Inside the Belly of the Beltway Beast

Mike Ferner with VFP reported on what happened between First Lady Laura Bush and Gilda Carbonaro, mother of a soldier killed in Iraq... Mike wrote yesterday: gilda carbonaro did a fine job. she waited in line (it stretched outside the building a hundred feet or more) for a half hour, and purchased a copy of "read all about it" (a requirement to get in line) by jenna and laura bush so she could get it signed and have a couple moments with them. gilda took two signed, laminated copies of her letter (attached) with her, and when she got to the head of the line calmly asked the two bushes to please read it. gilda said that before they could actually take it from her, a secret service person swooped in from nowhere and grabbed the letters. gilda asked the bush women if they would please still read it. jenna said she would, but chances are slim that will happen. and that, as they say, was it. no protesters showed up, and no press showed up as far as i could tell, except for on...

On Friday, April 25, at 7:00pm, at the Borders bookstore at 14th and F Streets, NW , Gilda Carbonaro, mother of Sgt. Alesandro Carbonaro who died after being burned in an IED blast in Iraq, plans to deliver her letter which reads in part: “Your children, Mrs. Bush, are safe and I am glad for you. But I wonder, have you ever urged them to enlist in this heroic adventure? Your husband has told us many times how important this cause is…Why, then, has the price for this war been paid only by people like my son, Marine Corps Sgt. Alesandro Carbonaro, who died May 10, 2006, eight days after being horrifically burned in an IED blast in Al Anbar Province, Iraq? Can you not see the simple, basic unfairness of asking others to do what you yourself are unwilling to do? Have you drifted so far from an understanding of fundamental justice that you cannot see the contradictions apparent to so many of us? These are not rhetorical questions. They are as real as the knot in our stomachs and the...

April 20, 2008 By Dean Powers http://www.opednews.com From Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, Democrats voiced surprise and then anger over comments that Senator Hillary Clinton made at a private fund raiser that were caught on tape. Surprise because the media has largely blacked out coverage of the comments; anger because of their nature. The Huffington Post published those comments and the clip of the audio sound bite on Friday. At the event last February, Clinton told those in the audience, "We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party. MoveOn didn't even want us to go into Afghanistan. I mean, that's what we're dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers. And they are very driven by their view of our positions, and it's primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them. I don't agree with them. They know I don't agree with them. So they flood into these caucuses and dominat...

Challenged Gen. Petraeus During September 2007 Hearing Washington – Last September General David Petraeus sold the continued illegal and immoral war of Iraq to Congress, and they bought it. Washington, D.C. activist David Barrows was arrested for rising and speaking during Petraeus’ testimony before during a congressional hearing in order to bring attention to the general’s lies and the possible expansion of the criminal war and occupation into Iran. Barrows faces sentencing this Wednesday, April 23, at 9:30 a.m. in Courtroom 220 of D.C. Superior Court, 500 Indiana Avenue N.W. On September 11, 2007 Barrows was arrested by the U.S. Capitol Police and charged with “Disrupting Congress.” Earlier this month he had a jury trial in D.C. Judge Robert S. Rigsby’s courtroom. After a two-day trial, the jury returned a guilty verdict and Barrows, an artist and a nonviolent peace and justice activist faces up to six months in prison. “I continue to believe that we, the people, should not allow Con...

Reuters/bdnews24.com. Beijing A Buddhist Chinese dissident outspoken on Tibet and other sensitive topics was jailed for three-and-a-half years on Thursday, a conviction likely to become a focus of rights campaigns ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Hu Jia, 34, was found guilty of ‘inciting subversion of state power’ for criticising the ruling Communist Party, a verdict at which the United States expressed dismay. ‘In this Olympic year, we urge China to seize the opportunity to put its best face forward and take steps to improve its record on human rights and religious freedom,’ the US Embassy said in a statement. The official Xinhua news agency said Hu had made a ‘confession of crime and acceptance of punishment,’ leading the court to issue a relatively light sentence. Hu’s two lawyers said he had acknowledged ‘excesses.’ ‘In the end, I think that he came to accept that some of his statements were contrary to the law as it stands,’ said defence lawyer Li Jinsong.

* By Scott Schaeffer-Duffy On April 4, 2008, the 40^th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Patrick Lewis died of natural causes at his home Austin Street home in Worcester, Massachusetts. His commitment to justice and peace flowed out of his love and art and began with civil rights, continued with opposition to the Vietnam War, the nuclear arms race, and the current US War in Iraq. He was arrested many times for nonviolent civil disobedience, serving more than 4 years of his life in jail for his acts of conscience, including a multi-year sentence for his part in the burning of draft files in Catonsville, Maryland in 1968. Tom was born on Saint Patrick's Day in 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland. He is survived by his daughter Nora Marie Borbely-Lewis, his mother, Pauline, his brothers Don and John, and his sister, Paula Anne Sheye. When he was 17, his family moved to the suburbs of Baltimore where Tom won a football scholarship to Saint Joseph's Xaveria...

Suburbanites rush to new ball park paid for by DC citizens By Dave Zirin So much for the house that Woodstein built. Rarely has the coverage of an event been so pandering, so utterly absent of objectivity than the Washington Post’s coverage of the debut of the Washington National's new stadium. The Post reported on the ballpark's grand opening with hard-hitting articles like, "Lapping Up a Major Victory, and Luxuries, at New Stadium." Without irony, the article quoted people from the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia, about how much fun they were having playing Guitar Hero and eating authentic DC half-smokes before the big game. It should have come with coupons for the Make Your Own Teddy Bear booth, but that was nothing compared to Postsports columnist Tom Boswell, who long ago cornered the market on sloppy baseball nostalgia. The guy would sob watching home movies of Boog Powell flossing his teeth. Some Boswell from opening night included, "Imagine 25,000 people...