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How 'Terrorists' Become 'Freedom Fighters'?: Tom Tancredo and the Iranian Mujahedin.

février 5, 2010 - vendredi

Tom Tancredo and the Tea Party
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adoré

What Do You Think of Former Rep. Tom Tancredo Telling Tea Party Activists Obama Was Elected Because

Tom Tancredo: Image from ABC News

Incase anyone is wondering how it can be done, that is, how the Tea Party can be torn apart on factional lines, well; the next time you talk to a "Teabagger," if you can stand it, you can just politely inform them that Tom Tancredo supports a group that refers to its own ideology as "Islamic Marxist/Feminist," and it just happens to be a group rather correctly listed by the State Department of the United States as a terrorist organization.

Tom Tancredo has been an uncompromising supporter of the People's Mujahedin Of Iran (PMOI), aka. Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK), Mujahedin e-Khalq Organization (MKO), along with its political front in Paris, France (the military wing was harbored in Iraq by Saddam Hussein, for whom they worked until his ousting by the United States military) the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), headed by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. This organization is listed by the State Department as a terrorist group, but is also a frequent contractor and "asset" to the Department of Defense. Anyone want proof the USA supports terrorists, here it is; the MEK.

Tancredo held a panel with Rabbi Daniel Zucker about Iran, arguing for open support of the MEK as a proxy against Iran, and the panel was held at a Holiday Inn on South Colorado blvd. in Denver, Colorado. Go ahead, read up on it, I wrote an article about it. Yes, I actually attended the panel and the hair on the back of my neck was standing up tall the entire time. I even met Tancredo and interviewed him briefly.

Here is the article in full:

Spread the word to as many Teabaggin' Minuteman nationalist zealots you possibly can. Hold them to their stated beliefs and watch them decline through factional infighting. The Machisto methods of the A.N.S.W.E.R. group, a proponent of violence as much as the Tea Party, will only escalate this situation into violence and is the most fundamentally wrong way to deal with the Tea Party/rise of white nationalism. You can't get them to change by reinforcing their fears through behaviorally acting exactly the way they expect you to, based on their fears. They are prejudging you and you let them do it, proving them right in their view, by behaving in Chauvinist confrontational ways. The way to deal with them is to dispel their fears of the American left, immigrants etc., but one way to jolt them so they may rethink their fear of others here, by exposing a contradiction to another predictable fear, is to let them know in a friendly and non-confrontational way that they have clearly more to fear among their own ranks, especially from Tom Tancredo.

Stereotypes aside, the MEK is a very ruthlessly violent and cult-like organization that is undeniably a terrorist group by every definition. These aren't terrorists by some stretch of the imagination, these folks are the real deal, and they control their membership loyalty by means of terrorism as well. The White Nationalists in Arizona who have committed a murder or two and make hateful statements publicly, with swastika flags and all, are not even remotely the level of terrorist threat that is the MEK. The MEK are highly militarily trained and have tons of experience in combat working for Saddam Hussein, and not just combat but planting bombs and assassinations of military leaders has been their expertise for a long time.

The members of the group are not even remotely as in control of their own behavior as most white supremacists in the United States. Neo-Nazi groups are usually controlled by fear of scapegoats, the MEK are controlled by daily mental auditing and subtle threats, similar to religious cults, however, they are explicit atheists. The group was born out of violence, namely the repression of the Shah in Iran (supported by the USA and don't think they've forgotten about this for a minute), and has been involved in some of the most chaotic scenes of unrest, warfare and widespread violence throughout the Middle East.

The recklessness of Tancredo is just plain bad for America, no matter what part or which of the many sides you find yourself on.

Spread the word, and with words we can prevent the civil war atmosphere the Tea Party seems to want to create. If they move to start a war they will fight it amongst themselves.

☮

11:35

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janvier 31, 2010 - dimanche

Prison Solidarity: A focus on I.C.E. Detainees
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concentré

Join Denver Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) this Wednesday at United Church of Christ for a Prison Solidarity Letter Writing Night for detainees at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) facilities.

From Denver ABC:

Resist the War on Immigrants

Letter Writing Night for ICE Detainees and Immigrant Rights Political Prisoners

Wednesday February 6th, 6:30pm-8:00pm

6th Ave. United Church of Christ (6th and Adams)

Co-sponsored by El Comite en Defensor del Pueblo and the Denver Anarchist Black Cross

Denver ABC is excited to host its first themed monthly letter writing night side by side with El Comite en Defensor del Pueblo. We are living

in a moment of an increasing militarized border, an expanding deportation apparatus of immigrant detention centers and police forces, and a large

public segment of fomenting xenophobes. Yet immigrant people, indigenous

people who have had the “immigrant” label imposed on them, and their allies are becoming better organized and more militant every day. We are

excited to host a night of letter writing to those imprisoned by either being caught within the US’s war on immigration and those fighting back.

Envelopes, prisoner addresses and information, postage, childcare, educational information, and a FREE SPAGHETTI DINNER will all be provided!

Contact: denverabc@rocketmail.com

Resiste La Guerra Contra Inmigrantes Presos Políticos

Noche de Escribir Correos Para el ICE Detenidos y Los Inmigrantes Presos Políticos

Miércoles 3 de febrero, 6:30 pm-8: 00pm

6 ª avenida. Iglesia Unida de Cristo (6 ª y Adams)

Co-patrocinado por El Comite en Defensor del Pueblo y la Cruz Negra Anarquista de Denver

ABC de Denver está muy emocionado de ser anfitrión de su primer grupo temático de escritura de la carta mensual de “side by side” con El Comite en Defensor del Pueblo. Estamos viviendo, en un momento de una frontera militarizada en aumento, la expansión de la deportación aparatos de los centros de detención de inmigrantes y las fuerzas de policía, y un gran segmento de público de fomentar xenófobos. Sin embargo, las personas inmigrantes, indígenas, personas que han tenido los “inmigrantes” etiqueta que se les impone, y sus aliados son cada vez mejor organizada y más militante de todos los días. Estamos poder ser los anfitriones de una noche de la escritura de cartas a las personas encarceladas por cualquier causa que fueron capturados en la guerra de los Estados Unidos sobre la inmigración y los que luchan de nuevo.

Sobres, direcciones de prisioneros y de información, correos, guarderías, de información educativa, y una cena de espagueti GRATIS para todos!

Contacto: denverabc@rocketmail.com

11:06

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janvier 30, 2010 - samedi

Single Payer movement rising in the face of poisonous reform bill.
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oublié

Dr. Margaret Flowers and Dr. Carol Paris, image from Single Payer Action.

As the President of the United $tate$ is washing away health care reform by the wayside and replacing it with an emphasis on jobs, to what end one can neglect to wonder with confidence at this point, while maintaining his Stockholm syndrome relationship with private health insurance companies by further promotion of poisonous reform legislation in his State of the Union address, the movement for Single Payer universal health care, the originally desired and only feasible reform option, is still building steam in its powerful popular engine. Doctors have even resorted to civil disobedience recently in Baltimore, Maryland. This is a nation-wide movement that will not go quietly into the night as it did when Bill Clinton was President, and his First Lady Hillary proposed universal health care and campaigned for it to no avail. We can't expect them to deliver, we have to make it so. Everyone is joining in, you should to. Click on the link to Single Payer Action (under the pic) to sign up. All together we'll have to send the message loud and clear to President Barack Obama: veto the House and Senate corporate reform bill that excludes single payer all together, riddled with poison pills and mark up, and sign Rep. Conyers's single payer bill, H.R. 676, "The United States National Health Care Act."

5:37

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janvier 30, 2010 - samedi

FAIR ACTION ALERT: Remember David Horowitz? NPR just had him spit on Howard Zinn's grave!
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en colère

Students on the Auraria Campus a few years back may remember this name, David Horowitz, the supposed former leftist-turn neo-con "bully" activist, who has made a career out of ruining careers, most notably the careers of two professors in Colorado, both of indigenous heritage, Oneida Meranto and Ward Churchill, has just been employed to deface a legend by NPR, I received the following in an e-mail from Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting:

NPR Finds Right-Wing Crank to Spit on Howard Zinn's Grave
David Horowitz in ATC obituary with substance-free attack
When progressive historian Howard Zinn died on January 27, NPR's All Things Considered (1/28/10) marked his passing with something you don't often see in an obituary: a rebuttal.

After quoting Noam Chomsky and Julian Bond, NPR's Allison Keyes turned to far-right activist David Horowitz to symbolically spit on Zinn's grave. "There is absolutely nothing in Howard Zinn's intellectual output that is worthy of any kind of respect," Horowitz declared. "Zinn represents a fringe mentality which has unfortunately seduced millions of people at this point in time. So he did certainly alter the consciousness of millions of younger people for the worse."

Horowitz's substance-free attack contributed nothing to an understanding of Zinn's life or work, other than conveying that he's disliked by cranky right-wingers. (Horowitz has been best known in recent years for his race-baiting and Muslim-bashing--Extra!, 5-6/02; FAIR report, 10/1/08.) He seems to have been included merely to demonstrate that NPR will not allow praise for a leftist to go unaccompanied by conservative contempt.

Needless to say, it is not the case that NPR has a consistent principle that all its obituaries be thus "balanced." Take its coverage of the death of William F. Buckley, a figure as admired by the right as much as Zinn was on the left. Upon his death in February 2008, NPR aired six segments commemorating him, none of which included a non-admiring guest. In two segments, All Things Considered (2/27/08) presented the remembrances of Rich Lowry (Buckley's successor at National Review), his son Christopher and his biographer Sam Tanenhaus.

One of the All Things Considered segments did include a soundbite of Noam Chomsky debating with Buckley: "No, I don't believe that.... In fact I think that..." But what Chomsky did not believe was unclear, let alone what he actually thought.

Talk of the Nation (2/27/08) featured admirer William Kristol, while Day by Day (2/27/08) had an extended interview with protegee David Brooks. Morning Edition (2/28/08) just quoted Buckley himself.

The celebration of Buckley culminated with Weekend Edition host Scott Simon (2/29/08), who turned the cause of death into a eulogy: "Emphysema, such an unseemly thing for a man who was so often a breath of fresh air."

In fact, there was much to criticize about Buckley, who was a supporter of, among other things, white supremacism in the U.S. South and South Africa, McCarthyism, nuclear war against China and the tattooing of AIDS patients' buttocks (Extra!, 5-6/08). Reporting his death, however, NPR didn't think it was worth bringing on a critic who would take a negative view. Why the same outlet took a different approach when the subject was an intellectual on the left rather than the right is perhaps something the NPR ombud could answer.
TAKE ACTION!

ACTION: Please ask NPR ombud Alicia Shepard why All Things Considered brought on David Horowitz to trash the late Howard Zinn when NPR's extensive coverage of William F. Buckley included no critical guests.

CONTACT: You can contact NPR ombud through this web form, or call 202-513-3245.

Please post copies of your letters in the comments section on the FAIR Blog.

1:07

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janvier 29, 2010 - vendredi

FINALLY, Thank you! FTP!
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approuvé

What, you didn't think copwatch was gone did you? Well, you thought wrong. The reason I'm relieved is that now the police have every reason to know that harassing me, one activist of many, will not stop or even slow the movement. I have been hassled out of my drivers license, my car, hundreds of dollars, and at the expense of my public image (which ain't much to me considering I'm not running for office or anything, and I think people who are can't be trusted. I'd rather be free to be honest and trustworthy, unlike lying politicians and P.R. pigs). So, the Denver Police's childish strategy of libel, defamation, and vandalism (they vandalized my car twice, I have pictures of the damage, and only found one witness to what happened to my car and that witness said he saw nothing of vandals or mischief, until I asked him if he had seen police near the car, then he remembered that he did once, in the time frame that the vandalism occurred, see a police car "just sitting there" and he thought it was strange, that wasn't enough to build a case, but that doesn't mean it isn't obvious, they had a motive and the gash in my windshield was to perfectly aligned with a side-window - the witness saw the police cruiser parked parallel alongside the spot where my car was parked - and the shape of the gash would fit the end of a nightstick quite perfectly) is a failure and is backfiring now. Everyone better jump on this wave now! Get involved and send support to the latest evolution of the CopWatch movement.

In Solidarity against police brutality and state terrorism forever, yours truly - Ⓐntid☮tⒺ.

9:57

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janvier 28, 2010 - jeudi

Anarchist and former political prisoner Ojore Lutalo arrested in Colorado!
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inquiet

Ojore Lutalo, a former Black Liberation Army member and anarchist, who was imprisoned in 1977 for revolutionary activities, and after being paroled in 1980 was then arrested again in 1982 on allegations that he assaulted and robbed a drug dealer, and was widely recognized as a political prisoner. Ojore is a member of the more recently founded Newark Anarchist Black Cross Network in New Jersey. He was arrested on January 26th for "endangering public transportation" while on the Amtrak train for his trip home to New Jersey from California. He was taken to a facility in La Junta, Colorado, and said that he did not know what the basis for the charges were. Denver Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) is coming to his aid in solidarity and have put out a call for support. Contact Denver ABC for more information and how you can help. Thank You.

8:27

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janvier 23, 2010 - samedi

Colorado Senate Bill 107 raising the salience without the focus.
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inquisiteur

Arapahoe High School, image from Denver Post

I must say that as a native to Colorado by birth, and not by social construct (ethnic or racial heritage; although what little identity I can claim was constructed here in Colorado, but not necessarily by the normal conventional means, hence the essence and design of this very web page as you may have already assumed); every time this issue comes up, that is, every time Colorado's "white" population is confronted by other groups that 'whites' audaciously define arbitrarily with the challenge inherent in recognizing and exposing that incredibly audacious ignorance and lack of sensitivity - in essence when they hold up a mirror for us to see - our reactions and behavior speaks loudly for itself on behalf of their argument.

About the above image, hey Congressperson Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) WTF!?! Cleveland is your town is it not, get on the ball!

Senate Bill 107 appears to merely set punitive measures for schools who don't get permission to use racist propaganda as part of their over all educational environment.

That's right, sports are as much a part of education as math or literature, or even art, which arguably designed the essence of every subject including sports, as the vision was necessary first. Sports and team spirit, school pride, the myth-symbol complex that brings about the essence of youth athletics, is as much a part of shaping the children as they grow into adults as any other subject, and given the grandiose larger-than-life essence of the cult of sports in our society, well, it doesn't take any amount of genius to understand that such an identity complex is being shaped by experiences in life, and the environment and array of those experiences most Americans have are constructed by human beings, consciously. The way a building is designed can have as much meaning as a protester's placard or banner, or a militant's flag. What is subtle or insignificant, perhaps mundane to you, might be seen as serious life and death business to someone of a different culture.

What do many Americans do? We let that reassure and reinforce our false justification for feeling suspicious and making them scapegoats for our problems, rather than considering the truth it exposes to us. The fact that someone else is insulted by what is miniscule to us does not mean we are correct, they are incorrect, and thus we are better - and it is our thinking this way that disproves this assumption.

So, Lynn Bartels, before we assume some facade of equality, and Senator Williams (D-Aurora), rather than having the same old direction-lacking and tense debate just to swing the door open to more dispute rather than focusing on solving the problem, and instead of fining schools punitively for not getting permission to be racist (would a commission actually grant such permission, and by consenting to that commission would the proponents of ending mascots be capitulating?) let's consider the possibility that there may actually be a solution to this problem.

Well, if you must insist on blurring free speech and hate speech then why don't you spread it around a little, as the Professor conservative Colorado loved to hate, until one of the leftist factions offered themselves to the service of those they would have us believe are some kind of enemy to them, no names are necessary, once suggested, but not seriously, in "Let's Spread the Fun Around" a chapter in his book "Indians 'R' Us."

Lynn Bartels wrote a blog on the subject in which sought aggressively to find some rubber stamp Indian approval for school mascots rather than even remotely uttering a tiny peep about psychology or the fact that one person who is such and such percentage indigenous in terms of blood quantum - an anomaly of continued faith in the gutter and pseudo sciences - does not speak for all natives simply by that meager claim to heritage. Besides, who isn't "Cherokee" anymore? I've met a million blond, blue eyed whites who couldn't look more Anglo-Saxon who claim to be such and such percent Cherokee. They don't speak a word of the dialect or the language but they seem to think they have moral authority to sign way the rights of a society with which they can prove no ongoing connection in terms of actual practice. It is like saying that I, a Jew, can just hand Israel over to the Palestinians on merely my word. The reality that one side of family has been Jewish in terms of religion and the ethnic heritage is still European, thus not connected to Israel at all in any way. If just some native is all that is needed to approve of the demise, defamation and disrespect of an entire civilization, literally hundreds of groupings and not just one, well then, hey Palestine - where do I sign?

It is all too often that we assume that in order to be racist against blacks all we need is the approval of one person identified as black, and that somehow makes it okay. It is like saying "I'm not racist, I have black friends." That means nothing, absolutely nothing.

Racism is believing that there is a racial difference, biologically, which there is not, and/or it is defining others without allowing them to define themselves (anyone can see the sinister one's opportunity to create a less-than-human man of straw out of every other race but his own, exactly what "America" did). By the way fellow Euro-Americans, you don't need to remind people of their heritage, they already know.

Race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion, ideology and such identity markers are socially constructed in ways that are revealing of our fears, absurdities, and our behaviors that we may be embarrassed about perhaps, when we analyze them fearlessly from an empiricist and open-minded skeptic point of view, that is, scientifically, rather than discussing them from the perspective of our possession of these identities being outside of our control. As if you couldn't chose your own gender or something. Well I have news for you, if I can't choose my own identity and can't object when I'm an infant when the Doctor chooses it for me (a blue hat or a pink hat, or in the case of inter-sexed people actual surgery with serious health risks, and socialization that may be problematic later on) then with what legitimacy can anyone define themselves on any other social construction? How can you convert from one religion to another? How can the President be black while acting like he's white, and damn is he good at it, terrifyingly so? How can a man who identifies as feminine be heterosexual? There is no physical basis for any of this, it is all socially constructed, that's 'how'. So what we need is discussion on how we developed the fabric of this identity tent fixation we have in the first place, rather than getting people to accept one another's unacceptable and/or contentious identity.

You have to consider what it means to identify as white. It is an assertion of right, power, authority, and a comparative for categorization of other people in order to control them. It has nothing to do with your skin color and everything to do with your sense of self-justification and power over not only land but custom, culture, language, and all of the commodities of identity. So, if we so-called whites accept the existence of 'others' and there is no more 'us', you see, and that is why we need to stop the cycle all together rather than trying to find room for people whose identities were designed out of the difference they perceive themselves having in contrast to someone else (I'm not accusing any other identity but the one attributed to me in life, namely 'white', which I have come to find quite disturbing in this way). Listen to the words of the paranoid old whites who cling to conservative semantic space for racism, what do they fear at the hands of immigrants, natives or blacks? They fear "the downfall of society" in a nutshell of irrationalism. I once heard an interview with a person participating in the Columbus Day parade in Denver, Colorado, years ago, who said about the protesters that they are "radicals" and "anytime you ... listen to radicals ... [something or other] the downfall off civilization." I'm paraphrasing obviously and can't remember her exact words, but this is in essence what she said.

This is an irrational fear, sure, but it is practically inevitable every time this debate comes up, as after all Americans are only identified by contrast to England and Indigenous Turtle Islanders (Native Americans), and white Americans are defined as the first in a series of increasingly powerful groups, all labeled by this or that color-code identity, only relative to one another. So, considering indigenous society is Turtle Island, and white-black-brown-red-yellow society is "America," named after a European geographer, and these two are very different in terms of use of the land, while they lay claim to the same piece of land. You can get all the permission you want from people who claim to be more than half native here, but the reality is this question: Who Controls The Land?

We could share it were we not to define ourselves as the rightful occupants in contrast to the other groups who also lay claim to the land. So perhaps this bill (SB 107) is useless in some extent if we still avoid the discussion of how we define ourselves and others, and how we assume the right to define others, which is absurd but it has been done quite a bit in our history.

8:48

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janvier 22, 2010 - vendredi

January 21, 2010 - The Day Democracy Died
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inquiet

The United $tate$ $upreme Court. Image from Truthdig

The Supreme Court of the United States has delivered an opinion in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (08-205) and in the process caused a "seismic jolt" in court precedent. What sort of 'jolt'? Well folks, we can kiss democracy goodbye this election year, at least that is how it looks.

Our mostly conservative Supremes have just removed all restrictions on campaign finance by private corporations. They can spend all they want drowning out the voice of the people during elections, buying candidates, and elected officials naturally.

"The Citizens United ruling suggests the court may smile on even the most audacious conservative legal theories, such as those alleging that regulations are an improper taking by the government," said Michael Waldman of the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, in his Washington Post column.

The only problem that is so obvious that no one, not even Milton Friedman, can deny it is that a corporation is not a person, indicated quite clearly by the fact that they don't behave as people, however, the Supremes have yet to revisit one of the many absurd decisions throughout the tradition of stare decisis, namely that of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, which was one of a series of decisions that defined corporations as persons under the law, opening the door to their usurpation of our rights, liberties, freedom, and of course our democracy. It appears that we will learn this year just how much damage was done in that 1886 decision, unfortunately by finding out just how much damage was done on January 21, 2010.

So, if this "United States of America 1776-2010" is to be written on our society's headstone then I think we ought to add a note of sorts, a warning, to all future societies, assuming these natural formations continue to be conceived in the future: "make your definitions clear and allow your population to control their thoughts and emotions, or you may end up like us."

Oh well, we had a good run. More than two centuries ain't too shabby. But if the Supremes uphold this, and it pans out the way it can - and if it can happen it will - then we will see our lost opportunity to save our democracy after the fact. As I write this people are still living as though nothing has happened that is of any significance here in Denver, Colorado, on the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, however the was some pro/anti-choice rally at the State Capitol today.

I even noticed an underhanded petitioner getting signatures to ban abortion in Colorado at Colfax and Broadway right in the middle of the Martin Luther King Day marade on January 18th. Well, not to stray too far from the subject, and bringin' it back: At what risk are the rest of our rights now that Roberts and friends have decided to resort to judicial activism so shamelessly.

I'll keep reading up on this and perhaps I'll continue to update folks here on this blog, however, it too is owned by a Corporation - the worst of em', so if this blog continues stay tuned, if not don't be surprised - I won't be.

11:38

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