Wednesday, January 09, 2008

BAUAW NEWSLETTER - WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2008

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



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

Support GI Resistance!
Help stop the war... Support of U.S. war resisters currently seeking sanctuary Canada. What you can do today:
1. Attend or organize an event on January 25-26
2. Sign the "Dear Canada" letter (if you have not already)
3. Hold a house party to show "Breaking Ranks"
4. Use these resources to get friends involved
January 25-26 U.S.-Canada Actions
Courage to Resist
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/

On Friday, Jan. 25, community members will hold vigils and delegations to Canadian Consulates in Washington D.C., NYC, Seattle, SF, LA and elsewhere.

"Army of None" Pacific Northwest Tour
Co-author David Solnit and Seattle Chapter President of Iraq Veterans Against the War Chanan Suarez Diaz at events this week in Tacoma, Olympia, and Vancouver BC.

Oakland, CA Benefit Book Release Event Jan. 17
Col. Ann Wright (ret.) presents her new book "Dissent: Voices of Conscience" with special guests Daniel Ellsberg and Cindy Sheehan at Oakland, CA Courage to Resist benefit.

Sign the letter "Dear Canada: Let U.S. War Resisters Stay!" at:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=499

January 25-26 Events: "Let Them Stay!"

There is still time to organize a delegation to a Canadian Consulate near you or hold vigils or other public events that day, or the following day Saturday, January 26 in support of war resisters.

Let us know what you are planning. Send events to courage@riseup.net

Friday January 25

Keith Mather, David Solnit, Father Louis Vitale, Steve Grossman, Gerry Condon, Jacqueline Cabasso, Jeff Paterson, Evangeline Mix comprise similar delegation to Canadian Consulate on 5/15/06 in San Francisco. Photo Bill Carpenter

SAN FRANCISCO
Consulate General of Canada
580 California Street, San Francisco
(four blocks north of Montgomery St BART)
Noon to 1 pm vigil, 1 pm delegation
Sponsored by Courage to Resist
Info: courage@riseup.net , 510-488-3559

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

THE NEXT MEETING OF THE STOP JROTC COMMITTEE IS
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 7:00 P.M.
474 VALENCIA STREET, FIRST FLOOR, Room 145 (To the left as you come in, and all the way to the back of the long hallway, then, to the right.)

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

MARCH 15 UPDATE: SHORT REPORT FROM OCT. 27 COALITION MEETING
By Bonnie Weinstein

For the most part, those who attended the October 27 coalition meeting yesterday were shocked and angered to hear that there will be no united, mass demonstration in Washington, D.C., or in any other major city this year on the fifth anniversary of this horrible and unjust war! Nor will any group, even on their own, call for such a united mass action in a major center somewhere in this country.

Meanwhile, millions of Iraqi people--and people around the world under the U.S. gun--are suffering, dying, seeing their lives and their world destroyed before them by a brutal aggressor--the U.S. government and all the phony U.S. politicians that support it--and, unfortunately, that means all of them!

I hope this changes and that we in San Francisco and the Bay Area can take a stand and have a unified march and rally marking the fifth anniversary of "Shock and Awe" to demand U.S. OUT NOW! END THE WAR NOW! HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!

Even though individual acts of civil disobedience are a sincere personal expression of opposition to the war, they do not either compete with nor substitute for the power of a united, massive expression of opposition to the war that such mass actions demonstrate so clearly here and, especially to those around the world!

How will it look if we, here in the belly of this ever more ferocious beast, fail to join with the rest of the world in unified massive demonstrations against this war and against our government at the beginning of the fifth year of death and destruction to be inflicted upon the innocent of Iraq?

Certainly, with all the creative juices flowing among us we can come up with some expression of unity with those who will demonstrate around the world against the war on its fifth anniversary.

San Francisco has great potential to bring out masses of people into the streets to oppose the war. We have hosted some of the biggest demonstrations in the country--even during the War in Vietnam. I can't bring myself to give up hope that we will have some mass united action here in our antiwar city on the fifth anniversary of the war and in solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the world and, especially, in Iraq.

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
What they are doing in London, March 15, 2008
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Demonstrate for Troops Out! London, Saturday, March 15, 2008

Five years after the invasion of Iraq the world has become much more dangerous and volatile. Latest estimates suggest as many as one million have died violent deaths as a result of the occupation of Iraq. The country’s infrastructure and civil society are in shreds. Brown has promised British withdrawals but there are still 5,000 British soldiers in Iraq.

Despite talk of a change of attitude to the Bush’s wars, Brown is Bush’s key partner in NATO’s escalation in Afghanistan, and that hidden war is fast becoming a disaster mirroring that in Iraq. Meanwhile the political chaos in Pakistan is partly a product of the War on Terror and risks further military interventions. The Stop the War Coalition has joined with CND in calling a demonstration to mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion in London on Saturday March 15.

The demonstration will coincide with World Against War marches around the world agreed at the International Peace Conference in London on December 1st. It will be calling for all foreign troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and demanding there is no attack on Iran. Stop the War is asking all groups to start mobilizing for this demonstration now. More details and a leaflet will be available shortly.

World Against War Conference, December 2007

A call for international demonstrations on March 15-22, 2008

Over 1,200 delegates from the anti war movement across the globe came to London for the World Against War International Peace Conference in London.

Delegates from 26 countries addressed the conference, reported on developments in their regions and discussed strategy for the movement. The conference issued a declaration, which is included below. There was unanimous agreement to organize demonstrations for Troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan and against an attack on Iran in every country around the fifth anniversary of the attack on Iraq between March 15-22.

Delegates attended from Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Egypt, Iceland, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Somalia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States.

Declaration of World Against War conference

This conference of delegates from peace, anti-war, anti-imperialist and liberation movements across the world declares its opposition to the “endless war” prosecuted by the U.S. government against states, peoples and movements in all parts of our planet.
We oppose the interference of the U.S. and its allies in sovereign states, and assert the right of all peoples to self-determination. We support all people fighting for peace and against imperialism.

In particular, we demand:

— An immediate end to the illegal military occupation of Iraq, which has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and displaced millions of people, a withdrawal of all foreign troops and the full transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people and their representatives.

— A halt to all preparations for an attack against Iran, and a commitment to solve any issues through exclusively diplomatic means.

— A withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, allowing the Afghan people to determine their own future.

— Justice for the Palestinian people, and an end to Israeli aggression throughout the Middle East.

— An end to plans for U.S. missile defence, and that all states actively pursue nuclear disarmament.

We affirm the solidarity of all those fighting for peace, social justice and self-determination worldwide, and commit ourselves to strengthening our unity and developing new forms of co-operation.

We therefore designate the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq as a worldwide day of action in support of the demands NO ATTACK on IRAN and TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ/AFGHANISTAN and call on all national anti-war movements to hold mass protests and demonstrations on that day.

—Stop the War Coalition, December 2007
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/

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

SUPPORT THE DAY AFTER DEMONSTRATIONS TO FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL

SEE THE "TODAY SHOW" STORY ON MUMIA ABU-JAMAL - NOW ON YOUTUBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz-NL0Ju6aE

From: LACFreeMumia@aol.com

A ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on Mumia's case, based on the hearing in Philadelphia on May 17th 2007, is expected momentarily. Freeing Mumia immediately is what is needed, but that is not an option before this court. The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal calls on everyone who supports Mumia‚s case for freedom, to rally the day after a decision comes down. Here are Bay Area day-after details:

OAKLAND:

14th and Broadway, near the Federal Building
4:30 to 6:30 PM the day after a ruling is announced,
or on Monday if the ruling comes down on a Friday.

Oakland demonstration called by the Partisan Defense Committee and Labor Black Leagues, to be held if the Court upholds the death sentence, or denies Mumia's appeals for a new trial or a new hearing. info at (510) 839-0852 or pdcbayarea@sbcglobal.org

SAN FRANCISCO:

Federal Courthouse, 7th & Mission
5 PM the day after a ruling is announced,
or Monday if the decision comes down on a Friday

San Francisco demo called by the Mobilization To Free Mumia,
info at (415) 255-1085 or www.freemumia.org

Day-after demonstrations are also planned in:

Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver
and other cities internationally.

A National Demonstration is to be held in Philadelphia, 3rd Saturday after the decision

For more information, contact: International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, www.mumia.org;
Partisan Defense Committee, www.partisandefense.org;
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC), www.freemumia.com;

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL IS INNOCENT!

World-renowned journalist, death-row inmate and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is completely innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. Mountains of evidence--unheard or ignored by the courts--shows this. He is a victim, like thousands of others, of the racist, corrupt criminal justice system in the US; only in his case, there is an added measure of political persecution. Jamal is a former member of the Black Panther Party, and is still an outspoken and active critic of the on-going racism and imperialism of the US. They want to silence him more than they want to kill him.

Anyone who has ever been victimized by, protested or been concerned about the racist travesties of justice meted out to blacks in the US, as well as attacks on immigrants, workers and revolutionary critics of the system, needs to take a close look at the frame-up of Mumia. He is innocent, and he needs to be free.

FREE MUMIA NOW!

END THE RACIST DEATH PENALTY!

FOR MASS PROTESTS AND LABOR ACTION TO FREE MUMIA!

In 1995, mass mobilizations helped save Mumia from death.

In 1999, longshore workers shut West Coast ports to free Mumia, and teachers in Oakland and Rio de Janeiro held teach-ins and stop-works.

Mumia needs powerful support again now. Come out to free Mumia!

- The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222, Oakland CA 94610
510.763.2347
LACFreeMumia@aol.com

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

ARTICLES IN FULL:

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------1

1) The Economy and the New Year
Editorial
January 2, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/opinion/02wed2.html?hp

2) Justice Department Opens Criminal Investigation Over CIA Tapes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:38 p.m. ET
January 2, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-CIA-Videotapes.html?hp

3) Oil Hits $100 a Barrel for the First Time
By JAD MOUAWAD
January 2, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/business/02cnd-oil.html?hp

4) A Divide as Wolves Rebound in a Changing West
By KIRK JOHNSON
January 2, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/us/02wolves.html?ref=us

5) Profit Tripled at Monsanto Late in 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 4, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/business/04monsanto.html?ref=business

6) Sept. 15 arrestees win at trial
Government case collapses during trial -- judge dismisses all charges
http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_homepage
http://www.actionsf.org/
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 213-251-1025
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311

7) RN's Statement on Death of Nataline Sarkisyan: 'CIGNA Should Have Listened to Her Doctors And Approved the Transplant a Week Ago'
http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2007/december/rn-s-statement-on-death-of-nataline-sarkisyan-cigna-should-have-listened-to-her-doctors-and-approved-the-transplant-a-week-ago.html

8) Padilla Sues Former U.S. Lawyer Over Detention
By ADAM LIPTAK
January 5, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/washington/05padilla.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin

9) Hedging Their Way to Billions
By PAUL B. BROWN
What’s Offline
January 5, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/business/05offline.html?ref=business

10) TV Review | 'How to Look Good Naked'
New Fitness Instruction: Sing the Body Eclectic
By GINIA BELLAFANTE
January 4, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/arts/television/04nake.html?ref=health

11) U.S. Considers New Covert Push Within Pakistan
By STEVEN LEE MYERS, DAVID E. SANGER and ERIC SCHMITT
January 6, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/washington/06terror.html?hp

12) Naomi Campbell interviews 'rebel angel' Hugo Chavez
10 hours ago
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hSoMEZ8yu2xp63DbQLq4MXf3KjyQ

13) Crimes of State
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
January 2, 2008
Prisonradio.org

14) Suit Over Protests in Central Park Ends
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:22 a.m. ET
January 9, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Central-Park-Lawn-Rally.html?scp=1&sq=central+park

15) Not Just the Fed
Editorial
January 10, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/opinion/10thu1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=login

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

1) The Economy and the New Year
Editorial
January 2, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/opinion/02wed2.html?hp

As 2008 begins, house prices are still skidding, bank losses are still mounting, oil is again flirting with $100 a barrel and consumers are buying less as prices rise. To many, the wheels appear to be coming off the economy. To others, including President Bush and his aides, the economy is fundamentally sound and resilient.

Obviously, both camps cannot be right. Unfortunately, the preponderance of evidence is grim.

When Mr. Bush says the economy is strong, he is generally referring to rising wages, low unemployment and what he calls healthy economic growth. But wages have either fallen or failed to outpace inflation during most of his tenure. Job creation is now slowing from a pace that has long been subpar. Economic growth is also braking, if not contracting. In any event, growth during the Bush years has not been healthy; rather, it has been abnormally lopsided. Corporate profits have soared (until recently) and the rich have become richer, while most Americans have treaded water or lost ground, their troubling circumstances masked by an unprecedented borrowing binge, now exacting its toll.

The other presumed economic bright spots — business investment and exports — are less bright upon closer inspection. According to a new government report, orders for big-ticket commercial goods rose a spare 0.1 percent in November.

As for exports, they have surged lately, but the growth has not yet led to more manufacturing jobs or inflation-beating pay raises for existing factory workers. The relative health of exporters is also obscuring the fact that to be more competitive in the long term, corporate America needs health care reform and tax reform, two fronts on which the Bush administration has made no progress. Instead, much if not most of recent export growth is due to the weakening dollar, which makes American products more affordable elsewhere.

While the boost is welcome, relying solely on a weaker currency to correct America’s trade imbalance has downsides. For one, a falling dollar interacts with global money flows in a way that complicates the job of the Federal Reserve to steer the economy. That was made clear again last week, when a top Chinese bank official warned of a destabilizing sell-off in dollar-based assets if the Fed continued to cut rates.

Hoping for the best is facile if not paired with preparation for the worst. Perhaps more than anything, a lack of preparation makes it hard to believe Mr. Bush’s assurances that all will be well. The administration has operated in a state of economic denial for years: conducting wars while cutting taxes, piling up debt, neglecting to regulate the financial sector even as it went on a lending binge, and ignoring the pain that was sure to come when consumers, bankers and investors sobered up.

Given that record, it is no surprise that Mr. Bush is now refusing to acknowledge the seriousness of the problems he has helped create. Americans don’t need more denial. They need an unvarnished appraisal of the nation’s economy — including the politics and ideology that has driven it to this point. That is the only real hope for starting to turn things around.

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

2) Justice Department Opens Criminal Investigation Over CIA Tapes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:38 p.m. ET
January 2, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-CIA-Videotapes.html?hp

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed an outside prosecutor Wednesday to lead a criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes.

The CIA acknowledged last month that it destroyed videos of officers using tough interrogation methods while questioning two al-Qaida suspects. The acknowledgment sparked a congressional inquiry and a preliminary investigation by Justice.

"The Department's National Security Division has recommended, and I have concluded, that there is a basis for initiating a criminal investigation of this matter, and I have taken steps to begin that investigation," Mukasey said in a statement released Wednesday.

Mukasey named John Durham, a federal prosecutor in Connecticut, to oversee the case. Durham has a reputation as one of the nation's most relentless prosecutors. He served as an outside prosecutor overseeing an investigation into the FBI's use of mob informants in Boston and helped send several Connecticut public officials to prison.

"The CIA will of course cooperate fully with this investigation as it has with the others into this matter," agency spokesman Mark Mansfield said.

CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson, who worked with the Justice Department on the preliminary inquiry, has recused himself from the investigation. Prosecutors from the Eastern District of Virginia, which includes the CIA's headquarters in Langley, Va., are also recused.

Mukasey named Durham the acting U.S. attorney on the case, a designation the Justice Department frequently makes when top prosecutors are recused. He will not serve as a special prosecutor such as Patrick Fitzgerald, who operated autonomously while investigating the 2003 leak of a CIA operative's identity.

The CIA has already agreed to open its files to congressional investigators, who have begun reviewing documents at the agency's Virginia headquarters. The House Intelligence Committee has ordered Jose Rodriguez, the former CIA official who directed the tapes be destroyed, to appear at a hearing Jan. 16.

Rodriguez's attorney, Robert S. Bennett, had no comment.

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

3) Oil Hits $100 a Barrel for the First Time
By JAD MOUAWAD
January 2, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/business/02cnd-oil.html?hp

Oil prices reached the symbolic level of $100 a barrel for the first time on Wednesday, a long-awaited milestone in an era of rapidly escalating energy demand.

Crude oil futures for February delivery hit $100 on the New York Mercantile Exchange shortly after noon New York time, before falling back slightly. Oil prices, which had fallen to a low of $50 a barrel at the beginning of 2007, have quadrupled since 2003.

Futures settled at $99.62, up $3.64 on the day.

The rise in oil prices in recent years has been driven by an unprecedented surge in demand from the United States, China and other Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Booming economies have led to more consumption of oil-derived products like gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. Meanwhile, new oil supplies have struggled to catch up.

Oil markets have become increasingly volatile and unpredictable, with large swings in 2007 that analysts attributed partly to financial speculation, not just market fundamentals. Political tensions in the Middle East, where more than two-thirds of the world’s proven oil reserves are located, have also fueled the rise in prices.

Gasoline has lagged the rise in the price of oil. It stands at a nationwide average of $3.05 a gallon for regular grade, according to AAA, the automobile club. That is below the all-time peak in May of $3.23 a gallon, but it is 73 cents higher than at this time a year ago. Some analysts worry that gasoline could hit $4 a gallon by next spring if oil prices remain at high levels.

Oil is now within reach of its historic inflation-adjusted high reached in April 1980 in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution when oil prices jumped to the equivalent of $102.81 a barrel in today’s money.

Unlike the oil shocks of the 1970s and 1980s, which were caused by sudden interruptions in oil supplies from the Middle East, the latest surge is fundamentally different. Prices have risen steadily over several years because of a rise in demand for oil and gasoline in both developed and developing countries.

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

4) A Divide as Wolves Rebound in a Changing West
By KIRK JOHNSON
January 2, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/us/02wolves.html?ref=us

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Sheltered for many years by federal species protection law, the gray wolves of the West are about to step out onto the high wire of life in the real world, when their status as endangered animals formally comes to an end early this year.

The so-called delisting is scheduled to begin in late March, almost five years later than federal wildlife managers first proposed, mainly because of human tussles here in Wyoming over the politics of managing the wolves.

Now changes during that time are likely to make the transition even more complicated. As the federal government and the State of Wyoming sparred in court over whether Wyoming’s hard-edged management plan was really a recipe for wolf eradication, as some critics said, the wolf population soared. (The reworked plan was approved by the federal government in November.)

During that period, many parts of the human West were changing, too. Where unsentimental rancher attitudes — that wolves were unwelcome predators, threatening the cattle economy — once prevailed, thousands of newcomers have moved in, buying up homesteads as rural retreats, especially near Yellowstone National Park, where the wolves began their recovery in 1995 and from which they have spread far and wide.

The result is that there are far more wolves to manage today than there once would have been five years ago — which could mean, biologists say, more killing of wolves just to keep the population in check. And that blood-letting might not be quite as popular as it once was.

“If they’d delisted when the numbers were smaller, the states would have been seen as heroes and good managers,” said Ed Bangs, the wolf recovery coordinator at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. “Now people will say they’re murderers.”

Wolves are intelligent, adaptable, highly mobile in staking out new territory, and capable of rapid reproduction rates if food sources are good and humans with rifles or poison are kept in check by government gridlock — and that is precisely what happened.

From the 41 animals that were released inside Yellowstone from 1995 to 1997, mostly from Canada, the population grew to 650 wolves in 2002 and more than 1,500 today in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The wolves have spread across an area twice the size of New York State and are growing at a rate of about 24 percent a year, according to federal wolf-counts.

Human head counts have also climbed in the same turf. From 1995 to 2005, a 25-county area, in three states, that centers on Yellowstone grew by 12 percent, to about 691,000 people, according to a report earlier this year by the Center for the Rocky Mountain West at the University of Montana. That compares to a 6 percent growth rate for Wyoming as a whole in that period, 7.5 percent for all of Montana, and 19 percent for Idaho. The wolf population has grown faster in Idaho than any place else in the region, doubling to about 800 in the past four years.

The director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Terry Cleveland, said changes in economics and attitude were creating a profound wrinkle in the outlook for human-wolf relations. Mr. Cleveland, a 39-year-veteran with the department, said that many newcomers, who are more interested in breath-taking vistas than the price of feed-grain and calves, do not see wolves the way older residents do.

In the public comment period for Wyoming’s wolf plan, sizable majorities of residents in the counties near Yellowstone expressed opposition. Teton County, around Jackson Hole, led the way, with more than 95 percent of negative comment about the plan, according an analysis by the state. Many respondents feared that the plan would lead to more killing of wolves than necessary.

“It used to be, ‘Yeah, we live near wild animals,’ now it’s like, ‘Gosh, we need to manage them, and it’s the job of the state to do that,’ ” said Meg Daly, a writer in Jackson, who submitted a comment opposing the wolf plan and recently spoke to a reporter by telephone. Ms. Daly said she had lived in Wyoming as a child and moved back last year.

Many new land owners around Yellowstone have also barred the hunting of animals like elk on their property, sometimes, in a single pen stroke, closing off thousands of acres that Wyoming hunters had used for decades. Mr. Cleveland said he expected that those same “no trespassing” signs would be up and in force, creating de facto wolf sanctuaries, when wolf hunters or state wildlife managers started coming around this year. But the trend of land enclosure, Mr. Cleveland said, is probably not in the wolf’s long-term interest.

“As large ranches become less economically viable, the alternative is 40-acre subdivisions,” he said, “and that is not compatible with any kind of wildlife.”

Some advocates of wolf protection say that for all the talk of moderation and the nods to a changing ethos, old attitudes will take over once the gray wolf is delisted.

“I think it’s going to be open season,” said Suzanne Stone, a wolf specialist at Defenders of Wildlife, a national conservation group.

Ms. Stone said she thought the changes that led to federal approval of Wyoming’s wolf plan were mostly cosmetic.

Ms. Stone and others are concerned that the plan grants Wyoming something that no other state in the Yellowstone region received: the right to kill wolves at any time by any means across most of the state.

In the northwest corner near Yellowstone and in Idaho and Montana, wolves will be classified as trophy game animals and may be killed only in strictly controlled numbers by licensed hunters. In the 80 percent of Wyoming outside the Yellowstone area, however, wolves will be labeled predators, with no limits and no permits required to kill them.

The state has pledged to maintain at least 15 breeding pairs, or about 150 animals, in a five-county region around the park. The state now has about 362 wolves, according to the most recent estimates in late September.

That formulation sounds just about right to Chip Clouse.

“I support no wolves on private land, and right now we have wolves running rampant,” said Mr. Clouse, a rancher and a former outfitter in Cody, just east of Yellowstone, who has lived in Wyoming for 37 years. “They brought the wolves in for people to see on the public lands, in the park, and what has happened is that they have grown so many packs that they’re now impeding on people who are just trying to live and make a living on their own property.”

Joel DiPaola, a chef at a Jackson ski resort who arrived in Wyoming from Connecticut in the early 1990s, just before the wolves, said he thought much of the huffing and puffing about the animals was emotional and would make little difference.

“As the state was dragging its feet, the wolves were breeding and expanding,” Mr. DiPaola said. “It’s now going to be almost impossible to get rid of them even if they try. Once they seem to get a foothold and have a refuge in the parks, they’re here.”

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

5) Profit Tripled at Monsanto Late in 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 4, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/business/04monsanto.html?ref=business

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Monsanto reported on Thursday that its first-quarter earnings nearly tripled because of strong pesticide and seed sales in Latin America. The company increased its earnings forecast for the year.

In its first quarter, which ended Nov. 30, Monsanto earned $256 million, or 46 cents a share, compared with $90 million, or 16 cents a share, a year ago.

Revenue in the first quarter surged 36 percent, to $2.1 billion, from $1.54 billion a year ago.

Shares of Monsanto rose 8 percent on the news, closing at $120.92, up $9.45.

The results beat expectations on Wall Street, where analysts had predicted a profit of 35 cents a share on revenue of $1.87 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Financial.

Unexpectedly strong Latin American sales of the pesticide Roundup led Monsanto to increase its year-end profit forecast to $2.50 to $2.60 a share from $2.20 to $2.40 a share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expect Monsanto to deliver a profit of $2.59 a share this year, near the high end of Monsanto’s new guidance.

Rising sales of Roundup in Brazil and Argentina mean the pesticide will deliver roughly $1 billion in gross profit by the end of the year, up from the $950 million the company estimated just over a month ago, said the chief financial officer, Terrell K. Crews.

The company said seed and genomics sales rose to $836 million, from $680 million in the year-ago quarter. Agricultural sales rose to $1.26 billion, from $859 million a year ago.

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

6) Sept. 15 arrestees win at trial
Government case collapses during trial -- judge dismisses all charges
http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_homepage
http://www.actionsf.org/
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 213-251-1025
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311

An important victory was won today in the case of 11 defendants who were arrested at the Sept. 15 March on the Capitol, which drew 100,000 anti-war protestors to Washington, DC.

Judge Henry Greene of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia dismissed all charges against the defendants, who were accused of crossing a police line. The government's case collapsed in the early stages of the trial during the the testimony of a witness from the Capitol Police.

The protestors asserted that the government and the Capitol Police had illegally and unconstitutionally sought to prevent demonstrators from engaging in First Amendment protected speech and assembly in an area in front of the Capitol building routinely kept open to tourists and others. This attempt to exclude people engaging in free speech activities could not form the basis for a lawful arrest or conviction for "crossing a police line."

The government's case disintegrated as protestors' attorneys demonstrated that the government had withheld key evidence from the defense.

Under pressure from the defense, the government revealed that they had withheld documents and material that was central to the defendants' challenge to the government's efforts to prevent demonstrators from exercising their First Amendment rights at Congress under the pretext of "national security," including a "police sensitive" document supposedly related to "terrorism." The defense argued that the government was using this pretext to prevent antiwar protest at a time when General David Petraeus was making the Bush administration's case that Congress should continue to fund the Iraq war.

Many of the defendants represented themselves and were given pro bono legal counsel and advice from attorneys Michael Madden, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice, Stephanie Snyder of the Georgetown Criminal Justice Clinic, and Harriet Adams. The defendants, including leaders from Veterans for Peace, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), and Iraq Veterans Against the War, were Elliot Adams, Brian Becker, Ellen Barfield, Carla Boccella, Adam Kokesh, Jay Gillen, Rodney Centeno, Polly Miller, Sholom Keller, Shawn Peterson, and Rich Reinhart.

The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition is organizing antiwar activities and other actions in defense of First Amendment rights across the country. We cannot continue this work without your help. Please make an urgently needed donation right now at:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=1121&JServSessionIdr012=4rmp2zf6s4.app8a

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

7) RN's Statement on Death of Nataline Sarkisyan: 'CIGNA Should Have Listened to Her Doctors And Approved the Transplant a Week Ago'
http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2007/december/rn-s-statement-on-death-of-nataline-sarkisyan-cigna-should-have-listened-to-her-doctors-and-approved-the-transplant-a-week-ago.html

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee today blasted insurance giant CIGNA for failing to approve a liver transplant one week earlier for 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan, who tragically died last night just hours after CIGNA relented and agreed to the procedure following a massive national outcry.

On Dec. 11, four leading physicians, including the surgical director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant Program at UCLA, wrote to CIGNA urging the company to reverse its denial. The physicians said that Nataline “currently meets criteria to be listed as Status 1A” for a transplant. They also challenged CIGNA’s denial which the company said occurred because their benefit plan “does not cover experimental, investigational and unproven services,” to which the doctors replied, “Nataline’s case is in fact none of the above.”

“So what happened between December 11, when CIGNA denied the transplant, and December 20 when they approved? A huge outpouring of protest and CIGNA’s public humiliation. Why didn’t they just listen to the medical professionals at the bedside in the first place?” asked Geri Jenkins, RN, a member of the CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents who works in a transplant unit at the University of California San Diego Medical Center.

On Thursday, CIGNA was bombarded with phone calls to its offices across the country while a rally sponsored by CNA/NNOC, with the substantial help of the local Armenian community, drew 150 people to the Glendale offices of CIGNA – all of which produced the turnaround by CIGNA to finally reverse its prior denial of care.

CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro called the final outcome "a horrific tragedy that demonstrates what is so fundamentally wrong with our health care system today. Insurance companies have a stranglehold on our health. Their first priority is to make profits for their shareholders – and the way they do that is by denying care."

"It is simply not possible to organize major protests every time a multi-billion corporation like CIGNA denies care that has been recommended by a physician," DeMoro said. “Having insurance is not the same as receiving needed care. We need a fundamental change in our healthcare system that takes control away from the insurance giants and places it where it belongs – in the hands of the medical professionals, the patients, and their families."

Also see:

The Case for Socialized Medicine in the United States,
and the Struggle to Achieve It
by STEVEN ARGUE
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/01/02/18469739.php

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

8) Padilla Sues Former U.S. Lawyer Over Detention
By ADAM LIPTAK
January 5, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/washington/05padilla.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin

Jose Padilla, the American citizen who was held in military detention for more than three years as an enemy combatant, filed a lawsuit Friday against a former Justice Department lawyer who helped provide the legal justifications for what the suit says was Mr. Padilla’s unconstitutional confinement and “gross physical and psychological abuse.”

The lawyer, John C. Yoo, now a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote or helped prepare a series of legal memorandums on interrogations and the treatment of detainees after the Sept. 11 attacks.

A lawyer for Mr. Yoo, Eric M. George, called Mr. Padilla’s suit “a political diatribe” that “belongs, at best, in a journal, not before a federal court.”

Mr. Padilla, 37, was transferred from military custody to the criminal justice system in 2006, and in August he was convicted of terrorism-related charges in Miami. He awaits sentencing.

The new lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, seeks only one dollar in damages. “That’s what Padilla directed us to ask for,” said Jonathan M. Freiman, one of Mr. Padilla’s lawyers. “At bottom, this isn’t about money. It’s about right and wrong.”

Last February, Mr. Padilla filed a separate suit in federal court in South Carolina against scores of current and former officials, including Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, and John Ashcroft, the former attorney general. That suit concerned the conditions of his confinement at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C.

The new suit against Mr. Yoo makes more novel claims.

“A lawyer who gives the green light to clearly illegal conduct is an accomplice to that conduct,” Mr. Freiman said in describing the theory of the case.

The suit is based in part on a recent book by Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor who, while serving in the Justice Department in 2003 and 2004, disavowed some of Mr. Yoo’s work. In the book, “The Terror Presidency” (W.W. Norton), Mr. Goldsmith wrote that two of Mr. Yoo’s memorandums were “legally flawed” and “tendentious in substance and tone.”

Mr. Goldsmith declined to comment.

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

9) Hedging Their Way to Billions
By PAUL B. BROWN
What’s Offline
January 5, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/business/05offline.html?ref=business

REMEMBER the colossal salaries of hedge fund managers — when they needed to earn at least $240 million just to be included among the 25 wealthiest in 2006? Well, those numbers may now look puny, especially at the top of the range.

Through the first nine months of 2007, three hedge fund managers had made more than $1 billion, with John Paulson and Paolo Pellegrini of Paulson & Company earning a combined $2.7 billion, Bloomberg Markets reports. That is $1 billion more than the 2006 leader, James Simons of Renaissance Technologies, made in all of that year.

Mr. Paulson, who manages more than $7 billion, “started warning his investors back in the middle of 2006 that the frenzy to build and sell housing was a bubble about to pop,” Anthony Effinger writes. “His New York-based firm, Paulson & Company, made big bets predicting the edifice would soon come crashing down. The wager paid off in the first nine months of 2007, when Paulson’s Credit Opportunities funds rose an average of 340 percent.”

Next on the list is Philip Falcone, whose Harbinger Capital Partners also bet against the housing market and earned $1.3 billion through Sept. 28.

Don’t worry about Mr. Simons, though. His earnings were estimated at just over $1 billion for the first nine months of last year.

BONUS 2008 To get the biggest bonus possible this year, be prepared to make your case forcefully, says Deepak Malhotra, author of the book “Negotiation Genius.” In an interview with Best Life, he outlines three steps to try to get what you think you deserve:

¶Speak up. “People too often accept whatever is offered to them. Do the math prior to your meeting and then explain the figure that you think is fair and appropriate.”

¶Have backup. Be prepared to document all your accomplishments. Do not expect your boss to remember.

¶If the boss says he cannot give more money, ask for other rewards, like additional vacation days.

GOING THE WRONG WAY “Blacks are moving backwards, not forward when it comes to achieving financial freedom,” Mellody Hobson writes in Black Enterprise.

Ms. Hobson is president of Ariel Capital Management, which conducts an annual survey of black investors in conjunction with the Charles Schwab brokerage firm. She says the latest findings are depressing.

“When the Black Investor Survey began in 1998, 57 percent of blacks invested in the stock market,” she writes. “Participation climbed as high as 74 percent in 2002, but after the dot-com bubble burst, many got scared and pulled out of the stock market. Today, we are back where we started with only 57 percent of our community being stock and mutual fund investors compared to 76 percent of whites.”

The other survey findings for 2007 are equally disheartening, she adds.

“African-Americans have less than half of what their white counterparts have saved — about $48,000 compared to $100,000,” she writes. And “it turns out black retirement accounts are worth about $73,000 compared to $210,000 for whites.”

The gap probably will not close anytime soon, given how much people put away each month. Ms. Hobson writes that the monthly savings for blacks ($180) is only about 70 percent of what it is for whites ($260).

FINAL TAKE Company loyalty is all well and good, but it seems a substantial number of employees are taking it too far.

While the accepted advice is never to have more than 5 percent of assets in any one particular stock, “of those who choose company stock for their 401(k), the average is 30 percent of assets,” Money reports, citing research from Fidelity Investments.

If there is trouble, those people may lose not only their job, but also a large chunk of retirement savings. PAUL B. BROWN

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

10) TV Review | 'How to Look Good Naked'
New Fitness Instruction: Sing the Body Eclectic
By GINIA BELLAFANTE
January 4, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/arts/television/04nake.html?ref=health

“How to Look Good Naked,” a new series on Lifetime, bears a title provocative not for its suggestion of sex but rather for its intimation of futility. To a great many people older than 26, “How to Look Good Naked” sounds an awful lot like “How to Build a Global Brand Just Like Steve Jobs, Before the Next Rose Bowl.”

The series, a remake of one that originated in Britain, arrives, however, as the greatest triumph of cognitive therapy that reality television has ever produced. In it Carson Kressley advances beyond his role as stylist and wit to serve as something like a mental-health professional determined to get one new woman a week not merely to stop hating her body but to regard it as if it belonged to Maud Adams in “Octopussy.” Talleyrand negotiating at the Congress of Vienna surely faced less resistance.

An antidote to makeover programs that tell us flesh is what must be made over, the series dresses up old-school feminist arguments, without any concession to obesity paranoia. Mr. Kressley in his coral cashmere cable-knit is like a cheerful, menschy, cartoon character that might have sprung from the pages of “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” had it been willing to have a good time. The world of “How to Look Good Naked” is a happy and optimistic place where no one is overweight, but everyone suffers from a curable form of body dysmorphia.

Mr. Kressley does not direct anyone toward steamed broccoli or a spin class, even when they appear, quite objectively, to be needed. He refuses to advocate weight loss by any means, pushing instead for a total defeat of body-image disorder by providing women with tangible evidence of their flawed perceptions. He functions as counselor both in the psychological and lawyerly sense, offering canny new thought patterns to replace downer feelings: proving to women, for instance, how they are, inch for inch, actually trimmer than those with whom, for reasons of poor self-esteem, they might compare themselves.

The show places predictable blame on the news media for causing women to dislike their physical appearance even as it offers further indication that such an argument is harder to make. Tabloids demonize celebrity anorexics now, photographing them as if they belonged to the ranks of the criminally insane, while reveling in beach portraits of stars looking flabbily just like us. Who doesn’t go to the supermarket half-expecting to see that Us magazine will have produced a spinoff called Cellulite Weekly?

The bright gimmick of “How to Look Good Naked” is that it also uses objectifying images to work its positive-thinking mind games. Layla, the subject of tonight’s premiere episode, is a 32-year-old human resources associate who, to anyone who is a fitness elitist or French, seems to be fat. But the episode will certainly leave you feeling guilty for thinking so.

Mr. Kressley, in addition to getting Layla to buy a new bra that flattens the rolls on the sides of her chest, puts a photograph of her up as a billboard in Santa Monica, Calif. When passers-by are filmed saying nice things about her, Layla begins to feel better. And with some new clothes, Layla really starts appreciating Layla. Mr. Kressley never pretends that there is a woman alive who can learn to love herself without at least a handful of people telling her she looks half-way decent. “How to Look Good Naked” isn’t just fun. It’s honest.

HOW TO LOOK GOOD NAKED

Lifetime, Friday night at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time.

Riaz Patel, Chris Coelen, Greg Goldman, Alex Fraser, Jim Sayer and Jo Rosenfelder, executive producers; Carson Kressley and Diane DeStefano, co-executive producers. Produced by RDF Media and Maverick TV for Lifetime Television. Carson Kressley, host.

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

11) U.S. Considers New Covert Push Within Pakistan
By STEVEN LEE MYERS, DAVID E. SANGER and ERIC SCHMITT
January 6, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/washington/06terror.html?hp

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s senior national security advisers are debating whether to expand the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and the military to conduct far more aggressive covert operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

The debate is a response to intelligence reports that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are intensifying efforts there to destabilize the Pakistani government, several senior administration officials said.

Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a number of President Bush’s top national security advisers met Friday at the White House to discuss the proposal, which is part of a broad reassessment of American strategy after the assassination 10 days ago of the Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. There was also talk of how to handle the period from now to the Feb. 18 elections, and the aftermath of those elections.

Several of the participants in the meeting argued that the threat to the government of President Pervez Musharraf was now so grave that both Mr. Musharraf and Pakistan’s new military leadership were likely to give the United States more latitude, officials said. But no decisions were made, said the officials, who declined to speak for attribution because of the highly delicate nature of the discussions.

Many of the specific options under discussion are unclear and highly classified. Officials said that the options would probably involve the C.I.A. working with the military’s Special Operations forces.

The Bush administration has not formally presented any new proposals to Mr. Musharraf, who gave up his military role last month, or to his successor as the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who the White House thinks will be more sympathetic to the American position than Mr. Musharraf. Early in his career, General Kayani was an aide to Ms. Bhutto while she was prime minister and later led the Pakistani intelligence service.

But at the White House and the Pentagon, officials see an opportunity in the changing power structure for the Americans to advocate for the expanded authority in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country. “After years of focusing on Afghanistan, we think the extremists now see a chance for the big prize — creating chaos in Pakistan itself,” one senior official said.

The new options for expanded covert operations include loosening restrictions on the C.I.A. to strike selected targets in Pakistan, in some cases using intelligence provided by Pakistani sources, officials said. Most counterterrorism operations in Pakistan have been conducted by the C.I.A.; in Afghanistan, where military operations are under way, including some with NATO forces, the military can take the lead.

The legal status would not change if the administration decided to act more aggressively. However, if the C.I.A. were given broader authority, it could call for help from the military or deputize some forces of the Special Operations Command to act under the authority of the agency.

The United States now has about 50 soldiers in Pakistan. Any expanded operations using C.I.A. operatives or Special Operations forces, like the Navy Seals, would be small and tailored to specific missions, military officials said.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who was on vacation last week and did not attend the White House meeting, said in late December that “Al Qaeda right now seems to have turned its face toward Pakistan and attacks on the Pakistani government and Pakistani people.”

In the past, the administration has largely stayed out of the tribal areas, in part for fear that exposure of any American-led operations there would so embarrass the Musharraf government that it could further empower his critics, who have declared he was too close to Washington.

Even now, officials say, some American diplomats and military officials, as well as outside experts, argue that American-led military operations on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan could result in a tremendous backlash and ultimately do more harm than good. That is particularly true, they say, if Americans were captured or killed in the territory.

In part, the White House discussions may be driven by a desire for another effort to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. Currently, C.I.A. operatives and Special Operations forces have limited authority to conduct counterterrorism missions in Pakistan based on specific intelligence about the whereabouts of those two men, who have eluded the Bush administration for more than six years, or of other members of their terrorist organization, Al Qaeda, hiding in or near the tribal areas.

The C.I.A. has launched missiles from Predator aircraft in the tribal areas several times, with varying degrees of success. Intelligence officials said they believed that in January 2006 an airstrike narrowly missed killing Mr. Zawahri, who had attended a dinner in Damadola, a Pakistani village. But that apparently was the last real evidence American officials had about the whereabouts of their chief targets.

Critics said more direct American military action would be ineffective, anger the Pakistani Army and increase support for the militants. “I’m not arguing that you leave Al Qaeda and the Taliban unmolested, but I’d be very, very cautious about approaches that could play into hands of enemies and be counterproductive,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. Some American diplomats and military officials have also issued strong warnings against expanded direct American action, officials said.

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a leading Pakistani military and political analyst, said raids by American troops would prompt a powerful popular backlash against Mr. Musharraf and the United States.

In the wake of the American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, many Pakistanis suspect that the United States is trying to dominate Pakistan as well, Mr. Rizvi said. Mr. Musharraf — who is already widely unpopular — would lose even more popular support.

“At the moment when Musharraf is extremely unpopular, he will face more crisis,” Mr. Rizvi said. “This will weaken Musharraf in a Pakistani context.” He said such raids would be seen as an overall vote of no confidence in the Pakistani military, including General Kayani.

The meeting on Friday, which was not publicly announced, included Stephen J. Hadley, Mr. Bush’s national security adviser; Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and top intelligence officials.

Spokesmen for the White House, the C.I.A. and the Pentagon declined to discuss the meeting, citing a policy against doing so. But the session reflected an urgent concern that a new Qaeda haven was solidifying in parts of Pakistan and needed to be countered, one official said.

Although some officials and experts have criticized Mr. Musharraf and questioned his ability to take on extremists, Mr. Bush has remained steadfast in his support, and it is unlikely any new measures, including direct American military action inside Pakistan, will be approved without Mr. Musharraf’s consent.

“He understands clearly the risks of dealing with extremists and terrorists,” Mr. Bush said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday. “After all, they’ve tried to kill him.”

The Pakistan government has identified a militant leader with links to Al Qaeda, Baitullah Mehsud, who holds sway in tribal areas near the Afghanistan border, as the chief suspect behind the attack on Ms. Bhutto. American officials are not certain about Mr. Mehsud’s complicity but say the threat he and other militants pose is a new focus. He is considered, they said, an “Al Qaeda associate.”

In an interview with foreign journalists on Thursday, Mr. Musharraf warned of the risk any counterterrorism forces — American or Pakistani — faced in confronting Mr. Mehsud in his native tribal areas.

“He is in South Waziristan agency, and let me tell you, getting him in that place means battling against thousands of people, hundreds of people who are his followers, the Mehsud tribe, if you get to him, and it will mean collateral damage,” Mr. Musharraf said.

The weeks before parliamentary elections — which were originally scheduled for Tuesday — are seen as critical because of threats by extremists to disrupt the vote. But it seemed unlikely that any additional American effort would be approved and put in place in that time frame.

Administration aides said that Pakistani and American officials shared the concern about a resurgent Qaeda, and that American diplomats and senior military officers had been working closely with their Pakistani counterparts to help bolster Pakistan’s counterterrorism operations.

Shortly after Ms. Bhutto’s assassination, Adm. William J. Fallon, who oversees American military operations in Southwest Asia, telephoned his Pakistani counterparts to ensure that counterterrorism and logistics operations remained on track.

In early December, Adm. Eric T. Olson, the new leader of the Special Operations Command, paid his second visit to Pakistan in three months to meet with senior Pakistani officers, including Lt. Gen. Muhammad Masood Aslam, commander of the military and paramilitary troops in northwest Pakistan. Admiral Olson also visited the headquarters of the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force of about 85,000 members recruited from border tribes that the United States is planning to help train and equip.

But the Pakistanis are still years away from fielding an effective counterinsurgency force. And some American officials, including Defense Secretary Gates, have said the United States may have to take direct action against militants in the tribal areas.

American officials said the crisis surrounding Ms. Bhutto’s assassination had not diminished the Pakistani counterterrorism operations, and there were no signs that Mr. Musharraf had pulled out any of his 100,000 forces in the tribal areas and brought them to the cities to help control the urban unrest.

Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from Islamabad, and David Rohde from New York.

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

12) Naomi Campbell interviews 'rebel angel' Hugo Chavez
10 hours ago
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hSoMEZ8yu2xp63DbQLq4MXf3KjyQ

LONDON (AFP) - British supermodel Naomi Campbell has interviewed
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, describing him as a "rebel angel"
who is unafraid to speak his mind but poses no threat to democracy.

Campbell was granted an audience with the outspoken left-wing leader
as part of her new brief as contributing editor for British men's
lifestyle magazine GQ, interviewing leading figures from politics,
sport and entertainment.

She wrote in the article, out Thursday but extracts of which were
released in advance, that she was aware her choice of subject would
be controversial, but insisted she did not go to Venezuela for
political reasons.

"I'd always heard Hugo Chavez was a people's president and I wanted
to see if that was true... I didn't want to judge Chavez, or probe
him for his political views, even though he gave them freely," she
wrote.

"I simply went to interview Hugo Chavez the man," she added. The
catwalk star also said she wanted to get him to donate to the Nelson
Mandela Foundation, which she represents, and see some of his social
programmes.

Campbell said the Venezuelan leader -- who in November was told to
"shut up" by Spain's King Juan Carlos I -- was forthright and
"fearless, but not threatening or unreasonable".

Venezuelans also seemed happier than her last visit 10 years ago for
a Sports Illustrated magazine photoshoot, she added.

"I hope Venezuela's relations with America will improve in the
immediate future. Whatever the future holds, for me his role will
always be that of a rebel angel," she said.

During her time in Venezuela, she was treated to Chavez's familiar
rhetoric against the United States and in particular President George
W. Bush.

Chavez -- who once described Bush as "the devil" during a United
Nations General Assembly address -- said the US president was
"completely crazy" and Condoleezza Rice was "secretary of state of a
genocidal government".

Asked if he thought Bush wanted to kill him, he replied: "I think he
does. Him and his companions."

Elsewhere, Chavez found time to defend Venezuela's human rights
record and vaunt his country's oil reserves, but also gave his views
on less weighty matters like fashion, pop music and the British royal
family.

Cuba's Fidel Castro was the world's most stylish leader, he said
("His uniform is impeccable. His boots are polished. His beard is
elegant"), he was aware of the newly-reformed Spice Girls and admired
Britain's Prince Charles.

He also refused to rule out following Russian President Vladimir
Putin's example and posing for topless photographs. "Why not? Touch
my muscles," he reportedly told the supermodel.

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

13) Crimes of State
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
January 2, 2008
Prisonradio.org

A president is charged with violating the law and constitution of his country.

He is charged with opening the money pits of the nation to his cronies.

He is charged with approving the torturing of people in the name of a 'war on terror', listening to the phone calls of countless citizens and unleashing his hordes of malevolent minions against critics, journalists and opponents of his virtually imperial rule.

Am I describing a recent novel? For surely -- surely -- this can't be a real president, in a real country, facing real charges.

And yet, it is.

But not here.

It's in Peru, where Alberto K. Fujimori (once affectionately nicknamed 'El Chino' for his Asian features) faces a slew of criminal charges stemming from his years in power as president.

The former president faces charges from his 10 - year reign over Peru's version of a "dirty war" against virtually all opponents of the State. From armed combat against Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (known as the Tupamaros), to massacres of students and leftists by secret government death squads, the former president left behind him a legacy of blood.

In the twenty years of this long internal war, some 70,000 people lost their lives, according to the findings of a Peruvian government commission in 2003.

If convicted for his role in the carnage, Fujimori, now 69, faces 30 years in prison.

Why is this surprising?

Because, here, in the US, we see so much government immunity that the very notion of trying our presidents for war crimes, violations of international law, or even violations of the Constitution, seems the stuff of fiction.

The closest we have come, was at the resignation of Richard M. Nixon from the presidency, after impeachment was imminent. Not to worry. His successor, President Gerald R. Ford, granted him a pardon -- before he was even charged! And his crimes, which culminated in the Watergate scandal, are all but forgotten.

I saw a foreign news broadcast today (from China) which reported that a million people -- 1 million people -- had died in Iraq since the US invasion and occupation. A million people.

And yet, no crime. No impeachments. Indeed, there isn't even serious rap about either possibility. At the very hour of victory, when a so-called 'democratic' majority was granted majority power by an energized, and angry electorate, House Speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.Ca.) announced, "Impeachment is off the table." And so it has remained.

Immunity.

What can the world's sole remaining superpower learn from a relatively small, relatively poor, predominantly Indian nation on Latin America's west coast?

Apparently, not a damned thing.

--(c) '08 maj

[Source: Romero, Simon, "Ex-President Stands Trial In Edgy Peru," New York Times, Mon., Dec.10, 2007, p.A6.]

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

14) Suit Over Protests in Central Park Ends
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:22 a.m. ET
January 9, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Central-Park-Lawn-Rally.html?scp=1&sq=central+park

NEW YORK (AP) -- The city settled a lawsuit brought by anti-war groups who were barred from staging a big rally in Central Park during the 2004 Republican National Convention.

Lawyers for the National Council of Arab Americans and the Act Now to Stop War & End Racism Coalition said the settlement, announced Tuesday, raised the possibility that the park's Great Lawn could again be used for large public demonstrations.

While the city denied any wrongdoing, saying it was only trying to preserve the lawn when it barred the demonstration, the deal also requires it to pay $25,000 in damages to each of the groups and the costs of bringing the lawsuit.

''It's a hands-down total and complete victory,'' said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder of the Partnership for Civil Justice, a Washington-based public interest law firm that brought the lawsuit.

''The lawsuit is not merely about the use of the Great Lawn of Central Park,'' she said. ''It serves as an historic challenge to the privatization of public space.''

The city had begun limiting access for large groups after spending $18.2 million in the mid-1990s to restore the Great Lawn.

The groups had accused the city of discrimination in its decisions about what organizations were entitled to use the lawn. The city has approved permits for events such as annual free performances by the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic, as well as other concerts.

The city's law office said it wanted to avoid a long legal battle and believes ''that the parks department properly denied a permit to the two plaintiff organizations in 2004.''

The deal calls for the city to pay for an independent study to decide if the current 50,000-person limit can be modified so that larger events can be held on the lawn without damaging it.

The deal came after a federal judge last year said city regulations governing large park rallies addressed legitimate concerns, but there was evidence supporting the groups' claim that the city rejected requests for some permits but accepted others.

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

15) Afghan Civilians Were Killed Needlessly, Ex-Marine Testifies
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
January 9, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/world/asia/09abuse.html?ref=world

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — A former member of an elite Marine combat unit that operated last year in eastern Afghanistan testified Tuesday that his comrades appeared to have needlessly killed civilians after their convoy was attacked by a suicide car bomb.

Nathaniel Travers, a former Marine intelligence sergeant assigned to the 30-man Special Operations convoy that was patrolling on March 4 last year, testified in a military court here that a few marines fired at civilians and other unarmed noncombatants after the suicide bomber struck.

No marines have been charged with a crime in the episode. The hearing was held to determine whether troops had violated the laws of war.

The three judges on the Marine Corps court of inquiry are examining the actions of two officers who led the elite unit, Company F, Second Battalion, Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command. They are Maj. Fred C. Galvin, the company commander, and Capt. Vincent J. Noble, the platoon leader.

Shortly after the March 4 shootings near Jalalabad, Company F was ordered to leave Afghanistan by Lt. Gen. Frank Kearney of the Army, the commander at the time of all Special Operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Weeks later, an Army Special Operations commander in Afghanistan publicly apologized to the families of 19 people who he said had been unjustifiably killed by members of the Marine unit.

But the Army apology, given before military investigators had concluded their inquiry, was later condemned by senior Marine commanders as inappropriate and premature.

Mr. Travers, the first witness to testify, said the unit’s trip from its base at Jalalabad to the Pakistani border and back was uneventful until a minivan detonated near the convoy’s second Humvee. After the blast, Mr. Travers said, he heard gunfire and saw bodies in at least two vehicles as the Marine convoy sped away.

Only a few gunners in the heavily armed convoy fired, he said, until Captain Noble radioed a command to the entire convoy to stop firing.

The account by Mr. Travers, who left the Marines last year, contrasts sharply with those given by the American military and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

The commission, which conducted its own inquiry, said marines had fired indiscriminately at pedestrians and people in cars, buses and taxis over a 10-mile stretch of road after the attack. No marines were seriously wounded in the suicide bombing.

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

15) Not Just the Fed
Editorial
January 10, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/opinion/10thu1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=login

The American economy is weakening fast, and some prominent economists are saying a recession is already here. The Federal Reserve, with its prodigious lending capacity and power to cut interest rates, could yet save the day. But with prices, and fears of inflation, also rising, the Fed has less room to maneuver.

That is why it is imperative that President Bush and Congressional leaders begin a serious discussion about how to help revive the economy, if need be, with a short-term stimulus package.

President Bush has suggested that permanent tax cuts (his longtime goal and a favorite of nearly all the Republican presidential candidates) are his fix of choice. But those tax cuts would take effect in 2011, doing nothing for today’s economic woes.

Democrats are broaching more sensible measures, like bolstered spending for unemployment compensation and food stamps and direct aid to states. They should consider adding the idea of a targeted tax rebate. A one-shot rebate would be another way to stimulate the economy — and could draw the tax-phobic White House into a constructive discussion.

If ever there was a time not to let ideology drive economic policy, it is now. More than a million people stand to lose their homes over the next two years. Some 10 million families stand to lose all of their home equity. Inflation is wiping out wage gains, while pushing up prices for food and gasoline. Job growth has stalled and unemployment is rising.

If conditions deteriorate even further, the White House and Congress would need to act quickly. That means they need to start talking now, before things turn grave, about how they would supplement the Fed’s efforts with specific temporary boosts.

In the meantime, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has tough calls to make. Wall Street is insisting that lower rates are necessary, despite inflationary pressures, because recession is a more urgent threat than rising prices. There’s truth to that. Yet even if the Fed slashed rates, there’s no guarantee of a big rebound. Lower interest rates could cause the dollar to weaken further. A weaker dollar correlates to higher oil prices, which in turn, would blunt the ability of lower rates to stimulate a lagging economy.

There’s a lot riding on Mr. Bernanke’s judgment. But the White House and Congress also must start preparing to step in if Mr. Bernanke and the Fed can’t turn the economy around. One issue they must agree on: any fiscal stimulus legislation should be targeted and temporary.

Economic history is clear that stimulus measures that are effective in the short run tend to backfire if they go on too long. They become unaffordable, and that is bad for growth. The economy’s challenges are formidable enough, without creating any more problems.

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

LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES

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

Utah: Cholera Suspected in Bird Deaths
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Rockies
About 1,500 dead birds that washed up on the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake may have been killed by avian cholera, an expert said. Dead grebes, ducks and gulls were being sent to the National Wildlife Health Center of the United States Geological Survey in Madison, Wis., for examination. “If I was a betting man,” said the expert, Tom Aldrich of the State Division of Wildlife Resources, “I would bet it was cholera.” The disease, which poisons the blood, spreads when birds are overcrowded and food supplies are short. It does not affect humans. [Doesn't affect humans? How does the death of birds not affect humans?...bw]
January 5, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/us/05brfs-CHOLERASUSPE_BRF.html?ref=us

United Nations: Assembly Calls for Freeze on Death Penalty
By WARREN HOGE
In a vote that made for unusual alliances, the General Assembly passed, 104 to 54 with 29 abstentions, a nonbinding resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. Among the countries joining the United States in opposition to the European-led measure were Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Opponents argued that the resolution undermined their national sovereignty. Two similar moves in the 1990s failed, and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the new vote was “evidence of a trend toward ultimately abolishing the death penalty.”
December 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/world/19briefs-deathpenalty.html?ref=world

Carbon Dioxide Threatens Reefs, Report Says
By KENNETH CHANG
National Briefing | Science and Health
Carbon dioxide in the air is turning the oceans acidic, and without a reduction in emissions, coral reefs may die away by the end of the century, researchers warn in Friday’s issue of the journal Science. Carbon dioxide dissolves into ocean water, changes to carbonic acid, and carbonic acid dissolves the calcium carbonate in the skeletons of corals. Laboratory experiments have shown that corals possess some ability to adapt to warmer waters but no ability to adapt to the higher acidity. “Unless we reverse our actions very quickly, by the end of the century, reefs could be a thing of the past,” said Ken Caldeira, a scientist at the Carnegie Institution’s department of global ecology and an author of the Science paper.
December 14, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/science/earth/14brfs-CARBONDIOXID_BRF.html?ref=science

Iraq: Marine Discharged Over Killing
By REUTERS
World Briefing | Middle East
A Marine reservist, Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes, 22, of Indianapolis, was sentenced to a bad-conduct discharge and reduced in rank to private, a day after being convicted at Camp Pendleton, Calif., of negligent homicide in the 2006 stabbing death of an Iraqi soldier he stood watch with at a guard post in Falluja. He has served 10 months in a military prison and will not spend any more time in custody. The lance corporal’s lawyer has said that the killing was in self-defense. Prosecutors contended that he killed the Iraqi and then set up the scene to support his story. He was also found guilty of making a false official statement.
December 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/world/middleeast/15briefs-MARINEDISCHA_BRF.html?ref=world

Canada: Mounties Urged to Restrict Taser Use
By IAN AUSTEN
In a report, the watchdog commission that oversees the Royal Canadian Mounted Police recommended that Taser stun guns be used only on people who are “combative or posing a risk of death or grievous bodily harm,” much like a conventional firearm rather than a nightstick or pepper spray. The report was ordered by the government after a confused and angry Polish immigrant, Robert Dziekanski, left, died at the airport in Vancouver after being stunned at least twice by Mounties. The report found that Tasers were increasingly being used against people who were merely resistant rather than dangerous.
December 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/world/americas/13briefs-taser.html?ref=world

Greece: Tens of Thousands March in Strike
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A one-day strike by unions representing 2.5 million workers brought Athens to a standstill. Protesting planned government changes to the state-financed pension system, an estimated 80,000 people marched through central Athens. In Thessaloniki, 30,000 people rallied, the police said. The strike shut down hospitals, banks, schools, courts and all public services. Flights were canceled, and public transportation, including boats connecting the mainland with the islands, ground to a halt. More strikes are expected next week.
December 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/world/europe/13briefs-strike.html?ref=world

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

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INFORMATION

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

Russell Means Speaking at the Transform Columbus Day Rally
"If voting could do anything it would be illegal!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Lri1-6aoY

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

Stop the Termination or the Cherokee Nation
http://groups.msn.com/BayAreaIndianCalendar/activismissues.msnw?action=get_message&mview=1&ID_Message=5580

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

We Didn't Start the Fire
http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html

I Can't Take it No More
http://lefti.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html#9214483115237950361

The Art of Mental Warfare
http://artofmentalwarfare.com/pog/artofmentalwarfarecom-the-warning/

MONEY AS DEBT
http://video. google.com/ videoplay? docid=-905047436 2583451279
http://www.moneyasd ebt.net/

UNCONSTITUTIONAL
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6582099850410121223&pr=goog-sl

IRAQ FOR SALE
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6621486727392146155

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

Port of Olympia Anti-Militarization Action Nov. 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOkn2Fg7R8w

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

"They have a new gimmick every year. They're going to take one of their boys, black boys, and put him in the cabinet so he can walk around Washington with a cigar. Fire on one end and fool on the other end. And because his immediate personal problem will have been solved he will be the one to tell our people: 'Look how much progress we're making. I'm in Washington, D.C., I can have tea in the White House. I'm your spokesman, I'm your leader.' While our people are still living in Harlem in the slums. Still receiving the worst form of education.

"But how many sitting here right now feel that they could [laughs] truly identify with a struggle that was designed to eliminate the basic causes that create the conditions that exist? Not very many. They can jive, but when it comes to identifying yourself with a struggle that is not endorsed by the power structure, that is not acceptable, that the ground rules are not laid down by the society in which you live, in which you are struggling against, you can't identify with that, you step back.

"It's easy to become a satellite today without even realizing it. This country can seduce God. Yes, it has that seductive power of economic dollarism. You can cut out colonialism, imperialism and all other kind of ism, but it's hard for you to cut that dollarism. When they drop those dollars on you, you'll fold though."

—MALCOLM X, 1965
http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=987

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

A little gem:
Michael Moore Faces Off With Stephen Colbert [VIDEO]
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/57492/

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

LAPD vs. Immigrants (Video)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/ff/qr?term=lapd&Submit=S&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Search&st=s

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

Dr. Julia Hare at the SOBA 2007
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/proudtobeblack2/

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

"We are far from that stage today in our era of the absolute
lie; the complete and totalitarian lie, spread by the
monopolies of press and radio to imprison social
consciousness." December 1936, "In 'Socialist' Norway,"
by Leon Trotsky: “Leon Trotsky in Norway” was transcribed
for the Internet by Per I. Matheson [References from
original translation removed]
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm

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

Wealth Inequality Charts
http://www.faireconomy.org/research/wealth_charts.html

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

MALCOLM X: Oxford University Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmzaaf-9aHQ

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

"There comes a times when silence is betrayal."
--Martin Luther King

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


YouTube clip of Che before the UN in 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtATT8GXkWg&mode=related&search

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

The Wealthiest Americans Ever
NYT Interactive chart
JULY 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html

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

New Orleans After the Flood -- A Photo Gallery
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=795
This email was sent to you as a service, by Roland Sheppard.
Visit my website at: http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret

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

[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]

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

Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY

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

My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic

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

Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE

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

Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o

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

Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw

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

'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html

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

Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ

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

"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]

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

THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIDEO DESTRIBUTED BY U.S. LABOR AGAINST
THE WAR (USLAW) FEATURING SPEAKERS AT THE JANUARY 27TH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOCUSING ON THE DEMAND - BRING
THE TROOPS HOME NOW.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6935451906479097836&hl=en

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

George Takai responds to Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJoJZIcQW4&eurl_

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

Iran
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

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

Another view of the war. A link from Amer Jubran
http://d3130.servadmin.com/~leeflash/

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

A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489

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

Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/

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

"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Cheyenne and Arapaho oral histories hammer history's account of the
Sand Creek Massacre"

CENTENNIAL, CO -- A new documentary film based on an award-winning
documentary short film, "The Sand Creek Massacre", and driven by
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people who tell their version about
what happened during the Sand Creek Massacre via their oral
histories, has been released by Olympus Films+, LLC, a Centennial,
Colorado film company.

"You have done an extraordinary job" said Margie Small, Tobient
Entertainment, " on the Colorado PBS episode, the library videos for
public schools and libraries, the trailer, etc...and getting the
story told and giving honor to those ancestors who had to witness
this tragic and brutal attack...film is one of the best ways."

"The images shown in the film were selected for native awareness
value" said Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, "we
also focused on preserving American history on film because tribal
elders are dying and taking their oral histories with them. The film
shows a non-violent solution to problem-solving and 19th century
Colorado history, so it's multi-dimensional in that sense. "

Chief Eugene Blackbear, Sr., Cheyenne, who starred as Chief Black
Kettle in "The Last of the Dogmen" also starring Tom Berenger and
Barbara Hershey and "Dr. Colorado", Tom Noel, University of Colorado
history professor, are featured.

The trailer can be viewed and the film can be ordered for $24.95 plus
$4.95 for shipping and handling at http://www.fullduck.com/node/53.

Vasicek's web site, http://www.donvasicek.com, provides detailed
information about the Sand Creek Massacre including various still
images particularly on the Sand Creek Massacre home page and on the
proposal page.

Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality
products that serve to educate others about the human condition.

Contact:

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

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

A NEW LOOK AT U.S. RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use
of these illegal weapons
http://poisondust.org/

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

You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkFVV5X0p4

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

FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html

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

[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]

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

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.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177

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

Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.

Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:

Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.

You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.

Happy Holidays!

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

SHOP:
http://www.manataka.org/page633.html
BuyIndies.com
donvasicek.com.Peace Articles at Libraryofpeace.org">

No comments: