SDSers note: Elaine, Tom and Ben are MDS activists from NYC...Barbara is a member of the Granny Peace Brigade and Sally is chair of Peace Action New York State.

Support The Fossella Five!
Read about the case at www.fossellafive.org

There IS resistance to the oily politicians and their endless wars, even in New York's "forgotten borough".

Elaine Brower, Tom Good, Sally Jones, Ben Maurer and Barbara Walker were arrested on March 23, 2007 in Congressman Vito Fossella's office. Their crime? Reading the names of the (US) war dead aloud and demanding a meeting with their representative so they might discuss the extreme positions he holds on the Iraq War. These 5 activists are charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. They are demanding Fossella drop all charges and agree to a meeting. Show your support - tell Fossella to drop the charges and meet with his constituents. Sign the online petition: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/fossfive/petition.html

Live from the electronic teat..... the Anti-War edition

* On March 19 the fifth year of the illegal, immoral, disastrous war in Iraq will begin. Activists across the country are mobilizing to mark the occasion with demonstrations, vigils and direct actions from Friday March 16 through Tuesday March 20. Add your voice to the rising call for peace: right here

* Congress is expected to vote on the bill to suspend operations at the SOA/WHINSEC in as early as May 2007. April will be a critical time for us to organize and make our voices heard.

This April 25-27, SOA Watch activists will organize local public fasts and events throughout the United States to educate the general public and members of Congress on the SOA/WHINSEC issue. link

* Activists 'Purify' Site After Bush Visit link

* 20 Arrested At SDS New York Counter Recruitment Action - link

* Do you have a protest or topical song available on the web? As of today Neil Young's Living With War website has 1430 song listings. Send your song link to: songs@lwwtoday.com

* Sign The Petition - The US Copyright Office has released their new set of rates for the payment of royalties by Internet Radio -- royalty rates so high that they will put RP and every other US-based indie webcaster out of business.

Quote For Today
"Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war." --Martin Luther King, Jr.

The campaign to force companies not to invest in Sudan is moving into new territory: your mutual funds.

For years, Sudan's Darfur region has been the scene of brutal militia attacks that have left hundreds of thousands dead -- violence described by the United Nations as getting support from the Sudanese government, and by the Bush administration as constituting "genocide."

At the same time, Sudan is home to investments by large international companies that are fixtures in many Americans' mutual funds and retirement plans.

Through its mutual funds, Boston-based Fidelity is the largest U.S. holder of American depositary shares in PetroChina Co., a Chinese oil giant with Sudanese projects. *Fidelity's Contrafund, one of its top performers, has the largest stake in PetroChina of any mutual fund.

*Some of you may have some of their 401K money in Fidelity's Contrafund. It's a very popular fund and has been one of the best mutual funds around for years. As a disclaimer, I personally made a nice sum of money in the early 90s due to my investing in Contrafund. Not anymore. Do look into your portfolio and if it's feasible, move your money away from Fidelity altogether.

There have already been some successes: In the past week, Siemens AG, the German electronics giant and a target of activists, said it would pull out of Sudan for "humanitarian" reasons by July. Some financial corporations are considering Sudan-free mutual funds.

There are ways for investors to see if a mutual fund has Sudan-related investments. The site sudandivestment.org includes a feature, "The Sudan Screening Tool," which evaluates fund holdings based on criteria related to Darfur. Another site, investedinterests.com, offers a similar tool that examines an array of issues, from Sudan to terrorism.

Look at Fidelity Out Of Sudan for email instructions and phone numbers to Fidelity. While you're there, consider signing the petition, which anyone can do, or call to voice your opinion.

(via: wsj)



North Carolina pension to divest from 9 companies linked to Sudan violence

RELATED:
11/26/06
01/18/06
07/30/04

WTF?

The Republican Party has a new voter registration project in Fresno. It involves luring people to sign a LEGALIZE MARIJUANA petition and then re-registering them as Republicans.

link

Thank you Lt. Ehren Watada for standing up for international, US and military law by refusing to deploy to Iraq in support of the ongoing illegal war and occupation.

"I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to watch families torn apart, while the President tells us to "stay the course." ...I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression. I wanted to be there for my fellow troops. But the best way was not to help drop artillery and cause more death and destruction. It is to help oppose this war and end it so that all soldiers can come home."
- LT, US Army officer

First U.S. military officer to publicly refuse orders in support of the illegal Iraq War at coordinated events in Tacoma, Washington and Honolulu, Hawaii on Wedensday, June 7th. Join this unprecedented political and legal support campaign today!

Thank You LT
Sign The Petition
Courage To Resist

Save Nazanin

18-year old Iranian girl Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi, has been sentenced to death by hanging. Nazanin's "crime" was killing a man who ambushed and tried to rape her and her neice. Please take a few moments to read about her case and what you can do to stop the execution and save Nazanin's life.

According to the Iranian daily Etemaad, then 17-year-old Nazanin and her niece had been spending some time in a park west of Tehran with their boyfriends, when three men started harassing them.
The girls` boyfriends fled from the scene, leaving them helpless behind. The men pushed Nazanin and her niece down on the ground and tried to rape them, and to protect herself, she took out a knife from her pocket and stabbed one of the men in the hand.

The girls tried to escape, but the men overtook them, and at this point, Nazanin stabbed one of the other men in the chest, which eventually killed him. According to the newspaper, she broke down in tears when she told the court: "I wanted to defend myself and my niece. I did not want to kill that boy. At the heat of the moment I did not know what to do because no one came to our help." Nevertheless, the court sentenced her to death by hanging. [via]


Read this site to see what you can do to get the word out. And you can also sign this petition.

link

Living With War will stream on NeilYoung.com beginning today, April 28th. Available at retailers May 2nd.

From what I've listened to so far, it's good ol' licks and lyrics Neil Young. Unwavering, unmistakable, unpretentious, in it strictly for the music Neil freaking Young.

AND...

"We don't all have to believe what our president believes to be a patriot" -- Neil Young. Sign the petition here and tell your senators to bring our troops home from Iraq. (via)

Chernobyl is a disaster waiting to happen again

Professor Alexei Yablokov, President of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy, said the concrete and metal sarcophagus was riven with cracks, already leaking radiation and at risk of collapse unless repairs were undertaken and work on a replacement urgently begun.

The sarcophagus is designed to keep a lid on what is left of the nuclear reactor that exploded with such dire consequences during an unauthorized test in April 1986 and is supposed to stop the mass of unspent nuclear fuel that lies beneath from entering the atmosphere.

It is estimated that only between 3 and 15 per cent of that fuel actually escaped during the explosion meaning that most of it is still trapped inside. Dr Yablokov, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a one-time adviser to former president Boris Yeltsin, said nuclear reactions were actually taking place - spontaneously - inside the sarcophagus as rain and snow fell on the unspent fuel through cracks in the decaying shell.

He said experts had "seen a luminescence characteristic of chain reactions inside the giant building". adding: "Who could predict what might happen if hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete, which was hastily poured 19 years ago, tumbled down on the ruined nuclear reactor?"

Petition the UN to stop promoting nuclear power

Link

WEBTRAIL - Top 100, PETA, Ivins, Boomer, Mancuso, Garden of Delights, James Frey

Garden Of Delights is a good vintage vinyl site. One of 7 or 8 good ones I've found lately. Freaky Lady posts mostly rare 60s music. Not as rare in the weird sense as Cake & Polka Parade, which has it's own fun, but informative niche.

‘Love Saves The Day’, an essential new book, which charts the development of New York (and subsequently worldwide) club culture, takes it’s name from a party held on Valentines Day 1970 at the home of David Mancuso, a loft space at 647 Broadway & Bleeker, in NoHo, NYC. (via Autopoiesis & Cognition Conversations)

Please Sign This Petition if you agree that James Frey, Author of "A Million Little Pieces", Random House & Nan Telese,the Publisher of these lies should offer a refund of his book considering the controversy surrounding it.

Were you born between 1946 and 1964? Boomer Baby is asking you to send in your childhood toy memories. I enjoyed the "Easy Bake Oven" because YUM!, those little cakes that you baked by a lightbulb were seriously good eating. I also liked paper dolls. Betsy McCall came in a magazine each month with different outfits to cut out and put on. Try getting a small child today to get interested in paper dolls. Not going to happen. (via mousemusings)

Molly Ivins, 61, is again battling breast cancer. [More »] (via labkat)

China's Shocking Cat and Dog Fur Trade - Trent Reznor slams killing of cats and dogs for fur in shocking new PETA video.

2006 Q Magazine Readers' 100 Greatest Albums Ever. These lists are always subjective but always interesting.

2 Things You Can Do Now To Help Darfur

What will you tell your grandchildren you did during the Sudan genocide? A grassroots movement is taking place in North Carolina. North Carolina is the 14th State in a growing coalition of States to have filed or passed divestment legislation.

Across our community concerned individuals are supporting House Bill 1294, which calls for divestment of North Carolina public funds from companies that do business with the Sudanese government.

*1) Please support this effort by signing an on-line petition


Dear President Bush,
During your first year in the White House, you wrote in the margins of a report on the Rwandan genocide, "Not on my watch."

I urge you to live up to those words by using the power of your office to support a stronger multi-national force to protect the civilians of Darfur.

*2) Send Postcard To George Bush

It is time to hold the President accountable. He made a promise to the American people that he'd fire whoever leaked the identity of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent. Now that we know the leaker was, at least in part, Karl Rove; it is time for the President to keep his word.

Poor Karl. Part of what makes him an ideal whipping boy is he's suffering under false impressions and still can't believe his good fortune. We all went to school with a "Karl". The guy that the girls flashed on the bus just to watch his face turn red. "Hey, look, Karl!" "No! You can't make me!"

Has the Turd Blossom Express Reached the End of the Line? Link

Politics, Movies, & Detox

Will you boycott the war in Iraq by not spending any money on Inauguration Day, Jan 20, 2005? Not One Damn Dime Petition. Go sign if you are inclined.

And there's the Bush Blackout tomorrow.

Art School Confidential - Starring: John Malkovich, Anjelica Huston, Steve Buscemi; Created by Daniel Clowes and directed by Terry Zwigoff to be released sometime in 2005.

Still waiting for the movie version of Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, who committed suicide in 1969. The novel earned him a posthumous Pulitzer Prize. The movie has been in the rumor stage for ages, but all I can find out is that it looks like Will Farrell has signed on to play Iggy, the lead character, and that financing is still being worked out.

Blog O' The Day
The Detox - Raw as hell and sassy as all get out.

View of packs of cigarettes, unveiled by European Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne, at a news conference in Brussels, October 22, 2004. Byrne unveiled new violent images for cigarette packs to warn consumers of the health risk of smoking. REUTERS Source (via: Wilson's Almanac)

This should be enough to make us all quit smoking. Gross.

"Students, who last month signed a petition that was being circulated on the Blue Bell campus to legalize marijuana for primarily medicinal purposes, are now finding out that they are newly registered Republicans." more »

ETC
Everyone's favorite marsupial, skippy the bush kangaroo, pointed me to the VoterGate movie.
Find Your Polling Place
I Promise To Vote
Blog Explosion

Post from yesterday that I'd accidentally left in draft mode. Actually, it was the drummer's fault.

Online Petition to deny John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman, parole; which comes up next week. Link

Apathy? That's so September 10. Voting is what's hot now and activists pound the pavement to get out the vote here in Asheville, NC.

Deadlines to register to vote. Link

List of Bush/Kerry parodies on Yahoo! today. (scroll to bottom)

{Today's Quote} - "The future will be better tomorrow." ~George W Bush

If he were my Bush, I'd shave him off.

Dylan is set to focus on significant and influential periods of his life in the first of three books called simply Chronicles: Volume One. Now, in a book his publisher describes as "extraordinary, revealing and surprising" and "a beautifully written, singular achievement", he is going to speak for himself.
The 304-page tome is due out on October 12, published by Simon and Schuster and will be followed about a week later by an updated edition of Lyrics: 1962-2001, a compendium of lyrics to nearly every Dylan song. Link

Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's Humor Category, edited by Dave Eggers et al. (Knopf, 239 pages, $24.95). Anyone who ever loved Bob and Ray or Mad magazine in its heyday or Lenny Bruce will revel in this den of satirical-to-bizarre humour. Typical entries: Lefty icons Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn provide (unused) audio commentary for a DVD of The Lord of the Rings; Ezra Pound reviews the worst films of all time on Italian radio ("Bambi: Filth."). Most of the 50 entries are very short. Some are very funny, others a bit flat; none suffers from the great McSweeney's dread -- drabness.

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Needs Funding For Research - Did you know that Hepatitis C killed twice as many people as AIDS did last year in the US. Go to Petition and Sign Here

John McCleary's, "The Hippie Dictionary" book is chock-full of pointed editorializing, slang and swear words culled from the vernacular of the 1960s and 1970s hippie youth, who questioned authority and created their own counterculture. I particularly liked this statement of his:

In his entry on Presiden John F Kennedy's assassination, he wrote, "It is interesting tonote that liberals are the ones who are killed in their prime, and conservatives die old in their soft beds. This world would ba a better place in which to live if John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther Kind, Jr, had lived to die in their soft beds." more »

NY Post Claims Weather Underground To "Wreak Havoc" During the RNC. A number of extremists with ties to the 1970s radical Weather Underground have recently been released from prison and are in New York preparing to wreak havoc during the Republican National Convention, The Post has learned. (via RNC Watch)

All Stresses Out And No One To Choke? - Unload that gun and Check out the 35 Symptoms of Menopause first.

"While you stand amazed and in wonder at the fantastic photos being beamed by the Cassini satellite as it orbits Saturn, let's take a little walk down memory lane to 1997," sez: Hit & Run. Does anyone remember all the opposition to the launch7 years ago?

I'm curious to hear Fiona Apple's new cd Extraordinary Machine, but as you probably know, Sony has had it on the shelf due to marking probs. (Read: Nothing you can dance or snap your fingers to.) Sign the petition to say you'll buy it if they'll release it.

saturday morning me//
drinking choc milk/no java today/
still healing, reeling, feeling/
navy sweat shorts/duke tee/barefooted/
listening: npr news & dog barking/
hearing: lonesome dove on tv-(husband watching)/
think i'll have a drink & count my money/
so hows about you?/

We must act now to ensure that our voting systems produce accurate and verifiable results. Some states are planning to use machines that will not allow voters to verify their choices. This means that any flaws in the machine or software will never be caught -- and no recount will be possible.

Sign Petition

Ohio Residents? The Ohio State Legislature has said they will start using machines with paper trails in 2006. This is not enough. The Ohio Vote matters in 2004. Sign the Petition.

I'm Just Saying - Many bloggers have either suspended spring/summer blogging or slowed down to a crawl. Or is it just pure apathy? I've not been able to find the time like I usually do, due to warmer weather and outdoor activities, mixed with a healthy dose of apathy, I must admit. I have noticed over the years how blogging is busier in the winter months. Has your blog-ass been dragging lately? (Love to find a graphic for that.)

Administration's Most Wanted. Tell Bush and Ashcroft to Prosecute Illegal Loggers, Not Greenpeace. For the first time ever, the US government has decided to prosecute an entire organization (Greenpeace) for exercising its right to free speech through non-violent protest. The trial begins on May 17th, and results from a protest against an illegal shipment of mahogany headed for the Port of Miami in Florida two years ago. [link] and Sign Petition

{URLS Gone Wild}
:: National Day of Solidarity on May 17, 2004. via~axis of logic

:: "People spotting aliens down Mexico way? Payback's a bitch, isn't it, compadré?" I heard Dennis Miller say last night (during one very brief moment while channel surfing-- you've heard the Miller rant before). [link]

:: Breakfast Beefcake - [link]

:: Vagina Warriors - V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. Stop in to see what you can do to help. via ~ Fishbucket

:: To find the cheapest gas station in your area (Canada & US), visit GasBuddy.

saturday morning me//
cappucino #2/deathpuff #2/
pineapple chunx/huge strawberries/need a bib/
indian print blouse/jeans/barefoot/
sky's hair is dyed shiny tomato red/
am thinking of doing the same?/
listening: kexp radio online/
so hows about you?/

Worse to come, says Dante.

Help Save Asheville's Urban Forest!
UNCA may clearcut part of the highest quality urban forest in Asheville to build a parking lot. Are you going to let that happen? Sign the online petition here. {anyone hearing big yellow taxi about now?}

Blogger now has my individual permalinks straightened out. Yippee! It's currently in the *time* at the bottom of each post. I'm liking you better and better, new, improved Blogger.

Today's Quote
"Walk gently, breathe peacefully, laugh hysterically."
- - Nelson Mandela (1994 Inaugural Speech)
via ~ Rhino's Blog

Dr Omed keeps a growing list of T-shirt Designs that he invites us to steal. Creative, smart and fun.

Life was so much easier when your clothes didn't match and boys had cooties.

A Butterfly On A Wheel
The drugs bust of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in 1967 and the subsequent trial is to be turned into a TV drama. They were given heavy fines and prison sentences which were later quashed on appeal. (A Butterfly On A Wheel is the name of the drama)

Parents, Teachers, Students Nationwide Petition Bush
Education Secretary, Dr. Roderick Paige, called millions of teachers part of a "terrorist" group. and there's a major online petition drive to have him fired. [more] via - common dreams

Think you know who Incubus' Megalomaniac is about? (Hint: 'Three Amigos'.)

{blog envy} - Notes From The Dovecote - what my site wants to look like when it grows up.

I'm trying out the shadowed boxes per meg's tutorial at Mandarin Design. I like it. Loads. It only shows up on IE, which is what-- 90% of the browsers?

Unfair. Unbalanced. Unmedicated.

The Bush Administration is threatening to veto legislation that would restore safeguards against further media consolidation (FCC). The Administration has warned Congress that, "If this amendment were contained in the final legislation presented to the President, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill."

Please sign the petition below and urge President Bush to listen to the concerns of the American people and support the efforts in Congress to rollback the FCC rules. We need your voice to offset the political clout of the media giants. Join me in having your voice heard by signing this petition below. Sign The Petition