corrente

“And I took another slash. And then I took a big full.... That big old yellow moon a hangin' out there. God's lanterns a hangin' in the sky, and suddenly I got a tremendous revolution of emotion in my body like I was fallin' in love with everything in God's sweet world that moved, lived, didn't live, animate, inanimate, black, blue, green, pink, mountains, fountains. I was in love with life, 'cause I was drunk! I wasn't fallin' down, slippin', slidin' drunk. I was GOD'S OWN DRUNK! A fearless man!”

NEW BRITAIN -- Empire-building. Occupation. Pre-emptive warfare.
The war in Iraq was called many things Saturday, but the goal of the 200 anti-war activists gathered at Central Connecticut State University was the same.

"End the Occupation of Iraq and Bring the Troops Home Now," was the message at a forum organized by CT United for Peace and hosted by the university's peace studies program.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which many participants said was one reason for America's war in Iraq, was also a subject of the forum.

"We [the United States] have been branded with the letter 'A' for 'aggression,'" said Bill Fletcher Jr., the forum's keynote speaker.

…Fletcher called for a fight for a democratic foreign policy.

The daylong forum brought together various anti-war groups in the state, such as the International Socialist Organization, and national organizations, such as U.S. Labor Against the War and Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Saturday's goal was to unite the groups to continue to broaden the anti-war movement and bring the troops back from Iraq. Hundreds of Connecticut Activists Unite in Call to End Iraq War

I hear that train a-comin, it’s comin ‘round the bend…

COLUMBUS, Georgia -- At least 20 people were arrested Sunday while protesting a U.S.-run military school for Latin Americans, some of whose graduates they claim later committed civil rights abuses including murder.

Charges filed against the demonstrators range from trespassing to "wearing a mask," a violation of a rarely invoked 1951 law originally aimed at fighting the Ku Klux Klan.
Those arrested were among about a record 16,000 people who demonstrated outside the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, calling for the school to be shut down.

Organizers of the protest said concern about the war in Iraq and President Bush's re-election boosted attendance at this year's event.

16,000 PROTEST US-RUN 'SCHOOL OF THE ASSASSINS'

“Everyone's talkin' about The Nazz. What a great cat he was. How he swung with the glory of love. How he straighten out the squares.

How he stomp into the money changin' carts and kicked the short change all over the place and knockin' the corners off the squares.”

This big ol’ shit-eatin’ grin on my face is placed there by Lord Buckley, a Johnny Cash LP on the stereo, a bottle of fine sippin’ whiskey, a day off with nothing to do but make a few phone calls, email the local Dems, get slowly soused, and practice my protest songs, AND the fact that there’s going to be a planning session for a protest, even if small, at one-a my neighbor’s houses on Wednesday… a bring your own bottle, guitar, and ideas thing. With barbecue and roasted corn. A lot of the GOTV folks are ‘sposed to be coming. Young, angry folks. Whoooeee!Do our fine readers have any stories of the beginnings of the new movement? Any tales of coalitions being built? Any signs of De Nazaroo straightenin’ dem kitties wit de bent frames? ‘Cause, man, we livin’ in bent times. And chicago dyke is right--usn's gotta organize locally and take local actions AND national actions.