My Only Son: United States Marine
American Service Men and Women Dead - 2,656*
"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments
leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess
and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."
George W. Bush
President of the United States
State of the Union Address
January 28, 2003
Six years old
I wait for sound of car motor,
for light beams splashing across my blue walls,
for footsteps thumping across front porch,
in a few moments for my bedroom lamp snapped on.
My Dad fills the diameter of my door.
"There's my good boy," he booms.
I prop myself up for his offering,
bowl heaped with strawberry ice cream
I turn my car into driveway,
see headlights splash across window
of my six-year-old son's bedroom,
wonder if he hears thumping of my footsteps.
In a few moments
I fill diameter of his door.
"There's my good boy," I laugh.
He props himself up,
his hands reach for my offering,
bowl heaped with strawberry ice cream
I can't sleep tonight,
flip on television for Jay Leno's wisdom,
flick dials for rest of Ted Kopell's "Night Line,"
find something engrossing on Public Broadcasting.
Irritable from multitudes of sound, I turn it off,
slip off, wake up, doze, sit up.
I hear car coming slowly up the road
I lie still. . .
"Keep going. . . . . . . Keep Going!" It does
I lie back. Toss, tangle myself in sheet, blankets
A little after three
I hear car coming slowly up the road.
"Keep going. . . . . . . Keep going!"
Car turns into driveway,
lights splash across my blue walls,
thumping of steps on front porch.
I run down downstairs.
In crisply pressed dress blues
they fill diameter of my door.
Three United States Marines
*September 5, 2006
Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr. ©
Permission Given to Use Poem with Author Credit
E-mail: Maxwell623@aol.com
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!VIVA FIDEL! LONG LIVE FIDEL!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Dear Friend,
Below I am forwarding a letter (below) from Robert R. Bryan the lead
attorney for Mumia Abu-Jamal as he pursues the final appeals
in his case. This update gives a succinct report on the very few
issues on which Mumia has been allowed by the courts to appeal.
As you know, there are mountains of evidence in this case proving
Mumia's innocence and discrediting the entire case against him
(including a confession by another man, perjury by witnesses,
extreme police corruption, racism at every level of the prosecution's
case from police to the presiding judge) . Please feel free
to circulate Bryan's letter.
On September 15 there will be a public demonstration to Free
Mumia at the Alameda County Courthouse at 12th and Fallon
Streets, Oakland at 4 p.m. to 6:30.Initiated by the Labor Action
Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, this action is supported
by all of the pro-Mumia groups and individuals in the Bay Area.
If you are in the Bay Area I hope you will be able to participate
in the demonstration. Mumia's case is in its final court stages
and it is crucially important for those of us who support the
struggle to save his life to bring his case to the public through
actions such as this.
Free Mumia!
Carole Seligman
Robert R. Bryan's letter:
Dear Friends:
On October 4, 2006, our Reply Brief in response to the briefs
submitted by the district attorney will be filed on behalf of
Mumia Abu-Jamal in the United States Court of Appeals for
the Third Circuit, Philadelphia. This is pursuant to a September
1 court order.
We continue to aggressively pursue relief for Mr. Abu-Jamal.
On July 20, Professor Judith L. Ritter, associate counsel, and
I filed a lengthy opening brief supported by voluminous exhibits.
A week later NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.,
through Christine Swarns filed an amicus curiae (friend of the
court) brief. A separate amicus curiae brief was filed for the
National Lawyers Guild by Jill Soffiyah Elijah of the Harvard
Law School, Professor Zachary Wolfe of George Washington
University Law School, and Heidi Boghosian, its Executive
Director. They were joined by the National Conference of
Black Lawyers, International Association of Democratic Lawyers,
Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice
of Harvard Law School, Southern Center for Human Rights,
and the National Jury Project. These amicus briefs greatly
strengthen our quest to protect the constitutional rights
of Mr. Abu-Jamal and secure a reversal.
This case concerns my client's right to a fair trial, and the
struggle against the death penalty and the political repression
of an outspoken journalist. Racism and politics are threads
that have run through this case since his 1981 arrest. The
issues under consideration by the court are complex and
of great significance under the United States Constitution, include:
Whether Mr. Abu-Jamal was denied the right to due process
of law and a fair trial under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth
Amendments because of the prosecutor's "appeal after appeal"
argument that called upon the jurors to disregard the right
to the presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt,
and err on the side of guilt.
Whether the prosecutor's use of peremptory challenges to
exclude African Americans from sitting on the jury violated
Mr. Abu-Jamal's right to due process and equal protection
of the law under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments and
contravened the prohibition against racism in jury selection
held in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986).
Whether the verdict form and jury instructions that resulted
in the death penalty deprived Mr. Abu-Jamal of rights guaranteed
by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to due process
of law, equal protection of the law, and not to be subjected
to cruel and unusual punishment, and violated Mills v. Maryland,
486 U.S. 367 (1988), since the judge precluded jurors from
considering any mitigating evidence unless they all agreed
on the existence of a particular special circumstance.
Whether Mr. Abu-Jamal was denied due process and equal
protection of the law under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments
during post-conviction proceedings as a result of the bias
of Judge Albert F. Sabo which included the statement that
he was going to "help'em fry the nigger".
The case continues to move rapidly. Once the briefing phase
is complete, we will present oral argument before a three-judge
panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals. I will notify you when
a date is eventually set.
Our purpose is to win this life-and-death struggle, gain a new
and fair trial, and see our client walk out of jail a free person.
However, Mr. Abu-Jamal remains in great danger. We must
redouble our efforts to prevent his execution.
Thank you for your concern in this campaign for justice.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
From: CStephenKinder@aol.com
mailto:CStephenKinder%40aol.com
Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2006 00:35:22 EDT
Radio Station KPFA
1929 MLK Jr Way
Berkeley CA
(by email & copy by mail):
kpfa-lsb@lists.kpfa.org
mailto:kpfa-lsb%40lists.kpfa.org
traffic@kpfa.org
mailto:traffic%40kpfa.org
Dear Staff at KPFA,
My name is Chris Kinder, writing on
behalf of the Labor Action Committee To
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal (LAC).
I have to protest in the strongest terms
your apparent refusal to run the
PSA which I recorded last Friday
(the 25th of August 2006), to promote the Rally
To Free Mumia, which is being
organized by the Labor Action Committee for
September 15th.
After recording the PSA with technician
M. Mays (sorry, unsure of spelling),
I was told that PSAs are only allowed
for groups holding benefits in which
money is collected for a 501.3c non-
profit organization. When I explained
that this was for a political rally for
the defense of death-row political
prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, I was told
that "We don't do political rallies"! To hear
that from a KPFA staff person
almost rendered me speechless.
The LAC (rally organizer) is not a
501.3c organization. However, money
being collected at the rally will go
to Mumia's legal defense, at the National
Lawyers Guild Foundation, in care
of the Committee To Save Mumia in New York
City.
The NLG Foundation is a 501.3c.
I tried to explain this both at the time,
and in numerous phone calls and
emails to both M. Mays, and to William
Walker at the traffic department at
KPFA (which I was told had to rule on anything
that went out on the air).
In the week since I made the recording,
I have not heard back from either
Mays or Walker as to whether the
PSA is to go on air or not. If the PSA is
running and I just haven't heard
it on the air yet, please accept my
apologies.
However, the silence of your lack
of response to my phone calls and
emails--after what I heard from
your technician last Friday--is deafening.
Mumia Abu-Jamal is not just another
innocent death-row prisoner, of which
even one is too many. He is one
of the foremost messengers of honest,
uncompromising, and I might add,
unselfish leftism that we have in this
imperialist heartland called the USA.
He is at the apex of a tradition of black
liberation fighters extending back
through the Black Panthers, Malcolm X, Robert F
Williams and more. And his case--
in which mountains of evidence of his innocence has
gone unheard by a racist, corrupt
court system--is now on "fast track" to a
possible new death warrent. Hence,
the urgency of the LAC-initiated rally.
KPFA and other Pacifica stations
have been defending Mumia and running his
trenchant commentaries on the war,
racism and other issues for years. And
KPFA is also supposed to be part
of that honest, uncompromising and unselfish
left--a voice for the voiceless, like Mumia.
KPFA was the first public radio station,
determined to serve the public and
remain non-commercial. KPFA opposed
the McCarthyite witchhunt in the
fifties (unlike KQED-public television).
And KPFA has exposed numerous domestic and
international crimes of the US over the
years. KPFA (and its numerous
supporters who marched in the streets
of Berkeley, myself among them) also
fought back a vicious take-over attempt
a few years ago by a corrupt ex-Pacifica Board,
which had shut down KPFA for a
time in a mad drive to privatization. Is all
this now for nought? Is KPFA bent
on turning itself into another version of
National Public Radio (NPR)?
In the late 1990s, Mumia Abu-Jamal's
commentaries, after careful preparation
for national air time, were cancelled
at the last minute by NPR. This
censorship came after complaints
in the Halls of Congress from right-wing
politicians like Bob Dole. NPR showed
us at that time whose tune they were dancing to.
Who's tune is KPFA now dancing to?
We in the Labor Action Committee
To Free Mumia eagerly await your reply.
Fraternally yours, Chris Kinder for the LAC
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
OPEN LETTER TO DEMAND KPFA AIR THE PSA ANNOUNCEMENT
OF THE SEPT. 15, 4PM RALLY TO DEFEND MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
AT THE ALAMEDA COUNTY COURTHOUSE,
12TH AND FALLON STREETS.
Dear KPFA,
We join with Chris Kinder to demand that the PSA for the Rally
In Oakland To FREE MUMIA! 4 PM, Friday, September 15th 2006,
at the Alameda County Courthouse, 12th and Fallon Sts be aired
immediately and frequently. I am appalled at the thought that
only 501c3 organizations will have their voice heard on KPFA
PSA announcements! How can the voice of the people be heard?
Must they first organize themselves into a 501c3? Will you not
air the voice of the next Sojourner Truth or Martin Luther King?
Of course you have aired the PSA’s of political actions—including
antiwar actions; immigrant rights; a myriad of other causes,
political and cultural. So, what is going on here? When did
these policies change?
Non-501c3 groups do exist and are active in a myriad of causes.
You will not air the voice of dedicated activists who have organized
countless other meetings and teach-ins and demonstrations
in defense of one of the greatest writers and thinkers of our time,
Mumia Abu-Jamal? This September 15th demonstration in support
of Mumia is an urgent necessity! Will you stand by silently and limit
the voices of protest while Mumia’s life is on the line NOW?
The web site for the Labor Action Committee
to Defend Mumia Abu-Jamal can be found at:
http://www.laboractionmumia.org/
Take a look at it. Then ask yourself what just grounds there are
for you not to air the PSAs of the upcoming Sept. 15th action
organized by the Labor Action Committee to Defend Mumia Abu-Jamal?
KPFA must air political, grass roots activity. They are a much vaster
audience than the 501c3s. What are the 501c3s, anyway? Organizations?
Are they democratic? I know you must supply a list of
a Board of Directors in order to qualify. How are they chosen?
It is preposterous that KPFA will only air PSAs from 501c3
organizations. Do your listeners now have to worry whether
or not they or or others who are persecuted by this government
have incorporated themselves into 501c3s before their
voice can be heard?
Groups like the Labor Action Committee operate without costs
other than printing, meeting rooms, etc. They have no “funds.”
Every penny they raise—like all such grass-roots groups--from
individuals who come together for a common cause they believe
in—post announcements of meetings and actions; hand out flyers;
send out mailings; all at their own expense of both cost and labor
because they want to hear more of the voice of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
They want him to stay alive. They understand the importance of
Mumia’s analysis and voice of reason in a sea of lies and dehumanizing
slander against Black Americans and all of the oppressed.
They want all of us to work to save Mumia’s life! You say,
their voice can’t be heard on KPFA? I find this astonishing!
Clearly, their donations, managed by the National Lawyers Guild,
more than qualify them for the PSA announcement rules in any case.
We demand you air the Labor Action Committee to Defend Mumia
Abu-Jamal’s PSAs regularly and frequently. If this preposterous policy
is real it must be discarded immediately in favor of fair and equal
access for all groups and causes, 501c3 or not. We need a bigger
movement. It doesn’t need to be paired down according to semi-
corporate government regulations! We must support all voices who
say, Free Mumia! Mumia’s life is on the line! This government wants
him dead! Which side are you on?
We demand you respond loudly and clearly that, if you do, now,
or have in the past, discriminated against non-501c3 organizations,
you must immediately cease and desist. You must declare that you
will no longer discriminate against non-501c3 groups who have been
organizing selflessly in defense of causes your audience supports
by their attendance at these events. Many who participate in actions
and events organized and planned by the Labor Action Committee
to Defend Mumia Abu-Jamal are KPFA members and supporters!
I am posting this to our list-serve. Bay Area United Against War is
not a 501c3 group but we do have a list-serve of over 450 groups
and individuals from around the Bay Area. Many are KPFA members
and supporters as well. I would like to announce to them that you
have changed KPFA policy in this regard and that you will air the
PSA for the Rally In Oakland To FREE MUMIA! 4 PM, Friday,
September 15th 2006, at the Alameda County Courthouse,
12th and Fallon Sts., organized by the Labor Action Committee
to Defend Mumia Abu-Jamal.
If this is somehow against some broadcasting regulations then
I suggest you run a PSA yourselves simply stating, “We at KPFA
regret to inform our listeners, that because of such-and-such
regulation we cannot air the PSA announcement of the Rally in
Oakland To FREE MUMIA! 4 PM, Friday, September 15th 2006,
at the Alameda County Courthouse, 12th and Fallon Sts.,
organized by the Labor Action Committee to Defend Mumia
Abu-Jamal because they are not a 501c3 organization.”
Sincerely,
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War, www.bauaw.org
415-824-8730
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
DEFEND LYNNE STEWART
http://www.lynnestewart.org/
Dear Friends of Lynne Stewart,
We spoke with Lynne a few days ago and learned that two critical
dates had been set in the ongoing legal proceedings that will
determine whether Lynne serves 30 years in prison, as per the
U.S. Probation Department report and recommendation to Judge
John Koeltl, or zero time in prison and probation, the sentence
urged by Lynne's lead sentencing attorney, Liz Fink. The probation
department report was explicit in stating that a 30-year sentence
will serve as a "deterrent" to all those who would violate Bureau
of Prison regulations. In Lynne's case, the "violation" consisted
in the public release of a press statement by her client.
We should add here that government prosecutors, in
a just-released 100-page report also recommended a 30-year
prison sentence. The government's argument centered on their
contention that Lynne's defense effort on behalf of her client,
the, "blind sheik" Omar Abdel Rachman, essentially amounted
to "aiding and abetting terrorism."
We have attached Lynne's brief on the sentencing issue.
Originally scheduled for Monday, September 25, the sentencing
hearing has now been definitively set for Monday, October 16
at 10 AM in the Federal Court House in Manhattan.
There will be a mass rally during the afternoon of October 15
at a time and place to be determined, hopefully at the Riverside
Church in Manhattan the location originally scheduled.
Additionally, Judge Koeltl has set Monday, September 25 as
the date to hear Lynne's National Security Administration motions,
that essentially argue that if the government spied on Lynne's
strategy sessions with her attorneys as she prepared for her trial,
the trial was fundamentally tainted and the guilty verdict obtained
should be dismissed.
You may recall here that a U.S. federal district court in Michigan
recently ruled that the Bush Administration's NSA spying orders
represented a fundamental violation of constitutionally protected
rights, a decision that is on point with regard to Lynne's case.
The reason for the change in the sentencing dates mentioned
above is because government prosecutors asked for and received
additional time to prepare their response to Lynne's NSA motions.
These, and the government's response, will be argued
on September 25, also at the Federal Courthouse at 10 AM.
Lynne has expressed her special thanks for our West Coast fund
raising efforts over the past month or so. During that time
we were able to raise some $5,500 to meet some emergency
expenses for the national Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
due to the extraordinary efforts of a precious few groups
and individuals in the Bay Area.
Another extraordinary contribution possibility has now presented
itself with the exceptional decision last week of the Bay Area Chapter
of the National Lawyers Guild to make available to our West Coast
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee its mailing labels for some
900 NLG members for a fundraising appeal. We will include
in this mailing the excellent pamphlet produced on Lynne's
case by the National Office of the NLG.
We have set Wednesday, September 13 at 6:00 PM, 298 Valencia
Street (at 14th Street) in San Francisco, for the date of this important
mailing at which time we will also discuss future plans for our
efforts here. These include a possible West Coast tour on Lynne's
behalf by Michael Ratner, the Executive Director of the
New York-based, Center for Constitutional Rights.
Your participation at the September 13 Lynne Stewart Defense
Committee meeting and mailing is essential. Funds are urgently
needed as the final stages in the fight over Lynne's sentence
rapidly approach.
Should Lynne receive a zero-term sentence with probation
or something resembling a short prison sentence, her chances
of also receiving bail and being free pending her appeal
to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit will be
significantly increased. On the other hand, a long sentence
for Lynne, now 67 years-old, could indeed be a life sentence
with no bail.
Lynne's case is among the worst examples of the terrible state
of civil liberties in the U.S. today. That a proud and courageous
attorney, who did nothing more than valiantly defend her client,
could suffer so grave an injustice is a sure sign that we are
in for even more troubled times. In these difficult days, your
renewed efforts on Lynne's behalf are essential.
In this regard we ask that this letter be distributed as widely
as possible to all appropriate lists and concerned individuals.
Your financial contribution to Lynne's defense can be via
a check payable to either the "Lynne Stewart Defense Committee"
or, for a tax deductible contribution, to the "National Lawyers Guild
Foundation" (with a note in the memo box "for Lynne Stewart's
defense." Mail your checks directly and as quickly as possible to:
The Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
350 Broadway, Suite 700
New York, New York 10013
http://www.lynnestewart.org/
In solidarity,
Jeff Mackler and Larry Felson
for the West Coast Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Justice for Smithfield Workers!
Brutal conditions, crippling injuries, inhumane treatment -
this is what 5500 workers face every day at Smithfield
Packing's processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina.
Send a message to Smithfield's Board of Directors and
demand justice.
Cited by Human Rights Watch, the National Labor Relations
Board, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for creating
an environment of intimidation and fear, Smithfield
Packing has strenuously resisted any attempts
by their workers to organize a union.
Now's the time for all of us to send a message to Smithfield
demanding dignity, respect, and justice be granted
to all workers.
Sign the petition at:
http://go.care2.com/e/mX4/PV/Emq2
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Target Lebanon: The Untold Story, the fourth installment of Apocalypse
Now: The U.S. and Israeli Master Plan for the Middle East is available on
the program archive of the Taking Aim website:
http://www.takingaim.info
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
We just called to say we're listening
Great little flash film
http://www.newsday.com/media/flash/2006-06/23671673.swf
Lots more at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-walt-handelsman-story,0,6454031.htmlstory
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A Brief History of Those Who Made Their Point Politely
and Then Went Home by Kevin Higgins
On this day of tear-gas in Seoul
and windows broken at Dickins & Jones,
I can't help wondering why a history
of those, who made their point politely
and then went home, has never been written.
Those who, in the heat of the moment,
never dislodged a policeman's helmet,
never blocked the traffic or held the country to ransom.
Someone should ask them: "Was it all worth it?"
All those proud men and women, who never
had the National Guard sent in against them;
who left everything exactly as they found it,
without adding as much as a scratch to the paintwork;
who no-one bothered asking: "Are you or have you ever been?"
because we all knew damn well they never ever were.
from 'The Boy With No Face' published by Salmon Poetry
(2005) http://www.salmonpoetry.com/theboy.html
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Petition for U.S. Jewish Solidarity with Muslim
and Arab Peoples of the Middle East
http://www.jewishsolidarity.info/petition.php#bottom
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SCROLL DOWN TO READ:
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
ARTICLES IN FULL
LINKS ONLY
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Questioning the "New Middle East": War and Resistance in Lebanon
Berkeley Teach-In
Thursday September 7th, 6.00 PM
145 Dwinelle, UC Berkeley Campus
Speakers include:
Judith Butler, Professor of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature
Beshara Doumani, Professor of History
Charles Hirschkind, Professor of Anthropology
Saba Mahmood, Professor of Anthropology
Zeina Zaatari, Program Officer for Middle East
and North Africa, Global Fund for Women
Organized by a UC Berkeley Faculty and Students Collective.
For more information, visit our website www.btiaw.org
or email us info@btiaw.org
Sponsored by a variety of campus and community organizations
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Sept 9 Haiti Today. Occupation and Resistance
The Haiti Action Committee presents
Haiti Today: Occupation and Resistance
A panel discussion with
Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste - Haitian political prisoner of conscience
Dr. Paul Farmer - Founder of Partners in Health
Brian Concannon - Founder of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in
Haiti
Members of the Haiti Action Committee delegation to a recent Solidarity
Conference in Haiti
Saturday, September 9, 7:00 PM
St. Joseph the Worker church
1640 Addison Street, Berkeley (between Jefferson and McGee)
Wheelchair accessible/disabled persons should park on Jefferson
Parking is available in the church lot on McGee
Donation of $7-15 requested, no one turned away
Proceeds to benefit Haiti Action Committee and Fr. Jean-Juste's Food
Program in Port-au-Prince
www.haitiaction.net
510-483-7481
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Mumia Abu-Jamal Is In Danger
Rally In Oakland To FREE MUMIA!
4 PM Friday September 15th 2006,
Alameda County Courthouse, 12th and Fallon Sts, south side
Mumia Abu-Jamal Is Innocent!
For Labor Action To Free Mumia! End the Racist Death Penalty!
Rally initiated by the Labor Action Committee
To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal (LAC),
PO Box 16222, Oakland CA 94610.
510 763-2347 or LACFreeMumia@aol.com.
Initial endorsers include: The Mobilization
To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal;
Frances Goldin, Mumia's literary agent;
Marsha Feinland, Peace and Freedom Party
candidate*; Todd Chretien, Green Party
candidate*; Robert Irminger, Inland
Boatmen‚s Union, ILWU*; Jack Heyman, ILWU*;
Bob Mandel, exec bd, Oakland Education
Association*; Bill Mandel,37 years on KPFA*;
Workers World Party of SF; Nat
Weinstein; Socialist Viewpoint Magazine;
Cristina Gutierrez; Bario Unido por
una Amnistia General; Fred Hirsch,
Plumbers & Fitters 393*; Jack Ford, past
president Teamsters 921*; Patricia
Maginnis; Emily Maloney; Socialist Organizer;
Bay Area United Against War.
*organization listed for purposes
of identification only. (Endorsers
support FREE MUMIA and the three
slogans listed above. They do not necessarily
agree with any other statement in this
announcement or with any other LAC
statement.)
Endorse the rally! Send your individual
or organizational endorsement by
return email to LACFreeMumia@aol.com,
or write to LAC at PO Box 16222,
Oakland CA 94610. Let us know if you
can help build the rally!
Mumia's legal defense needs funds
in this critical time. Please help!
Make checks payable to: Labor Action
Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, and
send them to: PO Box 16222, Oakland CA 94610.
Seventy-five percent (75%) of all
contributions received under this appeal
will go directly to Mumia's legal
defense fund. The remainder will
support the work of the LAC.
For more information on Mumia's case,
go to the following web sites:
www.mumia.org,
www.freemumia.org,
www.chicagofreemumia.org,
www.laboractionmumia.org.
- Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
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://againstthecrimeofsilence.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.laboractionmumia.org.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Global Chalk4Peace
Sept 16/17th
OUR STREETS are OUR MEDIA
WE have TOTAL access
We CAN Make THE Difference
ON THE WEEKEND OF SEPTEMBER 16 & 17th Chalk4Peace!
On the pavements and sidewalks of our towns and cities
You are invited to Take Action!
To Participate in this GLOBAL outpouring of public art. Where we make
our personal statements for peace on the pavements and sidewalks of
our cities all over our world.
http://www.infinitepossibility.org/chalk2006/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
PEOPLE UNITED FOR AN UNCONDITIONAL AND GENERAL AMNESTY
Assembly: 24TH and Mission
When: Saturday, September 16th 2006
Time: 1 pm
For more information call 415-431-9925
We make a call to all the immigrant community to continue our
struggle and celebrate the independence of our countries demanding
a general and unconditional amnesty for all NOW!
All of our liberators, Simon Bolivar, Benito Juarez, San Martin, etc.,
struggled for a big, free American continent without borders. The rich
are the ones who have created borders so they can exploit and deny
us our right to education, health, housing, and jobs. Immigrant
Brothers and Sisters let us unite and celebrate our independence
demanding to be treated as human beings.
AMNESTY FOR ALL NOW!
..................................Spanish.................................
BARRIÓ UNIDO POR UNA
AMNISTIA GENERAL e INCONDICIONAL
¡AMNISTÍA PARA TODOS AHORA!
Asamblea: 24 y Misión
Dia: Sábado, 16 de Septiembre 2006
Hora: 1 PM
Para más información 415-431-9925
Hace un llamado a toda la población emigrante a continuar
nuestra lucha y celebrar la independencia de nuestros países
demandando una amnistía general e incondicional para
todos AHORA.
Todos nuestros libertadores, Simón Bolívar, Benito Juárez,
San Martín, etc. lucharon por una patria americana grande y sin
fronteras. Los ricos son los que han creado fronteras para así
poder explotarnos y negarnos el derecho a la educación salud,
vivienda, y trabajo.
Hermanos emigrantes unámonos y celebremos nuestra
independencia demandando ser tratados como seres humanos.
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Free the Cuban Five!
September 23, 2006
Washington, DC
Breaking News...
On Aug. 9, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued its en banc
decision denying a new trial to the Cuban Five. On August 10,
the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, together with
the National Lawyers Guild, sponsored an emergency press
conference in Washington in response to the decision.
A partial transcript to that press conference, in English
and Spanish, is here.
A March on the White House will be held on September 23
to continue to press forward with efforts to free the Five.
We urge all supporters to make every effort to join us on
that march. A public demonstration of support for the Five,
and outrage at their continued imprisonment, has never
been more vital. Details of the march are found at the
website below.
Join us in Washington on Sept. 23! Free the Cuban Five!
http://www.freethefive.org/
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IRAN WAR PERIL — EX-CIA MAN’S SF TALK SEPT. 24
The "threat" from Iran: Are mushroom clouds ahead?
Ray McGovern, a CIA analyst for 27 years, addresses
that issue at 12:45 p.m. Sunday, September 24, in the
First Unitarian Universalist Church (Starr King Room),
Franklin and Geary Streets, San Francisco.
McGovern will touch on Iraq too: "How we got in and
how we get out." Last May in Atlanta, national TV
networks showed him accusing Defense Secretary
Rumsfeld of prewar lying about supposed Iraqi weapons
of mass destruction.
McGovern founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals
for Sanity. He served the Central Intelligence Agency
from the Kennedy Administration to that of George H.
W. Bush. Awarded an Intelligence Commendation Medal,
he returned it following the revelations of torture.
There will be a question period until about 2 p.m.
Optional lunch (bring it or buy it) precedes the
program at 12:15. Cosponsors are the church’s World
Community Advocates and the War and Law League (WALL).
Following the program, WALL conducts its biennial
meeting. It is a nonpartisan, all-volunteer, San
Francisco-based group that opposes presidential wars
and aims at the rule of law in U.S. foreign affairs.
Public transit to the Unitarian Church includes
Muni's 47 and 49 bus lines on Van Ness Avenue, one
block east of Franklin, and the 38-Geary bus(which
connects with BART at the Montgomery Street Station).
For further information: (415) 738-8298 or (415)
564-2083; warandlaw@yahoo.com; http://warandlaw.org.
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Urgent call from October 22 Coalition against Police Brutality, SF
October 22 Coalition against Police Brutality, Repression
and Criinalization of a generation
National Day of Protest, March and Rally in SF, Planning
NO MORE STOLEN LIVES ! NO MAS VIDAS ROBADAS !
Contact:
mesha Monge-Irizarry
Idriss Stelley Foundation
(415) 595-8251 24HR Bilingual Spa. Crisis line
iolmisha@cs. com
How: Already involved are : October 22 Bay Area, Idriss
Stelley Foundation, SF CEDP (Campaign to End the Death
Penalty, ISO (International Socialist Organization, Bay Area),
Bay Area Families of Victims and Survivors of Police brutality,
Code Pink
http://www.october22.org/
GET INVOLVED: To join our mailing list, please write to:
sf1022-talk-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
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U.S. Out of Iraq Now! We Are the Majority!
End Colonial Occupation from Iraq,
to Palestine, Haiti, and Everywhere!
October 28 National Day of Action
Locally Coordinated Anti-War Protests from Coast to Coast
Vote With Your Feet … and Your Voices, and Banners, and Signs!
Let Every Politician Feel the Power of the People!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7836
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October 28 National Day of Action
Locally Coordinated Anti-War Protests from Coast to Coast
Vote With Your Feet … and Your Voices, and Banners, and Signs!
Let Every Politician Feel the Power of the People!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7836
http://www.actionsf.org/
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7869
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End Canada's Occupation of Afghanistan!
Call for action on October 28, 2006
This call for a pan-Canadian day of action, co-signed by the
Canadian Peace Alliance, the Canadian Islamic Congress, the
Canadian Labour Congress and the Montreal coalition Echec
a la Guerre, is being distributed and discussed at the World Peace
Forum now taking place in Vancouver. -SV The Collectif Échec
à la guerre, Canadian Peace Alliance, the Canadian Labour Congress,
and the Canadian Islamic Congress are jointly calling for a pan-
Canadian day of protest this October 28th, 2006, to bring Canadian
troops home from Afghanistan.
On that day, people all across the country will unite to tell
Stephen Harper that we are opposed to
his wholehearted support for Canadian and U.S. militarism.
This October marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion and
occupation of Afghanistan, and the people of that country are
still suffering from the ravages of war. Reconstruction in the
country is at a standstill and the needs of the Afghan people
are not being met. The rule of the new Afghan State, made
up largely of drug running warlords, will not realize the
democratic aspirations of the people there. In fact, according
to Human Rights Watch reports, the human rights record
of those warlords in recent years has not been better than
the Taliban.
We are told that the purpose of this war is to root out terrorism
and protect our societies, yet the heavy-handed approach of
a military occupation trying to impose a US-friendly
government on the Afghan people will force more Afghans
to become part of the resistance movement. It will also
make our societies more -- not less -- likely to see terrorist
attacks.
No discussion on military tactics in the House of Commons
will change that reality. Indeed, violence is increasing with
more attacks on both coalition troops and on Afghan civilians.
While individual Canadian soldiers may have gone to Afghanistan
with the best of intentions, they are operating under the
auspices of a US-led state building project that cares little
or the needs of the Afghan people. US and Canadian interests
rest with the massive $3.2 billion Trans Afghan Pipeline (TAP)
project, which will bring oil from the Caspian region through
southern Afghanistan (where Canada is stationed) and onto the
ports of Pakistan.
It has been no secret that the TAP has dominated US foreign
policy towards Afghanistan for the last decade. Now Canadian
oil and gas corporations have their own interests in the TAP.
Over the last decade, the role of the Canadian Armed Forces
abroad has changed, and Canadian foreign policy has become
a replica of the US empire-building rhetoric. The end result
of this process is now plain to see with the role of our troops
in Southern Afghanistan, with the enormous budget increases
for war expenditures and "security," with the Bush-style speeches
of Stephen Harper, and with the fear campaigns around
"homegrown terrorism" to foster support for those nefarious
changes.
It is this very course that will get young Canadian soldiers killed,
that will endanger our society and consume more and more
of its resources for destruction and death in Afghanistan.
We demand a freeze in defense and security budgets until
an in-depth public discussion is held on those issues across
Canada. The mission in Afghanistan has already cost Canadians
more than $4 billion. That money could have been used to fund
human needs in Canada or abroad. Instead it is being used
to kill civilians in Afghanistan and advance the interests
of corporations.
On October 28th, stand up and be counted.
Canadian Troops Out of Afghanistan Now!
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San Francisco Board of Education Meeting
Tuesday, November 14th, 7PM
555 Franklin Street, 1st Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
415/241-6427
The Board will vote on a resolution to phase out JROTC.
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Close the SOA and Change Oppressive U.S. Foreign Policy
Nov. 17-19, 2006 - Converge on Fort Benning, Georgia
People's Movements across the Americas are becoming increasingly more
powerful. Military "solutions" to social problems as supported by
institutions like the School of the Americas were unable to squash their
voices, and the call for justice and accountability is getting louder each
day.
Add your voice to the chorus, demand justice for all the people of the
Americas and engage in nonviolent direct action to close the SOA and
change oppressive U.S. foreign policy.
With former SOA graduates being unmasked in Chile, Argentina, Colombia,
Paraguay, Honduras, and Peru for their crimes against humanity, and with
the blatant similarities between the interrogation methods and torture
methods used at Abu Ghraib and those described in human rights abuse cases
in Latin America, the SOA/WHINSEC must be held accountable!
Visit http://www.soaw.org to learn more about the November Vigil, hotel
and travel information, the November Organizing Packet, and more.
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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
When Your Soldier Comes Back Home
by Martha Ann Brooks, wife of an OIF Veteran with PTSD
Click here to listen
http://www.broadjam.com/player/playerhosting.asp?play_file=19161_164607
When your soldier comes back home
You will be happy
You want things to be like they were before
But your soldier has been forged through trial by fire
After all he lived through war
Be patient when you see he’s not the same
Your soldier’s changed
When your soldier comes back home
He will be different
He’ll think about those that gave their lives
He might be feelin guilty that he’s living
He will keep that guilt inside
It may show sometimes in things he’ll say and do
Please help him through
Chorus:
War is never over
For the ones who fought side by side
They are bruised and battered
The deepest wounds don’t show outside
You may think that time will heal
There is no healing
The days are like sandbags around him
But ghosts will not be held back by a wall
Bad memories always win
If you love him you must be the one who stays
You must be strong
When your soldier comes back home
Chorus:
War is never over
For the ones who fought side by side
They are bruised and battered
The deepest wounds don’t show outside
Story Behind the Song
Veterans often come home from war to family members
who expect them to pick up where they left off. For the
combat vet, that is not always possible. I wrote this song
in the hope that it will help families and friends of returning
veterans embrace them with understanding.
The song is currently #2 on Neil Young's website.
http://www.neilyoung.com/lwwtoday/index.html
SIR! NO SIR!
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
publications:
Out Now!: A Participant's Account of the Movement
in the United States Against the Vietnam War
by Fred Halstead (Hardcover - Jun 1978)
and:
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
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein
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Endorse the following petition:
Don't Let Idaho Kill Endangered Wolves
Target: Fish and Wildlife Service
Sponsor: Defenders of Wildlife
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/664280276?z00m=99090&z00m=99090<l=1155834550
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SUPPORT "TAKING AIM":
KPFA RADIO is considering airing the very informative program,
"Taking Aim," produced by Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone. We
encourage everyone who has heard and appreciated this show
to contact KPFA's Tracy Rosenberg and let her know you want the
show to air:
tracyrose@gmail.com
Here's my letter:
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein
Dear Tracy,
The program, "Taking Aim", with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
is a one-of-a-kind, powerfully informative program. Schoenman
and Shone are leading experts in the history of the Middle East with
years of experience living in the region. They are both important
reporters for news that the mainstream media tries to hide or
distort. "Taking Aim" would be a very valuable addition to the fine
programing already on KPFA.
More importantly, the information disseminating from this program
and the serious work of Schoenman and Shone, provide invaluable facts
that KPFA listeners need to hear--truth that is told nowhere else.
The more in-depth information that is made available to the general
public--your listeners--from "Taking Aim" will help to further
educate your well-informed audience.
I strongly urge you to add this program to your broadcasts.
In my opinion, "Taking Aim" and the work of Schoenman and Shone
compares well with Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now." I wish it could
be on every day.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War
www.bauaw.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
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:
President George W. Bush
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/idrissstelleyfoundation/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/isf23/
Report Police Brutality
24HR Bilingual hotline
(415) 595-8251
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Asa/
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Update on the petition to save Bayview Hunters Point:
No more Fillmore!
Editorial by Willie Ratcliff,
http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/signthepetition060706.shtml
In a message dated 9/2/06 11:25:12 AM, editor@sfbayview.com writes:
Redevelopment referendum update: Claiming the victory: Mirroring
New Orleans’ protests against ethnic cleansing, a second line-style
funeral procession arrived at San Francisco City Hall Wednesday,
the band playing “St. James Infirmary,” the hearse containing
a coffin marked “Redevelopment RIP” to mark the death of the
Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Plan. During a rally and
press conference on the steps of City Hall, all the leading
candidates for District 10 Supervisor opposing incumbent
Sophie Maxwell – Marie Harrison, Espanola Jackson and Charlie
Walker – spoke out strongly against the Plan.
On Aug. 30, the deadline for the referendum petition drive
against the Plan to turn in the required 20,972 signatures
of San Francisco voters, petition drive supporters are turning
in 32,820 signatures, demonstrating the overwhelming
opposition to the Plan in Bayview Hunters Point and throughout
the City. Within 30 days, City Hall will validate the signatures,
then send the referendum to the Board of Supervisors
for reconsideration, where the Plan will either be killed
or placed on the ballot in November 2007. At that point,
the Chronicle wrote in its lead editorial Wednesday, “San
Francisco voters may well choose to side with them
(the referendum organizers).” The mood at the rally was
jubilant, with everyone dancing as the band played, “When
the Saints Go Marching In” to City Hall for a new era
of Black and Brown Power!
Website update: What's happening with SFBayView?
The Bay View’s website, www.sfbayview.com
http://www.sfbayview.com/
Give us a call at
(415) 671-0789 or an email at editor@sfbayview.com.
Now for what we’re up against: The Bay View newspaper
has been too broke to help finance the petition campaign,
very few contributions have come in and bills are overdue.
So the petition drive needs financial help … and so does
the Bay View newspaper, desperately.
The Bay View has faced many crises in the over 14 years
we’ve published it – eviction, death threats, never enough
money – yet readers have always come through, enabling
us to bounce back, tackle bigger issues and fight harder
than ever. We hate to beg, but WE NEED YOU NOW.
WITHOUT AN IMMEDIATE AND SUBSTANTIAL LOAN, THE
BAY VIEW CANNOT CONTINUE. To discuss a loan, which
we can amply collateralize, please call us at (415) 671-0789;
we’re here 24/7. Tax-deductible contributions to our
nonprofit arm, the Hurricane Relief Information Network,
are also a big help to save the hopes and the lives
of survivors who depend on the Bay View for news and resources.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Appeal for funds:
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website http://dahrjamailiraq.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.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
New Flash Film
From Young Ava Over At 'Peace Takes Courage'
http://www.peacetakescourage.com/page-blog.htm
http://letter.cf.huffingtonpost.com/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Save the Lebanese Civilians Petition
http://epetitions.net/julywar/index.php
http://donations.tayyar.org/
To The Concerned Citizen of The World:
http://epetitions.net/julywar/index.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
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/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
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.theheadlines.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
For a great car magnet--a black ribbon with the words, "Bring
the troops home now!" written in red, and it also comes in a
lapel pin!--go to:
(Put out by A.N.S.W.E.R.)
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Ecommerce?store_id=1621
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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:
http://www.marxists.de/middleast/schoenman/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Note: Thanks to Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh for sharing this information.
qumsi001@hotmail.com writes:
"My awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a
Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power, no
matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain -
especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own
ranks, against which we have already had to fight strongly, even without a
Jewish state." Albert Einstein
http://globalwebpost.com/farooqm/writings/other/einstein.htm
"Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our time is the
emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party"
(Tnuat Haherut, precursor to the Likud-MQ), a political party closely
akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social
appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the
membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi,
a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.
The current visit of Menahem Begin, leader of
this party to the United States is obviously calculated to give the
impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli
elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements
in the United States." From a letter signed by prominent Jews including
Einstein published in the NY Times Dec. 2, 1948
(http://www.qumsiyeh.org/einsteinetalonbegin/)
When approached to sign a petition to condemn the Arab revolt
in Palestine and to support the settlement of Jews Sigmund
Freud wrote in response: "I cannot do as you wish. I am unable
to overcome my aversion to burdening the public with my name,
and even the present critical time does not seem to me to warrant
it. Whoever wants to influence the masses must give them
something rousing and inflammatory and my sober judgment
of Zionism does not permit this. I concede with sorrow that
the baseless fanaticism of our people is in part to be blamed
for the awakening of Arab distrust. I can raise no sympathy
at all for the misdirected piety which transforms a piece
of a Herodian wall into a national relic, thereby offending the feelings of
the natives. Now judge for yourself whether I, with such
a critical point of view, am the right person to come forward as the
solace of a people deluded by unjustified hope."
Freud's Letter to Dr. Chaim Koffler Keren HaYassod, Vienna: 26 February
1930; posted at the Freud Institute in UK website:
http://www.freud.org.uk./arab-israeli.html
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JOIN THE LYNNE STEWAR DEFENSE
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
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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.freethefive.org/
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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.indymedia.org/oaxaca
http://www.mexico.indymedia.org/oaxaca
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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
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Iraq Body Count
For current totals, see our database page.
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/pr13.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
The Cost of War
[Over three-hundred-billion so far...bw]
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
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"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
Go to:
http://www.shutitdown.org/
to send a letter to Congress and the White House:
Shut Down Guantanamo and all torture centers and prisons.
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
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Great Counter-Recruitment Website
http://notyoursoldier.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.
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FYI
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."
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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.10reasonsbook.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
February 13, 2006
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.usconstitution.net/declar.html
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805195.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Bill of Rights
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805182.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
ARTICLES IN FULL:
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
1) Many Entry-Level Workers Find a Rough Market
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
September 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/04/us/04labor.html?_r=2&ref=us&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
2) Fidel Castro Says He's Lost 41 Pounds
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:17 p.m. ET
September 5, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Cuba-Castro.html
3) A Lone Man’s Stunt Raises Broader Issues
By KATIE ZEZIMA
September 5, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/us/05maine.html?ref=us
4) Rallies Sound the Drumbeat on Immigration
By SHIA KAPOS and PAUL GIBLIN
September 5, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/washington/05rally.html
5) Rep. John Murtha
To Surge or Not To Surge [Murtha suggests the Draft...bw]
September 5, 2006
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-john-murtha/to-surge-or-not-to-surge_b_28742.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
1) Many Entry-Level Workers Find a Rough Market
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
September 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/04/us/04labor.html?_r=2&ref=us&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
This Labor Day, the 45 million young people in the nation’s work
force face a choppy job market in which entry-level wages have often
trailed inflation, making it hard for many to cope with high housing
costs and rising college debt loads.
Entry-level wages for college and high school graduates fell by more
than 4 percent from 2001 to 2005, after factoring in inflation,
according to an analysis of Labor Department data by the Economic
Policy Institute. In addition, the percentage of college graduates
receiving health and pension benefits in their entry-level jobs has
dropped sharply.
Some labor experts say wage stagnation and the sharp increase
in housing costs over the past decade have delayed workers ages
20 to 35 from buying their first homes.
“People are getting married later, they’re having children later,
and they’re buying houses later,” said Cecilia E. Rouse, an economist
at Princeton University and a co-editor of a forthcoming book
on the economics of early adulthood. “There’s been a lengthening
of the transition to adulthood, and it is very possible that what
has happened in the economy is leading to some of these changes.”
Census Bureau data released last week underlined the difficulties
for young workers, showing that median income for families with
at least one parent age 25 to 34 fell $3,009 from 2000 to 2005,
sliding to $48,405, a 5.9 percent drop, after having jumped
12 percent in the late 1990’s.
Worsening the financial crunch, far more college graduates are
borrowing to pay for their education, and the amount borrowed
has jumped by more than 50 percent in recent years, largely
because of soaring tuition.
In 2004, 50 percent of graduating seniors borrowed some
money for college, with their debt load averaging $19,000,
Dr. Rouse said. That was a sharp increase from 1993, when
35 percent of seniors borrowed for college and their debt
averaged $12,500, in today’s dollars.
Even though the economy has grown strongly in recent years,
wages for young workers, especially college graduates, have
been depressed by several factors, including the end of the
high-tech boom and the trend of sending jobs overseas. From
2001 to 2005, entry-level wages for male college graduates
fell by 7.3 percent, to $19.72 an hour, while wages for female
graduates declined 3.5 percent, to $17.08, according to the
Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research group.
“In a weak labor market, younger workers do the worst,” said
Lawrence Mishel, the institute’s president. “Young workers are
on the cutting edge of experiencing all the changes in the economy.”
Lawrence F. Katz, a labor economist at Harvard, said plenty of
slack remained in the job market for young workers.
The percentage of young adults who are working has dropped
since 2000 largely because many have grown discouraged and
stopped looking for work. This has happened even though the
unemployment rate, which counts only people looking for work,
has fallen to 4.4 percent for those ages 25 to 34. It is 8.2 percent
for workers ages 20 to 24.
“Any way you slice the data, the labor market has been pretty
weak the past five years,” Dr. Katz said. “But hotshot young
people coming out of top universities have done fine, just like
top-notch executives have.”
In a steep drop over a short time, 64 percent of college graduates
received health coverage in entry-level jobs in 2005, down from
71 percent five years earlier. As employers grapple with fast-rising
health costs, many companies have reduced health coverage,
with those cutbacks sharpest among young workers.
Partly because of the decline in manufacturing jobs that were
a ticket to middle-class life, just one-third of workers with high
school diplomas receive health coverage in entry-level jobs,
down from two-thirds in 1979.
After an extensive job search, Katey Rich, who graduated from
Wesleyan University in June, landed a part-time, $14-an-hour
job in Manhattan as an editorial assistant at Film Journal International.
With one-bedroom apartments often renting for $2,000 a month,
Ms. Rich is looking to share an apartment but is staying with
a friend’s parents for now. And while she is excited about her
new job, she said she was concerned that it did not come with
health insurance.
“I’ll have to fend for myself,” said Ms. Rich, who is from Aiken,
S.C. “I have parents who will back me up if things get really rough.”
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, said it was
surprising how deeply young workers were going into debt
to maintain the living standards they want.
The nation’s personal savings sank below zero last year for the
first time since the Depression, meaning Americans spent more
than they earned. But for households under 35, the saving rate
has plunged to minus 16 percent, which means they are spending
16 percent more than they are earning.
“The post-boomer generation feels very cavalier about saving,”
Mr. Zandi said. “They’ve been very aggressively dis-saving and
have borrowed significantly.”
John Arnold, 28, a materials-handling specialist at a Caterpillar
factory in Morton, Ill., said he was having a hard time making
ends meet. At his factory, Caterpillar has pressured the union
to accept a two-tier contract in which newer workers like him
will earn a maximum of $13.26 an hour — $27,000 a year for
a full-time worker — no matter how long they work. For longtime
Caterpillar workers in the upper tier, the wage ceiling is often
$20 or more an hour.
“A few people I work with are living at home with their parents;
some are even on food stamps,” said Mr. Arnold, a Caterpillar
worker for seven years. “I was hoping to buy a house this year,
but there’s just no way I can swing it.” With just a high school
diploma, he said it was hard to find jobs that paid more.
For men with high school diplomas, entry-level pay fell by
3.3 percent, to $10.93, from 2001 to 2005, according to the
Economic Policy Institute. For female high school graduates,
entry-level pay fell by 4.9 percent, to $9.08 an hour.
Labor Department officials voiced optimism for young workers,
noting that the Bureau of Labor Statistics had projected that
18.9 million net new jobs would be created by 2014.
“The future is bright for young people because the opportunities
are out there,” said Mason Bishop, deputy assistant labor secretary
for employment and training. “We want to help them get access
to the postsecondary education that enables them to take
advantage of the opportunities.”
The wage gap between college-educated and high-school-educated
workers has widened greatly, with college graduates earning
45 percent more than high school graduates, up from 23 percent
in 1979.
Professor Rouse of Princeton said a college degree added $402,000
to a graduate’s lifetime earnings.
Alex Shayevsky, who graduated from New York University last year,
said majoring in business had paid off. Mr. Shayevsky got a job in
the bond department of a major investment bank in New York. He
earns $65,000, not including a bonus that could be at least half his salary.
“Getting my degree was very valuable,” said Mr. Shayevsky, a 23-year-
old from Buffalo Grove, Ill.
Martin Regalia, chief economist for the United States Chamber of
Commerce, said young workers would be helped greatly if strong
economic growth continued and the labor market tightened further,
as happened in the late 1990’s.
Sheldon H. Danziger, a professor of public policy at the University
of Michigan, sees a bifurcated labor market for young workers.
“You’re much better off as a young worker today if you’re the child
of the well-to-do and you get a good education,” Professor Danziger
said, “and you’re much worse off if you’re a child of a blue-collar worker
and you don’t go to college. There’s increasing inequality among young
people just as there is increasing inequality among their parents.”
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2) Fidel Castro Says He's Lost 41 Pounds
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:17 p.m. ET
September 5, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Cuba-Castro.html
HAVANA (AP) -- Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said in a statement
released Tuesday that he's lost more than 41 pounds in more than
a month since his intestinal surgery, but that the ''most critical
moment'' is already behind him.
''Today I am recovering at a satisfactory rhythm,'' said the statement
published in the Communist Party daily Granma, which was
accompanied by new photographs of a gaunt-looking Castro.
The 80-year-old Castro is easily over 6 feet tall and in recent
years has been on the thin side. He looked especially thin
at his last public appearance before he fell ill, at a July 26
speech in eastern Cuba marking the start of his revolution.
He said he just recently had the last stitches from his surgery
removed, following 34 days of convalescence. ''I can affirm
that the most critical moment has been left behind,'' his
statement said.
It was accompanied by seven different photographs of Castro
during his convalescence, several of them repeated on Granma
newspaper's Web site in larger versions. In all of them, Castro
is seated and wearing either short-sleeved navy blue
or light-blue pajamas. In several of the photos, he
is reading or writing.
Most of the pictures show him from the waist up, although
one shows his whole body as he sits in a rocking chair,
wearing slippers and reading.
In another, Castro holds up a broadsheet proof of a book
written from a series of interviews he gave to French journalist
Ignacio Ramonet, which he said he was reviewing during
his recovery.
''But because of that, I have not failed to strictly follow my
duties as a disciplined patient,'' he added.
''In the coming days, I will be receiving distinguished visitors,''
Castro said, apparently referring to some of the heads of state
and government who will be traveling to the summit
of nonaligned nations next week.
The government has not announced whether Castro,
or his younger brother Raul -- who is serving as Cuba's
provisional president during the elder sibling's recovery
-- will represent the country during the Sept. 11-16 gathering.
''This doesn't mean that every activity will be immediately
accompanied by video or photographic images, although
news will be provided of every one,'' the statement said.
''All of us must understand that it is not convenient to
systematically offer information, nor give out images
of my health situation,'' Castro added. ''All of us must
also understand realistically that the complete recovery
time, whether we like it or not, will be prolonged.
''At this moment I am not in a hurry, and no one should
be in a hurry. The country is marching and moving
ahead,'' he said.
Castro said July 31 that he had undergone an emergency
intestinal operation and was temporarily ceding his
powers as head of the government and the Communist
Party to his 75-year-old brother, Raul, the defense minister.
The nature of his surgery and his specific ailment have
been treated as a state secret. It is the first time
in 47 years of rule that Castro has stepped aside, even
temporarily.
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3) A Lone Man’s Stunt Raises Broader Issues
By KATIE ZEZIMA
September 5, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/us/05maine.html?ref=us
LEWISTON, Me. — On a hot July night, a few dozen Somali men
were kneeling shoulder to shoulder in prayer at a storefront mosque
here when the door opened and the frozen head of a pig, an animal
considered unclean in Islam, rolled across the floor.
Men fled in fear. A child fainted. Some called the police and ran
after the person who had rolled the head in. A suspect, Brent
Matthews, was quickly apprehended and charged with desecrating
a place of worship. Mr. Matthews, 33, said that the incident was
a prank and that he did not know the significance of a pig’s head.
Now, weeks later, Somali leaders say the incident has left a scar
on their community of about 3,000 immigrants.
While they admit the act was the work of one man, it has
heightened simmering tensions in this overwhelmingly white,
working-class city of 35,000, where Somali refugees started
flocking about five years ago, after first settling in more urban
areas of the United States. Many said they came here because
housing was inexpensive and Lewiston seemed a safe place
to raise their families.
While much of Lewiston has been welcoming, some Somalis
here believe the head incident reveals an undercurrent of
suspicion and lack of understanding about their culture.
According to the Census Bureau, Maine is 96 percent white.
“We’re not saying all of Lewiston is part of this,” said Imam
Nuh Iman, leader of the mosque, the Lewiston-Auburn Islamic
Center. “But this is the biggest impact you can have on a mosque,
in the time of praying, to put in a pig’s head. It could have been
a goat’s head, or a cow’s head. But it was a pig’s head.”
Phil Nadeau, the assistant city administrator, believes the
incident was isolated but underscored the growing pains
this city — whose mills and shoe factories, now closed,
welcomed French-Canadian workers a century ago —
is now going through.
“I think it’s a reflection of where we are right now. There’s
a small group of people that will never accept this type of
change in their community, ever,” said Mr. Nadeau, whose
French-Canadian grandmother spoke only five words of English.
“The second wave of non-English speakers to Lewiston is now
the Somali population.”
Hussein Ahmed, 31, said the mosque incident came as Somalis
here felt that they had finally started to move on from a 2002
open letter written by Laurier Raymond, then the mayor,
which asked them to stop other Somalis from coming to
the city. Mr. Raymond contended in his letter that the city
was “maxed-out financially, physically and emotionally.”
Somali leaders quickly condemned Mr. Raymond after the
letter, saying he was “bent toward bigotry.” Mr. Raymond
met with Somali leaders but did not apologize. Three months
later, a white supremacist group held a rally in Lewiston but
was overshadowed by a counter-rally that drew 4,500 people.
The incident with the pig’s head brought a similar response.
About 150 people, including Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat,
and leaders of other faiths, gathered at a park shortly after
the incident to condemn it and to support the Somali community.
“After we heard about what happened at the mosque, many
of us in the local interfaith clergy group felt that an attack on
anybody’s house of worship is an attack on all houses of worship,”
said Rabbi Hillel Katzir of Temple Shalom Synagogue Center
in nearby Auburn. “This is not O.K. This is not approved of
by the majority of the community. He might think it’s funny,
but the rest of us don’t, and it’s not acceptable.”
Mr. Ahmed, who spoke at the rally, said it affirmed his trust
in residents of Lewiston. “The message was clear: they don’t
tolerate hate,” he said.
Mr. Nadeau said that Somalis continued to flock to Lewiston,
about 30 miles north of Portland, and that the city was struggling
to find jobs for them. The city is also trying to educate residents
about the Somali culture and Islam.
“There’s still a kind of unknown element relative to people’s
familiarity with their culture and religion that is still being felt,
even to this day,” Mr. Nadeau said.
Mr. Matthews’s lawyer, James Howaniec, said his client had
intended to play a prank. Mr. Howaniec said Mr. Matthews got
the head from a pig roast in June and had originally planned to
use it for target practice. Mr. Matthews then decided to plant
it outside the center, thinking it was simply a gathering place,
the lawyer said.
“He did not know it was a place of worship,” Mr. Howaniec said.
“There’s certainly nothing in the exterior of the dilapidated
storefront that would lead anyone to believe it was a place
of worship. He is insistent that he did not know the significance
of a pig’s head to the Muslim community.”
Mr. Howaniec said that Mr. Matthews was trying to create
a disruption at the center, but that it was not a crime.
“It’s our position that while it was an act of stupidity, it did
not rise to the level of any sort of crime, let alone a hate crime,”
Mr. Howaniec said. “It’s clearly not something he’s proud of, but
as an attorney looking at criminal statutes, I don’t think it rises
to the level of desecration of a place of worship.”
Judge Ellen Gorman of Androscoggin County Superior Court on
Aug. 31. granted the state’s request for a temporary injunction,
ordering Mr. Matthews to stay 150 feet from the mosque.
At the hearing Mr. Matthews said that he had planned to put the
head outside “where the dark people congregate” as a joke, and
that it had slipped from his hand and rolled inside. He said he
felt bad about the incident and wished he “could turn back time.”
Mr. Matthews will be indicted on criminal charges Sept. 6, and
Mr. Howaniec said he was expecting a jury trial. If convicted,
Mr. Matthews could face up to a year in jail on the desecration
charge and up to $5,000 in fines.
Imam Iman said he wanted his worshippers to feel comfortable
where they lived.
“Most people feel welcome,” the imam said, “but after these
incidents, not at all. Mainers have to understand that this
is the new Maine.”
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
4) Rallies Sound the Drumbeat on Immigration
By SHIA KAPOS and PAUL GIBLIN
September 5, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/washington/05rally.html
BATAVIA, Ill., Sept. 4 — Spirited groups of immigrant rights
supporters rallied in Illinois and Arizona on Monday in marches
intended to keep the drumbeat going for changes in immigration law.
In both places, counterdemonstrators heckled from the sidelines
and called on the federal government to enforce its border laws.
Organizers of a rally in Phoenix, outside Arizona’s copper-domed
Capitol, estimated their numbers at 4,000, though the police
said the event drew about 1,000 people.
In Batavia, a flag-waving crowd, estimated by the police at about
2,500, chanted “Sí, se puede” — “Yes, we can” — and converged
on the district office of Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. In a counterrally
sponsored by the Chicago Minuteman Project, some 200 men,
women and a few children jeered the larger crowd.
Neither Mr. Hastert nor his staff was on hand, and he could not
be reached for comment.
Organizers hoped to pressure Mr. Hastert to push legislation
favorable to immigrants through Congress.
“We’re here because we need to keep this issue alive,” said
Jorge Mujica, 50, a Mexican immigrant who helped organize
the rally and who lives in Berwyn, Ill.
“We want to show that we didn’t disappear after May 1,” Mr. Mujica
said, referring to the hundreds of thousands who demonstrated
nationwide that day on the issue. “We’re still marching.
We’re not going away.”
Alfredo Gutierrez, at the rally in Phoenix, said that he was
disappointed it had not attracted more marchers but that he
thought the debate had changed in recent months. Immigrant
rights activists who were initially so optimistic have begun
to lose hope, he said.
“That feeling that something would be accomplished has
diminished almost daily with every report of every negative
thing that goes on with Congress,” Mr. Gutierrez said.
The Arizona chapter of the Association of Community
Organizations for Reform Now set up three tents, at which
volunteers registered people to vote and distributed postcards
urging members of Arizona’s Congressional delegation
to support a path for citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Counterprotesters gathered behind the main stage and
shouted at the crowd, but security personnel and the police
generally kept the sides apart.
Fran Garrett, a volunteer with the anti-immigration group
United for a Sovereign America, based in Phoenix, said she
was fed up with the authorities who refused to arrest and
deport illegal immigrants.
“They try to get the message out that they’re here to do jobs
and all that,” Ms. Garrett said. “That’s not true. They are here
to take over eight states of the United States, and they are
going to do it by sheer numbers alone, when they get
enough people where they are the majority in a state.”
In Batavia, 30 Chinese-Americans joined the mostly Latino
crowd. One of them, Man Li Wu, said through an interpreter
that she had a daughter in China who had tried for eight
years to enter the United States.
“I’m 70 and I don’t know how long I’ll be able to wait,” she
said. “I want to see my grandchildren.” Members of the
Chicago Minutemen say that living in the United States
is a privilege and should not be an easy process.
“Immigration laws aren’t broken,” said Evert Evertsen, 61,
from Harvard, Ill. “The problem is they’re just not being enforced.”
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
5) Rep. John Murtha
To Surge or Not To Surge [Murtha suggests the Draft...bw]
September 5, 2006
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-john-murtha/to-surge-or-not-to-surge_b_28742.html
The President, Vice President, Secretaries of Defense and State
have been blitzing the media lately in attempts to shore up
support for the War in Iraq. They assert that today's wars must
be fought with the same fervor and intensity as when we fought
Nazism during WWII and then Communism until its celebrated fall.
While an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that
terrorism is a significant threat worth fighting against, the
Bush Administration attempts to confuse the Iraq War with
the larger war on terrorism and continues to fight a war
of rhetoric and political slogans instead of one of action.
When several military experts called for the addition of
hundreds of thousands of troops early in the Iraq War, the
Bush Administration rejected the call, and instead chose
to fight with a minimal force. And now, when our troops have
been deployed over and over again; when almost all of our
combat units at our bases at home are at the lowest state
of combat readiness; and with this Administration' s continued
insistence to stay a failed course; it is now more obvious than
ever that we can not sustain this war on its current course
and we must change direction.
The burden of the Iraq War has fallen squarely on our
all-volunteer military and their families. They have performed
remarkably well, particularly in light of the unclear and ever-
changing mission dictated to them by Pentagon civilians
of the Bush Administration. But they are overstretched and
overextended. They deserve fresh reinforcements so that
they can return home to rebuild their units, their psyche
and their family and community relationships.
While the Administration stresses that we are a country
at war, they refuse to spread the burden proportionately.
Instead, they pursue tax incentives for the rich, run up our
federal deficit, and spend astronomical sums in Iraq with
little or no control over wasteful and fraudulent spending.
This is not the picture of a country at war. Consider the
following:
The current war in Iraq has lasted longer than the Korean
War, World War I and World War II in Europe. This war is the
first protracted conflict in modern times in which our nation
has not utilized a draft for additional support. If the President
is genuinely serious in his comparison with communism and
fascism, perhaps he should reconsider a call to reinstate the
draft.
The selective service provided:
2.8 million U.S. Servicemen in WWI,
10 million U.S. Servicemen in WWII,
1.5 million U.S. Servicemen in the Korean War, and
1.8 million U.S. Servicemen during the Vietnam Conflict
The facts are that in 1950, the United States had about 1.5
million active duty personnel under arms and by 1952 they
surged to 3.6 million. In Vietnam the U.S. had 2.7 million
in 1964 and by 1968 we had over 3.5 million.
In 2006, the overall active end-strength of our nation's
military was 1,367,500. The President's 2007 budget
request reduces that end-strength to 1,332,300. This
means that there is projected to be 35,200 fewer troops
on our nation's active duty rolls this year as compared
to last year.
We cannot sustain the President's open-ended, vague
and bankrupting war policies indefinitely. He should
try less rhetoric and more action.
If we are to fight this war with the same sense of dedication
and vigor as we did prior wars, we cannot do it without
a surge in force.
It is unlikely that the President will call for a draft. A draft
is politically unpopular. But we cannot continue to allow
the President to pursue open-ended and vague military
missions without a change in direction.
Two years ago, I was one of only two in the House of
Representatives who voted for a draft, because I believe
if we are a country truly at war, the burden should be
shared proportionately and fairly. So Mr. President, you
have two options, either change the course in Iraq and
reduce the burden on our overstretched active force
or reinstitute the draft. We cannot sustain the current course.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
LINKS ONLY
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G.O.P. Sets Aside Work on Immigration
By CARL HULSE and RACHEL L. SWARNS
[Hmm! Ain't it harvest time?...bw)
September 5, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/us/05cong.html?hp&ex=1157515200&en=2c8b722db77e3b65&ei=5094&partner=homepage
U.S. Strategy Shifts Focus From Al Qaeda
By DAVID SANGER and JOHN O’NEIL
September 5, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/washington/05cnd-bush.html?hp&ex=1157515200&en=c4b0366df461941c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
New Oil Field in Gulf May Yield Billions of Barrels
By JOHN HOLUSHA
September 5, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/business/05cnd-oil.html?hp&ex=1157515200&en=90639220416107fb&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Officials Slow to Hear Claims of 9/11 Illnesses
By ANTHONY DePALMA
September 5, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/nyregion/05cnd-health.html?hp&ex=1157515200&en=8d2171aa38effb04&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Unconstitutional Orders Must Be Disobeyed
By Bill Mcginnis
02 September, 2006
Countercurrents.org
http://www.countercurrents.org/us-mcginnes020906.htm
FOCUS | Frank Rich: Donald Rumsfeld's Dance With the Nazis
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090306Z.shtml
FOCUS | Death Penalty Sought for US Soldiers Accused of Iraqi Murders
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090306Y.shtml
VIDEO | Camp Casey Supports Brave War Resister
A Report by Scott Galindez and Geoffrey Millard
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm
VIDEO | The Courage to Say No to War
A Report by Geoffrey Millard and Scott Galindez
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm
Sarah Olson | Bush Pushes Nuclear Weapons Development in US
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090106J.shtml
'Why did Blair send my teenage son to fight an illegal and dishonest war?'
By Terri Judd
Published: 02 September 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1269497.ece
Compensation Heightens Unease of 9/11 Relatives in U.S. Illegally
By CARA BUCKLEY
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/nyregion/03families.html?ei=5094&en=0086df9e5e972211&hp=&ex=1157256000&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1157220941-GwkXWThYMF9W4wbPWEBjcw
Education Dept. Shared Student Data With F.B.I.
By JONATHAN D. GLATER
September 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/washington/01educ.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
"Walking, We Ask Questions"
The Other Campaign in Spanish Harlem
By RJ Maccani
The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign on the Other Side
August 31, 2006
http://www.narconews.com/Issue42/article2037.html
Winning Arab hearts and minds
by Dima Khatib, Latin America Correspondent
Aljazeera.Net
Friday 18 August 2006 8:18 AM GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0393C044-9D53-43FB-9B2F-3F15DF88AF91.htm
Israeli Police Capture Palestinian at British Embassy
By STEVEN ERLANGER
JERUSALEM, Aug. 31 — Israeli police armed with assault rifles
ended a bizarre six-hour standoff tonight at the British Embassy
in Tel Aviv, arresting a Palestinian who had scaled a wall into
the embassy parking lot. The man, identified as Nadim Injaz,
threatened to commit suicide and demanded political asylum
in Britain, saying he was afraid that Palestinian militants would
kill him if he returned to the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Israeli television said Mr. Injaz had once been an informer
for the Israeli domestic security service, Shin Beth, but that he
had been denied permission to live in Israel. He apparently has
been living illegally in Israel anyway, rather than return to the
Palestinian territories and, he feared, risk being murdered
as a collaborator.
August 31, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/world/middleeast/31cnd-mideast.html?hp&ex=1157083200&en=1e9e65b0a8ceba6f&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Bush Says Iraq War Is Part of a Larger Fight
By DAVID STOUT
President Bush began a new drive today to rally the American
people behind him on the Iraq war and national security, declaring
that the United States must stay the course in Iraq because it is
a battleground in an epic struggle between democracy and tyranny.
August 31, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/washington/31cnd-bush.html?hp&ex=1157083200&en=c78660b7dd5ce413&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Mexico: mass protest against electoral fraud acquires
insurrectionary proportions
By Erik Demeester
Wednesday, 30 August 2006
http://www.marxist.com/mexico-protest-electoral-fraud-revolution.htm
Caracas golf clubs in a hole as city bids to build homes on greens
Mayor seeks compulsory purchase of elite courses
Capital needs 1m houses but opposition cries foul
Duncan Campbell
Guardian
Thursday August 31, 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329565045-111259,00.html
Resisting Racism, Opportunism and Profiteering
Detroit Teachers Strike Again
By RICH GIBSON
August 29, 2006
http://www.counterpunch.org/gibson08292006.html
HURRICANE EXPERT THREATENED FOR PRE-KATRINA WARNINGS
A Greg Palast special investigation for Democracy Now!
Monday, August 28. From New Orleans.
http://www.gregpalast.com/mailing/link.php?URL=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5kZW1vY3JhY3lub3cub3JnLw%3D%3D&Name=&EncryptedMemberID=NTAyNjQ%3D&CampaignID=29&CampaignStatisticsID=21&Demo=0&Email=kwald@california.com
`HUD' Sham Acts Out Katrina Housing Anger
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0829-03.htm
U.S. States Widen Scope for Executions
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0829-04.htm
An Interview with Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Slonsky
The Crimes Katrina Exposed
By ALAN MAASS
August 30, 2006
http://www.counterpunch.org/maass08302006.html
The Worst Kind of Terror
Murder on Rucarb Street
By ELIZA ERNSHIRE
Ramallah.
August 29, Pre-dawn.
http://www.counterpunch.org/ernshire08302006.html
Rumsfeld Says War Critics Haven’t Learned Lessons of History
By DAVID S. CLOUD
SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 29 — Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld
said Tuesday that critics of the war in Iraq and the campaign against
terror groups “seem not to have learned history’s lessons,” and
he alluded to those in the 1930’s who advocated appeasing
Nazi Germany. [UN-BE-LIEV-ABLE!...BW]
August 30, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/30/washington/30rumsfeld.html
Britain Charges 3 More Suspects With Plotting to Bomb Airplanes
By ALAN COWELL
August 30, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/30/world/europe/30britain.html
US accused of bid to oust Chávez with secret funds
Millions of dollars given to opposition, claim critics
Venezuelan groups' details hidden from list
Duncan Campbell
Wednesday August 30, 2006
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,1860867,00.html
Pat Rasmussen | Cascades' Reddened Forests Signal Threat to Humans
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/082906EA.shtml
Engineers Race to Steal Nature's Secrets
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/082906EB.shtml
Counties Eye Nuke Plants, Utilities Eye Government Handouts
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/082906EC.shtml
California Assembly Approves Universal Health Care
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/082906HA.shtml
Americans Without Health Benefits May Have Set Record in 2005
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/082906HB.shtml
FOCUS | Gonzales Goes to Baghdad Selling "Rule of Law"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/083006Z.shtml
VIDEO | Katrina Survivors Visit Camp Casey
A Film by Geoffrey Millard and Scott Galindez
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm
Blistering Drought Ravages Farmland on Plains
By MONICA DAVEY
MITCHELL, S.D. — With parts of South Dakota at its epicenter,
a severe drought has slowly sizzled a large swath of the Plains States,
leaving farmers and ranchers with conditions that they compare
to those of the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s.
August 29, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/29/us/29drought.html?ref=us
Details Emerge in British Terror Case
By DON VAN NATTA Jr., ELAINE SCIOLINO and STEPHEN GREY
[This article should be called, "UN-Details Emerge in British Terror
Case." Read it for yourself...bw]
August 28, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/world/europe/28plot.html
Iraqi Soldiers Refuse to Go to Baghdad, Defying Order
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 — A group of Iraqi soldiers recently refused
to go to Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, to help restore order there, a senior
American military officer said Monday.
August 29, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/29/world/middleeast/29military.html
Stocks Lower on Consumer Confidence Data
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street pulled back Tuesday after disappointing
consumer confidence numbers erased investors' optimism as oil
prices hovered at their lowest levels since April.
Filed at 1:13 p.m. ET
August 29, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Wall-Street.html
Sleek? Well, No. Complex? Yes, Indeed.
By ERICA GOODE
It is a good thing the manatee has thick skin.
August 29, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/29/science/29mana.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin
Lockheed Says F-35 Could Fly Pilotless
Pentagon Demand for Drones Grows
By Renae Merle, Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 16, 2006; Page D01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/15/AR2006081501288.html?referrer=emailarticle
Environmental Disaster Emerges in the Mediterranean
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0828-01.htm
California Senate Approves Hemp Farming
Hemp "bears no more resemblance to marijuana than a poodle bears to a
wolf," said Sen. Tom McClintock, a Republican. "You would die from smoke
inhalation before you would get high."
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2006/08/1732174.php
Soldiers' Families Question Rumsfeld on Deployment
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082706A.shtml
You wouldn’t catch me dead in Iraq
Scores of American troops are deserting — even from the front
line in Iraq. But where have they gone? And why isn’t the US Army
after them? Peter Laufer tracked down four of the deserters
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-2318643,00.html
Freedom in a Cage Consider the Uighurs
He compensates for lack of brain with compassion.
Consider Mr. Bush's treatment of the Uighurs.
By CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI
August 24, 2006
http://www.counterpunch.org/brauchli08242006.html
Sunni Arab Lawmaker, Freed by Captors in Iraq, Describes Her Ordeal
By DAMIEN CAVE and QAIS MIZHER
August 27, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/world/middleeast/27iraq.html?ref=world
Kidnapped Journalists Freed in Gaza Strip
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:44 a.m. ET
August 27, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Gaza-Journalists.html?hp&ex=1156737600&en=cc5d91ca4d840a97&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Whispers of Mergers Set Off Suspicious Trading
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
August 27, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/business/27deals.html?hp&ex=1156737600&en=9c5156d4bce3dcb9&ei=5094&partner=homepage
FOCUS | NATO Pilots Accused of Killing Afghan Children
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082606X.shtml
Norman Solomon | The Mythical End to the Politics of Fear
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082406A.shtml
CIA Veteran Offers Grim Assessment of "War on Terror"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082406B.shtml
Veteran Protests against Iraq War
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0822-01.htm
VIDEO | Dahr Jamail on Iraq and Lebanon
A Film by Geoffrey Millard and Sari Gelzer
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm
VIDEO | Keith Olbermann: Terror and Politics in America
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm
No Diplomacy: Bush Ensured Iran Offer Would Be Rejected
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0823-03.htm
Lebanon's Month-Old Oil Slick Blankets Mediterranean Floor
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0823-06.htm
Dirty Water Deals Cheat the Poor
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0823-02.htm
Number of U.S. Troops in Iraq Climbs
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0823-01.htm
Amnesty Urges UN to Probe Israel Strategy
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0823-04.htm
Environmental, Consumer Groups in U.S. Asks Judge
for Nationwide Suspension of Drug Crop Permits
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0823-09.htm
INTERVIEW: Chomsky on Lebanon and Iran (August 2006)
Written by Jim O. Madison
Thursday, 24 August 2006
In an interview posted Aug. 16 on the CounterPunch web site,
Noam Chomsky spoke extensively about Lebanon, but also
about Iran.[1] -- "[T]o the outside world," Chomky noted,
"it sounds a bit odd, to put it mildly, for the U.S. and Israel
to be warning of the 'Iranian threat' when they and they alone
are issuing threats to launch an attack, threats that are
immediate and credible, and in serious violation of
international law, and are preparing very openly for such
an attack. Whatever one thinks of Iran, no such charge
can be made in their case. It is also apparent to the world,
if not to the U.S. and Israel, that Iran has not invaded any
other countries, something that the U.S. and Israel have
done regularly." -- Asked about what will come next
in the Middle East, Chomsky replies: "I do not know
of anyone foolhardy enough to predict."
http://www.counterpunch.org/chomsky08162006.html
Africa Adds to Miserable Ranks of Child Workers
By MICHAEL WINES
August 24, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/24/world/africa/24zambia.html?ref=world
Afghanistan Descends Into Chaos Once Again
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082206A.shtml
Bush Fulfills Few Promises to Gulf Coast
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0821-06.htm
CIA's Secret UK Bank Trawl May Be Illegal
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0821-01.htm
Unexploded Cluster Bombs Prompt Fear and Fury in Returning Refugees
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0821-02.htm
New Orleans Summer 2006
http://www.peoplesorganizing.org/summer_volunteer.html
Behind Bush's Rhetoric on Iraq: · Democracy · Oil
August 21, 2006
http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=1339
Radioactive Leak Reaches Nuclear Plant's Groundwater
At San Onofre, the cancer-causing tritium isn't known to infect
drinking water, but experts are checking.
By Seema Mehta and Dave McKibben
Times Staff Writer
August 18, 2006
www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-radioactive18aug18,0,3580491.story?track=mostviewed-sectionfront
Iraq war first hard look at women's level of combat post-traumatic
stress disorder
- Donna St. George, Washington Post
Sunday, August 20, 2006
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/20/MNGK9KLV8L1.DTL&feed=rss.news
Cannabis Cafes Get Nudge to Fringes of a Dutch City
By MARLISE SIMONS
August 20, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/world/europe/20dutch.html
Top Police Spar in London Over Muslims as ‘Victims’
Roughly 90 percent of the 30,000-plus Metropolitan Police force
is made up of white officers, but the number of nonwhite officers
in training is about 17 percent.
By ALAN COWELL
August 20, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/world/europe/20britain.html
