text:
RALLY AND MARCH TO END THE WAR ON IRAQ
SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 2007, 12 NOON
POWELL AND MARKET STREETS, S.F.
Troops out of Iraq NOW!
Stop racism against Arabs and Muslims!
End the Occupation of Palestine!
Over 3,000 dead American soldiers, hundreds of thousands
of dead Iraqis. It's time to put a stop to the war machine.
Millions of people voted to get the Republicans out and
end the war, but we can't leave it up to the Democrats
to do the only reasonable thing:
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW FROM IRAQ!
President Bush just announced his intent to escalate the
number of troops in Iraq by over 20,000 more troops.
It's time to get the anti-war movement back in the streets!
On January 27, hundreds of thousands of people will march
in Washington, DC to demand an end to the war.
We're bringing the same message to the streets of San Francisco.
Make your own signs and banners and march with your friends,
family, co-workers, class-mates, church, union or organization.
Join us to show Bush and the new Democratic Congress
that the anti-war movement is back.
TO VOLUNTEER PLEASE SHOW UP AT POWELL AND
MARKET AT 10:00 A.M., Saturday, January 27
For more information, call 510-484-5242 or email
j27committee@gmail.com
www.myspace.com/januarytwentyseventh
MARCH AND RALLY TO DEMAND AN END TO THE WAR
in Washington, DC with United for Peace and Justice to demand
an end to the war.
For more information about the national march, visit:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org
MARCH AND RALLY IN SAN FRANCISCO
(The annual St. Patrick's Day Parade is taking
place on Sat., March 17 in SF.)
ASSEMBLE 12:00 NOON
JUSTIN HERMAN PLAZA -
MARCH TO CIVIC CENTER
http://www.actionsf.org/#local4
answer@actionsf.org
NEW TRAFFIC FINES - REGRESSIVE TAXES:
I know you will not violate but better be careful now...Californian
drivers. Please pass to your friends.
Updating on traffic Violation Fine
1. Carpool lane? The 1st time $1068.50 starting 1/1/07
(NOT $271, posted on the highway is old).
Don't do it again because the 2nd time is going to be
double. The 3rd time triple and the 4th time license suspended.
2. Incorrect lane change $380. Don't cross lane on solid lanes or
3. Block intersection - $485
4. Driving on the shoulder - $450
5. Cell phone on the construction zone. - Double fine
6. Passengers over 18 not on the seatbelts - both passengers and
driver get tickets
7. Speeders can only drive 3 miles above the limit. A classmate drove
71 MPH on 65 mph zone and got ticket.
8. DUI = JAIL
1) Lying Like It's 2003
By FRANK RICH
New York Times Op-Ed
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/opinion/21rich.html
2) Congress's Challenge on Iraq
New York Times Editorial
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/opinion/22mon1.html?_r=1&hp∨ef=slogin
3) Greetings Black Mesa Supporters & all who care about our planet,
IT IS URGENT THAT AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE SEND
IN A LETTER RIGHT AWAY TO
STOP PEABODY COAL'S BLACK MESA
PROJECT(BMP)! A SAMPLE LETTER IS ACCESSIBLE AT:
http://www.stoppeabody.org/
4) Hezbollah Strike Brings Beirut to a Virtual Halt
By NADA BAKRI and HASSAN M. FATTAH
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/world/middleeast/23cnd-lebanon.html?
hp&ex=1169614800&en=2e9d96ebf4feb75c&ei=5094∂ner=homepage
5) Arrests Made in `71 Cop Killing in San Francisco
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Old-Police-Killing.html?
hp&ex=1169614800&en=ecc596e7130a362e&ei=5094∂ner=homepage
6) Petraeus Calls Iraq Situation `Dire'
By JOHN HOLUSHA
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/world/middleeast/23cnd-general.html?
hp&ex=1169614800&en=7dc847d27fe1e79f&ei=5094∂ner=homepage
7) THE PLANET'S DEATH ROW
[Col. Writ. 1/7/07] Copyright 2007 Mumia Abu-Jamal
8) SOLIDARITY WITH THE FAMILY OF SEAN BELL - JANUARY 24,
WEDNESDAY 6:30 'til at 103 Pct
[VIA Email...bw]
9) Flagscape puts toll in perspective: UO grounds host the visually
stunning Iraq Body Count Memorial
By Andrea Damewood
The Register-Guard
Published: Monday, January 22, 2007
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/01/22/c1.cr.flags.0122.p1.php?
section=cityregion
10) The State of the Union
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/opinion/24wed1.html?_r=1&hp∨ef=slogin
THOSE who forget history may be doomed to repeat it, but who could
imagine we'd already be in danger of replaying that rotten year 2003?
Scooter Libby, the mastermind behind the White House's bogus
scenarios for ginning up the war in Iraq, is back at Washington's
center stage, proudly defending the indefensible in a perjury trial.
Ahmad Chalabi, the peddler of flawed prewar intelligence hyped
by Mr. Libby, is back in clover in Baghdad, where he purports to
lead the government's Shiite-Baathist reconciliation efforts in
between visits to his pal Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran.
Last but never least is Mr. Libby's former boss and Mr. Chalabi's
former patron, Dick Cheney, who is back on Sunday-morning television
floating fictions about Iraq and accusing administration critics of aiding
Al Qaeda. When the vice president went on a tear like this in 2003,
hawking Iraq's nonexistent W.M.D. and nonexistent connections
to Mohamed Atta, he set the stage for a war that now kills Iraqi
civilians in rising numbers (34,000-plus last year) that are heading
into the genocidal realms of Saddam. Mr. Cheney's latest sales
pitch is for a new plan for "victory" promising an even bigger
bloodbath.
Mr. Cheney was honest, at least, when he said that the White
House's Iraq policy would remain "full speed ahead!" no matter
what happened on Nov. 7. Now it is our patriotic duty — politicians,
the press and the public alike — to apply the brakes. Our failure
to check the administration when it rushed into Iraq in 2003 will
look even more shameful to history if we roll over again for
a reboot in 2007. For all the belated Washington scrutiny of the
war since the election, and for all the heralded (if so far symbolic)
Congressional efforts to challenge it, too much lip service is still
being paid to the deceptive P.R. strategies used by the administration
to sell its reckless policies. This time we must do what too few did
the first time: call the White House on its lies. Lies should not be
confused with euphemisms like "incompetence" and "denial."
Mr. Cheney's performance last week on "Fox News Sunday" illustrates
the problem; his lying is nowhere near its last throes. Asked
by Chris Wallace about the White House's decision to overrule
commanders who recommended against a troop escalation, the
vice president said, "I don't think we've overruled the commanders."
He claimed we've made "enormous progress" in Iraq. He said the
administration is not "embattled." (Well, maybe that one is denial.)
This White House gang is so practiced in lying with a straight face
that it never thinks twice about recycling its greatest hits. Hours
after Mr. Cheney's Fox interview, President Bush was on "60 Minutes,"
claiming that before the war "everybody was wrong on weapons
of mass destruction" and that "the minute we found out" the W.M.D.
didn't exist he "was the first to say so." Everybody, of course, was
not wrong on W.M.D., starting with the United Nations weapons
inspection team in Iraq. Nor was Mr. Bush the first to come clean
once the truth became apparent after the invasion. On May 29, 2003
— two days after a secret Defense Intelligence Agency-sponsored
mission found no biological weapons in trailers captured by American
forces — Mr. Bush declared: "We found the weapons of mass destruction.
We found biological laboratories."
But that's all W.M.D under the bridge. The most important lies to watch
for now are the new ones being reiterated daily by the administration's
top brass, from Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney on down. You know fiasco
awaits America when everyone in the White House is reading in unison
from the same fictional script, as they did back in the day when
"mushroom clouds" and "uranium from Africa" were the daily
drumbeat.
The latest lies are custom-made to prop up the new "way forward"
that is anything but. Among the emerging examples is a rewriting
of the history of Iraq's sectarian violence. The fictional version was
initially laid out by Mr. Bush in his Jan. 10 prime-time speech
and has since been repeated on television by both Mr. Cheney
and the national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, last Sunday
and by Mr. Bush again on PBS's "NewsHour" on Tuesday. It goes
like this: sectarian violence didn't start spiraling out of control
until the summer of 2006, after Sunni terrorists bombed the
Golden Mosque in Samarra and forced the Shiites to take revenge.
But as Mark Seibel of McClatchy Newspapers noted last week,
"the president's account understates by at least 15 months when
Shiite death squads began targeting Sunni politicians and clerics."
They were visible in embryo long before that; The Times, among
others, reported as far back as September 2003 that Shiite militias
were becoming more radical, dangerous and anti-American. The
reasons Mr. Bush pretends that Shiite killing started only last year
are obvious enough. He wants to duck culpability for failing
to recognize the sectarian violence from the outset — much
as he failed to recognize the Sunni insurgency before it — and
to underplay the intractability of the civil war to which he will
now sacrifice fresh American flesh.
An equally big lie is the administration's constant claim that it
is on the same page as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as we go
full speed ahead. Only last month Mr. Maliki told The Wall Street
Journal that he wished he "could be done with" his role as Iraq's
leader "before the end of this term." Now we are asked to believe
not merely that he is a strongman capable of vanquishing the
death squads of the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr, his
political ally, but also that he can be trusted to produce the
troops he failed to supply in last year's failed Baghdad crackdown.
Yet as recently as November, there still wasn't a single Iraqi
battalion capable of fighting on its own.
Hardly a day passes without Mr. Maliki mocking the White
House's professed faith in him. In the past week or so alone,
he has presided over a second botched hanging (despite delaying
it for more than two weeks to put in place new guidelines),
charged Condi Rice with giving a "morale boost to the terrorists"
because she criticized him, and overruled American objections
to appoint an obscure commander from deep in Shiite territory
to run the Baghdad "surge." His government doesn't even try
to hide its greater allegiance to Iran. Mr. Maliki's foreign minister
has asked for the release of the five Iranians detained in an
American raid on an Iranian office in northern Iraq this month
and, on Monday, called for setting up more Iranian "consulates"
in Iraq.
The president's pretense that Mr. Maliki and his inept, ill-equipped,
militia-infiltrated security forces can advance American interests
in this war is Neville Chamberlain-like in its naiveté and
disingenuousness. An American military official in Baghdad
read the writing on the wall to The Times last week: "We are
implementing a strategy to embolden a government that is actually
part of the problem. We are being played like a pawn." That's why
the most destructive lie of all may be the White House's constant
refrain that its doomed strategy is the only one anyone has proposed.
Administration critics, Mr. Cheney said last Sunday, "have absolutely
nothing to offer in its place," as if the Iraq Study Group, John Murtha
and Joseph Biden-Leslie Gelb plans, among others, didn't predate
the White House's own.
In reality we're learning piece by piece that it is the White House that
has no plan. Ms. Rice has now downsized the surge/escalation into
an "augmentation," inadvertently divulging how the Pentagon is
improvising, juggling small deployments in fits and starts. No one
can plausibly explain how a parallel chain of command sending
American and Iraqi troops into urban street combat side by side
will work with Iraqis in the lead (it will report to a "committee" led
by Mr. Maliki!). Or how $1 billion in new American reconstruction
spending will accomplish what the $30 billion thrown down the
drain in previous reconstruction spending did not.
All of this replays 2003, when the White House refused to consider
any plan, including existing ones in the Pentagon and State
Department bureaucracies, for coping with a broken post-
Saddam Iraq. Then, as at every stage of the war since, the only
administration plan was for a propaganda campaign to bamboozle
American voters into believing "victory" was just around the corner.
The next push on the "way forward" propaganda campaign arrives
Tuesday night, with the State of the Union address. The good news
is that the Democrats have chosen Jim Webb, the new Virginia
senator, to give their official response. Mr. Webb, a Reagan
administration Navy secretary and the father of a son serving in
Iraq, has already provoked a testy exchange about the war with
the president at a White House reception for freshmen in Congress.
He's the kind of guy likely to keep a scorecard of the lies on Tuesday
night. But whether he does or not, it's incumbent on all those talking
heads who fell for "shock and awe" and "Mission Accomplished"
in 2003 to not let history repeat itself in 2007. Facing the truth
is the only way forward in Iraq.
President Bush's refusal to come up with a serious policy on Iraq
means that the Democrats will have to goad him toward one.
Congress needs to do more than just oppose the latest ill-conceived
military escalation. It needs to insist that American troops are not
captive to the destructive policies of an Iraqi government for which
sectarian revenge counts for more than national unity and civil peace.
To do that, it needs to demand that Mr. Bush impose firm, enforceable
benchmarks on Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki — if any American
troops are going to remain in Iraq.
In the Senate a nonbinding, bipartisan resolution seems headed
toward early passage. Sponsored by Joseph Biden, Chuck Hagel
and Carl Levin, it expresses strong opposition to sending more
troops, citing the failure of the Iraqi government to keep its past
promises on national reconciliation.
Passing this resolution by the widest possible bipartisan margin
would be a good first step. It would make clear to the American
people (who called for a change last November), to President Bush
(who didn't listen) and to Mr. Maliki (who didn't seem to notice)
that the days of uncritical American support for Shiite misrule
are over.
Already, the newly questioning tone in Congress has pushed
Mr. Maliki to distance himself — at least publicly — from his
ally Moktada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army has been responsible
for some of the worst outrages against Baghdad's Sunni population.
It is too early to say whether this is a public relations ploy,
or whether Mr. Maliki will now allow the Americans and his
own army to move against Mahdi Army strongholds. The Senate
resolution should make clear that that is the first prerequisite
for continued American support.
Hortatory statements are unlikely to change Mr. Bush's mind or
Mr. Maliki's behavior, so the Congress will likely have to go further.
Both houses will need to find ways to use their power — including
the power of the purse — to do what Mr. Bush refuses to do: set
and enforce deadlines for the Iraqi government to disarm militias,
share oil revenues and reintegrate the Sunni middle class into Iraqi life.
Funding limits that simply freeze the number of troops, like the
one Senator Edward Kennedy now proposes, are inadequate. The
much more difficult challenge is to figure out ways to compel
Mr. Bush to come up with a policy that has at least some chance
of letting American troops come home without leaving total
chaos behind.
Even if the Congress could stop Mr. Bush from sending an additional
20,000 troops, there will still be 130,000 caught in Iraq's maelstrom.
PEABODY'S PLANS CALL FOR MORE
RELOCATION, WATER DEPLETION, & GLOBAL
WARMING. The deadline to make your
comments be heard, Feb. 6, is swiftly
approaching!!
Please support a "NO ACTION" decision in solidarity with indigenous
Dineh and Hopi communities. We must use this window to voice our
opposition!
Peabody Western Coal, the world's largest coal company, has plans
to extend its mining operations on Black Mesa and has filed a lease
extension application with the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM).
Peabody is attempting to obtain a 'Life of Mine' permit - which
means it would be permitted to continue its unsustainable and
dirty coal mining practices until all of the coal is removed!
To transport the coal, the company plans on continuing its
practice of taking billions of gallons of water a year from the
only water sources in the area, drawing down both high
quality, residential water aquifers: Navajo Aquifer and
Coconino Aquifer.
These developments threaten the viability of the region's
primary water source.
If this plan is allowed, at least 17 families could be forcibly
relocated.
"The Black Mesa Project" as this plan is known, is a
collaboration of Peabody Coal Company and Salt River
Massive mining plans are underway that have serious
environmental, social, and human rights impacts. Peabody
Western Coal, the world's largest coal company, is attempting
to obtain a 'Life of Mine' permit from the federal Office of
Surface Mining (OSM): which means a lease extension
application that would permit them to mine indefinitely,
and dramatically increase the current rate of coal production
to turn Black Mesa into a massive energy center for domestic
and international export.
It is unacceptable that this proposal could further the termination
of indigenous cultural existence. The U.S. government has previously
passed laws that terminate indigenous ancestral ties to these
lands by currently restricting access to their lands and enforcing
relocation. The LOM permit calls for additional restricted access
to ancestral lands and relocation.
The LOM permit would allow the coal company the rights to billions
of gallons of water a year from two major aquifers for their industrial
coal production use.
This proposal is not the solution to global warming or to reducing
greenhouse gas emissions, but instead, Peabody's BMP will only only
add to the escalating greenhouse emissions.
*ORGANIZE LETTER WRITING PARITIES:
Consider organizing a letter-writing party --one woman organized
over 40 letters in one evening!
*JUST TRANSITION:
Visit: http://www.blackmesawatercoalition.org for updates and
to learn more about the Just Transition Campaign, "an innovative,
proactive plan to transition tribal economy, employment and energy
off fossil fuel extraction and into a sustainable renewable energy
path." The BMP Draft Environmental Impact Statement inadequately
studies true alternatives for the use of coal and solutions to Global
Warming provided by the Just Transition Campaign.
*CALLING ALL SUPPORTERS/SHEEPHERDERS:
Families on Black Mesa who are living near Peabody's mining activities
and/or resisting relocation and may face future mine expansion
are requesting volunteer sheepherders to come stay with them.
Please visit http://www.blackmesais.org for more info and
to contact us.
*BIG MOUNTAIN CANNOT BE EXCLUDED
FROM THE LEGACY OF THE FOUR CORNERS
ENERGY WARS:
Since the beginning of the Big Mountain resistance elders would
say: "We are resisting relocation and the coal mining not only for
ourselves but for the whole world. Black Mesa must not be
desecrated because of its sacredness --it provides life to all
living things including all the human races." Elder resisters
of Big Mountain have referred to the coal as the Mother
Earth's liver.
We must not allow history to repeat itself by allowing the US
government and mining interests to put profit over people,
antiquity, and water resources.
~Black Mesa Indigenous Support
http://www.blackmesais.org
TEXT OF LETTER SENT...BW:
Dennis Winterringer, Leader,
Black Mesa Project EIS
Office of Surface Mining
Western Regional Coordinating Center
Dear Mr. Winterringer,
I am writing from San Francisco, California. I am appalled at
the prospect of allowing Peabody to extend its mining operations
on Black Mesa. Not only should they not be allowed to expand--
they should be driven from the land!
What kind of legacy shall we leave our children? That we cared
more about the right for a corporation to plunder the earth
for profit than we cared about the human beings living on the
land they are plundering? We will put a stop to this or we will
loose our planet--this is a life and death question!
I agree with the following letter and I have circulated this to our
newsletter list of over 450 groups and individuals and posted
it to our website at:
www.bauaw.org
The letter:
I am writing to comment on the Draft Environmental Impact
Statement (DEIS) for the proposed Black Mesa Project.
Global Warming is here and Coal is one of the major culprits.
Please, choose Alternative "C" and deny Peabody their LOM
permit for the sake of our children's future and our future's air
quality. If we are going to stop the coming global, natural disaster,
it must be with quick dramatic decreases in the amount of energy
we use as a society. Let the Black Mesa Mine be reclaimed now.
Peabody's reclamation methods which are not applicable to
a semi-arid environment has completely failed and the mined
areas are all wastelands. It is imperative to the planet and
all life on it.
Water is sacred. I oppose the use of water from the Coconino
and Navajo Aquifers for moving and washing coal. These aquifers
provide the main sources of drinking water for Flagstaff, nearby
cities, neighboring tribal communities, as well as, provide the
replenishment of the Diablo Canyon and the Lower Little Colorado
River ecosystems. They also provide water for farms and ranches
in the area. The pumping of millions of gallons of deep aquifer
(Mother Earth's Blood) for a private industrial operation to transform
coal (Mother Earth's Liver) to slurry is unacceptable. "What we
do to the Earth, we do to ourselves." Would you trade your
"blood" and "liver" for ["air conditioning" and "TV"] (or for total
dependency on electrical-powered lifestyles?
I object to the fact that you knowingly cut Flagstaff City Government
out of the process when making this DEIS. The City (before scoping)
bought a ranch near Leupp specifically for the purpose of creating
a well field for drinking water. They plan to draw as much as 11,000
AF/YR as well. Will there be enough water? Or will everyone in Leupp
just get dust from their wells while Flagstaff and Peabody suck
the water dry?
I also object to the fact that the 758-page DEIS was quietly released
during the Holidays, allowing only a two-month period to comment
on a project that greatly affects the health and well-being of so many.
I therefore request that the comment period be extended for no less
than three additional months in order to give affected communities
enough time to participate in this important process.
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 23 — An opposition protest turned violent today
as thousands of Hezbollah supporters blocked roads leading into Beirut,
burning tires and cars and clashing with government loyalists. The
escalation brought the Lebanese capital to a virtual standstill and
heightened fears that the nearly two-month long political crisis
could burst into sectarian conflict.
At least two people were killed and more than a hundred were injured
in clashes that erupted in different parts of the city, police officials said.
The protests recalled the chilling images of Lebanon's bloody civil war.
Beginning early this morning, groups of protesters set up roadblocks
along major thoroughfares leading into Beirut, burning tires and setting
fire to vehicles while blocking the roads with stones and rubble said
to be from buildings demolished in last summer's Israeli bombardment
of the city's southern suburbs.
In some mixed neighborhoods, groups of young men on either side
of the widening political divide squared off, shouting epithets and
throwing stones at each other.
Along one major thoroughfare, government loyalists faced off with
Hezbollah demonstrators with a brawl and sporadic gunfire. One
side raised photos of the Hezbollah leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah,
and burned photographs of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq
Hariri, whose assassination in 2005 originally set off Lebanon's
political turmoil. The other side, lined up across the street, raised
photographs of Mr. Hariri and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, and
even of Saddam Hussein, while shouting epithets back.
On the coastal highway north of Beirut, supporters of Gen. Michel
Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement and a Hezbollah ally,
clashed with men loyal to Samir Geagea, a government ally,
throughout the day.
"It is a revolution against us. They are attacking us with stones and
burning pictures of our leaders and blocking our roads," said Ibrahim
Hijazi, 29, who said he supports the government. Reuters reported
late today that one of the protesters killed was a supporter of
Mr. Geagea from Batroun in northern Lebanon, and the other was
a Sunni from the northern capital of Tripoli. Stores and businesses
in many parts of the country remained closed in observance of
a general strike called by Mr. Nasrallah. Much of the city came to
a halt as streets were empty and many neighborhoods blanketed
in thick black smoke from the burning tires.
At Rafiq Hariri International Airport, Lebanon's only civilian airport,
Hezbollah men wearing black ski masks and brandishing batons
blocked travelers from getting in. Although the airport remained
open, most employees were absent and many flights into Beirut
were cancelled.
"I am Jordanian, and Hezbollah won't let me reach the airport to
leave here," said Sari Tahseen Ali, who lives in Abu Dhabi. "They
told me to change my flight to another day because today they
are not allowing people out. This is chaos."
A few passengers who landed in Beirut today were forced to drag
their bags up the road past the roadblock to catch taxis. Opposition
leaders insisted their supporters were "peacefully" protesting when
residents began hurling stones at them. Mr. Nasrallah has declared
in the past that he would not be dragged into a sectarian conflict
with Lebanon's Sunni leaders, who stand to lose the most if Hezbollah
wins.
Until now, the opposition protest has largely been noisy but peaceful,
as both sides dug in for a long fight. Hezbollah, together with the
Christian Free Patriotic Movement and several smaller groups,
descended on Beirut last month, calling for Mr. Siniora's resignation
and for early parliamentary elections in order to form a so-called
national unity government in which Hezbollah and its allies would
have veto power.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- At least two people with ties to the Black
Panthers were arrested Tuesday in the 1971 killing of a San Francisco p
olice officer, authorities said.
The names of the two people arrested weren't immediately released,
but police planned a news conference later in the day, Sgt. Neville
Gittens said.
The suspects were members of the Black Liberation Army, a violent
offshoot of the Black Panther Party that was active in the Bay Area
in the 1970s and early 1980s, authorities said.
The victim was police Sgt. John V. Young, 51, who was killed in an
attack on a police station that also injured a civilian clerk.
Three men were charged in the attack in early 1975, but those
charges were dismissed by a San Francisco judge because of an
earlier ruling that evidence was obtained by torture after the
suspects were arrested in New Orleans.
A legal newspaper had reported last week that arrests of up to nine
people were imminent in California and three other states. The San
Francisco Daily Journal said it based its report on a document filed
in an Oklahoma City courthouse, which was later sealed.
It said the document was a motion by Special Assistant Attorney
General David Druliner seeking to seal papers related to a search
warrant seeking DNA samples from John Bowman, who died Dec. 28.
Associated Press Writers Juliana Barbassa and Michelle Locke
contributed to this report.
"The situation in Iraq is dire," Lt. Gen. David Petraeus told the Senate
Armed Services Committee today. But he said the planned increase
in troop levels and new tactics should enable American and Iraqi
forces to provide security in Baghdad.
Nominated by President Bush to take over command of United States
forces in Iraq and needing Senate confirmation for promotion to the
rank required for the post, General Petraeus faced questioning this
morning that was friendly on the personal level but showed clear
differences over policy toward Iraq.
General Petraeus warned the senators on the committee not to
expect any quick turnaround in the situation in Baghdad, where simple
survival, he said, is the main objective of most people. Because of the
violence, hthe Iraqi government "has found it difficult to gain traction,"
he said at the hearing.
The general said that the military's new approach will be for American
and Iraqi military units to remain in areas they have cleared, providing
a "persistent presence" that will allow Iraqi civilian leaders to make the
political deals and compromises necessary for long-term stability.
"None of this will be rapid," he said, but "hard is not hopeless."
Responding to a question from Senator John McCain, Republican of
Arizona, General Petraeus said that an early withdrawal of American
forces from Iraq would prompt an increase in sectarian violence and
probably lead neighboring powers to interfere there.
But if the American and Iraqi forces working together can begin to
suppress the violence, they would be welcomed by the people.
"The population wants security, no matter who provides it," he said.
General Petraeus said he was unsure how long the additional 21,500
troops being dispatched by President Bush would have to remain
in Iraq, saying he will have to assess the situation once he takes
The general, who recently oversaw a rewriting of the Army's manual
on how to cope with insurgencies, is "well qualified for this command,"
said Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan and the chairman
of the committee.
When I went into the yard several days ago, (OK--cage) I couldn't help
but be shocked.
It was still dark, as the sun hadn't yet risen, not quite 7 a.m.
It was nearly 60 degrees.
When I felt how warm it was, I was absolutely stunned.
The grass was still green, and it felt like a moist, spring morning.
I couldn't help but think of global warming -- the dumping of tons
of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which traps heat near
the earth's surface, like a blanket on a bed.
It has been clearer than I've ever seen it in over 50 years of life.
I then thought that it was a mixed blessing that Al Gore wasn't
elected in 2000, for if he had been it's doubtful that he would've
been so outspoken about the causes of global warming, and the
consequences for the powerful oil companies.
The theft of the election freed him to spend his time and attention
on a matter close to his heart, and his resultant filmed lecture
(and book), *An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency
of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It* (Melcher Media/Rodale)
has reached more people, at a deeper level, than any presidential
press conference could've.
Although long derided by corporate-paid pundits and conservatives
(why are people called 'conservatives' who don't care about conservation
of the planet?) as tree-huggers and many environmentalists who
want to destroy U.S. business, there are few thinking people who
dare to challenge the obvious signs of global warming. In December
and January, cherry blossoms bloom in Washington, D.C. Flowers
and bugs react to the warmth like it's an early spring.
In the frigid polar region, polar bears are drowning -- drowning! --
because of the growing distance between ice floes.
Human habitation (at least in cities) is endangered in this new
world formed by human hands.
How serious is global warming? Jim Hanson, Director of NASA's
Goddard Institute for Space Studies, wrote recently in *The New
York Review of Books* (7/13/06) in the article, "The Threat to the
Planet", what the difference of 5 degrees warmth means to global
sea levels:
"Here too, our best information comes from the Earth's history.
The last time that the Earth was five degrees warmer was three
million years ago, when sea level was about eighty feet higher.
"Eighty feet! In that case, the United States would lose most East
Coast cities: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Miami;
indeed, practically the entire state of Florida would be under water.
Fifty million people in the US live below that sea level. Other places
would fare worse. China would have 250 million displaced persons.
Bangladesh would produce 120 million refugees, practically the entire
nation. India would lose the land of 150 million people." [p. 13]
That means the land and living areas for over 570 million people,
all around the world would go underwater: *5 degrees!*
Never in human history have people caused so much vast devastation
on such a scale.
*This* is civilization?
This is one of the costs of 'the American way of life.'
The catastrophe threatened by such an ecological crisis kinda puts
terrorism on another plane of worry, doesn't it?
There have been wars and rumors of wars for fuels that are contributing
to the destruction of the earth, and the flooding of its cities.
Politicians haven't moved a muscle to solve this very real crisis. That's
because they are, by their very nature, but henchmen for corporations,
which are concerned only about profit.
This system ain't the solution. Indeed, it is the problem.
Only the people, repudiating the system, can begin to change this
emergent tragedy, by working together to build a new world.
Copyright 2007 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Largely unpublicized, Sean Bell's (murdered by 50 police bullets) Mother
has been sitting in Vigil outside the perpetrators' Precinct (also the
same one that murdered Clifford Glover) Awaiting Justice for her son.
The Community must back her valiant stand -- confront those
Responsible. To that end the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee is
Urging everyone who has the ability to come to the Precinct in Support
of this Brave Mother. Our savvy informs us that had the dead and
wounded been cops... arrests and jail would have been instantaneous!!!
Take a Stand against the ongoing horror of Apartheid in the US,
in NYC, in Queens!!!
Don't Allow Righteous Anger to Be Swept Under their "Business as
Usual" Rug!!! Be There!!!! Join Us!!!
Precinct Location:
Public Transportation: F train to 169St Hillside Avenue Jamaica
J train (BMT) to last stop Jamaica Ave / Jamaica
Cars Leaving from Brooklyn at 5:30. Call 212-625-9696 to coordinate
Here is how you can support the 50day Sean Bell Vigil in Queens:
It is a 50day, 24hour, 7day a week vigil, begun on Monday, January 1st,
and concluding on Monday, February 19th. I think it obvious that
the 50 days symbolize the 50 bullets fired at Sean Bell and his friends.
The vigil is taking place directly across from the 103rd precinct,
on 168th Street, right off Jamaica Avenue and 91st Avenue, in the
Jamaica, Queens section of New York City. You can use MAPQUEST
or GOOGLE to get directions either via public transportation or by driving.
There is a need for people of all backgrounds and all persuasions
to participate in the vigil in shifts, day and night, weekday and weekend.
Even if you can only participate for an hour or two each week, please
come out. The weather has been unseasonably warm, but we are in the
dead of winter, and it is going to be mad cold out there. Please let's
not let Mrs. Bell, Sean Bell's mother, who called for this vigil, and
the Bell family, to do this alone.
PLEASE CALL 1-866-695-2992 if you would like to participate
in the vigil, or offer support.
From a distance, it looks as if an early thaw has arrived on the University
of Oregon campus, as hundreds of thousands of red and white flecks
stand out brilliantly like new tulips against the green grass.
Hundreds of volunteers stoop, planting bright colors like nymphs
creating a spring landscape.
Some passers-by on Sunday smiled as they came upon the vivid
scene, stretching between Alder and University streets, and from
the Knight Library to East 13th Avenue.
But their smiles evaporated as they learned that each of the 120,000
white flags symbolizes six or seven dead civilians since the start
of the war in Iraq in 2003. And that the patch of 3,000 red flags
represents the 3,055 U.S. soldiers killed as of Saturday.
The flags are the Iraq Body Count Memorial, started in October
at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in an attempt to make abstract
death toll numbers more real to the public, said Monica Vaughan,
a 24-year-old graduate student who helped bring the weeklong
exhibit to the UO.
"We're trying to drive home the impact of the real cost of war, which
is human lives," Vaughan said. "It's not necessarily a protest,
it's a memorial."
Volunteers from the university and community began planting
the markers at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, neatly placing them in the wet
dirt in tidy rows. They finished just before 5 p.m.
As she planted flag after flag, Eugene resident Rachel Jordan
said knowing that each represented at least six dead Iraqis
was mind-boggling.
"I feel so sorry, it's hard to put it into words - it's just overwhelming,"
she said. "The war is so far removed from our daily lives. I just think
it's a highly effective way to bring it home to people."
Nearly every person strolling through the area immediately began
to read the many signs posted explaining the purpose
of the memorial.
A mother explained to her two young sons that there were almost
as many flags as the population of Eugene. A group of students
snapped pictures on their camera phones. Many others took handfuls
of flags and began sticking them into the ground.
"There's just so much, it's hard to even believe," UO freshman Jon
Duppre said as he left the library, heading for his dorm. "I don't
know what to feel. Those are human beings we're talking about,
who had lives and families."
Vaughan said several student and community groups worked together
to bring the exhibit to Eugene after some had seen the display
in Colorado.
Creators hope to take the memorial on a national tour - with Lane
Community College, Reed College in Portland and the University
of California, Berkeley, already having expressed interest in hosting
the flags, she said.
Along with raising consciousness and providing information, Vaughan
said each site would also work to raise money to buy more flags
in order to keep up with the rising death toll.
"I think it's important to come together in the community and mourn
together," she said. "Even for people who are pro-war, it's a chance
for them to mourn the dead."
The White House spin ahead of George W. Bush's seventh State
of the Union address was that the president would make a bipartisan
call to revive his domestic agenda with "bold and innovative concepts."
The problem with that was obvious last night — in six years, Mr. Bush
has shown no interest in bipartisanship, and his domestic agenda was
set years ago, with huge tax cuts for wealthy Americans and crippling
debt for the country.
Combined with the mounting cost of the war in Iraq, that makes
boldness and innovation impossible unless Mr. Bush truly changes
course. And he gave no hint of that last night. Instead, he offered
up a tepid menu of ideas that would change little: a health insurance
notion that would make only a tiny dent in a huge problem. More
promises about cutting oil consumption with barely a word about
global warming. And the same lip service about immigration
reform on which he has failed to deliver.
At times, Mr. Bush sounded almost as if he'd gotten the message
of the 2006 elections. "Our citizens don't much care which side
of the aisle we sit on — as long as we are willing to cross that
aisle when there is work to be done," he said.
But we've heard that from Mr. Bush before. In early 2001, he promised
to bring Americans together and instead embarked on his irresponsible
tax cuts, a divisive right-wing social agenda and a neo-conservative
foreign policy that tore up international treaties and alienated even
America's closest allies. In the wake of 9/11, Mr. Bush had a second
chance to rally the nation — and the world — only to squander it on
a pointless, catastrophic war in Iraq. Mr. Bush promised
bipartisanship after his re-election in 2004, and again after
Hurricane Katrina. Always, he failed to deliver. He did not even
mention New Orleans last night.
When Republicans controlled Congress and the White House,
Mr. Bush's only real interest was in making their majority
permanent; consultation meant telling the Democrats what
he had decided.
Neither broken promises nor failed policies changed Mr. Bush's
mind. So the nation has been saddled with tax cuts that have turned
a budget surplus into a big deficit, education reform that has been
badly managed and underfinanced, far-right judges with scant
qualifications, the dismantling of regulations in order to benefit
corporations at the expense of workers, and a triumph of ideology
over science in policy making on the environment and medical
research. All along, Americans' civil liberties and the constitutional
balance have been trampled by a president determined to assert
ever more power.
Now that the Democrats have taken Congress, Mr. Bush is acting
as if he'd had the door to compromise open all along and the
Democrats had refused to walk through it.
Last night, Mr. Bush also acted as if he were really doing something
to help the 47 million people in this country who don't have health
insurance. What he offered, by the White House's own estimate,
would take a few million off that scandalously high number and
shift the burden to the states. Mr. Bush's plan would put a new
tax on Americans who were lucky enough to still have good
health-care coverage through their employers. Some large portion
of those are middle class and represented by the labor unions
that Mr. Bush and the Republicans are dedicated to destroying.
Mr. Bush's comments on Iraq added nothing to his failed policies.
He did, at last, propose a permanent increase in the size of the
Army and Marines that would repair some of the damage he has
done to those forces. But that would take years, and it would do
nothing to halt Iraq's spiral. Mr. Bush failed to explain how he
would pay for a larger force, which would almost certainly require
cutting budget-busting weapons programs. That would mean
going up against the arms industry and its lobbyists — something
Mr. Bush has never been willing to do.
Mr. Bush almost certainly didn't intend it, but his speech did
reinforce one vital political fact — that it's not just up to him
anymore. There was a big change last night: the audience. Instead
of solid Republican majorities marching in lock step with the White
House, Congress is controlled by Democrats. It will be their task
to give leadership to a nation that desperately wants change and
expects its leaders to work together to deliver it. The Democrats'
challenge will be to form real coalitions with willing Republicans.
If they do, Mr. Bush may even be forced, finally, to compromise.
Say what you will about the flaws and shortcomings of the two-
party system. After six years of the Bush presidency, at least we
know it's a lot better than the one-party system.
11) MY TWO CENTS
BY BONNIE WEINSTEIN
The Democrats stood up and cheered Bush on his comments
about expanding homeland security; funding and supporting our troops
and the giant U.S. war machine; fighting the war on terror;
increasing the U.S. standing military; securing our borders; adopting
an "immigration policy" that's NOT amnesty; renewal of the
No Child Left Behind act; and, the need to win the war in Iraq and
Afghanistan to save American face. What they disagree about is how
to most effectively achieve all these goals!
And, oh! yes, Hillary did mention New Orleans and the need to
rebuild it. But I got news for Hillary. They are re-building it. But
they are tearing down all public housing and all the communities
previously inhabited by the Black and poor and putting in its stead,
a predominantly rich and white Disneyland version of New Orleans
and relegating the remnants of the Black and poor population of
New Orleans homeless and in a perpetual state of rising
unemployment and abject poverty under conditions of complete
police occupation!
I can't help but be reminded of the formative years of the Vietnam
war that also saw a massive ferment of struggle for Black liberation
as well as a vocal, well organized, united antiwar movement that
took to the streets in the millions. The "liberal" Democrats, then too, were
trying to devise ways for the U.S. to win that war. Certainly, the
Vietnamese people were not going to tolerate U.S. occupation and
carried out a most heroic fight for their right to self-determination
and the American troops learned quickly that the war was
unwinnable against an entire civilian population that wants the U.S. OUT
OF THEIR COUNTRY!
The voices of the people of Iraq and Afghanistan are loud and clear--
they overwhelmingly want the U.S. out of their country NOW!
We need a strongly united antiwar movement capable of organizing
millions of people to take to the streets to demand:
U.S. OUT OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN!
END ALL AID TO ISRAEL!
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
INSTEAD OF BUILDING WAR MACHINES AND USING THEM ALL
OVER THE WORLD--REBUILD NEW ORLEANS AND GUARANTEE
HOUSING FOR EVERYONE! FREE HEALTHCARE, EDUCATION FOR
ALL! MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR EVERYWHERE IN
THE WORLD!
WE NEED TO RECLAIM THE WORLD FOR ALL OF HUMANITY AND
THE PLANET THAT SUPPORTS US--NOT FOR THE NARROW
INTERESTS OF THE PROFIT MONGERS--THE U.S. OIL BARONS!
ALL OUT SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, NOON, POWELL AND MARKET, SF
(If you can volunteer to help the day of the demonstration show
up at 10:00 a.m. at Powell and Market.)
NOT ONE MORE DIME--NOT ONE MORE LIFE!
With DNA From Exhumed Body, Man Finally Wins Freedom
By FERNANDA SANTOS
"AUBURN, N.Y., Jan. 23 — Roy Brown, who spent 15 years in prison
on a murder conviction and uncovered evidence while there that
linked another man to the crime, was released from prison on
Tuesday after DNA tests on the other man's exhumed body
matched saliva on a nightshirt at the crime scene."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/nyregion/24brown.html
Cingular Profits Nearly Quadruple in 4th Quarter
Filed at 2:04 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Earns-ATT-Cingular.html
Man may sue Qantas over Bush T-shirt ban
A Melbourne man is seeking legal advice after Qantas stopped him
from boarding a flight because he was wearing a T-shirt that
depicted US President George W Bush as a terrorist.
Qantas officials told Allen Jasson his T-shirt was offensive and
could cause a security risk, as he tried to board a London bound
flight from Melbourne.
Mr Jasson says Mr Bush has led an illegal war in Iraq.
The 55-year-old says it is his democratic right
to express a political view.
"It's not about affronting anyone and it's certainly not an
offensive statement," he said.
Melbourne QC and civil liberties advocate Robert Richter
says the ban is outrageous.
"You see T-shirts like that on the streets of New York and you
don't see American police telling people to take off
their T-shirts," he said.
Qantas says it will allow Mr Jasson to board another flight,
as long as he removes the T-shirt.
The IT specialist says the T-shirt merely expresses his
view that the US-led war in Iraq is illegal.
"It's an important statement," he said.
"It's a statement that encapsulates the values and
important beliefs that I hold."
Mr Richter says T-shirts with political slogans are common.
"[Fellow passengers] don't have to read it, they don't
have to look at him," he said.
"They can come up to him and say that they disagree but
to think that might incite some problem is absurd."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1831559.htm
Bush Continues to Unite the World... Against Him
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0123-04.htm
UN Climate Panel to Project Wrenching Change
Menopause at 30 for Millions in Poverty
Israeli Separation Barrier is Cutting off Palestinians from Their Livelihood
Tuna Stocks Close to Exhaustion, Says WWF
Israel's President to Be Indicted in Rape Case
By GREG MYRE
"JERUSALEM, Jan. 23 — Israel's attorney general plans to indict the
country's president, Moshe Katsav, on charges of rape and other
sexual offenses, the Justice Ministry announced today."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/world/middleeast/23cnd-israel.html?
hp&ex=1169614800&en=7895701811d23e48&ei=5094∂ner=homepage
Bank of America Profit Rises 47%
By ERIC DASH
Big gains in equity investments buoyed Bank of America's earnings
in the fourth quarter, which were up 47 percent from the same period
in 2005, the bank reported today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/business/23cnd-bank.html?_r=1∨ef=slogin
US Warns Iran to Back Down
A second US aircraft carrier strike group now steaming toward the
Middle East is Washington's way of warning Iran to back down in its attempts
to dominate the region, a top US diplomat said in Dubai Tuesday.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012307A.shtml
Ecstasy trials for combat stress
David Adam, science correspondent
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1416073,00.html
UN Study Backs Climate Theory: Humans Cause Global Warming
US Media Overlooked Major Humanitarian Stories in 2006
Cost of Iraq War Skyrockets to $8 Billion a Month
The steadily rising Iraq war price tag will reach about $8.4 billion a
month this year, Pentagon spokesmen said on Thursday, as heavy
replacement costs for lost, destroyed and aging equipment mount.
US Plans Envision Broad Attack on Iran: Analyst
US contingency planning for military action against Iran's nuclear
program goes beyond limited strikes and would effectively unleash a war
against the country, a former US intelligence analyst said on Friday.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012007B.shtml
Furor Over 12-Year-Old Actress's Rape Scene
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/movies/20dako.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
Bush to Urge New Tax Plan for Health Care
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and ROBERT PEAR
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/washington/21health.html?
hp&ex=1169355600&en=768f7fdf5d41e18c&ei=5094∂ner=homepage
Forget that old line about "What's good for GM is good for America"
How the social glue of America is being dissolved
January 2006, Volume 8, Number 1
http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/488
U.S. to Renegotiate Labor Rights
The Bush administration said it would renegotiate the language
covering labor rights in free trade agreements it has reached with
Peru, Colombia and Panama, in order for the new Democratic
Congress to approve the deals. John K. Veroneau, deputy United
States trade representative, said that the three countries had been
notified and predicted that an agreement on revised language could
be reached without a lengthy delay. The announcement was the
strongest signal to date that the administration was prepared
to modify its trade policies in light of Democratic control of the
House and Senate. Democrats, backed by American labor unions,
have long complained that the free trade deals negotiated
by the administration do not include enough protections
for American workers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/business/worldbusiness/18fobriefs-labor.html
Antiques Dealer Sues to Bar Homeless From Sidewalk
By TRYMAINE LEE
"A Manhattan antiques dealer has filed a lawsuit against a small group
of homeless people claiming that they are disrupting his business
by using the sidewalk outside his high-end East Side store as a urinal,
a spittoon and an occasional dressing room, according to the suit
and the dealer's lawyer."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/nyregion/18suit.html?ref=nyregion
Justices Scrutinize Death Penalty in Texas
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/washington/18scotus.html
Army Denies Watada Illegal-War Defense
Israeli General Resigns Over War With Hezbollah
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/world/middleeast/17israel.html?
hp&ex=1169096400&en=49902c1723a2c943&ei=5094∂ner=homepage
Second Iraq Hanging Also Went Awry
By JOHN F. BURNS
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/world/middleeast/16hang.html?_r=1∨ef=slogin
U.N. Puts '06 Death Toll in Iraq Above 34,000
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/world/middleeast/16cnd-iraq.html?
hp&ex=1169010000&en=934ebfa88b7db5cb&ei=5094∂ner=homepage
New Orleans Veterans for Peace
http://foodmusicjustice.com/2007/01/10/new-orleans-veterans-for-peace/
Guantanamo Uncassified
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5E3w7ME6Fs
Blue Man Group on Global Warming
http://video. google.com/ videoplay? docid=8453442377 878175440
Iraq to give Western companies oil rights: report
Last Updated: Monday, January 8, 2007 | 12:29 PM ET
The Iraqi government plans to introduce a law that will give Western
oil companies rights to the country's huge oil reserves,
a British newspaper says.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/01/08/iraq-oil.html#skip300x250
Service members to Congress: End Iraq war
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jan 16, 2007 16:37:16 EST
http://www.navytime s.com/news/ 2007/01/tnsRedre ss070116/
Grumbling in the Ranks
Vocal opposition to President's Bush's strategy of sending more than 20,000
additional troops to help secure Iraq has grown to include some of the
troops themselves.
A group of more than 50 active-duty military officers will deliver a
petition to Congress on Tuesday signed by about 1,000 troops calling for an
end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. "Any troop increase over here will just
produce more sitting ducks, more targets," said Sergeant Ronn Cantu, who is
serving in Iraq.
Under the 1988 Military Whistleblower Protection Act, active duty military,
National Guard, and Reservists may communicate with any member of Congress
without fear of reprisal, even if copies of the communication are sent to
www.marxmail.org
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/01/15/grumbling-in-the-ranks/trackback/
Anywhere the Eye Can See, It's Likely to See an Ad
By LOUISE STORY
Add this to the endangered list: blank spaces.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/media/15everywhere.html?ref=business
Bush gets cool response from troops set for Iraq
By Joseph Curl
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20070112-120719-1724r.htm
Brazil Gambles on Monitoring of Amazon Loggers
By LARRY ROHTER
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/world/americas/14amazon.html?
_r=1&ref=world∨ef=slogin
Pentagon Intensifies Pressure on Iran
Israeli forces confiscating hundreds of dunams of Hebron
land for settlement industry
"Official sources at the Hebron offices of the Land Defense Committee
in the West Bank are reporting that Israeli forces intend to confiscate
much of the town of Dahariya for settlement industry. More than
300 fertile dunams of Palestinian land is slated to be taken from
the southwestern area of the town."
http://english. pnn.ps/index. php?option= com_content&task=view&id=1414
Hackensack: Lawsuit in Police Shooting
By KAREEM FAHIM
The family of a 45-year-old man who was fatally shot last year by
a New Jersey Park Police officer filed a wrongful-death suit yesterday
in State Superior Court. The suit names the officer and several
colleagues, the State of New Jersey and the Park Police. The man,
Emil Mann, a member of the Ramapough Mountain Indians, had
been at a barbecue in the woods of Mahwah on April 1 when the
officer, Chad Walder, shot him twice without justification, the
suit alleges. Officer Walder, who has said he fired in self-defense,
and two other officers also delayed getting medical help to Mr. Mann,
the suit says. A lawyer for Officer Walder, Robert Galantucci, said
the shooting was justified. No criminal charges have been filed
in the case, and the Bergen County prosecutor's office has said
the investigation is still open. Mr. Mann, who grew up on the
mountain where he was shot, lived in Monroe, N.Y., and had
three children.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/nyregion/12mbrfs-emil.html
Texas: Judge Blocks Ordinance on Immigrants
A judge blocked an ordinance requiring landlords to verify the
citizenship of potential tenants, a day before it was to go into
effect in a Dallas suburb. The judge granted a temporary
restraining order after a claim that state open-meetings laws
had been violated when the ordinance was approved and
adopted by the City Council of Farmers Branch in November.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/us/12brfs-LANDLORDS.html
U.S. Preparing for Trials of Top Qaeda Detainees
By DAVID JOHNSTON and NEIL A. LEWIS
WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 — The Bush administration has set up a secret
war room in a Virginia suburb where it is assembling evidence
to prosecute high-ranking detainees from Al Qaeda including
the man accused of being the mastermind of the September 2001
attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, government officials said this week.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/washington/12terror.html?ref=us
Bush's tough tactics are a 'declaration of war' on Iran
By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2145136.ece
Democrats Risk Antiwar Wrath if They Waver on Iraq Exit
Soldiers Doubt an Influx of American Troops Will Benefit Iraqi Army
Bush to Face Street Protests over Iraq Escalation Plan
YouTube User Spurs Iraq War Dialogue
Robert Fisk: Bush's new strategy - the march of folly
So into the graveyard of Iraq, George Bush, commander-in-chief,
is to send another 21,000 of his soldiers. The march of folly
is to continue...
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2144057.ece
Rights of Unions and Nonmembers Vie at Court
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/washington/11scotus.html?ref=us
If you can stomach it:
Transcript of President Bush's Address to Nation on U.S. Policy in Iraq
as recorded by The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/us/11ptext.html
Israel's Purging of Palestinian Christians
by Jonathan Cook in Nazareth
www.dissidentvoice.org
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan07/Cook09.htm
Democrats Beef Police State With 9/11 Commission Bill
Political "opposition" also helping Bush gain traction for Iran military strike
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2007/100107democratsbeef.htm
Wage Increase Could Hinge on Tax Cuts
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/washington/10wage.html?
hp&ex=1168491600&en=91d9820f1ef98a84&ei=5094∂ner=homepage
Britain: An Increase in Profit at the London Stock Exchange
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
The London Stock Exchange, seeking to fend off a hostile takeover
by the Nasdaq Stock Market, reported a 9.9 percent increase in
third-quarter profit and forecast a "strong performance" in fiscal
2008. Net income rose to £31 million ($59.8 million) in the three
months ended Dec. 31, up from £28.2 million a year earlier, the
exchange said. Revenue increased 11 percent, to £89.9 million
($173.5 million). The third-quarter results "support the board's
rejection of Nasdaq's offer, which significantly undervalues the
business and the exchange's unique strategic position," the
exchange's chief executive, Clara Furse, said. "Our strong growth
prospects will continue to enhance the quality of our markets."
The exchange, Europe's biggest equity market, released its
earnings about three weeks ahead of schedule and two days
before Nasdaq's offer to pay £12.43 a share expires.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/business/worldbusiness/10fobriefs-
ANINCREASEIN_BRF.html
Venezuelan Plan Shakes Investors
By SIMON ROMERO and CLIFFORD KRAUSS
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/business/worldbusiness/10venezuela.html?
ref=business
Mayor Finds Friendly Ears on Senate Homeland Security Panel
By SEWELL CHAN and ERIC LIPTON
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took his perennial
pitch for more security money to Congress on Tuesday, but this year,
for a change, lawmakers seemed poised to listen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/nyregion/10bloomberg.html?ref=nyregion
3 Relatives of Plotter Are Held by Officials
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/nyregion/10plot.html?ref=nyregion
Gas-Like Odor Permeates Parts of New York City
By CHRISTINE HAUSER and SEWELL CHAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/nyregion/08cnd-odor.html?
hp&ex=1168318800&en=b688635a7be2e78d&ei=5094∂ner=homepage
The Second Declaration of Havana
Walter Lippmann, CubaNews Los Angeles, California
This is one of the great political documents of all time. It was
presented to the Cuban people on February 4, 1962, following Cuba's
expulsion from the Organization of American States. It is printed
here in its entirety. [editorial note from Fidel Castro Speaks,
edited by James Petras and Martin Kenner, Grove Press, 1969.]
It is now web-posted in English here:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/fc-02-04-1962.html
Original Spanish:
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/1962/esp/f040262e.html
The universe gives up its deepest secret
It is the invisible material that makes up most of the cosmos.
Now, scientists have created the first image of dark matter
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2134891.ece
Blood and oil: How the West will profit from Iraq's
most precious commodity
The Independent (UK)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132574.ece
SCROLL DOWN TO READ:
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS (IN FULL DETAIL)
REPORT BACK ON VENEZUELA
7:00 PM Saturday, January 13
522 Valencia Street , 3rd Floor Auditorium
Hear about:
-Factories run by workers
-The election turnout for Hugo Chavez
-Occupied factories
-Socialism of the 21st Century
See: A short film on current developments
in Venezuela .
-John Peterson, National Secretary
of US Hands Off Venezuela (recently
returned from Venezuela )
-A speaker from Global Exchange
-A speaker from Global Women's
Strike, San Francisco Bay Area
-An opportunity for discussion will follow
the presentations.
Sponsored by Hands Off Venezuela
Hands Off Venezuela is an international
organization dedicated to the principle
that the people of Venezuela have the
right to determine their own destiny
without interference from foreign
countries.
email sfbay@ushov.org
web www.ushov.org
ACT NOW TO END THE WAR!
VOLUNTEER Live in NYC or DC? We need your help
before and during the protest. Call 212-868-5545
STAYINFORMED Visit www.unitedforpeace.org for
updated information and to sign up for our action alerts
DONATE Whether you can contribute $10, $100, or
$1000, we need your support to help end the war!
Call 212-866-5545 or visit www.unitedforpeace.org/donate
Join us for a massive
march on Washington
to tell the new Congress:
unitedforpeace&justice
www.unitedforpeace.org (212)868-5545
On Election Day the voters delivered a dramatic,
unmistakable mandate for peace. Now it's time for action.
On Jan. 27, 2007, help send a strong, clear message to
Congress and the Bush Administration:
Bring the troops home now!
MARCH ON THE PENTAGON
U.S. OUT OF IRAQ NOW
From Iraq to New Orleans, Fund the People's Needs NOT THE
WAR MACHINE! End Colonial Occupation: Iraq, Palestine, Haiti and
everywhere! Shut Down Guantanamo
AnswerCoalition.org
LYNNE STEWART AND MICHAEL RATNER IN BAY AREA
FEBRUARY 23-25 (Lynne and her husband Ralph will
stay on several more days. Stay tuned for complete
schedule of events.)
Dear Friends of Lynne Stewart,
I am pleased to announce that Lynne Stewart and Michael Ratner have
just accepted our invitation to tour the Bay Area. The confirmed
dates are February 23-25, 2007. Lynne, accompanied by her husband
Ralph Poynter, will stay on several more days for additional meetings.
Jeff Mackler,
West Coast Coordinator, Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
Co-Coordinator, Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
May Day 2007
National Mobilization to Support Immigrant Workers!
Web: http://www.MayDay2007.net
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
No Immigrant Bashing! Support Immigrant Rights!
webpage: http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org
e-mail: info@ImmigrantSolidarity.org
New York: (212)330-8172
Los Angeles: (213)403-0131
Washington D.C.: (202)595-8990
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use of these illegal weapons
URGENT APPEAL TO SAVE IRAQ'S ACADEMICS.
Call for action to save Iraq's Academics
A little known aspect of the tragedy engulfing Iraq is the systematic
liquidation of the country's academics. Even according to conservative
estimates, over 250 educators have been assassinated, and many
hundreds more have disappeared. With thousands fleeing the country
in fear for their lives, not only is Iraq undergoing a major brain drain,
the secular middle class - which has refused to be co-opted by the
US occupation - is being decimated, with far-reaching consequences
for the future of Iraq.
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/
ENDORSE THE A.N.S.W.E.R. CALL TO ACTION
GLOBAL DAYS OF ACTION ON THE
4TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WAR!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/Survey?
SURVEY_ID=3400&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&JServSessionIdr011=
k7a3443r73.app8a
http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_homepage
Please circulate widely
www.answercoalition.org
Hello, Everyone,
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=4
donvasicek.com.
MUST SEE: PBS VIDEO NOTEBOOK: A DAY AT THE PLANT
NOW's Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa takes us inside the
world's largest pork processing plant, located in Tar Heel, North
Carolina. As the first TV journalist ever allowed to film inside the
plant, owned by The Smithfield Packing Company, Hinojosa gives
us an insider's view of what conditions are like in a plant that
slaughters over 33,000 hogs per day.
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/250/smithfield.html
Rights activist held in Oaxaca prison
Three students arrested and held incommunicado in Oaxaca
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/80142.html
TAX THE RICH! FEED THE POOR! MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS, NOT WAR!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The following quote is from the 1918 anti-war speech delivered
in Canton, Ohio, by Eugene Debs. The address, protesting World War I,
resulted in Debs being arrested and imprisoned on charges of espionage.
The speech remains one of the great expressions of the militancy and
internationalism of the US working class.
His appeal, before sentencing, included one of his best-known quotes:
"...while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal
element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
Read the complete speech at:
http://douglassarchives.org/debs_a78.htm
!VIVA FIDEL! LONG LIVE FIDEL! LONG LIVE THE CUBAN REVOLUTION!
My Name is Roland Sheppard
This Is My `Blog'
I am is a retired Business Representative of Painters District
Council #8 in San Francisco. I have been a life long social activist
and socialist. Roland Sheppard is a retired Business Representative
of Painters District Council #8 in San Francisco. I have been
a life long social activist and socialist.
Prior to my being elected as a union official, I had worked
for 31 years as a house painter and have been a lifelong socialist.
I have led a unique life. In my retire age, I am interested in writing
about my experiences as a socialist, as a participant in the Black
Liberation Movement, the Union Movement, and almost all social
movements.
I became especially interested in the environment when I was
diagnosed with cancer due to my work environment. I learned
how to write essays, when I first got a computer in order to put
together all the medical legal arguments on my breakthrough
workers' compensation case in California, proving that my work
environment as a painter had caused my cancer. After a five-year
struggle, I won a $300,000 settlement on his case.
The following essays are based upon my involvement in the
struggle for freedom for all humanity. I hope the history
of my life's experiences will help future generations
of Freedom Fighters.
For this purpose, this website is dedicated.
web.mac.com/rolandgarret/iWeb/Site/RolandSheppardsBlog.html
The Corporate Looting of the Gulf Coast
Robin Hood in Reverse
http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley11132006.html
www.justiceforneworleans.org
For a detailed report:
Big, Easy Money: Disaster Profiteering on the American Gulf Coast
by Rita J. King, Special to CorpWatch
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14004
TAX FACT SHEET
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/901006_taxpolicy.pdf
Communist Manifesto illustrated by Disney [and other cartoons) with
words by K. Marx and F. Engels--absolutely wonderful!...bw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1oGIffyVVk&NR
Asylum Street Spankers-Magnetic Yellow Ribbon
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=bfMgRHRJ- tc
Homer Simpson Joins the Army
Another morale-booster from Groening and company. [If you get
a chance to see the whole thing, it's worth it...bw]
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/11/12/video-the-simpsons-salute-the-lazy-and
-uneducated/
A Look at the Numbers: How the Rich Get Richer
Clara Jeffery (May/June 2006 Issue
IN 1985, THE FORBES 400 were worth $221 billion combined.
Today, they re worth $1.13 trillion more than the GDP of Canada.
THERE'VE BEEN FEW new additions to the Forbes 400.
The median household income
has also stagnated at around $44,000.
AMONG THE FORBES 400 who gave to a 2004 presidential
campaign, 72% gave to Bush.
IN 2005, there were 9 million American millionaires,
a 62% increase since 2002.
IN 2005, 25.7 million Americans received food stamps,
ONLY ESTATES worth more than $1.5 million are taxed.
That's less than 1% of all estates
http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjon
es.com/news/exhibit/2006/05/perks_of_privilege.html
Do You Want to Stop PREVENT War with Iran?
Every day, pundits and military experts debate on TV when, how and where
war with Iran will occur. Can the nuclear program be destroyed? Will the
Iranian government retaliate in Iraq or use the oil weapon? Will it take
three or five days of bombing? Will the US bomb Iran with "tactical"
nuclear weapons?
Few discuss the human suffering that yet another war in the Middle East
will bring about. Few discuss the thousands and thousands of innocent
Iranian and American lives that will be lost. Few think ahead and ask
themselves what war will do to the cause of democracy in Iran or to
America's global standing.
Some dismiss the entire discussion and choose to believe that war simply
cannot happen. The US is overstretched, the task is too difficult, and
the world is against it, they say.
They are probably right, but these factors don't make war unlikely. They
just make a successful war unlikely.
At the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), we are not going to
We are actively working to stop the war and we need your help!
Working with a coalition of peace and security organizations in
Washington DC, NIAC is adding a crucial dimension to this debate - the
voice of the Iranian-American community.
Through our US-Iran Media Resource Program
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkFbIfQs8eafpLV5/
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkFbIfQs8eafpLV5/ , we help
the media ask the right questions and bring attention to the human side
of this issue.
Through the LegWatch program
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabummRbIfQs8eafpLV5/
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabummRbIfQs8eafpLV5/ ,
we are building opposition to the war on Capitol Hill. We spell out the
consequences of war and the concerns of the Iranian-American community
on Hill panels
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkGbIfQs8eafpLV5/
and in direct meetings with lawmakers. We recently helped more than a dozen
Members of Congress - both Republican and Democrats - send a strong
message against war to the White House
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkHbIfQs8eafpLV5/
But more is needed, and we need your help!
If you don't wish to see Iran turn into yet another Iraq, please make a
contribution online or send in a check to:
2801 M St NW
Make the check out to NIAC and mark it "NO WAR."
ALL donations are welcome, both big and small. And just so you know,
your donations make a huge difference. Before you leave the office
today, please make a contribution to stop the war.
President of NIAC
U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW)
www.uslaboragainstwar.org
http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/
Email: info@uslaboragainstwar.org
1718 "M" Street, NW
Voicemail: 202/521-5265
Co-convenors: Gene Bruskin, Maria Guillen, Fred Mason,
Bob Muehlenkamp, and Nancy Wohlforth
Michael Eisenscher, National Organizer & Website Coordinator
Virginia Rodino, Organizer
Adrienne Nicosia, Administrative Staff
Immigration video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tacK8MAfuAs
Enforce the Roadless Rule for National Forests
Target: Michael Johanns, Secretary, USDA
Sponsor: Earthjustice
We, the Undersigned, endorse the following petition:
This past September, Earthjustice scored a huge victory for our roadless
national forests when a federal district court ordered the reinstatement
of the Roadless Rule.
The Roadless Rule protects roadless forest areas from road-building
and most logging. This is bad news for the timber, mining, and oil
& gas industries ... And so they're putting pressure on their friends
in the Bush Administration to challenge the victory.
Roadless area logging tends to target irreplaceable old growth forests.
Many of these majestic trees have stood for hundreds of years.
By targeting old-growth, the timber companies are destroying
natural treasures that cannot be replaced in our lifetime.
The future of nearly 50 million acres of wild, national forests
and grasslands hangs in the balance. Tell the secretary of the
USDA, Michael Johanns, to protect our roadless areas by enforcing
the Roadless Rule. The minute a road is cut through a forest, that
forest is precluded from being considered a "wilderness area," and
thus will not be covered by any of the Wilderness Area protections
afforded by Congress.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/112283692?z00m=6687205&z00m=668720
5<l=1162406255
Mumia Abu-Jamal - Reply brief, U.S. Court of Appeals (Please Circulate)
On October 23, 2006, the Fourth-Step Reply Brief of Appellee and
Cross-Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal was submitted to the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia. (Abu-Jamal v. Horn,
U.S. Ct. of Appeals Nos. 01-9014, 02-9001.)
Oral argument will likely be scheduled during the coming months.
I will advise when a hearing date is set.
The attached brief is of enormous consequence since it goes
to the essence of our client's right to a fair trial, due process
of law, and equal protection of the law, guaranteed by the Fifth,
Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The issues include:
Whether Mr. Abu-Jamal was denied the right to due process
of law and a fair trial because of the prosecutor's "appeal-after
-appeal" argument which encouraged the jury to disregard the
presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt, and err
on the side of guilt.
Whether the prosecution's exclusion of African Americans
from sitting on the jury violated Mr. Abu-Jamal's right
to due process and equal protection of the law,
in contravention of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986).
Whether Mr. Abu-Jamal was denied due process and equal
protection of the law during a post-conviction hearing
because of the bias and racism of Judge Albert F. Sabo,
who was overheard during the trial commenting that
he was "going to help'em fry the nigger."
That the federal court is hearing issues which concern
Mr. Abu-Jamal's right to a fair trial is a great milestone
in this struggle for human rights. This is the first time
that any court has made a ruling in nearly a quarter
of a century that could lead to a new trial and freedom.
Nevertheless, our client remains on Pennsylvania's death
row and in great danger.
Mr. Abu-Jamal, the "voice of the voiceless," is a powerful
symbol in the international campaign against the death
penalty and for political prisoners everywhere. The goal
of Professor Judith L. Ritter, associate counsel, and
I is to see that the many wrongs which have occurred
in this case are righted, and that at the conclusion
of a new trial our client is freed.
Your concern is appreciated
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *---------*---------*
Antiwar Web Site Created by Troops
A small group of active-duty military members opposed to the war
have created a Web site intended to collect thousands of signatures
of other service members. People can submit their name, rank and
duty station if they support statements denouncing the American
invasion. "Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price,"
the Web site, appealforredress.org, says. "It is time for U.S. troops
to come home." The electronic grievances will be passed along
to members of Congress, according to the Web site. Jonathan
Hutto, a Navy seaman based in Norfolk, Va., who set up the Web
site a month ago, said the group had collected 118 names and
was trying to verify that they were legitimate service members.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/washington/25brfs-005.html
Judge Orders Release of Abu Ghraib Child Rape Photos
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2006-10-23 20:54. Evidence
By Greg Mitchell, http://www.editorandpublisher.com
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/14864
Profound new assault on freedom of speech and assembly:
Manhattan: New Rules for Parade Permits
By AL BAKER
After recent court rulings found the Police Department's
parade regulations too vague, the department is moving
to require parade permits for groups of 10 or more
bicyclists or pedestrians who plan to travel more than
two city blocks without complying with traffic laws.
It is also pushing to require permits for groups of 30
or more bicyclists or pedestrians who obey traffic laws.
The new rules are expected to be unveiled in a public
notice today. The department will discuss them at
a hearing on Nov. 27. Norman Siegel, a lawyer whose
clients include bicyclists, said the new rules
"raise serious civil liberties issues."
http://www.nytimes. com/2006/ 10/18/nyregion/ 18mbrfs-002. html
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Soul-Sick Nation: An Astrologer's View of America
Jessica Murray
Format: Paperback (6x9)
Astrology and geopolitics may seem strange bedfellows, but
Soul-Sick Nation puts the two together to provide a perspective
as extraordinary as the times we are living in. Using the principles
of ancient wisdom to make sense of the current global situation,
this book invites us to look at the USA from the biggest possible
picture: that of cosmic meaning. With a rare blend of compassion,
humor and fearless taboo-busting, Soul-Sick Nation reveals
America's noble potential without sentiment and diagnoses
its neuroses without delusion, shedding new light on troubling
issues that the pundits and culture wars inflame but leave
painfully unresolved: the WTC bombings, the war in Iraq,
Islamic jihad, media propaganda, consumerism and the
American Dream.
In her interpretation of the birth chart of the entity born
July 4, 1776, Murray offers an in-depth analysis of America's
essential destiny--uncovering , chapter by chapter, the greater
purpose motivating this group soul. She shows how this
purpose has been distorted, and how it can be re-embraced
in the decades to come. She decodes current astrological
transits that express the key themes the USA must learn
in this period of millennial crisis-including that of the
responsibility of power-spelling out the profound lessons
the nation will face in the next few years.
Combining the rigor of a political theorist with the vision
of a master astrologer, this keenly intelligent book elucidates
the meaning of an epoch in distress, and proposes a path
towards healing-of the country and of its individual citizens.
Murray explains how each of us can come to terms with this
moment in history and arrive at a response that is unique
and creative. This book will leave you revitalized, shorn
of illusions and full of hope.
"Jessica Murray's Soul-Sick Nation raises the symbol-system
of astrology to the level of a finely-honed tool for the critical
work of social insight and commentary. Her unflinching,
in-depth analysis answers a crying need of our time. Murray's
application of laser beam-lucid common sense analysis
to the mire of illusions we've sunken into as a nation is
a courageous step in the right direction... Just breathtaking! "
--Raye Robertson, author of Culture, Media and the Collective Mind
" Jessica Murray,..a choice-centered, psychospiritually- oriented
astrologer.. . has quietly made a real difference in the lives of her
clients, one at a time. In "Soul Sick Nation," she applies exactly those
same skills to understanding America as a whole. Starting from
the premise that the United States is currently a troubled adolescent,
she applies an unflinching gaze to reach an ultimately compassionate
conclusion about how we can heal ourselves and grow up."
- Steven Forrest, author of The Inner Sky and The Changing Sky
http://www.authorho use.com/BookStor e/ItemDetail~ bookid~41780. aspx
Shop for a Donation at Al-Awda!
Interested in furthering your knowledge about Palestine
and its people?
Want to help make the Palestinian Right to Return a reality?
Looking for ways to show your support for Palestine and
Palestinian refugees?
Why not shop for a donation at Al-Awda
http://al-awda. org/shop. html
and help support a great organization and cause!!
Al-Awda offers a variety of educational materials including interesting
and unique books on everything from oral histories, photo books
on Palestinian refugees, to autobiographies, narratives, political
analysis, and culture. We also have historical maps of Palestine
(in Arabic and English), educational films, flags of various sizes,
and colorful greeting cards created by Palestinian children.
You can also show your support for a Free Palestine, and wear with
pride, great looking T-shirts, pendants, and a variety of Palestine pins.
Visit http://al-awda. org/shop. html for these great items, and more!
The Educational Supplies Division
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
E-mail: info@al-awda. org
WWW: http://al-awda. org
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC), is a broad-
based, non-partisan, democratic, and charitable organization of
grassroots activists and students committed to comprehensive public
education about the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their
homes and lands of origin, and to full restitution for all their confiscated
and destroyed property in accordance with the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, International law and the numerous United Nations
Resolutions upholding such rights (see FactSheet). Al-Awda, PRRC
is a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3)
organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the
United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations
to Al-Awda, PRRC are tax-deductible.
Excellent flash film that should be shown to all students.
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=ZFsaGv6cefw
In an interview in March 1995 entitled, "Jesse Helms: Setting the
Record Straight" that appeared in the Middle East Quarterly, Helms
said, "I have long believed that if the United States is going to give
money to Israel, it should be paid out of the Department of Defense
budget. My question is this: If Israel did not exist, what would
U.S. defense costs in the Middle East be? Israel is at least the
equivalent of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Middle East. Without
Israel promoting its and America's common interests, we would
be badly off indeed."
(Jesse Helms was the senior senator from North Carolina and the
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time.)
http://www.meforum. org/article/ 244
TWO AMICUS BRIEFS FILED FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL WITH
THE 3RD CIRCUIT FEDERAL APPEALS COURT IN JULY 2006
These pdf files can be found on Michael Schiffmann's web site at:
http://againstthecr imeofsilence. de/english/ copy_of_mumia/ legalarchive/
The first brief is from the National Lawyers Guild.
The second brief is from the NAACP Legal Defense
and Educational Fund, Inc.
Howard Keylor
For the Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
www.laboractionmumi a.org.
I urge everyone to get a copy of "Sir! No Sir!" at:
http://www.sirnosir .com/
It is an extremely informative and powerful film
of utmost importance today. I was a participant
in the anti-Vietnam war movement. What a
powerful thing it was to see troops in uniform
leading the march against the war! If you would
like to read more here are two very good
Out Now!: A Participant' s Account of the Movement
in the United States Against the Vietnam War
by Fred Halstead (Hardcover - Jun 1978)
GIs speak out against the war;: The case of the
Ft. Jackson 8; by Fred Halstead (Unknown Binding - 1970).
Both available at:
http://www.amazon. com/gp/search/ 103-1123166- 0136605?search- alias=books&
rank=
+availability, -proj-total- margin&field- author=Fred% 20Halstead
Bonnie Weinstein
Endorse the following petition:
Don't Let Idaho Kill Endangered Wolves
Target: Fish and Wildlife Service
Sponsor: Defenders of Wildlife
http://www.thepetit ionsite.com/ takeaction/ 664280276?
z00m=99090&z00m= 99090<l= 1155834550
Personalize the message text on the right with
your own words, if you wish.
Click the Next Step button to send your letter
to these decision makers:
Vice President Richard 'Dick' B. Cheney
Your Senators
Your Representative
Go here to register your outrage:
https://secure2. convio.net/ pep/site/ Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003= cga2p2o6x1. app2a&cmd= display&page= UserAction& id=177
Idriss Stelley Foundation is in critical financial crisis, please help !
ISF is in critical financial crisis, and might be forced to close
its doors in a couple of months due to lack of funds to cover
DSL, SBC and utilities, which is a disaster for our numerous
clients, since the are the only CBO providing direct services
to Victims (as well as extended failies) of police misconduct
for the whole city of SF. Any donation, big or small will help
us stay alive until we obtain our 501-c3 nonprofit Federal
Status! Checks can me made out to
ISF, ( 4921 3rd St , SF CA 94124 ). Please consider to volunteer
or apply for internship to help covering our 24HR Crisis line,
provide one on one couseling and co facilitate our support
groups, M.C a show on SF Village Voice, insure a 2hr block
of time at ISF, moderate one of our 26 websites for ISF clients !
http://mysite. verizon.net/ vzeo9ewi/ idrissstelleyfou ndation/
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/isf23/
Report Police Brutality
24HR Bilingual hotline
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/Justice4As a/
Appeal for funds:
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website http://dahrjamailir aq.com
Request for Support
Dahr Jamail will soon return to the Middle East to continue his
independent reporting. As usual, reporting independently is a costly
enterprise; for example, an average hotel room is $50, a fixer runs $50
per day, and phone/food average $25 per day. Dahr will report from the
Middle East for one month, and thus needs to raise $5,750 in order to
cover his plane ticket and daily operating expenses.
A rare opportunity has arisen for Dahr to cover several stories
regarding the occupation of Iraq, as well as U.S. policy in the region,
which have been entirely absent from mainstream media.
With the need for independent, unfiltered information greater than ever,
your financial support is deeply appreciated. Without donations from
readers, ongoing independent reports from Dahr are simply not possible.
All donations go directly towards covering Dahr's on the ground
operating expenses.
(c)2006 Dahr Jamail.
Legal update on Mumia Abu-Jamal's case
Excerpts from a letter written by Robert R. Bryan, the lead attorney
for death row political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal.
...On July 20, 2006, we filed the Brief of Appellee and Cross
Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal, in the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia.
http://www.workers. org/2006/ us/mumia- 0810/
Contact: Nick Mottern, Consumers for Peace
nickmottern@earthlink.net
Howard Zinn joins Kathy Kelly, Dahr Jamail, Ann Wright and Neil MacKay in
endorsing "War Crimes Committed by the United States in Iraq and
Mechanisms for Accountability."
The report was published internationally by 10 organizations in October.
"This report on the war crimes of the current administration is an
invaluable resource, with a meticulous presentation of the
evidence and an astute examination of international law.
- Howard Zinn.
The 37 page report, written by Consumers for Peace with the
consultation of international humanitarian law expert Karen
Parker, JD, is available for free download at
http://www.consumersforpeace.org/pdf/war_crimes_iraq_101006.pdf
Today in Palestine!
For up to date information on Israeli's brutal attack on
human rights and freedom in Palestine and Lebanon go to:
http://www.theheadl ines.org
Oklahoma U's First African-American Speaker
Dear Representative Johnson:
Congratulations on your bill for creating an
African-American Centennial Plaza near the
Capitol.
I have a suggestion for including an important
moment in Oklahoma African-American
history in the displays.
The first African-American speaker at the
University of Oklahoma was Paul Boutelle,
He is still alive but has changed his name
to Kwame Somburu. I believe it would be
very appropriate also to invite Mr. Somburu
to attend the dedication ceremony for
this plaza. I correspond with him by email.
Here is a 1967 Sooner magazine article about his appearance:
http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/sooner/articles/p25-27_1967v40n2_OCR.pdf
Interesting web site with many flash films. The site is managed
by veteran James Starowicz, USN '67-'71 GMG3 Vietnam In-Country
'70-'71 Member: Veterans For Peace as well as other Veterans
and Pro-Peace Groups. Also Activist in other Area's, Questioning
Policies that only Benefit the Few, supporting Policies that Benefit
the Many and Move Us Forward as a Better Nation and World!
Politics: Registered Independent
http://imagineaworldof.blogspot.com/
Taking Aim with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone has a new Internet
address: http://www.takingaimradio.com
THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF ZIONISM
BY RALPH SCHOENMAN
Essential reading for understanding the development of Zionism
and Israel in the service of British and USA imperialism.
The full text of the book can be found for free at the
new Taking Aim web address:
http://www.takingaimradio.com
JOIN THE LYNNE STEWAR DEFENSE - THE CASE IS NOT OVER!
For those of you who don't know who Lynne Stewart is, go to
www.lynnestewart. org and get acquainted with Lynne and her
cause. Lynne is a criminal defense attorney who is being persecuted
for representing people charged with heinous crimes. It is a bedrock
of our legal system that every criminal defendant has a right to a
lawyer. Persecuting Lynne is an attempt to terrorize and intimidate
all criminal defense attorneys in this country so they will stop
representing unpopular people. If this happens, the fascist takeover
of this nation will be complete. We urge you all to go the website,
familiarize yourselves with Lynne and her battle for justice
www.lynnestewart. org
Visit the Traprock Peace Center Video Archive at:
http://www.youtube.com/TraprockPeaceTV
Visit the Traprock Peace Center
Deerfield, MA
http://www.traprockpeace.org/
NATIONAL COMMITTEE TO FREE THE CUBAN FIVE
Comité Nacional por la Libertad de los Cinco Cubanos
Who are the Cuban Five?
The Cuban Five are five Cuban men who are in U.S. prison, serving
four life sentences and 75 years collectively, after being wrongly
convicted in U.S. federal court in Miami, on June 8, 2001.
They are Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero,
Fernando González and René González.
The Five were falsely accused by the U.S. government of committing
espionage conspiracy against the United States, and other related
charges.
But the Five pointed out vigorously in their defense that they were
involved in monitoring the actions of Miami-based terrorist groups,
in order to prevent terrorist attacks on their country of Cuba.
The Five's actions were never directed at the U.S. government.
They never harmed anyone nor ever possessed nor used any
weapons while in the United States.
The Cuban Five's mission was to stop terrorism
For more than 40 years, anti-Cuba terrorist organizations based
in Miami have engaged in countless terrorist activities against
Cuba, and against anyone who advocates a normalization
of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. More than 3,000 Cubans
have died as a result of these terrorists' attacks.
Gerardo Hernández, 2 Life Sentences
Antonio Guerrero, Life Sentence
Ramon Labañino, Life Sentence
Fernando González, 19 Years
René González, 15 Years
Free The Cuban Five Held Unjustly In The U.S.!
http://www.freethef ive.org/
Eyewitness Account from Oaxaca
A website is now being circulated that has up-to-date info
and video that can be downloaded of the police action and
developments in Oaxaca. For those who have not seen it
elsewhere, the website is:
www.mexico.indymedi a.org/oaxaca
http://www.mexico. indymedia. org/oaxaca
REMINDER TO ALL GROUPS: BE SURE AND POST ALL ACTIONS AND
EVENTS TO WWW.INDYBAY. ORG TO REACH THE MOST PEOPLE
AGAINST THE WAR IN THE BAY AREA!
http://www.indybay. org
Iraq Body Count
For current totals, see our database page.
http://www.iraqbody count.net/ press/pr13. php
The Cost of War
[Over three-hundred- billion so far...bw]
http://nationalprio rities.org/ index.php? optionfiltered=com_
wrapper&Itemid= 182
"The Democrats always promise to help workers, and the don't!
The Republicans always promise to help business, and the do!"
- Mort Sahl
"It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
- Emilano Zapata
Join the Campaign to
Shut Down the Guantanamo Torture Center
http://www.shutitdo wn.org/
to send a letter to Congress and the White House:
Shut Down Guantanamo and all torture centers and prisons.
http://www.ANSWERco alition.org http://www.actionsf .org
sf@internationalans wer.org
"It is reasonable and honorable to abhor violence and preach
against it while there is a visible and rational means of obtaining,
without violence, the indispensable justice for the welfare of man.
But, if convinced by the inevitable differences of character, by the
irreconcilable and different interests, because of the deep diversity
in the sea of the political mind and aspirations, there is not a peaceful
way to obtain the minimum rights of a people (...) or it is the blind
who against the boiling truth sustain peaceful means, or it is those
who doesn't see and insist on proclaiming it that are untrue
to their people."[2]
[2] José Martí " Ciegos y desleales Obras Escogidas in III volumes;
Editorial Política 1981 Volume III p182
Great Counter-Recruitment Website
http://notyoursoldi er.org/article. php?list= type&type= 14
DEFEND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS AND
CIVIL RIGHTS!
Last summer the U.S. Border Patrol arrested Shanti Sellz and
Daniel Strauss, both 23-year-old volunteers assisting immigrants
on the border, for medically evacuating 3 people in critical
condition from the Arizona desert.
Criminalization for aiding undocumented immigrants already
exists on the books in the state of Arizona. Daniel and Shanti
are targeted to be its first victims. Their arrest and subsequent
prosecution for providing humanitarian aid could result in
a 15-year prison sentence. Any Congressional compromise
with the Sensenbrenner bill (HR 4437) may include these
harmful criminalization provisions. Fight back NOW!
Help stop the criminalization of undocumented immigrants
and those who support them!
For more information call 415-821- 9683.
For information on the Daniel and Shanti Defense Campaign,
visit www.nomoredeaths. org.
According to "Minimum Wage History" at
http://oregonstate. edu/instruct/ anth484/minwage. html "
"Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. "The 8 dollar per hour Whole Foods employees
are being paid $1.12 less than the 1968 minimum wage.
"A federal minimum wage was first set in 1938. The graph shows
both nominal (red) and real (blue) minimum wage values. Nominal
values range from 25 cents per hour in 1938 to the current $5.15/hr.
The greatest percentage jump in the minimum wage was in 1950,
when it nearly doubled. The graph adjusts these wages to 2005
dollars (blue line) to show the real value of the minimum wage.
Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. Note how the real dollar minimum wage rises and
falls. This is because it gets periodically adjusted by Congress.
The period 1997-2006, is the longest period during which the
minimum wage has not been adjusted. States have departed from
the federal minimum wage. Washington has the highest minimum
wage in the country at $7.63 as of January 1, 2006. Oregon is next
at $7.50. Cities, too, have set minimum wages. Santa Fe, New
Mexico has a minimum wage of $9.50, which is more than double
the state minimum wage at $4.35."
NO BORDERS! NO WALLS! NO FENCES! GENERAL AMNESTY FOR ALL!
OUR HOMELAND IS WHERE WE LIVE!
REPEAL THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT IN 2007!
Check out: 10 EXCELLENT REASONS NOT TO JOIN THE MILITARY
http://www.10reason sbook.com/
Public Law print of PL 107-110, the No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001 [1.8 MB]
http://www.ed. gov/policy/ elsec/leg/ esea02/index. html
Also, the law is up before Congress again in 2007.
See this article from USA Today:
Bipartisan panel to study No Child Left Behind
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday .com/news/ education/ 2006-02-13- education- panel_x.htm
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
http://www.law. indiana.edu/ uslawdocs/ declaration. html
http://www.law. ou.edu/hist/ decind.html
http://www.usconsti tution.net/ declar.html
http://www.indybay. org/news/ 2006/02/1805195. php
http://www.law. cornell.edu/ constitution/ constitution. billofrights. html
"The International"
Lots of good information over at Wikipedia, as often the case:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internationale
What I've always found fascinating is the wide variety of translations (or
perhaps it would be better to call them "interpretations" or "variations")
that exist, even in English. It's also fascinating to read all the different
verses of the song.
One thing I learned at Wikipedia is that the original intention was that the
song would be sung to the tune of the Marseillaise, but that shortly
thereafter different music was written. Good thing, in my opinion, I'd hate
to see the identities of two stirring songs be confused. Each deserves their
own place in history.
BAUAW NEWSLETTER - TUE3DAY, JANUARY 22, 2007