December - january book: Fahrenheit 451

for our next book we decided on 'peoria reads' selection - Fahrenheit 451, so that we can get involved with more people in the community. the thought behind this decision is to open channels of communication with new people with the ultimate goal of bringing about the great turning that david korten talks about in his book and video.

also some of us (especially harry and bob) have been learning and practicing renewable/sustainable living - have started community gardens - would like to share our experience and knowledge with others and learn from others.

if you're interested but haven't had a chance to read the book or watch the video u can borrow either or both from the global vollage. i have already put two copies of the dvd provided by Harry Elger and i'll make sure there is at least one copy of the book provided by Paul Appel. u may also want to visit thegreatturning.net/

also in circulation are copies of 3 most recent issues of the yes magazine published by Korten's wife that Paul broght to our last meeting.

Peoria Reads' schedule of events for Fahrenheit 451 can be found here peoriareads.org. club read another book club is also reading the same book and will meet in Lakeview library on Wednesday, january 23, 2008 at 6:30 pm.

speaking of books, i asked the library if they have Anna Baltzer's Witness in Palestine, none of the area libraries had a copy. so when the librarian asked me if i'd like to request the library to buy this book, i jumped and requested. i don't know if they'll really buy it or not but the chances will greatly improve if some other people asked for the book and put in a request if it is not available. if u r not in the area u could still ask and request for anna's or any other book.
anna's website: annainthemiddleeast.com/

Happy reading

razia

we are the ones we have been waiting for - David Korten

for our next book we decided on 'peoria reads' selection - Fahrenheit 451, so that we can get involved with more people in the community. the thought behind this decision is to open channels of communication with new people with the ultimate goal of bringing about the great turning that david korten talks about in his book and video.

also some of us (especially harry and bob) have been learning and practicing renewable/sustainable living - have started community gardens - would like to share our experience and knowledge with others and learn from others.

if you're interested but haven't had a chance to read the book or watch the video u can borrow either or both from the global vollage. i have already put two copies of the dvd provided by Harry Elger and i'll make sure there is at least one copy of the book provided by Paul Appel. u may also want to visit thegreatturning.net/

also in circulation are copies of 3 most recent issues of the yes magazine published by Korten's wife that Paul broght to our last meeting.

Peoria Reads' schedule of events for Fahrenheit 451 can be found here peoriareads.org. club read another book club is also reading the same book and will meet in Lakeview library on Wednesday, january 23, 2008 at 6:30 pm.

speaking of books, i asked the library if they have Anna Baltzer's Witness in Palestine, none of the area libraries had a copy. so when the librarian asked me if i'd like to request the library to buy this book, i jumped and requested. i don't know if they'll really buy it or not but the chances will greatly improve if some other people asked for the book and put in a request if it is not available. if u r not in the area u could still ask and request for anna's or any other book.
anna's website: annainthemiddleeast.com/

Happy reading

razia

we are the ones we have been waiting for - David Korten

Hajj

continued on youtube

I am Free

I AM A MUSLIM!

photo of the week

Precocious progressive Zahir Sabbah. Photo by his dad Faris, a doctoral student in Education at Berkeley.
http://www.thenation.com/

A different view from a Jewish woman

Michael Miller
RELIGION BEAT
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Anna Baltzer's words spill out with the nervous passion of someone who wants to save the world if only someone would listen.
The 28-year-old Jewish American woman, though, is focused on a small patch of the world known as Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. She'll give her view of the Israeli-Palestinian situation at a talk at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Horowitz Auditorium in Bradley University's Caterpillar Global Communications Center.
It won't be a view that you're used to hearing from someone who's Jewish, though.
Baltzer has visited Israel and the occupied territories several times since late 2003, when, she said, she went to work for International Women's Peace Service documenting human rights abuses in the West Bank. She ended up on that path after talking with Palestinian families while backpacking in Iran and Syria.
"I didn't believe what they were saying," she said. "It made me curious enough to go around and do some research."
Her view now is that the Israeli government is oppressing the Palestinian people thanks to what she said is a Zionist vision of a Jewish-only state and a desire to control resources and wield power.
She calls for Americans - especially Jewish Americans - to do their own research on the Middle East on how Israelis are treating Palestinians beyond what's reported in the mainstream U.S. media. She also calls for divestment of stock in companies that do business with Israel - one of which is Caterpillar Inc., after which the BU building in which she'll be speaking is named.
The oppression, the author of "Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories" said, is in the form of such policies as forcing Palestinians to use older roads, limiting Arab Israelis' ability to buy property, setting up checkpoints that can turn a 15-minute trip to a hospital into a day-long wait, and building a wall that separates Palestinian towns and villages from each other.
Israeli deputy consul general Andy David in Chicago, though, said that while more than 90 percent of land in the country is owned by the government and the Jewish National Fund, it is available for leasing to any Israeli citizen, whether Arab or Jew. He said Arabs also enjoy full rights of participation in Israeli government.
The Myths & Facts Online Web site says Israel is trying to balance security concerns with humanitarian needs in the territories, and has gone out of its way at times to assure medical care for some Palestinians.
The worst thing about the situation from the American point of view, Baltzer said, is that U.S. tax dollars sent to Israel are in large part making alleged mistreatment of Palestinians possible.
"We're basically paying for a lot of what (Israel) is doing," Baltzer said.
She encounters, of course, resistance from the U.S. Jewish community.
"I try to remind them that it's really important to distinguish what it means to be Jewish, what it means to be Israeli and what it means to be Zionist," she said.
Pointing out that her grandparents were Holocaust victims, Baltzer said that "For me as a Jewish person, as someone whose family has suffered, we need to be speaking out against human rights violations perpetrated on the basis of religion or ethnicity."
She claimed that the majority of Jewish Israelis "tend to be very critical of what the Israeli government is doing."
"It's really the Jewish-American population that tends to be sort of unconditionally supportive of Israel," Baltzer said. "I do feel as a Jewish person it's important to speak out against atrocities being done in my name and as an American."
And that business about Palestinian groups like Hamas calling for the destruction of Israel? What they're really talking about is destroying Israel as a state only for Jewish people, Baltzer said.
"If you ask a Palestinian person, 'Do you recognize the right for there to be a state on your historic homeland that explicitly excludes you and your children?', and Palestinians say no, to me that's not antisemitism. They're talking about a particular political ideology."
Baltzer said she doesn't condone violent attacks against Israelis.
"Israelis have been under attack, but the solution is not oppressing people. That's not going to bring resolution to anybody."
She also said that rhetoric isn't the solution and not something everyday Palestinians spend much time on.
"They, like everyday Israelis and Americans, are just trying to live a normal life with their families and communities in peace," she said. "If anything, focusing on the rhetoric is distracting from the real issue at hand, which is at present very urgent human rights issues on the ground."
MICHAEL MILLER covers religion for the Journal Star. Write to him in care of the Journal Star, 1 News Plaza, Peoria, IL 61643, call him at 686-3106, or send e-mail to mmiller@pjstar.com. Comments may be published.
pjstar

THIS IS AMERICA: Mike Gravel 10/5/07

Anna in the Middle East: An Eye Witness Testimony

Anna Baltzer, a 28-year-old Jewish American Columbia graduate, Fulbright scholar, and recent author of the book, Witness in Palestine: Journal of a Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories, will be in town on Nov. 27 & 28 presenting on her experiences documenting human rights abuses in the West Bank and supporting nonviolent resistance as a volunteer with the International Women’s Peace Service. Would you be interested in interviewing Baltzer or doing a PSA for her events?
For more info about Baltzer and her schedule, visit www.AnnaInTheMiddleEast.com


When: Tuesday, November 27th 7:00-9:00 pm
Where: Global Communications Center, David Horowitz Auditorium (room 126), Bradley University

Sponsors:
Amnesty International: Bradley Chapter
International Affairs Organization
Muslim Students Association of Bradley University
Network of Spiritual Progressives Peoria Chapter
Peoria Peace Network

For more information call Jack Ryan: 309-636-9616

Or write to: jackstillhere@gmail.com
raziaha@gmail.com

Impeachment is on the table

Dennis Kucinich makes the case
Nothing is more important to the future of the United States than the impeachment of Vice President "Dick" Cheney.

Dennis Kucinich is a hero and the US news media, characteristically is ignoring this news.

Spread the word: impeachment is on the table.

See the complete catalog of
free Brasscheck TV videos

Adil Najam’s Pakistan

Adil Najam’s Pakistan - The Video

Musharraf defends emergency rule - 03 Nov 07

HAZARDOUS RIDE

PESHAWAR - Oct 31: Students going home from school on Wednesday, perched dangerously on this van.—PPI

Record price for 13th-century Quran

AP Photo: This is an undated photo released by Christie's auctioneers of a 13th century Quran..
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071024/ap_on_re_eu/quran_sale

Record price for 13th-century Quran:

This is an undated photo released by Christie's auctioneers of a 13th century Quran which has sold for a world record at the London auction house Tuesday Oct. 23, 2007. The religious artefact went under the hammer for 1,140,500 pounds ($US 2,321,770) - the highest amount paid for an Islamic holy book. Written in 1203, the tome is the earliest-known complete, dated Quran, transcribed in gold and was part of a sale of art from the Islamic and Indian World. (AP Photo / Christie's,ho)

AP Photo: This is an undated photo released by Christie's auctioneers of a 13th century Quran... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071024/ap_on_re_eu/quran_sale



LONDON - A Quran written in 1203, believed to be the oldest known complete copy, has sold for more than $2.3 million at an auction.

Both were offered for sale by the Hispanic Society of America, and were purchased by trade buyers in London, Christie's said.

The record-setting Quran was signed by Yahya bin Muhammad ibn 'Umar, dated 17 Ramadan 599 (June 1203).

It was acquired in Cairo in 1905 by Archer Milton Huntington, who founded the Hispanic Society in New York City in 1904. Huntington, the adopted son of railroad and ship-building magnate Collis P. Huntington, died in 1955.

The calligraphy in the manuscript was done in gold outlined in thin black lines, and the marginal notes are in silver outlined in red.

The kufic Quran bridges a gap between the earlier style, copied on parchment of horizontal format, and the later style of vertical composition, often on paper, Christie's catalog said.

The kufic script takes its name from Kufah in Iraq, an early center of Islamic scholarship, according to the British Library.

Because the script's vertical strokes were very short but the horizontal strokes elongated, it was written on papers in a landscape format.

Forbidden Topics

As long as you don't question 9/11
you can question anything

Know-nothing media gatekeepers
Bill Maher - and many others - need to get off their high horses and address the most important question of our time.

We know that 3,000+ innocent people were murdered on 9-11-01 and we know that those murders were used to justify the invasion of two sovereign countries and the shredding of the US Constitution.

Yet we still don't have ANY level of meaningful detail about the who, what, when, where, why and how of 9/11 - thanks to know-nothing media gatekeepers like Bill Maher.

Rosie O'Donnell raised the issue and was removed from daytime TV. She was the lone voice on the subject .




See the complete catalog of
free Brasscheck TV videos

Women prisoners languish in jail without trial

Kareem Zair, Azzaman
wsecret_1111.jpg
October 8, 2007

A visit to a women prison in a Baghdad neighborhood has revealed that Iraqi authorities are paying lip service to human rights and rule of law.

The visit by Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi found the jail over crowded with many women afflicted with contagious diseases due to lack of medicine and medical care.

"The tour has exposed a difficult and tragic situation in the whole process, starting with detention and ending with the horrific conditions of the prison," a statement by Hashemi’s office said.

The prison is in the neighborhood of Kadhimiya and is believed to hold mainly Sunni Muslim women.

Many of the prisoners, the statement said, were detained because their husbands or sons were suspected of having links to forces resisting U.S. occupation.

"This means if anything that the women are taken hostages to exert pressure on their husbands who are wanted by the authorities, " the statement said.

There were teenage women among the prisoners some of whom had spent several years behind bars, the statement added.

One women prisoner, Suaad Aziz, had told Hashemi that she was arrested while looking for her son who had disappeared for more than one year.

"I was a principal of a school in the Amiriya district of Baghdad. They have sentenced me to death and no one has ever asked me a single question why I was here," the statement reported Aziz as saying.

Thousands of Iraqis languish in scores of prisons in Iraq. U.S. troops have their own jails which they have constructed specifically to detain suspects. Iraqi authorities run their own prisons.

There are more than 30,000 Iraqis in jails run by the U.S. and Iraqi government and most of them have been incarcerated merely on suspicion and held without trial.

information liberation

thepeoplesvoice.org

School with no buildings gives hope

School with no buildings gives hope
By Umber Khairi
BBC News, Rawalpindi

Pupils at Rah-e-Amal school
The school has gone from strength to strength
Tucked away in a quiet corner in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi is a school that is creating an astonishing change in the lives of the city's street children.
Rah-e-Amal in the city's Westridge neighbourhood is a school which has now been running for almost 10 years. It has no building, but every morning the children set up their classes by laying out mats and blackboards in the garage, veranda and plot of land adjoining Zehra Fasahat's house. After lessons are over, they put away everything and clear up with impressive zeal.
The children's pride in their school is self-evident, and they glow with confidence and happiness when they talk about what it has taught them.
Harsh lives
"Our school teaches us to be kind and considerate to others," says Qasim.
Another student, Hashim, says one of the most important lessons they are taught is that of self-control.
The students are models of courtesy and consideration - a tremendous feat considering their economic circumstances and harsh lives.
Most are from families struggling for survival on a day-to-day basis with parents who are domestic servants working for a daily wage or beggars.
Poor children in Pakistan
Poverty is widespread across Pakistan
Their children find the school has helped them to overcome the misery of poverty.
"Now I know what is right and wrong so now I have confidence in myself," says one student.
The school's founder is Zehra Fasahat. She says the children amaze her with their ability to cope with such austere lives.
"Some years ago one boy came to me and asked me for permission to go and see his father.
"The father was on death row, in a murder case and he had to go for a last meeting before he was to be hanged. He was young boy, but that was the reality of his life, and he was so calm about it.
"This boy is one of our very best students".
The school developed largely because of the commitment of the students.
Street wise children
"I saw these street children going through a rubbish heap and foraging for food. They were taking out what was left of corn cobs and biting off the bits of corn left on the very edges," said Ms Fasahat.
"I thought here are these children, in our neighbourhood, in our midst, so hungry and so desperate and it was our responsibility to try to do something for them".
She called the children over and asked if they would like to study.
She recalls that the street wise children's response was of immediate suspicion.
"They asked: 'Why? Do you want our vote? Or do you plan to sell us?' I said I didn't want anything. They went away but a few days later some of them turned up at my house and said 'can you teach us please?'"
In that way the class began meeting regularly.
"Then we moved house, and I thought they would stop coming," said Ms Fasahat.
Pupils at Rah-e-Amal school
Pupils denied of opportunities are given a chance in life
"But they insisted on getting our new address and turning up there every day for lessons."
The children's commitment consolidated the school, and it now runs every morning, five days a week, every month of the year.
There are now 200 students, with those in Class 10 preparing for matriculation exams.
'Best behaved children'
It has not been an easy ride.
"We just carry on, and somehow everything seems to get done and funded. Somebody turns up and says we want to make a donation, and they pay for the children's' milk or get them new shoes or clothes," said Ms Fasahat.
"Somehow God seems to send us what we need just when we need it. We just try to carry on, without being too disheartened."

We are never beaten here, nobody hits us
Pupil at Rah-e-Amal school
The difference in the children's behaviour has been noticed by everyone in the local community.
"The local bookseller told me we could buy books from him at cost price," said Ms Fasahat, "and when I asked him why, he spoke of the change in the students. Before they would cause trouble in the streets, but now they are the best behaved children who come into his shop."
Similarly, local milliners offered to supply cloth for uniforms and outfits for the Muslim Eid ceremony at cost price, because the children were "a good example to everybody in the area".
The children are now provided with uniforms embroidered with the school's badge, providing the students with a sense of identity and belonging.
The classes are co-educational.
"We want the boys to learn to respect girls, and for girls to have the confidence of being able to work with the boys as peers," says Ms Fasahat.
The students are from backgrounds where women are often victims of physical and emotional abuse, facing severe financial difficulties.
In the past, their poverty often made the children targets of violence and abuse, but their education is now helping them to escape this vicious cycle and many now aspire to become doctors, engineers or teachers.
Pupils at Rah-e-Amal school
The school has made an astonishing difference for deprived pupils
"We are never beaten here, nobody hits us, and we are taught with love," says one pupil.
"Even when we are told off it is with love. That is how we have learnt, now we know we must respect our elders and be polite and considerate, try to help others and try to be truthful."

But not everyone thinks education is a good thing.
One child who used to beg in the streets refused to carry on begging saying he would rather wash cars or do some other "honest work".
But begging earned his family about 10 times more than the "honest work".
His mother refused to let him come back to the school, and complained bitterly to Zehra Fasahat that her establishment had "ruined" her son.
BBC

Pakistani scientist in Nobel team

Pakistani scientist in Nobel team

By Our Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Oct 13: Pakistani professor Adil Najam, now teaching at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, US, is amongst the team of scientists and experts in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice President Al Gore. Indian Dr Rajendra Pachauri chairs IPCC, is another South Asian to share the prize.

The 2007 Peace Prize, announced in Stockholm, Sweden, on Friday includes a gold medal and $1.5 million, is to be shared between Al Gore and the IPCC for enhancing the understanding of the science of climate change. The IPCC is a panel of the world’s most eminent and leading scientists working on global warming and it produces its scientific assessment every 4-5 years.

These assessments, especially the most recent one, have been influential in moving global climate policy, including changes in US and other country positions on the subject.

Prof Adil Najam has served as an expert on this prestigious panel for eight years, and as a Convening Lead Author for its most recent report. Along with other scientists on the panel he helped shape the findings of the IPCC, especially on issues related sustainable development and other developing country interests.

Dr Adil Najam holds a doctorate and two Masters degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a specialisation in negotiation from Harvard Law School, and an engineering degree from UET, Lahore.

He has taught at MIT, Boston University, University of Massachusetts and currently at Tufts University. He is author of more than a dozen books.

Dawn

What is your passion???

Preparation for Martial Law

Katrina was a trial run

Peaceful coexistence in Quetta, Pakistan

only if humans could learn to do that
tonreklens

CW Premier Tonight: TV Muslim Comedy “Aliens in America” with a Pakistani Central Character

Waging Peace

An Open Letter to President Musharraf- Pakistan or Musharraf First?

http://www.otherpakistan.org/today2.html

This is an open letter to the beleaguered President of Pakistan and is not addressed to the chief of the great Pakistan army. In making this deliberate distinction I hope to remind myself and the President I hope of his dual role and in particular his superior role in representing the federation of Pakistan as our revered President. This role that you hold Mr. President is unique for it should be one that brings all of Pakistan together not one that should divide it. As such this letter seeks to address the esteemed office of the President.

Mr. President I was once an ardent supporter of the great and valiant General Musharraf. I have no shame or sadness in admitting to this fact however unpopular this truth may be today. My support for you was as a result of your actions in fighting corruption, reviving the economy and above all in your stellar leadership of Pakistan after 9/11. I supported the Pervez Musharraf who said ‘I will defend the honor of my nation till my last breath. Honor and dignity in principle should never be compromised – your words not mine. I supported the Pervez Musharraf who said ‘I believe power is the authority to govern or take decisions. Power needs to be used for the good of the people at all times and should never be abused because Allah watches over the management or mismanagement of power and rewards or punishes on the Day of Judgment accordingly– your words not mine’.

I supported the Pervez Musharraf who said that ‘Quaid's instructions to us were that a nation can never make progress unless it marches in one formation. I believe we need to remember these instructions at all trying times and implement them with conviction’– your words not mine. I supported the Pervez Musharraf who said ‘I agree with Iqbal when he says that history acquaints you with action and makes you a proper person for quest. We cannot undermine that the quest for making history drives us to many daring feats. What we need to control is that in the process we don't lose sight of what is right and what is wrong for Pakistan. When I think of making history I only think "Pakistan First"– your words not mine.

However actions speak louder than words Mr. President. For your supporters including me that Pervez Musharraf was an inspiration to all for he lived and died by his ideology of serving Pakistan first. You sir, the current Pervez Musharraf serve as a poor double and have sold out to an ideology of ‘Musharraf First’ in your naked lust for power. The fact that you are now adamant on getting re-elected from a dying parliament signifies your desperation in clinging to power. Is it right that for the sake of your glory alone Pakistan should elect a zombie president from a zombie parliament, is this not a one-way ticket to hell on earth in Pakistan and what kind of precedent does it set? When will you wake up from this deep sleep and smell the coffee namely that a president re-elected from a dying parliament can and will only produce a dead man walking of a president and a zombie of the ugliest kind. Such a blatant disregard for integrity and fair play from the office of the president is unbefitting of its stature and thus Mr. President you must reconsider and reconsider now by putting Pakistan first once again.

At a personal level I do not recognise the current Pervez Musharraf as the real deal. This poor double is not the same Pervez Musharraf who is decorated as a famed soldier and the recipient of the Nishan-e-Imtiaz amongst other awards. What would your slain friend Bilal whose sacrifice led to you bestowing his name on your beloved son say of this Pervez Musharraf and his lust for renewed power? Has that Pervez Musharraf died or does he still reside in that man albeit in small doses and if so how can you square your friend Bilal’s sacrifice to the nation with your actions in sacrificing the nation for your own personal gain.

Mr President I took the trouble to read you now infamous ‘In the Line of Fire’ not once but twice. I found the book to be an insight into your glorious military career, indeed your courage and dedication to serve Pakistan above all else came across in every page. No-one even your worst critic can doubt that as a solder you have served this land of the pure with distinction and valour. Yet that Pervez Musharraf is missing feared disappeared, he is another missing person perhaps the ISI picked him up too or maybe the extremists have got him to quote your own words! Maybe your old friend the Chief Justice should take suo moto notice of this crime so that we can get the real Pervez Musharraf back.

Concluding I agree with you that Pakistan faces numerous challenges, for which we require of our President only those actions that repair our broken and divided society, for above all the Presidency must be the source of reconciliation and national unity and not the instigator of further chaos and destruction. So I hope against hope that you will pull back and realise that you have long abandoned your ‘Pakistan First’ ideology and replaced it with a ‘Musharraf first’ ideology. So I make this heartfelt plea to you, please realise that a zombie president from a parliament of zombies will do nothing for Pakistan, forget re-election and retire from public office with grace by taking the army back to the barracks with its head held high. If you do so then you legacy will be written in golden stars and all of Pakistan will sing in your praise so please for the sake of Pakistan President Musharrraf saab please announce you retirement from public office today and let Pakistan be.

This open letter has been sent directly to the President of Pakistan website and will be posted on other forums including my own website at www.otherpakistan.org. I expect no good to come from it, however I must have hope that the President will consider its contents and subsequently reconsider his future actions and should he do so he will have put Pakistan first and not Musharraf first, if he does he will have saved Pakistan from unnecessary turmoil and impending doom.

Wasim Arif - 22nd September 2007, 00.37 PK Time

I absolutely, truly can win this election!

From: OFFICIAL GRAVEL 2008 CAMPAIGN
Date: Sep 19, 2007 1:06 PM
My Plan A, $200,000 for our Campaign and a new video

I absolutely, truly can win this election!

You have probably heard the question before: How can I compete
against candidates who have raised tens of millions of dollars? You
see Hillary leading the polls by double-digits and wonder whether
someone can win the presidency while telling the truth and battling
politics as usual. My answer is Yes, I Can Win. Let me show you how.

MY "PLAN A"
----------------------------------------

To answer Plan A, let me first show you something...

Take a look at this blind poll http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_justresults.php sponsored by http://www.vajoe.com/, a web site for military service people and veterans.

Rather than asking you to name a favorite candidate, this poll asks
for your feelings on all the major issues. Then it reveals which
candidate most closely matches your beliefs. I won the poll by a
significant margin! Since the military is a cross section of
America, I believe this poll shows that a plurality of voters
shares my views and is looking for an alternative to the top-tier
candidates. Good job vajoe.com!

This, and other information I have access to, tells me I must
continue to present my ideas and soon voters will see that I am the
best candidate to represent their positions in November.

Now, as promised, the how. My friend, our campaign is at a crucial
juncture. I've launched an aggressive push for New Hampshire. As
many of you know, New Hampshire has an open primary so independents
can vote. My plan is to appeal to smart Democrats who are disgusted
by their party's failure to stop the war and independents who don't
trust the top-tier Democratic candidates. (Remember Eugene McCarthy
vs. Lyndon Johnson in 1968.) A strong showing in New Hampshire will
wake up the media and generate massive press coverage that will
inspire voters in the 20 states voting in primaries and caucuses on
February 5. Once voters see that I can win, they will join our
cause and push us to victory next spring.

Before New Hampshire, I need your vision and your energy! None of
this can happen without your support. We have opened a new office
in New Hampshire and we need funds for staff and travel. Your
dollars will go far in the Granite State and may even turn the tide
of history. That's not hyperbole -- it's real and 100% possible.

Please go to our new web site (which your donations made possible)
and make a contribution to our Granite State Push.
https://www.gravel2008.us/donate.php. As I always say, change can
only come from one source -- and that's you, the people.

What's my Plan B you ask? This is not the right time...


"$200,000 Big Ones for our Campaign"
----------------------------------------
We are just 7 states from qualifying for our matching funds from
the Federal Government to the tune of about $200,000.

To a clean campaign like mine, free of any lobbyist or special
interest money, that $200,000 is everything. We don't need Obama or
Clinton money because we don't have the huge staffs they do and
overhead. I run a smart, lean, creative campaign. I can make
$200,000 go a long way, believe me.

This matching funds program was created by Congress several decades
ago specifically to reduce the corrupting influence of large
private contributions in presidential elections. The money actually
comes from the voluntary three dollar "checkoff box" that appears
on federal income tax forms.

Here are the states where we need you to step up. You can make a
serious effort by emailing your friends, family and colleagues in
these states. Tell them a presidential candidate from Alaska, who
is not for sale, needs clean money to fight another day.

Everyday, I get emails from Democrats and also Republicans praising
me for my fresh, honest voice in this election. If you too feel
that way, I need you to take action now. Email everyone you know
now and help me in these states.

Here is all I need for our matching funds check to arrive:

1. ARIZONA -- Four $250 donations
2. CONNECTICUT -- Four $250 donations
3. DC: -- Four $250 donations
4. MARYLAND -- Four $250 donations
5. MICHIGAN -- Eight $250 donations
6. NEW HAMPSHIRE -- Three $250 donations
7. WISCONSIN -- Five $250 donations

That's it! Who do you know in those states you can email?

Have them go to https://www.gravel2008.us/donate.php and make a donation. Forward this email and just tell people to take a look at
me. You won't need to sell me; let me sell myself.

You'll have a very profound effect on my campaign and help set an
example for how an honest campaign can be run.

Let's get these 7 states wrapped up in the next 48 hours -- we can
do it with you!

We have real momentum. I am right where I expect to be at this
stage in the game and I have you on my side!

https://www.gravel2008.us/donate.php

In gratitude,

Mike Gravel

PS. Watch the Yahoo/Slate online Debates I just completed video: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid980795874/bclid1029828
662/bctid1184468261

You may have to copy/paste this code in your browser or use this
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Official Mike Gravel 2008 Campaign | P.O. Box 948 | Arlington, VA 22216-0948

COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS.

Hillary is a member of the COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS... AKA North American Union... AKA New World Order...

CFR's goal is "to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole" - CFR's Carroll Quigley, Bill Clinton's mentor

CFR Membership: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, John Edwards, Rockefeller, Cheney, Bill Clinton, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Fred Thompson

"CFR controls American Media", here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pLRWiqNsnY

Anarchists Against the Wall

A group of 15 Palestinian, Israeli and international activists have blocked the entrance to Karmei Zur Settlement today.

The entrance to the Karmei Tzur settlement, which is built on the lands of the Palestinian villages Halhul and Beit Umar, was blocked by a group of about 15 Palestinian, Israeli and international activists. To block the road activists chose to symbolically use razor wire that was taken from the fence that circles the settlement, and prevents Palestinians from accessing their land.
http://www.awalls.org/

Is another world possible?

Naomi Klein: The Shock Doctrine

Human Development Foundation in Pakistan

Still no charges against Osama bin Laden

Razia Parks?

Not even close!

Ever since my arrest friends have been calling me Razia Parks. I know there is no comparison, still its kinda flattering to hear even a hint of a link to a(n) historic figure. I also feel proud to be in the league of Cindy Sheehan, Ray McGovern, Eric Stoner... Due to the efforts of Eric Stoner, I was blessed to meet with Dan Berrigan. If you don't know who he is check out wikipedia.

For those who don't live in the area here is a brief account.

On Monday late morning, July 30th, members of Peoria Area Peace Network and I donned orange jumpsuits like the prisoners wear and put black hoods over our head to protest mistreatment of prisoners and other related actions of the United States. (Tonya's list of concerns follows my narrative).

After demonstrating in front of the federal building we decided to move to Civic Center where Michele Obama was speaking at a fund raising luncheon. The press were already there to cover Obama. It must have been quite a sight - all dressed in orange jump suits and wearing black hoods over our heads walking in line one behind the other. Obviously the press were curious, while interviewing Jack Ryan, a former FBI agent, they also started filming all of us.

I heard a man in yellow shirt (the management?) talking to the press. I was a little distance away from the rest and did not fully comprehend the situation except that every one was leaving including some press. Like a sheep I started following the crowd, but some thing inside made me stop and then kneel on the carpeted floor. I heard the man in yellow shirt yelling at the remaining press not to film. Then he came and asked me to leave. I told him I'd like to ask Michelle Obama what her husband was planning to do about the issues that concern us.

The man in yellow shirt was very rude and arrogant, told me again to leave or he'll call the police. I repeated my request, he refused. Then a woman, Bonnie somebody, asked me to leave. She was a little better than the man in the yellow shirt. She told me to wait outside the building and she'll ask Obama if she'd talk to me. I told her I’d wait inside - I offered to take my hood and jumpsuit off. While still trying to persuade me to leave the building she contact some one on the phone to go to Obama. Bonnie and I were still talking when the police came and told me to leave. I started to tell them what I was trying to do but they did not let me finish my sentence and put handcuffs on me.

As I was led into the police car Bonnie came and told me that Michelle Obama would like to talk to me and that I should contact 'the office'.

Tonya and Jack, fellow protesters, bailed me out of the county jail at ~ 5. I was charged with Criminal Trespassing and was to appear in the county court on August 28.

The story was covered in the local media and blogs.






IS THIS AMERICA?

Our demonstration today is a call for the United States to

1) RESTORE HABEAS CORPUS
The Military Commissions Act passed by Congress in the fall of 2006 prohibits any non-citizen who is designated as an �enemy combatant� from filing a writ of habeas corpus. Such people can and have been held in prison for years by our government without any charges or evidence against them. They do not have the right to judicial review. They are often prohibited from contact with attorneys, their families and even their embassies.

2) END EXTRAORDINARY RENDITIONS
The U.S. has transferred prisoners to secret holding cells in numerous countries such as Syria , Egypt , Morocco , Ethiopia , Jordan , Yemen , Kenya , Somalia , Diego Garcia , Poland , Pakistan , Thailand , Afghanistan , Iraq , Saudi Arabia , Romania and Uzbekistan. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and our current Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice are both on record confirming that the U.S. is engaged in this practice.

3) STOP TORTURE
Prisoners have been subjected to brutal and inhumane treatment at the hands of the U.S. government, including the following:

Electric shocks
Solitary confinement
Water boarding
Objects forced in rectum
Severe beatings
Mental abuse
Drugging
Rape & other sexual abuse
Removal of fingernails
Exposure to extreme temperatures and noise
Use of �metal chain,� a device that stretches the spine
Use of �falaqa,� a torture technique in which prisoners are beaten with sticks on the soles of their feet

In contrast with the commonly-held view that mistreatment of prisoners only occurred for a short time period at Abu Ghraib, prisoners continue to be tortured in numerous holding cells throughout the world.

Some prisoners in U.S. custody have been literally tortured to death. One example of many is the story of Dilawar, a 22-year-old taxi driver, who was brutally killed even though most of the investigators assigned to his case were convinced he was innocent of any wrongdoing. U.S. prison guards at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan hung Dilawar from the ceiling and brutally beat him over a 5-day period. Despite his pleas for a doctor, he died of �blunt force injuries to the lower extremities.� This has been reported by mainstream sources such as the Associated Press, the New York Times and 60 Minutes. In fact, an Army investigation reported in the Baltimore Sun stated that Dilawar�s injuries were so severe that his legs would have needed to be amputated had he lived.

4) ABIDE BY THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AND THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS
The Geneva Convention strictly prohibits the torture and ill treatment of any person in custody.

Keith Olbermann

Young Men and Women

In Young Men and Women the former Senator speaks of his experience, compares the Vietnam War to Iraq War, and defines his role in publicly exposing the Pentagon Papers, a secret government report on political, policy, and military involvement in the Vietnam War. Gravel makes coherent parallels between the stances taken by the two major political parties during that era and those same parties today.

In whose interest?

Former U.S. Marine Corps officer and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter talks about the unique influence that the Israel lobby has on the U.S. news media and U.S. foreign policy.

Can anything be done to turn this around?

Ritter has written an important new book "Waging Peace" which answers this question realistically and comprehensively.

It's the peace manual for our times.

For more information, visit:

http://www.CitizensPeaceManual.org

Due Process in Iraq!

Chertoff's New American Police State

Chris Matthews says Petraeus Report will be propaganda

Was IS Will

Sahir J. Ahmed

In oppression breeds sedition,
Perfidy comes to fruition.
Crowds unite and organize,
Attacking those who slow their rise.
Soon the tyrant would have fallen,
And the masses will start searching,
Needing one to lead and guide,
But most will hide their faces shied
Till a brave will come forward
Lifting people upward onward
Now the leader has much power,
Given this supremacy,
The leader gains a legacy.
Crushing Anti Leader thoughts,
Once again a tyrant looms,
Once again the crowd suppressed.
In oppression breeds sedition
Perfidy comes to fruition.

Mike at Yearly Kos Convention

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana

Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana
[col. writ. 7/21/07] (c) '07 Mumia Abu-Jamal

If you asked me two weeks ago if I've ever heard the name of a little town in Louisiana called 'Jena', I would've drawn a blank.

Jena? Never heard of it.

It made me think of the ill-fated Palestinian village called Janin, that Israel crushed into oblivion several years ago.

I think the incumbent president's daughter has that name (with and additional 'n').

But, that's it.

When a friend sent me several internet articles about recent events there, I was, quite frankly, flabbergasted.

I was astonished to learn that today, in the first decade of the 21st century, in Jena High School, there is still a 'white tree', called that not because the leaves are white, but because it is a generous giver of shade, and only white students sit under it.

In Sept. 2006, a young student named Kenneth Purvis asked the school principal for permission to sit under the 'white tree.' The principal answered that he could sit where he liked.

So, they did.

The next day, the 'white tree' was festooned with three nooses, in school colors.

In the South (or the North, for that matter), nooses have one clear meaning -- they are threats of death.

People naturally got riled up, angry, or scared.

Jena's High School principal looked into the matter, found the three white students responsible, and recommended that they be expelled.

The school superintendent felt otherwise, rescinded the expulsion, and instead recommended a 3 - day suspension. Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, the superintendent said, " Adolescents play pranks. I don't think it was a threat against anybody."

(Perhaps he meant anybody important - or white)

For Jena's Black community, this was but the latest slap in the face.

Black students at the high school decided to resist by holding a sit-in under the 'white tree' to protest the light suspensions given to the 3 white noose-hangers.

When word got out about the pending sit-in, the local DA came to a Jena school assembly, with several cops to threaten the students who dared to think they could do what people did some 40 years ago throughout the South (before the so-called 'New South'). He told them if they didn't stop making a fuss about this 'prank' he could be "your worst enemy." To make the point plain, he told the teen gathering, " I can take away your lives with a stroke of a pen."

Several days later, a white Jena student, who reportedly made racist taunts, including calling Black students 'niggers', got knocked down, punched and kicked. The boy was taken to the hospital, treated and released. That very night, he was well enough to attend a public event.

Within days six Black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second degree murder. All six were also immediately expelled.

The 6 teens were given bails set from $70,000 to $139,000.

Bail at these ranges could've just as easily been set at $1 million, for they were at rates that none of the local parents could afford. That meant, of course, that all of the accused were held in jail for months, awaiting trial.

And if money for bail was out of reach, what about money for attorneys?

Again -- out of the question.

That meant that public defenders were appointed by the court.

For one of the accused, Mychal Bell, this meant little better than no counsel at all, for his trial was soon decided by an all-white jury, who promptly convicted him of aggravated second degree assault, battery and conspiracy.

Bell now awaits sentencing which may put the teenager in prison for the next 22 years.

The public defender never challenged the all-white jury pool, put on no evidence, and didn't call a single defense witness.

The law of aggravated assault requires the use of a deadly weapon. What was the weapon?

Tennis shoes.

Families and friends of the Jena 6 are organizing against this case, and are also being threatened by the local establishment. One woman told Louisiana ACLU member, Tory Pegram, "We have to convince more people to come rally with us.....What's the worse that could happen? They fire us from our jobs? We have the worst jobs in the town anyway. They burn a cross on our lawns or burn down my house? All of that has happened to us before. We have to keep speaking out to make sure it doesn't happen to us again, or our children will never be safe."

To contact the Jena 6 Defense Committee, write:
P.O. Box 2798
Jena, Louisiana 71342

Or on the web: jena6defense@gmail.com.

--(c) '07 maj

[Sources: Quigley, Bill, "Injustice in Jena: Black Nooses Hanging From the 'White' Tree", July 3, '07; Quigley@loyana.edu.; Mangold, Tom, " 'Stealth racism' stalks deep South", BBC News, 5/24/07 online]


*******
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner in the United States, with what could be the final decision on his legal appeals possibly coming down this summer. That decision could give Mumia his freedom, a new trial, life in prison, or execution. It is time to turn up the heat against this injustice.

Free Mumia!

For more on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal read:

Top Ten "Fry Mumia" Myths Debunked
(Myth #1) "Five eyewitnesses saw Mumia shoot officer Faulkner."
http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/07/19/18436405.php


Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana
[col. writ. 7/21/07] (c) '07 Mumia Abu-Jamal


If you asked me two weeks ago if I've ever heard the name of a little town in Louisiana called 'Jena', I would've drawn a blank.

Jena? Never heard of it.

It made me think of the ill-fated Palestinian village called Janin, that Israel crushed into oblivion several years ago.

I think the incumbent president's daughter has that name (with and additional 'n').

But, that's it.

When a friend sent me several internet articles about recent events there, I was, quite frankly, flabbergasted.

I was astonished to learn that today, in the first decade of the 21st century, in Jena High School, there is still a 'white tree', called that not because the leaves are white, but because it is a generous giver of shade, and only white students sit under it.

In Sept. 2006, a young student named Kenneth Purvis asked the school principal for permission to sit under the 'white tree.' The principal answered that he could sit where he liked.

So, they did.

The next day, the 'white tree' was festooned with three nooses, in school colors.

In the South (or the North, for that matter), nooses have one clear meaning -- they are threats of death.

People naturally got riled up, angry, or scared.

Jena's High School principal looked into the matter, found the three white students responsible, and recommended that they be expelled.

The school superintendent felt otherwise, rescinded the expulsion, and instead recommended a 3 - day suspension. Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, the superintendent said, " Adolescents play pranks. I don't think it was a threat against anybody."

(Perhaps he meant anybody important - or white)

For Jena's Black community, this was but the latest slap in the face.

Black students at the high school decided to resist by holding a sit-in under the 'white tree' to protest the light suspensions given to the 3 white noose-hangers.

When word got out about the pending sit-in, the local DA came to a Jena school assembly, with several cops to threaten the students who dared to think they could do what people did some 40 years ago throughout the South (before the so-called 'New South'). He told them if they didn't stop making a fuss about this 'prank' he could be "your worst enemy." To make the point plain, he told the teen gathering, " I can take away your lives with a stroke of a pen."

Several days later, a white Jena student, who reportedly made racist taunts, including calling Black students 'niggers', got knocked down, punched and kicked. The boy was taken to the hospital, treated and released. That very night, he was well enough to attend a public event.

Within days six Black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second degree murder. All six were also immediately expelled.

The 6 teens were given bails set from $70,000 to $139,000.

Bail at these ranges could've just as easily been set at $1 million, for they were at rates that none of the local parents could afford. That meant, of course, that all of the accused were held in jail for months, awaiting trial.

And if money for bail was out of reach, what about money for attorneys?

Again -- out of the question.

That meant that public defenders were appointed by the court.

For one of the accused, Mychal Bell, this meant little better than no counsel at all, for his trial was soon decided by an all-white jury, who promptly convicted him of aggravated second degree assault, battery and conspiracy.

Bell now awaits sentencing which may put the teenager in prison for the next 22 years.

The public defender never challenged the all-white jury pool, put on no evidence, and didn't call a single defense witness.

The law of aggravated assault requires the use of a deadly weapon. What was the weapon?

Tennis shoes.

Families and friends of the Jena 6 are organizing against this case, and are also being threatened by the local establishment. One woman told Louisiana ACLU member, Tory Pegram, "We have to convince more people to come rally with us.....What's the worse that could happen? They fire us from our jobs? We have the worst jobs in the town anyway. They burn a cross on our lawns or burn down my house? All of that has happened to us before. We have to keep speaking out to make sure it doesn't happen to us again, or our children will never be safe."

To contact the Jena 6 Defense Committee, write:
P.O. Box 2798
Jena, Louisiana 71342

Or on the web: jena6defense@gmail.com.

--(c) '07 maj

[Sources: Quigley, Bill, "Injustice in Jena: Black Nooses Hanging From the 'White' Tree", July 3, '07; Quigley@loyana.edu.; Mangold, Tom, " 'Stealth racism' stalks deep South", BBC News, 5/24/07 online]


*******
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner in the United States, with what could be the final decision on his legal appeals possibly coming down this summer. That decision could give Mumia his freedom, a new trial, life in prison, or execution. It is time to turn up the heat against this injustice.

Free Mumia!

For more on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal read:

Top Ten "Fry Mumia" Myths Debunked
(Myth #1) "Five eyewitnesses saw Mumia shoot officer Faulkner."
http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/07/19/18436405.php

Torture: The Bush Legacy

What is waterboarding?
This is one of the "interrogation" methods favored by the Bush administration for use on *suspected* terrorists.

Note the word "suspected."

It's possible for a person who is entirely innocent and has no information whatsoever to be subjected to this form of torture.

People can and do die in the course of waterboarding. The practice is essentially to bring the victim to the edge of drowning, over and over again.

Bush and his henchmen pointedly continue to refuse to ban this practice explicitly.

Theoretically, thanks to George Bush "the Decider", anyone, anywhere, any time, who is suspected of having information related to "terrorism" can be snatched off the street and tortured in this way.

This perhaps more than his lying the US into an illegal, immoral and pointless war and ruining the US economy (a work in progress) may be his ultimate legacy.

The Real Terrorists?

Hamas' stand

Hamas' stand
An official of the movement describes its goals for all of Palestine.
By Mousa Abu Marzook, MOUSA ABU MARZOOK is the deputy of the political bureau of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement.
July 10, 2007

Damascus, Syria — HAMAS' RESCUE of a BBC journalist from his captors in Gaza last week was surely cause for rejoicing. But I want to be clear about one thing: We did not deliver up Alan Johnston as some obsequious boon to Western powers.

It was done as part of our effort to secure Gaza from the lawlessness of militias and violence, no matter what the source. Gaza will be calm and under the rule of law — a place where all journalists, foreigners and guests of the Palestinian people will be treated with dignity. Hamas has never supported attacks on Westerners, as even our harshest critics will concede; our struggle has always been focused on the occupier and our legal resistance to it — a right of occupied people that is explicitly supported by the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Yet our movement is continually linked by President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to ideologies that they know full well we do not follow, such as the agenda of Al Qaeda and its adherents. But we are not part of a broader war. Our resistance struggle is no one's proxy, although we welcome the support of people everywhere for justice in Palestine.

The American efforts to negate the will of the Palestinian electorate by destroying our fledgling government have not succeeded — rather, the U.S.-assisted Fatah coup has only multiplied the problems of Washington's "two-state solution."

Mr. Bush has for the moment found a pliant friend in Abu Mazen, a "moderate" in the American view but one who cannot seriously expect to command confidence in the streets of Gaza or the West Bank after having taken American arms and Israeli support to depose the elected government by force. We deplore the current prognosticating over "Fatah-land" versus "Hamastan." In the end, there can be only one Palestinian state.

But what of the characterization by the West of our movement as beyond the pale of civilized discourse? Our "militant" stance cannot by itself be the disqualifying factor, as many armed struggles have historically resulted in a place at the table of nations. Nor can any deny the reasonableness of our fight against the occupation and the right of Palestinians to have dignity, justice and self-rule.

Yet in my many years of keeping an open mind to all sides of the Palestine question — including those I spent in an American prison, awaiting Israeli "justice" — I am forever asked to concede the recognition of Israel's putative "right to exist" as a necessary precondition to discussing grievances, and to renounce positions found in the Islamic Resistance Movement's charter of 1988, an essentially revolutionary document born of the intolerable conditions under occupation more than 20 years ago.

The sticking point of "recognition" has been used as a litmus test to judge Palestinians. Yet as I have said before, a state may have a right to exist, but not absolutely at the expense of other states, or more important, at the expense of millions of human individuals and their rights to justice. Why should anyone concede Israel's "right" to exist, when it has never even acknowledged the foundational crimes of murder and ethnic cleansing by means of which Israel took our towns and villages, our farms and orchards, and made us a nation of refugees?

Why should any Palestinian "recognize" the monstrous crime carried out by Israel's founders and continued by its deformed modern apartheid state, while he or she lives 10 to a room in a cinderblock, tin-roof United Nations hut? These are not abstract questions, and it is not rejectionist simply because we have refused to abandon the victims of 1948 and their descendants.

As for the 1988 charter, if every state or movement were to be judged solely by its foundational, revolutionary documents or the ideas of its progenitors, there would be a good deal to answer for on all sides. The American Declaration of Independence, with its self-evident truth of equality, simply did not countenance (at least, not in the minds of most of its illustrious signatories) any such status for the 700,000 African slaves at that time; nor did the Constitution avoid codifying slavery as an institution, counting "other persons" as three-fifths of a man. Israel, which has never formally adopted a constitution of its own but rather operates through the slow accretion of Basic Laws, declares itself explicitly to be a state for the Jews, conferring privileged status based on faith in a land where millions of occupants are Arabs, Muslims and Christians.

The writings of Israel's "founders" — from Herzl to Jabotinsky to Ben Gurion — make repeated calls for the destruction of Palestine's non-Jewish inhabitants: "We must expel the Arabs and take their places." A number of political parties today control blocs in the Israeli Knesset, while advocating for the expulsion of Arab citizens from Israel and the rest of Palestine, envisioning a single Jewish state from the Jordan to the sea. Yet I hear no clamor in the international community for Israel to repudiate these words as a necessary precondition for any discourse whatsoever. The double standard, as always, is in effect for Palestinians.

I, for one, do not trouble myself over "recognizing" Israel's right to exist — this is not, after all, an epistemological problem; Israel does exist, as any Rafah boy in a hospital bed, with IDF shrapnel in his torso, can tell you. This dance of mutual rejection is a mere distraction when so many are dying or have lived as prisoners for two generations in refugee camps. As I write these words, Israeli forays into Gaza have killed another 15 people, including a child. Who but a Jacobin dares to discuss the "rights" of nations in the face of such relentless state violence against an occupied population?

I look forward to the day when Israel can say to me, and millions of other Palestinians: "Here, here is your family's house by the sea, here are your lemon trees, the olive grove your father tended: Come home and be whole again." Then we can speak of a future together.

LATimes

Excerpt of Mike Gravel Filibustering in the 70s

Where Bush gets his staff?

Ever wonder where George Bush finds the traitors, moral midgets and useful
idiots to keep his criminal enterprise going?

Apparently, the US has its own version of the Madrasas system, schools where
young (and not too bright) minds are indoctrinated into blind obedience and religious extremism, in this case of the "Christian" variety.

Oddly, it took a comedian to uncover and report this news...but here in the
US, we have to take our news where we can get it.

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/125.html - Brasscheck

Michael Moore breaks his silence

"Make American Free Again."

Mike Gravel on "This Week' with George Stephanopoulos

Mike Gravel�s Ripple Effect

charismatically challenged? listen to him tell the story of pentagon papers!

The Pentagon Papers

How to lead America

Senator Mike Gravel: Why Hillary Scares Me

Senator Mike Gravel: Why Hillary Scares Me
June 25, 2007

During one of the debates I mentioned that my fellow Democratic candidates scare me. Hillary's speech last week to the Take Back America conference gives me yet another reason to be afraid.

In an indignant voice she decried the Bush administration's ''stunning record of secrecy and corruption, of cronyism run amok. . . It is everything our founders were afraid of, everything our Constitution was designed to prevent.'' Actually, our Constitution grants Congress the power to prevent these ills but Hillary and her colleagues weren't up to the task.

Our founders' legacy did not stop Hillary from voting for the Patriot Act and then supporting its renewal in 2006 despite revelations that the government was using it to infringe on the very liberties that our founders held sacred. Where was her commitment to our founders when she voted to gut our habeas corpus protections?

As for cronyism -- Hillary has repeatedly authorized billions that the Pentagon gave in no-bid contracts to Halliburton. Even though the Democrats have been in control of Congress for months, they still haven't summoned Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and the other usual suspects to account for the missing millions in reconstruction funding.

When I think about how Congress enabled Bush's corruption and cronyism, I'm reminded of the lines from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar:

And why should Caesar be a tyrant then?
Poor man! I know he would not be a wolf,
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep:
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.

In the same frightening speech, Hillary went on the blame the Iraqis for the mess in their country: "The American military has succeeded. It is the Iraqi government which has failed to make the tough decisions that are important for their own people.''

Let me get this straight. The Iraq disaster is not the fault of the delusional neo-cons, the greedy oil companies, or the gullible and cowardly Congressional warhawks. (Most senators including Clinton didn't even bother to read the 90-page National Intelligence Estimate). According to Hillary, the real culprit is the Iraqi government that we created virtually overnight and left to govern a fractured, impoverished society. Talk about blaming the victim!

Hillary, as an active supporter of the war, you are one of many Americans who are guilty. And now all Americans are left responsible, regardless of whether we supported or opposed he war. When we pull out, our hands will drip with the blood of the tens of thousands of American casualties and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dead. The Iraqi government didn't start this, we did.

Of course we can continue to compartmentalize ourselves from the truth, remove the troops and blame the rubble on the Iraqis. We can feed the collective fantasy that our good intentions and heroic efforts were thwarted by the cowardice and incompetence of others. But if that's what we take from our experience in Iraq, we will never learn the true lessons and we will be condemned to repeat the same mistakes.

The inability to admit a mistake and assume responsibility is not just a morally bankrupt way to walk through life; it is a dangerous and deadly way to lead a nation. When I am president, I will open up all secret files relating to the Iraq war and expose all officials who lied to the public in promoting it. (That's right, Dick, your files too.) My Justice Department will prosecute everyone who lied under oath or ripped off the American taxpayer by exploiting the Iraq reconstruction effort. And I will pardon to no one.

why-hillary -scares-me

Who runs US foreign policy?

LAHORE - June 19: Dates are covered to protect them from birds at Noor Jehan’s Tomb.— APP

performing art troupe of China

BERLIN - June 19: ‘The disabled people’s performing art troupe of China’ performs at the Chinese embassy here on Tuesday. The theatre group, which will take part in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing next year, will stage one show in the German capital.—AP

From Hiroshima to Iraq, 61 years of uranium wars

From Hiroshima to Iraq, 61 years of uranium wars
A suicidal, genocidal, omnicidal course

by Leuren Moret

Global Research, June 12, 2007
San Francisco Bay View - 2006-12-26

The conduct of secret nuclear wars since 1991, through the use of depleted uranium weaponry by the United States and Great Britain with their allies, has taken place in the Middle East, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan2 and Lebanon.3 It has been carried out for the express purpose of destroying the public health and mutilating the genetic future of vast populations in oil rich and/or pipeline regions. continued

book report: the weather makers

It has been over a week since we had our book club meeting and I have been slacking in writing about it.

Well, the author makes a valiant effort to convince us of impending doom and gloom with massive data (from ancient history and future predictions). We all know global warming is happening and we need to do all we can to save the environment. But what we don’t know for sure is how much of it is human contribution and how much a natural phenomenon. The imminent apocalypse is determined by computer calculations based upon lot of assumptions and extrapolations. It is possible it all may come to pass but it is also likely that other hitherto unknown factors come into play to alter the outcome, as the author has given examples of happening in the past.

Just a side remark: the hottest temperature occurred in Al Azizia,libya 58C (136F) recorded on Sept 13, 1922, long before ‘global warming’ became a familiar phrase.

Regardless, while our government is still contemplating to join the world community to accept its share of responsibility for the global warming, here are some common sense things we can do.

. Walk or ride bike whenever we can.
. Use energy efficient light bulbs and appliances
. If possible organize errands - trip to the library, grocery store, the video store,
etc such that you make one trip instead of several.
. Maximize right turns when running errands and see if you can synchronize your driving with green traffic lights. Buy the next car a hybrid or electric.

There is lot more at this web site:


Next Book:
Paul brought a list of great books and we selected The Turning by David Korten. In Paul’s words: A look at the empire and how to transform it into an earth community. The book generated a great following with groups throughout the world establishing communities to follow his recommendations.

Change in meeting day:
Instead of first Thursday we’ll meet on the last Thursday, July 26.

Ps. can any one figure out how many trees Tonya needs to plant to compensate for her share of contribution to the global warming. Please let her know so that she can have guilt free sleep at night

latest on pakistan

News
Thursday, June 14, 2007


Most Pakistani madrassas serving useful purpose
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: The US should refrain from getting involved in Pakistan’s broader madrassa reform efforts and accept that many of the traditional madrassas serve a useful purpose in educating Islamic intellectuals and providing shelter and food for impoverished youth, according to Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation.
madrassahs
madrassah in pakistan


‘Feel good’ book about Musharraf in the works
WASHINGTON: A “feel good” book about President General Pervez Musharraf is currently under publication in which he has been favourably compared with some great American presidents. The author, Prof Carl Wheeless from the United States, taught at FC College Lahore in the 1960s. He was recently invited by Gen Musharraf to spend another year at FC College, the president’s alma mater. The book will cover the time in office and record of several Pakistani heads of state, but it is understood that the current holder will come out of the assessment “looking big”. An inside source told Daily times that Wheeless, though a scholar with a good reputation, and author of Landmarks of American Presidents: a Travellers Guide, was given special privileges to write the book by the government, including logistics support, a research grant and other necessary facilities. In view of the current agitation in the country, Oxford University Press has been asked to expedite publication. khalid hasan

Courtesy DailyTimes.com.pk: feel good book
feel good book

Picture of the day

JERUSALEM - June 11: A schoolgirl, one of 10 children of the Palestinian Juma family of the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabel Mukaber, sits on the debris of her home that she found flattened on her return from school on Monday. Jerusalem municipality workers and Israeli police demolished the house on the pretext that it had been built without permission.—AFP

Darfur- the real story!

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Darfur. President Bush has ordered new sanctions to be placed on the Sudanese government for its role in the violence in Darfur. Last week's announcement blocks thirty-one companies tied to the Sudanese government from using the US banking system.
The sanctions were seen as a victory for the Save Darfur Coalition, a US group leading a vocal campaign pressuring the White House to take action. But the New York Times reported Saturday some of Save Darfur's public efforts have angered aid groups working on the ground in Sudan. The aid groups say Save Darfur's call for imposing a
no-flight zone could lead to a halt in aid flights and put their workers at risk. Aid groups have also criticized Save Darfur for not spending its multi-million dollar budget on aid to Darfur's refugees.
Mahmood Mamdani is one of the world's most prominent Africa scholars. Earlier this year, he wrote a major piece for the London Review of Books called “The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency.” He was born in Uganda and now splits his time between Uganda and New York, where he is a professor at Columbia University. Mahmood Mamdani stopped by our firehouse studio Friday. I began by asking him about the name of his article, “The Politics of Naming.”
MAHMOOD MAMDANI: I think the larger question is the names -- genocide, in particular -- come into being against a background of the twentieth century and mass slaughter of the twentieth century, and particularly the Holocaust. And against that background, Lemkin convinced the international community, and particularly states in the international community, have an obligation to intervene when there is genocide. He’s successful in getting the international community to adopt a resolution on this.
Then follows the politics around genocide. And the politics around genocide is, when is the slaughter of civilians a genocide or not? Which particular slaughter is going to be named genocide, and which one is not going to be named genocide? So if you look at the last ten years and take some examples of mass slaughter -- for example, the mass slaughter in Iraq, which is -- in terms of numbers, at least -- no less than what is going on in Sudan; or the mass slaughter in Congo, which, in terms of numbers, is probably ten times what happened, what has been happening in Darfur. But none of these have been named as genocide. Only the slaughter in Darfur has been named as genocide. So there is obviously a politics around this naming, and that’s the politics that I was interested in.
AMY GOODMAN: And what do you think this politics is?
MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Well, I think that what’s happening is that genocide is being instrumentalized by the biggest power on the earth today, which is the United States. It is being instrumentalized in a way that mass slaughters which implicate its adversaries are being named as genocide and those which implicate its friends or its proxies are not being named as genocide. And that is not what Lemkin had in mind.

AMY GOODMAN: The simplifying of the conflict by the US media, you write extensively about this, who the sides are.
MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Well, I was struck by the fact -- because I live nine months in New York and three months in Kampala, and every morning I open the New York Times, and I read about sort of violence against civilians, atrocities against civilians, and there are two places that I read about -- one is Iraq, and the other is Darfur -- sort of constantly, day after day, and week after week. And I’m struck by the fact that the largest political movement against mass violence on US campuses is on Darfur and not on Iraq. And it puzzles me, because most of these students, almost all of these students, are American citizens, and I had always thought that they should have greater responsibility, they should feel responsibility, for mass violence which is the result of their own government's policies. And I ask myself, “Why not?” I ask myself, “How do they discuss mass violence in Iraq and options in Iraq?” And they discuss it by asking -- agonizing over what would happen if American troops withdrew from Iraq. Would there be more violence? Less violence? But there is no such agonizing over Darfur, because Darfur is a place without history, Darfur is a place without politics. Darfur is simply a dot on the map. It is simply a place, a site, where perpetrator confronts victim. And the perpetrator’s name is Arab, and the victim’s name is African. And it is easy to demonize. It is easy to hold a moral position which is emptied of its political content. This bothered me, and so I wrote about it.
continued on: democracy now

more on Darfur at: Darfur? It's the Oil, Stupid ... China and USA in New Cold War over Africa's Oil Riches

Pakistani President Musharraf

President Pervez Musharraf Family interview:
President Pervez Musharraf Family interview

Musharraf thrilled by student
Musharraf thrilled by student Part 1

Musharraf answers the student
Student thrilled by Musharraf Part 2

IBN KHALDUN

Ibn Khaldun is the most important figure in the field of History and Sociology in Muslim History. He is one of those shining stars that contributed so richly to the understanding of Civilization. In order for one to understand and appreciate his work, one must understand his life. He lived a life in search of stability and influence. He came from a family of scholars and politicians and he intended to live up to both expectations. He would succeed in the field of Scholarship much more so than in any other field.

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