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  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER
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    Saturday, February 26, 2005
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-FRIDAY, FEB. 25, 2005

    March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation
    Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People's Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    Resource:
    MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
    FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF SOCIAL SERVICES UNDER THE KNIFE RIGHT NOW GO TO:
    http://www.bauaw.org/2005/02/programs-eliminated-or-cut-in-2006.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    1) NEXT BAUAW PLANNING MEETING TO GET THE MILITARY OUT OF
    OUR SCHOOLS IS: SATURDAY, FEB. 26, 11 AM AT 474 VALENCIA STREET
    The Board of Education, as a result of the Feb. 22 meeting,
    is organizing a "meeting of the whole" based on the topic
    of military recruitment in the Schools. Help plan strategy
    for the meeting this Saturday, Feb. 26 at Centro del Pueblo,
    474 Valencia street, first floor, to the left and all the way to
    the rear of the building at the cheerful, Companeros del Barrio
    childcare center.

    Plus:

    Report of the Tuesday, Feb.22 S.F. Board of Education Meeting:
    (see full item 1 below)

    2) WE ALL STAND WITH LYNNE STEWART!
    NO JAIL TIME FOR LYNNE!
    PLEASE WRITE LETTERS TODAY

    3) The Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
    Presents: Conscientious Objectors Discuss War
    Sunday, February 27 at the Humanist Hall, 390
    27th St. @ Broadway, Oakland 3pm-6:30pm
    Join CCCO and Conscientious Objector panelists;
    Aimee Allison, Dale Bartlett, David Harris, Rev.
    Dr. Dorsey Blake and Jeff Paterson, in a
    discussion on war, draft and conscience,
    moderated by Steve Morse, CCCO GI Rights Program
    Coordinator.
    Also, film maker Mark Manning, independent
    reporter Dahr Jamail and military mom Nadia
    McCaffrey offer reports about their recent trips
    to Iraq and Jordan.
    Refreshments.

    4) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation – Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People's Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

    5) COMING TO THE BAY AREA SOON ARE
    TWO POWERFUL ANTIWAR MOVIES

    "Mission Accomplished" is a a brutally vivid documentary
    filmed entirely on the ground in Iraq. The reality of this
    war for American troops is contrasted to the
    overwhelming reality of the devastation felt and experienced
    by the people of Iraq.
    "Mission Accomplished" will open March 18th:
    4 Star
    2200 Clement St.
    San Francisco, CA 94121
    415.666.3488

    "Voices In Wartime" is a compelling portrayal of human
    experience with war through poetry, both from the point
    of view of those who were in combat and those who are left
    behind.
    "Voices In Wartime" will play in S.F. on April 15th at:
    Landmark Lumiere 3
    1572 California Street
    San Francisco, CA 94109

    [This poem by fourth-grader Cameron Penny was read
    by Marie Howe in this very beautiful film
    directed by Rick King.

    "If you are lucky in this life
    A window will appear on a battlefield between two armies
    And when the soldiers look into the window
    They don't see their enemies
    They see themselves as children
    And they stop fighting
    And go home and go to sleep
    When they wake up, the land is well again."
    By Cameron Penny]

    To learn more about these film visit
    Cinema Libre Studio
    http://www.cinemalibrestudio.com/

    6) PROTEST the Anniversary of the U.S.-led COUP in HAITI
    Monday, Feb. 28, 4:30 p.m. Rally in UN Plaza,
    San Francisco (under the Simon Bolivar statue at Hyde Street)
    - proceeding at 5 p.m. March stops at sites representing
    attempts to destroy democracy in Haiti, including SF Chronicle,
    the Chilean, Brazilian and French consulates, and U.S.
    Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office.

    7) What: Anti-Recruitment Community Forum
    When: Saturday, Feb. 26 2pm-4pm
    Where: Audrey Lorde Room, Women's Building,
    3543 18th St. between Valencia and Guerrero

    8) The next meeting of the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
    is confirmed for Sunday, February 27 at Noon At the
    Modern Times Bookstore at 888 Valencia Street,
    between 19th and 20th Streets.
    We will meet in the rear meeting room.

    9) Latin America Fails to Deliver on Basic Needs (link only)
    By JUAN FORERO
    February 22, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/international/americas/22bolivia.html?hp&e
    x=1109134800&en=a0fbb2c9c35c0f8f&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    10) Bush Says Russia Must Make Good on Democracy (link only)
    By ELISABETH BUMILLER
    BRUSSELS
    February 22, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/international/europe/22prexy.html

    11) US Senator Says Afghan Bases Should Be Permanent (link only)
    By David Brunnstrom
    KABUL (Reuters)
    Tue Feb 22, 2005 06:32 AM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7697958&src=eD
    ialog/GetContent§ion=news

    12) Some Inheritance (Social Security) (link only)
    EDITORIAL
    February 23, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/opinion/23wed1.html?hp

    13) Failure to Form Cabinet Signals Crisis
    for Palestinian Leaders
    By ALAN COWELL
    February 23, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/international/middleeast/23cnd-mideast.htm
    l?hp&ex=1109221200&en=c2f9ba17fa86cb77&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    14) Vonnegut at 80 (link only)
    By David Hoppe, NUVO
    Posted on January 10, 2003
    http://www.alternet.org/story/14919/

    15) Task Force Criticizes Bush's 'No Child' Law; (link only)
    50-State Group Says It's Unconstitutional
    by Sam Dillon
    Published on Thursday, February 24, 2005 by the
    San Francisco Chronicle
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0224-09.htm

    16) Two good liberals visit bad country (link only)
    By Robert Mailer Anderson and Zack Anderson
    Special To The Examiner
    (Very interesting and favorable article about Cuba...bw)
    http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/02/24/opinion/20050224_op05_anderson
    .txt

    17) Next Generation Peace Rally and March
    FUND OUR COMMUNITIES, NOT WAR!
    Friday, March 4, Rally 3 - 3:30 at the San Rafael Library
    March through town 3:30 - 5pm

    18) THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ (link only)
    Army Gives Halliburton $9.4 Million in Bonuses
    From Times Wire Services
    February 25, 2005
    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-halliburton25feb25,1,222
    0539.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=2&cset=true

    19) 10 Voters on Panel Backing Pain Pills (link only)
    Had Industry Ties
    By GARDINER HARRIS and ALEX BERENSON
    February 25, 2005
    "Ten of the 32 government drug advisers who last week
    endorsed continued marketing of the huge-selling pain pills
    Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx have consulted in recent years for
    the drugs' makers, according to disclosures in medical journals
    and other public records.

    If the 10 advisers had not cast their votes, the committee would
    have voted 12 to 8 that Bextra should be withdrawn and 14 to 8
    that Vioxx should not return to the market. The 10 advisers with
    company ties voted 9 to 1 to keep Bextra on the market and 9 to 1
    for Vioxx's return."
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/politics/25fda.html?hp&ex=1109394000&en=2d
    0651f024ad5d31&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    20) Kansas Prosecutor Demands Files
    on Late-Term Abortion Patients
    By JODI WILGOREN
    February 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/national/25kansas.html?hp&ex=1109394000&en
    =590ef6d0a42ee0af&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    21) Thrown to the Wolves (link only)
    By BOB HERBERT
    OP-ED COLUMNIST
    OTTAWA
    February 25, 2005
    [Prison and torture America style-send them to Saudi Arabia where
    torture is legal...bw]
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/opinion/25herbert.html?hp

    22) [Related to Lynne Stewart Case...bw] (link only)
    Terror Suspect's Family Protests Jail Rules
    By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES DAO
    February 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/national/25terror.html

    23) Published on Thursday, February 24, 2005 by the
    New York Amsterdam News
    Calling All Soldiers: Military Recruiters Face Resistance
    From Young Anti-War Activists
    by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    1) NEXT BAUAW PLANNING MEETING TO GET THE MILITARY OUT OF
    OUR SCHOOLS IS: SATURDAY, FEB. 26, 11 AM AT 474 VALENCIA STREET
    The Board of Education, as a result of the Feb. 22 meeting,
    is organizing a "meeting of the whole" based on the topic
    of military recruitment in the Schools. Help plan strategy
    for the meeting this Saturday, Feb. 26 at Centro del Pueblo,
    474 Valencia street, first floor, to the left and all the way to
    the rear of the building at the cheerful, Companeros del Barrio
    childcare center.

    Plus:

    Report of the Tuesday, Feb.22 S.F. Board of Education Meeting:
    (see full item 1 below)

    The Tuesday, Feb. 22 meeting at the S.F. Board of Education turned
    out to be a great success. Representatives from many groups and
    individuals gave strong reasons why San Francisco schools should
    not allow the military access to our children on school grounds.

    The members of the board clearly showed concern and interest
    about what we were saying. They expressed their antiwar sentiment
    as well by voting to sponsor the American Friends Service
    Committee's "Eyes Wide Open" exhibition of the Iraq War, which
    will be at the Civic Center Friday, March 25, beginning at 11:00 a.m.,
    with an all night vigil; Saturday, March 26th, 10:00 a.m., until 5:00 p.m.,
    and at Union Square, Sunday, March 27th, (Easter Sunday)
    from 10:00 a.m., until dusk.

    They also announced the March 19th March and Rally against the
    War on Iraq that begins at 11: 00 a.m., at Dolores Park and marches
    to a Rally at 1:00 p.m., at the Civic Center. This demonstration is
    part of a worldwide protest of the war. Millions of people across
    the world will show their opposition in the streets March 19th and
    20th-the anniversary of the start of Operation Iraqi Liberation (O.I.L.)

    We are going to the School Board meeting again, on Tuesday,
    March 8th to further discuss how we can prevent the military from
    turning our schools into hunting ground for cannon fodder for
    an illegal and immoral war. We are in the process of getting the
    point on the agenda at the March 8th meeting (or the "meeting of
    the whole"--date not set yet) so that the Board
    members themselves can participate in this very rich discussion
    we began on Feb. 22.

    Some of the many, many groups were that were represented were,
    ANSWER, United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink, BAUAW, AFSC, ISO,
    Campus Antiwar Network, representatives from San Francisco's Queer
    community, as well as many individuals, who all gave impassioned
    reasons for opposing the war and military recruitment at our schools.
    Everyone left the meeting feeling strong, unified and on the same
    page. Many members of the board seemed very receptive to the
    varied and well thought-out arguments.

    This meeting was a great beginning to public community dialogue
    about these issues that affect all of us.

    There will be a planning meeting to discuss further strategy this
    coming Saturday, Feb. 26, at 11:00 a.m., at Centro del Pueblo,
    474 Valencia street, first floor, to the left and all the way to the
    rear of the building at the Companeros del Barrio childcare center.

    Everyone is welcome.

    Peace and solidarity,

    Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War

    The following is an article that was published in the Chronicle Feb.24.
    It describes a 50-State Group that challenges, as Unconstitutional,
    the "No Child Left Behind" law claiming it, "...had imposed an
    impractical 'one-size-fits-all' education accountability system
    across the country that was stifling local initiatives." Forcing schools
    to open their doors to the military in order to get federal funds
    is also part of the "No Child Left Behind" law.

    Task Force Criticizes Bush's 'No Child' Law; 50-State Group Says
    It's Unconstitutional

    By Sam Dillon

    Published on Thursday, February 24, 2005 by the
    San Francisco Chronicle

    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0224-09.htm

    A bipartisan group representing 50 state legislatures called
    Wednesday for major changes in President Bush's landmark
    education initiative, No Child Left Behind, which it lambasted as
    unconstitutional and impractical.

    Republican New York state Sen. Steve Saland, who co-chaired
    a task force that took 10 months to review implementation of
    No Child Left Behind, said the law had imposed an impractical
    "one-size-fits-all" education accountability system across the
    country that was stifling local initiatives.

    The task force's report, based on hearings in six cities, praised
    the law's goal of ending the gap in scholastic achievement
    between white and minority students. But most of the 77-page
    report, which the Education Department rebutted Wednesday,
    was devoted to a detailed inventory and discussion of the
    program's flaws.

    Over the past two years, more than a dozen state legislatures
    adopted resolutions criticizing the No Child Left Behind law
    and demanding changes. But the bipartisan nature of
    Wednesday's report marked a step-up in the war of words
    surrounding the law.

    The report said the law's accountability system, which
    punishes schools whose students fail to improve steadily on
    standardized tests, undermined school improvement efforts
    already under way in many states and relied on the wrong
    indicators.

    The report said the law's rules for educating disabled students
    conflict with another federal law. It also said the law presents
    bureaucratic requirements that fail to recognize the tapestry
    of educational challenges faced by teachers in the nation's
    15,000 school districts.

    "Under NCLB, the federal government's role has become
    excessively intrusive in the day-to-day operations of public
    education," the National Conference of State Legislatures
    said in the report, which was written by 16 state legislators
    and six legislative staff members.

    Nine state legislatures are considering challenges to the law,
    and the Utah Senate is about to vote on a bill, already approved
    by the Utah House, that would require state education officials
    to give higher priority to Utah's education laws than to the
    federal law. An Illinois school district filed suit against the
    Education Department this month in federal court, arguing
    that No Child Left Behind contradicts provisions of the federal
    Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.

    The conference, which has criticized the federal law in the
    past, represents the nation's 50 state legislatures, has
    a membership that includes 3,657 Republicans, 3,656 Democrats,
    as well as a few dozen who were elected from smaller parties,
    as independents or without any party affiliation.

    In compiling its report, the task force conducted public
    hearings in Washington, Chicago, Salt Lake City, New York,
    Santa Fe, N.M., and Portland, Ore.

    An assistant secretary of education, Ray Simon, met with
    members of the task force in Washington on Wednesday
    to discuss the report.

    "The department will continue to work with every state to
    address their concerns and make this law work for their
    children," Simon said in a statement. "But the report could
    be interpreted as wanting to reverse the progress we've made."

    He added: "No Child Left Behind is bringing new hope and
    new opportunity to families throughout America, and we will
    not reverse course."

    The law will come up for reauthorization in Congress in 2007.
    But task force members hoped to persuade Congress to make
    changes in the law before then.

    Several groups that strongly support the federal law disputed
    the report.

    "My big concern is they did a better job of pinpointing problems
    than identifying solutions," said Susan Traiman, a director at
    the Business Roundtable, a group that represents top corporate
    executives. "Most of what they call for would be a reversal that
    would turn back the clock on what NCLB is trying to accomplish,
    all in the name of federalism."

    One chapter of the report notes that the Constitution does not
    delegate powers to educate America's citizens to the federal
    government, thereby leaving education under state control. The
    report contends that No Child Left Behind has greatly expanded
    federal powers to a degree that is unconstitutional.

    "This assertion of federal authority into an area historically
    reserved to the states has had the effect of curtailing additional
    state innovations and undermining many that had occurred
    during the past three decades," the report says.

    "The task force does not believe that NCLB is constitutional,"
    the report said.

    But Steve Kelley, a Democrat who serves in the Minnesota Senate
    and is a co-chairman of the task force, said the conference had
    no intention of going to court over the law's constitutionality.

    The report also examines what the task force called conflicts
    between the federal law and the Individuals With Disabilities
    Education Act.

    Under No Child Left Behind, a disabled eighth-grader whom
    educators deem to be working at a sixth-grade level must take
    examinations for eighth-graders. The report said the requirement
    contradicted provisions in the disabilities act requiring school
    authorities to design a unique instructional program suited to
    the needs and abilities of each disabled child.

    "NCLB requires students with disabilities be tested by grade
    level, while IDEA mandates that students be taught according
    to ability," the report said.

    The Washington Post contributed to this report.

    (c) 2005 San Francisco Chronicle

    Draft Resolution for San Francisco Board of Education
    Cut Ties with the Military:

    WHEREAS, the United States military is actively recruiting high
    school students into the military to fight in Iraq; and
    WHEREAS, many young San Francisco high school alumni are
    presently serving in military units fighting in Iraq; and
    WHEREAS, it is San Francisco City policy by virtue of
    Proposition N, to bring all U.S. troops home from Iraq now; and
    WHEREAS, over 1,448 U.S. soldiers and approximately
    100,000 Iraqis have been killed in this war and over
    10,000 U.S. soldiers and unknown thousands of Iraqis
    have been wounded; and
    WHEREAS, the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on
    the war have robbed our children of resources that should
    be spent on education and other human needs; and
    WHEREAS, military presence in our schools legitimizes the
    message that violence is acceptable; THEREFORE BE IT
    RESOLVED THAT:
    It shall be the policy of the San Francisco Board of Education
    to support cutting all ties with the United States military,
    including, but not limited to: Ending military recruitment
    on campuses; ending the Junior Reserved Officer Training
    Corps (JROTC); and guaranteeing that all students and
    parents are informed of their right to deny military recruiters
    access to their names, addresses and telephone numbers.

    Bay Area United Against War (BAUAW) € www.bauaw.org €
    P.O. Box 318021, San Francisco, CA 94131-8021 € 414-824-8730

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    2) WE ALL STAND WITH LYNNE STEWART!
    NO JAIL TIME FOR LYNNE!
    PLEASE WRITE LETTERS TODAY:

    SUGGESTION AS TO FORMAT OF LETTERS
    TO BE WRITTEN ON BEHALF OF LYNNE STEWART

    MARGIN: Please leave at least a one-inch left-hand margin to
    allow us to bind the letter into the appendix to the sentencing
    memorandum that is being filed on
    Lynne's behalf.

    INSIDE ADDRESS: Honorable John G. Koeltl
    United States District Judge
    Southern District of New York
    United States Courthouse
    500 Pearl Street
    New York, New York 10007

    GREETING: Honorable Sir or Dear Judge Koeltl:

    BODY: Briefly introduce yourself and set forth your
    relationship to Lynne.
    Briefly discuss yourself - your position in work and in society.
    State that you are aware that Lynne is to be sentenced following
    a jury verdict of guilty on serious charges: The remainder of your
    letter should discuss whatever you believe to weigh in favor of
    no jail time. If possible, you should tell of an incident where she
    helped you out or engaged in commendable community service.
    Do not try to argue that she is not guilty or was unfairly conviction.
    Focus on the unfairness of the government's actions in bringing
    the charges; the way in which the government portrayed her, etc.

    * Typewritten letters if possible are preferred.
    *
    WHEN LETTER IS COMPLETED: Please mail the final product to
    the following address:
    Jill R. Shellow-Lavine, Esq.
    2537 Post Road
    Southport, CT 06890

    Do not send your letters to the judge. We ask that you forward
    your letter me so that the lawyers can present it to Judge Koeltl
    with the other letters being written for this purpose. This is the
    manner in which letters will have the greatest impact. If they are
    sent directly to the Judge's chambers, they may have less of an
    impact and could cause the judge a substantial inconvenience
    (and annoyance).

    Thank you for your cooperation. If you have any questions,
    please do not hesitate to contact the defense committee
    at www.lynnestewart.org.

    Sincerely,
    Jill R. Shellow-Lavine
    Attorney for Lynne Stewart
    For more information go to:
    www.LynneStewart.org

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    3) The Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
    Presents: Conscientious Objectors Discuss War
    Sunday, February 27 at the Humanist Hall, 390
    27th St. @ Broadway, Oakland 3pm-6:30pm
    Join CCCO and Conscientious Objector panelists;
    Aimee Allison, Dale Bartlett, David Harris, Rev.
    Dr. Dorsey Blake and Jeff Paterson, in a
    discussion on war, draft and conscience,
    moderated by Steve Morse, CCCO GI Rights Program
    Coordinator.
    Also, film maker Mark Manning, independent
    reporter Dahr Jamail and military mom Nadia
    McCaffrey offer reports about their recent trips
    to Iraq and Jordan.
    Refreshments.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    4) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation – Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People’s Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    5) COMING TO THE BAY AREA SOON ARE TWO POWERFUL ANTIWAR MOVIES

    "Mission Accomplished" is a a brutally vivid documentary
    filmed entirely on the ground in Iraq. The reality of this
    war for American troops is contrasted to the
    overwhelming reality of the devastation felt and experienced
    by the people of Iraq.
    "Mission Accomplished" will open March 18th:
    4 Star
    2200 Clement St.
    San Francisco, CA 94121
    415.666.3488

    "Voices In Wartime" is a compelling portrayal of human
    experience with war through poetry, both from the point
    of view of those who were in combat and those who are left
    behind.
    "Voices In Wartime" will play in S.F. on April 15th at:
    Landmark Lumiere 3
    1572 California Street
    San Francisco, CA 94109

    [This poem by fourth-grader Cameron Penny was read
    by Marie Howe in this very beautiful film
    directed by Rick King.

    "If you are lucky in this life
    A window will appear on a battlefield between two armies
    And when the soldiers look into the window
    They don't see their enemies
    They see themselves as children
    And they stop fighting
    And go home and go to sleep
    When they wake up, the land is well again."
    By Cameron Penny]

    To learn more about these film visit
    Cinema Libre Studio
    http://www.cinemalibrestudio.com/

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    6) PROTEST the Anniversary of the U.S.-led COUP in HAITI
    Monday, Feb. 28, 4:30 p.m. Rally in UN Plaza,
    San Francisco (under the Simon Bolivar statue at Hyde Street)
    - proceeding at 5 p.m. March stops at sites representing
    attempts to destroy democracy in Haiti, including SF Chronicle,
    the Chilean, Brazilian and French consulates, and U.S.
    Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office.

    One year after democratically-elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
    was forced out of his country by the U.S., protesters are calling for the
    restoration of constitutional government in Haiti. The protest is
    sponsored by the Haiti Action Committee, East Bay Sanctuary
    Covenant and the ANSWER Coalition.
    Contact: 510-483-7481 or 415-821-6545

    FACES OF HAITI 2005 . . . a slide presentation and discussion
    scheduled for 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 23, 2005, at the
    First United Methodist Church, 9 Ross Valley Drive
    (at Fourth Street), San Rafael.

    Two members of the Let Haiti Live Women;s Delegation . . .
    January 13-22
    [to] Port au Prince women's cooperatives and highly successful
    village community-based health clinic also their experience at
    the World Social Forum [where] MITF sponsored participation
    of Haitian nationals

    A $5-10 donation is requested. No one turned away for lack
    of funds. For more information, please call 415/924-3227.
    This venue is wheelchair accessible.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    7) What: Anti-Recruitment Community Forum
    When: Saturday, Feb. 26 2pm-4pm
    Where: Audrey Lorde Room, Women's Building,
    3543 18th St. between Valencia and Guerrero

    Description: Join teachers, students, anti-war
    activists, veterans, Ramon Leal from Iraq Veterans
    Against the War, Aimee Allison, Gulf War Conscientious
    Objector and candidate for Oakland City Council, Susan
    King from the San Francisco Green Party, and members
    of the Campus Anti-War Network as they discuss forming
    a coalition opposed to military recruitment in our
    schools.

    WEDNESDAY, MAR 2:

    What: Political Pub Quiz
    When: 3/2 8-10pm
    Where: Dylan's Pub, 19th and Harrison
    Description: Join Supervisors Ross Mirkarimi & Chris
    Daly, School Board Members Mark Sanchez, Eric Mar and
    Sarah Lipson, activists Lisa Feldstein, Michael
    Goldstein and Calvin Welch, playwright Terry Baum and
    others. Categories include Famous San Franciscans, SF
    Landmarks, LGBT and Political Scandals. Free and
    winning team gets a better than cash value prize.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    8) The next meeting of the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
    is confirmed for Sunday, February 27 at Noon At the
    Modern Times Bookstore at 888 Valencia Street,
    between 19th and 20th Streets.
    We will meet in the rear meeting room.

    Lynne's sentencing date has been changed from July 15 to September,
    giving us more time to mount the campaigns that are needed to
    maximize the chances that Lynne is not sentenced to jail time. She
    faces up to 35 years in prison. At this time our campaign is geared
    to mobilizing mass forces to convince the judge, whose record
    indicates he tends toward light sentences, to grant Lynne probation
    as opposed to jail. The fact that the judge has this discretion is
    due to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that rejected mandatory
    sentences. Letter writing will be a major focus of the campaign but
    we understand that there will be a mass mobilization near the
    courthouse when the Judge is scheduled to decide. We will urge West
    Coast attendance at this rally.

    Lynne's appeal is in preparation. Her aim, our aim, of course, is to
    reverse the conviction and win her freedom.

    Her plan to visit the Bay Area for a major April 24 rally organized
    by the Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal at Mission H.S. is firm.
    Lynne says that she is confident that Judge Koeltl will grant her
    travel rights.

    Our agenda on Sunday will include:

    a) a legal update report
    b) campaign for mass letter writing regarding the sentence beginning
    immediately but focusing on April 24 and all other such meetings
    where people gather in large numbers. This includes the upcoming
    March 19 antiwar march/rally from Dolores Park to the Civic Center.
    c) distribution of the new fact sheet
    d) organization of major meeting with prominent speaker in the Bay
    Area between now and April 24
    e) collaboration with the National Lawyers Guild to reach out to the
    legal community
    f) broadening our defense committee
    g) speaking at meetings to explain Lynne's case
    h) building the April 24 meeting where Lynne will be joined by Amy
    Goodman and a concert with Michael Franti
    i) exploration of a SF Board of Supervisors resolution supporting
    Lynne's democratic rights and civil liberties and welcoming her to
    San Francisco
    j)other items to be determined

    We expect the April 24 mass rally to be a barn burner with Lynne the
    major speaker.

    In solidarity,

    Jeff

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    9) Latin America Fails to Deliver on Basic Needs (link only)
    By JUAN FORERO
    February 22, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/international/americas/22bolivia.html?hp&e
    x=1109134800&en=a0fbb2c9c35c0f8f&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    10) Bush Says Russia Must Make Good on Democracy (link only)
    By ELISABETH BUMILLER
    BRUSSELS
    February 22, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/international/europe/22prexy.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    11) US Senator Says Afghan Bases Should Be Permanent (link only)
    By David Brunnstrom
    KABUL (Reuters)
    Tue Feb 22, 2005 06:32 AM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7697958&src=eD
    ialog/GetContent§ion=news

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    12) Some Inheritance (Social Security) (link only)
    EDITORIAL
    February 23, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/opinion/23wed1.html?hp

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    13) Failure to Form Cabinet Signals Crisis
    for Palestinian Leaders
    By ALAN COWELL
    February 23, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/international/middleeast/23cnd-mideast.htm
    l?hp&ex=1109221200&en=c2f9ba17fa86cb77&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    14) Vonnegut at 80 (link only)
    By David Hoppe, NUVO
    Posted on January 10, 2003
    http://www.alternet.org/story/14919/

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    15) Task Force Criticizes Bush's 'No Child' Law; (link only)
    50-State Group Says It's Unconstitutional
    by Sam Dillon
    Published on Thursday, February 24, 2005 by the
    San Francisco Chronicle
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0224-09.htm

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    16) Two good liberals visit bad country (link only)
    By Robert Mailer Anderson and Zack Anderson
    Special To The Examiner
    (Very interesting and favorable article about Cuba...bw)
    http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/02/24/opinion/20050224_op05_anderson
    .txt

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    17) Next Generation Peace Rally and March
    FUND OUR COMMUNITIES, NOT WAR!
    Friday, March 4, Rally 3 - 3:30 at the San Rafael Library
    March through town 3:30 - 5pm

    Join Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, San Rafael City Councilor Cyr Miller, and
    local city workers, taxpayers, students and teachers for a creative rally
    and march to demand funding for our communities, not for war!

    Rally at the San Rafael Public Library (3 - 3:45) - 1100 E ST at Fifth ST

    Then march to:
    * Falkirk Cultural Center (4 - 4:10) - 1408 Mission Ave at E ST
    * City Hall (4:15 - 4:25) - 1400 Fifth ST at D ST
    * Police Station (4:25 - 4:35) - 1400 Fifth STat D ST
    * Fire Station (4:40 - 4:50) - 1039 C ST bet 4th and 5th
    * March down Fourth ST (4:50 - 5:00)
    * Concluding rally at Bank of America / Court Plaza (5 - 5:15) - 4th ST at
    Court

    George Bush has released his proposed budget for 2006. If passed, it will
    sharply cut social programs while increasing military spending at a time
    when most towns across America - including San Rafael - are cutting back
    basic services just to stay afloat.

    Next Generation - with support from MPJC, Presente and community leaders -
    is fighting back with a creative, grassroots response: a youth and
    taxpayer-led rally and march through San Rafael that will highlight how much
    the war on Iraq is costing our community, and what we'd like to see instead.

    After a rally near city hall, our colorful, positive, enthusiastic
    procession will stop at various agencies in San Rafael whose budgets are
    being cut or are being threatened with cuts, including the library, city
    hall, police station, fire department. At each stop along the way, students
    and community will explain how each agency is struggling, and present a
    giant novelty check representing their lost revenues to an "official" from
    the Pentagon. We will also present a positive, alternative vision of what
    we'd like to see instead.

    We are excited about this effort because:
    * It brings the cost of war home
    * It is timely - Congress will soon begin to debate George Bush's proposed
    budget, and next November, voters in San Rafael will decide whether or not
    to raise the sales tax by half a cent to stop cuts in basic city services
    * It presents a positive vision of healthy, supportive communities
    * It builds alliances and expands the progressive movement
    * It is fun and creative

    This effort is open to all individuals and groups who believe our tax
    dollars would be better spent creating healthy, nurturing communities than
    fighting destructive wars. Please contact Next Generation if you would like
    to get involved in any way, including:
    * Working on march logistics
    * Creating props, visuals, and other creative elements
    * Promoting the march at the grassroots
    * Generating media coverage of the effort
    * Speaking at the march as a San Rafael taxpayer, volunteer or city employee
    * Contributing funds or other resources to support this effort and others
    like it

    During the three weeks before the action, Next Generating is conducting
    interactive workshops in local schools to educate young people about the
    President's proposed budget and the cost of war. We will follow the action
    with additional workshops, and plan to issue a national call for Cost of War
    actions across the US on Tax Day, April 15.

    Next Generation 1741 Lincoln Ave, #6 San Rafael, CA 94901 415.455.9498
    nextgenerationofactivists@hotmail.com

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    18) THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ (link only)
    Army Gives Halliburton $9.4 Million in Bonuses
    From Times Wire Services
    February 25, 2005
    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-halliburton25feb25,1,222
    0539.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=2&cset=true

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    19) 10 Voters on Panel Backing Pain Pills (link only)
    Had Industry Ties
    By GARDINER HARRIS and ALEX BERENSON
    February 25, 2005
    "Ten of the 32 government drug advisers who last week endorsed
    continued marketing of the huge-selling pain pills Celebrex, Bextra
    and Vioxx have consulted in recent years for the drugs' makers,
    according to disclosures in medical journals and other public records.

    If the 10 advisers had not cast their votes, the committee would
    have voted 12 to 8 that Bextra should be withdrawn and 14 to 8
    that Vioxx should not return to the market. The 10 advisers with
    company ties voted 9 to 1 to keep Bextra on the market and 9 to 1
    for Vioxx's return."
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/politics/25fda.html?hp&ex=1109394000&en=2d
    0651f024ad5d31&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    20) Kansas Prosecutor Demands Files
    on Late-Term Abortion Patients
    By JODI WILGOREN
    February 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/national/25kansas.html?hp&ex=1109394000&en
    =590ef6d0a42ee0af&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    21) Thrown to the Wolves (link only)
    By BOB HERBERT
    OP-ED COLUMNIST
    OTTAWA
    February 25, 2005
    [Prison and torture America style-send them to Saudi Arabia where
    torture is legal...bw]
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/opinion/25herbert.html?hp

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    22) [Related to Lynne Stewart Case...bw] (link only)
    Terror Suspect's Family Protests Jail Rules
    By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES DAO
    February 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/national/25terror.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    23) Published on Thursday, February 24, 2005 by the
    New York Amsterdam News
    Calling All Soldiers: Military Recruiters Face Resistance
    From Young Anti-War Activists
    by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg

    The military spends about $3 billion each year to convince young
    people that enlistment will give them college money, job training
    and an alternative to working at McDonald's. In the wake of the
    growing conflict in Iraq, which has resulted in over a thousand
    U.S. casualties, the military has become more aggressive in
    scouting out high school students willing and able to serve.

    In many New York City public schools that are predominantly
    Black and Latino, military recruiters are a heavy presence, promising
    young people financial security and a fulfilling career. Recruiters
    roam the halls, set up tables and even pull students out of class.
    But in recent months, a group of teenagers and anti-war veterans
    have been canvassing the neighborhoods where the recruiters
    frequent, hoping to convince students to consider other options.

    ''We've heard everything up to and including having a desk in
    the guidance counselor's office,'' said Amy Wagner of Youth
    Activists-Youth Allies (YaYas), a group that focuses on
    counter-recruitment. ''When the kid comes in to talk to the
    counselor about college, before the kid can get there, they've
    got somebody in their face saying, 'You want to go to college?
    How are you going to pay for college?'''

    New York City organizers are educating people about alternatives
    to enlisting and the realities of military life. Vietnam veterans and
    anti-war activists Jim Murphy and Dayl Wise visit high schools,
    where they recount for the students stories about their time in
    the service. In one class of juniors at West Side High School,
    Murphy told them that before the service he spent time making
    money playing seven-card stud.

    Once he left community college, he was drafted. ''I wasn't smart
    enough to have fear about it,'' Murphy told the class. ''I didn't
    have a clue.'' Wise, who was in the infantry, didn't want to go
    to war when he was drafted. His father offered to help send him
    to Canada. ''I took the easy way out by reporting for duty,'' he
    said. ''It takes a braver person. I let it happen to me? I didn't
    have a plan. I gave up control.'' He warned the students: ''Please
    have a plan. Don't let others make plans for you.'' The YaYas,
    staffed almost entirely by high school students of color, work
    to make sure young people avoid falling into military service
    because it seems like the only option for advancement.

    ''It's either jail or the military,'' said Jeannel Bishop, a senior
    at Brooklyn's South Shore High School and a YaYa staffer.
    Many students at her school think enlistment is the best they
    can accomplish. When Navy recruiters visited her school
    recently, students were allowed to leave class to visit with
    them. Bishop brought pamphlets and confronted the recruiters
    about their assurances of tuition and training. She pointed out
    to them and other students nearby that getting college money
    was a much more complicated and uncertain process.

    ''I was taking over their whole show,'' Bishop said. ''[The recruiters]
    were amazed.'' Three students who had been ''pumped up about
    the military'' had second thoughts after Bishop spoke. It took just
    a little information for them to have doubts, she said. Besides
    speaking out in their own schools, the YaYas hold workshops for
    teenagers and make presentations to PTAs. They encourage
    students to post literature in the guidance office and set up
    counter-recruitment tables next to military recruiters. Most
    importantly, they want young people to make an informed
    choice, Wagner said.

    For instance, most students don't know that:

    * Two-thirds of recruits don't get any college money,
    according to the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors.
    * Most people in the military do not have time to attend
    college while in the service.
    * To qualify for college money recruits have to pay $100
    per month for a year.
    * The unemployment rate for veterans is three times higher
    than the national average.
    * People who sign up with the Delayed Entry Program are
    told they can't change their minds, but getting out is as simple
    as writing a letter.
    * The enlistment contract is for eight years.
    * There are other ways to finance college, like federal
    financial aid, private scholarships, going to community college
    or joining AmeriCorps.

    But educating youth is not just about these facts and figures,
    Wagner said. The war in Iraq makes their work much more
    urgent, she said. ''They're still telling people you can go to
    Germany, Japan, but the reality is the vast majority are going
    to Iraq,'' Wagner said. ''You risk losing life and limb; you risk
    being a murderer.'' Giving young people a complete picture of
    enlisting rests on the courage and initiative of activists,
    guidance counselors and principals.

    Often, the recruiters' sales pitches, brochures and posters go
    unchallenged. Many educators fear principals will retaliate
    if they speak out, Wagner said. Some schools are reticent to
    limit the military's presence because they think they will lose
    federal funding, she said. No Child Left Behind, the educational
    policy touted by the Bush administration, requires that
    recruiters and college representatives have equal access
    to students. This is often misinterpreted as unlimited access.
    Policy on recruiter access in New York City public schools
    is determined school by school and varies widely.

    But some school districts have taken a more active role
    and regulate recruiters' visits. In Madison, Wisconsin,
    recruiters are only permitted to be in each high school
    three days during the school year. Their policy states that
    guidance counselors can distribute both military and
    counter-recruitment information. There is also no uniform,
    enforced policy in New York City governing opt-out forms,
    which let students choose whether to release their personal
    information to recruiters. Many principals, Wagner said, are
    not even aware of the opt-out form. Some schools give out
    the form, without any explanation and make no effort to
    collect it from students, she said.

    Wagner said some students think that signing the forms will
    mean their information is not released to any institutions,
    including colleges. Other students, often immigrants, fear
    they will get in trouble for signing, she said. Currently, New
    York City students are often only given the opt-out form in
    the ninth grade, Wagner said. Because recruiters ask for
    eleventh- and twelfth-grade lists, schools should send out
    the forms each year, she said.

    In Montclair, New Jersey, the high school sends a fact sheet
    with the opt-out form. Tenth-graders who have not returned
    the forms are called. If the form is still not turned in, it will
    be passed out the following year. Activists have discussed
    working on a New York City Council resolution to require
    schools to collect the forms from every student. Members
    of the YaYas and the New York Civil Liberties Union have
    met with the Department of Education (DOE) to discuss
    putting together an information packet for principals
    about opt-out.

    Wagner said the DOE was receptive. Calls to the DOE were
    not returned. Local counter-recruiters also plan to make use
    of the recent Third Circuit Court's ruling that Yale Law School,
    which has a non-discrimination policy, can ban recruiters from
    its campus without risk of losing federal funding, because the
    military discriminates against gays.

    However, without the help of the Department of Education or
    the City Council, counter-recruiters' efforts can only go so far.
    This frustration is evident in veteran Dayl Wise when he said
    that giving presentations, classroom by classroom, is like
    "throwing grains of sand on the beach.''

    Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg may be reached at
    elizabethwg@gmail.com.

    (c) 2005 New York Amsterdam News

    ###
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*


    Friday, February 25, 2005
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-FRIDAY, FEB.25, 2005

    March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation
    Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People's Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    Resource:
    MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
    FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF SOCIAL SERVICES UNDER THE KNIFE RIGHT NOW GO TO:
    http://www.bauaw.org/2005/02/programs-eliminated-or-cut-in-2006.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    1) NEXT BAUAW PLANNING MEETING TO GET THE MILITARY OUT OF
    OUR SCHOOLS IS: SATURDAY, FEB. 26, 11 AM AT 474 VALENCIA STREET
    The Board of Education, as a result of the Feb. 22 meeting,
    is organizing a "meeting of the whole" based on the topic
    of military recruitment in the Schools. Help plan strategy
    for the meeting this Saturday, Feb. 26 at Centro del Pueblo,
    474 Valencia street, first floor, to the left and all the way to
    the rear of the building at the cheerful, Companeros del Barrio
    childcare center.

    Plus:

    Report of the Tuesday, Feb.22 S.F. Board of Education Meeting:
    (see full item 1 below)


    2) WE ALL STAND WITH LYNNE STEWART!
    NO JAIL TIME FOR LYNNE!
    PLEASE WRITE LETTERS TODAY

    3) The Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
    Presents: Conscientious Objectors Discuss War
    Sunday, February 27 at the Humanist Hall, 390
    27th St. @ Broadway, Oakland 3pm-6:30pm
    Join CCCO and Conscientious Objector panelists;
    Aimee Allison, Dale Bartlett, David Harris, Rev.
    Dr. Dorsey Blake and Jeff Paterson, in a
    discussion on war, draft and conscience,
    moderated by Steve Morse, CCCO GI Rights Program
    Coordinator.
    Also, film maker Mark Manning, independent
    reporter Dahr Jamail and military mom Nadia
    McCaffrey offer reports about their recent trips
    to Iraq and Jordan.
    Refreshments.

    4) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation ˆ Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People's Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

    5) COMING TO THE BAY AREA SOON ARE
    TWO POWERFUL ANTIWAR MOVIES

    "Mission Accomplished" is a a brutally vivid documentary
    filmed entirely on the ground in Iraq. The reality of this
    war for American troops is contrasted to the
    overwhelming reality of the devastation felt and experienced
    by the people of Iraq.
    "Mission Accomplished" will open March 18th:
    4 Star
    2200 Clement St.
    San Francisco, CA 94121
    415.666.3488

    "Voices In Wartime" is a compelling portrayal of human
    experience with war through poetry, both from the point
    of view of those who were in combat and those who are left
    behind.
    "Voices In Wartime" will play in S.F. on April 15th at:
    Landmark Lumiere 3
    1572 California Street
    San Francisco, CA 94109

    [This poem by fourth-grader Cameron Penny was read
    by Marie Howe in this very beautiful film
    directed by Rick King.

    "If you are lucky in this life
    A window will appear on a battlefield between two armies
    And when the soldiers look into the window
    They don't see their enemies
    They see themselves as children
    And they stop fighting
    And go home and go to sleep
    When they wake up, the land is well again."
    By Cameron Penny]

    To learn more about these film visit
    Cinema Libre Studio
    http://www.cinemalibrestudio.com/

    6) PROTEST the Anniversary of the U.S.-led COUP in HAITI
    Monday, Feb. 28, 4:30 p.m. Rally in UN Plaza,
    San Francisco (under the Simon Bolivar statue at Hyde Street)
    - proceeding at 5 p.m. March stops at sites representing
    attempts to destroy democracy in Haiti, including SF Chronicle,
    the Chilean, Brazilian and French consulates, and U.S.
    Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office.

    7) What: Anti-Recruitment Community Forum
    When: Saturday, Feb. 26 2pm-4pm
    Where: Audrey Lorde Room, Women's Building,
    3543 18th St. between Valencia and Guerrero

    8) The next meeting of the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
    is confirmed for Sunday, February 27 at Noon At the
    Modern Times Bookstore at 888 Valencia Street,
    between 19th and 20th Streets.
    We will meet in the rear meeting room.

    9) Latin America Fails to Deliver on Basic Needs (link only)
    By JUAN FORERO
    February 22, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/international/americas/22bolivia.html?hp&ex=1109134800&en=a0fbb2c9c35c0f8f&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    10) Bush Says Russia Must Make Good on Democracy (link only)
    By ELISABETH BUMILLER
    BRUSSELS
    February 22, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/international/europe/22prexy.html

    11) US Senator Says Afghan Bases Should Be Permanent (link only)
    By David Brunnstrom
    KABUL (Reuters)
    Tue Feb 22, 2005 06:32 AM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7697958&src=eDialog/GetContent§ion=news

    12) Some Inheritance (Social Security) (link only)
    EDITORIAL
    February 23, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/opinion/23wed1.html?hp

    13) Failure to Form Cabinet Signals Crisis
    for Palestinian Leaders
    By ALAN COWELL
    February 23, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/international/middleeast/23cnd-mideast.html?hp&ex=1109221200&en=c2f9ba17fa86cb77&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    14) Vonnegut at 80 (link only)
    By David Hoppe, NUVO
    Posted on January 10, 2003
    http://www.alternet.org/story/14919/

    15) Task Force Criticizes Bush's 'No Child' Law; (link only)
    50-State Group Says It's Unconstitutional
    by Sam Dillon
    Published on Thursday, February 24, 2005 by the
    San Francisco Chronicle
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0224-09.htm

    16) Two good liberals visit bad country (link only)
    By Robert Mailer Anderson and Zack Anderson
    Special To The Examiner
    (Very interesting and favorable article about Cuba...bw)
    http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/02/24/opinion/20050224_op05_anderson.txt

    17) Next Generation Peace Rally and March
    FUND OUR COMMUNITIES, NOT WAR!
    Friday, March 4, Rally 3 - 3:30 at the San Rafael Library
    March through town 3:30 - 5pm

    18) THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ (link only)
    Army Gives Halliburton $9.4 Million in Bonuses
    From Times Wire Services
    February 25, 2005
    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-halliburton25feb25,1,2220539.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=2&cset=true

    19) 10 Voters on Panel Backing Pain Pills (link only)
    Had Industry Ties
    By GARDINER HARRIS and ALEX BERENSON
    February 25, 2005
    "Ten of the 32 government drug advisers who last week
    endorsed continued marketing of the huge-selling pain pills
    Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx have consulted in recent years for
    the drugs' makers, according to disclosures in medical journals
    and other public records.

    If the 10 advisers had not cast their votes, the committee would
    have voted 12 to 8 that Bextra should be withdrawn and 14 to 8
    that Vioxx should not return to the market. The 10 advisers with
    company ties voted 9 to 1 to keep Bextra on the market and 9 to 1
    for Vioxx's return."
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/politics/25fda.html?hp&ex=1109394000&en=2d0651f024ad5d31&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    20) Kansas Prosecutor Demands Files
    on Late-Term Abortion Patients
    By JODI WILGOREN
    February 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/national/25kansas.html?hp&ex=1109394000&en=590ef6d0a42ee0af&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    21) Thrown to the Wolves (link only)
    By BOB HERBERT
    OP-ED COLUMNIST
    OTTAWA
    February 25, 2005
    [Prison and torture America style-send them to Saudi Arabia where
    torture is legal...bw]
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/opinion/25herbert.html?hp

    22) [Related to Lynne Stewart Case...bw] (link only)
    Terror Suspect's Family Protests Jail Rules
    By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES DAO
    February 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/national/25terror.html

    23) Published on Thursday, February 24, 2005 by the
    New York Amsterdam News
    Calling All Soldiers: Military Recruiters Face Resistance
    From Young Anti-War Activists
    by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg



    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    1) NEXT BAUAW PLANNING MEETING TO GET THE MILITARY OUT OF
    OUR SCHOOLS IS: SATURDAY, FEB. 26, 11 AM AT 474 VALENCIA STREET
    The Board of Education, as a result of the Feb. 22 meeting,
    is organizing a "meeting of the whole" based on the topic
    of military recruitment in the Schools. Help plan strategy
    for the meeting this Saturday, Feb. 26 at Centro del Pueblo,
    474 Valencia street, first floor, to the left and all the way to
    the rear of the building at the cheerful, Companeros del Barrio
    childcare center.

    Plus:

    Report of the Tuesday, Feb.22 S.F. Board of Education Meeting:
    (see full item 1 below)

    The Tuesday, Feb. 22 meeting at the S.F. Board of Education turned
    out to be a great success. Representatives from many groups and
    individuals gave strong reasons why San Francisco schools should
    not allow the military access to our children on school grounds.

    The members of the board clearly showed concern and interest
    about what we were saying. They expressed their antiwar sentiment
    as well by voting to sponsor the American Friends Service
    Committee's "Eyes Wide Open" exhibition of the Iraq War, which
    will be at the Civic Center Friday, March 25, beginning at 11:00 a.m.,
    with an all night vigil; Saturday, March 26th, 10:00 a.m., until 5:00 p.m.,
    and at Union Square, Sunday, March 27th, (Easter Sunday)
    from 10:00 a.m., until dusk.

    They also announced the March 19th March and Rally against the
    War on Iraq that begins at 11: 00 a.m., at Dolores Park and marches
    to a Rally at 1:00 p.m., at the Civic Center. This demonstration is
    part of a worldwide protest of the war. Millions of people across
    the world will show their opposition in the streets March 19th and
    20th-the anniversary of the start of Operation Iraqi Liberation (O.I.L.)

    We are going to the School Board meeting again, on Tuesday,
    March 8th to further discuss how we can prevent the military from
    turning our schools into hunting ground for cannon fodder for
    an illegal and immoral war. We are in the process of getting the
    point on the agenda at the March 8th meeting (or the "meeting of
    the whole"--date not set yet) so that the Board
    members themselves can participate in this very rich discussion
    we began on Feb. 22.

    Some of the many, many groups were that were represented were,
    ANSWER, United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink, BAUAW, AFSC, ISO,
    Campus Antiwar Network, representatives from San Francisco's Queer
    community, as well as many individuals, who all gave impassioned
    reasons for opposing the war and military recruitment at our schools.
    Everyone left the meeting feeling strong, unified and on the same
    page. Many members of the board seemed very receptive to the
    varied and well thought-out arguments.

    This meeting was a great beginning to public community dialogue
    about these issues that affect all of us.

    There will be a planning meeting to discuss further strategy this
    coming Saturday, Feb. 26, at 11:00 a.m., at Centro del Pueblo,
    474 Valencia street, first floor, to the left and all the way to the
    rear of the building at the Companeros del Barrio childcare center.

    Everyone is welcome.

    Peace and solidarity,

    Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War

    The following is an article that was published in the Chronicle Feb.24.
    It describes a 50-State Group that challenges, as Unconstitutional,
    the "No Child Left Behind" law claiming it, "...had imposed an
    impractical 'one-size-fits-all' education accountability system
    across the country that was stifling local initiatives." Forcing schools
    to open their doors to the military in order to get federal funds
    is also part of the "No Child Left Behind" law.

    Task Force Criticizes Bush's 'No Child' Law; 50-State Group Says
    It's Unconstitutional

    By Sam Dillon

    Published on Thursday, February 24, 2005 by the
    San Francisco Chronicle

    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0224-09.htm

    A bipartisan group representing 50 state legislatures called
    Wednesday for major changes in President Bush's landmark
    education initiative, No Child Left Behind, which it lambasted as
    unconstitutional and impractical.

    Republican New York state Sen. Steve Saland, who co-chaired
    a task force that took 10 months to review implementation of
    No Child Left Behind, said the law had imposed an impractical
    "one-size-fits-all" education accountability system across the
    country that was stifling local initiatives.

    The task force's report, based on hearings in six cities, praised
    the law's goal of ending the gap in scholastic achievement
    between white and minority students. But most of the 77-page
    report, which the Education Department rebutted Wednesday,
    was devoted to a detailed inventory and discussion of the
    program's flaws.

    Over the past two years, more than a dozen state legislatures
    adopted resolutions criticizing the No Child Left Behind law
    and demanding changes. But the bipartisan nature of
    Wednesday's report marked a step-up in the war of words
    surrounding the law.

    The report said the law's accountability system, which
    punishes schools whose students fail to improve steadily on
    standardized tests, undermined school improvement efforts
    already under way in many states and relied on the wrong
    indicators.

    The report said the law's rules for educating disabled students
    conflict with another federal law. It also said the law presents
    bureaucratic requirements that fail to recognize the tapestry
    of educational challenges faced by teachers in the nation's
    15,000 school districts.

    "Under NCLB, the federal government's role has become
    excessively intrusive in the day-to-day operations of public
    education," the National Conference of State Legislatures
    said in the report, which was written by 16 state legislators
    and six legislative staff members.

    Nine state legislatures are considering challenges to the law,
    and the Utah Senate is about to vote on a bill, already approved
    by the Utah House, that would require state education officials
    to give higher priority to Utah's education laws than to the
    federal law. An Illinois school district filed suit against the
    Education Department this month in federal court, arguing
    that No Child Left Behind contradicts provisions of the federal
    Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.

    The conference, which has criticized the federal law in the
    past, represents the nation's 50 state legislatures, has
    a membership that includes 3,657 Republicans, 3,656 Democrats,
    as well as a few dozen who were elected from smaller parties,
    as independents or without any party affiliation.

    In compiling its report, the task force conducted public
    hearings in Washington, Chicago, Salt Lake City, New York,
    Santa Fe, N.M., and Portland, Ore.

    An assistant secretary of education, Ray Simon, met with
    members of the task force in Washington on Wednesday
    to discuss the report.

    "The department will continue to work with every state to
    address their concerns and make this law work for their
    children," Simon said in a statement. "But the report could
    be interpreted as wanting to reverse the progress we've made."

    He added: "No Child Left Behind is bringing new hope and
    new opportunity to families throughout America, and we will
    not reverse course."

    The law will come up for reauthorization in Congress in 2007.
    But task force members hoped to persuade Congress to make
    changes in the law before then.

    Several groups that strongly support the federal law disputed
    the report.

    "My big concern is they did a better job of pinpointing problems
    than identifying solutions," said Susan Traiman, a director at
    the Business Roundtable, a group that represents top corporate
    executives. "Most of what they call for would be a reversal that
    would turn back the clock on what NCLB is trying to accomplish,
    all in the name of federalism."

    One chapter of the report notes that the Constitution does not
    delegate powers to educate America's citizens to the federal
    government, thereby leaving education under state control. The
    report contends that No Child Left Behind has greatly expanded
    federal powers to a degree that is unconstitutional.

    "This assertion of federal authority into an area historically
    reserved to the states has had the effect of curtailing additional
    state innovations and undermining many that had occurred
    during the past three decades," the report says.

    "The task force does not believe that NCLB is constitutional,"
    the report said.

    But Steve Kelley, a Democrat who serves in the Minnesota Senate
    and is a co-chairman of the task force, said the conference had
    no intention of going to court over the law's constitutionality.

    The report also examines what the task force called conflicts
    between the federal law and the Individuals With Disabilities
    Education Act.

    Under No Child Left Behind, a disabled eighth-grader whom
    educators deem to be working at a sixth-grade level must take
    examinations for eighth-graders. The report said the requirement
    contradicted provisions in the disabilities act requiring school
    authorities to design a unique instructional program suited to
    the needs and abilities of each disabled child.

    "NCLB requires students with disabilities be tested by grade
    level, while IDEA mandates that students be taught according
    to ability," the report said.

    The Washington Post contributed to this report.

    (c) 2005 San Francisco Chronicle

    Draft Resolution for San Francisco Board of Education
    Cut Ties with the Military:

    WHEREAS, the United States military is actively recruiting high
    school students into the military to fight in Iraq; and
    WHEREAS, many young San Francisco high school alumni are
    presently serving in military units fighting in Iraq; and
    WHEREAS, it is San Francisco City policy by virtue of
    Proposition N, to bring all U.S. troops home from Iraq now; and
    WHEREAS, over 1,448 U.S. soldiers and approximately
    100,000 Iraqis have been killed in this war and over
    10,000 U.S. soldiers and unknown thousands of Iraqis
    have been wounded; and
    WHEREAS, the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on
    the war have robbed our children of resources that should
    be spent on education and other human needs; and
    WHEREAS, military presence in our schools legitimizes the
    message that violence is acceptable; THEREFORE BE IT
    RESOLVED THAT:
    It shall be the policy of the San Francisco Board of Education
    to support cutting all ties with the United States military,
    including, but not limited to: Ending military recruitment
    on campuses; ending the Junior Reserved Officer Training
    Corps (JROTC); and guaranteeing that all students and
    parents are informed of their right to deny military recruiters
    access to their names, addresses and telephone numbers.

    Bay Area United Against War (BAUAW) • www.bauaw.org •
    P.O. Box 318021, San Francisco, CA 94131-8021 • 414-824-8730

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    2) WE ALL STAND WITH LYNNE STEWART!
    NO JAIL TIME FOR LYNNE!
    PLEASE WRITE LETTERS TODAY:

    SUGGESTION AS TO FORMAT OF LETTERS
    TO BE WRITTEN ON BEHALF OF LYNNE STEWART

    MARGIN: Please leave at least a one-inch left-hand margin to
    allow us to bind the letter into the appendix to the sentencing
    memorandum that is being filed on
    Lynne's behalf.

    INSIDE ADDRESS: Honorable John G. Koeltl
    United States District Judge
    Southern District of New York
    United States Courthouse
    500 Pearl Street
    New York, New York 10007

    GREETING: Honorable Sir or Dear Judge Koeltl:

    BODY: Briefly introduce yourself and set forth your
    relationship to Lynne.
    Briefly discuss yourself - your position in work and in society.
    State that you are aware that Lynne is to be sentenced following
    a jury verdict of guilty on serious charges: The remainder of your
    letter should discuss whatever you believe to weigh in favor of
    no jail time. If possible, you should tell of an incident where she
    helped you out or engaged in commendable community service.
    Do not try to argue that she is not guilty or was unfairly conviction.
    Focus on the unfairness of the government's actions in bringing
    the charges; the way in which the government portrayed her, etc.

    * Typewritten letters if possible are preferred.
    *
    WHEN LETTER IS COMPLETED: Please mail the final product to
    the following address:
    Jill R. Shellow-Lavine, Esq.
    2537 Post Road
    Southport, CT 06890

    Do not send your letters to the judge. We ask that you forward
    your letter me so that the lawyers can present it to Judge Koeltl
    with the other letters being written for this purpose. This is the
    manner in which letters will have the greatest impact. If they are
    sent directly to the Judge's chambers, they may have less of an
    impact and could cause the judge a substantial inconvenience
    (and annoyance).

    Thank you for your cooperation. If you have any questions,
    please do not hesitate to contact the defense committee
    at www.lynnestewart.org.

    Sincerely,
    Jill R. Shellow-Lavine
    Attorney for Lynne Stewart
    For more information go to:
    www.LynneStewart.org

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    3) The Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
    Presents: Conscientious Objectors Discuss War
    Sunday, February 27 at the Humanist Hall, 390
    27th St. @ Broadway, Oakland 3pm-6:30pm
    Join CCCO and Conscientious Objector panelists;
    Aimee Allison, Dale Bartlett, David Harris, Rev.
    Dr. Dorsey Blake and Jeff Paterson, in a
    discussion on war, draft and conscience,
    moderated by Steve Morse, CCCO GI Rights Program
    Coordinator.
    Also, film maker Mark Manning, independent
    reporter Dahr Jamail and military mom Nadia
    McCaffrey offer reports about their recent trips
    to Iraq and Jordan.
    Refreshments.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    4) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation ˆ Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People‚s Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    5) COMING TO THE BAY AREA SOON ARE TWO POWERFUL ANTIWAR MOVIES

    "Mission Accomplished" is a a brutally vivid documentary
    filmed entirely on the ground in Iraq. The reality of this
    war for American troops is contrasted to the
    overwhelming reality of the devastation felt and experienced
    by the people of Iraq.
    "Mission Accomplished" will open March 18th:
    4 Star
    2200 Clement St.
    San Francisco, CA 94121
    415.666.3488

    "Voices In Wartime" is a compelling portrayal of human
    experience with war through poetry, both from the point
    of view of those who were in combat and those who are left
    behind.
    "Voices In Wartime" will play in S.F. on April 15th at:
    Landmark Lumiere 3
    1572 California Street
    San Francisco, CA 94109

    [This poem by fourth-grader Cameron Penny was read
    by Marie Howe in this very beautiful film
    directed by Rick King.

    "If you are lucky in this life
    A window will appear on a battlefield between two armies
    And when the soldiers look into the window
    They don't see their enemies
    They see themselves as children
    And they stop fighting
    And go home and go to sleep
    When they wake up, the land is well again."
    By Cameron Penny]

    To learn more about these film visit
    Cinema Libre Studio
    http://www.cinemalibrestudio.com/

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    6) PROTEST the Anniversary of the U.S.-led COUP in HAITI
    Monday, Feb. 28, 4:30 p.m. Rally in UN Plaza,
    San Francisco (under the Simon Bolivar statue at Hyde Street)
    - proceeding at 5 p.m. March stops at sites representing
    attempts to destroy democracy in Haiti, including SF Chronicle,
    the Chilean, Brazilian and French consulates, and U.S.
    Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office.

    One year after democratically-elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
    was forced out of his country by the U.S., protesters are calling for the
    restoration of constitutional government in Haiti. The protest is
    sponsored by the Haiti Action Committee, East Bay Sanctuary
    Covenant and the ANSWER Coalition.
    Contact: 510-483-7481 or 415-821-6545

    FACES OF HAITI 2005 . . . a slide presentation and discussion
    scheduled for 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 23, 2005, at the
    First United Methodist Church, 9 Ross Valley Drive
    (at Fourth Street), San Rafael.

    Two members of the Let Haiti Live Women;s Delegation . . .
    January 13-22
    [to] Port au Prince women's cooperatives and highly successful
    village community-based health clinic also their experience at
    the World Social Forum [where] MITF sponsored participation
    of Haitian nationals

    A $5-10 donation is requested. No one turned away for lack
    of funds. For more information, please call 415/924-3227.
    This venue is wheelchair accessible.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    7) What: Anti-Recruitment Community Forum
    When: Saturday, Feb. 26 2pm-4pm
    Where: Audrey Lorde Room, Women's Building,
    3543 18th St. between Valencia and Guerrero

    Description: Join teachers, students, anti-war
    activists, veterans, Ramon Leal from Iraq Veterans
    Against the War, Aimee Allison, Gulf War Conscientious
    Objector and candidate for Oakland City Council, Susan
    King from the San Francisco Green Party, and members
    of the Campus Anti-War Network as they discuss forming
    a coalition opposed to military recruitment in our
    schools.

    WEDNESDAY, MAR 2:

    What: Political Pub Quiz
    When: 3/2 8-10pm
    Where: Dylan's Pub, 19th and Harrison
    Description: Join Supervisors Ross Mirkarimi & Chris
    Daly, School Board Members Mark Sanchez, Eric Mar and
    Sarah Lipson, activists Lisa Feldstein, Michael
    Goldstein and Calvin Welch, playwright Terry Baum and
    others. Categories include Famous San Franciscans, SF
    Landmarks, LGBT and Political Scandals. Free and
    winning team gets a better than cash value prize.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    8) The next meeting of the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
    is confirmed for Sunday, February 27 at Noon At the
    Modern Times Bookstore at 888 Valencia Street,
    between 19th and 20th Streets.
    We will meet in the rear meeting room.

    Lynne's sentencing date has been changed from July 15 to September,
    giving us more time to mount the campaigns that are needed to
    maximize the chances that Lynne is not sentenced to jail time. She
    faces up to 35 years in prison. At this time our campaign is geared
    to mobilizing mass forces to convince the judge, whose record
    indicates he tends toward light sentences, to grant Lynne probation
    as opposed to jail. The fact that the judge has this discretion is
    due to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that rejected mandatory
    sentences. Letter writing will be a major focus of the campaign but
    we understand that there will be a mass mobilization near the
    courthouse when the Judge is scheduled to decide. We will urge West
    Coast attendance at this rally.

    Lynne's appeal is in preparation. Her aim, our aim, of course, is to
    reverse the conviction and win her freedom.

    Her plan to visit the Bay Area for a major April 24 rally organized
    by the Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal at Mission H.S. is firm.
    Lynne says that she is confident that Judge Koeltl will grant her
    travel rights.

    Our agenda on Sunday will include:

    a) a legal update report
    b) campaign for mass letter writing regarding the sentence beginning
    immediately but focusing on April 24 and all other such meetings
    where people gather in large numbers. This includes the upcoming
    March 19 antiwar march/rally from Dolores Park to the Civic Center.
    c) distribution of the new fact sheet
    d) organization of major meeting with prominent speaker in the Bay
    Area between now and April 24
    e) collaboration with the National Lawyers Guild to reach out to the
    legal community
    f) broadening our defense committee
    g) speaking at meetings to explain Lynne's case
    h) building the April 24 meeting where Lynne will be joined by Amy
    Goodman and a concert with Michael Franti
    i) exploration of a SF Board of Supervisors resolution supporting
    Lynne's democratic rights and civil liberties and welcoming her to
    San Francisco
    j)other items to be determined

    We expect the April 24 mass rally to be a barn burner with Lynne the
    major speaker.

    In solidarity,

    Jeff

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    9) Latin America Fails to Deliver on Basic Needs (link only)
    By JUAN FORERO
    February 22, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/international/americas/22bolivia.html?hp&ex=1109134800&en=a0fbb2c9c35c0f8f&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    10) Bush Says Russia Must Make Good on Democracy (link only)
    By ELISABETH BUMILLER
    BRUSSELS
    February 22, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/international/europe/22prexy.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    11) US Senator Says Afghan Bases Should Be Permanent (link only)
    By David Brunnstrom
    KABUL (Reuters)
    Tue Feb 22, 2005 06:32 AM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7697958&src=eDialog/GetContent§ion=news

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    12) Some Inheritance (Social Security) (link only)
    EDITORIAL
    February 23, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/opinion/23wed1.html?hp

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    13) Failure to Form Cabinet Signals Crisis
    for Palestinian Leaders
    By ALAN COWELL
    February 23, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/international/middleeast/23cnd-mideast.html?hp&ex=1109221200&en=c2f9ba17fa86cb77&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    14) Vonnegut at 80 (link only)
    By David Hoppe, NUVO
    Posted on January 10, 2003
    http://www.alternet.org/story/14919/

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    15) Task Force Criticizes Bush's 'No Child' Law; (link only)
    50-State Group Says It's Unconstitutional
    by Sam Dillon
    Published on Thursday, February 24, 2005 by the
    San Francisco Chronicle
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0224-09.htm

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    16) Two good liberals visit bad country (link only)
    By Robert Mailer Anderson and Zack Anderson
    Special To The Examiner
    (Very interesting and favorable article about Cuba...bw)
    http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/02/24/opinion/20050224_op05_anderson.txt

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    17) Next Generation Peace Rally and March
    FUND OUR COMMUNITIES, NOT WAR!
    Friday, March 4, Rally 3 - 3:30 at the San Rafael Library
    March through town 3:30 - 5pm

    Join Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, San Rafael City Councilor Cyr Miller, and
    local city workers, taxpayers, students and teachers for a creative rally
    and march to demand funding for our communities, not for war!

    Rally at the San Rafael Public Library (3 - 3:45) - 1100 E ST at Fifth ST

    Then march to:
    * Falkirk Cultural Center (4 - 4:10) - 1408 Mission Ave at E ST
    * City Hall (4:15 - 4:25) - 1400 Fifth ST at D ST
    * Police Station (4:25 - 4:35) - 1400 Fifth STat D ST
    * Fire Station (4:40 - 4:50) - 1039 C ST bet 4th and 5th
    * March down Fourth ST (4:50 - 5:00)
    * Concluding rally at Bank of America / Court Plaza (5 - 5:15) - 4th ST at
    Court

    George Bush has released his proposed budget for 2006. If passed, it will
    sharply cut social programs while increasing military spending at a time
    when most towns across America - including San Rafael - are cutting back
    basic services just to stay afloat.

    Next Generation - with support from MPJC, Presente and community leaders -
    is fighting back with a creative, grassroots response: a youth and
    taxpayer-led rally and march through San Rafael that will highlight how much
    the war on Iraq is costing our community, and what we'd like to see instead.

    After a rally near city hall, our colorful, positive, enthusiastic
    procession will stop at various agencies in San Rafael whose budgets are
    being cut or are being threatened with cuts, including the library, city
    hall, police station, fire department. At each stop along the way, students
    and community will explain how each agency is struggling, and present a
    giant novelty check representing their lost revenues to an "official" from
    the Pentagon. We will also present a positive, alternative vision of what
    we'd like to see instead.

    We are excited about this effort because:
    * It brings the cost of war home
    * It is timely - Congress will soon begin to debate George Bush's proposed
    budget, and next November, voters in San Rafael will decide whether or not
    to raise the sales tax by half a cent to stop cuts in basic city services
    * It presents a positive vision of healthy, supportive communities
    * It builds alliances and expands the progressive movement
    * It is fun and creative

    This effort is open to all individuals and groups who believe our tax
    dollars would be better spent creating healthy, nurturing communities than
    fighting destructive wars. Please contact Next Generation if you would like
    to get involved in any way, including:
    * Working on march logistics
    * Creating props, visuals, and other creative elements
    * Promoting the march at the grassroots
    * Generating media coverage of the effort
    * Speaking at the march as a San Rafael taxpayer, volunteer or city employee
    * Contributing funds or other resources to support this effort and others
    like it

    During the three weeks before the action, Next Generating is conducting
    interactive workshops in local schools to educate young people about the
    President's proposed budget and the cost of war. We will follow the action
    with additional workshops, and plan to issue a national call for Cost of War
    actions across the US on Tax Day, April 15.

    Next Generation 1741 Lincoln Ave, #6 San Rafael, CA 94901 415.455.9498
    nextgenerationofactivists@hotmail.com

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    18) THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ (link only)
    Army Gives Halliburton $9.4 Million in Bonuses
    From Times Wire Services
    February 25, 2005
    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-halliburton25feb25,1,2220539.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=2&cset=true

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    19) 10 Voters on Panel Backing Pain Pills (link only)
    Had Industry Ties
    By GARDINER HARRIS and ALEX BERENSON
    February 25, 2005
    "Ten of the 32 government drug advisers who last week endorsed
    continued marketing of the huge-selling pain pills Celebrex, Bextra
    and Vioxx have consulted in recent years for the drugs' makers,
    according to disclosures in medical journals and other public records.

    If the 10 advisers had not cast their votes, the committee would
    have voted 12 to 8 that Bextra should be withdrawn and 14 to 8
    that Vioxx should not return to the market. The 10 advisers with
    company ties voted 9 to 1 to keep Bextra on the market and 9 to 1
    for Vioxx's return."
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/politics/25fda.html?hp&ex=1109394000&en=2d0651f024ad5d31&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    20) Kansas Prosecutor Demands Files
    on Late-Term Abortion Patients
    By JODI WILGOREN
    February 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/national/25kansas.html?hp&ex=1109394000&en=590ef6d0a42ee0af&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    21) Thrown to the Wolves (link only)
    By BOB HERBERT
    OP-ED COLUMNIST
    OTTAWA
    February 25, 2005
    [Prison and torture America style-send them to Saudi Arabia where
    torture is legal...bw]
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/opinion/25herbert.html?hp

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    22) [Related to Lynne Stewart Case...bw] (link only)
    Terror Suspect's Family Protests Jail Rules
    By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES DAO
    February 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/national/25terror.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    23) Published on Thursday, February 24, 2005 by the
    New York Amsterdam News
    Calling All Soldiers: Military Recruiters Face Resistance
    From Young Anti-War Activists
    by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg

    The military spends about $3 billion each year to convince young
    people that enlistment will give them college money, job training
    and an alternative to working at McDonald's. In the wake of the
    growing conflict in Iraq, which has resulted in over a thousand
    U.S. casualties, the military has become more aggressive in
    scouting out high school students willing and able to serve.

    In many New York City public schools that are predominantly
    Black and Latino, military recruiters are a heavy presence, promising
    young people financial security and a fulfilling career. Recruiters
    roam the halls, set up tables and even pull students out of class.
    But in recent months, a group of teenagers and anti-war veterans
    have been canvassing the neighborhoods where the recruiters
    frequent, hoping to convince students to consider other options.

    ''We've heard everything up to and including having a desk in
    the guidance counselor's office,'' said Amy Wagner of Youth
    Activists-Youth Allies (YaYas), a group that focuses on
    counter-recruitment. ''When the kid comes in to talk to the
    counselor about college, before the kid can get there, they've
    got somebody in their face saying, 'You want to go to college?
    How are you going to pay for college?'''

    New York City organizers are educating people about alternatives
    to enlisting and the realities of military life. Vietnam veterans and
    anti-war activists Jim Murphy and Dayl Wise visit high schools,
    where they recount for the students stories about their time in
    the service. In one class of juniors at West Side High School,
    Murphy told them that before the service he spent time making
    money playing seven-card stud.

    Once he left community college, he was drafted. ''I wasn't smart
    enough to have fear about it,'' Murphy told the class. ''I didn't
    have a clue.'' Wise, who was in the infantry, didn't want to go
    to war when he was drafted. His father offered to help send him
    to Canada. ''I took the easy way out by reporting for duty,'' he
    said. ''It takes a braver person. I let it happen to me? I didn't
    have a plan. I gave up control.'' He warned the students: ''Please
    have a plan. Don't let others make plans for you.'' The YaYas,
    staffed almost entirely by high school students of color, work
    to make sure young people avoid falling into military service
    because it seems like the only option for advancement.

    ''It's either jail or the military,'' said Jeannel Bishop, a senior
    at Brooklyn's South Shore High School and a YaYa staffer.
    Many students at her school think enlistment is the best they
    can accomplish. When Navy recruiters visited her school
    recently, students were allowed to leave class to visit with
    them. Bishop brought pamphlets and confronted the recruiters
    about their assurances of tuition and training. She pointed out
    to them and other students nearby that getting college money
    was a much more complicated and uncertain process.

    ''I was taking over their whole show,'' Bishop said. ''[The recruiters]
    were amazed.'' Three students who had been ''pumped up about
    the military'' had second thoughts after Bishop spoke. It took just
    a little information for them to have doubts, she said. Besides
    speaking out in their own schools, the YaYas hold workshops for
    teenagers and make presentations to PTAs. They encourage
    students to post literature in the guidance office and set up
    counter-recruitment tables next to military recruiters. Most
    importantly, they want young people to make an informed
    choice, Wagner said.

    For instance, most students don't know that:


    * Two-thirds of recruits don't get any college money,
    according to the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors.
    * Most people in the military do not have time to attend
    college while in the service.
    * To qualify for college money recruits have to pay $100
    per month for a year.
    * The unemployment rate for veterans is three times higher
    than the national average.
    * People who sign up with the Delayed Entry Program are
    told they can't change their minds, but getting out is as simple
    as writing a letter.
    * The enlistment contract is for eight years.
    * There are other ways to finance college, like federal
    financial aid, private scholarships, going to community college
    or joining AmeriCorps.

    But educating youth is not just about these facts and figures,
    Wagner said. The war in Iraq makes their work much more
    urgent, she said. ''They're still telling people you can go to
    Germany, Japan, but the reality is the vast majority are going
    to Iraq,'' Wagner said. ''You risk losing life and limb; you risk
    being a murderer.'' Giving young people a complete picture of
    enlisting rests on the courage and initiative of activists,
    guidance counselors and principals.

    Often, the recruiters' sales pitches, brochures and posters go
    unchallenged. Many educators fear principals will retaliate
    if they speak out, Wagner said. Some schools are reticent to
    limit the military's presence because they think they will lose
    federal funding, she said. No Child Left Behind, the educational
    policy touted by the Bush administration, requires that
    recruiters and college representatives have equal access
    to students. This is often misinterpreted as unlimited access.
    Policy on recruiter access in New York City public schools
    is determined school by school and varies widely.

    But some school districts have taken a more active role
    and regulate recruiters' visits. In Madison, Wisconsin,
    recruiters are only permitted to be in each high school
    three days during the school year. Their policy states that
    guidance counselors can distribute both military and
    counter-recruitment information. There is also no uniform,
    enforced policy in New York City governing opt-out forms,
    which let students choose whether to release their personal
    information to recruiters. Many principals, Wagner said, are
    not even aware of the opt-out form. Some schools give out
    the form, without any explanation and make no effort to
    collect it from students, she said.

    Wagner said some students think that signing the forms will
    mean their information is not released to any institutions,
    including colleges. Other students, often immigrants, fear
    they will get in trouble for signing, she said. Currently, New
    York City students are often only given the opt-out form in
    the ninth grade, Wagner said. Because recruiters ask for
    eleventh- and twelfth-grade lists, schools should send out
    the forms each year, she said.

    In Montclair, New Jersey, the high school sends a fact sheet
    with the opt-out form. Tenth-graders who have not returned
    the forms are called. If the form is still not turned in, it will
    be passed out the following year. Activists have discussed
    working on a New York City Council resolution to require
    schools to collect the forms from every student. Members
    of the YaYas and the New York Civil Liberties Union have
    met with the Department of Education (DOE) to discuss
    putting together an information packet for principals
    about opt-out.

    Wagner said the DOE was receptive. Calls to the DOE were
    not returned. Local counter-recruiters also plan to make use
    of the recent Third Circuit Court's ruling that Yale Law School,
    which has a non-discrimination policy, can ban recruiters from
    its campus without risk of losing federal funding, because the
    military discriminates against gays.

    However, without the help of the Department of Education or
    the City Council, counter-recruiters' efforts can only go so far.
    This frustration is evident in veteran Dayl Wise when he said
    that giving presentations, classroom by classroom, is like
    "throwing grains of sand on the beach.''

    Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg may be reached at
    elizabethwg@gmail.com.

    (c) 2005 New York Amsterdam News

    ###
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    Tuesday, February 22, 2005
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-MONDAY, FEB. 21, 2005

    Resource:
    MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
    FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF SOCIAL SERVICES
    UNDER THE KNIFE RIGHT NOW GO TO:
    http://www.bauaw.org/2005/02/programs-eliminated-or-cut-in-2006.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    1) LAST CHANCE TO GET ON THE BD. OF ED. SPEAKERS LIST!
    CALL 415-241-6427, 241-6493 or 241-6000
    TUESDAY, FEB.22, BETWEEN 8:00 AM AND 3:00PM
    HELP STOP MILITARY RECRUITMENT IN OUR SCHOOLS!
    SPEAK OUT AT THE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING!
    TUESDAY, FEB. 22, 7:00 p.m
    555 Franklin St., 2nd floor (near Golden Gate).
    (Each speaker will get only 60 seconds to address
    the board-so keep it short and to the point.)
    We are asking that this issue be put on the agenda of
    the March 8th meeting and that this be the only point on
    the agenda so that we have ample time to discuss this
    very important issue!)

    2) WE ALL STAND WITH LYNNE STEWART!
    NO JAIL TIME FOR LYNNE!
    PLEASE WRITE LETTERS TODAY

    3) The Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
    Presents: Conscientious Objectors Discuss War
    Sunday, February 27 at the Humanist Hall, 390
    27th St. @ Broadway, Oakland 3pm-6:30pm

    Join CCCO and Conscientious Objector panelists;
    Aimee Allison, Dale Bartlett, David Harris, Rev.
    Dr. Dorsey Blake and Jeff Paterson, in a
    discussion on war, draft and conscience,
    moderated by Steve Morse, CCCO GI Rights Program
    Coordinator.

    Also, film maker Mark Manning, independent
    reporter Dahr Jamail and military mom Nadia
    McCaffrey offer reports about their recent trips
    to Iraq and Jordan.
    Refreshments.

    4) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation ˆ Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People‚s Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

    5) COMING TO THE BAY AREA SOON!
    TWO POWERFUL ANTIWAR MOVIES:

    "Mission Accomplished" is a a brutally vivid documentary
    filmed entirely on the ground in Iraq. The reality of this
    war for American troops is contrasted to the
    overwhelming reality of the devastation felt and experienced
    by the people of Iraq.

    "Mission Accomplished" will open March 18th:
    4 Star
    2200 Clement St.
    San Francisco, CA 94121
    415.666.3488

    "Voices In Wartime" is a compelling portrayal of human
    experience with war through poetry, both from the point
    of view of those who were in combat and those who are left
    behind.

    "Voices In Wartime" will play in S.F. on April 15th at:
    Landmark Lumiere 3
    1572 California Street
    San Francisco, CA 94109

    [This poem by fourth-grader Cameron Penny was read
    by Marie Howe in this very beautiful film
    directed by Rick King.

    "If you are lucky in this life
    A window will appear on a battlefield between two armies
    And when the soldiers look into the window
    They don't see their enemies
    They see themselves as children
    And they stop fighting
    And go home and go to sleep
    When they wake up, the land is well again."
    By Cameron Penny]

    To learn more about these film visit
    Cinema Libre Studio
    http://www.cinemalibrestudio.com/

    6) PROTEST the Anniversary of the U.S.-led COUP in HAITI
    Monday, Feb. 28, 4:30 p.m. Rally in UN Plaza,
    San Francisco (under the Simon Bolivar statue at Hyde Street)
    - proceeding at 5 p.m. March stops at sites representing
    attempts to destroy democracy in Haiti, including SF Chronicle,
    the Chilean, Brazilian and French consulates, and U.S.
    Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office.

    7) Supervisor Chris Daly introduces Resolution Against Torture
    From School of the Americas Watch West February 18 bulletin -
    BREAKING NEWS:
    Supervisor Chris Daly introduces Resolution Against Torture
    to the SF Board of Supervisors "Resolution Urging the
    US Government to Abide by International Treaties and
    Geneva Conventions..."

    8) Venezuela shuts down Maccas and Coca Cola (link only)
    By Stuart Munckton
    From Green Left Weekly, February 23, 2005
    http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/616/616p14c.htm

    9) Following in the Footsteps of MLK: Education is a Civil Right
    By Douglas MacDonald, Community-Labor Alliance
    Dmacdonald94591@yahoo.com

    10) Global Eye (link only)
    Sword Play
    By Chris Floyd
    Published: February 18, 2005
    http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/02/18/120.html

    11) "VIETNAM ALL OVER AGAIN"
    Words and Music by
    Barry David Butler

    12) "U.S. is Preparing New Aggressions" (link only)
    Venezuela's Chavez Accuses U.S. Government of
    Considering his Assassination
    Sunday, Feb 20, 2005
    By: Cleto A. Sojo - Venezuelanalysis.com
    http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1514

    13) Week of Campus and High School Resistance
    Monday, March 14 to Friday, March 18
    Students & Youth Mobilize Against War & Racism
    Initiated by: The Global Resistance Network and
    Youth & Student A.N.S.W.E.R.

    14) US Declares that Iraqis must destroy (link only)
    their own seeds
    Forwarded from: sfsapo@msn.com
    http://globalresearch.ca/articles/KHA501A.html

    15) Why Go to College, When You Can be Cannon Fodder? (link only)
    Do You Know What Your Kids Are Watching on
    "Educational" TV at School?
    By Dr. TERESA WHITEHURST
    February 17, 2005
    http://counterpunch.org/whitehurst02172005.html

    16) UN Warns of New Chaos if
    Afghan Grievances Not Met
    By David Brunnstrom
    KABUL (Reuters)
    Mon Feb 21, 2005 07:41 AM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/
    newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7688493&src=eDialog/
    GetContent§ion=news

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    1) LAST CHANCE TO GET ON THE BD. OF ED. SPEAKERS LIST!
    CALL 415-241-6427, 241-6493 or 241-6000
    TUESDAY, FEB.22, BETWEEN 8:00 AM AND 3:00PM
    HELP STOP MILITARY RECRUITMENT IN OUR SCHOOLS!
    SPEAK OUT AT THE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING!
    TUESDAY, FEB. 22, 7:00 p.m
    555 Franklin St., 2nd floor (near Golden Gate).
    (Each speaker will get only 60 seconds to address
    the board-so keep it short and to the point.)
    We are asking that this issue be put on the agenda of
    the March 8th meeting and that this be the only point on
    the agenda so that we have ample time to discuss this
    very important issue!)

    Draft Resolution for San Francisco Board of Education
    Cut Ties with the Military:

    WHEREAS, the United States military is actively recruiting high
    school students into the military to fight in Iraq; and
    WHEREAS, many young San Francisco high school alumni are
    presently serving in military units fighting in Iraq; and
    WHEREAS, it is San Francisco City policy by virtue of
    Proposition N, to bring all U.S. troops home from Iraq now; and
    WHEREAS, over 1,448 U.S. soldiers and approximately 100,000
    Iraqis have been killed in this war and over 10,000 U.S. soldiers
    and unknown thousands of Iraqis have been wounded; and
    WHEREAS, the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the war
    have robbed our children of resources that should be spent on
    education and other human needs; and
    WHEREAS, military presence in our schools legitimizes the
    message that violence is acceptable; THEREFORE BE IT
    RESOLVED THAT:
    It shall be the policy of the San Francisco Board of Education
    to support cutting all ties with the United States military,
    including, but not limited to: Ending military recruitment
    on campuses; ending the Junior Reserved Officer Training
    Corps (JROTC); and guaranteeing that all students and
    parents are informed of their right to deny military recruiters
    access to their names, addresses and telephone numbers.

    Bay Area United Against War (BAUAW) • www.bauaw.org •
    P.O. Box 318021, San Francisco, CA 94131-8021 • 414-824-8730

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    2) WE ALL STAND WITH LYNNE STEWART!
    NO JAIL TIME FOR LYNNE!
    PLEASE WRITE LETTERS TODAY:

    SUGGESTION AS TO FORMAT OF LETTERS
    TO BE WRITTEN ON BEHALF OF LYNNE STEWART

    MARGIN: Please leave at least a one-inch left-hand margin to
    allow us to bind the letter into the appendix to the sentencing
    memorandum that is being filed on
    Lynne's behalf.

    INSIDE ADDRESS: Honorable John G. Koeltl
    United States District Judge
    Southern District of New York
    United States Courthouse
    500 Pearl Street
    New York, New York 10007

    GREETING: Honorable Sir or Dear Judge Koeltl:

    BODY: Briefly introduce yourself and set forth your relationship
    to Lynne.
    Briefly discuss yourself - your position in work and in society.
    State that you are aware that Lynne is to be sentenced following
    a jury verdict of guilty on serious charges: The remainder of
    your letter should discuss whatever you believe to weigh in
    favor of no jail time. If possible, you should tell of an incident
    where she helped you out or engaged in commendable
    community service. Do not try to argue that she is not guilty
    or was unfairly conviction. Focus on the unfairness of the
    government's actions in bringing the charges; the way in
    which the government portrayed her, etc.

    * Typewritten letters if possible are preferred.
    *
    WHEN LETTER IS COMPLETED: Please mail the final product
    to the following address:
    Jill R. Shellow-Lavine, Esq.
    2537 Post Road
    Southport, CT 06890

    Do not send your letters to the judge. We ask that you
    forward your letter me so that the lawyers can present it to
    Judge Koeltl with the other letters being written for this purpose.
    This is the manner in which letters will have the greatest impact.
    If they are sent directly to the Judge's chambers, they may have
    less of an impact and could cause the judge a substantial
    inconvenience (and annoyance).

    Thank you for your cooperation. If you have any questions,
    please do not hesitate to contact the defense committee at
    www.lynnestewart.org.

    Sincerely,
    Jill R. Shellow-Lavine
    Attorney for Lynne Stewart
    For more information go to:
    www.LynneStewart.org

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    3) The Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
    Presents: Conscientious Objectors Discuss War
    Sunday, February 27 at the Humanist Hall, 390
    27th St. @ Broadway, Oakland 3pm-6:30pm
    Join CCCO and Conscientious Objector panelists;
    Aimee Allison, Dale Bartlett, David Harris, Rev.
    Dr. Dorsey Blake and Jeff Paterson, in a
    discussion on war, draft and conscience,
    moderated by Steve Morse, CCCO GI Rights Program
    Coordinator.
    Also, film maker Mark Manning, independent
    reporter Dahr Jamail and military mom Nadia
    McCaffrey offer reports about their recent trips
    to Iraq and Jordan.
    Refreshments.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    4) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation ˆ Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People‚s Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    5) COMING TO THE BAY AREA SOON
    ARE TWO POWERFUL ANTIWAR MOVIES

    "Mission Accomplished" is a a brutally vivid documentary
    filmed entirely on the ground in Iraq. The reality of this
    war for American troops is contrasted to the
    overwhelming reality of the devastation felt and experienced
    by the people of Iraq.
    "Mission Accomplished" will open March 18th:
    4 Star
    2200 Clement St.
    San Francisco, CA 94121
    415.666.3488

    "Voices In Wartime" is a compelling portrayal of human
    experience with war through poetry, both from the point
    of view of those who were in combat and those who are left
    behind.
    "Voices In Wartime" will play in S.F. on April 15th at:
    Landmark Lumiere 3
    1572 California Street
    San Francisco, CA 94109

    [This poem by fourth-grader Cameron Penny was read
    by Marie Howe in this very beautiful film
    directed by Rick King.

    "If you are lucky in this life
    A window will appear on a battlefield between two armies
    And when the soldiers look into the window
    They don't see their enemies
    They see themselves as children
    And they stop fighting
    And go home and go to sleep
    When they wake up, the land is well again."
    By Cameron Penny]

    To learn more about these film visit
    Cinema Libre Studio
    http://www.cinemalibrestudio.com/

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    6) PROTEST the Anniversary of the U.S.-led COUP in HAITI
    Monday, Feb. 28, 4:30 p.m. Rally in UN Plaza,
    San Francisco (under the Simon Bolivar statue at Hyde Street)
    - proceeding at 5 p.m. March stops at sites representing
    attempts to destroy democracy in Haiti, including SF Chronicle,
    the Chilean, Brazilian and French consulates, and U.S.
    Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office.

    One year after democratically-elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
    was forced out of his country by the U.S., protesters are calling for the
    restoration of constitutional government in Haiti. The protest is
    sponsored by the Haiti Action Committee, East Bay Sanctuary
    Covenant and the ANSWER Coalition.
    Contact: 510-483-7481 or 415-821-6545

    FACES OF HAITI 2005 . . . a slide presentation and discussion
    scheduled for 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 23, 2005, at the
    First United Methodist Church, 9 Ross Valley Drive (at Fourth Street),
    San Rafael.

    Two members of the Let Haiti Live Women;s Delegation . . .
    January 13-22 [to] Port au Prince women's cooperatives and
    highly successful village community-based health clinic also
    their experience at the World Social Forum [where] MITF
    sponsored participation of Haitian nationals

    A $5-10 donation is requested. No one turned away for lack
    of funds. For more information, please call 415/924-3227.
    This venue is wheelchair accessible.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    7) Supervisor Chris Daly introduces Resolution Against Torture
    From School of the Americas Watch West February 18 bulletin -
    BREAKING NEWS:
    Supervisor Chris Daly introduces Resolution Against Torture
    to the SF Board of Supervisors "Resolution Urging the
    US Government to Abide by International Treaties and
    Geneva Conventions..."

    Authored by Ruth Goode. (Ruth's husband, Carlos Mauricio, is
    a Salvadoran torture survivor, an activist with SOA Watch and
    founder of Stop Impunity!) Ruth states: "Like many of you, I have
    been horrified by the news from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo,
    incensed by the Bush administration justifications for torture, and
    disgusted by the spectacle of them trying to weasel their way out
    of the Geneva Convention. As a result, I drafted a resolution for
    the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to urge the government to
    renounce the use of torture and abide by both the constitution and
    international law. The resolution was introduced by Chris Daly, and
    co-sponsored by Ross Mirkarimi."

    Please consider emailing or calling your SF supervisor in support
    of the resolution, particularly if you live in a more conservative part
    of town. Below is a list of contact information for the various
    supervisors. And at the end of this email (*) is wording of the
    SF Resolution, which will be voted on next Tuesday, 22nd February .
    Please ask other San Franciscans to call their supervisors regarding
    this resolution. Contrary to what some may think is "NOT the
    business of our local Board of Supervisors" this Resolution is also
    an educational effort to reach our children who are being approached
    in public schools by military personnel hoping to enlist students
    into the armed forces. It is important that our community take
    a stand against torture and that the children of San Francisco
    become aware of these principles of decency and international law.

    Jake McGoldrick - District 1
    Jake.McGoldrick@sfgov.org
    (415) 554-7410 - voice

    Michela Alioto-Pier - District 2
    Michela.Alioto-Pier@sfgov.org
    (415) 554-7752 - voice

    Aaron Peskin - District 3
    Aaron.Peskin@sfgov.org
    (415) 554-7450 - voice

    Fiona Ma - District 4
    Fiona.Ma@sfgov.org
    (415) 554-7460 - voice

    Ross Mirkarimi - District 5
    Ross.Mirkarimi@sfgov.org
    (415) 554-7630 - voice

    Chris Daly - District 6
    Chris.Daly@sfgov.org
    (415) 554-7970 - voice

    Sean Elsbernd - District 7
    Sean.Elsbernd@sfgov.org
    (415) 554-6516 - voice

    Bevan Dufty - District 8
    Bevan.Dufty@sfgov.org
    (415) 554-6968 - voice

    Tom Ammiano - District 9
    Tom.Ammiano@sfgov.org
    (415) 554-5144 - voice

    Sophie Maxwell - District 10
    Sophie.Maxwell@sfgov.org
    (415) 554-7670 - voice

    Gerardo Sandoval - District 11
    Gerardo.Sandoval@sfgov.org
    (415) 554-6975 - voice

    DRAFT OF THE SF BOARD OF SUPERVISORS' RESOLUTION
    AGAINST TORTURE:

    Whereas San Francisco is proud to have been the birthplace
    of the United Nations; and

    Whereas San Francisco remains dedicated to the principles
    articulated in the United Nations founding charter, including
    the pledge "to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in
    the dignity and worth of the human person" and "to establish
    conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations
    arising from treaties and other sources of international law can
    be maintained"; and

    WHEREAS members of the United States armed forces and
    their affiliates have used torture, as documented in two reports,
    by an Army panel chaired by Major Gen. George Fay and by
    a commission headed by former Defense Secretary James
    Schlesinger; and

    WHEREAS the torture has been conducted openly and on
    a widespread scale, suggesting a serious failure of governmental
    policy if not actual official acceptance;

    WHEREAS official government statements have authorized or
    permitted the use of interrogation techniques that clearly violate
    the common sense meaning of the word "torture" as well as the
    interpretations given the term by the courts of the United States
    and by authoritative international tribunals; ; and

    WHEREAS the use of torture is inhumane, illegal and destructive
    of the democratic sensibilities of a free society, to which we,
    as the Board of Supervisors of the City of San Francisco, are
    committed; and

    WHEREAS the threat or use of torture is universally condemned
    under international law, and admits of no exceptions or
    derogations [see, e.g., the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949
    and the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel,
    Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment] ]; and

    WHEREAS the use of torture places the United States Government
    in violation of international treaties to which it is a party [e.g. the
    International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the U.N.
    Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
    Treatment or Punishment, the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949], and

    WHEREAS the use of torture violates the US Constitution in
    (a) the Fourth Amendment's right to be free of unreasonable
    search or seizure (which encompasses the right not to be abused
    by the police), (b) the Fifth Amendment's right against
    self-incrimination (which encompasses the right to remain
    silent during interrogations), (c) the Fifth and the Fourteenth
    Amendments' guarantees of due process (ensuring fundamental
    fairness in criminal justice system) and (d) the Eighth Amendment's
    right to be free of cruel or unusual punishment];

    WHEREAS the use of torture violates our commitment to the rule
    of law as a protector of the integrity and dignity of the human
    person; and

    WHEREAS the secrecy which attends the use of torture violates
    our commitment to open government and the dissemination of
    true and accurate information of our government's actions; and

    WHEREAS the use of torture dehumanizes and debases not only
    the victim but also the torturer, to the detriment of civil society; and

    WHEREAS it is well documented that torture is a wholly ineffective
    means of obtaining reliable information; and

    WHEREAS the use of torture by the United States armed forces or
    its affiliates undermines the moral authority of United States'
    endeavors to improve international human rights; and

    WHEREAS the use of torture increases the likelihood that members
    of the United States armed forces will be subjected to torture in
    the future.

    BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors hereby urges the
    United States government to renounce forevermore the covert or
    public use or threat of torture, for any purpose whatsoever.
    FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors hereby condemns
    the use or threat of torture by the United States government as
    a barbarous violation of human rights, intellectual freedom and
    the rule of law.
    FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors urges the United
    States government to (a) comply fully with the four Geneva Conventions
    of August 12, 1949, including timely compliance with all provisions
    that require access to protected persons by the International
    Committee of the Red Cross; (b) observe the minimum protections
    of their common Article 3 and related customary international
    law; and (c) enforce such compliance through all applicable laws,
    including the War Crimes Act and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
    FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors urges the
    United States government to take all measures necessary to ensure
    that all foreign persons captured, detained, interned or otherwise
    held within the custody or under the physical control of the United
    States are treated in accordance with standards that the United
    States would consider lawful if employed with respect to a captive
    American;
    FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors urges the
    United States government to take all measures necessary to
    ensure that no person within the custody or under the physical
    control of the United States is turned over to another government
    when the United States has substantial grounds to believe that
    such person will be in danger of being subjected to torture or
    other cruel or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
    FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors urges the
    President and Congress to establish an independent, bipartisan
    commission with subpoena power to prepare a full account of
    detention and interrogation practices carried out by the United
    States, to make public findings, and to provide recommendations
    designed to ensure that such practices adhere faithfully to the
    Constitution and laws of the United States and treaties to which
    the United States is a signatory, including the Geneva Conventions,
    the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the
    Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
    Treatment or Punishment, and related customary international law,
    including Article 75 of the 1977 Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions;
    FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors urges the
    United States government to comply fully and in a timely manner
    with its reporting obligations as a State Party to the Convention
    Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
    or Punishment;
    FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors urges that, in
    establishing and executing national policy regarding the treatment
    of persons within the custody or under the physical control of the
    United States government, Congress and the Executive Branch
    should consider how United States practices may affect (a) the
    treatment of United States persons who may be captured and
    detained by other nations and (b) the credibility of objections by
    the United States to the use of torture or other cruel, inhuman or
    degrading treatment or punishment against United States persons.
    FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be widely publicized,
    including the press, the President of the United States, the
    Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, and members of
    the United States Congress.

    SOAWW CONTACTS :
    SOAWW - East Bay: Robert Nixon - 510-533-3120 -
    robertnixon@mindspring.com
    SOAWW - Contra Costa: Natalie Russell - 925-934-0759 -
    russell1626@juno.com
    SOAWW - Sacramento: Janice Freeman - 916-812-7680 -
    janice@compudigital.com
    SOAWW - Placer: Denise Sewart - 916-300-0482 -
    sewart@quiknet.com
    SOAWW - San Jose: William O'Connell - 408-286-9341 -
    wocdoc@earthlink.net
    SOAWW - San Francisco: Dolores Perez Priem - 415-387-2287 -
    doloresmp@aol.com

    Prepared by School of the Americas Watch West
    National: www.soaw.org
    Bay Area websites: www.PeaceHost.net/soaw-w/ and
    http://www.uusf.org/Committees/SOAW/
    San Jose: http://teachers.bcp.org/llauro or wocdoc@earthlink.net
    Los Angeles: www.soaw-la.org

    Other News From School of the Americas Watch West
    February 18 bulletin:

    John Negroponte's nomination to be our nation's first
    "Intelligence Director"

    Yesterday, John Negroponte was nominated by President
    Bush to be Director of national intelligence (overseeing 15 spy
    agencies). Negroponte served as Ambassador to Honduras during
    the 1980s, and despite denying any knowledge of death squads
    operating in Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, declassified
    documents from the National Security Archives clearly implicate
    his knowledge of and support for massive human rights abuses,
    disappearances and murder during the this time. Peter Kornluth,
    senior analyst of the National Security Archives in Washington,
    states that "Someone who is a career diplomat...on paper doesn't
    seem to have the intelligence background needed" for this job...,
    adding "The fact that he certainly departed from his diplomatic
    role and was involved in paramilitary operations against Nicaragua...
    means he has had a relationship with covert operations in the past."

    Please read Sr. Laetitia Bordes account of her face-to-face meetings
    in 1982 with Ambassador Negroponte, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras,
    where she went to search for missing friends from El Salvador.
    Sr. Bordes is an member of the Society of Helpers and active with
    our SOA Watch movement.
    http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/47/385.html

    Senator Dianne Feinstein is on the Senate Intelligence Committee
    which Mr. Negroponte will appear before for confirmation. She
    can be reached locally at 415-393-0707, or in Washington, DC
    at 202-224-3841. The hearings will be held sometime "..in
    early March..."
    NEW EVENTS:

    "Fighting for Our Schools, Fighting Against Imperialism"
    Thursday, March 3, 2005 - 6:30 pm
    OAKLANDISH GALLERY
    411 2nd Street (between Broadway & Franklin, down from
    Everett & Jones' barbecue)
    Oakland, CA
    Contact: Aaron Shuman 510-917-1931 or www.oaklandish.org
    $5-$25 sliding scale
    To benefit SOA Watch and the Attica 2 Abu Ghraib conference

    A panel discussion and cultural event to link the movements against
    the military, the prison-industrial complex, and school closures.
    The panel includes Carlos Mauricio, Salvadoran torture survivor and
    recently returned from visiting in South America; Aaron Shuman,
    journalist and SOA Watch activist and Prisoner of
    Conscience; and Kali Akuno-Williams, founder of Oakland's School
    for Social Justice and Community Development.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    8) Venezuela shuts down Maccas and Coca Cola (link only)
    By Stuart Munckton
    From Green Left Weekly, February 23, 2005
    http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/616/616p14c.htm

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    9) Following in the Footsteps of MLK: Education is a Civil Right
    By Douglas MacDonald, Community-Labor Alliance
    Dmacdonald94591@yahoo.com

    I am the son and a grandson of high school English teachers. My family
    has over 35 years of public school teaching to their credit. My daughter
    is a 2004 Benicia High School Graduate and I am the product of public
    schools.

    I, like many others moved to Benicia ,CA not just for its fine weather
    and water views but for her schools. In fact, my wife and I invited her
    sister and two children to come live with us while her husband, who
    joined the army out of economic desperation, endures his tour of duty
    in occupied Afghanistan .

    You see, the schools in Hawaii , where they are based, are so bad, that
    we urged her to come live with us, save some money and enjoy our
    schools. Little did any of us realize the magnitude of not only Benicia 's
    scholastic crisis, but of Vallejo 's, Oakland 's and scores of other
    communities across California and this Nation. The Benicia School
    Board just decided this past Friday to close the school my niece
    attends.

    Our schools funding crises is simply a reflection of the larger
    economic crises that defunds our critical social infrastructure while
    at the same time implementing massive corporate tax cuts and
    bloating military budgets. In the face of these attacks, our local
    officials offer us nothing but hand wringing at best and hatchet
    wielding at worse.

    To focus merely just on ones own district or city's educational
    crises and pretend that the crises is not national in scope and
    deserves a national solution is dangerous and self-defeating.
    We will never be able to adequately address this crises without
    brining in the larger regional, state and national perspective.
    Yes, we must confront problems in our own backyard, but when
    the neighborhood is burning down, it would be wiser to work
    with ALL of your neighbors to put out the fire.

    There are few short term solutions other than raising local taxes
    via ballot initiatives. Yet, these ballot initiative beyond stealing
    precious recourses and time, rarely pass and when they do, they
    are regressive property taxes on the citizenry rather then
    progressive taxation of corporate wealth. Local parcel taxes
    are a false promise as they ameliorate only local conditions at
    best leaving the larger and poorer population in the lurch.

    Yes, I supported the last parcel tax in my home town as its
    passing would have prevented the closure of my niece's school,
    the funding of dozens of programs and the saving of teachers
    pay and healthcare. Yet, I could never again support a parcel
    tax because of their fundamentally regressive and provincial
    nature. There is more than enough wealth not only in Benicia ,
    but California and this Nation to fund free quality education and
    healthcare for every single person.

    Our hands are tied via prop 13 which requires any new taxes not
    implemented by the legislature to be passed with a 66.7% super-
    majority. So even when a majority of the population chooses to
    tax either themselves or corporate wealth, they cannot. Moreover,
    state government and ballot initiatives are largely manipulated
    and controlled by corporate interests. We have seen several
    populist initiatives both on the local and statewide level on issues
    like healthcare and the environment, defeated by money pouring
    in from Wall Street and local big business.

    Yet, we still have the capacity to achieve stunning victories like:
    integration, the 40 hour week, employer paid healthcare, the lunch
    break, etc. None of these victories were gained simply through
    parliamentary politics or disconnected local actions. These victories
    were forged through struggle by the efforts of thousands of parents,
    students and workers joining together to demand justice.

    Our local school districts operate like little serfdoms with each
    community tilling its own soil trying to grow an educated population.
    But we know that some serfs had better soil and others have poorer
    soil simply because of where they were born. As long as serfs fought
    among themselves over their landlords crumbs they continued to
    live in servitude, alienated from their natural ally, their neighbor.
    The serfs only became free when they realized that when they
    worked together, planting and harvesting the entire field, together,
    they produced a better and larger bounty with less effort. Together
    they achieved more than working separately. They achieved their
    very freedom.

    In summary, the defunding of education and healthcare should
    be answered with defiance, not cuts. To insist on working solely
    within the system of local school board meetings, lobbying and
    initiatives is to accept defeat as the system is rigged to the favor
    of the status quo - - the status quo which says schools should be
    closed, oil refineries should earn billions in excess profits and wars
    should be paid for on the backs of our children.

    Martin Luther King Jr. would have never integrated the Montgomery,
    Alabama bus system through ballot initiatives or meeting with area
    politicians or founding private foundations. King and the thousands
    of other parents, teachers and workers, who took part in the Civil
    Rights struggle, knew that the racist and bigoted system that
    controlled local, state and national governments would never be
    opened via traditional parliamentary procedures. Hence, marches,
    pickets, strikes and sit-ins were used and successfully pressured the
    status-quo from the outside, to change. The institutional opposition
    King faced to integration is similar in nature to the ax-wielding and
    school closing efforts of local and national politicians and school
    boards. Remember sometimes the best defense turns out to be
    the best offense. We must organize to stop all closures and
    demand more funding locally, state-wide and nationally.

    We can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to the suffering of our
    neighbors and their children. Our strength and the solution to this
    crises rests upon us working together. Specifically, I ask you to
    consider joining with members of the Vallejo Teachers Association,
    Oakland Education Association, the California School Employees
    Association (CSEA-Vallejo), Service Employees International Union
    (SEIU 250), parents, students and the Community-Labor Alliance
    in organizing a regional "Unity Rally to Stop Attacks on Education
    and Healthcare."

    Any support committee or foundation must focus resources on
    supporting our teachers and students from attacks by Sacramento
    and Washington . Funds provide should be used to support local
    participation in a coordinated regional, state and national campaign
    to fully fund education and healthcare and fight back. The idea of
    creating foundations simply to solve local problems will only create
    worse problems for us all by polarizing and fragmenting our
    neighborhoods and society and sapping the collective strength
    we must bring to bear to end these attacks once and for all.

    There are solutions. The money to fund our educational system
    exists, the will to claim that wealth, as of yet, does not. Parents,
    teachers, students and workers must join together not only for
    support and solidarity but to work together to fight back. We need
    look no further than the mirror upon which we gaze each morning
    to see our solution. We are the ones we have been waiting for!

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    10) Global Eye (link only)
    Sword Play
    By Chris Floyd
    Published: February 18, 2005
    http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/02/18/120.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    11) "VIETNAM ALL OVER AGAIN"
    Words and Music by
    Barry David Butler

    Woke up the other morning
    Couldn't stand it any more
    Eight more soldiers killed
    In this God forsaken war

    We sent our troops to battle
    Without the proper tools
    Killed and maimed beyond repair
    They must take us all for fools


    There was a time long ago
    Mislead into a war
    They lied about the facts back then
    It happened once before

    It was a mistake to fight that war
    Killed over 50,000 men
    The country's never gotten over it
    Vietnam All Over Again


    The chicken hawks in Washington
    Never fought when they were called
    Now they send their neighbors' kids
    We should all be appalled

    Fossilized, hyocrites
    Politician fraud
    They tell us crap...disgusting lies
    While our troops get killed abroad

    Chorus

    They fudged and massaged the message
    Can't seem to admit a mistake
    They're leading us over a cliff
    A delusion, a horrible fake

    They live in a parallel universe
    Left is right, and up is down
    They go on smiling right to our face
    While we lose our breath and drown

    Chours


    (c)2004 All Rights Reserved
    Barry David Butler
    954-455-9883
    MUZIQUE@webtv.net

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    12) "U.S. is Preparing New Aggressions" (link only)
    Venezuela's Chavez Accuses U.S. Government of
    Considering his Assassination
    Sunday, Feb 20, 2005
    By: Cleto A. Sojo - Venezuelanalysis.com
    http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1514

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    13) Week of Campus and High School Resistance
    Monday, March 14 to Friday, March 18
    Students & Youth Mobilize Against War & Racism
    Initiated by: The Global Resistance Network and
    Youth & Student A.N.S.W.E.R.

    On Saturday, March 19, people in the U.S. and all over the world will
    march against the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and colonial occupation
    everywhere. During the week of the second anniversary of the "shock
    and awe" invasion of Iraq, our generation will make its presence felt.

    Help build the militant and vibrant youth and student movement that
    has grown continuously over the past three years. We have opposed
    the Bush administration's cynical manipulation of the events of
    September 11 to carry out wars and occupations abroad, and attacks
    on people's rights at home. Tens of thousands of young people have
    mobilized for mass antiwar demonstrations, and have organized
    walkouts, sit-ins and more at their schools and on their campuses.

    The recent January 20th, CounterInaugural student walkouts were
    a big step in the reconsolidation of the Student and Youth Movement.
    Students walked out of class in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle,
    Boston, Tucson, Boulder, Philadelphia and many other cities in
    resistance to Bush's right-wing policies of war and repression.

    Let's continue to take the youth and student struggle to a new
    level. We, as students and youth, need a future with jobs, healthcare,
    housing, and education, not war and occupation.

    Organize a protest against military recruiters, a teach-in, a campus
    demonstration, an educational forum, a walkout, a sit-in, a rally or
    other antiwar activity at your school the week of March 14 to
    March 18. Join students all over the U.S. for a week of campus
    resistance to war, racism, greed and all forms of injustice. Then,
    on March 19, mobilize for local and regional demonstrations
    taking place across the country.

    Let other students and everyone else around the globe know
    about a scheduled antiwar event at your high school or college
    campus the week of March 14 to March 18. To connect with
    other students and youth fill out the action form by clicking here.
    By filling out this form your local event will be posted so that
    other youth and students, as well as other activists, in your
    area can support the activity

    Funds are Urgently Needed

    A.N.S.W.E.R. organizers and affiliates are busy organizing local
    actions on March 19 all over the country. Funds are urgently
    needed to help the anti-war movement continue to get stronger.
    We can't do it without your help. You can make a contribution
    through a secure server by clicking here, where you can also
    find information on how to contribute by check.

    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
    Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
    http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org
    info@internationalanswer.org
    National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
    New York City: 212-533-0417
    Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
    San Francisco: 415-821-6545
    For media inquiries, call 202-544-3389.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    14) US Declares that Iraqis must destroy (link only)
    their own seeds
    Forwarded from: sfsapo@msn.com
    http://globalresearch.ca/articles/KHA501A.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    15) Why Go to College, When You Can be Cannon Fodder? (link only)
    Do You Know What Your Kids Are Watching on
    "Educational" TV at School?
    By Dr. TERESA WHITEHURST
    February 17, 2005
    http://counterpunch.org/whitehurst02172005.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    16) UN Warns of New Chaos if
    Afghan Grievances Not Met
    By David Brunnstrom
    KABUL (Reuters)
    Mon Feb 21, 2005 07:41 AM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/
    newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7688493&src=eDialog/
    GetContent§ion=news

    *---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*





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    Yahoo! Groups Links

    <*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bauaw2003/

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    bauaw2003-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

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    Monday, February 21, 2005
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-SUNDAY, FEB. 20, 2005

    Resource:
    MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
    FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF SOCIAL SERVICES UNDER THE KNIFE RIGHT NOW GO TO:
    http://www.bauaw.org/2005/02/programs-eliminated-or-cut-in-2006.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    1) LAST CHANCE TO GET ON THE BD. OF ED. SPEAKERS LIST!
    CALL 415-241-6427, 241-6493 or 241-6000 TUESDAY, FEB.22
    BETWEEN 8:00 AM AND 3:00PM
    (Holiday on Monday)
    STOP MILITARY RECRUITMENT IN OUR SCHOOLS!
    SPEAK OUT AT THE TUESDAY, FEB. 22, 7:00 p.m.
    BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING!
    555 Franklin St., 2nd floor (near Golden Gate).

    2) WE ALL STAND WITH LYNNE STEWART!
    NO JAIL TIME FOR LYNNE!
    PLEASE WRITE LETTERS TODAY

    3) The Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
    Presents: Conscientious Objectors Discuss War
    Sunday, February 27 at the Humanist Hall, 390
    27th St. @ Broadway, Oakland 3pm-6:30pm
    Join CCCO and Conscientious Objector panelists;
    Aimee Allison, Dale Bartlett, David Harris, Rev.
    Dr. Dorsey Blake and Jeff Paterson, in a
    discussion on war, draft and conscience,
    moderated by Steve Morse, CCCO GI Rights Program
    Coordinator.
    Also, film maker Mark Manning, independent
    reporter Dahr Jamail and military mom Nadia
    McCaffrey offer reports about their recent trips
    to Iraq and Jordan.
    Refreshments.

    4) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation ˆ Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People‚s Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

    5) Veteran of Dirty Wars Wins (link only)
    Lead US Spy Role
    Written off by many after his role in Central America,
    John Negroponte's revived career hits a new high
    Duncan Campbell
    Guardian
    Friday February 18, 2005
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1417055,00.html


    6) PUBLIC LIVES [Lynne Stewart Case] (link only)
    For Lawyer's Lawyer, Loss Is Just the Beginning
    By JULIA PRESTON
    NY TIMES, Published: February 18, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/18/nyregion/18profile.html?

    7) Groups Preparing New Push (link only)
    Against Iraq War
    Invasion Anniversary Next Month
    Is Date Of Campaign Kickoff
    By Evelyn Nieves
    Published on Friday, February 18, 2005 by the Washington Post
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0218-09.htm

    8) Bush Tort Reform: Executive (link only)
    Clemency For Executive Killers
    Friday, February 18, 2005 By Greg Palast
    http://www.gregpalast.com/

    9) Burnt Offerings (link only)
    By Andrew Meier
    Published: February 19 2005 02:00 |
    Last updated: February 19 2005 02:00
    http://news.ft.com/cms/s/20de5fec-821b-11d9-9e19-
    00000e2511c8,ft_acl=,s01=1.html

    10) John Pilger finds our children learning lies
    In our schools, children learn that the US fought the
    Vietnam war against a "communist threat" to "us".
    Is it any wonder that so many don't understand the
    truth about Iraq?
    John Pilger
    Feb. 17, 2005 "New Statesman"
    http://207.44.245.159/article8112.htm

    11) LYNNE STEWART SPEAKS! (link only)
    Excerpts from Lynne Stewart's Speech!
    February 17, 2005
    The Freedom Archives
    522 Valencia Street
    San Francisco, CA 94110
    (415) 863-9977
    www.freedomarchives.org
    Carlos Rovira - "Carlito"
    From: Karen Lee Wald
    http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=5335


    12) Open Letter and Appeal To: President John Sweeney and (link only)
    the General Executive Council of the AFL-CIO This message was
    submitted today to the AFL-CIO for inclusion in the discussion
    on the future of the Federation.
    If you have not signed on yet, you may do so at http://
    www.uslaboragainstwar.org/petition.php?pid=8
    http://uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=7343 http://uslaboragainstwar.org/
    article.php?id=7343

    13) Papers reveal Bagram abuse (link only)
    ·Prisoners subjected to 'mock executions'
    ·Photographs of detainees being sexually humiliated
    Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington and James Meek
    Friday February 18, 2005
    Guardian
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1417396,00.html

    14) [And Nothing Has Changed! (link only)
    A contribution in honor of Black History Month...bw]
    Genocide And The Reawakening
    Of The African Mind
    By Dr. Conrad W. Worrill
    http://www.afgen.com/worrill.html

    15) Fighting Words (link 0nly)
    By MONICA DAVEY
    February 20, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/arts/music/20dave.html?th

    16) In Secretly Taped Conversations, Glimpses of the
    Future President
    By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
    February 20, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/politics/
    20talk.html?hp&ex=1108962000&en=de99ea0739b1d129&ei=5094&partner=home
    page

    17) F.D.A. Is Advised to Let Pain Pills Stay on Market
    By GARDINER HARRIS
    February 19, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/19/politics/19fda.html

    18) NEW FRONT IN THE WAR ON TERROR (link only)
    With controversial diplomat John Negroponte installed
    as the all-powerful Director of National Intelligence,
    is the US about to switch from invasions to covert
    operations and dirty tricks? The assassination of the
    former Lebanese PM has aroused suspicions
    By Trevor Royle, Diplomatic Editor
    Sunday Herald - 20 February 2005
    http://www.sundayherald.com/47857

    19) The Carbon Brokers (link only)
    by Pratap Chatterjee , Special to CorpWatch
    February 18th, 2005
    http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11883

    20) CODEPINK Bay Area Bulletin
    February 19, 2005
    Next CODEPINK Bay Area Meeting:
    Wednesday, February 23, 7-9 pm
    In the East Bay!: at 1248 Solano, Albany

    21) EPA MAKING ILLEGAL, SECRET AGREEMENTS WITH PESTICIDE (link only)
    MAKERS, THREATENING PUBLIC HEALTH, LAWSUIT CHARGES
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    Press contact: Aaron Colangelo, 202-289-2376;
    Erik Olson, 202-289-2360; or Elliott Negin, 202-289-2405
    If you are not a member of the press, please write to us at
    nrdcinfo@nrdc.org or see our contact page .
    Private Meetings with Chemical Companies Violate Federal Laws
    Requiring an Open Process
    http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/050217.asp

    22) Talking with the Enemy (link only)
    Inside the secret dialogue between the U.S. and insurgents
    in Iraq-and what the rebels say they want
    By MICHAEL WARE
    Sunday, Feb. 20, 2005
    http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1029805,00.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    1) LAST CHANCE TO GET ON THE BD. OF ED. SPEAKERS LIST!
    CALL 415-241-6427, 241-6493 or 241-6000 TUESDAY, FEB.22
    BETWEEN 8:00 AM AND 3:00PM
    (Holiday on Monday)
    STOP MILITARY RECRUITMENT IN OUR SCHOOLS!
    SPEAK OUT AT THE TUESDAY, FEB. 22, 7:00 p.m.
    BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING!
    555 Franklin St., 2nd floor (near Golden Gate).
    Draft Resolution for San Francisco Board of Education
    Cut Ties with the Military:

    WHEREAS, the United States military is actively recruiting high school
    students into the military to fight in Iraq; and
    WHEREAS, many young San Francisco high school alumni are
    presently serving in military units fighting in Iraq; and
    WHEREAS, it is San Francisco City policy by virtue of Proposition N,
    to bring all U.S. troops home from Iraq now; and
    WHEREAS, over 1,448 U.S. soldiers and approximately 100,000 Iraqis
    have been killed in this war and over 10,000 U.S. soldiers and
    unknown thousands of Iraqis have been wounded; and
    WHEREAS, the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the war
    have robbed our children of resources that should be spent on
    education and other human needs; and
    WHEREAS, military presence in our schools legitimizes the
    message that violence is acceptable; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT:
    It shall be the policy of the San Francisco Board of Education to
    support cutting all ties with the United States military, including, but
    not limited to: Ending military recruitment on campuses; ending the
    Junior Reserved Officer Training Corps (JROTC); and guaranteeing
    that all students and parents are informed of their right to deny
    military recruiters access to their names, addresses and telephone
    numbers.

    Bay Area United Against War (BAUAW) • www.bauaw.org •
    P.O. Box 318021, San Francisco, CA 94131-8021 • 414-824-8730
    Next meeting: Saturday, Feb. 26, 11 a.m., 474 Valencia Street, SF

    Bay Area United Against War (www.bauaw.org) (415) 824-8730
    P.O. Box 318021, S. F., CA 94131-8021

    Parar El reclutamiento military
    En nuestras escuelas.

    Vengan a la reunión de la meza directiva febrero 22, A las 7 p.m.
    555 Franklin Street, Segundo Piso en San Francisco

    Para hablar en la reunión de febrero 22 llame al (415) 241-6427 el
    viernes febrero 18 entre las 8 a.m. y 4 p.m. el martes febrero 22 entre
    8 a.m. y 3 p.m. Dígales que usted quiere hablar en la reunión y délas
    su nombre. Al público se le permitirá hablar en la reunion: y llamaran
    su nombre antes de las 8:30 p.m.

    En Noviembre el 63 porciento de la población de San Francisco
    votaron a favor de la proposición N, demandando que traigan
    nuestras tropes a casa de Irak. A hora y sin embargo Los niños de
    las escuelas de San Francisco están siendo reclutados.
    Para prestar el servicio military en escuelas High Schools. Estos no
    son las oportunidades de trabajo que queremos para nuestros hijos
    ni nuestros hijos quieren ese tipo de oportunidades.

    Nosotros queremos que nuestros hijos tengan oportunidades de
    aprender y de hacer lo mejor con su potencial. No de matar ni de
    ser asesinados. Que se termine todo el reclutamiento military en
    las escuelas públicas en Instituciones de alto aprendizaje que se
    use nuestros dólares de impuestos para escuelas, programas de
    salud, vivienda, trabajo y para todas las necesidades humanas.
    ¡No queremos guerra!

    ¡No vamos a estudiar la Guerra nunca más!

    Padres de Familia: Vengan a la junta de la meza directiva de
    educación de S.F. y díganle a ellos que queremos, que nuestros
    hijos vivan aprendan y se preparen para un futuro. No para morir
    o ser heridos en Irak, matar o herir a la gente de Irak.

    Estudiantes: Vengan a la junta de la meza directiva de educación
    de S.F. y díganle que no queremos guerra ni que nuestros
    escuelas sean centros de reclutamiento para el ejército militar
    de USA y sus guerras. Que las escuelas sean lugares de aprendizaje
    que los preparen a una vida de adulto, que nosotros no somos
    carne de cañon.

    Miembros de la Comunidad: Vengan a la junta de la meza directiva
    de educación para recordarles que los votantes de San Francisco
    están en contra de la guerra y no queremos usar nuestras
    escuelas como centros de reclutamiento para pelear en Irak.

    El matar y el perder la vida no es un trabajo digno

    La próxima reunion de Bay Área United Against War: Sábado
    febrero 26, a las 11 a.m. 474 Valencia St., S.F.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    2) WE ALL STAND WITH LYNNE STEWART!
    NO JAIL TIME FOR LYNNE!
    PLEASE WRITE LETTERS TODAY:

    SUGGESTION AS TO FORMAT OF LETTERS
    TO BE WRITTEN ON BEHALF OF LYNNE STEWART

    MARGIN: Please leave at least a one-inch left-hand margin to
    allow us to bind the letter into the appendix to the sentencing
    memorandum that is being filed on
    Lynne's behalf.

    INSIDE ADDRESS: Honorable John G. Koeltl
    United States District Judge
    Southern District of New York
    United States Courthouse
    500 Pearl Street
    New York, New York 10007

    GREETING: Honorable Sir or Dear Judge Koeltl:

    BODY: Briefly introduce yourself and set forth your
    relationship to Lynne.

    Briefly discuss yourself - your position in work and
    in society.

    State that you are aware that Lynne is to be sentenced
    following a jury verdict of guilty on serious charges:
    The remainder of your letter should discuss whatever
    you believe to weigh in favor of no jail time. If possible,
    you should tell of an incident where she helped you out
    or engaged in commendable community service. Do not
    try to argue that she is not guilty or was unfairly
    conviction. Focus on the unfairness of the government's
    actions in bringing the charges; the way in which the
    government portrayed her, etc.

    * Typewritten letters if possible are preferred.
    *
    WHEN LETTER IS COMPLETED: Please mail the final product
    to the following address:
    Jill R. Shellow-Lavine, Esq.
    2537 Post Road
    Southport, CT 06890

    Do not send your letters to the judge. We ask that you
    forward your letter me so that the lawyers can present it
    to Judge Koeltl with the other letters being written for this
    purpose. This is the manner in which letters will have the
    greatest impact. If they are sent directly to the Judge's
    chambers, they may have less of an impact and could
    cause the judge a substantial inconvenience (and annoyance).

    Thank you for your cooperation. If you have any questions,
    please do not hesitate to contact the defense committee
    at www.lynnestewart.org.

    Sincerely,
    Jill R. Shellow-Lavine
    Attorney for Lynne Stewart
    For more information go to:
    www.LynneStewart.org

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    3) The Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
    Presents: Conscientious Objectors Discuss War
    Sunday, February 27 at the Humanist Hall, 390
    27th St. @ Broadway, Oakland 3pm-6:30pm
    Join CCCO and Conscientious Objector panelists;
    Aimee Allison, Dale Bartlett, David Harris, Rev.
    Dr. Dorsey Blake and Jeff Paterson, in a
    discussion on war, draft and conscience,
    moderated by Steve Morse, CCCO GI Rights Program
    Coordinator.
    Also, film maker Mark Manning, independent
    reporter Dahr Jamail and military mom Nadia
    McCaffrey offer reports about their recent trips
    to Iraq and Jordan.
    Refreshments.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    4) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation ? Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People?s Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    5) Veteran of Dirty Wars Wins (link only)
    Lead US Spy Role
    Written off by many after his role in Central America,
    John Negroponte's revived career hits a new high
    Duncan Campbell
    Guardian
    Friday February 18, 2005
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1417055,00.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    6) PUBLIC LIVES [Lynne Stewart Case] (link only)
    For Lawyer's Lawyer, Loss Is Just the Beginning
    By JULIA PRESTON
    NY TIMES, Published: February 18, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/18/nyregion/18profile.html?


    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    7) Groups Preparing New Push (link only)
    Against Iraq War
    Invasion Anniversary Next Month
    Is Date Of Campaign Kickoff
    By Evelyn Nieves
    Published on Friday, February 18, 2005 by the Washington Post
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0218-09.htm

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    8) Bush Tort Reform: Executive (link only)
    Clemency For Executive Killers
    Friday, February 18, 2005 By Greg Palast
    http://www.gregpalast.com/

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    9) Burnt Offerings (link only)
    By Andrew Meier
    Published: February 19 2005 02:00 |
    Last updated: February 19 2005 02:00
    http://news.ft.com/cms/s/20de5fec-821b-11d9-9e19-
    00000e2511c8,ft_acl=,s01=1.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    10) John Pilger finds our children learning lies
    In our schools, children learn that the US fought the
    Vietnam war against a "communist threat" to "us".
    Is it any wonder that so many don't understand the
    truth about Iraq?
    John Pilger
    Feb. 17, 2005 "New Statesman"
    http://207.44.245.159/article8112.htm

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    11) LYNNE STEWART SPEAKS! (link only)
    Excerpts from Lynne Stewart's Speech!
    February 17, 2005
    From: Karen Lee Wald kwald@california.com
    The Freedom Archives
    522 Valencia Street
    San Francisco, CA 94110
    (415) 863-9977
    www.freedomarchives.org
    Carlos Rovira - "Carlito"
    http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=5335

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    12) Open Letter and Appeal To: President John Sweeney and (link only)
    the General Executive Council of the AFL-CIO This message was
    submitted today to the AFL-CIO for inclusion in the discussion
    on the future of the Federation.
    If you have not signed on yet, you may do so at
    http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/petition.php?pid=8
    http://uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=7343 http://uslaboragainstwar.org/
    article.php?id=7343

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    13) Papers reveal Bagram abuse (link only)
    ·Prisoners subjected to 'mock executions'
    ·Photographs of detainees being sexually humiliated
    Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington and James Meek
    Friday February 18, 2005
    Guardian
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1417396,00.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    14) [And Nothing Has Changed! (link only)
    A contribution in honor of Black History Month...bw]
    Genocide And The Reawakening
    Of The African Mind
    By Dr. Conrad W. Worrill
    http://www.afgen.com/worrill.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    15) Fighting Words (link 0nly)
    By MONICA DAVEY
    February 20, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/arts/music/20dave.html?th

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    16) In Secretly Taped Conversations, Glimpses of the
    Future President
    By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
    February 20, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/politics/
    20talk.html?hp&ex=1108962000&en=de99ea0739b1d129&ei=5094&partner=home
    page

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    17) F.D.A. Is Advised to Let Pain Pills Stay on Market
    By GARDINER HARRIS
    February 19, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/19/politics/19fda.html

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    18) NEW FRONT IN THE WAR ON TERROR (link only)
    With controversial diplomat John Negroponte installed
    as the all-powerful Director of National Intelligence,
    is the US about to switch from invasions to covert
    operations and dirty tricks? The assassination of the
    former Lebanese PM has aroused suspicions
    By Trevor Royle, Diplomatic Editor
    Sunday Herald - 20 February 2005
    http://www.sundayherald.com/47857

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    19) The Carbon Brokers (link only)
    by Pratap Chatterjee , Special to CorpWatch
    February 18th, 2005
    http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11883

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    20) CODEPINK Bay Area Bulletin
    February 19, 2005
    Next CODEPINK Bay Area Meeting:
    Wednesday, February 23, 7-9 pm
    In the East Bay!: at 1248 Solano, Albany

    * To discuss via email local CODEPINK actions and campaigns, join
    the CODEPINK Bay Area discussion by going to
    http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/codepinkdiscussion and
    self-subscribing.
    * To contact us, send a request for a CodePink Bay Area endorsement,
    or submit an action alert idea, email: tara@tschubert.net
    * Visit our web page on national's site and while you're there,
    check out what your CodePink sisters are doing across the nation, or
    sign up for national alerts: www.codepinkalert.org.
    * For public transportation information to events, go to:
    http://www.transitinfo.org/cgi-bin/taketransit. And for a map, go to:
    www.mapquest.com.

    Thank you. Peace.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    21) EPA MAKING ILLEGAL, SECRET AGREEMENTS WITH PESTICIDE (link only)
    MAKERS, THREATENING PUBLIC HEALTH, LAWSUIT CHARGES
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    Press contact: Aaron Colangelo, 202-289-2376;
    Erik Olson, 202-289-2360; or Elliott Negin, 202-289-2405
    If you are not a member of the press, please write to us at
    nrdcinfo@nrdc.org or see our contact page .
    Private Meetings with Chemical Companies Violate Federal Laws
    Requiring an Open Process
    http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/050217.asp

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

    22) Talking with the Enemy (link only)
    Inside the secret dialogue between the U.S. and insurgents
    in Iraq-and what the rebels say they want
    By MICHAEL WARE
    Sunday, Feb. 20, 2005
    http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1029805,00.html

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