Bay Area United Against War

Saturday, September 03, 2005

BAUAW NEWSLETTER-MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2005

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CODE PINK WOMEN FOR PEACE
Action Alert: Rally for Relief
Tuesday, September 6, 2005 4:30pm-6pm
San Francisco & Oakland

San Francisco Federal Building 4:30-6pm
450 Golden Gate Avenue (@ Larkin Street)
San Francisco, CA 94102

Oakland Federal Building 4:30-6pm
1301 Clay Street (@ 14th Street)
Oakland, CA 94612

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National Day of Emergency Action
Support the People of New Orleans!
Jobs/Income & Housing for All Displaced Families
Real Relief - Yes! Racism - No!
Wednesday, September 7
San Francisco Protest - 5 PM at
Powell & Market St.

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A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org
sf@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

Subscribe to the email alert list!

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STOP THE WAR AND OCCUPATION!
IRAQ, PALESTINE, HAITI....
MARCH AND RALLY SEPTEMBER 24
11:00 A.M. DOLORES PARK, S.F.
COLLEGE NOT COMBAT CONTINGENT
10:00 A.M. 16TH AND MISSION BART PLAZA, S.F.
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ANSWER Organizing Meetings:
Tuesdays, 7:00 p.m.
2489 Mission St., suite 24 (at 21st St., S.F.)
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COLLEGE NOT COMBAT Planning Meeting:
Saturday,
September 17th,
2:00 P.M.
110 Capp Street (Buzz #202)
San Francisco
For more information:
college_not_combat@yahoo.com
(415) 248-1701
http://www.collegenotcombat.org/
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NEXT BAUAW MEETING:
TUESDAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 20, 7:00 P.M.
474 VALENCIA STREET, S.F.
NEAR 16TH STREET

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Dangerous Incompetence
By Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Saturday 03 September 2005

George Bush has been an incompetent failure his entire life.
Fortunately for humanity, he was just partying his way through
school, running companies into the ground, and being an alcoholic
and cocaine abuser for most of that time - and his incompetence
was limited to hurting the people who worked for him and his own
family. The people in his life who were hurt by his incompetence
probably have been able to "get on" with their lives. Now, though,
his incompetence affects the world and is responsible for so
many deaths and so much destruction. How many of us did
not foresee the mess he would make of the world when he was
selected the first time? We saw what he had done to Texas.
How many of us marveled and were so discouraged and amazed
when he was "re-elected" the second time? We saw what he had
done to the world. Dangerous incompetence should never be
rewarded, let alone be rewarded so handsomely as in George's case.

The Camp Casey movement has been struggling with how
best we can help the government-ravaged people of New
Orleans and the surrounding areas. We sent a busload of
supplies into Covington, La., which is a poor, African-American
town across Lake Ponchartrain from New Orleans. I had the
privilege of visiting Covington with my friends, Buddy and
Annie Spell last July. It was a community filled with love
and laughter.

The Bring Them Home Now Tour bus that went into Covington
is the Veterans For Peace Impeachment Tour bus that I rode in
and out of Crawford on. They took about 10,000 pounds of
leftover Camp Casey supplies and we had 2 trucks filled to
the brim with leftover water from the camp to Covington.
The tour bus also has satellite, so it is the only
communications that Covington has with the outside world now.

This is an email that our tour received from Gordon,
who is one of the bus drivers who bravely drove to
Covington. I left it intact without editing:

I can't recommend coming here but, if you must, we do
need help! During the day we are going out into the
community with water and baby supplies and lunch foods.
But, there has been an attack on the Armory and the cops
are scared. We have move into Covington middle school,
and we are giving the red cross our assistance with medical
supplies and food services. Until we arrived, they only had
MRE's. They just brought in 5 new born babies from the
hospital as they are expecting more casualties. We brought
in a generator and solar powered lights, no power, no phone
service here, our satellite link is the only connection to the
outside. The Marshal Law enforcement that will be coming
to New Orleans with the Army, could create mass panic.
That will lead to more refugees, we have twenty right
now and room for 100. Don't come here unless you're
prepared to work!.

I should say, stay out on the road and raise money for
the relief effort. But make up your own minds.

We need to keep the public aware of what is going
on here and all over SOLA.

If you want to help go an established refugee camp
and provide your internet access to document who
is there and what they plan to do to the website.
Use your satellites access to maximize the story
of the relief effort!

Gordon

There it is.

I think we should finish the tour so we can talk
about what an abject failure this administration is.
The unnecessary tragedy in New Orleans is directly
related to the unnecessary tragedy in Iraq:
Unnecessary being the operative word.

Innocent people are dying daily in this world.
In the crush of the hurricane story, the fact that
950 people (mostly women and children) were
trampled to death in Iraq was buried in the back
sections. Those are 950 people who would still
be alive if George Bush were not president.
950 people in Iraq and how many thousands in the
Gulf States died while the emperor strummed
a guitar and knocked a golf ball around? Additionally,
eight of our brave and wonderful soldiers have
been needlessly killed in Iraq since Monday.

I really believe that George and his band of
incompetent and dangerous thugs need to resign.
It would be the only honorable and competent
thing to do. But wait....

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The Perfect Storm
Thursday, 01 September 2005
"The river rose all day,
The river rose all night.
Some people got lost in the flood,
Some people got away all right.
The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemine:
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline.
"Louisiana, Louisiana,
They're trying to wash us away,
They're trying to wash us away."
-- Randy Newman, Louisiana 1927
http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd09012005.html

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New Orleans Mayor, in Tears, Blasts Washington's Response
By JOSEPH B. TREASTER and TERENCE NEILAN
Published: September 2, 2005
"We understand the recovery is not going to be an overnight
recovery," General Blum said. "This is a catastrophe of
enormous magnitude."
The additional troops will be getting into areas that were
previously inaccessible. Asked why the civil unrest
continues, General Blum said that "there are not enough
police and soldiers to be everywhere all the time."
He said that there should be a dramatic change in the
coming days, and as soon as "positive control" is
instituted more people will be allowed to leave pockets
of New Orleans to go to the Superdome and other shelters.
"We understand the recovery is not going to be an overnight
recovery," General Blum said. "This is a catastrophe of
enormous magnitude."
The additional troops will be getting into areas that
were previously inaccessible. Asked why the civil unrest
continues, General Blum said that "there are not enough
police and soldiers to be everywhere all the time."
He said that there should be a dramatic change in the
coming days, and as soon as "positive control" is
instituted more people will be allowed to leave pockets
of New Orleans to go to the Superdome and other shelters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/national/nationalspecial/02cnd-storm.html?hp&ex=1125720000&en=c39cf45e7f030e63&ei=5094&partner=homepage

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The Victims
From Margins of Society to Center of the Tragedy
By DAVID GONZALEZ
Published: September 2, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/national/nationalspecial/02discrim.html

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CUBA: Hurricane Dennis causes severe damage
Marce Cameron
Cuba was hit hard by Hurricane Dennis, the most ferocious
storm to lash the Caribbean island nation in four decades.
It caused the deaths of 16 Cubans and left a swathe of
wreckage in its wake. The death toll would have been far
higher had it not been for the timely evacuation of more
than 1.5 million people.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/634/634p12c.htm

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Editorial
The Man-Made Disaster
Published: September 2, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/opinion/02fri1.html

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World stunned as U.S. struggles with Katrina
Fri Sep 2, 2005 09:39 AM ET
http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=9546626&src=eDialog/GetContent

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Shoot to kill, troops told
September 2, 2005 - 4:20PM
Rotting bodies littered the flooded streets of New Orleans
today and mounting violence threatened to turn into all-out
anarchy as thousands of survivors of Hurricane Katrina
pleaded to be evacuated, or even just fed.
http://smh.com.au/news/world/shoot-to-kill-troops-told/2005/09/02/1125302714538.html

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Leave My Child Alone Video
Cindy Sheehan (mother of a soldier slain in Iraq),
Jim Massey (ex-Marine recruiter) and others reveal the
true impact of No Child Left Behind's military recruitment
in our high schools. With no end in sight to the
increasingly lethal American occupation in Iraq, this
is the single-most important film for concerned parents
and citizens to see. Watch the 11-minute film and then
take action to "opt our kids out" at LeaveMyChildAlone.org.
Created by Mainstreet Moms and Working Assets
http://www.leavemychildalone.org/index.cfm?event=showContent&contentid=26
http://63.251.167.36/emotionstudios/progressive/qthigh.html
http://www.leavemychildalone.org/index.cfm

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UK's Chief Scientific Advisor:
Global Warming May Be to Blame
By Andrew Buncombe
Published on Wednesday, August 31, 2005 by The Independent
Sir David King, the British Government's chief scientific
adviser, has warned that global warming may be responsible
for the devastation reaped by Hurricane Katrina.
"The increased intensity of hurricanes is associated with
global warming," Professor King told Channel 4 News yesterday.
"We have known since 1987 the intensity of hurricanes
is related to surface sea temperature and we know that,
over the last 15 to 20 years, surface sea temperatures
in these regions have increased by half a degree centigrade.
"So it is easy to conclude that the increased intensity
of hurricanes is associated with global warming."
Professor Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology also claimed, less than a month ago, that
ocean surfaces had become warmer, which doubled the
destructive potential of tropical storms in the past 30 years.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0831-05.htm

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Displacement Of Historic Proportions
By David Von Drehle and Jacqueline Salmon
The Washington Post
Friday 02 September 2005
The largest displacement of Americans since the Civil War
reverberated across the country from its starting point
in New Orleans yesterday, as more than half a million
people uprooted by Hurricane Katrina sought shelter,
sustenance and the semblance of new lives.
Storm refugees overwhelmed the state of Louisiana and
poured into cities from coast to coast, crowding sports
arenas, convention centers, schools, churches and the
homes of friends, relatives and even strangers. Red Cross
officials reported that every shelter in a seven-state
region was already full - 76,000 people in Alabama,
Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arkansas and
Louisiana. Hundreds of miles from New Orleans, hotels
were jammed or quickly filling.
Rich and poor alike, they found themselves starting
over. The former began buying new houses and leasing
new office space. The latter waited in lines for
a bar of soap or a peanut butter sandwich.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205Y.shtml

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The Green Party of Alameda County Presents
Back to School, Not War
www.BackToSchoolNotWar.org
Saturday, September 17
The Forum at Laney College
RALLY: 6-8:30pm
Recruiters Out of Schools
US Troops Out of Iraq

Guest Speakers include:

- Peter Camejo, Green Party candidate for Governor
- Clarence Thomas, Longshoreman's Union ILWU Local 10
- Aimee Allison, Army Conscientious Objector
- Dr. Agha Saeed, Chair American Muslim Alliance
- Elaine Brown, Black Panther Party, Green Party Candidate
- Wilson Riles Jr., Former Oakland City Councilor
- Maria Poblet, Deporten a la Migra (Deport the INS)
- Regina Johnson, College Not Combat Proposition

WORKSHOPS: 9am-4:30pm
Topics include

- American Muslims and the Patriot Act
- Labor and Greens
- College Not Combat: Military Out of Schools
- Immigrant Rights
- Saving Public Education
- Strategies for Universal Health Care
PLUS MUCH MORE

PRICE: $20-$40 sliding scale (Students with ID $10)
For more information or to register on-line go to:
www.BackToSchoolNotWar.org

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'This is criminal': Malik Rahim reports from New Orleans

by Malik Rahim

Malik Rahim, a veteran of the Black Panther Party in New
Orleans, for decades an organizer of public housing tenants
both there and in San Francisco and a recent Green Party
candidate for New Orleans City Council, lives in the
Algiers neighborhood, the only part of New Orleans that
is not flooded. They have no power, but the water is still
good and the phones work. Their neighborhood could be
sheltering and feeding at least 40,000 refugees, he says,
but they are allowed to help no one. What he describes
is nothing less than deliberate genocide against Black
and poor people. - Ed.

New Orleans, Sept. 1, 2005 - It's criminal. From what
you're hearing, the people trapped in New Orleans are
nothing but looters. We're told we should be more
"neighborly." But nobody talked about being neighborly
until after the people who could afford to leave ... left.

If you ain't got no money in America, you're on your own.
People were told to go to the Superdome, but they have
no food, no water there. And before they could get in,
people had to stand in line for 4-5 hours in the rain
because everybody was being searched one by one at the
entrance.

I can understand the chaos that happened after the tsunami,
because they had no warning, but here there was plenty
of warning. In the three days before the hurricane hit,
we knew it was coming and everyone could have been evacuated.

We have Amtrak here that could have carried everybody
out of town. There were enough school buses that could
have evacuated 20,000 people easily, but they just let
them be flooded. My son watched 40 buses go underwater
- they just wouldn't move them, afraid they'd be stolen.

People who could afford to leave were so afraid someone
would steal what they own that they just let it all be
flooded. They could have let a family without a vehicle
borrow their extra car, but instead they left it behind
to be destroyed.

There are gangs of white vigilantes near here riding
around in pickup trucks, all of them armed, and any
young Black they see who they figure doesn't belong
in their community, they shoot him. I tell them,
"Stop! You're going to start a riot."

When you see all the poor people with no place to go,
feeling alone and helpless and angry, I say this is
a consequence of HOPE VI. New Orleans took all the
HUD money it could get to tear down public housing,
and families and neighbors who'd relied on each other
for generations were uprooted and torn apart.

Most of the people who are going through this now
had already lost touch with the only community they'd
ever known. Their community was torn down and they
were scattered. They'd already lost their real homes,
the only place where they knew everybody, and now the
places they've been staying are destroyed.

But nobody cares. They're just lawless looters ...
dangerous.

The hurricane hit at the end of the month, the time
when poor people are most vulnerable. Food stamps don't
buy enough but for about three weeks of the month, and
by the end of the month everyone runs out. Now they
have no way to get their food stamps or any money,
so they just have to take what they can to survive.

Many people are getting sick and very weak. From the
toxic water that people are walking through, little
scratches and sores are turning into major wounds.

People whose homes and families were not destroyed
went into the city right away with boats to bring the
survivors out, but law enforcement told them they
weren't needed. They are willing and able to rescue
thousands, but they're not allowed to.

Every day countless volunteers are trying to help,
but they're turned back. Almost all the rescue that's
been done has been done by volunteers anyway.

My son and his family - his wife and kids, ages 1, 5
and 8 - were flooded out of their home when the levee
broke. They had to swim out until they found an
abandoned building with two rooms above water level.

There were 21 people in those two rooms for a day and
a half. A guy in a boat who just said "I'm going to
help regardless" rescued them and took them to
Highway I-10 and dropped them there.

They sat on the freeway for about three hours, because
someone said they'd be rescued and taken to the Superdome.
Finally they just started walking, had to walk six and
a half miles.

When they got to the Superdome, my son wasn't allowed
in - I don't know why - so his wife and kids wouldn't
go in. They kept walking, and they happened to run
across a guy with a tow truck that they knew, and he
gave them his own personal truck.

When they got here, they had no gas, so I had to punch
a hole in my gas tank to give them some gas, and now
I'm trapped. I'm getting around by bicycle.

People from Placquemine Parish were rescued on a ferry
and dropped off on a dock near here. All day they were
sitting on the dock in the hot sun with no food, no
water. Many were in a daze; they've lost everything.

They were all sitting there surrounded by armed guards.
We asked the guards could we bring them water and food.
My mother and all the other church ladies were cooking
for them, and we have plenty of good water.

But the guards said, "No. If you don't have enough water
and food for everybody, you can't give anything." Finally
the people were hauled off on school buses from other
parishes.

You know Robert King Wilkerson (the only one of the
Angola 3 political prisoners who's been released).
He's been back in New Orleans working hard, organizing,
helping people. Now nobody knows where he is. His house
was destroyed. Knowing him, I think he's out trying
to save lives, but I'm worried.

The people who could help are being shipped out. People
who want to stay, who have the skills to save lives
and rebuild are being forced to go to Houston.

It's not like New Orleans was caught off guard. This
could have been prevented.

There's military right here in New Orleans, but for
three days they weren't even mobilized. You'd think
this was a Third World country.

I'm in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, the
only part that isn't flooded. The water is good. Our
parks and schools could easily hold 40,000 people,
and they're not using any of it.

This is criminal. These people are dying for no other
reason than the lack of organization.

Everything is needed, but we're still too disorganized.
I'm asking people to go ahead and gather donations and
relief supplies but to hold on to them for a few days
until we have a way to put them to good use.

I'm challenging my party, the Green Party, to come down
here and help us just as soon as things are a little
more organized. The Republicans and Democrats didn't
do anything to prevent this or plan for it and don't
seem to care if everyone dies.

Malik's phone is working. He welcomes calls from old
friends and anyone with questions or ideas for saving
lives. To reach him, call the Bay View at (415) 671-0789.

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A Reverence for Property Over People
Bush Nixed Funding That Could Have Saved New Orleans
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
August 31, 2005
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn08312005.html

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Op-Ed Columnist
United States of Shame
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: September 3, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/opinion/03dowd.html

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Eyes on America
Across U.S., Outrage at Response
By TODD S. PURDUM
Published: September 3, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/national/nationalspecial/03voices.html

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The Levee
Gazing at Breached Levees,
Critics See Years of Missed
Opportunities
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: September 2, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/national/nationalspecial/02levee.html

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Health Challenges
Rotting Food, Dirty Water
and Heat Add to Problems
By SHAILA DEWAN and ABBY GOODNOUGH
Published: September 2, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/national/nationalspecial/02health.html

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KATRINA'S AFTERMATH
As they begin to patrol the chaotic city, troops
are surprised by what they don't find.
By Scott Gold
Times Staff Writer
September 3, 2005
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-troops3sep03,0,7512924.story?coll=la-home-headlines

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posted 12:11 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

BAUAW NEWSLETTER-WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005

posted 10:35 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

BAUAW NEWSLETTER-TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2005

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STOP THE WAR AND OCCUPATION!
IRAQ, PALESTINE, HAITI....
MARCH AND RALLY SEPTEMBER 24
11:00 A.M. DOLORES PARK, S.F.
COLLEGE NOT COMBAT CONTINGENT
10:00 A.M. 16TH AND MISSION BART PLAZA, S.F.

ANSWER Organizing Meetings:
Tuesdays, 7:00 p.m.
2489 Mission St., suite 24 (at 21st St., S.F.)

COLLEGE NOT COMBAT Planning Meeting:
Saturday,
September 17th,
2:00 P.M.
110 Capp Street (Buzz #202)
San Francisco
For more information:
college_not_combat@yahoo.com
(415) 248-1701
http://www.collegenotcombat.org/

NEXT BAUAW MEETING:
TUESDAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 20, 7:00 P.M.
474 VALENCIA STREET, S.F.
NEAR 16TH STREET

KEEP UP WITH CINDY SHEEHAN!
Photos from Camp Casey; Anti-War
Texas Hoe Down, and Crawford Pro-War Rally

Sun, 28 Aug 2005 14:23:34 -0500

Photos from Camp Casey yesterday:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/08/1762910.php

Photos from Crawford pro-war rally yesterday:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/08/1762933.php

Jeff Paterson
jeff@paterson.net
Crawford, Texas (August 28, 2005)

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(MODERATORS NOTE: TAKING THE ASVAB TEST NEGATES
THE "OPT-OUT" FORM. DON'T TAKE THE ASVAB TEST!)

Dear UFPJ Member Group:

We're strongly encouraging you to
participate in the following
call to action from the Leave My
Child Alone Coalition, including:
opting out of military recruiter
lists and hosting a back to school event.
Here's an already written email
we hope you will send out to your
membership:

BACKGROUND
Buried deep within the No Child
Left Behind Act is a provision that
requires public high schools
to hand over students' private contact
information to military recruiters.
If a school does not comply, it
risks losing vital federal education
funds. As if that weren't bad
enough, the Pentagon has now
built an illegal database of 30 million
16-25 year olds as another recruitment tool.

ACTION 1: Protect our children
by helping them "Opt Out"!

The Leave My Child Alone coalition
to make it easy to protect children
from unwanted military recruiting
by getting their names off both
Pentagon and high school recruiting
lists. To opt your child out, go
to:

http://www.leavemychildalone.org/index.cfm?event=showContent&contentid=63&mktcode=UFPJ

ACTION 2: Host a Back-To-School Event

Because most high schools turn
over their student lists to military
recruiters in October, it's imperative
that we get as many kids as
possible "opted out" during the
month of September. Parents, teachers,
grandparents and concerned
citizens are planning Leave My Child Alone
back-to-school events from
September 7-30. It's easy to host an event
at your home, church or local
coffee shop -- we provide you all the
forms and information you
need, plus a FREE DVD (
http://www.leavemychildalone.org/DVD
http://www.leavemychildalone.org/DVD )
on opting out featuring Cindy
Sheehan and former
recruiter Jim Massey. Go to
http://www.leavemychildalone.org/eventcenter
http://www.leavemychildalone.org/eventcenter
to register an event now
and help local families opt out!
Consider making Opt Out the subject
of a Sunday School class, youth group
gathering, book club, or other
community activity you already participate in.

Event ideas include:

- Passing out opt-out forms
before and after church services or making
a youth group presentation

- Hosting a house party to talk
with friends and neighbors about
protecting kids from the Pentagon,
watch the new Leave My Child Alone
DVD (featuring Cindy Sheehan),
and write letters to your local
superintendent and school board
to adopt Optimum Opt Out policies.

- Organizing a school board
meeting outing to sure your local district
is educating parents about their ability to opt out.

- Tabling outside the first day
of school to give opt-out forms to
students to bring home to parents.

If you're interested in any
of these options (or have your own
creative ideas) you can find
materials and a way to let other local
Leave My Child Alone supporters know at
http://www.leavemychildalone.org/eventcenter

ACTION 3: Pass it on

Most parents don't even know about
the need to opt out. Please forward
this email to parents, grandparents,
and teachers you know. Tell them
to visit LeaveMyChildAlone.org for
more information and all the forms
needed to opt out.

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Sweet Neo Con
By Mick Jagger,
Rolling Stones

"You ride around your white castle,
On your little white horse
You lie to your people,
and blame it on your war of course
You call yourself a Christian,
I call you a hypocrite
You call yourself a patriot,
well I think you're full of shit

Oh, sweet Neo Con,
What path have you led them on?
Oh, sweet Neo Con,
Is it time for the atom bomb?
You parade around in costume,
Expecting to be believed
But as the body bags stack up,
We believe we've been deceived
The horror you've unleashed,
Will backfire with more grief
When will you ever learn,
Sweet Neo Con,
as the world burns?

Oh, sweet Neo Con,
What path have you led them on?
Oh, sweet Neo Con,
Is it time for the atom bomb?
Oh, sweet Neo Con,
What path have you led them on?
Oh, sweet Neo Con,
Is it time to drop the bomb?

How come you're so wrong?
My sweet neo-con,
where's the money gone,
in the Pentagon.
It's liberty for all,
democracy's our style,
unless you are against us,
then it's prison without trial."

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1) Op-Ed Columnist
Left Behind, Way Behind
By BOB HERBERT
Published: August 29, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/opinion/29herbert.html

2) White House Letter
In the Struggle Over the Iraq War,
Women Are on the Front Line
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: August 29, 2005
WASHINGTON
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/politics/29letter.html

3) U.S. Banks on Technology
in Revised Military Plan for
a Possible North Korea Conflict
By THOM SHANKER
Published: August 29, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/international/asia/29korea.html

4) Long Island
A High School Counts Its War Dead
By PATRICK O'GILFOIL HEALY
Published: August 28, 2005
BRENTWOOD
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/28libren.html

5) Chávez May Try to Extradite Robertson
By REUTERS
August 29, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/international/americas/
29venez.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1125295393-yNXEAXPoNe4z8T0Tb4SDpQ

6) US pushes military build-up in
Afghanistan as armed resistance escalates
By Peter Symonds
29 August 2005
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/aug2005/afgh-a29.shtml

7) How Easily We Have Come To Take The Bombs And
The Deaths In Iraq For Granted
by Robert Fisk August 28, 2005
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=8600

8) Bush's Obscene Tirades Rattle White House Aides
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 25, 2005, 06:19
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7267.shtml

9) Who's Next?
by KAREN HOUPPERT
[from the September 12, 2005 issue, The Nation]
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050912/houppert

10) College Not Combat: More than a Feel Good Measure
- Carlos Villarreal
Monday, August 29, 2005
(This is College Not Combat's response to the nasty
piece in SF Gate last week bashing antiwar groups.
Thanks to Carlos for drafting this. –Jeremy)

11) U.S. Studies Report Its Soldiers
Killed Journalist
By REUTERS
Published: August 29, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq , Aug. 28 (Reuters) - A soundman working
for Reuters Television was shot dead Sunday in Baghdad, and
a cameraman with him was wounded and then detained by
United States soldiers. An Iraqi police report, read to Reuters
by an Interior Ministry official, said the two had been shot by
American forces.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/international/middleeast/29journalists.html

12) Falluja 2004
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com

13) Tuesday, August 30, 12noon - 9pm
Mass Mailing Party, Potluck and ANSWER Activist Meeting
2489 Mission St. Room 30 at 21st St., San Francisco

Help out with a mass mailing for the Sept. 24 National
Anti-War March. Potluck and report back from the national
protests for the extradition of Posada Carriles will start
at 7pm. Plus an update on the Sept. 24 National Marches.
Help spread the word about the upcoming mass march and
socialize with other activists. Bring your favorite dish
to share. Get involved!

For more info call 415-821-6545.

Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to ANSWER
over a secure server, as well as learn how to donate by check.

14) Bring Them Home Now Tour
From Camp Casey, Crawford to Washington DC
From George Bush's door step to Communities along the way,
We Demand That:
Elected Representatives Decide Now to Bring the Troops Home
We Take Care of Them When They Get Here
We Never Again Send Our Loved Ones to War Based on Lies!
http://www.meetwithcindy.org
Photos:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/08/1763087.php
http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.org/article.php?list=type&type=3

15) Guard Units Shift From Combat
to Flood Duty
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: August 30, 2005
State National Guard units, already strained by long
overseas deployments, joined federal, state and private
organizations yesterday in a broad effort to provide
relief in areas thrashed and flooded by Hurricane Katrina.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/national/
30rescue.html?hp&ex=1125460800&en=adc7393c7d4dc856&ei=5094&partner=ho
mepage

16) US says kills Iraq al Qaeda fighters; 47 said dead
Tue Aug 30, 2005 09:05 AM ET
By Sebastian Alison
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes launched strikes in
western Iraq on Tuesday which the U.S. military said killed an
al Qaeda militant named Abu Islam among other fighters, and
which a hospital source said killed at least 47 people
http://go.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=9509253&src=eDialog/GetContent

17) Is Bird Flu Pandemic Chicken Little Scenario?
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones | August 29 2005
[Even if you don't go for the
thesis below, those choice quotes from
parasites Turner and Philip are
psychopathic. Prince Charles is an
'environ-mentalist' also...links
to these articles below]
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/august2005/290805chickenlittle.htm

18) The U.S. in Iraq
Bringing Freedom and Democracy
or Occupation?Tuesday, August 30, 2005 at 7:00 p.m.
Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church, 55 Eckley Lane, Walnut Creek
Speakers:
STEPHEN ZUNES is a professor of politics and chair of the Peace and Justice Studies
program at the University of San Francisco, and the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle
East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism.
SEAN O'NEILL is a decorated Marine who served twice in Iraq and now speaks out
against the war.
Learn more about the historical and political context of the conflict and the reality of
current conditions in Iraq.
Suggested Donation: $5.00-$20.00
Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center,
55 Eckley Lane, Walnut Creek, CA
925-933-7850

19) Cubans are following events in Florida and Louisiana
closely with major coverage in the local media there.
Katrina's damage is a top story on Cuban TV news today

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

1) Op-Ed Columnist
Left Behind, Way Behind
By BOB HERBERT
Published: August 29, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/opinion/29herbert.html

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

2) White House Letter
In the Struggle Over the Iraq War,
Women Are on the Front Line
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: August 29, 2005
WASHINGTON
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/politics/29letter.html

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

3) U.S. Banks on Technology
in Revised Military Plan for
a Possible North Korea Conflict
By THOM SHANKER
Published: August 29, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/international/asia/29korea.html

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

4) Long Island
A High School Counts Its War Dead
By PATRICK O'GILFOIL HEALY
Published: August 28, 2005
BRENTWOOD
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/28libren.html

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

5) Chávez May Try to Extradite Robertson
By REUTERS
August 29, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/international/americas/
29venez.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1125295393-yNXEAXPoNe4z8T0Tb4SDpQ

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

6) US pushes military build-up in
Afghanistan as armed resistance escalates
By Peter Symonds
29 August 2005
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/aug2005/afgh-a29.shtml

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

7) How Easily We Have Come To Take The Bombs And
The Deaths In Iraq For Granted
by Robert Fisk August 28, 2005
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=8600

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

8) Bush's Obscene Tirades Rattle White House Aides
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 25, 2005, 06:19
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7267.shtml

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

9) Who's Next?
by KAREN HOUPPERT
[from the September 12, 2005 issue, The Nation]
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050912/houppert

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

10) College Not Combat: More than a Feel Good Measure
- Carlos Villarreal
Monday, August 29, 2005
(This is College Not Combat's response to the nasty
piece in SF Gate last week bashing antiwar groups.
Thanks to Carlos for drafting this. –Jeremy)

SF Gate www.sfgate.com

College Not Combat: More than a Feel Good Measure
- Carlos Villarreal
Monday, August 29, 2005

The counter-military recruitment movement has
effectively challenged the military on very specific
factual grounds. Cinnamon Stillwell, on the other
hand, chooses to smear the organizations involved and
belittle the voters of San Francisco. Proposition I is
an important statement against military recruiters who
lie, mislead, discriminate, and yes, who are
attempting to replace soldiers in a war for oil and
power that was forced upon the American people through
deceit.

Right-wingers are so scared of a mere "feel good
measure" because they recognize the effectiveness of
the College Not Combat campaign, and the desperation
of the Bush administration to salvage its
neocon-crafted foreign policy. The counter-recruitment
movement has been so effective because recruiting is
where these right-wing fantasies meet the real world,
where the pro-war policies of wealthy men who never
went to war meet the working-class recruits who are
being sent to die. It is critical for the anti-war
movement to focus on this process, and this has meant
picketing recruiting offices, and sometimes disrupting
job fairs. Stillwell describes such disruptions as
„sometimes violent,‰ but there has never been any
violence at such protests except by the random campus
police officer.

It is true that there is no draft, like the one that
existed during the Vietnam War, but it is misleading
to call all recruits "volunteers." First and foremost
because, unlike most volunteers, soldiers are paid and
offered bonuses. They are also lied to and encouraged
to lie themselves. In Cincinnati, for instance,
recruiters were caught telling young people that
because of gun deaths and highway accidents, their
risk of death in this country was actually greater
than the risk in Iraq. In Colorado, recruiters told a
journalism student posing as a potential recruit how
to get a fake diploma and pass a drug test.

Furthermore, unlike typical volunteers, soldiers can‚t
change their mind. Recruits are often told they are
making a brief commitment and are unlikely to face
combat. In fact, the military‚s "stop loss" policy
ensures that regardless of what recruits are told or
the contract they sign, they could be stuck in the
military for decades. This is exactly what happened to
Sgt. Emiliano Santiago. A federal Circuit Court in
April upheld the government‚s right to hold him until
the year 2031, even though he had already finished his
eight-year commitment.

Stillwell claims the scholarships and grants called
for by the proposition are "redundant" because
scholarships and grants for students already exist.
But there should be more scholarships, more money for
college and better opportunities. No one should feel
like they have to join the military just to pay for
college or to get job training. Especially considering
that this is a false hope since two thirds of all
recruits never get any college funding. Put another
way, people shouldn‚t sacrifice their life or a
significant portion of their life in the hope that
they might get some help with a college education.

More fundamentally, we should be spending more on
education and less on unnecessary warfare. The
military spends $1.9 billion each year on recruiting.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost
taxpayers $314 billion, and the Congressional Budget
Office projects additional expenses of perhaps $450
billion over the next 10 years. This is money that
could be used to decrease class sizes, increase
teacher pay, build better schools, and provide
scholarships for college to young people.

It is also central to the counter-recruitment movement
that the military discriminates against gays and
lesbians. It‚s true that if the military dropped its
"don‚t ask, don‚t tell" policy, some of the
organizations supporting the College Not Combat
campaign still wouldn‚t want gays and lesbians to join
the military, at least as long as U.S. foreign policy
remained as it is today. But opposing homophobia is
not an excuse for simply opposing the military, it is
one of many reasons why a coalition has come together
to oppose military recruiters. As traditionally the
most reactionary wing of the federal government,
military policies have an effect on the climate in
this country well beyond military bases. Why shouldn‚t
the boy scouts discriminate if the military does? Why
shouldn‚t private organizations discriminate if a
public entity can? Most significantly for San
Francisco, why should schools have non-discrimination
policies if they have to allow military recruiters on
campus anyway? It is no surprise that gay rights are
integral to the counter-recruitment movement.

The military is currently engaged in an illegal and
immoral war in the Middle East. Iraqis and Americans
are dying because of the lies of the Bush
administration. Many young people are taking part in
this war because they are being lied to by recruiters.
It would be bewildering if anti-war organizations did
not take on military recruiters under these
circumstances. College Not Combat is a united
coalition of organizations that recognize the negative
impact the U.S. military presently has on the lives of
young people. Voting Yes on Proposition I will be an
important statement and another step in the growing
chorus against the war in Iraq and the unscrupulous
conduct of our government at all levels.

Carlos Villarreal is executive director of the
National Lawyers Guild. He is writing on behalf of the
College Not Combat Steering Committee.

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/a/2005/08/29/response29.DTL

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

11) U.S. Studies Report Its Soldiers
Killed Journalist
By REUTERS
Published: August 29, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq , Aug. 28 (Reuters) - A soundman working
for Reuters Television was shot dead Sunday in Baghdad, and
a cameraman with him was wounded and then detained by
United States soldiers. An Iraqi police report, read to Reuters
by an Interior Ministry official, said the two had been shot by
American forces.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/international/middleeast/29journalists.html

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

12) Falluja 2004
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com

*Apparently there were some problems with the previous
links on these, so here it is again:

New on DVD: Falluja 2004

*A film by Japanese independent journalist Toshikuni Doi**

Falluja April 2004 A documentary
by Japanese independent journalist
Toshikuni Doi
http://www.progressiveportal.org/store/ Fallujah has
become a symbol of the resistance
movement against the U.S. occupation
of Iraq. In April 2004, the U.S.
forces invaded Fallujah with several
thousand soldiers. Why did Fallujah
become a base of the resistance
against the occupation? How did the
U.S. forces attack? Who fought
against them? And what damages and
injuries did people suffer? Ten days
after the siege of Falluja was lifted,
Toshikuni Doi, a Japanese
independent journalist, went into
Fallujah. His documentary investigates
the causes of, the conditions during,
and damages from the siege. The
documentary is primarily in Arabic,
with English subtitles. DVD, 55 minutes.

Toshikuni Doi is a Japanese journalist
who has been covering Iraq since
just after the U.S. invasion.

*ORDER ONLINE AT:*
http://www.progressiveportal.org/store/

"For a well documented, powerful
film of what really occurred in
Fallujah during the April, 2004
siege, this is a must see. The film
begins by investigating why the
resistance began in Fallujah shortly
after the Anglo-American invasion
of Iraq. The film then accurately
chronicles what occurred in
Fallujah during the failed April siege. I
couldn't recommend this more
highly. To get a more complete
understanding of the failed
occupation of Iraq, watch this film and
encourage others to do the same./" -Dahr Jamail

*In addition, here is a petitition
against a film being made about
Fallujah in Hollywood which
I encourage you to sign and distribute far
and wide:

To: Patricia McQueeney, Mr Ford's agent*

Harrison Ford has announced that
he wishes to play the role of the
general in charge of the assault
and seige of Fallujah, in an upcoming
movie to be entitled No True Glory.
This action resulted in the
destruction of a whole city and
the loss of many thousand innocent
lives, and caused over 300,000
people to become homeless, while the
insurgent Iraqis mostly slipped
away, to attack again from elsewhere. We
do not trust Hollywood to show the
abuses of the US forces, who broke
Geneva Conventions and denied
civilians hospitals, water, food, opening
fire on ambulances and denying
the press coverage. We do not believe the
military to have been innocent
pawns of flawed government, and do not
wish Mr Ford to play General Mattis,
and we vote against the making of
this film. We ask the studios to
examine history before they rewrite it.
We ask Mr Ford to read up on the
truth. "And the truth shall set us free."

_http://petitiononline.com/b7qrlb5/petition.html

More writing, photos and commentary at http://dahrjamailiraq.com
Iraq_Dispatches mailing list
http://lists.dahrjamailiraq.com/mailman/listinfo/iraq_dispatches

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

13) Tuesday, August 30, 12noon - 9pm
Mass Mailing Party, Potluck and ANSWER Activist Meeting
2489 Mission St. Room 30 at 21st St., San Francisco

Help out with a mass mailing for the Sept. 24 National
Anti-War March. Potluck and report back from the national
protests for the extradition of Posada Carriles will start
at 7pm. Plus an update on the Sept. 24 National Marches.
Help spread the word about the upcoming mass march and
socialize with other activists. Bring your favorite dish
to share. Get involved!

For more info call 415-821-6545.

Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to ANSWER
over a secure server, as well as learn how to donate by check.

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

14) Bring Them Home Now Tour
From Camp Casey, Crawford to Washington DC
From George Bush's door step to Communities along the way,
We Demand That:
Elected Representatives Decide Now to Bring the Troops Home
We Take Care of Them When They Get Here
We Never Again Send Our Loved Ones to War Based on Lies!
http://www.meetwithcindy.org
Photos:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/08/1763087.php
http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.org/article.php?list=type&type=3

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

15) Guard Units Shift From Combat
to Flood Duty
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: August 30, 2005
State National Guard units, already strained by long
overseas deployments, joined federal, state and private
organizations yesterday in a broad effort to provide
relief in areas thrashed and flooded by Hurricane Katrina.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/national/
30rescue.html?hp&ex=1125460800&en=adc7393c7d4dc856&ei=5094&partner=ho
mepage

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

16) US says kills Iraq al Qaeda fighters; 47 said dead
Tue Aug 30, 2005 09:05 AM ET
By Sebastian Alison
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes launched strikes in
western Iraq on Tuesday which the U.S. military said killed an
al Qaeda militant named Abu Islam among other fighters, and
which a hospital source said killed at least 47 people
http://go.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=9509253&src=eDialog/GetContent

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

17) Is Bird Flu Pandemic Chicken Little Scenario?
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones | August 29 2005
[Even if you don't go for the
thesis below, those choice quotes from
parasites Turner and Philip are
psychopathic. Prince Charles is an
'environ-mentalist' also...links
to these articles below]
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/august2005/290805chickenlittle.htm

In 2003 it was SARS, the deadly virus
that caused lethal pneumonia and lung
failure was sweeping the globe and it
was only a matter of time before the
west would succumb to its devastating wrath.

It never happened.

The number of SARS cases never topped 1000,
none of which were proven to be
anything more than traditional lung infections.

SARS has been replaced by a new enemy, an
enemy that may require martial
law, quarantines and forced vaccinations –
H5N1 - the dreaded bird flu.

Are we right to be concerned or is this
just another fearmongering campaign
to make millions for big pharma and keep
us under the suffocating
'protection' of Big Brother nanny state?

In October of last year, the head
of the Russian Virology Institute,
Academician Dmitry Lvov said at
a press conference, „Up to one billion
people could die around the whole
world in six months."

„We are half a step away from
a worldwide pandemic catastrophe."

A catastrophe didn't happen that
year and it didn't happen after six months,
or eight months.

Thank God it didn't happen, but
for people like Ted Turner, Jacques-Yves
Cousteau and Prince Philip, one
billion deaths isn't necessarily a bad thing
for humanity.

"The simplest answer is that the
world's population should be about two
billion, and we've got about six
billion now," Turner told E Magazine, an
environmentalist publication.

Turner (pictured) went even further
in an interview with Audubon magazine.

"A total world population of 250-300
million people, a 95% decline from
present levels, would be ideal."

In a 1991 interview with the UNESCO
Courier, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the
famous Emmy award winning film producer
who went on to be a kingpin of the
environmental movement said,

"It's terrible to have to say this.
World population must be stabilized and
to do that we must eliminate 350,000
people per day."

That works out to 127,750,000 people
per year, and 1.27 billion people over
10 years.

in the foreword to his 1986 book
“If I Were an Animal”, Prince Philip wrote,

"In the event that I am reincarnated,
I would like to return as a deadly
virus, in order to contribute
something to solve overpopulation."

So the elite are very concerned
about their noble effort to cull the
population for the greater good.
Should we therefore be alarmed by a London
Times article which reports,

"Britain‚s elite have been selected
as priority cases to receive scarce
pills and vaccinations at the taxpayers‚
expense if the country is hit by a
deadly bird flu outbreak."

Is this a red flag or is it simply
a means of creating a false scarcity so
that everyone runs out and buys the
antidote fearing an imminent outbreak?

We should be wise to remember that
the revelation that the Bush cabinet was
on Cipro, the anthrax fighting antibiotic,
only emerged in the media after
the anthrax attack was in process, not before.

Therefore it seems more likely that
this is a ruse to line the pockets of
the government affiliated pharmaceutical companies.

One thing is clear, if this outbreak
did occur then the justification to
suspend Constitutional rights will
be flaunted to its maximum exposure. Back
in April President Bush added pandemic
influenza to the list of diseases for
which quarantine is authorized.

China's zealous martial law tactics
in dealing with SARS, home detention,
curfews, mandatory vaccinations,
restriction of travel, are the model for
what could unfold in the US.

The federal blueprint for the exact
same scenario was released and picked up
by the Associated Press a year ago.

This will make ID cards and airport
security checks look like a tea party.

This is a slow process of conditioning
the public to accept mandatory
vaccinations and restrictions on
mobility under a rule of martial law.

The ball started rolling back in
2001 when the Model States Emergency Health
Powers Act was passed, which allows
for total government takeover of every
industry, vehicle, building, location,
distribution process, you name it.

And when this flu pandemic happens
who will we blame? Surely not US
scientists playing around with the
deadly 1918 Spanish flu virus at "less
than the maximum level of containment"
according to the New Scientist
magazine.

At present, bird flu fearmongering
seems highly likely to be a chicken
little scenario. But if it does happen
just think for yourself about what
the elite have already said on the
record about depopulation and add to that
the fact that the elite were the first
to be protected against any possible
bird flu pandemic.
Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism
Russian Expert Says Flu Epidemic May Kill
Over One Billion This Year
MosNews | October 29 2004
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/october2004/291004fluepidemic.htm
Prince Philip wrote:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/Pages/100604_prince_philip.html
Britain's elite get pills to survive bird flu
London Times | August 29 2005
MEMBERS of Britain's elite have been selected
as priority cases to receive scarce pills
and vaccinations at the taxpayers'
expense if the country is hit by
a deadly bird flu outbreak.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2005/290805getpills.htm
Experts fear escape of 1918 flu from lab
New Scientist | October 21 2004
The 1918 flu virus spread across the world
in three months and killed at least
40 million people. If it escaped from
a lab today, the death toll could be
far higher. "The potential implications
of an infected lab worker - and spread
beyond the lab - are terrifying,"
says D. A. Henderson of the University
of Pittsburgh, a leading biosecurity
expert.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/october2004/211004fearescape.htm

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

18) The U.S. in Iraq
Bringing Freedom and Democracy
or Occupation?Tuesday, August 30, 2005 at 7:00 p.m.
Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church, 55 Eckley Lane, Walnut Creek
Speakers:
STEPHEN ZUNES is a professor of politics and chair of the Peace and Justice Studies
program at the University of San Francisco, and the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle
East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism.
SEAN O'NEILL is a decorated Marine who served twice in Iraq and now speaks out
against the war.
Learn more about the historical and political context of the conflict and the reality of
current conditions in Iraq.
Suggested Donation: $5.00-$20.00
Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center,
55 Eckley Lane, Walnut Creek, CA
925-933-7850

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

19) Cubans are following events in Florida and Louisiana
closely with major coverage in the local media there.
Katrina's damage is a top story on Cuban TV news today.

In capitalist Louisiana, individuals are "free". They
are "free" to ignore weather warnings and "free" also
to stay behind when government orders them to leave
endangered areas. As Anatol France famously said, the
poor, like the rich, are equally free to sleep under
the bridge. Only the poor exercise this spurious type
of "freedom". In Cuba, when the government wants its
people to move out of danger, it takes responsibility
and it moves them. Here in the center of the free world,
the government does nothing, leaving the individuals in
its jurisdiction "free" to do what they want. Will they
now trumpet the damage to the poor as examples of what
capitalist freedom looks like?

When Cuba's government took responsibility to move its
people out of harm's way, the US media savaged Cuba for
its successful efforts to save lives. And then it also
continued attacking the right of people from the US
who wanted to help the Cuban people to do so on their
own. Here's an analysis of that from Nelson Valdes:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/npv-09-18-2004.html

Venezuela now offers low-cost oil to needy in the US:
http://tania.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20050829/022368.
Html

Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
http://www.walterlippmann.com

Photos forwarded by Ned Sublette:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?V23F353BB

The Wall Street Journal
August 30, 2005

HURRICANE KATRINA

Escape From the Big Easy
Evacuation of New Orleans
Was a Model of Efficiency --
For Those Who Had a Car

By VALERIE BAUERLEIN in Meridian, Miss.,
JEFF OPDYKE in New Orleans,
and AARON LUCCHETTI in Baton Rouge, La.
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
August 30, 2005; Page B1

A little less than a year ago, state
and local officials in Louisiana
were taking heat for their poor
handling of the evacuation of New
Orleans as Hurricane Ivan stormed
across the Gulf of Mexico. Hundreds
of thousands of people were trapped
in massive traffic snarls. And
Mayor Ray Nagin was criticized for
being slow to open the Superdome
as an emergency shelter for the
poor and the homeless.

Mayor Nagin and other emergency
planners seem to have learned a
lesson -- and how they handled
the evacuation in the face of
Hurricane Katrina could be
a blueprint for authorities elsewhere who
face disasters.

State and local officials across
the 400-mile stretch of the Gulf
Coast in Katrina's expected
path swiftly ordered mandatory
evacuations this past weekend.
To speed the exit of cars from the
region, they sent outbound
traffic down both sides of Interstates 55
and 59, leading north from the
most at-risk areas. Officials
estimated that more than 80%
of the 1.4 million people in the New
Orleans metropolitan area left.
For those that didn't or couldn't
flee, the Superdome started taking
people in early Sunday -- well in
advance of Katrina's landfall.
And in Mississippi, the state issued
mandatory evacuation orders to
375,000 residents near Biloxi,
Gulfport, and other high-risk areas.

By the time Katrina made landfall
yesterday, motels, emergency
shelters and restaurants were
jammed with evacuees from Florida to
Houston. Thousands of others
were bunking with families, friends or
in their cars along the roadways.
It could be days or weeks before
the more than one million evacuees
who fled the storm are able to
return home.

One major area of concern was
poor residents who lacked their own
transportation. Mayor Nagin urged
churches Sunday morning to arrange
evacuations for those who might
not have access to a car. He
mentioned Amtrak and Greyhound
as possibilities, but as time got
scarce, such options grew more
difficult. The mayor encouraged people
leaving the city to pick up
anyone they knew who didn't have means to
evacuate, but acknowledged that
many poor New Orleans residents
lacked a clear way to get out.

New Orleans used city buses to
help transport some people, according
to Michael Brown, director of
the Federal Emergency Management
Agency. "I think enough was done"
to get the roughly 100,000 New
Orleans residents without access
to a car out of the city in time, he
said, adding that the only question
he raised about the handling of
the evacuation is whether the
mandatory evacuation should have been
called earlier.

Emergency-management officials
in Louisiana said their various
agencies cooperated better in the
leadup to Katrina, partly because
of strong pressure from Gov.
Kathleen Blanco to avoid a repeat of
Ivan. But the images coming out
of New Orleans late yesterday of
residents in poorer neighborhoods
trapped on their rooftops and in
attics will doubtless prompt
further scrutiny of whether enough was
done to evacuate the least mobile.

At the House of Pancakes in
Meridian, Miss., on Interstate 20, owner
Sam Abdel stayed open until
a few minutes after a noon curfew
yesterday to serve a steady
stream of police officers, emergency
workers and bayou refugees
camped in nearby hotels. Bobby Caillouet,
34, eating with his wife and
three children, had heard from friends
on cellphones back home in
Slidell, La., that neighbors were stranded
on their roofs. Guests at
a nearby Hampton Inn filled the lobby as
the storm approached through
the afternoon, drinking old coffee and
cold beer, playing cards and dominos.

School buses with flashing lights
rolled slowly through rural
Mississippi yesterday morning,
calling out to people stranded with no
power or radios. Buses took
stragglers to shelters before the storm
hit. The Mississippi Emergency
Management Agency in Jackson estimated
that more than 575,000 evacuees
had come through the state, including
those from its own southern
counties and about 200,000 from
Louisiana.

"Most people did adhere to the
warnings," said Mick Bullock, public
information officer for the agency.
Only about 13,000 people ended up
in shelters in Mississippi, but
Mr. Bullock said that's because most
who left their homes went farther
north to Arkansas, northern
Alabama, and northern Louisiana.
"Most people went other places; they
saw the hurricane was coming
through here," he said.

The relatively smooth evacuation
was little solace, though, to
thousands of displaced residents
who began immediately trying to
return home after the storm passed,
or to thousands of others left
behind in New Orleans because they
were unable to leave their homes
and lacked transportation to depart
the city.

About 9,000 New Orleans residents
unable or unwilling to evacuate the
city took cover from the storm at
the Superdome.

Martha Crumes, 53 years old, worried
yesterday afternoon about the
fate of two of her children, her
sister and her husband, who she
believes stayed behind in New
Orleans. Before the hurricane, Ms.
Crumes was bused to a special
evacuation center in Baton Rouge, La.,
for people with medical problems.
She suffered a stroke in 1999 and
gets around with the help of
a wheelchair. When she left New Orleans
on Sunday, she was told she could
bring just one of her three
children, so 17-year-old daughter
Valencia Dunn accompanied her. Ms.
Crumes said her son didn't evacuate
because he and his father didn't
have enough money to leave.

Two of the four she feared for
were in the lower Ninth Ward, which
sustained heavy flooding yesterday.
"I got very worried today," she
said. "I don't think they made it,
if they didn't move" from the
house.

Some residents began trying to
return to their homes as soon as the
storm passed yesterday -- defying
instructions from state and local
officials. Karen Medina,
a 33-year-old Metairie, La., resident, was
stuck on the highway since the
roads were impassable. She and 10
other family members had slept in
their cars Sunday night. Her
husband, Sergio, began wading through
the floodwaters toward their
home. "It's terrible," Ms. Medina said.
"We don't have water. We
don't have food. Everything is closed."

But few made it far, with many
people stranded on area roads.
Interstate 610 looked like a boat
ramp as it neared downtown New
Orleans, with the roadway
disappearing into neighborhoods of the city
that had become a huge lake.

Back at the Hampton Inn in
Meridian, Miss., the hotel lost power
around noon, the same time a
curfew was imposed. Katrina began to
arrive in full force around 5 p.m.
Hotel manager Rita Harbour called
out through the lobby, "Is anyone
parked on the backside of the
building? The roof is coming off,
and you're going to want to move
your cars."

Soon, the roofs of two cars were
crushed by roof debris, and Ms.
Harbour's office was flooded.
But the 150 evacuees at the hotel were
still secure. The staff of seven
took turns handling the front desk,
issuing emergency keys because the
electronic locks no longer worked,
and passing out sandwiches.
"We'll make it," said Ms. Harbour. I
don't know how, but we'll make it."

--Chad Terhune and Ann Carrns in
Atlanta and Evan Perez in
Apalachicola, Fla., contributed
to this article.
Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu

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posted 12:03 PM 0 comments

Sunday, August 28, 2005

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