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Posted on Wednesday, 29 July, 2009 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
Democracy Now! has the exclusive skinny on military spooks infiltrating groups in my occasional stomping grounds of Olympia, WA: My pal Drew Hendricks, along with Brendan Maslauskas Dunn (of Students for a Democratic Society and the Port of Oly anti-militarization group) pieced together documents from FOIA requests to out “John Jacob” who was passing himeself off as an anti-war activist. He was really John Towery, a member of the Force Protection Service at the nearby Fort Lewis military base.
Newly declassified documents reveal that an active member of Students for a Democratic Society and Port Militarization Resistance in Washington state was actually an informant for the US military. The man everyone knew as “John Jacob” was in fact John Towery, a member of the Force Protection Service at Fort Lewis. The military’s role in the spying raises questions about possibly illegal activity. The Posse Comitatus law bars the use of the armed forces for law enforcement inside the United States. The Fort Lewis military base denied our request for an interview. But in a statement to Democracy Now, the base’s Public Affairs office publicly acknowledged for the first time that Towery is a military operative. “This could be one of the key revelations of this era,” said Eileen Clancy, who has closely tracked government spying on activist organizations. [includes rush transcript]
— Democracy Now!
Posted on Tuesday, 14 April, 2009 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
PALESTINIAN ARTISTS DAM TO PLAY BENEFIT SHOW FOR OLYMPIA-RAFAH SOLIDARITY MURAL PROJECT
If I were in Olympia, I’d be buying tickets to this yesterday.
OLYMPIA, WA — DAM, a leading Palestinian hip hop group and local artists Xperience and DJ Sweetelite, will play the Capitol Theater, 206 5th Avenue SE, in Olympia, April 21st at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Advance tickets can be purchased at Rainy Day Records or online through Buyolympia. Proceeds will benefit the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural Project.
DAM is the first and leading Palestinian hip hop group. It is composed of Tamer Nafar, 27, his younger brother Suhell, 23, and Mahmoud Jreri, 24. All three members of the group were born and grew up in the slums of Lod, a mixed town of Arabs and Jews, twenty kilometers from Jerusalem.
DAM’s music is a unique fusion of East and West, combining Arabic percussion rhythms, Middle Eastern melodies and urban hip hop.
The lyrics of DAM are influenced by the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as by the Palestinian struggle for freedom and equality. DAM also draw their influence from such controversial issues as terrorism, drugs and women’s rights.
DAM was featured in the film Slingshot Hip Hop, released in 2008, which braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover hip hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty.
This show is a benefit for the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural Project. Building bridges, the mural project is a recognition of the relationships that exist between the people of Olympia, Washington, the people of Rafah, Palestine and with all who struggle and work for justice. Through cultural expression, the mural will provide visibility to strengthen the movement for social change in Palestine, the U.S. and the world. It is a project of the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice and Break the Silence Mural and Arts Project and is co-sponsored by the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project and Gaza Community Mental Health Program. Visit www.olympiarafahmural.org for more information.
Join us for the after party at the Royal Lounge, 311 Capitol Way N. A percentage of the proceeds will support the creation the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural. 21 and over.
For more information contact Serena Becker at 360-754-3988 or serena@rachelcorriefoundation.org.
Posted on Saturday, 8 November, 2008 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
The Top 5 list for things our gleaming new president
can do to prove to the world we aren’t imperial wankers
Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images
Barack Obama is “the goodest person we’ve ever had as a presidential candidate,” deemed Sarah Silverman. He is “our last hope of ending this country’s reputation as the asshole of the universe.”
And the U.S. populace is now in a drunken dance frenzy to a club remix of The Witch is Dead. That’s a good thing. Soak it up. Enjoy the moment. There’s a currently a collective sigh of relief heard around the world, even in places where people don’t expect large degrees of change. The achievement of an African American should be lauded.
I want the cynics among us to pause at least long enough to appreciate the historical significance of the incoming 44th president’s victory. I want the blind party-line enthusiasts to fess up how similar the candidates were to one another on most issues. And lastly, I want my independent-voting pals out there to honestly admit that while the differences were few, they translate into some clear divisions. And everyone should admit that they voted mostly because they were freaked out.
In 2004 I was hoping to watch the election from south of the border. A flash flood in California killed my car and cost me a bunch of money and put that dream to an end. I ended up cruising around the various election night parties of Olympia, WA, mooching free grub and brew as I went and watching people grow more and more drunk and depressed as Bush won another round. What a difference four years makes. I got to watch this election from abroad, living and working in the UK. Married, home-owning, kid having and wandering around with enough loose change to buy my own brews. And mostly I slept through the results.
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Posted on Friday, 16 November, 2007 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
This event reminds me of the excellent Suheir Hammad poem In America. I now turn this blog post over to the Rachel Corrie Foundation:
Where: The Olympia Community Center (222 Columbia St NW, Olympia, WA) Multipurpose Room B
When: November 29, 2007, International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
Time: 7 p.m.
Please join the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice for a film presentation and discussion looking at the expulsion of Palestinians from their land and how it relates to the local history of Native Americans. Gary Peterson, faculty at the Evergreen State College, will speak about the “hidden histories” of the indigenous inhabitants of the area, and a film will be shown about the Nakba (meaning “catastrophe”), in which over 60% of Palestinians were expelled from their land in 1948.
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Posted on Tuesday, 13 November, 2007 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
November. 11: Olympia Police officers pepper spray protesters lined up at the Port of Olympia. (AP photo)
My peeps in the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance made Democracy Now this morning:
15 Arrested in Olympia While Blocking Military Convoy
In Olympia Washington, 15 anti-war demonstrators were arrested over the weekend while attempting to block a military convoy carrying Stryker vehicles. The protests were organized by the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance which aims to stop the U.S. military from using the Port of Olympia to ship equipment to Iraq. Protest organizers also accused police of brutalizing dozens of peaceful demonstrators and journalists. On Saturday police dressed in riot gear repeatedly used pepper spray and batons to break up the protest.
A statement from the OPMR follows:
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Posted on Tuesday, 30 October, 2007 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
I very nearly changed my flight back to London in order to make this event, but my wife’s potential ire outweighs the chance to hear Suheir read her poetry in person. If you’re anywhere in the Northwest, you’re going to want to check this out:
Two ‘masters of the written word’ on war and occupation
Dahr Jamail & Suheir Hammad
Beyond Occupation
Where: Olympia, WA, Capitol Theater
206 5th Ave SE, Olympia, Thurston, Washington 98501
When: Sunday Nov. 4 at 5:00 PM
Tickets: Available at buyolympia.com and Rainy Day Records
Here are a couple of video clips of these fantastic word herders in action:
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“I have a temporary condition known as Bell’s Palsy which is an irritation of a facial nerve. It’s not painful, the doctors tell me I’ll be back to my usual self in the next few weeks. In the mean time, it just makes it a little harder to smile… but so does the world.”