New American Dream

2009-09-25T23:11:00.004-04:00

"Speak English"
Available Now

"Mike Palecek reminds me of Socrates the gadfly who asked unwelcome questions, Diogenes with his lantern looking in vain for an honest man, Chekhov the man with the hammer challenging the complacent family to share their meal, Kerouac the ever on the move, somewhat hysterical searcher, and he reminds me of many Americans who as children were so blasted with propaganda that they're devoting the rest of their lives to challenging the lies and all who tell them. In this land where babies are brought by storks and buildings collapse due to unpatriotic bricks, we need the gadfly because no leader, preacher, guru, or saint will wake us up, though the Doomsday clock is ticking close to twelve."

— David Ray, American Poet
author of "The Endless Search"

_________________

America IS Under Attack
... But the question is
BY WHOM?

Manny Badillo on mainstream TV

Almost everyone in America now believes that Lee Harvey Oswald did not kill President John F. Kennedy. We believe it was a conspiracy. We suspect it was the CIA or FBI who killed our own president.

And even now, every mainstream newspaper, radio station and TV station stands by the ridiculous Warren Commission report.

Comparisons with the absurd state of the press in the failing Soviet Union at the time of its collapse are unavoidable.

At the time of the assassination almost everyone in America believed that Oswald did in fact kill JFK.

The only reason we are closer to the truth now is due to the work of many independent journalists, researchers who have devoted entire lives to the truth.

The reason we did not know the truth at first is because of the laziness, the "complicitness," the lack of real journalistic work done by America's newspapers, TV news programs and radio — perhaps because of the many CIA agents disguised as "journalists" throughout America.

The New American Dream website exists because we think the truth is important.

With the election of Barack Obama we thought this would be a good time to burst like formerly blind bats from the dark cave of depression and lies and oppression and death of the Bush years.

Some things just are not talked about in America, either at Thanksgiving dinner or press conferences in Washington, D.C.

No public discussion beyond a whisper concealed by a hand.

Mention something outside the boundaries of accepted chit chat and your relatives, with one roll of the eyes, send you on a long slow train to Siberia.

It's effective.

The classic American smirk and shake of the head makes a person not want to talk about some things. Who wants to be thought of as a crazy person? Who wants to think of oneself that way?

But the result is that we end up not daring to ever mention important things that have an influence on our times and our lives and the lives of our children.

And in the process the pages of our history books become junk food, Twinkies and Ho Ho's for our minds.

So ... that is the reason for this website, which has been running since January 1, 2009 — to open the floor for discussion, to talk about some things — to say there are no wrong questions.

This is America and we are Americans and we are still alive and so we still have a chance to do something good.

The old American Dream had to do with gaining riches — going to work, maintaining a routine, a job, a house, a lawn — and trying to forget about the rest of the world, letting others live their lives in poverty — just so long as we and ours did not.

The New American Dream is that we will truly become the good people we have always imagined ourselves to be.

Please take time to explore this website. There is a lot here.

We hope you will enjoy it.

Thank you. .... and .... and ... and ... and ....

Also

In the archives below you will find exclusive NAD interviews with these interesting folks:

Elena Siff Erenburg, political fine artist living in Los Angeles.

Allen Ruff, bookstore worker and author in Madison

Len Osanic, Black Op Radio, Vancouver, Canada

Levi Asher, a writer and literary critic in New York City

Geov Parrish, Seattle journalist, activist

Bill Polonsky, Yukon 9/11 Truth

Daphne Webb, Denver writer, activist, green wedding planner

Michael Boldin, a populist blooms in L.A.

Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor & Publisher magazine

Will Braun, editor of Geez Magazine, Canada

Ben Heine, political artist in Belgium

Matt Sullivan, editor of The Rock Creek Free Press, Washington, D.C.

Sam Smith, editor of The Progressive Review, from Maine

Jarek Kupsc, 9/11 Truth filmmaker, "The Reflecting Pool"

Bill O'Driscoll, arts editor, Pittsburgh City Paper

Gerry McCarthy, editor of The Social Edge, Canada

Jim Cullen, editor of The Progressive Populist magazine, Austin, Texas

Bartcop, old-school blogger from Tulsa

Lee Rayburn, radio show host from Madison, Wisconsin

Aimee England, bookseller in Michigan

Al Markowitz, poet for the working woman & man

Timbre Wolf, a Tulsa peace minstrel goes to Hawaii

Steven Stothard, a radical grows in Indiana

Dale Clark, an artist in the desert near Bisbee, Arizona

Jacqui Devenuau, Green Party organizer in Maine

Don Harkins, co-editor of The Idaho Observer

Stewart Bradley, independent film producer in Indiana

Rick Smith, Cleveland area radio host

William P. Meyers, independent book publisher, political activist in California

Ian Woods, Canadian publisher, 9/11 Truth activist

Richard D. Brinkman, Edmonton, Canada 9/11 Truth

Lynn Berg, New York City actor

Alejandro Rojas, of MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network

Brian Kasoro, publisher of The Liberator magazine, Brooklyn, New York

Brother Raymond, walked from Denver to D.C., for truth

Korey Rowe, one of the producers of Loose Change, New York State

Dave Zweifel, editor of The Madison Capital Times

Cathleen Howard, expatriate, from Tucson to Mexico, to pursue her dreams

Sander Hicks, Brooklyn radical entrepreneur, writer, publisher

Joe Bageant, America's blue-collar author, living in Belize

Frida Berrigan, a lifetime of faith, hope and love, living in NYC

Denise Diaz, brewing up a revolution, at The Ritual Cafe in Des Moines

Deanna Taylor, Green Party activist, teacher, in Salt Lake City

Rossie Indira-Vltchek, writer, filmmaker in Jarkarta, Indonesia

Nora Barrows-Friedman, Pacifica reporter in Gaza, sometimes in California

Delaney Bruce, Friends of Peltier

Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs, in Taos, New Mexico

Michael Sprong, South Dakota Catholic Worker

Brian Terrell, Des Moines Catholic Worker

Bob Graf, One of the Milwaukee 14

Loren Coleman, Bigfoot researcher, living in Maine

Monty Borror, Sci-Fi artist from Virginia

David Ray, Great American Poet, in Tucson

Jack Blood, radio show host, in Austin, Texas

Danny Schechter, A Real Reporter, from New York City

Bob Kincaid, host, Head-On Radio Show

Tony Packes, Animal Farm Radio Host, Keeping An Eye on Big Brother

Richard Flamer, Working With the Poor in Chiapas

David Ray Griffin, 9/11 Truth activist author, from Isla Vista, California

Barry Crimmins, U.S. comedian, author, social activist

Bret Hayworth, political reporter for the Sioux City [IA] Journal

Lisa Casey, publisher of website All Hat No Cattle, Florida

Joe & Elaine Mayer, activist couple in Rochester, Minnesota

Fr. Darrell Rupiper, U.S. priest revolutionary [deceased]

Whitney Trettien, MIT student, Green Party activist

Meria Heller, radio show host, in Arizona

Phil Hey, professor, poet, Sioux City, Iowa

John Crawford, book publisher, Albuquerque

Steve Moon, Iowa Bigfoot researcher

Carol Brouillet, California social activist, 9/11 Truth

Russell Brutsche, Santa Cruz artist

Kevin Barrett, professor, radio show host, 9/11 Truth activist, in Wisconsin

A'Jamal Rashad Byndon, social activist in Omaha

Chris Rooney, Vancouver, Canada Catholic Worker, website publisher

Marc Estrin, political novelist, from the left, in Vermont

Peter Dale Scott, poet, professor, author, activist, in California

Anthony Rayson, anarchist zine publisher, works with prisoners, from Chicago

Alice Cherbonnier, editor of The Baltimore Chronicle, an independent newspaper

America Is Under Attack — but THE QUESTION is — by Whom?

2009-09-08T13:09:00.001-04:00

Also

In the archives below you will find exclusive NAD interviews with these interesting folks:

Elena Siff Erenburg, political fine artist living in Los Angeles.

America Is Under Attack — but THE QUESTION is — by Whom?

2009-08-17T19:56:00.018-04:00

Almost everyone in America now believes that Lee Harvey Oswald did not kill President John F. Kennedy. We believe it was a conspiracy. We suspect it was the CIA or FBI who killed our own president.

And even now, every mainstream newspaper, radio station and TV station stands by the ridiculous Warren Commission report.

Comparisons with the absurd state of the press in the failing Soviet Union at the state of its collapse are unavoidable.

At the time of the assassination almost everyone in America believed that Oswald did in fact kill JFK.

The only reason we are closer to the truth now is due to the work of many independent journalists, researchers who have devoted entire lives to the truth. The reason we did not know the truth at first is because of the laziness, the "complicitness," the lack of real journalistic work done by America's newspapers, TV news programs and radio — perhaps because of the many CIA agents disguised as "journalists" throughout America.

The New American Dream website exists because we think the truth is important.

With the election of Barack Obama we thought this would be a good time to burst like formerly blind bats from the dark cave of depression and lies and oppression and death of the Bush years.

Some things just are not talked about in America, either at Thanksgiving dinner or press conferences in Washington, D.C.

No public discussion beyond a whisper concealed by a hand.

Mention something outside the boundaries of accepted chit chat and your relatives, with one roll of the eyes, send you on a long slow train to Siberia.

It's effective.

The simple American roll of the eyes makes a person not want to talk about some things. Who wants to be thought of as a crazy person? Who wants to think of oneself that way?

But the result is that we end up not daring to ever mention important things that have an influence on our times and our lives and the lives of our children.

And in the process the pages of our history books become junk food, Twinkies and Ho Ho's for our minds.

So ... that is the reason for this website, which has been running since January 1, 2009 — to open the floor for discussion, to talk about some things — to say there are no wrong questions.

This is America and we are Americans and we are still alive and so we still have a chance to do something good.

The old American Dream had to do with gaining riches — going to work, maintaining a routine, a job, a house, a lawn — and trying to forget about the rest of the world, letting others live their lives in poverty — just so long as we and ours did not.

The New American Dream is that we will truly become the good people we have always imagined ourselves to be.

Please take time to explore this website. There is a lot here.

We hope you will enjoy it.

Thank you. .... and .... and ... and ... and ....

Also

In the archives below you will find exclusive NAD interviews with these interesting folks:

Elena Siff Erenburg, political fine artist living in Los Angeles.

We Celebrate Thirty Years of Resistance to the United States military at Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, Nebraska

2009-08-14T17:28:00.006-04:00

THE Frank Cordaro File

Happenings, notices passed along by
Frank Cordaro of the Des Moines Catholic Worker
— THE most dynamic peace group in the world.

___________

30 Years
At Offutt Air Force Base

Since 1979, many, many people have vigiled,
been arrested, served jail & prison time
in opposition to the United States military
— in THE belly of the beast, just south of Omaha, Nebraska.

For a slide show on this year's demonstration — as well as a slide show of the 1979 demonstration — go HERE, to the Des Moines Catholic Worker website.

________

Warfare State Winners

WINNERS AND LOSERS IN THE AMERICAN WARFARE STATE

by Sherwood Ross

“On my last day in Iraq,” veteran McClatchy News correspondent Leila Fadel wrote August 9th, “as on my first day in Iraq, I couldn’t see what the United States and its allies had accomplished. …I couldn’t understand what thousands of American soldiers had died for and why hundreds of thousands of Iraqis had been killed.”

Quite a few oil company CEO’s and “defense” industry executives, however, do have a pretty good idea of why the war Fadel deplored is being fought. As Michael Cherkasky, president of Kroll Inc., said a year after the Iraq invasion boosted his security firm’s profits 231 percent: “It’s the Gold Rush.” What follows is a brief look at some of the outfits that cashed in, and at the multitudes that got took.

“Defense Earnings Continue to Soar,” Renae Merle wrote in The Washington Post on July 30, 2007. “Several of Washington’s largest defense contractors said last week that they continue to benefit from a boom in spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…” Merle added, “Profit reports from Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin showed particularly strong results in operations in the region.” More recently, Boeing’s second-quarter earnings this year rose 17 percent, Associated Press reported, in part because of what AP called “robust defense sales.”

But war, it turns out, is not only unhealthy for human beings, it is not uniformly good for the economy. Many sectors suffer, including non-defense employment, as a war can destroy more jobs than it creates. While the makers of warplanes may be flying high, these are “Tough Times For Commercial Aerospace,” Business Week reported July 13th. “The sector is contending with the deepening global recession, declining air traffic, capacity cuts by airlines, and reduced availability of financing for aircraft purchases.”

The general public suffers, too. “As President Bush tried to fight the war without increasing taxes, the Iraq war has displaced private investment and/or government expenditures, including investments in infrastructure, R&D and education: they are less than they would otherwise have been,” write Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes in “The Three Trillion Dollar War”(Norton). Stiglitz holds a Nobel Prize in economics and Bilmes is former assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce. They say government money spent in Iraq does not stimulate the economy in the way that the same amounts spent at home would.

The war has also starved countless firms for expansion bucks. “Higher borrowing costs for business since the beginning of the Iraq war are bleeding manufacturing investment,” Greg Palast wrote in “Armed Madhouse”(Plume). And when entrepreneurs---who hire so many---lack growth capital, job creation takes a real hit.

We might recall too, the millions abroad who filled the streets to protest President Bush’s impending attack on Iraq and who have quit buying U.S. products, further reducing sales and employment. “American firms, especially those that have become icons, like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, may also suffer, not so much from explicit boycotts as from a broader sense of dislike of all things American,” Stiglitz and Bilmes write. “America’s standing in the world has never been lower,” they say, noting that in 2007, U.S. “favorable” ratings plunged to 29 percent in Indonesia and nine percent in Turkey. “Large numbers of wealthy people in the Middle East---where the oil money and inequality put individual wealth in the billions---have shifted banking from America to elsewhere,” they say.

Because the Iraq war crippled that country’s oil industry, output fell, supplies tightened, and, according to Palast, “World prices leaped to reflect the shortfall…” What’s more, he points out, after the Iraq invasion the Saudis withheld more than a million barrels of oil a day from the market. “The one-year 121% post-invasion jump in the price of crude, from under $30 a barrel to over $60, sucked that $120 billion windfall to the Saudis from SUV drivers and factory owners in the West.” Count the Saudis among the big winners.

The oil spike subtracted 1.2% from the gross domestic product, “costing the USA just over one million jobs,” Palast reckoned. Stiglitz and Bilmes said the oil price spike means “American families have had to spend about 5 percent more of their income on gasoline and heating than before.” Last year, the Iraq and Afghan wars cost each American household $138 per month in taxes, they estimated. Count the Joneses among the big losers.

Palast writes, “It has been a very good war for Big Oil---courtesy of OPEC price hikes. The five oil giants saw profits rise from $34 billion in 2002 to $81 billion in 2004…But this tsunami of black ink was nothing compared to the wave of $120 billion in profits to come in 2006: $15.6 billion for Conoco, $17.1 billion for Chevron and the Mother of All Earnings, Exxon’s $39.5 billion in 2006 on sales of $378 billion.

Palast notes the oil firms have their own reserves whose value is tied to OPEC’s price targets, and “The rise in the price of oil after the first three years of the war boosted the value of the reserves of ExxonMobil oil alone by just over $666 billion…Chevron Oil, where Condoleezza Rice had served as a director, gained a quarter trillion dollars in value…I calculate that the top five oil operators saw their reserves rise in value by over $2.363 trillion.” Who’s surprised when Forbes reports of the ten most profitable corporations in the world five are now oil and gas companies---Exxon-Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron, and Petro-China.
“Since the Iraq War began,” Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive wrote, “aerospace and defense industry stocks have more than doubled. General Dynamics did even better than that. Its stock has tripled.” An Associated Press account published July 23rd observed: “With the military fighting two wars and Pentagon budgets on a steady upward rise, defense companies regularly posted huge gains in profits and rosier earnings forecasts during recent quarters. Even as the rest of the economy tumbled last fall, military contractors, with the federal government as their primary customer, were a relative safe haven.”

Among the big winners are top Pentagon contractors, as ranked by WashingtonTechnology.com as of 2008. Halliburton spun off KBR in 2007 and their operations are covered later. Data was selected for typical years 2007-09.

1.Lockheed Martin
2. Boeing
3. KBR
4. Northrop Grumman
5. General Dynamics
6. Raytheon
7. SAIC
8. L-3 Communciations
9. EDS Corporation
10. Fluor Corporation

# Lockheed Martin, of Bethesda, Md., a major warplane builder, in 2007 alone earned profits of $3 billion on sales of nearly $42 billion.

# Boeing, of Chicago, saw its 2007 net profit shoot up 84% to $4 billion, fed by “strong growth in defense earnings,” according to an Agence France-Presse report.

# Northrop Grumman, of Los Angeles, a manufacturer of bombers, warships and military electronics, had 2007 profits of $1.8 billion on sales of $32 billion.

# General Dynamics, of Falls Church, Va., had profits in 2008 of about $2.5 billion on sales of $29 billion. It makes tanks, combat vehicles, and mission-critical information systems.

# Raytheon, of Waltham, Mass, reported about $23 billion in sales for 2008. It is the world’s largest missile maker and Bloomberg News says it is benefiting from “higher domestic defense spending and U.S. arms exports.”

# Scientific International Applications Corp., of La Jolla, Calif., an engineering and technology supplier to the Pentagon, had sales of $10 billion for fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2009, and net income of $452 million.

# L-3, of New York City, has enjoyed sales growth of about 25% a year recently. Its total 2008 sales of $15 billion brought it profits of nearly $900 million. Its primary customer is the Defense Department, to which it supplies high tech surveillance and reconnaissance systems.

# EDS Corp., of Plano, Tex., purchased by Hewlett-Packard in May, 2008, had 2007 sales of nearly $20 billion. Its priority project is building the $12 billion Navy-Marine Corps Intranet, said to be the largest private network in the world.

# Fluor Corp., of Irvine, Tex., an engineering and construction firm, had net earnings of $720 million in 2008 on sales of $22 billion.

The good times continue to roll for military contractors under President Obama, who has increased the Pentagon’s budget by 4 percent to a total of about $700 billion. One reason military contractors fare so well is that no-bid contracts with built-in profit margins tumble out of the Pentagon cornucopia directly into their laps. The element of “risk,” so basic to capitalism, has been trampled by Pentagon purchasing agents even as its top brass rattle their missiles at socialist governments abroad. If this isn’t enough, in 2004 the Bush administration slipped a special provision into tax legislation to cut the tax on war profits to 7% compared to 21% paid by most U.S. manufacturers.

Former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, according to author Pratap Chatterjee in his “Halliburton’s Army”(Nation Books), raked in “more than $25 billion since the company won a ten-year contract in late 2001 to supply U.S. troops in combat situations around the world.” As all know, President Bush’s Vice President Dick Cheney previously headed Halliburton (1995-2000) and landed in the White House the same year Halliburton got its humungous outsourcing contract. Earlier, as Defense Secretary, (1989-1993) Cheney sparked the revolutionary change to outsourcing military support services to the privateers. Today, Halliburton ranks among the biggest “defense” winners of all.

Halliburton’s army “employs enough people to staff one hundred battalions, a total of more than 50,000 personnel who work for KBR, a contract that is now projected to reach $150 billion,” Chatterjee writes. “Together with the workers who are rebuilding Iraq’s infrastructure and the private security divisions of companies like Blackwater, Halliburton’s Army now outnumber the uniformed soldiers on the ground in Iraq.”

Accompanying Pentagon outsourcing, Chatterjee writes, “is the potential for bribery, corruption, and fraud. Dozens of Halliburton/KBR workers and their subcontractors have already been arrested and charged, and several are already serving jail terms for stealing millions of dollars, notably from Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.”

There’s likely no better example of how Halliburton/KBR literally burned taxpayers’ dollars than its destruction of $85,000 Mercedes and Volvo trucks when they got flat tires and were abandoned. James Warren, a convoy truck driver testified to the Government Affairs Committee in July, 2004, “KBR didn’t seem to care what happened to its trucks…It was common to torch trucks that we abandoned…even though we all carried chains and could have towed them to be repaired.”

Bunnatine Greenhouse, once top contract official at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, made headlines by demanding old-fashioned free enterprise competitive bidding. She told a Senate committee in 2005: “I can unequivocally state the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR represents the most blatant and improper abuse I have witnessed” in 20 years of working on government contracts. Greenhouse was demoted for her adherence to the law, Chatterjee said, but she became a cover girl at “Fraud” magazine and was honored by the Giraffe Society, a tribute to one Federal employee who stuck her neck out.

Tales of Halliburton/KBR’s alleged swindles fill books. Rory Maybee, a former Halliburton/KBR contractor who worked at dining facilities in Camp Anaconda in 2004 told the U.S. Senate Democratic Policy Committee “that the company often provided rotten food to the troops and often charged the army for 20 thousand meals a day when it was serving only ten thousand.” Food swindling, though, is small potatoes. Say Stiglitz and Bilmes: “KBR has also been implicated in a lucrative insurance scam that has gouged U.S. taxpayers for at least $600 million.”

To fatten profit margins, contractors who cheat U.S. taxpayers apparently think nothing of underpaying their help. “While the executives of KBR, Blackwater, and other firms are making profits, many of those performing the menial work, such as cooking, driving, cleaning, and laundry, are poorly paid nationals from India, Pakistan, and other Asian and African countries,” Stiglitz and Bilmes write. “Indian cooks are reported to earn $3-$5 a day. At the same time, KBR bills the American taxpayer $100 per load of laundry.” Blackwater, the security firm repeatedly charged with shoot-first tactics, fraudulently obtained small-business set-aside contracts worth more than $144 million, they assert.

According to “Blackwater”(Nation Books) by Jeremy Scahill, the security firm in 2004 got a five-year contract to protect U.S. officials in Iraq totaling $229 million but as of June, 2006, just two years into the contract, it had been paid $321 million, and by late 2007 it had been paid more than $750 million. Scahill reports an audit charged that Blackwater included profit in its overhead and its total costs. The result was “not only in a duplication of profit but a pyramiding of profit since in effect Blackwater is applying profit to profit.” Scahill writes, “The audit also alleged that the company tried to inflate its profits by representing different Blackwater divisions as wholly separate companies.”

“As of summer, 2007, there were more ‘private contractors’ deployed on the U.S. government payroll in Iraq (180,000) than there were actual soldiers (160,000),” Scahill said. “These contractors worked for some 630 companies and drew personnel from more than 100 countries around the globe. …This meant the U.S. military had actually become the junior partner in the coalition that occupies Iraq.” And each Blackwater operative was costing the American taxpayers $1,222 per day. The Defense Department remains, of course, America’s No. 1 Employer, with 2.3 million workers (roughly twice the size of Wal-Mart, which has 1.2 million staffers) perhaps because America’s biggest export is war.
“Who pays Halliburton and Bechtel?” philosopher Noam Chomsky asks rhetorically in his “Imperial Ambitions” (Metropolitan Books). “The U.S. taxpayer,” he answers. “The same taxpayers fund the military-corporate system of weapons manufacturers and technology companies that bombed Iraq. So first you destroy Iraq, then you rebuild it. It’s a transfer of wealth from the general population to narrow sectors of the population.” It’s also been a body blow to Iraq, killing a million inhabitants, forcing two million into exile and millions more out of their homes. Incredibly, the U.S. proposed to reconstruct the nation it invaded with their oil revenues---and then, after taking perhaps $8 billion left the job undone. (Since the U.S. kept no records of how the dough was dispensed, it is not possible to identify the recipients.)

As Stiglitz and Bilmes remind us, “The money spent on Iraq could have been spent on schools, roads, or research. These investments yield high returns.” In an article in the August 24th Nation, policy analyst Georgia Levenson Keohane cites the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities to the effect that 48 states are reporting deficits totaling nearly $166 billion, projected to reach, cumulatively, $350 billion-$370 billion by 2011. “Although many states have attempted tax increases, these are politically challenging and often insufficient to close the gaps. Consequently, statehouses have been forced to cut vital services at a time when the need for them is ever more desperate,” Keohane writes.

In the same issue, reporter Marc Cooper notes the poverty rate in Los Angeles county borders on 20 percent; that California’s schools are ranked 47th nationally; that the state college system has suspended admissions for Spring, 2010; that thousands of state workers are being laid off and/or forced to take furlough days; that unemployment has reached 12 percent; that state parks are being closed; that personal bankruptcies peaked last; that one in four “capsized mortgages in the U.S. is in California.” Plus, California’s bond rating is just above the junk level and it faces a $26 billion budget shortfall.

California’s woes need to be examined in the light of the $116 billion the National Priorities Project of Northampton, Mass., says its taxpayers have shelled out for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001. Those same dollars roughly would put four million California students through a four-year college. Bear in mind, too, outlays for those wars are but a fraction of all Pentagon spending, so the total military tax bill is far higher than $116 billion to California.

In calling for a reduction in military spending, Rep. Barney Frank (D.-Mass.) said, "The math is compelling: if we do not make reductions approximating 25 percent of the military budget starting fairly soon, it will be impossible to continue to fund an adequate level of domestic activity even with a repeal of Bush's tax cuts for the very wealthy….(American] well-being is far more endangered by a proposal for substantial reductions in Medicare, Social Security or other important domestic areas than it would be by canceling weapons systems that have no justification from any threat we are likely to face." On the other hand, maybe Americans want to keep paying to operate 2,000 domestic and foreign military bases and spend more money on armies and weapons of death than all other nations combined. Maybe they like living in the greatest Warfare State the world has ever known. My hunch, though, is a lot of Americans haven’t connected the country’s looming bankruptcy with the greedy, gang from the military-industrial complex out to control the planet, its people, and its precious resources.

After the long-suffering civilian population of Iraq, whose crime was having oil---a country Steiglitz says that has been rendered virtually unlivable---the big losers are the American taxpayers who are bleeding income, jobs, and quality of life, not just sacrificing family members, on behalf of a runaway war machine. California’s plight is being repeated everywhere. A great nation is being looted and millions of its citizens are being pauperized before our eyes. #

(Sherwood Ross is a Miami-based public relations consultant who has worked as a reporter for major dailies, a publicist in the civil rights movement, and as a wire service columnist. Reach him at sherwoodr1@yahoo.com or visit his web site Sherwood Ross Associates.)

NINE ARRESTED — in Wisconsin at U.S. military base

2009-08-10T11:14:00.003-04:00

Wisconsin Peacemakers: Janet Parker, (Madison – 2nd from left), Bonnie Urfer, (Luck – center), Joy First (Monona 2nd from right) , and Tom Haebig (not in the photo) crossed the line at Ft. McCoy today – to call for an end to wars, occupation, and militarism. Other anti-war activists crossing the line were Vicki Andrews of Grand Rapids, MN (left to right) , Alice Gerard of NY, Brian Terrell of Iowan, Gerald Paoli of Chicago, and Dylan Parkes, also from Iowa.

AUGUST 10, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: NUKEWATCH 715-491-3813
-or- Wisc. Net for Peace Justice 608-250-9240

NINE ARRESTED AT END OF 3-DAY
PEACE WALK TO FORT McCOY

TOMAH, Wisconsin – Nine anti-war activists were detained at Mt. McCoy after walking onto the central-Wisconsin base to protest the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the continued U.S. possession of nuclear weapons.

Five of the nine were ticketed and released from the site after being permanently banned from entering the base again.

Four of the group were taken by U.S. marshals to Madison where they face federal trespass charges in U.S. District Court. The four had previously been banned from the base for earlier protests.

All nine were part of a three-day walk for peace that began Aug. 7 near Camp Williams.

The walk was also a commemoration of the U.S. atomic attacks bombings of the cities of Hiroshima August 6, and Nagasaki August 9, 1945, and an appeal for a moratorium on the use of armor-piercing shells made from waste uranium-238 known as “depleted uranium” munitions.

Walkers carried dozens of placards along highways 12 and 21, principle among them were pleas: to bring all the troops home; to compensate the victims of the U.S. military occupations; to abolish nuclear weapons; and to inform the National Guard troops of all their legal rights.

The four activists being held in federal custody in Madison pending arraignment are Brian Terrell, 53, of Maloy, Iowa; Bonnie Urfer, 57, of Luck, Wis.; Alice Gerard, 52, of Grand Island, New York; and Joy first, 55, of Madison, Wisc.

The five ticketed and released pending arraignment are Gerald Paoli, 49, of Chicago, IL; Janet Parker 41, of Madison; Dylan Parker, 20, of Davenport, IA; Vicki Andrews, 64, of Grand Rapids, MN; and Tom Haebig, 72, of West Bend, Wisc.

-end-

--
Nukewatch
740A Round Lake Road
Luck, WI 54853
(715) 472-4185
www.nukewatch.com

CARL KABAT — an American Hero we have never heard of — over 17 years in prison for fighting the U.S. military — headed to Colorado to do it again

2009-08-06T10:48:00.005-04:00

THE Plowshares 8

[Fr. Carl Kabat at far left]

September 9, 1980: Daniel Berrigan, Jesuit priest, author and poet from New York City; Philip Berrigan, father and co-founder of Jonah House in Baltimore, MD; Dean Hammer, member of the Covenant Peace Community in New Haven, CT; Elmer Maas, musician and former college teacher from New York City; Carl Kabat, Oblate priest and missionary; Anne Montgomery, Religious of the Sacred Heart sister and teacher from New York City; Molly Rush, mother and founder of the Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh and John Schuchardt, ex-marine, lawyer, father and member of Jonah House, entered the General Electric Nuclear Missile Re-entry Division in King of Prussia, PA where nose cones for the Mark 12A warheads were made.

They hammered on two nose cones, poured blood on documents and offered prayers for peace. They were arrested and initially charged with over ten different felony and misdemeanor counts. In February 1981, they underwent a jury trial in Norristown, Pennsylvania. During their trial they were denied a "justification defense" and could not present expert testimony. Due to the Court's suppression of individual testimony about the Mark 12A and U.S. nuclear war-fighting policies, four left the trial and returned to witness at G.E. They were re-arrested and returned to court. They were convicted by a jury of burglary, conspiracy and criminal mischief and sentenced to prison terms of five to ten years. They appealed and the Pennsylvania Superior Court reversed their s. conviction in February 1984. The State of Pennsylvania then appealed that decision. Following a ruling in the fall of 1985 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in favor of the State on certain issues (including the exclusion of the justification defense), the case was returned to the Superior Court Appeals Panel. In December of 1987, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania refused their appeal, but ordered a re-sentencing. This ruling, however, was appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In February 1989 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied a hearing of any further issues in the case, and on October 2, 1989 the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would not hear the Plowshares Eight Appeal.

On April 10, 1990 the Plowshares Eight were resentenced by the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas in Norristown and, with neither the prosecutor nor G.E. making any recommendations or asking reparations, paroled for up to 23 and 1/2 months in consideration of time already served in prison. Judge James Buckingham listened attentively to statements by defendants, attorney Ramsey Clark, Dr. Robert J. Lifton, and Professors Richard Falk and Howard Zinn, placing the "crime" in the context of the common plight of humanity, international law, America’s long tradition of dissent, and the primacy of individual conscience over entrenched political system.

Make Sure To See
UPDATE Below!!!!

Father Carl Kabat OMI celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. His half-century of ministry as missionary, pastor, teacher and social activist inspires all who know him.

His religious community celebrated, his family celebrated, and finally his Catholic Worker family celebrated. The picture above is typical Catholic Worker liturgy... Joyful - loving - informal. Carl is our spiritual leader, our brother, our friend. He lives among us and he leads us in love of Jesus by word and example.

Carl Kabat, OMI 72; from St. Louis, Missouri; 47 years a Roman Catholic priest; worked as a missionary in the Philippines and Brazil; participated in the first plowshares/pruning hooks action in 1980 and the first Silo Pruning Hooks action in 1984 and other plowshares actions; served about 16 years in jails and prisons.

We are fools and clowns for God and humanity's sake. Over 2,500 American soldiers have died because of nuclear weapons in the past several years in Iraq . I remember Eisenhower who said that every weapon that is made is a theft from the poor. The only condemnation of Vatican II was that nuclear weapons are a crime against humanity and are to be condemned unreservedly. — Carl Kabat, OMI

__________

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Aug. 3, 2009

"Anti-nukes priest here readies for next arrest"
by Bill McClellan

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/billmcclellan/story/
4540F6EFB0C2CC0F862576060073D993?OpenDocument

Carl Kabat will turn 76 in October, and he figures to be in jail again by then. In fact, he's headed to Colorado today to commit a crime, the same crime he's been committing for the last 25 years.

He intends to attack a missile silo. He's a Roman Catholic priest involved in the Plowshares movement, which is named after the passage from Isaiah: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks."

He was resting Sunday, preparing for the long drive today. I visited him at a home owned by the Catholic Workers on the city's near north side. We sat at a picnic table in the backyard. He was wearing a green and white pullover shirt and a pair of tattered shorts. I asked if he ever wore his Roman collar.

"When I break the law," he said, and then he laughed. He seemed to be in a very good mood.

He was raised on a farm near Mount Vernon, Ill. He celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination a couple of weeks ago with a Mass at the picnic table in the backyard. He very seldom goes to a traditional church. Still, he remains in good standing with his order, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

In the early days of his priesthood, the order sent him to the Philippines and then to Brazil. He came back to this country in 1973 just as the Vietnam war was winding down and the peace movement was losing steam. Nevertheless, he found a niche — the anti-nuclear weapon movement.

With all the evils in the world, it's hard to pick one, he told me, but if this one doesn't get solved, it could mean the end of everything.

He also talked about the need for individuals to act before there is a nuclear holocaust. He said we can't ask God to stop this because God didn't start it. We started it, and we have to stop it, Kabat said.

He seemed serene about getting arrested again. How much time did he expect to get?

"Somewhere between 18 years and 15 months," he said, and he laughed.

He was given an 18-year sentence for taking a jackhammer to a silo in 1984 — the sentence was reduced on appeal and he did less than 10 years — and he was given a 15-month sentence in 2006 for attacking a silo in North Dakota.

Maybe the country is becoming more sympathetic toward your cause, I said. Speaking of change,

I asked if the election of Barack Obama seemed auspicious for the Plowshare folks.

He dug through some papers he had in front of him, found a newspaper article in which Obama
talked about the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons. Kabat read it aloud, quoting Obama: "I am not naive. This goal of a nuclear-free world will not be reached quickly, perhaps not even in my lifetime."

__________

"Basically, I want to help Obama.
I'll take one off-line."

__________

Then Kabat looked up and smiled. "Basically, I want to help Obama. I'll take one off-line."

I asked if he expected to go to a minimum security prison camp, or a medium security federal prison. He shrugged, and said it didn't really matter. He said that in some ways, he got along better with poorer inmates. The more downtrodden, the more supportive they were of him,
he said.

He spoke almost wistfully of a stint he did in a Washington jail. He said that in a minimum security camp, the inmates tended to be better off. Crooked businessmen, he said. Right-wingers tended not to be sympathetic toward his ideas, he said.

I asked if he had seen "Dr. Strangelove."

No, he had not, he said. He didn't see many movies. He said he didn't seem to have the time.

"I have to get back to jail so I can get back to reading and writing," he said, and he laughed again.

He's been out of prison for almost two years. His last incarceration had to do with an attack on a silo in North Dakota, a state that has long fascinated him. He once told me that if North Dakota were to secede from the union, it would be the third greatest nuclear power in the world.

During his next attack, which he figures will take place on Thursday, he intends to wear a clown costume. He first wore a costume when he attacked a silo in North Dakota with a sledge hammer in 1994. That attack occurred on Good Friday, which was also April Fool's Day.

"Weare fools for God's sake," he said, and I must have looked mystified, because he then added that the quote came from the New Testament. He got five years for that attack.

Kabat is odd, but smart, and he knows that many people think it's silly to attack missile silos with sledgehammers, and to go to jail for doing so. Tilting at windmills might make more sense.

But he does it, he said, out of love.

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's apathy. I don't want to be apathetic," he said.

-------------------------------------

Related Posting:
Short slide show of Fr Carl Kabat's 50th Anniversary Celebration at
the St Louis CW July 18, 2009
http://groups.google.com/group/National-CW-E-mail-List/browse_frm/thread/cdc9ac23045dee26#

UPDATE!!!!

Carl entered the site at about 8:00 a.m. By 8:34 a.m. he had hung banners and had begun to symbolically disarm the missile. As of 8:57 a.m. the security forces were beginning to move in.

-------------------------------------

Fr Carl's statement to press

We are Fools and Clowns For The Holy One And Humanity's Sake

I Father Carl Kabat O.M.I. come to this evil place today as a Roman Catholic priest, of fifty years, to show what insanity is in the ground here and other silos in our beautiful country.

President Barack Obama has stated, "As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act...So today I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment and desire to seek the peace and serenity of a world without nuclear weapons."

The Roman Catholic Church, of which I am a priest, at the close of its Vatican Council II in 1965 condemned nuclear bombs as a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY and are to be condemned unreservedly.

The World Council of Churches has proclaimed that "the manufacture, deployment or use of nuclear bombs is a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY"

I support President Barack Obama's desire and have attempted to do my little bit in his effort.

The nuclear bomb that is in the ground here is more than 20 times more powerful that the atomic bombs we dropped on the Japanese. Each of those bombs killed more than 100,000 people. At lest twenty times that number totals more than 2 million people.

The Bible says in the words of Isaiah "They shall beat their spears into pruning hooks and their swords into plowshares".

May the Holy One have mercy on us for not doing so.

Fr Carl Kabat O.M.I., the man who was arrested this morning at a Weld County Missile Silo.

------------------------------

Aug 6, 2009
Greeley CO Tribune

Priest arrested for breaching missile silo

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090806/NEWS/908069993/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001

A Roman Catholic priest was arrested this morning after cutting a hole in a fence in a Weld County missile silo and entering the facility.

Weld Sheriff deputies responded to a missile silo between Weld County Roads 86 and 88 along Weld County Road 113 at 8:50 this morning on report of a man trespassing.

There, they found a 75-year-old man inside the perimeter of the fence, and was arrested without incident.

The silo is one of 150 missile silos patrolled by security teams from Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne. All silos have sensors, which alert the base to someone's presence.

Warren authorities expected the breach after an article that ran in the Monday edition of the St. Louis Dispatch, stating Carl Kabat, a Roman Catholic priest, was planning the breach to cap off 25 years of nuclear protests.

WE reject any notion that Paul Tibbets is an American Hero — we must stop calling killers heroes

2009-08-04T08:12:00.010-04:00

Paul Tibbets

"Little Boy"

Hiroshima Dead

A Poem to Paul Tibbets, by Nora Nickerson

American To American

Nora Nickerson writes poetry in her spare time and has been published in Laughing Dog, River Library Anthology and has been a featured poet against war on Human Harmony, a cable television program. She works as a nurse practitioner at the Veteran's Administration medical center in Tucson where she hopes to influence military minds to consider peaceful means to conflict.

__________

"Here it is and it is not a short one. I spent some time researching this poem and was astounded at Paul Tibbets and his life/words/attitude and inabilty to ever offer any apology to those who survived.

The whole freudian bit (naming the bomber after his mother and the bomb "little boy") is my interpretation but seemed obvious when I read about his life.

It is a bit dark. Anyway, feel free to use it!

Best Wishes and keep up your really good work!

— Nora Nickerson

__________

Paul Tibbets,
On Little Boy’s Sixtieth Birthday

"We’ve never fought a damn war anywhere in the world where they didn't kill innocent people. If the newspapers would just cut out the shit, ‘you've killed so many civilians,’ that's their tough luck for being there.”
— Paul Tibbets to Studs Terkel

“The Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing.”
— Dwight Eisenhower

It was all so Oedipal:
the imperfect hero, puppet of fate,
mixed with tragic flaws, irony, hubris.

The characters, Enola Gay, the housewife,
your stay at home mom, Dad the good husband,
father. Thought he ran the show, ruled the roost.

Mom didn’t love Dad, not really, you knew that.
But she loved her Little Boy, her little Paul.
And you loved that Enola Gay, the big bellied
mama, who said, it’s all right son, drop
out of medical school and be a fighter pilot.

Say no to Daddy. He can’t tell you what to be.
You didn't really like Daddy anyway, wanted
him out of the way. Wanted to stand up, say no,
join the Air Force, kill the enemy, kill daddy.

Mama always understood, you wanted to be a real man,
wanted to knock up Enola Gay so you knocked her up good
with that nine thousand pound bouncing Little Boy.

You said, “There's only one way to do things, that's the right way.”

And that's just what you did, rode mama just right
until she dropped Little Boy right over that city.

You said, “it was one hell of a big bang.”

You swore you saved thousands of lives on that mission.

You would have “done anything to get to Japan and stop the killing.”

Doesn't make sense Paul, two hundred thousand died,
bodies charred, skin peeled off like wallpaper, arms stiff
outstretched, wandering ghosts in that atom sputtering fury.

But you sure did show Daddy what you could do that day
and Mama was tickled pink,“should have seen
the old gal’s belly jiggle on that one.”

It was just another mission if you didn't let imagination run away with your wits.”

I guess that's why you said you “graduated
with honors in psychic numbing,” as if that explained it all.

God, time flew, ninety years old this year and Little Boy is sixty.

Mama and Daddy dead and all those ghosts out there,
just waiting for you to open your eyes and see, waiting
for you to say, I'm sorry, maybe they're just waiting for you.

At least Oedipus knew what to do, he knew his mistaken vision
led straight to tragedy.

But after all these years, you're so numb,
you haven't figured out that you never could see.

Yee-Haa Alert!!! ... Nine Arrested in Des Moines Demanding Health Care For All

2009-07-29T12:09:00.011-04:00

Nine people including four Catholic Workers were charged with
criminal trespass in the lobby of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield
today. They are: Ed Bloomer, 62, Des Moines Catholic Worker, Kirk Brown, 29, former Catholic Worker of Waukee, Iowa, Rev. Robert Cook, 66, Des Moines, Iowa, Frank Cordaro, 58, Des Moines Catholic Worker, Renee Espeland, 48, Des Moines Catholic Worker, Christine Gaunt, 50, Grinnell, Iowa, Mona Shaw, 58, Des Moines Catholic Worker, Leonard Simons, 67, Athol, MA
Frankie Hughes, 11, Des Moines Catholic Worker

http://www.desmoinescatholicworker.org/healthcare.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYAc0K6_cnU&feature=channel_page

9 min Youtube Video of Nine Arrested for
"Healthcare for All" at Wellmark Inc, DM IA

Video by
Rodger Routh
Soundslikesouth1@yahoo.com

Nine people were arrested at Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield demanding
financial transparency Monday July 27th. Eight of those arrested,
including four DMCWers were charged with criminal trespass. Eleven
year old DMCWer Frankie Hughes was turned over to the Juvenile Court.

See: http://www.desmoinescatholicworker.org/healthcarearrests1.html

Those arrested were part of a group of about forty that filled the
lobby at Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield to "hold Wellmark accountable
for the suffering denying claims and coverage of Iowans." The group
walked to the lobby after a 1:00 p.m. Rally in Nollen Plaza on Monday,
July 27, 2009. When the group arrived, several Wellmark employees as
well as several police officers were waiting in place. Frank Cordaro,
a member of the group asked to see John Forsyth CEO of Wellmark, Inc.
to ask him for the corporate information they had requested weeks
earlier by letter. Then the group read a statement that included the
comment, "It is our moral responsibility, as involved residents of
Iowa, including previous and current policy holders, to examine and
evaluate the competence of your stewardship over such a large and
pervasive public trust."

The above link to Roger Routh's nine minute Youtube Video tells the
story you did not read about in the DM Register or see in any of the
TV coverage of the event.

Frank Cordaro
Phil Berrigan CW House
713 Indiana Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50314
(515) 282-4781 www.DesMoinesCatholicWorker.org

Update: Three of Those Arrested
Now Headed to D.C. To Speak

See: http://www.healthcare-now.org/campaigns/single-payer-rally/

Mona Shaw, Renee Espeland and Renee's eleven year old daughter Frankie Hughs have been ask to speak at the Healthcare Now Rally in DC about our witness at Wellmark Blue Shield Blue Cross on Monday. All three were arrested along with six others on Monday July 27.

See: http://www.desmoinescatholicworker.org/healthcarearrests1.html

They are using Frank's car and left at 9:30 a.m. today and are driving
straight through to DC. Mona and Renee also need to get back to DM for
a 9 a.m. court appearance on Monday for the Wellmark action. Frankie's
case is being handled by the Juvenal Courts.

This is not an easy trip. All three had to drop everything they were
planning on doing this week to clear their calenders and get friends
to help pay for gas and community members to cover their
responsibilities. They deemed it important enough to make the
sacrifice as did their DMCW community. So keep these "3 Amigos" in
your thoughts and prayers. Reports on their efforts to follow....

Frank Cordaro
Phil Berrigan CW House
713 Indiana Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50314
(515) 282-4781 www.DesMoinesCatholicWorker.org

LISA CASEY — internet activist, cartoonist

2009-07-28T08:16:00.000-04:00

Lisa Casey

This photograph was taken right before my departure as a literacy teacher at the state prison in the spring of 2002.

The Department of Corrections did not provide me with books the first 10 months of my employment. My superiors in the DOC Education hierarchy were of little or no help.

Needless to say, I had to improvise. I began each class reading a local newspaper to the student inmates followed by a current events discussion.

I obtained bi-lingual educational inmate aides to assist the non-English speaking inmate students. We made our own study sheets (on a computer I donated to my class) and studied everything from the alphabet to volcanoes. I was eventually reprimanded for taking those initiatives.

In case you are wondering, I felt safe in a classroom with 30-plus inmates in a maximum security prison.

[Over-heard on the web:

Lisa Casey Is My Personal God.

I get to talk to her by phone on occassion and she has the sweetest southern drawl. Also calls me "Hon" and "Sweetie" a lot. That is endearing.

Oh, did I mention that she runs one of the best anti-Bush sites on the web?

Props to All Hat!]

Below is a picture of me during the

Clinton Administration of peace and prosperity.

Background:

Raised in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., during the "Where the Boys Are" era, when the worst thing a Republican governor did was try to peddle oranges to the Pope. Public schools were excellent, with 75 percent of high school grads continuing in higher learning. A voucher in those days was a receipt for payment.

We were taught to respect the Florida Aquifer, our only source of fresh water, because it was about twelve inches below our feet.

We knew the pollution in the Everglades was caused primarily by the Cuban-American owned sugar industry, which was supported on the backs of laborers from the Caribbean.

We welcomed tourists in South Florida because tourism was a great part of our economy.

We also knew that many visitors would relocate to this area. I married one.

Drugs began arriving in ever-increasing amounts during the early 1970s. First it was marijuana, and crime rates remained relatively low. Next it was cocaine.

In the 1980's, under the Reagan/Bush reign, paradise became America's hotspot for drug importation, arms dealing and money laundering.

That is why this website exists.

I want every vote to be counted.

That is when we left and ended up in the panhandle (Update: I moved to Alabama in 2005).

What I am saying, folks, is YES: It is important to vote and just as important to know all about the politicians you vote into office — except, apparently, if you live in Florida.

That is why this website exists. I want every vote to be counted.

Career:

Advertising print and web art/graphic/publication design/illustration.

Resource Marketing Inc. : Art Director 1975 - 1977

Advertising/Illustration/Graphic Publication Design: 1978-present - Clients included Harris Computers, Eastern Airlines, Bodega Steak House Chain, Broward County Historical Society, Joy's Florist, Horn of Plenty Furniture, Game Group of Companies (Durban, South Africa), Broward County Tourism Council, Sunshine Sunday Magazine-Sun-Sentinel, Santa Rosa Sun, Gulf Coast Commerce and presently All Hat No Cattle

Education:

Parochial and public schools in South Florida

University of Florida - Florida State University - Bachelor of Science degree in Visual Arts/Art Education and Constructive Design

Teaching experience:

Maclay School: (formerly Alfred B. Maclay Jr. Day School) 1969-1971 Head of lower school Art Education Department

Gretna Public School: 1973-74. Taught art education to rural black children grades 1-6 (internship)

Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale: 1981-1983 Taught Advertising Design, Photography Design and Drawing
Florida Department of Corrections: 2001 - 2002 Taught literacy to prison inmates. Literacy range was from 1st to 3rd grade TABE test scores. One third of my class was non-speaking English.

The New AMERICAN Dream INTERVIEW

by David Namanny

LISA CASEY: Phototoonist

After the shocking events of the 2000 Presidential election, Lisa Casey, Phototoonist/Producer/Owner/Website putter togetherer — established the website AllHatNoCattle, in the hope that humor would help her get through the next four years of the Bush administration — that was almost six years ago.

And she's still here.

She the events created politicians, especially those "compassionate conservatives", in the form of humor. She creates and writes many of the phototoons and all of the copy on her site, in fact, It's a one woman operation.

"I provide daily political psychotherapy in order to keep myself and my viewers sane," said Casey. "I believe the Internet will make our earth smaller and peaceful through truth."

"I believe the Internet will make
our earth smaller and peaceful through truth."

NAD: When did you start your political web site and why?

LISA CASEY:

I started my website in November 2000 when Gov. Jeb Bush broke his oath to uphold the laws of my state of Florida. He instead went to the U.S. Supreme Court to help get his brother elected president.

I started my website in November 2000 when Governor Jeb Bush broke his oath to uphold the laws of my state of Florida.

He instead went to the U.S. Supreme Court to help get his brother elected president.

The Bush family was very familiar to me growing up in South Florida.

George H. W. Bush was closely linked to Manuel Noriega, the Iran-Contra affair and some woman in Miami. Jeb was hooked up with shady, Cuban-run real estate deals.

I was a fan of neither, and when little George reared his ugly head in 2000 I knew this country was in for a good old fashioned gang rape.

By that time I was living in Northwest Florida, an extremely conservative area of the state that was heavily supportive of Dubya.

I'm a conservative Democrat and not taken with many conspiracy theories.

But the halt of the vote recount in my state crossed over the line and motivated me to utilize my website-building skills to help myself and other wonderful people I met over the Internet to laugh through political turmoil.

My site began small and grew with demand over the years into a part time job run solely by myself.

I am truly grateful to Al Gore for inventing all these Internets, by the way.

My website grew more popular, and about six months after Jeb Bush handed his brother the presidency, a staff aide was found dead under unusual circumstances in the office of my Republican Congressman, Joe Scarborough, who now hosts a show on MSNBC.

I watched the hometown newspaper of Scarborough virtually ignore the news of the dead aide found in his office.

This was my first experience with suppression of news.

I watched the hometown newspaper of Scarborough virtually ignore the news of the dead aide found in his office.

This was my first experience with suppression of news.

I also was also disgusted at the lackadaisical investigation of the death by local authorities, and to this day I keep information about the case posted on my website.

In 2006, Scarborough sent me a cease-and-desist letter demanding that I remove any reference to him and the dead aide from my site.

I didn't, and he backed off. The page on my website remains quite popular among viewers.

NAD: I see you are an artist.

Tell me about your art and what motivated you to be an artist.

LISA CASEY:

I started drawing as a young child.

My father, also an artist, motivated me and taught me to draw as soon as I could hold a pencil.

My work has always leaned toward statement art.

Strong and large.

Finding a job in art was nearly impossible when I graduated from college, so I got into advertising.

It paid well, and I enjoyed the lifestyle it afforded me in very expensive Fort Lauderdale.

My work has always leaned toward statement art.

Strong and large.

NAD: Besides art and the web site, do you have another job?

LISA CASEY: My website is my only "job" — a part time job, really.

I'm now dabbling in flipping houses. (In fact, I'm putting one up for sale. Interested?)

As far as my teaching experience, in 1973 I interned in Gretna, Fla., at an all-black school comprised of poor children of farmers (more accurately described as sharecroppers).

My teaching experience began at the Maclay School in Tallahassee, Fla., where I was head of the art department for grades 1-8 in 1972-1973.

I also taught part time at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in the early '80s.

My last teaching job was in 2001-2002 at the Florida Department of Corrections, Santa Rosa County, where I taught basic literacy.

That was a challenge, since I wasn't provided any books for my students.

But they built a fancy baptismal pool for the prison chapel that we got to watch from my classroom! Thanks, Gov. Jeb Bush!

NAD: Where did you grow up?

LISA CASEY:

I was born about ten minutes as the crow flies from George W. Bush's birthplace, New Haven, Conn.

In 1953, my parents moved to Fort Lauderdale to pursue a life in flora land.

My education is full-Floridian.

I first attended the University of Florida and then transferred to and graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Visual Arts and Education.

NAD: What events influenced you the most when you were young?

LISA CASEY:

John F. Kennedy's death was a defining moment in my life, followed by my father's death 10 months later when I was thirteen.

That made me grow up and realize how short life is.

NAD: What band or type of music hits home for you?

LISA CASEY:

Favorite songs: Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd, Crazy by Patsy Cline, Paradise by the Dashboard Lights by Meatloaf, any song by the Rolling Stones (or Rolling Bones as my students at the Fort Lauderdale Art Institute used to call them in 1980. Sigh.)

NAD: Do you have more hope now that Obama has been elected?

LISA CASEY:

Not only do I have more hope since Obama has been elected, but I have more faith and charity. Give people hope and they will follow you anywhere. (Note to U.S. CEOs).

Give people hope and they will follow you anywhere.

NAD: Tell us what you really think about George W. Bush and the last four years.

LISA CASEY:

Bush and his family have been a cancer on this country for a lot longer than the last four years.

NAD: Please feel free to include any other information about your background, your family, art and web site that you wish to be added.

LISA CASEY:

I've been married for 23 years to a journalist, and our son, now 22, is studying in Tianjin, China, perfecting his Mandarin Chinese.

I live part time in Costa Rica, where my husband and I bought property years ago and built a home before the prices surged.

[First published Feb. 9, 2009]

PHIL HEY — English professor, refused induction to the draft in 1967 — and he's still here

2009-07-26T09:26:00.002-04:00

Phil Hey

He refused his induction into the draft in the 1967, when he was teaching at Wisconsin State University, saying, in effect, if they want me, they can come get me – I believe I can serve the country better through teaching than in a uniform.

He is still teaching.

Meditation in time of war
[for MacCanon Brown]

by Phil Hey

August. Lying sleepless under the Dog Star,
I gaze into a sky the moon has left blank
but for a few stars no one dare steer by. This,
this is what it always comes to: a darkness
without answer, the image burned on the eye
of men who will wash the blood from their hands
with more blood. Tonight the news has come in
warm and thick as what little breeze stirs,
and with no more meaning: it had to happen
this way. The forces are in position. It's a question of. . .
What? What is it a question of? Let them return to us
with the blood still on their hands and then tell it all again.
Nightlong, it will never change: we shall cry for gasoline
and be beyond recompense for our dead children. We shall weep
for our foolishness, and at daybreak be foolish as before.
And of all such tears, such deaths, what is not in vain?
How shall anyone hear me say these words
to the maddeningly patient sky, pray for peace,
and let no one anywhere die for me ? Sometimes, still,
what little heart is left, is what was shared; given away,
returning unbidden; beyond price; transformed of fire, and clean.
This once again, so may it be with me, and with you.

The New American
Dream Interview

PHIL HEY, 66, lives in Sioux City, Iowa.

He is a published writer and poet, having his work appear in numerous magazines and anthologies.

He is the senior member of the English department chairman at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, and has been teaching at Briar Cliff since 1969.

He refused his induction into the draft in the 1967, when he was teaching at Wisconsin State University, saying, in effect, if they want me, they can come get me – I believe I can serve the country better though teaching than in a uniform.

He is still teaching.

Phil lives with his wife, Terry, on thirty-eight hilly acres with prairie grass, and weather imported from the Dakotas.

__________

The New American Dream Trivia Question:

To win a something, be the second singer in Secaucus to correctly answer the following.

Phil Hey's favorite poet is:

a. Dylan Thomas
b. Phil Hey
c. Nobody you've ever heard of
d. Robert Frost
e. Robert Bly
f. Walt Whitman
g. Bob Dylan
h. Robert Zimmerman

__________

NAD: Phil, hello, welcome.

You've stayed in one place, your whole career — right?

Except for the first two years at Wisconsin State, yes.

PHIL HEY:

Why? I left there because it was a model state machine, with no values.

By contrast, Briar Cliff is a Franciscan place, where values like peace matter a great deal.

What is so great about what you are doing?

PHIL HEY:

The chance to help people succeed in ways that don’t injure the earth or other people is good, as is the chance to witness what I believe – not to indoctrinate, but to add to the conversation.

The chance to help people succeed in ways that don’t injure the earth or other people is good, as is the chance to witness what I believe – not to indoctrinate, but to add to the conversation.

NAD: Do you find hope in Obama?

PHIL HEY:

Yes, sometimes he reminds me of Bobby Kennedy, with the hope that we can get the government to help people, especially the ones who need it the most. I think we should all be glad for the more visible diversity at the top.

And of course, almost anyone would be a relief after GW Bush.

NAD: Did you find hope in Clinton?

PHIL HEY:
Yes, particularly for the economy, but for other things too. I think history will be kind to him.

NAD: Robert Gates?

PHIL HEY:
We’ll see. His history in the office could be valuable in turning us away from war.

• Only to echo Jefferson: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” I will never forego my skepticism of the government or its leaders.

NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer, elaborate on?

I don't ask this to make fun. I ask because I really seek the answers.

- Are UFOs real?

I think it makes little difference. I don’t believe in “Chariots of the Gods.”

- Did we land on the moon in 1968?

I believe so, but the only real difference it made was in the forced miniaturization of electronics, which gave us computers.

- Did Bush knock down the towers?

It’s not hard to think so.

- Was Paul Wellstone's death an accident?

I don’t have any idea.

- Is Bigfoot real?

Yes, I think so.

- Is there a God?

Only if evolution is an act of his revelation (I am sure there is evolution).

... What makes you think that?

• I try to reason from evidence.

NAD: I'll assume that you are re-born by your students each day, by their intelligence, their wit, their hope, their spirit — that it is great to see their faces each day and feel the warm glow of hope from their bright eyes.

PHIL HEY:

Not true, not every day anyway.

What are they so excited about?

PHIL HEY:

Often I think they’re excited about being for a time the most sheltered, “free,” wealthy young adults in the world.

Occasionally I see a spark in a few eyes that show me an idea has caught fire, but it’s rarely if ever a universal experience.

But you gotta love ‘em and hold out hope that they will all catch fire.

NAD: Please tell us more about yourself, the things you have done, what you would like to do, what you did today.

PHIL HEY:

I suspect that most of it would be pretty boring.

That said, I like to read, write, give readings, play the flugelhorn, cook, and do carpentry. Not all at once, though sometimes it seems that way.

NAD: You are an English professor, a teacher of writing.

Do you ever feel like that is similar to being an instructor of how to shoe a horse, a dying art, a dying passion, skill?

Or not.

Then tell us why you are hopeful and that people still do read, write, all that. Convince us that there is a reason to write.

PHIL HEY:

I think that no art done well is dying (my wife has three horses that need shoes, and a good farrier is tremendously valuable, as well a good role model.)

Writing remains ESSENTIAL.

Can you imagine an anthology of cell phone calls?

Can you imagine an anthology of cell phone calls?

Neither can I.

Writing is a fine way to compose one’s ideas, revise them and save them, and talk to later generations; we wouldn’t have a civilization without it.

E.M.Forster: “How do I know what I mean until I see what I say?”

Taking the age at its worth

by Phil Hey

Great rumblings, tank battalions in the mind
as on the earth, a man lifts up his voice
and a million men are called away to grief

and what to show at year's or decade's end
but incoherent speech, incessant noise
and the sudden wringings of a handkerchief?

Trivia Question Answer:
Phil Hey's favorite poet is:
David Allen Evans, poet laureate of South Dakota.

[First published Feb. 2, 2009]

LOREN COLEMAN — if you really, really want to know the whole truth about America [and the world] — Bigfoot has to be in there somewhere

2009-07-25T09:51:00.000-04:00

Getting ready to watch my shortstop son's Brandeis University baseball team.

His interviews have appeared on
the Animal Planet,
Discovery-Science, Discovery, A & E, The Learning Channel, History, Sci-Fi Channel, Travel Channel, Fox News, CBC, CNN, ITN, Sky News, and BBC.

I am an antiwar Vietnam-era C.O. and pacifist, in which I had to fight my draft board,

get letters of support from Bucky Fuller and Ivan Sanderson into my draft file,

was arrested by the FBI for refusing the draft, ended up winning in court,

and volunteered and did two years of alternative work in a juvenile hall
in Illinois.

The

NEW AMERICAN DREAM
Interview

LOREN COLEMAN, who was born in 1947, today lives in Portland, Maine.

He was educated in anthropology and zoology at Southern Illinois University, and psychiatric social work at Simmons College School of Social Work in Boston.

He was admitted to the Ph. D. programs in social anthropology at Brandeis University and family violence-sociology at the University of New Hampshire, but with the birth of two sons soon after joining both programs four years apart, he decided to dedicate himself to parenting and writing, instead.

Coleman worked in human services, in a frontline and supervisory capacity from 1967 until 1983.

He began teaching documentary film, anthropology, social work, research, and sociology courses, part-time and full-time, at universities (Bunker Hill Community College, Boston University, University of Southern Maine, University of New England, St. Joseph's College, and Southern Maine Community College) from 1980 through 2003.

He was a senior researcher at the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Policy from 1983-1996. He retired in 1996, from full-time research to write, lecture, adjunct teach, and consult on his many interests.

He is internationally known for his research and writings on animal mysteries, folklore, and yet-to-be-discovered species, known as the study of cryptozoology.

He furthermore has written extensively on social science subjects including child maltreatment, adoption, suicides, school violence, the media and the copycat effect.

He also has lectured and done research on the mysterious deaths and suicides associated with the political assassinations of the 1960s of JFK, MLK, and RFK.

Loren Coleman appears frequently on television and the radio in interviews about Bigfoot, Yeti, Skunk Apes, Loch Ness Monster, and other cryptids.

Outside the USA, he has done many radio and television news programs about school shootings and the effect of the media on violence.

He has consulted on cultic behavior, as well.

His interviews have appeared on the Animal Planet, Discovery-Science, Discovery, A & E, The Learning Channel, History, Sci-Fi Channel, Travel Channel, Fox News, CBC, CNN, ITN, Sky News, and BBC.

He is the author of over 30 books, 3000 articles, and 6000 blog postings.

_______________

The New American Dream Trivia Question:

To win a round button that says, "Bush Is Lying About What He Knew,"
be the first one to correctly answer the following.

Loren Coleman would rather be ...

a. Fishing for crappies in a rowboat at Loch Ness

b. In search of the great American novel

c. Obama's Secretary of The As Yet Unknown

d. Teaching Theory of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts

e. Sitting in the dark by himself in Oregon wearing the Bionic Ears he got for Christmas

f. Knee-deep in yellow snow in the Himalayas

_______________

NAD: Loren, hello, thank you for taking the time for this.

Where did you grow up?

LOREN COLEMAN:

Well, this might be interesting. Let's see where this takes us.

I was born in Norfolk, Virginia (father in the Navy), but my family left there when I was 3 months old, moving back to their home state.

I thus grew up in Decatur, Illinois, and lived there until I first went to college in Carbondale, Illinois. (I never came back home, really, after that, as my father was an abusive man, both physically and emotionally. I eventually got a MSW, I'm sure, as a form of healing, plus lots of therapy.)

NAD: What was the name of your high school?

LOREN COLEMAN:

Douglas MacArthur High School

NAD: What was the school mascot name?

LOREN COLEMAN:

Believe it or not, the Generals.

My family was allegedly too poor to have senior pictures taken, and I was too shy, intellectually introverted, and socially unconscious to want to be in the yearbook.

NAD: What was on the list of activities under your senior picture in the yearbook?

LOREN COLEMAN:

There were no activities listed under my senior picture.

There is no senior picture in my 1965 high school yearbook of me.

My family was allegedly too poor to have senior pictures taken, and I was too shy, intellectually introverted, and socially unconscious to want to be in the yearbook.

In my high school Frosh and Soph years, I had been in the German club, the Science club, and the AVA club. I was a bright nerd even before it was cool, apparently.

I merely disappeared off the radar as a Junior and Senior, as I recall.

NAD: What did you start out wanting to be?

LOREN COLEMAN:

A naturalist, since I was about eight years old.

I remember reading Roy Chapman Andrews and Raymond Ditmars, and realizing I wanted to be something like those guys when I grew up.

Books were a great form of escapism from the situation of my surroundings.

I was the oldest of four, and was expected to take care of my brothers and sister, but sometimes also ended up taking care of fights between my mother and father, or even counseling my mom.

NAD: Is there still time?

LOREN COLEMAN:

I achieved my goal by going one better than naturalist, I figured, by being a cryptozoologist — broad-based, of course.

I am sometimes in deep turmoil because I never went on for a Ph. D., but I am very happy, in my life and mind, that I picked being a good Dad, over that degree.

Thinking back, btw, at Southern Illinois University, home of the Salukis, I began there as a government studies major, for some reason, because I liked "social studies" in high school, perhaps.

I tried out a few other things, but eventually landed upon anthropology, after knowing that the Yeti and apes were the path nearest to what I wanted to study.

I don't remember much about college, but I recall I was a struggling sophomore there in 1967, when the school became the focus of the sports media world due to Walt Frazier's appearance in the NIT basketball tourney. Frazier and SIU won the NIT that year, and Frazier was named MVP.

I was more interested in baseball and anthropology, eventually girls/women.

I remember that the only job I've ever been fired from was at SIU, when I was working in the SIU mailroom. I had gone to a Saluki's baseball game, lost track of the time, and when I came back, my boss was angry with me for my tardiness and fired me.

I never regretted that, however, as I still respect baseball enough to stay to the end of the game.

While at SIU, I pushed my way out of the little world of Decatur. For that, I shall always be thankful.

NAD: Anthropology, zoology, sociology, and now Bigfoot. I guess it follows.

LOREN COLEMAN:

No, actually, it was the other way around.

Yeti was there in 1960. Bigfoot came quickly in 1960-1961.

Then I picked a university in 1965, based upon reports of apelike creatures in southern Illinois.

I picked anthropology in 1966 or so.

I took on a minor in zoology, to add the "physical" part to "physical anthropology," back then.

Today, it is mostly called "biological anthropology."

I was curious. I went to my teachers at school on Monday, and asked them,
"What is this about the Abominable Snowman."

They were universal in telling me,
"Don't waste your time.

"They don't exist.
Don't read about them."

NAD: What got you started along the Bigfoot path?

LOREN COLEMAN:

I was a serious genius, having tested highly before getting into junior high, and was deeply interested in social studies, and especially the Civil War, Lincoln's assassination, Charles Fort, and keeping my own backyard zoo, in the late 1950s.

Then in March 1960, on a Friday night, then again on a Saturday morning, I watched a documentary-like science fiction movie, filmed among the Ainu, called Half Human. It was about the Abominable Snowmen. Look it up. It has a compelling plot.

My beginnings is a story I have told often: I was curious. I went to my teachers at school on Monday, and asked them, "What is this about the Abominable Snowman." They were universal in telling me, "Don't waste your time. They don't exist. Don't read about them."

So, questioning authority way back then, I read everything I could get my hands on about the Yeti, then Bigfoot, then the Loch Ness Monster, then Sea Serpents. I opened up the entire world of cryptozoology.

And I truly felt I had found "my home."

NAD: The path not taken. And that has made all the difference?

LOREN COLEMAN:

Well, I think it is the path that was taken that has made the difference.

The sidetreks I have taken away from cryptozoology, most of the time, have felt less clear, in terms of my destiny, if there is such a thing.

Certainly, hard work to achieve has been the driving principal too.

Cryptozoology took me to a career, eventually, that I am extremely happy to have (although I wish it was associated with more financial rewards - still working on that).

NAD: How do you like being an expert on something you don't even know yourself, it it exists or not?

LOREN COLEMAN:

Animals do exist, and I know they do.

New animals are found all the time, and the cryptozoological method involving listening to local people, analyzing traces of the animals, and encountering and proving the species exist is not magical thinking.

I feel very grounded in this field, despite wrong-headed assumptions that lead to questions like the above one.

Yes, of course, Bigfoot is "real,"
for even if the discovery of a breeding population of large bipedal
apes does not occur someday,
the reality of the phenomenon
of Bigfoot cannot be denied.

They appear in tales, traditions, folklore, movies, books, and ads.

Bigfoot is undeniably real.

NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer, elaborate on?

I don't ask this to make fun. I ask because I really seek the answers.

— Are UFOs real?
— Did we land on the moon in 1968?
— Did Bush knock down the towers?
— Was Paul Wellstone's death an accident?
— The Oklahoma City bombing? Wasn't that just another U.S. government terrorist exercise? Or not.
— Waco. We burned kids, right? You can see flames shooting out of the tanks. Or not.
— Is Bigfoot real?
— Is there a God?

LOREN COLEMAN:

I would not naturally "choose" to answer any of this, as they all might be answered most correctly with a "I don't know."

However, I shall pick this one, because it gives me the opportunity to address it and it is asked of me a great deal.

Yes, of course, Bigfoot is "real," for even if the discovery of a breeding population of large bipedal apes does not occur someday, the reality of the phenomenon of Bigfoot cannot be denied.

They appear in tales, traditions, folklore, movies, books, and ads. Bigfoot is undeniably real.

NAD: Have you seen Bigfoot?

LOREN COLEMAN:

No, not as a known and proven species, but merely as reflected as a cryptid in cryptozoology, hominology, and popular culture.

NAD: Do you go out looking?

LOREN COLEMAN:

Yes.

I have searched throughout North America with Bigfoot hunters, eyewitnesses, and those who have had chance encounters.

My in-depth fieldwork dates back to 1962, but has slowed down since I broke my back when rockclimbing 15 years ago.

I did years and years of fieldwork before it was fashionable to write up every weekend trip or vacation trek one might take on an Internet blog.

NAD: Do you live near the woods?

LOREN COLEMAN:

I live in a coastal city of 60,000, in the middle of one of the most forested states of the USA. In total, 95 percent of the land surface of Maine is covered in trees, and while I have lived among the soybeans and cornfields of Illinois, in an urban area of northern California, and in the urban setting of Cambridge-Boston, I am quite happy to have lived in Maine for the last twenty-five years.

NAD: Bigfoot & Loch Ness Monster. Tell us, once and for all, are they fantasy or real?

LOREN COLEMAN:

I accept the fact that a continued pursuit of these two cryptids is in the best interest of zoology.

Needless to say, it should be pointed out, there is not just "one" of each, but populations of both, if they exist.

But, once again, I am comfortable with saying, "I don't know."

NAD: UFOs. Tell us, once and for all, are they fantasy or real?

LOREN COLEMAN:

I have no opinion on these, as they are outside my areas of interest.

NAD: Please tell us more about yourself, the things you have done, what you would like to do, what you did today. What do you eat, what do you drive, what do you drink.

LOREN COLEMAN:

I see myself, more than anything else, as a "good Dad," much different than my "father."

My sons, although I guard that part of my private life dearly from the public, are all important to me.

If you saw me out in public, versus on television, in the last two decades, it probably was at one of my sons' baseball games, or soccer tournaments, or school events, or African drum performances.

I am passionate about this part of my life but keep it private.

To understand me, one has to also know my history: I am an antiwar Vietnam-era C.O. and pacifist, in which I had to fight my draft board, get letters of support from Bucky Fuller and Ivan Sanderson into my draft file, was arrested by the FBI for refusing the draft, ended up winning in court, and volunteered and did two years of alternative work in a juvenile hall in Illinois.

I am highly political, in my personal life and lifestyle.

I very much enjoy traveling, in line with my cryptozoological investigations, consulting, appearances, and lectures.

I don't go places without thinking if there is a nature area to view animals near where I am speaking.

For example, when I lectured at the Royal Alberta Museum, I was the guest of the museum director, as we trekked to see wood bison a few miles from the musuem.

When talking recently in Colorado, I just had to go to the Rocky Mountains to see elk, mule deer, and bighorn sheep.

If I go to urban areas, I like baseball, movies, and zoos. (Are you sure this isn't a dating service? By the way, I am straight, a serial monogamist, and after two divorces since 1969, I am in a break mentality. However, unlike the line from Jurassic Park, I am not looking for the next "Mrs. Coleman." The trick truth to that is that I only marry feminists, and neither one of my wives became a "Mrs. Coleman." Right now, yes, I am looking for love, but not with any great urgency. I am not dating anyone, and do not like long walks on the beach.)

Eating: For my entire life, I have steered away from fish, shellfish, and most other meats.
But in 1993, I became a full-time, absolute vegetarian, and soon thereafter, due to the discover of my inability to digest creamy dairy products, I am now as close to a dietary vegan as I can be. I am not a vegan in the sense of not dealing with dead animals around me, as I enjoy taxidermy objects in my museum.

I've never smoked, never really enjoyed drinking, don't do drugs, and have not been interested in alcohol for about 30 plus years now. (However, back to the dating theme, I don't enjoy watching long sunsets, and would rather be out in the woods looking for black panthers, non-political kind, during a full moon.)

I drive a 1996 4W drive station green wagon, which has about 150,000 miles on it and gets me around just fine in the snow up here. I'd like to have a new car (a Jeep or Range Rover would be nice), but I enjoy not having car payments and owning a "new car" does not interest me.

I consider globe warming real, based upon humans and volcanoes, and would enjoy owning a hybrid engine placed in an old Rambler, frankly. I would actually love to get an old automobile that looks like it is out of the 1930s (although I loathe the widespread appearance of the PT Cruiser). Indeed, my museum that is my house is mostly art deco (yes, you don't have to be a gay male to enjoy art deco).

NAD: What color is your toothbrush? [Without going to look.] Automatic or manual?

LOREN COLEMAN:

I only use a manual toothbrush. I have several toothbrushes going at any one time (with a couple in various suitcases, those being solid white because I get them free or in the vending machines at hotels), the ones I have around here are solid colors too (e.g. canary yellow, blue).

NAD: Pajamas or sweatpants?

LOREN COLEMAN:

Neither. I sleep in underwear or nude, depending on the circumstances. TMI?

NAD: Does your favorite coffee cup have words on it? What are they?

LOREN COLEMAN:

I don't drink coffee, only tea. I have one large tea cup that has a Santa Claus on it, which I like, but it has no words on it.

I am a visual person, and enjoy images more than words on things linked to my eating and drinking, I guess. The majority of the time, I use one of my Fiestaware tea cups (usually green, red, navy blue, or bright yellow). I like variety in my tea cups.

NAD: What did you absolutely have to get done by noon today?

LOREN COLEMAN:

Besides finishing this interview?

If I am not away traveling, I have a regular routine of getting up, reading and responding to my emails, doing a little writing (blogs, books, or articles).

If those go smoothly, and I don't have any media interviews or morning radio show appearances (like one coming up tomorrow for a UK station), I usually go out to do errands and check my downtown post office mail daily.

NAD: How about by Christmas 2009?

LOREN COLEMAN:

Go to a Red Sox game with my 19-year-old and 23-year-old sons.

Finish up so many writing projects that are due that I don't want to think about that.

Travel to a warm place and investigate a cryptid there.

Some of my fans perhaps do not still realize that the shy boy is inside there,
but I am glad this cryptozoologist is on TV,
travels the world,
and has so many fine folks as friends today.

NAD: How cool is it to be on TV?

LOREN COLEMAN:

First off, since I have been on television since 1969, it has become sort of routine but still is special. Unfortunately, since there is no direct correlation to being on television (having fame) and rolling in dough (having fortune), that seems to be a disconnect that lots of people don't get.

It is very cool to be on television, and anyone that says otherwise is lying to themselves or the interviewer.

People actually recognize you in the weirdest places, and as to my minor celeb status, I love it.

Perhaps it is a bother for the "big stars," but I'm not in that league.

Personally and psychologically, for a quiet Midwestern working class son of a professional firefighter, my media appearances and speaking engagements have allowed me an avenue to grow and relate to people.

Some of my fans perhaps do not still realize that the shy boy is inside there, but I am glad this cryptozoologist is on TV, travels the world, and has so many fine folks as friends today.

NAD: Did you get a free History Channel coffee mug?

LOREN COLEMAN:

Nope, but I did receive a History Channel baseball cap, however. LOL.

I will always be proud that Cryptomundo was able to publish the first images that resulted (in ten minutes) with the finding of the costume that matched the "body in the freezer."

NAD: The Georgia hoax thing. Was that hard on you? On others in the Bigfoot field? Do you think it made people even more skeptical? Do you care?

LOREN COLEMAN:

It was only difficult for me because certain vocal critics didn't understand that my few early open-minded statements about what was being presented was due to my interest in obtaining more data to analyze and expose the hoax.

As it turns out, lots of people were involved in pushing this one to its eventual conclusion, but I will always be proud that Cryptomundo was able to publish the first images that resulted (in ten minutes) with the finding of the costume that matched the "body in the freezer."

I, along with Jeff Meldrum and Matt Moneymaker, were targeted by the unholy three who were involved in the hoaxing.

The Georgia hoaxers burned my Bigfoot! on YouTube, and made gay jokes and burned Moneymaker in effigy later in the same clip.

The California promoter who got involved said Meldrum wasn't an anthropologist at the CNN News conference (even though Meldrum is).

The Georgia incident was a fiasco, but in the end, it was me, Jeff, and Matt that CNN, Fox, and other media outlets quoted as saying this was a hoax very early on (before the fakery was exposed).

We, of course, were right.

People should be even more skeptical. While there is no room for blind debunking anymore than there is for blind true believing, good cryptozoology involves heavy doses of skepticism.

Yes, I care.

NAD: What else would you like to add? What are some of your books? Your blogs?

LOREN COLEMAN:

People are welcome to read my more elaborate discussions on many of these topics in my over 30 books, including:

Mysterious America (NY: Paraview Pocket - Simon and Schuster, 2006)

The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines (NY: Paraview Pocket - Simon and Schuster, 2004)

Cryptozoology A to Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1999)

Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America (NY: Paraview Pocket - Simon and Schuster, 2003)

The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep (NY: Tarcher/Penguin, 2003)

Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology (Fresno, CA: Craven Street-Linden Press, 2002)

Mothman and Other Curious Encounters (NY: Paraview, 2002)

The Unidentified and Creatures of the Other Edge(NY: Anomalist Books, 2006).

The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates (NY: Anomalist Books, 2006)

They can read my words daily on my two blogs:

Cryptomundo

http://www.cryptomundo.com/

and

The Copycat Effect

http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/

Good talking to you.
Loren

_______________

NAD Trivia Question Answer:

None of the above, because:

a. Loren is a near-vegan, and neither hunts, fishes, or eats any kind of meat. He, however, has spent time in a boat on Loch Ness, so apparently this would be the closest answer to reality.
b. Loren only writes nonfiction.
c. He does not wish to go into politics.
d. The nonfiction answer applies here too.
e. What are Bionic Ears? Why sit in the dark?
f. While Loren would enjoy going to the Himalayas, he would be more interested in taking samples of the "yellow snow" to test the urine for DNA, but then also, Loren understands that the Yeti is not to be found in the snows of the area but the montane valleys, so he would not be "knee-depth" in "it."

[First published Feb. 27, 2009]

STEVE MOON — if you really, really want to know the whole truth about America [and the world] — Bigfoot has to be in there somewhere

2009-07-23T09:31:00.004-04:00

Steve Moon on recent BFRO expedition in Michigan

from the Patterson-Gimlin film, Oct. 20,1967, Bluff Creek, California

THE
New American Dream Interview

STEVE MOON, 55, lives in Iowa.

Steve is a native of southeast Iowa. He is a fine artist, and has long been a cave explorer and general outdoor adventurer. He is currently working as a professional research librarian.

Steve is an investigator for the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO).

____________________

The New American Dream Trivia Question:

To win something, be the last librarian in Louisiana to correctly answer the following.

Steve Moon would rather be ...

a. The star of "The Librarian," it should have been me
b. Sitting by himself, in the woods, at midnight, in Oregon, wearing his new Christmas Bionic ears, enjoying a cool Diet Dr. Pepper
c. Spelunking with Elvis
d. Putting his boot up the butt of the hoaxers in Georgia
e. President Obama's Secretary of Forest Creatures
f. Telling his "A Bigfoot, a priest and a rabbi walk into this bar," joke one more time in Julie's Cafe in Fayette.

____________________

NAD: Steve, hello, thank you for taking the time for this. You went to the University of Iowa in the 1970s. In six lines or less, could you tell us about your days of protest back then, against the Vietnam War? Those were very hardcore protests, from what I have heard, very serious, do I have that correct?

STEVE MOON:
The 1970s protests were hardcore because of the sharply defined barriers between the right and the left, but otherwise the period was what I would call very soft core because folks were real mellow when they weren’t talking politics.

The Kent State murders infuriated a lot of people, and when we protested the war we didn’t stand down because we were doing it for those four as well as for the draftees who were getting killed overseas.

By the early '70s the conflict in Vietnam was unpopular and seen as unsuccessful by most, and Lyndon Johnson finally realized that when Walter Cronkite said it was “unwinnable."

The media used to have power like that.

NAD: And so ... how does that progress into looking for bigfoot? In four lines or less. Six.

[When, how did you get interested in bigfoot research?]

STEVE MOON:
The movie “The Legend of Boggy Creek” really got me fired up when I saw it in 1972.

Then a few years ago I read Jeff Meldrum’s superb book Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, and I got fired up about bigfoot all over again.

I read about the BFRO in that book, looked them up on the Internet, and finally went on one of their expeditions.

Now I’m totally hooked. I think that for most of my life I’ve been looking for something because it might be there, whether it’s a cave, bigfoot or the perfect truck.

Now I’m totally hooked. I think that for most of my life I’ve been looking for something because it might be there, whether it’s a cave, bigfoot or the perfect truck.

NAD: Do your co-workers know about this hobby of yours? Is your family supportive?

STEVE MOON:
A few of my co-workers know about it, but even with the best of friends I still get these “oh boy, here we go again,” with the slightest mention of it.

I’ve actually been warned by my supervisor at work not to discuss it!

My wife is very supportive, and has an interest in the bigfoot phenomenon.

She blends a skeptical, devil’s advocate approach with a belief that it just might be real.

I’ve always taken off once a month to go caving somewhere, and now I go out looking for bigfoot instead.

NAD: C'mo-oon ... bigfoot? What do you hope to accomplish?

STEVE MOON:
If you go out in search of something that might be there, you want to prove that it does exist.

I’ve always had a strong motivation to serve the scientific community in some way, and I’ve tried to do that over the years with my caving whenever possible.

I’ve always had a strong motivation to serve the scientific community in some way.

I constantly record sound when I’m out searching, and I’m always ready to capture a photograph in panic mode. I document, study and try to interpret bigfoot sign.

NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer, elaborate on?

I don't ask this to make fun. I ask because I really seek the answers.

- Are UFOs real?
- Did we land on the moon in 1968?
- Did Bush knock down the towers?
- Was Paul Wellstone's death an accident?
- The Oklahoma City bombing? Wasn't that just another U.S. government terrorist exercise? Or not.
- Waco. We burned kids, right? You can see flames shooting out of the tanks. Or not.
- Is Bigfoot real?
- Is there a God?

- Is Bigfoot real?

STEVE MOON:
Yes.

... What makes you think that?

STEVE MOON:
I’ve spent my entire life going out into the woods and looking around, taking it all in, becoming as in-tune with nature as possible.

It’s been a major, major part of my life for forty-five of fifty years.

And in the last year I’ve seen things that, in light of the knowledge that I’ve gained about bigfoot from a variety of sources, can’t be interpreted as anything other than bigfoot sign.

And in the last year I’ve seen things that, in light of the knowledge that I’ve gained about bigfoot from a variety of sources, can’t be interpreted as anything
other than bigfoot sign.

NAD: Have you ever seen Bigfoot?

STEVE MOON:
I’ve seen them at night.

NAD: Why southeast Iowa? Is there a Dutch branch of Bigfoot that settled here at one time?

STEVE MOON:
They’ve migrated, just like we have.

NAD: Aren't they only in Oregon and Washington?

STEVE MOON:
They are much more prevalent than most people can imagine. They seem to be in all of the lower forty-eight states and Alaska. I’m sure they are in other places in North America as well.

They are much more prevalent than
most people can imagine.

They seem to be in all of the
lower forty-eight states and Alaska.

NAD: If there is a Bigfoot, and if some day that becomes common knowledge, what then?

Won't people just purchase non-resident Bigfoot licenses at Casey's, and won't that be the end of that?

STEVE MOON:
The goal is to recognize them as unique and protect them as such.

NAD: Does your favorite coffee cup have words on it? What are they?

STEVE MOON:
The Farnsworth House – Mies van der Rohe

NAD: What did you absolutely have to get done by noon today?
How about by Christmas 2009?

STEVE MOON:
Nothing.

I don’t absolutely have to do anything.

I choose to do things that I think will benefit me by the end of the day. Christmas 2009 is too far away for me to think about.

NAD: What else would you like to add?
What else should I have asked?

STEVE MOON:
Back in about '69 or '70 I traveled around the midwest a bit with my family and collected underground newspapers.

They were beautiful publications with wonderful illustrations.

I made the mistake of taking them to school one day. I was either a junior or a senior in high school.

The social studies teacher took them down to the principle who confiscated or destroyed them, same thing.

I was hurt, outraged, and determined from that day on to rage against the machine.

I'm still raging.

It's a very personal rage, but to participate is to disturb the particles ...

mOoner

_______________________

The following is one of Steve Moon's recent reports as listed on the BFRO website:

Report # 22147 (Class A)
Submitted by witness on Monday, December 10, 2007.

Artifact hunter describes an unusual daylight encounter in a public hunting area near Van Wert

YEAR: 1991

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: September

STATE: Iowa

COUNTY: Decatur County

LOCATION DETAILS: this is a public hunting area located north of hwy 29. not well maintained. roads rutted with some steap banks. is an old abandoned limestone quarry located inside a huge indian campground aprox 2000yr-5000yr in age.

NEAREST TOWN: van wert, ia

NEAREST ROAD: hwy 29

OBSERVED: i was an avid indian artifact hunter. surface finds, only. i got out of college classes early that day and decided to give it a go in a creek i hadnt been over for some time. as i drove down into the area i noticed a pickup parked with 2 gentlemen sitting on the tailgate in the shade from the hot sun. the truck was a ford, 2 tone in color. white over brown. i asked them if they were practicing and as to where so i could stay out of thier road. they said there was a special deer season open and they were tracking one? i walked to a different place than i had planned to hunt and told them where i would be. i walked over to the creek and started in.

i guess i was into the area maybe 50 yds and the truck didnt waiste anytime spinning up the hill. they came north and ond one guy jumped out and the other drove on north and got out. i found this a little disturbing and decided they might be hunting me? i climbed out of the creek in short order and was about to walk back to my truck and leave. as i came over the bank there was this [creature sitting on the ground leaning against a tree. It could have been 12 feet tall if it was standing up.] i was only 20ft from this thing. it was an oaf-looking creature sitting on its butt with its back against a large oak tree. it was sleeping with its hands and fingers locked together stretched out across its knees. there were massive amounts of leaves in its very long brownish hair which covered it head to toe including the face. and it didnt seem to matter what color or shade they were. the hair seemed to blend in perfectly. im wondering if its hair is hollow like a deers hair?

i honestly was completely shocked and all the hair on my body rose to attention. i recognized this thing from pics in mags and such. i felt nauseous and confused. as i hopped back into the creek out of sight from it it rose and bolted east right in the direction of those guys. i heard it cut across the gravel on the road and that was it. i never went back to that creek.

ALSO NOTICED: i have not been back to that exact location. as other witnesses have not since the sightings. i dont believe i own a firearm large enuff to protect myself.

OTHER WITNESSES: 2. i believe they were hunting it with compound bows and braodheaded arrows. i didnt know this until after the sighting.

OTHER STORIES: yes, strung out over the yrs. fishermen and hunters have seen this, but i believe there are at least 2 different creatures?

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 2pm clear sunny day. temp arnd 80 - 85 degrees. light breeze from south.

ENVIRONMENT: 2nd growth timber located directly above a large limestone mining pit on top a natural spring.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Steve Moon:

[Investigated by Steve Moon. Comments edited by Matt Moneymaker]

I interviewed this witness by phone. He was not able to see the face of the animal. The hair was an auburn color, and matted. Witness did not see the animal walk away, but heard it leave. Witness had jumped back into the creek bed he had climbed out of when he walked up on the animal, and heard it get up and move away quickly. When it did so it made a sort of growl or snort, sounding like heavy breathing more than anything else, and seemed to move as though not in a hurry.

Witness states that in about 1983 a buddy was deer hunting in the NW corner of the Dekalb hunting area when he drove up to a sasquatch standing behind a corner post. As he backed his truck away from the creature it walked away. The creature was about his own height, or about 6 feet tall.

Witness has been hunting this area for about thirty years and is very in tune with the environment there. After speaking with the witness about this incident, I concluded that he is a credible observer.

The Dekalb Wildlife Management Area is 21,070 acres, about three quarters of which is timber. There are two streams that bisect the area, numerous inactive rock quarries, and at least one large spring.

About BFRO Investigator Steve Moon:

A native of southeast Iowa, Steve has long been a cave explorer, and general outdoor adventurer. He is currently working as a professional research librarian.

Steve attended the 2008 Michigan Upper Peninsula Expedition, and will be attending the 2009 Michigan Upper Peninsula Expedition and the 2009 Manitoba Expedition

[First published January 2009]

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE — artist — for life

2009-07-21T19:58:00.004-04:00

The New American
Dream Interview

Russell Brutsche is an artist living in Santa Cruz, California.

NAD: Rus, hello, welcome.

When you began college back in 1964, what did you have in mind as a life's work?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE: I couldn’t have written out a 20 or even a 5 year plan at that time, but I sensed my work would be in art and in music, despite my high school career counselor’s warnings.

NAD: How did the war years affect that plan?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
Well, I was opposed to the Vietnam War, and expressed it through protest songs and posters.

Career-wise, it’s hard for a college-age kid to make a living in fine art, but with music, one can work bars and parties, and I may have done more of that had there been no war, but I took advantage of my college deferment by staying in school to complete my BA in art.

The war was still on when I graduated, so I applied for conscientious objector status, and when that was turned down I fasted and was able to fail the physical by being underweight.

"... so I applied for conscientious objector status, and when that was turned down I fasted and was able to fail the physical by being underweight."

NAD: How have your "plans" changed over the decades in between?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
Not a whole lot!

I picked up a credential to teach high school art, but didn’t fit into the 8-to-5 world that well.

Played music in a few bands, but found life on the road to be unhealthy for me, and turned back to art.

NAD: Are you able to make a living as an artist? Where do you sell your work?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
I could see early on that one burden my life-as-artist didn’t need was an everlasting monthly rent payment, so I hustled up enough money to make a down payment on a small house, which one could do without too much grief back in the early seventies.

Then I worked very hard making commercially appealing art (home décor, really) and selling it at art fairs and galleries.

But once my house was paid off, I adopted a very modest lifestyle, moved into the garage, rented out the house and began to do art that questions the status quo — which many people are actually hungry for, but as you can imagine, does not interest most art galleries.

"... which many people are actually hungry for, but as you can imagine, does not interest most art galleries."

Gallery art may appear bold, adventurous or “far out”, but if you really look deeply, you see that most of it is about style — it’s the consumer product people invest in once they have the house, the fridge, the carpet and drapes.

NAD: Who are your art heroes?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE: Edward Hopper, Maynard Dixon, Ernest Blumenshein, Nicholas Roerich, Irving Norman—and currently Sandow Birk…

NAD: You have a unique style. Is there a name for it? What format, mode, method do you prefer?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
That’s actually a quite common question, and I guess my quick-quip response is that if there were a general name out there for it, then it wouldn’t be unique … it could be lumped into “contemporary realism” or some such vague category … the best way to explain how I work is to say I start with a concept … pretty soon I’ve got a big mess going and I spend the remainder of time using all the tricks I’ve learned over the years to make the painting work… usually I can pull it together… doesn’t sound very professional, but it’s the truth.

NAD: What is your goal as an artist?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
Got a one-liner for that: I try to touch people the way I have been touched by the art I’ve seen.

NAD: Are you trying to change the world?

Or perhaps you just don't want to let the world change you?

... okay, here we go, here we go ...

Let's say you here about some atrocity in the world, perhaps the United States bombing some little country — and then say you go to your studio to paint something about that. Is that satisfying?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
“Satisfying” would be a big claim, because I know that though I’ve made my statement, the atrocity goes on—“fulfilling” might come closer because by painting it I’m engaged, not just mentally and emotionally but physically and, importantly, socially, as the piece is displayed —

I’m a “visual activist” so to speak ...

NAD: How did you make it through the Bush years?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
I had been fairly inactive for a while, but when the build-up to the Iraq invasion started, I joined a local group at our Resource Center for Nonviolence — we called ourselves “the Peacemakers," and we brought people like Medea Benjamin to town and organized vigils and rallies, and did some CD at the local recruit center.

We focused on process more than victory, to help avoid burn-out, but it was very discouraging at times.

NAD: Do you look forward to the Obama years?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
I do — as someone said, it’s primarily a victory over racism, not war, but I think he may listen.

We’re all curious at this point I think.

NAD: What are you working on now?

What are you looking forward to, in addition to Obama?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
I continue with the theme in my art of “inviting people to a life of voluntary simplicity."

I’ve done paintings witnessing the destruction of our social fiber and ultimately of our biosphere, but you know after a while you’re just complaining.

One of my issues is consumerism, what that word means on all levels — and so, as I portray its effects, I try to also offer, to viewers and myself as well, what seems to me a healthy antidote — a simpler life.

See Russell Brutsche's work.

www.mikepalecek.com
[covers for Iowa Terror and Guests of the Nation]

[First published Jan. 9, 2009]

MARC ESTRIN — an actual novelist from the left — in America

2009-07-20T20:24:00.008-04:00

The NEW AMERICAN
DREAM INTERVIEW

Marc Estrin is a writer, cellist, and activist living in Burlington, Vermont.

His books include:

Insect Dreams: The Half Life of Gregor Sams
The Lamentations of Julius Marantz
The Annotated Nose
The Education of Arnold Hitler
Golem Song

And his newest: Skulk.

Marc Estrin's "Skulk" is the sixth of his critically-acclaimed novels for lovers of intelligent fiction.

Radical prof Richard Gronsky is swept off his feet by T.L. Skulkington, a sassy, right-wing superstar, during one of her liberal-bashing talks.

Their romance struggles with political polarity until a run-in with Homeland Security brings Miss Skulkington's libertarian impulses to the fore, and "Skulk" is won over to Gronsky's causes — secession of the Free State of Kansas, and 9/11 Truth.

So begins the twosome's mad escapade to stage an Event and awaken the Sunflower State to The Issues of the Day.

Joining forces with a mysterious Santa, they take flying lessons, and steal a Cessna to crash into Santa's department store.

The reader is treated to a sophisticated parody of American political reality, a wild ride full of ironic twists and a stunning ending.

In the Afterword, Estrin discusses his strategy in "Skulk": to use comic fiction to probe dangerous real-world fictions parading as truth.

_____________________________

"His world line approximates a cross between a fungal mycelium and a Rube Goldberg device.

"Biologist, theater director, EMT, Unitarian minister, physician assistant, puppeteer, political activist, college professor, cellist and conductor, he is baffling, even unto himself.

"Estrin was hired to teach theater at Goddard College, but in this departmentless utopia, wound up also teaching music, writing, "Finnegans Wake," math, physics, medical self-help and "crazy courses" like Philosophy for Dishwashers, an audio-based lecture/discussion series to sweeten the life of cafeteria volunteers. Such are the fruits of liberal education.

"Estrin grew up in a small apartment so full of books you had to walk sideways in the hall.

Of these, he read not one — till age sixteen, when he gave up his literary virginity to Franz Kafka.
"The Trial" was his introduction to the larger life. This explains much. A mediocre student in high school, he was teased by his father into reading "The Magic Mountain" during the summer before college.

"Epiphany.

"The book was for him a topo-map of western thought and culture. With Mann as his guide, he sailed through college and grad schools, making a Hegelian leap out of graduate science into the richer, if iffier area of the arts.

"The Vietnam war and Bertolt Brecht were his siren callers into political activity, and his professional theater work dissipated into organizing, college teaching and communal living.

"When these ceased to put food on the table, he reached back into a past life to study and practice medicine. With the computer came the possibility of writing without retyping — a stimulus sufficient to have resulted in his current crop of manuscripts, published and unpublished."

NAD:

Hello, welcome.

When did you start writing?

Why?

MARC ESTRIN:

Started writing fiction at age 60 after getting a phone call from someone I know asking me to send him "a high-powered rifle with a telescopic sight."

Why?

So he could shoot black people from his window in the upcoming war between blacks and Jews in NYC.

So he could shoot black people from his window in the upcoming war between blacks and Jews in NYC.

The whole thing was so weird that I wrote down the phone call, then just developed that: what else might a guy like this think or say or do?

The result was my first novel ms, which ended up as "Golem Song," published second.

NAD:

Do you have a "real" job.

Do you make your living as a writer?

MARC ESTRIN:

I was downsized from my real job, and we took a fifty percent salary cut without much change in our way-simple lifestyle.

I now live off my good wife: she works while I play all day being a writer.

NAD:

What are the topics of your books?

MARC ESTRIN:

Five so far are comedic dealings with different, serious cultural/political topics — among them, racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, religious hysteria, the contemporary plague, 9/11 truth, the pathology of "chosenness".

My last finished ms is my first non-comedic one, my death-penalty book, a historical novel-with-essays on the first use of the guillotine in revolutionary France.

The ms I'm currently working on is a study of the controversial death of Tchaikovsky, also not too funny.

The contents of all of them can be seen on my webpage.

NAD:

You are a musician.

In what way does that enhance or add to your writing style?

MARC ESTRIN:

Absolutely.

I am constantly thinking in musical terms: sonata form, theme and variations, key, modulations, melody.

I am constantly thinking in musical terms: sonata form, theme and variations, key, modulations, melody.

I'll be using some printed music as part of the Tchaikovsky book, as I did in a still unpublished novella about God living on the street in a '96 Hyundai.

I like very much to try to write about music as the ultimate challenge for prose. My first wondering if "I could ever do that" was back in college, reading Thomas Mann's descriptions of music, especially the remarkable chapter on Beethoven op 111 in Doctor Faustus.

It took forty-five years for me to actually try it, but you'll find big music sections in most of my novels.

Music also keeps me sane, unlike politics which makes me crazy.

Together they balance out so I can have some neutral space to write.

NAD:

What do you hope to accomplish with your books?

MARC ESTRIN:

Get my readers, small in number though they may be, to think about some things they may not have thought about, and to share with them some things I love or find really interesting.

NAD:

What do you think of the recent presidential election?

Are you hopeful?

MARC ESTRIN:

Four more years.

Obama is only a more presentable face for the ongoing project of American corporate capitalist militarist hegemony.

Obama is only a more presentable face for the ongoing project of American corporate capitalist militarist hegemony.

Like Clinton, whose administration he is raiding like crazy, he may be as dangerous as Bush because more subtle and "acceptable" in the world.

He wants 100,000 MORE troops in the military, with a concomitant military budget increase to sustain them.

He wants to invade Afghanistan and Pakistan for a more successful pursuit of the War on Terror. He voted for the Patriot Act.

He is for the death penalty and No Child Left Behind. He is against single payer health care. He was the major arm twister in getting Dems to vote for the bailout.

He doesn't give two shits about the Israeli occupation of Palestinian.

His post-election appointments are mostly appalling.

What's to be hopeful about?

NAD:

What are you working on now?

MARC ESTRIN:

Finishing up the guillotine novel, taking a million notes for Tchaikovsky, pondering a non-fiction book about how come I ended up being a comic writer.

Lots of cello playing and choral singing.

NAD: How do you know Mike Palecek?

MARC ESTRIN:

Hmm. I don't really remember. I've read some of his books, blurbed one, and was a great fan of his travels. I share his politics, I think, and also his frustration with both politics and the future of politics in literature.

NAD:

What else would you like to talk about, anything we should have asked, but didn't?

MARC ESTRIN:

Hard to say since I don't know what all this will be used for, what format, what audience, what the website wants to focus on.

The whole question of "political fiction" is quite interesting to me.

My faithful editor is trying as hard as he can (if not totally successfully) to keep politics out of my books.

My faithful editor is trying as hard as he can (if not totally successfully) to keep politics out of my books.

He and I share much of our analysis, but his feeling is that — at least with literary fiction, my genre — current politics limits the shelf-life of the work, and reduces its dimension.

It's a constant struggle against the notion that art and politics don't mix. I would think this is an issue that might interest the folks I imagine to be your readers.

[First published January 6, 2009]

Lorraine Krofchok & Grannies For Peace

2009-07-19T10:06:00.001-04:00

When Barbara Wiedner learned she was terminally ill
__________

... she asked Lorraine Krofchok
to continue Grandmothers
for Peace.

GFP family John & Marie Kiene
and their 10-year-old
granddaughter Pearl, Lorraine Krofchok,
and Cindy Sheehan (October 15, 2005 in Sacramento, CA)

The New American

Dream Interview

LORRAINE KROFCHOK lives in Elk Grove, California.

She is the director of Grandmothers for Peace International, an organization founded in 1982 at the height of the Cold War.

The group was founded by Barbara Wiedner of Sacramento, who lived fifteen minutes from Mather Air Force Base. She became aware of 150 nuclear weapons at the base, aimed at the Soviet Union, and made her think that if things did not change, her grandchildren could be part of the last generation on earth.

"That thought catapulted me 'out of my kitchen,' to join others at the gates of Mather in protest of the nuclear arms race. My granddaughter made me a sign that read 'Grandmother for Peace,' which I held at weekly protests. That sign attracted a great deal of attention from the public and media."

When Barbara learned she was terminally ill she asked Lorraine Krofchok to continue Grandmothers for Peace.

Lorraine was not a grandmother, but Barbara knew that and said biology was never a requirement.

Lorraine says she did not "take over, but is taking care of a beloved organization." There is no requirement for membership because "grandmother" is a concept of love and caring--there is no age, biology, or gender required!

_______________

The New American Dream Trivia Question:

To win a round button that says, "Bush Is Lying About What He Knew," be the first one to correctly answer the following.

Lorraine Krofchok would rather be ...

a. Director of Grandmothers For Pizza b. A finalist on American Idol c. Cooking on TV d. Coaching soccer e. Anywhere but Sacramento f. Telling Bush a thing or two, in private

_______________

NAD: Lorraine, hello, thank you for taking the time for this.

How long have you been with Grandmothers for Peace?

How did you get the director's job?

LORRAINE KROFCHOK:

I joined GFP in 1990, well before the age of the possibility of being a grandmother because I liked the concept and the people in the organization.

I became director when Barbara found out she was terminally ill and she asked me to continue. Actually, she saw a video of an interview at the SOA protest at Ft. Benning and knew I could do the job.

But, we were friends from the beginning of my association in GFP since 1990.

NAD: Doesn't that keep you very busy?

LORRAINE KROFCHOK:

It keeps me very busy and it could consume my life if I let it.

I like to have "my other life" though--and that is a love for music and the theater.

NAD: Why do you think that your group has such broad appeal?

LORRAINE KROFCHOK:

"Grandmother" is a feeling of love and caring.

We have a broad appeal because people can do as much as they want, but can also be a part of GFP in any way they want — making phone calls, writing letters, standing on corners with a sign, active in the political process or, as one woman wrote me "It is SO good to be able to write a letter and sign it "Member of Grandmothers for Peace!

NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer, elaborate on?

We don't ask this to make fun. We ask because we really seek the answers.

— Are UFOs real?

— Did we land on the moon in 1968?

— Did Bush knock down the towers?

— Was Paul Wellstone's death an accident?

— The Oklahoma City bombing? Wasn't that just another U.S. government terrorist exercise? Or not.

— Waco. We burned kids, right? You can see flames shooting out of the tanks. Or not.

— Is Bigfoot real?

— Is there a God?

... What makes you think that?

LORRAINE KROFCHOK:

Bush didn't "directly" knock down the towers, but he did ignore the August memo.

I think his handlers had a "buzz" that something was going to happen and "let it go" because Bush was already falling out of favor.

However, they had no idea how BIG the event would be.

I think they believed it would be a "terrorist" attack of some sort, a shopping center, school, activity, but nothing on the scale of the WTC.

It became the "opportunity" to promote the agenda of the neocons--the event they were waiting for.

NAD: How did you survive the Bush years?

LORRAINE KROFCHOK:

The Bush years were survived by the activism I did, along with the help and dedication of Grandmothers for Peace and the solidarity groups all over the world.

NAD: Do you anticipate having to survive the Obama years, struggle through — or do you have hopes for something better?

I don't hope for something better from Obama, I expect it.

LORRAINE KROFCHOK:

I don't hope for something better from Obama, I expect it.

He has a huge job and I don't expect instant change, but I want to see the steps to peace and undoing the disasters of the Bush years.

NAD: What do you think about the election of Obama?

LORRAINE KROFCHOK:

It was an amazing experience to be part of history.

Fifty years ago a Black man could not go in the same door as a White person, nor drink out of the same water fountain.

It made me so proud that so many saw beyond and it was a goose bump moment in time to see how the rest of the world reacted.

I literally could feel the world breath a sigh of relief at one second after 8 p.m. Pacific time when the projection for Washington, Oregon, California came in and it was announced "Barack Obama is the 44th President of the US."

I was absolutely hysterical with joy and hope — and knowing it was the end of an error.

Obama will not do everything for all, but we can only proceed with steps — and that usually means two steps forward and one step back.

It is a difficult path, but at least we can be finished with the stumbling, destructive path of the Bush years.

NAD: Please tell us more about yourself, the things you have done, what you would like to do, what you did today.

LORRAINE KROFCHOK:

I really don't like past history. I have lived in many places.

Grew up in New Jersey, lived at Lake Tahoe, Southern CA, Northern CA, Phoenix, Atlanta and now in Sacramento.

What I would like to do, or see is some kind of peace come to this country and a sense of living without intense militarism.

NAD: What did you absolutely have to get done by noon today?

LORRAINE KROFCHOK:

Nothing!

NAD: How about by Christmas 2009?

LORRAINE KROFCHOK:

Oh, dear, I don't have long term goals anymore — just live a few days ahead — plan for a few months!

BUT, I hope to make plans to go to the big party and Fiesta at Ft. Benning when we hope the SOA will finally be closed!

NAD: Have you been arrested? Been in jail?

LORRAINE KROFCHOK:

No.

NAD: How has your activism been accepted by your family, friends?

LORRAINE KROFCHOK:

There is not much choice. I do it. They accept it or not.

NAD: What else would you like to add? What else should we have asked?

LORRAINE KROFCHOK:

Not much else.

I try to stay focused on what is asked!

NAD: Please insert a link here to something you would like linked to, with a brief tag re: where that link goes:

LORRAINE KROFCHOK:

http://www.grandmothersforpeace.org

Grandmothers for Peace International, working for peace since 1982 and everyone is welcome!

_______________

Trivia question answer:

LORRAINE:

Doing what I am doing, but would love to be cooking on TV!

And as far as telling Bush a thing or two, he doesn't listen to anyone and does not care. Why waste the energy?....

[First published Feb. 21, 2009]

DALE CLARK — there's a brave heart that beats in the desert

2009-07-15T08:34:00.002-04:00

Dale Clark, in Five Magazine

CRAWFORD, TX - AUGUST 22:
(L-R) Kris Kennedy Williams from Bisbee, Arizona,
Dale Clark from Tombstone, Arizona
and Jean Colton from Tucson, Arizona
relax in a 'Food Not Bombs' bus at the anti-war protest
near US President George W Bush's ranch
August 22, 2005 in Crawford, Texas.
The anti-war gathering
began when Cindy Sheehan,
who lost her military son Casey in Iraq,
setup a vigil asking to speak with President Bush.
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Dale Clark website

"With the Children's Memorial, and with my life, I want to say, 'Love and respect all humanity because that's what we are.' We are not exclusively right or exclusively wrong.
____________
"We are, all of us, going through this process of realization. Where we are now is our highest truth, but it is possible to move to a higher truth, without negating where we stand now.

"Individuals,         nations, and even the cosmos, are always changing.
____________
"With this Memorial         I hope to
inspire respectful conversations from many perspectives."

Dale Clark and Rick Burnley at Camp Casey III

Dale Clark, First breath: May 31, 1923, Osborn, Kansas ... Idaho graduate, high school ... boy scouts ... violin ... winking ...model airplane ... industrial design ... photography ... girls ... student instructor ... industrial design ... married student: Malvina ... graduated Cooper Union Art School, 1948 ... hitchhike and walk to California ... Los Angeles ... freelance designer ... first child: Serena ... instructor: Chournard Art Institute ... second child: Gregory ... started Architectural Art Studio ... gliding ... third child: Daniel ... lived aboard 36 foot sail boat - four years ... closed $100,000 business ... sailed Mexico - two years ... reopened business ... 200 murals and sculptures 2, 3, 4 stories high ... built and lived on 60 foot steel sail boat and floating barge studio ... hypnosis ... yoga ... meditation ... fourth child: Lore ... divorced, raised three children alone ... Santa Barbara ... built studio home ... film art director ... workaholic ... met Vijali - artist - former Hindu nun ... married ten days later ... want a more simple life ... learned to say no to architectural art commissions ... meditation ... Italy - carved marble ... developed metal painting technique: gold and silver plate on copper, oxidized and etched ... attended art festivals ... meditation ... India ... art shows: New York City, Japan, Europe ... national art gallery representation ... painful. friendly divorce ... EST ... floating barge studio home ... new art tools and processes ... giggling ... dance away ... al-anon ... winter studio home - Mexico ... women ... workaholic ...grandchildren: Billy, Sita, Sierra ... great-grandchild: Forest ... horizons ... Great Peace March ... set up house made from 16,000 sticks of dynamite on White House mall ... new film and art studio run on solar power, Bisbee - Tombstone, AZ ... continued exploration of inner and outer worlds ... film producing: 35mm, 16mm, video ... last breath? ... Next possibility???

http://stupidwise.com/index.html

THE
New American Dream Interview

DALE CLARK, 85, lives 10 miles north of Bisbee, Arizona, in what could be described as an art compound, filled with his studios, projects, and out in the front yard is a boat, a thirty-six foot sailboat that Dale lived on for four years — when it was in the water.

There is a stop light outside his home on a "road" of rocks and more rocks, with only the desert in sight.

He was born in Osborn, Kansas and graduated from Cooper Union Art School in 1848, then walked to California.

He made a coffin and brought it to Camp Casey. He made a memorial to the children killed in Iraq. He makes portable housing for the homeless.

NAD: Dale, hello, welcome.

You have been married a few times. You have a few children.

So you were able to somehow mold family life into a lifestyle that has been like one of your art projects, a giant middle finger pointed toward Ozzie & Harriet's front door.

Or, perhaps you don't see it that way?

DALE CLARK:

I don't.

NAD: Cooper Union sounds to me like a very good, very elite, very expensive school — right?

How did the whole process of deciding to go there and being able to go there, go?

DALE CLARK:

I won a scholarship to four years of night school at Cooper Union.

NAD: And then you walked to California. Out of necessity?

Weren't you married at the time? How does that work?

Do you recommend it?

DALE CLARK:

Walked and hitch hiked with my pregnant first Malvina.

It wasn't out of necessity, it was for the adventure.

NAD: You probably have made quite a bit of money with your art, and could be making more?

Are you living a voluntarily simple lifestyle?

Is there a religious basis for that?

Or what?

DALE CLARK:

I've made a bit of money selling art and have been lucky with real estate in California.

But, yes, I live a voluntarily simple life style.

And, yes, I have a strong spiritual background honoring all saints and sages of all religions.

NAD: What is your passion today?

When you woke up this morning, what did you feel you had to get done before supper time?

DALE CLARK:

I am building box houses for the homeless and making a small village of box houses to be a gesture toward living way below the USA level. (check out my website)

NAD: What type of art do you do? What is your favorite?

You also make movies.

Why do you do art, make movies?

DALE CLARK:

I am blessed and cursed with a drive to produce art for economic greed and now for awareness that we live in super challenging times with ten thousand nukes when I've been told that 200 nukes could return us to the age of dinosaurs.

NAD: Talk about a couple of your many, creative projects, in five lines or less.

DALE CLARK:

The portable box house shelters for emergency (man made or natural disaster) and tooling up so they could be made and sold or given away to the homeless and/or groups suppling temporary emergency shelter.

The box houses measure approx. 3' x 3' x 6.5'.

Several of the box houses are tricked out so that they will float in protected waters, fit abandoned railroad tracks, and also equipped with skis and ice skates, and can be pulled along by a large kite, on land or on the abandonded railroad tracks.

I'm going to be shooting a video of the box house village and the interaction with seven people living in box houses with a little communal kitchen and social area with emphasis on minimizing the use of gasoline, depending on renewable energies such as wind and photovoltaics charging batteries that power a small electric tractor that powers 95 percent of our hauling, (gathering firewood, hauling food,etc.).

NAD: What else would you like to add? What else should I have asked?

DALE CLARK:

Ain't that enough?

NAD: Please insert a link here to something you would like linked to, with a brief tag re: where that link goes:

DALE CLARK:

Check out my website: www.stupidwise.com

There you go Mike

PS: Am interested in getting groups that would like to build box houses using the tooling and lessons learned in a little over a year of discovery.

[First published April 9, 2009]

BARTCOP.COM — an Okie, not from Muskogee

2009-07-13T00:09:00.001-04:00

"Poppie Bush, yeah,
the BFEE's been in power
since Hitler, or before,
and they're up to no good.
__________
That's why the stock market crashed.
That's why there are no jobs.
That's why the treasury's empty.
__________
That's why the world trade centers fell,
all because of the Bush bastards
and their greed,
and the idiotic Democrats,
who refused to fight back,
who refused to list the facts."

Bart likes Shirley Manson, too

__________

Chinaco's more of a ceremonial
thing, more like a peace pipe,
you get my drift.

A bottle lasts me, these days,
maybe a month, maybe two.

__________

And they said, no, no,
you're the crazy one.
Rush is God.
He knows everything.

I said, no, no, he's a dork
and he's fat and he's stupid.

__________

THE
New American Dream Interview

BARTCOP is a popular Democratic blogger from Tulsa, Oklahoma, active on the web since 1996 and who has produced his own internet radio show since 2004.

"Bartcop.com" and "Bartcop Radio" consist principally of commentary on the politics, written/spoken in a down-to-earth style from a Democratic perspective, and laced inextricably with humor. Scathing criticism of George W. Bush and other Republicans, and sometimes other Democrats, is omnipresent in Bartcop's "rants".

Although a serious political commentator (i.e., his site is not satire), Bartcop sometimes describes himself as primarily a comedian. The constant witticisms and humor that define his page have gained him a large and loyal readership.

Bartcop is an ardent Bill Clinton loyalist. He supported Hillary Clinton's bid for the presidency in 2008, and had been an outspoken opponent of Barack Obama, splitting with the majority of the liberal Blogosphere and causing much controversy from late 2007 up until June 2008, when Sen. Obama secured enough delegates to carry his party's nomination. Since then, Bartcop has thrown his full support behind Sen. Obama.

Bartcop.com was established in February 1996 with the name "Rush Limba, Lying Nazi Whore", a reference to popular conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, intentionally spelling his last name phonetically).

This name remained for many years.

Bartcop.com now is the masthead for several websites. Bartcop has launched a radio show, available to financial supporters of Bartcop.com, and many of the site's readers frequent the #bartcop IRC chat room.

NAD: Bart, hello. Thank you for taking the time.

Where are you from originally.

BARTCOP: I was born in St. Louis, Missouri. I grew up a Catholic. That's part of the reason I'm so twisted.

NAD: How did you get into website publishing? Why?

BARTCOP: Well, as you might know, I've got a smart mouth, always had a smart mouth.

And in 1993 my boss said, "Bart, you ought to try this Internet thing, it's brand-new.

No one even knows about it, but I've got a feeling you'd like it. You can buy a computer for $700.

So, I went and bought a computer, and I thought, look here, you can get the weather in New Delhi! Like anyone gives a fuck what the weather is in New Delhi. I guess it's Mumbai now.

But there wasn't a whole lot to do, there weren't a whole lot of people on line. So I signed up with Prodigy. At that time there was AOL, Prodigy, Microsoft Network.

One of the subjects they had was "Radio," and I clicked on there and found Rush Limbaugh, and I expected everybody talking about what a dork he was. But no, they were saying "Rush is great." "Rush knows everything." "Rush is God."

_______________

And I wrote back, you dudes do know he's kiddin', right?
It's all just a big joke.
He doesn't think that way.
He just found a way to make some money,
by saying the ridiculous.

_______________

And I wrote back, you dudes do know he's kiddin', right? It's all just a big joke. He doesn't think that way. He just found a way to make some money, by saying the ridiculous.

And they said, no, no, you're the crazy one. Rush is God. He knows everything.

I said, no, no, he's a dork and he's fat and he's stupid.

And his fans would write back and say, "Bart, you suck."

And I'd list the ten lies he told that day and instead of either refuting them or saying, you got it wrong and here's why, they wrote back and said, "you suck."

Well, that's not really an answer.

It got to whoever could insult the other the better I felt won the argument.

So, I started saying bad things about those who disagreed with me.

And after awhile it got old, because it was the same old people, so I branched off and started sending out a little newsletter by email.

And as time went by that hit the eyes of Marc Perkel. And he wrote back and said, "Hey, I like your stuff, you ought to put it into a webpage.

I thought, "What's a webpage?"

And he said, "I can do it for you." So each time I sent him an email he put in on a webpage.

And then he wrote back and said, "Hey, why don't you take five minutes and learn HTML and you can post your own stuff and I don't have to bother with it.

And I thought, now, there's a lot of power in a monkey's hand.

Anyway, so that's how I got into website publishing.

NAD: Where did the name Bartcop come from?

BARTCOP: I do not know.

I haven't done an interview for probably five years, but I probably did five or six interviews before that, and every time the question came up I'd give a different answer.

I remember one time saying I bought my house from a cop.

Anyway, I do not know where it came from.

I must have been in a drunken stupor in the '60s. No, in '96, when that happened.

NAD: How many times have you been asked that?

BARTCOP: One-hundred twenty-one.

NAD: Do you and Mrs. Bart really drink Chinaco?

BARTCOP: Well, strangely, not so much.

Mrs. Bart prefers margueritas, maybe a marguerita a month. She's not a hard liquor hound. That's not coming out right, either.

Generally I only drink Chinaco at the start of a show. Sure, now and then there'll be a ballgame, come on, or this or that.

Let me tell you, I had a shot of the good stuff when Obama took the oath. It had some real tequila, if you know what I mean.

Chinaco's more of a ceremonial thing, more like a peace pipe, you get my drift. A bottle lasts me, these days, maybe a month, maybe two.

You don't sit down and just chug it, like I did back in the day.

NAD: Is it Tulsa moonshine?

BARTCOP: No, Chinaco, like all tequila, is made in, I think it is, Jalisco, Mexico. If it's not from Mexico, it ain't tequila. Just like all champagne has to be from France. You can't get champagne from northern California. You can get sparkling something-something, but you can't get champagne, because that's the definition of it. Words mean things, as a Nazi pig once said.

NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer and elaborate on?

— Are UFOs real?

Where certainly there are unidentified things in the sky. I've seen them myself. We went to Area 51, I think it was '98, and we saw shit in the sky that was unexplainable, and it was very strange. Hey, that light in the sky that just made a hard-right turn, a right-angle turn. Planes can't do that. I wonder what that was.

There was crazy shit in the sky, but I don't believe in the little green men. If the little green men. If there really were people from other planets, flying from planet to planet, they would be more technologically advanced. They could just land and say, we're taking over.

— Did we land on the moon in 1968?

No, we did not, and anyone says we did is a liar.

And I pity the fool who wants to get into a debate with me did we land on the moon in 1968, because it was 1969.

And, of course we did.

— Did Bush knock down the towers?

We don't know.

All we know about the towers is that Bush lied about what happened that day, and he refused to talk about anything that happened that day without his nanny there, couldn't be under oath, had to turn off all recorders, nobody could take notes.

We know for sure that Bush and Cheney are lying about 9/11. That's all we know for sure.

And the Democrats never challenged them. The Democrats just said, hey, whatever you say happened, happened, and we're fine with that. Thank you, Lee Hamilton.

— Was Paul Wellstone's death an accident?

Aaah, hard to say.

All we know about the Bush administration is that they're lying to us about everything.

Paul Wellstone, it's my understanding that he's the type of guy who might have chained himself to the Capitol doors and says, you're not gonna attack Iraq as long as I'm alive.

And if he did that, he might have started the peace movement early. He might have been the Cindy Sheehan two or three years ahead of time, and he might have prevented that invasion.

And that invasion had to go down because there was too many hundreds of billions of dollars to be stolen. And you try to get in a greedy oilman's way when there's hundreds of billions of dollars to be stolen, and they will kill you. Please. They'll kill you for fifty dollars. You don't think they'll kill you for five hundred billion dollars. Use your damned head.

— Is Bigfoot real?

Well, no, just like the UFOs, if there's something out there, c'mon, as time goes by, surely one of 'em got struck crossing a highway or something.

Matter of fact, two weeks ago, we were in Fouke Monster territory, in lower eastern Arkansas.

Matter of fact, that's where Mena airport is. We were thirty-forty miles from the Mena airport. I was gonna go by and look at it. Just because there's some of you weird people who think Bill Clinton flew in cocaine to Mena airport. No, it was the Bush bastards that did that. The Bush bastards the governor of Arkansas and said the CIA needs to use one of your airports. Would you mind keeping the state police away from it and don't ask a lot of questions.

And the governor of the tiny state of Arkansas said yes to the CIA and yes to the president, I think is what happened. Bill Clinton didn't do anything but honor a request from the White House.

— Is there a God?

Oh, Mike, you kidder, you.

Of course there's no God. The idea that you always do the right thing because in thirty or forty years when you get to the pearly gates you're gonna have to explain it to St. Peter and then Jesus.

No, there is no God, and people who say there is are afraid, no, they're hopin' there is. They would really like for there to be a God.

There gonna find out. No, they're not gonna find out, 'cause when you die, your brain shuts off.

There's not even a chance to say, I told you so.

NAD: A daily webpage. Isn't that a lot of work?

BARTCOP: Yes, it is.

I think one way to look at it is kind of the Robbie Knievel principal, you know, there's not a lot of people putting out a webpage — not that I do every day — but it is a lot of work, and the websites that publish daily, the Huffington Post, Buzzflash, I've got a feeling those are teams of people. Goodness knows the Daily Kos has got a thousand people making him rich.

Yeah, there is a lot of work, not that it's hard work, it just takes so much time.

NAD: You used to sell cars, too, right? Are you able to do just the website now?

BARTCOP: Actually, I never sold cars. I might have sold a car or two, because I was the only one there when somebody went to lunch, but I was the finance man. They would come haggle with the salesman, and they would bring that person to me, and I would turn him down and the owner would say, no, no, no, we need the business, go ahead and buy that.

And that's how the page got started. I ended up with a lot of time on my hands. I was able to go from a couple of hours at night. We used to do a page a week, and when I ended up with a lot of time on my hands, started doing a page a day, and that kicked off the big Bartcop.com.

NAD: You started off in 1996. That's a million years ago in cyber years. You must have been one of the first. How many readers do you think you have?

BARTCOP: Well, there is no telling.

Years ago we had what we thought were about two million readers a month, and then that counter broke. I asked Marc Perkel what happened. He said, that counter won't handle the traffic you're generating. But I could pay a hundred a month for an accurate counter, or at least I could back then. I didn't want to pay a hundred a month for an accurate counter.

So, you just don't know. There's all kind of different ways to measure it.

Nobody knows.

But we know there are dozens of readers.

NAD: Please tell us more about yourself, the things you have done, what you would like to do, what you did today.

BARTCOP: I don't like to talk about myself, 'cause I'm not very important.

The things I have done ... well, I built the webpage ... that's about it.

What I would like to do ... well, in the time I have left, I don't know. Mrs. Bart wants to see Alaska. And it might be kind of fun to run around the country, you know, just jump in the ol' Bartmobile, head west, go to Vegas and then San Diego, then up the coast and then Seattle, and then over there, to Chicago. That'd be kind of a fun thing to do.

What I did today? I woke up. I put sixteen bags of green tea in the little percolator there and ate me a bowl of cereal and started workin' on the page. It's 12:30 now. That's pretty much what my day is, I make some green tea, eat a bowl of cereal. Sometimes I go to the post office, do this and that, go to the store. Basically, I work on the page until Mrs. Bart gets home.

It's funny how rapidly things go by. You wake up you sit down and you start fiddling with the computer and the next thing you know, it's six o'clock, and you've lost 10-12 hours, like on the X-Files.

Basically, it's the green tea that keeps me going. And speaking of, next month is five years since I got the bad news and next month there's a Friday the 13th. So I think I'm going to do a radio show on the 13th, just to celebrate my un-dead ass.

NAD: Have you ever met Shirley Manson? Has she ever written or called?

BARTCOP: No. And I've got something to say about that. I'm going to be so bold to say that she might even be a little rude, not having ever contacted me.

Now, you think, Mr. Self-Important, he thinks yeah, yeah, yeah. But years ago I found out, and it was a great tribute, but it semi pissed me off.

Her guitar player, Steve, the bald one, when you went to his page, and this is so cool, someone sent it to me one day and said, Bart, you're on Steve, the Garbage guitar player's webpage, and I couldn't find anything, and then I scrolled over the word "Yes," and there it said Bartcop.com. And I thought, that's so cool, my name wasn't on there, but it said Bartcop.com.

It must have made some kind of impression on him, and if you read the page you can't help but see her picture. Surely at some point he went up to her and said, hey, there's this liberal nut guy who's got your picture on his page every day, kind of a weird thing.

Not that she owes me anything, but she could write and say, Bart, thanks for the appreciation. If I'm ever in K-Drag I'll come by and see ya, kind of lie that people tell, ya know.

But no, I have not heard from her. No phone call, no email. Nothing. Shame. Shame, shame on the Shirley.

NAD: What's up with your love of the Clintons?

BARTCOP: Well ... I might object to the phrasing.

I think Bill Clinton was the most talented politician I'd ever seen, and I'm a political observer. So, it's like being a football fan and watching Kurt Warner throw the ball. If you're a boxing fan, you might appreciate seeing Ali in his prime.

That's really all it is. Clinton's got his problems, his defects and imperfections, that we all do, but he was the best there was, and I'm sure that as time goes by, somebody will eclipse him. Obama might even.

Obama doesn't have that go for the throat ... you know, in boxing when you get a guy hurt ... you gotta wail on him ... you just gotta go downtown, tear him up, and Obama, he doesn't ... he'd rather get along.

Obama certainly has potential for greatness. I wish him success.

NAD: Do you have hope in Obama?

BARTCOP: Yeah, I do.

His whole thing is getting along, but when you're dealing with fascist dogs, I don't know ... can you be nice to a rattlesnake ... that's the whole thing about the scorpion who hitched a ride on a turtles back, stung him, and said, hey, I'm a scorpion, that's what I do ... dumb ass!

Bein' nice to the Republicans, that might be a fatal mistake. We won't know until it plays out.

NAD: How bad do you dislike George Bush Jr.?

BARTCOP: Well, I don't think we have time for that?

NAD: Do you also dislike Reagan and Bush Sr.?

BARTCOP: Well, Reagan was a dork, and a dupe, and a patsy.

Poppie Bush, yeah, the BFEE's been in power since Hitler, or before, and they're up to no good. That's why the stock market crashed. That's why there are no jobs. That's why the treasury's empty. That's why the world trade centers fell, all because of the Bush bastards and their greed, and the idiotic Democrats, who refused to fight back, who refused to list the facts.

You watch, in a few years, Poppie Bush will die, and the idiot Democrats will line up a hundred-deep to tell what a great president he was, and say, twenty years from now, Bill Clinton's going to die and line up a hundred-deep and tell about what a lying son-of-a-bitch he was, and how he destroyed American, and the idiot Democrats are just unable to learn.

Gee. I should mention that on the page sometime.

[First published April 17, 2009]

SANDER HICKS — THE rebel entrepreneur

2009-07-11T00:04:00.001-04:00

Sander Hicks

In 1996, he founded Soft Skull Press, Inc.

In 2003, Hicks was star of "Horns and Halos" (HBO/Cinemax)
the independent publishing documentary that recorded Hicks’s attempts
to get unpopular truths out about G.W. Bush,
through the biography Fortunate Son (Soft Skull, 1999).

Hicks has reported for Alternet, GNN, Long Island Press, New York Press,
and INN World Report Television (FSTV, Dish Network).

He has worked on Wall Street, as a playwright for Playwrights Horizons
and New Dramatists,
and as a shift manager at Kinko’s.

____________

In 2006, he was elected to lead the Cortelyou Road Merchants Association,
in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

That same year he was a US Senate candidate from the Green Party.

Sander Hicks in L.A. with We Are Change

His own book, The Big Wedding (Vox Pop, 2005) broke
new ground on the working-class intelligence assets and
whistle-blowers who tried to stop 9/11 from happening.

Sander Hicks is one of the most colorful media activists of his generation. He runs the Drench Kiss Media Corporation's retail dynamo, "Vox Pop." The place for "Books, Coffee, Democracy," Vox Pop is a vibrant, fair-trade, community-empowering, consciousness-raising space, on Cortelyou Road, in Flatbush, Brooklyn. In three years, Vox Pop has spawned new activist groups, redefined "community development", and published a muck-raking tabloid, The New York Megaphone.

In 1996, he founded Soft Skull Press, Inc. (acquired in 2007 by Winton & Shoemaker). In 2003, Hicks was star of "Horns and Halos" (HBO/Cinemax) the independent publishing documentary that recorded Hicks’s attempts to get unpopular truths out about G.W. Bush, through the biography Fortunate Son (Soft Skull, 1999). His own book, The Big Wedding (Vox Pop, 2005) broke new ground on the working-class intelligence assets and whistle-blowers who tried to stop 9/11 from happening. Hicks has reported for Alternet, GNN, Long Island Press, New York Press, and INN World Report Television (FSTV, Dish Network).

His website is www.sanderhicks.com/. He has worked on Wall Street, as a playwright for Playwrights Horizons and New Dramatists, and as a shift manager at Kinko’s. In 2006, he was elected to lead the Cortelyou Road Merchants Association, in Flatbush, Brooklyn. That same year he was a US Senate candidate from the Green Party.

He was on tour this February, and and he will be speaking in detail about the strange death of 9/11 Truth Researcher Dr. Graham. He posted 9/11 Researcher Sander Hicks Files Complaint with DOJ which details his trip to Louisiana and Texas and the strange behavior of the FBI regarding Graham before and after his death.

____________

Friday, February 6, 2009

Sander Hicks Leaving Vox Pop

From Sander's blog:

Why I Resigned From Vox Pop

I’m moving on from Vox Pop to take a job in alternative energy financing, building the winder water and waves systems of tomorrow.

Vox Pop’s total sales last year were $414K. I feel really good about where I’m leaving the company’s valuation.

Debi Ryan will be the new CEO. She’s been training with us to take over. She’s brilliant and nurturing, a true Queen Mother who it is delightful to work with. I’ve personally worked alongside her all week doing rehab on Vox Pop Cortelyou. She’s a hard worker and has a great track record of growing companies, and leaving them profitable at $17 MM a year.

I just want to say that the game has changed in this country, now that Obama is in office, I think certain hybrid systems of capitalism/social consciousness could be tried. It’s time to grab bigger “guns,” in a nonviolent way. I need a bigger platform on which to work. I’m projected to be managing a Bond Fund that is going to put $100 MM into alternative energy. Compare that to running a coffeehouse company that just pulled in $414K in sales. Sort of pales in comparison.

Vox Pop Inc. I love ya, but I just gave you five years of my life, I poured my sweat and blood and splinters of my own flesh in your wood, gutting and building that place with Ross and the help in 2004. Vox Pop Inc. I held you close in the divorce, I took care of you, I wouldn’t let you die, I was the keeper of the torch for you, our little bastard child. I made you profitable and robust, you can go off with Debi now.

I’m off.

I’m into creating the systems that will destory Exxon/Mobil.

Not through violence, but a divine nonviolent form of warfare: financial. Competition. Energy delivery that is cheaper than oil. We’ll create those companies, we will birth them, put them together, fund them, incubate them, and let the hatchlings go. We will put $100MM into the marketplace and be funding all kinds of alternative energy research and conventions. The time is now.

Sincerely,

Sander Hicks

PS: this is NOT effective immediately, I will continue to help with the direct work of rehabilitating Vox Pop Cortelyou, and tomorrow I will be back at work grouting the new bit of granite I laid today in the entrance way! Vox Pop is still in my blood, but a period of transition is indeed upon us. May God have mercy on our souls

THE New
American
Dream Interview

OK, here I am ahead of schedule.

My answers are kind of short, I'm sleepy,
ask me more questions if you need too
....we should talk about Dr. David Graham's death.
____________

I read your book "Guests...." and finished it today.
It was GREAT.

Solid. Literary, unravelled and a little non linear and free,
unlike any other 9/11 writing I've seen.

I really enjoyed it.

I got it from Betsy Metz in Philly.

SANDER HICKS, 37, lives in Brooklyn.

He is the founder and former editor of Soft Skull Press.

He is the author of The Big Wedding: 9/11, The Whistleblowers and the Cover-up.

He formerly operated Vox Pop, a Brooklyn coffee house, bookstore and publishing company.

Sander is also a playwright and songwriter. He was lead singer for White Collar Crime from 1996-2003.

More about Sander Hicks:
http://www.sanderhicks.com/index.html
http://www.sanderhicks.com/wcc.html

____________

The New American Dream Trivia Question:

To win a round button that says, "Bush Is Lying About What He Knew,"
be the first one to correctly answer the following.

Sander Hicks would rather be ....

a. Bill Hicks ... no, he's dead, but it would be cool to be that funny, and not be dead, yet

b. On the barricades, in Brooklyn, a Victor Hugo novel in one hand and a Michael Moore DVD in the other

c. President Nader's First Press Secretary

d. Lead singer for the Statler Brothers

e. A Barnes & Noble magnate, in a big office on Fifth Avenue, with a distant view of Brooklyn

f. Watching a game in the old Yankee Stadium

g. Guiding a tractor down an icy dirt road in Iowa, just get me away from all this culture crap.

____________

NAD: Sander, hello, thank you for taking the time for this.

Where are you from?

SANDER HICKS:

Falls Church, Virginia.

NAD: What did you start out wanting to be?

SANDER HICKS:

"An FBI agent, or a truck driver." I remember writing that in like 5th grade.

NAD: Is there still time?

SANDER HICKS:

Time is running out.

NAD: Where do you think your internal fire comes from?

SANDER HICKS:

Being raised by working class people who had struggled to make a better life for me, being raised by Catholics who had a lot of edge and will-power, and also problems communicating.

NAD: You are an entrepreneur, a risk taker, an innovator, and a rebel.

How does that all fit together?

SANDER HICKS:

Well no one wants to work a job they hate.

An entrepreneur tries to use that and make a better way to make a living.

So an entrepreneur is a rebel, but a rebel with a business plan.

NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer, elaborate on?

I don't ask this to make fun. I ask because I really seek the answers.

— Are UFOs real?
— Did we land on the moon in 1968?
— Did Bush knock down the towers?
— Was Paul Wellstone's death an accident?
— The Oklahoma City bombing? Wasn't that just another U.S. government terrorist exercise?
Or not.
— Waco. We burned kids, right? You can see flames shooting out of the tanks. Or not.
— Is Bigfoot real?
— Is there a God?

SANDER HICKS:

I'm very interested in the Wellstone death and I do think it was a hit.

I published the book "American Assassination" to make that case.

OK City was a kind of dry run for 9/11, the Federal Government got away with a lot and learned how much they could get away with.

Waco was just brutal, genocidal, and those people were radical Christians, too.

NAD: Do you have hope in Obama?

SANDER HICKS:

Despite my admiration for him personally, his cabinet appointments make him look like he's going to be a huge disappointment for a lot of people.

Gates? Clinton at State?

NAD: What happened to Kucinich, Nader, McKinney, Paul — and why did they not have a chance?

SANDER HICKS:

Money.

NAD: Who decided our candidates would be Obama and McCain anyway?

SANDER HICKS:

Party hacks, brown-nosers and aparatchiks.

NAD: You run a bookstore.

Do you have hope that people will start reading? Or, maybe that's not how you see it.

Is the novel dead?

SANDER HICKS:

No, I just finished a good novel today, it was called Guests of the Nation.

NAD: The social novel, like Grapes of Wrath? The Jungle, like that.

Does it matter?

SANDER HICKS:

You bet it does.

But the web changes everything, it changes what we expect and demand from print.

NAD: Does your favorite coffee cup have words on it? What are they?

What did you absolutely have to get done by noon today?

SANDER HICKS:

I slept in.

It's still the Christmas season, sort of.

[First published March 17, 2009]

KEITH McHENRY, Food Not Bombs co-founder

2009-07-10T09:52:00.002-04:00

The American Dream, cover art by Keith McHenry

Also see: Keith McHenry, An American Hero

Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs

By 2003 infiltrators started to encourage Food Not Bombs volunteers to organize and participate in a number of acts of property destruction.

_______________

The Sacramento Field office of the FBI paid a college student named Anna $75,000 to volunteer with Food Not Bombs.

Food Not Bombs, art by Keith McHenry
FNB

A year before the Republican National Convention in Minnesota the FBI, working with the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department, sent four people to join the local Food Not Bombs group.

THE

New American Dream Interview

Food Not Bombs co-founder, KEITH McHENRY was born in Frankfurt, West Germany in 1957 while his father was stationed there in the army. His paternal great, great, grandfather was Dr. James McHenry, who signed the United States Constitution and served as a general in the Revolutionary War and as Secretary of War under George Washington he founded the U.S. military.

His paternal grand father was a ranger with the National Park Service. Keith's paternal grandmother Bona Mae (Ford) McHenry picked cotton as a child in the New Mexico Territory.

Two of her uncles, Bob and Charlie Ford joined Jesse Jame's gang in 1882 and killed the famous train robber for a $5,000 reward. Her uncles were the subject of several popular folk songs.

Keith's maternal grandfather was an intelligence officer for the U.S. Army during World War II and helped plan the fire bombing of Tokyo and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

He also was a lawyer in the Massachusetts State Attorney General's Office. Keith's great great grandfather Charles Vanderpool designed the dynamo and co-founded the General Elecrtic Company.

Keith's mother Martha got her degree from Wellesley College, raised her family and ran their farm on Cape Cod.

Keith moved with his family to Logan, Utah in 1958 where his father worked for Morton-Thiokol testing Minuteman Missiles while he worked on his Masters Degree in zoology at Utah State.

Coincidentally, C.T. Butler's father also worked at Thiokol in Utah during this time.

However, Keith and C.T. did not meet until 21 years later at a protest of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station in 1979. After leaving Thiokol, Keith's father worked for the National Park Service and Keith lived in the National Parks at Yosemite (CA), Yorktown (VA), Grand Canyon (AZ), Big Bend (TX), Shenandoah (VA), and the Everglades (FL).

By the fifth grade Keith started camping in the wilderness on his own. He played in the wild desert of Big Bend, Texas joining in games of basketball with the Mexican kids across the Rio Grande. He was stricken with cholera and the only one of 27 who lived.

In 1974, Keith began studying painting at Boston University and worked afternoons, weekends, and summers as a tour guide and museum curator at the historic Old South Meeting House where the Boston Tea Party began. After college, Keith worked three years for the National Park Service at Fire Island Seashore as a sign painter and two years giving presentations about the American Revolution at Boston National Historic Park.

He also worked many places including the Boston Paint Company, Budget Car Rental, Reilieys Roast Beef, and at the famous Passim Coffee House in Harvard Square. Keith was active with Clanshell Alliance and made trips to Seabrook, New Hampshire to protest Nuclear Power and organized actions in Boston, New York and Washington D.C. for peace in El Salvador and Iran, alternative energy and organic gardening as well as protests against the draft, drug testing, the Contra War in Central America, the nuclear arms race and many other issues.

Keith owned an advertising firm called Brushfire Graphics in Boston. He designed calendars, ads, and brochures for the Boston Celtics, the Boston Red Sox, the Environmental Protection Agency, and a multitude of commercial and alternative businesses. He won several Clio Awards for his designs.

His anti-nuclear war street art became the subject of an Off Broadway play called Murder Now! and a film called The Sidewalk Sector. Years later he worked as a graphic designer for Hallmark Cards and produced a full color weekly magazine in Kansas City.

Keith and seven friends started the first Food Not Bombs chapter in 1980 in Cambridge.

They participated in street performances with music, theater, puppets, literature, movies and food every week in Harvard Square, provided food to most of the housing projects and shelters in the Cambridge area, produced a free concert with free food in a park, organized and provided meals at protests all over the east coast.

After eight years of serving free food and doing graphic arts work in Boston, Keith moved to San Francisco where he started a second Food Not Bombs group.

Since then, Keith has been arrested over 100 times for serving free food in city parks and he has spent over 500 nights in jail.

In 1995 Amnesty International and the United Nations Human Rights Commission joined thousands of supporter in working for his release.

He faced 25 years to life after being framed under the California Three Strikes Law, because of his Food Not Bombs work. He also co-authored and illustrated the book Food Not Bombs: How to Feed the Hungry and Build Community which has sold more than 10,000 copies in four languages. The 20th Anniversary English edition was published in Tucson by See Sharp Press.

His work with Food Not Bombs also appeared in Amnesty International's Human Rights Report in 1995, No Trespassing by Anders Corr, Interviews With Icons by Lisa Law and in Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

There is a chapter about him in 50 American Revolutions You're Not Supposed to Know by Mickey Z and his work on the UnFree Trade Tour are detailed in Por el Reparto del Trabajo y la Riqueza by Jose Iglesias Fernandez published in Madrid, Spain. The movements Keith helped start are featured in a number of books including Recipes for Disaster CrimethInc. ex-Workers' Collective, Food Not Lawns, How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community, by Heather Coburn Flores and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements by Sandor Ellix Katz. Keith's character has appeared in several novels including Walking to Mercury by Starhawk and Homes Not Jails by Michael Stienburg.

He is also featured in a number of documentaries including The Art of Being Mayor by Steve Tobin and Flashing on the Sixties by Lisa Law For the entire list of books visit the Food Not Bombs books webpage.

He was the recipient the 1999 Local Hero Award by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Resister of the Year in 1995 and the Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness gave him the Advocate of the Year Award in 2006.

Keith was also a pioneer in the Low powered FM radio movement and a co-founder of San Francisco Liberation Radio. He is a co-founder of the October 22nd No Police Brutality Day protests and he helped start Indymedia and the Homes Not Jails squatters' movement in the United States. He coined the term "freegan" while dumpster diving in Edmonton, Canada on the Rent Is Theft Tour.

In 1997 Keith helped organize and participated in the UnFree Trade Tour of North America where the idea to shut down the World Trade Organization in Seattle was first proposed. He has been maintaining the Food Not Bombs web site since 1994 and he still updates many of the movement's publications. Keith has been touring the world helping start Food Not Bombs groups and supporting existing chapters.

He is also writing a book about the movement and his travels will be part of a documentary filmed and produced by Australian journalist Liz Tadic. Liz featured Keith's work in Nigeria on SBS-TV's Dateline.

In 2005 Keith helped collect the food and prepared the meals for the activists participating in Cindy Sheehan's Camp Casey protest in Crawford Texas. After camp Casey he helped coordinate America's largest food relief effort organizing bus and truck loads of food, kitchen equipment and volunteers to provide support for the people that survived Hurricane Katrina.

That same year NBC-TV reported that the Pentagon classified a 2004 protest Keith helped organize against torture as an on-going, creditable terrorist threat. According to internal government documents the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force has been investigating and disrupting Food Not Bombs groups all across the United States. ABC TV's program 20/20 claimed Keith was one of twenty people planning to destroy New York City during the Republican National Convention in 2004.

Keith's name was in a New York Times article where they published a U.S. State Department list of the 100 people who were not free to travel outside the country to attend protests. Keith was taken off a flight from Heathrow to Chicago by Homeland Security. During an hour of questioning the contents of his wallet was input into a Homeland Security data base. Even so he still travels often and has visited Food Not Bombs groups all over Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas.

He is currently focusing his attention on the global economic crisis, building the Food Not Bombs movement and organizing World Peace Week in Taos.

He speaks at colleges and universities about the history, principles and current actions of the Food Not Bombs movement. He also leads workshops on non-violent direct action and speaks about the history and methods of domestic spying in the United States.

He helped open the Taos Peace House and Infoshop volunteering with the local collective. He works on the Taos Food Not Lawns Community Garden and cooks each week with Taos Food Not Bombs. He enjoys swimming, riding his mountain bike, hiking, camping and cross country skiing. His main passion is painting, drawing, graphic design and illustration.

You can see his art and learn more about Keith on the website below. Keith is also the co-founder of the Taos Peace House and Infoshop. He helps staff the peace house and works with events.

_______________

The New American Dream Trivia Question

To win a copy of one of Palecek's books, or leftover Christmas candy, or maybe a "Deception Dollar," be the first one to correctly answer the following.

Keith McHenry would rather be ....

a. Eating a little less of this vegetarian crap
b. Anywhere without all this adobe crap
c. Meeting Karl Rove in the alley behind Shadows Lounge & Grill
d. Headed to a John Prine concert
e. Curled up, with his Northern Exposure collection, surrounded by food, not bombs
f. Headed to a Natalie Merchant concert

_______________

NAD: Keith, hello, thank you for taking the time for this.

Why is the government so excited about Food Not Bombs? What makes them come after you?

KEITH MCHENRY:

In 1988 the San Francisco Police started to arrest us.

We soon learned the Bechtel, Chevron and Bank of America had met with the San Francisco Police Intelligence Department concerned that the public might believe that their tax dollars should be used for things like healthcare, education and other human needs.

According to internal police documents the visibility of so many people coming to eat at Food Not Bombs caused the defense contractors in San Francisco another concern that city taxes would be raised to provide help for the homeless.

Police memos also pointed out that if Food Not Bombs shared food without a permit that other people might feel that they too could organize projects without requesting permits from the government.

In 1989 we learned that the U.S. Defense Department considered Food Not Bombs "one of America's most hard core terrorist groups."

We also discovered that my home phone had been wire taped by the San Francisco Police in September 1988 when we were provided with a San Francisco Police memo.

NAD: Has it happened recently?

KEITH MCHENRY:

In the two years before the November 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle the FBI, Interpol and other intelligence agencies became even more concerned about Food Not Bombs.

The UnFree Trade Tour in 1997 visited 60 cities in the United States and Canada explaining the dangers of the trade agreements proposed by the WTO.

The tour also urged everyone to participate in actions against the next meeting of the WTO to be held in North America. An Interpol agent joined the tour and while he was disruptive he was not able to stop Food Not Bombs effort to organize the huge protest in Seattle.

The success of the "Battle of Seattle" inspired an increase in concern about Food Not Bombs.

A number of articles and books started to be published claiming nonviolent direct action was ineffective. The tradition of holding nonviolence training before actions was discouraged and a culture promoting the belief that nonviolent change as unrealistic was encouraged by U.S. intelligence agencies.

By 2003 infiltrators started to encourage Food Not Bombs volunteers to organize and participate in a number of acts of property destruction.

The Sacramento Field office of the FBI paid a college student named Anna $75,000 to volunteer with Food Not Bombs.

She disrupted the Food not Bombs kitchen in Miami during the protests against the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas Meeting, helped sabotage the 2004 World Gathering of Food Not Bombs that was planned for the Republican National Convention in New York and stopped the final plenary of the 2005 Philadelphia Gathering.

She encouraged three West Philadelphia Food Not Bombs volunteers to ride with her in an FBI provided car to a number of actions in the United States ending up at a home that was provided by the FBI in Dutch Flats, California.

The car and house were bugged.

The FBI provided Anna with blasting caps and a book on how to make bombs. When it was clear Eric, Wren and Zachary wouldn't bomb the suggested dam, the FBI raided arresting the three Food Not Bombs volunteers.

Eric was convicted and is serving a 19 year prison sentence.

_______________

Food Not Bombs was first listed as a terrorist group
in 1988 and as far as we know this designation continues to this day.

_______________

A year before the Republican National Convention in Minnesota the FBI, working with the Ramsey County Sheriffs Department, sent four people to join the local Food Not Bombs group.

The four infiltrators proposed fire bombing bus loads of Republicans and other acts if violence.

The Food Not Bombs volunteers mistook these proposals as jokes until the morning before the convention when riot police and the FBI raided three Food Not Bombs cook houses at 8:00 am.

Eight cooks where charged with the Minnesota version of the Patriot Act and are facing decades in prison.

Food Not Bombs was first listed as a terrorist group in 1988 and as far as we know this designation continues to this day.

It is hoped that President Obama will see the logic in taking us off this list and pardon the nearly twenty Food Not Bombs volunteers sitting in prison.

NAD: You are a grassroots entrepreneur, sort of, right?

What is your most recent project?

And you are most often successful. Why? How?

KEITH MCHENRY:

You might say I am a grassroots entrepreneur.

I have helped start a number of popular projects like Food Not Bombs based on the principles of decentralized non hierarchical organizing.

I helped start the October 22nd No Police Brutality Day, Homes Not Jails, San Francisco Free Radio and many other grassroots projects. The most recent project is the Taos Peace House and World Peace Week.

I believe these projects have been successful in creating the Do It Yourself culture that is popular today.

We set out to inspire people to adopt the idea that we could build a new society.

Our communities would organize collectives or affinity groups organized around solving or providing basic needs.

Each collective would use consensus to make decisions and would reject the idea of following a leader.

We reclaimed public space and promoted the ideas of Temporary Autonomous Zones. Seeing that the corporations had seized society we set out to take it back.

Total noncooperation with the corporations and the governments they control was promoted and today thousands of young people across the world have adopted this lifestyle.

NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer, elaborate on?

We don't ask this to make fun. We ask because we really seek the answers.

— Are UFOs real?

... What makes you think that?

KEITH MCHENRY:

I have seen a few UFO's so they looked real to me.

I saw a flying saucer in 1982 while sitting in War Memorial Park in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I was camping in Organ Pipe National Monument when everyone in the campground watched UFO's flying around the desert for hours into the evening.

One UFO we saw that night had more than a five mile long wing span and traveled very slow.

_______________

I believe capitalism is ending and those people
who are visionary are working to return to reality.

_______________

NAD: What caused the financial crisis? In four lines or less. Six.

KEITH MCHENRY:

The design and focus of the economy caused the financial crisis.

Investing in stocks and other unreal concepts was bound to be a failure.

I believe capitalism is ending and those people who are visionary are working to return to reality.

It won't be long before people see that food, water, clothing, natural healthcare, shelter and other basics should be the focus of the economy.

NAD:Do you have hope in Obama?

Why?

Why not?

KEITH MCHENRY:

I hope people use the election of Obama to mobilize for real change.

So far he isn't thinking outside the box in any major ways.

The stimulus package is a big disappointment.

Rather than more nuclear power, cars and highways the hundreds of billions he plans to spend could be going to the construction of a national passenger rail system, the development of household solar and wind power generation and the planting of organic community gardens.

He should ignore Wall Street and if anything organize an orderly plan to close down the stock markets.

It is unrealistic to think capitalism can continue.

Capitalism must end if we hope to slow climate change and end war and hunger.

Obama's first act should have been to call on all Americans to plant a vegetable garden this spring. After that he should have taken the TARP money from the banks and given it to people that can build home wind and solar power generation.

He should redirect the military funding towards the national passenger rail system.

There should be a total ban on evictions and every house should be powered by its own solar or wind system. Withdraw all homes from a central power grid as soon as possible and turn that system towards powering passenger trains.

It is also a huge mistake to send more troops to Afghanistan.

Even the U.S. appointed president of Afghanistan wants a time table for all U.S. troops to withdraw.

Obama was elected because the American people believed he would bring about the change that the peace, social justice and environmental movements had been working towards for decades.

Obama hasn't appointed even one progressive to any position even though we are the ones who put him into office.

Obama's capitalist agenda will continue to fail providing the people with the opportunity to build a new non hierarchal culture with a focus on the basics.

Because Obama is intelligent it is possible he will wake up and join the people in seeking realistic solutions to the global economic crisis.

His position as president could be of help if he started to encourage the public to organize locally and face the fact that the current economic and political systems are coming to an end.

He could support a smooth transition or work to save the current failed system.

So far he appears to believe that it is possible to continue our failed consumer based society.

It does seem that many Americans understand that Obama is leading the country along a path of failed policies and it is important that as community activists we provide a way for people to organize.

The collapse of the system could catch many Americans off guard so it is up to us to develop a frame work .

This is one of the main focuses of the Food Not Bombs movement, and why I am involved in organizing World Peace Week in Taos, New Mexico.

_______________

The collapse of the system could catch many Americans off guard, so it is up to us to develop a framework.

This is one of the main focuses of the Food Not Bombs movement, and why I am involved in organizing World Peace Week in Taos, New Mexico.

_______________

NAD: Does your favorite coffee cup have words on it? What are they?

What did you absolutely have to get done by noon today?

How about by Christmas 2009?

KEITH MCHENRY:

My coffee cup is wordless.

I need to sweep the the floor of the Taos Peace House by noon today, and by Christmas 2009 I intend to have the first draft of my memoirs in the hands of an editor.

NAD: What else would you like to add? What else should we have asked?

KEITH MCHENRY:

Stop shopping and start planting this summer's garden!

NAD: If you would like — please insert a link here to something you would like linked to, with a brief tag re: where that link goes:

KEITH MCHENRY:

The Food Not Bombs Movement
http://www.foodnotbombs.net/

Keith McHenry
co-founder of the Food Not Bombs movement
P.O. Box 424
Arroyo Seco, NM 87514 USA
575-776-3880
1-800-884-1136
keith@foodnotbombs.net
www.foodnotbombs.net
"Food is a right, not a privilege."

[First published March 5, 2009]

2009-07-08T20:16:00.007-04:00

FAAARRR OUT!

Greenpeace Activists Arrested After Hanging Banner on Mount Rushmore
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070802246.html

Obama: "America Honors Leaders, Not Politicians"

__________

A
The New American Dream Editorial

Far Out!

Dear President Obama:

You are already in danger of being just another Clinton.

Afghanistan? Pakistan? Health Care? Bailouts? Honduras?
What's up with all that, fist-bumping black dude?

If it's not in your DNA to bomb Iraq, "reform" welfare, increase prison construction,
and let Leonard Peltier rot in prison
— you still have a chance to make something of your life.

Greenpeace is giving you some tough-love good advice.

DIGEST: U.S. General says 9/11 story is a fraud — NYC CAN, William Blum, Kevin Barrett & ... Who IS This Guy? ... AND SOA Watch Goes To Honduras

2009-07-07T00:06:00.004-04:00

Major General Albert "Bert" N. Stubblebine III,
head of all intelligence says:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daNr_TrBw6E

•Pentagon NOT hit by a plane
•WTC 7 brought down by explosives
•Media in America is controlled

_______________

Protesters Attacked
in Des Moines on July 4th

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kirk Brown
Date: Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at

"Liberty for Torture?"
4th of July action in Iowa report by Kirk Brown

Protesters attacked in Iowa on 4th of July

Spurned on through the recognition of humanity in the suffering of warnvictims, torture victims, and victims of corporate economics; four people celebrated independence in protest at Raccoon River park and Lyons Park in West Des Moines and Urbandale on the fourth of July.

One person handed out leaftets explaining
why a person might be opposed to military recruitment.

One person dressed as a Guantanamo detainee carried a sign asking, "Liberty for Torture?"

Another waved an adbusters American flag
which has corporate logos where the stars typically are.

At Raccoon River Park the protesters were actually chased down by handfuls of people who yelled, cursed and threatened them with physical death.

This is the same place where a lady pulled a knife on Renee Espeland and Eddie Bloomer of the Des Moines Catholic Worker last year. Bright spots in the afternoon were those moments where a person or family would come and offer support.

In West Des Moines and Urbandale, Iowa the freedom for dissent comes at the cost of
withstanding verbal and physical attacks as the protesters were to be shown at both places.

Groups of 10-12 people formed perimeters around the protesters at Lyons Park some asking questions and having conversation, others in the groups
surrounding the four protesters would holler and all of that.

One young man got so angry that he lunged
upon a protester and a few minutes of utter chaos ensued.

Surprisingly no one needed medical attention after the attack.

Encouragement came when a sister and mother of a soldier killed in Iraq came to talk to the protesters, tears were in the mother's eyes as she told them of her dead child and left saying she respected what the protesters were doing.

The exchange was a solemn occasion underlining the grisly cost of war.

The red haired sister was maybe 7 or 8 at most.

Two very different views of liberty came
to a head at two regular old parks in two regular old towns in Iowa.

One view says that human life is an
acceptable cost in the overall price of war,torture and economic disparity.

The other says that human life is the cost but it
is a price not worth paying and it is a price that in paying one loses liberty.

It is with the refugee, the torture victim and the poor that
our liberty is bound, and it is them; the other, that we are free for.

Kirk Brown -former DMCW
kbmw36@yahoo.com

_______________

http://www.nyccan.org/

While we were sleeping,
some folks were fighting to get our country back

NYC CAN files petition
— to bring about a real investigation into 9/11

_______________

William Blum:

By what standard shall we judge Barack Obama?

Many of my readers have been upset with me for my criticisms of President Obama's policies. Following my last two reports, more than a dozen have asked to be removed from my mailing list.

But if you share my view that the numerous atrocities US foreign policy is responsible for constitute the greatest threat to world peace, prosperity and happiness, then I think you have to want leaders who are unambiguously opposed to America's military adventures, because those interventions are unambiguously harmful.

"Why does the military bring entertainers to soldiers?

To lift the soldiers' spirits.

Why does the military want

to lift the soldiers’ spirits?

A happier soldier does his job better.

And what’s the soldier’s job?

All the charming things listed above."

There's nothing good to be said about dropping powerful bombs on crowds of innocent people, invading their land, overthrowing their government, occupying the country, breaking down the doors of the citizens, killing the father, raping the mother, traumatizing the children, torturing those opposed to all this ... Barack Obama has no problem with this, if we judge him by his policies and not his rhetoric.

And neither does Al Franken, who's about to become a Democratic Senator from Minnesota. The former Saturday Night Live comedian would like you to believe that he’s been against the war in Iraq since it began, but he's gone to Iraq four times to entertain the troops. Does that make sense?

Why does the military bring entertainers to soldiers? To lift the soldiers' spirits. Why does the military want to lift the soldiers’ spirits? A happier soldier does his job better. And what’s the soldier’s job? All the charming things listed above.

Doesn't Franken know what these guys do? He criticized the Bush administration because they “failed to send enough troops to do the job right.”

What “job” did the man think the troops were sent to do that had not been performed to his standards because of lack of manpower?

Did he want them to be more efficient at killing Iraqis who resisted the occupation?

— William Blum

The Anti-Empire Report

http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer71.html

____________

"NSA's Security force is reportedly primarily tasked with

plugging any leaks of classified or other information

that points to U.S. government involvement

with the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001."

Just In From Kevin Barrett:

http://truthjihad.blogspot.com/2009/07/4th-of-july-madsen-report-high-treason.html

4th of July Madsen Report:

High Treason at NSA

Former National Security Agency officer Wayne Madsen is reporting a sickening cover-up of high treason and mass murder. In a story headlined "NSA Security running amok to plug leaks about 9/11" Madsen writes:

"WMR has learned that the National Security 'Q' Group, responsible for security, has grown to an immense security and counter-intelligence force, with an estimated one thousand government employees, contractors, and paid informants. NSA's Security force is reportedly primarily tasked with plugging any leaks of classified or other information that points to U.S. government involvement with the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001."

If anyone can find the names, addresses, and phone numbers of those in charge of the NSA's National Security "Q" Group, please send them to me at truthjihad(at)gmail.com or POB 221, Lone Rock, WI 53556 so that I can investigate this story and, if it pans out, post the traitors' home addresses and phone numbers on the internet.

Happy Independence Day, fellow patriots!

____________

And finally...
from almost eight years ago —

this guy told us on TV
that the towers had collapsed
due to structural failure.

• How did he know?

• Who is he?

• Who planted him, paid for him?

Note: The Bush government planned and carried out 9/11. Those folks need to be walked or dragged into a U.S federal court.

• Why?

• Just because the truth is important.

"Mostly due to structural failure because the fire was just too intense."

Who Is This Guy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf-qWfT6IAM

... and who paid him to lie to you and cover up a mass murder?

____________

And, finally, finally

-------- Forwarded message ----------
From: SOA Watch
Date: Sat, Jul 4, 2009

SOA Watch to Join
Honduran Social Movements

Funds are Needed for Emergency Response to Military Coup.

The situation in Honduras remains extremely tense
following the June28 military coup
by graduates of the School of the Americas
(SOA/WHINSEC).

For the last six days, SOA Watch has been in constant
communication with pro-democracy organizers in Honduras.

We are pressuring the State Department and the White House with street
protests and an online actions to ensure the unconditional
reinstatement of President Zeleya.

However, the calls from our partners in Honduras
have made it clear to
us that we need to go a step further.

SOA Watch has decided to join
the Honduran social movements on the ground.

A small SOA Watch delegation is going to meet with members of the National Resistance
Committee tomorrow and will join them in the streets.

SOA Watch's Latin America Coordinator Lisa Sullivan,
the former SOA Watch Prisoners of Conscience
Laura Slattery and Father Joe Mulligan,
SOA Watch activist Kent Spriggs
and others are currently on their way
to Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

The resistance to the military coup
that is taking place right now in
Honduras is a Honduran struggle
and a struggle of the Americas,
at the same time.

The outcome will affect all of us for years to come.

International accompaniment
can have a big impact and save lives.

http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=546

You can mail your contribution to:
SOA Watch, PO Box 4566, Washington, DC, 20017
or Click here to donate online: http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=546

DIGEST: U.S. General says 9/11 story is a fraud — NYC CAN, William Blum, Kevin Barrett & ... Who IS This Guy? ... AND SOA Watch Goes To Honduras

2009-07-04T17:43:00.010-04:00

_______________

http://www.nyccan.org/

While we were sleeping,
some folks were fighting to get our country back

NYC CAN files petition
— to bring about a real investigation into 9/11

_______________

William Blum:

By what standard shall we judge Barack Obama?

Many of my readers have been upset with me for my criticisms of President Obama's policies. Following my last two reports, more than a dozen have asked to be removed from my mailing list.

"Why does the military bring entertainers to soldiers?

To lift the soldiers' spirits.

Why does the military want

to lift the soldiers’ spirits?

A happier soldier does his job better.

And what’s the soldier’s job?

All the charming things listed above."

Doesn't Franken know what these guys do? He criticized the Bush administration because they “failed to send enough troops to do the job right.”

What “job” did the man think the troops were sent to do that had not been performed to his standards because of lack of manpower?

Did he want them to be more efficient at killing Iraqis who resisted the occupation?

— William Blum

The Anti-Empire Report

http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer71.html

____________

"NSA's Security force is reportedly primarily tasked with

plugging any leaks of classified or other information

that points to U.S. government involvement

with the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001."

Just In From Kevin Barrett:

http://truthjihad.blogspot.com/2009/07/4th-of-july-madsen-report-high-treason.html

4th of July Madsen Report:

High Treason at NSA

____________

And finally...
from almost eight years ago —

this guy told us on TV
that the towers had collapsed
due to structural failure.

"Mostly due to structural failure because the fire was just too intense."

Who Is This Guy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf-qWfT6IAM

LEIGH "KATE" KING — THE Progrrressive Avenger — fighting for truth, for justice, for The American Way

2009-07-01T09:40:00.002-04:00

The only problem with
the running of the nation
was the girl who had lived.
____________
The family lay in the road,
in the gravel and dust, in their own blood.

The three sprawled in not-human poses,
arms and elbows,
legs sprayed out as if forced into unnatural
forms by the men who made the nation.

The father and mother and brother,
with their faces covered in blood,
noses shoved into the black Iowa earth.
Eyes and mouths open, filled
with mucus and wonder and disbelief.

Just as it should be.

If she had died all would be well.

All would be awesome.
____________

The nation’s gears growled, screamed, enormous, and oiled,
and cleverly meshed, showing signs of human genius.
They ran and never stopped.

But that could not go on forever,
because the girl had lived and she grew stronger.

Her bones and her blood would one day
become stronger even than gears and oil and grease.

They beat and they grew and they knew
— because that is what bones and blood can do.

The little girl ran, at first, but only for a while.

She would turn and face her pursuers.

Then they would become afraid
because they saw the green steel in her eye.

Those who ran the nation
looked for her every day, all the time.

The work continued.

Every dawn of a new day in the nation
dripped with immense possibility.

____________

[Published by 7th Street Press]

____________

“I have this feeling that whoever
is elected president,
when you win,
you go into this smokey room,
and this little screen comes down …
and it’s a shot of the Kennedy
assassination from an angle
you’ve never seen before
… and the lights go up …
and they go to the new president
… any questions?”

— Bill Hicks

____________

... from "The Progrrressive Avenger"

... Away from the prison, the little girl was now almost grown.

She stalked the nation, circled its campground in the night like an undiscovered wild animal.

Kate walked into the Quik Stop and rushed to the pens, by the gum.

At the counter she stood behind two women waving little flags in front of their faces whispering about eye shadow, thinking about all the good done by the prison system.

Without looking, Kate opened the plastic wrapper, slicing it with a red fingernail. She measured where the one woman’s spleen might be through her thick corduroy coat.

Kate’s long hair glistened
thick and black.
_____________

She had a cheerleader homecoming
queen face with revolutionary
Russian coffee shop eyes,
erotic, piercing, unbelieving.

The women giggled at each other and the clerk and moved off, out the door.

Kate stepped up, now eyeing the plastic jar by the register that asked people to donate for a holiday package for the troops.

Kate took her new red pen and drew a swastika on the white paper, unsure if the crossed Z’s were quite right. She shrugged.

The young man behind the counter watched her and said dollar forty-seven.

Kate picked up her guitar case and left.

On the walk she adjusted down her white Twins cap with blood-red lettering and straightened her black cape with another shrug.

Kate moved on with long, powerful, limping strides, back straight, eyes ahead.

When passing men and boys stopped to stare she acted as if she did not notice.

The crowd on the curbs grew like a swarming beehive.

Soon the early winter sun would turn its back and leave snipers to their business.

A shocking fire engine horn blared somewhere down the street. The motorcade would not be long now.

Out of the corner of her eyes she saw the spot and went for it, glad for the chance to rest her burning leg.

Kate found her perch, all planned out weeks ago after she read about the big visit.

She stopped, letting the hurried foot traffic find its path around her.

Kate sat on the curb and rubbed dirt off her favorite red tennis shoes. She leaned back against the barren round concrete planter and opened the guitar case flat on the sidewalk on one side of her, and on the other side she set her coffee, staking a steaming claim to the space.

She drew her materials from the case, setting the white page notebook and sleeve of pens on the walk.

She closed the case and set it down just so, so that on one side across the street the people with their flags could see the “9/11 Was An Inside Job” sign in red ink and black border on white paper, and the folks behind her saw “This Machine Kills Fascists.”

With pens — red, blue, black, green, purple — now in her hands, behind her ears, in her mouth, on the sidewalk, in the street, Kate took her left hand and touched the clean white pad pressed against one bent knee aimed down the street.

She sited over the pad and began to sketch the wide street, the crowds on both sides, each leaning to get a look around the next person, the walkway over the street connecting the corporate bookstore to the city bank building.

Kate drew big, dark clouds overhead and inside the clouds, big, thick black words around the edges of her canvas: DOOM, DESPAIR, DICKENSIAN, POVERTY, WAR, TOLSTOYAN, POVERTY, UNFAIRNESS, DOSTOYEVSKYIAN, MISERY, DECEIT.

On her side of the street she gave birth to a family standing together exchanging looks of anticipation with each other and the far end of the street and strobing police lights.

The mother, father, son, daughter appeared Neanderthal with low, deep brow ridges over the eyes like caves.

They sprouted tufts of hair in unlikely places on the backs of their wrists and on their faces. Each wore either a gold or silver cross around their necks on a chain.

They wore red, white and blue buttons on their white-shirted chests that said “MURDER.”

They darted nervous monkey looks all around and swayed their long arms, whispering, hissing, “murder, murder, murder.”

In their big, hairy hands they sloppily held American flags on tiny sticks.

Kate adjusted her bottom on the cool cement and curled her toes inside her shoes, staring yet harder at her paper world.

She would have said she liked her green eyes, like green lanterns: fiery gems, fiendish, inquiring — the one open and laughing, the other devilish.

She tugged at her cap and narrowed her eyes, aiming a laser down the street.
Children dashed back and forth, gaining advantage over rivals for candy tosses. There would be no candy today.

Kate had silently given herself the nickname “Avenger.”

She had considered getting a superhero tattoo on her behind, or maybe her neck.

Kate’s long hair glistened thick and black. She had a cheerleader homecoming queen face with revolutionary Russian coffee shop eyes, erotic, piercing, unbelieving.

Her black cape buttoned around her neck. She wore black half-gloves, home-fashioned, cut off at the knuckles. She wore her cap proudly. It was her dad’s, white with red “Twins” letters, adjustable.

The cover of her worn artist’s pad pictured a stick person drawing in ink, a large Bigfoot. On the first inside page was another sketch, more like a child’s doodling, of a group of three people stretched on a road with a helicopter above them and dot bullets raining from it.

A cornfield runs along the road and a stick figure little girl stands in the corn with dots of tears falling down her face. A stick figure woman runs from the far end of the corn, through the corn, toward the crying child.

Kate drew the new red pen from her mouth.

On the top of her fresh drawing she wrote VENGEANCE. Large letters, across the page, a banner headline.

She underlined it, and then again, and again.

She filled in the letters and traced them again, wider, deeper, darker.

Three black and white police cars appeared under the walkway, side by side across the street, lights flashing.

Behind them came a like phalanx of fire engines with horns blaring, honking, like inherently angry geese.

They sat for a moment beneath the walkway, where an enterprising rifle person should be sitting, aiming, squeezing off round after round, thought Kate.

But the thick glass was vacant: shatterproof likely, triple-ply, truth-resistant.

Kate filled in the scene on her pad as quickly as she could manage, switching colors in a flurry, not noticing a group that had formed behind her, blowing breath puffs, like a cattle yard in January, pawing, digging at the cement with cold feet, stuffing hands deeper into pockets, leaning hunched shoulders forward to see what the street artist was doing.

“She’s not very good,” a girl told her father, who shrugged and looked up at the new sound.

A cheer, a crescendo, a wave of voices rolling, crashing, breaking along both sides of the street.

The police cars and fire engines and horns and lights inched forward, gradually revealing a third layer, a four-wide cabal, shoulder-to-shoulder, black limousines with tiny American flags fluttering from the front quarter panels.

Kate tried to stare a laser beam into the closed, darkened windshields of the vehicles, but still they kept coming.

Kate drew, carefully, as best as she could, hurrying, sweating, needing to stop the progress of the parade.

She concocted a woman standing in the middle of the street, fists dug hard into her sides, feet wide, staring straight into the flashing lights of the oncoming motorcade parade.

A black cape fluttered from her shoulders. Her long black hair stretched out behind her likewise in the steady northwest breeze.

She showed off a Bigfoot tattoo around her belly button.

She wore a red mask over her eyes and black lipstick and rings on seven of her fingers.

She wore cherry red tennis shoes and jeans torn at the knees.

Her white, tight T-shirt pictured an American flag and in bold, thick red letters: Progrrressive Avenger.

Kate drew more slowly.

She smiled at her work.

She put another Bigfoot on the superhero’s bicep and did not notice a black and white police car pulled to the curb with lights flashing, just behind her.

Kate shot laser beams from the Avenger’s pubic area, striking down stick figure cops with badges and hats, in the street, bleeding dots and dashes.

She did not hear the police man and woman with drawn weapons moving through the crowd around her.

Kate pulled a green pen from her ear and made a laser beam shoot from The Progrrressive Avenger’s green eyes into the longest, blackest limousine, still walking forward.

The green beam penetrated the windshield and the vehicle exploded, caught afire, sending burning bodies in suits flying through the air.

“Okay, that’s enough.”

Kate did not hear the police man behind her.

The Progrrressive Avenger sent green rays into the other vehicles and they exploded.

“Hey! You come with us!”

The police man grabbed Kate under her arms and dragged her to her feet. The people gathered around cheered and clapped and pounded their feet on the sidewalk.

The police woman fell to her hands and knees to gather Kate’s scattered pad and pens and toss them into the guitar case. She closed it and brought it with her. She stood holding it next to Kate and her partner, next to the clothing store on the walk.

“You need to go to the free speech zone, ma’am,” said the policeman.

“Over by the tracks.”

He pointed toward an area a block away where Kate could see people holding signs.

“The whole country is a free speech zone, Zeke,” said Kate.

“Can I have that?” she reached for her guitar case.

“Thank you.”

She shook the case to hear the rattling of the pens inside.

“You can’t stop me from being here,” said Kate.

“Yes, we can.”

The female officer moved in and took Kate by one arm.

A television crew set up on the sidewalk as the two officers began to wrestle with Kate.

She fought them, trying to free her arms, leaning back against the brick building, letting the guitar case go.

Some walkers stopped to watch.

“Let me go!” Kate screamed.

With her right arm she slammed the woman in the throat, smashing her head against the brick building.

Directing her attention to the male officer on her left, she was able to swing with both hands.

She struck him in the face with a flurry of elbows and fists: the nose, eyes, mouth, chin.

The television reporter signaled her camera man to begin filming the fight behind them.

The woman officer pulled herself from the sidewalk and climbed onto Kate’s back.

Kate stood up and turned, slamming her rider again into the unforgiving bricks. The TV camera lights shined bright in the dusk.

The light caught Kate full in the face.

She could see on the edges the forms, shapes of a crowd, and behind it the motorcade with horns blaring, more lights flashing, flags waving.

The crowd roared its approval.

The woman cop wilted from Kate’s back.

Arms and hands from the crowd reached in toward her like ghouls.

Kate snatched up her case and charged through the mass.

The “Live At Five” broadcast showed Kate darting, dodging, stumbling, running, getting away, with her cape streaming.