Activism

Katrina Redux
by Stephen Lendman

Renamed and back, but first a personal note. Post-Katrina, writing about "The New Orleans Aftermath and (its) Ugly Glimpse of the Future" turned this retiree into a writer and radio host.

Now three years later, Gustav threatened and, on August 30, got New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to hype the risk, scare the public, and order a dusk-to-dawn curfew and evacuation of the city's 239,000 residents ahead of what he called "the mother of all storms." Many hundreds of thousands more along the Gulf coast. "Nearly two million people from Texas to Alabama," according to an August 31 New York Times report. Thankfully without cause as "the storm of the century" made landfall as a Category 2, weakened to a tropical depression on September 2, and Louisianans were spared the worst of their fears.

Going on an Imperial Bender: How the U.S. Garrisons the Planet and Doesn't Even Notice
By Tom Engelhardt | TomDispatch.com

Here it is, as simply as I can put it: In the course of any year, there must be relatively few countries on this planet on which U.S. soldiers do not set foot, whether with guns blazing, humanitarian aid in hand, or just for a friendly visit. In startling numbers of countries, our soldiers not only arrive, but stay interminably, if not indefinitely. Sometimes they live on military bases built to the tune of billions of dollars that amount to sizeable American towns (with accompanying amenities), sometimes on stripped down forward operating bases that may not even have showers. When those troops don't stay, often American equipment does -- carefully stored for further use at tiny "cooperative security locations," known informally as "lily pads" (from which U.S. troops, like so many frogs, could assumedly leap quickly into a region in crisis).

The Fix is In – Again!
Ernest Partridge | The Crisis Papers

Better get used to the idea: John McCain will probably be the next President of the United States.

The fix is in, as it has been in every election since 2000.

Stand Up for Independent Journalism

Amy Goodman and others were released, but the story is not over.

We need you to cosign our public letter demanding that press intimidation cease immediately, and that all charges be dropped. It will be delivered immediately to St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, the RNC Host Committee and the local prosecuting attorneys. We need 10,000 signatures in the next 24 hours, so please take action now:

Sign the Letter: Drop All Charges Against Journalists

In addition to these arrests, police with firearms drawn raided a meeting of the video journalists' group I-Witness and arrested independent media, bloggers and videomakers. We’re also receiving late-breaking reports of other arrests.

Antiwar activists seek expanded police probe
Tom LoBianco | WashingtonTimes.com

Antiwar activists who were targeted by an undercover state police operation from 2005 to 2006 will ask state investigators Tuesday to expand their probe to learn whether other law enforcement agencies took part in the spying.

Members of Pledge of Resistance Baltimore plan to rally in front of the Maryland State Police headquarters in Baltimore County Tuesday afternoon. The agency's surveillance of the group for 14 months in 2005 and 2006 is being investigated by the state. The group also was tracked by the Baltimore City Police Department in 2003, according to an e-mail obtained by The Washington Times.

During the Democratic National Convention in Denver, a baton-wielding sheriff twice struck 24 year old protestor Alicia Forrest, knocking the hundred pound woman to the ground. She was jailed and bonded out at more than $500.

To the credit of the Denver Sheriff's Department, this incident is currently under investigation by their Internal Affairs Division. Below is one of the responses to an ADS member who protested the brutality.

Friday, September 19, marks the beginning of Year Two for the Iraq Moratorium.

It has been a long year, as the war, the occupation and the killing in Iraq drags on, despite our efforts to bring it to an end.

"It's got to stop! We've got to stop it!" was the phrase we used in launching the Iraq Moratorium a year ago. It rings as true today as it did then. We must keep organizing. We must keep the pressure on, no matter what happens in the November elections, until this bloodshed has ended and all of the troops are home.

On August 24, 2008 the General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (GFWCUI) called for a mass demonstration against the recent decree issued by the Minister of Finance in which he ordered a significant reduction in the wages and benefits for workers.

Workers Gather to Demonstrate Against the Wage and Benefit Cuts

Government officials asked the workers to send their representatives for negotiations with the minister's representatives. Subhi Albadri, President of the GFWCUI, was elected to head a delegation of labor leaders to represent workers who took to the street in the thousands.

After the meeting Subhi Albadri was stopped at the exit door of the ministry by a number of guards who belong to the Badr militia. The guards confiscated his personal belongings, beat him up and attempted to kidnap him. The kidnap attempt was thwarted by other workers. The guards, however, shot at brother Subhi, who miraculously escaped the bullets.

A coalition working to end the war in Iraq announced it is organizing the year’s largest anti-war mobilization. Million Doors for Peace, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 20, will ask one million Americans to sign petitions urging the next Congress to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq within one year.

The action combines the best of grassroots activism and support from the netroots. The campaign will allow tens of thousands of volunteers to download a neighborhood “walk list” for the coalition website. The volunteers will then use this public information talk to and identify neighbors who oppose the Iraq war and will join the efforts to end the war. Please join this effort, click here.

Like a Mirage in the Desert: U.S. exit from Iraq may recede into the time horizon
by Charles Knight

Key advisors to Barack Obama have put forward an Iraq withdrawal policy which they have labeled "conditional engagement." In their words:

"Under this strategy, the...time hori­zon for redeployment would be negotiated with the Iraqi government and nested within a more assertive approach to regional diplomacy. The United States would make clear that Iraq and America share a common interest in achieving sustainable stability in Iraq, and that the United States is willing to help support the Iraqi gov­ernment and build its security and governance capacity over the long-term, but only so long as Iraqis continue to make meaningful political progress." [from Colin Kahl, Michele A. Flournoy and Shawn Brimley, "Shaping the Iraq Inheritance", Center for a New American Security, June 2008.]

Movements and Elections — You Can Ignore Politics, but Politics Won’t Ignore You
By Brandon Madsen | SocialistAlternative.org

Given how the corporate media presents elections as one big personality contest, and corrupt politicians lie and cheat to get ahead, it’s not surprising that many working-class people have become fed up with elections.

Scott Horton Interviews Joe Lauria
Anti-War.com

Investigative reporter Joe Lauria discusses the series he co-wrote for the London Times about the Sibel Edmonds case, including the 30 year Washington connection to the A.Q. Kahn nuclear black-market operation, the difficulty in corroborating stories about such a secretive subject, the inability of American mainstream media to diverge from the status quo, how the Tinner family fits into the story and the history of the military-industrial-congressional complex as told in the new book he’s co-authored with former senator Mike Gravel, A Political Odyssey.

MP3 here. (50:50)

Joe Lauria is a New York-based investigative journalist. A freelance member of the Sunday Times of London Insight team, he has also worked on investigations for the Boston Globe and Bloomberg News. Joe’s articles have additionally appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Montreal Gazette, The Johannesburg Star, The Washington Times, New York Magazine, ARTnews

Preemptive Strikes Against Protest at RNC
By Marjorie Cohn

In the months leading up to the Republican National Convention, the FBI-led Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force actively recruited people to infiltrate vegan groups and other leftist organizations and report back about their activities. On May 21, the /Minneapolis City Pages /ran a recruiting story called "Moles Wanted." Law enforcement sought to preempt lawful protest against the policies of the Bush administration during the convention.

Since Friday, local police and sheriffs, working with the FBI, conducted preemptive searches, seizures and arrests. Glenn Greenwald described the targeting of protestors by "teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets." Journalists were detained at gunpoint and lawyers representing detainees were handcuffed at the scene.

"I was personally present and saw officers with riot gear and assault rifles, pump action shotguns," said Bruce Nestor, the President of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, who is representing several of the protestors. "The neighbor of one of the houses had a gun pointed in her face when she walked out on her back porch to see what was going on. There were children in all of these houses, and children were held at gunpoint."