The Rockford Peace & Justice Action Committee will be hosting Joe Iosbaker talking about the G-8 Summit, Chicago and FBI harassment of demonstrators this Monday, April 2, 7pm at JustGoods Listening Room, 201 Seventh St., Rockford IL

Be there or be square.

Enough is Enough

No one was out there speaking about the radical right-wing elements that threaten our civil society until Janet Napolitano issued in 2009 a DHS report commissioned by the Bush administration warning about extremists that might resort to violence - a report which conservatives across the country demanded to be immediately rescinded.

Now that we have seen a series of right-wing assassinations take place, the original DHS report looks, in hindsight, to have been very timely and prescient.

Since the report was issued, we have seen Jim David Adkisson open fire upon the congregation of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church with a sawed-off shotgun, killing two, simply because he opposed the all-inclusive nature of the church, and of the church's liberal teachings. Adkisson wrote in a letter which he assumed would be his last, "I thought I’d do something good for this country — kill Democrats ‘til (sic) the cops kill me.” His hatred for his fellow Americans could not be contained: “Liberals are a pest like termites, millions of them … the only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is kill them in the streets, kill them where they gather.”

James von Brunn, a radical right-winger from Maryland sought to turn the nation's Holocaust Museum into a symbol for his particular brand of racism, when he went there with the intent to kill blacks and Jews, as an example for the rest of white America to emulate. Luckily for those visitors inside of the museum, the first man von Brunn decided to open fire upon was a black man who had the ability to return the favor, and so no one besides than the very heroic Stephen T. Johns died that day.

Shawna Forde, and two other members of the anti-immigrant Minutman group which she founded, the ''Minutemen American Defense,'' decided that one way to finance her burgeoning organization was to dress up as law enforcement agents, and to rob Mexican immigrants. When Shawna and her compatriots illegally entered the home of Raul Flores, and demanded money, the head of the family ordered the trio to leave, prompting the radical right-wingers to put a bullet into the head of little 9 year old Brisenia Flores, and into the head of her father. Unluckily for the conservative killers, Brisenia's mother was able to barricade herself in her bedroom, where she kept a handgun, and she was able to keep at bay her would be assassins until the real police arrived.

Richard Poplawski opened fire on police officers during a domestic disturbance call, in April of 2009, killing three of them. Why? The 23 year-old right-winger feared that the President was poised to take away his hand guns.

Just a few days after that shoot-out, two sheriff’s deputies in northern Florida were shot and killed by Joshua Cartwright who later was fatally shot by other deputies. The reason, according to Cartright's wife, was because Joshua "believed that the US Government was conspiring against him," and, according to her, he had been severely disturbed that Barack Obama had been elected President.

Passing the hate down from one generation to the next, the father and son team of Bruce and Joshua Turnidge blew up a homemade bomb in December of 2008 which killed state police bomb technician William Hakim, who was trying to dismantle it, and Woodburn Police Capt. Tom Tennant, who was helping, during bank robbery in Woodburn, Oregon. The completely unrepentent Turnidges' plan was to rob banks to finance an anti-government militia group, and killing two police officers was small beans compared to what they really wanted to do to the Democratic majority in Washington DC.

The list of victims from right-wing terror does not stop there.

It goes on, and on.

Doctor George Tiller.

Arkansas Democratic Chairman Bill Gwatney.

Congresswoman Giffords and the other victims of the Tucson shooting.

Trayvon Martin and Shaima Alawadi are but the latest victims of this madness.

We know who the REAL enemies of America's civil society are.

For moderate republicans to hide these blood-thirsty radicals within their ranks behind the legitimate dissent of the anti-abortion lobby, or of that of any other conservative movement, be it anti-immigration, or advocates for 2d Amendment Rights, and to deny any responsibility for help in fostering these lunatic's bizarre views, doesn't help the moderate republican lobbies achieve their aims and goals...

It, instead, helps the radical conservative terrorists attain theirs.

SPEAK UP FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES

Everyone, by now, is familiar with the name of the teenager gunned down in Sanford, Florida on February 26th: Trayvon Martin.  They know the name of his killer, too.

Shaima Alawadi’s name is one most people have not heard of, however. Nor does anyone, yet, know who killed her, either.

Hopefully, that will change over the next few days.



Trayvon Martin



Shaima was a 32-year-old mother of five who was found brutally beaten with a tire iron in her own home,Wednesday, next to a note saying “go back to your country.”



She was taken off life support three days later, and died, Saturday.

What Trayvon and Shaima have in common wasn’t their religious faith. It wasn’t their political convictions, if any, either.

Their bond was that they were both murdered - in 21st century America - in the name of right-wing, conservative, racist hate.

Michael Savage, Mark Levine, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, Don Imus, Sean Hannity, and all of the other talking heads on right-wing radio… they all played their part as accomplices to these two vicious crimes just as surely as did the real perpetrators behind the heinous murders of Trayvon and Shaima.

Oh... to be sure, no one from Fox News passed around a tire iron to bash Shaima over the head with, nor did anyone from the EIB Radio Network buy the two bullets George Zimmerman used to irrigate Trayvon Martin: but they're accomplices, nonetheless.

Conservative “entertainers” have made it their mission to pit one group of American citizens against another, and only the most naive of political observers could fail to see the obvious consequence of proclaiming that any group of Americans was a "threat" to the existence of any other, or to the existence of the nation, and not realize that different people would deal with that "threat" in different ways.


George Zimmerman dealt with the threat posed by Trayvon Martin, a black kid with the audacity to walk around in 'his' neighborhood without Mr. Zimmerman's permission.

Trayvon, after all, was - to Zimmerman - just another “f***ing coon” whom George feared would, “get away,” like "they always" do, with whatever imaginary crimes George Zimmerman presumed Trayvon was somehow guilty of.


Shaima Alawadi

Shaima’s still-at-large killer(s) dealt with her, too.


She was, after all, just another hijab-wearing Muslim "terrorist" living amongst us, praying to the 'wrong' God, and justly deserving to be beat down and snuffed out.

But, then, Shaima wasn't a Muslim "terrorist" and Trayvon wasn't a neighborhood threat.

Shaima's conservative 'crime' was to wear her hijab, as a practising Muslim, in public; Trayvon's 'crime' was to wear a hoodie while being black.

Conservatives will - one and all - blame the lone, solitary, lunatic for these race-based homicides...

They will even blame liberal society and liberal social mores... right-wing talking heads are already attempting to assassinate the character of Trayvon.

Michele Malkin's conservative website, Twitchy, ran a picture of George Zimmerman in a suit and tie next to what they claimed was a picture of a rather thuggish Trayvon Martin with no shirt and sagging pants.

One problem: The kid in the picture wasn't Trayvon.

Glen Beck's website, The Blaze, suggested - without anything to support their allegation - that Trayvon may have been guilty of “armed robbery,” “arson,” or even “kidnapping.”

Since none of America's conservatives will speak out, the duty falls, by default, to the rest of us.

We need not mince words - it is vital that we speak clearly and succinctly but most importantly, firmly - and at every opportunity: Conservatism must change.

It must evolve. It should no longer be socially (or morally) acceptable for any one group of Americans to preach existential extinction for any other group of law-abiding citizens with impunity.

Conservative hate is a self-fulfilling prophesy that is destroying the very fabric of our society.

To believe otherwise is to help pass around the nails for the next coffin in which the next Shaima Alawadi or Trayvon Martin will be buried in.

GOP Shenanigans...

Four days before the Supreme Court hears oral arguments for and against the Affordable Healthcare Act (AHA), House Republicans decided to waste both the American people's time and money to repeal that part of the AHA that would implement automatic cost-savings measures unless Congress intervened.

The House measure isn't expected to survive either the Senate or the President's veto pen.

The House Republicans claimed they were acting on behalf of the country's seniors, but buried in the repeal bill was a provision to impose a $250,000 cap on non economic damages and to limit the contingency fees lawyers can charge in medical malpractice cases.

Capping damages on non-frivolous lawsuits is no way to get a handle on the costs insurance companies incur from frivolous lawsuits - but it is a helluva good way to stick it to someone who has been legitimately done wrong by a doctor... twice.  First, the actual medical malpractice the patient was subjected to, and secondly, capping just how much the malpractice victim can receive in compensation.

That's just dirty.

Obviously House Republicans were much more interested in coddling and protecting their Big Insurance industry buddies than helping out either Grandpa and Grandma.

On some days, the President just can't get any respect. While speaking to a crowd of students at Ohio State University, a heckler repeatedly interupted President Obama. "I'm hear to speak to these folks, you can hold your own rally, you're being rude," the President told the man.

The crowd erupted in cheers supporting the president but the man kept shouting. He wanted to give Mr. Obama a book.

With a grin on his face, Mr. Obama said he would be happy to read the book and added, "show me some courtesy."

Elsewhere, the bigots over at North Carolina right-wing think-tank, The John Locke Society, thought it was better to let blogger and radio talk show host Tara Servatius resign then give in to pressure from liberal democrats and fire her.

Servatius had posted a story stating that President Obama stood against North Carolina's anti-Gay marriage amendment in order to boost his chances of winning North Carolina in November, which may or may not be true.

What is certain, however, is that John Locke was the brains behind the antebellum pro-slavery philosophy adopted by the Confederacy, and that along with the story posted by Servatius was an image of the president’s face Photoshopped onto a black man wearing high heels and chains.

Between the man's legs is a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

And the racists over on the right wonder why they keep on getting painted as bigots by everybody else.

Go figure.

While some Republicans are out there telling anyone interested that the GOP's "War on Women" is nothing more than political theatre, courtesy of election-year Democrats, some other Republicans are out there telling anyone interested that it is very, very real - and that the best thing women could do would be to contribute their money to democrats.

"I think these are very precarious times for women, it seems," said New York Congressman Richard Hanna, the only Republican to speak at a rally for the Equal Rights Amendment.

Huffington Post reports the man then said, "Contribute your money to people who speak out on your behalf, because the other side -- my side -- has a lot of it. And you need to send your own message. You need to remind people that you vote, you matter, and that they can't succeed without your help."

Hanna is either attempting to steer the GOP back to the middle on women's issues as he suggests, or he's prematurely ending his career as a Republican.

We should all expect the GOP's purists to demand Hanna's head on a platter any day now.