Katrina Two Years Later - Little Progress, Much Sadness

(Video from Robert Greenwald)

Katrina timeline from Think Progress

Yahoo Underground ArtCar Video

Last February when Ken and I drove my two ArtCars to Arizona a small crew from Yahoo Underground News followed our caravan. We were part of a group heading from California to Harrod Blank's new ArtCar World museum under construction in Douglas Arizona (near the Mexican border and Bisbee, Arizona.)

Also on the caravan were ArtCar Fest co-founder Philo Northrup, Marilyn Dreampeace driving her new Prius Wet Dreams, Rebecca Caldwell in her famous Carthedral (also now located at ArtCar World. Jake & John with Von Tiki, and Charles Russell in Cinnabar Charm joined us enroute. It was loads of fun and it made my donation of the MondrianMobile to ArtCar World a little easier to get through having all those wonderful folks along.

We're gearing up for ArtCar Fest 2007 (September 27-30th) and another caravan to Arizona. You can read about both events HERE. Enjoy the video:



The Yahoo Underground guys even wrote a song about ArtCars. Here are the lyrics.

ACTION ITEM: TUESDAY AUGUST 28TH!

Image and message from MoveOn:

This September, after hearing the White House‘s report on the "surge," Congress will decide whether we bring our troops home or spend another year fighting an unwinnable religious civil war. As Congress heads back to DC, we're here to tell them that it's time to take a stand.

We're holding candlelight vigils and Town Hall meetings in cities all over the nation on Tuesday night, August 28--National Take a Stand Day--to remember the human cost of the war and urge our members of Congress to stand up in September and end this endless war.

FIND A VIGIL NEAR YOU!

Fox News Wants U.S. to Attack Iran!

The latest video from filmmaker Robert Greenwald explains:



Visit his Website for more details about what you can do to stop the march to madness!

Dick Cheney Was Right!

From MoveOn.org:



Help MoveOn.org (who I work endless volunteer hours for) to End Dick Cheney's Quagmire in Iraq!

CA Sec of State Actually Does Job, Gets Slammed for it!

Newly elected California Secretary of State Debra Bowen GETS DOWN TO BUSINESS!

Read Bowen's CA Voter Bill of Rights



Much to the "Elephants" fury, Debra Bowen is doing the job California voters elected her for. They're attacking her for proving (beyond any shadow of a doubt) that several of the electronic voting systems installed in various California counties are not only vulnerable to EASY hacking, but they simply don't work. Not only that, cheapskate county clerks and registrars across the state are whining because they'll probably have to replace the defective, risky systems they all bought from Diebold, Sequoia, Hart, etc. during the HAVA stampede..

Do you know what kind of voting machines your county uses Ms/Mr California voter? If not, you can find out right HERE (thanks to Bowen's office for posting this essential information on the Secretary of State's website - DUH!)

Does your county use these machines?



or these?



or perhaps these?



unethical types could be fiddling with this part of the very machine you vote on:



So here's what you need to do fellow Californians:

1) Once you've figured out which kind of machine your county uses HERE check to see if it's on Bowen's report HERE.

2) If it is, you need to immediately call your County Clerk or Registrar of Voters who you can find HERE! or on this interactive state map. Tell them to support Debra Bowen's statewide sweep of hackable voting machines and that you want secure, accurate, verifiable voting systems in your county. These public officials, unlike Congresspersons, rarely hear from constituents so your call can have huge impact on this crucial issue.

3) Then write a letter to your local paper/s using the Courage Campaign's easy interface.

Remember everyone, the Republican governor has moved our primary to February (2/5/08 to be exact) so that California will have a big impact on the selection of the two major party candidates running for president. By coincidence (irony) CA GOP is busy trying to change our winner-take-all primary system (hmmm why would they want to do that?) Do we want the GOP deciding who our nominee is by fiddling with our voting machines as they continue their decades-long subversion of American democracy?

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!



Make sure your County Clerk isn't giving Secretary of State Bowen any resistance as she works to fix the rigged voting machines in our Golden State. Feel free to also send Bowen a message of support!

And remember YOU DO HAVE THE POWER to change this government and this country. Here's proof!

Poems from Guantánamo

Prisoner at Guantánamo by Fernando Botero © 2006


The following text is from the Boston Globe

August 5, 2007

THE JUST-released "Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak" is a collection of 22 poems by 17 detainees at the US detention center at Guantánamo Bay. Edited by Marc Falkoff, each poem had to be cleared by the Pentagon. The result offers a rare glimpse into the lives of the prisoners. The following is an excerpt.

Jumah al Dossari, a 33-year-old Bahraini national, is the father of a young daughter. He has been held at Guantánamo Bay for more than five years. Detained without charge or trial, Dossari has been subjected to a range of physical and psychological abuses, some of which are detailed in "Inside the Wire," an account of the Guantánamo prison by former military intelligence soldier Erik Saar. He has been held in solitary confinement since the end of 2003 and, according to the US military, has tried to kill himself 12 times while in the prison. On one occasion, he was found by his lawyer, hanging by his neck and bleeding from a gash to his arm.

DEATH POEM

Take my blood.
Take my death shroud and
The remnants of my body.
Take photographs of my corpse at the grave, lonely.
Send them to the world,
To the judges and
To the people of conscience,
Send them to the principled men and the fair-minded.
And let them bear the guilty burden, before the world,
Of this innocent soul.
Let them bear the burden, before their children and before history,
Of this wasted, sinless soul,
Of this soul which has suffered at the hands of the "protectors of peace."

Prisoner at Guantánamo by Fernando Botero © 2006

Sami al Haj, a Sudanese national, was a journalist covering the conflict in Afghanistan for the television station al-Jazeera when, in 2001, he was taken into custody and stripped of his passport and press card. Handed over to US forces in January 2002, he was tortured at both Bagram air base and Kandahar before being transferred to Guantánamo Bay in June 2002. The US military alleges that he worked as a financial courier for Chechen rebels and that he assisted Al Qaeda and extremist figures, but has offered the public no evidence in support of these allegations. Haj remains at Guantánamo.

HUMILIATED IN THE SHACKLES

When I heard pigeons cooing in the trees,
Hot tears covered my face.
When the lark chirped, my thoughts composed
A message for my son.
Mohammad, I am afflicted.
In my despair, I have no one but Allah for comfort.
The oppressors are playing with me,
As they move freely about the world.
They ask me to spy on my countrymen,
Claiming it would be a good deed.
They offer me money and land,
And freedom to go where I please.
Their temptations seize my attention
Like lightning in the sky.
But their gift is an evil snake,
Carry hypocrisy in its mouth like venom.
They have monuments to liberty
And freedom of opinion, which is well and good.
But I explained to them that
Architecture is not justice.
America, you ride on the backs of orphans,
And terrorize them daily.
Bush, beware.
The world recognizes an arrogant liar.
To Allah I direct my grievance and my tears.
I am homesick and oppressed.
Mohammad, do not forget me.
Support the cause of your father, a God-fearing man.
I was humiliated in the shackles.
How can I now compose verses? How can I now write?
After the shackles and the nights and the suffering and the tears,
How can I write poetry?
My soul is like a roiling sea, stirred by anguish,
Violent with passion.
I am a captive, but the crimes are my captors'.
I am overwhelmed with apprehension.
Lord, unite me with my son Mohammad.
Lord, grant success to the righteous.

Prisoners at Guantánamo by Fernando Botero © 2006

Osama Abu Kabir is a Jordanian water truck driver who worked for the municipality of Greater Amman. After joining an Islamic missionary organization called Jama'at al-Tablighi, he traveled to Afghanistan, where he was detained by anti-Taliban forces and handed over to the US military. One of the justifications offered for his continued detention is that he was captured wearing a Casio digital watch, a brand supposedly favored by members of Al Qaeda because some models may be used as bomb detonators. Kabir remains at Guantánamo.

IS IT TRUE?

Is it true that the grass grows up again after the rain?
Is it true that the flowers will rise up in the spring?
Is it true that birds will migrate home again?
Is it true that the salmon swim back up their stream?
It is true. This is true. These are all miracles.
But is it true that one day we'll leave Guantánamo Bay?
Is it true that one day we'll go back to our homes?
I sail in my dreams, I am dreaming of homes.
To be with my children, each one part of me;
To be with my wife and the ones that I love;
To be with my parents, my world's tenderest hearts.
I dream to be home, to be free from this cage.
But do you hear me, oh Judge, do you hear me at all?
We are innocent, here, we've committed no crime.
Set me free, set us free, if anywhere still
Justice and compassion remain in this world!

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