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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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SUPPORT AND DEFEND LT. EHREN WATADA
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2:00 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.
CIVIC CENTER PLAZA, SAN FRANCISCO
This Sunday 2/4, the day before his court martial
proceedings are to begin, there will be a rally in
support of Lt. Ehren Watada at the Civic Center Plaza
in San Francisco from 2-4.
Towards the end of the Vietnam War fully one third of
the soldiers in the military were in opposition to the
war, refusing orders and going awol. That GI
resistance movement was instrumental in bringing the
war to an end and it began with courageous people like
Ehren Watada taking a stand.
Volunteer to help! For more information contact:
answer@actionsf.org
(415) 821-6545
Bay Area Mobilization to Ft Lewis, WA for Feb. 5 court martial –
contact: Ying at 510-559-8189
For more information: Grace – 510-459-7288
supportwatada@hotmail.com
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THE TRUTH ABOUT US POLICY IN COLOMBIA :
A Firsthand Account
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.
When: 7:00 PM Thursday, February 15
Where: 522 Valencia Street , 3rd Floor Auditorium
(Not wheelchair accessible)
Cost: $5 ($3 students, seniors, unemployed)
Sponsored by Colombia Solidarity Committee
Cell 424-6029
email: companeros98@ hotmail.com
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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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Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/
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"Good Dolls" and "Bad Dolls"
http://www.komotv.com/home/video/5001856.html?video=YHI&t=a
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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) Missing Molly Ivins
By PAUL KRUGMAN
February 2, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/opinion/02krugman.html?hp
2) A Bipartisan Trade Policy
New York Times Editorial
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/opinion/02fri1.html?hp
3) Chacaltaya Journal
Bolivia’s Only Ski Resort Is Facing a Snowless Future
By SIMON ROMERO
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/world/americas/02bolivia.html?ref=americas
4) Exxon and Shell Report Record Profits for 2006
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/business/02oil.html?ref=business
5) UFPJ Calls for Local Actions on 4th Anniversary of the War in Iraq
TO: UFPJ Member Groups VIA Email
ufpj@lists.mayfirst.org
6) Change of sex will be free in Cuba
PROGRESO WEEKLY
February 1, 2007
http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Cuban_Radar&otherweek=1170309600
or
http://tinyurl.com/ywht6r
7) Official Lies over Najaf Battle Exposed
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Read story from website
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000534.php#more
8) "The Revolution Must Be
a School Of Unfettered Thought"
Scanned from Merit Publishers edition of 1969
by Walter Lippmann, May 2006.
http://www.walterlippmann.com
9) America's Dialogue
http://www.americasdialogue.org
10) Thousands in Mexico City Protest Rising Food Prices
By ELISABETH MALKIN
February 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/world/americas/01mexico.html
11) Bomb Resonates With Diplomats, Not With the Bomber
By SIMON ROMERO
February 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/world/americas/03lugo.html
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1) Missing Molly Ivins
By PAUL KRUGMAN
February 2, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/opinion/02krugman.html
Molly Ivins, the Texas columnist, died of breast cancer on Wednesday.
I first met her more than three years ago, when our book tours crossed.
She was, as she wrote, “a card-carrying member of The Great Liberal
Backlash of 2003, one of the half-dozen or so writers now schlepping
around the country promoting books that do not speak kindly
of Our Leader’s record.”
I can’t claim to have known her well. But I spent enough time with
her, and paid enough attention to her work, to know that obituaries
that mostly stressed her satirical gifts missed the main point. Yes,
she liked to poke fun at the powerful, and was very good at it.
But her satire was only the means to an end: holding the powerful
accountable.
She explained her philosophy in a stinging 1995 article in Mother
Jones magazine about Rush Limbaugh. “Satire ... has historically
been the weapon of powerless people aimed at the powerful,” she
wrote. “When you use satire against powerless people ... it is like
kicking a cripple.”
Molly never lost sight of two eternal truths: rulers lie, and the
times when people are most afraid to challenge authority are
also the times when it’s most important to do just that. And
the fact that she remembered these truths explains something
I haven’t seen pointed out in any of the tributes: her extraordinary
prescience on the central political issue of our time.
I’ve been going through Molly’s columns from 2002 and 2003,
the period when most of the wise men of the press cheered as
Our Leader took us to war on false pretenses, then dismissed
as “Bush haters” anyone who complained about the absence
of W.M.D. or warned that the victory celebrations were
premature. Here are a few selections:
Nov. 19, 2002: “The greatest risk for us in invading Iraq is
probably not war itself, so much as: What happens after we
win? ... There is a batty degree of triumphalism loose in this
country right now.”
Jan. 16, 2003: “I assume we can defeat Hussein without great
cost to our side (God forgive me if that is hubris). The problem
is what happens after we win. The country is 20 percent Kurd, 20
percent Sunni and 60 percent Shiite. Can you say, ‘Horrible three-
way civil war?’ ”
July 14, 2003: “I opposed the war in Iraq because I thought it
would lead to the peace from hell, but I’d rather not see my
prediction come true and I don’t think we have much time left
to avert it. That the occupation is not going well is apparent to
everyone but Donald Rumsfeld. ... We don’t need people with
credentials as right-wing ideologues and corporate privatizers
— we need people who know how to fix water and power plants.”
Oct. 7, 2003: “Good thing we won the war, because the peace
sure looks like a quagmire. ...
“I’ve got an even-money bet out that says more Americans will be
killed in the peace than in the war, and more Iraqis will be killed
by Americans in the peace than in the war. Not the first time I’ve
had a bet out that I hoped I’d lose.”
So Molly Ivins — who didn’t mingle with the great and famous,
didn’t have sources high in the administration, and never claimed
special expertise on national security or the Middle East — got almost
everything right. Meanwhile, how did those who did have all those
credentials do?
With very few exceptions, they got everything wrong. They bought
the obviously cooked case for war — or found their own reasons
to endorse the invasion. They didn’t see the folly of the venture,
which was almost as obvious in prospect as it is with the benefit
of hindsight. And they took years to realize that everything we
were being told about progress in Iraq was a lie.
Was Molly smarter than all the experts? No, she was just braver.
The administration’s exploitation of 9/11 created an environment
in which it took a lot of courage to see and say the obvious.
Molly had that courage; not enough others can say the same.
And it’s not over. Many of those who failed the big test in 2002
and 2003 are now making excuses for the “surge.” Meanwhile, the
same techniques of allegation and innuendo that were used to
promote war with Iraq are being used to ratchet up tensions with Iran.
Now, more than ever, we need people who will stand up against the
follies and lies of the powerful. And Molly Ivins, who devoted her
life to questioning authority, will be sorely missed.
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2) A Bipartisan Trade Policy
New York Times Editorial
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/opinion/02fri1.html?hp
The newest Democratic members of Congress have arrived in
Washington with an important message from the voters: American
workers are feeling economically insecure, and globalization and
trade are heightening their fears. The White House and the new
Congress still have a chance to create a bipartisan consensus
on trade. They should seize it, for the good of the American
economy, and for the good of the world’s poorest nations,
which need freer trade to pull themselves out of poverty.
There are some quick steps the White House and Congress
should be able to agree on. To reassure workers at home, they
could expand federal assistance to anyone thrown out of
a job because of trade. At the same time, new tariff benefits
for the least-developed countries, like Bangladesh and
Cambodia, would send a positive signal to the rest of the
world.
Over all, trade has been very good to the United States,
which is still the world’s largest exporter of goods and
services. The trade liberalization measures put in place after
World War II produce now, by one estimate, an additional
$1 trillion in income for Americans annually, and millions
of new jobs. The inexpensive foreign goods that arrive here
because of free trade keep prices down. Low prices are
good for consumers, and by keeping inflation and interest
rates in check, they encourage economic growth and job
creation.
Still, there is no question that the hundreds of thousands
of workers who lose their jobs to trade-related dislocations
each year are paying the price. The government has not
done enough to take care of these displaced workers,
and much of the blame lies with the economic policies
of the White House and the last Congress, which was led
by Republicans.
Now that the Democrats control Congress, they can champion
both free trade and the rights of American workers. They should
push to improve the social safety net, especially access
to health insurance. And they should promote increased
retraining and wage assistance for displaced workers.
To win Democrats’ support, the White House will have to
accept some of their demands for stronger labor provisions
in future trade accords. Bans on forced labor and child labor,
and similar mandates, are laudable goals. But Democrats
who propose minimum-wage rules have to recognize that
what is low pay for Americans may pull a family out of
poverty in a less-developed country.
The administration’s proposed farm legislation looks like
a decent first step toward reducing subsidies and bringing
American agricultural policy into line with our trade commitments.
Now, if the administration can put together a solid plan
for proceeding with negotiations for the Doha round of global
trade talks, Congress should renew the president’s fast-track
negotiating authority. But if the global talks cannot be jump-
started, the White House and Congress should move ahead
with bilateral agreements with Peru, Panama and Korea.
Democrats are right to insist that the trade agenda advance the
interests of all Americans, not just large corporations. But they
need to acknowledge that putting the brakes on global growth
is still the surest path to losing American jobs.
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3) Chacaltaya Journal
Bolivia’s Only Ski Resort Is Facing a Snowless Future
By SIMON ROMERO
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/world/americas/02bolivia.html?ref=americas
CHACALTAYA, Bolivia, Jan. 28 — The lodge here at what bills itself
as the world’s highest ski resort has fraying black-and-white photos
evoking memories of the years when this country had an Olympic
ski team.
Bolivia’s die-hard skiers still boast about the place, asking where
else one can ski above the clouds at a dizzying 17,388 feet with
a view of Lake Titicaca on the horizon.
Where else, they ask, would the après-ski tradition include coca
tea and soup made from the grain of the quinoa plant?
Their pride in the ski resort here, the only one in Bolivia, soon
gives way to a grim acceptance that the glacier that once surrounded
the lodge with copious amounts of snow and ice is melting fast.
Attributing the melting to the growing emission of greenhouse
gases causing global warming, scientists say Bolivia’s skiing
tradition could be extinguished when Chacaltaya’s modest
ski run disappears forever in a few years.
“This is a tragedy I can hardly bear to witness,” said Franz
Gutiérrez, 65, who has been a member of the Bolivian Andean
Club, which operates Chacaltaya, since he was a teenager.
Guiding a group of about a dozen skiers on the opening
day of this year’s season, Mr. Gutiérrez reminisced about
how he skied nearly every weekend until Chacaltaya’s glacier
began melting significantly a decade ago.
“It is magical,” he said, “to ski at an altitude at which planes
don’t fly in parts of the world.”
Chacaltaya, of course, never had the glamour of a Vail or
a Zermatt. Founded in the late 1930s by a dreamer named
Raúl Posnansky Lipmann, it can be reached only by a dirt
road winding through the chaotic markets of El Alto,
a sprawling city of slums above La Paz, and with nail-biting
-inducing switchbacks that lack guardrails.
Though ski resorts in Chile and Argentina thrive during the
South American winter, from July to September, the best
skiing at Chacaltaya is — or rather, was — from about
January through March, when snow and hail are somewhat
more common here. After Mr. Posnansky died in an avalanche
in the 1940s little was done to alter Chacaltaya’s spartan
operations.
Its lift, which stopped working recently, was powered by
an old automobile engine. Now skiers must hike 30 minutes
to Chacaltaya’s only run. For those not acclimated to La Paz,
the capital, much less to Chacaltaya, which is about a mile
higher, that effort intensifies the splitting headaches and
shortness of breath that afflict visitors to such heights.
“I thought training at this altitude would offer some
advantages,” said José Manuel Bejarano Carvajal, 50,
a member of the team that competed in the Winter Olympics
in Sarajevo in 1984. “But I finished last.” Mr. Bejarano said
Bolivia was represented in the Olympics as recently as 1992,
before its team was disbanded.
He and other members of the Bolivian Andean Club, which
operates from a building in downtown La Paz whose facades
are sprayed with graffiti, have followed the studies of their
disappearing snow with alarm.
Scientists say that glaciers are increasingly receding throughout
the Andes, but that Chacaltaya’s melting has been especially
quick. More than 80 percent of the glacier has been lost
in 20 years, said Jaime Argollo Bautista, director of the Institute
of Geological Investigation at the University of San Andrés,
in La Paz.
“I would give Chacaltaya three more years,” said Mr. Argollo,
adding that the relatively small size of the glacier and the
abundance of rocks under its ice, which easily absorb heat,
have quickened its retreat.
Beyond the impact on skiing, the pastime of only a small
elite in Bolivia, Mr. Argollo said, the country’s receding
glaciers threaten drinking water supplies and water for
hydroelectric plants that supply power to La Paz and El Alto.
“Chacaltaya is but a preview of what’s to happen to our other
glaciers,” Mr. Argollo said.
Bolivia’s skiers seem to approach the impending end at
Chacaltaya with a mixture of denial and resignation. Some
members of the Andean Club talk of transforming their
lodge into a gymnasium where mountain climbers and
other athletes could adapt to high altitudes. This would
involve redesigning the club’s proud emblem, a condor
on skis.
Others dream of bringing in artificial snow, a prohibitively
expensive solution here in South America’s poorest country,
or of building a new lodge on nearby Mount Mururata, which
still has ample snow so far, an idea limited by terrible road
access.
Humor helps those who have frequented Chacaltaya most
of their adult life. Alfredo Martínez, 72, a sprightly former
skier and mountain climber, said global warming had
nothing to do with the snow’s disappearance.
Mr. Martínez said it was because “Bolivia’s women have grown
too mischievous.” He did not explain his joke further, and
the younger women who had come for the first day of skiing
this year were not amused.
Some skiers continue trekking to the only remaining ski slope
here to get a few runs in before Chacaltaya surrenders its
claim to being the world’s highest ski area to peaks like
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in China, Gulmarg in the Indian
Himalayas or Tochal in Iran.
“Let’s just say this place is unique,” Darrel Nitshe, 41, a Canadian
who works for a skiing outfit that brings people to the tops of
ski runs in British Columbia by helicopter, said as he stopped
to catch his breath on the trek to the summit here, which is
surrounded by the snowcapped peaks of the Andes.
But there are some who seemingly refuse to admit that the end
is near. Angelo Martínez, 22, a dentistry student in La Paz, took
no fewer than four runs on his snowboard on Sunday, climbing
to the top after each descent as if he were ascending a flight
of stairs at sea level.
“There’s no place I’d rather be,” Mr. Martínez said, squinting
as the sun beat down on the lonely slope. “At least Chacaltaya
is ours.”
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4) Exxon and Shell Report Record Profits for 2006
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/business/02oil.html?ref=business
HOUSTON, Feb. 1 — Oil prices have fallen, but Exxon Mobil and
Royal Dutch Shell left their smaller competitors in the dust and
reported record annual profits Thursday.
By making $180 million a day between them, the two largest publicly
traded oil companies displayed their ability to ramp up production
worldwide over the year, even in unstable places like Chad and
Nigeria. Growth may be slowing and is likely to continue to do
so in the future, but these two companies showed they could
navigate the year’s volatile energy prices that caused smaller
companies to stumble in their fourth-quarter profits.
The expanding profits at Exxon Mobil and Shell, however, may
also make them big targets for the Democratic Congress whose
leaders want oil companies to pay higher taxes and work to curb
global warming.
Analysts said that with oil prices rebounding again with more
frigid weather, the entire industry is almost assured of seeing
strong profits again this year.
Production in Mexico and Venezuela is declining because of
politics, poor management, investment shortfalls and aging
fields. And in Russia, production is slowing because of tensions
between the government and foreign oil and gas companies over
big investments. With worldwide crude inventories full, Saudi
Arabia is keeping production in check to maintain its influence
over pricing.
Energy consumption in China and India, meanwhile, continues
to soar.
Just a few weeks ago, many traders were predicting that oil
would fall below $50 a barrel. But now the consensus of traders
is that $50 is more likely a floor, so that big profits should
continue in an industry that is swimming in cash.
“Only a few months ago, I thought oil prices could go down
to $40 and natural gas prices to $5,” laughed Fadel Gheit, senior
energy analyst at Oppenheimer & Company, who has since tossed
out those expectations.
As for the earnings, he said: “The brutal focus on efficiency makes
Exxon Mobil head and shoulders above everybody else. They
arrive ahead of all the passengers, even those traveling on
the same train.”
Exxon reported annual profit of $39.5 billion, or $6.62 a share,
for 2006 — its second consecutive annual record. Once again,
the profit was the largest reported by any American company
in history.
While Exxon’s fourth-quarter results were actually down a bit
from the year before, the enormity of its annual profits had
Democratic politicians shaking their heads.
Under Democratic control, the House of Representatives quickly
passed legislation last month to raise nearly $15 billion in taxes
and royalties and use that money to finance research for alternative
fuels. Many in the Senate support similar legislation, which may
get a boost from a common perception in Congress that large
oil companies are richer than ever and not doing their part
to curb global warming.
As soon as Exxon Mobil released its earnings, Representative
Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, who is a leading Democratic
spokesman on energy issues, accused the company of using
its “outlandish profits” to lobby for energy policies that benefit
it rather than the American people.
“The hypocrisy of the oil and gas lobbyists is so high that even
as these record profits gush from their company balance sheets,
they try to block all attempts to recover the royalties they owe
the American taxpayer,” Mr. Markey, who is on the House Energy
and Commerce Committee, said in a statement.
Apparently sensitive to perceptions, Shell did not announce
that its annual profit was a company record.
The profitable results of the two companies came after reports
by other energy companies in recent days that slipping commodity
prices, rising steel and labor costs and higher royalties and taxes
had hurt their bottom lines.
Exxon’s refining and chemical businesses benefited from the
dip in gas prices, giving it a cushion that the smaller companies
did not have. Its worldwide oil production increased modestly
over the year, though it declined slightly in the fourth quarter.
Shell reported a 21 percent rise in its fourth-quarter earnings,
to $5.28 billion. That was mostly a result of a 4.1 percent
increase in daily production of oil, to 3.65 million barrels,
in the quarter. The company also continued to profit from
its superior marketing and refining ability outside the United
States.
Shell’s income in 2006 was $25.44 billion, up from $25.3 billion
in 2005.
Shell predicted oil and gas production growth of 1 percent to
2 percent annually through 2010, and slightly more after that.
Exxon reported profit of $10.25 billion, or $1.76 a share, in
the fourth quarter. That represented a decline of 4.3 percent
from the fourth quarter of 2005, when energy prices soared
after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Shares of Exxon Mobil rose 98 cents, or 1.32 percent, to $75.08,
while American depository receipts of Shell rose $1.23, or
1.80 percent, to $69.48.
Occidental Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, Hess and several other
oil companies have reported drops in quarterly profits in
recent days, but those results are in comparison to record
or near-record in the quarters a year earlier.
Exxon executives concede that the company faces some big
potential hurdles in the coming months should OPEC countries
cut production quotas and negotiations go badly over transfer
of control of operations in Venezuela.
Nicole Decker, an oil analyst at Bear Stearns, cautioned that
2007 could be a problematic year for oil companies because
increased steel and labor costs “have not been reflected in the
bottom line yet.” She added that while she could imagine
oil prices rising above $60 in the coming months, “I don’t
think anybody thinks oil prices will go up to where they
once were.”
She said increased production in Malaysia and Azerbaijan
this year could help nudge down prices.
The lower fourth-quarter profits at many oil companies mostly
reflected declines in oil and gas prices at the end of last year.
Oil prices for the quarter ranged from $55 to $63 a barrel,
averaging just shy of $60. That represented a 15 percent
decline from the third quarter, but less than 1 percent
lower than the fourth quarter of 2005.
Oil prices for all of 2006 averaged $66, or $10 higher than
in 2005, according to a recent Citigroup report on the energy
industry. Oil prices reached a high of $77 in July, but they
dipped to as low as $52 in recent weeks.
Prices have firmed up lately on speculation among traders
that fuel supplies in much of the United States will decline
in the coming weeks because of cold weather and better-
than-expected economic growth. Prices edged down slightly
Thursday, to $57.30, and are about 10 percent lower than
a year ago.
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5) UFPJ Calls for Local Actions on 4th Anniversary of the War in Iraq
TO: UFPJ Member Groups VIA Email
ufpj@lists.mayfirst.org
March 19th will mark the 4th anniversary of the U.S. military assault
on Iraq and the beginning of what has turned into one of this nation's
longest military engagements. Four years of war and occupation;
4 years of death and destruction; 4 years of a war that never should
have happened.
United for Peace and Justice is calling for a massive outpouring
of opposition to the war in locally based, decentralized actions
throughout the U.S. from Saturday, March 17th through Monday,
March 19th.
On the weekend of Jan. 27th - 29th we brought hundreds of thousands
of people into the streets of Washington, DC in a historic mobilization
that included the complete encircling of the U.S. Capitol. As important
as the periodic marches in Washington on - and we know we'll need
to go to DC again in the future - we believe it is equally important
to raise our voices and be visible in our own cities and towns, in major
urban centers and in small rural communities, in all 50 states
of the nation. This anniversary will be a reminder of the horrors
of the war and the suffering of the Iraqi people, as well as the
costs to our own people and communities.
The 4th anniversary of the war provides a unique opportunity
to strengthen the local organizing that is the heart and soul of this
movement. Each group should decide the type of activity that will
be best for your community: a march through downtown, a vigil
at your local federal building, leafleting in front of the offices of
a corporation profiting from the war in Iraq, educational events,
religious sermons and services, a protest at a military recruiting
station or an effort to reach the parents of young people targetted
by the recruiters. It will also be another opportunity to focus our
pressure on Congress and push them to use their Constitutional
powers, to stand up to the president and end this war!
When we call for increasing the pressure on Congress we mean
using the full range of tactics available: lobbying, massive numbers
of people phoning them, public protests in front of their offices,
and non-violent civil disobedience. And we hope in addition to
whatever else you do, that you will also help us build the most
massive national petition drive in recent history. People will be
able to sign the petition on-line, but even more importantly we
want people in communities around the country to have direct
contact in order to ask for their signatures. Just imagine us
turning over hundreds of thousands of signatures to Congress -
and each of those representing a conversation and direct
contact with each person who signed it!
In the coming weeks we will have a lot more information about
the national petition campaign and specific ideas for actions and
activities on the 4th anniversary of the March. In the meantime,
we encourage you to start planning now for your local events,
activities and protests. Please be sure to post your events on
our website at
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/addevent
Leslie Cagan
National Coordinator, UFPJ
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
To make sure we reach everyone possible between now and
then, we need everyone’s help on postering, flyering, stickering
and making alert phone calls. Materials are available at our
office (address below) anytime between 9am-9pm Mon-Fri
(Call for weekend hours) If you would like materials mailed
to you, please call or email answer@actionsf.org.
San Francisco Meet at the ANSWER office, 2489 Mission St.
#24, at 21st St. (near 24th St. BART/#14, #49 MUNI)
East Bay Meet at 19th St. BART station, Oakland
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6) Change of sex will be free in Cuba
PROGRESO WEEKLY
February 1, 2007
http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Cuban_Radar&otherweek=1170309600
According to the latest edition of the newsletter Diversidad
(Diversity), the National Assembly of Popular Power (parliament) will
discuss the issue of free sex change surgery, meaning that the health
care public system will treat all persons who apply.
The measure would complement the present Identity Law that already
acknowledges the right of citizens to change name and sexual
identity. This places Cuba at the vanguard of the legislations that
acknowledge the rights of transvestites, transsexuals and transgender
in Latin America.
“We have decided to begin with transsexuals because they are the most
vulnerable from the point of view of physical and psychological
health,” said Mariela Castro Espín, director of the National Center
of Sexual Education (CENESEX).
According to the publication, Cuba’s parliament will present several
favorable measures for the LGTB (Lesbians, Gays, Trans and Bisexuals)
community in 2007, including the legalization of same sex unions.
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7) Official Lies over Najaf Battle Exposed
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Read story from website
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000534.php#more
*NAJAF, Iraq, Jan 31 (IPS) - Iraqi government lies over the killing of
hundreds of Shias in an attack on Sunday stand exposed by independent
investigations carried out by IPS in Iraq.*
Conflicting reports had arisen earlier on how and why a huge battle
broke out around the small village Zarqa, located just a few kilometres
northeast of the Shia holy city Najaf, which is 90 km south of Baghdad.
One thing certain is that when the smoke cleared, more than 200 people
lay dead after more than half a day of fighting Sunday Jan. 28. A U.S.
helicopter was shot down, killing two soldiers. Twenty-five members of
the Iraqi security force were also killed.
"We were going to conduct the usual ceremonies that we conduct every
year when we were attacked by Iraqi soldiers," Jabbar al-Hatami, a
leader of the al-Hatami Shia Arab tribe told IPS.
"We thought it was one of the usual mistakes of the Iraqi army killing
civilians, so we advanced to explain to the soldiers that they killed
five of us for no reason. But we were surprised by more gunfire from the
soldiers."
The confrontation took place on the Shia holiday of Ashura which
commemorates Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Muhammad and the most
revered of Shia saints. Emotions run high at this time, and
self-flagellation in public is the norm.
Many southern Shia Arabs do not follow Iranian-born cleric Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani. They believe the religious leadership should be kept in the
hands of Arab clerics. Al-Hatami and al-Khazaali are two major tribes
that do not follow Sistani.
Tribal members from both believe the attack was launched by the central
government of Baghdad to stifle growing Shia-Sunni unity in the area.
"Our convoy was close to the al-Hatami convoy on the way to Najaf when
we heard the massive shooting, and so we ran to help them because our
tribe and theirs are bound with a strong alliance," a 45-year-old man
who asked to be referred to as Ahmed told IPS.
Ahmed, a member of the al-Khazali tribe said "our two tribes have a
strong belief that Iranians are provoking sectarian war in Iraq which is
against the belief of all Muslims, and so we announced an alliance with
Sunni brothers against any sectarian violence in the country. That did
not make our Iranian dominated government happy."
The fighting took place on the Diwaniya-Najaf road and spread into
nearby date-palm plantations after pilgrims sought refuge there.
"American helicopters participated in the slaughter," Jassim Abbas, a
farmer from the area told IPS. "They were soon there to kill those
pilgrims without hesitation, but they were never there for helping
Iraqis in anything they need. We just watched them getting killed group
by group while trapped in those plantations."
Much of the killing was done by U.S. and British warplanes, eyewitnesses
said.
Local authorities including the office of Najaf Governor Asaad Abu
Khalil who is a member of the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for Islamic
Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) had claimed before the killings that a group
of primarily foreign Sunni fighters with links to al-Qaeda had planned
to disrupt the Ashura festival by attacking Shia pilgrims and senior
ayatollahs in Najaf. The city is the principal seat of religious
learning for Shias in Iraq.
Officials claimed that Iraqi security forces had obtained intelligence
information from two detained men that had led the Iraqi Scorpion
commando squad to prepare for an attack. The intelligence claimed
obviously had little impact on how events unfolded.
Minister of Interior Jawad al-Bolani announced to reporters at 9 am
Sunday morning that Najaf was being attacked by al-Qaeda. Immediately
following this announcement the Ministry of National Security (MNS)
announced that the dead were members of the Shia splinter extremist
group Jund al-Sama (Army of Heaven) who were out to kill senior
ayatollahs in Najaf, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Iraq's national security advisor Muaffaq al-Rubaii said just 15 minutes
after the MNS announcement that hundreds of Arab fighters had been
killed, and that many had been arrested. Rubaii claimed there were
Saudis, Yemenis, Egyptians and Afghans.
But Governor Khalil's office backed away from its initial claims after
the dead turned out to be local Shia Iraqis. Iraqi security officials
continue to contradict their own statements. Most officials now say that
the dead were Shia extremists supported by foreign powers.
The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has a pattern of
announcing it is fighting terrorists, like its backers in Washington.
Many Iraqis in the south now accuse Baghdad of calling them terrorists
simply because they refuse to collaborate with the Iranian dominated
government.
(Ali al-Fadhily is our Baghdad correspondent. Dahr Jamail is our
specialist writer who has spent eight months reporting from inside Iraq
and has been covering the Middle East for several years.)
Think Dahr's work is vital? We need your help. It's easy!
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/donate/
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8) "The Revolution Must Be
a School Of Unfettered Thought"
Scanned from Merit Publishers edition of 1969
by Walter Lippmann, May 2006.
http://www.walterlippmann.com/fc-03-13-1962.html
Text of speech by Fidel Castro at the University of Havana, March 13,
1962, commemorating the anniversary of the 1957 student attack on the
palace of dictator Batista, in which student leader Jose Antonio
Echevarria and others were killed. This translation of the speech
originally appeared in the April 2, 1962, issue of The Militant.
In light of some of the discussions here on Marxmail about the
role of religion in society and in relation to socialism, Fidel Castro's
famous 1962 speech should be of particular interest today.
Looking back forty-five years, we can see that Cuba's standing
in the world is completely different from what it was in 1962, at
a far earlier stage of the Revolution's development. Politically the
Cuban Revolution has survived the fall of its principal international
ally, the Soviet Union, and its profile on the world stage is higher.
Here we can look back at an earlier stage in the institutionalization
process, when its political leadership was at an earlier stage of its
formalization. At this point, in 1962, a crisis had taken place and
Fidel used the occasion to explain to the Cuban people what had
taken place, and to explain what the construction of a leadership
body politically signified. It's been a long time since I read this
discussion. In this case, Fidel was explaining to the Cuban people,
just three years after the triumph of their revolution, that it was
not going to mean any effort would be made to stamp out any
references to Cuba's religious heritage from the history of the
revolutionary process. And, of course, much, much more...
Two particularly significant paragraphs:
Then we would have to suppress Marti's works because Marti was not
a Marxist-Leninist, because Marti responded to the revolutionary
thought proper to our nation at that time. If Marxism-Leninism is the
ideology of the working class when that class emerges and, conscious
of itself, flings itself into the struggle for its emancipation, how
could we expect Marxism-Leninism to be the ideology when the task
before a country, the task before Latin America at the time of in-
dependence, and the task before our nation, were national tasks,
tasks of a different kind, of another type, corresponding to the
development of our nation at that specific moment?
If we followed that line of thinking we would have to destroy the
concept of the revolutionist from Spartacus to Marti. As a result of
that short-sighted, sectarian, stupid and warped concept, which
denies history and denies Marxism, we would be forced to deny all
values, all history. We would be forced to deny our very roots; when
all that treasure of human progress; of human effort, of human
sacrifice, should be gathered up and added to our nation's beautiful
history and to the beautiful history of a mankind which is
progressing, which has progressed from the beginning, which is
progressing and will continue to progress more and more.
This is the first of two vitally-important speeches which Fidel
gave that month.
Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
http://www.walterlippmann.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews
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9) America's Dialogue
http://www.americasdialogue.org.
I’m writing from Eugene, Oregon, to let you know about an
unprecedented week of national grassroots discussions taking place
April 14-22, 2007, and to ask both your pIarticipation and help in
getting the word out to friends and acquaintances all across the
country.
The project is AMERICA’S DIALOGUE. You can get more information at:
http://www.americasdialogue.org.
During this week, people will be gathering in small groups all across
the country to discuss the future of America.
What kind of America, and what kind of world, do we want to see?
What are our priorities as a nation and a people?
These discussions will be centering around a new 42-minute video
about Hiroshima, nuclear weapons, nuclear waste, and the human cost
of militarism and war. The video will serve both as an educational
experience for millions of Americans, young and old, and as the
catalyst for our discussions about America.
The video - AMERICA’S DIALOGUE - is available on DVD; but people can
also form discussion groups and view the video on their computer on
our website at: http://www.americasdialogue.org/watchvideo.html.
If you would like a DVD to show at a meeting, just let me know the
exact address and I’ll be glad to send a copy. You’re free to copy
the DVD and share it with others. You can also use the video as part
of a fundraiser or membership drive that week for your own group if
you like.
We’d love to hear from you - any ideas and suggestions and plans to
view the video and participate in America’s Dialogue. We would also
appreciate your letting anyone and everyone you know, both locally
and across this country, find out about AMERICA’S DIALOGUE. We’ll
be
networking with many individuals, groups and organizations all across
the country to initiate an unprecedented dialogue about the future of
our country.
THANKS!.
Jim Hilgendorf
America’s Dialogue
P.O. Box 12144
Eugene, OR 97440
Tele: 1-800-898-9441
Email: thetributeseries@comcast.net
Web: http://www.americasdialogue.org
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10) Thousands in Mexico City Protest Rising Food Prices
By ELISABETH MALKIN
February 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/world/americas/01mexico.html
MEXICO CITY, Jan. 31 — Tens of thousands of workers and farmers
filled this city’s central square on Wednesday to protest spiraling
food prices, ratcheting up the volume over a problem that has
dogged President Felipe Calderón in his first weeks in office.
Left-wing parties joined the unions and peasant organizations that
had called the protest. The protesters, some of whom handed out
ears of corn, marched up Mexico City’s main avenue to the Zócalo,
the site of protests through much of the summer and fall against
Mr. Calderón’s election.
The high cost of tortillas and other food staples has consumed
politics here over the past few weeks, posing a stubborn challenge
to Mr. Calderón as he seeks to project an image as a take-charge
leader. It has spilled into the ever-simmering debate here over
the country’s commitment to free-market economics.
As marchers gathered at dusk in the city’s main square, a former
television personality, Verónica Velasco, read a statement condemning
the government’s policies. “While other countries are looking for
alternatives to neoliberal policies, in Mexico, the government has
lagged behind and insisted in applying a model that, after
a quarter century, has shown its inefficiency and inequality,”
the statement said.
As night fell, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leftist candidate
who narrowly lost to Mr. Calderón in July, spoke to the crowd.
City officials would not give an estimate of the size of the protest.
To opponents of Mr. Calderón’s government, the spike in the price
of tortillas is further proof that the free-market policies he has
pledged to continue benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor.
The high prices are new ammunition for those who have previously
pressed to renegotiate the agricultural chapter of the North American
Free Trade Agreement to provide more protection for Mexican farmers,
and for Mexico to end its dependence on imports of American corn
and recover what nationalists call food sovereignty.
Mr. Calderón barely won a bitterly contested election in July against
a leftist opponent who promised to roll back some of those policies.
Aware that he would have to win over part of the population that has
yet to see the benefits of free trade, Mr. Calderón quickly announced
a series of social programs once he took office.
He also cracked down on the drug trade, establishing an image as
a decisive executive. He ordered the army into several cities to fight
drug violence and summarily extradited 11 drug trafficking suspects
to the United States.
But the tortilla price spiral appeared to come as a surprise. Although
Mr. Calderón moved quickly, announcing a pact on Jan. 18 to freeze
prices, the problem has not been resolved.
Even with the pact, the news reports focused on the fact that the price
ceiling for the tortillas of about 35 cents a pound was about 40 percent
higher than the price three months earlier and contrasted that with the
4 percent increase in the minimum wage, which is still less than $5 a day.
But because fewer than 10 percent of tortilla producers signed on
to the agreement, the government had little power over those who
did not. In some areas, prices have risen to 45 cents a pound. There
is little more that Mr. Calderón can do to contain prices without huge
expenditures for subsidies. Most analysts agree that the main cause
of the increase has been a spike in corn prices in the United States,
as the demand for corn to produce ethanol has jumped.
But the uneven structure of Mexico’s corn and tortilla industry here has
also generated accusations — none of them proved — of hoarding and
profiteering. Mexico’s corn flour industry is controlled by just two
companies, Grupo Maseca, also known as Gruma, and Minsa. Under
the pact, Gruma agreed to keep prices for corn flour at 21 cents a pound.
The government has promised to crack down on profiteers.
Ken Shwedel, an agricultural economist in Mexico City for the Dutch
agribusiness bank Rabobank, said prices were likely to remain high
in the United States, which supplies about 25 percent of Mexico’s corn.
“This is the first time you’ve got a real agricultural shock to the
economy,” he said. “The market economy isn’t as benevolent as
a state-run economy. The market is characterized by fluctuations.
You have to live with it and know how to deal with it.”
The marchers clearly directed their blame at the government. “When
they get involved in something as elemental as tortillas, well that’s
just irresponsible,” said Francisco Ruiz, 48, a telephone worker.
Carola Ortega, 64, a member of a peasant group, said: “We’re here
because the government always takes advantage of the poor. First
it was tortillas, but we’re not stupid; if tortillas go up, everything
else does too.”
Some analysts argue that the opposition has merely seized on a
convenient issue and that the controversy will blow over.
“For the unions, it is about much more than tortillas,” said Vidal
Romero, a political scientist at the Autonomous Technological
Institute of Mexico, a Mexico City university. “They want to make
it clear to the president that they still have strength and not let
the government do what it wants.”
For the left, the tortilla issue is a new rallying cry after months of
postelectoral protests. Mr. Romero said the left hoped to use the
march to position itself as the main opposition force to Mr. Calderón’s
presidency. “They want to draw oxygen from it,” he said.
Antonio Betancourt contributed reporting.
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11) Bomb Resonates With Diplomats, Not With the Bomber
By SIMON ROMERO
February 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/world/americas/03lugo.html
CARACAS, Venezuela
THERE are not many places where a man convicted in the bombing of a
commercial airliner that killed 73 people can be found roaming the
streets. This city, home to Freddy Lugo, is one of them.
Mr. Lugo, like an uneasy memory from the cold war, is tucked away
here, obscure to most of his countrymen but not completely forgotten.
He was one of two men sentenced to 20 years in prison for placing
explosives on a DC-8 jetliner flown by Cubana Airlines in 1976.
The plane blew up in the sky above Barbados, killing everyone on
board, including two dozen members of Cuba‚s national fencing team
and a 9-year-old Guyanese girl. That explosion, considered the first
act of midair terrorism in the Americas, poisons relations between
Havana and Washington to this day.
Mr. Lugo, 65, who was released in 1993 after 17 years in prison, has
tried to put the past behind him. „I have a tranquil life now,‰ he
said in a rare 90-minute interview, his eyes darting around him, at a
bakery cafe near his home. „I have a clean conscience.‰
But the past has a way of catching up with him. There is the
occasional journalist to contend with, and glimmers of recognition
from among the many Cubans who live here. As many Americans would
recognize Mohamed Atta if he were alive and walking the streets of
New York, to Venezuelans, Mr. Lugo‚s face is haunting.
A new book on the Cubana bombing, called „Terrorist of the Bush
Family,‰ by two Venezuelan journalists, Alexis Rosas and Ernesto
Villegas, has not helped either. The book has become a best seller
since its release here last November. It has focused new attention on
the bombing and the request by Venezuela for Washington to extradite
the Cuban exile accused of masterminding the bombing, Luis Posada
Carriles, to face terrorism charges here.
So far the Bush administration has refused, and Mr. Posada Carriles,
78, a naturalized Venezuelan citizen who sneaked into the United
States in 2005, currently sits in a jail in southern New Mexico on
immigration charges.
PRESIDENT HUGO CHÁVEZ‚S government, a staunch Cuban ally these days,
says the difficulty in extraditing Mr. Posada Carriles illustrates
American hypocrisy in battling terrorists. Likewise, Cuba‚s
government points to documents that show the C.I.A. had knowledge
that such an attack was being plotted in Caracas.
Since the book‚s publication, academic researchers and reporters have
tried more than ever to track down Mr. Lugo for interviews, but he
has almost always turned them away, preferring the banality of an
anonymous life.
Mr. Lugo, who drives a gypsy cab to make ends meet, has tried his
best to remain in the shadows of the diplomatic uproar surrounding
Mr. Posada Carriles, whom he described simply as „an adventurer,
capable of anything.‰
Despite his conviction, Mr. Lugo said he considered himself a pawn in
the machinations of Cuban exiles to topple Fidel Castro. Along with
many of those Cubans, Mr. Lugo, a Venezuelan, found himself in
Caracas in the 1970s.
Ann Louise Bardach, a journalist and authority on Cuban politics,
called the Caracas of that era the Casablanca of the Caribbean, as
the city attracted a sordid collection of spies, guerrillas and drug
traffickers.
It was here that Mr. Lugo, then a news photographer, met the man who
recruited him for the bomb plot, a fellow Venezuelan journalist named
Hernán Ricardo Lozano, according to police records.
Mr. Ricardo, it turned out, had been working on the side for Mr.
Posada Carriles, doing photography and surveillance. Mr. Posada
Carriles had a long history as a C.I.A. operative in the 1960s before
moving to Caracas, where he became chief of operations at Venezuela‚s
secret intelligence police, Disip, in the 1970s.
„My life would have taken a completely different path if I had never
met Hernán Ricardo,‰ Mr. Lugo said.
The two men boarded Cubana Airlines Flight 455 on Oct. 6, 1976, in
Port-of-Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. They got off in
Barbados, where the plane stopped en route to Havana. Before leaving
the plane, they left C-4 plastic explosive in a camera bag and a tube
of Colgate toothpaste on board, according to statements obtained by
the police in Trinidad after the two men were arrested there in the
days after the attack.
„We have an explosion,‰ the Cubana pilot said with fear in his voice
in a recording of the plane‚s last frantic moments before it crashed
into the Caribbean. The recording, broadcast repeatedly here and in
Havana last October in remembrances of the 30th anniversary of the
episode, continued: „We are descending immediately. We have fire on
board.‰
Documents recently obtained by the National Security Archive in
Washington describe some of the mundane organizational details
involved in the bombing. In questioning by Trinidadian police
officials, Mr. Lugo said Mr. Ricardo had „told him he was going to
blow up a Cubana airplane.‰ He said he saw Mr. Ricardo „kneading a
handful of something looking like dough‰ before boarding the flight.
Mr. Ricardo, after slitting his left wrist in a suicide attempt while
in police custody in Port-of-Spain, said that he had been paid
$16,000 for the job and that Mr. Lugo had received $8,000.
AN intelligence report prepared by Clarence Kelly, the F.B.I.
director at the time, suggested that Mr. Posada Carriles had attended
meetings in Caracas where the bombing was planned.
The report, quoting an informant in Caracas, said Mr. Ricardo had
called Orlando Bosch, another Cuban exile in Caracas charged with
planning the bombing, saying, „A bus with 73 dogs went off a cliff
and all got killed.‰
Mr. Bosch was eventually cleared by Venezuelan courts and lives
quietly in Miami, having been spared from deportation in 1990 by the
administration of President George H. W. Bush, who was the C.I.A.
director at the time of the bombing.
Mr. Posada Carriles escaped from prison here in 1985 and made his way
to Central America, and from there entered the United States in 2005
and was caught.
Mr. Ricardo served 17 years along with Mr. Lugo. Today his
whereabouts are hard to ascertain, though Mr. Lugo said he believed
he had left Venezuela.
FOR his part, Mr. Lugo divides his time now between an apartment
where he lives with his wife, in an elegant if decaying building on a
quiet, tree-lined street, and his son‚s home in a poor district. He
says he avoids any involvement in politics.
He says his taxi, an aging beige sedan, is his only source of income.
His journalist friends still greet him and shake his hand, he said,
even though they know of his history. He is missing a few teeth, but
otherwise appears younger than his 65 years. A recently discovered
heart ailment, he said, had made him a teetotaler.
Asked if he felt remorse over the deaths of 73 people, including many
teenagers on the Cuban fencing team, Mr. Lugo said he did not. He
explained somewhat cryptically that he considered himself manipulated
in an act beyond his control. „I am a normal man,‰ he said. „I am
innocent.‰
Others disagree. „Freddy Lugo may not want to admit it, but he‚s a
mass murderer,‰ said José Pertierra, a lawyer in Washington
representing Venezuela‚s government in its attempt to extradite Mr.
Posada Carriles. „He can claim he wasn‚t the mastermind; maybe he can
claim he was duped. But he participated in a terrorist act that
killed 73 people.‰
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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
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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
And the Nobel Peace Prize Goes to ... Al Gore?
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0201-05.htm
Comedian Al Franken to run for Senate in Minnesota
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0201-01.htm
How Tax-Cut Plan Favors Middle-Income Households
By DANNY HAKIM
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/nyregion/02taxes.html
Panel Issues Bleak Report on Climate Change
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL and ANDREW C. REVKIN
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/science/earth/02cnd-climate.html?hp&ex=1170478800&en=7f0ce59ee7d312e5&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Company Will Pay Boston After Scare Over Ads
By PAM BELLUCK
BOSTON, Feb. 1 — Turner Broadcasting agreed Thursday to cover
all the costs that Boston incurred as a result of an advertising
campaign that set off fears of a possible terrorist action, the
mayor’s office said.
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/us/02hoax.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
German Court Seeks Arrests of 13 C.I.A. Agents
By MARK LANDLER
January 31, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/world/europe/31cnd-germany.html?hp&ex=1170306000&en=aecc440b89d021dc&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Jury Decides Against Seattle in 1999 Arrests
"A federal jury on Tuesday found the City of Seattle liable for the
unlawful arrests of about 175 protesters during the World Trade
Organization meeting here in 1999, a ruling that could cost the
city millions of dollars."
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 31, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/us/31wto.html
Mexico’s Latest War on Drug Gangs Is Off to a Rapid Start
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
January 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/world/americas/27mexico.html
Canada to Pay $9.75 Million to Man Tortured in Syria
By IAN AUSTEN
OTTAWA, Jan. 26 — Maher Arar, the Canadian software engineer
who was detained by American officials in 2002 and deported
to Syria, where he was jailed and regularly tortured, will receive
11.5 million Canadian dollars ($9.75 million) in compensation
from the Canadian government, under a settlement
announced Friday.
The compensation ends a lawsuit brought by Mr. Arar and
follows a recommendation from a judicial inquiry into his case.
That inquiry said the expulsion to Syria was caused by false
assertions made by the Canadian police to United States
officials, saying that Mr. Arar was an Islamic extremist
linked to Al Qaeda.
January 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/world/americas/27canada.html
Cuba: Castro Looking Stronger in New TV Images
By REUTERS
President Fidel Castro was shown on state television for the
first time in three months, standing with President Hugo
Chávez at a two-hour meeting said to have taken place in
Havana on Monday. Mr. Castro, 80, looked stronger but still
frail in the images. He dropped from public view six months
ago after undergoing emergency surgery for intestinal
bleeding and was last seen in an Oct. 28 video clip looking
very frail and walking with difficulty. His illness is a state secret.
January 31, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/world/americas/31briefs-castroimage.html
Anti-War Marches Draw Hundreds of Thousands
By Aaron Glantz
Inter Press Service
Sunday 28 January 2007
VIDEO: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007A.shtml
Congress Can Stop Iraq War, Experts Tell Lawmakers
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0130-09.htm
Two Charges Dropped Against Watada
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007J.shtml
Anti-War Marches Draw Hundreds of Thousands
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0129-03.htm
New Climate Report Too Rosy, Experts Say
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0129-04.htm
13% of Americans Have Not Heard of Global Warming: Report
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0129-07.htm
Poor Are Priced out of Healthful Eating
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0129-06.htm
Veteran Peace Protester Sent to Jail Despite Prisons Crisis
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0129-05.htm
Injury count in Iraq disputed
Some say Pentagon hides full impact of the war toll
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Stephen Koff
Plain Dealer Bureau Chief
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/116997684835860.xml&coll=2
Two Charges Dropped Against Watada
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007J.shtml
Viva Fidel's death, Miami says
New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
MIAMI - The City of Miami is planning an official celebration at the
Orange Bowl whenever Cuban President Fidel Castro dies.
City Commissioner Tomas Regalado, a Cuban-American, said the
Orange Bowl was the site of a speech by President John F. Kennedy
in 1961 promising a free Cuba.
"Basically, the only thing we're trying to do is have a venue, a giant
venue ready for people, if they wish, to speak to the media, to show
their emotions. It's not that we're doing an official death party,"
he said yesterday. Castro became ill last summer and turned over
power to his brother Raul.
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
http://www.nydailynews.com/01-30-2007/news/wn_report/story/493074p-415303c.html
It's HUD's job to help house Katrina survivors,
not sue them.
"Instead of helping displaced Katrina survivors return to their homes
in New Orleans, HUD has repeatedly gone out of its way to keep
them out.
After residents of the St. Bernard Housing Development returned
home to clean up and reoccupy their apartments—units which have
proven to be livable—HUD (Department of Housing and Urban
Development) responded with a lawsuit. HUD claims that residents
are "damaging" the units and is not only asking a judge to throw
the residents out, but is seeking monetary damages against them!
It's unbelievable and shameful.
Help the residents who are standing up for their housing rights,
today, by calling on HUD to drop its lawsuit and asking Congress
to investigate HUD's plans to destroy public housing in New Orleans.
The petitions will be given to the lead attorney for the residents,
to show public support for their case, and an email will be sent
to your representatives in Congress and HUD Secretary
Alphonso Jackson."
Sign Petition at:
http://www.colorofchange.org/hud/?id=2015-46534
6-Month Home Detention for Executive
By DOW JONES/AP
A former executive at Computer Associates was sentenced to six
months of home detention yesterday after pleading guilty to
conspiracy charges in connection with a scheme to bolster the
company’s quarterly revenue artificially through backdated
sales contracts.
Judge I. Leo Glasser of Federal District Court sentenced David
Kaplan, former senior vice president for finance, at a hearing
in Brooklyn. Mr. Kaplan was also ordered to serve three years
of supervised release.
Mr. Kaplan was one of several executives at the company, now
known as CA Inc., to plead guilty to criminal charges in 2004
and to cooperate with the government.
January 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/technology/30compute.html
2 Witnesses in Queens Killing Cite Pause Amid 50 Police Shots
By AL BAKER and COLIN MOYNIHAN
January 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/nyregion/30bell.html
Can Humanity Survive? Want to Bet on It?
By JOHN TIERNEY
January 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/science/30tier.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin
Terrified Palestinians flee Baghdad for Syrian border
Wednesday, 24 January 2007
http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/45b7856c4.html
Billboards That Know You by Name
By BARNABY FEDER
January 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/business/media/29cooper.html?ref=business
Russia Turns to Spin to Redefine Itself and Reassure the West
By ALAN COWELL
January 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/world/europe/29russia.html
Iranian Reveals Plan to Expand Role in Iraq
By JAMES GLANZ
January 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/world/middleeast/29iranians.html?hp&ex=1170133200&en=6f1bbc475aa92694&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Death Knell May Be Near for Public Election Funds
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Correction Appended
January 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/us/politics/23donate.html?th&emc=th
Gangsters for Capitalism
Saturday, 27 January 2007
By Clinton L. Cox
01/27/07 -- -- Although benign U.S. intentions are an article of faith
among many Americans, theft, murder and oppression have always
been central to U.S. policies and practices in the non-white world.
George Bush’s crusade for ‘democracy’ is yet another chapter in the
shameful saga.
“The U.S. has routinely destroyed democracy throughout the globe
while its leaders spout words about spreading democracy.”
“I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service
as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine
Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant
to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time
being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and
for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.... "
http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/134/1/
With DNA From Exhumed Body, Man Finally Wins Freedom
By FERNANDA SANTOS
"AUBURN, N.Y., Jan. 23 — Roy Brown, who spent 15 years in prison
on a murder conviction and uncovered evidence while there that
linked another man to the crime, was released from prison on
Tuesday after DNA tests on the other man's exhumed body
matched saliva on a nightshirt at the crime scene."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/nyregion/24brown.html
Cingular Profits Nearly Quadruple in 4th Quarter
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:04 p.m. ET
January 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Earns-ATT-Cingular.html
Man may sue Qantas over Bush T-shirt ban
A Melbourne man is seeking legal advice after Qantas stopped him
from boarding a flight because he was wearing a T-shirt that
depicted US President George W Bush as a terrorist.
Qantas officials told Allen Jasson his T-shirt was offensive and
could cause a security risk, as he tried to board a London bound
flight from Melbourne.
Mr Jasson says Mr Bush has led an illegal war in Iraq.
The 55-year-old says it is his democratic right
to express a political view.
"It's not about affronting anyone and it's certainly not an
offensive statement," he said.
Melbourne QC and civil liberties advocate Robert Richter
says the ban is outrageous.
"You see T-shirts like that on the streets of New York and you
don't see American police telling people to take off
their T-shirts," he said.
Qantas says it will allow Mr Jasson to board another flight,
as long as he removes the T-shirt.
The IT specialist says the T-shirt merely expresses his
view that the US-led war in Iraq is illegal.
"It's an important statement," he said.
"It's a statement that encapsulates the values and
important beliefs that I hold."
Mr Richter says T-shirts with political slogans are common.
"[Fellow passengers] don't have to read it, they don't
have to look at him," he said.
"They can come up to him and say that they disagree but
to think that might incite some problem is absurd."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1831559.htm
Bush Continues to Unite the World... Against Him
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0123-04.htm
UN Climate Panel to Project Wrenching Change
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0123-06.htm
Menopause at 30 for Millions in Poverty
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0123-03.htm
Israeli Separation Barrier is Cutting off Palestinians from Their Livelihood
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0123-02.htm
Tuna Stocks Close to Exhaustion, Says WWF
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0123-01.htm
Israel's President to Be Indicted in Rape Case
By GREG MYRE
"JERUSALEM, Jan. 23 — Israel's attorney general plans to indict the
country's president, Moshe Katsav, on charges of rape and other
sexual offenses, the Justice Ministry announced today."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/world/middleeast/23cnd-israel.html?
hp&ex=1169614800&en=7895701811d23e48&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Bank of America Profit Rises 47%
By ERIC DASH
Big gains in equity investments buoyed Bank of America's earnings
in the fourth quarter, which were up 47 percent from the same period
in 2005, the bank reported today.
January 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/business/23cnd-bank.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
US Warns Iran to Back Down
A second US aircraft carrier strike group now steaming toward the
Middle East is Washington's way of warning Iran to back down in its attempts
to dominate the region, a top US diplomat said in Dubai Tuesday.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012307A.shtml
Ecstasy trials for combat stress
David Adam, science correspondent
Thursday February 17, 2005
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1416073,00.html
UN Study Backs Climate Theory: Humans Cause Global Warming
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0119-07.htm
US Media Overlooked Major Humanitarian Stories in 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0119-05.htm
Cost of Iraq War Skyrockets to $8 Billion a Month
The steadily rising Iraq war price tag will reach about $8.4 billion a
month this year, Pentagon spokesmen said on Thursday, as heavy
replacement costs for lost, destroyed and aging equipment mount.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012007A.shtml
US Plans Envision Broad Attack on Iran: Analyst
US contingency planning for military action against Iran's nuclear
program goes beyond limited strikes and would effectively unleash a war
against the country, a former US intelligence analyst said on Friday.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012007B.shtml
Furor Over 12-Year-Old Actress's Rape Scene
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER
January 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/movies/20dako.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
Bush to Urge New Tax Plan for Health Care
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and ROBERT PEAR
January 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/washington/21health.html?
hp&ex=1169355600&en=768f7fdf5d41e18c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Forget that old line about "What's good for GM is good for America"
How the social glue of America is being dissolved
January 2006, Volume 8, Number 1
http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/488
U.S. to Renegotiate Labor Rights
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Bush administration said it would renegotiate the language
covering labor rights in free trade agreements it has reached with
Peru, Colombia and Panama, in order for the new Democratic
Congress to approve the deals. John K. Veroneau, deputy United
States trade representative, said that the three countries had been
notified and predicted that an agreement on revised language could
be reached without a lengthy delay. The announcement was the
strongest signal to date that the administration was prepared
to modify its trade policies in light of Democratic control of the
House and Senate. Democrats, backed by American labor unions,
have long complained that the free trade deals negotiated
by the administration do not include enough protections
for American workers.
January 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/business/worldbusiness/18fobriefs-labor.html
Antiques Dealer Sues to Bar Homeless From Sidewalk
By TRYMAINE LEE
"A Manhattan antiques dealer has filed a lawsuit against a small group
of homeless people claiming that they are disrupting his business
by using the sidewalk outside his high-end East Side store as a urinal,
a spittoon and an occasional dressing room, according to the suit
and the dealer's lawyer."
January 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/nyregion/18suit.html?ref=nyregion
Justices Scrutinize Death Penalty in Texas
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
January 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/washington/18scotus.html
Army Denies Watada Illegal-War Defense
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011707A.shtml
Israeli General Resigns Over War With Hezbollah
By GREG MYRE
January 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/world/middleeast/17israel.html?
hp&ex=1169096400&en=49902c1723a2c943&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Second Iraq Hanging Also Went Awry
By JOHN F. BURNS
January 16, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/world/middleeast/16hang.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
U.N. Puts '06 Death Toll in Iraq Above 34,000
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
January 16, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/world/middleeast/16cnd-iraq.html?
hp&ex=1169010000&en=934ebfa88b7db5cb&ei=5094&partner=homepage
New Orleans Veterans for Peace
http://foodmusicjustice.com/2007/01/10/new-orleans-veterans-for-peace/
Guantanamo Uncassified
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5E3w7ME6Fs
Blue Man Group on Global Warming
http://video. google.com/ videoplay? docid=8453442377 878175440
Iraq to give Western companies oil rights: report
Last Updated: Monday, January 8, 2007 | 12:29 PM ET
CBC News
The Iraqi government plans to introduce a law that will give Western
oil companies rights to the country's huge oil reserves,
a British newspaper says.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/01/08/iraq-oil.html#skip300x250
Service members to Congress: End Iraq war
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jan 16, 2007 16:37:16 EST
http://www.navytime s.com/news/ 2007/01/tnsRedre ss070116/
Grumbling in the Ranks
Vocal opposition to President's Bush's strategy of sending more than 20,000
additional troops to help secure Iraq has grown to include some of the
troops themselves.
A group of more than 50 active-duty military officers will deliver a
petition to Congress on Tuesday signed by about 1,000 troops calling for an
end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. "Any troop increase over here will just
produce more sitting ducks, more targets," said Sergeant Ronn Cantu, who is
serving in Iraq.
Under the 1988 Military Whistleblower Protection Act, active duty military,
National Guard, and Reservists may communicate with any member of Congress
without fear of reprisal, even if copies of the communication are sent to
others.
www.marxmail.org
January 15, 2007, 1:30 pm
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/01/15/grumbling-in-the-ranks/trackback/
Anywhere the Eye Can See, It's Likely to See an Ad
By LOUISE STORY
Add this to the endangered list: blank spaces.
January 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/media/15everywhere.html?ref=business
Bush gets cool response from troops set for Iraq
By Joseph Curl
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published January 12, 2007
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20070112-120719-1724r.htm
Brazil Gambles on Monitoring of Amazon Loggers
By LARRY ROHTER
January 14, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/world/americas/14amazon.html?
_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
Pentagon Intensifies Pressure on Iran
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011307A.shtml
Israeli forces confiscating hundreds of dunams of Hebron
land for settlement industry
"Official sources at the Hebron offices of the Land Defense Committee
in the West Bank are reporting that Israeli forces intend to confiscate
much of the town of Dahariya for settlement industry. More than
300 fertile dunams of Palestinian land is slated to be taken from
the southwestern area of the town."
http://english. pnn.ps/index. php?option= com_content&task=view&id=1414
Hackensack: Lawsuit in Police Shooting
By KAREEM FAHIM
The family of a 45-year-old man who was fatally shot last year by
a New Jersey Park Police officer filed a wrongful-death suit yesterday
in State Superior Court. The suit names the officer and several
colleagues, the State of New Jersey and the Park Police. The man,
Emil Mann, a member of the Ramapough Mountain Indians, had
been at a barbecue in the woods of Mahwah on April 1 when the
officer, Chad Walder, shot him twice without justification, the
suit alleges. Officer Walder, who has said he fired in self-defense,
and two other officers also delayed getting medical help to Mr. Mann,
the suit says. A lawyer for Officer Walder, Robert Galantucci, said
the shooting was justified. No criminal charges have been filed
in the case, and the Bergen County prosecutor's office has said
the investigation is still open. Mr. Mann, who grew up on the
mountain where he was shot, lived in Monroe, N.Y., and had
three children.
January 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/nyregion/12mbrfs-emil.html
Texas: Judge Blocks Ordinance on Immigrants
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A judge blocked an ordinance requiring landlords to verify the
citizenship of potential tenants, a day before it was to go into
effect in a Dallas suburb. The judge granted a temporary
restraining order after a claim that state open-meetings laws
had been violated when the ordinance was approved and
adopted by the City Council of Farmers Branch in November.
January 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/us/12brfs-LANDLORDS.html
U.S. Preparing for Trials of Top Qaeda Detainees
By DAVID JOHNSTON and NEIL A. LEWIS
WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 — The Bush administration has set up a secret
war room in a Virginia suburb where it is assembling evidence
to prosecute high-ranking detainees from Al Qaeda including
the man accused of being the mastermind of the September 2001
attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, government officials said this week.
January 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/washington/12terror.html?ref=us
Bush's tough tactics are a 'declaration of war' on Iran
By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor
Published: 12 January 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2145136.ece
Democrats Risk Antiwar Wrath if They Waver on Iraq Exit
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0110-08.htm
Soldiers Doubt an Influx of American Troops Will Benefit Iraqi Army
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0110-04.htm
Bush to Face Street Protests over Iraq Escalation Plan
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0110-07.htm
YouTube User Spurs Iraq War Dialogue
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0110-01.htm
Robert Fisk: Bush's new strategy - the march of folly
So into the graveyard of Iraq, George Bush, commander-in-chief,
is to send another 21,000 of his soldiers. The march of folly
is to continue...
Published: 11 January 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2144057.ece
Rights of Unions and Nonmembers Vie at Court
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
January 11, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/washington/11scotus.html?ref=us
If you can stomach it:
Transcript of President Bush's Address to Nation on U.S. Policy in Iraq
as recorded by The New York Times:
January 11, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/us/11ptext.html
Israel's Purging of Palestinian Christians
by Jonathan Cook in Nazareth
www.dissidentvoice.org
January 9, 2007
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan07/Cook09.htm
Democrats Beef Police State With 9/11 Commission Bill
Political "opposition" also helping Bush gain traction for Iran military strike
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2007/100107democratsbeef.htm
Wage Increase Could Hinge on Tax Cuts
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
January 10, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/washington/10wage.html?
hp&ex=1168491600&en=91d9820f1ef98a84&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Britain: An Increase in Profit at the London Stock Exchange
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
The London Stock Exchange, seeking to fend off a hostile takeover
by the Nasdaq Stock Market, reported a 9.9 percent increase in
third-quarter profit and forecast a "strong performance" in fiscal
2008. Net income rose to £31 million ($59.8 million) in the three
months ended Dec. 31, up from £28.2 million a year earlier, the
exchange said. Revenue increased 11 percent, to £89.9 million
($173.5 million). The third-quarter results "support the board's
rejection of Nasdaq's offer, which significantly undervalues the
business and the exchange's unique strategic position," the
exchange's chief executive, Clara Furse, said. "Our strong growth
prospects will continue to enhance the quality of our markets."
The exchange, Europe's biggest equity market, released its
earnings about three weeks ahead of schedule and two days
before Nasdaq's offer to pay £12.43 a share expires.
January 10, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/business/worldbusiness/10fobriefs-
ANINCREASEIN_BRF.html
Venezuelan Plan Shakes Investors
By SIMON ROMERO and CLIFFORD KRAUSS
January 10, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/business/worldbusiness/10venezuela.html?
ref=business
Mayor Finds Friendly Ears on Senate Homeland Security Panel
By SEWELL CHAN and ERIC LIPTON
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took his perennial
pitch for more security money to Congress on Tuesday, but this year,
for a change, lawmakers seemed poised to listen.
January 10, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/nyregion/10bloomberg.html?ref=nyregion
3 Relatives of Plotter Are Held by Officials
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
January 10, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/nyregion/10plot.html?ref=nyregion
Gas-Like Odor Permeates Parts of New York City
By CHRISTINE HAUSER and SEWELL CHAN
January 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/nyregion/08cnd-odor.html?
hp&ex=1168318800&en=b688635a7be2e78d&ei=5094&partner=homepage
The Second Declaration of Havana
Walter Lippmann, CubaNews Los Angeles, California
This is one of the great political documents of all time. It was
presented to the Cuban people on February 4, 1962, following Cuba's
expulsion from the Organization of American States. It is printed
here in its entirety. [editorial note from Fidel Castro Speaks,
edited by James Petras and Martin Kenner, Grove Press, 1969.]
It is now web-posted in English here:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/fc-02-04-1962.html
Original Spanish:
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/1962/esp/f040262e.html
The universe gives up its deepest secret
It is the invisible material that makes up most of the cosmos.
Now, scientists have created the first image of dark matter
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 08 January 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2134891.ece
Blood and oil: How the West will profit from Iraq's
most precious commodity
The Independent (UK)
January 7, 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132574.ece
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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
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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
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TAX FACT SHEET
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/901006_taxpolicy.pdf
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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
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Asylum Street Spankers-Magnetic Yellow Ribbon
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=bfMgRHRJ- tc
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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/
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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
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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
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Immigration video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tacK8MAfuAs
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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Before You Enlist
Excellent flash film that should be shown to all students.
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=ZFsaGv6cefw
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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
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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.
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Asylum Street Spankers-Magnetic Yellow Ribbon
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=bfMgRHRJ- tc
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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
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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
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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.
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
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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/
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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.
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Legal update on Mumia Abu-Jamal's case
Excerpts from a letter written by Robert R. Bryan, the lead attorney
for death row political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal.
...On July 20, 2006, we filed the Brief of Appellee and Cross
Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal, in the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia.
http://www.workers. org/2006/ us/mumia- 0810/
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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
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Today in Palestine!
For up to date information on Israeli's brutal attack on
human rights and freedom in Palestine and Lebanon go to:
http://www.theheadl ines.org
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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
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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/
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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
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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
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Visit the Traprock Peace Center Video Archive at:
http://www.youtube.com/TraprockPeaceTV
Visit the Traprock Peace Center
Deerfield, MA
http://www.traprockpeace.org/
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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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