Cheney: ‘The All-Volunteer Force’ : “The president carries the biggest burden, obviously,” Cheney said. “He’s the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans, but we are fortunate to have a group of men and women, the all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and go in harm’s way for the rest of us.”
“GRANDMOTHERS AGAINST THE WAR: GETTING OFF OUR FANNIES AND STANDING UP FOR PEACE,” by Joan Wile with a foreword by best-selling author, Malachy McCourt, will be realeased on April 29 by Citadel Press.
Signing at Barnes & Noble, Broadway and 82nd Street, on Monday, May 5, at 7 PM.
Joan Says: Malachy will introduce me, and our defense attorney, noted civil liberties lawyer Norman Siegel, will also make some remarks. Many of the grannies discussed in the book will be there, too, and I hope to introduce them to you.
Monday, March 24 EL BARRIO starting 5:00 PM, 103rd & Lexington Ave.: Army Recruiting Station facing Ortiz Funeral Parlor; questions Gloria E. Quinones <geq339 At earthlink.net>
Monday, March 24, MIDTOWN 6:00 PM on west side of Fifth Ave. btw. 49th & 50th Streets;
<joan.wile AT grandmothersagainstthewar.org> (possibly with Vets For Peace)
Monday, March 24 in STATEN ISLAND 7:00 until 8:30 PM at St. George Recruiting Center & Post Office, 45 Bay Street near the ferry. www.icasualties.org Mourn 4,000 U.S. soldiers killed and over 1.5 million Iraqis. Various groups: 718.309.7458, 347.524.5631 <statenisland @ mds-nyc.org>
Monday, March 24 WHITE PLAINS nowarwestchester.org Chuck Bell — 914 830 0639
Tuesday March 25UNION SQUARE NYC at 6:30 PM (south plaza & steps) — The long-planned American Friends Service Committee “day after” vigil. Bring candles & pictures if possible. Questions 212.598.0958 <IBieri at afsc.org>. http://www.afsc.org/4000
Wednesday, March 26, Teaneck 4:30-7:00 pm with 5:00 pm press conference & reading of the names of the troops from New Jersey and Iraqi people killed Mark the death of over 4000 US troops and 1 million Iraqis — National Guard Armory Teaneck Road and Liberty Road. Frequent buses right to armory from Port Authority or GWB bus station.
Noting the burden placed on military families, the vice president said the biggest burden is carried by President George W. Bush, who made the decision to commit US troops to war, and reminded the public that U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan volunteered for duty.
According to iraqbodycount.org there are 82,349 – 89,867 documented civilian deaths from violence.
Your goal is not to bring some troops home, maybe, if we let you have your way now. Your goal is not to set the stage for eventual withdrawal. You are, to use your own disrespectful, tone-deaf word, playing at getting the next Republican nominee to agree to jump into this bottomless pit with you, and take us with him, as we stay in Iraq for another year, and another, and another, and anon. Full Text
In a town hall meeting in Bloomsburg, Pa. this week, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a 12-term congressman, said that shortly before Congress was scheduled to vote on authorizing military force against Iraq, top officials of the CIA showed select members of Congress three photographs it alleged were Iraqi Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), better known as drones. Kanjorski said he was told that the drones were capable of carrying nuclear, biological, or chemical agents, and could strike 1,000 miles inland of east coast or west coast cities.
Kanjorski said he and four or five other congressmen in the room were told UAVs could be on freighters headed to the U.S. Both secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and President Bush wandered into and out of the briefing room…
…Until he saw the pictures, Kanjorski said, “I hadn’t thought that Iraq was a threat.” That second meeting changed everything. After he left that meeting, said Kanjorski, he was willing to give the President the authorization he wanted since the drones “represented an imminent danger.”
Several years later, Kanjorski said he learned that the pictures were “a god-damned lie,” apparently taken by CIA photographers in the desert in the southwest of the U.S.
RAF Newsreel / Information film – The Gen, The Voice Of The Service, Number 14
The Gen an internal film magazine was started in 1943, of which eighteen editions were eventually produced, the title adopting the popular RAF slang term referring to the latest information. It offers a particular insight into how the Service presented itself to its own people and to the notion of an established RAF culture. This was circulated throughout the Service for inclusion in the entertainments programme and, in addition to showing the effective work the Service was doing in all theatres of the war, included jovial views of RAF life such as ‘Letter to Bert’, a common serviceman’s observations on his experiences in exotic locations. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, June, 1997 by Kenneth Buckman
Someone has put several of these up on Google Video. This one (#14) is apparently from very near the end of WWII. It shows newly developed helicopters and Squirt jets, and a bizarre “foolproof and safe” method of grabbing a sheep, and then a man into an aircraft from the ground, that you will have to see to believe. It goes on to show centrifuge experiments and the early use of water pressurized suits to counteract blood pooling in the lower half of the body at high g. All of this is narrated in a light jovial manner. We also hear about young Jimmy Natu a Ghurka orphan adopted as RAF base mascot in Burma who becomes “one of the boys.” He’s a regular earner and gets two bob a week.
The second half is about Education and Vocational Training. Letting everyone know that they soon will be out of a job, and that you, yes you, better start figuring out what you are going to do when you hit Civie Street. As Air Commander Allan Lancelot Addison Perry-Keane growls: “The RAF cannot guarantee you a job.”
Tonight (Friday July 27): Catch Greg Palast on PBS’ top current affairs program.
‘NOW‘ furthers the story Palast first busted open for Britain’s BBC Newsnight, the scheme to attack voters of color – the ‘Blue’ ones.
For Bill Moyers’ capable successor, David Brancaccio, Palast lays out the latest evidence never before televised.
8:30pm Eastern (on New York Thirteen). Check local listings.
