August 22, 2004
1. Follow-up on preparedness
2. The need to speak to all three levels of the human brain
3. Since when are our rights "privileges"?
4. A National Identity Card?
5. Strong message to Iran from Bush Admin
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1. Click this link to purchase your home
safety kit for the low price of $49.95!
http://www.homeguardinc.com/products.htm
2. The Republicans have mastered this
approach - speak to the thinking, then the feeling, then the survival
parts of the brain. Their opponents (that includes us) need to learn how
to do the same.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0817-13.htm
3. More insight into the thinking of NYC
Mayor Blumberg, who seems determined to elicit strife during the
upcoming protests.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/17/nyregion/17speech.html?ex=1093719382&ei=1&en=568c64d1294ff7d9
4. The 9-11 panel's recommendations on
border security could lead to a national identity card.
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040816-061940-3291r.htm
5. This feels way to much like deja vu - can
they really be serious about attacking Iran?
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040819-065848-2651r.htm
August 15, 2004
1. Some thoughts on why we shouldn't expect
the situation in Iraq to resolve anytime soon
2. Saddam is gone, what is different?
3. Are you prepared?
4. God and the Blue States
5. Creative uses of technology by protesters
6. A little history of the current Najaf situation
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1. Bush may have created a nearly unsolvable
problem when he invaded Iraq. How they can continue to deny that it is a
quagmire is beyond me.
http://www.slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2105127&#ContinueArticle
<http://www.slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2105127&#ContinueArticle>
2. The Allawi govt is walking a fine line,
trying to restore order via Saddam-like tactics. This of course has
implications for the US as the occupying force (which we still are, no
matter what anyone claims to the contrary)
http://antiwar.com/eland/
3. If you're not prepared, don't worry. Sept
is National Preparedness Month, and we'll be deluged with all sorts of
handy tips on how to prepare. It's not a political thing, despite the
official announcement set for Sept 9 (isn't 1/3 of the month gone by
then? Oh, yes, Thursday is good for the media coverage, so it can be
linked to 9/11)
http://www.alternet.org/election04/19535/
4. Interesting article on faith in the
political process. The Republicans seem to have co-opted the religion
thing, and the Democrats are trying to take it back. How can they
successfully do so without alienating their base? I have been thinking
about this issue of connecting one's faith with one's political stance,
and how I personally haven't done that very much in my letters to the
editor. Have I been inadvertently allowing the Republicans to "own" God,
instead of offering an alternative interpretation or viewpoint?
http://www.alternet.org/election04/19550/
5. Some very interesting things will be
going on during the RNC, and future events I expect. Here's where the
tech-savvy of our youth can really make an impact.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/19541/
6. This writer reviews the events leading up
to the Najaf conflict, and why he considers it a political move by the
US. There will be negative fallout either way, but if the short term
result appears good it might be of help to Bush's ratings.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/19538/
August 11, 2004
1. A short piece about an Israeli refusenik
2. Current conditions in Iraq
3. What Bush and Co knew about Iraq before they went to war
4. Protests during the Republican Convention
5. Pressure building on Iran
6. This is sort of hopeful, I think!
************
1. This fellow is about to serve his fifth
28 day sentence for refusing to serve. Very inspirational.
"Refusal not a choice - a duty"
CO Daniel Tsal imprisoned for fifth consecutive time
[Refusnik Parents' Forum - Press Release, August 1, 2004]
Refusnik Daniel Tsal was last week imprisoned for the fifth consecutive
time and sent to a 28-day term in the military prison, due to his
continuing refusal to enlist in an army of occupation. Before being
imprisoned Tsal was summoned to a meeting with the commandant of the
Army's Induction Centre at Tel Ha'shomer, who implored him to recant and
join the army - and threatened that, since Tsal was "a political refuser",
his continued refusal would result in "a long prison term". As he did on
previous occasions, Tsal answered that he regards opposition to the
occupation not as choice but as moral duty - and was sent off to
Military Prison-4, following an "instant trial" lasting about five
minutes.
The 19-year old Tsal, inhabitant of Tel-Aviv, is spending repeated terms
in the military prison system since April 13, the date when he was
supposed to join the army. At the end of each term he was again ordered
to enlist and refused again. In every conversation with army officers he
reiterated the points he had made in an Open Letter to the Minister of
Defense, back in March: "The principles of 'the only democracy in the
Middle-East' have been steadily eroded and rendered void, with the
rights of three million people being daily trampled underfoot,
destroying the
foundations upon which the state of Israel was supposed to be founded...
In historical times such as the present, a sane person must confront
the
system which enables the oppression to go on. I have a moral obligation
- not a choice, but a duty - to refuse to take part in the occupation,
to
reject institutes which which try to abolish the most elementary of
human fights. A sane person, who has not yet been overcome fear and
racism, ows
it to basic humanity to refuse participation in such an instrument of
occupation and oppression as the IDF has become."
Following his most recent imprisonment, Tsal added: "Since I first
expressed my refusal, the army of occupation committed many additional
violations of human rights: the destruction of houses and defoliation of
fields, mistreatment of inhabitants at road-blocks, and also the killing
of innocents, including children. Whenever I hear of such things I feel
sorry and ashamed that the army of my country is doing such things - and
happy that I am in prison rather then being part of that army."
Tsal told that the first two days of his present term were spent in
extremely difficult conditions: "Forty detainees held together, crowded
in a single small, dirty and stinking cell. The toilet is inside the
cell, and it is overflowing all the time, filling the entire cell with a
strong smell of excrement. All around, there are piles of garbage which
nobody cleans away, and at night mice and other animals roam the cell "
Tsal told his parents. Only after two and half days was he transferred
to another part of the prison, where conditions are more reasonable.
"Let
there be no mistake, I don't say that I was put there because of my
political stand. This is a standard part of the military prison, and
most
of those imprisoned there are people who got in trouble with the
military authorities for non-political reasons. And in fact, many of
them are held
in that hell for much longer then I was, sometimes for several weeks at
a time. That place, officially designated as Mahlaka 5 of Pluga Gimel at
Military Prison 4, is a place of infamy which must be closed down. But I
am not surprised that an army which behaves cruelly to people under
occupation ends up being cruel also to its own soldiers" says Tsal.
"It seems that the army command has learned nothing and forgotten
nothing. They did not learn the lesson from the affair of the five
refusers who had been detained and imprisoned, sentenced by a court
martial and are imprisoned already for more then two years. The IDF
command has not yet learned that you can't end or break the human
conscience" say the refusers' parents.
For more information call Yehoshua and Esti Tsal, Daniel's parents, at
972-3-5184586 or 972-58-797378. Solidarity messages via
Jehoshua@freud.tau.ac.il.
2. This reporter wrote an article about all the positive things
happening in Iraq back in April, and has since returned to find a much
different picture.
http://majority.com/news/philly3.htm
3. Perhaps if Congress and the American people had received the same
reports as the Bush Administration regarding Iraq's al Qaeda links and
the elusive WMDs, things would have gone differently.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/they_knew_0802/
4. A wide range of protests with varying strategies will be happening in
NY City. This article may be alarming to some folks, but also has some
ideas that people might want to adopt in terms of keeping the protests
peaceful and not providing fodder for the Republican attack-mill.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0811-02.htm
5. Disturbing developments vis-a-vis Iran, some folks are concerned
about an October surprise.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0810-03.htm
6. This is also about surprises, but of a different sort, namely all the
things the Bush Admin failed to anticipate and which ultimately may lead
to their undoing.
http://www.alternet.org/election04/19500/