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Kucinich Swears In * Weapon Ban * Armageddon Revisited



12 January 2003


"We are, in short, going to attack and massacre Iraq for the oil reserves, to protect America's corporate interests, to feed the gaping maw of the military-industrial complex. Same as it ever was."

-- Mark Morford

SF Gate Columnist
10 January 2003


1) Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Swearing-In
Also: Speech in Canada for Space Preservation Treaty
2) "Bush's Armageddon Obsession- revisited" & "Happy Imbeciles At War"
3) N Korea pulls out of nuclear treaty
4) 'Blanket commutation' empties Illinois death row
Also: Update on Zolo Agona Azania
5) In the Spirit of Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas


Editor's Notes:

This issue is another power-packed irreverent issue on the approaching war, resistance, on democracy and justice fighting back. This Tuesday Flyby News is showing the video, "Scott Ritter: The Case Against US War Against Iraq." If you are interested in this event or hosting this video, go to flybynews.com "campaigns, actions and announcements." You will also find a link for another major action in Washington. DC this coming weekend, January 18.

Item 1 begins in a good way, the text of the speech made by Representative Dennis J. Kucinich for his re-election's Swearing-In Ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a real opposition leader to the direction promoted by George W. Bush. In the second part of this item, you will find an introduction and link for his speech in Canada on stopping the acceleration of the arms race. Kucinich promises to re-introduce a Space Preservation Treaty, banning space-based weapons. This is critical for our nation's security, for our economy, and to stop the sudden surge in destabilizing the world with a new arms race.

Item 2 contains two explosive commentaries regarding "Bush's Armageddon Obsession- revisited" & article called "Happy Imbeciles At War." Mark Morford's words are worth repeating:

"We are, in short, going to attack and massacre Iraq for the oil reserves, to protect America's corporate interests, to feed the gaping maw of the military-industrial complex. Same as it ever was."

-- Mark Morford

Same as it ever was

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower

January 17, 1961
Farewell Radio and Television Address to the American People
http://www.eisenhower.utexas.edu/farewell.htm

But many of the good have died tragic deaths since then, which inaugurated the JFK coup and cover-up. John Fitzgerald Kennedy fought back the military-intelligence intentions to invade Cuba; he was also promising to change US policy in relationship with Southeast Asia and world. Like a thief in the night, a military dictatorship has come about, challenging democracy's right to choose a path for peace, prosperity, and security. Instead, the elite has chosen a path of self destruction, with greed ushering on the chaos, with denial, and self deception.

"Call and Answer" by Robert Bly

Tell me why it is we don't lift our voices these days
And cry over what is happening. Have you noticed
The plans are made for Iraq and the ice cap is melting?

I say to myself: "Go on, cry. What's the sense
Of being an adult and having no voice? Cry out!
See who will answer! This is Call and Answer!"

We will have to call especially loud to reach
Our angels, who are hard of hearing; they are hiding
In the jugs of silence filled during our wars.

Have we agreed to so many wars that we can't
Escape from silence? If we don't lift our voices, we allow
Others (who are ourselves) to rob the house.

How come we've listened to the great criers–Neruda,
Akhmatova, Thoreau, Frederick Douglass–and now
We're silent as sparrows in the little bushes?

Some masters say our life lasts only seven days.
Where are we in the week? Is it Thursday Yet?
Hurry, cry now! Soon Sunday night will come.


# # #

Item 3 shows the evolving nature of the dangers unleashed by the military planners denying the call for a unified world to deny the existence of ALL WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.

Item 4 is about the "noble" work of outgoing Illinois Governor, giving a 'Blanket commutation' to empty Illinois' death row. Hallelujah! Following the CNN report, check the link for consideration in supporting Ryan for the Nobel Peace Prize. If only Indiana and other states would see the light of justice. This item also updates on the case of Zolo Agona Azania, who's execution was stayed due to a perjured witness was discovered working with the prosecution. So typical, but unless we stand united, feel for one another, our voices will fall on deaf ears, while violent time and corrupt control takes its toll on individuals' inalienable rights.

Item 5 is about a classic book by Mari Sandoz, published in 1938, the biography called: Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas. She interviewed living witnesses to chronicle this sacred life, and the betrayal, not just from the US government, but also by those of his own people. Yet the story of the past is a light post about evolutionary politics, and uniting to transform the US government with a democracy. For us to unite effectively, as one people, the lessons of Crazy Horse and Leonard Peltier must come to light, and we need to unite behind what is good in the USA, before darkness covers life from all human perceptions in this world.


"It takes wisdom to have great power and to make gentle its presence in the world."

- Dennis J. Kucinich





1) Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Swearing-In

U.S. Representative Dennis J. Kucinich
Swearing-In Ceremony
Sunday, January 5, 2003
Cleveland, Ohio

My fellow Americans, in this ceremony we recognize the power of the people in a democracy to create self-government. For you have truly lifted me, as a lowly servant, up from your midst to serve our nation. You have entrusted in me the duties of national service. You have asked me to stand as a sentinel to safeguard our rights. You have expected me to tell the truth, even if that truth shall disturb established economic, political and social structures. I accept your trust with humility and with resolve. I shall proceed in my duties each day with courage, with unshakeable faith and with love of you, my dear constituents, love of our country, love of freedom and love of our brothers and sisters worldwide.

For the America I envision seeks world unity instead of unilateralism. It gains its power through being the first to help, not the first to strike. It extends itself to the peoples of the world to lift their burden. It is an America, which when asked for help, dispenses bread instead of bombs, medical assistance instead of missiles, and food instead of fissile materials.

There is a role for America in the world. It is in working with the community of nations to achieve the security of all nations. It is in restoring the promise of the Non Proliferation Treaty to lead the way to get rid of all nuclear weapons. It is in helping to assure international order. It is through strengthening and abiding by international treaties. It is in assuring control and eventual
elimination of biological and chemical weapons, and landmines. It is in protecting our global climate by cooperating with the rest of the world in reducing carbon emissions.

America can help protect the world. America can help save the world. But America cannot control the world, nor should we want to do so.

Yet our Administration would project American power for the purpose of domination. Their National Security doctrines call for America to strike anywhere it pleases and to be the first to use nuclear weapons.

Our nation is now poised to go to all-out war against Iraq. Iraq has not committed any act of aggression against the United States. Iraq was not responsible for 911. No credible evidence exists linking Iraq to Al Queda's role in 911. Iraq was not responsible for the anthrax attack on our nation. The United Nations has yet to establish that Iraq has usable weapons of mass destruction. There is no intelligence that Iraq has the ability to strike at the United States. According to the CIA, Iraq has no intention to attack America, but will defend itself if attacked.

Why then, is our nation prepared to send three hundred thousand of our young men and women into house to house combat in the streets of Baghdad and Basra? Why is our nation prepared to spend $200 billion or more of our hard-earned tax dollars for the destruction of Iraq?

Why is our nation preparing to use the most powerful military machine in history to wage an assault against the people of Iraq, to destroy their houses and buildings, to wipe out their water and electric systems and to block their access to food and medical supplies?

There is no answer which can separate itself from oil economics, profit requirements of arms trade, or distorted notions of empire-building.

War with Iraq is wrong. But if war is prosecuted further in Iraq, we must be prepared to advance the cause of peace in this country. We must be prepared to stand up, to speak out, to organize, to march, to demand an end to the war, or to demand an end to an administration which insists on war.

It is urgent we oppose this war. It will dominate our nation's priorities. It will threaten Social Security. It will threaten Medicare. It will block a prescription drug benefit for the elderly. It will stop America from providing jobs for all, health care for all, education for all.

There are some who believe that it is unpatriotic to challenge the Administration on the war. They believe it is politically wiser to debate the economy. But how can one reasonably separate war from the budget, war from the economy, war from America's ability to meet the needs of the people of this nation?

The Administration's own top economic adviser said the war could cost up to $200 billion. Our federal budget is already close to a $200 billion deficit due to huge tax cuts for the wealthy. Remember when we had a budget surplus?

Each time the administration talks about war, fear is created and when fear goes up, the market goes down. War will mean a sharp increase in oil prices, which will hurt jobs in manufacturing and transportation. One economic study with a worst-case scenario puts the cost of an all-out war, plus long-term occupation of Iraq at $1.6 trillion.

You cannot separate war from the economy. You cannot separate war from America's future, from its role in the world and its ability to meet the needs of our own people here at home.

We need to ask the questions: Why does America have hundreds of billions to ruin the health and take the lives of innocent people in Iraq but no money to provide health care for all Americans?

Why would America spend hundreds of billions to retire Saddam Hussein, but no money to protect the retirement security of its own people?

Why does America have money to blow up bridges over the Euphrates River in Iraq, but no money to build up bridges over the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland?

The path America must take is one of peace which leads to prosperity. It is one which understands that creating a structure of peace ensures that economic structures can be sound, affirmative of human needs and restorative of human values.

This is the dream of a Department of Peace which can help America take the first step towards making nonviolence an organizing principle in our society - - making the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a reality - - and working to make war itself a thing of the past. It is this ethic of peace seeking and peace building which will cause us to take down weapons from the heavens and work to create a heaven on earth full of new possibilities.

Peace and prosperity shall be as two pillars in a newly rebuilt America which provides for the economic and social security of its own people as a cause of nationhood and for the economic and social progress of peoples of other lands as a cause of brotherhood.

This confirmation of the purpose of nation was the dream of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society, and John F. Kennedy and the New Frontier. This shall continue to be our dream in the days ahead, that no matter the darkness, we shall hold up the light of America's higher purpose, which calls to us across the ages from Washington. Jefferson and Adams through Lincoln to the present day.

Our nation has always had a higher calling, despite the darkness of 911 and the official response to it. It is a calling to maintain the quest for democracy, for freedom and liberty at times of peril as well as in times of peace. We can sense that higher calling. That higher calling is our heritage.

The words of Francis Scott Key still echo:

"Oh say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" In this he celebrated the link between freedom and bravery: That it takes courage to live in a democracy. It takes courage to stand up to terrorists and maintain basic liberties. It takes courage to lead the way toward global disarmament while some are bent on destruction.

It takes patience to face dictators around the world and not be tempted to bomb them into submission. It takes wisdom to have great power and to make gentle its presence in the world.

And it takes compassion to understand the plight of peoples world wide who themselves are trying to survive, to live out their own humble lives despite having conditions which are challenging or governments which are oppressive.

My friends. This is still your government. You have a right to have a say in how its destiny is being charted. That right derives from our very Declaration of Independence, which claimed self-governance as a basic right. Government does not just happen in Washington, DC. It is the result of a process which takes place in thousands of cities, villages and townships. It is also a process which also takes place in our hearts, which is brought to life by our love of country, and our love of each other. It is your love which enables me to carry those hopes and dreams forward. And I shall do so courageously in the days ahead.

Thank you.

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For a Related Link – Speech by Dennis Kucinich in Canada
for Space Preservation Treaty Conference to Ban Space-based Weapons


"A SACRED MISSION" by Dennis J. Kucinich

TORONTO, CANADA - U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), Co-Chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Aviation and Space Caucus, on November 30, 2002 spoke before approximately 1000 people at CUSP: Canadian Conference on Unity, Sovereignty, and Prosperity in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, invited by the former Canadian Minister of Defense. In a keynote speech, released on New Year's Eve 2002, Kucinich, who is also Chair of the U.S. House of Representative's Progressive Caucus, calls on Canada's leaders to convene an international Space Preservation Treaty Conference where world leaders will gather to sign into law the Space Preservation Treaty, companion to his Space Preservation Act, to ban all space-based weapons.

Kucinich will reintroduce the Space Preservation Act into the U.S. Congress in early 2003. This Act "implement(s) a ban on space-based weapons of the United States and the use of weapons of the United States to destroy or damage objects in space that are in orbit." The Act also directs the U.S. President to negotiate an international Treaty: "The President shall direct the United States representatives to the United Nations and other international organizations to immediately work toward negotiating , adopting, and implementing an international treaty banning space-based weapons and the use of weapons to destroy or damage objects in space that are in orbit."

A SACRED MISSION by U.S. Rep Dennis Kucinich
http://www.renaissancealliance.org/issact/isspers/govpol/dkucin5.htm

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For one of the best resources on the web on Dennis J. Kucinich, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m

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For another related web page, called

"Fighting For Democracy" by Norman D. Livergood,

See:

http://www.hermes-press.com/fighting_for_democracy.htm




2) "Bush's Armageddon Obsession- revisited" & "Happy Imbeciles At War"

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory
Bush's Armageddon Obsession, Revisited
January 4, 2003

by MICHAEL ORTIZ HILL

"We are lived by forces we scarcely understand," wrote W.H. Auden. What forces live us now as America again torques toward war?


George W. Bush is certainly the plaything of such forces as the geopolitics of oil but it seems that he is susceptible to other even darker archetypal concerns. Let me be blunt. The man is delusional and the shape of his delusion is specifically apocalyptic in belief and intent. That Bush would attack so many vital systems on so many fronts from foreign policy to the environment may seem confusing from the point of view of realpolitik but becomes transparent in terms of the apocalyptic worldview to which he subscribes. All systems are supposed to go down so the Messiah can come and Bush, seemingly, has taken on the role of the one who brings this to pass.

The Reverend Billy Graham taught Bush to live in anticipation of the Second Coming but it was his friendship with Dr. Tony Evans that shaped Bush's political understanding of how to deport himself in an apocalyptic era. Dr. Evans, the pastor of a large Dallas church and a founder of the Promise Keepers movement taught Bush about "how the world should be seen from a divine viewpoint," according to Dr. Martin Hawkins, Evans assistant pastor.

S.R. Shearer of Antipas Ministries writes, "Most of the leaders of the Promise Keepers embrace a doctrine of 'end time' (eschatology), known as 'dominionim.' Dominionism pictures the seizure of earthly (temporal) power by the 'people of God' as the only means through which the world can be rescued.... It is the eschatology that Bush has imbibed; an eschatology through which he has gradually (and easily) come to see himself as an agent of God who has been called by him to 'restore the earth to God's control', a 'chosen vessel', so to speak, to bring in the Restoration of All Things." Shearer calls this delusion, "Messianic leadership"-- that is to say usurping the role usually ascribed to the Messiah.

In Bush at War Bob Woodward writes, "Most presidents have high hopes. Some have grandiose visions of what they will achieve, and he was firmly in that camp."

"To answer these attacks and rid the world of evil," says Bush. And again, "We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great nation." Grandiose visions. Woodward comments, "The president was casting his mission and that of the country in the grand vision of Gods Master Plan."

In dominionism we can see the theological source of Bush's monomania. Not to be distracted by the fact that he lost the popular election by a half a million votes, that the Joint Chief of Staff at the Pentagon were so concerned about his plans to invade Iraq that they leaked their unanimous objection, that he has systematically alienated much of the world, that roughly seventy percent of Americans remain unconvinced of the imminent threat of Saddam Hussein and the same percentage object to war if there will be significant American casualties--none of this is in the least relevant. He believes his mandate toward action is from God.

The complete article is posted at CounterPuch, see:
http://www.counterpunch.org/hill01042003.html

Michael Ortiz Hill is the author of Dreaming the End of the World (Spring 1994) and, (with Augustine Kandemwa) Gathering in the Names (Spring Journal books, 2002). The companion to this essay, The Looking Glass War, is posted at http://www.gatheringin.com/.
He can be reached at michaelortizhill@earthlink.net.

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Here's another straight forward article by Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist, called:

"Happy Imbeciles At War"

Massive U.S. military buildup, billions of dollars, a useless enemy, and no one seems to know why

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, January 10, 2003
©2003 SF Gate

Excerpted from URL:
http://sfgate.com/columnists/morford/


..So, let's boil it down: Why go to war with Iraq? Can't find Osama, is one reason. That looks bad. Really, really want to steal all that delicious oil for ShrubCo, is another. Saddam is clearly a very bad guy who kills his own people and snickers in America's general direction, is a third. But then again, so are at least a half-dozen other vile tyrants of the world. Volatile, nuke-ready North Korea? Let's open some talks. Feeble, oil-ready Iraq? Let's massacre. Hmm.

Perhaps you wonder why no one is asking any of these questions, making similar points.

Perhaps you wonder just where in the hell is the spineless major media in all this, as they watch the chicken-hawk Shrubster himself, between golf swings, announce how tens of thousands of American troops are being sent to the Gulf alongside an enormous billion-dollar military buildup and imminent gobs of heaping death raining down upon a paltry oppressed nation and coming up next on CNN, we interview that dumb guy from "Joe Millionaire."

Perfect.

Perhaps you wonder where is the national TV coverage of all those huge anti-war protests, hundreds of thousands of people, all over the world, from Spain to Berlin to New York to San Francisco.

Perhaps you wonder where are all the "serious" journalists, the risk-taking news agencies pointing up the absurdity of it all, the imminent horror, the outrage. Could it be these news agencies are owned by major conservative corporations? Could it be they're all terrified of losing ratings, of saying something unpopular, of invoking Cheney's wrath, of losing advertiser dollars and that ever-precious, ever-dwindling dumbed-down audience? One guess.

And besides, who needs a reason for a massacre anymore? This is the age of the preemptive-strike, screw-you Bush regime. Who needs, for example, the Monroe Doctrine, that crusty old rag stating how America will go to war only as a last resort, as a defensive measure, and won't become embroiled in unwinnable foreign wars that are none of our business?

Who needs every precedent ever set by international law? Who needs the U.N. Charter? Who needs confused congressional approval? Who needs ethical integrity?

Screw it all, says Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, his black eyes gleaming like the devil's own golf balls. Let us become an ever-more-hated rogue nation, attack whomever we want, whenever we want, with no international support and much international disgust. Let us squander, childishly, within months, the generous and compassionate goodwill afforded our country by our international allies in the wake of 9/11.

Let us wantonly kill innocent civilians and children and thousands of Iraqi soldiers who, let us repeat, did nothing to provoke us. Shall we? Yes let's. Why? Shhh.

Let us be clear. Saddam is not a threat to the U.S., and never has been. He is merely yet another cowardly and murderous thug, much like the countless other despots and autocrats, from Marcos to King Fahd to Ariel Sharon, the U.S. has added to its payroll when it served our needs, and whom we then backhand when we need economic stimulus, or when the president needs a boost to his approval ratings, or when the corporate pals of the Bush WASP mafia need more billion-dollar petrochemical and defense contracts. Aha. Perhaps this is why.

We are, in short, going to attack and massacre Iraq for the oil reserves, to protect America's corporate interests, to feed the gaping maw of the military-industrial complex. Same as it ever was.

But let us be perfectly clear: We are most definitely not cranking up the appalling war machine for your sake, or for the country's protection, or for our commendable standing among our humanitarian allies.

We are not doing it to defeat terrorism (it will have the exact opposite effect), or to make the streets safer for our children, or because they've found big scary WMDs (they haven't -- not a one) -- or even for Iraq's own good.

And to believe we are is, quite simply, to be wholly misinformed and openly, flagrantly, deliberately deceived.

Do we understand this? We must, we absolutely must, try and understand this.


Thoughts for the author? E-mail him.
mmorford@sfgate.com

Mark Morford's Notes & Errata column appears every Wednesday and Friday on SF Gate. He also writes the Morning Fix, a deeply skewed thrice-weekly e-mail column and newsletter. Subscribe at sfgate.com/newsletters.

©2003 SF Gate




3) N Korea pulls out of nuclear treaty

10 Jan 2003

North Korea has declared its immediate withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2003/01/item20030110143612_1.htm

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency
http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm
says the Communist country is pulling out of the treaty but has no intention of developing nuclear weapons at this stage.

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It's time the U.S. started taking its own advice: '[Colin Powell] said withdrawal from the NPT was a very serious issue as the treaty was a cornerstone of the whole nuclear arms control regime. "A country cannot just walk out without ramification because challenging the integrity of the nonproliferation regime is a matter that can affect international peace and security."'

Powell: N. Korea cannot go undealt with

By Anwar Iqbal
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
January 10, 2003

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20030110-060811-3449r.htm




For the page on Items 4 and 5

4) 'Blanket commutation' empties Illinois death row
Also: Update on Zolo Agona Azania
5) In the Spirit of Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas

See following URL link:

http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1042397816,64324,





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