Bill's Big Diamond Blog

El Salvador's Cindy Sheehan

An often overlooked footnote to the first Bush Administration is the legacy of right-wing government in the tiny Central American country of El Salvador. That government has been steadfastly loyal to the second Bush Administration’s war in Iraq. It’s troops are the only Latin American coalition partners with the United States in Iraq today, still keeping 380 troops there.

One soldier’s mother, Herminia Ramos, has had enough. Her son, Natividad Mendez Ramos, 19, was the first Salvadoran Army death in Iraq.

While Ramos was given an insurance check for $7,000 and was declared a “national hero” by the country’s President in the wake of her son’s death, the insurance check hasn't lasted long and over time, the memories of her son have outweighed the politician's laurels. This week, Ramos took a letter to the President’s office and to the National Assembly, demanding that El Salvador remove its troops from Iraq.

In doing this, Ms. Ramos gives voice to the large majorities in polls who are against their country’s participation. The Los Angeles Times quotes Bishop Medardo Gomez of the Lutheran Church of El Salvador, who calls her a different sort of national hero. "She is a poor woman of few words whose pain led her to speak out. She's dared to stand up to the powerful, to our government and, above all, to the military."

In El Salvador, standing up to the military is not the same speaking out in the US. Ramos is a brave woman indeed.

Today's March in NYC

The April 29, 2006 March for Peace, Justice and Democracy was a huge success. In New York, it was a beautiful day for a march against the war in Iraq— and many thousands joined in. Spirits were high and the attitude was festive and people of all ages and political stripes were there.

You might enjoy the pictorial flavor of the event and a few of the sights along the way, so I’ve posted some photos. There were some great stories in the crowd, beyond the size of it. Here are a few...As you can see, the Grannies are back from their court appearance!

"Living with War"

Click on the link to listen to Neil Young's album, “Living with War.”

…and read David Schmeichel's review of it in his hometown Winnipeg Sun.

UPDATE- I’m listening to this fine album now and I feel I’m tapped into a pivotal moment in history. Young’s “metal folk protest” against the war in Iraq encapsulates both the youthful rage and middle-aged generosity of a spirit I remember as far back as May, 1970, when his “Ohio” called us to wake up and fight back after Nixon’s war brought its toll home, killing young Americans at Jackson State and Kent State university campuses.

Today, as we prepare to take to the streets again against another butcher, one who both evaded and simultaneously celebrated that earlier Vietnam conflict, it’s a comfort to know we have Young’s art and heart with us once more. “Flags of Freedom,” his description of the moment a family sends one of their own off to war, could as easily feel like a send-off to demonstrators assembling to bring our sons and daughters home.

My favorite cuts are at the beginning of the album. The first one, “After the Garden is Gone,” has the same innocence Young brought to his music thirty-some years ago, wondering aloud what peace would be like.

“won’t need no shadow man… running the government… won’t need no stinking war…won’t need no haircut…won’t need no shoeshine…”

“Living with War,” the second cut, reaches out to describe the day-to-day experience at home of seeing the war unfold on television and of praying for peace, while “The Restless Consumer” reacts to the Madison Avenue War sell-job done on the American public to push the invasion. “Shock and Awe” contrasts the inspirational euphemisms of the war’s leaders at its outset with the raw reality of its carnage.

Frankly, “Let’s Impeach the President,” even though its title will garner more attention than the album itself, is probably the weakest cut, but the experience builds to it by the time you get there. “Living With War” should be listened to as a complete work, the way an old vinyl record used to lead you from one cut to another in pre-Steve Jobs recordings.

At the end, wait for one of the best recordings of “America the Beautiful” you’re ever likely to hear.

Rock on, Mr. Young. See you in the streets!

Fitzmas in April?

From David Shuster Rove testimony report on MSNBC:

“…The grand jury, according to sources, also pressed Rove about his testimony in 2004 when he failed to reveal he spoke to Time Magazine's Matt Cooper about Valerie Plame -- the former CIA operative at the heart of the investigation.”

[Scott Fredericksen, former independent counsel] "Grand jurors asking about why he didn't recall his conversation in the original grand jury means they are focusing on the charge itself: Did he perjure himself? And they are not yet convinced of his explanations, that's why they are asking those questions."

Antiwar Grannies Get Off in Time for April 29 Demonstration in New York

The aquittal of the Antiwar Grannies, coming just as New York prepares for the huge Saturday march and festival for Peace, Justice and Democracy is upbeat news.

The Grannies, singing their own version of “God Bless America,” whooped it up on the couthouse steps after their weeklong trial ended:

"God Help America, We Need You Bad! 'Cause Our Leaders Are Cheaters And They're Making The World Really Mad.
Climbing Mountains, Crossing Oceans And Invading Foreign Soil..."

Twenty Years Later, The Temptation to Forget

Anyone wondering if the answer to global warming should include a push to restart the nuclear power industry might want to read the report from the Chernobyl Remembrance for the Future Conference:

…Twenty years after the catastrophe, the truth
about its dimensions, and specifically about
the health consequences it has been causing,
has still not been fully recognized. A key part
of the nuclear industry’s program is to down-
play the consequences of Chornobyl. Unfor-
givably, the International Atomic Energy
Agency and World Health Organization have
supported the nuclear industry in this effort—
their report last September, for example, re-
ported only up to 4,000 possible cancer deaths
as a consequence of radiation exposure from
the accident. While the full overall health im-
pact of the Chornobyl disaster may never be
known, as “The Other Report On Chornobyl
(TORCH)” prepared for this conference indi-
cates, at a minimum some 30,000-60,000 fatal
cancers can be expected worldwide. More than
6,000 thyroid cancer cases have been diagnos-
ed so far in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, and
more are anticipated. Recent scientific studies
are revealing increased incidences of solid can-
cers, including breast cancer, as well as cardio-
vascular and ophthalmic effects. These effects
have long latency periods of more than 20 years.
The general state of health is in decline and con-
taminated territories show low birth rates, relativ-
ely high rates of prenatal losses and infant
mortality….

Imagine Seas 25 Meters Higher

A few days ago, I posted “Cooking the Science Books.” In this post, I referred to the suppression of scientific data that indicates how severe global warming (among other problems) has become.

Yesterday, journalist David Neiwert posted about global warming and the politics of denial in his Ornicus blog. The entire post is essential reading, but if you had any doubts about the severity of the problem, start with this teaser:

The last time the world was three degrees warmer
than today -- which is what we expect later this
century -- sea levels were 25m higher. So that is
what we can look forward to if we don't act soon.
None of the current climate and ice models predict
this. But I prefer the evidence from the Earth's his-
tory and my own eyes. I think sea-level rise is
going to be the big issue soon, more even than war-
ming itself.

It's hard to say what the world will be like if this
happens. It would be another planet. You could im-
agine great armadas of icebergs breaking off Green-
land and melting as they float south. And, of course,
huge areas being flooded.

How long have we got? We have to stabilize emis-
sions of carbon dioxide within a decade, or temper-
atures will warm by more than one degree. That will
be warmer than it has been for half a million years,
and many things could become unstoppable. If we
are to stop that, we cannot wait for new technologies
like capturing emissions from burning coal. We have
to act with what we have. This decade, that means
focusing on energy efficiency and renewable sources
of energy that do not burn carbon. We don't have
much time left.

NYC Area News

New York area overnight bits below.

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Political consultant Susan Tzu has an interesting post at Daily Kos about her recent meeting with Senate candidate Ned Lamont in Connecticut. He’s looking like a good bet to give Joe Lieberman a jolt in the primary there.

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New York TWU Local President Roger Toussaint is given a send-off as a labor martyr by labor leaders and union members...the MTA and the Governor, who succeed in getting him jailed-- have no doubt assured him of re-election in the process.

You wonder why there’s so much bad blood between the TWU and the Authority? I’d guess this is a good example of the kind of disrespect that pushes workers to an illegal strike. …Jailing their leader three months after the end of the strike and refusing to accept an agreement the MTA was ready to accept in December…

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The United for Peace and Justice antiwar rally scheduled for Saturday seems to have gathered both substantial organizing strength and the coordination with city officials that should make for a huge and peaceful turnout this weekend.

CIA Story: Drumheller's Follow-Up: Josh Marshall Interview

If you saw the 60 Minutes interview with Tyler Drumheller, the now-retired head of CIA covert operations in Europe, you should move on to Josh Marshall’s call with him. Drumheller told Marshall about turning Naji Sabri, Iraq's Foreign Minister, who told the CIA before the war that their WMD programs no longer existed.

The White House was excited about Sabri…until they found out he wasn’t towing the line on WMD. Then, Drumheller says, they lost all interest.

Drumheller says he told all this to the Robb-Silbermann Commission AND the Roberts Senate Committee. Of course, neither of these whitewashes passed his information on to the public. Now that we know how devastating the case is against this Administration on manufacturing a war and a justification for it, what will we do?

It’s hard to blame the intelligence when it becomes clear that the spooks told the White House the WMD weren’t there.

Kerry Returns to His Roots

This is the John Kerry I remember from 1972, when I was a high-school student, visiting his Lowell, MA campaign office. Finally, it looks like he’s come back from the safe soundbites of a cautious presidential candidacy.

Read the entire speech at the link. This should give the flavor of “Dissent”:

“…true patriots must defend the right of dissent,
and hear the voices of dissenters, especially now,
when our leaders have committed us to a pre-
emptive “war of choice” that does not involve the
defense of our people or our territory against ag-
gressors. The patriotic obligation to speak out
becomes even more urgent when politicians
refuse to debate their policies or disclose the facts.
And even more urgent when they seek, perversely,
to use their own military blunders to deflect op-
position and answer their own failures with more
of the same. Presidents and politicians may worry
about losing face, or votes, or legacy; it is time to
think about young Americans and innocent civilians
who are losing their lives…”

Read the speech.

—and come to New York on Saturday, April 29 to March for Peace, Justice, and Democracy.