http://www.kansascity.com/273/story/623628...

For some perspective, last Sunday we had almost 400 people at a Mother's Day rally for peace in the middle of the red state hell suburbs here. And we got no media coverage. Then this writer wrote an opinion piece which mentions there are "only a dozen or so" at our regular weekly vigils in the center of town and our paper prints it!

While we are grateful for the press, we question their choice of coverage.

Please leave a comment following the article. You don't have to register or even sign your comment. The first two comments are from war mongers. Your help is much appreciated.

DU this article!! LOL

Peace all!!

I normally try not to complain about the price of things like gas because it is a necessary expense and there isn't much I can do to pay less for it. But I just stopped on my way home to fill up and I was stunned that it cost me $39.58 to fill up my little car. When I bought this car two and a half years ago, it cost me between $20 and $25 to fill it up. Gas was around $2 or $2.50 a gallon here then if I remember correctly. And I had been driving an SUV so I was thrilled to get this little Scion that gets 30 - 35 mpg. What a treat!

I put a new bumper sticker on my car not long ago that says "WHEN BUSH TOOK OFFICE GAS WAS $1.46" but that isn't really true. Here where the cost of living is about the most affordable in the US, gas was 99 cents a gallon when Clinton was in office. I can still remember people freaking out when gas reached $2 a gallon here. And not long ago it passed $3 a gallon. I will be shocked if it isn't $4 a gallon by August.

I was listening to some obnoxious right wing radio show last night (sorry I turned on in the middle of the show and didn't get the guy's name) and he said one thing we forget when we complain about the price of gas is that a lot of middle income tax payers own stock in the oil companies and they are enjoying watching the price of gas go up. Well my mom was a big stock market player and she owned lots of oil company stock but I don't remember her ever rejoicing when the price of gas went up. I do know someone, though, who is a millionaire several times over, makes her money off of natural gas wells on her family property and she cheers every time the price of gas goes up. My mother used to say she felt sorry for the working poor who were barely surviving and didn't understand how they afforded to put gas in their cars. My mother was a liberal Democrat to the day she died. My friend is a lifelong Republican.

I feel selfish complaining. I had $39.58 today to fill up my car. What do the poor do? This city has shitty public transportation and you can't live and work here without a car. As I watch them come to school to pick up their kids, I can't help but notice they are driving older cars that don't get 30 mpg like mine does. How do they survive?

One of my students is an adorable little first grader. He came to class today with an automatic pencil and a little container of leads for it. My first thought was who in their right mind would give this little bundle of energy an automatic pencil to play with when he should be concentrating on learning to read. But he was so proud of that pencil. So I showed him how to replace the leads and helped him put his name on the pencil so no one else could pick it up and claim it when he laid it down. Then he sat down to work and stayed on task for longer than he normally does. (One of my goals for him is to stay on task for 5 minutes without being distracted. All year long I say to him "Has it been 5 minutes yet?" and he says no and gets back to work.) Well today he went way past 5 minutes and I was thinking well maybe that fancy pencil was all he needed, when he came up to me holding the pencil in pieces in his hand. Huge tears rolled down his face. I still don't know how it happened but his pencil was broken and he wanted tape to fix it. I tried to explain to him that it was beyond repair and he said "But my mom spent her last dollar on this pencil for me!" And I think that was probably true. His mom has 4 kids and is pregnant with number 5. They live right behind our school and have no phone and no car. One day when he got sick, the nurse had to walk him home because we had no way of contacting his mother.

So after I filled my car up today and was driving down the street cussing about the $39.58 it cost me I thought of him and his heartbreak over that broken pencil that cost a dollar. And I stopped at a store and bought him a new mechanical pencil. I hope his leads fit it.

I can't help but thinking how nice it would be if my biggest problem was a broken pencil. And the price of gas doesn't seem like such a huge problem anymore.

Books
Excerpt: 'Against the Tide'

by Lincoln Chafee

'Against the Tide' cover



NPR.org, April 16, 2008 · Early in December 2000, Senator Specter asked Richard Cheney, our Republican vice presidential candidate, to have lunch with us on Wednesday, December 13. The vote-counting fiasco in Florida was under way and no one knew whether Texas Governor George W. Bush or Vice President Al Gore had been elected the nation's 43rd president. Then, the night before we were to meet with Mr. Cheney, the news broke: the U.S. Supreme Court had declared the Florida recount unconstitutional. The Court authorized Katharine Harris, Florida's Republican secretary of state, to declare Bush and Cheney victorious.

We Republicans had won the presidency by a single vote in the Electoral College and a single vote in the Supreme Court. In the executive branch, winning by a whisker is as good as winning in a landslide, but not so in the Senate. For the first time in a century we had a Senate split down the middle, 50-50, with a Republican vice president available to break a tie in our favor. That whisker-thin margin of victory had real consequences to my way of thinking.

It meant that our small club of five moderate Republican votes would be vital to President-elect Bush if he had any hope of getting his legislative initiatives through.

That was why Vice President-elect Richard Cheney came to our lunch that day: Not to say he needed us, but to tell us that he and George W. Bush were in charge and no one else.

In steady, quiet tones, the Vice President-elect laid out a shockingly divisive political agenda for the new Bush administration, glossing over nearly every pledge the Republican ticket had made to the American voter. President-elect Bush had promised that healing, but now we moderate Republicans were hearing Richard Cheney articulate the real agenda: A clashist approach on every issue, big and small, and any attempt at consensus would be a sign of weakness. We would seek confrontation on every front. He said nothing about education or the environment or health care; it was all about these new issues that were rarely, if ever, touted in the campaign. The new administration would divide Americans into red and blue, and divide nations into those who stand with us or against us. I knew that what the Vice President-elect was saying would rip the closely divided Congress apart. We moderates had often voted with President Clinton on things that powerful Republican constituencies didn't like: an increase in the minimum wage, a patients' bill of rights, and campaign finance reform. Mr. Cheney knew this, but he ticked off the issues at the top of his agenda and did it fearlessly. It made no difference to him that we were potential adversaries; he was going down his to-do list and checking off Confrontation Number 1.

Senator Arlen Specter spoke first. As the most junior member, I would have my say last, if at all. I could hardly sit still as I waited to hear my respected friend wade into this outrageous manifesto.

And then, in a moment I can only describe as infuriating, Senator Specter took no leadership role in representing the moderate point of view. He acquiesced, and others followed his example.

As each of my colleagues spoke in turn, I waited for one of them to push back. Surely one of them would have the presence of mind to say, Whoa! Time out! What are you talking about, Mister Vice President? You weren't elected to scrap international agreements. You never said to the voters: Elect us and we promise to bring back deficit spending and drive the next generation into debt.

But no one resisted. We sat there and listened as Mr. Cheney made divisive pronouncements of policy that would come as a complete surprise to many of the Americans who had voted to elect the Bush/Cheney ticket. I stopped waiting for someone to challenge Mr. Cheney when I saw my Republican friends around the table nodding in agreement as he held forth.

I was at a loss to explain my colleagues' compliant behavior then. I remain so now. It may have been an all-too-human response to the circumstances of the time. Anxious weeks of uncertainty were finally over. Now we knew the outcome of the election. The bitterness of the Florida recount was behind us. My colleagues seemed happy and relieved just to know who was in charge. And they seemed a little awestruck. This is the Vice President of the United States.

The contentious and destructive agenda that Mr. Cheney dropped on us was troubling enough, but what really unnerved me was his attitude. He welcomed conflict. We Republicans had promised America exactly the opposite. In the presidential debates, moderator Jim Lehrer asked Governor Bush to describe the foreign policy he would adopt, if elected. Candidate Bush said he would be humble in foreign affairs; that if we were arrogant, other countries would resent us. Now his running mate was telling us the new administration would make a point of being arrogant and divisive. Mr. Cheney was brazen in his pronouncements. A humble foreign policy? His attitude was anything but humble. He said that the campaign was over and that our actions in office would not be dictated by what had to be said in the campaign. And he pronounced this deception with no emotion or window dressing of any kind. He was fearless, matter of fact, and smug.

I wondered, where does Cheney get the confidence to say these things a few hours after the Court established him as our Vice President-elect? Where did he get the authority to make this radical departure from the President-elect's own campaign rhetoric?

I had supported Governor George W. Bush over Senator John McCain in the 2000 Rhode Island presidential primary. I met the Texas Governor for the first time in 1999, when he came to Rhode Island to raise money. I contributed and sincerely applauded his remarks to supporters at the Providence Convention Center. He had good campaign patter, and I was impressed. He said all the right things. I thought he could win on his pledge to bring a new, unifying atmosphere to Washington, and that he might even be as good and decent a president as his father had been. He seemed moderate enough to win support from all sides, and he had the Bush name. After the bitter partisan atmosphere of the Clinton impeachment, voters looked back with affection at the governor's father.

I liked that the governor had worked cooperatively with Democrats in the Texas Legislature. If leaders in both parties could rally around him, he was just what the country needed. America stood at the summit of power, emerging from the Cold War as an economic, cultural and military force without equal. We had wasted valuable years in partisan bickering, but our moment in history was still at hand. What a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to do good things in the world.

Then came that devastating first day after George W. Bush and Richard Cheney prevailed in the Supreme Court. If we were to believe Mr. Cheney, the President-elect would not only reignite the partisanship of the Clinton-Gingrich era but would make it even more toxic. Mr. Cheney tore our best campaign promises to shreds and the moderates acquiesced instead of pelting him with outrage. It was clear to me then that there would be no key bloc of moderate votes helping to shape legislation and reunite America over the next four years. In any event, Cheney was not asking for support – he was ordering us to provide it. The President-elect had his agenda; we were just along for the ride.

My heart sank as my colleagues peeled away, one by one. It was the most demoralizing moment of my seven-year tenure in the Senate.

When it was my turn to speak, I made the case that our five votes would be crucially important in a 50-50 Senate. I chose my words carefully, and probably stammered with the effort to contain my fury. We were on the cusp of a new millennium that held enormous promise for American leadership in the world, and what I had just heard was petty, arrogant and irresponsible. It threatened to lead in exactly the wrong direction.

I spoke in the perhaps too-optimistic hope that I might yet rally the moderates to seriously apprehend the implications of the new agenda. When I told Mr. Cheney, "Our votes at this table are important," he could hardly be bothered. He gave me the back of his hand with a truism: "Every vote is important."

There was no support to be had, and lunch was over.

Excerpted from Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President, by Lincoln Chafee, with permission from Thomas Dunne Books. Copyright (c) 2008 by Lincoln Chafee. All rights reserved.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...

and when I was in grad school we studied the history of our field. There are absolutely horrific stories of kids who were actually deaf but diagnosed as retarded and placed in institutions, kids who had severe learning disabilities but were diagnosed as retarded and placed in institutions and kids who were most likely autistic but diagnosed as many other things and yes, placed in institutions.

The story everyone knows is Helen Keller's. Her parents had money and hired Anne Sullivan to be her tutor AFTER their family doctors strongly recommended that the Kellers place Helen in an institution. But that was rare; 99% of kids with disabilities like Helen were either allowed to 'mercifully' die as infants or were institutionalized.

The Kennedys had their daughter Rosemary lobotomized in an effort to 'control' her retardation and behavior. And if they hadn't been the notable family they were, no one would have known about this or thought it unusual. That was a very common practice. So was forced sterilization of the disabled.

One of my best friends from elementary school had a sister who had Down's Syndrome and her parents kept her at home until she was a teenager and then placed her in an institution. We had friends whose parents wouldn't let them go over to my friend's house to play because they were afraid of her sister and what she might do. It was highly unusual for her family to keep her as many years as they did in their home.

I had another friend who had a severely retarded brother who was immediately institutionalized at birth and everyone was told he had been a still birth. It was only many years later that my friend discovered she had a brother. Just like in Rainman. That movie was a lot more realistic than many people realize.

There were no sheltered workshops, zero employment opportunities and absolutely NO mainstreaming for kids with severe disabilities. So, most people had no idea how many of these kids there were.

People here on DU often get upset about Reagan closing mental institutions and the resulting influx of homeless people on our streets. But the movement to close the institutions began long before Reagan took office and was a direct result of advocates and families of the institutionalized speaking up and demanding better treatment for the disabled. Obviously, Reagan and his evil Republican cohorts went too far. But improving how we treated our disabled in this country was long overdue.

So seriously studying disabilities and looking for causation and treatment is a fairly new practice. My field is only about 40 years old. When you look at the history, it isn't at all surprising that we still don't know what causes autism. I know that frustrates parents but at least we take far better care of autistic kids than we used to.

Today was the final day and again, more horrific stories. But also wonderful to see so many young vets getting their stories out there. Sure wish the media had not largely ignored this wonderful event.

The Iraq vets were recognized





More compelling testimony. This is the final panel.





Security was very tight. No name tag, no entrance. No exceptions. (I covered up my name )





Right around the corner from our hotel, as we were coming back from the event, the route of all the evil. Or should I say ONE root of the evil that created this mess:

We weren't there for long. Took forever to get there on the subway and a bus that stopped every half block on a long route. But very much worth the effort it took to get out there.

There are 700 people in attendance. Lots of networking going on as well as the testimony many of you have been watching live online. (Thank you Hissyspit for keeping this important event at the top of the page.)





Carlos Arredondo lost his son Alexander in August 2004. He has literally been on tour ever since. His truck is more elaborate every time I see him. It's really hard to capture it on film. But I tried.








Carlos and other families affected by this war testifying.




Carlos showed a very touching slide show of Alex's life.




Some of the media.




Walked out in the hall and there sat Amy Goodman!




I will try to get better pictures tomorrow.

The StupidFilter Project:
Because the internet needs prophylactics for memetically transmitted diseases.

The concept behind the StupidFilter Project originated during a conversation between Gabriel Ortiz and Paul Starr. StupidFilter was conceived out of necessity. Too long have we suffered in silence under the tyranny of idiocy. In the beginning, the internet was a place where one could communicate intelligently with similarly erudite people. Then, Eternal September hit and we were lost in the noise. The advent of user-driven web content has compounded the matter yet further, straining our tolerance to the breaking point.

It's time to fight back.

The solution we're creating is simple: an open-source filter software that can detect rampant stupidity in written English. This will be accomplished with weighted Bayesian or similar analysis and some rules-based processing, similar to spam detection engines. The primary challenge inherent in our task is that stupidity is not a binary distinction, but rather a matter of degree. To this end, we're collecting a ranked corpus of stupid text, gleaned from user comments on public websites and ranked on a five-point scale.

Eventually, once the research is completed, we plan to release core engine source code for incorporation into content management systems, blogs, wikis and the like. Additionally, we plan to develop a fully implemented Firefox plugin and a Wordpress plugin.

http://stupidfilter.org/main/index.php?n=M...

This is a comment left after the editorial on this page: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/11783

The editorial is great but I think this comment gives us a lot to consider. It is the ninth one below the piece: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/11783

First, kill the Internet

I've been thinking for a long time now that one of the biggest problems we have -- as well as one of the biggest benefits -- is the Internet.

On the benefit side, we can meet up with and discuss things with people we never could have done before. On the negative side, though, we mistake that meeting up and discussing for "taking action."

People ask what is different now and in the '60s. One big thing is that I can remember in the'60s going to two or three meetings a week, and those meeting resulted in direct action locally. I met a lot of people. I took part in protests -- at first small and then huge. Things happened.

Today, we (and I'm as guilty as anyone) sit home, sip tea, have close personal relationships with people we've never met, who have made-up nicknames, and who, like us, will peck away on their keyboards all day. Then, they fall into bed exhausted because they feel they have done something.

There's a similar phenomenon, I'm told, in the personal relations world. I have (gay) friends who are into the dating scene. In the old days, they would have gone to a gay bar, socialized and maybe met someone -- or not -- for either a one-night stand, or maybe more. Even if they didn't meet someone for dating, however, they met other people, made friends, had relationships, and some conversation.

Today, the news is that gay bars are dwindling. Too many people are staying home trying to "hook up" on the Internet. They peck away at their keyboards all day, talking to people with made-up nicknames and often phony "stats," and think they have had a series of personal relationships, when they haven't.

They may hook up once in a while, but, I'm told, most of the online encounters fizzle before the actual meeting. In other cases, the actual meeting is disappointing because the 28-year-old, 6'2, 180-pound, blond hunk is a 38-year-old, 5'8, 220-pound bottle-blond hulk (who is married and cheating on his wife). But they also miss out on the serendipity of maybe meeting other people, making friends, and forming useful social networks.

It's the same in the political arena. While the Internet has a value in sharing information and circumventing the MSM, it also gives us the illusion of action, when what we're really doing is isolating.

IF ONLY...............................

George W. Bush, you are under citizen's arrest!

George W. Bush, you are under citizen's arrest! You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right, anything you say can and will be used against you in an international court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, the International Court of Justice will appoint an attorney for you. Do you understand these rights?

George W. Bush, you are being charged with violating the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and with violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the U.N. Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and international law.

George W. Bush, you are being charged with committing the following heinous crimes against humanity:

1) Waging an unnecessary "first strike" war of aggression on and occupation of Iraq -- an independent and sovereign nation already ravaged by a 1990 invasion and 10 years of harsh economic sanctions -- resulting in the death and maiming of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of American GIs.

2) Condoning the use of cluster bombs, the use of depleted uranium artillery, and ordering direct attacks on civilians and civilian facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq.

3) Concealing factual information from the public, fabricating evidence, and lying to Congress, the United Nations, and to the American people about the reasons and rationale for invading Iraq.

4) Authorizing assassinations, executions, kidnappings, the illegal detention of individuals, and condoning the physical torture and psychological coercion of prisoners.

5) Using racial and religious profiling, domestic spying, and the secret arrest and imprisonment of individuals, who are being held without access to counsel, due process of law, or appellate relief.

6) Refusing to disclose the identities, locations, and charges against individuals who have been arrested, imprisoned, or detained indefinitely by the U.S. government in the United States.

7) Producing fabricated news reports to publicize your agenda and for paying newspaper columnists and television pundits to support your policies.

George W. Bush, these are serious charges. You are being charged as a war criminal for acts of genocide against innocent men, women and children in Afghanistan and Iraq. Although you did not use Nazi gas chambers in your genocidal wars, you did use modern-day equivalents -- including cruise missiles, laser-guided missiles and cluster bombs -- to cause the indiscriminate death and disfigurement of your fellow human beings. Rather than call upon the world's help in apprehending Osama bin Laden and the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks, you chose instead to use the attacks politically in order to secure two Caspian Sea oil pipeline routes through Afghanistan and Iraq that have been long-coveted by your closest friends and allies -- the Big Oil companies. (As you know, the third pipeline route is to go through Iran, a nation that you have also been threatening with "regime change.")

George W. Bush, it is my duty as a loyal citizen of the United States and supporter of the U.S. Constitution to place you under arrest. You, along with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, and Colin Powell, are to be remanded in The Hague pending trial before the International Court of Justice.

Please stop today and find at least one charity in your area to reach out to the less fortunate this Christmas. There are homeless shelters, food banks and battered women's shelters in every city. There are agencies that help low income families pay utility bills. Find one and send them whatever you can afford.

Be a giver this season. Do it today. So that every child has electricity this Christmas.

This article in my local paper is about a guy claiming he was fired for writing a LTTE saying Bush should be impeached.

http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/396117...


So after the article, I posted this comment:

Is it fascism yet?


And right after my comment a freeper named Alexis posted this:

Why would we need Mr. Kniest smart remark about our PRESIDENT i don't belive this is about color as the writer wrote before me. There was a time it was illegal to talk about our Chief Commander of the USA.We have a security problem in this country if your an AMERICAN Please stick together no matter what party is in office.

*
Posted by: Alexis


It took me a minute, it is so stupid. But I kept going back to that sentence I bolded:

"i don't belive this is about color as the writer wrote before me."


Then I finally figured it out. This incredibly dumb and functionally illiterate freeper thinks 'fascism' is a color!! He thinks I am talking about FUSCHIA!!

OMG I can't stop laughing. How much dumber can a person be??



On edit, some Duers think Alexis thought I meant racism. But that's hilarious too because it makes even less sense. LOL!!

I was 10. In the 5th grade. And life changed. They killed my president.

I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school till 8th grade. My uncle was a priest and my mom's cousin was a nun. We had a huge happy very Catholic (and very Democratic) family. My childhood world was immersed in Catholicism. John F Kennedy was like a combination living saint and folk hero in our Catholic world. I can still remember how happy my parents were when he was elected. And they just adored him. It really was a Camelot kind of feeling.

Then came Nov 22, 1963. And I saw my mother cry for the first time. I saw my grandmother cry too. We were watching the endless coverage on TV and my sister and I were laying on the floor in front of the TV. I heard a strange sound behind me and realized my mom was crying. Then I heard my grandma make the same sound. And I remember being afraid to turn around and look at them. It was a loss of innocence moment and I was not ready for it.

It was also the first time I ever heard anyone say anything bad about Catholics. Before then I had no idea that some people didn't like Catholics. I don't even remember exactly what our neighbor Mrs. Frieze said but it was mean. My sister and I decided it was a mean enough thing to say that we would no longer play with her kids. We were constantly feuding with the Frieze kids anyway so it wasn't hard to decide we would take a stand and not play with them. And after a few weeks Mrs. Frieze came to my dad to complain that my sister and I were refusing to play with her kids. And I remember my dad asking me to explain to her why we wouldn't play with her kids. Well I was just as outspoken then as I am today and I gladly told that bitch that since she didn't like Catholics, we decided not to like her kids. (Years later my mom told me my dad laughed for days about this.)

The following summer, my dad's best friend died in the middle of the night of a brain aneurism. That's when I saw my dad cry for the first time. It's funny how we remember things years later and I remember knowing I really wasn't a kid anymore because I had seen my parents cry.

I also knew from the beginning that someone was lying to us about who killed JFK and how they did it. I used to argue with my dad about this. We watched the Warren commission hearings with our eyes wide open; I was convinced my dad would finally see that there had to be more than one shooter. But that was not to be. Then many years later, when the Senate held its own investigation and concluded there had to be more than one shooter, my dad called me to tell me I was right.

This summer, on the way home from Camp Casey, I stopped in Dallas and went to Dealey Plaza and the Texas Book Depository. You can stand right at the window where Oswald stood and look down on the street. There are even marks on the street to show where the shots landed. I will admit I know nothing about guns and shooting but even an amateur like me can easily see that it would have been impossible for one shooter at that window to fire those three shots in that time frame. No way. It was also interesting to stand there and listen to the people coming up to that window and seeing the same thing I saw and hearing them whisper to each other that there was no way Oswald acted alone.

RIP JFK. And I miss my country too.

I just loved this sign!




Before the march, at Union Park, listening to speakers and musicians.












Anyone heard of this website?






He's everywhere! He's everywhere!!




The march:


















About halfway through the march, the crowd was getting tired (it was a long route) and hadn't chanted for a block or so. I was at the front of the march and watched this 'rocket scientist - NOT!' stand on his balcony in downtown Chicago and scream "TRAITORS! Get off my street!!" LOL The marchers (30,000 strong) erupted!! I was walking by a cop and he looked up and then heard the marchers and shook his head and laughed.




It wouldn't be a peace march without cops ready to spring into action!






And yes, there were freepers. 24 of them. They were waiting for us when we arrived at Federal Plaza for the rally after the march.




The cops stood right in front of the freepers. So they couldn't come across the street and mingle with us.




This was my favorite sign all day. I loved it because this guy stood for a good hour right in front of the freepers holding this sign up. No way could they have missed it.




At the rally after the march. The crowd was so large I had a hard time getting a good picture.




Another great sign!!

Monday, September 17th, 2007
Gold Star Father Kicked Defending Dead Son's Memorial ...by Mélida Arredondo

Mélida Arredondo is the stepmother of Lance Cpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, killed in Iraq, Aug. 25, 2004.

Carlos Arredondo, 47 year old father of two sons, arrived in the nation's capitol on Monday, 09/10/07 to share a memorial he has made to honor for his eldest son, Alex. Carlos has visited thirty of the United States with the traveling memorial to his son Alexander. Lcpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, USMC was killed on 08/25/04. He was 20 years and 20 days old. The memorial consists of a casket, poster- size photographs of Alex when he graduated from boot camp, before his second tour in Iraq, lying in state at his wake, and a photo of Alex with his younger brother Brian.

Saturday, September 15, 2007 consisted of first a rally, a march towards the capitol and then a die-in. Carlos pulled the memorial along the march route approaching the rotunda near the capitol building. Several of the marchers requested for him to speak about the memorial where a crowd gathered around him. After finishing, several people walked with Carlos as he pulled the memorial. Several pictures of Alex dressed in his blues were attached to the display.

As Carlos passed counter protesters, one man ripped a picture of Alex from the memorial. Carlos leaped on the man to retrieve the picture. It was at that point that approximately five others all began to attack Carlos by kicking him in the head, legs, stomach and back.

The Capitol police bicycle patrol then appeared to break up the fight. Several officers including a female officer were engaged in breaking up the fight and were able to stop any further injuries from occurring. Hannah Jones who was walking with Carlos was also assaulted.

A bystander named Ramesh witnessed the whole encounter and also retrieved the picture of Alex for Carlos. He was quite distressed at how he watched the men yelling epithets follow Carlos as he pulled the memorial, and eventually take Alex's photograph. Soon, an ambulance showed up as well as many concerned activists. The paramedics provided first aid to Carlos but he did not seek further medical attention. Carlos sustained bloody cuts on his shins. He also reported bruises all over his torso and head where he was kicked.

I will send updates on Carlos and his work in DC as I am able.

Mélida Arredondo,
Remembering Alex Arredondo and all those
who died too young at war to aid the Iraqi people
and his own nation, the USA,
and while protecting his buddies...
08/05/84 - 08/25/04

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index...

The back story: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...

My friend's letter: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...

And my letter:

To the editor:
On Friday, August 10, CBS aired its Early Show from Liberty Memorial. KCTV5 had advertised this event and invited the people of Kansas City to attend and bring signs. Representatives from CBS, who have apparently forgotten the first amendment of the constitution, appointed themselves censors and decided a permit to stage an event on public property gave them the right to decide which signs were acceptable and which were not.

CBS allowed sexually suggestive signs and some political signs at this event. But signs encouraging an end to a war that is opposed by the vast majority of Americans did not meet CBS's standards. Some of the people who attended were asked to leave the park and threatened with arrest. One woman was handcuffed.

Our 'liberal media' has once again dropped the ball. It is not their job to control the message. Shame on the police for their complicity, as it is their job to protect the people and not ignore our constitutional rights.