Jan Slakov examines the current situation in Canada and comes up with a few suggestions in "Lessons in how to prepare for peace" (BCLocalNews). We'll note the second one and include the fifth since it's an upcoming action:
2)
Welcome war resisters: Former U.S. President John F. Kennedy once said:
"War will exist until that distant day when the CO [conscientious
objector] enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does
today.” A majority of Canadian MPs understand this, and voted on June 3
to allow U.S. soldiers who object to the “war on terror" on
conscientious grounds to stay in Canada. However, the Conservative
government is ignoring the will of the majority and allowing these
deserters to be deported to face punishment in the U.S. [. . .] 5)
Join us for this year's Hiroshima Day commemoration at the Peace Park
across from ArtSpring, beginning at 5 p.m. on Aug. 6. This is a
family-friendly event; all are welcome. June 3rd, the House of Commons voted on a measure to provide safe harbor
to US war resisters in Canada. The decision to extradite Robin Long and
the continued efforts to deport other US war resisters (whose
'deportations' might also turn out to be extraditions) ignores that
vote as the NDP has pointed out repeatedly. In an attempt to make it
clear just how much support the measure has, the War Resisters Support Campaign has posted video of the vote.
Radical
Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr on Wednesday offered full support for
Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's government if it refuses to sign an
agreement President Bush has sought to allow semi-permanent stationing
of U.S. troops in Iraq. Sadr warned at the same time that he would
oppose any agreement between Iraq and the United States. Sadr's
followers have abandoned active resistance in recent months, as
Maliki's government has asserted its authority in military offensives
around the country. Sadr's statement, posted Wednesday on his Web site,
said that elements of his insurgency had erred in targeting fellow
Iraqis and called for a centralized resistance directed only against
U.S. occupiers. Declaring that resistance to an occupier "is a
legitimate right by human reason and in Islamic and human law," he
called on Shiite clerics to "issue their fatwas against signing any
agreement between the government and the occupier, even if it is for
friendship or any other purpose."
McClatchy Newspaper's Leila Fadel has a blog post entitled "A Deadly Fate" (Baghdad Observer) that is must read.
Cedric's "Gutter Trash you can smell" and Wally's "THIS JUST IN! THE LEADER TRIES TO CONTROL THE CULT!"
(joint-post) covers the latest gutter trash from the Cult of St.
Barack. There was no reason to get in bed with Ludacris but Barack
chose to. Now he wants to play like Ludacris doesn't speak for the
campaign? After praising the sexist repeatedly? To bring you up to
date, Ludacris rapped a campaign song. It's insulting to Rev. Jesse
Jackson. It may be seen as wishing violence on John McCain. It uses
"bitch" to describe Hillary -- insulting her and all women. But that
term (which the New York Times plays cute and won't name today) is a 'hallmark' of Ludacris' 'art.' And has been for years.
So
the Barack campaign -- realizing that they have huge problems (a) with
women voters and (b) with Hillary supporters -- rushes out a campaign
statement trying to distance themselves from the 'song.' It's not a
statement from Barack. And the campaign thinks that's enough. They
think they can get away with this gutter trash -- more gutter trash
from the campaign that offers nothing but. Barack's not calling it out
but everyone's supposed to look the other way? Again?
ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports
that at a Chicago fundraiser last night, comedian Bernie Mac said his
"little nephew came to me and he said, 'Uncle, what's the difference
between a hypothetical question and a realistic question?' "I said, ‘I
don't know,’ but I said, 'I'll tell you what you do. Go upstairs and
ask your mother if she'd make love to the mailman for $50,000.’"
Mac's wife, in the joke, said she sleep "with anyone" for $50,000, and Mac's daughter said the same.
Explained Mac: "Hypothetically speaking, we should have $100,000. But realistically speaking we live with two hos."
Obama
addressed the issue in his remarks, saying, "We can't afford to be
divided by race. We can't afford to be divided by religion, or by
region or class. Or by gender. That means, by the way, Bernie, you got
to clean up your act. This is a family affair. ... I'm just messing
with you."
'Leadership'
better grasp real damn quick how out of touch they now are with the
grassroots. 'Leadership' does not lead feminists around by the nose to
a polling booth. 'Leadership' is supposed to speak out. Learn to do it
or accept how useless you are now being seen.
After what Tapper
reported, there should have been outrage. Both that it took place at an
official campaign event -- with the candidate present! -- and that the
candidate made a 'joke' out of the offense. Now Barack thinks he can
yet again get away without addressing the latest sexism? It's not that
easy. (Pay attention Kim and Eleanor, it's not that easy as "Feminist History: Learn it or repeat" documents.)
On a related front, the New York Times works
themselves into a lather with Jim Rutenberg (who once went to town on
Whoopi Golberg and other 'Bush haters') whining from the front page
about John McCain's efforts to portray Barack as a celebrity. Well,
golly, when your buddy Ludacris is utilizing his offensive mouth to
'drive up support' (bully) for you, most may feel McCain's point was
made.
I said this was related, it is. Those visiting Barack's
website this morning will find "Obama Campaign Releases Response to
Misleading McCain Ad: 'Low Road'." They will find nothing (because
there is nothing) on Barack's campaign calling out Ludacris.
He
again wants to have it both ways. He wants to run his sexist campaign
and have his staff offer statements to the press. This crap, this UGLY
SEXISM, has been coming from the campaign and from Barack. He wants it
to stop, he needs to address it. But you'll notice HE NEVER DOES AT HIS
OWN WEBSITE. Not today, not ever.
Without sexism, he wouldn't be the presumed nominee. He knows it, everyone knows it. Let's all stop kidding otherwise.
Ava and I covered
the travelogue and Barack's alarming statements (alarming to those who
played fool or were fools) re: Iraq, Syria, Israel and more. We will
come back to that later in the week but for now check out Katie Couric's interview with Barack (CBS Evening News -- links has video and transcript). Now we're turning to Peggy Simpson's report (WMC) on
the NOW convention (July 18-20) which took place in Bethesda and
featured Marie Cocco, Patricia Ireland, Carol Jenkins, Carolyn Maloney,
Irshad Manji, Monica Aleman and others. Simpson reports NOW president
Kim Gandy announced to one and all that "sister" (I'm being sarcastic)
Barack sends greetings. From prison, Kim? Do we need to mount a Free
Barack action? He sends his greetings? That lousy pig who used sexism
non-stop sends his greetings? Let's drop back to June, to Katharine Q. Seelye and Julie Bosman (New York Times) reporting on the media finally maybe noticing the sexism targeted at Hillary:
In
response, the Obama campaign directed a reporter to Representative
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat of Florida who supported [Ms.]
Clinton but who is now speaking for the Obama campaign. She said Mr.
Obama had no specific plans for a speech on sexism, partly because he
already incorporated themes of discrimination as a societal problem in
his speeches.
No
specific plans -- now or ever. He could travel all over the globe but
he couldn't show up for the NOW convention? No feminist wants to hear
his garbage. Which is obvious from Simpson's report.
She notes that Gandy's message from Sister Barack resulted in "a minor
ripple of applause." Simpson focuses on one organizer who spoke to the
conference, Jehmu "Green spoke last weekend at the national NOW
convention, one that was subdued rather than boisterous, in the wake of
Hillary Clinton's primary defeat by Barack Obama. Some NOW delegates
wore Hillary tee-shirts. There was minimal talk of Obama and loud
cheers whenever someone mentioned Clinton." She quotes Green
explaining, "We increased [women's] turnout by 200 percent in the
[Democratic] primaries -- gosh, we came really close to nominating
Hillary. . . I also was disheartened when I saw young women vilify
Senator Clinton and vilify being a feminist."
It is not acceptable. Nor is sending Michelle Obama out to toss out sop (Marcia called that crap out in "No sale, Michelle"
Tuesday). Shame on any 'womens' organization or outlet that doesn't
call this continued sexism out. Shame on any outlet (geared to women
primarily or not). A lot of 'leaders' are yet again (as in 1976)
setting their own asses up and betraying ALL WOMEN. It needs to stop.
But it won't as long as we all stay silent or play stupid -- and sadly
'leaders' have done their share and then some of both. It's time to
stop it.
Radio: Naomi Klein will be on KPFA's The Morning Show this morning (starts at 10:00 a.m. EST, 9:00 a.m. Central, 7:00 a.m. PST).
RALPH NADER AND ROCKY ANDERSON WILL ADDRESS CAMPAIGN RALLY IN SALT LAKE CITY THURSDAY EVENING
Who: Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader with former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson What: Nader/Gonzalez Campaign Rally When: Thursday July 31, 7:30 p.m. Where: Libby Gardner Concert Hall, 1375 E President Circle, Salt Lake City, UT 84112
Dana
suggests we provide the original Nader announcement on the dinner
contest with the announcement from yesterday that provides more
bonuses. First, the original:
Win Dinner with Ralph Nader
Posted by Sally Soriano on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 12:42:00 PM
You can win the grand prize -- a dinner with our main man -- Ralph Nader (at a mutually agreed time and place.)
How?
We're looking to build our e-mail list, to expand our grassroots
support, and to spread the bedrock Nader/Gonzalez campaign message --
shift the power from the corporate controlled political parties back
into the hands of the people.
So, we're having a contest.
The person who brings in the most e-mail sign-ups by August 7 at midnight to votenader.org wins.
Open to legal U.S. residents, 18 years or older at time of entry.
You invite your friends, family, neighbors and anyone else to sign up for Nader/Gonzalez updates.
The person who brings us the most e-mails wins the grand prize -- dinner with Ralph Nader.
We've just finished another hectic day here in the D.C. office and I wanted to dash off a quick udpate about the "Dinner with Ralph" e-mail contest.
The whole team (including Ralph, who came up with the idea!) is blown
away to see so many people sign-up as contestants, and even more as
participants and supporters.
Over the last five days, over 200 of our supporters have reached out to
more than 10,000 of their friends -- clearly there's nothing like a
little of the good ol' competitive spirit!
So -- quickly -- I want to remind you that it's not to late to
participate in the contest. The contest doesn't end until August 7th,
so there's lots of time left to win dinner with Ralph, or Matt, or to
win one of the many other prizes that are available.
And, we've just added two new prizes:
For anyone who enters and recruits at least five friends:
take part in an invitation-only conference call with Ralph and Matt.
That's right -- just recruit five friends to join our movement and
you're in on the conference call, and a chance to ask your questions to
Matt or Ralph.
And, if you recruit 20 friends
to join our "people fighting back" campaign: your choice of a t-shirt
from our Web store (and we have lots of new designs on the way). People
who reach 25 friends will get a t-shirt and a copy of the Declaration
of Independence.
Reach out to friends. Win prizes. It's really that easy. And we make it even easier by providing a way for you to invite up to 30 friends at a time from your address book -- you can go back and invite more friends as often as you'd like.
The people who are currently in the lead -- Ramy Mousa of Baton Rouge, LA; Anna Chambers of Fort Payne, AL; Scott Keddy of Cambridge, MA -- all got there in just five days.
Not only is there enough time to catch up, but with over 10 days left
in the contest, there's time to be queen (of king) of the hill. (The contest leader board is one of the most popular pages on our site right now!)
We really need more people to get in on the competition. Why? Because
this is our chance to reach out beyond "the choir" and to speak to the
people you know who may not even be aware of the Nader/Gonzalez
campaign. They may not realize that Nader/Gonzalez is ready to stand up
for the issues that matter in this election; issues like single payer
health care, reversal of U.S. policy in the Middle East, and military
withdrawal from Iraq. These are issues that need to be on the table
this year.
Lastly, earlier this month John Murphy's "Something's Rotten in the State of Pennsylvania" (Dissident Voice)
contributed a HUGE amount to the discussion of BonusGate (and would
have done so even if the scandal was widely covered). He is running for
office and Martha asked that we note this:
JOHN MURPHY FILES 5,000 SIGNATURES INDEPENDENT CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE SECURES POSITION ON NOVEMBER BALLOT EGREGIOUS BALLOT ACCESS LAWS IN PENNSYLVANIA MUST BE ABOLISHED For Immediate Release: July 28, 2008 For Further Information: John Murphy (610) 384-4460
HARRISBURG,
PA -- John Murphy the independent Congressional Candidate in the 16th
district filed close to 5,000 signatures with the Department of the
Commonwealth on Friday morning. Pennsylvania's egregious ballot access
laws required Murphy to submit 2,300 signatures but, as the press has
been reporting under the topic of "Bonus Gate", independent and
third-party candidates have to collect at least twice as many
signatures as required by law because the Democrat Party will even use
state employees, on taxpayer time, to ensure that independent and
third-party candidates never make it onto the ballot unchallenged or at
all.
"While the Democrat and Republican candidates were able to
spend the last four months campaigning and raising funds, our resources
were completely absorbed in securing my position on the ballot"
explained John Murphy. "It's bad enough that we have the most
anti-democratic state in the union, singled out even by the Helsinki
Accords Group, but the Democrat Party has taken these already draconian
ballot access laws and exacerbated the situation by making use of the
minutia embedded in those laws. It's one thing to remove the signature
of a person who is clearly not a citizen of Pennsylvania, it is quite
another to remove a signature because ‘Lucinda’ signed her name as
‘Cindy’ or somebody printed their name in the column where you're
supposed to sign your name. That’s how the Democrats removed the
independent Presidential candidate Ralph Nader in 2004 and the Green
Party’s Senatorial candidate Carl Romanelli in 2006."
John
Murphy further explained that there may be some good news on the
horizon for the citizens of Pennsylvania. "There are two ways you can
defeat democracy" said John Murphy. "One way is by preventing people
from voting, the other is by preventing worthy candidates from ever
appearing on the ballot. In Pennsylvania the Democrat Party has chosen
the latter method. Fortunately State Senator Mike Folmer has introduced
legislation into the Pennsylvania Senate entitled the ‘Voters’ Choice
Act’ which would redefine minor party's requirements by lowering the
threshold to .05% of the registered voters and then allowing the minor
parties to nominate their candidates by convention and, like the
candidates of the two older parties, have no signature collection
requirements for the General Election.
"Independent candidates
like me would simply have to collect the same number of signatures that
candidates from the two older parties have to collect for their Primary
Election ballot. I hope everyone urges their state senators and
representatives to support this important piece of legislation by
Senator Folmer. If we can accomplish this in Pennsylvania we will be at
last in compliance with the Pennsylvania Constitution which mandates
'free and equal' elections and on our way to fighting for Instant
Runoff Voting", concluded John Murphy.
jan slakov
mohammed al dulaimy
mcclatchy newspapers
nicholas spangler
leila fadel
naomi klein
kpfa
the daily jot
cedrics big mix
jake tapper
katharine q. seelye
the new york times
julie bosman
sickofitradlz
john murphy
