BAUAW NEWSLETTER-TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2006

SCROLL DOWN PAST ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR
BAUAW NEWSLETTER
-----------------------------------------

Execution postponed until tonight, Tuesday,
February 21 (see article in full below):

Protest at San Quentin on the night of the
scheduled execution of Michael Morales!!!!

San Quentin East Gate Monday, February 20 8:00 pm
You can park on E. Francisco Blvd but expect to walk
1.2 miles to get to the prison. Please dress warmly
and bring a flashlight.

Contact: Stop Executions CA, 510-333-7966,
stopexecutionscalifornia@yahoo.com

For car pool information please call 650-271-2854

California is on a Death Row Killing Spree?.
Stanley Tookie Williams: Murdered Dec. 13th, 2005
Clarence Ray Allen: Murdered Jan 17th, 2006
Michael Morales: Death Date is set for Feb 21st, 2006

The death penalty is dead wrong. Knowing that is only
the beginning of stopping it. We have to organize.
In 1972 the death penalty was temporarily abolished --
mainly because the public climate had shifted against it.
It isn't an accident that all this happened at the same
time people were protesting for civil rights and fighting
for social justice. Stopping the death penalty once and
for all is going to take a lot of work -- but if we're going
to do it, we have to start organizing now -- just like
the social justice movements of the 1960s.

Join the fight!

More information about Michael Morales:

Two men were responsible for the murder of young Terri Winchell. Only
Michael Morales received a sentence of death. That sentence was passed
because the jury believed that Morales was a cold-blooded killer who
had planned the murder and shown no remorse for his crime.

We now know that the jury's sentence was based on a lie. The jury was
misled by the poisonous testimony of a jailhouse informant who was
secretly rewarded by the prosecutor for the lies he told.

The truth is that Morales never intended to kill Terri Winchell and
expressed regret just hours after the murder. In the 25 years since,
he has continued to accept responsibility, seek atonement for his
actions, and affirm his sincere and unquestioned remorse for the
anguish he caused the victim and her family.

Now even the judge who passed sentence has stepped forward to say that
executing Michael Morales would constitute "a grievous and freakish
injustice." Had the informant's lies been exposed at trial, Judge
Charles R. McGrath writes, he would have set the death sentence aside.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has already denied clemency four times.
Four times he has washed his hands and refused to intervene. This
time, the courts are powerless to fix their mistake. And no excuse can
conceal the shameful injustice that will take place if the Governor
lets a lethal injection take the life of Michael Morales.

CONTACT GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: Call: 916-445-2841; Fax: 916-445-4633

It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need,
and the airforce has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.

...........................................................

TELL BUSH AND CONGRESS: STOP THE WAR
ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
Please join the online campaign to
STOP THE WAR ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
YOUR EMERGENCY ACTION IS NEEDED NOW!
Send emails to President Bush, Vice President
Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, U.N. Secretary-
General Annan, Congressional leaders and
the media demanding NO WAR ON IRAN!
http://stopwaroniran.org/

...........................................................


Help Us Tell CYA's Chief Warner:
Close Chad Now!!

Join Books Not Bars, Escuelas Si, Pintas No,
and Youth in Focus on February 22 for
a press conference and picket at the office
of CYA Chief Bernard Warner in Sacramento.
We will call on Chief Warner to close Chad
immediately -- our youth need action now!

Please come and show your support!

Press Conference and Picket to close Chad

Wednesday, February 22, 2006, 4:30 p.m.

Where: Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
1515 S. Street
Sacramento, CA
RSVP: Contact David at: 510.428.3939 x243 or
david@ellabakercenter.org

...........................................................

WHY WE FIGHT
A film by Eugene Jarecki
[Check out the trailer about this new film.
This looks like a very powerful film.]
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/

...........................................................

Hear: CC Campbell-Rock
'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
and a mule, and more'
Friday, February 24th, 7PM
Centro Del Pueblo
474 Valencia Street
(near 16th Street one block west of
16th & Mission Bart Station)
CC Campbell-Rock, the new editor of the San Francisco
Bay View newspaper, has just returned from Venezuela.
Read her article, 'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
and a mule, and more' at
www.sfbayview.com/020806/eyewitness020806.shtml .
Hear her report back as an eyewitness
to the Bolivarian Revolution.
She attended last week's World Social Forum and
toured the Venezuelan countryside, with other
delegates from Global Women's Strike, to meet
the grassroots revolutionary leaders who are
making the kind of miracles in education, health,
housing, economic development, etc., that could
revive and transform the inner cities of the United
States. Prior to working for the SF Bay View, CC was
a prominent pre-KATRINA journalist and activist
in New Orleans.
This meeting is jointly sponsored by the San
Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela! committee
and the San Francisco Bay View .
San Francisco Bay View
(www.sfbayview.com)
San Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela!
sfbay@ushov.org 415-786-1680
Donation $5.00 (Students, unemployed, and Seniors $3.00)

.......................................................

ANTIWAR MEETING OPEN TO ALL
THOSE WHO DEMAND:
End the War in Iraq! Bring the Troops Home Now!
No War at Home! Money for Human Needs, Jobs, Education,
Healthcare and Hurricane Disaster Relief, Not War!
No U.S. Wars and Occupations from Palestine to Haiti, from
Afghanistan to Cuba, from Iran to Venezuela!
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2006, 10:30 A.M.
Local, 34, the ILWU Shipclerk's Hall
4 Berry Street (behind the ballpark)

Statement of Purpose
Broad Antiwar Group

On February 5, 2006 more than 90 people representing more
than 50 peace and justice, labor, civil and human rights, civil
liberties, veterans, military families, environmentalist, faith-based
organizations, youth, and political organizations assembled
and voted to approve the political and organizational perspectives
below.

They voted to establish a broad and inclusive Interim Steering
Committee to help lead this work.

In the U.S. today there is a major gap between the rapidly growing
antiwar consciousness of the U.S. population and the dramatic
decline of support for the U.S. war in Iraq on the one hand and
the organizational framework to mobilize ever-widening and
broad sectors of society against this war on the other. This is
particularly glaring on the West Coast.

The growing opposition to the war is evidenced by the massive
response to the courageous actions of Cindy Sheehan, the
growth of groups like Gold Star Mothers Against the War and
Military Families Speak Out, Iraq veteran's organizations, the formation
of U.S. Labor Against the War and the associated involvement of
unprecedented sectors of labor in the fight against the war, the
massive demonstration of 300,000 in Washington, D.C. September
24, the open debate in Congress, the increasing number of
soldiers who lose their lives for corporate profit and empire,
the exposure of the lies that were employed to justify the war
and the subordination of many social programs (like the
immediate and critical relief necessitated by Hurricane Katrina)
to ever increasing military spending. All of the above takes
place against the backdrop of increasing attacks on basic civil
liberties and civil rights, union busting and broadside attacks
on social gains that were won decades ago, including pensions
and healthcare.

The above gives us great confidence that a far wider social and
political spectrum of society are opposed to the Iraq War and can
be engaged in ongoing educational activities as well as massive
mobilizations against it. What is needed most of all is a broad
independent united front perspective and an open and
democratic organizational form that is capable of filling the
present void.

We propose to help fill this void by working together to build
a broad team of organizations and activists based on the
following three political demands, the first of which would
be centrally emphasized in our work.

1. End the War in Iraq! Bring the Troops Home Now!
2. No War at Home! Money for Human Needs, Jobs, Education,
Healthcare and Hurricane Disaster Relief, Not War!
3. No U.S. Wars and Occupations from Palestine to Haiti, from
Afghanistan to Cuba, from Iran to Venezuela!

PROPOSAL FOR MASS ANTIWAR CONFERENCE and RALLY

Our first project to test the viability of the broad coalition
that we seek to bring into being is to organize a major
West Coast Spring Antiwar Conference and Mass Rally
that would include:

a. Opening keynote speeches
b. A large assortment of workshops designed to include
the broad range of groups and constituencies working
against the war
c. A plenary opportunity to hear reports from constituent
workshops
d. A plenary session(s) where major decisions about the
future of the coalition-in-formation and proposals for
future activities would be democratically presented, debated
and decided. These would include a proposed mass
mobilization against the war.
e. A mass concluding rally with major speakers and popular
antiwar political entertainment and music.

.......................................................

Please help spread the word:

Counter Recruitment
Presenters Mobilization!

The military recruits in most Bay Area high schools,
Let's make sure students hear the other side!

This will be a training/organizing kick off for:
- youth to youth presentation teams,
- veterans and non-veteran classroom presenters, and
- anyone who wants to learn, share and help support this effort!

Saturday, February 25th, 2-5pm
War Veterans Memorial Building, Room 219
401 Van Ness, San Francisco
West of City Hall, near Civic Center BART
Snacks will be provided, donations will be accepted.

For more information, please contact
Paul Cox (510) 528-1975
or Susan Quinlan moos-bay@riseup.net

This event is co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace and
Alternatives to War Through Education/
Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors

.......................................................

Welcome to BANG4CHANGE 2006 !

Bang4Change 2006 !
We Poor People are called "Gang Bangers" & "Thugs"
Challenge the Hype ! Bang with Peace, Courage & Solidarity!

End US War on Poor, Black & Brown, NOW !

Saturday February 25th,
Noon to 6 P.M.
CIVIL RIGHTS REVIVAL FEST
In front of SF City Hall
iolmisha@cs.com
(415) 595-8251

.......................................................

Postering for March 18 Anti-war Protest - Volunteer Now!
A.N.S.W.E.R. ACTIVIST MEETING
TUESDAYs, 7PM
2489 Mission St. Room 24 (at 21st St.) SF,
near 24th St. BART
Now more than ever, the anti-war movement needs
to reach out to the thousands of people who are turning
against the war and occupation of Iraq. Your help is needed.
Call the ANSWER office for the schedule to go out in teams to poster
for an hour or two. Pick up flyers, posters and stickers
at the ANSWER office at 2489 Mission St. Room 30. Join us
for a political update on the recent election in Haiti and
developments in the Middle East. Also, an eyewitness report
back from the Atlanta appeal court hearing of the case
of the Cuban Five. After the meeting, we will team up and
go out postering for March 18. Your help is needed!
Call 415-821-6545 for hours.


ANSWER ANTI-WAR TEACH-IN:
The expanding U.S. War Drive & the forces resisting it
Sat, March 4, 1-4pm
San Francisco Women's Building
3543 18th St. (btwn Valencia & Guerrero)
near 16th St. BART station

Topics Include:
-Iraq, Iran and Syria: U.S. Strategy for Domination in the Middle East
-The Elections in Palestine and the Struggle for Self-Determination
-Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia: The Rising Tide in Latin America
and Danger of U.S. Intervention
-The War at Home, from New Orleans to Bayview-Hunter's Point
-Washington Global Strategy and What It Means for the
Anti-War Movement

Speakers include:
Mazda Majidi, ANSWER Coalition
Nora Barrows-Friedman, Palestine correspondent,
Flashpoints/KPFA
Pablo Serrano, progressive photo journalist and
Colombian human rights activist
Gloria La Riva, Coordinator, National Committee
to Free the Cuban Five
Richard Becker, Western Region Coordinator,
ANSWER Coalition
Pierre Labossiere, Haiti Action Committee
Representative, Free Palestine Alliance

Hear first-hand reports from Palestine, Venezuela, Iran,
Syria, Colombia and Haiti, and analysis of the growing U.S.
war drive and the forces resisting it. Time for discussion
will follow panel presentations.

$3-10 donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
Wheelchair accessible. Call 415-821-6545 to reserve
free childcare.

Sponsored by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
(Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.actionsf.org
sf@internationalanswer.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545

Make a tax-dedctible donation to A.N.S.W.E.R.
by credit card over a secure server, 
learn how to donate by check.

...........................................................

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FAR AND WIDE!! A CALL TO ACTION!!
STOP EVICTIONS IN BAYVIEW-HUNTERS POINT
TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 4:00 p.m.
ROOM 416, CITY HALL, S.F.
Companeros/companeras:
Below please find an editorial by Willie Ratcliff,
publisher of SF Bay View, about a March 7 hearing
before Redevelopment Authority, which will seal the
fate of Bayview Hunter's Point. Many of us have been
saying for years that the Bayview will be the new
Fillmore. March 7 is, as Ratcliff says, an eviction
notice for the residents of Bayview Hunters Point. Not
long after coming into office, Mayor Gavin Newsom did
photo ops with young black men on a basketball court
in Bayview (he was lavished with praise by our
mindless media for that), but he knew damn well then
that their displacement was imminent. It's all part of
San Francisco's hypocrisy about racism and classism.
"Oh, we're a liberal city, we oppose racism and
classism..." people and politicians say, even as they
stand idly by while more and more poor, working-class
and people of color are pushed out of the city by
Ellis Act evictions for TICs for the upper middle
class and Redevelopment Authority's "negro removal,"
as it was called by black activists in the 60s.

Why is it that removing "urban blight" from our cities
means giving poor, working-class and people of color a
one-way ticket to another city? Why can't
Redevelopment work on building communities from within
(with no-interest business loans and subsidies to
homeowners and landlords to fix up their properties,)
instead of declaring "eminent domain" and stealing the
land from folks who have nothing else? If
Redevelopment wants to do some real cleaning of urban
blight why not confiscate the mansions in Pacific
Heights and do a little redistributing of the wealth!
But that's not the game in America. Redevelopment is a
tool of the real-estate interests that want to
gentrify all of our neighborhoods. It's about removing
poor folks so that middle-class and upper-class folks
can have their homes. It's a time-honored American
tradition. Native Americans were pushed from their
land as wagon trains of settlers, driven by manifest
destiny, spread westward. Similarly, the new Bayview
is not for the folks who live there now. As former
Mayor Willie Brown himself said before he left office,
the new Bayview will be market-rate condos with the
best views in town.

Your help is desperately needed.

Come to the hearing on March 7 at City Hall room 416,
4pm. It is imperative that we stand with the residents
of Bayview. It is imperative that people from all
communities and struggles come together to oppose the
annexing of 1300 acres of land next to the shipyard.
No more Fillmores! No eviction notice for Bayview! No
more gentrification! Redistribute the wealth, don't
steal our homes! The land does not belong to the
realtors or the rich! Nuestra tierra, nuestro mundo!
Our land, our world!

Estamos juntos en la lucha...we are together in the
struggle--or we all go down separately!

tommi avicolli mecca

Read:

Eviction notice served on Bayview Hunters Point
Editorial by Willie Ratcliff
http://www.sfbayview.com/020806/evictionnotice020806.shtml

...................................................................

NATIONAL WEEK OF CAMPUS ACTION
Week of March 13-17
Students Say NO to War in Iraq!
College Not Combat, Troops Out Now!

(*Spring break alternative: Schools on spring
break during March 13-17
will hold events the week of March 20)

Student week of action coordinated by the
Campus Antiwar Network
http://www.campusantiwar.net
RecruitersOut@yahoo.com

Charles Jenks
Chair of Advisory Board and Web Manager
Traprock Peace Center
103A Keets Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
413-773-7427
fax 413-773-7507
http://www.traprockpeace.org

...........................................................

Third Anniversary of "Shock and Awe"
Saturday, March 18, 2006, 11:00 a.m.
CIVIC CENTER
San Francisco

Monday, March 20, 2006
Youth and Student Day
of Resistance to Imperialism

http://www.answercoalition.org/

...........................................................

Major Mobilization Set for April 29th

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to announce the kick-off for the organizing
of what promises to be a major national mobilization on
Saturday, April 29th. Today, each of the initiating groups
(see list below) is announcing this mobilization. Our
organizations have agreed to work together on this
project for several reasons:

The April 29th mobilization will highlight our call for an
immediate end to the war on Iraq. We are also raising
several other critical issues that are directly connected
to one another.

It is time for our constituencies to work more closely:
connecting the issues we work on by bringing diverse
communities into a common project.

It is important for our movements to help set the agenda
for the Congressional elections later in the year. Our
unified action in the streets is a vital part of that process.

Please share the April 29th call widely, and please use
the links at the end of the call to endorse this timely
mobilization and to sign up for email updates.

April 29th Initiating Organizations
United for Peace and Justice
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
National Organization for Women
Friends of the Earth
U.S. Labor Against the War
Climate Crisis Coalition
Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

A war based on lies
Spying, corruption and attacks on civil liberties
Katrina survivors abandoned by government

MARCH FOR PEACE,
JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY

End the war in Iraq -
Bring all our troops home now!

SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2006
NEW YORK CITY

Unite for change - let's turn our country around!

The times are urgent and we must act.

Too much is too wrong in this country. We have a foreign
policy that is foreign to our core values, and domestic
policies wreaking havoc at home. It's time for a change.

No more never-ending oil wars!
Protect our civil liberties & immigrant rights. End illegal
spying, government corruption and the subversion of
our democracy.

Rebuild our communities, starting with the Gulf Coast.
Stop corporate subsidies and tax cuts for the wealthy
while ignoring our basic needs.

Act quickly to address the climate crisis and the
accelerating destruction of our environment.

Our message to the White House and to Congress
is clear: either stand with us or stand aside!

We are coming together to march, to vote, to speak
out and to turn our country around!

Join us in New York City on Saturday, April 29th

Click here to endorse this mobilization:
http://unitedforpeace.org/modinput4.php?modin=119
Click here to sign up for email updates on plans for April 29th:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email

April 29th Initiating Organizations
United for Peace and Justice
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
National Organization for Women
Friends of the Earth
U.S. Labor Against the War
Climate Crisis Coalition
Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

......................................................................

ANSWER Coalition: All Out for April 29 in New York City!
End Occupation from Iraq to Palestine, to Haiti, and Everywhere!
Fight for workers rights, civil rights and civil liberties - unite
against racism!

300,000 Came to Washington on Sept. 24

In recent weeks the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has been in the final
stages for planning a national demonstration in Washington DC on April
29, 2006. This action was to follow the local and regional
demonstrations for March 18-19 and youth and student actions scheduled
on March 20 on the 3rd anniversary of the criminal bombing, invasion
and occupation of Iraq.

On September 24, 2005 more than 300,000 people surrounded the White
House in the largest mobilization against the Iraq war and occupation
since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This demonstration was
initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition in May 2005 and we urged a
united front with other major anti-war coalitions and communities. We
marched demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq. We
also stood in solidarity with the Palestinian and Haitian people and
others who are suffering under and resisting occupation. Coming as it
did following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we changed the demands of
the September 24 protest to include the slogan "From Iraq to New
Orleans, FundPeople's Needs not the War Machine."

During the past several years, and as demonstrated in a powerful
display on September 24, the anti-war movement has grown significantly
in its breadth and depth as the leadership has included the Arab and
Muslim community -- those who are among the primary targets of the
Bush Administration's current war at home and abroad.

The anti-war sentiment inside the United States is rapidly becoming a
significant obstacle to the Bush Administration's war in Iraq. The
anti-war movement has the potential to be a critical deterrent to the
U.S. government's aspirations for Empire. At this moment the White
House and Pentagon are issuing threats and making plans to move
against other sovereign countries. Iran and Syria are being targeted
as the U.S. seeks to consolidate power in the Middle East.

Simultaneously the Bush administration is working to undermine the
gains of the people of Latin America by working totopple the
democratically elected president of Venezuela and destroy the
revolutionary process for social change going on in that country.
Likewise it is intensifying the economic war and CIA subversions
against Cuba.

We believe that our movement must weld together the broadest, most
diverse coalition of various sectors and communities into an effective
force for change. This requires the inclusion of targeted communities
and political clarity. The war in Iraq is not simply an aberrational
policy of the Bush neo-conservatives. Iraq is emblematic of a larger
war for Empire. It is part of a multi-pronged attack against all those
countries that refuse to follow the economic, political and military
dictates of the Washington establishment and Wall Street.

This is the foundation of the political program upon which the
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has organized mass demonstrations in the recent
years. The fact that many hundreds of thousands of people
havedemonstrated in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, New
York and other cities is a testament to the huge progress that has
been made in building a new movement on this principled basis.
The people of the United States have nothing to gain and everything to
lose from the occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Haiti and
the threats of new wars and intervention in Syria, Iran, Venezuela,
Cuba, the Philippines, North Korea and elsewhere. It has been made
crystal clear in recent weeks that Washington is aggressively
prosecuting its strategy of total domination of the Middle East. U.S.
leaders are seeking to crush all resistance to their colonial agenda,
whether from states or popular movements in the region. The
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition andthe anti-war movement is raising the demand,
"U.S. Out of the Middle East."

At its core, the war for Empire is supported by the Republican Party
and Democratic Party alike, which constitute the twin parties of
militarism and war, and this quest for global domination will continue
regardless of the outcome of the 2006 election. In fact, leading
Democrats are attacking Bush for being "soft" on Iran and North Korea.
Real hope for turning the tide rests with building a powerful global
movement of resistance in which the people of the United States stand
with their sisters and brothers struggling against imperialism and the
new colonialism.

On the home front the Bush administration is involved in a
far-reaching assault against working class communities as most
glaringly evidenced by its criminal and racist negligence towards the
people of New Orleans and throughout the hurricane ravaged Gulf
States. While turning their backs on these communities in the moments
ofgreatest need, the U.S. government is now working with the banks and
developers who, like vultures, are exploiting mass suffering and
dislocation to carry out racist gentrification that only benefits the
wealthy. The administration is also working to eviscerate hard-fought
civil rights and civil liberties, engaging in a widespread campaign of
domestic spying and wiretapping against the people of the U.S. and
other assaults against the First and Fourth Amendments.

In early December 2005, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition filed for permits
for a national march in Washington DC on April 29, 2006. We were
preparing to announce the April 29 action but in recent days we have
heard from A.N.S.W.E.R. organizers in a number of unions that U.S.
Labor Against the War was seeking union endorsements for a call for an
anti-war demonstration on the same day in New York City. Having two
demonstrations on April 29 in both Washington D.C. and New York City
seems to us to be lessadvantageous than having the movement unite
behind one single mobilization. As such, we decided to hold back our
announcement. Subsequently, the New York City demonstration has been
announced by a number of organizations. Underscoring the need to have
the largest possible demonstration on April 29, the A.N.S.W.E.R.
Coalition has decided to fully mobilize, in all of its chapters and
organizing centers, to bring people to the New York City demonstration
on April 29. The banners and slogans of different coalitions may not
be the same, but it is in the interest of everyone to march
shoulder-to-shoulder against the criminal war in Iraq and the Bush
administration's War for Empire, including its racist, sexist and
anti-worker domestic program.

All out for a united, mass mobilization on April 29 in New York City!
Click here to become a transportation center in your city or town for
the April 29 demonstration.

Click here to receive updates on A.N.S.W.E.R.'s mobilization for the
April 29 NYC demonstration.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Click here to unsubscribe from the ANSWER e-mail list.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Welcome to the Official Push for Peace Site!
http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=
The Push for Peace logo shows a Navy veteran in a wheelchair with
a peace sign on the wheel, with people marching behind him.
It can be seen at:
http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=node/71
Push For Peace is a collective of veterans, progressive activists, and
everyday citizens working together through education, motivation,
and truth to bring America's troops home from the war in Iraq and
to help bring healing and peace to our nation. The Push For Peace
movement is geared to combine the efforts of able-bodied activists
to those with special needs or challenges, so that all people can
participate and be counted. The Push For Peace effort will include
organized rallies and marches, as well as appearances and
performances by high-profile speakers and entertainers,
to rally the American people and show them we stand united
with our fellow citizen and soldier. It is our goal to grow the
base of participants each day resulting in a cross-country Push
culminating at the gates of the White House on July 4, 2006.
Events will be scheduled across the country leading up to the
big Push in July. So keep checking the Push calendar for events
near you.
Mapping it all out...[Website shows map of stops in US en route
to DC on July 4, 2006...bw]
This is a tentative and unfinished P4P route and is only a work
in progress. The Push is set to leave Golden Gate Park on
Memorial Day 2006 (currently working on permits) and then
we will Push our way across the country to arrive in DC across
from the White House gathering at Lafayette Park (currently
working on permits) on July 4th, 2006.
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
Las Vegas Nevada
Phoenix, Arizona
Denver, Colorado
Crawford, Texas
New Orleans, Louisiana
more states pending...
Pushing real Democracy!
http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
ARTICLES IN FULL:
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

1) Anesthesiologists Delay Calif. Execution
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:23 a.m. ET
February 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-California-Execution.html?hp&ex=1140584400&en=1b8942a7a3b19879&ei=5094&partner=homepage

2) In Wireless World, Cingular Bucks the Antiunion Trend
By MATT RICHTEL
February 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/business/21union.html?pagewanted=all

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

1) Anesthesiologists Delay Calif. Execution
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:23 a.m. ET
February 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-California-Execution.html?hp&ex=1140584400&en=1b8942a7a3b19879&ei=5094&partner=homepage

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (AP) -- The planned execution of a man
convicted of raping and murdering a 17-year-old girl was
delayed until Tuesday night after two anesthesiologists refused
to participate because of ethical concerns.

With the execution scheduled for 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, defense
lawyers requested a stay from the federal judge who last week
ordered San Quentin State Prison to have an anesthesiologist
on hand to minimize Michael Angelo Morales' pain as he was
put to death by lethal injection. A second anesthesiologist
was retained as a backup.

Although U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel denied the motion,
both anesthesiologists withdrew, citing ethical concerns
raised by his ruling.

The exact wording of the judge's order was not immediately
available, but the anesthesiologists issued a statement
through the prison saying they were concerned about
a requirement that they intervene in the event that Morales
woke up or appeared to be in pain.

''Any such intervention would clearly be medically unethical,''
said the doctors, who have not been identified. ''As a result,
we have withdrawn from participation in this current process.''

The American Medical Association, the American Society
of Anesthesiologists and the California Medical Association
all opposed the anesthesiologists' participation as unethical
and unprofessional.

Prison officials rescheduled the execution for 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday and said they would employ a different technique:
administering a fatal overdose of barbiturate in lieu of the
three-drug cocktail typically used in lethal injections.

Morales' attorneys had argued that the three-part lethal
injection cocktail used in California and 35 other states
violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and
unusual punishment. They said a prisoner would feel
excruciating pain from the last two chemicals if he were
not fully sedated.

Fogel refused to derail the execution, but he gave prison
officials two options: retain the doctors to ensure Morales
would be properly anesthetized, or forgo the paralyzing
and heart-stopping drugs and overdose him on a sedative.
With the anesthesiologists withdrawing, prison officials
said they would use the second option.

Prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon said the prison has
until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday to execute Morales. After that,
the ''death warrant'' expires and officials would have to
go back to the trial judge who imposed the death
sentence in 1983 for another warrant.

Seeking another warrant could prove difficult for the state,
however, since the original sentencing judge, Charles McGrath,
joined Morales this month in asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
for clemency in the case.

McGrath said he no longer believed the credibility of
a jailhouse informant whose testimony helped land Morales
on death row.

Morales has admitted to the crime that put him on death row.
In a petition for clemency that Schwarzenegger first turned
down on Friday, Morales claimed that he killed Terri Winchell
25 years ago because he was high on PCP and alcohol.

Morales was told of the delay and was ''nonchalant,'' Crittendon
said. But Winchell's relatives were visibly upset, he said.

''There was a great deal of concern on their faces under the
circumstances of some people that Michael Morales would
not suffer,'' Crittendon said. ''They find that to be very disturbing.''

Earlier Monday, Morales appeared to have exhausted his
options for a reprieve after the U.S. Supreme Court refused
to consider his claim and the governor for the second time
denied a request for clemency.

Associated Press Writers David Kravets and Michelle
Locke contributed to this story.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

2) In Wireless World, Cingular Bucks the Antiunion Trend
By MATT RICHTEL
February 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/business/21union.html?pagewanted=all

Cingular Wireless and Vodafone engaged in a furious bidding war
two years ago to acquire AT&T Wireless. Rooting for Cingular was
an unexpected fan, Kelvin Banks, a single father working at an AT&T
customer service center in Jackson, Miss.

Mr. Banks was moved by a little-publicized fact about Cingular:
it has had relatively warm relations with unions.

The day after the company won a $41 billion auction for AT&T
Wireless, Mr. Banks contacted labor officials and helped to pull
off a rare but significant union organizing success story
in the digital age.

Since July 2005, the Communications Workers of America has
unionized 16,500 former AT&T Wireless workers at Cingular
Wireless retail stores and call centers nationwide — a move
that runs counter to the longstanding trend in the
telecommunications industry and American workplaces
in general. And many of those Cingular shops are in the
South, where unionizing efforts have been difficult historically.

Cingular's wireless competitors have fought, at times fiercely,
against unionization, arguing that an organized labor force
would hobble their ability to move workers, cut costs and
make changes necessary to compete in a high-tech industry.
They often assert that unions ultimately hurt the workers
they claim to protect.

But the growth of Cingular into the nation's largest wireless
carrier — with a nearly fully unionized labor force — has
challenged those assumptions and given a new spark
to organized labor, said Harry C. Katz, dean of the School
of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.

"The fact Cingular does well even in the face of unionization
helps rebut the argument that unions aren't viable in
a technologically sophisticated and dynamic industry,"
Mr. Katz said.

That said, he noted that the union's success remained
particular to Cingular. "It has not contributed to
a noticeable rebirth more broadly," Mr. Katz said.
"Whether there will be a larger resurgence —
that remains to be seen."

From the union's perspective, the success at Cingular
shows what it can accomplish when it tries to organize
at a company that is not averse to organized labor.

At communications and public utility companies, the
percentage of unionized workers dropped to 21.8 percent
in 2002, from 42.4 percent in 1983 (using the most recent
available data organized by those categories), according
to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. To a large extent, the
decline reflects the industry's deregulation and the shrinking
work force at the heavily unionized Baby Bells.

By comparison, the percentage of unionized workers in
service industries over all fell to 5.7 percent in 2002,
from 7.7 percent in 1983, according to the bureau.

On Wall Street, telecommunications industry analysts said
the financial impact of Cingular's union contracts was not
yet clear. But "there's not a perception on Wall Street that
it's a problem," said Jeffrey Halpern, an analyst at Sanford
C. Bernstein & Company.

He noted that a unionized work force did not appear to
have hindered Cingular's ability to cut costs or streamline
its staffing, though the company lagged its competitors
in some areas, like retention of new subscribers.

About 225,000 people, including managers, work in the
wireless industry, and around 39,000 of them belong to
a union. Nearly all of these workers are at Cingular. (The
cable operators, with a work force of around 176,000,
including managers and union-eligible workers, had
about 7,000 union workers as of last year.)

The C.W.A. has been successful in organizing stores and
centers around the country, a few hundred workers at
a time. Last month, it organized 1,288 Cingular customer
service workers in Orlando, Fla. In December, the union
added 158 Cingular workers in Hawaii, 400 in Pennsylvania,
121 in Colorado, 51 in Iowa, and 36 in Illinois.

Mr. Banks said the idea of organizing the call center in
Jackson was unthinkable when it was still part of AT&T
Wireless because workers considered that company
"very antiunion."

So "it was a real big deal" when the union was certified
last March, after winning the support of roughly 60 percent
of some 500 workers, said Mr. Banks, the union's shop
steward in Jackson.

Union officials said that what set Cingular apart from other
wireless carriers and cable companies was, quite simply,
that it was not actively antiunion. To be sure, the company
and the union have clashed in numerous contract negotiations.
But Cingular has not tried to dissuade employees from joining
the union. At places like Jackson, for instance, the company
did not lobby employees to reject a union or argue that doing
so would hurt them and the company.

Instead, Cingular has sent the message that labor can be an ally.

The partnership with the union "provides us a competitive
advantage," said Lew Walker, Cingular's vice president for
human resources, operations and labor relations. "We do
believe it has a positive bottom line impact on the company."

Mr. Walker said the company had benefited by getting the
union's support with politicians and regulators, including its
endorsement for the acquisition of AT&T Wireless. He also
said Cingular had benefited in being the wireless carrier
of choice among other unions and organizations that want
to patronize a union-friendly company, though he declined
to specify how much revenue came from those entities.

Cingular's acceptance of unions may also be attributable
to tradition at SBC Communications, which merged with
AT&T last year and adopted the AT&T name. It owns 60
percent of Cingular, with the remainder owned by the
BellSouth Corporation.

Critical to the union's success is its strategy of fighting
for "neutrality agreements" — accords under which
companies promise not to try to dissuade nonunion
employees from organizing, said Rosemary Batt, an
associate professor of human resource studies at the
School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell.
Such agreements were in place at SBC and Cingular.

Of course, neutrality alone does not guarantee success,
said Edward Sabol, organizing director for the
communications workers. The union, he said, still
has had to win majority support in each bargaining
unit, within 60 days of officially beginning organizing
campaigns. But he said that effort is much easier
without challenges from the company.

And the union has not always been successful, even
with a neutrality agreement. Despite such an agreement
with Verizon Wireless, which expired in 2004, the C.W.A.
failed to organize workers at that company.

The union asserts that, despite the agreement, Verizon
Wireless continued to discourage workers from joining.

Indeed, in December a federal administrative law judge
in Washington issued a ruling that Verizon Wireless broke
federal labor law in 2003 and 2004 by discouraging union
organizing at a call center in Orangeburg, N.Y. The judge
ordered Verizon to post a notice at a call center in
Wilmington, N.C., where the work from Orangeburg had
been moved, saying the company would cease activities
like prohibiting workers from discussing unions on their
break time.

Verizon said it was appealing the decision, which it claims
to have lost on technical grounds. More generally, the
company argues that its workers rejected a union because
they were treated better and were paid more than unionized
Cingular workers.

Last April, Verizon Wireless published a comparison showing
that its average salaries were 33 percent to 44 percent higher
than several thousand Cingular employees in some bargaining
units. But the union disputes these figures, arguing they are
not representative of the overall picture.

As for the former AT&T Wireless workers, they say joining the
union offers some job protection. Last September, about
70 percent of the roughly 950 workers at a Cingular customer
service center in Oklahoma City pledged support for the union,
in part, said Michael Ahern, the chief union steward at the call
center, because the workers were concerned about job security
under the new management.

Mr. Ahern said that Cingular had been very strict about imposing
quality standards on call center employees. He said that employees
were regularly dismissed for failing to answer phone calls quickly
enough to fill their quota, while trying to solve customer problems
and be empathic.

Mr. Ahern said neither the union nor the management was happy
with the rate of job turnover, and that both sides were negotiating
on ways to retain workers, who might be able to meet the
requirements with more training. Mr. Ahern said the union
succeeded in getting workers a guarantee of a twice-a-year
salary increase, compared with once-a-year performance-
based raises at AT&T Wireless.

As a result, he said, more workers are beginning to trust the
idea of a union, something that many would not have considered
under a previous employer.

"It's changing," he said. But "it's been slow."

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
LINKS ONLY
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

States Curbing Right to Seize Private Homes
By JOHN M. BRODER
February 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/national/21domain.html?pagewanted=all

U.S. Reclassifies Many Documents in Secret Review
By SCOTT SHANE
February 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/politics/21reclassify.html?hp&ex=1140584400&en=aefb4d8fc1e315bc&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Supreme Court Reopens Abortion Issue on Alito's First Day
By JOHN O'NEIL
February 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/politics/21cnd-abortion.html?hp&ex=1140584400&en=242e3e34dd69e98d&ei=5094&partner=homepage