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WAR VETS OCCUPYING ARCHIVES
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=Cemg4rAeRtA
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Witness Against War
Kathy Kelly and Activist Poet, David Smith-Ferri
Tuesday, September 30. 7-9 pm, Room 831
City College of San Francisco,
4th and Mission Street
Saturday, September 27, 7-9 pm
Friends Church
Sacramento at Cedar, Berkeley
$5-15 (sliding scale) donation requested but no one turned away for lack of funds.
(510) 263-5303 or Labor-for-peace-and-justice@igc.org (San Francisco)
(510) 527-8370 or epicalc@earthlink.net (Berkeley)
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The Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal presents
J. Patrick O'Connor author of the new book, “The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal”
J. Patrick O'Connor is the editor & publisher of Crime Magazine. He was a reporter and Bureau Manager for United Press International, editor of Cincinnati Magazine, associate editor of TV Guide & editor/publisher of the Kansas City New Times.
San Francisco: Friday, Oct. 3
5:30 - 7:15 pm, Golden Gate Law School
536 Mission St.
(between 1st and 2nd Street), San Francisco, Room 3214, $10.
Oakland: Saturday, October 4, 2-5 pm.
Special reception/luncheon at the home of Jeff Mackler with Patrick O'Connor and friends, Lynne Stewart, Barbara Lubin and KPFA's Walter Turner, Kris Welsh & Nora Barrows Friedman. Call: 510-268-9429 to attend. $15.00
“Patrick O'Conner's new book, ‘The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal’ is based on a meticulous review of 12,000 pages of court transcripts, legal briefs, police records and an exhaustive examination of the constitutional violations perpetrated by America's criminal “justice” system. His evidence makes a powerful case that Mumia Abu-Jamal should be granted a new trial, and having been cruelly kept on death row for 26 years, he should be immediately freed.” --Howard Zinn, author, “People's History of the United States.”
Patrick O'Connor Bay Area Tour Schedule
--Fri., Oct. 3: 5:30 pm, Golden Gate Law School, SF (See above)
--Fri., Oct. 3: 7:30 pm: Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave, Oak. (bet. Alcatraz & 66th St.)
Sponsor: Labor Action Comm. to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
--Sat., Oct. 4, 2-5 pm: Special reception/luncheon at the home of Jeff Mackler and Carol Kummer, (See above)
--Sun., Oct. 5: 4-6 pm: College of Marin/Kentfield: Patrick O'Connor with Lynne Stewart: Call 510-268-9429 for room & details.
--Mon., Oct. 6, 1pm, Stanford University Radio; Noon, Stanford Law School (tentative)
--Tues., Oct. 7: 12 Noon, Golden Gate Law School, 536 Mission, SF (bet. 1st & 2nd Sts., Rm. 3216
--Tues., Oct. 7: 7 pm SHARP, Community Media Center, 900 San Antonio Rd (near Charleston), Palo Alto. This will be a live TV program followed by Q&A & reception sponsored by the Peninsula & Justice Center
--Wed., Oct. 8, 7:30 pm, Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County, 467 Sebastopol Ave, Santa Rosa
Sponsor: The Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, freemumia.org, jmackler@lmi.net, 510-268-9429, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610
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NEWS RELEASE
From: Radical Women, 5018 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98118
Contact: Anne Slater: office 206-722-6057; cell 206-708-5161; home 206-722-3812
RE: PUBLIC CONFERENCE
Radical Women Conference Aims to Expand and Embolden Feminist Movement
October 2 - 6
Women's Building
3543 18th Street,in the Mission District, near the 16th Street BART stop.
Wheelchair accessible.
Registration is $15 per day; students and low income $7.50 per day.
Register at www.RadicalWomen.org.
For more information, phone 206-722-6057.
Radical Women Conference Aims to Expand and Embolden Feminist Movement
Optimistic rebels from all walks of life are invited to participate in a national Radical Women conference, "The Persistent Power of Socialist Feminism," to be held at the San Francisco Women's Building, October 3-6, 2008. The major goal of the four-day public event is to produce a concrete education and action plan to focus and strengthen the feminist movement. Speakers include activists and scholars from Central America, China, Australia and the U.S.
Highlights on Friday, Oct. 2 include a 9:30am keynote address by Nellie Wong on "Women and revolution--alive and inseparable." Wong is an acclaimed Chinese-American poet, whose works include Stolen Moments, the Death of Long Steam Lady, and Dreams in Harrison Railroad Park. A former Senior Analyst of Affirmative Action, she is also a founding member of Unbound Feet, an Asian American writers group. Afterwards, Laura Mannen will present proposals and spearhead a discussion on how to build a strong, independent, grassroots U.S. feminist movement. Mannen is a bilingual teacher, mother of two and seasoned antiwar organizer from Portland, Oregon. The afternoon will feature a roundtable of female unionists on "Standing our ground on labor's frontlines."
At 7:30pm Friday evening Lynne Stewart will address "Radical dissent: The righteous response to an unjust system." Stewart, embattled human rights attorney, was convicted in 2005 of providing support for terrorism by delivering a handwritten press release to Reuters from a client. Though prosecutors sought a 30-year prison term, Stewart was sentenced to serve 28 months. The shorter sentence, the judge said, was in recognition of her "service to the nation" as a representative of the poor and unpopular. The government is appealing her shorter sentence. Stewart is appealing the conviction.
"Magnificent warriors: female leadership in the global freedom struggle," a panel presentation on Saturday, October 4 at 9:00am, will include Debbie Brennan, workplace delegate for the Australian Services Union and Melbourne RW president; Dr. Raya Fidel, an Israeli-American feminist and supporter of Palestinian rights; Patricia Ramos, a Costa Rican labor lawyer and leading organizer against the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA); and Wang Zheng, a University of Michigan Women's Studies professor and co-chair of the U.S. based Chinese Society for Women's Studies.
Christina López, Chicana-Apache advocate for reproductive justice and frontrunner in the battle for rights for undocumented workers, will present her paper "Estamos en la lucha: Immigrant women light the fires of resistance" at 11:30am.
Interactive workshops in the afternoon include Challenging the Minutemen; ABCs of Marxist feminism; Women's stake in the struggle for union democracy; Federally funded childcare NOW; End the war on women--in Iraq, Afghanistan and the U.S.; On the barricades for reproductive justice; Confronting movement sexism; Free trade is a feminist issue; and Young queer radical--what are we fighting for?
Sunday, Oct. 5 begins at 9:00am with a panel on "The galvanizing impact of multiracial organizing in a society divided by racism." Sharing first-hand experiences will be author Christina López of Seattle, reproductive rights activist Toni Mendicino of San Francisco, and campus organizer Emily Woo Yamasaki of New York City.
The remainder of Sunday will be devoted to issues and skills workshops. Topics include Power to the poor!; Radical campus organizing; For affirmative action not "civil wrongs"; Alternative feminist radio; Radical youth and rebel elders; Disabled rights activists on RX for toxic healthcare. There will also be sessions on getting media attention, confident speaking and writing, knowing your rights as a worker, and producing effective fliers and banners.
The conference concludes on Monday, Oct 6, 10:00am with a National Organizer's report and action plan presented by Anne Slater, veteran campaigner for queer rights, the environment and women's equality.
All sessions will be held at the Women's Building, 3543 18th St., in the Mission District, near the 16th Street BART stop. Wheelchair accessible. Registration is $15 per day; students and low income $7.50 per day. Register at www.RadicalWomen.org. For more information, phone 206-722-6057.
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Taking Aim's Call-In Show on the Crisis of Fictive Capital - the Meltdown is
delayed until Tuesday, October 7. Taking Aim is pre-empted today during the
WBAI-NY fund drive.
Join us next week for an exciting program. You can reach us on air at
212-209-2900.
Meanwhile, check out our Program Archive at
http://www.takingaimradio.com/shows/audio.html
Many of you have written that you are downloading and listening to prior
program series, Gentleman Killers of the CIA, Target Africa, Creating the
Next Pandemic and many more.
Please donate to Taking Aim. Your contributions are critical to maintain our
broadcasts.
Mya Shone/Ralph Schoenman
Taking Aim
http://www.takingaimradio.com
Contributions to Taking Aim enable us to continue our radio broadcasts,
expand our Internet sites, produce workbooks, pamphlets and books and
organize events.
Donate online on the Paypal website http://www.paypal.com by "sending" a
contribution marked "service/other" to takingaim@pacbell.net or donate
online via the Taking Aim program archive
http://www.takingaimradio.com/shows/audio.html
Make your checks payable to: Veritas Press
PO Box 6345, Vallejo, CA 94591
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LET OUR CHILDREN BE! NO ON V!
Keep Military Recruiters OUT of our Schools!
COMMUNITY ANTIWAR OUTREACH DAY
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 11:00 A.M., 24TH AND MISSION STREETS, SAN FRANCISCO
The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program in the country's school system is an example of how our government spends taxpayer's money for programs that only benefit the wealthy, which is what the entire U.S. military industrial complex is designed to do.
The resounding defeat of Proposition V, the Pro-JROTC ballot initiative on this November's ballot in San Francisco, is not only a resounding reiteration of the antiwar sentiments of the people of San Francisco, but it's a resounding statement in opposition to a government being governed by, for, and of the wealthy elite we are being asked to bail out!
The October 11 Community Outreach Day is our chance to get out into the streets and explain how important it is to defeat Proposition V and the strong message it will send throughout the country! Not only expressing our opposition to JROTC and military recruitment of our children for illegal and unjust wars, but our ability to rally together to defeat this initiative!
They are having actions across the country on October 11. I just received the following flyer for an action scheduled for Cleveland, Ohio and I couldn't agree more with its sentiments.
I hope we can incorporate some of this spirit in our NO on V ANTIWAR OUTREACH DAY, Saturday, October 11, 11:00 A.M., 24th and Mission Streets, S.F.:
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein, bauaw.org
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Here's the Cleveland, OH flyer for their action against the war October 11:
PROTEST THE WALL STREET BAILOUT - BAILOUT MAIN STREET
No Cash Welfare for Wall Street! Give 'em the shirt off your back instead!
Victims of mortgage crisis, unemployed, under-insured and taxpayers....
Give now and give freely. Please do your part. Give the shirt off your back to the Federal Reserve Bank, East 6th and Superior, Friday, October 3, 4pm. [this is in Cleveland, OH…bw]
PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD!
LOCAL ACTION TO END WAR AND OCCUPATION!
STOP THE ENDLESS MADNESS!
FORECLOSE ON WARS! NOT ON HOMES!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
1:30 p.m. meet up at 128th & Buckeye Passport Project Comunity Center
(Parking behind Shaker Theatre walk one block south on e.128th)
We will march at 2p.m.down Buckeye and over to Shaker Square.
On the 6th Anniversary of Approval by Congress for the Iraq War Resolution,
Join us to Demand:
--STOP THE WARS AND OCCUPATIONS OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN
--MONEY FOR JOBS, EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE, AND HOUSING - NOT FOR WAR AND OCCUPATION
--NO SANCTIONS OR ATTACK ON IRAN
--STOP THE RACIST SCAPEGOATING OF ARABS AND MUSLIMS
--STOP THE ASSAULT ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
--BAIL OUT MAIN STREET, NOT WALL STREET!
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SAN FRANCISCO CITY-WIDE ANTIWAR OUTREACH DAY! NO ON V!
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 11:00 A.M. - 3:00 P.M., 24TH AND MISSION STREETS, S.F.
NO TO JUNIOR RESERVE OFFICERS' TRAINING CORPS (JROTC) MILITARY TRAINING AND RECRUITMENT PROGRAM!
MILITARY RECRUITERS OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS!
It was on October 11, 2002 that a bi-partisan Congress approved the “Iraq War Resolution” granting the Bush administration authorization to invade Iraq. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2008--exactly six years after Congress unleashed the dogs of war on Iraq--we will be launching a campaign to label San Francisco an antiwar city again this November, 2008.
In 2004 we voted Yes on N to bring the troops home from Iraq Now; in 2005 we voted Yes on I, College Not Combat, to get military recruiters out of our schools; this year we will vote NO on V, to get the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) military training and recruitment program out of our schools.
JROTC IS A MILITARY TRAINING AND RECRUITMENT PROGRAM THAT TEACHES STUDENTS TO FOLLOW THE LEADER WITHOUT QUESTION, NOT TO BECOME LEADERS!
Proposition V, is a pro-JROTC, pro-military training and recruitment program that is currently being phased out of our schools. Proposition V--a non-binding initiative designed to put pressure on the Board of Education to keep the program in the schools--has been put on the ballot with the financial contributions of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and the Republican Party among many other pro-war contributors with big bucks!
WE MUST GET THE WORD OUT TO VOTE NO ON V!
NO ON V COMMUNITY OUTREACH DAY, OCTOBER 11, 11:00 A.M., 24TH AND MISSION STREETS, S.F.
We will assemble at 11:00 A.M. At 24th and Mission Street where flyers and posters for NO on V will be available for city-wide distribution. We will fan out across the city to distribute the material and talk with our fellow neighbors in the streets about how important it is to defeat Proposition V. And we will keep this campaign going each week until election day.
JROTC IS A MILITARY RECRUITMENT PROGRAM CONTROLLED BY THE MILITARY ALONE!
The issues surrounding Proposition V have been made less clear by the lies their campaign is telling about the program, i.e., that JROTC does not recruit students to the military, that it teaches leadership skills, that it keeps children from gang activity and that students should have a "choice" to enroll in JROTC at their school.
But, we don't want the schools used to recruit our children for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan!
JROTC is a military recruitment program that has already been scheduled for phase-out by June 2009 by the San Francisco Board of Education.
JROTC doesn’t teach students the realities of war: that they are likely to kill civilians, or that they are more likely to die or return from war with devastating mental and physical disabilities than earn college degrees.
Proposition V argues that students should have a “choice” to enroll in JROTC, but if they join the military they have no choice about killing or dying. JROTC is a military recruitment program, and it does not belong in our schools!
JROTC is not the way to keep kids away from gangs. There are peaceful ways to keep kids safe. JROTC is not a leadership program. It teaches unquestioning obedience in preparation for military service.
The San Francisco School Board's decision to end JROTC has set a precedent for communities nationwide. Let’s not allow it to be reversed!
We will be outside in the streets October 11 to encourage a resounding NO vote on Proposition V and to join with parents everywhere trying to save their children from being sent to fight these unjust and illegal wars!
MONEY FOR BOOKS NOT BOMBS! COLLEGE NOT COMBAT! JOB-FAIRS NOT WARFARE! FORECLOSE THE WAR NOT MORTGAGES!
We want funding for education, healthcare, the environment, and jobs, not war! U.S. out of Iraq and Afghanistan now!
Join us in community outreach against the war and for NO on V, Saturday, October 11, 11:00-3:00 P.M., 24th and Mission Streets, San Francisco
For information on the many other actions taking place on October 11 around the country against the war go to:
http://oct11.org/
Bay Area United Against War
P.O. Box 318021, San Francisco, CA 94131-8021, 415-824-8730, www.bauaw.org
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ANNUAL SUNRISE GATHERING
ON ALCATRAZ ISLAND
MONDAY OCTOBER 13th 2008
International Indian Treaty Council and American Indian Contemporary Arts present:
International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples 2008 Celebrating our Survival and Challenging the Myth of Columbus and “Doctrine of Discovery”
Everyone is invited to attend the annual Sun-Rise Gathering at Alcatraz Island on Monday, October 13th, 2008 (State Holiday) on Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, to commemorate 516 years (1492-2008) of Indigenous Peoples Resistance to Colonization in the Americas!
Support Indigenous Peoples’ struggles for Self-Determination, Land and Treaty
Rights, Protection of Sacred Sites, Cultures and Ways of Life. Say “No” to War and
Racism, “Yes” to a Culture of Peace, Human Rights, and Respect for Mother Earth!
Honor those who sacrificed their lives for us to be here, and who stood up for our Peoples.
Tobacco and prayers will be offered to the fire for the Earth and coming generations.
Meeting Place: Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier # 31 in San Francisco
Tickets: $ 11.00 (children under 5 free)
Time: Ticket booths open at 5 AM, last boat departs at 6:00 am, and all return by 9 AM.
Featuring: The All Nations Drum, Traditional Aztec and Pomo Dancers, and updates
and solidarity with special guest speakers. MC: Lenny Foster, Dineh, Alcatraz
Veteran and member of IITC’s Board of Directors. Special Honoring for
Participants of the Long Walks 1 & 2, Alcatraz and Wounded Knee Veterans.
Wheel chair accessible, minimal parking, wear something warm.
For More information call IITC at 415-641-4482 or email AICA:
janeenantoine@mac.com.
Websites:
www.treatycouncil.org and
http://groups.msn.com-bayareaindiancalandar.
Purchase advance tickets at
www.alcatrazcruises.com, or call 415-981-7625.
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Protest at mortgage bankers associates annual conference in SF
No foreclosures - No evictions
No bank bailouts - Housing is a right!
Sun. Oct. 19, 3pm Protest at opening ceremony of conference, Moscone West, 4th St. and Howard, SF
Mon. Oct. 20, 8am - Protest during Opening General Session, Moscone West, 4th St. and Howard, SF
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Chairmen headline Opening General Session and Annual Business Meeting from 8:30am-10:30am.
Initiated by ANSWER Coalition. To co-sponsor, please reply to this email or call 415-821-6545. http://www.votenobailout.org/
"Piggies"
By George Harrison
Have you seen the little piggies
Crawling in the dirt?
And for all the little piggies
Life is getting worse,
Always having dirt
To play around in.
Have you seen the bigger piggies
In their starched white shirts?
You will find the bigger piggies
Stirring up the dirt,
Always have clean shirts
To play around in.
In their sties, with all their backing,
They don't care what goes on around.
In their eyes, there's something lacking;
What they need's a damn good whacking!
Everywhere there's lots of piggies,
Living piggy lives.
You can see them out for dinner
With their piggy wives,
Clutching forks and knives
To eat their bacon.
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Bring the Anti-War Movement to Inauguration Day in D.C.
January 20, 2009: Join thousands to demand "Bring the troops home now!"
On January 20, 2009, when the next president proceeds up Pennsylvania Avenue he will see thousands of people carrying signs that say US Out of Iraq Now!, US Out of Afghanistan Now!, and Stop the Threats Against Iran! As in Vietnam it will be the people in the streets and not the politicians who can make the difference.
On March 20, 2008, in response to a civil rights lawsuit brought against the National Park Service by the Partnership for Civil Justice on behalf of the ANSWER Coalition, a Federal Court ruled for ANSWER and determined that the government had discriminated against those who brought an anti-war message to the 2005 Inauguration. The court barred the government from continuing its illegal practices on Inauguration Day.
The Democratic and Republican Parties have made it clear that they intend to maintain the occupation of Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and threaten a new war against Iran.
Both Parties are completely committed to fund Israel’s on-going war against the Palestinian people. Both are committed to spending $600 billion each year so that the Pentagon can maintain 700 military bases in 130 countries.
On this the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we are helping to build a nationwide movement to support working-class communities that are being devastated while the country’s resources are devoted to war and empire for for the sake of transnational banks and corporations.
Join us and help organize bus and car caravans for January 20, 2009, Inauguration Day, so that whoever is elected president will see on Pennsylvania Avenue that the people want an immediate end to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and to halt the threats against Iran.
From Iraq to New Orleans, Fund Peoples Needs Not the War Machine!
We cannot carry out these actions withour your help. Please take a moment right now to make an urgently needed donation by clicking this link:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=1121&JServSessionIdr011=23sri803b1.app2a
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
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National Assembly
Announcements:
UPDATED: September 26, 2008
The following “Open Letter to the U.S. Antiwar Movement” was adopted by the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations on July13, 2008. We urge antiwar organizations around the country to endorse the letter. Please send notice of endorsements to natassembly@aol.com
Open Letter to the U.S. Antiwar Movement
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
In the coming months, there will be a number of major actions mobilizing opponents of U.S. wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan to demand “Bring the Troops Home Now!” These will include demonstrations at the Democratic and Republican Party conventions, pre-election mobilizations like those on October 11 in a number of cities and states, and the December 9-14 protest activities. All of these can and should be springboards for very large bi-coastal demonstrations in the spring.
Our movement faces this challenge: Will the spring actions be unified with all sections of the movement joining together to mobilize the largest possible outpouring on a given date? Or will different antiwar coalitions set different dates for actions that would be inherently competitive, the result being smaller and less powerful expressions of support for the movement’s “Out Now!” demand?
We appeal to all sections of the movement to speak up now and be heard on this critical question. We must not replicate the experience of recent years during which the divisions in the movement severely weakened it to the benefit of the warmakers and the detriment of the millions of victims of U.S. aggressions, interventions and occupations.
Send a message. Urge – the times demand it! – united action in the spring to ensure a turnout which will reflect the majority’s sentiments for peace. Ideally, all major forces in the antiwar movement would announce jointly, or at least on the same day, an agreed upon date for the spring demonstrations.
The National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations will be glad to participate in the process of selecting a date for spring actions that the entire movement can unite around. One way or another, let us make sure that comes spring we will march in the streets together, demanding that the occupations be ended, that all the troops and contractors be withdrawn immediately, and that all U.S. military bases be closed.
In solidarity and peace,
National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations
National Assembly’s Continuations Body (in formation):
Beth Adams, Connecticut River Valley Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; Zaineb Alani, Author of The Words of an Iraqi War Survivor & More; Alexis Baden-Mayer, Grassroots Netroots Alliance; Steve Bloom, Solidarity; Michael Carano, Progressive Democrats of America/Ohio Branch; Jim Ciocia, AFSCME Staff Representative; Colia Clark, Chair, Richard Wright Centennial Committee; Grandmothers for Mumia Abu-Jamal; Greg Coleridge, Coordinator, Northeast Ohio Anti-War Coalition (NOAC) and Economic Justice and Empowerment Program Director, Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee (AFSC); Victor Crews, Wasatach Coalition for Peace and Justice (of Northern Utah); Alan Dale, Iraq Peace Action Coalition (MN); Donna Dewitt, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO*, Representing U.S. Labor Against the War on the Continuations Body; Jamilla El-Shafei, Founder, Kennebunks Peace Department; Co-Founder and Organizer, Stop-Loss Congress; Mike Ferner, Secretary, Veterans for Peace; Paul George, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center; Jerry Gordon, Former National Co-Coordinator of the Vietnam-era National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC) and Member, U.S. Labor Against the War Steering Committee; John Harris, Greater Boston Stop the Wars Coalition; Jonathan Hutto, Navy Petty Officer; Author of Anti-War Soldier; Co-Founder of Appeal for Redress; Tom Lacey, California Peace and Freedom Party; Marilyn Levin, Coordinating Committee, Greater Boston United for Justice with Peace, Middle East Crisis Coalition; Joe Lombardo, Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace, Northeast Peace and Justice Coalition; Jeff Mackler, Founder, San Francisco Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice; Christine Marie, Socialist Action; Logan Martinez, Green party of Ohio; Fred Mason, President, Maryland State and District of Columbia AFL-CIO and Co-Convenor, U.S. Labor Against the War; Atlee McFellin, Students for a Democratic Society, New School University Chapter, New York; Mary Nichols-Rhodes, Progressive Democrats of America/Ohio Branch; Northland Anti-War Coalition; Bill Onasch, Kansas City Labor Against the War; John Peterson, National Secretary, Workers International League; Dan Piper, CT United for Peace; Millie Phillips, Socialist Organizer; Thea Paneth, Arlington/Lexington United for Justice with Peace; Andy Pollack, Adalah/NY; Adam Ritscher, United Steelworkers Local 9460*; Vince Scarich, Los Altos Voices for Peace; Carole Seligman, Active in Campaign to Get Junior ROTC Out of San Francisco Schools; Peter Shell, Thomas Merton Center Antiwar Committee, Pittsburgh; Mark Stahl, Rhode Island Mobilization Committee to Stop War and Occupation; Lynne Stewart, Lynne Stewart Organization/Long Time Attorney and Defender of Constitutional Rights; Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War
Other endorsers (list in formation):
Haidar Abushaqra, Palestine American Congress,* CT; Adalah-NY; Campus Antiwar Network; Andy Anderson, Veterans for Peace, Duluth, MN; Jeff Anderson, Duluth, MN City Councilor; Kathy Anderson, Cuba Solidarity Committee, Duluth, MN; Arlington/Lexington (MA) United for Justice with Peace; Bay Area United Against War; Prof. Hal Bertilson, Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Network of Spiritual Progressives; Scott Bol, Northeast Minnesota Citizens Federation; Heather Bradford, Co-Founder, College of St. Scholastica Students Against War, Superior, WI; Chicago Labor against the War; Coalition for Justice in the Middle East; Connecticut Coalition for Peace and Justice; CT River Valley Chapter, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; CT United for Peace; Duluth Area Green Party; Every Church a Church of Peace; Sharla Gardner, Duluth, MN City Councilor; Sam Goodall, Positively 3rd Street Bakery, Duluth, MN; Grandmothers for Peace, Duluth, MN; Greater Boston Stop the War Coalition; Sadie Green, Teamsters Local 391, Duluth, MN; Jeannie Gugliermino, Middletown Alliance for Peace,* Middletown, CT; Rose Helin, Founder, University of Wisconsin-Superior Students Against War; Melissa Helman, former School of the Americas (SOA) protest prisoner of conscience, Ashland, WI; Donna Howard, Co-Chair, Nonviolent Peaceforce; Iraq Peace Action Coalition (MN); Jeni Johnson, former news editor, Promethean newspaper, Superior, WI; Laurie Johnson, AFSCME Council 5 Business Representative, Duluth, MN; Kansas City Labor Against War; Lake Superior Greens, Superior, WI; Joan Linski, UNITE HERE Local 99; Loaves and Fishes, Catholic Worker Community; Los Angeles County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO; Dorotea Manuela -- Chair, New Mission High School Governing Board*, Co-Chair Boston Rosa Parks Human Rights Committee*; Co-Coordinator Rapid Response Network/Boston May Day Coalition*; Ronald Miller, Progressive Action; Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal/Northern California; Tess Moren, University of Wisconsin -Superior International Peace Studies Student Association; Michelle Naar-Obed, Christian Peacemakers Team; Network of Spiritual Progressives, Duluth, MN Chapter; Northeast Ohio Anti-War Coalition (NOAC); Northland Anti-War Coalition, Duluth, MN; Frank O'Gorman, People of Faith,* Hartford, CT; Ohio State Labor Party; Cheryl Olson, Grandmothers for Peace, Superior, WI; Lyn Clark Pegg, Witness for Peace, Duluth, MN; Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, Palo Alto, CA.; June Pinken, Manchester Peace Coalition,* Manchester, CT; Helen Raisz, Womens' International League for Peace and Freedom,* Hartford, CT; Rhode Island Committee to Stop War and Occupation; Lorena Rodriguez, International Partnership Coordinator of the Student Trade Justice Campaign, Chicago, IL; Mike Rogge, Co-Founder, College of St. Scholastica Students Against War, Superior, WI; Lucy Rosenblatt, We Refuse to Be Enemies,* Hartford, CT; Arielle Schnur, Students for Peace; Ahlam Shalhout, author, Recovering Stolen Memories, New London, CT; Socialist Organizer; Socialist Party of Connecticut; Solidarity; Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC); U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW); Veterans for Peace, Chapter 80, Duluth, MN; Wasatch Coalition for Peace and Justice of Northern Utah; Steve Wick, President, University of Minnesota- Duluth Students for Peace; Mike Winterfield, We Refuse to Be Enemies,* Hartford, CT; Women's International League for Peace and Freedom/Pittsburgh; Workers International League
* indicates for identification only
National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations
http://natassembly.org/members/index.php?org-id=2
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The NO on Proposition V website is now up and running, at:
http://www.NoMilitaryRecruitmentInOurSchools.org
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San Francisco Proposition U is on the November ballot.
Shall it be City policy to advocate that its elected representatives in the
United States Senate and House of Representatives vote against any further
funding for the deployment of United States Armed Forces in Iraq, with the
exception of funds specifically earmarked to provide for their safe and
orderly withdrawal.
If you'd like to help us out please contact me. Donations would be wonderful, we need them for signs and buttons. Please see the link on our web site.
Thank you.
Rick Hauptman
Prop U Steering Commiittee
http://yesonpropu.blogspot.com/
tel 415-861-7425
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Wanda Sykes on Jay Leno: Bailout and Palin
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=tco5h_ZprMY
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Stop the Carnage, Ban the Cluster Bomb!
Only 20 percent of the hundreds of thousands of unexploded cluster munitions that Israel launched into Lebanon in the summer of 2006 have been cleared. You can help!
1. See the list of more than thirty organizations that have signed a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling for Israel to release the list of cluster bomb target sites to the UN team in charge of clearing the sites in Lebanon:
http://www.atfl.org/orgs.htm
2. You can Learn more about the American Task Force for Lebanon at their website:
http://www.atfl.org/
3. Send a message to President Bush, the Secretary of State, and your Members of Congress to stop the carnage and ban the cluster bomb by clicking on the link below:
http://action.atfl.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6644&track=spreadtheword
Take action now at:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/ATFL/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6644&t=
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SAVE TROY DAVIS
U.S. Supreme Court stays Georgia execution
"The U.S. Supreme Court granted a last-minute reprieve to a Georgia man fewer than two hours before he was to be executed for the 1989 slaying of an off-duty police officer.
"Troy Anthony Davis learned that his execution had been stayed when he saw it on television, he told CNN via telephone in his first interview after the stay was announced."
September 23, 2008
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/09/23/davis.scheduled.execution/
Dear friend,
Please check out and sign this petition to stay the illegal 9-23-08 execution of innocent Brother Mr. Troy Davis.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/troydavis
Thanks again, we'll continue keep you posted.
Sincerely,
The Death Penalty Abolition Campaign
Amnesty International, USA
Read NYT Op-Ed columnist Bob Herbert's plea on behalf of Troy Davis:
What’s the Rush?
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
September 20, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/opinion/20herbert.html?hp
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New on the Taking Aim Program Archive:
"9/11: Blueprint for Truth: The Architecture of Destruction" part 2 is
available on the Taking Aim Program Archive at
http://www.takingaimradio.com/shows/audio.html
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) Citigroup Buys Banking Operations of Wachovia
By ERIC DASH and ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
September 30, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/business/30bank.html?ref=business
2) Industry Is Remade in a Wave of Mergers
By ROBIN SIDEL and DAMIAN PALETTA
Wall Street Journal
SEPTEMBER 30, 2008
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122273300820988289.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
3) Empire On ‘E’
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
September 24, 2008
—Prisonradio.org
4) Where Will the Money Come From?
Paul Krugman
Conscience of a Liberal
September 30, 2008, 9:04 am
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/where-will-the-money-come-from/
5) Credit Strains Worsen; U.S. Stocks Surge
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
October 1, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/business/01markets.html?hp
6) Medicare Stops Paying to Treat Medical Errors
By KEVIN SACK
October 1, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/us/01mistakes.html?ref=us
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1) Citigroup Buys Banking Operations of Wachovia
By ERIC DASH and ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
September 30, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/business/30bank.html?ref=business
Citigroup reached an agreement early Monday morning to acquire the banking operations of the Wachovia Corporation after making a daring bid that pulled the deeply troubled company from the brink of collapse.
Citigroup will pay $1 a share, or about $2.2 billion, according to people briefed on the deal.
Federal regulators worked around the clock this weekend to orchestrate the sale, finally reaching an agreement at 4 a.m. on Monday morning. In the end, the government agreed to provide Citigroup with a financial guarantee on Wachovia’s most risky assets. It is similar to the deal that the Federal Reserve established with JPMorgan Chase’s emergency takeover of Bear Stearns.
Citigroup will assume the first $42 billion on losses tied to Wachovia’s riskiest mortgages and will pay the Federal Insurance Deposit Corporation $12 billion in preferred stock and warrants. In exchange, the F.D.I.C. will absorb all losses above that amount.
Federal regulators said the move was necessary to stave off what could have been the second big bank failure in less than a week. On Thursday, the government seized Washington Mutual and sold the bulk of its operations to JPMorgan Chase.
“This morning’s decision was made under extraordinary circumstances with significant consultation among the regulators and Treasury,” said Sheila C. Bair, the chairwoman of the F.D.IC in a statement. “This action was necessary to maintain confidence in the banking industry given current financial market conditions.”
Wachovia customers should not notice any changes. “There will be no interruption in services and bank customers should expect business as usual,” Ms. Bair added.
The deal further concentrates Americans’ bank deposits in the hands of three banks: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup will control more than 30 percent of the industry’s deposits.
Together, they will have unrivaled power to set prices for their loans and services. The institutions would probably come under greater scrutiny from federal regulators, given their size and reach. And some small and midsize banks, already under pressure, might have little choice but to seek suitors in order to compete.
The deal highlights just how bad the banking industry’s problems have gotten as well as the progress that Citigroup after being one of the first to suffer huge losses. Citigroup’s chief executive, Vikram S. Pandit, has recently been making the case to employees and investors that Citigroup is a “pillar of strength” in turbulent times. If he is successful, this transaction could be an important milestone.
Under the deal, Citigroup will buy all of Wachovia’s assets and liabilities — a move that should protect Wachovia’s bondholders. It will also acquire Wachovia’s big retail operations as well as its corporate and private banking. It will also takeover Wachovia’s relatively small investment banking operations, which have catered to real estate and medium-size corporations. Citigroup is leaving behind the A.G. Edwards retail brokerage operations and Evergreen Investments, Wachovia’s money management arm. Senior management decision have not been worked out, according to people involved in the talks.
With Wachovia’s branch network, Citigroup will now have one of the biggest retail banking franchises in the country after years of false starts. That should give Citigroup a larger platform to sell home loans and credit cards, and would give it access to more than $400 billion in more stable customer deposits. The bank has been aggressively trying to reduce its dependence on outside investors for funds.
The risk is that Citigroup could be saddled with tens of billions of dollars in losses tied to Wachovia’s giant loan portfolio. Wachovia has been hurt badly by its 2006 purchase of Golden West Financial, a California lender specializing in so-called pay-option mortgages. And the bank also faced mounting losses on loans made to home builders and commercial real estate developers.
To pay for the deal, Citigroup expects to raise more than $10 billion by issuing new shares of its common stock. It will also slash its dividend to 16 cents a share, the second time in the last year.
Another risk is that Citigroup has had a poor track record of putting together mergers, although it now has a new management team. Citigroup shares were essentially flat in late morning trading on Monday.
Last week, Wachovia held discussions with Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Banco Santander of Spain, before the foreign bank’s interest cooled. But the talks intensified this weekend as lawmakers worked in Washington to hammer out the details of a $700 billion bailout plan. Wachovia executives, meanwhile, huddled in the Seagram Building offices of Sullivan & Cromwell on Park Avenue.
Robert K. Steel, a former top lieutenant of Henry M. Paulson Jr. at both Goldman Sachs and then the Treasury Department, who took over as Wachovia’s chief executive in July, arrived in New York to handle the negotiations in person, along with David M. Carroll, the bank’s chief deal maker. At 8:15 am. on Saturday, Citigroup and Wells Fargo took their first peek at Wachovia’s books.
Regulators pressed the parties to move quickly. Senior officials at the Federal Reserve in Washington, and its branches in New York, Richmond and San Francisco held weekend discussions with all the banks involved. Top officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Treasury were also in the loop.
Timothy F. Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, personally reached out to executives involved in the process to assess the situation and spur it along. Citigroup and Wells Fargo pressed regulators to seize Wachovia and let them buy its assets and deposits, as JPMorgan did with WaMu, or provide some sort of financial guarantee, as regulators did with JPMorgan’s acquisition of Bear Stearns, according to people briefed on and involved with the process.
Both Citigroup and Wells Fargo were deeply concerned about absorbing Wachovia’s giant loan portfolio, which is littered with bad mortgages, these people said. Bankers had little time to assess the risk.
Citigroup executives considered Wachovia a make-or-break deal for their consumer banking ambitions. With Wachovia, Citigroup would gain one of the pre-eminent retail bank operations after struggling to build one for years. It would also give Citigroup access to more stable customer deposits, allowing it to rely less heavily on outside investors for funds. If it failed to clinch a deal, Citigroup’s domestic retail operations would be far behind Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. Mr. Pandit, the Citigroup’s chief executive, was personally overseeing the talks
Now, the challenge for Mr. Pandit will be making the deal work. Citigroup said on Monday it expected the deal to add to earnings in the first year, excluding a $3.7 billion restructuring charge. It also expects to reap about $3 billion in annual cost savings, though it did not disclose possible layoffs. If Citigroup can pull it off, it would be a symbolic victory of sorts. For Citigroup, the deal is the largest acquisition since the merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group forged the company a decade ago.
Although Citigroup has racked up nearly $50 billion in losses since the crisis began last summer and has watched the value of its shares sharply decline, the bank was also among the first to raise large amounts of capital. Mr. Pandit may point to the Wachovia deal as a sign of progress and an indication that the worst for the bank is behind it.
The deal will also be seen as a stamp of approval from regulators. Only a few years ago, the Federal Reserve took the unusual step of banning Citigroup from making "significant acquisitions." Gaining their approval to do a big deal on such short notice will probably be viewed as a big vote of confidence in Mr. Pandit’s management team.
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2) Industry Is Remade in a Wave of Mergers
By ROBIN SIDEL and DAMIAN PALETTA
Wall Street Journal
SEPTEMBER 30, 2008
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122273300820988289.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
The notoriously fragmented American banking system is going through a
decade's worth of consolidation in a matter of weeks, with the U.S.
government often acting as matchmaker.
At the end of last year, the three lenders that are now the largest in U.S.
banking -- Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup
Inc. -- collectively held 21.4% of all U.S. deposits. Now, with this month's
government-backed sales of the banking assets of Washington Mutual Inc. to
J.P. Morgan and of Wachovia Corp. to Citigroup, the Big Three instantly have
a combined 31.3% of U.S. deposits.
For more than a decade, banking experts have predicted an industry that is
shaped like a "barbell" -- a few big banks at one end, thousands of tiny
ones at the other and little in the middle. But that trend played out
slowly, because many middle-tier banks were able to stay independent thanks
to a robust economy. Now, with the financial crisis spreading, that middle
tier of banks is starting to disappear.
"The consolidation is a natural part of credit cycles," said Sheila Bair,
chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. "This is what happens when
you get into credit turmoil."
The consequences of this warp-speed consolidation will likely reverberate
for years. For customers, it means less choice and the potential for higher
fees as the big banks get more pricing power, further pressuring smaller
rivals. For the economy and government officials, the very size of these
banks means they should be better insulated from big shocks because their
business lines are so diverse. But it also means these banks now may be seen
as too big to fail. That notion could lead banks to take big risks if they
think they'll be bailed out if they fall on hard times.
The deals of the last two weeks are a supercompressed version of the events
that happened over 10 years in Japan. More than a decade ago, Japanese banks
were damaged so badly from loan problems caused by reckless lending to
property developers and a plunging stock market that the government spent
nearly $440 billion in tax money to bolster them, and nationalized the
sickest ones to prevent a panic in the financial market. The government
prodded various banks to merge but the process took years. Now, these banks
are bigger and healthier. In a twist of fate, one of the creations of the
forced consolidation in Japan, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, clinched a
deal Monday to acquire 21% of Morgan Stanley & Co.
In the U.S., consolidation still has a long way to go and could be painful
if smaller banks fail to attract much-needed capital to stay independent.
"There are still more than 8,000 banks in this country and many of them have
emerging issues in commercial real estate and commercial lending," says
Charles Wendel, who runs Financial Institutions Consulting Inc., a
Ridgefield, Conn.-based firm that advises banks. He predicts that as many as
1,000 banks will cease to exist -- through acquisition or failure -- over
the next two years.
A slew of regional banks saw their stock prices get crushed Monday as
investors worried about their prospects. National City Corp. of Cleveland,
which earlier this year received a $7 billion capital infusion led by
private-equity firm Corsair Capital LLC, tumbled 63% to $1.36 in 4 p.m.
composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Sovereign Bancorp Inc., a
mid-Atlantic lender that has been hit hard by its expansion into new
markets, fell more than 72% to $2.33 a share. Fifth Third Bancorp, a
regional lender based in Cincinnati, fell $7.05, or 43.6%, to $9.11 on
Nasdaq.
The Best Hope
The best hope for many banks is for healthy institutions to snap up those
that are struggling. Wells Fargo & Co., which has historically eschewed
acquisitions, pored over the financial records of Wachovia and is now viewed
as being on the prowl. Other regional players that are considered to be
buyers are U.S. Bancorp of Minneapolis and PNC Financial Services Group of
Pittsburgh. Representatives of Wells Fargo, PNC and U.S. Bancorp couldn't
immediately be reached for comment.
"Any bank with a halfway decent board has to take the initiative. It's
almost too late for some of them," Mr. Wendel said.
The shift of more deposits into the hands of the banking behemoths is
already drawing ire from the nation's smaller players, which contend that
the government is helping their bigger rivals at the expense of smaller
institutions.
"If this latest crisis hasn't taught the policy makers anything, it should
have taught them that big isn't better, and that if you create institutions
that are too big to regulate and too big to manage, you are going to
threaten the American taxpayer directly," said Camden Fine, chief executive
officer of Independent Community Bankers of America, an industry trade
group.
Some banking industry officials have begun calling for the government to
temporarily raise deposit insurance limits, particularly at smaller
institutions, because of fears about more depositors withdrawing cash
quickly in what regulators are calling "silent runs."
At an emergency board meeting Monday at 6 a.m., the FDIC took the
unprecedented step of citing "systemic risk" to intervene and assist
Citigroup's acquisition of Wachovia Corp. The government entered into a
loss-sharing agreement with Citi that will put the government on the hook
for losses if the value of certain risky mortgages deteriorates
precipitously.
The FDIC doesn't expect the collapse of WaMu or the near-collapse of
Wachovia to cost the government money, but it establishes a growing
pre-emptive regulatory philosophy that seeks to act quickly and prevent the
escalation of the domino effect already occurring among financial
institutions.
"The FDIC has always had an effect on the private sector by what it does,"
former FDIC Chairman William Seidman said. "You can say it picks winners and
losers, that's true. It's inherent in its job."
The banking industry had undergone a wave of consolidation since the 1980s
for several reasons, dating back to the savings-and-loan crisis and then
picking up again after in-state banking laws were loosened last decade. In
1987, there were 17,345 federally insured banks and thrifts. In 1997, there
were 10,924. Last year, there were just 8,534. But the most profound
difference is that the consolidation appears to be happening only at the top
of the industry -- and only in dire scenarios.
Mr. Seidman said the FDIC's action with Wachovia will only embolden
investors or other banks that want government assistance in acquisitions.
House and Senate lawmakers are planning to redraw the regulatory landscape
of the banking industry next year, and one issue that's likely to come under
close scrutiny is the cap that prevents any bank from holding more than 10%
of the nation's deposits after certain types of acquisitions. With three big
banks now hovering around that cap and smaller banks needing saviors, it's
conceivable that the longstanding resistance to the cap could evaporate.
Fallout for Consumers
That could result in some fallout for consumers. With fewer players, those
banks will have more power to control prices that are paid for deposits.
WaMu, for example, had been wooing new customers for months with unusually
high rates on certificates of deposits. The thrift was still offering 5.00%
on a one-year deposit as of Monday, according to BankRate.com. By
comparison, J.P. Morgan, which typically doesn't chase deposits with
aggressive rates, was paying 2.25%.
"WaMu had to pay above-market interest rates to attract deposits recently,
but that strategy won't be necessary anymore," said a J.P. Morgan spokesman.
"Any time you see a large player in the field be acquired or go under, the
effect on the consumer tends to be negative," says William McCracken, chief
executive officer of Synergistics Research Corp., an Atlanta-based firm that
conducts market research on the financial-services industry.
Small banks that competed with WaMu are already girding for competition from
J.P. Morgan. Although J.P. Morgan is unlikely to match WaMu's CD rates, the
big New York bank is expected to woo new customers with a slew of offerings
that smaller institutions don't provide, such as wealth management.
Carol Kobuke Nelson, chief executive officer of Cascade Financial Corp.,
says she was deluged with questions from WaMu customers at a dinner party
last weekend. The community bank based in Everett, Wash., competed
head-to-head with WaMu and plans to emphasize its customer services and
community activities when J.P. Morgan bursts into town.
"They certainly offer a broad array of products that we don't offer, but
there's definitely a niche for community-banking services that we are trying
to take advantage of," she said. Among other things, Cascade is hoping to
attract former WaMu customers with its interest-bearing checking account.
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3) Empire On ‘E’
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
September 24, 2008
—Prisonradio.org
In a matter of months, a new man will take the oath of office for the presidency.
Whether he is the oldest in history, or the first Black one, of one thing we may be certain.
He will be hobbled by a sea of red ink, and therefore bereft of most of the resources to bring his campaign promises to reality.
For as the fires continue to rage throughout the financial markets, they will turn tax returns into smoke.
Don’t expect any of them to tell you this, but you can rest assured that all of them know it. And if the office of the Imperial presidency will be strapped for resources, what of average folks?
As an old saying (sorta) goes, “stuff rolls downhill.”
As businesses tighten up, credit tightens up, and spending tightens up.
This economy (as even the Mad Prince Bush has urged) relies on consumption, or shopping, to function. Anything that weakens this process has a whiplash effect throughout the economy.
Earlier this year, American financier George Soros announced, shortly after the failure of the economic talks at Davos, Switzerland, that the U.S. economy has reached a new stage marking an end of the era. “The current crisis is not only the bust that follows the housing boom,” Soros explained, adding, “It’s basically the end of a 60-year period of continuing credit expansion based on the dollar as the reserve currency.”
Soros made these observations in January of 2008.
Things have obviously gotten considerably worse since then. The economy is increasingly coming under state control, and social wealth is being aggregated to protect private capital.
What created this crisis was rampant crony capitalism, and unless that is addressed by deep structural transformation, these problems will only worsen.
That is virtually inevitable.
Just as the White House saddled the next administration with disasters in foreign policy, they have effectively stolen the public purse.
So, ultimately, it won’t matter who gets elected, because he’ll be too broke to do anything.
[Source: Landler, Mark, “U.S. Policies Evoke Scorn at Davos: Fed Caved In to the Markets (Or Maybe it Dawdled), Critics Say,” New York Times, Thurs., Jan. 24, 2008, p.C9]
—Prisonradio.org, September 24, 2008
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4) Where Will the Money Come From?
Paul Krugman
Conscience of a Liberal
September 30, 2008, 9:04 am
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/where-will-the-money-come-from/
In the end, the US government will rescue the financial system — not today or tomorrow, maybe not Thursday, but soon, and for the rest of our lives, or anyway until the next crisis.
But, people ask me, where will we get the money? Won’t we have to borrow it from the Chinese?
Actually, no.
Ten years days ago, I explained that the Paulson plan would actually move money in a circle. No outside financing would be needed.
What if we turn to a different and better plan, one that recapitalizes the financial system. Won’t that need outside funds? No.
First, a real-world example, the rescue of Wachovia. The FDIC got Citi to take over Wachovia’s assets and liabilities with a deal under which the feds limit the losses — they will cover any losses on mortgage paper over $42 billion — in return, basically, for receiving a share of ownership, in the form of warrants and preferred stock. No actual money changed hands, which illustrates a fundamental principle: recapitalization doesn’t mean laying out real money, at least initially — it just means having taxpayers take on some of the risk.
A large-scale recapitalization would probably take the form of a giant swap of debt for equity: the Treasury would issue several hundred billion dollars’ worth of bonds, and give them to financial firms in return for preferred stock. The bonds wouldn’t have to be sold to outside buyers — they would simply be credited to firms’ balance sheets.
The effect would be that if the financial firms did well, taxpayers would share in their good fortune via those stock holdings; if firms did badly, they could meet their obligations by selling some of those bonds, which would cut into the value of all their stock, including the stuff Uncle Sam owns. So as in the case of Wachovia, what’s really happening is that the taxpayers are taking on some of the risk.
So is all this magic? No, over time Treasury has to pay interest and principal on the bonds it issues; the value of the bonds comes from the fact that people believe the US government can do that, which ultimately comes from the government’s ability to raise taxes. If investors lose faith in that …
For now, however, none of the rescue schemes we’re talking about involve large-scale net borrowing from abroad.
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5) Credit Strains Worsen; U.S. Stocks Surge
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
October 1, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/business/01markets.html?hp
Stocks staged a broad recovery on Tuesday after Monday’s big sell-off. The Dow Jones industrials gained 485.21 points, halving the 777-point decline on Monday.
But the health of the economy and the global financial system was by no means assured.
Strains worsened overnight in the credit markets, the plumbing of the economy that many businesses rely on to finance routine expenses like utilities and payroll. Banks sharply increased their lending rates on short-term loans, sending Libor, a globally watched benchmark rate, to its highest level ever.
“The money markets have completely broken down, with no trading taking place at all,” said Christoph Rieger, a fixed-income strategist at Dresdner Kleinwort in Frankfurt. “There is no market any more. Central banks are the only providers of cash to the market; no one else is lending.”
The problems in the credit markets could threaten the broader financial system. But for the moment, investors were placated somewhat by the rise in stocks, with the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, a broad measure of major companies, up 5.2 percent.
It is not unusual for stocks to show signs of recovery in the hours after a significant rout. In the last several decades, the S.& P. has dropped by more than 6 percent on only a handful of occasions. (It fell by almost 9 percent on Monday.) On average, the index has rallied by 3.5 percent the next day, according to data from Citigroup.
Investors may be hoping that Congress will head back to the negotiating table and pass a revised bailout bill by the end of the week, a notion advanced by President Bush in a televised statement on Tuesday before markets opened in New York.
Several measures were taken to calm investors Tuesday. But injections of money into the markets by central banks failed to dampen a hoarding mentality among financial institutions.
Analysts and economists have pointed to the problems in the credit markets as posing a more serious threat to the health of the economy, at least in the short term, than the recent declines in stocks.
But in the public eye, the Dow Jones industrial average is the most visible gauge of the economy’s condition. Some analysts hope that a silver lining of Monday’s sell-off will be an increased urgency among lawmakers to pass a revised bill.
“While some policy makers don’t understand exotic funding markets, they definitely understand what nearly 1,000 points off the D.J.I.A. in one day’s time means,” Michael T. Darda, chief economist at the research firm MKM Partners in Greenwich, Conn., wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday morning.
European shares ended higher on Tuesday after a volatile session, with stocks in London and Paris up about 2 percent. Governments and central banks moved on Tuesday to calm investors with a string of interventions — verbal and financial.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said that the quick passage of a rescue package was “the precondition for creating new confidence on the markets — and that is of incredibly great significance.”
The European Central Bank lent banks 190 billion euros, or $273 billion, for a weeklong period after initially estimating that it needed to drain 40 billion euros from the system. It also lent banks $30 billion for one day at a marginal rate of 11 percent, almost six times the Fed’s 2 percent benchmark interest rate. The Bank of Japan pumped another $29 billion into credit markets, its third intervention of this scale since the collapse of Lehman Brothers earlier this month. In Tokyo, Asia’s largest market, the Nikkei 225 fell 4.1 percent to close at a three-year low of 11,259.86 points. The benchmark index in Hong Kong closed up by less than 1 percent, while Australia ended down almost 4.4 percent after falling more than 5 percent during the morning.
Keith Bradsher, Martin Fackler and Matthew Saltmarsh contributed reporting.
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6) Medicare Stops Paying to Treat Medical Errors
By KEVIN SACK
October 1, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/us/01mistakes.html?ref=us
ST. PAUL — If an auto mechanic accidentally breaks your windshield while trying to repair the engine, he would never get away with billing you for fixing his mistake. On Wednesday, Medicare will start applying that logic to American medicine on a broad scale when it stops paying hospitals for the added cost of treating patients who are injured in their care.
Medicare, which provides coverage for the elderly and disabled, has put 10 “reasonably preventable” conditions on its initial list, saying it will not pay when patients receive incompatible blood transfusions, develop infections after certain surgeries or must undergo a second operation to retrieve a sponge left behind from the first. Serious bed sores, injuries from falls and urinary tract infections caused by catheters are also on the list.
Officials believe that the regulations could apply to several hundred thousand hospital stays of the 12.5 million covered annually by Medicare. The new policy will also prevent hospitals from billing patients directly for costs generated by medical errors.
Because Medicare is the largest insurer in the country, its decision to refuse payment for preventable conditions has already influenced others — both public and private — to establish similar criteria.
Over the last year, four state Medicaid programs, including New York’s, have announced that they will not pay for as many as 28 “never events” (so called because they are never supposed to happen). So have some of the country’s largest commercial insurers, including WellPoint, Aetna, Cigna and Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in seven states.
A number of state hospital associations, including here in Minnesota, have brokered voluntary agreements that members will not bill for medical errors. In April, Maine became the first state to ban the practice statutorily.
The Congressionally mandated Medicare measure is not projected to yield large savings — $21 million a year, compared with $110 billion spent on inpatient care in 2007. But it carries great symbolism in the Bush administration’s efforts to revamp the country’s medical payment system, which has long been criticized as driving up costs through perverse incentives that reward the quantity of care more than the promotion of health.
The real money, many health economists believe, may come from reorienting the payment system to encourage prevention and chronic disease management and to discourage unnecessary procedures. The two major-party presidential candidates support such a realignment, a rare point of consensus in a polarized health care debate.
“This is a specific case of the larger pay-for-performance trend, the idea that you should pay more for quality than lack of quality, or in this case pay less for defects,” said Dr. Donald M. Berwick, president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. “This whole trend is like a juggernaut, and it is not going to stop.”
Pay-for-performance makes use of both the carrot and the stick. Medicare now grants bonuses to doctors and hospitals that report quality measures. It is experimenting with rewarding physicians who follow protocols for treating diabetes, coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, an arm of Congress, recently recommended reducing payments to hospitals with high readmission rates.
Three years ago, HealthPartners, a Minnesota-based health maintenance organization, was first in the country to refuse payment to hospitals for never events. Company officials said the policy has yet to save much money. But at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, which is owned by HealthPartners, the change has reinforced a new focus on reducing medical errors.
“Historically, there’s been some acceptance that these things happen,” said Brock D. Nelson, the hospital’s president. “We’ve come to now accept that they’re avoidable. And that’s a sea change.”
Some improvements have been technological, like an electronic prescribing system that has helped cut medication errors in half. Others are breathtaking in their obviousness, like diligent hand-washing.
Nurses have been trained to provide more information during shift changes about whether patients are prone to falls. High-risk medications like heparin are now marked with pink labels to ward against mix-ups.
Shortly before Cynthia A. Kehborn’s recent ankle fusion surgery, her orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Peter A. Cole, checked records and asked her repeatedly whether he would be operating on her left leg. He then took a sterile marker and signed his initials on her left ankle.
As they prepared for surgery, technicians tallied sponges and blades so they could later be sure that none were left behind. Before taking up his scalpel, Dr. Cole was reminded by the “Time-Out!” towel covering his surgical tray to call for a brief break.
“We have Cynthia here for a left ankle fuse,” he announced. “Does everybody agree?” After all in the room chimed their agreement, he made his incision.
In pre-op, Ms. Kehborn, 48, said it had never occurred to her that patients might be charged for a medical error.
“It should be the hospital’s and doctor’s responsibility to step up to the plate and own up to their mistakes,” she said. “I’d be livid if we had to pay for it.”
The patient safety movement picked up steam in this country in 1999, when the Institute of Medicine, a prestigious advisory group, estimated that 44,000 to 98,000 Americans died each year from preventable medical errors.
In response, at least 20 states have passed laws requiring hospitals to report mistakes or preventable infections publicly, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services now requires hospitals to report on 42 quality measures. Hospitals that do not fully report may be docked up to 2 percent of their reimbursement.
In 2002, the National Quality Forum, a standard-setting consortium for the health care industry, compiled a list of 27 largely preventable adverse events, a list that grew to 28 in 2006 with the addition of “artificial insemination with the wrong donor sperm or egg.” In 2003, Minnesota became the first state to require reporting of all errors on the list, and last year the state’s hospital association became the first to announce that its members would not bill for them.
The number of never events in Minnesota reported to the state has been low — 106 in 2004-5, 154 in 2005-6 and 125 in 2006-7. The most frequent errors have been bed sores, retained objects and wrong-site surgeries. Regions Hospital had six or seven reportable errors in each of those years, including one death, a suicide.
Because individual hospitals may report only a few serious errors a year, they have started collaborating to look for common threads and propose solutions. Some of the innovations were initially greeted with rolled eyes, but hospital officials say that has lessened. Nonetheless, studies by the University of Minnesota found that some of the safety procedures, like the pre-surgery time-outs, have largely become rote.
Clear trend lines are not expected for several years. Some states have found through audits that not all errors are being reported, but Minnesota officials believe that compliance is high.
“There’s been an understanding by hospitals that we’re not trying to get them, that we’re really focused on what we can learn from these events,” said Diane C. Rydrych, the state health department official in charge of reporting.
Nancy E. Foster, vice president for quality and patient safety at the American Hospital Association, said hospitals had generally accepted that many of the 28 adverse events should never happen, like giving a patient the wrong type of blood. But she said other areas could be gray, like an injury caused by a malfunctioning device.
“Anyone — I don’t care who they are — always finds it a little provocative to be held accountable for something that is not within their control, especially when you have dedicated yourself to doing the right thing for your patients,” Ms. Foster said. Such unforgiving standards, she said, can “set an expectation among patients that staff will be closer to perfect than they actually can achieve.”
Even America’s Health Insurance Plans, the leading industry trade group, has questioned whether some of the conditions on the Medicare list are always preventable, like pulmonary embolisms and extreme blood sugar fluctuations.
But Peter V. Lee, executive director of the San Francisco-based Pacific Business Group on Health, said occasional inequity is a price worth paying to send the message that careless medicine will not be tolerated.
“I don’t worry about that 1-in-100 case that can’t be avoided,” Mr. Lee said, “because the benefit of not paying for the 99 that shouldn’t happen means a far greater focus on avoiding harm. What we want is to encourage doctors and hospitals to get to zero.”
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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
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Army Unit to Deploy in October for Domestic Operations
Beginning in October, the Army plans to station an active unit inside the United States for the first time to serve as an on-call federal response in times of emergency. The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent thirty-five of the last sixty months in Iraq, but now the unit is training for domestic operations. The unit will soon be under the day-to-day control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The Army Times reports this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command. The paper says the Army unit may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control. The soldiers are learning to use so-called nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/22/headlines
Wisconsin: A Gloomy Assessment for Milwaukee Public Schools
By CATRIN EINHORN
National Briefing | Midwest
Members of the Milwaukee Public Schools board passed a resolution to explore dissolving the school system, but state education officials said the board did not have the authority to actually do so. The board’s 6-to-3 vote to research the possibility came after Superintendent William G. Andrekopoulos described the city’s school financing structure as “broken,” painting a bleak picture of steep property tax increases and deep budget cuts. But dissolving the public school system would require action in the Legislature, or else the City Council would have to change Milwaukee’s city classification, sparking other changes in governance, said Patrick Gasper of the Wisconsin Department of Education. While the full nine-member school board voted, it was a committee vote, and the proposal faces a final vote on Thursday.
September 20, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/us/20brfs-AGLOOMYASSES_BRF.html?ref=us
California: Chief Wants Officers Fired for Misconduct
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | West
Police Chief William J. Bratton of Los Angeles has recommended that four officers be fired for misconduct when force was used to clear a park in a 2007 immigration rally. He also recommended that 11 other officers face discipline ranging from reprimands to suspensions of up to 10 days without pay. The rally ended when the police formed a skirmish line and swept through the crowd in MacArthur Park. Some officers struck peaceful rallygoers and journalists with batons and bean-bag rounds. A personnel investigation led to 80 accusations against 29 officers. The chief sustained 31 accusations against 15 officers.
September 17, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/us/17brfs-CHIEFWANTSOF_BRF.html?ref=us
Health Costs: More Burden on the Worker
By PHYLLIS KORKKI
The Count
Don’t cheer when you hear that health care cost increases are expected to ease slightly for employers in 2009. This is not a sign that medical costs are beginning to stabilize. Rather, it means that businesses are moving aggressively to shift the burden to their employees.
Mercer, the consulting firm, expects employers’ health benefit costs to rise 5.7 percent in 2009, based on preliminary results of a survey. Increases have hovered at about 6 percent a year since 2005.
If you are on your company’s health plan, you might want to brace yourself for higher deductibles, as well as higher co-payments, higher premiums or both. You might also end up joining a consumer-directed plan, in which, for example, you would pay a lower premium in exchange for a higher upfront deductible.
Businesses also say they intend to improve their health and wellness programs so that their employees don’t stay sick as long and — in the best-case situation — don’t become sick in the first place.
September 14, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/business/14count.html?ref=business
Bishops Want Immigration Raids to End
By JULIA PRESTON
National Briefing | Immigration
Roman Catholic bishops urged the Bush administration to halt workplace immigration raids, saying the “humanitarian cost” was “unacceptable in a civilized society.” Speaking on behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, John C. Wester, the bishop of Salt Lake City said that the escalating number of worksite raids over the past year had spread fear in immigrant communities and had made it difficult for detained immigrants to obtain legal representation. Bishop Wester also called on the Department of Homeland Security to refrain from conducting raids in churches, health centers and schools.
September 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/us/12brfs-001.html?ref=us
Mississippi: Conviction Overturned
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of a reputed Ku Klux Klan member serving three life sentences for his role in the 1964 abduction and killing of two black teenagers in southwest Mississippi. The man, James Ford Seale, 73, was convicted in June 2007 on kidnapping and conspiracy charges related to the abductions of the teenagers, Charles E. Moore and Henry H. Dee. A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that the statute of limitations for kidnapping had expired in the decades between the crimes and the charges.
September 11, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/us/11brfs-CONVICTIONOV_BRF.html?ref=us
Utah: Mine Collapse Case Goes to Prosecutors
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Rockies
Federal mining officials have asked prosecutors to decide whether criminal charges are warranted in the deaths of nine people in last year’s collapse of the Crandall Canyon mine. The Mine Safety and Health Administration has been investigating two cave-ins at the mine in August 2007 that killed six miners and three rescuers. The safety agency has already fined the operator $1.34 million for violations that it says directly contributed to the deaths. Richard Stickler, an acting assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, said the mine’s operator and its engineering consultants demonstrated reckless disregard for safety. Mr. Stickler said the safety agency had referred the case to the Justice Department for possible criminal charges.
September 4, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/us/04brfs-MINECOLLAPSE_BRF.html?ref=us
National Briefing | Immigration
Rabbis Endorse Certification Plan
By JULIA PRESTON
The organization of Reform rabbis endorsed a movement led by Conservative Jews to create an additional certification for kosher food that would show that the producer met ethical standards for the treatment of workers. In a resolution, the Central Conference of American Rabbis promised to work cooperatively with the movement known as Hekhsher Tzedek, meaning “justice certification,” to develop the new seal of approval, which would be applied only to food certified as kosher according to traditional Jewish dietary laws. It would confirm that the producer met certain standards for wages and employee safety. The resolution was evidence of a new interest in kosher practice by Reform Jews, who do not generally follow strict dietary laws. The Reform rabbis said reports of “abusive and unethical treatment of workers” at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, were “particularly distressing.”
September 4, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/us/04brfs-RABBISENDORS_BRF.html?ref=us
Illinois: School Financing Protest
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Midwest
More than 1,000 Chicago public school students boycotted the first day of classes in a protest over school financing and instead rode buses more than 30 miles north to try to enroll in a wealthy suburban district. About 1,100 elementary students and 150 high school students from Chicago filled out enrollment applications in the New Trier district in Northfield, said the New Trier superintendent, Linda Yonke. Boycott organizers acknowledged the move was largely symbolic: Students would have to pay tuition to attend a school outside their home district. In Illinois, property taxes account for about 70 percent of school financing, meaning rural and inner-city schools generally end up with less to spend per student than suburban schools.
September 3, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/us/03brfs-SCHOOLFINANC_BRF.html?ref=education
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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INFORMATION
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Labor Beat: National Assembly to End the War in Iraq and Afghanistan:
Highlights from the June 28-29, 2008 meeting in Cleveland, OH. In this 26-minute video, Labor Beat presents a sampling of the speeches and floor discussions from this important conference. Attended by over 400 people, the Assembly's main objective was to urge united and massive mobilizations in the spring to “Bring the Troops Home Now,” as well as supporting actions that build towards that date. To read the final action proposal and to learn other details, visit www.natassembly.org. Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is affiliated with IBEW 1220. Views expressed are those of the producer, not necessarily of IBEW. For info: mail@laborbeat.org,www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit Google Video or YouTube and search "Labor Beat".
http://blip.tv/file/1149437/
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12 year old Ossetian girl tells the truth about Georgia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5idQm8YyJs4
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SAN FRANCISCO IS A SANCTUARY CITY! STOP THE MIGRA-ICE RAIDS!
Despite calling itself a "sanctuary city", S.F. politicians are permitting the harrassment of undocumented immigrants and allowing the MIGRA-ICE police to enter the jail facilities.
We will picket any store that cooperates with the MIGRA or reports undocumented brothers and sisters. We demand AMNESTY without conditions!
BRIGADES AGAINST THE RAIDS
project of BARRIO UNIDO
(415)431-9925
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Canada: American Deserter Must Leave
By IAN AUSTEN
August 14, 2008
World Briefing | Americas
Jeremy Hinzman, a deserter from the United States Army, was ordered Wednesday to leave Canada by Sept. 23. Mr. Hinzman, a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, left the Army for Canada in January 2004 and later became the first deserter to formally seek refuge there from the war in Iraq. He has been unable to obtain permanent immigrant status, and in November, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear an appeal of his case. Vanessa Barrasa, a spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency, said Mr. Hinzman, above, had been ordered to leave voluntarily. In July, another American deserter was removed from Canada by border officials after being arrested. Although the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has not backed the Iraq war, it has shown little sympathy for American deserters, a significant change from the Vietnam War era.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/world/americas/14briefs-canada.html?ref=world
Iraq War resister Robin Long jailed, facing three years in Army stockade
Free Robin Long now!
Support GI resistance!
Soldier Who Deserted to Canada Draws 15-Month Term
By DAN FROSCH
August 23, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/23/us/23resist.html?ref=us
What you can do now to support Robin
1. Donate to Robin's legal defense
Online: http://couragetoresist.org/robinlong
By mail: Make checks out to “Courage to Resist / IHC” and note “Robin Long” in the memo field. Mail to:
Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave #41
Oakland CA 94610
Courage to Resist is committed to covering Robin’s legal and related defense expenses. Thank you for helping make that possible.
Also: You are also welcome to contribute directly to Robin’s legal expenses via his civilian lawyer James Branum. Visit girightslawyer.com, select "Pay Online via PayPal" (lower left), and in the comments field note “Robin Long”. Note that this type of donation is not tax-deductible.
2. Send letters of support to Robin
Robin Long, CJC
2739 East Las Vegas
Colorado Springs CO 80906
Robin’s pre-trial confinement has been outsourced by Fort Carson military authorities to the local county jail.
Robin is allowed to receive hand-written or typed letters only. Do NOT include postage stamps, drawings, stickers, copied photos or print articles. Robin cannot receive packages of any type (with the book exception as described below).
3. Send Robin a money order for commissary items
Anything Robin gets (postage stamps, toothbrush, shirts, paper, snacks, supplements, etc.) must be ordered through the commissary. Each inmate has an account to which friends may make deposits. To do so, a money order in U.S. funds must be sent to the address above made out to "Robin Long, EPSO". The sender’s name must be written on the money order.
4. Send Robin a book
Robin is allowed to receive books which are ordered online and sent directly to him at the county jail from Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. These two companies know the procedure to follow for delivering books for inmates.
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Yet Another Insult: Mumia Abu-Jamal Denied Full-Court Hearing by 3rd Circuit
& Other News on Mumia
This mailing sent by the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PLEASE FORWARD AND DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
1. Mumia Abu-Jamal Denied Full-Court Hearing by 3rd Circuit
2. Upcoming Events for Mumia
3. New Book on the framing of Mumia
1. MUMIA DENIED AGAIN -- Adding to its already rigged, discriminatory record with yet another insult to the world's most famous political prisoner, the federal court for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia has refused to give Mumia Abu-Jamal an en banc, or full court, hearing. This follows the rejection last March by a 3-judge panel of the court, of what is likely Mumia's last federal appeal.
The denial of an en banc hearing by the 3rd Circuit, upholding it's denial of the appeal, is just the latest episode in an incredible year of shoving the overwhelming evidence of Mumia's innocence under a rock. Earlier in the year, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court also rejected Jamal's most recent state appeal. Taken together, state and federal courts in 2008 have rejected or refused to hear all the following points raised by Mumia's defense:
1. The state's key witness, Cynthia White, was pressured by police to lie on the stand in order to convict Mumia, according to her own admission to a confidant (other witnesses agreed she wasn't on the scene at all)
2. A hospital "confession" supposedly made by Mumia was manufactured by police. The false confession was another key part of the state's wholly-manufactured "case."
3. The 1995 appeals court judge, Albert Sabo--the same racist who presided at Mumia's original trial in 1982, where he said, "I'm gonna help 'em fry the n....r"--was prejudiced against him. This fact was affirmed even by Philadelphia's conservative newspapers at the time.
4. The prosecutor prejudiced the jury against inn ocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, by using a slimy tactic already rejected by the courts. But the prosecutor was upheld in Mumia's case!
5. The jury was racially skewed when the prosecution excluded most blacks from the jury, a practice banned by law, but, again, upheld against Mumia!
All of these defense claims were proven and true. But for the courts, these denials were just this year’s trampling on the evidence! Other evidence dismissed or ignored over the years include: hit-man Arnold Beverly said back in the 1990s that he, not Mumia, killed the slain police officer (Faulkner). Beverly passed a lie detector test and was willing to testify, but he got no hearing in US courts! Also, Veronica Jones, who saw two men run from the scene just after the shooting, was coerced by police to lie at the 1982 trial, helping to convict Mumia. But when she admitted this lie and told the truth on appeal in 1996, she was dismissed by prosecutor-in-robes Albert Sabo in 1996 as "not credible!" (She continues to support Mumia, and is writing a book on her experiences.) And William Singletary, the one witness who saw the whole thing and had no reason to lie, and who affirmed that someone else did the shooting, said that Mumia only arriv ed on the scene AFTER the officer was shot. His testimony has been rejected by the courts on flimsy grounds. And the list goes on.
FOR THE COURTS, INNOCENCE IS NO DEFENSE! And if you're a black revolutionary like Mumia the fix is in big-time. Illusions in Mumia getting a "new trial" out of this racist, rigged, kangaroo-court system have been dealt a harsh blow by the 3rd Circuit. We need to build a mass movement, and labor action, to free Mumia now!
2. UPCOMING EVENTS FOR MUMIA --
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA -- Speaking Tour by J Patrick O'Connor, the author of THE FRAMING OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, in the first week of October 2008, sponsored by the Mobilization To Free Mumia. Contributing to this tour, the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia will hold a public meeting with O'Connor on Friday October 3rd, place to be announced. San Francisco, South Bay and other East Bay venues to be announced. Contact the Mobilization at 510 268-9429, or the LAC at 510 763-2347, for more information.
3. NEW BOOK ON MUMIA
Efficiently and Methodically Framed--Mumia is innocent! That is the conclusion of THE FRAMING OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, by J Patrick O'Connor (Lawrence Hill Books), published earlier this year. The author is a former UPI reporter who took an interest in Mumia's case. He is now the editor of Crime Magazine (www.crimemagazine.com).
O'Connor offers a fresh perspective, and delivers a clear and convincing breakdown on perhaps the most notorious frame-up since Sacco and Vanzetti. THE FRAMING OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL is based on a thorough analysis of the 1982 trial and the 1995-97 appeals hearings, as well as previous writings on this case, and research on the MOVE organization (with which Mumia identifies), and the history of racist police brutality in Philadelphia.
While leaving some of the evidence of Mumia's innocence unconsidered or disregarded, this book nevertheless makes clear that there is a veritable mountain of evidence--most of it deliberately squashed by the courts--that shows that Mumia was blatantly and deliberately framed by corrupt cops and courts, who "fixed" this case against him from the beginning. This is a case not just of police corruption, or a racist lynching, though it is both. The courts are in this just as deep as the cops, and it reaches to the top of the equally corrupt political system.
"This book is the first to convincingly show how the Philadelphia Police Department and District Attorney's Office efficiently and methodically framed [Mumia Abu-Jamal]." (from the book jacket)
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal has a limited number of THE FRAMING ordered from the publisher at a discount. We sold our first order of this book, and are now able to offer it at a lower price. $12 covers shipping. Send payment to us at our address below:
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610 • 510.763.2347
www.laboractionmumia.org • LACFreeMumia@aol.com
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Sami Al-Arian Subjected to Worst Prison Conditions since Florida
Despite grant of bail, government continues to hold him
Dr. Al-Arian handcuffed
Hanover, VA - July 27, 2008 -
More than two weeks after being granted bond by a federal judge, Sami Al-Arian is still being held in prison. In fact, Dr. Al-Arian is now being subjected to the worst treatment by prison officials since his stay in Coleman Federal Penitentiary in Florida three years ago.
On July 12th, Judge Leonie Brinkema pronounced that Dr. Al-Arian was not a danger to the community nor a flight risk, and accordingly granted him bail before his scheduled August 13th trial. Nevertheless, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) invoked the jurisdiction it has held over Dr. Al-Arian since his official sentence ended last April to keep him from leaving prison. The ICE is ostensibly holding Dr. Al-Arian to complete deportation procedures but, given that Dr. Al-Arian's trial will take place in less than three weeks, it would seem somewhat unlikely that the ICE will follow through with such procedures in the near future.
Not content to merely keep Dr. Al-Arian from enjoying even a very limited stint of freedom, the government is using all available means to try to psychologically break him. Instead of keeping him in a prison close to the Washington DC area where his two oldest children live, the ICE has moved him to Pamunkey Regional Jail in Hanover, VA, more than one hundred miles from the capital. Regardless, even when Dr. Al-Arian was relatively close to his children, they were repeatedly denied visitation requests.
More critically, this distance makes it extremely difficult for Dr. Al-Arian to meet with his attorneys in the final weeks before his upcoming trial. This is the same tactic employed by the government in 2005 to try to prevent Dr. Al-Arian from being able to prepare a full defense.
Pamunkey Regional Jail has imposed a 23-hour lock-down on Dr. Al-Arian and has placed him in complete isolation, despite promises from the ICE that he would be kept with the general inmate population. Furthermore, the guards who transported him were abusive, shackling and handcuffing him behind his back for the 2.5-hour drive, callously disregarding the fact that his wrist had been badly injured only a few days ago. Although he was in great pain throughout the trip, guards refused to loosen the handcuffs.
At the very moment when Dr. Al-Arian should be enjoying a brief interlude of freedom after five grueling years of imprisonment, the government has once again brazenly manipulated the justice system to deliver this cruel slap in the face of not only Dr. Al-Arian, but of all people of conscience.
Make a Difference! Call Today!
Call Now!
Last April, your calls to the Hampton Roads Regional Jail pressured prison officials to stop their abuse of Dr. Al-Arian after only a few days.
Friends, we are asking you to make a difference again by calling:
Pamunkey Regional Jail: (804) 365-6400 (press 0 then ask to speak to the Superintendent's office). Ask why Dr. Al-Arian has been put under a 23-hour lockdown, despite the fact that a federal judge has clearly and unambiguously pronounced that he is not a danger to anyone and that, on the contrary, he should be allowed bail before his trial.
- If you do not reach the superintendent personally, leave a message on the answering machine. Call back every day until you do speak to the superintendent directly.
- Be polite but firm.
- After calling, click here to let us know you called.
Don't forget: your calls DO make a difference.
FORWARD TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS!
Write to Dr. Al-Arian
For those of you interested in sending personal letters of support to Dr. Al-Arian:
If you would like to write to Dr. Al-Arian, his new
address is:
Dr. Sami Al-Arian
Pamunkey Regional Jail
P.O. Box 485
Hanover, VA 23069
Email Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace: tampabayjustice@yahoo.com
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Video: The Carbon Connection -- The human impact of carbon trading
[This is an eye-opening and important video for all who are interested in our environment...bw]
Two communities affected by one new global market – the trade in carbon
dioxide. In Scotland, a town has been polluted by oil and chemical
companies since the 1940s. In Brazil, local people's water and land is
being swallowed up by destructive monoculture eucalyptus tree
plantations. Both communities now share a new threat.
As part of the deal to reduce greenhouse gases that cause dangerous
climate change, major polluters can now buy carbon credits that allow
them to pay someone else to reduce emissions instead of cutting their
own pollution. What this means for those living next to the oil industry
in Scotland is the continuation of pollution caused by their toxic
neighbours. Meanwhile in Brazil, the schemes that generate carbon
credits give an injection of cash for more planting of the damaging
eucalyptus plantations.
40 minutes | PAL/NTSC | English/Spanish/Portuguese subtitles.The Carbon Connection is a Fenceline Films presentation in partnership with the Transnational Institute Environmental Justice Project and Carbon Trade Watch, the Alert Against the Green Desert Movement, FASE-ES, and the Community Training and Development Unit.
Watch at http://links.org.au/node/575
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Torture
On the Waterboard
How does it feel to be “aggressively interrogated”? Christopher Hitchens found out for himself, submitting to a brutal waterboarding session in an effort to understand the human cost of America’s use of harsh tactics at Guantánamo and elsewhere. VF.com has the footage. Related: “Believe Me, It’s Torture,” from the August 2008 issue.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/video/2008/hitchens_video200808
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Alison Bodine defense Committee
Lift the Two-year Ban
http://alisonbodine.blogspot.com/
Watch the Sept 28 Video on Alison's Case!
http://alisonbodine.blogspot.com/2007/10/blog-post.html
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The Girl Who Silenced the World at the UN!
Born and raised in Vancouver, Severn Suzuki has been working on environmental and social justice issues since kindergarten. At age 9, she and some friends started the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They traveled to 1992's UN Earth Summit, where 12 year-old Severn gave this powerful speech that deeply affected (and silenced) some of the most prominent world leaders. The speech had such an impact that she has become a frequent invitee to many U.N. conferences.
[Note: the text of her speech is also available at this site...bw]
http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=433
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MINIATURE EARTH
http://www.miniature-earth.com/me_english.htm
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"Dear Canada: Let U.S. war resisters stay!"
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/499/89/
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
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Stop the Termination or the Cherokee Nation
http://groups.msn.com/BayAreaIndianCalendar/activismissues.msnw?action=get_message&mview=1&ID_Message=5580
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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
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Port of Olympia Anti-Militarization Action Nov. 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOkn2Fg7R8w
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"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
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A little gem:
Michael Moore Faces Off With Stephen Colbert [VIDEO]
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/57492/
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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
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Dr. Julia Hare at the SOBA 2007
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/proudtobeblack2/
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"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
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Wealth Inequality Charts
http://www.faireconomy.org/research/wealth_charts.html
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MALCOLM X: Oxford University Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmzaaf-9aHQ
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"There comes a times when silence is betrayal."
--Martin Luther King
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YouTube clip of Che before the UN in 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtATT8GXkWg&mode=related&search
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The Wealthiest Americans Ever
NYT Interactive chart
JULY 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html
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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
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[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]
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Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY
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My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic
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Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE
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Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o
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Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw
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'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
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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ
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"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]
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"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]
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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html
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[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]
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek Launches New Sand
Creek Massacre Website"
May 21, 2008 -- CENTENNIAL, CO -- Award-winning filmmaker, Donald L.
Vasicek, has launched a new Sand Creek Massacre website. Titled,
"The Sand Creek Massacre", the site contains in depth witness
accounts of the massacre, the award-winning Sand Creek Massacre
trailer for viewing, the award-winning Sand Creek Massacre
documentary short for viewing, the story of the Sand Creek Massacre,
and a Shop to purchase Sand Creek Massacre DVD's and lesson
plans including the award-winning documentary film/educational DVD.
Vasicek, a board member of The American Indian Genocide Museum
(www.aigenom.com)in Houston, Texas, said, "The website was launched
to inform, to educate, and to provide educators, historians, students
and all others the accessibility to the Sand Creek Massacre story."
The link/URL to the website is sandcreekmassacre.net.
###
Contact:
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
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