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The homes of Black San Franciscans stolen in Black History Month!
Press Conference and Rally
Saturday, Feb. 10, 9:30 a.m.
Where: Whitney Young Child Development Center
100 Whitney Young Circle
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
PRESS CONTACTS:
Lisa Gray-Garcia, POOR Magazine: (415) 863-6306, (510) 435-7500 cell
Regina Douglas: (415) 240-5615 cell
Willie Ratcliff, SF Bay View: (415) 671-0789, (415) 571-1722 cell
[See Article in Full number 7, below for more detail...bw]
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THE TRUTH ABOUT US POLICY IN COLOMBIA:
A Firsthand Account
Thursday, February 15, 7:00 P.M.
522 Valencia Street, 3rd Floor, Auditorium
Cost: $5 ($3 students, seniors, unemployed)
Sponsored by Colombia Solidarity Committee
Cell 424-6029
email: companeros98@ hotmail.com
What if you were on trial and you couldn't choose your own
lawyer or call witnesses in your own defense?
Patriots not Terrorists!
Two cases are going on right now in Washington , D.C. where
this is the case. The trial of Ricardo Palmera (Simon
Trinidad), and Anayibe Rojas Valderrama (Sonia). Both are
Colombian citizens and members of the FARC, an organization
that has been fighting for 40 years against the most
violent repressive regime in Latin America .
Come and hear the witness who was not allowed to testify.
Imelda Daza Cotes was an activist and a member of the
Patriotic Union (UP) in Colombia . The UP was a leftist
third party created through peace accords. Four thousand UP
members, candidates, and elected officials, were
assassinated by the right-wing government supported
military forces. Daza Cotes fled Colombia to protect her
life. She will speak about the US intervention in Plan
Colombia , the repression of the Colombian government, and
the injustice of Palemera's and Anayibe Rojas Valderrama's
cases.
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MARCH AND RALLY IN SAN FRANCISCO
SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2007
(The annual St. Patrick's Day Parade is taking
place on Sat., March 17 in SF.)
ASSEMBLE 12:00 NOON
JUSTIN HERMAN PLAZA -
MARCH TO CIVIC CENTER
For more information:
http://www.actionsf.org/#local4
answer@actionsf.org
Phone: 415-821-6545
Fax: 415-821-5782
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Residents of Public Housing in New Orleans Ask for Your Support
A Request to Amnesty International to Accept Bottom-up Leadership
http://www.peoplesorganizing.org/breaking_news.html#req
http://www.peoplesorganizing.org/
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A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489
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Defend Former Panthers Arrested on 30-year Old Charges
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights
Murder Charges Against Former Black Panthers Based
on Confessions Extracted by Torture
http://www.cdhrsupport.org/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreeThe8/
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Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/
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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) ANTIWAR UNITY REQUIRED AT THIS STAGE
Hudson Valley (NY) Activist Newsletter, Feb. 5, 2007
VIA Email from:
JacDon
jacdon@earthlink.net
2) A Request to Amnesty International to Accept Bottom-up Leadership
February 5, 2007
http://www.peoplesorganizing.org/breaking_news.html#req
3) It’s the War, Senators
New York Times Editorial
February 7, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/opinion/07wed1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
4) As Inflation Soars, Zimbabwe Economy Plunges
By MICHAEL WINES
February 7, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/world/africa/07zimbabwe.html?hp&ex=1170910800&en=ed4c068a350ed2d8&ei=5094&partner=homepage
5) Senator Strongarm
How Al D'Amato threatened African AIDS funding
to help a big campaign contributor.
BY WILLIAM KISTNER
AND MURRAY WAAS
SALON | Oct. 29, 1998
[Related to previous article...U.S. doing business in the world...bw]
http://www.salon.com/news/1998/10/cov_29newsa.html
6) U.S. to Create a Single Command for Military Operations in Africa
By DAVID STOUT
February 7, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/washington/07africa.html?ref=world
7) The homes of Black San Franciscans stolen in Black History Month!
Press Conference and Rally
Saturday, Feb. 10, 9:30 a.m.
Where: Whitney Young Child Development Center, 100 Whitney Young Circle
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
PRESS CONTACTS:
Lisa Gray-Garcia, POOR Magazine: (415) 863-6306, (510) 435-7500 cell
Regina Douglas: (415) 240-5615 cell
Willie Ratcliff, SF Bay View: (415) 671-0789, (415) 571-1722 cell
[VIA Email...bw]
8) US Doesn't Sign Ban on Disappearances
Associated Press
by Jamey Keaton
February 7, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17011092/
9) Mr. Bush’s Improbable Budget
Editorial
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/opinion/08thur1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
10) House Democrats Set Framework for Iraq Vote
By JEFF ZELENY
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/washington/08cnd-cong.html?hp&ex=1170997200&en=509f9e65dc1b0de5&ei=5094&partner=homepage
11) Noted Arab Citizens Call on Israel to Shed Jewish Identity
By ISABEL KERSHNER
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/world/middleeast/08israel.html
12) Violence Said to Increase on Mexican Border
By JOHN HOLUSHA
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/washington/08cnd-homeland.html?ref=us
13) Officials See a Spread in Activity of Gangs
"The Los Angeles plan will also call for publicly naming the “top
targeted” gangs and placing gang members on the F.B.I.’s
most-wanted list."
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/us/08gang.html?ref=us
14) Police to Be Charged in Woman’s Shooting
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/us/08atlanta.html
15) Palestinians Announce Unity Deal
By HASSAN M. FATTAH
"The Associated Press said that Mr. Abbas asked the Saudi foreign
minister, Saud Al-Faisal, on Wednesday to consult the United States
about whether “respect the accords” would be acceptable language."
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/world/middleeast/08cnd-saudi.html?hp&ex=1170997200&en=a60f66364208bcad&ei=5094&partner=homepage
16) The State of Black California:
"Three-Fifths Compromise" Is Alive In The Sunshine State
By Anthony Asadullah Samad
BC Columnist
The Black Commentator
February 8, 2007 - Issue 216
http://www.blackcommentator.com/216/216_between_the_lines_black_california_samad_pf.html
17) US MARCHERS SENT MESSAGE - AND DESERVED BETTER
By Charles Jenks
January 31, 2007
http://www.consumersforpeace.org/news_marchers_send_message.html
See march photos at
http://www.traprockpeace.org/antiwar_march_012707/
See videos of Unified Youth and Student Contingent and march at
http://www.traprockpeace.org/traprock_video/
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1) ANTIWAR UNITY REQUIRED AT THIS STAGE
Hudson Valley (NY) Activist Newsletter, Feb. 5, 2007
VIA Email from:
JacDon
jacdon@earthlink.net
The U.S. antiwar movement is gearing up for a major march on the Pentagon
demanding an immediate end to the war against Iraq — a war by now that has
completely blown apart Iraqi society, killing hundreds of thousands of
civilians and unleashing bitter sectarian and secessionist tendencies.
The March 17 demonstration will take place as the Bush Administration’s
latest increase in American troops is reaching its height. Simultaneously,
the Pentagon is preparing for a possible attack on Iran. The White House
initiated these moves after the antiwar vote in November but the new
majority Democratic Congress appears disinclined to take decisive action
against them.
In addition, the U.S. antiwar movement itself is split, which has weakened
the struggle for peace.
The Pentagon protest will be the second in Washington to take place this
winter, the first being the 150,000-strong march and rally Jan. 27 organized
by the United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ), focusing on influencing the new
Congress. Some demonstrators remained in the nation’s capital over the
weekend to take part in congressional lobbying.
The political reconfiguration of both legislative chambers as a result of
the peace vote is hardly leading to the outcome envisioned by many in the
antiwar movement. Some activists report that a number of peace candidates
elected in November do not appear inclined to risk going beyond the
Democratic Party leadership’s conservative, timid and opportunist approach
to the war.
Party leaders oppose cutting off future funding for continuing the war, or
initiating impeachment proceedings against one of the most dangerous
presidencies in American history, or even passing a binding resolution
calling for a swift ending to the unjust, illegal and immoral war.
The march and rally at the Pentagon is being organized by the ANSWER
Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), which represents the left
wing of the peace movement. Acting together, ANSWER and UFPJ brought some
300,000 demonstrators to Washington in September 2005, but UFPJ split the
movement a few weeks later by publicly declaring it would no longer
cooperate with ANSWER, the other nationwide antiwar coalition.
The main reason for the split, beyond the fog of obfuscation, was the matter
of orientation toward the Democratic Party, to which UFPJ is close, not that
such proximity is necessarily reciprocated by party leaders. ANSWER, which
pursues an openly anti-imperialist stance toward President George W. Bush’s
“pre-emptive” wars, is far more critical of the Democratic Party’s role in
supporting the war and unconvinced it will change.
In addition, ANSWER’s antiwar rallies always include some criticism of
Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people — a topic that was omitted
from UFPJ’s Jan. 27 event, much to the relief of a Democratic Party utterly
committed to the status quo in the region, including the occupation of
Palestinian lands after the 1967 war.
ANSWER brought a half-million people to the January 2003 rally in Washington
and over 100,000 to each of a half-dozen other protests in the capital in
recent years, but it is difficult to predict the size of the March 17 event.
UFPJ has now called for regional protests on March 17 to commemorate the
fourth anniversary of the war, as opposed to supporting the Pentagon action.
This probably will drain potential participants away from the Washington
action. ANSWER at least supported and promoted the Jan. 27 rally.
The split in the movement occurred just as U.S. public opinion began a
dramatic turn away from the war. But while antiwar sentiment put the
Democrats back in charge of Congress, its electoral attachment did not
result a significant increase in demonstrations or numbers of protestors in
the streets — precisely the factors required to push legislators into taking
real action.
In all probability, the Iraq war will continue for years as Bush escalates
and Congress equivocates with nonbinding resolutions, delayed and partial
“withdrawal” plans and the refusal on the part of the “opposition” party to
stand up to the warmakers.
The problem with Congress is that its political composition, despite the
antiwar vote, is center, center-right, and right, with a weak center-left
and no genuine left at all. Congress will act to end the war only in the
face of a swiftly impending military defeat combined with ever-growing mass
opposition in the streets putting forward demands for immediate withdrawal.
Vibrant peace movements and militant antiwar protests can and do contribute
toward ending wars; the Vietnam War proved that. And they can end the Iraq
War, and prevent an Iran War as well. But in addition to taking a harder
stance on the war, it is necessary for our movement to unite in action. UFPJ
has its critique of ANSWER, and ANSWER has its critique of UFPJ. But both
agree on the main political demand, “Bring the U.S. troops home now,” an
uncompromising polarity against which all other half-way proposals must be
measured.
Differences between these two organizations are not greater than their
essential agreement. Our movement — and thus the chances of finally ending
U.S. aggression in the Middle East — will be much stronger if UFPJ and
ANSWER worked together in terms of occasional mass actions, and not at
cross-purposes.
If UFPJ is not yet ready to join with ANSWER at the Pentagon March 17,
perhaps some of its coalition partners and members of groups within the UFPJ
coalition will act in unity in Washington on that day to tell the warmakers
in the White House, in the Congress and in the headquarters of the war
machine itself that they are united in the demand that this horrific war be
brought to an end now.
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2) A Request to Amnesty International to Accept Bottom-up Leadership
February 5, 2007
http://www.peoplesorganizing.org/breaking_news.html#req
Dear Friends,
This letter is coming to you from the New Orleans Survivor Council
and its organizers, the People’s Organizing Committee. We have been
involved in organizing for the return of those displaced by Hurricane
Katrina in New Orleans since days after the flood. The letter below
will give you some insight into what we do, and we also invite you
to visit our website at www.peoplesorganizing.org.
Recently, Amnesty International contacted us as part of its hiring
search for an organizer in New Orleans. By listening to residents,
Amnesty points out, it has learned that the effort to prevent the
demolition of public housing is a major issue, and Amnesty came
to us because we have played a significant role in helping public
housing residents organize themselves to lead their own efforts
to return to their homes. In its project organizer description,
Amnesty says, in part,
Amnesty will employ a project organizer to work in New Orleans
over a two-year period with a steering committee for local
accountability and support. Building on a foundation of organizing
and systematic legislative campaigning, the organizer will help
create local, regional, national and international support through
Amnesty’s diverse structures. Pressure will be directed to the
Housing Authority of New Orleans, the Louisiana State Legislature
and the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The project will develop educational materials, events and
advocacy campaigns, and a guide to assist future advocacy
efforts based on the Guiding Principles for Internally Displaced
Persons.
While we welcome Amnesty to support the residents’ struggle
and bring its resources to bear on the travesty that is happening
here, we are also concerned about making sure that their efforts
follow the mandate and leadership of the residents themselves.
Too many organizations, while probably well meaning, have
assumed that they know best what the people need, and set up
their own “steering committee for local accountability,” and planned
their own “materials, events and advocacy campaigns.” The people
want the support and resources of these organizations, but need
to have the respect that comes with recognizing that they themselves
can and must lead all efforts to restore their communities.
POC sent the following letter to Amnesty International asking that
they submit to the leadership of the residents for whom they purport
to advocate. We ask that you lend your voice to the concept of
leadership from the “bottom” by sending a letter of support for
POC and the New Orleans Survivor Council to Amnesty yourself.
Please send letters to: admin-us@aiusa.org and aali@aiusa.org,
and copy them to neworleanssurvivorcouncil@gmail.com.
Thank you for support.
* * *
The Peoples Organizing Committee is a committee of the New Orleans
Survivor Council. We are committed to “bottom-up” organizing in the
tradition of Ella Baker and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee. This is a model where the most impacted in a given
situation are the leaders of the activities and campaigns to deal
with that situation. We provide safe space for folk to talk; we
provide space for “technology transfer,” whereby those of us who
have had the privilege to attend the academy, travel, read, etc.,
can share their gifts, skills, talents and resources with that on-the-
ground leadership. We believe that progress is retarded in New
Orleans because this process has been avoided by all, including
the progressive movement.
In New Orleans, the group most impacted is the poor, black working
class people who took the brunt of the natural and human-induced
disasters following Hurricane Katrina. POC organizers initiated the
formation of the New Orleans Survivor Council and have since
followed its direction and instructions. POC had also been
instrumental in providing organizing support for the Residents
of Public Housing organization, and has been active from the start
around the issue of residents reclaiming their homes in public
housing.
We will commit to working with all who will submit to the
leadership of the people. We would very much like to support
your presence here as you represent a long standing human rights
group that is international and has positively impacted many issues
of great importance to the poor and oppressed of the world.
The project description you have outlined appears to promote
“top-down” organizing, which we oppose aggressively. We hope
that in this case of organizing in New Orleans, you will be willing
to submit to “bottom-up” leadership by the residents themselves.
If you are willing to commit to taking direction from the residents,
in the form of the New Orleans Survivor Council and the Residents
of Public Housing, we are ready to create the space in which you
can share your gifts, skills, talents and resources to help our people
return home. But the agenda must come from the most impacted
sector of the people.
We have attached a working document that we hope will help you
understand fully our concerns. We ask that you share our concerns
with your international governing body, because if your organization
would adopt “bottom-up” as a principal we think the poor and darker
hued laboring people of the world would be very grateful. It is time
that we all learn to respect the genius of the poor struggling masses.
All of the candidates we recommend to you for this job are being
trained in “bottom-up” organizing and if you should hire one of them,
we hope they will continue their training and following the direction
of the Survivor Council and produce that type of organization
wherever they go.
Unfortunately, most national organizations and most activists subscribe
to “top-down” methods and demonstrate severe disrespect for
grassroots poor people. The coalitions we develop are made up
of grassroots led and directed organizations. We hope to hear
from you soon, and to develop a working relationship based
on these principles.
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3) It’s the War, Senators
New York Times Editorial
February 7, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/opinion/07wed1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
It is not an inspiring sight to watch the United States Senate turn the
most important issue facing America into a political football, and then
fumble it. Yet that is what now seems to have come from a once-
promising bipartisan effort to finally have the debate about the Iraq
war that Americans have been denied for four years.
The Democrats’ ultimate goal was to express the Senate’s opposition
to President Bush’s latest escalation. But the Democrats’ leaders have
made that more difficult — allowing the Republicans to maneuver
them into the embarrassing position of blocking a vote on
a counterproposal that they feared too many Democrats might
vote for.
We oppose that resolution, which is essentially a promise never to cut
off funds for this or any future military operation Mr. Bush might undertake
in Iraq. But the right way for the Senate to debate Iraq is to debate Iraq,
not to bar proposals from the floor because they might be passed.
The majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, needs to call a timeout and
regroup. By changing the issue from Iraq to partisan parliamentary tactics,
his leadership team threatens to muddy the message of any anti-escalation
resolution the Senate may eventually pass.
As it happens, the blocked Republican alternative, proposed by Judd Gregg
of New Hampshire, itself represents an end run around the Senate’s
constitutional responsibilities. The rational way to oppose cuts in funds
is to vote against them, if and when any ever come before the Senate.
Mr. Reid should not be shy about urging fellow Democrats to vote
against this hollow gimmick, which tries to make it look as if the
senators support Mr. Bush’s failed Iraq policies by playing on their
fears of being accused of not supporting the troops.
America went to war without nearly enough public discussion, and it
needs more Senate debate about Iraq this time around, not less.
The voters who overturned Republican majorities in both houses last
November expect, among other things, to see energized Congressional
scrutiny of the entire war — not just of the plan for an additional
21,500 troops but also of the future of the 130,000 plus who are
already there.
Another Republican resolution, proposed by Sen. John McCain, gives
the appearance of moving in that more promising direction by ticking
off a series of policy benchmarks and then urging the Iraqi government
to meet them. But listing benchmarks is one thing. It is another
to spell out real consequences for not meeting them, like the
withdrawal of American military support. Instead of doing that,
the McCain resolution hands an unwarranted blank check to Mr. Bush’s
new Iraq commander, Lt. Gen. David Petraeus. It breathtakingly
declares that he “should receive from Congress the full support
necessary” to carry out America’s mission.
Frustrated by the Senate’s fumbles, the House plans to move ahead
next week with its own resolution on Mr. Bush’s troop plan. When the
Senate is ready to turn its attention back to substance again, it should
go further.
Senators need to acknowledge the reality of four years of failed
presidential leadership on Iraq and enact a set of binding benchmarks.
These should require the hard steps toward national reconciliation
that the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki continues to evade
and that the White House refuses to insist on.
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4) As Inflation Soars, Zimbabwe Economy Plunges
By MICHAEL WINES
February 7, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/world/africa/07zimbabwe.html?hp&ex=1170910800&en=ed4c068a350ed2d8&ei=5094&partner=homepage
JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 6 — For close to seven years, Zimbabwe’s
economy and quality of life have been in slow, uninterrupted decline.
They are still declining this year, people there say, with one notable
difference: the pace is no longer so slow.
Indeed, Zimbabwe’s economic descent has picked up so much speed
that President Robert G. Mugabe, the nation’s leader for 27 years,
is starting to lose support from parts of his own party.
In recent weeks, the national power authority has warned of a collapse
of electrical service. A breakdown in water treatment has set off
a new outbreak of cholera in the capital, Harare. All public services
were cut off in Marondera, a regional capital of 50,000 in eastern
Zimbabwe, after the city ran out of money to fix broken equipment.
In Chitungwiza, just south of Harare, electricity is supplied only
four days a week.
The government awarded all civil servants a 300 percent raise two
weeks ago. But the increase is only a fraction of the inflation rate,
so the nation’s 110,000 teachers are staging a work slowdown
for more money. Measured by the black-market value of Zimbabwe’s
ragtag currency, even their new salaries total less than 60 American
dollars a month.
Doctors and nurses have been on strike for five weeks, seeking
a pay increase of nearly 9,000 percent, and health care is all but
nonexistent. Harare’s police chief warned in a recently leaked
memo that if rank-and-file officers did not get a substantial
raise, they might riot.
In the past eight months, “there’s been a huge collapse in living
standards,” Iden Wetherell, the editor of the weekly newspaper
Zimbabwe Independent said in a telephone interview, “and also
a deterioration in the infrastructure — in standards of health
care, in education. There’s a sort of sense that things are plunging.”
Mr. Mugabe’s fortunes appear to have dimmed as well. In December,
the ruling party that has traditionally bowed to his will, the Zimbabwe
African National Union-Patriotic Front, balked at supporting
a constitutional amendment that would have extended his term
of office by two years, to 2010. The rebuff exposed a fissure
in the party, known as ZANU-PF, between Mr. Mugabe’s hard-line
backers and others who fear he has brought their nation to the
brink of collapse.
The trigger of this crisis — hyperinflation — reached an annual
rate of 1,281 percent this month, and has been near or over 1,000
percent since last April. Hyperinflation has bankrupted the government,
left 8 in 10 citizens destitute and decimated the country’s factories
and farms.
Pay increases have so utterly failed to keep pace with price increases
that some Harare workers now complain that bus fare to and from
work consumes their entire salaries.
Citing a leaked central bank document, Reuters reported Tuesday
that prices of basic items like meat, cooking oil and clothes had
risen 223 percent in the past week alone.
Soaring costs have made it impossible for both national and local
governments to meet budgets and for businesses to afford raw
materials, while subsidies for basic commodities have drained the
government treasury and promoted corruption.
Seeking to revive farm production, for example, the government
sells gasoline to farmers at a bargain rate of 330 Zimbabwe dollars
per liter — and farmers promptly resell it on the black market for
10 times that, leaving their fields idle.
Mr. Mugabe, who blames a Western plot against him for Zimbabwe’s
problems, has rejected all calls for economic reform. The government
refuses to devalue Zimbabwe’s dollar, which fetches only 5 to
10 percent of its official value on the thriving black market.
As a result, foreign exchange to buy crucial imported goods like
spare parts and fertilizer has effectively dried up.
Despite acceptable rains, one international aid official said,
Zimbabwe’s corn crop is currently lagging behind last year’s —
and that harvest was among the worst in history. The official
spoke on condition of anonymity because the assessment had
not been made public.
The central bank’s latest response to these problems, announced
this week, was to declare inflation illegal. From March 1 to June 30,
anyone who raises prices or wages will be arrested and punished.
Only a “firm social contract” to end corruption and restructure
the economy will bring an end to the crisis, said the reserve
bank governor, Gideon Gono.
The speech by Mr. Gono, a favorite of Mr. Mugabe, was broadcast
nationally. In downtown Harare, the last half was blacked out
by a power failure.
Eighty-two years old, wily and physically robust, Mr. Mugabe has
survived both international condemnation and domestic upheaval
before.
Efforts to suppress dissent are rising: in recent weeks, trade
union officials were seriously injured in police beatings, arsonists
burned the home of a leading pro-democracy activist and church
leaders were arrested while meeting to discuss the economic crisis.
Foreign journalists remain barred from the country under threat
of imprisonment, and harassment of Zimbabwean journalists
has sharply increased.
But hyperinflation is eroding the government’s control over every
aspect of public life and, by extension, over its own future.
“It’s out of control now, and they have to bring it back in control,”
said John Robertson, a Harare-based economist and a frequent critic
of government policies. “We’re reaching the steepest slopes of the process.
They say they can fix prices, but the things that cause price increases
come from so many different directions that the government can’t
control them all.”
That growing loss of control is apparent. The black market, which
already flourishes beyond the reach of tax collectors and regulators,
is likely to grab an even larger share of the economy when the
government freezes prices in March, because stores will be unable
to make a profit selling products at government-fixed prices.
Problems with water and power supplies have become acute because
of a lack of foreign exchange and salaries for workers; a wave
of blackouts hit the nation early last month when 100 electrical
workers walked out to protest low pay.
Zimbabwe’s political opposition has failed for years to mount an
effective work stoppage to protest living conditions. But public
workers, the bedrock of government support, this year have begun
to walk off the job because there is no longer enough money
to pay them a living wage.
The average teacher, for example, earns barely one-fourth of the
salary needed to keep a family of six out of poverty. The military,
unhappy with January’s 300 percent pay hike, is seeking 1,000
percent.
The growing number of strikes also has emboldened the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions, a center of opposition to Mr. Mugabe,
to make its own plans for a general work stoppage.
“People in Zimbabwe tend to be resilient,” said Jamal Jafari, an
analyst for the Washington-based International Crisis Group,
which monitors political risks worldwide. “But that having been
said, what has to be the scariest statistic for the government
is the fact that large sectors of the civil service and the military
are far below the poverty line. They simply can’t raise salaries
fast enough.”
Mr. Jafari and some political and economic analysts in southern
Africa say they now believe that Zimbabwe faces a political
showdown within months, as the governing bodies of ZANU-PF
wrangle over whether to grant Mr. Mugabe an extended term
or to put less radical members of the ruling party in power.
Few expect a democratic revolution; the one rival party, the
Movement for Democratic Change, is riven by splits, systematically
suppressed by the government and without an effective leader.
Regardless, these experts say, by failing to arrest this accelerating
decline, Zimbabwe is edging toward a day of political reckoning
that years of diplomatic jawboning and political jockeying have
failed to produce.
For the government, “the big problem about Zimbabwe is that
the one thing you can’t rig is the economy,” said one Harare
political analyst, who refused to be identified for fear of being
persecuted. “When it fails, it fails. And that can have
unpredictable effects.”
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5) Senator Strongarm
How Al D'Amato threatened African AIDS funding
to help a big campaign contributor.
BY WILLIAM KISTNER
AND MURRAY WAAS
SALON | Oct. 29, 1998
[Related to previous article...U.S. doing business in the world...bw]
http://www.salon.com/news/1998/10/cov_29newsa.html
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When the nation's largest and most influential
gay rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), last week
endorsed Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., in New York's closely contested
Senate race, it stunned the gay rights community. It also led one
HRC board member, Marylouise Oates, to resign in protest, citing
Sen. D'Amato's "long record of hostility and indifference to women's
issues and to the fundamental issues of civil rights to African-
Americans and other minorities."
But HRC officials didn't know the whole story about D'Amato's record
on AIDS. Salon has uncovered new details about the New York senator's
role in carrying water for a major corporate campaign contributor,
a maneuver that jeopardized thousands of AIDS victims in Zimbabwe,
a country that suffers from one of the world's worst HIV infection rates.
At the behest of the New York-based multinational insurance conglomerate
the American International Group (AIG), D'Amato threatened to introduce
an amendment to the Senate foreign operations appropriations bill
in 1996 that would have dramatically reduced U.S. aid for Zimbabwe,
over a dispute between the Zimbabwe government and an AIG subsidiary.
Both the State Department and the Agency for International Development
(AID) opposed D'Amato's move. The tale is described in confidential
AIG documents.
In the spring of 1996, AIG executives were concerned that its subsidiary
in Zimbabwe, Unity Insurance Co., would be forced to sell a majority
of its stake to local owners if it wanted to continue to do business there.
AIG, which is one of the top 100 political party contributors in the
United States, turned to its influential friends in Washington to press
the Zimbabwean government to drop its plan. According to the Center
for Responsive Politics, AIG, its subsidiaries and its officers gave nearly
$160,000 to Republican and Democratic candidates during the 1995-96
election cycle, as well as $428,000 in so-called soft money contributions
to both parties. In January 1996, AIG gave $25,000 to the Republican
Senatorial Campaign Committee, which D'Amato chaired. The New York
senator also has received more than $20,000 in PAC and individual
contributions from AIG since 1991.
AIG's largesse was to be rewarded. On May 30, 1996, Rep. Charles
Rangel, D-N.Y., the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means
Committee, wrote a letter of protest to Zimbabwe Ambassador Amos
Bernard Muvengwa Midzi: "As I and other members of Congress
continue to promote U.S. investments and trade in Africa, I encourage
you to reconsider this policy that may effectively discourage
investors," wrote Rangel.
Shortly thereafter, Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., chairman of the
House International Relations Committee, and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,
R-Fla., chair of its subcommittee on Africa, followed up with their own
letter of protest to the Zimbabwe ambassador: "A free and open
insurance market is a key component to any successful financial
system and builds confidence among foreign investors," they wrote
on June 3, 1996. "We believe that the Zimbabwean Government should
reconsider this policy and encourage reinvestment instead of
disinvestment in its economy."
Despite such pressure, President Robert Mugabe's government stood
its ground, informing AIG that he would not grant preferential treatment
to AIG over other insurance companies wanting to do business
in Zimbabwe. It was then that AIG decided to play hardball, turning
to its friends on Capitol Hill.
"Based on our experience in this region, this situation is a form
of expropriation," stated one AIG memo dated July 9, 1996. It continued,
"After 23 years of investing substantial human and capital resources
to build a profitable company, we do not want to be forced to sell our
operations and lose management control."
Only three days later, on July 12, 1996, AIG made a $10,000 donation
to an obscure campaign committee called New York Salute 1996, the
sponsor of major fund-raising events hosted by D'Amato and New
York Gov. George Pataki. The fund-raisers also were attended by
then-Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole, whose campaign
was co-chaired by D'Amato.
Shortly after making this contribution, AIG executives discussed
the Zimbabwe problem with aides to Sen. Mitch McConnell, chairman
of the Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittee,
which oversees the funding of U.S. foreign aid to Zimbabwe.
Edmund Lee, AIG's director of international and corporate affairs,
wrote to Robin Cleveland, staff director of the Foreign Operations
Subcommittee on July 17, 1996:
"Dear Robin, I want to thank you again for taking time out of your
schedule to meet with us yesterday afternoon on an extremely
important issue to AIG. Attached for your review and consideration,
is draft language of the amendment we discussed during our
meeting. It would cap AID funding to Zimbabwe in FY 1997
at $10 million, roughly a 50% cut from 1996 expenditures,
unless Zimbabwe waives the localization requirement for U.S.
insurance companies."
In an interview, Cleveland said, "I don't remember anything
about it," adding, "I don't know anyone from AIG." (Both AIG
and Lee declined to respond to inquiries from Salon.) Cleveland
insisted that her committee does not accept amendments
from corporations and that such amendments are never used
in drafting legislation. "I have the same rule I do about having
lunch with them," she said. "It never happens."
But documents obtained by Salon clearly contradict those claims.
They show that AIG's corporate affairs staff even drafted its own
proposed amendment for McConnell and D'Amato. It read:
"To amend H.R. 3540, as reported on June 27, 1996, by the
Committee on Appropriations of the United States Senate, by
inserting at Title II a new subheading, entitled 'Zimbabwe'
that reads:
"Of the funds appropriated by this Act, the amount available
to Zimbabwe or to support activities in that country shall not
exceed $10,000,000 unless and until the government of
Zimbabwe has repealed or permanently waived the application
of any and all measures requiring the sale of equity in subsidiaries
of US financial services companies located in Zimbabwe
to nationals of that country."
In Lee's letter to Cleveland, he downplayed the impact this aid
cut would have on the African country. "It is not our intention
to deny humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe or jeopardize
US-Zimbabwe bilateral relations. Under our amendment, AID
would still have the ability to finance high-priority humanitarian
projects with the remaining $10 million, while Zimbabwe would
know it cannot expect more US assistance until such time as
it waived the localization requirement. "
But U.S. State Department and Agency for International Development
officials were concerned about cutting the level of aid to Zimbabwe,
which they had proposed at about $26 million for fiscal year 1997.
Zimbabwe has stagnant infant and child mortality rates, and
immunization rates have fallen significantly in recent years. The State
Department was particularly concerned about the AIDS problem
in Zimbabwe:
"USAID is just beginning to play a larger role in helping Zimbabweans
face and fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic," U.S. officials wrote in
a confidential "talking points" memo prepared by the State Department
for congressional staff. "Over 25% of Zimbabwean adults are now HIV
seropositive and AID efforts will help motivate other donors to play
supporting roles in fighting an epidemic that is out of control and
has global implications."
Zimbabwe's skyrocketing incidence of HIV infection is one of the
world's highest. According to a working group of the United Nations
and the World Health Organization, 90 percent of the 16,000 new
HIV infections worldwide occur in developing countries. Zimbabwe
has one of the worst rates: More than a quarter of the adult population
is infected with HIV and life expectancy is expected to plummet
soon to the 40s.
In the talking points memo, State Department and AID officials
praised the USAID assistance program to Zimbabwe as "one of
the most impressive on the continent, achieving successes in
agricultural markets liberalization, advancing low cost housing
development, enhancing wildlife conservation, and decreasing
population pressures. Cuts to the program proposed by [the]
amendment will have a negative impact on the sectors in which
USAID works." The memo also suggested that "reliance on US
diplomatic channels offers a more reasoned approach to solving
this problem than cutting US assistance to Zimbabwe which has
been beneficial to the US, Zimbabwe and the region as a whole."
Disregarding the objections of AID and the State Department,
congressional sources say, D'Amato played the leading role on
behalf of AIG, threatening to insert the amendment restricting
aid to Zimbabwe into the final appropriations bill. The government
of Zimbabwe received the message. "After the threat of reduction
in aid, the government looked at the issue more critically and changed
its mind," says Lloyd Sithole, counsel for the Zimbabwe Embassy
in Washington. "Our government later agreed it made sense based
on a cost-benefit analysis."
McConnell acknowledged Zimbabwe's change of mind on the Senate
floor on July 25, 1996. "We congratulate the government of Zimbabwe
for its constructive actions and hope there will be no further need for
this committee to review this matter nor contemplate action to remedy
complaints by U.S. citizens," he said in a floor speech. In this case,
of course, the "citizens" were big-time contributors to political
war chests.
Sithole defends Zimbabwe's change of mind, but added, "When Congress
pushes our government directly, it tends to instill a sense of urgency.
American companies are very effective at pushing their representatives."
Sithole acknowledges that a greater than 50 percent cut in aid to
Zimbabwe would have had drastic repercussions. "It would have had
a very serious impact on women and children and AIDs," he says.
"The threat worked."
USAID officials agree such a reduction would have had dire
consequences. "Certainly a 50 percent cut in funding would have
reduced the impact and reduced the effectiveness of these programs,"
says Maureen Dugan, deputy director of AID's Office of Southern
Africa Affairs. "The AIDS problem in Zimbabwe is enormous and
one of the fastest growing in the world."
Others in the AIDS community say U.S. assistance is crucial to
countries battling HIV infection. "We need to do more, not less,
to support programs in African countries, especially in places like
Zimbabwe," says Daniel Zingale, executive director of AIDS Action
in Washington. "We can't just fight AIDS within our own borders."
D'Amato's office has not returned repeated phone calls from Salon
about this matter. When Time magazine disclosed portions of this
story in the fall of 1996, a D'Amato spokeswoman told the publication
he was proud to have assisted a New York company "unfairly treated
by a foreign country." Les Munson, a legislative aide to Rep. Gilman's
International Relations Committee, said "I'm not going to help you
with this story," and then abruptly hung up on a Salon reporter.
But Jeanean Mann, a retired State Department legislative officer,
remembers when D'Amato raised the threat of cutting aid to Zimbabwe.
"The State Department and AID agreed the funding shouldn't be cut,"
she says. "The issue wasn't that clear-cut." Mann adds that the State
Department never took it that seriously since the Zimbabwe government
backed down anyway. These kinds of political tactics "are more common
than we like," she says. "But the threat occurs more often than the fact."
For D'Amato and his political allies, the political threats had their intended
effect. Fortunately, say AIDS experts, they were never put to the test.
William Kistner is a freelance journalist in Washington, D.C. Murray
Waas is Salon's investigative reporter.
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6) U.S. to Create a Single Command for Military Operations in Africa
By DAVID STOUT
February 7, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/washington/07africa.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 — The Pentagon will establish a new military
command to oversee its operations in Africa, President Bush and
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced Tuesday.
Creation of the United States Africa Command, which had been
expected, will “strengthen our security cooperation with Africa and
create new opportunities to bolster the capabilities of our partners
in Africa,” Mr. Bush said.
The president said he had directed Mr. Gates to establish the
command by Sept. 30, 2008. The location of the command will
be determined after discussions with Congress and officials
of countries on the continent, Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Gates, testifying Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services
Committee, said creation of the command would eliminate an
“outdated arrangement left over from the cold war.”
Three commands now divide responsibility for operations in
Africa: the European Command, which oversees most countries
on the continent, except those in the Horn of Africa; the Central
Command, which has responsibility for Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea,
Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya; and the Pacific Command,
which has responsibility for Madagascar, the Seychelles and the
Indian Ocean.
The man who is about to become the head of the Central Command,
Adm. William J. Fallon, told the Senate Armed Services Committee
on Jan. 30 that he favored establishment of an Africa Command,
in light of the humanitarian crises and instability across much of
the continent and its strategic importance.
“The Horn of Africa sits astride one of the most critical sea lines
of communication in the world,” Admiral Fallon said. On Tuesday,
the committee endorsed him to succeed Gen. John P. Abizaid
to lead the Central Command and sent the nomination to the
full Senate for confirmation.
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7) The homes of Black San Franciscans stolen in Black History Month!
Press Conference and Rally
Saturday, Feb. 10, 9:30 a.m.
Where: Whitney Young Child Development Center, 100 Whitney Young Circle
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
PRESS CONTACTS:
Lisa Gray-Garcia, POOR Magazine: (415) 863-6306, (510) 435-7500 cell
Regina Douglas: (415) 240-5615 cell
Willie Ratcliff, SF Bay View: (415) 671-0789, (415) 571-1722 cell
[VIA Email...bw]
In the most recent attempt to eradicate Black families in San Francisco,
Mayor Gavin Newsom has given the land underneath the Alice Griffith
public housing development (also known as Double Rock) to the
Lennar Corp. for development in a bid to keep the 49ers. This
is the latest in an unending chain of corporate-favoring
displacement of San Francisco’s low-income families of color.
“If this deal goes through, me and my family will have nowhere
to go. They have been trying to get rid of Black folks up here for
a while,” said Byron Gafford, staff writer with POOR Magazine,
poet and life-long Alice Griffith resident. This dirty, backroom
deal is just one of the many in a long line of redevelopment
plans the city has implemented in recent years to gentrify
many San Francisco neighborhoods. From Bayview Hunters
Point to Valencia Gardens in the Mission to the Fillmore District,
it has become clear that the local government has no intention
of providing affordable housing for Black families, but rather
wishes they leave altogether.
Over 700 Black San Francisco residents of Alice Griffith in Bayview
Hunters Point are the latest group facing eviction due to yet another
illegal contract forged by Newsom and his friends at Lennar,
whose former first vice president and director of acquisitions,
Laurence Pelosi, is Newsom’s first cousin and treasurer for
Newsom’s mayoral campaign.
Lennar has promised to provide “affordable” housing but with
its current homes in the Bay Area starting at above $650,000,
Black residents are more than just concerned. Residents will also
ask Newsom why the City gives “Master Developer” Lennar control
of hundreds of acres from Candlestick Point to the Hunters Point
Shipyard when neighborhood-based developers who hire local
residents have proven expertise in building affordable housing.
Why would a city that spurns big box and chain stores bring
mega-developer Lennar all the way from Florida when local
builders can do the job better.
“Between the Lennar Corp., the John Stewart Co., HUD HOPE
IV-style gentrification, the City’s Housing Authority, Redevelopment
Agency and the mayor, there won’t be any Black or poor folks
left in San Francisco. These companies and their city counterparts
have systematically destroyed many of the public housing projects
with the promise of one unit of housing replacement for one unit
demolished. The problem with that lie is it never happens. They
told us they were going to do one for one replacement of housing
in Valencia Gardens, and almost no one got housing in the new
development,” said Lisa Gray-Garcia, editor of POOR Magazine
and former resident of public housing.
With the fate of Black communities in not only the City’s, but also
the corporations’ and redevelopers’ hands, yet again many Black
amilies feel they will lose their homes unless they put up a fight
in this year’s Black History Month. The lawsuit filed recently to
reinstate the referendum against the Bayview Hunters Point
Redevelopment Plan that more than 33,000 San Franciscans
signed should have put Newsom on notice that ethnic cleansing
will no longer be tolerated in San Francisco.
“Together we stand and divided we fall. This time, Mayor Newsom,
you are in for the fight of your life, because this time we demand
not only to sit at the table but for the table to be in our community,”
said lifelong Bayview resident Regina Douglas
POOR Magazine is co-sponsoring the rally with the SF Bay View
newspaper. POOR Magazine is non-profit media, education and
arts organization dedicated to providing media access, arts
education and advocacy to youth and adults in the Bay Area
struggling with poverty and racism.
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8) US Doesn't Sign Ban on Disappearances
Associated Press
by Jamey Keaton
February 7, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17011092/
Nearly 60 countries signed a treaty on Tuesday that
bans governments from holding people in secret
detention, but the United States and some of its key
European allies were not among them.
The signing capped a quarter-century of efforts by
families of people who have vanished at the hands of
governments.
"Our American friends were naturally invited to this
ceremony; unfortunately, they weren't able to join
us," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy
told reporters after 57 nations signed the treaty at
his ministry in Paris.
"That won't prevent them from one day signing on in
New York at U.N. headquarters - and I hope they will."
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined
comment except to say that the United States helped
draft the treaty, but that the final text "did not
meet our expectations."
McCormack declined comment on whether the U.S. stance
was influenced by the administration's policy of
sending terrorism suspects to CIA-run prisons
overseas, which Bush acknowledged in September.
Many other Western nations, including Germany, Spain,
Britain and Italy, also did not sign the treaty.
France introduced the convention at the U.N. General
Assembly in November and it was adopted in December.
Many delegates expressed hope that other nations will
sign by year-end. Some European nations have expressed
support for the treaty, but face constitutional
hurdles or require a full Cabinet debate before
signing, French and U.N. officials said.
The treaty was officially opened for signature at
Tuesday's ceremony in Paris. It will enter into force
after 20 countries ratify it, usually by a
parliamentary vote.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour
called the treaty an important step both in preventing
injustices common years ago and barring newer abuses
that often fall through regulatory loopholes.
Arbour said the United States had expressed
"reservations" about parts of the text, but declined
to elaborate, and she urged U.S. officials to sign and
ratify it. She noted that America often backs
activities of the UNHCR without formally signing on to
them.
She called the treaty "a message to all modern-day
authorities committed to the fight against terrorism"
that some past tactics are now "not acceptable, in a
very explicit way."
The convention defines forced disappearances as the
arrest, detention, kidnapping or "any other form of
deprivation of freedom" by state agents or affiliates,
followed by denials or cover-ups about the detention
and location of the person gone missing.
Nations that eventually ratify the text would enshrine
victims' rights, and would require states to penalize
any forced disappearances in their countries and enact
preventative and monitoring measures.
French officials, who led the effort, counted more
than 51,000 people who were disappeared by their
governments in over 90 countries since 1980,
Douste-Blazy said. Some 41,000 of those cases remain
unsolved.
"Men and women disappear every day on every continent,
for defending human rights, for just opposing their
governments' policies or simply because they want
justice," Douste-Blazy said. "The situation could not
continue to go unpunished. It required a strong
response from the international community."
Latin American states like Argentina, once plagued by
disappearances, are now owning up to much of the
violence that left hundreds of thousands dead or
disappeared in the 1970s and 1980s. Disappearances
were also a common Nazi tactic in World War II.
Argentina's first lady, lawmaker Cristina Kirchner,
took part in the signing. She was in Paris in an
effort to raise her profile before a potential
presidential bid.
© 2007 The Associated Press
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9) Mr. Bush’s Improbable Budget
Editorial
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/opinion/08thur1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
President Bush claims that his new $2.9 trillion budget request is
a tough-minded plan for balancing the books by 2012. In reality,
it’s a smokescreen for making Mr. Bush’s tax cuts permanent
— and either hollowing out the government in the process
or digging the country deeper into debt.
The budget is based on a series of improbable, if not dishonest,
assumptions. To make it appear as if the tax cuts are affordable
in the near term, it assumes that the Pentagon will not spend
a single penny on Iraq or Afghanistan after 2009. It also assumes
there will be no costs for fixing the alternative minimum tax
after this year, even though Mr. Bush and virtually every politician
in America is committed to such relief.
The new budget would also slash key entitlement programs
and punish many of the country’s most vulnerable citizens.
Sharp reductions are envisioned for Medicare, with cuts of
$66 billion over five years, and Medicaid, down approximately
$11 billion. Some of the Medicare proposals could serve as useful
starting points for a debate on controlling costs through such
steps as raising premiums for high-income beneficiaries.
But the Medicaid cuts would be largely counterproductive.
At a time when the number of uninsured children is rising,
the cuts would force many states to reduce their Medicaid rolls.
Mr. Bush’s budget would also take an ax to most other domestic
spending. One program that would be gone entirely in 2008
provides monthly bags of groceries, each worth less than $20,
to 440,000 needy elderly people. The $99 million block grant
to states to help pay for preventive health care would also be
eliminated. Other cuts — in Head Start, veterans’ health care,
environmental protection, scientific research, low-income housing
and heating assistance, to name a few — would start in 2008
and grow, totaling $114 billion over five years. Such cuts would
be shortsighted and cruel. They would also be politically impossible
to enact — further exposing Mr. Bush’s budget as the sham it is.
Even if they were achievable, the proposed spending reductions
would be grossly unfair. Government programs that serve
middle-class and low-income Americans would be slashed to
offset the cost of extending tax cuts that favor the rich. In 2012
alone, the president’s new budget would cut domestic discretionary
spending by $34 billion, while tax cuts for households with incomes
above $1 million would total $73 billion. In all, by 2012, 20 percent
of the tax cuts would go to that richest sliver of Americans;
one-third of the benefits would go to households with incomes
over $400,000.
Mr. Bush’s new budget has a few worthwhile nuggets, like a proposed
increase in Pell grants for low-income college students and a jump
in the funds for AIDS treatment worldwide. In drafting a real budget,
Congress can take those items from the president’s version,
and jettison the rest.
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10) House Democrats Set Framework for Iraq Vote
By JEFF ZELENY
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/washington/08cnd-cong.html?hp&ex=1170997200&en=509f9e65dc1b0de5&ei=5094&partner=homepage
WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 — House Democratic leaders said today that
the Iraq war resolution scheduled to be debated next week would
be limited to President Bush’s plan to dispatch more troops
to Baghdad, leaving any controversial decisions over war spending
for a later discussion.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, and other party leaders
met with members of the Democratic caucus for more than
an hour today to discuss the framework of the first major
debate over Iraq since Democrats took control of Congress
last month. The three-day debate is set to begin next Tuesday.
The leaders reassured Democrats that the nonbinding, symbolic
vote against the troop buildup plan would be the first —
not the final — expression of opposition to the war. A letter
signed by 71 House Democrats urged the party’s leaders
to take a stronger stance, including outlining a six-month
troop withdrawal plan.
“There’s no doubt that everybody in the caucus understands
that this is a first step — an important step for Congress to
express their view of support or opposition to the escalation
and the increase of troop levels,” said Representative
Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader.
The Iraq resolution will allow lawmakers to voice their support
for the troops, Mr. Hoyer said, even as they state their opposition
to the Bush administration’s Iraq policy.
Mr. Hoyer said Republicans would be allowed to propose an
alternative plan during 36 hours of debate next week, with each
member of Congress being allotted five minutes to speak. But
the Democratic leaders said their resolution would be crafted
broadly, in the hopes of demonstrating wide bipartisan opposition
to Mr. Bush’s Iraq strategy.
The Senate has struggled to bring the Iraq resolution up for a vote,
despite having bipartisan support for a variety of plans offered by
Senators Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Carl Levin of Michigan,
both Democrats, and Senators John W. Warner of Virginia
and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, both Republican.
Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the chairman of the House
Democratic caucus, said the House resolution would be a simple
expression of support — or opposition — to the White House
troop buildup plan.
“It’s not Biden-Hagel. It’s not Warner-Levin. It’s Bush. Mr. Emanuel
said in an interview today. “It will be an up or down vote on whether
you support the president’s policy.”
In the Senate, the impasse over the Iraq continued, with Republicans
and Democrats pointing the blame at one another for failing
to budge on procedural maneuvering to bring the symbolic war
resolution up for debate.
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11) Noted Arab Citizens Call on Israel to Shed Jewish Identity
By ISABEL KERSHNER
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/world/middleeast/08israel.html
JERUSALEM, Feb. 7 — A group of prominent Israeli Arabs has called
on Israel to stop defining itself as a Jewish state and become
a “consensual democracy for both Arabs and Jews,” prompting
consternation and debate across the country.
Their contention is part of “The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs
in Israel,” a report published in December under the auspices of the
Committee of Arab Mayors in Israel, which represents the country’s
1.3 million Arab citizens, about a fifth of the population. Some
40 well-known academics and activists took part.
They call on the state to recognize Israeli Arab citizens as an
indigenous group with collective rights, saying Israel inherently
discriminates against non-Jewish citizens in its symbols of state,
some core laws, and budget and land allocations.
The authors propose a form of government, “consensual democracy,”
akin to the Belgian model for Flemish- and French-speakers, involving
proportional representation and power-sharing in a central government
and autonomy for the Arab community in areas like education,
culture and religious affairs.
The document does not deal with the question of a Palestinian state
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where an additional three million
Palestinians live under Israeli occupation without Israeli citizenship.
The aim of the declaration is to reshape the future of Israel itself.
The reaction of Jewish Israelis has ranged from some understanding
to a more widespread response, indignation. Even among the center-left,
where concern for civil rights is common, some have condemned the
document as disturbing and harmful. On the right, Israeli Arabs have
been accused of constituting a “fifth column,” a demographic
and strategic threat to the survival of the state.
Rassem Khamaisi, one of the Future Vision participants and an urban
planner, said: “The document reflects the Arab public’s feelings
of discrimination. We should be looking for ways of partnership.”
Many Israeli Arabs say they are second-class citizens who do
not get the same services and considerations as Jews and face
discrimination in employment, education and state institutions.
Last month, a Muslim Arab legislator from the Labor Party, Ghaleb
Majadele, was named a government minister, the first in Israel’s
history. That development has been criticized as unhelpful by
other Israeli Arab politicians, who mostly boycott the mainstream
Zionist parties, running for Parliament on separate Arab lists
and sitting in opposition.
In an interview, Mr. Majadele distanced himself from the new
document, saying that pragmatic political action would help the
Arab sector more than any ideological program. “The fact is that
Israel is a Jewish state, a state with a Jewish majority,” he said.
“Can we change that reality with words?”
Yet Mr. Majadele said that he, too, felt uncomfortable with national
symbols like the flag, with a Star of David, and the anthem, which
speaks of the “Jewish soul” yearning for Zion.
“These were made and meant for the Jews, and did not take
the Arab minority into account,” he said. “If Israel wants to integrate
us fully, then we need an anthem and flag that can do that. We and
the state must think deeply if we want to take a step in that direction.
But it must be by agreement, with the involvement of both sides.”
Many of the Future Vision participants are affiliated with elite Israeli
academic institutions. For example, Asad Ghanem, one of the
document’s principal authors, is head of the Government and Political
Theory Department at Haifa University’s School of Political Science.
As such, both Jewish conservatives and liberals have been taken
aback by some propositions in the document. Many are angered
by its description of Israel as the outcome of a “settlement process
initiated by the Zionist Jewish elite” in the West and realized by
“colonial countries” in the wake of the Holocaust.
Jewish critics argue that the Future Vision report negates Israel’s
legitimacy and raison d’être as the realization of Jewish self-
determination; further, they say it undermines the idea of
a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, since
that implies the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside
a Jewish one.
In January, the senior fellows and board of the Israel Democracy
Institute, a generally liberal independent research group that
has worked on projects with some of the same Arab intellectuals,
wrote a response expressing “severe anguish” over the document’s
contents.
Prof. Shimon Shamir, a former Israeli ambassador to Jordan
and Egypt, published a letter in Al Sinara, an Arabic weekly in Israel,
stating that even among Jews who are generally sympathetic
to Arab concerns, the Future Vision document “evokes a sense
of threat.”
The document has exposed some raw nerves. Israel’s Declaration
of Independence promises full equality in social and political
rights to all inhabitants, irrespective of religion, race or sex,
and Israel’s Arab citizens participate in the country’s democratic
process.
Over the decades, however, Jewish-Arab relations in Israel have
been marked by mutual suspicion and resentment. From 1948
until 1966 Arabs here lived under military rule. A 2003 government
report acknowledged discrimination by state institutions, and
a recent report on poverty published last year by Israel’s National
Insurance Institute indicated that 53 percent of the impoverished
families in Israel are Arabs.
And it is clear that the vast majority of Israel’s Jews consider the
very essence of their state to be its Jewish identity.
Traditionally, Arab parties in the Parliament have focused on peace
and equality, but the Arab public has become frustrated with
the lack of results, leading to a lower voter turnout. Most Arab
Israeli politicians have rejected the Future Vision document
as unrealistic, exposing divisions within the Arab community.
Arab parties hold 10 seats in the 120-seat Parliament and are
sometimes accused by the Jewish establishment of provocations.
During last summer’s Lebanon war, some Arab legislators
were perceived as sympathizing with Hezbollah.
Now there are signs of growing assertiveness and extremism
on both sides. Avigdor Lieberman, head of the hard-line Yisrael
Beiteinu Party, which has 11 seats in the Parliament, wants
to reduce the number of Arab Muslim citizens in Israel by
eventually transferring some populous Arab towns and their
inhabitants to a future Palestinian state.
A few Jewish Israeli liberals have welcomed the Future Vision
document. Shalom (Shuli) Dichter, co-director of Sikkuy,
a Jewish-Arab organization that monitors civic equality in Israel,
has hailed the effort as opening a serious dialogue about the
terms for genuine Jewish-Arab co-existence though he, too,
took issue with the historical narrative adopted by the authors.
In January, 30,000 copies of the document were distributed
to Arab homes with weekend newspapers.
According to a poll of Arab Israelis by the Yafa Institute,
commissioned by the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab
Cooperation, only 14 percent of respondents said they thought
Israel should remain a Jewish and democratic state in its current
format; 25 percent wanted a Jewish and democratic state that
guarantees full equality to its Arab citizens. But some 57 percent
said they wanted a change in the character and definition
of the state, whether to become a “state for all its citizens,”
a binational state, or a consensual democracy.
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12) Violence Said to Increase on Mexican Border
By JOHN HOLUSHA
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/washington/08cnd-homeland.html?ref=us
Efforts to stop smuggling and illegal immigration have led
to increased violence along the southern border of the United
States as criminal organizations seek to continue their operations,
Michael Chertoff, the secretary of Department of Homeland
Security, said today.
Testifying before a House Appropriations subcommittee, Mr. Chertoff
said the department planned to spend $1 billion for technology and
fencing to secure borders and $778 million to hire 3,000 additional
border guards to further tighten entry into the U.S.
He said the increase in violence was a natural consequence of these
efforts, as smugglers of both people and drugs try to defend their
businesses against the increased enforcement effort.
Representative John Abney Culberson of Texas talked of a “dangerous
and lawless” border area. He said it was like the old-time Indian country
“except the Indians have machine guns and satellite phones.”
He said some smuggling organizations had established observation
posts on hill tops within the United States to spot law enforcement
activities, including watching National Guard units deployed along
the border. Some police units were reluctant to turn their lights
on at night because of the observers and armed smugglers.
Mr. Chertoff said the increased efforts to stop illegal immigration
had resulted in a “decrease in the number of people seeking
to cross the border.”
But he said “this is not a declaration of victory” and said smugglers
would increase their efforts to penetrate the southern border.
He also told the subcommittee that by the end of the year virtually
all the containers coming into American ports would be screened
for the presence of radioactive material that could be used in dirty
bombs. He said rail shipments would also be screened for the
presence of radioactive materials “starting with New York city.”
But the stepped-up effort to curb illegal immigration has caused
Homeland Security officials to “throw away the Constitution” when
it come to immigrant’s rights, said Representative Jose E. Serrano,
Democrat of New York. And deportations break up families, he said,
by separating immigrant parents from their American-born
citizen children.
Increased security has been used by officials as “an opportunity
to move against immigrants,” he said.
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13) Officials See a Spread in Activity of Gangs
"The Los Angeles plan will also call for publicly naming the “top
targeted” gangs and placing gang members on the F.B.I.’s
most-wanted list."
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/us/08gang.html?ref=us
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 7 — The authorities warned Wednesday that street
gangs with ties to El Salvador and other Central American nations
have been growing in size and violence, with two gangs based
in Los Angeles counting thousands of members here and in El Salvador.
Law enforcement officials, meeting for the International Chiefs of Police
Summit on Transnational Gangs, said that gangs with roots or ties
to Los Angeles had spread to 40 states and seven countries.
“Los Angeles is ground zero for modern gang activity,” said J. Stephen
Tidwell, the assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
in charge of the Los Angeles field office. “They are more dispersed
and more dangerous than ever.”
The Justice Department has begun surveying about 20 cities to
determine the extent of what Kevin J. O’Connor, an associate deputy
attorney general, called a “resurgence of gang violence in
several U.S. cities.”
The law enforcement officials, gathered here from countries
in both North and Central America, pledged greater collaboration
in the fight against the mounting violence.
Los Angeles officials have in recent weeks promised to redouble
efforts against gangs, which a city-financed report last month
said included 40,000 members operating in a city lacking
a comprehensive approach to attack the problem.
Police Chief William J. Bratton and Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa
of Los Angeles plan to announce Thursday a broad proposal
to diminish gang crime. It will include the creation of a unit
of homicide detectives focused on gang killings and attempted
murders and the designation of a departmentwide “gang coordinator”
overseeing all enforcement directed at gangs.
The Los Angeles plan will also call for publicly naming the “top
targeted” gangs and placing gang members on the F.B.I.’s
most-wanted list.
Each police division will convene meetings with community leaders
to discuss gang problems and trends and in the San Fernando
Valley, where gang crime has increased the most, a group
of 50 officers will analyze and respond to “real-time crime
data” showing violent flare-ups.
Mr. Villaraigosa told the conference that it was important
to improve schools and community programs.
Mr. Bratton said, “We are not all about hooking and booking,” and
promised more coordination with organizations trying to keep
children out of gangs.
But the officials have so far released few details on plans to stem
gang violence beyond stepping up law enforcement efforts.
This week, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced
an agreement with President Antonio Saca of El Salvador to improve
cooperation between the countries in identifying and prosecuting
gang members deported there.
Rodrigo Ávila Avilez, director general of El Salvador’s national
police, speaking to reporters here, said the deportation of gang
members had burdened the police and jails.
“That is one of the main things causing us trouble,” he said,
adding: “We are not asking the U.S. not to send them back. But one
thing we are trying to do is get more information on who they are
and what they did so we can take further steps to prevent
criminal activity.”
Here in Los Angeles, where overall crime has fallen to lows not seen
in decades, the police reported that gang-related violence increased
14 percent last year, after dropping in previous years. The increase
includes what the authorities classify as hate crimes primarily
by Latino gangs against blacks, including the shooting death
of a 14-year-old black girl with no gang ties in December.
Irving Spergel, a University of Chicago sociologist who has studied
gang problems, said in an interview the best strategies struck
the right balance between law enforcement and prevention.
“It’s like raising a family,” Mr. Spergel said. “You have got to be
able to control the kid and support the kid. Control without love
and love without control is not going to work.”
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14) Police to Be Charged in Woman’s Shooting
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/us/08atlanta.html
ATLANTA, Feb. 7 (AP) — Fulton County prosecutors intend to seek
murder charges against three Atlanta police officers involved in the
shooting death of a 92-year-old woman, the lawyer for one
of the officers said Wednesday.
The Fulton County district attorney, Paul Howard, sent a letter
that said he would ask a grand jury to deliver a murder indictment
against the officers, Gregg Junnier, J. R. Smith and Arthur Tesler,
said Rand Csehy, Mr. Junnier’s lawyer.
The woman, Kathryn Johnston, died and three officers were
wounded on Nov. 21 when the police used a no-knock warrant
to respond to a report of drugs in Ms. Johnston’s home.
The police say that Ms. Johnston fired a handgun and that officers
returned fire. An autopsy found that she had been shot
five or six times.
Narcotics officers said an informer had claimed there was cocaine
in the home, but none was found.
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15) Palestinians Announce Unity Deal
By HASSAN M. FATTAH
"The Associated Press said that Mr. Abbas asked the Saudi foreign
minister, Saud Al-Faisal, on Wednesday to consult the United States
about whether “respect the accords” would be acceptable language."
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/world/middleeast/08cnd-saudi.html?hp&ex=1170997200&en=a60f66364208bcad&ei=5094&partner=homepage
MECCA, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 8 — The two main Palestinian factions,
Hamas and Fatah, agreed today to form a unity government
and settle some of the disputes that have led to months
of violence between them.
Khaled Meshal, the Damascus-based militant leader who was
a principal figure in the Hamas delegation to the talks, and the
Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who led the Fatah
delegation, signed the agreement this evening.
The deal calls for a new cabinet that includes members
of both parties and independent politicians.
It says the new government will “respect” previous deals
with Israel — a form of words chosen in a finely balanced
compromise — and that the two parties pledged to end
all violence against one another.
Nine ministries in the new government are to be headed by Hamas
appointees; six are set aside for Fatah and five for independents.
The two sides agreed to decide later which groups get which
portfolios, postponing the contentious question of control
of the Palestinian Authority’s security services.
“We will start a new age with a new government to move forward,”
said Mr. Meshal, adding that it would be “a government capable
of reducing our suffering and moving forward.”
Ismail Haniya, the present Palestinian prime minister, who was
also at the head of the Hamas delegation along with Mr. Meshal,
said: “We will return to our land bound by this agreement.”
Anyone who pursued political violence now would not be protected,
he said: “We will remove the cover on anyone who fires a bullet.”
Mr. Abbas said that Palestinians would now focus on the agreement.
The agreement emerged from two long days of talks at a Saudi
royal palace towering high above Mecca’s Grand Mosque, the place
where Islam was born. Leaders of the two factions had to overcome
divisions earlier in the day over how to divide cabinet posts in a joint
government, and on whether to recognize previous agreements
with Israel. They reached a tentative agreement earlier in the day
that culminated in the signed agreement.
The question of how to treat past deals with Israel was the most
critical issue in the negotiations here, as the Palestinians try to find
a formula that will satisfy Western donor nations and Israel, and win
a lifting of sanctions and embargoes against Palestinian Authority.
Hamas, the more militant of the two factions, is regarded by Israel
and by Western nations as a terrorist group. It has refused to recognize
Israel or honor the Palestinian Authority’s past agreements with Israel.
In hopes of reaching a compromise with Fatah, Hamas proposed
that the new unity government “respect” past accords, rather than
“commit” to them, which Hamas says would be tantamount
to recognizing Israel.
“We don’t have a problem in accepting the wording ‘respect’ the
agreements,” Nabil Amr, a spokesman for the Fatah delegation
to the talks, told reporters today.
Both Israel and the so-called Quartet — the United States, Russia,
the United Nations and the European Union — have warned they will
not deal with any new government that does not recognize Israel
and renounce violence.
Mr. Hamad’s comments today indicated how difficult it may be to
reach a workable compromise between Hamas and Fatah.
“I wonder why the issue of recognizing Israel is the key to everything?”
Mr. Hamad said. “We are interested to end the siege, but not at any cost.”
He added: “We try to balance between our Palestinian national
constants and our opening up to the international community.
Israel is not ready to deal with any Palestinian side unless the
Palestinians deal with the Israeli conditions.”
Saudi officials and advisers have offered help in reaching an
agreement but insist that they are not directly involved in the talks.
The negotiations were widely viewed as the last chance to prevent
an all-out civil war between the feuding Palestinian factions,
which have reached and then broken numerous cease-fire
agreements since fighting began last summer.
The Associated Press said that Mr. Abbas asked the Saudi foreign
minister, Saud Al-Faisal, on Wednesday to consult the United States
about whether “respect the accords” would be acceptable language.
In his comments to reporters today, Mr. Hamad called for Arab
support to ensure that the Palestinians do not give up what he
called long-held Palestinian goals, including regaining control
of Jerusalem from Israel. When it comes to Israeli policies that
Palestinians oppose, “the language of condemnation is not
enough,” he said.
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16) The State of Black California:
"Three-Fifths Compromise" Is Alive In The Sunshine State
By Anthony Asadullah Samad
BC Columnist
The Black Commentator
February 8, 2007 - Issue 216
http://www.blackcommentator.com/216/216_between_the_lines_black_california_samad_pf.html
The California Legislative Black Caucus released its commissioned
study on the state of Black Californians last week. The brainchild of
Caucus Vice Chair, Assembly Majority Leader, Karen Bass, the study
is an expansion on the state of Black Los Angeles report released
by the Urban League and United Way in 2005. I swear, black people
have to be the most studied people in the history of the universe.
It's not like we don't know "the state" of black people. We know all
too well. What we don't know is why "the state" continues to persist.
I'm sure other folk have their reasons, and they're not the same
as what Black America believes. They'll probably label it "self-inflicted."
Black America maintains it's been systemic and institutional, from
the very start. Black America was designed three-fifths at the
constitutional convention in 1787 when they were essentially
the compromise that moved the Constitution forward. They were
near "three-fifths" on the equality index of the Urban League Report
released in 2004. Blacks were nearly "three-fifths" in the equality
index in the Los Angeles report released in 2005, and the state
of Black Californians are fairing no better in 2007. The "three-fifths"
compromise is alive in the "Sunshine state," the fifth largest economy
in the world.
The equality index in the State of Black California study compares
the extent to which Blacks enjoy equal conditions in relation
to Whites (1.00) and other ethnic groups in the areas of:
-economics
-housing
-health
-education
-criminal justice
-civic engagement
Anything under 1.00 means "less than equal," and anything more
than 1.00 means "more than equal." Black equality in California
stands at 0.69. Latino equality is also at 0.69. Asian equality,
at 1.01, is equal to that of Whites. So, on its face, it would appear
that Black equality has moved slightly closer to three fourths.
But even at 0.69, Blacks in California are less equal than the national
average of 0.73, the National Urban League reported three years ago.
The 0.69 equality index is also misleading. With a 0.66 index score
for housing, a 0.68 index score for health quality, a 0.69 index score
for education, a 0.68 index score for criminal justice and a 1.30 for
civic engagement, one could easily miss the most significant indicator
of them all as the real basis for inequality in America. The economic
index for Blacks, based on four factors; median income, employment,
poverty and business ownership, is 0.59. Just under three-fifths
of Whites. The sun doesn't shine on us in Cali the way it tans others.
In fact, it's a pretty pale proposition for most of the state's
2.2 million Blacks.
The sun isn't shining on just Blacks alone. Latinos faired just as bad-
worse in some instances—but their state is largely attributed to the
large influx of poor immigrants. African American's state is attributed
to them, well…being black. I know, it sounds crazy, and certainly it's
an excuse that's been so played out in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s
that people got tired of hearing it. But African Americans still have
the highest racial animus of any other race, religion or culture.
Society is less tolerate of African Americans' social condition, more
punitive of African Americans in the criminal justice system, more
subjugated in the economic system and more discriminated
in the health, housing and insurance systems. Yes, the state
of Black Californians, as the state of Black America, is partly
systemic.
Colorblind discrimination is the current day's system of oppression.
But our recent ancestors overcame worse systemic forms of oppression,
like slavery and segregation. One generation removed from each system's
end produced massive progress. As black people's economics improved,
so did their quality of life. Racism has always been economic,
as competition for jobs, housing, education and business capital
(or farming subsidies) were always the basis for political and social
exclusion. Public policy and social construct had always subjugated
African Americans—and impacted others as well. But as the economy
goes, so goes the nation.
It's the same with Black America. Economics continues to be the area
where Blacks are most disadvantaged, and most unequal. Economics
dictates housing, health care, education and one's ability to confront
the criminal justice system. Competition issues still dictate these
socio-economic factors as those with resources haven't been willing
to deconstruct barriers that allow for full access to equality. With the
economic index of Blacks in the State of California study at 0.59,
three-fifths of white's economic status, the chance of economic
disparities stand to become more deeply entrenched and the poverty
question become more important than ever. All other index indicators
are the residual fallout of the state of Black economics in California.
The status of the overall equality index for Blacks is collateral
damage caused by the dismal economic condition in the state's
urban cores. Three solutions that the study did not recommend
(though they did recommend many, both legislative and non-
legislative) must occur before inequalities in California can be
remedied:
1- California voters must repeal Proposition 209. For as long as
California is perceived to be an "anti-affirmative action" state,
contracting opportunities, educational opportunities and employment
opportunities will be near zero. History has proven that socio-economic
changes don't occur by the beneficence of those whose economic
interests are challenged
2- Closer regulation on check cashers, "pay-day" loan sharks
and other predator lenders that now dominate poor communities,
exploiting the poor and disenfranchised in ways to keep their
income "hamstrung" and to keep them wealthless
3- repeal the "Three Strikes" law. Blacks are disproportionately
over-represented in California's prison, and when they are released
—their conviction doesn't allow them to find work. Recidivist
behavior eventually causes them to go back to prison, and
ultimately be "thrown away" in the anti-redemption system.
Until some of the systemic issues are addressed, the "compromise"
will continue as the disparities will be maintained, and inequality
will be perpetuated. And Blacks in California will be "three-fifths"
of Whites and Asians as it relates to economic equality, which
drives everything else.
BC Columnist Anthony Asadullah Samad is a national columnist,
managing director of the Urban Issues Forum and author
of 50 Years After Brown: The State of Black Equality In America.
His website is AnthonySamad.com
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17) US MARCHERS SENT MESSAGE - AND DESERVED BETTER
By Charles Jenks
January 31, 2007
http://www.consumersforpeace.org/news_marchers_send_message.html
See march photos at
http://www.traprockpeace.org/antiwar_march_012707/
See videos of Unified Youth and Student Contingent and march at
http://www.traprockpeace.org/traprock_video/
On January 27th, the people sent a clear message to Washington - “Get
U.S. Troops Out of Iraq Now!” Hundreds of thousands of people
marched, and they completely - for the first time in history it is
reported - surrounded the Capitol Building. When the first marchers
came to the end of the loop there were people still waiting to start
marching.
Unfortunately, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) - the primary
sponsor - didn’t live up to the standards set by the marchers. Its
continuing refusal to work with some other national coalitions, and
its focus on celebrities and politicians, was reflected in its
botching the start of the march and in the focus given by media.
The great news though, from my perspective, is that this march drew
such a broad range of people. Look at the people marching -
www.traprockpeace.org has over 200 march photos - and you’ll see a
cross-section of America. This - as much as the numbers - is what
should worry the Bush Administration and Congress.
I saw the entire march, as I was assigned to photograph it for
Traprock Peace Center (which has covered every national march since
the historic gathering in Washington on October 26, 2002). This was
as large as any march that I have seen in D.C. The 500,000 estimate
given by organizers seems reasonable.
This was a huge outpouring of people, despite it being January, and
despite Weather Channel reports that there would be a wind-chill in
the 30’s with 15 mile per hour winds. As it turned out, it was almost
balmy, with little wind and temperatures in the 40’s. If the weather
forecast had been accurate, surely the march would have been even
larger. (No, I’m not blaming Bush for messing with the weather
report, though it did occur to me!)
This writer saw not one instance of violence. An eyewitness told me
that at one point about 80 people (AP said 150 people - funny what
the media exaggerates and what it downplays) rushed down a sidewalk
at the Capitol as though they were going to storm up the Capitol
steps. This sent the police scurrying to head them off, with police
running down the steps. The rush was obviously choreographed and done
in jest, as protestors came to a sudden halt, apparently acting
merely to tease the police and get a reaction. This kind of behavior
- juvenile in my opinion - was the marked exception on this day.
The mainstream media, of course, grossly under-reported the size of
the march (AP called it tens of thousands, and cited police sources
as saying it was less than 100,000). So what else is new? Organizers
obviously need to take media tendencies into account ahead of time.
Was that done here? It didn’t seem so.
So how did UFPJ manage to screw up the beginning of the march? Here’s
my eye-witness account of what happened.
As the speeches from the main stage were winding down, march marshals
patrolled a large taped-off square area on 3rd Street, directly
behind the stage, where celebrities were gathering in preparation for
stepping off. The march route was to go down to Constitution Avenue
and then take a right turn on Constitution toward Capitol Hill. The
squared-off area, marked by yellow plastic ribbon, was about 100 feet
along 3rd street on one side and the width of the street on the
other. This squared-off area was in the middle of throngs of people.
Marshals were inside and outside the square telling people to get up
on the sidewalks to keep the street clear to let the celebrities who
were supposed to head the march pass through and get in front of the
marchers. About 100 reporters, with march supporters mixed in,
gathered in a tight group jostling for good camera positions on the
side the squared-off area closest to Constitution Ave. Opposite this
gaggle of press were celebrities, liberal Democrat politicians and
organizers selected by UFPJ, taking up their positions behind the big
UFPJ banner.
More and more people gathered as organizing the march took more and
more time. There was a huge crush of people - very tightly formed -
behind the celebrity formation. And there was the crush of press
hugging onto the yellow ribbon opposite the celebs. People were now
surrounding the square, and people were ignoring marshals’ pleas to
clear the street along the beginning of the march route.
This unstable situation blew apart when media people - bristling with
their video and still cameras - noticed that some of their number had
managed to get up close and personal to the celebs and were getting
great shots. Photographers next to this writer (and including this
writer) yelled to one guy with a video camera to get out of the way
of the banner. (He was facing it, camera in hand.) We were trying to
get long-range shots.
Then, another photographer got in front of the banner. Enough was
enough for the crush of photographers behind the yellow ribbon. One
lifted the ribbon and sprinted for the banner to get her own great
shot of celebrities. This led to an avalanche of photographers,
trying to get close-ups (I got a few myself).
The celebrity formation was now confronted by a mass of photographers
acting like paparazzi. (And truly, they were just that, as many, if
not most, were there to take pics of the famous.) The celebs started
moving forward, taking baby steps, as the reporters inched backwards,
clicking away. Meanwhile, marshals were yelling to the now hundreds
of people in the street to get off the street and to “fall in behind”
the group of celebrities who were supposed to be heading the march
and who were still inching along.
There was no place to fall in behind the celebrity “head” as there
was a crush of people behind it and masses of people on the sides.
Finally, the police in front of the entire mass of people in the
street - where the head of the march should have been - started up
their motorcycles and started to move. The marshals were still
pleading with people to get off the street to allow the celebrities
to get in front of the marchers, but instead people already massed in
front of them began marching. One guy yelled out: “Hey, we’re
marching!” The celebs were now hundreds of people behind the real
head - the people.
Is there a lesson here? I think there are several.
First, where’s the A.N.S.W.E.R. organization when you need it? UFPJ
famously (notoriously) refused to work with A.N.S.W.E.R. after
refusing to endorse national actions by World Can’t Wait and refusing
to follow the global call for mass demonstrations last March.
A.N.S.W.E.R. surely wouldn’t have set up the march to begin in the
middle of masses of people. Stupid they’re not.
Second, with the focus of the “head” of the march so much on
celebrities and liberal politicians (where was Iraq Veterans Against
the War, for example?), it was inevitable that the crush of people
would be exacerbated, and that the media that came would largely be
there to photograph and quote the celebs. This was reflected in the
media coverage, as on CNN. I’ll be impressed with the celebrity who
gives up a movie career - as so many dedicated organizers have given
up or suspended their careers - at least until the U.S. is out of
Iraq. Until then, I see people who have bought their place at the
head of the march with their fame, their money or both. No wonder
that people did not obey orders to “fall in behind.”
Which brings us to a third point. The organizers were out of touch
with the people. How could they have thought that people would just
obey them and fall in behind when there was no place to fall in? Or
that the people would clear a path, like drops in the Red Sea, for
UFPJ’s hand-chosen “head” to pass?
This march was about the people who came to protest the war and
occupation. It wasn’t about the celebrities and politicians who gave
a glamorous face and allowed march organizers to rub elbows with
them. Please understand me - I am glad that celebrities and pols
participate. Yet media coverage would lead one to believe that it was
all about the celebrities leading “10’s of thousands.” The huge
masses of people were the real story, but these people weren’t in the
story.
UFPJ needs to get off its high horse about being THE coalition of
antiwar forces in the U.S., as it represented itself before the
London International Peace Conference in December 2005. (In the next
breath, UFPJ told international organizers that it was not going to
participate in global mass demos in March 2006, preferring instead a
mass demo in April as a way to have influence on the November
elections.) If UFPJ wants to end this war and occupation now, it
needs to become a willing and cooperative partner with other national
groups - including A.N.S.W.E.R. - and get over its fixation on
celebrities and liberal politicians.
Bits and Pieces
Biggest and most energetic contingents: International Socialist
Organization, Campus Antiwar Network/SDS/WCW’s Unified Youth and
Student Contingent, Service Employees International Union (SEIU),
U.S. Labor Against the War and Iraq Veterans Against the War. (Why
does UFPJ keep competing with the real energies of the student
movement? It keeps promoting its NYSPC, whereas the most effective
organizational energy since early 2003 has come from other student
groups, such as CAN?)
Troops Out Now Coalition also took up a prime spot at 3rd and
Constitution to lead chants via their bullhorn. And people wearing
A.N.S.W.E.R. patches were all over the place. Though they’ve been
shunned by UFPJ, they showed up.
Worst sign?
The ubiquitous Move-On sign that read “Iraq Escalation? Wrong Way.”
Hey, Move-On, this was a protest against the war and occupation, not
merely against the escalation. This is the same Move-On that refused
pleas to take a stand against attacking Iran. Instead, its petition
merely calls for not nuking Iran. “President Bush and Congress should
rule out attacking Iran with nuclear weapons.” Is that helpful, Move-On?
Post-March Disappointment?
Another profile in courage/integrity by Sen. John Kerry.
With his history of having refused many times to meet with his
antiwar constituents before he voted for the war resolution in
October, 2002, and his dismissing 500 faxed hand-written pleas to
call Scott Ritter as a witness for the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee hearings on that resolution, and his having locked his
constituents out of his office on the day he voted for war, one would
think that Senator Kerry might actually meet with the 70 constituents
who assembled in his D.C. office on January 28th. Not to disappoint
those who appreciate consistency, he again sent an aide. He was “out
of the country.” I’m sure he was, and I’m sure he could, if he
wished, arrange his schedule to meet with his constituents of peace.
See details on the above-cited history at http://traprockpeace.org/
hewasmisled.html
Post March Triumph?
The incredible program on ending the Iraq occupation held at Busboys
and Poets with speakers Kelly Dougherty, co-founder and Executive
Director of Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Anthony Arnove, author
of “Iraq: the Logic of Withdrawal”. Son of Nun, the hip-hop poet/
activist, performed three amazing pieces. See full coverage of this
event at http://www.traprockpeace.org/arnove_dougherty_012707.html
***
Charles Jenks, is Chair of the Advisory Board and Past President of
Traprock Peace Center, and he serves as its web manager. He writes
and consults for ConsumersforPeace.org and the ExxonMobil War
Boycott. A licensed attorney since 1980, he has practiced human
rights law for over 20 years.
Charles Jenks
Chair of Advisory Board
Traprock Peace Center
103 Keets Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
http://www.traprockpeace.org
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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
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Mistrial Could Be End of Watada Case
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020807J.shtml
Brooklyn: Woman’s Death Attributed to Cold
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
An 84-year-old Brooklyn woman was the city’s first victim of the
recent cold snap, the medical examiner’s office announced yesterday.
The woman, whose identity was not released, was found in her
apartment on Sunday afternoon and taken to Interfaith Medical
Center where she died later that day, according to Ellen Borakove,
a spokeswoman for the medical examiner. An autopsy, which was
completed yesterday, found that the woman died of hypothermia,
Ms. Borakove said. The autopsy also showed that the woman had
a heart ailment and diabetes. Ms. Borakove said she had
no information about whether the woman’s apartment had heat..
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/nyregion/08mbrfs-frozen.html
Records Show Extra Scrutiny of Detainees in ’04 Protests
By JIM DWYER
"At the height of the mass arrests, on Aug. 31, 2004, demonstrators
— and some people who said they were bystanders just swept
up by the police — were held for an average of 32.7 hours before
they saw a judge, according to city statistics. For people charged
with crimes that the police decided were not related to the
convention, the wait to see a judge was just under five hours."
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/nyregion/08convention.html
2 French Police Officers Face Charges
in Electrocutions That Sparked ’05 Riots
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:13 a.m. ET
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-France-Suburban-Violence.html
Gates Seeks Troops for Afghanistan Offensive
By THOM SHANKER
SEVILLE, Spain, Feb. 8 — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, attending
his first conference of NATO defense ministers, will tell America’s
allies that they must fulfill their commitments to provide troops
for Afghanistan in time for a spring offensive against the Taliban,
senior American officials said.
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/world/europe/08cnd-nato.html?ref=world
Few Veteran Diplomats Accept Mission to Iraq
By HELENE COOPER
February 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/washington/08diplo.html?ref=world
Chris Floyd | Slaughter and Spin in Najaf
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020607R.shtml
US Sent Billions in Cash on Pallets to Baghdad
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020707J.shtml
An Open Letter to America's Soldiers from the Ranks
The Looming Shadow of Nuremberg
By TONY SWINDELL
February 7, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.com/swindell02072007.html
A Small Part of the Brain, and Its Profound Effects
By SANDRA BLAKESLEE
February 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/health/psychology/06brain.html?ref=science
No Action From Gallaudet Against Arrested Students
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
Gallaudet University said it would not take disciplinary action against
students arrested in protests that forced the ouster in October of its
chosen president. “No student who was arrested will receive additional
punishment,” Robert R. Davila, the interim president, said in a video
on the university’s Web site. But arrested students may face job-related
consequences if they work at the Clerc Center, where Gallaudet helps
develop teaching strategies for deaf children, said Mercy Coogan,
a university spokeswoman. And Mr. Davila’s statement did not preclude
the possibility of university sanctions against students involved
in the protests but not arrested, Ms. Coogan said.
February 7, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/us/07brfs-gallaudet.html
Norman Solomon | Making an Example of Ehren Watada
The people running the Iraq War are eager to make an example of Ehren
Watada. They've convened a kangaroo court-martial. But the man on trial
is setting a profound example of conscience - helping to undermine the
war that the Pentagon's top officials are so eager to protect.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020607A.shtml
Friendly Fire — Seen and Heard On Tape
By Tom Zeller Jr.
February 6, 2007, 12:04 pm
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/friendly-fire-seen-and-heard-on-tape/
California: Mayor Seeks Alcohol Treatment
By JESSE MCKINLEY
Less than a week after admitting to an affair with his campaign
manager’s wife, Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco announced
he had stopped drinking and would seek counseling for alcohol abuse.
Mr. Newsom said in a statement that he accepted responsibility for
his mistakes and that his problems with alcohol were “not an excuse.”
He said he would begin outpatient treatment at a local rehabilitation
program. On Thursday, Mr. Newsom acknowledged having had
a brief affair with Ruby Rippey-Tourk, the wife of Alex Tourk,
a former deputy chief of staff who had been running the mayor’s
campaign for a second term. Mr. Tourk learned of the affair after
Ms. Rippey-Tourk confessed as part of her own substance-abuse
rehabilitation.
February 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/us/06brfs-mayor.html
Cockpit shock dispels Top Gun myth
By Peter Walker 01:01pm
"It is the silence that is most telling. After 11 minutes of near-
constant chat, the two US pilots learn that the convoy they have
just attacked was most likely a line of British light tanks.
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2007/02/06/cockpit_shock_dispels_top_gun_myth.html
Immigrant Entrepreneurs Shape a New Economy
By NINA BERNSTEIN
February 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/nyregion/06entrepreneurs.html?ref=nyregion
Orbiting Junk, Once a Nuisance, Is Now a Threat
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
February 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/science/space/06orbi.html?ei=5094&en=ec2e59140da81fee&hp=&ex=1170824400&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1170773398-g20USUIhZiSEab1m1XQ09g
Settlement in Terror Scare Is $2 Million
By KATIE ZEZIMA
February 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/us/06hoax.html
Main Anti-war Group Plans Rally Against Israeli Policies
Daniel Treiman | Fri. Feb 02, 2007
http://www.forward.com/articles/main-anti-war-group-plans-rally-against/
Exclusive Interview With Ehren Watada
Army First Lt. Ehren Watada was called an exemplary soldier. But then
he decided to face court-martial rather than join a war he says is
illegal.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020507A.shtml
American Takes Over Command of NATO Force in Afghanistan
By CARLOTTA GALL
February 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/world/asia/05afghan.html?ref=world
Iraqis Fault Pace of U.S. Plan in Attack
By DAMIEN CAVE and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
February 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/world/middleeast/05iraq.html?ref=world
Senator Feinstein's Iraq Conflict
January 24-30, 2007
http://www.metrosantacruz.com/feinstein
Robert Fisk: Please spare me the word 'terrorist'
Lebanon is a good place to find out what tosh the 'terror' merchants talk
Published: 03 February 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2211576.ece
The Netherlands, the New Tax Shelter Hot Spot
By LYNNLEY BROWNING
February 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/business/yourmoney/04amster.html?ref=business
Smokestacks in a White Wilderness Divide Iceland
By SARAH LYALL
February 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/world/europe/04iceland.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
FOCUS | In DC, Contractors Are the "Fourth Branch of Govt."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020407Z.shtml
Dissent of an Officer
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020307A.shtml
Oil Giants Offer Scientists Cash to Undermine Climate Study
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0202-05.htm
Dems Indicate They Will Do Little to Stop Bush Troop Surge
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0202-04.htm
18 Years on, Exxon Valdez Oil Still Pours into Alaskan Waters
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0202-01.htm
FOCUS | Bush Seeks $250 Billion to Continue Fighting Iraq War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020307Z.shtml
Push to Resolve Fading Killings of Rights Era
By SHAILA DEWAN
February 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/us/03civil.html?ref=us
Lawmakers Appeal for Guantánamo Release
By RAYMOND BONNER
Almost half of Parliament’s lawmakers signed a letter to House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking for the return of David Hicks, an
Australian who has been detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba,
for more than five years after being picked up in Afghanistan.
It was the strongest political support to date for a growing
movement in Australia to have him sent home.
February 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/world/asia/03briefs-australianatguantanamo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Number of People Stopped by Police Soars in New York
By AL BAKER and EMILY VASQUEZ
"The New York Police Department released new information yesterday
showing that police officers stopped 508,540 individuals on New
York City streets last year — an average of 1,393 stops per day
— often searching them for illegal weapons. The number was
up from 97,296 in 2002, the last time the department divulged
12 months’ worth of data."
February 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/nyregion/03frisk.html?hp&ex=1170565200&en=da4dae3f9209560f&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Iraq Surge Could Total 50,000
A new Congressional report says the increase of 21,500 combat troops
for Iraq proposed by the Bush administration could result in up to 50,000
troops actually being deployed to the region.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020207J.shtml
Factsheet: Palestinian Refugees in Iraq*
Last Update: January 30, 2007
http://al-awdacal.org/iraq-facts.html
Rosa Luxemburg: an example of revolutionary struggle
By Ana María Ramírez
http://socialismandliberation.org/mag/index.php?aid=743
House Panel Probing Bush's Record on Signing Statements
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0201-03.htm
Official Lies Over Najaf Battle Exposed
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0201-02.htm
Molly Ivins, 1944-2007
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0131-08.htm
Grieving Dad Takes War Protest to Times Square
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0201-04.htm
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SCROLL DOWN TO READ:
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS (IN FULL DETAIL)
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
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EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
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LYNNE STEWART AND MICHAEL RATNER IN BAY AREA
FEBRUARY 23-25 (Lynne and her husband Ralph will
stay on several more days. Stay tuned for complete
schedule of events.)
Dear Friends of Lynne Stewart,
I am pleased to announce that Lynne Stewart and Michael Ratner have
just accepted our invitation to tour the Bay Area. The confirmed
dates are February 23-25, 2007. Lynne, accompanied by her husband
Ralph Poynter, will stay on several more days for additional meetings.
In solidarity,
Jeff Mackler,
West Coast Coordinator, Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
Co-Coordinator, Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
O: 415-255-1080
Cell: 510-387-7714
H: 510-268-9429
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May Day 2007
National Mobilization to Support Immigrant Workers!
Web: http://www.MayDay2007.net
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
No Immigrant Bashing! Support Immigrant Rights!
webpage: http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org
e-mail: info@ImmigrantSolidarity.org
New York: (212)330-8172
Los Angeles: (213)403-0131
Washington D.C.: (202)595-8990
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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
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A NEW LOOK AT U.S. RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use of these illegal weapons
http://poisondust.org/
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You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkFVV5X0p4
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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html
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URGENT APPEAL TO SAVE IRAQ'S ACADEMICS.
Call for action to save Iraq's Academics
A little known aspect of the tragedy engulfing Iraq is the systematic
liquidation of the country's academics. Even according to conservative
estimates, over 250 educators have been assassinated, and many
hundreds more have disappeared. With thousands fleeing the country
in fear for their lives, not only is Iraq undergoing a major brain drain,
the secular middle class - which has refused to be co-opted by the
US occupation - is being decimated, with far-reaching consequences
for the future of Iraq.
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/
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END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177
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ENDORSE THE A.N.S.W.E.R. CALL TO ACTION
March 17-18, 2007
GLOBAL DAYS OF ACTION ON THE
4TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WAR!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/Survey?
SURVEY_ID=3400&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&JServSessionIdr011=
k7a3443r73.app8a
http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_homepage
Please circulate widely
www.answercoalition.org
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Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html
On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.
Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:
Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.
You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.
Happy Holidays!
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=4
1
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html
SHOP:
http://www.manataka.org/page633.html
BuyIndies.com
donvasicek.com.
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MUST SEE: PBS VIDEO NOTEBOOK: A DAY AT THE PLANT
NOW's Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa takes us inside the
world's largest pork processing plant, located in Tar Heel, North
Carolina. As the first TV journalist ever allowed to film inside the
plant, owned by The Smithfield Packing Company, Hinojosa gives
us an insider's view of what conditions are like in a plant that
slaughters over 33,000 hogs per day.
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/250/smithfield.html
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Rights activist held in Oaxaca prison
Three students arrested and held incommunicado in Oaxaca
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/80142.html
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TAX THE RICH! FEED THE POOR! MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS, NOT WAR!
www.bauaw.org
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The following quote is from the 1918 anti-war speech delivered
in Canton, Ohio, by Eugene Debs. The address, protesting World War I,
resulted in Debs being arrested and imprisoned on charges of espionage.
The speech remains one of the great expressions of the militancy and
internationalism of the US working class.
His appeal, before sentencing, included one of his best-known quotes:
"...while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal
element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
Read the complete speech at:
http://douglassarchives.org/debs_a78.htm
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!VIVA FIDEL! LONG LIVE FIDEL! LONG LIVE THE CUBAN REVOLUTION!
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My Name is Roland Sheppard
This Is My `Blog'
I am is a retired Business Representative of Painters District
Council #8 in San Francisco. I have been a life long social activist
and socialist. Roland Sheppard is a retired Business Representative
of Painters District Council #8 in San Francisco. I have been
a life long social activist and socialist.
Prior to my being elected as a union official, I had worked
for 31 years as a house painter and have been a lifelong socialist.
I have led a unique life. In my retire age, I am interested in writing
about my experiences as a socialist, as a participant in the Black
Liberation Movement, the Union Movement, and almost all social
movements.
I became especially interested in the environment when I was
diagnosed with cancer due to my work environment. I learned
how to write essays, when I first got a computer in order to put
together all the medical legal arguments on my breakthrough
workers' compensation case in California, proving that my work
environment as a painter had caused my cancer. After a five-year
struggle, I won a $300,000 settlement on his case.
The following essays are based upon my involvement in the
struggle for freedom for all humanity. I hope the history
of my life's experiences will help future generations
of Freedom Fighters.
For this purpose, this website is dedicated.
web.mac.com/rolandgarret/iWeb/Site/RolandSheppardsBlog.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Corporate Looting of the Gulf Coast
Robin Hood in Reverse
http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley11132006.html
More Info:
www.justiceforneworleans.org
For a detailed report:
Big, Easy Money: Disaster Profiteering on the American Gulf Coast
by Rita J. King, Special to CorpWatch
August 15th, 2006
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14004
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
TAX FACT SHEET
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/901006_taxpolicy.pdf
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Communist Manifesto illustrated by Disney [and other cartoons) with
words by K. Marx and F. Engels--absolutely wonderful!...bw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1oGIffyVVk&NR
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Asylum Street Spankers-Magnetic Yellow Ribbon
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=bfMgRHRJ- tc
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Homer Simpson Joins the Army
Another morale-booster from Groening and company. [If you get
a chance to see the whole thing, it's worth it...bw]
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/11/12/video-the-simpsons-salute-the-lazy-and
-uneducated/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A Look at the Numbers: How the Rich Get Richer
Clara Jeffery (May/June 2006 Issue
IN 1985, THE FORBES 400 were worth $221 billion combined.
Today, they re worth $1.13 trillion more than the GDP of Canada.
THERE'VE BEEN FEW new additions to the Forbes 400.
The median household income
has also stagnated at around $44,000.
AMONG THE FORBES 400 who gave to a 2004 presidential
campaign, 72% gave to Bush.
IN 2005, there were 9 million American millionaires,
a 62% increase since 2002.
IN 2005, 25.7 million Americans received food stamps,
a 49% increase since 2000.
ONLY ESTATES worth more than $1.5 million are taxed.
That's less than 1% of all estates
http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjon
es.com/news/exhibit/2006/05/perks_of_privilege.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Do You Want to Stop PREVENT War with Iran?
Dear Friend,
Every day, pundits and military experts debate on TV when, how and where
war with Iran will occur. Can the nuclear program be destroyed? Will the
Iranian government retaliate in Iraq or use the oil weapon? Will it take
three or five days of bombing? Will the US bomb Iran with "tactical"
nuclear weapons?
Few discuss the human suffering that yet another war in the Middle East
will bring about. Few discuss the thousands and thousands of innocent
Iranian and American lives that will be lost. Few think ahead and ask
themselves what war will do to the cause of democracy in Iran or to
America's global standing.
Some dismiss the entire discussion and choose to believe that war simply
cannot happen. The US is overstretched, the task is too difficult, and
the world is against it, they say.
They are probably right, but these factors don't make war unlikely. They
just make a successful war unlikely.
At the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), we are not going to
wait and see what happens.
We are actively working to stop the war and we need your help!
Working with a coalition of peace and security organizations in
Washington DC, NIAC is adding a crucial dimension to this debate - the
voice of the Iranian-American community.
Through our US-Iran Media Resource Program
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkFbIfQs8eafpLV5/
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkFbIfQs8eafpLV5/ , we help
the media ask the right questions and bring attention to the human side
of this issue.
Through the LegWatch program
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabummRbIfQs8eafpLV5/
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabummRbIfQs8eafpLV5/ ,
we are building opposition to the war on Capitol Hill. We spell out the
likely
consequences of war and the concerns of the Iranian-American community
on Hill panels
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkGbIfQs8eafpLV5/
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkGbIfQs8eafpLV5/
and in direct meetings with lawmakers. We recently helped more than a dozen
Members of Congress - both Republican and Democrats - send a strong
message against war to the White House
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkHbIfQs8eafpLV5/
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkHbIfQs8eafpLV5/
But more is needed, and we need your help!
If you don't wish to see Iran turn into yet another Iraq, please make a
contribution online or send in a check to:
NIAC
2801 M St NW
Washington DC 20007
Make the check out to NIAC and mark it "NO WAR."
ALL donations are welcome, both big and small. And just so you know,
your donations make a huge difference. Before you leave the office
today, please make a contribution to stop the war.
Sincerely,
Trita Parsi
President of NIAC
U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW)
www.uslaboragainstwar.org
http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/
Email: info@uslaboragainstwar.org
PMB 153
1718 "M" Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Voicemail: 202/521-5265
Co-convenors: Gene Bruskin, Maria Guillen, Fred Mason,
Bob Muehlenkamp, and Nancy Wohlforth
Michael Eisenscher, National Organizer & Website Coordinator
Virginia Rodino, Organizer
Adrienne Nicosia, Administrative Staff
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Immigration video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tacK8MAfuAs
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Enforce the Roadless Rule for National Forests
Target: Michael Johanns, Secretary, USDA
Sponsor: Earthjustice
We, the Undersigned, endorse the following petition:
This past September, Earthjustice scored a huge victory for our roadless
national forests when a federal district court ordered the reinstatement
of the Roadless Rule.
The Roadless Rule protects roadless forest areas from road-building
and most logging. This is bad news for the timber, mining, and oil
& gas industries ... And so they're putting pressure on their friends
in the Bush Administration to challenge the victory.
Roadless area logging tends to target irreplaceable old growth forests.
Many of these majestic trees have stood for hundreds of years.
By targeting old-growth, the timber companies are destroying
natural treasures that cannot be replaced in our lifetime.
The future of nearly 50 million acres of wild, national forests
and grasslands hangs in the balance. Tell the secretary of the
USDA, Michael Johanns, to protect our roadless areas by enforcing
the Roadless Rule. The minute a road is cut through a forest, that
forest is precluded from being considered a "wilderness area," and
thus will not be covered by any of the Wilderness Area protections
afforded by Congress.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/112283692?z00m=6687205&z00m=668720
5<l=1162406255
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Mumia Abu-Jamal - Reply brief, U.S. Court of Appeals (Please Circulate)
Dear Friends:
On October 23, 2006, the Fourth-Step Reply Brief of Appellee and
Cross-Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal was submitted to the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia. (Abu-Jamal v. Horn,
U.S. Ct. of Appeals Nos. 01-9014, 02-9001.)
Oral argument will likely be scheduled during the coming months.
I will advise when a hearing date is set.
The attached brief is of enormous consequence since it goes
to the essence of our client's right to a fair trial, due process
of law, and equal protection of the law, guaranteed by the Fifth,
Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The issues include:
Whether Mr. Abu-Jamal was denied the right to due process
of law and a fair trial because of the prosecutor's "appeal-after
-appeal" argument which encouraged the jury to disregard the
presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt, and err
on the side of guilt.
Whether the prosecution's exclusion of African Americans
from sitting on the jury violated Mr. Abu-Jamal's right
to due process and equal protection of the law,
in contravention of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986).
Whether Mr. Abu-Jamal was denied due process and equal
protection of the law during a post-conviction hearing
because of the bias and racism of Judge Albert F. Sabo,
who was overheard during the trial commenting that
he was "going to help'em fry the nigger."
That the federal court is hearing issues which concern
Mr. Abu-Jamal's right to a fair trial is a great milestone
in this struggle for human rights. This is the first time
that any court has made a ruling in nearly a quarter
of a century that could lead to a new trial and freedom.
Nevertheless, our client remains on Pennsylvania's death
row and in great danger.
Mr. Abu-Jamal, the "voice of the voiceless," is a powerful
symbol in the international campaign against the death
penalty and for political prisoners everywhere. The goal
of Professor Judith L. Ritter, associate counsel, and
I is to see that the many wrongs which have occurred
in this case are righted, and that at the conclusion
of a new trial our client is freed.
Your concern is appreciated
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *---------*---------*
Antiwar Web Site Created by Troops
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A small group of active-duty military members opposed to the war
have created a Web site intended to collect thousands of signatures
of other service members. People can submit their name, rank and
duty station if they support statements denouncing the American
invasion. "Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price,"
the Web site, appealforredress.org, says. "It is time for U.S. troops
to come home." The electronic grievances will be passed along
to members of Congress, according to the Web site. Jonathan
Hutto, a Navy seaman based in Norfolk, Va., who set up the Web
site a month ago, said the group had collected 118 names and
was trying to verify that they were legitimate service members.
October 25, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/washington/25brfs-005.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Judge Orders Release of Abu Ghraib Child Rape Photos
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2006-10-23 20:54. Evidence
By Greg Mitchell, http://www.editorandpublisher.com
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/14864
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Profound new assault on freedom of speech and assembly:
Manhattan: New Rules for Parade Permits
By AL BAKER
After recent court rulings found the Police Department's
parade regulations too vague, the department is moving
to require parade permits for groups of 10 or more
bicyclists or pedestrians who plan to travel more than
two city blocks without complying with traffic laws.
It is also pushing to require permits for groups of 30
or more bicyclists or pedestrians who obey traffic laws.
The new rules are expected to be unveiled in a public
notice today. The department will discuss them at
a hearing on Nov. 27. Norman Siegel, a lawyer whose
clients include bicyclists, said the new rules
"raise serious civil liberties issues."
October 18, 2006
http://www.nytimes. com/2006/ 10/18/nyregion/ 18mbrfs-002. html
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Soul-Sick Nation: An Astrologer's View of America
Jessica Murray
Format: Paperback (6x9)
ISBN 1425971253
Price: $ 13.95
About the Book
Astrology and geopolitics may seem strange bedfellows, but
Soul-Sick Nation puts the two together to provide a perspective
as extraordinary as the times we are living in. Using the principles
of ancient wisdom to make sense of the current global situation,
this book invites us to look at the USA from the biggest possible
picture: that of cosmic meaning. With a rare blend of compassion,
humor and fearless taboo-busting, Soul-Sick Nation reveals
America's noble potential without sentiment and diagnoses
its neuroses without delusion, shedding new light on troubling
issues that the pundits and culture wars inflame but leave
painfully unresolved: the WTC bombings, the war in Iraq,
Islamic jihad, media propaganda, consumerism and the
American Dream.
In her interpretation of the birth chart of the entity born
July 4, 1776, Murray offers an in-depth analysis of America's
essential destiny--uncovering , chapter by chapter, the greater
purpose motivating this group soul. She shows how this
purpose has been distorted, and how it can be re-embraced
in the decades to come. She decodes current astrological
transits that express the key themes the USA must learn
in this period of millennial crisis-including that of the
responsibility of power-spelling out the profound lessons
the nation will face in the next few years.
Combining the rigor of a political theorist with the vision
of a master astrologer, this keenly intelligent book elucidates
the meaning of an epoch in distress, and proposes a path
towards healing-of the country and of its individual citizens.
Murray explains how each of us can come to terms with this
moment in history and arrive at a response that is unique
and creative. This book will leave you revitalized, shorn
of illusions and full of hope.
About the Author
"Jessica Murray's Soul-Sick Nation raises the symbol-system
of astrology to the level of a finely-honed tool for the critical
work of social insight and commentary. Her unflinching,
in-depth analysis answers a crying need of our time. Murray's
application of laser beam-lucid common sense analysis
to the mire of illusions we've sunken into as a nation is
a courageous step in the right direction... Just breathtaking! "
--Raye Robertson, author of Culture, Media and the Collective Mind
" Jessica Murray,..a choice-centered, psychospiritually- oriented
astrologer.. . has quietly made a real difference in the lives of her
clients, one at a time. In "Soul Sick Nation," she applies exactly those
same skills to understanding America as a whole. Starting from
the premise that the United States is currently a troubled adolescent,
she applies an unflinching gaze to reach an ultimately compassionate
conclusion about how we can heal ourselves and grow up."
- Steven Forrest, author of The Inner Sky and The Changing Sky
http://www.authorho use.com/BookStor e/ItemDetail~ bookid~41780. aspx
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Shop for a Donation at Al-Awda!
Interested in furthering your knowledge about Palestine
and its people?
Want to help make the Palestinian Right to Return a reality?
Looking for ways to show your support for Palestine and
Palestinian refugees?
Why not shop for a donation at Al-Awda
http://al-awda. org/shop. html
and help support a great organization and cause!!
Al-Awda offers a variety of educational materials including interesting
and unique books on everything from oral histories, photo books
on Palestinian refugees, to autobiographies, narratives, political
analysis, and culture. We also have historical maps of Palestine
(in Arabic and English), educational films, flags of various sizes,
and colorful greeting cards created by Palestinian children.
You can also show your support for a Free Palestine, and wear with
pride, great looking T-shirts, pendants, and a variety of Palestine pins.
Shop for a Donation at Al-Awda!
Visit http://al-awda. org/shop. html for these great items, and more!
The Educational Supplies Division
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243
Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda. org
WWW: http://al-awda. org
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC), is a broad-
based, non-partisan, democratic, and charitable organization of
grassroots activists and students committed to comprehensive public
education about the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their
homes and lands of origin, and to full restitution for all their confiscated
and destroyed property in accordance with the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, International law and the numerous United Nations
Resolutions upholding such rights (see FactSheet). Al-Awda, PRRC
is a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3)
organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the
United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations
to Al-Awda, PRRC are tax-deductible.
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Before You Enlist
Excellent flash film that should be shown to all students.
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=ZFsaGv6cefw
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
In an interview in March 1995 entitled, "Jesse Helms: Setting the
Record Straight" that appeared in the Middle East Quarterly, Helms
said, "I have long believed that if the United States is going to give
money to Israel, it should be paid out of the Department of Defense
budget. My question is this: If Israel did not exist, what would
U.S. defense costs in the Middle East be? Israel is at least the
equivalent of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Middle East. Without
Israel promoting its and America's common interests, we would
be badly off indeed."
(Jesse Helms was the senior senator from North Carolina and the
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time.)
http://www.meforum. org/article/ 244
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
TWO AMICUS BRIEFS FILED FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL WITH
THE 3RD CIRCUIT FEDERAL APPEALS COURT IN JULY 2006
These pdf files can be found on Michael Schiffmann's web site at:
http://againstthecr imeofsilence. de/english/ copy_of_mumia/ legalarchive/
The first brief is from the National Lawyers Guild.
The second brief is from the NAACP Legal Defense
and Educational Fund, Inc.
Howard Keylor
For the Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
www.laboractionmumi a.org.
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Asylum Street Spankers-Magnetic Yellow Ribbon
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=bfMgRHRJ- tc
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
SIR! NO SIR!
I urge everyone to get a copy of "Sir! No Sir!" at:
http://www.sirnosir .com/
It is an extremely informative and powerful film
of utmost importance today. I was a participant
in the anti-Vietnam war movement. What a
powerful thing it was to see troops in uniform
leading the march against the war! If you would
like to read more here are two very good
publications:
Out Now!: A Participant' s Account of the Movement
in the United States Against the Vietnam War
by Fred Halstead (Hardcover - Jun 1978)
and:
GIs speak out against the war;: The case of the
Ft. Jackson 8; by Fred Halstead (Unknown Binding - 1970).
Both available at:
http://www.amazon. com/gp/search/ 103-1123166- 0136605?search- alias=books&
rank=
+availability, -proj-total- margin&field- author=Fred% 20Halstead
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Endorse the following petition:
Don't Let Idaho Kill Endangered Wolves
Target: Fish and Wildlife Service
Sponsor: Defenders of Wildlife
http://www.thepetit ionsite.com/ takeaction/ 664280276?
z00m=99090&z00m= 99090<l= 1155834550
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
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/ idrissstelleyfou ndation/
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/isf23/
Report Police Brutality
24HR Bilingual hotline
(415) 595-8251
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/Justice4As a/
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Appeal for funds:
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website http://dahrjamailir aq.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.
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
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/
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nick Mottern, Consumers for Peace
nickmottern@earthlink.net
Howard Zinn joins Kathy Kelly, Dahr Jamail, Ann Wright and Neil MacKay in
endorsing "War Crimes Committed by the United States in Iraq and
Mechanisms for Accountability."
The report was published internationally by 10 organizations in October.
"This report on the war crimes of the current administration is an
invaluable resource, with a meticulous presentation of the
evidence and an astute examination of international law.
- Howard Zinn.
The 37 page report, written by Consumers for Peace with the
consultation of international humanitarian law expert Karen
Parker, JD, is available for free download at
http://www.consumersforpeace.org/pdf/war_crimes_iraq_101006.pdf
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
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.theheadl ines.org
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Oklahoma U's First African-American Speaker
Dear Representative Johnson:
Congratulations on your bill for creating an
African-American Centennial Plaza near the
Capitol.
I have a suggestion for including an important
moment in Oklahoma African-American
history in the displays.
The first African-American speaker at the
University of Oklahoma was Paul Boutelle,
in 1967.
He is still alive but has changed his name
to Kwame Somburu. I believe it would be
very appropriate also to invite Mr. Somburu
to attend the dedication ceremony for
this plaza. I correspond with him by email.
Here is a 1967 Sooner magazine article about his appearance:
http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/sooner/articles/p25-27_1967v40n2_OCR.pdf
Sincerely,
Mike Wright
Norman
329-6688
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Interesting web site with many flash films. The site is managed
by veteran James Starowicz, USN '67-'71 GMG3 Vietnam In-Country
'70-'71 Member: Veterans For Peace as well as other Veterans
and Pro-Peace Groups. Also Activist in other Area's, Questioning
Policies that only Benefit the Few, supporting Policies that Benefit
the Many and Move Us Forward as a Better Nation and World!
Politics: Registered Independent
http://imagineaworldof.blogspot.com/
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Taking Aim with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone has a new Internet
address: http://www.takingaimradio.com
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 the
new Taking Aim web address:
http://www.takingaimradio.com
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
JOIN THE LYNNE STEWAR DEFENSE - THE CASE IS NOT OVER!
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
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Visit the Traprock Peace Center Video Archive at:
http://www.youtube.com/TraprockPeaceTV
Visit the Traprock Peace Center
Deerfield, MA
http://www.traprockpeace.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.freethef ive.org/
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Eyewitness Account from Oaxaca
A website is now being circulated that has up-to-date info
and video that can be downloaded of the police action and
developments in Oaxaca. For those who have not seen it
elsewhere, the website is:
www.mexico.indymedi a.org/oaxaca
http://www.mexico. indymedia. org/oaxaca
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REMINDER TO ALL GROUPS: BE SURE AND POST ALL ACTIONS AND
EVENTS TO WWW.INDYBAY. ORG TO REACH THE MOST PEOPLE
AGAINST THE WAR IN THE BAY AREA!
http://www.indybay. org
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Iraq Body Count
For current totals, see our database page.
http://www.iraqbody count.net/ press/pr13. php
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The Cost of War
[Over three-hundred- billion so far...bw]
http://nationalprio rities.org/ index.php? optionfiltered=com_
wrapper&Itemid= 182
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"The Democrats always promise to help workers, and the don't!
The Republicans always promise to help business, and the do!"
- Mort Sahl
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"It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
- Emilano Zapata
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Join the Campaign to
Shut Down the Guantanamo Torture Center
Go to:
http://www.shutitdo wn.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.ANSWERco alition.org http://www.actionsf .org
sf@internationalans wer.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
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"It is reasonable and honorable to abhor violence and preach
against it while there is a visible and rational means of obtaining,
without violence, the indispensable justice for the welfare of man.
But, if convinced by the inevitable differences of character, by the
irreconcilable and different interests, because of the deep diversity
in the sea of the political mind and aspirations, there is not a peaceful
way to obtain the minimum rights of a people (...) or it is the blind
who against the boiling truth sustain peaceful means, or it is those
who doesn't see and insist on proclaiming it that are untrue
to their people."[2]
[2] José Martí " Ciegos y desleales Obras Escogidas in III volumes;
Editorial Política 1981 Volume III p182
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Great Counter-Recruitment Website
http://notyoursoldi er.org/article. php?list= type&type= 14
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DEFEND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS AND
CIVIL RIGHTS!
Last summer the U.S. Border Patrol arrested Shanti Sellz and
Daniel Strauss, both 23-year-old volunteers assisting immigrants
on the border, for medically evacuating 3 people in critical
condition from the Arizona desert.
Criminalization for aiding undocumented immigrants already
exists on the books in the state of Arizona. Daniel and Shanti
are targeted to be its first victims. Their arrest and subsequent
prosecution for providing humanitarian aid could result in
a 15-year prison sentence. Any Congressional compromise
with the Sensenbrenner bill (HR 4437) may include these
harmful criminalization provisions. Fight back NOW!
Help stop the criminalization of undocumented immigrants
and those who support them!
For more information call 415-821- 9683.
For information on the Daniel and Shanti Defense Campaign,
visit www.nomoredeaths. org.
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FYI
According to "Minimum Wage History" at
http://oregonstate. edu/instruct/ anth484/minwage. html "
"Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. "The 8 dollar per hour Whole Foods employees
are being paid $1.12 less than the 1968 minimum wage.
"A federal minimum wage was first set in 1938. The graph shows
both nominal (red) and real (blue) minimum wage values. Nominal
values range from 25 cents per hour in 1938 to the current $5.15/hr.
The greatest percentage jump in the minimum wage was in 1950,
when it nearly doubled. The graph adjusts these wages to 2005
dollars (blue line) to show the real value of the minimum wage.
Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. Note how the real dollar minimum wage rises and
falls. This is because it gets periodically adjusted by Congress.
The period 1997-2006, is the longest period during which the
minimum wage has not been adjusted. States have departed from
the federal minimum wage. Washington has the highest minimum
wage in the country at $7.63 as of January 1, 2006. Oregon is next
at $7.50. Cities, too, have set minimum wages. Santa Fe, New
Mexico has a minimum wage of $9.50, which is more than double
the state minimum wage at $4.35."
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NO BORDERS! NO WALLS! NO FENCES! GENERAL AMNESTY FOR ALL!
OUR HOMELAND IS WHERE WE LIVE!
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REPEAL THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT IN 2007!
Check out: 10 EXCELLENT REASONS NOT TO JOIN THE MILITARY
http://www.10reason sbook.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
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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.usconsti tution.net/ declar.html
http://www.indybay. org/news/ 2006/02/1805195. php
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Bill of Rights
http://www.law. cornell.edu/ constitution/ constitution. billofrights. html
http://www.indybay. org/news/ 2006/02/1805182. php
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"The International"
Lots of good information over at Wikipedia, as often the case:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internationale
What I've always found fascinating is the wide variety of translations (or
perhaps it would be better to call them "interpretations" or "variations")
that exist, even in English. It's also fascinating to read all the different
verses of the song.
One thing I learned at Wikipedia is that the original intention was that the
song would be sung to the tune of the Marseillaise, but that shortly
thereafter different music was written. Good thing, in my opinion, I'd hate
to see the identities of two stirring songs be confused. Each deserves their
own place in history.
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