This is a made for TV war

Boldly announced to the world like the fall lineup of a major network

It's leaders… happy to tell us what was in store

The season premier was highly anticipated

Bomb blasts broadcasted in high definition

But even 1080i couldn't show us why

I wonder how the Nielson Corporation would have rated it

Reporters embedded with the troops

Producing sound bites and video loops

Showing the world death like it was scripted

Sometimes, even they were the guest stars

Stars in this made for TV war

Oil companies became corporate sponsors

Everyday Americans were glued to their TV's

The drama laid out and played out for our viewing pleasure

The cast traded in their Hummers for Humm-Vee's

Wild goose chases for a buried treasure

A treasure highly sought after in this made for TV war

The network execs praised each other for their "sweeps week" success

Laid out their marketing strategy to prepare for the next season

The show's mature content is what interest groups have tried to object

But they've continued to air this program by design and with no reason

No reason for this made for TV war

Folks can't wait for the series finale

When the curtain comes down and votes are finally tallied

We'll see just how many awards

Are handed out for this made for TV war

IMPEACEMENT

NOW

Hear screaming, “Out of Iraq!!!!”

“Then what?”

“All of the destruction will end!”

Sharing solidarity by listening to you.

The high school students asked the teacher, “What can protesting possibly do?”

Go and feel for yourself

Feel the doing, of something…

Doing something.

“Creating awareness about something is an end in itself.”

“How many kids did you kill today!!!”

The chant is… “How many kids did you kill today!!!”

shouting in reply…

­­­­­­­­­­­­_________________

­­­­­

This is not a fill in the blank test.­­

(more…)

Work For Nothing

Working for nothing

money

you can keep

i will pay you

through sweat

standing next to me…

someone named

________________________

blanks to fill

__ (more…)

I guess she’s going to do it;
all of them – they couldn’t give a shit
what happens to someone else’s kid,
what happens on the factory floor,
what happens when people are poor –
and if you join to die,
you can get college paid for.
College never offered a class for me,
called,
“living with Killing the enemy you see,”
and now I’m seeing him everywhere
on the capital steps and the white house lawns,
the enemy is up before dawn:
she Announced on Saturday she’s gonna run
but there’s no where far enough for her to go
to escape the bullshit she’s laid down in votes –
backtrack talking heads, “I supported this, that,
with what little information I had,”;
guess what – when I don’t have all the facts I need
I don’t send other people’s kids off to bleed
in some far away desert for my own “Security”
-those yes votes should count as Jury votes
to hang the whole congress next to Sadaam
where War Criminals die sadly and alone –
Hillary, Kerry, Edwards, et. al. –
may you never find comfort in your own bones.

Attendees: Laurie, Jeff, Ken

Jan. 27 Mobilization

· Rhythm Workers Union are meeting at 5^th Ave (on Mall). Putting together Mother Drum Ship at 10:30, call to meet at 11AM. Expecting about 10 DC RWU, with about 5 from out of Town. March moves at 1pm (Laurie planning to meet with this group)

· Jeff is meeting with Howard Community College SDS aka Radical Block – marching from Dupont Circle at 11AM.

· Critical Mass from Dupont at 2pm on Saturday of the March.

· Ken has been doing some outreach — also potentially doing the stage management on the day of. Focus on keeping the program short – because of the weather etc. Massive Civil disobedience planned – but no specific details are yet available. Telling folks to bring white roses, which is symbolic of a anti-nazi underground group that resisted during Nazi Germany. Expecting about 500,000 to be there.

ACTION ITEM:

Laurie to send to Ken chant sheets

Laurie will make sure GPI system is deployed

NCOR Workshop

March 9-11

NEED TO RESPOND TO NCOR WITH NAMES OF PRESENTERS!!!

· Jeff wants to be one of the presenters, NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS? WHO IS WILLING???

· Ken volunteered to help out with drumming instruction with a specific focus on rhythms.

· We will need drums and shakers.

Upcoming performances
FRI. Feb. 2 – Shanti-Saallam – NOT PERFORMANCE

· Potters House in Adams Morgan (No more details available at this time)

SAT. Feb. 3 Juliana Bottomlining: Laila, Mo, Laurie, Bob, Cherie,Kristan and myself

· Saturday, February 3, 7:00PM

· Benefit to support Oglala elders
St. Stephens and the Incarnation Church
16th and Newton Sts. NW (Columbia Heights Metro)

Sept/Oct

· Nathan of Jubilee is looking for poets to write on fasting as part of a National Rolling Fast. You can get more details by emailing: nfishmannj@yahoo.com

ReportBacks

· Ken say a great movie on Cuba that put on SALSA — he’s planning to get a copy and hopes to put together a screening in the future.

· Empower DC Gig – featured Joe Briggs and Lamont Carey – great messaging and reception.

(more…)

Cross-posted at www.ShantiSalaam.org.

Among our many surprises on the ShantiSalaam tour across South Asia has been the success of American propaganda (and to be fair, the spendthrift habits of Non-Resident Indians and Pakistanis) in cultivating misperceptions about the U.S. For example, in the South Asian psyche, all Americans enjoy both educational privilege and vast wealth; and Americans wholeheartedly support our nation’s despotic and idiotic leadership, offering neither dissent nor resistance to its fascist agenda. I have yet to creatively address the economic myths (which we have at least discussed at length in our workshops), but I aim in this song to explore America’s resignation of the “soft power” identified and championed by Joseph Nye.

America Fights

In the nineteen seventies, my father and my family
came to a new country to see hat we could be if free:
educational opportunities, liberal sensibilities,
T-minus twenty years until a voice from the academy
decided to declare “The end of history.”

Nineteen-ninety: triumph by the west,
having proven once and for all that we’re the best,
but rather than rest, we pursued another test….

CHORUS: In seventeen-seventy, they said we were free
eighteen-sixty, fought for equality
nineteen-forties, defended democracy
but America fights today building tyranny

Reaching our tentacles into other (more…)

Jihad, duration: 04.20.01, 2007, View on YouTube.com. Artist: Laila Shereen Sakr (vocals, writer, composer), Fadi Sakr (percussion, background vocals), Mark Nickens (percussion, bass guitar), Laurie Blair (background vocals). INFINITE GRATITUDE to Issam Salameh for filming and video editing. AND THANK YOU to assistant sound engineers Fadi Sakr and Jessica Philie.

You are indeed the burning bush
the burn of the sun
the bite of the cold

You are indeed a daily funeral
the daily whipping to learn
the daily call of duty for all to see and suffer

You are indeed the finished ritual
the waxless candle
the stringless guitar
the inkless pen
the headless prophet

Little plastic soldier
your sword's been reduced to nothing
I left the lamp on all day
and returned home to a little man
who's now incapable of killing

Little plastic soldier
your shield's melted away
I am greeted by a defenceless toy
when I return to my home
at the end of the day

Little plastic soldier
now what will you do?
Without your tool of evil
and the savior of your hide
What will happen to you?

Little plastic soldier
where have you gone?
Like your sword
and like your shield
the lamp on you has shon

Skeletal fingers embrace the world
they don't reach the north?
Hypocrits
crying in the rain
Faceless wraiths carrying in their arms
newborn children destined for the same
Will it really be a war
if we dont measure up first?
Every well in the nation
has run dry to every marrow
Corpses lie in the dust
and men with naught but themselves in their wake
drive drive away
 cursed is the man who thinks not for himself
The evolution of war,
does it end?
Or as evolution does
continue on and on
Until there is no one left
to evolve
And if the is no end of time
it will continue down the wide wide path

WITHOUT US