CIVILIANISM PODCAST

Hear Cynthia McKinneys acceptance speech excerpt in this episode. Civilianism is supporting Cynthia McKinney’s run for president because she is a real progressive. Civilianism also supports the Green Party.

Republicans lie to us about security and want to make us live trapped in a constant fear and eternal war. Action item: United for Peace and Justice, NO WAR ON IRAN (click here)

Ominous signs: the Terrorist Watch List is at one million names. Bush wants to hold “enemy combatants”, even if they are Americans, for ever, and ever.

No one gets the real energy crisis. McCain wants to drill in the Gulf of Mexico, and in ANWR, as does my crazy Congresswoman, Michele Bachmann

McCain falsely claimed Katrina and Rita did not cause significant oil spills

Elwyn Tinklenberg for Congress

Cynthia McKinney for President
Chris Hedges article for the Los Angeles Times — how FISA will cost him sources and impede his journalism
Read Stop the New FISA

Alas, it’s too late! The FISA Grand Capitulation passed the House and the Senate, and Democrats voted for it in alarmingly large numbers. This is the domestic surveilliance that even ex-Attorney General John Ashcroft, while in the hospital, would not sign off on! Read the account of James Comey’s heroic efforts for the Justice Department here. The current bunch of Democrats just threw it all away and voted for something even John Ashcroft could not endorse in 2004.

Gates and Bush seem to be moving away from war with Iran, but the Pentagon seems to be moving forward. Which will prevail? The Democrats aren’t doing much about anything, so don’t ask them. Meanwhile, Obama outlines policy of endless war.

Tzipi Livni, Israel foreign minister, said it really would not be that big of a deal if Iran had a nuclear weapon. You heard that right, no existential threat there.

Spying programs: Total Information Awareness, The MATRIX, the National Applications Office, TIPS, and Infragard. We live in a surveillance society that is in a state of high paranoia, even as we grow ever more distant from 9/11. What’s going on? Why are we so paranoid and full of fear? Oh yeah, there’s an election coming up, and someone’s going to lose power.

Infragard article by Matt Rothschild from Common Dreams/The Progressive magazine

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Green Party website and Cynthia McKinney’s acceptance speech.

The Army wants your kids and they are portraying war as a video game. Militarism describes the insertion of the military, extreme patriotism, and constant war into American life. It permeates our culture and shapes our view of the rest of the world, and we probably barely notice it. It shapes our domestic policies too, from our feelings on the death penalty to gun control. The huge amounts of money involved in waging war and emphasizing militarism causes regular people to suffer every day. The first step in fixing this is to recognize it, and for some people, it’s to stop militarism in its tracks at the source: recruiting people to fight in these wars. Young people are being manipulated by marketing teams and propaganda experts to join wars they would never want to be a part of if they were more informed. Helping to fight this: a growing group of people connected online and in their communities. One community is trying to stop the militarism of summer festivals such as air shows in Duluth Minnesota. This episode features an interview with Michele Naar-Obed of Loaves and Fishes Catholic Workers and the Christian Peace Teams and discusses militarism. She has also been to Iraq several times and talks about the situation there also.

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The groups in Duluth need your help in counteracting the military recruitment at their air show. The air show occurs on July 19th through July 20th and will involved an exhibit titled THE VIRTUAL ARMY EXPERIENCE. (You can see a little demo on the site). This exhibit teaches young people to think of killing people as part of a video game. This exhibit is traveling around the United States and attempting to make an appearance at family events where children are allowed, in order to get them interested in military as young as possible. The military is using this recruitment tool to actively appeal to BOY SCOUTS AND GIRL SCOUTS. It has been up and down the east coast this summer demonstrating war to kids in the Scouts. (Click here to read)

Naar-Obed wrote:

“The Duluth air show started out as a celebration of aviation. Over the
years it has become more and more militarized and has been used as a
military recruitment event. We are not denouncing aviation. We are
denouncing the militarization of it.

Militarization has become ubiquitous in our culture. It’s influence is
everywhere. The military purposefully targets our youth. They have
done studies on the best age group to target for recruitment and have
found that it’s best to start with 12 year olds. The “virtual army
experience” exhibit is open to 13 year olds and above. A child as
young as 13 will be invited to sit on a humvee and shoot at life sized
human images on a computer screen with machine guns. They are
preparing our youth to kill. This is insane.”

World and U.S. military spending is out of control, read about it here.

All Links and contact information are after the break, so click on “continue reading”. Please contact people on these lists to try to stop this Virtual Army Experience and the recruiting booth from appearing at this air show, and other air shows around the country. The VAE exhibit is pictured to the left. People sit in the Hummer and shoot at simulated “enemies” just like in a video game. After the shooting game, they are taken to a room and “debriefed” by a decorated real soldier, who also talks to them about military careers. Read all about it here.

Do you consider yourself patriotic? Yes or no, you will want to listen to this. Protesting is one of the most patriotic things you can do, especially considering the way Congress is giving away our rights on a weekly basis, all to buy a little so-called safety. That’s the excuse for the wars we are in too, but it’s a false sense of safety. These military exercises just drag on and on. It’s time to end these optional for-profit wars, and bring the soldiers home.

Check out U.S. House Res. 362 — Sanctions on Iran. This is being fast-tracked and these are severe sanctions, including a possible blockade. A blockade is especially serious since it is considered an Act of War. This won’t win us any help at the negotiating table when we finally sit down with Iran after Bush is done damaging the process as much as possible.

House Resolution 362 is really a scary thing to consider. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on “Meeting the Iranian Challenge” on Tuesday, July 8, 2008. The Honorable William J. Burns is the only witness announced so far. It has been endorsed by 146 cosponsors and has momentum with reportedly 43 cosponsors jumping on the last two days. Gareth Porter says that US House Res. 362 suggests the use of force with new bill. See his video explaining this at the link above.
The following groups will be involved in the March on the RNC in September:
United for Peace and Justice
ANSWER

Troops out Now Coalition

September 2nd: Poor People’s economic Human Rights campaign

Big Concert on the 2nd being planned, so far for the state capitol: Anti-Flag and Michael Franti

The National Assembly to End the War and Occupation of Iraq

Anti-war Committee.org

Protest RNC 2008.org — A clearinghouse for every protest group going to the March on the RNC, the site is good for info. on what will be happening all four days.

If you want to get the real inside info on the March for the RNC, listen to my Interview about the big anti-war march scheduled in St. Paul September 1st, 2008, at the Republican National Convention with Katrina P. from MarchonRNC.org

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Music: Peace in America by Dan Coyle, I am a Patriot by Little Steven