Saturday, January 24, 2009

Schaghticoke Reservation, Kent CT

ProtectSchaghticoke
January 19, 2009




----- What is happening at the reservation today can accurately be called a hate crime and unmistakably desecration, despoliation and destruction of our ancestral land. In 2004 and again in November of 2007, a non-Schaghticoke individual trespassed upon our reservation, began ripping out trees, cutting and removing timber, quarrying stone and illegally excavating our sacred land without Tribal approval or official State permits. Since November 2007, Tribal members have been in contact with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and demanding an immediate cease and desist order to be applied to this intruder. No order was ever applied and the hate crime, destruction, desecration and despoliation have been allowed to proceed for over one year now. The Governor, who has been aware of this situation, allows the intruder to indiscriminately damage our ancestral land, digging up sacred artifacts and keeping them, despite constant opposition from Schaghticoke. To date, he has committed these crimes to over ten (10) acres of land. He has destroyed natural habitats including those of endangered and watched species, desecrated many burials with out any consequences as well as threatening a Tribal member with a rifle, again with out consequences. The State of Connecticut has been allowing these crimes to continue for too long. We are planning a protest in Hartford, CT on 29 January 09 at the State Capitol and Legislative Office Building. Please join us from 10 to 3 PM, snow, rain or shine. We, additionally, are circulating a petition; which can be viewed and signed at http://www.petitiononline.com/STN129/petition.html
We plan to hand deliver to the Governor on the day of our protest.
Thank you for your support.
In peace,
Schaghticoke Tribal Nation Preservation Committee

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen at the inaugural concert

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
words and music by Woody Guthrie

As I was walking a ribbon of highway

I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me
Chorus

This land is your land, this land is my land

From California, to the New York Island

From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters

This land was made for you and me


I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
Chorus
In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.
Chorus (2x)
©1956 (renewed 1984), 1958 (renewed 1986) and 1970

TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc.

(BMI)

http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/this-land.shtml

Monday, January 19, 2009

MLK Day 2009

Broadcast for 1/19/09, probably available later today if you missed the streaming broadcast this morning...



For more of King’s speeches check: Pacifica Radio Archives.


Friday, January 16, 2009

Sign a letter to President-elect Obama


On the eve of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, we’d like to ask you to sign an open letter to President-elect Obama asking him to use King’s vision to create a better, more peaceful country.
It’s a corollary to our Roadmap for Peace — and, by the way, we did it!
Thanks to you, we’ve delivered the Roadmap for Peace to President-elect Obama’s transition team, along with more than 10,000 signatures.
In the days, weeks, and months to come, we’ll be working with the team and with representatives on Capitol Hill to encourage the use of the Roadmap as a vision for the future a more secure, peaceful world, with the United States building stronger relationships everywhere in the world through diplomatic, not military, means.
But diplomacy has been neglected in recent years. Roughly 700,000 civil servants work for the Department of Defense. In contrast, there are 6,500 career Foreign Service Officers and 5,000 Foreign Service specialists at 265 posts abroad and at the State Department.
Our country has also failed to use other means of diplomacy, such as United Nations agencies and other multilateral institutions.
This week, please take a few minutes to e-mail your senators and representative about this great lack in our country’s resources for conflict prevention and resolution.
Some talking points:
We shouldn’t put all our eggs in one basket. Yes, we need official government initiatives, but we also need to revive public diplomacy and increase people-to-people exchanges and citizen diplomacy in order to build the international partnerships the United States needs.
Americans want to be represented at the United Nations. Polls show that we view the U.N. as a way to share the responsibilities of engagement with the world. Yet the U.S. is still behind in paying its dues, and Americans are underrepresented at the staff level in three key U.N. agencies.
Open dialogue and principled negotiations need to be the diplomatic standard, not a reward.
You can use our web site to find your senators and representative's contact information and the talking points above.
Write from your heart, but keep your e-mail short and sweet. Urge your senator or representative to download and read the Roadmap for Peace at http://support.afsc.org/site/R?i=7K30BdNkgZ1u88ge2F3vrw...
Thank you for your time, your enthusiasm, and your courage in supporting our Roadmap.
Peace,
Laurie Creasy,
American Friends Service Committee

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Gaza Crisis



From: Maureen via Pax Christi USA
January 13, 2009

The crisis in Gaza worsens

Dear friends,

In this email you'll find two action items related to the resolutions passed last week by the Senate and the House. Immediate action is needed on these.
Please take a moment to look these items over and respond as you are able.

We have also added items to our page of resources on the crisis in Gaza. Two important items we think you'll find helpful:
1) Bill Quigley, Pax Christi National Council Member and a PCUSA Teacher of Peace left for Gaza last week and is sending us communiques back. You can read his first two reports on our site.
And 2) we have included a recent short YouTube video from Rabbi Arthur Waskow on the crisis in Gaza as well.







To see these resources and more, click here now: http://www.paxchristiusa.org/news_events_more.asp?id=1497




Additionally, in this email you'll find an action alert from our friends at Catholic Relief Services and the USCCB. We hope you'll join us in taking action and bringing this conflict to an end.

In Christ's peace,
Johnny Zokovitch
Director of Communications, Pax Christi USA


Take Action: Support Congressional Resolution for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

Last Friday, the House of Representatives voted 390 yes, 5 no, and 22 present to pass H.Res.34, "recognizing Israel's right to defend itself" and "reaffirming the United States strong support for Israel." Last Thursday, the Senate voted on a similarly worded resolution, S.Res.10, which passed by unanimous consent. (For more on these resolutions,see item #2 in this email.)
The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation opposed these resolutions because they failed to call for an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access to the occupied Gaza Strip as required under the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1860. The resolutions also blamed the victims-the Palestinians-for the civilian casualties and humanitarian catastrophe Israel is inflicting upon them and absolved Israel of any responsibility for its actions.







Thankfully these resolutions will not be the final words of Congress on the issue. This week, Rep. Dennis Kucinich plans to introduce a resolution calling for "an immediate and unconditional ceasefire" and "unrestricted humanitarian access" to the occupied Gaza Strip. The US Campaign is supporting this resolution, which can be downloaded by clicking here.

Take Action: Support Congressional Resolution for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza
January 12th, 2009


Last Friday, the House of Representatives voted 390 yes, 5 no, and 22 present to pass H.Res.34, “recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself” and “reaffirming the United States strong support for Israel.” To see if your Representative cosponsored this resolution, click here. To see how your Representative voted, click here.

Last Thursday, the Senate voted on a similarly worded resolution, S.Res.10, which passed by unanimous consent. To see if your Senator cosponsored the resolution, click here.

The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation opposed these resolutions because they failed to call for an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access to the occupied Gaza Strip as required under the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1860. The resolutions also blamed the victims—the Palestinians—for the civilian casualties and humanitarian catastrophe Israel is inflicting upon them and absolved Israel of any responsibility for its actions.

Thankfully these resolutions will not be the final words of Congress on the issue. This week, Rep. Dennis Kucinich plans to introduce a resolution calling for “an immediate and unconditional ceasefire” and “unrestricted humanitarian access” to the occupied Gaza Strip. The US Campaign is supporting this resolution, which can be downloaded by clicking here.
http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1785




TAKE ACTION

1. Call your Representative NOW at 202-224-3121. Thank your Representative if he/she voted “no” or “present” on H.Res.43. and ask her/him to cosponsor Rep. Kucinich’s resolution. If your representative voted “yes” on H.Res.43., then express your disagreement with the vote and ask them to cosponsor the Kucinich resolution.

2. Call your Senators NOW at 202-224-3121. Express your disagreement with your Senators’ vote on S.Res.10 and ask them to introduce a resolution in the Senate similar to Rep. Kucinich’s resolution in the House.

3. Get your organization to endorse Rep. Kucinich’s resolution. Organizations wishing to endorse Rep. Kucinich’s resolution should send their endorsement directly to his Congressional office by clicking here. Let’s make sure that Rep. Kucinich knows that hundreds of organizations support his legislative effort.

4. Join us for a conference briefing call on Thursday, January 15, 9PM Eastern to discuss our next legislative steps. To RSVP for the call and to get call-in info and an agenda, send your name, city, and organizational affiliation (if any), to us by clicking here.

5. Let us know what the offices of your Members of Congress are saying. Let us know how your call went and how the offices of Members of Congress are responding to your concerns. Send us your name, the Congressional offices you contacted, and their feedback to us by clicking here.

In addition to contacting Congress, we have many ideas for action that you can take to demand an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access to the occupied Gaza Strip. For more information, click here.


1. Call your Representative NOW at 202-224-3121. Thank your Representative if he/she voted "no" or "present" on H.Res.43. and ask her/him to cosponsor Rep. Kucinich's resolution. If your representative voted "yes" on H.Res.43., then express your disagreement with the vote and ask them to cosponsor the Kucinich resolution.
2. Call your Senators NOW at 202-224-3121. Express your disagreement with your Senators' vote on S.Res.10 and ask them to introduce a resolution in the Senate similar to Rep. Kucinich's resolution in the House.
3. Join us for a conference briefing call on Thursday, January 15, 9PM Eastern to discuss our next legislative steps. To RSVP for the call and to get call-in info and an agenda, send your name, city, and organizational affiliation (if any), email us at palestinecall@gmail.com
4. Let us know what the offices of your Members of Congress are saying. Let us know how your call went and how the offices of Members of Congress are responding to your concerns. Send us your name, the Congressional offices you contacted, and their feedback to us by emailing congress@endtheoccupation.org



Register your disappointment at last week's resolutions
from Pax Christi Montgomery and Peace Action Montgomery (MD)

On Thursday, Jan. 8, the Senate passed a resolution (S Res
10) expressing unconditional support for Israel 's massive attack on the 1.4 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. That was the same day The New York Times reported that 12 members of one Gaza family were found dead in a house bombed by Israel, with four small children -- alive but so weak from hunger and thirst they could not stand – lying next to their dead mothers. Red Cross personnel had tried to reach the house, but were prevented for days by Israeli troops from getting to the scene.
The next day, Jan. 9, the House passed companion legislation (HRes 34), which was even more one-sided than the Senate version.

Please contact your Representative and Senators today and tell them that their vote for this resolution is an absolute outrage, and that you expect them to show more fairness and compassion -- or they will lose your support. Only when your legislators know you are watching will we get change in Congress.



This is not about being for or against Israel. It is about the wanton disregard for the livelihood and health of 1.4 million civilians and about the thousands of civilian casualties that Israeli politicians knew would result from this war. The invasion of Gaza has caused an already dire humanitarian crisis, resulting from the blockade of this small strip of land, to disintegrate into desperation and starvation for the civilian population. Many commentators, even some conservative ones, are saying the war on Gaza harms Israel in the long term and strengthens Hamas. Congressional actions such as these two resolutions only help to prolong the conflict by sending the message to Israeli politicians that the U.S. does not care about a ceasefire and will not insist on one.
Contact Information
email:
johnnypcusa@yahoo.com


phone:
352-219-8419
web:
http://www.paxchristiusa.org/


Pax Christi USA 532 West Eighth Street Erie PA 16502


http://i4.democracynow.org/2009/1/12/kucinich_cites_arms_export_and_control


Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Economic action in Waterbury on Wednesday

Dear MoveOn Member,
President Obama is working with Congress to pass an economic recovery plan, and there's a real struggle going on over whether it will focus on green jobs, health care, and clean energy—or whether conservatives will succeed in cutting many of the progressive provisions and forcing in big tax cuts for the wealthy.
So we're organizing "Economic Recovery Congressional Actions" at offices around the country to make sure that Congress hears our message. There's one in Waterbury, and we really need a bunch of folks there.
Here are the details. Can you come?
Host: Jane M—fellow MoveOn member
Where: Wtby office of Cong. Chris Murphy (in Waterbury)
When: Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009, at 12:00 PM
Here's the link to RSVP:
http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=89843&id=15357-3339991-4DQmsjx&t=3
And if you own a small business, have a green job, work in health care, face foreclosure on your home, or lost your job as a result of this economic mess, we'd like to extend a special invitation to you to share your story at the event. Please click here to sign up:
http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=89843&id=15357-3339991-4DQmsjx&t=4It's especially critical that Congress hear from us now. Conservative lawmakers and lobbyists are in D.C. right now, fighting to take some of the crucial pieces out of the package. Congress needs to hear the message that Americans want real investments in health care, green jobs, relief for struggling states, and clean energy—not more tax giveaways for corporations and the rich. Click here to RSVP and help spread that message:
http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=89843&id=15357-3339991-4DQmsjx&t=5
Hope to see you Wednesday. And thanks for all you do.
–Noah, Lenore, Justin, Carrie and the rest of the team

P.S. Can't make this event? Here is another event near you:
Economic Recovery Congressional Action Middle Street, Bridgeport, CT, Bridgeport at 12:00 PM—RSVP
Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 5 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/.
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
This email was sent to Tim MacSweeney on January 10, 2009.
To change your email address or update your contact info, click here.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Party to Murder

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081229_party_to_murder/
Posted on Dec 29, 2008
By Chris Hedges

Editor's note: In light of the recent fighting in Gaza, Truthdig asked Chris Hedges, who covered the Mideast for The New York Times for seven years, to update aprevious column (http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081215_israels_crime_against_humanity/)on Gaza.

Can anyone who is following the Israeli air attacks on Gaza-the buildings blown to rubble, the children killed on their way to school, the long rows of mutilated corpses, the wailing mothers and wives, the crowds of terrified Palestinians not knowing where to flee, the hospitals so overburdened and out of supplies they cannot treat the wounded, and our studied, callous indifference to this widespread human suffering- wonder why we are hated?
Our self-righteous celebration of ourselves and our supposed virtue is as false as that of Israel. We have become monsters, militarized bullies, heartless and savage. We are a party to human slaughter, a flagrant war crime, and do nothing. We forget that the innocents who suffer and die in Gaza are a reflection of ourselves, of how we might have been should fate and time and geography have made the circumstances of our birth different. We forget that we are all absurd and vulnerable creatures. We all have the capacity to fear and hate and love. "Expose thyself to what wretches feel," King Lear said, entering the mud and straw hovel of Poor Tom, "and show the heavens more just."
Privilege and power, especially military power, is a dangerous narcotic. Violence destroys those who bear the brunt of its force, but also those who try to use it to become gods. Over 350 Palestinians have been killed (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/world/middleeast/30mideast.html?hp) , many of them civilians, and over 1,000 have been wounded since the air attacks began on Saturday. Ehud Barak, Israel's defense minister, said Israel is engaged in a "war to the bitter end" against Hamas in Gaza. A war? Israel uses sophisticated attack jets and naval vessels to bomb densely crowded refugee camps and slums, to attack a population that has no air force, no air defense, no navy, no heavy weapons, no artillery units, no mechanized armor, no command and control, no army, and calls it a war. It is not a war. It is murder.
The U.N. special rapporteur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapporteur) for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, former Princeton University law professor Richard Falk, has labeled what Israel is doing to the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza "a crime against humanity." Falk, who is Jewish, has condemned the collective punishment of the Palestinians in Gaza as "a flagrant and massive violation of international humanitarian law as laid down in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention." He has asked for "the International Criminal Court to investigate the situation, and determine whether the Israeli civilian leaders and military commanders responsible for the Gaza siege should be indicted and prosecuted for violations of international criminal law."
Falk's unflinching honesty has enraged Israel. He was banned from entering the country on Dec. 14 during his attempt to visit Gaza and the West Bank.
"After being denied entry I was put in a holding room with about 20 others experiencing entry problems," he said. "At this point I was treated not as a U.N. representative, but as some sort of security threat, subjected to an inch-by-inch body search, and the most meticulous luggage inspection I have ever witnessed. I was separated from my two U.N. companions, who were allowed to enter Israel. At this point I was taken to the airport detention facility a mile or so away, required to put all my bags and cell phone in a room, taken to a locked, tiny room that had five other detainees, smelled of urine and filth, and was an unwelcome invitation to claustrophobia. I spent the next 15 hours so confined, which amounted to a cram course on the miseries of prison life, including dirty sheets, inedible food, and either lights that were too bright or darkness controlled from the guard office."
The foreign press has been, like Falk, barred by Israel from entering Gaza to report on the destruction.
Israel's stated aim of halting homemade rockets fired from Gaza into Israel remains unfulfilled. Gaza militants have fired more than 100 rockets and mortars into Israel, killing four (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7804051.stm) people and wounding nearly two dozen more, since Israel unleashed its air assault. Israel has threatened to launch a ground assault and has called up 6,500 army reservists. It has massed tanks on the Gaza border and declared the area a closed military zone.
The rocket attacks by Hamas are, as Falk points out, also criminal violations of international law. But as Falk notes, "... such Palestinian behavior does not legalize Israel's imposition of a collective punishment of a life-and health-threatening character on the people of Gaza, and should not distract the U.N. or international society from discharging their fundamental moral and legal duty to render protection to the Palestinian people."
"It is an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe that each day poses the entire 1.5 million Gazans to an unspeakable ordeal, to a struggle to survive in terms of their health," Falk has said of the ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza. "This is an increasingly precarious condition. A recent study reports that 46 percent of all Gazan children suffer from acute anemia. There are reports that the sonic booms associated with Israeli overflights have caused widespread deafness, especially among children. Gazan children need thousands of hearing aids. Malnutrition is extremely high in a number of different dimensions and affects 75 percent of Gazans. There are widespread mental disorders, especially among young people without the will to live. Over 50 percent of Gazan children under the age of 12 have been found to have no will to live."
Before the air assaults, Gaza spent 12 hours a day without power, which can be a death sentence to the severely ill in hospitals. Most of Gaza is now without power. There are few drugs and little medicine, including no cancer or cystic fibrosis medication. Hospitals have generators but often lack fuel. Medical equipment, including one of Gaza's three CT scanners, has been destroyed by power surges and fluctuations. Medical staff cannot control the temperature of incubators for newborns. And Israel has revoked most exit visas, meaning some of those who need specialized care, including cancer patients and those in need of kidney dialysis, have died. Of the 230 Gazans estimated to have died last year because they were denied proper medical care, several spent their final hours at Israeli crossing points where they were refused entry into Israel. The statistics gathered on children-half of Gaza's population is under the age of 17-are increasingly grim. About 45 percent of children in Gaza have iron deficiency from a lack of fruit and vegetables, and 18 percent have stunted growth.
"It is macabre," Falk said of the blockade. "I don't know of anything that exactly fits this situation. People have been referring to the Warsaw ghetto as the nearest analogin modern times."
"There is no structure of an occupation that endured for decades and involved this kind of oppressive circumstances," the rapporteur added. "The magnitude, the deliberateness, the violations of international humanitarian law, the impact on the health, lives and survival and the overall conditions warrant the characterization of a crime against humanity. This occupation is the direct intention by the Israeli military and civilian authorities. They are responsible and should be held accountable."
The point of the Israeli attack, ostensibly, is to break Hamas, the radical Islamic group that was elected to power in 2007. But Hamas has repeatedly proposed long-term truces with Israel and offered to negotiate a permanent truce. During the last cease-fire, established through Egyptian intermediaries in July, Hamas upheld the truce although Israel refused to ease the blockade. It was Israel that, on Nov. 4, initiated an armed attack (http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/775/39991) that violated the truce and killed six Palestinians. It was only then that Hamas resumed firing rockets at Israel.
"This is a crime of survival," Falk said of the rocket attacks by Palestinians. "Israel has put the Gazans in a set of circumstances where they either have to accept whatever is imposed on them or resist in any way available to them. That is a horrible dilemma to impose upon a people. This does not alleviate the Palestinians, and Gazans in particular, for accountability for doing these acts involving rocket fire, but it also imposes some responsibility on Israel for creating these circumstances."
Israel seeks to break the will of the Palestinians to resist. The Israeli government has demonstrated little interest in diplomacy or a peaceful solution. The rapid expansion of Jewish settlements on the West Bank is an effort to thwart the possibility of a two-state solution by gobbling up vast tracts of Palestinian real estate. Israel also appears to want to thrust the impoverished Gaza Strip onto Egypt. Dozens of tunnels had been the principal means for food and goods, connecting Gaza to Egypt. Israel had permitted the tunnels to operate, most likely as part of an effort to further cut Gaza off from Israel. This ended, however, on Sunday when Israeli fighter jets bombed over 40 tunnels along Gaza's border with Egypt. The Israeli military said that the tunnels, on the Gaza side of the border, were used for smuggling weapons, explosives and fugitives. Egypt has sealed its border and refused to let distraught Palestinians enter its territory.
"Israel, all along, has not been prepared to enter into diplomatic process that gives the Palestinians a viable state," Falk said. "They [the Israelis] feel time is on their side. They feel they can create enough facts on the ground so people will come to the conclusion a viable state cannot emerge."
The use of terror and hunger to break a hostile population is one of the oldest forms of warfare. I watched the Bosnian Serbs employ the same tactic in Sarajevo. Those who orchestrate such sieges do not grasp the terrible rage born of long humiliation, indiscriminate violence and abuse. A father or a mother whose child dies because of a lack of vaccines or proper medical care does not forget. A boy whose ill grandmother dies while detained at an Israel checkpoint does not forget. A family that loses a child in an airstrike does not forget. All who endure humiliation, abuse and the murder of family members do not forget. This rage becomes a virus within those who, eventually, stumble out into the daylight. Is it any wonder that 71 percent of children interviewed at a school in Gaza recently said they wanted to be a "martyr"?
The Israelis in Gaza, like the American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, are foolishly breeding the next generation of militants and Islamic radicals. Jihadists, enraged by the injustices done by Israel and the United States, seek to carry out reciprocal acts of savagery, even at the cost of their own lives. The violence unleashed on Palestinian children will, one day, be the violence unleashed on Israeli children. This is the tragedy of Gaza. This is the tragedy of Israel.

(see the graphic video of the minutes after the Israeli attack on the marketplace in Gaza at: http://muslimtv. magnify.net/ video/ISRAEL- CARNAGE-CIVILIAN S-CHILDR ).