---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
VIVA FIDEL! Happy Birthday and many more!
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August 16: Nat'l Day of Education
"Is the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq illegal?"
On August 17, U.S. Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada will
face a pre-trial hearing for refusing to deploy to Iraq.
http://www.thankyoult.org/
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Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone discuss: Apocalypse Now -
The U.S. and Israeli Master Plan for the Middle East.
Also, to be shown for the first time in the Bay Area: "The War
in Lebanon: An Inside View" including harrowing photos
of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila Massacre.
Thursday, August 17 from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. at the Unitarian
Universalist Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita
Berkeley, CA,. $10 suggested donation. No one will be
turned away for lack of funds. For more information
call 707.552.9992 or write takingaim@pacbell.net
Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone, producers of the national
radio show "Taking Aim," present a dramatic exposé of the
current wave of U.S. coordinated and Israeli mass slaughter
in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. They discuss
in compelling and heart-rending detail the U.S. and Israeli
murderous agenda, its timetable and the collusion of client
Arab regimes in targeting the peoples of the region.
From Rafah to, Ramallah and Nablus, from Bint Jbail, Tyre,
Sidon and Beirut to Tripoli, from 1947, 1967 to 1982 and
now, an ongoing genocide has been unleashed _ part
of a plan to visit the identical agony on the people
of Syria, Iran, Iraq and the region.
This murderous agenda proceeds under the cover of the false
category of terror for which 9/11 was planned, implemented
and orchestrated by the U.S. ruling class and its Israeli cohorts.
Heralded authors of “The Hidden History of Zionism”,
“Prisoners of Israel” and “Homage to Palestine”, Schoenman
and Shone, reveal through first hand testimony and shocking
visuals the wholesale massacre and mass expulsion that
emptied Palestine of its population in 1948 and was repeated
in an identical operation in Lebanon in 1982.
In 1982-83, Schoenman and Shone lived in the Palestinian
refugee camps as these were reduced to rubble. They
documented the round-up by the Israeli invaders of males
from ages 7 to 70 across Lebanon and took 6,000 affidavits
from the victims_ families. They witnessed and made a photo
record of the mass murder and the mass graves from
Ain El Helweh, Rashidieh, Bourj al Burajneh to Sabra and
Shatila in Beirut.
Schoenman and Shone draw from their experiences in
Palestine and Lebanon, their testimony presented to the
United Nations, Foreign Ministers and to the Nordic Commission
in Oslo, Norway as well as their years of advocacy on behalf
of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.
Ralph Schoenman was Secretary General of the International
Tribunal on U.S. War Crimes in Indochina. He worked with
Malcolm X with respect to the battle for the Congo and has
negotiated the release of political prisoners in many countries.
He was the Executive Director of the Committee in Defense
of the Palestinian and Lebanese Peoples and the Committee
for a Democratic and Secular Palestine. He is the author of
“The Hidden History of Zionism,” “Iraq and Kuwait: A History
Suppressed,” and co-authored with Mya Shone “Prisoners of
Israel (report for the United Nations)” and “Homage to Palestine.”
Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone co-produce “Taking Aim with
Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone” heard weekly on Pacifica’s
WBAI-NY and nationally on the Progressive Radio Network.
Mya Shone is an economist and has a long history as an activist
involved in political, community and labor issues. She worked
closely with Casa Nicaragua and Casa El Salvador during
the struggles taking place in Central America, was the
coordinator of the Tri-County (Santa Barbara, Ventura,
San Luis Obispo) Labor Party chapter and co-coordinator
of the Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union
Independence and Democratic Rights. She was the coordinator
of the Committee in Defense of the Palestinian and Lebanese
Peoples and the Committee for a Democratic and Secular Palestine.
Mya Shone was also an award-winning documentary filmmaker
as well as a newscaster at KPFK in Los Angeles. --- The first
two parts of Taking Aim's series on the Middle East, "Apocalypse
Now: The U.S. and Israeli Master Plan for the Middle East" are
available on our website archive http://www.takingaim.info
Part 1: Death and Devastation in Lebanon Part 2: The Meaning
of Qana --- Ben Gurion and the Final Aim: (an excerpt from
"The Hidden History of Zionism" by Ralph Schoenman, available
from Veritas Press --see http://www.takingaim.info
and Amazon.com)
In 1938, David Ben Gurion, who became the first Prime Minister
of the Israeli state, wrote in a letter to his son: "A partial Jewish
State is not the end, but only the beginning. I am certain that we
can not be prevented from settling in the other parts of the
country and the region."
In 1937, he declaimed: "The boundaries of Zionist aspirations
are the concern of the Jewish people and no external factor
will be able to limit them."
In 1938, he was more explicit: "The boundaries of Zionist
aspirations," he told the World Council of Poale Zion in Tel Aviv,
"include southern Lebanon, southern Syria, today's Jordan,
all of Cis-Jordan [the West Bank] and the Sinai."
###
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Un-silent vigils on Aug 19 to remember Abeer Hamza, the
14-year-old Iraqi girl gang raped and brutally murdered In
March of 2006 by the US military.
Saturday, August 19th, 2006 from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM
Berkeley, California - Willard Park
@ Telegraph & Derby Street
Hey all,
I just forwarded you all the Not In Our Name national email - but
wanted to write back to say why. You are either an artist, a media
person, a teacher, a courageous resister, a poet, a lawyer,
a revolutionary...
We've all been in the streets to stop this endless war, to put
an end to the brutal occupations of the United States...and
we've all been high on the power of the people, and then
demoralized by our apparent inability to stop the war machine.
The anti-war movement isn't what it needs to be, but we
just can't stop, right? Please join me in LA, Bay Area, New
York on August 19 to call out the injustice of a 14 year old
girl being gang raped by the US military. These guys are
likely to go unpunished. Use your contacts, use your
resources to spread the word. This vigil is being called
for by some young women that have never organized
anything before. It is inspiring. They are courageous.
They would like 5 minutes on your radio show, or an
article in your paper, or your voice on the mic that night,
or your network of friends and connections to spread
the word. Here's the info again.
Thanks,
Maya Jones
Not In Our Name volunteer
510.710.6414
Un-silent vigils on Aug 19 to remember Abeer
Hamza, Iraqi girl brutally murdered
In March of 2006, Abeer Hamza, a 14-year
old Iraqi girl from the village of Mahmudiya,
witnessed the deaths of her father, mother, and
sister, and afterwards was brutally raped, murdered,
and set on fire. Five US soldiers have been charged
with the crime, one of which has already confessed
guilt. The soldiers allegedly pre-planned the attack,
changed into civilian clothing, and then entered
the home of Abeer Hamza.
On August 19th, Abeer Hamza would have turned 15.
On that day, we want to honor her life and remember
her death. In doing so, we hope that some of the horror
she experienced when leaving the earth, will be met
with peace and mourning by those who denounce
such violent crimes. In addition, we hope to draw
awareness to the current protocol of immunity for
Multinational Forces in Iraq. We believe that immunity
nullifies necessary checks and balances in a psychologically
precarious environment, and we support Amnesty
International's request to the UN Security Council to
reassess the granting of immunity to MNF's in Iraq.
We hope that you can join us on Aug 19th, but if you
are unable to attend, please light a candle on that night,
and support our efforts to assist in ending immunity
for MNF's in Iraq by checking out Amnesty International's
statement or our myspace page.
Saturday, August 19th, 2006 from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM
Los Angeles, California - Macarthur Park
@ 6th & Alvarado Street
New York City, New York - Washington Square Park
@ W. 4th Street & Macdougal
Berkeley, California - Willard Park
@ Telegraph & Derby Street
www.myspace.com/abeerhamza
Another World Is Possible!
http://www.notinourname.net
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Aug 20 SF BayviewCoalition BuildingMark your CalendarEnough
is Enough !END LAW ENFORCEMENT WAR AGAINST BLACK &BROWN !
WHAT: Fundraising Benefit and Cookout, Coalition Building
Justice4BigO, (RIP Oliver Lefiti, Killed by SFPD 6-24-06) Justice4ASA,
(RIP Asa Sullivan, Killed by SFPD 6-6-06) Bayview CEDP
(RIP Tookie Williams/Campaign to End the Death Penalty)
WHEN: Idriss Stelley's B-Day (Killed by SFPD 6-13-01), "E" would
turn 29... Sunday 8-20-06 3 P.M.
WHERE: Children Playground
behind Brett Hart Elementary School, on Gillman, SF.Take Gillman
from 3rd St., going towards Candlestick Park by the Bay
WHY:
Show your love and support to the Families of SFPD innocent victims.
Under impending Capital Punishment Federal Law, 12 Bayview
Brothers might become "Death Eligible" this year. Bayview is only
0,0001% of California, but would become 5,65% of California
death row!
Death row on the street through police Murders of our Black and
Brown Brothers &Sisters and death row in the correctional system
must GO! To volunteer, or more info: please email
iiolmisha@cs.comor call (415) 595-8251
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Distribute flyers in your Hood, Donate Food,
Donate performance (Spoken words, dance, songs), Help on Set
up and clean up crew, Chaperon the Youth at the event for safety,
Disseminate the info on the event through email and Fax blasts,
Invite all your friends! Make banners and signs (Supplies available
at ISF, 4921 3rd Street SF, Be the chef at the grill! Donate paper
plates, napkins, Lend 2 additional bullhorns, forward this Invite
to all your friends and contacts!
ARE YOU WITH US? Black &Brown UNITY!
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San Francisco Board of Education Meeting
Tuesday, August 22, 7:00 P.M.
Irving G. Breyer Board Meeting Room
555 Franklin Street, 1st Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
415/241-6427
San Francisco School board members are likely to vote Tuesday,
August 22 on a resolution to phase out JROTC. If the
proposal is approved, a blue-ribbon panel will be
formed to find and implement a non-military program to
replace JROTC. At present, the resolution has the
support of the majority of school board members.
SEE:
Why queers should oppose JROTC
Guest Opinion
Published 07/27/2006 Bay Area Reporter
by Tom Ammiano, Mark Sanchez, and Tommi Avicolli Mecca]
http://www.ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=guest_op
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Mumia Abu-Jamal Is In Danger
Rally In Oakland To FREE MUMIA!
4 PM Friday September 15th 2006,
Alameda County Courthouse, 12th and Fallon Sts, south side
Mumia Abu-Jamal Is Innocent!
For Labor Action To Free Mumia! End the Racist Death Penalty!
Award-winning journalist and former
Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal has
been on death row for almost a quarter
of a century, for a crime he didn't
commit. The State of Pennsylvania still
wants to execute him, and his case has been
put on a "fast track" to a final resolution.
What may be his last appeal is now
before the 3rd Circuit Court. But we
cannot rely on the courts to free Mumia;
the courts are still refusing to hear
MOUNTAINS of evidence which
conclusively shows his innocence!
In 1995, we mobilized by the thousands
to save Mumia from a date with
death. In 1999, longshore workers
shut down West Coast ports to free Mumia. In
2006, it's time to get back into action to free Mumia!
The victim of a politically motivated
frame-up of monumental proportions,
Mumia is an anti-war, anti-imperialist,
social justice spokesman with the
courage to defy the system from his jail
cell despite a determined conspiracy to
silence him forever. Known as the "Voice
of the Voiceless," Mumia is the
first to point out that his case is just one
among many injustices of this racist,
capitalist system.
Perpetrated by notoriously racist and
corrupt Philadelphia police and
prosecutors, the frame-up of Mumia
Abu-Jamal is supported by leading elements in
both the Democrat and Republican
parties. The US ruling class is so
committed to murdering this "dangerous"
inspirational figure that a resolution--full
of lies about Mumia's case--has been
introduced in Congress to demand that the
city of St Denis, France re-name a street
which was dubbed "Rue Mumia
Abu-Jamal" in a recent ceremony!
In the US, Mumia Abu-Jamal has been
made the "poster boy" for maintaining
the death penalty by the powerful few.
But to the world, Mumia is a hero and
symbol of resistance to racist oppression
and injustice.
All those who are involved in social
justice movements should help
champion his freedom and publicize
actions for his freedom.
Rally initiated by the Labor Action Committee
To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal (LAC),
PO Box 16222, Oakland CA 94610.
510 763-2347 or LACFreeMumia@aol.com.
Initial endorsers include: The Mobilization
To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal;
Frances Goldin, Mumia's literary agent;
Marsha Feinland, Peace and Freedom Party
candidate*; Todd Chretien, Green Party
candidate*; Robert Irminger, Inland
Boatmen‚s Union, ILWU*; Jack Heyman, ILWU*;
Bob Mandel, exec bd, Oakland Education
Association*; Bill Mandel,37 years on KPFA*;
Workers World Party of SF; Nat
Weinstein; Socialist Viewpoint Magazine;
Cristina Gutierrez; Bario Unido por
una Amnistia General; Fred Hirsch,
Plumbers & Fitters 393*; Jack Ford, past
president Teamsters 921*; Patricia
Maginnis; Emily Maloney.
Bay Area United Against War endorses this action.
*organization listed for purposes
of identification only. (Endorsers
support FREE MUMIA and the three
slogans listed above. They do not necessarily
agree with any other statement in this
announcement or with any other LAC
statement.)
Endorse the rally! Send your individual
or organizational endorsement by
return email to LACFreeMumia@aol.com,
or write to LAC at PO Box 16222,
Oakland CA 94610. Let us know if you
can help build the rally!
Mumia's legal defense needs funds
in this critical time. Please help!
Make checks payable to: Labor Action
Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, and
send them to: PO Box 16222, Oakland CA 94610.
Seventy-five percent (75%) of all
contributions received under this appeal
will go directly to Mumia's legal
defense fund. The remainder will
support the work of the LAC.
For more information on Mumia's case,
go to the following web sites:
www.mumia.org,
www.freemumia.org,
www.chicagofreemumia.org,
www.laboractionmumia.org.
- Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
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U.S. Out of Iraq Now! We Are the Majority!
End Colonial Occupation from Iraq,
to Palestine, Haiti, and Everywhere!
October 28 National Day of Action
Locally Coordinated Anti-War Protests from Coast to Coast
Vote With Your Feet … and Your Voices, and Banners, and Signs!
Let Every Politician Feel the Power of the People!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7836
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SCROLL DOWN TO READ:
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
ARTICLES IN FULL
LINKS ONLY
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EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
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This convention is for all peace partners. Please circulate widely.
Reserve you seat today by sending us an email at
samina_faheem@yahoo.com.
Hope to see all of you on August 20th 2006.
Thanks, Samina
American Muslim Voice Foundation
creating a culture of peace, acceptance, mutual respect and harmony
Phone: 650-387-1994
Email: amvoice@amuslimvoice.org
Website: www.amuslimvoice.org
3rd Annual Convention
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Heroes
AMV needs your support urgently
Limited seating. Please purchase your ticket today.
When: Sunday – August 20th, 2006
11:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Where: Chandni 5748 Mowry School Road Newark, CA 94560
Ticket price $25.00 (Includes Luncheon)
Special request: Could you please enrich this event
by dressing in your traditional clothing?
We are very grateful for your support and friendship.
Looking forward to see you.The AMV Team
For more information visit www.amuslimvoice.org
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SAVE THE DATE AND JOIN US!!!!!
THIS IS A RESIDENT-LED EFFORT BY SURVIVORS WHO HAVE BEEN
SOME OF THE MOST IMPACTED BY THE KATRINA DISASTER AND
WHO HAVE RECEIVED THE LEAST ASSISTANCE AND RESOURCES
FROM FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT ANDTHEIR
AGENCIES. THEY WANT TO KNOW IF YOUR ADVOCACY, ACTIVIST,
OR PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATION WANTS TO SUPPORTTHIS AND
HAVE ONE OF YOUR MEMBERS PLAY AN ACTIVE ROLE ON BEHALF
OF YOUR ORGANIZATION TO PULL THIS OFF THEY WANT OUR
HELP AND SUPPORT!!!
Come Back Home Campaign
Washington, D.C. August 24, 25, and 26, 2006
Baton Rouge, August 27-28, 2006
New Orleans, August 29, 2006
On August 24-26, 2006, Survivors who are still displaced and
scattered all across the U.S. will be traveling to D.C., pitching
tents, and camping out on the federal government to demand
their right to returnhome
On August 27-28, 2006, these Survivors will be traveling to
Baton Rouge, pitching their tents in front of the state capitol,
and putting pressure on the state government of Louisiana
for their right to return home
On August 29, 2006, the anniversary of the Katrina Disaster,
Survivors will make their demands to return home heard
by the city council of New Orleans and camp
out on city hall
We are planning to have at least of 5,000 Katrina survivors
bused into D.C., Baton Rouge, and New Orleans from all across
the U.S. We are focusing our efforts on bringing residents
in from seven states in the Southern Region:
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas,
Georgia, Florida.
We are specifically reaching out to those who are public
housing residents, renters, and home owners that the city,
state and federal government are trying
to keep from returning home We need help with food,
housing, medical providers, logistics, showers/toilets,
entertainment, & advertising
For more info, contact the following organization representatives:
Makani, Praxis Project (202) 234-5921,
info@praxisproject.org
Ishmael, Advancement Project and People's Organizing
Committee (504) 872-9591, poc_information@yahoo.com
Please visit our website: www.peoplesorganizing.org
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October 28 National Day of Action
Locally Coordinated Anti-War Protests from Coast to Coast
Vote With Your Feet … and Your Voices, and Banners, and Signs!
Let Every Politician Feel the Power of the People!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7836
http://www.actionsf.org/
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7869
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End Canada's Occupation of Afghanistan!
Call for action on October 28, 2006
This call for a pan-Canadian day of action, co-signed by the
Canadian Peace Alliance, the Canadian Islamic Congress, the
Canadian Labour Congress and the Montreal coalition Echec
a la Guerre, is being distributed and discussed at the World Peace
Forum now taking place in Vancouver. -SV The Collectif Échec
à la guerre, Canadian Peace Alliance, the Canadian Labour Congress,
and the Canadian Islamic Congress are jointly calling for a pan-
Canadian day of protest this October 28th, 2006, to bring Canadian
troops home from Afghanistan.
On that day, people all across the country will unite to tell
Stephen Harper that we are opposed to
his wholehearted support for Canadian and U.S. militarism.
This October marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion and
occupation of Afghanistan, and the people of that country are
still suffering from the ravages of war. Reconstruction in the
country is at a standstill and the needs of the Afghan people
are not being met. The rule of the new Afghan State, made
up largely of drug running warlords, will not realize the
democratic aspirations of the people there. In fact, according
to Human Rights Watch reports, the human rights record
of those warlords in recent years has not been better than
the Taliban.
We are told that the purpose of this war is to root out terrorism
and protect our societies, yet the heavy-handed approach of
a military occupation trying to impose a US-friendly
government on the Afghan people will force more Afghans
to become part of the resistance movement. It will also
make our societies more -- not less -- likely to see terrorist
attacks.
No discussion on military tactics in the House of Commons
will change that reality. Indeed, violence is increasing with
more attacks on both coalition troops and on Afghan civilians.
While individual Canadian soldiers may have gone to Afghanistan
with the best of intentions, they are operating under the
auspices of a US-led state building project that cares little
or the needs of the Afghan people. US and Canadian interests
rest with the massive $3.2 billion Trans Afghan Pipeline (TAP)
project, which will bring oil from the Caspian region through
southern Afghanistan (where Canada is stationed) and onto the
ports of Pakistan.
It has been no secret that the TAP has dominated US foreign
policy towards Afghanistan for the last decade. Now Canadian
oil and gas corporations have their own interests in the TAP.
Over the last decade, the role of the Canadian Armed Forces
abroad has changed, and Canadian foreign policy has become
a replica of the US empire-building rhetoric. The end result
of this process is now plain to see with the role of our troops
in Southern Afghanistan, with the enormous budget increases
for war expenditures and "security," with the Bush-style speeches
of Stephen Harper, and with the fear campaigns around
"homegrown terrorism" to foster support for those nefarious
changes.
It is this very course that will get young Canadian soldiers killed,
that will endanger our society and consume more and more
of its resources for destruction and death in Afghanistan.
We demand a freeze in defense and security budgets until
an in-depth public discussion is held on those issues across
Canada. The mission in Afghanistan has already cost Canadians
more than $4 billion. That money could have been used to fund
human needs in Canada or abroad. Instead it is being used
to kill civilians in Afghanistan and advance the interests
of corporations.
On October 28th, stand up and be counted.
Canadian Troops Out of Afghanistan Now!
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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
Personalize the message text on the right with
your own words, if you wish.
Click the Next Step button to send your letter
to these decision makers:
President George W. Bush
Vice President Richard 'Dick' B. Cheney
Your Senators
Your Representative
Go here to register your outrage:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Idriss Stelley Foundation is in critical financial crisis, please help !
ISF is in critical financial crisis, and might be forced to close
its doors in a couple of months due to lack of funds to cover
DSL, SBC and utilities, which is a disaster for our numerous
clients, since the are the only CBO providing direct services
to Victims (as well as extended failies) of police misconduct
for the whole city of SF. Any donation, big or small will help
us stay alive until we obtain our 501-c3 nonprofit Federal
Status! Checks can me made out to
ISF, ( 4921 3rd St , SF CA 94124 ). Please consider to volunteer
or apply for internship to help covering our 24HR Crisis line,
provide one on one couseling and co facilitate our support
groups, M.C a show on SF Village Voice, insure a 2hr block
of time at ISF, moderate one of our 26 websites for ISF clients !
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/idrissstelleyfoundation/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/isf23/
Report Police Brutality
24HR Bilingual hotline
(415) 595-8251
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Asa/
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Sign the petition to save Bayview Hunters Point: No more Fillmore!
Editorial by Willie Ratcliff,
http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/signthepetition060706.shtml
As urban Black displacement grows, Bayview kicks off referendum
drive to stop Redevelopment by Randy Shaw,
http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/displacement060706.shtml
Hands off Bayview Hunters Point!
An open letter to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
http://www.sfbayview.com/050306/handsoff050306.shtml
Shattering the myth that our community is divided, people –
especially Black people – are lining up to sign, but we need
lots more signature gatherers. Can you commit to a few
hours with a clipboard or to passing petitions among
your co-workers, friends and family? Give us a call at
(415) 671-0789 or an email at editor@sfbayview.com.
Now for what we’re up against: The Bay View newspaper
has been too broke to help finance the petition campaign,
very few contributions have come in and bills are overdue.
So the petition drive needs financial help … and so does
the Bay View newspaper, desperately.
The Bay View has faced many crises in the over 14 years
we’ve published it – eviction, death threats, never enough
money – yet readers have always come through, enabling
us to bounce back, tackle bigger issues and fight harder
than ever. We hate to beg, but WE NEED YOU NOW.
WITHOUT AN IMMEDIATE AND SUBSTANTIAL LOAN, THE
BAY VIEW CANNOT CONTINUE. To discuss a loan, which
we can amply collateralize, please call us at (415) 671-0789;
we’re here 24/7. Tax-deductible contributions to our
nonprofit arm, the Hurricane Relief Information Network,
are also a big help to save the hopes and the lives
of survivors who depend on the Bay View for news and resources.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Appeal for funds:
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website http://dahrjamailiraq.com
Request for Support
Dahr Jamail will soon return to the Middle East to continue his
independent reporting. As usual, reporting independently is a costly
enterprise; for example, an average hotel room is $50, a fixer runs $50
per day, and phone/food average $25 per day. Dahr will report from the
Middle East for one month, and thus needs to raise $5,750 in order to
cover his plane ticket and daily operating expenses.
A rare opportunity has arisen for Dahr to cover several stories
regarding the occupation of Iraq, as well as U.S. policy in the region,
which have been entirely absent from mainstream media.
With the need for independent, unfiltered information greater than ever,
your financial support is deeply appreciated. Without donations from
readers, ongoing independent reports from Dahr are simply not possible.
All donations go directly towards covering Dahr's on the ground
operating expenses.
(c)2006 Dahr Jamail.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
New Flash Film
From Young Ava Over At 'Peace Takes Courage'
http://www.peacetakescourage.com/page-blog.htm
http://letter.cf.huffingtonpost.com/
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Save the Lebanese Civilians Petition
http://epetitions.net/julywar/index.php
http://donations.tayyar.org/
To The Concerned Citizen of The World:
http://epetitions.net/julywar/index.php
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Legal update on Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case
Excerpts from a letter written by Robert R. Bryan, the lead attorney
for death row political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal.
...On July 20, 2006, we filed the Brief of Appellee and Cross
Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal, in the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia.
http://www.workers.org/2006/us/mumia-0810/
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Today in Palestine!
For up to date information on Israeli's brutal attack on
human rights and freedom in Palestine and Lebanon go to:
http://www.theheadlines.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
For a great car magnet--a black ribbon with the words, "Bring
the troops home now!" written in red, and it also comes in a
lapel pin!--go to:
(Put out by A.N.S.W.E.R.)
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Ecommerce?store_id=1621
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF ZIONISM
BY RALPH SCHOENMAN
Essential reading for understanding the development of Zionism
and Israel in the service of British and USA imperialism.
The full text of the book can be found for free at:
http://www.marxists.de/middleast/schoenman/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
JOIN THE LYNNE STEWAR DEFENSE
For those of you who don't know who Lynne Stewart is, go to
www.lynnestewart.org and get acquainted with Lynne and her
cause. Lynne is a criminal defense attorney who is being persecuted
for representing people charged with heinous crimes. It is a bedrock
of our legal system that every criminal defendant has a right to a
lawyer. Persecuting Lynne is an attempt to terrorize and intimidate
all criminal defense attorneys in this country so they will stop
representing unpopular people. If this happens, the fascist takeover
of this nation will be complete. We urge you all to go the website,
familiarize yourselves with Lynne and her battle for justice
www.lynnestewart.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
NATIONAL COMMITTEE TO FREE THE CUBAN FIVE
Comité Nacional por la Libertad de los Cinco Cubanos
Who are the Cuban Five?
The Cuban Five are five Cuban men who are in U.S. prison, serving
four life sentences and 75 years collectively, after being wrongly
convicted in U.S. federal court in Miami, on June 8, 2001.
They are Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero,
Fernando González and René González.
The Five were falsely accused by the U.S. government of committing
espionage conspiracy against the United States, and other related
charges.
But the Five pointed out vigorously in their defense that they were
involved in monitoring the actions of Miami-based terrorist groups,
in order to prevent terrorist attacks on their country of Cuba.
The Five’s actions were never directed at the U.S. government.
They never harmed anyone nor ever possessed nor used any
weapons while in the United States.
The Cuban Five’s mission was to stop terrorism
For more than 40 years, anti-Cuba terrorist organizations based
in Miami have engaged in countless terrorist activities against
Cuba, and against anyone who advocates a normalization
of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. More than 3,000 Cubans
have died as a result of these terrorists’ attacks.
Gerardo
Hernández
2 Life Sentences
Antonio
Guerrero
Life Sentence
Ramon
Labañino
Life Sentence
Fernando
González
19 Years
René
González
15 Years
Free The Cuban Five Held Unjustly In The U.S.!
http://www.freethefive.org/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Eyewitness Account from Oaxaca
A website is now being circulated that has up-to-date info
and video that can be downloaded of the police action and
developments in Oaxaca. For those who have not seen it
elsewhere, the website is:
www.mexico.indymedia.org/oaxaca
http://www.mexico.indymedia.org/oaxaca
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
REMINDER TO ALL GROUPS: BE SURE AND POST ALL ACTIONS AND
EVENTS TO WWW.INDYBAY.ORG TO REACH THE MOST PEOPLE
AGAINST THE WAR IN THE BAY AREA!
http://www.indybay.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Iraq Body Count
For current totals, see our database page.
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/pr13.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
The Cost of War
[Over three-hundred-billion so far...bw]
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
"The Democrats always promise to help workers, and the don't!
The Republicans always promise to help business, and the do!"
- Mort Sahl
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
"It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
- Emilano Zapata
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Join the Campaign to
Shut Down the Guantanamo Torture Center
Go to:
http://www.shutitdown.org/
to send a letter to Congress and the White House:
Shut Down Guantanamo and all torture centers and prisons.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.actionsf.org
sf@internationalanswer.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Great Counter-Recruitment Website
http://notyoursoldier.org/article.php?list=type&type=14
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
DEFEND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS AND
CIVIL RIGHTS!
Last summer the U.S. Border Patrol arrested Shanti Sellz and
Daniel Strauss, both 23-year-old volunteers assisting immigrants
on the border, for medically evacuating 3 people in critical
condition from the Arizona desert.
Criminalization for aiding undocumented immigrants already
exists on the books in the state of Arizona. Daniel and Shanti
are targeted to be its first victims. Their arrest and subsequent
prosecution for providing humanitarian aid could result in
a 15-year prison sentence. Any Congressional compromise
with the Sensenbrenner bill (HR 4437) may include these
harmful criminalization provisions. Fight back NOW!
Help stop the criminalization of undocumented immigrants
and those who support them!
For more information call 415-821- 9683.
For information on the Daniel and Shanti Defense Campaign,
visit www.nomoredeaths.org.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
FYI
According to "Minimum Wage History" at
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/anth484/minwage.html "
"Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. "The 8 dollar per hour Whole Foods employees
are being paid $1.12 less than the 1968 minimum wage.
"A federal minimum wage was first set in 1938. The graph shows
both nominal (red) and real (blue) minimum wage values. Nominal
values range from 25 cents per hour in 1938 to the current $5.15/hr.
The greatest percentage jump in the minimum wage was in 1950,
when it nearly doubled. The graph adjusts these wages to 2005
dollars (blue line) to show the real value of the minimum wage.
Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. Note how the real dollar minimum wage rises and
falls. This is because it gets periodically adjusted by Congress.
The period 1997-2006, is the longest period during which the
minimum wage has not been adjusted. States have departed from
the federal minimum wage. Washington has the highest minimum
wage in the country at $7.63 as of January 1, 2006. Oregon is next
at $7.50. Cities, too, have set minimum wages. Santa Fe, New
Mexico has a minimum wage of $9.50, which is more than double
the state minimum wage at $4.35."
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
PRESERVE INTERNET NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Hi,
I can't imagine that you haven't seen this, but if you
haven't, please sign the petition to keep our access.
Everything we do online will be hurt if Congress
passes a radical law next week that gives giant
corporations more control over what we do and see on
the Internet.
Internet providers like AT&T are lobbying Congress
hard to gut Network Neutrality--the Internet's First
Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Right now,
Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which
websites open most easily for you based on which site
pays AT&T more. BarnesandNoble.com doesn't have to
outbid Amazon for the right to work properly on your
computer.
If Net Neutrality is gutted, many sites--including
Google, eBay, and iTunes--must either pay protection
money to companies like AT&T or risk having their
websites process slowly. That why these high-tech
pioneers, plus diverse groups ranging from MoveOn to
Gun Owners of America, are opposing Congress' effort
to gut Internet freedom.
So please! sign this petition telling your member of
Congress to preserve Internet freedom? Click here:
http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet?track_referer=706%
7C1152463-5QFocRE05wmGUuh8yAMSzg
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
NO BORDERS! NO WALLS! NO FENCES! GENERAL AMNESTY FOR ALL!
OUR HOMELAND IS WHERE WE LIVE!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
REPEAL THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT IN 2007!
Check out: 10 EXCELLENT REASONS NOT TO JOIN THE MILITARY
http://www.10reasonsbook.com/
Public Law print of PL 107-110, the No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001 [1.8 MB]
http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html
Also, the law is up before Congress again in 2007.
See this article from USA Today:
Bipartisan panel to study No Child Left Behind
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
February 13, 2006
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-02-13-education-panel_x.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html
http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/decind.html
http://www.usconstitution.net/declar.html
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805195.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Bill of Rights
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805182.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
ARTICLES IN FULL:
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
1) Israel Stages Wide-Ranging Airstrikes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:23 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Lebanon-Israel.html
2) An Audit Sharply Criticizes Iraq’s Bookkeeping
By JAMES GLANZ
August 12, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/12/world/middleeast/12reconstruct.html?ref=world
3) Bush Aides Foresee Gains on Eavesdropping and Guantánamo
By JIM RUTENBERG
August 12, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/12/washington/12bush.html
4) Help for the Hardest Part of Prison: Staying Out
By ERIK ECKHOLM
August 12, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/12/us/12reentry.html?ref=us
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
1) Israel Stages Wide-Ranging Airstrikes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:23 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Lebanon-Israel.html
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah
said Saturday that the Islamic militant group will abide by a U.N.
cease-fire resolution but will continue fighting as long as Israeli
troops remained in south Lebanon.
Nasrallah grudgingly accepted the cease-fire plan in a televised
address as the Lebanese Cabinet was in session to vote on whether
to agree to the U.N. resolution. Hezbollah has two ministers
in the government.
''We will not be an obstacle to any (government) decision ...
but our ministers will express reservations about articles that
we consider unjust and unfair,'' he said.
The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution seeking a
''full cessation'' of violence between Israel and Hezbollah on
Friday, offering the region its best chance yet for peace after
a month of fighting that has killed nearly 900 people and
inflamed Mideast tensions.
The resolution, adopted unanimously, authorizes 15,000 U.N.
peacekeepers to help Lebanese troops take control of south
Lebanon as Israeli forces that have occupied the area withdraw.
The Shiite cleric said Hezbollah rocket strikes on northern Israel
would end when Israel stopped airstrikes and other attacks
on Lebanese civilians.
Some of the heaviest fighting of the war raged Saturday
as Israel sent an avalanche of military power into Lebanon,
dispatching thousands of troops and columns of armor into
the rocky hills just north of its border.
Nasrallah called continued resistance to the Israel offensive
''our natural right'' and predicted more hard fighting to come.
''We must not make a mistake, not in the resistance, the
government or the people, and believe that the war has
ended. The war has not ended. There have been continued
strikes and continued casualties,'' he said.
''Today nothing has changed and it appears tomorrow
nothing will change,'' he said.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
2) An Audit Sharply Criticizes Iraq’s Bookkeeping
By JAMES GLANZ
August 12, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/12/world/middleeast/12reconstruct.html?ref=world
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 11 — An audit by the international
accounting firm Ernst & Young portrays Iraq as a country
that cannot keep its books straight, where elementary
accounting errors of up to a billion dollars are routine
and where no one can say how much of the country’s
oil revenues end up in government coffers.
An auditing board sponsored by the United Nations, which
had hired Ernst & Young to carry out the work, posted
a summary of the findings on its Web site late Thursday.
The audit focused on the nearly $22 billion that Iraq
generated in 2005 from oil revenues, which form the
basis for virtually the entire national economy.
But in a country in need of every dollar it can generate
to restore a crumbling infrastructure, pay government
salaries and train its security forces, the auditors found
enormous sums simply deposited in the wrong government
account or counted differently by various official agencies.
The actual oil exports could not be determined accurately
because Iraq still does not have modern equipment
for measuring what its pipelines pour into tankers.
The panel, the International Advisory and Monitoring Board
of the Development Fund for Iraq, was created by the United
Nations to supervise an account dominated by Iraqi oil
revenues but also including interest payments and money
seized from Saddam Hussein’s government.
Referring to the tracking of money from the development
fund, sometimes called the D.F.I., the board said in statement
that “overall control systems are ineffective,” and that the
government’s financial institution suffered from a “lack
of written policies and procedures” and “staff who are not
properly trained to deal with the nature and complexity
of D.F.I. transactions.”
Those transactions are largely overseen by the Central Bank
of Iraq and the Ministry of Finance. Late Friday, the Muslim
Sabbath, a spokesman for the ministry, said that he had no
specific knowledge of the findings. An e-mail message
to Sinan Alshabibi, the governor of the Central Bank, was
not returned.
But Assim Jihad, a spokesman for the Ministry of Oil, raised
the possibility that some of the discrepancies could go
beyond simple accounting errors and instead be related
to the official corruption that many investigators have
found to be endemic in Iraq.
“Any amount that has been spent illegally by any side will
be followed up and reviewed by Iraqi institutions,” he said,
“and it will be brought back.”
When asked about the audit, Elizabeth Colton, a spokeswoman
for the United States Embassy in Iraq, said in a written statement:
“The embassy is working to support the government of Iraq’s
continuing efforts to strengthen its financial institutions and controls.”
The audit found that in 2005, Iraq made nearly $22 billion
by exporting 509,588,308 barrels of oil at an average price
of $43 a barrel.
But even those basic figures were in dispute, the audit found.
Files at the State Oil Marketing Organization, which oversees oil
exports, indicated 845,534 fewer barrels exported than recorded
by production companies in Basra, where the oil goes out to tankers
in the Persian Gulf. The organization’s contracting and bidding
procedures were also in disarray, the audit found.
Once the exports generated revenues, the money was improperly
accounted for again and again, the audit found. In one case,
$211 million was deposited straight into the government
marketing group’s accounts rather than the approved United
Nations account for all Iraqi oil revenues.
In another instance, over $1 billion in oil money ended up
in an accounting netherworld at the Central Bank because
payments to various Iraqi ministries were not recorded when
they were made. Other instances of accounting errors involving
hundreds of millions of dollars appeared to be common.
The findings echoed those of an earlier audit of the 2004 oil revenues,
indicating that few reforms had been made in the interim. “The audit
reports continue to be critical of the financial and accounting control
systems in place,” the board said.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
3) The Political Effects
Bush Aides Foresee Gains on Eavesdropping and Guantánamo
By JIM RUTENBERG
August 12, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/12/washington/12bush.html
CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 11 — White House officials said Friday that
the fallout from the discovery of the British bombing plot could
help the administration advance its agenda in Congress. The officials
cited in particular battles over supervising the program
of eavesdropping without warrants and how to try detainees
held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Taking the White House’s lead, Republicans throughout the country
used the arrests of terror suspects in Britain to go on the offensive
against Democrats for the second day in a row. They accused
Democrats of failing to understand the nature of the terrorist
threat facing the nation.
Aides to House Republican leaders said they believed that
the arrests would help them make their case on other issues
that will allow them to keep the focus on national security,
including the call for tighter control of the border with Mexico.
Democrats promised to engage strongly in the newly energized
debate on national security, saying they would not cede
that ground.
They said they would argue that the White House and the
Republican-led Congress had failed to provide the money
necessary to protect Americans fully from the threat of terrorism
and that President Bush had pursued a foreign policy, especially
through the war in Iraq, that has fueled Islamic radicals
and created more potential terrorists.
The debate intensified as Democrats and Republicans tried
to reposition themselves in an environment that seemed to
shift with the news on Thursday about potentially the strongest
terrorist threat to the West since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Each side accused the other of politicizing the news of the plot.
By the end of the day, it was clear that the midterm elections
had taken a hard turn toward the central questions of safety
on the home front and each party’s approach to battle terrorism.
White House officials said the moment could prove helpful
beyond the realm of politics, saying news of the plot had served
to focus the public on the White House’s campaign against
terrorism at a time attention seemed to be waning.
“Yesterday simply reiterated the importance of the approach
that the administration has taken,” Tony Snow, the White
House press secretary, said at a briefing here.
Mr. Snow continued by listing antiterrorism measures supported
by Mr. Bush, “whether it be with the Patriot Act and the Patriot
Act extension, whether it be with various surveillance techniques,
of which members of Congress have been made aware.”
Insisting on anonymity, a senior administration official in
Washington said news of the plot against airliners would
add momentum to efforts to create military tribunals for
Guantánamo detainees that would strictly limit defendants’
rights.
The administration has argued that such limits are necessary
to protect intelligence sources that might be part of the
case and are also necessary when the crime scene is
a battlefield where evidence may not be easily collected.
The official said the arrests in Britain would also help the
White House secure its compromise with Senator Arlen Specter,
the Pennsylvania Republican who is chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, allowing a secret intelligence court
to review the legality of its conducting wiretaps without
warrants on Americans suspected of having ties to terrorists.
Critics argued that the accord, reached after months of White
House resistance to such a review, would leave such an
important question in the hands of a secret court.
Republicans have for months seen the debate over the
program as advantageous in spite of the constitutional
debate, giving the party an opportunity to highlight
its efforts to protect Americans.
Since the plot in Britain was disclosed, Republicans have
been trying to focus attention on the debate and to draw
a sharp distinction with what they characterize as a soft,
overly legalistic approach by Democrats.
“The question all of us should be asking today is how much
longer can we afford Democrat obstruction and opposition
to important national security efforts that will make our
nation and its citizens more secure,” Senator John Cornyn,
Republican of Texas, said in a statement Thursday.
Mr. Cornyn was referring in part to Democratic complaints
about the wiretap program.
In an interview on Friday, a spokesman for Speaker J. Dennis
Hastert of Illinois, Ron Bonjean, said the discovery of the
terrorism plot “helps us push for stronger surveillance
monitoring of terrorist movements.”
Representative Adam B. Schiff, a California Democrat who
is a critic of the wiretapping program, said he did not believe
that the debate would shift much.
“I have no doubt that the administration will use this most
recent terrorist plot as an additional argument for anything
it wants to obtain in the war on terrorism,” Mr. Schiff said.
“But as a practical matter, they’ve never shown why they can’t
constitutionally conduct surveillance in a way that protects
the country.”
In marked contrast with the last two national elections,
Democratic leaders indicated they had no intention of easing
their attacks against the administration over national security
in the face of the terrorism arrests.
Three Democratic leaders in the Senate — Harry Reid of Nevada,
the minority leader; Charles E. Schumer of New York, head
of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee; and Richard J.
Durbin of Illinois — offered a sharp attack on White House
antiterrorism policies. They said the policies, particularly
in Iraq, had made the world more dangerous.
“Yesterday, Bush said we are safer today than we were before
9/11,” Mr. Reid said. “But if one looks around the world today,
he could not be further from the truth.’’
Carl Hulse contributed reporting from Washington for this
article, and Adam Nagourney from New York.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
4) Help for the Hardest Part of Prison: Staying Out
By ERIK ECKHOLM
August 12, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/12/us/12reentry.html?ref=us
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — In April, Debra Harris took her 15-year-old
son along for what she thought was a final visit to her parole officer.
Instead, because of a “dirty urine” test two weeks before, proof
of her relapse to crack use, state troopers led her straight back
to prison for three more months.
Troopers then drove Ms. Harris’s son to the rented home on the
south side of Providence where her boyfriend was suddenly left
to tend to three of her children. Ms. Harris had forgotten to pay the
gas bill, so service was cut and they lived through her sentence
without a stove, surviving on fast food and microwave items.
Such jolting events are part of the fabric of life in South Providence,
as some women and many more men cycle repeatedly through
the state’s prisons. As the country confronts record and recurring
incarcerations, the search for solutions is focusing increasingly on
neighborhoods like it, fragile places in nearly every city where the
churning of people through prison is intensely concentrated.
Rhode Island is among the states beginning to make progress
in easing offenders’ re-entry to society with the goal of bringing
the revolving door to a halt, or at least slowing it. But sometimes
it can be hard to see much of a difference.
The 1980’s and 90’s were an era of get-tough, no-frills punishment;
inmate populations climbed to record levels while education
and training withered. Prisoners with little chance of getting
a job and histories of substance abuse were sent home without
help.
Now a countertrend is gathering force, part of an unfolding
transformation in the way the criminal justice system deals
with repeat offenders. After punishment has been meted out
and time has been served, political leaders, police officers,
corrections officials, churches and community groups are
working together to offer so-called re-entry programs,
many modest in scope but remarkable nonetheless.
Inmates now meet with planners before their release to
explore housing, drug treatment and job possibilities.
Once the inmates are back outside, churches and community
groups have been enlisted to take them by the hand and
walk them through the transition home.
“What we’re witnessing is a great turning of the wheel
in corrections policy,” said Ashbel T. Wall II, the Rhode
Island corrections director.
The flood of more than 600,000 inmates emerging from
the nation’s prisons each year, and the dismal fact that
more than half of those will return, plays out relentlessly
here, as elsewhere, keeping already troubled families
in emotional and financial turmoil. Even with the new
programs, the odds against staying straight are formidable.
“There’s a lot starting to happen,” said Sol Rodriguez,
director of the Family Life Center, established in South
Providence in 2003 to help returning prisoners and their
families. “But this is still a very poor community, and people
are coming back into already overburdened neighborhoods.”
In South Providence, where many families share aging two-
story wood houses on deceptively quiet streets, nearly one
in four male residents, and half of all black men, are under
the supervision of the State Corrections Department —
in prison, on parole or, by far the most common, on probation,
Mr. Wall said.
Eight miles away, the state prison complex is an almost
palpable presence. Of some 3,500 inmates released each
year, one-fourth return to a core zone of South Providence
of just 3.3 square miles with 39,000 residents, most
of whom are Hispanic or black.
“One day somebody is just missing in action,” said Rev.
Jeffery A. Williams, pastor of the 800-member Cathedral
of Life Christian Assembly in South Providence. “The father
gets a three- or five-year sentence, and the family structure
disintegrates. Mothers try to survive on state aid or work
multiple jobs, and you see kids practically raising themselves,
which perpetuates the problem.”
The strains on families take many forms. Not far from the
Harris household, Alberto Reyes, 27, a forklift operator,
was put on probation last winter for burglary. But in March,
Mr. Reyes failed to meet his parole officer and was sent
to prison for three and a half months. Without his help,
his girlfriend, who makes just $280 a week as a nurse’s
aide, was left in desperate straits, he acknowledged, and
had to rely on charity to get summer clothes for their baby.
Erick Betancourt, 26, spent 2 years in prison for dealing
crack and will be on probation for the next 10 years,
leaving him vulnerable to confinement for any mistake.
“Everybody you bump into is on probation or parole,”
said Mr. Betancourt, who has landed a job counseling
youths in the streets.
“You’re not supposed to hang out with others on probation,”
he said. “So you want to go back with your old friends, but
that can be dangerous, because if the police stop you, that
could be a violation.”
For Cerue Williams, 61, the repeated jailing of her 34-year-
old son on drug and probation violations is causing financial
burdens and social isolation. Laid off from her job engraving
school rings, Ms. Williams is scraping by as she cares for her
son’s teenage daughter.
Ms. Williams lives in a neat, rent-subsidized house, but she
never talks with her neighbors. “I keep this inside, it’s
embarrassing,” she said. “Nobody visits me, and I don’t
visit nobody.”
South Providence is cut off from the city’s downtown and
prosperous east side by an Interstate highway. Young men
drive with their seats folded far back, their faces concealed
behind the doorjamb — a fashion and a mock protective
measure.
Parts of the area are gentrifying, and a Hispanic influx has
brought small shops to the avenues. In abandoned jewelry
factories, vacant lots and a few low-rise housing projects,
roaming teenagers stir trouble with drugs, but the community’s
woes are mostly hidden inside wooden multifamily homes.
Tyrone McKinney, 45, has been in prison 9 or 10 times since
1979 — he is not sure at this point — on charges ranging
from shoplifting to attempted murder.
The last time Mr. McKinney was released, in January, he said,
“they gave me a bus token, and I went out into the belly
of the beast with no job, nowhere to go.”
Drifting through homes of South Providence, he resumed
using drugs and stealing and was back in prison by April,
for six months. He spoke in the prison gym, where he has
bulked up over the years.
As a condition of his discharge this fall he must go into
a residential drug treatment program, where he will also
get help applying for benefits like food stamps and finding
work and a longer-term home.
“The goal now is to see if you can rehabilitate lives instead
of just locking them up,” said Gov. Donald L. Carcieri,
a Republican, using words that once may have seemed
politically risky. Mr. Carcieri has directed state agencies
involved with education, drugs, mental health, housing
and other issues to work with current and former prisoners.
Following an example set by Connecticut, Rhode Island
has pledged to reinvest any savings from reduced prison
populations in new aid for departing inmates.
Mayor David N. Cicilline of Providence has assembled
a re-entry council, bringing together the police chief,
religious leaders, businessmen and other community
leaders. The council seeks to offer aid to every offender
returning to the most affected neighborhoods, like South
Providence.
In Washington, in another sign of the shifting national
mood, the Second Chance Act, a bill to increase federal
financing for re-entry programs, is moving through
Congress with strong bipartisan support and the
endorsement of the White House.
With its joining of public agencies and community groups,
Rhode Island is part of a movement that is taking hold
in dozens of states, said Debbie A. Mukamal, director
of the Prisoner Reentry Institute at the John Jay College
of Criminal Justice in New York.
Yet in Rhode Island, as elsewhere, money and facilities,
especially to support people once they return to the
community, have not caught up with the new goals.
Inside the prison, offenders have more access to education,
skills training and counseling. But many who are approved
for parole must still spend extra months behind bars,
waiting for drug treatment beds to open up. Those with
no homes to return to face a severe shortage of transitional
housing.
“Discharge planning doesn’t always mean a lot because
there are still so few services out here,” said Ms. Rodriguez,
of the Family Life Center.
Most days, recently freed inmates drop into the center
to check job notices, join counseling sessions or enroll
in G.E.D. classes. The center is also, with the aid of the
Corporation for Supportive Housing, a national nonprofit
group, developing 25 units of permanent housing for
troubled former offenders, and it successfully lobbied
the state to stop barring former drug offenders from
receiving food stamps.
Two weeks after his release, Mr. Reyes, the convicted
burglar, was scouring job listings at the Family Life
Center. “I have to get a job soon or I might have to go
back to jail,” he said, noting that employment was
a condition of his release. Like many other former
prisoners, he cannot live with his girlfriend and son
because she is in public housing that bans felons,
so he is staying with his mother.
Social services are vital, but nothing can substitute
for personal will, said Ms. Harris, 47, the mother who
returned to prison after a parole violation. Before
that, she had been imprisoned three times over
the years for shoplifting.
She was released on parole again on July 26 with
an ankle bracelet to ensure that she stayed inside
her home except when explicitly permitted to leave.
“I lost too much over the years,” she said the day
after her release, in the two-story home with a small
backyard she cherishes but cannot sit in now without
permission. She held a grandson as teenagers raced
in and out, and she awaited the return of two younger
children, who had moved in with their father during
her months away.
“I knew this time that I didn’t want to lose all this,”
she said, referring to her house, her children and
her boyfriend, Victor, who stuck with her.
In prison, she started a 12-step program. Now, as
a condition of her freedom, she must attend
a three-hour recovery meeting at least three times
a week. She has also been given a job, as an assistant
to a church leader.
Ms. Harris fingered the black plastic bracelet with
a transmitter on her ankle and said, “In some ways
I feel like I’m back in the same old spot.”
But the bracelet also offered a strange comfort.
“It kind of keeps my life structured for now,” she said,
noting that she saw a drug transaction through her
front window her first evening home.
“It’s crazy out there,” she said.
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[Dear BAUAW readers, again, the following two article about
the so-called "foiled" terrorist plot give NO details on either
those arrested or the "plot". I am floored at the low journalistic
level of these articles--they are simply hysteria-makers
that contain no facts. Are we to accept this kind of reporting
as factual news?..bw]
19 Suspects Are Identified in Britain
By ERIC PFANNER, International Herald Tribune
August 11, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/world/europe/11cnd-terror.html?hp&ex=1155355200&en=9a447c614b870c43&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Scale and Detail of Plane Scheme Recall Al Qaeda
By SCOTT SHANE
Most of the would-be terrorists have been arrested before acquiring
explosives or taking other concrete steps toward mounting an attack.
August 11, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/world/europe/11qaeda.html?hp&ex=1155355200&en=eeec0f91cd71e891&ei=5094&partner=homepage
***
Bush Proposes Retroactive War Crime Protection
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081006A.shtml
The Bush administration
drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively
protect policymakers from possible criminal charges for authorizing any
humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who
have seen the proposal. The move by the administration is the latest
effort to deal with treatment of those taken into custody in the war on
terror.
Hizballah: A Primer
Lara Deeb
July 31, 2006, 11 pages
(Lara Deeb, a cultural anthropologist, is assistant professor
of women’s studies at the University of California-Irvine. She
is author of An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety
in Shi’i Lebanon.)
Hizballah, the Lebanese Shi’i movement whose militia is
fighting the Israeli army in south Lebanon, has been cast
misleadingly in much media coverage of the ongoing war.
Much more than a militia, the movement is also a political
party that is a powerful actor in Lebanese politics and
a provider of important social services. Not a creature
of Iranian and Syrian sponsorship, Hizballah arose
to battle Israel’s occupation of south Lebanon from
1982-2000 and, more broadly, to advocate for Lebanon’s
historically disenfranchised Shi’i Muslim community.
While it has many political opponents in Lebanon,
Hizballah is very much of Lebanon -- a fact that Israel’s
military campaign is highlighting.
http://www.merip.org/mero/mero073106.html
Feeding Ourselves: Organic Urban Gardens in Caracas, Venezuela
Written by April M. Howard
Thursday, 10 August 2006
http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/869/
FOCUS | Baghdad Morgue Tallies 1,815 Bodies in July
Figures compiled by the city morgue indicated Wednesday that the
number of killings in the Iraqi capital reached a new high last month,
and the US military said a new effort to bring security to Baghdad
will succeed only if Iraqis "want it to work." The Baghdad morgue
took in 1,815 bodies during July, according to the facility's assistant
manager, Abdul Razzaq al-Obeidi. The previous month's tally was
1,595. Obeidi estimated that as many as 90 percent of the total
died violent deaths.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081006Z.shtml
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