I have been a pretty lonely voice over the last few weeks, talking about the clear and huge Public Health Dangers down-wind from the primitive burning going on at the site of the BP Gulf Disaster. A few good people have written or spoken about this danger,and provided much pertinent information. But there have been ZERO reports on the clear health hazards to residents down-wind from this burning in the corporate-owned U.S. national mainstream media. And surprisingly; considering the dangers, very little in the Independent Media, either: If there HAD been, i would not be writing this, and would be happy to work with those whose writing or organizing skills far exceed my own!

READ MORE AT OpEdNews

Maine Veterans for Peace is hosting the National Veterans for Peace Convention at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland, August 25-29. This is our 25th anniversary and our chapter was the founding chapter so this is a big event and honor. We are working hard to ensure that the several hundred members attending along with hundreds of Maine friends will be rewarded for their trip.

Highlights—Over the course of the several days there will be: Poetry Night featuring Veteran Poets * Screenings of Highly Acclaimed Documentaries * Chris Hedges * Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul, and Mary * Ann Wright * Charlie Clements * Drumming Ensemble Inanna * Kathy Kelly * Lobster Bake * Banquet * Terry Tempest Williams * Penobscot Drummers * Rachel Talbot Ross * Dawud Ummah * Robert Shetterly Portraits * March and Rally

We Want Your Organization to Table

July 20th - On the 3-Month Anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster - Join us to kick-off a week of actions that support people and the planet over corporate polluters like BP.

The BP blowout disaster began with an explosion that killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. This disaster has since devastated livelihoods and the future for people in the Gulf, as well as the ecosystem of fish, birds and other wildlife in this wounded region of the U.S.

July 20th also represents the 41st anniversary of the Apollo moon landing.

Two historic events, one an example of American aspiration and ingenuity, and the other of corporate polluters' undermining our economy, environment and democracy.

Female Veterans Struggle To Stay Off Streets

Dr. Diane West (center), who runs a program for women at U.S. Vets, a nonprofit in Long Beach, Calif., with transitional housing residents Margaret Ortiz (left) and Andrea Guara.

July 11, 2010 More than 240,000 female service members have been deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but for many, reintegrating into civilian life and trying to find employment is not within their reach.

The Department of Veteran Affairs has acknowledged that women are nearly four times as likely as men to end up homeless.

In Los Angeles, outreach efforts are under way to get them off the streets and into the VA's transition assistance program.

By Dave Lindorff

Finally, a politician has stood up and boldly denounced the creeping fascism that is gradually crushing democracy and political activism.

Not mincing her words, or trying to justify the jackboot, Secretary of State and 2008 presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton roundly condemned government actions that she said are “closing in the walls” on unions, rights advocates and organizations that press for social change or that shine a light on government shortcomings.

“Democracies don’t fear their own people,” she declared in ringing tones. “They recognize that citizens must be free to come together to advocate and agitate.”

Clinton even got the normally taciturn President Obama to join her, releasing a statement in which he said he was concerned about “the spread of restrictions on civil society, the growing use of law to curb rather than enhance freedom, and wide-spread corruption that is undermining the faith of citizens in their government.”

Tad Daley Speaks about Apocalypse Never from Velvet Revolution on Vimeo.

JTMP Interviews Tad Daley from Velvet Revolution on Vimeo.

Take Action: Can "emergency" new nuke loans be stopped despite cover of war?
By Harvey Wasserman | July 1, 2010

Amidst a grassroots uproar over funding for the military, the nuclear power industry has again forced $9 billion in loan guarantees onto an "emergency" war appropriations bill for Afghanistan and Iraq.

Citizen opposition helped delay a similar vote scheduled last month. Now green energy advocates are again asked to call Congress immediately.

The move comes as part of a larger push for federal funding for a "new generation" of reactors.

Because independent investors won’t fund them, the reactor industry has spent some $645 million in the last decade lobbying Congress and the White House for taxpayer money.

This $9 billion is for two new reactors proposed for the South Texas site, on the Gulf of Mexico, and another at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland.

Continued operations of the two reactors now at South Texas are threatened by oil gushing from BP’s Deepwater Horizon. Calvert Cliffs is just 40 miles from the nation’s capital.

French and Japanese companies are among the leading candidates to profit from the loans. "Nearly all the major parts that would go into new reactors will be built overseas," says the Nuclear Information & Resource Service.

The conference will be held July 23-25, 2010 in Albany, New York. Among those who will be attending:

€œI will be attending the National Peace Conference because our duty to resist complicity in mass murder doesn't change with the season or the political party of the president. This war is illegal, immoral, economically catastrophic, and hopeless on its own terms. It is endangering and impoverishing us all. In the face of endless revelations that, just as we would, the people of Afghanistan hate being occupied, war proponents have resorted to advertising Afghanistan's mineral wealth. But seizing that wealth would be, like the rest of this operation, illegal and counterproductive. And unless bin Laden is hiding underneath the Lithium, this just takes us further from the equally illegal and counterproductive original casus belli of revenge. A smart and strategic fraction of the majority of Americans who oppose this madness can end it if we take heart, stay organized, and seize opportunities -- of which there are now many. Albany will be remembered as the beginning of the end of a crime against humanity. Who wouldn't want to be able to say they were there?€

David Swanson, WarIsACrime.org

*****************************************************

"I will be attending the National Peace Conference because the future of humanity requires a strong and determined domestic opposition to U.S. imperial wars. The Obama regime, like its predecessors, intends to take not one step backward in its drive to contain or kill all opposition to American global hegemony. The U.S. maintains close to 800 military bases in nearly 60 foreign countries, and will not withdraw from a single one of them unless forced to by the American people, or by military and political defeat. President Obama has taken up the imperial baton from where George Bush dropped it when the Iraqi resistance halted the U.S. Middle East offensive of 2003. Obama has widened the theaters of war in Asia and increased American military penetration of Africa. African Americans must reclaim our place in the front ranks of peace, especially now that the face of U.S. aggression is Black."

Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report

Send them an Email with one click here.

by Linda Milazzo

Photo by Venice Paparazzi

There are some things we humans have just one of. We have one heart, one liver, one tongue, one nose... Of course, there are probable anomalies to even these similarities. I'm sure in the annals of medicine there are cases of individuals with multiples of even these, although physiologically, we humans need just one.

Sizzlin' Summer Protests Begin on July 4th in Washington, DC

Peace of the Action would like to invite you to join us in the Capitol of the Empire for two weeks of protest.

Schedule

Sunday, July 4th:

Meet up with us in Lafayette Park (across from the White House--Pennsylvania Ave side) at 1PM as we declare our Independence from Petroleum. Very few people can break this addiction 100%, but very few of us can't reduce our consumption by a significant amount. If you can't make it to DC, consider having a protest in solidarity with us at a local BP or ARCO/AMPM station.

Monday, July 5th-Friday, July 9th

Say "So long" to Drones!

We will be meeting in Lafayette Park every day at 9am to go to various places in DC (the Smithsonian; General Atomics, etc) to protest the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in the illegal and immoral wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Tuesday, July 6th

Prime Minister of Israel, inyamin Netanyahu, is visiting the White House--we will be there to demand that the siege on Gaza is lifted and that the occupation of Palestine be ended with a solution that is fair to the Palestinian people.
Saturday, July 10th

Take Back the Land.

We will help a homeless organization set up a homeless camp in DC

Monday, July 12 to Friday, July 16th

War is a Racket!

Join us in Lafayette Park every day at 9am as we go to various locations in DC (recruiters' and war profiteers) to protest the preying on of our children by military recruiters.

Monday, July 12:

Trial of the Century for the POTA 3 and three others begins in DC City Court.

Remember: Become a Fan of Velvet Revolution on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

And be sure to check out our other campaigns:
Stop the Chamber
Disbar Torture Lawyers
Restore Justice at Justice
Stop Domestic Terror
Diebold: Return Our Money

Creator of the website TomDispatch.com, Tom Engelhardt takes a scalpel to the American urge to dominate the globe in his new book, The American Way of War: How the Planet's Garrison State Brought Itself to Ruin. Activist, blogger, and author David Swanson will host the discussion on Saturday at 5:00pm Eastern. We hope you can join us at http://firedoglake.com

On April 13, 2002, an event occurred in Venezuela which was as world-historical for South America as the fall of the Berlin Wall was for Eastern Europe: a U.S.-backed coup against the democratically-elected government of Venezuela collapsed. The Bush Administration's efforts to promote the coup failed, in the face of popular resistance in Venezuela, and diplomatic resistance in the region.

Congress plans to close up this chapter on financial reform (HR 4173). Whether or not strong reform will be in this bill is TBD. With the BP disaster taking up all the news, Congress isn't hearing as much from citizens, and it's making them lean towards the banks. So far, our ongoing call-in days are swaying some conferees on derivatives reform. But, Thursday conferees will vote on the two remaining structural reforms in the bill, hard leverage limits and stopping taxpayer funds for derivatives.

Can you call Rep. Frank to help ask two key questions, creatively - ask if they support 716 and leverage requirements without loopholes for hedge funds. If not, cite the finance cash and ask how many calls from citizens is it going to take to outweigh the influence big bank lobbyists have had on their position?

Make your one call right now, Rep. Barney Frank (D, MA), (202) 225-5931:

Pick from these suggestions. "Hi, My name is _____ and I care about the outcome of the financial reform bill, HR 4173. I'm frustrated by the process for fixing the big banks. Congressman Frank needs to take this seriously and come out with a strong statement that the bill should not pass without hard leverage limits, without the derivatives desk spin off and without loopholes for derivatives trades and Scott Brown's favorite banks and hedge funds. What is his position?..

Rep. Frank has received $581,899 in campaign contributions in 2010, can you tell me how many citizen calls would be helpful for Rep. Frank to keep loopholes out of the derivatives and capital requirements sections?

Thanks so much, do you think Rep. Frank can read this article from economist Jane D'Arista on reform, "Why 716 is the Indispensable Reform"? We'd be relieved to know that Rep. Frank made his decision after reading this article."

by Linda Milazzo

Sometimes you just know when something's not right. You see it, or hear it, and you know instinctively there's something missing. You sense a faint beat where there should be a strong heart. You see a short phrase where there should be a full story. That happened to me just over a year ago in the early afternoon of April 24, 2009, when I saw the Los Angeles screening of THE SOLOIST, helmed by British director Joe Wright. The film just wasn't right.

The Obama Administration has unleashed its Federal Election Commission attacks dogs on Campaign for Liberty. They know our efforts to fight back against their statist power-grabs are succeeding and they want to shut us down.

By filling out the Declaration of Support below, you are sending a clear message to the Washington power structure that you will not be silenced. Go directly to Campaign for Liberty website. Or, read on

Email excerpt:

This battle is over a very fundamental idea - that Campaign for Liberty and our members should have a voice in lobbying their legislators and exposing the radical views of candidates for office.

Exposing what they're up to - that's what the powers that be can't stand. That's because they don't want Americans to know:

• Congress is spending at a record pace and has now left us over 13 TRILLION dollars in debt, with no end in sight.
• The out of control FED has not accounted for nearly 2 trillion dollars and has doubled our monetary base, risking our entire economy.
• The federal government has imposed a mandate that every American either purchase a health care product the Feds approve of, costing tens of thousands of dollars, or risk fines and jail time.
• The federal government has attempted to take away your 1st, 2nd and 4th Amendment rights, all in the past year, with more certainly to come.

We're exposing them - and holding them accountable as they come back home to seek reelection.

Of course, this may not sound like the end of the world. But just think: the FEC has an ARMY of lawyers and a budget of nearly $70 MILLION dollars. That's a lot of lawyers. Go to "Declaration of Support."

From United for Peace and Justice:

The controversy surrounding the McChrystal interview has focused new attention on the absence of a coherent strategy for Afghanistan. It also illuminates the fact that US military leaders are not intending to wind down the war any time soon.

This could end the period of Congressional sleep-walking, if we push. We need to make clear that napping through military failure, while squandering thousands of lives and billions of taxpayer dollars is unacceptable to constituents..

This is an important moment to keep calling members of the House of Representatives and to encourage friends, family and your organizations to do so as well.(Switchboard 202-224-3121)

Urge your Representative to take the following steps.
* Agree to vote NO on the $33.5 billion Supplemental for war spending.

[other less helpful steps omited]

TELL US YOU'RE COMING ON FACEBOOK

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - 8:30 am
Gather at statue of Columbus in front of Union Station
Washington, D.C.

Demonstrate at House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's Speech on the Fiscal Crisis
http://www.thirdway.org/events/26
9:00 a.m.
The Columbus Room
http://www.unionstationevents.com/sites/colmbshl.html

Hoyer has been a hypocrite who opposes spending money except on wars and the military and who supports dumping another $33 billion into escalating Afghanistan.

Reportedly he will support cuts to the military (or what he calls "defense") but how much and what about the wars?

Bring posters!
Bring the message: JOBS NOT WARS!

Join us in Albany, New York!
July 23-25, 2010

The National Conference to Bring the Troops Home Now will take place against the backdrop of major developments in the U.S. and throughout the world.

The globe is aflame with unending wars, threats of new wars and horrendous sanctions against Iran, atrocious attacks on innocent Freedom Flotillas bringing humanitarian aid to the beleaguered Palestinians of Gaza, and with an unprecedented corporate-driven environmental catastrophe.

One of the many destructive legacies of the Reagan Era was the effective Washington consensus that wars and other military spending exist on their own fiscal planet. Reagan got a Dixiecrat Congress to double military spending at a time when the U.S. was not at war (unless you were a poor person in Central America.) Meanwhile, Reagan got the Dixiecrat Congress to cut domestic spending - we just couldn't afford those costly social programs. Reagan pretended the two things were totally unrelated, and the Dixiecrat Congress went along.

We're bicycling from San Francisco to Washington, DC between 24-July and 22-Sept, 2010, without motorized support. Cynthia McKinney, six term Member of Congress and 2008 Green Party nominee for President, is riding. The ride will demonstrate the bicycle as a transformational tool to solve the problems of Climate Change, Oil Wars, the Health Crisis, and the Economic Crunch. Along the way, riders will facilitate community discussions around the question "How can we support each other to live true to our best values?"

We're now learning more people plan to converge with us in Washington, DC, for World Car-Free Day. Malik Rahim, co-founder of Common Ground will be riding up with a group from New Orleans and Atlanta. Others will ride from Seattle/Portland, Boston/New York, and Toronto/Detroit/Boston. Lots of folks will ride in from Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware or bring their bike by mass transit to meet at the Capitol 10:00 AM on Wed-22-Sept,2010.

Our route, schedule, and discussion group are open to anybody with a free Google account. Please join us. If you would like to bicycle all or part of the route, plan a convergence ride, or host riders passing through your community, please e-mail bike4peace@googlegroups.com. Please forward this and re-post to others who might be interested.

Part 2: Smuggler's luck ends at the Mexican border

June 17, 2010 As federal officers took their time searching Paul Giovanni de la Rosa's silver minivan, a steady stream of motorists passed by, unaware that anything beyond a routine inspection was happening at the side of the road.

OUR CALL-IN DAYS ARE OUR LAST HOPE FOR "NO BAILOUTS REFORMS"

We're going to make sure there are no backroom deals that effectively gut the best reforms currently in the bill -- we've launched "Call-in Days for the Big 3 No Bailouts Reforms" (over at anwf.org) to put every decision maker in the spotlight for gutting or keeping the Big 3. We have 14 days until June 24 to influence the financial reform bill to be something worth passing. So, on Tuesday (6/15), Wednesday (6/16), and Thursday (6/17), please help us get enough people so it's like we're walking right into the backroom with them and slapping their hands if they do something bad. We'll update our list on the slimiest and worst on financial reform. See the list below.

Sign up for a day that works for you -- you just need a 5 minute chunk of time free -- and we'll make your call effortless. If you've already signed up, thank you. You've come to the right place. Add what you find out on your calls in the comments here, as soon as we hear back from you, we'll update who is acting the sleaziest (you can also report back at #finreg #save716 on twitter).

• I have 5 minutes on Tuesday
• I have 5 minutes on Wednesday
• I have 5 minutes on Thursday

We need to call as much as each of us can to stop government support and incentives for banks to become bigger and riskier - this is structural reform.

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE LAST LEG OF FINANCIAL REFORM?

The financial reform bill is going into the final stage in the legislative process this week and bought-out members of Congress are trying to stealthily remove all the provisions in it that the big banks oppose. The financial reform bill would be a pure product of lobbying and big banking if it were not for the just a handful of "No Bailout Reforms" that are still in the bill as we speak. Can you join us in making sure that conferees don't gut the strongest provisions in the financial reform bill behind closed doors?

A full whip list for derivatives reform is here. We need your help finding out where people stand.

This Wednesday in C'ville: One Event & Every Issue
War and Peace, Crime and Justice, Budget Priorities, Freedom of Assembly, Local and National Politics

You don't want to miss this!

This Wednesday at noon in Charlottesville, and simultaneously in 100 congressional districts around the country, Americans will hold Brown Bag Lunch Vigils against further war funding, including the proposed $33.5 billion to fund an escalation in Afghanistan.