whitebeard

Don't curse the darkness, light a candle.

Viva Palestina Campaign

Dear members,
 
As you may already know, on the 14th of February (Valentine’s Day), George Galloway, the British Respect Party MP and head of the Viva Palestina Campaign for ending the siege on Gaza, started his convoy from London all the way to Gaza along with a number of British personalities and media reporters (including journalist Yvonne Ridley). The humanitarian aid convoy is to travel from London through to France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and then into Gaza crossing more than 5,000 miles.
 
For more information on this unique mission: www.vivapalestina.org/
 
To show our support, USC4P&J has sent the following message to Viva Palestina:
 
Dear Mr Galloway and Ms Ridley
 
We are writing you from Rome, Italy to convey our full support, warm thanks and greatest respect for you and all the many other hundreds of British volunteers who are making the Viva Palestina convoy a reality. As a small, but vocal, group of U.S. citizens working for peace and justice, we wish your admirable humanitarian effort safety and success along its route and at its final destination in Gaza via the Rafah crossing.
 
Recognizing our own country’s role in the devastating and morally unacceptable situation in Gaza, we are completely behind your efforts to bring direct aid to the people. It is heart-warming to find that not only has a European politician risen to this call, but that so many ordinary citizens – given a chance – have also volunteered time, money, vehicles, and much more, to make this possible. We think it gives strength to all those who share in a commitment to upholding human rights and dignity and to the condemnation of violence and killing, wherever they take place.
 
Good luck to all of you!
 
In solidarity,
 
U.S. Citizens for Peace and Justice – Rome
http://www.peaceandjustice.it
info@peaceandjustice.it

posted by: Whitebeard at 19:27 | link | comments |
israel, palestine, gaza

Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

SEATTLE, WA. Feb. 17, 2009 – A 57-year old Seattle coffee bean 
entrepreneur hopes he just brewed a pot of trouble for former 
president Bush and others in his administration.

  On February 7th Bob Alexander his wife, Arminda and local 
volunteers, mailed a copy of legendary prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi's 
book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, to 2,200 local 
district attorneys across the US.  Each of these prosecutors has had 
at least one soldier from their district killed in Iraq.

  Bugliosi is best known for his prosecution and conviction of 
Charles Mason. As a Los Angeles County Assistant District Attorney, 
he successfully prosecuted Charles Manson and several other members 
of his "family" for the 1969 murders of Sharon Tate and six others. 
He lost only one of the 106 felony cases he tried as a prosecutor, 
which included winning 21 out of 21 murder cases

  While Bugliosi's name may be familiar to some, Bob Alexander's is 
known only to customers who purchase premium coffee from his 
SuperBeans.com Web site. Bob and his wife were motivated to take 
personal action after reading Bugliosi's book.

   “Last Summer, I read Vince's book,” Alexander said. “After years 
of thinking that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and  Rice would walk away 
from their crimes, here at last was hope that something could be done 
to help put right their  horrible wrongs. In his book Bugliosi 
clearly lays out how any district attorney can indict and prosecute 
Bush, and  other administration figures, for murder. All any DA needs 
to prove they have jurisdiction is to show that a soldier  from his 
or her county had been killed in the War in Iraq.”

  Taken by the simplicity and clarity of Bugliosi's legal argument, 
Alexander initially used his web-based business to promote both the 
book and it's central premise. Customers who logged on to purchase 
another pound or two of Kona coffee beans, were instead met with the 
message:

“In lieu of buying coffee this month ... please consider picking up a 
copy of Vincent Bugliosi's book instead. When you're finished reading 
the book ... send your copy to your State Attorney, or your county 
District Attorney. Or better yet ... deliver it in person.”

  The next day, Jude Morford, founder of “woman standing,” called and 
told Alexander that she was taking him up on his challenge and 
planned to hand-deliver her copy of Bugliosi's book directly to her 
local district attorney, and wanted Bob to accompany her.

“That's when it struck me.” Alexander said. “Although I wanted as 
many Americans as possible to read this book, district attorneys 
should be at the top of the list. So I suggested, let's mail this 
book, written by one of America’s preeminent prosecuting attorneys, 
to every DA in the country since it sets forth such a prime facia 
argument for prosecution.”

  Alexander set up a new Web site, http://www. 
prosecutegeorgebush.com, asking for donations and volunteers. The 
goal was to raise enough money to buy 2200 books and to mail one to 
every district attorney in America.

  “The site went “live” Wednesday night, September 17, 2008,” 
Alexander said. “The only media promotion we received was from radio 
talk show host, Mike Malloy. His audience alone donated more than 95% 
of the money we needed. By January his listeners had sent in enough 
$3 to $15 donations to put us over the finish line.”

  After negotiating an “at cost” deal from the publisher, Alexander 
was able to cover the $17,000 for the books and postage. By February 
7 all 2,200 books in the mail making to district attorneys from New 
York to Hawaii. In all it came to 5 pallet loads of Bugliosi’s book, 
weighing in at two tons.

  Reached for comment, the author, Vincent Bugliosi, voiced hope that 
Alexander's efforts will finally prod at least someone with criminal 
legal authority to act.

"I hope that this increases the possibility that a courageous 
prosecutor, committed to the rule of law, will hear the cries for 
justice from the graves of the thousands who had their lives 
violently cut short and take the ample case I have laid out in this 
book before an American jury to let them decide whether George W Bush 
and others from his administration are guilty or not guilty, and if 
guilty and, if found guilty, what the punishment should be,” Bugliosi 
said.

  When asked what he thought about the prospects of his efforts 
sparking a Federal, state or local investigation and prosecution 
Alexander said he had little faith that either federal or state 
systems of justice will rise to the occasion, which is why he mailed 
Bugliosi's book only to local prosecutors.

  “I don’t believe we should wait to see what the feds or states will 
or won’t do,” Alexander said. “Or to paraphrase a popular bumper 
sticker … 'Think Globally - Prosecute Locally.'”

posted by: Whitebeard at 11:57 | link | comments |
iraq, us, civil rights, democracy, peace, war, torture, censored news, resisters, gaza

Habeas corpus

ITALY GOV’T WEIGHS IN RIGHT TO DIE CASE  - BY ALESSANDRA RIZZO
From: The Associated Press - 6 Feb 09:
ROME (AP) - Italy's government issued an emergency decree Friday to prevent a woman in a vegetative state from having her feeding tubes disconnected, stepping into a bitter right-to-die debate that has divided the country.
The decree was issued despite court rulings in favor of removing Eluana Englaro's feeding tubes and a warning from Italy's president that the government shouldn't intervene in the case.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi said the decree passed at a Cabinet meeting Friday states that feeding and giving water to patients who depend on it "can in no case be suspended". The premier said the government acted because there was no thorough legislation on the issue.
"I would feel responsible for failing to come to the rescue of somebody whose life was in danger," Berlusconi said, explaining why the government had decided to intervene.
Englaro has been in a vegetative state since 1992, when she suffered a car accident at age 20. Two years later, doctors called her condition irreversible. Her father won a protracted court battle to disconnect her feeding tube, which he said was her wish. This week Englaro was moved to a clinic in northern Italy that agreed to gradually stop feeding her. The transfer set off a firestorm, with appeals from anti-euthanasia groups and Catholic Church officials to keep her alive.Italy does not allow euthanasia. Patients have a right to refuse treatment, but there is no law that allows them to give advance directions on what treatment they wish to receive if they become unconscious.
There have been calls to discuss such legislation, but the issue is thorny in country that is overwhelmingly Catholic and is host to the Vatican. Consensus, even within the same political bloc, remains elusive.
In an unusual move, the government decree was issued against the advice of Giorgio Napolitano, who as Italy's president is the country's top official and a respected moral voice. He sent a letter asking the government to refrain from intervening, his office said. The text of the letter has not been released but news reports say that  Napolitano's argument is that the decree would be in open contrast to a final ruling by a court.
In October, the Constitutional Court, Italy's highest court, effectively put its seal of approval on a lower court's ruling allowing the feeding tube to be removed.
Since Napolitano has to sign any government decree, the Cabinet decision to move ahead despite the president's recommendation might lead to a bitter battle between two of the country's most senior officials Berlusconi insisted the decree was urgent since procedures to disconnect Englaro's feeding tube began Friday. He described Englaro as somebody who could even "bear a child and who is in a vegetative state that could change."
Elio Sgreccia, a top official with the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life, told the ANSA news agency that Englaro "has the right to live". "The political community must sustain her life with the means it has". Sgreccia was quoted as saying.

***************************************************LiberaUscitaAssociazione nazionale laica e apartitica per la legalizzazione del testamento biologicoe la depenalizzazione dell'eutanasia Via Genova, 24 - 00184 Romaapertura sede: lun-merc-ven. ore 8:30 - 10:30tel e fax: 0647823807sito web: www.liberauscita.it email: info@liberauscita.it
 

posted by: Whitebeard at 13:22 | link | comments |
civil rights, democracy, italy, torture, vatican

American mass media portrays an image of Palestinians as victimizers rather then victims

US Media Bias, Human Rights, and the Hamas Government in Gaza

By Janeen Rashmawi, Nelson Calderon, Sarah Maddox, Christina Long, 
Andrew Hobbs, and Peter Phillips

The words “Palestinians” or “Hamas” are translated into “terrorists” 
and “violence” in the minds of many people in the United States. This 
translation did not simply appear on its own.  US television news 
media continuously reinforce a mindset in the American people that 
dehumanizes Palestinians. This dehumanization allows for a 
democratically elected government, such as Hamas, to be labeled 
endlessly as a terrorist organization. Palestine is seen as a breeding 
ground for violence and terror. American mass media portrays an image 
of Palestinians as victimizers rather then victims of an oppressive 
military occupation. Even when it is clear that Palestinians are the 
victims of the Israeli military, American television has a way of 
twisting the story and blaming Palestinians for the violence.

Full Study Available at:
http://www.projectcensored.org/articles/story/us-media-bias-human-rights-and-the-hamas-government-in-gaza/

posted by: Whitebeard at 17:11 | link | comments |
us, israel, press, censored news, resisters, gaza

Voices of a People's History

howardzinn.org News
February 2009

Steve Earle reads Bartolomeo Vanzetti Steve Earle reads Bartolomeo Vanzetti's Speech to the Court (April 9, 1927), from Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's book Voices of a People's History of the United States, November 11, 2006, at the Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, California. watch this video ›

Latest news from Voices of a People's History project
Additional recent Howard Zinn

Latest news from Voices of a People's History project
Dear friends of Voices,
Voices of a People's History kicked off the new year with warmth, good
cheer, and a terrific
performance at the Sundance Film Festival 2009 in
snowy Park City, Utah.
The performance at Sundance ASCAP Music Cafe on January 22 featured
three 2009 Oscar
nominees, who had all just gotten word that very
morning about their nominations: Josh
Brolin (for "Milk"), Melissa Leo
(for "Frozen River"), and Marisa Tomei (for "The Wrestler").
This trio joined Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford, Benjamin
Bratt, Woody Harrelson,
and Q'orianka Kilcher, along with superb
musical sets by Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes
and Wyclef Jean.
Howard Zinn narrated, and then hugged Wyclef and his band at the end of

the show.
See video clips from the Festival Spotlight on Voices produced by Sundance Channel
here:
http://www.peopleshistory.us/

See Getty Images photos here:
http://www.jamd.com/gallery/

Speak: http://www.thepeoplespeak.com
The People Speak headlines the opening night of the 2009 MoMA
Documentary Fortnight, on
Wednesday, February 11, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. at
the Museum of Modern Art in New York at
11 West 53rd Street.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmakers
(Howard Zinn, Anthony
Arnove, Chris Moore) and several of the featured
actors and musicians including Staceyann
Chin, Michael Ealy, Martin
Espada, Lupe Fiasco, Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes, David Strathairn,

Kerry Washington, and Harris Yulin.
Seating is extremely limited and advance tickets are only available in
person at MoMA,
starting on February 4. Please get your tickets early.
This screening will sell out.
For ticketing information and event details, please visit:
http://www.peopleshistory.us/ [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?
..just a few premium seats available for a $100.00 tax
 deductible
donation at: https://www.peopleshistory.us/

Meanwhile, away from the paparazzi flash, our work continues in the
Performing Arts Program
with ongoing readings across the country,
including most recently a beautiful, small event with
Voices board
member Brian Jones and Hip Hop Theater Festival staffer Elz Cuya at a
Martin
Luther King Day celebration in downtown Brooklyn, accompanied on
turntables by DJ Reborn.
We shared the stage with teenage breakdancers
and spoken word artists.
The next major performance is on February 26, with Howard Zinn, at the
historic Mission High
School in San Francisco. Clarence Thomas of the
International Longshore and Warehouse Union
will read with actors
Benjamin Bratt, Josh Brolin, Diane Lane, Kerry Washington, and Robin

Wright Penn. "All-gal teardown" band Stairwell Sisters will bring to
life Woody Guthrie and
other people's balladeers on the musical front.
Details at: http://www.peopleshistory.us/ [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?

Voices also continues our own version of non-corporate "R&D" as we
develop the Literary Arts
and Education Program. After interviewing
dozens of educators and students in the last several
months, and
attending conferences including the National Council for the Social
Studies and the
National Association of Multicultural Educators, we're
confident of the high demand for a multi-
media curriculum based on
Voices. With sufficient funds in place, we hope to launch the first

phase later in 2009. Stay tuned for details. Updates and news about
Voices are regularly posted
on our website at http://www.peopleshistory.us

Our goal is modest: To transform the way U.S. history is taught and understood!
We know that now may seem an unlikely time for donations, but we also
know that arts and
education are the first to go. Unless of course it
is the artwork on the walls of John Thain's
$1.2 million renovated
office at Citibank! For the price of one sconce on one of Thain's
office
walls we can bring Voices to more communities in 2009. Please
visit
http://www.peopleshistory.us [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?
Also, please be in touch if you want to bring Voices to your community or school.
May we organize, agitate, and do whatever is necessary to make 2009 live up to its
promise!
In solidarity,
Voices of a People's History
http://www.peopleshistory.us

Other recent Howard Zinn material
For Howard Zinn, play is much more fun
January 23, 2009
Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/ae/

Authors@Google: Howard Zinn
See the video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch? [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?
Socialist Worker
http://socialistworker.org/ [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?

[
And a recent Howard Zinn article written for l'Humanité in France:
OBAMA'S HISTORIC VICTORY
by Howard Zinn
Those of us on the Left who have criticized Obama, as I have, for his
failure to take bold
positions on the war and on the economy, must join
the exultation of those Americans,
black and white, who shouted and
wept Tuesday night as they were informed that Barack
Obama had won the
presidential election. It is truly a historic moment, that a black man

will lead our country. The enthusiasm of the young, black and white,
the hopes of their
elders, cannot simply be ignored.
There was a similar moment a century and a half ago, in the year 1860,
when Abraham
Lincoln was elected president. Lincoln had been criticized
harshly by the abolitionists, the
anti-slavery movement, for his
failure to take a clear, bold stand against slavery, for acting
as a
shrewd politician rather than a moral force. But when he was elected,
the abolitionist
leader Wendell Phillips, who had been an angry critic
of Lincoln's cautiousness, recognized
the possibility in his election.
Phillips wrote that for the first time in the nation's history "the
slave has chosen a President
of the United States." Lincoln, he said,
was not an abolitionist, but he in some way "consents
to represent an
antislavery position." Like a pawn on the chessboard, Lincoln had the
potential,
if the American people acted vigorously, to be moved across
the board, converted into a queen,
and, as Phillips said, "sweep the
board."
Obama, like Lincoln, tends to look first at his political fortunes
instead of making his decisions
on moral grounds. But, as the first
African American in the White House, elected by an
enthusiastic
citizenry which expects a decisive move towards peace and social
justice, he
presents a possibility for important change.
Obama becomes president in a situation which cries out for such change.
The nation has been
engaged in two futile and immoral wars, in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and the American people
have turned decisively against
those wars. The economy is shaken by tremendous blows, and
is in danger
of collapsing, as families lose their homes and working people,
including those in
the middle class, lose their jobs, So the population
is ready for change, indeed, desperate for
change, and "change" was the
word most used by Obama in his campaign.
What kind of change is needed? First, to announce the withdrawal of our
troops from Iraq and
Afghanistan, and to renounce the Bush doctrine of
preventive war as well as the Carter doctrine
of military action to
control Mideast oil. He needs to radically change the direction of U.S.

foreign policy, declare that the U.S. is a peace loving country which
will not intervene militarily
in other parts of the world, and start
dismantling the military bases we have in over a hundred
countries.
Also he must begin meeting with Medvedev, the Russian leader, to reach
agreement
on the dismantling of the nuclear arsenals, in keeping with
the Nuclear Anti-Proliferation Treaty.
This turn-around from militarism will free hundreds of billions of
dollars. A tax program which
will sharply increase taxes on the richest
1% of the nation, and will tax their wealth as well as
their income,
will yield more hundreds of billions of dollars.
With all that saved money, the government will be able to give free
health care to everyone,
put millions of people to work (which the
so-called free market has not been able to do). In
short, emulate the
New Deal program, in which millions were given jobs by the government.

This is just an outline of a program which could transform the United
States and make it a
good neighbor to the world

Thanks for reading...
For more information on Howard Zinn, visit http://www.howardzinn.org [

This email was sent to urbanoci@yahoo.it by newsletter@howardzinn.org.

posted by: Whitebeard at 08:13 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, democracy, censored news, resisters

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

Memory (Fallujia, Gaza)

Over 4,100 brave American soldiers, and over 1,000,000 innocent  Iraqis, were
killed in George W. Bush's war against Iraq on false pretenses, his  big
lies, which are unlawful deaths, each and every one, requiring that George  W.
Bush be indicted and prosecuted on murder and conspiracy to commit murder 
charges, as noted and carefully documented by former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi  in
his book "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder".
 

Video augurale

posted by: Whitebeard at 12:54 | link | comments |