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    Thursday, February 16, 2006
     

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    Protest at San Quentin on the night of the
    scheduled execution of Michael Morales!!!!

    San Quentin East Gate Monday, February 20 8:00 pm
    You can park on E. Francisco Blvd but expect to walk
    1.2 miles to get to the prison. Please dress warmly
    and bring a flashlight.

    Contact: Stop Executions CA, 510-333-7966,
    stopexecutionscalifornia@yahoo.com

    For car pool information please call 650-271-2854

    California is on a Death Row Killing Spree＿.
    Stanley Tookie Williams: Murdered Dec. 13th, 2005
    Clarence Ray Allen: Murdered Jan 17th, 2006
    Michael Morales: Death Date is set for Feb 21st, 2006

    The death penalty is dead wrong. Knowing that is only
    the beginning of stopping it. We have to organize.
    In 1972 the death penalty was temporarily abolished --
    mainly because the public climate had shifted against it.
    It isn't an accident that all this happened at the same
    time people were protesting for civil rights and fighting
    for social justice. Stopping the death penalty once and
    for all is going to take a lot of work -- but if we're going
    to do it, we have to start organizing now -- just like
    the social justice movements of the 1960s.

    Join the fight!

    More information about Michael Morales:

    Two men were responsible for the murder of young Terri Winchell. Only
    Michael Morales received a sentence of death. That sentence was passed
    because the jury believed that Morales was a cold-blooded killer who
    had planned the murder and shown no remorse for his crime.

    We now know that the jury's sentence was based on a lie. The jury was
    misled by the poisonous testimony of a jailhouse informant who was
    secretly rewarded by the prosecutor for the lies he told.

    The truth is that Morales never intended to kill Terri Winchell and
    expressed regret just hours after the murder. In the 25 years since,
    he has continued to accept responsibility, seek atonement for his
    actions, and affirm his sincere and unquestioned remorse for the
    anguish he caused the victim and her family.

    Now even the judge who passed sentence has stepped forward to say that
    executing Michael Morales would constitute "a grievous and freakish
    injustice." Had the informant's lies been exposed at trial, Judge
    Charles R. McGrath writes, he would have set the death sentence aside.

    Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has already denied clemency four times.
    Four times he has washed his hands and refused to intervene. This
    time, the courts are powerless to fix their mistake. And no excuse can
    conceal the shameful injustice that will take place if the Governor
    lets a lethal injection take the life of Michael Morales.

    CONTACT GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: Call: 916-445-2841; Fax: 916-445-4633

    It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need,
    and the airforce has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.

    ...........................................................

    TELL BUSH AND CONGRESS: STOP THE WAR
    ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    Please join the online campaign to
    STOP THE WAR ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    YOUR EMERGENCY ACTION IS NEEDED NOW!
    Send emails to President Bush, Vice President
    Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, U.N. Secretary-
    General Annan, Congressional leaders and
    the media demanding NO WAR ON IRAN!
    http://stopwaroniran.org/

    ...........................................................


    Help Us Tell CYA's Chief Warner:
    Close Chad Now!!

    Join Books Not Bars, Escuelas Si, Pintas No,
    and Youth in Focus on February 22 for
    a press conference and picket at the office
    of CYA Chief Bernard Warner in Sacramento.
    We will call on Chief Warner to close Chad
    immediately -- our youth need action now!

    Please come and show your support!

    Press Conference and Picket to close Chad

    Wednesday, February 22, 2006, 4:30 p.m.

    Where: Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
    1515 S. Street
    Sacramento, CA
    RSVP: Contact David at: 510.428.3939 x243 or
    david@ellabakercenter.org

    ...........................................................

    WHY WE FIGHT
    A film by Eugene Jarecki
    [Check out the trailer about this new film.
    This looks like a very powerful film.]
    http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/

    ...........................................................

    Hear: CC Campbell-Rock
    'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more'
    Friday, February 24th, 7PM
    Centro Del Pueblo
    474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th Street one block west of
    16th & Mission Bart Station)
    CC Campbell-Rock, the new editor of the San Francisco
    Bay View newspaper, has just returned from Venezuela.
    Read her article, 'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more' at
    www.sfbayview.com/020806/eyewitness020806.shtml .
    Hear her report back as an eyewitness
    to the Bolivarian Revolution.
    She attended last week's World Social Forum and
    toured the Venezuelan countryside, with other
    delegates from Global Women's Strike, to meet
    the grassroots revolutionary leaders who are
    making the kind of miracles in education, health,
    housing, economic development, etc., that could
    revive and transform the inner cities of the United
    States. Prior to working for the SF Bay View, CC was
    a prominent pre-KATRINA journalist and activist
    in New Orleans.
    This meeting is jointly sponsored by the San
    Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela! committee
    and the San Francisco Bay View .
    San Francisco Bay View
    (www.sfbayview.com)
    San Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela!
    sfbay@ushov.org 415-786-1680
    Donation $5.00 (Students, unemployed, and Seniors $3.00)

    .......................................................

    ANTIWAR MEETING OPEN TO ALL
    THOSE WHO DEMAND:
    STOP THE WAR NOW! U.S. OUT OF IRAQ!
    BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
    MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
    SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2006, 10:00 A.M.
    Local, 34, the ILWU Shipclerk's Hall
    4 Berry Street (behind the ballpark)

    .......................................................

    Please help spread the word:

    Counter Recruitment
    Presenters Mobilization!

    The military recruits in most Bay Area high schools,
    Let’s make sure students hear the other side!

    This will be a training/organizing kick off for:
    • youth to youth presentation teams,
    • veterans and non-veteran classroom presenters, and
    • anyone who wants to learn, share and help support this effort!

    Saturday, February 25th, 2-5pm
    War Veterans Memorial Building, Room 219
    401 Van Ness, San Francisco
    West of City Hall, near Civic Center BART
    Snacks will be provided, donations will be accepted.

    For more information, please contact
    Paul Cox (510) 528-1975
    or Susan Quinlan moos-bay@riseup.net

    This event is co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace and
    Alternatives to War Through Education/
    Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors

    .......................................................

    Welcome to BANG4CHANGE 2006 !

    Bang4Change 2006 !
    We Poor People are called "Gang Bangers" & "Thugs"
    Challenge the Hype ! Bang with Peace, Courage & Solidarity!

    End US War on Poor, Black & Brown, NOW !

    Saturday February 25th,
    Noon to 6 P.M.
    CIVIL RIGHTS REVIVAL FEST
    In front of SF City Hall
    iolmisha@cs.com
    (415) 595-8251

    .......................................................

    Postering for March 18 Anti-war Protest - Volunteer Now!
    A.N.S.W.E.R. ACTIVIST MEETING
    TUESDAYs, 7PM
    2489 Mission St. Room 24 (at 21st St.) SF,
    near 24th St. BART
    Now more than ever, the anti-war movement needs
    to reach out to the thousands of people who are turning
    against the war and occupation of Iraq. Your help is needed.
    Call the ANSWER office for the schedule to go out in teams to poster
    for an hour or two. Pick up flyers, posters and stickers
    at the ANSWER office at 2489 Mission St. Room 30. Join us
    for a political update on the recent election in Haiti and
    developments in the Middle East. Also, an eyewitness report
    back from the Atlanta appeal court hearing of the case
    of the Cuban Five. After the meeting, we will team up and
    go out postering for March 18. Your help is needed!
    Call 415-821-6545 for hours.


    ANSWER ANTI-WAR TEACH-IN:
    The expanding U.S. War Drive & the forces resisting it
    Sat, March 4, 1-4pm
    San Francisco Women’s Building
    3543 18th St. (btwn Valencia & Guerrero)
    near 16th St. BART station

    Topics Include:
    -Iraq, Iran and Syria: U.S. Strategy for Domination in the Middle East
    -The Elections in Palestine and the Struggle for Self-Determination
    -Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia: The Rising Tide in Latin America
    and Danger of U.S. Intervention
    -The War at Home, from New Orleans to Bayview-Hunter's Point
    -Washington Global Strategy and What It Means for the
    Anti-War Movement

    Speakers include:
    Mazda Majidi, ANSWER Coalition
    Nora Barrows-Friedman, Palestine correspondent,
    Flashpoints/KPFA
    Pablo Serrano, progressive photo journalist and
    Colombian human rights activist
    Gloria La Riva, Coordinator, National Committee
    to Free the Cuban Five
    Richard Becker, Western Region Coordinator,
    ANSWER Coalition
    Pierre Labossiere, Haiti Action Committee
    Representative, Free Palestine Alliance

    Hear first-hand reports from Palestine, Venezuela, Iran,
    Syria, Colombia and Haiti, and analysis of the growing U.S.
    war drive and the forces resisting it. Time for discussion
    will follow panel presentations.

    $3-10 donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
    Wheelchair accessible. Call 415-821-6545 to reserve
    free childcare.

    Sponsored by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
    (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)

    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
    Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
    http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.actionsf.org
    sf@internationalanswer.org
    2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
    San Francisco: 415-821-6545

    Make a tax-dedctible donation to A.N.S.W.E.R.
    by credit card over a secure server, 
    learn how to donate by check.

    ...........................................................

    PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FAR AND WIDE!! A CALL TO ACTION!!
    STOP EVICTIONS IN BAYVIEW-HUNTERS POINT
    TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 4:00 p.m.
    ROOM 416, CITY HALL, S.F.
    Companeros/companeras:
    Below please find an editorial by Willie Ratcliff,
    publisher of SF Bay View, about a March 7 hearing
    before Redevelopment Authority, which will seal the
    fate of Bayview Hunter's Point. Many of us have been
    saying for years that the Bayview will be the new
    Fillmore. March 7 is, as Ratcliff says, an eviction
    notice for the residents of Bayview Hunters Point. Not
    long after coming into office, Mayor Gavin Newsom did
    photo ops with young black men on a basketball court
    in Bayview (he was lavished with praise by our
    mindless media for that), but he knew damn well then
    that their displacement was imminent. It's all part of
    San Francisco's hypocrisy about racism and classism.
    "Oh, we're a liberal city, we oppose racism and
    classism..." people and politicians say, even as they
    stand idly by while more and more poor, working-class
    and people of color are pushed out of the city by
    Ellis Act evictions for TICs for the upper middle
    class and Redevelopment Authority's "negro removal,"
    as it was called by black activists in the 60s.

    Why is it that removing "urban blight" from our cities
    means giving poor, working-class and people of color a
    one-way ticket to another city? Why can't
    Redevelopment work on building communities from within
    (with no-interest business loans and subsidies to
    homeowners and landlords to fix up their properties,)
    instead of declaring "eminent domain" and stealing the
    land from folks who have nothing else? If
    Redevelopment wants to do some real cleaning of urban
    blight why not confiscate the mansions in Pacific
    Heights and do a little redistributing of the wealth!
    But that's not the game in America. Redevelopment is a
    tool of the real-estate interests that want to
    gentrify all of our neighborhoods. It's about removing
    poor folks so that middle-class and upper-class folks
    can have their homes. It's a time-honored American
    tradition. Native Americans were pushed from their
    land as wagon trains of settlers, driven by manifest
    destiny, spread westward. Similarly, the new Bayview
    is not for the folks who live there now. As former
    Mayor Willie Brown himself said before he left office,
    the new Bayview will be market-rate condos with the
    best views in town.

    Your help is desperately needed.

    Come to the hearing on March 7 at City Hall room 416,
    4pm. It is imperative that we stand with the residents
    of Bayview. It is imperative that people from all
    communities and struggles come together to oppose the
    annexing of 1300 acres of land next to the shipyard.
    No more Fillmores! No eviction notice for Bayview! No
    more gentrification! Redistribute the wealth, don't
    steal our homes! The land does not belong to the
    realtors or the rich! Nuestra tierra, nuestro mundo!
    Our land, our world!

    Estamos juntos en la lucha...we are together in the
    struggle--or we all go down separately!

    tommi avicolli mecca

    Read:

    Eviction notice served on Bayview Hunters Point
    Editorial by Willie Ratcliff
    http://www.sfbayview.com/020806/evictionnotice020806.shtml

    ...................................................................

    NATIONAL WEEK OF CAMPUS ACTION
    Week of March 13-17
    Students Say NO to War in Iraq!
    College Not Combat, Troops Out Now!

    (*Spring break alternative: Schools on spring
    break during March 13-17
    will hold events the week of March 20)

    Student week of action coordinated by the
    Campus Antiwar Network
    http://www.campusantiwar.net
    RecruitersOut@yahoo.com

    Charles Jenks
    Chair of Advisory Board and Web Manager
    Traprock Peace Center
    103A Keets Road
    Deerfield, MA 01342
    413-773-7427
    fax 413-773-7507
    http://www.traprockpeace.org

    ...........................................................

    Third Anniversary of "Shock and Awe"
    Saturday, March 18, 2006, 11:00 a.m.
    CIVIC CENTER
    San Francisco

    Monday, March 20, 2006
    Youth and Student Day
    of Resistance to Imperialism

    http://www.answercoalition.org/

    ...........................................................

    Major Mobilization Set for April 29th

    Dear Friends,

    We are pleased to announce the kick-off for the organizing
    of what promises to be a major national mobilization on
    Saturday, April 29th. Today, each of the initiating groups
    (see list below) is announcing this mobilization. Our
    organizations have agreed to work together on this
    project for several reasons:

    The April 29th mobilization will highlight our call for an
    immediate end to the war on Iraq. We are also raising
    several other critical issues that are directly connected
    to one another.

    It is time for our constituencies to work more closely:
    connecting the issues we work on by bringing diverse
    communities into a common project.

    It is important for our movements to help set the agenda
    for the Congressional elections later in the year. Our
    unified action in the streets is a vital part of that process.

    Please share the April 29th call widely, and please use
    the links at the end of the call to endorse this timely
    mobilization and to sign up for email updates.

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    A war based on lies
    Spying, corruption and attacks on civil liberties
    Katrina survivors abandoned by government

    MARCH FOR PEACE,
    JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY

    End the war in Iraq -
    Bring all our troops home now!

    SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2006
    NEW YORK CITY

    Unite for change - let's turn our country around!

    The times are urgent and we must act.

    Too much is too wrong in this country. We have a foreign
    policy that is foreign to our core values, and domestic
    policies wreaking havoc at home. It's time for a change.

    No more never-ending oil wars!
    Protect our civil liberties & immigrant rights. End illegal
    spying, government corruption and the subversion of
    our democracy.

    Rebuild our communities, starting with the Gulf Coast.
    Stop corporate subsidies and tax cuts for the wealthy
    while ignoring our basic needs.

    Act quickly to address the climate crisis and the
    accelerating destruction of our environment.

    Our message to the White House and to Congress
    is clear: either stand with us or stand aside!

    We are coming together to march, to vote, to speak
    out and to turn our country around!

    Join us in New York City on Saturday, April 29th

    Click here to endorse this mobilization:
    http://unitedforpeace.org/modinput4.php?modin=119
    Click here to sign up for email updates on plans for April 29th:
    http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    ......................................................................

    ANSWER Coalition: All Out for April 29 in New York City!
    End Occupation from Iraq to Palestine, to Haiti, and Everywhere!
    Fight for workers rights, civil rights and civil liberties - unite
    against racism!

    300,000 Came to Washington on Sept. 24

    In recent weeks the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has been in the final
    stages for planning a national demonstration in Washington DC on April
    29, 2006. This action was to follow the local and regional
    demonstrations for March 18-19 and youth and student actions scheduled
    on March 20 on the 3rd anniversary of the criminal bombing, invasion
    and occupation of Iraq.

    On September 24, 2005 more than 300,000 people surrounded the White
    House in the largest mobilization against the Iraq war and occupation
    since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This demonstration was
    initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition in May 2005 and we urged a
    united front with other major anti-war coalitions and communities. We
    marched demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq. We
    also stood in solidarity with the Palestinian and Haitian people and
    others who are suffering under and resisting occupation. Coming as it
    did following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we changed the demands of
    the September 24 protest to include the slogan "From Iraq to New
    Orleans, FundPeople's Needs not the War Machine."

    During the past several years, and as demonstrated in a powerful
    display on September 24, the anti-war movement has grown significantly
    in its breadth and depth as the leadership has included the Arab and
    Muslim community -- those who are among the primary targets of the
    Bush Administration's current war at home and abroad.

    The anti-war sentiment inside the United States is rapidly becoming a
    significant obstacle to the Bush Administration's war in Iraq. The
    anti-war movement has the potential to be a critical deterrent to the
    U.S. government's aspirations for Empire. At this moment the White
    House and Pentagon are issuing threats and making plans to move
    against other sovereign countries. Iran and Syria are being targeted
    as the U.S. seeks to consolidate power in the Middle East.

    Simultaneously the Bush administration is working to undermine the
    gains of the people of Latin America by working totopple the
    democratically elected president of Venezuela and destroy the
    revolutionary process for social change going on in that country.
    Likewise it is intensifying the economic war and CIA subversions
    against Cuba.

    We believe that our movement must weld together the broadest, most
    diverse coalition of various sectors and communities into an effective
    force for change. This requires the inclusion of targeted communities
    and political clarity. The war in Iraq is not simply an aberrational
    policy of the Bush neo-conservatives. Iraq is emblematic of a larger
    war for Empire. It is part of a multi-pronged attack against all those
    countries that refuse to follow the economic, political and military
    dictates of the Washington establishment and Wall Street.

    This is the foundation of the political program upon which the
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has organized mass demonstrations in the recent
    years. The fact that many hundreds of thousands of people
    havedemonstrated in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, New
    York and other cities is a testament to the huge progress that has
    been made in building a new movement on this principled basis.
    The people of the United States have nothing to gain and everything to
    lose from the occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Haiti and
    the threats of new wars and intervention in Syria, Iran, Venezuela,
    Cuba, the Philippines, North Korea and elsewhere. It has been made
    crystal clear in recent weeks that Washington is aggressively
    prosecuting its strategy of total domination of the Middle East. U.S.
    leaders are seeking to crush all resistance to their colonial agenda,
    whether from states or popular movements in the region. The
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition andthe anti-war movement is raising the demand,
    "U.S. Out of the Middle East."

    At its core, the war for Empire is supported by the Republican Party
    and Democratic Party alike, which constitute the twin parties of
    militarism and war, and this quest for global domination will continue
    regardless of the outcome of the 2006 election. In fact, leading
    Democrats are attacking Bush for being "soft" on Iran and North Korea.
    Real hope for turning the tide rests with building a powerful global
    movement of resistance in which the people of the United States stand
    with their sisters and brothers struggling against imperialism and the
    new colonialism.

    On the home front the Bush administration is involved in a
    far-reaching assault against working class communities as most
    glaringly evidenced by its criminal and racist negligence towards the
    people of New Orleans and throughout the hurricane ravaged Gulf
    States. While turning their backs on these communities in the moments
    ofgreatest need, the U.S. government is now working with the banks and
    developers who, like vultures, are exploiting mass suffering and
    dislocation to carry out racist gentrification that only benefits the
    wealthy. The administration is also working to eviscerate hard-fought
    civil rights and civil liberties, engaging in a widespread campaign of
    domestic spying and wiretapping against the people of the U.S. and
    other assaults against the First and Fourth Amendments.

    In early December 2005, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition filed for permits
    for a national march in Washington DC on April 29, 2006. We were
    preparing to announce the April 29 action but in recent days we have
    heard from A.N.S.W.E.R. organizers in a number of unions that U.S.
    Labor Against the War was seeking union endorsements for a call for an
    anti-war demonstration on the same day in New York City. Having two
    demonstrations on April 29 in both Washington D.C. and New York City
    seems to us to be lessadvantageous than having the movement unite
    behind one single mobilization. As such, we decided to hold back our
    announcement. Subsequently, the New York City demonstration has been
    announced by a number of organizations. Underscoring the need to have
    the largest possible demonstration on April 29, the A.N.S.W.E.R.
    Coalition has decided to fully mobilize, in all of its chapters and
    organizing centers, to bring people to the New York City demonstration
    on April 29. The banners and slogans of different coalitions may not
    be the same, but it is in the interest of everyone to march
    shoulder-to-shoulder against the criminal war in Iraq and the Bush
    administration's War for Empire, including its racist, sexist and
    anti-worker domestic program.

    All out for a united, mass mobilization on April 29 in New York City!
    Click here to become a transportation center in your city or town for
    the April 29 demonstration.

    Click here to receive updates on A.N.S.W.E.R.'s mobilization for the
    April 29 NYC demonstration.
    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: 212-694-8720
    Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
    San Francisco: 415-821-6545
    Click here to unsubscribe from the ANSWER e-mail list.

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

    Welcome to the Official Push for Peace Site!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=
    The Push for Peace logo shows a Navy veteran in a wheelchair with
    a peace sign on the wheel, with people marching behind him.
    It can be seen at:
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=node/71
    Push For Peace is a collective of veterans, progressive activists, and
    everyday citizens working together through education, motivation,
    and truth to bring America’s troops home from the war in Iraq and
    to help bring healing and peace to our nation. The Push For Peace
    movement is geared to combine the efforts of able-bodied activists
    to those with special needs or challenges, so that all people can
    participate and be counted. The Push For Peace effort will include
    organized rallies and marches, as well as appearances and
    performances by high-profile speakers and entertainers,
    to rally the American people and show them we stand united
    with our fellow citizen and soldier. It is our goal to grow the
    base of participants each day resulting in a cross-country Push
    culminating at the gates of the White House on July 4, 2006.
    Events will be scheduled across the country leading up to the
    big Push in July. So keep checking the Push calendar for events
    near you.
    Mapping it all out...[Website shows map of stops in US en route
    to DC on July 4, 2006...bw]
    This is a tentative and unfinished P4P route and is only a work
    in progress. The Push is set to leave Golden Gate Park on
    Memorial Day 2006 (currently working on permits) and then
    we will Push our way across the country to arrive in DC across
    from the White House gathering at Lafayette Park (currently
    working on permits) on July 4th, 2006.
    Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
    Las Vegas Nevada
    Phoenix, Arizona
    Denver, Colorado
    Crawford, Texas
    New Orleans, Louisiana
    more states pending...
    Pushing real Democracy!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    ARTICLES IN FULL:

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

    1) UCSC Military Recruitment Debate Reportback
    by bob fitch (photos) & josh sonnenfeld (words)
    Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006 at 4:32 P
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1801777.php

    2) Outrage Spreads over New Images
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    3) Delphi, Passing Deadline, Will Continue to Seek Union Deal
    By MICHELINE MAYNARD
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/business/17cnd-delphi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

    4) Welfare Agencies Seek Foster Children's Assets
    By ERIK ECKHOLM
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/national/17foster.html?hp&ex=1140238800&en=8cf8e9d6ee24846a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    5) Citations for Mines Where Workers Died
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/national/17mines.html?pagewanted=all

    6) For Want of Money, Remains of Some Hurricane
    Victims Are Not Collected
    By SHAILA DEWAN
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/national/nationalspecial/17bodies.html?pagewanted=all

    7) The Shame of the Prisons
    NYT Editorial
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/opinion/18sat1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

    8) American Davis Makes History at Speedskating Oval
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-OLY-SPE-Mens-1000-TR2.html?hp&ex=1140325200&en=62984900ae160546&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    9) Videotape Shows Camp Guards Hitting Teenager Who Later Died
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/national/18camp.html?pagewanted=all

    10) Recruiting Hispanics for Kentucky Coal Mines Raises Debate
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/19miners.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

    11) 21 Feet
    Patrick Doherty
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/02/17/21_feet.php

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

    1) UCSC Military Recruitment Debate Reportback
    josh sonnenfeld
    Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006 at 4:32 P
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1801777.php

    On Wednesday, Feb. 8, UCSC's Colleges 9 and 10 hosted a tightly-
    controlled debate on the issue of military recruitment. The two
    speakers were William Griffin, in charge of Army recruitment for
    the Monterey Bay area, and Mario Ramirez Hardy, a long-time
    counter-recruitment organizer and GI Rights Hotline counselor.

    The issue of military recruitment at UC Santa Cruz and in the
    community as a whole has been prominent for years. Due to
    creative student protests, all branch of the military have been
    prevented from any form of recruiting on campus for more than
    a year. After multiple successful local campaigns, the majority
    of Santa Cruz County high school parents haveopted their
    children out of contact lists sent to recruiters. Santa Cruz
    County now has the lowest recruitment rate in the state
    of California.

    On Wednesday night, Colleges 9 and 10 organized a debate
    on the issue of military recruitment. William Griffin, the top
    dog for Army recruitment in the area, faced off against Mario
    Ramirez Hardy, who has been helping GIs get out of the
    military for over a decade, in addition to a wide array
    of counter-recruitment activities.

    The night was very tightly controlled by Colleges 9 and
    10 (c9/10) staff, headed by Wendy Baxter, and moderated
    by Professor Paul Roth. There were fears of protests from
    students, possibly by Students Against War (SAW), as military
    recruiters are known not to be welcome. Due to these fears,
    c9/10 staff taped a 'do not cross' line on the ground outside
    the Multi-Purpose Room, where the debate was held. Protesters
    and leafletters were not to cross the line. Nonetheless,
    important flyers found their way in the hands of almost
    all the student attendees. No protests were planned,
    as no military recruitment was to take place.

    During the debate, Mario Ramirez Hardy and William Griffin
    calmly answered a few questions that they had received before
    hand. Students with questions were asked to write them on
    cards, which Roth and Baxter screened. No questions relating
    to foreign policy were allowed. Due to all these restrictions,
    the debate wasn't overly exciting, although there was
    a good deal of information presented.

    Mario Ramirez Hardy systematically dispelled the myths
    about military recruitment - using facts provided from
    military or governmental sources. He spoke about how
    military recruiters, under the enlistment agreement
    (see: http://quakerhouse.org/documents/enlist.html)
    can change anything at any time, with or without notice
    to the enlistee (i.e. recruiters can't make any promises).
    He noted that 57% of enlistees don't get a dime for college,
    that 90% of women in the military reported harassment
    (1/3 of which were raped), the high rates of discrimination
    against people of color, and the violent heterosexism and
    homophobia of the military, seen by their 'Don't Ask, Don't
    Tell' policy and the consistent harassment of enlistees found
    to be queer. These statistics were backed up by more than
    a decade of personal experiences counseling GIs.

    William Griffin, the Army recruiter, attempted to claim that
    'statistics can be made to say anything,' although did not
    address the fact that these statistics were from the military
    and government themselves. He attempted to appeal to people's
    assumed nationalism - suggesting that the military is there
    to defend freedom. Many students rolled their eyes with these
    remarks, as the Pentagon was recently found to be spying
    on UCSC students, directly threatening these freedoms that
    they claim to protect. Griffin further claimed that the military
    'treats everyone the same' and protects enlistees from physical
    harm. However, he did not have any statistics to back his claims,
    except for the one time that he claimed over 100% of enlistees
    receive something.. making many students scratching their
    heads at how anyone could arrive at more than 100%. Overall
    though, Griffin was very calm and composed, with slick answers
    for all the questions - just like a recruitment commercial.

    On the hot topic of a possible military recruitment ban from
    campus, Griffin relied on the Solomon Amendment, a federal
    bill which threatens to take away university funding if they
    don't allow recruiters. He consistently claimed that the military
    just does what they're told - including discriminating against
    queers and women (as Hardy added). In contrast, Hardy
    suggested that students and communities should have the
    right to determine who visits their schools and that if they
    wanted to ban military recruiters, no one should stand
    in their way.

    Once the debate was over, students clapped (the first time
    they were allowed to all night - except for one impromptu
    clapping for Hardy) and a few milled around to talk to the
    speakers, but most walked home with some questions
    answered, but many more remaining.

    While the debate was not riddled with excitement, its
    existence signified the growth of UCSC's counter-recruitment
    movement and the prominance of the issue on campus,
    as the event was completely organized by college officials,
    not activists. It offered an opportunity for a wider audience
    to inform themselves on some of the issues related to military
    recruitment, which will hopefully transfer into more solidarity
    with counter-recruitment actions and campaigns in the future.
    It should also lead to a greater ability for student attendees
    (many of which were from SAW) to break down the fallacious
    arguments widely circulated by military recruiters -
    or 'salesmen' as Hardy called them.

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

    2) Outrage Spreads over New Images
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    *BASRA, Feb 16 (IPS) - New footage of British soldiers beating up young
    Iraqi men in Amarah city in 2003, and the release of more photographs of
    atrocities by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison
    has spread outrage across Iraq.*

    The timing of the new images is potent, in the wake of violence
    spreading through Iraq and much of the Muslim world over cartoons of
    Prophet Mohammed carried by a Danish newspaper and then other European
    publications.

    "We in Basra have decided not to cooperate in any way with the British
    troops," 43 year-old food merchant Ali Shehab Najim told IPS. "These
    occupiers of Basra are invaders and we will not sell them any of their
    requirements."

    Najim added, "None of us will work with them any longer either. My
    cousin used to work with them inside their base, but not any more. He
    refuses to go to work, and we have decided to show our contempt for them
    in every way possible."

    Najim said people are particularly angry over the Danish military
    presence in Iraq.

    He said he had first accepted the presence of occupation forces, but now
    "I think it's about time to tell them we do not respect them since they
    are behaving in a very bad way."

    After footage of British troops beating young Iraqis with fists and
    batons was aired earlier, the Governorate of Basra announced it has
    severed ties to the British military. This included cancellation of
    joint security patrols.

    "We condemn any of those actions by British and American troops in
    torturing our young people," former head city councillor of Basra
    governorate Qasim Atta Al-Joubori told IPS.

    "Iraqis suffered a lot during the past 35 years, but now they are
    tortured by foreigners who invaded our country," said Al-Joubori, who
    was a city councillor in Basra for 40 years. "We can't accept having
    them any more."

    Far from cooperating, people in Basra are now prepared to fight the
    occupation forces, he said. "What these beatings and torture show is
    that the occupiers are both assaulting and insulting all of the Iraqi
    people."

    Similar views are being echoed around Basra, a relatively quieter area
    in the south under charge of British troops.

    "We are looking to the day we see those bastards out of our country," 55
    year-old factory owner Abdullah Ibraheem told IPS. "Now they are
    torturing the citizens of Basra, Baghdad and Amarah, so they have not
    only lost the support of the Iraqi Sunnis but the Shias in this country
    as well."

    He said most Iraqis know someone who has been in a military detention
    centre, but said the new video footage and photographic evidence of
    torture have "demolished whatever credibility may have remained for the
    occupiers."

    The Australian television network Special Broadcasting Service (SBS)
    aired previously unpublished video footage and photographs Wednesday of
    abuse of Iraqis by U.S. soldiers inside the infamous Abu Ghraib prison
    in 2003.

    The images are similar to those published in 2004 that led to furore
    across the Middle East. But many of the new images show a brutality and
    extent of sexual humiliation that many news outlets found too shocking
    to carry.

    The American Civil Liberties Union had obtained the photographs from the
    U.S. government under a Freedom of Information request, but its members
    said they were not aware how the SBS came to air its new footage and the
    photographs.

    There could be yet more photographs to come. "I believe major newspapers
    in the U.S. like the Washington Post have scores more photos which are
    evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib, but they won't publish them due to
    pressure from the U.S. government," an attorney at the Centre for
    Constitutional Rights in New York City told IPS.

    In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters, "The
    abuses at Abu Ghraib have been fully investigated." He added, "When
    there have been abuses, this department has acted upon them promptly,
    investigated them thoroughly and where appropriate prosecuted individuals."

    He said the Pentagon believes that releasing of the new images would
    trigger greater violence, and endanger U.S. forces in Iraq.

    (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.

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

    3) Delphi, Passing Deadline, Will Continue to Seek Union Deal
    By MICHELINE MAYNARD
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/business/17cnd-delphi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

    DETROIT, Feb. 17 — The Delphi Corporation, which is operating
    in bankruptcy, said today it would keep talking with its unions and
    General Motors in a bid to reach a deal on lower wage and benefit rates.

    But without a deal, Delphi, which is the country's biggest auto parts
    company, set a new deadline of March 31. If there were no deal
    by then, Delphi said it would ask a judge for permission to reject
    its labor contracts with its six unions, and also ask to terminate
    its employee pension plans.

    There had been extensive speculation in Detroit that Delphi might
    file those court motions today.

    "This deadline should provide us sufficient time to deal with the
    complexities inherent in fashioning practical and workable solutions,
    and an effective agreement that works for all of us," Delphi's chief
    executive, Robert S. Miller, said in a statement this morning.

    Delphi has twice delayed asking a bankruptcy court for the ability
    to void its contracts, in order to continue negotiations. It previously
    had said it would not file the motion any sooner than today.

    Delphi's biggest union, the United Automobile Workers, has
    threatened to strike the parts company if Delphi seeks
    to terminate its contracts. Other unions could follow suit.

    In its own statement, the U.A.W. said that there were "many
    significant issues" to be resolved in the negotiations between
    Delphi, G.M. and the union.

    But they said Delphi's decision not to file the court motions
    "provides the opportunity for that process to work and
    is certainly a positive action."

    Companies operating in bankruptcy can ask a judge to set
    aside their contracts and impose less-generous deals,
    if they can prove that the company's ability to operate
    is jeopardized by existing contracts.

    Generally, a judge requests that the two sides try to first
    reach a deal, but can convene a trial on the matter if no
    agreement can be reached. It takes up to 60 days after
    a company files a request to terminate contracts for
    a judge to rule.

    So if there is no deal by March 31, or during discussions
    after that, a judge could issue a ruling by May 31.

    Delphi, which was part of G.M. until 1999, filed for Chapter 11
    protection in October. Soon afterward, Mr. Miller, who joined
    Delphi in July after leading restructurings at a number
    of other companies, said Delphi could not survive without
    sharply lower wage and benefit rates.

    Initially, Mr. Miller said members of the U.A.W. should earn as
    little as $9.50 an hour, compared with the $27 an hour paid
    at U.A.W.-represented plants. Overall, U.A.W. members earn
    as much as $67 an hour in wages and benefits, the same as
    their counterparts at G.M.

    The union reacted angrily to Mr. Miller's initial proposal, which
    Delphi subsequently withdrew, and workers threatened to strike
    the company if it asked a judge for the ability to void its labor
    agreements.

    A strike at Delphi, which is G.M.'s biggest supplier, would
    probably cripple G.M. within days, and would come at a time
    when G.M. is struggling.

    G.M. lost $8.6 billion in 2005, and it announced a plan in
    November to close all of part of 12 plants, and cut 30,000 jobs.

    About 4,000 workers at Delphi have the right to return to G.M.
    if there were jobs for them, meaning G.M. would be liable for
    pension and health care payments. The company has estimated
    that Delphi's bankruptcy could cost it up to $12 billion.

    The new deadline would fall on the eve of the U.A.W.'s constitutional
    convention in June. The union's president, Ron Gettelfinger,
    is seeking re-election, and has vowed repeatedly to fight for
    Delphi workers' rights.

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

    4) Welfare Agencies Seek Foster Children's Assets
    By ERIK ECKHOLM
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/national/17foster.html?hp&ex=1140238800&en=8cf8e9d6ee24846a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    GREENSBORO, N.C. — In 2004, at the age of 14 and at his own desperate
    request, John G. became a ward of North Carolina.

    His mother abandoned him for crack when he was 3, and his adoptive
    father died of cancer a year later. A succession of guardians beat him,
    made him sell drugs and refused to buy him toys.

    When he finally arrived at a county-financed group residence,
    he was wearing outgrown clothes. On the plus side, he was receiving
    Social Security survivor benefits and he held title to a modest house,
    willed to him by the adoptive father 10 years earlier and an asset
    that might give him traction, or at least a place to live, when he
    "ages out" of foster care at 18.

    Now, the fate of the house — and the insistence of Guilford County
    officials on taking all of John's Social Security benefits to help pay
    for his foster care — are at the center of a legal battle with
    potential repercussions around the country.

    The dispute is the latest in a continuing struggle between children's
    advocates and money-starved welfare agencies. They are wrestling
    over the proper use of more than $100 million in Social Security
    benefits that the states are taking on behalf of foster children
    with disabilities or a dead or disabled natural parent.

    Determined to extract as much federal aid for social programs
    as the law will permit, some state welfare agencies even hire
    private companies, working for contingency fees, to help them
    reap more federal money by identifying foster children who
    are eligible for Social Security benefits. The money is then
    routinely used to help offset the cost of foster care.

    Advocates for children question the wholesale takeover of money,
    accusing agencies of repaying themselves for care they are
    obligated to provide and of failing to use the windfall to meet
    children's individual needs, whether extra tutoring or counseling
    or, as in John's case, something more unusual.

    Guilford County officials refused to release any of John's money,
    even when they learned that his last guardian had stopped making
    the $221 monthly mortgage payments on his house and that he
    faced its imminent loss. A local court has ordered the county
    to make payments for now, but the county has appealed and
    said it might appeal to the United States Supreme Court
    if necessary.

    For John, who as a foster child may not be fully identified,
    it was clear as he visited the house recently that it represented
    not just money but also a precious link to his troubled past
    and an unknown future.

    "This is my childhood," John, now 15, said as he climbed through
    a broken window to explore the boarded-up structure for the
    first time since he fled it two years ago. On the floor of the
    bedroom, he found a brown teddy bear and clung to it, saying
    softly, "My mother gave this to me before she left."

    John has no idea how he will support himself, but he wants
    to live in the house he inherited, a property valued at $80,000.
    "It will be a good place to be," he said.

    John's court-appointed volunteer protector found out about
    the threat to his house and enlisted a Legal Aid lawyer to help
    him fight for it.

    "For the state to pocket a child's money and allow his home
    to go into foreclosure just doesn't make sense," said his Legal
    Aid lawyer, Lewis Pitts. "No one can say it's in the best interests
    of the child."

    The benefits that states routinely take include both Supplemental
    Security Income, or S.S.I., and other Social Security money for
    children whose parents have died or are disabled. The payments
    are often close to $600 a month, and usually end when children
    reach 18 or 21.

    "The practice is not the result of deliberative policy discussions
    regarding how to best serve children in foster care," said Daniel
    L. Hatcher, a law professor at the University of Baltimore who
    is the author of an article on the subject that is to be published
    in The Cardozo Law Review. "It is simply an ad hoc reaction
    by underfunded state agencies."

    "The Social Security benefits are treated as a funding stream,"
    Mr. Hatcher said, rather than as an opportunity to provide any
    special services or to give children savings for the perilous
    months after they turn 18, when many fall into crime
    or homelessness.

    A Supreme Court decision in 2003, overturning a decision
    by courts in Washington State, affirmed that states could legally
    use children's Social Security benefits to offset current "maintenance
    costs." But it did not address a deeper question: does that always
    serve the child's "best interests," as federal rules require,
    or the longer-term interests of the public for that matter?

    In the case of John G., a Guilford County district court ruled
    last Dec. 29 that the state must pay up the mortgage and cover
    repairs so the house could be saved for the youth. Reviewing
    John's rough history and uncertain prospects, Judge Susan E.
    Bray declared that "any reasonable person would see the fiscal
    wisdom" of helping him keep the property.

    The county has appealed to a higher state court, arguing that
    the state courts have no jurisdiction over the matter, that the
    county is legally entitled to use John's benefits to cover his
    care and that it has no responsibility to exhaust public
    resources so a child can own property.

    "The federal regulations say that the funds are to be used for
    current needs and expenses," said Lynne Shifton, an assistant
    county attorney. "His house payments are not, in our opinion,
    to meet his current needs."

    For now, the county must pay up the arrears on John's house
    and for needed repairs. A private group hopes to rent it as
    a transition home for foster children until John is able to move in.

    State governments around the country stoutly defend their
    use of foster children's benefits.

    Twenty-six states filed a supporting brief to the Supreme Court
    in the 2003 Washington case, noting that the practice had been
    approved by the Social Security Administration and arguing that
    barring it "could leave the states in a position of economic peril."

    If states cannot devote money to current care, the brief added,
    children will ultimately suffer because the states will not help
    eligible children sign up for benefits.

    Many advocates for children agree with that point: preserving
    an incentive to enroll more children is good for them because
    the benefits will continue if the child is adopted or returns
    to his birth family.

    "If you tinker seriously with incentives of the child welfare agency,
    you can wind up doing a lot of harm," said Bruce Boyer, director
    of the child law clinic at Loyola University in Chicago.

    Mr. Boyer led a lawsuit that stopped Illinois from using benefits
    to cover, in addition to direct care expenses, the overhead costs
    of foster agencies.

    Mr. Boyer said state governments had an inherent conflict
    of interest, serving as creditors trying to recoup the cost of
    their programs and also as trustees of children's money.
    As a first step, he said, agencies should try harder to find
    relatives or volunteers to serve as official recipients of benefits.

    A new law in California, passed with the support of advocates
    for children, requires counties to evaluate each foster child for
    Social Security eligibility. But it also demands new scrutiny
    of how benefits are used and modest savings to help aging-
    out children become independent.

    "We are moving toward an individualized system, requiring
    counties to stop and think about the child at every stage of
    the process — in choosing a payee, determining how to spend
    the money, and accounting for how the funds are spent," said
    Angie Schwartz, a lawyer at the National Center for Youth Law
    in Oakland, Calif.

    During John G.'s recent visit to his house, it became clear that
    the property may offer John more than shelter.

    Its yard overgrown, its front plastered with a "condemned" poster
    because the utilities were cut off, the vacant house is an eyesore
    in a tidy cul-de-sac of similar homes, all built by Habitat for Humanity.

    But neighbors poured forth with hugs and joy when John showed
    up unexpectedly and said that he hoped to move back.

    "He's had it real tough, but he's a good kid," said a mother
    from across the street.

    As he left to return to his foster home — he has recently moved from
    the group facility to a private home — John vowed that he would
    return to the house in a few weeks, to mow the lawn.

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

    5) Citations for Mines Where Workers Died
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/national/17mines.html?pagewanted=all

    CHARLESTON, W.Va., Feb. 16 (AP) — Federal regulators have issued
    safety citations at the West Virginia coal mines where 14 miners died
    last month, records show.

    The regulators, at the Mine Safety and Health Administration, cited
    the Sago Mine in Upshur County, where 12 men died after an explosion
    on Jan. 2. The mine's owner, International Coal Group, was cited
    on Jan. 19 and Feb. 6 for improperly testing and maintaining
    electrical equipment; failing to notify the agency within 30 days
    of a change in the legal entity operating the mine; and violating
    an order prohibiting entry into the mine without an inspector.

    International Coal plans to contest the latter two citations, said
    Roger L. Nicholson, the company's senior vice president and
    general counsel.

    The agency issued four citations at the Alma No. 1 mine in
    Melville, where two men died in a conveyor belt fire on Jan. 19.
    The citations, issued Feb. 2 and Feb. 9, said the mine owner, the
    Massey Energy Company, violated rules concerning ventilation
    and explosives. A spokesman for the company did not immediately
    return calls seeking comment.

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

    6) For Want of Money, Remains of Some Hurricane
    Victims Are Not Collected
    By SHAILA DEWAN
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/national/nationalspecial/17bodies.html?pagewanted=all

    NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 16 — There are no longer corpses in plain sight,
    as there were for days after Hurricane Katrina hit. But nearly six months
    after the storm, officials believe there are still dozens of unrecovered
    bodies in New Orleans. They even have a pretty good idea where they are.

    But no one is looking for them.

    Instead, they have been left in muck-filled houses or piles of debris
    for family members to stumble upon. Last Saturday, for example,
    Alicia and Herman Robertson found their nephew, Kendrick Smith,
    in the bedroom where he had lain face down since the storm.

    Family members, scattered to Houston, San Antonio and Ville Platte,
    La., said they had repeatedly asked the authorities to go by the house,
    at 2305 Flood Street, to look for Mr. Smith, 31. "The city never done
    nothing," Mr. Robertson said. "It was horrible to see one's loved
    one laid out like that."

    Based on reports from family members, officials have compiled
    a list of 225 addresses in the Ninth Ward whose residents are still
    missing. But the search has become snarled in yet another tangle
    over agency jurisdiction and cost.

    The New Orleans Fire Department's urban search and rescue
    team began combing the Ninth Ward in early October, but
    stopped two months later when money for overtime ran out,
    Steven P. Glynn, the chief of special operations for the department,
    said. "The superintendent had to decide whether to continue
    that operation or provide adequate fire protection," he said.

    The process of "clearing" a house from the list is not simple,
    Chief Glynn said. Even if the house is still standing, furniture
    must be removed and as much as two feet of mud shoveled out
    before searchers can be certain no body is there. For those houses
    that have collapsed, the current plan is to have a search-and-
    rescue team work alongside the Army Corps of Engineers, which
    is charged with debris clearance and cleanup.

    Chief Glynn said that he had explained the situation to at least
    half a dozen officials from the Federal Emergency Management
    Agency, but that he had yet to get a promise of money for
    more searches, which would cost about $400,000 for three
    months.

    Nicol Andrews, a spokeswoman for FEMA, said the Fire
    Department had not filled out a "formal project worksheet"
    requesting money. But, Ms. Andrews said, "by all accounts,
    this is something FEMA absolutely would pay for."

    The wait is maddening, said Chief Glynn, a third-generation
    New Orleans firefighter. "It's really not the dead, because you
    can't do much for those people," he said. "It's the families,
    who are living with this."

    Some of those families have given DNA samples to the state,
    called the police and tried to search themselves. Lamont Marrero,
    26, believes his mother, who was partly paralyzed, is still in her
    Ninth Ward home, but when he tried to enter, he found the iron
    security doors rusted shut.

    "We don't have any answers at all," Mr. Marrero said. "We don't
    know anything. That's the only thing left to do, is search the house."

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

    7) The Shame of the Prisons
    NYT Editorial
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/opinion/18sat1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

    Who needs sophomoric cartoons to inflame the Muslim world when
    you've got the Bush administration's prison system? One reason
    the White House is so helpless against the violence spawned by
    those Danish cartoons is that it has squandered so much of its
    moral standing at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. This week,
    the world got two chilling reminders of why both prisons must
    be closed.

    On Thursday, the United Nations Human Rights Commission
    issued a scathing report on the violations of democratic principles,
    human rights and the rule of law at Guantánamo Bay: indefinite
    arbitrary detentions, hearings that mock fair process and justice,
    coercive and violent interrogations, and other violations of laws
    and treaties.

    The Bush administration offered its usual weak response, that
    President Bush has decided there is a permanent state of war
    that puts him above the law. And that is exactly the problem:
    by creating Guantánamo outside the legal system for prisoners
    who, according to Mr. Bush, have no rights, the United States
    is stuck holding these 500 men in perpetuity. The handful who
    may be guilty of heinous crimes can never be tried in a real
    court because of their illegal detentions. A vast majority
    did nothing or were guilty only of fighting on a battlefield,
    but the administration refuses to sort them out.

    Some members of Congress tried to exert control over
    Guantánamo Bay late last year. But their efforts were hijacked
    by Bush loyalists, who made matters worse by stripping the
    prisoners there of the basic human right to challenge
    their detentions.

    Now the only solution is to close Guantánamo Bay and
    account for its prisoners fairly and openly. The United States
    then needs a prisons policy that conforms to the law and
    to democratic principles.

    The U.N. report followed a broadcast by an Australian
    television station of previously unpublicized photographs
    taken at Abu Ghraib in 2003. Many were similar to the pictures
    the world saw two years ago when the scandal of abuse,
    humiliation and torture first broke. Others show even worse
    abuses and degradation.

    All are a reminder that the Bush administration has yet
    to account for what happened at Abu Ghraib. No political
    appointee has been punished for the policies that led
    to the atrocities. Indeed, most have been rewarded.

    The prison was a symbol of the worst of the Hussein regime. Now
    it's a symbol of the worst of the American occupation. Congress
    should order it replaced. And perhaps John Warner, chairman
    of the Senate Armed Services Committee, could keep his
    promise to dig out the truth about Abu Ghraib.

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

    8) American Davis Makes History at Speedskating Oval
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-OLY-SPE-Mens-1000-TR2.html?hp&ex=1140325200&en=62984900ae160546&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    TURIN, Italy (AP) -- Shani Davis knew what he was doing.

    Davis became the first black to win an individual gold medal in Winter
    Olympic history on Saturday, capturing the men's 1,000-meter
    speedskating race. Joey Cheek made it a 1-2 American finish,
    adding a silver to his victory in the 500.

    Erben Wennemars of the Netherlands captured the bronze.

    Chad Hedrick, skating the weakest of his individual events,
    put up an early time that stood until Davis bested it in the
    19th of 21 pairs with a time of 1 minute, 8.89 seconds.

    Four other skaters passed Hedrick as well, leaving the Texan
    in sixth place -- still an impressive showing considering he
    was skating the 1,000 for only the seventh time in his career.

    Davis came under scrutiny for skipping the team pursuit --
    especially when the Hedrick-led squad was knocked out in
    the quarterfinals, doomed by a slow skater who might not
    have been on the ice if Davis was available.

    But Davis, world record holder in the 1,000, wanted to focus
    on his signature event. It certainly paid off.

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

    9) Videotape Shows Camp Guards Hitting Teenager Who Later Died
    [This is straight up murder of an already incarcerated
    fourteen-year-old!...bw]
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/national/18camp.html?pagewanted=all

    PANAMA CITY, Fla., Feb. 17 (AP) — A teenager who died a day
    after entering a juvenile-detention boot camp was kneed and hit
    by guards while being restrained the day before his death,
    a videotape released Friday showed.

    The scenes from the tape outraged the parents of the boy,
    Martin L. Anderson, 14. Martin's mother, Gina Jones, said the
    tape proved that the guards killed her son, despite a medical
    examiner's ruling that he died from internal bleeding unrelated
    to the confrontation.

    Martin, who entered the camp Jan. 5 because of a probation
    violation, complained of difficulty in breathing and collapsed
    during exercises that were part of the entry process.
    He died the next day at a hospital.

    The Bay County Sheriff's Department, which runs the camp,
    said Martin was restrained after he became uncooperative.

    On the surveillance videotape, which lasts 80 minutes and
    has no sound, as many as nine guards can be seen restraining
    Martin. Guards kneed him and wrestled him to the ground,
    where he was repeatedly hit by one guard. He was limp
    throughout most of the videotape.

    The videotape shows that a woman in a white coat was present
    while the guards restrained Martin and at one point used
    a stethoscope to check him. Near the end of the confrontation,
    guards appeared to become more concerned, and several began
    running in and out of the scene. Emergency medical personnel
    later arrived and took the boy away.

    Dr. Charles Siebert, medical examiner for the district that
    includes Bay County, said the boy's body had some bruises
    and abrasions, but he attributed them to efforts to resuscitate
    the youth. Dr. Siebert said Martin suffered internal bleeding
    because he had sickle cell trait, a disorder that caused his
    red blood cells to change shape and produce "a whole cascade
    of events" that led to hemorrhaging.

    Benjamin Crump, a lawyer for Martin's family, expressed doubt
    that the sickle cell trait, if it existed, could cause such extensive
    damage to the teenager's internal organs.

    The Justice Department has said it will investigate the case,
    along with the F.B.I. Federal officials planned to focus on whether
    camp guards violated Martin's rights through use of excessive
    force or indifference to serious medical need.

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

    10) Recruiting Hispanics for Kentucky Coal Mines Raises Debate
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/19miners.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

    COAL RUN, Ky., Feb. 18 (AP) — Charlie Bearse, the president of Sidney
    Coal, was expressing an opinion that many in these mountains secretly
    share. The problem was, he put that opinion in writing.

    "It is common knowledge that the work ethic of the Eastern Kentucky
    worker has declined from where it once was," Mr. Bearse wrote
    to the state mining board. Bad attitudes and drug abuse, he argued,
    were affecting attendance "and, ultimately, productivity."

    Mr. Bearse's appeal to the board: Relax an English-only policy in
    the mines so he could bring in Hispanic workers.

    American companies often say they need migrant workers
    to do low-paying, menial tasks that many Americans will not.
    But at $18 an hour and up, plus benefits, mining jobs are
    some of Appalachia's best.

    In a part of the country where Hispanics make up less than
    1 percent of most counties' populations, Mr. Bearse's comments
    caused a stir.

    Shannon Gibson, who recently took the state test for the
    "green card" that would allow him to work underground,
    said: "They're just looking for more workers who will work
    cheaper and work longer."

    Mr. Bearse has acknowledged that his choice of words could
    have been better. And his timing could not have been worse.

    Less than two weeks after he made his request in late
    December, 12 miners died in an accident in West Virginia.
    By the time his proposal became public this month, five
    more coal miners had died.

    A generation of layoffs and migration has left a suddenly
    booming industry with a shortage of experienced miners.
    Labor officials put that deficit at more than 6,000 miners
    in West Virginia and Kentucky. "For all kinds of reasons,
    the labor pool is smaller," said Bill Caylor, president
    of the Kentucky Coal Association.

    But Tim Miller, a United Mine Workers union organizer,
    said that was nonsense, calling the supposed miner
    shortage "the biggest farce out there right now."

    In the past two years, Kentucky has issued nearly 13,000
    work permits for inexperienced miners. In a recent week,
    state labor officials counted 7,187 people actively seeking
    coal mining work, 5,390 of whom claimed prior mining
    experience.

    Mr. Miller said there were 1,400 laid-off union miners
    in Western Kentucky alone who could go to work today.
    He echoed the sentiments of many who believe the industry
    was simply hoping to exploit Hispanics and drive down wages.

    "They want people who don't have the ability to protect
    themselves," Mr. Miller said. "If they can flood the market
    with Hispanic workers, if they can get away with paying
    a guy $8 an hour, the next guy will be willing to work for $7."

    Mr. Bearse said more than a third of his 800 employees
    had been hired in the past year. Sidney, a subsidiary of
    Massey Energy of Richmond, Va., has recruited miners
    from out West and advertised as far away as Charlotte,
    N.C., but still cannot fill its rosters, it says.

    So Mr. Bearse turned to Hispanic workers on his payroll
    and asked if they had relatives or friends who might consider
    taking part in a "pilot program." He emphasized they would
    get the same wages and benefits as the company's other miners.

    "It would be administered by qualified bilingual supervisors,"
    he said in a telephone interview. "They would need to have
    legal worker status."

    Mr. Miller said his objections were because of safety,
    not immigration.

    "What if that interpreter is the one who gets covered up in
    a rock fall?" he said. "I'm outside of the mine screaming
    they've got smoke coming their way and they don't have a
    ny idea what I'm trying to say. They're just sitting ducks."

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

    11) 21 Feet
    Patrick Doherty
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/02/17/21_feet.php

    Diane Sawyer, anchoring ABC's " World News Tonight," simply
    repeated the most stark statistic from her network's report
    yesterday on the increasing melt rate of the Greenland ice
    sheet. "Twenty-one feet," she said. Twenty-one feet. That's
    how much the world's sea levels will rise when Greenland's
    ice fully melts.

    Catastrophic melting will do more than just inundate the
    nation's coastal cities. California's Imperial Valley will flood,
    as levees are overcome by the rising waters. That will mean
    the devastation of one of America's great agricultural
    breadbaskets and the loss of Southern California's main source
    of freshwater. California may both drown and dry up before
    the big earthquake ever hits.

    Melting will also change the world's weather patterns,
    especially in the northern hemisphere. Massive amounts
    of cold freshwater will likely shut down the Atlantic Ocean
    currents that bring the warm waters from the tropics up to
    heat Europe. Ironically, Northern Europe will get colder as
    a result of global warming, increasing its energy needs and
    devastating its agricultural cycles. For some powerful
    renderings of what that world will look like, visit:

    http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/06-1om/McKibbenRockman.html

    But until now, politicians in Washington have preferred to
    ignore or reject the real threats posed by global warming.
    The reason is simple. The solutions to this problem are too
    disruptive to vested interests. Our communities must be
    redesigned to use far less energy. Our markets must value
    labor over resources. Our transportation patterns must
    increase mobility while decreasing vehicle miles traveled.
    Automakers, homebuilders, utilities, oil companies and
    many of the unions that provide the labor for these core
    components of the S&P 500 are resisting the calls for
    a major economic adaptation.

    Instead, these same groups have realized that it is much
    easier to build a consensus around a different energy-related
    threat: economic independence and gas prices. When addressed
    without consideration of global warming, the solutions to our
    energy security situation are much more palatable. Without
    the need to reduce carbon emissions drastically in terms
    of volume and timetable, solutions like more efficient cars
    and a shift to nuclear power are all that is needed. We can
    preserve the suburban American dream, trust us.

    But it's not only "21 feet" that puts the lie to that rear-guard
    action. It's also China. China's economy is growing at
    9.9 percent, increasing demand for every major industrial
    resource—especially energy. And that demand growth is
    happening with only 200 million people in its modern
    economy. More than 1 billion Chinese are still waiting to
    get their own bite of the apple. Oh, and then there are
    3.4 billion people in the rest of the developing world also
    waiting in line. We'd need many more planet Earths
    to satisfy them all.

    The big challenge in Washington, therefore, is to figure
    out how to make this stark economic reality politically
    advantageous. Two-thirds of Americans think the country
    is headed in the wrong direction. They're exactly right.
    The question is whether they will ever get a plan for the
    right direction before we lose cities, valleys and all the good options.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    LINKS:
    --------*--------*---------*---------*---------*----------

    At a Scientific Gathering, U.S. Policies Are Lamented
    By CORNELIA DEAN
    February 19, 2006
    ST. LOUIS, Feb. 18 — David Baltimore, the Nobel Prize-winning
    biologist and president of the California Institute of Technology,
    is used to the Bush administration misrepresenting scientific
    findings to support its policy aims, he told an audience of fellow
    researchers Saturday. Each time it happens, he said, "I shrug and
    say, 'What do you expect?' "
    But then, Dr. Baltimore went on, he began to read about the
    administration's embrace of the theory of the unitary executive,
    the idea that the executive branch has the power or even the
    obligation to act without restraint from Congress. And he began
    to see in a new light widely reported episodes of government
    scientists being restricted in what they could say in public.
    "It's no accident that we are seeing such an extensive suppression
    of scientific freedom," he said. "It's part of the theory of
    government now, and it's a theory we need to vociferously oppose."
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/19science.html

    Mexico's Maritime Mystery: What's Killing All Those Whales?
    By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/international/americas/19mexico.html

    Bush's Chat With Novelist Alarms Environmentalists
    By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/19warming.html

    Drug Traffickers Find Haven in Shadows of Indian Country
    By SARAH KERSHAW
    February 19, 2006
    Investigators described Mr. Oakes as an intimidating trafficker who
    concentrated on stealing drugs and cash from a prosperous and
    growing cluster of criminals who, like Mr. Oakes, have built
    sprawling mansions near worn-down trailers on this reservation
    straddling the Canadian border.
    Law enforcement officials say Mr. Oakes and the drug lords he
    is accused of stealing from are part of a violent but largely
    overlooked wave of trafficking and crime that has swept through
    the nation's Indian reservations in recent years, as large-scale
    criminal organizations have found havens and allies in the
    wide-open and isolated regions of Indian country.
    Drug Traffickers Find Haven in Shadows of Indian Country
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/19smuggle.html?hp&ex=1140411600&en=69dc2430fac56f7d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Rights Group Asks Government to Postpone New Orleans Elections
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    The Department of Justice should postpone coming elections
    in New Orleans until displaced voters have been located,
    N.A.A.C.P. officials said Saturday.
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/nationalspecial/19naacp.html

    Glaciers Flow to Sea at a Faster Pace, Study Says
    By ANDREW C. REVKIN
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/science/17climate.html

    Clot Risk for Birth-Control Patch Is Found to Be Double That of Pill
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/health/18patch.html?pagewanted=all

    Report on Impact of Federal Benefits on
    Curbing Poverty Reignites a Debate
    By ERIK ECKHOLM
    "Yes, the E.I.T.C. means a family has more money, and that's good,"
    said Timothy Smeeding, an economist at the Maxwell School
    of Syracuse University, referring to the Earned-Income Tax Credit,
    which can pay thousands of dollars to a low-income worker.
    "But going to work can also mean high new expenses for travel
    and child care, for example, and these aren't included."
    "They've added in the extra benefits people get, but not the
    extra costs," Mr. Smeeding said of the Census Bureau, adding
    that the report gave an overly optimistic figure of living conditions
    on the bottom.
    The new Census Bureau report is online at
    www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/effect2004/effect2004.html .
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/national/18poverty.html

    You Think 401(k)'s Are Hard to Manage? Try Health Accounts
    By DAMON DARLIN
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/business/yourmoney/18money.html?pagewanted=all

    Tapping Fears of Big Business
    [John M. Perkins, Economic Hit Man...bw]
    By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
    Chicago
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/business/yourmoney/19confess.html?hp&ex=1140325200&en=c8da2eac62ed9404&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Content of Soil Causes Concern in Levee Repair
    By JOHN SCHWARTZ
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/nationalspecial/19dirt.html?hp&ex=1140325200&en=2a87cb6f34f9360b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Drug Plan's Start May Imperil G.O.P.'s Grip on Older Voters
    By ROBIN TONER
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/politics/19older.html?hp&ex=1140325200&en=ba570f76cbb36948&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    As Property Values Rise, Homeowners Feel Pinch
    By RICK LYMAN
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/realestate/19property.html?hp&ex=1140325200&en=84f9d5c4af04e2dd&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    The "Teen Sex Slave" Scams
    ABC's Primetime Fakery
    By DEBBIE NATHAN
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.counterpunch.org/nathan02172006.html

    Diverging Views of Californian at Terror Trial
    By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
    SACRAMENTO, Feb. 16 — A federal terrorism trial opened here on
    Thursday with wildly diverging views of a 23-year-old Californian
    who traveled to Pakistan either for terrorism training, as the
    government contends, or to help his ailing mother, study religion
    and marry, as his lawyer asserts.
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/national/nationalspecial3/17trial.html?pagewanted=all

    On Private Web Site, Wal-Mart Chief Talks Tough
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and MICHAEL BARBARO
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/business/17walmart.html?hp&ex=1140238800&en=6faf297fa60aec04&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    SOS: Why you need to join the Soldiers of Solidarity now!
    By Melodee Hagensen
    February 2006
    http://www.soldiersofsolidarity.com/id151.html

    Iraq 'Death Squad Caught in Act'
    Iraq has launched an investigation into claims by the US military that
    an Iraqi interior ministry "death squad" has been targeting Sunni Arab
    Iraqis. The probe comes after a US general revealed the arrest of 22
    policemen allegedly on a mission to kill a Sunni
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021606A.shtml

    The Torture Photos Congress Didn't Want You to See
    Pictures That Missed the Exhibition
    By LILA RAJIVA
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.counterpunch.org/rajiva02162006.html

    Iraq: the forgotten victims
    Military under fire for 'abandoning' more than
    1,000 veterans with mental problems
    By Kim Sengupta and Terri Judd
    Published: 16 February 2006
    http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article345709.ece

    A Deal Is Reached to Name a Victor in Haiti's Election
    By GINGER THOMPSON
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/americas/16cnd-haiti.html?hp&ex=1140152400&en=fc29068844f31494&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    British Clinic Is Allowed to Deny Medicine
    [The best life-saving drugs money can buy. Don't have money?
    Start saving for your funeral...bw]
    By SARAH LYALL
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/europe/16cancer.html

    U.N. Report Calls for End to Guantánamo Detentions
    By WARREN HOGE
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/16cnd-gitmo.html?hp&ex=1140152400&en=44f61e793b9e79a6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Whistleblower Alleges Second Wiretap Program
    A former NSA employee said Tuesday there is another ongoing top-secret
    surveillance program that might have violated millions of Americans'
    Constitutional rights. Russell D. Tice told the House Government Reform
    Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International
    Relations he has concerns about a "special access" electronic
    surveillance program that he characterized as far more wide-ranging than the
    warrantless wiretapping.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021506A.shtml

    We Have Created the World’s First Truly Global Empire
    John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," joins
    us in our firehouse studio to talk about his former work going into
    various countries to try to strongarm leaders into creating policy
    favorable to the U.S government and corporations. Perkins describes
    himself as an economic hit man.
    Democracy Now!!, February 15th, 2006
    http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/15/1436221

    2 Major Construction Unions Plan to Leave A.F.L.-C.I.O. Unit.
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
    February 15, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/national/15union.html?pagewanted=all

    posted 3:19 PM  0 comments
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2006

    SCROLL DOWN PAST ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR
    BAUAW NEWSLETTER
    -----------------------------------------

    TELL BUSH AND CONGRESS: STOP THE WAR
    ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    Please join the online campaign to
    STOP THE WAR ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    YOUR EMERGENCY ACTION IS NEEDED NOW!
    Send emails to President Bush, Vice President
    Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, U.N. Secretary-
    General Annan, Congressional leaders and
    the media demanding NO WAR ON IRAN!
    http://stopwaroniran.org/

    ...........................................................


    Help Us Tell CYA's Chief Warner:
    Close Chad Now!!

    Join Books Not Bars, Escuelas Si, Pintas No,
    and Youth in Focus on February 22 for
    a press conference and picket at the office
    of CYA Chief Bernard Warner in Sacramento.
    We will call on Chief Warner to close Chad
    immediately -- our youth need action now!

    Please come and show your support!

    Press Conference and Picket to close Chad

    Wednesday, February 22, 2006, 4:30 p.m.

    Where: Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
    1515 S. Street
    Sacramento, CA
    RSVP: Contact David at: 510.428.3939 x243 or
    david@ellabakercenter.org

    ...........................................................

    WHY WE FIGHT
    A film by Eugene Jarecki
    [Check out the trailer about this new film.
    This looks like a very powerful film.]
    http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/

    ...........................................................

    Hear: CC Campbell-Rock
    'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more'
    Friday, February 24th, 7PM
    Centro Del Pueblo
    474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th Street one block west of
    16th & Mission Bart Station)
    CC Campbell-Rock, the new editor of the San Francisco
    Bay View newspaper, has just returned from Venezuela.
    Read her article, 'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more' at
    www.sfbayview.com/020806/eyewitness020806.shtml .
    Hear her report back as an eyewitness
    to the Bolivarian Revolution.
    She attended last week's World Social Forum and
    toured the Venezuelan countryside, with other
    delegates from Global Women's Strike, to meet
    the grassroots revolutionary leaders who are
    making the kind of miracles in education, health,
    housing, economic development, etc., that could
    revive and transform the inner cities of the United
    States. Prior to working for the SF Bay View, CC was
    a prominent pre-KATRINA journalist and activist
    in New Orleans.
    This meeting is jointly sponsored by the San
    Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela! committee
    and the San Francisco Bay View .
    San Francisco Bay View
    (www.sfbayview.com)
    San Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela!
    sfbay@ushov.org 415-786-1680
    Donation $5.00 (Students, unemployed, and Seniors $3.00)

    .......................................................

    ANTIWAR MEETING OPEN TO ALL
    THOSE WHO DEMAND:
    STOP THE WAR NOW! U.S. OUT OF IRAQ!
    BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
    MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
    SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2006, 10:00 A.M.
    Local, 34, the ILWU Shipclerk's Hall
    4 Berry Street (behind the ballpark)

    .......................................................

    Please help spread the word:

    Counter Recruitment
    Presenters Mobilization!

    The military recruits in most Bay Area high schools,
    Let’s make sure students hear the other side!

    This will be a training/organizing kick off for:
    • youth to youth presentation teams,
    • veterans and non-veteran classroom presenters, and
    • anyone who wants to learn, share and help support this effort!

    Saturday, February 25th, 2-5pm
    War Veterans Memorial Building, Room 219
    401 Van Ness, San Francisco
    West of City Hall, near Civic Center BART
    Snacks will be provided, donations will be accepted.

    For more information, please contact
    Paul Cox (510) 528-1975
    or Susan Quinlan moos-bay@riseup.net

    This event is co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace and
    Alternatives to War Through Education/
    Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors

    .......................................................

    Welcome to BANG4CHANGE 2006 !

    Bang4Change 2006 !
    We Poor People are called "Gang Bangers" & "Thugs"
    Challenge the Hype ! Bang with Peace, Courage & Solidarity!

    End US War on Poor, Black & Brown, NOW !

    Saturday February 25th,
    Noon to 6 P.M.
    CIVIL RIGHTS REVIVAL FEST
    In front of SF City Hall
    iolmisha@cs.com
    (415) 595-8251

    .......................................................

    Postering for March 18 Anti-war Protest - Volunteer Now!
    A.N.S.W.E.R. ACTIVIST MEETING
    TUESDAYs, 7PM
    2489 Mission St. Room 24 (at 21st St.) SF,
    near 24th St. BART
    Now more than ever, the anti-war movement needs
    to reach out to the thousands of people who are turning
    against the war and occupation of Iraq. Your help is needed.
    Call the ANSWER office for the schedule to go out in teams to poster
    for an hour or two. Pick up flyers, posters and stickers
    at the ANSWER office at 2489 Mission St. Room 24.
    Call 415-821-6545 for hours.

    ...........................................................

    PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FAR AND WIDE!! A CALL TO ACTION!!
    STOP EVICTIONS IN BAYVIEW-HUNTERS POINT
    TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 4:00 p.m.
    ROOM 416, CITY HALL, S.F.
    Companeros/companeras:
    Below please find an editorial by Willie Ratcliff,
    publisher of SF Bay View, about a March 7 hearing
    before Redevelopment Authority, which will seal the
    fate of Bayview Hunter's Point. Many of us have been
    saying for years that the Bayview will be the new
    Fillmore. March 7 is, as Ratcliff says, an eviction
    notice for the residents of Bayview Hunters Point. Not
    long after coming into office, Mayor Gavin Newsom did
    photo ops with young black men on a basketball court
    in Bayview (he was lavished with praise by our
    mindless media for that), but he knew damn well then
    that their displacement was imminent. It's all part of
    San Francisco's hypocrisy about racism and classism.
    "Oh, we're a liberal city, we oppose racism and
    classism..." people and politicians say, even as they
    stand idly by while more and more poor, working-class
    and people of color are pushed out of the city by
    Ellis Act evictions for TICs for the upper middle
    class and Redevelopment Authority's "negro removal,"
    as it was called by black activists in the 60s.

    Why is it that removing "urban blight" from our cities
    means giving poor, working-class and people of color a
    one-way ticket to another city? Why can't
    Redevelopment work on building communities from within
    (with no-interest business loans and subsidies to
    homeowners and landlords to fix up their properties,)
    instead of declaring "eminent domain" and stealing the
    land from folks who have nothing else? If
    Redevelopment wants to do some real cleaning of urban
    blight why not confiscate the mansions in Pacific
    Heights and do a little redistributing of the wealth!
    But that's not the game in America. Redevelopment is a
    tool of the real-estate interests that want to
    gentrify all of our neighborhoods. It's about removing
    poor folks so that middle-class and upper-class folks
    can have their homes. It's a time-honored American
    tradition. Native Americans were pushed from their
    land as wagon trains of settlers, driven by manifest
    destiny, spread westward. Similarly, the new Bayview
    is not for the folks who live there now. As former
    Mayor Willie Brown himself said before he left office,
    the new Bayview will be market-rate condos with the
    best views in town.

    Your help is desperately needed.

    Come to the hearing on March 7 at City Hall room 416,
    4pm. It is imperative that we stand with the residents
    of Bayview. It is imperative that people from all
    communities and struggles come together to oppose the
    annexing of 1300 acres of land next to the shipyard.
    No more Fillmores! No eviction notice for Bayview! No
    more gentrification! Redistribute the wealth, don't
    steal our homes! The land does not belong to the
    realtors or the rich! Nuestra tierra, nuestro mundo!
    Our land, our world!

    Estamos juntos en la lucha...we are together in the
    struggle--or we all go down separately!

    tommi avicolli mecca

    Read:

    Eviction notice served on Bayview Hunters Point
    Editorial by Willie Ratcliff
    http://www.sfbayview.com/020806/evictionnotice020806.shtml

    ...................................................................

    NATIONAL WEEK OF CAMPUS ACTION
    Week of March 13-17
    Students Say NO to War in Iraq!
    College Not Combat, Troops Out Now!

    (*Spring break alternative: Schools on spring
    break during March 13-17
    will hold events the week of March 20)

    Student week of action coordinated by the
    Campus Antiwar Network
    http://www.campusantiwar.net
    RecruitersOut@yahoo.com

    Charles Jenks
    Chair of Advisory Board and Web Manager
    Traprock Peace Center
    103A Keets Road
    Deerfield, MA 01342
    413-773-7427
    fax 413-773-7507
    http://www.traprockpeace.org

    ...........................................................

    Third Anniversary of "Shock and Awe"
    Saturday, March 18, 2006, 11:00 a.m.
    CIVIC CENTER
    San Francisco

    Monday, March 20, 2006
    Youth and Student Day
    of Resistance to Imperialism

    http://www.answercoalition.org/

    ...........................................................

    Major Mobilization Set for April 29th

    Dear Friends,

    We are pleased to announce the kick-off for the organizing
    of what promises to be a major national mobilization on
    Saturday, April 29th. Today, each of the initiating groups
    (see list below) is announcing this mobilization. Our
    organizations have agreed to work together on this
    project for several reasons:

    The April 29th mobilization will highlight our call for an
    immediate end to the war on Iraq. We are also raising
    several other critical issues that are directly connected
    to one another.

    It is time for our constituencies to work more closely:
    connecting the issues we work on by bringing diverse
    communities into a common project.

    It is important for our movements to help set the agenda
    for the Congressional elections later in the year. Our
    unified action in the streets is a vital part of that process.

    Please share the April 29th call widely, and please use
    the links at the end of the call to endorse this timely
    mobilization and to sign up for email updates.

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    A war based on lies
    Spying, corruption and attacks on civil liberties
    Katrina survivors abandoned by government

    MARCH FOR PEACE,
    JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY

    End the war in Iraq -
    Bring all our troops home now!

    SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2006
    NEW YORK CITY

    Unite for change - let's turn our country around!

    The times are urgent and we must act.

    Too much is too wrong in this country. We have a foreign
    policy that is foreign to our core values, and domestic
    policies wreaking havoc at home. It's time for a change.

    No more never-ending oil wars!
    Protect our civil liberties & immigrant rights. End illegal
    spying, government corruption and the subversion of
    our democracy.

    Rebuild our communities, starting with the Gulf Coast.
    Stop corporate subsidies and tax cuts for the wealthy
    while ignoring our basic needs.

    Act quickly to address the climate crisis and the
    accelerating destruction of our environment.

    Our message to the White House and to Congress
    is clear: either stand with us or stand aside!

    We are coming together to march, to vote, to speak
    out and to turn our country around!

    Join us in New York City on Saturday, April 29th

    Click here to endorse this mobilization:
    http://unitedforpeace.org/modinput4.php?modin=119
    Click here to sign up for email updates on plans for April 29th:
    http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    ......................................................................

    ANSWER Coalition: All Out for April 29 in New York City!
    End Occupation from Iraq to Palestine, to Haiti, and Everywhere!
    Fight for workers rights, civil rights and civil liberties - unite
    against racism!

    300,000 Came to Washington on Sept. 24

    In recent weeks the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has been in the final
    stages for planning a national demonstration in Washington DC on April
    29, 2006. This action was to follow the local and regional
    demonstrations for March 18-19 and youth and student actions scheduled
    on March 20 on the 3rd anniversary of the criminal bombing, invasion
    and occupation of Iraq.

    On September 24, 2005 more than 300,000 people surrounded the White
    House in the largest mobilization against the Iraq war and occupation
    since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This demonstration was
    initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition in May 2005 and we urged a
    united front with other major anti-war coalitions and communities. We
    marched demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq. We
    also stood in solidarity with the Palestinian and Haitian people and
    others who are suffering under and resisting occupation. Coming as it
    did following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we changed the demands of
    the September 24 protest to include the slogan "From Iraq to New
    Orleans, FundPeople's Needs not the War Machine."

    During the past several years, and as demonstrated in a powerful
    display on September 24, the anti-war movement has grown significantly
    in its breadth and depth as the leadership has included the Arab and
    Muslim community -- those who are among the primary targets of the
    Bush Administration's current war at home and abroad.

    The anti-war sentiment inside the United States is rapidly becoming a
    significant obstacle to the Bush Administration's war in Iraq. The
    anti-war movement has the potential to be a critical deterrent to the
    U.S. government's aspirations for Empire. At this moment the White
    House and Pentagon are issuing threats and making plans to move
    against other sovereign countries. Iran and Syria are being targeted
    as the U.S. seeks to consolidate power in the Middle East.

    Simultaneously the Bush administration is working to undermine the
    gains of the people of Latin America by working totopple the
    democratically elected president of Venezuela and destroy the
    revolutionary process for social change going on in that country.
    Likewise it is intensifying the economic war and CIA subversions
    against Cuba.

    We believe that our movement must weld together the broadest, most
    diverse coalition of various sectors and communities into an effective
    force for change. This requires the inclusion of targeted communities
    and political clarity. The war in Iraq is not simply an aberrational
    policy of the Bush neo-conservatives. Iraq is emblematic of a larger
    war for Empire. It is part of a multi-pronged attack against all those
    countries that refuse to follow the economic, political and military
    dictates of the Washington establishment and Wall Street.

    This is the foundation of the political program upon which the
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has organized mass demonstrations in the recent
    years. The fact that many hundreds of thousands of people
    havedemonstrated in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, New
    York and other cities is a testament to the huge progress that has
    been made in building a new movement on this principled basis.
    The people of the United States have nothing to gain and everything to
    lose from the occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Haiti and
    the threats of new wars and intervention in Syria, Iran, Venezuela,
    Cuba, the Philippines, North Korea and elsewhere. It has been made
    crystal clear in recent weeks that Washington is aggressively
    prosecuting its strategy of total domination of the Middle East. U.S.
    leaders are seeking to crush all resistance to their colonial agenda,
    whether from states or popular movements in the region. The
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition andthe anti-war movement is raising the demand,
    "U.S. Out of the Middle East."

    At its core, the war for Empire is supported by the Republican Party
    and Democratic Party alike, which constitute the twin parties of
    militarism and war, and this quest for global domination will continue
    regardless of the outcome of the 2006 election. In fact, leading
    Democrats are attacking Bush for being "soft" on Iran and North Korea.
    Real hope for turning the tide rests with building a powerful global
    movement of resistance in which the people of the United States stand
    with their sisters and brothers struggling against imperialism and the
    new colonialism.

    On the home front the Bush administration is involved in a
    far-reaching assault against working class communities as most
    glaringly evidenced by its criminal and racist negligence towards the
    people of New Orleans and throughout the hurricane ravaged Gulf
    States. While turning their backs on these communities in the moments
    ofgreatest need, the U.S. government is now working with the banks and
    developers who, like vultures, are exploiting mass suffering and
    dislocation to carry out racist gentrification that only benefits the
    wealthy. The administration is also working to eviscerate hard-fought
    civil rights and civil liberties, engaging in a widespread campaign of
    domestic spying and wiretapping against the people of the U.S. and
    other assaults against the First and Fourth Amendments.

    In early December 2005, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition filed for permits
    for a national march in Washington DC on April 29, 2006. We were
    preparing to announce the April 29 action but in recent days we have
    heard from A.N.S.W.E.R. organizers in a number of unions that U.S.
    Labor Against the War was seeking union endorsements for a call for an
    anti-war demonstration on the same day in New York City. Having two
    demonstrations on April 29 in both Washington D.C. and New York City
    seems to us to be lessadvantageous than having the movement unite
    behind one single mobilization. As such, we decided to hold back our
    announcement. Subsequently, the New York City demonstration has been
    announced by a number of organizations. Underscoring the need to have
    the largest possible demonstration on April 29, the A.N.S.W.E.R.
    Coalition has decided to fully mobilize, in all of its chapters and
    organizing centers, to bring people to the New York City demonstration
    on April 29. The banners and slogans of different coalitions may not
    be the same, but it is in the interest of everyone to march
    shoulder-to-shoulder against the criminal war in Iraq and the Bush
    administration's War for Empire, including its racist, sexist and
    anti-worker domestic program.

    All out for a united, mass mobilization on April 29 in New York City!
    Click here to become a transportation center in your city or town for
    the April 29 demonstration.

    Click here to receive updates on A.N.S.W.E.R.'s mobilization for the
    April 29 NYC demonstration.
    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: 212-694-8720
    Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
    San Francisco: 415-821-6545
    Click here to unsubscribe from the ANSWER e-mail list.

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

    Welcome to the Official Push for Peace Site!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=
    The Push for Peace logo shows a Navy veteran in a wheelchair with
    a peace sign on the wheel, with people marching behind him.
    It can be seen at:
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=node/71
    Push For Peace is a collective of veterans, progressive activists, and
    everyday citizens working together through education, motivation,
    and truth to bring America’s troops home from the war in Iraq and
    to help bring healing and peace to our nation. The Push For Peace
    movement is geared to combine the efforts of able-bodied activists
    to those with special needs or challenges, so that all people can
    participate and be counted. The Push For Peace effort will include
    organized rallies and marches, as well as appearances and
    performances by high-profile speakers and entertainers,
    to rally the American people and show them we stand united
    with our fellow citizen and soldier. It is our goal to grow the
    base of participants each day resulting in a cross-country Push
    culminating at the gates of the White House on July 4, 2006.
    Events will be scheduled across the country leading up to the
    big Push in July. So keep checking the Push calendar for events
    near you.
    Mapping it all out...[Website shows map of stops in US en route
    to DC on July 4, 2006...bw]
    This is