Jack Burns Lives!

“I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health. There’s something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact…You cannot be a president of the United States who’s wanton in his expression of violence. There’s a lot of people who need care. He might be one of them. If there isn’t something wrong with him, then there’s something wrong with us. This, to me, is a very serious question.”

Once again, Dennis Kucinich is the only Democratic candidate apparently willing to tell it like it is. Our ruler is insane, and he’s willing to drag us into WW3 so a bunch of industrialists can pad their pockets before the crash. The last gasps of an empire dependent on cheap fuel.

But it doesn’t matter. The sheeple will elect another status quo puppet of the elite and the show will continue on, unabated to any significant degree. Perhaps not at the alarming pace of the neocons, but have no doubt. The show will go on.

The “show,” of course, is growth. Economic growth at the cost of life on the planet, and supported by militarism. Here’s one of the headlines from today’s Commercial Appeal:

The reasons there is no popular rebellion is people are too comfortable. When everyone in the realm is fat and happy, adorned in a dizzying assortment of bling bling, the King can pretty much do as he pleases. You can behead Queens, loot neighboring countries and use the Exchequer as your private piggy bank. Just keep the masses fed and the Barons happy, while all other life goes to hell in a hand basket.

Old King George is pretty good at that.

Alarmed by all this talk about attacking Iran, I recently wrote to my friend and fellow Abbeyeista, Hayduke. I would have preferred a discussion over a couple of pints at the local pub, but seeing how we’re on different continents, I settled for a typed correspondence.

Hayduke’s been on the planet a bit longer than I have, and he’s a wise old owl. A sage of sorts. Whereas I’m a Southerner known for my often hasty, emotional responses and a quick, hot temper (must be those Irish roots), Hayduke is a pragmatist. A rational Midwesterner turned Left Coaster that thinks before he speaks.

But in this correspondence, it was he who was quick. Quick to point out the Good News, where all I could see was bad. As I cry out in frustration “Who’s going to liberate us,” he calmly reminds me that climate change, Peak Oil and shrinking aquifers are massing on the borders of Washington, prepared for invasion.

Yes, Houston. Help is on the way.

Oil climbed to $93 per barrel yesterday for the first time ever. Hopefully, it will go higher and force more people to consider alternative modes of transportation. For those of you pissed off about high prices, all I can say is do something about it. Quit buying gas.

Thanks to Peak Oil (not terrorists or nukes, as is commonly believed by the duped masses) the war drums are rising to an almost deafening crescendo, as the Bush propaganda team maneuvers to soften up a citizenry incapable of resistance to its devilish desires. It won’t take much for the profit motivated junta to get its way. Case in point, Presidential candidate McCain jokes about it, singing “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,” and everyone chuckles.

Maybe more people will give a shit when their kids are drafted, hauled off and sent back in body bags, blown to smithereens.

Our activities in the Middle East, and perhaps very shortly in Venezuela, are akin to the spasm of a human in the death throes. Gasping in the last hours, it thrashes about, incoherent, incapable of controlling its own bowels, writhing in pain. Even in the precious moments of rest, you hear the death rattle. It’s the final attempt to pad our pockets with wealth via the expansion of militarism and markets and to control the precious, natural resource upon which our society depends.

Thanks to the growth maniac cultists, global warming continues. Polar bears drown because the distances they now must swim are too vast. Elephant seal pups clamor at ships in distress. The entire Arctic ecosystem appears doomed and will have reverberating results for the humans and non-humans that inhabit our much abused planet.

Despite all of this, I raise my mug to October, the fairest of all months, and to Mother Earth. The leaves are peaking in Tennessee and the chickadees and chipmunks are busy gathering food for the coming winter. The hummingbirds have left but soon the juncos will return. Blessed with brilliant blue skies and cool temperatures, we await the great pagan festival of the last harvest, the winter slaughter, the death of the crops and the rest cycle of the land.

Winters Eve if you’re a Saxon. Samhain if you’re a Celt.

In nature, death means life. Rebirth. The continuation of the cycle of life. So take heed of all that’s happening in the world and realize that ultimately, Mother Nature is in control. She bats last and will right the ship. The oil party will end, and since there’s no known energy supply than can replace it, the out-of-control party that’s waking up all the neighbors will also end.

The death of the grownth-maniac economic cult is assured, and in death, there is life.

Edward Abbey Truck Auction
http://youtube.com/v/xkwFK6PjxhM

Interesting Podcast on The Dirtbag Diaries today. It’s an MP3 file titled True Meaning of Radical, and is the story of how a young idealist, Chelsea Gerlach, became involved in the Earth Liberation Front (ELF).

Chelsea was found guilty, sentenced to prison and labeled a “terrorist.” A good example of how the government ruthlessly pursues its enemies.

Driven underground and living life in a constant state of paranoia and fear, Chelsea describes a life of terror, not one of balance and peace. It’s an important lesson for anyone that considers acts of violence justifiable. The bottom line is it doesn’t work, and in the case of Vail Lodge, the building was rebuilt at an even grander scale than what was originally planned. Just to show the “enviro freaks” that heavy handed capitalists will not be deterred.

In the end, she changes her mind about what it means to be a real “radical.” Funny how prison can change your perspective.

You cannot fight destruction and violence with destruction and violence. You cannot successfully work against the government and industrialism using its own tools, namely, destruction and violence. You cannot meet force with force. All you can do is live a life that is the antithesis of destruction and violence, one of harmony, balance and peace.

“…the she-wolf in her hunting avoided the left fork. For she knew that in the lynx’s lair was a litter of kittens, and she knew the lynx for a fierce, bad-tempered creature and a terrible fighter. It was all very well for a half a dozen wolves to drive a lynx, spitting and bristling, up a tree; but it was quiet a different matter for a lone wolf to encounter a lynx-especially when the lynx was known to have a litter of hungry kittens at her back.” from White Fang, by Jack London

I first discovered the lynx while reading London’s classic tale in middle school. I loved the story and also loved the writer, the well known “Boy Socialist” of Northern California, who achieved international acclaim for White Fang’s companion piece, The Call of the Wild published in 1903.

Also of note is his political fantasy, The Iron Heal (1908), which Leon Trotsky called a work of genius, and where London describes the rise of fascism in America.

Mr. London, we have fulfilled your terrible vision. Be happy you’re not here to see it.

These days, it’s an uncommon occurrence to find a lair full of lynx cubs. A solitary and distinctive creature, Lynx canadensis is one of North America’s most fascinating and beautiful animals. Although sometimes confused with the bobcat, it’s actually easily distinguished by the tip of its tail, which is entirely black, and by its tufted ears.

Mostly nocturnal, it almost always stalks its prey alone, its favorite dish being the hare. In a good year, it may eat 200 or so. In a bad year, when there are far fewer, poor nutrition can makes the cats stop breeding. Basically as the hare goes, the lynx goes.

Although often characterized as “nonchalant” toward humans, evidence suggests that the species avoids humans and for good reasons. Nearly extirpated in North America, thanks to hunting and habitat loss, the lynx finally received some help in the early ’90′s when several petitions were presented to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service requesting the Canada lynx be listed as an endangered species. After a series of refusals to approve the petitions, a lawsuit was filed in 1996 for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s failure to list the Canada Lynx as a threatened or endangered species throughout its entire historic range in the lower 48. That range includes New England, the Great Lakes, the Rocky Mountains and most of the Northwest, 24 states total.

The various petitions were made by twelve groups and two individuals, and all presented overwhelming scientific evidence in support of the listing request. All were denied, despite the acknowledgment by USFWS that the lynx suffered “significant population losses” in the lower 48, and despite a district court decision, where a judge ruled against USFWS for “failing to adequately consider all evidence indicating that the lynx should be listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).”

The official position of USFWS in 1997 stated that species protection was “warranted but precluded.” Not enough money or resources, one official stated. At least not enough money for the lynx.

Finally, after years of legal battles, the Notice of Application To Amend an Endangered Species Act, for the Inclusion of the Canada Lynx as a threatened species was filed and approved in 2000. To most thinking humans, mountains of scientific evidence to support species protection within a ecosystem makes sense. But to the radical right, it’s nothing more than a “contrivance of the greens to take our lands,” and a subversive plot designed to “stop logging and thinning,restrict hydro operations, mandate stream regulations, and shut down winter recreation everywhere.”

Basically, a big hoax that somehow took enviro insiders at USFWS six years to pull off. Some insiders they were, because in those six years of battles, there were further significant losses of habitat. Lots of money for industry, but not enough for the lynx.

Fast forward to 2007 and there’s good and bad news. The reintroduction effort in Colorado is bearing fruit, with at least 50 new kittens being born. They seem to be spreading and repopulating other areas, with some collared lynx ranging hundreds of miles. Somewhere between 200 to 500 survive in Maine, although a handful have been shot by hunters, the most recent one being found Aroostook County just this week. It had been shot through the hindquarters with a high-powered rifle.

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Today is the anniversary of the Nuremberg Trial Executions where ten Nazi political and military leaders, including propagandists and ideologues, were hung. Goering escaped via suicide. Bormann was sentenced to death in absentia.

It’s interesting to consider the charges and findings in light of what’s happening in the world today. The condemned were found guilty of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression; war crimes; and crimes against humanity.

One, Julius Streicher, was executed solely for the expression of ideas.

I believe it’s clear that the United States, as well as some of its allies and corporate contractors, have gone way beyond the expression of ideas. The politico-industrial machine at the controls has certainly committed crimes against peace. It’s initiated and waged wars of aggression with lies. It also seems clear that the highest levels of leadership have created and directed an organized effort to commit war crimes and have “looked away” as crimes against humanity are committed. What else do you call the atrocities at Abu Ghraib? What other term more accurately describes private armies intentionally killing unarmed non-combatants than “war crimes?” Do we simply call it murder?

Seems clear to me that the actions of the United States Government are outlawed by the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter and treaties against torture and other human rights abuses.

How can we, and the rest of the world, accept the pathetic utterance that the intentional killing of civilians is simply an “unfortunate event” or an “incident?” Or, how about nothing whatsoever? A October 10 article in the New York Times states that “the United States Embassy in Baghdad has said almost nothing about the Nisour Square episode,” where Blackwater thugs murdered at least eight Iraqis were killed, including a woman and an infant.

The New York Times also reports that the guards who committed the most recently documented crime “had been hired to protect financial and policy experts.” In other words, a private army of thugs protecting a hoard of corporate criminals. However, in this case, the firm wasn’t Blackwater, the well-known band of thugs involved in the the Nisour Square murders. This group is managed from Australia and headquartered in the new capital of global non-sustainability, Dubai.

According to the Nuremberg Principles, any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable to punishment. The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible government official does not relieve him or her from responsibility under international law.

A crime against peace is defined as “planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances.” A war crime is defined as “violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation of slave labor or for any other purpose of the civilian population of or in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the Seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.” Crimes against humanity are defined as “murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhumane acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime.”

It’s worth noting that the “U.S. approved” Iraqi government has said its own investigation concluded that the shootings were an act of “deliberate murder” and called on the Blackwater guards to be prosecuted. An Iraqi traffic policeman positioned near the area where the two women were killed stated that “They are killing the people just like what happened in Nisour Square.” “They are butchering the Iraqis.”

But how clever is it for the U.S. Government to hire private contractors to do its dirty work? Not very, because although you can attempt to pass the blame on the actions of individuals acting without direction or authority, the United States government is ultimately responsible. In business, and this is a business venture, the master contractor, is always ultimately responsible for the actions of its hired contractors. And, of course, it’s not just private contractors doing all the killing and torture. It’s the military, as well.

So, the whole premise that the war was based upon was a lie, and therefore a crime, and the actions carried out by soldiers, contractors and prison guards are war crimes and crimes against humanity. There’s enough there to keep an international group of prosecutors busy for months. Even a rookie public prosecutor could get a conviction.

Paul Craig Roberts, Hoover Institution senior fellow and assistant secretary of the treasury under Ronald Reagan, charged Bush with “lies and an illegal war of aggression, with outing CIA agents, with war crimes against Iraqi civilians, with the horrors of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo torture centers.” Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and former president of the American Society of International Law, declares: “These policies make a mockery of our claim to stand for the rule of law. [Americans] should be marching on Washington to reject inhumane techniques carried out in our name.” (Counterpunch, Dec. 6, 2005)

So, who has balls big enough to stand up against the junta and indict the suspects? Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rove, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz? What about Willian Kristol and Robert Kagan and the PNAC roster?

Could be a big trial.