How many lives ruined? Teacher loses all for talking of peace.

A friend in Indiana sent me this in an email a couple days ago:

Teacher Awaits Day in Court
By Matthew Rothschild
January 25, 2006

Deb Mayer was a teacher of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders at Clear
Creek Elementary School in Bloomington, Indiana, during the 2002-2003
school year.

On January 10, 2003, she was leading a class discussion on an issue of
"Time for Kids"-Time magazine's school-age version, which the class
usually discussed on Fridays and which is part of Clear Creek's approved
curriculum.

There were several articles in the magazine that discussed topics
relating to the imminent war against Iraq, and one that mentioned a
peace march.

According to Mayer, a student asked her if she would ever participate in
such a march.

And Mayer said, "When I drive past the courthouse square and the
demonstrators are picketing, I honk my horn for peace because their
signs say, 'Honk for peace.' " She added that she thought "it was
important for people to seek out peaceful solutions to problems before
going to war and that we train kids to be mediators on the playground so
that they can seek out peaceful solutions to their own problems."

Mayer claims in a pending federal lawsuit that the school chilled her
First Amendment rights because of this one conversation in class, which
she says took all of about five minutes, and that the school district
refused to renew her contract because of it. (The quotes above are taken
from court documents.)

I spoke with Mayer on January 24-more than three years after this
incident took place.

"It didn't dawn on me that people would object to me saying peace was an
option to war," she says. "I didn't even think it was controversial."

But it sure turned out to be.

"One student went home to tell her parents that I was encouraging people
to protest the Iraq War," she says. "The parents called the principal
and demanded to have a conference. The dad was complaining that I was
unpatriotic. He was very agitated. He kept raising out of his chair and
pointing his finger at me and yelling, 'What if you had a child in the
service?' I said, 'I do have a child in the service.' "

At the time, one of Mayer's sons was a naval nuclear engineer aboard the
USS Nebraska, she says, adding that he's now an officer in Afghanistan.

She told the parent, Mark Hahn, that her son also "doesn't preclude
peace as an option to war," she recalls. "And that made him even
angrier."

At the end of the meeting, Hahn insisted that the principal, Victoria
Rogers, make Mayer refrain from talking about peace again in the
classroom. "I think she can do that," Principal Rogers responded,
according to Mayer's deposition. "I think she can not mention peace in
her class again."

"I was just floored," Mayer says, "but I said OK because we had a parent
out of control, and I didn't want to be insubordinate. I thought that
would be the end of it."

It wasn't.

At the end of that day, Principal Rogers circulated a memo, entitled
"Peace at Clear Creek," that said: "We absolutely do not, as a school,
promote any particular view on foreign policy related to the situation
in Iraq." And she cancelled the annual "peace month" that the school had
been holding.

On February 7, 2003, Rogers also sent Mayer a letter telling her to
"refrain from presenting your political views."

Mayer and her lawyer, Michael Schultz, contend that this illegally
infringed on Mayer's First Amendment rights.

At the end of the spring semester, the school district did not renew
Mayer's contract, and she and Schultz allege that this was in
retaliation for her political expression.

"This is a classic First Amendment free speech case," says Schultz. "It
involves, for the first time as far as I can tell, the right of a
teacher to express an opinion in a classroom while teaching approved
curriculum."

The school district, the Monroe County Community School Corp., takes a
different view.

While neither Principal Rogers nor anyone at the school district would
respond to my phone calls because the case is pending, the district is
mounting an aggressive legal defense. Represented by the law firm of
Locke Reynolds in Indianapolis, the district is seeking summary
judgment, asking the judge to throw out the case.

I called Heather Wilson, one of the Locke Reynolds attorneys on the
case, but she would not comment, suggesting only that I examine the
court documents.

"Ms. Mayer's one-year contract was non-renewed after ongoing parent
complaints about her and her teaching style, and five students being
transferred out of Ms. Mayer's classroom at the parents' request," says
the brief for the school district. And it summons affidavits from
parents finding fault with Mayer's teaching style.

The brief does not deny the Iraq War discussion took place, or that the
Hahns got upset by it. In fact, it acknowledges that Mayer was
instructed to refrain from discussing her opinions on the war. But the
brief says that during the parent conference on the subject, "according
to Principal Rogers, Ms. Mayer was borderline unprofessional." And it
states further that the Hahns alleged that Mayer continued to talk about
the war in class, a charge she denies.

The gist of the district's case, as outlined in its brief, is this: "Ms.
Mayer's speech on the war was not the reason for her ultimate
termination. Instead . . . the motivating factor for her termination was
her poor classroom performance, the ongoing parental dissatisfaction,
and the allegations of harassment and threats towards students."

Schultz, in his court filing in response to the request for summary
judgment, rebuts this argument. He says the affidavits about poor
performance are pretexts. They "were signed in the summer of 2005, more
than two years after Plaintiff's termination. . . . Those alleged
complaints about Ms. Mayer were not and could not have been relied on by
Principal Rogers in making her decision to terminate Plaintiff's
contract with the school." He also cites an evaluation that Mayer
received that had praised her effusively.

Schultz says that Mayer deserves her day in court not only because of
what he calls the "wrongful termination" but also because her First
Amendment rights were violated.

Mayer says at one time the school district did offer to settle-for
$2,500. She had already spent ten times that amount, so she refused it,
she says. Plus, she wants to defend the free speech rights of teachers.
"If the school prevails on this, teachers have no protected speech at
school and can be fired for saying anything," she says.

The case has cost Mayer dearly, she says. "I have lost my house, my
income, my health insurance, my life savings, and my prospects for
employment."

If the judge does not grant summary judgment, the case will begin on
March 6.

I'm presuming this came from a Bloomington, Indiana newspaper, but I could be wrong. I found this Counter Punch article on her case. I wonder how many more individuals were and are being sacked because of discussing war and peace.

Corporate Control Is the Problem.... with Ports, the Media, Health Care, and Government

Well, today let us just focus on corporate control of the ports.

The problem is that it that Dubai Ports World is a corporation. It happens to be a corporation that is owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates, or UAE, a nation that served as an operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks of 9-11 attacks, and that has stirred broad concern. But, even if the sale of the ports to this firm did not raise security alarm bells, it would be a bad idea.

Ports are essential pieces of the infrastructure of the United States, and they are best run by public authorities that are accountable to elected officials and the people those officials represent. While traditional port authorities still exist, they are increasing marginalized as privatization schemes have allowed corporations -- often with tough anti-union attitudes and even tougher bottom lines -- to take charge of more and more of the basic operations at the nation's ports.

Read more... from the Nation via Common Dreams.

And as for media....Clear Channel, Sinclair, and Fox ---- can you say Rupert Murdoch? More on that another time.

The Emperor Has No Clothes

Why do I have to read foreign papers to find articles arout these disturbing facts? "A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population - the highest percentage in the developed world."

And these aren't unemployed or homeless folks. Most have jobs.

Some more facts from the same article:

· There are 37 million Americans living below the poverty line. That figure has increased by five million since President George W. Bush came to power.

· The United States has 269 billionaires, the highest number in the world.

· Almost a quarter of all black Americans live below the poverty line; 22 per cent of Hispanics fall below it. But for whites the figure is just 8.6 per cent.

· There are 46 million Americans without health insurance.

· There are 82,000 homeless people in Los Angeles alone.

· In 2004 the poorest community in America was Pine Ridge Indian reservation. Unemployment is over 80 per cent, 69 per cent of people live in poverty and male life expectancy is 57 years. In the Western hemisphere only Haiti has a lower number.

· The richest town in America is Rancho Santa Fe in California. Average incomes are more than $100,000 a year; the average house price is $1.7m.

This all makes about as much sense as those in power showing utter disdain for a democratically elected head of state in Venezuela and being buddy buddy Saudi Arabia a totally nondemocratic nation controlled by a single family through a King.



Something is terribly wrong with the entire country if we don't call the criminals in power on their bogus illegal and immoral governance. These freaking emperors not only are wearing no clothes they are engaged in masturbation and no one is saying a word.

It makes me ashamed to be an American if this is what the U.S. has become.

Counter the Nazis in Orlando

For those of you who believe in the power of prayer, or the power of focused energies, here is an area on which to focus for the next week. For those of you with cameras and the freedom to travel to Orlando, FL, here is an opportunity to shed so much light on the darkness of a hate group that they utterly fail their mission this upcoming weekend.

I received in the inbox this a.m. from a sister organizer in FL:

This is a request for prayers, meditations, and any
other form of positive energy you can send in the
direction of Orlando.

There is a white supremist group, National Socialist
Movement (NSM), planning a rally in Orlando on
Saturday afternoon, February 25th.  This is the same
group that rallied in Toledo last October and incited
all sorts of violence.  Again, their chosen location
is a poor predominantly black neighborhood.  Their
stated goal is to ?take back the streets of Orlando so
they are safe for white people.?  This is a Nazi
group, they?re serious, and dedicated.  The Orlando
Police Department denied them a permit; NSM filed an
injunction against OPD and won.  So they?re coming
whether we like it or not.

The local chapter of CODEPINK and other peace groups
in the area are planning to be in the area.  Our goal
is to counter the message of hate with one of peace,
love, and non-violence.  My request to you is to
please focus positive energy on that area and to
solicit others to do the same.  We need you now. 

I'm sending this out in hopes of generating enough attention that the hate mongering cowards will run away like rats or cockroaches in the light.

Raging Granny Round Up -- From Sea to Shining Sea (and in the Desert Too!)

What these wise and war weary women are up to around the country. Really--all over the country. The Raging Grannies are everywhere.

I personally believe the best (and Pinkest) recent Granny action was in our little old pueblo, when the Tucson Raging Grannies the first in the country to attempt to enlist (and to be arrested for it) last July 13th, 2005 were outfitted in pink for peace and Valentines Day delivered a thank you to Senator John McCain. The thank you valentine for the anti-torture legislation he sponsored was delivered to one of his staffers with a stern grandmotherly reminder that he has a long way to go per rendition and bringing the troops home. But even the meeting with the staffer didn't stop the federal tenants from calling the cops on the Grannies (for what we wonder..... wanton and/or illicit valentine distribution?) but the Grannies had dispersed before any officers arrived. [You can read all my Tucson Granny Arrest rants in the July archive of this blog.]

In Oakland the recruiters just closed the military recruiting station during a time when Grannies planned to enter one at a time and attempt to enlist.

Del Ray Beach, FL is getting on the Granny Wagon too.

And these Grannies Rage about all the outrageous processes and actions that got us into an illegal and immoral war, such as the voting fraud that got this administration into office that the Menlo Park Grannies protested.

The tenacious resolve of the Grannies cannot be disputed. Arrest does not intimidate them in their ever expanding actions to bring attention to the senseless loss of life of the children of the women of the world in Iraq and the seemingly forever war. In Vermont, the Barre Raging Grannies actually took over room in a recruiting office and refused to leave. Police removed them.

In Albany, New York "a few recruiting officers stared from behind the glass office door, but refused to come out" when Raging Grannies attempted to enlist.

I am so proud of the women of this country! In the best tradition of the International Feminist Movement that was focused on abolition of slavery and then on suffrage during the first 200 years of our United States, the women of the world (and thus feminist -- ist = relating to --- and feminine = of women) once again have given voice to resounding call for united action. This time the focus of women's attention is peace.

We need to celebrate the Grannies! Perhaps in song? Seems appropriate since that is what they do.

It's the Raging Grannies from Tucson --- A --- Z
(Sung to Little Old Lady from Pasadena)

It's the little old Granny from Tucson --- A --- Z
Go Granny Go Granny Go Granny Go
Has a pretty little flower bed of code pink freesias.
Go granny, go granny, go granny go
But packed under her rickety ramada
are boxes of lyrics and protest signs

Everybody says that there's nobody more peaceful
Than the little old lady from Tucson --- A --- Z
She protests real hard and she sings real loud
She's the terror of Speedway Boulevard

It's the little old lady Tucson --- A --- Z

If you see her on the street don't try to outdo her
Go granny, go granny, go granny go
You might call the cops but you'll never deter her
Go granny, go granny, go granny go
Well, she's really not easily intimidated
'Cause she sings and stands when justice 's abraded

And everybody's saying that there's nobody meaner
Than the little old lady from Tucson --- A --- Z
She sings real loud and holds her sign up high
She's a terror on Rumsfeld's watch list

It's the little old lady from Pasadena

~Instrumental~
Go granny, go granny, go granny go
~Instrumental~
Go granny, go granny, go granny go
The cops come to detain her from miles around
But she gives 'em resistance til they shut her down

And everybody's saying that no one is more righteous
Than the Raging Granny from Tucson --- A --- Z
She protests real good and she protests real hard
She's a terror out on Speedway Boulevard

It's the Raging Granny from Tucson --- A --- Z
Go granny, go granny, go granny go
Granny go
Go granny, go granny, go granny go
Granny go
Go granny, go granny, go granny go
Granny go
Go granny, go granny, go granny go
Granny go

Still Raging!

Those Raging Grannies are still at it...this time at a Maryland recruiting station. They just wanted to enlist. And the eldest member of those "temporarily" arrested is 102! After being arrested the recruiters apparently thought better of it and dropped the charges, so the Grannies were "let off" with a warning. CODEPINK ladies also participated.

Collaborators and Other Creeps

We must start a massive boycott/stoppage of all communication companies who cooperated and turned over any of our information to the NSA.

Which ones? Well this c|net article gives some information about which companies cooperated and and which did not. As soon as we (the progressive media, indy media and progressive bloggers) get some verification I will be stopping all contracted services with any collaborators.

More on this soon!

But in the mean time, here are some of the best links I've found on the spying on us/lying to us/big-brother-is-here issue.

When Google is not your friend. It's only a matter of time before other attorneys realize that a person's entire search history is available for the asking, and the subpoenas begin to fly. This could happen in civil lawsuits or criminal prosecutions.

EFF sues AT&T to stop NSA spying. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a lawsuit against both the old and new versions of AT&T, alleging that they have illegally cooperated with the National Security Agency's (NSA) recently revealed domestic wiretapping program. A related lawsuit was filed against the NSA itself several weeks ago by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In that suit, the ACLU requested an end to the spying program, on behalf of "prominent journalists, scholars, attorneys, and national nonprofit organizations (including the ACLU) who frequently communicate by phone and e-mail with people in the Middle East."

Electronic Privacy Information Center is doing some interesting stuff too.

And well, the name Big Brother Watch says it all and has a GREAT collection of links to other stories... like this one from Wired.


And even though I've mentioned it before... do check out The New Tech Behind the NSA Spying Case. Wiretapping isn't the proper description of what is going on. It is data storage and data mining.

Jennifer Harbury on Torture

Just saw a very interesting presentation on Book TV on C-Span 2 by Jennifer Harbury of the information in her new book: Truth, Torture, and the American Way published by Beacon Press. She presents a lucid detailed accounting of the whole sordid story of U.S. torture. Her recommendations -- broader more flexible base (outraged Republicans too), be heard in a unified coherent message. Points from the Q & A Session: Torture (especially rendition) is covered under the conspiracy law... Rumsfeld should be prosecuted. Intellectual authors, and order givers must be included in justice actions. Torure has created conditions where it will be much more difficult to achieve the aims of the torturer. Torture creates an after war appetite for violence. For example the rape and mutilation of women in Guatemala is greater than in Juarez is related to the number of individuals brought into death squads and no back in the normal citizenry.

She suggests: join first monday of the month telephone campaign. Organize local events -- use the material on the UUSC website.

This Week's Disturbing News: Terrorists Inside the State of the Union Address

The most disturbing news item for me this week concerned who could attend the State of the Union Address and who could not attend.

Cindy Sheehan was forcibly removed from the Gallery at the Capital and arrested. The authorities now say, "oops." Cindy is not going to let this afront to her civil liberties quietly fade away. While I don't agree with everything Ms. Sheehan says or does, one does have to remember that she has only come under the constant scrutiny of an unrelenting media in the last six months and she had not prepared for such celebrity through years of education and training as are most talking heads. She does fairly well for a person who has become iconic for all the major sides in the fever pitched battle for America's soul.

The little guy whose son has died fighting for America is abused legally and physically. The wealthy beyond imagining individual who has multiple direct connections to the leader of our country's most avowed enemy is welcomed with honor into those same halls.

Prince Turki al-Faisal (with Bush in White House photo), a central member of the Saudi royal family and the kingdom's current ambassador to the US personally managed Riyadh's relations with Osama bin Laden and Mullah Muhammad Omar of the Taliban and was named in the $1 trillion lawsuit filed by hundreds of 9/11 victims' families, who accused him of funding bin Laden's network, and was head of Saudi intelligence until 10 days before the 9/11 attacks.

The second most disturbing news is that Rosemary Woods ghost apparently has run amok in Cheney's email archive. Fitzgerald, special prosecutor in Scooter Libby's investigation/prosecution has suggested that not all of Cheney's emails from 2003 may have been archived due to a glitch.

Oh, news that is just plain chilling is that the first case relating to termination of pregnancy that Alito will hear nears the bench.

These are only some of the the underreported news items of the week, of course. These are just the significant stories behind the non-news blasted in continuous loops from the corporate media.

Who are the best soldiers to send to D.C. to take back our country?

I watched/listened to the State of the Union Address at an LD 27 Democrats organized function at The Vaudeville last night in downtown Tucson. It was very well attended. Bush Bingo was played by all busily checking off how many buzzwords were used by Bush. An occasional marshmallow was thrown at the screen. Boisterous opposition filled the air throughout the address. It was good to see and hear opposition from some mainstream folks.

I did become very concerned at the end of the evening when I gave a G. Giffords representative in attendance a set of pink balls (or ovaries) to remind her that the majority of the Democrats want a pronounced return to democratic values, beliefs and representation by our Democratic leaders not Republicrat middle of the road pro-corporate platform. When I asked this representative about why Giffords didn't announce her intention, like Jeff Latas, to run before Kolbe announced that he would not run for re-election -- I became aware of a very disturbing viewpoint in at least some of her camp. The response I got, although I do want to say straight up that he abolished for it later, was that No, she didn't attempt a "suicide run."

This is what has been wrong with mainstream Democrats here in AZ and elsewhere for far too long. These people who did not announce their intention to run against Kolbe because they believed that they could not defeat Republicans are chicken. And unless they have come out against the continued presence of the U.S. in Iraq, they are Chicken Hawks. Such a defeatist attitude should not be rewarded. Jeff Latas was brave to serve his country in the Middle East and to serve for 20 years. His brave decision to run before Kolbe announced his retirement suggests a fierce dedication to America and I hope last night's unfortunate words will be the only character assassination attempt because a candidate stood up for what he believed in before the CD 8 race became a no incumbent race.

I personally cannot imagine wholeheartedly supporting a person who apparently follows the Old Boy/Old Girl network belief that one inherits a turn to run and party support merely by some sort of seniority. Giffords inherited her father's tire business which she sold to the competition, I don't want her to do the same thing with a Congressional Seat.

I would love to be able to vote for a woman, and I do think it is imperative we get both houses filled with representative numbers of women, but right now, this year, I want the person who can best represent us and is best positioned to take back America and rebuild our severely damaged Democracy to represent me. I personally hope every one of the Band of Brothers: Veterans for a Secure America who are running for office this year, including Jeff Latas, wins. These guys and gals will have the authority to speak the truth about this war in a way that other candidates will not. These guys cannot be depicted as soft on any security or military issue. Check out their petition (and sign it!) to have the RNC to stop attacking Veterans and their heroic records for political reasons with campaigns of lies and support them!

NO MORE WIMPY DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES!

Sheehan Gives Details of Her Arrest Last Night BEFORE the State of the Union Address

This from Common Dreams this a.m.:

What Really Happened
by Cindy Sheehan

Dear Friends,

As most of you have probably heard, I was arrested before the State of the Union Address tonight.

I am speechless with fury at what happened and with grief over what we have lost in our country.

There have been lies from the police and distortions by the press. (Shocker) So this is what really happened:

This afternoon at the People's State of the Union Address in DC where I was joined by Congresspersons Lynn Woolsey and John Conyers, Ann Wright, Malik Rahim and John Cavanagh, Lynn brought me a ticket to the State of the Union Address. At that time, I was wearing the shirt that said: 2245 Dead. How many more?

After the PSOTU press conference, I was having second thoughts about going to the SOTU at the Capitol. I didn't feel comfortable going. I knew George Bush would say things that would hurt me and anger me and I knew that I couldn't disrupt the address because Lynn had given me the ticket and I didn't want to be disruptive out of respect for her. I, in fact, had given the ticket to John Bruhns who is in Iraq Veterans Against the War. However, Lynn's office had already called the media and everyone knew I was going to be there so I sucked it up and went.

I got the ticket back from John, and I met one of Congresswoman Barbara Lee's staffers in the Longworth Congressional Office building and we went to the Capitol via the undergroud tunnel. I went through security once, then had to use the rest room and went through security again.

My ticket was in the 5th gallery, front row, fourth seat in. The person who in a few minutes was to arrest me, helped me to my seat.

I had just sat down and I was warm from climbing 3 flights of stairs back up from the bathroom so I unzipped my jacket. I turned to the right to take my left arm out, when the same officer saw my shirt and yelled; "Protester." He then ran over to me, hauled me out of my seat and roughly (with my hands behind my back) shoved me up the stairs. I said something like "I'm going, do you have to be so rough?" By the way, his name is Mike Weight.

The officer ran with me to the elevators yelling at everyone to move out of the way. When we got to the elevators, he cuffed me and took me outside to await a squad car. On the way out, someone behind me said, "That's Cindy Sheehan." At which point the officer who arrested me said: "Take these steps slowly." I said, "You didn't care about being careful when you were dragging me up the other steps." He said, "That's because you were protesting." Wow, I get hauled out of the People's House because I was, "Protesting."

I was never told that I couldn't wear that shirt into the Congress. I was never asked to take it off or zip my jacket back up. If I had been asked to do any of those things...I would have, and written about the suppression of my freedom of speech later. I was immediately, and roughly (I have the bruises and muscle spasms to prove it) hauled off and arrested for "unlawful conduct."

After I had my personal items inventoried and my fingers printed, a nice Sgt. came in and looked at my shirt and said, "2245, huh? I just got back from there."

I told him that my son died there. That's when the enormity of my loss hit me. I have lost my son. I have lost my First Amendment rights. I have lost the country that I love. Where did America go? I started crying in pain.

What did Casey die for? What did the 2244 other brave young Americans die for? What are tens of thousands of them over there in harm's way for still? For this? I can't even wear a shrit that has the number of troops on it that George Bush and his arrogant and ignorant policies are responsible for killing.

I wore the shirt to make a statement. The press knew I was going to be there and I thought every once in awhile they would show me and I would have the shirt on. I did not wear it to be disruptive, or I would have unzipped my jacket during George's speech. If I had any idea what happens to people who wear shirts that make the neocons uncomfortable that I would be arrested...maybe I would have, but I didn't.

There have already been many wild stories out there.

I have some lawyers looking into filing a First Amendment lawsuit against the government for what happened tonight. I will file it. It is time to take our freedoms and our country back.

I don't want to live in a country that prohibits any person, whether he/she has paid the ulitmate price for that country, from wearing, saying, writing, or telephoning any negative statements about the government. That's why I am going to take my freedoms and liberties back. That's why I am not going to let Bushco take anything else away from me...or you.

I am so appreciative of the couple of hundred of protesters who came to the jail while I was locked up to show their support....we have so much potential for good...there is so much good in so many people.

Four hours and 2 jails after I was arrested, I was let out. Again, I am so upset and sore it is hard to think straight.

Keep up the struggle...I promise you I will too.

Love and peace soon,
Cindy

Cindy Sheehan Arrested Before State of the Union Address

Cindy Sheehan, guest of Rep. Lynn Woosley, was arrested as she took her seat in the gallery before the State of the Union Address. Her t-shirt had an anti-war slogan on it, since when is that grounds for arrest? They could have asked her to put her jacket back on, but arrest! What a bunch of crap! Get used to it folks, the next version of the patriot act criminilizes demonstrations/protests at the discretion of authorities.

The Turncoats Who Handed The Last Branch of Government Over to the Fascists

A brave woman in Tucson is taking on this issue. I will provide her contact info as soon as she establishes the contact info. Here is what she is saying:

"The Republicrat Democrats who voted for cloture were extremely sneaky, thinking they could have it both ways: Saying they had voted against Alito, while they surely voted to confirm him by stopping the filibuster.
A Filibuster works like this: If at least 41 senators strongly oppose a bill or nominee, they can vote to continue debate and block a final vote on the issue. A final vote can only be taken if and when the majority wins 60 senators' votes.

In the context of a Supreme Court battle, the filibuster means that 60 Senate votes may be needed to confirm out of the mainstream judicial nominees rather than a simple majority of 51.

Therefore, if ALL Democrats had voted against cloture, the Republicans would not have gotten the 60 votes necessary to vote on Alito, and he would have been kept off the Supreme Court.

Therefore, we MUST HOLD ANY DEMOCRAT WHO VOTED FOR CLOTURE RESPONSIBLE, even if they later voted against Aliito’s confirmation.

We must work to get these folks out of office asap just like we must get as many Republicans out as we possibly can in elections this fall. Of course there are the problems with our elections being rigged, but I am personally considering this autumn's elections the last chance for Democracy. If this year's elections are once again rigged then we all may have to consider changing tactics.

Anyway, here is the list of traitors.

DEMOCRATS WHO VOTED TO BUST THE FILIBUSTER

Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Carper (D-DE)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dorgan(D-ND)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)


DEMOCRATIC TURNCOATS VOTED TO CONFIRM ALITO

Byrd (D-WV)
Conrad (D-ND)
Johnson (D-SD)
Nelson (D-NE)

More on this subject in the future, no doubt.

Stop Loss Policy = NON-Volunteer Army

I picked this up from a post by Chuck on a UFPJ list dealing with recruitment and counter-recruitment.

US Army forces 50,000 soldiers into extended duty

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON, Jan 29 2006(Reuters) - The U.S. Army has forced about 50,000 soldiers to continue serving after their voluntary stints ended under a policy called "stop-loss," but while some dispute its fairness, court challenges have fallen flat.

The policy applies to soldiers in units due to deploy for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The Army said stop-loss is vital to maintain units that are cohesive and ready to fight. But some experts said it shows how badly the Army is stretched and could further complicate efforts to attract new recruits.

"As the war in Iraq drags on, the Army is accumulating a collection of problems that cumulatively could call into question the viability of an all-volunteer force," said defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute think tank.

"When a service has to repeatedly resort to compelling the retention of people who want to leave, you're edging away from the whole notion of volunteerism."

When soldiers enlist, they sign a contract to serve for a certain number of years, and know precisely when their service obligation ends so they can return to civilian life. But stop-loss allows the Army, mindful of having fully manned units, to keep soldiers on the verge of leaving the military.

Under the policy, soldiers who normally would leave when their commitments expire must remain in the Army, starting 90 days before their unit is scheduled to depart, through the end of their deployment and up to another 90 days after returning to their home base.

With yearlong tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, some soldiers can be forced to stay in the Army an extra 18 months.

HARDSHIP FOR SOME SOLDIERS

Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army spokesman, said that "there is no plan to discontinue stop-loss."

"We understand that this is causing hardship for some individual soldiers, and we take individual situations into consideration," Hilferty said.

Hilferty said there are about 12,500 soldiers in the regular Army, as well as the part-time National Guard and Reserve, currently serving involuntarily under the policy, and that about 50,000 have had their service extended since the program began in 2002. An initial limited use of stop-loss was expanded in subsequent years to affect many more.

"While the policies relative to the stop-loss seem harsh, in terms of suspending scheduled separation dates (for leaving the Army), they are not absolute," Hilferty said. "And we take individual situations into consideration for compelling and compassionate reasons."

Hilferty noted the Army has given "exceptions" to 210 enlisted soldiers "due to personal hardship reasons" since October 2004, allowing them to leave as scheduled.

"The nation is at war and we are stop-lossing units deploying to a combat theater to ensure they mobilize, train, deploy, fight, redeploy and demobilize as a team," he said.

NO LUCK IN COURT

A few soldiers have gone to court to challenge stop-loss.

One such case fizzled last week, when U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington dismissed a suit filed in 2004 by two Army National Guard soldiers. The suit claimed the Army fraudulently induced soldiers to enlist without specifying that their service might be involuntarily extended.

Courts also have backed the policy's legality in Oregon and California cases.

Jules Lobel, a University of Pittsburgh law professor who represented the National Guard soldiers, said a successful challenge to stop-loss was still possible.

"I think the whole stop-loss program is a misrepresentation to people of how long they're going to actually serve. I think it's caused tremendous morale problems, tremendous psychological damage to people," Lobel said.

"When you sign up for the military, you're saying, 'I'll give you, say, six years and then after six years I get my life back.' And they're saying, 'No, really, we can extend you indefinitely.'"

Congressional critics have assailed stop-loss, and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry called it "a back-door draft." The United States abolished the draft in 1973, but the all-volunteer military never before has been tested by a protracted war.

A report commissioned by the Pentagon called stop-loss a "short-term fix" enabling the Army to meet ongoing troop deployment requirements, but said such policies "risk breaking the force as recruitment and retention problems mount." It was written by Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer.

[Lexington Institute's Loren] Thompson added, "The persistent use of stop-loss underscores the fact that the war-fighting burden is being carried by a handful of soldiers while the vast majority of citizens incur no sacrifice at all."

List of Grievances Appropriate to Give to a Tyrant

These are the original Grievances that our Founding Forefathers gave to Thomas Jefferson and from which he wrote the Declaration of Independence and that he chose to include within the Declaration.

Some present day writers have chosen to rewrite these Grievances. I believe it is important for all Progressives to review the original Grievances and note similarities and differences with our present day Grievances with George Bush II.

The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

How to Foil Search Engine Snoops

If you are concerned about government agencies and this current administration's "if you have nuzzing to hide, you should not mind if zwe search" fascistic policies, you might be interested in this Wired article.

Warming Globe, Cooling Freedoms

I am not happy this morning. Read the article, James Lovelock: The Earth is about to catch a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years ( attached at the end of this article.) Lovelock, the originator of the Gaia Hypothesis which states that the world is one huge inter-connected living system, now says we will experience global warming from 5 to 8 degrees C. in the this century. That is beyond the point of no return. We are headed to a totally new equilibrium. There is no way to predict what will happen and no specific way to plan for it.


The most egregious crime that is transpiring right now is that resources that should be directed to renewable, sustainable energies to create a requisite simpler planetary lifestyle built upon those technologies, are being gathered, consolidated, and secured under the control of a very small group of corporate and political individuals and families. Abramoff and Delay are just the tip of the iceberg.

Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA), lobbyist Bill Lowery and Mr. Lowery’s firm, Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White, and staffer Jeffrey Shockey who has moved back and forth between these offices, and now has his wife working for the lobbying side and working with staffers under his control. This must be investigated! These people who fancy themselves an aristocracy are sabotaging the potential survival of the human race by squandering all of our resources. My own jaded opinion is that they know what is coming and they really don't care about future debt, exploitation, or totally selfish actions.

These folks are capable of doing this because they are in office. It is becoming more and more clear that there was a carefully orchestrated campaign of fraud to bring these traitors into office. (See this, this , this (click picture under 14) and this for a start.) We must impeach and return to paper ballots. If this next election returns questionable results, Goddess help us all.




James Lovelock: The Earth is about to catch a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years
Each nation must find the best use of its resources to sustain civilisation for as long as they can

Published: 16 January 2006
The Independent online


Imagine a young policewoman delighted in the fulfilment of her vocation; then imagine her having to tell a family whose child had strayed that he had been found dead, murdered in a nearby wood. Or think of a young physician newly appointed who has to tell you that the biopsy revealed invasion by an aggressive metastasising tumour. Doctors and the police know that many accept thesimple awful truth with dignity but others try in vain to deny it.

Whatever the response, the bringers of such bad news rarely become hardened to their task and some dread it. We have relieved judges of the awesome responsibility of passing the death sentence, but at least they had some comfort from its frequent moral justification. Physicians and the police have no escape from their duty.

This article is the most difficult I have written and for the same reasons. My Gaia theory sees the Earth behaving as if it were alive, and clearly anything alive can enjoy good health, or suffer disease. Gaia has made me a planetary physician and I take my profession seriously, and now I, too, have to bring bad news.
The climate centres around the world, which are the equivalent of the pathology lab of a hospital, have reported the Earth's physical condition, and the climate specialists see it as seriously ill, and soon to pass into a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years. I have to tell you, as members of the Earth's family and an intimate part of it, that you and especially civilisation are in grave danger.

Our planet has kept itself healthy and fit for life, just like an animal does, for most of the more than three billion years of its existence. It was ill luck that we started polluting at a time when the sun is too hot for comfort. We have given Gaia a fever and soon her condition will worsen to a state like a coma. She has been there before and recovered, but it took more than 100,000 years. We are responsible and will suffer the consequences: as the century progresses, the temperature will rise 8 degrees centigrade in temperate regions and 5 degrees in the tropics. Much of the tropical land mass will become scrub and desert, and will no longer serve for regulation; this adds to the 40 per cent of the Earth's surface we have depleted to feed ourselves.

Curiously, aerosol pollution of the northern hemisphere reduces global warming by reflecting sunlight back to space. This "global dimming" is transient and could disappear in a few days like the smoke that it is, leaving us fully exposed to the heat of the global greenhouse. We are in a fool's climate, accidentally kept cool by smoke, and before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.

By failing to see that the Earth regulates its climate and composition, we have blundered into trying to do it ourselves, acting as if we were in charge. By doing this, we condemn ourselves to the worst form of slavery. If we chose to be the stewards of the Earth, then we are responsible for keeping the atmosphere, the ocean and the land surface right for life. A task we would soon find impossible - and something before we treated Gaia so badly, she had freely done for us.

To understand how impossible it is, think about how you would regulate your own temperature or the composition of your blood. Those with failing kidneys know the never-ending daily difficulty of adjusting water, salt and protein intake. The technological fix of dialysis helps, but is no replacement for living healthy kidneys. My new book The Revenge of Gaia expands these thoughts, but you still may ask why science took so long to recognise the true nature of the Earth. I think it is because Darwin's vision was so good and clear that it has taken until now to digest it. In his time, little was known about the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans, and there would have been little reason for him to wonder if organisms changed their environment as well as adapting to it.

Had it been known then that life and the environment are closely coupled, Darwin would have seen that evolution involved not just the organisms, but the whole planetary surface. We might then have looked upon the Earth as if it were alive, and known that we cannot pollute the air or use the Earth's skin - its forest and ocean ecosystems - as a mere source of products to feed ourselves and furnish our homes. We would have felt instinctively that those ecosystems must be left untouched because they were part of the living Earth.

So what should we do? First, we have to keep in mind the awesome pace of change and realise how little time is left to act; and then each community and nation must find the best use of the resources they have to sustain civilisation for as long as they can. Civilisation is energy-intensive and we cannot turn it off without crashing, so we need the security of a powered descent. On these British Isles, we are used to thinking of all humanity and not just ourselves; environmental change is global, but we have to deal with the consequences here in the UK. Unfortunately our nation is now so urbanised as to be like a large city and we have only a small acreage of agriculture and forestry. We are dependent on the trading world for sustenance; climate change will deny us regular supplies of food and fuel from overseas.

We could grow enough to feed ourselves on the diet of the Second World War, but the notion that there is land to spare to grow biofuels, or be the site of wind farms, is ludicrous. We will do our best to survive, but sadly I cannot see the United States or the emerging economies of China and India cutting back in time, and they are the main source of emissions. The worst will happen and survivors will have to adapt to a hell of a climate. Perhaps the saddest thing is that Gaia will lose as much or more than we do. Not only will wildlife and whole ecosystems go extinct, but in human civilisation the planet has a precious resource. We are not merely a disease; we are, through our intelligence and communication, the nervous system of the planet. Through us, Gaia has seen herself from space, and begins to know her place in the universe.
We should be the heart and mind of the Earth, not its malady. So let us be brave and cease thinking of human needs and rights alone, and see that we have harmed the living Earth and need to make our peace with Gaia. We must do it while we are still strong enough to negotiate, and not a broken rabble led by brutal war lords. Most of all, we should remember that we are a part of it, and it is indeed our home.


The writer is an independent environmental scientist and Fellow of the Royal Society. '
The Revenge of Gaia' is published by Penguin on 2 February

SDS, Comix and Women

Last night a conference call demanded my attention so I could only strafe over the topic of the apparent reemergence of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) as a coordinating body for counter-establishment sentiments and actions. This deserves examination, but I want to look at it in light of today's article in the San Jose Mercury News, Feds Go After Google Data and some general connections about networks.

This, it turns out, segues into my post on feminism, sex, and politics of a few days ago. My first thought when I read in demleft's Democratic Left Infoasis about the SDS and his reference to Deanna Zandt's Missing women at progressive conference that refers to the ITT List post "Leaving women out of the progressive movement" prompted her to write and me to rant. We are both saying the same thing, but differently, I think. I would make the argument that using the word "leaving" shows the perspective of the people involved to be that of a hierarchical male group. I can't tell if this comes from ITT or their source. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that some group is attempting to co-opt progressive language for use by the same old, same as it ever was, purportedly "liberal" folks who run Washington when the current group isn't in power. Movement isn't the right word either. Movements arise spontaneously, they are not orchestrated in conferences.

This actually relates to the SDS. I'd have to be an amnesiac to forget all the reports of totally sexist practices of the male members of such groups in the 60s. I was a child then, but I remember a lot. My own take on some of this is that much of the Early Feminism of the 70s was in reaction to the sexism of the 60s "counter" culture. Separatist action was seen as one way to counter the embedded structural sexism in any political action that arose at that time. Remember -- at the start of the 1960s women's suffrage in the U.S. was only 40 years old. Not everyone then, or now, trusts such a new phenomena to stick around just because it exists now.

We've come a long way baby, but not far enough. What I think I'm seeing now is a resurgence of the international women's rights movement of the 1800s with a new focus. Women's rights are nothing more than human rights with the twist -- the folks involved believe women must be leaders if peace and justice are ever to come about on our world. The international women's movement focused on suffrage until the mid 20th Century when that no longer was an issue except in a few extremely repressive countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Another issue (not a new one) is now becoming the primary focus of the resurgent international women's movement.

I'm really looking forward to International Women's Day this year when Women Say No To War will try to bring the concept of peace joined together with women's rights to the forefront of the world's consciousness by a truly international campaign to stop the war on Iraq. (That is .org after Women Say No To War, not .com -- right wing scumbags grabbed up .com and pointed the site to Bill O'Reilly. Those big bad right wing men are afraid of pacifist women! Is that a hoot or what?)

Just like the Hippies had hierarchical problems with sexism, many feminists have hierarchical problems with sex. I hope that this time around the movement will reach out to all women including the women with whom the 70s feminists had a hierarchical problem. Many "old guard" feminists truly look down on sex workers. Too often in the past women of high status (and that is almost all feminists in the U.S.) have looked down on women in sex work. Hierachy is garbage. Hierarchy always involves judgment and that most often involves negative assumptions and pronouncements about those excluded from the higher levels of the hierarchyical system. I cannot condone that and that is why I think it is essential to read things like the statement on the Feminist Sex Workers blog.

I seriously think there is a good chance that this time through the cycle of cultural action and reaction that women will incorporate more egalitarian understanding and consequentially peace could be much closer than if only peace alone was incorporated. I suspect that a neocon women's subset of "the movement" this time may be the most likely stumbling block that could derail significant cultural change, much like the temperance movement was when the overall goals of women's rights confused temperance with morality. The women's movement might want to watch for analogous confusion of censorship with morality. Today as I watched C-Span I watched what could very well be the beginning of such a reaction when Ted "Boondoggle" Stevens (R Alaska) questioned folks from various communication groups (CBS, SAG, and NAB, Parents Television Council, ) and others during a hearing about decency in the media and in another about internet child pornography.

This is all related folks, just keep your knickers on! During the McCarthy Era there was "outcry" (largely the product of Sen. Estes Kefauver , who according to Law and Everything Else "had his eye on the Presidency and actually ran for it in 1956. He's the clown who wore a coonskin cap in '56, hoping to capitalize on the Davy Crockett Craze of 1955-56.) about the horrible way comics were corrupting our youth. The outcome of this Kefauver Commission was the ratings system and censorship of comics that drove most creative cartooning underground. Thus the simultaneous birth of comix, or underground comix, that were far more out there than the originally "problematic " comics. The same process can be found in the U.S. Prohibition (of alcohol) or the "criminalization" of Marijuana. If you want to increase the severity and probably the quantity of something, just outlaw it.

There is a real danger that censorship of media/internet will be the tool with which the corporate male status quo attempts to subvert this resurgence. Just take a look at that San Jose Mercury article I mentioned as I began this epistle. It deals with the Feds trying to stomp down on the media and internet and using child pornography as an excuse.

We're on to them this time -- but knowing what they are up to isn't enough. We have to act. (Remember that is act, not react.)

Peace.

Wowie Zowie! The SDS Is Back

Many folks who stumble across this won't even know what the SDS is/was. Students for a Democratic Society were pretty big players in the Vietnam Anti-war Movement and were a bit left of center... and well a bit left of left. Well I stumbled (as I am so very good at doing) across this site that says the first national gathering for this group since 1968 is being planned for this summer.

Wow.

Holy Crap, Batman, Privacy is Extinct!!!

Just a few links to today's articles on the use and abuse of private, personal information by Federal and State Agencies.

You and your children cannot opt out of a vast Pentagon database of extremely broad types of information about our nation's children.

License data for sale in Minnesota. "A business can buy the personal data, height, weight, address and driver's license number, of the state's (MN) 3.5 million driver's license holders for $1,500. Not only have a number of businesses already received this information, but officials say it has also ended up on PublicData.com, a website they call a known tool for identity thieves."

Medical records, apparently, are also perused by the government. Those of us old enough will remember the status 4F (and probably all the other folks on the "Group W Bench"). Well such folks now are prime recruits, and according to a conversation I had not so long ago with Salette Latas. Her son, Jesse, got a call from a recruiter who knew all the details of his then current state of being in remission but, but not that he had joined the reserves and was on his way to Iraq "Most of the services required at least five years of remission before considering a cancer patient for enlistment. In the fall of 2004, the Army changed their policy because of low enlistment numbers and recruited Jesse into the Army Reserve." After the conversation with the recruiter who had called for Jesse, Salette, a veteran herself, realized that the recruiter had to have been digging through a pile of cancer kids files who were previously ineligible for duty.

The ethics of sending recent remission status kids to an area of the world where they will be exposed to levels of stress that could jeopardize the remission as well as depleted uranium munitions (that have impact on health that is hotly debated) are questionable at the least. This particular conversation with Salette occurred before Jesse's leukemia returned and he was evacuated to Germany and then Walter Reed. Jesse is now home in Tucson.

These issues are not all leftist in nature, which the current administration would lead you to believe. Jesse's dad and Salette's husband is Jeff Latas, a retired Air Force Colonel who is running to represent AZ District 8 (that just happens to be my district) in the U.S. House of Representatives seat that Jim Kolbe announced he will be leaving. Jeff is among the dozens of Veterans getting in races to fight the GOP in what will be extremely significant November elections.

Of course all violations of privacy are not perpetrated on kids; pacifists get it too.

Of course all those spied upon and those with private data collected are in very good company.