whitebeard

Don't curse the darkness, light a candle.

earth and sky

posted by: Whitebeard at 18:33 | link | comments |
peace

Thank you, Debra

Dear Urbano,

As the year ends, there's nothing more significant you could fund than a movement to stop the Bush program. World Can't Wait - Drive Out The Bush Regime continues to work to mobilize the massive and powerful resistance the world desperately needs, resistance liberated from the official political confines and capable of repudiating the Bush agenda in its entirety.   

We are raising our resistance and taking Michael Ratner's advice that, "We must be as radical as the reality we are facing."

With his hands still firmly on the reins of power, George Bush, in office 13 more months, threatens - against all evidence - to attack Iran, because it cannot be allowed to have the knowledge to make nuclear energy.

The destruction of the tapes of CIA interrogations using water-boarding and other torture methods exposes the Bush crew to criminal prosecution, and points to a systemic torture state.  This is a crime against humanity, with the apparent complicity of Democratic Party leaders, who got the torture memo as early as 2002, did nothing to stop the torture and have not cut funding for the war.

There are large numbers of people for whom it's more urgent than ever to reverse the direction the Bush regime has taken the country.  However, many of them are being told that voting is the only "realistic" action.

Without a mass movement from below rejecting the Bush program, the front runners from both parties will carry forward the same illegitimate occupation of Iraq, acting with the extraordinary "unitary executive" powers Bush has amassed, holding onto police-state measures and governing on the basis of "faith" tests that are the New Normal.  This will be a disaster.

World Can't Wait is working urgently for this mass movement to reach critical mass, now, when the question of the torture crimes could - if the cry from the people is loud enough - force Bush and others from office in disgrace.   

Leading up to January 11, six years since the U.S. opened Guantánamo detention camp, World Can't Wait is organizing people to publicly repudiate the torture state.  From high school students wearing in protest the same orange detainees wear and holding teach-ins on torture, to religious and cultural institutions hanging "NO TORTURE" banners on their buildings, to respected voices of conscience speaking out.  In late January, mass civil resistance against the whole Bush program is planned right before Super Tuesday, when the nominees will be finally selected.

To accomplish a firm repudiation of the Bush program your support is needed. Please give a generous end-of-year donation. It is you that the world has been waiting for.

Debra Sweet,
Director, The World Can't Wait, Drive Out the Bush Regime

posted by: Whitebeard at 12:31 | link | comments |
us, democracy, war, torture, resisters

Merry Christmas $ Happy New Year

TWIN EMAILS

The message (from Florence, Italy)

Dear friends, Wanda and Lee,  thank you very much
> for your letter with the story of the year 2007. We
> also had a good year and so our sons Michele and
> Simone. We visited Sicily and we went to Lisboa
> where we met portugal friends, going to Coimbra and
> the Estoril coast and so on. The next year we have
> in mind London and Stockolm. We'll see. About the
> general world panorama, we must admit that thinks
> are not so kind and beautifull and, in the specific,
> we hope that american people succeed changing his
> President in the 2008. Actually in the last times
> the imagine of North America isn't like it was
> before nineeleven 2001. We like America and admire
> his people and in particular all americans we met in
> our homeexchanging (Arizona, NYC, S.Francisco...).
> Also here in Florence we have kind american friends.
>
> In this spirit and mood we say to us and to you:
> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2008.
> A hug from Paola and Urbano.

The answer (from Arizona, USA)

It's so good to hear from you!  We greatly enjoyed our
trip to Portugal and Spain.  We traveled with
Elderhostel so our trip was preplanned.  Lee and John
feel more secure traveling with that group. 

Three times on that trip our tour director brought in
young people, college ages and once young married
couples to talk to us.  We asked them to ask us
questions also.

One of the things they said was that we should be more
careful picking our president.  Of course they are
right.  The strange thing is that we don't know very
many people that voted for Bush but yet he gets so
many votes.  I'm hopeful that our next president can
do so much better.  At least I'm hopeful they can talk
about serious things without that silly smirk on their
face.

I think the democrat party just gets out smarted on
picking their promises.  We have so many people that
think they are voting for their religious beliefs.
anyway, we have great hopes that we'll do better but I
don't know how they will clean up the mess this
administration has made.  I sure wouldn't want to have
the job.

We hope you have a very good year and stay healthy.
We have a great deal to be thankful for.

Love,  Wanda

posted by: Whitebeard at 10:45 | link | comments |
us, democracy, peace, war, nineleven

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

A Ghost Story of Christmas Author: Charles Dickens

STAVE V: THE END OF IT YES! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make amends in! "I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!" Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. "The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. Oh Jacob Marley! Heaven, and the Christmas Time be praised for this! I say it on my knees, old Jacob; on my knees!" He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions, that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears. "They are not torn down," cried Scrooge, folding one of his bed-curtains in his arms, "they are not torn down, rings and all. They are here--I am here--the shadows of the things that would have been, may be dispelled. They will be. I know they will!" His hands were busy with his garments all this time; turning them inside out, putting them on upside down, tearing them, mislaying them, making them parties to every kind of extravagance. "I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world. Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!" He had frisked into the sitting-room, and was now standing there: perfectly winded. "There's the saucepan that the gruel was in!" cried Scrooge, starting off again, and going round the fireplace. "There's the door, by which the Ghost of Jacob Marley entered! There's the corner where the Ghost of Christmas Present, sat! There's the window where I saw the wandering Spirits! It's all right, it's all true, it all happened. Ha ha ha!" Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years, it was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs! "I don't know what day of the month it is!" said Scrooge. "I don't know how long I've been among the Spirits. I don't know anything. I'm quite a baby. Never mind. I don't care. I'd rather be a baby. Hallo! Whoop! Hallo here!" He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the lustiest peals he had ever heard. Clash, clang, hammer; ding, dong, bell. Bell, dong, ding; hammer, clang, clash! Oh, glorious, glorious! Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sunlight; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious! "What's to-day!" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him. "EH?" returned the boy, with all his might of wonder. "What's to-day, my fine fellow?" said Scrooge. "To-day!" replied the boy. "Why, CHRISTMAS DAY." "It's Christmas Day!" said Scrooge to himself. "I haven't missed it. The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. Hallo, my fine fellow!" "Hallo!" returned the boy. "Do you know the Poulterer's, in the next street but one, at the corner?" Scrooge inquired. "I should hope I did," replied the lad. "An intelligent boy!" said Scrooge. "A remarkable boy! Do you know whether they've sold the prize Turkey that was hanging up there?--Not the little prize Turkey: the big one?" "What, the one as big as me?" returned the boy. "What a delightful boy!" said Scrooge. "It's a pleasure to talk to him. Yes, my buck!" "It's hanging there now," replied the boy. "Is it?" said Scrooge. "Go and buy it." "Walk-ER!" exclaimed the boy. "No, no," said Scrooge, "I am in earnest. Go and buy it, and tell 'em to bring it here, that I may give them the direction where to take it. Come back with the man, and I'll give you a shilling. Come back with him in less than five minutes and I'll give you half-a-crown!" The boy was off like a shot. He must have had a steady hand at a trigger who could have got a shot off half so fast. "I'll send it to Bob Cratchit's!" whispered Scrooge, rubbing his hands, and splitting with a laugh. "He sha'n't know who sends it. It's twice the size of Tiny Tim. Joe Miller never made such a joke as sending it to Bob's will be!" The hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady one, but write it he did, somehow, and went down-stairs to open the street door, ready for the coming of the poulterer's man. As he stood there, waiting his arrival, the knocker caught his eye. "I shall love it, as long as I live!" cried Scrooge, patting it with his hand. "I scarcely ever looked at it before. What an honest expression it has in its face! It's a wonderful knocker!--Here's the Turkey! Hallo! Whoop! How are you! Merry Christmas!" It was a Turkey! He never could have stood upon his legs, that bird. He would have snapped 'em short off in a minute, like sticks of sealing-wax. "Why, it's impossible to carry that to Camden Town," said Scrooge. "You must have a cab." The chuckle with which he said this, and the chuckle with which he paid for the Turkey, and the chuckle with which he paid for the cab, and the chuckle with which he recompensed the boy, were only to be exceeded by the chuckle with which he sat down breathless in his chair again, and chuckled till he cried. Shaving was not an easy task, for his hand continued to shake very much; and shaving requires attention, even when you don't dance while you are at it. But if he had cut the end of his nose off, he would have put a piece of sticking-plaister over it, and been quite satisfied. He dressed himself "all in his best," and at last got out into the streets. The people were by this time pouring forth, as he had seen them with the Ghost of Christmas Present; and walking with his hands behind him, Scrooge regarded every one with a delighted smile. He looked so irresistibly pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-humoured fellows said, "Good morning, sir! A merry Christmas to you!" And Scrooge said often afterwards, that of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard, those were the blithest in his ears. He had not gone far, when coming on towards him he beheld the portly gentleman, who had walked into his counting-house the day before, and said, "Scrooge and Marley's, I believe?" It sent a pang across his heart to think how this old gentleman would look upon him when they met; but he knew what path lay straight before him, and he took it. "My dear sir," said Scrooge, quickening his pace, and taking the old gentleman by both his hands. "How do you do? I hope you succeeded yesterday. It was very kind of you. A merry Christmas to you, sir!" "Mr. Scrooge?" "Yes," said Scrooge. "That is my name, and I fear it may not be pleasant to you. Allow me to ask your pardon. And will you have the goodness"--here Scrooge whispered in his ear. "Lord bless me!" cried the gentleman, as if his breath were taken away. "My dear Mr. Scrooge, are you serious?" "If you please," said Scrooge. "Not a farthing less. A great many back-payments are included in it, I assure you. Will you do me that favour?" "My dear sir," said the other, shaking hands with him. "I don't know what to say to such munifi--" "Don't say anything, please," retorted Scrooge. "Come and see me. Will you come and see me?" "I will!" cried the old gentleman. And it was clear he meant to do it. "Thank'ee," said Scrooge. "I am much obliged to you. I thank you fifty times. Bless you!" He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows, and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk--that anything--could give him so much happiness. In the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephew's house. He passed the door a dozen times, before he had the courage to go up and knock. But he made a dash, and did it: "Is your master at home, my dear?" said Scrooge to the girl. Nice girl! Very. "Yes, sir." "Where is he, my love?" said Scrooge. "He's in the dining-room, sir, along with mistress. I'll show you up-stairs, if you please." "Thank'ee. He knows me," said Scrooge, with his hand already on the dining-room lock. "I'll go in here, my dear." He turned it gently, and sidled his face in, round the door. They were looking at the table (which was spread out in great array); for these young housekeepers are always nervous on such points, and like to see that everything is right. "Fred!" said Scrooge. Dear heart alive, how his niece by marriage started! Scrooge had forgotten, for the moment, about her sitting in the corner with the footstool, or he wouldn't have done it, on any account. "Why bless my soul!" cried Fred, "who's that?" "It's I. Your uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. Will you let me in, Fred?" Let him in! It is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off. He was at home in five minutes. Nothing could be heartier. His niece looked just the same. So did Topper when he came. So did the plump sister when she came. So did every one when they came. Wonderful party, wonderful games, wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness! But he was early at the office next morning. Oh, he was early there. If he could only be there first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late! That was the thing he had set his heart upon. And he did it; yes, he did! The clock struck nine. No Bob. A quarter past. No Bob. He was full eighteen minutes and a half behind his time. Scrooge sat with his door wide open, that he might see him come into the Tank. His hat was off, before he opened the door; his comforter too. He was on his stool in a jiffy; driving away with his pen, as if he were trying to overtake nine o'clock. "Hallo!" growled Scrooge, in his accustomed voice, as near as he could feign it. "What do you mean by coming here at this time of day?" "I am very sorry, sir," said Bob. "I am behind my time." "You are?" repeated Scrooge. "Yes. I think you are. Step this way, sir, if you please." "It's only once a year, sir," pleaded Bob, appearing from the Tank. "It shall not be repeated. I was making rather merry yesterday, sir." "Now, I'll tell you what, my friend," said Scrooge, "I am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer. And therefore," he continued, leaping from his stool, and giving Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back into the Tank again; "and therefore I am about to raise your salary!" Bob trembled, and got a little nearer to the ruler. He had a momentary idea of knocking Scrooge down with it, holding him, and calling to the people in the court for help and a strait-waistcoat. "A merry Christmas, Bob!" said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. "A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you, for many a year! I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!" Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him. He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!

The entire story: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-8.txt

posted by: Whitebeard at 01:40 | link | comments |

to sea american bases

push the photo to enlarge.

Dear peace activists,
See the fantastic video ad produced by the Presidio Permanente No Dal
Molin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2jrdTanHz4

On Saturday, December 15 at 7am the USC4P&J Peace Bus takes off:
destination Vicenza and the international demonstration against the new
U.S. military base at Dal Molin! Seats are going fast. Reserve yours now:
info@peaceandjustice.it. Cost E. 25-30. We will stay overnight and arrive
back in Rome Sunday afternoon. The folks in Vicenza will do their best to
provide accommodations; please let us know as soon as possible.

The aggressive policies of the U.S., which have been the focus of our group
since the beginning, would not be possible without the logistical support
provided by the network of U.S. military bases on foreign soil. Let's join the
people of Vicenza in their determination to stop the construction of the new
base at Dal Molin and throw a wrench into the gears of the war machine.

Desiree Fairooz, the CodePink activist who confronted Condoleezza Rice
with "blood" on her hands, will be there as well as David Swanson, co-
founder of AfterDowningStreet.org and impeachment activist extraordinaire.
Representatives of movements throughout Europe, including the Czech
Republic, Germany, Poland, Belgium and Hungary, will also be there.

And Eve Tetaz is coming. She´s a 76-year-old activist from Washington DC
who´s been arrested 9 times this year! She´s coming to Europe in order to
stay out of trouble, but still plans to make good use of her time!

We´re also expecting others from the U.S. citizens groups in France and
Germany.

Join us! Our voice is especially important here. And if we don´t stand up to
the U.S. military in our free and democratic countries, how can we expect
the oppressed peoples of the world to do so?

See our web site for more information on the 3-day mobilization:
http://www.peaceandjustice.it/vicenza-dec-15.php

For any questions, contact us at: info@peaceandjustice.it

Anna, Gene, Maria, Maria Chiara, Michelle and Stephanie
Vicenza Working Group
---
U.S. Citizens for Peace & Justice - Rome
info@peaceandjustice.it
http://www.peaceandjustice.it

posted by: Whitebeard at 11:16 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, democracy, italy, war, censored news, nineleven, resisters