*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Help us rent a billboard for Bradley Manning in Washington DC!
Sign the "I am Bradley Manning" photo petition at iam.bradleymanning.org
Help us rent a billboard for Bradley in Washington DC
Bradley will soon have his own billboard in the Washington DC metro area, if we step up. We're launching this campaign to rent the high-profile ad space to coincide with the soon-expected start of his pre-trial court martial in the DC area.
View the billboards, donate, and help choose the design:
epicstep.com/campaign/239/support-bradley
View the new 90 second "I am Bradley Manning" video:
I am Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-P3OXML00s
Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D. ARTICLES IN FULL
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Sat. May 21, 7pm
ANSWER Coalition Office, 2969 Mission St.
btwn 25th and 26th Sts., San Francisco
Community Forum
Mexico in Struggle
A discussion on the crises in Mexico and the role of U.S. intervention
• Elvira Villescas Sánchez - activist and founding member of the community organization "Las Hormigas" in Cuidad Juarez
• Frank Lara - activist from the Calexico-Mexicali border and organizer for the May Day Coalition and ANSWER Coalition
• David Bacon - renowned activist, journalist and photographer of the labor and immigrant struggle in Mexico and the U.S.
A donation of $5 to $10, no one turned away for lack of funds
Sponsored by BALASC (Bay Area Latin American Solidarity Coalition)
For more information, visit: www.balasc.org, 415-821-6545
Sab. 21 de mayo, 7pm
Oficina de Coalición ANSWER, Calle Mision #2969
entre 25 y 26th, San Francisco
Foro Comunitario
México en Lucha
Una discusión sobre las crises en México y el papel de intervención por los EE.UU.
• Elvira Villescas Sánchez - activista y fundadora de la organización comunitaria "La Hormigas" en Ciudad Juarez
• Frank Lara - activista de la frontera Calexico-Mexicali y organizador para la Coalición Día de Mayo y la Coalición ANSWER
• David Bacon - activista, periodista, y fotógrafo reconocido de la lucha inmigrante y de labor en México y los EE.UU.
Una donación de $5 a $10, nadie se rechazará por falta de fondos
Patrocinado por BALASC (Coalición de la Bahía por la Solidaridad con América Latina)
Para mas información, visite: www.balasc.org, 415-821-6545
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org
http://www.AnswerSF.org
Answer@AnswerSF.org
2969 Mission St.
415-821-6545
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Join the ANSWER Coalition and other community organizations and unions in supporting this important action.
LOCAL 2 SIEGE ACTION!
INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL ASKS FOR A FIGHT!
Join Local 2 for a whole day picket!
Where: Intercontinental Hotel, 888 Howard Street (at 5th Street)
Date: Wednesday, May 25th, 2011
Time: 7am to 7pm
The Intercontinental Hotel corporation continues to insist on transferring PBX (telephone operators) work to front desk clerks at the Holiday Inn Express Fisherman's Wharf. At the same time, they refuse to adjust the low pay rate for workers who are performing a higher job classification. Intercontinental said NO! to our job security clause in the event that rooms at the Mark Hopkins get converted into condominiums, and when we proposed to adjust the workload for room cleaners at the Intercontinental Hotel, management was very disrespectful and went as far as saying that the women very often finished their rooms at 3pm instead of 4pm. This hotel chain manages the Intercontinental Hotel - Moscone, Mark Hopkins, Holiday Inn Express, and Holiday Inn - Fisherman's Wharf.
Visit www.unitehere2.org for more info.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org
http://www.AnswerSF.org
Answer@AnswerSF.org
2969 Mission St.
415-821-6545
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Next UNAC general meeting is Sunday, June 12, 2:00 PM at Redstone Bldg., 16th Street and Capp. (Capp Street is one block or so below Mission Street.) Third Floor Conference Room, San Francisco. MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Save the Date!
NATIONAL LABOR-COMMUNITY CONFERENCE TO DEFEAT THE CORPORATE AGENDA AND FIGHT FOR A WORKING PEOPLE'S AGENDA
Kent State University
Kent, Ohio
June 24-26, 2011
Working people across the country -- from Wisconsin and Ohio to New York, Oregon, and California -- are facing unprecedented attacks by corporations and the rich with the help of the federal, state and local politicians that they fund.
The corporate agenda is clear: It is to bust unions and cut workers' pay and benefits -- both in the private and public sectors. It is to erode and privatize Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It is to dismantle the public sector and social services by denying funds for job creation, education, health care, environmental protection, and rebuilding the infrastructure. It is to ensure that taxes on the wealthy are constantly lowered while the bite on workers and the poor is constantly increased. It is to perpetuate U.S. wars and occupations whenever it serves the interests of the multinationals. It is to divide the working class by race, gender, national origin, religion, and sexual orientation. It is also to limit and restrict constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties. The list goes on.
In state capitals, communities and workplaces across the country, workers are fighting back. But if we're going to be successful in pushing back the attacks on collective bargaining, stopping the budget cuts and concessions, creating jobs, and defending social services and education, we need to build unity within our movement, including forging stronger ties with labor's allies: communities of color, students and youth, single-payer advocates, environmentalists, antiwar activists, immigrant rights supporters, and other progressive forces.
Relying on politicians to defend us -- the so-called "friends of labor" -- has proven to be disastrous. During the past three decades, working people have suffered a dramatic decline in their standard of living while the rich have amassed an unprecedented amount of wealth at the top, regardless of which of the major parties was running the government. We have had every combination imaginable: Republicans occupying the White House with a majority in Congress, Democrats occupying the White House with a majority in Congress, or some kind of "divided government." But in each case the result for working people has been the same: conditions got worse for workers while the corporations prospered even more. Why should we continue this vicious cycle?
The working class has the power to put an end to this situation. And as the debate over the debt and the deficit intensifies, the need has never been greater for an organized campaign to demand "No Cuts, No Concessions!" whether in regard to social programs or workers' wages and benefits. We say place the burden for solving the financial crises squarely where it belongs: on the rich. They caused the crisis, let them pay for it!
The Emergency Labor Network (ELN) was initiated earlier this year at a historic meeting of 100 union leaders and activists from around the country. Join us June 24-26, 2011 at Kent State University in Ohio for a national labor-community conference to spur the campaign to build a more militant fight-back movement and to launch a national campaign for an alternative agenda for working people. Together we can move forward on both fronts.
This conference is open to all who agree with its purpose, as explained in this Call. To register for the conference, please go to our website at www.laborfightback.org. If you prefer to register offline, write emergencylabor@aol.com or call 216-736-4715 for a registration form.
For more information, e-mail emergencylabor@aol.com or call 216-736-4715.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Oct. 7 - Protest, March & Die-In on 10th Anniversary of Afghanistan War
Friday, Oct. 7, 2011, 4:30-6:30pm
New Federal Building, 7th & Mission Sts, SF
Protest & Die-In on 10th Anniversary of Afghanistan War
End All the Wars & Occupations-Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Haiti . . .
Money for Jobs, Healthcare & Schools-Not for the Pentagon
Friday, October 7, 2011 will be the exact 10th anniversary of the U.S./NATO war on the people of Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of Afghani people have been killed, wounded and displaced, and thousands of U.S. and NATO forces killed and wounded. The war costs more than $126 billion per year at a time when social programs are being slashed.
The true and brutal character of the U.S. strategy to "win hearts and minds" of the Afghani population was described by a Marine officer, quoted in a recent ANSWER Coalition statement:
"You can't just convince them [Afghani people] through projects and goodwill," another Marine officer said. "You have to show up at their door with two companies of Marines and start killing people. That's how you start convincing them." (To read the entire ANSWER statement, click here)
Mark your calendar now and help organize for the October 7 march and die-in in downtown San Francisco. There are several things you can do:
1. Reply to this email to endorse the protest and die-in.
2. Spread the word and help organize in your community, union, workplace and campus.
3. Make a donation to help with organizing expenses.
Only the people can stop the war!
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org
http://www.AnswerSF.org
Answer@AnswerSF.org
2969 Mission St.
415-821-6545
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/ or bauaw.org ...bw]
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor Beat: May Day Weekend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiitdOiO6kA
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Paradise Gray Speaks At Jordan Miles Emergency Rally 05/06/2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJOLz1EYDYE&feature=player_embedded
Police Reassigned While CAPA Student's Beatdown Investigated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK-6IsP3dUg&NR=1&feature=fvwp
Pittsburgh Student Claims Police Brutality; Shows Hospital Photos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_j_AVsTXZc&feature=relmfu
Justice For Jordan Miles
By jasiri x
http://justiceforjordanmiles.com/
Monday, May 9, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Even though Pittsburgh Police beat Jordan Miles until he looked like this: (Photo at website)
And even though Jordan Miles, an honor student who plays the viola, broke no laws and committed no crimes, the Federal Government decided not to prosecute the 3 undercover Pittsburgh Police officers who savagely beat him.
To add insult to injury, Pittsburgh's Mayor and Police Chief immediately reinstated the 3 officers without so much as a apology. An outraged Pittsburgh community called for an emergency protest to pressure the local District Attorney to prosecute these officers to the fullest extent of the law.
Below is my good friend, and fellow One Hood founding member Paradise Gray (also a founding member of the Blackwatch Movement and the legendary rap group X-Clan) passionately demanding Justice for Jordan Miles and speaking on the futility of a war of terror overseas while black men are terrorized in their own neighborhoods.
For more information on how you can help get Justice For Jordan Miles go to http://justiceforjordanmiles.com/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Nation Behind Bars Mass Incarceration And Political Prisoners In the U.S. - Efia Nwangaza, Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination
Black is Back Conference on the Other Wars, March 26, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBKfFEqaoSs&feature=email
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Tier Systems Cripple Middle Class Dreams for Young Workers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09pQW6TW8m4&feature=youtu.be
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Cindy Sheehan has turned her grief into an anti-war crusade, even questioning the death of Osama bin Laden. From HLN's Dr. DREW Show Thurs. 5/5/11:
http://911blogger.com/news/2011-05-06/cindy-sheehan-mothers-war-war
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Epidemiologist, Dr. Steven Wing, Discusses Global Radiation Exposures and Consequences with Gundersen
Epidemiologist, Dr. Steven Wing and nuclear engineer, Arnie Gundersen, discuss the consequences of the Fukushima radioactive fallout on Japan, the USA, and the world. What are the long-term health effects? What should the government(s) do to protect citizens?
http://vimeo.com/22706805
Epidemiologist, Dr. Steven Wing, Discusses Global Radiation Exposures and Consequences with Gundersen from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
New Video - Lupe Fiasco ft. Skylar Grey - 'Words I Never Said'
Thu, Apr 28 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22l1sf5JZD0
Lupe Fiasco addresses some heavy issues in the latest video for his new single, 'Words I Never Said,' featuring Skylar Grey. In the 5 minute and 45 second dose of reality, Lupe tackles issues such as the war on terrorism, devastation, conspiracy theories, 9/11 and genocide. From the opening lyrics of "I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullsh*t", Lupe doesn't hold back as he voices his socio-political concerns.
"If you turn on TV all you see's a bunch of what the f-ks'
Dude is dating so and so blabbering bout such and such
And that ain't Jersey Shore, homie that's the news
And these the same people that supposed to be telling us the truth
Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist
Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn't say s-t
That's why I ain't vote for him, next one either
I'm a part of the problem, my problem is I'm peaceful."
Skylar Grey (who also lends her vocals to Dirty money's 'Coming Home' and Eminem's 'I Need A Doctor') does an excellent job of complementing the Alex Da Kid produced track.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
BREAKING ALERT: Mass Arrests, Tear Gas, Sound Weapons used Against WIU Students
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufKv-5t0t4E
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Union Town by Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ZT71DxLuM&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
MAY DAY 1886-International Workers Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF-ADtNerPM&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor Beat: We Are One - Illinois
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOntwNsWHac
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
BRADLEY MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!
"He broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be charged, let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the President to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with a crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!
Obama on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011-Presidential remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at fundraiser. Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
More troops join anti-government protests in Yemen
More soldiers have been joining anti-government protests on the streets of the capital Sana'a.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6658
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
W.E. A.L.L. B.E.: Miss. Medical Examiner Dr. Adel Shaker On Frederick Carter Hanging (4/19/2011)
http://blip.tv/file/5057532
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Egyptian Soldiers Join Protest Demanding End to Military Dictatorship
Adam Hanieh: Class struggle in Egypt enters a new stage
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6626
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Row over Wikileaks leaker Bradley Manning treatment (12Apr11)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv8xyHhDKkY&feature=related
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
AP writer--State Department on Human Rights Abuse of Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUctxdsKk9Q
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Max Romeo - Socialism Is Love
http://youtu.be/eTvUs4rY4to
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Cuba: The Accidental Eden
http://video.pbs.org/video/1598230084/
[This is a stunningly beautiful portrait of the Cuban natural environment as it is today. However, several times throughout, the narrator tends to imply that if it werent for the U.S. embargo against Cuba, Cuba's natural environmet would be destroyed by the influx of tourism, ergo, the embargo is saving nature. But the Cuban scientists and naturalists tell a slightly different story. But I don't want to spoil the delightfully surprising ending. It's a beautiful film of a beautiful country full of beautiful, articulate and well-educated people....bw]
Watch the full episode. See more Nature.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
VIDEO: SWAT Team Evicts Grandmother
Take Back the Land- Rochester Eviction Defense March 28, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2axN1zsZno&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
B. D. S. [Boycott, Divest, Sanction against Israel]
(Jackson 5) Chicago Flashmob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4tXe2HKqqs&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Afghans for Peace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ror0qPcasM&NR=1
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Kill Team
How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses - and how their officers failed to stop them. Plus: An exclusive look at the war crime photos censored by the Pentagon
Rolling Stone
March 27, 3011
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-kill-team-20110327
Afghans respond to "Kill Team"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3guxWIorhdA
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
END THE U.S./UN/NATO KILL TEAM NOW!
WARNING: THESE ARE HORRIFIC, DISGUSTING, VIOLENT CRIMES COMMITTED BY THE U.S. MILITARY MAKING THE UPCOMING APRIL 10 [APRIL 9 IN NEW YORK] MARCH AND RALLY AGAINST THE WARS A FIRST PRIORITY FOR WE, THE PEOPLE OF THE U.S. WE DEMAND OUT NOW! END THE WARS AGAINST WORKING PEOPLE HERE AND EVERYWHERE! BRING ALL THE TROOPS, UN/NATO/US/ and CONTRACTORS HOME NOW!
The Kill Team Photos More war crime images the Pentagon doesn't want you to see
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/the-kill-team-photos-20110327
'Death Zone' How U.S. soldiers turned a night-time airstrike into a chilling 'music video'
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/death-zone-20110327
'Motorcycle Kill' Footage of an Army patrol gunning down two men in Afghanistan
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/motorcyle-kill-20110327
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
BOB MARLEY - WAR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73zaNwyhXn0&playnext=1&list=PLA467527F8DD7DE1F
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
LOWKEY - TERRORIST? (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmBnvajSfWU
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Frederick Alexander Meade on The Prison Industrial Complex
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vqzfEYo6Lo
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
BP Oil Spill Scientist Bob Naman: Seafood Still Not Safe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3VdxvMnDls
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Exclusive: Flow Rate Scientist : How Much Oil Is Really Out There?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsHl3kn63ZA&NR=1
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Iraq Veterans Against the War in Occupied Capitol, Madison, WI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7K0wn73uJU
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Stop LAPD Stealing of Immigrant's Cars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lf4kENkxo
On Februrary 19, 2011 Members of the Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC) organized and engaged in direct action to defend the people of Los Angeles, CA from the racist LAPD "Sobriety" Checkpoints that are a poorly disguised trap to legally steal the cars from working class people in general and undocumented people in particular. Please disseminate this link widely.
Venceremos,
SCIC
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
WikiLeaks Mirrors
Wikileaks is currently under heavy attack.
In order to make it impossible to ever fully remove Wikileaks from the Internet, you will find below a list of mirrors of Wikileaks website and CableGate pages.
Go to
http://wikileaks.ch/Mirrors.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand Jury Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse Sharkey, Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Oil Spill Commission Final Report: Catfish Responds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3ZRdsccMsM
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Free Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4eNzokgRIw&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Domestic Espionage Alert - Houston PD to use surveillance drone in America!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpstrc15Ogg
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Coal Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Flashmob: Cape Town Opera say NO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wElyrFOnKPk
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
"Don't F*** With Our Activists" - Mobilizing Against FBI Raid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyG3dIUGQvQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Mumia Wins Decision Against Re-Imposition Of Death Sentence, But...
The Battle Is Still On To
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610
www.laboractionmumia.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ELLA BAKER CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
CLOSE PRISONS NOT SCHOOLS!
https://secure3.convio.net/ebc/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=164&utm_campaign=bnb_close_prisons_not_schools&utm_source=email-action&utm_medium=email&s_src=bnb_close_prisons_not_schools&s_subsrc=email-action&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=k3sp4vh2j4.app332b
Carlos* was only 14 years when he was locked up in a California youth prison. Growing up in a rough neighborhood in Northern CA, there were few resources for him or his younger brothers. Carlos was swept up by gangs and ended up serving a 10 year sentence in Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), leaving his siblings and childhood behind.
For 10 long years, our state spent millions of dollars to lock him up in a cell. Meanwhile, the state spent a tiny fraction of that amount providing an inadequate education to his younger brothers.
When Carlos was finally released earlier this year, he returned to a neighborhood that hasn't changed. Resources for youth are still scarce. He worries about his little brothers growing up in a society that would rather lock them up than invest in their educations and future.
Carlos' experience is only one example of why California ranks near the bottom in education spending and performance, but we're #1 in prison spending. DJJ drains much-needed resources from California's schools and the vital community programs that would help our State thrive. It's time to close the expensive, abusive DJJ and redirect those resources into our schools.
Join Books Not Bars in calling on Governor Brown to protect our schools by closing the Division of Juvenile Justice.
On May 10, join Books Not Bars, teachers, students, and other concerned Californians at the Capitol to save our schools. For more information or if you plan on attending, please contact Jennifer Kim at Jennifer@ellabakercenter.org, or (510) 285-8234.
If you can't join us in person, take action now, then sign up for join our online rally next Tuesday by sending Gov. Brown an email now.
Justice for families.
Sumayyah Waheed
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
*Carlos' name has been changed to protect his privacy.
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
www.ellabakercenter.org | 510.428.3939
1970 Broadway, Suite 450 | Oakland, CA | 94612
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
U.S. Attorney Escalates Attacks on Civil Liberties of Anti-War,
Palestinian Human Rights Activists
Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald first thing Monday morning! (contact info at bottom of this email)
On Friday, May 6, the U.S. government froze the bank accounts of Hatem Abudayyeh and his wife, Naima. This unwarranted attack on a leading member of the Palestinian community in Chicago is the latest escalation of the repression of anti-war and Palestinian community organizers by the FBI, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Hatem Abudayyeh is one of 23 activists from Minnesota, Michigan, and Illinois subpoenaed to a federal grand jury in Chicago, and his home was raided by the FBI in September of last year. Neither Hatem Abudayyeh nor Naima Abudayyeh have been charged with any crime.
One of the bank accounts frozen was exclusively in Naima Abudayyeh's name. Leaders of the national Committee to Stop FBI Repression, as well as Chicago's Coalition to Protect People's Rights are appalled at the government's attempt to restrict the family's access to its finances, especially so soon before Mothers' Day. Not only does the government's action seriously disrupt the lives of the Abudayyehs and their five-year-old daughter, but it represents an attack on Chicago's Arab community and activist community and the fundamental rights of Americans to freedom of speech.
The persecution of the Abudayyeh family is another example of the criminalization of Palestinians, their supporters, and their movement for justice and liberation. There has been widespread criticism of the FBI and local law enforcement for their racial profiling and scapegoating of Arab and Muslim Americans. These repressive tactics include infiltration of community centers and mosques, entrapment of young men, and the prominent case of 11 students from the University of California campuses at Irvine and Riverside who have been subpoenaed to a grand jury and persecuted for disrupting a speech by Michael Oren, Israeli Ambassador to the US. The government's attempt to conflate the anti-war and human rights movements with terrorism is a cynical attempt to capitalize on the current political climate in order to silence Palestinians and other people of conscience who exercise their First Amendment rights in a manner which does not conform to the administration's foreign policy agenda in the Middle East.
The issuance of subpoenas against the 23 activists has been met with widespread opposition and criticism across the country. Six members of the U.S. Congress, including five in the past month, have sent letters to either Holder or President Obama, expressing grave concern for the violations of the civil liberties and rights of the 23 activists whose freedom is on the line. Three additional U.S. representatives have also promised letters, as thousands of constituents and other people of conscience across the U.S. have demanded an end to this assault on legitimate political activism and dissent. Over 60 Minnesota state legislators also issued a resolution condemning the subpoenas.
The Midwest activists have been expecting indictments for some time. The freezing of the Abudayyeh family's bank accounts suggests that the danger of indictments is imminent.
Take action:
Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at 312-353-5300.
Then dial 0 (zero) for the operator and ask to leave a message with the Duty Clerk.
Demand Fitzgerald
-- Unfreeze the bank accounts of the Abudayyeh family and
-- Stop repression against Palestinian, anti-war and international solidarity activists.
In solidarity,
The Committee to Stop FBI Repression and
The Coalition to Protect People's Rights
For more info go to StopFBI.net
follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend
Copyright (c) 2011 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights reserved.
Thanks for your ongoing interest in the fight against FBI repression of anti-war and international solidarity activists!
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55415
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Abolish the Death Penalty Blog
http://www.ncadp.org/blog.cfm?postID=165
Abolish the Death Penalty is a blog dedicated to...well, you know. The purpose of Abolish is to tell the personal stories of crime victims and their loved ones, people on death row and their loved ones and those activists who are working toward abolition. You may, from time to time, see news articles or press releases here, but that is not the primary mission of Abolish the Death Penalty. Our mission is to put a human face on the debate over capital punishment.
You can also follow death penalty news by reading our News page and by following us on Facebook and Twitter.
1 Million Tweets for Troy! April 12, 2011
Take Action! Tweet for Troy!
The state of Georgia is seeking to change the drugs they use to carry out executions so they can resume scheduling execution dates, including that of Troy Davis, a man with a strong claim of innocence. Doubts in the case persist, including the fact that no physical evidence links him to the murder, most of the witnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony and newer testimony implicates a different person (including an eyewitness account).
The Davis case has already generated hundreds of thousands of emails, calls, and letters in support of clemency, including from leaders such as the Pope, Jimmy Carter and former FBI chief Bill Sessions. We need to continue to amass petitions in support of clemency, demonstrating the widespread concern about this case and what it represents.
Please help us send a message to Georgia officials that they can do the right thing - they can intervene as the final failsafe by commuting Davis' sentence. Please help us generate 1 million tweets for Troy Davis!
Share this tweet alert with your friends and family that care about justice and life as soon as you can.
More information about the case is available at www.justicefortroy.org
Here are some sample tweets:
When in doubt, don't execute!! Sign the petition for #TroyDavis! www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
Too much doubt! Stop the execution! #TroyDavis needs us! www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
No room for doubt! Stop the execution of #TroyDavis . Retweet, sign petition www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
Case not "ironclad", yet Georgiacould execute #TroyDavis ! Not on our watch! Petition: www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
No murder weapon. No physical evidence. Stop the execution! #TroyDavis petition: www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
7 out of 9 eyewitnesses recanted. No physical evidence. Stop the execution of Troy Davis www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition #TroyDavis
Thanks!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE BRADLEY MANNING! HANDS OFF JULIAN ASSANGE!
In a recent New York Daily News Poll the question was asked:
Should Army pfc Bradley Manning face charges for allegedly stealing classified documents and providing them for WikiLeaks?
New York Daily News Poll Results:
Yes, he's a traitor for selling out his country! ...... 28%
No, he's a hero for standing up for what's right! ..... 62%
We need to see more evidence before passing judgment.. 10%
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/03/05/2011-03-05_wikileaks_private_loses_his_underwear.html?r=news
Sign the Petition:
We stand for truth, for government transparency, and for an end to our tax-dollars funding endless occupation abroad...
We stand with accused whistle-blower
US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning
Stand with Bradley!
A 23-year-old Army intelligence analyst, Pfc. Manning faces decades in prison for allegedly leaking a video of a US helicopter attack that killed at least eleven Iraqi civilians to the website Wikileaks. Among the dead were two working Reuters reporters. Two children were also severely wounded in the attack.
In addition to this "Collateral Murder" video, Pfc. Manning is suspected of leaking the "Afghan War Diaries" - tens of thousands of battlefield reports that explicitly describe civilian deaths and cover-ups, corrupt officials, collusion with warlords, and a failing US/NATO war effort.
"We only know these crimes took place because insiders blew the whistle at great personal risk ... Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal," noted Barack Obama while on the campaign trail in 2008. While the President was referring to the Bush Administration's use of phone companies to illegally spy on Americans, Pfc. Manning's alleged actions are just as noteworthy. If the military charges against him are accurate, they show that he had a reasonable belief that war crimes were being covered up, and that he took action based on a crisis of conscience.
After nearly a decade of war and occupation waged in our name, it is odd that it apparently fell on a young Army private to provide critical answers to the questions, "What have we purchased with well over a trillion tax dollars and the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan?" However, history is replete with unlikely heroes.
If Bradley Manning is indeed the source of these materials, the nation owes him our gratitude. We ask Secretary of the Army, the Honorable John M. McHugh, and Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, General George W. Casey, Jr., to release Pfc. Manning from pre-trial confinement and drop the charges against him.
http://standwithbrad.org/
Bulletin from the cause: Bradley Manning Support Network
Go to Cause
Posted By: Tom Baxter
To: Members in Bradley Manning Support Network
A Good Address for Bradley!!!
We have a good address for Bradley,
"A Fort Leavenworth mailing address has been released for Bradley Manning:
Bradley Manning 89289
830 Sabalu Road
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
The receptionist at the military barracks confirmed that if someone sends Bradley Manning a letter to that address, it will be delivered to him."
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/update-42811
This is also a Facebook event
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207100509321891#!/event.php?eid=207100509321891
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Arab Revolutions:
Guiding Principles for Peace and Justice Organizations in the US
Please email endorsement to ekishawi@yahoo.com
We, the undersigned, support the guiding principles and demands listed in this statement. We call on groups who want to express solidarity with the Arab revolutions to join our growing movement by signing this statement or keeping with the demands put forward herewith.
Background
The long-awaited Arab revolution has come. Like a geologic event with the reverberations of an earthquake, the timing and circumstances were unpredictable. In one Arab country after another, people are taking to the street demanding the fall of monarchies established during European colonial times. They are also calling to bring down dictatorships supported and manifested by neo-colonial policies. Although some of these autocratic regimes rose to power with popular support, the subsequent division and subjugation of the Arab World led to a uniform repressive political order across the region. The Arab masses in different Arab countries are therefore raising a uniform demand: "The People Want to Topple the Regimes!"
For the past two decades, the Arab people witnessed the invasion and occupation of Iraq with millions killed under blockade and occupation, Palestinians massacred with the aim to crush the anti-Zionist resistance, and Lebanon repeatedly invaded with the purposeful targeting of civilians. These actions all served to crush resistance movements longing for freedom, development, and self-determination. Meanwhile, despotic dictatorships, some going back 50 years, entrenched themselves by building police states, or fighting wars on behalf of imperialist interests.
Most Arab regimes systematically destroyed the social fabric of civil society, stifled social development, repressed all forms of political dissent and democratic expression, mortgaged their countries' wealth to foreign interests and enriched themselves and their cronies at the expense of impoverishing their populations. After pushing the Arab people to the brink, populations erupted.
The spark began in Tunisia where a police officer slapped and spat on Mohammad Bou Azizi, flipping over his produce cart for not delivering a bribe on time. . Unable to have his complaint heard, he self-immolated in protest, igniting the conscience of the Tunisian people and that of 300 million Arabs. In less than a month, the dictator, Zine El Abedine Ben Ali, was forced into exile by a Tunisian revolution. On its way out, the regime sealed its legacy by shooting at unarmed protestors and burning detention centers filled with political prisoners. Ben Ali was supported by the US and Europe in the fight against Islamic forces and organized labor.
Hosni Mubarak's brutal dictatorship fell less than a month after Tunisia's. The revolution erupted at a time when one half of the Egyptian population was living on less than $2/day while Mubarak's family amassed billions of dollars. The largest population recorded in Egyptian history was living in graveyards and raising their children among the dead while transportation and residential infrastructure was crumbling. Natural gas was supplied to Israel at 15% of the market price while the Rafah border was closed with an underground steel wall to complete the suffocation of the Palestinians in Gaza. Those who were deemed a threat swiftly met the fate of Khalid Said. 350 martyrs fell and 2,000 people were injured.
After Egypt and Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan exploded in protest. Some governments quickly reshuffled faces and ranks without any tangible change. Some, like Bahrain and Yemen, sent out their security forces to massacre civilians. Oman and Yemen represent strategic assets for the US as they are situated on the straits of Hormuz and Aden, respectively. Bahrain is an oil country that hosts a US military base, situated in the Persian Gulf. A new round of US funded blood-letting of Arab civilians has begun!
Libyan dictator Qaddafi did not prove to be an exception. He historically took anti-imperialist positions for a united Arab World and worked for an African Union. He later transformed his regime to a subservient state and opened Libya to British Petroleum and Italian interests, working diligently on privatization and political repression. He amassed more wealth than that of Mubarak. In the face of the Libyan revolution, Qaddafi exceeded the brutality of Ben Ali and Mubarak blind-folding and executing opponents, surrounding cities with tanks, and bombing his own country. Death toll is expected to be in the thousands.
Qaddafi's history makes Libya an easy target for imperialist interests. The Obama administration followed the Iraq cookbook by freezing Libyan assets amounting to 30% of the annual GDP. The White House, with the help of European governments, rapidly implemented sanctions and called for no-fly zones. These positions were precipitated shortly after the US vetoed a resolution condemning the illegal Israeli colonization of the West Bank. Special operations personnel from the UK were captured by the revolutionary commanders in Ben Ghazi and sent back. The Libyan revolutionary leadership, the National Council clearly stated: "We are completely against foreign intervention. The rest of Libya will be liberated by the people ... and Gaddafi's security forces will be eliminated by the people of Libya."
Demands of the Solidarity Movement with Arab Revolutions
1. We demand a stop to US support, financing and trade with Arab dictatorships. We oppose US policy that has favored Israeli expansionism, war, US oil interest and strategic shipping routes at the expense of Arab people's freedom and dignified living.
2. We support the people of Tunisia and Egypt as well as soon-to-be liberated nations to rid themselves of lingering remnants of the deposed dictatorships.
3. We support the Arab people's right to sovereignty and self-determination. We demand that the US government stop its interference in the internal affairs of all Arab countries and end subsidies to wars and occupation.
4. We support the Arab people's demands for political, civil and economic rights. The Arab people's movement is calling for:
a. Deposing the unelected regimes and all of its institutional remnants
b. Constitutional reform guaranteeing freedom of organizing, speech and press
c. Free and fair elections
d. Independent judiciary
e. National self-determination.
5. We oppose all forms of US and European military intervention with or without the legitimacy of the UN. Standing in solidarity with the revolution against Qaddafi, or any other dictator, does not equate to supporting direct or indirect colonization of an Arab country, its oil or its people. We therefore call for:
a. Absolute rejection of military blockades, no-fly zones and interventions.
b. Lifting all economic sanctions placed against Libya and allowing for the formation of an independent judiciary to prosecute Qaddafi and deposed dictators for their crimes.
c. Immediately withdrawing the US and NATO troops from the Arab region.
6. We support Iraq's right to sovereignty and self determination and call on the US to immediately withdraw all occupation personnel from Iraq.
7. We recognize that the borders separating Arab nations were imposed on the Arab people by the colonial agreements of Sykes-Picot and the Berlin Conference on Africa. As such, we support the anti-Zionist nature of this revolution in its call for:
a. Ending the siege and starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza
b. Supporting the right of the Palestinian people to choose their own representation, independent of Israeli and US dictates
c. Supporting the right of the Lebanese people to defend their country from Israeli violations and their call to end vestiges of the colonial constitution constructed on the basis of sectarian representation
d. Supporting the right of the Jordanian people to rid themselves of their repressive monarchy
e. Ending all US aid to Israel.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY -- ANY DAY
to Fitzgerald, Holder and Obama
The Grand Jury is still on its witch hunt and the FBI is still
harassing activists. This must stop.
Please make these calls:
1. Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at 312-353-5300 . Then dial 0
(zero) for operator and ask to leave a message with the Duty Clerk.
2. Call U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder 202-353-1555
3. Call President Obama at 202-456-1111
Suggested text: "My name is __________, I am from _______(city), in
______(state). I am calling _____ to demand he call off the Grand Jury
and stop FBI repression against the anti-war and Palestine solidarity
movements. I oppose U.S. government political repression and support
the right to free speech and the right to assembly of the 23 activists
subpoenaed. We will not be criminalized. Tell him to stop this
McCarthy-type witch hunt against international solidarity activists!"
If your call doesn't go through, try again later.
Update: 800 anti-war and international solidarity activists
participated in four regional conferences, in Chicago, IL; Oakland,
CA; Chapel Hill, NC and New York City to stop U.S. Attorney Patrick
Fitzgerald's Grand Jury repression.
Still, in the last few weeks, the FBI has continued to call and harass
anti-war organizers, repressing free speech and the right to organize.
However, all of their intimidation tactics are bringing a movement
closer together to stop war and demand peace.
We demand:
-- Call Off the Grand Jury Witch-hunt Against International Solidarity
Activists!
-- Support Free Speech!
-- Support the Right to Organize!
-- Stop FBI Repression!
-- International Solidarity Is Not a Crime!
-- Stop the Criminalization of Arab and Muslim Communities!
Background: Fitzgerald ordered FBI raids on anti-war and solidarity
activists' homes and subpoenaed fourteen activists in Chicago,
Minneapolis, and Michigan on September 24, 2010. All 14 refused to
speak before the Grand Jury in October. Then, 9 more Palestine
solidarity activists, most Arab-Americans, were subpoenaed to appear
at the Grand Jury on January 25, 2011, launching renewed protests.
There are now 23 who assert their right to not participate in
Fitzgerald's witch-hunt.
The Grand Jury is a secret and closed inquisition, with no judge, and
no press. The U.S. Attorney controls the entire proceedings and hand
picks the jurors, and the solidarity activists are not allowed a
lawyer. Even the date when the Grand Jury ends is a secret.
So please make these calls to those in charge of the repression aimed
against anti-war leaders and the growing Palestine solidarity
movement.
Email us to let us know your results. Send to info@StopFBI.net
**Please sign and circulate our 2011 petition at http://www.stopfbi.net/petition
In Struggle,
Tom Burke,
for the Committee to Stop FBI Repression
FFI: Visit www.StopFBI.net or email info@StopFBI.net or call
612-379-3585 .
Copyright (c) 2011 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights
reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55415
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Call for EMERGENCY RESPONSE Action if Assange Indicted,
Dear Friends:
We write in haste, trying to reach as many of you as possible although the holiday break has begun.......This plan for an urgent "The Day After" demonstration is one we hope you and many, many more organizations will take up as your own, and mobilize for. World Can't Wait asks you to do all you can to spread it through list serves, Facebook, twitter, holiday gatherings.
Our proposal is very very simple, and you can use the following announcement to mobilize - or write your own....
ANY DAY NOW . . . IN THE EVENT THAT THE U.S. INDICTS JULIAN ASSANGE
An emergency public demonstration THE DAY AFTER any U.S. criminal indictment is announced against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Spread the word and call people to come out, across the whole range of movements and groups: anti-war, human rights, freedom of information/freedom of the press, peace, anti-torture, environmental, students and youth, radicals and revolutionaries, religious, civil liberties, teachers and educators, journalists, anti-imperialists, anti-censorship, anti-police state......
At the Federal Building in San Francisco, we'll form ourselves into a human chain "surrounding" the government that meets the Wikileaked truth with repression and wants to imprison and silence leakers, whistleblowers and truthtellers - when, in fact, these people are heroes. We'll say:
HANDS OFF WIKILEAKS! FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!
Join the HUMAN CHAIN AROUND THE FEDERAL BUILDING!
New Federal Building, 7th and Mission, San Francisco (nearest BART: Civic Center)
4:00-6:00 PM on The Day FOLLOWING U.S. indictment of Assange
Bring all your friends - signs and banners - bullhorns.
Those who dare at great risk to themselves to put the truth in the hands of the people - and others who might at this moment be thinking about doing more of this themselves -- need to see how much they are supported, and that despite harsh repression from the government and total spin by the mainstream media, the people do want the truth told.
Brad Manning's Christmas Eve statement was just released by his lawyer: "Pvt. Bradley Manning, the lone soldier who stands accused of stealing millions of pages secret US government documents and handing them over to secrets outlet WikiLeaks, wants his supporters to know that they've meant a lot to him. 'I greatly appreciate everyone's support and well wishes during this time,' he said in a Christmas Eve statement released by his lawyer...." Read more here:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/mannings-message-christmas-eve-i-gr/
Demonstrations defending Wikileaks and Assange, and Brad Manning, have already been flowering around the world. Make it happen here too.
Especially here . . .
To join into this action plan, or with questions, contact World Can't Wait or whichever organization or listserve you received this message from.
World Can't Wait, SF Bay
415-864-5153
sf@worldcantwait.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
DEFEND LYNNE STEWART!
Write to Lynne Stewart at:
Lynne Stewart #53504 - 054
Unit 2N
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TEXAS 76127
Visiting Lynne:
Visiting is very liberal but first she has to get people on her visiting list; wait til she or the lawyers let you know. The visits are FRI, SAT, SUN AND MON for 4 hours and on weekends 8 to 3. Bring clear plastic change purse with lots of change to buy from the machines. Brief Kiss upon arrival and departure, no touching or holding during visit (!!) On visiting forms it may be required that you knew me before I came to prison. Not a problem for most of you.
Commissary Money:
Commissary Money is always welcome It is how Lynne pay for the phone and for email. Also for a lot that prison doesn't supply in terms of food and "sundries" (pens!) (A very big list that includes Raisins, Salad Dressing, ankle sox, mozzarella (definitely not from Antonys--more like a white cheddar, Sanitas Corn Chips but no Salsa, etc. To add money, you do this by using Western Union and a credit card by phone or you can send a USPO money order or Business or Govt Check. The negotiable instruments (PAPER!) need to be sent to Federal Bureau of Prisons, 53504-054, Lynne Stewart, PO Box 474701, Des Moines Iowa 50947-001 (Payable to Lynne Stewart, 53504-054) They hold the mo or checks for 15 days. Western Union costs $10 but is within 2 hours. If you mail, your return address must be on the envelope. Unnecessarily complicated? Of course, it's the BOP !)
The address of her Defense Committee is:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216
For further information:
718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759
Please make a generous contribution to her defense.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Help end the inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning!
Bradley Manning Support Network.
Contact the Marine Corps officers above and respectfully, but firmly, ask that they lift the extreme pre-trial confinement conditions against Army PFC Bradley Manning.
Forward this urgent appeal for action widely.
Sign the "Stand with Brad" public petition and letter campaign at www.standwithbrad.org - Sign online, and we'll mail out two letters on your behalf to Army officials.
Donate to Bradley's defense fund at www.couragetoresist.org/bradley
References:
"The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention", by Glenn Greenwald for Salon.com, 15 December 2010
"A Typical Day for PFC Bradley Manning", by attorney David E. Coombs, 18 December 2010
"Bradley Manning's Life Behind Bars", by Denver Nicks for the Daily Beast, 17 December 2010
Bradley Manning Support Network
Courage To Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
In earnest support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange:
http://readersupportednews.org/julian-assange-petition
rsn:Petition
We here undersigned express our support for the work and integrity of Julian Assange. We express concern that the charges against the WikiLeaks founder appear too convenient both in terms of timing and the novelty of their nature.
We call for this modern media innovator, and fighter for human rights extraordinaire, to be afforded the same rights to defend himself before Swedish justice that all others similarly charged might expect, and that his liberty not be compromised as a courtesy to those governments whose truths he has revealed have embarrassed.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle Editorial
Monday, December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's death row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
17 December 2010
Click here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Free the Children of Palestine!
Sign Petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41467.html
Published by Al-Awda, Palestine Right to Return Coalition on Dec 16, 2010
Category: Children's Rights
Region: GLOBAL
Target: President Obama
Web site: http://www.al-awda.org
Background (Preamble):
According to Israeli police, 1200 Palestinian children have been arrested, interrogated and imprisoned in the occupied city of Jerusalem alone this year. The youngest of these children was seven-years old.
Children and teen-agers were often dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night, taken in handcuffs for questioning, threatened, humiliated and many were subjected to physical violence while under arrest as part of an ongoing campaign against the children of Palestine. Since the year 2000, more than 8000 have been arrested by Israel, and reports of mistreatment are commonplace.
Further, based on sworn affidavits collected in 2009 from 100 of these children, lawyers working in the occupied West Bank with Defense Children International, a Geneva-based non governmental organization, found that 69% were beaten and kicked, 49% were threatened, 14% were held in solitary confinement, 12% were threatened with sexual assault, including rape, and 32% were forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand.
Minors were often asked to give names and incriminate friends and relatives as a condition of their release. Such institutionalized and systematic mistreatment of Palestinian children by the state of Israel is a violation international law and specifically contravenes the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Israel is supposedly a signatory.
Petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41467.html
We, the undersigned call on US President Obama to direct Israel to
1. Stop all the night raids and arrests of Palestinian Children forthwith.
2. Immediately release all Palestinian children detained in its prisons and detention centers.
3. End all forms of systematic and institutionalized abuse against all Palestinian children.
4. Implement the full restoration of Palestinian children's rights in accordance with international law including, but not limited to, their right to return to their homes of origin, to education, to medical and psychological care, and to freedom of movement and expression.
The US government, which supports Israel to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars a year while most ordinary Americans are suffering in a very bad economy, is bound by its laws and international conventions to cut off all aid to Israel until it ends all of its violations of human rights and basic freedoms in a verifiable manner.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
"Secret diplomacy is a necessary tool for a propertied minority, which is compelled to deceive the majority in order to subject it to its interests."..."Publishing State Secrets" By Leon Trotsky
Documents on Soviet Policy, Trotsky, iii, 2 p. 64
November 22, 1917
http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/foreign-relations/1917/November/22.htm
FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING! STOP THE FBI RAIDS NOW!
MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
To understand how much a trillion dollars is, consider looking at it in terms of time:
A million seconds would be about eleven-and-one-half days; a billion seconds would be 31 years; and a trillion seconds would be 31,000 years!
From the novel "A Dark Tide," by Andrew Gross
Now think of it in terms of U.S. war dollars and bankster bailouts!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
For Immediate Release
Antiwar movement supports Wikileaks and calls for and independent, international investigation of the crimes that have been exposed. We call for the release of Bradley Manning and the end to the harassment of Julian Assange.
12/2/2010
For more information: Joe Lombardo, 518-281-1968,
UNACpeace@gmail.org, NationalPeaceConference.org
Antiwar movement supports Wikileaks and calls for and independent, international investigation of the crimes that have been exposed. We call for the release of Bradley Manning and the end to the harassment of Julian Assange.
The United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC) calls for the release of Bradley Manning who is awaiting trial accused of leaking the material to Wikileaks that has been released over the past several months. We also call for an end to the harassment of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks and we call for an independent, international investigation of the illegal activity exposed through the material released by Wikileaks.
Before sending the material to Wikileaks, Bradley Manning tried to get his superiors in the military to do something about what he understood to be clear violations of international law. His superiors told him to keep quiet so Manning did the right thing; he exposed the illegal activity to the world.
The Afghan material leaked earlier shows military higher-ups telling soldiers to kill enemy combatants who were trying to surrender. The Iraq Wikileaks video from 2007 shows the US military killing civilians and news reporters from a helicopter while laughing about it. The widespread corruption among U.S. allies has been exposed by the most recent leaks of diplomatic cables. Yet, instead of calling for change in these policies, we hear only a call to suppress further leaks.
At the national antiwar conference held in Albany in July, 2010, at which UNAC was founded, we heard from Ethan McCord, one of the soldiers on the ground during the helicopter attack on the civilians in Iraq exposed by Wikileaks (see: http://www.mediasanctuary.org/movie/1810 ). He talked about removing wounded children from a civilian vehicle that the US military had shot up. It affected him so powerfully that he and another soldier who witnessed the massacre wrote a letter of apology to the families of the civilians who were killed.
We ask why this material was classified in the first place. There were no state secrets in the material, only evidence of illegal and immoral activity by the US military, the US government and its allies. To try to cover this up by classifying the material is a violation of our right to know the truth about these wars. In this respect, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange should be held up as heroes, not hounded for exposing the truth.
UNAC calls for an end to the illegal and immoral policies exposed by Wikileaks and an immediate end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an end to threats against Iran and North Korea.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Courage to Resist needs your support
By Jeff Paterson, Courage to Resist.
It's been quite a ride the last four months since we took up the defense of accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower Bradley Manning. Since then, we helped form the Bradley Manning Support Network, established a defense fund, and have already paid over half of Bradley's total $100,000 in estimated legal expenses.
Now, I'm asking for your support of Courage to Resist so that we can continue to support not only Bradley, but the scores of other troops who are coming into conflict with military authorities due to reasons of conscience.
Please donate today:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
"Soldiers sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning has been defending and supporting our Constitution."
-Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistle-blower
Iraq War over? Afghanistan occupation winding down? Not from what we see. Please take a look at, "Soldier Jeff Hanks refuses deployment, seeks PTSD help" in our December newsletter. Jeff's situation is not isolated. Actually, his story is only unique in that he has chosen to share it with us in the hopes that it may result in some change. Jeff's case also illustrates the importance of Iraq Veterans Against the War's new "Operation Recovery" campaign which calls for an end to the deployment of traumatized troops.
Most of the folks who call us for help continue to be effected by Stoploss, a program that involuntarily extends enlistments (despite Army promises of its demise), or the Individual Ready Reserve which recalls thousands of former Soldiers and Marines quarterly from civilian life.
Another example of our efforts is Kyle Wesolowski. After returning from Iraq, Kyle submitted an application for a conscientious objector discharge based on his Buddhist faith. Kyle explains, "My experience of physical threats, religious persecution, and general abuse seems to speak of a system that appears to be broken.... It appears that I have no other recourse but to now refuse all duties that prepare myself for war or aid in any way shape or form to other soldiers in conditioning them to go to war." We believe he shouldn't have to walk this path alone.
Sincerely,
Jeff Paterson
Project Director, Courage to Resist
First US military service member to refuse to fight in Iraq
Please donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
P.S. I'm asking that you consider a contribution of $50 or more, or possibly becoming a sustainer at $15 a month. Of course, now is also a perfect time to make a end of year tax-deductible donation. Thanks again for your support!
Please click here to forward this to a friend who might
also be interested in supporting GI resisters.
http://ymlp.com/forward.php?id=lS3tR&e=bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Add your name! We stand with Bradley Manning.
"We stand for truth, for government transparency, and for an end to our tax-dollars funding endless occupation abroad... We stand with accused whistle-blower US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning."
Dear All,
The Bradley Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist are launching a new campaign, and we wanted to give you a chance to be among the first to add your name to this international effort. If you sign the letter online, we'll print out and mail two letters to Army officials on your behalf. With your permission, we may also use your name on the online petition and in upcoming media ads.
Read the complete public letter and add your name at:
http://standwithbrad.org/
Courage to Resist (http://couragetoresist.org)
on behalf of the Bradley Manning Support Network (http://bradleymanning.org)
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Dear Friend,
On Friday, September 24th, the FBI raided homes in Chicago and Minneapolis, and turned the Anti-War Committee office upside down. We were shocked. Our response was strong however and we jumped into action holding emergency protests. When the FBI seized activists' personal computers, cell phones, and papers claiming they were investigating "material support for terrorism", they had no idea there would be such an outpouring of support from the anti-war movement across this country! Over 61 cities protested, with crowds of 500 in Minneapolis and Chicago. Activists distributed 12,000 leaflets at the One Nation Rally in Washington D.C. Supporters made thousands of calls to President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. Solidarity statements from community organizations, unions, and other groups come in every day. By organizing against the attacks, the movement grows stronger.
At the same time, trusted lawyers stepped up to form a legal team and mount a defense. All fourteen activists signed letters refusing to testify. So Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Fox withdrew the subpoenas, but this is far from over. In fact, the repression is just starting. The FBI continues to question activists at their homes and work places. The U.S. government is trying to put people in jail for anti-war and international solidarity activism and there is no indication they are backing off. The U.S. Attorney has many options and a lot of power-he may re-issue subpoenas, attempt to force people to testify under threat of imprisonment, or make arrests.
To be successful in pushing back this attack, we need your donation. We need you to make substantial contributions like $1000, $500, and $200. We understand many of you are like us, and can only afford $50, $20, or $10, but we ask you to dig deep. The legal bills can easily run into the hundreds of thousands. We are all united to defend a movement for peace and justice that seeks friendship with people in other countries. These fourteen anti-war activists have done nothing wrong, yet their freedom is at stake.
It is essential that we defend our sisters and brothers who are facing FBI repression and the Grand Jury process. With each of your contributions, the movement grows stronger.
Please make a donation today at stopfbi.net (PayPal) on the right side of your screen. Also you can write to:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
This is a critical time for us to stand together, defend free speech, and defend those who help to organize for peace and justice, both at home and abroad!
Thank you for your generosity! Tom Burke
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
D. ARTICLES IN FULL (Unless otherwise noted)
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Turning the Camera on the Police
By David Sirota
Posted on May 19, 2011
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/turning_the_camera_on_the_police_20110519/
2) Dubya's Quiet $15 Million Payday
by Peter H. Stone
May 20, 2011
http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/69-69/6006-dubya-cashes-in-on-bin-laden
3) Fukushima's Apocalyptic Threat
By Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News
20 May 11
http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/303-211/6005-fukushimas-apocalyptic-threat
4) Statement Issued by the Global Coalition for the Palestinian Right of Return
The People want an end to (their refugee status) ... The People want to return
May 21, 2011
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=dyzd5lcab&v=0010VnWG8rakCq3WzjbotNxbqk9Qzn8w0Rk9xDd8VACfiU2tJLrDYVe1I-EnU9nkfM-n8lAHXP9cGEqU5Y3Do8UzL05RCefL3dQal5dDT8kY6MacSh24Gj_yg%3D%3D
5) "Chevron could save parks"
By Wayne Veatch, San Francisco
San Francisco Chronicle of Wed, May 18, 2011
Letter-to-the-Editor
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/18/EDRE1JGTSR.DTL
6) States Seeking New Registries for Criminals
By ERICA GOODE
May 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/us/21registry.html?hp
7) Tens of Thousands in Spain Defy Protest Ban
By RAPHAEL MINDER
May 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/world/europe/22spain.html?hp
8) Newspaper in Pakistan Publishes WikiLeaks Cables
By JANE PERLEZ
May 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/world/asia/21wikileaks.html?ref=world
9) Afghanistan: German Troops Fired on Protesters
By RAY RIVERA
May 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/world/asia/21briefs-Afghanistan.html?ref=world
10) Regulators Find Design Flaws in New Reactors
By MATTHEW L. WALD
May 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/business/energy-environment/21nuke.html?ref=us
11) Illegal Immigrants' Underground Lives Hobble Their U.S.-Born Children, Study Says
By KIRK SEMPLE
May 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/nyregion/illegal-immigrants-children-suffer-study-finds.html?ref=nyregion
12) New App Another Tool for Workers in Wage Disputes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/05/21/business/AP-US-Tracking-Wage-Theft.html?src=busln
13) Protest Against Chile Dam Plan Ends in Violence
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/05/20/business/AP-LT-Chile-Patagonia-Protests.html?src=busln
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Turning the Camera on the Police
By David Sirota
Posted on May 19, 2011
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/turning_the_camera_on_the_police_20110519/
What's good for the police apparently isn't good for the people-or so the law enforcement community would have us believe when it comes to surveillance.
That's a concise summary of a new trend reported by National Public Radio last week-a trend whereby law enforcement officials have been trying to prevent civilians from using cellphone cameras in public places as a means of deterring police brutality.
Oddly, the effort-which employs both forcible arrests of videographers and legal proceedings against them-comes at a time when the American Civil Liberties Union reports that "an increasing number of American cities and towns are investing millions of taxpayer dollars in surveillance camera systems."
Then again, maybe it's not odd that the two trends are happening simultaneously. Maybe they go hand in hand. Perhaps as more police officers use cameras to monitor every move we make, they are discovering the true power of video to independently document events. And as they see that power, they don't want it turned against them.
But wait-why not?
Though you'd expect that uncomfortable question to evoke dissembling, Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Jim Pasco was quite straightforward about it.
Police officers, he told NPR, "need to move quickly, in split seconds, without giving a lot of thought to what the adverse consequences for them might be." He added that law enforcement authorities believe that "anything that's going to have a chilling effect on an officer moving-an apprehension that he's being videotaped and may be made to look bad-could cost him or some citizen their life."
Obviously, nobody wants to stop officers from doing their much-needed job (well, nobody other than budget-cutting politicians who are slashing police forces). In fact, organizations such as the NAACP have urged citizens to videotape police precisely to make sure police are doing ALL of their job-including protecting individuals' civil liberties.
This is not some academic or theoretical concern, and video recording is not a needless exercise in Bill of Rights zealotry. The assault on civil liberties in America is a very real problem and monitoring police is absolutely required in light of recent data.
As USA Today reported under the headline "Police brutality cases on rise since 9/11," situations "in which police, prison guards and other law enforcement authorities have used excessive force or other tactics to violate victims' civil rights increased 25 percent" between 2001 and 2007. Last year alone, more than 1,500 officers were involved in excessive-force complaints, according to the National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project.
Considering this, Pasco has it exactly wrong. We should want more officers feeling "apprehension" about breaking civil liberties laws, we should hope more of them "give a lot of thought to what the adverse consequences" will be if they trample someone's rights and we should crave an immediate "chilling effect" on such violations.
That's what the practice of cellphone recording is supposed to do-not mimic the national security state's Big Brother culture, but prevent that security state from trampling our freedoms.
Law enforcement officials, of course, don't like the cellphone cameras because they don't want any check on police power. So they've resorted to fearmongering allegations about lost lives. But the only police officers who are threatened by cellphone cameras are those who want to break civil liberties laws with impunity. The rest have nothing to worry about and everything to gain from a practice that simply asks them to remember the all-too-forgotten part of their "protect and serve" motto-the part about protecting the public's civil rights.
David Sirota is a best-selling author of the new book "Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now." He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Dubya's Quiet $15 Million Payday
by Peter H. Stone
May 20, 2011
http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/69-69/6006-dubya-cashes-in-on-bin-laden
George W. Bush said after bin Laden's killing that he wanted to stay out of the public eye. But Peter H. Stone of the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News says 43's becoming a high-profile figure on the buck-raking circuit.
When George W. Bush declined President Obama's invitation to a ceremony at New York's ground zero after Osama bin Laden was killed, the former president cited his desire to keep a low public profile.
But Bush has been raising his profile in a different, and lucrative, way: He has raked in millions of dollars since leaving office by making scores of speeches that typically earn him six figures a pop.
In the week after Obama's May 5 ground zero event, the 43rd president made time for three separate speeches to hedge-fund executives, a Swiss bank sanctioned for keeping secret bank accounts, and a pro golf event underwritten by the accounting firm involved in the Tyco International financial scandal.
Bush's standard speaking fee is reportedly between $100,000 and $150,000.
David Sherzer, a spokesman for the former president, said that since Bush left office he has delivered nearly 140 paid talks, at home and abroad. Those speeches have earned Bush about $15 million, following in the golden path blazed by his predecessor, Bill Clinton.
Almost all of Bush's speeches are closed to the press. Bush uses the Washington Speakers Bureau to arrange his paid speaking gigs.
To some presidential historians, Bush's numerous high-priced speaking engagements don't sit well. "I find it puzzling," said Stanford University historian Robert Dallek. "He says he wants to keep a low profile. What is he doing except enriching himself? It sounds like it's self-serving. It's following the good old American adage to make as much as you can."
Other historians say Bush's ride on the lecture circuit has become somewhat commonplace for former presidents, but is still troubling.
"It's one thing to stay out of the public realm, which George Bush has said he wants to do," said Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University. "But then he goes on the speaking circuit and makes enormous amounts of money giving lectures mostly to corporate groups and other select audiences. Some Americans can find this distasteful."
Zelizer added: "We're in an era where there are countless fears about money and politics. I think former presidents have to be careful about what they're doing with their speeches. For some people it's another version of the revolving door between Capitol Hill and K Street."
Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, and his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, also gave paid speeches. Reagan took heat for accepting $2 million for two speeches in Japan. But Bill Clinton took the ex-presidential lecture circuit to a new level. He earned $65 million in speaking fees from 2001 to 2009, according to a CNN review of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's financial disclosures. That included $7.5 million from 36 speeches in 2009 alone.
"I never had any money until I got out of the White House, you know, but I've done reasonably well since then," Clinton said at a forum in South Africa last year.
In one interview as he left the White House, Bush said he planned to "replenish the ol' coffers" by hitting the lecture circuit. Bush's net worth at the time ranged between $6.5 million and $20 million, according to financial disclosure forms.
In a few cases, Clinton and Bush have made joint appearances. After Bush turned down Obama's invitation, he flew to New York on May 9 to give a talk with Clinton to the wealth-management arm of UBS. The giant Swiss bank in 2009 cut a deal with the Justice Department to pay $780 million to settle a probe into tax evasion by thousands of its clients.
(Clinton also nixed a White House invitation to appear at ground zero, citing scheduling conflicts.)
Later that same week, Bush gave two speeches to groups that paid him handsomely. On Wednesday, May 11, Bush was in Las Vegas as the featured speaker at a giant hedge fund conference. Other prominent speakers included former Secretary of State Colin Powell and ex-Senator Chris Dodd. At the hedge-fund conference, Bush said he was "not overjoyed" by news of bin Laden's killing and said the hunt for the al Qaeda leader was conducted not "out of hatred, but to exact judgment." The speech was closed to the media but a few reporters sneaked in to record the former president's thoughts about bin Laden.
And that Friday, May 13, Bush spoke in Florida at a Professional Golfers' Association event that was underwritten by the accounting giant Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the firm that several years ago paid $225 million to settle class-action suits related to its work for Tyco International.
Bush's speaking invitations have taken him from the Far East to Canada and from New York to Texas. Overseas, Bush has delivered at least two speeches in Asia-one to the Boao Forum for Asia in China's Hainan province, and another to the Federation of Korean Industries on Jeju Island off that country's southern coast.
This year, the former oilman has talked to at least two energy conferences in Texas. One was sponsored by Hart Energy, an industry consulting firm, and the other by Cambridge Energy Research Associates, where he teamed up with Clinton again.
In mid-June, Bush is slated to be a featured speaker at the Edison Electric Institute meeting in Colorado Springs. Sherzer said that event is just one of a few dozen already booked for Bush this year.
Bush has been busy on other fronts. He has written a bestselling memoir, Decision Points, which has sold more than 3 million copies. And he has helped rope in more than $300 million for the George W. Bush Foundation, which supports his presidential center at Southern Methodist University in Texas.
After he was invited to join Obama at ground zero, Sherzer said Bush chose to remain out of the spotlight during his post-presidency. And his wife, Laura, told the Associated Press: "He's made the real decision not to enter into politics or the public eye."
And Sherzer notes Bush has made a commitment to speak pro bono at an event at ground zero this upcoming September 11, the 10th anniversary of the deadly al Qaeda attacks.
Peter H. Stone leads the money and politics team at the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan investigative journalism group in Washington. Stone is the author of the recently released paperback Casino Jack and the United States of Money.
Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Fukushima's Apocalyptic Threat
By Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News
20 May 11
http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/303-211/6005-fukushimas-apocalyptic-threat
Fukushima may be in an apocalyptic downward spiral.
Forget the corporate-induced media coma that says otherwise ... or nothing at all.
Lethal radiation is spewing unabated. Emission levels could seriously escalate. There is no end in sight. The potential is many times worse than Chernobyl.
Containing this disaster may be beyond the abilities of Tokyo Electric or the Japanese government.
There is no reason to incur further unnecessary risk. With all needed resources, it's time for the world's best scientists and engineers to take charge.
Even then the outcome is unclear.
For a brief but terrifying overview, consult Dr. Chris Busby as interviewed by RT/TV.
Fukushima Units One, Two and Three are all in various stages of melting down.
Molten fuel at Unit One may have burned through its reactor pressure vessel, with water poured in to cool it merely pouring out the bottom.
A growing pond of highly radioactive liquid is softening the ground and draining into the ocean.
There is no way to predict where these molten masses of fuel will yet go.
Especially in the event of an aftershock, steam and hydrogen explosions could blow out what's left of the containments.
The extra plutonium in the MOX fuel at Unit Three is an added liability.
At least one spent fuel pool has been on fire.
The site has already suffered at least two hydrogen explosions. Some believe a fission explosion may also have occurred.
All have weakened the structures and support systems on site.
These shocks and the soft ground may be why Unit Four has partially sunk and is tipping, possibly on the brink of collapse. Even a relatively minor aftershock could mean catastrophe.
More explosions are possible. More leaks are virtually certain.
Escalated radiation levels from any one of the reactors could force all workers to evacuate, leaving the entire site to chance.
The New York Times has now reported that critical valve failures that contributed to the Fukushima disaster are likely at numerous US reactors.
Significant radioactive debris has been found thousands of yards from the plant. Radiation levels in Tokyo, nearly 200 miles away, have risen. Fallout has been detected in North America and throughout Europe.
Radiation pouring into the sea has begun to spread worldwide.
There is much more, none of it good.
Japan and Germany have had the good survival sense to abandon future reactor construction, and to shut some existing sites.
But here, the corporate media blackout is virtually complete. Out of sight, out of mind seems the strategy for an industry desperate for federal loan guarantees and continued operation of a rickety fleet of decaying old reactors.
The Obama Administration has ended radiation monitoring of seafood in the Pacific. It does not provide reliable, systematic radiological or medical data on fallout coming to the United States.
But we may all be in unprecedented danger.
A national movement is underway to end atomic give-aways and turn to a green-powered Earth.
Now we must also move ALL the world's governments beyond denial to focus on somehow bringing Fukushima under control.
After two months of all-out effort, four reactors and at least that many spent fuel pools remain at risk.
Our survival depends on stopping Fukushima from further irradiating us all.
The world community has come together to put a new sarcophagus around Chernobyl.
A parallel, more urgent effort now needs to focus on Fukushima.
Whatever technical, scientific and material resources are available to our species, that's what needs to go there.
NOW!!!
Harvey Wasserman's "Solartopia! Our Green-Powered Earth, A.D. 2030" is at www.solartopia.org. He is senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, and writes regularly for www.freepress.org. He and Bob Fitrakis have co-authored four books on election protection, including "Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election?," "As Goes Ohio: Election Theft Since 2004," "How the GOP Stole America's 2004 Election & Is Rigging 2008," and "What Happened in Ohio."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Statement Issued by the Global Coalition for the Palestinian Right of Return
The People want an end to (their refugee status) ... The People want to return
May 21, 2011
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=dyzd5lcab&v=0010VnWG8rakCq3WzjbotNxbqk9Qzn8w0Rk9xDd8VACfiU2tJLrDYVe1I-EnU9nkfM-n8lAHXP9cGEqU5Y3Do8UzL05RCefL3dQal5dDT8kY6MacSh24Gj_yg%3D%3D
Oh heroic masses in historic Palestine and in exile,
The marches of return on May 15 this year proved to everyone, that the people of Palestine, in all positions are one and unified, and that the longevity of exile has not weakened their resolve to return to their original homes. What happened on this day in Maroun al-Ras, Majdal Shams, and Karameh, as well as in historic Palestine, and the various capitals of the world, confirmed the absurdity of negotiations which are nothing more than an American public relations stunt. They have also proven the danger of dependence on Western countries, and that peace with the Israeli state of colonialism, racial discrimination and occupation is a sham. The people's march yesterday proved the futility of bypassing the people's will, and it proved that our people have the capacity, and willingness to sacrifice for the achievement of the right of return, self-determination, and to build a free and democratic Palestine.
Oh struggling masses, as we salute and pay tribute to the martyrs, wounded and prisoners of the march of return to Palestine, we emphasize the following:
First: The Nakba is not simply a day when we commemorate a memory once a year, rather it is ongoing, hence the events and marches of return will last as long as the Nakba continues, and until we bring about a return to our original homes.
Second: The people's preparedness for sacrifice necessitates a higher level of preparation, organization and action on the part of all political forces, national institutions and Palestinian civilian, to upgrade work aimed at securing the cumulative results of asserting our national inalienable rights, foremost among them, the right of return and national self-determination;
Third: Betting on recognition by the United Nations of a Palestinian state based on the 67 borders without coupling it with a guarantee of the right of immediate return of the refugees to their original homes, merely paves the way for a new futile round of international and diplomatic deliberations which do not address the root of the conflict, and give the international community a new opportunity or rather excuse to shirk its responsibilities towards the rights of our people.
Fourth: The need to re-evaluate the trajectory of our resistance, building a national unified program, building the institutions of the PLO on the basis of democracy, ensuring the election of a national council representing all of our people in all positions which in turn can elect a Palestinian leadership that is qualified to carry out the responsibilities of this stage; this has become an urgent necessity that cannot be delayed.
Glory and eternity to our faithful martyrs throughout the history of Arab-Zionist conflict.
We shall return
May 16, 2011
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) "Chevron could save parks"
By Wayne Veatch, San Francisco
San Francisco Chronicle of Wed, May 18, 2011
Letter-to-the-Editor
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/18/EDRE1JGTSR.DTL
"California to close 70 state parks and beaches" (May 14) for lack of $22 million. That sum is peanuts to some California corporations.
For example, Chevron, which says oil companies should put their profits to good use, made $19 billion in profit last year, enjoyed billions in tax breaks ("Oil company executives defend their tax breaks," May 13) and, according to its current proxy statement, had no problem paying its CEO, John Watson, more than $16 million in compensation.
$22 million is just 0.1 percent of Chevron's $19 billion in profits.
If Chevron were to make up the $22 million California-park shortfall, it would make good on its hype of putting its profits to good use and demonstrate its good California citizenship, at virtually no sacrifice. $22 of $19 billion is the same hit to the wallet as an individual donating $50 of his or her annual income of $50,000.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) States Seeking New Registries for Criminals
By ERICA GOODE
May 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/us/21registry.html?hp
Lawmakers around the country are pushing for online registries, like those used for sex offenders, to track the whereabouts of people convicted of a wide variety of crimes, from arson and drunken driving to methamphetamine manufacturing and animal abuse.
State senators in Illinois are considering a law to create the nation's first registry for first-degree murderers. In Maine, legislators are debating an online registry of drunken drivers. And proposals to register animal abusers have been put forward in several states; one such registry, in Suffolk County on Long Island, will become operational next week.
Under a canine version of Megan's Law, Virginia even registers dangerous dogs, including Elvis, a cat-killing collie in Roanoke whose bad acts are among those listed on the state's database.
Advocates for online registries, many of them searchable by the public, argue that people have a right to know about potentially dangerous offenders in their midst and that the benefit of alerting parents, neighbors and others in a community outweighs any privacy concerns.
But as the registries proliferate, so do questions about their value. Critics say that while the registries are attractive to politicians who want to appear tough on crime, they often do little more than spread fear and encourage vigilantism.
The monitoring systems cost money at a time when recession-strapped states can ill afford the extra expense, the critics say, and their effectiveness is dubious: Sex offender registries, for example, have had little success in reducing repeat crimes, studies suggest.
Wayne Logan, a professor at Florida State University College of Law and the author of a recent book on registration and notification laws, likens the registries to "legislative catnip."
"You'd be hard pressed to find a more politically popular movement in recent years," he said. "Whether it's actually good public policy is a distinct and independent question from whether it's politically popular and makes us feel good."
Mr. Logan noted that once passed, the laws were difficult to remove because politicians did not want to seem to diminish the suffering of victims. Instead, they are added "like Christmas ornaments on a tree, year after year."
The New York State Senate voted 57 to 4 on Tuesday for a violent offenders registry. In Illinois, the murderers registry bill passed the House in April by a 97-to-1 vote. The legislation is now before the Senate.
Representative Monique Davis, the lone member of the Illinois House to oppose the law, said that although she favored the state's sex offender registry, "I just don't think that a murderer registry is of much value to anyone except those getting paid to set it up."
She noted that the recidivism rate for murder was very low to begin with and that the state, facing a deficit of more than $4 billion, could not afford the cost of another registry.
But voting against such a measure, she said, is "very difficult to do, because sometimes the public perceives you as being soft on crime."
Representative Dennis Reboletti, the main sponsor of the House bill, said that it "would allow not only law enforcement, but also the community to know who resides here, who our family members are associating with and who our children are dating."
"These are people who are lying in wait," Mr. Reboletti said in a phone interview. "It's cold. It's calculated. It's planned over time. And it's one of the most evil things that somebody can do on this earth."
The inspiration for the murderers' registry, as for many such laws, was a high-profile crime, the 1998 murder of Andrea Will, an 18-year-old freshman at Eastern Illinois University who was strangled by her ex-boyfriend, Justin Boulay. Convicted before Illinois adopted a truth-in-sentencing law, Mr. Boulay was paroled from prison after serving half of a 24-year sentence, a turn of events that Ms. Will's mother, Patricia Rosenberg, said she saw as "a slap in the face." She was even angrier when Mr. Boulay promptly moved to Hawaii to join the medical school professor he had married while in prison.
"I felt like I had to do something because I never felt justice was served," Ms. Rosenberg said in a recent phone interview.
She consulted with Mr. Reboletti on the idea for the legislation, known as Andrea's Law. The law would require registration for 10 years after the offender is released from prison. It would affect 300 to 500 convicted first-degree murderers on parole in Illinois, Mr. Reboletti said, and 3,000 more who at some point will be released from prison.
A spokesman for the Illinois State Police, which would establish and maintain the registry, said the cost would depend on whether it could be built onto the state's existing registries for sex offenders and child murderers, as some legislators have proposed, or would have to be created from scratch.
In Maine, concerns about cost have also been raised about the registry for drunken drivers. State Representative Gary Plummer, a Republican, said establishing any new registry was "prohibitively expensive."
"I haven't even gotten to the point of considering is it fair to put people on this type of registry, when we don't have the resources" to do it, he said of the drunken driver bill, adding that he had also opposed proposals for arsonist and animal abuser registries as too costly.
Perhaps the biggest question about criminal registries is how effective they are in preventing offenders from committing future crimes.
Jill Levenson, an associate professor of psychology at Lynn University in Florida, who has written extensively about sex offender registries, has noted that Department of Justice figures suggest that only 13 percent of new sex crimes are committed by known sex offenders, and that such crimes are at least six times more likely to be committed by other types of offenders who do not appear on any sex offender registry.
Only a handful of studies have so far examined the effect of registry and notification laws for sex offenders on recidivism, Dr. Levenson said, but "so far, the vast majority of those studies do not show a decrease in repeat sex offenses that can be attributed to sex offender registry or notification."
Murderers have among the lowest rates of recidivism. Only about 1.2 percent of convicted murderers go on to commit another murder within three years of their release; roughly 35 percent commit other types of crimes within the same time period.
But in Ms. Rosenberg's view, if even one murder is prevented by notifying the public it is worth it.
"Would it be more plausible if you thought they would commit four, five, six, seven murders?" she asked. "I think any life, one life, is worth saving."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Tens of Thousands in Spain Defy Protest Ban
By RAPHAEL MINDER
May 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/world/europe/22spain.html?hp
MADRID - Tens of thousands of demonstrators across Spain continued sit-ins and other protests against the established political parties on Saturday. They did so in defiance of a ban against such protests and ahead of regional and municipal elections on Sunday.
About 28,000 people, most of them young, spent Friday night in Puerta del Sol, a main square in downtown Madrid, the police said. They stayed even as the protest ban went into effect at midnight under rules that bring an official end to campaigning before the election in 13 of Spain's 17 regions and in more than 8,000 municipalities.
Fueling the demonstrators' anger is the perceived failure by politicians to alleviate the hardships imposed on a struggling population. The unemployment rate in Spain is 21 percent.
Beyond economic complaints, the protesters' demands include improving the judiciary, ending political corruption and overhauling Spain's electoral structure, notably by ending the system in which candidates are selected internally by the parties before an election rather than chosen directly by voters.
The protests, which started May 15, have spread gradually across Spain. Spaniards overseas have also held some protests in front of their embassies to show their support for an alternative campaign that has almost eclipsed that of the established parties.
Although some of the protest groups have called for people to vote for smaller and alternative parties, or to cast a blank ballot, the movement could lead to a decline in voter turnout on Sunday. In the elections four years ago, 63 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
Sunday's election is expected to result in a countrywide sweep by the Popular Party, the main center-right opposition, at the expense of the governing Socialists, whose popularity has plummeted because of the economic crisis. The most recent opinion polls suggest that the Socialist Party may lose in regions and municipalities where it has been in power since Spain's return to democracy in the late 1970s, notably Castilla-La Mancha.
Whatever the outcome, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced in April that he would not seek a third term, paving the way for the selection of a new Socialist leader before the general election, which is expected in March 2012.
As the campaign ban came into force at midnight, many of the Madrid protesters stuck tape across their mouths to signal that they would continue the demonstration, even if ordered to be silent. "The voice of the people can never be illegal," read some of the banners, while others argued, "We are not against the system but the system is against us."
Still, the government suggested that it would not order the police to use force to break up any protests and sit-ins in Madrid and elsewhere over the weekend, especially given that protests this week have not generated any violence. Interior Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba , speaking during a visit to the Murcia region, said that "the police are there to solve problems and not create new ones."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Newspaper in Pakistan Publishes WikiLeaks Cables
By JANE PERLEZ
May 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/world/asia/21wikileaks.html?ref=world
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The leading English-language newspaper, Dawn, and its Web site on Friday began publishing a selection of more than 4,000 American diplomatic cables obtained from WikiLeaks that are devoted to Pakistan, opening a window onto the American-Pakistani relationship and domestic politics never before seen here.
The cables, which were reviewed and in some cases reported on by The New York Times last year, include a request from the head of the Pakistani Army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, for American surveillance drones to fly over South Waziristan, where the army was fighting the Taliban.
The request by General Kayani referred only to unarmed surveillance drones, but the very mention of the army chief's asking the United States Central Command head at the time, Adm. William J. Fallon, in January 2008 for American surveillance drones is likely to prove embarrassing.
The Pakistani military and the civilian government have insisted in public that they do not support the C.I.A. drones that attack militants in the tribal areas, even though they have acquiesced to the strikes in private.
A front-page article in Dawn on Friday said the cables confirmed that the drone strikes within Pakistan had more than just the tacit acceptance of the military leadership.
The story quoted from a cable from February 2009 by Ambassador Anne W. Patterson in which she said that General Kayani "knows full well that the strikes have been precise (creating few civilian casualties) and targeted primarily at foreign fighters" in Waziristan.
In another example of how until recently the drone strikes were appreciated by the Pakistani leadership, the story quoted Ms. Patterson as saying that the military aide to President Asif Ali Zardari estimated that 60 Pakistani soldiers would have been killed if they had been directed to attack a site that was the target of drones.
The newspaper wrote admiringly of what it called Ms. Patterson's prescience when she noted in a Nov. 24, 2008, cable that the gap between the private acquiescence of the Pakistani government and the public condemnation of American action would grow, a gap that has now become a major stumbling block in the United States-Pakistan relationship.
"Pakistani leaders who feel they look increasingly weak to their constituents could begin considering stronger action against the U.S., even though the response to date has focused largely on ritual denunciation," she wrote.
A spokesman for the Pakistani military, in response to the cables about the drones, said that the military had not asked for armed drones. "There has only been sharing of technical intelligence," the spokesman said.
In the last several months as the relationship with Washington has soured, General Kayani has become less enamored of the drones and asked the Obama administration to stop the armed drone attacks.
The C.I.A. has refused to halt the strikes, and the question of the drones is now at the heart of the fraught Pakistani-American relationship. The drones are interpreted as an infringement of sovereignty, an argument that has intensified since the May 2 Navy Seal raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
The editor of Dawn, Zafar Abbas, said that he had signed an agreement with Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, in April. "We thought it was important for the people to know what the politicians and army had been telling the Americans, how the United States viewed Pakistan and the Pakistani situation," Mr. Abbas said.
The first-day response was far more than expected, Mr. Abbas said. Telephone calls to the television station of Dawn, hits on the Web site and e-mails had been "overwhelming."
The cables published Friday also included embarrassing accounts of domestic politics. An account in a cable by an American diplomat, Bryan Hunt, who was posted to the American Consulate in Lahore said that Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab Province, was willing to have the controversial Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry removed from his position after the judge was granted a "face saving" restoration.
Mr. Sharif is the brother of Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the main opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League-N, and the chief minister was said by Mr. Hunt to be speaking for the opposition party as a whole.
The disclosure that the Sharif brothers were willing to abandon the chief justice after putting up a public stance that they would go to the mat for his restoration was politically damaging, said Ishaq Khakwani, a former minister of telecommunications.
"It shows that in their heart of hearts none of the political parties, nor the army, ever want an independent judicial system," Mr. Khakwani said. "Everyone is autocratic by nature."
Pakistan has developed a rambunctious printed press, and politics is hashed over nightly on an array of television talk shows. But the press is in some respects also manipulated by the political parties, the army and the intelligence agencies, so the disclosure of documents that cover behind-the-scenes conversations among top leaders lends a credence rarely seen in Pakistan.
"Politicians can get away with a friendly chat show on TV people forget," Mr. Khakwani said. "When people see hard facts there will be more questioning."
So far, there has been no direct pressure or any request to stop publication, Mr. Abbas said.
Indeed, even the publication of WikiLeaks in Pakistan showed the relationships among the Pakistani elite.
The head of the army public information unit who released a statement titled "Contradiction," saying that General Kayani had not asked for the support of armed drones for military operations, is Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas. He is the brother of Zafar Abbas, the editor of Dawn.
Salman Masood contributed reporting.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Afghanistan: German Troops Fired on Protesters
By RAY RIVERA
May 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/world/asia/21briefs-Afghanistan.html?ref=world
The German Defense Ministry acknowledged Friday that its troops had fired on demonstrators during a violent protest in the northern Afghan city of Taliqan this week, wounding several civilians and possibly killing some. The demonstrations erupted Wednesday after a joint American and Afghan night raid at a family compound just outside the city that left four people dead, two of them women. NATO said the four were insurgents who tried to fire at its troops, but local officials insisted they were civilians. When the protesters tried to attack a small German-run NATO base on the outskirts of the city, the ministry said, German troops fired warning shots in the air before shooting at the legs of the attackers. Some protesters were hit in the torso and at least one was hit in the neck and head region, the statement said. At least 12 people were killed in the two days of protests. German authorities said they were investigating the shootings.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) Regulators Find Design Flaws in New Reactors
By MATTHEW L. WALD
May 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/business/energy-environment/21nuke.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON - In a setback for the only model of nuclear reactor for which ground has been broken in the United States, government regulators have found additional problems with the design of its shield building, a crucial component, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Friday.
The chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko, said that computations submitted by Westinghouse, the manufacturer of the new AP1000 reactor, about the building's design appeared to be wrong and "had led to more questions." He said the company had not used a range of possible temperatures for calculating potential seismic stresses on the shield building in the event of an earthquake, for example.
Mr. Jaczko said the commission was asking Westinghouse not only to fix its calculations but also to explain why it submitted flawed information in the first place. Earlier this year the commission staff said it needed additional calculations from Westinghouse to confirm the strength of the AP1000's shield building. The building has not been built; the analysis of its strength and safety is all computer based.
The announcement comes as the commission and the American nuclear industry are facing increased scrutiny as a result of the calamity that began after an earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan in March, leading to releases of radioactive material. Various critics have asked the commission to suspend licensing of new plants, the relicensing of old ones and various other activities until the implications of the Fukushima accident are clearer.
While the commission has said it will evaluate the Japanese accident methodically, it had previously said it did not anticipate that this would cause a delay in approving the AP1000. Now, however, it appears far warier that it will finish this summer.
Westinghouse countered in a statement that the "confirmatory items" that the commission was asking for were not "safety significant." It noted, and the commission agreed, that the company had been the first to identify some of the problems itself. Still, the commission seems to have taken a slightly darker view.
The Southern Company has already dug the foundations and done other preliminary work for two of the AP1000 reactors adjacent to its existing reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, Ga. The Energy Department has promised loan guarantees for that project provided that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves the design.
South Carolina Electric and Gas has broken ground for another two, 20 miles northwest of Columbia.
The commission had previously said it expected to approve the AP1000 design this summer. But on Friday a spokesman for the commission, Scott Burnell, said the decision would be delayed for a period of time that he could not specify until Westinghouse submitted a third round of revised calculations.
"They need to be doing the work correctly and completely, and we need to have confidence that that's what they're doing," said one commission official, who said he was not authorized to be quoted by name. "They have additional work they need to do, and a short time to complete it if it's not going to have a significant impact on their schedule."
Southern had been expecting to receive a license to construct and operate the new plant by the end of this year and to have the first reactor on line by mid-2016. On Friday, the company said it still planned to proceed. "We have confidence the AP1000 technology," a company spokesman, Todd Terrell, said.
In addition to the plants in Georgia and South Carolina, ground has also been broken on four AP1000 reactors in China, two at Sanmen and two at Haiyang. Westinghouse, which is owned by Toshiba, is making parts for the Chinese units in factories in the Pittsburgh area.
The AP1000 was in principle designed so it would be faster to build and safer to run than previous models. The letters stand for "advanced passive," with many of its safety features depending on natural forces like gravity and convective cooling rather than pumps and valves, which could be knocked out by electrical failures or floods as they were at Fukushima.
But the design involves a radical departure from those of existing nuclear plants. One change is to put a massive tank of emergency water on the roof so that no pumping is required to deliver it to an overheated reactor. Another is to build a free-standing steel shell around the reactor so that heat can travel through the metal and be passed off to surrounding air.
Existing Westinghouse reactors have a thick concrete dome with a steel liner that forms the reactor's containment shell. In the new design, there is an air gap between the shell and the outer shield building, which is made of steel-reinforced concrete.
The commission has faced some internal dissent about the shield building, and outsiders have complained about the inner shell.
In its statement, Westinghouse said Friday that its reactor was "one of the most studied, reviewed and analyzed nuclear power plant designs in the history of the commercial nuclear power industry." And it said that the value of its passive features was being recognized now "in light of recent events," a reference to Fukushima.
Three other reactor designs are under consideration by the commission, but none of them has any prospect of being built soon. Under a reformed licensing system adopted in the 1990s, the commission is to approve a completed design before substantial work begins on reactor structures.
Beyond the AP1000, opponents of nuclear power are hoping the commission will slow down on other fronts.
"I commend Chairman Jaczko for exercising caution in light of the safety concerns that have been raised about the Westinghouse AP1000 design, and for announcing plans to fully examine outstanding issues regarding structural integrity and resiliency before approving the design," said Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts and a longtime Congressional critic of the industry.
He added, "In the wake of the Fukushima meltdown, the N.R.C. also should suspend all of its licensing decisions on new designs, new reactors or relicense applications until it incorporates the lessons of the Japanese catastrophe."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) Illegal Immigrants' Underground Lives Hobble Their U.S.-Born Children, Study Says
By KIRK SEMPLE
May 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/nyregion/illegal-immigrants-children-suffer-study-finds.html?ref=nyregion
Eulogia was scared and adrift. At 25, she was poor, pregnant and an illegal immigrant. She worried about how she would pay for medical care and raise her baby, and even whether a trip to the hospital might prompt her deportation to Mexico.
But when she plunged into a postpartum depression in 2003 after the birth of her daughter, the first of three children, a hospital social worker referred her and her husband to an East Harlem social service agency that has counseled them and helped them get care for their family and get the government assistance their children were eligible for as American citizens.
"I think I very am lucky," Eulogia said in an interview this week, asking that her last name not be used because she still fears deportation. She said most illegal immigrant parents felt tremendously isolated and did not have "the confidence to ask for help."
Indeed, a recently published study of the early development of children born to illegal immigrants in New York City suggests that most stories that begin like Eulogia's do not end as well.
Even though the children have citizenship and live in an immigrant-friendly city that offers them a wide array of services, many are still hobbled by serious developmental and educational deficits resulting from their parents' lives in the shadows, according to the study, whose author says it is the most comprehensive look to date at the effects of parents' immigration status on young children.
"The undocumented are viewed in current policy debates as lawbreakers, laborers or victims - seldom as parents raising citizen children," wrote the author, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, a Harvard education professor who has published the study as a book, "Immigrants Raising Citizens" (Russell Sage Foundation, 2011).
Professor Yoshikawa found that by the time the children of illegal immigrants reached age 2, they showed significantly lower levels of language and cognitive development than the children of legal immigrants and native-born parents.
"Millions of the youngest citizens in the United States, simply by virtue of being born to a parent with a particular legal status, have less access to the learning opportunities that are the building blocks of adult productivity," he wrote.
The implications for the nation are potentially far-reaching and long-lasting, he said, considering that of all preschool children of illegal immigrant parents in the United States, an estimated 91 percent - four million children - are American citizens.
Poor cognitive development can lead to lower school performance, which in turn can lead to higher dropout rates, an undertrained work force and lower economic productivity. "Ignoring these children has costs for society," Professor Yoshikawa warned.
He and his team began their research by visiting maternity wards at public hospitals around New York in 2004 and getting permission to study nearly 400 babies newly born to Chinese, Dominican and Mexican parents, as well as to native-born African American parents. The researchers, who were affiliated with the Center for Research on Culture, Development and Education at New York University, followed the children for three years.
The researchers found that poor immigrants cannot afford learning materials or stimulating programs in child care centers. Fear of deportation or ignorance about how the city works often prevents those parents from seeking help from government agencies that provide child care subsidies or food stamps.
Many illegal immigrants, particularly those belonging to newer immigrant groups, like Mexicans in New York, have smaller extended families or less-developed social networks than others, and therefore fewer people around to help raise children.
The psychological stress suffered by illegal immigrants - many of whom work long hours for low wages and live in crowded, poorly maintained apartments - can be transmitted to young children, the study says.
"Greater hardship among parents, both economic and psychological," Professor Yoshikawa wrote, "can harm children's learning by lowering parents' active engagement with their children, the quantity or quality of their language or their warmth and responsiveness."
In an interview, he pointed out that illegal immigrants' anxieties about seeking help - and those anxieties' effects on children - could be even worse in places with "harsher" immigration policies.
Eulogia, the East Harlem mother, said she was brought to the United States by her parents when she was 11 and lived in a succession of cramped apartments in New York. She helped her parents sell flowers on the street to make ends meet. Though she graduated from high school, she remained an illegal immigrant, and imagined that her own children would live the same kind of existence.
Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service - a community-based organization in East Harlem that provides counseling and other assistance to poor people, especially immigrants - helped Eulogia and her husband get food stamps and enroll in the federal Women, Infants and Children assistance program. Her eldest daughter, now 7, receives after-school tutoring at the center, while her second child, a 2-year-old boy, is getting speech therapy. And the family has secured better housing.
In his book, Professor Yoshikawa extols the work of groups like Family Health Service.
"By bringing these families out of the shadows and providing them with access to better work conditions and learning opportunities," he wrote, "we can ensure that the nation's most vulnerable young citizens have an equal chance to succeed in their early development, later schooling and adulthood."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
12) New App Another Tool for Workers in Wage Disputes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/05/21/business/AP-US-Tracking-Wage-Theft.html?src=busln
WASHINGTON (AP) - Workers who don't trust the boss to keep track of their wages can now do it themselves with a new smart phone application from the Department of Labor. But employers worry that the time sheet app, along with other new initiatives, could encourage even more wage and hour lawsuits.
The app lets workers calculate regular work hours, break time and overtime pay to create their own wage records. Department officials say the information could prove valuable in a dispute over pay or during a government investigation when an employer has failed to keep accurate records.
"This app will help empower workers to understand and stand up for their rights when employers have denied their hard-earned pay," Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said.
The app is the latest example of the Obama administration's push for more aggressive enforcement of wage and hour laws. The agency has hired about 300 more investigators to probe complaints of unpaid work time, lack of overtime pay and minimum wage violations.
Last year, the agency began a "Bridge to Justice" program that, for the first time, helps connect aggrieved workers with private lawyers if the department's Wage and Hour Division is too busy to handle a complaint.
As a result, legal experts say, wage and hour compliance has become a leading concern for employers as the new policies help drive up litigation over unpaid wages, also known as wage theft.
"The government is focusing on it like never before," said Gerald Maatman, an employer-side labor lawyer based in Chicago. "I think the mantra is kind of, 'All enforcement, all the time, 24/7.'"
Workers brought a record number of wage and hour suits against employers last year, according to an analysis of court filings by Maatman's firm, Seyfarth Shaw. Nearly 6,800 such suits were filed in 2010, about 700 more than the previous year. Most were collective or class actions.
"The concern is that the Department of Labor is putting a lot more attention into this area and employers, at the same time, are putting more hours, more money and more work into auditing and complying with wage and hour laws," Maatman said. "It's turning into somewhat of a full-time job."
The stepped up enforcement is a change from the Bush administration, when some critics accused President George W. Bush's labor secretary, Elaine Chao, of favoring businesses and weakening job safety and enforcement efforts.
While employers are not surprised about increased enforcement, they have questioned some tactics, such as a program that gives workers a toll-free number to contact an attorney referral service run by the American Bar Association.
The Wage and Hour Division gets more than 35,000 calls a year for help and doesn't have the resources to deal with every claim. For those it can't help, it now refers them to the toll-free hot line, where they can be referred to a lawyer who specializes in wage and hour disputes.
Michael Kun, a management-side employment lawyer in Los Angeles, calls the program "a gift to plaintiff's lawyers."
"A DOL investigator has no incentive to pursue a meritless claim," Kun said. "A plaintiff's lawyer has some incentive to do that to get some sort of nuisance value."
Patricia Smith, the Labor Department's top lawyer, says the criticism has taken her by surprise. Before the Bridge to Justice program, the department simply told workers they had a private right of action.
"This just gives them a little more information if they want to exercise it, to go to an attorney that's qualified, as opposed to calling the guy who has advertisements on television at midnight," Smith said.
Nancy Leppink, who heads the Wage and Hour Division, says the office is just doing the job it's supposed to do, which is going after employers who cheat workers out of their hard-earned wages.
"To the extent we have employers who are not complying with the law, we have an obligation to look for all of the opportunities we can to change that behavior," Leppink said.
That includes the department's "We can help" advertising campaign last year, designed to educate employees in the food service, hospitality, apparel, manufacturing and construction industries about their legal rights under federal wage and hour laws.
Wage theft is especially prevalent among immigrant workers who don't speak English or hesitate to challenge their boss for fear of jeopardizing immigration status, labor officials say.
Earlier this year, for example, the department recovered $1.8 million in back wages for nearly 400 workers at the Houston-based Hong Kong Market grocery chain. Investigators found some employees worked as many as 70 hours a week, but were paid less than the minimum wage and denied overtime pay. Labor officials said the company deliberately misled investigators by falsifying payroll records.
The new smart phone app is expected to help low wage immigrant workers, many of whom can't afford a computer, but keep cell phones as a lifeline to family back home.
The app is currently available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but the agency is exploring versions for use on other devices, including Blackberry and Android smart phones.
___
Online:
Labor Department's Hour and Wage Division: http://www.dol.gov/whd/
Seyfarth Shaw law firm: http://www.wagehourlitigation.com/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
13) Protest Against Chile Dam Plan Ends in Violence
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/05/20/business/AP-LT-Chile-Patagonia-Protests.html?src=busln
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - Tens of thousands of people massed in the center of Chile's capital Friday night for new protests against the government's plan to dam two wild rivers in the country's southern Patagonia region.
Most demonstrators were peaceful, but bands of hooded protesters attacked police and smashed shop windows and damaged other property along a 10-block stretch of Santiago's main avenue.
The protesters started at the Plaza Italia and walked peacefully to the front of La Moneda presidential palace, carrying flags and banners denouncing the hydroelectric project that was approved for Patagonia on May 9.
At that point, hundreds of masked people began throwing rocks at police, who responded with water cannons and tear gas. The masked bands tore off metal bars and scaffolding timbers to use against police, trashed stores, wrecked signs and set fire to trash piles.
Thousands of other demonstrators sat down on the street and raised their hands in a sign that they were unarmed and not involved in the violence.
The march came a week after another protest against the planned HidroAysen project saw clashes between some demonstrators and police. Authorities had suspended police use of tear gas after that violence, but reinstated its use before Friday's march, citing threats of violence.
Environmentalists and others are angry over the $7 billion plan to build five dams on two free-running rivers in a mostly roadless region of Patagonia known for picturesque Andean glaciers and stunning deep green valleys and fjords.
The government, business groups and economists say Chile needs the dams to generate electricity sorely needed for Chile's booming economy. They say the country should double its electricity production over the next decade.
Critics say more should be done to increase the amount of power obtained from renewable sources, such as solar and geothermal energy.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
