Theodore's World

New US Fighter Lightning 11
The stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter being developed by the United States and eight other countries is to be named the “Lightning II,” in homage to two earlier fighters.
The supersonic F-35 is being built by a team led by Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) at a cost of $276 billion. It is the costliest U.S. weapons program ever.
“The F-35 Lightning II will be the centerpiece of airpower in the 21st century for America and our allies,” Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England said in a statement on Friday.
Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed is the prime contractor developing three variants of the single-engine plane.
U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley announced the name at Lockheed’s Fort Worth, Texas plant, saying it represented the fruit of over a hundred years of flight and aerial combat.
The F-35’s name echoes that of the sleek World War Two-era Lockheed P-38 Lightning, which scored the most aerial victories of any U.S. fighter in the Pacific. Designed as a high-altitude interceptor, the twin-propellor P-38 was also used for dive bombing, level bombing, ground strafing and photo reconnaissance.
English Electric, which later become BAE Systems (BA.L: Quote, Profile, Research), built a supersonic twin-engined jet in the mid-1950s that was also called Lightning. It could reach speeds of 1,500 miles per hour and remained in service until 1988.
“The F-35 Lightning II will carry on the legacy of two of the greatest and most capable fighter aircraft of all time,” said Ralph Heath, president of Lockheed’s aeronautics unit.
Britain’s BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) are Lockheed’s key subcontractors on the F-35 program.
Partner countries on the new fighter are Britain, which has committed $2 billion to the effort, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Australia, Norway, Denmark and Canada.
The United States and its partners last month agreed in principle to a long-term plan for how many fighters they would buy, but they are still working out details of a technology-transfer plan crucial to completion of the deal.
The draft pact includes statements of intent by the non-U.S. countries to buy a total 710 planes. The United States plans to buy 2,443, the first of which is due to be delivered to the U.S. Air Force in 2009.
The F-35 is designed to replace a wide range of existing aircraft, including the AV-8B Harriers, A-10s, F-16s, F/A-18 Hornets and Britain’s Harrier GR.7s. The first F-35 is due to have its inaugural flight later this year.
From my email from the US Dept. of Defense

The name also remembers the Lightning jet the British developed in the mid-1950s. The aircraft was the first British aircraft to pass Mach 2, and it remained in the inventory until the late 1980s. Britain has been part of the Joint Strike Fighter program since the beginning.
The Lightning II is designed to meet the needs of the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The F-35A version is designed for conventional takeoffs and landings, and will be used by the Air Force. It will replace the F-15, F-16 and A-10. The B variant has vertical lift capability, and will be used by the Marines as a replacement for the AV-8B Harrier. The C variant will be for carrier launches and will ultimately replace the Navy’s F-18s.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England congratulated the team that built the stealth-technology fighter, and said the aircraft will serve far into the future. “The F-35 Lightning II will be the centerpiece of airpower in the 21st century for America and our allies,” England said.

Plotters sought to bomb NY tunnel:

Jul 7, 2006 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A plot to bomb New York’s Holland Tunnel in an effort to flood the Wall Street financial district has been uncovered by the FBI, with a suspect arrested in Lebanon, New York’s Daily News reported on Friday.
The newspaper, quoting unidentified counterterrorism sources, said the investigation involved what officials considered a “serious plot” to detonate enough explosives inside the landmark tunnel to destroy it and send devastating floodwaters through lower Manhattan.
The 79-year-old tunnel runs under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Manhattan and carried almost 34 million vehicles in 2005.

This is a photo released by Lebanese police of Lebanese suspect Assem Hammoud, seen in this picture taken in Beirut, Lebanon, a day after his arrest, April 28, 2006. The detained al-Qaida operative has confessed to plotting to attack New York City tunnels later this year and says he was acting on Osama bin Laden’s orders, Lebanese officials say. The operative is a Lebanese man from Beirut whom police arrested on April 27 acting on information from the FBI, a senior security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. The suspect uses the alias Amir Andalousli, but his real name is Assem Hammoud. (AP Photo / Lebanese Police , HO)

And there is this ….paper trail:
Plotters sought to bomb NY tunnel: paper
The Daily News quoted a counterterrorism source as saying officials were alarmed because the plotters allegedly got a pledge of financial and tactical support from Jordanian associates of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq before he was killed last month in a U.S. air strike.”
The Daily News said authorities in Beirut, at the request of U.S. officials, arrested one of the suspected conspirators, identified as Amir Andalousli, in recent months and that agents were seeking other suspects around the world.
The newspaper said the FBI and New York police officials declined comment on the investigation, which it quoted a source as describing as “ongoing.”
The Daily News quoted a counterterrorism source as saying officials were alarmed because the plotters allegedly got a pledge of financial and tactical support from Jordanian associates of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq before he was killed last month in a U.S. air strike. The paper said it was not clear if any cash or assistance was delivered.
Lebanon’s government had been asked by the United States to hold off on announcing the arrest while operations to disrupt the plot were continuing, the Daily News quoted sources as saying.
It said New York officials, according to sources, believed the plan could conceivably work with enough explosives placed in the middle of the tunnel.
But it added that some experts did not consider the plan feasible because the tunnel was protected by concrete and cast-iron steel and that even if the tunnel cracked, the Wall Street district would not flood because it was above the level of the river.
FBI disrupts New York transportation plot
By PAT MILTON
Associated Press Writer
33 minutes ago

For most of the year, we have been focusing on a group of al-Qaida followers who have targeted the Hudson River tubes,” FBI Assistant Director Mark J. Mershon said Friday. “We believe we intercepted this group early in their plotting and, in fact, the plan has largely been disrupted.”

Mershon confirmed that one suspect, Assem Hammoud, was in custody in Lebanon and facing criminal charges.
Lebanese authorities, working with U.S. law enforcement agencies, last month arrested Hammoud, a Beirut native and al-Qaida operative who admitted to plotting a terror attack in New York City, a senior Lebanese security official said Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
New York’s transportation system has emerged as a potential terrorist threat in several recent cases. A June book by journalist Ron Suskind highlighted a reported plot by al-Qaida terrorists to kill thousands of New Yorkers by spreading cyanide gas in the subway. In May, a man was convicted of plotting to blow up a subway station.
In the latest case, a federal official said FBI agents monitoring Internet chat rooms used by extremists learned of the plot in recent months and determined that tunnels were possibly being targeted after investigators pieced together code words from their conversations.
The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said terrorists were looking at Lower Manhattan but there was no specific target mentioned. Federal officials indicated that there was a difference of opinion among investigators as to what the actual target was, the official said.
The case has apparently been under investigation for about a year, and authorities believe there were multiple conspirators.

“At this time we have no indication of any imminent threat to the New York transportation system, or anywhere else in the U.S.,” Richard Kolko, Washington-based FBI special agent, said in a statement to Associated Press Radio.

One U.S. official called the plot “largely aspirational” and described the Internet conversations as mostly extremists discussing and conceptualizing the plot. The official said no money had been transferred, nor had other similar operational steps been taken.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, speaking Friday at U.S. Coast Guard Change of Command Ceremonies, said authorities focused efforts on “where the risk is the greatest, mass transit systems that have a significant amount of track mileage underground — and under the water.”

“We cannot guarantee perfect security, but we are going to do everything in our power to minimize the risk and reduce the threat from terrorism to all those who ride our trains, travel our highways,” Chertoff said.

Details of the plot emerged on the one-year anniversary of the attacks on the London transportation system that killed 52 people.

“This is one instance where intelligence was on top of its game and discovered the plot when it was just in the talking phase,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said Friday that investigators had found no evidence that the Holland Tunnel was part of the plot. The New York Daily News had reported Friday that the plotters wanted to blow up the tunnel, the southernmost link between Manhattan and New Jersey, in the hopes of flooding New York’s financial district.
In its statement, Homeland Security and the FBI said, the investigation was ongoing.

“We know al-Qaida continues to have an interest in attacking the United States,” it added. “At this point in time, there is no specific or credible information that al-Qaida is planning an attack on U.S. soil.”

Anti-Iraqi forces attempt to flee capture by 1st Sqdn., 61st Cab. Regt.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Soldiers from the weapons platoon, Company C, 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, captured two suspected terrorists Wednesday during a planned cordon and search at the Zaara Gas station in Jisr Diyala.
During the operation, Soldiers from Co. C were moving in on their targets when the terrorists attempted to escape from the back door of the gas station.
The suspects are alleged to be involved with the kidnapping and murders of multiple local nationals, including a local district advisory counsel member and small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenade attack against Soldiers from 3rd Platoon, Troop A, 1st Sqdn., 61st Cav. June 10.
The terrorists were taken to a secure site for further questioning.
By 1st Lt. Georginia Bradshaw – 4th BCT PAO, 101st Abn. Div.

Baghdad raid uncovers suspected car-bomb production site
Friday, July 7, 2006
BAGHDAD — U.S. soldiers from the Baumholder, Germany-based 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, along with Iraqi police from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Brigade, 2nd National Police Division, arrested two suspected insurgents and uncovered what they believe is a car-bomb production site in Baghdad.
The 2-6 Infantry is assigned to the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division while in Iraq. The discovery was made in Baya’a Car Market in the Rasheed district of Baghdad, U.S. officials said Thursday.
The raid was intended to “disrupt the production of [bombs] in the region, which is in an area historically high in the occurrence of terrorist attacks,” a U.S. military news release read.
“During the search of the market, the forces discovered a large cache that consisted of various bomb-making materials. Among the munitions and materials captured were 1,000 7.62 mm sniper rounds, 300 7.62 mm AK-47 rounds, 200 7.62 mm shell casings, 3.5 pounds of explosive compound, a rocket-propelled grenade, two 10-inch mortar rounds, two pipe bombs, a 75 mm rocket and various other bomb-making materials and gear.”

Nine Terrorists Detained in Iraq; Multiple Weapons Caches Found
Coalition and Iraqi forces have detained nine suspected terrorists and discovered numerous weapons caches over the past several days, U.S. military officials reported.
Iraqi police from 8th Brigade, 2nd National Police Division, along with soldiers from Multinational Division Baghdad’s 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, detained seven suspected terrorists and discovered three weapons caches during a search in Baghdad’s Doura neighborhood today.
The caches included rifles, ammunition, 82 mm mortar rounds, blasting caps, suicide bomber propaganda, a 122 mm artillery round, a rocket-propelled grenade, grenade rockets, unknown rockets, plastic explosives, various other bomb-making materials, and cell-phones, one rigged as a timing device.
A video camera and tapes also were discovered. The tapes contained video of tortures and mortars being launched.

CASTLEGAR, B.C. — For U.S. draft resister Craig Wiester, fleeing his country to avoid the Vietnam War meant losing a country, a way of life — and a father.
He grew up in a small town in Ohio and his father was a Second World War veteran.
“I think he would rather have had me come home in a body bag from the jungle than see me go to Canada.”
Whatever father and son bond there may have been was strained for many years afterwards.
His father, when it became clear that Wiester was going to resist the draft, called the FBI and the local draft board and told them everything.
“He worked with the local draft board to move as quickly as possible against me.”
The son didn’t wait around for the consequences and decided to go to Montreal, where he lived for eight years.
Wiester was among what organizers expect will be several hundreds draft resisters and veterans who will take part in numerous workshops and panels over four days at Selkirk College and the nearby Brilliant Cultural Centre.
“For the resisters you see some who lost their families, lost their friendships,” Klein said during a break. “Many people disowned them.”
I decided this was important for me. This was a way of validating that experience.”
Wiester hopes that his experience here can answer at least one question for him.
“The question is why are we dishonoured still in American society?”
Almost 50,000 Americans of draft age avoided the call in the late 1960s and early ’70s by going to Canada, where for the most part they were welcomed.
Many returned after President Jimmy Carter granted an amnesty in 1977. It’s believed that about half the original number chose to remain in Canada.
One highlight of the reunion is a weekend speech by former U.S. senator George McGovern, the Democratic presidential candidate in 1972 who lost to Richard Nixon.
McGovern, 83, is part of a long list of well-known peace activists who will speak or take part in various panels. Tom Hayden, a student leader in the 1960s, a civil rights activist and former California senator is also attending.
The draft resisters are being honoured at the reunion in this small city, near the Slocan Valley, Nelson and other communities, where hundreds settled about 600 kilometres east of Vancouver.
The four-day event is also intended to pay homage to Canadians who assisted the draft dodgers.
A note from the past:

“I am in great sympathy with those who are not willing to fight, kill, and maybe die for their country (i.e. the particular policy of a particular government) right or wrong. Two of my friends at Oxford are conscientious objectors. One of my roommates is a draft resister who is possibly under indictment and may never be able to go home again. He is one of the bravest, best men I know. His country needs more men like him more than they know. That he is considered a criminal is an obscenity.” — From Bill Clinton’s letter to Col Eugene Holmes Dec 3 1969

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Carter pardoned the Vietnam draft dodgers on January 21, 1977 (the day after he took office). Damn he just could hardly wait.
Draft dodger Bill Clinton really should go don’t you think? I hate him by the way. An he could make the keynote speech, then add in traitor Kerry too.
Wiester said he wonders why they were dishonoured still in American society???? How about this you are a worthless POS that’s not deserving of the least bit of respect. I hope they ALL rot in hell, right along side Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Hanoi Jane. Because you ducked your duty while thousands of others stepped up to the line. Because you’ve spent your life TAKING from this society but ran like a scalded dog the first time it asked you to GIVE anything in return. Because at heart you’re a coward who wants to hide his weakness behind some billowy rhetoric!
This made me think of Wallace’s quote in Braveheart: “Aye, fight and you may die, run, and you’ll live, at least for awhile. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing, to take all the days from this day till then, to come back here and tell our enemies, they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”
These cowards are now wallowing in their guilt, and I feel nothing for them but disgust. They have to go and do this event seem accepted again. IMO I wouldn’t let them on my property, not one of them. Not alive anyway!
I know it would be probably be unrealistic to do this, but I wished that some investigative reporter could have found out what happened to the the guy who got drafted to take Clinton’s slot. (that is, the next guy in line that actually answered the call maybe in the county that Clinton was in when he did his artful dodging.)
Here’s his email address:
craigw@ulch.org
I sent him a little Wild Thing email. Hope it makes his day.
Hey draft dodgers go here ( my Tribute to Vietnam Veterans) and weep from your very souls that you will never be a man! Never have my respect, not ever!

A recent article in the UK Telegraph offered insights into the many ways that Islamists in Baghdad are making life, by increments, miserable for citizens of the city.
Ice producers, crucial in helping people survive in Iraq’s 115 degree summer heat, have recently suffered several murders from their ranks. The reason: Their product was not available during the time of Mohammed.
Street venders who sell the popular Middle Eastern food falafel have also lost two of their own in the past few weeks, with other venders now closing their stalls. The same reason is offered by the Islamists, namely, that falafels did not exist at the beginning of Islam. Those who laughed off the warnings are now lying in Baghdad cemeteries.
Islamists have also warned Baghdad residents who wear goatees to shave or else. That prohibition, subject to a visit from a vigilante death squad, is due to the fact that goatees originate from a “Jewish facial hairstyle.” The article states that barbers have been busier than usual, after a 17 year old was murdered the other month for ignoring the no-goatee warning.
Mayonnaise is also in the sights of the self-appointed morality police. Like goatees, mayonnaise has a Jewish connection. Mayonnaise is made in Israel. Therefore, it, too, joins the long list of things haraam, forbidden to Muslims, according to the Islamists’ playbook. Needless to say, most restaurants are holding the mayonnaise, with or without the customer’s request.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Ice? What about all those mountains they have there and it does snow and thus there must be ice as well. I think that is BS about the ICE, just an excuse to kill someone probably.
How ’bout knives? I’ll bet they’re made in Israel, too. Gonna quit whacking throats?
So is oxygen, it comes from trees roots in Jewish soil and watered with Jewish water. I suggest that if this offends you that you stop breathing now.
Hmmmm here are some other things that were not around during their freakazoid Muhammad’s time:
AK-47s
automobiles
IEDs
airplanes eg: Boeing 757 and 767
radios
televisions
the internet
modern medicine
cell phones
telephones
nuclear weapons
I guess that leaves: camels and swords.

Thank you Dry Bones for the perfect cartoon for this.
UN panel says Israel’s operation in Gaza violates human rights laws
The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday deplored Israel’s military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as breaching international humanitarian law.
By a vote of 29-11 with five abstentions, the council approved the resolution proposed by the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference after it was amended to suggest the Palestinians also had a responsibility to refrain from violence against civilians.
“It is absolutely unacceptable” that the resolution only names Israel, Israeli Ambassador Itzhak Levanon told The Associated Press.
Switzerland said Thursday that armed Palestinian groups should be called to account in a proposed UN resolution blaming Israel for violence against civilians.
Earlier in the week, Switzerland said that Israel has been violating international law in its Gaza offensive by heavy destruction and endangering civilians in acts of collective punishment banned under the Geneva conventions on the conduct of warfare.
Switzerland proposed the amendments in an emergency session of the UN body, which decided last week as one of its first acts to make it a priority to examine Israel’s human rights practices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The emergency session, which began Wednesday, had to be carried over until Thursday after reservations arose about the Muslim states’ proposal, which singled out Israel for breaches “of international humanitarian law and human rights law in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
Israel’s ambassador to the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva called the session “a planned and premeditated” attack on his country, and said it continued the anti-Israel bias set by the discredited U.N. Human Rights Commission, which was phased out this year.
This bull is incomprehensible! Israel has shown unbelievable restraint.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
First I have to say that I HATE the UN. And I resent that it is on our land and that we have anything to do with it. I totally resent it!!!!!!!!!
Apparently they don’t feel that firing rockets into Israeli schools or suicide bombers blowing themselves up in pizza parlors are a “breach of humanitarian law”. The U.N. won’t be happy until Israel is destroyed and the Jewish race is wiped out. How else can you explain this absurdity? And I will add also that the U.N. is an enemy of the United States, Israel, and freedom lovers the world over.

Egypt primes children for jihad
Egyptian cleric tells children’s TV show: Come on to the jihad, encourages child-soldiers to join holy war
Yaakov Lappin
An Egyptian Islamic cleric working for the state ministry of religious endowment has used a children’s television program to encourage young children to strive for holy war.
During program, made available by the Arabic translation service MEMRI , the cleric told a story about Muslim children in history keen to “sacrifice” themselves and kill “infidels” for the cause of Islam.

“Let’s listen to a very beautiful story to learn about the courage of a child, and how, when a child is brought up in a good home, and receives proper education in faith, he loves martyrdom, which becomes like an instinct for him. He can never give it up,” Sheik Muhammad Nassar told children on the program, which aired on the Al-Nas television channel.

“This story, my friends, is a beautiful story. Abu Qudama was the commander of the army of the Muslims, when they fought the Byzantines. The Byzantines had a very, very large army, whereas the Muslims did not have many fighters. So Abu Qudama walked down the alleys and streets, among the poor, calling: ‘Come join the Jihad,’ ‘Come join the Jihad,'” Nassar said.

‘Take my boy to the jihad’

He continued: “A woman said to him: ‘Abu Qudama, I have a boy. I will give him to you. Take him with you to war.’ He asked: ‘Is he still a boy?’ She said: ‘He is 15 years old, and his father was martyred in the previous war. Since his father’s martyrdom, he sits day and night, praying that Allah grant him martyrdom.'”

The Muslim commander is described as “praising Allah” for receiving the child-soldier from his mother.

Describing the participation of children in jihad, Nassar said: ” Sa’id shot the first arrow, killing one (infidel). With the second arrow, he killed another infidel, and with the third, he killed a third. Then he was hit by an arrow, and fell to the ground as a martyr. He achieved the martyrdom for which he yearned. A little later, he drew his last breath. Sa’id, the 15-year-old child, was martyred for the sake of Allah. He died happy.”

On a previous broadcast on Egyptian television in 2002, a three and a half year-old girl was asked to describe Jews. “They are apes and pigs… our God said so,” was her reply. The girl’s answer was enthusiastically received by the program’s host. “Allah be praised. May our God bless her. No one could wish for a more devout girl. May God bless her and her parents,” the host said.

Palestinian militant factions behind the kidnap of an Israel Defense Forces soldier pulled out of negotiations for his release after Israel rejected their 6 A.M. ultimatum, a Hamas leader in Gaza said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Israel said Tuesday that its refusal to negotiate with the militants holding Shalit remained unchanged, despite the expiration of the deadline.
“The militant groups withdrew their representative from the talks with the Egyptian mediators,” Hamas’ Osama al-Muzaini said.
The groups had given Israel until 6 A.M. Tuesday to agree to the release of 1,000 Palestinians in its jails in exchange for Corporal Gilad Shalit, seized in a cross-border attack nine days ago that left two of his comrades dead.
“They the militant factions may kill him, take him to another country or may hide him. All options are open,” al-Muzaini said.
Olmert: No one attacking Israel will be immune.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert again ruled out negotiations with Shalit’s kidnappers Tuesday, warning that the IDF would target all militants involved in his abduction.
“We will strike all terror elements and all those who strike the State of Israel will not be immune,” Olmert told a business conference in the Negev.
“We will operate with all our might, but we won’t give in to blackmail,” Olmert said. “We won’t negotiate with terror elements and we won’t let anyone believe that kidnapping is a tool to bring Israel to its knees.”
Olmert told the conference that he had instructed the IDF to continue with its ground offensive in Gaza and urged the public to be patient:

“We need to know how to purse our lips and how to deal a winning strike,” he said. “We will do both of these, we will prevail and we will bring Gilad Shalit back to his parents, his family, to those who love him.”
Interior Minister Roni Bar-On on Tuesday warned the Hamas-led Palestinian government that the “sky would fall on them” if they harmed Shalit.
“Hamas well understands … that the sky will fall on them if they harm Gilad Shalit,” Bar-On said.
“Nothing has changed from our standpoint,” Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Army Radio on Tuesday. “The right thing is not to give a prize to terror, not to give in to terror, but the opposite.”

Wild Thing’s comment…….
The release of 1000 for 1 soldier? Nope, not gonna happen. Good for you Israel, I am proud of you!

An anti-war activist dressed as the Grim Reaper demonstrates in front of the White House in Washington July 3, 2006. Activist Cindy Sheehan and ‘CODEPINK’ launched ‘Troops Home Fast,’ a hunger strike to protest the war.

.

Wild Thing’s comment……Are you feeling bloated, a little overweight?
Is it getting harder and harder to do the antiwar peacenik walks and the long hours of standing on the road near the President’s home in Texas?
Is your CODE Pink t-shirt more snug then it was when you first bought it with your money from welfare?
Are all those fast food meals that George Soros buys for you to keep you holding up your “hate the troops” signs, adding on those extra pounds?
Have no fear……..Hollyweird has the answer……it is the new and improved Diet for socialists, communists and traitors to America. ( Democrats)
The old version, established by Dick Gregory, (has been comedian and whatever the hell he was) that came out during the Vietnam war has been upgraded. It no longer comes with your own LSD. Nor is it delivered by a flower painted beat up van, and shower deprived drivers with burned out brain dead sidekicks passing out daises along the route.
This new and improved diet is the Aider and Abettors Diet manufactured by Democrats and advertised for free by the Media. You didn’t think a Democrat would pay for anything did you?
But wait it gets better…….the organizers are calling for a “rolling fast.” This is when “fasters” take turns “fasting.” Secondly, one of the touted supporters is sponsoring a picnic on the day the “fast” begins with a picnic called the Willie Picnic (after Willie Nelson).

US stars align in anti-Iraq war hunger strike

Star Hollywood actor-activists including Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon and anti-war campaigners led by bereaved mother Cindy Sheehan plan to launch a hunger strike, demanding the immediate return of US troops from Iraq.
As Americans get set to fire up barbeques in patriotic celebration of US Independence Day on July 4, anti-war protestors planned to savour a last meal outside the White House, before embarking on a ‘Troops Home Fast’ at midnight.

“We’ve marched, held vigils, lobbied Congress, camped out at Bush’s ranch, we’ve even gone to jail, now it’s time to do more,” said Sheehan, who emerged as an anti-war icon after losing her 24-year-old son Casey in Iraq.

The hunger strike was the latest bid by the US anti-war movement to grab hold of American public opinion, after numerous marches, vigils and political campaigns.
Despite polls which show the Iraq war is unpopular and many Americans are skeptical of President George W. Bush’s wartime leadership, peace protests have not hit the opinion-swaying critical mass seen during Vietnam War.

“We have been continually sheltered from the actual cost of war from the beginning,” said Meredith Dearborn, of human rights group Global Exchange, explaining how anti-Iraq war protests have stuttered.

While 2,526 US soldiers have died since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures, the impact of the deaths has rarely dominated headlines.
While it is not unusual to see an Iraq-war veteran or amputee in an airport for instance, or newspaper features on horrific injuries inflicted by roadside bombs in Iraq, the United States hardly feels like a nation at war.
Some protestors and experts in public opinion put that down to the absence of the Vietnam War style conscription draft, which means only professional soldiers or reservists can be sent off to war.

“We have done everything we could think of to end this war, we have protested, held marches, vigils … lobbied, written letters to Congress,” said Dearborn.

“Now it is time to bring the pain and suffering of war home. We are putting our bodies on the line for peace.”

Perhaps the only time the anti-Iraq war movement captured lasting coverage was in August 2005, when Sheehan and supporters pitched camp outside Bush’s Texas ranch, where the president habitually stays in high summer.
Even then, the fiercely partisan debate unleashed may have harmed Sheehan, who faced fierce fire from conservative groups and radio talk show hosts, as much as it hurt the Bush administration’s image over Iraq.
The hunger strike will see at least four activists, Sheehan, veteran comedian and peace campaigner Dick Gregory, former army colonel Ann Wright and environmental campaigner Diane Wilson launch serious, long-term fasts.

“I don’t know how long I can fast, but I am making this open-ended,” said Wilson.

Other supporters, including Penn, Sarandon, novelist Alice Walker and actor Danny Glover will join a ‘rolling” fast, a relay in which 2,700 activists pledge to refuse food for at least 24 hours, and then hand over to a comrade.

So far the lastest doing this are: Fasters now include Cindy Sheehan; actress Susan Sarandon, environmentalist Diane Wilson; comedian Dick Gregory; singer Willie Nelson; Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches; Dr. E. Faye Williams, National Chair of the National Congress of Black Women; Colonel Ann Wright; Iraq veteran Geoffrey Millard; Kim Gandy, President of the National Organization for Women; and CODEPINK cofounders Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evans and Gael Murphy.
Here is the nice little list of fasters, you will see many familiar names and please note the ones that serve in our governement………… lmao!
Other Faster’s:
Cindy Sheehan
Dick Gregory
Willie Nelson
Alice Walker
Danny Glover
Dolores Huerta
Susan Sarandon
Sean Penn
Ed Asner
Michael Franti
Eve Ensler
Graham Nash, singer/songwriter
Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney
British MP George Galloway
Canadian MP Libby Davis
Michael Berg, Father of Nicolas Berg, who was killed in Iraq
Ann Wright, colonel and former US diplomat
Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon whistleblower
Ray McGovern, former CIA Analyst
Lt. Ehren Watada, Iraq war resister
Carolyn Ho, Mother of Lt. Ehren Watada
Jeff Key, Iraq Veteran
Fernando Suarez del Solar, Guerrerro Azteca
Michael McPherson, Veterans for Peace
Geoffrey Millard, Iraq Veterans Against the War
Dede Miller, Gold Star Families for Peace
Jane Bright, Gold Star Families for Peace
Joe Colgan, Gold Star Families for Peace
Brian Willson, Vietnam Vet
John McNamer, Vietnam Vet
Paul Kangas, Veterans for Peace
Andy Shallal, Iraqi Americans for Peaceful Alternatives
Samina Faheem, American Muslim Voice
Raed Jarrar, Iraqi analyst, Global Exchange
Rev. Bob Edgar, National Council of Churches
Rev. Joan Campbell
Rev. Al Sharpton
Rev. Lennox Yearwood
Arun Gandhi, President, Gandhi Institute for Non-Violence
Rev. Graylan Hagler, Plymouth Congregational Church
Rev. Noemi Mena, Hispanic Ministries
Rev. Tony Campolo
Fr. Louie Vitale, Franciscan priest
Karen Dolan, Cities for Progress
John Cavanagh, Marcus Raskin, Phyllis Bennis – Institute for Policy Studies
Jeff Adachi, San Francisco Public Defender
Renee Saucedo, Immigrant Rights Lawyer
Jim Hightower, Writer
Howard Zinn, Author
Greg Palast, Author
Vandana Shiva, Author
Marianne Williamson, Author
Diane Wilson, environmentalist/author
Julia Butterfly Hill, environmentalist
Paul Hawkins, environmentalist
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch
Rae Abileah, CODEPINK
Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange and CODEPINK co-founder
Tiffany Burns, CODEPINK
Jodie Evans, CODEPINK co-founder
Katie Heald, CODEPINK
Nancy L. Mancias, CODEPINK
Gael Murphy, CODEPINK co-founder
Farida Sheralam, CODEPINK
Maggie Rose, CODEPINK Charlotte Mecklenburg
Maggie LeBlanc, CODEPINK Wichita
Kim Gandy, National Organization for Women
Olga Vives, Executive Vice President, NOW
Dr. E. Faye Williams, National Congress of Black Women
Laura Flanders, Air America talk show host
Gabby Hoffman, actress
Miyumi Ota, artist
Kathy Engel, Poet
Peter Yarrow, Musician
Rae Goddess, Artist
Francisco Herrera, singer/songwriter
Will Durst, Political comic, talk show host
Patch Adams, Peace Doctor
Jonathon Tasini, U.S. Senate candidate, New York challenging Hillary Clinton
Kevin Zeese, U.S. Senate candidate, Maryland