BE THERE

As much as we love literature, we feel it's more important to confront the Bullshitter-in-Chief's regime. So it's no contest for us. We'd rather participate in the Massive March, Rally & Festival, which launches three days of antiwar activities in Washington on Saturday, than jerk off at the National Book Festival, which begins there at the same time. (Vide poet Sharon Olds.)

Wouldn't you rather attend the Peace and Justice Festival, followed by the free Operation Ceasefire Concert, than listen to book fest host Laura Bush extoll "the joy of reading" with her usual platitudes?

Then, on Sunday, as part of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee's "Call for Justice Weekend," there will be a "Mock Trial" of the bullshitter's regime, targeting U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (played by Francisco Letelier, son of Orlando Letelier, a Chilean official assassinated in Washington in 1976), former CIA Director George Tenet (played by Steven Volk, a professor from Oberlin College who is a friend of Charles Horman and a survivor of the Pinochet coup) and U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (played by the actor David Clennon, who was in the movie "Missing").

The trial, to feature real attorneys and evidence, will be based on U.S. and international laws that prohibit torture. "After the grim revelations of the last year regarding U.S. torture and abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo, there can be little doubt that our nation faces an extraordinary moral crisis,” Jennifer Harbury, left, who is coordinating the UUSC event, said in a press release. A lawyer herself, Harbury began her own investigation into torture when her husband disappeared before being murdered in Guatemala in 1992 by Guatemalan officials serving as paid CIA informants. Since then she has pressed for disclosure of the U.S. government’s involvement in human rights abuses in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Her recent book "Truth, Torture and the American Way" examines long-term U.S. involvement in torture tactics.

Other notable participants in the trial are to include Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, who will act as a trial commentator; U.S. Col. Ann Wright, a military expert who will testify on the security risks created by the use of torture. Sister Dianna Ortiz, who will testify about the presence of a U.S. agent in her torture cell in Guatemala. Marcos Arruda, a Brazilian activist, will testify about U.S. involvement in torture in Brazil.

Iraq and Afghanistan, Guatemala and Brazil, U.S. foreign policy and torture, the war on terrorism and violations of civil rights at home -- this weekend ties it all together. Screw the book festival.

-- Tireless Staff of Thousands