Where Dick Goes, Trouble Follows

While I'm processing videos from DNC protests on Sunday, I thought I'd point out that our dear friend Dick Cheney is heading to Georgia to cause trouble. Said he was already planning to go before the Russia-Georgia showdown. Funny how the announcement came a day after Russia said it considered NATO re-supply of Georgia to be pre-positioning for war.

Tornado Warning

Out of nowhere, the Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Monument and Palmer Lake on Saturday afternoon. They said funnels were coming over the front range. Intelligent people ran for cover. Idiots went up on the scrambling rock on the ridge to get a picture before the rain started.





Don't worry, folks, the funnels just jumped right over the mountains and headed out to the plains. One did touch down at Eleven-Mile Reservoir, though, Abby's favorite camping spot. The newspaper got it wrong, however, we were under a warning, not a watch. A Denver Post article emphasized the rarity of touch-downs at the altitude of Eleven-Mile (9,000 feet or so). We often have tornados that form on the east side of the Front Range, but this tornado actually passed across the tops of the mountains seen in the video - weird.

Slam Dunk!

The Colorado Springs Gazette is a funny newspaper. Often derided as ultra-right, it is actually Libertarian, and will give fairer coverage to the left than the centrist Denver papers will. Today's front cover of the print edition was a home run out of the park. The banner coverage of Pfc Robin Long's case was written by the hard-bitten military affairs reporter, yet was fair and comprehensive in its coverage. Better yet, underneath the fold was a long article on Mary Lynn Sheetz and her wonderful Alterni-Tees T-shirt shop. She's busy making dozens of shirts to hawk at the demonstrations and parties outside the Democratic Convention. I have a big bag of them right now. Browse her designs, I'm sure you'll find ones you love. www.alterni-tee.com

Disinviting Al-Jazeera

Looking for proof that your average American citizen is an utter moron? Look no further than Golden, Colo. (after all, it is the home of Coors Beer, manufactured by neocon idiots to be consumed by neocon idiots). Seems City Manager Mike Bestor invited the news crew of al-Jazeera English to his home for a BBQ while they prepared a city profile during the Denver DNC. Shocked hordes of citizens, concerned with al-Jazeera's "support for terrorism," forced him to withdraw his invite. The next time someone complains about Bush, remind them that very few citizens show signs of deserving anyone better for president.

No Sanctuary

PFC Robin Long, the first 21st-century U.S. soldier to be deported from Canada, went on trial at 9 a.m. Aug. 22 at the Martinez Court House on Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, charged with desertion. It may not be much of a surprise that the Army is insisting on court-martialing him, but it is a grim reminder of the ruthlessness of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to think that Long may be the first of many.

In order to rationalize Canada's expanded involvement in Afghanistan, Harper has made clear that U.S. conscientious objectors to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have no place in Canada. I found this particularly tragic after watching the Canadian film Breaking Ranks last week, in a benefit organized by Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission and Iraq Veterans Against the War. Dozens of war resisters still in Canada are viewing Long's deportation with trepidation. Granted, Parliament has taken a strong stance against Harper's new cold-heartedness, but the result may be a show of the prime minister's executive power.

Members of the Colorado Springs peace community filled up the courtroom on base with supporters, and will begin new counseling to war resisters. Since Long was expected to plead guilty, his sentencing was expected as early as Friday afternoon, and the Army may elect to go easy on potential sentences. But the current trajectory doesn't hold much hope for Canada being a place of sanctuary.

FLASH: At 12:45 p.m. Aug. 22, word came down that Long was sentenced to a 15-month stint at Fort Leavenworth after a guilty plea. Expect more bad news to come from Canada.

Flobots' Rise and Abby's Participation

My daughter Abby helped out in the production of The Flobots' new video "Rise." They're not allowing embedding, but you can view it here. Flobots will be participating every day in marches and anti-war demos at the Democratic National Convention. They're great folks.

Missile-Defense Arrogance as a Reflex Action

No matter how the United States played the completion of the missile-siting deal with Poland, Russia was bound to see it as directly tied to the Georgia midadventure. But the U.S. could have let the low-level signing of the deal August 14 speak for itself. Instead, Condi Rice came storming in to Warsaw with trumpets blaring, setting the propaganda level to "high" and reminding those ignorant Russkies that missile defense was for everyone's benefit.

Funny, then, how a good conservative Reagan aide like Jack Matlock could be interviewed on Public Radio International's World and call the Bush administration "amazingly provocative" in its approach to concluding the Czech and Polish deals. Funny how a good U.S. buddy like Mikhail Gorbachev could write a New York Times op-ed piece blaming the U.S. for a good portion of a re-kindled Cold War.

Condi's having to lie through her teeth to make the point in Poland that this "limited" missile-defense system (the twin to systems deployed in California and Alaska) is only good for spotting single missiles from rogue states like Iran. If only that were true. Frances FitzGerald and other analysts already have argued how the multi-tiered missile defense of the 1990s and 2000s is in many ways even more offense-oriented than Reagan's original Star Wars plan. George N. Lewis and Ted Postol, in a detailed article in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, shows that the current European Midcourse X-band radar in the Czech Republic would not be useful for discriminating warheads from far locations like Iran - and forget about North Korea. However, the radar might be worthwhile if it was combined with a future Forward-Based X-band Radar currently being considered for Azerbaijan - or Georgia. Georgia, hmm, where have I heard of that potential NATO member before?

I'm with Matlock, Gorbachev, and similar radicals - if you want to see where at least half of the new Cold War posturing is coming from, look to Washington. Condi might say that even mid-level Russian diplomats these days are using a mocking, ugly tone not heard since the Brezhnev era. But when Russian critics are chided like toddlers in discussions of Star Wars weapons, and respond with disdain, the next step is vituperative and nasty rhetoric coming from the Bushies.