Reading the tea leaves or listening to what this administration says is an exercise in becoming a Soviet-sinologist of the Politburo. I was checking out www.buzzflash.com and this little item caught my eye. Midway down the article, which is a speech by war criminal Rumsfeld, there is a linguistic change in the Bush "war on terror" which is that "We are closer to the beginning of this struggle, this global insurgency, than to its end, he said." Does this mean that will will support any government against an insurgency?

So this "war on terror" now becomes a "war against the 'global insurgency.'" So just as 9/11 was used to lie about Saddam this "war on terror" really is a lie to justify a "war on global insurgency". Since the neo-cons like to use a false history of the founding of this nation to excuse their rose colored vision for a post-democratic Iraq then why not continue this inversion to say that the American Revolution was not about revolution at all?

I have been writing but haven't posted any poems in the last few weeks. While the images of Abu Ghraib have exposed the lies of Bush and company about being liberators (after the weapons of mass killing being promulagated by Bush/Cheney were exposed to be lies), their argument now seems to rest on the immoral grounds that "Look at the thousands of Iraqis tortured by Saddam; whereas we only tortured a few Iraqis." Is this the America that I know? No! Contrary to the religious neo-con vision of a theocratic America that is a betrayal of the current "leaders" in the White House and Congress to their sworn oaths to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution there are millions of Americans that have been mobilized both in thought and deed to restore America to the basic, bedrock ideals of our founders of freedom, liberty, and justice for all.

blood

blood
     every drop
          from the terrorist bomb explosion
               to our hellfire from our puff the magic dragon gunships

     does one life of an american equal ten lives of the enemy
          or one hundred lives of the other
               or one thousand lives of those who believe in a weaker god


every lie
     is a bullet into the heart of the constitution
          with grins and chortles by those with facism in mind
               as the lives of our sons and daughters are left on desert sands

     taking the easy path
          even enjoying the walk towards darkness
               while honor, morality, and ethics are disemboweled from the soul

what is red upon exposure to air will soon turn black
     innumerable flakes to be driven by that infernal desert wind
          mixing both ours and theirs
               as the weeping and sorrow is done in private

     broken vessels to discolor their skin
          cracked bones to hobble their youth and to break their parents’ spirit
               frozen in time by pictures taken by the western born liberators


the mask of words to hide the body of actions
     bush and his men and women who spit on the constitution
          dressed in three piece suits with little flag pins
               are traitors to the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

     listening to the tone deaf exhortations
               wrapped in the bloody, 9/11 tattered piece of red, white, and blue cloth
               to wage the infinite justice of our war making to eradicate evil

I was reading the blog TalkLeft and noticed this:

"In January 2003, Baker was a member of the 438th Military Police company in Operation Enduring Freedom at Guantanamo Bay, where he says he was "given a direct order by an officer in the U.S. Army" to play the role of a detainee for a training exercise.

"I was on duty as an MP in an internal camp where the detainees were housed," said Baker.

Baker claims that he was ordered to put on one of the orange jumpsuits worn by the detainees. "At first I was reluctant, but he said 'you'll be fine...put this on.' And I did," said Baker.

Baker says what took place next happened at the hands of four U.S. soldiers - soldiers he believes didn't know he was one of them - has changed his life forever."

Read the rest of what happened to National Guardsman Sean Baker here.

What were Military Police being trained in these kinds of techniques for? MG Miller was in charge of Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, and MG Miller's report stipulated that MP units be used by MI units in order to "soften up" prisoners. As the Taguba reports critically on MG Miller's report to misuse the MP prison mission, is this new story about not "a few bad apples" meme but another facet of the condoning of torture from the highest levels of civilian and military leaders?

A lot of good Democratic Party activists showed up, over 2500, for the state convention in Pueblo, Colorado. What was most surprising was the huge momentum of the Mike Miles for Senate campaign by the delegates. One informal gauge of the momentum for Miles had to do with eating. Both Ken Salazar and Mike Miles campaigns had set up for breakfast and lunch buffets and just looking over both feeds there was alot more people in line for the Miles campaign feed. I would say that the lunch buffet for both showed that when the Salazar lunch stand had closed the Miles lunch stand was still going strong.

Informal but quite telling.

Of course the final vote tally showed- Miles 51% versus Salazar 49%.

The wheels have come off the Bush's sedan. For Bush's it is now the fortress mentality- stonewall, slime, obfuscation, stonewall, smear, demagogue, stonewall. While Colin Powell tries to salvage his reputation by telling the world that Bush was informed of the ICRC reports. The result is plain to see- Bush did nothing. He was unresponsive to the situation because he was the one who had created the situation to begin with. As everyone in the world knows now is that once Bush knows "in his heart" what course of action to do then he will "never waver" from that plan.

While toady White House chief legal counsel Alberto Gonzales was making sure that the legal process and protections for prisoners under the Geneva Conventions was tossed aside for his boss. The result is now horrifically see on those digital images from Abu Ghraib. Of course Bush now hypocritically wants another UN exemption to the International Criminal Court for American peacekeepers.

However, the American public is getting wise to BushCo's miserable failure in Iraq. No matter how the corporate media covers for Bush's, Americans from all walks of life feel the impact of this war of choice. As John Kerry stated recently that America should not make war by choice but only by necessity. War of choice is another way of saying that Bush's is on the same playing field as Adolph Hitler, Tojo, and Mussolini.

Our moral standing as Americans under the Constitution and Bill of Rights has been dragged through the mud by a man who has no understanding of those foundation documents. Bush's administration's morality and ethical behavior is that of Hitler's Third Reich because both of those men and their followers show that laws and moral behavior is subservient for the quest of power.

Now that the internal White House memos of Gonzales are exposed by Newsweek there is good reason why BushCo wanted out of the International Criminal Court (signed by President Clinton but not ratified) and Geneva Conventions because of blowback from the "war on terror".

"In the memo, the White House lawyer focused on a little known 1996 law passed by Congress, known as the War Crimes Act, that banned any Americans from committing war crimes—defined in part as "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions. Noting that the law applies to "U.S. officials" and that punishments for violators "include the death penalty," Gonzales told Bush that "it was difficult to predict with confidence" how Justice Department prosecutors might apply the law in the future. This was especially the case given that some of the language in the Geneva Conventions—such as that outlawing "outrages upon personal dignity" and "inhuman treatment" of prisoners—was "undefined."

What is contradictory is this, from the article:

The memo, by Justice lawyers John Yoo and Robert Delahunty, also concludes—in response to a question by the Pentagon—that U.S. soldiers could not be tried for violations of the laws of war in Afghanistan because such international laws have "no binding legal effect on either the President or the military.

Why?

For signatories to the Geneva Conventions agrees to this:

Each nation that signs agrees to enforce its own violations and those of others. As an example, the U.S. Department of Defense has military laws that would bring charges against anyone in the military that commits a war crime. Those laws were in effect in 1971, when Lt. William Calley was put on trial for the murder of unarmed civilians at My Lai during the Vietnam War. This is from "What are the Geneva Conventions?"

So this administration knowingly goes about abdicating it's responsiblity to both American law and the Geneva Conventions.

When will world leaders start shunning Mr. Bush?

Listening to the Sunday morning pundit pap and the delusional Peggy Noonan now makes the equivacation that the actions by the 800 MP battalion at Abu Ghraib is just "vulgar" but the beheading of Nick Berg by supposedly dead man Zarqawi is "savage". What's the distinction for Noonan except on the level of Rush Limbaugh thinking that "those people" are "subhuman". Again, Noonan is arguing for the dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims in order to justify the war crimes that was committed by American forces and condoned from Mr. Bush on down the civilian chain of command. Disgusting.

It's party time in Colorado. Political party time that is. I was just at the Denver Democratic Party caucus convention. There was a lot more people at this convention then in 2002. Sharron Klein, Denver country chairperson, announced that 1600 party members showed up!

The voting for senate candidates was close. Not a landslide for the heavy weight, Ken Salazar, because Mike Miles gave a rousing speech before the people. There was really no comparison between the two candidates in terms of the speeches because the buzz afterwards was about Mile's speech performance which was great! It had all of the ingredients of bravado of "the underdog against the 'machine'" and humility, humor, and ending with hope. Whereas, I felt, that Salazar's speech was good but not really passionate about the facts and accomplishments of his stewardship of the attorney general post nor did he really seem able to connect with people about his own personal ties with Colorado. The Salazar speech was okay. The outcome was that neither candidate pulled a majority but was almost split down the middle. Great job Mike, and Ken has his work cut out for himself.

In the Denver County District Attorney race I believe there was a bit of a surprise that Beth McCann pulled a majority of votes from the three person race with Mitch Morrissey being the big loser. One of the reasons that I believe that Beth McCann pulled a majority of votes in the race was that she, other then offering a solid track record of accomplishments in public life, is an alternative to a male role in this important area for Denver County residents. I believe that it is time for a woman to take the role of District Attorney and see if there can't be a different way for the whole judicial/law enforcement management and relations to improve between them and the average citizen.

Well, I'm an alternate delegate to both the CD1 convention next Saturday and the state convention on the 22nd of May.

What are my plans for CD1 and State? To have the Colorado Democratic Party platform to contain a plank that in unambiguous terms condemns and calls for a full investigation by Congress into the policies and practices at all American military run, including contracts with civilian contractor managed facilities, prison facilities that are designated for "terrorists", "enemy combatants", and "material witnesses", including all facilities at Guantanamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The Commission will have full power of subpoena. The Commission will have adequate staff and budget. The Commission will have adequate time to complete it's investigation and recommendations. The findings of the Commission will then be given to appropriate Congressional committees for impeachment proceedings to begin.

Why?

What was not proposed or discussed during the resolutions phase of the Denver County convention was the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

More

Reading about the scope and nature of actual war crimes being committed by the men and women of our armed forces at that prison and others, including Bagram and Guantanamo, only shows that there is a systemic problem. International papers, like the Guardian UK, have already shown that the photographs shown from Abu Ghraib are not "just random acts" but part of a known system called "R2I" (Resistance to Interrogation) for SAS and other special forces training.

Other documentation emerging is that "softening up" of prisoners for interrogation was sanctioned by at the highest levels of both civilian and military commanders.

Reading the Taguba report states that it was a system wide problem and that the individuals accused of abuse (read war crimes) was acting on orders and encouragement from their superiors. Terms like "cowboying" and "wild, wild West" was code for the commissioning of war crimes.

The Taguba report is critical of a previous report by MG (major general) Miller. In MG Miller's report there is the recommendation that MP (military police) be used by MI (military intelligence) for "softening up" or "renditions" on prisoners before interrogation. However, this utilitzation of MP for MI activities are forbidden in military regulations. It is against MP guidelines that MP will be used for that purpose and is contrary to the MP mission.

Not only that but there have been two soldiers from Camp Delta that have been disciplined for the use of excessive force that have gained infamy for soldiers of the 800th MP battalion of Abu Ghraib while under the command of the same MG Miller. So, not only is MG Miller not under investigation but he is given the same mission in Iraq and with greater responsibilities for supervision of all prisons in Iraq, which includes Camp Buccha (named in the Tagube Report).

While Mr. Bush stated that he was sorry for such war crimes. It was only a "few bad apples" in the bunch theme that he has sounded before during the accounting and corporate scandals of 18 months ago. If Mr. Bush is going to use the same excuse now as before then he is sadly mistaken because this time it is much more serious and before the world stage.

America is on trial now. Not just the war criminals- Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, Ms. Rice, Mr. Powell, Mr. Wolfowitz, Mr. Feith, Gen. Myers, Gen. Franks, Gen. Karpinski, Gen. Sanchez, and Mr. Ashcroft. This election has taken on the dimension of being a referendum on the war crimes committed and are still being committed by the American armed services and its surrogates of cilivian contractors in the gulag system setup by Mr. Bush and his administration.