Bill Nevins Update

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 20 Dec 2004 13:00:00 GMT

# From highroad:

"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet." -- armedcitizen

"Americans used to roar like lions for liberty; now we bleat like sheep for security." - Norman Vincent Peale

# Dave Workman at Armed Females of America - `Twas the night before Christmas - a retelling of the classic poem. Santa borrows a revolver from Mr. Workman, and uses it to apprehend, without firing a shot, some Christmas gift looters. Hehe. [smith2004]

# Gerard Baker at The Times - Howdy friends! What a year! - Mr. Baker shares the Christmas letter he received from Laura Bush. Hehe. [lew]

We managed to get overseas once or twice. We had a couple of days in France in June when we visited with our European friends. Usual story. They all treated George like the retarded cousin at the dinner table, patiently explaining the difference between Iraq and Iran and using their hands a lot while talking about oil prices.

The year started off really badly. Some of the boys in Iraq took some embarrassing pictures of their friends having a bit of harmless fun with the locals and the whole thing snowballed Then there seemed to be lots of nasty books and films -- all about the Bush family.

# Bill Nevins - Committing Poetry in Time of War - I reported back in May on the firing in early 2003 of Bill Nevins, a New Mexico teacher, for sponsoring a poetry team at Rio Rancho High School, one of whose members, Courtney Butler, read a poem, Revolution X, which satirized the Busheviks. Mr. Nevins contacted me a couple of days ago and sent me a summary of his case. The high school paid $205,000 to him and his lawyer to settle out of court a lawsuit that they filed in September of 2003. Mr. Nevins' son served as a soldier in Afghanistan and Iraq during the time of his firing and lawsuit. A documentary film about his case, Word!--Committing Poetry in Time of War, is in preparation and will be released in early 2005. Mr. Nevins helped found the Poetic Justice Institute, which welcomes poetry for publication.

The school administration enforced a strict pre-censorship policy towards all public statements and literary readings at the school, going so far as to cancel a performance by some of New Mexico's most respected multi-cultural literary figures.

Following student statements of protest to the media, I also spoke to the media about my own concerns about these policies and actions. I expressed concern that students excercising creative expression "with decorum" were being discouraged and silenced.

Soon after, I was informed by the school district that my contract would not be renewed and my teaching job was ended. I was never permitted to return to the school, and the poetry team died.

# George Potter at anti-state.com - ...and Justice for All - nice short story about true justice in an imagined future world after the revolution. [anti-state]

# Paul Craig Roberts at LewRockwell.com - A System Bereft of Justice - there is no justice available from United States police or courts. Get used to it. [root]

Torture has become routine in American prisons. The goal of the torturers is guilty pleas and false testimony against innocent defendants. The torturers succeed. Napolitano reports that "fewer than 3 percent of federal indictments were tried; virtually all the rest of those charged pled guilty."

Does anyone seriously believe that the police are so efficient that 97 out of 100 people indicted are guilty?!

The cherished code, "you are innocent until proven guilty," no longer holds in America. You are guilty when charged. You will be tortured or abused and threatened with more charges until you agree to a plea bargain.

Diane Lori Kleiman is an attorney who has worked in a district attorney's office and for the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. She says prosecutors have little concern with real crimes, preferring to target high-profile individuals in order to garner headlines and create a political career for themselves. Martha Stewart is a victim of prosecutorial ambition as was Michael Milken, whose false imprisonment created a political career for Rudy Giuliani.

# Alexander Cockburn at Counterpunch - From Kobe Bryant to Uncle Sam: Why They Hated Gary Webb - I don't think I've linked yet to a story about the "suicide" of Gary Webb, the reporter who was skewered by the press after revealing the CIA's drug running through Mena, Arkansas with the help of then governor Clinton and Papa Bush. Mr. Webb is alleged to have fired two shots into his own head with a revolver. [grabbe]

So why did the top-tier press savage Webb, and parrot the CIA's denials. It comes back to this matter of Uncle Sam's true face. Another New York Times reporter, Keith Schneider was asked by In These Times back in 1987 why he had devoted a three-part series in the New York Times to attacks on the Contra hearings chaired by Senator John Kerry. Schneider said such a story could "shatter the Republic. I think it is so damaging, the implications are so extraordinary, that for us to run the story, it had better be based on the most solid evidence we could amass." Kerry did uncover mountains of evidence. So did Webb. But neither of them got the only thing that would have satisfied Schneider, Pincus and all the other critics: a signed confession of CIA complicity by the DCI himself. Short of that, I'm afraid we're left with "innuendo", "conspiracy mongering" and "old stories". We're also left with the memory of some great work by a very fine journalist who deserved a lot better than he got from the profession he loved.

Add comment Edit post Add post

Previous Posts:
Committing Poetry in Time of War
Smells like... Infamy
December 27 ... Expect "something big" ... This is it, folks
Kyoto Protocol, RIP
San Francisco Vies for Homocide Capital of the United States
Don That Left Shoe First, It's the Law!
Bill of Rights Day, 2004
Amerika's Oligarchy
The United States of Torture
Google Suggest

Navigation

History

Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair