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Al Gore and the Call to Conscience

I, for one, could not be more pleased by how things are working out for Al Gore. Having lost the U. S. Presidency in a stolen election, Al left politics to revive a side of himself that years in the U.S. Senate and the Clinton White House could only have suffocated: his conscience.

Now, with an Oscar and a Nobel Prize to his credit, Al Gore would appear to be the most accomplished Presidential possibility this country has seen in many a decade--if ever. As a result, the "draft Gore" movement is headed into over-drive. But if Al were to enter the 2008 Presidential race, he would threaten the Democratic Party establishment's HRC juggernaut; he might also appear to be disloyal to the Clintons who certainly deserve some credit for helping the former Senator to achieve political heights that he simply could not have achieved absent their intervention.

So Al has a problem. Because if his conscience is truly back in working order, he has to know that HRC is wrong for America. HRC is still her daddy's Young Republican daughter. She is a war hawk--for fear that, as a woman, she would otherwise be perceived as weak. And, perhaps most disturbing, she is a grizzled political opportunist: conscience is not a significant motivating force in Hillary Clinton's life.

So what is Al Gore to do? Here is where we will see the degree to which Gore has truly left politics behind for the high moral ground. Paradoxically, the moral thing for Al to do under the present circumstances, is not to avoid politics but to embrace them.

For HRC, right politics in Gore's case would be to decline to run against her; but from a moral perspective, Al must run against her to prevent her from receiving the Democratic Party nomination (to which she feels entitled).

If Al sits this one out, it will appear that he has chosen a moral road over a political one--and, no doubt, that is how his action (or inaction) will be spun. But, in fact, Al Gore will only have proved once again that there is honor among the plutocracy's thieves. Gore needs to run for president in 2008 precisely because he does not wish to.

Those who back HRC because they believe it is time for this country to have a female president should stop to consider the consequences of electing a female such as HRC as opposed to a female such as Cindy Sheehan--the true choice of conscience. It's not the chromosome that matters in 2008; it's the heart.

My Birth Certificate and Passport Notwithstanding

I am but a resident alien in these Benighted States of Leviathan. My true home and citizenry is with the Whitmanian Republic.

Now while I sat in the day and look'd forth,
In the close of the day with its light and the fields of spring, and
the farmers preparing their crops,
In the large unconscious scenery of my land with its lakes and forests,
In the heavenly aerial beauty, (after the perturb'd winds and the storms,)
Under the arching heavens of the afternoon swift passing, and the
voices of children and women,
The many-moving sea-tides, and I saw the ships how they sail'd,
And the summer approaching with richness, and the fields all busy
with labor,
And the infinite separate houses, how they all went on, each with
its meals and minutia of daily usages,
And the streets how their throbbings throbb'd, and the cities pent--
lo, then and there,
Falling upon them all and among them all, enveloping me with the rest,
Appear'd the cloud, appear'd the long black trail,
And I knew death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge of death.


Then with the knowledge of death as walking one side of me,
And the thought of death close-walking the other side of me,
And I in the middle as with companions, and as holding the hands of
companions,
I fled forth to the hiding receiving night that talks not,
Down to the shores of the water, the path by the swamp in the dimness,
To the solemn shadowy cedars and ghostly pines so still.


And the singer so shy to the rest receiv'd me,
The gray-brown bird I know receiv'd us comrades three,
And he sang the carol of death, and a verse for him I love.


From deep secluded recesses,
From the fragrant cedars and the ghostly pines so still,
Came the carol of the bird.


And the charm of the carol rapt me,
As I held as if by their hands my comrades in the night,
And the voice of my spirit tallied the song of the bird.


Come lovely and soothing death,
Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,
In the day, in the night, to all, to each,
Sooner or later delicate death.


Prais'd be the fathomless universe,
For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious,
And for love, sweet love--but praise! praise! praise!
For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding death.


Dark mother always gliding near with soft feet,
Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome?
Then I chant it for thee, I glorify thee above all,
I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come unfalteringly.


Approach strong deliveress,
When it is so, when thou hast taken them I joyously sing the dead,
Lost in the loving floating ocean of thee,
Laved in the flood of thy bliss O death.


From me to thee glad serenades,
Dances for thee I propose saluting thee, adornments and feastings for thee,
And the sights of the open landscape and the high-spread shy are fitting,
And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night.


The night in silence under many a star,
The ocean shore and the husky whispering wave whose voice I know,
And the soul turning to thee O vast and well-veil'd death,
And the body gratefully nestling close to thee.


Over the tree-tops I float thee a song,
Over the rising and sinking waves, over the myriad fields and the
prairies wide,
Over the dense-pack'd cities all and the teeming wharves and ways,
I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee O death.

-- Walt Whitman

BOOK REVIEW: Foreign Agents by Grant Smith

FOREIGN AGENTS: The American Israel Public Affairs
Committee from the 1963 Fulbright Hearings to the 2005
Espionage Scandal

FOREIGN AGENTS analyzes the history and activities
of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.
FOREIGN AGENTS begins with testimony and subpoenaed
documents from the 1963 Senate investigation into the
activities of the agents of foreign principals. Senator J.W.
Fulbright's discovery of "conduit" money-laundering
operations in the US financed by Israeli principals
touched off deep and important questions about
US lobbying on behalf of the fledgling nation and the
applicability of laws such as the Foreign Agents Registration
Act and the Logan Act. The book then uncovers AIPAC
election law skirmishes in the 1980s-1990s, analyzing
the lobby's role in establishing and coordinating political
action committees and AIPAC's role in alleged election
law violations. FOREIGN AGENTS then turns to the
question of espionage. In 2005, two AIPAC executives,
Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, were criminally
indicted for violating the 1917 Espionage Act. FOREIGN
AGENTS reviews behind-the-scenes defense team motions
and judicial decisions affecting First Amendment freedom
of speech issues and questions about "inside the Beltway"
trafficking in classified US defense information by lobbies.
FOREIGN AGENTS evaluates Rosen and Weissman's
assertions that the conduct alleged in the indictment was
within the scope of their employment with AIPAC and was
undertaken for AIPAC's benefit. FOREIGN AGENTS then
makes comprehensive recommendations for legal
oversight in the context of AIPAC's history as a powerful
and secretive foreign agent for Israel.

Order at http://www.IRmep.org/fa.htm for Free Shipping!
Also available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other
bookstores.  Academic libraries may acquire this title
through wholesalers such as Coutts and YBP.

Editorial Reviews of Foreign Agents:
***********************************************************
"In this book, Grant Smith renders a vital public service by
providing chapter-and-verse evidence that the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee--Israel's U.S. lobby--is the
agent of a foreign government and has violated public law
for years in ways that seriously harm U.S. national interests."
-Paul Findley, former US Congressman

"For those who want to understand how AIPAC and the Israel
lobby have hijacked the American political process, Grant Smith's
Foreign Agents is required reading.
-Jeffrey Blankfort hosts the international affairs program "Takes
on the World" on KZYX Pacifica Radio in Mendocino, California.

"Wealthy, powerful, almost covert, with the proven capability of
strongly influencing the media as well as both parties in
Congress and the White House, AIPAC's omnipresent, little-
known activities demand the public scrutiny that Foreign Agents
initiates."
-Ambassador Edward L. Peck is former Chief of Mission in Iraq
and Former Deputy Director, White House Cabinet Task Force
on Terrorism 

AIPAC has proved itself to be a danger to our democracy by using
money and political power to benefit a foreign government, all at the
expense of the American taxpayer.  Grant Smith has done a great deal
of powerful research to bring facts that will benefit us all when
making decisions as to who we vote for." 
-Senator James G. Abourezk

"Grant Smith has produced a momentous scholarly work that reveals an
eye-opening picture of the carefully guarded operations of the Israeli
lobby and its unparalleled influence over US policy in the Middle East.
What makes this daringly debunking research work convincing and its
arguments irrefutable is the fact that it steers past the dangers of
the conspiracy theories surrounding the Israeli lobby by drawing
exclusively on official government and/or public sources of
information.  Foreign Agents is a must read primer for anyone
interested in making sense of our government's policy in the Middle
East and its implications for our domestic politics and priorities." 
-Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Ph.D. is Professor of Economics at Drake
University and Author of the book "The Political Economy of US Militarism"

"In Foreign Agents, Grant Smith has drawn together the historical
threads of a foreign lobby group that has managed to slip between
the cracks despite its connection to numerous illegal activities in the
United States. Foreign Agents reveals what every American citizen
should know about AIPAC, the Israeli lobby which holds sway over
many US politicians, and hence US politics, often to the detriment of
US interests. A must read book." 
-Kim Petersen is the co-editor of the Dissident Voice newsletter

"Grant F. Smith's book provides a superb review of the efforts that
have been made to expose the Israel lobby from 1963 to 2005.
Smith's work is extremely well researched. He gathers together
documents, testimony from closed-door hearings, and news articles
that most Americans have totally forgotten... His work is monumental."
-Richard Curtiss executive editor of the Washington Report on Middle
East Affairs

1,000 Attempt Citizen's Arrest of Bush at UN; Blocked by Police, 10 to 12 Arrests

9/25/07

A citizen's arrest warrant has been issued! Please do your duty and see that it is served!

As George Bush made his appearance and speech today at the United Nations in NYC, 1,000 people issued a citizen's arrest warrant against him for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The day began with twelve separate feeder marches converging from across the city, consisting of perhaps several hundred protesters. The people carried 20 large coffins with them and marched from all five boroughs toward Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza and the UN Building where Bush was speaking. The feeder marches were organized by Arrest Cheney First, the War Resister's League, Witness Against Torture, Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS-NYC) and others.

Police had already set up a protest pen outside of the UN for a rally called by the vanguardist World Can't Wait, and quickly moved to herd the marchers into the pens. When members of the War Resister's League exited the pen to deliver the arrest warrant, police arrested 8 of them and grabbed three or four unaffiliated protesters from the pen as well, at approximately 10:30 am.

Eventually, the original contingent of marchers and several hundred others got tired of the pens and began to march south on Second Avenue toward Washington Square Park. A few attempts were made to march in the street, but police reacted violently, shoving and pushing marchers back onto the sidewalk. In the process, police also seized any megaphones they saw. Several protesters sustained injuries in these encounters, but no arrests were made. In all, about 500 people made their way to Washington Square Park.

The idea of citizen's arrest has its roots in common law, and allows for any citizen to execute an arrest on someone who they witness committing a felony offense. All states in the United States allow for citizen's arrest, except for North Carolina, which follows different statutes. Those undertaking a citizen's arrest can still be held liable in civil or criminal court for any damages they inflict in the process. However, they have full rights to detain and arrest a suspect who they witness in commission of a felony.

Applicable felonies in this case include, but are not limited to: treason, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, perjury, conspiracy malfeasance in office, fraud, embezzlement, and kidnapping.

Under established international and military law, also, the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, for which, as commander in chief, Bush bears command responsibility for the actions of those under his command as well as for his own policies.

Under the principles of the Nuremburg Trials at the end of World War Two, Bush would be indictable for all four counts established back then:

1. Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of crime against peace;

2. Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace;

3. War crimes;

4. Crimes against humanity.

While the efforts of citizens today to serve an arrest warrant on Bush failed, be advised: the warrant stands. Please do you duty, and try at every opportunity to bring this criminal to justice.

http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=4181