George W. Bush-Enviromental Terrorist

My friend Naomi Rachel has continued to tell me the environmental destruction we humans have created will destroy our planet long before our politics accomplish it. Naomi was a leading environmental activist in Canada before she moved to Colorado and became a professor at the University of Colorado.

I grew up in a mining family which meant we lived a life of constant moves to follow the work here in the Rocky Mountains. Much of my early childhood was spent in mountain towns like Breckinridge, Dillon, Leadville and a place that no longer exists called Kokomo, Colorado. This was before ski resorts dotted the Colorado mountains every hundred miles or so.

Kokomo was a company town for Climax Molybdenum. Climax mined molybdenum from a huge mountain peak at the top of Fremont Pass. Over the years that peak became a vast hollowed out mountainside and tailings from the mining stretched down a beautiful mountain valley for ten miles. The tailings eventually forced the closing of the small company town of my childhood to allow more room in the valley for the waste.

The ashes of both my parents were spread in the serene valley that was once Kokomo.The place where we spread their ashes is now covered with the waste product of the molybdenum mine. The once majestic peak on Fremont Pass has become an ugly eyesore of a mountain half collapsed in on itself.

The pristine forests my sister and I once spent entire days roaming have been taken over by ski resorts and condos. Pine beetles and various other virulent diseases of pines, Douglas fir, aspen and even ancient bristlecone occur with much more frequency and scar the beauty of a once glorious region of America.

In Rocky Mountain National Park glaciers that have been around for centuries are receding and expected to melt entirely in the near future. The clear mountain streams and remote lakes have become polluted from the nearby cities of Boulder and Denver spewing carbon wastes from automobiles and coal burning power plants. Rocky Mountain National Park is a crown jewel of mountain majesty that faces an ugly change in the eco-system. The beauty and serenity will be lost for the next generations of our families.

Colorado has over 300 days of sunshine annually. When the skies are blue and the winds lightly blow, I can think of no better place on Earth. Unfortunately, here in Denver an ugly brown cloud of pollution is about as common as the sunshine. Driving into Denver from any direction you can see the city lights from many miles away at night. And for the last thirty years you can see that ugly brown cloud of pollution during the day.

Living in Denver for people with respiratory problems used to be the ideal location. We had TB sanitariums that were known throughout the world. National Jewish Hospital is the leading research hospital for respiratory illnesses like asthma and COPD.
Today, living in Denver is a risky proposition for people with asthma and COPD. The pollution triggers the respiratory systems of the young and old struggling to breath. Ozone days have increased and lowered standards for polluting cars have caused even more “red” days of pollution.

It’s now more difficult to find the remote place to hike and be alone in Colorado. ATV trails scar the tundra and mountainsides. Four wheel drive roads are just as bad. Even we hikers have caused irreparable erosion with our lack of knowledge about the land and our ecosystems. We go off trails and create new erosion paths on tundra land, leave plastic and other trash along the way and demonstrate lack of respect for what we’ve been blessed with by carving initials and other stupid things into the trunks of trees.

I’ve been an activist in the peace and justice movement for over thirty years. I’ve gone to rallies and marches more than I care to remember. I’ve railed against the wars of our time and there are constantly injustices that need to be opposed and confronted. My friend, Naomi, has consistently pointed out the peace and justice community seldom mentions the deteriorating state of our environment. She’s right.

Part of a true peace and justice movement has to recognize the very ground we walk on is in jeopardy. If we fail to treasure our sunshine days and the places of nature to escape the madness of urban life, we fail in our quest for peace and justice. If we fail to understand we are responsible for trashing our cities, our forests and our open spaces we’ve failed as activists. Thinking “green” is the new buzz word but living in harmony with nature is a necessity.

So, as the criminal Bush regime comes to an end, there is great need to be on guard against the callous and calculated attempts to further weaken and destroy our environment. The further destruction has already started with Bush by use of “midnight regulations” which most outgoing Presidents use.

Bush’s regulations are another overt present to “Big Oil” and big business. The regulations are not at all regulations but instead deregulation of primary environmental protections. Clean water, clean air, logging, mining and drilling will all be affected for the worse while allowing corporate interests to have free rein in destroying wilderness areas, the air we breathe and the water we drink.

As we celebrate and contemplate the incoming Obama Administration most are distracted from what is happening in the Bush Administration. Much can be done in the final days of the tyranny of Bush and Cheney. The evil days of the neo-cons didn’t end on November 4, 2008 when Barack Obama was declared the winner in the Presidential election.

One of the biggest victims of the tyranny will be our environment. The giveaways to big business aren’t just happening in Wall Street or Main Street. The thefts of the corporate world are also going on in the rivers, the mountains and valleys so many of us cherish.

I’m including an article from the Guardian from recent days that reviews the Bush deregulations:

President for 60 more days, Bush tearing apart protection for America's wilderness

• Oil shale mining in Rocky Mountains gets go-ahead

• 'Midnight regulations' to dismantle safeguards

• Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 20 2008 00.01 GMT
• The Guardian, Thursday November 20 2008
• Article history

'They are taking down pollution controls' (link to audio)

George Bush is working at a breakneck pace to dismantle at least 10 major environmental safeguards protecting America's wildlife, national parks and rivers before he leaves office in January.

With barely 60 days to go until Bush hands over to Barack Obama, his White House is working methodically to weaken or reverse an array of regulations that protect America's wilderness from logging or mining operations, and compel factory farms to clean up dangerous waste.

In the latest such move this week, Bush opened up some 800,000 hectares (2m acres) of land in Rocky Mountain states for the development of oil shale, one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet. The law goes into effect on January 17, three days before Obama takes office.

The timing is crucial. Most regulations take effect 60 days after publication, and Bush wants the new rules in place before he leaves the White House on January 20. That will make it more difficult for Obama to undo them.

"There are probably going to be scores of rules that are issued between now and January 20," said John Walke, a senior attorney at the National Resources Defence Council. "And there are at least a dozen very controversial rules that will weaken public health and environment protection that have no business being adopted and would not be acceptable to the incoming Obama administration, based on stances he has taken as a senator and during the campaign."

The flurry of new rules - known as midnight regulations - is part of a broader campaign by the Bush administration to leave a lasting imprint on environmental policy. Some of the actions have provoked widespread protests such as the Bureau of Land Management's plans to auction off 20,000 hectares of oil and gas parcels within sight of Utah's Delicate Arch natural bridge.

The Bush administration is also accused of engaging in a parallel go-slow on court-ordered actions on the environment. "There are the midnight regulations that they are trying to force out before they leave office, and then there are the other things they are trying not to do before they go. A lot of the climate stuff falls into the category of things they would rather not do," said a career official at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Other presidents have worked up to the final moments of their presidency to impose their legacy on history. But Bush has been particularly organised in his campaign to roll back years of protections - not only on the environment, but workplace safety and employee rights.

"This is Bush trying to leave a legacy that supports his ideology," said Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, an independent Washington thinktank that monitors the White House office of management and budget. "This was very strategic and it was in line of the ideology of the Bush administration which has been to put in place a free market and conservative agenda."

The campaign got under way in May when the White House chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, wrote to government agencies asking them to forward proposals for rule changes. Bolten had initially set a November 1 deadline on rule-making. The White House denies that the flurry of rule changes is politically motivated. "What the chief of staff wanted to avoid was this very charge that we would be trying to, in the dark of night in the last days of the administration, be rushing regulations into place ahead of the incoming, next administration," Tony Fratto, the White House spokesman, told reporters.

But OMB Watch notes that the office of management and budget website shows 83 rules reviewed from September 1 to October 31 this year - about double its workload in 2007, 2006 and 2005.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration cut short the timeframe for public comment. In one instance, officials claimed to have reviewed 300,000 comments about changes to wildlife protection within the space of a week.

The new regulations include a provision that would free industrial-scale pig and cattle farms from complying with the Clean Water Act so long as they declare they are not dumping animal waste in lakes and rivers. The rule was finalised on October 31. Mountain-top mining operations will also be exempt from the Clean Water Act, allowing them to dump debris in rivers and lakes. The rule is still under review at the OMB. Coal-fired power plants will no longer be required to install pollution controls or clean up soot and smog pollution.

Yet another of the new rules, which has generated publicity, would allow the Pentagon and other government agencies to embark on new projects without first undertaking studies on the potential dangers to wildlife.

Announcements of further rule changes are expected in the next few days including one that would weaken regulation of perchlorate, a toxin in rocket fuel that can affect brain development in children, in drinking water.

The Bush strategy has prompted a fightback from environmentalists, the Democratic-controlled Congress, and members of the Obama transition team.
John Podesta, who is overseeing the transition, has said that Obama will review the last-minute actions, and will seek to repeal those that are "not in the interests of the country".

Pollute, baby, pollute

The last-minute rules passed during the "midnight hours" of the George Bush presidency differ from his predecessors because they are basically a project of deregulation - not regulation. Among the most far-reaching:

• Industrial-size pig, cow and chicken farms can disregard the Clean Water Act and air pollution controls.

• The interior department can approve development such as mining or logging without consulting wildlife managers about their impact.

• Restrictions will be eased so power plants can operate near national parks and wilderness areas.

• Pollution controls on new power plants will be downgraded.

• Mountain-top mine operators could dump waste into rivers and streams.

• 2m acres of land in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado opened to development of oil shales, the dirtiest fuel on Earth.

How We Failed The Missing Marine

LCpl. Lance Hering staged an escape from the Marines 27 months ago in Boulder County, Colorado. He is an Iraq veteran who faced redeployment to the war and couldn’t stand the idea of returning. Lance was apparently so desperate he and a friend staged his “accidental” death from rock climbing in a popular area for climbing.

The friend reported Lance’s fall from the rocks and a large search for him or his body ensued. The local sheriff estimates it cost $33,000 to search for the missing Marine. Rescue teams including several veterans and former Marines came out to search. Eventually the story of the friend unraveled and the public that helped search for Lance became furious that they were duped.

This week Lance was arrested in Port Angles, WA. following an anonymous tip to the Boulder, CO. police. His father was with him attempting to fly Lance out of Washington to a psychiatrist and then to turn himself in to the USMC. The Rocky Mountain News has made this a front page story for the past two days in a world of continued war, financial crisis, the Congo killings and all the other tragic stories of humanity. There is a tone of angry retribution swirling around this 23 year old Marine who was 20 when he was in Iraq.

What most of the angry public fails to realize is Lance was indeed missing and his life was like that of a rock climber on the edge of cliff without ropes or a tightrope walker trying to maintain balance above the deepest canyon. Trying to keep balance becomes tiring and at times the exhaustion makes a person want to let go or give in to a mind and body failing them.

What I’ve really just described is the thinking of a combat veteran struggling with PTSD. The video of horrific acts doesn’t seem to have a pause button. The intrusive thoughts break up friendly family interactions or attempts of intimacy with a loved one. Noises, normal to most, take on far more intensity and create startle and fear. Anger seeps into the soul like a deadly virus and explodes into violent reactions for unknown reasons.

Suicide is a daily thought for many veterans with PTSD. For some it is an hour to hour, minute to minute option. We’re told to carry on and suck it up but the truth is we’ve become tired of living in a skeleton of the person we used to be. Our guilt of seeing the dead friends and dead kids haunt us constantly. Dying seems to be an option that will bring us peace and relief.

There could be no search party on Earth able to find Lance Hering who was so desperate he staged his death to avoid returning to the hell known of the Corps and Iraq. He was lost before he started that day with his friend to find a way out. Lance Hering didn’t fail us. We failed him.

We expected a young man with a scarred mind to forget about things he’d seen and done. And to return to do them again. We failed to look beyond the appearance of a healthy young man to see his thousand yard stare that demonstrated his despair and depression. We failed to recognize we can’t send a young man or woman to war and get the same person to return.

I’m not angry, Lance. I totally understand the despair, the hopelessness and the darkness that leads to doing something to escape. When I was twenty I returned from my war as a Marine. I didn’t face redeployment but I did face remaining 18 more months in the Corps. I faced carrying on like nothing happened to me over there. And I couldn’t stand the thought of it. I left without permission to save my sanity.

What Lance Hering faces is a normal reaction to an insane situation. His mind absorbed insanity on a daily basis and it rebelled against it. He was asked to suppress his moral core to do his duty. He became numb to the holocaust of war. Coming home didn’t turn the switch to normalcy back on for him. It more than likely made things worse because he became a stranger in his own family, regardless of their love for him.

It would be easy to condemn a young man we think betrayed us but the more humane and appropriate thing would be giving him the help he needs to restore some semblance of a normal life. Lance has become a broken soldier/Marine that is no longer of any use to the war machine. Why should we demand a pound of flesh because we broke him? He needs the support given when it was thought he had fallen down a mountain; because he has fallen into the abyss of PTSD and it is a very long climb back up from that dark, dark place.



Wm. Terry Leichner, RN

Psychiatric RN

Combat veteran with severe and chronic PTSD

USMC – Vietnam 1967-1969

The Failure of The Church

In the past weeks significant events took place that confirms the Catholic Church has failed in bringing the message of Christ to me any longer. Instead the Church has become a right wing political action committee akin to the fanatical evangelicals of the Republican far right. Instead the Church has become the Pharisees like those who persecuted Christ in his final days.

Prior to the recent election there was a concerted effort by American Catholic Bishops to heavily influence the way Catholics should vote in the Presidential election. Locally here in Denver, Archbishop Charles Chaput publicly spoke out against candidates that professed a "pro-choice" viewpoint on the issue of abortion. He made sure to preface his remarks as those of a private citizen but knew without a doubt his views would have dramatic effect on Church members who strongly adhere to the direction of Church leaders.

Reports across the state and across the nation described priests cajoling their parishes to vote against Barack Obama for the singular issue of his abortion viewpoint. They described him as a "pro abortionist" despite his statements of great concern about reasons that led to abortion and his desire to reach out to both sides to prevent abortion situations from occurring.

It is not accident Chaput is also promoting a new book of his ultra conservative views that consider abortion the most "intrinsically evil" issue we face in our world today. Chaput has often consorted with the outgoing President Bush who is responsible for the egregious acts against Afghanistan and Iraq which have constantly proved to be without merit. His voice and those of most American Catholic bishops have been significantly silent about the millions affected by those wars.

At one point Archbishop Chaput argued to me some wars are morally justified with the implication Iraq was one of those wars. That was in answer to my protest when he endorsed Bush by default over a Catholic, John Kerry, for the same singular issue of abortion. A short time after the reelection of Bush there was a photo of Bush and Chaput smiling at one another during a White House breakfast for clergy. Bush was reaching out to Chaput with his hand on Chaput's thigh in a gesture of two "good ole boys" laughing it up. Photos can have lasting impressions, Archbishop.

The week after the election of Obama the American Catholic Bishops Conference declared they will strongly challenge (confront) the newly elected President over his abortion views. At the same time many of the Bishops implied and directly stated any Catholic voting for Obama should seek penance and not be given communion until that time. The mostly white male council of bishops has insinuated a vote for Obama was a mortal sin that should exclude the laity voting for him from the Eucharist.

For eight years this same body of Church leaders has given the criminal actions of Bush and Cheney a pass. They have consistently refused to speak out against the discredited wars started by Bush as long as he has consistently followed their agenda about abortion and fetal stem cell research. They have overlooked the illegal and immoral nature of the wars that have caused 1.5 million deaths according to the research of the medical journal, Lancet.

I've even heard of some of the Bishops defending their lack of action about the wars because the casualties were low in comparison with the deaths caused by abortions. Research on the numbers of abortions worldwide is highly unreliable, often over-inflated and often include spontaneous or "naturally caused" abortions such as miscarriages. The number of aborted fetuses is no doubt in the millions but the fanatical fringe groups declaring 40-50 million each year are simply doing more to harm their cause than help it. These figures are based on alleged research that lacks scientific principles. But, of course, like evangelical wings of the Christian churches other than Catholicism, science is considered witchcraft when convenient by all fanatics whether Catholic or Protestant.

It is now estimated one child five or under dies approximately every thirty seconds in the world for reasons that could have easily been avoided. Poverty, with poor water and poor nutrition is a major contributor to the approximately 9-10 million deaths of children under five each year.

If the Catholic priests were truthful, they would admit war throughout the world is the major driving force of poverty. The 1.5 million estimated killed in Iraq is the number of casualties from the military actions that took place. They don't account for the other millions of deaths caused from the poverty caused by the wars. And we need to keep in mind the number of children dying every thirty seconds from the causes of poverty and other preventable reasons is children five and under. The numbers of ages five through 18 would also have to be in the millions.

Many questions beg to be asked. Where are the Catholic bishops in the face of this genocide of the world's live birthed children? Why have they failed so often to condemn the wars of America and all other nations? Where are the fanatics of "pro-life" to be outraged about the men and women of government responsible for starting and carrying out the wars creating the deaths of so many?

Another less prominent event occurred last week that also demonstrates the misogyny and out of touch arrogance of the Church leadership. Roy Bourgeois, a Catholic priest and Vietnam veteran who was wounded in action during his time in Vietnam, was sent a letter threatening excommunication from the Church by the Vatican. His sin was sending a letter to the Church leadership demanding justice for the women of the Catholic Church by allowing women who felt a calling to become ordained as priests.

Father Bourgeois is no stranger to issues of justice. He is one of the founders of the annual School of Americas protest at Fort Benning, GA. Those protests are centered on the American military providing training to Latin American troops of dictators and tyrants to take back to their nations to use against peasants and any who object to the often American sponsored oppression. The Contras had many of their troops trained at this facility. For fifteen years the protest has grown to the many thousands. Many of the protestors are concerned individual clergy (certainly not Catholic hierarchy)and many have been arrested with severe prison sentences imposed during the eight years of Bush and Cheney. Father Bourgeois has been imprisoned for his own acts of non-violent civil disobedience against the American military exporting terrorism to nations of oppressed peoples.

There is no doubt Bourgeois will not be swayed by the Vatican's senseless mandate nor the Church by a simple priest demanding justice for women. He logically and righteously points out in a time of priest shortages all over the world the stubborn misogynists in charge of the Church continue to oppress women without reason. He points out thousands of male priests have shamed the priesthood as pedophiles or sexual abusers of Church members who see them as leaders. The opposition to the ordination of women is a shameful legacy by church leaders to subjugate women and lacks merit based on the teachings of Christ.

One other event created by religious zealots is the shameful oppression of gay members of society. The Mormon Church alone spent over 70 million dollars to prevent loving couples of the same sex from marrying and obtaining the same benefits of other couples in the area of health care and pensions in a California ballot issue. The Catholic Church also spoke out strongly against the "gay marriage" issue, as it has so often in other places.

Intolerance, hatefulness, sexism and even overt racism seems to have become the Catholic catechism. They seem to have turned their backs on the radical and rebellious nature of Jesus Christ who stormed the temple to chase the money changers and constantly stood up against the "establishment".

Christ was not a bureaucrat such as Charles Chaput or the current American Bishops Council. Or even the Pope. Christ was a rebel who chose to hang out with thieves, whores and tax collectors who most of "good" society scorned and rebuffed.

Would Christ be sitting in the streets of a Fort Benning or at a rally against illegal wars? Many of us concerned Catholics believe He would. Many of us concerned Catholics feel our Church no longer represents us, however. We don't want the leadership of our Church dictating we vote for tyrants and criminals like Bush or McCain simply because they "say" they oppose abortion.

It seems very curious the feelings these politicians express for the right to life only go so far as to curry favor with religious zealots but don't extend to the children of Iraq, Afghanistan and so many other poor nations. It seems illogical the Church wants to deny people who love one another a basic right to express that love while turning a calloused eye to the militarism that pervades this nation.

Sadly, the Catholic Church has become the modern day Pharisees caught up in rules and rituals while losing its soul and humanity. It fails to ask every day what Christ would truly want and seems more intent enforcing rules on the laity to succumb to the power and politics of the Church.

I for one reject the Church as it is today. I voted for Obama and I have no need of penance for that act, even as I wish I had a better choice than the Democrats or Republicans. And I will take communion until self-righteous priests deny it. When that happens I will not meekly stand by to accept the dictates of a Church that has become out of touch with morality and Christ.


Wm. Terry Leichner, RN

Denver VVAW member

Combat vet, disgruntled and dismayed Catholic

Veterans Day 2008

Five years of the current wars and a whole new generation of veterans has been produced. They will have their own nightmares, wounds and difficulty ever being the same son, daughter, husband, wife, brother, sister, or friend. And America will “honor” them with a day that is no longer even a holiday. Just a weekend parade here and there across the nation. And really the parades are more recruitment tools than honoring the veterans for the alleged service we’ve given this nation.

As usual, I object to a day that honors war, warriors and violence perpetrated by a government of rich, fatted cows who have fed on the backs of the poor and middle class far too long.

I continue to hear the same old clichéd line whenever I meet someone new that discovers I’m a veteran of Vietnam; “thank you for your service”. It’s easier to just accept the well intentioned comment than to go “Rambo” on them and ask them what damn service they are thanking me for.

Was it taking part in killing the old papa-san who happened to get in the way of Marines one day doing a search and destroy patrol? Was it the napalmed village full of kids and mama-sans? Was it the brutal investigation of a terrified Vietnamese woman by Naval intelligence that included an in-the-field form of water-boarding, the use of a .45 cal pistol to break her cheek bone, punches to the face and body and eventual execution once the Marine patrol was told to go up the path?

I’m just not understanding why Americans think I did any service to this country by taking part in an unnecessary war responsible for killing 58,000 plus Americans and 3 million Vietnamese. I’m sick of being seen as someone who “protected” our democracy by fighting “gooks”. If it ain’t gooks then it is haji or rag-heads. There’s always some pejorative word to capture the enemy’s race and ethnicity that isn’t like “us”.

Veterans Day is like Memorial Day. Both are attempts to cast the military veterans as righteous and courageous heroes who have fought for flag and country. Both are attempts to ease our collective consciences about the atrocity of wars we have continued to allow in our names. The days are attempts to glorify and sanctify militarism and imperialism so our future generations of sons and daughters will want to emulate those of us duped into believing we were going to make a difference by killing in the name of God and country.

This nation’s people love a parade. They love to see “Johnny come marching home”. They love all those red, white and blue flags and bunting. We get our little boys to dress up in costume uniforms of Marines to hold the flag like Ira Hayes held it over Iwo Jima during WWII. We gather together high school kids dressed in uniforms of the various ROTC programs with mock rifles held “shoulder arms” marching in lock step with one another.

We love to say we are a nation of peace but anybody that visits our nation’s Capital will be overwhelmed by the number of war memorials to be found in the Washington DC area. What does that say about our peaceful nature? There is an insane dissonance that we look at these war memorials as tributes to peace making.

How does the participation in killing other humans bring us peace? I guess the thinking is kill enough to get the other side to submit and we’ve brought peace to our world. The problem with such logic is resentment and hatred bred from the use of force seldom brings peace.

Making nations or groups of people capitulate to the more powerful force merely enslaves them to the power of a stronger force. They will most likely seek their retribution whenever they find a way of inflicting pain on their perceived oppressor. Occupation and oppression doesn’t make us a peaceful nation. It makes us bullies.

Oh yeah, the words I speak are not the words of patriotism some like to hear. They want to hear about the glory of our conquests. The whole world is a game and our role is to defeat all others to “win” for America. And like adolescents and small children, our politicians think they can keep hitting the reset button until we get it “right” to win the world domination game.

Ok, I don’t love my country more than anything else. I love humanity more. I love true peace more. I love justice more. I love being a citizen of the world more. I love the children of our world more.

I am tired of waving flags and cheering soldiers to perpetuate one war after another. I’m tired of being enslaved to the concept of my country right or wrong. I am sick and tired of phony days of tribute to the culture of death and violence that has been the essence of America far too long. Veterans Day does no honor to any of us.

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member

Dream On

Well it took all of one day before newly elected President Obama made it clear that it will be politics as usual. His choice of Rahm Emanuel for his Chief of Staff is a clear message to dash any Palestinian dream of an unbiased approach to peace between Israel and Palestinian refugees currently being walled in by the Israeli military.

Emanuel is a former Clinton staffer but more interesting is his dual citizenships. He is both an American who holds office in Congress and an Israeli citizen who volunteered with the IDF during the Gulf War. That’s the war the other Bush started back in the 90’s that led to the disastrous and deadly sanctions against Iraq. It’s estimated the effects of those sanctions killed at least a million Iraqi children.

It’s strange Emanuel wouldn’t join the American military as so many in Congress have done to embellish their biography for future political ventures. Being an American citizen it seems he might enlist to protect the “homeland” that he now represents in Congress.

A brief check of Emanuel’s background answers the question. His father was one of the original Zionist terrorists that took part in bombings of British and other colonial occupiers of the “Jewish homeland”, Israel. There is some speculation Emmanuel is well connected with the Israeli secret service, Mossad.

He certainly is no stranger to AIPAC and the contributions they make to American politicians to further Zionist agenda. AIPAC constantly lobbies against a fair hearing about the plight of Palestinian people forced into refugee camps and subjected to whims of the Israeli occupation. Of course, in the US, saying the word, Zionist, or complaining about the Israeli government’s aggression is tantamount to denying the holocaust or being anti-Semitic.

Obama has clearly joined the Zionist ranks which have no intention of legitimatizing Palestinian concerns or the need for a free Palestinian nation. Like most in Congress and the White House, Obama lacks the courage to go up against the most powerful political action committee in the US. He couldn’t have won an election by making a moral stand against AIPAC. It is a sad statement both major party candidates kowtowed to AIPAC to affirm their support of the current Israeli government.

Unfortunately, most Americans lack the political intelligence to understand the issue of Zionism and Palestine. We are a nation of citizens dependent on the sound bite type of media to keep us informed. Fully investigating and formulating our own thoughts and opinions isn’t taught in most of our educational institutions or systems. Our ignorance allows the latest “apartheid” by the Israeli government against the indigenous people of the Palestinian region. It allowed the deadly sanctions against Saddam Hussein that only affected the children and the poor. Our ignorance allowed two unnecessary wars to begin and will lead Obama to expand the deadliest of all quagmires, Afghanistan.

What is the message to the Muslim world when the new Chief of Staff for the President is a former member of IDF and has close ties with AIPAC? They can only surmise as most of us should that we’re in for more of the same.

On the night of the election after Obama was announced the winner, mainstream media gushed about the diverse and “new” look administration Obama would bring to DC. They spoke about people from outside the DC beltway becoming part of the administration. Looking at the lineup Obama has right now it looks like the Clintons won this election. Besides Emanuel, there are several other Clinton hacks surrounding the newly elected President. This is not change. This is the continuation of the same old oligarchy that has ruled in DC since the birth of the US.

Some don’t want to challenge or confront Obama because of the historical symbolism of his election. I was unabashedly emotional when the word came Barack Obama was the first African-American elected President. I saw the tears of Jesse Jackson and so many young black, brown and white supporters. I listened to John Lewis talk about the “struggle” he endured with MLK and never dreaming he’d see a black elected President. It was a momentous time of history that finally validated the struggles and courage of our black brothers and sisters.

It would be a disservice to have the symbolic leader of black Americans and all Americans continue with the failed policies of our past. His first actions to surround himself with people who symbolize that failed past need to be confronted and opposed. Too many believed him when he told them “yes we can”. Too many put their hopes in him to do whatever he could to bring peace and a sense of security to this world. Too many saw the chance for justice in his candidacy’s success.

He told us he would listen especially when we disagreed. Well we’d better start trying to get his attention so he can listen to our disagreement. Too many allowed Bush and Cheney to wall the public off from the process and look where we’ve ended up. Obama needs a heads up immediately. No punches should be pulled because of his historical symbolism. As activists we understand betrayal better than most. And we know what needs to be done when we’re betrayed. The dream is over. A new nightmare is beginning. All the alarms are sounding and now is the time to wake the hell up!

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member

I’m including the open letter to Barack Obama by Ralph Nader. Nader should be listened to and respected for his perseverance and integrity. By now he must feel he’s beating his head against a stone wall that’s immovable. And yet he continues out of love and concern for his country and the people we share the planet with.

An Open Letter to Barack Obama
Between Hope and Reality
By RALPH NADER

Dear Senator Obama:
In your nearly two-year presidential campaign, the words "hope and change," "change and hope" have been your trademark declarations. Yet there is an asymmetry between those objectives and your political character that succumbs to contrary centers of power that want not "hope and change" but the continuation of the power-entrenched status quo.
Far more than Senator McCain, you have received enormous, unprecedented contributions from corporate interests, Wall Street interests and, most interestingly, big corporate law firm attorneys. Never before has a Democratic nominee for President achieved this supremacy over his Republican counterpart. Why, apart from your unconditional vote for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, are these large corporate interests investing so much in Senator Obama? Could it be that in your state Senate record, your U.S. Senate record and your presidential campaign record (favoring nuclear power, coal plants, offshore oil drilling, corporate subsidies including the 1872 Mining Act and avoiding any comprehensive program to crack down on the corporate crime wave and the bloated, wasteful military budget, for example) you have shown that you are their man?
To advance change and hope, the presidential persona requires character, courage, integrity-- not expediency, accommodation and short-range opportunism. Take, for example, your transformation from an articulate defender of Palestinian rights in Chicago before your run for the U.S. Senate to an acolyte, a dittoman for the hard-line AIPAC lobby, which bolsters the militaristic oppression, occupation, blockage, colonization and land-water seizures over the years of the Palestinian peoples and their shrunken territories in the West Bank and Gaza. Eric Alterman summarized numerous polls in a December 2007 issue of The Nation magazine showing that AIPAC policies are opposed by a majority of Jewish-Americans.
You know quite well that only when the U.S. Government supports the Israeli and Palestinian peace movements, that years ago worked out a detailed two-state solution (which is supported by a majority of Israelis and Palestinians), will there be a chance for a peaceful resolution of this 60-year plus conflict. Yet you align yourself with the hard-liners, so much so that in your infamous, demeaning speech to the AIPAC convention right after you gained the nomination of the Democratic Party, you supported an "undivided Jerusalem," and opposed negotiations with Hamas-- the elected government in Gaza. Once again, you ignored the will of the Israeli people who, in a March 1, 2008 poll by the respected newspaper Haaretz, showed that 64% of Israelis favored "direct negotiations with Hamas." Siding with the AIPAC hard-liners is what one of the many leading Palestinians advocating dialogue and peace with the Israeli people was describing when he wrote "Anti-semitism today is the persecution of Palestinian society by the Israeli state."
During your visit to Israel this summer, you scheduled a mere 45 minutes of your time for Palestinians with no news conference, and no visit to Palestinian refugee camps that would have focused the media on the brutalization of the Palestinians. Your trip supported the illegal, cruel blockade of Gaza in defiance of international law and the United Nations charter. You focused on southern Israeli casualties which during the past year have totaled one civilian casualty to every 400 Palestinian casualties on the Gaza side. Instead of a statesmanship that decried all violence and its replacement with acceptance of the Arab League's 2002 proposal to permit a viable Palestinian state within the 1967 borders in return for full economic and diplomatic relations between Arab countries and Israel, you played the role of a cheap politician, leaving the area and Palestinians with the feeling of much shock and little awe.
David Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, described your trip succinctly: "There was almost a willful display of indifference to the fact that there are two narratives here. This could serve him well as a candidate, but not as a President."
Palestinian American commentator, Ali Abunimah, noted that Obama did not utter a single criticism of Israel, "of its relentless settlement and wall construction, of the closures that make life unlivable for millions of Palestinians. ...Even the Bush administration recently criticized Israeli's use of cluster bombs against Lebanese civilians [see www.atfl.org for elaboration]. But Obama defended Israeli's assault on Lebanon as an exercise of its 'legitimate right to defend itself.'"
In numerous columns Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz, strongly criticized the Israeli government's assault on civilians in Gaza, including attacks on "the heart of a crowded refugee camp... with horrible bloodshed" in early 2008.
Israeli writer and peace advocate-- Uri Avnery-- described Obama's appearance before AIPAC as one that "broke all records for obsequiousness and fawning, adding that Obama "is prepared to sacrifice the most basic American interests. After all, the US has a vital interest in achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace that will allow it to find ways to the hearts of the Arab masses from Iraq to Morocco. Obama has harmed his image in the Muslim world and mortgaged his future-- if and when he is elected president.," he said, adding, "Of one thing I am certain: Obama's declarations at the AIPAC conference are very, very bad for peace. And what is bad for peace is bad for Israel, bad for the world and bad for the Palestinian people."
A further illustration of your deficiency of character is the way you turned your back on the Muslim-Americans in this country. You refused to send surrogates to speak to voters at their events. Having visited numerous churches and synagogues, you refused to visit a single Mosque in America. Even George W. Bush visited the Grand Mosque in Washington D.C. after 9/11 to express proper sentiments of tolerance before a frightened major religious group of innocents.
Although the New York Times published a major article on June 24, 2008 titled "Muslim Voters Detect a Snub from Obama" (by Andrea Elliott), citing examples of your aversion to these Americans who come from all walks of life, who serve in the armed forces and who work to live the American dream. Three days earlier the International Herald Tribune published an article by Roger Cohen titled "Why Obama Should Visit a Mosque." None of these comments and reports change your political bigotry against Muslim-Americans-- even though your father was a Muslim from Kenya.
Perhaps nothing illustrated your utter lack of political courage or even the mildest version of this trait than your surrendering to demands of the hard-liners to prohibit former president Jimmy Carter from speaking at the Democratic National Convention. This is a tradition for former presidents and one accorded in prime time to Bill Clinton this year.
Here was a President who negotiated peace between Israel and Egypt, but his recent book pressing the dominant Israeli superpower to avoid Apartheid of the Palestinians and make peace was all that it took to sideline him. Instead of an important address to the nation by Jimmy Carter on this critical international problem, he was relegated to a stroll across the stage to "tumultuous applause," following a showing of a film about the Carter Center's post-Katrina work. Shame on you, Barack Obama!
But then your shameful behavior has extended to many other areas of American life. (See the factual analysis by my running mate, Matt Gonzalez, on www.votenader.org). You have turned your back on the 100-million poor Americans composed of poor whites, African-Americans, and Latinos. You always mention helping the "middle class" but you omit, repeatedly, mention of the "poor" in America.
Should you be elected President, it must be more than an unprecedented upward career move following a brilliantly unprincipled campaign that spoke "change" yet demonstrated actual obeisance to the concentration power of the "corporate supremacists." It must be about shifting the power from the few to the many. It must be a White House presided over by a black man who does not turn his back on the downtrodden here and abroad but challenges the forces of greed, dictatorial control of labor, consumers and taxpayers, and the militarization of foreign policy. It must be a White House that is transforming of American politics-- opening it up to the public funding of elections (through voluntary approaches)-- and allowing smaller candidates to have a chance to be heard on debates and in the fullness of their now restricted civil liberties. Call it a competitive democracy.
Your presidential campaign again and again has demonstrated cowardly stands. "Hope" some say springs eternal." But not when "reality" consumes it daily.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader

The Dream Is Not Complete

The faces of elderly black women and men, young African-Americans, young college students and a wide diverse group of hopeful Americans made last night a special and historical one.

Being 60, I remember the days when a high school in Little Rock was blocked by the Arkansas governor in attempt to keep black students from entering the fully segregated school. I remember Bull Connors “sicking” dogs and fire hoses on young men and women attempting to sit at a Woolworths’ lunch counter. I remember 3 dead civil rights workers, a church bombed, white hoods and burning crosses. I remember returning from patrol in the northern region of Vietnam to hear Martin Luther King was assassinated. He followed in the tragic footsteps of a President elected as a transformational figure who was also assassinated.

Living in this time of history I never envisioned a black American would be elected to the office of President and live in the White House built by slaves two centuries ago. Too many times I have witnessed the cruelty of racist hate from the perspective of a white male who felt sick and ashamed when it occurred. Too many times I’ve heard the terrible words used to demean and hurt men, women and children of color.

I recall making many journeys to Erie, Pennsylvania to visit my wife’s family during the 1990’s and early part of this century that I heard these hurtful words and characterizations come from citizens of that city. I felt at times I had entered a time warp and returned to those terrible days of the 1960’s. Last night 59% of Erie voted for a black President.

So last night was indeed special. And I felt tears rolling down my cheeks despite my cynical view of our world and the politics of our nation. I remembered reading the struggles described by Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison and Malcolm X. I remembered the harassment of my friends Butch Mayfield and Larry Hales by racist police. Last night there was jubilation with tears in places all over this nation by even the most cynical of us.

Barack Obama is the President-elect of this nation. And the celebration of history should not be obscured by the fears of the future. Even I will stop today and savor the historical significance of November 4, 2008. It was a day of redemption and one of lifting an oppressive force just a little off the backs of those oppressed for so long. It was the beginning of the end of the nightmarish years of fanatics of Christianity wielding far too much power over the rest of us who believe Christ was not like they describe.

Still, the cynicism seeps into my mind. Why do I fear there is some assassin waiting to be sent to kill this historical figure and spark violence like that of 1968? Why does my mind drift to thinking about young men and women wearing uniforms who will still be in Afghanistan and Iraq carrying out the duties of the corporate masters’ imperialistic occupation? Why do I think about the people of those nations and all the other nations that have been burdened and bludgeoned by America’s greed and militaristic nature? Why do I think about the many children who no longer play on the playgrounds and streets of their bombed nations but instead reside in the burial grounds of their ancestors? Why do I think about the continued racism that seeps throughout this nation causing the dreams of young blacks and Hispanics to dissipate into hatred or depression?

I don’t like to think these things but history and experience has taught me to always look for the trip wires of booby-traps that can kill dreams and hopes. History and experience has taught me the Democrats and Republicans are poisonous to the true ideal of democracy and freedom.

We can fool ourselves to believe a black face in the slave built residence of the leader of the American nation will transform us into a better world and nation but the truth is overtly evident should we care to look at it. The need for activism and a unified movement toward peace and justice has not diminished. It may well have grown ever more critical and necessary.

The oppressive cadre of politicians and tycoons wielding power will expect us to be lulled into the notion the dream of Dr. King has been fulfilled. They will expect us to think we have just proven democracy is alive and well in America.

They expect this despite the incarceration of so many young black men in the prisons of this nation. They expect this despite the continued police brutality all across this land. They expect this despite the urban blight caused by years and years of neglect for the poor and disenfranchised. They expect this despite the uninsured families unable to access adequate healthcare. They expect this despite the back door draft and the perpetual wars. They expect this despite the dismal infant mortality rates in this nation. They expect this despite the disparity of educational opportunity for the rich and poor. They expect this despite the ever growing homeless and hungry men, women and children all across this land. They expect this despite the failure of treating mental illness adequately and humanely.

Obama has spoken about these issues but his record belies that he is anything but a torch-bearer for the wealthy and corporate oppressors. He speaks eloquently and gives us hope but we must continue to keep our cynical guard up to prevent further expansion of the oppressive rule of the shadow government this nation has always had; the money men behind the scenes with their own agenda of power and domination.

Let us celebrate the historical event that took place last night but let us not accept it as a bone thrown to a hungry dog to keep it from barking and howling. Let us continue to bark and howl and do whatever necessary to truly effect the changes that will transform this nation into one that is supportive of peace and justice. Let us bark and howl for this nation to remember we are a people responsible for over consumption that pollutes the air of our children and grandchildren. Let us growl about American proliferation of weapons throughout the world that could destroy us all in a moment of madness. Let us unleash the corporate stranglehold on our world and insist on becoming true citizens of the world, sharing our wealth and ideals with all our brothers and sisters.

Many will look like our new President in color and many will be diversely different but all are brothers and sisters we should embrace if we truly want peace and justice. Many will follow the religions of their ancestors and many will only accept Christ. And if we Christians truly believe in the words and deeds of Christ we will embrace the entire world as brothers and sisters.

The selection of Obama to lead the American nation is only one small step toward us joining the world in a cooperative effort to solve the over-riding issues of peace and justice for our world. The flag of nationalism must be replaced by the embrace of a new world effort to care about all people, regardless of nation or flag.

Peace be with you

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member
Combat vet, peace activist, human

Come Nov 5th What Will Be Different?

Come November 5, 2008 the first black American President could be elected and for many this will be the penultimate moment of American politics. It will be a moment of history .Americans must ask why it took so long to accept an African American that didn’t have to do with sports or entertainment. And they must ask why women still wait to be taken seriously for the top leadership position in this nation.

On November 5th it could be Americans will wake up with another stolen election. An old political hack could very well steal away the hopes of all those who wanted to believe true change might occur. His evangelical picked running mate will have achieved what so many much more qualified women have not been allowed to achieve, the Vice Presidency.

Yes, November 5th will be a day of changeover but whether it is a day of change that will truly be remembered as a transformational time is doubtful. There will still be nearly 150,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. What will the election bring for them? Most likely they will continue to die and kill and their minds will be scarred if not their bodies as well. They will come and go on deployments with each time going back being harder than the previous. Many will be forever traumatized and their issues will carry over to families and friends and onto the public at large.

If Americans can’t remember the troops as being the most important issue of this election and choose to think of the economy first, let them remember 10 billion dollars each month is being drained from the families of all the troops and all Americans to fight these wars. Those ten billion dollars will continue to be spent with requests for even more by the military.

The ten billion dollars will be in addition to the normal budget of the DOD each year. Americans spend more on the military than any other nation in the world. We are a nation either perpetually at war or preparing for our next war. Somehow that militarism doesn’t speak well for a nation wanting to be known as a people seeking peace.

I truly want to believe Barrack Obama is the right person to lead this nation out of the great peril it faces but there is a reality based reason I don’t believe he is that person. And I certainly know John McCain isn’t that person. McCain has shown he believes, as too many believe, that our nation can force itself on others to get our way. He thinks we can merely utter the word, democracy, and it will show our goodwill.

Electing a black politician to the Presidency for the first time is diminished if it is business as usual for the American government. All indications point to the sad fact it will continue to be just that. The oligarchy will go unfettered while the middle class will be further disbanded and the poor will be further ignored. Already banks and investment firms that have gotten bailout monies from American taxpayers are planning on huge bonuses for the upper management of firms they allowed to fail. The bailout has done nothing to help Americans facing foreclosure and poverty.

Americans must prepare themselves for the coming disillusionment brought to them by Obama or McCain. Both men and their running mates are flawed characters and flawed in character. They are beholding to the ultra rich. Jobs will continue to be lost. Homes will continue to be lost. The weak and the impoverished will get even less as they lack the advocates to speak out for them. Young Americans will continue to be pumped into the killing fields of the military machine. American politics will not change with the election of either man.

Nothing in American history demonstrates the change from the wealthy few ruling the roost. The one percent will rule over the other 99% using the carrot of capitalistic theory that working hard will pay off for any citizen. The theory of Horatio Alger being one of us is a fairy tale. The truth is we live in a socialistic nation in which the sharing of the wealth only moves upward and never moves down to the citizens most in need.

Americans freak over the concept of sharing the wealth or redistribution of wealth but fail to recognize in the last eight years, while George W. Bush was in office, the greatest redistribution of wealth in American history took place. The schemes of derivatives and selling short on the market, the no bid contracts to friends of politicians and the endless funding of war has taken the American citizen for a ride of historic proportions. It was a ride to the abyss of a failed capitalist system and the truth of the welfare for the rich programs that have stolen the wealth from the treasury.

Columnist David Sirota calls it kleptocracy. As in the continued theft of wealth from all sources by the already wealthy. If a poor nation has natural resources that are valuable, the kleptocrats will have no problem extorting, bribing or bullying to make a profit on the backs of the poor people of that nation.

If it means stealing the pittance of a monthly disability check from a mentally ill citizen, kleptocrats don’t really care because as the latest John McCain bromide sums up; they don’t want redistribution of wealth, they want“to keep what is yours”. If it means cutting back all those bad welfare programs and “entitlement” programs, so be it. The kleptocrat sees programs like Medicare and Medicaid, food stamps and Head Start as too expensive and better left to charitable organizations. They ask us to believe the wealthy and those seeking to be wealthy will fund the charitable organizations enough to care for all those they would take off the “government dole”.

Kleptocrats don’t look at bailouts and subsidies of the already wealthy as being the highest form of welfare. They don’t see tax loopholes allowing ¾ of the largest corporations in America to be free of tax burden as welfare. No, they will point out the largest dollar amount of tax revenues comes from the rich but fail to point out those same rich have had the largest incremental increase in wealth over the past decade than any other time in history. They will also fail to mention Social Security is not deducted from the Americans making over 200,000 dollars each year. Hardly a fair contribution to a fund constantly borrowed from and said to be in risk of failing in the near future.

Kleptocrats want us to believe if they stay rich the wealth will “trickle down” to the middle class and working classes. Nothing in recent history has shown this to be true. Nothing in American history has shown this to be true. Only when “big government” enforced regulations and created safety nets for the poor did some wealth “trickle down”. Only when unions were allowed to flourish, and corrupted kleptocrats kept from running them, did Americans start to own their own homes and have hopes of some of the wealth being shared.

It’s laughable to hear the fear and the belief of middle class America that a fair redistribution of wealth is a dangerous Marxist concept. Americans want to believe they’re a fair people but the facts belie such a belief. How else can the bailout of failed business executives have occurred if there wasn’t a gross lack of fairness?

Americans would like to believe they are not racist but this Presidential season has shown the ugly side of racial stereotypes that still exist all over this nation. And the ugly face of bigotry wasn’t only in Jackson, Mississippi. No, places like Erie, Pennsylvania have proved to have the same hatreds as the “deep South”. Tactics led by Karl Rove have had constant code words and symbols of racism to fuel racist fears of bigots.

Americans would like to believe free speech is a revered concept but the reality is free speech is disdained by far too many of us. We only want to hear what we like and agree with. We don’t want to listen to the ideas of others that disagree with us. Most Americans reject criticism of the government but are constantly bitching about the very same government either being too big or impotent against special interests. We strike up the bands to send our troops to war and put yellow ribbons on SUVs but become enraged when the war is questioned in good faith by other Americans. We claim they are “anti-troops” even though that is not what is being said at all.

Most of us have grown up with the attention span of a two year old when it comes to political issues. We want our thinking shaped by 30 second or 60 second sound bites that give us distortions and outright lies. We accept a system rewarding a candidate with the deepest pockets and the best script writers. Few of our politicians can interact with their constituencies because so few of the “real” people have access to them. We accept the mediocrity and stupidity of men and women elected to office entrusted with grave issues; like wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We accept capitulation without debate by Congress to a disgraceful President hell bent on starting a war. We learn the truth of the corrupted reasons for war and passively allow the killing to continue.

November 5th will be a day of awakening. We will awake to an election of a new President and a new Congress but the corrupted system of special interests and oligarchy will remain in place. Palms will be greased by corporate interests. Deals will be made in corporate offices by the people elected based on the inane sound bites.

The sad part of the election of 2008 is the faith of the younger generation lost when the promises are forgotten by the elected. Americans of my generation have become immune to the lies and corruption. We have come to expect it. We owe the new generation of Americans a better future. We have failed them.

In 1971 after my deployment in Vietnam I became an activist. My generation was big on saying we would change the world. We bragged we would take on the “system” and make things different. As my life has fast-forwarded to my 60th year, those promises of change have resulted in eight years of Reagan and Bush. We didn’t change the system. We allowed the system to become a sewer that has poisoned the very fabric of our nation. I still love my country but I abhor what my generation has allowed my country to become.

I’d like to dream something other than the nightmares of the war I foolishly went to fight. I’d like to dream the generation of my sons and my grandchildren will face a better world than the one I faced in 1967. I’d like to dream there are new leaders that will emerge to bring the young hope and integrity. I’d like to dream and hope the way Martin Luther King dreamt. I’d like to dream the activists of my generation carried through with the promises. I fear I’ll wake up November 5th and discover dreams of a moral America are just a dream. I fear November 5th will be just another day of the nightmare we’ve allowed to happen.

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member
USMC Combat vet – 1967-1969 RVN
http://visopeace.blogspot.com