Burma

We just got phone call with our sister living in Yangon about a few hours ago.
We saw on BBC world, saying that 200 monks were arrested. The true picture is far worse!!!!!!!!!
For one instance, the monastery at an obscure neighborhood of Yangon, called Ngwe Kyar Yan (on Wei-za-yan-tar Road, Yangon) had been raided early this morning.
A troop of lone-tein (riot police comprised of paid thugs) protected by the military trucks, raided the monastery with 200 studying monks. They systematically ordered all the monks to line up and banged and crushed each one’s head against the brick wall of the monastery. One by one, the peaceful, non resisting monks, fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Then, they tore off the red robes and threw them all in the military trucks (like rice bags) and took the bodies away.
The head monk of the monastery, was tied up in the middle of the monastery, tortured , bludgeoned, and later died the same day, today. Tens of thousands of people gathered outside the monastery, warded off by troops with bayoneted rifles, unable to help their helpless monks being slaughtered inside the monastery. Their every try to forge ahead was met with the bayonets.
When all is done, only 10 out of 200 remained alive, hiding in the monastery. Blood stained everywhere on the walls and floors of the monastery.
Please tell your audience of the full extent of the fate of the monks please please !!!!!!!!!!!!
‘Arrested’ is not enough expression. They have been bludgeoned to death !!!!!!

"Between 200-300 monks killed in crackdown"

I don't like this picture, but felt should be shown for posterity and understanding of the gravity of the situation. In a primarily Buddhist nation, such a travesty is unthinkable. However the military has retained control for over 40 years. If you live in the States or France, think twice about buying gasoline from Chevron, Total, or Unocal. They are all accomplices in the slavery, torture, and rape of locals.

Bush Defends Torture, WW2 Vets Speak Against It

"This government does not torture people" King George


"'We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture,' said Henry Kolm, 90, an MIT physicist who had been assigned to play chess in Germany with Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess.
Blunt criticism of modern enemy interrogations was a common refrain at the ceremonies held beside the Potomac River near Alexandria. Across the river, President Bush defended his administration’s methods of detaining and questioning terrorism suspects during an Oval Office appearance.
Several of the veterans, all men in their 80s and 90s, denounced the controversial techniques. And when the time came for them to accept honors from the Army’s Freedom Team Salute, one veteran refused, citing his opposition to the war in Iraq and procedures that have been used at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba."

Hillary...

"didn't learn her lesson the first time. Is she seriously claiming that this resolution was really needed to "lay the groundwork for using diplomacy and sanctions"? What, was Condi Rice (remember her?) hamstrung on her ability to conduct diplomacy without Congress giving her the thumbs up? Does she think her audience is that stupid? Apparently so.No wonder she won't apologize for screwing up the Iraq War Authorization. She sees nothing wrong with that vote, and has every intention of casting that kind of vote over and over again."

Donald Rumsfeld- A True Patriot

This Modern Banter

Iraq Veterans Against the War

On January 13, 1946, 500 GIs in Paris adopted a set of demands called "The Enlisted Man's Magna Charta", calling for radical reforms of the master-slave relationship between officers and enlisted men; also demanding the removal of Secretary of War Robert Patterson. In the Philippines, soldier sentiment against the reduced demobilization crystalized in a meeting of GIs that voted unanimously to ask Secretary Patterson and certain Senators: "What is the Army's position in the Philippines, especially in relation to the reestablishment of the Eighty-sixth Infantry Division on a combat basis?"
By the summer of 1946 there had been a huge demobilization of the armed forces, although there's no way of knowing with any exactness how much of that was due to the GIs' protests.
If this is how American soldiers could be inspired and organized in the wake of "The Good War", imagine what can be done today in the midst of "The God-awful War".
Iraq Veterans Against the War could use your help. Go to: http://www.ivaw.org/

The Hired Gun Fetish...

a.k.a. The Privitization of Everything...
The most recent thing we've learned about is how soldiers-of-fortune go on killing sprees in Iraq facing no punishment.

Something we haven't heard so much about is how the I.R.S. has collection agencies getting late taxes at a rate of 20% when they could do it themselves for a rate of 3%.

Good ole George W. has just vetoed a bill that would give $35 Million in healthcare to American children. Our lovely Congress and Preznit have just approved another $190 Billion to be spent in Iraq.

The U.S. dollar is trading at the even rate to the Canadian dollar for the first time 1976.