Happy birthday to a true American hero

Today is Cindy Sheehan's birthday. I admire the hell out of Cindy and I'll go so far as to say she's a hero of mine.
Cindy stood up to the war machine when almost no one else did. She galvanized many others, including me, into taking to the streets, the airwaves, and the internet to make our opposition to the war known. She's been vilified, first by the conservatives who said she should just shut up and go the hell home even though the war machine murdered her son Casey. Then after the anti war Democrat got elected the left vilified her for daring to oppose him for not keeping his promise to end the war.
But through all the criticism, the death threats, the name calling, after suffering all the barbs, the slings and arrows, Cindy still stands firm and tall against the war. And I stand with her.
I'm proud to have her as a Facebook friend and one day I hope to be able to meet her in person to shake her hand, to give her a hug, and to thank her for fighting the good fight. If you hate her, that's on you and you can keep your hate to yourself and out of the comments section of this blog.

One day I hope the Nobel prize committee realizes what a mistake they made giving Obummer the Peace prize a few years ago and they take it back from him and give it to Cindy. She's done more to advance the cause of peace than Obama ever did.

Happy birthday Cindy. I hope you have many more. And one day I hope we have the peace you've worked so hard for and that your Casey gets the justice he deserves.

You probably heard it here first

Since it wasn't an American who won the Nobel Peace Prize most media in the USA have ignored the man who actually did win it, a diplomat from Finland. His name is Martti Ahtisaari and he's spent his whole professional life working to bring peace to the world. Sure, he's also been in a sauna or two in his day as well and he looks like a villain from the 1960's Batman TV show, but come on, the dude is deserving of the prize.

Congratulations Mr. Martti Ahtisaari for a job well done. And for being a great Finn.

Takin' it to the streets

After psyching our selves up by listening to our favorite pre-protest music, which for us these days is the song Not Ready to Make Nice by the Dixie Chicks, we arrived at the preapproved site for yesterday's Iraq war protest. It was a sunny day with temps in the low 60's but since the wind was blowing it felt more like the high 50's when the wind gusted. Somehow we put up with the cruel indignities the weather tossed at us.

We got our signs and we met up with Snad and John, the stalwarts behind Concerned TN Citizens. We chatted for a moment and then we took our places on the corner and we began brandishing our signs and waving to the people who drove past us in their cars. In very short order others joined us on the corner and the protest began in earnest. We may be mad as hell over this insane war but we're not stupid, so that means we basically want to let others know that not everyone in this conservative are of east TN/southwest VA/western NC supports our Idiot in Chief and his petulant little unconstitutional war so we protest by holding our signs and showing our support for sanity and peace. We shy away from being confrontational and from shouting inflammatory slogans.

The response we got yesterday was generally very positive, which frankly in this conservative area always surprises me but it really shouldn't because when you think about it most people in this country don't support the war so I'd say that most people around here don't support it either but they are just too afraid to speak out and say so. Of course we had some people drive by and show us they thought we were #1 by showing us their middle finger and we had a few that shouted things like, "Go home!" or "Kill all the rag heads!" at us. Others simply ignored us and drove by in their gas guzzlers. One woman shouted at us, "I'm proud my son is in the army!" If I had had the chance I would have told her that we had nothing against people like her son and that we were probably proud of him too. I would have told her our problem was not with her son but with the people who are his commanders who lied to us in order to drag us into a war that is bankrupting our country and causing the deaths of millions of others.

It's rare at our protests when someone get so angry at us that they get out of their car and say something to us, but yesterday was one of those rare times. Some guy ran over to Rev. John and a guy who was standing next to him and he started jabbering about how we were cowards and criminals for daring to be against the war. He insisted that we had no right to protest if we had not been to Iraq or Afghanistan. I'm never one to miss an opportunity to get my nose in someone else's politics, and neither is my friend Snad, so she and I went over to talk to the little bald dude. He got really mad when we told him it was our Constitutional right to speak out and to protest, we not so gently reminded him that the Bill of Rights says that we not only have freedom of speech in this country, we also have freedom of assembly too. He started screaming about the American rights in Iraq and Snad reminded him that there is no such thing as American rights in Iraq and that Iraq was a sovereign country that we invaded illegally. He kept sputtering that we were cowards who had no right to question the war or the men who run it and we kept telling him that it was not only our right, it was our obligation as patriotic Americans to do so. In the end he finally walked away.

Despite that guy's little display of ignorance and the others who flipped us off, I was heartened by the hundreds of people who drove by and honked in support of us and who gave us the thumbs up in support of our position. The tide out here is turning even more against the war of terror on Iraq and Afghanistan and hopefully that tide will be a tsunami that will wash out more pro war politicians in November. All in all it was a good day to protest because the roads were full of people, I'd say at least 1500 people saw us out there. All in all it was a good protest too because I'm sure that someone who was against the war but felt afraid to say it saw us out there and they now know that they are not alone in opposing the war.

And now lets meet some of the 30 some people who were out on the firing line yesterday:

I never can remember the lady in the foreground's name but she's been to a bunch of demonstrations and I'm pretty sure she goes to Rev. John's church. The lady in the purple jacket is also a veteran on the local protest scene.

Speaking of the man, the myth, the legend that is Rev. Shuck, there he is in all his agitating glory.

And that fat bastard is me.


The skinny guy is Snad's husband John and I forgot the woman's name who is next to him.

These fine looking male speicmens name's are Ron and JW. They both had nice things to say about me and my blog so you know I'm not just blowing smoke when I say that they're two of the finest human beings I have ever met and they will go down in history as two of the most intelligent critical thinkers of this or any other time.

There's one of my heroes, Miss Francis. If I'm half as sharp and on the ball as she is when I get to be her age then I'll be doing damn good.

I didn't meet all these people but I was damn glad they were out in the wind with us yesterday.

And finally here's a shot of Sand, she's on the right, and her brother Mike. They, along with Snad's husband John, have been the engines that have driven the anti war movement in this area for the past year and I'm glad to know them and glad to be their friend. If it hadn't been for them Sparky and I would never have become as active in the movement and we would have never met such great folks like Rev. John, Joseph and Vanessa, Miss Francis, Keith and his sons, and all the other folks who are committed to ending the war and to making this country a more just and peaceful place.

Something special for my 300th post

One morning earlier in the spring, I had to go out to buy some markers and foam core board to make some signs for me and my girlfriend to take to the anti war protest the next day. While I was out, I stopped by Circuit City to see if I could find a low price copy of The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen on DVD. Of course they did not have what I was looking for so I walked through the video games aisle and I found and bought this game:

I went home, got out our big letter stencil sheets and began making our signs. I made one that said, "END THE WAR OF TERROR" and I was workng on one that said, "WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THOU SHALL NOT KILL?" when my girlfriend came home for lunch.

She asked what I was doing and I told her I was making signs for the next days protest. She picked up my little bag from Circuit City and she said, "What's this?"

I replied, "It's a video game."

She took it out and looked at it. After rolling her eyes she said, "Do you not see the irony here?"

This one goes out to our brothers and sisters at the immigration rally the other day in LA

You are not alone, we here at Monkey Muck HQ support you. We support all Americans, be they north, central, or south American, right to speak out, live, and work in the USA. Rock on my brothers and sisters.

Our Second Choice for President, or we loves us some island music

The reporter in this video looks disturbingly like one of our old political science professors.

Tip O' The Fez To Ya

Cheers to our friends over at The Largest Minority for this:
http://www.jwharrison.com/blog/2007/04/30/the-daily-connect-043007/
Scroll down after you follow the link and you'll see what we're talking about.

Oh, and by the way, even though the Kucinich event we attended that Sunday was free, we did donate. We're monkeys after all, not Scotsmen.

Manila Ryce rocks.

Things you can do every damn day to piss off King George

Being impeachment Saturday and all we here at Monkey Muck HQ got to thinking about how cool would it be to do something everyday to piss off the jackals in power. We put our thinking caps on our little simian heads and we came up with the following list.

1. Buy gas only at Citgo. The crude oil they make the gas from at your local Citgo station comes from Venezuela. And you know who is President of Venezuela. Plus, if you buy gas at Citgo, then the profits on that gas do not go to bush jr and his oily oil buddies.
2. Eat organic or at the very least eat food grown without any pesticides, unnatural fertilizers, or chemicals. Monsanto, a horrid company that backs the Republican party, makes it's living by making horrible chemicals that are put on or in your food. If you eat organic then you are not helping Monsanto ruin our planet or make money.
3. Recycle
4. Do your part to help stem the tide of climate change. Use fluorescent light bulbs instead of incandescent, drive less, have your car or truck tuned up so as to maximize your usage of fuel.
5. Get out and connect with one another and network for change.
6. Write your congress people and tell them how you want them to vote, they work for you after all, not that other way around.
7. Get off your dead asses and go vote when it's election time and encourage others to do the same.
8. Stop shopping at big corporate stores like Wal Mart and Target. They all contribute to Republicans and big corporate assholes like Wal Mart and Target do not have your or your communities best interests at heart, they want only one thing, your money.
9. Shop at locally owned businesses.
10. Boycott businesses that advertise on FOX Comedy Channel.
11. Write blogs and or support blogs and websites that oppose the greedy war mongering asses in DC.
12. Volunteer in your community.
13. Protest when and where you are able.
14. Be truly patriotic and oppose any attempts to curtail our civil liberties.

Going to see Dennis Kucinich

That's right boys and girls, we are going to see Rep. Dennis Kucinich, one of our favorite Presidential candidates, live and in the flesh tomorrow night in Asheville, NC. He will be speaking at UNC Asheville and we will be there to see him.

Why do we love this long shot? Let me count the ways:

• He introduced articles of impeachment against Darth Cheney.
• He is the sponsor of the Department of Peace.
• He wants to take out the profit motive in our health care system.
• He's been a firebrand since the days when he was the youngest ever Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio

We loved him then and we love him now. And you know what Dennis? We're sorry for not voting for you in the TN Democratic Primary back in 2004.

We are psyched about seeing any candidates in person in our area but even more so because this one holds so many positions so close to our little simian hearts.