, as the old saying has it, figure.

Update (3/24/07): The Rocky gets around to it. Quote: "'It's an imperialist war based on manifest destiny,' said Julio Tapia, a student at Emily Griffith Opportunity school."

The tiny guy in the string tie at the top of that last link, by the way, is Tom Noel, "Dr. Colorado," who teaches history at CU-Denver. He's at least as much showman as historian, and, like Ward Churchill, quite prolific. The resemblance (except that both are white) ends there. Noel doesn't write much about smallpox-infected bankies. He's probably never said "U.S off the planet!" or "I bring you greetings from the Elders of my tribe, the Keetoowah band of Cherokee." He just writes cheery cheesy pop history that (usually) doesn't call for the violent overthrow of Empire. Churchill--and Noel's CU-Denver colleague Glenn Morris, for that matter--probably don't have much respect for him.

Two minutes hate

Illiterate commie rag (anti-semitic, too!) Counterpunch has a large-spirited piece by California ethnic studies professor Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz: "Hating the Rich--Go Ahead, Hate Them, It's Good for You":

"The rich are not like you and me." "The poor will always be with us." Get real and accept it we are told. You've heard it all, and maybe even believe it in your heart. But, it's toxic thinking.

Not hating constitutes "toxic thinking." Got it.

I have a suggestion for clarifying our consciousness: learn to hate the rich. Hate, yes. You can dress up the language and call it rage. But, hate is a concept underrated.

And, lucidity is a concept overrated:

Everyone does it, but no one wants to admit it, usually hating the wrong person. Hate is the opposite of love. Do you love the rich? Like the rich? If not, than [sic] maybe you can learn to hate the rich.

I did send the rich a Valentine's Day card. Is that love?

I don't mean shame the rich in order to get money out of their guilt, as has been a long practice on the left and among non-profits [it has?--ed.] I mean NOT taking money from the rich,

Not taking m-m-m--

isolate the rich, make them build tall walls around their estates and corporate headquarters as the people force the rich to do in Latin America. How dare they have plate glass windows!

Plate glass windows? ¡Ya Basta!

We are held back and diminished by the claim that hating is bad for us, bad for everyone. You can hate the act but not hate the person. You can hate wealth or capitalism but not the rich. It's a ridiculous logic that keeps us hating and blaming ourselves for not being rich and powerful.

Why, she's just like Jesus.

Anyway, it's not consistent; it's all right to hate slavery and slaveowners, fascism and Hitler, etc. Why not hate the rich, the individual rich, not an abstract concept?

Notice how I've resisted (so far) linking to a picture of Paris Hilton? Not easy.

We have to be careful about that, living in a country that does not admit to class relations, and class is subject to little analysis even on the left.

The left is bored to suicide by it, too, dear. But just who are the rich?

It's not a matter of income per se. And it's essential in hating to target the enemy and not some front for the enemy. High income can certainly make a person full of herself, and most US citizens who live on high fixed or hourly incomes due to circumstances of a good trade union or a professional degree have no idea that they aren't rich. In polls they say they are in the top fifth of the income ladder, and they aren't.

We use polls to determine that stuff now?

A majority of US citizens don't want to tax the rich more, because they think they will be rich one day. They won't. The rich own not just a mortgaged house and a car, maybe a boat or a cabin in the woods or a beach house to boot; rather they own you. Even the cash and luxury soaked entertainment and sports stars are not the rich; they certainly deserve contempt and disgust, but not hatred. Don't go for scapegoats--Jews, Oprah, Martha Stewart.

Oprah's cool, anyway.

Hatred should be reserved for those who own us, that is, those who own the banks, the oil companies, the war industry, the land (for corporate agriculture), the private universities and prep schools, and who own the foundations that dole out worthy projects for the poor, for public institutions-their opera, their ballet, their symphony, that you are allowed to attend after opening night.

Only after opening night? Now, we hate!

My oldest brother, who like me grew up dirt poor in rural Oklahoma, landless farmers and farm workers, rebuts my arguments by saying that no poor man ever gave him a job. That says it all. The rich own you and me.

These rich are your rich, these rich are my rich . . .

In all the arguments about the crimes of the Judeo-Christian-Muslim religions, rarely is their greatest crime ever discussed--the leveling of class, rich and poor are the same in god's sight. What a handy ideology for the rich! The same with US democracy with its "equal opportunity" and "level playing fields," absurd claims under capitalism, but ones held dear but [sic] liberals. Hating the rich means also hating the state, the United States of America that is the ruling corporate body of the rich. . . .

Well, duh.

Passionate, organized hatred is the element missing in all that we do to try to change the world.

Huh. I'd have said that's the one thing they've got plenty of (baby). Nail it down, Roxie:

Now is the time to spread hate, hatred for the rich.

Check out Roxanne's website, too. She's like the female Ward Churchill:

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Oklahoma, daughter of a landless farmer and half-Indian mother. Her paternal grandfather, a white settler, farmer, and veterinarian, had been a labor activist and Socialist in Oklahoma with the Industrial Workers of the World in the first two decades of the twentieth century. The stories of her grandfather inspired her to lifelong social justice activism . . . .

Roxanne took a position teaching in a newly established Native American Studies program at California State University at Hayward, near San Francisco, and helped develop the Department of Ethnic Studies, as well as Women's Studies. In 1974, she became active in the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the International Indian Treaty Council, beginning a lifelong commitment to international human rights.

Except that she and Ward apparently went their separate ways--as, in a classic commie schism, did so many AIMers--over the treatment of the Miskito Indians in Neek-ah-rah-wah. From the illiterate commie rag (anti-semitic, too!) Monthly Review:

Dunbar-Ortiz writes about this aspect of the US contra war, too [in her book Blood on the Border]. She details the attempts by various elements of the American Indian Movement (AIM) to discredit her by repeating propaganda contrived in the CIA counterintelligence offices or just by calling her a leftist. Other attempts -- including one signed onto (rather ironically) by Ward Churchill that called her "Indianness" into question and another by Nation writer Penny Lernoux that attacked the Sandinistas with as much vehemence as Ronald Reagan ever mustered -- kept her in a state of regular re-examination. This would usually express itself in excessive alcohol consumption -- a demon with which Dunbar-Ortiz had battled before.

Another woman Ward drove to drink.

Update: Roxanne has three photos of herself (the young man in glasses on the left in the last pic is her, I think) on the main page of her website.

Update II: And an autobiography (apparently part of an envisioned trilogy) called Outlaw Woman. Read the blurb. Uck.

Update III: "In 1968, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz became a founding member of the early women's liberation movement. Along with a small group of dedicated women, she produced the seminal journal series, No More Fun and Games."

Update IV: Pirate Ballerina in comments asks just how I got the idea Dunbar-Ortiz is gay (since in this post I originally called her the "lesbian Ward Churchill"). And I realized: I had no bloody clue, except the physical mannishness she exhibits in her pictures. She herself says nothing about being gay. So, I changed that line to "female Ward Churchill." I have no idea whether Dunbar-Ortiz is gay.

Update V: Now it's Snapple's turn to give me shit for my temporarily intemperate phraseology (via the wonders of e(lectronic)-mail): "Wow, you sure got corrected today [see comments]! We will have to give you time out! I have room on the Grassy Knoll."

And I have the perfect outfit!

Popular delusion

Even the Rocky Mountain News has succumbed to the notion that Ward Churchill has already received his pink slip. As Pirate Ballerina points out, nuh-uh. He's no more fired now than he was at the beginning of March.

Reflectivity

Lazy, stupid, and out of ideas. All's well at the Drunkablog! The first two pictures were taken by friend Dan Zack, who's, like, a pro. The last is mine, I think.

Colorado cornucopia (almost forgot the)!

A benefit concert yesterday for Colorado ranchers nailed by this winter's blizzards:

Pueblo - Sitting with their hands entwined, Eddie and Joyce Ming could finally enjoy their 44th wedding anniversary as Michael Martin Murphey's soft country voice echoed through the Colorado State Fair Events Center on Sunday.

Winter blizzards buried their 133-acre farm near Pritchett, and the past 10 weeks have been spent digging out their home and cattle.

"We've been a little barnbound, we like to say," Eddie Ming said.

Tough folks. I'd be hanging from a beam in that barn by now. Wouldn't be suicide, neither. (Remember that if it happens.)

There's a fine "Old West" sort of name, by the way: Ming.

Eternal truth in the headline of a News Speakout column: "Deadly organic spinach." Interesting piece, too:

Organic food activists are being served a heaping platter of organic crow [I said interesting, not well-written--ed.] now that we finally learn last fall's outbreak of deadly E. coli O157:H7 was caused by organically grown spinach.

On Tuesday (February 27th), California food regulators admitted under direct questioning at a state senate hearing that the tainted spinach that ultimately killed 3 and sickened over 200 was traced to a 50-acre organic field - contrary to the repeated denials of organic activists.

Calls to inorganic activists were not returned.

Man with Alzheimers found in San Diego.

To which the Taranto-esqe reply must be: there's only one guy with Alzheimers in San Diego?

I know I saw this on Law and Order:

Prosecutors will not pursue criminal charges against Castle Rock Middle School students who took nude photos of themselves and each other using cell phones and distributed the images - some online - to their classmates this month.

More eternal truth (if can you stand it) in a story about how Dixie the avalanche rescue dog finds people buried in the snow:

"'We all smell more than we think' [ski patroller Brent] Redden said."

Finally, this gem of lesliegorebal warming hysteria from the Post:

It's not just about hungry polar bears.

Can't leave the fuddin' polar bears out of it even once, can they?

If Arctic sea ice continues to shrink in coming decades, Colorado could see less rain and snow and may suffer more frequent droughts, said Mark Serreze of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado.That's because changes in the extent of Arctic sea ice can alter weather patterns across much of the Northern Hemisphere.

Some climate simulations indicate that continued ice loss could lead to increased precipitation in western and southern Europe, while the American West could get shortchanged.

"Now whether this is exactly what will occur, we're not sure," he said. "But the real take-home message here is that what happens up there can affect us down here."

That's the "post-normal" take-home message, you understand.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center tracks the annual swelling and shrinking of the floating shell of sea ice that blankets the top of the world . . . .

The summertime extent of the polar ice layer has been declining since the late 1970s, with especially steep drops over the past five years.

If the trend continues, one computer simulation suggests that the Arctic could become nearly ice-free in September between 2040 and 2050.

The losses are shrinking the habitat available to polar bears, who hunt from the ice. But as Serreze and his colleagues point out, other changes could be in store thousands of miles away.

Exit bears, stage left.

The ongoing sea-ice decline could reduce the severity of Arctic cold fronts dropping into Colorado, reducing snowfall and impacting mountain snowpacks, the ski industry and the winter wheat crop, he said.

Unbelievable. Literally!

More anti-war hoo-haw

The Post has had a simpering piece on the "revived" anti-war movement on its front page for two days now. Favo quote-o, under the subhead:

The movement's impact

War protesters are slow to claim responsibility for the swing in the polls [against the war], but they suspect the movement has some role in nudging public opinion.

"Partly it's because some folks see more light and act," said 57-year-old peace activist Peter Sprunger-Froese, sporting an anti-war button as he sat in a Colorado Springs warehouse where he assembles bicycles for the homeless. "And partly it's the persistence of an earlier voice that is deepening."

By day, he builds bum bikes. By night, he's--Sprunger-Froese: Peace Activist!

By the way, check out this pic the Post runs with the story, of your typical Denver anti-war protester:


You're sixteen, so beautiful, and you're Allah's.
Hell of a picture. In fact, it reminded me of another great shot I'd seen in the Post, this accompanying the paper's story last summer on the "March for Lebanon":



Remarkable. Different photographers, too.

L-sign

The ACLU undertakes another critical defense of free speech:

Two people ejected from a presidential appearance in Denver because of a bumper sticker have added a former White House deputy assistant to the list of individuals they are suing.

Greg Jenkins is being sued because he managed appearances by President Bush as head of the White House office of advance, and the office had a policy of ejecting anyone with views perceived as different from the president's views, said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the Denver branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Leslie Weise and Alex Young were removed from the taxpayer-funded Bush speech in Denver on March 21, 2005, though they had done nothing disruptive. They were told later by a Secret Service agent who investigated their removal that they were ousted because they arrived in a car with a bumper sticker that read, "No more blood for oil."

Weise and Young, backed by the ACLU, are suing for violation of their rights to free speech, Silverstein said.

Whatever. Stupid is as stupid does. The only reason I mention it is to compare (AND contrast!) the ACLU's proactivated stance on this irredeemably minor issue with its handling of the Ward Churchill case--that is, that they're not handling the Ward Churchill case at all.

David Lane is still Churchill's attorney, apparently, but neither Churchill nor Lane's name has been paired with "ACLU" for quite some time. So why hasn't the union backed up the ringing (well, tinkling) declaration they made at the beginning of the mess? Hmmmm? (Psssst, the word starts with "l," ends with "r" and oozes in the middle).

Adults Only! XXX!!!

Spam (all sic) from "Bertolis Bertzin":

"Instead of looking how Jacel rubboing his baton in shoower cubicee [link] to she rilpeaced hiss sceoptre with her tongue."

Update: "rubboing"?

Update II: No I didn't hit the link. It's Sunday, you filthy pigs.

Update III: Jeez, I forgot to include the subject line: "gave mom too fulfil all beer wishes"

D.C. protest!

Yuck, turn on the TV and there's some girl screaming while somebody holds a sign about Palestine. Good start.

Somebody from the "Hip Hop Coalition." Didn't catch his name. Rev. Lennox Yearwood. He sounds just like Rochester.

Don't forget: sponsored by International ANSWER (Workers World Party)!

Three thousand plus died in this war for resources. 600,000 Iraqis. If we don't stop this war now, in the 21st century, we won't have a 22nd century.

Crowd: A bandanna-ed revolutionary! Yay! Hip Hop not War! Hip Hop not War! Power to the people!

Mahdi Bray, our co-host, introduces somebody in a hijab. Khalilah Sabra of the Muslim American Society. Free the people of Iraq and change the destiny of America!

Michael Letwin of New York City Labor Against the War: Bush admin, even tho overwhelmingly rejected at the polls, is escalating the war, arming Israel in its oppression. Has killed at least 650,000 Iraqis (up, up and away!).

At home the admin continues to attack civil liberties and everybody else. The democratic party can not be trusted to end it. This brilliant anti-war movement must be led by GIs!

Cynthia McKinney: Democrat majority in Congress chose war over us, and we say bring our troops home now. Minimum wage, "right of return" for Katrina survivors! Why is impeachment off the table? This country is bankrupt! For jobs! For healthcare! For education!

Crowd pic: Drummer!

Struggle is for nothing less than the soul of our country. I hereby declare my independence from every bomb dropped, every child maimed, every civilian killed . . .

Power to the people!

They're moving 'em fast. Big guy comes up and taps them on the shoulder. Wrap it up, asshat.

Michael Berg. The people of Iraq united against this country. Nick Berg died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. One down (Rummy), one on the verge, and one to go. Impeach Bush.

Crowd: Bush's head on a stick. He's wearing a cowboy hat.

Crowd: MC leads crowd: Impeach Bush!

Jonathan Hutto of Appeal for Redress. Everybody's dying.

Crowd looks tiny. And cold. Another guy from Redress. Truth is, our protests will not end this war, only our resistance will end this war! Protest will never catalyze the masses sitting on the fence. Only our determined risk-taking, our bold resistance can make a difference. Let's put our bodies in the street!

Crowd: freezing.

Another soldier. Lemme see your powerfists! Down for your war, tell me what for!

Garett Reppenhagen, Iraq vets against the war. Support the troops means hold gov't accountable!

Crowd shot: another drummer.

Viet vet: Stop this war! The yellow ribbons are faded now. Your job: talk about this war. To your brother, your lawyer, your butcher your baker your candlestick maker! Stop ALL WAR!

Courage to Resist organizer. Soldiers coming back with PTSD. George Bush killed a vet who committed suicide or something. Walter Reed (several have mentioned Walter Reed, of course).

Muslim guy, Mounzer Sleiman of the Nat'l Council of Arab Americans: Bring troops home now. Incoherent.

Certainly no more than 10,000 in the crowd; probably much less. Oh boy, there's the trumpet player.

Eric LeCompte of School of the Americas Watch: Wish you could see what I see: tens of thousands of people!

Uh, no.

Sisters and brothers, the crowd is huge! (C-Span obligingly does a low level pan from which you can't tell a thing.)

Ramsey! Crowd peps up a little. Can't spend so much on arms without killing people with them. Iran couldn't hurt us if they had nuclear weapons. Bill of Rights shredded. Habeas Corpus means nothing! Torture! They believe in it! Impeachment! How many crimes do you have to have? How close are we to tearing the country apart? We're making enemies all over the world! Impeachment is the first step to make amends.

Co-host: Impeach Bush! Impeach Cheney!

Esam Omesh, president of the Muslim American Society. I greet you with the greeting of peace! More than 3,000 lives later, more than 650,000 (!) Iraqi lives later, we are looking at the catastrophe we predicted. End the war today! Lots of "brothers and sisters."

Man, nobody's speaking for more than a couple of minutes.

Malik Rahim, Common Ground Relief, Katrina organizer: Salaam aleikem. I challenge George Bush to tell the truth about New Orleans! He knew that 150,000 people had no means of escape!

Cindy!

Not yet. Mahdi Bray says let's yell for all who couldn't make it because of the weather.

Cindy's cold. Quit complaining.

Cindy Sheehan: Forty years ago there was a march on the Pentagon. Forty years later here we are again! When's it gonna stop? I'll probably be in my wheelchair! Let's stop this bullshit war now. It's for the corporations! Halliburton and (others)! Counterprotesters don't realize that America isn't the whole world. Five percent of the people, we use 40 percent of the resources! We have to start sharing! We have to say "we have enough, do you want some too!?" Being in the shadow of the war machine is like being in the shadow of the death star! We need to stop paying our taxes to fund this war (cheer!!!). Tell Congress, you don't work for Halliburton! We are the deciders! We have decided we want (Bush and Co.) in prison! On the fourth of July, we're going to meet in Philadelphia and declare our independence from this government! The people who want peace will not live under this government any more!

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, partnership for civil justice: We're freezing! Nobody could come!

Crowd shot: guy wearing Red Army hat with big star next to hijab-ed women. Mara begging for money. Red buckets being passed, nobody contributing.

Here we go again. These people can't keep OT. Gloria La Riva, "Free the Cuban Five". Cuba doesn't knuckle under to U.S.! Reads letter from Leonard Weinglass. Cuban exiles are committing terrorist acts against Cuba. Tries to get a chant going: "Free the Cuban five!" Nobody bothers.

The "courageous" Giuliana Sgrena (I'll try to add links later). The occupation is getting the worse! (sic) The only way to survive is to leave Iraq!

Crowd shot: guy in a Statue of Liberty costume. We forced Italy out of Iraq, but U.S. planes in Italy still bomb Iraq and Afghanistan!

Rocky Anderson, mayor of Salt Lake City ("D," as the C-Span identifier says). You're all patriots! We are becoming like every other oppressive government! We are saying to an irresponsible and complacent Congress, Impeach these people! No more wars of aggression! No more torture! No more kidnapping! No more trampling on our Constitution!

The crowd finally gets it, shouting back, NO MORE! You are great American patriots!

In back it looks like people are leaving already.

Milida Arredondo of Gold Star Families. There is no such thing as an illegal! Bush and Co. look for immigrants to serve in this war! It's an economic draft! There's one way to become a citizen. If you are killed in Iraq, you will become a citizen! Posthumously! ICE raided Massachusetts factory and separated mothers from children! Those illegals were making body armor for the troops!

Her husband: Impeach! Impecio! (Impecio?) (I found "impugnar" for impeach, but not impecio.)

Debra Sweet, World Can't Wait chick. More chanting. Bush and Cheney are preparing new war against Iran! The Democrats suck! We have to stop this war! We have to drive out the Bush regime! We need more protests! We haven't seen the campuses shut down! We haven't seen thousands of troops refuse to carry out war crimes!

Crowd shot: Guy holding sign: "The rapture is not an exit strategy."

Chant: The world can't wait! Drive out the Bush regime!

Efia Nwangaza, NION lady: Power to the people! We demand that the Bush regime be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity! No war on Iran!

Brian Becker of ANSWER. (There are only a couple thousand people left.) We're telling all the people, from Palestine, to Iraq, to Venezuela, you are not our enemy! He begs the crowd to hang out. Only six more speakers! Don't leave! We're being broadcast live on C-Span! We're being broadcast live on Al-Jazeera! Please don't embarrass the movement! (Everybody's still leaving).
Mahdi Bray again. If loving freedom and justice is wrong, I don't want to be right!

C-Span's quit showing long shots of the crowd.

Leah Obias, Justice Not War in the Phillipines chick. Chant: U.S. imperialists! Number one terrorists!

Militant greetings, brothers and sisters! We denounce the U.S. occupation in Iraq, Palestine, the Phillipines, and everywhere! The blood of the Filipino people is on your hands (BushCo)!

Long shot: a few hundred people left. Total disaster for ANSWER. Why no coverage of the counterprotests, which apparently had several thousand people as well?

Ben Depuy, former "ambassador at large" of Haiti. Latin America is burning! People are freezing and this guy can hardly talk.

Crowd sign: "The worst tyrants ever: Napoleon, Hitler, and Bush." Depuy: We need the socialism of the 20th century (sic)! Down with capitalism! Thank you!

Chuck Kauffman from the Nicaraugua Network. No blood for Exxon. U.S. has 700 military bases in 130 countries. If Bushco weren't bogged down in Iraq, they'd probably be invading Venezuela. We need to become sugar in the gears of the war machine (sic)!

More cops than protesters now.

Somebody from the Mexico Solidarity Network. No U.S. intervention in the Middle East, no U.S. intervention in Latin America, no U.S. intervention in the world! She's so small she disappears behind the podium.

Larry Holmes of something or other. It's cold out, but you're all hot (yay)! There's a war at home called police brutality! There's a war at home and it's called political prisoners! How many of you have heard of Leonard Peltier? (yay!). Remember how the immigrants rallied last year and shut the country down? It's gonna happen again! The people, united, will never be defeated.
(Chant)

Oh boy, they're down to the high school students who stuck stickers up around town for the protest. Jihan Hafiz of Youth for Truth! The whole world is watching! (Uh, no.) End the military-industrial complex!

Some girl in the crowd is ranting that people are being maced somewhere else. I'm sure the Black Bloc left a long time ago to get rowdy.

Resist! Resist! Raise up your fist!

Girlie from the Party for Socialism and Liberation. This war isn't a mistake, it's a policy. That's capitalism!

Final speaker! Mara whatever who spoke before. National Lawyers Guild. She's very emotional. Crowd shot: C-Span keeps showing these two girls dressed in sequined hoodies. I think it's the Olsen Twins (had time to find that link!).

Mahdi Bray: Power to the People!

Crowd leaving. They don't look happy. Or empowered.

Update: Updated AP story says cops "privately" estimated the crowd at 10-20 thou. Check out the careful cropping on the pic.

Update II: Slapstick Politics has good coverage and pictures of the Denver protest. I didn't even know there was one.

Quote of the undefined period of time!

Technology Review:

[Dan] Rather is one of the most vocal supporters of digital technologies to come out of Big Media; he's also its pariah. His six decades spent covering Watergate, Vietnam, and the end of the Cold War were, for many, wiped out after bloggers called into question a critical piece of evidence, the Killian documents, used in Rather's controversial story about President George W. Bush's military record during Vietnam. Still, the 76-year-old newsman landed on his feet, going to work for Mark Cuban's HDNet.

Yeah, called into question. And Rather landed on his feet at HDNet, did he? Look, it would be a comedown for me to work at HDNet (whatever that is), and I've spent most of my life lying drunk in my own filth.

Weird Bird Friday

Crazy Birds Island :p - Watch today’s top amazing videos here

Oh yeah, the other CU scandal

The Silver & Gold Record:

A date has been set for hearing an appeal of the March 2005 dismissal of the Title IX lawsuit that sparked the UCB football controversy in 2004.

Media outlets also reported last week that an Aurora woman who claims she was sexually assaulted in June 2000 by a UCB football recruit -- prior to the alleged assaults at a December 2001 off-campus party that prompted the Title IX lawsuit -- is asking for a special prosecutor to revisit the decision to not pursue charges in her case.

According to reports by 9News and The Denver Post, that recruit, who went on to play for the Buffaloes, and a former assistant coach said former head coach Gary Barnett requested assistance in finding an attorney for the recruit in January 2001.

Vy ees dees zeegneefeegant?

Barnett said under oath that he "did not recall" hearing about any other cases of sexual misconduct involving UCB football players prior to December 2001, according to the reports. To win the lawsuit, the plaintiffs would need to demonstrate that CU officials had been notified prior to December 2001 of the risk that football players and recruits would sexually assault female CU students, and were "deliberately indifferent" to that risk.

Update: Ah, those carefree days when all we worried about was Betsy "Terms of Endearment" Hoffman.

Update II: Here's an old USA Today timeline of the football scandal with lots o' links. CU: the flagship university of the state of Colorado.

Speaking of young people . . .

"Get the hell off my property, ya lousy kids, ya!" is what I will no longer be yelling at the hip-hop punks who cut across my yard every day as they head over to North High School. Sure don't want to make them mad:

Brodie Clayton of Lochbuie has tattoos of the letters ICP on his left hand and a picture of a hatchet on the other hand, according to court records.

Tess Damm of Lafayette calls herself a "Juggalette" who designed her MySpace .com page with several pictures of two rappers dressed in clown makeup.

Her boyfriend, Bryan Grove, constantly played tunes from a Detroit-based rap group, according to a friend.

All three are young fans of the rap music group Insane Clown Posse, but they have another thing in common:

They've all been implicated in murder.

As police investigate recent violence committed by teenagers, some officials are seeing crimes, and even gangs, linked with fans of Insane Clown Posse . . . .

The two-person group, also known as ICP, is known for its violent lyrics and descriptions of murder. Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope formed the group in the early 1990s and perform in black and white clown makeup. . . .

Some ICP songs include killing a pig and stabbing people. In the song, I Stab People, the duo raps, "I order food just to stab the guy when he gets there. I don't care, I stab anybody anywhere."

Cue the expert!

Violent music can have an effect on young people and their actions, said Kathleen Heide, a criminology professor at the University of South Florida and author of Why Kids Kill Parents. "Music is one of many ingredients that can cause a child to commit murder," she said. "Violent music itself is not enough to cause someone to go over the edge. But if one is angry, alienated or abused, music with violent themes can ignite violence." . . .

Read the whole piece, a classic of the "why aren't you cowering in a corner?" school of journalism. My favorite line:

There are many people who dress up as clowns who are good people . . .

Yeah, sure. And it's only a tiny minority of radical clowns who are doing all the killing, too.

Big time

The New York Times (pinch me, the New York Times!) notes the ascension of John Denver's Rocky Mountain High to Colorado co-state song, and goes to the trouble of finding a flak to quote:

“A lot of people probably think it’s already the state song,” said Richard Grant, a spokesman for the Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau. . . .

“It’s certainly going to appeal to a lot of young people,” Mr. Grant said. “It’s just a cool thing to take a rock song and make it the official song.”

Rock song? Young people? Right. Reminds me of another quote about a not-quite-so-famous musician from some time ago:

First brother Roger Clinton really wowed them in North Korea. He's "well-known among the pop-music circles for presenting many lively and optimistic songs," government apparatchik Ri Jong-Hyok told the official Korean Central News Agency.

You know you're in Boulder . . .

When you spot a woman driving a Prius sporting this bumper sticker:


"Every letter has a symbol that represents a system of thought: The crescent and star for Islam; the pentagram for Wicca [note: in this case it's a peace sign, which is sort of a religion, I guess--ed.]; the relativity formula for science [again, in this version it's an hermaphroditic "e"--ed.]; the star of David for Judaism; the Karma Wheel dotting the i for Buddhism; the Tao symbol for Taoism; the cross for Chrisitianity."

Not very inclusive, are they?

Relief, comic (type 1--attempted)

The ridiculous way Iran's nefarious nuke ambitions may have been at least temporarily thwarted--the oil-rich theocracy can't pay its bills to the Russkies--is almost Dr. Evil-ish:

Dr. Evil (standing defiantly at the heart of his undermountain facility before the usual weapon of complete Earthal destruction):

Soon the world shall be mine! Bwahahaha--

(a descending whooooo sound* as the power dies and the lights go out.)

Henchpersyn (in the dark): Dr. Evil! Our nefarious nuke ambitions have been at least temporarily thwarted! How has this happened?

Dr. Evil (chewing pinkie nail): Ahmaqoaviecar.

Henchpersyn: Sir?

Dr. Evil: I maxed out the Visa card!

Henchpersyn: Sir! (Sets self on fire.)

Death threat mania!

In an update to a post yesterday I noted that the utterly vile Charley Arthur of the Ward Churchill-lovin' Try-Works blog had made (yet another) death threat, this time against Churchill documentarian Grant Crowell:

Comes the moment of our forthcoming 1-on-1 in Chicago, Walking Eagle [Crowell], we’re volunteering right here and now to administer unto you a desperately-needed hot lead enema.

Two or three in succession, if need be.

Nice. Pirate Ballerina, proactive blogger that he is, last night e-mailed various CU administrators and faculty, including members of the school's committee on research misconduct and ethnic studies chairpersyn Albert Ramirez, asking their reaction to a post (not a comment) like this being made on a blog run by a CU employee--of course, our old pal, ethnic studies instructor Ben Whitmer.

No answer yet, but PB has a fine concise post detailing the background of the Try-Works/Churchill axis and its history of obscene and violent threats.

Want more?

Here's Charley Arthur last week on a thread to yet another post attacking Crowell. Charley and Whitmer are discussing the identities of various anti-Churchill commenters, mainly at PB but here as well:

Charley Arthur Says:

Ahhhh…

We see that the mad knitter [a nasty pro-Churchill commenter] has resumed her habit of sodomizing herself with her knitting needle.

How fucking quaint is that?

Remember, that's a supporter he's talking about, but Charley is too reckless to notice. And once again he indulges his misogynist fantasies of violent rape with a piece of metal. Read the whole thread and wonder how you'd feel if you were one of the women these two freaks talk about.

Update: And don't forget, there's a fair amount of circumstantial evidence that "Charley Arthur" is the Great Wardo himself.

Update II: An operative in Pirate Ballerina's world-girdling network of authentic journalist-approved sources managed to snaffle the title page to Ward's next book. PB doubts its authenticity, but the thorough footnoting persuades me. (Did you know that Ward's books have 400 footnotes per chapter? Well they do, you miserable puling technocrat of Empire!)

Update III: PB received this response from CU President Hank Brown's office:

University of Colorado President Hank Brown asked me to look into your concern outlined in your e-mail of March 14 and respond to you. After reviewing the matter, university legal counsel has determined that the postings you refer to are personal correspondence outside the purview of the university. Should Mr. Crowell be concerned for his safety, that is a matter for law enforcement. Thank you for writing.

Sincerely, Ken McConnellogue
Associate Vice President for University Relations
Office of the President

Now that, with apologies to Samuel L. Jackson, is some repugnant shit. Is there no moral turpitude clause in instructor contracts?