*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
MONEY AS DEBT
http://video. google.com/ videoplay? docid=-905047436 2583451279
http://www.moneyasd ebt.net/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
STOP THE BOARD OF EDUCATION FROM MAINTAINING OR EXTENDING JROTC!
The next Board OF Education Meeting is
November 13, 2007, 6:00 PM
555 Franklin Street, 1st Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
415/241-6427
(To get on the speakers list call Monday, November 12 from 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM or Tuesday, November13--the day of the meeting from 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM. You will get at most, two minutes and most probably only one minute to speak. Also expect a large group of JROTC cadets and teachers to show up if the issue is on the agenda. Even if it is not, we can speak against it.)
[The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act is not only an educationally bankrupt law that leaves masses of children in drastically underfunded and overcrowded schools, it ties school funding to a requirement that each time a college, university, career college or labor apprentice program offers opportunities such as apprenticeships or scholarship to students on school grounds, as they do on High School Career Days, the school must also allow two recruiters from each separate branch of the military (Army, Coast Guard, Navy, Marines and Air Force--ten altogether) to be in our schools each and every time as well.
They call this the "equal access" part of NCLB which was passed by the San Francisco Board of Education last year around the same time the board voted to phase out JROTC in San Francisco schools by 2008.
I have seen this in action at Washington High School where the military comes in force; setting up fully staffed tables for each branch of the military with thousands of dollars worth of whips and jingles to attract the students. Students come away from those tables with shopping bags full of junk with the military insignia on it. The Army alone has a $1.53 billion dollar advertising budget! This is the real purpose of No Child Left Behind. We have to get the military out of our schools...bw]
San Francisco schools expected to grant JROTC a year's reprieve
Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, October 6, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/06/BAP3SJ72P.DTL&hw=board+of+education+jrotc&sn=001&sc=1000
The controversial demise of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps in San Francisco schools scheduled for this spring will likely be put off for at least a year because the school district hasn't developed a promised replacement program.
The expected reprieve would drag out what has already been a protracted and emotional battle over the district's 90-year tie to the military program.
Still, supporters say the prospect of an extra year offers hope that JROTC could survive in San Francisco.
The school board voted last November to phase out JROTC over two years because of its connection to the military, which board members said was discriminatory, homophobic and at odds with the mission of public education. They also agreed to create a task force to develop an alternative program to begin in fall 2008.
Despite JROTC's expected demise, 1,500 students in seven city high schools enrolled in JROTC this fall, with 670 of them participating in affiliated after-school programs. That's about 200 fewer than last year, although students who thought the program no longer existed continue to transfer in, JROTC instructors say.
The school board's composition has also changed, and just two of the board members who voted to eliminate JROTC last year - Eric Mar and Mark Sanchez - are still serving.
A majority of current board members - Kim-Shree Maufas, Jill Wynns, Norman Yee and Hydra Mendoza - said they were open to keeping JROTC alive.
The seventh board member, Jane Kim, said she was also willing to support JROTC, but only if there were a way to address the military's discriminatory hiring practice involving homosexuals. She suggested a JROTC diversity curriculum or a cadet campaign against the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
But bringing JROTC back to life is not something any of those board members seems willing to do right now.
"I wouldn't be leading any of it," Yee said. "I just don't want to do that battle."
Maufas agreed. "I respect what the board decided," she said. "I believe with hard work and enough time, we can provide a program that serves students' needs in terms of leadership development."
But there isn't enough time to do that before next fall.
District officials didn't even create the task force that was supposed to identify a new program until last spring - several months after their vote against JROTC.
The task force - consisting of 17 district staff members, students and community members, and including supporters and opponents of JROTC - met for the first time in April. By its third meeting in June, the group acknowledged serious flaws in the process.
"We do not have enough time, we do not have enough (task force) attendance, and we do not consistently have agreement on this committee," group members decided, according to minutes of the meeting.
In addition, the school board gave the task force little guidance, even about how much it could spend.
"We've been given no budgetary guidelines," said Meyla Ruwin, district director of school health programs and task force co-chair.
So the task force could ultimately come up with a plan that the district has no intention or ability to fund.
Task force members said they plan to ask the school board's curriculum committee Thursday to let JROTC continue until spring 2009.
Board President Mark Sanchez said he expects the extension to be approved by the board.
"We've been trying to find a program that the city could benefit from, the kids could benefit from, and would still provide that leadership training and the physical training," said board member Mendoza. "It's getting the program off the ground that's the key, and where are we going to get the funding?"
The $1.7 million JROTC program receives a $750,000 annual subsidy from the U.S. military. Students in the program, called cadets, earn up to two years of physical education or elective credits for the courses. [The rest is paid by the SFUSD!...bw]
Board Vice President Yee, who voted against last year's resolution, said he wasn't surprised by the lack of an alternative.
"It seems like what I thought might happen is happening," he said. "There's nothing to replace it with. ... There are a lot of practical things we didn't think about."
In the meantime, JROTC students and their instructors said they are frustrated by the inaction. The instructors don't know whether they'll have their jobs next year.
"They've got mortgages," said task force member Robert Powell, a JROTC instructor at Lincoln High School and retired Army lieutenant colonel. "They've got bills. How can you tell them, 'Just hang on'?"
Junior Yvonne Ho said that she found her niche in JROTC and that without it students would be sent to play sports - an option she dreads.
"I think it's pretty unfair to cancel the program without a backup plan," said Ho, the battalion commander of Balboa High School's 280 JROTC cadets.
"We don't know where we'd go," she said. "There's just PE."
The task force said its next step will be to survey current and former cadets about what is important about the program - characteristics they hope to build into a replacement.
Students say the program develops leadership, teamwork, community service, a sense of responsibility and a sense of belonging.
Maufas, whose daughter participated in the program while in high school, said JROTC provides strong role models: Most of the program's instructors are African American men.
"Those types of relationships are so valuable," she said. "It's hard to replace it."
JROTC'S recent history in San Francisco
Feb. 22, 1994 - JROTC hazing incident occurs at Balboa High, prompting a districtwide debate about the program's merits.
June 27, 1995 - San Francisco school board votes to keep JROTC programs.
May 23, 2006 - School board introduces resolution to eliminate JROTC.
Nov. 14, 2006 - School board votes to phase out JROTC by June 2008.
April to Oct. 3, 2007 - Task force meets five times to discuss a replacement program.
Thursday - Task force scheduled to address school board curriculum committee to request one-year extension.
E-mail Jill Tucker at jtucker@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/06/BAP3SJ72P.DTL
This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Wed., Nov. 7: The Jena 6 Are Back in Court
Drop All the Charges! Free the Jena 6!
Rally Wed., Nov. 7, 5pm
Federal Courthouse
7th and Mission
"Until the 6 Are Free, Neither Are We"
San Francisco
Contact 415-821-6545 or answer@actionsf.org to get involved or for more information.
Click here for a short eyewitness video from Sept. 20: http://youtube.com/watch?v=dtAZdmcKt5g
Last week, the racist judge that originally presided over Mychal Bell's conviction sent him back to jail for 18 months for "violating probation" from an earlier conviction. The precise violation was his arrest in the Jena 6 incident. While the racist thugs who started this cycle of events continue to walk free, the Jena 6 are still facing long prison sentences.
On Wednesday, Nov. 7, the growing movement to free the Jena 6 will face an important challenge. On that day, four of the Six -- Theodore Shaw, Robert Bailey, Bryan Purvis, and Mychal Bell -- are expected in court for pre-trial hearings. The ANSWER Coalition is calling on all progressive and anti-racist forces to come together for rallies in front of local courthouses across the country with the demand to free the Jena 6, and drop all the charges. Demonstrations are already confirmed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, New York City, Chicago, Seattle, and New Haven (CT).
The case of the Jena 6 has garnered international attention, and shone a spotlight on the racist nature of this country's criminal "injustice" system. Without activists taking action across the country, however, it is certain that their case -- like so many others -- would never have received the attention that it has. Mychal Bell's original conviction never would have been overturned; instead he would have become just another statistic.
On Sept. 20, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Jena, Louisiana and in other cities around the country to demand the complete freedom of the Jena 6, and the release of Mychal Bell. A week later, after 10 months in prison, he was granted bail and released. But shortly afterwards, the Louisiana judge that originally convicted Bell struck back, ordering him back into custody.
The spirit and determination of Sept. 20 protest in Jena has to be replicated over and over across the country on November 7th. The movement is locked in a tug-of-war with the racist Louisiana justice system. Now we have to dig in our heels and until all charges against the Six are dropped, we have to keep on pulling! All out for November 7th to Free the Jena 6!
For more information email us at info@answercoalition.org.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
OCT. 27 COALITION EVALUATION MEETING WILL TAKE PLACE:
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1 P.M. AT CENTRO DEL PUEBLO.
474 Valencia Street, SF (Near 16th Street)
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ARTICLES IN FULL:
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) 50 Public Schools Fail Under New Rating System
By ELISSA GOOTMAN and JENNIFER MEDINA
November 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/education/05cnd-reportcards.html?hp
2) Dubious Fees Hit Borrowers in Foreclosures
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
November 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/business/06mortgage.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1194368643-PQ5Ec9XdSox67RoyMTo/bQ
3) 2007 Deadliest Year for U.S. Troops in Iraq
By DAMIEN CAVE
November 7, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/world/middleeast/07iraq.html?ref=world
4) In Denver, a Ballot Fight Over Marijuana Arrests
By DAN FROSCH
November 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/us/06pot.html?ref=us
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) 50 Public Schools Fail Under New Rating System
By ELISSA GOOTMAN and JENNIFER MEDINA
November 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/education/05cnd-reportcards.html?hp
Under a blunt new A through F rating system, whose results Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg unveiled today, 50 public schools across New York City, most in Manhattan and the Bronx, have been designated failures, placing them in danger of closing as early as the end of the school year and putting their principals’ jobs on the line.
Another 99 schools across the city received D’s, according to the complex formula the Education Department used to assign the letter grades to more than 1,200 schools. Although the department had planned to assign the grades around a curve, more schools than expected — 23 percent — received A’s. Thirty-eight percent of schools received B’s.
Of the five boroughs, Queens had the highest proportion of A schools, 28.85 percent, and the lowest share of F schools, .77 percent. On Staten Island, where many residents pride themselves on their local schools, the reverse was true; 5 percent of schools received A’s, while 8.33 percent received F’s.
City officials have described the report cards as the linchpin of the Bloomberg administration’s efforts to overhaul the school system. Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein has repeatedly said that the grades, which are based on a calculation that compares schools with similar populations and gauges not just proficiency but the gains that individual students make year by year, are the most accurate and comprehensive way of determining whether schools are moving their students forward year by year.
The largest portion of a school’s grade, 55 percent, is based on the improvement of individual students on state tests from one year to the next, a so-called growth model analysis. Thirty percent of the grade is based on overall student achievement on state tests. An additional 15 percent is based on the school’s environment, measured by attendance figures and parent, teacher and student surveys.
The grades also reflect a comparison of schools with similar student populations. Elementary school populations are grouped mainly by racial and socioeconomic background; middle and high schools are grouped by students’ test scores from previous years.
Because the grades are based largely on improvement, not simply meeting state standards, some high-performing schools received low grades. The Clove Valley School in Staten Island, for instance, received an F, although 86.5 percent of the students at the school met state standards in reading on the 2007 tests.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, some schools that had a small number of students reaching state standards on tests received grades that any child would be thrilled to take home. At the East Village Community School, for example, 60 percent of the students met state standards in reading, but the school received an A, largely because of the improvement it showed over 2006, when 46.3 percent of its students met state standards.
Some grades lined up with longstanding reputations. Some of the city’s most prestigious and selective schools — like Stuyvesant High School and Anderson School, both in Manhattan — received A’s. In Community School District 26 in Queens, long considered a top district citywide, 52 percent of schools received A’s, the highest share of any district.
Twenty-three high schools did not receive grades, and officials said they were still under review. The decision not to release those grades came after some principals panicked that their draft grades were based on inaccurate data. In an e-mail message to high school principals on Friday, James Liebman, the Education Department’s chief accountability officer, wrote that those schools would receive their report cards within a week of the rest of the schools.
The newest schools in the city, including small high schools that have not had a graduating class, did not receive letter grades at all.
The report cards also include a "quality review" report, an observation of the school written by one of several consultants hired to visit the schools last year.
Some parents and educators have already complained that the grades are simplistic and place too much emphasis on standardized test scores.
Chancellor Klein has said that principals who receive D’s and F’s could face administrative reorganization at their schools, or be removed from the system entirely. Principals who do well on the report cards are eligible for bonus pay, and teachers at certain schools whose schools’ grades improve from this year to next will also be eligible for bonuses, under a recent agreement with the city teachers’ union.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Dubious Fees Hit Borrowers in Foreclosures
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
November 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/business/06mortgage.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1194368643-PQ5Ec9XdSox67RoyMTo/bQ
As record numbers of homeowners default on their mortgages, questionable practices among lenders are coming to light in bankruptcy courts, leading some legal specialists to contend that companies instigating foreclosures may be taking advantage of imperiled borrowers.
Because there is little oversight of foreclosure practices and the fees that are charged, bankruptcy specialists fear that some consumers may be losing their homes unnecessarily or that mortgage servicers, who collect loan payments, are profiting from foreclosures.
Bankruptcy specialists say lenders and loan servicers often do not comply with even the most basic legal requirements, like correctly computing the amount a borrower owes on a foreclosed loan or providing proof of holding the mortgage note in question.
“Regulators need to look beyond their current, myopic focus on loan origination and consider how servicers’ calculation and collection practices leave families vulnerable to foreclosure,” said Katherine M. Porter, associate professor of law at the University of Iowa.
In an analysis of foreclosures in Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the program intended to help troubled borrowers save their homes, Ms. Porter found that questionable fees had been added to almost half of the loans she examined, and many of the charges were identified only vaguely. Most of the fees were less than $200 each, but collectively they could raise millions of dollars for loan servicers at a time when the other side of the business, mortgage origination, has faltered.
In one example, Ms. Porter found that a lender had filed a claim stating that the borrower owed more than $1 million. But after the loan history was scrutinized, the balance turned out to be $60,000. And a judge in Louisiana is considering an award for sanctions against Wells Fargo in a case in which the bank assessed improper fees and charges that added more than $24,000 to a borrower’s loan.
Ms. Porter’s analysis comes as more homeowners face foreclosure. Testifying before Congress on Tuesday, Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, estimated that two million families would lose their homes by the end of the current mortgage crisis.
Questionable practices by loan servicers appear to be enough of a problem that the Office of the United States Trustee, a division of the Justice Department that monitors the bankruptcy system, is getting involved. Last month, It announced plans to move against mortgage servicing companies that file false or inaccurate claims, assess unreasonable fees or fail to account properly for loan payments after a bankruptcy has been discharged.
On Oct. 9, the Chapter 13 trustee in Pittsburgh asked the court to sanction Countrywide, the nation’s largest loan servicer, saying that the company had lost or destroyed more than $500,000 in checks paid by homeowners in foreclosure from December 2005 to April 2007.
The trustee, Ronda J. Winnecour, said in court filings that she was concerned that even as Countrywide misplaced or destroyed the checks, it levied charges on the borrowers, including late fees and legal costs.
“The integrity of the bankruptcy process is threatened when a single creditor dishonors its obligation to provide a truthful and accurate account of the funds it has received,” Ms. Winnecour said in requesting sanctions.
A Countrywide spokesman disputed the accusations about the lost checks, saying the company had no record of having received the payments the trustee said had been sent. It is Countrywide’s practice not to charge late fees to borrowers in bankruptcy, he said, adding that the company also does not charge fees or costs relating to its own mistakes.
Loan servicing is extremely lucrative. Servicers, which collect payments from borrowers and pass them on to investors who own the loans, generally receive a percentage of income from a loan, often 0.25 percent on a prime mortgage and 0.50 percent on a subprime loan. Servicers typically generate profit margins of about 20 percent.
Now that big lenders are originating fewer mortgages, servicing revenues make up a greater percentage of earnings. Because servicers typically keep late fees and certain other charges assessed on delinquent or defaulted loans, “a borrower’s default can present a servicer with an opportunity for additional profit,” Ms. Porter said.
The amounts can be significant. Late fees accounted for 11.5 percent of servicing revenues in 2006 at Ocwen Financial, a big servicing company. At Countrywide, $285 million came from late fees last year, up 20 percent from 2005. Late fees accounted for 7.5 percent of Countrywide’s servicing revenue last year.
But these are not the only charges borrowers face. Others include $145 in something called “demand fees,” $137 in overnight delivery fees, fax fees of $50 and payoff statement charges of $60. Property inspection fees can be levied every month or so, and fees can be imposed every two months to cover assessments of a home’s worth.
“We’re talking about millions and millions of dollars that mortgage servicers are extracting from debtors that I think are totally unlawful and illegal,” said O. Max Gardner III, a lawyer in Shelby, N.C., specializing in consumer bankruptcies. “Somebody files a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, they make all their payments, get their discharge and then three months later, they get a statement from their servicer for $7,000 in fees and charges incurred in bankruptcy but that were never applied for in court and never approved.”
Some fees levied by loan servicers in foreclosure run afoul of state laws. In 2003, for example, a New York appeals court disallowed a $100 payoff statement fee sought by North Fork Bank.
Fees for legal services in foreclosure are also under scrutiny.
A class-action lawsuit filed in September in Federal District Court in Delaware accused the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, a home loan registration system owned by Fannie Mae, Countrywide Financial and other large lenders, of overcharging borrowers for legal services in foreclosures. The system, known as MERS, oversees more than 20 million mortgage loans.
The complaint was filed on behalf of Jose Trevino and Lorry S. Trevino of University City, Mo., whose Washington Mutual loan went into foreclosure in 2006 after the couple became ill and fell behind on payments.
Jeffrey M. Norton, a lawyer who represents the Trevinos, said that although MERS pays a flat rate of $400 or $500 to its lawyers during a foreclosure, the legal fees that it demands from borrowers are three or four times that.
A spokeswoman for MERS declined to comment.
Typically, consumers who are behind on their mortgages but hoping to stay in their homes invoke Chapter 13 bankruptcy because it puts creditors on hold, giving borrowers time to put together a repayment plan.
Given that a Chapter 13 bankruptcy involves the oversight of a court, the findings in Ms. Porter’s study are especially troubling. In July, she presented her paper to the United States trustee, and on Oct. 12 she outlined her data for the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges in Orlando, Fla.
With Tara Twomey, who is a lecturer at Stanford Law School and a consultant for the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, Ms. Porter analyzed 1,733 Chapter 13 filings made in April 2006. The data were drawn from public court records and include schedules filed under penalty of perjury by borrowers listing debts, assets and income.
Though bankruptcy laws require documentation that a creditor has a claim on the property, 4 out of 10 claims in Ms. Porter’s study did not attach such a promissory note. And one in six claims was not supported by the itemization of charges required by law.
Without proper documentation, families must choose between the costs of filing an objection or the risk of overpayment, Ms. Porter concluded.
She also found that some creditors ask for fees, like fax charges and payoff statement fees, that would probably be considered “unreasonable” by the courts.
Not surprisingly, these fees may contribute to the other problem identified by her study: a discrepancy between what debtors think they owe and what creditors say they are owed.
In 96 percent of the claims Ms. Porter studied, the borrower and the lender disagreed on the amount of the mortgage debt. In about a quarter of the cases, borrowers thought they owed more than the creditors claimed, but in about 70 percent, the creditors asserted that the debt owed was greater than the amounts specified by borrowers.
The median difference between the amounts the creditor and the borrower submitted was $1,366; the average was $3,533, Ms. Porter said. In 30 percent of the cases in which creditors’ claims were higher, the discrepancy was greater than 5 percent of the homeowners’ figure.
Based on the study, mortgage creditors in the 1,733 cases put in claims for almost $6 million more than the loan debts listed by borrowers in the bankruptcy filings. The discrepancies are too big, Ms. Porter said, to be simple record-keeping errors.
Michael L. Jones, a homeowner going through a Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Louisiana, experienced such a discrepancy with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. After being told that he owed $231,463.97 on his mortgage, he disputed the amount and ultimately sued Wells Fargo.
In April, Elizabeth W. Magner, a federal bankruptcy judge in Louisiana, ruled that Wells Fargo overcharged Mr. Jones by $24,450.65, or 12 percent more than what the court said he actually owed. The court attributed some of that to arithmetic errors but found that Wells Fargo had improperly added charges, including $6,741.67 in commissions to the sheriff’s office that were not owed, almost $13,000 in additional interest and fees for 16 unnecessary inspections of the borrowers’ property in the 29 months the case was pending.
“Incredibly, Wells Fargo also argues that it was debtor’s burden to verify that its accounting was correct,” the judge wrote, “even though Wells Fargo failed to disclose the details of that accounting until it was sued.”
A Wells Fargo spokesman, Kevin Waetke, said the bank would not comment on the details of the case as the bank is appealing a motion by Mr. Jones for sanctions. “All of our practices and procedures in the handling of bankruptcy cases follow applicable laws, and we stand behind our actions in this case,” he said.
In Texas, a United States trustee has asked for sanctions against Barrett Burke Wilson Castle Daffin & Frappier, a Houston law firm that sues borrowers on behalf of the lenders, for providing inaccurate information to the court about mortgage payments made by homeowners who sought refuge in Chapter 13.
Michael C. Barrett, a partner at the firm, said he did not expect the firm to be sanctioned.
“We certainly believe we have not misbehaved in any way,” he said, saying the trustee’s office became involved because it is trying to persuade Congress to increase its budget. “It is trying to portray itself as an organ to pursue mortgage bankers.”
Closing arguments in the case are scheduled for Dec. 12.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) 2007 Deadliest Year for U.S. Troops in Iraq
By DAMIEN CAVE
November 7, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/world/middleeast/07iraq.html?ref=world
BAGHDAD, Nov. 6 — Six American soldiers were killed in three separate attacks Monday, the military said today, taking the number of deaths this year to 851 and making 2007 the deadliest year of the war for American troops.
Military officials announced the discovery of a mass grave holding 22 bodies in a rural area north of Falluja. It also said that nine Iranians being held in Iraq would soon be released, including two detained during a January raid of a consulate office in Erbil.
Five of the American soldiers died in two roadside bomb attacks on Monday near Kirkuk, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, director of the communications division of the Multinational Force-Iraq, the formal name for the United States-led forces.
A sixth soldier died Monday during combat operations in Anbar Province, according to a military statement.
The deaths come only a few days after the military announced a steep drop in the rate of American deaths this year. In October, 38 American service members died in Iraq, the third lowest monthly tally since 2003, according to Iraq Casualty Count, a web site that tracks military deaths. November’s total, if the current pace continues, would be higher but still far below the war’s average of 69 American military deaths per month.
Despite the decline, American commanders acknowledged that 2007 will be far deadlier than the second worst year, 2004, when 849 Americans died, many of them in major battles for control of insurgent strongholds like Falluja.
Military officials attribute the rise this year to an expanded troop presence during the so-called surge, which brought more than 165,000 troops to Iraq, and sent units out of large bases and into more dangerous communities.
Commanders maintain that despite the high cost in terms of lives lost, the strategy has brought improved security to the country and “tactical momentum” that could stabilize Iraq permanently.
The potential release of the Iranians may reflect American approval of some signs that Iran is cooperating with their demand that it staunch the flow of materials into Iraq used to make deadly roadside bombs known as explosively formed projectiles, or EFPs.
Rear Admiral Smith said that the EFP components found recently during raids “do not appear to have arrived here in Iraq after those pledges were made,” suggesting that Iran has limited EFP trafficking across the border after promising to do so.
American commanders have stopped short of declaring that Iran has in fact complied with the United States’ demands, and today Rear Admiral Smith described the plan to release nine Iranian prisoners not as a diplomatic reward but rather as the perfunctory end to a criminal investigation.
“These individuals have no continuing value, nor do they pose a further threat to Iraqi security,” he said.
Rear Admiral Smith did not say why the two Iranians captured in January at an Iranian consulate office in Erbil were held for nine months, after Iran insisted that they were harmless government workers.
Meanwhile, violence against Iraqis continued. The mass grave was found Saturday during a joint American-Iraqi operation in the Lake Tharthar area, a desolate rural area near the site of another grave, holding 25 bodies, that was found less than a month ago.
Local police officials said the bodies were dumped in and around an abandoned building.
“Some were buried in wells and some were left in rooms used as prisons,” said a police officer who helped clear the grave. “These corpses are part of what we expect to find more of in the future.”
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) In Denver, a Ballot Fight Over Marijuana Arrests
By DAN FROSCH
November 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/us/06pot.html?ref=us
DENVER — In 2005, voters here approved a measure making it legal for an adult to possess an ounce or less of marijuana. But arrests for misdemeanor marijuana possession have risen since then.
Now, voters are to decide on a ballot measure that would make possession of small amounts of marijuana the lowest enforcement priority for the police.
“People didn’t want anyone arrested,” said Mason Tvert, executive director of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, a pro-marijuana group that sponsored the 2005 measure and is sponsoring the latest one. “That’s what they voted on.”
Proponents of the measure, which is similar to regulations in Seattle and Missoula County, Mont., contend that the police have more pressing matters to attend to and that the use of marijuana by adults is less harmful than alcohol.
But, it is unclear how the authorities will react if the measure passes. The 2005 measure garnered 54 percent approval. But city officials have ignored it, choosing instead to keep enforcing superseding state laws, which stipulate that a marijuana offense of an ounce or less, considered a Class 2 petty offense in Colorado, is punishable by a $100 fine. Misdemeanor marijuana arrests for people over 21 have risen to 1,347 last year, from 1,168 in 2005.
Sgt. Ernie Martinez of the Denver Police Department said that the police do not single out marijuana smokers and that such arrests often occur when officers respond to other crimes.
Sergeant Martinez, the president of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association, said even if the latest ballot measure passes, he cannot envision ordering his officers to stop arresting people for marijuana.
“They essentially want to promote self-indulgence of marijuana use at the risk of the public,” he said of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation.
Mayor John Hickenlooper is against the initiative and says that marijuana enforcement is already a low priority for the police.
“It is not something the police specifically target for enforcement, or to which they deploy a significant amount of resources,” said Sue Cobb, a spokeswoman for Mr. Hickenlooper.
Local officials elsewhere have abided by similar ballot measures. Officials in Missoula County have heeded a 2006 decision by voters to make adult marijuana possession of any amount a low priority for the police. But the county commission, believing that such a sweeping measure was not actually the voters’ true intention, narrowed the scope of the law so to make only possession of small amounts of marijuana a low enforcement priority.
In Seattle, misdemeanor marijuana citations have dropped off since voters approved a similar measure in 2003. In August, two Seattle city council members sent a letter to Denver officials praising the Seattle initiative, calling it a sensible drug policy.
But even in that city, where an oversight panel will issue a report on the effects of the law, opinions are sharply divided.
The Seattle city attorney, Thomas Carr, said the data on the ordinance was inconclusive and noted that arrests have dropped citywide, not just those for marijuana. He said voters in Denver should judge the measure for themselves rather than holding Seattle up as a model.
“What I think bothers the police here is the message that marijuana smoking is O.K.,” he said. “And that bothers me as well.”
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) For a Key Education Law, Reauthorization Stalls
By SAM DILLON
[The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act is not only a educationally bankrupt law that leaves masses of children in drastically underfunded schools, it ties school funding to a requirement that each time a college, university, career college or labor apprentice program offers opportunities such as apprenticeships or scholarship to students on school grounds, as they do on High School Career Days, the school must also allow two recruiters from each separate branch of the military to be there too--each and every time. (They call this the "equal access" part of NCLB which was passed by the San Francisco Board of Education last year around the same time the board voted to phase out JROTC in San Francisco schools by 2008.) I have seen this in action at Washington High School where the military comes in force; setting up fully staffed tables for each branch of the military with thousands of dollars worth of whips and jingles to attract the students. Students come away from those tables with shopping bags full of junk with the military insignia on it. The Army alone has a $1.53 billion dollar advertising budget! This is the real purpose of No Child Left Behind. We have to get the military out of our schools...bw]
November 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/washington/06child.html?ref=us
The leaders of the Senate and House education committees are signaling that time has run out for reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act this year, leaving prospects for rewriting it uncertain during the presidential campaign in 2008.
The law, which holds public schools accountable for improving student test scores, is President Bush’s signature domestic achievement and the most important statement of federal policy toward the nation’s public schools.
It passed Congress with bipartisan support in 2001 and will remain in effect even without Congressional action.
But the administration and Democrats in Congress had repeatedly promised to make important changes to it this year, including some that would alter judging student performance.
Despite dozens of hearings, months of public debate and hundreds of hours of Congressional negotiation, neither the House nor the Senate has produced a bill that would formally start the reauthorization process.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the Senate education committee, has postponed introducing a new version of the law until next year, Melissa Wagoner, a spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy, said yesterday.
“Senator Kennedy is committed to putting together a responsible reauthorization package early in 2008,” Ms. Wagoner said. “But we’re running up against the clock for this year.”
The education committee in the House has worked for months on negotiations to produce legislation to renew the law.
But in recent days, its chairman, Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, has been working on a higher-education bill.
Mr. Miller’s spokesman, Tom Kiley, said the Senate postponement of reauthorization for No Child Left Behind had complicated the work of writing a House bill.
“It’s growing less likely that we get a bill off the House floor this year,” Mr. Kiley said. “We’re continuing our negotiations on the bill with Republicans and with educational organizations, but we’re looking to balance the need to work expeditiously with the need to get this bill right.”
Mr. Miller has not produced a bill despite repeated suggestions as early as June that work on a House reauthorization bill was nearing completion.
Lobbyists for educational organizations who have watched the process closely said it appeared that Mr. Miller had been unable either to find enough votes among the committee’s Democratic majority to pass a reauthorization bill or to stitch together a bill that could attract enough Republicans to form a winning bipartisan coalition.
Alexa Marrero, a spokeswoman for Representative Howard P. McKeon of California, the ranking Republican on the committee, said: “Chairman Miller has signaled that the committee is turning its attention to higher education. Looking at the calendar, it’s difficult to see how N.C.L.B. could move through the process this year.”
But negotiations continue on some points as lawmakers seek to put together a bipartisan bill that could be introduced next year, Ms. Marrero said.
Mr. Bush has several times recently urged reauthorization of the law. But his efforts have not appeared to help in either chamber, partly because he has been waging a series of veto fights with Congressional Democrats.
And with only a few weeks left before Congress adjourns for the holidays, the House calendar is clogged with appropriations bills and other work.
Speaking of reauthorization, Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education in Washington, said, “It’s dead for this year.”
“The more things move into the presidential election year,” Mr. Hartle added, “the more the long-term fate of any reauthorization bill becomes problematic.”
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Suspended Morton students demand return to class
BY KATE N. GROSSMAN Education Reporter
November 6, 2007
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/637168,morton110607.article#
About 10 Morton West High School students suspended over an anti-war protest at the school last week returned to the Berwyn school today to demand they be allowed back in classes.
The kids were accompanied by about 20 parents and anti-war activists at a press conference in front of Morton West. About 25 students were suspended and face expulsions after staging a protest against the Iraq war in the school cafeteria last Thursday.
The kids were accompanied by about 20 parents and anti-war activists at a press conference in front of Morton West. About 25 students were suspended and face expulsions after staging a protest against the Iraq war in the school cafeteria last Thursday.
District 201 Supt. Ben Nowakowski has insisted the students seriously disrupted the school day. All classes were locked down after the protesters locked arms and refused to move, he said previously. The students insist they were peaceful.
• Student protest
District 201 Supt. Ben Nowakowski has insisted the students seriously disrupted the school day. All classes were locked down after the protesters locked arms and refused to move, he said previously. The students insist they were peaceful.
“All we were trying to do was promote peace and recognize that people are dying every day,” said sophomore Adam Szwarek. “They said it was insubordination.”
The parents of the suspended students delivered a letter to Nowakowski demanding amnesty for their children. They want them back in school by Thursday. A call today to Nowakowski’s office by the Chicago Sun-Times was not immediately returned.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Writers Set to Strike, Threatening Hollywood
By MICHAEL CIEPLY and BROOKS BARNES
November 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/business/media/02cnd-hollywood.html?ref=us
Raids Traumatized Children, Report Says
By JULIA PRESTON
Hundreds of young American children suffered hardship and psychological trauma after immigration raids in the last year in which their parents were detained or deported, according to a report by the National Council of La Raza and the Urban Institute. Of 500 children directly affected in three factory raids examined in the report in which 900 adult immigrants were arrested, a large majority were United States citizens younger than 10. With one or both parents deported, the children had reduced economic support, and many remained in the care of relatives who feared contact with the authorities, the study said. Although the children were citizens, few families sought public assistance for them, the study found.
November 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/us/01brfs-raids.html?ref=us
Newark: Recalled Meat Found in Store
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
New Jersey consumer safety officials said yesterday that state inspectors bought recalled frozen hamburgers at a store weeks after the meat was recalled because of fears of E. coli contamination. The 19 boxes were bought in Union City on Wednesday, nearly four weeks after the manufacturer, the Topps Meat Company, issued a nationwide recall of 21.7 million pounds of frozen patties. Officials would not name the store yesterday because of the investigation, and investigators have not determined when the store received the meat, said Jeff Lamm, a spokesman for the state’s Division of Consumer Affairs.
New Jersey
October 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/nyregion/26mbrfs-meat.html?ref=nyregion
Florida: Sentence for Lionel Tate Is Upheld
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
An appeals court has upheld a 30-year probation violation sentence for Lionel Tate, who for a time was the youngest person to be sentenced to life in an American prison. The ruling Wednesday by the Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach sets the stage for Mr. Tate’s trial on robbery charges that could carry another life term. Mr. Tate, 20, had sought to have the sentence thrown out based on procedural mistakes. Mr. Tate was 12 at the time of the 1999 beating death of 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick. An appeals court overturned his murder conviction in 2004, and he was released but was on probation. In May 2005, the police said, Mr. Tate robbed a pizza delivery man, and he was found to be in possession of a gun even before that, a violation of his probation.
October 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/us/26brfs-lionel.html?ref=us
Submarine’s Commanding Officer Is Relieved of His Duties
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The commanding officer of the nuclear-powered submarine Hampton was relieved of his duty because of a loss of confidence in his leadership, the Navy said. The officer, Cmdr. Michael B. Portland, was relieved of duty after an investigation found the ship had failed to do daily safety checks on its nuclear reactor for a month and falsified records to cover up the omission. Commander Portland will be reassigned, said Lt. Alli Myrick, a public affairs officer. [Aren't you glad they are out there making the world safe for democracy?...bw]
October 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/us/26brfs-sub.html?ref=us
Britain: New Claim for Sovereignty in Antarctica
By REUTERS
World Briefing | Europe
Britain plans to submit a claim to the United Nations to extend its Antarctic territory by 386,000 square miles, the Foreign Office said. Argentina wants some of it, and its foreign minister said his country was working on its own presentation. May 13, 2009, is the deadline for countries to stake their claims in what some experts are describing as the last big carve-up of maritime territory in history.
October 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/world/europe/18briefs-claim.html?ref=world
California: Veto of 3 Criminal Justice Bills
By SOLOMON MOORE
Bucking a national trend toward stronger safeguards against wrongful convictions, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed bills that would have explored new eyewitness identification guidelines, required electronic recordings of police interrogations and mandated corroboration of jailhouse informant testimony. Mr. Schwarzenegger cited his concern that the three bills would hamper local law enforcement authorities, a contention shared by several state police and prosecutor associations. The proposals had been recommended by the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, a bipartisan body of police officials, prosecutors and defense lawyers charged by the State Senate to address the most common causes of wrongful convictions and recommend changes in criminal justice procedures.
October 16, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/us/16brfs-VETOOF3CRIMI_BRF.html?ref=us
Illinois: Chicagoans May Have to Dig Deeper
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chicagoans would have to spend 10 cents more on a bottle of water, pay higher property taxes and spend more for liquor under Mayor Richard M. Daley’s proposed budget for next year. Also financing Mr. Daley’s $5.4 billion budget are higher water and sewer fees and more expensive vehicle stickers for people driving large vehicles, $120 a vehicle sticker, up from $90. Mr. Daley announced his budget to aldermen, calling it a last resort to ask taxpayers for more money. His budget closes a $196 million deficit and avoids service cuts and layoffs. Budget hearings will be held, and a city spending plan will require a vote by aldermen.
Midwest
October 11, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/us/11brfs-CHICAGO.html?ref=us
Wisconsin Iraq vet returns medals to Rumsfeld
By David Solnit, Courage to Resist / Army of None Project.
"I swore an oath to protect the constitution ... not to become a pawn in your New American Century."
September 26, 2007
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INFORMATION
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Russell Means Speaking at the Transform Columbus Day Rally
"If voting could do anything it would be illegal!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Lri1-6aoY
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Stop the Termination or the Cherokee Nation
http://groups.msn.com/BayAreaIndianCalendar/activismissues.msnw?action=get_message&mview=1&ID_Message=5580
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
"They have a new gimmick every year. They're going to take one of their boys, black boys, and put him in the cabinet so he can walk around Washington with a cigar. Fire on one end and fool on the other end. And because his immediate personal problem will have been solved he will be the one to tell our people: 'Look how much progress we're making. I'm in Washington, D.C., I can have tea in the White House. I'm your spokesman, I'm your leader.' While our people are still living in Harlem in the slums. Still receiving the worst form of education.
"But how many sitting here right now feel that they could [laughs] truly identify with a struggle that was designed to eliminate the basic causes that create the conditions that exist? Not very many. They can jive, but when it comes to identifying yourself with a struggle that is not endorsed by the power structure, that is not acceptable, that the ground rules are not laid down by the society in which you live, in which you are struggling against, you can't identify with that, you step back.
"It's easy to become a satellite today without even realizing it. This country can seduce God. Yes, it has that seductive power of economic dollarism. You can cut out colonialism, imperialism and all other kind of ism, but it's hard for you to cut that dollarism. When they drop those dollars on you, you'll fold though."
—MALCOLM X, 1965
http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=987
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A little gem:
Michael Moore Faces Off With Stephen Colbert [VIDEO]
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/57492/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
LAPD vs. Immigrants (Video)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/ff/qr?term=lapd&Submit=S&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Search&st=s
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Dr. Julia Hare at the SOBA 2007
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/proudtobeblack2/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
"We are far from that stage today in our era of the absolute
lie; the complete and totalitarian lie, spread by the
monopolies of press and radio to imprison social
consciousness." December 1936, "In 'Socialist' Norway,"
by Leon Trotsky: “Leon Trotsky in Norway” was transcribed
for the Internet by Per I. Matheson [References from
original translation removed]
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Wealth Inequality Charts
http://www.faireconomy.org/research/wealth_charts.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
MALCOLM X: Oxford University Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmzaaf-9aHQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
"There comes a times when silence is betrayal."
--Martin Luther King
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
YouTube clip of Che before the UN in 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtATT8GXkWg&mode=related&search
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Wealthiest Americans Ever
NYT Interactive chart
JULY 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
New Orleans After the Flood -- A Photo Gallery
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=795
This email was sent to you as a service, by Roland Sheppard.
Visit my website at: http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIDEO DESTRIBUTED BY U.S. LABOR AGAINST
THE WAR (USLAW) FEATURING SPEAKERS AT THE JANUARY 27TH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOCUSING ON THE DEMAND - BRING
THE TROOPS HOME NOW.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6935451906479097836&hl=en
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
George Takai responds to Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJoJZIcQW4&eurl_
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Iran
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Another view of the war. A link from Amer Jubran
http://d3130.servadmin.com/~leeflash/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Cheyenne and Arapaho oral histories hammer history's account of the
Sand Creek Massacre"
CENTENNIAL, CO -- A new documentary film based on an award-winning
documentary short film, "The Sand Creek Massacre", and driven by
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people who tell their version about
what happened during the Sand Creek Massacre via their oral
histories, has been released by Olympus Films+, LLC, a Centennial,
Colorado film company.
"You have done an extraordinary job" said Margie Small, Tobient
Entertainment, " on the Colorado PBS episode, the library videos for
public schools and libraries, the trailer, etc...and getting the
story told and giving honor to those ancestors who had to witness
this tragic and brutal attack...film is one of the best ways."
"The images shown in the film were selected for native awareness
value" said Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, "we
also focused on preserving American history on film because tribal
elders are dying and taking their oral histories with them. The film
shows a non-violent solution to problem-solving and 19th century
Colorado history, so it's multi-dimensional in that sense. "
Chief Eugene Blackbear, Sr., Cheyenne, who starred as Chief Black
Kettle in "The Last of the Dogmen" also starring Tom Berenger and
Barbara Hershey and "Dr. Colorado", Tom Noel, University of Colorado
history professor, are featured.
The trailer can be viewed and the film can be ordered for $24.95 plus
$4.95 for shipping and handling at http://www.fullduck.com/node/53.
Vasicek's web site, http://www.donvasicek.com, provides detailed
information about the Sand Creek Massacre including various still
images particularly on the Sand Creek Massacre home page and on the
proposal page.
Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality
products that serve to educate others about the human condition.
Contact:
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A NEW LOOK AT U.S. RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use
of these illegal weapons
http://poisondust.org/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkFVV5X0p4
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html
On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.
Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:
Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.
You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.
Happy Holidays!
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html
SHOP:
http://www.manataka.org/page633.html
BuyIndies.com
donvasicek.com.Peace Articles at Libraryofpeace.org">
No comments:
Post a Comment