Take Action

Wow - over 85,000 of you have joined our boycott of companies that advertise on FOX News, and these companies are definitely getting the message. In a few days we will send you a short list of companies that have ignored our requests, so you can become personally involved if you like.

Beyond our boycott, we should also reward companies that have never advertised on FOX News - like CREDO Mobile. As close political allies, we are able to get the best prices they can offer. And if you've been waiting for an Android phone with 3G web surfing, check out their new HTC Hero.

Thanks for all you do!

Bob Fertik

p.s. If you haven't joined our FOX advertiser boycott yet, simply click here:
http://www.democrats.com/boycott-fox-news-advertisers

Rove: September 9th-11th, Faith & Freedom Conference and Strategy Briefing with Karl Rove, The Mayflower Renaissance Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington DC
https://secure.ffcoalition.com/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=1

Rove: September 14, 2010, 12:00pm, ACC PAC - Karl Rove Luncheon, Johnny's Half Shell, 400 North Capitol St., NW, Washington, DC
http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Agenda.aspx?e=ffd863d8-3f95-46b9-9eac...

Bush: September 24, 2010, Benefit for the Appalachian College of Pharmacy, Britstol, VA
http://www2.tricities.com/news/2010/aug/17/former-president-george-w-bus...

--from Susan Harman

By David Swanson

Pretending to end a war and occupation, while stationing 50,000 soldiers, 18,000 mercenaries, and 84,000 support contractors in massive and permanent military bases in Iraq is a far cry from what candidate Barack Obama described as ending "the mind-set that got us into war in the first place." It fits better with Nobel Peace laureate Obama's description of war as "not only necessary but morally justified."

by Linda Milazzo

Photo by Hagen for News Blaster, NY Daily News

I've always believed in unions. I come from a long line of union members: steel workers, sanitation workers, office workers, police, fire, you name it. They're all in my family. My American family typifies the American working class. In fact, if all the unions represented by my family were to strike for a week, the whole country would suffer. Construction would stop. Crime would go undeterred. Fires would go unextinguished. And in my case, students would go untaught. Yes, I, too, am a union member. I'm a teacher.

By Dave Lindorff

It’s time for us progressives to stop playing defense on Social Security.

We’ve watched the retirement system suffer years of attacks by conservatives and by class traitors in the Democratic Party. We have seen the retirement age raised since 1983 from 65 to 67, and the cost-of-living calculation altered so that our benefits have declined in value over time, while the tax rate on working people has risen.

It’s time to stop fighting rear-guard actions and to go on the offense.

Attention Central Texas Area Activists:

There are only a few days left before actions kick off at Fort Hood Aug. 22 opposing the deployment of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment to Iraq.

We will be engaging in radical direct action of which optional elements may risk minor legal ramifications. This is a multi-faceted action with various degrees of potential risk, and individuals unable to take on such risks are as needed as those who are. However, we have never won anything without sacrifice. We have never influenced our government by behaving submissively.

Only weeks after announcing the 2nd “end” of combat operations in Iraq, the U.S. is preparing to deploy a combat unit to Iraq yet again. We know their claims are a semantics game; a rebranding of the same old bloody occupation. This time, however, we say “No More!”

When: Sunday, August 29th 2010
Time: 5pm-9pm
Location: Busboys and Poets, 5th and K Sts. NW

One wonders, not really very hard, why we readily call others, who have done nothing, 'terrorist', just because of where they might be from or their religious beliefs, and we get never ending opinion talk and pure propaganda {lies} about as a whole group and not the extremist using, yet something like this happens and it gets very little news play. You have to search it out rather then hear anyone report on or seriously talk about. A most certainly 'domestic criminal terrorist' act seemingly hell bent on taking out as many police or innocent people as possible, all because, apparently, he's a white guy in Texas. Will he become the new hero of certain groups within our society, much like the Austin Pilot Did or others that seek to be the next McVeighs as Individuals or in Groups!!

Police seeking motive for Texas gunman's attack

Can WikiLeaks Help Save Lives?
By Ray McGovern

If independent-minded Web sites, like WikiLeaks or, say, Consortiumnews.com, existed 43 years ago, I might have risen to the occasion and helped save the lives of some 25,000 U.S. soldiers, and a million Vietnamese, by exposing the lies contained in just one SECRET/EYES ONLY cable from Saigon.
I need to speak out now because I have been sickened watching the herculean effort by Official Washington and our Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) to divert attention from the violence and deceit in Afghanistan, reflected in thousands of U.S. Army documents, by shooting the messenger(s) — WikiLeaks and Pvt. Bradley Manning.
After all the indiscriminate death and destruction from nearly nine years of war, the hypocrisy is all too transparent when WikiLeaks and suspected leaker Manning are accused of risking lives by exposing too much truth.

By John Grant

Poor Bradley Manning. The kid can’t catch a break. Not only does the military have him locked in some inhuman solitary hole where they can slow-torture him using the latest approved methods, now his troubled private life is being broadcast for all to see.

After running 75,000 secret military field reports released by WIkiLeaks, The New York Times assigned a reporter, Ginger Thompson, to find out personal details about PFC Manning, who is being held at the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia.

What she found was a sensitive, smart kid who did his best to survive the mess he landed in when he was born. A dysfunctional family life seems to have pushed him into the loner category. Then, as kids are encouraged to do by recruitment posters, he chose to join the Army, as Thompson writes, “to give his life some direction.”

For a great read on how it's not just possible but necessary to hold higher-ups responsible for their heinous acts, be sure to get yourself a copy of Charlotte Dennett's "The People v Bush: One Lawyer's Campaign to Bring the President to Justice and the Nationwide Grassroots Movement she's encountered along the way."

Brief remarks given at the rally for Bradley Manning earlier this afternoon in Quantico, where he is imprisoned. The rally was sponsored by Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, and The Courage to Resist.

Turns out the woman mayor of Quantico is not afraid of the Marines. After the Marines initially denied permission for the rally, Mayor Iris Tharp overruled them, issued a permit, and invited us to hold the rally in a beautiful municipal park on the Potomac.

CNN and other media covered the event. I did not do a count, but it looked as though there were about 150 Justice people at the rally.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Quantico, Virginia
August 8, 2010
Rally in Support of Private Manning
Remarks by Ray McGovern

Lancing the Boil

We are living in a liminal time, that is to say we live on the threshold. So much that we have taken for granted is passing.

By David Swanson

Last week 700 leading peace activists from around the United States met and strategized in Albany, N.Y. ( http://nationalpeaceconference.org ). They discussed, debated, and voted for a comprehensive new plan for the coming months. The plan includes a new focus and some promising proposals for building a coalition that includes the labor movement, civil rights groups, students, and other sectors of the activist world that have an interest in ending wars and/or shifting our financial resources from wars to where they're actually needed. The full plan, including a preface, is available online.

BE THERE:

Congressional Briefing

"A Roadmap to Peace in Afghanistan: Cross-Cultural Leadership and Conflict Resolution"
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
US House of Representatives
Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2247
10AM - 11:30AM

Join Congress, members of the State Department, and the general public on July 28 for a
discussion regarding a prospective CODEL to Afghanistan. The Afghan American and American
Muslim communities are a common denominator between America and Muslim-majority
Afghanistan. Many of them can be influential in raising cost-effective initiatives for societal
growth and conflict resolution in the country. It is most unfortunate that even after nine years of
war, Afghan Americans and American Muslims are still underutilized by both Congress and the
executive branch as policy advisory bodies.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, a group of leaders have come together to launch an

By Gina Kim
From The Modesto Bee

John Yoo didn't set out to become the face of torture.

But that's what happened after the former attorney in the George W. Bush administration wrote memos justifying the expansion of presidential powers – including how the government treats suspected terrorists – following the 9/11 attacks.

And it's a label that continues to stick to the 43-year-old Yoo, who has since returned to teaching constitutional and international law at the University of California, Berkeley.

About 10 protesters sporting orange ribbons in a nod to the jumpsuit color of Guantánamo Bay detainees crowded the sidewalk in front of Capitol Plaza Ballrooms on Ninth Street on Wednesday, forcing Yoo to enter through a side door to address a monthly luncheon of the Sacramento Press Club.

Find out what happened next at:

UPDATE: Vote expected Tuesday!  UPDATE PART B: Everybody please stop saying $33 B "to continue war" - it's to escalate it, and 162 congress members have pretended to want to de-escalate it.

On the House calendar for this week is a vote on a $33 billion supplemental bill to escalate the war in Afghanistan.  The Senate did not accept the House version (passed without a vote on July 1st).  The House will likely now vote on the Senate version or something close to it.  This will likely mean something quite unusual: a straightforward vote in which yes means yes more war, and no means no.

GRAY PANTHERS OF METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON

Cordially invite you to our

WOMEN OF PEACE & JUSTICE AWARDS

Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2010
6-8 p.m.
Bus Boys & Poets (Cullen Room)
5th and K Street, NW
(Gallery Place Metro)

On the 100th Birthday of Gray Panthers founder Maggie Kuhn,
We will Honor:

EVE TETAZ, Peace activist
WALDA KATZ-FISHMAN, US Social Forum organizer
CAROLYN DUNGEE NICHOLAS, Fighter for the elderly

$20 payable at the door

Please join us for this special celebration, as we honor activists of all
ages. Learn more about Gray Panthers activities.

For more information, contact Ann Wilcox, Executive Director,
Gray Panthers of Metropolitan Washington
202-441-3265, Wilcox_Ann@yahoo.com

GRAY PANTHERS OF METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON

Cordially invite you to our

WOMEN OF PEACE & JUSTICE AWARDS

Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2010
6-8 p.m.
Bus Boys & Poets (Cullen Room)
5th and K Street, NW
(Gallery Place Metro)

On the 100th Birthday of Gray Panthers founder Maggie Kuhn,
We will Honor:

EVE TETAZ, Peace activist
WALDA KATZ-FISHMAN, US Social Forum organizer
CAROLYN DUNGEE NICHOLAS, Fighter for the elderly

$20 payable at the door

Please join us for this special celebration, as we honor activists of all
ages. Learn more about Gray Panthers activities.

For more information, contact Ann Wilcox, Executive Director,
Gray Panthers of Metropolitan Washington
202-441-3265, Wilcox_Ann@yahoo.com

FCNL has a toll-free number to call your representative: 1-888-493-5443.

On July 1st the House passed the funding for an escalation of war in Afghanistan with only a procedural rule vote that "deemed" the legislation itself passed without actually voting on it.  But the Senate may will not accept the House version, and the House may have has to vote (or avoid voting) again. 

This time people will be on the alert to treat the vote as deadly serious, whether it's a "procedural vote" or not.  This time there may not be good anti-war amendments included allowing representatives to claim they voted for the war funding in order to vote for amendments expressing their disapproval.

War Criminals Watch is having an exciting Video/Cartoon/Comic Strip Contest – we’ll post all appropriate videos, cartoons and Comic Strips on WarCriminalsWatch.org in September with the top four and winner specially highlighted.

We are in the midst of an absolutely horrendous oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. At the same time, our major concern has been war criminals – who also happen to have a tremendous interest in oil. Well, well, what do you know?

We have some facts we have collected about some of these culprits. go to: http://warcriminalswatch.org Use your creativity and produce a five-minute or shorter video on one or more of these planetary criminals such as:

* George W. Bush
* Richard Cheney
* Robert Gates
* William J. Haynes
* Condoleeza Rice
and more

Posters of some of the above are also available.

Activists call on USDA Secretary Vilsack to immediately give Sherrod her job back
When: Today, Wednesday, July 21 noon
Where: Dept of Agriculture, 1400 Independence Ave SW, Washington DC
What: Call for the immediate reinstatement of Shirley Sherrod

Activists outraged at the treatment of Shirley Sherrod, a black woman unjustly forced out of her job as director of rural development in Georgia, will appear at the Department of Agriculture calling for her immediate reinstatement.

When right-wing bloggers put out an edited version of Sherrod’s talk at the NAACP that appeared to show her reluctantly helping a white farmer (an incident that happened 24 years ago), Sherrod was accused of being a racist and was forced by the USDA to resign.

Put into the context of the entire speech, Sherrod, whose own father had been killed in a racially-motivated murder, was actually preaching love for all races.

Social Security is one of the greatest programs in our country’s history. Today, I am launching a campaign, with other supporters, to defend Social Security.

Please take the pledge here—and pass it along to your family, friends and colleagues
http://www.socialsecuritypledge.com

These days, not a day goes by when some politician, Democratic or Republican, or pundit demands that we cut Social Security. Well, my view is this: we have a moral bond to defend Social Security and our seniors should never be forced to give up a life of dignity and respect—and certainly not to address the phony crisis of the “deficit” or to give Wall Street access to money that irresponsible bankers can gamble away in risky investments.

If I am elected to the House to represent the 15th Congressional District, I will never—never—vote to cut benefits or increase the retirement age for people. Never.

Please stand with me. Take the pledge now.
http://www.socialsecuritypledge.com

Thanks for all you are doing for a better world.

Jonathan Tasini

Mark your calendars now for the 2010 Convention, which will celebrate VFP's 25th anniversary and look ahead to the unfinished work of promoting peace and progressive politics in a time of global war and economic retrenchment.  The meeting will be held from August 25-29 and, fittingly, in  Maine, the birthplace of Veterans For Peace in 1985.  Portland, Maine, a vibrant, beautiful coastal city located on a peninsula in Casco Bay, will be the host city for the Convention under  the sponsorship of VFP Chapters 1 and 3.  The Convention Headquarters will be the Holiday Inn by the Bay Hotel and Convention Center.

The 25th Anniversary Convention is a unique opportunity for progressive, activist veterans from around the country to come together to understand the organization's past, to meet and enjoy its present, and to help plan its future in these fraught times.    

Come to Maine in August.  Let the voices of veterans be heard in their collective strength.  

> learn more and register today

http://vfpnationalconvention.org

In 'Be the One' video, Sandra Bullock, Drew Brees, Lenny Kravitz come together for the Gulf

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

We learned this morning that the National Executive Council of the AFL-CIO has voted to support and mobilize its members for the October 2, 2010, march on Washington to demand "jobs, economic security, comprehensive immigration reform, a safe and renewable energy policy and a reversal of national priorities from making wars to meeting human needs." This march was initiated by SEIU Local 1199 and the NAACP.

NAACP President Ben Jealous announced the October 2 march at the NAACP convention in Kansas City in early July, explaining that "marchers will demand the change they voted for when Barack Obama was elected," and emphasizing the urgent need to "create jobs and stop moving money out of education and into wars and prisons." (Kansas City Star, July 12, 2010)

"This will be a chance to participate in democracy, change our country, and support Cleveland. It's like LeBron James without the arrogance, and you're the one who gets the exercise." --Tim Carpenter, Director of PDA

Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), an activist organization founded in 2004, will hold a national grassroots leadership conference in Cleveland, Ohio, July 23rd to 25th. Hundreds of participants from around the country will train and strategize with the likes of local Congressman Dennis Kucinich, the Nation magazine's John Nichols, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, health insurance whistleblower Wendell Potter, immigrant rights organizer Salvador Reza, and Executive Director of the National Priorities Project Jo Comerford.

Join weekly protests against the militarization of youth. Every Wednesday: 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm Protest & Flyering outside Army Recruiters 143 Chambers Street @ West Broadway Bring your own sign, or use those provided. 866-973-4463 for more information.
Check out the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miUfJ87sulg

HEY ACTIVIST VIDEOGRAPHERS - SEND US YOUR VIDEOS

War Criminals Watch is having an exciting contest – we’ll post all appropriate videos on WarCriminalsWatch.org in September with the top four and winner specially highlighted.

And, if cartoons or comic strips are your thing, we are accepting that genre of entry as well!

We are in the midst of an absolutely horrendous oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. At the same time, our major concern has been war criminals – who also happen to have a tremendous interest in oil. Well, well, what do you know?

You can find some facts we have collected about a few of these culprits at www.warcriminalswatch.org. Use your creativity and produce a five-minute or shorter video on one or more of these planetary criminals.

* George W. Bush
* Richard Cheney
* Robert Gates
* William J. Haynes
* Condoleeza Rice
* And more

Posters of some of the above are also available.

David Swanson to Speak on "How We Fund Wars"

Cindy Sheehan, Jonathan Gold, and James Veeder were acquitted yesterday on the charge of crossing a police line, or as NBC described it: "Cindy Sheehan cleared of DC protest charge."  When did protesting become a crime?