BrickBurner.org

Congressional hopeful in Utah blames campaign woes on Satan.

--Joshua Frank

William J. Perry, Sec. of Defense under Bill Clinton (and former director of contractor Electronic Defense Labs), and his former assistant Sec. of Defense, Ashton Carter (formerly an advisor to Kerry in '04) have fully endorsed Bush's preemptive war doctrine in their op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post.  Says they:

"Should the United States allow a country openly hostile to it and armed with nuclear weapons to perfect an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering nuclear weapons to U.S. soil? We believe not."

and:

"The Bush administration has unwisely ballyhooed the doctrine of "preemption," which all previous presidents have sustained as an option rather than a dogma... but intervening before mortal threats to U.S. security can develop is surely a prudent policy." 

Carter and Perry are calling for the United States to destroy the North Korean Taepodong missile- good lord, the Strangelovian/Freudian significance of that is wayyy too obvious for Kim Jong Il to have not seen the movie before naming the rocket - by:

"a cruise missile launched from a submarine carrying a high-explosive warhead. The blast would be similar to the one that killed terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq."

The significance of this statement, coming from two Democrats, goes beyond the Korean peninsula.  North Korea is a small-time bit player in the larger Asian arena, and the target of this saber-rattling from the US is to an extent China, but of course also Iran and any moderate-sized power that has the ability to acquire nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.  Currently, the only powers with ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons that could threaten the US mainland are Russia and some ex-Soviet republics -- China, France, and the UK. These are all Great Powers or were formerly attached to a Great Power, and are thus allowed to have the weaponry.  A minor-level power like North Korea or Iran acquiring nuclear weaponry and ballistic missiles creates a situation whereby the US ability to strike with impunity into the periphery against small powers is suddenly threatened.  This, obviously, is looked on with dread by the US establishment. 

Let's also not forget that the atomic technology was given to North Korea by Dr. A.Q. Khan, the Pakistani scientist, who was allowed to run an atomic flea-market because he had monetary ties to the Saudis and because the US government is a vehement supporter of the Musharraf military dictatorship.  Thus, Perry and Carter do not call for a military strike against Pakistan to destroy their nuclear facilities, even though they were the originators of nuclear proliferation to Korea and Libya *and* Pakistan's establishment is filled with hard-core fundamentalist Islamists who would like to see the Western infidels crushed (sounds like an openly hostile power to me). None of this is particularly eyebrow raising in these times, but the depths to which policy creators on both sides of the coin wish to stoop to further cover the world in perpetual warfare does continue to stun.

--Peter LaVenia

For those in the New York City area, I'll be talking on Saturday at "Socialism 2006: Build the Left, Fight the Right". Click here for more info. Hope you can make it out, should be fun.

--Joshua Frank

Greg Palast was here in Albany yesterday (unfortunately being interviewed by the winner of the pompous windbag award, Alan Chartock) and I managed to see him speak about his new book, Armed Madhouse. I highly suggest picking it up - Greg takes on sacred cows of the new New Left like peak oil as well as voting reform, terrorism, etc. with his usual brand of investigative reporting.  BTW, he's not copyrighting the book, so you can post whatever you want of it online.

--Peter LaVenia

The votes today in the Senate show just how divided the Democratic Party is on the occupation of Iraq. Forget an "out now" position, these nimrods can't even set a time table for a future withdrawal, let alone redeployment. Two weak amendments were defeated. And they think they deserve our votes.

Fools, I say. Fools.

--Joshua Frank

Hey folks, just got back from Bonnaroo and am in the process of recovering from an amazing few days.  There's so much to write about, so I'll try giving a short capsule of my time there for those of you not fortunate enough to be amongst the 80,000 in Manchester, TN from June 15-18. 

The Bands:  Good lord, where do I start?  There was a delectable mixture of everything from indie rock to reggae, jam bands, rap, Brazilian folk music - whatever you wanted to find, you could over the course of the weekend.  The festival was set up to have multiple acts performing at the same time during the day, so choices had to be made (Stephen Malkmus or Matisyahu?), but for the headliners (Tom Petty, Radiohead, Phil Lesh & Friends) every evening there were no competing acts - a good choice in terms of creating a communal atmosphere.  It's hard to pin down favorites but I'd say that the best shows were put on by Beck, Elvis Costello and Allan Toussaint (who sang the most political songs of the festival, about New Orleans, of course), Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, Bright Eyes, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. 

At one point during his set Beck came out in a bear costume and started rapping - I'm not sure if this is standard form for Beck but it was weirdly cool.  Beck also did a late night "superjam" with Trey Anastasio on Saturday night. Tom Petty brought Stevie Nicks out during his set (I'm sure most of my fellow 20-somethings there had no idea she was in Fleetwood Mac), but Tom himself seemed superbly high.  No matter - he covered a Travelling Wilburies song and some Yardbirds so we didn't just hear the selection of jukebox Petty hits we're used to (though I enjoyed it all).  Radiohead was, well, Radiohead - I'm not a huge fan of their airy electronica stuff but it was cool to see. 

Festival setup & maintenance - the crew at Bonnaroo know what they're doing - there were no glitches. If you like festivals this one actually has clean portapotties... you know what I mean when I say they can get nasty at festival events. The sponsors were inconspicuous and forced to provide a free service - there was free broadband internet and a movie tent (provided by Dolby). Plus Microsoft chipped in to help bring us an arcade with old 80s video game machines (Galaga or Joust, anyone?)  I liked the touch of having a microbrew tent so I could drink actual beer instead of Bud and Pabst.  And, of course, the running water helped keep us all cool.

Other cool stuff - the Silent Disco - a DJ was spinning every night and you had to wear headphones in the tent to here 'em - making for a weird effect.  The Preservation Hall tent with the PH Jazz band - a great idea and a place to hang out for awhile and take in some New Orleans feeling (well, what it used to be anyway).  The playground and the huge fountain, plus the life-size art were all interesting. 

Other weird observations - I wore my Mets hat all weekend, but I swear that the festival was overrun by Mets fans. Are we just more of the festival-going type than Yankee or BoSox fans?  Also, as the festival is essentially a large zone where drug laws don't apply, I saw lots of illicit usage - but why did people literally smoke a bowl on the toilet?  Can't they wait?  Weird. 

Anyway, if any of you dear readers get a chance next year, I'd suggest looking into going to Bonnaroo 2007 and having some fun.

--Peter LaVenia

Hillary Clinton isn't popular, but she's doing better than Jeb Bush in a recent survey about the 2008 presidential election. 48% of US voters say they'll never vote for Hillary, but 63% say they'll never vote for Gov. Jeb.

Funny, I'd never vote for either.

--Joshua Frank

Here's a wonderful tune by Mr. Clampitt, an ode to the late Bessie Smith, originally written by Bob Dylan. He tells me, " I recorded it on my casette 4-track, doing everything in 4 tracks. Guitar/vocal1, bass/vocal2, drum/vocal3, pedal steel. I couldn't have re-mixed it if even if I wanted to."

--Joshua Frank

The judicious United States is hoping to stop it from happening.

--Joshua Frank

--Joshua Frank

They still stand behind their story that Karl Rove was indicted last May. They still believe, even though they cannot get one person to go public on this issue, that they were not duped or lied to by their insiders.

I have similar feelings to Alex Cockburn on this whole thing. I think Karl Rove did us a service by outing a CIA operative, if that is in fact what he did. The indy media shouldn't be in the business of "breaking" stories. We should be in the business of gathering all the necessary facts and making sense of them. Our job should be a critical one. We don't need to be the first on a major scoop, we need to tell the truth. We need to step back and report on the bigger picture. Connect the dots for the public.

While a deadly war rages on, I think this whole Rove fiasco has served as a bloody distraction. 

--Joshua Frank

Who ever thought they wouldn't rebound from Zarqawi's death -- I mean besides Bush, Rummy and the Washington Press Corps?

--Joshua Frank

Gutting the Clean Water Act

Perhaps the largest environmental case to reach the Supreme court was decided on today. In a 5-4 vote the Supreme Court took a big first step in gutting the Clean Water Act. The outcome wasn't quite what some had anticipated, but the definition of "navigable waters", as written in the CWA, has now been interpreted to only include waterways that are a "significant nexus": In a nut shell, this means the CWA, and the agencies that implement the Act, cannot simply protect wetlands because they serve as a stop over for migrating birds. It will now have to also be connected to a significant navigable waterway. This is a big blow for environmentalists and a win for property rights advocates.

--Joshua Frank

On February 1st, I was arrested at the State of the Union address for wearing a Veterans for Peace shirt that read: "2,245 Dead. How many more?"

All of their families, American and Iraqi, will never be the same again due to the trickery and deceit of the commander in chief of the U.S. military and his advisers and cabinet members. And for what?

So Halliburton can get reconstruction contracts and Exxon Mobil can lay its pipelines and charge $3.50 for a gallon of gas? So the war machine can feast off of flesh and blood of living people like greedy vampires?

Over the last year, I've spoken at a lot of high schools that have about 2,000 to 2,500 students on campus. I ask them to close their eyes and visualize an empty school. Only then can they begin to relate to this devastating number.

But for those of us who have lost a son or a daughter or a brother or a sister or a father or a mother in this war, the number one is more than enough.

One empty chair at the table.

One folded flag on the mantel.

One driverless car sitting in the driveway waiting for the finance company to come and pick it up.

One person never coming home.

One broken family that cannot be repaired.

How many more?

How many more of our nation's finest are we willing to kill to enhance the bottom line of the Halliburtons and the Exxon Mobils? How many more of our young wounded is it going to take before our country wakes up?

How many more Iraqi babies are we going to allow our leaders to murder before we realize that all babies are precious, loved, and mourned when they are killed?

How many more empty speeches and blathering platitudes will we allow our misleaders to utter before they are held accountable?

How many more mothers are we going to watch sobbing and draped over their children's flag-draped coffins before we get out in the streets and demand an end to the immoral and illegal occupation so no other mothers will have to be plunged into a pool of pain?

I had my fill on 04/04/04 when my son Casey was killed in a war that never should have happened.

How many more will it take for you?

I am returning to Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas, this summer. Help us stop the insanity. Everyone is invited to Camp Casey this summer: www.gsfp.org

--Cindy Sheehan

And it's on the Dem side, duh. This is actually a real ad too. Not kidding.

--Joshua Frank