Barton Creek Mall Christmas Arrest

CodePink Austin, along with allies from Veteran's for Peace and Women in Black staged a Don't Buy War "freeze" at Barton Creek Mall on Saturday, December 3rd. 

The group was between the Santa photo station and the Gamestop store, which prominently advertises the 'Modern Warfare 3' video game. 

The goals were to raise awareness about the continuing wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, to educate shoppers about the costs (both human and economic) of the wars, and to dissuade parents from purchasing war toys. An APD officer assaulted/arrested a young woman (Nicole Mann) who had joined the group spontaneously. 

*Update*


First reports are that she sustained 4 broken ribs!  Also, from people associated with the arrest.  She has been charged with 1 felony and 2 charges that were lowered to a class "B" and class "C" misdemeanor.

Searches to find information within mainstream news have turned up no information.

**I've often wondered when it became policy for security/police to surround people being arrested so that they can be brutalized while unthinking corporate servants run about telling people to stop filming.  It is not illegal to film public officers in public spaces!!!

The War Prayer

Mark Twain has always been a favorite of mine and today I was reading the C&L blog and found this wonderful drawn animation of his work, "The War Prayer". It addresses the wonders of jingoism and the prayers of God's people. (NOT FOR CHILDREN!)



If you would like to read the full text of "The War Prayer", click here.

amerikanischen Arbeiterjugend?

Does this bother anyone else?

Wilmington, Delaware is going to be home to The Academy for Public Safety and Security (APSS), which plans to open its doors by 2010. It will be dedicated to preparing (primarily inner-city) young men and women for front line careers in Homeland Security. Isn't that nice? Equal opportunity for the female youth to serve "The Homeland".

"... we decided to start a new school culture from scratch, one built on the premise that many children would rather be part of the solution than the problem of violence. And, given an education to prepare them academically, socially and vocationally, they will become the best-of-the-best first responders in the homeland security job sector, rather than succumb to apathy or crime."

"The tone of the first responder high school will be that of a military or police academy, complete with uniforms and daily physical training during and after school."

"Student cadets will study careers in SWAT, prison guarding, water rescue, paramedics, firefighting, professional demolition careers, in addition to the usual school subjects. They will learn Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish — any language of use in homeland security."

Read more about it in the Newcastle Community News or the Delaware Business Ledger. Students will be called cadets, wear uniforms, and will follow courses of study in special weapons and tactics, prison guarding, professional demolition and other skills needed in an authoritarian police state. Will future generations read about the Liga der amerikanischen Arbeiterjugend (APSS) Cadets like we read about the Bund deutscher Arbeiterjugend today?



Another meaningless coincidence: The first national HJ rally was held in 1928 with 600 boys present. The new school expects to take as many as 600 students. Coincidence or not, it still gives me the shivers.

Am I making too much of all of this?

Charles Bishop Punches Lowell Barron

I have to admit, I was relieved to find out it was not legislators from Texas.

"Republican Senator Charles Bishop punched Democratic Senator Lowell Barron in the head during the last day of the senate session. Bishop says he punched Barron after he called him a "son of a bitch"."