I grabbed the latest issue of Adbusters without even looking at it because, well, Adbusters. Finding the live without dead time CD (features Allen Ginsberg, Negativland, Ani DiFranco, Saul Williams… and if you’re not listening yet I’ve got nothing left) mixed by DJ Spooky that subliminal kid,

did I mention Fugazi?

"I am an American," he says after a minute. "I stand with the pope and former President Jimmy Carter. In this country, you say what you think."

originally posted by xowie

Blogs Against War aggregates posts for peace across a growing number of weblogs. If you use Movable Type, it’s easy to have links to (and excerpts of) your peace-related posts show up on Blogs Against War automatically. If you don’t use Movable Type, there’s a form you can fill out which will accomplish the same thing. I really hope this takes off. Please encourage your favorite peacebloggers to contribute.

Other weblogs about peaceblogs:
• "PeaceTrack is a site devoted to gathering reports of peace activities"
• Peaceblogs.org is a site devoted to making connections between bloggers who oppose the impending war against Iraq
• Diveintomark.org has collected a list of blogs for peace

See also the wonderful A Beginners Guide to Trackback from the brilliant folks at Movable Type.

1. The anti-war movement supports our troops by urging that they be brought home immediately so they neither kill nor get killed in a unjust war. How has the Bush administration shown its support for our troops?

a. The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee voted to cut $25 billion in veterans benefits over the next 10 years.

b. The Bush administration proposed cutting $172 million from impact aid programs which provide school funding for children of military personnel.

c. The administration ordered the Dept. of Veterans Affairs to stop publicizing health benefits available to veterans.

d. All of the above.

originally posted by xowie

Dear President Bush,
Please stop the violence because I believe it is wrong. And can you stop war and bombing places? I want peace to come soon! I love everybody in Iraq. Please could you change your ways?
Love Marianne Blough — 2nd grade

The troops are on the move, and the first shots have been fired. We support the troops, and wish they did not have to fight Bush's unnecessary war. The greatest support we can give these young men and women is to call for their safe and fast return home. Just because the politicians in Washington and the UK aren't listening to us, does not mean we should stop calling on them to back away from aggression. Destroying a country and people in a hail of missiles is neither the way to free people nor the way to spread democracy and good will. All you need remember is this: War is over, if you want it.

originally posted by xowie

I believe in this beautiful country. I have studied its roots and gloried in the wisdom of its magnificent Constitution. I have marveled at the wisdom of its founders and framers. Generation after generation of Americans has understood the lofty ideals that underlie our great Republic. I have been inspired by the story of their sacrifice and their strength.

But, today I weep for my country.

originally posted by xowie

On the day after war begins, global protests will shock and awe. I’m often reminded that it took years for Vietnam protests to reach the levels we’ve already seen – of course, after 3-4 hours, it may hardly matter. cries

Salon.com, The antiwar movement prepares to escalate.

Vandenberg is about 50 miles north Santa Barbara, Calif. In a few days, activists will start converging on a nearby four-acre plot of land that Bud Boothe, a World War II veteran, donated to the Military Globalization Project. They're going to camp there and train to breach the base's security and possibly vandalize some of its equipment.

Lumsdaine, the Military Globalization Project coordinator [mgpnofate.org], is a 48-year-old who has been arrested at Vandenberg twice. He describes the base as the electronic nerve center of the global-surveillance-targeting, weapons-guidance, and military-command satellites that will largely direct the war.

Vandenberg officials revealed Friday that military security police may shoot to kill, if necessary, to protect base residents and machinery. The directive has always been in existence, but a base spokeswoman said it is more critical now that people understand its severity.

It's impossible for us to determine what their intent is, she said. Are they protesters? Are there terrorists in that group and (do) they plan on killing everyone on base?

Yusuf Islam’s Peace Train.

originally posted by xowie

"Embedding is bullshit," Scheer insisted. "You're just getting swept up into a big, mass machinery. They're just giving you photo ops. It's when you get away from the crowds, stick around and talk to people that you get the real stories. Otherwise, you're just being led around by the nose."

originally posted by xowie

Tom Robbins on U.S. aggression:

I’m just not one of those people who believes that American lives are more valuable than the lives of others.

“In A World Gone Mad…" is a new anti-war song from the Beastie Boys available for free download.

In a carefully orchestrated move, the International Development Secretary contacted the BBC's Westminster Hour programme early yesterday afternoon to tell them she wanted to go on air. The delighted producers lined her up, but even Andrew Rawnsley, the show's host, could not believe the ferocity of her remarks as she warned darkly of the threat to Mr Blair's "future, position and place in history".

originally posted by xowie

The Washington Post profiles Amy Goodman:

When former senator Bob Kerrey called a news conference to defend himself against charges he committed a war crime while a soldier in Vietnam, Goodman asked if perhaps a war crimes tribunal should be set up to examine the guilt of the war's architects, such as Henry Kissinger.

Kerrey's halting demurral made a few television broadcasts. But Goodman's question displeased some establishment media worthies. That Sunday, NPR reporter Mara Liason went on "Fox Special Report With Brit Hume" and complained that Goodman was not really a journalist and that no one would have asked such a question in Washington.

They are counting on the combination of battlefield omniscience, smart bombs and new weapons like microwave pulses and nausea gases to drive Baghdadis out of their homes and bunkers. The use of "nonlethal" (sic) weapons against civilian populations, especially in light of the horror of what happened during the Moscow hostage crisis last October, is a war crime waiting to happen.

originally posted by xowie

DC indymedia reports on the high-profile Code Pink arrests.

Experimental peace wiki.

originally posted by xowie

When one of the protest leaders, Jodie Evans of Venice, Calif., tore off her full-length pink slip and presented it to Mrs. Clinton, the senator walked out.
"I am the senator from New York," she said, "and I will not put people's security at risk."
"But you are," the demonstrators shouted at her as she exited.

originally posted by xowie

Yesterday's activities kicked off early, with a combination news conference/vigil outside the White House. With temperatures in the low twenties, the event was for those who didn't need persuading -- though they did win some rather unlikely converts, with a sign that read "No Peace, No [Unprintable]" pinned strategically over one Lysistratan.

"Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah!" crowed a gaggle of high school boys passing through on a school field trip. "That's the best slogan I've ever heard in my life."

originally posted by xowie

What do Blume and Bower expect will come from that attention? ‘We’re generally not gifted with the knowledge of the results of our actions,’ says Blume. ‘But you know what the Buddhists tell us: No act is small. I refuse to believe this war is inevitable.’

originally posted by daiichi

McLean, famous for his hits American Pie and Vincent (Starry, Starry Night), said he was "proud of George Michael for standing up for life and sanity". "I am delighted that he chose a song of mine to express these feelings," he said in a statement. "We must remember that the Wizard is really a cowardly old man hiding behind a curtain with a loud microphone."

originally posted by daiichi

The Lysistrata Project was conceived just six weeks ago by New York actors Kathryn Blume and Sharron Bower. "Before we started Lysistrata Project, we could do nothing but sit and watch in horror as the Bush Administration drove us toward a unilateral attack on Iraq," says cofounder Blume. "So we emailed all our friends and put up a web site. The response has been enormous." Co-founder Bower adds, "Many people have emailed us to say they now feel empowered to do something, and foster dialogue in their own communities about the dangers of this war."

originally posted by xowie

I put this on as a modest riposte to men with flags in their lapels who shoot missiles from the safety of Washington think tanks, or argue that sacrifice is good as long as they don't have to make it, or approve of bribing governments to join the coalition of the willing (after they first stash the cash.) I put it on to remind myself that not every patriot thinks we should do to the people of Baghdad what Bin Laden did to us. The flag belongs to the country, not to the government. And it reminds me that it's not un-American to think that war — except in self-defense — is a failure of moral imagination, political nerve, and diplomacy.

originally posted by xowie

Guy Dauncey’s 101 Ways to Stop the War in Iraq.

originally posted by xowie

If you had known about Hiroshima in advance, what would you have done to stop it? Today’s war-makers are telling us what they plan to do, including the possible use of nuclear weapons. This war will visit unspeakable terror and suffering on the people of Iraq, in the name of ‘liberating’ them. It will put people all over the planet at risk, in the name of protecting them. It will, no doubt, be accompanied by even more severe repression within the U.S. against immigrants and against resisters.

originally posted by xowie

There is a basic weakness in governments, however massive their armies, however wealthy they are, however they control the information given to the public, because their power depends on the obedience of citizens, of soldiers, of civil servants, of journalists and writers and teachers and artists. When these people begin to suspect they have been deceived, and withdraw their support, the government loses its legitimacy, and its power.

originally posted by xowie

BLOOD. America’s blood supply, already at such a seriously low level that some parts of the country have less than a one-day supply, may be stretched to dangerous levels if a war in Iraq proves to be bloody. A Red Cross official explains that many American service personnel are ineligible to donate blood because they may have been exposed to Mad Cow disease while stationed in Western Europe. With a reduced pool of military donors, the Red Cross may have to ask civilians for more blood, blood they haven’t been providing over the past few months.

originally posted by xowie

DXing.info: Monitoring Iraq: War of the Airwaves. (For the shortwave radio fetishists among us.)

originally posted by xowie

“For evidence, I
submit the fact that we’re not
yet at war.” (dayku)

Tough numbers to deny, nonetheless. Over 600 cities across the globe, all staging major anti-war rallies against America's aggro attitude and insipid war posture, millions and millions of people -- teachers and salespeople and politicians and doctors and students and workers, every creed and gender and age group and nationality and hairstyle -- and yet Geedubya simply equates them all with some sort of negligible "focus group." And he said he doesn't base his policy decisions on focus groups, of course, because naturally he uses Barbie's Super Magic 8 Ball and old secret codes from his Vietnam draft-dodging days intermixed with his father's late-night gin-soaked advice and a cassette of Dick Cheney whispering demon-conjuring incantations in Latin.

originally posted by daiichi

Here in Hollywood I climbed a light pole to hang the cumbersome sign I was carrying ("Let the Inspections Work") and saw before me an endless valley of signs, bobbing like square-headed daisies and extending as far ahead as I could see. (There were a few undercover cops, too, but nobody stopped me.) For the first time I thought, as maybe civil rights workers did in '63 and AIDS activists did in '93: This mass of humans, this noise, this exuberance — maybe all of this will register in Washington. Maybe.

originally posted by daiichi

On February 26th, you can join a massive march on Washington without leaving your living room. The Virtual March on Washington is a first-of-its-kind campaign from the Win Without War coalition.

originally posted by daiichi

The more Americans start talking with each other about where our country is headed the better. But these conversations need to be genuinely helpful, not exercises in mutual misunderstanding. And since they are most likely to occur without much prior arrangement, you need to get ready.

1, 2, 3.

originally posted by daiichi

Faces in the Crowd by Carol Lay.

originally posted by xowie

When it became obvious what a dumb and cruel and spiritually and financially and militarily ruinous mistake our war in Vietnam was, every artist worth a damn in this country, every serious writer, painter, stand-up comedian, musician, actor and actress, you name it, came out against the thing. We formed what might be described as a laser beam of protest, with everybody aimed in the same direction, focused and intense. This weapon proved to have the power of a banana-cream pie three feet in diameter when dropped from a stepladder five-feet high. And so it is with anti-war protests in the present day. Then as now, TV did not like anti-war protesters, nor any other sort of protesters, unless they rioted. Now, as then, on account of TV, the right of citizens to peaceably assemble, and petition their government for a redress of grievances, ‘ain’t worth a pitcher of warm spit,’ as the saying goes.

I've often thought there ought to be a manual to hand to little kids, telling them what kind of planet they're on, why they don't fall off it, how much time they've probably got here, how to avoid poison ivy, and so on. I tried to write one once. It was called Welcome to Earth. But I got stuck explaining why we don't fall off the planet. Gravity is just a word. It doesn't explain anything. If I could get past gravity, I'd tell them how we reproduce, how long we've been here, apparently, and a little bit about evolution. And one thing I would really like to tell them about is cultural relativity. I didn't learn until I was in college about all the other cultures, and I should have learned that in the first grade. A first grader should understand that his or her culture isn't a rational invention; that there are thousands of other cultures and they all work pretty well; that all cultures function on faith rather than truth; that there are lots of alternatives to our own society. Cultural relativity is defensible and attractive. It's also a source of hope. It means we don't have to conitnue this way if we don't like it.

Massive marches in
every city, in every
country on the globe

originally posted by xowie

We call upon the Spirit of the Founders to guide us as we create a new world where all may live in peace.

originally posted by daiichi

The case against the war by Jonathan Schell.

originally posted by daiichi

And the terrorists in Washington
Are drafting all the young men

And no one speaks

And they are rousting out
All the ones with turbans
And they are flushing out
All the strange immigrants
And they are shipping all the young men
To the killing fields again

And no one speaks

originally posted by daiichi

Most of the world cried out at the slaughter of the people of Guernica. Such bombings were considered highly inhumane and Picasso's painting caught much of the outrage that was shared by most civilized people... Perhaps remembering the original horror and revulsion that was felt in 1937 after the bombing of Guernica will remind us that the bombing of civilians is a hideous and immoral practice of eliminating helpless and innocent people whose only crime is living in a war zone.

originally posted by daiichi

Stop Mad Cowboy Disease.
Make Tea Not War.
War is sweet to those who haven't tasted it (Erasmus).

originally posted by daiichi

You can watch a bit of video (scroll down) at dc.indymedia and listen to a bit more of the town hall meeting on Pacifica’s PeaceWatch.

The audience — mostly middle-age professionals — broke into sustained applause when the veteran said the nation was being led into war by men who had never gone to war. He thundered off half a dozen names: "George Bush, hawk, did not fulfill his National Guard duty; Dick Cheney, hawk, did not serve; Paul Wolfowitz, hawk, did not serve; Richard Perle, hawk, did not serve."

originally posted by xowie

There is no real evidence. There is no smoking gun. There isn't even a smoking spit wad. There is only, basically, a smoking middle finger.

originally posted by daiichi

Evidence of an electronic cut-and-paste operation by Whitehall officials can be found in the way the dossier preserves textual quirks from its original sources. One sentence in Dr Marashi's article includes a misplaced comma in referring to Iraq's head of military intelligence during the 1991 Gulf war. The same sentence in Downing Street's report contains the same misplaced comma.

originally posted by daiichi

March on Melrose by Judith Lewis.

originally posted by daiichi

>christ this is all so depressing. Isn’t something good happening?

Well I was holding back on this one… ‘A Sea of Fire,’ or Worse? by Nicholas Kristof. (Verrry depressing.)

originally posted by daiichi

Rice for Peace: If we are going to send something to Iraq it should be food, not bombs.

originally posted by daiichi

Iraqis and Americans who, doctors say, might die in the next war: 48,000 to 260,000
Additional deaths expected from the civil war within Iraq following an invasion: 20,000
Additional deaths expected from “post-war adverse health effects”: 200,000
Total deaths if nuclear weapons are used: 3,900,000

VV: Blood, Stats, and Tears. Also, Dying for War by Alisa Solomon.

originally posted by daiichi

JPB: I'm discouraged with the role of the Internet in the antiwar movement. Because so far what I see happening is that cyberspace is a great place for everybody to declaim. There are a million virtual streetcorners with a million lonely pamphleteers on them, all of them decrying the war and not actually coming together in any organized fashion to oppose it. It strikes me that existing political institutions -- whether it's the administration or Congress or large corporations -- only respond to other institutions. I don't care how many individuals you have marching in the streets, they're not going to pay attention until there's a leader for those individuals who can come forward and say I represent the organization of those individuals and we're going to amass the necessary money and votes to kick you the hell out of office. Then they pay attention. But not until. And so right at the moment it would strike me that the Internet is counterproductive to peace.

MJ: I'm rather shocked to hear you say that.

JPB: Well, I'm rather shocked to say it.

MJ: Is it that people just leave their anger online?

JPB: You vent online and then you dust your hands off in satisfaction and that's the last you do.

Think Outside the Bomb
It's NUCLEAR, not NUCULAR, you idiot!
Anything War can do, Peace can do better.

originally posted by daiichi

The Other Face of Fanaticism by Pankaj Mishra.

originally posted by daiichi

By now the poetic groove was really cooking. Harold and Andrew were just riffing on the whole vibe.

"Whoa, the oil is very viscous," wailed Andrew.

"Yeah, our politics is Robert Fiskous," Harold responded.

originally posted by daiichi

Condoleezza Rice: The Devil’s Handmaiden by The Black Commentator; Bush’s alien views on affirmative action by Derrick Z. Jackson.

originally posted by daiichi

While it’s safe to say the demonstrations here and in the capital had zero effect on the White House and big media’s drooling class of pundits, protests against the pending incineration of Iraq are growing. And they are growing at a rate that required years, not months, during the Vietnam War.

originally posted by xowie

“Congress, which voted overwhelmingly to support Bush’s war, includes only one member who has a child in the enlisted ranks of the armed services.” It is, of course, a trial balloon but nonetheless terrifying and impossible to ignore: Is the US going to have a military draft? How does the US Draft work, anyway?

May our country, on the brink of war, take to heart the final refrain of America, the Beautiful: "America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw, confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law."

originally posted by daiichi

Human peace sign in Antarctica.

originally posted by daiichi

“The lives of our children are worth more than your dirty wars”.

originally posted by daiichi

"This is your destiny. You were born to be here. You were born to reclaim this land. You will not abandon it. You were born to take this country back. You not only will stop this war, but you will change the priorities of this nation and return it to the people. You will do this because it is your sacred responsibility as Americans, and as citizens of the world."

- Ron Kovic, 18 Jan 2003

originally posted by daiichi

San Francisco: Pics of today’s huge demo.

originally posted by daiichi

originally posted by daiichi

Dubya actually said it. He actually went so far as to pledge his administration's commitment to "build a culture that respects life," saying this with a straight face, no violent lightning bolt striking him dead on the spot, no gnarled filthy hell-beasts reaching with clawed fingers up from the ground and dragging him under, isn't that just the sweetest thing and don't you just feel the sentiment deep in your heart? Or perhaps your colon?

originally posted by daiichi

"I believe Bush is an oedipal fool who is generating this war for oil and who will end up making the whole world hate us," said Dan Bright, 36.

originally posted by daiichi

"The fact that the inspectors have not yet come up with new evidence of Iraq's WMD program could be evidence, in and of itself, of Iraq's noncooperation."

originally posted by xowie

There was a big-ass anti-war demo in L.A. on Saturday.

originally posted by daiichi

The administration has embarked on something "quite extraordinary in American history, a preventive war, and the threshold for justification should be extraordinarily high," said G. John Ikenberry, an international relations professor at Georgetown University. But "the external presentation and the justification for it really seems to be lacking," he said.

originally posted by daiichi

Naked war protest in Marin.

originally posted by daiichi

You cannot have a war when the so-called enemy has done nothing to provoke you and is absolutely no threat to your national safety and has no significant military force and has negligible chance of even setting off a firecracker near your own overwhelming death machines, and whose only weapons of minimal destruction are the rusty short-range warheads and biochemical agents we sold him 20 years ago, and kept selling to him, even after we knew he was gassing his own people.

originally posted by daiichi

CAUSA BELLI by Andrew Motion

They read good books, and quote, but never learn
a language other than the scream of rocket-burn.
Our straighter talk is drowned but ironclad:
elections, money, empire, oil and Dad.

originally posted by daiichi

WP: interrogations at Bagram.

originally posted by xowie

Anti-war mp3: Jacob’s Ladder(Not In My Name).

originally posted by daiichi

Following Bush’s guidelines, Rooting Out Evil is demanding that his administration allow immediate and unfettered access to international weapons inspectors to search out their caches of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. If they refuse to comply, we will assemble as many volunteer weapons inspectors as possible at a major border crossing between the US and Canada and attempt to cross into the US on a mission of peace. We will be greeted on the US side by Americans who favour true global cooperation, an end to weapons of mass destruction, and a regime change in the US at the next election.

The L.A. ANSWER—organized candlelight peace vigil, the first of its kind to occupy a pedestrian-filled intersection, circulated steadily like a slow vortex around the four corners, blending imperceptibly with holiday shoppers, street vendors, and even the police, who appeared to be on hand only to pet all the dogs with peace signs hanging from their collars and make sure nobody got hit by a car.

originally posted by xowie

Somewhere along the line, the actions of this government are the actions of me. And if there's going to be blood on my hands, I'm not willing to have it be invisible. I wanted to come to Iraq and see Iraqi faces -- children, adults, diplomats, anybody that implies -- and go home with some impressions that will not let me off the hook. . . . It's not abstract anymore.

"Some people, some of the junior cadets, view it as a very personal thing," said Thomas. "They say, 'We are going to roll up in the desert,' 'We are going to go get those people,' 'We should have done it the first time.' But I think as they get closer to graduation, people have a much more balanced perspective on things. They are not only concerned about going to get Saddam, but the 25 million Iraqis he governs, the effect this is going to have on our allies, on world opinion. There is much more debate than there is rabid vilification of the enemy."

originally posted by xowie

Blood - the most intense and powerful Biblical symbol - causes two realities in disarmament. First, it reaffirms the covenant with the nonviolent Jesus, a covenant sealed in his blood. Second, it stresses again the prohibition against killing. There will be no justice, no peace, no relief for the poor, no restoration of the ecology until we stop killing one another.

originally posted by daiichi

The extraordinary array of groups questioning the Bush administration's rationale for an invasion of Iraq includes longtime radical groups such as the Workers World Party, but also groups not known for taking stands against the government. There is a labor movement against war, led by organizers of the largest unions in the country; a religious movement against the war, which includes leaders of virtually every mainstream denomination; a veterans movement against the war, led by those who fought Iraq in the Persian Gulf a decade ago; business leaders against the war, led by corporate leaders; an antiwar movement led by relatives of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; and immigrant groups against the war.

There are also black and Latino organizations, hundreds of campus antiwar groups and scores of groups of ordinary citizens meeting in community centers and church basements from Baltimore to Seattle.

''If you want to play the game of truth, I'll tell the truth, and the truth will burn. It's not going to burn me. It'll burn you. Why did you play the Israel card? Why did you play it, America? To try to discredit me?''

originally posted by daiichi

Do you know what the flag of Iraq looks like?

And the numbers continue to swell, as senior citizens, high school and university students, a range of religious denominations, blue-collar workers, veterans, progressive businesses, and women's, minority, and special-issue activist groups put their weight behind the cause.

originally posted by daiichi

So you feel like your role is to gather evidence?

That's one of the things we do. We bear witness, we present evidence. It's effective not to do it in a cold clinical way, but in a human way. The images are a cold statement of fact, but they present the human tragedy. There are consequences to what we do and don't do, serious consequences for ordinary people.

originally posted by daiichi

West Marin women strip for peace.

originally posted by daiichi

100 stickers for $30 seems like a good deal.

Listen, people, I don't how you expect to ever stop the war if you can't sing any better than that. There's about 300,000 of you fuckers out there and I want you to start singing! Come on!

originally posted by xowie

Ladies and gentlemen, we've done it. The Buy Bush a PlayStation Campaign has collected $370, enough to send the commander-in-chief a PlayStation 2 with all the trimmings. Thanks again to everyone who made this protest possible with your donations, ideas and support.

Over the next couple of days, I will begin the very serious business of buying the PS2, making the proper arrangements with the White House's office of presidential correspondence so that the Secret Service doesn't tear it apart, and turning the whole thing into a photo essay for your edification and amusement

BRAND: Was the crowd as large as expected?

MARSHALL: It was not as large as the organizers of the protest had predicted. They had said there would be 100,000 people here. I'd say there are fewer than 10,000. However, they did accomplish their goal of actually marching around the White House in one continuous stream of people. It is a little bit thin in some areas, but nonetheless, they have marched around the White House.