"Grumbles" - A Cartoon by James Burns

Click on the image below to get a closer look:

Bush in Afghanistan

President Bush said this morning for the corporate media to relay from Sea to Shining Sea, "Are there difficult days ahead? Absolutely. But are the conditions a lot better today in Afghanistan than they were in 2001? Unquestionably, undoubtedly they are better."

Unquestionably better?

There may be a million Afghanis dead as a result of the Bush invasion (according to some, although corporate media have buried any attempt to report deaths, the most important statistic in war), and heroin exporting has reached record levels. Women say that rape has become common outside of the capitol, now that criminal warlords are in charge of provinces. A primary difference in the landscape, Afghanis say, is that where there were once houses, there is now rubble.

A recent report by the Council on Security and Development said the Taliban currently hold a permanent presence across 72 percent of Afghanistan. Suicide bombings have claimed more than 4,000 lives this year alone in Afghanistan.

It's the Farewell Kiss, You Dog

The mass media are agog this morning about yesterday's shoe-throwing at President Bush by Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, following the bizarre statement by Bush that while the war in Iraq was not over "it is decisively on its way to being won." All over the Arab world this morning people are calling al Zaidi courageous and a hero.

Bush has been protected in public throughout his presidency, appearing only at controlled settings in which most of those attending were either staunch supporters, military people (a captive audience) or servile corporate media "journalists." Our own corporate press have spent eight years kneeling and kissing Bush's butt, which may be why there is so much surprise at the fact that Bush is one of the most hated people on the planet, inspiring such bitterness.

"Throwing the shoes at Bush was the best goodbye kiss ever... it expresses how Iraqis and other Arabs hate Bush," wrote Musa Barhoumeh, editor of Jordan's independent Al-Gahd Arabic newspaper.

Saddam Hussein's former lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said he was forming a team to defend Zaidi and that around 200 lawyers, including Americans, had offered their services for free. "It was the least thing for an Iraqi to do to Bush, the tyrant criminal who has killed two million people in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Dulaimi.

"All US soldiers who have used their shoes to humiliate Iraqis should be brought to justice, along with their US superiors, including Bush," said Ali Qeisi, head of a Jordan-based Iraqi rights group, calling for Zaidi's release.

"The flying shoe speaks more for Arab public opinion than all the despots/puppets that Bush meets with during his travels in the Middle East," said Asad Abu Khalil, a popular Lebanese-American blogger and professor at Stanislaus University in California.

Not reported in the corporate media is that three weeks ago, Huffington Post blogger Jamal Dajani noted that crowds of Iraqis "gathered in Ferdous Square, where Saddam Hussein's statue once stood" and pelted an effigy of Bush with their shoes, so there is nothing new in this.

Time to get in touch with Lingle....

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20081014_Obama_would_destroy_economy_Lingle_says.html

Here she says that Obama would destroy the economy.
Um...Then, I must know, how would she describe what her crony George W. Bush did to the economy?

VOTE THIS NOVEMBER!

ALSO, TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE REGISTERED TO REALLY VOTE ON NOV. 4, here is the hawaii.gov website where you can check your registration and your polling place: http://hawaii.gov/elections/voters/registration.htm Click on the pink "Polling Place Locator" on the right side of this page. You'll input your name and your birth date (00/00/00) and a map will pop up with your poll.

IF YOU AREN'T REGISTERED, OCTOBER 6 IS THE DEADLINE. You can download the form at this site, fill it out, and mail it in. All islands' clerk's offices addresses are listed.

PEACE DAY FESTIVAL THIS SUNDAY!

PEACE DAY FESTIVAL & Voices for Peace
Sunday, September 21st, 1 p.m. to sunset
in the Keopuolani Park amphitheater (At the Maui Nui Botanical Garden,
150 Kanaloa Ave., Kahului, also the location of the old zoo).
Free parking across the street at the War Memorial stadium.

To celebrate the United Nations International Day of Peace,
we gather as a community to celebrate and affirm our shared vision of peace.

The FREE cross-cultural program includes music, hula, drumming, food,
keiki activities, and community information tables.

Musicians and speakers include Leiʼohu Ryder, Aunty Emma Veary,
Uncle Richard Hoʼopiʼi, Maui Taiko Drummers, Marty Dread, Mayor Tavares,
Ram Dass and many more.

At 3:36 p.m. a weeklong song/chant for Peace begins at the Festival, where Maui
voices will continuously carry the vibration of Peace across the island in increments
of 336 half-hours, culminating seven days later, September 28 at 3 p.m., during a
special closing ceremony at the Maui Arts & Cultural Centerʼs Castle Theater.

If you want to join your voice and your commitment to sing or chant for Peace,
however you choose, from wherever you are on Maui, for 30 minutes, register
for your half-hour segment at www.unityonmaui.com or call Bonnie Newman
at 283-0645.

Visit MAUI PEACE ACTION'S table to get copies of Cindy Sheehan's book
"Not One More Mother's Child" for a small donation, courtesy of Koa Books.
Mahalo! World Peace Sing and Careers in Peacemaking information also will
be at our table. Co-sponsored by Unity Church of Maui, Kukuipuka Ohana,
Maui Peace Action, Mandala Ethnic Arts, the Young Buddhists Association
and the Maui Hongwanji Council.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maui Peace Action is on the web at www.mauipeace.org, and our voice mail is 808 573-3255.

Mission Statement: Maui Peace Action is a diverse group of citizens
committed to ho'omaluhia (making peace). We encourage disarmament through
peaceful international cooperation, protest pre-emptive aggression, promote
nonviolent solutions to world conflict, and educate for social justice.

"Jennifer Jensen"

"Jennifer Jensen"

<jen@mauitime.com>

<jenmauigirl@yahoo.com>

"jenny wisemark-cerro"

<jenabec@msn.com>

<jennifer@dowlingco.com>

<jenny@jenniferweatherly.com>

New Ann Wright Article from Truthdig - Female Soldier "Suicides"

http://www.truthout.org/article/us-military-keeping-secrets-about-female-soldiers-suicides

Click on the above link, to read the story. It's terrifying.