Friday, September 19, 2003

Progressive Jewels QUOTE OF THE DAY "We need to engage in whatever nonviolent actions appeal to us. There is no act too small, no act too bold. The history of social change is the history of millions of actions, small and large, coming together at critical points to create a power that governments cannot suppress. We find ourselves today at one of those critical points." - - Howard Zinn (from today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE) KNOW YOUR HISTORY - SEPTEMBER 19th 1966 -- Joan Baez marches with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and 160 black children in Grenada, Mississippi to protest the beatings of black school children during the de-segregation of local schools there. When Joan attempts to enroll five black children in a formerly segregated school, she is barred from entering the school. Baez was also active in 60's & 70's movements concerning anti-war, draft resistance, free speech, capitol punishment & the United Farm Workers. http://baez.woz.org/biographicalinfo.html RHINO HERE: Author/historian Howard Zinn, certainly one of the jewels of the Progressive Movement, has written a new essay on the war in Iraq which is today's BOTTOM LINE. His condemnation of Rumsfeld is in the Rhino's opinion, "Fair & Balanced." In light of today's "Know Your History" being the activist actions of another jewel of the Progressive Movement, Joan Baez, considered by some to be the First Lady of "The 60's Anti-War Movement", I also offer an excerpt & link to a piece called, "It's Time for Women to Stand Against War." This is obviously not to say that many women have not already stood up against the war. Witness: CODE PINK: http://www.codepink4peace.org/ True Majority sez, NO to the $87 BILLION - Unless... I urge you to answer the latest call of True Majority to send a message to your Congressperson telling them to not give the shrub gang the $87 BILLION unless they replace the U.S. occupation with a U.N. security force & unless those responsible for the quagmire (read RUMMIE et al) are replaced. For more info on true Majority & to easily send a message in a minute, GO TO: The Quagmire Vote Guess who's entered the blogosphere? The Democratic National Committee has launched a new blog they're calling, "KICKING ASS." Now the DNC has not been my favorite organization over the last year & a half that I've been blogging against the war. In the Rhino's opinion, many of the mainstream Dems were half hypnotized as the debate on giving the shrub gang the OK to launch the war was happening. Hell, my own Senator Feinstein still hasn't voiced her outrage about having been hoodwinked by the Niger B.S. into voting for the war. That in spite of all my phone calls urging her to do so. BUT - one thing I'll say is that Paul Begala & James Carville regularly kick ass on CNN's "Crossfire." It's not clear just who's writing the DNC blog but since Rhino's voting Dem this time no matter who's running, it appears this blog is a way to tell the DNC what you think. Check out the DNC "Kicking Ass" Blog at: http://www.democrats.org/blog/index.html That said, DC-based investigative journalist Wayne Madsen thinks the candidacy of General Wesley Clark is a con job by the DLC (different than the DNC). Very Interesting. More on Clark to come. Wesley Clark for President? - Another Con Job from the Neo-Cons http://counterpunch.org/madsen09182003.html It's Time for Women to Stand Against War by Connie Schultz, Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 18, 2003 The war in Iraq, like all wars, has left us women behind. With the single - and disappointing - exception of Condoleezza Rice, the leaders of this war are men. Bush, Rumsfeld, Brenner, Franks, Wolfowitz, Powell: Men, men, men, every last one of them. That's why many women are fuming. Men declared this war. Men planned, or failed to plan, this war. Men misled the public to wage this war. These men squandered the good will toward America that existed after the Sept. 11 attacks. Now they insist they need at least $87 billion more to protect our soldiers and rebuild Iraq - without shame or apology for misleading the American public and the world. Women understand the power of an apology. If George Bush were truly committed to peace, he would apologize for deceiving us about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and then ask the United Nations to forgive his arrogance in ignoring their concerns, charging ahead like a cowboy and goading the terrorists to "bring it on." Then true healing could begin. To the warmongers who think that is a hopelessly naive and misguided strategy, I simply ask: And your way has worked how? To all you men who insist there are plenty of men, too, who want peace, I say: You're right. We thank you, and our children thank you.... http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0918-11.htm 8:05:59 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - An Occupied Country An Occupied Country by Howard Zinn, The Progressive , October, 2003 It has become clear, very quickly, that Iraq is not a liberated country, but an occupied country. We became familiar with the term "occupied country" during World War II. We talked of German-occupied France, German-occupied Europe. And after the war we spoke of Soviet-occupied Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Eastern Europe. It was the Nazis, the Soviets, who occupied other countries. Now we are the occupiers. True, we liberated Iraq from Saddam Hussein, but not from us. Just as in 1898 we liberated Cuba from Spain, but not from us. Spanish tyranny was overthrown, but the United States established a military base in Cuba, as we are doing in Iraq. U.S. corporations moved in to Cuba, just as Bechtel and Halliburton and the oil corporations are moving into Iraq. The United States was deciding what kind of constitution Cuba would have, just as our government is now forming a constitution for Iraq. Not a liberation, an occupation. And it is an ugly occupation. On August 7, The New York Times reported that U.S. General Ricardo Sanchez in Baghdad was worried about Iraqi reaction to the occupation. Iraqi leaders who were pro-American were giving him a message, as he put it: "When you take a father in front of his family and put a bag over his head and put him on the ground you have had a significant adverse effect on his dignity and respect in the eyes of his family." (That's very perceptive.) CBS News reported on July 19 that Amnesty International is looking into a number of cases of suspected torture in Iraq by American authorities. One such case involves Khraisan al-Aballi, CBS said. "When American soldiers raided the al-Aballi house, they came in shooting. . . . They shot and wounded his brother Dureid." U.S. soldiers took Khraisan, his 80-year-old father, and his brother away. "Khraisan says his interrogators stripped him naked and kept him awake for more than a week, either standing or on his knees, bound hand and foot, with a bag over his head," CBS reported. Khraisan told CBS he informed his captors, "I don't know what you want. I don't know what you want. I have nothing." At one point, "I asked them to kill me," Khraisan said. After eight days, they let him and his father go. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, responded, "We are, in fact, carrying out our international obligations."... THE MASTER HISTORIAN'S ARTICLE IS POSTED AT: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0918-01.htm "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 6:53:16 AM    comment

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