THE "TALIBUSH" ON THE MARCH!!!!!

• Worshipping 'False Gods' and 'Tax Excempt' To Boot, the 'NewChristian's' According To Their Own 'Bible and Definition', THE "TALIBUSH" ON THE MARCH!!!!!
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• NC-Preacher Throws Democrats Out of His ChurchMay 6, 2005, 3:29 PM
  
• http://tinyurl.com/bfn2t
  
• The minister of a Haywood County, North Carolina Baptist church is telling members of his congregation that if they're Democrats, they either need to find another place of worship or support President Bush.
  Already, the Reverend Chan Chandler has ex-communicated nine members of East Waynesville Baptist Church. Another 40 members have left in protest. During last Sunday's sermon, he acknowledged that church members were upset because he named people, and he says he'll do it again because he has to according to the word of God.
  Chandler could not be reached for comment Friday, but says his actions weren't politically motivated. One former church member says Chandler told some of the members that if they didn't support George Bush, they needed to resign their positions and get out of the church, or go to the altar, repent and agree to vote for Bush.
  A former church treasurer says she's at church to worship God and not the preacher.
  
• (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Adopt-A-Minefield Launches Farah Appeal

• Adopt-A-Minefield Launches Farah Appeal
• Today, AAM launched the Farah Appeal, a campaign to raise funds and clear a minefield in honor of newly-appointed AAM Youth Ambassador Farah Ahmedi. Farah, who lost her leg to a landmine in Afghanistan ten years ago, met with First Lady Laura Bush at the White House on May 5th to discuss her experiences as a landmine survivor. Farah recently won "THE STORY OF MY LIFE" search for a great American memoir conducted by ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" and Simon Spotlight Entertainment. Farah presented Mrs. Bush with a specially signed copy of her book.
  With the appeal, AAM will collect contributions to clear a minefield in Farah's name in New Bakhshi Khil Village in Afghanistan. Once cleared, this land will be used to build much needed homes for returning refugees and displaced persons who currently live in nearby tents and are anxiously awaiting the completion of demining operations.
  Since the fall of the Taliban, housing has become a vital need in this region, due to the mass return of internally displaced persons and refugees. Housing shortages increase the frequency of landmine accidents as people attempt to access land that is not safe.
  "We are thrilled to have Farah join us in our efforts to raise awareness about the critical landmine problem in Afghanistan and elsewhere," says AAM Executive Director Nahela Hadi, "Farah wants to use the opportunity she is now being given to help rid the world of landmines and prevent other kids from losing their limbs, or worse their lives, to landmines."
  Click here to learn more about Farah's amazing story and to donate to her appeal. http://www.landmines.org/

'Leading Is By Example'!! Examples We Now Embrace We Once Condemned! 'America' A Positive Leader, No Longer [or were We Ever]!!

• May 5, 2005
  
• http://tinyurl.com/b2cad
  
• Lifting the Censor's Veil on the Shame of Iraq
  By BOB HERBERT
  
• "Nobody wants to come forward about this," said Aidan Delgado. "I didn't want to come forward about this."
  One of the distinctive things about the war in Iraq is the extraordinary proliferation of photos taken by G.I.'s that document the extreme horrors of warfare and, in many instances, the degrading treatment of Iraqi civilians by American troops.
  When Mr. Delgado returned to Florida last year from a tour of Iraq that included a traumatic stint with a military police unit at Abu Ghraib prison, he thought he could pretty easily resume the ordinary life of a college student and leave his troubling war experiences behind.
  But people kept asking him about Iraq. And he had many photos, some of them extremely difficult to look at, that were permanent reminders of events that are likely to stay with him for a lifetime.
  There are pictures of children who were wounded and barely clinging to life, and some who appeared to be dead. There was a close-up of a soldier who was holding someone's severed leg. There were photos of Iraqis with the deathlike stare of shock, stunned by the fact that something previously unimaginable had just happened to them. There were photos of G.I.'s happily posing with the bodies of dead Iraqis.
  This is what happens in war. It's the sickening reality that is seldom seen in the censored, sanitized version of the conflict that Americans typically get from the government and the media.
  Americans' attitude toward war in general and this war in particular would change drastically if the censor's veil were lifted and the public got a sustained, close look at the agonizing bloodshed and other horrors that continue unabated in Iraq. If that happened, support for any war that wasn't an absolute necessity would plummet.
  Mr. Delgado, 23, is a former Army reservist who was repelled by the violence and dehumanization of the war. He completed his tour in Iraq. But he sought and received conscientious objector status and was honorably discharged last January.
  Some of the most disturbing photos in his possession were taken after G.I.'s at Abu Ghraib opened fire on detainees who had been throwing rocks at guards during a large protest. Four detainees were killed. The photos show American soldiers posing and goofing around with the bodies of the detainees.
  In one shot a body bag has been opened to show the gruesome head wound of the corpse. In another, a G.I. is leaning over the top of the body bag with a spoon in his right hand, as if he is about to scoop up a portion of the dead man's wounded flesh.
  "These pictures were circulated like trophies," Mr. Delgado said.
  Some were posted in command headquarters. He said it seemed to him that the shooting of the prisoners and the circulation of the photos were viewed by enlisted personnel and at least some officers as acceptable - even admirable - behavior.
  Mr. Delgado said that when his unit was first assigned to Abu Ghraib, he believed, like most of his fellow soldiers, that the prisoners were among the most dangerous individuals in Iraq.
  He said: "Most of the guys thought, 'Well, they're out to kill us. These are the ones killing our buddies.' "
  But while at work in a headquarters office, he said, he learned that most of the detainees at Abu Ghraib had committed only very minor nonviolent offenses, or no offenses at all. (Several investigations would subsequently reveal that vast numbers of completely innocent Iraqis were seized and detained by coalition forces.)
  Several months ago Mr. Delgado gave a talk and presented a slide show at his school, New College of Florida in Sarasota. To his amazement, 400 people showed up. He has given a number of talks since then in various parts of the country.
  His goal, he said, is to convince his listeners that the abuse of innocent Iraqis by the American military is not limited to "a few bad apples," as the military would like the public to believe. "At what point," he asked, "does a series of 'isolated incidents' become a pattern of intolerable behavior?"
  The public at large and especially the many soldiers who have behaved honorably in Iraq deserve an honest answer to that question. It took many long years for the military to repair its reputation after Vietnam. Mr. Delgado's complaints and the entire conduct of this wretched war should be thoroughly investigated.
  
• E-mail: bobherb@nytimes.com

Kent State - May 4 1970

• Please follow this link:
• http://www.aztlan.net/kentstate.htm

Stop Global Warming

• stopglobalwarming.org
• http://tinyurl.com/bq8dm
• What is the March?
• THE STOP GLOBAL WARMING VIRTUAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON is a bi-partisan effort to bring all Americans together in one place, proving there is a vast consensus among Americans that global warming is here now and it is time for our country to start addressing it. With the support of leading scientists, political and religious leaders, prominent Americans and concerned citizens, the Virtual March on Washington will move across the United States via the Internet from one town to the next, showing the evidence of global warming's alarming progress, and highlighting real people's concerns and real solutions along the way.
  Through our interactive map, you can track the progress of the March in real time as more people join, see the path on which we're traveling together widen, and read the stories from March stops across the country. We will march to Indianapolis and visit the Indy Racing League where all of the racecars will soon be converted to run on biofuels; in Colorado, where an elementary school is purchasing 100% of its electricity from wind power (saving 420,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year); and to New York City to visit the ground-breaking green rebuilding of the World Trade Towers; amongst many more destinations.
  Over the next year, the March will travel across the U.S., gaining strength in numbers and raising awareness about global warming. On Earth Day 2006, the March will arrive in Washington D.C. to use the strength of our numbers to urge:
• 1. The president to initiate a real plan of action to address global warming.
• 2. Congress to enact new laws to reduce global warming pollution from U.S. power plants, factories and automobiles.
• 3. U.S. businesses to start a new industrial revolution of clean energy products that will reduce our oil dependence and global warming pollution.
  
• Join the March.
• http://tinyurl.com/bq8dm

The Unreported Vietnam-Iraq Parallel

• Published on Sunday, May 1, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
  
• The Unreported Vietnam-Iraq Parallel
  by Danny Schechter
• http://tinyurl.com/am5jo
  
  
• There is a word missing in most of the coverage of Iraq. It's a ghost-laden word that conjures up distressing memories that Washington and most of our media prefer to keep in that proverbial "lock box," hidden away in dusty archives and footage libraries,
  The word is Vietnam.
  Its absence was never more noticeable than in the coverage this past weekend of the 30th anniversary of the Vietnam war, marked in Vietnam with celebrations, but largely ignored in America where CNN led with the story of a bride who went missing when she had second thoughts.
  Is this denial or is it deliberate? Just this past month, the national Smithsonian Museum of American History installed a new patriotically correct permanent war-positive exhibition, "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War."
  If you want to know about the pain of the war offical America wants you to forget, you have to head a few blocks south on the mall in Washington to the Vietnam memorial with its nearly 60,000 names engraved in black marble. That's where you will see the tears of visitors every day and their lingering memories three decades later.
  While American media outlets avoid any parallels--with pundits insisting that none exist---overseas some see what many of us don't or won't. A BBC story by Matt Frei reports, "Thirty years after the end of the war, Vietnam continues to divide and haunt America far more than the country that lost 50 times as many people."
  His is one of few Vietnam reports that references Iran even though the Iraq connection is buried in the last paragraph, an association even the journalist seems uncomfortable with:
  "Iraq is far from becoming another Vietnam. But today the ghosts of the jungle are busy getting resurrected in the sands around Baghdad."
  What are those ghosts? And why do they deserve more than media burial in the jungles of Asia or the sands of Iraq?
  Here are some of the largely ignored parallels:
  
• l. Both wars were illegal acts of pre-emptive aggression unsanctioned by international law or world opinion. Earlier, U.S. interventions involved successive US administrations. JFK's CIA helped put Saddam in power, Reagan armed him to fight Iran. George Bush, 41 led the first Gulf War against him. Clinton tightened sanctions. George Bush, 43 invaded again. Five Administrations--Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford fought in Vietnam.
  
• 2. Both wars were launched with deception. In Iraq it was the now proven phony WMD threat and contrived Saddam-Osama connection. In Vietnam, it was the fabricated Gulf of Tonkin incident and the elections mandated by the Geneva agreement that were canceled by Washington in l956 when the US feared Ho Chi Minh would win.
  
• 3. The government lied regularly in both wars. Back then, the lies were pronounced a "credibility gap." Today, they are considered acceptable "information warfare." In Saigon military briefers conducted discredited "5 O'Clock Follies" press conferences. In this war, the Pentagon spoon-fed info at a Hollywood style briefing center in Doha.
  
• 4. The US press was initially an enthusiastic cheerleader in both wars. When Vietnam protest grew and the war seen as a lost cause, the media frame changed. In Iraq today most of the media is trapped in hotel rooms. Only one side is covered now whereas in Vietnam, there was more reporting occasionally from the other. In Vietnam, the accent was on progress and "turned corners." The same is true in Iraq.
  
• 5. In both wars, prisoners were abused. In South Vietnam, thousands of captives were tortured in what were the called "tiger cages." Vietnamese POWs were often killed; In North Vietnam, some US POWs were abused after bombing civilians. In Iraq, POWs on both sides were also mistreated. It was US soldiers that first leaked major war crimes and abuses. In Vietnam, Ron Ridenour disclosed the My Lai Massacre. In Iraq, it was a soldier who first told investigators about the torture in Abu Ghraib prison. (Seymour Hersh the reporter who exposed My-Lai in Vietnam later exposed illegal abuses in Iraq.)
  
• 6. Illegal weapons were "deployed" in both wars. The US dropped napalm, used cluster bombs against civilians and sprayed toxic agent orange in Vietnam. Cluster bombs and updated Mark 77 napalm-like firebombs were dropped on Iraqis. Depleted uranium was added to the arsenal of prohibited weapons in Iraq.
  
• 7. Both wars claimed to be about promoting democracy. Vietnam staged elections and saw a succession of governments controlled by the US. come and go. Iraq has had one election so far in which most voters say they were casting ballots primarily to get the US to leave. The US has stage-managed Iraq's interim government. Exiles were brought back and put in power. Vietnam's Diem came from New Jersey, Iraq's Allawi from Britain.
  
• 8. Both wars claimed to be about noble international goals. Vietnam was pictured as a crusade against aggressive communism and falling dominos. Iraq was sold as a front in a global war on terrorism. Neither claim proved true.
  
• 9. An imperial drive for resource control and markets helped drive both interventions. Vietnam had rubber and manganese and rare minerals. Iraq has oil. In both wars, any economic agenda was officially denied and ignored by most media outlets.
  
• 10. Both wars took place in countries with cultures we never understood or spoke the language, Both involved "insurgents" whose military prowess was underestimated and misrepresented. In Vietnam, we called the "enemy" communists; in Iraq we call them foreign terrorists. (Soldiers had their own terms, "gooks" in Vietnam, "ragheads" in Iraq) In both counties, they was in fact an indigenous resistance that enjoyed popular support. (Both targeted and brutalized people they considered collaborators with the invaders just as our own Revolution went after Americans who backed the British.) In both wars, as in all wars, innocent civilians died in droves.
  
• 11. In both countries the US promised to help rebuild the damages caused by US bombing. In Vietnam, a $2 Billion presidential reconstruction pledge was not honored. In Iraq, the electricity and other services are still out in many areas. In both wars US companies and suppliers have profited handsomely; Brown &Root in Vietnam; Halliburton in Iraq, to cite but two.
  
• 12. In Vietnam, the Pentagon's counter-insurgency effort failed to "pacify" the countryside even with a half a million US soldiers "in country." The insurgency in Iraq is growing despite the best efforts of US soldiers. More have died since President Bush proclaimed "mission accomplished" than during the invasion.
  
• The Vietnamese forced the US into negotiations for the Paris Peace Agreement. When the agreement was continually violated, they brilliantly staged a final offensive that surprised and routed a superior million-man Saigon Army. Can the Iraqi resistance do the same?
  The BBC is wondering too, reminding us, "As the casualties mounted so did the questions about how much a threat the Vietcong could really pose. Today another pre-emptive war against an enemy far from home has posed similar questions."
  As the insurgency in Iraq escalates and continues to seize the initiative with the capacity to attack where and when it wants, is it unthinkable to suspect that another April 30th campaign of the kind that "liberated" Saigon is possible in Baghdad?
  We have already seen "the fall" of Baghdad. Can it "fall" again?
  Of course not!
  
• Repeat after me. We are winning.
  
• Democracy is on the march.
  
• News Dissector Danny Schechter, editor of Mediachannel.org, reported from Vietnam in 1974 and 1997. His latest film is WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception) on the media coverage of the Iraq war. (www.wmdthefilm.com)