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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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Oakland's Judge Jacobson ruled at 4:00PM Friday, October 16 to move the trial of Johannes Mehserle, killer of unarmed Oscar Grant, OUT OF OAKLAND. The location of the trial venue has not been announced.
In the case of an innocent verdict, folks are encouraged to head to Oakland City Hall ASAP to express our outrage in a massive and peaceful way! Our power is in our numbers! Oscar Grant's family and friends need our support!
For more information:
Contact BAMN at 510-502-9072
letters@bamn.com
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Living Graveyard
Tuesday, October 20, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Oakland Federal Building
1301 Clay Street
two blocks from 12th Street BART
Covered with sheets to represent the dead of the war of occupation on Iraq, people lie down on the city sidewalk in front of the Federal Building, This is legal, non-violent witness. People stop, look and think.
Participants lie at least three feet apart and do not block entry to the building.The names of some of the Californians who have died in Iraq and the names of some of the Iraqi dead will be read. People will hand out flyers, as we do each week at the Tuesday noon vigil.
Please bring a white sheet to cover yourself with. A pad to lie on is recommended.
Contact 510-527-8370.
sponsors include: Ecumenical Peace Institute,
Berkeley Women in Black, Women for Peace,
East Bay Coalition to Support Self-Rule for Iraqis,
Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice,
Mustardseed Affinity Group.
Wheelchair accessible.
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OCTOBER 22 DEMONSTRATION IN OAKLAND, CA:
NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST TO STOP POLICE BRUTALITY,
REPRESSION AND THE CRIMINALIZATION OF A GENERATION
Thursday, October 22nd, 12 noon
14th and Broadway, Oakland City Hall
RALLY AND MARCH
Subject: Another Outrage! And ONE MORE reason for a Powerful October 22nd Protest
People are outraged, and they should be!
The rally and march on October 22nd 12 noon 14th and Broadway, Oakland City Hall
must be a powerful political expression of our anger and determination to stop a system which sets the police on the people, and then defends them from punishment.
First the police murdered Oscar Grant in Cold Blood! Now, the the judge has agreed with the murderer's attorney, that killer-cop Johannes Mehserle cannot get a fair trial in Oakland. A screaming irony, considering the "fair trial" that Oscar received at the hands of judge-jury-executioner Mehserle. Justice for Oscar Grant!
The system looks like they're fixing to let Killer cop Johannes Mehserle walk free. We've seen this before. The cop/killers of Amadou Diallo were acquitted when the trial was moved from NY City (where Amadou was shot 19 times) to conservative and cop-friendly upstate New York. And we remember the innocent verdict that was given to the cops who mercilessly beat Rodney King, after the venue was changed from L.A. to Ronald Regan-land and cop city, Simi Valley. That one was also on video!
The Judge and Mehserle's attorney, Michael Rains agree. Too many people have heard about the case. Too many people have protested. And, incredibly, Rains argued that so many Black people in Oakland have been brutalized by the police, that they would be incapable of rendering a "fair" judgment!
No, the problem is not that people know too much about police brutality. Except for those millions whose daily lives are under the heel of police 24/7, most people from other sections of society know too little -- choose to ignore or are kept ignorant -- of the exploding national epidemic of Police Brutality and murder, growing Repression, and the Criminalization of a whole Generation of Youth. And hardly anyone knows the extent of this brutality, with thousands having been killed at the hands of Law Enforcement.
This has to change, and it can. By building a powerful rally and march on October 22nd, encouraging people from many sections of society to step out that day, crossing the divides that separate us, standing with the people who are the targets of police violence -- we can send a loud message that says:
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, NO MORE STOLEN LIVES!
Spread the word! Forward this email. Twitter and tweet. Endorse the day and encourage others to do the same (teachers, lawyers, ministers and communities of faith, schools). Drop whatever you're doing that day. Walk out of work and school -- it's that important! AND, don't forget, WEAR BLACK!
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Protest Ehud Olmert, former Prime Minister of Israel on Thursday, October 22 @ 6pm. We want Olmert arrested and tried for his role in the brutal attack on Gaza in December/January, as well as the attack on Lebanon in 2006. Olmert will be appearing as a speaker for the World Affairs Council, at meeting held at the St. Francis Hotel, 335 Powell Street, San Francisco, California, 94102 USA. The protest will be outside this building in Union Square.
As Olmert speaks in the St Francis Hotel, we will be gathered outside on Union Square in San Francisco. We want Israel and its leaders held accountable for their crimes against the people of Palestine and Lebanon.
We support the findings of the Goldstone Report, that detail the crimes committed by Israel during its war against the whole people of Gaza of last December/January, in "Operation Cast Lead". President Obama and most politicians have simply refused to take this report seriously, some by vocally rejecting it, and many more by ignoring it completely.
It is therefore up to us, civil society, to again do what politicians are unwilling to do. Call for universal application of human rights and international law. This will be the message of our protest. We demand that Olmert, who initiated "Operation Cast Lead" and is directly responsible for the crimes that took place and therefore must be held accountable. Olmert is also responsible for the insane attack against Lebanon in the Summer of 2006. Olmert shares criminal responsibility for the siege on Gaza that leaves children hungry and 1.5 million people in desperate circumstances.
Please plan on being there. Please spread the word. We need to stand together to create a new reality. We will not accept that Israel may act with impunity and total disregard for human life. This protest is our opportunity to stand up and be counted.
Spread the word to your friends and all organizations that support the rule of law, human rights, and oppose militarism and occupation. Organizations are urged to send in their endorsements.
More info:
http://stopaipac.org/olmertprotest.htm
Jim Harris
people@stopaipac.org
www.StopAIPAC.org
Stop AIPAC
PO Box 11311
Berkeley, CA 94712
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October 22: Take Action to End Isolation and Free Ahmad Sa'adat and Palestinian Prisoners!
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org
Imprisoned Palestinian leader Ahmad Sa'adat is going to court on Thursday, October 22, 2009 to challenge isolation of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons. Join the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat and take action today to uphold Palestinian prisoners' rights and support Palestinian prisoners' struggle for freedom!
Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been held in isolation in Ramon prison in the Naqab desert for six months, when he was transferred from Hadarim prison in Asqelan after 14 days of isolation. Sa'adat has been targeted for isolation and abusive prison conditions alongside other Palestinian national leaders and popular prison leaders, and placed in special isolation units. Within these isolation units, Sa'adat has been placed further inside a separate isolation unit where he is confined without access even to the other prisoners in isolation, and deprived of basic human rights. His personal books have been confiscated and he is allowed access to newspapers only once or twice weekly.
He has been denied family visits - his wife, Abla, has been denied visits for three months - as well as legal visits, and barred from purchases at the prison canteen, including cigarette purchases. In the prison yard, Sa'adat has been held handcuffed and in ankle shackles and allowed only one-hour of exercise/recreation. All of this has been 'justified' by the occupation authorities as 'punishment' for giving two packs of cigarettes to another prisoner. The Prison Administration is attempting to criminalize the human and social relationship between fellow Palestinian prisoners, and between the prisoners and their families outside.
Sa'adat has led in the struggle against isolation, engaging in a nine-day hunger strike in July 2009 that was immediately followed by his transfer to Ramon prison. He is challenging isolation in court on October 22, 2009 and needs your support to challenge isolation of Palestinian political prisoners!
TAKE ACTION TO SUPPORT AHMAD SA'ADAT AND ALL PALESTINIAN PRISONERS!
Events and activities are expected to be held in Palestine and around the world in support of Sa'adat from October 16-22, calling for freedom and justice for Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners. Join in these events in your town, city, or country:
1. Distribute the Free Ahmad Sa'adat flyer:
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/saadat-flyer.pdf
in your town, city, event or location! Bring the flyers to events and activities, or hold a flyer distribution at a public place.
2. Call the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location:
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Diplomatic+missions/Web+Sites+of+Israeli+Missions+Abroad.htm
and demand the immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian political prisoners.
3. Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that the Israelis ensure that Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners are freed from punitive isolation. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at jerusalem.jer@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situation of Ahmad Sa'adat.
4.Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at info@freeahmadsaadat.org with announcements, reports and information about your local events, activities and flyer distributions.
Ahmad Sa'adat has been imprisoned since 2002 in the prisons of the Palestinian Authority, held under U.S. and British guard, until his abduction by the Israeli occupation forces on March 14, 2006 by an occupation military raid on Jericho prison. On December 25, 2008, he was sentenced to thirty years inside the occupation prisons. He is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and one of the foremost Palestinian national leaders held inside the occupier's jails.
Ahmad Sa'adat and nearly 10,000 Palestinian prisoners are daily on the front lines, confronting Israeli oppression and crimes. Today, it is urgent that we stand with Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners against these abuses, and for freedom for all Palestinian prisoners and for all of Palestine!
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org
info@freeahmadsaadat.org
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INVITATION
October 24 Mobilizing Conference to Save Public Education
We have the power to stop the catastrophic budget cuts, fee hikes, and layoffs -- but to save public education in California requires coordinating our actions on a statewide level.
We invite all UC, CSU, CC, and K-12 students, workers, teachers, and their organizations across the state to participate in and collectively build the October 24 Mobilizing Conference to Save Public Education. The all-day conference will take place at UC Berkeley (contact us for more logistics).
The purpose of this conference is both simple and extremely urgent: to democratically decide on a statewide action plan capable of winning this struggle, which will define the future of public education in this state, particularly for the working class and communities of color.
Why UC Berkeley? On September 24, over 5,000 people massively protested and effectively paralyzed the UCB campus, as part of the UC-wide walkout. A mass General Assembly of over 400 individuals and dozens of organizations met that night and collectively decided to issue this call.
We ask all organizations and individuals in the state who want to save public education to endorse this open conference and help us collectively build it.
Save public education!
No budget cuts, fee hikes, or layoffs!
For statewide student, worker, and faculty solidarity!
Please contact oct24conference@gmail.com to endorse this conference and to receive more details.
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Marjorie Cohn, Rebecca Solnit & Aimee Allison
Oct 25, Oakalnd - Benefit to support GI resistance
Book release benefit to support Courage to Resist and GI resistance!
Sunday, October 25 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
First Congregational Church
2501 Harrison St, Oakland, California
(across from the new Whole Foods near Lake Merritt)
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=750
Featuring:
Marjorie Cohn, President of the National Lawyers Guild
Professor of Law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego
Rebecca Solnit, award-winning author
A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster
Aimee Allison, KPFA Morning Show host
Marjorie Cohn is president of the National Lawyers Guild and a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, where she teaches criminal law and procedure, evidence, and international human rights law. She is author of "Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law" that "makes the case for prosecuting Bush officials with exquisite legal detail in straightforward, everyman language" (William Fisher review). Along with Kathleen Gilberd, Prof. Cohn has just published "Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent" which "takes the side of US service members who didn't check their conscience-and their sense of honor-at the door when they signed up" (Truthout review).
Rebecca Solnit is an award winning author/writer/essayist. Her new on disaster and civil society "A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster" is now available. Ms. Solnit has won an NEA Fellowship for Literature, the 2004 Wired Rave Award for writing, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Aimee Allison is an is an author, public affairs TV host, and counter-recruitment leader. Since 2007, she has been a co-host of The Morning Show on Pacifica station KPFA. Aimee, an Army medic at the time, was discharged as a Conscientious Objector during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
This event is a benefit for Courage to Resist in support of military war resisters. Endorsed and supported by the National Lawyers Guild SF Bay Area Military Law Task Force, Veterans for Peace SF Bay Area Chapter, Iraq Veterans Against the War - SF Bay Area, BAY-Peace, Asian Americans for Peace and Justice, American Friends Service Committee - SF, CodePink, War Resisters League-West, United for Peace and Justice - SF Bay Area, and National Lawyers Guild SF Bay Area Chapter.
Free event, $5 donation suggested. $20 donation to include the new book "Rules of Disengagement". Wheelchair accessible. Book signing will be held. For more information, contact 510-488-3559.
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There will be a follow-up October 17 Coalition meeting:
Sunday, November 1, 2:00 P.M.
Unitarian Church (Fireside Room)
1187 Franklin at Geary, SF (wheelchair accessible).
www.oct17awc.wordpress.com
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Black is Back Coalition Rally and March: Stop
U.S. Occupation and War inside U.S. and Abroad!
Saturday, November 7 beginning at 10 am, Malcolm X Park, Washington DC
Washington, D.C. - A newly-formed Black coalition has announced a Rally and March on the White House to take place November 7, 2009 beginning in Washington, D.C.'s historic Malcolm X Park. The Rally and March are to protest the expanding U.S. wars and other policy initiatives that unfairly target African and other oppressed people around the world. Known as the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, the coalition formed on September 12, 2009 during a meeting in Washington, D.C. of more than fifteen activists from various Black organizations, institutions and communities.
http://blackisbackcoalition.org/
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U.S. OUT OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN NOW!
FREE PALESTINE!
San Francisco March and Rally
on Saturday, March 20, 2010
11am, Civic Center Plaza
National March on Washington
on Saturday, March 20, 2010
Fri., March 19 Day of Action & Outreach in D.C.
People from all over the country are organizing to converge on Washington, D.C., to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Iraq.
On Saturday, March 20, 2010, there will be a massive National March & Rally in D.C. A day of action and outreach in Washington, D.C., will take place on Friday, March 19, preceding the Saturday march.
There will be coinciding mass marches on March 20 in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The national actions are initiated by a large number of organizations and prominent individuals. (see below)
Click here to become an endorser:
http://answer.pephost.org/site/Survey?SURVEY_ID=5940&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&autologin=true&link=endorse-body-1
Click here to make a donation:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=2302&autologin=true&donate=body-1&JServSessionIdr002=2yzk5fh8x2.app13b
We will march together to say "No Colonial-type Wars and Occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine!" We will march together to say "No War Against Iran!" We will march together to say "No War for Empire Anywhere!"
Instead of war, we will demand funds so that every person can have a job, free and universal health care, decent schools, and affordable housing.
March 20 is the seventh anniversary of the criminal war of aggression launched by Bush and Cheney against Iraq. One million or more Iraqis have died. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops have lost their lives or been maimed, and continue to suffer a whole host of enduring problems from this terrible war.
This is the time for united action. The slogans on banners may differ, but all those who carry them should be marching shoulder to shoulder.
Killing and dying to avoid the perception of defeat
Bush is gone, but the war and occupation in Iraq still go on. The Pentagon is demanding a widening of the war in Afghanistan. They project an endless war with shifting battlefields. And a "single-payer" war budget that only grows larger and larger each year. We must act.
Both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were predicated on the imperial fantasy that the U.S. could create stable, proxy colonial-type governments in both countries. They were to serve as an extension of "American" power in these strategic and resource-rich regions.
That fantasy has been destroyed. Now U.S. troops are being sent to kill or be killed so that the politicians in uniform ("the generals and admirals") and those in three-piece suits ("our elected officials") can avoid taking responsibility for a military setback in wars that should have never been started. Their military ambitions are now reduced to avoiding the appearance of defeat.
That is exactly what happened in Vietnam! Avoiding defeat, or the perception of defeat, was the goal Nixon and Kissinger set for themselves when they took office in 1969. For this noble cause, another 30,000 young GIs perished before the inevitable troop pullout from Vietnam in 1973. The number of Vietnamese killed between 1969 and 1973 was greater by many hundreds of thousands.
All of us can make the difference - progress and change comes from the streets and from the grassroots.
The people went to the polls in 2008, and the enthusiasm and desire for change after eight years of the Bush regime was the dominant cause that led to election of a big Democratic Party majority in both Houses of Congress and the election of Barack Obama to the White House.
But it should now be obvious to all that waiting for politicians to bring real change - on any front - is simply a prescription for passivity by progressives and an invitation to the array of corporate interests from military contractors to the banks, to big oil, to the health insurance giants that dominate the political life of the country. These corporate interests work around the clock to frustrate efforts for real change, and they are the guiding hand behind the recent street mobilizations of the ultra-right.
It is up to us to act. If people had waited for politicians to do the right thing, there would have never been a Civil Rights Act, or unions, women's rights, an end to the Vietnam war or any of the profound social achievements and basic rights that people cherish.
It is time to be back in the streets. Organizing centers are being set up in cities and towns throughout the country.
We must raise $50,000 immediately just to get started. Please make your contribution today. We need to reserve buses, which are expensive ($1,800 from NYC, $5,000 from Chicago, etc.). We have to print 100,000 leaflets, posters and stickers. There will be other substantial expenses as March 20 draws closer.
Please become an endorser and active supporter of the March 20 National March on Washington.
Please make an urgently needed tax-deductible donation today. We can't do this without your active support.
The initiators of the March 20 National March on Washington (preceded by the March 19 Day of Action and Outreach in D.C.) include: the ANSWER Coalition; Muslim American Society Freedom; National Council of Arab Americans; Cynthia McKinney; Malik Rahim, co-founder of Common Ground Collective; Ramsey Clark; Cindy Sheehan; Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK; Deborah Sweet, Director, World Can't Wait; Mike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace; Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild; Ron Kovic, author of "Born on the 4th of July"; Juan Jose Gutierrez, Director, Latino Movement USA; Col. Ann Wright (ret.); March Forward!; Partnership for Civil Justice; Palestinian American Women Association; Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines; Alliance for Global Justice; Claudia de la Cruz, Pastor, Iglesia San Romero de Las Americas-UCC; Phil Portluck, Social Justice Ministry, Covenant Baptist Church, D.C.; Blase & Theresa Bonpane, Office of the Americas; Coalition for Peace and Democracy in Honduras; Comite Pro-Democracia en Mexico; Frente Unido de los Pueblos Americanos; Comites de Base FMLN, Los Angeles; Free Palestine Alliance; GABRIELA Network; Justice for Filipino American Veterans; KmB Pro-People Youth; Students Fight Back; Jim Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild - LA Chapter; LEF Foundation; National Coalition to Free the Angola 3; Community Futures Collective; Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival; Companeros del Barrio; Barrio Unido for Full and Unconditional Amnesty, Bay Area United Against War.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-265-1948
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 213-251-1025
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
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B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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Cleve Jones Speaks At Gay Rights Rally In Washington, DC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvC3hVXZpc4
Free the SF8: Drop the Charges!
by Bill Carpenter ( wcarpent [at] ccsf.edu )
Monday Oct 12th, 2009 11:20 AM
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/10/12/18625220.php
Sweet Crude, is playing for FREE on Sunday October 18th in San Francisco as part of the United Nations Film Festival. The award winning documentary captures the complex reality of how the oil industry and the Nigerian government have left the Delta in such desperation that some have turned to militancy while others struggle to survive. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with the Director and experts and activists focused on the issues in the Niger Delta.
Sony Piece of crap (Hilarious!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I-JByPDJm0
Sick For Profit
http://sickforprofit.com/videos/
Fault Lines: Despair & Revival in Detroit - 14 May 09 - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ7VL907Qb0&feature=related
Michael Moore on Good Morning America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY1pcoBWp3Q
Michael Moore on Countdown With Keith Olbermann
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0URCqniVTOY
VIDEO INTERVIEW: Dan Berger on Political Prisoners in the United States
By Angola 3 News
Angola 3 News
37 years ago in Louisiana, 3 young black men were silenced for trying to expose continued segregation, systematic corruption, and horrific abuse in the biggest prison in the US, an 18,000-acre former slave plantation called Angola. In 1972 and 1973 prison officials charged Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King with murders they did not commit and threw them into 6x9 ft. cells in solitary confinement, for over 36 years. Robert was freed in 2001, but Herman and Albert remain behind bars.
http://angola3news.blogspot.com/2009/09/video-dan-berger-on-political-prisoners.html
Taking Aim Radio Program with
Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
The Chimera of Capitalist Recovery, Parts 1 and 2
http://www.takingaimradio.com/shows/audio.html
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JROTC MUST GO!
The San Francisco Board of Education has re-installed the Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps in San Francisco schools -- including allowing it to count for Physical Education credits.
This is a complete reversal of the 2006 decision to end JROTC altogether in San Francisco public schools. Our children need a good physical education program, not a death education program!
With the economy in crisis; jobs and higher education for youth more unattainable; the lure, lies and false promises of military recruiters is driving more and more of our children into the military trap.
This is an economic draft and the San Francisco Board of Education is helping to snare our children to provide cannon fodder for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and for over 700 U.S. military bases around the world!
We can't depend upon "friendly politicians" who, while they are campaigning for office claim they are against the wars but when they get elected vote in favor of military recruitment--the economic draft--in our schools. We can't depend upon them. That has been proven beyond doubt!
It is up to all of us to come together to stop this NOW!
GET JROTC AND ALL MILITARY RECRUITERS OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS NOW!
Write, call, pester and ORGANIZE against the re-institution of JROTC in our San Francisco public schools NOW!
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein
Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
San Francisco Board of Education
555 Franklin Street, 1st Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
415/241-6427, (415) 241-6493
cascoe@sfusd.edu
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HELP VFP PUT THIS BOOK IN YOUR HIGH SCHOOL OR PUBLIC LIBRARY
For a donation of only $18.95, we can put a copy of the book "10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military" into a public or high school library of your choice. [Reason number 1: You may be killed]
A letter and bookplate will let readers know that your donation helped make this possible.
Putting a book in either a public or school library ensures that students, parents, and members of the community will have this valuable information when they need it.
Don't have a library you would like us to put it in? We'll find one for you!
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/826/t/9311/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=4906
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Stop the Extradition of Sean Garland
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48273279889
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Take Action: Stop Rite Aid's abuses: Pass the Employee Free Choice Act!
For years Rite Aid workers have faced unfair firings, campaigns of misinformation, and intimidation for trying to form a union. But Rite Aid would never have been able to get away with any of this if Congress had passed the Employee Free Choice Act.
You can help us fight mounting anti-union opposition to the bill that would have protected Rite Aid's workers. Tell Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act today!
http://action.americanrightsatwork.org/campaign/riteaidefca2/8gg63dd407ejd5wi?
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This is a must-see video about the life of Oscar Grant, a young man who loved his family and was loved by his family. It's important to watch to understand the tremendous loss felt by his whole family as a result of his cold-blooded murder by BART police officers--Johannes Mehserle being the shooter while the others held Oscar down and handcuffed him to aid Mehserle in the murder of Oscar Grant January 1, 2009.
The family wants to share this video here with you who support justice for Oscar Grant.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/07/21/18611878.php
WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!
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Urgent: Ahmad Sa'adat transferred to isolation in Ramon prison!
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/
Imprisoned Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was transferred on August 11, 2009 to Ramon prison in the Naqab desert from Asqelan prison, where he had been held for a number of months. He remains in isolation; prior to his transfer from Asqelan, he had been held since August 1 in a tiny isolation cell of 140 cm x 240 cm after being penalized for communicating with another prisoner in the isolation unit.
Attorney Buthaina Duqmaq, president of the Mandela Association for prisoners' and detainees' rights, reported that this transfer is yet another continuation of the policy of repression and isolation directed at Sa'adat by the Israeli prison administration, aimed at undermining his steadfastness and weakening his health and his leadership in the prisoners' movement. Sa'adat has been moved repeatedly from prison to prison and subject to fines, harsh conditions, isolation and solitary confinement, and medical neglect. Further reports have indicated that he is being denied attorney visits upon his transfer to Ramon.
Ahmad Sa'adat undertook a nine-day hunger strike in June in order to protest the increasing use of isolation against Palestinian prisoners and the denial of prisoners' rights, won through long and hard struggle. The isolation unit at Ramon prison is reported to be one of the worst isolation units in terms of conditions and repeated violations of prisoners' rights in the Israeli prison system.
Sa'adat is serving a 30 year sentence in Israeli military prisons. He was sentenced on December 25, 2008 after a long and illegitimate military trial on political charges, which he boycotted. He was kidnapped by force in a military siege on the Palestinian Authority prison in Jericho, where he had been held since 2002 under U.S., British and PA guard.
Sa'adat is suffering from back injuries that require medical assistance and treatment. Instead of receiving the medical care he needs, the Israeli prison officials are refusing him access to specialists and engaging in medical neglect and maltreatment.
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat demands an end to this isolation and calls upon all to protest at local Israeli embassies and consulates (the list is available at: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/ About+the+Ministry/Diplomatic+mission/Web+Sites+of+Israeli+ Missions+Abroad.htm) and to write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that the Israelis ensure that Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners receive needed medical care and that this punitive isolation be ended. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at jerusalem..jer@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situation of Ahmad Sa'adat!
Ahmad Sa'adat has been repeatedly moved in an attempt to punish him for his steadfastness and leadership and to undermine his leadership in the prisoners' movement. Of course, these tactics have done nothing of the sort. The Palestinian prisoners are daily on the front lines, confronting Israeli oppression and crimes. Today, it is urgent that we stand with Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners against these abuses, and for freedom for all Palestinian prisoners and for all of Palestine!
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org
info@freeahmadsaadat.org
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Troy Anthony Davis is an African American man who has spent the last 18 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. There is no physical evidence tying him to the crime and seven out of nine witnesses have recanted. New evidence and new testimony have been presented to the Georgia courts, but the justice system refuses to consider this evidence, which would prove Troy Davis' innocence once and for all.
Sign the petition and join the NAACP, Amnesty International USA, and other partners in demanding justice for Troy Davis!
http://www.iamtroy.com/
For Now, High Court Punts on Troy Davis, on Death Row for 18 Years
By Ashby Jones
Wall Street Journal Law Blog
June 30, 2009
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/06/30/for-now-high-court-punts-on-troy-davis-on-death-row-for-18-years/
Take action now:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&aid=12361&ICID=A0906A01&tr=y&auid=5030305
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Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
New videos from April 24 Oakland Mumia event
http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=jlboak
Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense in the U.S. Our legal effort is the front line of the battle for Mumia's freedom and life. His legal defense needs help. The costs are substantial for our litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the state level. To help, please make your checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation (indicate "Mumia" on the bottom left). All donations are tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501(c)(3), and should be mailed to:
It is outrageous and a violation of human rights that Mumia remains in prison and on death row. His life hangs in the balance. My career has been marked by successfully representing people facing death in murder cases. I will not rest until we win Mumia's case. Justice requires no less.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT!
FLASHPOINTS Interview with Innocent San Quentin Death Row Inmate
Kevin Cooper -- Aired Monday, May 18,2009
http://www.flashpoints.net/#GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE
To learn more about Kevin Cooper go to:
savekevincooper.org
LINKS
San Francisco Chronicle article on the recent ruling:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BAM517J8T3.DTL
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and dissent:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/05-99004o.pdf
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COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
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C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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1) Amid Ruin of Flint, Seeing Hope in a Garden
By DAN BARRY
October 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/us/19land.html?ref=us
2) 'Good Without God,' Atheist Subway Ads Proclaim
By Jennifer 8. Lee
October 19, 2009 , 11:45 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/good-without-god-atheist-subway-ads-proclaim/
3) Arts Education and Graduation Rates
Compiled by RACHEL LEE HARRIS
Arts, Briefly
October 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/arts/19arts-ARTSEDUCATIO_BRF.html?ref=nyregion
4) Energy Star Appliances May Not All Be Efficient, Audit Finds
By MATTHEW L. WALD
October 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/business/energy-environment/19star.html?ref=business
5) A Limited, Modified Pullout From Afghanistan: Et Tu, CodePink?
By Sharon Smith
October 20, 2009
http://www.counterpunch.org/
6) Safety Nets for the Rich
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
October 20, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/opinion/20herbert.html
7) College Costs Keep Rising, Report Says
By TAMAR LEWIN
October 21, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/education/21costs.html?ref=education
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1) Amid Ruin of Flint, Seeing Hope in a Garden
By DAN BARRY
October 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/us/19land.html?ref=us
FLINT, Mich.
On one side of the fertile lot stands an abandoned house, stripped long ago for scrap. On the other side, another abandoned house, windows boarded, structure sagging. And diagonally across the street, two more abandoned houses, including one blackened by a fire maybe a year ago, maybe two.
But on this lot, surrounded by desertion in the north end of Flint, the toughest city in America, collard greens sprout in verdant surprise. Although the broccoli and turnips and snap peas have been picked, it is best to wait until deep autumn for the greens, says the garden's keeper, Harry Ryan. The frost lends sweetness to the leaves.
His is not just another tiny community garden growing from a gap in the urban asphalt. This one lot is really 10 contiguous lots where a row of houses once stood. On this spot, the house burned down. ("I was the one who called the fire department.") On that spot, the house was lost to back taxes. ("An older guy; he was trying to fix it up, and he was struggling.")
Garbage and chest-high overgrowth filled the domestic void of these lots on East Piper Avenue until four years ago, when Mr. Ryan decided one day: no. After receiving the proper permission, he began clearing the land.
Rose Barber, 56, a neighbor who keeps a 30-inch Louisville Slugger, a Ryne Sandberg model, by her front door, offered her help. Then came Andre Jones, 40, another neighbor, using his shovel to do the backbreaking work of uncovering long stretches of sidewalk, which had disappeared under inches of soil, weeds and municipal neglect.
East Piper Avenue now has its sidewalk back, along with a vegetable garden, a grassy expanse where a children's playground will be built, and, close to one of those abutting abandoned houses, a mix-and-match orchard of 18 young fruit trees.
"This is a Golden Delicious tree," Mr. Ryan says, reading the tags on the saplings. "This is a Warren pear. That's a McIntosh. This is a Mongolian cherry tree. ..."
In many ways, this garden on East Piper Avenue reflects all of Flint, a city working hard to re-invent itself, a city so weary of serving as the country's default example of post-industrial decline. Nearly every day its visitors' bureau sends out a "Changing Perceptions of Flint" e-mail message that includes a call to defend the city's honor:
"If a blogger is bashing Flint and Genesee County, go post a positive message. If there is an article about the depressed economy in Flint, go post something uplifting."
But uplifting and depressing both describe Flint, where encouraging development grows beside wholesale abandonment. You can visit one of the first-class museums (at the moment, the Flint Institute of Arts has a music-enhanced exhibit of rock 'n' roll posters), then drive past rows of vacant, vandalized houses that convey a Hurricane Katrina despair - though Flint's hurricane came in the form of the automobile industry's collapse.
No question: Downtown Flint, about five miles from Mr. Ryan's garden, suddenly feels vital. A large civil engineering firm has built an office there, and the headquarters of a second large firm is about to open. New dormitory rooms at the University of Michigan-Flint are full. New restaurants have popped up, including an Irish pub in a long-closed men's clothing store. An old flophouse is now a smart apartment complex. The majestic Durant Hotel, vacant for 35 years, is being transformed into apartments for students and young professionals.
And just last week, General Motors announced a $230 million investment in four local factories as part of its plan to build a new generation of fuel-efficient cars.
But Dayne Walling, the recently elected mayor, says these developments, while exciting, tell but one side of the city's story. The other side: a steep decline in the tax base, an unemployment rate hovering around 25 percent, rising health care and pension costs, drastic cutbacks in municipal services, a legacy of fiscal mismanagement - and, of course, the loss of some 70,000 jobs at General Motors, the industry that defined Flint for nearly a century.
The job loss, compounded by the recession, has led to an astonishing plunge in the city's population - to about 110,000, and falling, from roughly 200,000 in 1960. Thousands of abandoned houses now haunt the 34-square-mile city; one in four houses is said to be vacant.
As a result, Flint finds itself the centerpiece of a national debate about so-called shrinking cities, in which mostly abandoned neighborhoods might become green space, and their residents would be encouraged to live closer to a downtown core.
The matter is being pressed here by the Genesee County Land Bank, which acquires foreclosed properties and works with communities to restore or demolish them. It has been sponsoring a series of forums titled "Strengthening Our Community in the Face of Population Decline."
Mayor Walling, though, prefers to talk about sustainable cities, rather than shrinking cities. He imagines the Flint of 2020 as a city of 100,000, with a vibrant downtown surrounded by greener neighborhoods, in which residents have doubled their lot sizes by acquiring adjacent land where houses once stood.
"We're down, but we're not out," he says. "And that's a classic American story."
Part of that classic story is up in the north end, on East Piper Avenue, where some people are trying to make use of one of the few abundant resources in Flint: land.
Harry Ryan, 59, the child of auto workers, traveled for years as a rhythm and blues musician before returning to follow his parents into the auto plants. He got laid off, found other employment, and is now retired, with gray in his moustache and a stoop to his walk.
In 2005 he went to the land bank - he is on its advisory board - and received permission to plant a garden on a lot it owns a few yards from the broken side window of an abandoned house. He and some neighbors cleaned brush, removed the remnant pieces of concrete of demolished houses, and planted hardy turnips and greens.
But the garden could not contain their growing sense of pride in their community. Soon they were mowing front lawns all along East Piper Avenue - for free, and without seeking permission. "We just cut everybody's property, even if they were sitting on the porch," he says. "Sometimes they wouldn't say anything, and that would get us mad."
That first year, Mr. Ryan and Ms. Barber, who works nights at the post office, bagged up the greens and gave them away, often by just leaving a bag at the door of someone they suspected could use the food but was too proud to ask for it. But they also ate some of what they harvested; Mr. Ryan still savors that first batch of collard greens he had with some smoked turkey.
Today, the ever-expanding garden continues to feed people. Front lawns are still mowed, though now by neighborhood children paid through a county grant. Ms. Barber still works in the garden, and Mr. Jones has expanded his sidewalk mission to the cross street of Verdun, where he has cleared a path past the shell of a house lost to arson.
When asked why he does the work, he just says, "It needs to be done."
As for Mr. Ryan, he is working on a plan to build a power-generating windmill in the garden on East Piper Avenue in the great Michigan city of Flint. That's right: a windmill.
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2) 'Good Without God,' Atheist Subway Ads Proclaim
By Jennifer 8. Lee
October 19, 2009 , 11:45 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/good-without-god-atheist-subway-ads-proclaim/
Atheism is coming to the subway - or at least subway ads promoting it are.
Starting next Monday, a coalition of local groups will run a monthlong advertising campaign in a dozen Manhattan subway stations with the slogan "A Million New Yorkers Are Good Without God. Are You?" The posters also advertise the Web site BigAppleCoR.org, which provides a listing of local groups affiliated with the Coalition of Reason, the umbrella organization that coordinated the campaign.
The campaign - which is being paid for by $25,000 from an anonymous donor - follows a similar but unrelated monthlong campaign on buses by New York City Atheists in July. Jane Everhart, a spokeswoman for the New York City Atheists, said that campaign was highly successful and brought in many new members. "We are trying to raise money to do it again," she said.
The subway station advertisements were chosen for the $25,000 campaign because they were the best deal for the given budget, said Michael De Dora Jr., the executive director for the New York branch of the Center for Inquiry. A Times Square ad would have cost $45,000 to $50,000 for a month, while a campaign that blanketed the inside of subway cars would have cost $70,000.
The subway campaign is timed to a new book called "Good Without God" by Greg Epstein, which is to be released on Oct. 27 by William Morrow. Mr. Epstein, the Harvard University humanist chaplain, is having a book signing at Columbia University Bookstore on Oct. 28.
Other books on atheism, including best-selling ones by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, have helped to give visibility to an "atheism awakening," where atheists have been finding strength in numbers. President Barack Obama's inaugural address even included a reference to "nonbelievers" among an enumeration of various religions.
Mr. De Dora said the million-person estimate of New Yorkers who do not believe in God was an extrapolation from surveys on religion. The American Religious Identification Survey, which was released earlier this year, showed that those who put "none" for religion had risen to 15 percent in 2008, from 8 percent in 1990. Based on their projections, New York City, with its 8.3 million population, would have more than a million nonbelievers, Mr. De Dora said. (It is questionable, of course, whether New York City, given its demographics, is representative of the country as a whole.)
Asked to comment on the advertisement, Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, said: "The First Amendment allows these groups to preach their religious beliefs. I hope that the rights of other religious groups will also be respected when they also seek to advertise their beliefs."
A number of atheist-themed advertising campaigns have been promoted this year. The largest so far has been one in Britain that put ads on 800 buses stating: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
In the United States, the Coalition of Reason has also placed billboards that read "Don't Believe in God? You Are Not Alone." in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Morgantown, W.Va. An Indiana atheist group ran ads in the cities of Bloomington and South Bend that read "You can be good without God." The group, called the Indiana Atheist Bus campaign, also crossed the border into Chicago, where they purchased ads for 25 buses.
Because New York is so large and diverse, the atheist message is actually harder to promote, Mr. De Dora said. "Collectively, we've had a harder time selling our message to New Yorkers," he said. In addition, since there are so many different atheist and secular-minded groups in New York, they are competing for an audience. Aside from the center, other groups in the coalition include the Flying Spaghetti Monster Meetup, New York City Brights, New York Philosophy, New York Society for Ethical Culture, Richie's List and the Secular Humanist Society of New York.
The dozen subway stations where the ads are running are:
* 14th Street-Sixth Avenue
* 14th Street-Seventh Avenue
* 14th Street-Eighth Avenue
* 23rd Street-Eighth Avenue
* Pennsylvania Station (three ads)
* 86th Street-Lexington Avenue
* 96th Street-Lexington Avenue
* 42nd Street-Sixth Avenue/Bryant Park
* 66th Street-Broadway/Lincoln Center
* 72nd Street-Central Park West
* 86th Street-Central Park West
* West Fourth Street
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3) Arts Education and Graduation Rates
Compiled by RACHEL LEE HARRIS
Arts, Briefly
October 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/arts/19arts-ARTSEDUCATIO_BRF.html?ref=nyregion
In a report to be released on Monday the nonprofit Center for Arts Education found that New York City high schools with the highest graduation rates also offered students the most access to arts education. The report, which analyzed data collected by the city's Education Department from more than 200 schools over two years, reported that schools ranked in the top third by graduation rates offered students the most access to arts education and resources, while schools in the bottom third offered the least access and fewest resources. Among other findings, schools in the top third typically hired 40 percent more certified arts teachers and offered 40 percent more classrooms dedicated to coursework in the arts than bottom-ranked schools. They were also more likely to offer students a chance to participate in or attend arts activities and performances. The full report is at caenyc.org.
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4) Energy Star Appliances May Not All Be Efficient, Audit Finds
By MATTHEW L. WALD
October 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/business/energy-environment/19star.html?ref=business
WASHINGTON - The Energy Department has concluded in an internal audit that it does not properly track whether manufacturers that give their appliances an Energy Star label have met the required specifications for energy efficiency.
Some manufacturers could therefore be putting the stickers on unqualified products, according to the audit, by the Energy Department's inspector general, Gregory H. Friedman.
The Energy Star program, jointly managed by the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, has benefited from a renewed emphasis by the Obama administration, as a mechanism for reducing the waste of energy and curbing resulting greenhouse gas emissions. Under the federal stimulus bill, $300 million will go to rebates for consumers who buy Energy Star products.
Some consumers choose energy-efficient appliances for the same reason they might choose a car with good fuel economy: to save money or reduce the environmental impact.
Teams from the Energy Department and the E.P.A. oversee different categories of products. Last December, the environmental agency's inspector general said the Energy Star ratings for products it oversees, like computers and television sets, were "not accurate or verifiable" because of weak oversight by the agency.
The Energy Department vowed then to scrutinize its performance in evaluating the products that it oversees, like windows, dishwashers, washing machines and refrigerators.
The new audit, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, indicates that the Energy Department has also fallen far short. Those shortcomings "could reduce consumer confidence in the integrity of the Energy Star label," according to the department's inspector general. The audit is to be submitted to Energy Secretary Steven Chu this week. While the Energy Department requires manufacturers of windows and L.E.D. and fluorescent lighting to have independent laboratories evaluate their products, the report said, companies that make refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, water heaters and room air-conditioners, which consume far more energy, can certify those appliances themselves.
One refrigerator manufacturer tipped off the Energy Department that some models from a competitor that carried the Energy Star label did not meet the criteria, the audit said. That problem was also described by Consumer Reports magazine in October 2008 about tests it had conducted. In a settlement last year, the manufacturer, LG of South Korea, agreed to modify circuit boards in the machines already sold, to reduce their consumption and to compensate consumers for the extra power consumed.
The report also noted that while the government said in 2007 that it would conduct "retail assessments" to ensure that all the products carrying the Energy Star logo deserved them, it is still not doing so for windows, doors, skylights, water heaters and solid-state lighting. And the department is not following through to ensure that when inappropriately labeled products are identified, the labels are actually taken off, the audit said.
In one category, compact fluorescent lights, the government has certified nearly all existing products, the audit said. "When 90 percent of the products qualify, the consumer cannot easily judge the relative efficiencies of C.F.L. products," the report said.
Jen Stutsman, an Energy Department spokeswoman, cited the recent agreement with the E.P.A., and said, "The Obama administration is strongly committed to ensuring that all Energy Star products provide American consumers with significant energy and cost savings, and has moved forward with steps to streamline and enhance the program."
An outside expert, Lane Burt, the manager of building energy policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said some of the criticisms were justified.
"It's been a tremendously successful program," Mr. Burt said. "It's grown by leaps and bounds, and any time you have that kind of growth, you're going to have growing pains."
Nonetheless, he said, "it's crucial to make sure consumers are actually saving money and energy when buying an Energy Star appliance." On Sept. 30, the Energy Department and the E.P.A. signed a memorandum of understanding that seeks to address some of the shortcomings detailed in the report.
Mr. Burt said the memorandum committed both agencies to having all of their products evaluated by certified independent laboratories, and to expand the Energy Star program to cover products that were not in common use when it began in 1996. No target date was set.
The memorandum called for a "super star" program within Energy Star to identify the top-performing 5 percent of products, ranked by efficiency, he said.
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5) A Limited, Modified Pullout From Afghanistan: Et Tu, CodePink?
By Sharon Smith
October 20, 2009
http://www.counterpunch.org/
Eight years into the war on Afghanistan-and with no end in sight-seems a peculiar time for antiwar activists to claim that U.S. forces need to stay there even longer for the sake of the Afghan people.
Yet Yifat Susskind, Communications Director for the human rights organization MADRE, recently argued on CommonDreams.org, "'Bring the Troops Home' is a bumper sticker, not a policy." She continued, "For MADRE, U.S. obligations stem from the fact that Afghanistan's poverty, violence against women, and political corruption are, in part, results of U.S. policy over the past 30 years."
CodePink co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans began arguing for a "responsible" withdrawal after their recent visit to Afghanistan, which focused on discovering Afghan women's attitudes toward the U.S. occupation. While there, they met with a hand picked group of politically connected Afghan women that included President Karzai's sister-in-law, Wazhma Karzai.
According to CodePink, many of these members of parliament and businesswomen opposed sending an additional 40,000 U.S. soldiers to Afghanistan but also said they rely on U.S. troops for their own personal safety. On October 6, the Christian Science Monitor published an interview with Benjamin and reported on her change of heart based on conversations with some of the women she met in Kabul. For example, CSM reported, "Shinkai Karokhail, an Afghan Member of Parliament and woman activist, told them. 'International troop presence here is a guarantee for my safety.'"
Benjamin claimed she was misrepresented in the Christian Science Monitor. Yet she made similar comments in an interview with antiwar.com blogger Scott Horton, "[W]e certainly did hear some people say that they felt if the U.S. pulled out right now there would be a collapse and the Taliban might take over, there might be a civil war. But we also heard a lot of people say they didn't want more troops to be sent in and they wanted the U.S. to have a responsible exit strategy that included the training of Afghan troops, included being part of promoting a real reconciliation process and included economic development; that the United States shouldn't be allowed to just walk away from the problem. So that's really our position."
This reasoning assumes, of course, that the U.S. is capable of behaving responsibly toward the Afghan people. It is not.
The Obama administration feigned disappointment at the rampant corruption of the Karzai regime, now that the UN Election Complaints Commission has reported that widespread stuffing of ballot boxes and coercion by warlords helped Karzai "win" reelection by a margin of 54 percent this past summer. As many as one in every three votes was fraudulent, and most of them went to Karzai. But the Obama administration hasn't yet lost faith in Karzai. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reportedly told Karzai over the weekend "that this is an important moment where he can show statesmanship and actually strengthen his leadership position," according to administration officials.
To add to the embarrassment, Karzai appears ready to reject the Commission's findings. Despite a flurry of phone calls and visits, including one from Senator John Kerry and another from former U.S. State Department envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, Karzai remains defiant. He indicated that he will only accept a decision from Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC), a body dominated by his political allies, which was also accused of involvement in the massive election fraud this past summer.
Through blackmail, bribery and brute military force, the U.S. has determined the political landscape of post-Taliban Afghanistan.
U.S. conquerors installed Karzai as Afghanistan's transitional head of state in December 2001. But Karzai was never meant to build a genuine democracy in Afghanistan. Nor was he expected to champion the rights of women. On the contrary, he was chosen not for his ethical credentials but rather for his close ties to the band of warlords with which the U.S. partnered to quickly overthrow the Taliban in November 2001.
Renamed the "Northern Alliance" for the purpose of casting these warlords as freedom fighters, in reality they were veterans of the National Islamic United Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, an unstable coalition that ruled Afghanistan between 1992 and 1996, when the Taliban overthrew it.
Together, they constituted seven separate Mujahideen political parties, each representing the fiefdom of a corrupt warlord. Their president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, suspended the constitution and issued a series of religious edicts banishing women from broadcasting and government jobs, and requiring women to wear veils. More severe repression soon followed.
Karzai served as Deputy Foreign Minister in Rabbani's government, while the feuding Mujahideen parties unleashed a rein of terror against Afghanistan's already war-torn population. Women were routinely abducted, beaten and raped, or sold into prostitution. According to human rights expert Patricia Gossman, "Between 1992 and 1995, fighting among the factions of the alliance reduced a third of Kabul to rubble and killed more than 50,000 civilians. The top commanders ordered massacres of rival ethnic groups, and their troops engaged in mass rape."
In June 2002, in what the U.S. media depicted as a "flowering of democracy," a Loya Jirga, or tribal council, elected Karzai as Afghanistan's interim president. But most of the decisions were made behind the scenes, where then-U.S. envoy Khalilzad-a former Unocal oil executive-worked hand in glove with Karzai and the Northern Alliance to manipulate the votes. During the Loya Jurga, Karzai announced his own election as president before the vote had actually taken place, to the dismay of many delegates.
In the run up to the 2002 Loya Jirga, eight delegates were murdered amid a general rise in political violence and intimidation by warlords guarding their own fiefdoms. Meanwhile, Karzai used a rumored plot to overthrow his government as an excuse to round up 700 of his political opponents in the weeks before the voting.
Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, has long been flagged as a drug trafficker in Southern Afghanistan, but the allegations have never been investigated. He continues to head the Kandahar Provincial Council, the governing body for the region. He also has played a role in passing information to international intelligence agencies. According to Rajiv Chandrasekaran, writing in the Washington Post, while aware of information implicating Karzai in the drug trade, "U.S. and Canadian diplomats have not pressed the matter, in part because Ahmed Wali Karzai has given valuable intelligence to the U.S. military, and he also routinely provides assistance to Canadian forces, according to several officials familiar with the issue."
Under President Karzai's watch, Afghanistan has returned to providing roughly 95 percent of the world's heroin supplies while the U.S. military looks the other way. As Jeff Stein recently reported from the Huffington Post, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, explained bluntly why Karzai's brother has never been charged: "We certainly need the president to be with us. That would be hard if we're hauling off his brother to a detention center."
The U.S. left has failed to effectively oppose the war in Afghanistan from its onset, when the population overwhelmingly supported the war on the pretext that "We were attacked." That support has severely eroded, and polls show that a clear majority now wants to end the occupation. Yet many on the left have remained confused for the last eight years-ardently opposing the war in Iraq while remaining silent about the equally immoral war in Afghanistan.
This confusion has apparently been compounded by the election of Barack Obama, who initially opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Obama's Nobel Peace Prize notwithstanding, however, he has since embraced the aims of U.S. imperialism with gusto. U.S. troops and, perhaps more importantly, U.S. military bases remain in Iraq with no deadline for complete withdrawal.
Obama authorized a surge of 21,000 additional U.S. troops soon after taking office and is now pondering whether to send at least 40,000 more. These are no longer George W. Bush's wars. Obama has claimed them for himself. So far, the only consequence of the surge has been the resurgence of the Taliban resistance against U.S. occupation. Even his pledge to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay remains unfulfilled.
Yet Obama maintains a substantial following on the U.S. left, sowing yet more confusion among antiwar activists. For example, in response to Obama's Nobel Peace Prize, Juan Lopez wrote in the People's World on October 12th, "Now, don't get me wrong... Like other left and progressive folks, I advocate ending the Afghanistan military venture." Yet he went on to praise the award: "Most of the nation and world embraced the choice as affirmation that, with President Obama at the helm, America has embarked on a new, far more constructive course."
Likewise, CodePink's Evans argued on womensmediacenter.com, "I left the states with a judgment about some of the women who were members of the Parliament: So many are sisters and wives of warlords or tribal leaders chosen merely to fill the required quota of women. But Member of Parliament Shinkai Karokhal, a radical feminist from Kabul, reminded me that just their existence, that they constitute 25 percent of the body, is inspiring to women throughout the country."
Afghan women surely deserve better than parliamentary representation by the wives of warlords enforcing the lawless and repressive status quo. Those seeking alternative opinions among Afghan women can easily discover that there is no shortage of those with the courage to expose the rule of warlords and call for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops.
Malalai Joya is a case in point. As a young woman, she denounced the participation of drug traffickers and warlords at the 2002 Loya Jirga. Soon after she was elected to parliament in 2005, she was suspended for her outspokenness. She now escapes violent retribution by wearing a burka as a disguise.
As she wrote in the Guardian on July 25th, "You must understand that the government headed by Hamid Karzai is full of warlords and extremists who are brothers in creed of the Taliban. Many of these men committed terrible crimes against the Afghan people during the civil war of the 1990s. For expressing my views I have been expelled from my seat in parliament, and I have survived numerous assassination attempts. The fact that I was kicked out of office while brutal warlords enjoyed immunity from prosecution for their crimes should tell you all you need to know about the 'democracy' backed by NATO troops."
Likewise, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) has maintained its anti-occupation principles since the war began, risking their lives to organize an underground movement in U.S.-occupied Afghanistan.
In a recent post to the U.S. antiwar movement, RAWA stated, "The U.S. and allies occupied Afghanistan in the name of 'democracy,' 'women's rights' and 'war on terror,' but after eight long years, everyone knows that the situation is as critical in Afghanistan as it was under the brutal regime of the Taliban. While they talk about democracy and women's rights, on the other end they are supporting and nourishing the diehard enemies of these values and impose them on our people."
Washington's warmongers have been getting away with mass murder in Afghanistan for far too long. Obama is now at the helm of this disastrous imperial adventure. "Troops out now" is the only viable exit strategy, yet it can also easily fit onto a bumper sticker. Those who argue for prolonging the U.S. occupation until the U.S. transforms its mission into a benevolent one are likely to be kept waiting forever.
Sharon Smith is the author of Women and Socialism and Subterranean Fire: a History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States.
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6) Safety Nets for the Rich
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
October 20, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/opinion/20herbert.html
The headlines that ran side by side on the front page of Saturday's New York Times summed up, inadvertently, the terrible fix that we've allowed our country to fall into.
The lead headline, in the upper right-hand corner, said: "U.S. Deficit Rises to $1.4 Trillion; Biggest Since '45."
The headline next to it said: "Bailout Helps Revive Banks, And Bonuses."
We've spent the last few decades shoveling money at the rich like there was no tomorrow. We abandoned the poor, put an economic stranglehold on the middle class and all but bankrupted the federal government - while giving the banks and megacorporations and the rest of the swells at the top of the economic pyramid just about everything they've wanted.
And we still don't seem to have learned the proper lessons. We've allowed so many people to fall into the terrible abyss of unemployment that no one - not the Obama administration, not the labor unions and most certainly no one in the Republican Party - has a clue about how to put them back to work.
Meanwhile, Wall Street is living it up. I'm amazed at how passive the population has remained in the face of this sustained outrage.
Even as tens of millions of working Americans are struggling to hang onto their jobs and keep a roof over their families' heads, the wise guys of Wall Street are licking their fat-cat chops over yet another round of obscene multibillion-dollar bonuses - this time thanks to the bailout billions that were sent their way by Uncle Sam, with very little in the way of strings attached.
Nevermind that the economy remains deeply troubled. As The Times pointed out on Saturday, much of Wall Street "is minting money."
Call it déjà voodoo. I wrote a column that ran three days before Christmas in 2007 that focused on the deeply disturbing disconnect between Wall Streeters harvesting a record crop of bonuses - billions on top of billions - while working families were having a very hard time making ends meet.
We would later learn that December 2007 was the very month that the Great Recession began. I wrote in that column: "Even as the Wall Streeters are high-fiving and ordering up record shipments of Champagne and caviar, the American dream is on life support."
So we had an orgy of bonuses just as the recession was taking hold and now another orgy (with taxpayers as the enablers) that is nothing short of an arrogantly pointed finger in the eye of everyone who suffered, and continues to suffer, in this downturn.
Whether P.T. Barnum actually said it or not, there is a sucker born every minute. American taxpayers might want to take a look in the mirror. If the epithet fits...
We need to make some fundamental changes in the way we do things in this country. The gamblers and con artists of the financial sector, the very same clowns who did so much to bring the economy down in the first place, are howling self-righteously over the prospect of regulations aimed at curbing the worst aspects of their excessively risky behavior and preventing them from causing yet another economic meltdown.
We should be going even further. We've institutionalized the idea that there are firms that are too big to fail and, therefore, "we, the people" are obliged to see that they don't - even if that means bankrupting the national treasury and undermining the living standards of ordinary people. What sense does that make?
If some company is too big to fail, then it's too big to exist. Break it up.
Why should the general public have to constantly worry that a misstep by the high-wire artists at Goldman Sachs (to take the most obvious example) would put the entire economy in peril? These financial acrobats get the extraordinary benefits of their outlandish risk-taking - multimillion-dollar paychecks, homes the size of castles - but the public has to be there to absorb the worst of the pain when they take a terrible fall.
Enough! Goldman Sachs is thriving while the combined rates of unemployment and underemployment are creeping toward a mind-boggling 20 percent. Two-thirds of all the income gains from the years 2002 to 2007 - two-thirds! - went to the top 1 percent of Americans.
We cannot continue transferring the nation's wealth to those at the apex of the economic pyramid - which is what we have been doing for the past three decades or so - while hoping that someday, maybe, the benefits of that transfer will trickle down in the form of steady employment and improved living standards for the many millions of families struggling to make it from day to day.
That money is never going to trickle down. It's a fairy tale. We're crazy to continue believing it.
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7) College Costs Keep Rising, Report Says
By TAMAR LEWIN
October 21, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/education/21costs.html?ref=education
The average annual cost of tuition and fees at four-year public colleges rose 6.5 percent from last year, to $7,020, according to a report issued Tuesday by the College Board. Including room and board, the average total cost of attendance is $15,213, up 5.9 percent from last year.
Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, called the increases "hugely disappointing," particularly in a period of low inflation. From July 2008 to July 2009, the Consumer Price Index declined 2.1 percent.
"Given the financial hardship of the country, it's simply astonishing that colleges and universities would have this kind of increases," Mr. Callan said. "It tells you that higher education is still a seller's market. The level of debt we're asking people to undertake is unsustainable."
According to the College Board report, "Trends in College Pricing 2009," average tuition and fees at public two-year colleges are $2,544, up 7.3 percent from the previous year. At for-profit colleges, annual tuition and fees average $14,171, a 6.5 percent rise. And for out-of-state students at four-year public universities, tuition and fees average $18,548, up 6.2 percent.
At private nonprofit universities, the average tuition and fees are $26,273, up 4.4 percent from last year.
Although grant aid also rose significantly in 2008-9, the latest year for which data are available, student borrowing - and the gap between available resources and the overall cost of attending college - continued to increase, the report said.
About two-thirds of full-time undergraduates receive grants, according to a companion College Board report also released Tuesday, "Trends in Student Aid 2009."
Last year, the average grant aid was $5,041, supplemented by $4,585 in federal loans. Colleges and universities provided 41 percent of the grant aid, the federal government 32 percent, the states 11 percent and employers and other sources 32 percent.
The aid report found that public four-year colleges gave out two-thirds of their grant money as merit aid, that is, without considering the recipient's financial need.
Sandy Baum, the College Board senior policy analyst who wrote both reports, said it was important to focus on the net price students actually paid, after subtracting grants and tax benefits, rather than the published tuition, or sticker price. And in that regard, Ms. Baum said, the situation looks far less dire. "Over all, it could have been worse," she said.
"The really interesting thing to me," she said, "is if you look at net prices students pay, considering the grant aid and tax benefits, students at public two-year institutions are actually paying less, in inflation-adjusted dollars. And that's pretty significant. Even though the sticker price, adjusting for inflation, is up 20 percent in the past five years, the net price is actually lower than it was five years ago."
In 2009-10, the report found, full-time students at private nonprofit four-year institutions receive about $14,400 in grant aid and federal tax benefits, reducing their net tuition and fees to about $11,900, from the published $26,300.
Full-time students at public four-year colleges and universities receive an estimated average of about $5,400 in grant aid and federal tax benefits, reducing their net tuition and fees to about $1,600, from the published $7,000. And full-time students at public two-year colleges get $3,000 in grant aid and tax benefits, enough to pay the average $2,500 tuition and fees, and still have $500 left toward living expenses.
Mr. Callan did not view the net costs as so easily manageable.
"I have great respect for Sandy Baum," he said, "and I'm sure the calculations are correct. But the assumptions in the report about financial aid to the average student are very, very optimistic - higher than anything I've ever seen before."
While total education borrowing increased 5 percent from 2007-8 to 2008-9, the report said, there was a large shift to federal loans and away from private loans. Federal loans increased by about $15 billion last year, while nonfederal education loans declined by about half, to about $11 billion.
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8) Study Finds Growing Work for School Counselors
By JACQUES STEINBERG
October 20, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/education/20college.html?ref=education
The struggling economy has taken a toll on those directly responsible for advising students about the college admission process.
Nearly half of public schools have raised the caseloads of high school counselors this year, compared with last year, with the average increase exceeding 53 students, according to a study by the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
At the same time, the report said, the pressures on applicants (and, by extension, their counselors) are growing, as the number of applications to four-year colleges continued to rise, along with the number of students applying to colleges under early-decision programs.
In many respects, the report, "2009 State of College Admission," seeks to quantify the extent of the frenzy engulfing many of today's college applicants.
For example, about 22 percent of students who enrolled in college in the fall of 2008 applied to at least seven colleges, up from about 19 percent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, the average acceptance rate at four-year colleges declined slightly, to 66.8 percent in 2007, the last year for which the report provided full data in that category, from 71.3 percent in 2001.
Those applicants who find themselves on a waiting list face tough odds of being accepted. Fewer than one in three on such lists in 2008 were ultimately accepted, according to the report, about the same as a year earlier.
And yet the report included some indications that the pressures on applicants could soon ease. The number of students graduating from high school annually is believed to have peaked this spring, at 3.33 million, according to the report, so competition for places in colleges should diminish over the next few years.
But families of children in elementary school take note: the nation's collective high school graduating class "is projected to rebound to 3.31 million by 2017-18," the report said.
Many applicants rely on their school counselors for advice on college admissions, and the report described the rising workloads of those counselors, particularly at public high schools. (While private school counselors are also working harder, in many instances, fewer than 20 percent reported that their caseloads had increased since the last school year, compared with 45 percent of their public school counterparts.)
Among the states with the highest student-to-counselor ratios are California (986 students for each counselor), Minnesota (799) and Utah (720), according to the report, which cited government data for the 2006-7 school year. While Illinois was listed as having the highest ratio (1,172), the report suggested that the figure was probably "the result of a reporting error," and was most likely closer to about 700.
Sandie Gilbert, a counselor at Highland Park High School in Illinois said in an interview that she had a caseload of about 280 students this year - an increase of about 45, or 20 percent, since she first began working at the school 15 years ago.
"It's been inching up every year," Ms. Gilbert said.
About a quarter of her students are freshmen, who have been streaming into her office since school began in late August with any number of "acclimation" issues, she said. Another quarter are seniors, whom Ms. Gilbert must serve not only in one-on-one guidance sessions but by writing college recommendations for each.
"I wrote 43 recommendations before Oct. 15, and that's at home, at night," she said, citing the November deadlines for early-decision applications.
"I was really busy every single period, for the first six weeks of school," she added. "I'm just now eating lunch. It's been sitting there on my desk. It's 2:30."
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