US Marines Lakota Indian Warrior Burial Ceremony
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Hands Across the Sand
What is Hands Across the Sand?
http://www.handsacrossthesand.com/
Hands Across the Sand is a movement made of people of all walks of life and crosses political affiliations. This movement is not about politics; it is about protection of our coastal economies, oceans, marine wildlife, fishing industry and coastal military missions. Let us share our knowledge, energies and passion for protecting all of the above from the devastating effects of oil drilling.
The Movement Started in Florida
In Florida on Saturday, February 13, 2010, a statewide gathering against oil drilling occurred. Thousands of Floridians representing 60 towns and cities and over 90 beaches joined hands to protest the efforts by the Florida Legislator and the US Congress to lift the ban on oil drilling in the near and off shores of Florida. Florida’s Hands Across The Sand event was the largest gathering in the history of Florida united against oil drilling. Thousands joined hands from Jacksonville to Miami Beach and Key West to Pensacola Beach, each against oil drilling in Florida’s waters.
Mission Statement
To organize a national movement to oppose offshore oil drilling and champion clean energy and renewables. These gatherings will bring thousands of American citizens to our beaches and cities and will draw metaphorical and actual lines in the sand; human lines in the sand against the threat oil drilling poses to America’s coastal economies and marine environment.
To convince our State Legislators, Governors, Congress and President Obama to stop the expansion of offshore oil drilling and to adopt policies encouraging clean and renewable energy sources. America needs legislation that creates tax incentives and subsidies to encourage the growth of clean energy and renewable industries for America’s future.
An Opportunity of National Importance
Now is the time for America and our leaders to join hands and steer our country’s energy policy away from our dependence on fossil fuels and into the light of clean energy and renewables.
Join hands with us and draw a line in the sand against offshore oil drilling.
Subject: We will stand together to fight for our beaches and Oceans Health
Hello to my fellow Team Rural members! I am organizing with/for Hands Across the Sand. Hands Across the Sand (HAS) is a non-partisan grassroots effort of like minded people who want to make a peaceful statement in defense of our oceans and Earth. One of the biggest threats right now is the oil flow from the damaged well in the Gulf, that as of this writing has still not been stopped. I won't discuss here how bad this can be for the life on this planets welfare. Chances are you at least know that this is bad.
Unfortunately, policy makers do not appear to understand the great risk of continued offshore oil drilling. Those of us who do, want to make our wishes known and will do so on June 26, 2010. For 15 minutes we will stand hand in hand, in a united show of solidarity for clean seas and clean renewable energy.
Please read the web site for more general info.
http://www.facebook.com/l/d7af9;www.handsacrossthesand.com
Click on Georgia. I will be hosting the St. Simons Island event. If you are interested in attending or volunteering to help, please contact me.
You can just show up on the beach on the day of the event if you wish.
Cynthia Potter
safeblueseas@yahoo.com
--
Drill baby drill, became Spill baby spill, then burn baby burn became, kill baby kill as all the sea life and the economy of the gulf dies.
http://www.handsacrossthesand.com/
Hands Across the Sand is a movement made of people of all walks of life and crosses political affiliations. This movement is not about politics; it is about protection of our coastal economies, oceans, marine wildlife, fishing industry and coastal military missions. Let us share our knowledge, energies and passion for protecting all of the above from the devastating effects of oil drilling.
The Movement Started in Florida
In Florida on Saturday, February 13, 2010, a statewide gathering against oil drilling occurred. Thousands of Floridians representing 60 towns and cities and over 90 beaches joined hands to protest the efforts by the Florida Legislator and the US Congress to lift the ban on oil drilling in the near and off shores of Florida. Florida’s Hands Across The Sand event was the largest gathering in the history of Florida united against oil drilling. Thousands joined hands from Jacksonville to Miami Beach and Key West to Pensacola Beach, each against oil drilling in Florida’s waters.
Mission Statement
To organize a national movement to oppose offshore oil drilling and champion clean energy and renewables. These gatherings will bring thousands of American citizens to our beaches and cities and will draw metaphorical and actual lines in the sand; human lines in the sand against the threat oil drilling poses to America’s coastal economies and marine environment.
To convince our State Legislators, Governors, Congress and President Obama to stop the expansion of offshore oil drilling and to adopt policies encouraging clean and renewable energy sources. America needs legislation that creates tax incentives and subsidies to encourage the growth of clean energy and renewable industries for America’s future.
An Opportunity of National Importance
Now is the time for America and our leaders to join hands and steer our country’s energy policy away from our dependence on fossil fuels and into the light of clean energy and renewables.
Join hands with us and draw a line in the sand against offshore oil drilling.
Subject: We will stand together to fight for our beaches and Oceans Health
Hello to my fellow Team Rural members! I am organizing with/for Hands Across the Sand. Hands Across the Sand (HAS) is a non-partisan grassroots effort of like minded people who want to make a peaceful statement in defense of our oceans and Earth. One of the biggest threats right now is the oil flow from the damaged well in the Gulf, that as of this writing has still not been stopped. I won't discuss here how bad this can be for the life on this planets welfare. Chances are you at least know that this is bad.
Unfortunately, policy makers do not appear to understand the great risk of continued offshore oil drilling. Those of us who do, want to make our wishes known and will do so on June 26, 2010. For 15 minutes we will stand hand in hand, in a united show of solidarity for clean seas and clean renewable energy.
Please read the web site for more general info.
http://www.facebook.com/l/d7af9;www.handsacrossthesand.com
Click on Georgia. I will be hosting the St. Simons Island event. If you are interested in attending or volunteering to help, please contact me.
You can just show up on the beach on the day of the event if you wish.
Cynthia Potter
safeblueseas@yahoo.com
--
Drill baby drill, became Spill baby spill, then burn baby burn became, kill baby kill as all the sea life and the economy of the gulf dies.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
OCCUPATION OF BORDER PATROL HEADQUATERS DAVIS-MONTHAN AIRFORCE BASE, TUCSON, AZ 1st NATION AND MIGRANTS OPPOSE SB1070 DEMAND DIGNITY, HUMAN RIGHTS,
OCCUPATION OF BORDER PATROL HEADQUATERS
DAVIS-MONTHAN AIRFORCE BASE, TUCSON, AZ
1st NATION AND MIGRANTS OPPOSE SB1070 DEMAND DIGNITY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND END TO BORDER MILITARIZATION
“The militarized border imposed by the U.S. has lead only to cultural and environmental destruction of the indigenous peoples whose land is on or near the border. This militarization brings death and terror for indigenous peoples from other parts of the continent migrating to this land.”
Tucson, AZ – More than a dozen people occupied Border Patrol headquarters at Davis-Monthan Airforce Base today in an act of peaceful resistance. The group includes members of Indigenous Nations of Arizona, migrants, people of color and white allies. Six people used chains and other devices to lock themselves in the building. These Arizona residents disrupted the Border Patrol operations to demand that Border Patrol (BP), Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), their parent entity, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Obama administration end militarization of the border, end the criminalization of immigrant communities, and end their campaign of terror which tear families apart through increasing numbers of raids and deportations.
The protesters also call on the State of Arizona to repeal the racist Senate Bill 1070 that criminalizes immigrant communities on the state level, makes it illegal to transport or harbor an undocumented person regardless of family relationship, requires police agencies to engage in racial profiling, and ultimately is an attempt to ethnically cleanse Arizona of those with brown skin. This act of civil disobedience was only the latest in an increasing wave of direct action targeting the federal government’s terrorist immigration policies.
“Border militarization destroys Indigenous communities. The development of the border wall has lead to desecration of our ancestor’s graves, it has divided our communities and prevents us from accessing sacred places,” said Alex Soto a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation and a volunteer with the group O’odham Solidarity Across Borders
“Troops and paramilitary law enforcement, detention camps, check points, and citizenship verification are not a solution to migration. We have existed here long before these imposed borders, my elders inform us that we always honored freedom of movement. Why our communities and the daily deaths at the border ignored? The impacts of border militarization are constantly made invisible in the media, the popular culture of this country and even the mainstream immigrant’s rights movement which has often pushed for “reform” that means further militarization of the border, which means increased suffering for our communities.”
Indigenous communities such as the O’odham, the Pascua Yaqui, Laipan Apache, Kickapoo, and Cocopah along the US/Mexico border have been terrorized with laws and practices like SB1070 for decades. Indigenous people along the border have been forced by border patrol to carry and provide proof of tribal membership when moving across their traditional lands that have been bisected by this imposed border; a border that has been extremely damaging to the cultural and spiritual practices of these communities. Many people are not able to journey to sacred sites because the communities where people live are on the opposite side of the border from these sites. Since the creation of the current U.S./Mexico border, 45 O’odham villages on or near the border have been completely depopulated.
On this day people who are indigenous to Arizona join with migrants who are indigenous to other parts of the Western Hemisphere in demanding a return to traditional indigenous value of freedom of movement for all people. Prior to the colonization by European nations (spaniards, english, french) and the establishment of the european settler state known as the United States and the artificial borders it and other european inspired nation states have imposed; indigenous people migrated, traveled and traded with each other without regard to artificial black lines drawn on maps. U.S. immigration policies dehumanize and criminalize people simply because which side of these artificial lines they were born on. White settlers whose ancestors have only been here at most for a few hundred years have imposed these policies of terror and death on “immigrants” whose ancestors have lived in this hemisphere for tens of thousands of years, for time immemorial.
In addition, the migration that the U.S. government is attempting to stop is driven more than anything else by the economic policies of the U.S. Free trade agreements such as NAFTA have severely reduced the ability of Mexicans and others from the global south to sustain themselves by permitting corporations to extract huge amounts of wealth and resources from these countries into the U.S. This has led to millions of people risking the terror and death that so many face to cross into the U.S. looking for ways to better support their families. Thousand of women, men, children and elders have died crossing just in the last decade. If the U.S. really wants to reduce migration it should end its policies of exploitation and wealth extraction targeted at the global south and instead pursue policies of economic, environmental and social justice for all human beings on the planet, thus reducing the drive to immigrate.
The protestors are demanding:
· An end to border militarization
· The immediate repeal of SB1070 and 287g
· An end to all racial profiling and the criminalization of our communities
· No ethnic cleansing or cultural genocide
· No border patrol encroachment/sweeps on sovereign native land
· No Deportations
· No Raids
· No ID-verification
· No Checkpoints
· Yes to immediate and unconditional regularization (“legalization”) of all people
· Yes to human rights
· Yes to dignity
· Yes to respect
· Yes to respecting Indigenous Peoples inherent right of migration
###
For Immediate Release Media Contacts:
Saturday, May 22, 2010 Alex Soto (602) 881-6027
Leilani Clark (520) 982-5687
stopboardermilitarization@gmail.com
Activists Lockdown & Occupy US Border Patrol Headquarters
Demanding End to Border Militarization, Protesters Cited and Released
High resolution pictures and B-roll available at: www.oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com
Tucson, AZ – At approximately 1:00PM Friday, May 21, 2010 more than a dozen people occupied the Tucson Headquarters of the US Border Patrol to draw attention to impacts of border militarization in Indigenous Communities. Six people, including Alex Soto a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation and a volunteer with the group O’odham Solidarity Across Borders, locked themselves together for up to 3 and 1/2 hours. “Indigenous voices have been ignored. In our action today we say NO MORE!” Said Soto.
Banners were hung, including one placed over the reception window that read, “Stop Militarization of Indigenous Lands Now”, traditional songs were sung and the group chanted, “Border militarization destroys Indigenous communities!” and “No raids, no deportations! No SB1070, no racist laws!” Approximately 30 Border Patrol agents flooded the lobby of the headquarters and scrambled to react. Roads to the headquarters and adjacent air force base were shut down. Tucson City Police were eventually called and began preparing an extraction of the peaceful resisters.
A diverse crowd of up to 70 people quickly gathered outside the Border Patrol headquarters to support those locked down inside. Ofelia Rivas of O’odham Voices Against The Wall, an elder in support of the action stated, “It was a historical and powerful moment for people of all color to unite with O’odham to stand in solidarity for human rights and to see the next generation take a stand”.
At approximately 4 o’clock the peaceful resisters negotiated the conditions of their release on their terms. Their requests to consult with Tohono O’odham elders to negotiate terms of release were denied by Tucson Police. The protesters decided to unlock and were cited for two misdemeanors each of trespassing and disorderly conduct. The resisters were released just outside the premises to join supporters where they gathered in traditional prayer and rallied against border militarization for another hour. Community members including members of the Pasqual Yaqui, Tohono O'odham, and Dine' Nations reacted emotionally when two Wackenhut Corp. buses left the Border Patrol compound filled with undocumented people. The detainees responded with returning the symbol of resistance - a raised fist.
“This is just one action of many that makes visible the invisible crimes against humanity that occur every day on the colonial border,” stated one of the peaceful resisters. “We commit to honoring the prayers and call for support of the people most impacted by border militarization, the Indigenous Peoples who’s lands we are on and migrants who seek a better life for their families. We cannot not allow government agencies, border patrol, ICE or reformist agendas to further their suffering. We will continue our actions of peaceful resistance for human dignity and respect for all peoples.”
The action also denounced SB1070 and HB2281 as racist laws that are a part of an ongoing system of genocidal policies against Indigenous Peoples and migrant communities.
For previous Press Statement, please see attachment.
Note to editors, high resolution photos attached; Photo credits: O'odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective
-30-
From: Beatriz Amberman [mailto:bmexart@aol.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2010 2:59 AM
To: barryc@indigenousway.net
Subject: Fwd: {MX-A} Tucson, AZ ~ News Release & Fotos ~ Activists Lockdown & Occupy US Border Patrol HDQTRS Demand End to Border Militarization ~ 5.23.10
FYI Barry,
Please distribute the news below and the pictures included in the attachment among your serve lists.
I also want to thank you Barry for all the work you do and for keeping us informed
Warmest regards,
Beatriz Amberman
Founder
Hispanic Community Dialogue of Virginia
837 B First Colonial Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23451
(757) 619-5728 Cell
(757) 437-8889 Work
(757) 437-8494 Fax
E-Mail: bmexart@aol.com
----
From: Devon Pena [devonpena-Original Message-----
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2010 8:46 PM
Subject: Fwd: Fw: NEWS RELEASE: Activists Lockdown & Occupy US Border Patrol Headquarters Demanding End to Border Militarization - photos attached
Beto: I witnessed this on Friday; this is the nation's first ever lockdown of a Border Patrol station. It shut the place down. We were with the affinity group outside of the gates of the military base where the station is located. Please circulate, Devon
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
From: Klee Benally
Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2010 4:28 PM
To: Indigenous Action
Subject: NEWS RELEASE: Activists Lockdown & Occupy US Border Patrol Headquarters Demanding End to Border Militarization - photos attached
Please forward widely:
For Immediate Release
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Media Contacts:
Alex Soto (602) 881-6027
Leilani Clark (520) 982-5687
stopboardermilitarization@gmail.com
Activists Lockdown & Occupy US Border Patrol Headquarters
Demanding End to Border Militarization, Protesters Cited and Released
High resolution pictures and B-roll available at: www.oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com
Tucson, AZ – At approximately 1:00PM Friday, May 21, 2010 more than a dozen people occupied the Tucson Headquarters of the US Border Patrol to draw attention to impacts of border militarization in Indigenous Communities. Six people, including Alex Soto a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation and a volunteer with the group O’odham Solidarity Across Borders, locked themselves together for up to 3 and 1/2 hours. “Indigenous voices have been ignored. In our action today we say NO MORE!” Said Soto.
Banners were hung, including one placed over the reception window that read, “Stop Militarization of Indigenous Lands Now”, traditional songs were sung and the group chanted, “Border militarization destroys Indigenous communities!” and “No raids, no deportations! No SB1070, no racist laws!” Approximately 30 Border Patrol agents flooded the lobby of the headquarters and scrambled to react. Roads to the headquarters and adjacent air force base were shut down. Tucson City Police were eventually called and began preparing an extraction of the peaceful resisters.
A diverse crowd of up to 70 people quickly gathered outside the Border Patrol headquarters to support those locked down inside. Ofelia Rivas of O’odham Voices Against The Wall, an elder in support of the action stated, “It was a historical and powerful moment for people of all color to unite with O’odham to stand in solidarity for human rights and to see the next generation take a stand”.
At approximately 4 o’clock the peaceful resisters negotiated the conditions of their release on their terms. Their requests to consult with Tohono O'odham elders to negotiate terms of release were denied by Tucson Police. The protesters decided to unlock and were cited for two misdemeanors each of trespassing and disorderly conduct. The resisters were released just outside the premises to join supporters where they gathered in traditional prayer and rallied against border militarization for another hour. Community members including members of the Pasqual Yaqui, Tohono O'odham, and Dine' Nations reacted emotionally when two Wackenhut Corp. buses left the Border Patrol compound filled with undocumented people. The detainees responded with returning the symbol of resistance - a raised fist.
“This is just one action of many that makes visible the invisible crimes against humanity that occur every day on the colonial border,” stated one of the peaceful resisters. “We commit to honoring the prayers and call for support of the people most impacted by border militarization, the Indigenous Peoples who’s lands we are on and migrants who seek a better life for their families. We cannot not allow government agencies, border patrol, ICE or reformist agendas to further their suffering. We will continue our actions of peaceful resistance for human dignity and respect for all peoples.”
The action also denounced SB1070 and HB2281 as racist laws that are a part of an ongoing system of genocidal policies against Indigenous Peoples and migrant communities.
###
For previous Press Statement, please see attachment.
Note to editors, high resolution photos attached; Photo credits: O'odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective
For Immediate Release Media Contacts:
Friday, May 21, 2010 Leilani Clark (520)982-5687
DAVIS-MONTHAN AIRFORCE BASE, TUCSON, AZ
1st NATION AND MIGRANTS OPPOSE SB1070 DEMAND DIGNITY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND END TO BORDER MILITARIZATION
“The militarized border imposed by the U.S. has lead only to cultural and environmental destruction of the indigenous peoples whose land is on or near the border. This militarization brings death and terror for indigenous peoples from other parts of the continent migrating to this land.”
Tucson, AZ – More than a dozen people occupied Border Patrol headquarters at Davis-Monthan Airforce Base today in an act of peaceful resistance. The group includes members of Indigenous Nations of Arizona, migrants, people of color and white allies. Six people used chains and other devices to lock themselves in the building. These Arizona residents disrupted the Border Patrol operations to demand that Border Patrol (BP), Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), their parent entity, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Obama administration end militarization of the border, end the criminalization of immigrant communities, and end their campaign of terror which tear families apart through increasing numbers of raids and deportations.
The protesters also call on the State of Arizona to repeal the racist Senate Bill 1070 that criminalizes immigrant communities on the state level, makes it illegal to transport or harbor an undocumented person regardless of family relationship, requires police agencies to engage in racial profiling, and ultimately is an attempt to ethnically cleanse Arizona of those with brown skin. This act of civil disobedience was only the latest in an increasing wave of direct action targeting the federal government’s terrorist immigration policies.
“Border militarization destroys Indigenous communities. The development of the border wall has lead to desecration of our ancestor’s graves, it has divided our communities and prevents us from accessing sacred places,” said Alex Soto a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation and a volunteer with the group O’odham Solidarity Across Borders
“Troops and paramilitary law enforcement, detention camps, check points, and citizenship verification are not a solution to migration. We have existed here long before these imposed borders, my elders inform us that we always honored freedom of movement. Why our communities and the daily deaths at the border ignored? The impacts of border militarization are constantly made invisible in the media, the popular culture of this country and even the mainstream immigrant’s rights movement which has often pushed for “reform” that means further militarization of the border, which means increased suffering for our communities.”
Indigenous communities such as the O’odham, the Pascua Yaqui, Laipan Apache, Kickapoo, and Cocopah along the US/Mexico border have been terrorized with laws and practices like SB1070 for decades. Indigenous people along the border have been forced by border patrol to carry and provide proof of tribal membership when moving across their traditional lands that have been bisected by this imposed border; a border that has been extremely damaging to the cultural and spiritual practices of these communities. Many people are not able to journey to sacred sites because the communities where people live are on the opposite side of the border from these sites. Since the creation of the current U.S./Mexico border, 45 O’odham villages on or near the border have been completely depopulated.
On this day people who are indigenous to Arizona join with migrants who are indigenous to other parts of the Western Hemisphere in demanding a return to traditional indigenous value of freedom of movement for all people. Prior to the colonization by European nations (spaniards, english, french) and the establishment of the european settler state known as the United States and the artificial borders it and other european inspired nation states have imposed; indigenous people migrated, traveled and traded with each other without regard to artificial black lines drawn on maps. U.S. immigration policies dehumanize and criminalize people simply because which side of these artificial lines they were born on. White settlers whose ancestors have only been here at most for a few hundred years have imposed these policies of terror and death on “immigrants” whose ancestors have lived in this hemisphere for tens of thousands of years, for time immemorial.
In addition, the migration that the U.S. government is attempting to stop is driven more than anything else by the economic policies of the U.S. Free trade agreements such as NAFTA have severely reduced the ability of Mexicans and others from the global south to sustain themselves by permitting corporations to extract huge amounts of wealth and resources from these countries into the U.S. This has led to millions of people risking the terror and death that so many face to cross into the U.S. looking for ways to better support their families. Thousand of women, men, children and elders have died crossing just in the last decade. If the U.S. really wants to reduce migration it should end its policies of exploitation and wealth extraction targeted at the global south and instead pursue policies of economic, environmental and social justice for all human beings on the planet, thus reducing the drive to immigrate.
The protestors are demanding:
· An end to border militarization
· The immediate repeal of SB1070 and 287g
· An end to all racial profiling and the criminalization of our communities
· No ethnic cleansing or cultural genocide
· No border patrol encroachment/sweeps on sovereign native land
· No Deportations
· No Raids
· No ID-verification
· No Checkpoints
· Yes to immediate and unconditional regularization (“legalization”) of all people
· Yes to human rights
· Yes to dignity
· Yes to respect
· Yes to respecting Indigenous Peoples inherent right of migration
###
For Immediate Release Media Contacts:
Saturday, May 22, 2010 Alex Soto (602) 881-6027
Leilani Clark (520) 982-5687
stopboardermilitarization@gmail.com
Activists Lockdown & Occupy US Border Patrol Headquarters
Demanding End to Border Militarization, Protesters Cited and Released
High resolution pictures and B-roll available at: www.oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com
Tucson, AZ – At approximately 1:00PM Friday, May 21, 2010 more than a dozen people occupied the Tucson Headquarters of the US Border Patrol to draw attention to impacts of border militarization in Indigenous Communities. Six people, including Alex Soto a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation and a volunteer with the group O’odham Solidarity Across Borders, locked themselves together for up to 3 and 1/2 hours. “Indigenous voices have been ignored. In our action today we say NO MORE!” Said Soto.
Banners were hung, including one placed over the reception window that read, “Stop Militarization of Indigenous Lands Now”, traditional songs were sung and the group chanted, “Border militarization destroys Indigenous communities!” and “No raids, no deportations! No SB1070, no racist laws!” Approximately 30 Border Patrol agents flooded the lobby of the headquarters and scrambled to react. Roads to the headquarters and adjacent air force base were shut down. Tucson City Police were eventually called and began preparing an extraction of the peaceful resisters.
A diverse crowd of up to 70 people quickly gathered outside the Border Patrol headquarters to support those locked down inside. Ofelia Rivas of O’odham Voices Against The Wall, an elder in support of the action stated, “It was a historical and powerful moment for people of all color to unite with O’odham to stand in solidarity for human rights and to see the next generation take a stand”.
At approximately 4 o’clock the peaceful resisters negotiated the conditions of their release on their terms. Their requests to consult with Tohono O’odham elders to negotiate terms of release were denied by Tucson Police. The protesters decided to unlock and were cited for two misdemeanors each of trespassing and disorderly conduct. The resisters were released just outside the premises to join supporters where they gathered in traditional prayer and rallied against border militarization for another hour. Community members including members of the Pasqual Yaqui, Tohono O'odham, and Dine' Nations reacted emotionally when two Wackenhut Corp. buses left the Border Patrol compound filled with undocumented people. The detainees responded with returning the symbol of resistance - a raised fist.
“This is just one action of many that makes visible the invisible crimes against humanity that occur every day on the colonial border,” stated one of the peaceful resisters. “We commit to honoring the prayers and call for support of the people most impacted by border militarization, the Indigenous Peoples who’s lands we are on and migrants who seek a better life for their families. We cannot not allow government agencies, border patrol, ICE or reformist agendas to further their suffering. We will continue our actions of peaceful resistance for human dignity and respect for all peoples.”
The action also denounced SB1070 and HB2281 as racist laws that are a part of an ongoing system of genocidal policies against Indigenous Peoples and migrant communities.
For previous Press Statement, please see attachment.
Note to editors, high resolution photos attached; Photo credits: O'odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective
-30-
From: Beatriz Amberman [mailto:bmexart@aol.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2010 2:59 AM
To: barryc@indigenousway.net
Subject: Fwd: {MX-A} Tucson, AZ ~ News Release & Fotos ~ Activists Lockdown & Occupy US Border Patrol HDQTRS Demand End to Border Militarization ~ 5.23.10
FYI Barry,
Please distribute the news below and the pictures included in the attachment among your serve lists.
I also want to thank you Barry for all the work you do and for keeping us informed
Warmest regards,
Beatriz Amberman
Founder
Hispanic Community Dialogue of Virginia
837 B First Colonial Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23451
(757) 619-5728 Cell
(757) 437-8889 Work
(757) 437-8494 Fax
E-Mail: bmexart@aol.com
----
From: Devon Pena [devonpena-Original Message-----
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2010 8:46 PM
Subject: Fwd: Fw: NEWS RELEASE: Activists Lockdown & Occupy US Border Patrol Headquarters Demanding End to Border Militarization - photos attached
Beto: I witnessed this on Friday; this is the nation's first ever lockdown of a Border Patrol station. It shut the place down. We were with the affinity group outside of the gates of the military base where the station is located. Please circulate, Devon
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
From: Klee Benally
Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2010 4:28 PM
To: Indigenous Action
Subject: NEWS RELEASE: Activists Lockdown & Occupy US Border Patrol Headquarters Demanding End to Border Militarization - photos attached
Please forward widely:
For Immediate Release
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Media Contacts:
Alex Soto (602) 881-6027
Leilani Clark (520) 982-5687
stopboardermilitarization@gmail.com
Activists Lockdown & Occupy US Border Patrol Headquarters
Demanding End to Border Militarization, Protesters Cited and Released
High resolution pictures and B-roll available at: www.oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com
Tucson, AZ – At approximately 1:00PM Friday, May 21, 2010 more than a dozen people occupied the Tucson Headquarters of the US Border Patrol to draw attention to impacts of border militarization in Indigenous Communities. Six people, including Alex Soto a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation and a volunteer with the group O’odham Solidarity Across Borders, locked themselves together for up to 3 and 1/2 hours. “Indigenous voices have been ignored. In our action today we say NO MORE!” Said Soto.
Banners were hung, including one placed over the reception window that read, “Stop Militarization of Indigenous Lands Now”, traditional songs were sung and the group chanted, “Border militarization destroys Indigenous communities!” and “No raids, no deportations! No SB1070, no racist laws!” Approximately 30 Border Patrol agents flooded the lobby of the headquarters and scrambled to react. Roads to the headquarters and adjacent air force base were shut down. Tucson City Police were eventually called and began preparing an extraction of the peaceful resisters.
A diverse crowd of up to 70 people quickly gathered outside the Border Patrol headquarters to support those locked down inside. Ofelia Rivas of O’odham Voices Against The Wall, an elder in support of the action stated, “It was a historical and powerful moment for people of all color to unite with O’odham to stand in solidarity for human rights and to see the next generation take a stand”.
At approximately 4 o’clock the peaceful resisters negotiated the conditions of their release on their terms. Their requests to consult with Tohono O'odham elders to negotiate terms of release were denied by Tucson Police. The protesters decided to unlock and were cited for two misdemeanors each of trespassing and disorderly conduct. The resisters were released just outside the premises to join supporters where they gathered in traditional prayer and rallied against border militarization for another hour. Community members including members of the Pasqual Yaqui, Tohono O'odham, and Dine' Nations reacted emotionally when two Wackenhut Corp. buses left the Border Patrol compound filled with undocumented people. The detainees responded with returning the symbol of resistance - a raised fist.
“This is just one action of many that makes visible the invisible crimes against humanity that occur every day on the colonial border,” stated one of the peaceful resisters. “We commit to honoring the prayers and call for support of the people most impacted by border militarization, the Indigenous Peoples who’s lands we are on and migrants who seek a better life for their families. We cannot not allow government agencies, border patrol, ICE or reformist agendas to further their suffering. We will continue our actions of peaceful resistance for human dignity and respect for all peoples.”
The action also denounced SB1070 and HB2281 as racist laws that are a part of an ongoing system of genocidal policies against Indigenous Peoples and migrant communities.
###
For previous Press Statement, please see attachment.
Note to editors, high resolution photos attached; Photo credits: O'odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective
For Immediate Release Media Contacts:
Friday, May 21, 2010 Leilani Clark (520)982-5687
Shooting protest march planned in Rapid City on June 1, 2010 Aim Santa Barbara
Shooting protest march planned in Rapid City on June 1, 2010
Aim Santa Barbara
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115663288474717
Shooting protest march planned
A march to protest the shooting death of Christopher J. Capps of Rapid City, an Oglala Lakota, has been scheduled for 1p.m. Tuesday, June 1, in Rapid City.
Capps was shot to death on May 2 by Pennington County Sheriff’s deputy Dave Olson in an open field behind Sunnyside Mobile Home Community, just north of Rapid City.
In addition, the march will protest the “inadequate news coverage” of the mainstream media in Rapid City, according to James Swan of Rapid City. Sponsored by the United Urban Warrior Society, the march will begin at Mother Butler Center and follow a route to the Rapid City Journal, then with turnaround back up 5th Avenue to the school district administration building before returning to Mother Butler Center.
The protest is expected to end with a community feed at 6 p.m. at Mother Butler Center, according to Swan, who said that in addition to protesters, the sponsor invites drum groups, honor guards and flag carriers.
Swan is encouraging donations of cash and food for the march and the feed.
Those planning to participate can contact Swan at: jamesswan_57701@yahoo.comor at (605) 381-8612.
Aim Santa Barbara
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115663288474717
Shooting protest march planned
A march to protest the shooting death of Christopher J. Capps of Rapid City, an Oglala Lakota, has been scheduled for 1p.m. Tuesday, June 1, in Rapid City.
Capps was shot to death on May 2 by Pennington County Sheriff’s deputy Dave Olson in an open field behind Sunnyside Mobile Home Community, just north of Rapid City.
In addition, the march will protest the “inadequate news coverage” of the mainstream media in Rapid City, according to James Swan of Rapid City. Sponsored by the United Urban Warrior Society, the march will begin at Mother Butler Center and follow a route to the Rapid City Journal, then with turnaround back up 5th Avenue to the school district administration building before returning to Mother Butler Center.
The protest is expected to end with a community feed at 6 p.m. at Mother Butler Center, according to Swan, who said that in addition to protesters, the sponsor invites drum groups, honor guards and flag carriers.
Swan is encouraging donations of cash and food for the march and the feed.
Those planning to participate can contact Swan at: jamesswan_57701@yahoo.comor at (605) 381-8612.
Friday, May 28, 2010
The White Animal Nations Speak
The White Animal Nations Speak
This message is from the Peace Chief of the Lakota Oyate,
Arvol Looking Horse:
Chief Looking Horse
May 12, 2010
A Great Urgency: To All World Religious and Spiritual Leaders
My Relatives,
Time has come to speak to the hearts of our Nations and their Leaders. I ask you this from the bottom of my heart, to come together from the Spirit of your Nations in prayer.
We, from the heart of Turtle Island, have a great message for the World; we are guided to speak from all the White Animals showing their sacred color, which have been signs for us to pray for the sacred life of all things. As I am sending this message to you, many Animal Nations are being threatened, those that swim, those that crawl, those that fly, and the plant Nations, eventually all will be affect from the oil disaster in the Gulf.
The dangers we are faced with at this time are not of spirit. The catastrophe that has happened with the oil spill which looks like the bleeding of Grandmother Earth, is made by human mistakes, mistakes that we cannot afford to continue to make.
I asked, as Spiritual Leaders, that we join together, united in prayer with the whole of our Global Communities. My concern is these serious issues will continue to worsen, as a domino effect that our Ancestors have warned us of in their Prophecies.
I know in my heart there are millions of people that feel our united prayers for the sake of our Grandmother Earth are long overdue. I believe we as Spiritual people must gather ourselves and focus our thoughts and prayers to allow the healing of the many wounds that have been inflicted on the Earth.
As we honor the Cycle of Life, let us call for Prayer circles globally to assist in healing Grandmother Earth (our Unc¹I Maka).
We ask for prayers that the oil spill, this bleeding, will stop. That the winds stay calm to assist in the work. Pray for the people to be guided in repairing this mistake, and that we may also seek to live in harmony, as we make the choice to change the destructive path we are on.
As we pray, we will fully understand that we are all connected. And that what we create can have lasting effects on all life.
So let us unite spiritually, All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer. Along with this immediate effort, I also ask to please remember June 21st,World Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites day. Whether it is a natural site, a temple, a church, a synagogue or just your ownsacred space, let us make a prayer for all life, for good decision making by our Nations, for our children's future and well-being, and the generations to come.
Onipikte (that we shall live),
Chief Arvol Looking Horse
19th generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe
http://www.Wolakota.org
Since the early 90's, Chief Looking Horse has been on the Board of the Society of Peace of Prayer that plants Peace Poles around the world, carrying the inscription "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in four different languages. His biography can be found at http://arvollookinghorse.homestead.com/chief_arvol_bio_2001.html
Please pass this message along....
I accept no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent my own, or those of the group owners. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual(s) named. I do not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a result of e-mail transmission.
National day of action against SB 1070 AIM Santa Barbara
National day of action against SB 1070 AIM Santa Barbara
Aim Santa Barbara
http://www.facebook.com/n/?profile.php&id=1617891400&mid=26a7608G47867ceeG13af297G0&n_m=savethesacredsites%40gmail.com
National day of action against SB 1070 -Phoenix AZ SUPPORT OUR RELATIVES!
Prayers for everyone that will be going to this historical event!
INDIGINOUS PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO MIGRATE ANYWHERE WE WANT!
Remember the real “illegal Immigrants” do not have brown skin! They came over here from across the ocean
AIMSB
___________________________________________________________
FROM Alane Golden
Dear friends,
Today and tomorrow, May 28 and 29, several events will be occurring in Phoenix in opposition to SB 1070. I invite you and members of your church to plan to participate, as a way of being in solidarity with our United Methodist, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and other brothers and sisters who happen to be immigrants and whose lives will be affected negatively by this law.
If you cannot attend, please pray for these events, that they may be faithful and peaceful expressions of our concerns for those affected.
National day of action against SB 1070 (http://www.facebook.com/l/1bfb7;www.altoarizona.com)
NDLON (National Day Laborer's Organization) and Puente Sponsored
May 28
6:00 p.m. Festival of Human Rights
Location: El Portal, 2nd Ave & Grant, Phoenix, AZ
Time: 6pm - 12am/All Ages, $5 donation
Details: Live Music, Art Show, Film Festival, Live Poster Printing, Cultural Marketplace.
Confirmed Bands: Los Jornaleros del Norte, Olmeca, Outernational, FE of In Lak Ech, The Haymarket Squares, Mazameh
May 29
8:00 a.m. Gather at Indian Steele Park, 3rd St. & Indian School Rd
8:30 Program (with music and speakers)
10:00 March begins (about 5.7 miles)
Water/emergency stops
2 miles in to the march
3 miles in
5 miles in
1:00 Program at the capitol (music and speakers)
Reform Immigration for America/Local Interfaith sponsored
6:00 Community picnic at the capitol (food for people from out of town
7:30 Prayer vigil – consecration of 500 youth for the work of voter registration
CAUTION!!
Temperatures will probably approach 105 degrees, with full sun. Wear protective clothing, walking shoes, and hats/caps. Bring sun block to wear (apply regularly) and plenty of water to drink.
Grace and peace,
Jim Perdue
Missionary for Immigration and Border Ministry
Desert Southwest Conference in collaboration with the National Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministry
1550 E. Meadowbrook Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85014-4040
Phone: 602-266-6956 x206
Fax: 602-266-5343
Aim Santa Barbara
http://www.facebook.com/n/?profile.php&id=1617891400&mid=26a7608G47867ceeG13af297G0&n_m=savethesacredsites%40gmail.com
National day of action against SB 1070 -Phoenix AZ SUPPORT OUR RELATIVES!
Prayers for everyone that will be going to this historical event!
INDIGINOUS PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO MIGRATE ANYWHERE WE WANT!
Remember the real “illegal Immigrants” do not have brown skin! They came over here from across the ocean
AIMSB
___________________________________________________________
FROM Alane Golden
Dear friends,
Today and tomorrow, May 28 and 29, several events will be occurring in Phoenix in opposition to SB 1070. I invite you and members of your church to plan to participate, as a way of being in solidarity with our United Methodist, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and other brothers and sisters who happen to be immigrants and whose lives will be affected negatively by this law.
If you cannot attend, please pray for these events, that they may be faithful and peaceful expressions of our concerns for those affected.
National day of action against SB 1070 (http://www.facebook.com/l/1bfb7;www.altoarizona.com)
NDLON (National Day Laborer's Organization) and Puente Sponsored
May 28
6:00 p.m. Festival of Human Rights
Location: El Portal, 2nd Ave & Grant, Phoenix, AZ
Time: 6pm - 12am/All Ages, $5 donation
Details: Live Music, Art Show, Film Festival, Live Poster Printing, Cultural Marketplace.
Confirmed Bands: Los Jornaleros del Norte, Olmeca, Outernational, FE of In Lak Ech, The Haymarket Squares, Mazameh
May 29
8:00 a.m. Gather at Indian Steele Park, 3rd St. & Indian School Rd
8:30 Program (with music and speakers)
10:00 March begins (about 5.7 miles)
Water/emergency stops
2 miles in to the march
3 miles in
5 miles in
1:00 Program at the capitol (music and speakers)
Reform Immigration for America/Local Interfaith sponsored
6:00 Community picnic at the capitol (food for people from out of town
7:30 Prayer vigil – consecration of 500 youth for the work of voter registration
CAUTION!!
Temperatures will probably approach 105 degrees, with full sun. Wear protective clothing, walking shoes, and hats/caps. Bring sun block to wear (apply regularly) and plenty of water to drink.
Grace and peace,
Jim Perdue
Missionary for Immigration and Border Ministry
Desert Southwest Conference in collaboration with the National Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministry
1550 E. Meadowbrook Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85014-4040
Phone: 602-266-6956 x206
Fax: 602-266-5343
Sound Strike: Musicians Boycott Arizona
Sound Strike: Musicians Boycott Arizona http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=98128197&blogId=535016639
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Snowy Plovers Need Your Help Too (OIL)
Snowy Plovers Need Your Help Too (OIL) http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=98128197&blogId=535015287
Eyewitness account of wildlife in need
Eyewitness account of wildlife in need http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=98128197&blogId=535015137
Buffalo's Trail of Tears
Buffalo's Trail of Tears
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=98128197&blogId=535014940
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=98128197&blogId=535014940
Call To Action (Please get involved)
Call To Action (Please get involved) http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=98128197&blogId=535007847
Black Indian Confederacy Of North America takes a stand against MTV & Dudesons!
Black Indian Confederacy Of North America takes a stand against MTV & Dudesons!
STATEMENT FROM BICONA AGAINST MTV
To whom it many concern:
My name is Thunderwolf and I run an organization called the Black Indian Confederacy Of North America (BICONA); an organization dedicated to bringing attention to the many negative issues within the American Indian community, brought about by networks such as yours. We have opened doors with the NAACP and recently sent a message to the ACLU to get nvolved in our mission for Native rights. Furthermore, the African American community, in general, is being notified and is willing to become involved with the cause.
In regard to MTV's episode entitled "Cowboys and Findians", we find it appalling that in this day and age there are still those who show total disregard for traditional, spiritual and/or religious beliefs, as depicted in film and television. I see MTV's "Cowboys and Findians" as reckless, insulting and repulsive. The episode amounts to nothing more than a modern day American Indian minstrel show; reminiscent of the days of “Black face”. We are here to stand side by side with American Indian movement chapters and all other people/organizations, who, by the way, are of various races, to oppose this act of insensitivity.
MTV should be ashamed and take responsibility by removing this episode and any others that depict indigenous culture as nothing more than a joke... they should also issue a public apology to all indigenous people. I understand that AIM Santa Barbara had asked for a public apology and to remove the episode by June 1st, so if the demanda are not met, we will stand in solidarity with our Indian family, against your network.
Thunderwolf
BICONA
info@bicona.com
STATEMENT FROM BICONA AGAINST MTV
To whom it many concern:
My name is Thunderwolf and I run an organization called the Black Indian Confederacy Of North America (BICONA); an organization dedicated to bringing attention to the many negative issues within the American Indian community, brought about by networks such as yours. We have opened doors with the NAACP and recently sent a message to the ACLU to get nvolved in our mission for Native rights. Furthermore, the African American community, in general, is being notified and is willing to become involved with the cause.
In regard to MTV's episode entitled "Cowboys and Findians", we find it appalling that in this day and age there are still those who show total disregard for traditional, spiritual and/or religious beliefs, as depicted in film and television. I see MTV's "Cowboys and Findians" as reckless, insulting and repulsive. The episode amounts to nothing more than a modern day American Indian minstrel show; reminiscent of the days of “Black face”. We are here to stand side by side with American Indian movement chapters and all other people/organizations, who, by the way, are of various races, to oppose this act of insensitivity.
MTV should be ashamed and take responsibility by removing this episode and any others that depict indigenous culture as nothing more than a joke... they should also issue a public apology to all indigenous people. I understand that AIM Santa Barbara had asked for a public apology and to remove the episode by June 1st, so if the demanda are not met, we will stand in solidarity with our Indian family, against your network.
Thunderwolf
BICONA
info@bicona.com
Radical Resistance
Radical Resistance: The Bird Lauds One of the Bolder Acts of Civil Disobedience Arizona's Seen Recently
May 27 2010
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2010-05-27/news/radical-resistance-the-bird-lauds-one-of-the-bolder-acts-of-civil-disobedience-arizona-s-seen-recently/1
RADICAL RESISTANCE
O'odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective
On lockdown: Activists take over Tucson's Border Patrol offices at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
In one of the boldest acts of civil disobedience of late, a group of Native American, Mexican-American, and white activists occupied U.S. Border Patrol offices at Tucson's Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on May 21, locking themselves around a pillar in a lobby that was soon filled with shocked Border Patrol agents.
Six of the demonstrators bound themselves together using pieces of PVC pipe around their arms and u-shaped bicycle locks around their necks. A banner was hoisted in front of the lobby's desk reading "Stop Militarization on Indigenous Lands Now."
The protesters had decorated the PVC with slogans such as, "No Militarization of the Border," and "Stop SB 1070." They chanted, sang songs, prayed, and even did freestyle raps, as befuddled BP agents tried to figure out what to do with them.
"It's very empowering to be in a room with 30 officers and know they can't do shit to you," Alex Soto, a Tohono O'odham tribesman and Phoenix group member told me after the action. "It was definitely going to take some force to get us out of there. Force they did not want to use."
Ultimately, the Border Patrol called the Tucson Police Department, and a settlement was negotiated. The demonstrators agreed to leave after 3 1/2 hours. They were arrested, cited for trespassing and disorderly conduct, then released.
Soto, who's working on a degree in American Indian studies at ASU, is originally from Sells, the O'odham Nation's capital, where much of his family still lives. He said this act of "peaceful resistance" was meant to broaden the debate over what's been going on in Arizona in the wake of Governor Jan Brewer's signing Sand Land's new "papers, please" legislation.
"It's not just about one bill or one sheriff," Soto told me, making reference to Sheriff Joe Arpaio. "Our voices are always being marginalized. So we felt the need to take action."
The occupation of the Border Patrol HQ was meant as a challenge not only to Secretary Janet Napolitano's Department of Homeland Security, of which the Border Patrol is a part, but also to the immigration-reform movement itself.
Soto decried what he insists is a trade-off that reform activists are willing to make: increased border security and a border wall in return for a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented residing in the United States.
"We want no walls, no racist, colonial laws that affect people of color, people who come here out of forced migration because of [economics]," he said.
The 24-year-old aspiring hip-hop artist also questioned the Border Patrol's heavy hand on the O'odham Nation, where thousands of migrants cross regularly, and where Border Patrol agents — with their checkpoints in and out of the reservation and their seemingly ever-present vehicles — make O'odham tribal land resemble a police state.
"How are we a sovereign nation when we have an occupying army patrolling our lands, while we're just trying to live?" wondered Soto.
That's a good question, one with no ready answer.
I would also note that it's highly ironic that an agency such as the Border Patrol, which supposedly guards the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border using barriers, helicopters, nighttime cameras, and watchtowers has little or no security vetting access to their own offices on a freaking U.S. Air Force base.
ARIZONA BRUSH FIRE
"Hopefully what we did will inspire other O'odhams and other races to take action," said Alex Soto.
I have no doubt that it will. Indeed, in the wake of SB 1070, the recent ban on ethnic studies, and the declared intent of state Senator Russell Pearce to push the Legislature to deny birth certificates to American-citizen children born to undocumented parents, a brush fire of pro-immigrant activism has swept the state.
On May 17, four students pushing for the DREAM Act were arrested after a sit-down strike in the Tucson offices of U.S. Senator John McCain. The DREAM Act is proposed federal legislation that would allow undocumented students brought to this country as kids to normalize their status.
Three of those young activists were undocumented, and they were held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after hearings before a judge in Tucson. ICE later released them on their own recognizance, but they now face deportation hearings.
Though the three came here from other states, they have vowed to remain in Arizona to organize and agitate on behalf of the DREAM Act.
Fifteen students were arrested days earlier, also in Tucson, in a protest over a ban on classes that promote "ethnic solidarity." The ban is the lame brainchild of Arizona Schools Superintendent Tom Horne, who is beating the nativist drum as he seeks to become our state's next attorney general.
And before that, on April 20, nine college-age men and women chained themselves to the door of the state Capitol in protest of SB 1070, forcing Capitol police to use bolt-cutters to free the activists before they were arrested and shipped to the Fourth Avenue Jail for this display of civil disobedience.
One of the Capitol Nine, as they're now called, was Leilani Clark, a 21-year-old student at Pima Community College whose defiant expression, radical outlook, and massive hair all combine to remind me of a young Angela Davis, the California history professor and political activist whose face was emblazoned on many a poster during the 1970s.
In a sort of echo of those times, an image of Clark getting arrested is now part of a billboard-size digital work of art that's being exhibited on the outside wall of Galeria de la Raza, a gallery in San Francisco's Mission District.
Clark is not Hispanic. Her father is African-American. Her mother is Native American. And she proudly touts herself as the product of the Tucson Unified School District's ethnic studies program. The very one Tom Horne's intent on destroying.
"It's very deep political consciousness that they give you," she told me over lunch in Tucson, referring to her ethnic studies. "So you can see the root factors of things.
"This is not just an immigration problem, it's an economic problem. Because all of the people coming up to the U.S. are economic refugees. They've lost their work, they've lost their livelihood down in Mexico because of U.S. trade policies."
Like many on the left, Clark points an accusing finger at the North American Free Trade Agreement, which critics say has devalued the price of corn in Mexico and helped impoverish many Mexicans, thus forcing them to flee north for work.
The ethnic studies program did not teach her this, per se, rather it taught her how to think critically. At age 16, she was already reading Howard Zinn's influential A People's History of the Unites States and comparing it to other U.S. histories. Pretty advanced stuff for a 16-year-old.
Anglos are not excluded from the classes, according to Clark. She told me that students read Chicano literature, African-American literature, and Native American literature, among other writings.
"It's very diverse," she said. "And it teaches you to have self-consciousness about other cultures. A lot of the students end up studying anthropology in higher education."
It is, in fact, that very diversity and independence of thought that Horne and the racist white Arizona power structure want to eradicate. Indeed, the Arizona Republican Party, in particular, wants to rip it up by the roots, all in a futile attempt to maintain Arizona as a white man's state.
I say futile because in 10 or 15 years' time, young people like Clark will have moved from the barricades to hold positions of influence themselves. And that terrifies the likes of bigots and opportunists such as Horne, state GOP Chairman Randy Pullen, Russell Pearce, and apparently Jan Brewer, as well as the fearful Caucasian community these leaders represent.
That's why these politicians are behind a law like 1070 that declares "attrition through enforcement" to be the policy of Arizona. When I asked Brewer what that meant during her recent press conference with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to promote a push-back to the boycott of Arizona, she tried to tell me it was about people coming here "legally."
Not at all, I shot back. It's about pushing people out — legal and illegal, as many brown people as they can get to leave the state as possible.
The bad news for them is that brilliant young men and women such as Clark are not leaving. They've opted to stay and fight.
WALKING TALL
"Civil disobedience is the next tactic in the escalation of the immigrant rights movement," Leilani Clark said. "We've exhausted every other resource. We've tried to call our senators, set up meetings with the governor. We've done our vigils, done our rallies, our prayers. We've fasted and marched. Our voices are not getting heard. We don't even count."
So Sand Landers can expect more civil disobedience, more passive resistance, and more demonstrations as the war over 1070 goes into a new phase. Unless, perhaps, 1070 is struck down by the courts.
Sigmund Freud had a concept that psychoanalysts call "the return of the repressed," wherein ideas and elements pushed down into the depths of the unconscious will inevitably reappear.
The anti-SB 1070 march to the Arizona state Capitol from Steele Indian School Park on Saturday, May 29, will be part of that return. (Check out www.AltoArizona.com for details.)
So, too, will be the acts of defiance that precede, follow, and accompany the march.
Because the more Arizona's leaders attempt to suppress the state's minority population, the greater the reaction will be, both within the state, and from without.
Long before Freud posited his theory, the American romantic poet William Cullen Bryant put it in more spiritual terms, in a passage the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was fond of quoting:
"Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again."
May 27 2010
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2010-05-27/news/radical-resistance-the-bird-lauds-one-of-the-bolder-acts-of-civil-disobedience-arizona-s-seen-recently/1
RADICAL RESISTANCE
O'odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective
On lockdown: Activists take over Tucson's Border Patrol offices at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
In one of the boldest acts of civil disobedience of late, a group of Native American, Mexican-American, and white activists occupied U.S. Border Patrol offices at Tucson's Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on May 21, locking themselves around a pillar in a lobby that was soon filled with shocked Border Patrol agents.
Six of the demonstrators bound themselves together using pieces of PVC pipe around their arms and u-shaped bicycle locks around their necks. A banner was hoisted in front of the lobby's desk reading "Stop Militarization on Indigenous Lands Now."
The protesters had decorated the PVC with slogans such as, "No Militarization of the Border," and "Stop SB 1070." They chanted, sang songs, prayed, and even did freestyle raps, as befuddled BP agents tried to figure out what to do with them.
"It's very empowering to be in a room with 30 officers and know they can't do shit to you," Alex Soto, a Tohono O'odham tribesman and Phoenix group member told me after the action. "It was definitely going to take some force to get us out of there. Force they did not want to use."
Ultimately, the Border Patrol called the Tucson Police Department, and a settlement was negotiated. The demonstrators agreed to leave after 3 1/2 hours. They were arrested, cited for trespassing and disorderly conduct, then released.
Soto, who's working on a degree in American Indian studies at ASU, is originally from Sells, the O'odham Nation's capital, where much of his family still lives. He said this act of "peaceful resistance" was meant to broaden the debate over what's been going on in Arizona in the wake of Governor Jan Brewer's signing Sand Land's new "papers, please" legislation.
"It's not just about one bill or one sheriff," Soto told me, making reference to Sheriff Joe Arpaio. "Our voices are always being marginalized. So we felt the need to take action."
The occupation of the Border Patrol HQ was meant as a challenge not only to Secretary Janet Napolitano's Department of Homeland Security, of which the Border Patrol is a part, but also to the immigration-reform movement itself.
Soto decried what he insists is a trade-off that reform activists are willing to make: increased border security and a border wall in return for a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented residing in the United States.
"We want no walls, no racist, colonial laws that affect people of color, people who come here out of forced migration because of [economics]," he said.
The 24-year-old aspiring hip-hop artist also questioned the Border Patrol's heavy hand on the O'odham Nation, where thousands of migrants cross regularly, and where Border Patrol agents — with their checkpoints in and out of the reservation and their seemingly ever-present vehicles — make O'odham tribal land resemble a police state.
"How are we a sovereign nation when we have an occupying army patrolling our lands, while we're just trying to live?" wondered Soto.
That's a good question, one with no ready answer.
I would also note that it's highly ironic that an agency such as the Border Patrol, which supposedly guards the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border using barriers, helicopters, nighttime cameras, and watchtowers has little or no security vetting access to their own offices on a freaking U.S. Air Force base.
ARIZONA BRUSH FIRE
"Hopefully what we did will inspire other O'odhams and other races to take action," said Alex Soto.
I have no doubt that it will. Indeed, in the wake of SB 1070, the recent ban on ethnic studies, and the declared intent of state Senator Russell Pearce to push the Legislature to deny birth certificates to American-citizen children born to undocumented parents, a brush fire of pro-immigrant activism has swept the state.
On May 17, four students pushing for the DREAM Act were arrested after a sit-down strike in the Tucson offices of U.S. Senator John McCain. The DREAM Act is proposed federal legislation that would allow undocumented students brought to this country as kids to normalize their status.
Three of those young activists were undocumented, and they were held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after hearings before a judge in Tucson. ICE later released them on their own recognizance, but they now face deportation hearings.
Though the three came here from other states, they have vowed to remain in Arizona to organize and agitate on behalf of the DREAM Act.
Fifteen students were arrested days earlier, also in Tucson, in a protest over a ban on classes that promote "ethnic solidarity." The ban is the lame brainchild of Arizona Schools Superintendent Tom Horne, who is beating the nativist drum as he seeks to become our state's next attorney general.
And before that, on April 20, nine college-age men and women chained themselves to the door of the state Capitol in protest of SB 1070, forcing Capitol police to use bolt-cutters to free the activists before they were arrested and shipped to the Fourth Avenue Jail for this display of civil disobedience.
One of the Capitol Nine, as they're now called, was Leilani Clark, a 21-year-old student at Pima Community College whose defiant expression, radical outlook, and massive hair all combine to remind me of a young Angela Davis, the California history professor and political activist whose face was emblazoned on many a poster during the 1970s.
In a sort of echo of those times, an image of Clark getting arrested is now part of a billboard-size digital work of art that's being exhibited on the outside wall of Galeria de la Raza, a gallery in San Francisco's Mission District.
Clark is not Hispanic. Her father is African-American. Her mother is Native American. And she proudly touts herself as the product of the Tucson Unified School District's ethnic studies program. The very one Tom Horne's intent on destroying.
"It's very deep political consciousness that they give you," she told me over lunch in Tucson, referring to her ethnic studies. "So you can see the root factors of things.
"This is not just an immigration problem, it's an economic problem. Because all of the people coming up to the U.S. are economic refugees. They've lost their work, they've lost their livelihood down in Mexico because of U.S. trade policies."
Like many on the left, Clark points an accusing finger at the North American Free Trade Agreement, which critics say has devalued the price of corn in Mexico and helped impoverish many Mexicans, thus forcing them to flee north for work.
The ethnic studies program did not teach her this, per se, rather it taught her how to think critically. At age 16, she was already reading Howard Zinn's influential A People's History of the Unites States and comparing it to other U.S. histories. Pretty advanced stuff for a 16-year-old.
Anglos are not excluded from the classes, according to Clark. She told me that students read Chicano literature, African-American literature, and Native American literature, among other writings.
"It's very diverse," she said. "And it teaches you to have self-consciousness about other cultures. A lot of the students end up studying anthropology in higher education."
It is, in fact, that very diversity and independence of thought that Horne and the racist white Arizona power structure want to eradicate. Indeed, the Arizona Republican Party, in particular, wants to rip it up by the roots, all in a futile attempt to maintain Arizona as a white man's state.
I say futile because in 10 or 15 years' time, young people like Clark will have moved from the barricades to hold positions of influence themselves. And that terrifies the likes of bigots and opportunists such as Horne, state GOP Chairman Randy Pullen, Russell Pearce, and apparently Jan Brewer, as well as the fearful Caucasian community these leaders represent.
That's why these politicians are behind a law like 1070 that declares "attrition through enforcement" to be the policy of Arizona. When I asked Brewer what that meant during her recent press conference with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to promote a push-back to the boycott of Arizona, she tried to tell me it was about people coming here "legally."
Not at all, I shot back. It's about pushing people out — legal and illegal, as many brown people as they can get to leave the state as possible.
The bad news for them is that brilliant young men and women such as Clark are not leaving. They've opted to stay and fight.
WALKING TALL
"Civil disobedience is the next tactic in the escalation of the immigrant rights movement," Leilani Clark said. "We've exhausted every other resource. We've tried to call our senators, set up meetings with the governor. We've done our vigils, done our rallies, our prayers. We've fasted and marched. Our voices are not getting heard. We don't even count."
So Sand Landers can expect more civil disobedience, more passive resistance, and more demonstrations as the war over 1070 goes into a new phase. Unless, perhaps, 1070 is struck down by the courts.
Sigmund Freud had a concept that psychoanalysts call "the return of the repressed," wherein ideas and elements pushed down into the depths of the unconscious will inevitably reappear.
The anti-SB 1070 march to the Arizona state Capitol from Steele Indian School Park on Saturday, May 29, will be part of that return. (Check out www.AltoArizona.com for details.)
So, too, will be the acts of defiance that precede, follow, and accompany the march.
Because the more Arizona's leaders attempt to suppress the state's minority population, the greater the reaction will be, both within the state, and from without.
Long before Freud posited his theory, the American romantic poet William Cullen Bryant put it in more spiritual terms, in a passage the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was fond of quoting:
"Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again."
Everyone At Eagle Rock Arrested
Everyone At Eagle Rock Arrested - Stay Tuned For More Info
This morning 20 squad cars pulled up to arrest everyone at Eagle Rock. Charlotte Loonsfoot and Chris Solsha were arrested and taken presumably to the county jail. The coalition is trying to decide what its next move will be. There has been a call out to all law enforcement to prepare for a riot. There will not be a riot, but many people do plan to reoccupy the site at Eagle Rock at some point in the near future. It is more than likely that we will be organizing a rally at Eagle Rock today.
For further information, stay tuned. We’ll keep our Web Site up to date today, and you can call us (906.228.4444) if you have any questions or are interested in heading out to Eagle Rock to reoccupy the site or to rally.
Thanks to everyone for their support in this crucial struggle to protect Michigan's Fresh Water.
Your Friends at Save The Wild UP
-----
Teresa Anahuy
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FirstPeoplesNews
This morning 20 squad cars pulled up to arrest everyone at Eagle Rock. Charlotte Loonsfoot and Chris Solsha were arrested and taken presumably to the county jail. The coalition is trying to decide what its next move will be. There has been a call out to all law enforcement to prepare for a riot. There will not be a riot, but many people do plan to reoccupy the site at Eagle Rock at some point in the near future. It is more than likely that we will be organizing a rally at Eagle Rock today.
For further information, stay tuned. We’ll keep our Web Site up to date today, and you can call us (906.228.4444) if you have any questions or are interested in heading out to Eagle Rock to reoccupy the site or to rally.
Thanks to everyone for their support in this crucial struggle to protect Michigan's Fresh Water.
Your Friends at Save The Wild UP
-----
Teresa Anahuy
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FirstPeoplesNews
Have you been effected by the oil spill?
Have you been effected by the oil spill?
***Please forward this message to friends and family along the Gulf Coast***
Attention Gulf Coast commercial fisherman, recreational guides, charter boat owners, resort managers, beachfront property owners, and oil workers:
If this oil spill damages your property or threatens your livelihood ...
CLICK HERE
http://tech.newsletterdailydish.com/index.aspx?34361572-134451952
***Please forward this message to friends and family along the Gulf Coast***
Attention Gulf Coast commercial fisherman, recreational guides, charter boat owners, resort managers, beachfront property owners, and oil workers:
If this oil spill damages your property or threatens your livelihood ...
CLICK HERE
http://tech.newsletterdailydish.com/index.aspx?34361572-134451952
This message is from the Peace Chief of the Lakota Oyate, Arvol Looking Horse
This message is from the Peace Chief of the Lakota Oyate,
Arvol Looking Horse:
Chief Looking Horse
May 12, 2010
A Great Urgency: To All World Religious and Spiritual Leaders
My Relatives,
Time has come to speak to the hearts of our Nations and their Leaders. I ask you this from the bottom of my heart, to come together from the Spirit of your Nations in prayer.
We, from the heart of Turtle Island, have a great message for the World; we are guided to speak from all the White Animals showing their sacred color, which have been signs for us to pray for the sacred life of all things. As I am sending this message to you, many Animal Nations are being threatened, those that swim, those that crawl, those that fly, and the plant Nations, eventually all will be affect from the oil disaster in the Gulf.
The dangers we are faced with at this time are not of spirit. The catastrophe that has happened with the oil spill which looks like the bleeding of Grandmother Earth, is made by human mistakes, mistakes that we cannot afford to continue to make.
I asked, as Spiritual Leaders, that we join together, united in prayer with the whole of our Global Communities. My concern is these serious issues will continue to worsen, as a domino effect that our Ancestors have warned us of in their Prophecies.
I know in my heart there are millions of people that feel our united prayers for the sake of our Grandmother Earth are long overdue. I believe we as Spiritual people must gather ourselves and focus our thoughts and prayers to allow the healing of the many wounds that have been inflicted on the Earth.
As we honor the Cycle of Life, let us call for Prayer circles globally to assist in healing Grandmother Earth (our Unc¹I Maka).
We ask for prayers that the oil spill, this bleeding, will stop. That the winds stay calm to assist in the work. Pray for the people to be guided in repairing this mistake, and that we may also seek to live in harmony, as we make the choice to change the destructive path we are on.
As we pray, we will fully understand that we are all connected. And that what we create can have lasting effects on all life.
So let us unite spiritually, All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer. Along with this immediate effort, I also ask to please remember June 21st,World Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites day. Whether it is a natural site, a temple, a church, a synagogue or just your ownsacred space, let us make a prayer for all life, for good decision making by our Nations, for our children's future and well-being, and the generations to come.
Onipikte (that we shall live),
Chief Arvol Looking Horse
19th generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe
http://www.Wolakota.org
Since the early 90's, Chief Looking Horse has been on the Board of the Society of Peace of Prayer that plants Peace Poles around the world, carrying the inscription "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in four different languages. His biography can be found at http://arvollookinghorse.homestead.com/chief_arvol_bio_2001.html
Please pass this message along....
Arvol Looking Horse:
Chief Looking Horse
May 12, 2010
A Great Urgency: To All World Religious and Spiritual Leaders
My Relatives,
Time has come to speak to the hearts of our Nations and their Leaders. I ask you this from the bottom of my heart, to come together from the Spirit of your Nations in prayer.
We, from the heart of Turtle Island, have a great message for the World; we are guided to speak from all the White Animals showing their sacred color, which have been signs for us to pray for the sacred life of all things. As I am sending this message to you, many Animal Nations are being threatened, those that swim, those that crawl, those that fly, and the plant Nations, eventually all will be affect from the oil disaster in the Gulf.
The dangers we are faced with at this time are not of spirit. The catastrophe that has happened with the oil spill which looks like the bleeding of Grandmother Earth, is made by human mistakes, mistakes that we cannot afford to continue to make.
I asked, as Spiritual Leaders, that we join together, united in prayer with the whole of our Global Communities. My concern is these serious issues will continue to worsen, as a domino effect that our Ancestors have warned us of in their Prophecies.
I know in my heart there are millions of people that feel our united prayers for the sake of our Grandmother Earth are long overdue. I believe we as Spiritual people must gather ourselves and focus our thoughts and prayers to allow the healing of the many wounds that have been inflicted on the Earth.
As we honor the Cycle of Life, let us call for Prayer circles globally to assist in healing Grandmother Earth (our Unc¹I Maka).
We ask for prayers that the oil spill, this bleeding, will stop. That the winds stay calm to assist in the work. Pray for the people to be guided in repairing this mistake, and that we may also seek to live in harmony, as we make the choice to change the destructive path we are on.
As we pray, we will fully understand that we are all connected. And that what we create can have lasting effects on all life.
So let us unite spiritually, All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer. Along with this immediate effort, I also ask to please remember June 21st,World Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites day. Whether it is a natural site, a temple, a church, a synagogue or just your ownsacred space, let us make a prayer for all life, for good decision making by our Nations, for our children's future and well-being, and the generations to come.
Onipikte (that we shall live),
Chief Arvol Looking Horse
19th generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe
http://www.Wolakota.org
Since the early 90's, Chief Looking Horse has been on the Board of the Society of Peace of Prayer that plants Peace Poles around the world, carrying the inscription "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in four different languages. His biography can be found at http://arvollookinghorse.homestead.com/chief_arvol_bio_2001.html
Please pass this message along....
Save the Peaks District Court Oral Arguments Rescheduled for July 16th
Save the Peaks District Court Oral Arguments Rescheduled for July 16th
Marcie Lane
Committee Member
Protect Sacred Sites " Indigenous People,One Nation"
www.protectsacredsites.org
Greetings Save the Peaks supporters!
The court date for oral arguments to Save the Peaks has been rescheduled for July 16th.
While this is an unforeseen challenge we do not view this as a set back.
This will allow us more time to reach out and gain more support to mobilize for the protection of the San Francisco Peaks.
We are rescheduling the support events we were organizing to coincide with the new court date.
Below is the news advisory, please share it with your contacts.
If you would like to volunteer, donate food or funding, or organize an awareness event please contact: phxrally@savethepeaks.org.
Updates will be available on www.savethepeaks.org
______
News Advisory
Tuesday, May 25th 2010
Contact: Klee Benally
media@savethepeaks.org
Save the Peaks District Court Oral Arguments Rescheduled for July 16th
Phoenix, AZ -- An Arizona District Court has rescheduled oral arguments in the lawsuit challenging the proposed use of treated sewage effluent on the San Francisco Peaks located in northern Arizona. The oral arguments have been moved from June 14th and rescheduled to be heard at 2:30 PM, Friday, July 16th, 2010 in the United States District Court before the Honorable Mary H. Murguia in Phoenix, Arizona.
The court stated that it is, "directing the Parties to provide supplemental briefing on the issue whether this lawsuit is barred by the doctrine of claim preclusion or res judicata."
"Res judicata is a legal doctrine that limits the ability of certain plaintiffs to bring cases that have already been heard" said Howard Shanker, attorney for the Save the Peaks Coalition and other plaintiffs. "In this case, the court has not heard this issue and the relationships, if any, of plaintiffs to prior litigants is not the type that would preclude this action in any event."
This case addresses whether or not a private, for-profit business, Arizona Snowbowl Resort Limited Partnership (ASR), which operates on public land managed by the United States Forest Service (USFS), will be permitted to make fake snow using treated sewage water.
The case is known as The Save the Peaks Coalition, et al. v. U.S. Forest Service. The suit asserts, among other things, that the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) prepared by the USFS ignores the possibility of human ingestion of snow made from treated sewage effluent.
Volunteer supporters of the Save the Peaks Coalition are organizing a caravan from northern Arizona, and rally and march at the Sandra Day O'Conner Federal Court House in Phoenix for July 16th.
For a full background, legal documents, photos, and further information on the Save the Peaks Coalition please visit: www.savethepeaks.org.
Marcie Lane
Committee Member
Protect Sacred Sites " Indigenous People,One Nation"
www.protectsacredsites.org
Greetings Save the Peaks supporters!
The court date for oral arguments to Save the Peaks has been rescheduled for July 16th.
While this is an unforeseen challenge we do not view this as a set back.
This will allow us more time to reach out and gain more support to mobilize for the protection of the San Francisco Peaks.
We are rescheduling the support events we were organizing to coincide with the new court date.
Below is the news advisory, please share it with your contacts.
If you would like to volunteer, donate food or funding, or organize an awareness event please contact: phxrally@savethepeaks.org.
Updates will be available on www.savethepeaks.org
______
News Advisory
Tuesday, May 25th 2010
Contact: Klee Benally
media@savethepeaks.org
Save the Peaks District Court Oral Arguments Rescheduled for July 16th
Phoenix, AZ -- An Arizona District Court has rescheduled oral arguments in the lawsuit challenging the proposed use of treated sewage effluent on the San Francisco Peaks located in northern Arizona. The oral arguments have been moved from June 14th and rescheduled to be heard at 2:30 PM, Friday, July 16th, 2010 in the United States District Court before the Honorable Mary H. Murguia in Phoenix, Arizona.
The court stated that it is, "directing the Parties to provide supplemental briefing on the issue whether this lawsuit is barred by the doctrine of claim preclusion or res judicata."
"Res judicata is a legal doctrine that limits the ability of certain plaintiffs to bring cases that have already been heard" said Howard Shanker, attorney for the Save the Peaks Coalition and other plaintiffs. "In this case, the court has not heard this issue and the relationships, if any, of plaintiffs to prior litigants is not the type that would preclude this action in any event."
This case addresses whether or not a private, for-profit business, Arizona Snowbowl Resort Limited Partnership (ASR), which operates on public land managed by the United States Forest Service (USFS), will be permitted to make fake snow using treated sewage water.
The case is known as The Save the Peaks Coalition, et al. v. U.S. Forest Service. The suit asserts, among other things, that the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) prepared by the USFS ignores the possibility of human ingestion of snow made from treated sewage effluent.
Volunteer supporters of the Save the Peaks Coalition are organizing a caravan from northern Arizona, and rally and march at the Sandra Day O'Conner Federal Court House in Phoenix for July 16th.
For a full background, legal documents, photos, and further information on the Save the Peaks Coalition please visit: www.savethepeaks.org.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
What Do Teabaggers Stand For?
What Do Teabaggers Stand For?
by Tom Hall posted on Wednesday, 26 May 2010
http://www.laprogressive.com/progressive-issues/idoi-teabaggers-stand/
States are having their primaries and the candidate line-ups for fall elections are taking shape. We may know who represents which party on the ballot. But for at least half of the ballot, we don’t have much information about what the candidates actually stand for.
Even as the extreme right wing of the Republican Party has gained control, it’s hard to know exactly what they want from the system. They call themselves fiscal conservatives and libertarians, who want less government spending and no government favoritism. But they were horrified by Bill Clinton’s balanced budget and budget surplus and they clamor to get back to the no-bid contracts of the Cheney/Bush era. They claim to favor anything military. But they applaud the Cheney/Bush efforts to cut veterans’ benefits and health care.
With Dick Armey’s organization of the Tea Party movement, encouraging a lot of freelance (well-funded but less well-controlled) activities, we’ve begun to get more people talking about what the real goals of the Republican/Teabag movement really are. By looking at recent statements by current Republican spokespeople, we can get a picture of what the Teabag platform really is. Amazingly, it turns out that they reject almost all previous Republican positions.
There are still a few sentient people in the Republican Party who may remember the brouhaha over National ID Cards. In those olden days of the Clinton era, “conservatives” claimed that the idea of a National ID Card was a liberal plot to take away our freedoms. But now that the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations can buy government officials, Teabag Republicans are saying that a National ID Card would be a perfect way to control illegal immigration and international terrorism. It’s just a total coincidence that the National ID Card might carry tons of consumer data, useful to the corporations who want to sell us stuff we don’t need or ask for.
How such a card full of consumer data would help stop people from jumping border fences, or using fake passports to fly here, remains a mystery. And anyone who raises that question is derided as a traitor.
One of the main themes of the Teabag movement is their claim that they want to “restore” the Constitution. But what do they actually mean by this phrase? A recent Republican press release said that the “original” Constitution was perfect, and that the Amendments damaged that perfect document. But less than five years ago, in November 2005, George Bush complained that the Constitution was “just a goddamned piece of paper!” When he said that, none of the people now claiming to want to “restore” it made any complaint at all about Cheney/Bush policies that tore the Constitution down.
The Republicans want to focus their ire at the 13th amendment, which outlawed slavery, and the 8th Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishments. After all, during the Dubya administration, we all learned about a huge variety of unusual punishments, which sounded kinda cool! Why should any stupid amendment mess up the perfect Constitution and also do away with kinky, exciting tortures?
But while focusing attention on the 13th amendment, the Republicans were actually going after all of the amendments. Like that pesky 1st amendment that lets even godless liberals and Socialist, Marxist, Nazi Commies express their views without punishment. That one’s gotta go! If the founding fathers had wanted it in there, they would have said so in the original document – you betcha!
Now think back to the National ID Card. Republicans used to pretend to oppose such a thing. But when it got to be advantageous for them, they flipped and now they back it. And think of slavery. Republicans, like Lincoln, used to oppose it, but now Michael Steele is calling the 13th Amendment a terrible mistake and a perversion of the “original goddamned piece of paper.”
Republicans used to believe in free market capitalism and competition for the best products. But now they favor no-bid contracts, awarded to political allies and contributors, with no concern for quality control. So what else should we wonder about? The 2nd Amendment, which Republicans claim to love as much as free markets and competition, may be the next thing to go. The 2nd Amendment is, after all, just an amendment – an alteration to a perfect document. It, like the 13th Amendment, may be in the gunsights of “restorationists.”
Over the weekend, Michael Steele said that Teabag hero Rand Paul was “in lockstep” with the Republican Party’s program. Rand Paul follows his father’s deep devotion to the superiority of the white race. He thinks that businesses should be able to exclude the inferior races, even if government can’t. This is “in lockstep” with Michael Steele’s claim that the 13th Amendment perverts the “original goddamned piece of paper.”
The Republican Teabag movement also claims to be deeply religious. They want to impose their piety on all the people who have not yet been born again. That’s one reason for wanting to eliminate that 1st Amendment perversion of the “original goddamned piece of paper.” But again, it’s not entirely clear what their religiosity means.
That Jesus guy said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” But Teabag Republicans say that Jesus was just flat wrong. They want a theocratic government, which forces everyone to accept their version of religious morality. This gets really confusing. Just a few years ago, Republican business leaders were raking in tens of millions of dollars around campaigns to force the Ten Commandments into every school and court room. But they are “in lockstep” in agreeing that those Ten Commandments contain some big mistakes.
One of the worst mistakes in the Ten Commandments, according to Teabag Republicans, is the one that says “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Republicans claim that lying is often necessary, particularly when it leads to higher profits. So it was OK to lie about the reasons for sending thousands of U.S. troops to die in Iraq. It was OK to lie about subverting environmental and health protection laws, when big contributors wanted to avoid restrictions. And Teabaggers now say that it is OK to lie about the Obama administration, if the lies get votes for Republican candidates. In the fall election campaigns, they’re going to claim that Obama caused the BP oil leak.
Another error in the Commandments is the one about “Thou shalt have no Gods before me.” Any Teabag Republican can tell you that it is more important to worship power and money than God. This points to another mistake Jesus made, according to Republicans. He said that heaven was for the poor and the meek, and that “it will be harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.” Republicans say that this is totally wrong – in fact, only the rich will get to heaven. Being rich is a sign of good religion.
The result of these contradictions is that we can see that Teabag Republicans are:
Against the evil of Democratic balanced budgets;
Against the evil of business competition;
Against the perversion of the Constitution found in the amendment to end slavery;
Against Jesus’ mistaken understanding of religion’s role in government;
In favor of exalting personal greed and profit above the Commandments and the teachings of Jesus.
With so many things that they claim to be for, but actually act against, what can we believe about the Teabag movement? One thing for sure – Michael Steele was right when he bragged that Rand Paul was a perfect Teabagger because he is “in lockstep” with the Republican Party’s plans.
This tells us what Teabag Republicans are against – they remain loyal to the “Party of No!” label. But it doesn’t tell us what they are for. That may be because they are too smart to admit details of what they want to do. Or maybe they are too scared of losing votes if they admit what their real plans are.
Tom Hall
--
Drill baby drill, became Spill baby spill, then burn baby burn became, kill baby kill as all the sea life and the economy of the gulf dies.
by Tom Hall posted on Wednesday, 26 May 2010
http://www.laprogressive.com/progressive-issues/idoi-teabaggers-stand/
States are having their primaries and the candidate line-ups for fall elections are taking shape. We may know who represents which party on the ballot. But for at least half of the ballot, we don’t have much information about what the candidates actually stand for.
Even as the extreme right wing of the Republican Party has gained control, it’s hard to know exactly what they want from the system. They call themselves fiscal conservatives and libertarians, who want less government spending and no government favoritism. But they were horrified by Bill Clinton’s balanced budget and budget surplus and they clamor to get back to the no-bid contracts of the Cheney/Bush era. They claim to favor anything military. But they applaud the Cheney/Bush efforts to cut veterans’ benefits and health care.
With Dick Armey’s organization of the Tea Party movement, encouraging a lot of freelance (well-funded but less well-controlled) activities, we’ve begun to get more people talking about what the real goals of the Republican/Teabag movement really are. By looking at recent statements by current Republican spokespeople, we can get a picture of what the Teabag platform really is. Amazingly, it turns out that they reject almost all previous Republican positions.
There are still a few sentient people in the Republican Party who may remember the brouhaha over National ID Cards. In those olden days of the Clinton era, “conservatives” claimed that the idea of a National ID Card was a liberal plot to take away our freedoms. But now that the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations can buy government officials, Teabag Republicans are saying that a National ID Card would be a perfect way to control illegal immigration and international terrorism. It’s just a total coincidence that the National ID Card might carry tons of consumer data, useful to the corporations who want to sell us stuff we don’t need or ask for.
How such a card full of consumer data would help stop people from jumping border fences, or using fake passports to fly here, remains a mystery. And anyone who raises that question is derided as a traitor.
One of the main themes of the Teabag movement is their claim that they want to “restore” the Constitution. But what do they actually mean by this phrase? A recent Republican press release said that the “original” Constitution was perfect, and that the Amendments damaged that perfect document. But less than five years ago, in November 2005, George Bush complained that the Constitution was “just a goddamned piece of paper!” When he said that, none of the people now claiming to want to “restore” it made any complaint at all about Cheney/Bush policies that tore the Constitution down.
The Republicans want to focus their ire at the 13th amendment, which outlawed slavery, and the 8th Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishments. After all, during the Dubya administration, we all learned about a huge variety of unusual punishments, which sounded kinda cool! Why should any stupid amendment mess up the perfect Constitution and also do away with kinky, exciting tortures?
But while focusing attention on the 13th amendment, the Republicans were actually going after all of the amendments. Like that pesky 1st amendment that lets even godless liberals and Socialist, Marxist, Nazi Commies express their views without punishment. That one’s gotta go! If the founding fathers had wanted it in there, they would have said so in the original document – you betcha!
Now think back to the National ID Card. Republicans used to pretend to oppose such a thing. But when it got to be advantageous for them, they flipped and now they back it. And think of slavery. Republicans, like Lincoln, used to oppose it, but now Michael Steele is calling the 13th Amendment a terrible mistake and a perversion of the “original goddamned piece of paper.”
Republicans used to believe in free market capitalism and competition for the best products. But now they favor no-bid contracts, awarded to political allies and contributors, with no concern for quality control. So what else should we wonder about? The 2nd Amendment, which Republicans claim to love as much as free markets and competition, may be the next thing to go. The 2nd Amendment is, after all, just an amendment – an alteration to a perfect document. It, like the 13th Amendment, may be in the gunsights of “restorationists.”
Over the weekend, Michael Steele said that Teabag hero Rand Paul was “in lockstep” with the Republican Party’s program. Rand Paul follows his father’s deep devotion to the superiority of the white race. He thinks that businesses should be able to exclude the inferior races, even if government can’t. This is “in lockstep” with Michael Steele’s claim that the 13th Amendment perverts the “original goddamned piece of paper.”
The Republican Teabag movement also claims to be deeply religious. They want to impose their piety on all the people who have not yet been born again. That’s one reason for wanting to eliminate that 1st Amendment perversion of the “original goddamned piece of paper.” But again, it’s not entirely clear what their religiosity means.
That Jesus guy said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” But Teabag Republicans say that Jesus was just flat wrong. They want a theocratic government, which forces everyone to accept their version of religious morality. This gets really confusing. Just a few years ago, Republican business leaders were raking in tens of millions of dollars around campaigns to force the Ten Commandments into every school and court room. But they are “in lockstep” in agreeing that those Ten Commandments contain some big mistakes.
One of the worst mistakes in the Ten Commandments, according to Teabag Republicans, is the one that says “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Republicans claim that lying is often necessary, particularly when it leads to higher profits. So it was OK to lie about the reasons for sending thousands of U.S. troops to die in Iraq. It was OK to lie about subverting environmental and health protection laws, when big contributors wanted to avoid restrictions. And Teabaggers now say that it is OK to lie about the Obama administration, if the lies get votes for Republican candidates. In the fall election campaigns, they’re going to claim that Obama caused the BP oil leak.
Another error in the Commandments is the one about “Thou shalt have no Gods before me.” Any Teabag Republican can tell you that it is more important to worship power and money than God. This points to another mistake Jesus made, according to Republicans. He said that heaven was for the poor and the meek, and that “it will be harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.” Republicans say that this is totally wrong – in fact, only the rich will get to heaven. Being rich is a sign of good religion.
The result of these contradictions is that we can see that Teabag Republicans are:
Against the evil of Democratic balanced budgets;
Against the evil of business competition;
Against the perversion of the Constitution found in the amendment to end slavery;
Against Jesus’ mistaken understanding of religion’s role in government;
In favor of exalting personal greed and profit above the Commandments and the teachings of Jesus.
With so many things that they claim to be for, but actually act against, what can we believe about the Teabag movement? One thing for sure – Michael Steele was right when he bragged that Rand Paul was a perfect Teabagger because he is “in lockstep” with the Republican Party’s plans.
This tells us what Teabag Republicans are against – they remain loyal to the “Party of No!” label. But it doesn’t tell us what they are for. That may be because they are too smart to admit details of what they want to do. Or maybe they are too scared of losing votes if they admit what their real plans are.
Tom Hall
--
Drill baby drill, became Spill baby spill, then burn baby burn became, kill baby kill as all the sea life and the economy of the gulf dies.
The Real Reason The Oil Spill Isn't being Cleaned Up It's all of us vs. one Senator from Alaska
The Real Reason The Oil Spill Isn't being Cleaned Up
It's all of us vs. one Senator from Alaska.
Senator Lisa Murkowski (R- AK), is blocking legislation to make BP pay the full clean up costs for the disaster in the Gulf.1 She wants BP to only be responsible for the first $75 million of the spill. But the real cost is more than $650 million, and the bill goes up another $12,000 every minute.2
And even though she's just one senator, we're running out of time to stop her. The Senate is about to go on vacation for Memorial Day, leaving us taxpayers holding the bill until they come back. We can't let that happen.
(Note from Dave: In other words, if the government starts the clean up before this legislation is passed, BP won't pay for the major portion of this mess that they caused.
You and I will. That's right. The culprits have a mole working to stop them from paying for their mess and the destruction of the Gulf wildlife, fishing, tourism, and the Gulf and USA's economy is going in the toilet. And BP doesn't want to pay for most of it.
Nice of them isn't it?)
http://act.truemajorityaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=71
This won't be easy. BP and other oil-industry giants are ramping up their donations to conservative Senators like Murkowski.1 The oil companies are counting on these politicians to bail them out when trouble hits.
Fortunately, not every politician is in Big Oil's pocket. And if enough of our senators get a backbone and stop kowtowing to BP and the other CEOs, change is possible.
Help your senators find their backbone. If enough of us work together, we can make BP pay for the clean up, stop the drilling and focus on clean energy alternatives.
Thanks,
-Drew
Drew Hudson
TrueMajority / USAction
P.S. Just how much is BP looking to avoid paying? Checkout our Oil Spill Clean up Counter here.
1 - npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127122334
2 - washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/10/AR2010051004664.html
This senator could cost you
$12,000 a minute.
Tell the Senate to make BP pay to clean up their own mess.
http://act.truemajority.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=aMZ1dO0OmmOgx%2BSE726Zd%2BgIGg5pjquM
--
Drill baby drill, became Spill baby spill, then burn baby burn became, kill baby kill as all the sea life and the economy of the gulf dies.
It's all of us vs. one Senator from Alaska.
Senator Lisa Murkowski (R- AK), is blocking legislation to make BP pay the full clean up costs for the disaster in the Gulf.1 She wants BP to only be responsible for the first $75 million of the spill. But the real cost is more than $650 million, and the bill goes up another $12,000 every minute.2
And even though she's just one senator, we're running out of time to stop her. The Senate is about to go on vacation for Memorial Day, leaving us taxpayers holding the bill until they come back. We can't let that happen.
(Note from Dave: In other words, if the government starts the clean up before this legislation is passed, BP won't pay for the major portion of this mess that they caused.
You and I will. That's right. The culprits have a mole working to stop them from paying for their mess and the destruction of the Gulf wildlife, fishing, tourism, and the Gulf and USA's economy is going in the toilet. And BP doesn't want to pay for most of it.
Nice of them isn't it?)
http://act.truemajorityaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=71
This won't be easy. BP and other oil-industry giants are ramping up their donations to conservative Senators like Murkowski.1 The oil companies are counting on these politicians to bail them out when trouble hits.
Fortunately, not every politician is in Big Oil's pocket. And if enough of our senators get a backbone and stop kowtowing to BP and the other CEOs, change is possible.
Help your senators find their backbone. If enough of us work together, we can make BP pay for the clean up, stop the drilling and focus on clean energy alternatives.
Thanks,
-Drew
Drew Hudson
TrueMajority / USAction
P.S. Just how much is BP looking to avoid paying? Checkout our Oil Spill Clean up Counter here.
1 - npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127122334
2 - washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/10/AR2010051004664.html
This senator could cost you
$12,000 a minute.
Tell the Senate to make BP pay to clean up their own mess.
http://act.truemajority.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=aMZ1dO0OmmOgx%2BSE726Zd%2BgIGg5pjquM
--
Drill baby drill, became Spill baby spill, then burn baby burn became, kill baby kill as all the sea life and the economy of the gulf dies.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Holding the Feet of the Thieves to the Fire
Holding the Feet of the Thieves to the Fire - By Tim Giago - May 24, 2010
An editorial on Indianz.com asks, "What happens if Congress doesn't approve the $3.4 billion settlement to the Indian trust fund lawsuit?
It answers its own question with, "Nothing. No one gets any money. Litigation will continue at the expense of the Bureau of Indian Affairs budget and Congress will continue to do nothing about trust reform." It concludes with, "That's not what Indian country deserves." What Indian country got it also didn't deserve.
First of all, $2 billion of the settlement would go to solve the age-old dilemma of land consolidation, since most allotted lands are so fractionated that oftentimes 160-acre allotments are co-owned by several hundred people.
This problem was brought on by the very people who became defendants in the Cobell lawsuit: the U. S. Department of the Interior and its agent the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Why should the plaintiffs in the lawsuit pay $2 billion of their settlement to the very agencies that caused the problem in the first place? That is such a crazy scheme that it would laughable if it was not such a serious issue. That's like getting a check from the BIA, signing it, and then handing it back to them and saying, "Thank you for ripping me off." Insane!
All of that aside, the cash settlement was an insult to all Native Americans. So what if the litigation dragged on for 12 years? I am a landholder and I don't expect to get a single penny from the settlement because I think it should go to the next generation.
By settling for $3.4 billion, the plaintiff attorneys took the mismanagement and malfeasance of the government off of the table and allowed the United States to forever conceal their crimes against a destitute people.
A court trial would have put the theft of Indian lands and resources squarely before the eyes of the world. That stage of the media was effectively eliminated by settling out of court.
Day after day in an open trial, the government would have been exposed for what it is and a jury would have been allowed to see all of the evidence of theft, mismanagement and outright stupidity that caused billions of dollars of trust money to be flushed down the toilet or stolen outright from the poorest of the poor.
For the first time in American history, the people would have learned about an issue that has been covered up for more than 100 years. That is the sad part of settling this issue behind closed doors. The Indian people are the losers and their story of poverty brought down upon them by an uncaring government will continue to be hidden forever.
When the Cobell lawyers decided to accept a cash settlement they did so without consulting their clients. If that is not a breach of trust I don't know what is. It should not have mattered that the case drags on because in the long run the ultimate goal was simple justice. There should never be a time limit set on justice.
If the lawyers for the plaintiffs are as good as they seem to think they are, they should not have feared allowing the plaintiffs to have their day in court. By denying them this basic legal right and settling for what amounts to peanuts, they took the issue out of the public eye and doomed it to irrelevance. It denied the American Indians their day in the court of public opinion. A just jury exposed to all of the misdeeds and corruption of the United States would have been much more generous to the plaintiffs.
If the general public had been educated to the deprivation, poverty and anguish caused to the Indian people by the mismanagement of their resources and assets, an outcry would have rumbled across America and the world. And as many elders have said for years, a settlement reached without the full consent of the plaintiffs would be no settlement at all, but instead would be a travesty of justice.
Once the attorneys of the plaintiffs reached a settlement, they took out of the hands of the Indian people their ability to continue their more than 100-year fight for justice.
Cobell's line up of attorneys never understood that it wasn't so much about the money, but it was all about justice denied and of holding the feet of the thieves to the fire.
By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) © 2010 Native Sun News
Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is the publisher of Native Sun News. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard with the Class of 1990. His weekly column won the H. L. Mencken Award in 1985. His book Children Left Behind was awarded the Bronze Medal by Independent Book Publishers. Giago was inducted into the South Dakota Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2007. He can be reached at editor@nsweekly.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-giago/holding-the-feet-of-the-t_b_586381.html
-----
Teresa Anahuy
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FirstPeoplesNews
An editorial on Indianz.com asks, "What happens if Congress doesn't approve the $3.4 billion settlement to the Indian trust fund lawsuit?
It answers its own question with, "Nothing. No one gets any money. Litigation will continue at the expense of the Bureau of Indian Affairs budget and Congress will continue to do nothing about trust reform." It concludes with, "That's not what Indian country deserves." What Indian country got it also didn't deserve.
First of all, $2 billion of the settlement would go to solve the age-old dilemma of land consolidation, since most allotted lands are so fractionated that oftentimes 160-acre allotments are co-owned by several hundred people.
This problem was brought on by the very people who became defendants in the Cobell lawsuit: the U. S. Department of the Interior and its agent the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Why should the plaintiffs in the lawsuit pay $2 billion of their settlement to the very agencies that caused the problem in the first place? That is such a crazy scheme that it would laughable if it was not such a serious issue. That's like getting a check from the BIA, signing it, and then handing it back to them and saying, "Thank you for ripping me off." Insane!
All of that aside, the cash settlement was an insult to all Native Americans. So what if the litigation dragged on for 12 years? I am a landholder and I don't expect to get a single penny from the settlement because I think it should go to the next generation.
By settling for $3.4 billion, the plaintiff attorneys took the mismanagement and malfeasance of the government off of the table and allowed the United States to forever conceal their crimes against a destitute people.
A court trial would have put the theft of Indian lands and resources squarely before the eyes of the world. That stage of the media was effectively eliminated by settling out of court.
Day after day in an open trial, the government would have been exposed for what it is and a jury would have been allowed to see all of the evidence of theft, mismanagement and outright stupidity that caused billions of dollars of trust money to be flushed down the toilet or stolen outright from the poorest of the poor.
For the first time in American history, the people would have learned about an issue that has been covered up for more than 100 years. That is the sad part of settling this issue behind closed doors. The Indian people are the losers and their story of poverty brought down upon them by an uncaring government will continue to be hidden forever.
When the Cobell lawyers decided to accept a cash settlement they did so without consulting their clients. If that is not a breach of trust I don't know what is. It should not have mattered that the case drags on because in the long run the ultimate goal was simple justice. There should never be a time limit set on justice.
If the lawyers for the plaintiffs are as good as they seem to think they are, they should not have feared allowing the plaintiffs to have their day in court. By denying them this basic legal right and settling for what amounts to peanuts, they took the issue out of the public eye and doomed it to irrelevance. It denied the American Indians their day in the court of public opinion. A just jury exposed to all of the misdeeds and corruption of the United States would have been much more generous to the plaintiffs.
If the general public had been educated to the deprivation, poverty and anguish caused to the Indian people by the mismanagement of their resources and assets, an outcry would have rumbled across America and the world. And as many elders have said for years, a settlement reached without the full consent of the plaintiffs would be no settlement at all, but instead would be a travesty of justice.
Once the attorneys of the plaintiffs reached a settlement, they took out of the hands of the Indian people their ability to continue their more than 100-year fight for justice.
Cobell's line up of attorneys never understood that it wasn't so much about the money, but it was all about justice denied and of holding the feet of the thieves to the fire.
By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) © 2010 Native Sun News
Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is the publisher of Native Sun News. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard with the Class of 1990. His weekly column won the H. L. Mencken Award in 1985. His book Children Left Behind was awarded the Bronze Medal by Independent Book Publishers. Giago was inducted into the South Dakota Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2007. He can be reached at editor@nsweekly.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-giago/holding-the-feet-of-the-t_b_586381.html
-----
Teresa Anahuy
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FirstPeoplesNews
An ancient cure for recent trauma
An ancient cure for recent trauma
By F.B. Drake - May 24, 2010
WHITE CITY — Three days a month, a small patch of earth at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center and Clinics becomes sacred ground...... http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100524/NEWS/5240316
-----
Teresa Anahuy
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FirstPeoplesNews
By F.B. Drake - May 24, 2010
WHITE CITY — Three days a month, a small patch of earth at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center and Clinics becomes sacred ground...... http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100524/NEWS/5240316
-----
Teresa Anahuy
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FirstPeoplesNews
"Whites only" lunch counters?
"Whites only" lunch counters? http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=98128197&blogId=534904833
Natives getting short shrift in War of 1812 bicentennial planning, groups say
Natives getting short shrift in War of 1812 bicentennial planning, groups say
Posted By: Anthony Jay Henhawk Jr.
To: Members in First Nations & Aboriginal Rights
OTTAWA -- Natives need to play an important role in celebrations marking the bicentennial of the War of 1812, say Parks Canada documents obtained by Canwest News Service, but First Nations groups say that isn't happening yet.
There are myriad references in 166 pages of documents to making sure natives and their "pivotal role" in the war to repel American invaders are properly recognized at historical 1812 sites and in interpretation centres.
"Address weaknesses in aboriginal interpretation at those related sites - involves enhancing relationships with First Nations communities," the documents note under a "strategy" heading.
The documents, obtained under access-to-information law, also say Parks Canada "want(s) to bring about a significant increase in aboriginal interpretation and presentations of national historic sites.
"The role of the First Nations in the War of 1812 is generally not well understood. Canadians in general are not aware of the fact that without the actions of aboriginal allies, Upper Canada and the West would likely have fallen to American arms. A number of historic sites have a very important Aboriginal War of 1812 story to tell."
It also notes that during "the lead-up to the bicentennial, there is an opportunity to work with aboriginal communities to develop better presentations of their history at our sites and on the web pages and in educational material."
But native groups say that is precisely what hasn't happened so far.
"Even if it's overdue, we welcome this,'' said Maurice Switzer, communications director for The Union of Ontario Indians, an advocacy group for 42 member First Nations across Ontario.
"The one thing that's important is that we do be engaged in the process. We don't want a bunch of non-native academics or civil servants deciding on what's the best way to do this. It's our history. Ask us."
Switzer says a perfect example of what is wrong with how the native role in the war has been underplayed is the famous Niagara-area memorial to British officer Sir Isaac Brock, who died resisting an American advance at the Battle of Queenston Heights in October 1812.
"One of the most memorable monuments in Canada is the one of Sir Isaac Brock overlooking Niagara River," he said. The statue is 56 metres high. "I knew there was a little marker somewhere on the park grounds," for the native role in the battle. "I couldn't find one staffer that could identify that location for me. Way down a hillside, all overgrown with moss and weeds, was a little teeny marker that acknowledges 'harassment' by Indians of the enemy. No specific names."
Switzer wonders if the government is reluctant to play up native involvement in helping build the country because it might strengthen land rights claims.
"It just sort of seems to take a long, long time to get around to admitting First Nations peoples (and) Aboriginal Peoples have played a big role in contributing to Canada being the successful country it is," he adds.
"It's quite likely that if it wasn't for the First Nations' support of leaders like Tecumseh . . . the flags that are flying over our public buildings in this country would probably be stars and stripes."
Sherry Huff, a spokeswoman with the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, representing 20,000 people, says there has been some "discussion about how we are going to respond to the commemoration of the War of 1812.
"Our communities have expressed concern that we haven't been included. I don't believe there has been any meaningful consultation at all. You would think we would be at the table now," she added.
The Assembly of First Nations, the national organization representing First Nations citizens in Canada, has not been contacted by federal government organizers of the 1812 events in the works for 2012.
Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Patrick Madahbee told Canwest News Service that he has heard that Parks Canada will be commemorating the bicentennial of the War of 1812, but "we've been minimally involved. . . . We haven't heard of any details."
Jim Prentice, the minister responsible for Parks Canada, said: "Well, certainly they will be included. I'm not aware of the criticisms that you are referring to. Aboriginal Canadians will definitely be part of those celebrations."
Parks Canada maintains that it is still committed to having natives play a key role in the commemorations.
"Making sure that our First Nations can participate in the bicentennial and are in a position to tell their stories related to the War of 1812 is quite important," said Doug Stewart, director general of national parks at Parks Canada.
"It's important for Canada and it's important for the First Nations to be able to do that."
While the documents show that Parks Canada has been discussing the bicentennial since at least 2008, Stewart said native groups haven't been snubbed so far, it is just that Parks Canada is ramping up its planning now
"There may have been some identification of these things as early as 2008, but it really wasn't until the spring of 2009 that our own activities geared up in any sort of real planning context.
"June 2012 will really be the launch (of the bicennential) - that's when the war actually began - there's a lot of work yet to come with respect to the planning of events and activities."
The documents, thousands of pages of which were withheld for various exemptions allowed by the access-to-information law, also make it clear that Parks Canada sees the bicentennial as a key opportunity to draw attention to its mandate.
"Considerably boost awareness of a number of our national historic sites," and "increase sustainability of our sites through increased revenue," the pages note as some of the perceived benefits to Parks Canada.
Posted By: Anthony Jay Henhawk Jr.
To: Members in First Nations & Aboriginal Rights
OTTAWA -- Natives need to play an important role in celebrations marking the bicentennial of the War of 1812, say Parks Canada documents obtained by Canwest News Service, but First Nations groups say that isn't happening yet.
There are myriad references in 166 pages of documents to making sure natives and their "pivotal role" in the war to repel American invaders are properly recognized at historical 1812 sites and in interpretation centres.
"Address weaknesses in aboriginal interpretation at those related sites - involves enhancing relationships with First Nations communities," the documents note under a "strategy" heading.
The documents, obtained under access-to-information law, also say Parks Canada "want(s) to bring about a significant increase in aboriginal interpretation and presentations of national historic sites.
"The role of the First Nations in the War of 1812 is generally not well understood. Canadians in general are not aware of the fact that without the actions of aboriginal allies, Upper Canada and the West would likely have fallen to American arms. A number of historic sites have a very important Aboriginal War of 1812 story to tell."
It also notes that during "the lead-up to the bicentennial, there is an opportunity to work with aboriginal communities to develop better presentations of their history at our sites and on the web pages and in educational material."
But native groups say that is precisely what hasn't happened so far.
"Even if it's overdue, we welcome this,'' said Maurice Switzer, communications director for The Union of Ontario Indians, an advocacy group for 42 member First Nations across Ontario.
"The one thing that's important is that we do be engaged in the process. We don't want a bunch of non-native academics or civil servants deciding on what's the best way to do this. It's our history. Ask us."
Switzer says a perfect example of what is wrong with how the native role in the war has been underplayed is the famous Niagara-area memorial to British officer Sir Isaac Brock, who died resisting an American advance at the Battle of Queenston Heights in October 1812.
"One of the most memorable monuments in Canada is the one of Sir Isaac Brock overlooking Niagara River," he said. The statue is 56 metres high. "I knew there was a little marker somewhere on the park grounds," for the native role in the battle. "I couldn't find one staffer that could identify that location for me. Way down a hillside, all overgrown with moss and weeds, was a little teeny marker that acknowledges 'harassment' by Indians of the enemy. No specific names."
Switzer wonders if the government is reluctant to play up native involvement in helping build the country because it might strengthen land rights claims.
"It just sort of seems to take a long, long time to get around to admitting First Nations peoples (and) Aboriginal Peoples have played a big role in contributing to Canada being the successful country it is," he adds.
"It's quite likely that if it wasn't for the First Nations' support of leaders like Tecumseh . . . the flags that are flying over our public buildings in this country would probably be stars and stripes."
Sherry Huff, a spokeswoman with the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, representing 20,000 people, says there has been some "discussion about how we are going to respond to the commemoration of the War of 1812.
"Our communities have expressed concern that we haven't been included. I don't believe there has been any meaningful consultation at all. You would think we would be at the table now," she added.
The Assembly of First Nations, the national organization representing First Nations citizens in Canada, has not been contacted by federal government organizers of the 1812 events in the works for 2012.
Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Patrick Madahbee told Canwest News Service that he has heard that Parks Canada will be commemorating the bicentennial of the War of 1812, but "we've been minimally involved. . . . We haven't heard of any details."
Jim Prentice, the minister responsible for Parks Canada, said: "Well, certainly they will be included. I'm not aware of the criticisms that you are referring to. Aboriginal Canadians will definitely be part of those celebrations."
Parks Canada maintains that it is still committed to having natives play a key role in the commemorations.
"Making sure that our First Nations can participate in the bicentennial and are in a position to tell their stories related to the War of 1812 is quite important," said Doug Stewart, director general of national parks at Parks Canada.
"It's important for Canada and it's important for the First Nations to be able to do that."
While the documents show that Parks Canada has been discussing the bicentennial since at least 2008, Stewart said native groups haven't been snubbed so far, it is just that Parks Canada is ramping up its planning now
"There may have been some identification of these things as early as 2008, but it really wasn't until the spring of 2009 that our own activities geared up in any sort of real planning context.
"June 2012 will really be the launch (of the bicennential) - that's when the war actually began - there's a lot of work yet to come with respect to the planning of events and activities."
The documents, thousands of pages of which were withheld for various exemptions allowed by the access-to-information law, also make it clear that Parks Canada sees the bicentennial as a key opportunity to draw attention to its mandate.
"Considerably boost awareness of a number of our national historic sites," and "increase sustainability of our sites through increased revenue," the pages note as some of the perceived benefits to Parks Canada.
New Resource for Educators: Native Publisher
New Resource for Educators: Native Publisher
Posted by: "Rosepetl5@aol.com" Rosepetl5@aol.com rosepetl5
Mon May 24, 2010 4:20 pm (PDT)
http://www.theytus.com/
Posted by: "Rosepetl5@aol.com" Rosepetl5@aol.com rosepetl5
Mon May 24, 2010 4:20 pm (PDT)
http://www.theytus.com/
Change.org covers Wisconsin Mascot Bill
Change.org covers Wisconsin Mascot Bill
Posted by: "Rosepetl5@aol.com" Rosepetl5@aol.com rosepetl5
Mon May 24, 2010 3:21 pm (PDT)
Change.org
Home
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Wisconsin Becomes the First State to Outlaw Indian Mascots
by Antonio Ramirez
May 24, 2010 12:04 PM (PT)
Topics: Ethnic Stereotypes, Multiculturalism, racism
Share
276 Views
Being a person of color in Wisconsin isn't easy. The state is known as the worst place to be blackin America, Milwaukee has been ranked the most segregated city in the country, and this year's Republican candidate for governor says that he, too, would have signed Arizona's new anti-immigrant law.
That's why I was shocked to learn that Wisconsin has become the first state in the nation to ban Indian mascots in its public schools. The new lawallows any school district resident to complain about a school's use of racist native imagery. Last week, the first official complaint was filed in the town of Osseo. The Mukwonago Chief (yes, that's a newspaper) also reports that a complaint is expected against Mukwonago High School's mascot, as well.
Home to more federally recognized American Indian tribes than any state east of the Mississippi River, Wisconsin has long been host to considerable associated cultural misunderstanding and conflict.
For example, in the 1980s and 90s, tensions came to a head during violent confrontations over Ojibwe spearfishing rights, leading to "Save a Fish — Spear an Indian" bumper stickers that can still be seen in parts of the state. (In the end, the tribes were victorious: they won recognition of treaty rights as well as a statewide law requiring students to learn about Wisconsin Indians and their sovereignty.)
Although tribes won a victory inside the classroom, racist imagery has been — and continues to be — a major part of school sporting events.
At one high school, for example, school authorities convinced Wisconsin Menominee activist Richie Plass to serve as his school's real-life Indian mascot, a situation that forced him to undergo the taunts and jeers of opposing teams' fans. Milwaukee's Marquette University also has a disturbing history of using white students in brownface and other racist caricatures of native people. And today, a whopping 36 communities still cheer for mascots like the Redmen, the Chieftains and the Indians.
Oneida activist Barb Munson tells me that Wisconsin tribes have opposed racist mascots for nearly two decades on the grounds that they harm the state's children. She and Plass are part of Changing Winds, a Native American advocacy organization whose exhibit Bittersweets Winds crisscrosses the nation teaching people about the historic and contemporary use of racist images of Native Americans. Munson points, for example, to studies that show Indian mascots to affect native students' self-esteem and encourage white children to stereotype other racial groups.
A group of white students from Prescott, Wisconsin agrees. As part of a social studies class, they organized anti-mascot protests at local sporting events, testified before state politicians and were present when the bill was signed into law.
"I have seen the best spirit of Wisconsin in action," Munson said at the signing. "People of all ages, races and ethnicities working together to make things better for all the children in our state."
Congratulations to Wisconsin. Now, let's hope other states also follow its lead.
Photo Credit: dbking
Antonio Ramirez directs outreach and leadership development at a transnational workers’ rights law center in Mexico.
Posted by: "Rosepetl5@aol.com" Rosepetl5@aol.com rosepetl5
Mon May 24, 2010 3:21 pm (PDT)
Change.org
Home
View Causes
Take Action
Start a Petition
Join
Login
Race in America
Race in America Homepage
HOT TOPICS
racism
Ethnic stereotypes
Civil Rights
Race in the Media
Wisconsin Becomes the First State to Outlaw Indian Mascots
by Antonio Ramirez
May 24, 2010 12:04 PM (PT)
Topics: Ethnic Stereotypes, Multiculturalism, racism
Share
276 Views
Being a person of color in Wisconsin isn't easy. The state is known as the worst place to be blackin America, Milwaukee has been ranked the most segregated city in the country, and this year's Republican candidate for governor says that he, too, would have signed Arizona's new anti-immigrant law.
That's why I was shocked to learn that Wisconsin has become the first state in the nation to ban Indian mascots in its public schools. The new lawallows any school district resident to complain about a school's use of racist native imagery. Last week, the first official complaint was filed in the town of Osseo. The Mukwonago Chief (yes, that's a newspaper) also reports that a complaint is expected against Mukwonago High School's mascot, as well.
Home to more federally recognized American Indian tribes than any state east of the Mississippi River, Wisconsin has long been host to considerable associated cultural misunderstanding and conflict.
For example, in the 1980s and 90s, tensions came to a head during violent confrontations over Ojibwe spearfishing rights, leading to "Save a Fish — Spear an Indian" bumper stickers that can still be seen in parts of the state. (In the end, the tribes were victorious: they won recognition of treaty rights as well as a statewide law requiring students to learn about Wisconsin Indians and their sovereignty.)
Although tribes won a victory inside the classroom, racist imagery has been — and continues to be — a major part of school sporting events.
At one high school, for example, school authorities convinced Wisconsin Menominee activist Richie Plass to serve as his school's real-life Indian mascot, a situation that forced him to undergo the taunts and jeers of opposing teams' fans. Milwaukee's Marquette University also has a disturbing history of using white students in brownface and other racist caricatures of native people. And today, a whopping 36 communities still cheer for mascots like the Redmen, the Chieftains and the Indians.
Oneida activist Barb Munson tells me that Wisconsin tribes have opposed racist mascots for nearly two decades on the grounds that they harm the state's children. She and Plass are part of Changing Winds, a Native American advocacy organization whose exhibit Bittersweets Winds crisscrosses the nation teaching people about the historic and contemporary use of racist images of Native Americans. Munson points, for example, to studies that show Indian mascots to affect native students' self-esteem and encourage white children to stereotype other racial groups.
A group of white students from Prescott, Wisconsin agrees. As part of a social studies class, they organized anti-mascot protests at local sporting events, testified before state politicians and were present when the bill was signed into law.
"I have seen the best spirit of Wisconsin in action," Munson said at the signing. "People of all ages, races and ethnicities working together to make things better for all the children in our state."
Congratulations to Wisconsin. Now, let's hope other states also follow its lead.
Photo Credit: dbking
Antonio Ramirez directs outreach and leadership development at a transnational workers’ rights law center in Mexico.
Grijalva and O’Neal talk immigration
Grijalva and O’Neal talk immigration http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=98128197&blogId=534896410
An article from www.adn.com on Wolf issues
An article from www.adn.com on Wolf issues
Finally, some hope for our beloved wolves. It is a small step but it's the proverbial foot into the door. I would appreciate it if you could take a minute to write a statement on the comment section on the article. This is the only way that the wolves will ever stand a chance to be allowed to live and have their pups. A real family unit who deserves peace. No different than humans.
With Sincere Regards,
Judy A. Armstrong
kwetcipenes@yahoo.com
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: same
To: kwetcipenes@yahoo.com
Sent: Mon, May 24, 2010 9:56:59 PM
Subject: An article from www.adn.com
The following adn.com article was sent by:
same (kwetcipenes@yahoo.com)
And same had this to say:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Legal action threatened over state predator control in refuge
UNIMAK: Refuge hunt requires special-use permit, USFWS says.
By MARY PEMBERTON
The Associated Press
Published: 05/24/10 21:28:23
A federal agency threatened legal action if Alaska moves ahead with plans to kill wolves inside a national wildlife refuge.
In a letter Monday, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service cautioned the Alaska Department of Fish and Game about proceeding with plans to kill wolves on refuge land on Unimak Island without a federal special-use permit.
Doing so would be considered as a trespass on the refuge and such action would be referred to the U.S. attorney, according to a Fish & Wildlife Service news release.
You can read the full story online at:
http://www.adn.com/2010/05/24/1292633/legal-action-threatened-over-state.html?story_link=email_msg
Finally, some hope for our beloved wolves. It is a small step but it's the proverbial foot into the door. I would appreciate it if you could take a minute to write a statement on the comment section on the article. This is the only way that the wolves will ever stand a chance to be allowed to live and have their pups. A real family unit who deserves peace. No different than humans.
With Sincere Regards,
Judy A. Armstrong
kwetcipenes@yahoo.com
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: same
To: kwetcipenes@yahoo.com
Sent: Mon, May 24, 2010 9:56:59 PM
Subject: An article from www.adn.com
The following adn.com article was sent by:
same (kwetcipenes@yahoo.com)
And same had this to say:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Legal action threatened over state predator control in refuge
UNIMAK: Refuge hunt requires special-use permit, USFWS says.
By MARY PEMBERTON
The Associated Press
Published: 05/24/10 21:28:23
A federal agency threatened legal action if Alaska moves ahead with plans to kill wolves inside a national wildlife refuge.
In a letter Monday, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service cautioned the Alaska Department of Fish and Game about proceeding with plans to kill wolves on refuge land on Unimak Island without a federal special-use permit.
Doing so would be considered as a trespass on the refuge and such action would be referred to the U.S. attorney, according to a Fish & Wildlife Service news release.
You can read the full story online at:
http://www.adn.com/2010/05/24/1292633/legal-action-threatened-over-state.html?story_link=email_msg
Letter of Apology from Carlsburg Goup on KOFF Beer Commercials
Letter of Apology from Carlsburg Goup on KOFF Beer Commercials
Thank you to everyone that participated in this effort to remove the horrible commercial that featured Native actors being used to sell alcohol.
UNITED we can accomplish ANYTHING! Even making MTV pull that horrible trashy, and racist episode down of the Dudesons
(see our notes for more info)
AIM SB
__________________________________________________________
http://www.facebook.com/?page=1&sk=messages&tid=1128297943210#!/notes/wanbli-tate/letter-of-appology-from-carlsburg-group-on-koff-beer-commercials-please-share/392414442046
Letter of Appology from Carlsburg Group on KOff Beer Commercials
Today at 6:48am
This letter was sent to May Blueotter from the former makers of KOff Beer pertaining to the extremely offensive commercials they shot that perpetuated the Alcoholic stereotype. The commercials were also disgracefull because as Native peoples, alcoholism was a tool of the genocide which we are still fighting today.
____________________________________________________
Marja-Liisa Weckström
Viestintä- ja lakiasiainjohtaja / Director, Communications and Legal
6:18 AM May 25, 2010
Dear May Blueotter,
I am Marja-Liisa Weckström from Sinebrychoff, which is a fully owned company of Carlsberg Group in Finland. I have today received your e-mail which you have sent on the 23rd of May to some of my colleaques in the Group. Since the commercial and product in question originated from our company, I would kindly like to respond to you. First of all: We are deeply sorry for the negative feelings it has caused you and your people. Before going into any deeper I would like to inform you that the beer has not been in the market since January 2008. Thus, there is no advertising of it by our company or by our parent company Carlsberg Group.
The said beer was introduced in April 2007 to the Finnish beer market as a seasonal corn beer and listed out of our product portfolio in January 2008. The product was never exported and the commercial in the Finnish TV was on fro some two weeks on one channel. Before its launch our Marketing Department worked closely with Dakota Indians who also featured in the commercial. This was done in order to respect the said people. Thus, our honest purpose was not to hurt or insult the American Indians, not to be racist nor derive them of their dignity. The Natives are greatly respected in Finland and also by our company. Unfortunately, we were not sensitive enough to understand firstly how this kind of advertising is indeed building a stereotype of the Natives and is secondly undermining the seriousness of the problems that alcohol has caused among many of them.
I would like to apologize you and your people for not understanding the issues behind and thus making our product and its commercial hurt you and your people.
We have learned an important lesson. We did list the product out in 2008. Yet, in the era of internet, the commercial can unfortunately still be found. We shall seek ways to contact those still possessing the film with a request to abolish it from the web. Let me assure you that Sinebrychoff and its parent company Carlsberg Group have not any ongoing viral campaigns - or any other marketing campaigns – on the cancelled beer brand.
I hope you will accept our company’s apologies and stay in contact with us in case you have further questions or any comments that you would like to share with us.
Yours sincerely,
Marja-Liisa Weckström
Viestintä- ja lakiasiainjohtaja / Director, Communications and Legal
Thank you to everyone that participated in this effort to remove the horrible commercial that featured Native actors being used to sell alcohol.
UNITED we can accomplish ANYTHING! Even making MTV pull that horrible trashy, and racist episode down of the Dudesons
(see our notes for more info)
AIM SB
__________________________________________________________
http://www.facebook.com/?page=1&sk=messages&tid=1128297943210#!/notes/wanbli-tate/letter-of-appology-from-carlsburg-group-on-koff-beer-commercials-please-share/392414442046
Letter of Appology from Carlsburg Group on KOff Beer Commercials
Today at 6:48am
This letter was sent to May Blueotter from the former makers of KOff Beer pertaining to the extremely offensive commercials they shot that perpetuated the Alcoholic stereotype. The commercials were also disgracefull because as Native peoples, alcoholism was a tool of the genocide which we are still fighting today.
____________________________________________________
Marja-Liisa Weckström
Viestintä- ja lakiasiainjohtaja / Director, Communications and Legal
6:18 AM May 25, 2010
Dear May Blueotter,
I am Marja-Liisa Weckström from Sinebrychoff, which is a fully owned company of Carlsberg Group in Finland. I have today received your e-mail which you have sent on the 23rd of May to some of my colleaques in the Group. Since the commercial and product in question originated from our company, I would kindly like to respond to you. First of all: We are deeply sorry for the negative feelings it has caused you and your people. Before going into any deeper I would like to inform you that the beer has not been in the market since January 2008. Thus, there is no advertising of it by our company or by our parent company Carlsberg Group.
The said beer was introduced in April 2007 to the Finnish beer market as a seasonal corn beer and listed out of our product portfolio in January 2008. The product was never exported and the commercial in the Finnish TV was on fro some two weeks on one channel. Before its launch our Marketing Department worked closely with Dakota Indians who also featured in the commercial. This was done in order to respect the said people. Thus, our honest purpose was not to hurt or insult the American Indians, not to be racist nor derive them of their dignity. The Natives are greatly respected in Finland and also by our company. Unfortunately, we were not sensitive enough to understand firstly how this kind of advertising is indeed building a stereotype of the Natives and is secondly undermining the seriousness of the problems that alcohol has caused among many of them.
I would like to apologize you and your people for not understanding the issues behind and thus making our product and its commercial hurt you and your people.
We have learned an important lesson. We did list the product out in 2008. Yet, in the era of internet, the commercial can unfortunately still be found. We shall seek ways to contact those still possessing the film with a request to abolish it from the web. Let me assure you that Sinebrychoff and its parent company Carlsberg Group have not any ongoing viral campaigns - or any other marketing campaigns – on the cancelled beer brand.
I hope you will accept our company’s apologies and stay in contact with us in case you have further questions or any comments that you would like to share with us.
Yours sincerely,
Marja-Liisa Weckström
Viestintä- ja lakiasiainjohtaja / Director, Communications and Legal
Monday, May 24, 2010
Last Wild Buffalo Tormented by DOL, Park Service
Last Wild Buffalo Tormented by DOL, Park Service http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=98128197&blogId=534865159
240,000 gallons of oil in the Gulf of Mexico
240,000 gallons of oil in the Gulf of Mexico each day
Today we have 240,000 gallons of oil, per day, spilling into the gulf of Mexico. As disasters get larger and larger it is becoming more and more clear that we cannot continue living the ways brought from Europe 518 years ago. 911, Katrina, the 2008 near economic collapse, the energy crisis, the gulf wars and terrorism are merely the slightest glimmers of what is to come. Almost daily there is a report of a new flood, earthquake, tornado or volcano. These are not isolated incidents. Within the coming years it will become absolutely clear that we MUST abandon virtually all that we have been taught, about living it this world. And virtually everything we know today comes from the European worldview. We will continue to be slapped in the face, harder and harder, until the pain becomes so great, affecting each of us personally, until even the most ardent person addicted to the European worldview will have to let it go.
And make no mistake about it, the world that we live in today is 99.9% based upon the European world view, values, systems, thinking—and this is the very definition of white supremacy. The current problems of the world are blamed on human nature but when we take a closer look, the way we live now was forced onto all people of color worldwide—it is not our way and not our choice and not our human nature. Virtually all of the wisdom and knowledge of people of color (indigenous people) of hundreds of thousands of years, regarding how to live on the planet, in peace and abundance was intentionally destroyed. And our few surviving ancestors were forced to accept alien fragmented ideas from Europe as absolute. Now today we accept these white supremacists ideas, such as logic, science, domestication and analysis, as modern, progress and absolute, when in reality these things are merely the corrupt culture of Europe (the European Way) which had steered away from the righteous path. Most of us have been brainwashed to believe the white supremacists notion that indigenous people of color worldwide lived as ignorant, backward savages. Yet movies like Avatar give some hint that there was a beautiful indigenous way that is outside of the European worldview which is the way we humans are supposed to be living.
We must remember that Europeans, according to their science, have only been on the planet for a few thousand years. They are the babies on the planet. So why are we following the babies who are obviously lost? Why do we only know how to live their way? Why are we not looking to re-discover our wisdom and power of people of color of hundreds of thousands of years? Why are we not trying building a world based upon our strengths—soul, love, peace, heart?
Some of us now focus on fragments and surface elements of the Indigenous Way. Some of us are into pow wows and re-discovering beginning elements of being indigenous; some fight against pollution and environment destruction, some are into civil rights and social liberation, others are into alternative energy and going green, others are into Obama and politics, while others go to church each week. None of these things are bad, however, they are meaningless as long as we are living the European Way and thus supporting white supremacy. Though we are addicted to white supremacy, in the coming years, we will be forced to abandon this addiction. Either we awaken and change of our own free will or we take the painful route and have the change forced upon us. However, the change ahead is unstoppable. http://www.indigenousway.net/categories/57/the_coming_collapse_&_purification.html
My aim is not to convince you of anything, but merely to pass along a message that has been given to me. As the European worldview continues to collapse I will provide updates and reminders so that we see the events for what the are—warnings that we must change!
Barry Carter
www.indigenousway.net
Chante wazina, thawowiyukcan wazina, oyate kin owazinapi
One heart, one mind, the people are one.
Today we have 240,000 gallons of oil, per day, spilling into the gulf of Mexico. As disasters get larger and larger it is becoming more and more clear that we cannot continue living the ways brought from Europe 518 years ago. 911, Katrina, the 2008 near economic collapse, the energy crisis, the gulf wars and terrorism are merely the slightest glimmers of what is to come. Almost daily there is a report of a new flood, earthquake, tornado or volcano. These are not isolated incidents. Within the coming years it will become absolutely clear that we MUST abandon virtually all that we have been taught, about living it this world. And virtually everything we know today comes from the European worldview. We will continue to be slapped in the face, harder and harder, until the pain becomes so great, affecting each of us personally, until even the most ardent person addicted to the European worldview will have to let it go.
And make no mistake about it, the world that we live in today is 99.9% based upon the European world view, values, systems, thinking—and this is the very definition of white supremacy. The current problems of the world are blamed on human nature but when we take a closer look, the way we live now was forced onto all people of color worldwide—it is not our way and not our choice and not our human nature. Virtually all of the wisdom and knowledge of people of color (indigenous people) of hundreds of thousands of years, regarding how to live on the planet, in peace and abundance was intentionally destroyed. And our few surviving ancestors were forced to accept alien fragmented ideas from Europe as absolute. Now today we accept these white supremacists ideas, such as logic, science, domestication and analysis, as modern, progress and absolute, when in reality these things are merely the corrupt culture of Europe (the European Way) which had steered away from the righteous path. Most of us have been brainwashed to believe the white supremacists notion that indigenous people of color worldwide lived as ignorant, backward savages. Yet movies like Avatar give some hint that there was a beautiful indigenous way that is outside of the European worldview which is the way we humans are supposed to be living.
We must remember that Europeans, according to their science, have only been on the planet for a few thousand years. They are the babies on the planet. So why are we following the babies who are obviously lost? Why do we only know how to live their way? Why are we not looking to re-discover our wisdom and power of people of color of hundreds of thousands of years? Why are we not trying building a world based upon our strengths—soul, love, peace, heart?
Some of us now focus on fragments and surface elements of the Indigenous Way. Some of us are into pow wows and re-discovering beginning elements of being indigenous; some fight against pollution and environment destruction, some are into civil rights and social liberation, others are into alternative energy and going green, others are into Obama and politics, while others go to church each week. None of these things are bad, however, they are meaningless as long as we are living the European Way and thus supporting white supremacy. Though we are addicted to white supremacy, in the coming years, we will be forced to abandon this addiction. Either we awaken and change of our own free will or we take the painful route and have the change forced upon us. However, the change ahead is unstoppable. http://www.indigenousway.net/categories/57/the_coming_collapse_&_purification.html
My aim is not to convince you of anything, but merely to pass along a message that has been given to me. As the European worldview continues to collapse I will provide updates and reminders so that we see the events for what the are—warnings that we must change!
Barry Carter
www.indigenousway.net
Chante wazina, thawowiyukcan wazina, oyate kin owazinapi
One heart, one mind, the people are one.
Taliban win £1,600 bounty for each Nato soldier killed
Taliban win £1,600 bounty for each Nato soldier killed 23 May 2010
Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government
23 May 2010
http://www.legitgov.org
All links are here:
http://www.legitgov.org/#..breaking_news
Taliban win £1,600 bounty for each Nato soldier killed --Taliban commanders said the bounty had more than doubled since the beginning of last year. 23 May 2010 Taliban rebels are earning a bounty of up to 200,000 Pakistani rupees (£1,660) for each Nato soldier they kill, according to insurgent commanders. The money is said to come from protection rackets, taxes imposed on [CIA] opium farmers, donors in the Gulf states who channel money through Dubai and from the senior Taliban leadership in Pakistan. So far this year 213 Nato soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, including 41 British troops, bringing the potential rewards for the Taliban to £350,000.
Appeals Panel Bars Detainees From Access to U.S. Courts --The decision was a broad victory for the Obama administration in its efforts to hold terrorism suspects overseas for indefinite periods without judicial oversight. 21 May 2010 A federal appeals court ruled Friday that three men who had been detained by the United States military for years without trial in Afghanistan had no recourse to American courts. The detainees, two Yemenis and a Tunisian who say they were captured outside Afghanistan, contend that they are not terrorists and are being mistakenly imprisoned at the American military prison at Bagram Air Base. But a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled unanimously that the three had no right to habeas corpus hearings, in which judges would review evidence against them and could order their release.
'Secret Ops' cause of US deaths in Iraq 23 May 2010 An international anti-war organization, the War and Peace Foundation, says continued fatalities of US troops in Iraq is a sign of their involvement in secret operations. Speaking to Press TV on Saturday, Director of the War and Peace Foundation Kevin Sanders said the fact that the US soldiers are killed off-base in Iraq shows that the US is violating certain restrictions. Under an agreement signed between Washington and Baghdad in 2008, the movement of US troops is limited to their bases and all unilateral operations should have technically come to a halt in 2009.
Iran seeks Iraq war compensation 23 May 2010 More than twenty years after Iraq launched a full-scale invasion of Iran, a top Iranian lawmaker says Tehran's demands for war compensation should be met. "Iran has a legal right to seek compensation for the damages it endured during the war imposed by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and this matter should be pursued in all seriousness," Kazem Jalali, Rapporteur of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said on Sunday."The United States is now selling Iraqi oil as reparations for the war it waged on the Middle Eastern country. The Tehran government should also claim compensation," he added.
Candidates to Lead UK's Labour Renounce Iraq War--Candidates to Lead Britain's Labour Party Renounce Iraq Conflict As 'catastrophic' and 'wrong'23 May 2010 Two of the front-runners to head Britain's Labour Party sought to move on from divisive recent history Saturday by renouncing the Iraq war entered by their former leader, Tony Blair. Lawmaker Ed Balls said the 2003 invasion was wrong, while rival Ed Miliband said the conflict had destroyed trust in the party. "It was a mistake, it was an error. It wasn't just thousands of people (who) lost their lives, it is also millions of people who lost trust in us because they didn't think that we did it in the right way," Balls said. "There weren't weapons of mass destruction, the evidence wasn't sound, so we should say loud and clear, in retrospect, we got it wrong."
Iraq car bomb death toll rises to 30 23 May 2010 Iraqi police and morgue officials say the death toll in a car bombing at an open-air market in a town northeast of Baghdad has risen to 30. Friday's bombing struck the town of Khalis, a Shi'ite enclave 80km north of Baghdad in the largely Sunni province of Diyala. Most of those killed were sitting in a cafe in the centre of the market. About 80 people were also wounded in the attack.
Two US soldiers killed in Iraq 22 May 2010 The US military has announced that two of its combat troops have been killed in separate incidents in the restive regions of northern Iraq. The army said in a statement that one of the soldiers was killed near Iraq's northern city of Mosul on Friday. The military statement gave no details on the circumstances leading to his death. A second statement said that a US soldier died on Thursday of injuries sustained in the same region.
Iran: US main root of Afghan extremism 23 May 2010 Iran's foreign minister calls US the main perpetrator of radicalism in Afghanistan reiterating that the country's difficulties can only be resolved through regional collaboration. Flawed policies imposed on Afghanistan (by Western forces) have inflicted "extensive negative consequences" on this region's states and people, said Manouchehr Mottaki in a meeting with the Special Representative of UN Secretary General for Afghanistan Staffan de Mistura, IRIB reported Sunday.
Rockets fired at NATO base in S. Afghanistan 23 May 2010 Rockets were fired at the military base operated by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in southern Afghanistan's restive city of Kandahar late on Saturday, officials said. Afghan government officials, who insisted on anonymity, told Xinhua that five rockets fired inside and out of the compound and casualties have so far not been clear.
Army's Top Bomb Disposal Officer Quits 24 May 2010 The Army's top bomb disposal officer has resigned after expressing concerns about the pressures on his team operating in Afghanistan, it has been revealed.The Ministry of Defence confirmed that Colonel Bob Seddon quit as principal ammunition technical officer of the Royal Logistics Corps. An Army spokesman said in a brief statement that he would be leaving the service in January.
At West Point, Obama Presses for New World Order to Defeat Al Qaeda 22 May 2010 President Obama on Saturday vowed to press for a new international order "that can resolve the challenges of our times" and help the United States defeat 'Al Qaeda' and other threats to freedom. Delivering the commencement speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Obama ticked off a list of lofty goals this new order could accomplish; from combating violent extremism to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons to stemming climate change and sustaining global growth.
Israel's 5-day drill underway, as Hezbollah mobilizes forces 24 May 2010 Israel began its yearly home-front security drill on Sunday, as Hezbollah began mobilizing along the Israel-Lebanon border in response to the exercise, various news agencies reported. The drill, named Turn Point 4, is expected to last five days across Israel, the Israeli daily Haaretz wrote. The Israeli army sent out communiques addressing the public to prepare for the drill over the past week, which will involve the army's various command centres, emergency services and other governmental bodies.
Australia expels Israeli diplomat over Dubai hit 23 May 2010 Australia's government said on Monday it had ordered the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat over the use of fake passports in the assassination of a top Hamas militant in Dubai in January. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said an investigation had left no doubt that Israeli intelligence services had been behind the forgery of four Australian passports used by suspects in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room.
Italy groups urge boycott of Israeli goods --Pro-Palestinian groups, left-wing Gush Shalom movement call on supermarkets in Italy to ban Israeli products from West Bank settlements and Golan Heights. 23 May 2010 As the Palestinian Authority ups its efforts to boycott Israeli products made in the West Bank settlements and the Golan Heights, pro-Palestinian groups in Italy sought to take the effort one step further and boycott all Israeli products "because you can't differentiate." Pro-Palestinian groups in Italy demonstrated in front of the headquarters of two large supermarket chains, COOP and Nordiconad, demanding that they stop selling Israeli produce exported by Agrexco.
Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons --Secret apartheid-era papers give first official evidence of Israeli nuclear weapons 23 May 2010 Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons. The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes". The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that "the very existence of this agreement" was to remain secret.
US appoints first cyber warfare general --Pentagon creates specialist online unit to counter cyber attack amid growing fears of militarisation of the internet --Plans for Cyber Command were originally conceived under President [sic] George W Bush. 23 May 2010 The US military has appointed its first senior general to direct cyber warfare -- despite fears that the move marks another stage in the militarisation of cyberspace. The newly promoted four-star general, Keith Alexander, takes charge of the Pentagon's ambitious and controversial new Cyber Command, designed to conduct virtual combat across the world's computer networks. He was appointed on Friday afternoon in a low-key ceremony at Fort Meade, in Maryland. The creation of America's most senior cyber warrior comes just days after the US air force disclosed that some 30,000 of its troops had been re-assigned from technical support "to the frontlines of cyber warfare".
Pakistan catering company may be linked to terrorism, U.S. embassy says 22 May 2010 Pakistan has detained at least four people suspected of links with a failed bid to set off a car bomb in New York's Times Square, including one who worked for a catering company servicing embassies in Islamabad. The U.S. embassy in Pakistan issued a warning yesterday about a catering company, the Hanif Rajput Catering Service, saying it may have terrorist links.
Pakistan detainees proud of role in NYC bomb case22 May 2010 Two men detained in Pakistan for alleged links to the attempted Times Square bombing [false flag] have admitted playing a role in the botched attack and are unrepentant, with one angrily accusing interrogators of "siding with the infidels," a senior intelligence official said Saturday. The pair are among six men officials say have been detained in Pakistan for alleged ties to Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American arrested in the United States two days after the failed May 1 attack in New York.
6 people cited after protest at Border Patrol Headquarters 21 May 2010(AZ) Six people who initially refused to leave the lobby of the Border Patrol headquarters at Davis-Monthan Airforce Base, have been cited and released by the Tucson Police Department. The demonstrators say they are protesting SB 1070 and any military presence at the border.
Iran renews offer to help on US oil spill 23 May 2010 National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) has renewed its offer to assist the US in reining in an ecologically disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Mehran Alinejad, the head of special drilling operations at NIDC, pointed to the experience gained by Iranian experts in containing huge oil leaks during the eight-year Iraqi-imposed war in the 1980s, and said, "Iranian technical teams have had major achievements in oil well capping and the Gulf of Mexico oil rig is not a great feat in comparison." [Right, but the USociopaths don't want to stop the BP-Halliburton oil gusher. Obama continues to allow BP and its contractors (and God only knows which coterie of scumbags are on *that* payroll) to control the entire situation, top to bottom, including media access. Obama's 'response' is worse than Bush's during Hurricane Katrina aka blown levies. --LRP]
Useless is as useless does: Barack Obama's top officials set to fly over Gulf Coast oil spill --Secretaries of the interior and homeland security to assess aftermath of Deepwater Horizon explosion 23 May 2010 Leading officials from President Barack Obama's administration will return to the Gulf Coast tomorrow to monitor the massive oil spill threatening the Louisiana coastline. Ken Salazar, secretary of the interior and Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, will lead a Senate delegation to fly over affected areas. It was revealed today that the justice department had been gathering information about the oil spill.
Mega barf alert! Obama selects Bush's EPA maggot to 'investigate' the BP-Halliburton oil gusher. A month after oil spill began, Obama begins taking charge 21 May 2010 Facing a growing furor over the monthlong Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the White House Friday named two environmentalists to lead a presidential commission investigating the disaster. The appointments of former Florida Democratic Sen. Bob Graham andWilliam K. Reilly, who led the Environmental Protection Agency under President [sic] George H.W. Bush, came as the Obama administration tried to defend its handling of the spill against critics who charge that the oil giant BP has been dragging its feet in measuring how much oil the company's ruptured well is spewing.
BP refuses EPA order to switch to less-toxic oil dispersant --Oil washes ashore on 50 miles of Louisiana shoreline as tensions mount over how to treat the spill in the Gulf of Mexico. 23 May 2010 BP has rebuffed demands from government officials and environmentalists to use a less-toxic dispersant to break up the oil from its massive offshore spill, saying that the chemical product it is now using continues to be "the best option for subsea application." On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave the London-based company 72 hours to replace the dispersant Corexit 9500 or to describe in detail why other dispersants fail to meet environmental standards.
Oil spill to reach Europe, Arctic 22 May 2010 The oil spill BP-Halliburton oil volcano in the Gulf of Mexico is gradually finding its way toward Europe and the Arctic to damage, endangering wider ecological basins, scientists say. Briefing a congressional panel on Friday, senior US scientists warned that the bad consequences of the massive oil leak are not confined to the US coasts, and the wildlife are endangered in a far broader scope.
BP oil spill reaches delicate wetlands of Louisiana --Local reports described heavy sheets of oil clogging marshes in Mississippi delta that provide haven for migratory birds 21 May 2010 Thick sheets of crude oil spread through the delicate wetlands of Louisiana today, as the BP oil spill continued to threaten the American coastline. Local reports described heavy sheets of oil the consistency of latex paint clogging the marshes in the Mississippi delta that provide a haven for migratory birds, and buffer the shore from Gulf hurricanes.
Stand up to BP and say: 'You know, I’m not taking your s*** any more' 22 May 2010 It is 19 years since Erin Brockovich first went into battle against corporate America. She was a small-town single mum who stood up to an industrial Goliath and won. Now, as she champions a new case with a depressingly similar plot, it is clear that she has lost none of her fighting spirit or trademark candour. "Stand up to BP and say, 'You know what, I'm not taking your shit any more'," she tells an audience of more than 300 anxious individuals in Pensacola, Florida, who have gathered to hear how they can seek legal redress for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Farmers hold massive march in Paris 23 May 2010 Swarms of French farmers have poured into the most prestigious avenue in Paris, calling for their government to tackle the brewing crisis in the agricultural sector. Champs Elysees, Paris's famous neighborhood was covered with plants, flowers and livestock on Sunday as more than 800,000 farmers, whose industry has been battered by falling prices and climbing production costs in recent years, demanded more financial aid and government support.
Meet The Sloths: Watch The Animals Be Naturally Adorable 21 May 2010 Filmmaker/blogger Lucy Cookehas traveled to Aviaros del Caribe, a sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica, and the world's only sloth orphanage. According to Cooke, baby two- and three-toed sloths "whose mother's have either been run over or zapped by power lines are brought to the sanctuary and looked after by legendary sloth whisperer Judy Arroyo." (Video)
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Judges Rule Prisoners at Bagram Cannot Challenge Indefinite Detention 21 May 2010 Detainees Prisoners at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan cannot use U.S. courts to challenge their imprisonment the way detainees in Guantanamo Bay have, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The United States is holding the detainees at the military prison on Afghan territory through a cooperative arrangement with Afghanistan, three appeals court judges said in a unanimous decision turning aside the request of a Tunisian and two Yemeni prisoners. The jurisdiction of the U.S. courts does not extend to foreigners held at Bagram in the Afghan theater of war, added the judges, who said a U.S. district judge should have thrown out the detainees' petitions.
House Panel Rejects a Plan to Shift Detainees to Illinois 20 May 2010 The House Armed Services Committee has dealt a blow to President Obama's hopes to shutter the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, by unanimously approving legislation that would prohibit creating a detention center inside the United States. The administration had asked Congress to approve about $350 million to buy and renovate a nearly empty prison in Thomson, Ill. The White House plan was to empty Guantánamo and transfer its detainees to Illinois -including 48 who would be held without trial as wartime prisoners. But late Wednesday, the House committee unanimously approved a defense bill for 2011 that bans spending money to build or modify any facility inside the United States to house Guantánamo detainees, according to a summary of the bill.
Hague Orders Probe Into Whether U.K. Agents Colluded in Torture 21 May 2010 Foreign Secretary William Hague ordered a judicial inquiry into claims U.K. intelligence agencies were complicit in the torture of terrorist suspects overseas. Hague, a member of the Conservative-led coalition that took power after May 6 elections, had supported calls for an inquiry while in opposition last year. Binyam Mohamed, a former Guantanamo detainee and U.K. resident, alleges he was tortured with the collusion of British officials while held in the Guantanamo Bay prison.
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CLG Managing Editor: Lori Price. Copyright © 2010, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved.
Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government
23 May 2010
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Taliban win £1,600 bounty for each Nato soldier killed --Taliban commanders said the bounty had more than doubled since the beginning of last year. 23 May 2010 Taliban rebels are earning a bounty of up to 200,000 Pakistani rupees (£1,660) for each Nato soldier they kill, according to insurgent commanders. The money is said to come from protection rackets, taxes imposed on [CIA] opium farmers, donors in the Gulf states who channel money through Dubai and from the senior Taliban leadership in Pakistan. So far this year 213 Nato soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, including 41 British troops, bringing the potential rewards for the Taliban to £350,000.
Appeals Panel Bars Detainees From Access to U.S. Courts --The decision was a broad victory for the Obama administration in its efforts to hold terrorism suspects overseas for indefinite periods without judicial oversight. 21 May 2010 A federal appeals court ruled Friday that three men who had been detained by the United States military for years without trial in Afghanistan had no recourse to American courts. The detainees, two Yemenis and a Tunisian who say they were captured outside Afghanistan, contend that they are not terrorists and are being mistakenly imprisoned at the American military prison at Bagram Air Base. But a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled unanimously that the three had no right to habeas corpus hearings, in which judges would review evidence against them and could order their release.
'Secret Ops' cause of US deaths in Iraq 23 May 2010 An international anti-war organization, the War and Peace Foundation, says continued fatalities of US troops in Iraq is a sign of their involvement in secret operations. Speaking to Press TV on Saturday, Director of the War and Peace Foundation Kevin Sanders said the fact that the US soldiers are killed off-base in Iraq shows that the US is violating certain restrictions. Under an agreement signed between Washington and Baghdad in 2008, the movement of US troops is limited to their bases and all unilateral operations should have technically come to a halt in 2009.
Iran seeks Iraq war compensation 23 May 2010 More than twenty years after Iraq launched a full-scale invasion of Iran, a top Iranian lawmaker says Tehran's demands for war compensation should be met. "Iran has a legal right to seek compensation for the damages it endured during the war imposed by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and this matter should be pursued in all seriousness," Kazem Jalali, Rapporteur of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said on Sunday."The United States is now selling Iraqi oil as reparations for the war it waged on the Middle Eastern country. The Tehran government should also claim compensation," he added.
Candidates to Lead UK's Labour Renounce Iraq War--Candidates to Lead Britain's Labour Party Renounce Iraq Conflict As 'catastrophic' and 'wrong'23 May 2010 Two of the front-runners to head Britain's Labour Party sought to move on from divisive recent history Saturday by renouncing the Iraq war entered by their former leader, Tony Blair. Lawmaker Ed Balls said the 2003 invasion was wrong, while rival Ed Miliband said the conflict had destroyed trust in the party. "It was a mistake, it was an error. It wasn't just thousands of people (who) lost their lives, it is also millions of people who lost trust in us because they didn't think that we did it in the right way," Balls said. "There weren't weapons of mass destruction, the evidence wasn't sound, so we should say loud and clear, in retrospect, we got it wrong."
Iraq car bomb death toll rises to 30 23 May 2010 Iraqi police and morgue officials say the death toll in a car bombing at an open-air market in a town northeast of Baghdad has risen to 30. Friday's bombing struck the town of Khalis, a Shi'ite enclave 80km north of Baghdad in the largely Sunni province of Diyala. Most of those killed were sitting in a cafe in the centre of the market. About 80 people were also wounded in the attack.
Two US soldiers killed in Iraq 22 May 2010 The US military has announced that two of its combat troops have been killed in separate incidents in the restive regions of northern Iraq. The army said in a statement that one of the soldiers was killed near Iraq's northern city of Mosul on Friday. The military statement gave no details on the circumstances leading to his death. A second statement said that a US soldier died on Thursday of injuries sustained in the same region.
Iran: US main root of Afghan extremism 23 May 2010 Iran's foreign minister calls US the main perpetrator of radicalism in Afghanistan reiterating that the country's difficulties can only be resolved through regional collaboration. Flawed policies imposed on Afghanistan (by Western forces) have inflicted "extensive negative consequences" on this region's states and people, said Manouchehr Mottaki in a meeting with the Special Representative of UN Secretary General for Afghanistan Staffan de Mistura, IRIB reported Sunday.
Rockets fired at NATO base in S. Afghanistan 23 May 2010 Rockets were fired at the military base operated by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in southern Afghanistan's restive city of Kandahar late on Saturday, officials said. Afghan government officials, who insisted on anonymity, told Xinhua that five rockets fired inside and out of the compound and casualties have so far not been clear.
Army's Top Bomb Disposal Officer Quits 24 May 2010 The Army's top bomb disposal officer has resigned after expressing concerns about the pressures on his team operating in Afghanistan, it has been revealed.The Ministry of Defence confirmed that Colonel Bob Seddon quit as principal ammunition technical officer of the Royal Logistics Corps. An Army spokesman said in a brief statement that he would be leaving the service in January.
At West Point, Obama Presses for New World Order to Defeat Al Qaeda 22 May 2010 President Obama on Saturday vowed to press for a new international order "that can resolve the challenges of our times" and help the United States defeat 'Al Qaeda' and other threats to freedom. Delivering the commencement speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Obama ticked off a list of lofty goals this new order could accomplish; from combating violent extremism to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons to stemming climate change and sustaining global growth.
Israel's 5-day drill underway, as Hezbollah mobilizes forces 24 May 2010 Israel began its yearly home-front security drill on Sunday, as Hezbollah began mobilizing along the Israel-Lebanon border in response to the exercise, various news agencies reported. The drill, named Turn Point 4, is expected to last five days across Israel, the Israeli daily Haaretz wrote. The Israeli army sent out communiques addressing the public to prepare for the drill over the past week, which will involve the army's various command centres, emergency services and other governmental bodies.
Australia expels Israeli diplomat over Dubai hit 23 May 2010 Australia's government said on Monday it had ordered the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat over the use of fake passports in the assassination of a top Hamas militant in Dubai in January. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said an investigation had left no doubt that Israeli intelligence services had been behind the forgery of four Australian passports used by suspects in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room.
Italy groups urge boycott of Israeli goods --Pro-Palestinian groups, left-wing Gush Shalom movement call on supermarkets in Italy to ban Israeli products from West Bank settlements and Golan Heights. 23 May 2010 As the Palestinian Authority ups its efforts to boycott Israeli products made in the West Bank settlements and the Golan Heights, pro-Palestinian groups in Italy sought to take the effort one step further and boycott all Israeli products "because you can't differentiate." Pro-Palestinian groups in Italy demonstrated in front of the headquarters of two large supermarket chains, COOP and Nordiconad, demanding that they stop selling Israeli produce exported by Agrexco.
Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons --Secret apartheid-era papers give first official evidence of Israeli nuclear weapons 23 May 2010 Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons. The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes". The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that "the very existence of this agreement" was to remain secret.
US appoints first cyber warfare general --Pentagon creates specialist online unit to counter cyber attack amid growing fears of militarisation of the internet --Plans for Cyber Command were originally conceived under President [sic] George W Bush. 23 May 2010 The US military has appointed its first senior general to direct cyber warfare -- despite fears that the move marks another stage in the militarisation of cyberspace. The newly promoted four-star general, Keith Alexander, takes charge of the Pentagon's ambitious and controversial new Cyber Command, designed to conduct virtual combat across the world's computer networks. He was appointed on Friday afternoon in a low-key ceremony at Fort Meade, in Maryland. The creation of America's most senior cyber warrior comes just days after the US air force disclosed that some 30,000 of its troops had been re-assigned from technical support "to the frontlines of cyber warfare".
Pakistan catering company may be linked to terrorism, U.S. embassy says 22 May 2010 Pakistan has detained at least four people suspected of links with a failed bid to set off a car bomb in New York's Times Square, including one who worked for a catering company servicing embassies in Islamabad. The U.S. embassy in Pakistan issued a warning yesterday about a catering company, the Hanif Rajput Catering Service, saying it may have terrorist links.
Pakistan detainees proud of role in NYC bomb case22 May 2010 Two men detained in Pakistan for alleged links to the attempted Times Square bombing [false flag] have admitted playing a role in the botched attack and are unrepentant, with one angrily accusing interrogators of "siding with the infidels," a senior intelligence official said Saturday. The pair are among six men officials say have been detained in Pakistan for alleged ties to Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American arrested in the United States two days after the failed May 1 attack in New York.
6 people cited after protest at Border Patrol Headquarters 21 May 2010(AZ) Six people who initially refused to leave the lobby of the Border Patrol headquarters at Davis-Monthan Airforce Base, have been cited and released by the Tucson Police Department. The demonstrators say they are protesting SB 1070 and any military presence at the border.
Iran renews offer to help on US oil spill 23 May 2010 National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) has renewed its offer to assist the US in reining in an ecologically disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Mehran Alinejad, the head of special drilling operations at NIDC, pointed to the experience gained by Iranian experts in containing huge oil leaks during the eight-year Iraqi-imposed war in the 1980s, and said, "Iranian technical teams have had major achievements in oil well capping and the Gulf of Mexico oil rig is not a great feat in comparison." [Right, but the USociopaths don't want to stop the BP-Halliburton oil gusher. Obama continues to allow BP and its contractors (and God only knows which coterie of scumbags are on *that* payroll) to control the entire situation, top to bottom, including media access. Obama's 'response' is worse than Bush's during Hurricane Katrina aka blown levies. --LRP]
Useless is as useless does: Barack Obama's top officials set to fly over Gulf Coast oil spill --Secretaries of the interior and homeland security to assess aftermath of Deepwater Horizon explosion 23 May 2010 Leading officials from President Barack Obama's administration will return to the Gulf Coast tomorrow to monitor the massive oil spill threatening the Louisiana coastline. Ken Salazar, secretary of the interior and Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, will lead a Senate delegation to fly over affected areas. It was revealed today that the justice department had been gathering information about the oil spill.
Mega barf alert! Obama selects Bush's EPA maggot to 'investigate' the BP-Halliburton oil gusher. A month after oil spill began, Obama begins taking charge 21 May 2010 Facing a growing furor over the monthlong Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the White House Friday named two environmentalists to lead a presidential commission investigating the disaster. The appointments of former Florida Democratic Sen. Bob Graham andWilliam K. Reilly, who led the Environmental Protection Agency under President [sic] George H.W. Bush, came as the Obama administration tried to defend its handling of the spill against critics who charge that the oil giant BP has been dragging its feet in measuring how much oil the company's ruptured well is spewing.
BP refuses EPA order to switch to less-toxic oil dispersant --Oil washes ashore on 50 miles of Louisiana shoreline as tensions mount over how to treat the spill in the Gulf of Mexico. 23 May 2010 BP has rebuffed demands from government officials and environmentalists to use a less-toxic dispersant to break up the oil from its massive offshore spill, saying that the chemical product it is now using continues to be "the best option for subsea application." On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave the London-based company 72 hours to replace the dispersant Corexit 9500 or to describe in detail why other dispersants fail to meet environmental standards.
Oil spill to reach Europe, Arctic 22 May 2010 The oil spill BP-Halliburton oil volcano in the Gulf of Mexico is gradually finding its way toward Europe and the Arctic to damage, endangering wider ecological basins, scientists say. Briefing a congressional panel on Friday, senior US scientists warned that the bad consequences of the massive oil leak are not confined to the US coasts, and the wildlife are endangered in a far broader scope.
BP oil spill reaches delicate wetlands of Louisiana --Local reports described heavy sheets of oil clogging marshes in Mississippi delta that provide haven for migratory birds 21 May 2010 Thick sheets of crude oil spread through the delicate wetlands of Louisiana today, as the BP oil spill continued to threaten the American coastline. Local reports described heavy sheets of oil the consistency of latex paint clogging the marshes in the Mississippi delta that provide a haven for migratory birds, and buffer the shore from Gulf hurricanes.
Stand up to BP and say: 'You know, I’m not taking your s*** any more' 22 May 2010 It is 19 years since Erin Brockovich first went into battle against corporate America. She was a small-town single mum who stood up to an industrial Goliath and won. Now, as she champions a new case with a depressingly similar plot, it is clear that she has lost none of her fighting spirit or trademark candour. "Stand up to BP and say, 'You know what, I'm not taking your shit any more'," she tells an audience of more than 300 anxious individuals in Pensacola, Florida, who have gathered to hear how they can seek legal redress for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Farmers hold massive march in Paris 23 May 2010 Swarms of French farmers have poured into the most prestigious avenue in Paris, calling for their government to tackle the brewing crisis in the agricultural sector. Champs Elysees, Paris's famous neighborhood was covered with plants, flowers and livestock on Sunday as more than 800,000 farmers, whose industry has been battered by falling prices and climbing production costs in recent years, demanded more financial aid and government support.
Meet The Sloths: Watch The Animals Be Naturally Adorable 21 May 2010 Filmmaker/blogger Lucy Cookehas traveled to Aviaros del Caribe, a sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica, and the world's only sloth orphanage. According to Cooke, baby two- and three-toed sloths "whose mother's have either been run over or zapped by power lines are brought to the sanctuary and looked after by legendary sloth whisperer Judy Arroyo." (Video)
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Contributions to CLG are not tax deductible
Previous lead stories:
Judges Rule Prisoners at Bagram Cannot Challenge Indefinite Detention 21 May 2010 Detainees Prisoners at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan cannot use U.S. courts to challenge their imprisonment the way detainees in Guantanamo Bay have, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The United States is holding the detainees at the military prison on Afghan territory through a cooperative arrangement with Afghanistan, three appeals court judges said in a unanimous decision turning aside the request of a Tunisian and two Yemeni prisoners. The jurisdiction of the U.S. courts does not extend to foreigners held at Bagram in the Afghan theater of war, added the judges, who said a U.S. district judge should have thrown out the detainees' petitions.
House Panel Rejects a Plan to Shift Detainees to Illinois 20 May 2010 The House Armed Services Committee has dealt a blow to President Obama's hopes to shutter the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, by unanimously approving legislation that would prohibit creating a detention center inside the United States. The administration had asked Congress to approve about $350 million to buy and renovate a nearly empty prison in Thomson, Ill. The White House plan was to empty Guantánamo and transfer its detainees to Illinois -including 48 who would be held without trial as wartime prisoners. But late Wednesday, the House committee unanimously approved a defense bill for 2011 that bans spending money to build or modify any facility inside the United States to house Guantánamo detainees, according to a summary of the bill.
Hague Orders Probe Into Whether U.K. Agents Colluded in Torture 21 May 2010 Foreign Secretary William Hague ordered a judicial inquiry into claims U.K. intelligence agencies were complicit in the torture of terrorist suspects overseas. Hague, a member of the Conservative-led coalition that took power after May 6 elections, had supported calls for an inquiry while in opposition last year. Binyam Mohamed, a former Guantanamo detainee and U.K. resident, alleges he was tortured with the collusion of British officials while held in the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Those who wish to be added to the list can go here:http://www.legitgov.org/#..subscribe_clg and add your name.
CLG Managing Editor: Lori Price. Copyright © 2010, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved.
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