Stop Loss is a song by Army Specialist and Iraq war veteran Marc Hall. He’s in some major trouble for this song. He’s been in jail since December 11th for singing and recording this song.  Original music should be protected by the First Amendment but isn’t for people in the Army.

“[Stop Loss is] a song that expresses his anger over the Army’s stop-loss policy.

Stop-loss is a policy that allows the Army to keep soldiers active beyond the end of their signed contracts. According to the Pentagon, more than 120,000 soldiers have been affected by stop-loss since 2001, and currently 13,000 soldiers are serving under stop-loss orders.

Hall, (aka hip hop artist Marc Watercus), who is in the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, was placed in Liberty County Jail for the song in which he angrily denounces the continuing policy that has barred him from exiting the military. [It's about the draft, (hidden in plain site) in other words.]

Military service members do not completely give up their rights to free speech, particularly not when they are doing so artistically while off duty, as was the case with Hall. He is charged under Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which covers “all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline” and “all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.” The military is claiming that he “communicated a threat” with his song. Hall mailed a copy of the song to the Pentagon after the Army unilaterally extended his contract for a second Iraq deployment.

Read more here at Truthout. Don’t be fooled for a second thinking that we don’t have a draft in the U.S. — but it’s only for those in the Army, caught in the net of the active military currently serving.  The song is also seemingly a threat, or is it just a statement of fact?

Download or listen to the song here.  (It’s explicit.)

Obama is being influenced by his bad angels, listening to the wrong people, and doing the wrong things in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. Giving him the Nobel Peace Prize for this was a mistake.

The drone attacks he orders are horrifying and illegal, killing innocent people even as they execute a few “real” targets.   The escalation of his war will not bring peace. Unfortunately, this war will drag on and on and on without the American people protesting it. There might not be a draft, but there are 56,000 contractors headed for Afghanistan too. . . . privatizing our military force in the Middle East even further, even as our peace/war president plans a “surge”.

Not only are another 30,000 troops being deployed to Afghanistan, “but also 56,000 military contractors will join them.”

Militarism grows and grows, even as we let other things go, like real health care reform, serious climate change work and the smart grid, etc.

An analysis of Obama’s Nobel speech and the “Just War”  and “Just Peace” theories is here.  I don’t buy it. I think no war that kills civilians, and keeps on killing civilians, can be anything but just another war.  Unless this war is solving some serious problem or threat, (and it’s not) we need to leave.

A good angel would know this.

This episode contains part of a protest rally including speakers Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney, and it also contains bits of President Obama’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

Get involved, contact your President and your Congressmen and tell them to stop this stupid war.  It might be the end of us if we don’t. War is still a racket.

Download this episode here, or subscribe on the right.
Artwork by Jay Long.

Respected journalist Amy Goodman was finally able to give her talk in Vancouver, Canada, in late November, 2009, after and despite serious harassment by Canadian police. She discussed this on her show Democracy Now in late November, but this is the actual talk. She discussed health care, her mother’s health care before death, media, Obama, Afghanistan, our military, feminism, and more. It’s often funny too.

She also talks about how she feels getting involved and dissent are very important. It’s an incredible talk, very revealing as she talks about her mother, and completely unedited.

Great line (among many): “What do I think of the mainstream media? I think it would be a good idea.”

“Information is power”, she said, something any student of journalism could tell you instinctively, but something many people don’t usually think about.

Download here or subscribe on the right.

Credit for the original recording: Radio4all.net

Music: (I Wish I Had a) Wooden Heart, by David Holmes

Sami Rasouli

Sami Rasouli, a well known Iraqi-American peace activist, traveled to central Minnesota last week and gave us an update on Iraq.   Iraqis need our help, and a lot of things need a lot of work in Iraq. They also need peace building and better relations with American citizens. He drops a couple of mostly unknown bits of info too, like that most of the scientists in Iraq were deliberately killed by Israeli intelligence (Mossad) during the war.

Shockingly, he said that Iraqis learned from John Wayne movies, not George Bush Sr., that America is a culture of force and violence. We have to reverse this perception. Learn more in this episode of Civilianism, which you can download here or subscribe to on the right.

There are two articles related to the topics in this podcast. One is “Oil Billions and Weapons of Mass Deception in Iraq” which you can read here, and the other is “Huge Rise in Birth Defects in Falluja” which you can read here.

The organizations that Sami Rasouli hopes you will check out and become involved in are found here:

The Iraq and American Reconciliation Project (IARP)  and the Muslim Peacemaker Team.

You can get involved as easily as helping to buy water sanitation equipment in Iraq, which is very much needed.

Besides devastating climate change, my 3 everyday concerns are: Health care reform, which we badly need, the Palestine-Israel conflict and when will it be over, and when will the wars the U.S. is in finally end? We need these things resolved. Obama has been President 9 months now, it’s time he fixed some of these monumental problems. That’s what he was elected to do! This podcast contains recordings about these 3 issues.

Hear Greg Palast, and Judge Goldstone on his Report about war crimes, and a very special “guest”.

For more information about all of the topics covered in this episode, see Civilianism News.

Of course, my biggest concern is still climate change. See Futurism Now Radio and Futurism Now for more information on that.

On Sept 9th, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem published its findings on the number of Palestinians and Israelis killed in Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip.

According to B’Tselem’s research, Israeli security forces killed 1,387 Palestinians during the course of the three-week operation. Of these, 773 did not take part in the hostilities, including 320 minors and 109 women over the age of 18. Of those killed, 330 took part in the hostilities, and 248 were Palestinian police officers, most of whom were killed in aerial bombings of police stations on the first day of the operation. . . . .

B’Tselem’s figures, the result of months of meticulous investigation and cross-checks with numerous sources, sharply contradict those published by the Israeli military. However, B’Tselem visited homes and gathered death certificates, photos, and testimonies relating to all 252 children under 16, and has the details of 111 women over 16 killed.

The purpose of the presentation was to educate the public, but unfortunately the public does not attend these events; the people who already know what is going on do. Here are some recent facts they presented:

• The U.S. donates $23,000+ to every Israeli citizen in Israel, every year.
• In 2006, the Jewish settlement in Palestine total was 40 million, and the U.S. paid for it.
• In 2006 the total U.S. allocation to Israel from the U.S. was $4.36 billion, which we paid for.
• Israel took 95,989 acres of Palestinian land in 2006. We pay for this. We also pay for the wall, which snakes around strategically to cut off families and towns.
• The Berlin wall was only 96 miles long. The Israeli wall is planned to be 403 miles long, and it has nothing to do with preventing terrorists from entering Israel.
• Palestinians cannot even use Israeli roads, and their license plates mark them as Palestinians, which is a racist mark. These facts are just a few of many this CP team presented. At the end of the recording is an interesting Q & A also.

You can listen to this presentation of their experiences in Palestine last year by clicking here (opens a podcast file in a new window).

B’Tselem, which said it had carried out “months of meticulous investigation and cross-checks with numerous sources” has, unlike the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), made public the names of all those it said were killed in the war. It said that since the IDF had refused to furnish the agency with its own detailed list, it was impossible to compare the names but that “the blatant discrepancy between the numbers is intolerable.”

The new figures came as it emerged that the Israel Defence Forces have opened a criminal investigation into allegations by Khaled Abed Rabbo and his mother Suad that three of his daughters were shot – two fatally – as the family, carrying a white flag, walked from their house in eastern Jabalya on January 7, early in the military’s ground offensive.

Mr Abed Rabbo testified – including to The Independent two weeks later – that his mother, who was waving a white headscarf, his wife and the three girls were outside the house when a soldier emerged from a tank and opened fire killing Amal, two, Suad, seven, and severely wounding a third, Samar, four, who was evacuated to Belgium for medical treatment.”

Read more here

Civilianism News

and

Futurism Now News

Want more podcasts?

It’s about the biggest story of the 21st century –

Futurism Now Podcast

I pull no punches with these people in this episode. We can’t afford to, because they are dangerous and they are violent. They simply hate Democrats/liberals/socialists. They didn’t even know what they were protesting. Are they misguided? To say the least.

The Tea Party itself was mostly, overall, anti-Obama and seemed to be a bunch of right-wing white supremacists.

I play audio from the Tea Party in my city, and my (mild) heckling of this “event”.

I also play audio from the fascist Rep. Michele Bachmann’s “climate forum” last week, where she was accompanied by her fascist friend Chris Horner of the Competitive Fascists Foundation. (CEI)

It’s so astounding to see these so-called 99% right-wing Christians advise against helping even the most poor and down and out people in this country, and also against doing anything about global warming — even denying it exists. There is no logic to these extremists anymore. We have to stop these uninformed blowhards before they destroy every good thing our government is trying to do, and worse. We need to fund the fight against climate change with a carbon emissions tax soon and they are against that too. They are against every good and progressive thing that the Obama administration needs to get done this year and next.

Apparently, right-wing extremists want civilization itself to fail!

Music by Santigold- “Pretty Green” and Ricki Lee Jones “Have you had enough”?  I have!

Download here if the audio player is not appearing.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Democratic Climate Plan Would Trim CO2 Emissions 17% (bloomberg.com)
• Gore Sees Economic Crisis As “Opportunity” (cbsnews.com)
• Gore: Bad Economy Is Time For “Decisive Action” On Global Warming (huffingtonpost.com)

Well, it might come in the way of green jobs — or not. We need climate change action, and we get super capitalism. We get a lot of promises and nice catchphrases and sound bytes from the “world leaders”, but whether any of this will pan out is anyone’s guess.

This episode talks about the G20, the climate conferences in Bonn, Energy, and news from the Republican Road to Ruin. Also, why T. Boone Pickens and the Republicans are lying to us.

Interested in the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009? Henry Waxman says it will create thousands of green jobs.

Info. on the Bonn climate conference from Greenpeace and from the UNFCCC website about the Bonn conference here.

The Republicans are really distorting reality what Cap and Trade will cost the average family (if such a thing exists anymore)

Final mix cut of Solutions from the podcast Radio Ecoshock. You will enjoy the good news, for a change.

Read the Republican Road to Ruin if you want a good laugh — or cry.

Music clips from the movie Revolutionary Road, (a very sad movie, like the state of the economy and climate right now.)

Download this episode here or subscribe on the right.

Bushfires in Australia

Societal transformation might be on the visible horizon. This episode contains highlights from last week’s Climate Congress in Copenhagen, and some speculation about geoengineering — will it be necessary and what will it include? The main finding from the Climate meeting was that governments have to act on climate change or drastic steps in the future will have to be taken, and they won’t be cheap.

“We have 100 months.” That is what Prince Charles said last week. We have less than 10 years to find a real sustainable solution to climate change. How bad is the climate crisis? The Amazon forest is about to burn up. The oceans are getting terribly acidic and we are on track to warm 4C or even more. That would be a nightmare scenario for life on earth. Even the lowest plants and creatures on the food chain are suffering from climate change, making everything on up affected also.

Cap and trade won’t be adequate to deal with emissions quickly enough, so James Hansen, climate scientist, proposes a cap and dividend system:

“The entire carbon tax should be returned to the public, with a monthly deposit to their
bank accounts, an equal share to each person (if no bank account provided, an annual
check – social security number must be provided). No bureaucracy is needed to figure
this out. If the initial carbon tax averages $1200 per person per year, $100 is deposited in
each account each month (Detail: perhaps limit to four shares per family, with child
shares being half-size, i.e., no marriage penalty but do not encourage population growth).”

Read the rest here (pdf).

This plan would work great if our government just had the political will to propose it and implement it. The infrastructure is already set up to handle this.

Geoengineering info: The Prospect Of Manipulating the Planet

ScienceInsider: DARPA is interested in geoengineering

Chemtrails? Did somebody mention chemtrails?

Send me your comments on these and other climate-related topics.

If you care about the planet, please help me promote this podcast, and spread the word about climate change and the dangers of sticking with fossil fuels for energy. Download this episode here.

The Age of Stupid movie trailer can be seen here.

Interested in the Clean Energy Corp — story link about green jobs from the Environment News Service:
“Clean Energy Corps Proposed to Create Jobs, Fight Global Warming”

In the 2nd half, you’ll hear about why natural gas isn’t such a great fuel, why it’s not “clean” like Pelosi is claiming, and whatever happened to Jimmy Carter’s solar panels, and his dream of clean energy. It’s not a happy story, but 30 years later, we have another realistic chance at it. And at the end, bits of a speech from 32 years ago, much of which President Obama could be saying today.

Nancy Pelosi’s conflict of interest is her financial interest in T. Boone Picken’s natural gas venture.
From the Wall Street Journal.

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband invested between $50,000 and $100,000 in T. Boone Pickens’s Clean Energy Fuels Corp., which could benefit from legislation the California Democrat favors to boost U.S. use of natural gas.

Nancy Pelosi’s letter about switching the CPP to natural gas: Read the whole thing here.

Pelosi has a conflict of interest with natural gas, being an investor in T. Boone Pickens natural gas company. She’s an investor in natural gas, so she is pushing the use of natural gas on the nation’s capitol, insinuating that it’s “clean” and renewable, which it most certainly is not. She should be installing solar panels instead. — like our president did 30 years ago. The drilling process for natural gas contains the use of toxic chemicals, including Benzene which causes cancer. And get this — the company who perfected this deadly technique was Halliburton. Here more about this in part 2 of this episode.

From Scientific America.

“Sublette County is the home of one of the nation’s largest natural gas fields, and many of its 6,000 wells have undergone a process pioneered by Halliburton called hydraulic fracturing, which shoots vast amounts of water, sand and chemicals several miles underground to break apart rock and release the gas. The process has been considered safe since a 2004 study by the Environmental Protection Agency found that it posed no risk to drinking water. After that study, Congress even exempted hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act. Today fracturing is used in 9 out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States.”

As for Jimmy Carter’s solar panels–they were removed by the Reaganites, and now you can hear why.
I read much of the story, but you can read the rest of it here.

You can download this episode here.

Related articles:

• Sen. Reid has plan to reform energy infrastructure (news.cnet.com)
• As Oil and Gas Prices Plunge, a Frenzy of Drilling Ends (nytimes.com)

This is part one, and part two will only be on Futurism Now Radio.com.
This episode starts with a message about PowerShift09 from scientist James Hansen.

Here are the facts: this is the only planet any of us have, so let’s all work together to solve this climate problem. It truly is a crisis–more so than the banking crisis, but the government keeps bailing out banks while keeping action on global warming a lower priority. If there is any fire to put out, it’s climate change.

On February 4, 2009 Energy Secretary Stephen Chu told the Los Angeles Times:
“I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen,” he said. “We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California,” He sees education as a means to combat this threat.

Much of the Senate hearing is played in this episode, but it was very long so I’m splitting it in two. The Full Committee was titled, “Update on the Latest Global Warming Science.” I didn’t see any major American media cover this, and it should have been big news. After all, this is the latest science on climate change, straight from the scientists. More of the scientists will appear in part II — Part I contains the Senate panel’s member comments and the statements of two of the scientists, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Nobel Prize-winning IPCC, PhD, and Christopher Field PhD, Director, Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford University, Co-chair of Working Group II (continued in part II)

Climate change is the biggest threat to life on this planet, and we can’t stand by and watch it happen while our mainstream media treats it like no big deal–certainly less of a big deal than banks collapsing, so I’m asking people to spread the word. Our media is once again letting us down and even worse, treating this like a debatable political issue, which it absolutely is not.

The testimony Hansen gave to the House Ways & Means Committee is available at
this site (pdf)

Download this episode here.

This was originally titled A Possibility of Hope, from the makers of the movie, Children of Men.

Humans have an instinct not just for survival, but of realizing all humans should benefit from the attempts at our survival in the future.

These are ideas on the future from philosophers, historians, cultural critics, futurists, a sociologist, a human geographer, and an economy expert.

The broad topics covered in this episode are Reality, Fear, Walls, Fever, (global warming) and Hope. . . .
You can download this episode here.

Speakers: Naomi Klein, James Lovelock, John Gray, Saskia Sassen, Tzvetan Todorov, Slavoj Zizek, Fabrizio Eva

This conference was mainly about transmission of the smart grid that is to come, creating thousands of new jobs, and the low carbon economy that is being developed. This new low carbon emphasis will play a big part in moving America in the right direction, at last, and it’s also reworking our economy in the process, something that badly needs to be done. When climate and jobs are being realistically dealt within the U.S. we are going to have ourselves a different economy.

This is an episode of Futurism Now, and it includes a little news and then the conference. Speakers in part I of this include Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore (who will show up again in Part II) former President Bill Clinton, T. Boone Pickens, Van Jones, Byron Dorgan, and Ken Salazar and more.

“To allow a climate crisis to proceed unchecked will directly harm people’s lives and the prosperity of the global economy. Global warming presents the threat of lost agricultural productivity, drought and reduced supplies of fresh drinking water, the migration of environmental refugees (creating new global conflicts), and substantial economic damages and lost property for coastal communities. At the same time, our nation’s growing reliance on oil is a major national security concern. During the 1973 oil embargo orchestrated by the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries, the United States imported less than a third of its oil needs, yet constraints on supply at the time created economic, social, and foreign policy disruptions. Today, we import nearly 70 percent of our oil—at a cost of $478 billion dollars in 2008 alone—representing a major contribution to our national trade imbalance.”

And about the grid:

“An integrated, IT-enabled, national electrical grid is essential for improving security
and reliability, but it is especially critical for bringing higher percentages of renewable
electricity into our energy mix due to the variable nature of many of
these resources. New information technology like advanced metering
infrastructure is also key to bringing advanced home appliances and
end-use technologies on line to capture new efficiencies.”

There is quite a bit of information on the website for this event, including maps and pdfs and things to read, which you can download here: http://nationalcleanenergyproject.org/

and at American Progress

The event was moderated by former U.S. Senator and UN Foundation President Timothy Wirth.

Part II will be found only on FuturismNow.com. It will include Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Robert Kennedy Jr., Owens-Corning CEO Michael Thaman, more of Al Gore and Bill Clinton, and more. Bill Clinton discusses decoupling and even Slumdog Millionaire in part II.

You can download this episode here or visit the original website for this podcast, Futurism Now Radio.

To Civilianism listeners, please pardon the interruption.

I am introducing Futurism Now.

This is the introductory episode of a new podcast. My interests have been moving in this direction for a long time. Futurism Now is a completely new, separate podcast that I am promoting here at Civilianism.

You can subscribe to Futurism Now at the Futurism Now podcast website. What is it? Futurism now is about climate change, energy, science, politics and legislation to get us moving on climate change, and more. Articles and the daily blog can be found here.

The introduction asks the question: Is there a consensus on climate change among climate scientists? Yes, there is. We are past debate. It’s time for action.

Support Action on Climate Change! Call your Congressmen and Senators and tell them you support their action on climate change and that they need to increase their support for clean energy — wind and solar, not the non-existent “clean coal” or natural gas, which is another fossil fuel.

Audio is played from new Energy Secretary Steven Chu from last summer, speaking at UC Berkeley, and from NASA climate scientist James Hansen on climate change and what has to be done.

James Hansen audio courtesy of RadioEcoshock podcast, at Ecoshock.org

You can download this episide here or subscribe at Futurism Now.

Today’s episode covers U.S. news, news about Karl Rove, news about diplomatic efforts, climate change, and the $ 819 billion dollar stimulus package that Obama wants passed. No Republicans voted to pass it in the House on Wednesday night and it passed anyway. That’s because President Obama has a mandate and intelligence on his side. Yes, dear Republicans, the Democrats won. Anyway, I defend the spending bill and one reason is the money for transportation and energy and the new electric grid, all of which we need badly.

See this train? Other countries have super-fast commuter trains and we don’t — yet. Why is that? Could it be due to Exxon or BP? We need super-fast, super-efficient transit in the U.S. and it’s ridiculous that we don’t have any. Something or someone must be obstructing their development. There are even solar-powered bullet trains in development, but I bet the U.S. will be one of the last countries to get one, thanks to the obstructionist Republicans.

I play a short clip of Al Gore’s very long testimony in front of Congress on Wednesday. I will have the entire recording (3 hours) shortly, and it will be available on Podcast Liberally only.

You can download this episode here or subscribe on the right.

Music clip: Runaway Train by Eliza Gilkyson

But, why are we still bombing Pakistan? These and other mysteries will be covered in episodes to come.

Played: Clips from Obama at the State Department and former senator, now Middle East special envoy, George Mitchell from last October.

Something on your mind? Send me news, tips, and music for the podcast by using the form here (Contact tab on the top), or email me with news and comments.

You can also call my Skype comment line 24/7 at : 320-300-4273.

The shorter episodes will continue for now, but Civilianism in its more in-depth format (i.e., really long form) will return at some point later on.

DOWNLOAD here or subscribe on the right.

This is the first episode of my shorter news broadcasts, called Podcast Liberally News and Commentary, or PLNC for short. I will be including them in my Civilianism RSS feed for a while, and then you will have to get them by subscribing or visiting the website for them, at Podcast Liberally. That used to be a review podcast that I did last year, but my own enthusiasm for it evaporated, so for now I’m back to news and opinion in a form short enough that I can do them more often. Shorter PLNC episodes will be far less draining on my time. And shorter to listen to!

You can subscribe to them at Podcast Liberally.com. I’m keeping this website for Civilianism news and podcasts.

You can download this episode here or subscribe at the PL website.

Song at end: My Country ‘Tis of Thee Pt. 1 by Learning Music from Yes We Puede!
(more free downloads there for everyone)

Imagine this: We not only have “hope” back but we have a president who respects science and the law again. What a relief!

Download or listen here.
A new episode of PLNC is coming soon. PLNC is new: Podcast Liberally News and Commentary and will be a new podcast under 20 minutes: news and commentary and music. You can see the website here, but I will also be putting it into the Civilianism podcast feed for a while. The Civilianism podcast will also continue but on bi-monthly basis instead of weekly.
Speech recording courtesy of ABC News.

The slaughter of innocent people in the Gaza strip continues with the blessing of the United States, while Dick Cheney and George Bush go on their media Fairy Tale Hour speaking tours. Both have admitted torture and are trying to avoid being prosecuted for war crimes by kissing up to the Obama administration and the media.

We get 30 seconds of news given to the war in Gaza, which we are helping to fund and supply with weapons, in our mainstream media’s nightly news. No wonder Americans are in favor of whatever it is that Israel is doing.

There were no Hamas rockets during the ceasefire of mid-June through November 4th, when Israel broke the ceasefire by attacking and kiling 6 Palestinians. Now, the propaganda wars are waging as fiercely as the bombing and shooting war in Gaza. As the death toll has gone over 1,000 with most of the dead being civilians, it’s hard to imagine why our Congress has endorsed this brutality, unless you reach the conclusion that the U.S. government is somewhat, ah, . . . . . . corrupt.

Pardon me, did I say that out loud?

Join me in my search for Happiness. I think I have found it.

Here is Froomkin’s little summary of the Bush legacy, ‘The Bush Verdict is In”. World Freedom ‘Retreats for Third Year‘

Livestation TV – watch foreign media in good quality. This episode contains news from Wednesday night from Al Jazeera. Max Blumenthal’s video about the pro-Israel rally he did for Alternet.org is here.

I wish everyone a happy and peaceful 2009.

Podcast artwork by Rami Abbas, for Palestine.

DOWNLOAD THIS EPISODE HERE or subscribe on the right.

End Song: Michael Heart, We will not go down (Song for Gaza)
Middle song: Tom Chartier, Death Don’t Have No Mercy

Gore Vidal, Andrew Bacevich, and Arundhati Roy strongly disagree with U.S. imperialist policy, and so do I. I play portions of all three, and a portion of an interview from KBOO radio.

Download this episode here or subscribe on the right.

The Taliban Control 72% of Afghanistan, Surround Kabul, and NATO is in Denial

“Armed clashes in Afghanistan have reached the highest level since the Taliban was ousted by American-led forces in 2001, according to the United Nations. Taliban leader Mullah Omar today warned violence will rise and urged foreign forces to withdraw, Agence France-Presse reported, in his first public statement in a year. Pakistan militants torched 50 NATO trucks carrying supplies for troops in Afghanistan, the second such attack in as many days, AFP reported today, citing a police official.”

BBC article: Drivers halt Afghan supply route — Lorry Drivers in north-west Pakistan say they will no longer deliver supplies to NATO. If this means the war will have to end, that’s OK.
BBC: Countering the Taleban’s 20-year war
The Taleban is planning for a 20-year war in Afghanistan, so we must too, the article argues. I hope they are completely wrong.

Gore Vidal’s interview was about his book Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
(here is another interview with him, for more information, not the one I played)
Arundhati Roy’s anti-war talk Come September can be downloaded from iTunes
You can read the transcript here.

Times Online: US accuses Britain over military failings in Afghanistan.

(The In These Times magazine article, “Obama’s Burden” that I read from, is not online.)

Also see: More U.S. troops to Afghanistan? by Russ Feingold

Also see: Official Calls for Sensitivity to Afghan Demands

Also see: Brzezinski: Surge In Afghanistan Risky, Some McCain Backers Want World War IV
Obviously, let’s not let them have it.

It’s time for American imperialism to end and peace to prevail.

This is the last episode of Civilianism for 2008, Happy New Year!

Why does the U.S. need so much energy? Part of it is our temperature-moderated and leaky buildings, but even more of it is our cars. So along comes the $15 billion auto bailout, promises from the remaining auto makers to modernize, and 3 million jobs are saved. Or are they? It remains to be seen. What we do know is that this is NOT the fault of unions. The auto makers’ failures are the results of their own short-sightedness and lack of vision. We should have 75 mpg cars by now and millions of electric cars on the roads! That last part is exactly the vision of Shai Agassi, the founder and CEO of Better Place.

Better Place is an electric car and electric car powering station plan that is already in development. Cars are being designed, power stations are being put in place, and countries and states are being signed up to get on board. Already signed up are Israel, Japan, Denmark, parts of California, and the state of Hawaii. That means they are going totally green and emissions free with their transportation in these areas. You can read about this great plan here. My podcast includes a good audio recording of Shai Agassi describing his vision of our car future.

The Better Place car

This episode also includes the peak oil/economic collapse story of Dmitri Orlov. He witnessed the transformation of the former Soviet Union to current day Russia through economic collapse, and he describes what he thinks will happen here in the U.S.A. the reasons why. His blog Club Orlov, contains links to his famous “Five Steps to Collapse” presentation.
The Five Steps of collapse, explained in detail. And Introducing the Light-hearted Moment!

DOWNLOAD THIS EPISODE here or subscribe on the right.

Here are the links to things I read and mentioned in this episode: The Short History of the Electric Car

Thomas Friedman: While Detroit Slept

Saving US Autos the American Way by Brent Budowsky

The Encyclopedia of Country Living
How to live if the bottom falls out! Practical, not violent, survival guide.

Music: Japanese Car by Gideon Freudmann and Unsustainable by Eliza Gilkyson
(and she’s actually from TX)

Terrorism and wars continue to rage overseas. Bush continues to try to push through last-minute anti-environmental laws that our next president won’t be able to change. Examples are discussed in this episode.

But In America, with new leadership, we hope there is a brighter day coming.
Civilianism will be talking about these changes and asks for your help in letting our politicians know they have to act, and that we are behind them. There have been conferences going on in several locations lately, in preparation for Copenhagen in December 2009, a long 12 months away. The main conference going on at the moment is called the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-14).
You can read about it here and here at Climatechange.org.

You can also read about the Interfaith Climate Summit in Sweden. You can follow the Poznan Twitter feed for constant updates here — #Poznan UN Climate Summit tweets

It’s time for action, not talk, but the politicians have to get their cooperation hats on. This is the beginning of a new era of cooperation for the world.

This episode contains an interesting story connected to climate change as an introduction to the 2007 documentary “Life At the End of Empire” which you can find on a site full of information, including where to buy the movie at Whatawaytogomovie.com

The latest science suggests that preventing runaway climate change means complete decarbonization. I read most of George Monbiot’s recent article, One Shot Left

Edited testimony of James Hansen, and Tom Helweg-Larson of the Public Interest Research Centre in front of parliament on November 26 is in here too. You can download the whole 68 minute testimony from the Climate Page at ecoshock.org

Song at end: Here’s Your Future by The Thermals

I’m not sure, but I think it’s a song about global warming.

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The U.S. obsession with tasers is spreading to England, which is a terrible idea!
Antiwar.com has Iraq war news.
Read about H.Res. 1531 here, introduced by Congressman Nadler:

Introduced on 11/20/08 — This is the first resolution urging President Bush not to pardon senior administration officials for crimes the President authorized. It urges Congress to investigate those crimes and any pardons relating to those crimes, and urges the Attorney General (current or future) to appoint an Independent Counsel to prosecute those crimes.

The Interview with American author and mystic, Caroline Myss, from New Dimensions, which has podcasts here.
Cindy Sheehan’s interview is from the Jeff Farias show.
Safe Climate or Endless War? It’s a choice we will have to make soon, because we can’t fight climate change smartly and terrorism militarily at the same time.

The Radio Ecoshock show with the Michael T. Klare (author of new book “Rising Powers, Shrinking World”) can be found here.
For a very irritating pro-war attitude, see James Cartwright: Perpetual war speech last week at the MOAA

The AccoLade, a Saudi “girl band” website is a on Myspace here.

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Music played: In this Moment: Beautiful Tragedy (from the Podsafe Music Network) and Hero’s Song by Brendan James from the music of Body of War.

Who is Eric Holder? Obama’s new Attorney General.

Chris Hedges talks about the Iraq war and his new book about Collateral Damage.
You can see the entire Miami Book TV event from last week at CSPANjunkie.

Obama advisers: Bush era war criminals will walk.

Obama: Warming must be tackled now.
Good speech! This ones gives me real hope for the future.

Congress has fast-track power to Kill Bush rules.
Good! I hope they come through and do it.

What is Islamofascism? It’s a meaningless made-up word that racist people use to justify all sorts of bad attitudes towards people who are from the Middle East or Muslim. It’s a way to demonize them and justify our being at war with them. We have to make sure this war in Afghanistan stops as soon as possible because we are spreading terrorism instead of stopping it and it’s just plain immoral to be trying to solve problems by bombing people. Time to evolve. We need to convince President Obama to end the war in Afghanistan even as he is bringing soldiers out of Iraq, before they are redeployed. It’s time to start to get invovled in a real peace movement, one that looks at the root cause of terrorism and fights it as the crime that it is, not a dehumanizing war where we drop bombs on civilians. Collateral damage is not acceptable now and it never was. (There is no such thing as “avenging” 9/11, no matter what Rachel Maddow says.) An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.

This episode also covers news about Obama, the Iraq status of forces agreement, automakers headed for bankruptcy, the G20 summit and more. You can download it here or subscribe on the right.

Take action on the bailout issue by visiting Break the Bailout by visiting http://www.BreakTheBailout.com — we need to show Congress that we will hold them accountable.

Music by American Sex Machine, Little Green Bag and Michael Franti, The Future

Recorded on Veterans Day. Although I am against American militarism, and even though I feel there are far better and more honorable ways to serve your country than by harming other people and destroying their country, I wish all veterans well, especially the anti-war veterans who have realized the truth.

Lawrence Velvel on our new president-elect and his policy on Afghanistan: Read here.

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From The Real News Network: More U.S. missile strikes kill civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are moving backwards instead of forwards. The U.S. can no longer help militarily because we are creating new terrorists by our actions. Read here

The interview from Alternative Radio is Andrew Bacevich, who wrote “The New American Militarism” in 2005. The interview is from 2006 and he gives a historical perspective on the history of how Americans relate to their military and the MIC.

Wall Street Journal: Intelligence policy to stay largely intact under Obama? Read here.

G20 Finance Ministers Call for Growth and Stability. Read here.
Guido Mantega warns that emerging economies are tired of appearing at meetings with industrialized countries only to be allowed to “drink coffee.”

OMB Watch article on what bush is doing with new rules and regulations.
Midnight at the White House: Bush Using Rules to Cement Legacy

Obama and Iran comments from Informed Comment . Why is he still talking tough on Iran?

IPS News US/IRAQ We have to share this pain
by Dahr Jamail

Winter Soldier: Eyewitness Accounts of War

Regime Change 2008! On Tuesday, if everyone gets out and votes, everything changes. For the better! Interview with Independence Party Senate candidate, former Senator Dean Barkley of Minnesota*. Then, a discussion of the election and a message from Noam Chomsky from The Real News. Remember to VOTE on November 4th and vote your conscience. Just avoid the line with McCain’s name on it.

*This is a slightly abbreviated interview. For the entire interview go to this page and download the whole thing. Here is the Independence Party (of MN) website and here is Dean Barkley’s website.

I also explain what happened to my interview with Rosa Clemente of the Green Party and why I have retracted my support for the Green Party presidential ticket this year.

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THIS is our year for regime change and the whole world is watching!

I would love to hear from you about your voting experience this year. Was it easy or tough, optimistic or dismal? Send me your reports and I will read them or play them in the next podcast. Call my Skype voicemail — 320-300-4273 — with your reports and comments.

Music from the Pisshead Blues Band. The two songs are called 1) Timecard and 2) Need to Know.

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The new McCain campaign tactic is to paint Obama as someone from the Middle East who pals around with Palestinians who are by definition, to ignorant Republicans, terrorists. Our media isn’t educating the public on this subject, so we have to. The latest Obama “friend” to be implicated as a terrorist is also a friend of Juan Cole, a scholar named Rashid Kahlidi. What’s not cool is the implication that just being a Palestinian makes you a terrorist, or that knowing a Palestinian makes you an associate of terrorists. It’s ludicrous! But that’s the last pathetic gasp from the McCain campaign. The increasingly sleazy John McCain.

Free Gaza.org’s boat trip triumphs again! Palestine attempts to rejoin the rest of the world, but Israel isn’t making it easy. Being Palestinian isn’t a crime, you know–but try telling that to the McCain campaign. Here is the link for Rashid Khalidi’s book, The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood.

Why did the U.S. bomb 8 civilians inside Syria? I talk about one theory: Daniel Levy’s essay on the many theories of why we attacked a construction site is here.

Help us send Michele Bachmann home, visit Tinklenberg’s website and help him out. Also visit the website of Paul Hipp (http://www.paulhipp.com) who has a new CD called Blog of War and sang the Tinklenberg song.

Powervote.org webcast with Al Gore on energy of the future:

McClatchy’s Iraq Blog written by Iraqis is here.

Police fear riots if Barack Obama loses US election. This only helps them justify SWAT teams and more.

Remember, DON’T VOTE PROVISIONALLY. Half of all provisional ballots are not counted.
Instead, get the situation resolved while you are at the polling place. Take your cell phone.
CALL THIS NUMBER IF THERE IS A PROBLEM: 1-866-OUR-VOTE or call
888-Vote-Smart (888-868-3762)
Other sites: 7 things to keep them from stealing your vote. Also check out Votersunite.org and Blackboxvoting.org to report anything odd during voting.

More information on the debate can be found at http://thirdpartyticket.com
That debate that was supposed to happen last week didn’t happen either, but Cynthia McKinney did show up and she was interviewed. Thirdpartyticket has that interview too.

More info on Canada’s attempts at a proportional voting system at Fairvote.ca

We need election reform in this country and apparently so does Canada.
Survivalism is discussed, along with the economy, Alan Greenspan, Sarah Palin, her elitist shopping spree, McCain’s loser status. Howard Zinn’s interview with Real News.com is played.
He’s voting for Obama but advising progressives to get ready to work hard for serious change and maybe another party will split off from the Democrats that is more liberal and that is a viable third party.

Some other things mentioned: Michele Bachmann, my congresswoman, shocks and embarrasses us on a constant basis. Luckily that is offset by the liberal MN Congressman Keith Ellison. Ellison just happens to be a Muslim, and like Colin Powell said: What’s wrong with that? I thought of all the points Colin Powell made in his endorsement of Obama last Sunday, his point that being Muslim is no slur or offense was the best point of all. (The rest we knew and didn’t even have to be said). This article shows that Muslims in the Middle East were relieved at his comments and grateful too. (h/t/ Tom C.)

The Washington Post obtained proof that Bush OK’d torture in 2003 and 2004. These are war crimes. You know what they say — no justice, no peace. CIA torture tactics endorsed by Bush.

Survivalism: In hard times, some flirt with survivalism.

The Free Gaza movement boat is discussed on their website, along with photo links, etc. Free Gaza Movement
I also talked about a radio show that ended but has now returned to internet radio: The Jeff Farias Show

Thanks to George A. for all his good points on why he’s a former Republican voting for Obama this year. You can download this episode here or subscribe on the right.

I recorded the Third Party debate that took place last night. Independent candidate Ralph Nader and Chuck Baldwin showed up, but sadly, no one else did. Cynthia McKinney showed up last week. These people really need some calendars. This debate was good, so have a listen to the debate here.

You can also find it on CSPAN.org in video form.

This debate is also half-played and discussed in my latest podcast in the post above this.

Lets get UNserious today for a change. I play the Al Smith Dinner comedy show, starring John McCain and Barack Obama, almost in its entirety. Join me for political hilarity.

Also, an announcement of the 3rd party debates on C-SPAN on Sunday night! See ThirdPartyTicket for more information.

I don’t say much about the debates because what’s to say? You’ve heard most of the analysis already. But Jon Stewart helps with a few comments on Joe the Plumber. Here is the full story on the Joe the Plumber myth.
It’s a hit or myth podcast!

UPDATE: Regarding the remarks I made about Canada’s election, here is some clarification that was sent by a listener in Canada.

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You can download this episode here or subscribe on the right.

I discuss a maddening email from a John McCain supporter who also denies science and climate change, and my response to it. Climate change is real, and I have started a new information center on my website, under the “climate” tab at civilianism.com/gate. Please visit it and add comments and links to new sites if you are aware of any. Help me fight the ignorance of those who have a “religious” belief system that doesn’t accept scientific evidence.

If I hear one more person tell me that global warming is a myth I will turn into a solar flare myself. Shine some light in the darkness! And no, I do not want my country to go down in flames. Stop–don’t vote for John McCain!

ACORN: John McCain once loved them. Might have just been a sordid affair, like so many of his others. But Republicans everywhere are lying to Americans and telling them this is voter fraud, when any irregularities are actually just registration fraud. No one has voted yet using these registrations. I find out this morning my state’s ACORN is also being sued. Squirrels everywhere are very upset. And, more ignorance to fight: McCain Volunteers Taught to Accuse Obama of Terrorism from Feldman’s Frameshop.

The Rolling Stone article about John McCain: Make Believe Maverick. Related articles on the same page, all worth reading.

I also play a mysterious voicemail and I need help in deciphering its meaning.

The new 501 Lobby group against a nuclear Iran — for what purpose? — is here: United Against Iran

Juan Cole spoke on September 29th at St. John’s University in MN, on the subject of Iraq, and I play part of his talk in the 2nd half. (It’s a little bit hard to hear, sorry about that). Here is his website, Informed Comment.

First song: MidLife Crisis, by Faith No More

Middle Song: The Man, The Myth, The McCain by Roy Zimmerman

Final song: This World is Too Crowded by The Rotters

I ask a very important question this week and I asked it last week also: What will we do on November 5th if our votes are stolen or the election outcome is obviously flipped for the candidate who didn’t fairly win? If you have answers, comments, or suggestions for this question, go to the page I created called November 5th and write in your suggestions.

The second half of the podcast is an interview with the Socialist Workers Party vice presidential candidate, Alyson Kennedy. Her presidential running mate is Roger Calero. She talks about the economic crisis, labor and workers rights issues and more.

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Here is the whole Naomi Wolf interview video if you want to watch it. I play nearly all of it in the podcast. Also discussed is the military oath, because Naomi Wolf’s interviewer brought it up. You will hear why it’s a concern after her radio interview.

Legal Military Oath:
To Obey or Not to obey? See more on the Uniform Code of Military Justice which changed in 2006 here and here. And what is the legal definition of a contingency operation? Read that here and also hear why it matters.

The socialist workers party is found at The Militant’s website. You can find the SWP platform here, and more campaign information there also. Subscribe here.

McCain and Obama star in the McCain-Obama debates. They were not presidential debates because the other presidential candidates were not invited. All “major” party candidates should have been on that stage, including the candidates from the Green Party, the Nader party, the Socialist party, the Libertarian party, the Independence party, etc. Would that really crowd the stage so much? No, the American people are at a disadvantage when the corporate media presents us with only two people and says “pick one.”

As for the “bailout” — I support free money for everyone. Let’s just print a few trainloads of $1,000 dollar bills and hand them out to everyone. Why not? We hand out money in Iraq and Afghanistan like pizza coupons; might as well hand money out here in the U.S. And yes, go ahead and bail out the homeowners, but those greedy investment banks that prey on people and make money from nothing and add nothing to the world? Someone tell me how they deserve a bailout. What we really need is single-payer, universal health care. Bail us into THAT.

Is Bush turning into a dictator? I present a somewhat circuitous route to my theory that Bush is going to give John McCain the presidency via a manufactured economic meltdown, provoked riots, and some seriously unethical methods involving martial law, the suspension of the posse comitatus act, and the Army.

This is all related to the March on the RNC and the police state that we saw in St. Paul in the first week in September. I interview the coordinator of that protest march and Katrina P. explains to me what REALLY happened during that mini police state in St. Paul.

Support the RNC 8.

Want to write letters to support a candidate? Here is how the McCain campaign tells people to do it.

Foreclosure: They Were Preyed Upon, a very sad story. One family of 28,000 Minnesota families who are losing their homes through foreclosure this year.

And I forgot to mention this, but thanks to Donna who told me that Thom Hartmann is available for free on Green 960

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As for martial law — we have a real danger, due to a combination of events, of heading for a very unpleasant “October surprise”. It could be both economic and militaristic in nature. What is really troublesome is this article from the Army Times that reveals a plan to deploy an Army brigade inside the united States, violating the Posse Comitatus Act. The brigade will be used for various “homeland security” issues.

ArmyTimes article on the Homeland Brigade is here.

National Defense Authorization Act article of 2007, setting up the end of the Posse Comitatus Act, is here.
Is this the End of America as we know it? If not, it’s a big wake-up call!

Naomi Wolf also presents her version of the battle plan for the Republicans
Wolf says that Sarah Palin is the Muse of the Conservatives and possibly, their political end game. See the article she wrote about it here.

Youth against war and racism’s website is here. My interview with Jon, a local high school student, is about the YAWR group, what they do, and more.
And here is the new GI Bill Overview that is mentioned in the interview — but this all hinges on the economy. If the economy goes down in flames, I doubt any soldier will receive a paycheck, much less GI Benefits.

Jon M. talks about ways students can counteract recruitment in schools. He also tells me about a rally and march in my city that will go to a military recruitment center. If they can distrupt students trying to learn in schools, he says that we can disrupt their work. If you want to join the rally and march on October 4th, visit for more information: October 4th march to recruitment center in central Minnesota.

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