Over 300 American Citizens Were Arrested in St. Paul, MN During the RNC for Peacefully Assembling.

Dear fans, friends, fellow Facebookers, and fellow Americans,

Yes you read it right. Although completely ignored by the mainstream press this week, over 300 of our fellow citizens were arrested for peacefully demonstrating outside the Republican National Convention last week. With our band releasing a new album this week, I am busy and excited about life; as I am sure each of you are about your own lives. But I still feel it is important to take this time now to share with you the letter that I have written to St. Paul, Minnesota Mayor Chris Coleman asking him to remember where we live…. Last time I checked we called it The United States of America. And from what I can remember from those grueling lessons as a young boy in elementary school U S of A meant a little something called “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It also meant “liberty and justice for all.” Read more about the arrests of over 300 Americans at the RNC here.

The reason I am taking the time to write this evening, on the eve before the day of a very special album release for our band TRANSCENDENCE, is because I believe this matter is important. As much as I love music and art and truth and love and romance and beauty, I believe that freedom, justice, and liberty have to be the foundation which these other pleasures of our lives rest on. Our fellow citizens who are currently locked up in jail cells in St. Paul are not able to experience the basic pleasures of their lives right now… and for no other reason than they were exercising their American right to peaceably assemble.

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Fuck the Olympics? What? C’mon man. Why would you say that? The Olympics are important. As important as life itself! Oh, hold on, scratch that. Actually the Olympics are MORE important than life itself. Evidently. At least according to the powers that be who approved the clusterfuck of a decision to allow Communist China to host the 2008 Summer Olympics in light of the atrocities they continue to commit on an almsot daily basis in the peaceful country of Tibet. In preparation for the festivities the banner that China is currently hanging all over Bejing by the hundreds reads “Human life is not nearly as important as some of you are want to believe.” They are proud of their banners. That is why they are hanging them everywhere. Its a sort of welcoming sign to all the millions of visitors they expect this year for that whore called The Olympics. (They might also add to it: “At least not unless your “human life” happens to be attached to big money or a means to get your hands on some.”)

A sleepy Sunday morning. What DID we do last night? Wrote a beautiful song… my god what a gorgeous melody. Stayed up till dawn madly scribbling notes as fast as i could… transcribing the dialogue of a forum between Arthur C. Clark, Stephen Hawking, and Carl Sagan about physics and cosmology till i couldn’t keep my eyes open. Pen dangling. Dropping to the floor. Woke up in time to catch battered and war torn Tom Brokaw, so sold out and bought in to the system that when he commented on NBC’s Meet the Press “…at least we hope that everyone will be tuned in to watch the Summer Olympics here on NBC next week,” he didn’t even blink an eye at the irony of the statement. Perhaps there might be a reason for people NOT tuning in Tom?

The lunacy. The hypocrisy. The spoils made possible by the idiocracy. Mansions and Mercedes bought on credits earned for not telling the truth. Just say what we tell you to. That’s a god boy. Read the prompter. No no. No need to check out the facts. That’s a good boy. Yep. There you go. “Olympics start next week! Catch them right here on NBC!” Tom relaxes into his chair. “Can I get that drink you promised me now?” No need to mention that China is cited as one of the biggest violators of human rights abuse issues on planet earth today, not to mention their ongoing cruel, inhumane, and illegal occupation of Tibet - which for the life of most thinking people everywhere no one can figure out why there is no Operation Tibetan Freedom coming out of the White House or anywhere else for that matter. Ssssshhhhh. Pretend Tibet doesn’t exist and run that Budweiser commercial again! The people will laugh. They’ll forget. Tibet doesn’t matter and neither do the Tibetan people. Nor do the tens of thousands tortured, imprisoned, or murdered by the Chinese government in their own country.

Sssshhhh. Cue the prompter. Roll the tape. “Bob let me get a close up of that young white gymnast smiling and then zoom out and pan over to anyone black or asian! No i don’t care who. Just do it! Now! Oh it’s Olympic Gold old buddy! A great shot. Everyone will make money! My God man! Will somebody get rid of this dead rotting corpse I keep tripping over in the control room?! I don’t care if this IS China, i can’t work around piles of dead bodies! They’re starting to smell. “ 

The truth. Money. The truth. Money is what keeps the dictatorship of China alive and kicking. And it’s what brought the Olympics to China. Slave labor, sweat shops, midnight murders in dark back alleys for speaking your mind or telling the truth. The athletes are human man. What about the athletes? We have to respect the athletes. But human life means nothing in the bigger picture analysis of it — including to the athletes. If human life or basic human rights DID mean something to them, they would have all strategized a giant boycot of the event itself. The athletes might as well be robots at this point.

One day humanity will look back, as it always does, and ask itself the question, “Is it true that we really let Communist China host the Olympics in 2008 when we KNEW about all of their human rights abuses?” And we will tell ourselves that that was THEN, and this is NOW, and we would never be so ignorant or inhumane NOW. But wait. Now IS NOW! We don’t have to look back and feel confusion and remorse for the error of our past as we always do. That future-past is actually our here-right-now. We just forget sometimes.

Because they try their damndest to make us forget. And they do a good job of it. Speaking of which, did you catch that latest episode of Mad Men the other night?

Nah, sorry man, I was out killing some Chinese political activists… A few Tibetans too. But i Tivo’d it, so it’s all good.

Oh too bad. It was fucking great.

Hey when in Rome…

But isn’t it up to each and every one of us on the planet to make that decision? I mean, the Olympics in Nazi fucking Germany and the whole world just played along… And now again. Right here. Right now. What does that mean? Well, when the USA and France and Germany and Spain and the UK and all the other big countries of the world stand up in those giant stadiums with all their pomp and spectacle, how about a few thousand rotten eggs, tomatoes, apples, watermelons, and jackhammers hit them all in the face on live TV? That would be a good place to start… a new twist on a rather tired routine. Not the end all be all but a damn nice place to start. 

“Holy Mary mother of God! Did you see that? Quick cut to a commercial!”

“Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States of America!” BAM! A big shit pie in his face in front of millions. His face covered in brown runny feces. It’s in his mouth. In his ears. In his nose. He can taste it. “Ladies and genetlemen, last year’s gold medal winner in fuck-all from Germany!” BAM! A giant watermelon smashed over his head. What a thing of beauty it could be if the humans woke up one day and realized that they were all actually the same…. Each one a living breathing minute particle of the bigger whole. “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. Goo goo goo joob.” 

We’ve already been told countless times in the last twelve months: “Despite promises to improve its human rights record, China has become increasingly repressive in the run up to the Olympics. Human rights activists are detained without trial, journalists are harassed and imprisoned, “re-education through labor” programs continue unabated and China remains the world’s leading executioner.”

To pretend that you don’t care about the torture or abuse of one is to admit that you don’t care about being tortured or abused yourself. But they don’t get it yet. That’s the thing. They don’t realize it until it actually happens to them personally. Wanna know why it is so easy to manipulate and control the humans by the billions when they are clearly the majority? Re-read this paragraph again.

Crazy? Childish? Sophmoric? Desultory? Silly? Radical? Anarchistic? Sure. The dictionary is filled with adjectives. But the question still remains naked and yet to be answered: when is the human race going to step up and actually walk its talk rather than just talk it? For me personally, I’m tired of talking about “helping to send a message to stop human rights violations.” I’m gonna start walking.

There’s a bridge from one side to the other mind you. Careful not to walk too far onto it. Nah, it’s not unstable, but once on the other side, you will notice that you can’t and don’t want to go back to that other side from whence you came. I crossed that bridge. then burned it down. The matches are still in my pocket as a reminder of why the hell I’m still here. We’ve got work to do. Plenty of it too. And choices to make.

The long-standing historical significance of the Olympics? Or basic human rights and dignity towards ALL HUMAN BEINGS regardless of money to be made? Respect for the athletes who worked so hard to get to the Olympics? Or standing up to save the lives of our fellow brothers and sisters innocently slaughtered and imprisoned needlessly and wrecklessly by a savage nation so wealthy that everyone is a wee bit scared to speak up? These are real choices. These are the choices we are being asked to make at this time in human history.

A few billion of us now. Roaming around from here to there on a relatively small sphere floating out in the middle of god knows where in outer space. It’s a grim picture at times. We don’t even know where the fuck we are. But we give it all a name anyway. But in reality we’re not some intelligent extraterrestrial life forms from another galaxy with special powers able to read each other’s minds or anything. Just a bunch of ape-like bipeds eating, drinking, shitting, reading, writing, praying, raping, murdering, plundering, thieving, canniving, imprisoning each other and then covering it all up as best we can. We have a name for that too. Humans love naming. Revisionist history. Loosely translates to “he who has the money writes the history no matter how heinous their actions, and everyone else pretends they agree with that history for fear of being attacked or killed.”

In the name of freedom and democracy is a good one. In the name of commerce is another good one. For the good of the economy. Brilliant. For the good of the nation and the people. They’re all good. Human’s are good like that. They can watch another human just like them be burned alive and hang from a tree grasping for his last breath and be alright with it if they’re told that it’s for God, Country, or fuck-all. ”Tibetans are being killed? What? Holy shit did you see that triple twist that guy just pulled off? Man I LOVE the Olympics!”

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Those wild rebels with shovels, pitchforks, pick axes, pots and pans of the French Revolution showed us that. Try fucking with the French people now. Their government doesn’t even dare think it.

Don’t have the money to fly to China and throw a few dozen eggs at the Prime Minister of England when he stands up and pretends that he’s ok with China’s blatant disregard for basic human values and ethics? Well let’s hope someone else does. But in the meantime, then take another action. At the very least, whoever you are, wherever you are, if you’re human and not entirely bought in to the point that you can’t even see the insanity of the charade, then TUNE OUT the Olympics. Do it in solidarity for every single innocent life tortured, kidnapped, murdered, or imprisoned in the unholy land where the world will finally wake up and say “Fuck the Olympics.”

Don’t watch. Don’t listen. Don’t read about them in the paper. “What Olympics?” you ask. Exactly. Now you get the point. There are no Olympics this year. Revisionist history.

The Olympics is about sport. At some point surely this was true. But it is more about money. Money is everywhere. Every pocket gets a little. Everyone is looking forward to making money over the next few months from the sport now called “the Olympics.” Human life be damned, everyone is out to make a bloody fortune. Bloody being the operating word. China itself will make a killing. An angelic pun. Each of the countries represented who will win Gold. The TV stations, the vendors, the newspapers with all those fancy high-priced ads with the Olympic Rings around that brand new plasma screen TV you just gotta have from Best Buy…. It’s all about money.

But there’s that voice in the back of our minds… in the back of our throats wanting to scream “Fuck them all. Human life and human dignity is not something to disregard and make money in spite of.”

The hard cold facts of the reality of the situation hit our faces like a 30 degrees below zero wind chill in a Chicago winter. Can you feel it? It stings. It burns. It smells of rotting flesh. It smells of sweat shops and men and women behind bars in prisons with no lawyer, no phone call, no sense of security or justice, no basic human rights, no civil liberties. It smells like China. And if you ask most people it smells like shit. The American president can still taste it. God bless the heroic young activist who took aim and fired his homemade shit pie and had the courage to show the world what courage really is.

If you want to “send a message to U.S. president Bush and the rest of the world with your voice of dissent against china’s human rights abuses” as our esteemed colleague, friend, and mentor Larry Cox of Amnesty International suggests below, don’t just write a letter. DO SOMETHING MORE. Sure Larry makes a good point below. And he is doing it from a truly heartfelt and compassionate space. Diplomacy. But diplomacy isn’t all its cracked up to be sometimes. Sometimes it takes more. Times have changed. Leave the letter writing to the old ladies who aren’t able to do much else. At this time in human history, even the elderly are standing up and taking action. They’ll write plenty of letters. Leave it to them. Amnesty International shold be asking for more than letter writing at this time in human history if they are seriously concerned about the mission they claim to be.

Get out and spread the FUCK THE OLYMPICS AND FUCK CHINA message out in your local community. Scream it, shout it, talk about it at the bar as you turn a blind eye to the TV attempting to titilate you with so and so’s historic 100 yard dash in between commercials trying to woo you into buying that new Ford truck. Spray paint it on every wall you walk by on your way home from work. FUCK CHINA. FUCK THE OLYMPICS. In fact, spray paint it any damn where you choose. If someone even mentions “the Olympics” to you in the next 30 days, respectfully and politely but resolutely respond “Fuck the Olympics.” Sure they might think you’re crazy.

But what’s crazy? How long will we as a collective species endure lies, errors of judgment, inhumane schemes of money and economics, overt deceptions, and be forced into pretending we don’t see the giant pink elephant in the room called “fucking a! They’re torturing and imprisoning people up the arse over there! What can we do??? Oh? nothing??? Sit down and shut up and watch the Olympics because they say so?” Rather, when will we create and demand that WE ALL get treated equally well? With equal respect. With equal rights. And with equal civil liberties for all regardless of how ruthless, wealthy, or powerful the governing body of the moment happens to be?

The answer to that question is this: we don’t need to wait anymore. Imagine day one of the 2008 Olympics. Chinese president Hu Jintao is introduced to a stadium of 100,000 people. He steps up to the podium and the stadium goes quiet. Instead of applause, just total and utter silence. There will not be one soul in that stadium audience who is not guilty of being fully or at least partially aware of how inhumane and unjust the Chinese government is and has been towards Tibet AND its own people as well, right here right now.

Will they heed the call to defend themselves and all of humanity by remaining silent in one giant act of unified civil dissobediance? Or will they jump up and down and applaud like ignorant little monkeys because that’s what they think they’re supposed to do? Telling their intuition or higher self - that voice in the mind of each of us, our sixth sense - to please be quiet… “SHHHH can you please be quiet?! Yes yes i know that China is a cruel and inhumane dictatorship who have killed tens of thousands of Tibetans and destroyed thousands of temples and all that horrible imprisonment stuff… but I’m trying to watch the Olympics!”

Point made. Most WILL play along. Sad but true. They’ll jump, dance, shout, scream, yeehaw, yahoo, grin, laugh, cry, spin around in circles… each one of them being careful not to step on one of the tens of thousands of dead bodies piled all over the fucking place. “No mam, that’s not blood. That’s just paint. Our flag is red you know.”   

The 2008 Olympics did NOT have to be held in China. The Olympic Committee made this choice. And they did so knowing full well of what heinous crimes China has committed to the people of Tibet and to their own people as well. Remember, this was their choice. No mercy. So no mercy in return. This year they made a conscious decision to turn the Olympics into a canniving manipulating beat up old dirty needle marked whore with the look of decades of guilt and shame in her tired sagging blooshot eyes. So when someone says FUCK THE OLYMPICS this year, well, I’d think twice about taking it literally. I wouldn’t get my clean machine within a thousand miles of the wench.   

There are a few of us out there roaming the small planet along with the others who see the blood, not the paint. In fact there are more than most of us realize at this point. Millions. There is a Facebook Group you can join called FUCK YOUR OLYMPICS CHINA. Yes… that’s more like it. The times have indeed changed. When they light that torch in a few days there are those of us who will understand what it really means. They will be horrifed and more than a bit nauseated. Inspiration and awe will not enter their minds.

In the meantime, Amnesty International IS asking us to sign a petition below. A noble goal. Just not a very bold action. So sign the petition. But don’t let it stop there. Step up. Take more action.

Sincerely,
The Raconteur         

 
With the Olympics just around the corner, act now and hold China to its word.

Tell President Bush to speak out against China’s human rights violations before the Games begin.

With the Olympics only 10 days away, take action and urge China to create a positive human rights legacy.
tell President Bush to make a public statement condemning the human rights violations perpetrated in preparation for the Olympics.

Dear TuneInTurnOnHelpOut.org members, 

President Bush will attend the opening ceremonies of the Games on August 8. Before he leaves for Beijing, send him a message!

Torture. Long-term detentions without charge or trial. Censorship of the internet and media. Does this sound like a country that’s trying to improve its human rights record?

Ye Guozhu, a human rights defender in Beijing, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for taking action against forced evictions related to the Olympics. Amnesty International fears he has been tortured while in detention. He was due to be released on Saturday, July 26 but will now remain imprisoned until October, after the end of the 2008 Olympic Games.

Chinese authorities have stepped up their repression of human rights defenders in order to “clean up” Beijing. 

In 2001 China made a promise to improve its human rights record if given the honor of hosting the Olympic Games. Instead, China has become increasingly repressive with crackdowns on dissent and the rounding up and arrest of human rights defenders. Citing “security”, China has imprisoned individuals for doing nothing more than drawing international attention to ongoing human rights violations. 

Just when it appeared that no matter what we did, we were never going to make any headway and the bad guys were always going to win…. This just in from the Times….

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Thursday, June 12, 2008 — 10:32 AM ET
—–

Justices Rule Terror Suspects Can Appeal in Civilian Courts

The Supreme Court ruled that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantánamo Bay have the right to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

Uh, yeah, well that makes sense since that’s the FUCKING LAW to begin with! (Boy those TImes reporters sure have potty-mouths!)

Amnesty International today said it had written to the Head of the Judiciary in Iran, urging him to ensure that appeals hearings against the convictions and sentences of six women’s rights defenders (WRDs) passed in recent weeks in connection with their peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and association are heard promptly and impartially.

If the sentences are confirmed at appeal, the organization is calling on the Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, to review the cases and to overturn the convictions of the women, all of whom will become prisoners of conscience if imprisoned.

Amnesty International also asked the Head of the Judiciary to ensure that all women’s rights defenders were free to leave and return to the country, in accordance with Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a state party.

All the sentences are suspended, but could be implemented if the women are convicted of a similar offence during the period of suspension. If any of them were to be imprisoned in the future as a result of these sentences, Amnesty International would call for their immediate and unconditional release as prisoners of conscience.

The organisation also urged the Head of the Judiciary to ensure that the flogging sentences imposed on the women are not implemented under any circumstances. Flogging is a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, which amounts to torture, and is outlawed under Article 7 of the ICCPR.

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Dear TuneInTurnOnHelpOut fans,
See the below letter from Amnesty International reporting a recent success due directly to YOU and ME and EVERYONE ELSE who TAKES ACTION. Activism works if it’s ACTIVE. Good stuff.
sincerely,
The Ambassador

Dear Ed,
In the face of impossible odds, your thousands of letters made a huge impact last week.

On May 1st, Sami al Hajj was released from Guantánamo Bay prison after six and a half years in detention. Al Hajj was a focus of our write-a-thon in December and was adopted by Amnesty groups across the country.

Sami was a journalist for the television station al-Jazeera. In 2002, he was assigned to cover the conflict in Afghanistan. While traveling in Pakistan, Sami al Hajj was stopped by Pakistani police and detained.

He was handed over to U.S. forces, taken to Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, and ultimately to Guantánamo He was never charged with a crime, yet was held and allegedly tortured for six years.

Upon being released, Sami flew to Khartoum, Sudan. His health was in such bad condition that he had to be carried off on a stretcher.

Amnesty International won’t stop until everyone held at Guantánamo is given the chance to defend themselves in an impartial court of law or set free.

This week, Amnesty launches a massive new initiative to bring a life-sized replica (3D tour) of a maximum security Guantánamo Bay prison cell to cities across America.

RSVP to attend or volunteer at the Cell Tour events.

Starting in Miami with special events this Thursday and Saturday, we will show visitors what it’s like to experience the harsh realities of illegal detention and prolonged isolation. Visitors will be able to record 30 second videos protesting illegal detention from inside the cell.

Thank you again for your passion and hard work.

Sincerely,
Larry Cox
Executive Director

Your gift today will help Amnesty International free those wrongly detained for acts of peaceful self-expression and intensify our campaign to pressure Chinese authorities for progress on human rights.
Hold China accountable for its abysmal record on human rights.
Amnesty activists in San Francisco last week protest China’s human rights abuses.
Despite a dramatic last-minute diversion of the Olympic torch route in San Francisco last week, the spectacle of thousands of human rights protesters jamming city streets was truly an awesome sight! Hearing and seeing such impassioned support for the long-suffering people of Tibet and Darfur showed the power of peaceful protest - and strengthened my belief in the possibility of change.
Stand up for human rights in China by making a gift to Amnesty International today.
When China bid for the Olympics in 2001, it promised the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that as host, Beijing would enhance “all social conditions, including education, health and human rights” and “give the media complete freedom” to report news in China in the lead-up to the Games.
But with less than four months to go, Amnesty has concluded in a new report that the current wave of repression by Chinese authorities is occurring not in spite of the Olympics, but because of the Olympics.
Beijing has hit back at Amnesty International with the charge that we’ve “politicized” the Olympics. To this we say, human rights are not political - arresting human rights activists and charging them with ’subversion’ is.
Prominent and peaceful human rights activists are being rounded up and jailed. Tibetan protesters are met with intimidation, arbitrary detentions and in some cases lethal force. Web sites are being blocked. TV broadcasts are being censored and foreign journalists are denied access to Tibet altogether - as part of a massive pre-Olympics ‘clean up.’ We cannot let this insult to basic human dignity go unchallenged!

Your gift today will help Amnesty International to free those wrongly detained for acts of peaceful self-expression and intensify our campaign to push for progress on human rights in China in the critical months leading up to the Summer Olympics. In the coming weeks, our campaign will meet with corporate sponsor Coca-Cola and the U.S. Olympic Committee, and organize a global week of action on China and the Olympics.

You and I must hold China accountable for its abysmal record and make sure the Chinese authorities understand that there are consequences for a lack of progress on human rights - before the Games begin. Failure to speak out now is to miss a unique opportunity to push for progress on human rights in China.

Thank you for your continued commitment to defending human rights in China and around the world.

Sincerely,
Larry Cox
Executive Director
Amnesty International USA

P.S. To read more about China’s human rights record in the lead-up to the Olympics, check out Amnesty’s new report, The Olympics countdown: Crackdown on activists threatens Olympics legacy

40 years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and this nation lost one of the greatest leaders for peace and justice that we have ever known. Read his words. Listen to his speech in the video below. He could easily be speaking to the American people today regarding our “new war”… it is eerie.

* * *

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

* * *

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

* * *

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

* * *

Here’s a clip from one of Dr. King’s most powerful speeches:

P.S. If you had trouble clicking on the video above, try this link:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=b80Bsw0UG-U

Brought to us by our friends at http://pol.moveon.org/ – Aisling, Adam G, Adam R, Anna, Carrie, Daniel, Eli, Ilyse, Joan, Justin, Karin, Laura, Lenore, Marika, Matt, Nita, Noah, Patrick, Peter, Stephanie, Tanya, and Wes
MoveOn.org Political Action
Friday, April 4th, 2008

www.cascwild.org

http://freetheslaves.net/

www.adoptanactivist.org

www.bancruelfarms.org/meatrix Escape the meatrix, ban cruel farms.

www.getoutraged.com

www.globalvolunteers.org choose your destination and choose to become a volunteer while on vacation!

lists.riseup.net/www Over 3000 lists of social, political, and human rights activist talk/news groups and forums. If you want to know what its all about, this is the place to start.

www.ips-dc.org one of the oldest international think tanks

www.petropolitics.net help clean up the oil spill in the white house

www.asej.org/home action for social and ecological justice

EcoNet article w/ACERCA photos :Poverty, Environmentand the Zapatista Struggle

www.questionsquestions.net

www.globalfreepress.com

Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional

Fifty Years is Enough Campaign The 50 Years is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice is a network of over 200 organizations working together to bring about profound tranformation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Mexico Solidarity Network

Rainforest Action Network

SIPAZ:International Service For Peace A coalition promoting peace in Chiapas, Mexico.

World Rainforest Movement

http://cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/ the complete 9/11 timeline

Cost of the War in Iraq

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To see more details, click here.

Behind the label Find out what companies are fucking up big time

Volunteer MatchWherever you live and whatever you’re looking to do, Volunteer Match will hook
you up

Tom Paine Excellent patriot website.

The official Citizens For A Legitimate Government Very pro-democratic, anti-Bush occupation information claiming that Gore did win and appealing to citizens to do something about it.

Peace T-shirts

www.cures-not-wars.org
www.cannabiscoalition.org

www.unitedforpeace.org Website for Global Exchange

www.endthewar.org

www.unitedforpeace.org

www.peace-action.org

Justice in Palestine Coalition We invite you to join in raising our voices together to say we will not allow the crimes against Palestinians to go unchallenged.

The Hunger Site Your click funds the purchase and distribution of staple food to the world’s hungry — 75% of which are children.

The Breast Cancer Site Help fund mammograms for underprivileged women — making
early detection and survival of breast cancer possible.

Stop Cybersquatting A very interesting story: “My name is Uzi Nissan. I was born August 18, 1951, in Jerusalem, Israel. My father’s last name was Nissan, his father’s last name was Nissan, and so on. Nissan is a biblical term identifying the seventh month in the Hebrew calendar. The term Nissan also is Arabic for the month of April.”

The Rainforest Site The Rainforest Sitewill be returning soon, allowing you to save an area of endangered rainforest land with a simple click. It is also possible to protect rainforest and other threatened habitats at

EcologyFund.com

Mercy Corps

Network Food Great site where you can learn about many organizations to volunteer for and donate to.

Sustainable Peasant Homes Supporting Sponsored Children and Their Families

Earth 911

International Action Center

AK Press Radical books with which you can make a positive change in the world

A Child Is Missing

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Amnesty International Request your copy of the International Declaration of Human Rights

Greenpeace USA

Institute for Global Communication

Covenant House

National Hospice Organization

Mothers & Others for a Livable Planet

Accuracy in Media

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

Native American Rights Fund

Indian trust

International Campaign for Tibet

Coalition for Natural Health

International Action Center

Act for Change

The International Camphill Movement The International Camphill Movement consists of more than 90 communities in 19 countries. Camphill continues to work to create communities in which children, youth, and adults with special needs can live, learn, and work with others in healthy social relationships based on mutual care and respect.

Rock star charities

Coalition For America’s Children

The Fresh Air Fund Fulfill an inner city child’s wildest dreams

The Fund for Animals The Fund is one of the largest and most active organizations working for the cause of animals throughout the world.

Elton John Aids Foundation

www.secondharvest.org

www.laubach.org

www.heiferproject.org Gives the oppurtunity to buy a gift animal for a needy family in countries such as Honduras, Zimbabwe, India and Bolivia.

www.rfbd.org

www.deltasociety.org

www.littlebrothers.org

The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods has set up an easy way for retailers to reach their representatives. Just go to their website and click on contact Congress. You will see your State and links to all the people who need to hear your voice.

The physical conditions in social care homes for adults in Bulgaria are often cruel, inhuman, and degrading. Many people with mental disabilities in the country are housed in derelict buildings, which are
often filthy with feces on the walls, bedding, and floors. Despite some modest improvements in some facilities since human rights groups first exposed the horrid conditions, a high number of deaths — including from pneumonia, hypothermia, and malnutrition — point to medical neglect and a lack of food and warmth in many Bulgarian institutions. Please urge Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to take immediate steps to clean up the deplorable conditions. Please take action by visiting:

One of the best activist sites anywhere: www.axisofjustice.org/

www.oxfamamerica.org

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www.dontbuyexxonmobil.org

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Michigan doctor facing criminal charges for defending a protester

As mass sentiment against the U.S. occupation of Iraq continues to grow across the world, many activists on college campuses are experiencing increased police repression and attacks on their First Amendment rights. One of these instances occurred on Nov. 30, 2006, in Ann Arbor, Michigan—home of the University of Michigan.

As a result of that protest, Dr. Catherine Wilkerson, a respected community physician who provides medical care to working-class people at a local clinic, was charged with two crimes stemming from an encounter with local and campus police. On Nov. 26, 2007, her trial is set to begin in Ann Arbor.

The ANSWER Coalition is supporting the efforts of the Committee to Defend Catherine Wilkerson to demand that all charges against her be dropped. Click here to show your support by signing a petition that will be hand delivered to University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Brian Mackie.

Background

During a protest against the war on Iraq and threats of war on Iran, University of Michigan police brutalized and arrested three activists. Police tactics included the use of pressure point control tactics. PPCT is a pain compliance tactic that essentially uses painful pressure and manipulation of the body in order to force the victim to comply.

After brutalizing one protester and threatening him with pepper spray directly in the face, the police then pinned him to the ground in a manner that can result in suffocation. As the man groaned in agony, the officer used his knee and his substantial physical bulk to crush the protester’s chest, face down against the floor. Between desperate gasps, the man told officers that he could not breathe, and then fell unconscious.

Dr. Wilkerson identified herself as a physician and demanded access to the man in order to examine him and determine if his life was in danger. After much resistance from the police, Dr. Wilkerson was allowed to examine the man and determined that he was still alive. As this was occurring, an ambulance with paramedics, the fire department and the Ann Arbor police arrived on the scene.

Dr. Wilkerson was forcibly kept aside. One of the medics then held a succession of three ammonia inhalants directly under the patient’s nose, culminating with cupping his hands over the man’s nose while he forced him to inhale the third capsule of the noxious gas. This caused the man to retch and nearly vomit as the medic taunted him, “You don’t like that, do you?”

Dr. Wilkerson was outraged by the punitive and dangerous actions of the police and medics. She told the medics, “What you are doing has no efficacy and is punitive, and you know it.”

For speaking out, Dr. Wilkerson too was brutalized by the police.

Police grabbed her from behind, wrenched her arms behind her, then slammed her against a wall and held her there as she begged him to release his painful grip. The officer then detained her against her will for a protracted period of time, forcing her to stand in a hallway despite her continued extreme shoulder pain.

Dr. Wilkerson was not arrested at this time, however, as she did not break any laws and was simply attempting to fulfill her ethical obligations as a physician.

Dr. Wilkerson later registered a complaint of police brutality at City Hall. One week after filing her complaint, she was shocked to find a letter in the mail from the county prosecutor informing her that she was being charged with attempted assaulting/resisting/obstructing a police officer and attempted assaulting/resisting/obstructing a paramedic.

The charges are a blatant example of police retaliation against a respected doctor and community activist for complaining about police misconduct.

Dr. Wilkerson faces jail time and hefty fines if she is convicted. She has refused to take the prosecutor’s plea deal because she has done nothing wrong. In fact, her intervention in the police riot prevented possible grave injuries for those attacked by the cops.

Statement from Dr. Wilkerson

From “Scenes from a cop riot” by Dr. Catherine Wilkerson:

When I became a doctor I knew I would encounter a lot of human suffering, but I never envisioned a time when my efforts to alleviate it would get me brutalized by the police, then charged with a crime. I never envisioned a time when I would witness another health “professional” brazenly violate the most fundamental principle of medical ethics: first do no harm. But thirty years after graduation, at a political event on the campus of the University of Michigan, those things happened.

Take action

All the charges should be dropped on Dr. Wilkerson immediately. Community activists, medical workers and all progressive people should join in this demand. The ANSWER Coalition is supporting the efforts of the Committee to Defend Catherine Wilkerson to demand that all charges against her be dropped.

Click here to show your support by signing a petition that will be hand delivered to University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Brian Mackie.

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